X, 



A CHAPTER ON SCHOOL-HOUSES. 



March, 1848. 



IF there is any one thing on which the usefulness, the true great- 

 ness, and the permanence, of a free government depends more 

 than another, it is Education. 



Hence, it is not without satisfaction that we look upon our free 

 schools, whose rudimentary education is afforded to so many at 

 very small rates, or often entirely without charge. It is not without 

 pleasure that we perceive new colleges springing up, as large cities 

 multiply, and the population increases ; it is most gratifying to see, 

 in the older portions of the country, men of wealth and intelligence 

 founding new professorships, and bequeathing the best of legacies to 

 their successors the means of acquiring knowledge easily and 

 cheaply. 



There is much to keep alive this train of thought, in the very 

 means of acquiring education. The fertile invention of our age, 

 and its teachers, seems to be especially devoted to removing all 

 possible obstacles, and throwing all possible light on the once diffi- 

 cult and toilsome paths to the temple of science. Class-books, text- 

 books, essays and treatises, written* in clear terms, and illustrated 

 with a more captivating style, rob learning of half is terrors to the 

 beginner, and fairly allure those who do not come willingly into the 

 charmed circle of educated minds. 



All this is truly excellent. This broad basis of education, which 

 is laid in the hearts of our people, which the States publicly main- 

 tain, which private munificence fosters, to which even men in for- 



