272 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
can be done only by a system of education which brings the things of 
enduring and universal worth to the doors of the common people. It is 
what has been done by many an elementary school teacher, sometimes 
with scant assistance from public opinion, simply because, face to face 
with his helpless charges, he was impelled to give them the best he had 
to give. It will be done with increasing happy results the more clearly 
it is seen that the proper function of the elementary schools is something 
much more than to protect the State against the obvious danger of a 
grossly ignorant populace or to ‘ educate our masters ’ in the rudiments 
of citizenship. And unless it is done, unless the natural hunger of the 
people for knowledge and beauty is wisely stimulated and widely 
satisfied, no material prosperity can in the end save the social body from 
irretrievable degradation and disaster. 
