SCHOOL AND STATE. 263 



us like the sleep of death? Every year leads us further from the ancient land- 

 marks and increases our responsibilities. 



" Revolutions sweep 

 O'er earth, like troubled visions o'er the breast, 

 Of dreaming sorrow; cities rise and sink. 

 Like bubbles on the water ; * new empires rise, 

 Gathering the strength of hoary centuries. 

 And rush down like the Alpine avalanche, 

 Startling the nations." 



If we perish, it will be by our own hands, and the fate of the American Re- 

 public lies in the hearts of all the people. How then may we perpetuate this 

 beautiful fabric ? All the immortals who framed that wise compact, the Consti- 

 tution, relied upon the universal intelligence of the people. Washington in his 

 farewell address said: "Promote then, as an object of primary importance, 

 institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure 

 of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that pubUc opinion 

 should be enlightened." 



Much need then for the common school! 



Here indeed is " a government which gives force to public opinion ! " To 

 do this is to make man a free agent, to give him the right to think, and to ex- 

 press his thoughts in shaping his own government. No stream can rise higher 

 than its source. The ignorance of the one-man power, the king, has built the 

 tyranny of the ages. Will a government founded upon the ignorance of the 

 many be less fatal to the wants of man ? Ignorance is slavery. It has forged 

 every link in the chain of oppression since the world began. It has pressed 

 down every thumb screw, revelled apon every rock and at every stake through 

 all the dynasties of the past, reared its dark throne in the dungeon's cell. Educa- 

 tion is liberty and light. This civilization is its most beauteous flower. It has 

 built the cathedral dome and the hall of justice. It has steeled the brain and 

 warmed the heart. One morning, not long ago, it touched its zenith. Reach- 

 ing out, with sublimest wisdom into the infinite air above us, it caught the slum- 

 bering lightning there, and freighting it with America's sweet message of sympathy, 

 flashed it underneath a thousand miles of ocean's brine to comfort a sorrowing 

 mother's heart, the Queen, Victoria, mourning for the Princess Alice. Here is a 

 government giving force to public opinion — shielded with an invincible constitu- 

 tion, that, strong in its provisions, beautiful in its symmetry, the ark of our politi- 

 cal safety and the bulwark of our freedom, for over one hundred years has car- 

 ried us on through storm and disaster and death to the infinite possibilities of the 

 present. Much need then for the future of an intelligent people, of an enlightened 

 public opinion ! 



A recent writer on the constitution says: "America, free, happy, and en- 

 lightened as she is, must rest the preservation of her rights and liberties upon the 

 virtue, independence, justice and sagacity of the people. If either fail, the Re- 



