140 



It is probable that at least one-third of the whole number of 

 pupils, male and feraalcj now in what are called academies, 

 would belong to the common schools, as soon as these should 

 be furnished with teachers according to the advanced standard. 

 That department of the institution then, where such pupils 

 are gathered, if still retained in connection with the academy, 

 should be denominated the common school, and should be that 

 of the common school district in which it is situated, and re- 

 ceive support after that method; or otherwise, these pupils 

 should be dismissed altogether to the common schools. In no 

 case should students be admitted to an academy under ten 

 years of age ; nor should instruction in classical language be 

 attempted before the age of twelve — it being all the while care- 

 fully recollected, that these middle schools are designed partly 

 for the instruction of those whose public school education is to 

 be finished in them, but on a grade above the level of prima- 

 ry instruction, and partly as schools of preparation for the col- 

 leges. In this way, those who go from them into the world, 

 may stand some chance of being well instructed in useful 

 knowledge ; while those who seek the colleges from them, will 

 do so with superior advantages for the pursuit of scientific 

 study and sound learning, and at the same time will enter, if 

 they design to do so at all, quite early enough on the study of 

 classical language and literature. What remains in this pro- 

 posed disposition of the academies is, to repeat the suggestion, 

 that the better order of them shall be turned into colleges, to 

 the number really required; dismissing, of course, all pupils 

 which properly belong in the improved common schools, but 

 retaining perhaps, if that should be thought advisable, in a 

 preparatory department, scholars from the age of twelve years, 

 who desire to begin in them a course of instruction in science 

 or in classical learning. 



It must be borne in mind, all the while, that learning, as a 

 system, never sustains itself; and there is no ground to hope it 

 will ever do so, until the time shall come when the whole 

 population of a State, above the period of infancy, shaU be 

 thoroughly instructed and enlightened. The great difficulty, 

 therefore, is not in finding persons to be taught, but in finding 



