GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND REGULATIONS. 565 
XVI. 
It is permitted to any person, possessing his sound reason, 
and having attained the age of maturity, to address himself 
to one or other community of this place, according to his 
choice, and to cause himself to be inscribed as a member of 
that community; and likewise to alter, voluntarily, as to 
the choice he has made. But as long as there is no positive 
declaration to the contrary, good order requires that every 
person be bound to belong to some community of which his 
parents are members, or in which he has been baptized. In 
case the parents belong to different communities, the child 
must belong to that of the father ; unless some other arrange- 
ment has taken place between the father and mother. 
XVII. 
The public schools tending for the instruction of youth do 
not belong to any particular community. They are semina- 
ries for the purpose of forming good citizens for the state, 
and as such they are under the immediate superintendance 
and direction of God. 
