98 
of exercise, a good healthy diet, and 
at eighteen or twenty they enter the 
world well prepared for every duty. 
25. The teachers are selected with 
cares they partake of the labors, 
studies and recreations, they treat 
the boys mildly, all punishments are 
lenient and paternal, yet hardly ever 
inflicted. 
26. The school for girls is sepa- 
rate, but similar. The poor girls 
are raised from the abjection of ser- 
vants, taught to provide for them- 
selves. They are employed in sui- 
table female labor, taught taste and 
skill of hands. 
27. The two sexes are not intend- 
ed for the same occupations, women 
have less strength, but greater skill 
in all sedentary occupations. They 
are taught all what is required to be- 
come good wives and mothers, which 
has great influence on producing 
good husbands and good children. 
28. The institute or superior 
school, is chiefly intended for the 
rich scholars who pay for their board 
and tuition: they have somewhat 
better accomodations, and are taught 
all the branches of science and lite- 
rature as in colleges: but in other 
respects fare and behave as in the 
lower school. 
29. In the special agricultural 
school are admitted men, all stu- 
dents are above twenty, chiefly land 
owners, who are taught the improved 
agriculture of the schools and farms 
and pay for it, 
30. The last or normal school is 
held in summer, when forty lectures 
are given to students wishing to be 
teachers, to enable them to spread 
and apply this education to all the 
villages of Switzerland. 
Let all those who wish for the wel- 
fare of mankind and our country, 
ponder well on this useful, benevo- 
lent, practical, and practicable plan, 
so as to introduce it speedily with 
us everywhere. Few modifications 
will be needed in the United States, 
we have in fact the two classes of 
rich and poor already, instead of 
nobles and poor. Ten years, from 
eight to eighteen, will educate a 
child without cost to the parent nor 
the state, and make him a useful en- 
lightened citizen. 
2. Taxes on Knowledge. 
One of the means employed by the 
foes of knowledge, freedom and ci- 
vilization, to check these blessings, 
is to tax knowledge. It is done in 
many ways in different countries. 
The most depraved governments 
employ censure of the press, prohi- 
bitions, printers’ license tax, stamps, 
heavy duties on paper and books, 
heavy postages, & c. in order to pre- 
vent the circulation of knowledge. 
Even in England heavy com- 
plaints are made against stamps and 
taxes on knowledge, excessive du- 
ties, &c. While in the United 
States we appear to follow closely 
this example, although we boast of 
complete freedom of the press. This 
is a kind of political hypocrisy since 
it is not true. Without mentioning 
here the numerous impediments to 
the increase of knowledge, exceed- 
ing those of France and England 
in some instances, and which shall 
hereafter be enumerated, the actual 
needless taxes in knowledge will 
now command our attention, and be 
exposed. 
The heavy postages on periodicals 
(not newspapers,) on pamphlets, 
books, printed circulars, engravings, 
orders, &c. is the most odious and 
obnoxious. Because quite useless, 
not required for revenue, nor to sup- 
port the post office department. 
When pamphlets were at two cents 
per sheet, it was said that the mails 
were overloaded with them, and that 
the nation was in debt. The tax 
was triplicated and raised to six 
cents per sheet, with the acknowl- 
edged intention of preventing their 
circulation by mail, as the tax 
amounts to about two hundred per 
cent on their cost or one hundred 
per cent on their usual selling price. 
This avowed shameful purpose of 
preventing the circulation of pam- 
phlets and books, by giving a kind 
