nature the dark mould of the valley is turned into flowers and fruits. "Excelsior" is the motto which that great state has chosen Let her wisely fulfil that noble idea, by striving, through the means of an enlarged and thorough education of her people, to rise higher and higher in the endless scale of good.

EXERCISE LXIV.

THE YEAR 1776.

THERE is, perhaps, no period in the revolutionary struggle to which we can recur more profitably than to the anxious summer and the gloomy autumn of 1776. The courage which survived such disasters, the hope which lived on amid so many discouragements, the faith which no reverses nor difficulties could shake, and which finally rose triumphant over them all, have long commanded, and must ever command, the wonder of the world. And shall they not awaken something more than admiration in us, to whose benefit they have inurec so largely?

It was while chilled by these blasts of adversity, while watered, as it were, by the tears of those great spirits, who for a long time could bring to the suffering cause little besides their own indomitable energies, that the tree of freedom was sending its roots outward and downward, and gathering strength for that rapidly expanding growth which marked the summer of its prosperity. It is not, be it ever remembered, the magnitude of armies, the masterly tactics by which mighty masses are made to march and countermarch, the brilliancy of the charge, the steady bravery of the repulse, or all the bloody statistics of the most ensanguined conflict, which can attach to military operations a true and lasting interest. A hundred terrible battles gave to Napoleon a fame unequalled in the annals of war, and that "name, at which the world grew pale.' But they were unconnected with high principle, they were followed by no great, benignant results, and in the sober estimate of future times will rank, in importance, far below those Fabian cam

paigns, which laid the foundations of an empire, that already walks, with its rank unchallenged, among the foremost powers of earth.

Not in vain, then, was even the defeat of Brooklyn; not in vain the anguish with which the usually calm spirit of Washington was that day torn. Not in vain were those two anxious days and nights which he passed on horseback, and which saved from death or captivity nine thousand men. These, and more, the reluctant abandonment of the city, the cowardice and desertion of the militia, the loss of the forts, and that sad retreat of the reduced, discouraged, barefooted, and half naked army through the Jerseys, were all needed. In the immortal letters and despatches of the great commander, and in the painful annals of the time, we read the cost and the value of what we are now enjoying. Without these we had not fully known how inherent, how enduring and elastic, is the power of an earnest and virtuous patriotism. Without them, even the transcendent name of Washington could not have filled the mighty measure of its fame.

EXERCISE LXV.

THE STATES IN RELATION TO EDUCATION.

In a government like ours, in which hereditary rights are unasserted, where title and ancestry give place to the superior claims of personal merit, where it may be said, with emphasis, men are made, not born, the education of our country's youth becomes an object of paramount importance. Upon it rests the security of our individual and social enjoyments, the permanency of our civil and religious institutions, and the perpetuity of our national government. And in what, let me ask, does the perfection of civil liberty consist? Not in allowing every man to do as he pleases, without regard to consequences, certainly. But rather in abridging the privileges of individuals, whenever it becomes necessary to do so, in order to promote the general prosperity of the whole.

To enjoy civil and religious liberty, a people must be educated; not a few of them merely, but the whole people. This truth might be illustrated by reference to the history of nations, and the prosperity of different states, and of the same state at different periods in her history. If we would know and enjoy our privileges as citizens of an independent and confederate state, we must develop our own moral and intellectual resources. If we would perpetuate the blessings of a free government, we must educate our country's youth. Every child in our land, on arriving at the period of his majority, should be able to read our common language understandingly, write legibly, and compute accounts. Nay, more, he should understand the genius of our government, be an independent thinker, and be thoroughly established in virtue.

The spirit of a republican government cannot exist, where the means of knowledge are not universally disseminated among the body politic. Demagogues may harangue an ignorant populace and basely eulogize them as the enlightened democracy, to obtain their votes, and secure their own promotion for sinister purposes, while the form of government remains unchanged. But the glory has departed. The people, in such cases, are led by traitors in a way they know not. They are no longer free. They are, to all intents and purposes, in slavery.

EXERCISE LXVI.

POPULAR EDUCATION.

THE work in which the friends of popular education throughout Christendom are engaged, infinitely transcends, in importance, all other temporal interests. It involves not only the welfare and happiness of the present and succeeding generations, but the welfare and the very existence of the republic. Degrade free schools, and you degrade the people; and in the footsteps of that degradation will follow poverty, oppression, crime, and anarchy. Elevate the free schools, and you elevate the character of the people; you lift up the down-trodden,

and give new courage to the faint-hearted; you break the sword and spear of the strong, and gird the weak with triple armor; you strengthen the links of the golden chain which binds man to man, and earth to heaven; you take the first great step towards abolishing the factitious distinctions which are permitted to exist in society, and make the equality of man a living reality; and you hasten the coming of those predicted ages when iman shall be re-created in the moral image of his Maker, and earth become again an Eden.

In this great and glorious work there should be no sluggards. Let no man do himself the gross injustice to believe, and act upon the belief, that he can exert no influence. Every member of the community can do something, and that something he is bound, by the most solemn obligations, to do. It matters not what may be his condition or calling, whether the station he occupies be public or private, whether he be rich or poor, there is that in this cause which should excite his liveliest interest and call forth his noblest efforts.

The preservation of our civil and religious rights, of reputation, of property, the present and future well-being of the state, of ourselves and our children, demand at our hands prompt, efficient, unwearied action. It appeals to us as Christians, philanthropists, patriots! As we would diffuse far and wide the blessed influences of the religion of Jesus; as we would uphold the dignity of human nature; as we would save the ballot-box, and the trial by jury, the life-breath and the life-blood of the republic,—from becoming the senseless echo of the demagogue, the instrument of oppression and wrong; be it ours to cherish, encourage, elevate the free school! In the hands of the people is its destiny. We may make it what we will; our glory, or our shame! The safe and sure foundation, or the sepulchre of our hopes! To what worthier cause can our united influence be lent! To what holier service can a nation's life be devoted!

9

EXERCISE LXVII.

INDIAN CHARACTER.

WITH a strength of character and a reach of intellect unknown in any other race of absolute savages, the Indian united many traits, some of them honorable and some degrading to humanity, which made him formidable in his enmity, faithless in his friendship, and at all times a dangerous neighbor: cruel, implacable, treacherous, yet not without a few of the better qualities of the heart and the head; a being of contrasts, violent in his passions, hasty in his anger, fixed in his revenge, yet cool in counsel, seldom betraying his plighted honor, hospitable, sometimes generous. A few names have stood out among them, which, with the culture of civilization, might have been shining stars on the lists of recorded fame. Philip, Pondiac, Sassacus, if the genius of another Homer were to embalm their memory, might rival the Hectors and Agamemnons of heroic renown; scarcely less savage, not less sagacious or brave.

Indian eloquence, if it did not flow with the richness of Nestor's wisdom, or burn with Achilles' fire, spoke in the deep, strong tones of nature, and resounded from the chords of truth. The answer of the Iroquois chief to the French, who wished to purchase his lands, and push him further into the wilderness, Voltaire has pronounced superior to any sayings of the great men commemorated by Plutarch. "We were born on this spot; our fathers are buried here. Shall we say to the bones of our fathers, Arise, and go with us into a strange land?"

But more has been said of their figurative language than seems to be justified by modern experience. Writers of fiction have distorted the Indian character, and given us anything but originals. Their fancy has produced sentimental Indians, a kind of beings that never existed in reality; and Indians clothing their ideas in the gorgeous imagery of external nature, which they

had neither the refinement to conceive nor words to express

In truth, when we have lighted the pipe of concord, kindled or extinguished a council-fire, buried the bloody