intimate companion of Franklin. Priestley, Washington, and numbers of the best men of his age, could have been anything but a man of strict outward propriety; indeed, this is clear enough from what followed, for when Paine himself changed, the magic of his power ceased, and one of his most devout disciples speaks of him as 'the abandoned.

Although it is evening we must get one more glimpse of the setting sun, for dark clouds are gathering near it, and a clear eye may already discern spots upon its disc. Rickman thus describes him:

'Paine was about five feet ten inches high, and rather athletic; he was broadshouldered, and latterly stooped a little. His eye was full, brilliant, and singlarly piercing; it had in it the "muse of fire." In his dress and person he was generally very cleanly, though careless, and wore his hair queued, with side cara and powdered, like a gentleman of the old French school.

His manners were easy and gracious, his knowledge was universal; an friends his conversation had every fascination that anecdote, novelty, and tra could give it. In mixed company and among strangers he said little, and was public speaker. The power of his memory was so great that he could repeat a will any passage from any of his writings. The only book that he had stad was the Bible, with every part of which he was familiar.'

If our sketch of Paine could have ended here, or if we could adi an old age of peace and piety, then he would hold a foremost place in the illustrious ranks of those who are reckoned eminent for the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties. But he attacked the Bible with the same impetuosity that he had attacked the State. expressing his belief that the institutes of religion might be as easily changed as the political condition of a nation remodeled. This was his grand mistake, and betrayed an utter misconception of the real

influence and position of the sacred volume.

Civil and political institutions must of necessity be the reflex of the

national character. They are sometimes in advance

of the popular

culture, and sometimes behind it; but they are always human, and therefore imperfect, and requiring reconstruction. Hence the neces sity for revolutions or changes, and the honour which we accord to the men who have adapted the institutions of the State

their age.
But the Bible is the common property of ma
unchangeable. Kingdoms have arisen and fallen.
passed away, and every form of government been born
the vitality of the Bible is as fresh and full of vigour
ten centuries ago. A popular writer, noted for the
sentiments, thus expresses his feeling upon this subject

to the wants of

nkind, and is Empires have

and died, bu

now as it was reedom of his

This collection of books has taken such a hold on the world as no other. The literature of Greece, which goes up like incense from the lan of temples and

heroic deeds, has not half the influence of this book from a natie

in ancient and modern times. It is read of a Sabbath in all

n alike despised the ten thousand

pulpits of our land. In all the temples of Christendom is its voice lifted up, week

by week. The sun never sets on its gleaming page.

It goe

cottage of the plain man and to the palace of the king. It is woven into the

literature of the scholar, and colours the talk of the street.

equally to the The bark of the

but the Bible is there. It enters men's closets; mingles in all the grief and cheermerchant cannot sail upon the sea without it: no ship of war goes to the conflict

fulness of life. The affianced maiden prays God in Scripture for strength in her new duties; men are married in Scripture. The Bible attends them in their sickness, when the fever of the world is on them. The aching head finds a softer pillow if the Bible lies underneath. The mariner escaping from shipwreck clutches this first of his treasures, and keeps it sacred to God. It goes with the pedlar in his crowded pack: cheers him at eventide, when he sits down dusty and fatigued: brightens the freshness of his morning face. It blesses us when we are born: gives names to half Christendom: rejoices with us: has sympathy for our mourning: tempers our grief to finer issues. It is the better part of our sermons. It lifts man above himself: our best prayers are uttered in its storied speech, wherewith our fathers and the patriarchs prayed. The timid man, about awakening from this dream of life, looks through the glass of Scripture, and his eye grows bright: he does not fear to stand alone, to head the way unknown and distant, to take the death-angel by the hand and bid farewell to wife and babes at home. Men rest on this their dearest hopes. It tells them of God and of his blessed Son of earthly duties and of heavenly rest. Foolish men find in it the source of Plato's wisdom and the science of Newton, and the art of Raphael. Men who believe nothing else that is spiritual believe the Bible all through: without this they would not confess, say they, even that there was a God.

'Now for such effects there must be an adequate cause. That nothing comes of nothing is true all the world over. It is no light thing to hold with an electric chain a thousand hearts, though but an hour, beating and bounding with such fiery speed: what is it then to hold the Christian world, and that for centuries? Are men fed with chaff and husks? The authors we reckon great whose word is in the newspapers and the market-place, whose articulate breath now sways the nation's mind, will soon pass away, giving place to other great men of a season, who in their turn shall follow them to eminence, and then oblivion. Some thousand famous writers came up in this century to be forgotten in the next. But the silver cord of the Bible is not loosed, nor its golden bowl broken, as Time chronicles his ten centuries passed by. Has the human race gone mad? Time sits as a refiner of metal: the dross is piled in forgotten heaps, but the pure gold is reserved for use, passed into the ages, and is current a thousand years hence as well as to-day. It is only real merit that can long pass for such: tinsel will rust in the storms of life: false weights are soon detected there. It is only heart that can speak deep and true to heart: a mind to mind, a soul to soul: wisdom to the wise, and religion to the pious. There must then be in the Bible, mind, heart, and soul: wisdom and religion: were it otherwise, how could millions find it their lawgiver, friend, and prophet? Some of the greatest of human institutions seem built on the Bible: such things will not stand in heaps of chaff, but on mountains of rock.'*

It was upon this rock of adamant that Paine was wrecked. He did not perceive that the Bible had been incorporated with the very life of Europe; that in every cottage there was some true soul who would resign wealth, station, pleasure, and, if need be, life, rather than part with the Word of God. One king might be put down and another crowned, and the new and old be so much alike that common people may fail to perceive the difference; but dethrone the Bible, and who could give us anything better in exchange? It is very easy to say, with some of our modern sceptics, Nature and science should take the place of the Revelation and Bible; but leaving out of the question the fact that there never has been, and is not likely to be, a scientific people, as science is now taught-especially by the sceptical portion of the community, they can never satisfy the soul. Science may enable us to conquer this world- to subdue the elements-to make the desert

* Parker's Discourses.

blossom as the rose, or raise temples and palaces which will be the wonder of succeeding ages-but, as in poetry we are obliged to come back to nature for all true inspiration, and take it fresh from the unfolding flowers, so in religion, the soul must come back to God, and draw its life direct from him. All science is there beautiful and radiant with the divine presence; but upon this subject few have spoken

better than Paine himself:

It has been the error of schools to teach astronomy and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make or invent or contrive principles, he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.'*

was

In all his ravings against the Bible, Paine clung to the idea th there was something divine in life, and he spent much of his time is endeavouring to establish a church upon Deistical principles; but his efforts were abortive. The scheme of the Theophilanthropists like a statue, fair to look upon, but without life; hence, when left to be jostled by the world it was crushed to pieces. Genius up, but nothing but the hand of God could sustain it. author to rise no more.

it

might rear It fell with its We purposely draw a veil over the remainder of Paine's life. From the time that he commenced writing his 'Age of Reason' to the hour of his death, nothing but misfortune seemed to attend him. Consigned to an imprisonment which nearly cost him his life, and from the effects of which he never recovered, he was liberated to find himself shunned by all those who had previously worshipped him. He had severed those golden cords which bound him to millions of trusting hearts, and was alone and deserted in that Europ

De which but a

few years before had echoed with his praise. After reat efforts he returned to America, and was received with the same coldness in

the country which he had done so much to make.

In this terrible

isolation he sought refuge in drink, and the last rays of his departing

glory were washed out by the intoxicating draught. thinketh he standeth take heed. If genius could have Paine had not fallen.

Let him that saved any one

Here then is an example on which we may ponder long and with profit. Paine had an intellect of the very highest order, and fame beyond that which falls to the lot of few. It was a fame, too, that to a

of mind over

great extent was well and honourably won-a conquest the despotism of past ages. We have seen him rise and have seen said in his last agonies, whether he regretted the course he had taken or not. Is

is enough for us to know that he wasted the fruits of a

noble life in a

most delusive attempt to destroy the word of God. For this he was Icast down into infamy and contempt-so that his very name has become a bye-word and reproach. And such hope have they who

tread the same path!

See Address to the Theophilanthropists

Illustrations of the American School System.

WHO has not heard of the Common Schools of America? Who has read a 'Fourth of July' oration, and not been impressed, by the eloquence of the republican orator, with the distinguished blessing enjoyed by the citizens of that great country in being possessed of a free, sound, and intelligent system of education-a system which, we have been often told, offers to every child in the State advantages of learning and cultivation such as can only be procured in other countries at an expense utterly beyond the reach of any but the very richest. To a great extent, this is true. A comparatively good, and in some instances a very superior, classical and scientific education can be procured in certain cities of the United States without a fraction's cost to the scholar or student. Schools, or rather colleges, almost equal to the High School of Edinburgh, are freely opened to whomsoever chooses to go, while for the poorer classes there are common schools,' to which no parent need be ashamed to send his children. Schools there are plenty, teachers without number, machinery almost perfect, appliances innumerable, and—a general failure in education.

We have, ourselves, suspected this for some years. A few visitors to the United States, who have dug a little beneath the surface of society, have seen and pointed it out, and now the Americans themselves appear to be opening their eyes, not to the demerits of their system, but to the utterly inadequate results which it accomplishes. The first question one naturally asks in making inquiries on the subject is, Does the system succeed in educating the people? A fair answer to this question would be, Go to our schools, Sir, and walk about our streets, and judge for yourself. Now, we do not propose to do exactly this, but we propose to take the evidence of three gentlemen, who may be presumed to have the most intimate acquaintance with the subject, and whose evidence would possess the highest weight in the highest circles on both sides of the Atlantic. We premise that we choose these simply and only because they have the very latest information that it would be possible to possess.

Our first witness is the President of the Board of Education of the city and county of New York, whose evidence is contained in the Fifteenth Annual Report of the Board, for the year ending January 1, 1857. We gather from this report that the latest calculation of the population of New York was made up to the end of 1855, when it amounted to €18,652. The actual school attendance of this population there are no means of ascertaining. We only know that the average attendance at the public schools in 1856 was 47,605,* or about one to every fourteen of the population—not a great result, certainly, considering that nearly all the children who go to school at all go to a public school; but as we have no means of knowing how many are educated elsewhere, it would be useless, not to say dishonest, to build any conclusions on such defective data.

*The cost of education in the same year was 192,377., or 2l. 13s. per unit of average attendance at school.

The principal and most important question concerning the state of education we can, however, answer-How many do not go to school? The New York Board, it appears, have been making especial inquiry on the subject, and it has found that in a portion only of a single ward the number found not to be in attendance at school was almost exactly equal to the number at school in the same ward, being respectivelyEighteenth Ward: at school

Portion of the Eighteenth Ward: not at school

2,733

2,631

The Board say, 'The communication suggested that the number of children not attending any school as thus ascertained, should be multiplied by the number of wards, to show the number of such chi dren in this city, which would give an aggregate of nearly 60,00 They are of opinion, however, and no doubt rightly, that this wo be an over-estimate, and the number is, therefore, subsequently down by the City Superintendent of Schools in round numbers as over 50,000. Here is a difficulty for the state educationist! Fine schools, great schools, good books, plenty of teaching, 'liberal education'-all for nothing! Who would not have it? And the parents of 50,000 children answer, 'We don't want our children to have it, and they shan't The New York Board honestly acknowledges this difficulty. It

says:

It is a matter of certainty that there is a large number of children now being educated in our streets in habits of idleness and a knowledge of vice, whence they will graduate, enemies to themselves and curses to the community, and enter upon careers of debauchery and crime, until the ends shall have been reached, to which such a course unchecked inevitably leads.'

It has also tried to remove the difficulty:

Earnest attempts have been made to reach this enormous evil by voluntary efforts, through organizations of philanthropic persons of both sexes; and the Board of Education has extended to them all the aid warranted by its own powers and perhaps these have been stretched to do this, by grants of old books and furniture. Too much praise cannot be accorded to these attempts, whether we cr sider the object in view, or the energy with which it has been pursued; and yet is evident that such attempts alone are inadequate to the mastery of the evil.

And here, in offering the solution, it practically gives up its own

power:

Equally certain is it, that it cannot be overcome without the aid of a missionary effort beyond what an official organization could properly exert.'

'Beyond what an official organization could properly exert,'-a frank testimony that the solution of the great problem of education in this and other countries must be left to the people themselves, stimu lated solely by the voluntary missionary effort of zealous persons.

We now ask the President, and through him the Board, if he still heartily favours the American school system? We have touched his

heart, and Young America answers, 'To overcome the dangers

which

threaten us and work out our national salvation, we can have no hope

save in universal education.'

We ask further, what are these dangers? and we get the sorrowful

answer:

'Of all the dangers which threaten the future of our country, none, not even the