constitution forbids; viz., a sectarian establishment, consisting of schools, in which the tenets and dogmas of sect are taught; for Infidels and Deists are as much a sect as Presbyterians, Catholics, or Quakers.

You would then, by urging your objection, practically insist on having the mighty machinery of this government-which recognizes and has ever recognized Christianity-employed, not for the enforcement indirectly of its simple doctrines, but in building up an establishment directly at war with all its heavenly precepts.

You would trample under foot the constitutional rights of the great majority of the people, and establish over their heads a small minority sect of infidels and deists, who would either lead us into anarchy, or, combining their forces with spiritual despotism, turn us back into the darkness and bondage of the mediæval age.

You would surrender us into the guardianship of some form of tyranny, which, like all its predecessors, exists by a negative rather than a positive system of education, which seals up the book of instruction, bars the doors of popular schools, and opens the halls of education only to those who are willing to be made subservient instruments and agents in support of the ruling power. It is no such educational system we wish. We desire neither the barrenness of infidelity, nor the dwarfing of sectarianism, but that sound and har monious culture, which secures the full development of the youthful mind, both intellectual and moral; which informs the pupil of his own and his country's dependence and connection with the laws and will of his God; which familiarizes him with the teachings of those great commandments, born of the thunders and the trumpet-blasts of Sinai, which contain the elemental seeds of all modern systems of jurisprudence, and which make up the warp and woof of that calm discourse upon the mount, by Him who is the teacher of us all.

This cannot interfere with any form of religious sectarianism or denominational opinion, rightfully so called; for all who are Christians profess to adopt these great cardinal principles and precepts as the rule of their lives, no matter by what name they are known.

In the month of September last, as I sat in front of the miniature railroad depot in the little Swiss village of Weinfelden, in the canton of Thorgaud, waiting for the locomotive to emerge from among the great mountains that engirt the place, I espied not far off a large building, which I at once supposed to be a public school-house. On wandering over to it, my conjectures were found to be correct. The building was nearly one hundred feet long and three stories high, and No. 8. [VOL. III. No. 1.] 7

on the front of it was enstamped, in large gilt German characters, the following inscription:

"Liebe Gott und den Nächsten wie dich Selbst."

"Der Erziehung unsrer jugend Gewidmet."

"Love God, and thy neighbor as thyself."
"School for instruction of youth."

I entered, and found within four hundred scholars, one hundred of whom were Catholics, and the remainder Protestants. They were instructed in the Primary, Industrial, and Classical departments; and, after school hours, religious instruction was separately imparted to the different scholars of different denominations by teachers of both Protestant and Catholic faith. There was no murinuring or strife among them, notwithstanding that noble declaration of Christian precept was thus publicly emblazoned on the outer wall. As I hurriedly left the quiet spot in which the building stood, I could not but think that our Swiss brethren, perched away up among those silent mountains, had, after all, taken the right view of the relations of the public schools with Christianity, and hoped that ere long a younger republic, far beyond the seas, might learn wisdom of her, and manifest like fearlessness in the declaration of those principles on which their system of popular education is based.

When, then, a free civilization, beckoned forward by Christianity, has advanced so far in the perilous way towards self-government as to rear an edifice like to that polished temple within whose walls this people worships, is it not right, is it not obligatory on each successive generation of worshippers to inform those who follow them on what foundations that temple rests? If it be the spirit and genius of these institutions of ours to advance still higher in the scale of free government, and never to fall back, is it not essential that these foundationstones should ever remain secure and firm? — that the store-houses of this temple be continually replenished with its needful requisites, and blessed with a multiplication of present and yet new and nobler privileges? If these questions can only be answered in the affirmative, why should the State hesitate in the discharge of that duty, which already ought to be conceded as imperative? The State should not only maintain the laws she now has, providing free and open schooldoors to all her youth, but strengthen those laws by steadily elevating the standard of her education, and by positively requiring daily attendance upon the precepts of the teacher.

These laws should be prudently enforced by mild but effective penalties. Already, to a certain extent, we have laws compelling educa

tion. Every master in almost all our States is bound, under certain penalties, to afford his apprentice due instruction, both secular and moral, while he claims the service of his early years.

This is a just provision, and can be similarly applied to the parent who claims the services of his minor son. What the lad renders to him in the work of his hands, the father should be compelled to restore in the form of education; for parental authority should not be permitted to rob the son in his youth of that which in later life can never be fully imparted to him. If the parents are so poor, or decrepit, that they cannot dispense with the labor of their children, then the State, by appropriations made for their relief, might properly assume the purchase, or value of their youth, that they may render unto them the elementary instruction of the schools, if no more. This course, though apparently onerous at the outset, would prove cheapest in the end; much cheaper than what it would be compelled to pay were these candidates for citizenship permitted to grow up as outlaws and vagabonds in society.

Nor can any adverse argument be drawn from the effect of such enactments upon the scholars; for surely no evil can result from the operation of such laws as arm the man against tyranny, by informing him of freedom, and putting her weapons into his hands; by leading him out of the prison-house of darkness, and revealing to him the world and his relations to it; by emptying his heart of curses, and filling it with blessings, and a hope that seizes on still higher and holier possessions than those which belong to earth.

Another mode might be resorted to in the way of disenabling statutes, denying an active participation, or share, in the official privileges of government to all such as neglected to qualify themselves for the discharge of its high and sacred responsibilities.

No man should complain that he or his son is prohibited from sharing in the executive functions of the government, when he voluntarily disqualifies himself or his child for the service to which he aspires.

It is enough that the government throws over him its golden shield, and protects him in the enjoyment of all those rights which her constitution guaranties to her people. He is not justly entitled, and should not lay claim to more. These laws, then, should be prudently formed, carefully avoiding encroachment on that which is generally recognized as a strictly parental right or privilege, and advancing not one inch beyond the limits of self-preservation on the part of the State. They should be frank, simple, and direct, yet firm, and firmly enforced. Their object should be to direct and enforce the application of such agencies as will pour wisdom and light into those minds which

superstition and ignorance wickedly or negligently curtain up against the truth; to furnish each mortal with those spiritual weapons that will enable him to protect and ennoble his immortality; to plant within the soil of his mind those principles of both intellectual and moral strength that will send him forth into the stormy world around him, his heart armed against all distracting temptations, and his feet shod with a preparation for glorious achievement.

The State, thus blessing her sons, shall again be blessed by their noble deeds; and her name be gratefully taken up into the lips of successive generations, until the era of a perfect government and a happy people shall dawn upon the race.

O FOR the coming of that glorious time

When, prizing knowledge as her noblest wealth,
And best protection, this imperial realm,
While she exacts allegiance, shall admit

An obligation on her part to teach

Them who are born to serve her and obey;
Binding herself by statute to secure,

For all the children whom her soil maintains,
The rudiments of letters, and to inform
The mind with moral and religious truth,

Both understood and practised-so that none,
However destitute, be left to droop,

By timely culture unsustained, or run
Into a wild disorder; or be forced

To drudge through weary life without the aid
Of intellectual implements and tools;
A savage horde among the civilized,

A servile band among the lordly free!

This right-as sacred, almost, as the right
To exist and be supplied with sustenance
And means of life-the lisping babe proclaims
To be inherent in him, by Heaven's will,
For the protection of his innocence;
And the rude boy, who knits his angry brow,

And lifts his wilful hand, on mischief bent,

Or turns the sacred faculty of speech

To impious use, by process indirect

Declares his due, while he makes known his need.

This sacred right is fruitlessly announced,

This universal plea in vain addressed,

To eyes and ears of parents, who themselves
Did, in the time of their necessity,
Urge it in vain; and, therefore, like a prayer
That from the humblest floor ascends to heaven,

It mounts to reach the State's parental ear;

Who, if indeed she own a mother's heart,

And be not most unfeelingly devoid

Of gratitude to Providence, will grant
The unquestionable good.

WORDSWORTH.

IX. PHILOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS.

ENGLISH CONJUGATION.

THE Conjugation of a verb includes all the changes which it undergoes to express form,* voice, mood, time, person, and number.

The leading parts of the English verb are the present indicative, the past indicative, and the past participle. With these alone we are concerned in our present investigation.

There are two principal modes of conjugating English verbs; the one by the change of the radical vowel, as swim, swam, swum, called the strong inflection; and the other by a change of the termination, as kill, killed, killed, called the weak inflection.

The strong inflection is the more ancient, and confined to primitive or radical verbs of Teutonic origin, and their compounds.

The weak inflection is of more modern date, and embraces a few primitive, and all the derivative verbs of Teutonic origin, as well as all other verbs, not Teutonic, whether primitive or derivative.

I. ENGLISH STRONGLY INFLECTED VERBS.

The strongly inflected verbs are sacred relics which have come down to us from ancient times. But most grammarians have regarded them as irregularities which disfigure the language, and have made it a merit to free the language of them.

In these verbs the past tense is the root, and not the present tense, as in the weakly inflected verbs.

There are twelve classes or conjugations of strongly inflected verbs, in the kindred Teutonic dialects, distinguished by the internal inflection or change of vowel in the leading parts of the verb. Of these conjugations, eight are perceptible in English.

CONJUGATION I.

This conjugation includes verbs which have, or rather originally had, i, or its modification e, before a single consonant in the present tense, a in the past tense, and u, or its modification o, in the participle.

The English verbs belonging to this conjugation are 1. bear, 2. break, 3. come, 4. shear, 5. speak, 6. steal, 7. stick, 8. tear, 9. wear,

10. weave.

The form of a verb is that change whereby it expresses a predication in full, or is merely a participial, i. e. an infinitive or participle.