the country, on the subject of moral and religious institutions. It is understood, and it is certainly matter of joy, that better ideas have recently been entertained by the trustees of this university.

In another intelligent and patriotic State, the largest fortune, which any individual has accumulated in America, was lately left to endow a college, in the very metropolis of American art, from whose walls, religion is, in any and every form, expressly and forever, excluded. The genius of our age, the taste of antiquity, art and industry with all their resources, are to be lavished in perfecting the proportions and decorating the columns of a structure, over whose threshold no minister of religion of any denomination is permitted to pass, on whose marble classic front the proscription of Faith, Hope and Charity is to be written with a pen of iron.

As another symptom of the same feeling, it may be remarked that the clergy have been complained of, and their motives impeached, for occupying the places of instruction and discipline in our higher literary institutions. The plain matter of fact has not been observed, that Christianity is, in truth, the parent of these institutions. She has fostered them with a mother's care. In every country converted to the gospel, the church and the school-house have risen up side by side; the light of science has mingled with the light of revelation. The torch of knowledge was first carried over to our ancestors in Britain by christian hands. The favorite work of Augustine, the apostle of England, was the famous school of Canterbury, in which most of the distinguished men of the ensuing century were educated. It was her first christian king, that gave to England a written code of laws. It was her christian kings that founded and refounded her universities. It is christian charity that has from age to age endowed colleges and established fellowships in these universities, institutions which have nurtured the English mind, and sustained the English character almost from the commencement of her civilization.

In our own country, christian zeal founded nearly all the older seminaries. Christian charity has endowed them. Christian minds have toiled in them. And all this, not because there has been any design on the part of the clergy to take possession of the keys of knowledge. They have not thus come into possession of them. They have been naturally, and necessarily, put forward in the work, by the impulse of christian benevo

lence. They are the natural almoners of religious charity, the natural agents of that living power in the churches under their care, which has originated and sustained our institutions of learning. Because the church and her clergy have, with pains and sacrifices, and sometimes in the face of persecution, succeeded in planting seminaries, and collecting libraries, and educating statesmen, physicians, lawyers and divines, and in diffusing a taste for letters among the people, must they be reproached for usurping the places of public instruction? What class of men have they supplanted? Whom have they openly, or secretly, thrust out from the business of instruction? Whom have they refused to countenance in any good thing, because he wore not their garb, and appeared not in canonicals? Let the instance be produced in which the christian clergy have not introduced letters and civilization with religion, into the countries converted to Christ; let the case be named, in which they have not been concerned in originating the institutions of learning which adorn such countries; let the case be stated, in which they have not essentially promoted education, by their influence in colleges and schools and it may be admitted, that they have not always merited the praise we claim for them, and claim without fear of refutation, the praise of deserving to be placed foremost in our seminaries, the praise of earning a distinction, which they have certainly enjoyed.

There are advantages in placing clergymen in public literary institutions. It is wise to continue them there, as well as ungrateful to deny them the right to be there. The clerical profession is better adapted than any other to fit men for sedentary, studious pursuits. It is the profession of a public teacher; and is therefore eminently fitted to produce an aptness to teach, to foster those mental habits which are favorable to instruction. It familiarizes the mind to those aspects of human nature, which awaken the deepest sympathy with the young, in their pursuits, their feelings, and their prospects. It promotes an intimate association of the employments of life and the formation of character with the great moral and religious truths, which are the study of the theologian, and which ought to be the basis of every system of education. We say the basis of education, because, after all has been done, which instruction can do, in developing the intellectual powers and storing the memory with ideas, if no permanent and efficient active principles have been awakened, if the moral sensibilities are left dormant, there is no certainty

that the man will achieve any thing, or attempt any thing, or conceive any thing useful to the world, or honorable to himself. Nothing can counteract the strong tendency of the mind to repose and indolence, but the energy of the feelings of conscience and benevolence, of patriotism, of domestic love and the love of God. And it is hardly too much to say, that under the constant impulse of these sentiments, intellect can never sleep, ingenuity, knowledge, argument, power of mind and eloquence of manner can never be wanting. Industry, enterprise, skill, every thing great in mind, every thing noble in achievement, every thing ample and splendid in attainment, is the creation of the spirit, the moral energy of the man. For such reasons as these, and they might be multiplied, the clerical office seems to be naturally associated with the office of instruction.

Still we do not insist, that none but clergymen should be employed in our institutions of learning. There should be pains taken to prevent the formation of peculiar, partial, narrow views. It is of importance to the young to come into connection with a variety of minds, to be taught to look at subjects under the dif ferent lights, which men accustomed to different pursuits and different studies, throw upon them. The several professions have each peculiar modes of thought and points of view in the contemplation of life; and it is useful and even necessary to a liberal education, that the pupil be allowed to enjoy the superintendence and example of minds somewhat various in their habits of thinking. He should not always herd with one class of men. It is, therefore, not without reason, that our seminaries of learning have in them a considerable proportion of laymen. If it be thought, that this proportion is still too small; that there is too much uniformity of character in the officers of our colleges and other institutions, or that clergymen may be more usefully employed in their more appropriate duties- let it be so. There is certainly no more grateful field of labor for men of any profession than the instruction of the young.

But to the separation of instruction from religion itself we decidedly and earnestly object. Every friend of learning, every patriot should strenuously contend against all attempts to educate young men without moral and christian principle. If the objection to the clergy, as guardians and teachers of colleges and universities, be an objection only to the clerical habit, and title, or to professional peculiarities, the question is of little consequence. If the prejudice, however, be deeper, if the hostility

to clerical influence be, as there is reason to suspect, in many instances, nothing less than hostility to religion itself; let not an inch of ground be yielded so long as it can be maintained. The interests of liberty, of truth, of the soul are concerned in the issue. That the remarks already made on the disposition evinced among us to disconnect religion from education, are not groundless, is proved by a comparison of the facts to which allusion has been made, with another equally well known and equally unequivocal in its import- the fact, that ministers of the gospel are, by law, in some of the States, excluded from certain civil offices, and that, where no such disability exists, editors of public journals and multitudes of the community, regard the acceptance of office, or the exercise of any political influence, as inconsistent with the character and relations of the clergy, as transcending the limits of their rights and privileges. Were it a mere question of policy, of utility, of expediency, there would be, generally, but one opinion. But when any class of men are, as such, excluded from the common rights and privileges of citizens, when any office in the country is, by legislation, placed beyond their reach, it is no longer a free country, a republic, a land of equal laws. It is the tone and manner in which this subject is treated, the ground on which the objection is placed, that gives it any importance. These show the tendency of the public mind, and for this purpose alone are here referred to. If, because a man is a clergyman, he may not sit in a legislative assembly, nor discuss a political question, nor touch a subject, that has, or may be imagined to have, a political bearing; it is important to ascertain the foundation of the objection. Before the. genius of our government was seen in practice, and its consequences developed in the various relations of life, it is not strange, that men acquainted with English history were jealous of church power, and anxious to guard against the repetition of the scenes. enacted by clerical ambition, in the mother country. But, certainly, he has little claim to the name of politician, he has observed the course of things, in this country, to little purpose, who, after half a century has shown the tendency of the government, is still troubled with apprehensions of danger from the priesthood. So far from aspiring to rule and authority, they have rather occasion to grieve, that they are scarcely permitted to whisper, in the ear of power, of" righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come."

We are accustomed to congratulate ourselves on the perfec

tion of our common schools and the general diffusion of the advantages of elementary education. It is one of the forms of our national vanity. And yet it is a remarkable fact, that we are far, very far behind some of the monarchies of the old world, not more in the perfection of education among the privileged few, than in the diffusion of it through the mass of society. We are struck with astonishment, that such speculations in literary criticism, and philosophy, as are contained in the Lectures of the Schlegels, should have found audiences in Vienna capable of listening to them, with intelligence even, much less with enthusiasm. But who was prepared to hear, who can hear without mortification, that, in the kingdom of Prussia, there is, in actual operation, a system of primary instruction altogether more perfect, than exists in any portion of New England; a system, whose advantages are absolutely universal, bringing very thorough moral and religious, as well as literary, instruction within the reach of every child in the kingdom; and, in fact, compelling every family to be educated. The feeling which is beginning to pervade France, also, may be inferred from the following remarks of Victor Cousin, in his Report to the national authorities, on "the State of Public Instruction in Prussia" a work, by the way, which we are extremely glad to see presented to the American reader; it is full of interest to the friends of education. The reputation of Mr. Cousin, as a philosopher, and his standing in his own country, give peculiar importance to his views of moral instruction.

Without neglecting physical science, and the knowledge applicable to the arts of life, we must make moral science, which is of far higher importance, our main object. The mind and character are what a true master ought, above all, to fashion. We must lay the foundations of moral life in the souls of our young masters, and therefore we must place religious instruction, that is, to speak distinctly, christian instruction, in the first rank in the education of our normal schools. Leaving to the curé, or to the pastor of the place, the care of instilling the doctrines peculiar to each communion, we must constitute religion a special object of instruction, which must have its place in each year of the normal course; so that at the end of the entire course, the young masters, without being theologians, may have a clear and precise knowledge of the history, doctrines, and, above all, the moral precepts of Christianity. Without this, the pupils, when they become masters, would be incapable of giving any other religious instruction than the mechanical repetition of the catechism, which would be quite insufficient.