CHAPTER XV.

ZEAL OF THE PRIEST FOR THE CATHOLIC EDUCATION OF

OUR CHILDREN 373

PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

American fellow-citizens--America is my home! I have no other country.

After my God and my religion, my country is the dearest object of my

life! I love my country as dearly as any one else can. It is this love

that makes my heart bleed when I call to mind the actual state of

society in our country, and the principles that prevail everywhere. It

is indeed but too true that we live in a most anti-Christian age;

principles are disregarded, and iniquity is held in veneration. We see

nothing but confusion in religion, in government, in the family circle.

Sects spring up and swarm like locusts, destroying not only revealed

religion, but rejecting even the law of nature. Fraud, theft, and

robbery are practised almost as a common trade. The press justifies

rebellion, secret societies, and plots for the overthrow of established

governments. The civil law, by granting divorce, has broken the family

tie. Children are allowed to grow up in ignorance of true religious

principles, and thereby become regardless of their parents. The number

of apostates from Christianity is on the increase, at least in the

rising generation. Current literature is penetrated with the spirit of

licentiousness, from the pretentious quarterly to the arrogant and

flippant daily newspaper, and the weekly and monthly publications are

mostly heathen or maudlin. They express and inculcate, on the one hand,

stoical, cold, and polished pride of mere intellect, or on the other,

empty and wretched sentimentality. Some employ the skill of the engraver

to caricature the institutions and offices of the Christian religion,

and others to exhibit the grossest forms of vice, and the most

distressing scenes of crime and suffering. The illustrated press has

become to us what the amphitheatre was to the Romans when men were

slain, women were outraged, and Christians given to the lions to please

a degenerate populace. The number of the most unnatural crimes is beyond

computation. A wide-spread and deep-seated dishonesty and corruption

has, like some poisonous virus, inoculated the great body of our public

men in national, state, and municipal positions, so much so that

rascality seems to be the rule, and honesty the exception. Real

statesmanship has departed from amongst us; neither the men nor the

principles of the olden time exist any longer.

The shameless cynicism with which the great public plunderers of our day

brazen out their infamy, is only equalled by the apathy with which the

public permits these robberies, and condone for them by lavishing place

and power upon the offenders. "The way of the transgressor" has ceased

to be "hard"--unless he be a transgressor of very low degree--and

rascality rides rampant over the land, from the halls of Congress to the

lowest department of public plunder.

The poet has well said that Vice, once grown familiar to the view, after

first exciting our hate, next succeeded in gaining our pity, and

finally was taken into our embrace.

The familiarity of the public mind with daily and almost hourly

instances of public peculation and betrayal of high trusts has created

this indulgent disposition, until at last the wholesome indignation,

which is the best safeguard of honesty, has been diluted into a maudlin

sympathy with the malefactors. And the rankness of the growth of this

evil is not more startling than its rapidity. It is a new thing--a foul

fungus, suddenly forced into fetid life, out of the corruptions

engendered by the war. It is "a new departure" in a wrong

direction--down that smooth, broad path to the devil.

We all remember the sensation which, before the war, was ever caused by

the discovery of a public defaulter, and the indignation which drove him

ever forth from place and country, on his detection. Punishment sure and

swift was certain to seize upon him, if he dared linger after the facts

were known.

A breach of trust was not then considered a joke, nor theft elevated

into the dignity of a fine art, whose most eminent professors were to

be regarded with envy and admiration.

Think of the clamor which was raised over the comparatively petty

peculations of Swartwout, Schuyler, Fowler, and other small sinners like

them, who even found the country too hot to hold them, and died in

exile, as an expiation to the public sentiment they had outraged.

Yet their frauds were as molehills to the mountains which the busy hands

of our public peculators have heaped up, and are daily piling higher.

Within the last ten years, where they stole cents, their successors

stole by thousands and tens of thousands; and, instead of flying from

punishment, flaunt their crimes and their ill-gotten wealth in the face

of the community, heedless either of the arm of the law, or the more

potent hiss of public scorn.

And this financial dishonesty of the times is as true of commercial as

of political circles, and as patent at Washington as at New York and

other cities. "Think you that those eighteen men on whom the tower of

Siloam fell, were sinners above all others in Jerusalem? I tell you

nay!" Think you that those six or seven on whom the axe of the public

press fell, are sinners above all in New York and elsewhere? If all men

that have been guilty of fraud in New York and elsewhere were to have a

tower fall on them, there would be funerals enough for fifty years.

One of the saddest symptoms of degeneracy in a people is evinced by a

desperate levity--a scoffing spirit such as that which inspired the

French people when they denied even God, and substituted a prostitute to

be their "Goddess of Reason." Much of that spirit is unhappily

manifesting itself in our country.

That most fearful picture of a corrupt community drawn by Curran in his

description of the public pests of his day--"remaining at the bottom

like drowned bodies while soundness remained in them, but rising only as

they rotted, and floating only from the buoyancy of corruption"--seems,

unhappily, destined to find its parallel here, unless public virtue and

public indignation should awake to condemn and chastise the corruption

which is tainting and poisoning the air around us.

The judgment which overtook the men of Siloam was visited on them for

sins not unlike those which seem to invite a similar judgment from

offended Heaven upon our modern Siloams, and is no jesting matter. Nay,

in view of the many recent terrible visitations which have fallen upon

different parts of our country, many voices have already been raised

proclaiming them as marks of Divine wrath against national sins,

perpetrated by a people who should, by their lives, testify their sense

of the blessings showered upon them in more prodigal profusion than on

any other nation in the annals of mankind.

That the great body of our people are corrupt, or that they at heart

approve of corruption, no one will be mad enough to maintain. But they

are responsible before Heaven and to posterity for the criminal apathy

they manifest in their silent sanction of the corruption and crime which

are fast making the American name a synonyme for theft, for brazen

impudence and unblushing rascality.

In the life of a nation, as in that of an individual, there are periods

which are critical; and a restoration to health, or the certainty of

speedy death, depends on the way this malady is met. The crisis which

now menaces the life and health of the United States cannot be far

distant; for private virtue cannot long survive the death of public

honor and honesty, nor private morality fail to catch the contagion of

public profligacy. If the representative men of a country, those in whom

its high trusts are reposed, be corrupt and shameless, they will drag

down into the same mire the morals of the people they plunder and

misrepresent. Indeed we want no prophet, nor one raised from the dead,

to tell us the awfully fatal results. What can be done to stem the

fearful torrent of evils that flood the land? We all know that when, in

1765, the famous Stamp Act was passed in the British Parliament, on the

news reaching Boston the bells were muffled, and rang a funeral peal. In

New York the "Act" was carried through the streets with a death's head

bearing this inscription: "The Folly of England and the Ruin of

America." So great was the opposition to the "Act," that it was repealed

during the spring of 1766. This shows how quickly the evils of society

can be put down if people set to work in earnest.

Now we cannot expect the people to set to work in earnest about stemming

the torrent of the great evils of the land, unless they are well

enlightened as to the source from which they flow. This source is

principally that wrong system of education introduced into this country

about fifty years ago. At that time very few, perhaps, could foresee

what effects it was calculated to produce. After a long trial, we can

now pronounce on it with certainty by its results. The tree, no longer a

sapling, can be judged by its fruits. These fruits have been so bad that

it is high time to call the attention of the public to the tree.

Now in calling attention to this tree, I wish it to be once for all

distinctly understood, that whatever of a seemingly or even really harsh

nature I may say in this discussion on the Public Schools, is intended

and directed _solely against the system_. For those who manage or

officiate in them, as teachers or otherwise, I have, I trust, all the

courtesy, charity, and respect due from one citizen to another. If I

offend the prejudices, convictions, or susceptibilities of any on this

strangely misrepresented subject, no one can more regret it than myself;

I can truly say it is not intended. All I ask of my fellow-citizens is a

fair discussion on this great question of education, to look at it

without prejudice, without bigotry; for if prejudice and bigotry stand

in our way, they will stand in the way of the glory and stability of

this country, whose future God only knows. It is the duty of all

citizens to labor with a good heart, a clear mind, an earnest soul, to

do all they can in building up, and strengthening, and making still more

glorious this great American people.

CHAPTER II.

EDUCATION--ITS OBJECT AND NECESSITY.

The question of Education is, of all others, the most important. It has

for some time back received a good deal of attention in public meetings,

in newspapers, and in the pulpit. In fact it has become a question of

the day. On this question, however, there is unfortunately such an

amount of ignorance, prejudice, and confusion of ideas, that it is

almost impossible to make the public understand it. The reason of this

is, because so many follow the vague views expressed on this subject in

newspapers. Many a paper is undoubtedly political, and so far partisan;

and as such its editor will defend and advance what he believes to be

the principles of his party. But the question of education rises above

party politics; yet when you read many a paper you will find that the

editor appeals to the prejudice and passions of party in a way quite

unworthy of an independent journalist, and of the grave subject under

consideration. He advances principles which, at first sight, seem to be

quite true; for instance: "Public School Education is necessary for our

republican form of government, for the very life of the Republic." "It

is an admitted axiom, that our form of government, more than all others,

depends on the intelligence of the people." "The framers of our

Constitution firmly believed that a republic form of government could

not endure without intelligence and education generally diffused among

the people. The State must, therefore, take all means within its power

to promote and encourage popular education, and furnish this

intelligence of the people through her public schools."

At first sight such principles seem to be true, and the people in

general will accept them. Experience teaches that the public will

accept, without question, almost any maxim or problem, provided it be

formulated in such a manner as to convey some specific meaning that does

not demand reflection or complex examination. For the same reason no

small portion of the public will reject anything that at first sight

seems to exceed the measure of their understanding. Knaves and

charlatans, knowing this, impose on the public by flattering their

intelligence, that they may accomplish their own ambitious and selfish

ends. In this way a multitude of pernicious religious, social, and

political maxims have come into vogue, especially in reference to the

question of public instruction. Yet on the sound principles concerning

this question of education, and on the right understanding of them,

depend not only the temporal and eternal happiness of the people, but

also the future maintenance and freedom, nay, even the material

prosperity, of the Republic.

In the discussion of the system of education it will no longer do to use

vague, unmeaning expressions, or to advance some general puzzling

principles to keep the public in the dark on this important point. It is

high time that the public should be thoroughly enlightened on the

subject of education. Everybody is talking about education,--the

advantages of education, the necessity of education; and yet almost all

have come to use the word in its narrowest and most imperfect meaning,

as implying mere cultivation of the intellectual faculties, and even

this is done in the most superficial manner, by cramming the mind with

facts, instead of making it reflect and reason. The great majority even

of those who write upon the subject take no higher view.

The term _education_ comprehends something more than mere instruction.

One may be instructed without being educated; but he cannot be educated

without being instructed. The one has a partial or limited, the other a

complete or general, meaning. What, then, is the meaning of Education?

Education comes from the Latin "educo," and means, according to Plato,

"to give to the body and soul all the perfection of which they are

susceptible"; in other words, the object of education is to render the

youth of both sexes beautiful, healthful, strong, intelligent and

virtuous. It is doubtless the will of the Creator that man--the

masterpiece of the visible world--should be raised to that perfection of

which he is capable, and for the acquisition of which he is offered the

proper means. It is the soul of man which constitutes the dignity of his

being, and makes him the king of the universe. Now the body is the

dwelling of the soul--the palace of this noble king; the nobility of the

soul must induce us to attend to its palace--to the health and strength

and beauty of the body;--health, strength and beauty are the noble

qualities of the body.

The noble qualities of the soul are virtue and learning. Virtue and

learning are the two trees planted by God in Paradise; they are the two

great luminaries created by God to give light to the world; they are the

two Testaments, the Old and the New; they are the two sisters, Martha

and Mary, living under one roof in great union and harmony, and mutually

supporting each other.

Learning is, next to virtue, the most noble ornament and the highest

improvement of the human mind. It is by learning that all the natural

faculties of the mind obtain an eminent degree of perfection. The memory

is exceedingly improved by appropriate exercise, and becomes, as it

were, a storehouse of names, facts, entire discourses, etc., according

to every one's exigency or purposes. The understanding--the light of the

soul--is exceedingly improved by exercise, and by the acquisition of

solid science and useful knowledge. Judgment, the most valuable of all

the properties of the mind, and by which the other faculties are poised,

governed and directed, is formed and perfected by experience, and

regular well-digested studies and reflection; and by them it attains to

true justness and taste. The mind, by the same means, acquires a

steadiness, and conquers the aversion which sloth raises against the

serious employments of its talents.

How much the perfection of the mind depends upon culture, appears in the

difference of understanding between the savages (who, except in

treachery, cunning and shape, scarce seem to differ from the apes which

inhabit their forests) and the most elegant and civilized nations. A

piece of ground left wild produces nothing but weeds and briers, which

by culture would be covered with corn, flowers and fruit. The difference

is not less between a rough mind and one that is well cultivated.

The same natural culture, indeed, suits not all persons. Geniuses must

be explored, and the manner of instructing proportioned to them. But

there is one thing which suits all persons, and without which knowledge

is nothing but "a sounding brass and tinkling cymbal": this is the

supernatural culture of the soul, or the habitual endeavor of man of

rendering himself more pleasing in the sight of God by the acquisition

of solid Christian virtues, in order thus to reach his last end--his

eternal happiness. It is for this reason that our Saviour tells us:

"What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own

soul? For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"--(Matt. xvi.

26.) It is, then, the _supernatural culture_, or the perfection of the

soul, that is to be principally attended to in education.

Now what is the perfection of soul? The perfection of each being in

general, is that which renders the being better and more perfect. It is

clear that inferior beings cannot make superior ones better and more

perfect. Now the soul, being immortal, is superior to all earthly or

perishable things. These, then, cannot make the soul better and more

perfect, but rather worse than she is; for he who seeks what is worse

than himself, makes himself worse than he was before. Therefore the good

of the soul can be only that which is better and more excellent than the

soul herself is. Now God alone is this Good--He being Goodness Itself.

He who possesses God may be said to possess the goodness of all other

things; for whatever goodness they possess, they have from God. In the

sun, for instance, you admire the light; in a flower, beauty; in bread,

the savor; in the earth, its fertility; all these have their being from

God. No doubt God has reserved to Himself far more than He has bestowed

upon creatures; this truth admitted, it necessarily follows that he who

enjoys God possesses in him all other things; and consequently the very

same delight which he would have taken in other things, had he enjoyed

them separately, he enjoys in God, in a far greater measure, and in a

more elevated manner. For this reason, St. Francis of Assisium often

used to exclaim: "My God and my All"--a saying to which he was so

accustomed that he could scarcely think of anything else, and often

spent whole nights in meditating on this truth.

Certainly true contentment is only that which is taken in the Creator,

and not that which is taken in the creature; a contentment which no man

can take from the soul, and in comparison with which all other joy is

sadness, all pleasure sorrow, all sweetness bitter, all beauty ugliness,

all delight affliction. It is most certain that "when face to face we

shall see God as He is," we shall have most perfect joy and happiness.

It follows, then, most clearly, that the nearer we approach to God in

this life, the more contentment of mind and the greater happiness of

soul we shall enjoy; and this contentment and joy is of the self-same

nature as that which we shall have in heaven; the only difference is,

that here our joy and happiness is in an incipient state, whilst there

it will be brought to perfection. He, then, is a truly wise and learned,

a truly well-educated, man, who here below has learned how to seek God,

and to be united as much as possible with the Supreme Good of his soul.

He therefore imparts a good education to the soul, who teaches her how

to seek and to find her own Good.

Now what is it to teach the soul to find her own Supreme Good? It is to

train, to teach, to lead the child in the way he should go, leading him

in the paths of duty, first to God, and secondly to his neighbor. All

not professed infidels, it appears to me, must admit this definition.

But as very many believe in "Webster," or "Worcester," I give the

former's definition of education: "Educate"--To instill into the mind

principles of art, science, _morals_, _religion_, and behavior.

According to this definition of education, morals and religion

constitute essential parts of education. Indeed, the first and most

important of all duties which the child must learn are his moral and

religious duties; for it will, I hope, be universally admitted that man

is not born into this world merely to "propagate his species, make

money, enjoy the pleasures of this world, and die." If he is not born

for that end, then it is most important that he be taught for what end

he was born, and the way appointed by his Creator to attain that end.

Every child born into this world is given a body and soul. This soul,

for which the body was created, and which will rise with it at the last

day, be judged with it for the acts done in life, and be happy or

unhappy with it for all eternity, is, in consequence of the "fall,"

turned away from God, and the body, no longer acting in obedience to

right reason, seeks its own gratification, like any irrational animal.

Religion (from _religio_) is the means provided by a merciful God to

reunite the chain broken by the sin of our first parents, and bridge

over the chasm opened between man and his divine destiny. To give this

knowledge of religion is the principal purpose of education. Without

this it is mere natural _instruction_, but no education at all. It would

be worse than giving, as we say, "the play of Hamlet with the part of

the Prince of Denmark left out."

Religion, then, forms the spirit and essence of all true education. As

leaven must be diffused throughout the entire mass in order to produce

its effects, so religion must be thoroughly diffused throughout the

child's entire education, in order to be solid and effective. Not a

moment of the hours of school should be left without religious

influence. It is the constant breathing of the air that preserves our

bodily life, and it is the constant dwelling in a religious atmosphere

that preserves the life of the youthful soul. Here are laid the

primitive principles of future character and conduct. These religious

principles may be forgotten, or partially effaced, in the journey of

life, but they will nevertheless endure, because they are engraved by

the finger of God Himself. The poor wanderer, when the world has turned

its back upon him, after having trusted to its promises only to be

deceived, after having yielded to its temptations and blandishments only

to be cruelly injured and mocked, may, at last, in the bitterness of his

heart, "remember the days of his youth," and "return to his father's

house." So long as faith remains, however great the vice or the crime,

there is something to build on, and room to hope for repentance, for

reformation, and final salvation. Faith or religion once gone, all is

gone. Religion is the crystal vase in which education is contained, or

rather the spirit which infuses and vitalizes it. Religion is the very

life of society, the very soul of a Christian State.

All nations and governments know and understand that to exclude

Christian education from the schools is to exclude it from their law,

legislature, courts, and public and private manners. It should, then,

ever be borne in mind that religion, though distinguishable, is never

separable from true civil and political science and philosophy.

Enlightened statesmanship will always accept and recognize religious

education as a most valuable and powerful ally in the government of the

State, or political society. The great Washington clearly asserts this

in his farewell address to the American people: "Of the dispositions,"

he says, "which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are

indispensable supports. Where is the security for property or for life,

if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are

administered in our courts of justice? And let it not be supposed that

morality can be maintained without religion." Accordingly our

legislatures are opened with prayer, the Bible is on the benches of our

courts; it is put into the hands of jurymen, voters, and even

tax-payers; indeed, from its late use and abuse, one might think that we

were living under the Pentateuch, and that the whole moral law and Ten

Commandments were bound to the brows of the public or State

phylacteries.

Indeed, the politics of every tribe, nation, or people, will reflect in

an exact degree their moral and religious convictions and education. If

these are false, the political society will be violent, disorderly, and

abnormal; if true, the State is calm, prosperous, strong and happy. If

these propositions be true, and I claim they are as axiomatic and

undeniable as any proposition in Euclid--yea more so, for they are the

maxims of inspired wisdom--how immeasurably important is a true

Christian education!

And if its influence is so great in determining even the political

conduct of men, it is still more necessary and powerful in forming the

character of true woman--the Christian wife, mother, and daughter. The

influence of Christian woman on society is incalculable. Admitting it

possible, for a moment, that irreligious men might construct or direct

an atheistical State, yet it would be utterly vain to build up the

family, the groundwork of all organized communities, without the aid of

the Christian woman. She it is who, in the deep and silent recesses of

the household, puts together those primitive and enduring materials,

each in its place and order, on which will rest and grow, to full beauty

and development, the fair proportion of every well-ordained State. This

foundation is laid in the care and rearing of good and dutiful children.

The task of the Christian mother may indeed be slow, and unobserved;

but God makes use of the weak to confound the strong, and this is

beautifully illustrated in the Christian woman, who is strong because

she is weak, most influential when she is most retired, and most happy,

honored, cherished and respected when she is doing the work assigned her

by Divine Providence, in the bosom of her household.

It will be admitted, then, that the education of girls demands a special

culture. Generally upon mothers the domestic instruction of the

children, in their infancy, mainly depends. They ought, therefore, to be

well instructed in the motives of religion, articles of faith, and all

the practical duties and maxims of piety. Then history, geography, and

some tincture of works of genius and spirit, may be joined with suitable

arts and other accomplishments of their sex and condition, provided they

be guided by and referred to religion, and provided books of piety and

exercises of devotion always have the first place, both in their hearts

and in their time.

They should, then, from their earliest years, if possible, be separated

in their studies, their plays, and their going and returning from

school, from children of the opposite sex. They should be placed under

the _surveillance and instruction_ of mature and pious women. Every

possible occasion and influence should be used to instil into their

young and plastic minds, by lesson and example, principles of religion

and morality. Their studies should be grave and practical. Their nervous

organization is naturally acute, and should be strengthened, but not

stimulated, as it too often is, thereby laying the foundation for that

terrible and tormenting train of neuralgic affections of after-life,

debilitating mind and body.

A thorough Christian education, then, is the basis of all happiness and

peace, for the family as well as for the State itself; for every State

is but the union of several families. It is for this reason that we find

good parents so willing to make every sacrifice for the Christian

education of their children, and that all true statesmen, and all true

lovers of their country, have always encouraged and advocated that kind

of education which is based upon Christian principles.

Good, dutiful children are the greatest blessing for parents and for the

State, whilst children without religion are the greatest misfortune,

the greatest curse that can come upon parents and upon the State.

History informs us that Dion the philosopher gave a sharp reproof to

Dionysius the tyrant, on account of his cruelty. Dionysius felt highly

offended, and resolved to avenge himself on Dion; so he took the son of

Dion prisoner, not, indeed, for the purpose of killing him, but of

giving him up into the hands of a godless teacher. After the young man

had been long enough under this teacher to learn from him everything

that was bad and impious, Dionysius sent him back to his father. Now

what object had the tyrant in acting thus? He foresaw that this

corrupted son, by his impious conduct during his whole lifetime, would

cause his father constant grief and sorrow, so much so that he would be

for him a lifelong affliction and curse. This, the tyrant thought, was

the longest and greatest revenge he could take on Dion for having

censured his conduct.

Plato, a heathen philosopher, relates that when the sons of the Persian

kings had reached the age of fourteen, they were given to four teachers.

The first of these teachers had to instruct them in their duties towards

God; the second, to be truthful under all circumstances; the third, to

overcome their passions; and the fourth teacher taught them how to be

valiant and intrepid men.

This truth, that good children are the greatest blessing and that bad

children are the greatest affliction that can befall parents and the

State, needs no further illustration. There is no father, there is no

mother, there is no statesman, who is not thoroughly convinced of this

truth. Can we, then, wonder that the Catholic Church has always

encouraged a truly Christian education?

There is nothing in history better established than the fact that the

Catholic Church has been at all times, and under the most trying

circumstances, the generous fostering-mother of education. She has

labored especially, with untiring care, to educate the poor, who are her

favorite children. It was the Catholic Church that founded, and endowed

liberally, almost all the great universities of Europe. Protestants and

infidels are very apt to overlook the incalculable benefits which the

Church has conferred on mankind, and yet without her agency civilization

would have been simply impossible.

The Catholic Church was, moreover, the first to establish common

schools for the free education of the people. As early as A.D. 529, we

find the Council of Vaison recommending the establishment of public

schools. In 800, a synod at Mentz ordered that the parochial priests

should have schools in the towns and villages, that "the little children

of all the faithful should learn letters from them. Let them receive and

teach these with the utmost charity, that they themselves may shine as

the stars forever. Let them receive no remuneration from their scholars,

unless what the parents, through charity, may voluntarily offer." A

Council at Rome, in 836, ordained that there should be three kinds of

schools throughout Christendom: episcopal, parochial in towns and

villages, and others wherever there could be found place and

opportunity. The Council of Lateran, in 1179, ordained the establishment

of a grammar school in every cathedral for the gratuitous instruction of

the poor. This ordinance was enlarged and enforced by the Council of

Lyons, in 1245. In a word, from the days of Charlemagne, in the ninth

century, down to those of Leo X., in the sixteenth century, free schools

sprang up in rapid succession over the greater part of Europe; and,

mark well, it was almost always under the shadow of her churches and her

monasteries! Throughout the entire period, called, by ignorant bigotry,

the "dark ages," Roman Pontiffs and Catholic Bishops assembled in

council and enacted laws requiring the establishment of free schools in

connection with all the cathedral and parochial churches. This is a fact

so clearly proven by Catholic and Protestant historians, that to deny it

would be to betray a gross ignorance of history. Even at the present

day, the Papal States, with a population of only about 2,000,000,

contain seven universities, with an average attendance of 660 students,

whilst Prussia, with a population of 14,000,000, and so renowned for her

education, has only seven! Again, in every street in Rome there are, at

short distances, public primary schools for the education of the

children of the middle and lower classes. Rome, with a population of

only about 158,000 souls, has 372 public primary schools, with 482

teachers, and over 14,000 children attending them, whilst Berlin, with a

population more than double that of Rome, has only 264 schools. Thus

originated the popular or common schools, or the free education of the

people, as an outgrowth of the Catholic Church.

Every one knows that to the Catholic Church is due the preservation of

literature after the downfall of the Roman Empire; and all those who are

versed in history must admit that the Popes, the rulers of the Church,

have been the greatest promoters and protectors of literature and

learned men in every age. They collected and preserved the writings of

the great historians, poets, and philosophers of Greece and Rome, and

they encouraged and rewarded the learned men who, by their labors, made

those fountains of classical literature easily accessible to all

students. What shall I say of the patronage which they accorded to

painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and the other arts which raise

up and refine the human soul? Even the present glorious Pontiff, Pius

IX., in the midst of troubles and persecutions, has done more for

education than the richest and most powerful sovereigns of the world.

You will unite with me, I am sure, in praying that he may soon recover

the sovereignty of Rome and the Papal States, and that he may live many

years to defend, as he has done in the past, the cause of religion,

truth, Christian education, and civilization in the world. But it would

take a whole day to refer even briefly to all that the Catholic Church

and her Supreme Pontiffs have done to dissipate ignorance, and to

improve and enlighten the mind of man. I shall merely add that a

Protestant writer, and an open enemy of our religion, does not hesitate

to state that, acting under the guidance and protection of the Holy See,

some of our religious orders, which are so often assailed and

calumniated, have done more for the promotion of philosophy, theology,

history, archaeology, and learning in general, than all the great

universities of the world, with all their wealth and patronage.

Moreover, it is a well-known fact that the Catholic Church has always

fought for the liberty to educate her children not only in the necessary

branches of science, but also, and above all, to teach them, at the same

time, their religious duties towards God and their fellow-men. And who

but an infidel can blame her for that?

Every one must know that by the united efforts of the Catholic clergy

and laity, schools, colleges, seminaries, boarding-schools for ladies

and boys, and other educational establishments, have been erected in

almost every part of the world, and erected without a cent of public

money, which was so plentifully lavished on Protestant institutions.

But, without leaving this country, do we not find in the various States

of the Union magnificent proofs of generous Catholic zeal in promoting

everything connected with education? And have not the parochial and

religious clergy in so many places made the noblest exertions to erect

institutions for the instruction of their flocks? and have not the laity

assisted them in a most munificent manner? All this shows their great

desire to promote the growth of knowledge.

Man is born a believing creature, and cannot, if he would, destroy

altogether this noble attribute of his nature. If he is not taught, or

will not accept, a belief in the living and uncreated God, he will

create and worship some other god in His stead. He cannot rest on _pure

negation_. There never has been a real, absolute unbeliever. All the

so-called unbelievers are either knaves or idiots. All the Gentile

nations of the past have been religious people; all the Pagan powers of

the present are also believers. There never has been a nation without

faith, without an altar, without a sacrifice. Man can never, even for a

single instant, escape the All-seeing Eye of God, or avoid the

obligations of duty imposed on him by his Creator. The Pantheists of

ancient as well as of modern times recognize this fact, although they do

not discharge their religious obligations conformably to the Divine

will, but make to themselves other gods instead.

As there has been a religion and a ritual among all nations, tribes and

peoples, so has there been also a "hierarchy" to teach this religion,

and make known its obligations. These religious obligations constituted

then, and constitute even now, the basis of all popular education

throughout the world--Christian, Gentile, or Pagan--there is no

exception to this fact save in these _United States_ of America.

CHAPTER III.

ORIGIN OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.

Strange as it may seem, it is a certain undeniable fact that there is

not, on the entire continent of Europe, or in the entire world, a single

country, Protestant or Catholic, that upholds the Pagan system of

education which has been adopted in this free country. In all of them

Catholic and Protestant children receive religious instruction, during

the school-hours, from their respective pastors. The present system of

the Public Schools in the United States professes to exclude all

religious exercises. We are often told that this is the American system,

and that it is very impertinent for foreigners to wish to bring religion

into schools against the American idea. Now the assertion that the

exclusion of all religion from the schools is truly American, that it is

an essential part of our national system, is utterly false. So far as

any system of public schools can be said to have an American idea, the

idea will be found to be "education based on religious instruction."

The first schools established in the Union were religious denominational

schools. These schools were supported by the churches with which they

were connected, and by their patrons. Religious exercises formed a part

of the daily duties of the class-room. The early founders of this

Republic were not able to understand how they could bring up their

children in the knowledge, love, and service of God by banishing the

Bible, prayer, and religious exercises of every kind from the school.

Hence religion was reverenced, and its duties attended to in all

institutions of learning in the country. The American system of

education, in its incipiency, and for a long while, was one founded on

Bible-teaching and religious exercises. The present system is

un-American, anti-American.

Now how did it happen that the primitive Christian system of education

became unchristian and anti-American? To make you understand more

clearly the origin of the present system of the Public Schools, I must

first show you how _Secret Societies seek to spread Irreligious

Education in Europe_.

These societies profess the most irreligious and anti-social doctrines.

Among the chief means employed by them for pushing forward their

diabolical principles is _Education without Religion_. The

"International," one of the most powerful of these organizations, has

lately put forward a programme, in which the following points are laid

down as most necessary to be insisted upon in the agitation conducted by

the socialist democratic party in Switzerland:

"... _Compulsory and gratuitous education_ up to the completion

of the fourteenth year of each child's age.... Separation of

the Church from the State, _and also of the schools from the

Church_."

About three short years ago a pamphlet was published in which we find

detailed the efforts made in France to spread irreligion by means of bad

education. The letters of eighty of the Prelates of France are appended

to the pamphlet. Alas! the sad forebodings of that noble episcopate

have been too soon and too terribly fulfilled!

The following lengthy extracts are taken from the late Pastoral of the

Bishops of Ireland on Christian Education:

"EFFORTS TO SPREAD IRRELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN FRANCE--DISASTROUS

RESULTS IN FRANCE.

"'I see,' says the most reverend author, 'that for some time

past the most extraordinary efforts are made in France to

spread impiety, immorality, the most anti-social theories,

under the pretext of spreading education. No longer as

formerly, it is in newspapers and books that religion,

morality, and the eternal principles of good order are attacked

with the most deceitful and formidable weapon of a corrupt

system of education. Under cover of an excellent object--and

here is the great danger, for we are deluded by this

pretext--under the pretext of spreading education and waging

war against ignorance, infidelity is spread, war is waged

against religion; and thus, whether we will or no, we rush on

to the ruin of all order, moral and social. And we, the

Bishops, who are as desirous as others, and perhaps more

desirous than others, to see spread far and wide the blessings

of education, the education of children, female education, the

education of our whole people, for this is by excellence a

Christian work, we are accused of being enemies of education,

because we oppose anti-Christian and anti-social education.'"

The first fact mentioned by the learned writer is the existence of

schools, which are called "_professional schools for females_," into

which young girls are received at twelve years of age and upwards, for

the purpose of continuing their education and learning a profession.

These schools have been founded by women, free-thinkers, who formally

and expressly declare it to be their object to train the youth of their

own sex in rationalism and infidelity. The following incident shows the

impious end for which these schools have been founded: One of the

principal teachers died, and over her grave her husband pronounced these

words,--"I will tell you, for it is my duty to tell you, that if this

funeral is that of a free-thinker" [unaccompanied by any religious

ceremony], "it is so not only by my wish, but also and chiefly because

such was the desire of my dear wife." He adds that she had devoted

herself to "the great work of spreading education and _morality without

religion_, because she had no faith except in _learning and in

justice_; she was of those who, having once seen and comprehended these

truths, can have no other beacon to guide them _in life, or at the hour

of death_." Round that grave, whose occupant had rejected religion and

its ministrations in life and in death, stood three hundred girls,

pupils of those "_professional schools_," holding bouquets in their

hands, and throwing flowers on the coffin of their mistress. The schools

are of a piece with the teachers. Ten hours are spent in them, but all

religious instruction is strictly forbidden, under the pretext that they

are free schools, "_open to children of all persuasions, without

religious distinction_." The founders of these schools propose to give

to the girls intrusted to them _a moral education without ever speaking

to them of religion!_ And this is the system of education which people

are anxious to spread throughout France, and even in this country also.

But, though we hope they will not succeed, can we feel fully confident

that we shall escape the contagion, when we remember that this system is

no other than the "_mixed system_," and when we bear in mind the

untiring efforts which are made to develop and consolidate that system

in Ireland in every branch of education, from the university, through

the model-school, down to the humblest village-school? Read the

description of the schools in France, of which we are speaking, and say,

does it not apply to every school, even in Ireland, where the mixed

principle is thoroughly carried out?

"The printed prospectus of these schools" [continues the most

reverend writer] "clearly explains the advantages of

professional education, while it hides the religious danger

under vague expressions of an apparent liberality, such as the

following: '_The school is open to children of all persuasions,

without religious distinction_.' The meaning of which words is

no other than that in these schools, where children are kept

from the twelfth to the eighteenth year of their age, and for

ten hours every day (from eight A.M. to six P.M.), God and the

Gospel shall be treated as if they never existed; not only

religion shall never be mentioned, but these girls shall be

taught morality independent of any dogmatic faith, any

religion....

"The second engine used by the enemies of religion in France

for the maintenance and spread of infidelity, is the

Educational League. This League has been introduced from

Belgium into France by the Freemasons and the

'Solidaires'--the members of an impious association, the avowed

object of which is to prevent persons from receiving the

sacraments, or any of the sacred rites of the Church, in life

or in death. The Educational League, with a wonderful spirit of

propagandism, has established throughout France libraries and

courses of instruction for men and for women, and even for

girls and young children. On their banner is inscribed 'Spread

of Education'; but under this device is hidden the scheme of

propagating irreligion. The founder of the 'League' in

France[A] was a Freemason, and both his declarations and those

of the organs of Freemasonry leave no doubt of the Masonic

origin of the scheme, and of the spirit which animates it. Now

the third article of the statutes of the 'League' declares,

when speaking of the education to be given by their

association, that 'neither politics nor _religion_ shall have

any part in it.' And lest there should be any mistake as to the

meaning of this article, one of the leading Masonic journals

declares that religion is 'useless as an instrument for forming

the minds of children, and that from a certain point of view it

is _capable of leading them to abandon all moral principles_.

It is incumbent on us, therefore,' concludes this journal, 'to

_exclude_ all religion. We will teach you its rights and duties

in the name of liberty, of conscience, of reason, and, in

fine, in the name of our society.'[B] And again: 'Freemasons

must give in their adhesion _en masse_ to the excellent

Educational League, and the lodges must in the peace of their

temples seek out the best means of making it effectual. Their

influence in this way will be most useful. _The principles we

profess are precisely in accord with those which inspired that

project._'[C] In April of the same year, the same organ of

Freemasonry contained the following paragraph: 'We are happy to

announce that the Educational League and the statue of _our

brother_ Voltaire meet with the greatest support in all the

lodges. There could not be two subscription-lists more in

harmony with each other: Voltaire, the representative of the

destruction of prejudices and superstition; the Educational

League, the engine for building up a new society based _solely

upon learning and instruction_. Our brethren understood it so.'

In fine, that there may not remain upon our minds the least

doubt as to the identity of the principles of this League with

those of Voltaire, we find its founder in France proposing, at

a great Masonic dinner, a toast to the memory of that

arch-infidel; while the newspaper from which we have quoted so

largely, informs its readers that at one of the 'professional

schools,' described above, the prize for good conduct (_le prix

de morale_) was awarded to '_the daughters of a free-thinker,

who have never attended any place of religious worship_.'"

We cannot better conclude our remarks on the efforts made in France to

destroy religion in the masses by means of education, than in the

following words of warning, not less applicable to good and sincere

Catholics in Ireland nowadays, than to those to whom they were specially

addressed:

"Good and sincere Catholics (continues the author of the

pamphlet already quoted), who, deceived by the motto of the

association, have given their names to this _Educational

League_, take part, without knowing it, in a Masonic

institution, and in building up this new state of society, from

which religion is to be banished. Well may the Bishop of Metz

say: 'These persons forget that, like Proteus in the fable,

Freemasonry knows how to multiply _ad infinitum_ its

transformations and its names. Yesterday it called itself '_Les

Solidaires_,' or 'morality independent of religion,' or

'freedom of thought'; to-day it takes the title of an

'Educational League'; to-morrow it will find some other name by

which to deceive the simple."

The efforts to corrupt the youth of unhappy France by means of bad

education in its higher branches, have been not less energetic and

wide-spread. The lectures of the School of Medicine of Paris were

inaugurated in 1865, amid shouts of "_Materialism forever_,"[D] and on

the thirtieth of December a candidate for degrees was permitted by the

Medical Faculty to advance the following revolutionary doctrine,

grounded on the materialistic principles he had been taught: "Who still

speaks to us of free-will? As the stone which falls to the ground obeys

the laws of weight, man obeys the laws which are proper to him....

Responsibility is the same for all, that is to say, _none_." And again:

"Physicians must not be accomplices of the magistrates and judges, who

punish men for acts for which they are not responsible"--pp. 32, 33.

Here we have a sample of the teaching of the School of Medicine of

Paris, not only the first medical school of France, but among the first

schools of Europe. And this sample is, unfortunately, not a solitary

one. The Medical Faculty of the University of Paris gave medals in 1866

for two dissertations, in one of which we find a denial of the act of

creation and of God the Creator, and a rejection of every metaphysical

idea, _as useless and dangerous_; while human thought is set down as

produced _by heat!_ In the other we read the following propositions:

"Matter is eternal." "The action of a _First Cause_ is useless and

irrational--_it is chimerical!_" Again: "It is absolutely impossible to

explain the existence of a creative power"; and "an immaterial being is

not necessary for the production of life." And, "to attribute the

phenomena of life to an immaterial soul, is to substitute a chimerical

being for the hypothesis of machinists." "Materialists have done good

service to physiology by eliminating metaphysical entities from this

study. The idea of the soul, as an immaterial power, is a mere

abstraction; in fact, nothing of the kind exists."

Unhappily these principles, subversive of all morality, are not advanced

by the aspirants only to academical distinctions; most certainly the

students would not advance these theories had they not learned them from

their masters. Hence we find one of the Professors of the University of

France, in Bordeaux, asserting, that "even among civilized nations moral

ideas are so relative, contradictory, and dependent on exterior and

individual relations, that it is impossible, and will always be

impossible, to find an absolute definition of goodness."--p. 38, _note_.

And the "Medical Review" published the discourse pronounced by one of

the physicians of the Faculty of Paris, M. Verneuil, over the grave of a

member of their learned body, Dr. Foucher, in which we find the

following:

"'We are reproached with believing with the sages of old, that

Fate is blind, and as such presides over our lot. And why

should we not believe it?... Humbling and sad as is this

admission, still we must make it: imperceptible elements of the

great social organization appearing upon this earth as living

beings, fragments of matter agitated by a spirit, we are born,

we live, and we die, unconscious of our destiny, playing our

part without any precise notion of the end, and in the midst of

the darkness which covers our origin and our end, having only

one consolation--the love of our fellow-man.

"'This simple philosophy alone,' M. Verneuil continues,

'assuages our grief and ends by drying our tears. By the side

of the half-open tomb we ask, whether he whom it contains

served the good cause without deceit.... If, by his

intelligence or his kindness of heart, he labored in the great

work, we say he has paid his part of the common debt, and

whether he returns to his original nothing or not, whether he

is destroyed or merely changes his form, whether he hears our

words or not, we thank him in the name of the past and of the

future.'"

Another distinguished Professor published, in 1866, _Lectures on the

Physiology of the Nervous System_, in which we find the following

passage:

"We admit,' he says, '_without any restriction_, that

intellectual phenomena in animals are of the same order as in

man....' 'As for _free-will_, we comprehend a certain kind of

free-will in the more intelligent animals; and, on the other

hand, we may add, that perhaps man is not so free as he would

fain persuade himself he is.' And '_as to feeling the

distinction between good and evil_, it is a grave question,

_which we must first study in man himself!_'"

Let it not be supposed that these principles are merely announced as

abstractions; conclusions are drawn from them which must fill every

thinking mind with horror. Eighty students of the Normal School, the

great training institution of teachers for the North of France,

applauded such conclusions in a public letter. Several of the infidel

Professors of the Faculty of Medicine received ovations from crowded

class-rooms; millions of immoral and irreligious books were scattered

throughout the country. Thus Freemasonry, under the pretext of combating

ignorance, wages a deceitful and implacable war against religion. "We

too," says the organ of Freemasons,[E] "we too expect our Messiah, the

true Messiah, of the mind and reason--universal education!"

"It is scarcely necessary for us to remind you, dearly beloved

brethren, that the seeds of irreligion and anarchy thus sown

broadcast over the fair face of France, have already produced a

too abundant harvest of evils, perhaps the most disastrous

recorded on the page of history. All Europe has been horrified

by the atrocities perpetrated within the last few months in the

name of liberty in that city, which was looked on as the centre

of the civilization of the world. National monuments have been

destroyed, peaceable citizens robbed and murdered, the

venerable Archbishop, many of the clergy, and leading members

of the civil and military authorities, massacred in cold blood.

In other cities of France, too, we have seen anarchy and

irreligion proclaimed--miscreants in arms against the property,

and liberty, and lives of their fellow-citizens, often of the

helpless and unprotected; and all this at a moment when the

country was invaded, and a part of it occupied, by its enemies.

The storm had been sown, and in very truth unfortunate France

has reaped the whirlwind.

"SPREAD OF INFIDELITY THROUGH BAD EDUCATION NOT CONFINED TO FRANCE.

"And unhappily, dearly beloved brethren, the spread of infidel

principles by means of bad education is not confined to France. A few

years ago a congress of students was held in Liege, in Belgium, where

infidel and anti-social principles in their worst form were proclaimed

amidst the plaudits of the assembly. In England irreligion and socialism

are publicly taught. Even in our own country it is a matter of

notoriety, that a Chair in one of the Queen's Colleges has been occupied

since their foundation by a gentleman, who, in a published work,

extolled the first French revolution, and, in another place of the same

book, compared our Saviour, whose name be praised forever, to Luther and

to Mahomet! Again: In Trinity College one of the Fellows denies the

fundamental truth of Christianity respecting the eternity of the

punishment of sin; and others call in question the inspiration of the

Holy Scriptures, or of portions of them, and impugn many truths which

constitute the foundation of all revealed religion. In the same

University, too, the doctrines of Positivism, a late form of infidel

philosophy, have a large number of followers. The nature of that

philosophy may be gathered from the following passages in the 'Catechism

of Positivism, or Summary Exposition of the Universal Religion,'

translated from the French of Auguste Comte. The preface begins thus:

"'In the name of the past and of the future, the servants of

humanity--both its philosophical and practical servants--come

forward to claim, as their due, the general direction of this

world. Their object is to constitute at length a real

Providence in all departments--moral, intellectual, and

material. Consequently they exclude, once for all, from

political supremacy, all the different servants of

God--Catholic, Protestant, or Deist--as being at once

behind-hand and a cause of disturbance.'

"The work consists of 'Thirteen Systematic Conversations between a Woman

and a Priest of Humanity,' and the doctrines contained in it are

epitomized in the following blasphemous lines:

"_'In a word, Humanity definitely occupies the place of God, but she

does not forget the services which the idea of God provisionally

rendered.'_

"TESTIMONY OF REV. PROFESSOR LIDDON.

"Again, during the last two sessions of Parliament, a Select Committee

of the House of Lords sat to inquire into the condition of the English

Universities. The Marquis of Salisbury was the chairman. The evidence

taken before that committee reveals the appalling fact that infidelity,

or doubt as to the first principles of the Christian religion, nay, of

belief in God, is wide-spread in the Universities of England, and

especially among the most intellectual of the students; and that this

sad result is due in a great measure to the teaching and examinations.

In the first report for the session 1871, pp. 67, 69, and 70, in the

evidence of the Rev. Professor Liddon, D.D., Canon of St. Paul's,

London, and Professor of Exegesis in the University of Oxford, we find

the following passages:

_"Quest._ 695. _Chairman._--'Very strong evidence has been

given to us upon the influence of the Final School' (the

examination for degrees with honors) 'upon Oxford thought, as

tending to produce at least momentary disbelief.'

"_Witness._--'I have no doubt whatever it is one of the main

causes of our present embarrassments.'

"696.--'That, I suppose, is a comparatively new phenomenon?'

"'Yes; it dates from the last great modification in the system

pursued in the Honors School of _literae humaniores_. It is

mainly the one-sided system, as I should venture to call it, of

modern philosophical writers.'

"697.--'Is there any special defect in the management which

produces this state of things, or is it essential to the nature

of the school?'

"'I fear it is to a great extent essential to the nature of the

school, as its subjects are at present distributed.'

"Again, in answer to Question 706, the same witness says:

"'I ought to have stated to the noble Chairman just now that

cases have come within my own experience of men who have come

up from school as Christians, and have been earnest Christians

up to the time of beginning to read philosophy for the Final

School, but who, during the year and a half or two years

employed in this study, have surrendered first their

Christianity, and next their belief in God, and have left the

University not believing in a Supreme Being.'"

Now what kind of a being is the infidel, or the man without religion? To

have no religion is a crime, and to boast of having none is the height

of folly. He that has no religion must necessarily lose the esteem and

confidence of his friends. What confidence, I ask, can be placed in a

man who has no religion, and, consequently, no knowledge of his duties?

What confidence can you place in a man who never feels himself bound by

any obligation of conscience, who has no higher motive to direct him

than his self-love, his own interests? The pagan Roman, though

enlightened only by reason, had yet virtue enough to say: "I live not

for _myself_, but for the Republic"; but the infidel's motto is: "I live

only for myself; I care for no one but myself." Oh, what a monster would

such a man be in society were he really to think as he speaks, and to

act as he thinks!

A man who has no religion, must first prove that he is honest before we

can believe him to be so. It is said of kings and rulers, they must

prove that they have a heart, and it may also be said of the man who has

no religion, that _he must prove_ that he has a _conscience._ And I fear

he would not find it so easy a task.

A man without religion is a man without reason, a man without principle,

a man sunk in the grossest ignorance of what religion is. He blasphemes

what he does not understand. He rails at the doctrines of Christianity,

without really knowing what these doctrines are. He sneers at the

doctrines and practices of religion, because he cannot refute them. He

speaks with the utmost gravity of the fine arts, the fashions, and even

matters the most trivial, and he turns into ridicule the most sacred

subjects. In the midst of his own circle of fops and silly women, he

utters his shallow conceits with all the pompous assurance of a pedant.

The man without religion is a dishonest plagiarist, who copies from

Christian writers all the objections made against the Church by the

infidels of former and modern times; but he takes good care to omit all

the excellent answers and complete refutations which are contained in

these very same writings. His object is not to seek the truth, but to

propagate falsehood.

The man without religion is a slave of the most degrading superstition.

Instead of worshipping the true, free, living God, who governs all

things by His Providence, he bows before the horrid phantom of blind

chance or inexorable destiny. He is a man who obstinately refuses to

believe the most solidly-established facts in favor of religion, and

yet, with blind credulity, greedily swallows the most absurd falsehoods

uttered _against religion_. He is a man whose reason has fled, and whose

passions speak, object and decide in the name of reason.

The man without religion often pretends to be an infidel merely in order

to appear fashionable. He is usually conceited, obstinate, puffed up

with pride, a great talker, always shallow and fickle, skipping from one

subject to another without even thoroughly examining a single one. At

one moment he is a Deist, at another a Materialist, then he is a

Sceptic, and again an Atheist; always changing his views, but always a

slave of his passions, always an enemy of Christ.

The man without religion is a slave of the most shameful passions. He

tries to prove to the world that man is a brute, in order that he might

have the gratification of leading the life of a brute. I ask you, what

virtue can that man have who believes that whatever he desires is

lawful, who designates the most shameful crimes by the refined name of

innocent pleasures? What virtue can that man have who knows no other law

than his passions; who believes that God regards with equal eye truth

and falsehood, vice and virtue? He may indeed practise some natural

virtues, but these virtues are in general only _exterior_. They are

practised merely out of human respect; they do not come from the heart.

Now the seat of true virtue is in the heart, and not in the exterior. He

that acts merely to please man and not to please God, has no real

virtue.

The man without religion often praises all religions; he is a true

knave. He says: "If I were to choose my religion, I would become a

Catholic, for it is the most reasonable of all religions." But in his

heart he despises all religion. He is a man who scrapes together all the

wicked and absurd calumnies he can find against the Church. He falsely

accuses her of teaching monstrous doctrines which she has always

abhorred and condemned, and he displays his ingenuity by combating those

monstrous doctrines which he himself has invented, or copied from

authors as dishonest as himself. The infidel is a monster without faith,

without law, without religion, without God.

There are many who call themselves "free-thinkers," many who reject all

revealed religion, merely out of silly puerile vanity. They affect

singularity in order to attract notice, in order to make people believe

that they are strong-minded, that they are independent. Poor deluded

slaves of human respect! They affect singularity in order to attract

notice, and they forget that there is another class of people in the

world also noted for singularity. In fact they are so singular that they

have to be shut up for safe keeping in a mad-house.

What is the difference between an infidel and a madman? The only

difference is, that the madness of the infidel is wilful, while the

madness of the poor lunatic is entirely involuntary. The one arouses our

compassion, while the other excites our contempt and just indignation.

Finally, the man without religion says: "There is no God." He says so

"_in his heart_", says Holy Writ; he says not so in his head, because he

knows better. Let him be in imminent danger of death, or of a

considerable loss of fortune, and you will see how quick, on such

occasions, he lays aside the mask of infidelity; he makes his profession

of faith in an Almighty God; he cries out: "Lord save me, I am

perishing! Lord have mercy on me!" and the like.

There is still another proof to show that the infidel does not believe

what he says: why is it that he makes his impious doctrines the subject

of conversation on every occasion? It is, of course, first to

communicate his devilish principles to others, and make them as bad as

he himself is; but this is not the only reason. The good Catholic seldom

speaks of his religion; he feels assured, by the grace of God, that his

religion is the only true one, and that he will be saved if he lives up

to his religion. This, however, is not the case with the infidel. He is

constantly tormented in his soul. "There is no peace, no happiness for

the impious," says Holy Scripture.--(Isa. xlviii. 22.) He tries to quiet

the fears of his soul, the remorse of his conscience. So he communicates

to others, on every occasion, his perverse principles, hoping that he

may meet with some of his fellow-men who may approve of his impious

views, and that thus he may find some relief for his interior torments.

He resembles a timid night-traveller. A timid man, who is obliged to

travel during a dark night, begins to sing and to cry in order to keep

away too great fear. The infidel is a sort of night-traveller; he

certainly travels in the horrible darkness of his impiety. His interior

conviction tells him that there is a God, who will certainly punish him

in the most frightful manner. This fills him with great fear, and makes

him extremely unhappy every moment of his life. He cannot bear the sight

of a Catholic church, of a Catholic procession, of an image of our Lord,

of a picture of a saint, of a prayer-book, of a good Catholic, of a

priest; in a word, he cannot bear anything that reminds him of God, of

religion, of his guilt, and of his impiety. So he cries, on every

occasion, against faith in God, in all that God has revealed and

proposes to us for our belief by the Holy Church. What is the object of

his impious cries? It is to deafen, to keep down in some measure, the

clamors of his bad conscience. Our hand will involuntarily touch that

part of the body where we feel pain. So, in like manner, the tongue of

the infidel touches, on all occasions, involuntarily as it were, upon

all those truths of our holy religion which inspire him with fear of the

judgments of Almighty God. He feels but too keenly that he cannot do

away with God and His sacred religion, by denying His existence.

I have given you the true portrait--the true likeness--of the man

without religion. Were you given to see a devil and the soul of an

infidel at the same time, you would find the sight of the devil more

bearable than that of the infidel. For St. James the Apostle tells us,

that "the devil believes and trembles."--(Chap. ii. 19.) Now the Public

School system was invented and introduced into this country to turn the

rising generations into men of the above description.

_Spread of Infidelity through Bad Education in America; or, The Object

of the Public School System._

Mr. O. A. Brownson, in his book "The Convert," Chaps. VII. and VIII.,

gives us the following information on the origin of the Public Schools

in this country:

"Frances Wright was born in Scotland, and inherited a

considerable property. She had been highly educated, and was a

woman of rare original powers, and extensive and varied

information. She was brought up in the utilitarian principles

of Jeremy Bentham. She visited this country in 1824. Returning

to England in 1825, she wrote a book in a strain of almost

unbounded eulogy of the American people and their institutions.

She saw only one stain upon the American character, one thing

in the condition of the American people to censure or to

deplore--that was negro-slavery.

"When, in the next year, Mr. Owen came, with his friends, to

commence his experiment of creating a new moral world at New

Harmony, Frances Wright came with him, not as a full believer

in his crotchets, but to try an experiment, devised with

Jefferson, Lafayette, and others, for the emancipation of the

negro-slave.

"Fanny Wright, however, failed in her negro experiment. She

soon discovered that the American people were not, as yet,

prepared to engage in earnest for the abolition of slavery. On

more mature reflection she came to the conclusion that slavery

must be abolished only as the result of a general emancipation,

and a radical reform of the American people themselves.

"The first step to be taken for this purpose was to rouse the

American mind to a sense of its rights and dignity, to

emancipate it from superstition, from its subjection to the

clergy, and its fear of unseen powers, to withdraw it from the

contemplation of the stars or an imaginary heaven after death,

and fix it on the great and glorious work of promoting _man's

earthly well-being_.

"The second step was, by political action, to get adopted, at

the earliest practical moment, a system of State schools, in

which all the children from two years old and upward should be

fed, clothed, in a word, maintained, instructed, and educated

at the public expense.

"In furtherance of the first object, Fanny prepared a course of

Lectures on _Knowledge_, which she delivered in the principal

cities of the Union. She thought that she possessed advantages

in the fact that she was a woman; for there would, for that

reason, be a greater curiosity to hear her, and she would be

permitted to speak with greater boldness and directness against

the clergy and superstition than would be one of the other sex.

"The great measure, however, on which Fanny and her friends

relied for ultimate success, was the system of public schools.

These schools were intended to deprive, as well as to relieve,

parents of all care and responsibility of their children after

a year or two years of age. It was assumed that parents were,

in general, incompetent to train up their children, provide

proper establishments, teachers and governors for them, till

they should reach the age of majority.

"The _aim_ was, on the one hand, to relieve marriage of its

burdens, and to remove the principal reasons for making it

_indissoluble_; and, on the other hand, to provide for bringing

up all children, in a rational manner, to be reasonable men and

women, that is, _free from superstition, free from all belief

in God and immortality_, free from all regard for the

invisible, and make them look _upon this life_ as _their only

life_, this earth as their only home, and _the promotion of

their earthly interests and enjoyments as their only end_. The

three great enemies to earthly happiness were held to be

religion, marriage, or family and private property. Once get

rid of these three institutions, and we may hope soon to

realize our earthly paradise. For religion is to be substituted

science, that is, science of the world, of the five senses

only; for private property, a community of goods; and for

private families, a community of wives.

"Fanny Wright and her school saw clearly that their principles

could not be carried into practice in the present state of

society. So they proposed them to be adopted only by a future

generation, trained and prepared in a system of schools founded

and sustained by the Public. They placed their dependence on

education in a system of _Public Schools_, managed after a plan

of William Phiquepal, a Frenchman, and subsequently the husband

of Fanny Wright.

"In order to get their system of schools adopted, they proposed

to organize the whole Union, secretly, very much on the plan of

the Carbonari of Europe. The members of this secret society

were to avail themselves of all the means in their power, each

in his own locality, to form public opinion in favor of

education by the State at the public expense, and to get such

men elected to the Legislatures as would be likely to favor

their purposes. This secret organization commenced in the State

of New York, and was to extend over the whole Union. Mr. O. A.

Brownson was one of the agents for organizing the State of New

York. He, however, became tired of the work, and abandoned it

after a few months."

* * * * *

"The attention of so-called philanthropic men in all parts of

the country, was directed to the subject. In 1817, and the

following years, commenced what has been improperly termed a

revival of education. To form public opinion in favor of Public

Schools, the following means were employed: Public School

societies and organizations were established in New York,

Philadelphia, Boston, Portland, Lancaster, Pittsburgh,

Worcester, Hartford, Lowell, Providence, Cincinnati, etc.;

Thomas H. Gallaudet, James G. Carter, and Walter R. Johnson,

made great efforts through the press; there were established

the 'American Journal of Education,' in January, 1826, and the

'American Annals of Education.' Conventions were held

throughout New England from 1826 to 1830, in behalf of Public

Schools; lectures were delivered in every precinct in the

States, on the subject of education; there were also

established local school periodicals, as well as others of a

more general character, to contribute towards forming public

opinion in favor of Public Schools, in every corner of the

country. All these means, and the zealous and unwearied efforts

of Horace Mann, Henry Barnard, and others, have contributed

towards the success in establishing the Public Schools in our

country."--_American Encyclopaedia_.

This is a brief history of the Public Schools. It tells, in clear terms,

all that they are, and all that they are to bring about, namely: a

generation without belief in God and immortality, free from all regard

for the invisible--a generation that looks upon this life as their only

life, this earth as their only home, and the promotion of their earthly

interests and enjoyments as their only end--a generation that looks

upon religion, marriage, or family and private property as the greatest

enemies to worldly happiness--a generation that substitutes science of

this world for religion, a community of goods for private property, a

community of wives for private family; in other words, a generation that

substitutes the devil for God, hell for heaven, sin and vice for virtue

and holiness of life.

We may, then, confidently assert that the defenders and upholders of

_Public Schools without religion_ seek in America, as well as in Europe,

to turn the people into refined Pagans. They recently betrayed

themselves. They wish, as Dr. Wehrenphennig and Dr. Wirgow openly said,

for an equalization of religious contradictories, a religion and an

education which stands above creeds, and knows nothing about dogmas; in

other words, they wish for a religion of which a certain poet says: "My

religion is to have no religion." The object, then, of these godless,

irreligious _Public Schools_ is to spread among the people the worst of

religions, the _no religion_, the religion which pleases most hardened

adulterers and criminals--the religion of irrational animals. How far

this diabolical scheme has succeeded is well known, for there are at

present from twenty to twenty-five millions of people in the United

States who profess no distinct religious belief. Everywhere the same

effects have been observed. Licentiousness, cruelty, and

vice--"Positivism," or the substitution of the harlotry of the passions

for the calm and elevating influences of reason and religion. How can it

be otherwise?

FOOTNOTES:

[A] Jean Mace.

[B] "_La Solidarite." _(Le Monde Maconnique, October, 5866 [1866], p.

472.)

[C] "_La Solidarite." _(Le Monde Maconnique, February, 5867 [1867].)

[D] Vive le Materialisme.

[E] Le Monde Maconnique, June, 1866.

CHAPTER IV.

EXPOSE OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.

It is a fundamental principle of Christianity, admitted even by

Protestants, that man cannot reach his destiny without a knowledge of

the religion which Jesus Christ taught, and which He sealed with His

precious Blood. Now this fundamental principle is virtually ignored in

our present school system, which proposes to educate without religion.

The whole course of instruction is imparted without any reference to

religion, without any of those occasional observations that are so

necessary in our days, and especially in this country, in order to

explain the seeming inconsistencies between scientific facts and the

doctrines of faith. Instruction, to be useful, must show that the

discoveries of science are, as is really the case, evidences of

religion. It must show the harmony that exists between history and

philosophy and the truths of faith. Secular knowledge should be the

handmaid of religion; but no religion, no knowledge of God, is permitted

to be taught in these schools.

Let a stranger, say an educated Pagan, enter one of our public schools;

will he discover sign, symbol or token of any kind to indicate that

either the teacher or children are Christians? Or suppose this Pagan, or

a Turk, or Atheist sends children there to be educated, they can do so

with perfect safety to their Pagan, Mohammedan, or infidel superstitions

or opinions. They will not, through the whole course of instruction,

hear a prayer, a lecture, or a single advice, lesson, or precept of the

Church; they will, as far as the State plan of teaching extends, remain

ignorant of the "holy name of God," or the Blessed Trinity, or the

Lord's Prayer, or the Ten Commandments, or the Gospels, or the death and

sufferings of our Lord, or the resurrection of the body, or a future

state of reward and punishment. _No prayer_ is offered up or even

permitted to be taught to those little ones whom our Lord loves so

tenderly. The teacher is not even permitted by law to explain what is

meant by the term "our Saviour," "our Redeemer"!

Should a child ask, in a reading-lesson, what "our Lord and Saviour"

meant, the teacher must tell him: "Hush! if you want to know that you

must ask somebody out of school! We don't teach anything about religion

here! We have no Lord, or God, or Saviour here!"

In reference to this manner of educating the youth of America, the

Protestant Bishop of Tennessee said some time ago:

"The secular system took no notice of God or of Christ, or of

the Church of the Living God, or, except in the most incidental

way, of God's Holy Word. The intellect was stimulated to the

highest degree, but the heart and the affections were left

uncultivated. It was a system which trained for the business of

life, not for the duties of life. As there were differences of

opinion about Christianity, it was not allowed to be spoken of,

and a knowledge of it was not one of the qualifications for a

teacher. A man might be a Mohammedan or a Hindoo if he were

only a proficient in geography, arithmetic, or the exact

sciences. The teachers in the normal schools might be infidels

provided they did not openly inculcate their scepticism; and,

in point of fact, in the schools which were designed to train

teachers only, a vast majority were not Christians."

The school-books must be made unchristian lest they give offence to the

countless sects of Protestantism. Voltaire, Paine, or Renan may be read

in the Public Schools, but nothing of God.

If our Public Schools differ in any degree from the ancient heathen, it

is to our greater shame and confusion, and to their advantage. They

taught piety to "_their gods_;" we ignore the _true God altogether_, and

bring the false gods of the heathens down to earth to be made the slaves

and instruments of our sensual gratifications. Thus the mind of the

child is, and remains, a religious void; at least, there is but a

religious mist in his intellect. The child even unlearns, in the society

of the school, whatever principles of religion he may have learned from

his parents.

The present common school system of education necessarily begets

contempt of religion. Men trained under such a system learn to look upon

religion as a dress which is to be worn only on Sunday, and to be laid

aside during the rest of the week; they look upon religion as something

which may do very well in the church, or in the meeting-house, but which

is entirely out of place in business, in society, and in the daily

transactions of life. The child has logic enough to think that he is

taught whatever is necessary for his future career, and that religion

must not be necessary, otherwise it would be taught in school.

And what will the child learn, in this Pagan system of education, to

press down his rising passions? What precept of positive virtue does he

learn? What principle of self-restraint? What does he learn in such a

school to make him obedient, honest, chaste, a good citizen, a good

Christian? The common school system proceeds on the principle of

suffering the passions of youth to take any development which fallen

nature may bring about, and then trusting to a riper age for a change

for the better, just as if it were possible "to gather grapes of briars,

or figs of thorns."

In these Public Schools the whole education of children is directed to

the cultivation of their heads or intellectual faculties alone. The

heart, with all its moral and mysterious emotions, is entirely

neglected. Every mental power and acquirement is intended and directed

to promote their prosperity, success, and happiness in this life; at

least this is what is sought and promised as the reward of study and

application. They are constantly presented with the bright side of the

world. Scientific knowledge, they are taught, will do away with the old

drudgery of labor, and bring the acquirement of wealth and honor within

the reach of all, no matter how poor or humble the condition of their

fathers or mothers. They have all, no doubt, read the Declaration of

Independence, and learned that all men are created free and equal. They

have shared the equal bounty of the State in the way of education, and

have, in the language of the day, "an equal right on the world for a

living."

I ask if this is not a pretty fair and not overdrawn statement of the

case? You will bear in mind that all this time the free-and-easy social

intercourse of the sexes is going on; that while their studies and

exercises are strictly confined to dry, secular knowledge, or such other

pursuits as might excite their vanity, pride, or imagination, not one

line or lesson, caution or command, as stated before, is used or

administered to curb or control the natural, I might say inevitable, cry

of the youthful passions clamoring for their gratification.

CHAPTER V.

EVIL CONSEQUENCES OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM ON THE MALE PORTION OF

SOCIETY.

Let us now suppose the young men educated under the present Public

School system fairly launched into the world, and, for the first time,

thrown on their own resources. They are all well, indeed

_over-educated._ The greater part of their families are necessarily in

poor or moderate circumstances. Will their learned and accomplished sons

take the humble and laborious trades or occupations of their fathers? I

fear not. We should not expect more from human nature than there is in

it. All these fine young public school graduates cannot get nice

situations as clerks, professors, editors, teachers, etc., etc., and the

professions are all full to overflowing.

You must remember that, as I have said, not one of the boys have ever

been taught the first principle, prayer, or moral duty. They are, as far

as the Public School-training went, perfectly ignorant of the Divine law

as rule of our life; they are, in fact, but educated apes or animals.

How can this young man reconcile "poverty and wealth," "labor and ease,"

"sickness and health," "adversity and prosperity," "rich and poor,"

"obedience and authority," "liberty and law," etc., etc. All these are

enigmas to him, or, if he affects to understand them at all, he thinks

they arise from bad management or bad government, and can and ought to

be remedied by repression or sumptuary legislation. He will be a tyrant

or slave, a glutton or miser, a fanatic or libertine, a sneak-thief or

highway robber, as circumstances may influence him. Think you that the

common "fall back" on principle of self-interest--well or ill

understood--will ever restrain such a one from doing any act of impulse

or indulgence, provided he thinks it can be safely done? He will look on

life as a game of address or force, in which the best man is he who

carries off the prize.

He will look upon power as belonging of right to the strongest; the

weak, or those who differ from him in opinion, he will treat with

contempt and cruelty, and will think they have no rights he is bound to

respect. In power, such a man will be arbitrary and cruel; out of power,

he will be faithless, hypocritical and subservient. Trust him with

authority, he will abuse it; trust him with money, he will steal it;

trust him with your confidence, and he will betray it. Such a man--Pagan

and unprincipled as he is--may nevertheless affect, when it suits his

purpose, great religious zeal and purity. He will talk of

"_Philanthropy_" and the "_Humanities_," have great compassion, perhaps,

for "a dray-horse," and give the cold shoulder to the houseless pauper

or orphan.

The heart of such a man is cold, insincere, destitute of every tender

chord for a tender vibration, of every particle of right or just feeling

or principle that can be touched; on the contrary, it is roused to rage,

revenge and falsehood if interfered with. How is such a heart to be

touched or moved, or placed under such influences as could move it?

Indeed, it would require a miracle! Nay, even a miracle would fail to

make a salutary impression upon such a heart. A French infidel declared

that, should he be told that the most remarkable miracle was occurring

close by his house, he would not take a step out of his way to see it.

Pride never surrenders; it prefers rather to take an illogical position

than to bow even to the authority of reason. Furious, beside itself, and

absurd, it revolts against evidence. To all reasoning, to undeniable

evidence, the infidel--the man without religion--opposes his own will:

"Such is my determination." It is sweet to him to be stronger,

single-handed, than common sense, stronger than miracles, than even the

God who manifests Himself by them.

Such a man is always in favor of _strong government_, provided he can

get to run it. He will talk loudly of loyalty and the "_life of the

nation_." He worships the _State_, because, to his gross animal

understanding, it represents _power_, and makes money his God, because

it gives him this power. Such a man may be called civilized, but he is

only an _accomplished barbarian_. His head and hands are instructed, his

heart, and low passions and appetites, unbridled and untamed. Such a man

can never be made to understand the beautiful and benign principles of

our republican form of government. Like all brutes, he relies on force,

and tries and judges every issue by success. What he calls "_the final

arbitrament of arms_" is to such a one a righteous decision, provided

always it be in his favor. He may affect the demagogue, and talk loudly

about the power of the people, but you will observe that this refers to

them _en masse_, in the whole or concrete. He cannot understand the

individual man as entitled to any consideration or rights (unless he

happened to be made rich) independently of the State. Indeed, he looks

upon poor men as made for the State, and it can be only on this ground

that he claims the children as its property--"children of the State"!!

He insists on educating them by the _State_, and for the State, and not

for the comfort and support of their fathers and mothers, nor that they

should thereby fulfil the immortal destiny for which they were created.

He holds the life, the dignity, the comfort or happiness of the family

or individual as nought in the balance against "_the life, the power,

the wealth and glory of the nation_." "_Perish the People_--live the

State"; this is his motto, and such have ever been the principles and

motto of all Pagans from the beginning.

CHAPTER VI.

EVIL CONSEQUENCES OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM ON THE FEMALE PORTION OF

SOCIETY.

What I have said in the preceding chapter is but a faint picture of the

bad effects of what is called _polite education_, as given in the Public

Schools, on the male portion of society. It is with some reluctance that

I am now going to trace the same evil influence in its still more

injurious consequences on the female portion. It is very difficult to

treat this part of the subject with the necessary freedom, not only on

account of its intrinsic delicacy, but also because of that false (and

indeed to themselves injurious) idea that there is nothing wanting to

the absolute perfection of our women.

Let it not be said, that in calling public attention to these evil

consequences on the female portion of the community, we are

overstepping the boundaries of propriety or decency. There is a license

for the poet; a license for the stage; a license for the bar; a license

for the writer of fiction; a license for the press, and why should there

not be a license for a Christian writer? It is high time for _true_

modesty to take the place of that _false modesty_ which has driven

virtue, like an exile, out of the land, and peopled it largely with

Fourrierites, Owenites, and other socialists and free-lovers.

Now, whatever success a "godless system of education" may have on boys,

I think all must admit that it must prove not only a failure, but a

positive injury, to girls. It is not that moral and religious education

is not equally required by both, in a spiritual sense, but that women,

in an especial manner, have certain duties assigned them, in the Order

of Providence, of so high and holy a character, that it requires, in

some sense, a special education to fit them for the faithful discharge

of these duties.

Let us remember that the Public School-girls of to-day will be the

mothers of to-morrow. Mothers are called by God to take particular care

of the bodily and spiritual life of their children. This care is a

heavy, a very heavy burden indeed, and mothers cannot carry this burden

without a tender love for their children. Now God has made the love of

mothers for their children a necessary love. It is for this reason that

there is no command in the Divine Law for parents to love their

children, whilst, on the contrary, children are commanded to love their

parents. Love towards one's own offspring is a love so deeply planted in

the heart by Nature herself, that the wild beasts never fail to love

their young. It is said that even tigers, hearing the cry of their

whelps when they are taken by the hunters, will plunge into the sea to

swim after the vessels where they are confined.

A mother's love is proverbial. Indeed, there is no love so pure and so

thoroughly disinterested as the love of a good mother for her child. Her

love knows no change; brothers and sisters have forgotten each other;

fathers have proved unforgiving to their children; husbands have been

false to their wives, and wives to their husbands, and children too

often forget their parents; but you rarely hear of a mother forgetting

even her ungrateful, disobedient children, whose actions have lacerated

her heart, and caused dark shadows to glide before her eyes, and enter

her very soul. Still there are moments when her faithful heart yearns

towards them; there are moments when the reminiscences of the happy

_past_ obliterate the _present_ sorrow, and the poor wounded spirit is

cheered for a while, because there is still one of the fibres of the

root of hope left in her forlorn breast, and a languid smile will flit

over her wan and prematurely faded face. Yes, she forgives, though there

is no River Lethe for her to drink from in this life; showing that her

love is the most pure in this world, and the nearest approach to the

love that God has so graciously bestowed upon her.

Some years ago a vessel sailed from the coast of Ireland. It was filled

with passengers who were coming to this country to better their future.

The vessel set sail with a favorable wind. The sky was clear, and the

sun shone gayly upon the sparkling sea. But suddenly the heavens grew

dark. A fierce storm arose. The winds howled madly around the vessel.

The ship was hurried on--on, till it was dashed against the rocks. The

wild, surging waves dashed over it. The vessel split in twain. Part

remained hanging amid the rocks, and the rest sank, with those on board,

beneath the waves, far down into the depth of the sea. The storm

continued to rage for several days. At last, when the wind had died

away, some hardy fishermen, who lived on the coast, took a skiff and

rowed out to the wreck. They entered the part of the vessel that

remained hanging amid the rocks. They broke open the cabin door. They

heard distinctly the feeble wail of a child. They rushed in. They found

a little babe lying upon the breast of its dead mother. The child was

eagerly sucking the blood which oozed from a large wound in its mother's

breast. The mother had died of cold and hunger; but, even amid her

fearful sufferings, she did not forget her child. She took a sharp

knife, and, with the wonderful love of a mother's heart, she made a deep

gash in her breast, in order that her child might preserve its life by

drinking her own heart's blood!

And when the darling child of the Christian mother is on the point of

death, ah! how tender is not her prayer to the Author of Life that He

spare the child.

"Oh, God of mercy," she prays, "spare my child! Heaven is already full

of light and gladness. Do not then take to heaven the light and joy of

my heart. Thou art ever happy, O my God! do not then deprive me of my

only happiness. God of compassion, O leave me the sweet babe whom Thou

hast given me! my love, and all my happiness, is centred in him. Since

he has come to me, the earth, and sea, and sky, the whole world around

has grown doubly beautiful. The air seems filled with light, and song,

and sweetness. Ah, do not take my child away, for when his tender body

lies beneath the sod, my heart and life shall lie there with it, and

this whole world shall grow dark and dreary as one vast gloomy

graveyard. O God! remember I am yet so young. I am not used to tears.

Deal gently with my poor weak heart! I have never yet known what it is

to lose a friend, a relative, or beloved one. O God! shall, then, the

first that teaches me the dread meaning of grave and shroud be my own,

my first-born child? O Jesus, I conjure Thee, by Thy wounded

Heart--wounded for love of me--do not crush my tender heart, for Thou

hast made it tender. Thou hast made me a mother; oh, spare my darling

child!"

Ah! who can measure the depth of the wonderful love of a mother's heart!

But this natural love of a mother for her offspring, in order to be

persevering and untiring, must be cultivated--must be ennobled and

supernaturalized by religious education; otherwise this love will

decrease, and be lost in the end, and with the loss of this love the

Christian woman has lost her divine calling. Now as no religious

education is imparted to the girls in the Public Schools, can we wonder

to see thousands and thousands of them who have lost their divine

calling--can we wonder that we hear of a countless number of unnatural

crimes, committed under the veil of marriage, that are becoming so

common at the present day? Dr. Storer, of Massachusetts, declares that

increase of children in Massachusetts is limited almost wholly to the

foreign population. Mr. Warren Johnson, State Superintendent of Common

Schools in Maine, reports to the Legislature a decrease of 16,683,

between the ages of four and twenty-one years, from the census of 1858.

Total decrease from maximum of 1860 is nearly 20,000. Mr. Johnson asks:

"Are the modern fashionable criminalities of infanticide creeping into

our State community?" Dr. H. R. Storer, of Massachusetts, in 1859,

declared that forced abortions in America were of frequent occurrence,

and that this frequency was increasing so, that from 1 in 1,633 of the

population in 1805, it had risen to 1 in 340 in 1849; and Dr. Kyle, of

Xenia, Ohio, asserted that abortions occurred most frequently among

those who are known as the better class; among church members, and those

generally who pretend to be the most polite, virtuous, moral and

religious. And, without mincing matters at all, this eminent physician

boldly declares that "a venal press, a demoralized clergy, and the

prevalence of medical charlatanism, are the principal causes of the

fearful increase of this abominable crime." The paucity of children in

the families of wealthy and well-to-do Americans has been publicly

noticed and commented upon time and again; but the true cause thereof,

if known, was carefully concealed. And can we wonder that the crime has

descended from the highest to the lowest, and now pervades all classes

of society? Statistics have been frequently published to show that in

certain States of the Union, and in certain districts of those States,

the births did not, and do not, equal the deaths; and were it not for

the foreign population among us many of those districts, and not a few

of those States, would be depopulated in a few years. Massachusetts and

New York lead the van in this criminal record. Dr. T. A. Reamy, of

Zanesville, Ohio, in 1867, wrote, that after a careful survey of the

field he was ready to say that "to-day no sin approaches with such

stealth and dangerous power the altars of the Church as foeticide;

and, unless it can be stayed, not only will it work its legitimate moral

depravity and social ruin, but (he believed) God will visit dreadful

judgment upon us no less severe, perhaps, than He did upon the Cities of

the Plain."

In 1865, Dr. Morse Stewart, of Detroit, Michigan, declared that few of

either sex entered the marital relation without full information as to

the ways and means of destroying the legitimate results of matrimony.

And among married persons so extensive has this practice become, that

people of high repute not only commit this crime, but do not even blush

to speak boastingly among their intimates of the deed, and the means of

accomplishing it.

Dr. Nathan Allen, of Lowell, Mass., at a meeting of the Social Science

Association, Boston, entitled "Wanted--More Mothers," remarked "that the

increase of population for twenty-five years has been mainly in cities

and towns, and it will be found to be largely made up of foreign

element; and in the smaller villages, chiefly American, the stock has

hardly increased at all.

"We find there are absolutely more deaths than births among the strictly

American children; so that, aside from immigration, and births of

children of foreign parentage, the population of Massachusetts is really

decreasing.