upon to consider every kind of social and political question affecting the welfare of the country. The principles of human liberty; schemes for internal improvement; questions of finance and education; our relations with other countries these are some of the weighty matters brought before the popular mind. At the polls, where every man has an equal voice, the decisions are made, and the policy of the government determined.

These facts necessitate a considerable degree of popular intelligence. The illiterate, clearly incapable of performing the high duties imposed on American citizens, remain ciphers in society, or become the dangerous tools of designing politicians. In some form, popular education is necessary both to a wise administration of the government and to its perpetuity. "Promote," said Washington, in his Farewell Address, "as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.”

The educational history of the United States naturally divides itself into the colonial and national periods. The New England and the Southern colonies present a striking difference in their educational development. This difference had its origin partly in the dissimilar character and antecedents of the colonists, and partly in the physical conditions of the two sections. In New England education early received attention, and produced excellent results; in the South it was neglected. As a result, the Southern colonies, in proportion to population and natural advantages, exhibited a slower devel

opment, losing ground that has not yet been recovered. As was the case in Europe during the corresponding period, the theological influence in education was very strong; but, at the same time, the peculiar circumstances of establishing a home in an unsubdued wilderness, and of laying the foundation of a great republic, early gave the schools vigorous life and a practical bearing.

(1.) Colonial Period.

In Virginia popular education was almost wholly neglected during the colonial period. This was owing partly to the aristocratic spirit which existed in the colony from the beginning, and partly to the scattered condition of the population. While in New England the people naturally collected in towns, in Virginia the colonists, devoted to agriculture and seeking to reproduce the conditions of the mother-country, settled on large plantations. For half a century after the founding of Jamestown, schools were almost unknown. Education was confined to the parental roof, and successive generations grew up in comparative ignorance. Sir William Berkeley wrote in 1671: "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these for a hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them and libels against the best government. God keep us from both!"

The apathy or hostility prevailing in regard to popular schools did not exist to the same degree in reference to the higher education. From an early date the question of establishing a college had been repeatedly discussed. Finally, after the lapse of more than three quarters of

a century from the time the subject was first broached, the College of William and Mary was founded in 1692. When the enterprise began to assume definite form, a commendable' interest, both at home and in England, was manifested in its success. The Lieutenant-Governor headed the subscription-list with a generous gift, and his example was followed by other prominent members of the colony. The sum of twenty-five hundred pounds having been raised, the Rev. James Blair was sent to England to solicit a charter for the institution. This was readily granted; and, as an additional evidence of royal favor, the quit-rents yet due in the colony, amounting to nearly two thousand pounds, were turned over to the college. For its further support, twenty thousand acres of land were set apart, and a tax of a penny a pound was laid on all tobacco exported from Virginia and Maryland to other American colonies. The institution was located at Williamsburg, and the Rev. James Blair, who had been active in securing its establishment, was chosen as its first president. In the language of the charter, the college was founded "to the end that the Church of Virginia may be furnished with a seminary of ministers of the gospel, and that the youth may be piously educated in good letters and manners, and that the Christian faith may be propagated among the Western Indians to the glory of Almighty God." The course of study embraced divinity, language, and natural philosophy "a divinity," says Howison, "shaped and molded at every point by the liturgy and creed of the English Church; languages which filled the college walls with boys hating Greek and Latin grammars; and natural philosophy, which was just beginning to believe that

the earth revolved round the sun, rather than the sun round the earth." Such was the founding of the next oldest American college, from whose walls have gone forth many able men influential in molding the destinies of our country.

The conditions in Virginia were not favorable to literary development. Descended in good part from noble families, the colonists brought with them the aristocratic feelings and religious intolerance characteristic of the royalists in England. The isolated condition of the population was unfavorable to the kindling of mind; the absence of schools and printing-presses lowered the tone of popular intelligence; the concentration of power and influence in the hands of an aristocracy of wealthy land-owners, occupied chiefly with pleasure and politics, was not suited to awaken a literary spirit. With few exceptions, the writers of the colonial period were born or educated abroad. Instead of literary men, Virginia produced sagacious politicians, impassioned orators, and elegant country gentlemen of boundless and gracious hospitality.

If the early colonists of Virginia were largely adventurers, seeking their fortune in the New World, the Puritans of New England, fleeing from religious oppression, came to establish a permanent home. A deep earnestness, which often ran into the extravagance of a forbidding asceticism, characterized their early history. They counted no sacrifice too great to maintain the integrity of their religious convictions. Giving up com fort, wealth, home, they faced the dangers of a winter sea and the inhospitality of a barren shore. They were intelligent and brave men, daring to think for them

selves, and to maintain their convictions at any cost. Many of them had enjoyed the advantages of Oxford and Cambridge, and brought with them the precious seed of learning. They had some consciousness of their mission as the founders of a mighty people, and, with their eye turned to future generations, they laid the foundations broad and well. We may smile at their weaknesses, their superstition, and their austerity of life, but, underneath these peculiarities, we discover a strength of character, depth of conviction, and sincerity of purpose, that command our respect and admiration.

In view of these facts, it is not strange that education in Massachusetts received early attention. The action of the Puritans was prompt and vigorous. Within a few years after the landing of the Mayflower, when their number was yet small; when their homes were without comfort; when they were continually menaced by the scalping-knife of the savage, they established a system of schools that placed them in advance of the most enlightened portions of Europe. In 1636 the General Court voted an appropriation of four hundred pounds for the founding of a school, which, after its first private benefactor, the Rev. John Harvard, received the name of Harvard College. It was cheerfully and liberally sustained by the New England colonies. It was opened in 1638, and sent forth its first graduating class in 1642. The standard of scholarship was not low. The requirements for entrance, in 1643, were given as follows: "When any scholar is able to understand Tully, or such like classical author extempore, and make and speak true Latin in verse and prose; and decline perfectly the paradigms of nouns and verbs in the Greek