the minds of youth to habits of moral order and industry, we entirely coincide with your Excellency; and we shall not fail to improve every suggestion that may be offered, and promote every salutary measure that may be devised, to prevent an accumulation of the evils which spring from ignorance, indolence and vice.

The house of representatives are highly gratified to learn from your Excellency, that the great penitentiary at Charlestown and the hospital for the insane, are in a prosperous condition; and that both institutions justify the expectation, that they will prove extensively beneficial to the community. And while we would express our full confidence in the judicious arrangements and economical management of those to whom these institutions are intrusted, we would manifest a readiness to give to them any aid which the demands of justice and humanity may require, and which may not be incompatible with the resources of the commonwealth.

NOTE, 1843.-The opinion, that intelligence and virtue are the support of a republic, seems to have acquired among us the authority of an axiom. It was borrowed, at least in part, from the writings of Montesquieu on the Roman republic. In common with my fellow citizens, I may have often repeated the opinion, supposing it to be true as an abstract proposition, but without examining the ground on which alone it can be maintained as a practical truth.

In order to support a popular government by moral influence, the citizens of a state must have a degree of intelligence which will enable them, under all circumstances, to understand the true interest of the state, and the proper measures to sustain it; and this degree of intelligence must be supported by a high degree of moral principle, which shall, under all circumstances, be sufficient to control the selfishness of the citizens, and induce them to unite in measures to promote the public good, even when adverse to private interest. Nothing short of such intelligence and virtue, always active and of sufficient energy to combine the operations of the citizens, could effect the object.

Now a community or state, in which the citizens possess these requisites, can not be supposed to exist on earth, without a preternatural change in the character of the human race. No such community has ever existed; and we have no reason to suppose such a community will ever exist.

Human learning, whatever advantages it may confer on individuals and a state, never corrects the dispositions and passions of the human mind, from which proceed the disorders and corruptions of government. On the other hand, it may increase the evil by enlarging the power, multiplying the motives, and augmenting the means of doing mischief. Men are not governed by knowledge, but by their passions, their habits, their prejudices, and especially by their interests. Knowledge and reason are useful to selfish men, when they coincide with interest; but when they are at variance with it, their influence is rejected, or they are, or may be, perverted and employed to justify measures dictated by interest, whatever may be the moral character of such measures.

The abstract opinion therefore, that intelligence and virtue are the support of a republic, is adapted to deceive us with fallacious hopes.

CHAPTER XIII.

A LETTER TO THE REV. SAMUEL LEE, PROFESSOR OF ARABIC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

Cambridge, Dec. 20th, 1824.

REV. AND DEAR SIR-As I have crossed the Atlantic for the purpose of completing and publishing a dictionary of our language, it would be very gratifying to me and to my countrymen, and I think by no means useless in England, to settle, by the united opinions of learned men, some points in pronunciation, orthography, and construction, in which the practice of good writers and speakers is not uniform, either in England or the United States. The English language is the language of the United States; and it is desirable that as far as the people have the same things and the same ideas, the words to express them should remain the same. The diversities of language among men may be considered as a curse, and certainly one of the greatest evils that commerce, religion, and the social interests of men have to encounter.

The English language will prevail over the whole of North America, from the latitude of 25° or 30° north, to the utmost limit of population toward the north pole; and, according to the regular laws of population, it must, within two centuries, be spoken by three hundred millions of people on that continent. If we take into view the English population in New Holland, and other lands in the south and east, we may fairly suppose that in two centuries the English will be the language of one third or two fifths of all the inhabitants of the globe.

Besides this, the English language is to be the instrument of propagating sciences, arts, and the Christian religion, to an extent probably exceeding that of any other language. It is therefore important that its principles should be adjusted, and uniformity of spelling and pronunciation established and preserved, as far as the nature of a living language will admit. In regard to the great body of the language, its principles are now settled by usage, and are uniform in this country and in the United States. But there are many points in which respectable men are not agreed, and it is the sincere desire of my fellow citizens that such a diversity may no longer exist. If a delegation of gentlemen from the two universities of Oxford and Cambridge could be induced to meet and consult on this subject, either in Oxford, or Cambridge, or in London, I would meet them with pleasure, and lay before them such points of difference in the practice of the two countries, as it is desirable to adjust, and the gentlemen would consider any other points that they might think it expedient to determine. I would also lay before them some thoughts on a plan for correcting the evils of our irregular orthography, without the use of any new letters.

I know that the decisions of such a collection of unauthorized individuals would not be considered as binding on the community, and it might be thought assuming. But the gentlemen would disavow any

intention of imposing their opinions on the public as authoritative-they would offer simply their opinions, and the public would still be at liberty to receive or reject them. But whatever cavils might be made at first, those who know the influence of men of distinguished erudition on public opinion, in cases of a literary nature, will have no question respecting the ultimate success of such a project. That my country. men would generally receive the decisions and follow them, I have no doubt.

I sincerely wish, sir, that this proposition may be transmitted to some gentleman of your acquaintance in Oxford, and that you would converse with the masters and professors of this university on the subject. I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, N. WEBSTER.

Rev. SAMUEL LEE, D. D.

A copy of this letter was sent to Oxford, but no answer was returned.

CHAPTER XIV.

REPLY TO A LETTER OF DAVID McCLURE, ESQ., ON THE SUBJECT OF THE PROPER COURSE OF STUDY IN THE GIRARD COLLEGE, PHILADELPHIA.

New Haven, Oct. 25, 1836.

DEAR SIR-I have received and perused the system of education for the Girard College for Orphans, which you have been so good as to send me, and for which please to accept my thanks.

In regard to the merits of the system, on which you request my opinions, I will make a few remarks, although I do not think myself so well qualified to judge of it as many gentlemen who have been in the employment of instruction in our higher seminaries.

The mode you propose for instructing children in the French and Spanish languages, is nearly the same as I have always supposed to be the best, if not the only mode of making pupils perfectly masters of a foreign language. An accurate pronunciation and familiarity with a language can not easily be acquired, except in youth, when the organs of speech are pliable, and by practice, as we learn our vernacular language.

In regard to your system in general, I can only say, that it appears to be judiciously constructed, and well adapted for the purpose of making thorough scholars. If on trial it should be found susceptible of improvement, experience will direct to the proper amendments. One remark, however, I take the liberty to make. I do not suppose an exact conformity to a particular course of studies to be essential to a thorough education. One course may be preferable to another, but there seems to be "no royal way to geometry;" close and persevering application only will make good scholars, and this will accomplish the object, without an adherence to any precise order of studies.

As by Mr. Girard's will, there can not be in the college any instruction in the Christian religion, I shall take the liberty to make a few remarks on that subject.*

In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed. In this institution it is of more importance, as the pupils will be orphans, and may be destitute of parental instruction.

No truth is more evident to my mind, than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. The opinion that human reason, left without the constant control of divine laws and commands, will preserve a

The clause in Mr. Girard's will is in the following words: "I enjoin and require that no ecclesiastic, missionary, or minister, of any sect whatever, shall ever hold or exercise any station or duty whatever in the said College; nor shall any such person be admitted for any purpose, or as a visitor, within the premises appropriated to the purposes of said College."

just administration, secure freedom, and other rights, restrain men from violations of laws and constitutions, and give duration to a popular government, is as chimerical as the most extravagant ideas that enter the head of a maniac. The history of the whole world refutes the opinion; the Bible refutes it; our own melancholy experience refutes it.

When I speak of the Christian religion as the basis of government, I do not mean an ecclesiastical establishment, a creed, or rites, forms, and ceremonies, or any compulsion of conscience. I mean primitive Christianity, in its simplicity, as taught by Christ and his apostles; consisting in a belief in the being, perfections, and moral government of God; in the revelation of his will to men, as their supreme rule of action; in man's accountability to God for his conduct in this life; and in the indispensable obligation of all men to yield entire obedience to God's commands in the moral law and in the Gospel. This belief and this practice may consist with different forms of church government, which, not being essential to Christianity, need not enter into any system of education.

Where will you find any code of laws, among civilized men, in which the commands and prohibitions are not founded on Christian principles ? I need not specify the prohibition of murder, robbery, theft, trespass; but commercial and social regulations are all derived from those principles, or intended to enforce them. The laws of contracts and bills of exchange are founded on the principles of justice, the basis of all security of rights in society. The laws of insurance are founded on the Christian principle of benevolence, and intended to protect men from want and distress. The provisions of law for the relief of the poor are in pursuance of Christian principles. Every wise code of laws must embrace the main principles of the religion of Christ.

Now the most efficient support of human laws is, the full belief that the subjects of such laws are accountable to higher authority than human tribunals. The halter and the penitentiary may restrain many men from overt criminal acts; but it is the fear of God and a reverence for his authority and commands, which alone can control and subdue the will, when tempted by ambition and interest to violate the laws. Whatever superficial observers may think, it is beyond a question, that the small band of real Christians in Protestant countries has more influence in securing order and peace in society than all the civil officers of government. Just in proportion as the influence of such men is impaired, is the increase of crimes and outrages upon the rights of individuals and upon the public peace.

It has been a misfortune to the citizens of this country, that, from their abhorrence of the ecclesiastical tyranny of certain orders of the clergy in Europe, they have contracted strong prejudices against the clergy in this country, who have neither rank nor temporal power, and whose influence is derived solely from their personal attainments and worth, and their official services.

The clergy in this country are generally men of learning and of good. principles. They have been uniformly and preeminently the friends of education and civil liberty. The learned clergy among the first settlers of New England had great influence in founding the first genuine republican governments ever formed, and which, with all the faults and