Disciples of Bacon indeed.

It is only when our combined organizations in all their parts, from the primary department up through the academy and college, to the university with its professional schools, are made thorough and effective, that they can produce satisfactory results, and that the scholar who shares their benefits can become truly learned. At every step of the progress ripe scholarship should be the motto. Then should we behold the lovely sight of education bearing rich fruits, and the votary of learning would become the disciple of Bacon indeed.

IT

LECTURE VII.

POPULAR

EDUCATION.

is with feelings of sincere pleasure that I come

to meet with an association of teachers, and with citizens and friends anxious to promote the cause of education. You are engaged in a noble enterprise, one which can not fail to enlist the sympathies of every generous bosom; and although your Institute is in its infancy, you will be certain of producing good; for if you fail to impart to those around you that spirit which you possess, you will at least strengthen your own aspirations, and nourish in your bosoms a yearning for improvement and excellence, which is one of the fundamental conditions of success. It is a source of consolation to feel that one is aiding in the improvement of the race; that he is doing something to dispel the darkness of ignorance, even if he holds up but a feeble taper.

One of the means of pleasure and pastime among the ancient Greeks was the Bacchanalia. These were feasts in honor of Bacchus, the god of wine, and were extremely popular throughout all Greece.

Ancient Bacchanalia.

Modern Barchanalia.

Men and women joined in his festivals, with their heads wreathed with vine and ivy, with fawn skins flung about their shoulders, and blunt spears, twined with vines, in their hands. Dressed in these grotesque habiliments they gave way to riotous revelry. They sometimes wore the most indecent emblems, they beat upon drums and sang lewd songs, and thus they sought amid these frantic revels for pleasure and enjoyment.

In our own times, we have Bacchanalia, though with less of poetry and æsthetic emblems than the ancient. We have not the vine leaves, nor the fawn skins, nor the thyrsi. The scenes of our Bacchanalia are the breweries, the groceries, the country taverns; and instead of the juice of the vine we have the juice of the barley, the corn, and the old rye. Many of the rising generation among us,-young men at that period of life which is the bloom of manhood, when the character is becoming established, and those opinions formed which are to give them influence among men, and by which an estimate of their abilities is made,-seek for the highest pleasure and gratification which they are capable of feeling, in some dingy saloon, on the floor of which has been splashed from year to year the juice of that filthy weed, ground and soaked in filthier mouths, whose vapors mingle with the thick volumes of

Pleasures of the libertine.

Intellectual pleasure.

smoke that curl about their heads, and with the breath of human beings from lungs steeped in the fiery poison of copperas and logwood, and nameless drugs, more resembling in its conglomerate qualities the deadly airs that arose from the fabled lake Mæotis, the Stygian wave, or the fumes of hell fire, than that sweet and pleasant atmosphere which mortals ought to breathe, surrounded by companions whose foul-mouthed conversation is in keeping with the filthiness by which they are encircled, who are satisfied with this enjoyment, and are waiting to renew it during the long winter evenings of the season. And this is pleasure! Without one ray of intellectual light, without one generous, aspiration for improvement, they are willing to give themselves up a prey to the passions and the appetites, and degrade themselves to a condition worse than that of the brutes.

I rejoice that I am permitted to meet here with those who have a higher notion of pleasure, who are actuated by a nobler purpose, who are stimulated to the attainment of a more exalted end. I rejoice that I am brought into sympathy with those who can find pleasure in intellectual pursuits. How noble! how generous! how philanthropic the purpose for which you associate. It is not sensual gratification that has called you here, but you have

Labor of the philanthropist.

That of the teacher.

come to mingle in earnest inquiry for the elevation and improvement of our common schools. You have come to impart each to the other the fruits of your own experience, to detail the plans which have proved successful in arousing and energizing the faculties of the youth under your charge, to speak words of cheer and encouragement to those whose faith is weak, and who are ready to falter by the way.

We pour out lavishly the meed of sympathy and praise to the philanthropist, who directly alleviates human suffering and woe, who goes forth in a crusade against misery and crime. Such a purpose is indeed noble and generous. But he deals only with our physical natures. He labors to relieve us of the wants and distresses of the body, this mortal frame which will soon crumble into dust. You have to do with the mind, the intellect. You are laboring to relieve the wants, and poverty, and nakedness of the immortal spirit, to awaken within it new energies, to prepare it to battle successfully with ignorance and folly.

It is this business of education, of Popular Education, upon which I propose to speak. Education, the development of the faculties, the acquirement of knowledge, must always depend upon two facts: First, that all our perceptions either come directly or