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How is it to be sustained?

to shake off its own torpor ;—or when did men devoted to the pursuit of pleasure or wealth, strive to cultivate their own benevolence and sense of duty, without some influence from abroad?

The object here is to excite an interest not yet existing, on a subject which has been totally neglected, or superficially examined. It is only those who possess light, that can or will diffuse it. None but the living can restore the inanimate; and none but the benevolent can be expected to do anything to promote the interests of others at their own expense.

Parents who value their business and wealth, more than their children's characters, will tell us—'We have no time to attend to this, and we pay a teacher.' Clergymen, who think they have no concern with the lambs of their flock, except to give them instruction entirely beyond the reach of their capacities, on one day of the week, will say We leave this to the school-master.' Statesmen will generally show us, if they do not tell us, that they have more important subjects to think of.

And Teachers! on whom the whole burden is thrown-what will they reply? Some indeed will assure us—as many have already done that so long as they have any resources, they cannot and will not give up the work. They will labor to impress others with the importance of sustaining it, and they will tell us with sorrow, of the apathy, and indifference and prejudice, with which they have tried in vain to contend, and lament their own inability to supply that aid which the wealthy refuse.

But many others will inform us, that they are compelled to take so large a number of pupils, that their power of thought is exhausted; that they are so poorly paid, that they struggle with difficulty for a subsistence; and that if they should advance in their profession, the very attempt to vary from the regulations,' or to go beyond the reach of a narrow minded school committee, by any improved plan of teaching, would be frowned upon, and terminate only in their dismission. Some will say that they understand this subject'-that they have their methods and their books'-(both of which, of course are stereotyped,)and that they have no need of new light.' Others will tell us, directly or indirectly, that they do not anticipate a single dollar of additional profit, from any improvement in teaching, and that they have trouble and labor enough already, without attempting a new task. And others still, will rise, in the dignity of offended pride, and inform us, that they regard with contempt all innovations upon methods which have been established for hundreds of years!' and would deem it a public benefit, to annihilate us and our journal, if we hint at reform or improvement.

Who can be appealed to?

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Such are some of the reasons, why those most directly concerned cannot, or will not, sustain an American periodical on education. To throw this burden upon teachers, would be to require of the poorest, and worst paid of intellectual laborers, what has been scarcely accomplished for a single professional periodical in our country. It would be as absurd, as to require the sailor to support the light houses on our coast.

Nor are they alone concerned, or even most deeply interested. The teacher's skill, like the physician's, is most important to those who employ him; for to them it will secure the usefulness and happiness of their families, instead of being a mere means of subsistence. Indeed, who that values the welfare of his country, or the safety of its institutions, has not a deep stake in this subject?

We cannot appeal to party or sectarian feeling in such a work, for to be truly American, it must be destitute of party and sectarian character, in a country where schools are the property and the resort of all parties and sects.

We cannot expect aid from the selfish; for they will meet us with the unchristian reply, 'Let every man provide for himself;' and, 'Am I my brother's keeper? But the same men would turn with equal indifference and contempt from every plan by which they were called to make efforts or sacrifices, for the benefit of others, whether it should be in relieving of the poor or enlarging of the prisoner-in persuading the intemperate to relinquish his cups, or the criminal to abandon his vices-in scattering light upon the darkness of paganism, or in civilizing, by the mild influence of Christianity, those whom ignorance and vice have placed upon the verge of barbarism, even in our own country. If a good object is to be abandoned, because the community do not know, or regard it enough to sustain it, and because they will not even give adequate support to that profession on whom it especially devolves, the same principles would oblige us to close the subscription book, and the doors of every benevolent institution, to leave ignorance to grope its way to the light, and moral disease to seek its own remedy. If these institutions are to be sustained, then we appeal to the same spirit of philanthropy and benevolence, and genuine patriotism, to support some work of this character; and we ask their aid for this, until some other more worthy of our country, and better adapted to its wants, shall be established. We appeal especially to those tried friends, who have already saved it, to continue those efforts, without which, all that we can do will be in vain. We claim them as fellow laborers; and if their conviction of the importance of the object is still unchanged, we hope they will encourage us by their example, to persevere, until the proper interest in this subject is created.

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Who will sustain it!

We would ask the wealthy, if they will not still find one useful means of employing the resources which Providence has entrusted to their care, in continuing to furnish this work to our public libraries or institutions, to those who are preparing for the business of instruction in our own country, or to those who are engaged in teaching the children of pagan lands; or in circulating its numbers, as many have done, among the less favored parents and teachers in their own neighborhood?

We cheerfully leave those who have hitherto deemed it worth the wages of their labor, to decide whether they can still give their aid, for we know they will not desert us, until it is unavoidable; but we ask them to continue their efforts, to induce others to appreciate the importance of the subject. We regret that we cannot that we send it to such persons without a return, and still more, must materially diminish our list of gratuitous copies; but circumstances render it imperiously necessary; and we can only hope that they may be supplied from some other source.

We ask those who tremble for the fate of our country, to look at the rapid progress of ignorance and crime, to mark the approach of dangers from this source, which no physical power can avert, and then consider, whether they are not called upon, by every feeling of affection for their families, and love for their country, to employ all the moral influence which can be exerted, to prevent the result we have reason to apprehend-whether they should not especially aid in every effort for promoting EDUCATION, as the only means of opening the way for light and truth, as THE AC

KNOWLEDGED AND ONLY BASIS OF NATIONAL SECURITY.

We would also call most earnestly upon those who are engaged in improving and extending American education, to send the records of their efforts, and their experience, to the American Annals, and enable us to render our work, not merely useful to the cause, but honorable to our country.

And now our appeal is finished. We have sacrificed our personal feelings, and pained many of our personal friends, by the calls already made in behalf of the Annals, which those, who only act from interested motives, will probably ascribe to the same source. We can only say in apology, that we have acted from the conviction of duty. But we hope it is the last time that we shall be called upon for such a sacrifice, whatever may be the event. We trust that we may now leave the result with Providence, and with the friends he has called forth in the moment of need, and go on with the single and delightful labor, of collecting and diffusing information, which may assist in preparing the rising generation for their high duties, as American citizens and immortal beings.

Bucks County Association.

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REPORT OF THE BUCKS COUNTY SOCIETY FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION.

We have expressed our deep interest in the formation and object of the Society of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, for the advancement of education. Our hopes of its usefulness are not a little strengthened by the perusal of its first report.

It attempts to develope the three following principles adopted at the meeting of organization;

1. Popular Education is a matter of universal and primary

concern.

2. 'It can flourish only by the creation of an enlightened public sentiment concerning it.

3. This can be most efficiently accomplished by voluntary combination, in co-operation with legislative effort.'

In regard to the first, the committee observe ;

'It is a matter of surprise, that our public sentinels, who, as they stand on the watch-towers of the Republic, or walk their daily round upon its walls, so often startle us with the cry of Constitution violated-laws trampled upon-liberty invaded,'-should so seldom point to that colossal enemy of all that is good and fair in a free government-popular igno

rance.

'What is it at which the American patriot is most easily alarmed, as he surveys the prospect which is opening around his country? What is it that the statesman chiefly apprehends, as likely to mar every system of enlightened legislation? What is the most formidable obstacle that the philanthropist finds to oppose his plans of social improvement? What is the great difficulty with which the preachers of christianity, of every name, have mainly to contend, when laboring to establish the leading doctrines of religion? He who has been accustomed to estimate correctly the moral forces that operate in society, will answer at once to each of these interrogatories,-it is popular ignorance.'

The nature of this ignorance is happily illustrated.

"The youth of this country are taught to read, and to write, it may be, but how few even of those who have been sent to school are taught to think! And can the most difficult of human arts be acquired without instruction? If manacles were forged for the understanding of the boy in that juvenile penitentiary, as it too frequently becomes, the schoolroom, what wonder is there if the intellect of the man should be found in chains. If the philanthropists of this country are ever to accomplish anything, either for the civil, political, or moral improvement of their fellow men, they must mount up at once to the head springs of society, which are our common schools. The waters of the deep and majestic river cannot be changed-you may perhaps cleanse its mountain sources. It is certain, at all events, that the stream never can be pure while the fountains remain polluted.'

The committee then go on to state the appalling fact, that in the 'Key State' of the Union, a large part of the children are growing

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Influence on Public Sentiment.

up, and preparing to be citizens without any instruction, and that a large number of voters cannot read the tickets which they put into the ballot box!

On the second point, they observe, of laws in reference to education;

'Enactments of this character, when unsustained by public feeling, are almost always useless, and often pernicious in their results. If every parent in the land valued education as it ought to be valued, not a child among all our youthful population would long remain uninstructed. Every community has adequate resources within itself; and yet they are resources which legislative action, perhaps, only can develope. Let the aid from that quarter be sufficient to accomplish this, and everything that is at all important will have been achieved by it. But to teach a community to wait year after year, as a mendicant at the door of the public treasury, and rely solely upon legislative appropriations, would be to paralyze its energies, degrade education in the eyes of the people, and establish a sort of intellectual pauperism.'

They quote also the remark of Mr. Peers, of Kentucky.

'Here, I am confident, is the source of all the evils complained of, in relation to the defectiveness and imperfect diffusion of education;-the people do not value it as they ought. Did they rank it among the ne cessaries of life, instead of placing it low down on the list of dispensables, agents in abundance would soon find or create means to fit themselves to serve them in the very best manner. Is it not, then, the demand for education that needs to be stimulated? Let this become what it should be, and the supply will take care of itself. Convinced that everything depends upon the prevalence of an enlightened and liberal public sentiment with regard to the value of education, we are addressing our efforts, in Kentucky, to the production of this, as the great preliminary measure. Let our people once be taught to think that they cannot possibly do without good education, and they will have it. Almost all other practical questions on the subject, then, resolve themselves into this; How can this sentiment be created?'

On the last point, the remarks of the committee deserve serious reflection, from every one who values this great object.

'But if an enlightened public sentiment be so exceedingly important, the question naturally arises, How shall it be created? Mere lawmaking cannot do it. In America, the popular opinion must precede, or at least co-operate with legislation. The latter is invariably abortive, when unsupported by the former. How shall the feelings of the people be aroused and directed to the subject of Education? We answer, just as every day they are, to fifty other subjects of far inferior consequence. How do the friends of Jackson, or Clay, or Wolf, or Ritner,-how do the advocates of Federalism or Democracy, or the Tariff or Nullification,— how do the supporters of our diversified charities proceed, when they wish to gain an influence over the public mind? They ORGANIZE, and their object, (if practicable,) is soon accomplished. In the present state of society, combination is the secret of all power; it imparts incalculable energy to human effort, and can only be resisted by counter combination. It was this powerful agent, working in the dark, which produced the French Revolution, and speedily shook a continent of kingdoms to its