willing to leave home and kindred, and the comforts and refinements of civilized life, to cross the ocean, to fix their abode in forests among wild beasts and wild men, rather than commit the sin of performing, in the house of God, one gesture which they believed to be displeasing to him.

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Did those brave exiles think it inconsistent with civil or religious freedom that the state should take charge of the education of the people? No, sir; one of the earliest laws enacted by the Puritan colonists was that every township, as soon as the Lord had increased it to the number of fifty 10 houses, should appoint one to teach all children to write and read, and that every township of a hundred houses should set up a grammar school. Nor have the descendants of those who made this law ever ceased to hold that the public authorities were bound to provide the means 15 of public instruction.

Nor is this doctrine confined to New England. "Educate the people" was the first admonition addressed by Penn to the colony which he founded. "Educate the people" was the legacy of Washington to the nation which he had 20 saved. "Educate the people" was the unceasing exhortation of Jefferson; and I quote Jefferson with peculiar pleasure, because, of all the eminent men that have ever lived,... Jefferson was the one who most abhorred everything like meddling on the part of governments. 25 Yet the chief business of his later years was to establish a good system of state education in Virginia.

And against such authority as this, what have you who take the other side to show? Can you mention a single great philosopher, a single man distinguished by his zeal for liberty, humanity, and truth, who, from the beginning 5 of the world down to the time of this present Parliament, ever held your doctrines? You can oppose to the unanimous voice of all the wise and good, of all ages, and of both hemispheres, nothing but a clamor which was first heard a few months ago, a clamor in which you cannot 10 join without condemning not only all whose memory you profess to hold in reverence, but even your former selves.

This, sir, is my defense. From the clamor of our accusers I appeal with confidence to the country to which we must, in no long time, render an account of our stew15 ardship. I appeal with still more confidence to future generations, which, while enjoying all the blessings of an impartial and efficient system of public instruction, will find it difficult to believe that the authors of that system should have had to struggle with a vehement and per20 tinacious opposition, and still more difficult to believe that such an opposition was offered in the name of civil and religious freedom.

Abridged.

Voluntary system: the system by which parents educate their children or let them grow up without schooling, as they please. Dissenters: those who do not agree with the doctrines of the Church of England. The Puritans were Dissenters. Laud: an English archbishop who took part in the persecution of the Puritans. Parliament: the lawmaking body of England. It is like our Congress.

THE FLIGHT OF ÆNEAS

A Selection from Virgil's "Eneid"; translated by Christopher P. Cranch.

VIRGIL (70–19 B.C.) was the most famous of Latin poets. He was well educated, though his family were of the common people. He is considered the superior of all the other ancient poets in the beauty of his verse.

CHRISTOPHER P. CRANCH (1813–1892) was an American artist and poet. NOTE. — When Troy, after long years of siege, falls at last into the 5 hands of the Greeks, Æneas escapes from the tumult and comes to his father's house, begging the old man to flee with him. At first Anchises refuses, having no wish to live now that Troy has fallen, and Æneas, seeing that he cannot change this decision, calls for his armor that he may make one more effort, however useless, to avenge his country's wrongs. 10

Forthwith I gird myself anew in steel,
And, my left hand inserting in my shield,
Began to put it on, and forth was going.
But lo! upon the threshold stood my wife,
And hung upon me, and embraced my feet,
And held the young Iulus to his sire.

"If forth thou goest, resolved to die," she said,
"Take us along with thee, to share all fates.

But if, from trial, thou hast hope in arms,

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Protect this household first. To whom dost thou 20
Abandon little Iulus, and thy sire,

Or her whom once thou call'dst thy wife?"

Complaining filled the house; when suddenly

So she

A prodigy most wonderful appeared.
For in the midst of our embracing arms,
And faces of his sorrowing parents, lo!
Upon Iulus' head a luminous flame.

5 With lambent flashes shone, and played about
His soft hair with a harmless touch, and round
His temples hovered. We with trembling fear
Sought to brush off the blaze, and ran to quench
The sacred fire with water from the fount.
10 But Father Anchises lifted to the stars

His eyes with joy, and raised his hands to heaven,
Exclaiming, "Jupiter, omnipotent!

If thou wilt yield to any prayer of ours, Look upon us, this once; and if we aught 15 Deserve by any piety, give help,

O Father, and these omens now confirm!"

Scarce had my aged father said these words,
When, with a sudden peal, upon the left

It thundered, and down gliding from the skies 20 A star, that drew a fiery train behind,

Streamed through the darkness with resplendent light.
We saw it glide above the highest roofs,

And plunge into the Idaan woods, and mark
Our course. The shining furrow all along

25 Its track gave light, and sulphurous fumes around.

And now, convinced, my father lifts himself;
Speaks to the gods, adores the sacred star.

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Now, now," he cries, "for us no more delay!

I follow; and wherever ye may lead,
Gods of my country, I will go! Guard ye
My family, my little grandson guard.

This augury is yours; and yours the power
That watches Troy. And now, my son, I yield,
Nor will refuse to go along with thee."

And now through all the city we can hear
The roaring flames, which nearer roll their heat.