ciples he contends for, would control the whole industry of the country, and through industry all branches of the government. This he asserts, and this we admit. But what guaranty have we that it would exert this control for the public good? What security can he give us that the Bank would not, in case it became as powerful as he supposes, reduce the great mass of the industrious classes to an abject and hopeless slavery? We grant the Bank would control the industry of the country; but what would control the Bank? It could dictate the measures of government; but what would dictate its measures? Before surrendering to the Banks our right to govern ourselves, it strikes us, that we should have some surety that they will govern in the interests of Humanity. If they are to be as powerful as it is contended they should be, there can be in this country no power to control them. King Snake may be a more efficient ruler of the frogs than king Log; but what shall become of the poor frogs, if he take it into his head to eat them?

We have dwelt so long on this part of Mr. Chevalier's book, that we have no space left to comment on the remainder. But we would say in general terms, that the book, with the exception of its doctrines on banks and the regulation of industry, is in the main liberal, manly, philosophical, and unobjectionable. The author made a good use of his time while here, and acquired no little insight into our national character, and the workings of our institutions. Mistakes he falls into frequently, but never does he intentionally misrepresent us. He everywhere maintains the tone and bearing of an honest, intelligent man, visiting a foreign country to collect the wisdom that may be useful to his own. The American people will reject his Saint-Simonianism; but they will respect him as one who has been disposed to do them justice, and read his work, as containing much valuable information, and some philosophical speculations on the destiny of Humanity, well worth considering.

EDITOR.

ART. VI.- The School Library. Published under the Sanction of the Board of Education of the State of Massachusetts. Boston: Marsh, Capen, Lyon,

& Webb.

THERE are few projects, which we more heartily approve, and wish success to, than that of furnishing every school district with a library. Few things are more important to the young, than ready access to good books, and the early formation of a taste for reading. It not only prepares them for more usefulness in after life, but opens to them a source of innocent enjoyment, which will save them from many of the vices, to which youth are in general exposed.

Men who have not passed through the schools are said to be uneducated; but no man, who has free access to books, and is a diligent reader of them, can with any justice be said to want education. We should like to know what is learned in the university, which cannot be learned from books? It is rare that your professors can advance on their text-books, or that they know as much of the sciences they undertake to teach as the student may find in his manuals. Whoever knows how to read, and has the proper books within his reach, may attain, for aught we can. see, to all the scientific and literary eminence he could, were he to graduate at the first university in the land.

In these times all may be educated who have access to well selected libraries. All the sciences are treated in books, wherein is deposited all that is known of them. All branches of learning have their manuals; and all languages, worth the acquisition, have their grammars and lexicons; and whoever cannot acquire a language, all except its pronunciation, by means of grammar and lexicon, is not one whom a living teacher could aid. A library, then, if of the right stamp, is of more importance to the district than the school itself. Our common schools are 29

VOL. III. NO II.

by no means what they ought to be, and in the actual state of things effect altogether less for the general intelligence and advancement of the community than is commonly pretended. They are not unfrequently nurseries of vice, where many of the bad habits which accompany us through life are first acquired. The parent often finds the labor of years to form his boy to the love and practice of virtue undone by a six weeks' attendance at one of our common schools. The education, then, which we crave for the children of our commonwealth, cannot be obtained from them. Something in addition to them is wanted; and this something, it strikes us, may be found, to a great extent, in a well-selected library for each school district.

But this library should be well selected; and here is the difficulty. Who shall make the selection? The most natural answer is, the parents and guardians of the children immediately concerned. I choose to select the books my children are to read; and why not every parent do the same? But our Board of Education, in the true spirit of whiggism, say, that I must not be allowed to select my child's to select my child's reading. They distrust the capacity of the inhabitants of the school district to make a judicious selection, and therefore undertake to make the selection for them.

This brings us to some objections we have to the School Library, noticed at the head of this article. We object to it, that it is published under the sanction of the Board of Education. We regard this as an insult officially offered to the inhabitants of the school districts. No doubt, in many cases, the district would make an unwise selection; but this is an evil inseparable from the present imperfect state of Humanity. The people must work out their own salvation, and acquire wisdom by their own failures. Their progress cannot be effected by the maxim of European princes, which the Board seem to have adopted, "Every thing for the people; nothing by the people;" but by the American maxim, "Nothing

for the people, but everything by the people." We are far from believing in the infallibility of the people; but we hold that it is better, the people should manage their own concerns, albeit they should sometimes manage them unwisely, than that there should be guardians appointed to manage for them. We must, therefore, frown upon all measures or propositions for taking away the management from the people themselves. I am never a man so long as I am not permitted to think and act for myself. Better that I should sometimes fall and be seriously hurt, than that I should never undertake to walk. What is true of me, as an individual, is true of the people.

Then, we have no surety that a Board of Education will upon the whole make a better selection of books than would be made by the people themselves. We have not yet learned that Boards of Education are infallible. They are composed of individuals who share the weakness as well as the strength of Humanity. Our present Board have indeed officially declared themselves to be "conspicuous for their talents, and to possess in a high degree the confidence of the respective parties and denominations, from which they were severally selected; "* and, although we are no doubt bound to regard this official sanction with great deference, inasmuch as the Board may be supposed to be the best acquainted with their own merits, and, therefore, the best judges, we must still, since men have been known to over-estimate their own talents and virtues, believe that they constitute no exception to the general fallibility of our race. The experiment of managing the public affairs by "the wisest and best," instead of by the people them

See Introductory Essay, p. ix. This introductory Essay was written by a member of the Board, and as it makes a part of the Library, it must have received the sanction of every member; so it is rightly regarded as an official sanction of the Board by itself. Very modest, we must confess. For the honor of the Board, we trust there was but one member of it that could have written this self-praise, and that the rest permitted it to pass out of courtesy to him.

selves, has been tried for ages, but so far as history may be relied on, with uniform ill success. We see no reason why the experiment should be more likely to succeed with us than elsewhere. The Board is no doubt a learned board, composed of conspicuous individuals, but after all, it may not be the best of all caterers for the intellectual appetites of the community.

Moreover, the Board, we apprehend, exceed their legal functions, when they assume to sanction a School Library. Is there any provision in the law constituting the Board, which authorizes them to assume so important a function? They sanction these books, as a Board, not as individuals. Where is the law authorizing them to prepare and sanction a suitable Library for the school districts?

But passing over this; we object to the selection of the books by a Board, because the Board will select and recommend the same books to all the districts. This may have a tendency to produce a uniformity of opinion, and a dead level of information throughout the commonwealth; but, levellers as we are supposed to be, we much question whether this dead level and uniformity be at all desirable. Variety is as essential as uniformity; and where there is no conflict of opinion, no inequalities of information, there will be no progress. We believe it would be far better to have the libraries variously made up, as they would be if left entirely to the discretion of the districts, than to have them constituted of a uniform series of books, as they must be if selected and sanctioned by the Board. In the one case, some thousands of different books would be read and studied in the commonwealth; in the other case, only one or two hundred. The differ

ence between the two modes is therefore obvious, and decidedly to the disadvantage of the one we are opposing.

We object also to the sanction of the Board, because it is an approach to a censorship of the press. The publishers will not dare insert in their series a