ew England Institution
for the Education of the Blind for the year 1834, this beautiful passage
occurs: "The expression of one of the pupils, '_that she had never
known, before she began to learn, that it was a happiness to be alive_,'
may be applied to many."

CHAPTER IX.

POLITICAL NECESSITY OF NATIONAL EDUCATION.

In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public
opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be
enlightened.--WASHINGTON.

I do not hesitate to affirm not only that a knowledge of the true
principles of government is important and useful to Americans, but
that it is absolutely indispensable to carry on the government of
their choice, and to transmit it to their posterity.--JUDGE STORY.

Every succeeding section of the last chapter went to show more and more
clearly that, in proportion as the benign influences of a correct
education are diffused among and enjoyed by the members of any
community, will existing evils of every kind be diminished, and
blessings be increased in number and degree. The subject of popular
education, then, claims, and should receive, the sympathy and active
support of every philanthropist and Christian, without regard to country
or clime. We come now to consider a topic in which every patriot, and
especially every true American, as such, must feel a lively interest.

Every citizen of our wide-spread country should be fully persuaded that
the education of the people is the only permanent basis of national
_prosperity_ not only, but of national SAFETY. This, in theory, is now
conceded, and the importance of education is very generally admitted
among men, especially in our own country. It is evident, however, that
the conviction of its importance is not so deeply inwrought into the
mind of society as it ought to be, for it does not manifest itself with
all the power of earnest feeling in behalf of education which the
subject, in view of its acknowledged weightiness, justly demands.

The objects and advantages of education heretofore considered apply
equally to men of every nation and clime, under whatever form of
government they may chance to dwell. It is otherwise in regard to the
political necessity of popular education. Here a particular training is
required to fit men for the government under which they are to live. In
despotic governments, the object of popular education is to make good
_subjects_, whil