efore I conclude, allow me to remove, or
at least to lessen, an impression that these remarks are calculated to
produce. I have assumed that teaching is a profession--an arduous
profession--and that perfection has not yet been attained. I have
assumed, also, that there are many persons engaged in teaching,
especially in the primary and mixed district schools, whose
qualifications are not as great as they ought to be. But let it not be
thence inferred that I am dissatisfied with our teachers and schools.
There has been continual progress in education, and a large share of
this progress is due to teachers; but the time has not yet come when we
can wisely fold our arms, and accept the allurements of undisturbed
repose.

Nor have I sought, on this occasion, to present even an outline of a
system of female education. In all the public institutions of learning
among us, it should be as comprehensive, as minute, as exact, as that
furnished for youth of the other sex. Nor is it necessary to concern
ourselves about the effect of this liberal culture upon the character
and fortunes of society. I do not anticipate any sudden or disastrous
effects. The right of education is a common right; and it is
unquestionably the right of woman to assert her rights; and it is a
wrong and sin if we withhold any, even the least. Having faith in
humanity, and faith in God, let us not shrink from the privilege we
enjoy of offering to all, without reference to sex or condition, the
benefits of a public and liberal system of education, which seeks, in an
alliance with virtue and religion, whose banns are forbidden by none, to
enlighten the ignorant, restrain and reform the depraved, and penetrate
all society with good learning and civilization, so that the highest
idea of a well-ordered state shall be realized in an advanced and
advancing condition of individual and family life.

THE INFLUENCE, DUTIES, AND REWARDS, OF TEACHERS.

[A Lecture delivered at Teachers' Institutes.]

It is the purpose, and we believe that it will be the destiny, of
Massachusetts, to build up a comparatively perfect system of public
instruction. To this antiquity did not aspire; and it is the just boast
of modern times, and especially of the American States, that learning is
not the amusement of a few only, whom wealth and taste have led into its
paths, but that it is encouraged by governments, and cherished by the
whole people. Antiquity had its schools and teac