wards of a higher nature, namely, the happiness of the life to come, he is pleased most wisely to make use of these inferior encouragements and invitations, like so many little pulleys and cords, to draw men to the ways of virtue, piety and goodness, wherein, when they are once led and confirmed, they are established in higher and nobler expectations, namely, the love of God and the beauty of goodness and virtue. And on the right-hand way, there are not only propounded certain general virtues of sobriety, temperance and industry, but there are also certain particular walks of industry and virtue, and the exercise thereof in certain especial callings and employments, some more liberal and eminent, as divines, physicians, lawyers, &c. Some more laborious, yet generous enough, as husbandry, the primitive and most innocent employment, is such as becomes noblemen and gentlemen. Some of other kinds, as merchants and handicrafts. And to all these employments, justly and industriously followed, Almighty God hath annexed a blessing; for they conduce to the good of mankind, and the maintenance of human societies, and the convenient support of persons and families. And when you come to about this age, unless you are corrupted by idleness, evil company or debauchery, your minds will begin to settle, and your inclinations will begin to bend themselves towards some of these employments, and to a steady course of life. And although it may please God to order things so that you may not be put upon the necessity to take any of these professions upon you for your subsistence, because I may leave you a competent provision otherways, yet assure yourselves a calling is so far from being a burthen or dishonor to any of you, that it will be a great advantage to you every way to be of some profession; and therefore I commend some of them to your choice. especially for such of you whose fortunes may not be so plentiful. But if you should not fix to any of these more regular professions, as divinity, law, or physic, yet I would have you so far acquainted with them, as that you may be able to understand, and maintain, and hold fast, the religion in which you have by me been educated; and so much of the laws of the kingdom, as may instruct you how to defend the estate that shall be left you, and to order your lives conformable to those laws under which you live, and to give at least common advice to your neighbors in matters of ordinary or common concernment; and so much of physic, especially of anatomy, as may make you know your own frame, and maintain and preserve your health by good diet, and those ordinary helps, a good herbal or garden may afford. And although you should not addict yourselves professedly to any of these three callings, yet I would have you all acquainted with husbandry, planting and ordering of a country farm, which is the most innocent, and yet most necessary employment, and such as becomes the best gentleman in England; for it is a miserable thing to see a man master of an estate in lands, and yet not know how to manage it, but must either be at the mercy of tenants or servants, or otherwise he knows not how to live, being utterly a stranger to husbandry; and therefore must be beholden to a tenant or a servant for his subsistence, who many times knowing their own advantage, by the ignorance, carelessness or idleness of a master or landlord, set the dice upon him, and use him as they please. I have always observed, a country gentleman that hath a competent estate of lands in his hands, and lives upon it, stocks it himself, and understands it, and manages it in his own hands, lives more plentifully, breeds up his children more handsomely, and in a way of industry, is better loved in his country, and doth more good in it, than he that hath twice the revenue and lives upon his rents, or it may be in the city, whereby both himself, and family, and children, learn a life of idleness and expense, and many times of debauchery. And therefore if you can not settle your minds to any other profession, yet I would have you be acquainted with the course of husbandry, and manage at least some considable part of your estate in your own hands. And this you may do without any disparagement, for the life of a husbandman is not unseemly for any of the children of Adam or Noah, who began it; and although that employment requires attendance and industry, as well as knowledge and experience, yet it will afford a man competent time for such other studies and employments as may become a scholar or a gentleman, a good patriot or justice in his country. Though all callings and employments carry with them a gratefulness and contenting variety much more than idleness and intemperance, or debauchery, yet in whatsoever calling you are settled, though that calling must be your principal business, and such as you must principally apply yourselves unto, yet I thought it always necessary to have some innocent diversions for leisure times; because it takes off the tediousness of business, and prevents a worse misspending of the time. I therefore commend to those gentlemen, of what profession soever, that they spend their spare and leisure hours in reading of history or mathematics, in experimental philosophy, in searching out the kinds and natures of trees and plants, herbs, flowers, and other vegetables; nay, in observing of insects, in mathematical observations, in measuring land; nay, in the more cleanly exercise of smithery, watch-making, carpentry, joinery works of all sorts. These and the like innocent diversions give these advantages:1. They improve a man's knowledge and understanding; 2. They render him fit for many employments of use; 3. They take off the tediousness of one employment; 4. They prevent diversions of worse kinds, as going to taverns, or games, and the like; 5. They rob no time from your constant calling, but only spend with usefulness and delight that time that can be well spared. Abstract of present constitutional Schools to be encouraged; university.. Page. 107 108 110 110 112 Iowa... 113 1846 1846 Board of education; school funds and 115 1848 1848 Superintendent; school fund; school li- California...... 1849 1849 Superintendent; school and university funds; public schools to be kept three 117 119 Minnesota ..... 1858 1858 1859 School fund and lands; university.... 119 120 Superintendent; common, normal, agri- 121 Superintendent; school fund Superintendent; school fund; univer- 122 123 124 CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION RESPECTING EDUCATION. The past and present constitutional provisions of the several States of the Union relative to education exhibit the growth of the national sentiment in favor of, and the present strong attachment to, the public school system. In the early reconstruction of political organizations, rendered imperative by a separation from Great Britain, only a few States recognized in their rganic law the necessity of providing for the diffusion of intelligence among the people, and this recognition is expressed in general terms. But within the last half century the constitutions of the States, admitted from time to time in the Union, have become more and more emphatic in the declaration, that it is the wisest economy and the highest duty to provide for an efficient and uniform system of public schools. The New England States having incorporated a public school system with their earliest organizations, in emerging from their colonial condition, had no occasion to provide specially for it in their first State constitutions. In 1636, six years after the first settlement of Boston, the General Court of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, which met in Boston on the 8th of September, passed an act appropriating £400 toward the establishment of a college. The sum thus appropriated was more than the whole tax levied on the colony at that time in a single year, and the population scattered through ten or twelve villages did not exceed five thousand persons; but among them were eminent graduates of the University of Cambridge, in England, and all were here for purposes of permanent settlement. In 1638 John Harvard left by will the sum of £779 in money, and a library of over three hundred books. In 1640, the General Court granted to the college the income of the Charlestown ferry; and in 1642, the Governor, with the magistrates and teachers and |