Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 7.djvu/185

Rh The ablest men of the nation were sought out for military teachers, giving practical lessons of the science and the art; they were covered with honour and loaded with gold. The wealth of the people and their highest science went to this work. Institutions were founded to promote this education, and carefully watched over by the State, for it was thought the Commonwealth depended on disciplined valour. The soldier was thought to be the type of the State, the archetype of man; accordingly the highest spiritual function of the State was the production of soldiers.

Most of the civilized nations have passed through that stage of their development: though the few or the many are still taught the science or the art of war in all countries called Christian, there is yet a class of men for whom the State furnishes the means of education that is not military; means of education which the individuals of that class could not provide for themselves. This provision is made at the cost of the State; that is, at the cost of every man in the State, for what the public pays, you pay and I pay, rich or poor, willingly and consciously, or otherwise. This class of men is different in different countries, and their education is modified to suit the form of government and the idea of the State. In Rome the State provides for the public education of priests. Rome is an ecclesiastical State; her government is a Theocracy—a government of all the people, but by the priests, for the sake of the priests, and in the name of God. Place in the church is power, bringing honour and wealth ; no place out of the church is of much value. The offices are filled by priests, the chief magistrate is a priest, supposed to derive his power and right to rule, not democratically, from the people, or royally, by inheritance,—for in theory the priest is as if he had no father, as theoretically he has no child—but theocratically from God. In Rome the priesthood is thought to be the flower of the State. The most important spiritual function of the State, therefore, is the production of priests; accordingly the greatest rains are taken with their education. Institutions are founded at the public cost, to make priests out of men; these institutions are the favourites of Govern-