Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 7.djvu/186

192 men, well ordered, well watched over, well attended, and richly honoured. Institutions for tho education of the people are of small account, ill endowed, watched over but poorly, thinly attended, and not honoured at all. The people are designed to be subjects of the church, and as little culture is needed for that, though much to make them citizens thereof, so little is given. As there are institutions for tho education of the priests, so there is a class of man devoted to that work; able men, well disciplined, sometimes men born with genius, and always men furnished with the accomplishments of sacerdotal and scientific art; very able men, very well disciplined, the most learned and accomplished men in the land. These men ore well paid and abundantly honoured, for on their faithfulness the power of the priesthood, and so the welfare the State, is thought to depend. Without the allurement of wealth and honours, these able men would not come to this work ; and without the help of their ability, the priests could not be well educated. Hence their power would decline; the class, tonsured and consecrated but not instructed, would fall into contempt; the theocracy would end. So the educators of the priests are held in honour, surrounded by baits for vulgar eyes; but the public educators of the people, chiefly women or ignorant men, are held in small esteem. The very buildings destined to the education of the priests are conspicuous and stately; the colleges of the Jesuits, the Propaganda, the seminaries for the education of priests, the monasteries for training the more wealthy and regular clergy, are great establishments, provided with libraries, and furnished with all the apparatus needful for their important work. But the school-houses for the people are small and mean buildings, ill made, ill famished, and designed for a work thought to be of little moment. All this is in strict harmony with the idea of the theocracy, where the priesthood is mighty and the people are subjects of the Church; where the effort of the State is toward producing a priest.

In England the State takes charge of the education of another class, the nobility and gentry; that is, of young men of ancient and historical families, the nobility, and young men of fortune, the gentry. England is an oligar-