SONNET—NATIONAL EDUCATION.
83
LITERARY
SONNET.
As one that for a weary space has lain,
Lulled by the song of Circe and her wine,
In gardens near the pale of Prosepine,
Where that Æean isle foggets the main,
And only the low lutes of love complain,
And only shadows of wan lovers pine,
As such an one were glad to know the brine
Salt on his lips, and the large air again,
So gladly, from the songs of modern speech
Men turn, and see the stars, and feel the free
Shrill wind beyond the close of heavy flowers,
And through the music of the languid hours
They hear like ocean on a western beach,
The surge and thunder of the Odyssey.
ANDREW LANE
NATIONAL EDUCATION.
The wisest statesmen have found that the best way to diminish the crime and pauperism of a community, is to lessen its ignorance. On maps showing the distribution of wealth and illiteracy in the United States, the maximum of the former is generally found in those sections where the minimum of the latter exists.
The subject of national education has been acquiring new interest of late in the United States. Certain measures were pending before the last congress which proposed an appropriation to be distributed among the several states in aid of popular education.
This interference of the government is timely, and a matter of no small importance. Our people need never expect universal education without the help and support of the government. Every voter in the land is under governmental control and discipline, and the sure way of furthering governmental interests is the education of the voter.
The North is a part of the South. The southern vote is worth as much as the northern in the coming presidential election; and yet to-day, in Kentucky alone, there are 43,000 white voters who are unable to read the ballot they cast, leaving out of consideration the 55,000 illiterate colored voters. The very basis of our free government is the intelligence and integrity of its citizens. Is it then not the duty of the administrative body of the United States to establish an educational standard, and compel its voters to live up to it?
Germany follows out the plan of compulsory education. Every child between the ages of seven and fourteen attends the public elementary schools. We would do well to study foreign customs and governments instead of imitating their manners and fashions, as we are doing to-day. The English eye-glass, and style of dress, and the English drawl, is becoming uncomfortably common on the streets of New York.