Indeed, of the
close connection between ignorance and crime the calendar which I hold
in my hand furnishes a striking example. Each prisoner has been examined
as to the state of his education, and the result is set down opposite
his name. It appears, then, that of forty-three prisoners only one can
read and write well. The majority can neither read nor write at all; and
the remainder, with the solitary exception which I have noted down, are
said to read and write imperfectly; which necessarily implies that they
have not the power of using those great elements of knowledge for any
practical object. Of forty-three prisoners, forty-two, then, are
destitute of instruction."
These authorities are not cited because they refer to schools that
answer in character to the public schools of Massachusetts, for the
latter are far superior in the quality of their pupils, and in the
opportunities given for intellectual and moral education; but these
cases and opinions are presented for the purpose of showing what has
been done for the improvement of children and the repression of crime
under the most unfavorable circumstances that exist in a civilized
community. If such benign results have followed the establishment of
schools of an inferior character, is it unreasonable to claim that
education and the processes of education, however imperfect they may be,
are calculated to increase the sum of human progress, virtue, and
happiness?
II.
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