Power in America is with those who can bring the greatest intellectual
and moral force to bear upon a given point. And Massachusetts, limited
in the extent of her territory, without salubrity of climate, fertility
of soil, or wealth of mines, will have influence, through her people at
home and her people abroad, proportionate to her fidelity to the cause
of universal public education.
NORMAL SCHOOL TRAINING.
[An Address delivered at the Dedication of the State Normal School, at
Salem.]
The human race may be divided into two classes. One has no ideal of a
future different from the present; or, if it is not always satisfied
with this view, it has yet had no clear conception of a higher
existence.
The other class is conscious of the power of progress, is making
continual advances, and has an ideal of a future such as, in its
judgment, the present ought to be. Both of these classes have
institutions; for institutions are not the product of civilization, as
they exist wherever our social nature is developed. Man is also a
dependent being, and he therefore seeks the company, counsel and support
of his fellows. From the right of numbers to act comes the necessity of
agreement, or at least so much concurrence in what is to be done as to
secure the object sought. The will of numbers can only be expressed
through agencies; and these, however simple, are indeed
institutions--the evidence of civilization, rather than its product.
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