tion. Every master in almost all our States is bound, under certain penalties, to afford his apprentice due instruction, both secular and moral, while he claims the service of his early years. This is a just provision, and can be similarly applied to the parent who claims the services of his minor son. What the lad renders to him in the work of his hands, the father should be compelled to restore in the form of education; for parental authority should not be permitted to rob the son in his youth of that which in later life can never be fully imparted to him. If the parents are so poor, or decrepit, that they cannot dispense with the labor of their children, then the State, by appropriations made for their relief, might properly assume the purchase, or value of their youth, that they may render unto them the elementary instruction of the schools, if no more. This course, though apparently onerous at the outset, would prove cheapest in the end; much cheaper than what it would be compelled to pay were these candidates for citizenship permitted to grow up as outlaws and vagabonds in society. Nor can any adverse argument be drawn from the effect of such enactments upon the scholars; for surely no evil can result from the operation of such laws as arm the man against tyranny, by informing him of freedom, and putting her weapons into his hands; by leading him out of the prison-house of darkness, and revealing to him the world and his relations to it; by emptying his heart of curses, and filling it with blessings, and a hope that seizes on still higher and holier possessions than those which belong to earth. Another mode might be resorted to in the way of disenabling | statutes, — denying an active participation, or share, in the official privileges of government to all such as neglected to qualify themselves for the discharge of its high and sacred responsibilities. No man should complain that he or his son is prohibited from sharing in the executive functions of the government, when he voluntarily disqualifies himself or his child for the service to which he aspires. It is enough that the government throws over him its golden shield, and protects him in the enjoyment of all those rights which her constitution guaranties to her people. He is not justly entitled, and should not lay claim to more. These laws, then, should be prudently formed, carefully avoiding encroachment on that which is generally recognized as a strictly parental right or privilege, and advancing not one inch beyond the limits of self-preservation on the part of the State. They should be frank, simple, and direct, yet firm, and firmly enforced. Their object should be to direct and enforce the application of such agencies as will pour wisdom and light into those minds which superstition and ignorance wickedly or negligently curtain up against the truth; to furnish each mortal with those spiritual weapons that will enable him to protect and ennoble his immortality; to plant within the soil of his mind those principles of both intellectual and moral strength that will send him forth into the stormy world around him, his heart armed against all distracting temptations, and his feet shod with a preparation for glorious achievement. The State, thus blessing her sons, shall again be blessed by their noble deeds; and her name be gratefully taken up into the lips of successive generations, until the era of a perfect government and a happy people shall dawn upon the race. O FOR the coming of that glorious time When, prizing knowledge as her noblest wealth, An obligation on her part to teach Them who are born to serve her and obey; Binding herself by statute to secure, For all the children whom her soil maintains, The rudiments of letters, and to inform Both understood and practised-so that none, By timely culture unsustained, or run To drudge through weary life without the aid This right-as sacred, almost, as the right For the protection of his innocence; And the rude boy, who knits his angry brow, And lifts his wilful hand, on mischief bent, Or turns the sacred faculty of speech To impious use, by process indirect Declares his due, while he makes known his need. This sacred right is fruitlessly announced, This universal plea in vain addressed, To eyes and ears of parents, who themselves Who, if indeed she own a mother's heart, And be not most unfeelingly devoid Of gratitude to Providence, will grant WORDSWORTH. IX. PHILOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. ENGLISH CONJUGATION. THE Conjugation of a verb includes all the changes which it undergoes to express form, voice, mood, time, person, and number. * The leading parts of the English verb are the present indicative, the past indicative, and the past participle. With these alone we are concerned in our present investigation. There are two principal modes of conjugating English verbs; the one by the change of the radical vowel, as swim, swam, swum, called the strong inflection; and the other by a change of the termination, as kill, killed, killed, called the weak inflection. The strong inflection is the more ancient, and confined to primitive or radical verbs of Teutonic origin, and their compounds. The weak inflection is of more modern date, and embraces a few primitive, and all the derivative verbs of Teutonic origin, as well as all other verbs, not Teutonic, whether primitive or derivative. I. ENGLISH STRONGLY INFLECTED VERBS. The strongly inflected verbs are sacred relics which have come down to us from ancient times. But most grammarians have regarded them as irregularities which disfigure the language, and have made it a merit to free the language of them. In these verbs the past tense is the root, and not the present tense, as in the weakly inflected verbs. There are twelve classes or conjugations of strongly inflected verbs, in the kindred Teutonic dialects, distinguished by the internal inflection or change of vowel in the leading parts of the verb. Of these conjugations, eight are perceptible in English. CONJUGATION I. This conjugation includes verbs which have, or rather originally had, i, or its modification e, before a single consonant in the present tense, a in the past tense, and u, or its modification o, in the participle. The English verbs belonging to this conjugation are 1. bear, 2. break, 3. come, 4. shear, 5. speak, 6. steal, 7. stick, 8. tear, 9. wear, 10. weave. The form of a verb is that change whereby it expresses a predication in full, or is merely a participial, i. e. an infiuitive or participle. For the verification of this statement, we must go back to the older Teutonic dialects. In these investigations, Anglo-Saxon is to be regarded as an older form of English, and Gothic as an older form of Anglo-Saxon. Observe here, that a in the present indicative is merely the termination of the first person singular, that un in the past indicative is the termination of the third person plural, and that s in the past participle is merely the sign of the nominative case; which terminations are all dropped in English. This type or model of the first conjugation in Gothic is nearly perfect. In baira and taira, the i of the present tense becomes ai by the phonetic figure called guna, and in baurans and taurans the u of the past participle becomes au by the same figure. In cume, com, cumen, the distinguishing vowels have fallen out, and the existing vowels have been evolved from the Gothic 9, which seems to have implied an u after it. The other forms are very regular. The gunation, which had commenced in baira and taira in Gothic, is extended to the other verbs. In the present tenses we have e for ai, and in the past participles (except gesprecen, gewefen,) o for au. The vowel a of the past tense is uniformly œ. The form of the third person, (sometimes of the second person,) is given in the present tense, as exhibiting the original vowel. The Old English forms are given, because better adapted to our purpose. Come, came, come, is irregular. A general analogy is observable even in English. CORRESPONDING GERMAN VERBS. These German and Dutch verbs are evidently more regular than the corresponding English. CONJUGATION II. This conjugation includes verbs which have, or rather originally had, i, or its modification e, before two consonants in the present tense, a in the past tense, and u, or its modification o, in the past participle. The English verbs belonging to this conjugation are, 1. bind, 2. climb, 3. cling, 4. delve, 5. dig, 6. drink, 7. fight, 8. find, 9. fling, 10. gin, (in begin,) 11. grind, 12. help, 13. melt, 14. ring, 15. run, 16. shrink, 17. sing, 18. sink, 19. sling, 20. slink, 21. spin, 22. spring, 23. sting, 24. stink, 25. string, 26. swell, 27. swim, 28. swing, 29. win, 30. wind, 31. wring. |