When  shall  our  people  learn  the  true  sources  of
happiness  and  greatness?  When  and  where  is  there
a  better  time,  and  a  better  place, to  teach  these  things
than  in  the  family  and  in  the  school,  in  which  the
character  of  the  man  and  the  woman  is  forming?  If
it  is  deferred  until  later  years,  that  character  will  be
warped  by  a  thousand  counter  influences.  A  dem-
agogue and  a  hypocritical  state  of  society  are  the
very  worst  teachers  of  morality  and  religion — except
in  a  negative  way — that  could  be  employed.
The  questions  again  recur,  "  When  and  where  are
the  most  befitting  places,  and  who  are  the  best  teach-
ers of  these  things  ?  "  We  answer,as  before  indicated,
"In  our  homes  and  in  our  schools,  and  by  our  parents
and  by  our  teachers."  The  home  influences  and  asso-
ciations are  the  strongest,  The  school,  which  should
be  modeled,  as  nearly  as  possible,  upon  the  same  prin-
ciples, so  that  it  may  take  up  the  same  course  of  train-
ing, is  next  in  strength,  and  the  stepping-stone  from
the  family  to  the  community  of  families.  Both  of
these  institutions,  viz.,  the  family  and  the  school,  are
only  preparatory  to  the  great  institution  of  human
society,  to  which  the  pupil  graduates  at  an  early  age.
Parents  are  the  natural  and  rightful  guardians  of
youth ;  and,  by  virtue  of  this  relationship,  they  have


MORAL,    SOCIAL,    AND   RELIGIOUS    CULTURE.  191

an  influence  over  them  that  none  others  can  have.  The
teacher,  by  virtue  of  his  office,  is  in  loco  parentis,  for
the  time  being,  in  which  position  the  parent  delegates
to  him  all  the  powers  he  relinquishes,  and  even  grants
him  rights  and  privileges  in  common  with  himself.
