Of all the political institutions which the wit of man has devised, none seems to be of so much importance as those which provide for juvenile instruction. The duties of a citizen in a civilized community are so multifarious, and many of them require so much previous training, that, unless a considerable portion of his early life is given to the preparation, he is incapable of performing many of the most important duties and offices of a citizen. We may form some idea of the value of this instruction by comparing a well-educated man with one who can neither write nor read.

But education not only adds to a man's stock of knowledge, both of matter and mind, but is also favorable to his morals. Experience teaches us that, in all communities where the people are generally instructed, they are remarkably exempt from crime; and, though it may often happen that those persons whose minds have been much cultivated are depraved and unprincipled, and have yielded to the fascinations of some seductive vice; yet these must be regarded as exceptions to the general rule. A taste for literature and science affords one of the best securities against the temptations to vicious indulgence, and cherishes the generous ambition to acquire the approbation and esteem of other men.

Mental acquirements also afford profitable employment to numbers who possess no other capital than their intellects. How many thousands of our clergymen, physicians, lawyers, and others, earn liberal incomes, and obtain a high station in society, who started in life without a penny, and, in some cases, without a friend! It is not only from the educated class that our statesmen, legislators, and chief public functionaries are furnished, but likewise all those who fill the learned professions, or who conduct the press, and even our military and naval affairs. When education is so indispensable to the community, and can effectuate so much for individuals, it is no wonder that it is one of the first concerns of an intelligent people, and that millions are set apart to defray its expense. It is thus regarded as the highest eulogy which can be bestowed on any government, whether it be a republic or monarchy, that it has an efficient system of juvenile instruction.

The various and diverse duties of an individual in a community seem to divide it into three classes: one for the great mass of the people, whose chief occupation is that of physical labor, or of household service; the second for those who require a higher degree of knowledge of men and things in discharging the duties of agriculturists, merchants, and artificers; and lastly, colleges and universities, in which a yet higher degree of science is taught, to fit men for the more difficult duties of the higher offices of government, and of the learned professions.

In the first class, the elementary schools, the child should be taught to read and write, the rudiments of arithmetic, geography, and practical geometry, and, if possible, of physical science. It is of especial importance in a republic that this class, comprehending the great body of voters, should be instructed, that they may not only learn, through the press, the opinions of the men for whom they are called upon to vote, but be better able to judge of the soundness of those opinions, as well as of the other qualifications of the candidates. These schools should be supported at the people's expense, with the aid of those who could afford contributions.

The second class, that of academies, should also receive some support from the public treasury, but be dependent principally on the contributions of those who profit by them. The subjects taught here should be chiefly classical learning and mathematics, and, in part for those who would there finish their education, the most useful branches of physical science.

The third class, that of colleges and universities, should afford opportunity to acquire every branch of learning and science. These higher schools should be provided at the public expense, be furnished with a complete apparatus, and the requisite materials for experiments, with ample libraries, with museums of the diversified products of nature, mineral, animal, and vegetable, and lastly, with a fund for the compensation of professors, sufficient to secure the services of the ablest men; and, to stimulate their unremitting industry, their emolument should be derived partly from a fixed salary, and partly from the fees paid by their respective students.

It is found in the United States that the number of those now taught in the primary or elementary schools is about ten or twelve times as many as those taught in the academies; and that the latter are nearly ten times the number of college students.

In 1850, according to the census, there were 234 colleges and universities in the United States. The number of students attending them was 27,159. When it is recollected that the greater part of those students continue two or three years at college, so as to make the whole number annually educated not more than ten or twelve thousand - that if we farther deduct from this number those who are neither officeholders nor professional men, and those who prematurely die, the residue bears so small a proportion to the whole class of those who were supported by mental industry, including the higher public officers, which was 179,000 - it may be fairly inferred that a large majority of the public officers and professional men have not received a college education.

In our notice of this subject, we must not overlook the education of females. When we consider how large a share mothers have in forming the minds and morals of their children, and how many great men have owed their eminence to maternal teaching and influence, we must be satisfied that female instruction must have a most important bearing on the improvement and prosperity of a State. The seminaries and boarding-schools for the education of females have greatly multiplied of late years, and are steadily increasing. But the prevalent systems of female education seem to be defective in this, that they set a higher value on mere accomplishments that may give a transient distinction, than on those solid qualifications which best fit females for the performance of the high duties assigned to them.

These duties are to manage a household prudently and efficiently; to be the intelligent counsellor, as well as agreeable companion of the partner of their fortunes; to develop and improve the mental faculties and moral propensities of their offspring. To such elevated attributes, skill in music, drawing, or dancing, though they too are not without their use, are of subordinate importance. Nor should the education of a female be considered complete without some knowledge of chemistry, so far as it is applicable to the ordinary concerns of life, and to the details of practical cookery, which is of so much value to our health, to our comfort, and to a proper economy. The use of the needle seems to be so indispensable that it is rarely ever neglected, though much of the heaviest part of this labor is now fortunately consigned to machinery.

There are some professions and trades from which women have been hitherto excluded, but for which they seem to be entirely competent. They are well qualified for some branches of the medical art, especially for the diseases of their own sex; and they are peculiarly adapted to the office of nursing, which, in many diseases, when associated with intelligence, affords the most efficient aid that can be given. They are also excellent shop-keepers; are as efficient as men in the business of printing, book-binding, in some branches of jewelry, and in every branch of making clothes. They seem perfectly competent to exercise the profession of painting, engraving, and other branches of the imitative arts; and, for the business of juvenile instruction, their gentleness, patience, and delicate sympathy, peculiarly fit them, since the stimulus of the desire to learn, which they are so skilled in calling forth, is much more efficacious than that of fear, to which male teachers so frequently appeal.

A system of general juvenile instruction, compre-nending the youth of both sexes, cannot be too much cherished by a wise community. Under its expansive and growing influence a nation would be continually advancing in knowledge, in power over brute matter, in the means of happiness, and in moral dignity.

On the subject of improving the intelligence of a people, we cannot overlook the agency of the periodical press. By its communicating to all who can read, on terms that are within the reach of the poorest classes of the community, every man can obtain a knowledge of all important events and facts, not only in his own country, but almost of every other, immediately after they have occurred; and, although the newspapers sometimes give currency to what is false, yet they probably circulate an hundred times as much truth as falsehood. They are thus adding to that knowledge of men and things which is generally acquired only by observation and experience. They afford daily gratification to man's love of novelty; save many not only from ennui, but from vicious indulgences; and do much to superinduce a taste for reading and intellectual improvement.