(about 1623). Many of the school boards emphasize the State law for Bible reading with local rules.

VERMONT.

Hon. Mason S. Stone, State superintendent of education, Montpelier, Vt., writes:

We encourage Bible reading in our public schools, although we have no law requiring it. The Bible is read in nearly every school. The Lord's Prayer and Bible verses are quite generally recited.

Three local reports received show that the general custom from the earliest existence of the schools has been to have the Bible read daily. One of these states that the Bible is not read in the graded schools of the town, but in the outlying districts only. A second states that it always has been read in a part of the schools, and the third that it has always been read in all the schools

MASSACHUSETTS.

Hon. Frank A. Hill, secretary State board of education, Boston, Mass., writes June 15, 1896:

So far as my knowledge, my observation, and my experience go, the schools of Massachusetts read selections from the Bible once a day. The repetition of the Lord's Prayer is generally used in connection with the devotional exercises, and the singing of sacred music, while not universal, is exceedingly common.

The enthusiasm with which chairmen of school boards and other officers of schools send in their affirmative reports (100 received) shows a deep interest in Bible reading in schools. For two hundred and seventy-six years the Bible has been most intelligently read by the people of Massachusetts. The State law upon this subject is as follows:

SEC. 32. The school committee shall require the daily reading in the public schools of some portion of the Bib'e without written note or oral comment, but they shall not require a scholar whose parent or guardian informs the teacher in writing that he has conscientious scruples against it to read from any particular version, or to take any personal part in the reading; nor shall they direct to be purchased or used in the public schools school books calculated to favor the tenets of any particular sect of Christians.

In the current edition of the State school laws the following annotations are made to this section:

The school committee of a town may lawfully pass an order that the schools thereof shall be opened each morning with reading from the Bible and prayer, and that during the prayer each scholar shall bow the head, unless his parents request that he shall be excused from doing so; and may lawfully exclude from the room a scholar who refuses to comply with such order, and whose parents refuse to request that he shall be excused from doing so. (12 Allen, 127.)

It is the settled policy of the State to require the use of the Bible in the public schools, and since the passage of the act of 1855 there have been but few objections. made.

The duty of the committees is performed if they require the Bible to be read by the teachers as a part of the morning devotional service. The law does not prescribe, as a rule from which there are to be no deviations, that every pupil who may be able to read the Bible shall be required to do so. In this respect a discretion is vested in the committees. No sectarian books are used in the schools.

Many school committees have local rules, some of which we quote below:

RULE OF THE CITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

Morning exercises in all the schools shall begin with reading from the Scriptures and the Lord's Prayer.

RULE OF THE CITY OF BEVERLY.

11. All teachers shall, according to the requirements of the laws of this Commonwealth, as set forth in the public statutes, in chapter 44, section 15, exert their best

endeavors to impress on the minds of children and youth committed to their care and instruction the principles of piety and justice and a sacred regard to truth; love of their country, humanity, and universal benevolence; sobriety, industry, and frugality; chastity, moderation, and temperance, and those other virtues which are the ornament of human society and the basis upon which a republican constitution is founded; and it shall be the duty of such instructors to endeavor to lead their pupils, as their ages and capacities will admit, into a clear understanding of the tendency of the above-mentioned virtues, to preserve and perfect a republican constitution and secure the blessings of liberty as well as to promote their future happiness, and also to point out to them the evil tendency of the opposite vices.

30. The morning session in all the schools shall open with reading from the Bible.

THE CHELSEA SCHOOL LAW.

SEC. 45. In each schoolroom the morning exercises shall commence with the reading of suitable selections from the Bible by the teacher, to be followed by the audible repetition of the Lord's Prayer by the teacher alone, or by the teacher and pupils in concert.

SEC. 46. Good morals being of the first importance to the pupils and essential to their highest progress in useful knowledge, instruction therein shall be given in each of the schools, in conformity with the provisions of public statutes (chap. 44, sec. 15) and the principles of truth and virtue faithfully inculcated upon all suitable occasions. The pupils shall be carefully instructed to avoid idleness, profanity, falsehood, deceit, and every wicked and disgraceful practice, and to conduct themselves in an orderly and proper manner; and it shall be the duty of their instructors, so far as possible, to exercise a general inspection over them in these regards both in school hours and while going to and from school.

THE FITCHBURG RULE.

SEC. 3. The beginning of the morning exercises in the school shall include the reading of some portion of the Bible without comment, but no scholar shall be required to read therefrom whose parent or guardian shall notify the teacher that he or she has conscientious scruples against such reading.

THE SALEM REGULATION.

Morning exercises in all the schools shall commence with the reading by the teacher of some portion of the Bible, without written note or oral comment; but no pupil shall be required to read from any particular version whose parent or guardian shall state in writing that he has conscientious scruples against allowing him to read therefrom.

NEW BEDFORD S: HOOL LAW.

[Chapter XV, sec. 4, as amended December, 1894.]

Opening morning exercises.—A portion of the sacred Scriptures shall be read without comment to the pupils by the teacher of each school at the opening of the morning session; also a patriotic selection shall be recited or a patriotic song shall be sung by the school; and the board recommends that the Lord's Prayer be repeated by the teacher alone or by the teacher and pupils in concert.

THE NEWBURYPORT RULE.

SEC. 3. The teachers shall open their respective schools in the morning with reading of the Scriptures and the recitation of the Lord's Prayer, the opening exercises not exceeding ten minutes in length; and it is recommended that the afternoon services close with singing.

In 1642 an ordinance was passed requiring "chosen men" to take account of the ability of children “to read and understand the principles of religion and the capital laws of this country."

An ordinance establishing grammar schools was passed November 11, 1647, in the preamble of which occurred a clause indirectly showing that our earliest legislators attached importance to a knowledge of the Bible. The clause is as follows:

It being one of the chief projects of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, etc.

In 1854 an ordinance was passed forbidding the continued employment of teachers who had manifested themselves "scandalous in their lives and not giving due satisfaction according to the rules of Christ."

More than one hundred years later, in 1789, an act was passed making it the duty of instructors to impress upon their pupils "the principles of piety, justice, and a sacred regard to truth; love to their country, humanity, and universal benevolence; sobriety, industry, and frugality; chastity, moderation, and temperance, and those virtues which are the ornament of human society and the basis upon which the republican constitution is structured.

"According to the New England theory of life, it was absolutely essential that everyone from early childhood should be taught to read and understand the Bible and other good and profitable printed books in the English tongue."

999

This feeling strengthened with the passing years, and, as regards Bible reading in schools, indefiniteness changed to clearness and option concerning Bible reading to judicious and careful requirement.

RHODE ISLAND.

Under date of June 13, 1896, Hon. Thomas B. Stockwell, State commissioner of public schools, Providence, writes:

I inclose extract from the last edition of our school manual, which shows very clearly the relation of the State to the subject of religious and moral teaching in the public schools. Twenty years ago I made quite a careful study of this subject and embodied it in my annual report, of which I am able to send you a copy.1

It is my impression that there has not been much change since then. If any change, it is in the direction of less reading of the Bible.

The report states that 10 towns require by rule the reading of the Bible. That in 5 it is simply recommended by them; that in 6 either the reading of the Bible or a prayer, generally the Lord's prayer, is required. In 1 town some moral or religious exercise is made obligatory. In 12 towns no rule or recommendation upon the specific subject exists.

Passing from rule to practice, Mr. Stockwell found it to be the almost universal custom to open the daily session with some form of devotional exercise, of which the reading of the Scriptures formed an important part.

Returns received directly from 11 towns and cities in Rhode Island ratify, so far as their localities are concerned, Mr. Stockwell's report. They show (1) that the use of the Bible is recommended to teachers; (2) that it has always been the custom in the school; (3) 6 of the 11 cities and towns report that the Bible is read in every school. The management in 1 city and in 1 town have adopted rules requiring Bible reading. In the rest Bible reading is optional, but universal in 4 of the remaining 9 localities, and almost universally read in 2 more, and read in some of the schools of the remaining 3. One of these is Providence, the largest city in the State.

Mr. Stockwell's report contains the following, on—

MORAL CULTURE.

While we acknowledge fully the labors of the teachers in this branch of their work, we can not also fail to recognize the existence of a lower moral tone in the community than formerly prevailed. For various reasons, some inseparable from our condition, and others the result of our own negligence, we have fallen upon a period when the public morals are at a low state. In this condition of affairs there is devolved upon the schools the greater necessity for lending all the aid in their power to the work of elevation.

School officers in their selection of teachers should exercise a wide discretion and seek for those individuals who can be relied on as efficient and faithful

1 The great value of this article has lead to its insertion almost as a whole on the following pages.

instructors in virtue. Teachers are called upon to throw more of devotion into their work, and to labor for the education of the heart as well as of the head. They must not be satisfied with keeping the letter of the law, but must live up to its spirit with a heartiness that shall carry before it all opposition and indifference. The accompanying special report to the general assembly was prepared, as its tenor indicates, in response to a resolution passed by that honorable body at the May session. I have thought it best to incorporate it in this report, in order that it might take a more permanent form, regarding it as of some future value, at least as showing the present status of our schools in reference to this great question.

To the Honorable the General Assembly:

I have the honor to present the following report in response to a resolution adopted by your honorable body at the May session, 1876, to wit:

"Resolved (the senate concurring), That the commissioner of public schools be instructed to report to the general assembly, at the next January session, whether any and what means are used in the public schools to implant and cultivate in the minds of all children therein the principles of morality and virtue,' as provided in section 6 of chapter 54 of the general statutes."

The chapter of the general statutes from which the quotation in the above resolution is made is the one which refers mainly to teachers, the conditions of their service, and their duties. The whole section referred to reads as follows: Every teacher shall aim to implant and cultivate in the minds of all children committed to his care the principles of morality and virtue.

From the tenor of this chapter, and especially of this section, coupled with the fact that the subject of morals is nowhere else alluded to in the laws relating to schools, and that such has always been the fact since the first enactment of the law, I have always supposed it to have been the purpose of the general assembly to place the subject of moral instruction chiefly in the hands of the individual teachers in preference to those of any official or body of officials.

In accordance, therefore, with these facts, we can not expect to find that welldefined system or comprehensive plan of instruction in this department that we should in reference to those subjects which are specifically placed under the control and direction of the school authorities. It needs, however, but a survey of the various reports of the school committees of the several cities and towns in the State for the last few years, and especially for the past year, to show conclusively that the school authorities throughout the State are deeply alive to the impor tance of the subject, that they are ready and anxious to take as advanced ground in the matter as the sentiment of their respective constituencies will permit, and that they are now exerting a constant influence in all directions, upon both teacher and pupil, in order to bring them up to a higher moral law.

Of the means used to secure moral and virtuous development, we naturally consider the Bible first. As a result of my inquiries on the subject I have received information from all but 2 of the 36 cities and towns in the State. I find that in 10 towns the reading of the Bible is required by a rule of the committee; that in 5 it is simply recommended by them; that in 6 either the reading of the Bible or a prayer, generally the Lord's prayer, is required, while in 1 town" some moral or religious exercise" is made obligatory. In the other 12 towns no rule or recommendation upon this specific subject exists.

Passing now from rule to practice, I find from the testimony of the several town superintendents that not only in those towns where there is a specific rule or recommendation, but also in all of the others it is almost the universal custom to open the daily session with some form of devotional exercises, of which the reading of the Scriptures forms generally an important part, and often the whole. As a result of my own observation I have noticed that it is now much more common than formerly for the teacher to read the Scripture selection alone, instead of making the exercise a concert or responsive one. This course I believe to be the best calculated to produce the desired impression upon the minds and hearts of the pupils. It will thus be seen that there are but few schools in our State wherein the pupils are not brought into daily contact with the Scriptures, the fountain of all truth, the source of all virtue, the essence of all morality.

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As every school is, in a certain sense, a minature government and the same principles underlie its existence and control its life as in the case of the nation, it is, of course, both the duty and the privilege of the teacher to call the attention of his pupils to these fundamental ideas and to impress them upon them as the mainspring of their actions.

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A reference to the rules and regulations" adopted by the several school committees will, in nearly all cases, I think, reveal the presence of one or more provisions

upon the matter of morals and behavior, and referring to both teacher and pupil. In illustration of this influence I have the pleasure of quoting one rule from each of the recent reports for two towns, situated quite remote from each other, and thus fairly representing the State as a whole.

The first: "It shall be the duty of the teachers to use their best endeavors to impress upon the minds of the youth committed to their care and instruction the principles of piety, justice, and a sacred regard for truth; love to their country, humanity, and universal benevolence; sobriety, industry, frugality, chastity, moderation, temperance, and those other virtues which are the ornament of human society and the basis upon which a republican constitution is founded; and they shall endeavor to lead their pupils, as their ages and capacities will allow, into a clear understanding of the tendencies of those virtues, to preserve and perfect a republican constitution and secure the blessings of liberty as well as promote their own happiness, and also to point out to them the evil tendency of the opposite vices."

The second: "Good morals being of the first importance, and essential to their progress in useful knowledge, pupils are enjoined to avoid all vulgarity and profanity, falsehood and deceit, and every wicked and disgraceful practice. They will be expected to conduct themselves in an orderly manner, both in and out of school; to be diligent and attentive to their studies; to treat each other kindly and politely in all their intercourse; to respect and obey their teachers, and to be punctual in their attendance."

From what precedes, it will be seen, I think, that the main force to be relied upon for the promotion of moral culture, is not so much a system of ethics or a well organized plan of instruction as the life which the teacher lives before his pupils. The most effective means for implanting the seeds of virtue and inculcating a sound morality are often the almost unconscious words and acts of the sincere and faithful teacher, which are, as it were, the spontaneous overflow of his own pure character.

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In recognition of this truth, and also of the consequent responsibility resting upon them, I am glad to be able to report that the school authorities of various towns are adopting more and more stringent rules in reference to the moral qualifications of their teachers. I hope the standard will be raised still higher, and they shall be sought for not merely the negative grace of a character without reproach, but the positive virtue of an aggressive morality.

From "Instruction to teachers," in the last school manual of Rhode Island, Mr. Stockwell sends the following:

Moral instruction should, by all means, be inculcated by the teacher, but yet so as to avoid all sectarian comment or bias.

The rule as laid down in the law of the State of Massachusetts (see text of law under "Massachusetts"), while it points out and inculcates the duty of the teacher to give moral instruction, is carefully drawn to avoid giving countenance to any attempt to impart sectarian instruction and may well be followed in this Commonwealth. [And adopted by it and by every other Commonweath in the United States.-Ed.]

Here follows extract from Massachusetts statutes, as quoted under Massachusetts" in "Rule of the city of Beverly."

Mr. Stockwell continues:

Reading the Bible and praying in schools.-The constitution and laws of the State give no power to a school committee, nor is there any authority in the State, by which the reading of the Bible or praying in school, either at the opening or at the close, can be commanded and enforced. On the other hand, the spirit of the constitution and the neglect of the law to specify any penalty for so opening or closing a school, or to appoint or allow any officer to take notice of such an act, do as clearly show that there can be no compulsory exclusion of such reading and praying from our public schools. The whole matter must be regulated by the consciences of the teachers and inhabitants of the district and by the general consent of the community. Statute law and school committees' regulations can enforce neither the use nor disuse of such devotional exercises. School committees may recomiend, but they can go no further.

It is believed to be the general sentiment of the people of Rhode Island that this matter shall be left to the conscience of the teacher; and it is expected that if he read the Bible as an opening exercise, he shall read such parts as are not controverted or disputed, but such as are purely or chiefly devotional; and if he pray at the opening of his school, he shall be very brief and conform as nearly to the