heroism, and art to a pitch never since attained--the age which boasted of Pericles and Praxitelles, of Plato and Aristides--perished from excess of its material civilization, deprived, as it was, of the vital element of true religion. Without this no nation can live, nor exhibit in its actions true grandeur, or nobility of character. There is among such a cruelty, a perfidy, and a beastly lust, which sooner or later bring on their decay and ruin. Look at ancient Rome, the once proud mistress of the world. In her palmiest days, amidst her thousands of marble palaces and triumphal arches, amidst her innumerable temples and altars, there was _not one to Mercy_. Nor was there, amidst all this barbaric display, a single _hospital_ for the poor of any age or condition. The Roman eagle was carried at the head of victorious legions to the "_Hither Inde_," and far beyond the depths of "_Hercynian forests_." Conquered kings marched at the head of subjugated nations to swell her triumphs; the wealth and strength of the then known world lay at her feet. Here was exhibited on a scale--the grandest the world ever saw or will see--the triumphs of "_material civilization_." Yet all this crumbled and fell before the rude hatchets of the long-haired "_barbarian hordes_," coming they knew not from whence, and going they knew not whither, only able to give the single answer, that they were "_the scourge of God_." Where, then, was the power to save? It was not in their material civilization, nor in their impotent and terrified legions. What all these could not do was accomplished by an unarmed man--Pope Leo the Great, speaking in the name of that mighty God, unknown alike to Attila and to Roman wisdom. That God still reigns, and Him it is the State would exclude from the Public Schools! thereby denying alike the lessons of history and its Christian duty. These United States, or no existing nation (relatively to the age), has never attained the point of artistic, æsthetic, social or material perfection of the Greco-Roman States; yet they fell, as I have just said, to slavery and ruin, not so much from the blows of the barbarians, as from the dissolving influence of a _material civilization_, resulting inevitably in public and private impotence and demoralization. Only keep up the present godless system of State education, and depend on it, as sure as effect follows cause, every species of villany and defilement will flood the land. It is certain that all education which is not based on religion is heathenish, and must prove destructive in the end. It will destroy the very people whom it was expected to save. It will consume them as a fire.