There is another and a far different class of persons who take issue with us upon this question, and for whom we entertain a perfect respect--first, because they treat the subject with evident fairness and commendable civility; and secondly, because from their stand-point, there would appear to be much good reason in their objections to our claim. It gives us very great pleasure to use all our honest endeavors to remove their difficulties. This class is represented by the editorial articles which appeared in _The Chicago Advance, The Troy Daily Press_, and several other papers, criticising the article of _The Educational Monthly_. The objections may be summed up as follows: _First_, (and the most important.) That denominational education would prevent the complete amalgamation or "unification" of American citizenship, and tend to increase sectarian bitterness, to the prejudice of republican institutions. _Secondly_. That it would destroy the harmony and efficiency of the general school system. _Thirdly._ That the Catholic people are richer in the jewels of the Roman matron, _their children_, than they are in the _images of Caesar_, the coin of the country! and that therefore they would draw from the common fund an amount much in excess of the taxes paid by them; which would not be just. We shall candidly consider these objections in the order in which we have stated them. As to the first: It would be fortunate, in a temporal point of view, if all the people were of one mind in religion, especially if they happen to have the true faith; inasmuch as nothing so conduces to the general harmony and good will as the total absence of all religious strife. But we see that such a state of things cannot be hoped for here. Not only is the community divided into Protestants, Catholics, and a large body of citizens professing no faith at all, but the Protestant community itself is subdivided into innumerable conflicting sects. In defiance of any system of public education, these various religious organizations will always be widely separated from each other, and from the Catholic Church, on questions of doctrinal belief. The issue then remains nakedly before us, Shall public education be entirely divorced from revealed religion, and shall we commit the morals of our children to the saving influences of a little "_reading, writing, and arithmetic;_" or, shall we have them educated in some form or another of practical Christianity? The arguments on this point have been so fully elaborated in our articles heretofore published, that it would be superfluous to repeat them now. We may, however, recall to mind the conclusive evidence afforded us of the correctness of our theory by the actual experience of such governments as those of England, France, Prussia, and Austria; under which, as we have shown in those articles, the denominational system is carried out to the fullest extent, producing harmony, instead of discord, in