We boast, as we have cause to do, of our position as free American citizens, and we rejoice in the powerful effect the domestic altar has upon our national character. But we are compelled to mingle reproach with our boast, and regret with our joy, that as a nation we should in any wise neglect that most important of all teaching――the teaching of character. In this we must acknowledge that we are deficient, and that the blessings of the domestic altar are not as profitable, nor as extensively diffused as they might be. What we lack is systematic effort in the formation of character. And judging from our want of systematic effort in this teaching, and our indifference about it, the supposition might be indulged that we are not aware of the importance and necessity of holding up character before the youthful mind as a distinctive part of education. Our practice would seem to indicate that we regard character as a thing that comes of itself, or that it is induced by the moral and mental training which the youth obtains at home, and at the schools. It is greatly to the disadvantage of the youth that, in all the departments of study in which he engages, there is not sufficient effort made to make him what he must be if he would rise to eminence in after life. It is greatly to his disadvantage that he is not taught in clear, and distinct, and systematic terms, what the American character is, and of what elements it is composed, and what he must be if he would carry out that character as it should be carried out in active life. The boy should be pointed forward to his position of responsibility as a man. He should be pointed to the period when he must take his place amid the busy multitudes of the world, and wrestle as his fathers have done for the place of success which he hopes to attain. He must have a place at the social circle, and he should be taught how he shall adorn it. He must be taught what he must be in private life, that he may do honor to his domestic relations. He must be taught his duty as a citizen, that, in the performance of that duty, he may become eminent, and that society and the state may be the better for his having lived in them. And he must be shown what he must be in religion, that he may fulfil his obligations both to God and man, and that his religious character may have its influence upon the community in which he dwells. In a systematic course of teaching for the developement of character in these several departments, we have to acknowledge our deficiency. And although the domestic altar stands pre-eminent in our midst, and operates powerfully upon the American mind, it is by no means what it ought to be, and its influence upon developing character is far less than more systematic effort would make it. And this defect is a serious impediment in the path of the American boy. He is prepared to act out the character of the Greek and the Roman, because the elements of that character are combined in his.