public." Mr.Von Holst and Mr. Trent seem to think, that we can exalt the Constitution to too high a place in our regard, that we can make of it a kind of fetich. The former maintains that the first question we ought to consider when weighing a measure, is not whether we have the constitutional right to pass it, but whether or not we desire it, and then — does the Constitution prohibit it? And in passing upon the last question, he would not have us to scrutinize too closely — we are not expected to use a microscope. Such a course may do very well for some forms of government but certainly not for ours. He seems to forget that our govern ment is one of limited powers — that all powers not delegated are reserved to the States or to the people. Indeed his ideas upon this subject are fundamentally at vari ance with our own. The idea of our es teeming the Constitution too highly, when we remember that the national government, with all of its powers and all of its limitations, — indeed, its very life-blood, depends upon it! It is refreshing to turn from the crude ideas of our government, which such doc trinaires as Mr. Von Holst, and men who think like him hold, to the true doctrine pre sented by Dr. Curry. Says the latter: "The Union being an instrument to accomplish certain specified ends, he is an enemy who perverts it from its original purpose, and he is the true friend who keeps it within pre scribed metes and bounds, who preserves the original intact, who resists and defeats all infractions, and no man abstained more carefully than Calhoun from violations of the Constitution or was more forward to arrest them." The imperialists of the present day, who seem to have the same light regard for the Constitution which characterized Mr. Von Holst, should study afresh the speeches and writings of Mr. Calhoun. Though not perhaps strictly within the scope of my subject, yet it is interesting to observe what were Mr. Calhoun's ideas on the subject of education. He seemed to think
that the people of the North did not know so well how to train children as those of the South, — he contended that the former educated the head at the expense of the body. He claimed that the physical system should first be developed — that out-of-door sports should be encouraged, — that the cultivation of the mind should follow after obtaining health and strength of body. On the occasion of a visit to the West, where one of his boys was attending college, he told some of the professors what his ideas were on the subject of the management and train ing of boys. He seemed to believe pretty much in allowing them to take care of them selves — to grow up without control. He was opposed to restraining them and con tended that it was best not to exercise much supervision over them. His position with reference to the order of development, I think is well taken, but as to the second, the question of discipline and control, opinions differ. After all, however, the maxim of the old writers was a pretty good one, — Ne sutor ultra erepidam. While on the subject of education, I may remark that Josiah Ouincy, in his charming book, " Figures of the Past," speaks in high terms of the ability and skill displayed by the daughter of Mr. Calhoun in the discussion of some political topic when he met her on one occasion. He goes on to pay a high compliment to the better class of young women in the South, so far as educational training and in tellectual equipment were concerned. He said that our fashionable ladies of that day were more highly cultivated than the same class in the North. " The fashionable ladies of the South had received the education of political thought and discussion to a degree unknown among their sisters of the North. ' She can read bad French novels and play a few tunes on the piano,' said a cynical friend of mine concerning a young lady who had completed the costly education of a fashionable school in New York; ' but, upon my word, she does not know whether she is
