1842.] His incurable Passion. 329 to forego the incense offered to her charms. The sacrifice was in vain, save to her own conscience, for Ugo, her husband, was harsh and jealous, and so little attached to her memory that he married shortly after her death; while her daughter, Ogiera, so far forgot the maternal example, even in her mother's life-time, that the honor of the family obliged them to shut her up in a convent. Thus the celebrity of Laura arises from a homage which it was weakness, perhaps worse, to allow, while her virtues were inadequate to insure her domestic happiness, and most certainly, alone, would never have preserved her from oblivion. So strange are the caprices of fame and fortune, so uncertain and inconsequent the judgments of mankind! This passion exercised a powerful influence over the character of Petrarch for good and for evil. Increasing the morbid sensibility of genius, it embittered his life and enervated his intellect. Hence he left behind him no great work -hence his frequent change of residence-his continual infirmity of purpose-his visionary melancholy and unmanly lamentations. For more than twenty years, his days and nights were wasted in the harassing vicissitudes of hope and fear and doubt and jealousy and despair, and the feeling of the hour burst from his overworn spirit in short compositions, as sighs and tears are wrung from us by excruciating pain. Confirming and augmenting his weakness by indulgence, it at length became habitual-an incurable chronical affectionand the undue excitability of his imagination was nourished by solitude and meditative habits at the expense of his other faculties. By giving himself up, however, to this predominant feeling-contemplating perpetually one all-absorbing image-and seeking new turns of expression for the same constantly recurring train of thought, he acquired, with the reality and depth and duration of his sufferings, the power of describing them so truly that we partake them. Aware of the madness and humiliation of loving without being loved, he yet wanted fortitude to cut out the ulcer by the roots; and even on the verge of the grave, though thankful that his mistress had not allowed their mutual salvation to be perilled, he was yet tormented by the doubt whether her heart was ever his.* * See Foscolo's essays on the love and character of Petrarch. His ideas and sometimes his language have been freely used. It is not all, however, nor even the greater part of Petrarch's amatory poetry that bears the stamp of truth and nature. Much of it was probably written more from vanity than love. Nor is every age alike favorable to genius of the same order. There are fashions in literature as well as in politics, and the wonderful events of the last half century have so agitated the world, that there is now an universal craving for powerful emotion. The public taste has swung round from Metastasio to Alfieri, and Petrarch lost favor, while Dante gained it. Hence the severity of modern criticism has been as extreme as the blindness of ancient admiration bear witness Sismondi, Torti and Campbell, any of whom must have been found guilty of literary blasphemy, Tiraboschi being judge. But we must take our leave of Petrarch and Laura and our author. In parting from the latter, his own consciousness that another and better biographer of Petrarch is to be looked for, (p. 424,) disarms censure of all bitterness, and we separate from him as from one of uncongenial temper, who has been our travelling companion through a beautiful and interesting country: we have quarrelled with him all the way, and yet take leave of him with regret. 1842.] Common School System of Connecticut. 331 ART. III.-1. Report of a Select Committee of the Legislature of Connecticut, May, 1838. 2. An Act to provide for the better supervision of Common Schools, May, 1838. 3. Address of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools, June, 1838. 4. First, second and third Annual Reports of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools, and of the Secretary of the Board for 1839, 1840, and 1841. 5. Report of the Secretary of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools, on the History and Condition of the School Law, 1841. 6. Report of the Standing Committee on Education, on the expenses of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools, May, 1841. 7. The Public Statute Law of Connecticut respecting Common Schools, revised, May, 1841. 8. Connecticut Common School Journal, vols. 1, 2, and 3. THERE is, perhaps, no subject at the present time more deeply interesting to this country, and none which occupies a greater share of the attention of the philosophic statesman, than that of general education. It is of such vital importance to the permanent existence of our institutions, and is so closely interwoven with the basis on which they rest, that no system of legislation or of public policy can be considered adequate to our wants, that does not contain ample and liberal provisions for the support and improvement of our common schools. We shall offer no apology to our readers for asking their attention to this important subject, and shall endeavor to show in this article, what has been done, and what is still doing for these time-hallowed and valuable institutions in the state of Connecticut; where, according to the late returns of the marshal of the United States, elementary education is more generally diffused than in any other state of the union. There is much in the history of her common school system, that is profitable both for warning and imitation. Prior to 1650 there does not appear to have been any gene ral enactments on the subject, although, according to one of the documents named at the head of this article, to which we shall have occasion frequently to refer, provision was made by the first settlements and towns for the support of schools and the building of school houses. Humble as were these structures, yet in them were first planted and nurtured into hardy growth and strength, the seeds of virtue and intelligence, which have not only filled her own borders with the trophies of industry, enterprise, patriotism, and religion, but have made it a name and a praise to have been born there. In 1650 the original colony of Connecticut adopted a "body of laws" from which we make a few extracts. "Forasmuch as the good education of children is of singular behoof and benefit to any commonwealth; and whereas many parents and masters are too indulgent and negligent of their duty in that kind: "It is therefore ordered by this court and the authority thereof, that the selectmen of every town in the several precincts and quarters where they dwell, shall have a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbors, to see, first, that none of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families, as not to endeavor to teach, by themselves or others, their children and apprentices so much learning, as may enable them perfectly to read the English tongue, and knowledge of the capital laws, upon penalty of twenty shillings for each neglect therein; also, that all masters of families do, once a week, at least, catechize their children and servants in the grounds and principles of religion, and if any be unable to do so much, that then, at the least, they procure such children or apprentices to learn some short orthodox catechism, without book, that they may be able to answer to the questions that shall be propounded to them out of such catechisms by their parents or masters, or any of the selectmen, where they shall call them to a trial of what they have learned in this kind; and further, that all parents and masters do breed and bring up their children and apprentices in some honest lawful calling, labor or employment, either in husbandry or some other trade profitable for themselves and the commonwealth, if they will not nor cannot train them up in learning to fit them for higher employments; and if any of the selectmen, after admonition by them given to such masters of families, shall find them still negligent of their duty in the particulars aforementioned, whereby children and servants become rude, stubborn, and unruly, the said selectmen, with the help of two magistrates, shall take such children or apprentices from them, and place them with some masters for years, boys till they come to twenty-one and girls eighteen years of age complete, which will more strictly look unto and force them to submit unto govern 1842.] Common School System of Connecticut. 333 ment, according to the rules of this order, if by fair means and former instructions they will not be drawn unto it." Again, in the same "body of laws," under the head of "schools," we find as follows: "It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the scriptures, as in former times, keeping them in an unknown tongue, so, in these latter times, by persuading them from the use of tongues, so that, at least, the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded with false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers; and that learning may not be buried in the grave of our forefathers, in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors : "It is therefore ordered by this court, and the authority thereof, that every township within this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith appoint one within their town, to teach all such children, as shall resort to him, to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as the major part of those who order the prudentials of the town shall appoint; provided, that those who send their children be not oppressed by paying much more than they can have them taught for in other towns. "And it is further ordered, that where any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families or householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the masters thereof being able to instruct youths so far as they may be fitted for the university, and if any town neglect the performance hereof, above one year, then every such town shall pay five pounds per annum, to the next such school, till they shall perform this order." We cannot forbear stopping for a moment to commend the sagacity and wisdom of the men who engrafted these provisions into their "body of laws," and to honor that noble, patriotic feeling which clothed the public authority with power to compel the indolent and vicious parent or guardian to instruct the children under his charge, to the end that learning might not be buried in the grave of their forefathers. They were but a mere handful, scattered over a boundless wilderness. They were surrounded by hostile savages, and were often obliged to leave their implements of husbandry in the fields, and their labors half finished, to defend themselves, their wives and children from their attacks. The labors of the day were hardly sufficient to provide for them the necessary means of subsistence, yet they remembered they were men, that they |