Excerpt from Paris Universal Exposition MDCCCLXXVIII: The Catalogue of the United States Collective Exhibition of Education I have no conception of any manner in which the popular republican institutions under which we live could possibly be preserved, if early education were not freely furnished to all, by public law, in such forms that all shall gladly avail themselves of it. As the present tendency of things almost everywhere is to extend popular power, the peace and well-being of society require, at the same time, a corresponding extension of popular knowledge. - Webster. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.