Excerpt from Twenty-Sixth Annual Report of the Board of Education: Together With the Twenty-Sixth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board In conformity with the law of 1837, the Board of Education beg leave to present this their Twenty-Sixth Annual Report. The melancholy event of civil war in our land has clearly developed three important facts. First, that in the midst of such a calamity, educational interests are liable, first of all, to suffer detriment. Second, that the true value of education to a community is revealed in a light not perceptible in ordinary times. Third, that the stability and prosperity of the State must be in proportion to the intelligence of its citizens. When business is widely diverted from its ordinary channels; and government, both State and National, is severely taxed to sustain itself; when in many States educational institutions are wholly, or in part, suspended, and their funds perverted to other purposes, the friends of human improvement will naturally inquire with increased interest, not to say solicitude, how far the cause of education has suffered in our own Commonwealth. To answer this inquiry, we need to know the sentiments and action of the people for whose benefit the Public School System has been so long sustained, and by whose pecuniary contributions and continued interest in its prosperity it must be preserved. That no disturbing circumstances have caused a withdrawal of pupils from the schools, is shown by the report in relation to attendance, as exhibited in the "Abstract of School Returns," accompanying the Secretary's Report. 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.