of school.

There is not much in a group of children coming out of school. So
one might say at first sight, but a little reflection will show
the fallacy of the remark. One would naturally suppose that in
every well-regulated State of antiquity measures would have been
taken to ensure the education of all classes of the community,
but such was not the case. The Spartans under Lycurgus were
educated, but their education was mainly a physical one, and
it did not reach the lower orders. The education of Greece
generally, even when the Greek mind had attained its highest
culture, was still largely physical--philosophers, statesmen,
and poets priding themselves as much upon their athletic feats
as upon their intellectual endowments. The schools of Rome were
private, and were confined to the patricians. There was a change
for the better when Christianity became the established religion.
Public schools were recommended by a council in the sixth
century, but rather as a means of teaching the young the
rudiments of their faith, under the direction of the clergy, than
as a means of giving them general instruction. It was not until
the close of the twelfth century that a council ordained the
establishment of grammar schools in cathedrals for the gratuitous
instruction of the poor; and not until a century later that the
ordinance was carried into effect at Lyons. Luther found time,
amid his multitudinous labors, to interest himself in popular
education; and, in 1527, he drew up, with the aid of Melanchthon,
what is known as the Saxon School System. The seed was sown, but
the Thirty Years' War prevented its coming to a speedy maturity.
In the middle of the last century several of the German States
passed laws making it compulsory upon parents to send their