Some of these constitutional enactments are most magniloquently worded, but not always with precise grammatical correctness.  That for the famous Bay State of Massachusetts runs as follows:  “Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of this commonwealth, to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, and of all seminaries of them, especially the University at Cambridge, public schools and grammar schools, in the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions by rewards and immunities for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in all their dealings; sincerity, good humor, and all social affections and generous sentiments among the people.”  I must confess that, had the words of that little constitutional enactment been made known to me before I had seen its practical results, I should not have put much faith in it.  Of all the public schools I have ever seen—­by public schools I mean schools for the people at large maintained at public cost—­those of Massachusetts are, I think, the best.  But of all the educational enactments which I ever read, that of the same State is, I should say, the worst.  In Texas now, of which as a State the people of Massachusetts do not think much, they have done it better:  “A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislature of this State to make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of public schools.”  So say the Texans; but then the Texans had the advantage of a later experience than any which fell in the way of the constitution-makers of Massachusetts.

There is something of the magniloquence of the French style—­of the liberty, equality, and fraternity mode of eloquence—­in the preambles of most of these constitutions, which, but for their success, would have seemed to have prophesied loudly of failure.  Those of New York and Pennsylvania are the least so, and that of Massachusetts by far the most violently magniloquent.  They generally commence by thanking God for the present civil and religious liberty of the people, and by declaring that all men are born free and equal.  New York and Pennsylvania, however, refrain from any such very general remarks.