1st. No “sectarianism” in our common schools; and, therefore, “not one dollar” to our present system of schools, because they are sectarian.
2d. “Not one dollar” to “pagan” schools, in which God is ignored.
3d. “Not one dollar” to “atheistical” schools, in which God is denied in the name of “science falsely so-called.”
We now turn to consider the prophecy in which the President warns the American people of its future dangers:
“If we are to have another Contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the Dividing Line will not be Mason and Dixon’s, but between Patriotism and Intelligence on the one side, and Superstition, Ambition, and Ignorance On the other.”
What is meant by superstition?
Formerly it meant seeking for power or knowledge, by dealing with the impure spirits.
Does the President mean to warn us against the delusions and uncleanness of modern spiritism? If so, we are agreed.
But we do not really suppose that the President means any such thing. What does he mean?
We find in the dictionary four other meanings of the word which he has used. Superstition means “an excessive reverence or fear of that which is unknown or mysterious.” But, we observe no such phenomenon among our people; if anything, rather the reverse. Or it means “The worship of false gods.” We see no signs of this except in the “Joss Houses” of San Francisco. Nor do we behold any great belief “in the agency of superior powers in certain extraordinary or singular events, or in omens, or prognostics.” Nor, further, do we behold any “excessive nicety or scrupulous exactness,” as an alarming feature of our present moral condition. There remains but one meaning (and this, we are persuaded, is the sense which the President intended to convey): “Especially, an ignorant or irrational worship of the supreme Deity.”