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Desilets v. Clearview Regional Board of Education

SYLLABUS

(This syllabus is not part of the opinion of the Court. It has been prepared by the Office of the Clerk for the convenience of the reader. It has been neither reviewed nor approved by the Supreme Court. Please note that, in the interests of brevity, portions of any opinion may not have been summarized).

PER CURIAM

Brien Desilets began attending Clearview Junior High School in September 1987 as a seventh grader. In November of that year, he became involved in the school newspaper, known as the Pioneer Press. The newspaper was an extracurricular activity.

In January 1989, Brien submitted movie reviews on two R-rated films (Mississippi Burning and Rain Man) for publication in the newspaper. The school principal prevented the reviews from being published because the movies were R-rated.

Brien's mother, Patricia, brought suit on his behalf claiming that the school's censorship had violated her son's constitutional rights. The Chancery Division in Gloucester County held that the actions of school officials violated the state constitution but not the federal constitution. The school board and the school officials appealed. In affirming, the Appellate Division held that the censorship violated Brien's First Amendment rights under the federal constitution.

The Supreme Court granted the petition for certification filed by the Board of Education and the school officials.

HELD: The judgment of the Appellate Division is affirmed, substantially for the reasons expressed in the majority opinion below. The Court also determines that the school, as a non-public forum, failed to prove that it had established a policy related to legitimate pedagogical concerns.

1. Whether a school newspaper is a "public forum" can determine whether attempts to limit or control the views expressed in the newspaper violate constitutional rights. The Appellate Division correctly concluded that the Pioneer Press was not a public forum within the [***3] definition of the United States Supreme Court. (pp. 3-6)

2. Speech in a non-public forum may be subject to reasonable restrictions. The United States Supreme Court has said that school officials may exercise editorial control over the style and content of student speech so long as their actions are reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns. The Court believes that it does not need to reach the question of whether there is a significant distinction between "subject-matter" and "content or style" in determining the scope and application of educational policy because the Board and the school officials failed to prove that a legitimate policy had been established. (pp. 6-11)

3. The difficulty in resolving the basic question of whether there was an established and legitimate educational policy in place points up the need to use administrative expertise - in this case, the Commissioner of Education - in the initial stage of the review process. (pp. 11-15)

The judgment of the Appellate Division is AFFIRMED.

JUSTICES HANDLER, O'HERN, and GARIBALDI join in the Court's opinion in its entirety. JUSTICES CLIFFORD and STEIN join in all but Part III (initial review by Commissioner of Education) of the opinion. JUSTICE POLLOCK has filed a separate concurring and dissenting opinion in which CHIEF JUSTICE WILENTZ joins.

POLLOCK, J., concurring and dissenting, is of the view that although he would affirm the judgment below because the evidence of the school policy was vague and inconsistent, he believes that the courts are required to accord more respect to the decisions of the school officials than the majority does. He also believes that the Commissioner of Education could serve a more useful role by reviewing the policies of local boards and rendering declaratory orders pursuant to N.J.A.C. 6:24-2.1 prior to the parties resorting to litigation.

Robert A. Muccilli argued the cause for appellants (Capehart & Scatchard, attorneys; Alan R. Schmoll, of counsel).

William H. Buckman, on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, argued the cause for respondent.

Gregory J. Schwartz submitted a brief on behalf of amicus curiae, Student Press Law Center (Porzio, Bromberg & Newman, attorneys).

Justices CLIFFORD and STEIN do not join in Point III of this opinion. POLLOCK, J., concurring and dissenting. Chief Justice WILENTZ joins in this opinion. Chief Justice WILENTZ, and Justices CLIFFORD, HANDLER, POLLOCK, O'HERN, GARIBALDI and STEIN. Justices CLIFFORD and STEIN. Chief Justice WILENTZ, and Justice POLLOCK.


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Rh now, my brother, I must go aside a little for a moment.—Hand me the guitar.'

Surprised and rejoiced thus far at the unanticipated newness, and the sweet lucidness and simplicity of Isabel's narrating, as compared with the obscure and marvellous revelations of the night before, and all eager for her to continue her story in the same limpid manner, but remembering into what a wholly tumultuous and unearthly frame of mind the melodies of her guitar had formerly thrown him; Pierre now, in handing the instrument to Isabel, could not entirely restrain something like a look of half-regret, accompanied rather strangely with a half-smile of gentle humour. It did not pass unnoticed by his sister, who receiving the guitar, looked up into his face with an expression which would almost have been arch and playful, were it not for the ever-abiding shadows cast from her infinite hair into her unfathomed eyes, and redoubledly shot back again from them.

'Do not be alarmed, my brother; and do not smile at me; I am not going to play the Mystery of Isabel to thee to-night. Draw nearer to me now. Hold the light near to me.'

So saying she loosened some ivory screws of the guitar, so as to open a peep lengthwise through its interior.

'Now hold it thus, my brother; thus; and see what thou wilt see; but wait one instant till I hold the lamp.' So saying, as Pierre held the instrument before him as directed, Isabel held the lamp so as to cast its light through the round sounding-hole into the heart of the guitar.

'Now, Pierre, now.'

Eagerly Pierre did as he was bid; but somehow felt disappointed, and yet surprised at what he saw. He saw the word Isabel, quite legibly but still fadedly gilded upon a part of one side of the interior, where it made a projecting curve.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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208 'A very curious place thou hast chosen, Isabel, wherein to have the ownership of the guitar engraved. How did ever any person get in there to do it, I should like to know?'

The girl looked surprisedly at him a moment; then took the instrument from him, and looked into it herself. She put it down, and continued.

'I see, my brother, thou dost not comprehend. When one knows everything about any object, one is too apt to suppose that the slightest hint will suffice to throw it quite as open to any other person. I did not have the name gilded there, my brother.'

'How?' cried Pierre.

'The name was gilded there when I first got the guitar, though then I did not know it. The guitar must have been expressly made for someone of the name of Isabel; because the lettering could only have been put there before the guitar was put together.'

'Go on—hurry,' said Pierre.

'Yes, one day, after I had owned it a long time, a strange whim came into me. Thou know'st that it is not at all uncommon for children to break their dearest play-things in order to gratify a half-crazy curiosity to find out what is in the hidden heart of them. So it is with children, sometimes. And, Pierre, I have always been, and feel that I must always continue to be a child, though I should grow to three-score years and ten. Seized with this sudden whim, I unscrewed the part I showed thee, and peeped in, and saw "Isabel." Now I have not yet told thee, that from as early a time as I can remember, I have nearly always gone by the name of Bell. And at the particular time I now speak of, my knowledge of general and trivial matters was sufficiently advanced to make it quite a familiar thing to me, that Bell was often a diminutive for Isabella, or Isabel. It was therefore no very strange affair,

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Rh that considering my age, and other connected circumstances at the time, I should have instinctively associated the word Isabel, found in the guitar, with my own abbreviated name, and so be led into all sorts of fancyings. They return upon me now. Do not speak to me.'

She leaned away from him, toward the occasionally illuminated casement, in the same manner as on the previous night; and for a few moments seemed struggling with some wild bewilderment. But now she suddenly turned, and fully confronted Pierre with all the wonderfulness of her most surprising face.

'I am called woman, and thou, man, Pierre; but there is neither man nor woman about it. Why should I not speak out to thee? There is no sex in our immaculateness. Pierre, the secret name in the guitar even now thrills me through and through. Pierre, think! think! Oh, canst thou not comprehend? see it?—what I mean, Pierre? The secret name in the guitar thrills me, thrills me, whirls me, whirls me; so secret, wholly hidden, yet constantly carried about in it; unseen, unsuspected, always vibrating to the hidden heart-strings—broken heart-strings; oh, my mother, my mother, my mother!'

As the wild plaints of Isabel pierced into his bosom's core, they carried with them the first inkling of the extraordinary conceit, so vaguely and shrinkingly hinted at in her till now entirely unintelligible words.

She lifted her dry burning eyes of long-fringed fire to him.

'Pierre—I have no slightest proof—but the guitar was hers, I know, I feel it was. Say, did I not last night tell thee, how it first sung to me upon the bed, and answered me, without my once touching it? and how it always sung to me and answered me, and soothed and loved me,—Hark now; thou shalt hear my mother's spirit.'

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210 She carefully scanned the strings, and tuned them carefully; then placed the guitar in the casement-bench, and knelt before it; and in low, sweet, and changefully modulated notes, so barely audible, that Pierre bent over to catch them; breathed the word mother, mother, mother! There was profound silence for a time; when suddenly, to the lowest and least audible note of all, the magical untouched guitar responded with a quick spark of melody, which in the following hush, long vibrated and subsidingly tingled through the room; while to his augmented wonder, he now espied, quivering along the metallic strings of the guitar, some minute scintillations, seemingly caught from the instrument's close proximity to the occasionally irradiated window.

The girl still kept kneeling; but an altogether unwonted expression suddenly overcast her whole countenance. She darted one swift glance at Pierre; and then with a single toss of her hand tumbled her unrestrained locks all over her, so that they tent-wise invested her whole kneeling form close to the floor, and yet swept the floor with their wild redundancy. Never Saya of Limeean girl, at dim mass in St. Dominic's cathedral, so completely muffled the human figure. To Pierre, the deep oaken recess of the double-casement, before which Isabel was kneeling, seemed now the immediate vestibule of some awful shrine, mystically revealed through the obscurely open window, which ever and anon was still softly illumined by the mild heat-lightnings and ground-lightnings that wove their wonderfulness without, in the unsearchable air of that ebonly warm and most noiseless summer night.

Some unsubduable word was on Pierre's lip, but a sudden voice from out the veil bade him be silent.

'Mother—mother—mother!'

Again, after a preluding silence, the guitar as magically

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Rh responded as before; the sparks quivered along its strings; and again Pierre felt as in the immediate presence of the spirit.

'Shall I, mother?—Art thou ready? Wilt thou tell me?—Now? Now?'

These words were lowly and sweetly murmured in the same way with the word mother, being changefully varied in their modulations, till at the last now, the magical guitar again responded; and the girl swiftly drew it to her beneath her dark tent of hair. In this act, as the long curls swept over the strings of the guitar, the strange sparks—still quivering there—caught at those attractive curls; the entire casement was suddenly and wovenly illumined; then waned again; while now, in the succeeding dimness, every downward undulating wave and billow of Isabel's tossed tresses gleamed here and there like a tract of phosphorescent midnight sea; and, simultaneously, all the four winds of the world of melody broke loose, and again as on the previous night, only in a still more subtile, and wholly inexplicable way, Pierre felt himself surrounded by ten thousand sprites and gnomes, and his whole soul was swayed and tossed by supernatural tides; and again he heard the wondrous, rebounding, chanted words:

III

Almost deprived of consciousness by the spell flung over him by the marvellous girl, Pierre unknowingly gazed away from her, as on vacancy; and when at last stillness

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212 had once more fallen upon the room—all except the stepping—and he recovered his self-possession, and turned to look where he might now be, he was surprised to see Isabel composedly, though avertedly, seated on the bench; the longer and fuller tresses of her now ungleaming hair flung back, and the guitar quietly leaning in the corner.

He was about to put some unconsidered question to her, but she half anticipated it by bidding him, in a low, but nevertheless almost authoritative tone, not to make any allusion to the scene he had just beheld.

He paused, profoundly thinking to himself, and now felt certain that the entire scene, from the first musical invocation of the guitar, must have unpremeditatedly proceeded from a sudden impulse in the girl, inspired by the peculiar mood into which the preceding conversation, and especially the handling of the guitar under such circumstances, had irresistibly thrown her.

But that certain something of the preternatural in the scene, of which he could not rid his mind:—the, so to speak, voluntary and all but intelligent responsiveness of the guitar—its strangely scintillating strings—the so suddenly glorified head of Isabel; altogether, these things seemed not at the time entirely produced by customary or natural causes. To Pierre's dilated senses Isabel seemed to swim in an electric fluid; the vivid buckler of her brow seemed as a magnetic plate. Now first this night was Pierre made aware of what, in the superstitiousness of his rapt enthusiasm, he could not help believing was an extraordinary physical magnetism in Isabel. And—as it were derived from this marvellous quality thus imputed to her—he now first became vaguely sensible of a certain still more marvellous power in the girl over himself and his most interior thoughts and motions;—a power so hovering upon the confines of the invisible world, that it seemed more inclined that way than this;—a power

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Rh which not only seemed irresistibly to draw him toward Isabel, but to draw him away from another quarter—wantonly as it were, and yet quite ignorantly and unintendingly; and, besides, without respect apparently to anything ulterior, and yet again, only under cover of drawing him to her. For over all these things, and interfusing itself with the sparkling electricity in which she seemed to swim, was an ever-creeping and condensing haze of ambiguities. Often, in after-times with her, did he recall this first magnetic night, and would seem to see that she then had bound him to her by an extraordinary atmospheric spell—both physical and spiritual—which henceforth it had become impossible for him to break, but whose full potency he never recognised till long after he had become habituated to its sway. This spell seemed one with that Pantheistic master-spell, which eternally locks in mystery and in muteness the universal subject world, and the physical electricalness of Isabel seemed reciprocal with the heat-lightnings and the ground-lightnings nigh to which it had first become revealed to Pierre. She seemed moulded from fire and air, and vivified at some Voltaic pile of August thunder-clouds heaped against the sunset.

The occasional sweet simplicity, and innocence, and humbleness of her story; her often serene and open aspect; her deep-seated, but mostly quiet, unobtrusive sadness, and that touchingness of her less unwonted tone and air;–these only the more signalised and contrastingly emphasised the profounder, subtler, and more mystic part of her. Especially did Pierre feel this, when after another silent interval, she now proceeded with her story in a manner so gently confiding, so entirely artless, so almost peasant-like in its simplicity, and dealing in some details so little sublimated in themselves, that it seemed well-nigh impossible that this unassuming maid should be the same

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214 dark, regal being who had but just now bade Pierre be silent in so imperious a tone, and around whose wondrous temples the strange electric glory had been playing. Yet not very long did she now thus innocently proceed, ere, at times, some fainter flashes of her electricalness came from her, but only to be followed by such melting, human, and most feminine traits as brought all his soft, enthusiast tears into the sympathetic but still unshedding eyes of Pierre.

IV

'Thou rememberest, my brother, my telling thee last night, how the—the—thou knowest what I mean—that, there,'—avertedly pointing to the guitar; 'thou rememberest how it came into my possession. But perhaps I did not tell thee, that the peddler said he had got it in barter from the servants of a great house some distance from the place where I was then residing.'

Pierre signed his acquiescence, and Isabel proceeded:

'Now, at long though stated intervals, that man passed the farm-house in his trading route between the small towns and villages. When I discovered the gilding in the guitar, I kept watch for him; for though I truly felt persuaded that Fate had the dispensing of her own secrets in her own good time; yet I also felt persuaded that in some cases Fate drops us one little hint, leaving our own minds to follow it up, so that we of ourselves may come to the grand secret in reserve. So I kept diligent watch for him; and the next time he stopped, without permitting him at all to guess my motives, I contrived to steal out of him what great house it was from which the guitar had come. And, my brother, it was the mansion of Saddle Meadows.'

Pierre started, and the girl went on:

'Yes, my brother, Saddle Meadows; "old General

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Rh Glendinning's place," he said; "but the old hero's long dead and gone now; and—the more's the pity—so is the young General, his son, dead and gone; but then there is a still younger grandson General left; that family always keep the title and the name a-going; yes, even to the surname,—Pierre. Pierre Glendinning was the white-haired old General's name, who fought in the old French and Indian wars; and Pierre Glendinning is his young great-grandson's name." Thou mayst well look at me so, my brother;—yes, he meant thee, thee, my brother.'

'But the guitar—the guitar!' cried Pierre—'how came the guitar openly at Saddle Meadows, and how came it to be bartered away by servants? Tell me that, Isabel!'

'Do not put such impetuous questions to me, Pierre; else thou mayst recall the old—maybe it is the evil spell upon me. I cannot precisely and knowingly answer thee. I could surmise; but what are surmises worth? Oh, Pierre, better, a million times, and far sweeter are mysteries than surmises: though the mystery be unfathomable, it is still the unfathomableness of fulness; but the surmise, that is but shallow and unmeaning emptiness.'

'But this is the most inexplicable point of all. Tell me, Isabel; surely thou must have thought something about this thing.'

'Much, Pierre, very much; but only about the mystery of it—nothing more. Could I, I would not now be fully told, how the guitar came to be at Saddle Meadows, and came to be bartered away by the servants of Saddle Meadows. Enough, that it found me out, and came to me, and spoke and sung to me, and soothed me, and has been everything to me.'

She paused a moment; while vaguely to his secret self Pierre revolved these strange revealings; but now he was all attention again as Isabel resumed.

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216 'I now held in my mind's hand the clew; my brother. But I did not immediately follow it further up. Sufficient to me in my loneliness was the knowledge, that I now knew where my father's family was to be found. As yet not the slightest intention of ever disclosing myself to them, had entered my mind. And assured as I was, that for obvious reasons, none of his surviving relatives could possibly know me, even if they saw me, for what I really was, I felt entire security in the event of encountering any of them by chance. But my unavoidable displacements and migrations from one house to another, at last brought me within twelve miles of Saddle Meadows. I began to feel an increasing longing in me; but side by side with it, a new-born and competing pride,—yes, pride, Pierre. Do my eyes flash? They belie me, if they do not. But it is no common pride, Pierre; for what has Isabel to be proud of in this world? It is the pride of—of—a too, too longing, loving heart, Pierre—the pride of lasting suffering and grief, my brother! Yes, I conquered the great longing with the still more powerful pride, Pierre; and so I would not now be here, in this room,—nor wouldst thou ever have received any line from me; nor, in all worldly probability, ever so much as heard of her who is called Isabel Banford, had it not been for my hearing that at Walter Ulver's, only three miles from the mansion of Saddle Meadows, poor Bell would find people kind enough to give her wages for her work. Feel my hand, my brother.'

'Dear divine girl, my own exalted Isabel!' cried Pierre, catching the offered hand with ungovernable emotion, 'how most unbeseeming, that this strange hardness, and this still stranger littleness, should be united in any human hand. But hard and small, it by an opposite analogy hints of the soft capacious heart that made the hand so hard with heavenly submission to thy most undeserved and martyred lot. Would, Isabel, that

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Rh these my kisses on the hand, were on the heart itself, and dropped the seeds of eternal joy and comfort there.'

He leaped to his feet, and stood before her with such warm, god-like majesty of love and tenderness, that the girl gazed up at him as though he were the one benignant star in all her general night.

'Isabel,' cried Pierre, 'I stand the sweet penance in my father's stead, thou, in thy mother's. By our earthly acts we shall redeemingly bless both their eternal lots; we will love with the pure and perfect love of angel to an angel. If ever I fall from thee, dear Isabel, may Pierre fail from himself; fall back forever into vacant nothingness and night!'

'My brother, my brother, speak not so to me; it is too much; unused to any love ere now, thine, so heavenly and immense, falls crushing on me! Such love is almost hard to bear as hate. Be still; do not speak to me.'

They were both silent for a time; when she went on.

'Yes, my brother, Fate had now brought me within three miles of thee; and—but shall I go straight on, and tell thee all, Pierre? all? everything? art thou of such divineness, that I may speak straight on, in all my thoughts, heedless whither they may flow, or what things they may float to me?'

'Straight on, and fearlessly,' said Pierre.

'By chance I saw thy mother, Pierre, and under such circumstances that I knew her to be thy mother; and—but shall I go on?'

'Straight on, my Isabel; thou didst see my mother—well?'

'And when I saw her, though I spake not to her, nor she to me, yet straightway my heart knew that she would love me not.'

'Thy heart spake true,' muttered Pierre to himself; 'go on.'

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Author:John Underhill

Works

 * The Poetical Works of John Gay, in 3 vols. (1893)
 * Volume 1
 * Volume 2
 * Volume 3

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218 'I re-swore an oath never to reveal myself to thy mother.'

'Oath well sworn,' again he muttered; 'go on.'

'But I saw thee, Pierre; and, more than ever filled my mother toward thy father, Pierre, then upheaved in me. Straightway I knew that if ever I should come to be made known to thee, then thy own generous love would open itself to me.'

'Again thy heart spake true,' he murmured; 'go on—and didst thou re-swear again?'

'No, Pierre; but yes, I did. I swore that thou wert my brother; with love and pride I swore, that young and noble Pierre Glendinning was my brother!'

'And only that?'

'Nothing more, Pierre; not to thee even, did I ever think to reveal myself.'

'How then? thou art revealed to me.'

'Yes; but the great God did it, Pierre—not poor Bell. Listen.

'I felt very dreary here; poor, dear Delly—thou must have heard something of her story—a most sorrowful house, Pierre. Hark! that is her seldom-pausing pacing thou hearest from the floor above. So she keeps ever pacing, pacing, pacing; in her track, all thread-bare, Pierre, is her chamber-rug. Her father will not look upon her; her mother, she hath cursed her to her face. Out of yon chamber, Pierre, Delly hath not stepped, for now four weeks and more; nor ever hath she once laid upon her bed; it was last made up five weeks ago; but paces, paces, paces, all through the night, till after twelve; and then sits vacant in her chair. Often I would go to her to comfort her; but she says, " Nay, nay, nay," to me through the door; says "Nay, nay, nay," and only nay to me, through the bolted door; bolted three weeks ago—when I by cunning arts stole her dead baby from her,

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Rh and with these fingers, alone, by night, scooped out a hollow, and, seconding heaven's own charitable stroke, buried that sweet, wee symbol of her not unpardonable shame far from the ruthless foot of man—yes, bolted three weeks ago, not once unbolted since; her food I must thrust through the little window in her closet. Pierre, hardly these two handfuls has she eaten in a week.'

'Curses, wasp-like, cohere on that villain, Ned, and sting him to his death!' cried Pierre, smit by this most piteous tale. 'What can be done for her, sweet Isabel; can Pierre do aught?'

'If thou or I do not, then the ever-hospitable grave will prove her quick refuge, Pierre. Father and mother both, are worse than dead and gone to her. They would have turned her forth, I think, but for my own poor petitionings, unceasing in her behalf.'

Pierre's deep concern now gave place to a momentary look of benevolent intelligence.

'Isabel, a thought of benefit to Delly has just entered me; but I am still uncertain how best it may be acted on. Resolved I am, though, to succour her. Do thou still hold her here yet awhile, by thy sweet petitionings, till my further plans are more matured. Now run on with thy story, and so divert me from the pacing;—her every step steps in my soul.'

'Thy noble heart hath many chambers, Pierre; the records of thy wealth, I see, are not bound up in the one poor book of Isabel, my brother. Thou art a visible token, Pierre, of the invisible angel-hoods, which in our darker hours we do sometimes distrust. The gospel of thy acts goes very far, my brother. Were all men like to thee, then were there no men at all,—mankind extinct in seraphim!'

'Praises are for the base, my sister, cunningly to entice them to fair Virtue by our ignorings of the ill in them, and our imputings of the good not theirs. So make not

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text: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCI


text: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCII


text: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCIII


text: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCIV


text: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCV


text: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCVI


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220 my head to hang, sweet Isabel. Praise me not. Go on now with thy tale.'

'I have said to thee, my brother, how most dreary I found it here, and from the first. Wonted all my life to sadness—if it be such—still, this house hath such acuteness in its general grief, such hopelessness and despair of any slightest remedy—that even poor Bell could scarce abide it always, without some little going forth into contrasting scenes. So I went forth into the places of delight, only that I might return more braced to minister in the haunts of woe. For continual unchanging residence therein, doth but bring on woe's stupor, and make us as dead. So I went forth betimes; visiting the neighbouring cottages; where there were chattering children, and no one place vacant at the cheerful board. Thus at last I chanced to hear of the Sewing Circle to be held at the Miss Pennies'; and how that they were anxious to press into their kind charity all the maidens of the country round. In various cottages, I was besought to join; and they at length persuaded me; not that I was naturally loth to it, and needed such entreaties; but at first I felt great fear, lest at such a scene I might closely encounter some of the Glendinnings; and that thought was then namelessly repulsive to me. But by stealthy inquiries I learned, that the lady of the manorial-house would not be present;—it proved deceptive information;—but I went; and all the rest thou knowest.'

'I do, sweet Isabel, but thou must tell it over to me; and all thy emotions there.'

V

'Though but one day hath passed, my brother, since we first met in life, yet thou hast that heavenly magnet in thee, which draws all my soul's interior to thee. I will

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text: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCVII


text: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCVIII


text: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCIX


text: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCX


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Rh go on.—Having to wait for a neighbour's wagon, I arrived but late at the Sewing Circle. When I entered, the two joined rooms were very full. With the farmer's girls, our neighbours, I passed along to the further corner, where thou didst see me; and as I went, some heads were turned, and some whisperings I heard, of—"She's the new help at poor Walter Ulver's—the strange girl they've got—she thinks herself 'mazing pretty, I'll be bound;—but nobody knows her—Oh, how demure!—but not over-good, I guess;—I wouldn't be her, not I—mayhap she's some other ruined Delly, run away;—minx." It was the first time poor Bell had ever mixed in such a general crowded company; and knowing little or nothing of such things, I had thought, that the meeting being for charity's sweet sake, uncharity could find no harbour there; but no doubt it was mere thoughtlessness, not malice in them. Still, it made my heart ache in me sadly; for then I very keenly felt the dread suspiciousness, in which a strange and lonely grief invests itself to common eyes; as if grief itself were not enough, nor innocence any armour to us, but despite must also come, and icy infamy! Miserable returnings then I had—even in the midst of bright-budding girls and full-blown women—miserable returnings then I had of the feeling, the bewildering feeling of the inhumanities I spoke of in my earlier story. But Pierre, blessed Pierre, do not look so sadly and half-reproachfully upon me. Lone and lost though I have been, I love my kind; and charitably and intelligently pity them, who uncharitably and unintelligently do me despite. And thou, thou, blessed brother, hath glorified many sombre places in my soul, and taught me once for all to know, that my kind are capable of things which would be glorious in angels. So look away from me, dear Pierre, till thou hast taught thine eyes more wonted glances.'

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222 'They are vile falsifying telegraphs of me, then, sweet Isabel. What my look was I cannot tell, but my heart was only dark with ill-restrained upbraidings against heaven that could unrelentingly see such innocence as thine so suffer. Go on with thy too-touching tale.'

'Quietly I sat there sewing, not brave enough to look up at all, and thanking my good star, that had led me to so concealed a nook behind the rest: quietly I sat there, sewing on a flannel shirt, and with each stitch praying God, that whatever heart it might be folded over, the flannel might hold it truly warm; and keep out the wide-world-coldness which I felt myself; and which no flannel, or thickest fur, or any fire then could keep off from me; quietly I sat there sewing, when I heard the announcing words—oh, how deep and ineffaceably engraved they are!—"Ah, dames, dames,—Madam Glendinning,—Master Pierre Glendinning." Instantly, my sharp needle went through my side and stitched my heart; the flannel dropped from my hand; thou heard'st my shriek. But the good people bore me still nearer to the casement close at hand, and threw it open wide; and God's own breath breathed on me; and I rallied; and said it was some merest passing fit—'twas quite over now—I was used to it—they had my heart's best thanks—but would they now only leave me to myself, it were best for me;—I would go on and sew. And thus it came and passed away; and again I sat sewing on the flannel, hoping either that the unanticipated persons would soon depart, or else that some spirit would catch me away from there; I sat sewing on—till, Pierre! Pierre!—without looking up—for that I dared not do at any time that evening—only once—without looking up, or knowing aught but the flannel on my knee, and the needle in my heart, I felt,—Pierre, felt—a glance of magnetic meaning on me.

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124 for the climbing hooks—rather hastily, for I feared my courage might leak away. "At first Weena watched me in amazement, and then she gave a most piteous cry, and running to me began to pull at me with her little hands. I think her opposition nerved me rather to proceed. I shook her off, perhaps a little roughly, and in another moment I was in the throat of the well. "I saw her agonized face over the parapet, and smiled to reassure her. Then I had to look down at the unstable hooks by which I hung. "I had to clamber down a shaft of perhaps two hundred yards. The descent was effected by means of metallic bars projecting from the sides of the well, and since they were adapted to the needs of a creature much smaller and lighter than myself, I was speedily cramped and fatigued by the descent. And not simply fatigued. My weight suddenly bent


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Rh Long, I, shrinking, sideways turned to meet it, but could not; till some helping spirit seized me, and all my soul looked up at thee in my full-fronting face. It was enough. Fate was in that moment. All the loneliness of my life, all the choked longings of my soul, now poured over me. I could not away from them. Then first I felt the complete deplorableness of my state; that while thou, my brother, had a mother, and troops of aunts and cousins, and plentiful friends in city and in country—I, I, Isabel, thy own father's daughter, was thrust out of all hearts' gates, and shivered in the winter way. But this was but the least. Not poor Bell can tell thee all the feelings of poor Bell, or what feelings she felt first. It was all one whirl of old and new bewilderings, mixed and slanted with a driving madness. But it was most the sweet, inquisitive, kindly interested aspect of thy face,—so strangely like thy father's, too—the one only being that I first did love—it was that which most stirred the distracting storm in me; most charged me with the immense longings for some one of my blood to know me, and to own me, though but once, and then away. Oh, my dear brother—Pierre! Pierre!—couldst thou take out my heart, and look at it in thy hand, then thou wouldst find it all over written, this way and that, and crossed again, and yet again, with continual lines of longings, that found no end but in suddenly calling thee. Call him! Call him! He will come!—so cried my heart to me; so cried the leaves and stars to me, as I that night went home. But pride rose up—the very pride in my own longings,—and as one arm pulled, the other held. So I stood still, and called thee not. But Fate will be Fate, and it was fated. Once having met thy fixed regardful glance; once having seen the full angelicalness in thee, my whole soul was undone by thee; my whole pride was cut off at the root, and soon showed a blighting in the bud; which spread deep into

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224 my whole being, till I knew, that utterly decay and die away I must, unless pride let me go, and I, with the one little trumpet of a pen, blew my heart's shrillest blast, and called dear Pierre to me. My soul was full; and as my beseeching ink went tracing o'er the page, my tears contributed their mite, and made a strange alloy. How blest I felt that my so bitterly tear-mingled ink—that last depth of my anguish—would never be visibly known to thee, but the tears would dry upon the page, and all be fair again, ere the so submerged-freighted letter should meet thine eye.'

'Ah, there thou wast deceived, poor Isabel,' cried Pierre impulsively; 'thy tears dried not fair, but dried red, almost like blood; and nothing so much moved my inmost soul as that tragic sight.'

'How? how? Pierre, my brother? Dried they red? Oh, horrible! enchantment! most undreamed of!'

'Nay, the ink—the ink! something chemic in it changed thy real tears to seeming blood;—only that, my sister.'

'Oh Pierre! thus wonderfully is it—seems to me—that our own hearts do not ever know the extremity of their own sufferings; sometimes we bleed blood, when we think it only water. Of our sufferings, as of our talents, others sometimes are the better judges. But stop me! force me backward to my story! Yet methinks that now thou knowest all;—no, not entirely all. Thou dost not know what planned and winnowed motive I did have in writing thee; nor does poor Bell know that; for poor Bell was too delirious to have planned and winnowed motives then. The impulse in me called thee, not poor Bell. God called thee, Pierre, not poor Bell. Even now, when I have passed one night after seeing thee, and hearkening to all thy full love and graciousness; even now, I stand as one amazed, and feel not what may be

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Rh coming to me, or what will now befall me, from having so rashly claimed thee for mine. Pierre, now, now, this instant a vague anguish fills me. Tell me, by loving me, by owning me, publicly or secretly,—tell me, doth it involve any vital hurt to thee? Speak without reserve; speak honestly; as I do to thee! Speak now, Pierre, and tell me all!'

'Is Love a harm? Can Truth betray to pain? Sweet Isabel, how can hurt come in the path to God? Now, when I know thee all, now did I forget thee, fail to acknowledge thee, and love thee before the wide world's whole brazen width—could I do that; then might'st thou ask thy question reasonably and say—Tell me, Pierre, does not the suffocating in thee of poor Bell's holy claims, does not that involve for thee unending misery? And my truthful soul would echo—Unending misery! Nay, nay, nay. Thou art my sister and I am thy brother; and that part of the world which knows me, shall acknowledge thee; or, by heaven, I will crush the disdainful world down on its knees to thee, my sweet Isabel!'

'The menacings in thy eyes are dear delights to me; I grow up with thy own glorious stature; and in thee, my brother, I see God's indignant ambassador to me, saying—Up, up, Isabel, and take no terms from the common world, but do thou make terms to it, and grind thy fierce rights out of it! Thy catching nobleness unsexes me, my brother; and now I know that in her most exalted moment, then woman no more feels the twin-born softness of her breasts, but feels chain-armour palpitating there!'

Her changed attitude of beautiful audacity; her long scornful hair, that trailed out a dishevelled banner; her wonderful transfigured eyes, in which some meteors seemed playing up; all this now seemed to Pierre the work of an invisible enchanter. Transformed she stood before him; and Pierre, bowing low over to her, owned

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Rh one of the hooks and almost swung me off it down into the blackness beneath.

"For a moment I hung by one hand, and after that experience I did not dare to rest again, and though my arms and back were presently acutely painful, I continued to clamber with as quick a motion as possible down the sheer descent. Glancing upward I saw the aperture, a mere small blue disk above me, in which a star was visible, and little Weena's head appeared as a round black projection. The thudding sound of some machine below me grew louder and more oppressive. Everything save that minute circle above was profoundly dark. When I looked up again Weena had disappeared.

"I was in an agony of discomfort. I had some thought of trying to go up the shaft again, and leave the underworld alone. But while I turned this over in my mind I continued to descend.


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126 "It was with intense relief that I saw dimly coming up a foot to the right of me, a slender loophole in the wall of the shaft, and swinging myself in, found it was the aperture of a narrow horizontal tunnel in which I could lie down and rest.

"It was not too soon. My arms ached, my back was cramped, and I was trembling with the prolonged fear of falling. Besides this, the unbroken darkness had had a distressing effect upon my eyes. The air was full of the throbbing and hum of the machinery that pumped the air down the shaft.

"I do not know how long I lay in that tunnel. I was roused by a soft hand touching my face. Starting up in the darkness, I snatched at my matches and hastily striking one saw three grotesque, white creatures, similar to the one I had seen above ground in the ruin, hastily retreating before the light. Living as they did


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226 that irrespective, darting majesty of humanity, which can be majestical and menacing in woman as in man.

But her gentler sex returned to Isabel at last; and she sat silent in the casement's niche, looking out upon the soft ground-lightnings of the electric summer night.

VI

Sadly smiling, Pierre broke the pause.

'My sister, thou art so rich, that thou must do me alms; I am very hungry; I have forgotten to eat since breakfast;—and now thou shalt bring me bread and a cup of water, Isabel, ere I go forth from thee. Last night I went rummaging in a pantry, like a bake-house burglar; but to-night thou and I must sup together, Isabel; for as we may henceforth live together, let us begin forthwith to eat in company.'

Isabel looked up at him, with sudden and deep emotion, then all acquiescing sweetness, and silently left the room.

As she returned, Pierre, casting his eyes toward the ceiling, said, 'She is quiet now, the pacing hath entirely ceased.'

'Not the beating, though; her foot hath paused, not her unceasing heart. My brother, she is not quiet now; quiet for her hath gone; so that the pivoted stillness of this night is yet a noisy madness to her.'

'Give me pen or pencil, and some paper, Isabel.'

She laid down her loaf, and plate, and knife, and brought him pen, and ink, and paper.

Pierre took the pen.

'Was this the one, dear Isabel?'

'It is the one, my brother; none other is in this poor cot.'

He gazed at it intensely. Then turning to the table, steadily wrote the following note:—

'For Delly Ulver: with the deep and true regard and sympathy of Pierre Glendinning.

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Rh in what appeared to me impenetrable darkness, their eyes were abnormally large and sensitive, just as are the eyes of the abyssmal fishes or of any purely nocturnal creatures, and they reflected the light in the same way. I have no doubt they could see me in that rayless obscurity, and they did not seem to have any fear of me apart from the light. But so soon as I struck a match in order to see them, they fled incontinently, vanishing up dark gutters and tunnels from which their eyes glared at me in the strangest fashion. "I tried to call to them, but what language they had was apparently a different one from that of the overworld people. So that I was needs left to my own unaided exploration. The thought of flight rather than exploration was even at that time in my mind. "’You are in for it now,' said I to myself, and went on. "Feeling my way along this tunnel


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Rh 'Thy sad story—partly known before—hath now more fully come to me, from one who sincerely feels for thee, and who hath imparted her own sincerity to me. Thou desirest to quit this neighbourhood, and be somewhere at peace, and find some secluded employ fitted to thy sex and age. With this, I now willingly charge myself, and ensure it to thee, so far as my utmost ability can go. Therefore—if consolation be not wholly spurned by thy great grief, which too often happens, though it be but grief's great folly so to feel—therefore, two true friends of thine do here beseech thee to take some little heart to thee, and bethink thee, that all thy life is not yet lived; that Time hath surest healing in his continuous balm. Be patient yet a little while, till thy future lot be disposed for thee, through our best help; and so, know me and Isabel thy earnest friends and true-hearted lovers.'

He handed the note to Isabel. She read it silently, and put it down, and spread her two hands over him, and with one motion lifted her eyes toward Delly and toward God.

'Thou think'st it will not pain her to receive the note, Isabel? Thou know'st best. I thought, that ere our help do really reach her, some promise of it now might prove slight comfort. But keep it, and do as thou think'st best.'

'Then straightway will I give it her, my brother,' said Isabel, quitting him.

An infixing stillness, now thrust a long rivet through the night, and fast nailed it to that side of the world. And alone again in such an hour, Pierre could not but listen. He heard Isabel's step on the stair; then it approached him from above; then he heard a gentle knock, and thought he heard a rustling, as of paper slid over a threshold underneath a door. Then another advancing

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Desilets v. Clearview Regional Board of Education/Concurrence-dissent Pollock

[NJ598] POLLOCK, J., concurring and dissenting.

I agree with the majority "that the evidence in this case concerning the school's educational policy was, at best, equivocal and inconsistent," and that "[t]he school board's position with respect to the policy that applied to student publications, specifically as related to matters like movie reviews, was vague and highly conclusory." Ante at 593, 647 A.2d at 154. Hence, I agree that the Court should affirm the judgment of the Appellate Division. I believe, however, that the holding of the United States Supreme Court in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeir, 484 U.S. 260, 108 S.C.t. 562, 98 L. Ed. 2d 592 (1988), requires that we accord more respect to the decisions of school officials than does the majority.

Hazelwood states that "educators do not offend the First Amendment by exercising editorial control over the style and content of student speech in school-sponsored expressive activities so long as their actions are reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns." Id. at 273, 108 S.C.t. at 571, 98 L. Ed. 2d at 606. Those concerns include "speech that is . . . unsuitable for immature audiences." Id. at 271, 108 S.C.t. at 570, 98 L. Ed. 2d at 605.

The Rating Board of the Motion Picture Association of America has adopted a rating system that includes:

R: "Restricted, under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian."

In the opinion of the Rating Board, this film definitely contains some adult material. Parents are strongly urged to find out more about this film before they allow their children to accompany them.

An R-rated film may include hard language, or tough violence, or nudity within sensual scenes, or drug abuse or other elements, or a combination of some of the above, so that parents are counseled, in advance, to take this advisory rating very seriously. Parents must find out more about an R-rated movie before they allow their teenagers to view it.

[Jack Valenti, Motion Picture Association of America, The Voluntary Movie Rating System 9 (1994).]

I believe that school officials may conclude that the restriction of the review of R-rated films in a junior high school newspaper reasonably relates to legitimate educational concerns. Some parents [NJ599] and educators may have reservations about permitting young adolescents to see R-rated films. School officials may properly adopt a standard that prevents the review of a category of films, such as those that are R-rated, even if the category includes films that some people might find the appropriate subject of a review.

The education of children is an informal partnership consisting of students, parents, teachers, administrators, and school boards. Parents expect that teachers and administrators will be responsible for the students. In discharging those responsibilities, educators make numerous decisions that restrict students' freedom. In a representative democracy, students, like the general population, regularly accept policy decisions made by appointed and elected officials. I see nothing unconstitutional in requiring students to accept the policy decisions of school officials concerning the review in a junior high school newspaper of R-rated films.

Junior high school students between the ages of twelve to fourteen years, such as the students at Clearview, are impressionable. The Legislature has restricted the activities of teenagers by preventing them from driving until they are seventeen, N.J.S.A. 39:3-10; drinking alcoholic beverages until they are twenty-one, N.J.S.A. 9:17B-1b; and from entering casinos until they are twenty-one, N.J.S.A. 9:17B-1c. Many parents and educators may find R-rated films unsuitable for children in the seventh to ninth grades. Thus, the Rating Board counsels parents to take an R-rating "very seriously. Parents must find out more about an R-rated movie before they allow their teenagers to view it." Valenti, supra, at 9. School officials could find an educational purpose in not permitting the use of the student newspaper as a means of promoting R-rated films, which some parents do not want their children to see. Students would remain free, of course, to continue to see the films if accompanied by an adult and to talk to each other about the films both in and out of school. Preventing publication of a review of an R-rated film in a school newspaper is hardly likely to stop teenagers from seeing or talking about the film.

[NJ600] Like the majority, I believe that the Commissioner of Education could perform a useful role in preventing such litigation. I believe, however, the Commissioner could serve a more useful role by reviewing the policies of local boards before litigation. On a matter as delicate as balancing constitutional rights and the authority of school officials, the Commissioner could help by defining legitimate educational concerns. By rendering a declaratory order, N.J.A.C. 6:24-2.1, the Commissioner might prevent such suits before they are filed.

Chief Justice WILENTZ joins in this opinion.


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228 and opposite step tremblingly met Isabel's; and then both steps stepped from each other, and soon Isabel came back to him.

'Thou didst knock, and slide it underneath the door?'

'Yes, and she hath it now. Hark! a sobbing! Thank God, long arid grief hath found a tear at last. Pity, sympathy hath done this.—Pierre, for thy dear deed thou art already sainted, ere thou be dead.'

'Do saints hunger, Isabel?' said Pierre, striving to call her away from this. 'Come, give me the loaf; but no, thou shalt help me, my sister.—Thank thee;—this is twice over the bread of sweetness.—Is this of thine own making, Isabel?'

'My own making, my brother.'

'Give me the cup; hand it me with thine own hand. So;—Isabel, my heart and soul are now full of deepest reverence; yet I do dare to call this the real sacrament of the supper.—Eat with me.'

They ate together without a single word; and without a single word, Pierre rose, and kissed her pure and spotless brow, and without a single word departed from the place.

VII

We know not Pierre Glendinning's thoughts as he gained the village and passed on beneath its often shrouding trees, and saw no light from man, and heard no sound from man, but only, by intervals, saw at his feet the soft ground-lightnings, snake-like, playing in and out among the blades of grass; and between the trees, caught the far dim light from heaven, and heard the far wide general hum of the sleeping but still breathing earth.

He paused before a detached and pleasant house, with much shrubbery about it. He mounted the portico and knocked distinctly there, just as the village clock struck

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Desilets v. Clearview Regional Board of Education/Opinion of the Court

[NJ587] [A151] PER CURIAM.

The mother of a junior high school student brought this action against a school board and the school's superintendent and principal challenging their refusal to publish in the student newspaper her son's movie reviews of R-rated films. She contended that the action taken by the school authorities violated her son's freedom of expression under the state and federal constitutions. The school authorities assert that they did not violate the student's right to free expression because the decision to withhold publication of the movie reviews was based on valid educational policy.

[NJ588] The trial court ruled that the school principal's decision to delete the pupil's movie reviews from the school newspaper did not violate his expressional rights under the First Amendment of the Federal Constitution because such action was reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns, as required by the United States Supreme Court in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260, 108 S.C.t. 562, 98 L. Ed. 2d 592 (1988). Nevertheless, the trial court determined that the student's rights had been violated under the State Constitution, which, it found, provided broader protection of free expression than the First Amendment.

The Appellate Division, with a dissent, affirmed the judgment of the trial court. 266 N.J. Super. 531, 630 A.2d 333 (App. Div. 1993). The Appellate Division majority reasoned that the school authorities had violated the student's First Amendment rights, not the State Constitution, because under Hazelwood, no legitimate pedagogical reasons justified the censorship of the R-rated movie reviews. However, the dissent concluded that under Hazelwood the student's expressional rights had not been violated because the actions taken by the school authorities were reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns.

We granted the certification petition of the school board, 134 N.J. 565, 636 A.2d 522 (1993).

We now affirm the judgment of the Appellate Division substantially for the reasons set forth in the opinion of Judge Keefe, and rely on the Appellate Division's rendition of the case's facts and procedural history. We comment only briefly on that opinion to address the issue related to the relevance of the type of student expression that may be subject to restrictive school policy and, further, to indicate the appropriate procedures for adjudicating this kind of controversy in the future.

I
In Hazelwood, the United States Supreme Court determined that a school principal's censorship of student-written articles for [NJ589] the student newspaper was not violative of the First Amendment because the decision of the school authorities was reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns. 484 U.S. at 260, 108 S.C.t. at 562, 98 L. Ed. 2d at 592.

The Supreme Court rejected the students' claims that the student newspaper was a [A152] public forum. The Court ruled that "public schools may be deemed to be public forums only if school authorities have 'by policy or practice' opened those facilities 'for indiscriminate use by the general public' or by some segment of the public, such as student organizations." Id. at 267, 108 S.C.t. at 568, 98 L. Ed. 2d at 603 (quoting Perry Educ. Ass'n v. Perry Local Educ. Ass'n, 460 U.S. 37, 47, 103 S.C.t. 948, 956, 74 L. Ed. 2d 794, 806 (1983)). "If the facilities have instead been reserved for other intended purposes," then the forum is not a public one, and the school "may impose reasonable restrictions on the speech of students, teachers, and other members of the school community." 484 U.S. at 267, 108 S.C.t. at 567-68, 98 L. Ed. 2d at 603. The Supreme Court concluded that the newspaper was not a public forum because the student newspaper was part of the school curriculum, a faculty member taught the newspaper course during regular school hours, and the students received grades and academic credit for participating on the newspaper. Id. at 268-69, 108 S.C.t. at 568-69, 98 L. Ed. 2d at 603-04.

Whether a school newspaper is a "public forum" can be determinative of whether attempts to limit or control the expressional activities undertaken by the newspaper violate constitutional rights. The power of the State to limit expressional activity using public forums, that is, in places that have been devoted to assembly and debate, such as streets and parks, is severely limited. Perry, supra, 460 U.S. at 45, 103 S.C.t. at 954, 74 L. Ed. 2d at 804. A state may enforce a content-based regulation restricting expressional activity in such public forums only if such a regulation is necessary to serve a compelling state interest and that regulation is narrowly drawn. Ibid. In addition, time, place, and manner restrictions may also be imposed on expression if those [NJ590] restrictions are content-neutral, narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest, and "leave open ample alternative channels of communication." Ibid. Those strictures, however, do not apply to speech or expression that is undertaken in a public forum, as exemplified by the Supreme Court's decision in Hazelwood.

The Appellate Division was soundly guided on this issue by the Supreme Court. It ruled that the student newspaper, Pioneer Press, is not a public forum. 266 N.J. Super. at 538, 630 A.2d 333. Concededly, students participating in the Pioneer Press, unlike those in Hazelwood, did not receive grades or academic credit for their participation in the newspaper. See Hazelwood, supra, 484 U.S. at 268-69, 108 S.C.t. at 568-69, 98 L. Ed. 2d at 603-04. Nor was the publication part of regular classroom assignments. See ibid. However, the publication was supervised by a designated faculty member. Moreover, as the Appellate Division noted, "students, parents and members of the public might reasonably perceive [school-sponsored publications] to bear the imprimatur of the school," id. at 271, 108 S.C.t. at 569-70, 98 L. Ed. 2d at 605, "whether or not [such activities] occur in the traditional classroom setting, as long as [those activities] are supervised by faculty members and [are] designed to impart knowledge or skills to the student participants and their audiences," 266 N.J. Super at 540, 630 A.2d 333.

We therefore agree with the determination of the Appellate Division that the Pioneer Press is not a public forum.

II
The Supreme Court recognized that although neither students nor teachers "shed their constitutional rights of freedom of speech or expression at the school house gates," Tinker v. Des Moines School Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 506, 89 S.C.t. 733, 736, 21 L. Ed. 2d 731, 737, speech occurring in a non-public forum, as in Hazelwood, may be subject to reasonable restrictions. With respect to a school publication, it ruled in Hazelwood that "educators [NJ591] do not offend the First Amendment by exercising editorial control over the style and content of student speech in school-sponsored expressive activities so long as their actions are reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns." 484 U.S. at 273, 108 S.C.t. at 571, 98 L. Ed. 2d at 606. The Court provided examples of legitimate pedagogical concerns, which included "speech that is . . . ungrammatical, poorly written, inadequately researched, biased [A153] or prejudiced, vulgar or profane, or unsuitable for immature audiences." Id. at 271, 108 S.C.t. at 570, 98 L. Ed. 2d at 605.

We agree with the Appellate Division that the R-rated movie reviews in this case do not appear to raise educational concerns that call for the kinds of editorial control exemplified by the Supreme Court in Hazelwood. The reviews contained brief descriptions of two movies with terse recommendation:

Mississippi Burning Rated: R (Starring William [sic] DaFoe and Gene Hackman)

Mississippi Burning is about the murder of three civil right activists in Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1964. Two F.B.I. agents, Hackman and DaFoe, are sent to Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of three men. When they arrive, they find themselves unwanted by the people and the local police. None of the blacks will talk to the men, because they were harassed by the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) for doing so. In the end the bodies are found, the police and Klan members are jailed and the F.B.I. leaves. The movie is worth the price of your ticket, but if you're looking for facts they're not here.

Rain Man Rated: R (Starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman)

In this film, Charlie Babbit (Tom Cruise) finds that he has a brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) that [sic] has inherited three million dollars in their father's will. However, Raymond is autistic and does not understand the concept of money. Charlie then kidnaps "Rain Man" from a mental institution, and the two leave for a week long drive across the country. On this ride the two become great friends and experience many adventures. Dustin Hoffman did an excellent job of playing an autistic savant. The movie is hilariously funny and I think that everyone should see it.

[266 N.J. Super. at 531, 534, 630 A.2d 333.]

In addressing the general question of what kind of school policy constitutes a legitimate pedagogical concern that would justify the refusal to publish R-rated movie reviews in a school newspaper, the Appellate Division distinguished the communications that were [NJ592] challenged in Hazelwood from those involved in this case. Specifically, the Appellate Division reasoned:

The significant distinction between Hazelwood and this case is that the material in Hazelwood was censored because of its content and journalistic style. In the instant matter, it is conceded that the censorship had nothing to do with the style of the review, but only its subject matter. (This is an important distinction; content is what is written; subject is what is written about.). . . . [T]he decision to censor was based solely on the fact that the subject matter of the review was R-rated. The point of the censorship was not to address stylistic deficiencies or the words chosen by the writer to convey his information; it was to suppress the idea itself.

[Id. at 541-42, 630 A.2d 333.]

Essentially, the Appellate Division found that the "pedagogical interests" considered by the Hazelwood Court as sufficient to justify a restriction on speech did not extend beyond the "style and content" of the materials. Further, it narrowly interpreted "content" as used by the Supreme Court in Hazelwood to apply only or essentially to the language of the communication.

We do not share the certainty of the Appellate Division that Hazelwood provides or turns on such a distinction between subject-matter on the one hand and style and content on the other. The facts of Hazelwood do not suggest that distinction. The Supreme Court there found that the students' commentary on their sexual histories, specifically their use or nonuse of birth control, could be reasonably determined to be inappropriate for the school newspaper. 484 U.S. at 274-75, 108 S.C.t. at 572, 98 L. Ed. 2d at 607. If the Supreme Court, in expressing its concerns with "content and journalistic style," was focusing essentially on the language used or the form of expression, and not the subject-matter of the communication, then the non-graphic and neutral nature of the language used to describe the pregnant girls' stories would have inferentially been given [A154] more prominence in the Court's analysis and possibly have brought the Court to a different conclusion. Instead, the Court's focus on the account of the girls' sexual histories and their use or nonuse of birth control--what was "written about"--indicates, at least indirectly or partially, that the subject-matter of the articles was also a relevant [NJ593] consideration in determining the scope of the educational concerns over whether such communications should be allowed in a school setting.

We need not, however, further address or resolve the significance of that alleged distinction between subject-matter and content or style in determining the scope and application of educational policy. We are satisfied that the evidence in this case concerning the school's educational policy was, at best, equivocal and inconsistent. The school board's position with respect to the policy that applied to student publications, specifically as related to matters such as movie reviews, was vague and highly conclusory. It conceded that it had no specific policy regarding movie reviews of R-rated films; nevertheless, it argued that the action taken by the principal and superintendent complied with that "policy." 266 N.J. Super. at 536, 630 A.2d 333. Further, how any "policy" was applied to the student's R-rated movie reviews remains unclear. The school authorities assert that the publication of Brien's R-rated movie reviews violated its official policy because those reviews constituted "material which advocated the use or advertised the availability of any substance believed to constitute a danger to student health." Ibid. However, no one explained how such R-rated movie reviews posed a danger to student health. Moreover, if such R-rated movie reviews did violate that policy, the evidence strongly suggests that the policy was often ignored or applied inconsistently because R-rated movies were discussed in class, referred to and available in the school library, and, in fact, reviewed and published by the student newspaper. Id. at 535, 630 A.2d 333.

The foregoing does not mean that the school had no legitimate pedagogical concerns over the publication of articles dealing with R-rated movies or, indeed, did not in fact have an educational policy dealing with that subject. Rather, the record suggests only that such a policy, if it exists, is vaguely defined and loosely applied and that its underlying educational concerns remained essentially undefined and speculative.

[NJ594] In sum, we agree with the Appellate Division that under Hazelwood, defendants failed to establish a legitimate educational policy that would govern the publication of the challenged materials and, as a consequence, the school authorities, under these circumstances, did violate the student's expressional rights under the First Amendment.

We thus agree, also, with the Appellate Division that because this case can be decided on federal constitutional grounds, we have no reason to consider the State constitutional claims. Id. at 538 n.3, 630 A.2d 333.

III
The difficulty in resolving the basic question of whether defendants had an established and legitimate educational policy that would justify restrictions of expression by students is fully illustrated in this case, not only by the equivocal and vague evidence that was adduced to demonstrate the existence of such a policy, but also by the different explanations offered by the witnesses concerning the meaning and application of that policy. Those difficulties are further exemplified by the different conclusions with respect to the existence and meaning of such an educational policy reached by the several judges who participated at all levels of this litigation. The inherent complexity surrounding the nature and scope of educational policy affecting expressional activity demonstrates that the educational legitimacy of a school policy governing such activity should, if possible, first be considered and determined by the administrative agency charged with regulating public education.

Administrative agencies have the authority to determine matters within the special province of their regulatory jurisdiction and expertise. See Boss v. Rockland Util., 95 N.J. 33, 39, 42, 468 A.2d 1055 (1983); see also Hinfey v. Matawan Regional Bd. of Educ., 77 N.J. 514, 531-32, 391 A.2d 899 (1978) ("Comity and deference to cognate [A155] tribunals are designed to assure that a controversy, or its most critical facets, will be resolved by the [NJ595]  forum or body which, on a comparative scale, is in the best position by virtue of its statutory status, administrative competence and regulatory expertise to adjudicate the matter."). That proposition is particularly apt with respect to controversies under the educational laws, which should be brought before the Commissioner of Education. N.J.S.A. 18A:6-9 (granting Commissioner of Education jurisdiction over "all controversies and disputes arising under the school laws"); Hinfey, supra, 77 N.J. at 525, 391 A.2d 899 (noting "great breadth" of Commissioner of Education's authority).

Administrative agencies are clearly empowered to determine issues within their jurisdiction even though the resolution of those issues implicates constitutional claims. ''See, e.g., Christian Bros. Inst. v. N. N.J. Interscholastic League, 86 N.J. 409, 416, 432 A.2d 26 (1981) (noting that for constitutional issues implicated in administrative action involving discriminatory league membership, "[a]dministrative agencies have power to pass on constitutional issues . . . when relevant and necessary to resolution of a question concededly within their jurisdiction"); Hunterdon Cent. High Sch. Bd. of Educ. v. Hunterdon Cent. High School Teachers' Ass'n, 174 N.J. Super. 468, 474-75, 416 A.2d 980 (App.Div.1980), aff'd o.b., 86 N.J. 43, 429 A.2d 354 (1981) (ruling that administrative agency did not exceed its authority by passing on First Amendment issue when necessary to resolve scope of negotiations issue because "'administrative agencies are competent to pass upon constitutional issues germane to proceedings before them,' [when] . . . 'such action is necessary so as to better focus the issue for judicial review, if such action is later necessary'") (quoting Alcala v. Wyoming State Bd. of Barber Examiners,'' 365 F. Supp. 560, 564 (D. Wyo. 1973)); Paterson Redevelopment Agency v. Schulman, 78 N.J. 378, 386-88, 396 A.2d 573 (ruling that claims should be heard, "as a preliminary matter, by the [administrative] body having expertise in the area" and that "[t]his is particularly important where the ultimate decision rests upon factual determinations lying within the expertise of the agency," including those relevant to "constitutional [NJ596] issues"), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 900, 100 S.C.t. 210, 62 L. Ed. 2d 136 (1979); Brunetti v. Borough of New Milford, 68 N.J. 576, 590-91, 350 A.2d 19 (1975) ("The mere obligation that a constitutional issue is involved does not relieve plaintiffs [who were landlords challenging 'as applied' constitutionality of rent control ordinance] of the exhaustion [of administrative remedies] requirement. To avoid this requirement, plaintiff must demonstrate not only that the constitutional question is colorable, but that the matter contains no factual questions which require administrative determination."); Roadway Express, Inc. v. Kingsley, 37 N.J. 136, 179 A.2d 729 (1962) (ruling that whether corporate franchise tax was unconstitutional as applied was issue initially to be determined by Division of Taxation); ''Levitt & Sons, Inc. v. Div. Against Discrimination, 31 N.J. 514, 523, 158 A.2d 177 (1960) (ruling that because constitutionality of housing statute raised only legal questions and because case implicated administrative agency's jurisdiction, "administrative expertise would be of no real value"); Clark v. N.J. Div. of Motor Vehicles'', 211 N.J. Super. 708, 710, 512 A.2d 588 (App.Div.1986) (ruling that Division of Motor Vehicles properly did not decide whether automobile insurers surcharge constituted ex post facto laws because issue not within agency's expertise).

This Court has "repeatedly acknowledged and approved the administrative handling of educational controversies that arise in the context of constitutional . . . litigation." Abbott v. Burke, 100 N.J. 269, 300, 495 A.2d 376 (1985); ''see, e.g., Balsley v. North Hunterdon Bd. of Educ., 117 N.J. 434, 442, 568 A.2d 895 (1990) (concerning gender discrimination in school athletics); In re Upper Freehold Regional Sch. Dist., 86 N.J. 265, 430 A.2d 905 (1981) (involving revenue raising); Hinfey, supra, 77 N.J. at 514, 391 A.2d 899 (regarding gender discrimination in employment in school districts); Winston v. South Plainfield Bd. of Educ., 64 N.J. 582, 586-87, 319 A.2d 226 (1974) (involving free speech); Jenkins v. Morris Township School Dist., 58 N.J. 483, 279 A.2d 619 (1971) (concerning racial discrimination; [A156] Booker v. Plainfield Bd. of Educ.'', 45 N.J. 161, 212 A.2d 1 (1965) (involving racial discrimination).

[NJ597] In Abbott, this Court ruled that whether the financing provisions of the Public School Education Act were constitutional under the State Constitution's "thorough and efficient education" clause should more appropriately be brought before the Commissioner of Education to develop a more informed record with respect to issues that clearly involved educational expertise. The Court was "satisfied that the presence of constitutional issues and claims for ultimate constitutional relief" did not "preclude resort in the first instance to administrative adjudication." 100 N.J. at 296-97, 495 A.2d 376. Therefore, it concluded that that case could and "should be considered in the first instance by the appropriate administrative agency." Id. at 301, 495 A.2d 376. The Court stated further in Abbott that administrative consideration of the educational concerns was especially necessary because "the ultimate constitutional issues are especially fact-sensitive and relate primarily to areas of educational specialization." Ibid.

In this case, the ultimate constitutional question--whether a student's constitutional expressional rights have been violated by restrictions imposed by school authorities--is answered in large measure by the determination of whether those restrictions are related to and effectuate "legitimate pedagogical goals." That determination clearly and unavoidably implicates "the highest level of professional expertise and judgment in the educational field," see Hinfey, supra, 77 N.J. at 532, 391 A.2d 899, and, therefore, is one more appropriate for initial review and resolution by the Commissioner of Education.

IV
For the reasons expressed in Judge Keefe's opinion, as well as those set forth here, the judgment of the Appellate Division is affirmed.

Justices CLIFFORD and STEIN do not join in Point III of this opinion.


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Rh And sent at once to Lionel, praying him By that great love they both had borne the dead, To come and revel for one hour with him Before he left the land for evermore; And then to friends—they were not many—who lived Scatteringly about that lonely land of his, And bade them to a banquet of farewells.

And Julian made a solemn feast: I never Sat at a costlier; for all round his hall From column on to column, as in a wood, Not such as here—an equatorial one, Great garlands swung and blossom'd; and beneath; Heirlooms, and ancient miracles of Art, Chalice and salver, wines that, Heaven knows when, Had suck'd the fire of some forgotten sun, And kept it thro' a hundred years of gloom, Yet glowing in a heart of ruby—cups  Rh


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Rh one. He knocked, but no answer came. He knocked again, and soon he heard a sash thrown up in the second story, and an astonished voice inquired who was there?

'It is Pierre Glendinning, and he desires an instant interview with the Reverend Mr. Falsgrave.'

'Do I hear right?—in heaven's name, what is the matter, young gentleman?'

'Everything is the matter; the whole world is the matter. Will you admit me, sir?'

'Certainly—but I beseech thee—nay, stay, I will admit thee.'

In quicker time than could have been anticipated, the door was opened to Pierre by Mr. Falsgrave in person, holding a candle, and invested in his very becoming student's wrapper of Scotch plaid.

'For heaven's sake, what is the matter, Mr. Glendinning?

'Heaven and earth is the matter, sir! shall we go up to the study?'

'Certainly, but—but——'

'Well, let us proceed, then.'

They went upstairs, and soon found themselves in the clergyman's retreat, and both sat down; the amazed host still holding the candle in his hand, and intently eyeing Pierre, with an apprehensive aspect.

'Thou art a man of God, sir, I believe.'

'I? I? I? upon my word, Mr. Glendinning!'

'Yes, sir, the world calls thee a man of God. Now, what hast thou, the man of God, decided, with my mother, concerning Delly Ulver?'

'Delly Ulver! why, why—what can this madness mean?'

'It means, sir, what have thou and my mother decided concerning Delly Ulver.'

'She?—Delly Ulver? She is to depart the neighbourhood; why, her own parents want her not.'

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230 'How is she to depart? Who is to take her? Art thou to take her? Where is she to go? Who has food for her? What is to keep her from the pollution to which such as she are every day driven to contribute, by the detestable uncharitableness and heartlessness of the world?'

'Mr. Glendinning,' said the clergyman, now somewhat calmly putting down the candle, and folding himself with dignity in his gown; 'Mr. Glendinning, I will not now make any mention of my natural astonishment at this most unusual call, and the most extraordinary time of it. Thou hast sought information upon a certain point, and I have given it to thee, to the best of my knowledge. All thy after and incidental questions, I choose to have no answer for. I will be most happy to see thee at any other time, but for the present thou must excuse my presence. Good night, sir.'

But Pierre sat entirely still, and the clergyman could not but remain standing still.

'I perfectly comprehend the whole, sir. Delly Ulver, then, is to be driven out to starve or rot; and this, too, by the acquiescence of a man of God. Mr. Falsgrave, the subject of Delly, deeply interesting as it is to me, is only the preface to another, still more interesting to me, and concerning which I once cherished some slight hope that thou wouldst have been able, in thy Christian character, to sincerely and honestly counsel me. But a hint from heaven assures me now, that thou hast no earnest and world-disdaining counsel for me. I must seek it direct from God Himself, whom, I now know, never delegates His holiest admonishings. But I do not blame thee; I think I begin to see how thy profession is unavoidably entangled by all fleshly alliances, and cannot move with godly freedom in a world of benefices. I am more sorry than indignant. Pardon me for my most uncivil call, and know me as not thy enemy. Good night, sir.'

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128 of mine, the confused noise of machinery grew louder, and presently the walls fell away from me and I came to a large open space, and striking another match saw I had entered a vast arched cavern extending into darkness, at last, beyond the range of my light.

"The view I had of this cavern was as much as one could see in the burning of a match. Necessarily my memory of it is very vague. Great shapes like big machines rose out of the dim and threw grotesque black shadows, in which the spectral Morlocks sheltered from the glare. The place, by the bye, was very stuffy and oppressive, and the faint halitus of freshly shed blood was in the air. Some way down the central vista was a little table of white metal upon which a meal seemed to be spread. The Morlocks at any rate were carnivorous. Even at the time I remember thinking what large animal could have survived to furnish the


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 BOOK IX

MORE LIGHT, AND THE GLOOM OF THAT LIGHT; MORE GLOOM, AND THE LIGHT OF THAT GLOOM

I

those Hyperborean regions, to which enthusiastic Truth, and Earnestness, and Independence, will invariably lead a mind fitted by nature for profound and fearless thought, all objects are seen in a dubious, uncertain, and refracting light. Viewed through that rarefied atmosphere the most immemorially admitted maxims of men begin to slide and fluctuate, and finally become wholly inverted; the very heavens themselves being not innocent of producing this confounding effect, since it is mostly in the heavens themselves that these wonderful mirages are exhibited.

But the example of many minds forever lost, like undiscoverable Arctic explorers, amid those treacherous regions, warns us entirely away from them; and we learn that it is not for man to follow the trail of truth too far, since by so doing he entirely loses the directing compass of his mind; for arrived at the Pole, to whose barrenness only it points, there, the needle indifferently respects all points of the horizon alike.

But even the less distant regions of thought are not without their singular introversions. Hardly any sincere man of ordinary reflective powers, and accustomed to exercise them at all, but must have been independently struck by the thought, that, after all, what is so enthusiastically applauded as the march of mind,—meaning the 5em

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232 inroads of Truth into Error—which has ever been regarded by hopeful persons as the one fundamental thing most earnestly to be prayed for as the greatest possible Catholic blessing to the world;—almost every thinking man must have been some time or other struck with the idea, that in certain respects, a tremendous mistake may be lurking here, since all the world does never gregariously advance to Truth, but only here and there some of its individuals do; and by advancing, leave the rest behind; cutting themselves forever adrift from their sympathy, and making themselves always liable to be regarded with distrust, dislike, and often, downright—though, ofttimes, concealed—fear and hate. What wonder, then, that those advanced minds, which in spite of advance, happen still to remain, for the time, ill-regulated, should now and then be goaded into turning round in acts of wanton aggression upon sentiments and opinions now forever left in their rear. Certain it is, that in their earlier stages of advance, especially in youthful minds, as yet untranquillised by long habituation to the world as it inevitably and eternally is; this aggressiveness is almost invariably manifested, and as invariably afterward deplored by themselves.

That amazing shock of practical truth, which in the compass of a very few days and hours had not so much advanced, as magically transplanted the youthful mind of Pierre far beyond all common discernments; it had not been entirely unattended by the lamentable rearward aggressiveness we have endeavoured to portray above. Yielding to that unwarrantable mood, he had invaded the profound midnight slumbers of the Reverend Mr. Falsgrave, and most discourteously made war upon that really amiable and estimable person. But as through the strange force of circumstances his advance in insight had been so surprisingly rapid, so also was now his advance in some sort of wisdom, in charitableness; and his concluding

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Rh red joint I saw. It was all very indistinct, the heavy smell, the big unmeaning shapes, the white figures lurking in the shadows, and only waiting for the darkness to come at me again. Then the match burned down and stung my fingers and fell, a wriggling red spot in the black. "I have thought since how particularly ill equipped I was. When I had started with the Time Machine I had started with the absurd assumption that the men of the future would certainly be infinitely in front of us in all their appliances. I had come without arms, without medicine, without anything to smoke,—at times I missed tobacco frightfully,—even without enough matches. If I had only thought of a kodak! I could have flashed that glimpse of the underworld a second and examined it at leisure. But as it was, I stood there with only the weapons and powers that Nature had endowed me with—hands, feet, and teeth—except


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130 four safety matches that still remained to me.

"I was afraid to push my way in among all this machinery in the dark, and it was only with my last glimpse of light I discovered that my store of matches had run low. It had never occurred to me until that moment that there was any need to economize them, and I had wasted almost half of the box in astonishing the aboveground people, to whom fire was a novelty. As I say, I had four left.

"Then while I stood in the dark a hand touched mine; then some lank fingers came feeling over my face. I was sensible of a dull, unpleasant odor. I fancy I detected the breathing of a number of those little beings about me. I felt the box of matches in my hand being gently disengaged, and other hands behind me plucking at my clothing.

"The sense of these unseen creatures examining me was indescribably unpleasant. The sudden realization


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 THE VARIOUS FORMS IN WHICH

ARE PUBLISHED. In Seven handsome demy octavo Volumes, printed in large clear old-faced type on toned paper, with a Steel Engraved Portrait of the Author, from a photograph. Price £3. 13s. 6d cloth; or £4. 7s. 6d. Roxburghe.

Each volume sold separately, price 10s. 6d.; Roxburghe, half-morocco, 12s. 6d. each.

This Edition is in crown octavo, printed on superfine paper, with handsome margins, in clear old-faced type—each Volume containing a Frontispiece

This Edition can also be had bound in Roxburghe, half-morocco, price 1s. 6d. per Vol. extra.

London:C. KEGAN PAUL & CO., 1 Paternoster Square.


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 for all, and was above local or social influences. The estates lost their ancient authority, and one supreme will governed everything, through a body of trained administrators such as up to that time existed nowhere else.

The next elector obtained the royal crown. Prince Eugene said that the emperor's ministers, who had advised the grant, deserved to be hanged. But in fact they were not less prescient than he, for they warned Leopold that Prussia would deprive his family of the empire. The King of Prussia became the head of the Protestant interest in Germany. That prerogative had been forfeited by the Elector of Saxony when he received the crown of Poland and became a Catholic. Rome alone protested against the Protestant king, and spoke only of a margrave of Brandenburg until after the death of Frederic II. All the Catholic Powers acknowledged the new title and disregarded the protest. For the first time there was a kingdom within the empire, a kingdom, moreover, which was Protestant. It was a step towards the break-up of that irrational body.

The second king succeeded in 1713 and died in 1740. He is the Peter the Great of Prussia. For him, the whole secret of government is the increase of power at home. His idea was that monarchy cannot be too absolute. It requires to be wisely administered; but it does not require to be limited. Concentration cannot be too intense. No enemy outside is so dangerous as public opinion within. He announced that he would establish his power on a rock—"un rocher de bronze." He meant that the power of the State must be independent of the changing motives of the hour, that it must be directed by a will superior alike to majority and minority, to interests and classes. He spent his reign in very deliberately contriving such a machine. The king, he said, must do his work himself, and not shrink from trouble. He was perpetually in harness. He was like a madman in his vehemence and his crudity of speech. But there was method in his fury, and calculating design and even practical wisdom. He gave an impetus as powerful as that of the Tsar Peter;


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 but he was superior to him in knowledge of detail as well as in point of character. He was a hard taskmaster but he knew what he was about; and it does not appear that his subjects desired to be governed in another way or that they would have been satisfied with a monarch who did not strain their strength to the uttermost.

The object in which they agreed with him—the supremacy of the Prussians in Germany—was not to be obtained if they would not go into training. There was no shrinking. He said, in 1713: "when my son comes to the throne he must find the vaults crowded with gold," and the son, in 1740, found eight million thalers. He found, moreover, a well-equipped army of eighty-three thousand men. This was the special creation of the energetic king. He was, indeed, a peaceful ruler, and did not thirst for military glory. Among European Powers he was of little account, and kept all his violence for home use. When he laid up treasure, and organised an army that was not so large as that of France, of Austria, or of Russia, but more concentrated and better drilled, his people understood that he would some day provide territory and population to match,—an army so excessive, an army six times as large, in proportion to those of other Powers, was meant to be employed. The burden was not felt. Of the expense, one-half was borne by the domain. Of the men, a large portion was recruited abroad, and relieved the natives of Prussia. After some years, it was felt that the platoons of giants, which had cost twelve million thalers, were a wasteful toy, and that the money might have been spent to advantage among the people. The king attempted to supply their place by a levy among the agrarian population, which is reputed the remote origin of universal service. His economy was so rigid that, with an income of seven million thalers, he spent five millions on his armaments. He thus created the force which began what Napoleon completed, the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. For that which the father stored, the son expended; and I hope in the next lecture to tell you how he did it.


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 He so eclipsed Frederic William that the latter became an obscure memory, and was spoken of with contempt and disgust by his own people. Carlyle discovered in him his own ideal, the strong man, and set him on his legs. And when the army which he created, which had been remodelled by Frederic, Scharnhorst, Roon, and Moltke became the greatest of all armies, Germany remembered its founder and was grateful for his militarism.

They have made their choice, as we must do. Those who remember with honour men like Hampden and Washington, regard with a corresponding aversion Peter the Great and Frederic William I. But without the first Europe might be French, and without the other it might be Russian. That which arose in Northern Europe about the time of our revolution settlement was a new form of practical absolutism. Theological monarchy had done its time, and was now followed by military monarchy. Church and State had oppressed mankind together; henceforth the State oppressed for its own sake. And this was the genuine idea which came in with the Renaissance, according to which the State alone governs, and all other things obey. Reformation and Counter-Reformation had pushed religion to the front: but after two centuries the original theory, that government must be undivided and uncontrolled, began to prevail. It is a new type, not to be confounded with that of Henry VIII., Philip II., or Lewis XIV., and better adapted to a more rational and economic age. Government so understood is the intellectual guide of the nation, the promoter of wealth, the teacher of knowledge, the guardian of morality, the mainspring of the ascending movement of man. That is the tremendous power, supported by millions of bayonets, which grew up in the days of which I have been speaking at Petersburg, and was developed, by much abler minds, chiefly at Berlin; and it is the greatest danger that remains to be encountered by the Anglo-Saxon race.


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My own inclination would lead me to say as little as possible about myself; but several friends have suggested that, as the reader likes to know something about an author, a short account of my origin and early life would lend additional interest to this book. Such is my excuse for the following egotism.

My great-grandfather fell at the battle of Culloden, fighting for the old line of kings; and my grandfather was a small farmer in Ulva, where my father was born. It is one of that cluster of the Hebrides thus alluded to by Walter Scott:—

My grandfather was intimately acquainted with all the legends which that great writer has since, made use of in the 'Tales of a Grandfather' and other works. As a boy I remember listening to him with delight. Many of his never-ending stock of stories were wonderfully like those I have since heard while sitting by the African fires. My grandmother used to sing Gaelic songs, some of which, as she believed, had been composed by captive islanders languishing hopelessly among the Turks.


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