See, the two with stars on their foreheads⁠—see, the round bodies and broad backs, How straight and square they stand on their legs⁠—what fine sagacious eyes! How they watch their tamer⁠—they wish him near them⁠—how they turn to look after him! What yearning expression! how uneasy they are when he moves away from them; Now I marvel what it can be he appears to them, (books, politics, poems, depart⁠—all else departs,) I confess I envy only his fascination⁠—my silent, illiterate friend, Whom a hundred oxen love there in his life on farms, In the northern county far, in the placid pastoral region.

For the Inauguration of a Public School, Camden, New Jersey, 1874

An old man’s thought of school, An old man gathering youthful memories and blooms that youth itself cannot.

Now only do I know you, O fair auroral skies⁠—O morning dew upon the grass!

And these I see, these sparkling eyes, These stores of mystic meaning, these young lives, Building, equipping like a fleet of ships, immortal ships, Soon to sail out over the measureless seas, On the soul’s voyage.

Only a lot of boys and girls? Only the tiresome spelling, writing, ciphering classes? Only a public school?