Civil Government of North Carolina and the United States

at a mother's knee, can afford to know less of our laws and institutions than is contained in the pages of this book. Its method is to illustrate in cases of difficulty, to emphasize and define important words and phrases, and to keep ideas and principles which are normally akin grouped together in families. A chief merit is its brevity, and perhaps no more credit should be asked for what is said than for what is omitted.

The Great Teacher has taught us how to teach. "Have ye not read," and "I will liken," are the phrases which indicate His methods. He used both the history of truth and its relation to the things of common knowledge and experience to impress it upon the minds of His hearers. So history and illustration are the kindly lights which lead us into a knowledge of government, of organic law, and of the ideals of civic righteousness. Those who have learned of the battles which have raged around the establishment of a political principle are best equipped to defend and maintain it. If these pages contain sufficient allusion to the history of our institutions and sufficient citation of authority to suggest the necessity for greater familiarity with original sources, they will not have been written in vain.

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The rock-ribbed structure of organic law, like the outline or configuration of a range of mountains, must be made familiar by views from different standpoints. First its main features should be regarded; gradually its order, symmetry, and arrangement emerge into view and fall into comprehension; then near excursions may be made with pleasure and safety, and investigation pursued in detail.

The "Grandfather" peak of our organic law is local selfgovernment, whose brow is received into a perpetual cloud of historic glory lighted with the light of another world, and whose foundations are rooted in individual responsibility to God.

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