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diff --git a/8940.txt b/8940.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..02df349 --- /dev/null +++ b/8940.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8713 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance, by +John Foster + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance + +Author: John Foster + +Posting Date: August 22, 2014 [EBook #8940] +Release Date: September, 2005 +First Posted: August 27, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAY--EVILS OF POPULAR IGNORANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + +An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance + +By John Foster. + +Revised and Enlarged Edition. + + + + + "A Work, which, popular and admired as it confessedly is, has never + met with the thousandth part of the attention which it deserves. It + appears to me that we are now at a crisis in the state of our country, + and of the world, which renders the reasonings and exhortations of + that eloquent production applicable and urgent beyond all power of + mine to express." + + Dr. J. Pye Smith. + + + + +Advertisement + + + +If the circumstance of a manner of introduction somewhat different from +what would be expected in a composition of the essay class were worth a +very few words of explanation, it might be mentioned, that the +following production has grown out of the topics of a discourse, +delivered at a public anniversary meeting in aid of the British and +Foreign School Society. + +When it was thought, a good while after that occasion, that a more +extensive use might be made of some of the observations, the writing was +begun in the form of a Discourse addressed to an assembly, and commencing +with a sentence from the Bible, to serve as a general indication to the +subject. But after some progress had been made, it became evident that +anything like a comprehensive view of that subject would be incompatible +with the proper limits of such a composition. + +In relinquishing, however, the form of a public address, the writer +thought he might be excused for leaving some traces of that character to +remain, in both the cast of expression and the theological sentiment; for +reverting repeatedly to the sentence from Scripture; and for continuing +the use of the plural pronoun, so commodious for the modest egotism of +public discoursers. + +In the general design and course of observations, the essay retains the +character of the original discourse, which was, in accordance to the +presumed expectations of a grave assembly, an attempt to display the +importance of the education of the people in reference, mainly, to moral +and religious interests. There are special relations in which their +ignorance or cultivation are of great consequence to the welfare of the +community. Some of these are of indispensable consideration to the +legislator, and to the political economist. But it is in that general and +moral view, in which ignorance in the lower orders is beheld the cause of +their vice, irreligion, and consequent misery, that the subject is +attempted, imperfectly and somewhat desultorily, to be illustrated in the +following pages. + +Nor was it within the writer's design to suggest any particular plans, +regulations, or instrumental expedients, in promotion of the system of +operations hopefully begun, for raising these classes from their +degradation. His part has been to make such a prominent representation of +the calamitous effects of their ignorance, as shall prove it an aggravated +national guilt to allow another generation to grow up to the same +condition as the present and the past. In the course of attempting this, +occasions have been seized of exposing the absurdity of those who are +hostile to the mental improvement of the people. If any one should say +that this is a mere beating of the air, for that all such hostility is now +gone by, he may be assured there are many persons, of no insignificant +rank in society, who would from their own consciousness smile at the +simplicity with which he can so easily shape men's opinions and +dispositions to his mind whether they will or not. He must have been the +most charitable or the most obtuse of observers. + +It is feared the readers of the following essay will find some defect of +distribution and arrangement. To the candor of those who are practised in +literary work it would be an admissible plea, that when, in a preparation +to meet a particular occasion for which but little time has been allowed, +a series of topics and observations has been hastily sketched out, it is +far from easy to throw them afterwards into a different order. The author +has to bespeak indulgence also, here and there, to something too like +repetition. If he qualifies the terms in which this fault is acknowledged, +it is because he thinks that, though there be a recurrence of +similarities, a mere bare iteration is avoided, by means of a diversity +and addition of the matter of illustration and enforcement. + +Any benevolent writer on the subject would wish he could treat it without +such frequent use of the phrases, "lower orders," "subordinate classes," +"inferior portion of society," and other expressions of the same kind; +because they have an invidious sound, and have indeed very often been used +in contempt. He can only say, that he uses them with no such feeling; that +they are employed simply as the most obvious terms of designation; and +that he would like better to employ any less ungracious ones that did not +require an affected circumlocution. + +In several parts of the essay, there will be found a language of emphatic +censure on that conduct of states, that predominant spirit and system in +the administration of the affairs of nations, by which the people have +been consigned to such a deplorable condition of intellectual and +consequently moral degradation, while resources approaching to immensity +have been lavished on objects of vanity and ambition. So far from feeling +that such observations can require any apology, the writer thinks it is +high time for all the advocates of intellectual, moral, and religious +improvement, to raise a protesting voice against that policy of the states +denominated Christian, and especially our own, which has, through age +after age, found every conceivable thing necessary to be done, at all +costs and hazards, rather than to enlighten, reform, and refine the +people. He thinks that nothing can more strongly betray a judgment +enslaved, or a time-serving dishonesty, in those who would assume to +dictate to such an advocate and to censure him, than that sort of doctrine +which tells him that it is beside his business, and out of his sphere, as +a Christian moralist, to animadvert on the conduct of national +authorities, when he sees them, during one long period of time after +another, not doing that which is the most important of all things to be +done for the people over whom they preside, but doing what is in substance +and effect the reverse; and doing it on that great scale, which contrasts +so fearfully with the small one, on which the individuals who deplore such +perversion of power are confined to attempt a remedy of the consequences. + +This interdiction comes with its worst appearance when it is put forth in +terms affecting a profound reverence of religion; a reverence which +cannot endure that so holy a thing should be defiled, by being brought in +any contact with such a subject as the disastrous effect of bad +government, on the intellectual and moral state of the people. The +advocate of schemes for the improvement of their rational nature _may_, +it seems, take his ground, his strongest ground, on religion, for +enforcing on _individuals_ the duty of promoting such an object. In the +name and authority of religion he may press on their consciences with +respect to the application of their property and influence; and he may +adopt under its sanction a strongly judicial language in censure of their +negligence, their insensibility to their accountableness, and their +lavish expenditures foreign to the most Important uses: in all this he +does well. But the instant he begins to make the like judicial +application of its laws to the public conduct of the governing +authorities, that instant he debases Christianity to politics, most +likely to party-politics; and a pious horror is affected at the +profanation. Christianity is to be honored somewhat after the same manner +as the Lama of Thibet. It is to stay in its temple, to have the +proprieties of homage duly preserved within its precincts, but to be +_exempted_ (in reverence of its sanctity!) from all cognizance of great +public affairs, even in the points where they most interfere with or +involve its interests. It could show, perhaps, in what manner the +administration of those affairs injures these interests; but it would +degrade its sacred character by talking of any such matter. But +Christianity must have leave to decline the sinister compliment of such +pretended anxiety to preserve it immaculate. As to its sacred character, +it can _venture that,_ on the strength of its intrinsic quality and of +its own guardianship, while, regardless of the limits thus attempted in +mock reverence to be prescribed, it steps in a censorial capacity on what +will be called a political ground, so far as to take account of what +concern has been shown, or what means have been left disposable, for +operations to promote the grand essentials of human welfare, by that +public system which has grasped and expended the strength of the +community, Christianity is not so demure a thing that it cannot, without +violating its consecrated character, go into the exercise of this +judicial office. And as to its _right_ to do so,--either it has a right +to take cognizance now of the manner in which the spirit and measures of +states and their regulators bear upon the most momentous interests, or it +will have no right to be brought forward as the supreme law for the final +award on those proceedings and those men. [Footnote: A censure on this +alleged desecration of religious topics, which had been pronounced on the +Essay (first edit.) by a Review making no small pretensions both +religious and literary, was the immediate cause that prompted these +observations. But they were made with a general reference to a +hypocritical cant much in vogue at that time, and long before. That it +_was_ hypocritical appeared plainly enough from the circumstance, that +those solemn rebukes of the profanation of religion, by implicating it +with political affairs, smote almost exclusively on one side. Let the +religious moralist, or the preacher, amalgamate religion as largely as he +pleased with the _proper sort_ of political sentiments, that is, the +servile, and then it was all right.] + +It is now more than twenty years since a national plan of education for +the inferior classes, was brought forward by Mr. (now Lord) Brougham. The +announcement of such a scheme from such an Author, was received with hope +and delight by those who had so long deplored the condition of those +classes. But when it was formally set forth, its administrative +organization appeared so defective in liberal comprehension, so +invidiously restricted and accommodated to the prejudices and demands of +one part of the community, that another great division, the one in which +zeal and exertions for the education of the people had been more and +longer conspicuous, was constrained to make an instant and general protest +against it. And at the same time it was understood, that the party in +whose favor it had been so inequitably constructed, were displeased at +even the very small reserve it made from their monopoly of jurisdiction. +It speedily fell to the ground, to the extreme regret of the earnest +friends of popular reformation that a design of so much original promise +should have come to nothing. + +All legislative consideration of the subject went into abeyance; and has +so remained, with trifling exception, through an interval in which far +more than a million, in England alone, of the children who were at that +time within that stage of their life on which chiefly a general scheme +would have acted, have grown up to animal maturity, destitute of all that +can, in any decent sense of the word, be called education. Think of the +difference between their state as it is, and what it might have been if +there had at that time existed patriotism, liberality, and moral +principle, enough to enact and carry into effect a comprehensive measure. +The longer the neglect the more aggravated the pressure with which the +subject returns upon us. It is forcing itself on attention with a demand +as peremptory as ever was the necessity of an embankment against the peril +of inundation. There are no indications to make us sanguine as to the +disposition of the most influential classes; but it were little less than +infatuation not to see the necessity of some extraordinary proceeding, to +establish a fortified line between us and--not national dishonor; _that_ +is flagrantly upon us, but--the destruction of national safety. + +As to national dishonor, by comparison with what may be seen elsewhere, it +is hardly possible for a patriot to feel a more bitter mortification than +in reading the description, as recently given by M. Cousin, of the state +of education in the Prussian dominions, and then looking over the hideous +exhibition of ignorance and barbarism in this country; in representing to +himself the vernal intelligence, (as we may rightly name it,) the +information, the sense of decorum, the fitness for rational converse, +which must quite inevitably diffuse a value and grace throughout the +general youthful character under such a discipline, and then changing his +view to what may be seen all over his own country--an incalculable and +ever-increasing tribe of human creatures, growing up in a condition to +show what a wretched and offensive thing is human nature left to itself. + +When neither opprobrium, nor prospective policy, nor sense of duty, can +constrain the attention of the officially and virtually ruling part of +society to an important national interest, it is sure to come on them at +last in some more alarming and imperative manifestation. The present and +very recent times have afforded significant indication of what an ignorant +populace are capable of believing, and of being successfully instigated to +perpetrate. It is not to be pretended that such ignorance, and such +liabilities to mischief, exist only in particular spots of the land, as if +the local outbreaks were merely incidental and insulated facts, standing +out of community with anything widely pervading the mass. Within but very +few years of the present date, we have had the spectacle of millions, +literally millions, of the people of England, yielding an absolute +credence to the most monstrous delusions respecting public questions and +measures, imposed on them by dishonest artifice, and what may be called +moral incendiarism; and these delusions of a nature to excite the passions +of the multitude to crime. It is difficult to believe that all this can be +seen without serious apprehension, by those who sustain the primary +responsibility for devising measures to secure the national _safety_, +(that we may take the lowest term of national welfare;) and that they can +be content to rest that security on expedients which, in keeping the +people in order, make them no wiser or better. It would truly be a +glorious change in our history, if we might at length see the national +power wielded by enlightened, virtuous, and energetic spirits, not only to +the bare effect of withstanding disorder and danger, but in a resolute, +invincible determination to redeem us from the national ignominy of +exhibiting to the world, far in the nineteenth century, a rude, +unprincipled, semi-barbarous populace. + +Thus far the hopes which had flattered us with such a change, as a +consequence of a political movement so considerable as to be denominated a +revolution, have been grievously disappointed. We must wait, but with +prognostics little encouraging, to see whether a professed concern for +popular education will result in any effective scheme. That profession has +hitherto been followed up with so little appearance of earnest conviction, +or of high and comprehensive purpose, among the majority of the +influential persons who, perhaps for decorum's sake, have made it, as to +leave cause for apprehension that, if any such scheme were to be proposed, +it would be in the first instance very limited in its compass, indecisive +in its enforcement, and niggardly in its pecuniary appointments. Many of +our legislators have never thought of investigating the condition of the +people, and are unaware of their deplorable destitution of all mental +cultivation; and many have formed but a low and indistinct estimate of the +kind and measure of cultivation desirable to be imparted. Very slowly does +the conviction or the desire make its way among the favorites of fortune, +that the portion of humanity so far below them should be raised to the +highest mental condition compatible with the limitation and duties of +their subordinate allotment. + +No doubt, the most genuine zeal for the object would find difficulties in +the way, of a magnitude to require a great and persevering exertion of +power, were they only those opposed by the degraded condition of the +people themselves; by the utter carelessness of one part, and the +intractableness of another. Nor is it to be denied, that the differences +of religious opinion, among the promoters of the design, must create +considerable difficulty as to the mode and extent of religious +instruction, to form a part of a comprehensive system. But we are told, +besides, of we know not what obstruction to be encountered from prejudices +of prescription, privileged and peculiar interests, the jealous pride of +venerable institutions, assumed rights of station and rank, punctilios of +precedence, the tenacity of parties who find their advantage in things as +they are, and so forth; all to be deferentially consulted. + +If this mean that the old horror of a bold experimental novelty is still +to be yielded to; that nothing in this so urgent affair is to be ventured +but in a creeping inch-by-inch movement; that the reign of gross +ignorance, with all its attendant vices, is to be allowed a very leisurely +retreat, retaining its hold on a large portion of the present and +following generations of the children, and therefore the adults; that +their condition and fate shall be mainly left at the discretion of +ignorant and often worthless parents; that there shall be no considerable +positive exaction of local provision for the institution, or of attendance +of those who should be benefited by it; that, in short, there shall not be +a comprehensive application of the national power through its organ, the +government, by authoritative, and, we must say, in some degree coercive +measures, to abate as speedily as possible the national nuisance and +calamity of such a state of the juvenile faculties and habits as we see +glaring around us; and all this because homage is demanded to anticipated +prejudices, selfishness of privilege, venerable institutions, pride of +station, jealousy of the well-endowed, and the like:--if this be what is +meant, we may well ask whether these factitious prerogatives, that would +thus interfere to render feeble, partial, and slow, any projected exertion +to rescue the nation from barbarism, turpitude, and danger, be not +themselves among the most noxious things in the land, and the most +deserving to be extirpated. + +How readily will the proudest descend to the plea of impotence when the +exhortation is to something which they care not for or dislike, but to +which, at the same time, it would be disreputable to avow any other than +the most favorable sentiments, to be duly expressed in the form of great +regret that the thing is impracticable. Impracticable--and does the case +come at last to be this, that from one cause and another, from the +arrogance of the high and the untowardness of the low, the obstinacy of +prejudice, and the rashness of innovation, the dissensions among friends +of a beneficent design and the discountenance of those who are no better +than enemies, a mighty state, triumphantly boasting of every _other_ +kind of power, absolutely _cannot_ execute a scheme for rescuing its +people from being what a great Authority on this subject has pronounced +"the worst educated nation in Europe?" Then let it submit, with all its +pomp, pride, and grandeur, to stand in derision and proverb on the face +of the earth. + + * * * * * + +With a view to a wider circulation than that which is limited by the price +of the volume published in an expensive form and style of printing, it has +been deemed advisable to publish a cheap edition of the "Essay on Popular +Ignorance." It is not in any degree an abridgment of the preceding +edition; the only omission, of the slightest consequence, being in a few +places where changes have been rendered necessary by the subsequent +conduct of our national authorities, as affecting our speculations and +prospects in relation to general education; while, on the other hand, +there are numerous little additions and corrections, in attempts to bring +out the ideas more fully, or with some little afterthought of +discrimination or exception. In some instances the connection and +dependence of the series of thoughts have been rendered more obvious, and +the sentences reduced to a somewhat more simple and compact construction; +but the principal object in this _final revised_ has been literary +correction, without any material enlargement or change. + +It is hoped that this reprint in a popular form may serve the purpose of +contributing something, in co-operation with the present exertions, to +expose, and partially remedy, the lamentable and nationally disgraceful +ignorance to which the people of our country have been so long abandoned. + + + + +Contents. + + + +Section I. + + Defect of sensibility in the view of the unhappiness of mankind. + --Ignorance one grand cause of that unhappiness.--Ignorance prevalent + among the ancient Jewish people.--Its injurious operation--and + ultimately destructive consequence.--More extended consideration of + ignorance as the cause of misery among the ancient heathens. + + +Section II. + + Brief review of the ignorance prevailing through the ages subsequent to + those of ancient history.--State of the popular mind in Christendom + during the complete reign of Popery.--Supposed reflections of a + Protestant in one of our ancient splendid structures for ecclesiastical + use.--Slow progress of the Reformation, in its effects on the + understandings of the people.--Their barbarous ignorance even in the + time of Elizabeth, notwithstanding the intellectual and literary glories + of this country in that period.--Sunk in ignorance still in what has + often been called our Augustan age.--Strange insensibility of the + cultivated part of the nation with regard to the mental and moral + condition of the rest.--Almost heathen ignorance of religion at the time + when Whitefield and Wesley began to excite the attention of the + multitude to that subject.--Signs and means of a change for the better + in recent times. + + +Section III. + + Great ignorance and debasement still manifest in various features of the + popular character.--Entire want, in early life, of any idea of a general + and comprehensive purpose to be pursued--Gratification of the senses + the chief good.--Cruelty a subsidiary resource.--Disposition to cruelty + displayed and confirmed by common practices.--Confirmed especially by + the manner of slaughtering animals destined for food.--Displayed in the + abuse of the laboring animals.--General characteristic of the people an + indistinct and faint sense of right and wrong.--Various + exemplifications.--Dishonor to our country that the people should have + remained in such a condition.--Effects of their ignorance as appearing + in several parts of the economy of life; in their ordinary occupations; + in their manner of spending their leisure time, including the Sunday; in + the state of domestic society; consequences of this last as seen in the + old age of parents.--The lower classes placed by their want of education + out of amicable communication with the higher.--Unhappy and dangerous + consequences of this.--Great decline of the respect which in former + times the people felt toward the higher classes and the existing order + of the community.--Progress of a contrary spirit. + + +Section IV. + + Objection, that a material increase of knowledge and intelligence among + the people would render them unfit for their station, and discontented + with it; would excite them to insubordination and arrogance toward + their superiors; and make them the more liable to be seduced by the + wild notions and pernicious machinations of declaimers, schemers, and + innovators.--Observations in answer.--Special and striking absurdity + of this objection in one important particular.--Evidence from matter of + fact that the improvement of the popular understanding has not the + tendency alleged.--The special regard meant to be had to _religious_ + instruction in the education desired for the lower classes, a security + against their increased knowledge being perverted into an excitement to + insubordination and disorder.--Absurdity of the notion that an improved + education of the common people ought to consist of instruction + specifically and almost solely religious.--The diminutive quantity of + religious as well as other knowledge to which the people would be + limited by some zealous advocates of order and subordination utterly + inadequate to secure those objects.--But, question what is to be + understood by order and subordination.--Increased knowledge and sense + in the people certainly not favorable to a credulous confidence and a + passive, unconditional submission, on their part, toward the presiding + classes in the community.--Advantage, to a wise and upright government, + of having intelligent subjects.--Great effect which a general + improvement among the people would necessarily have on the manner of + their being governed.--The people arrived, in this age, at a state + which renders it impracticable to preserve national tranquillity + without improving their minds and making some concession to their + claims.--Folly and probable calamity of an obstinate resolution to + maintain subordination in the nations of Europe in the arbitrary and + despotic manner of former times.--Facility and certain success of a + better system. + + +Section V. + + Extreme poverty of religious knowledge among the uneducated people: + their notions respecting God, Providence, Jesus Christ, the invisible + world.--Fatal effect of their want of mental discipline as causing an + inaptitude to receive religious information.--Exemplifications,--in a + supposed experiment of religious instruction in a friendly visit to a + numerous uneducated family; in the stupidity and thoughtlessness often + betrayed in attendance on public religious services; in the + impossibility of imparting religious truths, with any degree of + clearness, to ignorant persons, when alarmed into some serious concern + by sickness; in the insensibility and invincible delusion sometimes + retained in the near approach to death.--Rare instances of the + admirable efficacy of religion to animate and enlarge the faculties, + even in the old age of an ignorant man.--Excuses for the intellectual + inaptitude and perversion of uncultivated religious + minds.--Animadversions on religious teachers. + + +Section VI. + + Supposed method of verifying the preceding representation of the + ignorance of the people.--Renewed expressions of wonder and + mortification that this should be the true description of the English + nation.--Prodigious exertions of this nation for the accomplishment of + objects foreign to the improvement of the people.--Effects which might + have resulted from far less exertion and resources applied to that + object.--The contrast between what has been done, and what might have + been done by the exertion of the national strength, exposed in a series + of parallel representations.--Total unconcern, till a recent period, of + the generality of persons in the higher classes respecting the mental + state of the populace.--Indications of an important change in the manner + of estimating them.--Measures attempted and projected for their + improvement.--Some of these measures and methods insignificant in the + esteem of projectors of merely political schemes for the amendment of + the popular condition.--But questions to those projectors on the + efficacy of such schemes.--Most desirable, nevertheless, that the + political systems and the governing powers of states _could_ be + converted to promote so grand a purpose.--But expostulations addressed + to those who, desponding of this aid, despond therefore of the object + itself.--Incitement to individual exertion.--Reference to the sublimest + Example.--Imputation of extravagant hope.--Repelled; first, by a full + acknowledgment how much the hopes of sober-minded projectors of + improvement are limited by what they see of the disorder in the + essential constitution of our nature; and next, by a plain statement, in + a series of particulars, of what they nevertheless judge it rational to + expect from a general extension of good education.--Answer to the + question, whether it be presumed that any merely human discipline can + reduce its subjects under the predominance of religion.--Answer to the + inquiry, what is the extent of the knowledge of which it is desired to + put the common people in possession.--Observations on supposed degrees + of possible advancement of the knowledge and welfare of the community; + with reflections of astonishment and regret at the actual state of + ignorance, degradation, and wretchedness, after so many thousand years + have passed away.--Congratulatory notice of those worthy individuals who + have been rescued from the consequences of a neglected education by + their own resolute mental exertions. + + + + + +Essay on Popular Ignorance. + + + + +"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." + +_Hosea_. + + + + +Section I. + + + +It may excite in us some sense of wonder, and perhaps of self-reproach, to +reflect with what a stillness and indifference of the mind we can hear and +repeat sentences asserting facts which are awful calamities. And this +indifference is more than the accidental and transient state, which might +prevail at seasons of peculiar heaviness or languor. The self-inspector +will often be compelled to acknowledge it as a symptom and exemplification +of the _habit_ of his mind, that ideas of extensive misery and +destruction, though expressed in the plainest, strongest language, seem to +come with but a faint glimmer on his apprehension, and die away without +awakening one emotion of that sensibility which so many comparatively +trifling causes can bring into exercise. + +Will the hearers of the sentence just now repeated from the sacred book, +give a moment's attention to the effect it has on them? We might suppose +them accosted with the question, Would you find it difficult to say what +idea, or whether anything distinct enough to deserve the name of an idea, +has been impressed by the sound of words bearing so melancholy a +significance? And would you have to confess, that they excite no interest +which would not instantly give place to that of the smallest of your own +concerns, occurring to your thoughts; or would not leave free the tendency +to wander loose among casual fancies; or would not yield to feelings of +the ludicrous, at the sight of any whimsical incident? It would not +probably be unfair to suspect such faintness of apprehension, and such +unfixedness and indifference of thought, in the majority of any large +number of persons, though drawn together ostensibly to attend to matters +of gravest concern. And perhaps many of the most serious of them would +acknowledge it requires great and repeated efforts, to bring themselves to +such a contemplative realization of an important subject, that it shall +lay hold on the affections, though it should press on them, as in the +present instance, with facts and reflections of a nature the most strongly +appealing to a mournful sensibility. + +That the "people are destroyed," is perceived to have the sound of a +lamentable declaration. But its import loses all force of significance in +falling on a state of feeling which, if resolvable into distinct +sentiments, would be expressed to some such effect as this:--that the +people's destruction, in whatever sense of the word, is, doubtless, a +deplorable thing, but quite a customary and ordinary matter, the +prevailing fact, indeed, in the general state of this world; that, in +truth, it would seem as if they were made but to be destroyed, for that +they have constantly been, in all imaginable ways, the subjects of +destruction; that, subjected in common with all living corporeal beings to +the doom of death, and to a fearful diversity of causes tending to inflict +it, they have also appeared, through their long sad history, consigned to +a spiritual and moral destruction, if that term be applicable to a +condition the reverse of wisdom, goodness, and happiness; that, in short, +such a sentence as that cited from the prophet, is too merely an +expression of what has been always and over the whole world self-evident, +to excite any particular attention or emotion. + +Thus the destruction, in every sense of the word, of human creatures, is +so constantly obvious, as mingled and spread throughout the whole system, +that the mind has been insensibly wrought to that protective obtuseness +which (like the thickness of the natural clothing of animals in rigorous +climates) we acquire in defence of our own ease, against the aggrievance +of things which inevitably continue in our presence. An instinctive policy +to avoid feeling with respect to this prevailing destruction, has so +effectually taught us how to maintain the exemption, by all the requisite +sleights of overlooking, diverting, forgetting, and admitting deceptive +maxims of palliation, that the art or habit is become almost mechanical. +When fully matured, it appears like a wonderful adventitious faculty--a +power of evading the sight, of _not seeing_, what is obviously and +glaringly presented to view on all sides. There is, indeed, a dim general +recognition that such things are; the hearing of a bold denial of their +existence, would give an instant sense of absurdity, which would provoke a +pointed attention to them, the more perfectly to verify their reality; and +the perception how real and dreadful they are, might continue distinct as +long as we were in the spirit of contradicting and exploding that absurd +denial; but, in the ordinary state of feeling, the mind preserves an easy +dulness of apprehension toward the melancholy vision, and sees it as if it +saw it not. + +This fortified insensibility may, indeed, be sometimes broken in upon with +violence, by the sudden occurrence of some particular instance of human +destruction, in either import of the word, some example of peculiar +aggravation, or happening under extraordinary and striking circumstances, +or very near us in place or interest. An emotion is excited of pity, or +terror, or horror; so strong, that if the person so affected has been +habitually thoughtless, and has no wish to be otherwise, he fears he shall +never recover his state of careless ease; or, if of a more serious +disposition, thinks it impossible he can ever cease to feel an awful and +salutary effect. This more serious person perhaps also thinks it must be +inevitable that henceforward his feelings will be more alive to the +miseries of mankind. But how obstinate is an inveterate habitual state of +the mind against any single impressions made in contravention to it! Both +the thoughtless and the more reflective man may probably find, that a +comparatively short lapse of time suffices, to relieve them from anything +more than slight momentary reminiscences of what had struck them with such +painful force, and to restore, in regard to the general view of the +acknowledged misery of the human race, nearly the accustomed tranquillity. +The course of feeling resembles a listless stream of water, which, after +being dashed into commotion, by a massive substance flung into it, or by +its precipitation at a rapid, relapses, in the progress of a few fathoms +and a few moments, into its former sluggishness of current. + +But is it well that this should be the state of feeling, in the immediate +presence of the spectacle exhibiting the people under a process of being +destroyed? There must be a great and criminal perversion from what our +nature ought to be, in a tranquillity to which it makes no material +difference whether they be destroyed or saved; a tranquillity which would +hardly, perhaps, have been awaked to an effort of intercession at the +portentous sign of destruction revealed to the sight of Ornan; or which +might at the deluge have permitted the privileged patriarch to sink in a +soft slumber, at the moment when the ark was felt to be moving from its +ground. If the original rectitude of that nature had been retained by any +individual, he would be confounded to conceive how creatures having their +lot cast in one place, so near together, so much alike, and under such a +complication of connections and dependences, can yet really be so +insulated, as that some of them may behold, with immovable composure, +innumerable companies of the rest in such a condition, that it had been +better for them not to have existed. + +To such a condition a vast multitude have been consigned by "the lack of +knowledge." And we have to appeal concerning them to whatever there is of +benevolence and conscience, in those who deem themselves happy instances +of exemption from this deplorable consignment; and are conscious that +their state of inestimable privilege is the result, under the blessing of +heaven, of the reception of information, of truth, into their minds. + +If it were suggested to the well instructed in our companies to take an +account of the benefit they have received through the medium of knowledge, +they would say they do not know where to begin the long enumeration, or +how to bring into one estimate so ample a diversity of good. It might be +something like trying to specify, in brief terms, what a highly improved +portion of the ground, in a tract rude and sterile if left to itself, has +received from cultivation; an attempt which would carry back the +imagination through a progression of states and appearances, in which the +now fertile spots, and picture-like scenes, and commodious passes, and +pleasant habitations, may or must have existed in the advance from the +original rudeness. The estimate of what has ultimately been effected, +rises at each stage in this retrospect of the progress, in which so many +valuable changes and additions still require to be followed by something +more, to complete the scheme of improvement. In thus tracing backward the +condition of a now fair and productive place of human dwelling and +subsistence, it may easily be recollected, what a vast number of the +earth's inhabitants there are whose places of dwelling are in all those +states of worse cultivation and commodiousness, and what multitudes +leading a miserable and precarious life amidst the inhospitableness of the +waste, howling wilderness. Each presented circumstance of fertility or +shelter, salubrity or beauty, may be named as what is wanting to a much +greater number of the occupants of the world, than those to whom the +"lines are fallen in such pleasant places." + +When, in like manner, a person richly possessed of the benefits imparted +by means of knowledge, finds, in attempting to recount them, that they +rise so fast on his view, in their variety, combinations, and gradations +from less to greater, as to overpower his computing faculty, he may be +reminded that this account of his wealth is, in truth, that of many other +men's poverty. And if, while these benefits are coming so numerously in +his sight, like an irregular crowd of loaded fruit-trees, one partially +seen behind the offered luxury of another, and others still descried, +through intervals, in the distance, he can imagine them all devastated and +swept away from him, leaving him in a scene of mental desolation,--and if +he shall then consider that nearly such is the state of the great +multitude,--he will surely feel that a deep compassion is due to so +depressed a condition of existence. And how strongly is its infelicity +shown by the very circumstance, that a being who is himself but very +imperfectly enlightened, and who is exposed to sorrow and doomed to death, +is nevertheless in a state to be able to look down upon the victims of the +"lack of knowledge" with profound commiseration. The degree of pity is the +measure of a conscious superiority. + +We may say to persons so favored,--If knowledge has been made the cause +that you are, beyond all comparison, better qualified to make the short +sojourn on this earth to the greatest advantage, think what a fatal thing +that must be which condemns so many, whose lot is contemporary and in +vicinity with yours to pass through the most precious possibilities of +good unprofited, and at last to look back on life as a lost adventure. If +through knowledge you have been introduced into a new and superior world +of ideas and realities, and your intellectual being has there been brought +into exercise among the highest interests, and into communication with the +noblest objects, think of that condition of the soul to which this better +economy has no existence. If knowledge rendered efficacious has become, in +your minds, the light and joy of the Christian faith and hope, look at the +state of those, whose minds have never been cultivated to an ability to +entertain the principles of religious truth, even as mere intellectual +notions. You would not for the wealth of an empire consent to descend, +were it possible, from the comparative elevation to which you have been +raised by means of knowledge, into melancholy region of spirits abandoned +to ignorance. + +But in this situation have the mass of the people been, from the time of +the prophet whose words we have cited, down to this hour. + +The prophets had their exalted privilege of dwelling amidst the +illuminations of heaven effectually countervailed, as to any elation of +feeling it might have imparted, by the grief of beholding the daily +spectacle of the grossest manifestations and mischiefs of ignorance among +the people, for the very purpose of whose exemption from that ignorance it +was that they bore the sacred office. One of the most striking of the +characteristics by which their writings so forcibly seize the imagination +is, a strange continual fluctuation and strife of lustre and gloom, +produced by the intermingling and contrast of the emanations from the +Spirit of infinite wisdom, with those proceeding from the dark, debased +souls of the people. We are tempted to pronounce that nation not only the +most perverse, but the most unintelligent and stupid of all human tribes. +The revealed law of God in the midst of them; the prophets and other +organs of oracular communication; religious ordinances and emblems; facts, +made and expressly intended to embody truths, in long and various series; +the whole system of their superhuman government, constituted as a +school--all these were ineffectual to create so much just thought in their +minds, as to save them from the vainest and the vilest delusions and +superstitions. + +But, indeed, this very circumstance, that knowledge shone on them from Him +who knows all things, may in part account for an intellectual perverseness +that appears so peculiar and marvellous. The nature of man is in such a +moral condition, that anything is the less acceptable for coming directly +from God; it being quite consistent, that the state of mind which is +declared to be "enmity against him," should have a dislike to his coming +so near, as to impart his communications by his immediate act, bearing on +them the fresh and sacred impression of his hand. The supplies for man's +temporal being are conveyed to him through an extended medium, through a +long process of nature and art, which seems to place the great First Cause +at a commodious distance; and those gifts are, on that account, more +welcome, on the whole, than if they were sent as the manna to the +Israelites. The manna itself might not have been so soon loathed, had it +been produced in what we call the regular course of nature. And with +respect to the intellectual communications which were given to constitute +the light of knowledge in their souls, there can, on the same principle, +be no doubt that the people would more willingly have opened their minds +to receive them and exercise the thinking faculties on them, if they could +have appeared as something originating in human wisdom, or at least as +something which, though primarily from a divine origin, had been long +surrendered by the Revealer, to maintain itself in the world by the +authority of reason only, like the doctrines worked out from mere human +speculation. But truth that was declared to them, and inculcated on them, +through a continual immediate manifestation of the Sovereign Intelligence, +had a glow of Divinity (if we may so express it) that was unspeakably +offensive to their minds, which therefore receded with instinctive recoil, +They were averse to look toward that which they could not see without +seeing God; and thus they were hardened in ignorance, through a reaction +of human depravity against the too luminous approach of the Divine +presence to give them wisdom. + +But in whatever degree the case might be thus, as to the cause, the fact +is evident, that the Jewish people were not more remarkable for their +pre-eminence in privilege, than for their grossness of mental vision under +a dispensation specially and miraculously constituted and administered to +enlighten them. The sacred history of which they are the subject, exhibits +every mode in which the intelligent faculties may evade or frustrate the +truth presented to them; every way in which the decided preference for +darkness may avail to defy what might have been presumed to be +irresistible irradiations; every perversity of will which renders men as +accountable and criminal for being ignorant as for acting against +knowledge; and every form of practical mischief in which the natural +tendency of ignorance, especially wilful ignorance, is shown. A great part +of what the devout teachers of that people had to address to them, +wherever they appeared among them, was in reproach of their ignorance, and +in order, if possible, to dispel it. And were we to indulge our fancy in +picturing the forms and circumstances in which it was encountered by those +teachers, we might be sure of not erring much by figuring situations very +similar to what might occur in much later and nearer states of society. If +we should imagine one of these good and wise instructors going into a +promiscuous company of the people, and asking them, with a view at once to +see into their minds and inform them, say, ten plain questions, relative +to matters somewhat above the ordinary secular concerns of life, but +essential for them to understand, it would be a quite probable supposition +that he did not obtain from the whole company rational answers to more +than three, or two, or even one, of those questions; notwithstanding that +every one of them might be designedly so framed, as to admit of an easy +reply from the most prominent of the dictates of the "law and the +prophets," and from the right application of the memorable facts in the +national history of the Jews. In his earlier experiments he might be +supposed very reluctant to admit the fact, that so many of his countrymen, +in one spot, could have been so faithfully maintaining the ascendency of +darkness in their spirits, while surrounded by divine manifestations of +truth. He might be willing to suspect he had not been happy in the form of +words in which his queries had been conveyed. But it may be believed that +all his changes and adaptations of expression, to elicit from the contents +of his auditors' understandings something fairly answering to his +questions, might but complete the proof that the thing sought was not +there. And while he might be looking from one to another, with regret not +unmingled with indignation at an ignorance at once so unhappy and so +criminal, they probably might little care, excepting some slight feeling +of mortified pride, that they were thus proved to be nearly pagans in +knowledge within the immediate hearing of the oracles of God. + +Or we may represent to ourselves this benevolent promoter of improvement +endeavoring to instruct such a company, not in the way of interrogation, +but in the ordinary manner of discourse, and _assuming_ that they actually +had in their minds those principles, those points of knowledge, which +would, on the former supposition of a course of questions, have qualified +them to make the proper replies. It may indeed be too much to imagine a +discerning man to entertain such a presumption; but supposing he did, and +proceeded upon it, you can well conceive what reception the reasonings, +advices, or reproofs, would find among the hearers, according to their +respective temperaments. Some would be content with knowing nothing at all +about the matter, which they would perhaps say, might be, for aught they +knew, something very wise; and, according to their greater or less degree +of patience and sense of decorum, would wait in quiet and perhaps sleepy +dulness for the end of the irksome lecture, or escape from it by a stolen +retreat, or a bold-faced exit. To others it would all seem ridiculous +absurdity, and they would readily laugh if any one would begin. A few, +possessed of some natural shrewdness, would set themselves to catch at +something for exception, with unadroit aim, but with good will for cavil. +While perhaps one or two, of better disposition, imperfectly descrying at +moments something true and important in what was said, and convinced of +the friendly intention of the speaker, might feel a transient regret for +what they would with honest shame call the stupidity of their own minds, +accompanied with some resentment against those to whose neglect it was +greatly attributable. The instructor also, as the signs grew evident to +him of the frustration of his efforts upon the invincible grossness of the +subjects before him, would become animated with indignation at the +incompetence or wicked neglect in the system and office of public +instruction, of which the intellectual condition of such a company of +persons might be taken as a proof and consequence. And in fact there is no +class more conspicuous in reprobation, in the solemn invectives of the +prophets, than those whose special and neglected duty it was to instruct +the Jewish people. + +Now if such were the state of their intelligence, how would this friend of +truth and the people find, how would he have _expected_ to find, their +piety, their morals, and their happiness affected by such destitution of +knowledge? Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? We are +supposing them to be in ignorance of four parts out of five, or perhaps of +nine parts out of ten, of what the Supreme Wisdom was maintaining an +extraordinary dispensation to declare to them. Why to declare, but because +each particular in this divine promulgation was pointed to some +circumstance, some propensity, some temptation, in their nature and +condition, and was exactly fitted to be there applied as a rectifier and +guard? The revelations and signs from heaven were the sum of what the +Perfect Intelligence judged indispensable to be sent forth from him to his +subjects, as seen by him liable to be wrong; and could there be one +dictate or fact superfluous in such a communication? If not, consider the +case of minds in which one, and a second, and the far greater number, of +the points of information thus demonstrated to be necessary, had no place +to shine or exist; of which minds, therefore, the estimates, passions, +volitions, principles of action with the actions also, were in so many +instances abandoned to take their chance for good or evil. But _had_ they +any chance for good in such an abandonment? What principle in their nature +was to determine them to good, with an impulse that rendered needless the +rational discrimination of it by the light of truth? It were an +exceedingly probable thing truly, that some happy instinct, or some +guiding star of good fortune, should have beguiled into an unknowing +choice of what is right, that very nature which knowledge itself, +including a recognition of the will of God, is so often insufficient to +constrain to such a choice. + +But further; the absence of knowledge is sure to be something more and +worse than simple ignorance. Even were that absence but a mere negation, a +vacancy of truth, (the terms truth and knowledge may be used for our +present purpose as nearly synonymous, for what is not truth is not +knowledge,) it would be by its effect as a _deficiency_, incalculably +injurious. But it could not remain a mere deficiency: the vacancy of truth +would commonly be found replenished with positive error. Not indeed +replenished, (we are speaking of uncultivated persons,) with a +comprehensive and arranged set of false notions; for there would not be +thinking enough to form opinions in any sufficient number to be distinctly +and specifically the opposites to the many truths that were absent; but a +few false notions, such as could hardly fail to take the place of absent +truth in the ignorant mind, however crude they might be, and however +deficient for constituting a full system of error, would be sure to dilate +themselves so as to have an operation at all the points where truth was +wanting. It is frightful to see what a space in an ignorant mind one false +notion can occupy, working nearly the same effect in many distinct +particulars, as if there had been so many distinct wrong principles, each +producing specifically its own bad effect. So that in that mind a few +false notions, and those the ones most likely to establish themselves +there, shall be virtually equivalent to a whole scheme of errors standing +formally in place of so many truths of which they are the reverse. And +thus the dark void of ignorance, instead of remaining a mere negation, +becomes filled with agents of perversion and destruction; as sometimes the +gloomy apartments of a deserted mansion have become a den of robbers and +murderers. + +Such a friend of the people, then, as we were supposing to expend his life +and zeal on the object of rescuing them from their ignorance, would see in +that ignorance not only the privation of all direction and impulsion to +good, but a great positive force of determination toward evil. + +But it may be alleged, that he would not find them _wholly_ destitute of +right information. True; but he would find that the small portion of +knowledge which an ignorant people did really possess, could be of little +avail. It is not only that, from the narrowness of its scope, knowledge so +scanty as to afford no principles directly adapted for application to a +vast number of matters of judgment and conduct, would of course be of +small use, though it _were_ efficient as far as it reached--of small use +though it _did_ produce that very limited quantity of good which ought to +be its proper share, in a due proportion to the larger amount of good to +be produced by a larger knowledge. This is not the whole of the +misfortune; it would not produce that proportionate share. For the fewer +are the points to which there is knowledge that can be applied, the less +availing is its application even to those few points. It shall be the kind +of knowledge apposite to them, and yet be nearly useless; from the obvious +cause, that a few just notions existing disconnected and confused among +the mass of vain and false ones, which will, like noxious weeds, infest +minds left in ignorance, are not _permitted_ by those bad associates to do +their duty. Weak by being few, insulated, unsupported, and dwelling among +vicious neighbors, they not only cannot perform their own due service, but +are liable to be seduced to that of the evil principles whose company they +are condemned to keep. The _conjunction_ of truths is of the utmost +importance for preserving the genuine tendency, and securing the +appropriate efficacy, of each. It is an unhappy "lack of knowledge" when +there is not enough to preserve, to what there is of it, the honest +beneficial quality of knowledge. How many of the follies, excesses, and +crimes, in the course of the world, have taken their pretended warrant +from some fragment of truth, dissevered from the connection of truths +indispensable to its right operation, and in that detached state easily +perverted into coalescence with the most pernicious principles, which +concealed and gave effect to their malignity under the falsified authority +of a truth. + +There were many and melancholy exemplifications of all we have said of +ignorance, in the conduct of that ancient people at present in our view. +Doubtless a sad proportion of the iniquities which, by their necessary +tendency and by the divine vindictive appointment, brought plagues and +destruction upon them, were committed in violation of what they knew. But +also it was in no small part from blindness to the manifestation of truth +and duty incessantly confronting them, that they were betrayed into crimes +and consequent miseries. This is evident equally from the language in +which their prophets reproached their intellectual stupidity, and from the +surprise which they sometimes seem to have felt on finding themselves +involved in retributive suffering, for what they could not conceive to be +serious delinquencies. It appeared as if they had never so much as dreamed +of such a-consequence; and their monitors had to represent to them, that +it had been through their thoughtlessness of divine dictates and warnings, +if they did not _know_ that such proceedings must provoke such an +infliction. + +How one portion of knowledge admitted, with the exclusion of other truths +equally indispensable to be known, may not only be unavailing, but may in +effect lend force to destructive error, is dreadfully illustrated in the +final catastrophe of that favored guilty nation. They were in possession +of the one important point of knowledge, that a Messiah was to come. They +held this assurance not slightly, but with strong conviction, and as a +matter of the utmost interest. But then, that this knowledge might have +its appropriate and happy effect, it was of essential necessity for them +to know also the character of this Messiah, and the real nature of his +great design. But this they closed up their understandings in a fatal +contentment not to know. Literally the whole people, with a diminutive +exception, had failed, or rather refused, to admit, as to that part of the +subject, the inspired declarations. + +Now comes the consequence of knowing only one thing of several that +require to be inseparable in knowledge. They formed to themselves a false +idea of the Messiah, according to their own worldly imaginations; and +they extended the full assurance which they justly entertained of his +coming, to this false notion of what he was to be and to accomplish when +he should come. From this it was natural and inevitable that when the +true Messiah should come they would not recognize him, and that their +hostility would be excited against a person who, while demanding to be +acknowledged in that capacity, appeared without the characteristics +pictured in their vain imagination, and with directly opposite ones. And +thus they were placed in an incomparably worse situation for receiving +him with honor when he did appear, than if they had had no knowledge that +a Messiah was to come. For on that supposition they might have regarded +him as a most striking phenomenon, with curiosity and admiration, with +awe of his miraculous powers, and as little prejudice as it is possible +in any case for depravity and ignorance to feel toward sanctity and +wisdom. But this delusive pre-occupation of their minds formed a direct +grand cause for their rejecting Jesus Christ. And how fearful was the +final consequence of _this_ "lack of knowledge!" How truly, in all +senses, the people were destroyed! The violent extermination at length of +multitudes of them from the earth, was but as the omen and commencement +of a deeper perdition. And the terrible memorial is a perpetual +admonition what a curse it is _not to know_. For He, by the rejection of +whom these despisers devoted themselves to perish, while he looked on +their great city, and wept at the doom which he beheld impending, said, +_If_ them hadst _known_, even thou in this thy day.---- + +So much for that selected people:--we may cast a glance over the rest of +the ancient world, as exemplifying the pernicious effect of the want of +knowledge. + +The ignorance which pervaded the heathen nations, was fully equal to the +utmost result that could have been calculated from all the causes +contributing to thicken the mental darkness. The traditional glimmering of +that knowledge which had been originally received by divine communication, +had long since become nearly extinct, having gone out in the act, as it +were, of lighting up certain fantastic inventions of doctrine, by ignition +of an element exhaled from the corruptions of the human soul. In other +words, the primary truths, imparted by the Creator to the early +inhabitants of the earth, gradually losing their clearness and purity, had +passed, by a transition through some delusive analogies, into the vanities +of fancy and notion which sprang from the inventive depravity of man; +which inventions carried somewhat of an authority stolen from the grand +truths they had superseded. And thus, if we except so much instruction as +we may conceive that the extraordinary and sometimes dreadful +interpositions of the Governor of the world might convey, unaccompanied +with declarations in language, (and it was in but an extremely limited +degree that these had actually the effect of illumination,) the human +tribes were surrendered to their own understanding for all that they were +to know and think. Melancholy predicament! The understanding, the +intellect, the reason, which had not sufficed for preserving the true +light from heaven, was to be competent to give light in its absence. Under +the disadvantage of this loss--after the setting of the sun--it was to +exercise itself on an unlimited diversity of important things, inquiring, +comparing, and deciding. All those things, if examined far, extended into +mystery. All genuine thinking was a hard repellent labor. Casual +impressions had a mighty force of perversion. The senses were not a medium +through which the intellect could receive ideas foreign to material +existence. The appetites and passions would infallibly occupy and actuate +the whole man. When by these his imagination was put in activity, its +gleams and meteors would be anything rather than lights of truth. His +interest, according to his gross apprehension of it, would in numberless +instances require, and therefore would gain, false judgments for +justification of the wrong manner of pursuing that interest. And all this +while, there was no grand standard and test to which the notions of things +could be brought. If there were some spirits of larger and purer thought, +that went out in the honest search of truth, they must have felt an +oppression of utter hopelessness in looking round on a world of doubtful +things, on no one of which they could obtain the dictate of a supreme +intelligence. There was no sovereign demonstrator in communication with +the earth, to tell benighted man what to think in any of a thousand +questions which arose to confound him. There were, instead, impostors, +magicians, vain theorists, prompted by ambition and superior native +ability to abuse the credulity of their fellow-mortals, which they did +with such success as to become their oracles, their dictators, or even +their gods. The multitude most naturally surrendered themselves to all +such delusions. If it may be conceived to have been possible that their +feeble and degraded reason, in the absence of divine light and of sound +human discipline, might by earnest exertion have attained in some small +degree to judge better that exertion was precluded by indolence, by the +immediate wants and unavoidable employments of life, by sensuality, by +love of amusement, by subjection, even of the mind, to superiors and +national institutions, and by the tendency of human individuals to fall, +if we may so express it, in dead conformity and addition to the lump. + +The result of all these causes, the sum of all these effects, was, that +unnumbered millions of beings, whose value was in their intelligent and +moral nature, were, as to that nature, in a condition analogous to what +their physical existence would have been under a total and permanent +eclipse of the sun. It was perpetual night in their souls, with all the +phenomena incident to night, except the sublimity. While the material +economy, constituting the order of things which belonged to their temporal +existence, was in conspicuous manifestation around them, pressing with its +realities on their senses; while nature presented to them its open and +distinctly-featured aspect; while there was a true light shed on them +every morning from the sun; while they had constant experimental evidence +of the nature of the scene; and thus they had a clear knowledge of one +portion of the things connected with their existence--that portion which +they were soon to leave, and look back upon as a dream when one +awaketh;--all this while there was subsisting, present with them, +unapprehended except in faint and delusive glimpses, another order of +things involving their greatest interest, with no luminary to make that +apparent to them, after the race had willingly forgotten the original +instructions from their Creator. + +The dreadful consequences of this "lack of knowledge," as appearing in the +religion and morals of the nations, and through these affecting their +welfare, equalled and even surpassed all that might by theory have been +presaged from the cause. + +This ignorance could not annihilate the _principle_ of religion in the +spirit of man; but in taking away the awful repression of the idea of one +exclusive sovereign Divinity, it left that spirit to fabricate its +religion in its own manner. And as the creating of gods might be the most +appropriate way of celebrating the deliverance from the most imposing idea +of one Supreme Being, depraved and insane invention took this direction +with ardor. [Footnote: Those who have read Goethe's Memoirs of Himself, +may recollect the part where that late idolized "patriarch" of German +literature tells of the lively interest he had at one time felt in shaping +out of his imagination and philosophy a theology, beginning with the +fabrication of a god (or gods,) and amplified into a system of principles, +existences, and relations.] The mind threw a fictitious divinity into its +own phantasms, and into the objects in the visible world. It is amazing to +observe how, when one solemn principle was taken away, the promiscuous +numberless crowd of almost all shapes of fancy and of matter became, as it +were, instinct with ambition, and mounted into gods. They were alternately +the toys and the tyrants of their miserable creator. They appalled him +often, and often he could make sport with them. For overawing him by their +supposed power, they made him a compensation by descending to a fellowship +with his follies and vices. But indeed this was a condition of their +creation; they _must_ own their mortal progenitor by sharing his +depravity, even amidst the lordly domination assigned to them over him and +the universe. We may safely affirm, that the mighty artificer of +deifications, the corrupt soul of man, never once, in its almost infinite +diversification of device in their production, struck out a form of +absolute goodness. No, if there were ten thousand deities, there should +not be one that should be authorized by perfect rectitude in itself to +punish _him_; not one by which it should be possible for him to be rebuked +without having a right to recriminate. + +Such a pernicious creation of active delusions it was that took the place +of religion in the absence of knowledge. And to this intellectual +obscuration, and this legion of pestilent fallacies, swarming like the +locusts from the smoke of the bottomless pit in the vision of St. John, +the fatal effect on morals and happiness corresponded. Indeed the mischief +done there, perhaps even exceeded the proportion of the ignorance and the +false theology; conformably to the rule, that anything wrong in the mind +will be the _most_ wrong where it comes the nearest to its ultimate +practical effect--except when in this operation outward it is met and +checked by some foreign counteraction. + +The people of those nations (and the same description is applicable to +modern heathens) did not know the essential nature of perfect goodness, or +virtue. How should they know it? A depraved mind would not find in itself +any native conception to give the bright form of it. There were no living +examples of it. The men who held the pre-eminence in the community were +generally, in the most important points, its reverse. It was for the +_Divine_ nature to have presented, in a manifestation of itself, the +archetype of perfect rectitude, whence might have been derived the +modified exemplar for human virtue. And so _would_ the idea of perfect +moral excellence have come to dwell and shine in the understanding, if it +had been the True Divinity that men beheld in their contemplations of a +superior existence. But when the gods of their heaven were little better +than their own evil qualities, exalted to the sky to be thence reflected +back upon them invested with Olympian charms and splendors, their ideas of +deity would evidently combine with the causes which made it impossible for +them to conceive a perfect model for human excellence. See the mighty +labor of human depravity to confirm its dominion! It would translate +itself to heaven, and usurp divinity, in order to come down thence with a +sanction for man to be wicked,--in order, by a falsification of the +qualities of the Supreme Nature, to preclude his forming the true idea of +what would be perfect rectitude in his own. + +A system which could thus associate all the modes of turpitude with the +most lofty and illustrious forms of existence, would go far toward +vitiating essentially the entire theory of moral good and evil. And it +would in a great measure defraud of their practical efficacy any just +principles that might, after all, maintain their place in the convictions +of the understanding, and assert at times their claim with a voice which +not even all this ruination could silence. + +But, how small was the number of pure moral principles, (if indeed any,) +that among the people of the heathen nations _did_ maintain themselves in +the convictions of the understanding. The privation of divine light gave +full freedom, if there was any disposition to take such license, for every +perverse speculation which could operate toward abolishing those +principles in the natural reason of the species. What disposition there +would be to take it may be imagined, when the abolishing of those +principles was evidently to be also the destruction of all intrinsic +authority in the practical rules founded on them, which destruction would +confer an exemption infinitely desirable. The freedom for such thinking +would infallibly be taken, in its utmost extent; and in fact the +speculation was stimulated by so mighty a force of the depraved passions, +that it went beyond the primary intention: it not only annulled the right +principles and rules, but, not stopping at such negation, presumed to set +forth opposite ones, so that the name and repute of virtues was given to +iniquities without number. It is deplorable to consider how large a +proportion of all the vices and crimes of which mankind were ever guilty, +have actually constituted, in some or other of their tribes and ages, a +part of the approved moral and religious system. It is questionable +whether we could select from the worst forms of turpitude any one which +has not been at least admitted among the authorized customs, if not even +appointed among the institutes of the religion, of some portion of the +human race. And depravities thus become licensed or sacred would have a +fatal facility of communicating somewhat of their quality to all the other +parts of the moral system. For this sanction both would reinforce their +own power of infection, and would so beguile away all repugnance and +counteraction, that the rest of the customs and institutes would readily +admit the contamination, and become assimilated in evil; as the Mohamedans +have no care to avoid contact with their neighbors who are ill of the +plague, since the plague has the warrant of heaven. Wherever, therefore, +in the imperfect notices afforded us of ancient nations, we find any one +virulent iniquity holding an authorized place in custom or religion, we +may confidently make a very large inference, though record were silent, as +to the corresponding quality that would pervade the remainder of the moral +system of those nations. Indeed the inference is equally justified whether +we regard such a sanction and establishment of a flagrant iniquity as a +cause, or as an effect. Suppose this sanction of some one enormity to +_precede_ the general and equal corruption of morals,--how powerfully +would it tend to bear them all down to a conformity in depravation. +Suppose it to be (the more natural order) the result and completion of +that corruption--how vicious must have been the previous state which could +go easily and consistently to such a consummation. + +Everything that, under the advantage given by this destitution of +knowledge, operated to the destruction of the true morality, both in +theory and practice, must have had a fatal augmentation of its power in +that part especially of this ignorance which respected hereafter. The +doctrine of a future existence and retribution did not, in any rational +and salutary form, interfere in the adjustment of the economy of life. The +shadowy notion of a future state which hovered about the minds of the +pagans, a vague apparition which alternately came and vanished, was at +once too fantastic and too little of a serious belief to be of any avail +to preserve the rectitude, or to maintain the authority, of the +distinction between right and wrong. It was not denned enough, or noble +enough, or convincing enough, or of judicial application enough, either to +assist the efficacy of such moral principles as might be supposed to be +innate in a rational creature, and competent for prescribing to it some +virtues useful and necessary to it even if its present brief existence +were all; or to enjoin effectually those higher virtues to which there can +be no adequate inducement but in the expectation of a future life. + +Imagine, if you can, the withdrawment of this doctrine from the faith of +those who have a solemn persuasion of it as a part of revealed truth. +Suppose the grand idea either wholly obliterated, or faded into a dubious +trace of what it had been, or transmuted into a poetic dream of classic or +barbarian mythology,--and how many moral principles will be found to have +vanished with it. How many things, before rendered imperative by this +great article of faith, would have ceased to be duties, or would continue +such only on the strength, and to the extent of the requirement, of some +very minor consideration which might remain to enforce them, and that +probably in a most deteriorated practical form. The sense of obligation, +if continuing to recognize the nature of duty in things which could then +no longer retain any such quality, otherwise than as looking to the most +immediate and tangible benefit or harm, the lowest of moral calculations, +would be reduced to a vulgar and reptile principle. The best of its +strength, and all its dignity, would be departed from it when it could +refer no more to eternity, an invisible world, and a judgment to come. It +would therefore have none of that emphasis of impression which can +sometimes dismay and quell the most violent passions, as by the mysterious +awe of the presence of a spirit. It would be deprived of that which forms +the chief power of conscience. And it would be impotent in any attempt--if +so absurd an attempt could be dreamed of--to uphold, in the more dignified +character of _principle_, that care of what is right which would be +constantly degenerating into mere policy, and rationally justifying itself +in doing so. + +The withdrawment, we said, of the grand truth in question, from a man's +faith, (together with everything of taste and _habit_ which that faith +might have created,) would necessarily break up the government over his +conscience. How evident then is it, that among the people of the heathen +lands, under a disastrous ignorance of this and all the other sublime +truths, that are the most fit to rule an immortal being during his sojourn +on earth, no man could feel any peremptory obligation to be universally +virtuous, or adequate motives to excite an endeavor to approach that high +attainment, even were there not a perfect inability to form the true +conception of it. And then how much of course it was that the general mass +would be dreadfully depraved. Though a momentary surprise may at times +have seized us on the occurrence, in their history, of some monstrous form +of flagitiousness, we do not wonder at beholding a state of the people +such in its general character as the sacred writers exhibit, in +descriptions to which the other records of antiquity add their confirming +testimony and ample illustrations. For while the immense aggregate is +displayed to the mental view, as pervaded, agitated, and stimulated, by +the restless forces of appetites and passions, and those forces operating +with an impulse no less perverted than strong, let it be asked what kinds +and measure of restraint there could be upon such a world of creatures so +actuated, to keep them from rushing in all ways into evil. Conceive, if +you can, the fiction of such a multitude, so actuated, having been placed +under an adjustment of restraints competent to withhold them. And then +take off, in your imagination, one after another of these, to see what +will follow. Take off, at last, all the coercion that can be applied +through the belief of a judgment to come, and a future state of +retribution;--by doing which you would also empower the race to defy, if +any recognition of him remained, the Supreme Governor, whose possible +inflictions, being confined to the present life, might at any time be +escaped by shortening it. All these sacred bonds being thus dissolved, +behold this countless multitude abandoned to be carried or driven the +whole length to which the impulses of their appetites and passions would +go,--or could go before they were arrested by some obstruction opposed to +them from a quarter foreign to conscience. And the main and final thing in +reserve to limit their career, after all the worthier restraints were +annihilated, would be only this,--the resistance which men's self-interest +opposes to one another's bad inclinations. A gloomy and humiliating +spectacle truly it is, to be offered by a world of rational and moral +agents, if we see that, instead of a repression of the propensity to +wickedness by reverence of the Sovereign Judge, and the anticipation of a +future life, there is merely a restraint put on its external activity, and +that by the force of men's fears of one another. But nearly to this it +was, as the only strong restraint, that those heathens were left by their +ignorance, or a notion so slight as to be little better, of a future +existence and judgment. + +Not but that it has been, in all nations and times, of infinite practical +service that there is involved in the constitution of the world a law by +which a coarse self-interest thus interposes to obstruct in a degree the +violent propensity to evil; for it has prevented, under Providence, more +actual mischief, beyond comparison more, than all other causes together. +The man inclined to perpetrate an iniquity, of the nature of a wrong to +his fellow-mortals, is apprized that he shall provoke a reaction, to +resist or punish him; that he shall incur as great an evil as that he is +disposed to do, or greater; that either a revenge regardless of all +formalities of justice will strike him, or a process instituted in +organized society will vindictively reach his property, liberty, or life. +This defensive array, of all men against all men, compels to remain shut +up within the mind an immensity of wickedness which is there burning to +come out into action. But for this, Noah's flood had been rendered +needless. But for this, our planet might have been accomplishing its +circles round the sun for thousands of years past without a human +inhabitant. Through the effect of this essential law, in the social +economy, it was possible for the race to subsist, notwithstanding all that +ignorance of the Divine Being, of heavenly truth, and of uncorrupt +morality, in which we are contemplating the heathen nations as benighted. +But while thus it prevented utter destruction, it had no corrective +operation on the depravity of the heart. It was not through a judgment of +things being essentially evil that they were forborne; it was not by the +power of conscience that wicked propensity was kept under restraint. It +was only by a hold on the meaner principles of his nature, that the +offender in will was arrested in prevention of the deed. And so the race +were such virtually, as they would have hastened to become actually, could +they have ceased to be afraid of one another's strength and retaliation.' +[Footnote: It is not very uncommon to hear credit given to human nature +apparently in sober simplicity, for the whole amount of the negation of +bad actions _thus_ prevented, as just so much genuine virtue, by some +dealers in moral and theological speculation.] But even this restraint +imposed by mutual apprehension, important as its operation was in the +absence of nobler influences, was yet of miserably partial efficacy. Men +were continually breaking through this protective provision, and committed +against one another a stupendous amount of crimes. And no wonder, when we +consider that the evil passions, endowed as they seem to be with a +portentous excess of vigor by the very circumstance of _being_ evil, (as +the demoniacs were the strongest of men,) are exasperated the more by a +certain degree of awe impressed on them by the defensive attitude of their +objects. When strength so great might thus be irritated to greater, and +when there were no "powers of the world to come," to invade the dreadful +cavern of iniquity in the mind, and there combat and subdue it, there +would often be no want of the audacity to send it forth into action at all +hazards, and in defiance and contempt of the restraining force which +operated through mutual fear of vindictive reaction. + +But it may be said, perhaps, that in thus representing the people who were +destitute of divine knowledge, as left with hardly any other control on +their bad dispositions than one of a quality little more dignified than +fetters literally binding the limbs, we are underrating what there still +was among them to take effect in the way of _instruction_. Even this +coarse principle of control itself, it may be alleged, this prudence of +reciprocal fear became refined into something worthier of moral agents. +For it passed, by a compromise among the species, from the form of +individual self-defence and revenge into that of institutions of _law_; +and legislation, it will be said, is a teacher of morals. Retaining, +indeed, the rough expedient of physical force, in readiness to coerce or +punish where it cannot deter by warning, it yet strongly endeavors the +repression of evil emotions by means of right _principles_, marked out, +explained, and inculcated. It _teaches_ these principles as dictates of +reason and justice, while it embodies them in the menacing authority of +enactments. There was therefore, it may be pleaded, as much _instruction_ +among the ancient heathen as there was legislation. + +In answering this, we may forego any rigorous examination of the quality +of principles and precepts enunciated by legislators who themselves, in +common with the people, looked on human existence and duty through a worse +than twilight medium; who had no divine oracles to impart wisdom, and +were, some of them, reduced to begin their operations with the lie that +pretended they had such oracles; from all which it was inevitable that +some of their maxims and injunctions would even in their efficacy be +noxious, as being at variance with eternal rectitude. It is enough to +observe, on the claims of legislation to the character of a moral +preceptor, that it retained so palpably, after all, the nature of the +gross element from which it was a refinement or transfusion, that even +what it might teach right, as to the matter, it was unable to teach with +the right moral impression. With all its gravity, and phrases of wisdom, +and show of homage to virtue, it was, and was plainly descried to be, that +very same _Noli me tangere,_ in a disguised form; a less provoking and +hostile manner only of keeping up the state of preparation for defensive +war. Every one knew right well that the pure approbation and love of +goodness were not the source of law; but that it was an arrangement +originating and deriving all its force from self-interest; a contrivance +by which each man was glad to make the collective strength of society his +guarantee against his neighbor's interest and wish to do him wrong. While +pleased that others were under this restraint, he was often vexed at being +under it also himself; but on the whole deemed this security worth the +cost of suffering the interdict on his own inclinations,--perhaps as +believing other men's to be still worse than his, or seeing their strength +to be greater. We repeat that a preceptive system thus estimated could +not, even had the principles to which it gave expression in the mandates +of law been no other than those of the soundest morality, have impressed +them with the weight of sanctity on the conscience. And all this but tends +to show the necessity that the rules and sanctions of morality, to come +with simplicity and power on the human mind, should primarily emanate, and +be acknowledged as emanating, from a Being exalted above all implication +and competition of interest with man. + +Thus we see, that the pagan ignorance precluded one grand requisite for +crushing the dominion of iniquity; for there was nothing to insinuate or +to force its way into the recesses of the soul, to apply _there_ a +repressive power to the depraved ardor which glowed in the passions. That +was left, inaccessible and inextinguishable, as the subterranean fires in +a volcanic region. And in the mighty impulse to evil with which it was +continually operating as an energy of feeling, it compelled the +subservience of the intellect; and thus combined the passions with a +faculty skilful to guide their direction, to diversify their objects, to +invent expedients, and to seize and create occasions. What was it that +this intelligent depravity would stop short of accomplishing? Reflect on +the extent of human genius, in its powers of invention, combination, and +adaptation; and then think of all this faculty, in an immense number of +minds, through many ages, and in every imaginable variety of situation, +exerted with unremitting activity in aid of the wrong propensities. +Reflect how many ideas, apt and opportune for this service, would spring +up casually, or be suggested by circumstances, or be attained by the +earnest study of beings goaded in pursuit of change and novelty. The +simple modes of iniquity were put under an active ministry of art, to +combine, innovate, and augment. And so indefatigable was its exercise, +that almost all conceivable forms of immorality were brought to +imagination, most of them into experiment; and the greater number into +prevailing practice, in those nations: insomuch that the sated monarch +would have imposed as difficult a task on ingenuity in calling for the +invention of a new vice, as of a new pleasure. They would perhaps have +been nearly identical demands when he was the person to be pleased. + +Such are some of the most obvious illustrations that the absence of +knowledge was a cause, and added in an unknown measure to the strength of +all other causes, of the excessive corruption in the heathen nations. And +if this depravity of a world of moral agents did not, contemplated simply +as a destruction of their _rectitude_, appear equivalent to the gravest +import of the terms "the people are destroyed," the _misery_ inseparable +from the depravity instantly comes in our view to complete their +verification. + +We are aware that the wickedness and misery of the ancient world, as +asserted in illustration of the natural effect of estrangement from divine +truth, are apt to be regarded as of the order of topics which have +dwindled into insignificance, worn out by being repeated just because they +have often been repeated before; a sort of exhausted quarries and dried-up +wells. There is a certain class of vain and sneering mortals, in whose +conceit nothing is such proof of superior sense as discarding the +greatest number of topics and arguments as obsolete or impertinent. It is +to be reckoned on that some of these, on hearing again the old maxims, +that a people without divine instruction must be a vicious one, and that a +vicious people must be an unhappy one,--and those maxims accompanied with +a description of the old pagan world as illustrative evidence,--will be +prompt to let forth their comments in some such strain as the +following:--"The state of the ancient heathens, thus brought upon us in +one cheap declamation more, is now a matter of trivial import, just fit to +give some show and exaggeration to the stale common-place, that ignorance +is likely to produce depravity, and that depravity and misery are likely +enough to go together. The pagans might be wretched enough; and perhaps +also the matter has been extravagantly magnified for the service of a +favorite theme, or to make a rhetorical show. At any rate, it is not now +worth while to go so far back to concern ourselves about it. The ancient +heathens had their day and their destiny, and it is of little importance +to us what they were or suffered." + +It is fortunate, we may reply, to be "wiser than the ancients," without +the trouble of _learning_ anything by means of them. It is fortunate, +also, to have ascertained how much of all that ever existed can teach us +nothing. We have a signal improvement in the fashion of wisdom, when that +high endowment may be possessed as a thing distinct from compass of +thought, from study of causes and effects as illustrated on the great +scale, from aptitude to be instructed by the past, and from contemplation +of the divine government as carried over a wide extent of time. But indeed +this is not a privilege peculiar to this later day. In any former age +there were men in sufficient number who were wise enough to be indifferent +to all but immediate passing events, as knowing no lessons that persons +like them had to learn from remoter views, looking either into the past or +the future; who could even have before them the very monuments of awful +events that were gone by, without perceiving inscribed on them any +characters for contemplation to read. It is not impossible there might be +persons who could plan their schemes, and debate their questions, and even +follow their amusements, quite exempt from solemn reflections, within view +of the ruins of Jerusalem, after the Roman legions had left it and its +myriads of dead to silence. Any reference to that dreadful spectacle, as +an example of the consequences of the ignorance and wickedness of a +people, might have been heard with unconcern, and lightly passed over as +foreign to the matters requiring their attention: it was all over with the +people dead, and the people alive had their own concerns to mind. But +would not exactly such as these have been the men most likely to fall into +the vices and impieties which would provoke the next avenging visitation, +and to perish in it? In all times, the triflers with the great +exemplifications of the connection of depravity with misery and ruin, who +thought it but an impertinent moralizing that attempted to recall such +funereal spectacles for admonition, were fools, whatever self-complacency +they might feel in a habit of thinking more fitted, they would perhaps +say, for making our best advantage of the world as we find it. And we of +the present time are convicted of exceeding stupidity, if we think it not +worth while to go a number of ages back to contemplate the mass of +mankind, the wide world of beings such as ourselves, sunk in darkness and +wretchedness, and to consider what it is that is taught by so melancholy +an exhibition. What is to give fulness of evidence to an instruction, if a +world be too narrow; what is to give it weight, if a world be too light? + +It is to be acknowledged, that the mental darkness which we are +representing as so greatly the cause of the wickedness and unhappiness of +those nations of old, had the effect of protecting them, in a measure, +from some kinds of suffering. They had not, as we have been observing, +illumination enough, to have conscience enough, for inflicting the +severest pains of remorse; and for oppressing them with a distinct +alarming apprehension of a future account. But that they were unhappy, +was practically acknowledged in the very quality of what they ardently +and universally sought as the highest felicities of existence. Those +delights were violent and tumultuous, in all possible ways and degrees +estranged from reflection, and adverse to it. The whole souls of great +and small, in the most barbarous and in the more polished state, were +passionately set on revelry, on expedients for inflaming licentiousness +to madness; or concourses of multitudes for pomps, celebrations, shows, +games, combats; on the riots of exultation and revenge after victories. +The ruder nations had, in their way, however pitiable on the score of +magnificence, their grand festive, triumphal, and demoniac confluxes and +revellings. To these joys of tumult, the people of the savage and the +more cultivated nations sacrificed everything belonging to the peaceful +economy of life, with a desperate, frantic fury. All this was the +confession that there was little felicity in the heart or in the home. +Nor was it found in these resources; if the wild elation might be +mistaken for happiness while it lasted, it was brief in each instance, +and it subsided in an aggravated dreariness of the soul. + +The fact of their being unhappy had a still more gloomy attestation in the +mutual enmity which seems to have been of the very essence of life so +vital a principle, that it could not be spared for an hour. No, they could +not live without this luxury drawn from the fountains of death! What is +the most conspicuous material of ancient history, what is it that glares +out the most hideously from that darkness and oblivion in which the old +world is veiling its aspect, but the incessant furies of miserable mortals +against their fellow-mortals, "hateful and hating one another?" We cannot +look that way but we see the whole field covered with inflicters and +sufferers, not seldom interchanging those characters. If that field widens +to our view, it is still, to the utmost line to which the shade clears +away, a scene of cruelty, oppression, and slavery; of the strong trampling +on the weak, and the weak often attempting to bite at the feet of the +strong; of rancorous animosities and murderous competitions of persons +raised above the mass of the community; of treacheries and massacres; and +of war between hordes, and cities, and nations, and empires; war _never_, +in spirit, intermitted, and suspended sometimes in act only to acquire +renewed force for destruction, or to find another assemblage of hated +creatures to cut in pieces. Powerful as "the spirit of the first-born +Cain" has continued, down to our age, and in the most improved divisions +of mankind, there was, nevertheless, in the ancient pagan race, (as there +is in some portions of the modern,) a more complete, uncontrolled +actuation of the all-killing, all-devouring fury, a more absolute +possession of Moloch. + +Now it is _as misery_ that we are exhibiting all this depravity. To be +thus, _was suffering_. The disease and the pain are inseparable in the +description, and they were so in the reality. And both together, +inevitably seizing on beings who had rejected or lost divine knowledge, +maintained a hold as fatal and invincible as that of the intervolved +serpents of Laocoon. + +It is true, that a comprehensive estimate of the state of the people we +are contemplating, would bring in view several minor circumstances which, +though not availing to change materially the effect of the picture, are +themselves of less gloomy color. But at the same time such an estimate +would include other forms also of infelicity, besides those which were at +once the result and punishment of depravity, the stings with which sin +rewarded the infatuation that loved it. If the design had been to exhibit +anything like a general view, we must have taken account of such +particulars as these: the unhappiness of being without an assurance of an +all-comprehending and merciful Providence, and of wanting therefore the +best support in sorrow and calamity; the insuppressible impatience, or the +deep melancholy, with which the more thoughtful persons must have seen +departing from life, leaving them hopeless of ever meeting again in a life +elsewhere, the relations or associates who were dear to them in spite of +the prevailing effect of paganism to destroy philanthropy; and the gloomy +sentiment with which they must have thought of their own continual +approach toward death; a sentiment not always unaccompanied with certain +intimidating hints and hauntings of possibilities in the darkness beyond +that confine. But the more limited intention in the preceding description +has been to illustrate their unhappiness as inflicted by their depravity, +necessarily consequent on their ignorance. And what words so true, so +irresistibly prompted at the view of such a scene, as those pronounced of +a nation that at once despised the pagans and imitated them,--"The people +are destroyed for lack of knowledge." + + * * * * * + +Let us not be suspected of having lost sight of the fact, that vice and +misery have, in our nature, a deeper source than ignorance; or of being so +absurd as to imagine that if the inestimable truths unknown to the heathen +world had been, on the contrary, in all men's knowledge, but a slight +portion of the depravity and wretchedness we have described could then +have had an existence. To say, that under long absence of the sun any +tract of terrestrial nature _must infallibly_ be reduced to desolation, is +not to say or imply, that under the benignant influence of that luminary +the same region must, as necessarily and unconditionally, be a scene of +beauty; but the only hope, for the only possibility, is for the field +visited by much of that sweet influence. And it were an absurdity no less +gross in the opposite extreme to the one just mentioned, to assert the +uselessness, for rectifying the moral world, of a diffusion of the +knowledge which shall compel men to see what is wrong; to deny that the +impulses of the corrupt passions and will must suffer some abatement of +their force and daring when encountered, like Balaam meeting the angel, by +a clear manifestation of their bad and ruinous tendency, by a convinced +judgment, a protesting conscience, and the aspect of the Almighty +Judge,--instead of their being under the tolerance of a judgment not +instructed to condemn them, or, (as ignorance is sure to quicken into +error,) perverted to abet them. + + + + +Section II. + + + +From this view of the prevalence and malignant effects of ignorance among +the people of the ancient world, both Jews and Gentiles, we may come +down, with a few brief notices in passing over the long subsequent +periods, towards our own times. For any attempt to prosecute the object +through the ages and regions of later heathenism, (with the infatuated +Judaism still more destructive to its subjects,) would be to lose +ourselves in a boundless scene of desolation, an immense amplitude of +darkness, frightfully alive throughout with the activity of all noxious +and hideous things. + +But by this time we are become aware how continually we are driven upon +what will be in hazard of appearing an exaggerated phraseology; insomuch +that we are almost afraid of accepting the epithets of description and +aggravation which offer themselves as most appropriate to the subject. +There are some self-complacent persons whose minds are so unapt to +recognize the magnitude of a subject, or so averse perhaps to the +contemplation of it if it be of tragical aspect, that strong terms +accumulated to exhibit even what surpasses in its plain reality all the +powers of language, offend them as declamatory exaggeration. Let it then +be just observed, without one ambitious epithet, that since that period +when ancient history, strictly so named, left off describing the state of +mankind, more than a myriad of millions of our race have been on earth, +and quitted it without one ray of the knowledge the most important to +spirits sojourning here, and going hence. + +But while any attempt to carry the representation of the fatal effects of +ignorance over the extent of so dreary a scene is declined, let it not be +forgotten that they have been an awful reality; that they have actually +existed, in time, and place, and number of victims; that there actually +_were_ the men, and so many men, who exemplified, and in so many ways, the +truth we are illustrating. And a truth which has its demonstration in +facts ought to come with the weight of all the facts that we believe ever +_did_ demonstrate it. When they are not presented in breadth and detail +prominently in our view, we are apt to lose the due effect of our knowing +them to have existed. + +It will be enough to advert very briefly to the Mohammedan imposture, +though that is perhaps the most signal instance within all time, of a +malignant delusion maintained directly and immediately by ignorance, by an +absolute determination and even a fanatic zeal not to receive one new +idea. Tenets involving the most palpable impossibilities, and asserted in +self-contradictory terms, must stand inviolable to all question or +controversy; literature must be scouted as a profane folly; not a +principle of true philosophy is to be admitted; hardly is an application +of the plainest mechanics to improve a machine or implement to be +tolerated; or an infidel is to be only _pardoned_, through contempt, for a +successful obtrusion of science to render the most important service,--to +save, for instance, a Mussulman ship-with its proud, besotted commander +and crew from destruction, [Footnote: There is a very curious example of +this related in Dr Clarke's Travels.] lest an acknowledgment made to +science should allow one momentary surmise of imperfection to insult the +all-sufficiency and sanctity of the unalterable creed and institutes; lest +any diminutive crevice should be made on any side of the temple of the +vile superstition, for the passage of one glimpse of true light to annoy +the foul fiend that dwells there, invested "in the dunnest smoke of hell." +Not, however, that this is the policy of doubt and apprehension, the +evading and repelling caution of men who suspect themselves to be wrong +and dread being forced to meet the proof. For the subjects of this +execrable usurpation on the human understanding have, in general, the +firmest assurance that all things in the system are right: it has itself +secured them against _knowing_ anything that could discompose their sense +of certainty. No fell savage, or serpent, or monster, ever had a more +perfect instinct to avail itself of an impervious obscurity for its +lurking-place, than this imposture has shown to keep out all mental light +from its realm. The delusion is so strong and absolute in ignorance, is so +identified with it, and so systematically repels at all points the +approach of knowledge, that it is difficult to conceive a mode of its +extermination that shall not involve some fearful destruction, in the most +literal sense, of the people whom it possesses. And such a catastrophe it +is probable the great body of them, in the temper of mind prevailing among +them at this hour, would choose to incur by preference, we do not say to a +serious, patient consideration of the true religion, but even to the +admission among them of a system merely favoring knowledge in general, an +order of measures which should urge upon the adults, and peremptorily +enforce for the children, a discipline of intellectual improvement. There +would be little national hesitation of choice, (at least in the central +regions of the dominion of this hateful imposture,) between the +introduction of any general system of expedients for driving them from +their stupefaction into something like thinking and learning, and a +general plague, to rage as long as any remained for victims. [Footnote: In +the interval since this was written, some change has taken place in favor +of the admission of the elements of knowledge, in the capital, and in the +second city of the Mohammedan regions; but with very slight alterative +influence on the mass; and with respect to the faith, probably none at +all. Within this interval, also, the central power has been hastening +rapidly to its catastrophe.] + + * * * * * + +But let us now look, for a moment, at the intellectual state of the people +denominated Christian, during the ages preceding the Reformation. The best +of all the acquisitions by earth from heaven, Christianity, might have +seemed to bring with it an inevitable necessity of a great and permanent +difference soon to be effected, in regard to the competence of men's +knowledge to prevent their destruction. It was as if, in the physical +system, some one production, far more salutary to life than all the other +things furnished from the elements, had been reserved by the Creator to +spring up in a later age, after many generations of men had been +languishing through life, and prematurely dying, from the deficient virtue +of their sustenance and remedies. The image of the inestimable plant had +been shown to the prophets in their visions, but the reality was now given +to the world; it was of "wholly a right seed," "had the seed in itself," +and claimed to be cultivated by the people, who in every land were +suffering the maladies which it had the properties to heal. But, while by +the greater part of mankind it was not accounted worth admission to a +place on their blasted, desolated soil, the manner in which its virtue was +frustrated among those who pretended to esteem it, as it was, the best +gift of the divine beneficence, is recorded in eternal reproach of the +Christian nations. + +As the hostility of heathenism, in the direct endeavors to extirpate the +Christian religion, became evidently hopeless, in the nations within the +Roman empire, there was a grand change of the policy of evil; and all +manner of reprobate things, heathenism itself among them, rushed as by +general conspiracy into treacherous conjunction with Christianity, +retaining their own quality under the sanction of its name, and by a rapid +process reducing it to surrender almost everything distinctive of it but +that dishonored name: and all this under protection of the "gross darkness +covering the people." There were indeed in existence the inspired oracles, +and these could not be essentially falsified. But there was no lack of +expedients and pre-texts for keeping them in a great measure secreted. It +might be done under a pretence that reverence for their sanctity required +they should be secluded as within the recesses of a temple, nor be there +consulted but by consecrated personages; a pretence excellently contrived, +since it was its own security against exposure, the people being thus kept +unaware that the sacred writings themselves expressly invited popular +inspection, by declaring themselves addressed to mankind at large. The +deceivers were not worse off for the other facilities. In the progress of +translation, the holy Scriptures could be intercepted and stopped short in +a language but little less unintelligible than the original ones to the +bulk of the people, in order that this "profane vulgar" might never hear +the very words of God, but only such report as it should please certain +men, at their discretion, to give of what he had said; men, however, of +whom the majority were themselves too ignorant to cite it in even a +falsified import. But though the people had understood the language, in +the usage of social converse, there was a grand security against them in +keeping them so destitute of the knowledge of letters, that the Bible, if +such a rare thing ever could happen to fall into any of their hands, would +be no more to them than a scroll of hieroglyphics. When to this was added, +the great cost of a copy of so large a book before the invention of +printing, it remained perhaps just worth while, (and it would be a matter +of no difficulty or daring,) to make it, in the maturity of the system, an +offence, and sacrilegious invasion of sacerdotal privilege, to look into a +Bible. If it might seem hard thus to constitute a new sin, in addition to +the long list already denounced by the divine law, amends were made by +indulgently rescinding some articles in that list, and qualifying the +principles of obligation with respect to them all. + +In this latency of the sacred authorities, withdrawn from all +communication with the human understanding, there were retained still many +of the terms and names belonging to religion. They remained, but they +remained only such as they could be when the departing spirit of that +religion was leaving them void of their import and solemnity, and so +rendered applicable to purposes of deception and mischief. They were as +holy vessels, in which the original contents might, as they were escaping, +be clandestinely replaced by the most malignant preparations. And as +crafty and wicked men had a direct interest in this substitution, the +pernicious operation went on incessantly; and with an ability, and to an +extent to evince that the utmost barbarism of the times cannot extinguish +genius, when it is iniquity that sets it on fire. How prolific was the +invention of the falsehoods and absurdities of notion, and of the vanities +and corruptions of practice, which it was devised to make the terms and +names of religion designate and sanction! while it was also managed, with +no less sedulity and success, that the inventors and propagators should be +held in submissive reverence by the community, as the oracular +depositaries of truth. That community had not knowledge enough of any +other kind, to create a resisting and defensive power against this +imposition in the concern of religion. A sound exercise of reason on +subjects out of that province, a moderate degree of instruction in +literature and science rightly so called, might have produced, in the +persons of superior native capacity, somewhat of a competency and a +disposition to question, to examine, to call for evidence, and to detect +some of the fallacies imposed for Christian faith. But in such +completeness of ignorance, the general mind was on all sides pressed and +borne down to its fate. All reaction ceased; and the people were reduced +to exist in one huge, unintelligent, monotonous substance, united by the +interfusion of a vile superstition, which permitted just enough mental +life in the mass to leave it capable of being actuated to all the purposes +of cheats, and tyrants,--a proper subject for the dominion of "our Lord +God the Pope," as he was sometimes denominated; and might have been +denominated without exciting indignation, in the hearing of millions of +beings bearing the form of men and the name of Christians. + +Reflect that all this took place under the nominal ascendency of the best +and brightest economy of instruction from heaven. Reflect that it was in +nations where even the sovereign authority professed homage to the +religion of Christ, and adopted and enforced it as a grand national +institution, that the popular mass was thus reduced to a material fit for +all the bad uses to which priestcraft could wish to put the souls and +bodies of its slaves. And then consider what _should_ have been the +condition of this great aggregate, wherever Christianity was acknowledged +by all as the true religion. The people _should_ have consisted of so many +beings having each, in some degree, the independent, beneficial use of his +_mind_; all of them trained with a reference to the necessity of their +being apprized of their responsibility to their Creator, for the exercise +of their reason on the matters of belief and choice; all of them +capacitated for improvement by being furnished with the rudiments and +instrumental means of knowledge; and all having within their reach, in +their own language, the Scriptures of divine truth, some by immediate +possession, the rest by means of faithful readers, while the book existed +only in manuscript; all of them after it came to be printed. + +Can any doubt arise, whether there were in the Christian states resources +competent, if so applied, to secure to all the people an elementary +instruction, and the possession of the printed Bible? Resources competent! +All nations, sufficiently raised above barbarism to exist as states, have +consumed, in uses the most foreign and pernicious to their welfare, an +infinitely greater amount of means than would have sufficed, after due +provision for comfortable physical subsistence, to afford a moderate share +of instruction to all the people. And in those popish ages, that +expenditure alone which went to ecclesiastical use would have been far +more than adequate to this beneficent purpose. Think of the boundless cost +for supporting the magnificence and satiating the rapacity of the +hierarchy, from its triple-crowned head, down through all the orders +branded with a consecration under that head to maintain the delusion and +share the spoil. Recollect the immense system of policy for jurisdiction +and intrigue, every agent of which was a devourer. Recollect the pomps and +pageants, for which the general resources were to be taxed: while the +general industry was injured by the interruption of useful employment, and +the diversion of the people to such dissipation as their condition +qualified and permitted them to indulge in. Think also of the incalculable +cost of ecclesiastical structures, the temples of idolatry as in truth +they were. One of the most striking situations for a religious and +reflective Protestant is, that of passing some solitary hour under the +lofty vault, among the superb arches and columns, of any one of the most +splendid of these edifices remaining at this day in our own country. If he +has sensibility and taste, the magnificence, the graceful union of so many +diverse inventions of art, the whole mighty creation of genius that +quitted the world without leaving even a name, will come with magical +impression on his mind, while it is contemplatively darkening into the awe +of antiquity. But he will be recalled--the sculptures, the inscriptions, +the sanctuaries enclosed off for the special benefit, after death, of +persons who had very different concerns during life from that of the care +of their salvation, and various other insignia of the original character +of the place, will help to recall him--to the thought, that these proud +piles were in fact raised to celebrate the conquest, and prolong the +dominion, of the Power of Darkness over the souls of the people. They were +as triumphal arches, erected in memorial of the extermination of that +truth which was given to be the life of men. + +As he looks round, and looks upwards, on the prodigy of design, and skill, +and perseverance, and tributary wealth, he may image to himself the +multitudes that, during successive ages, frequented this fane in the +assured belief, that the idle ceremonies and impious superstitions, which +they there performed or witnessed, were a service acceptable to heaven, +and to be repaid in blessings to the offerers. + +He may say to himself, Here, on this very floor, under that elevated and +decorated vault, in a "dim religious light" like this, but with the +darkness of the shadow of death in their souls, they prostrated themselves +to their saints, or their "queen of heaven;" nay, to painted images and +toys of wood or wax, to some ounce or two of bread and wine, to fragments +of old bones, and rags of cast-off vestments. Hither they came, when +conscience, in looking back or pointing forward, dismayed them, to +purchase remission with money or atoning penances, or to acquire the +privilege of sinning with impunity in a certain manner, or for a certain +time; and they went out at yonder door in the perfect confidence that the +priest had secured, in the one case the suspension, in the other the +satisfaction, of the divine law. Here they solemnly believed, as they were +taught, that, by donatives to the church, they delivered the souls of +their departed sinful relations from their state of punishment; and they +went out of that door resolved, such as had possessions, to bequeath some +portion of them, to operate in the same manner for themselves another day, +in the highly probable case of similar need. Here they were convened to +listen in reverence to some representative emissary from the Man of Sin, +with new dictates of blasphemy or iniquity promulgated in the name of the +Almighty: or to witness the trickery of some farce, devised to cheat or +frighten them out of whatever remainder the former impositions might have +left them of sense, conscience, or property. Here, in fine, there was +never presented to their understanding, from their childhood to their +death, a comprehensive, honest declaration of the laws of duty, and the +pure doctrines of salvation. To think! that they should have mistaken for +the house of God, and the very gate of heaven, a place where the Regent of +the nether world had so short a way to come from his dominions, and his +agents and purchased slaves so short a way to go thither. If we could +imagine a momentary visit from Him who once entered a fabric of sacred +denomination with a scourge, because it was made the resort of a common +traffic, with what aspect and voice, with what infliction but the "rebuke +with flames of fire," would he have entered this mart of iniquity, +assuming the name of his sanctuary, where the traffic was in delusions, +crimes, and the souls of men? It was even as if, to use the prophet's +language, the very "stone cried out of the wall, and the beam out of the +timber answered it," in denunciation; for a portion of the means of +building, in the case of some of these edifices, was obtained as the price +of dispensations and pardons. [Footnote: That most superb Salisbury +Cathedral, for example.] + +In such a hideous light would the earlier history of one of these mighty +structures, pretendedly consecrated to Christianity, be presented to the +reflecting Protestant; and then would recur the idea of its cost, as +relative to what that expenditure might really have done for Christianity +and the people. It absorbed in the construction, sums sufficient to have +supplied, costly as they would have been, even manuscript Bibles, in the +people's own language, (as a priesthood of truly apostolic character would +have taken care the Scriptures should speak,) to all the families of a +province; and in the revenues appropriated to its ministration of +superstition, enough to have provided men to teach all those families to +read those Bibles. + +In all this, and in the whole constitution of the Grand Apostasy, +involving innumerable forms of abuse and abomination, to which our object +does not require any allusion, how sad a spectacle is held forth of the +people destroyed for lack of knowledge. If, as one of their plagues, an +inferior one in itself, they were plundered as we have seen, of their +worldly goods, it was that the spoil might subserve to a still greater +wrong. What was lost to the accommodation of the body, was to be made to +contribute to the depravation of the spirit. It supplied means for +multiplying the powers of the grand ecclesiastical machinery, and +confirming the intellectual despotism of the usurpers of spiritual +authority. Those authorities enforced on the people, on pain of perdition, +an acquiescence in notions and ordinances which, in effect, precluded +their direct access to the Almighty, and the Saviour of the world; +interposing between them and the Divine Majesty a very extensive, +complicated, and heathenish mediation, which in a great measure +substituted itself for the real and exclusive mediation of Christ, +obscured by its vast creation of intercepting vanities the glory of the +Eternal Being, and thus almost extinguished the true worship. But how +calamitous was such a condition!--to be thus intercepted from direct +intercourse with the Supreme Spirit, and to have the solemn and elevating +sentiment of devotion flung downward, on objects to some of which even the +most superstitious could hardly pay homage without a sense of degradation. + +It was, again, a disastrous thing to be under a directory of practical +life framed for the convenience of a corrupt system; a rule which enjoined +many things wrong, allowed a dispensation from nearly everything that was +right, and abrogated the essential principle and ground-work of true +morality. Still again, it was an unhappy thing, that the consolations in +sorrow and the view of death should either be too feeble to animate, or +should animate only by deluding. And it was the consummation of evil in +the state of the people of those dark ages, it was, emphatically to be +"destroyed," that the great doctrines of redemption should have been +essentially vitiated or formally supplanted, so that multitudes of people +were betrayed to rest their final hopes on a ground unauthorized by the +Judge of the world. In this most important matter, the spiritual +authorities might themselves be subjects of the fatal delusion in which +they held the community; and well they deserved to be so, in judicial +retribution of their wickedness in imposing on the people, deliberately +and on system, innumerable things which they knew to be false. + +We have often mused, and felt a gloom and dreariness spreading over the +mind while musing, on descriptions of the aspect of a country after a +pestilence has left it in desolation, or of a region where the people are +perishing by famine. It has seemed a mournful thing to behold, in +contemplation, the multitude of lifeless? forms, occupying in silence the +same abodes in which they had lived, or scattered upon the gardens, +fields, and roads; and then to see the countenances of the beings yet +languishing in life, looking despair, and impressed with the signs of +approaching death. We have even sometimes had the vivid and horrid picture +offered to our imagination, of a number of human creatures shut up by +their fellow mortals in some strong hold, under an entire privation of +sustenance; and presenting each day their imploring, or infuriated, or +grimly sullen, or more calmly woful countenances, at the iron and +impregnable gates; each succeeding day more haggard, more perfect in the +image of despair; and after awhile appearing each day one fewer, till at +last all have sunk. Now shall we feel it as a _relief_ to turn in thought, +as to a sight of less portentous evil, from the inhabitants of a country, +or from those of such an accursed prison-house, thus pining away, to +behold the different spectacle of national tribes, or any more limited +portion of mankind, on whose _minds_ are displayed the full effects of +knowledge denied; who are under the process of whatever destruction it is, +that spirits can suffer from want of the vital aliment to the intelligent +nature, especially from "a famine of the words of the Lord?" + +To bring the two to a close comparison, suppose the case, that some of the +persons thus doomed to perish in the tower were in the possession of the +genuine light and consolations of Christianity, perhaps even had actually +been adjudged to this fate, (no extravagant supposition,) for zealously +and persistingly endeavoring the restoration of the purity of that +religion to the deluded community. Let it be supposed that numbers of that +community, having conspired to obtain this ad-judgment, frequented the +precincts of the fortress, to see their victims gradually perishing. It +would be quite in the spirit of the popish superstition, that they should +believe themselves to have done God service, and be accordingly pleased at +the sight of the more and more deathlike aspect of the emaciated +countenances. The while, they might be themselves in the enjoyment of +"fulness of bread," We can imagine them making convivial appointments +within sight of the prison gates, and going from the spectacle to meet at +the banquet. Or they might delay the festivity, in order to have the +additional luxury of knowing that the tragedy was consummated; as Bishop +Gardiner would not dine till the martyrs were burnt.--Look at these two +contemporary situations, that of the persons with truth and immortal hope +in their spirits, enduring this slow and painful reduction of their bodies +to dissolution,--and that of those who, while their bodies fared +sumptuously, were thus miserably perishing in soul, through its being +surrendered to the curse of a delusion which envenomed it with such a +deadly malignity: and say which was the more calamitous predicament. + +If we have no hesitation in pronouncing, let us consider whether we have +ever been grateful enough to God for the dashing in pieces so long since +in this land, of a system which maintains, to this hour, much of its +stability over the greater part of Christendom. If we regret that certain +fragments of it are still held in veneration here, and that so tedious a +length of ages should be required, to work out a complete mental rescue +from the infatuation which possessed our ancestors, let us at the same +time look at the various states of Europe, small and great, where this +superstition continues to hold the minds of the people in its odious +grasp; and verify to ourselves what we have to be thankful for, by +thinking what reception _our_ minds would give to an offer of subsistence +on their mummeries, masses, absolutions, legends, relics, mediation of +saints, and corruptions, even to complete reversal of the evangelic +doctrines. + + * * * * * + +It was, however, but very slowly that the people of our land realized the +benefits of the Reformation, glorious as that event was, regarded as to +its progressive and its ultimate consequences. Indeed, the thickness of +the preceding darkness was strikingly manifested by the deep shade which +still continued stretched over the nation, in spite of the newly risen +luminary, whose beams lost their brightness in pervading it to reach the +popular mind, and came with the faintness of an obscured and tedious dawn. + +A long time there lingered enough of night for the evil spirit of popery +to be at large and in power, not abashed, as Milton represents the Evil +Angel on his being surprised by the guardians of paradise. Rather the case +was that the vindicator itself of truth and holiness, the true Lucifer, +shrunk at the rencounter and defiance of the old possessor of the gloomy +dominion. The Reformation was not empowered to speak with a voice like +that which said, "Let there be light--and there was light." Consider what, +on its avowed national adoption in our land, were its provisions for +acting on the community, and how slow and partial must have been their +efficacy, for either the dissipation of ignorance in general, or the +riddance of that worst part of it which had thickened round the Romish +delusion, as malignant a pestilence as ever walked in darkness. There was +an alteration of formularies, a curtailment of rites, a declaration of +renouncing, in the name of the church and state, the most palpable of the +absurdities; and a change, in some instances of the persons, but in very +many others of the professions merely, of the hierarchy. Such were the +appointments and instrumentality, for carrying an innovation of opinions +and practices through a nation in which the profoundest ignorance and the +most inveterate superstition fortified each other. And we may well imagine +how fast and how far they would be effective, to convey information and +conviction among a people whose reason had been just so much the worse, +with respect to religion at least, as it had not been totally dormant; and +who were too illiterate to be ever the wiser for the volume of inspiration +itself, had it been in their native language, in every house, instead of +being scarcely in one house in five thousand. + +Doubtless some advantage was gained through this change of institutions, +by the abolition of so much of the authority of the spiritual despotism as +it possessed in virtue of being the imperative national establishment. And +if, under this relaxation of its grasp, a number of persons declined and +escaped into the new faith, they hardly knew how or why, it was happy to +make the transition on _any_ terms, with however little of the exercise of +reason, with however little competence to exercise it. Well was it to be +on the right ground, though a man had come thither like one conveyed while +partly asleep. To have grown to a state of mind in which he ceased and +refused to worship relics and wafers, to rest his confidence on penance +and priestly absolution, and to regard the Virgin and saints as in effect +the supreme regency of heaven, was a valuable alteration _though_ he could +not read, and _though_ he could not assign, and had not clearly +apprehended, the arguments which justified the change. Yes, this would be +an important thing gained; but not even thus much _was_ gained to the +passive slaves of popery but in an exceedingly limited extent, during a +long course of time after it was supplanted as a national institution. It +continued to maintain in the faith, feelings, and more private habits of +the people, a dominion little enfeebled by the necessity of dissimulation +in public observances. As far as to secure this exterior show of +submission and conformity, it was an excellent argument that the state had +decreed, and would resolutely enforce, a change in religion,--that is to +say, till it should be the sovereign pleasure of the next monarch, readily +seconded by a majority of the ecclesiastics, just to turn the whole affair +round to its former position. + +But the argument would expend nearly its whole strength on this policy of +saving appearances. For what was there conveyed in it that could strike +inward to act upon the fixed tenets of the mind, to destroy there the +effect of the earliest and ten thousand subsequent impressions, of +inveterate habit and of ancient establishment? Was it to convince and +persuade by authority of the maxim, that the government in church and +state is wiser than the people, and therefore the best judge in every +matter? This, as asserted generally, was what the people firmly believed: +it has always, till lately, been the popular faith. But then, was the +benefit of this obsequious faith to go exclusively to the government of +just that particular time,--a government which, by its innovations and +demolitions, was exhibiting a contemptuous dissent from all past +government remembered in the land? Were the people not to hesitate a +moment to take this innovating government's word for it that all their +forefathers, up through a long series of ages, had been fools and dupes in +reverencing, in their time, the wisdom and authority of _their_ governors? +The most unthinking and submissive would feel that this was too much: +especially after they had proof that the government demanding so +prodigious a concession might, on the substitution of just one individual +for another at its head, revoke its own ordinances, and punish those who +should contumaciously continue to be ruled by them. You summon us, they +might have said to their governors, at your arbitrary dictate to renounce, +as what you are pleased to call idolatries and abominations, the faith and +rites held sacred by twenty generations of our ancestors and yours. We are +to do this on peril of your highest displeasure, and that of God, by whose +will you are professing to act; now who will ensure us that there may not +be, some time hence, a vindictive inquisition, to find who among us have +been the most ready of obedience to offer wicked insult to the Holy +Catholic Apostolic Church? + +This deficiency of the moral power of the government, to promote the +progress of conviction in the mind of the nation, would be slenderly +supplied by the authority of the class next to the government in the claim +to deference, and even holding the precedence in actual influence,--that +is, the families of rank and consequence throughout the country. For the +people well knew, in their respective neighborhoods, that many of these +had never in reality forsaken the ancient religion, consulting only the +policy of a time-serving conformity; and that some of them hardly +attempted or wished to conceal from their inferiors that they preserved +their fidelity. And then the substituted religion, while it came with a +great diminution of the pomp which is always the delight of the ignorant, +acknowledged,--proclaimed as one of its chief merits,--a still more fatal +defect for attracting converts from among beings whose ignorance had never +been suffered to doubt, till then, that men in ecclesiastical garb could +modify, or suspend, or defeat for them the justice of God; it proclaimed +itself unable to give any exemptions or commutations in matters of +conscience. + +When such were the recommendations which the new mode of religion _not_, +and when the recommendation which it _had_ was simply, (the royal +authority set out of the question,) an offer of evidence to the +understanding _that it was true_, no wonder that many of a generation so +insensate through ignorance should never become its proselytes. But even +as to those who did, while it was a happy deliverance, as we have said, to +escape almost any way from the utter grossness of popery, still they would +carry into their better faith much of the unhappy effect of that previous +mental debasement. How should a man in the rudeness of an intellect left +completely ignorant of truth in general, have a luminous apprehension of +its most important division? There could not be in men's minds a +phenomenon similar to what we image to ourselves of Goshen in the +preternatural night of Egypt, a space of perfect light, defined out by a +precise limit amidst the general darkness. + +Only consider, that the new ideas admitted into the proselyte's +understanding as the true faith, were to take their situation there in +nearly those very same encompassing circumstances of internal barbarism +which had been so perfectly commodious to the superstition recently +dwelling there; and that which had been favorable and adapted in the +utmost degree, that which had afforded much of the sustenance of life, to +the false notions, could not but be most adverse to the development of the +true ones. These latter, so environed, would be in a condition too like +that of a candle in the mephitic air of a vault. The newly adopted +religion, therefore, of the uncultivated converts from popery, would be +far from exhibiting, as compared with the renounced superstition, a +magnitude of change, and force of contrast, duly corresponding to the +difference between the lying vanities of priestcraft and a communication +from the living God. The reign of ignorance combined with imposture had +fixed upon the common people of the age of the Reformation, and of several +generations downward, the doom of being incapable of admitting genuine +Christianity but with an excessively inadequate apprehension of its +attributes;--as in the patriarchal ages a man might have received with +only the honors appropriate to a saint or prophet, the visitant in whom he +was entertaining an angel unawares. Happy for both that ancient +entertainer of such a visitant, and the ignorant but honest adopter of the +reformed religion, when that which they entertained rewarded them +according to its own celestial quality, rather than in proportion to their +inadequate reception. We may believe that the Divine Being, in special +compassion to that ignorance to which barbarism and superstition had +condemned inevitably the greater number of the early converts to the +reformed religion, did render that faith beneficial to them beyond the +proportion of their narrow and still half superstitious conception of it. +And this is, in truth, the consideration the most consolatory in looking +back to that tenebrious period in which popery was slowly retiring, with a +protracted exertion of all the craft and strength of an able and veteran +tyrant contending to the last for prolonged dominion. + +It is, however, no consideration of a portion of the people sincere, +inquiring, and emerging, though dimly enlightened, from the gloom of so +dreary a scene, that is most apt to occur to our thoughts in extenuation +of that gloom. Our unreflecting attention allows itself to be so engrossed +by far different circumstances of that period of our history, that we are +imposed upon by a spectacle the very opposite of mournful. For what is it +but a splendid and animating exhibition that we behold in looking back to +the age of Elizabeth? + +And _was_ not that, it may be asked, an age of the highest glory to our +nation? Why repress our delight in contemplating it? How can we refuse to +indulge an inspiring sympathy with the energy of those times, an elation +of spirit at beholding the unparalleled allotment of her reign, of +statesmen, heroes, and literary geniuses, but for whom, indeed, "that +bright occidental star" would have left no such brilliant track of fame +behind her? + +Permit us to answer by inquiring, What should the intellectual condition +of the _people_, properly so denominated, have been in order to correspond +in a due proportion to the magnificence of these their representative +chiefs, and complete the grand spectacle as that of a _nation_? Determine +that; and then inquire what actually _was_ the state of the people all +this while. There is evidence that it was, what the fatal blight and blast +of popery might be expected to have left it, generally and most wretchedly +degraded. What it was is shown by the facts, that it was found impossible, +even under the inspiring auspices of the learned Elizabeth, with her +constellation of geniuses, orators, scholars, to supply the churches +generally with officiating persons capable of going with decency through +the task of the public service, made ready, as every part of it was, to +their hands; and that to be able to read, was the very marked distinction +of here and there an individual. It requires little effort but that of +going low enough, to complete the general estimate in conformity to these +and similar facts. + +And here we cannot help remarking what a deception we suffer to pass on us +from history. It celebrates some period in a nation's career, as +pre-eminently illustrious, for magnanimity, lofty enterprise, literature, +and original genius. There was, perhaps, a learned and vigorous monarch, +and there were Cecils and Walsinghams, and Shakspeares and Spensers, and +Sidneys and Raleighs, with many other powerful thinkers and actors, to +render it the proudest age of our national glory. And we thoughtlessly +admit on our imagination this splendid exhibition as in some manner +involving or implying the collective state of the people in that age! The +ethereal summits of a tract of the moral world are conspicuous and fair in +the lustre of heaven, and we take no thought of the immensely greater +proportion of it which is sunk in gloom and covered with fogs. The general +mass of the population, whose physical vigor, indeed, and courage, and +fidelity to the interests of the country, were of such admirable avail to +the purposes, and under the direction, of the mighty spirits that wielded +their rough agency,--this great assemblage was sunk in such mental +barbarism, as to be placed at about the same distance from their +illustrious intellectual chiefs, as the hordes of Scythia from the finest +spirits of Athens. It was nothing to this debased, countless multitude +spread over the country, existing in the coarsest habits, destitute, in +the proportion of thousands to one, of cultivation, and still in a great +degree enslaved by the popish superstition,--it was nothing to them, in +the way of direct influence to draw forth their minds into free exercise +and acquirement, that there were, within the circuit of the island, a +profound scholarship, a most disciplined and vigorous reason, a masculine +eloquence, and genius breathing enchantment. Both the actual possessors of +this mental opulence, and the part of society forming, around them, the +sphere immediately pervaded by the delight and instruction imparted by +them, might as well, for anything they diffused of this luxury and benefit +among the general multitude, have been a Brahminical caste, dissociated by +an imagined essential distinction of nature. While they were exulting in +this elevation and free excursiveness of mental existence, the prostrate +crowd were grovelling through a life on a level with the soil where they +were at last to find their graves. But this crowd it was that constituted +the substance of the _nation_; to which, nation, in the mass, the +historian applies the superb epithets, which a small proportion of the men +of that age claimed by a striking _exception_ to the general state of the +community. History too much consults our love of effect and pomp, to let +us see in a close and distinct manner anything + + "On the low level of th' inglorious throng;" + +and our attention is borne away to the intellectual splendor exhibited +among the most favored aspirants of the seats of learning, or in councils, +courts, and camps, in heroic and romantic enterprises, and in some +immortal works of genius. And thus we are gazing with delight at a fine +public bonfire, while, in all the cottages round, the people are shivering +for want of fuel. + +Our history becomes very bright again with the intellectual and literary +riches of a much later period, often denominated a golden age,--that which +was illustrated by the talents of Addison, Pope, Swift, and their numerous +secondaries in fame; and could also boast its philosophers, statesmen, and +heroes. And in the lapse of four or five ages, according to the average +term of human life, since the earlier grand display of mind, what had been +effected toward such an advancement of intelligence in the community, that +when this next tribe of highly endowed spirits should appear, they would +stand in much loss opprobrious contrast to the main body of the nation, +and find a much larger portion of it qualified to receive their +intellectual effusions. By this time, the class of persons who sought +knowledge on a wider scale than what sufficed for the ordinary affairs of +life, who took an interest in literature, and constituted the _Authors' +Public_, had indeed extended a little, extremely little, beyond the people +of condition, the persons educated in learned institutions, and those +whose professions involved some necessity, and might create some taste for +reading. Still they _were a class_, and that with a limitation marked and +palpable, to a degree very difficult for us now to conceive. They were in +contact, on the one side, with the great thinkers, moralists, poets, and +wits, but very slightly in communication with the generality of the people +on the other. They received the emanations from the assemblage of talent +and knowledge, but did not serve as conductors to convey them down +indefinitely into the community. The national body, regarded in its +intellectual character, had an inspirited and vigorous superior part, as +constituted of these men of eminent talents and attainments, and this +small class of persons in a measure assimilated to them in thinking and +taste; but it was in a condition resembling that of a human frame in +which, (through an injury in the spinal marrow,) some of the most +important functions of vitality have terminated at some precise limit +downward, leaving the inferior extremities devoid of sensation and the +power of action. + +It is on record, that works admirably adapted to find readers and to make +them, had but an extremely confined and slowly widening circulation, +according to _our_ standard of the popular success of the productions of +distinguished talents. Nor did the writers _reckon_ on any such popular +success. In the calculations of their literary ambition, it was a thing of +course that the people went for nothing. It is apparent in allusions to +the people occurring in these very works, that "the lower sort," "the +vulgar herd," "the canaille," "the mob," "the many-headed beast," "the +million," (and even these designations generally meant something short of +the lowest classes of all,) were no more thought of in any relation to a +state of cultivated intelligence than Turks or Tartars. The readers are +habitually recognized as a kind of select community, conversed with on +topics and in a language with which the vulgar have nothing at all to +do,--a converse the more gratifying on that account. And any casual +allusions to the bulk of the people are expressed in phrases unaffectedly +implying, that they are a herd of beings existing on quite other terms and +for essentially other ends, than we, fine writers, and you, our admiring +readers. It is evident in our literature of that age, (a feature still +more prominent in that of France, at the same and down to a much later +period,) that the main national population, accounted as creatures to +which souls and senses were given just to render their limbs mechanically +serviceable, were regarded by the intellectual aristocracy with hardly so +active a sentiment as contempt; they were not worth that; it was the easy +indifference toward what was seldom thought of as in existence. + +Wickedly wrong as such a feeling was, there is no doubt that the actual +state of the people was quite such as would naturally cause it, in men +whose large and richly cultivated minds did not contain philanthropy or +Christian charity enough to regret and pity the popular debasement as a +calamity. For while they were indulging their pride in the elevation, and +their taste in all the luxuries and varieties, of that ampler higher range +of existence enjoyed by such men, in what light must they view the bulk of +a nation, that knew nothing of their wit, genius, or philosophy, could not +even read their writings, but as a coarse mass of living material, the +mere earthy substratum of humanity, not to be accounted of in any +comparison or even relation to what man is in his higher style? While they +of that higher style were revelling in their mental affluence, the vast +majority of the inhabitants of the island were subsisting, and had always +subsisted, on the most beggarly pittance on which mind could be barely +kept alive. Probably they had at that time still fewer ideas than the +people of the former age which we have been describing. For many of those +with which popery had occupied the faith and fancy of that earlier +generation, had now vanished from the popular mind, without being replaced +in equal number by better ideas, or by ideas of any kind. And then their +vices had the whole grossness of vice, and their favorite amusements were +at best rude and boisterous, and a large proportion of them savage and +cruel. So that when we look at the shining wits, poets, and philosophers, +of that age, they appear like gaudy flowers growing in a putrid marsh. + +And to a much later period this deplorable ignorance, with all its +appropriate consequences, continued to be the dishonor and the plague of +the intellectual and moral condition of the inhabitants of England. Of +England! which had through many centuries made so great a figure in +Christendom; which has been so splendid in arms, liberty, legislation, +science, and all manner of literature: which has boasted its universities, +of ancient foundation and proudest fame, munificently endowed, and +possessing, in their accumulations of literary treasure, nearly the whole +results of all the strongest thinking there had been in the world: and +which has had also, through the charity of individuals, such a number of +minor institutions for education, that the persons intrusted to see them +administered have, in very numerous instances, not scrupled to divert +their resources to total different purposes, lest, perchance, the cause of +damage to the people should change from a lack of knowledge to a repletion +of it. Of England! so long after the Reformation, and all the while under +the superintendence and tuition of an ecclesiastical establishment for +both instruction and jurisdiction, co-extended with the entire nation, and +furnished for its ministry with men from the discipline of institutions +where everything the most important to be known was professed to be +taught. Thus endowed had England been, thus was she endowed at the period +under our review, (the former part of the last century,) with the +facilities, the provisions, the great intellectual apparatus, to be +wielded in any mode her wisdom might devise, and with whatever strength of +hand she chose to apply, for promoting her several millions of rational, +accountable, immortal beings, somewhat beyond a state of mere physical +existence. When therefore, notwithstanding all this, an awful proportion +of them were under the continual process of destruction for want of +knowledge, what a tremendous responsibility was borne by whatever part of +the community it was that stood, either by office and express vocation, or +by the general obligation inseparable from ability, in the relation of +guardianship to the rest. + +But here the voice of that sort of patriotism which is in vogue as well in +England as in China, may perhaps interpose to protest against malicious +and exaggerated invective. As if it were a question of what might +beforehand be reasonably expected, instead of an account of what actually +exists, it may be alleged that surely it is a representation too much +against antecedent probability to be true, that a civilized, Christian, +magnanimous, and wealthy state like that of England, can have been so +careless and wicked as to tolerate, during the lapse of centuries, a +hideously gross and degraded condition of the people. + +But besides that the fact is plainly so, it were vain to presume, in +confidence on any supposed consistency of character, that it _must_ be +otherwise. There is no saying _what_ a civilized and Christian nation, (so +called,) may not tolerate. Recollect the Slave Trade, which, with the +magnitude of a national concern, continued its abominations while one +generation after another of Englishmen passed away; their intelligence, +conscience, humanity, and refinement, as quietly accommodated to it, as if +one portion of the race had possessed an express warrant from Heaven to +capture, buy, sell, and drive another. This is but one of many mortifying +illustrations how much the constitution of our moral sentiments resembles +a Manichaean creation, how much of them is formed in passive submission to +the evil principle, acting through prevailing custom; which determines +that it shall but very partially depend on the real and most manifest +qualities of things present to us, whether we shall have any right +perception of their characters of good and evil. The agency which works +this malformation in our sentiments needs no greater triumph, than that +the true nature of things should be disguised to us by the very effect of +their being constantly kept in our sight. Could any malignant enchanter +wish for more than this,--to make us insensible to the odious quality of +things not only _though_ they stand constantly and directly in our view, +but _because_ they do so? And while they do so, there may also stand as +obviously in our view, and close by them, the truths which _expose_ their +real nature, and might be expected to make us instantly revolt from them; +and these truths shall be no other than some of the plainest principles of +reason and religion. It shall be as if men of wicked designs could be +compelled to wear labels on their breasts wherever they go, to announce +their character in conspicuous letters; or nightly assassins could be +forced to carry torches before them, to reveal the murder in their +visages; or, as if, according to a vulgar superstition, evil spirits could +not help betraying their dangerous presence by a tinge of brimstone in the +flame of the lamps. Thus evident, by the light of reason and religion, +shall have been the true nature of certain important facts in the policy +of a Christian nation; and nevertheless, even the cultivated part of that +nation, during a series of generations, having directly before their sight +an enormous nuisance and iniquity, shall yet never be struck with its +quality, never be made restless by its annoyance, never seriously think of +it. And so its odiousness shall never be decidedly apprehended till some +individual or two, as by the acquisition of a new moral sense, receive a +sudden intuition of its nature, a disclosure of its whole essence and +malignity,--the essence and malignity of that very thing which has been +exposing its quality, without the least reserve, by the most flagrant +signs, to millions of observers. + +Thus it has been with respect to the barbarous ignorance under which +nine-tenths of the population of our country have continued, through a +number of ages subsequent to the Reformation, surrendered to everything +low, vicious, and wretched. This state of national debasement and dishonor +lay spread out, a wide scene of moral desolation, in the sight of +statesmen, of dignified and subordinate ecclesiastics, of magistrates, of +the philosophic speculators on human nature, and of all those whose rank +and opulence brought them hourly proofs what great influence they might +have, in any way in which, they should choose to exert it, on the people +below them. And still it was all right that the multitudes, constituting +the grand living agency through the realm, should remain in such a +condition that, when they died, the country should lose nothing but so +much animated body, with the quantum of vice which helped to keep it in +action. When at length some were beginning to apprehend and proclaim that +all this was wrong, these classes were exceedingly slow in their assent to +the reformed doctrine. A large proportion of them even declared, on +system, against the speculations and projects for giving the people, at +last, the use and value of their souls as well as their hands. The earnest +and sanguine philanthropists might be pardoned the simplicity of not +foreseeing such an opposition, though they ought, perhaps, to have known +better than to be surprised at the phenomenon. They were to be made wiser +by force, with respect to men's governing prejudices and motives. And from +credulity mortified is a short transit to suspicion. So ungracious a +manner of having the insight into motives sharpened, does not tend to make +its subsequent exercise indulgent, when it comes to inspect the altered +appearances assumed by persons and classes who have previously been in +decided opposition. What arguments have prevailed with you, (the question +might be,) since you have never frankly retracted your former contempt of +those which convinced _us_? May any sinister thought have occurred, that +you might defeat our ends by a certain way of managing the means? Or do +you hope to deter mine and limit to some subordinate purposes, what we +wish to prosecute for the most general good? Or would you rather impose on +yourselves the grievance of promoting an object which you dislike, than +that we should have the chief credit of promoting it? Do you sometimes +accompany your working in the vineyard with maledictions on those who have +reduced you to such a necessity? Would you have been glad to be saved the +unwelcome service by _their_ letting it alone? + +Those friends of man and their country who were the earliest to combine +in schemes for enlightening the people, and who continue to prosecute the +object on the most liberal and comprehensive principle, have to +acknowledge surmises like these. Nevertheless, they are willing to forego +any shrewd investigation into the causes of the later silence and +apparent acquiescence of former opposers; and into the motives which have +induced some of them, though in no very amicable mood, to take a part in +measures tending in their general effect to the same end. Whatever were +their suspicion of those motives, they would be reminded of an example, +not altogether foreign to the nature of their business, and quite in +point to their duty,--that of the magnanimous principle through which the +great Apostle disappointed his adversaries, by finding his own triumph in +that of his cause, while he saw that cause availing itself of these foes +after the manner of some consummate general, who has had the art to make +those who have come into the field as but treacherous auxiliaries, +co-operate effectually in the battle which they never intended he should +gain. Some preached Christ of envy, and strife, and contention, supposing +to add affliction to his bonds; but, says he, What then? notwithstanding +every way, whether in pretence or truth, Christ is preached--_the thing +itself is done_--and I therein rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. When +animated by this high principle, this ambition absolutely _for the cause +itself_, its servant is a gainer, because _it_ is a gainer, by all things +convertible into tribute, whatever may be the temper or intention of the +officers, either as towards the cause or towards himself. He may say to +them, I am more pleased by what you are actually doing, be the motive +what it will, in advancement of the object to which I am devoted, than it +is possible for you to aggrieve me by letting me see that you would not +be sorry for the frustration of _my_ schemes and exertions for its +service; or even by betraying, though I should lament such a state of +your minds, that you would be content to sacrifice _it_ if that might be +the way to defeat _me_. + +We revert but for a moment to the review of past times.--We said that long +after the brilliant show of talent, and the creation of literary supplies +for the national use, in the early part of the last century, the +deplorable mental condition of the people remained in no very great degree +altered. To pass from beholding that bright and sumptuous display, in +order to see what there was corresponding to it in the subsequent state of +the popular cultivation, is like going out from some magnificent apartment +with its lustres, music, refections, and assemblage of elegant personages, +to be beset by beggars in the gloom and cold of a winter night. + +Take a few hours' indulgence in the literary luxuries of Addison, Pope, +and their secondaries, and then turn to some authentic plain +representation of the attainments and habits of the mass of the people, at +the time when Whitefield and Wesley commenced their invasion of the +barbarous community. But the benevolent reader, (or let him be a +patriotically proud one,) is quite reluctant to recognize his country, his +celebrated Christian nation, "the most enlightened in the world," (as song +and oratory have it,) in a populace for the far greater part as perfectly +estranged from the page of knowledge, as if printing, or even letters, had +never been invented; the younger part finding their supreme delight in +rough frolic and savage sports, the old sinking down into impenetrable +stupefaction with the decline of the vital principle. + +If he would eagerly seek to fix on something as a counterbalance to this, +and endeavor to modify the estimate and relieve the feeling, by citing +perhaps the courage, and a certain rudimental capacity of good sense, in +which the people are deemed to have surpassed the neighboring nations, he +will be compelled to see how these native endowments were overrun and +befooled by a farrago of contemptible superstitions;--contemptible not +only for their stupid absurdity, but also as having in general nothing of +that pensive, solemn, and poetical character which superstition is capable +of assuming.--It is an exception to be made with respect to the +northernmost part of the island, that superstition did there partake of +this higher character. It seems to have had somewhat of the tone imitated, +but in a softer mode, in the poetry, denominated of Ossian. + +As to religion, there is no hazard in saying, that several millions had +little further notion of it than that it was an occasional, or, in the +opinion of perhaps one in twenty, a regular appearance at church, hardly +taking into the account that they were to be taught anything there. And +what _were_ they taught--those of them who gave their attendance and +attention? What kind of notions it was that had settled in their minds +under such ministration, would be, so to speak, brought out, it would be +made apparent what they were or were not taught, when so strong and +general a sensation was produced by the irruption among them of the two +reformers just named, proclaiming, as they both did, (notwithstanding very +considerable differences of secondary order,) the principles which had +been authoritatively declared to be of the essence of Christianity, in +that model of doctrine which had been appointed to prescribe and conserve +the national faith. If such doctrine _had_ been imparted to a portion of +the popular mind, even though with somewhat less positive statement, less +copiousness of illustration, and less cogency of enforcement than it +ought; if it had been but in crude _substance_ fixed in the people's +understanding, by the ministry of the many thousand authorized +instructors, who were by their institute solemnly enjoined and pledged not +to teach a different sort of doctrine, and not to fail of teaching this; +if, we repeat, this faith, so conspicuously declared in the articles, +liturgy, and homilies, had been in any degree in possession of the people, +they would have recognized its main principles, or at least a similarity +of principles, in the addresses of these two new preachers. They would +have done so, notwithstanding a peculiarity of phraseology which +Whitefield and Wesley carried to excess; and notwithstanding certain +specialities which the latter did not, even supposing them to be truths, +keep duly subordinate in exhibiting the prominent essentials of +Christianity. The preaching, therefore, of these men was a test of what +the people had been previously taught or allowed to repose in as Christian +truth, under the tuition of their great religious guardian, the national +church. What it was or was not would be found, in their having a sense of +something like what they had been taught before, or something opposite to +it, or some thing altogether foreign and unknown, when they were hearing +those loud proclaimers of the old doctrines of the Reformation. Now then, +as carrying with them this quality of a test, how were those men received +in the community? Why, they were generally received, on account of the +import of what they said, still more than from their zealous manner of +saying it, with as strong an impression of novelty, strangeness, and +contrariety to everything hitherto heard of, as any of our voyagers and +travellers of discovery have been by the barbarous tribes who had never +before seen civilized man, or as the Spaniards on their arrival in Mexico +or Peru. They might, as the voyagers have clone, experience every local +difference of moral temperament, from that which hailed them with +acclamations, to that which often exploded in a volley of mud and stones; +but through all these varieties of greetings, there was a strong sense of +something then brought before them for the first time. "Thou bringest +certain strange things to our ears," was an expression not more +unaffectedly uttered by any hearer of an apostle, preaching in a heathen +city. And to many of the auditors, it was a matter of nearly as much +difficulty as it would to an inquisitive heathen, and required as new a +posture of the mind, to attain an understanding of the evangelical +doctrines, though they were the very same which had been held forth by the +fathers and martyrs of the English Church. + +We have alluded to the violence, which sometimes encountered the endeavor +to restore these doctrines to the knowledge and faith of the people. And +if any one should have thought that, in the descriptions we have been +giving, too frequent and willing use has been made of the epithet +"barbarous," or similar words, as if we could have a perverse pleasure in +degrading our nation, we would request him to select for himself the +appropriate terms for characterizing that state of the people, in point of +sense and civilization, to say nothing of religion, which could admit such +a fact as this to stand in their history--namely, that, in a vast number +of instances and places, where some person unexceptionable in character as +far as known, and sometimes well known as a worthy man, has attempted to +address a number of the inhabitants, under a roof or under the sky, on +what it imported them beyond all things in the world to know and consider, +a multitude have rushed together, shouting and howling, raving and +cursing, and accompanying, in many of the instances, their furious cries +and yells with loathsome or dangerous missiles; dragging or driving the +preacher from his humble stand, forcing him, and the few that wished to +encourage and hear him, to flee for their lives, sometimes not without +serious injury before they could escape. And that such a history of the +people may show how deservedly their superiors were denominated their +"betters," it has to add, that these savage tumults were generally +instigated or abetted, sometimes under a little concealment, but often +avowedly, by persons of higher condition, and even by those consecrated to +the office of religious instruction; and this advantage of their station +was lent to defend the perpetrators against shame, or remorse, or just +punishment, for the outrage. + +There would be no hazard in affirming, that since Wesley and Whitefield +began the conflict with the heathenism of the country, there have been in +it hundreds of occurrences answering in substance to this description. +From any one, therefore, who should be inclined to accuse us of harsh +language, we may well repeat the demand in what terms _he_ would think he +gave the true character of a mental and moral condition, manifested in +such uproars of savage violence as the Christian missionaries among +eastern idolaters never had the slightest cause to apprehend. These +outrages were so far from uncommon, or confined to any one part of the +country, some time before, and for a very long while after, the middle of +the last century, that they might be fairly taken as indicating the depth +at which the greatest part of the nation lay sunk in ignorance and +barbarism. Yet the good and zealous men whose lot it was to be thus set +upon by a depraved, infuriate rabble, the foremost of them active in +direct assault, and the rest venting their ferocious delight in a hideous +blending of ribaldry and execration, of joking and cursing, were taxed +with a canting hypocrisy, or a fanatical madness, for speaking of the +prevailing ignorance and barbarism in terms equivalent to our sentence +from the Prophet, "The people are destroyed for lack of knowledge," and +for deploring the hopelessness of any revolution in this empire of +darkness by means of the existing institutions, which seemed indeed to +have become themselves its strong-holds. + +But they whom serious danger could not deter from renewing and +indefinitely repeating such attempts at all hazards, were little likely to +be appalled by these contumelies of speech. To the persons so abusing them +they might coolly reply, "Now really you are inconsiderately wasting your +labor. Don't you know, that on the account of this same business we have +sustained the battery of stones, brickbats, and the contents of the ditch? +And can you believe we can much care for mere _words_ of insult, after +that? Albeit the opprobrious phrases _have_ the fetid coarseness befitting +the bluster of property without education, or the more highly inspirited +tone of railing learnt in a college, they are quite another kind of thing +to be the mark for, than such assailments as have come from the brawny +arms of some of your peasants, set on probably by broad hints or plain +expressions how much you would be pleased with such exploits."--It is +gratifying to see thus exemplified, in the endurance of evil for a good +cause, that provision in our nature for economizing the expense of +feeling, through which the encountering of the greater creates a hardihood +which can despise the less. + + * * * * * + +That our descriptive observations do not exaggerate the popular +ignorance, with its natural concomitants, as prevailing at the middle of +the last century and far downward, many of the elderly persons among us +can readily confirm, from what they remember of the testimony of their +immediate ancestors. It will be recollected what pictures they gave of +the moral scene spread over the country when they were young. They could +convey lively images of the situations in which the vulgar notions and +manners had their free display, by representing the assemblages, and the +fashion of discourse and manners, at fairs, revels, and other rendezvous +of amusement; or in the field of rural employment, or on the village +green, or in front of the mechanic's workshop. They could recount various +anecdotes characteristic of the times; and repeat short dialogues, or +single sayings, which expressed the very essence of what was to the +population of the township or province instead of law and prophets, or +sages or apostles. They could describe how free from all sense of shame +whole families would seem to be, from grand-sires down to the third rude +reckless generation, for not being able to read; and how well content, +when there was some one individual in the neighborhood who could read an +advertisement, or ballad, or last dying speech of a malefactor, for the +benefit of the rest. They could describe the desolation of the land, with +respect to any enlightening and impressive religious instruction in the +places of worship; in the generality of which, indeed, the whole spirit +and manner of the service tended to what we just now described as the +fact--that religion, in its proper sense, was absolutely _a thing not +recognized at all_. To most of the persons there the forms attended to +were _representative_ of literally nothing--they were _themselves_ the +all. [Footnote: None of the anecdotes, that have come down in traditions +now fading away, are more illustrative of those times, than those which +show both people and priest satisfied with the observances at church as +_constituting_ religion, never thinking of them as but the means to +_teach_ and _inspire_ it. Such anecdotes must have been heard by every +one who has conversed much with such aged persons as remember the most of +former times. Some traditions of this kind may be recalled to mind, +through similarity of character, by hearing such an instance as the +following. A friend of the writer mentions, that he heard his father, +whose veracity was above all question, relate as one of the recollections +of the time when he was a young man, that in the parish church where he +attended, the service was one Sunday morning performed with a somewhat +unusual despatch, and every abbreviation that depended on the discretion +of the minister; who at the conclusion explained the circumstance +publicly, by saying, that as neighbor such-a-one (mentioning the name) +was going to bait his bull in the afternoon, he had been as short as +possible that the congregation might have good time for the sport.--It is +on the same principle that the Catholics on the continent, having +attended mass in the morning, never think of doubting their license for +every frivolity the rest of the day.] And as to those who really did in +the course of their attendance acquire something assignable as their +creed, our supposed reporters could tell what wretched and delusive +notions of religion, or rather instead of religion, they were permitted +and authorized, by their appointed spiritual guides, to carry with them +to their last hour. At which hour, some ceremonial form was to be a +passport to heaven: a little bread and wine, converted into a mysterious +object of superstition, by receiving an ecclesiastical name of unknown +import, accompanied with some sentences regarded much in the nature of an +incantation--and all was safe! The sinner expiring believed so, and the +sinners surviving were left to go on in their thoughtless way of life, on +a calculation of the same final resource. + +Thus the past age has left an image of its character in the minds of the +generation now themselves grown old, received by immediate tradition from +persons who lived in it. Here and there, indeed, there still lingers, so +long after the departure of the great company to which he belonged, an +ancient who retains a trace of this image immediately from the reality, as +having become of an age to look at the world, and take a share in its +activities, about the middle of the last century. [Footnote: They are here +supposed to be looking back from about the year 1820.] And it might be an +employment of considerable though rather melancholy interest, for a person +visiting many parts of the land, to put in requisition, in each place, for +a day or two, the most faithful of the memories of the most narrative of +the oldest people, for materials toward forming an estimate of the mental +and moral state of the main body of the inhabitants, of town or country, +in the period of which they themselves saw the latter part, and remember +it in combination with what their progenitors related of the former. After +these few retainers of the original picture from the life shall have left +the world, it will be comparatively a faint conception that can be formed +of that age from written memorials, which exist but in a very imperfect +and scattered state. + +But supposing the scene could be brought back to the mental eye, in full +verity and distinctness, as in a vision supernaturally imparted, are we +sure we should not have the mortification of perceiving that the change, +from the condition of the people then to their condition now, has been in +but poor proportion to the amount of the advantages, which we are apt to +be elated in recounting as the boast and happiness of later times? To +assume that we should _not_, is to impute to that former age still more +ignorance and debasement than appear in the above description. For what +could, what must that condition have been, if it was worse than the +present by anything near the difference made by what would be a tolerably +fair improvement of the additional means latterly afforded? An estimate +being made of the measure of intelligence and worth found among the +descendants, let so much be taken out as we would wish to attribute to the +effect of the additional means, and what will that remainder be which is +to represent the state of the ancestors, formed under a system of means +wanting all those which we are allowing ourselves to think important +enough to warrant the frequent expression, "This new era?" + +The means wanting to the former generation, and that have sprung into +existence for the latter, may be briefly noted; and those of a religious +nature may be named first. It is the most obvious of public expedients, +that good men who wish to make others _so should preach_ to them. And +there has been a wonderful extension of this practice since the zealous +exertions of Whitefield, Wesley, and their co-operators awakened other +good men to a sense of their capacity and duty. The spirit actuating the +associated followers of the latter of those two great agitators, has +impelled forth their whole disposable force (to use a military phrase) to +this service; and they have sent preachers into many parts of the land +where preaching itself, in any fair sense of the term, was wholly a +novelty; and where there was roused as earnest a zeal to crush this +alarming innovation, as the people of Iceland are described to feel on the +occasion of the approach of a white bear to invade their folds or poorly +stocked pastures. [Footnote: The writer had just been reading that +description.] To a confederacy of Christians so well aware of their own +strength and progress, it may seem a superfluous testimony that they are +doing incalculable good among our population, more good probably than any +other religious sect. This tribute is paid not the less freely for a +material difference in theological opinion; nor for a wish, a quite +friendly one, that they may admit some little modification of a spirit +perhaps rather too sectarian in religion, and rather less than independent +in politics. + +An immense augmentation has been brought to the sum of public instruction, +by the continually enlarging numbers of dissenters of other denominations. +Whatever may be thought of some of the consequences of the great extension +of dissent, it will hardly be considered as a circumstance tending to +prolong the reign of _ignorance_ that thus, within the last fifty years, +there have been put in activity to impart religious ideas to the people +not fewer (exclusively of the Wesleyans) than several thousand minds that +would, under a continuance of the former state of the nation, have been +doing no such service; that is to say, the service would not have been +done at all. Let it be considered, too, that the doctrines inculcated as +of the first importance, in the preaching of far the greatest number of +them, were exactly those which the Established Church avowed in its +formularies and disowned in its ministry,--one of the circumstances which +contributed the most to _make_ dissenters of the more seriously disposed +among the people.--It is to be added, that so much public activity in +religious instruction could not be unaccompanied by an increase of +exertion in the more private methods of imparting it. + +It is another important accession to the enlarged system of operations +against religious ignorance, that a proportion of the Established Church +itself has been recovered to the spirit of its venerable founders, by the +progressive formation in it of a zealous evangelical ministry; dissenters +within their own community, if we may believe the constant loud +declarations of the bulk of that community, and especially of the most +dignified, learned, and powerful classes in it. But in spite of whatever +discredit they may suffer from being thus disowned, these worthy and +useful men have still, in their character of clergymen, a material +advantage above other faithful teachers, for influence on many of the +people, by being invested with the credentials of the ancient institution, +from which the popular mind has been slow and reluctant in withdrawing its +veneration; and for which that sentiment, when not quite extinct, is ready +to revive at any manifestation in it of the quickening spirit of the +Gospel. We say, if the sentiment be not quite extinct; for we are aware +what a very large proportion of the people are gone beyond the possibility +of feeling it any more. But still the number is great of those who +experience, at this new appearance, a reanimation of their affection for +the Church; and so fondly identify the partial change with the whole +institution, that they feel as if a parent, who had for a long while +neglected or deserted them, but for whom they could never cease to cherish +a filial regard, were beginning to be restored to them, with a renewal of +the benignant qualities and cares of the parental character. + + * * * * * + +Thus far the account of the means which England was not to furnish for its +people till the latter part of the eighteenth century, relates to their +better instruction in religion. This will not be thought beside the +purpose of an enumeration of expedients for lessening their _ignorance_, +by any one who can allow that religion, regarded as a subject of the +understanding, is the most important part of knowledge, and who has +observed the fact that religion, when it begins to _interest_ uncultivated +minds, works surprisingly in favor of the intellectual faculties; an +effect exactly the reverse of that of superstition, and produced by the +contrary operation; for while superstition represses, and even curses any +free action of the intellect, genuine religion both requires and excites +it. Though it is too true that the great Christian principles, when +embraced with conviction and seriousness by a very uneducated man, must +greatly partake, by contractedness of apprehension, the ill fortune which +has confined his mental growth, yet they will often do more than any other +thing within the same space of time to avenge him of it. + +In addition to the great extension of instruction in a form specifically +religious, there have been various causes and means contributing to the +increase of knowledge among the people. After it had been seen for +centuries in what manner the children of the poor were suffered to spend +the Sunday, it struck one observer at last, that they might on that day +be taught to read!--a possibility which had never been suspected; a +disclosure as of some hitherto hidden power of nature. And then the +schools which taught the children to read made some of the parents so +much better pleased with their children for their first steps in so new +an attainment, that they could not be indifferent to the opening of other +schools of a humble order to continue that instruction through the week. +It was within the same period that there was a large circulation of +tracts, by some of which many who might be little desirous of +instruction, were beguiled into it by the amusing vehicle ingeniously +contrived to convey it; and the most popular of which will remain a +monument of the talent, knowledge, and benevolence, of that distinguished +benefactor of her country and age, Mrs. H. More, perhaps even pre-eminent +above her many excellent works in a higher strain. Later and continual +issues of this class of papers, of every diversity of composition, and +diffused by the activity of numberless hands, have solicited perhaps a +fourth part of the thoughtless beings in the nation to make at least one +short effort to think. + +The enormous flight of periodical miscellanies, and of newspapers, must be +taken as both the indication and the cause that hundreds of thousands of +persons were giving some attention to the matters of general information, +where their grandfathers had been, during the intervals of time allowed by +their employments, prating, brawling, sleeping, or drinking their hours +away. [Footnote: Since this was written there has been a prodigious +augmentation of all such means of general excitement; and happily a +diversified multiplication of a class of them calculated to benefit the +inferior people, at once by giving them a new and enlarged range of ideas, +and by bringing them on some tracts of common ground with the liberally +educated; thus abating the former almost total incapacity, on the part of +those inferiors, for intelligent intercommunication.] + +It is perhaps an item of some small value in the account, that a new class +of ideas was furnished by the many wonderful effects of science, in the +application of the elements and mechanical powers. The people saw human +intelligence so effectually inspiriting inanimate matter, as to create a +new and mighty order of agency, appearing in a certain degree independent +of man himself, and in its power immensely surpassing any simple immediate +exertion of _his_ power. They saw wood and iron, fire, water, and air, +actuated to the production of effects which might vie with what their rude +ancestors had been accustomed to believe, (those of them who had heard of +such beings,) of giants, magicians, alchymists, and monsters; effects, the +dream of which, if any one could so have dreamed, would have been scoffed +at by even the more intelligent of the former race. + +It is true that very ignorant persons can wonder at such things without +deriving much instruction from them; and that much sooner than the more +cultivated ones they become so familiarized with them as not to think of +them. All _effects_, however astonishing, are apt, if they are but regular +in their recurrence, to become soon insignificant to those who have never +learnt to inquire into _causes_. But still, it would be some little +advantage to the people's understanding to see what prodigious effects +could be produced without any preternatural interference. Though not +comprehending the science employed, they could comprehend that what they +saw _was_ purely a matter of science, and that the cause and the effect +were natural and definite; unlike the present race of Egyptians, who not +long since regarded the very mechanics of an European as an operation of +magic; and were capable of suspecting that a machine constructed by a man +from England, for raising water from the Nile, should inundate the country +in an hour. These wonders of science and art must therefore have +contributed somewhat to rid our people of the impression of being at every +turn beset by occult powers, under the name perhaps of witchcraft, and to +expel the notions of a vague and capricious agency interfering and +sporting with events throughout the system around them. Their rationality +thus obtained an improvement, which may be set against the injury +undoubtedly done them through that diminished exercise of the +understanding which accompanied the progressive division of labor; an +alteration rendered inevitable, and in other respects so advantageous. + +When we come down to a comparatively recent time, we see the Bible "going +up on the breadth of the land." In passing by any given number of houses +of the inferior class, we may presume there are in them four or five times +as many copies of that sacred book as there were in the same number thirty +or forty years since. And when we consider how many more persons in those +houses can read, and that in some of them the book may be _more_ read for +having come there as a novelty, than it is in many others where it has +been an old article of the furniture, we may fairly presume that the +increased reading is in a greater proportion than the increased number of +Bibles.--This late period has also brought into action a new expedient, +worthy to stand, in the province of education, parallel and rival to the +most useful modern inventions in the mechanical departments; an +organization for schools, by which, instead of one or two overlabored +agents upon a mass of reluctant subjects, that whole mass itself shall be +animated into a system of reciprocal agency. It has all the merit of a +contrivance which associates with mental labor a pleasure never known to +young learners before. + +One more distinction of our times has been, that effect which missionary +and other philanthropic societies have had, to render familiar to common +knowledge, by means of their meetings and publications, a great number of +such interesting and important facts, in the state of other countries and +our own, as were formerly quite beyond the sphere of ordinary information. + +In aid of all these means at work in the trial to raise the people from +the condition in which they had been so many ages sunk and immovable, +there has been of late years the unpretending but important ministration +of an incessant multifarious inventiveness in making almost every sort of +information offer itself in brief, familiar, and attractive forms, adapted +to youth or to adult ignorance; so that knowledge, which was formerly a +thing to be searched and dug for "as for hid treasures," has seemed at +last beginning to effloresce through the surface of the ground on all +sides of us. + +The statement of what recent times have produced for effecting an +alteration among the people, must include the prodigious excitement in the +political world. It were absurd, it is true, to name this in the simple +character of a _cause_, when we speak of the rousing of the popular mind +from a long stagnation; it being itself a proof and result of some +preceding cause beginning to pervade and disturb that stagnation. But +whatever may be assigned as the true and sufficient explanation of its +origin, we have to look on the mighty operation of its progress, forcing a +restlessness, instability, and tendency to change, into almost every part +of the social economy. In the whole compass of time there has been no +train of events, that has within so short a period stirred to the very +bottom the mind of so vast a portion of the race. And the power of this +great commotion has less consisted in what may be termed its physical +energy, evinced in grand exploits and catastrophes, than in its being an +intense activity of _principles_. It was as different from other +convulsions in the moral world, as would be a tempest attributed to the +direct intervention of a mighty spirit, whether believed celestial or +infernal, from one raised in the elements by mere natural causes. The +people were not, as in other instances of battles, revolutions, and +striking alternations of fortune, gazing a at mere show of wonderful +events, but regarded these events as the course of a great practical +debate of questions affecting their own interests. + +And now, when we have put all these things together, we may well pause to +indulge again our wonder what _could_ have been the mental situation of a +majority of the inhabitants of this country, antecedently to this creation +and conjunction of so many means and influences for awaking them to +something of an intelligent existence. + + + + +Section III. + + + +The review of the past may here be terminated. And how welcome a change +it would be if we might here completely emerge from the gloom which has +overspread it. How happy were it if in proceeding to an estimate of the +people of the present times, we found so rich a practical result of the +means for forming a more enlightened race, that we should have no further +recollection of that sentence from the Prophet, which has hitherto +suggested itself again at every step in prosecution of the survey. But we +are compelled to see how slow is the progress of mankind toward thus +rendering obsolete any of the darker lines of the sacred record. So +completely, so desperately, had the whole popular body and being been +pervaded by the stupifying power of the long reign of ignorance, with +such heavy reluctance, at the best, does the human mind open its eyes to +admit light,--and so incommensurate as yet, even on the supposition of +its having much less of this reluctance, has been in quantity the whole +new supply of means for a happy change,--that a most melancholy spectacle +still abides before us. Time, in sweeping away successive generations, +has preserved, in substance, the sad inheritance to that which is as yet +the latest. + +Even that portion of beneficial effect which actually has resulted from +this co-operation of new forces, has served to make a more obvious +exposure of the unhappiness and offensiveness of what is still the +condition of the far greater part of our population; as a dreary waste is +made, to give a more sensible impression how dreary it is, by the little +inroads of cultivation and beauty in its hollows, and the faint advances +of an unwonted green upon its borders. The degradation of the main body of +the lower classes is exposed by a comparison with the small reclaimed +portion within those classes themselves. It is not with the philosophers, +literati, and most accomplished persons in higher life, that we should +think of placing in immediate comparison the untutored rustics and workmen +in stones and timber, for the purpose of showing how much is wanting to +them. These extreme orders of society would seem less related in virtue of +their common nature, than separated by the wide disparity of its +cultivation. They would appear so immeasurably asunder, such antipodes in +the sphere of human existence, that the state of the one could afford no +standard for judging of the defects or wants of the other. It was not in a +speculation which amused itself, as with a curious fact, in seeing that +the same material can be made into scholars, legislators, sages, and +models of elegance--and also into helots; and then went into a fanciful +question of how near they might possibly be brought together: it was in a +speculation which, instead of dwelling on the view of what was impossible +to the common people in a comparative reference to the highest classes of +their fellow-men, considered what was left practicable to them within +their own narrow allotment, that the schemes originated which have +actually imparted to a proportion of them an invaluable share of the +benefits of knowledge. There has thus been formed a small improved order +of people amidst the multitude; and it is the contrast between these and +the general state of that multitude that most directly exposes the popular +debasement. It certainly were ridiculous enough to fix on a laboring man +and his family, and affect to deplore that he is doomed not to behold the +depths and heights of science, not to expatiate over the wide field of +history, not to luxuriate among the delights, refinements, and infinite +diversities of literature; and that his family are not growing up in a +training to every high accomplishment, after the pattern of some family in +the neighborhood, favored by fortune, and high ability and cultivation in +those at their head. But it is a quite different thing to take this man +and his family, hardly able, perhaps, even to read, and therefore sunk in +all the grossness of ignorance,--and compare them with another man and +family in the same sphere of life, but who have received the utmost +improvement within the reach of that situation, and are sensible of its +value; who often employ the leisure hour in reading, (sometimes socially +and with intermingled converse,) some easy work of instruction or innocent +entertainment; are detached, in the greatest degree that depends on their +choice, from society with the absolute vulgar; have learnt much decorum of +manners; can take an intelligent interest in the great events of the +world; and are prevented, by what they read and hear, from forgetting that +there is another world. It is, we repeat, after thus seeing what may, and +in particular instances does exist, in a humble condition, that we are +compelled to regard as really a dreadful spectacle the still prevailing +state of our national population. + +We shall endeavor to exhibit, though on a small scale, and perhaps not +with a very strict regularity of proportion and arrangement, a faithful +representation of the most serious of the evils conspicuous in an +uneducated state of the people. Much of the description and reflections +must be equally applicable to other countries; for spite of all their +mutual antipathies and hostilities, and numberless contrarieties of +customs and fashions, they have been wonderfully content to resemble one +another in the worst national feature, a deformed condition of their +people. But it is here at home that this condition is the most painfully +forced on our attention; and here also of all the world it is, that such a +wretched exhibition is the severest reproach to the nation for having +suffered its existence. + +The subject is to the last degree unattractive, except to a misanthropic +disposition; or to that, perhaps, of a stern theological polemic, when +tempted to be pleased with every superfluity of evidence for overwhelming +the opposers of the doctrine which asserts the radical corruption of our +nature. As spread over a coarse and repulsive moral and physical scenery, +it is a subject in the extreme of contrast with that susceptibility of +magnificent display, on account of which some of the most cruel evils that +have preyed on mankind have ever been favorite themes with writers +ambitious to shine in description. Nor does it present a wild and varying +spectacle, where a crowd of fantastic shapes (as in a view of the pagan +superstitions,) may stimulate and beguile the imagination though we know +we are looking on a great evil. It is a gloomy monotony; Death without his +dance. Moreover, the representation which exhibits one large class +degraded and unhappy, reflects ungraciously, and therefore repulsively, by +an imputation of neglect of duty, on the other classes who are called upon +to look at the spectacle. There is, besides, but little power of arresting +the attention in a description of familiar matter of fact, plain to every +one's observation. Yet ought it not to be so much the better, when we are +pleading for a certain mode of benevolent exertion, that every one can +see, and that no one can deny, the sad reality of all that forms the +object, and imposes the duty, of that exertion? + +Look, then, at the neglected ignorant class in their childhood and youth. +One of the most obvious circumstances is the _perfect non-existence in +their minds of any notion or question what their life is for, taken as a +whole._ Among a crowd of trifling and corrupting ideas that soon find a +place in them, there is never the reflective thought,--For what purpose am +I alive? What is it that I should be, more than the animal that I am? Does +it signify _what_ I may be?--But surely, it is with ill omen that the +human creature advances into life without such a thought. He should in the +opening of his faculties receive intimations, that something more belongs +to his existence than what he is about to-day, and what he may be about +to-morrow. He should be made aware that the course of activity he is +beginning ought to have a leading principle of direction, some predominant +aim, a general and comprehensive purpose, paramount to the divers +particular objects he may pursue. It is not more necessary for him to +understand that he must in some way be employed in order to live, than to +be apprized that life itself, that existence itself, is of no value but as +a mere capacity of something which he should realize, and of which he may +fail. He should be brought to apprehend that there is a something +essential for him to _be_, which he will not _become_ merely by passing +from one day into another, by eating and sleeping, by growing taller and +stronger, seizing what share he can of noisy sport, and performing +appointed portions of work; and that if he do _not_ become that which, he +_cannot_ become without a general and leading purpose, he will be +worthless and unhappy. + +We are not entertaining the extravagant fancy that it is possible, except +in some rare instances of premature thoughtfulness, to turn inward into +deep habitual reflection, the spirit that naturally goes outward in these +vivacious, active, careless beings, when we assert that it _is_ possible +to teach many of them with a degree of success, in very juvenile years, to +apprehend and admit somewhat of such a consideration. We have many times +seen this exemplified in fact. We have found some of them appearing +apprized that _life is for something as a whole_; and that, to answer this +general purpose, a mere succession of interests and activities, each gone +into for its own sake, will not suffice. They could comprehend, that the +multiplicity of interests and activities in detail, instead of +constituting of themselves the purpose of life, were to be regarded as +things subordinate and subservient to a general scope, and judged of, +selected, and regulated, in reference and amenableness to it.--By the +presiding comprehensive purpose, we do not specifically and exclusively +mean a direction of the mind to the _religious_ concern, viewed as a +separate affair, and in _contradistinction_ to other interests; but a +purpose formed upon a collective notion of the person's interests, which +shall give one general right bearing to the course of his life; an aim +proceeding in fulfilment of a scheme, that comprehends and combines with +the religious concern all the other concerns for the sake of which it is +worth while to dispose the activities of life into a _plan_ of conduct, +instead of leaving them to custom and casualty. The scheme will look and +guide toward ultimate felicity: but will at the same time take large +account of what must be thought of, and what may be hoped for, in relation +to the present life. + +Now, we no more expect to find any such idea of a presiding purpose of +life, than we do the profoundest philosophical reflection, in the minds of +the uneducated children and youth. They think nothing at all about their +existence and life in any moral or abstracted or generalizing reference +whatever. They know not any good that it is to have been endowed with a +rational rather than a brute nature, excepting that it affords more +diversity of action, and gives the privilege of tyrannizing over brutes. +They think nothing about what they shall become, and very little about +what shall become of them. There is nothing that tells them of the +relations for good and evil, of present things with future and remote +ones. The whole energy of their moral and intellectual nature goes out as +in brute instinct on present objects, to make the most they can of them +for the moment, taking the chance for whatever may be next. They are left +totally devoid even of the thought, that what they are doing is the +beginning of a life as an important adventure for good or evil; their +whole faculty is engrossed in the doing of it; and whether it signify +anything to the next ensuing stage of life, or to the last, is as foreign +to any calculation of theirs, as the idea of reading their destiny in the +stars. Not only, therefore, is there an entire preclusion from their minds +of the faintest hint of a monition, that they should live for the grand +final object pointed to by religion, but also, for the most part, of all +consideration of the attainment of a reputable condition and character in +life. The creature endowed with faculties for "large discourse, looking +before and after," capable of so much design, respectability, and +happiness, even in its present short stage, and entering on an endless +career, is seen in the abasement of snatching, as its utmost reach of +purpose, at the low amusements, blended with vices, of each passing day; +and cursing its privations and tasks, and often also the sharers of those +privations, and the exactors of those tasks. + +When these are grown up into the mass of mature population, what will it +be, as far as their quality shall go toward constituting the quality of +the whole? Alas! it will be, to that extent, just a continuation of the +ignorance, debasement, and misery, so conspicuous in the bulk of the +people now. And to _what_ extent? Calculate _that_ from the unquestionable +fact that hundreds of thousands of the human beings in our land, between +the ages, say of six and sixteen, are at this hour thus abandoned to go +forward into life at random, as to the use they shall make of it,--if, +indeed, it can be said to be at random, when there is strong tendency and +temptation to evil, and no discipline to good. Looking at this proportion, +does any one think there will be, on the whole, wisdom and virtue enough +in the community to render this black infusion imperceptible or innoxious? + +But are we accounting it absolutely inevitable that the sequel must be in +full proportion to this present fact,--_must_ be everything that this fact +threatens, and _can_ lead to,--as we should behold persons carried down in +a mighty torrent, where all interposition is impossible, or as the Turks +look at the progress of a conflagration or an epidemic? It is in order to +"frustrate the tokens" of such melancholy divination, to arrest something +of what a destructive power is in the act of carrying away, to make the +evil spirit find, in the next stages of his march, that all his enlisted +host have not followed him, and to quell somewhat of the triumph of his +boast, "My name is legion, for we are many;"--it is for this that the +friends of improvement, and of mankind, are called upon for efforts +greatly beyond those which are requisite for maintaining in its present +extent of operation the system of expedients for intercepting, before it +be too late, the progress of so large a portion of the youthful tribe +toward destruction. + +Another obvious circumstance in the state of the untaught class is, _that +they are abandoned, in a direct, unqualified manner, to seize recklessly +whatever they can of sensual gratification_. The very narrow scope to +which their condition limits them in the pursuit of this, will not prevent +its being to them the most desirable thing in existence, when there are so +few other modes of gratification which they either are in a capacity to +enjoy, or have the means to obtain. By the very constitution of the human +nature, the mind seems half to belong to the senses, it is so shut within +them, affected by them, dependent on them for pleasure, as well as for +activity, and impotent but through their medium. And while, by this +necessary hold which they have on what would call itself a spiritual +being, they absolutely will engross to themselves, as of clear right, a +large share of its interest and exercise, they will strive to possess +themselves of the other half too. And they will have it, if it has not +been carefully otherwise claimed and pre-occupied. And when the senses +have thus usurped the whole mind for their service, how will you get any +of it back? Try, if you will, whether this be a thing so easy to be done. +Present to the minds so engrossed with the desires of the senses, that +their main action is but in these desires and the contrivances how to +fulfil them,--offer to their view nobler objects, which are appropriate to +the spiritual being, and observe whether that being promptly shows a +sensibility to the worthier objects, as congenial to its nature, and, +obsequious to the new attraction, disengages itself from what has wholly +absorbed it. + +Nor would we require that the experiment be made by presenting something +of a precisely religious nature, to which there is an innate aversion on +account of its _divine_ character, separately from its being an +intellectual thing,--an aversion even though the mental faculties _be_ +cultivated. It may be made with something that ought to have power to +please the mind as simply a being of intelligence, imagination, and +sentiment,--a pleasure which, in some of its modes, the senses themselves +may intimately partake; as when, for instance, it is to be imparted by +something beautiful or grand in the natural world, or in the works of art. +Let this refined solicitation be addressed to the grossly uncultivated, in +competition with some low indulgence--with the means, for example, of +gluttony and inebriation. See how the subjects of your experiment, +(intellectual and moral natures though they are,) answer to these +respective offered gratifications. Observe how these more dignified +attractives encounter and overpower the meaner, and reclaim the usurped, +debased spirit. Or rather, observe whether they can avail for more than an +instant, so much as to divide its attention. But indeed you can foresee +the result so well, that you may spare the labor. Still less could you +deem it to be of the nature of an experiment, (which implies uncertainty,) +to make the attempt with ideal forms of nobleness or beauty, with +intellectual, poetical, or moral captivations. + +Yet this addiction to sensuality, beyond all competition of worthier modes +and means of interest, does not altogether refuse to admit of some +division and diversion of the vulgar feelings, in favor of some things of +a more mental character, provided they be vicious. A man so neglected in +his youth that he cannot spell the names of Alexander, Caesar, or Napoleon, +or read them if he see them spelt, may feel the strong incitement of +ambition. This, instead of raising him, may only propel him forward on the +level of his debased condition and society; and it is a favorable +supposition that makes him "the best wrestler on the green," or a manful +pugilist; for it is probable his grand delight may be, to indulge himself +in an oppressive, insolent arrogance toward such as are unable to maintain +a strife with him on terms of fair rivalry, making his will the law to all +whom he can force or frighten into submission. + +Coarse sensuality admits, again, an occasional competition of the +gratifications of cruelty; a flagrant characteristic, generally, of +uncultivated degraded human creatures, both where the whole community +consists of such, as in barbarian and savage tribes, and where they form a +large portion of it, as in this country.--It is hardly worth while to put +in words the acknowledgment of the obvious and odious fact, that a +considerable share of mental attainment is sometimes inefficient to +extinguish, or even repress, this infernal principle of human nature, by +which it is gratifying to witness and inflict suffering, even separately +from any prompting of revenge. But why do we regard such examples as +peculiarly hateful, and brand them with the most intense reprobation, but +_because_ it is judged the fair and natural tendency of mental cultivation +to repress that principle, insomuch that its failure to do so is +considered as evincing a surpassing virulence of depravity? Every one is +ready with the saying of the ancient poet, that liberal acquirements +suppress ferocious propensities. But if the whole virtue of such +discipline may prove insufficient, think what must be the consequence of +its being almost wholly withheld, so that the execrable propensity may go +into action with its malignity unmitigated, unchecked, by any remonstrance +of feeling or taste, or reason or conscience. + +And such a consequence is manifest in the lower ranks of our self-extolled +community; notwithstanding a diminution, which the progress of education +and religion has slowly effected, in certain of the once most favorite and +customary practices of cruelty; what we might denominate the classic games +of the rude populace. These very practices, nevertheless, still keep their +ground in some of the more heathenish parts of the country; and if it were +possible, that the more improved notions and taste of the more respectable +classes could admit of any countenance being given to their revival in the +more civilized parts, it would be found that, even there, a large portion +of the people is to this hour left in a disposition which would welcome +the return of savage exhibitions. It may be, that some of the most +atrocious forms and degrees of cruelty would not please the greater number +of them; there have been instances in which an English populace has shown +indignation at extreme and _unaccustomed_ perpetrations, sometimes to the +extent of cruelly revenging them; very rarely, however, when only brute +creatures have been the sufferers. Not many would be delighted with such +scenes as those which, in the _Place de Greve_, used to be a gratification +to a multitude of all ranks of the Parisians. But how many odious facts, +characteristic of our people, have come under every one's observation. + +Who has not seen numerous instances of the delight with which advantage is +taken of weakness or simplicity, to practise upon them some sly mischief, +or inflict some open mortification; and of the unrepressed glee with which +the rude spectators can witness or abet the malice? And if, in such a +case, an indignant observer has hazarded a remark or expostulation, the +full stare, and the quickly succeeding laugh and retort of brutal scorn, +have thrown open to his revolting sight the state of the recess within, +where the moral sentiments are; and shown how much the perceptions and +notions had been indebted to the cares of the instructor. Could he help +thinking what was deserved somewhere, by individuals or by the local +community collectively, for suffering a being to grow up to quite or +nearly the complete dimensions and features of manhood, with so vile a +thing within it in substitution for what a soul should be? We need not +remark, what every one has noticed, how much the vulgar are amused by +seeing vexatious or injurious incidents, (if only not quite disastrous or +tragical,) befalling persons against whom they can have no resentment; how +ferocious often their temper and means of revenge when they _have_ causes +of resentment; or how intensely delighted, (in company, it is true, with +many that are called their betters,) in beholding several of their +fellow-mortals, whether in anger or athletic competition, covering each +other with bruises, deformity, and blood. + +Our institutions, however, protect, in some considerable degree, man +against man, as being framed in a knowledge of what would else become of +the community. But observe a moment what are the dispositions of the +vulgar as indulged, and with no preventive interference of those +institutions, on the inferior animals. To a large proportion of this class +it is, in their youth, one of the most vivid exhilarations to witness the +terrors and anguish of living beings. In many parts of the country it +would be no improbable conjecture in explanation of a savage yell heard at +a distance, that a company of rationals may be witnessing the writhings, +agonies, and cries, of some animal struggling for escape or for life, +while it is suffering the infliction, perhaps, of stones, and kicks, or +wounds by more directly fatal means of violence. If you hear in the clamor +a sudden burst of fiercer exultation, you may surmise that just then a +deadly blow has been given. There is hardly an animal on the whole face of +the country, of size enough, and enough within reach to be a marked object +of attention, that would not be persecuted to death if no consideration of +ownership interposed. The children of the uncultivated families are +allowed, without a check, to exercise and improve the hateful disposition, +on flies, young birds, and other feeble and harmless creatures; and they +are actually encouraged to do it on what, under the denomination of +vermin, are represented in the formal character of enemies, almost in such +a sense as if a moral responsibility belonged to them, and they were +therefore not only to be destroyed as a nuisance, but deserving to be +punished as offenders. + +The hardening against sympathy, with the consequent carelessness of +inflicting pain, combined as this will probably be, with the _love_ of +inflicting it, must be confirmed by the horrid spectacle of slaughter; a +spectacle sought for gratification by the children and youth of the lower +order; and in many places so publicly exhibited that they cannot well +avoid seeing it, and its often savage preliminary circumstances, sometimes +directly wanton aggravations; perhaps in revenge of a struggle to resist +or escape, perhaps in a rage at the awkward manner in which the victim +adjusts itself to a convenient position for suffering. Horrid, we call the +prevailing practice, because it is the infliction, on millions of sentient +and innocent creatures every year, in what calls itself a humane and +Christian nation, of anguish unnecessary to the purpose. Unnecessary--what +proof is there to the contrary?--To _what_ is the present practice +necessary?--Some readers will remember the benevolent (we were going to +say _humane_, but that is an equivocal epithet,) attempt made a number of +years since by Lord Somerville to introduce, but he failed, a mode of +slaughter, without suffering; a mode in use in a foreign nation with which +we should deem it very far from a compliment to be placed on a level in +point of civilization. And it is a flagrant dishonor to such a country, +and to the class that virtually, by rank, and formally, by official +station, have presided over its economy, one generation after another, +that so hideous a fact should never, as far as we know, have been deemed +by the highest state authorities worth even a question whether a +mitigation might not be practicable. An inconceivable daily amount of +suffering, inflicted on unknown thousands of creatures, dying in slow +anguish, when their death might be without pain as being instantaneous, is +accounted no deformity in the social system, no incongruity with the +national profession of religion of which the essence is charity and mercy, +nothing to sully the polish, or offend the refinement, of what demands to +be accounted, in its higher portions, a pre-eminently civilized and +humanized community. Precious and well protected polish and refinement, +and humanity, and Christian civilization! to which it is a matter of easy +indifference to know that, in the neighborhood of their abode, those +tortures of butchery are unnecessarily inflicted, which could not be +actually witnessed by persons in whom the pretension to these fine +qualities is anything better than affectation, without sensations of +horror; which it would ruin the character of a fine gentleman or lady to +have voluntarily witnessed in a single instance. + +They are known to be inflicted, and yet this is a trifle not worth an +effort toward innovation on inveterate custom, on the part of the +influential classes; who may be far more worthily intent on a change in +the fashion of a dress, or possibly some new refinement in the cookery of +the dead bodies of the victims. Or the _living_ bodies; as we are told +that the most delicious preparation of an eel for exquisite palates is to +thrust the fish alive into the fire: while lobsters are put into water +_gradually_ heated to boiling. The latter, indeed, is an old practice, +like that of _crimping_ another fish. Such things are allowed or required +to be done by persons pretending to the highest refinement. It is a matter +far below legislative attention; while the powers of definition are +exhausted under the stupendous accumulation of regulations and +interdictions for the good order of society. So hardened may the moral +sense of a community be by universal and continual custom, that we are +perfectly aware these very remarks will provoke the ridicule of many +persons, including, it is possible enough, some who may think it quite +consistent to be ostentatiously talking at the very same time of Christian +charity and benevolent zeal. [Footnote: This was actually done in a +religious periodical publication.] Nor will that ridicule be repressed by +the notoriety of the fact, that the manner of the practice referred to +steels and depraves, to a dreadful degree, a vast number of human beings +immediately employed about it; and, as a spectacle, powerfully contributes +to confirm, in a greater number, exactly that which it is, by eminence, +the object of moral tuition to counteract--men's disposition to make-light +of all suffering but their own. This one thing, this not caring for what +may be endured by other beings made liable to suffering, is the very +essence of the depravity which is so fatal to our race in their social +constitution. This selfish hardness is moral plague enough even in an +inactive state, as a mere carelessness what other beings may suffer; but +there lurks in it a malignity which is easily stimulated to delight in +seeing or causing their suffering. And yet, we repeat it, a civilized and +Christian nation feels not the slightest self-displacency for its allowing +a certain unhappy but necessary part in the economy of the world to be +executed, (by preference to a harmless method,) in a manner which probably +does as much to corroborate in the vulgar class this essential principle +of depravity, as all the expedients of melioration yet applied are doing +to expel it. + +Were it not vain and absurd to muse on supposable new principles in the +constitution of the moral system, there is one that we might have been +tempted to wish for, namely, that, of all suffering _unnecessarily_ and +wilfully inflicted by man on any class of sentient existence, a bitter +intimation and participation might be conveyed to him through a mysterious +law of nature, enforcing an avenging sympathy in severe proportion to that +suffering, on all the men who are really accountable for its being +inflicted. + +After children and youth are trained to behold with something worse than +hardened indifference, with a gratifying excitement, the sufferings of +creatures dying for the service of man, it is no wonder if they are +barbarous in their treatment of those that serve him by their life. And +in fact nothing is more obvious as a prevailing disgrace to our nation, +than the cruel habits of the lower class toward the laboring animals +committed to their power. These animals have no security in their best +condition and most efficient services; but generally the hateful +disposition is the most fully exercised on those that have been already +the greatest sufferers. Meeting, wherever we go, with some of these +starved, abused, exhausted figures, we shall not unfrequently meet with +also another figure accompanying them--that of a ruffian, young or old, +who with a visage of rage, and accents of hell, is wreaking his utmost +malevolence on a wretched victim for being slow in performing, or quite +failing to perform, what the excess of loading, and perhaps the +feebleness of old age, have rendered difficult or absolutely +impracticable; or for shrinking from an effort to be made by a pressure +on bleeding sores, or for losing the right direction through blindness, +and that itself perhaps occasioned by hardship or savage violence. Many +of the exacters of animal labor really seem to resent it as a kind of +presumption and insult in the slave, that it would be anything else than +a machine, that the living being should betray under its toils that it +suffers, that it is pained, weary, or reluctant. And if, by outrageous +abuse, it should be excited to some manifestation of resentment, that is +a crime for which the sufferer would be likely to incur such a fury and +repetition of blows and lacerations as to die on the spot, but for an +interfering admonition of interest against destroying such a piece of +property, and losing so much service. When that service has utterly +exhausted, often before the term of old age, the strength of those +wretched animals, there awaits many of them a last short stage of still +more remorseless cruelty; that in which it is become a doubtful thing +whether the utmost efforts to which the emaciated, diseased, sinking +frame can be forced by violence, be worth the trouble of that violence, +the delays and accidents, and the expense of the scanty supply of +subsistence. As they must at all events very soon perish, it has ceased +to be of any material consequence, on the score of interest, how grossly +they may be abused; and their tormentors seem delighted with this release +from all restraint on their dispositions. Those dispositions, as indulged +in some instances, when the miserable creatures are formally consigned to +be destroyed, cannot be much exceeded by anything we can attribute to +fiends. Some horrid exemplifications were adduced, not as single casual +circumstances, but as usual practices, by a patriotic senator some years +since, in endeavoring to obtain a legislative enactment in mitigation of +the sufferings of the brute tribes. The design vanished to nothing in the +House of Commons, under the effect of argument and ridicule from a person +distinguished for intellectual cultivation; whose resistance was not only +against that specific measure, but avowedly against the principle itself +on which _any_ measure of the same tendency could ever be founded. +[Footnote: Lord Erskine's memorable Bill, triumphantly scouted by the +late Mr. Windham.--Undoubtedly there are considerable difficulties in the +way of legislation on the subject; but an equal share of difficulty +attending some other subjects--an affair of revenue, for instance, or a +measure for the suppression (at that time) of political opinion--would +soon have been overcome.] Nor could any victory have pleased him better, +probably, than one which contributed to prolong the barbarism of the +people, as the best security, he deemed, for their continuing fit to +labor at home and fight abroad. It might have added to this gratification +to hear (as was the fact) his name pronounced with delight by ruffians of +all classes, who regarded him as their patron saint. + +If any one should be inclined to interpose here with a remark, that after +_such_ a reference, we have little right to ascribe to those classes, as +if it were peculiarly one of their characteristics, the insensibility to +the sufferings of the brute creation, and to number it formally among the +results of the "lack of knowledge," we can only reply, that however those +of higher order may explode any attempt to make the most efficient +authority of the nation bear repressively upon the evil, and however it +may in other ways be abetted by them, it is, at any rate, in those +inferior classes chiefly that the actual perpetrators of it are found. It +is something to say in favor of cultivation, that it does, generally +speaking, render those who have the benefit of it incapable of practising, +_themselves_, the most palpably flagrant of these cruelties which they may +be virtually countenancing, by some things which they do, and some things +which they omit or refuse to do. Mr. Windham would not himself have +practised a wanton barbarity on a poor horse or ass, though he scouted any +legislative attempt to prevent it among his inferiors. + + * * * * * + +The proper place would perhaps have been nearer the beginning of this +description of the characteristics of our uneducated people, for one so +notorious, and one entering so much into the essence of the evils already +named, as that we mention next; _a rude, contracted, unsteady, and often +perverted sense of right and wrong in general_. + +It is curious to look into a large volume of religious casuistry, the work +of some divine of a former age, (for instance Bishop Taylor's _Ductor +Dubitantium,_) with the reflection what a conscience disciplined in the +highest degree might be; and then to observe what this regulator of the +soul actually is where there has been no sound discipline of the reason, +and where there is no deep religious sentiment to rectify the perceptions +in the absence of an accurate intellectual discrimination of things. This +sentiment being wanting, dispositions and conduct cannot be taken account +of according to the distinction between holiness and sin; and in the +absence of a cultivated understanding, they cannot be brought to the test +of the distinguishing law between propriety and turpitude; nor estimated +upon any comprehensive notion of utility. The evidence of all this is +thick and close around us; so that every serious observer has been struck +and almost shocked to observe, in what a very small degree conscience is a +_necessary_ attribute of the human creature; and how nearly a nonentity +the whole system of moral principles may be, as to any recognition of it +by an unadapted spirit. While that system is of a substance veritable and +eternal, and stands forth in its exceeding breadth, marked with the +strongest characters and prominences, it has to these persons hardly the +reality or definiteness of a shadow, except in a few matters, if we may so +express it, of the grossest bulk. There must be glaring evidence of +something bad in what is done, or questioned whether to be done, before +conscience will come to its duty, or give proof of its existence. There +must be a violent alarm of mischief or danger before this drowsy and +ignorant magistrate will interfere. And since occasions thus involving +flagrant evil cannot be of very frequent occurrence in the life of the +generality of the people, it is probable that many of them have +considerably protracted exemptions from any interference of conscience at +all; it is certain that they experience no such pertinacious attendance of +it, as to feel habitually a monitory intimation, that without great +thought and care they will inevitably do something wrong. But what may we +judge and presage of the moral fortunes of a sojourner, of naturally +corrupt propensity, in this bad world, who is not haunted, sometimes to a +degree of alarm, by this monitory sense, through the whole course of his +life? What is likely to become of him, if he shall go hither and thither +on the scene exempt from all sensible obstruction of the many +interdictions, of a nature too refined for any sense but the vital +tenderness of conscience to perceive? + +Obstructions of a more gross and tangible nature he is continually +meeting. A large portion of what he is accustomed to see presents itself +to him in the character of boundary and prohibition; on every hand there +is something to warn him what he must not do. There are high walls, and +gates, and fences, and brinks of torrents and precipices; in short, an +order of things on all sides signifying to him, with more or less of +menace,--Thus far and no further. And he is in a general way obsequious to +this arrangement. We do not ordinarily expect to see him carelessly +transgressing the most decided of the artificial boundaries, or daring +across those dreadful ones of nature. But, nearly destitute of the faculty +to perceive, (as in coming in contact with something charged with the +element of lightning,) the awful interceptive lines of that other +arrangement which he is in the midst of as a subject of the laws of God, +we see with what insensibility he can pass through those prohibitory +significations of the Almighty will, which are to devout men as lines +streaming with an infinitely more formidable than material fire. And if we +look on to his future course, proceeding under so fatal a deficiency, the +consequence foreseen is, that those lines of divine interdiction which he +has not conscience to perceive as meant to deter him, he will seem as if +he had acquired, through a perverted will, a recognition of in another +quality--as temptations to attract him. + +But to leave these terms of generality and advert to a few particulars of +illustration:--Recollect how commonly persons of the class described are +found utterly violating truth, not in hard emergencies only, but as an +habitual practice, and apparently without the slightest reluctance or +compunction, their moral sense quite at rest under the accumulation of a +thousand deliberate falsehoods. It is seen that by far the greater number +of them think it no harm to take little unjust advantages in their +dealings, by deceptive management; and very many would take the greatest +but for fear of temporal consequences; would do it, that is to say, +without inquietude of conscience, in the proper sense. It is the testimony +of experience from persons who have had the most to transact with them, +that the indispensable rule of proceeding is to assume generally their +want of principle, and leave it to time and prolonged trial to establish, +rather slowly, the individual exceptions. Those unknowing admirers of +human nature, or of English character, who are disposed to exclaim against +this as an illiberal rule, may be recommended to act on what they will +therefore deem a liberal one--at their cost. + +That power of established custom, which is so great, as we had occasion to +show, on the moral sense of even better instructed persons, has its +dominion complete over that of the vulgar; insomuch that the most +unequivocal iniquity of a practice long suffered to exist, shall hardly +bring to their mere recollection the common acknowledged rule not to do as +we would wish not done to us. From recent accounts it appears, that the +entire coast of our island is not yet clear of those people called +_wreckers_, who felt not a scruple to appropriate whatever they could +seize of the lading of vessels cast ashore, and even whatever was worth +tearing from the personal possession of the unfortunate beings who might +be escaping but just alive from the most dreadful peril. The cruelty we +have so largely attributed to our English vulgar, never recoils on them in +self-reproach. The habitual indulgence of the irascible, vexatious, and +malicious tempers, to the plague or terror of all within reach, scarcely +ever becomes a subject of judicial estimate, as a character hateful in the +abstract, with them a reflection of that estimate on the man's own self. +He reflects but just enough to say to himself that it is all right and +deserved, and unavoidable, too, for he is unpardonably crossed and +provoked; nor will he be driven from this self-approval, when it may be +evident to every one else that the provocations are comparatively slight, +and are only taken as offences by a disposition habitually seeking +occasions to vent its spite. The inconvenience and vexation incident to +low vice, may make the offenders fret at themselves for having been so +foolish, but it is in general with an extremely trifling degree of the +sense of guilt. Suggestions of reprehension, in even the discreetest +terms, and from persons confessedly the best authorized to make them, +would not seldom be answered by a grinning, defying carelessness, in some +instances by abusive retort; instead of any betrayed signs of an internal +acknowledgment of deserving reproof. + +And while thus the censure of a fellow-mortal meets no internal testimony +to own its justice, this insensate self-complacency is undisturbed also on +the side toward heaven. A mere philosopher, that should make little +account of religion, otherwise than as capable of being applied to enforce +and aggravate the sense of obligation with respect to rules of conduct, +and would not, provided it may have this effect, care much about its truth +or falsehood,--might be disposed to assert that the ignorant and debased +part of the population, of this Christian and Protestant country, are but +so much the worse for the riddance of some parts of the superstitions of +former ages. He might allege, with plausibility, that the system which +imposed so many falsehoods, vain observances, and perversions of moral +principles, acknowledging nevertheless _some_ correct rules of morality, +as an external practical concern, had the advantage of enjoining them, as +far as it chose to do so, with the force of superstition, a stronger +authority with a rude conscience than that of plain simple religion. That +system exercised a mighty complexity and accumulation of authority, all +avowedly divine; by which it could artificially augment, or rather +supersede, the mere divine prescription of such rules, making _itself_ the +authority and prescriber; and thus could infix them in the moral sense of +the people with something more, or something else, than the simple divine +sanction. Whereas, now when those superstitions which held the people so +powerfully in awe, are gone, and have taken away with them that spurious +sanction, there remains nothing to exert the same power of moral +enforcement; since the people have not, in their exemption from the +superstitions of their ancestors, come under any solemn and commanding +effect of the true idea of the Divine Majesty. And it is undeniable that +this is the state of conscience among them. The vague, faint notion, as +they conceive it, of a being who is said to be the creator, governor, +lawgiver, and judge, and who dwells perhaps somewhere in the sky, has not, +to many of them, the smallest force of intimidation from evil, at least +when they are in health and daylight. One of the large sting-armed insects +of the air does not alarm them less. A certain transitory fearfulness that +occasionally comes upon them, points more to the Devil, and perhaps (in +times now nearly gone by) to the ghosts of the dead, than to the Almighty. +It may be, indeed, that this feeling is in its ultimate principle, if it +were ever followed up so far, an acknowledgment of justice and power in +God, reaching to wicked men through these mysterious agents; who though +intending no service to him, but actuated by dispositions of their own, +malignant in the greatest of them, and supposed inauspicious in the +others, are yet carrying into effect his hostility. But it is little +beyond such proximate objects of apprehension that many minds extend their +awe of invisible spiritual existence. Even the notion really entertained +by them of the greatness of God, may be entertained in such a manner as to +have but slight power to restrain the inclinations to sin, or to impress +the sense of guilt after it is committed. He is too great, they readily +say, to mind the little matters that such creatures as we may do amiss; +they can do _him_ no harm. The idea, too, of his bounty, is of such +unworthy consistency as to be a protection against all conscious reproach +of ingratitude and neglect of service toward him;--he has made us to need +all this that it is said he does for us; and it costs him nothing, it is +no labor, and he is not the less rich; and besides, we have toil, and +want, and plague enough, notwithstanding anything that he gives. + +It is probable this unhappiness of their condition, oftener than any other +cause, brings God into their thoughts, and that as a being against whom +they have a complaint approaching to a quarrel on account of it. And this +strongly assists the reaction against whatever would enforce the sense of +guilt on the conscience. When he has done so little for us, (something +like this is the sentiment,) he cannot think it any such great matter if +we _do_ sometimes come a little short of his commands. There is no doubt +that their recollections of him as a being to murmur against for their +allotment, are more frequent, more dwelt upon, and with more of an excited +feeling, than their recollections of him as a being whom they ought to +have loved and served, but have offended against. The very idea of such +offence, as the chief and essential constituent of wickedness, is so +slightly conceived, (because he is invisible, and has his own felicity, +and is secure against all injury,) that if the thoughts of one of these +persons _should_, by some rare occasion, be forced into the direction of +unwillingly seeing his own faults, it is probable his impiety would appear +the most inconsiderable thing in the account; that he would easily forgive +himself the negation of all acts and feelings of devotion towards the +Supreme Being, and the countless multiplications of insults to him by +profane language. + +To conclude this part of the melancholy statement; it may be observed of +the class in question, that they have but very little notion of guilt, or +possible guilt, in anything but external practice. That busy interior +existence, which is the moral person, genuine and complete; the thoughts, +imaginations, volitions; the motives, projects, deliberations, devices, +the indulgence of the ideas of what they cannot or dare not practically +realize,--all this, we have reason to believe, passes nearly exempted from +jurisdiction, even of that feeble and undecisive kind which _may_ +occasionally attempt an interference with their actions. They do indeed +take such notice of the quality of these things within, as to be aware +that some of them are not to be disclosed in their communications; which +prudential caution has of course little to do with conscience, when the +things so withheld are internally cherished in perfect disregard of the +Omniscient Observer, and with hardly the faintest monition that the +essence of the guilt is the same, with only a difference in degree, in +intending or deliberately desiring an evil, and in acting it. + +It is not natural obtuseness of mental faculty that we are attributing, +all this while, to the uneducated class of our people, in thus exposing +the defectiveness of their discernment between right and wrong. If it +were, there might arise somewhat of the consolation afforded in +contemplating some of the very lowest of the savage tribes of mankind, by +the idea that such outcasts of the rational nature must stand very nearly +exempt from accountableness, through absolute natural want of mind. But in +the barbarians of our country we shall often observe a very competent, and +now and then an abundant, share of native sense. We may see it evinced in +respect to the very questions of morality, in cases where they are quite +compelled, as will occasionally happen, to feel themselves brought within +the cognizance of one or other of its plainest rules. In such cases we +have witnessed a sharpness and activity of intellect claiming almost our +admiration. What contrivance of deception and artful evasion. What +dexterity of quibble, and captious objection, and petty sophistry. What +vigilance to observe how the plea in justification or excuse takes effect, +and, if they perceive it does not succeed, what address in sliding into a +different one. What quickness to avail themselves of any mistake, or +apparent concession, in the examiner or reprover. What copious rhetoric in +exaggeration of the cause which tempted to do wrong, or of the great good +hoped to be effected by the little deviation from the right,--a good +surely enough to excuse so trifling an impropriety. What facility of +placing between themselves and the censure, the recollected example of +some good man who has been "overtaken in a fault." + +Here _is_ mind, after all, we have been prompted to exclaim; mind +educating itself to evil, in default of that discipline which should have +educated it to good. How much of the wisdom of evil, (if we may be allowed +the expression,) there is faculty enough in the neglected corrupt popular +mass of this nation to attain, by the exercise into which the individual's +mind is carried by its own impulse, and in which he may everywhere and +every hour find ample co-operation. Each of these self-improvers in +depraved sense has the advantage of finding himself among a great tribe of +similar improvers, forming an immense school, as if for the promotion of +this very purpose; where they all teach by a competition in learning; +where the rude faculty which is not expanded into intelligence is, +however, sharpened into cunning; where the spirit which cannot grow into +an eagle, may take the form and action of a snake. This advantage,--that +there should not be a diminution of the superabundant plenty of associates +always at hand, to assist each man in making the most of his native +intellect for its least worthy use,--has been from age to age secured to +our populace, as if it had been the most valuable birthright of +Englishmen. Whatever else the person born to the inheritance of low life +was destined to find in it, the national state had made as sure to him as +it had before made the same privilege to his ancestors, that the +generality of his equals should be found fit and ready to work with him in +the acquirement of a depraved shrewdness. + +But while the bulk of the people have been, in every period, abandoned to +such a process of educating themselves and one another, where has been +that character of parental guardianship, which seems to be ascribed when +poets, orators, and patriots, are inspired with tropes, and talk of +England and her children? This imperial matron of their rhetoric seems to +have little cared how much she might be disgraced in the larger portion of +her progeny, or how little cause they might have to all eternity to +remember her with gratitude. She has had far other concern about them, and +employment for them, than that of their being taught the value of their +spiritual nature, and carefully trained to be enlightened, good, and +happy. Laws against crime, it is true, she has enacted for them in liberal +quantity; appointed her quorums of magistrates; and not been sparing of +punishments. She has also maintained public sabbath observances to remind +them of religion, of which observances she cared not that they little +understood the very terms; except when the reading of a Book of Sports was +appointed an indispensable part at one time long after her adoption of the +Reformation. But she might plainly see what such provisions did _not_ +accomplish. It was a glaring fact before her eyes, that the majority of +her children had far more of the mental character of a colony from some +barbarian nation, than of that which an enlightened and Christian state +might have been expected to impart. She had most ample resources indeed +for supplying the remedy; but, provided that the productions of the soil +and the workshop were duly forthcoming, she thought it of no consequence, +it should seem, that the operative hands belonged to degraded minds. And +then, too, as at all times, her lofty ambition destined a good proportion +of them to the consumption of martial service, she perhaps judged that the +less they were trained to think, the more fit they might be to be actuated +mechanically, as an instrument of blind impetuous force. Or perhaps she +thought it would be rather an inconsistency, to be making much of the +inner existence of a thing which was to be, in frequent wholesale lots, +sent off to be cut or dashed to pieces. [Footnote: "Killed off," was the +sentimental phrase emitted in parliament, in easy unconsciousness of +offence, by the accomplished senator named in a former page. He probably +was really unaware that the creatures were made for anything better.] And +besides, a certain measure of instruction to think, especially if +consisting, in a considerable part, of the inculcation of religion, might +have done something to disturb that notion, (so worthy to have been +transferred from the Mohammedan creed,) which she was by no means desirous +to expel from her fleets and armies, that death for "king and country" +clears off all accounts for sin. + +Let our attention be directed a little while to the effects of the +privation of knowledge, as they may be seen conspicuous in the several +parts of the economy of life, in the uneducated part of the community. +Observe those people in their daily occupations. None of us need be told +that, of the prodigious diversity of manual employments, some consist of, +or include, operations of such minuteness or complexity, and so much +demanding nicety, arrangement, or combination, as to necessitate the +constant and almost entire attention of the mind; nor that all of them +must require its full attention at times, at particular stages, changes, +and adjustments, of the work. We allow this its full weight, to forbid any +extravagant notion of how much it is possible to think of other things +during the working time. It is however to be recollected, that persons of +a class superior to the numerous one we have in view, take the chief share +of those portions of the arts and manufactures which require the most of +mental effort,--those which demand extreme precision, or inventive +contrivance, or taste, or scientific skill. We may also take into the +account of the allotment of employments to the uncultivated multitude, how +much facility is acquired by habit, how much use there is of instrumental +mechanism, (a grand exempter from the responsibility that would lie on the +mind,) and how merely general and very slight an attention is exacted in +the ordinary course of some of the occupations. These things considered, +we may venture perhaps to assume, on an average of those employments, that +the persons engaged in them might be, as much at least as one third part +of the time, without detriment to the manual performance, giving the +thoughts to other things with attention enough for such interest as would +involve improvement. This is particularly true of the more ordinary parts +of the labors of agriculture, when not under any critical circumstances, +or special pressure owing to the season. + +But as the case at present is, what does become, during such portion of +the time, of the ethereal essence which inhabits the corporeal laborer, +this spirit created, it is commonly said and without contradiction, for +thought, knowledge, religion, and immortality? If we be really to believe +this doctrine of its nature and destiny, (for we are not sure that +politicians think so,) can we know without regret, that in very many of +the persons in the situations supposed, it suffers a dull absorption, +subsides into the mere physical nature, is sunk and sleeping in the animal +warmth and functions, and lulled and rocked, as it were, in its lethargy, +by the bodily movements, in the works which it is not necessary for it to +keep habitually awake to direct? And its obligation to keep just enough +awake to see to the right performance of the work, seems to give a +licensed exemption from any other stirring of its faculties. The +employment _is something to be minded_, in a general way, though but now +and then requiring a pointed attention; and therefore this said +intellectual being, if uninformed and unexercised, will feel no call to +mind anything else: as a person retained for some service which demands +but occasionally an active exercise, will justify the indolence which +declines taking in hand any other business in the intervals, under the +pretext that he has his appointment; and so, when not under the immediate +calls of that appointment, he will trifle or go to sleep, even in the full +light of day, with an easy conscience. + +But here we are to beware of falling into the inadvertency of appearing to +say, that the laboring classes, in this country and age, have actually +this full exemption, during their employments, from all exercise of +thought beyond that which is immediately requisite for the right +performance of their work. It is true that there is little enough of any +such mental activity directed to the instructive uses we were supposing. +But while such partial occupation of the thoughts (of course it is +admitted, in an irregular and discontinuous, but still a beneficial +manner) with topics and facts of what may be called intellectual and moral +interest as we are assuming to be compatible with divers of the manual +operations, is a thing to which most among the laboring classes are +strangers, many of them are equally strangers to an easy vacancy of mind; +experiencing amidst their employments a severe arrest of those thoughts +which the mere employment itself may leave free. During the little more +than mechanical action of their hands and eyes, the circumstances of their +condition press hard into their minds. The lot of many of those classes is +placed in a melancholy disproportion between what _must_ be given to the +cares and toils for a bare subsistence, and what _can_, at most, be given +to the interests of the nobler part of their nature, either during their +work or in its intervals. It is a sad spectacle to behold so many myriads +of spiritual beings, (proviso, again, that we may call them so without +being suspected to forget that their proper calling is to work with their +hands,) doomed to consume a proportion so little short of the whole of +their vigor and time, in just merely supporting so many bodies in the +struggle to live. + +When it is in special relation to the present times that we speak of this +struggle to live, we of course mean by it something more than that +circumstance of the general lot of humanity which is expressed in the +sentence, "In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat thy bread," We put the +emphasis on the peculiar aggravation of that circumstance in this part of +the world in this and recent times, by the adventitious effect of some +dreadful disorder of the social economy, in consequence of which the +utmost exertions of the body and mind together but barely suffice in so +many cases, in some hardly do suffice, for the mere protraction of life; +comfortable life being altogether out of the question. The course of the +administration of the civilized states, and the recent dire combustion +into which they have almost unanimously rushed, as in emulation which of +them should with the least reserve, and with the most desperate rapidity, +annihilate the resources that should have been for the subsistence and +competence of their people, have resulted in such destitution and misery +in this country as were never known before, except as immediately +inflicted by the local visitation of some awful calamity. The state of +very many of our people, at this hour, is nearly what might be conceived +as the consequence of a failure of the accustomed produce of the earth. +[Footnote: No exaggeration at the time when it was written. The condition +of the working classes during the subsequent years does not admit of any +comprehensive uniform description. It has suffered successive harassing +fluctuations, and been probably at all times severely distressing in one +part of the country or another.] + +There is no wish to deny or underrate the additions made to the evil by +the intervention of causes, whose operation admits of being traced in some +measure distinctly from the effect of this grand one. They may be traced +in an operation which is _distinguishable_; and referable to each +respectively; but it were most absurd to represent them as working out of +connection, or otherwise than subordinately concurring, with that cause +which has invaded with its pernicious effects everything that has an +existence or a name in the social system. And it were simply monstrous to +attribute the main substance of so wide and oppressive an evil to causes +of any debateable quality, while there is glaring in sight a cause of +stupendous magnitude, which _could not possibly do otherwise than_ produce +immense and calamitous effects. It would be as if a man were prying about +for this and the other cause of damage, to account for the aspect of a +region which has recently been devastated by inundations or earthquakes. +It has become much a fashion to explain the distresses of a country on any +principles rather than those that are taught by all history, and +prominently manifest in the nature of things. And airs of superior +intelligence shall be assumed on hearing a plain man fix the main charge +of national exhaustion and distress on the nation's consuming its own +strength in an unquenchable fury to destroy that of others; just as if +such madness had never been known to result in poverty and distress, and +it were perfectly inexplicable how it should. This is partly an +affectation of science, accompanied, it is likely, by somewhat of that +sincere extravagance with which some newly developed principle is apt to +be accounted the comprehension of all wisdom, a nostrum that will explain +everything. But we suspect that in many instances this substitution of +subordinate causes for a great substantial one, proceeds from something +much worse than such affectation or self-duped extravagance. It is from a +resolute determination that ambition shall be the noblest virtue of a +state; that martial glory shall maintain its ground in human idolatry and +that wars and their promoters shall be justified at all hazards. + +We were wishing to show how the laboring people's thoughts might be partly +employed, during their daily task, and consistently with industry and good +workmanship. But what a state of things is exhibited where the very name +of industry, the virtue universally honored, the topic of so many human +and divine inculcations, cannot be spoken without offering a bitter +insult; where the heavy toil, denounced on man for his transgression, in +the same sentence as death, is in vain implored as the greatest privilege; +or thought of in despair, as a blessing too great to be attainable; and +when the reply of the artisan to an unwitting admonition, that even amidst +his work he might have some freedom for useful thinking, may be, +"Thinking! I have no work to confine my thinking; I may, for that, employ +it all on other subjects; but those subjects are, whether I please or not, +the plenty and luxury in which many creatures of the same kind as myself +are rioting, and the starvation which I and my family are suffering." + +We hope in Providence, more than in any wisdom or disposition shown by +men, that this melancholy state of things will be alleviated, otherwise +than by a reduction of number through the diseases generated by utter +penury. [Footnote: It _has_ been alleviated; but not till after a +considerable duration. In England it has; but look at Ireland?] We trust +the time will come when the Christian monitor shall no longer be silenced +by the apprehension of such a reply to the suggestion he wishes to make to +the humble class, that they should strive against being reduced to mere +machines amidst their manual employments; that it is miserable to have the +whole mental existence shrunk and shrivelled as it were to the breadth of +the material they are working upon; that the noble interior agent, which +lends itself to maintain the external activity, and direct the operations +required of the bodily powers for the body's welfare, has eminently a +right and claim to have employments on its own account, during such parts +of those operations as do not of necessity monopolize its attention. It +may claim, in the superintendence of these, a privilege analogous to that +possessed in the general direction of subordinate agents by a man of +science, who will interfere as often as it is necessary, but will not give +up all other thought and employment to be a constant mere looker-on, +during such parts of the operations as are of so ordinary a nature that he +could not really fix his attention on them. + +But how is the mind of the laborer or artisan to be delivered from the +blank and stupified state, during the parts of his employment that do not +necessarily engross his thoughts? How, but by its having within some store +of subjects for thought; something for memory, imagination, reflection; in +a word, by the possession of knowledge? How can it be sensibly alive and +active, when it is placed fully and decidedly out of communication with +all things that are friendly to intellectual life, all things that apply a +beneficial stimulus to the faculties, all things, of this world or +another, that are the most inviting or commanding to thought and emotion? +We can imagine this ill-fated spirit, especially if by nature of the +somewhat finer temperament, thus detached from all vital connection, +secluded from the whole universe, and inclosed as by a prison wall,--we +can imagine it sometimes moved with an indistinct longing for its +appropriate interests; and going round and round by this dark, dead wall, +to seek for any spot where there might be a chance of escape, or any +crevice where a living element for the soul transpires; and then, as +feeling it all in vain, dejectedly resigning itself again to its doom. +Some ignorant minds have instinctive impulses of this kind; though far +more of them are so deeply stupified as to be habitually safe from any +such inquietude. But let them have received, in their youth and +progressively afterwards, a considerable measure of interesting +information, respecting, for instance, the many striking objects on the +globe they inhabit, the memorable events of past ages, the origin and uses +of remarkable works within their view, remaining from ancient times; the +causes of effects and phenomena familiar to their observation as now +unintelligible facts; the prospects of man, from the relation he stands in +to time, and eternity, and God, explained by the great principles and +facts of religion. Let there be fixed in their knowledge so many ideas of +these kinds, as might be imparted by a comparatively humble education, +(one quite compatible with the destination to a life of ordinary +employment,) and even involuntarily the thoughts would often recur to +these subjects, in those moments and hours when the manual occupation can, +and actually will, be prosecuted with but little of exclusive attention. +Slight incidents, casual expressions, would sometimes suggest these +subjects; by association they would suggest one another. The mere reaction +of a somewhat cultivated spirit against invading dulness, might recall +some of the more amusing and elating ones; and they would fall like a +gleam of sunshine on the imagination. An emotion of conscience, a +self-reflection, an occurring question of duty, a monitory sensation of +defective health, would sometimes point to the serious and solemn ones. +The mind might thus go a considerable way, to recreate or profit itself, +and, on coming back again, find all safe in the processes of the field or +the loom. The man would thus come from these processes with more than the +bare earnings to set against the fatigue. There would thus be scattered +some appearances to entertain, and some sources and productions to +refresh, over what were else a dead and barren flat of existence. + +There is no romancing in all this; we have known instances of its +verification to a very pleasing and exemplary extent. We have heard +persons of the class in question tell of the exhilarating imaginations, or +solemn reflections, which, through the reminiscences of what they had read +in youth or more advanced years, had visited their minds; and put them, as +it were, in communication for a while with diversified, remote, and +elevated objects, while in their humble employments under the open sky or +the domestic roof. And is not this, (if it be true, after all, that the +intellectual, immortal nature is by emphasis the man,) is not this vastly +better than that this mind should lie nearly as dormant, during the +laborer's hours of business, as his attendant of the canine species shall +be sometimes seen to do in the corner of the field where he is at work? + +But perhaps it will be said, that the minds of the uncultivated order are +not generally in this state of utter inanity during their common +employments; but are often awake and busy enough in recollections, +fancies, projects, and the tempers appropriate; and that they abundantly +show this when they stop sometimes in their work to talk, or talk as they +are proceeding in it. So much the stronger, we answer, the argument for +supplying them with useful knowledge; for it were better their mental +being _were_ sunk in lethargy, than busy among the reported, recollected, +or imagined transactions, the wishes, and the schemings, which will be the +most likely to occupy the minds of persons abandoned to ignorance, +vulgarity, and therefore probably to low vice. + +We may add to the representation, the manner in which they spend the part +of their time not demanded for the regular, or the occasional, exercise of +their industry. It is not to be denied that many of them have too much +truth in their pleading that, with the exception of Sunday, they have +little remission of their toils till they are so weary that the remainder +of the time is needed for complete repose. This is particularly the case +of the females, especially those who have the chief cares and the actual +work of a family. Nevertheless, it is within our constant observation that +a considerable proportion of the men, a large one of the younger men, in +the less heavily oppressed divisions of our population, do in fact +include, for substance, their manual employments within such limits of +time, as often to leave several hours in the day to be spent nearly as +they please. And in what manner, for the most part, is this precious time +expended by those of no mental cultivation? It is true, again, that in +many departments of labor, a diligent exertion during even this limited +space of the day, occasions such a degree of lassitude and heaviness as to +render it almost inevitable, especially in certain seasons of the year, to +surrender some moments of the spare time, beyond what is necessary for the +humble repast, to a kind of listless subsidence of all the powers of both +body and mind. But after all these allowances fully conceded, a great +number in the class under consideration have in some days several hours, +and in the whole six days of the week, on an average of the year, very +many hours, to be given, as they choose, to useful purposes or to waste; +and again we ask, where the mind itself has been left waste how _is_ that +time mostly expended? + +If the persons are of a phlegmatic temperament, we shall often see them +just simply annihilating those portions of time. They will for an hour, +or for hours together, if not disturbed by some cause from without, sit +on a bench, or lie down on a bank or hillock, or lean on a wall, or fill +the fire-side chair; yielded up to utter vacancy and torpor, not asleep +perhaps, but more lost to mental existence than if they were; since the +dreams, that would probably visit their slumbers, would be a more lively +train of ideas than any they have awake. Of a piece with this is the +habit, among many of this order of people, of giving formally to sleep as +much as one-third part, sometimes considerably more, of the twenty-four +hours. Certainly there are innumerable cases in which infirmity, care, +fatigue, and the comfortlessness and penury of the humble dwelling, +effectually plead for a large allowance of this balm of oblivion. But +very many surrender themselves to this excess from destitution of +anything to keep their minds awake, especially in the evenings of the +winter. What a contrast is here suggested to the imagination of those who +have read Dr. Henderson's, and other recent descriptions, of the habits +of the people of Iceland! + +These, however, are their most harmless modes of wasting the time. For, +while we might think of the many hours merged by them in apathy and +needless sleep, with a wish that those hours could be recovered to the +account of their existence, we might well wish that the hours could be +struck out of it which they may sometimes give, instead, to conversation; +in parties where ignorance, coarse vulgarity, and profaneness, are to +support the dialogue, on topics the most to their taste; always including, +as the most welcome to that taste, the depravities and scandals of the +neighborhood; while all the reproach and ridicule, expended with good-will +on those depravities, have the strange result of making the censors the +less disinclined themselves to practise them, and only a little better +instructed how to do it with impunity. In many instances there is the +additional mischief, that these assemblings for corrupt communication find +their resort at the public-house, where intemperance and ribaldry may +season each other, if the pecuniary means for the former ingredient can be +afforded, even at the cost of distress at home.--But without including +depravity of this degree, the worthlessness of the communications of a +number of grossly ignorant associates is easy to be imagined; besides that +most of us have been made judges of their quality by numberless occasions +of unavoidably hearing samples of them. + +In the finer seasons of the year, much of these leisure spaces of time can +be expended out of doors; and we have still only to refer to every one's +own observation of the account to which they are turned, in the lives of +beings whose lot allows but so contracted a portion of time to be, at the +best, applied directly to the highest purposes of life.--Here the hater of +all such schemes of improvement, as would threaten to turn the lower order +into what that hater may probably call Methodists, (a term we venture to +interpret for him as meaning thoughtful beings and Christians,) comes in +with a ready cant of humanity and commiseration. And why, he says, with an +affected indignation of philanthropy, why should not the poor creatures +enjoy a little fresh air and cheerful sunshine, and have a chance of +keeping their health, confined as many of them are, for the greatest part +of the time, in narrow, squalid rooms, unwholesome workshops, and every +sort of disagreeable places and employments? Very true, we answer; and why +should not numbers of them be collected in groups by the road-side, in +readiness to find in whatever passes there occasions for gross jocularity; +practising some impertinence, or uttering some jeering scurrility, at the +expense of persons going by; shouting with laughter at the success of the +annoyance, or to _make_ it successful; and all this blended with language +of profaneness and imprecation, as the very life of the hilarity? Or why +should not the boldest spirits among them form a little conventicle for +cursing, blaspheming, and blackguard obstreperousness in the street, about +the entrance of one of the haunts of intoxication; where they are +perfectly safe from that worse mischief of a gloomy fanaticism, with which +they might have been smitten if seduced to frequent the meeting-house +twenty paces off? Or why should not the children, growing into the stage +called youth, be turned loose through the lanes, roads, and fields, to +form a brawling, impudent rabble, trained by their association to every +low vice, and ambitiously emulating, in voice, visage, and manners, the +ruffians and drabs of maturer growth? Or why should not the young men and +women collect in clusters, or range about or beyond the neighborhood in +bands, for revel, frolic, and all kinds of coarse mirth; to come back late +at night to quarrel with their wretched elders, who perhaps envy them +their capacity for such wild gaieties and strollings, while rating them +for their disorderly habits? We say where can be the harm of all this? +What reasonable and benevolent man would think of making any objection to +it? Reasonable and benevolent,--for these have been among the qualities +boasted for the occasion by the opposers of any materially improved +education of the people; while in such opposition they virtually avowed +their willing tolerance of all that is here described. + +We have allowed most fully the plea of how little time, _comparatively_, +could be afforded to the concern of mental improvement by the lower +classes from their indispensable employments; and also that of the +consequent fatigue, causing a temporary incapacity of effort in any other +way. But this latter plea cannot be admitted without great abatement in +the case of our neglected _young_ people of the working classes; for when +we advert to their actual habits, we see that, nevertheless, time, +strength, and wakefulness, and spring and spirit for exertion, _are_ found +for a vast deal of busy diversion, much of it blended with such folly as +tends to vice. + +If such is the manner in which the spare time of the week-days goes to +waste and worse, the Sunday is welcomed as giving scope for the same +things on a larger scale. It is very striking to consider, that several +millions, we may safely assert, of our English people, arrived at what +should be years of discretion, are almost completely destitute of any +manner of conscience respecting this seventh part of time; not merely as +to any required consecration of it to religion, but as to its being under +any claim or of any worth at all, otherwise than for amusement. It is +actually regarded by them as a section of time far less under obligation +than any other. They take it as so absolutely at their free disposal, by a +right so exclusively vested in their taste and will, that a demand made +even in behalf of their own most important interests, is contemptuously +repelled as a sanctimonious impertinence. If the idea occurs at all (with +multitudes it never does) of claims which they have heard that God should +make on the hours, it is dismissed with the thought that it really cannot +signify to him how creatures, condemned by his appointment to toil all the +rest of the week, may wish to spend this one day, on which the secular +taskmaster manumits them, and He, the spiritual one, might surely do as +much. An immense number pay no attention whatever to any sort of religious +worship; and many of those that do give an hour or two to such an +observance, do so, some of them as merely a diversification of amusement, +and the others by way of taking a license of exemption from any further +accountableness for the manner in which they may spend the day. It is the +natural consequence of all this, that there is more folly, if not more +crime, committed on this than on all the other six days together. + +Thus man, at least _ignorant_ man, is unfit to be trusted with anything +under heaven; since a remarkable appointment for raising the general tenor +of moral existence, has with these persons the effect of sinking it. There +is interposed, at frequent regular intervals throughout the series of +their days, a richer vein, as it were, of time. The improvement of this, +in a manner by no means strained to the austerity of exercise prescribed +in the Puritan rules, might diffuse a worth and a grace over all the time +between, and assist them against the tendency there may be in its +necessary habits and employments, to depress the intelligent nature into +meanness or debasement. The space which they are passing over is marked, +at near intervals, with broad lines of a benignant light, which might +spread an appearance of mild lustre over the whole extent as contemplated +in retrospect; but how many, in looking back when near the end of their +progress, have to perceive its general shade rendered darker by the very +spaces where that light had been shed from heaven. + +The Sundays of those who do not improve them to a good purpose, will +infallibly be perverted to a bad one. But it were still a melancholy +account if we could regard them as merely standing for nothing, as a blank +in the life of this class of the people. It is a deeply unhappy spectacle +and reflection, to see a man of perhaps more than seventy, sunk in the +grossness and apathy of an almost total ignorance of all the most +momentous subjects, and then to consider, that, since he came to an age of +some natural capacity for the exercise of his mind, there have been more +than three thousand Sundays. In their long succession they were _his +time_. That is to say, he had the property in them which every man has in +duration; they were present to him, he had them, he spent them. Perhaps +some compassionate friend may have been pleading in his behalf,--Alas! +what opportunity, what time, has the poor mortal ever had? His lot has +been to labor hard through the week throughout almost his whole life. Yes, +we answer, but he has had three thousand Sundays; what would not even the +most moderate improvement of so vast a sum of hours have done for him? But +the ill-fated man, (perhaps rejoins the commiserating pleader,) grew up +from his childhood in utter ignorance of any use he ought to make of time +which his necessary employment would allow him to waste. There, we reply, +you strike the mark. Sundays are of no value, nor Bibles, nor the enlarged +knowledge of the age, nor heaven nor earth, to beings brought up in +estrangement from all right discipline. And therefore we are pleading for +the schemes and institutions which will not _let_ human beings be thus +brought up. + +In so pleading, we happily can appeal to one fact in evidence that the +intellectual and religious culture, in the introductory stages of life, +tends to secure that the persons so trained shall be, when they are come +to maturity, marked off from the neglected barbarous mass, by at least an +external respect, but accompanied, we trust, in many of them, by a still +better sentiment, to the means for keeping truth and duty constantly in +their view. Observe the numbers now attending, with a becoming deportment, +public worship and instruction, as compared with what the proportion is +remembered or recorded to have been half a century since, or any time +previous to the great exertions of benevolence to save the children of the +inferior classes from preserving the whole mental likeness of their +forefathers. + +It can be testified also, by persons whose observation has been the +longest in the habit of following children and youth from the instruction +of the school institutions into mature life, that, in a gratifying number +of instances, they have been seen permanently retaining too much love of +improvement, and too much of the habit of a useful employment of their +minds, to sink, in their ordinary daily occupations, into that wretched +inanity we were representing; or to consume the free intervals of time in +the listlessness, or worthless gabble, or vain sports, of which their +neighbors furnished plenty of example and temptation. + + * * * * * + +These representations have partly included, what we may yet specify +distinctly as one of the unhappy effects of gross ignorance--_a degraded +state of domestic society_. + +Whatever is of nature to render individuals uninteresting or offensive to +one another, has a specially bad effect among them as members of a family; +because there is in that form of community itself a peculiar tendency to +fall below the level of dignified and complacent social life.--A number of +persons cannot be placed in a state of social communication, without +having a certain sense of claiming from one another a conduct meant and +adapted to please. It is expected that a succession of efforts should be +made for this purpose, with a willingness of each individual to forego, in +little things, his own inclination or convenience. This is all very well +when the society is _voluntary_, and the parties can separate when the +cost is felt to be greater than the pleasure. Under this advantage of +being able soon to separate, even a company of strangers casually +assembled will often recognize the claim and conform to the law; with a +certain indistinct sentiment partaking of reciprocal gratitude for the +disposition which is so accommodating. But the members of the domestic +community also have each this same feeling which demands a mutual effort +and self-denial to please, while the condition of their association is +adverse to their _yielding_ what they thus respectively claim. Theirs, +when once it is formed, is not exactly a voluntary companionship, and it +is one of undefinable continuance. The claim therefore seems as if it were +to be of a prolongation interminable, while the grateful feeling for the +concession is the less for the more compulsory bond of the association. +And to be thus required, in a community which must not be dissolved, and +in a series that reaches away beyond calculation, to exercise a +self-restraint on their wills and humors in order to please one another, +goes so hard against the great principle of human feeling--namely, each +one's preference of pleasing himself--that there is an habitual impulse of +reaction against the claim. This shows itself in their deportment, which +has the appearance of a practical expression of so many individuals that +they _will_ maintain each his own freedom. Hence the absence, very +commonly, in domestic society, of the attentiveness, the tone of civility, +the promptitude of compliance, the habit of little accommodations, +voluntary and supernumerary, which are so observable in the intercourse of +friends, acquaintance, and often, as we have said, even of strangers. + +And then consider, in so close a kind of community, what near and intimate +witnesses they are of all one another's faults, weaknesses, tempers, +perversities; of whatever is offensive in manner, or unseemly in habit; of +all the irksome, humiliating, or sometimes ludicrous circumstances and +situations. And also, in this close association, the bad moods, the +strifes, and resentments, are pressed into immediate, lasting, corrosive +contact with whatever should be the most vital to social happiness. If +there be, into the account, the wants, anxieties, and vexations of severe +poverty, they will generally aggravate all that is destructive to domestic +complacency and decorum. + +Now add gross ignorance to all this, and see what the picture will be. How +many families have been seen where the parents were only the older and +stronger animals than their children, whom they could teach nothing but +the methods and tasks of labor. They naturally could not be the mere +companions, for alternate play and quarrel, of their children, and were +disqualified by mental rudeness to be their respected guardians. There +were about them these young and rising forms, containing the +inextinguishable principle, which was capable of entering on an endless +progression of wisdom, goodness, and happiness! needing numberless +suggestions, explanations, admonitions, brief reasonings, and a training +to attend to the lessons of written instruction. But nothing of all this +from the parent. Their case was as hopeless for receiving these +necessaries of mental life, as the condition, for physical nutriment, of +infants attempting to draw it, (we have heard of so affecting and mournful +a fact,) from the breast of a dead parent. These unhappy heads of families +possessed no resources for engaging youthful attention by mingled +instruction and amusements; no descriptions of the most wonderful objects, +or narratives of the most memorable events, to set, for superior +attraction, against the idle stories of the neighborhood; no assemblage of +admirable examples, from the sacred or other records of human character, +to give a beautiful real form to virtue and religion, and promote an +aversion to base companionship. + +Requirement and prohibition must be a part of the domestic economy +habitually in operation of course; and in such families you will have +seen the government exercised, or attempted to be exercised, in the +roughest, barest shape of will and menace, with no aptitude or means of +imparting to injunction and censure, a convincing and persuasive quality. +Not that the seniors should allow their government to be placed on such a +ground that, in everything they enforce or forbid, they may be liable to +have their reasons demanded by the children, as an understood condition +of their compliance. Far from it; they will sometimes have to require a +prescribed conduct for reasons not intelligible, or which it may not be +discreet to explain, to those who are to obey. But their authority +becomes odious, and as a moral force worse than inefficient, when the +natural shrewdness of the children can descry that they really _have_ no +reasons better than an obstinate or capricious will; and infallibly makes +the inference, that there is no obligation to submit, but that necessity +which dependence imposes. But this must often be the unfortunate +condition of such families. + +Now imagine a week, month, or year, of the intercourse in such a domestic +society, the course of talk, the mutual manners, and the progress of mind +and character; where there is a sense of drudgery approaching to that of +slavery, in the unremitting necessity of labor; where there is none of the +interest of imparting knowledge or receiving it, or of reciprocating +knowledge that has been imparted and received; where there is not an acre, +if we might express it so, of intellectual space around them, clear of the +thick, universal fog of ignorance; where, especially, the luminaries of +the spiritual heaven, the attributes of the Almighty, the grand phenomenon +of redeeming mediation, the solemn realities of a future state and another +world, are totally obscured in that shade; where the conscience and the +discriminations of duty are dull and indistinct, from the youngest to the +oldest; where there is no genuine respect on the one side, nor affection +unmixed with vulgar petulance and harshness, expressed perhaps in language +of imprecation, on the other; where a mutual coarseness of manners and +words has the effect, without their being aware of it as a cause, of +debasing their worth in one another's esteem, all round; and where, +notwithstanding all, they absolutely must pass a great deal of time +together, to converse, to display their dispositions toward one another, +and exemplify the poverty of the mere primary relations of life, as +divested of the accessories which give them dignity, endearment, and +conduciveness to the highest advantage of existence. + +Home has but little to please the young members of such a family, and a +great deal to make them eager to escape out of the house; which is also a +welcome riddance to the elder persons, when it is not in neglect or +refusal to perform allotted tasks. So little is the feeling of a peaceful +cordiality created among them by their seeing one another all within the +habitation, that, not unfrequently, the passer-by may learn the fact of +their collective number being there, from the sound of a low strife of +mingled voices, some of them betraying youth replying in anger or contempt +to maturity or age. It is wretched to see how early this liberty is boldly +taken. As the children perceive nothing in the _minds_ of their parents +that should awe them into deference, the most important difference left +between them is that of physical strength. The children, if of hardy +disposition, to which they are perhaps trained in battles with their +juvenile rivals, soon show a certain degree of daring against their +superior strength. And as the difference lessens, and by the time it has +nearly ceased, what is so natural as that they should assume equality, in +manners and in following their own will? But equality assumed where there +should be subordination, inevitably involves contempt toward the party in +defiance of whom it is asserted. + +The relative condition of such parents as they sink in old age, is most +deplorable. And all that has preceded, leads by a natural course to that +consequence which we have sometimes beheld, with feelings emphatically +gloomy,--the almost perfect indifference with which the descendants, and a +few other relations, of a poor old man of this class, could consign him to +the grave. A human being was gone out of the world, a being they had been +with or near all their lives, some of them sustained in their childhood by +his labors, and yet perhaps not one heart, at any moment, felt the +sentiment--I have lost----. They never could regard him with respect, and +their miserable education had not taught them humanity enough to regard +him in his declining days as an object of pity. Some decency of attention +was perhaps shown him, or perhaps hardly that, in his last hours. His +being now a dead, instead of a living man, was a burden taken off; and the +insensibility and levity, somewhat disturbed and repressed at the sight of +his expiring struggle, and of his being lowered into the grave, recovered +by the day after his interment, if not on the very same evening, their +accustomed tone, never more to be interrupted by the effect of any +remembrance of him. Such a closing scene one day to be repeated is +foreshown to us, when we look at an ignorant and thoughtless father +surrounded by his untaught children. In the silence of thought we thus +accost him,--The event which will take you finally from among them, +perhaps after forty or fifty years of intercourse with them, will leave no +more impression on their affections, than the cutting down of a decayed +old tree in the neighborhood of your habitation. + +There are instances, of rare occurrence, when such a man becomes, late in +life, far too late for his family to have the benefit of the change, a +subject of the only influence which could awake him to earnest +thoughtfulness and the full sensibility of conscience. When the sun thus +breaks out toward the close of his gloomy day, and when, in the energy of +his new life, he puts forth the best efforts of his untaught spirit for a +little divine knowledge, to be a lamp to him in entering ere long the +shades of death, with what bitter regrets he looks back to the period when +a number of human beings, some perhaps still with him, some now scattered +from him, and here and there pursuing their separate courses in careless +ignorance, were growing up under his roof, within his charge, but in utter +estrangement from all discipline adapted to ensure a happier sequel. His +distressing reflection is often representing to him what they might now +have been if they had grown up under such discipline. And gladly would he +lay down his life to redeem for them but some inferior share of what the +season for imparting to them is gone forever. + +Another thing is to be added, to this representation of the evils +attendant on an uncultivated state of the people, namely--that _this +mental rudeness puts them decidedly out of beneficial communication with +the superior and cultivated classes_. + +We are assuming (with permission) that a national community should be +constituted for the good of all its parts, not to be obtained by them as +detached, independent portions, but adjusted and compacted into one social +body; an economy in which all the parts shall feel they have the benefit +of an amicable combination; in other words, that they are the better for +one another. But it can be no such constitution when the most palpable +relations between the two main divisions of society consist of such direct +opposites as refinement and barbarism, dignity and gross debasement, +intelligence and ignorance; which are the distinctions asserted by the +higher classes as putting a vast distance between them and the lower. If +so little of the correct understanding, the information, the liberalized +feeling, and the propriety of deportment, which we are to ascribe to the +higher and cultivated portion, goes downward into the lower, it should +seem impossible but there must be more of repulsion than of amicable +disposition and communication between them. We may suspect, perhaps, that +those more privileged classes are not generally desirous that the interval +were much less wide, provided that without cultivation of the lower orders +the nuisance of their annoying and formidable temper could be abated. But +however that may be, it is exceedingly desirable, for the good of both, +that the upper and inferior orders _should_ be on terms of communication +and mutual good-will, and therefore that there should be a diminution of +that rudeness of mind and habits which must contribute to keep them +alienated and hostile. + +If it were asked what communication, at all of a nature to be described +by epithets of social and friendly import, we can be supposing by +possibility to subsist between classes so different and distant, we may +exemplify it by such an instance as we have now and then the pleasure of +seeing. Each reader also, of any moderate compass of observation, may +probably recollect an example, in the case of some man in humble station, +but who has had (for his condition) a good education; having been well +instructed in his youth in the elements of useful knowledge; having had +good principles diligently inculcated upon him; having subsequently +instructed himself, to the best of his very confined means and +opportunity, through a habit of reading; and being in his manners +unaffectedly observant of all the decorums of a respectable human being. +It has been seen, that such a man has not found in some of his superiors +in station and attainment any disposition to shun him; and has not felt +in himself or his situation any reason why he should seek to shun them. +He would occasionally fall into conversation with the wealthy and +accomplished proprietor, or the professional man of learning, in the +neighborhood. His intelligent manner of attending to what they said, his +perfect understanding of the language naturally used by cultivated +persons, the considerateness and pertinence of his replies, and the +modest deference, combined with an honest freedom in making his +observations on the matters brought in question, pleased those persons of +superior rank, and induced various friendly and useful attentions, on +their part to him and his family. He and his family thus experienced a +direct benefit of superior sense, civility, and good principle, in a +humble condition; and were put under a new responsibility to preserve a +character for those distinctions.--Now think of the incalculable +advantage to society, if anything approaching to this were the general +state of social relation between the lower and the higher orders. + +On the contrary, there is no medium of complacent communication between +the classes of higher condition and endowment, and an ignorant, coarse +populace. Except on occasion of giving orders or magisterial rebukes, the +gentleman will never think of such a thing as converse with the clowns in +his vicinity. They, on their part, are desirous to avoid him; excepting +when any of them may have a purpose to gain, by arresting his attention, +with an ungainly cringe; or when some of those who have no sort of +present dependence on him, are disposed to cross his way with a look and +strut of rudeness, to show how little they care for him. The servility, +and the impudence, almost equally repress in him all friendly disposition +toward a voluntary intercourse with the class. There is thus as complete +a dissociation between the two orders, as mutual dislike, added to every +imaginable dissimilarity, can create. And this broad ungracious +separation intercepts all modifying influence that might otherwise have +passed, from the intelligence and refinement of the one, upon the +barbarism of the other. + +But there is in human nature a pertinacious disposition to work +disadvantages, in one way or other, into privileges. The people, in being +thus consigned to a low and alien ground, in relation to the cultivated +part of society, are put in possession, as it were, of a territory of +their own; where they can give their disposition freer play, and act out +their characters in their own manner; exempt equally from the voluntary +and the involuntary influence of the cultivated superiors; that is to say, +neither insensibly modified by the attraction of what is the most laudable +in them as a pattern, nor swayed through policy to a studied accommodation +to their understood opinion and will. This is a great emancipation enjoyed +by the inferiors. And however injurious it may be, it is one of which they +will not fail to take the full license. For in all things and situations, +it is one of the first objects with human beings, to verify experimentally +the presumed extent of their liberty and privilege. In this dissociation, +the people are rid of the many salutary restraints and incitements which +they would have been made to feel, if on terms of friendly recognition +with the respectable part of the community; they have neither honor nor +disgrace, from that quarter, to take into their account; and this +contributes to extinguish all sense and care of respectability of +character,--a care to which there will be no motive in any consideration +of what they may, as among themselves, think of one another; for, with the +low estimate which they mutually and justly entertain, there is a +conventional feeling among them that, for the ease and privilege of them +all, they are systematically to set aside all high notions and nice +responsibilities of character and conduct. There is a sort of recognized +mutual _right_ to be no better than they are. And an individual among them +affecting a high conscientious principle would be apt to incur ridicule, +as a man foolishly divesting himself of a privilege;--unless, indeed, he +let them understand that hypocrisy was his way of maintaining that +privilege, and turning it to account. + +The people are thus, by their ignorance, and what inseparably attends it, +far removed and estranged from the more cultivated part of their +fellow-countrymen; and consequently from every beneficial influence under +which a state of friendly contiguity, if we may so express it, would have +placed them. Let us now see what, in this abandonment to themselves, are +their growing dispositions toward the superior orders and the existing +arrangements of the community; dispositions which are promoted by causes +more definite than this estrangement considered merely as the negation of +benevolent intercourse, but to which it mightily contributes. + +Times may have been when the great mass, while placed in such decided +separation from the upper orders, combined such a quietude with their +ignorance, that they had little other than submissive feelings toward +these superiors, whose property, almost, for all service and +obsequiousness, they were accustomed to consider themselves; when no +question would occur to them why there should be so vast a difference of +condition between beings of the same race; when no other proof was +required of the right appointment of their lot, however humble it might +be, than their being, and their forefathers having been, actually in it; +and when they did not presume, hardly in thought, to make any inferences +from the fact of the immense disproportion of numbers and consequent +physical strength between them and their superiors. [Footnote: Here, +however, it should be observed that in the former age, when there was far +less of jealous invidious feeling between the upper and lower classes than +has latterly intervened, there was a more amicable manner of +intercommunication. The settled and perfectly recognized state of +subordination precluded on the one side, all apprehension of encroachment, +and on the other the disposition to it.] But the times of this perfect, +unquestioning, unmurmuring succumbency under the actual allotment have +passed away; except in such regions as the Russian empire, where they have +yet long to continue. In other states of Europe, but especially in our +own, the ignorance of the people has nowhere prevented them from acquiring +a sense of their strength and importance; with a certain ill-conceived, +but stimulant notion, of some change which they think ought to take place +in their condition. How, indeed, should it have been possible for them to +remain unaware of this strength and importance, while the whole civilized +world was shaken with a practical and tremendous controversy between the +two grand opposed orders of society, concerning their respective rights; +or that they should not have taken a strong, and from the rudeness of +their mental condition, a fierce interest, in the principle and progress +of the strife? And how should they have failed to know that, during this +controversy, innumerable persons raised from the lower rank by talent and +spirit, had left no place on earth except in courts (and hardly even +there) for the dotage of fancying some innate difference between the +classes distinguished in the artificial order of society? + +The effect of all this is gone deep into the minds of great numbers who +are not excited, in consequence, to any worthy exertion for raising +themselves, individually, from their degraded condition, by the earnest +application and improvement of their means and faculties. The feeling of +many of them seems to be, that they must and will sullenly abide by the +ill-starred fate of their order, till some great comprehensive alteration +in their favor shall absolve them from that bond of hostile sentiment, in +which they make common cause against the superior classes; and shall +create a state of things in which it shall be worth while for the +individual to make an effort to raise himself. We can at best, (they seem +to say,) barely maintain, with the utmost difficulty, a miserable life; +and you talk to us of cultivation, of discipline, of moral respectability, +of efforts to come out from our degraded rank! No, we shall even stay +where we are; till it is seen how the question is to be settled between +the people of our sort, and those who will have it that they are of a far +worthier kind. There may then, perhaps, be some chance for such as we; and +if not, the less we are disturbed about improvement, knowledge, and all +those things, the better, while we are bearing the heavy load a few years, +to die like those before us. + +We said they are banded in a hostile sentiment. It is true, that among +such a degraded populace there is very little kindness, or care for one +another's interests. They all know too well what they all are not, to feel +mutual esteem or benevolence. + +But it is infinitely easier for any set of human beings to maintain a +community of feeling in hostility to something else, than in benevolence +toward another; for here no sacrifice is required of anyone's +self-interest. And it is certain, that the subordinate portions of society +have come to regard the occupants of the tracts of fertility and sunshine, +the possessors of opulence, splendor, and luxury, with a deep, settled, +systematic aversion; with a disposition to contemplate in any other light +than that of a calamity an extensive downfall of the favorites of fortune, +when a brooding imagination figures such a thing as possible; and with but +very slight monitions from conscience of the iniquity of the most +tumultuary accomplishment of such a catastrophe. In a word, so far from +considering their own welfare as identified with the stability of the +existing social order, they consider it as something that would spring +from the ruin of that order. The greater number of them have lost that +veneration by habit, partaking of the nature of a superstition, which had +been protracted downward, though progressively attenuated with the lapse +of time, from the feudal ages into the last century. They have quite lost, +too, in this disastrous age, that sense of competence and possible +well-being, which might have harmonized their feelings with a social +economy that would have allowed them the enjoyment of such a state, even +as the purchase of great industry and care. Whatever the actual economy +may have of wisdom in its institutions, and of splendor, and fulness of +all good things, in some parts of its apportionment, they feel that what +is allotted to most of _them_ in its arrangements is pressing hardship, +unremitting poverty, growing still more hopeless with the progress of +time, and of what they hear trumpeted as national glory, nay, even +"national prosperity and happiness unrivalled." This bitter experience, +which inevitably becomes associated in their thoughts with that frame of +society under which they suffer it, will naturally have a far stronger +effect on their opinion of that system than all that had ever rendered +them acquiescent or reverential toward it. That it brings no relief, or +promise of relief, is a circumstance preponderating in the estimate, +against all that can be said of its ancient establishment, its theoretical +excellences, or the blessings in which it may be pretended to have once +abounded, or still to abound. What were become of the most essential laws +of human feeling, if such experience _could_ leave those who are +undergoing its discipline still faithfully attached to the social order on +the strength of its consecration by time, and of the former settled +opinions in its favor,--however tenacious the impressions so wrought into +habit are admitted to be? And the minds of the people thus thrown loose +from their former ties, are not arrested and recovered by any +substitutional ones formed while those were decaying. They are not +retained in a temper of patient endurance and adherence, by the bond of +principles which a sedulous and deep instruction alone could have enforced +on them. The growth of sound judgment under such instruction, might have +made them capable of understanding how a proportion of the evil may have +been inevitable, from uncontrollable causes; of perceiving that it could +not fail to be aggravated by a disregard of prudence in the proceedings in +early life among their own class, and that so far it were unjust to impute +it to their superiors or to the order of society; of admitting that +national calamities are visitations of divine judgment, of which they were +to reflect whether they had not deserved a heavy share; of feeling it to +be therefore no impertinent or fanatical admonition that should exhort +them to repentance and reformation, as an expedient for the amendment of +even their temporal condition; and of clearly comprehending that, at all +events, rancor, violence, and disorder, cannot be the way to alleviate any +of the evils, but to aggravate them all. But, we repeat it, there are +millions in this land, and if we include the neighboring island +politically united to it, very many millions, who have received no +instruction adequate, in the smallest degree, to counteract the natural +effect of the distresses of their condition; or to create a class of moral +restraints and mitigations in prevention of a total hostility of feeling +against the established order, after the ancient attachments to it have +been worn down by the innovations of opinion, and the pressure of +continued distress. + +Thus uninstructed to apprehend the considerations adapted to impose a +moral restraint, thus unmodified by principles of mitigation, there is a +large proportion of human strength and feeling not in vital combination +with the social system, but aloof from it, looking at it with "gloomy and +malign regard;" in a state progressive towards a fitness to be impelled +against it with a dreadful shock, in the event of any great convulsion, +that should set loose the legion of daring, desperate, and powerful +spirits, to fire and lead the masses to its demolition. There have not +been wanting examples to show with what fearful effect this hostility may +come into action, in the crisis of the fate of a nation's ancient system; +where this alienated portion of its own people, rushing in, have revenged +upon it the neglect of their tuition; that neglect which had abandoned +them to so utter a "lack of knowledge," that they really understood no +better than to expect their own solid advantage in general havoc and +disorder. But how bereft of sense the _State_ too must be, that would thus +_let_ a multitude of its people grow up in a condition of mind to believe, +that the sovereign expedient for their welfare is to be found in +spoliation and destruction! It might easily have comprehended what it was +reasonable to expect from the matured dispositions and strength of such of +its children as it abandoned to be nursed by the wolf. + +While this principle of ruin was working on by a steady and natural +process, this supposed infatuated State was, it is extremely possible, +directing its chief care to maintain the splendor of a court, or to extort +the means for prosecuting some object of vain and wicked ambition, some +project of conquest and military glory. And probably nothing could have +appeared to many of its privileged persons more idle and ridiculous, or to +others of them more offensive and ill-intentioned, than a remonstrance +founded on a warning of such a consequence. The despisers would have been +incomparably the greater number; and, "Go (they would have said) with your +mock-tragical fortune-telling, to whoever can believe, too, that one day +or other the quadrupeds of our stalls and meadows may be suddenly +inspirited by some supernatural possession to turn their strength on us in +a mass, or those of our kennels to imitate the dogs of Actaeon." + + + + +Section IV. + + + +There may be persons ready to make a question here, whether it be so +certain that giving the people of the lower order more knowledge, and +sharpening their faculties, will really tend to the preservation of good +order. Would not such improvement elate them, to a most extravagant +estimate of their own worth and importance; and therefore result in +insufferable arrogance, both in the individuals and the class? Would they +not, on the strength of it, be continually assuming to sit in judgment on +the proceedings and claims of their betters, even in the most lofty +stations; and demanding their own pretended rights, with a troublesome and +turbulent pertinacity? Would they not, since their improvement cannot, +from their condition in life, be large and deep, be in just such a half +taught state, as would make them exactly fit to be wrought upon by all +sorts of crafty schemers, fierce declaimers, empirics, and innovators? Is +it not, in short, too probable that, since an increase of mental power is +available to bad uses as well as good, the results would greatly +preponderate on the side of evil? + +It would be curious to observe how objections so plausible, so decisive in +the esteem of those who admire them, would sound if expressed in other +terms. Let them be put in the form of such sentences and propositions as +the following:--Though understanding is to be men's guide to right +conduct, the less of it they possess the more safe are we against their +going wrong. The duty of a human being has many branches; there are +connected with all of them various general and special considerations, to +induce and regulate the performance; it must be well for these to be +defined with all possible clearness; and it is also well for the great +majority of men to be utterly incapable of apprehending them with any such +definiteness. It is desirable that the rule, or set of rules, by which the +demeanor of the lower orders toward those above them is to be directed, +should appear to them _reasonable_ as well as distinctly defined; but let +us take the greatest care that their reason shall be in no state of +fitness to perceive this rectitude of the rules. It would be a noble thing +to have a competent understanding of all that belongs to human interest +and duty; and therefore the next best thing is to be retained very nearly +in ignorance of all. It would be a vast advantage to proceed a hundred +degrees on the scale of knowledge; but the advantage is nowhere in the +progress; each of the degrees is in itself worth nothing; nay, less than +nothing; for unless a man could attain all, he had better stop at two or +one, than advance to four, six, or ten. Truths support one another; by the +conjunction of several each is kept the clearer in the understanding, the +more efficient for its proper use, and the more adequate to resist the +pressure of the surrounding ignorance and delusion; therefore let there be +the greatest caution that we do not give to three truths in a man's +understanding the aid of a fourth, or four the aid of a fifth; let the +garrison be so diminutive that its successful resistance to the siege must +be a miracle.----The reader will be in little danger of excess in shaping +into as many forms of absurdity as he pleases a notion which goes to the +depreciation of the desire and use of truth, of all that has been +venerated as wisdom, of the divine revelation of knowledge, and of our +rational nature itself. + +If it _be_ a rational nature that the lower ranks possess as well as the +superior, one should have imagined it must be in the highest degree +important that they, as well as their superiors, should habitually make +their duty and conduct _a matter of thought_, of intelligent +consideration, instead of going through it mechanically, or with little +more than a brute accommodation of what they do to a customary and imposed +manner of doing it; but this thoughtful way of acting will never prevail +among them, while they are unexercised in that thinking which (generally +speaking) men will never acquire but in the exercise of gaining knowledge. +It were, again, better, one would think, that they should be capable of +seeing some reason and use in gradations and unequal distributions in the +community, than be left to regard it as all a matter of capricious or +iniquitous fortune, to their allotment under which there is no reason for +submission but a bare necessity. The improvement of understanding by which +we are wishing to raise them in this humble allotment, without carrying +them from the ground where it is placed, will explain to them the best +compensations of their condition, will show them it is no essential +degradation, and point them to the true respectability which may be +obtained in it. And even if they _should_ be a little too much elated with +the supposed attainments, (while the flattering possession is yet new, and +far from general in their class,) what taste would it be in their +superiors not to deem this itself a far better thing than the contented, +or more probably insolent and malignant, grossness of a stupid +vulgarity?--as some little excess of self-complacency in appearing in a +handsome dress is accounted much less disgusting than a careless +self-exposure in filth and rags. + +As to their being rendered liable by more knowledge to be caught by +declaimers, projectors, and agitators, we may confidently ask, whether it +be the natural effect of more knowledge and understanding to be less +suspicious of cajoling professions, less discerning of what is practicable +and impracticable, and more credulous to extravagant doctrines, and wild +theories and schemes. Is it the well-instructed and intelligent poor man +that believes the demagogue who may assert or insinuate that, if things +were ordered right, all men might live in the greatest plenty? Or if we +advert to those of the lower order whom a diminutive freehold or other +qualification may entitle to vote for a member of parliament, is it the +well-instructed and intelligent man among them that is duped by the +candidate's professions of kind solicitude for him and his family, +accompanied with smiling equivocal hints that it may be of more advantage +than he is aware for a man who has sons to provide for, to have a friend +who has access and interest in a certain high quarter? Nor is it among the +best instructed and most thinking part of the subordinate class, that we +shall find persons capable of believing that a community might, if those +who govern it so pleased, be rich and prosperous by other means than a +general industry in ordinary employments. + +If, again, it is apprehended that a great increase of intelligence among +the people would destroy their deference and respectful deportment toward +their superiors, the ground of this apprehension should be honestly +assigned. If the claim to this respect be definable, and capable of being +enforced upon good reasons, it is obvious that improved sense in the +people will better appreciate them. Especially, if the claim is to owe any +part of its validity to higher mental qualifications in the claimants, it +will so far be incomparably better understood, and if it _be_ valid, far +more respected than it is now. By having a measure of knowledge, and of +the power and practice of thinking, the people would be enabled to form +some notion of what it must be, and what it is worth, to have a great deal +more of these endowments. They would observe and understand the +indications of this ampler possession in the minds of those above them, +and so would be aware of the great disparity between themselves and those +superiors. And since they would value _themselves_ on their comparatively +small share of these mental advantages, (for this is the very point of the +objection against their attaining them,) they would be compelled to +estimate by the same scale the persons dignified by so far surpassing a +share of this admired wealth. Whereas an ignorant populace can understand +nothing at all about the matter; they have no guess at the great +disparity, nor impression of its importance; so that with them the +cultivated superiors quite lose the weight of this grand difference, and +can obtain none of the respect which they may deserve on account of it. +The objection against enlightening the lower classes appears so remarkably +absurd as viewed in this direction, that it might tempt us to suspect a +motive not avowed. It is just the sort of caveat to be uttered by persons +aware that themselves, or many of their class, might happen to betray to +the sharpened inspection of a more intelligent people, that a higher +ground in the allotments of fortune is no certain pledge for a superior +rank of mind. It _were_ strange, very strange indeed, if persons combining +with superior station a great mental superiority, should be content, while +claiming the deference of the subordinate part of the community around +them, that this high distinction should go for nothing in that claim, and +that the required respect should be paid only in reverence of the number +of their acres, the size of their houses, the elegance of their equipage +and domestic arrangements, and perhaps some official capacity, in which +many a notorious blockhead has strutted and blustered. + +We think such considerations as the above, opposed to the objection that +any very material cultivation of the minds of the common people would +destroy their industry in ordinary employments, their contentment with +their station, and their respectful demeanor to their superiors; and would +render them arrogant, disorderly, factious, liable to be caught by wild +notions, misled by declaimers and impostors, and, in short, all the worse +for being able to understand their duty and interest the better, ought to +go far toward convicting that objection of great folly,--not to apply +terms of stronger imputation. + +But we need not have dwelt so long on such arguments, since fortunately +there is matter of fact in answer to the objection. To the extent of the +yet very limited experiment, it is proved that giving the people more +knowledge and more sense does not tend to disorder and insubordination; +does not excite them to impatience and extravagant claims; does not spoil +them for the ordinary business of life, the tasks of duty and necessity; +does not make them the dupes of knaves; nor teach them the most profitable +use of their improved faculties is to turn knaves themselves. Employers +can testify, from all sides, that there is a striking general difference +between those bred up in ignorance and rude vulgarity, and those who have +been trained through the well-ordered schools for the humble classes, +especially when the habits at home have been subsidiary; a difference +exceedingly in favor of the latter, who are found not only more apt at +understanding and executing, but more decorous, more respectful, more +attentive to orders, more ready to see and acknowledge the propriety of +good regulations, and more disposed to a practical acquiescence in them; +far less inclined to ebriety and low company; and more to be depended on +in point of honesty. In almost any part of the country, where the +experiment has been zealously prosecuted for a moderate number of years, a +long resident observer can discern a modification in the character of the +neighborhood; a mitigation of the former brutality of manners, a less +frequency of brawls and quarrels, and less tendency to draw together into +rude riotous assemblages. There is especially a marked difference on the +Sabbath, on which great numbers attend public worship, whose forefathers +used on that day to congregate for boisterous sport on the common, or even +within the inclosure vainly consecrated round the church; [Footnote: We +know a church where, within, the remembrance of an immediate ancestor, it +was not unusual, or thought anything amiss, for the foot-ball to be struck +up within the "consecrated ground" at the close of the afternoon service +of the Sunday.] and who would themselves in all probability have followed +the same course, but for the tuition which has led them into a better. In +not a few instances, the children have carried from the schools +inestimable benefits home to their unhappy families; winning even their +depraved, thoughtless parents into consideration and concern about their +most important interests,--a precious repayment of all the long toils and +cares, endured to support them through the period of childhood, and an +example of that rare class of phenomena, in which (as in the instance of +the Grecian Daughter) a superlative beauty arises from an inversion of the +order of nature. + +Even the frightful statements of the increase, in recent years, of active +juvenile depravity, especially in the metropolis, include a gratifying +testimony in favor of education--at least did so some years since. The +result of special inquiries, of extensive compass, into the wretched +history of juvenile reprobates, has fortified the promoters of schools +with evidence that it was not from _these_ seminaries that such noxious +creatures were to go out, to exemplify that the improvement of +intelligence may be but the greater aptitude for fraud and mischief. No, +it was found to have been in very different places of resort, that these +wretches had been, almost from their infancy, accomplished for crime; and +that their training had not taken or needed any assistance from an +exercise on literary rudiments, from Bibles, catechisms, or religious and +moral poetry, or from an attendance on public worship. Indeed, as if +Providence had designed that the substantial utility should be accompanied +with a special circumstance to confound the cavillers, the children and +youth of the schools were found to have been more generally preserved from +falling into the class of premature delinquents, than a moral calculator, +keeping in sight the quality of human nature and the immediate pressure of +so much temptation, would have ventured to anticipate, upon the moderate +estimate of the efficacy of instruction. + +Experience equally falsifies the notion that knowledge, imparted to the +lower orders, beyond what is necessary to the handling of their tools, +tends to factious turbulence; to an impatience (from the instigation of +certain wild theories,) under law and regular government in society. The +maintainers of which notion should also affirm, that the people of +Scotland have been to this day about the most disaffected, tumultuary, +revolutionary rabble in Europe; and that the Cornish miners, now so +worthily distinguished at once by exercised intellect and religion, are +incessantly on the point of insurrection, against their employers or the +state. And we shall be just as ready to believe them, if they also assert, +that, in those popular irregularities which have too often disturbed, in +particular places, the peace of our country, the clamorous bands or +crowds, collected for purposes of intimidation or demolition, have +consisted chiefly of the better instructed part of the poorer +inhabitants;--yes, or that this class furnished one in twenty or fifty of +the numbers forming such lawless bands; even though many of these more +instructed of the people might be suffering, with their families, the +extremity of want, the craving of hunger, which, no less than +"oppression," may "make a wise man mad." Many of these, in their desolate +abodes, with tears of parents and children mingled together, have been +committing themselves to their Father in heaven, at the time that the +ruder part of the population have been carrying alarm, and sometimes +mischief, through the district, and so confirming the faith, we may +suppose, of sundry magnates of the neighborhood, who had vehemently +asserted, a few years before, the pernicious tendency of educating the +people. [Footnote: What proportion were found to have been educated, in +the very lowest sense of the term, of the burners of ricks and barns in +the south-eastern counties, a few years since? What proportion of the +ferocious, fanatical, and sanguinary rout who, the other day, near the +centre of the metropolitan see of Canterbury, were brought into action by +the madman Thom, _alias_ Sir W. Courtenay; stout, well-fed, proud +Englishmen--Englishmen "the glory of all lands," who were capable of +believing that madman a divine personage, Christ himself, invulnerable, +till the fact happened otherwise, and then were confident he would come to +life again? When will the Government adopt some effectual means to avert +from the nation the infamy of having such a populace in any part of the +country, and especially _such_ a part of it?] + +It would be less than what is due to suffering humanity, to leave this +topic without observing, that if a numerous division of the community +should be sinking under severe, protracted, unmitigated distress, +distress on which there appears to them no dawn of hope from ordinary +causes, it is not to be held a disparagement to the value of education, +if some of those who have enjoyed a measure of that advantage, in common +with a greater number who have not, should become feverishly agitated +with imaginations of great sudden changes in the social system; and be +led to entertain suggestions of irregular violent expedients for the +removal of insupportable evils. It must, in all reason, be acknowledged +the last lesson which education could be expected to teach with practical +effect, that one part of the community should be willing to resign +themselves to a premature mortality, that the others may live in +sufficiency and tranquillity. Such heroic devotement might not be +difficult in the sublime elation of Thermopylae; but it is a very +different matter in a melancholy cottage, and in the midst of famishing +children. [Footnote: This was almost the desperate condition of +numberless families in this country at a period of which they, or the +survivors of them, retain in memory an indelible record; and we think it +right to retain _here_ also that record. While thankful for all +subsequent amendment, we say again, Look at Ireland.] + +After thus referring to matter of fact, for contradiction of the notion, +that the mental cultivation of the lower classes might render them less +subject to the rules of good order, we have to say, in further reply, that +we are not heard insisting on the advantages of increased knowledge and +mental invigoration among the people, _unconnected with the inculcation of +religion._ + +Undoubtedly, the zealous friends of popular education account knowledge +valuable absolutely, as being the apprehension of things as they are; a +prevention of delusion; and so far a fitness for right volitions. But +they consider religion, (besides being itself the primary and infinitely +the most important part of knowledge,) as a principle indispensable for +securing the full benefit of all the rest. It is desired, and endeavored, +that the understandings of these opening minds may be taken possession of +by just and solemn ideas of their relation to the Eternal Almighty Being; +that they may be taught to apprehend it as an awful reality, that they +are perpetually under his inspection; and as a certainty, that they must +at length appear before him in judgment, and find, in another life, the +consequences of what they are in spirit and conduct here. It is to be +impressed on them, that his will is the supreme law; that his +declarations are the most momentous truth known on earth; and his favor +and condemnation the greatest good and evil. Under an ascendency of this +divine wisdom it is, that their discipline in any other knowledge is +designed to be conducted; so that nothing in the mode of their +instruction may have a tendency contrary to it, and everything be taught +in a manner recognizing the relation with it, as far as shall consist +with a natural, unforced way of keeping this relation in view. Thus it is +sought to be secured that, as the pupil's mind grows stronger and +multiplies its resources, and he therefore has necessarily more power and +means for what is wrong, there may be luminously presented to him, as if +celestial eyes visibly beamed upon him, the most solemn ideas that can +enforce what is right. + + * * * * * + +Such is the discipline meditated, for preparing the subordinate classes to +pursue their individual welfare, and act their part as members of the +community.--They are to be trained in early life to diligent employment of +their faculties, tending to strengthen them, regulate them, and give their +possessors the power of effectually using them. They are to be exercised +to form clear, correct notions, instead of crude, vague, delusive ones. +The subjects of these ideas will be, a very considerable number of the +most important facts and principles; which are to be presented to their +understandings with a patient repetition of efforts to fix them there as +knowledge that cannot be forgotten. By this measure of actual acquirement, +and by the habit formed in so acquiring, they will be qualified for making +further attainment in future time, if disposed to improve their +opportunities. During this progress, and in connection with many of its +exercises, their duty is to be inculcated on them in the various forms in +which they will have to make a choice between right and wrong, in their +conduct toward society. There will be reiteration of lessons on justice, +prudence, inoffensiveness, love of peace, estrangement from the counsels +and leagues of vain and bad men; hatred of disorder and violence, a sense +of the necessity of authoritative public institutions to prevent these +evils, and respect for them while honestly administered to this end. All +this is to be taught, in many instances directly, in others by reference +for confirmation, from the Holy Scriptures, from which authority will also +be impressed, all the while, the principles of religion. And religion, +while its grand concern is with the state of the soul towards God and +eternal interests, yet takes every principle and rule of morals under its +peremptory sanction; making the primary obligation and responsibility be +towards God, of everything that is a duty with respect to men. So that, +with the subjects of this education, the sense of _propriety_ shall be +_conscience_; the consideration of how they ought to be regulated in their +conduct as a part of the community, shall be the recollection that their +Master in heaven dictates the laws of that conduct, and will judicially +hold them amenable for every part of it. + +And is not a discipline thus addressed to the purpose of fixing religious +principles in ascendency, as far as that difficult object is within the +power of discipline, and of infusing a salutary tincture of them into +whatever else is taught, the right way to bring up citizens faithful to +all that deserves fidelity in the social compact? + +But perhaps far less of sacred knowledge than all this pleading admits and +assumes to be indispensable to them, will answer the end. For it is but a +slender quantity of it that is, in effect, proposed to be imparted to them +by those who would give them very little other knowledge. They will talk +of giving the people an education specifically religious; a training to +conduct them on through a close avenue, looking straight before them to +descry distant spiritual objects, while shut out from all the scene right +and left, by fences that tell them there is nothing that concerns them +there. There may be rich and beautiful fields of knowledge, but they are +not to be trampled by vulgar feet. + +Now, may we presume that by knowledge, or information, is meant a clear +understanding of a subject? If so, it is but little religious information +that _can_ be imparted while that of a more general nature is withheld. +The case is so, partly because, in order to a clear conception of the +principal things in the doctrine of religion, the mind wants facts, +principles, associations of ideas, and modes of applying its thoughts, +which are to be acquired from the consideration of various other subjects; +and partly because, even though it did _not_, and though it _were_ +practicable to understand religious truths clearly without the subsidiary +ideas, and the disciplined mental habit acquired in attention to other +subjects, _it is flatly contrary to the radical disposition of human +nature_ that youthful spirits should yield themselves to a bare +exclusively religious discipline. It were supposing a reversal of the +natural taste and tendency, to expect them to apply their attention so +patiently, so willingly, so long, and with such interest, to this one +subject, as to be brought to an intelligent apprehension through the +almost sole exercise of thinking on this. By thinking on this!--which is +the subject on which they are by their very nature the least of all +inclined to think; the subject on which it is the most difficult as well +as the most important point in education to induce them to think; the +subject which, while it is essential to give it the ascendency in the +instruction of both the lower classes and all others, it requires so much +care and address to present in an attractive light; and which it is so +desirable to combine with other subjects naturally more engaging, in order +to bring it oftener by such associations into the thoughts, in that +secondary manner, which causes somewhat less of recoil. + +It is curious to see what some persons can believe, or affect to believe, +when reduced to a dilemma. On the one hand, they cannot endure the idea of +any considerable raising of the common people by mental improvement, in +the general sense: that were ruin to social order. But then on the other, +if it must not be plainly denied, that the said common people are of the +very same rational nature as the most elevated divisions of the race; and +that their essential worth must be in this spiritual thinking being, which +worth is lost to them, if that being is sunk and degraded in gross +ignorance, it follows that some kind of cultivation is required. Well +then; we must give them some religious knowledge, unaccompanied by such +other knowledge as would much more attractively invite them to exercise +their minds, and _it will be practicable and easy enough_ to engage their +habitual attention to that very subject, almost exclusively, to which the +natural taste of the species is peculiarly averse. + +In exposing the absurdity of any scheme of education for the inferior +classes, which should propose to make them intelligent about religion +while intelligent about nothing else except their ordinary employments, we +do not forget the instances now and then met with of pious poor men who, +while very uncultivated in the general sense, evince a remarkable +clearness of conception on religious topics, and in the application of +these topics to their duties as men and citizens. But "remarkable" we +involuntarily call these phenomena, whenever adverting to them. We +naturally use some expression importing a degree of wonder at such a fact. +We think it a striking illustration of the power of _religion itself_, and +not of the power of religious instruction. The extreme force with which +the vital spirit has seized and actuated his faculties, has in a measure +remedied the incapacity he had otherwise been under of forming clear ideas +of the subject. Even, however, while acknowledging and admiring this +effect of a special influence from heaven, we still find ourselves +involuntarily surmising, in such an instance, that the man must also have +been superior in natural capacity to the generality of ignorant persons; +so much out of the common course of things we account it for a man who +knows so few things to know this one thing so well. We account it so from +the settled conviction received through experience, that it is very +unlikely a man ignorant of almost all other things _should_ well +understand _one_ subject, of a nature quite foreign to that of his +ordinary occupations. + +It is superfluous to observe, that such instances of a very considerable +comprehension of religious truth, obtained in spite of what naturally +makes so much against its being attainable, cannot affect the calculation +when we are devising schemes which can only work according to natural laws +and with ordinary powers. They who devise and apply them will rejoice at +these evidences that there is an Agent who can open men's minds to the +light of religion independently and in the absence of other intellectual +advantages. But the question being how to bring the people, by the +ordinary means of education, to a competent knowledge of religious truth, +we have to consider what way of attempting to impart that knowledge may be +the best fitted, at once to obviate the natural indisposition to the +subject, and to provide that when it does obtain a place in their +understanding, it shall not be a meagre, diminutive, insulated occupant +there, but in its proper dimensions and relations. And if, in attentively +studying this, there be any who come to ascertain, that the right +expedient is a bare inculcation of religious instruction, disconnected, on +system, from the illustrative aid of other knowledge, divested of the +modification and attraction of associated ideas derived from subjects less +uncongenial with the natural feelings,--they really may take the +satisfaction of having ascertained one thing more, namely, that human +nature has become at last so mightily changed, that it may be left to work +itself right very soon, as to the affair of religion, with little further +trouble of theirs. + + * * * * * + +The special view in which we were pleading, on behalf of popular +education, that religious instruction would form a material part of it, +was, that this essential ingredient would be a security against its being +injurious to the good order and subordination in society. It is the more +necessary to be particular on this, as some of those who have professed +to lay much stress on the _religious_ instruction of the people have +seemed to have little further notion of the necessity or use of religion +to the lower classes, than as merely a preserver of good order. In this +character it has been insisted on by persons who avowed their aversion to +every idea of an education in a more enlarged sense. We have heard it so +insisted on, no such long while past, by members of the most learned +institutions, at the same moment that they expressed more than a doubt of +the prudence of enabling the common people to read, literally to _read_, +the Bible. But assuredly the good order of a populace left in the stupid +general ignorance to which some of these good friends of theirs would +have doomed them, cannot be preserved by any such feeble infusion of +religious knowledge as these same good friends would instil into their +mental grossness. As long as they are in this condition, there must be +some far stronger power acting on them to preserve that good order. And +if there actually _has_ been such a power, hitherto competent to preserve +it, with only such an impotent scantling of religious knowledge in the +majority of the mass, and competent still to preserve it, a great deal of +hypocritical canting might have been spared, on the part of those whose +chief or only argument for teaching the people religion is the +maintenance of that good order. + +But all this while we are forgetting to inquire how much is to be +understood as included in that good order, that deference and +subordination, which the possession of more mind and knowledge by the +people might disturb or destroy. May not the notion of it, as entertained +by some persons, be rather an image of the polity of an age long past, or +of that which remains unaltered as if it were a part of eternal nature in +the dominions of the East, than a model for the conformation of society +here in the present times? Is it required, that there should be a +sentiment of obsequiousness in the people, affecting them in a manner like +the instinct by which a lower order of animals is in awe of a higher, by +which the common tribe of beasts would cower at the sight of lions? Or, is +the deference expected to be paid, not on any understanding of reciprocal +advantage, but absolutely and unconditionally, as to a claim founded in +abstract or divine right? Is it to be held a criminal presumption in the +people, to think of examining their relations to the community any further +than the obligation of being industrious in the employments to which it +assigns them, and dutiful to its higher orders? Are they to entertain no +question respecting the right adjustment of their condition in the +arrangements of the great social body? Are they forbidden ever to admit a +single doubt of its being quite a matter of course, that everything which +could be done for the interests of their class, consistently with the +welfare of the whole, _is_ done; or, therefore, to pretend to any such +right as that of examining, representing, complaining, remonstrating, or +an ultimate recourse, perhaps, in a severe necessity, to stronger +expedients? + +A subordination founded in such principles, and required to such a degree, +it is true enough that the communication of knowledge is not the way to +perpetuate. For the first use which men will infallibly make of an +enlargement of their faculties and ideas, will be, to take a larger view +of their interests; and they may happen, as soon as they do so, to think +they discover that it was quite time; and the longer they do so, to retain +still less and less of implicit faith that those interests will be done +justice to, without their own vigilance and intervention. An educated +people must be very slow indeed in the application of what they learn, if +they do not soon grow out of all belief in the _necessary_ wisdom and +rectitude of any order of human creatures whatever. They will see how +unreasonable it were to expect, that any sort of men will fail in fidelity +to the great natural principle, of making their own advantage the first +object; and therefore they will not be apt to listen, with the gravity +which in other times and regions may have been shown in listening, to +injunctions of gratitude for the willingness evinced by the higher orders +to take on them the trouble of watching and guarding the people's welfare, +by keeping them in due submission. + +But neither will it necessarily be in the spirit of hostility, in the +worst sense of the word, that a more instructed people will thus show a +diminished credulity of reverence toward the predominant ranks in the +social economy; and will keep in habitual exercise upon them a somewhat +suspicious observation, and a judicial estimate; with an honest freedom in +sometimes avowing disapprobation, and strongly asserting any right which +is believed to be endangered or withheld. This will only be expressing +that, since all classes naturally consult by preference their own +interests, it is plainly unfit, that one portion of the community should +be trusted with an unlimited discretion in ordering what affects the +welfare of the others; and that, in all prudence, the people must refuse +an entire affiance, and unconditional, unexamining acquiescence; "except +the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh," would come to harmonize, and +then administer, interests which are so placed unappeasably at strife;--at +strife; for, what is so often asserted of those interests being in reality +the same, is true only on that comprehensive theory which neither party is +prompt to understand, or willing to make sacrifices of a more immediate +self-interest to realize; and it is evidently impossible for either, even +if believing it true, to concede to the other the exclusive adjustment of +the practical mode of identification. + +But only let the utmost that is possible be done, to train the people, +from their early years, to a sound use of their reason, under a discipline +for imparting a valuable portion of knowledge, and assiduously inculcating +the principles of social duty and of religion; and then something may be +said, to good purpose, to their understanding and conscience, while they +are maintaining the competition of claims with their superiors. They will +then be capable of seeing put in a fair balance, many things which +headlong ignorance would have taken all one way. They will be able to +appreciate many explanations, alleged causes of delay, statements of +difficulty between opposing reasons, which would be thrown away on an +ignorant populace. And it would be an inducement to their making a real +exertion of the understanding, that they thus found themselves so formally +put upon their responsibility for its exercise; that they were summoned to +a rational discussion, instead of being addressed in the style of Pharaoh +to the Israelites. The strife of interests would thus come to be carried +on with less fierceness and malice, in the spirit and manner, on the part +of the people. And the ground itself of the contention, the substance of +the matters in contest, would be gradually diminished, by the concessions +of the higher classes to the claims of the lower; for there is no +affecting to dissemble, that a great mental and moral improvement of the +people would necessitate, though there were not a single movement of rude +force in the case, important concessions to them, on the part of the +superior orders. A people advanced to such a state, would make its moral +power felt in a thousand ways, and every moment. This general augmentation +of sense and right principle would send forth, against all arrangements +and inveterate or more modern usages, of the nature of invidious +exclusion, arbitrary repression, and the debasement of great public +interests into a detestable private traffic, an energy, which could no +more be resisted than the power of the sun, when he advances in the spring +to annihilate the relics and vestiges of the winter. This plastic +influence would modify the institutions of the national community, to a +state better adapted to secure all the popular rights; and to convey the +genuine, collective opinion, to bear directly on the counsel and +transaction of national concerns. That opinion would be so unequivocally +manifested, as to leave no pretence for a doubtful interpretation of its +signs; and with such authority as to preclude any question whether to set +it at defiance. + +That such effects _would_ be inseparable from a great general advancement +of the people in knowledge and corrected character, must be freely +acknowledged to its disapproves. And is it _because_ these would be the +consequences, that they disapprove it? Then let them say, what it is that +_they_ would expect from an opposite system. _What_ is it, that they could +seriously promise themselves, from the conservative virtue of all the +ignorance, that can henceforward be retained among the people of this part +of the world? It is true, the remaining ignorance is so great that they +cannot well overrate its _general_ amount; but how can they fail to +perceive the importance of those _particulars_ in which its dominion has +been broken up? There is indeed a hemisphere of "gross darkness over the +people;" it may be possible to withhold from it long the illumination of +the sun; but in the mean time it has been rent by portentous lights and +flashes, which have excited a thought and agitation not to be stilled by +the continuance of the gloom. There have come in on the popular mind some +ideas, which the wisest of those who dread or hate their effect there, +look around in vain for the means of expelling. And these glimpses of +partial intelligence, these lights of dubious and possibly destructive +direction amidst the night, will continue to prompt and lead that mind, +with a hazard which can sease only with the opening upon it of the true +daylight of knowledge. That knowledge should have been antecedent to the +falling of these inflammatory ideal among the people; and if they have +come before the proper time, that is to say, before the people were +prepared to judge rationally of their rights, and to apprehend clearly the +duties inseparable from them as a condition of their enjoyment, the +calamitous consequences to the higher classes, as seen in the recent +history of Europe, may be regarded as a righteous judgment of heaven upon +them, for having suffered it to be _possible_ for these new ideas of +liberty and rights to come to the people in a state so unprepared. What +were all their commanding authorities of government, their splendid +ecclesiastical establishments, their great personal wealth and +influence,--all their lofty powers and distinctions which even their +basest sycophants, sacerdotal or poetical, told them, as one topic of +adulation, that they were not entrusted with for their own sole +gratification,--what were all these for, if the great body of the +communities over which they presided were to be retained in a state in +which they could not be touched by a few bold speculations in favor of +popular rights, without exploding as with infernal fire? How appropriate a +retribution of Sovereign Justice, that those who were wickedly the cause +should be the victims of the effect. + +Where such a consequence has not followed, but where, nevertheless, these +notions of popular rights have come into the minds of the people very much +in precedence and disproportion to the general cultivation of their +intelligence and moral sense, it is most important that all diligence +should be given to bring up these neglected improvements to stand in rank +with those too forward speculations. + +Whether this shall be done or not, these notions and feelings are not +things come into life without an instinct of what they have to do. The +disapproves of schemes for throwing the greatest practicable measure of +sound corrective knowledge into the minds of the multitude, may take +instruction or may decline it from seeing that, both in this country and +other states of Europe, there has gone forth among the mass of the people +a spirit of revolt from the obligation, which would retain their reverence +to institutions on the strength simply of their being established or being +ancient; a spirit that reacts, with deep and settled antipathy, against +some of the arrangements and claims of the order into which the national +community has been disposed by institutions and the course of events; a +spirit which regards some of the appointments and requirements of that +order, as little better than adaptations of the system to the will and +gratification of the more fortunate divisions of the species. And it has +shown itself in a very different character from that of a mere pining +despondency, or the impotent resentment excited sometimes in timidity +itself by severe grievance, but quelled by alarm at its own rashness. The +element and the temperament of its nature, and the force of its action, +have been displayed in the tremendous concussions attending its conflict +with the power arrayed in behalf of the old order of things to crush it. +And _is_ this spirit crushed? Is it subdued? Is it in the least degree +reduced?--reduced, we mean, in its internal power, as a combination of the +most absolute opinion with the impulse of some of the strongest passions. + +Is it, we repeat, repressed? There may have been persons who could not, +"good easy men," conceive a possibility of its surviving the fiery storm +of the whole resources of the world converted into the materials of war, +to be poured on it, and followed by the mightiest leagues and the most +systematic legislation, all aimed at its destruction; surviving to come +forth with unabated vigor at the opportune junctures in the future +progress of events; like some great serpent, coming out again to glare on +the sight, with his appalling glance and length of volume, after a volley +of missiles had sent him to his retreat. The old approved expedients +against unreasonable discontents, and refractory tempers, and local +movements of hostility excited by some worthless competitor for power, had +been combined and applied on the grand scale; and henceforward all was to +be still. It was not given to these spell-bound understandings to +apprehend that the spirit to be repressed might be of a nature impassive +to these expedients, possibly to be confirmed by their application. +Repressed! What is it that is manifesting itself in the most remarkable +events in the old, and what has been called the new world, at the present +time? And what are the measures of several of the great state authorities +of Europe, whether adopted in deliberate policy, or in a fitful mood +between rashness and dismay; what are, especially, the meetings, +conferences, and military preparations, of the mightiest despots of the +globe, assembled at this very hour against a small and unoffending nation, +[Footnote: The meeting of imperial and royal personages at Troppau and +Laybach, for the detestable purpose of crushing the newly acquired liberty +of the kingdom of Naples.--January, 1821.]--what are these but a +confession or proclamation, that the spirit which the most enormous +exertions had been made to overwhelm, has preserved its life and energy; +like those warring immortal powers whom Milton describes as having +mountains thrown on them in vain? The progress of time renders it but more +evident, that the principle in action is something far different from a +superficial transient irritation; that it has gone the whole depth of the +mind; has possessed itself of the very judgment and conscience of an +innumerable legion, augmented by a continual and endless accession. No +doubt is permitted to remain of the direction which has been taken by the +current of the popular feeling,--to be recovered to its ancient obsequious +course when some great river which has farced a new channel shall resume +that which it has abandoned. For when once the great mass, of the lower +and immensely larger division of the community, shall have become filled +with an absolute, and almost unanimous conviction, that they, the grand +physical agency of that community; that they, the operators, the +producers, the preparers, of almost all it most essentially wants; that +they, the part, therefore, of the social assemblage so obviously the most +essential to its existence, and on which all the rest must depend; that +they have their condition in the great social arrangement so disposed as +not to acknowledge this their importance, as not to secure an adequate +reward of these their services;--we say, when this shall have become the +pervading intense conviction of the millions of Europe, we put it as a +question to any rational thinker, whether and how this state of feeling +can be reversed or neutralized, if the economy which has provoked it shall +yield to no modification. But it _is_ no question, he will confess. Then +will he pretend not to foresee any material change in an order of things +obnoxious to so vast a combination of wills and agents? This may indeed be +seriously avowed by some, who are so walled up in old prejudice and +presumption that they really have no look out; who, because a thing has +been long established, mistake its artificial substruction of crumbling +materials for the natural rock; and it will be pretended by others, who +think the bravado of asserting the impossibility of the overthrow may be a +good policy for deterring the attempt. There has not been one of the great +alterations effected by the popular spirit within the last half-century, +that was not preceded by professions of contemptuous incredulity, on the +part of the applauders of things as they were, toward those who calculated +on the effects of that spirit. There were occasionally betrayed, under +these shows of confidence and contempt, some signs of horror at the +undeniable excitement and progress of popular feeling; but the scorn of +all serious and monitory predictions of its ultimate result was at all +events to be kept up,--in whatever proportions a time-serving interest and +an honest fatuity might share in dictating this elated and contemptuous +style. Should the latter of these ingredients at present predominate in +the temper which throws off the fume of this high style, it will not leave +much faculty in the defiers of all revolution, for explaining what it is +they have to trust to as security against such consequences as we should +anticipate from the progress of disapprobation and aversion in the people; +unless indeed the security mainly relied on is just that plain, simple +expedient--force, for all nations on earth--downright force. It is plainly +this that is meant, when persons disinclined to speak out give us a +circumlocution of delicate phrases, "the conservative energies of the +public institutions," "the majesty of the law," perhaps, and others of +similar cast;--which fine phrases suggest to one's imagination the +ornamented fashion of the handle and sheath of the scimitar, which is not +the less keen, nor the less ready to be drawn, for all this finery that +hides and garnishes so menacing a symbol of power. + +The economy of states _shall_ not be modified in favor of the great body +of those who constitute them.--And are, then, the higher and privileged +portions of the national communities to have, henceforward, just this one +grand object of their existence, this chief employment for their +knowledge, means, and power, namely, to keep down the lower orders of +their fellow-citizens by stress of coercion? Are they resolved and +prepared for a rancorous, interminable hostility in prosecution of such a +benign purpose; with a continual exhaustion upon it of the resources which +might be applied to diminish that wretchedness of the people, which is the +grand inflamer of those principles that have caused an earthquake under +the foundations of the old social systems? But, "interminable" is no +proper epithet to be applied to such a course. This policy of a bare +uncompromising rigor, exerted to keep the people just where they are, in +preference to adjustments formed on a calculation of a material change, +and adapted to prepare them for it--how long could it be successful--not +to ask what would be the value or the glory of that success? With the +light of recent history to aid the prognostication, by what superstitious +mode of estimating the self-preserving, and self-avenging competence of +any artificial form of social order, can we believe in its power to throw +back the general opinions, determinations, and efforts, of the mass of +mankind in endless recoil on themselves? That must be a very firm +structure, must be of gigantic mass or most excellent basis and +conformation, against which the ocean shall unremittingly wear and foam in +vain. And it does not appear what there can be of such impregnable +consistence in any particular construction of the social economy which is, +by the supposition, resolved to be maintained in sovereign immutability, +in permanent frustration of the persevering, ever-growing aim and impulse +of the great majority, pressing on to achieve important innovations in +their favor; innovations in those systems of institution and usage, under +which they will never cease to think they have had far less happiness, or +means of happiness, than they ought to have had. We cannot see how this +impulse can be so repelled or diverted that it shall not prevail at +length, to the effect of either bearing down, or wearing away, a portion +of the order of things which the ascendant classes in every part of Europe +would have fondly wished to maintain in perpetuity, without one particle +of surrender. + +But though they cannot preserve its entireness, the manner in which it +shall yield to modification is in a great measure at their command. And +here is the important point on which all these observations are meant to +bear. If a movement has really begun in the general popular mind of the +nations, and if the principle of it is growing and insuppressible, so that +it must in one manner or another ultimately prevail, what will the state +be of any national community where it shall be an unenlightened, +half-barbarous people that so prevails?--a people no better informed, +perhaps, than to believe that all the hardship and distress endured by +themselves and their forefathers were wrongs, which they suffered from the +higher orders; than to ascribe to bad government, and the rapacity and +selfishness of the rich, the very evils caused by inclement seasons; and +than to assume it as beyond question, that the whole accumulation of their +resentments, brought out into action at last, is only justice demanding +and inflicting a retribution. + +In such an event, what would not the superior orders be glad to give and +forego, in compromise with principles, tempers, and demands, which they +will know they should never have had to encounter, to the end of time, if, +instead of spending their vast advantages on merely their own state and +indulgence, they had applied them in a mode of operation and influence +tending to improve, in every way, the situation and character of the +people? It is true, that such a wild triumph of overpowering violence +would necessarily be short. A blind, turbulent monster of popular power +never can for a long time maintain the domination of a political +community. It would rage and riot itself out of breath and strength, +succumb under some strong coercion of its own creating, and lie subject +and stupified, till its spirit should be recovered and incensed for new +commotion. But this impossibility of a very prolonged reign of confusion, +would be little consolation for the classes against whose privileged +condition the first tremendous eruption should have driven. It would not +much cheer a man who should see his abode carried away, and his fields and +plantations devastated, to tell him that the agent of this ruin was only a +transient mountain torrent. A short prevalence of the overturning force +would have sufficed for the subversion of the proudest, longest +established state of privilege; and most improbable would it be, that +those who lost it in the tumult, would find the new authority, of whatever +shape or name it were, that would arise as that tumult subsided, either +able or disposed to restore it. They might perhaps, (on a favorable +supposition,) survive in personal safety, but in humiliated fortunes, to +ruminate on their manner of occupying their former elevated situation, and +of employing its ample means of power, a due share of which, exerted for +the improvement of the general condition, both intellectual and civil, +with an accompanying liberal yet gradual concession of privileges to the +people, would have prevented the catastrophe. + +Let us urge, then, that a zealous endeavor to render it absolutely +impossible that, in any change whatever, the destinies of a nation should +fall under the power of an ignorant infuriated multitude, may take place +of the presumption that there _is_ no great change to be ever effected by +the progressive and conscious importance of the people; a presumption than +which nothing can appear more like infatuation, when we look at the recent +scenes and present temperament of the moral world. Lay hold on the myriads +of juvenile spirits, before they have time to grow up through ignorance +into a reckless hostility to social order; train them to sense and good +morals: inculcate the principles of religion, simply and solemnly _as_ +religion, as a thing directly of divine dictation, and not as if its +authority were chiefly in virtue of human institutions; let the higher +orders generally make it evident to the multitude that they are desirous +to raise them in value, and promote their happiness; and then _whatever_ +the demands of the people as a body, thus improving in understanding and +the sense of justice, shall come to be, and _whatever_ modification their +preponderance may ultimately enforce on the great social arrangements, it +will be infallibly certain that there never _can_ be a love of disorder, +an insolent anarchy, a prevailing spirit of revenge and devastation. Such +a conduct of the ascendant ranks would, in this nation at least, secure +that, as long as the world lasts, there never would be any formidable +commotion, or violent sudden changes. All those modifications of the +national economy to which an improving people would aspire and would +deserve to obtain, would be gradually accomplished, in a manner by which +no party would be wronged, and all would be the happier. + +[Footnote: The considerations in the latter part of this section (so +plainly on the surface of the subject that they would occur to any +thoughtful and observant man) have been verified in part by the course of +events in our country, since the time they were written. At that, time the +superior, and till then irresistibly and invariably predominant, portion +of the community, felt themselves in perfect security against any +comprehensive and radical change within the ensuing twelve or fourteen +years. There might indeed be one or two subordinate matters in the +established national system in which they might deem it not unlikely that +the advocates and laborers for innovation would be successful; but such an +amount of innovation did not come within the view of even a feverish +dream. Any man who should have predicted, especially, the recent greatest +achievement against the inveterate system, [Footnote: The Reform Bill.] +would have been laughed at as an incorrigible visionary; so proudly +confident were they that the structure would be kept compact and +impregnable in all its essential parts, by the cement of ancient +institution, national veneration, opulence, and the inherence of actual +power, possessed from generation to generation. + +In the next place, they were obstinately resolute against all material +concessions. When at intervals the complaints, claims, and remonstrances +of the people sought to be heard, they treated them as unreasonable, +absurd, factious; and asserted that none of the good sense and right +feeling of the nation went that way. They declared that the existing order +of things was on the whole so superlatively excellent that, if there were, +perhaps, any trifling defects, it were far better to let them alone than +to presume to touch with an innovating hand the integrity of so noble a +system, the admiration and envy of all the world. As it was, it had +"worked well" for our happiness and glory; and who could say, if a +tampering of alteration were once suffered to begin, where it might end? +Order the people to be quiet; let their factious demands and seditious +movements be promptly and firmly repressed by authority; and they would +sink into insignificance and silence. To think of such a thing as +condescending to conciliate by moderate concessions would be weakness, and +might eventually bring a hazard which otherwise could have no existence. + +And now for the consequence: the popular spirit, thus set at naught in +present account and in calculation for the future, was discouraged from +active outward manifestation, by the invetorate, perfectly organized, and, +for the present, resistless domination. But under the pressure of +wide-spread and unabating grievance, which quickened and envenomed every +sentiment previously entertained regarding the rights and wrongs of the +people, it was gradually acquiring, throughout the country, a more +determinate sense of being absolved from all submissive respect toward the +ascendant party, a more entire conviction of its right to vindicate its +claims in any manner that should become practicable, and a hostility, but +the more deep and intense for its being kept under by despondency of +present success, against those who were rejecting and contemptuously +defying those claims. It wanted, then, only some occurrence that should +present a possibility and a hope of success to burst out in sudden ardor. +It was thus in collective power and readiness for action, when several +events of prodigious excitement came close together; and then, like a +stream in one of the Swiss valleys, dammed up by a mound of earth or ice +fallen across, to a lake deepening without noise, till its vast weight +breaks away the obstruction with a tremendous tumult, the popular will +bore down the aristocratic embankment, consolidated through so many years +or ages. The overpowered party found the consequence of their obstinate +and _entire_ resistance; and had to reflect with unmixed mortification how +much less than they had lost, and without mitigating by the loss the +hostile feeling of those who had taken it from them, would have been +received with gratitude if yielded in the way of gradual voluntary +concession. Happily the change was not left to be accomplished by physical +force, as all such changes must be in purely despotic states; but the +people fully believe that they chiefly owe the forced surrender to the +alarm which their demonstrations excited lest they should bring the +question ere long to that arbitrament. + +But in the last place, there is a deplorable circumstance, attending this +sudden rising of the popular spirit into power, and which throws a strong +light on the criminal infatuation of a State that suffers the commonalty +of its citizens to remain grossly uncultivated and uncivilized--perhaps +even fancies it sees in that ignorance a main security for its own +stability. The fact is, that the people have acquired their power and +privileges, before they are (speaking as to many of them) qualified for a +wise and useful exercise of them. A large proportion of those who are now +brought into what may be called political existence have grown up so +destitute of all means and habits for a right use of their minds, that +their notions, wishes, expectations, and determinations, respecting public +interests, will exemplify anything rather than a competent judgment. And +the proportion so raised is but perhaps a minor part of the multitude in +which the popular spirit is embodied and vehemently excited. Great numbers +on a lower level, and having no formal political capacity to act in, are +nevertheless pervaded by a spirit which will bring the rude impulse of +mass and combination into the movement of the popular will. + +If alarmed at such a view, will not they who have so long held the +sovereign control over the national economy feel the bitterest regret +that it had not been given them to obviate the possible dangers of such a +crisis and such a change, or rather to prevent such a crisis and a change +so abrupt, by exertions in every way, and on the widest scale, to rescue +the people from their ignorance and barbarism, instead of trusting to it +for an uncontested undisturbed continuance of their own domination? But +they scorned the idea, if it ever occurred, that the many-headed, +many-handed "monster," (so named in the dialect of some of them,) after +lying prone, and inert, and submissive, from time immemorial, should at +last become instinct with spirit, and rise up roaring in defiance of +their power. + +It is now for them to consider whether, by maintaining a temper and +attitude of sullen, vindictive, pugnacious alienation from the people, +they shall wilfully aggravate whatever injurious consequences may be +threatened by so sudden a revolution; or endeavor to intercept them by +giving their best assistance to every plan and expedient for rescuing the +lower orders from the curse and calamity of ignorance and debasement. +Other remedial measures, besides that of education, are imperiously +demanded by the miserable and formidable condition of the populace, but no +other, nor all others together, can avail without it. + + * * * * * + +Since the date of the above note, the spirit and policy of the ascendant +class have been just that which a philanthropist would have deprecated, +and a cynic predicted. + +Their moral chagrin at the acquisition by the people of a new political +rank, an event by which they, (the ascendant class,) had for a while +appeared amazed and stunned, has soon recovered to a prodigious activity +of device and exertion to nullify that rightful acquisition. For this +purpose have been brought into play, on the widest scale, that of the +whole kingdom, all the means and resources of wealth, station, and power; +with the utmost recklessness of equity, honor, and even humanity; deluding +the ignorant, corrupting the venal, and intimidating and punishing the +conscientious: insomuch that the nominally conceded right or privilege is +practically reduced to an inconsiderable proportion of its pre-estimated +worth; while aristocratic tyranny has rendered it to many of the most +deserving to possess it no better than an inflicted grievance. One +important measure for the improvement of the condition of the lower orders +has been effected, because the anti-popular party saw it advantageous also +to their own interests. But for the general course of their policy, we +have witnessed a systematic determination to frustrate measures framed in +recognition of the rights and wants of the people. As to their education, +it continues abandoned to the efforts and totally inadequate means of +private individuals and societies; except a comparative trifle from the +State, not so much for the whole nation for the whole year as the cost of +some useless, gaudy, barbaric pageant of one day.--It is evident the +predominant portion of the higher classes trouble themselves very little +about the mental condition of the populace. It is even understood that a +chief obstacle in the way of any comprehensive legislation on the subject +is found or apprehended in the repugnance of those classes to any liberal +scheme: any scheme that, aiming simply at the general good, should boldly +set aside invidious restrictions and a jealous, parsimonious limitation; a +scheme that should not work in subjection to the mean self-interest of +this party or that, but for the one grand purpose of raising millions from +degradation into rational existence.] + + + + +Section V. + + + +The most serious form of the evil caused by a want of mental improvement, +is that which is exposed to us in its consequences with respect to the +most important concern of all, Religion. This has been briefly adverted to +in a former part of these descriptive observations. But the subject seems +to merit a more amplified illustration, and may be of sufficient interest +to excuse some appearance of repetition. The special view in which we wish +to place it, is that of _the inaptitude of uncultivated minds for +receiving religious instruction._--But first, a slight estimate may be +attempted of the actual state of religious notions among our uneducated +population. + +_Some_ notion of such a concern, something different in their +consciousness from the absolute negation of the idea, something that +faintly responds to the terms which would be used by a person conversing +with them, in the way of questioning them on the subject, may be presumed +to exist in the minds of all who are advanced a considerable way into +youth, or come to mature age, in a country where all are familiar with +several of the principal terms of theology, and have the monitory +spectacle of edifices for religious use, on spots appointed also for the +interment of the dead. If this sort of measured caution in the assumption +seem bordering on the ridiculous, we would recommend those who would smile +at it to make some little experiments. Let them insinuate themselves into +the company of some of the innumerable rustics who have grown up destitute +of everything worth calling education; or of the equally ill-fated beings +in the alleys, precincts, and lower employments of towns. With due +management to avoid the abruptness and judicial formality, which, would +preclude a communicative disposition, they might take occasion to +introduce remarks tending, without the express form of questions in the +first instance, to draw out the thoughts of some of these persons +respecting God, Jesus Christ, the human soul, the invisible world. And the +answers would often put them to a stand to conceive, under what suspension +of the laws of rational existence the utterers could have been passing so +many years in the world. These answers might dispel, as by a sudden shock, +the easy and contented assurance, if so unknowing a notion had been +entertained, that almost all the people _must_, in one way or another, +have become decently apprized of a few first principles of religion; that +this _could_ not have failed to be the case in what was expressly +constituted a great Christian community, with an obligation upon it, that +none of its members should be left destitute of the most essential +requisite to their well-being. This agreeable assurance would vanish, like +a dream interrupted, at the spectacle thus presented, of persons only not +quite as devoid of those first principles, after living eighteen, thirty, +forty, or twice forty years, under the superintendence of that community, +as if they had been the aboriginal rovers of the American forests, or +natives of unvisited coral-built spots in the ocean. If these examiners +were to prosecute the investigation widely, and with an effect on their +sentiments correspondent to the enlarging disclosure of facts, they could +find themselves fallen into a very altered estimate of this our Christian +tract of the earth. A fancied sunshine, spread over it before, would have +faded away. From appearing to them, according to an accustomed notion, +peculiarly auspicious, as if almost by some virtue of its climate, to the +growth of religious intelligence in the minds of the people, it might come +to be regarded as favorable to the development of _all things rather than +that_. Plants and trees, the diversity of animal forms and powers, the +human frame, the features enlarging or enlarged to manhood in the younger +persons looked at by the supposed examiner while answering his questions, +with their passions also, and prevailing dispositions,--see how all things +can unfold themselves in our territory, and grow and enlarge to their +completeness,--except the ideas of the human soul relating to the +Almighty, and to the grand purpose of its own existence! + +The supposed answers would in many instances betray, that any thought of +God at all was of very rare occurrence, the idea having never become +strongly associated with anything beheld in the whole creation. We should +think it probable, as we have said before, that with many, while in +health, weeks or months often pass away without this idea being once so +presented as to fix the mind in attention to it for one moment of time. If +they could be set to any such task as that of retracing, at the end of the +days or the weeks, the course of their thoughts, to recollect what +particulars in the series had struck the most forcibly and stayed the +longest, it may be suspected that _this_ idea, thus impressively +apprehended, would be as rare a recollection as that of having seen a +splendid meteor. Yet during that space of time, their thoughts, such as +they were, shall have run through thousands of changes; and even the name +of God may have been pronounced by them a multitude of times, in +jocularity or imprecation. Thus there is a broad easy way to atheism +through thoughtless ignorance, as well as a narrow and difficult one +through subtle speculation. + +But that idea of God which has, by some means, found its way into their +understandings, to abide there so nearly in silence and oblivion,--what is +it, when some direct call does really evoke it? It is generally a gross +approximation of the conception of the Infinite Being to the likeness of +man. If what they have heard of his being a Spirit, has indeed some little +effect in prevention of the total debasement of the idea, it prevents it +rather by confusion than by magnificence. It may somewhat restrain and +baffle the tendency of the imagination to a direct degrading definition; +but it does so by a dissolution of the idea as into an attenuated cloud. +And ever and anon, this cloudy diffusion is again drawing in, and shaping +itself toward an image, vast perhaps, and spectral, portentous across the +firmament, but in some near analogy to the human mode of personality. + +The divine attribute which is apprehended by them with most of an +impression of reality, is a certain vastness of power. But, through the +grossness of their intellectual atmosphere, this appears to them in the +character of something prodigiously huge, rather than sublimely +glorious.--As considered in his quality of moral judicial Governor, God is +regarded by some of them as more disposed, than there is any reasonable +cause, to be displeased with what is done in this world. But the far +greater number have no prevailing sentiment that he takes any very +vigilant account or concern. [Footnote: Some have no very distinct +impression the one way or the other. Not very long since, a friend of the +writer, in one of the midland counties, fell into talk, on a Sunday, with +a man who had been in some very plain violation of the consecrated +character of the day. He seriously animadverted on this, adding, Don't you +think God will be displeased at and punish such conduct? or words to that +effect. The man, after a moment's consideration, answered, with unaffected +cool simplicity, exactly thus: "That's according as how a takes it." + +Numerous anecdotes of the same cast have been more recently heard; and +among them that of a conversation with a thoughtless man, of worthless +character, not in the lowest condition in society, and then consciously +near death. The religious visitor represented to him the serious and +alarming situation of a man on the point of going from a sinful life into +the presence of God as a Judge. The man, with a sort of general +acknowledgment that it was so, yet hoped that God would not be severe with +him. But the visitor anxiously pressed upon him the consideration that God +is a just Being, and judges by a holy law: to which at last the answer +was, with little emotion, "Then God and I must fight it out as well as we +can." The phrase, in his use of it, did not mean anything of the nature of +a hostile contest, but simply the _settling of an affair_, which he +thought might be done without any great danger or trouble.] And even those +who entertain the more ungracious apprehension, have it not in sufficient +force to make them, once in whole months, deliberately think it worth +while to care what he may disapprove.] + +The notions that should answer to the doctrine of a Providence, are a +confusion of some crude idea of a divine superintendence, with stronger +fancies and impressions of luck and chance; a confusion of them not +unaptly exemplified in a grave and well-meaning sentiment heard from a man +in a temporal condition to be envied by many of his neighbors, "Providence +must take its chance." And these are still further, and most uncouthly, +confounded by the admixture of the ancient heathen notion of fate, reduced +from its philosophy to its dregs. In many instances, however, this last +obtains such a predominance, as to lessen the confusion, and withal to +preclude, in a great measure, the sense of accountableness. In neither of +these rude states of the understanding, (that which confounds Providence +and chance, and that which sinks in dull acquiescence to something +obscurely imagined like fate,) is there any serious admission, at least +during the enjoyment of health, of the duty or advantage of prayer. + +The supposed examiner may endeavor to possess himself of the notions +concerning the Redeemer of the world. They would be found, in numerous +instances, amounting literally to no more than, that Jesus Christ was a +worthy kind of person, (the word has actually been "gentleman," in more +than one instance that we have heard from unquestionable testimony,) who +once, somewhere, (these national Christians had never in their lives, +thought of inquiring when or where,) did a great deal of good, and was +very ill used by bad people. The people now, they think, bad as they may +be, would not do so in the like case. Some of these persons may +occasionally have been at church; and are just aware that his name often +recurs in its services; they never considered why; but they have a vague +impression of its repetition having some kind of virtue, perhaps rather in +the nature of a spell.--The names of the four evangelists are by some held +literally and technically available for such a use. + +A few steps withdrawn from this thickest of the mental fog, there are many +who are not entirely uninformed of something having been usually affirmed, +by religious formularies and teachers, of Jesus Christ's being more than a +man, and of his having done some thing of great importance toward +preventing our being punished for our sins. This combination of a majestic +superiority to the human nature, with a subsistence yet confessedly human, +just passes their minds like a shape formed of a shadow, as one of the +unaccountable things that may be as it is said, for what they know, but +which they need not trouble themselves to think about. As to the great +things said to be done by him, to save men from being punished, they see +indeed no necessity for such an expedient, but if it is so, very right, +and so much the better; for between that circumstance in our favor, and +God's being too good, after all that is said of his holiness and wrath, to +be severe on such poor creatures, we must have a good chance of coming off +safely at last. But multitudes of the miserably poor, however wicked, have +a settled assurance of this coming off well at last, independently of +anything effected for men by the Mediator: they shall be exempted, they +believe, from any future suffering in consideration of their having +suffered so much here. There is nothing, in the scanty creed of great +numbers, more firmly held than this. + +It is true, they believe that the most atrociously wicked must go to a +state of punishment after death. They consider murderers, especially, as +under this doom. But the offences so adjudged, according to any settled +estimate they have of the demerit of bad actions, are comprised in a very +short catalogue. At least it is short if we could take it exclusively of +the additions made to it by the resentments of individuals. For each one +is apt to make his own particular addition to it, of some offence which he +would never have accounted so heinous, but that it has happened to be +committed against _him_. We can recollect the exultation of sincere faith, +seen mingling with the anger, of an offended man, while _predicting_, as +well as imprecating, this retribution of some injury he had suffered; a +real injury, indeed, yet of a kind which he would have held in small +account had he only seen it done to another person.--As to the nature of +that future punishment, the ideas of these neglected minds go scarcely at +all beyond the images of corporal anguish, conveyed by the well-known +metaphors. They have no impressive idea of the pain of remorse, and +scarcely the faintest conception of an infelicity inflicted by the +conscious loss of the Divine favor. + +It is most striking to observe how almost wholly negative are their +conceptions of that future happiness which must be _something_--but +what?--as the necessary alternative of the evil they so easily assure +themselves of escaping. The abstracted, contemplative, and elevated ideas +of the celestial happiness are far above their apprehension; and indeed, +though they were not, would be little attractive. And the more ordinary +modes of representing it in religious discourse, (if they should ever have +heard enough of such discourse to be acquainted with them,) are too +uncongenial with their notions of pleasure to have a welcome, or abiding +place, in their imagination or affections. Thus the soul, as to this great +subject, is vacant and cold. And here the reflection again returns, what +an inexpressible poverty of the mind there is, when the people have no +longer a mythology, and yet have not obtained in its place any knowledge +of the true religion. The martial vagrants of Scandinavia glowed with the +vivid anticipations of Valhalla; the savages of the western continent had +their animating visions of the "land of souls;" the modern Christian +barbarians of England, who also expect to live after death, do not know +what they mean by the! phrase of "going to heaven." + +Most of this class of persons think very little in any way whatever of the +invisible spiritual economy. And some of them would be pleased with a +still more complete exemption from such thought. For there are among them +those who are liable to be occasionally affected with certain ghostly +recognitions of something out of the common world. But it is remarkable +how little these may contribute to enforce the salutary impressions of +religion. For instance, a man subject to the terror of apparitions shall +not therefore be in the smallest degree the less profane, except just at +the time that this terror is upon him. A number of persons, not one of +whom durst walk, alone, at midnight, round a lonely church, encompassed +with graves, to which has perhaps lately been added that of a notoriously +wicked man, will nevertheless, on a fine Sunday morning, form a row of +rude idlers, standing in the road to this very church, to vent their jokes +on the persons going thither to attend the offices of religion, and on the +performers of those offices. + +Such, as regarding religion, is the state out of which it is desired to +redeem a multitude of the people of this land. Or rather, we should say, +it is sought to save a multitude from being consigned to it. For consider, +in the next place, (what we wished especially to point at, in this most +important article in the enumeration of the evils of ignorance,) consider +what a fatal inaptitude for receiving the truths of religion is created by +the neglect of training minds to the exercise of their faculties, and the +possession of the elements of knowledge. + +How inevitably it must be so, from the nature of the case!--There is a +sublime economy of invisible realities. There is the Supreme Existence, an +infinite and eternal Spirit. There are spiritual existences, that have +kindled into brightness and power, from nothing, at his creating will, +There is an universal government, omnipotent, all-wise, and righteous, of +that Supreme Being over the creation. There is the immense tribe of human +spirits, in a most peculiar and alarming predicament, held under eternal +obligation of conformity to a law proceeding from the holiness of that +Being, but perverted to a state of disconformity to it, and opposition to +him. Next, there is a signal anomaly of moral government, the constitution +of a new state of relation between the Supreme Governor and this alienated +race, through a Mediator, who makes an atonement for human iniquity, and +stands representative before Almighty Justice, for those who in grateful +accordance to the mysterious appointment consign themselves to this +charge. There are the several doctrines declaratory of this new +constitution through all its parts. There is the view of religion in its +operative character, or the doctrine of the application of its truths and +precepts by a divine agency to transform the mind and rectify the life. +And this solemn array of all the sublimest reality, and most important +intelligence, is extending infinitely away beyond the sensible horizon of +our present state to an invisible world, to which the spirits of men +proceed at death for judgment and retribution, and with the prospect of +living forever. + +Look at this scene of faith, so distinct, and stretching to such +remoteness, from the field of ordinary things; of a subsistence which it +is for intellect alone to apprehend; presenting objects with which +intellect alone can hold converse. Look at this scene; and then consider, +what manner of beings you are calling upon to enter into it by +contemplation. Beings who have never learned to think at all. Beings who +have hardly ever once, in their whole lives, made a real effort to direct +and concentrate the action of their faculties on anything abstracted from +the objects palpable to the senses; whose entire attention has been +engrossed, from their infancy, with the common business, the low +amusements and gratifications, the idle talk, the local occurrences, which +formed the whole compass of the occupation, and practically acknowledged +interests, of their progenitors. Beings who have never been made in the +least familiar with even the matters of fact, those especially of the +scripture history, by which religious truths have been expressed and +illustrated in the substantial form of events, and personal characters. +Beings who, in natural consequence of this unexercised and unfurnished +condition of their understandings, will combine the utmost aversion to any +effort of purely intellectual labor, with the especial dislike which it is +in the human disposition to feel toward this class of subjects. What kind +of ideas should you imagine to be raised in their minds, by all the words +you might employ, to place within their intellectual vision some portion +of this spiritual order of things,--even should you be able, which you +often would not, to engage any effort of attention to the subject?--And +yet we have heard this disqualification for receiving religious knowledge, +in consequence of the want of early mental culture, made very light of by +men whose pretensions to judgment had no less a foundation than an +academical course and a consecrated profession. They would maintain, with +every appearance of thinking so, that a very little, that the barest +trifle, of regulated exercise of the mind in youth, would be enough for +the common people as a preparation for gaining as much knowledge of +religion as they could ever want; that any such thing as a practice of +reading, (a practice of hazardous tendency.) would be needless for the +purpose, since they might gain a competence of that knowledge by +attendance on the public ministration in the church. And there must have +been a very recent acquiescence in a new fashion of opinion, if numbers of +the same class of men would not, in honestly avowing their thoughts, say +something not far different at this hour. + +But the pretended facility of gaining a competence of religious knowledge +by such persons on such terms, can only mean, that the smallest +conceivable portion of it may suffice. For we may appeal to those pious +and benevolent persons who have made the most numerous trials, for +testimony to the inaptitude of uneducated people to receive that kind of +instruction. You have visited, perhaps, some numerous family, or Sunday +assemblage of several related families; to which you had access without +awkward intrusion, in consequence of the acquaintance arising from near +neighborhood, or of little services you had rendered, or of the +circumstance of any of their younger children coming to your charity +schools. It was to you soon made sensible what a sterile, blighted spot +of rational nature you were in, by indications unequivocal to your +perception, though, it may be, not easily reducible to exact description. +And those indications were perhaps almost equally apparent in the young +persons, in those advanced to the middle of life, and in those who were +evidently destined not long to remain in it, the patriarch, perhaps, and +the eldest matron, of the kindred company. You attempted by degrees, with +all managements of art, as if you had been seeking to gain a favor for +yourselves, to train into the talk some topic bearing toward religion; +and which could be followed up into a more explicit reference to that +great subject, without the abruptness which causes instant silence and +recoil. We will suppose that the gloom of such a moral scene was not +augmented to you, by the mortification of observing impatience of this +suspension of their usual and favorite tenor of discourse, betrayed in +marks of suppressed irritation, or rather by the withdrawing of one, and +another, from the company. But it was quite enough to render the moments +and feelings some of the most disconsolate you had ever experienced, to +have thus immediately before you a number of rational beings as in a dark +prison-house, and to feel the impotence of your friendly efforts to bring +them out. Their darkness of ignorance infused into your spirit the +darkness of melancholy, when you perceived that the fittest words you +could think of, in every change and combination in which you could +dispose them, failed to impart to their understanding, in the meaning you +wanted to convey, the most elementary and essential ideas of the most +momentous subject. + +You thought again, perhaps, and again, Surely _this_ mode of expression, +or _this_, as it is in words not out of common usage, will define the +thing to their apprehension. But you were forced to perceive that the +common phraseology of the language, those words which make the substance +of ordinary discourse on ordinary subjects, had not, for the +understandings of these persons, a general applicableness. It seemed as if +the mere elemental vehicle, (if we may so name it,) available +indifferently for conveying all sorts of sense, except science, had become +in its meaning special and exclusive for their own sort of topics. Their +narrow associations had rendered it incapable of conveying sense to them +on matters foreign to their habits. When used on a subject to which they +were quite unaccustomed, it became like a stream which, though one and the +same current, flows clear on the one side, and muddy (as we sometimes see +for a space) on the other; and to them it was clear only at their own +edge. And if thus even the plain popular language turned dark on their +understandings when employed in explanation of religion, it is easy to +imagine what had been the success of a more peculiarly theological +phraseology, though it were limited to such terms as are of frequent use +in the Bible. + +You continued, however, the effort for a while. As desirous to show you +due civility, some of the persons, perhaps the oldest, would give assent +to what you said, with some sign of acknowledgment of the importance of +the concern. The assent would perhaps be expressed in a form meant and +believed to be equivalent to what you had said. And when it gave an +intelligible idea, it might probably betray the grossest possible +misconception of the first principles of Christianity. It might be a crude +formation from the very same substance of which some of the worst errors +of popery are constituted; and might strongly suggest to you, in a glance +of thought, how easily popery might have become the religion of ignorance; +how naturally ignorance and corrupt feeling mixing with a slight vague +notion of Christianity, would turn it into just such a thing as popery. +You tried, perhaps, with repeated modifications of your expression, and +attempts at illustration, to loosen the false notion, and to place the +true one contrasted with it in such a near obviousness to the +apprehension, that at least the difference should be seen, and (perhaps +you hoped) a little movement excited to think on the subject, and make a +serious question of it. But all in vain. The hoary subject of your too +late instruction, (a spectacle reminding you painfully of the words which +denominate the sign of old age "crown of glory,") either would still take +it that it came all to the same thing, or, if compelled to perceive that +you really were trying to make him _unthink_ his poor old notions, and +learn something new and contrary, would probably retreat, in a little +while, into a half sullen, half despondent silence, after observing, that +he was too old, "the worse was the luck," to be able to learn about such +things, which he never had, like you, the "scholarship" and the time for. + +In several of the party you perceived the signs of almost a total blank. +They seemed but to be waiting for any trifling incident to take their +attention, and keep their minds alive. Some one with a little more of +listening curiosity, but without caring about the subject, might have to +observe, that it seemed to him the same kind of thing that the methodist +parson, (the term most likely to be used if any very serious and earnest +Christian instructor had appeared in the neighborhood,) was lately saying +in such a one's funeral-sermon. It is too possible that one or two of the +visages of the company, of the younger people especially, might wear, +during a good part of the time, somewhat of a derisive smile, meaning, +"What odd kind of stuff all this is;" as if they could not help thinking +it ludicrously strange that any one should be talking of God, of the +Saviour of mankind, the facts of the Bible, the welfare of the soul, the +shortness and value of life, and a future account, when he might be +talking of the neighboring fair, past or expected, or the local quarrels, +or the last laughable incident or adventure of the hamlet. It is +particularly observable, that grossly ignorant persons are very apt to +take a ludicrous impression from high and solemn subjects; at least when +introduced in any other time or way than in the ceremonial of public +religious service; when brought forward as a personal concern, demanding +consideration everywhere, and which may be urged by individual on +individual. You have commonly enough seen this provoke the grin of +stupidity and folly. And if you asked yourselves, (for it were in vain to +ask _them_,) why it produced this so perverse effect, you had only to +consider that, to minds abandoned through ignorance to be totally +engrossed by the immediate objects of sense, the grave assumption, and +emphatic enforcement, of the transcendent importance of a wholly unseen +and spiritual economy, has much the appearance and effect of a great lie +attempted to be passed on them. You might indeed recollect also, that the +most which some of them are likely to have learnt about religion, is the +circumstance, that the persons professing to make it an earnest concern +are actually regarded as fit objects of derision by multitudes, not of the +vulgar order only, but including many of the wealthy, the genteel, the +magisterial, and the dignified in point of rank. + +Individuals of the most ignorant class may stroll into a place of worship, +bearing their character so conspicuously in their appearance and manner as +to draw the particular notice of the preacher, while addressing the +congregation. It may be, that having taken their stare round the place, +they go out, just, it may happen, when he is in the midst of a marked, +prominent, and even picturesque illustration, perhaps from some of the +striking facts or characters of the Scripture history, which had not made +the slightest ingress on their thoughts or imagination. Or they are +pleased to stay through the service; during which his eye is frequently +led to where several of them may be seated together. Without an appearance +of addressing them personally, he shall be excited to direct a special +effort toward what he surmises to be the state of their minds. He may in +this effort acquire an additional force, emphasis, and pointedness of +delivery; but especially his utmost mental force shall be brought into +action to strike upon their faculties with vivid, rousing ideas, plainly +and briefly expressed. And he fancies, perhaps, that he has at least +arrested their attention; that what is going from his mind is in some +manner or other taking a place in theirs; when some inexpressibly trivial +occurring circumstance shows him, that the hold he has on them is not of +the strength of a spider's web. Those thoughts, those intellects, those +souls, are instantly and wholly gone--from a representation of one of the +awful visitations of divine judgment in the ancient world--a description +of sublime angelic agency, as in some recorded fact in the Bible--an +illustration of the discourse, miracles, or expiatory sorrows of the +Redeemer of the world--a strong appeal to conscience on past sin--a +statement, perhaps in the form of example, of an important duty in given +circumstances--a cogent enforcement of some specific point as of most +essential moment in respect to eternal safety;--from the attempted grasp, +or supposed seizure, of any such subject, these rational spirits started +away, with infinite facility, to the movements occasioned by the falling +of a hat from a peg. + +By the time that any semblance of attention returns, the preacher's +address may have taken the form of pointed interrogation, with very +defined supposed facts, or even real ones, to give the question and its +principle as it were a tangible substance. Well; just at the moment when +his questions converge to a point, which was to have been a dart of +conviction striking the understanding, and compelling the common sense +and conscience of the auditors to answer for themselves,--at that moment, +he perceives two or three of the persons he had particularly in view +begin an active whispering, prolonged with the accompaniment of the +appropriate vulgar smiles. They may possibly relapse at length, through +sheer dulness, into tolerable decorum; and the instructor, not quite +losing sight of them, tries yet again, to impel some serious ideas +through the obtuseness of their mental being. But he can clearly +perceive, after the animal spirits have thus been a little quieted by the +necessity of sitting still awhile, the signs of a stupid vacancy, which +is hardly sensible that anything is actually saying, and probably makes, +in the case of some of the individuals, what is mentally but a slight +transition to yawning and sleep. + +Utter ignorance is a most effectual fortification to a bad state of the +mind. Prejudice may perhaps, be removed; unbelief may be reasoned with; +even demoniacs have been compelled to bear witness to the truth; but the +stupidity of confirmed ignorance not only defeats the ultimate efficacy of +the means for making men wiser and better, but stands in preliminary +defiance to the very act of their application. It reminds us of an +account, in one of the relations of the French Egyptian campaigns, of the +attempt to reduce a garrison posted in a bulky fort of mud. Had the +defences been of timber, the besiegers might have set fire to and burned +them; had they been of stone, they might have shaken and ultimately +breached them by the battery of their cannon; or they might have +undermined and blown them up. But the huge mound of mud had nothing +susceptible of fire or any other force; the missiles from the artillery +were discharged but to be buried in the dull mass; and all the means of +demolition were baffled. + +The most melancholy of the exemplifications of the effect of ignorance, as +constituting an incapacity for receiving religious instruction, have been +presented to those who have visited persons thus devoid of knowledge in +sickness and the approach to death. Supposing them to manifest alarm and +solicitude, it is deplorable to see how powerless their understandings +are, for any distinct conception of what, or why, it is that they fear, or +regret, or desire. The objects of their apprehension come round them as +vague forms of darkness, instead of distinctly exhibited dangers and foes, +which they might steadily contemplate, and think how to escape or +encounter. And how little does the benevolent instructor find it possible +for him to do, when he applies his mind to the painful task of reducing +this gloomy confused vision to the plain defined truth of their unhappy +situation, set in order before their eyes. + +He deems it necessary to speak of the most elementary principles--the +perfect holiness and justice of God--the corresponding holiness and the +all-comprehending extent of his law, appointed to his creatures--the +absolute duty of conformity to it in every act, word, and thought--the +necessary condemnation consequent on failure--the dreadful evil, +therefore, of sin, both in its principle and consequences. God--perfect +holiness--justice--law--universal conformity--sin--condemnation! Alas! +the hapless auditor has no such sense of the force of terms, and no such +analogical ideas, as to furnish the medium for conveying these +representations to his understanding. He never had, at any time; and now +there may be in his mind all the additional confusion, and incapacity of +fixed attention, arising from pain, debility, and sleeplessness. All this +therefore passes before him with a tenebrious glimmer; like lightning +faintly penetrating to a man behind a thick black curtain. + +The instructor attempts a personal application, endeavoring to give the +disturbed conscience a rational direction, and a distinct cognizance. But +he finds, as he might expect to find, that a conscience without knowledge +has never taken but a very small portion of the man's habits of life under +its jurisdiction; and that it is a most hopeless thing to attempt to send +it back reinforced, to reclaim and conquer, through all the past, the +whole extent of its rightful but never assumed dominion. So feeble and +confined in the function of judgment through which it must see and act, it +is especially incapable of admitting the monitor's estimate of the measure +of guilt involved in omission, and in an irreligious state of the mind, as +an exceedingly grave addition to the account of criminal action. The man +is totally and honestly unable to conceive of the substantial guilt of +anything of which he can ask, what injury it has done to anybody. This +single point--whether positive harm has been done to any one--comprehends +the whole essence and sum of the conscious accountableness of very +ignorant people. Material wrong, _very_ material wrong, to their fellow +mortals, they have a conscience that they should not do; a conscience, +however, which they would deem it hard to be obliged to maintain entire +even to this confined extent; and which therefore admits some compromise +and gives some license, with respect especially to any kind of wrong which +has the extenuation, as they deem it, of being commonly practised in their +class; and against which there is a sort of understanding that each one +must take the best care he can of himself. At this confine, so undecidedly +marked, of practical, tangible wrong, these very ignorant persons lose the +sense of obligation, and feel absolved from any further jurisdiction. So +coarse and narrow a conscience as to what they _do_, is not likely to be +refined and extended into a cognizance of what they _are_. As for a duty +absolute in the nature of things, or as owing to themselves, in respect to +their own nature, or as imposed by the Almighty--_that their minds should +be in a certain prescribed state_--there does really require a perfectly +new manner of the action of intellect to enable them to apprehend its +existence. And this habitual insensibility to any jurisdiction over their +internal state, now meets, in its consequences, the supposed instructor. +In consideration of the vast importance of this part of a rational +creature's accountableness, and partly, too, from a desire to avoid the +invidiousness of appearing as a judicial censor of the sick man's +practical conduct, he insists in an especial manner on this subject of the +state within, endeavoring to expose that dark world by the light of +religion to the sick man's conscience. But to give in an hour the +_understanding_ which it requires the discipline of many years to render +competent! How vain the attempt! The man's sense of guilt fixes almost +exclusively on something that has been improper in his practical courses. +He professes to acknowledge the evil of this; and perhaps with a certain +stress of expression; intended, by an apparent respondence to the serious +emphasis which the monitor is laying on another part of the +accountableness and guilt, to take him off from thus endeavoring, as it +appears to the ignorant sufferer, to make him more of a sinner than there +is any reason, so little can he conceive that it should much signify what +his thoughts, tempers, affections, motives, and so forth, may have been. +By continuing to press the subject, the instructor may find himself in +danger of being regarded as having taken upon him the unkind office of +inquisitor and accuser in his own name, and of his own will and authority. + +When inculcating the necessity of repentance, he will perceive the +indistinctness of apprehension of the difference between the horror of +sin merely from dread of impending consequences, and an antipathy to its +essential nature. And even if this distinction, which admits of easy +forms of exemplification, should thus be rendered in a degree +intelligible, the man cannot make the application. The instructor +observes, as one of the most striking results of a want of disciplined +mental exercise, an utter inability for self-inspection. There is before +his eyes, looking at him, but a stranger to himself, a man on whose mind +no other mind, except One, can shed a light of self-manifestation, to +save him from the most fatal mistakes. + +If the monitor would turn, (rather from an impulse to relieve the gloom of +the scene, than from anything he sees of a hopeful approach toward a right +apprehension of the austerer truths of religion,) if he would turn his +efforts, to the effect of directing on this dark spirit the benign rays of +the Christian redemption, what is he to do for terms,--yes, for very +terms? Mediator, sacrifice, atonement, satisfaction, faith; even the +expression, believing in Christ; merit of the death of Christ, acquittal, +acceptance, justification;--he knows, or soon will find, that he is +talking the language of an occult science. And he is forced down to such +expedients of grovelling paraphrase, and humiliating analogy, that he +becomes conscious that his method of endeavoring to make a divine subject +comprehensible, is to divest it of its dignity, and reduce it, in order +that it may not confound, to the rank of things which have not majesty +enough to impress with awe. And after this has been done, to the utmost of +his ability, and to the unavoidable weariness of his suffering auditor, he +is distressed to think of the proportion between the insignificance of any +ideas which this man's mind now possesses of the economy of redemption, +and the magnitude of the interest in which he stands dependent on it. A +symptom or assurance which should impart to the sick man a confidence of +his recovery, would appear to him a far greater good than all he can +comprehend as offered to him from the Physician of the soul. Some crude +sentiment, as that he "hopes Jesus Christ will stand his friend;" that it +was very good of the Saviour to think of us; that he wishes he knew what +to do to get his help; that Jesus Christ has done him good in other +things, and he hopes he will now again at the last; [Footnote: Such an +expression as this would hardly have occurred but from recollection of +fact, in the instance of an aged farmer, (the owner of the farm,) in his +last illness. In the way of reassuring his somewhat doubtful hope that +Christ would not fail him when now had recourse to, at his extreme need, +he said, (to the writer,) "Jesus Christ has sent me a deal of good +crops."]--such expressions will afford little to alleviate the gloomy +feelings, with which the serious visitor descends from the chamber in +which, perhaps, he may hear, a few days after, that the man he conversed +with lies a dead body. + +But such benevolent visitors have to tell of still more melancholy +exemplifications of the effects of ignorance in the close of life. They +have seen the neglect of early cultivation, and the subsequent +estrangement from all knowledge and thinking, except about business and +folly, result in such a stupefaction of mind, that irreligious and immoral +persons, expecting no more than a few days of life, and not in a state of +physical lethargy, were absolutely incapable of being alarmed at the near +approach of death. They might not deny, nor in the infidel sense +disbelieve, what was said to them of the awfulness of that event and its +consequences; but they had actually never thought enough of death to have +any solemn associations with the idea. And their faculties were become so +rigidly shrunk up, that they could not now admit them; no, not while the +portentous spectre was unveiling his visage to them, in near and still +nearer approach; not when the element of another world was beginning to +penetrate through the rents of their mortal tabernacle. It appeared that +literally their thoughts _could not_ go out from what they had been +through life immersed in, to contemplate, with any realizing feeling, a +grand change of being, expected so soon to come on them. They could not go +to the fearful brink to look off. It was a stupor of the soul not to be +awaked but by the actual plunge into the realities of eternity. In such a +case the instinctive repugnance to death might be visible and +acknowledged. But the feeling was, If it must be so, there is no help for +it; and as to what may come after, we must take our chance. In this temper +and manner, we recollect a sick man, of this untaught class, answering the +inquiry how he felt himself, "Getting worse; I suppose I shall make a die +of it." And some pious neighbors, earnestly exhorting him to solemn +concern and preparation, could not make him understand, we repeat with +emphasis, _understand_ why there was occasion for any extraordinary +disturbance of mind. Yet this man was not inferior to those around him in +sense for the common business of life. + +After a tedious length of suffering, and when death is plainly +inevitable, it is not very uncommon for persons under this infatuation to +express a wish for its arrival, simply as a deliverance from what they +are enduring, without disturbing themselves with a thought of what may +follow. "I know it will please God soon to release me," was the +expression to his religious medical attendant, of such an ignorant and +insensible mortal, within an hour of his death, which was evidently and +directly brought on by his vices. And he uttered it without a word, or +the smallest indicated emotion, of penitence or solicitude; though he had +passed his life in a neighborhood abounding with the public means of +religious instruction and warning. + +When earnest, persisting, and seriously menacing admonitions, of pious +visitors or friends, almost literally compel such unhappy persons to some +precise recognition of the subject, their answers will often be faithfully +representative, and a consistent completion, of their course through +mental darkness, from childhood to the mortal hour. We recollect the +instance of a wicked old man, who, within that very hour, replied to the +urgent admonitions by which a religious neighbor felt it a painful duty to +make a last effort to alarm him, "What! do you believe that God can think +of damning me because I may have been as bad as other folk? I am sure he +will do no such thing: he is far too good for that." + +We cannot close this detailed illustration of so gloomy a subject, without +again adverting to a phenomenon as admirable as, unhappily, it is rare; +and for which the observers who cannot endure mystery in religion, or +religion itself, may go, if they choose, round the whole circle of their +philosophy, and begin again, to find any adequate cause, other than the +most immediate agency of the Almighty Spirit. Here and there an instance +occurs, to the delight of the Christian philanthropist, of a person +brought up in utter ignorance and barbarian rudeness, and so continuing +till late in life; and then at last, after such a length of time and habit +has completed its petrifying effect, suddenly seized upon by a mysterious +power, and taken, with an alarming and irresistible force, out of the dark +hold in which the spirit has lain imprisoned and torpid, into the sphere +of thought and feeling. + +Occasion is taken this once more of adverting to such facts, not so much +for the purpose of magnifying the nature, as of simply exhibiting the +effect, of an influence that can breathe with such power on the obtuse +intellectual faculties; which it appears, in the most signal of these +instances, almost to create anew. It is exceedingly striking to observe +how the contracted, rigid soul seems to soften, and grow warm, and expand, +and quiver with life. With the new energy infused, it painfully struggles +to work itself into freedom, from the wretched contortion in which it has +so long been fixed as by the impressed spell of some infernal magic. It is +seen filled with a distressed and indignant emotion at its own ignorance; +actuated with a restless earnestness to be informed; acquiring an unwonted +pliancy of its faculties to thought; attaining a perception, combined of +intelligence and moral sensibility, to which numerous things are becoming +discernible and affecting, that were as non-existent before. It is not in +the very extreme strength of their import that we employ such terms of +description; the malice of irreligion may easily parody them into poetical +excess; but we have known instances in which the change, the intellectual +change, has been so conspicuous, within a brief space of time, that even +an infidel observer must have forfeited all claim to be esteemed a man of +sense, if he would not acknowledge,--This that you call divine grace, +whatever it may really be, is the strangest awakener of faculties after +all. And to a devout man, it is a spectacle of most enchanting beauty, +thus to see the immortal plant, which has been under a malignant blast +while sixty or seventy years have passed over it, coming out at length in +the bloom of life. + +We cannot hesitate to draw the inference, that if religion is so +auspicious to the intellectual faculties, the cultivation and exercise of +those faculties must be of great advantage to religion. + +These observations on ignorance, considered as an incapacitation for +receiving religious instruction, are pointed chiefly at that portion of +the people, unhappily the largest, who are little disposed to attend to +that kind of instruction. But we should notice its prejudicial effect on +those of them to whom religion has become a matter of serious and +inquisitive concern. The preceding assertions of the efficacy of a strong +religious interest to excite and enlarge the intellectual faculty will not +be contradicted by observing, nevertheless, that in a dark and crude state +of that facility those well-disposed persons, especially if of a warm +temperament withal, are unfortunately liable to receive delusive +impressions and absurd notions, blended with religious doctrine and +sentiment. It would be no less than plain miracle or inspiration, a more +entire and specific superseding of ordinary laws than that which we have +just been denominating "an immediate agency of the Almighty Spirit," if a +mind left uncultivated all up through the earlier age, and perhaps far on +in life, should not come to its new employment on a most important subject +with a sadly defective capacity for judgment and discrimination. The +situation reminds us of an old story of a tribe of Indians denominated +"moon-eyed," who, not being able to look at things by the light of the +sun, were reduced to look at them under the glimmering of the moon, by +which light it is an inevitable circumstance of human vision to receive +the images of things in perverted and deceptive forms. + +Even in such an extremely rare instance as that above described, an +example of the superlative degree of the animating and invigorating +influence of religion on the uncultivated faculties, there would be +visible some of the unfortunate consequences of the inveterate rudeness; a +tendency, perhaps, to magnify some one thing beyond its proportionate +importance to adopt hasty conclusions; to entertain some questionable or +erroneous principle because it appears to solve a difficulty, or perhaps +falls in with an old prepossession; to make too much account of variable +and transitory feelings; or to carry zeal beyond the limits of discretion. +In examples of a lower order of the correction or reversal of the effects +of ignorance by the influence of religion, the remains will be still more +palpable. So that, while it is an unquestionable and gratifying fact, that +among the uneducated subjects of genuine religion many are remarkably +improved in the power and exercise of their reason; and while we may +assume that _some_ share of this improvement reaches to all who are really +under this most beneficent influence in the creation, [Footnote: _Really_ +under this influence, we repeat, pointedly; for we justly put all others +out of the account. It is nothing (as against this asserted influence on +the intelligent faculty) that great numbers who may contribute to swell a +public bustle about religion; who may run together at the call of whim, +imposture, or insanity, assuming that name; who may acquire, instead of +any other folly, a turn for talking, disputing, or ranting, about that +subject: it is nothing, in short, that _any_ who are not in real, +conscientious seriousness the disciples of religion, can be shown to be no +better for it, in point of improved understanding.] it still is to be +acknowledged of too many, who are in a measure, we may candidly believe, +under the genuine efficacy of religion, that they have attained, through +its influence, but so inferior a proportion of the improvement of +intellect, that they can be well pleased with the great deal of absurdity +of religious notions and language. But while we confess and regret that it +is so, we should not overlook the causes and excuses that may be found for +it, in unfortunate super-addition to their lack of education; partly in +the natural turn of the mind, partly in extraneous circumstances. Many +whose attention is in honest earnestness drawn to religion, are endowed by +nature with so scanty an allotment of the thinking power, strictly so +denominated, that it would have required high cultivation to raise them to +the level of moderate understanding. There are some who appear to have +constitutionally an invincible tendency to an uncouth, fantastic mode of +forming their notions. It is in the nature of others, that whatever +cultivation they might have received, it would still have been by their +passions, rather than, in any due proportion, by their reason, that an +important concern would have taken and retained hold of them. It may have +happened to not a few, that circumstances unfavorable to the understanding +were connected with the causes or occasions of their first effectual +religious impressions. Some quaint cast in the exposition of the Christian +faith, not essentially vitiating, but very much distorting and cramping +it, or some peculiarity or narrow-mindedness of the teachers, may have +conveyed their effect, to enter, as it were, at the door at the same +moment that it was opened by the force of a solemn conviction, and to be +retained and cherished ever after on the strength of this association. +This may have tended to give an obliquity to the disciple's understanding, +or to arrest and dwarf its growth; to fix it in prejudices instead of +training it to judgments; or to dispense with its exercise by merging it +in a kind of quietism; so that the proper tendency of religion to excite +intellectual activity was partly overruled and frustrated. It is most +unfortunate that thus there may be, from things casually or +constitutionally associated with a man's piety, an influence operating to +disable his understanding; as if there had been mixed with the incense of +a devout service in the temple, a soporific ingredient which had the +effect of closing the worshipper's eyes in slumber. + +Now suppose all these worthy persons, with so many things of a special +kind against them, to be also under the one great calamity of a neglected +education, and is it any wonder that they can admit religious truths in +shapes very strange and faintly enlightened; that they have an uncertain +and capricious test of what is genuine, and not much vigilance to +challenge plausible semblances; that they should be caught by some +fanciful exhibition of a truth which would be of too intellectual a +substance as presented in its pure simplicity; and should be ready to +receive with approbation not a little of what is a heavy disgrace to the +name of religious doctrine and ministration? Where is the wonder that +crudeness, incoherence, and inconsistency of notions, should not +disappoint and offend minds that have not, ten times since they came into +the world, been compelled to form two ideas with precision, and then +compare them discriminately or combine them strictly, on any subject +beyond the narrow scope of their ordinary pursuits? Where is the wonder, +if many such persons take noise and fustian for a glowing zeal and a lofty +elevation; if they mistake a wheedling cant for affectionate solicitude; +if they defer to pompous egotism and dogmatical assertion, when it is so +convenient a foundation for all their other faith to believe their teacher +is an oracle? No marvel if they are delighted with whimsical conceits as +strokes of discovery and surprise, and yet at the same time are pleased +with common-place, and endless repetition, as an exemption from mental +effort; and if they are gratified by vulgarity of diction and +illustration, as bringing religion to the level where they are at home? +Nay, if an artful pretender, or half-lunatic visionary, or some poor set +of dupes of their own inflated self-importance, should give out that they +are come into the world for the manifestation, at last, of true +Christianity, which the divine revelation has failed, till their advent, +to explain to any of the numberless devout and sagacious examiners of +it,--what is there in the minds of the most ignorant class of persons +desirous to secure the benefits of religion, that can be securely relied +on to certify them, that they shall not forego the greatest blessing ever +offered to them by setting at naught these pretensions? + +It is grievous to think there should be an active extensive currency of a +language conveying crudities, extravagances, arrogant dictates of +ignorance, pompous nothings, vulgarities, catches of idle fantasy, and +impertinences of the speaker's vanity, as religious instruction to +assemblages of ignorant people. But then for the means of depreciating +that currency, so as to drive it at last out of circulation? The thing to +be wished is, that it were possible to put some strong coercion on the +_minds_ (we deprecate all other restraint) of the teachers; a compulsion +to feel the necessity of information, sound sense, disciplined thinking, +the correct use of words, and an honest, careful purpose to make the +people wiser. There are signs of amendment, certainly; but while the +passion of human beings for notoriety lasts, (which will be yet some +time,) there will not fail to be men, in any number required, ready to +exhibit in religion, in any manner in which the people are willing to be +pleased with them. Let us, then, try the inverted order, and endeavor to +secure that those who assemble to be taught, shall already have learnt so +much, _by other means_, that no professed teacher shall feel at liberty to +treat them as an unknowing herd. But by what other means, except the +discipline of the best education possible to be given to them, and the +subsequent voluntary self-improvement to which it may be hoped that such +an education would often lead? + +We cannot dismiss this topic, of the unhappy effect of extreme ignorance +on persons religiously disposed, in rendering them both liable and +inclined to receive their ideas of the highest subject in a disorderly, +perverted, and debased form, mixed largely with other men's folly and +their own, without noticing with pleasure an additional testimony to the +connection between genuine religion and intelligence. It arises from the +fact, apparent to any discriminating observer, that as a _general_ rule +the most truly pious of the illiterate disciples of religion, those who +have the most of its devotional feeling and its humility, do certainly +manifest more of the operation of judgment in their religion than is +evinced by those of less solemn and devout sentiment. The former will +unquestionably be found, when on the same level as to the measure of +natural faculty and the want of previous cultivation, to show more +discernment, to be less captivated by noise and extravagance, and more +intent on obtaining a clear comprehension of that faith, which they feel +it is but a reasonable obligation that they should endeavor to understand, +if they are to repose on it their most important hopes. + + + + +Section VI. + + + +Thus it has been attempted, we fear with too much prolixity and +repetition, to describe the evils attendant on a neglected state of the +minds of the people. The representation does not comprehend all those even +of magnitude and prominence; but it displays that portion of them which is +the most serious and calamitous, as being the effect which the people's +ignorance has on their moral and religious interests. And we think no one +who has attentively surveyed the state and character of the lower orders +of the community, in this country, will impute exaggeration to the +picture. It is rather to be feared that the reality is of still darker +shade; and that a more strikingly gloomy exhibition might be formed, by +such a process as the following:--That a certain number of the most +observant of the philanthropic persons, who have had most intercourse with +the classes in question, for the purposes of instruction, charitable aid, +or perhaps of furnishing employment, should relate the most characteristic +circumstances and anecdotes within their own experience, illustrative of +this mental and moral condition; and that these should be arranged, +without any comment, under the respective heads of the preceding sketch, +or of a more comprehensive enumeration. Each of them might repeat, in so +many words, the most notable things he has heard uttered as disclosing the +notions entertained of the Deity, or any part of religion; or those which +have been formed of the ground and extent of duty and accountableness; or +the imaginations respecting the termination of life, and a future +retribution. They might relate the judgments they have heard pronounced on +characters and particular modes of conduct; on important events in the +world; on anything, in short, which may afford a test of the quality and +compass of uncultivated thought. Let the recital include both the +expressions of individual conception, and those of the most current maxims +and common-places; and let them be the sayings of persons in health, and +of those languishing and dying. Then let there be produced a numerous +assortment of characteristic samples of practical conduct; conduct not +simply proceeding, in a general way, from wrong disposition, but bearing +the special marks of the cast and direction which that disposition takes +through extreme ignorance: samples of action that is wrong because the +actor cannot think right, or does not think at all. The assemblage of +things thus recounted, when the actual circumstances were also added of +the wretchedness corresponding and inseparable, would constitute such an +exhibition of fact, as any description of those evils in general terms +would incur the charge of rhetorical excesses in attempting to rival. We +can well imagine that some of these persons, of large experience, may have +accompanied us through the foregoing series of illustrations, with a +feeling that they could have displayed the subject with a far more +striking prominence. + +And now again the mortifying reflection comes on us, that all this is the +description of too probably the major part of the people of our own +nation. Of this nation, the theme of so many lofty strains of panegyric; +of this nation, stretching forth its powers in ambitious enterprise, with +infinite pride and cost, to all parts of the globe;--just as if a family +were seen eagerly intent on making some new appropriation, or going out to +maintain some competition or feud with its neighbors, or mixing perhaps in +the strife of athletic games, or drunken frays, at the very time that +several of its members are lying dead in the house. So that the fame of +the nation resounded, and its power made itself felt, in every clime, it +was not worth a consideration that a vast proportion of its people were +systematically consigned, through ignorance and the irreligion and +depravity inseparable from it, to a wretchedness on which that fame was +the bitterest satire. It is matter for never-ending amazement, that during +one generation after another, the presiding wisdom in this chief of +Christian and Protestant States, should have thrown out the living +strength of that state into almost every mode of agency under heaven, +rather than that of promoting the state itself to the condition of a happy +community of cultivated beings. What stupendous infatuation, what +disastrous ascendency of the Power of Darkness, that this energy should +have been sent forth to pervade all parts of the world in quest of +objects, to inspirit and accomplish innumerable projects, political and +military, and to lavish itself, even to exhaustion and fainting at its +vital source, on every alien interest; while here at home, so large a part +of the social body was in a moral and intellectual sense dying and +putrefying over the land. And it was thus perishing for want of the +vivifying principle of knowledge, which one-fifth part of this mighty +amount of exertion would have been sufficient to diffuse into every corner +and cottage in the island. Within its circuit, a countless multitude were +seen passing away their mortal existence little better, in any view, than +mere sentient shapes of matter, and by their depravity immeasurably worse; +and yet this hideous fact had not the weight of the very dust of the +balance, in the deliberation whether a grand exertion of the national +vigor and resource could have any object so worthy, (with God for the +Judge,) as some scheme of foreign aggrandizement, some interference in +remote quarrels, an avengement by anticipation of wrongs pretended to be +foreseen, or the obstinate prosecution of some fatal career, begun in the +very levity of pride, by a decision in which some perverse individual or +party in ascendency had the influence to obtain a corrupt, deluded, or +forced concurrence. + +The national _honor_, perhaps, would be alleged, in a certain matter of +punctilio, for the necessity of undertakings of incalculable consumption, +by men who could see no national _disgrace_ in the circumstance that +several millions of the persons composing the nation could not read the +ten commandments. Or the national _safety_ has been pleaded to a similar +purpose, with a rant or a gravity of patriotic phrases, upon the +appearance of some slight threatening symptoms; and the wise men so +pleading, would have scouted as the very madness of fanaticism any +dissuasion that should have advised,--"Do you, instead, apply your best +efforts, and the nation's means, to raise the barbarous population from +their ignorance and debasement, and you really may venture some little +trust in Divine Providence for the nation's safety meanwhile." + +If a contemplative and religious man, looking back through little more +than a century, were enabled to take, with an adequate comprehension of +intellect, the sum and value of so much of the astonishing course of the +national exertions of this country as the Supreme Judge has put to the +criminal account of pride and ambition; and if he could then place in +contrast to the transactions on which that mighty amount has been +expended, a sober estimate of what so much exerted vigor _might_ have +accomplished for the intellectual and moral exaltation of the people, it +could not be without an emotion of horror that he would say, Who is to be +accountable, who _has been_ accountable, for this difference? He would no +longer wonder at any plagues and judgments which may have been inflicted +on such a state. And he would solemnly adjure all those, especially, who +profess in a peculiar manner to feel the power of the Christian Religion, +to beware how they implicate themselves, by avowed or even implied +approbation, in what must be a matter of fearful account before the +highest tribunal. If some such persons, of great merit and influence, +honored performers of valuable public services in certain departments, +have habitually given, in a public capacity, this approbation, he would +urge it on their consciences, in the evening of life, to consider whether, +in the prospect of that tribunal, they have not one duty yet to +perform,--to throw off from their minds the servility to party +associations, to estimate as Christians, about to retire from the scene, +the actual effects on this nation of a policy which might have been nearly +the same if Christianity had been extinct; and then to record a solemn, +recanting, final protest against a system to which they have concurred in +the profane policy of degrading that religion itself into a party. + +Any reference made to such a prospect implies, that there is attributed to +those who can feel its seriousness a state of mind perfectly unknown to +the generality of what are called public men. For it is notorious that, to +the mere working politician, there is nothing on earth that sounds so idly +or so ludicrously as a reference to a judgment elsewhere and hereafter, to +which the policy and transactions of statesmen are to be carried. If the +Divine jurisdiction would yield to contract its comprehension, and retire +from all the ground over which a practical infidelity heedlessly +disregards or deliberately rejects it, how large a province it would leave +free! If it be assumed that the province of national affairs _is_ so left +free, on the pretence that they _cannot_ be transacted in faithful +conformity to the Christian standard, that plea is reserved to be tried in +the great account, when the responsibility for them shall be charged. For +assuredly there will be persons found, to be summoned forth as accountable +for that conduct of states which we are contemplating. Such a moral agency +could not throw off its responsibility into the air, to be dissipated and +lost, like the black smoke of forges or volcanoes. This one grand thing +(the improvement of the people) left undone, while a thousand arduous +things have been done or strenuously endeavored, cannot be less than an +awful charge _somewhere_. And where?--but on all who have voluntarily +concurred and co-operated in systems and schemes, which could deliberately +put _such_ a thing last? Last! nay, not even that; for they have, till +recently, as we have seen, thrown it almost wholly out of consideration. A +long succession of men invested with ample power are gone to this audit. +How many of those who come after them will choose to proceed on the same +principles, and meet the same award? + +We were supposing a thoughtful man to draw out to his view a parallel and +contrast, exhibiting, on the one side, the series of objects on which, +during several ages, an enormous exertion of the national energy has been +directed; and on the other, those improvements of the people which might +have been effected by so much of that exertion as he deems to have been +worse than wasted. In this process, he might often be inclined to single +out particular parts in the actual series, to be put in special contrast +over against the possibilities on the opposite line. For example; there +may occur to his view some inconsiderable island, the haunt of fatal +diseases, and rendered productive by means involving the most flagrant +iniquity; an iniquity which it avenges by opening a premature grave for +many of his countrymen, and by being a moral corrupter of the rest. Such +an infested spot, nevertheless, may have been one of the most material +objects of a widely destructive war, which has in effect sunk incalculable +treasure in the sea, and in the sands, ditches, and fields of +plague-infested shores; with a dreadful sacrifice of blood, life, and all +the best moral feelings and habits. Its possession, perhaps, was the chief +prize and triumph of all the grand exertion, the equivalent for all the +cost, misery, and crime. + +Or there may occur to him the name of some fortress, in a less remote +region, where the Christian nations seem to have vied with one another +which of them should deposit the greatest number of victims, securely kept +in the charge of death, to rise and testify for them, at the last day, how +much they have been governed by the peaceful spirit of their professed +religion. He reads that his countrymen, conjoined with others, have +battled round this fortress, wasting the vicinity, but richly manuring the +soil with blood. They have co-operated in hurling upon the abodes of +thousands of inhabitants within its walls, a thunder and lightning +incomparably more destructive than those of nature; and have put fire and +earthquake under the fortifications; shouting, "to make the welkin ring," +at sight of the consequent ruin and chasm, which have opened an entrance +for hostile rage, or compelled an immediate submission, if, indeed, it +would then be accepted to disappoint that rage of its horrible +consummation. They have taken the place,--and they have surrendered it. +The next year perhaps they have taken it again; to be again at last given +up, on compulsion or in compromise, to the very same party to which it had +belonged previously to all this destructive commotion. The operations in +this local and very narrow portion of the grand affray of monarchies, he +may calculate to have cost his country as much as the amount earned by the +toils of half the life of all the inhabitants of one of its populous +towns; setting aside from his view the more portentous part of the +account,--the carnage, the crimes, and the devastation perpetrated on the +foreign tract, the place of abode of people who had little interest in the +contest, and no power to prevent it. And why was all this? He may not be +able to divest himself of the principles that should rule the judgment of +a moralist and a Christian, in order to think like a statesman; and +therefore may find no better reason than that, when despots would quarrel, +Britain must fancy itself called upon to take the occasion to prove itself +a great power, by bearing a high hand amidst their rivalries; or must +seize the opportunity of revenging some trivial offence of one of them; +though this should be at the expense of having the scene at home chequered +between children learning little more than how to curse, and old persons +dying without knowing how to put words together to pray. + +The question may have been, in one part of the world or another, which of +two wicked individuals of the same family, competitors for sovereign +authority, should be actually invested with it, they being equal in the +qualifications and dispositions to make the worst use of it. And the +decision of such a question was worthy that England should expend what +remained of her depressed strength from previous exertions of it in some +equally meritorious cause. + +Or the supposed reviewer of our national history may find, somewhere in +his retrospect, that a certain brook or swamp in a wilderness, or a stripe +of waste, or the settlement of boundaries in respect to some insignificant +traffic, was difficult of adjustment between jealous, irritated, and +mutually incursive neighbors; and therefore, national honor and interest +equally required that war should be lighted up by land and sea, through +several quarters of the globe. Or a dissension may have arisen upon the +matter of some petty tax on an article of commerce: an absolute will had +been rashly signified on the claim; pride had committed itself, and was +peremptory for persisting; and the resolution was to be prosecuted through +a wide tempest of destruction, protracted perhaps many years; and only +ending in the forced abandonment by the leading power concerned, of +infinitely more than war had been made in the determination not to forego; +and after an absolutely fathomless amount of every kind of cost, financial +and moral, in this progress to final frustration.--But there would be no +end of recounting facts of this order. + +Now the comparative estimator has to set against the extended rank of such +enormities the forms of imagined good, which might, during the ages of +this retrospect, have been realized by an incomparably less exhausting +series of exertion, an exertion, indeed, continually renovating its own +resources. Imagined good, we said;--alas! the evil stands in long and +awful display on the ground of history; the hypothetical good presents +itself as a dream; with this circumstance only of difference from a dream, +that there is resting on the conscience of beings somewhere still +existing, a fearful accountableness for its not having been a reality. + +For such an _island_, as we have supposed our comparer to read of, he can +look, in imagination, on a space of proportional extent in any part of his +native country, taking a district as a detached section of a general +national picture. And he can figure to himself the result, resplendent +upon this tract, of so much energy, there beneficently expended, as that +island had cost: an energy, we mean _equivalent in measure_, while put +forth in the infinitely different _mode_ of an exertion, by all +appropriate means, to improve the reason, manners, morals, and with them +the physical condition of the people. What a prevalence of intelligence, +what a delightful civility of deportment, what repression of the more +gross and obtrusive forms of vice, what domestic decorum, attentive +education of the children, appropriateness of manner, and readiness of +apprehension in attendance on public offices of religion, sense and good +order in assemblages for the assertion and exercise of civil and political +rights! All this he can imagine as the possible result. + +We were supposing his attention fixed a while on the recorded operations +against some strongly fortified place, in a region marked through every +part with the traces and memorials of the often-renewed conflicts of the +Christian states. And we suppose him to make a collective estimate of all +kinds of human ability exerted around and against that particular devoted +place; an estimate which divides this off as a portion of the whole +immense quantity of exertion, expended by his country in all that region +in the campaigns of a war, or of a century's wars. He may then again +endeavor, by a rule of equivalence, to conceive the same amount of +exertion in quite another way; to imagine human forces equal in +_quantity_ to all that putting forth of strength, physical, mental, and +financial, for annoyance and destruction, expended instead, in the +operation of effecting the utmost improvement which they _could_ effect, +in the mental cultivation and the morals of the inhabitants of one large +town in his own country. + +In figuring to himself the channels and instrumentality, through which +this great stream of energy might have passed into this operation, on a +detached spot of his country, he will soon have many specific means +presented to his view: schools of the most perfect appointment, in every +section and corner of the town; a system of friendly but cogent dealing +with all the people of inferior condition, relatively to the necessity of +their practical accordance to the plans of education;[Footnote: It is here +confidently presumed, that any man who looks, in a right state of his +senses, at the manner in which the children are still brought up, in many +parts of the land, will hear with contempt any hypocritical protest +against so much interference with the discretion, the liberty of +parents;--the discretion, the liberty, forsooth, of bringing up their +children a nuisance on the face of the earth.] an exceedingly copious +supply, for individual possession, of the best books of elementary +knowledge; accompanied, as we need not say, by the sacred volume; a number +of assortments of useful and pleasing books for circulation, established +under strict order, and with appointments of honorary and other rewards to +those who gave evidence of having made the best use of them; a number of +places of resort where various branches of the most generally useful and +attainable knowledge and arts should be explained and applied, by every +expedient of familiar, practical, and entertaining illustration, admitting +a degree of co-operation by those who attended to see and hear; and an +abundance of commodious places for religious instruction on the Sabbath, +where there should be wise and zealous men to impart it. Our speculator +has a right to suppose a high degree of these qualifications in his public +teachers of religion, when he is to imagine a parallel in this department +to the skill and ardor displayed in the supposed military operations. He +may add as subsidiary to such an apparatus, everything of magistracy and +municipal regulation; a police, vigilant and peremptory against every +cognizable neglect and transgression of good order; a resolute breaking up +of all haunts and rendezvous of intemperance, dishonesty and other vice; +and the best devised and administered institutions for correcting and +reclaiming those whom education had failed to preserve from such +depravity; and besides all this, there would be a great variety of +undefinable and optional activity of benevolent and intelligent men of +local influence. + +Under so auspicious a combination of discipline, he will not indeed fancy, +in his transient vision, that he beholds Athens revived, with its bright +intelligence all converted to minister to morality, religion, and +happiness; but he will, in sober consistency, we think, with what is known +of the relation of cause and effect, imagine a place far surpassing any +actual town or city on earth. And let it be distinctly kept in view, that +to reduce the ideal exhibition to reality, he is not dreaming of means and +resources out of all human reach, of preternatural powers, discovered +gold-mines, grand feats of genius. He is just supposing to have been +expended, on the population of the town, a measure of exertion and means +equal, (as far as agencies in so different a form and direction can be +brought to any rule of comparative estimate) to what has been expended by +his country in investing, battering, undermining, burning, taking, and +perhaps retaking, one particular foreign town, in one or several +campaigns. + +If he should perchance be sarcastically questioned, how he can allow +himself in so strange a conceit as that of supposing such a quantity of +forces concentrated to act in one exclusive spot, while the rest of the +country remained under the old course of things; or in such an absurdity +as that of fancying that _any_ quantity of those forces could effectually +raise one local section of the people eminently aloft, while continuing +surrounded and unavoidably in constant intercourse with the general mass, +remaining still sunk in degradation--he has to reply, that he is fancying +no such thing. For while he is thus converting, in imagination, the +military exertions against one foreign town, into intellectual and moral +operations on one town at home, why may he not, in similar imagination, +make a whole country correspond to a whole country? He may conceive the +incalculable amount of exertion made by his country, in martial operations +over all that wide foreign territory of which he has selected a particular +spot, to have been, on the contrary, expended in the supposed beneficent +process on the great scale of this whole nation. Then would the +hypothetical improvement in the one particular town, so far from being a +strange insulated phenomenon, absurd to be conceived as existing in +exception and total contrast to the general state of the people, be but a +specimen of that state. + +He may proceed along the series of such confronted spectacles as far as +bitter mortification will let him. But he will soon be sick of this +process of comparison. And how sick will he thenceforward be, to perpetual +loathing, of the vain raptures with which an immortal and anti-Christian +patriotism can review a long history of what it will call national glory, +acquired by national energy ambitiously consuming itself in a continual +succession and unlimited extent of extraneous operations, of that kind +which has been the grand curse of the human race ever since the time of +Cain; while the one thing needful of national welfare, the very _summum +bonum_ of a state, has been regarded with contemptuous indifference. + +These observations are not made on an assumption, that England could in +all cases have kept clear of implication in foreign interests, and remote +and sanguinary contests. But they are made on the assumption of what is +admitted and deplored by every thoughtful religious man, whose +understanding and moral sense are not wretchedly prostrated in homage to a +prevailing system, and chained down by a superstition that dares not +question the wisdom and probity of high national authorities and counsels. +What is so admitted and deplored by the true and Christian patriots is, +that this nation has gone to an awfully criminal extent beyond the line of +necessity; that it has been extremely prompt to find or make occasions for +appearing again, and still again, in array for the old work of waste and +death; and that the advantage possessed by the preponderating classes in +this protestant country, for being instructed (if they had cared for such +instruction) to look at these transactions in the light of religion, has +reflected a peculiar aggravation on the guilt of a policy persevered in +from age to age, in disregard of the laws of Christianity, and the warning +of accountableness to the Sovereign Judge. + +These observations assume, also, that there _cannot_ be such a thing as a +nation so doomed to a necessity and duty of expending its vigor and means +in foreign enterprise, as to be habitually absolved from the duty of +raising its people from brutish ignorance. _This_ concern is a duty at all +events and to an entire certainty; is a duty imperative and absolute; and +any pretended necessity for such a direction of the national exertion as +would be, through a long succession of time, incompatible with a paramount +attention to this, would be a virtual denial of the superintendence of +Providence. It would be the same thing as to assert of an individual, that +his duties of other kinds are so many and great, as to render it +impossible for him to give a competent attention to his highest interests, +and that therefore he stands exempted from the obligations of religion. + +Such as we have described has been, for ages, the degraded state of the +multitude. And such has been the indifference to it, manifested by the +superior, the refined, the ascendant portion of the community; who, +generally speaking, could see these sharers with them of the dishonored +human nature, in endless numbers around them, in the city and the field, +without its ever flashing on conscience that on them was lying a solemn +responsibility, destined to press one day with all its weight, for that +ill arrangement of the social order which abandoned these beings to an +exclusion from the sphere of rational existence. It never occurred to many +of them as a question of the smallest moment, in what manner the mind +might be living in all these bodies, if only it were there in competence +to make them efficient as machines and implements. Contented to be gazed +at, to be envied, or to be regarded as too high even for envy, and to have +the rough business of the world performed by these inhalers of the vital +air, they perhaps thought, if they reflected at all on the subject, that +the best and most privileged state of such creatures was to be in the +least possible degree morally accountable: and that therefore it would be +but doing them an injury to enlarge their knowledge. And might not the +thought be suggested at some moment, (see how many things may be envied in +their turns!) how happy _they_ should be, if, with the vast superiority of +their advantages, they could still be just as little accountable? But if +even in this way, of envy, they received an unwelcome admonition of their +own high responsibility, not even then was it suggested to them, that they +should ever be arraigned on a charge to which they would vainly wish to be +permitted to plead, "Were we our brothers' keepers?" And if an office +designated in those terms had been named to them, as a part of their duty, +by some unearthly voice of imperious accent, their thoughts might have +traversed hither and thither, in various conjectures and protracted +perplexity, before the objects of that office had been presented +explicitly to their apprehension as no other than the reason, principles, +consciences, and the whole moral condition of the vulgar mass. They would +understand that its condition was, _in some way or other_, a concern lying +at their door, but probably not in this.--We speak generally, and not +universally. + + * * * * * + +But we would believe there are signs of a revolution beginning; a more +important one, by its higher principle and its expansive impulse toward a +wide and remote beneficence, than the ordinary events of that name. What +have commonly been the matter and circumstance of revolutions? The last +deciding blow in a deadly competition of equally selfish parties; actions +and reactions of ambition and revenge; the fiat of a conqueror; a burst of +blind fury, suddenly sweeping away an old order of things, but +overwhelming to all attempts to substitute a better institution; plots, +massacres, battles, dethronements, restorations: all actuated by a +fermentation of the ordinary or the basest elements of humanity. How +little of the sublime of moral agency has there been, with one or two +partial exceptions, in these mighty commotions; how little wisdom or +virtue, or reference to the Supreme Patron of national interests; how +little nobleness or even distinctness of purpose, or consolidated +advantage of success! But here is, as we trust, the approach of a +revolution with different phenomena. It displays the nature of its +principle and its ambition in a conviction, far more serious and extensive +than heretofore, of the necessity of education to the mass of the +population, with earnest discussions of its scope and methods by both +speculative and practical men; in schemes, more speedily animated into +operation than good designs were wont to be, for spreading useful +knowledge over tracts of the dead waste where there was none; in exciting +tens of thousands of young persons to a benevolent and patient activity in +the instruction of the children of the poor; in an extended and extending +system of means and exertions for the universal diffusion of the sacred +scriptures; in multiplying endeavors, in all regular and all uncanonical +ways, to render it next to impossible for the people to avoid hearing some +sounds at least of the voice of religion; in the formation of useful local +institutions too various to come under one denomination; in enterprises to +attempt an opening of the vast prison-houses of human spirits in dark +distant regions; in bringing to the test of principles many notions and +practices which have stood on the authority of prejudice, custom, and +prescription: and all this taking advantage of the new and powerful spirit +which has come on the world to drive its affairs into commotion and +acceleration; as bold adventurers have sometimes availed themselves of a +formidable torrent to be conveyed whither the stream in its ordinary state +would never have carried them; or as we have heard of heroic assailants +seizing the moment of a tempest to break through the enemy's lines.--Such +are some of the insignia by which it stands distinguished out and far off +from the rank of ordinary revolutions. + +We are not unaware that, with certain speculators on this same subject of +meliorating the state and character of the people, some of the things here +specified will be of small account, either as signs of a great change, or +as means of promoting it. The widely spreading activity of a humble class +of laborers, who seek no fame for their toils and sacrifices, is but a +creeping process, almost invisible in the survey. The multiplied, +voluntary, and extraordinary efforts to diffuse some religious knowledge +and sentiment among the vulgar, appear to them, if not even of doubtful +tendency, at least of such impotence for corrective operation, that any +confidence founded on them is simple fanaticism; that the calculation is, +to use a commercial term, mere moonshine. We remember when a publication +of great note and influence flung contempt on the sanguine expectations +entertained from the rapid circulation of Bibles among the inferior +population. At the hopeful mention of expedients of the religious kind +especially, the class of speculators in question might perhaps be reminded +of Glendower's grave and believing talk of calling up spirits to perform +his will; or (should they ever have happened to read the Bible) of the +people who seized, in honest credulous delight, the mockery of a proposal +of pulling a city, to the last stone, into the river with ropes, as a +prime stroke of generalship. + +When we see such expedients rated so low in the process for raising the +populace from their degradation, we ask what means these speculators +themselves would reckon on for the purpose. And it would appear that their +scheme would calculate mainly on some supposed dispositions of a political +and economical nature. Let the people be put in possession of all their +rights as citizens, and thus advanced in the scale of society. Let all +invidious distinctions which are artificial, arbitrary, and not +inevitable, be abolished; together with all laws and regulations +injuriously affecting their temporal well-being. Give them thus a sense of +being _something_ in the great social order, a direct palpable interest in +the honor and prosperity of the community. There will then be a dignified +sense of independence; the generous, liberalizing, ennobling sentiments of +freedom; the self-respect and conscious responsibility of men in the full +exercise of their rights; the manly disdain of what is base; the innate +perception of what is worthy and honorable, developing itself +spontaneously on the removal of the ungenial circumstances in the +constitution of society, which have been as a long winter on the +intellectual and moral nature of its inferior portions. All this will +conduce to the practicability and efficacy of education. It will be an +education _to fit them for an education_ to be introduced with the +progress of that fitness; intellectual culture finding a felicitous +adaptation of the soil. We may then adopt with some confidence a public +system, or stimulate and assist all independent local exertions for the +instruction of the people in the rudiments of literature and general +knowledge; and religion too, if you will. + +But, to say nothing of the vain fancies of the virtues ready to disclose +themselves in a corrupt mass, under the auspices of improved political +institutions, it is unfortunate for any such speculation that what it +insists on as the primary condition cannot as yet, but very imperfectly, +be had. The higher and commanding portion of the community have, very +naturally, the utmost aversion to concede to the people what are claimed +as theoretically their rights. They have, indeed, latterly been +constrained to make considerable concessions in name and semblance. But +their great and various power will be strenuously exerted, for probably a +long while yet, to render the acquisitions made by the people as nearly as +possible profitless in their hands. And unhappily these predominant +classes have to allege the mental and moral rudeness of the lower, in +vindication of this determined policy of repression and frustration; thus +turning the consequences of their own criminal neglect into a defence of +their injustice. They will say, If the subordinate millions had grown up +into a rational existence; if they had been rendered capable of thinking, +judging, distinguishing, if they were in possession of a moderate share of +useful information, and withal a strong sense of duty; then might this and +the other privilege, or call it right, in the social constitution be +yielded to them. But as long as they continue in their present mental +grossness they are unfit for the possession, because unqualified for the +exercise, of any such privileges as would take them from under our +authoritative control. + +Since they can and will, for the present, maintain this controlling power, +to the extent of nearly invalidating any political advancement attained, +or likely to be soon attained, by the lower grades, a speculation that +should place on that advancement, as a pre-requisite, our hope of a great +change in the mental condition of the people, would be, to adopt a humble +figure, setting us to climb to an upper platform without a ladder, or +rather telling us not to climb at all. And while this supposed +pre-requisite will be refused, on the allegation that the uncultivated +condition of the people renders them unfit for a liberal political +arrangement, the parties so refusing will be little desirous to have the +obstacle removed; foreseeing, as the inevitable consequence of a highly +improved cultivation, a more resolute demand of the advantages withheld, a +constantly augmenting force of popular opinion, and therefore a diminution +of their own predominant power. They will deem it much more commodious for +themselves, that the people should not be so enlightened and raised as to +come into any such competition. And since they, with these dispositions, +have the preponderance in what we denominate the State, we fear we are not +to look with much hope to the State for a liberal and effective system of +national education. + + * * * * * + +What then is to be done?--We earnestly wish it might please the Sovereign +Ruler to do one more new thing in the earth, compelling the dominant +powers in the nations to an order of institutions and administrations that +_would_ apply the energy of the state to so noble a purpose. Nor can we +imagine any test of their merits so fair as the question whether, and in +what degree, they do this; nor any test by which they may more naturally +decline to have those merits tried. But since, to the shame of our nature, +there is no use to which we are so prone to turn our condemnation of evil +in one form, as that of purchasing a license for it in another, the +persons who are justly arraigning the powers at the head of nations should +be warned that they do not take from the guilty omissions of states a +sanction for individuals to do nothing. Let them not suffer an imposition +on their minds in the notion entertained of a state, as a thing to be no +otherwise accounted of than in a collective capacity, acting by a +government; as if the collective power and agency of a nation became, in +being exerted through that political organ, an affair altogether foreign +to the will, the action, the duty, the responsibility, of the persons of +whom the nation is composed. Let them not put out of sight that whatever +is the duty of the national body in that collective capacity, acting +through its government, is such only because it is the duty of the +individuals composing that body, as far as it is in the power of each; and +that it would be their duty individually not the less, though the +government, as the depositary of the national power, neglect it. But more +than this; to speak generally, and with certain degrees of possible +exception, we may affirm that a government _cannot_ be lastingly +neglectful of a great duty but because the individuals constituting the +community are so. An assertion, that a government has been utterly and +criminally neglectful of the moral condition of the inferior population, +age after age, and through every change of its administrators; but that, +nevertheless, the generality of the individuals of intelligence, wealth, +and influence, have all the while been of a quite opposite spirit, +zealously intent on remedying the flagrant evil, would be instantly +rejected as a contradiction. Such an enlightened and philanthropic spirit +prevailing widely among the individuals of the nation would carry its +impulse into the government in one manner or another. It would either +constrain the administrators of the state to act in conformity, or +ultimately displace them in favor of better men. Even if, short of such a +_general_ activity of the respectable and locally influential members of +society, a large proportion of them had vigorously prosecuted such a +purpose, it would have compelled the administrators of the state to +consider, even for their own sake, whether they should be content to see +so important a process going on independently of them, and in contrast +with their own disgraceful neglect. + +But at the worst, and on the supposition that they were obstinately +inaccessible to all moral and philanthropic considerations, still a grand +improvement would have been accomplished, if many thousands of the +responsible members of the community had attempted it with zealous and +persevering exertion. The neglect, therefore, of the improvement of the +people, so glaring in the review of our conduct as a nation, has been, to +a very great extent, the insensibility of individuals to obligations lying +on them as such, independently of the institutions and administration of +the state. + +And are individuals _now_ absolved from all such responsibility; and the +more so, that the conviction of the importance of the object is come upon +them with such a new and cogent force? When they say, reproachfully, that +the nation, as a body politic, concentrating its powers in its government, +disowns or neglects a most important duty, is it to be understood that +this accusatory testimony is _their_ share, or something equivalent in +substitution for their share, of that very duty? Does a collective duty of +such very solid substance, vanish into nothing under any attempted process +of resolving it into fractions and portions for individuals? And do they +themselves, as some of the individuals to whom this duty might thus be +distributively assigned,--do they themselves, in spite of self-love, +self-estimation, and all the sentiments which they will at other times +indulge in homage of their own importance,--do they, when this assignment +is attempted to be made to them, instantly and willingly surrender to a +feeling of crumbling down from this proud individuality into an +undistinguishable existence in the mass; and, profaning the language of +religion, say to the State, "In thee we live, move, and have a being?" Or, +will they, (in assimilation to eastern pagans, who hold that a divinity so +pervades them as to be their wills and do their actions, leaving the mere +human vehicle without power, duty, or accountableness,) will they account +themselves but as passive matter, moved or fixed, and in all things +necessitated, by a sovereign mythological something denominated the state? + +No, not in all things. It is not so that they feel with respect to those +other interests and projects, which they are really in earnest to promote, +though those concerns may lie in no greater proportion than the one in +question does within the scope of their individual ability. The incubus +has then vanished; and they find themselves in possession of a free +agency, and a degree of power, which they will not patiently hear +estimated in any such contemptuous terms. What is there then that should +reduce them, as individual agents, to such utter and willing +insignificance in the affair of which we are speaking? Besides, they may +form themselves, in indefinite number, into combination. And is there no +power in any collective form in which they can be associated, save just +that one in which the aggregation is constituted under the political shape +and authority denominated a state? Or is it at last that some alarm of +superstitious loyalty comes over them; that they grow uneasy in conscience +at the high-toned censure they have been stimulated and betrayed to +pronounce on the state; that they relapse into the obsequiousness of +hesitating, whether they should presume to do good of a kind which the +"Power ordained of God" has not seen fit to do; that they must wait for +the sanction of its great example; that till the "shout of kings is among +them" it were better not to march against the vandalism and the paganism +which are, the while, quite at their ease, destroying the people? + +But if such had always been the way in which private individuals, single +or associated, had accounted of themselves and their possible exertions, +in regard to great general improvements, but very few would ever have been +accomplished. For the case has commonly been, that the schemes of such +improvements have originated with persons not invested with political +power; have been urged on by the accession and co-operation of such +individuals; and at length slowly and reluctantly acceded to by the +holders of dominion over the community, always, through some malignant +fatality, the last to admit what had long appeared to the majority of +thinking men no less than demonstrative evidence of the propriety and +advantage of the reformation. + +In all probability, the improvement of mankind is destined, under +Providence, to advance nearly in proportion as good men feel the +responsibility for it resting on themselves as individuals, and are +actuated by a bold sentiment of independence, (humble at the same time, in +reference to the necessity of Divine intervention,) in the prosecution of +it. Each person who is standing still to look, with grief or indignation, +at the evils which are overrunning the world, would do well to recollect +what he may have read of some gallant partisan, who, perceiving where a +prompt movement, with the comparatively slender force at his own command, +would make an impression infallibly tending to the success of the warfare, +could not endure to lose the time till some great sultan should find it +convenient to come in slow march, and the pomp of state, to take on him +the direction of the campaign. + +In laying this emphasis of incitement and hope on the exertions of good +men as individuals, we cannot be understood to mean that the government of +states, if ever they did come to be intent on rendering the condition of +society better and happier, could not contribute beyond all calculation to +the force and efficacy of _every_ project and measure for that grand +purpose. How far from it! it is melancholy to consider what they might do +and do not. But it is because their history, thus far, affords such feeble +prognostics of their becoming, till some better age, actuated by such a +spirit,--it is because the Divine Governor has hitherto put upon them so +little of the honor of being the instruments of his beneficence,--that the +anticipations of good, and the exhortations to attempt it, are so +peculiarly directed to its promoters in an individual capacity. + +Happily, the accusatory part of such exhortations is becoming, we trust we +may say fast becoming, less extensively applicable; and we return with +pleasure to the animating idea of that revolution of which we were noting +the introductory signs. It is a revolution in the manner of estimating the +souls of the people, and consequently in the judgment of what should be +done for both their present and future welfare. Through many ages, that +immense multitude had been but obscurely presented to view in any such +character as that of rational, improvable creatures. They were recognized +no otherwise than as one large mass of rude moral substance, but faintly +distinguishable into individuals; existing, and to be left to exist, in +their own manner; and that manner hardly worth concern or inquiry. Little +consideration could there be of how much spiritual immortal essence must +be going to waste, absorbed in the very earth, all over the wide field +where the inferior portion of humanity was seen only through the gross +medium of an economical estimate, by the more favored part of the race. +But now it is as if a mist were rising and dispersing from that field, and +leaving the multitude of possessors of uncultivated and degraded mind +exhibited in a light in which they were never seen before, except by the +faithful promoters of Christianity, and a few philanthropists of a less +special order. + +It is true, this manifestation forms so tragic a vision, that if we had +only to behold it _as a spectacle_, we might well desire that the misty +obscurity should descend on it again, to shroud it from sight; while we +should be left to indulge and elate our imaginations by dwelling on the +pomps and splendors of the terrestrial scene,--the mighty empires, the +heroes, the victories, the triumphs; the refinements and enjoyments of the +most highly cultivated of the race; the brilliant performances of genius, +and the astonishing reach of science. So the tempter would have beguiled +our Lord into a complacent contemplation of the kingdoms and glories of +the world. But he was come to look on a different aspect of it! Nor could +he be withdrawn from the gloomy view of its degradation and misery. And a +good reason why. For the sole object for which he had appeared in the only +world where temptation could even in form approach him was to begin in +operation, and finish in virtue, a design for changing that state of +degradation and misery. In the prosecution of such a design, and in the +spirit of that divine benevolence in which it sprung, he could endure to +fix on the melancholy and odious character of the scene, the contemplation +which was vainly attempted to be diverted to any other of its aspects. +What, indeed, could sublunary pomps and glories be to him in any case; but +emphatically what, when his object was to redeem the people from darkness +and destruction? + +Those who, actuated by a spirit in some humble resemblance to his, have +entered deeply into the state of the people, such as it is found in our +own nation, have often been appalled at the spectacle disclosed to them. +They have been astonished to think, what _can_ have been the direction, +while successive ages have passed away, of so many thousands of acute and +vigilant mental eyes, that so dreadful a sight should scarcely have been +descried. They have been aware that in describing it as they actually saw +it, they would be regarded by some as gloomy fanatics, tinctured with +insanity by the influence of some austere creed; and that others, of +kinder nature, but whose sensibility has more of self-indulging refinement +than tendency to active benevolence, would almost wish that so revolting +an exhibition had never been made, though the fact be actually so. There +may have been moments when they themselves have experienced a temporary +recoil of their benevolent zeal, under the impression at once of the +immensity of the evil, so defying the feebleness of their remedial means +and efforts, and of its noisome quality. At times, the rudeness of the +subjects, and perhaps the ungracious reception and thankless requital of +their disinterested labors, aggravating the general feeling of the +miserableness (so to express it) of seeing so much misery, have lent +seduction to the temptations to ease and self-indulgence. Why should they, +just _they_ of all men, condemn themselves to dwell so much in the most +dreary climate of the moral world, when they could perhaps have taken +their almost constant abode in a little elysium of elegant knowledge, +taste, and refined society? Then was the time to revert to the example of +Him "who, though he was rich, for our sakes became poor." + +Or, again, they may have been betrayed to indulge too long in the bitter +mood of thinking, how entirely the higher and more amply furnished powers +leave such generous designs to proceed as they can, in the mere strength +of private individual exertion. And they may have yielded to depressive +feelings after the fervor of indignant ones; for such indignation, unless +qualified by the purest principle--unless it be the "anger that sins +not"--is very apt, when it cools, to settle into misanthropic despondency. +It is as if (they have said) armies and giants would stand aloof to amuse +themselves, while we are to be committed and abandoned in the ceaseless, +unavailable toil of a conflict, which these armies and giants have no +business even to exist as such but for the very purpose of waging. We are, +if we will,--and if we will we may let it alone--to try to effect in +diminutive pieces, and detached local efforts, a little share of that, to +the accomplishment of which the greatest human force on earth might be +applied on system, and to the widest compass. So they have said, perhaps, +and been tempted to leave their object to its destiny. + +But really it is now too late for this resentful and desponding +abandonment. They cannot now retire in the tragic dignity of despair. It +must be some more forlorn predicament that would allow them any grace of +rhetoric in saying, as in parody of Cato, "Witness heaven and earth, that +we have done our duty, but the stars and fate are against us; and here it +becomes us to terminate a strife, which would degenerate into the +ridiculous, if prosecuted against impossibilities." On the contrary, the +zeal which could begin so onerous a work, and prosecute it thus far, could +not now remit without convicting its past ardor of cowardice lurking under +its temporary semblance of bravery. Is it for the projectors of a noble +edifice of public utility, to abandon the undertaking when it has risen +from its foundation to be seen above the ground; or is just come to be +level with the surface of the waters, in defiance of which it has been +commenced, and the violence of which it was designed to control, or the +unfordable depths and streams of which it was to bear people over? Let the +promoters of education and Christian knowledge among the inferior classes, +reflect what has already been accomplished; though regarding it as quite +the incipient stage. It is most truly as yet "the day of small things;" +and shall they despise it, from an idea of what it might have been if the +great powers had been directed to its advancement? They have found that in +the good cause thus unaided they have not wholly labored in vain; that it +_can_ be brought in contact with a considerable portion of what would +otherwise be so much human existence abandoned; and that already, as from +the garments of the Divine Healer of diseases, a sanative virtue goes out +of it. Let them recount the individuals they have seen, and not despond as +to many more, rescued from what had all the signs of a destination to the +lowest debasement, and utter ruin; some of whom are returning animated +thanks, and will do so in the hour of death, for what these, their best +human friends, have been the means of imparting to them. Let them +recollect of how many families they have seen the domestic condition +pleasingly, and in some instances eminently and delightfully amended. And +let them reflect how they have trampled down prejudices, nearly silenced a +heathenish clamor, and provoked the imitative and rival efforts of many +who would, but for them, have been willing enough for all such schemes to +lie in abeyance to the end of time. Let them think of all this, and +faithfully persist in the trial what it may please God that they shall +accomplish, whether the possessors of national power will acknowledge his +demand for such an application of it or not; whether, when the infinite +importance of the concern is represented to them, they will hear, or +whether they will forbear. + +But let them not doubt that the time will come, when the rulers and the +ascendant classes in states will comprehend it to be their best policy to +promote all possible improvement of the people. It will be given to them +to understand, that the highest glory of those at the head of great +communities, must consist in the eminence attained by those communities +generally, in whatever it is that constitutes the worth, the honor, the +happiness, of individuals; a glory with which would be combined the +advantage that the office of presiding over such a nation could be +administered in a liberal spirit. They will one day have learned to esteem +it a far nobler form of power to lead and direct an immense society of +intelligent minds, than to delude, coerce, and drive a vast semi-barbarous +herd. Providence surely will one day, in the progress of society, confer +on it such wise and virtuous rulers as can feel, that it is better for +them to have a people who can understand and rationally approve, when +deserving of approbation, their system and measures, than one bent in +stupid submission, even if ignorance could henceforward suffice (which it +cannot) to retain the people in that posture; better, therefore, by a +still stronger reason, than to have a people fermenting in ignorant +disaffection, constantly believing the governors to be in the wrong, and +without the sense to comprehend any arguments in justification, excepting +such as might be addressed in the shape of bribes to corruption. And a +time will come when it will not be left to the philanthropic or censorial +speculatists alone, to make the comparative estimate between what has been +effected by the enormously expensive apparatus of coercive and penal +administration--the prisons, prosecutions, transportations, and a large +military police, (things quite necessary in our past and present national +condition,)--and what _might_ have been effected by one half of that +expenditure devoted to popular reformation, to be accomplished by means of +schools, and every practicable variety of methods for placing men's +judgment and conscience as the "lion in the way," when they are inclined +and tempted to go wrong.--All this will come to pass at length. And if the +promoters of the best designs see cause to fear that the time is remote, +this should but enforce upon them the more strongly the admonition that no +time is _theirs_, but the present. + +It was not possible to pursue the long course of these observations so +nearly to the conclusion, without being reminded still again of what we +have adverted to before, that there will be persons ready to impute +sanguine extravagance to our expectations of the result of such an order +of means and exertions, for the improvement of the education and mental +condition of the people, as we see already beginning to work. When the +means are of so little splendid a quality, it will be said, by what +inflation of fancy is their power admeasured to such effects? + +And what _is_ it, then, and how much, that is expected as the result, by +the zealous advocates of schools, and the whole order of expedients, for +the instruction of that part of the rising generation till lately so +neglected? Are they heard maintaining that the communication of knowledge, +or true notions of things, to youthful minds, will _infallibly_ ensure +their virtue and happiness? They are not quite so new to the world, to +experimental labor in the business of tuition, or to self-observation. +Their vigilance would hardly overlook such a circumstance as the very +different degree of assurance with which the effects may be predicted, of +ignorance on the one hand, and of knowledge on the other. There is very +nearly an absolute certainty of success in the method for making clowns, +sots, vagabonds, and ruffians. You may safely leave it to themselves to +carry on the process for becoming complete. Let human creatures grow up +without discipline, destitute therefore of salutary information, sound +judgment, or any conscience but what will shape itself to whatever they +like, serving in the manner of some vile friar pander in the old +plays,--and no one takes any credit for foresight in saying they will be a +noxious burden on the earth; except indeed in those tracts of it where +they seem to have their appropriate place and business, in being matched +against the wolves and bears of the wilderness. When they infest what +should be a civilized and Christianized part of the world, the +philanthropist is sometimes put in doubt whether to repress, or indulge, +the sentiment which tempts him to complacency in the operation of an +epidemic which is thinning their numbers. + +The consequences of ignorance are certain, unless almost a miracle +interpose; but unhappily those of knowledge are of diffident and +restricted calculation; unless we could make a trifle of the testimony of +all ages, and suppress the evidence of present experience, that men may +see and approve the better, and yet follow the worse. It is the hapless +predicament of our nature, that the noblest of its powers, the +understanding, has but most imperfectly and precariously that commanding +hold on the others, which is essential to the good order of the soul. Our +constitution is like a machine in which there is a constant liability of +the secondary wheels to be thrown out of the catch and grapple of the +master one. And worse than so, these powers which ought to be subordinate +and obedient to the understanding, are not left to stand still when +detached from its control. They have a strong activity of their own, from +the impulse of other principles: indeed, it is this impulse that _causes_ +the detachment. It is frightful to look at the evidence from facts, that +these active powers _may_ grow strong in the perversity which will set the +judgment at defiance, during the very time that it is successfully +training to a competence for dictating to them what is right. The +assertions of those who are determined to find the chief or only cause of +the wrong direction of the passions and will in misapprehension of the +understanding, are a gross assumption, in a question of fact, against an +infinite crowd of facts pressing round with their evidence. This evidence +is offered by men without number distinctly and deliberately acknowledging +their conviction of the evil quality and fatal consequences, of courses +which they are soon afterwards seen pursuing, and without the smallest +pretence of a change of opinion; by the same men in more advanced stages +still owning the same conviction, and sometimes in strong terms of +self-reproach, in the checks and pauses of their career; and by men in the +near prospect of death and judgment expressing, in bitter regret, the +acknowledgment that they had persisted in acting wrong when they knew +better. And this assumption, made against such evidence, is to be +maintained for no better reason, that appears, than a wilful determination +that human nature cannot, must not, shall not, be so absurd and depraved +as to be capable of such madness: as if human nature were taking the +smallest trouble to put on any disguise before them, to beguile them into +a good opinion; as if it could be cajoled by their flattery to assume even +a semblance of deserving it; as if it had the complaisance to check one +bad propensity, to save them from standing contradicted and exposed to +ridicule for speaking of it with indulgence or respect; as if it stayed or +cared to thank them for their pains in attempting to make out a plausible +extenuation. It has, and keeps, and shows its character, in perfect +indifference to the puzzled efforts of its apologists to reduce its moral +turpitude to just so much error of the understanding. But, as for +understanding--it should be time to look to their own, when they find +themselves asserting, in other words, that there is actually as much +virtue in the world as there is knowledge of its principles and laws. We +should rather have surmised that, deplorably deficient as that knowledge +is, the reduction of a fifth or tenth part of it to practice would make a +glorious change in England and Europe. + +The persons, therefore, whose zeal is combined with knowledge in the +prosecution of plans for the extension of education, proceed on a +calculation of an effect more limited, in apparent proportion to the +means, and with less certainty of even that more limited measure in any +single instance, than they would have been justified in anticipating in +many other departments of operation. They would, for example, predict more +positively the results of an undertaking to cultivate any tract of waste +land, to reclaim a bog, or to render mechanical forces available in an +untried mode of application; or, in many cases, the decided success of the +healing art as applied to a diseased body. They must needs be moderate in +their confidence of calculation for good, on a moral nature whose +corruption would yield an enemy of mankind a gratifying probability in +calculating for evil. In comparing these opposite calculations, they would +be glad if they might make an exchange of the respective probabilities. +That is to say, let a man, if such there be, who could be pleased with the +depravity and misery of the race, a sagacious judge too, of their moral +constitution, and a veteran observer of their conduct,--let him survey +with the look of an evil spirit a hundred children in one of the +benevolent schools, and indulge himself in prognosticating, on the +strength of what he knows of human nature, the proportion, in numbers and +degree, in which these children will, in subsequent life, exemplify the +_failure_ of what is done for their wisdom and welfare;--let him make his +calculation, and, we say, there may be times when the friends of these +institutions would be glad to transfer the quantity of probability from +his side to theirs; would feel they should be happy if the proportion in +which they fear he may be right in calculating on evil from the nature of +the beings under discipline, were, instead, the proportion in which it is +rational to reckon on good from the efficacy of that discipline. "Evil, be +thou my good," might be their involuntary apostrophe, in the sense of +wishing to possess the stronger power, transmuted to the better quality. + +But we shall know where to stop in the course of observations of this +darkening color: and shall take off the point of the derider's taunt, just +forthcoming, that we are here unsaying, in effect, all that we have been +so laboriously urging about the vast benefit of knowledge to the people. +It was proper to show, that the prosecutors of these designs are not +suffering themselves to be duped out of a perception of what there is, in +the nature of the youthful subjects, to counteract the intention of the +discipline, and with too certain a power to limit its efficacy to a very +partial measure of the effect desired. These projectors might fairly be +required to prove they are not unknowing enthusiasts; but then, in keeping +clear of the vain extravagances of expectation, they are not to surrender +their confidence that something great and important can be done; it should +be possible for a man to be sober, short of being dead. They are not to +gravitate into a state of feeling as if they thought the understanding and +the moral powers are but casually associated in the mind; as if an +important communication to the one, might, so to speak, never be heard of +by the others; as if these subordinates had just one sole principle of +action--that of disobeying their chief, so that it could be of no use to +appeal to the master of the house respecting the conduct of his inmates; +as if, therefore, _all_ presumption of a relation between means and ends, +as a ground of confidence in the efficacy of popular instruction, must be +illusory. It might not indeed be amiss for them to be _told_ that the case +is so, by those who would desire, from whatever motive, to repress their +efforts and defeat their designs. For so downright a blow at the vital +principle of their favorite object would but serve to provoke them to +ascertain more definitely what there really is for them to found their +schemes and hopes upon, and therefore to verify to themselves the reasons +they have for persisting, in assurance that the labor will be far from +wholly lost. And for this assurance it is, at the very lowest, +self-evident, that there is at any rate such an efficacy in cultivation, +as to give a certainty that a well-cultivated people _cannot_ remain on +the same degraded moral level as a neglected ignorant one--or anywhere +near it. None of those even that value such designs the least, ever +pretend to foresee, in the event of their being carried into effect, an +undiminished prevalence of rudeness and brutality of manners, of delight +in spectacles and amusements of cruelty, of noisy revelry, of sottish +intemperance, or of disregard of character. It is not pretended to be +foreseen, that the poorer classes will then continue to display so much of +that almost desperate improvidence respecting their temporal means and +prospects, which has aggravated the calamities of the present times. It is +not predicted that a universal school-discipline will bring up several +millions to the neglect, and many of them in an impudent contempt, of +attendance on the ministrations of religion. The result will at all +hazards, by every one's acknowledgment, be _the contrary of this_. + +But more specifically:--The promoters of the plans of popular education +see a most important advantage gained in the very outset, in the obvious +fact, that in their schools a very large portion of time is employed well, +that otherwise would infallibly be employed ill. Let any one introduce +himself into one of these places of concourse, where there has been time +to mature the arrangements. He should not enter as an important personage, +in patronizing and judicial state, as if to demand the respectful looks of +the whole tribe from their attention to their printed rudiments and their +slates; but glide in as a quiet observer, just to survey at his leisure +the character and operations of the scene. Undoubtedly he may descry here +and there the signs of inattention, weariness or vacancy, not to say of +perverseness. Even these individuals, however, are out of the way of +practical harm; and at the same time he will see a multitude of youthful +spirits acknowledging the duty of directing their best attention to +something altogether foreign to their wild amusements; of making a rather +protracted effort in one mode or another of the strange business of +_thinking_. He will perceive in many the unequivocal indications of a +serious and earnest effort made to acquire, with the aid visible signs and +implements, a command of what is invisible and immaterial. They are thus +rising from the mere animal state to tread in the precincts of an +intellectual economy; the economy of thought and truth, in which they are +to live forever; and never, in all futurity, will they have to regret, for +itself, [Footnote: _For itself_--a phrase of qualification inserted to +meed the captious remark, that there have been instances of bad men, under +the reproach of conscience of the dread of consequences, expressing a +regret that they had ever been well instructed, since this was an +aggravation of their guilt, and perhaps had subserved their evil +propensities with the more effectual means and ability.] _this_ period and +part of their employments. He will be delighted to think how many +regulated actions of the mind, how many just ideas distinctly admitted, +that were unknown or unimpressed at the beginning of the day's exercise, +(and among these ideas, some to remind them of God and their highest +interest,) there will have been by the time the busy and well-ordered +company breaks up in the evening, and leaves silence within these walls. +He will not indeed grow romantic in hope; he knows the nature of which +these beings partake; knows therefore that the desired results of this +process will but partially follow; but still rejoices to think those +partial results which will most certainly follow, will be worth +incomparably more than all they will have cost to the learners, or the +teachers, or the patrons. + +Now let him, when he has contemplated this scene, consider how the +greatest part of this numerous company would have been employed during the +same hours, whether of the Sabbath or other days, but for such a provision +of means for their instruction. And, for the contrast, he has only to +leave the school, and walk a mile round the neighborhood, in which it will +be very wonderful, (we may say this of most parts of England,) if he shall +not, in a populous district, especially near a great town, and on a fine +day, meet with a great number of wretched, disgusting imps, straggling or +in knots, in the activity of mischief and nuisance, or at least the full +cry of vile and profane language; with here and there, as a lord among +them, an elder larger one growing fast into an insolent adult blackguard. +He may make the comparison, quite sure that such as they are, and so +employed, would many now under the salutary discipline of yonder school +have been, but for its institution. But the two classes so beheld in +contrast, might they not seem to belong to two different nations? Do they +not seem growing into two extremely different orders of character? Do they +not even seem preparing for different worlds in the final distribution? + +The friends of these designs for a general and highly improved education, +may proceed further in this course of verifying to themselves the grounds +of their assurance of happy consequences. A number of ideas, the most +important that were ever formed in human thought, or imparted to men from +the Supreme Mind, will be so communicated and impressed in these +institutions, that it is absolutely certain they will be fixed irrevocably +in the minds of the pupils. And in the case of many, if not the majority +of these destined adventurers into the temptations of life, these +important ideas, thus inserted deep in their souls, will distinctly +present themselves to judgment and conscience an incalculable number of +times. What a number, if the sum of all these reminiscences, in all the +minds now assembled in a numerous school, could be conjectured! But if one +in a hundred of these recollections, if one in a thousand, shall be +efficacious, who can compute the amount of the good resulting from the +instruction which shall have so enforced and fixed these ideas that they +shall inevitably be thus recollected? And is it altogether out of reason +to hope that the desired efficacy will, far oftener than once in a +thousand times, attend the luminous rising again of a solemn idea to the +view of the mind! Is still less than _this_ to be predicted for our +unhappy nature, while, however fallen, it is not abandoned by the care of +its Creator! + +The institutions themselves will gradually improve, in both the method and +the compass of their discipline. They will acquire a more vigorous +mechanism, and a more decidedly intellectual character. In this latter +respect, it is but comparatively of late years that schools for the +inferior classes have ventured anything beyond the humblest pretensions. +Mental cultivation--enlarged knowledge--elements of science--habit of +thinking--exercise of judgment--free and enlightened opinion--higher +grade in society--were terms which they were to be reverently cautious of +taking in vain. There would have been an offensive sound in such phrases, +as seeming to betray somewhat of the impertinence of a _disposition_, (for +the idea of the _practicability_ of any such invasion would have been +scorned,) to encroach on a ground exclusively appropriate to the superior +orders. Schools for the poor were to be as little as possible scholastic. +They were to be kept down to the lowest level of the workshop, excepting +perhaps in one particular--that of working hard: for the scholars were to +throw time away rather than be occupied with anything beyond the merest +rudiments. The advocates and the petitioners for aid of such schools, were +to avow and plead how little it was that they pretended or presumed to +teach. The argument in their behalf was either to begin or end with +saying, that they taught _only_ reading and writing; or if it could not be +denied that there was to be some meddling with arithmetic and grammar,--we +may safely appeal to some of the veterans of these pleaders, whether they +did not, thirty or forty years since, bring out this addition with the +management and hesitation of a confession and apology. It is a prominent +characteristic of that happy revolution we have spoken of as in +commencement, that this aristocratic notion of education is breaking up. +The theory of the subject is loosening into enlargement, and will cease by +degrees to impose a niggardly restriction on the extent of the +cultivation, proper to be attempted in schools for the inferiors of the +community. + +As these institutions go on, augmenting in number and improving in +organization, their pupils will bring their quality and efficacy to the +proof, as they grow to maturity, and go forth to act their part in +society. And there can be no doubt, that while too many of them may be +mournful exemplifications of the power with which the evil genius of the +corrupt nature, combined with the infection of a bad world, resists the +better influences of instruction, and may, after the advantage of such an +introductory stage, be carried down towards the old debasement, a very +considerable proportion will take and permanently maintain a far higher +ground. They will have become imbued with an element, which must put them +in strong repulsion to that coarse vulgar that will be sure to continue in +existence, in this country, long enough to be a trial of the moral taste +of this better cultivated race. It will be seen that they cannot associate +with it by choice, and in the spirit of companionship. And while they are +thus withheld on their part, from approximating, it may be hoped that in +certain better disposed parts of that vulgar, there may be a conversion of +the repelling principle into an impulse to approach and join them on their +own ground. There will be numbers among it who cannot be so entirely +insensate or perverse, as to look with carelessness at the advantages +obtained through the sole medium of personal improvement, by those who had +otherwise been exactly on the same level of low resources and estimation +as themselves. The effect of this view on pride, in some, and on better +propensities, it may be hoped, in others, will be to excite them to make +their way upward to a community which, they will clearly see, could commit +no greater folly than to come downward to them. And we will presume a +friendly disposition in most of those who shall have been raised to this +higher standing, to meet such aspirers and help them to ascend. + +And while they will thus draw upward the less immovable and hopeless part +of the mass below them, they will themselves, on the other hand, be +placed, by the respectability of their understanding and manners, within +the influence of the higher cultivation of the classes above them; a great +advantage, as we have taken a former occasion to notice:--a great +advantage, that is to say, if the cultivation among those classes _be_ +generally of such a quality and measure, that the people could not be +brought a few degrees nearer to them without becoming, through the effect +of their example, more in love with sense, knowledge, and propriety of +conduct. For it were somewhat too much of simplicity, perhaps, to take it +for quite a thing of course that the people would always perceive such +intellectual accomplishments as would keep them modest or humble in their +estimate of their own, and such liberal spirit and manners as would at +once command their respect and conduce to their refinement, when they made +any approach to a communication with the classes superior in possessions +and station. If this _might_ have been assumed as a thing of course, and +if therefore it might have been confidently reckoned on, that the more +improving of the people would receive from the ranks above them a salutary +influence, similar to that which we have been supposing they will +themselves exert on a part of the vulgar mass below them, there had been a +happy omen for the community; and if it may not be so assumed, are we to +have the disgraceful deficiencies of the upper classes pleaded as an +argument against raising the lower from their degradation? Must the +multitude flounder along the mud at the bottom of the upward slope, +because their betters will not be at the cost of making for themselves a +higher terraced road across it than that they are now walking on? + + * * * * * + +But it would be an admirable turn to make the lower orders act +beneficially on the higher. And it is an important advantage likely to +accrue from the better education of the common people, that their rising +attainments would compel not a few of their superiors to look to the state +of their own mental pretensions, on perceiving that _this_, at last, was +becoming a ground on which, in no small part, their precedence was to be +measured. Surely it would be a most excellent thing, that they should find +themselves thus incommodiously pressed upon by the only circumstance, +perhaps, that could make them sensible there are more kinds of poverty +than that single one to which alone they had hitherto attached ideas of +disgrace; and should be forced to preserve that ascendency for which +wealth and station would formerly suffice, at the cost, now, of a good +deal more reading, thinking, and general self-discipline. And would it be +a worthy sacrifice, that to spare some substantial agriculturalists, idle +gentlemen, and sporting or promenading ecclesiastics, such an afflictive +necessity, the actual tillers of the ground, and the workers in +manufacture and mechanics, should continue to be kept in stupid ignorance? + +It is very possible this may excite a smile, as the threatening of a +necessity or a danger to these privileged persons, which it is thought +they may be comfortably assured is very remote. This danger (namely, that +a good many of them, or rather of those who are coming in the course of +nature to succeed them in the same rank, will find that its relative +consequence cannot be sustained but at a very considerably higher pitch of +mental qualification) is threatened upon no stronger presages than the +following:--Allow us first to take it for granted, that it is not a very +protracted length of time that is to pass away before the case comes to +be, that a large proportion of the children of the lower classes are +trained, through a course of assiduous instruction and exercise in the +most valuable knowledge, during a series of years, in schools which +everything possible is done to render efficient. Then, if we include in +one computation all the time they will have spent in real mental effort +and acquirement there, and all those pieces and intervals of time which we +may reasonably hope that many of them will improve to the same purpose in +the subsequent years, a very great number of them will have employed, by +the time they reach middle age, many thousands of hours more than people +in their condition have heretofore done, in a way the most directly +tending to place them greatly further on in whatever of importance for +repute and authority intelligence is to bear in society. And how must we +be estimating the natural capacities of these inferior classes, or the +perceptions of the higher, not to foresee as a consequence, that these +latter will find their relative situation greatly altered, with respect to +the measure of knowledge and mental power requisite as one most essential +constituent of their superiority, in order to command the unfeigned +deference of their inferiors? + +Our strenuous promoters of the schemes for cultivating the minds of all +the people, are not afraid of professing to foresee, that when schools, of +that completely disciplinarian organization which they are, we hope, +gradually to attain, shall have become general, and shall be vigorously +seconded by all those auxiliary expedients for popular instruction which +are also in progress, a very pleasing modification will become apparent in +the character, the moral color, if we might so express it, of the people's +ordinary employment. The young persons so instructed, being appointed, for +the most part, to the same occupations to which they would have been +destined had they grown up in utter ignorance and vulgarity, are expected +to give evidence that the meanness, the debasement almost, which had +characterized many of those occupations in the view of the more refined +classes, was in truth the debasement of the men more than of the callings; +which will come to be in more honorable estimation as associated with the +sense, decorum, and self-respect of the performers, than they were while +blended and polluted with all the low habits, manners, and language, of +ignorance and vulgar grossness. And besides, there is the consideration of +the different degrees of merit in the performance itself; and who will be +the persons most likely to excel, in the many branches of workmanship and +business which admit of being better done in proportion to the degree of +intelligence directed upon them? And again, who will be most in +requisition for those offices of management and superintendence, where +something must be confided to judgment and discretion, and where the value +is felt, (often vexatiously felt from the want,) of some capacity of +combination and foresight? + +Such as these are among the subordinate benefits reasonably, we might say +infallibly, calculated upon. Our philanthropists are confident in +foreseeing also, that very many of these better educated young persons +will be valuable co-operators with all who may be more formally employed +in instruction, against that ignorance from which themselves have been so +happily saved; will exert an influence, by their example and the steady +avowal of their principles, against vice and folly in their vicinity; and +will be useful advisers of their neighbors in their perplexities, and +sometimes moderators in their discords. It is predicted, with a confidence +so much resting on general grounds of probability, as hardly to need the +instances already afforded in various parts of the country to confirm it, +that here and there one of the well-instructed humbler class will become a +competent and useful public teacher of the most important truth. It is, in +short, anticipated with delightful assurance, that great numbers of those +who shall go forth from under the friendly guardianship which will take +the charge of their youthful minds, will be examples through life and at +its conclusion, of the power and felicity of religion. + +Here we can suppose it not improbable that some one may, in pointed terms, +put the question,--Do you then, at last, mean to affirm that you can, by +the proposed course, by any course, of discipline, absolutely secure that +effectual operation and ascendency of religion in the mind, which shall +place it in the right condition toward God, and in a state of fitness for +passing, without fear or danger, into the scenes of its future endless +existence? + +We think the cautious limitation of language, hitherto observed in setting +forth our expectations, might preclude such a question. But let it be +asked, since there can be no difficulty to reply. We do _not_ affirm that +any form of discipline, the wisest and best in the power of the wisest and +best men to apply, is competent of itself thus to subject the mind +decidedly and permanently to the power of religion. On the contrary, we +believe that grand effect can be accomplished only by a special influence +of the Divine Being, operating by the means applied in a well-judged +system of instruction, or, if he pleases, independently of them. But next, +it is perfectly certain, notwithstanding, that the application of these +human means will, in a multitude of instances, be efficacious to that most +happy end. + +This certainty arises from a few very plain general considerations. The +first is, that the whole system of means appointed by the Almighty to be +employed as a human process for presenting religion solemnly in view +before men's minds, and enforcing it on them, is an appointment _expressly +intended_ for working that great effect which secures their final +felicity; though to what extent in point of number is altogether unknown +to the subordinate agents. They are perfectly certain, in employing the +appointed expedients in prosecution of the work, that they must be +proceeding on the strength of a positive relation subsisting between those +means and the results to be realized, in what instances, in what measure, +at what time, it shall please the sovereign Power. The appointment cannot +be one of mere exercise for the faculties and submissive obedience of +those who are summoned to be active in its execution. + +Accordingly, there are in the divine revelation very many explicit and +animating assurances, that their exertions shall certainly be in a measure +effectual to the proposed end. And if these assurances are made in favor +of the exertions for inculcating religion generally, that is, on men of +all conditions and ages, they may be assumed as giving special +encouragement to those for impressing it on young minds, before they can +be preoccupied and hardened by the depravities of the world. There is +plainly the more hope for the efficacy of those exertions the less there +is to frustrate them. But besides, the authority itself, which has assured +a measure of success to religious instruction as administered generally, +has marked with peculiar strength the promise of its success as applied to +the young; thus affording rays of hope which have in ten thousand +instances animated the diligence of pious parents, and the other +benevolent instructors of children. + +There is also palpable matter of fact to the point, that an education +which combines the discipline of the conscience and the intellectual +faculty will be rendered, in many instances, efficacious to the formation +of a religious character. This obvious fact is, that a much greater +proportion of the persons so educated do actually become the subjects of +religion, than of a similar number of those brought up in ignorance and +profligacy. Take collectively any number of families in which such an +education prevails, and the same number in which it does not, and follow +the young persons respectively into subsequent life. But any one who hears +the suggestion, feels there is no need to wait the lapse of time and +follow their actual course. As instructed by what he has already seen in +society, he can go forward with them prophetically, with perfect certainty +that many more of the one tribe than that of the other, will become +persons not only of moral respectability but decided piety. Any one that +should assert respecting them that the probabilities are equal and +indifferent, would be considered as sporting a wilful absurdity, or +betraying that he is one of those who did not come into the world for +anything they can learn in it. And the experience which thus authorizes a +perfect confidence of prediction, is evidence that, though discipline must +wholly disclaim an absolute power to effect the great object in question, +there is, nevertheless, such a constitution of things that it most +certainly will, as an instrumental cause, in many instances effect it. + +The state of the matter, then, is very simple. The Supreme Cause of men's +being "made wise to salvation," in appointing a system of means, to be put +by human activity in operation toward this effect, has also appointed that +in this operation they shall infallibly be attended with a measure of +success in accomplishing that highest good,--a measure which was not to be +accomplished otherwise than by such means. So much he has signified to men +as an absolute certainty: but then, he has connected this certainty in an +arbitrary, and as to our knowledge, indefinite manner with the system. It +is a certainty connected with the system _as taken generally and +comprehensively_; and which it is not given to us to affix to the +particular instances in which the success will take place. It is a Divine +Volition suspended over the whole scene of cultivation; like a cloud from +which we cannot tell where precisely the shower to fertilize it will fall, +certain, however, that there are spots whose verdure and flowers will tell +after awhile. The agents under the Sovereign Dispenser are to proceed on +this positive assurance that the success _shall be somewhere_, though they +cannot know that it will be in this one instance, or in the other: "In the +morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand; for thou +knowest not whether shall prosper, this, or that." If they rate the value +of their agency so high, as to hold it derogatory to their dignity that +any part of their labors should be performed under the condition of +possibly being unsuccessful, they may be assured that such is not exactly +the estimate of Him to whom they look for the acceptance of their +services, and for the reward. + +But it may be added, that the great majority of those who are intent on +the schemes for enlightening and reforming mankind, are entertaining a +confident hope of the approach of a period, when the success will be far +greater in proportion to the measure of exertion in every department of +the system of instrumentality for that grand object. We cherish this +confidence, not on the strength of any pretension to be able to resolve +prophetic emblems and numbers, into precise dates and events of the +present and approaching times. It rests on a more general mode of +apprehending a relation between the extraordinary indications of the +period we live in, and the substantial purport of the divine predictions. +There unquestionably gleams forth, through the plainer lines, and through +the mystical imagery of prophecy, the vision of a better age, in which the +application of the truths of religion to men's minds will be irresistible. +And what should more naturally be interpreted as one of the dawning signs +of its approach, than a new spirit come into action with insuppressible +impulse, at once to dispel the fog from their intellects and bring the +heavenly light to shine close upon them; accompanied by a prodigious +convulsion in the old system of the world, which hardly recognized in the +inferior millions the very existence of souls to need or be worth such an +illumination? It is true that an eruptive activity of evil, beyond what +was witnessed by our forefathers, has attended and followed that +convulsion; as mephitic exhalations are emitted through the rents of an +earthquake. Viewed in itself, this outbreak of the bad principles and +passions might seem to portend anything rather than a grand improvement in +the state of a nation or of mankind. It appears like an actual +augmentation of the evil previously existing. But it should rather be +regarded as the setting loose of the noxious elements accumulated and +rankling under the old system; a phenomenon inevitably attendant on its +breaking up, by a catastrophe absolutely necessary to open and clear the +field for operations on the great scale against those evils themselves, +and to give scope and means for the advancement toward a better condition +of humanity. + +The laborers in the institutions for instructing the young descendants of +an ill-fated generation, may often regret to perceive how little the +process is as yet informed with the energy which is ultimately to pervade +the world. But let them regard as one great undivided economy and train of +operation, these initiatory efforts and all that is to follow, till that +time "when all shall know the Lord;" and take by anticipation, as in +fraternity with the happier future laborers, their just share of that +ultimate triumph. Those active spirits, in the happier periods, will look +back with this sentiment of kindred and complacency to those who sustained +the earlier toils of the good cause, and did not suffer their zeal to +languish under the comparative smallness of their success. + + * * * * * + +We shall conclude with a few sentences in the way of reply to another +question, which we can surmise there may be persons ready to ask, after +this long iteration of the assertion of the necessity of knowledge to the +common people. The question would be to this effect: What do you, all this +while, mean to assign as the _measure_ of knowledge proper for the people +to be put in possession of?--for you do not specify the kinds, or limit +the extent: you talk in vague general terms of mental improvement; you +leave the whole matter indefinite; and for all that appears, the people +are never to know when they know enough. + +It is answered, that we _do_ leave the extent undefined, and should +request to be informed where, and why, the line of circumscription and +exclusion should be drawn. + +Is it, we could really wish to know, a point at all yet decided, wherein +consist the value and importance of the human nature? Any liberal scheme +for its universal cultivation is met by such a jealous parsimony toward +the common people, such a ready imputation of wild theory, such protesting +declamations against the mischief of practically applying abstract +principles, such an undisguised or betrayed precedence given to mere +interests of state, and those perhaps very sordid ones, before all others, +and such whimsical prescriptions for making a salutary compound of a +little knowledge and much ignorance,--that it might seem to be doubtful, +after all, whether the human nature, in the mass of mankind at least, be +of any such consistence, or for any such purpose, as is affirmed in our +common-places on the subject. It is uniformly assumed in the language of +divines, and of the philosophers in most repute, that the worth, the +dignity, the importance of man, are in his rational, immortal nature; and +that therefore the best condition of _that_ is his true felicity and +glory, and the object chiefly to be aimed at in all that is done by him, +and for him, on earth. But whether this should be regarded as anything +more than the elated faith of ascetics, a fine dogma of academics, or a +theme for show in the pomp of moral rhetoric? For we often see, and it is +very striking to see, how principles which are suffered to pass for +infallible truth while content to stay within the province of speculation, +and to be pronounced as mere doctrine, may be disowned and repelled when +they come demanding to have their appropriate place and influence in the +practical sphere. Even many pretended advocates of Christianity, who in +naming certain principles would seem to make them of the very essence of +the moral part of that religion, and, in discoursing merely as +_religionists_, will insist on their vital importance, will yet shuffle +and equivocate about these principles, and in effect set them aside, when +they are attempted to be applied to some of their most legitimate uses. +If, for example, these religionists are among the servile adherents of +corrupted institutions and iniquity invested with power, they will easily +find accommodating interpretations, or pleas of exemption from the direct +authority, of some of the most sacred maxims of their professed religion. +Serve the true God when we happen to be in the right place; but at all +events we must attend our master to pay homage in the temple of Eimmon, +or, should he please to require it, that of Moloch,--with this signal +difference from the ancient instance of peccant servility, that whereas in +that case pardon for it was implored, in the present case a merit is made +of the sycophancy and the idolatry. Unless the principles of Christianity +will acknowledge the supremacy of _something else_ than Christianity, in +the mode of their application to estimate the importance of the popular +mind, they may take their repose in bodies of divinity, sermons, +catechisms, systems of ethics, or wherever they can find a place. + +But _is_ it really admitted, as a great principle for practical +application, that the mind, the intelligent, imperishable existence, is +the supremely valuable thing in man? It is then admitted, inevitably, that +the discipline, the correction, the improvement, the maturation of this +spiritual being to the highest attainable degree, is the great object to +be desired by men, for themselves and one another. That is to say, that +knowledge, cultivation, salutary exercise, wisdom, all that can conduce to +the perfection of the mind, form the state in which it is due to man's +nature that he should be endeavored to be placed. But then, this is due to +his nature by an absolutely _general_ law. He cannot be so circumstanced +in the order of society that this shall _not_ be due to it. No situation +in which the arrangements of the world, or say of Providence, may place +him, can constitute him a specific kind of creature, to which is no longer +fit and necessary that which is necessary to the well-being of man +considered generally, as a spiritual, immortal nature. The essential law +of this nature cannot be abrogated by men's being placed in humble and +narrow circumstances, in which a very large portion of their time and +exertions are required for mere subsistence. This accident of a confined +situation is no more a reason why their minds should not require the best +attainable cultivation, than would be the circumstance that the body in +which a man's mind is lodged happens to be of smaller dimensions than +those of other men. + +That under the disadvantages of this humble situation they _cannot_ +acquire all the mental improvement, desirable for the perfection of their +intelligent nature, that the situation renders it impracticable, is quite +another matter. So far as this inhibition is real and absolute, that is, +so far as it must remain after the best exertion of human wisdom and means +in their favor, it must be submitted to as one of the infelicities of +their allotment by Providence. What we are insisting on is, that since by +the law of their nature there is to them the same general necessity as to +any other human beings, of that which is essential to the well-being of +the mind, they should be advanced in this improvement _as far as they +can_; that is, as far as a wise and benevolent disposition of the +community can make it practicable for them to be advanced. + +It is an odious hypocrisy to talk of the narrow limits to this advancement +as an ordination of Providence, when a well-ordered constitution and +management of the community might enlarge those limits. At least it is so +in the _justifiers_ of that social system: those who deplore and condemn +it _may_ properly speak of the appointment of Providence, but in another +sense; as they would speak of the dispensations of Providence in +consolation to a man iniquitously imprisoned or impoverished. + +Let the people then be advanced in the improvement of their rational +nature as far as they can. A greater degree of this progress will be more +for their welfare than a less. This might be shown in forms of +illustration easily conceived, and as easily vindicated from the +imputation of extravagance, by instances which every observer may have met +with in real life. A poor man, cultivated in a small degree, has acquired +a few just ideas of an important subject, which lies out of the scope of +his daily employments for subsistence. Be that subject what it may, if +those ideas are of any use to him, by what principle would one idea more, +or two, or twenty, be of _no_ use to him? Of no use!--when all the +thinking world knows, that every additional clear idea of a subject is +valuable by a ratio of progress greater than that of the mere numerical +increase, and that by a large addition of ideas a man triples the value of +those with which he began. He has read a small meagre tract on the +subject, or perhaps only an article in a magazine, or an essay in the +literary column of a provincial newspaper. Where would be the harm, on +supposition he can fairly afford the time, in consequence of husbanding it +for this very purpose, of his reading a well-written concise book, which +would give him a clear, comprehensive view of the subject? + +But perhaps another branch of the tree of knowledge bends its fruit +temptingly to his hand. And if he should indulge, and gain a tolerably +clear notion of one more interesting subject, (still punctually regardful +of the duties of his ordinary vocation,) where, we say again, is the harm? +Converse with him; observe his conduct; compare him with the wretched +clown in a neighboring dwelling; and say that he is the worse for having +thus much of the provision for a mental subsistence. But if thus much has +contributed greatly to his advantage, why should he be interdicted still +further attainments? Are you alarmed for him, if he will needs go the +length of acquiring some knowledge of geography, the solar system, and the +history of his own country and of the ancient world? [Footnote: These +denominations of knowledge, so strange as they will to some person? +appear, in such a connection, we have ventured to write from, observing +that they stand in the schemes of elementary instruction in the Missionary +schools for the children of the natives of Bengal. But of course we are to +acknowledge, that the vigorous, high-toned spirits of those Asiatic +idolaters are adapted to receive a much superior style of cultivation to +any of which the feeble progeny of England can be supposed to be capable.] +Let him proceed; supply him gratuitously with some of the best books on +these subjects; and if you shall converse with him again, after another +year or two of his progress, and compare him once more with the ignorant, +stunted, cankered beings in his vicinity, you will see whether there be +anything essentially at variance between his narrow circumstances in life +and his mental enlargement. + +You are willing, perhaps, that he _should_ know a few facts of ancient +times, and can, though with hesitation, trust him with some such slight +stories as Goldsmith's Histories of Greece and Rome. But if he should then +by some means find his way into such a work as that of Rollin, (of moral +and instructive tendency, however defective otherwise,) or betray that he +covets an acquaintance with those of Gillies, or even Thirlwall,--it is +all over with him for being a useful member of society in his humble +situation. You would consent (may we suppose?) to his reading a slender +abridgment of voyages and travels; but what _is_ to become of him if +nothing less will content him than the whole-length story of Captain Cook? +He will direct, it is to be hoped, some of his best attention to the +supreme subject of religion. And you would quite approve of his perusing +some useful tracts, some manuals of piety, some commentary on a catechism, +some volume of serious, plain discourses; but he is absolutely undone if +his ambition should rise at length to Barrow, or Howe, or Jeremy Taylor. +[Footnote: It should be unnecessary to observe, that the object in citing +_any_ names in this paragraph was, to give a somewhat definite cast to the +description of the supposed progress of the plebeian self-instructor. The +principal of them are mentioned simply as being of such note in their +departments, that he would be likely to hear of them among the first of +the authors to be sought, if he were aspiring to something beyond his +previously humble and abridged reading. The reader may substitute for +these names any others, of the superior order, that he may think more +proper to stand in their place. It would therefore be animadversion or +ridicule misspent, to make the charge of extravagance on this imagined +course of a plain man's reading, with a specific reference to the authors +here named, as if it had been meant that precisely these, by a peculiar +selection, were to be the authors he may be supposed to peruse, and in +perusing, to waste his time and destroy his sense of duty.] He is by all +means, you say, to be kept out of all such pernicious company, in which it +is impossible he can learn any lesson but one,--an aversion to good +morals, just laws, virtuous kings, a polished and benevolent gentry, and +learned and pious teachers. Well; _let_ him be kept as far as possible +from the mischief of all such books and knowledge; let him hardly know +that there _was_ an ancient world, or that there _are_ on the globe such +regions and wonders as travellers have described; or that a reason and +eloquence above the pitch of some plain homily ever illustrated and +enforced religion. _Let_ him keep clear of all such evil communications; +and then, (since we were expressly making it a condition, that he can +fairly spare the time for such reading from his common employment,) and +then,--he will have just so much the more time for needless sleep, for +discussing the trifles and characters of the neighborhood, or, (supposing +him still of a religious habit,) for tiring his friends and family with +the well-meant but very unattractive iteration of a few serious phrases +and remarks, of which they will have long since learnt to anticipate the +last word from hearing the first. Advantages like these he certainly may +enjoy in consequence of his preclusion from the higher and wider field of +ideas. But however valuable these may be in themselves, they will not +ensure his being better qualified for the common business and proprieties +of his station, than another man in the same sphere of life whose mind has +acquired that larger reach which we are describing. It is no more than +what we have repeatedly seen exemplified, when we represent this +transgressor into the prohibited field as probably acquitting himself with +exemplary regularity and industry in his allotted labors, and even in this +very capacity preferred by the men of business to the illiterate tools in +his neighborhood; nay, most likely preferred, in the more technical sense +of the word, to the honorable, but often sufficiently vexatious office of +directing and superintending the operations of those tools. + +And where, now, is the evil he is incurring or causing, during this +progress of violating, step after step, the circumscription by which the +aristocratic compasses were again and again, with small reluctant +extensions to successive greater distances, defining the scope of the +knowledge proper for a man of his condition? It is a bad thing, is it, +that he has a multiplicity of ideas to relieve the tedium incident to the +sameness of his course of life; that, with many things which had else been +but mere insignificant facts, or plain dry notions and principles, he has +a variety of interesting associations; like woodbines and roses wreathing +round the otherwise bare, ungraceful forms of erect stones or withered +trees; that the world is an interpreted and intelligible volume before his +eyes; that he has a power of applying himself to _think_ of what it +becomes at any time necessary for him to understand? Is it a judgment upon +him for his temerity, in "seeking and intermeddling with wisdom" with +which he had no business, that he has so much to impart to his children as +they are growing up, and that if some of them are already come to +maturity, they know not where to find a man to respect more than their +father? Or if he takes a part in the converse and devotional exercises of +religious society, is no one there the better for the clearness and the +plenitude of his thoughts and the propriety of his expression?--But there +would be no end of the preposterous suppositions fairly attachable to the +notion, that the mental improvement of the common people has some proper +limit of arbitrary prescription, on the ground simply of their _being_ the +common people, and quite distinct from the restriction which their +circumstances may invincibly impose on their ability. + +Taken in this latter view, we acknowledge that their condition would be a +subject for most melancholy contemplation,--if we did not hope for better +times. The benevolent reflector, when sometimes led to survey in thought +the endless myriads of beings with minds within the circuit of a country +like this, will have a momentary vision of them as they would be if all +improved to the highest mental condition to which it is _naturally +possible_ for them to be exalted a magnificent spectacle; but it instantly +fades and vanishes. And the sense is so powerfully upon him of the +unchangeable economy of the world, which, even if the fairest visions of +the millennium itself were realized, would still render such a thing +_actually_ impossible, that he hardly regrets the bright scene was but a +beautiful _mirage_, and melts away. His imagination then descends to view +this immense tribe of rational beings in another, and comparatively +moderate state of the cultivation of their faculties, a state not +one-third part so lofty as that in which he had beheld all the individuals +improved to the utmost of their natural capacity; and he thinks, that the +condition of man's abode on earth _might_ admit of their being raised to +_this_ elevation. But he soon sees that, till a mighty change shall come +on the management of the affairs of nations, this too is impossible; and +with regret he sees even this inferior ideal spectacle pass away, to rest +on an age in distant prospect. At last he takes his imaginary stand on +what he feels to be a very low level of the supposed improvement of the +general popular mind; and he says, Thus much, at the least, should be a +possibility allowed by the circumstances of the people under _any_ +tolerable disposition of national interests;--and then he turns to look +down on an actual condition in which care, and toil, and distress, render +it impossible for a great proportion of the people to reach, or even +approach, this his last and lowest conception of what the state of their +minds ought to be. + +In spite of all the optimists, it _is_ a grievous reflection, after the +race has had on earth so many thousands of years for attaining its most +advantageous condition there, that all the experience, the philosophy, the +science, the art, the power acquired by mind over matter,--that all the +contributions of all departed and all present spirits and bodies, yes, and +all religion too, should have come but to this;--to this, that in what is +self-adulated as the most favored and improved nation of all terrestrial +space and time, a vast proportion of the people are found in a condition +which confines them, with all the rigor of necessity, to a mere childhood +of intelligent existence, without its innocence. + +But at the very same time, and while the compassion rises, at such a view, +there comes in on the other hand the reflection, that even in the actual +state of things, there are a considerable number of the people who _might_ +acquire a valuable share of improvement which they do not. Great numbers +of them, grown up, waste by choice, and multitudes of children waste +through utter neglect, a large quantity of precious time which their +narrow circumstances still leave free from the iron dominion of necessity. +And they will waste it, it is certain that they will, till education shall +have become general, and much more vigorous in discipline. If through a +miracle there were to come down on this country, with a sudden, delightful +affluence of temporal melioration, resembling the vernal transformation +from the dreariness of winter, a universal prosperity, so that all should +be placed in comparative ease and plenty, it would require another miracle +to prevent this benignity of heaven from turning to a dreadful mischief. +What would the great tribe of the uneducated people do with the half of +their time, which we will suppose that such a state would give to their +voluntary disposal? Every one can answer infallibly, that the far greater +number of them would consume it in idleness, vanity or every sort of +intemperance. Educate them, then, bring them under a grand process of +intellectual and moral reformation;--or, in all circumstances and events, +calamitous or prosperous, they are still a race made in vain! + +In taking leave of the subject, we wish to express, in strong terms, the +applause and felicitations due to those excellent individuals, found here +and there, who In very humble circumstances, and perhaps with very little +advantage of education in their youth, have been excited to a strenuous, +continued exertion for the improvement of their minds; and thus have made +(the unfavorable situation considered,) admirable attainments, which are +verifying to them that "knowledge is power," over rich resources for their +own enjoyment, and are in many instances passing with inestimable worth +into the instruction of their families, and a variety of usefulness within +their sphere. They have nobly struggled with their threatened destiny, and +have overcome it. When they think, with regret, how confined, after all, +is their portion of knowledge, as compared with the possessions of those +who have had from their infancy all facilities and the amplest time for +its acquirement, let them be consoled by reflecting, that the value of +mental progress is not to be measured solely by the quantity of knowledge +possessed, but partly, and indeed still more, in the corrective, +invigorating effect produced on the mental powers by the resolute +exertions made in attaining it. And therefore, since, under their great +disadvantages, it has required a much greater degree of this resolute +exertion in them to force their way victoriously out of ignorance, than it +has required in those who have had everything in their favor to make a +long, free career over the field of knowledge, they may be assured they +possess one greater benefit in _proportion_ to the measure of their +acquirements. This persistence of a determined will to do what has been so +difficult to be done, has infused a peculiar energy into the exercise of +their powers; a valuable compensation, in part, for their more limited +share of the advantage that one part of knowledge becomes more valuable in +itself by the accession of many others. Let them persevere in this worthy +self-discipline, appropriate to the introductory period of an endless +mental life. Let them go on to complete the proof how much a mind incited +to a high purpose may triumph over a depression of its external +condition;--but solemnly taking care, that all their improvements may tend +to such a result, that at length the rigor of their lot and the +confinement of mortality itself bursting at once from around them, may +give them to those intellectual revelations, that everlasting sunlight of +the soul, in which the truly wise will expand all their faculties in a +happier economy. + + + +The End. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Essay on the Evils of Popular +Ignorance, by John Foster + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAY--EVILS OF POPULAR IGNORANCE *** + +***** This file should be named 8940.txt or 8940.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/9/4/8940/ + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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