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vation. Nevertheless, he must at some period mix in society with almost all sorts of men, and therefore he must be prepared for it. Very young children should be excluded if possible from all unfit association, because they acquire habits before they possess a sufficiency of counteracting principle. But if a parent has, within his own house, sufficiently endeavoured to confirm and invigorate the moral character of his child, it were worse than fruitless to endeavour to retain him in the seclusion of a monk. He should feel the necessity and acquire the power of resisting temptation, by being subjected, gradually subjected, to that temptation which must one day be presented to him. In the endlessly diversified circumstances of families, no suggestion of prudence will be applicable to all; but if a parent is conscious that the moral tendency of his domestic associations is good, it will probably be wise to send his children to day-schools rather than to send them wholly from his family. Schools, as moral instruments, contain much both of good and evil: perhaps no means will be more effectual in securing much of the good and avoiding much of the evil, than that of allowing his children to spend their evenings and early mornings at home.

sistent practical lessons of virtue in their parents' | the medium between perfect purity and utter depraparlours, must see much that is contrary elsewhere; and we must, if we can, so rectify the moral perceptions and invigorate the moral dispositions, that the mind shall effectually resist the insinuation of evil. Religion is the basis of Morality. He that would impart moral knowledge must begin by imparting a knowledge of God. We are not advocates of formal instruction-of lesson learning-in moral any more than in intellectual education. Not that we affirm it is undesirable to make a young person commit to memory maxims of religious truth and moral duty. These things may be right, but they are not the really efficient means of forming the moral character of the young. These maxims should recommend themselves to the judgment and affections, and this can hardly be hoped whilst they are presented only in a didactic and insulated form to the mind. It is one of the characteristics of the times, that there is a prodigious increase of books that are calculated to benefit whilst they delight the young. These are effective instruments in teaching morality. A simple narrative, (of facts if it be possible,) in which integrity of principle and purity of conduct are recommended to the affections as well as to the judgment without affectation, or improbabilities, or factitious sentiment, is likely to effect substantial good. And if these associations are judiciously renewed, the good is likely to be permanent as well as substantial. It is not a light task to write such books, nor to select them. Authors colour their pictures too highly. They must indeed interest the young, or they will not be read with pleasure: but the anxiety to give interest is too great, and the effects may be expected to diminish as the narrative recedes from congeniality to the actual condition of mankind.

A judicious parent will often find that the moral culture of his child may be promoted without seeming to have the object in view. There are many opportunities which present themselves for associating virtue with his affections-for throwing in amongst the accumulating mass of mental habits, principles of rectitude which shall pervade and meliorate the whole.

As the mind acquires an increased capacity of judging, I would offer to the young person a sound exhibition, if such can be found, of the Principles of Morality. He should know, with as great distinctness as possible, not only his duty but the reasons of it. It has very unfortunately happened that those who have professed to deliver the principles of morality, have commonly intermingled error with truth, or have set out with propositions fundamentally unsound. These books effect, it is probable, more injury than benefit. Their truths, for they contain truths, are frequently deduced from fallacious premises-from premises from which it is equally easy to deduce errors. The fallacies of the Moral Philosophy of Paley are now in part detected by the public: there was a time whon his opinions were regarded as more nearly oracular than now; and at that time and up to the present time, the book has effectually confused the moral notions of multitudes of readers. If the reader thinks that the Principles which have been proposed in the present Essays are just, he might derive some assistance from them in conducting the moral education of his elder children. There is negative as well as positive Educationsome things to avoid, as well as some to do. Of the things which are to be avoided, the most obvious is unfit society for the young. If a boy mixes without restraint in whatever society he pleases, his education will in general be practically bad; because the world in general is bad : its moral condition is below

In ruminating upon Moral Education, we cannot, at least in this age of reading, disregard the influence of books. That a young person should not read every book is plain. No discrimination can be attempted here; but it may be observed that the best species of discrimination is that which is supplied by a rectified condition of the mind itself. The best species of prohibition is not that which a parent pronounces, but that which is pronounced by purified tastes and inclinations in the mind of the young. Not that the parent or tutor can expect that all or many of his children will adequately make this judicious discrimination; but if he cannot do every thing he can do much. There are many persons whom a contemptible or vicious book disgusts, notwithstanding the fascinations which it may contain. This disgust is the result of education in a large sense; and some portion of this disgust and of the discrimination which results from it, may be induced into the mind of a boy by having made him familiar with superior productions. He who is accustomed to good society, feels little temptation to join in the vociferations of an alehouse.

And here it appears necessary to advert to the moral tendency of studying, without selection, the ancient classics. If there are objections to the study resulting from this tendency, they are to be superadded to those which were stated in the last chapter on intellectual grounds; and both united will present motives to hesitation on the part of a parent which he cannot, with any propriety, disregard. The mode in which the writings of the Greek and Latin authors operate, is not an ordinary mode. not approach them as we approach ordinary books, but with a sort of habitual admiration, which makes their influence, whatever be its nature, peculiarly strong. That admiration would be powerful alike for good or for evil. Whether the tendency be good or evil, the admiration will make it great.

We do

Now, previous to enquiring what the positive ill tendency of these writings is what is not their tendency? They are Pagan books for Christian children. They neither inculcate Christianity, nor Christian dispositions, nor the love of Christianity. But their tendency is not negative merely. They do inculcate that which is adverse to Christianity and to Christian dispositions. They set up, as exalted virtues, that which our own religion never countenanced, if it has not specifically condemned.

They censure as faults dispositions which our own religion enjoins, or dispositions so similar that the young will not discriminate between them. If we enthusiastically admire these works, who will pretend that we shall not admire the moral qualities which they applaud? Who will pretend that the mind of a young person accurately adjusts his admiration to those subjects only which Christianity approves? No: we admire them as a whole; not perhaps every sentence or every sentiment, but we admire their general spirit and character. word, we admire that which our own religion teaches us not to imitate. And what makes the effect the more intense is, that we do this at the period of life when we are every day acquiring our moral notions. We mingle them up with our early associations respecting right and wrong-with associations which commonly extend their influence over the remainder of life.*

In a

A very able Essay, which obtained the Norrisian Medal at Cambridge for 1825, forcibly illustrates these propositions; and the illustration is so much the more valuable, because it appears to have been undesigned. The title is," No valid argument can be drawn from the incredulity of the Heathen Philosophers against the truth of the Christian religion." The object of the work is to show, by a reference to their writings, that the general system of their opinions, feelings, prejudices, principles, and conduct, was utterly incongruous with Christianity; and that, in consequence of these principles, &c., they actually did reject the religion. This is shown with great clearness of evidence; it is shown that a class of men, who thought and wrote as these Philosophers thought and wrote, would be extremely indisposed to adopt the religion and morality which Christ had introduced. Now, this appears to me to be conclusive of the question as to the present tendency of their writings. If the principles and prejudices of these persons indisposed them to the acceptance of Christianity, those prejudices and principles will indispose the man who admires and imbibes them in the present day. Not that they will now produce the effect in the same degree. We are now surrounded with many other media by which opinions and principles are induced, and these are frequently influenced by the spirit of Christianity. The study and the admiration of these writings may not therefore be expected to make men absolutely reject Christianity, but to indispose them, in a greater or less degree, for the hearty acceptance of Christian principles as their rules of conduct.

Propositions have been made to supply young persons with selected ancient authors, or perhaps with editions in which exceptionable passages are expunged. I do not think that this will greatly avail. It is not, I think, the broad indecencies of Ovid, nor any other insulated class of sentiments or descriptions, that effects the great mischief; it is the pervading spirit and tenor of the whole-a spirit and tenor from which Christianity is not only excluded, but which is actually and greatly adverse to Christianity. There is indeed one considerable benefit that is likely to result from such a selection, and from expunging particular passages. Boys in ordinary schools do not learn enough of the classics to acquire much of their general moral spirit, but they acquire enough to be influenced, and injuriously influenced, by being familiar with licentious language; and, at any rate, he essentially subserves the interests of morality, who diminishes the power of

"All education which inculcates Christian Opinions with Pagan Tastes, awakens conscience but to tamper with it." Schimmelpenninck: Biblical Fragments.

By James Amiraux Jeremie."

opposing influences though he cannot wholly destroy it.

Finally, the mode in which Intellectual Education, generally, is acquired, may be made either an auxiliary of Moral Education or the contrary. A young person may store his mind with literature and science, and together, with the acquisition, either corrupt his principles, or amend and invigorate them. The world is so abundantly supplied with the means of knowledge-there are so many paths to the desired temple, that we may choose our own and yet arrive at it. He that thinks he cannot possess sufficient knowledge without plucking fruit of unhallowed trees, surely does not know how boundless is the variety and number of those which bear wholesome fruit. He cannot indeed know every thing without studying the bad; which, however, is no more to be recommended in literature than in life. A man cannot know all the varieties of human society without taking up his abode with felons and cannibals.

II. But, in reality, the second division of Moral Education is the more important of the two- the supply of motives to adhere to what is right. Our great deficiency is not in knowledge but in obedience. Of the offences which an individual commits against the Moral Law, the great majority are committed in the consciousness that he is doing wrong. Moral Education therefore should be directed, not so much to informing the young what they ought to do, as to inducing those moral dispositions and principles which will make them adhere to what they know to be right.

The human mind, of itself, is in a state something like that of men in a state of nature, where separate and conflicting desires and motives are not restrained by any acknowledged head. Government, as it is necessary to society, is necessary in the individual mind. To the internal community of the heart the great question is, Who shall be the legislator? Who shall regulate and restrain the passions and affections? Who shall command and direct the conduct?-To these questions the breast of every man supplies him with an answer. He knows, because he feels, that there is a rightful legislator in his own heart he knows, because he feels, that he ought to obey it.

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By whatever designation the reader may think it fit to indicate this legislator, whether he calls it the law written in the heart, or moral sense, or moral instinct, or conscience, we arrive at one practical truth at last; that to the moral legislation which does actually subsist in the human mind, it is right that the individual should conform his conduct.

The great point then is, to induce him to do this -to induce him, when inclination and this law are at variance, to sacrifice the inclination to the law: and for this purpose it appears proper, first to impress him with a high, that is, with an accurate estimate of the authority of the law itself. We have seen that this law embraces an actual expression of the Will of God; and we have seen that, even although the conscience may not always be adequately enlightened, it nevertheless constitutes to the individual an authoritative law. It is to the conscientious internal apprehension of rectitude that we should conform our conduct. Such appears to be the Will

of God.

It should therefore be especially inculcated, that the dictate of conscience is never to be sacrificed; that whatever may be the consequences of conforming to it, they are to be ventured. Obedience is to be unconditional-no questions about the utility of the law-no computations of the consequences of obedience-no presuming upon the lenity of the divine government. "It is important so to regulate the

understanding and imagination of the young, that they may be prepared to obey, even where they do not see the reasons of the commands of God." "We should certainly endeavour, where we can, to show them the reasons of the divine commands, and this more and more as their understandings gain strength; but let it be obvious to them that we do ourselves consider it as quite sufficient if God has commanded us to do or to avoid any thing.'

Obedience to this internal legislator is not, like obedience to civil government, enforced. The law is promulgated, but the passions and inclinations can refuse obedience if they will. Penalties and rewards are indeed annexed; but he who braves the penalty, and disregards the reward, may continue to violate the law. Obedience therefore must be voluntary, and hence the paramount importance, in moral education, of habitually subjecting the will. "Parents," says Hartley, "should labour, from the earliest dawnings of understanding and desire, to check the growing obstinacy of the will, curb all sallies of passion, impress the deepest, most amiable, reverential, and awful impressions of God, a future state, and all sacred things."-" Religious persons in all periods, who have possessed the light of revelation, have in a particular manner been sensible that the habit of self-control lies at the foundation of moral worth." There is nothing mean or meanspirited in this. It is magnanimous in philosophy as it is right in morals. It is the subjugation of the lower qualities of our nature to wisdom and to goodness

The subjugation of the will to the dictates of a Eigher law, must be endeavoured, if we would succeed, almost in infancy and in very little things; from the earliest dawnings, as Hartley says, of understanding and desire. Children must first obey their parents, and those who have the care of them. The habit of sacrificing the will to another judgment being thus acquired, the mind is prepared to sacrifice the will to the judgment pronounced within itself. Show, in every practicable case, why you cross the inclinations of a child. Let obedience be as little

blind as it may be. It is a great failing of some parents that they will not descend from the imperative mood, and that they seem to think it a derogation from their authority to place their orders upon any other foundation than their wills.

But if

the child sees and children are wonderfully quicksighted in such things-if the child sees that the will is that which governs his parent, how shall he efficiently learn that the will should not govern himself?

The internal law carries with it the voucher of its own reasonableness. A person does not need to be told that it is proper and right to obey that law. The perception of this rectitude and propriety is coincident with the dictates themselves. Let the parent, then, very frequently refer his son and his daughter to their own minds; let him teach them to seek for instruction there. There are dangers on every hand, and dangers even here. The parent must refer them, if it be possible, not merely to conscience, but to enlightened conscience. He must unite the two branches of Moral Education, and communicate the knowledge whilst he endeavours to induce the practice of morality. Without this, his children may obey their consciences, and yet be in error, and perhaps in fanaticism. With it, he may hope that their conduct will be both conscientious, and pure, and right. Nevertheless, an habitual reference to the internal law is the great, the primary concern; for the great majority of a man's moral perceptions are accordant with Truth. Carpenter: Principles of Education. + Ibid.

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There is one consequence attendant upon this habitual reference to the internal law, which is highly beneficial to the moral character. It leads us to fulfil the wise instruction of antiquity, Know thyself. It makes us look within ourselves; it brings us acquainted with the little and busy world that is within us, with its many inhabitants and their dispositions, and with their tendencies to evil or to good. This is valuable knowledge; and knowledge for want of which, it may be feared, the virtue of many has been wrecked in the hour of tempest. A man's enemies are those of his own household; and if he does not know their insidiousness and their strength, if he does not know upon what to depend for assistance, nor where is the probable point of attack, it is not likely that he will efficiently resist. Such a man is in the situation of the governor of an unprepared and surprised city. He knows not to whom to apply for effectual help, and finds perhaps that those whom he has loved and trusted are the first to desert or betray him. He feebly resists, soon capitulates, and at last scarcely knows why he did not make a successful defence.

It is to be regretted that, in the moral education which commonly obtains, whether formal or incidental, there is little that is calculated to produce this acquaintance with our own minds; little that refers us to ourselves, and much, very much, that calls and sends us away. Of many it is not too much to say, that they receive almost no moral culture. The plant of virtue is suffered to grow as a tree grows in a forest, and takes its chance of storm or sunshine. This, which is good for oaks and pines, is not good for man. The general atmosphere around him is infected, and the juices of the moral plant are often themselves unhealthy.

The

In the nursery, formularies and creeds are taught; but this does not refer the child to its own mind. Indeed, unless a wakeful solicitude is maintained by those who teach, the tendency is the reverse. mind is kept from habits of introversion, even in the offices of religion, by practically directing its attention to the tongue. "Many, it is to be feared, imagine that they are giving their children religious principles, when they are only teaching them religious truths." You cannot impart moral education as you teach a child to spell.

From the nursery a boy is sent to school. He spends six or eight hours of the day in the schoolroom, and the remainder is employed in the sports of boyhood. Once, or it may be twice, in the day he repeats a form of prayer, and on one day in the week he goes to church. There is very little in all this to make him acquainted with the internal community; and habit, if nothing else, calls his reflections away.

From school or from college the business of life is begun. It can require no argument to show, that the ordinary pursuits of life have little tendency to direct a man's meditations to the moral condition of his own mind, or that they have much tendency to employ them upon other and very different things.

Nay, even the offices of public devotion have almost a tendency to keep the mind without itself. What if we say that the self-contemplation which even natural religion is likely to produce, is obstructed by the forms of Christian worship? "The transitions from one office of devotion to another, are contrived, like scenes in the drama, to supply the mind with a succession of diversified engagements." This supply of diversified engagements, whatever may be its value in other respects, has evidently the tendency of which we speak. It is not designed to supply, and it does not supply, the opportunity for calmness Paley, p. 3, b, 5, c. 5.

of recollection. A man must abstract himself from the external service if he would investigate the character and dispositions of the inmates of his own breast. Even the architecture and decoration of churches come in aid of the general tendency. They make the eye an auxiliary of the ear, and both keep the mind at a distance from those concerns which are peculiarly its own; from contemplating its own weaknesses and wants; and from applying to God for that peculiar help, which perhaps itself only needs, and which God only can impart. So little are the course of education and the subsequent engagements of life calculated to foster this great auxiliary of moral character. It is difficult, in the wide world, to foster it as much as is needful. Nothing but wakeful solicitude on the part of the parent can be expected sufficiently to direct the mind within; whilst the general tendency of our associations and habits is to keep it without. Let him, however, do what he can. The habitual reference to the dictates of conscience may be promoted in the very young mind. This habit, like others, becomes strong by exercise. He that is faithful in little things is intrusted with more; and this is true in respect of knowledge as in respect of other departments of the Christian life. Fidelity of obedience is commonly succeeded by increase of light; and every❘ act of obedience and every addition to knowledge furnishes new and still stronger inducements to persevere in the same course. Acquaintance with ourselves is the inseparable attendant of this course. We know the character and dispositions of our own inmates by frequent association with them: and if this fidelity to the internal law, and consequent knowledge of the internal world, be acquired in early life, the parent may reasonably hope that it will never wholly lose its efficiency amidst the bustle and anxieties of the world.

Undoubtedly, this most efficient security of moral character is not likely fully to operate during the continuance of the present state of society and of its institutions. It is I believe true, that the practice of morality is most complete amongst those persons who peculiarly recommend a reference to the internal law, and whose institutions, religious and social, are congruous with the habit of this reference. Their history exhibits a more unshaken adherence to that which they conceived to be right-fewer sacrifices of conscience to interest or the dread of suffering-less of trimming between conflicting motives-more, in a word, of adherence to rectitude without regard to consequences. We have seen that such persons are likely to form accurate views of rectitude; but whether they be accurate or not, does not affect the value of their moral education as securing fidelity to the degree of knowledge which they possess. It is of more consequence to adhere steadily to conscience though it may not be perfectly enlightened, than to possess perfect knowledge without consistency of obedience. But in reality they who obey most, know most; and we say that the general testimony of experience is, that those persons exhibit the most unyielding fidelity to the Moral Law whose Moral Education has peculiarly directed them to the law written in the heart.

CHAPTER XIII.

EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. Advantages of extended Education-Infant Schools-Habits of enquiry.

WHETHER the Education of those who are not able to pay for educating themselves ought to be a

private or a national charge, it is not our present business to discuss. It is in this country, at least, left to the voluntary benevolence of individuals, and this consideration may apologize for a brief reference to it here.

It is not long since it was a question whether the poor should be educated or not. That time is past, and it may be hoped the time will soon be passed when it shall be a question, To what extent ?-that the time will soon arrive when it will be agreed that no limit needs to be assigned to the education of the poor, but that which is assigned by their own necessities, or which ought to be assigned to the education of all men. There appears no more reason for excluding a poor man from the fields of knowledge, than for preventing him from using his eyes. The mental and the visual powers were alike given to be employed. A man should, indeed, "shut his eyes from seeing evil," but whatever reason there is for letting him see all that is beautiful, and excellent, and innocent in nature and in art, there is the same for enabling his mind to expatiate in the fields of knowledge.

The objections which are urged against this extended education, are of the same kind as those which were urged against any education. They insist upon the probability of abuse. It was said, They who can write may forge; they who can read may read what is pernicious. The answer was, or it might have been-They who can hear, may hear profaneness and learn it; they who can see, may see bad examples and follow them :-but are we therefore to stop our ears and put out our eyes ?—It is now said, that if you give extended education to the poor, you will elevate them above their stations; that a critic would not drive a wheelbarrow, and that a philosopher would not shoe horses or weave cloth. But these consequences are without the limits of possibility; because the question for a poor man is, whether he shall perform such offices or starve: and surely it will not be pretended that hungry men would rather criticise than eat. Science and literature would not solicit a poor man from his labour more irresistibly than ease and pleasure do now; yet in spite of these solicitations what is the fact? That the poor man works for his bread. This is the inevitable result.

It is not the positive but the relative amount of knowledge that elevates a man above his station in society. It is not because he knows much, but because he knows more than his fellows. Educate all, and none will fancy that he is superior to his neighbours. Besides, we assign to the possession of knowledge, effects which are produced rather by habits of life. Ease and comparative leisure are commonly attendant upon extensive knowledge, and leisure and ease disqualify men for the laborious occupations much more than the knowledge itself.

There are some collateral advantages of an extended education of the people, which are of much importance. It has been observed that if the French had been an educated people, many of the atrocities of their Revolution would never have happened, and I believe it. Furious mobs are composed, not of enlightened but of unenlightened men-of men in whom the passions are dominant over the judgment, because the judgment has not been exercised, and informed, and habituated to direct the conduct. A factious declaimer can much less easily influence a number of men who acquired at school the rudiments of knowledge, and who have subsequently devoted their leisure to a Mechanic's Institute, than a multitude who cannot write or read, and who have never practised reasoning and considerate thought. And as the Education of a People prevents political evil, it

effects political good. Despotic rulers well know that knowledge is inimical to their power. This simple fact is a sufficient reason, to a good and wise man, to approve knowledge and extend it. The attention to public institutions and public measures which is inseparable from an educated population, is a great good. We all know that the human heart is such, that the possession of power is commonly attended with a desire to increase it, even in opposition to the general weal. It is acknowledged that a check is needed, and no check is either so efficient or so safe as that of a watchful and intelligent public mind: so watchful, that it is prompt to discover and to expose what is amiss; so intelligent, that it is able to form rational judgments respecting the nature and the means of amendment. In all public institutions there exists, and it is happy that there does exist, a sort of vis inertia which habitually resists change. This, which is beneficial as a general tendency, is often injurious from its excess: the state of public institutions almost throughout the world, bears sufficient testimony to the truth, that they need alteration and amendment faster than they receive it-that the internal resistance of change is greater than is good for man. Unhappily, the ordinary way in which a people have endeavoured to amend their institutions, has been by some mode of violence. If you ask when a nation acquired a greater degree of freedom, you are referred to some era of revolution and probably of blood. These are not proper, certainly they are not Christian, remedies for the disease. It is becoming an undisputed proposition, that no bad institution can permanently stand against the distinct Opinion of a People. This opinion is likely to be universal, and to be intelligent only amongst an enlightened community. Now that reformation of public institutions which results from public opinion, is the very best in kind, and is likely to be the best in its mode:-in its kind, because public opinion is the proper measure of the needed alteration; and in its mode, because alterations which result from such a cause, are likely to be temperately made.

It may be feared that some persons object to an extended education of the people on these very grounds which we propose as recommendations; that they regard the tendency of education to produce examination, and, if need be, alteration of established institutions, as a reason for withholding it from the poor. To these, it is a sufficient answer, that if increase of knowledge and habits of investigation tend to alter any established institution, it is fit that it should be altered. There appears no means of avoiding this conclusion, unless it can be shown that increase of knowledge is usually attended with depravation of principle, and that in proportion as the judgment is exercised it decides amniss.

Generally, that intellectual education is good for a poor man which is good for his richer neighbours: in other words, that is good for the poor which is good for man. There may be exceptions to the general rule; but he who is disposed to doubt the fitness of a rich man's education for the poor, will do well to consider first whether the rich man's education is fit for himself. The children of persons of property can undoubtedly learn much more than those of a labourer, and the labourer must select from the rich man's system a part only for his own child. But this does not affect the general conclusion. The parts which he ought to select are precisely those parts which are most necessary and beneficial to the rich.

Great as have been the improvements in the methods of conveying knowledge to the poor, there is reason to think that they will be yet greater. Some

useful suggestions for the instruction of older children may I think be obtained from the systems in Infant Schools. In a well conducted infant school, children acquire much knowledge, and they acquire it with delight. This delight is of extreme importance: perhaps it may safely be concluded, respecting all innocent knowledge, that if a child acquired it with pleasure he is well taught. It is worthy observation, that in the infant system, lesson-learning is nearly or wholly excluded. It is not to be expected that in the time which is devoted professedly to education by the children of the poor, much extent of knowledge can be acquired; but something may be acquired which is of much more consequence than mere school-learning-the love and the habits of enquiry. If education be so conducted that it is a positive pleasure to a boy to learn, there is little doubt that this love and habit will be induced. Here is the great advantage of early intellectual culture. The busiest have some leisure, leisure which they may employ ill or well; and that they will employ it well may reasonably be expected when knowledge is thus attractive for its own sake. That this effect is in a considerable degree actually produced, is indicated by the improved character of the books which poor men read, and in the prodigious increase in the number of those books. The supply and demand are correspondent. Almost every year produces books for the labouring classes of a higher intellectual order than the last. A journeyman in our days can understand and relish a work which would have been like Arabic to his grandfather.

Of moral education we say nothing here, except that the principles which are applicable to other classes of mankind are obviously applicable to the poor. With respect to the inculcation of peculiar religious opinions on the children who attend schools voluntarily supported, there is manifestly the same reason for inculcating them in this case as for teaching them at all. This supposes that the supporters of the school are not themselves divided in their religious opinions. If they are, and if the adherents to no one creed are able to support a school of their own, there appears no ground upon which they can rightly refuse to support a school in which no religious peculiarities are taught. It is better that intellectual knowledge, together with imperfect religious principles should be communicated, than that children should remain in darkness. There is indeed some reason to suspect the genuineness of that man's philanthropy, who refuses to impart any knowledge to his neighbours because he cannot, at the same time, teach them his own creed.

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