BEST MEANS OF ENLI3HTKNING AND IMPROVING THE PEOPLE. 503 



do. For, the consequence of their neglecting the latter of these classes 

 of virtues and objects is, first, that many persons (and some of the most 

 illustrious both for rank, talents, and influence among them) who would 

 otherwise be disposed to prefer them, go over to the opposite side as, 

 for instance, Burke and Coleridge, who were considered (the latter by 

 no less a person than Mr. Fox) as the two individuals who turned the 

 scale of the destinies of Europe in favour of legitimacy against liberality ; 

 and, secondly, that even if physically the strongest, they can have no 

 self-respect or satisfaction in their own system. 



The great engine that is wanting, above all others, for this and for 

 all kinds of improvement, whether moral, physical, intellectual, or orna- 

 mental, is a respectable and efficient periodical press. And this is the more 

 desirable, as it is not only an engine, but a beautiful and delightful ob- 

 ject in itself at once a means and an end. And never, in the whole his- 

 tory of England, or the world, was there such a noble opportunity for it as 

 now. This is a truth so obvious as to need no proof. And shall this golden 

 opportunity, like so many others, be lost ? Especially when, of all the 

 projects in the world, it is at once the most important, and the easiest 

 in proportion to its importance much more so than the establishment 

 of the London University, of which the shares are now selling for a 

 quarter of their original value! So strange is this infatuation of 

 mankind for " spending their money for that which is not bread, and 

 their labour for that which satisfieth not !" Nothing more whatever is 

 wanting for this than what has been already done, under infinitely less 

 favourable circumstances, by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 

 Knowledge pity that the knowledge they have taken so much pains to 

 diffuse has not been a little more useful ! Might not such a design be at 

 least proposed to some of the leading literary and political characters of 

 the age. 



Surely, the public would rather listen to such guides than to Mr. 

 Roebuck's trash, Lord Brougham's quackery,* or O'Connell's blarney 

 and blackguardism. Not but that all these men are useful in their way, 

 if they would only take their proper sphere ; but not one of them is tit 

 to take the arduous and dignified office of a guide of the public mind ; 

 although one of them whose pardon I beg, for having mentioned (not 

 certainly classed) him in such company, might be a very useful assistant 

 if he would know, and confine himself, to his real qualifications. 



M. w. 



perfect, the latter is partly undefined and improvable, and must always remain so, 

 though continually improving. But it were much to be wished that those who, as 

 Burke well observed, occupy themselves with criticising the constitution, instead of 

 enjoying it, and consider the discovery of a flaw a sufficient reason for demolishing 

 the whole edifice, would begin by trying their own ability to produce a better entire 

 system in its place; for assuredly there is no greater waste of labour, than pointing 

 rotten parts in a building without being able to repair them. The observation applies 

 with still more force to cavillers at religion, either natural or revealed ; with this 

 advantage, that there, at least in the case of the latter, the answer is much more com- 

 plete and satisfactor3'. And in nothing is the enormous infatuation of the liberals 

 more conspicuous, than in wishing to get rid of that which would, if properly under- 

 stood and profited by, be to them the greatest "tower of strength/' and source of 

 interest and satisfaction, that is anywhere to be found. We shall perhaps find an 

 opportunity of resuming this most interesting subject, either here or elsewhere. 



* Not fraud, but xe//*-delusion, owing to want of impartial examination of his own 

 hobbies. 



