Natural History in Foreign Countries, 77 



physic, the fine arts, &c., by being sent to college ; and the bame of the 

 children of persons of rank and independence, whose education would be 

 completed by a course of travelling and residence in other countries. 



It may to some, perhaps, seem frivolous or ridiculous to enter into such 

 details : but we have considered them necessary, in order to prevent our- 

 selves from being mistinderstood ; and lest any one should think that, be- 

 cause we wish to bring all men and women, as near as their natures will 

 admit, to a level in point of knowledge and manners, we wish to subvert 

 the existing orders and ranks of society. We contemplate nothing of the 

 kind. According to the above system, the servant and the labourer will 

 be as completely subordinate to their masters as at present, though under 

 such a system of education the servant would necessarily know more then 

 than the master does now. All the contemplated difference between the 

 present state of society, and that which high and equal education and man- 

 ners would produce, would be a much more general diffusion of humanity*, 

 sympathy, and happiness. 



To produce this state of things, it appears to us essentially necessary 

 that the education for the lowest class of society should be enforced 

 by government. At first sight, it appears inconsistent with approved 

 principles to maintain such an opinion; for, if education be of so 

 great an advantage, why should not individuals be left to pursue it as 

 they do every other good ? Our answer is, that this reasoning will apply 

 to all those classes of society who are in easy circumstances ; but that 

 we do not think it will ever apply to the lowest class in any country, 

 however highly civilised that country may be. The lowest class may, 

 in all times and places, be considered as treading the brink of misery ; 

 the only means of preventing their precipitation into the gulf, is by the 

 continual exercise of their labour. Now, the temptation of poor pa- 

 rents, or of a poor widow or widower, to make use of the labour of their 

 children as soon as the physical strength of the latter permits, is, or appears to 

 us to be, too great to be continually before them without their falling into it. 

 We think, therefore, that for a perfect system of education to be effective, 

 whatever may be the state of the country to which it is applied, it will always 

 be necessary to compel the lowest class to send their children to school dur- 

 ing a certain period, as in Germany (Vol. I. p. 485.) ; and that it will always 

 be advantageous to have a law, rendering it illegal to employ any one who 

 could not show a-certificate of having attended this period, as in the same 

 country. For the class above the lowest, perhaps the law declaring it illegal 

 to employ any person without a certificate might suffice ; and, for all the 

 higher classes, we should^ say, admit none as officers in the army or navy, 

 to public or state employments, or to what is called good society, who were 

 not known to have taken a degree at some university, or to have done 

 something equivalent. We have elsewhere shown * that, in a properly edu- 

 cated and highly civilised nation, the name of every individual, when he 

 or she had completed the prescribed education, or, in other words, were 

 intellectually born into society, ought to be published in a local newspaper 

 or gazette, in the same way as physical births into the world are at present. 



In order that a system of education, to be applied generally, may effect all 

 that it is capable of effecting, we think that it should be conducted on what 

 we shall call the Natural History System ; i. e. that it should be totally 



* Des E'tablissemens pour P^ducation publique en Baviere, dans le Wir- 

 temberg, et a Bade ; et Remarques sur les Ameliorations a introduire dans 

 ces ^tablissemens pour les faire adopter en France, en Angleterre, et autres 

 pays. Paris, pamph. 8vo, 1829. — The essence of this work will be given in 

 the Gardener^s Magazine, 



