134 A Project for the Diffusion of Useful Ignorance. [FEB. 



easier than to defeat Lord Brougham's favourite project, or hobby, the 

 establishment in every town and village of circulating libraries for the 

 labouring classes. By merely keeping these institutions faithful to the 

 principles on which our ancestors founded them, we should foil the noble 

 philosopher at his own weapons. Instead of such books as " The Work- 

 ing Man's Companion/' " The Advantages of Machinery," and " The 

 Mechanic's Magazine," the shelves should contain nothing but novels and 

 romances, such as " The Atrocities of a Convent/' " The Enchanted 

 Castle," c. for adults ; and for children, " Jack the Giant-killer," 

 " Cinderella/' and " The Life and Death of Cock Robin." There is an 

 obvious objection to historical romances, as well as to travels and voyages; 

 but a few such works as Croker's edition of Boswell could do no harm. 

 Many useful hints for new works might be taken from the publications 

 on the other side. For instance, as there is a book entitled f( The pur- 

 suit of knowledge under difficulties," so there might be prepared another 

 on "The pursuit of ignorance under difficulties" in which all the tempta- 

 tions to the acquisition of knowledge, and the countless obstacles to be 

 surmounted in the present trying times (when that tremendous character, 

 the schoolmaster, is abroad,) by those who are nobly determined neither 

 to be frightened nor flattered into education, might be fully set forth, and 

 illustrated in the lives of noblemen and gentlemen who have set the most 

 brilliant examples of this never-enough-to-be-lauded resistance. Instead 

 of the plebeian names of Franklin and Watt, and Black and Saunderson, 

 the work we contemplate would be dignified with the names of dukes, 

 bishops, generals, and even princes of the blood royal. We should have 

 Northumberlands, Newcastles, Winchelseas, WharnclifFes, Wellingtons, 

 a host of Right Reverend Prelates, and a Royal Highness or two. We 

 should never be obliged to travel out of the peerage for instances ; 

 certainly never to descend lower in the scale of rank than members of 

 the House of Commons. 



But to proceed with the main parts of our plan, we would most earn- 

 estly recommend the formation of " A SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF 

 USEFUL IGNORANCE." That ignorance is useful, is well known to those 

 who have governed England for the last hundred and fifty years : they 

 have experienced its advantages in so many ways, it has been the means 

 of raising them to such a height of prosperity and power, that gratitude 

 alone obliges them to omit nothing that can save its interests from ruin. 

 The society we now propose would have ten supporters amongst the 

 aristocracy for one supporter of its rival ; and as to writers, we may be 

 sure, that as the harvest would be rich, so the labourers would be many. 

 Murray would of course be the publisher ; and, to suit the present crisis, 

 the subject of the first number might be, " The evils of a representative 

 government." The next and last proposition we shall make (for we do 

 not mean to give more than an outline of a plan on the present occasion), 

 is the foundation of a new Royal Society. The members should have 

 affixed to their names the letters F.S.I., or Fellow of the Society of Igno- 

 ramuses. Nothing could look better than Sir Robert Inglis, F.S.I., or 

 Captain Gordon, F.S.I., or the Right Hon. Henry Goulburn, F.S.I. 

 Not to be behind its rival at Somerset House, the chair of this new insti- 

 tution ought to be filled by a Royal Duke, and the choice would not be 

 a matter of much difficulty ; the public having long since conferred a title 

 upon a particular personage, which marks him out for president of such 

 a society the moment it shall be incorporated. 



