563 



which any individual might attain, valuable as might be the discove- 

 ries he had made, if he could not impart his knowledge to others, it 

 must die with hira ; and each successive generation must pass through 

 the same tedious routine without advance or improvement, like " the 

 beasts that perish." 



It is only then, by the ])ower of availing himself of the observation 

 and experience, the ideas and the knowledge of others, that man is en- 

 abled to rise from a state of savage ignorance and imbecility. Hence, 

 it will be found that every nation, ancient or modem, has advanced in 

 civilization and improvement, in the production of the necessaries and 

 comforts of life, and been able to triumph over its neighbors, in propor- 

 tion to the facilities which it has contrived or possessed, for imparting 

 and transmitting knowledge from one person to another, and from one 

 generation to another. 



Every science is formed, every law of Nature ascertained, by the ob- 

 servation of, and reflection upon a multitude of particular facts, from 

 which some general law can be deduced. The necessary number and 

 variety of facts cannot all be observed and collected by the same per- 

 son; time also is necessary; they must be collected, accumulated, em- 

 bodied and classified ; and this (especially in early and less enlightened 

 times) required their transmission from one generation to another, and 

 often for a long course of ages, before the necessary amount of materi- 

 als could be furnished for the construction of science. 



Among the most favored of ancient nations, the means of collecting, 

 preserving'and transmitting ideas, were exceedingly limited. The art of 

 writing, alone, though a great advance, was but an imperfect means of 

 imparting and transmitting knowledge, and entirely inadequate to its 

 dissemination among the people. The great masses of the people, owing 

 to the low state of the arts and sciences, and the almost entire absence 

 of machinery, were compelled to produce all the necessaries of life by 

 direct labor. Little time was left them for the study of manuscripts. 

 The necessary consequence was, that very few, except the opulent or 

 powerful, ever obtained the art of reading; and owing to the great ex- 

 pense of multiplying written copies, fewer still could obtain the books 

 or materials. Knowledge was therefore, of necessity, confined to the 

 few, who were thus enabled to deceive, degrade and oppress the masses, 

 and to live upon their earnings, an advantage, (such is the melancholy 

 history of our race,) that power has too seldom scrupled to use- 



