STUDY XII. , 19 



The Pleafures of Ignorance, 



From an effed of thofe ineffable fentiments, 

 and of thofe univerfal inftinfts of Deity, it is, that 

 ignorance is become the inexhauftible fource of 

 delight to Man. We mull take care not to con- 

 found, as all our Moralifls do, ignorance and er- 

 ror. Ignorance is the work of Nature, and, in 

 many cafes, a bleffing to Man ; whereas error is 

 frequently the fruit of our pretended human Sci- 

 ences, and is always an evil. Let our political 

 Writers fay what they will, while they boaft of our 

 wonderful progrefs in knowledge, and oppofe to 

 it the barbarifm of paft ages, it was not ignorance 

 which then fet all Europe on fire, and inundated 

 it with blood, in fettling religious difputations. 

 A race of ignorants would have kept themfelves 

 quiet. The mifchief was done by perfons who 

 were under the power of error, who, at that time, 

 vaunted as much, perhaps, of their fuperior illu- 

 mination, as we now-a-days do of ours, and into 

 each of whom the European fpirit of education 

 had inftilled this error of early infancy, Be the firfi^ 



How many evils does ignorance conceal from 

 us, which we are doomed one day to encounter, 

 in the courfe of human life, beyond the poflibility 



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