THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE PEOPLE. 155 



which he is an integer, raised into numeral value, by the advance of its 

 component parts, should fail to become a member of a Mechanics' In- 

 stitute, or of a Mutual Instruction Society. Unfortunately, there are 

 some who, from education and associations early imbibed, are afraid of 

 drinking of the castalian waters of Parnassus, or of diving into the ar- 

 canum of nature ; under the idea that religion would suffer, or that the 

 peculiar notions of theirsect may be disturbed. But woe to that religion, 

 which truth can unhinge — aud woe to that individual, who thinks that 

 he is not the inheritor of knowledge — which is the peculiar gift of God 

 to man. But there is a " movement" even among the religionists of 

 the day. They dare no longer say that knowledge is inimical to faith ; 

 they are at last forced to throw aside the paltry fear, and seem eager to 

 look abroad upon nature, her powers, and her phenomena — and upon 

 those applications of men's powers, to that knowledge which forms jmre 

 science, as the mighty lever which must at last move the world, when 

 the minds of men will deign to be the fulcrum. And there are The Young 

 men's Societies, which are composed of ardent young men, who range 

 themselves besids religion, and would make science aud philosophy her 

 handmaids. They will go on, and with the other means we here 

 mention, tend to the improvement of the people. In their service they 

 have an organ than which there is none more valuable or able. The 

 Educational Magazine, which comprises, in a word, the highest philo- 

 sophcial talent with the most perfect practice, in not only school in- 

 struction, but in the instruction of men, and the dissemination of those 

 great and glorious principles, which have brought mankind out of savage 

 barbarism and feudal slavery ; and which shall yet bear him onwards 

 and upwards, till the abuses and error, which surround, shall fade away 

 like mists at the coming of the sun. 



The people, then, must improve themselves — they must not wait for 

 acts of parliament, or trust to penal or retributive legislation. They 

 have the means in their own hands ; they have talent, energies, if roused, 

 more dreadful than the Conservative fire of ten thousand Birmingham 

 associatians. We, therefore, advise them to unite in intelligence, and 

 lay hold of the truth in legislature, in science, in art, in nature ; and 

 thus led to trust to themselves, the Truth shall make them Free. 



W. M. 



