Importance of National Education. 367 



moie iudependeut of extrinsic sources of eujoyment, and may learn to 

 (iud in 



" books — a real world 



Round which, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood, 



His pastime and his happiness may grow." 



*' It is for want of innocent recreation," says a periodical writer 

 already quoted,* " that the gin shop and ale-house are frequented : une7H- 

 ployed man requires some stimulant : he cannot work all his time, and if 

 for want of instruction, he has not the power of enjoying pleasures of an 

 innocent description, tippling, as it needs no talents or training, is inva- 

 riably resorted to. It excites and stimulates ; and what if health is 

 impaired ? The passing of his time in the enjoyment of even this low 

 pleasure is to him preferable to that weariness of mind which proceeds 

 from vacancy." 



We must not enlarge further on this topic, which trite as it is, can never 

 be considered by any one alive to the interests of humanity, as of slight 

 importance or devoid of interest. We acknowledge (with Sir James 

 Mackintosh) " that of all the fine arts, the noblest is the art of forming a 

 vigorous, healthy, and beautiful mind j"t and although we have not the 

 satisfaction of yet witnessing all the good effects which we believe education 

 will ultimately produce, we cannot lose our faith in its eflScacy to improve 

 mankind. We scruple not therefore to conclude in the language of an 

 eloquent writer| : — 



" That knowledge is an appreciable good for every being who is capable 

 of knowledge : a good for the richest — a good for the poorest — a good for 

 all who are placed in any part of the scale between the extremes of wealth 

 and poverty : — that the only danger is, lest it should not be communicated 

 with the requisite universality to the whole mass of the population, and in 

 a sufficient amount to every individual member: — that ignorance on the 



• Quarterly Journal of Education, No. 18, p. 237. 



f Memoirs, i. 428. 



X British Critic, Jan. 1835, p. 66. 



At the risk of transgressing my prescribed bounds, I am tempted to add the fol- 

 lowing beautiful passage from Hartley Coleridge, as it is pregnant with political and 

 moral wisdom : " Considering man as a person, consider him as sentient, intelligent, 

 moral, and immortal. For simply to think of a man as a sentient being is inconsis- 

 tent with that hard-hearted policy which would employ him, reckless of his suffering 

 or enjoyment, like a wedge or a rivet, to build up the idol temple of a false national 

 greatness ; to regard him as intelligent, or rather as capable o/ intelligence, condemns 

 the system that would keep him in ignorance to serve the purposes of his rulers, as 

 gamo-cock8 are penned up in the dark, that they may fight the better ; to regard him 

 as moral, corrects the primary conception of national prosperity ; and to revere him 

 as immortal commands prercmptorily that he shall never be made a tool or an instru- 

 ment to any end in which his own permanent welfare is not included." — Worthies of 

 ^'orkshirc, p. 7. 



