116 THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION. 



gious precepts which ought ever to accompany and direct the advance 

 of knowledge. 



Many self-constituted philosophers, who have obtained most of 

 their wisdom from books, rather than from an extensive acquaintance 

 with the world or familiarity with the practical details of human na- 

 ture, and whose sphere of observation is limited to the various hypo- 

 theses of metaphysical reasoning and the wild speculations of theore- 

 tical conjecture, too frequently prefer espousing new theories and pro- 

 mulgating new systems, rather than endeavouring to apply acknow- 

 ledged facts, or more widely diffusing perhaps old-fashioned prin- 

 ciples. 



The happiness of a people does not altogether depend upon their 

 commercial prosperity, or on the extent of their intellectual acquire- 

 ments as regards acquaintance with the various arts and sciences, but 

 rather on their moral condition. The wisest and best of mankind 

 have, throughout all past ages, universally expressed their entire con- 

 viction that a higher motive to moral action is required than that 

 presented by the mere temporal advantages arising to society from 

 such a condition : for the advantages must vary with the changing 

 state of such society : and if once expediency is admitted as the rule 

 of conduct, the standard of right is instantly depreciated and opinion 

 usurps the place of immutable truth. It is, then, only by the aid of 

 the more exalted sentiment of religion that moral precepts can be 

 enforced and maintained. The faculty of veneration disposes man to 

 adore the Creator of the Universe : first, as seen in the book of Na- 

 ture, and secondly, as displayed in the volume of Revelation. This 

 faculty is doubtless an innate power of the human mind, implanted 

 there for the wisest purposes ; but this, perhaps more than any other 

 of the mental powers, requires direction in its development, in order 

 that its legitimate effects may be produced. When it is in accordance 

 with, and in obedience to, the declared will of the Creator, it cannot 

 be too active. Thus manifested, it controls all the fiercer passions, 

 and bridles every licentious desire ; at the same time, it curbs that 

 feeling of false independence and assumed wisdom which is engender- 

 ed by pride and fostered by self-confidence, and which proves so fre- 

 quently a stumbling block to improvement and happiness. But the 

 purifying influence of religion does not arise, as in simple moral go- 

 vernment, from the probable evil that may accrue to society from the 

 free indulgence of bad propensities ; its influence proceeds from an 

 unwillingness on the part of the individual to displease the Being whom 

 he acknowledges alike to fear and to adore. The highest possible 



