1792. on schoolmaster’s salaries. 255 . 
the propriety of the time chosen for making this demand, 
the present circumstances of the country being attended 
to; it is only meant, in this efsay, to inquire whether the 
general effects upon the community at large would be 
beneficial, or the reverse, fhould an augmentation of sala- 
ry be granted to the Scottifh schoolmasters. 
** Before this point can be properly determined, it ap- 
pears to me that the two following questions require to be 
elucidated. 
“ First, Is it an advantage to a trading and manufacturing 
country, to render the acquisition of learning there so easy, 
as to put it within the reach of the lowest order of its ci- 
tizens} or the reverse ? 
“ Second, Willan augmentation ofthe salaries of the 
schoolmasters in Scotland, tend to promote the cause of 
literature in that country, or the reverse ?” 
(The author, by some forcible arguments, which, as you 
might think too long for your miscellany, I fhall omit, 
points out the evil tendency in some cases that results 
from too great an attention to literature among the low- 
er clafses of the people ; and then proceeds as under :) 
“ Let us, however, suppose for the present, that the gene- 
ral diffusion of learning, through all ranks of people, were 
to prove beneficial toa nation :—We are now to consider, 
‘ Whether an augmentation of the salaries of the school- 
“ masters in Scotland would tend to promote the cause of 
* literature there, or the reverse ??—On this head the fol- 
lowing observations naturally occur : 
' “Tt is an undoubted truth, that the industry of man is al- 
ways promoted by his wants; especially when that industry, 
if exerted, has a necefsary tendency to relieve those wants. 
In Scotland, the revenue of a schoolmaster arises in pare 
from his salary, and in part from‘ the fees he draws for 
teaching. If, in these circumstances, he-finds it impof- 
