GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



PART I. 



ON THE ADVANTAGES WHICH WOULD FLOW FROM A GENERAL DIFFUSION OP 

 KNOWLEDGE. 



THAT the intellectual faculties of man have 

 never been thoroughly directed to the pursuit of 

 objects worthy of the dignity of rational and 

 immortal natures and that the most pernicious 

 effects have flowed from the perversion of their 

 mental powers, are truths which the history 

 of past ages and our own experience too plainly 

 demonstrate. That the state of general society 

 would be greatly meliorated, were the mists of 

 ignorance dispelled, and the current of human 

 thought directed into a proper channel, might 

 appear, were we to take an extensive survey of 

 the evils which have been produced by igno 

 rance, and its necessary concomitants, and of 

 the opposite effects which would flow from men 

 tal illumination, in relation to all those subjects 

 connected with the improvement and the happi 

 ness of our species. Here, however, a field of 

 vast extent opens to view, which would require 

 several volumes fully to describe and illustrate : 

 I shall, therefore, in the mean time, select, from 

 the multitude of objects which crowd upon the 

 view, only a few prominent particulars, the 

 elucidation of which shall occupy the following 

 sections. 



SECTION I. 



ON THE INFLUENCE WHICH A GENERAL DIF 

 FUSION OF KNOWLEDGE WOULD HAVE IN 

 DISSIPATING THOSE SUPERSTITIOUS NO 

 TIONS AND VAIN FEARS WHICH HAVE SO 

 LONG ENSLAVED THE MINDS OF MEN. 



MY first proposition is, that the diffusion of 

 knowledge wou id undermine the fabric of su 



perstition, and remove those groundless feara 

 to which superstitious notions give rise. Igno 

 rance has not only debarred mankind from 

 many exquisite and sublime enjoyments, but 

 has created innumerable unfounded alarms, 

 which greatly increase the sum of human mi 

 sery. Man is naturally timid, terrified at those 

 dangers whose consequences he cannot foresee, 

 and at those uncommon appearances of nature 

 whose causes he has never explored. Thus, he 

 is led, in many instances, to regard with appre 

 hension and dread those operations of nature 

 which are the result of regular and invariable 

 laws. Under the influence of such timid emo 

 tions, the phenomena of nature, both in the 

 heavens and on the earth, have been arrayed 

 with imaginary terrors. In the early ages of 

 the world, a total eclipse of the sun or of the 

 moon was regarded with the utmost consterna 

 tion, as if some dismal catastrophe had been 

 about to befall the universe. Believing that 

 the moon in an eclipse was sickening or dying 

 through the influence of enchanters, the trem 

 bling spectators had recourse to the ringing of 

 bells, the sounding of trumpets, the beating of 

 brazen vessels, and to loud and horrid excla 

 mations, in order to break the enchantment, 

 and to drown the muttering of witches, that the 

 moon might not hear them. In allusion to this 

 practice, Juvenal, when speaking of a loud 

 scolding woman, says, that she was able to re 

 lieve the moon. 



&quot;Forbear your drums and trumpets if you please, 

 Her voice alone the labouring moon can ease.&quot; 



Nor are such foolish opinions and customs yd 

 banished from the world. They are said to b 



