INTRODUCTION. 



IS 



&quot;eminated among a variety of individuals in 

 Different classes of society, yet, among the 

 great majority of the population in every coun 

 try, a degree of ignorance still prevails, de 

 grading to the rank of intellectual natures. 

 With respect to the great mass of the inhabit 

 ants of the world, it may still be ^aid with pro 

 priety, that &quot; darkness covers the earth, and 

 gross darkness the people.&quot; The greater part 

 of the continent of America, the extensive plains 

 of Africa, the vast regions of Siberia, Tartary, 

 Thibet, and the Turkish empire the immense 

 territories of New Holland, Sumatra, Borneo, 

 and the Barman empire, the numerous islands 

 which are scattered throughout the Indian and 

 the Pacific oceans, with many other extensive 

 regions inhabited by human beings stiU lie 

 within the confines of mental darkness. On the 

 numerous tribes which people those immense 

 regions of our globe, neither the light of science 

 nor of revelation has yet shed its benign influ 

 ence ; and their minds, debased by superstition, 

 idolatry, and every malignant passion, and en 

 slaved by the cunning artifices of priests, and 

 the tyranny of cruel despots, present a picture 

 of human nature in its lowest stage of degrada 

 tion. Even in Europe, where the light of sci 

 ence has chiefly shone, how narrow is the cir 

 cle which has been enlightened by its beams! 

 The lower orders of society on the continent, 

 and even in Great Britain itself, notwithstand 

 ing the superior means of improvement they 

 enjoy, are still miserably deficient in that degree 

 of knowledge and information which every hu 

 man being ought to possess ; nor are there many 

 even in the higher spheres of life who cultivate 

 science for its own sako, who set a due value 

 on intellectual acquisitions, or encourage the 

 prosecution of rational inquiries. 



There is, perhaps, no country in the world 

 where the body of the people are better educated 

 and more intelligent than in North Britain ; yet 

 we need not go far, either in the city or in the 

 country, to be convinced, that the most absurd 

 and superstitious notions, and the grossest ig 

 norance respecting many important subjects in 

 timately connected with human happiness, still 

 prevail among the great majority of the popula 

 tion. Of two millions of inhabitants which 

 constitute the population of the northern part 

 of our island, there are not, perhaps, 20,000, or 

 the hundredth part of the whole, whose know 

 ledge extends to any subject of importance, 

 beyond the range of their daily avocations. 

 With respect to the remaining 1,800,000, it 

 may perhaps be said with propriety, that of the 

 figure and magnitude of the world they live in 

 of the seas and rivers, continents and islands, 

 which diversify its surface, and of the various 

 tribes of men and animals by which it is inha 

 bited of the nature and properties of the at 

 mosphere which surrounds them of the disco 



veries which have been made respecting light, 

 heat, electricity, and magnetism of the general 

 laws which regulate the economy of nature of 

 the various combinations and effects of chymi- 

 cal and mechanical powers of the motions and 

 magnitudes of the planetary and the starry orbs 

 of the principles of legitimate reasoning of 

 just conceptions of the attributes and moral go 

 vernment of the Supreme Being of the genuine 

 principles of moral action of many other sub 

 jects interesting to a rational and immortal be 

 ing they are almost as entirely ignorant as 

 the wandering Tartar, or the untutored Indian. 



Of eight hundred millions of human beings 

 which people the globe we inhabit, there are 

 not perhaps two millions whose minds are truly 

 enlightened as they ought to be who prosecute 

 rational pursuits for their own sake, and from a 

 pure love of science, independently of the 

 knowledge requisite for their respective profes 

 sions and employments. For we must exclude 

 from the rank of rational inquirers after know 

 ledge all those who have acquired a smattering 

 of learning, with no other vifw than to gain a 

 subsistence, or to appear fas nicnable and polite. 

 And, if this rule b,e admitted, I am afraid that 

 a goodly number^vert of lawyers, physicians, 

 clergymen, teachers, nay, even some authors, 

 and professors in universities and academies, 

 would be struck off from the list of lovers of 

 science and rational inquirers after truth. Ad 

 mitting this statement, it will follow, that there 

 is not one individual out of four hundred of the 

 human race, that passes his life as a rational 

 intelligent being, employing his faculties in those 

 trains of thought and active exercises which are 

 worthy of an intellectual nature ! For, in so far 

 as the attention of mankind is absorbed merely 

 in making provision for animal subsistence, and 

 in gratifying the sensual appetites of their na 

 ture, they can be considered as little superior in 

 dignity to the lower orders of animated existence. 



The late Frederick, king of Prussia, who was 

 a correct observer of mankind, makes a still 

 lower estimate of the actual intelligence of the 

 human species. In a letter to D Alembert, in 

 1770, he says, &quot; Let us take any monarchy you 

 please; let us suppose that it contains ten 

 millions of inhabitants ; from these ten millions 

 let us discount, first the labourers, the manu 

 facturers, the artizans, the soldiers, and there 

 will remain about fifty thousand peisons, men 

 and women ; from these let us discount twenty- 

 five thousand for the female sex, the rest will 

 compose the nobility and gentry, and the re 

 spectable citizens ; of these, let us examine how 

 many will be incapable of application, how many 

 imbecile, how many pusillanimous, how many 

 dissipated, and from this calculation it will re 

 sult, that out of what is called a civilized nation 

 of nearly ten millions, you will hardly find a 

 thousand well-informed persons, and even among 



