ON THE GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



them could scarcely read it.* The records of 

 past transactions were in a great measure lost, 

 and legendary tales and fabulous histories, to 

 celebrate exploits which were never performed, 

 were substituted in place of the authenticated 

 history of mankind. The learning which then 

 prevailed, under the name of philosophy and of 

 scholastic theology, consisted chiefly in vain 

 disquisitions and reasonings about abstract 

 truths, and incomprehensible mysteries, and in 

 attempts to decide questions and points of theo 

 logy, which lie beyond the reach of the human 

 mind, and which its limited faculties are unable 

 to resolve. Sophisms, falsehoods, and bold as 

 severations were held forth as demonstrations ; 

 a pompous display of words was substituted in 

 the place of things ; eloquence consisted in 

 vague and futile declamations ; and true philo 

 sophy was los* amidst the mazes of wild and 

 extravagant theories and metaphysical subtle 

 ties. The sciences, such as they were, were 

 all taught in the Latin tongue, and all books in 

 relation to them were written in that language ; 

 the knowledge of them was therefore necessarily 

 confined to the circle of the learned, and it would 

 have been considered as a degradation of the 

 subject, to have treated of it in any of the mo 

 dem languages which then prevailed. The 

 gates of the temple of knowledge were conse 

 quently shut against the great body of the peo 

 ple, and it was never once surmised that they 

 had any right to explore its treasures. &quot; Dur 

 ing this period,&quot; says Dr. Robertson, &quot; the hu 

 man mind, neglected, uncultivated, and de 

 pressed, continued in the most profound igno 

 rance. Europe, during four centuries, pro 

 duced few authors who merit to be read, either 

 on account of the elegance of their composition, 

 or the justness and novelty of their sentiments. 

 There are few inventions, useful or ornamental 

 to society, of which that long period can boast,&quot; 

 And, if those of the highest ranks, and in the 

 most eminent stations in society, were so defi 

 cient in knowledge, the great mass of the people 

 must have been sunk into a state of ignorance 

 degrading to human nature. 



About the time of the revival of letters, after 

 the dark ages of monkish superstition and igno 

 rance, the moral and intellectual state of the 

 inhabitants of Europe began to experience a 



As an evidence of the extreme ignorance ot 

 those times, it may be stated, that many charters 

 granted by persons of the highest rank are pre 

 served, from which it appears that they could not 

 subscribe their name. It was usual for persons who 

 could not write, to make the sign of the cross, in 

 confirmation of a charter. Several of these remain, 

 where kings and persons of great eminence affix 

 signum crucis manu propria pro ig~noratione lltera- 

 rum, &quot; the siga of the cross made by our own hand, 

 on account of our ignorance of letters.&quot; From this 

 circumstance is derived the practice of making a x 

 when signing a deed, in the case of those who can 

 not subscribe their names. See Robertson s Charles 

 V. and Appendix, No. L 



change auspicious of better times and of a more 

 enlightened era. The diminution of the Papa! 

 power and influerce, the spirit of civil and reli 

 gious liberty which then burst forth, the erec 

 tion of new seminaries of education, the disco 

 very of the mariner s compass, the invention of 

 the art of printing, the labours of Lord Bacon 

 in pointing out the true method of philosophiz 

 ing, and the subsequent discoveries of Galileo, 

 Kepler, Boyle, and Newton, in the physical sci 

 ences, gave a new and favourable impulse to 

 the minds of men, and prepared the way for a 

 more extensive communication of useful know 

 ledge to persons of every rank. From this 

 period knowledge began to be gradually diffused 

 among most of the European nations ; but its 

 progress was slow, and its influence was chiefly 

 confined to the higher circles of society, and to 

 persons connected with the learned professions, 

 till after the middle of the eighteenth century. 

 About this time there began to issue from the 

 press many popular works on Natural and Civil 

 History, Geography, Astronomy, and Experi 

 mental Philosophy, divested of the pedantry ot 

 former times, and of the technicalities of sci 

 ence, which, along with periodical works that 

 were then beginning to extend their influence, 

 conveyed to the minds of the mechanic and the 

 artizan various fragments of useful knowledge. 

 It was not, however, till the era of the French 

 Revolution, that the stream of knowledge began 

 to flow with an accelerated progress, and to 

 shed its influence more extensively on the mid 

 dling and the lower orders of society. Though 

 we cannot look back, without feelings of regret, 

 and even of horror, at the revolting scenes of 

 anarchy and bloodshed which accompanied that 

 political convulsion, yet, amidst all its evils, it 

 was productive of many important and beneficial 

 results. It tended to undermine that system of 

 superstition and tyranny by which most of the 

 European nations had been so long enslaved ; 

 it ro .sed millions, from among the mass of the 

 people, to assert those rights and privileges, to 

 which they are entitled as rational beings, and 

 which had been withheld from them by the 

 strong hand of power ; it stimulated them to in 

 vestigations into every department connected 

 with the rights and the happiness of man, and 

 it excited a spirit of inquiry into every subject 

 of contemplation which can improve or adorn 

 the human mind, which, we trust, will never b 

 extinguished, till the light of useful knowledge 

 shall extend its influence over all the inhabit 

 ants of the earth. 



Striking, however, as the contrast is, between 

 the state of knowledge in the present and in 

 former ages, much still remains to be accom 

 plished, till the great body of mankind be sti 

 mulated to the prosecution of intellectual ac 

 quirements. Though a considerable portion of 

 rational information has of late years been di 



