OK THK 



GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



INTRODUCTION. 



lake a restrospective view of the 

 state of miuikind during the ages that are past, 

 it presents, on the whole, a melancholy scene 

 of intellectual darkness. Although in every 

 age men have possessed all the mental faculties 

 they now or ever will enjoy, yet those noble 

 powers seem either to have lain in a great mea 

 sure dormant, or, when roused into action, to 

 have been employed chiefly in malignant and 

 destructive operations. Hence the events 

 which the page of history records chiefly pre 

 sent to our view the most revolting scenes of 

 war, rapine, and devastation, as if the earth had 

 been created merely to serve as a theatre for 

 mischief, and its inhabitants for the purpose of 

 dealing destruction and misery to all around 

 them. Such, however, are the natural conse 

 quences of the reign of Ignorance over the 

 human mind. For the active powers of man 

 necessarily follow the dictates of his under 

 standing, and when the intellectual faculties are 

 not directed to the pursuit and the contempla 

 tion of noble and benevolent objects, they will 

 most frequently be employed in devising and 

 executing schemes subversive of human happi 

 ness and improvement. 



Amidst the darkness which, in ancient times, 

 so long overspread the world, some rays of in 

 tellectual light appeared in Palestine, in Egypt, 

 and in the Greek and Roman empires ; but its 

 influence on the nations around was extremely 

 feeble, and, like a few tapers in a dark night, 

 served little more than to render the surround- 

 -ng darkness visible. The light of science 

 which then shone was, however, doomed to be 

 speedily extinguished. About the fifth century 

 of the Christian era, numerous hordes of bar 

 barians from the northern and the eastern parts 

 of Europe, and the north-western parts of Asia, 

 overran the western part of the Roman em 

 pire, at that time the principal seat of know 

 ledge ; and, in their progress, overturned and 

 almost annihilated every monument of science 

 and art which then existed. Wherever they 

 marched, their route was marked with devasta 



tion and with blood. They made no distinct izn 

 between what was sacred and what was pro 

 fane what was barbarous and what was re 

 fined. Amidst the din of war, the burning of 

 cities, the desolation of provinces, the convul 

 sion of nations, the ruin of empires, and the 

 slaughter of millions, the voice of reason and 

 of religion was scarcely heard ; science was 

 abandoned ; useful knowledge was set at naught ; 

 every benevolent feeling and every moral prin 

 ciple was trampled under foot. The earth 

 seemed little else than one great field of battle ; 

 and its inhabitants, instead of cultivating the 

 peaceful arts and sciences, and walking hand in 

 hand to a blessed immortality, assumed the 

 character of demons, and gave vent to the mos&amp;lt; 

 fiend-like and ferocious passions, till they ap 

 peared almost on the brink of total extermina 

 tion. 



For nearly the space of a thousand years 

 posterior to that period, and prior to the Re 

 formation, a long night of ignorance overspread 

 the nations of Europe, and the adjacent regions 

 of Asia, during which the progress of literature 

 and science, of religion and morality, seems to 

 have been almost at a stand ; scarcely a vestige 

 remaining of the efforts of the human mind, 

 during all that period, worthy of the attention or 

 the imitation of succeeding ages. The debas 

 ing superstitions of the Romish church, the 

 hoarding of relics, the erection of monasteries 

 and nunneries, the pilgrimages to the tombs of 

 martyrs and other holy places, the mummeries 

 which were introduced into the services of reli 

 gion, the wild and romantic expeditions of cru 

 saders, the tyranny and ambition of popes and 

 princes, and the wars and insurrections to which 

 they gave rise, usurped the place of every ra 

 tional pursuit, and completely enslaved the 

 minds of men. So great was the ignorance 

 which then prevailed, that persons of the most 

 distinguished rank could neither read nor write. 

 Even many of the clergy did not understand the 

 breviary, or book of common prayer, which they 

 were daily accustomed to recite, and some of 



