Book II. IMPROVEMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 1183 



farmer, dally occupied with his' profession, may acquire, provided he begins at the ear- 

 liest moment, say at fifteen years of age, and continues to employ his leisure hours in 

 reading till he is twenty or twenty-fiTe, is by no means inconsiderable ; not that he can 

 or need become learned ; but, if desirous, he may become generally intelligent, render 

 himself fit, as far as conversation is concerned, for good society, prove instructive and 

 entertaining to others by his conversation, and provide a reserve fund of enjoyment, by 

 laying up a store of ideas for reflection in misfortune, disease, or old age. 



7143. The utility of knowledge to that part of mankind who are doomed to a life of 

 mechanical labor, or rather who suffer themselves to be doomed to it, has been questioned ; 

 it is said to render them dissatisfied with their condition, to produce various other evils, and 

 at all events in no way to add to their happiness or the good of society. To a man whose 

 business in life is the mere mechanical performance of operations which any other ani- 

 mal might perform if furnished with hands, education is doubtless less necessary, than 

 to a man whose business is to direct the operations of others ; but it does not follow, 

 that though less necessary, it may not be highly useful : if, for example, it renders him 

 dissatisfied with his condition, it will, at the same time, be more likely than any thing 

 else to lead him to some proper mode of improving it ; or if almost unimprovable, 

 education certainly will be more likely than a state of ignorance to teach patience and 

 submission, by enabling him to reflect on the folly of grieving at what is inevitable, 

 and the consequences of committing what is unjust or criminal to relieve himself. 

 " The low Irish," Marshal remarks, " are sufficiently dissatisfied with their condition ; 

 those who know how to alleviate it by emigration, go to Britain or A merica ; those who 

 know nothing, stay at home, commit acts of violence, and are hanged." 



7144. To decide as to the utiliti/ of knowledge to the operative parts of society would 

 perhaps require a previous decision of the question, " what constitutes happiness ?" The 

 general answer is, the exercise of all our faculties of body and mind : every one who 

 has lived thirty or forty years in the world, knows that there is no such thing as abso- 

 lute happiness : the prince de Ligne, a man of great natural parts, with every advan- 

 tage of person, birth, and wealth, and in favor at all the courts of Europe; fond alike 

 of war, literature, gallantry, and agriculture, and who lived to be upwards of 90 years 

 of age, has left on record that he was only perfectly happy two or three times in his life, 

 and only for a few minutes each time. Forsyth [Principles of Moral Science^ vol. i. 

 chap. 1.) says, happiness is a thing not to be thought of, and all that men and women 

 can do in order to make the most of their existence, is to occupy themselves and make 

 progress in whatever they engage in ; progress in enjoyment, or approximation to happi- 

 ness may therefore be obtained. 



7145. The utility of knowledge to every human being is consequently, in our 

 opinion, unquestionable, on the mere principle of adding to enjoyment ; nor do 

 we believe that there is more danger from excess of knowledge in any particular class 

 of society, high or low, than there is from excess in their eating or drinking. A 

 number of men possessed of property or power by inheritance, favor, or chance, 

 who are very conscious that they never could have acquired those advantages l)y 

 the common competition of talent and industry, and who are in fact wrapt up in selfish- 

 ness, are naturally jealous of the progress of knowledge ; their secret maxim is to keep 

 down the lower orders, and to impress on their minds only the duties of loyalty, religion, 

 and, as Vancouver adds, hard work. This monopoly of power and knowledge, however, 

 cannot be maintained for ever, and in every country is found rapidly yielding to tJie 

 general progress of society. It is only those who have to dread this progress tliat fear the 

 diffusion of education and liberal principles. 



7146. The terms knowledge and ignorance are entirely relative : the knowledge of a 

 modern chemist's porter would have subjected him to be hanged and burned in the days 

 of the first popes ; and any bricklayer's laborer of the present day who reads the Lon- 

 don newspapers, has more correct ideas of the principles of political economy, than 

 nine-tenths of the nobility in Russia and Spain. It is impossible to set limits to the 

 knowledge which may be obtained by those who are destined even to the most severe 

 and constant labor ; the intelligence of the miners in Scotland and Sweden may be 

 referred to as proofs. The miners at Leadhills have a regular library and reading 

 society, and the works they make choice of are not only histories, voyages, travels, &c. 

 but even works of taste, such as the British classics, and best novels and romances. 

 The degree to which knowledge will prevail among any: class of laboring men, will 

 depend jointly on their own ambition ; on the demand for or reputation in which know- 

 ledge is held, and on the opportunities of acquiring it. A dull, stupid person, with 

 little native activity, will never desire to know more than what enables him to supply 

 the ordinary wants of life ; but where the workmen of any art are required to have 

 technical knowledge of any particular kind, they will be found invariably to possess it. 

 Thus carpenters and masons require some knowledge of the mechanical principles of 



