5. 



Extension of Knowledge. 



165 



state, the principles of good husbandry, 

 ], as I believe, the law of the state is 

 linst the removal of the straw from the 

 imises, unless the tenant has secured this 

 vilege by the express provisions of his 

 itract. Entertaining this opinion, and be- 

 ving that the decision in Craig vs. Dale 

 11 not be adhered to by the Supreme court, 1 

 nnot advise that this defendant should be 

 nvicted of a crime, for no other offence 

 in the moderate assertion of what nine- 

 iths of the farming community believe to 

 his right — a right sanctioned by custom — 

 lintained by good husbandry — and which 

 thin"' but ignorance or infidelity in the 

 nant would induce him to dispute." Lan- 

 ster County Farmer. 



Extension of Knowledge. 



At his opening lecture at Guy's Hospital, 

 ondon, in 1813, William Allen made the 

 Rowing remarks : 



«' The circumstances in which we are 

 aced in the present state of our existence, 

 rove it was the intention of the Supreme 

 eing that we should be actively employed ; 

 pery thing about us is in motion ; import 

 mt changes are constantly going on, and 

 )me of them, by their very nature, are cal- 

 ulated to stimulate mankind to exertion, 

 'his change is impressed upon our garments 

 ?hich are continually wearing out — upon 

 he habitations which protect us from the 

 i-eather, which are constantly requiring re- 

 lair ; it is obvious on the very face of na- 

 ure, and proclaimed in the succession of 

 easons ; it seems to be a law of our being, 

 hat whatever is capable of fixing our at- 

 ention to usefiil pursuits — whatever stimu- 

 ates to the exertion of intellect— whatever 

 rives spring and activity to the powers of 

 'he mind, must, if properly directed, con- 

 luce to the happiness of man. Surrounded 

 IS we are by the comforts and conveniences 

 3f civilized life; born in an age wherein the 

 useful arts are carried to a high degree of 

 perfection, — it requires some abstraction of 

 mind, and a certain degree of reflection, to 

 appreciate properly the advantages we en 

 joy. We are apt to consider the situations 

 in which we find ourselves, as perfectly na- 

 tural, and have but a faint idea of what we 

 owe to the labours and exertions of those 

 who have gone before us ; without their la- 

 bour and skill, however, we might yet have 

 been obliged to clothe ourselves in the skins 

 of beasts, — to seek refuge from the vicissi 

 tudes of the weather in the caves of the 

 earth, and feed upon any digestible sub' 

 stance that might be thrown in our way. 

 The influence of knowledge upon the hu 



man mind is prodigious. A reference to the 

 page of history will not only sliow the gra- 

 dual advances which have been made from 

 rude beginnings to the present improved 

 state of society, but it will strongly incul- 

 cate the important lesson, that the happiness 

 of our species is intimately connected with 

 the diffusion of knowledge. Where do we 

 behold cruelty in its most terrific form, but 

 in the uninstructed and neglected part of 

 the community? by whom are our jails prin- 

 cipally inhabited, but by the ignorant 1 — by 

 those to whom society has failed in its duty. 

 In the higher ranks of men, ignorance as- 

 sumes not unfrequently the shape of bigotry, 

 and manifests itself in deep-rooted prejudice: 

 whenever you see a man more than ordina- 

 rily censorious of others, indisposed to make 

 allowance for the circumstances in which 

 they may have been placed, positive and un- 

 charitable in his opinions, whatever may be 

 his rank in life, be assured that he is lament- 

 ably ignorant. 



Knowledge, properly understood and ap- 

 plied, sheds a benevolent influence over the 

 mind of the possessor; and when we consi- 

 der that it tends to increase our powers of 

 usefulness, and thereby to add to our own 

 [happiness and that of others, we shall feel 

 it almost a duty to make such an arrange- 

 ment of our time, as to devote regularly a 

 portion of it to the improvement of our 

 minds. 



Of all the varied branches of knowledge, 

 those relating to material objects are most 

 important. In former ages the powers of 

 the human mind were exhausted in useless 

 metaphysical disquisitions concerning es- 

 sence and substance, and ethereal forms, — 

 things which it was impossible to compre- 

 hend or apply to any good purpose. To 

 our illustrious countrymen, however. Bacon, 

 Locke, Newton, Boyle and Hook, we are in- 

 debted for a more rational system of philoso- 

 phy; rejecting idle speculations, they direct- 

 ed their attention to watch the processes of 

 nature, and to attempt to discover some of 

 the laws by which her operations are go- 

 verned ; they built upon facts and experi- 

 ments, and the progress since made in every 

 department of science, has proved the cor- 

 rectness of their views. 



Few are sufliciently aware of the benefi- 

 cial consequences likely to result from an 

 endeavour to induce a habit of attention 

 even to minute circumstances, and how 

 much misery is produced in the world by 

 those unhappy prejudices, which owe their 

 origin to a careless and superficial view of 

 facts. Men who have not been in the habit 

 of thinking, and carefully investigating the 

 grounds of their opinions, are most of all 



