296 Education. 



This doctrine, of the omnipotence of education, 

 and the perfectibility of man, seems liable, among 

 many others, to the following strong objections. 



First, It is contrary to the nature and condition of 

 man. Though every succeeding generation may be 

 said, with respect to literary and scientific acquisi- 

 tions, to stand on the ground gained by their pre- 

 decessors, and thus to be continually making pro- 

 gress; yet this is by no means the case with re- 

 gard to intellectual discipline and moral qualities. 

 Each successive individual, however elevated the 

 genius, and however sublime the virtues of his 

 ancestors, has to perform the task of restraining 

 his own appetites, subduing his own passions, and 

 guarding against the excesses to which his irregu- 

 lar propensities would prompt him. Suppose a 

 Bacon, or a Newton, after all his intellectual and 

 moral attainments, to have a son. Is this son 

 more wise or more virtuous, on account of the 

 genius and attainments of his parent? By no means. 

 He has the same laborious process to undergo, for 

 the acquisition of knowledge, and the same vigi- 

 lance and patient self-denial to exercise, for the 

 regulation of his moral character, as if his parent 

 had been the most ignorant and degraded of be- 

 ings. And this, from the nature and condition of 

 man, must always continue to be the case. If 

 every successive individual of our species must 

 come into the world ignorant, feeble, and helpless ; 

 and if the same process for instilling knowledge 

 into the mind, and restraining moral irregularities, 

 must be undergone, de ?wvo s in every instance, on 

 what do these sanguine calculators rest their hopes 

 that we shall attain a state of intellectual and 

 moral perfection in the present world? They must 

 suppose either that the propagation of the species, 

 by the intercourse of the sexes, will cease; or that, 

 contrary to every law, man will at length come into 



