Education. 299 



a certain degree of progress, both the intercourse 

 of the sexes, and the necessity of food and raiment 

 will cease. But will any one seriously maintain 

 that such events are probable? Do we actually 

 see individuals or communities, as they advance 

 in learning and refinement, discover less propen- 

 sity to the sexual intercourse, or a greater dispo- 

 sition or ability to do without the means of bodily 

 sustenance? It will not be pretended that either 

 of these is the case. But as long as the propaga- 

 tion of the human species continues to stand on 

 the footing and to depend on the principles which 

 it now does; and as long as food and raiment are 

 necessary as means of subsistence, human society 

 must be doomed to exhibit more or less of igno- 

 rance, vice, and misery/ 



Fourthly. It is evident that the doctrine of the 

 unlimited efficacy of education, and the perfecti- 

 bility of man, is wholly inconsistent with the scrip- 

 ture account of the creation and present state of 

 man. The sacred volume teaches us that we are 

 fallen and depraved beings; that this depravity is 

 total, and admits of no remedy but by the grace 

 declared in the Gospel; that the most virtuous will 

 never be perfect or completely holy in the present 

 world, and that misery and death are the unavoid- 

 able lot of man while under the present dispensa- 

 tion. It is true, the same scriptures speak of a 

 future period of millennial happiness and glory, 

 when divine knowledge shall universally abound, 

 and when peace and happiness shall fill the world. 

 But the Millennium of the Bible differs essentially, 

 both in its cause and nature, from the period 

 which the advocates of this philosophy, falsely so 



/ See this argument placed in a strong and interesting point of light in 

 an anonymous work, entitled, An Essay on Population; a work which, in 

 force of reasoning, and in candour and urbanity of discussion, has rarely il 

 ever been exceeded. 



