144 Education. [Chap. XXV. 



to its different forms are to be ascribed the chief, 

 if not all, the differences observable in fiie ge- 

 nius, talents, and dispositions of men 5 and that 

 by improving its principles and plan, human na- 

 ture mav, and finally will, reach a state of ab- 

 solute perfection in this world, or at l^ast go on 

 to a state of unlimited improvement. In short, 

 in the estimation of those who adopt this doc- 

 trine, man is the child of circumstances ; and by 

 meliorating these, without the aid of religion, his 

 true and highest elevation is to be obtained : and 

 they even go so far as to believe, that, by means 

 of the advancement of light and knowledge, all 

 vice, misery, and death, may finally be banished 

 from the earth. This system, as was before ob- 

 served, seems to have been first distinctly taught 

 by M. Helvetius, a celebrated French author who 

 wrote about the middle of the age we are consi- 

 dering, and was afterwards adopted and urged 

 with great zeal by many of his countrymen, par- 

 ticularly Mirabaud and Condorcet ; and also by 

 Mr. Godwin, and others, of Great Britain. 



This doctrine of the omnipotence of education, 

 and the perfectibility of man, seems liable, among 

 many others, to the following strong objec- 

 tions : — 



First. It is contrary to the nature and condition 

 of man. Though every succeeding generation 

 may be said, with respect to literary and scien- 

 tific acquisitions, to stand on the ground gained 

 by their predecessors, and thus to be continually 

 making progress; yet this is by no means the 

 case with regard to intellectual discipline and mo- 

 ral qualities. Each successive individual, how- 



