Chap. XXV.] Educatio?!. 145 



ever elevated tlie genius, and- however subjime 

 the virtues of his ancestors, has to perform the 

 task of restraining his own appetites, subduing 

 his own passions, and guarding against the ex- 

 cesses to which his irregular 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 vir- 

 tuous, on account of the genius and attainments 

 of his parent ? By no means. He has the samQ 

 laborious process to undergo, for the acquisition 

 of knowledge, and thj same vigilance 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 beings. And this, 

 from the nature and condition of man, must al- 

 ways continue to be the case. If every succes- 

 sive individual of our species must come into the 

 world ignorant, feeble, and helpless j and if the 

 same process for instilling knowledge into the 

 mind, and restraining moral irregularities, must 

 be undergone, dc ?iovo, 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 sup- 

 pose 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 the world with all that maturity of reason, 

 light, and information, which belongs to adult 

 years. But it is presumed neither of these suj> 

 positions will be adopted by rational inquirers. 



Secondly. Another objection to this doctrine 

 is, that it is contrary to all experience. The world 



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