146 Education. [Chap. XXV 



has existed near six thousand years ; and, during 

 this long period, the exertions of intellect and of 

 virtue have been numerous and great. It will 

 even be readily granted, that, amidst the mortify- 

 ing vicissitudes and the degrading retrocessions 

 which the history of knowledge presents, man- 

 kind are now far more enlightened than at any 

 former period. But is it a fact, that real wisdom, 

 moral purity, and true happiness, have always 

 kept pace with the improvements in literature and 

 science ? Are the most learned and scientific na- 

 tions, and the most learned and scientific indivi- 

 duals, always the most virtuous? Are luxury, 

 fraud, violence, unprincipled ambition, the vi- 

 cious intercourse of the sexes, and the various 

 kinds of intemperance, less frequent among the 

 polished and enlightened nations of Europe, than 

 among the untutored natives of America.^ It is 

 presumed that no reflecting mind will answer 

 these questions in the affirmative. What, then, 

 becomes of the fundamental principle of those 

 ivho hold the doctrine in question ; viz. That the 

 progress of knowledge is alone sufficient to re- 

 form, exalt, and finally to render perfect, the hu- 

 man race ? If this principle were well founded, 

 we should find virtue and happiness, both in indi- 

 viduals and societies, bearing an exact proportion 

 to the advances made in knowledge, which expe- 

 rience attests is far from being the case. 



But it will perhaps be said, that the principle 

 o^ experience may be pressed too farj that it is 

 not legitimate reasoning to infer, because an 

 event has never yet occurred, that therefore it 

 never can or will take place. But if a certain 



