148 Education. [Chap. XXV. 



force, much misery and degradation to man. 

 There seems to be no method of avoiding this con- 

 chision, but by contending, that, when knowledge 

 shail have made 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 propensity to the sexual intercourse, or a 

 greater disposition or ability to do without the 

 means of bodily sustenance ? It will not be pre- 

 tended that either of these is the case. But as long 

 as the propagation of the human species continues 

 to stand on the footing and to depend on the prin- 

 ciples which it now does ; and as long as food and 

 raiment are necessary as means of subsistence, hu- 

 man society must be doomed to exhibit more or 

 less of ignorance, vice, and misery *. 



Fourthly. It is evident that the doctrine of the 

 unlimited efficacy of education, and the perfectly 

 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 



* See this argument placed in a strong and interesting 

 point of light in a work entilled An Essay on Population, 

 by Mr. Malthus, which, in force of reasoning, and in can- 

 dour and urbanity of discussion, has rai'ely if ever beien' ex- 

 ceeded. OjriQL"i 



