Book II. IMPROVEMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 1227 



therefore, exist in society who have not their minds matured by the care and culture of pubjic teachers, 

 as their bodies are by the nourishment and clothing of their parents. The religious and humane owe this 

 to the poor as a part of human nature ; the benevolent, as sympathising with the miseries they suffer ; 

 the enlightene<l, in order to raise them to their rank in the scale of creation ; the rich, to give them a 

 greater chance of possessing property, in order that they may respect the property of others ; the pru- 

 dent, that they also may become prudent; and government, that they may not 'be made the tools of 

 faction, foreign or domestic. {Parochial Institutions, r.) 



7934. Knowledge gives power ; and if one part of society has the degree of cultivation desired, and the 

 other has it not, it is evident that there can be very little sympathy between them. The experience of 

 ages shows the continual tendency of the powerful in wealth or in skill to oppress the weak ; and the 

 continual tendency of the weak to re-act by personal force, by cunning, or by numbers, on the strong. 

 Materials so discordant can never form the basis of a sound, healthy, and permanent state of society : 

 the poor and ignorant becoming, under such circumstances, little better than slaves to the rich and 

 enlightened, regard them as their enemies, and often finding them to be such, must and will rebel ; and 

 the result is, sooner or later, a subversion of society. It would evidently contribute to the stability and 

 harmony of society to moderate this action and rc-action, by a more equal distribution of power ; and, 

 as knowledge gives power, the most obvioiis and effectual way of attaining the end proposed is, by 

 diffusing such a high and equal degree of school education as we have defined. It must be evident, we 

 think, that the state of society which tbis degree of education will sooner or later produce, will include 

 in it every amelioration and happiness of which bumaa nature, under any given circumstances, is 

 susceptible. [Ihid.) 



7935. The knowledge of languages, hidory, geography, arts, sciences, and literature, which an agricul- 

 turist, whether a ploughman, shepherd, bailitt; steward, or rent-paying farmer, daily occupied with his 

 profession, may acquire by his own exertions, provided he begins at the earliest moment, say at fifteen 

 years of age, and continues to employ his leisure hours in reading till he is twenty or twenty-five, is by 

 no means inconsiderable ; not that he can or need become learned ; but, if desirous, he may become 

 generally intelligent, render himself fit, as far a.s conversation is concerned, for good, society, prove 

 instructive and entertaining to others by his conversation, and provide a reserve fund of enjoyment, by 

 laying up a store of ideas for reflection in misfortune, disease, or old age. 



: 7936. The utility of knowledge to that part of mankind who are doomed tc a life of mechanical labour, 

 or rather who suffer themselves to be doomed to it, has been questioned; it is said to render them dissa- 

 tisfied with their condition, to produce various other evils, and at all events in no way to add to their 

 happiness or the good of society. To a man whose business in life is the mere mechanical performance 

 of operations which any other animal might perform if furnished with hands, education is doubtless less 

 necessary than to a man whose business is to direct the operations of others ; but it does not follow, that 

 though less necessary, it may not be highly useful : if, for example, it renders him dissatisfied with hia 

 condition, it will, at the same time, be more likely than any thing else to lead him to some proper mode 

 of improving it ; or if almost unimprovable, education certainly will be more likely than a state of igno- 

 rance to teach patience and submission, by enabling him to reflect on the folly of grieving at what is 

 inevitable, and the consequences of committing what is unjust or criminal to relieve himself. " The low 

 Irish," Marshal remarks, " are sufficiently dissatisfied with their condition ; those who know how to alle- 

 viate it by emigration, go to Britain or America j those who know nothing, stay at home, commit acts of 

 violence, and are hanged." 



7937. To decide as to the utility of knowledge to the operative parts of society would perhaps require a 

 previous decision of the question, " What constitutes happiness ? " The general answer is, the exercise of 

 all our faculties of body and mind : every one who has lived thirty or forty years in the world, knows 

 that there is no such thing as absolute happiness : the Prince de Ligne, a man of great natural parts, 

 with every advantage of person, birth, and wealth, and in favour at all the courts of Europe ; fond alike 

 of war, literature, gallantry, and agriculture, and who lived to be upwards of 90 years of age, has left on 

 record that he was only perfectly happy two or three times in his life, and only for a few minutes each 

 time, Forsyth {Principles of Moral Science, vol. i. chap. 1.) says perfect happiness is a thing not to be 

 thought of; and that all that men and women can do in order to make the most of their existence, is to 

 occupy themselves and make progress in whatever they engage in : progress in enjoyment, or approxima- 

 tion to happiness, is therefore the object to have in view. 



7938. The utility of knowledge to every human being is consequently, in our opinion, unquestionable, on 

 the mere principle of adding to enjoyment ; nor do we believe that there is more danger from excess of 

 knowledge in any particular class of society, high or low, than there is from excess in their eating or 

 drinking. A number of men possessed of property or power by inheritance, favour, or chance, who are 

 very conscious that they never could have acquired those advantages by the common competition of talent 

 and industry, and who are in fact wrapt up in selfishness, are naturally jealous of the progress of know- 

 ledge ; their secret maxim is to keep down the lower orders, and to impress on their minds only the 

 duties of loyalty, religion, and, as Vancouver adds, hard work. Tliis monopoly of power and knowledge, 

 however, cannot be maintained for ever, and in every country it is found rapidly yielding to the general 

 progress of society. It is only those who have to dread this progress that fear the diffusion of education 

 and liberal principles. 



7939. Education in all countries, in as far as it has been carried, has had the effect of rendering the poor 

 content. Compare the poor of Sweden and Germany with those of England. The uneducated are prone 

 to consider wealth and happiness as synonymous, a delusion which knowledge quickly dispels ; philosophy 

 teaches its fallacy, and history exemplifies it. For our own part, we can see nothing in education but 

 increased security to the rich, and increased happiness to the poor. One of the great evils which at pre- 

 sent afflict society in this country is over-production ; not only of manufactured goods, but also of human 

 beings. We are apt to believe that even this calamity might be remedied, if every labourer in the 

 country considered a high and equal degree of education as a necessary of life, and no more to be dis- 

 pensed with in a child than food or clothing; as in that case he would not think of marrying till he could 

 bestow this degree of education on his children. If any labourer acted otherwise, he would bring himself 

 into disgrace among his own class ; he would suffer a loss of reputation for good sense and good taste ; and 

 his wife and himself would no longer be able to associate with their neighbours, either from the extraor- 

 dinary exertions which they must make, in order to educate their children up to the general level, or in 

 consequence of not being able to do so, and having it done for them by the parish as paupers. The dread 

 of the reflections and neglect of the children when they arrived at maturity, and found that they were 

 indebted to the parish more than to their parents for their education, and that they had, in fact, to pay 

 the parish for this education themselves, would also act as a powerful inducement to prudential conduct. 

 Besides, when parents themselves have once enjoyed the degree of education defined, they will consider 

 it cruel and unjust not to bestow the same degree of education on their children. This is, in fact, the 

 feeling of all educated parents; and one great object that we have in view is to communicate the same 

 feeling to the very lowest member of society. We are justified in concluding that universal education 

 would do so, by what actually takes place at present among the educated classes. {Parochial Institu- 

 tions, Sfc. ; and Tlie Objects to be obtained by Refm-ni in Parliament, 8(C.) 



7940. The terms knowledge and ignorance are entirely relative : the knowledge of a modern chemist's 

 porter would have .subjected him to be hanged and burned in the days of the first popes ; and any brick- 

 layer's labourer of the present day, who reads the London newspapers, has more correct ideas of the prin. 

 ciples of political economy than nine tenths of the nobility in Russia and Spain. It is impossible to set 

 limits to the knowledge which may be obtained by those who are destined even to the most severe and 

 constant labour ; the intelligence of the miners in Scotland and Sweden may be referred to as proofs 



