204 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



on the contrary, the lazy, the ignorant, or the 

 wicked man, influenced by pride, dissipation and 

 negligence, is whirled into the vortex of disgrace, 

 and is attended by poverty and misery ; and, if he 

 cannot redeem his character, becomes abandoned. 

 He is then in his last stage ; his days will be 

 full of sorrow ; and, if it be true that " none are 

 wretched but the wicked," he will have his fill 

 of it. 



But to remedy these evils attendant upon ignor- 

 ance, as far as possible, and to give every man 

 a fair chance, his reasoning powers ought to be 

 drawn forth by a rational and virtuous education? 

 and it is a first and imperative duty upon the 

 community either to provide for, or to see that it 

 is given to, every one as far as his capacity will 

 permit ; for to the neglect or omission of this kind 

 of instruction may be traced almost all the wicked- 

 ness and misrule which disfigure the social compact 

 and spread misery over the world. To check the 

 reasoning power is a public crime, which, like 

 individual crime, follows the perpetrators like a 

 shadow. To argue against the exercise of this 

 gift is to attempt to thwart the intentions of 

 Omnipotence. It is blasphemy. It never will 

 pollute the tongues of good and wise men, and 

 could only, like dregs, be reserved to defile 

 those of tyrants and fools. Men who are not 

 actuated by the principle of " doing as they would 

 be done by" governed by a twisted imagination 

 would have their fellow men kept in ignorance, 

 to pass away their lives like unreasoning animals, 

 lest they might not have sufficient homage paid 

 to themselves, or that they should forget their 

 duty as servants, and cease to work for, or to 



