MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 313 



less country: and that the effects of their tuition 

 and example, founded on honour and virtue, would 

 very soon be seen and felt amongst all ranks of 

 society, and would further exalt the character of 

 our countrymen over the whole globe, as patterns 

 for imitation to the rest of mankind. It is only 

 by an education like this, that any country can 

 hope that its institutions can remain unbroken up, 

 and endure as a nation for ever; but so it will be, 

 if the government is founded on wisdom and virtue, 

 and backed by a whole people of the same character. 

 To rear up and establish such a renovated order 

 of things as I have with diffidence recommended, 

 and coolly and deliberately to do away with old 

 errors, will not, perhaps, be soon or easily done; 

 for there are so many interests to consult, and so 

 many men of the character to doubt and despair 

 of accomplishing anything, however good, that, if 

 they have influence over weak minds to help them 

 out in this disposition to despondency, it will have 

 the direct tendency to realise such doubts, and to 

 throw a cold damp over the best and wisest plans. 

 But we ought never to despair of accomplishing 

 anything where our objects in view are good ones. 

 To minds thus gifted, and such as this clergy it is 

 hoped would possess, there could be little need to 

 dictate. Their own good sense, aided by the 

 gentry of the land, would constantly enable them 

 to see when anything was going wrong in each 

 little community, and speedily to rectify it. Such 

 a number of little colleges spread over the land 

 would excellently prepare such youths as might be 

 intended to finish their education in colleges of a 

 higher character, so as to fit them to fulfil the 



various offices of the state, in any of its several 



2 P 



