694} Ouiline of a Plan for 



diffusing such a high and equal degree of school education as we have de- 

 lined. It must be evident, we think, that the state of society which this 

 degree of education will sooner or later produce, will include in it every 

 amelioration and happiness of which human nature, under any given circum- 

 stances, is susceptible. 



In all countries, education, 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 

 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 present afflict society in this country is 

 over-production ; not only of manufactured goods, but also of human beings. 

 We are apt to believe that the plan proposed would remedy even this cala- 

 mity; for if every labourer in the country considered a high and equal 

 degree of education as a necessary of life, and no more to be dispensed 

 with in a child than food or clothing, 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; his wife 

 and himself would no longer be able to associate with their neighbours, 

 either from the extraordinary 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 matiu'ity, 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 induce- 

 ment 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 mem- 

 bers of society. We are justified in concluding that universal education 

 would do so, by what actually takes place at present among the educated 

 classes. 



But, supposing that a high and equal degree of education had no influence 

 whatever on the amount of the population, the question is, Would any 

 thing like the same degree of misery exist as at present? Would an en- 

 lightened superfluous population be as miserable individually, and as ex- 

 pensive and dangerous to the state, as an ignorant superfluous population ? 

 Unquestionably not. An enlightened superfluous population would emi- 

 grate, and try their fortune in other countries, like the superfluous popu- 

 lation of the comparatively enlightened part of the Contment and of 

 Britain. How is it that there are more Scotchmen to be found in other 

 countries tlian either EngHshmen or Irishmen? It is simply because they 

 are taught a little more at school. 



We consider that it has been satisfactorily proved, that, by means of 

 infant schools, and the judicious application of the most improved modes of 

 teaching after infancy, boys and girls may attain the degree of knowledge and 

 manners contemplated in our deiinition by their fifteenth or sixteenth year. 

 We would, therefore, commence with infant schools on the most approved 

 principles, and embracing all the subjects taught in those of Edinburgh and 

 Glasgow ; ample details of which have been given, from time to time, in the 

 Scotsman newspaper, and in various publications on the subject, to which it 

 is needless to refer. In many cases, from the distance of families from the 

 school, it would be impracticable to send infants there; but these might after- 



