316 INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM. [CHAP. XXXVII. 



mislearn the highest. In the name of God the 

 Maker, who said, and hourly yet says, Let there be 

 light, we command that you continue in darkness ! 



Goldsmith, in the &quot; Vicar of Wakefield,&quot; makes 

 his traveller say, that after he had walked through 

 Europe, and examined mankind nearly, he found 

 that it is not the forms of government, whether 

 they be monarchies or commonwealths, that deter 

 mine the amount of liberty enjoyed by individuals, 

 but that &quot; riches in general are in every country 

 another name for freedom.&quot; I agree with Goldsmith 

 that the forms of government are not alone sufficient 

 to secure freedom they are but means to an end. 

 Here we have in Pennsylvania a free press, a widely 

 extended suffrage, and the most perfect religious 

 toleration, nay, more than toleration, all the various 

 sects enjoying political equality, and, what is more 

 rare, an equality of social rank ; yet all this ma 

 chinery is not capable, as we have seen, of securing 

 even so much of intellectual freedom as shall enable a 

 student of nature to discuss freely the philosophical 

 questions which the progress of science brings natu 

 rally before him. He cannot even announce with 

 impunity, results which half a century of observation 

 and reasoning has confirmed by evidence little short 

 of mathematical demonstration. But can riches, as 

 Goldsmith suggests, secure intellectual liberty ? No 

 doubt they can protect the few who possess them 

 from pecuniary penalties, when they profess unpopu 

 lar doctrines. But to enable a man to think, he 



* Letter on Secular Education, by T. Carlyle, July, 1848. 



