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"which the politeness, the refinement, and knowledge accumulated in the higher orders, "weak and unprotected, will be exposed to im"minent danger, and perish like a garland in "the grasp of popular fury. Wisdom and "knowledge shall be the stability of the times, "and strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord "is his treasure."

In the second place, a general system of education has a tendency to promote national wealth and improvement. Though this remark may have been anticipated by the foregoing, its illustration will suggest some views which, though not often adverted to, merit considerable attention.

For example, it will scarcely be denied, that a nation where moral and religious knowledge is spread among all the orders of the people, is more likely to advance in every species of agricultural aud manufacturing improvement than one where intelligence of every kind is almost exclusively confined to the higher or even the middling ranks. And the reason is very obvious; in the one case, the force of prejudice is destroyed, an enterprising spirit is

excited, which will either surmount or remove

* Hall's Sermon on the Advantages of Education to the Poor.

existing difficulties, and which, while it only seeks its own opulence and honour, enriches by its exertions the country in which it is cherished; whereas, in the other case, the various classes in their several departments adhere with undeviating sameness, and obstinate attachment, to the beaten track in which their fathers trod, having little anxiety either to better their own condition, or that of the community to which they belong. Here, there is no stimulus to excite the latent genius of those powerful minds, which nature has not confined to any condition, and which, in other circumstances, might have conferred lasting benefits on their own age, and on posterity: they are buried in that tranquil obscurity, that inglorious repose, that negative kind of enjoyment, to which, but for the ignorance and benumbing torpor that pervade the nation in which they live, they never could have been doomed. And yet, there are many who contend for a continuance of this state of things, who oppose the education of the poor, because it tends to remove the evil to which I have referred. They suppose that by affording the means of instruction to the inferior orders of society, many will attempt to better their condition, and place themselves in a higher rank, while all will become discontented, and be unwilling to

perform any species of labour which they can possibly avoid.

erroneous.

This supposition is partly true and partly' It is undoubtedly true, that a national system of education, to which the very poorest may have access, will bring forward many individuals, who, by their industry, or their original genius, or their strength and patience of intellectual exertion, will elevate themselves to an order of society far above that in which they were originally placed. But surely it is not necessary for ever to be proving that this is an advantage to the community at large; that by this means, national wealth, and improvement, and civilization are advanced. Has not the public a better chance of being well supplied with a commodity that is manufactured by many rivals, and brought in great abundance to the market, than if its manufacture were solely confined to the monopoly of an opulent company of merchants? In like manner, is it not more probable that the public will in all respects be better served, when no branch of the community is excluded from knowledge and cultivation, and when, consequently, a profusion of talent is brought to the market? During a scarcity of this article, it happens, as in scarcities of every kind, that purchasers have little or no

choice; they must either take the commodity, though of a high price and bad quality, or want. It may be, indeed, that individuals may find their interest in such a state of things, just, as it is the personal interest of the farmer, that he only of all the farmers in the country should have a good harvest, and of a merchant, whose ships are laden with foreign produce, that no other ships with the same commodity should reach the destined haven but his own; but as it is in no conceivable instance for the advantage of the community that either the harvest should be bad, or that the price of the market should not be depressed by the ample supply of importation, so it never can be its interest that the public service should experience. any scarcity of cultivated mind. On the other hand, this service will be best advanced, and done at least expence, when the supply is most ample.

It manifestly then is the duty of a nation to encourage those means by which this ample supply may be obtained; in the same manner as it is its interest to favour the production of any commodity which is essentially necessary to its comfort and prosperity. Now, a national system of education is one means by which this important end may be accomplished; since

it affords to all an opportunity of improvement, and to the few whom nature has blessed with superior powers, the possibility of rising to benefit the public, and to advance their fortune. As things are at present, in most nations, the great mass of the people is completely excluded from serving the state by intellectual exertion; this is confined to two or three of the most elevated orders of society, where there is little competition, and where, of course, the work performed is inferior, both in quantity and quality, to what, in other circumstances, it would have been. When once, however, this wall of partition is broken down, I mean as it regards intelligence, a new spirit will diffuse itself through society, and those who are now the sole possessors of cultivated talents, may find themselves surpassed in a quarter, where by them it was least expected.

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Those who are at present candidates for literary fame, need not, after all, be much alarmed at the consequences of a national system of education; since such a system can only embrace the most elementary branches of tuition; and, since merit alone can find its way amidst the pressure and difficulties which poverty involves, and genius only animate the dreariness of the prospect which a "destiny