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-whether its state be learned or ignorant, rich or poor, refined or barbarous.

But though education cannot eradicate any passion or appetite in human nature, there is a desire which if it does not wholly create, it most powerfully invigorates; I refer to the desire of improving the condition. Where the people are grossly ignorant, this principle has much less force than in a country where intelligence is equally diffused, and where freedom of thought and of action is allowed: and perhaps, in circumstances of this last description, it might, if not attended with some counteracting forces, occasion some evil. The impelling power of this desire, and the force by which it is regulated and restrained, may not improperly be compared to the centripetal and centrifugal forces in the philosophy of Newton; and the former are not less necessary to the prosperity of the moral world, than the latter are to the existence of the physical. While the desire to improve the condition may be considered as a constantly operating power, acting in a certain direction, the passions and appetites of human nature form another, and an opposing power, by which the impetus of this is regulated and rendered useful. Though this illustration from analogy may be deemed more fanciful than just, it does not affect the

truth of the remark which it is designed to explain.—If, indeed, it were optional with the poor whether they performed the drudgery of their station or not, or, if they attended to their employment, merely because they were ignorant, then it might be inexpedient to afford them that knowledge by which they become indolent: but since every man, whether lettered or unlettered, stands in need of bread, and since, therefore, if poor, he is impelled to labour by a force which is regular in its operation, and which has more efficiency than any that human ingenuity can put in its place, the danger which is apprehended from the most exten sive system of national education, is a mere dream of the imagination.

It may seem improper in a Scotchman, always to refer to his own country for proofs of the excellent effects of knowledge among the poor; but if an appeal to observation, where it is practicable, for the truth of any position, be better than a mere acquiescence in speculation, then, in discussing the present subject, it becomes unavoidable. For though the unparalled generosity and benevolence of Englishmen go a great way to supply the lack of parochial schools, by supporting similar institutions, they have not yet had time to produce all their effects. We must still have recourse

to the north side of the Tweed for living examples, to prove that it is possible for men to be very good porters, and ploughmen,-to occupy the very meanest offices of society, and yet be tolerably acquainted with the arts of reading, writing, and even of performing the rule of three. Here there is no extraordinary discontentedness discovered under the pressures of life, and no difficulty experienced in procuring labourers for the most menial or even offensive services. Nor is the employer less pleased with his workmen or servants, because they have got some share of that intelligence and thoughtfulness which education generally ensures. The truth is, discontent and a disposition to murmur at the lot which Providence has assigned us, is the effect, not of moral and religious instruction, but of ignorance, since knowledge enables us to appreciate the blessings already enjoyed, and refers the mind to that future state of felicity, in which every inequality of this life will be fully adjusted. The poor man who has only scanty fare for himself and his family, but whose heart is impressed with the hopes of christianity, and cheered by its animating consolations, will endure with submission and pious resignation, those toils and cares which the will of Heaven has appointed him. If he attempts

to better his condition, it is by means of industry, honesty, and uprightness; and these are means which seldom fail to render such an attempt ultimately successful.

Having thus considered some of the prejudices which oppose the education of the poor, it may be said, that I have given them more attention than they seem to merit. They are, indeed, like prejudices of every kind, founded in ignorance; but they serve the useful purpose of leading to a closer investigation of those principles, which, in whatever way they are analysed, conduct to the same results.

Besides those already mentioned, there is another way in which a national system of education tends to promote the happiness and improvement of the kingdom; I mean, its tendency to impose those moral restraints which limit the extent of population to the means of subsistence. This appears to me to be a most important subject, and merits a much larger share of attention than it has yet received.

It is very evident that population has a natural tendency to advance, not in proportion to the means of subsistence, but in a much greater ratio: the one proceeds in a geometrical, the other in an arithmetical, proportion. This may

now be considered as an established fact in political science; and this general truth leads to conclusions very important to the happiness of society. For in consequence of the power of multiplying the species, with which nature has invested the human kind, there is a danger in most cases lest the number of the people should go beyond the quantity of food provided for their support. Wherever this occurs, and it occurs in some parts of the world very frequently, it produces various evils: the existing population must be more sparingly fed; the provision which is no more than adequate for five, it is necessary to divide among ten, and that which is no more than sufficient for the comfortable support of two millions of people, must be managed so as to serve three. Nor does the evil stop at such a comparatively moderate excess of inhabitants as is here supposed: it advances until disease, and famine, and war, necessarily diminish the population, and again render it proportionable to the means of subsistence. Unfor tunately these ministers of death will have occasion in a short time again to return, and again, in infinite succession, till those remedies which Providence has appointed be applied to prevent the recurrence of an evil, which these are designed to remove,

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