CHAP. XI.

ON THE MEANS WHICH SHOULD BE EMPLOYED FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF THE NATIVE IRISH.

SECTION I.

General Remarks on the Advantages of National Education.

I SHALL not here repeat the remarks by which it was endeavoured to prove the inefficiency of those means which have occasionally been used to enlighten the old Irish, and the absurdity of attempting to improve their minds by addressing them in a language which they do not understand. Taking this truth for granted, which, indeed, nothing but the grossest prejudice and misconception could ever controvert, I proceed to inquire into the measures which should be adopted for extending to the whole population of Ireland, all the blessings of moral and religious improvement. The most obvious means for accomplishing this end are education and preaching.

1. Education. The importance of this means of national improvement is much less understood than is generally imagined,* and seems no where to be so universally acknowledged as in Scotland.† Here, indeed, its utility has for a long time been fully demonstrated: it has produced in the mass of the people, industry, virtue, and happiness, and has conferred on them that proud pre-eminence of intellectual endowment by which they are distinguished above all the nations of the globe. We never expect, therefore, from a native of this country to hear any arguments advanced against the manifest advantage of a general system of education, a system adapted to enlighten and instruct the very lowest orders of the people. It is from men who have never witnessed the happy effects which a plan of elementary tuition produces; or, who are so selfish as to grudge their fellow creatures that augmentation of domestic happiness which knowledge imparts, or, so corrupt and tyrannical as to dread the progressive improvement of society, and the ameliorating influence of increased illumination; it is from such persons only that it is possible for us ever to hear arguments of this descrip

* See note F.

This was written before the formation of the national institution in England.

tion. There may, indeed, be a few in every country whose understandings are so obtuse as not to perceive the force of the strongest evidence, and who obstinately retain all the prejudices of the last century in spite of every attempt to remove them. To such characters I do not address myself. But to those who oppose the education of the poor merely because they are ignorant of its advantage, and who really have every wish to promote the general happiness of mankind, I offer the following remarks, common place enough, no doubt, but nevertheless of very great importance.

In the first place, it is evident that the diffusion of knowledge among the inferior orders of the community, by means of a national system of education, must necessarily advance the interests of morality. Ignorance, indolence, penury, and vice, are not more closely allied, than intelligence, industry, purity of manners, and a watchful attention to all the duties of life. It is possible, no doubt, to communicate a species of knowledge, or rather to put it in the power of every individual to acquire it for himself, without improving to any great extent the morals of the people. But the system of education which I recommend, embraces the pure morality which

christianity inculcates: which, while it teaches the children of the poor to read, at the same time unfolds those principles of truth, and justice, and piety, by which their early habits are formed, and their future life is to be guided. Much, indeed, has been said as to the abuse to which general education is liable, -that it puts it in the power of the poor to read books impure and pernicious, and as they have not the judgement to choose what is good, so they ought not to have an opportunity of contaminating their minds with that which is bad. But those who make this remark should recollect that there is no blessing but what may be misapplied, no power but what may be perverted, no good without some mixture of evil besides, if the objection has any force when applied to the case of the poor, why may it not have some validity when adduced to shew the dangerous tendency of education even in the rich. Has an Almighty Providence distinguished the latter from the former by a marked superiority of mental endowment, by any greater perspicacity of judgement, by any livelier susceptibility of virtuous emotion, or by any stronger aptitude for the attainment of moral excellence. It has, no doubt, in the one case more liberally than in the other, bestowed the external means of becoming wise,

and learned, and happy; but the gifts of nature are not like those of fortune; her bounty is distributed with an impartial hand; and the cottage or the cabin may contain as much native genius and virtue, as the splendid mansion, or the academic halls of the College.

Full many a gem,

of

purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

But it is not true that the poor when capable of reading prefer in general pernicious to useful books. When their education has been tolerably well directed, they discover a much stronger inclination to procure such as contain useful information,—as inculcate the principles of piety and virtue. Let us in this case, as in every other, where it is in our power, appeal to observation. In Scotland, where all the people can read, are their morals injured by their capability of perusing improper books? In what other country in the whole world is education so general, and where is the country that can bear any comparison as to sobriety, and industry, and national virtue? Here, even the beggar is ashamed if he be unable to read that book which affords the most endearing consolations, and hopes, and enjoyments alike