An Essay on the Evils of Popular IgnoranceFoster, John
Philosophy
An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance
Foster, John
Education; Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Literacy; Missions -- India; Religious education
But we need not have dwelt so long on such arguments, since fortunately
there is matter of fact in answer to the objection. To the extent of the
yet very limited experiment, it is proved that giving the people more
knowledge and more sense does not tend to disorder and insubordination;
does not excite them to impatience and extravagant claims; does not spoil
them for the ordinary business of life, the tasks of duty and necessity;
does not make them the dupes of knaves; nor teach them the most profitable
use of their improved faculties is to turn knaves themselves. Employers
can testify, from all sides, that there is a striking general difference
between those bred up in ignorance and rude vulgarity, and those who have
been trained through the well-ordered schools for the humble classes,
especially when the habits at home have been subsidiary; a difference
exceedingly in favor of the latter, who are found not only more apt at
understanding and executing, but more decorous, more respectful, more
attentive to orders, more ready to see and acknowledge the propriety of
good regulations, and more disposed to a practical acquiescence in them;
far less inclined to ebriety and low company; and more to be depended on
in point of honesty. In almost any part of the country, where the
experiment has been zealously prosecuted for a moderate number of years, a
long resident observer can discern a modification in the character of the
neighborhood; a mitigation of the former brutality of manners, a less
frequency of brawls and quarrels, and less tendency to draw together into
rude riotous assemblages. There is especially a marked difference on the
Sabbath, on which great numbers attend public worship, whose forefathers
used on that day to congregate for boisterous sport on the common, or even
within the inclosure vainly consecrated round the church; [Footnote: We
know a church where, within, the remembrance of an immediate ancestor, it
was not unusual, or thought anything amiss, for the foot-ball to be struck
up within the "consecrated ground" at the close of the afternoon service
of the Sunday.] and who would themselves in all probability have followed
the same course, but for the tuition which has led them into a better. In
not a few instances, the children have carried from the schools
inestimable benefits home to their unhappy families; winning even their
depraved, thoughtless parents into consideration and concern about their
most important interests,--a precious repayment of all the long toils and
cares, endured to support them through the period of childhood, and an
example of that rare class of phenomena, in which (as in the instance of
the Grecian Daughter) a superlative beauty arises from an inversion of the
order of nature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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