Life in the Clearings versus the BushMoodie, Susanna
History
Life in the Clearings versus the Bush
Moodie, Susanna
Frontier and pioneer life -- Ontario; Moodie, Susannah, 1803-1885; Ontario -- Description and travel
The ignorance of the masses must, while it remains, for ever separate
them from their more fortunate brethren. Remove this stumbling block
out of the way, and the hard line of demarcation which now divides them
will soften, and gradually melt away. Their supposed inferiority lies
in their situation alone. Turn to the history of those great men whom
education has rescued from the very lowest walks of life, and you will
find a mighty host, who were in their age and day the companions, the
advisers, the friends of princes--men who have written their names with
the pen and sword upon the pillars of time, and, if immortality can
exist in a world of constant change, have been rendered immortal by
their words or deeds.
Let poverty and bigotry do their utmost to keep such spirits, while
living, in the shades of obscurity, death, the great equalizer, always
restores to its possessors the rights of mind, and bids them triumph for
ever over the low prejudices of their fellow-men, who, when reading the
works of Burns, or gazing on the paintings of Raphael, reproach them
with the lowliness of their origin; yea, the proudest who have taste
to appreciate their glorious creations, rejoice that genius could thus
triumph over temporary obstacles.
It has often been asserted by the rich and nobly-born, that if the
poorer classes were as well educated as themselves, it would render
them familiar and presumptuous, and they would no longer pay to their
superiors in station that deference which must exist for the well-being
of society. We view the subject with far other eyes, and conclude from
analogy, that that which has conferred such incalculable benefits on the
rich, and helped mainly to place them in the position they now hold,
could not be detrimental to the poor. The man who knows his duty, is
more likely to perform it well than the ignorant man, whose services are
compulsory, and whose actions are influenced by the moral responsibility
which a right knowledge must give.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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