By raising the standard of education among the people, the standard would be raised among the learned also; for what is termed learning is only a relative quality. The whole extent of human knowledge is insignificant in comparison with the infinity of truths which remain undiscovered or unobserved. The heights and depths of science, which in our pride we fondly imagine we have explored, only strike us with astonishment because we compare them with that even surface along which ignorance plods. As the progress of information advances, the greater is that portion of knowledge which becomes the heritage of the people. By the mere intercourse of society, much knowledge is diffused, independently of that which is spread by the regular institutions for learning; and the quantum of this erratic knowledge rises in a greater ratio than the general intelligence of the people. In this country a century back, the assertion that the sun remains stationary, or nearly so, and the earth by its revolutions gives occasion to day and night, and the rotation of the seasons, would probably have been heard with astonishment, and received with incredulity by the mass of the people; because their senses, and the common use and acceptation of language led them to believe the reverse. Yet what novice at the present day, enlightened in comparison with a period of one hundred years back, would require to be informed of a truth so well known? This important truth has, like many other scientific truths, become familiar to every member of society. The information thus diffused, would be increased by raising the standard of education among the people. Much of that knowledge which before constituted a part of the stock peculiar to the learned, would become the common property of the people at large. The former would necessarily conform to a higher standard of acquirements. The plan of instruction in colleges and universities would become more liberal and extensive: for on this condition would depend the distinction of their alumni from the uninitiated.