Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from On the Mental Illumination and Moral Improvement of Mankind, or an Inquiry Into the Means by Which a General Diffusion of Knowledge and Moral Principle May Be Promoted, Vol. 5: Ilustrated With Engravings
In endeavouring to promote a general diffusion of knowledge among thp various ranks of society, it becomes us likewise to inquire, whether the attempt would be accompanied with such beneficial effects as to warrant the labour and expense which must necessarily attend such an enterprise - and, whether any, insurmountable difficulties stand in the way of its accomplishment. There are not wanting, even amidst the light of science which is now shining around us, many individuals in the higher classes of society who are bold enough to insinuate, that an increase of knowledge would be injurious to the lower ranks of the commu nity - that its accomplishment is both undesirable and impracti cable - that the moral world will proceed on'ward as it has hitherto done - that there is no possibility of meliorating the condition of the great mass of nrankind, - and that it is altogether Utopian to attempt to direct the moral and intellectual energies of the human race into any other channel than that in which they have hitherto heen accustomed to flow. Such insinuations evidently ?ow from a spirit of misanthropy, and are intended, if possible, to fix the moral world in a quiescent state, as the material world Was sup posed to be in former times, and to damp every exertion that is now making to promote the improvement and the happiness of our species. They are likewise inconsistent with the dictates of Divine Revelation, which plainly declare that the knowledge of Jehovah shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the channels of the seas, and that all shall know him, from the least to the greatest.
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