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.

ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS.

BY THOMAS DICK, LL. D.

AUTHOR OF THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER, PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION, &c.

NEW-YORK:

THOMAS GEORGE, JR. 162 NASSAU STREET.

PREFACE.

in all its bearings, is the most extensive and interesting that can occupy the attention of mankind.Should the present volume, however, meet with general approbation, some more specific details in reference to the subjects here discussed, and to other topics connected with the improvement of society, may afterwards be presented to the public.

THE train of thought which runs through the fol- | it is merely an outline; for the subject, considered lowing work has been familiar to the author's mind for upwards of twenty-six years. Nearly twenty years ago he intended to address the public on this subject; but he is now convinced that, at that period, the attempt would have been premature, and, consequently, unsuccessful. He took several opportunities, however, of suggesting a variety of hints on the necessity of new-modelling and im- Several excellent works have lately been pubproving the system of education-particularly in lished on the subject of education, some of them rethe London "Monthly Magazine," the "Edinburgh cognizing the leading principles which are here Christian Instructor," the "Christian Recorder," the illustrated. But the author has, in every instance, "Perth Courier," and several other publications, as prosecuted his own train of thought, without interwell as in several parts of his former volumes. Offering with the sentiments or language of others, late years the attention of the public has been di- | unless where it is acknowledged. Some of the rected to this subject more than at any former pe- works alluded to he has not had it in his power to riod, and even the British Legislature has been peruse; and the same current of thought will someconstrained to take into consideration the means by times occur to different writers on the same subject. which the benefits of education may be more exten- The greater part of this work was composed before sively enjoyed. It is therefore to be hoped, that the the author had an opportunity of perusing the exsubject will now undergo a deliberate and unbi- cellent treatise of Mr. Simpson, entitled "Necessity assed consideration, corresponding to its interest of Popular Education;" a work which abounds with and importance. liberal and enlightened views, and which recognizes the same general principles which are here illustrated. But the two works do not materially interfere; and the one may be regarded as a supplement or sequel to the other, both having a bearing on the same grand object.

In endeavoring to establish a new system of education--although every requisite improvement could not, in the first instance, be effected—yet nothing short of a comprehensive and efficient system should be the model after which we ought to copy, and to which all our arrangements should gradually approximate. To attempt merely to extend the present in many respects inefficient and limited system, without adopting those improvements which experience and the progress of society have rendered necessary, would be only to postpone to an indefinite period what must ultimately be established, if society is expected to go on in its progress towards perfection.

In the following volume the author has exhibited a brief outline of the whole series of instructions requisite for man, considered as an intelligent and

It was originally intended to offer a few remarks on classical learning, and on the system of education which prevails in our colleges and universities, but the size to which the volume has swelled has rendered it expedient to postpone them to a future opportunity. For the same reason, the "Miscellaneous Hints in reference to the Improvement of Society," and the remarks on "Mechanics' Institutions," have been much abridged, and various topics omitted which were intended to be particularly illustrated.

The author intends proceeding with his promised moral agent destined to immortality-from the ear-work "On the Scenery of the Heavens," as soon as lies: dawn of reason to the period of manhood. But his present engagements will permit.

MORAL IMPROVEMENT OF MANKIND.

INTRODUCTION.

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 community-that its accomplishment is both undesirable and impracticable-that the moral world will proceed onward as it has hitherto donethat there is no possibility of meliorating the condition of the great mass of mankind-and that it is alintellectual energies of the human race into any other channel than that in which they have hitherto been accustomed to flow. Such insinuations evidently flow from a spirit of misanthropy, and are intended, if possible, to fix the moral world in a quiescent state, as the material world was supposed 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."

BEFORE We attempt to accomplish any great and extensive enterprize, it is requisite to ascertain, in the first place, whether the object we propose be attainable, and, in the next place, whether, if attained, it would be productive of beneficent effects. If these points are not ascertained previous to our engaging in any undertaking, we may exert our intellectual faculties and active powers, and spend our time, our wealth, and our labor to no purpose, and in the end meet with nothing but disappointed expectations.-together Utopian to attempt to direct the moral and The history of the world, and even the annals of science, would furnish hundreds of facts to corroborate this position. The object of the alchemists was to transmute earthy substances and the baser metals into gold, and by the fortunate labor of some happy day, when the stars were propitious, to realize vast treasures of wealth, to enable them to live in splendor and opulence during the remaining period of their lives. In this visionary pursuit, which, for several centuries, occupied the attention of princes, statesmen, ecclesiastics, physicians, and experimenters of various descriptions, thousands of fortunes were irretrievably wasted, and the dupes of this fallacious science kept in perpetual anxiety, and amused with vain and unfounded expectations. Even although such schemes had been practicable, which experience proves they are not, it would not be difficult to show, that, had they been successful, they would have produced more misery than happiness among mankind. The study of the heavens, with the view of foretelling future events, and the destinies of men, from the different aspects of the planets and the signs of the Zodiac, was another scheme which, for many ages, absorbed the attention of kings, legislators, popes, cardinals, and even men of science, as well as that of the illiterate vulgar; and, in numerous instances, no public affair of any importance was undertaken, without first consulting the stars. This fallacious art has likewise been proved impracticable and inconsistent with the peace and happiness of mankind. The researches which were long made after the panacea, or universal remedy for all disor-vernment of the Deity; to advance the interests of ders-the search for an universal menstruum and ferment-the search for a medicine which will confer immortality even in this world-the attempts to discover mines by means of divining-rods-and to cure palsies, inflammations, obstructions, and other disorders, by animal magnetism and metallic tractors-and above all, the attempt to conduct mankind to happiness by discarding the idea of a Divine Being and every species of religion from the plans proposed-with hundreds of similar schemes-may be regarded nearly in the same light as the foolish arts of astrologers and alchemists, and could easily be shown to be equally unprofitable and vain.

In endeavoring to promote a general diffusion of knowledge among the various ranks of society, it becomes us likewise to inquire, whether the attempt would be accompanied with such beneficial effects as to warrant the labor and expense which must necessarily attend such an enterprize; and, whether

In a work lately published, I have endeavored to illustrate, at considerable length, some of the advantages which would result from a general diffusion of knowledge, which, I presume, will tend to substantiate the position, that an increase of knowledge among all ranks would be productive of an increase of enjoyment. If a more extensive diffusion of knowledge would have a tendency to dissipate those superstitious notions and false alarms which have so long enslaved the minds of men; to prevent numerous diseases and fatal accidents; to accelerate the improvement of the physical sciences; to increase the pleasures and enjoyments of mankind; to promote the progress of the liberal and mechanical arts; to administer to the comforts of general society; to prepare the way for new inventions and discoveries; to expand our views of the attributes and moral gomorality; to prepare the mind for the pleasures and employments of the future world; to promote a more extensive acquaintance with the evidences, facts, and doctrines of Revelation; to prepare the way for the establishment of peace and harmony among the nations, and to promote the union and the extension of the Christian church: if such positions can be fairly proved, every philanthropist and every rational and well directed mind will readily admit, that a more general cultivation of the human intellect, and a more extensive diffusion of rational information, are highly desirable, and would be productive of the most auspicious and beneficial results, in reference both to the present interests and the future prospects of mankind.

With regard to the practicability of this object, no rational doubt can be entertained if the moral machinery requisite for its accomplishment were once thoroughly set in motion. Whatever man has hither

superior to all the generations that have gone before it-improving the soil, adorning the landscape, promoting the progress of the useful arts, enlarging the boundaries of science, diffusing the blessings of Christianity over the globe, giving an impulse to every philanthropic movement, counteracting the spirit of war, ambition, and licentiousness, cultivating peace and friendly correspondence with surrounding nations, and forming an impregnable bulwark around every government where the throne is established in truth and in righteousness.

To state and illustrate the various means by which a more extensive diffusion of knowledge may be effected, and the general improvement of society promoted, is the main object of the following pages, in which the state of education in our country, and the principles on which it ought to be conducted, shall occupy our first, and our chief attention.

PART I.

ON EDUCATION.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

to achieved, man may still accomplish. If minds once feeble and benighted, and ignorant as the wild ass's colt, have, by proper training, been raised near the highest pitch of moral and intellectual attainments, other minds, by similar training, may be elevated to the same degree of perfection. If nations, once rude and ignorant, as the Britons formerly were, have been raised to a state of civilization and refinement, and excited to cultivate the arts and sciences, the same means by which this object was accomplished may still be employed in other cases to produce the same effect. If several portions, however small, of any civilized community, have been brought to a high state of intellectual improvement, it is evident, that the greater part, if not the whole, may be advanced into a similar state. It only requires that the means of instruction be simplified and extended, and brought within the reach of every one whose faculties are capable of cultivation. That this object has never yet been effected, is not owing to its impracticability, or to any insuperable obstacles which lie in the way of its accomplishment; but because the attention of mankind has never yet been thoroughly directed to it; and because the means requisite for promoting it have never been employed on a scale proportionate to the extent and magnitude of the enterprise. The influential classes of society in every country, have been more absorbed in the pursuits of avarice, ambition, war, devastation, and THERE is, perhaps, nothing of more importance to sensual gratifications, than in meliorating the phy- the human race, and which has a more direct bearsical and moral condition of their species. The ing on the happiness of all ranks, than the cultivatenth part of the treasures which have been wasted tion of the mental faculties, and the acquisition of in the prosecution of such mad and immoral pur-substantial knowledge. Whether we consider man suits, had it been properly directed, would have been more than sufficient to have brought the means of instruction within the reach of every individual of the human race, and to have transformed the barren wastes of every country into the appearance of a terrestrial paradise. There is no government un-in which he is placed, with the relations in which he der heaven, so far as we are acquainted (if Prussia and the United States of America he not excepted) where the instruction of the great mass of the people forms a prominent and specific object in its administration. On the contrary, in several instances, even within the limits of Europe, it is well known, that the intellectual instruction of the lower orders is prohibited by law.* Even in Great Britain, where the light of science shines with peculiar effulgence, the exertions of philanthropists have been damped in their attempts to diffuse knowledge among the people; heavy taxes have been imposed on the means of its diffusion; men of knowledge have been persecuted and neglected, while men devoted to war and bloodshed have been loaded with wealth, and exalted to the highest stations of dignity and honor; no national scheme supported by the state, has ever Nothing, however, appears to have been more yet been devised for its universal propagation among overlooked, in the general arrangements of society, all ranks, and no sums set apart for this purpose, than the selection of the most proper means by which while the treasures of the nation have been wasted such important ends are to be accomplished. lo in extravagance, and, in too many instances, de- those nations and societies which, in their progress voted to the support of vice, tyranny, and intolerance. from barbarity, have arrived at only a half-civilized But we trust that the breath of a new spirit is state, the acquisition of the means of subsistence, now beginning to animate the councils of the nation and of those comforts which promote their sensitive and the great body of the people; and when the enjoyment, forms almost an exclusive object of purmeans within our power of extending the blessings of knowledge shall be employed with energy and judgment, we may expect, ere long, to behold a generation rising up, in intelligence and moral action,

as a transitory inhabitant of this lower world, or as in a state of progression to another region of exist ence-it is of the utmost importance, that he be thoroughly acquainted with the Great Author of his existence, with the general structure of the universe stands to his fellow-men, and the other beings which surround him, with the duties he ought to discharge to his Creator, and to his own species, with the nature of that eternal world to which he is destined, and with that train of action and of contemplation which will prepare him for the enjoyments of a future and eternal state. All the other objects which can employ the attention of the human mind must evidently be viewed as in some degree subordinate to these. For, on the acquisition of the knowledge to which we allude, and the corresponding course of conduct to which it leads, depends the happiness of man, considered both as an individual, and as a member of the great family to which he belongs his happiness both in the present life, and in the life to come.

suit; and it is not before they have arrived at a cer tain stage of civilization, that moral and intellectual improvement becomes an object of general attention. And, even in those nations which have advanced farthest in the path of science and of social refine*For example: A royal Sardinian edict, pub-ment, the cultivation of the human mind and the lished in 1825, enjoins, "that henceforth no person details of education are not considered in that seri shall learn to read or write who cannot prove the ous light which their importance demands. Almost possession of property above the value of 1500 li- every thing else is attempted to be accurately advres," or about £62 10s. sterling. And it is well justed, while the moral and intellectual improvement known, that the greater part of the lower classes in of the mass of the community is left either to the Russia, Austria, and Poland are, from their situa- direction of chance, or to the injudicious schemes tion, debarred from the benefits of instruction. of weak and ignorant minds. Every one who has

acquired a smattering of English grammar and arithmetic, and who can write his own name, conceives that he is qualified to conduct the intellectual improvement of the young; the most illiterate and superficial pedants have intruded themselves into the office of teachers; those who have never had the least experience in the art of teaching, nor have studied its principles, have assumed the prerogative of dictating the arrangements and discipline of a school; and hence, the office of a teacher of youth, which is one of the most important and respectable in the social system, has frequently been considered as connected with the meanest talents, and with the lowest gradations in society.

obtained a good education, rising up in life, in a state of ignorance and vice, in consequence of the superficial and injudicious modes by which they have been tutored, and which prevent them from profiting by the instructions of the ministers of religion.

While the great body of mankind must necessarily be engaged in manual employments, and while it is essential to their happiness, as well as to their bodily subsistence, that a portion of their time be thus employed,—it would be a highly desirable object to induce upon their minds a taste for intellectual pursuits, and for those pure enjoyments which flow from a contemplation of the works and proviGreat Britain has long held a distinguished rank dence of the Creator, and of those moral laws and among the nations of Europe in the scale of science arrangements which he has ordained for promoting and of civilization, and on account of the numerous the social order and the eternal happiness of manseminaries of instruction which have been establish- kind, in which those hours not devoted to worldly ed in every quarter of the island. Excepting Prussia, business might be occasionally employed. As man the United States of America, and the mountains is a being compounded of a corporeal organized and vales of Switzerland, there are few countries structure, and a system of intellectual powers, it in which education is more generally appreciated evidently appears to have been the intention of the and more widely diffused than in the Northern dis- Creator, that he should be frequently employed both trict of Great Britain; and the effects produced by in action and in contemplation. But when his phyour literary and scholastic establishments are appa- sical powers only are set in motion, and the princirent in the desire for knowledge, and the superior pal object of his activity is to supply the wants of intelligence which characterize the different ranks his animal frame, he can be considered as little suof our population. When we compare ourselves perior to the lower orders of animated existence, in this respect with the Russian boors, the Lapland- and must, in a great measure, frustrate the end of ers, the Calmucs, the Cossacks, or the Tartars, or his Creator in bestowing upon him the faculties of even with the inhabitants of Naples, of Spain, or his rational nature. of Portugal, we seem to stand on an eminence to In order to raise mankind from the state of menwhich they can scarcely hope to approach for a tal darkness and moral degradation into which they lapse of ages. On the other hand, when we com- have fallen it is essentially requisite, that the utpare ourselves with what we ought to be, as beings most care be bestowed on the proper direction of the possessed of rational natures, and destined to im- youthful mind, in its first excusions in the physical mortality, and as surrounded with the light of sci- and moral world; for when it has proceeded a cerence and of revelation,-we shall find, that we are, tain length, amidst the mists of ignorance and the as yet, but little more than just emerging from the devious ways of vice, it is extremely difficult, if not gloom of moral depravity and mental darkness.-impossible, to recall it from its wanderings to the When we consider the mass of depravity which is path of wisdom and felicity. Instructions, not still hovering around us, the deplorable ignorance, merely in reference to sounds and accents, and acthe superstitious notions, the false conceptions in curate pronunciation, but also in relation to imporregard to many important truths, the evil passions, tant facts, and the various properties and relations and the grovelling affections which so generally pre- of objects around them, must be communicated at vail, we must acknowledge, that much, much indeed, an early age; and not merely the names, but the remains to be accomplished, before the great body ideas, of the most interesting objects in the physical of the people be thoroughly enlightened in the and intellectual world, must be conveyed by a sucknowledge of all those subjects in which they are cession of well-defined mental imagery, and sensiinterested, as rational, accountable, and immortal ble illustrations, so as to arrest and impress the jubeings, and before they can be induced to give a de-venile mind, and excite its energies and affections cided preference to moral pursuits and intellectual pleasures. And, if this is the case in a nation designated civilized and enlightened, how thick must be the darkness which broods over the inhabitants of other regions of the globe, how deep the moral debasement into which they are sunk, and how many vigorous efforts must be requisite, ere they can be raised to the true dignity of moral and intellectual agents! If ever this important object is to be accomplished-which the predictions of ancient prophecy leave us little room to doubt-it is now high time that we arouse ourselves from our slumbers, and engage with increased activity and zeal in the work of reformation and of rational instruction. Let us not imagine, that the preaching of the gospel, in the dull and formal manner by which it is at present characterized, will effectuate this great object, without the use of all the efficient means of juvenile instruction we can devise. While we boast of the privileges of our favored land, of the blessings of Divine Revelation, and of the enlight-intellectual instructions ought to go hand in hand ened era in which we live; and while we are endeavoring to impart to distant nations the blessings of science and of the Christian religion;-let us not forget, that there are thousands of the young generation around us under the show of having

in the pursuit of knowledge and virtue. Without an attention to this important object, the business of elementary instruction appears to regard man rather as a mere machine than as a rational and immortal being, and seems to be little short of an insult offered to the human understanding. The ultimate object of all scholastic instruction ought undoubtedly to be, to convey to youthful minds substantial knowledge, to lead them gradually into a view of the nature and qualities of the objects with which they are surrounded, of the general appearances, motions, and machinery of external nature, of the moral relations in which they stand to the Great Author of their existence, and to one another, and of the various duties which flow from these relations,-to direct their affections, tempers, and passions, in such a channel as will tend to promote their own comfort, and the harmony of general society, and to prepare them for the nobler employ ments of an immortal existence. Such moral and

with the acquisition of the various combinations of sounds and syllables, and with the mechanical exercises of writing and cyphering; otherwise the beneficial consequences, which should resul: from instruction in the common branches of education