Reflections on the Character and Objects: Of All Science and Literature, and on the Relative Excellence and Value of Religious and Secular Education, and of Sacred and Classical Literature (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Reflections on the Character and Objects: Of All Science and Literature, and on the Relative Excellence and Value of Religious and Secular Education, and of Sacred and Classical Literature

It is the duty of Parents and Guardians, of Teachers and Trustees of education generally, to examine the theory and practice Of existing institutions, to inquire how far they have promoted the glory Of God, and individual, social, national welfare: and to consider solemnly, thoughtfully, how far defects can be supplied, and abuses corrected. That these do exist, can hardly be doubted by any one, who reflects on the actual Operation of our schools and colleges, as attested by the unimproved state of the great majority Of minds that have been subjected to their influence. In the mass, who come out of our schools and colleges, how few have acquired any religion at all, or much valuable knowledge, the habit of study, a taste for reading, the love of improvement, and the great art of thinking soundly and reasoning accurately. Yet all these things ourinstitutions profess to teach; although if we look to facts as the criterion, it is, in forty nine cases out of fifty, little more than profession. I speak this, not under the influence of bitterness and contempt, but with fee] ings of deep regret and mortification. It has been our priv ilege, under the blessing Of Providence, to exhibit, for the instruction Of all mankind, the theory and practice Of Gov ernment purified and regenerated, and Religion disencum bered Of the civil and political burthens, under which it groans in the old world. The precepts and examples of the Gospel, not those of Classic Antiquity; the rational princi ples Of British freedom, not the wild and disorderly impul ses of Grecian and Roman liberty; the plain, strong sense, inherited from an English ancestry, not the taste and acute ness of an Athenian people, have wrought these achieve merits, not for us only, but for the ignorant and degraded.

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