anatomy and constitution of the intellectual frame must be
studied; for the powers of that eye are affected by the general state of
the system. My meaning is, that piety and religion will be the best
understood by him who takes the most comprehensive view of the human
mind, and that, for the most part, they will strengthen with the general
strength of the mind, and that this is best promoted by a due mixture of
direct and indirect nourishment and discipline. For example, _Paradise
Lost_, and _Robinson Crusoe_, might be as serviceable as Law's _Serious
Call_, or Melmoth's _Great Importance of a Religious Life_; at least,
if the books be all good, they would mutually assist each other. In what
I have said, though following my own thoughts merely as called forth by
your Appendix, is _implied_ an answer to your request that I would give
you 'half an idea upon education as a national object.' I have only kept
upon the surface of the question, but you must have deduced, that I deem
any plan of national education in a country like ours most difficult to
apply to practice. In Switzerland, or Sweden, or Norway, or France, or
Spain, or anywhere but Great Britain, it would be comparatively easy.
Heaven and hell are scarcely more different from each other than
Sheffield and Manchester, &c., differ from the plains and valleys of
Surrey, Essex, Cumberland, or Westmoreland. We have mighty cities, and
towns of all sizes, with villages and cottages scattered everywhere. We
are mariners, miners, manufacturers in tens of thousands, traders,
husbandmen, everything. What form of discipline, what books or
doctrines--I will not say would equally suit all these--but which, if
happily fitted for one, would not perhaps be an absolute nuisance in
another? You will, also, have deduced that nothing romantic can be said
with truth of the influence of education upon the district in which I
live. We have, thank heaven, free schools, or schools with some
endowment, almost everywhere; and almost every one can read. But not
because we have free or endowed schools, but because our land is, far
more than elsewhere, tilled by men who are the owners of it; and as the
population is not over crowded, and the vices which are quickened and
cherished in a crowded population do not therefore prevail, parents have
more ability and inclination to send their children to school; much more
than in manufacturing districts, and also, though in a less degree, more
than in