would necessarily act on the will of man; that would determine the
greater number of his species to exhibit virtue, to love it for its own
sake, to seek after it as the most desirable good, as the surest road to
the happiness he so ardently desires. But if, on the contrary,
superstition, politics, example, public opinion, all labour to
countenance wickedness, to train man viciously; if, instead of fanning
his virtues, they stifle good principles; if, instead of directing his
studies to his advantage, they render his education either useless or
unprofitable; if this education itself, instead of grounding him in
virtue, only inoculates him with vice; if, instead of inculcating
reason, it imbues him with prejudice; if, instead of making him
enamoured of truth, it furnishes him with false notions; if, instead of
storing his mind with just ideas drawn from experience, it fills him
with dangerous opinions; if, instead of fostering mildness and
forbearance, it kindles in his breast only those passions which are
incommodious to himself and hurtful to others; it must be of necessity,
that the will of the greater number shall determine them to evil; shall
render them unworthy, make them baneful to society. Many authors have
acknowledged the importance of a good education, that youth was the
season to feed the human heart with wholesome diet; but they have not
felt, that a good education is incompatible, nay, impossible, with the
superstition of man, since this commences with giving his mind a false
bias: that it is equally inconsistent with arbitrary government, because
this always dreads lest he should become enlightened, and is ever
sedulous to render him servile, mean, contemptible, and cringing; that
it is incongruous with laws that are not founded in equity, that are
frequently bottomed on injustice; that it cannot obtain with those
received customs that are opposed to good sense; that it cannot exist
whilst public opinion is unfavourable to virtue; above all, that it is
absurd to expect it from incapable instructors, from masters with weak