"of a mad poet, that there is a pleasure in being "mad, which none but madmen know. Ignorance,

or the want of knowledge and literature, the appointed lot of all born to poverty, and the "drudgeries of life, is the only opiate capable of in"fufing that infenfibility which can enable them to "endure the miseries of the one and the fatigues of "the other. It is a cordial administered by the gra"cious hand of Providence; of which they ought "never to be deprived by an ill-judged and impro

per education. It is the bafis of all fubordination, "the fupport of society, and the privilege of indi"viduals and I have ever thought it a most re"markable inftance of the divine wifdom, that "whereas in all animals, whose individuals rife little "above the reft of their fpecies, knowledge is in"ftinctive; in man, whofe individuals are fo widely "different, it is acquired by education; by which

means the prince and the labourer, the philosopher "and the peasant, are in fome measure fitted for their respective fituations."

Much of these positions is perhaps true, and the whole paragraph might well pass without cenfure, were not objections neceffary to the establishment of knowledge. Poverty is very gently paraphrafed by want of riches. In that fense almost every man may in his own opinion be poor. But there is another poverty, which is want of competence, of all that can soften the miseries of life, of all that can diverfify attention, or delight imagination. There is yet another poverty, which is want of neceffaries, a fpecies of poverty which no care of the publick, no

charity

charity of particulars, can preserve many from feeling openly, and many fecretly.

That hope and fear are infeparably or very frequently connected with poverty, and riches, my furveys of life have not informed me. The milder degrees of poverty are sometimes fupported by hope, but the more fevere often fink down in motionless defpondence. Life must be seen before it can be known. This author and Pope perhaps never faw the miseries which they imagine thus eafy to be borne. The poor indeed are infenfible of many little vexations which fometimes embitter the poffeffions and pollute the enjoyments of the rich. They are not pained by cafual incivility, or mortified by the mutilation of a compliment; but this happiness is like that of a malefactor, who ceafes to feel the cords that bind him when the pincers are tearing his flesh.

That want of tafte for one enjoyment is fupplied by the pleasures of fome other, may be fairly allowed. But the compenfations of fickness I have never found near to equivalence, and the transports of recovery only prove the intenseness of the pain.

With folly no man is willing to confefs himself very intimately acquainted, and therefore its pains and pleasures are kept fecret. But what the author fays of its happiness seems applicable only to fatuity, or grofs dulnefs; for that inferiority of understanding which makes one man without any other reafon the flave, or tool, or property of another, which makes. bim fometimes ufelefs, and fometimes ridiculous, is often felt with very quick fenfibility. On the hap piness of madmen, as the cafe is not very frequent, VOL. VIII.

D

it

it is not neceffary to raise a difquifition, but I cannot forbear to obferve, that I never yet knew diforders of mind increase felicity: every madman is either arrogant and irafcible, or gloomy and fufpicious, or poffeffed by fome paffion or notion deftructive to his quiet. He has always discontent in his look, and malignity in his bofom. And, if he had the power of choice, he would foon repent who fhould refign his reason to fecure his peace.

Concerning the portion of ignorance neceffary to make the condition of the lower claffes of mankind fafe to the publick and tolerable to themfelves, both morals and policy exact a nicer enquiry than will be very foon or very eafily made. There is undoubtedly a degree of knowledge which will direct a man to refer all to Providence, and to acquiefce in the condition with which omnifcient Goodness has determined to allot him; to confider this world as a phantom that must foon glide from before his and the diftreffes and vexations that encompass him, as duft fcattered in his path, as a blaft that chills him for a moment, and paffes off for ever.

eyes,

Such wisdom, arifing from the comparison of a part with the whole of our exiftence, thofe that want it most cannot poffibly obtain from philofophy; nor unless the method of education, and the general tenor of life are changed, will very eafily receive it from religion. The bulk of mankind is not likely to be very wife or very good: and I know not whether there are not many states of life, in which all knowledge, less than the highest wisdom, will produce discontent and danger. I believe it may be fometimes

found,

found, that a little learning is to a poor man a dangerous thing. But fuch is the condition of humanity, that we eafily fee, or quickly feel the wrong, but cannot always diftinguish the right. Whatever knowledge is fuperfluous, in irremediable poverty, is hurtful, but the difficulty is to determine when poverty is irremediable, and at what point fuperfluity begins. Grofs ignorance every man has found equally dangerous with perverted knowledge. Men left wholly to their appetites and their inftincts, with little fenfe of moral or religious obligation, and with very faint diftinctions of right and wrong, can never be safely employed, or confidently trufted: they can be honeft only by obstinacy, and diligent only by compulfion or caprice. Some instruction, therefore, is neceffary, and much perhaps may be dangerous.

Though it should be granted that those who are born to poverty and drudgery fhould not be deprived by an improper education of the opiate of ignorance; even this conceffion will not be of much use to direct our practice, unless it be determined who are those that are born to poverty. To entail irreversible poverty upon generation after generation, only because the ancestor happened to be poor, is in itself cruel, if not unjuft, and is wholly contrary to the maxims of a commercial nation, which always fuppofe and promote a rotation of property, and offer every individual a chance of mending his condition by his diligence. Those who communicate literature to the fon of a poor man, confider him as one not born to poverty, but to the neceffity of deriving a better fortune from himfelf. In this attempt, as

in others, many fail, and many fucceed. Thofe that fail will feel their misery more acutely; but fince poverty is now confeffed to be fuch a calamity as cannot be borne without the opiate of infenfibility, I hope the happiness of those whom education enables to escape from it, may turn the balance against that exacerbation which the others fuffer.

I am always afraid of determining on the fide of envy or cruelty. The privileges of education may fometimes be improperly bestowed, but I fhall always fear to with-hold them left 1 fhould be yielding to the fuggeftions of pride, while I perfuade myself that I am following the maxims of policy; and under the appearance of falutary reftraints, fhould be indulging the luft of dominion, and that malevolence which delights in feeing others depreffed.

Pope's doctrine is at last exhibited in a compa rifon, which, like other proofs of the fame kind, is better adapted to delight the fancy than convince the reafon.

"Thus the universe resembles a large and well-re

gulated family, in which all the officers and fervants, "and even the domeftick animals, are fubfervient to "each other in a proper fubordination: each enjoys "the privileges and perquifites peculiar to his place,

and at the fame time contributes by that just sub"ordination to the magnificence and happiness of "the whole."

The magnificence of a house is of use or pleasure always to the mafter, and fometimes to the domefticks. But the magnificence of the univerfe adds

nothing