The Express.
London, England, 1850-06-06 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, JUNE 6.

MR. HENRY DRUMMOND made himself, last niih•,
the exponent of a philosophy that is as old as the bills
—for it was acted upon in ancient Egypt and in
India—and which has been resuscitated for the use
of the present day. This is the doctrine, that learn-
ing is very dangerous, and highly unf• fbr the com-
monalty—that science tends to makepeople doubt, and
render them inquisitive and troublesome. Moreover,
the same philosophy holds " that knowledge ;a not
happiness," because "it increases the sense of suff 4r-
ing," and therefote, " ignorance being bliss, 'tie folly
to be wise."

Now, we will frankly, and at once admit, that there
was at least some canning and consistency in this
philosophy of ignorantism, when the gold old monks
preached it: for, knowing nothing themselves, it
was tut fair that they should endeavour to keep
thrive they preyed upm, in the same b!essed state
of ignorance. Moreover, they attempted what
was possible : for the church and the
higher classes having a great horror of
cultivating intellect, even for themselves, there

was no aperture, no way, by which knowledge
could descend upon the people. But, in the present
day, when the atmosphere is as replete wi.h know-
ledge as with light •, when ideas are sown, like
those seeds to which nature has given gossamer
wings, wide through the air; when the press, when
the mouth are for ever scattering new and strange
ideas; and when the veriest hind in the remotest of
d•s•ricts cannot but hear thinvs and queries that ren-
der his interests, and through them his intellect, in-
quisitive—in such an age as this to hope to consign
such a people as the English to the happiness of
ignorance, is one of those preposterous laves that
only germ in the brain of a country squire.
Cultivate, says Friar DRUMMOND, tne moral fa-til-
ties, independently of the intellectual ones. In other
words, bring men as nearly as possible to the state of
the beast, with instinct and with habit for his guide,
but no reasoning, no knowledge, no discernment. Let
the relations of the sizes be according to rule; let the
labourer submit to his task, like the ox, and ask
no questions. Let rest be allowed them on a Sun-
day. Let him have no judgment, no choice, no
information or sharp-.ess of intellect. Let man
not be a reasoning animal, but a drudging one. This
is what Mr. HENRY DRUMMOND proposes; it is
simply to reduce man to the level of the beasts, that
perish.
There is no UV, whatever, in arguing whether this
be expedient or useful ; because, in fact, it is impos-
sible—impossible at least in England. The very
foundation, the sulistrat•ste of an Englishman's ideas,
viz , his religion, necessitates and demands
intellect and its exercise. The Englishman from his
cradle is bidden to inquire; his very Bible opens to
him the gates of knowledge, makes him inquisi-
tive and argumentative. He cannot be a Christian
but by the development of his intellectual as well as
his moral powers. If the Reformstion effected any
one gr, at thing it was this, that it subs ituted an in-
tellectual religion for an imaginative one.
W date say that conservatives, like Mr. DRUM-
MOND, and high churchmen, deem that we liberals
recommend secular education from the hope that it
will advance free and anti-religious ideas. Now,
for ourselves, we declare that we know of no sneer
way of producing a free-thinking age, than to teach
people to read, and, at the same time, give them an
exclusively religious education : for, as we have
observed before, the world is and wall be shaken to-'
gether, and each man be associated with his fellows in
• much higher and closer degree than ever was the
case in p-st times. What with locomotioe, inter-
change, association, a pipular preset, p3pular oratory,
no man can henceforth eec pe hearing, and being
touched by, the ideas, the opinions, and the feelings
that float throughout the land. A century ago, Et g-
Itshmen were hermits, each in his cell, oompared with
their aggregate and sicial nature at present. In fifty
years England will be one vast foram, with space and
distances so annihilated, that • thought or a truth will
run from one extremity of the land to theother, and or
heard by every ear. flateenien may keep up stamp-
duties on loam's' and decree that there shall be none
but clerical teaching; but the progress of society
laughs at such puny impedimenta And whatever
war parliament may think tit to wage alpinist t
electric intercommunication of thoug it, assuredly the
electric sciet.oe will neat it.

thislt that wi
is
in vision
RNll statesuncßhemamoNuand his
of sociletyu
fol-
lowers would apply the old rules and maxims of
the Monkish wisdom of the middle ages, that they
would make people ignorant, lest they should be
froward, and emasculate man of his intellect, in
order, forsooth, that he might ran quieter in
politiiml harness. A century and a half ago an Eng-
lish moralist wrote that a "little learning was a
dangerous thing,' but Mr. DatatutEsu would have
nosch learning more so. Ile mistrusts the human
intellect, and fears that its cultivation must
n, ccsairtly lead to a harvest of poison I just as he
tem% that the pursuits of science and the study of
wattle might lead to disproval or to doubts of the
• xist.,nos of the deity. We do trust that Englishmen
have too much confidence in their own intellects and
in the prevalence of truth, abive all of divine
1 troth, to entertain such patiilliniituous, such puerile,
and, indeed, such protege. misgivings. Rees" we