The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-13 00:00:00

But when it is said or sung that " a little learning
is a dangerous thing," we can see no harm in add-
ing, that there is another thing somewhat more
dangerous—great ignorance ; not to mention that
the one cures itself, while the other perpetuates
itself—aye, and spreads andrpropagates itself too;
for it is almost as true in point of fact that they
who have learned a little have their half-satisfied
curiosity to obtain more full gratification, as
it is false in point of fact that sobriety results
from excess of drinking. We object, there-
fore, to this hackneyed maxim, not because
it is hackneyed, but because it is unfounded ;
as illogical when delivered in plain prose as inappo-
site when clothed in humorous verse—the falsehood
of the position in the one case being equal to tha:,
of the metaphor in the other. " Better half a loaf
than no bread" is the old English saying. " All
wrong," say the objectors, "A little food is a dan-
gerous thing ; rather starve than not have your fill."
Better be purblind than stone blind," is the French
saying. " No," cry the objectors, "if you can't see
quite clearly, what use is there seeing at all ?"
"In the country of the blind," says the proverb,
" the one-eyed man is king." Our objectors be-
longing to the people there would dethrone the
monarch by putting out his eye. But they had
better crush their blind brethren to restore their
_sight, and then his reign would cease at once with-
out any act of violence, any coup d'etat. Here is
a well of precious water, and we have got a little
of it in a tankard. " What signifies," say the ob-
jectors, " such a paltry supply ? It would not wet
the lips of half-a-dozen of the hundreds who are
athirst." True, but it enables us to wet the sucker
of the pump, instead of following their advice to
leave it dry; and, having the handle, we use it to
empty the well and satisfy all. A person gains
some information, it may be only a little. Say the
objectors "he is superficial." Would he be more
profound if he knew nothing ? The twilight is
unsafe for his steps. Would he be more secure
from slipping in the dark ? But he may be self-
sufficient, may think he knows much, and look
down upon others as knowing little. Is this very
likely to happen if the knowledge he has acquired
is within reach of all and by the greater number
possessed ? The distinction is the ground of the
supposed influence upon his demeanur towards
others ; when that difference no longer exists the
risk of his manners being spoiled is at an end. The
most trifling instruction which can be given is sure
to teach the vast majority of those who receive it
the lesson of their own deficiency, and -to inspire
the wish for further knowlege. But suppose, as
must happen in many cases, that no great pro-
gress shall be afterwards made, at least it is certain
that the proportion is most inconsiderable of
those who are not the better for what they have
learned, and of those who are the worse for it the
number cannot really be said to have any existence
at all. It must be always kept in mind that there
are two descriptions of persons to whom popular
literature is addressed, and who may in different
ways profit by it—those who from their natural ca-
pacity and natural inclination, as well as from pos-
sessing a certain leisure, can so far improve them-
selves as to become really accomplished in the
branches of knowledge which they study, and the
great bulk of the community who can never go be-
yond giving a very moderate attention to books, can
m fact read but very little. Let us first consider
the former class, which, though small compared with
the mass, is yet again divided into two, those of ordi-
nary talents, but anxious to learn, and those whose
thirst for knowledge is not only very great but ac-
companied with capacity to excel, possibly even with
original genius. Both classes benefit incalculably by
the helps which popular literature extends to them.
Their love of knowledge is both excited and gratified,
and let us observe their progress. The different
works which are prepared encourage and enable
them to proceed. At first they were attracted by
some tale or anecdote, or biographical account.
Soon after they find in the same paper a popular
exposition of a subject in science or literature. This
inclines them to go further, and the treatises fur-
nished by the Useful Knowledge Society are within
their reach on different subjects, suiting the line
they desire to follow, and in various kinds in point
of difficulty, and thus adapted to the progress they
may have made from Mr. Marcet's plain and ele-
mentary explanations up to the treatises of learned
professors like those of the Astronomer Royal, Sir
D. Brewster, and Professor de Morgan. So great
and varied are the helps afforded to the students in
humble life that it has been said there can be no
such thing now as a self-taught person. Let us
only reflect how mighty would have been the com-
fort to such students in former times could they
have enjoyed such facilities. What would Frank-
lin have given for them, who, living on a
vegetable diet on purpose to save a few pence
from his day's wages for the purchase of books,
was fain to learn a little geometry from a treatise
on navigation he had been happy enough to pick
up at a bookstall, something of arithmeticbyhaving
fallen upon a copy of Cocker, and from an odd vo-
lume of the Spectator gained a notion of the style
he afterwards so powerfully used ? What would
Simpson have given for access to books, who could
only get, from the accident of a pedlar passing the
place where he was kept by his father working at,
his trade of a weaver, the copy of Cocker contain-
ing a little algebra, and even when grown up could
only, by borepwing Stone's translation of L'Hopital
from a Mend, obtain an insight into the science of
infinitesimals, on which two years after he published
an admirable work, while continuing to divide his
time between his toil as a weaver and as a teacher?
Brindley, the great engineer, was through life an
uneducated man ; Rannequin is said never to have
learnt the alphabet; andboth executed great works,
but with difficulties and delays which reading would
have spared them. Harrison, too, though he had
received an ordinary education, yet only while
working in his trade of a carpenter became ac-
quainted with science
i by some manuscript lectures
of Sanderson falling n s way; and so hard did he
find it to obtain adequate knowledge on the sub-
jects connected with his mechanical pursuits, that
40 years were spent in perfecting his admirable im-
provements on the construction of timekeepers and
bringing them into use. It would be going too far
to hold that Franklin's genius, both in physical and
political science, could have done greater things
had his original difficulties in self-education been
removed ; but we may safely affirm that both
Brindley, Rannequin, and Harrison would have
effected far more with the helps which their succes-
sors have had ; and of Simpson no doubt can be en-
tertained that, even amid the distractions of his
trade, his short life would have been illustrated by
far greater steps in mathematical science. For it
is an entire mistake to suppose, with some of his
biographers, that his genius was not original and
fitted to make great advances in his favourite
study. The late proceedings respecting Sir I. New-
ton's monument have led to ascertaining that
Simpson had made the same approaches towards
the modern improvement of the calculus which its
illustrious inventor himself had done, but kept con-
cealed ; and no doubt can be entertained that the
germ of the great discovery of Lagrange and La
Place on the stability of the solar system is to be
found in the last and most remarkable work of
Simpson. It is truly delightful to contemplate such
feats of genius, so scantily aided, in a hard-working
mechanic, patronised by none. But the same gra-
tification, though certainly in a very inferior de-
gree, arises from seeing the effects of those helps
which are now afforded to the humbler classes.
Instead of resorting to instances of progress in the
physical and abstract sciences, let us only observe
how the study of moral philosophy, in, its most
practical branches, has borne good fruits. There
lies before me a short treatise by a working man,
popularly written, because it is addressed to his
fellow-workmen in the same line of employment,
with the view of removing the prevalent, but dan-
gerous delusions on the subject of capital and wages,
by explaining the true principles of economical
science on this head. No student of that philosophy
at either of the English---.nay, at any of the Scotch
Universities, where it is more studied—could have
produced a better reasoned tract, or one showing
more entire acquaintance with the principles. It
is the work of a common shoemaker in the midland
counties, whose attention was turned to the discus.
sion of the subject by the injuries which the strikes
and combinations of his brother workmen were
doing to their own interests. Nor is there any fear
that his success as an author in expounding these
principles will make him neglect another principle
as essential to the children of industry as profiting
by the means of instruction, that their first duty, as
it is their highest interest, is the steady pursuit of
their calling, and that their reading or writing,
whether for relaxation or improvement, must be
confined to the hours which that calling leaves
vacant, and makes, as it were, their own. This
good young man will not go so far beyond his
last as to become a professional author, for he may
know, and if he does not I will now tell him, what
was once said by a celebrated female wit in Paris,*
the mother of a far more celebrated person,
the illustrious D'Alembert, "Woe to him who
depends for his subsistence upon his pen !" By a
singular coincidence with the present application of
her remark, she adds to illustrate it :—"The shoe-
maker is secure of his wages ; the bookmaker is not
secure of anything." There may be some exaggera-
tion in this, but that it is substantially true appears
to be shown by the fact that the greater part of
authors who have no private fortune join some ordi-
nary profession to literature. It is unnecessary to
multiply examples of the beneficial effects of popular
literature in training up persons even of eminence in
the walks of science and of art. One may be men-
tioned of the latter description. Among the most