The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-05-09
SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSEN"E"
MAY NUMBER.

r. puce. a gentleman WELL
=, w Ill.,. ,,hl;c asa profound thinker, and
man of extensive and suos'a"''A' 49,
,,an,. This lecture is chiefly rema'Aao'e '''
n,;s;nr a great deal OF strong common
'o :; comparatively small space, having
condensed, apparently, with great labor
". certainly, with very uncommon degree
assuccess. II is full OF suggestion, and would
o.s,Iv form a basis for an extent OF com,
-, ol,ocerher Inconsistent with the limits O.
this paper.
The famous postulate of Lord Bacon,
knowledge is power" lies at the bottom oil
this discourse, and the lecturer has applied It's
,escb;pps TO the case under consideration with
great skill. The tory Allison, in his continue
,ion of his history, has some very characters
lie remarks upon this maxim. the truth OF
which he does not affect TO deny, while he en-
deayors 10 weaken its effects, by showing, that
though knowledge may be power, it by no
means follows that il is either virtue or happI
ness. Such an argument from man who has
written SO much, and in such canting strain
about the christian religion, seems singular
enough, especially when we recollect that the
bible expressly tells us, that man was made al
fer Gods own image, and that the assIduous
cultivation of those faculties which most re.
semble the attributes of his maker, must, as
necessary consequence, be one OF his prIpcIpal
duties. When we reflect, however, that his
histories were written TO sustain theory, and
that that theory regarded absolutsm as OF all
other forms of government that which was best
adapted TO promote the happiness of our race,
our astonishment ceases at once. There can
be no foe to despotism so terrible as know
ledge, and so fully aware is despotlsm OF this
truth, that in all ages, it has been its study TO
suppress it, so far as brute force could be OF
any avail. Man-short.sighted,f feeble man
imperfect of understanding, and full of error
may believe that there is no God. But the
devil, whose knowledge is greater, cannot en-
terrain such belief. The peasant, in his cot
tage, the serf, at his daily labor, the squaid
workmen of the European manufactures, may
despise knowledge, and undervalue the power
of superior intelligence. But the tyrant, on
his throne, knows them but too well, and were
it possible, he would keep them in his own
hands. He knows that without them he can,
not rule, and he feels that the day when they
become common 10 all his subjects lis the last
day OF his dominion Yet knowledge is always
stealing from the few to the multitude, even in
the most despotic governments. Even in Rus
STA, the people become, every day, more and
more enlightened, and the Gear has endeavored
to extract even from this wholesome plant, a
deadly and soul-destroying poison. The posi-
tive sciences are taught in the schools which
he has established for the benefit of his peo-
pie; but in those schools all the books are Of
such a character as to teach the belief that alb.
ject obedience to the Gar, as the head of reli.
gion on earth, is the first duty of man, the
worship of his Creator being but secondary in
importance. Such is the homage which des.
potism pays to knowledge.
If knowledge be SO necessary to the mon
arch, it follows, as a consequence, that it must
be equally necessary to the people, in single
republic, for in a republic the absolute sover
eighty lies with its people-in republic con-
sisting of number of sovereign States, like
this, with the people of those States. In either
case the necessity is equally apparent and in
both, popular education lies at the root of all
good government. Without it, the people
must continually be liable to err in the selec
tion of the servants to whom they wish to en-
trust the conduct of their affairs, and in the
judgment which they pass upon the manner in
which the duties of their stewardship have
been discharged. The more enlightened, then,
the people, the surer are they to obtain good
servants, and the less apt are those servants to
betray their confidence. From the want of
knowledge, in the people, we have seen the
most hopeful experiments, in all ages, fall
Without it, indeed, selfgovenment, SO far
from being blessing, is an incumbrance, of
which nation will not fail to rid itself on the
nrsf convenient opportunity. Liberty, in
France, from the want of education among the
masses, degenerated, on two great occs sions,
Intoan anarchy, which they found to be insup-
portable, and OF which they could only free
themselves by the assistance of an absolute
monarch. The South American experiments,
and those of Mexico, in the direction Of free
government, have proved wretched failures, for
the same reason. And for this same reason,
At is the height of folly to thrust liberty upon
nose who are not prepared, by previous edu-
eation' to appreciate its blessings. Nations
cannot be made freemen by paper constitu.
uOnS' any more than by guns and bayonets.-
"hen II was proposed, in Congress, to recog.
aise 'he independence of the South American
S.a'es' John Randolph said he would as soon
uiin. OF building a seventy.four ou, of pine
sapings' as of making freemen of Spanish
Americans-and he was right. The want o
knowledge among the masses rendered pei
iectly nugatory the bloody struggle thrc ugl
which they passed to independence of tn
spanish yoke, and consigned them to the tende
mereies Of popular despotism, compared I
which the crueltes and exactions of Ferdinan
VII were but silently and compassion" If W.
have succeeded better than either The Franz
or the Hispano-Americans, our success mo
De ascribed to the infinitely greater intelI;
genee OF our people, and the greater difrns;o