Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Or The Causes Of The Decay Of Our National Morality, And On Some Modern Schemes For Its Renovation.
of being a direct incentive to spoliation , it has so irresistible a tendency to produce selfishness , that it frequently blunts the social affections , and renders character , appearance , and comfort , matters of no regard . But poverty has existed before our time , in its most appalling form ; famine and desolation long overspread the land , during the wars of York and Lancaster ; yet , with a bound as it were , all the social and refined emotions
sprung up , and flourished in the time of the Tudors . With all our distress , direct starvation is never the lot of our English population ; yet to this strait many foreigners have been reduced , without any material change thereby occurring in the character of their nation ; moreover , it is not to the very lowest of the populace , that all vicious courses are confined . Drinking , the parent of the other vices , is equally practised by
the well fed and well paid mechanic , and the small shopkeeper , as by the half fed Irishman . There is , and has been , ample employment for male domestic servants ; yet , how many thousand intelligent lads prefer picking pockets , and other similar pursuits , to menial service . Poverty then is one material cause of demoralization—but it is only
one . The cause we are seeking is evident enough in the eyes of the Clergy ; according to them , it is the spread of " Modern Infidelity . " Education is incomplete , because every thing is taught , but the " one thing needful . " Mechanics , chemistry , history , philosophy , —for the acquisition of these , there are facilities enough ; but religious instruction is wanted ; and without such instruction , the knowledge of sciences is not only useless , but , inasmuch as they are often the vehicles for infidel opinions , destructive to morals .
Of the accuracy of all this , we have doubts ; but if it be true , the clergy have pronounced a sentence savouring of self-condemnation . When it is remembered that they have all ithe education of our youth in their hands ; they have all appliances and means to boot for influencing the minds of our adult population ; they have the prejudice of our old people enlisted on their side ; furthermore , all masters of
colleges or of public schools are of their order ; not even a tailor or draper will send his son for instruction elsewhere than to a " Classical Academy , " where the Rev . presides . The discipline of charity schools is their own ; and there the Bible forms invariably and exclusively the basis of instruction . Then , what wealth and honour to stimulate talent and eloquence abound in our church , —what means
for the building , repair , and the decoration of noble temples ! Lastly , how firmly rooted in the minds of all aged people is the veneration for every person and thing connected with the protestant establishment ! Yet , ivith all these advantages , do our clergy confess that they are unable to make stand against the pernicious doctrines , which their predecessors so successfully combated , even when their antagonists
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Or The Causes Of The Decay Of Our National Morality, And On Some Modern Schemes For Its Renovation.
of being a direct incentive to spoliation , it has so irresistible a tendency to produce selfishness , that it frequently blunts the social affections , and renders character , appearance , and comfort , matters of no regard . But poverty has existed before our time , in its most appalling form ; famine and desolation long overspread the land , during the wars of York and Lancaster ; yet , with a bound as it were , all the social and refined emotions
sprung up , and flourished in the time of the Tudors . With all our distress , direct starvation is never the lot of our English population ; yet to this strait many foreigners have been reduced , without any material change thereby occurring in the character of their nation ; moreover , it is not to the very lowest of the populace , that all vicious courses are confined . Drinking , the parent of the other vices , is equally practised by
the well fed and well paid mechanic , and the small shopkeeper , as by the half fed Irishman . There is , and has been , ample employment for male domestic servants ; yet , how many thousand intelligent lads prefer picking pockets , and other similar pursuits , to menial service . Poverty then is one material cause of demoralization—but it is only
one . The cause we are seeking is evident enough in the eyes of the Clergy ; according to them , it is the spread of " Modern Infidelity . " Education is incomplete , because every thing is taught , but the " one thing needful . " Mechanics , chemistry , history , philosophy , —for the acquisition of these , there are facilities enough ; but religious instruction is wanted ; and without such instruction , the knowledge of sciences is not only useless , but , inasmuch as they are often the vehicles for infidel opinions , destructive to morals .
Of the accuracy of all this , we have doubts ; but if it be true , the clergy have pronounced a sentence savouring of self-condemnation . When it is remembered that they have all ithe education of our youth in their hands ; they have all appliances and means to boot for influencing the minds of our adult population ; they have the prejudice of our old people enlisted on their side ; furthermore , all masters of
colleges or of public schools are of their order ; not even a tailor or draper will send his son for instruction elsewhere than to a " Classical Academy , " where the Rev . presides . The discipline of charity schools is their own ; and there the Bible forms invariably and exclusively the basis of instruction . Then , what wealth and honour to stimulate talent and eloquence abound in our church , —what means
for the building , repair , and the decoration of noble temples ! Lastly , how firmly rooted in the minds of all aged people is the veneration for every person and thing connected with the protestant establishment ! Yet , ivith all these advantages , do our clergy confess that they are unable to make stand against the pernicious doctrines , which their predecessors so successfully combated , even when their antagonists