NINETEENTH CENTURY.
In times ere yet the Press had blest mankind,
Perish'd unknown the noble works of mind;
O'er trackless wastes, where Science lent no ray,
And cheerless climes was genius doomed to stray.
His usefulness as bounded as his fame,
His body death— oblivion seized his name;
The eternal essence to its source return'd,
Unfelt its blessings, and its loss unmourn'd.
How changed the auspices of those who wait
In these our days at Fame's celestial gate;
'Tis merit leads them through the sacred bound,
Where flowers Elysian deck the holy ground;
Fired with the theme, my muse would now combine
Some names immortal in her mortal line.—M'Creery.
When knowledge, instead of being bound up in books, and kept in libraries and retirement, is obtruded on the public in distinct sheets; when it is canvassed in every assembly, and exposed on every table, we cannot forbear reflecting upon that passage in the Proverbs: "Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets; she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the opening of the gates. In the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning? and fools hate knowledge?" How well do these words apply to many of the present day, when the mechanic may equal in science, however inferior in genius, the friar, whom his cotemporaries feared as a magician. No man can complain in this country that the gates of knowledge are closed against him, and it is indeed his own fault if he will not enter the temple and enjoy the intellectual repast which is so amply and so cheaply provided. Books are multiplied on every hand and upon every subject; be his pursuits what they may, the poor man, with carefulness, can afford to obtain information. The press has gradually, but safely, burst the bands of intolerance and injustice asunder; and though bigotry will ever have her votaries, prejudice her slaves, and faction her partizans, the light of knowledge emitted from the press has driven the demons of injustice down the sky:—
"Mind, mind alone,
Is light, and hope, and life, and power !
Earth's deepest night, from this bless'd hour,
The night of minds is gone !
'The Press !' all lands shall sing;
The Press, the Press we bring,
All lands to bless."
The truth has at length been discovered, that the more widely knowledge is spread, the more will they be prized whose happy lot it is to extend its bounds by discovering new truth, to multiply its uses by inventing new modes of applying it in practice; and that real knowledge never promoted either turbulence or unbelief; but its progress is the forerunner of liberally and enlightened toleration. An intelligent class can never be, as a class, vicious; never, as a class, indolent; and it may be asked. What is it that distinguishes human society from a brutish herd, but the flourishing of the arts and sciences,—the free exercise or reason? "Some have objected," says Robert Hall, "to the instruction of the lower classes, from an apprehension that it would lift them above their sphere, make them dissatisfied with their station in life, and by impairing the habit of subordination, endanger the tranquillity of the state; an objection devoid, surely, of all force and validity. It is not easy to conceive in what manner instructing men in their duties can prompt them to neglect those duties; or how that enlargement of reason, which enables them to comprehend the true ground of authority, and the obligation to obedience, should indispose them to obey. The admirable mechanism of society, together with that subordination of ranks which is essential to its subsistence, is surely not an elaborate imposture, which the exercise of reason will detect and expose. This objection implies a reflection on the social order, equally impolitic, invidious,and unjust. Nothing, in reality, renders legitimate governments so insecure as extreme ignorance of the people. It is this which yields them an easy prey to seduction, makes them the victims of prejudice and false alarms, and so ferocious withal, that their interference in the time of public commotion is more to be dreaded than the eruption of a volcano."
The powers of the press are so universally recognized, that the time cannot be far distant when it will break down all the obstacles that are yet opposed to it upon the continent of Europe. It is by the press alone that the first successful assault upon intolerant governments will be made. How far it has already succeeded we will not say; but before man can enjoy the blessings of equitable laws he must first be
