Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness, and faction/Section 26

 

SECT.⁠XXVI.

 

Of the chief and essential Remedy.

 

ALL these may be regarded as temporary and concomitant Supports of Freedom. But the chief and essential Remedy to Licentiousness and Faction, the fundamental Means of the lasting and secure Establishment of civil Liberty, can only "lie in a general and prescribed Improvement of the Laws of Education."

We have seen above, that upright Manners and Principles are the only Basis of true Liberty; that the infant Mind, if left to its own untutored Dictates, inevitably wanders into such Follies and Vices, as tend to the Destruction of itself and others. We have seen, that the early and continued Culture of the Heart can alone produce such upright Manners and Principles, as are necessary to check and subdue the selfish Passions of the Soul; and that Liberty can only arise from a general Subordination of These, to the public Welfare. We have seen these Truths confirmed, by an Appeal to the State of three famed Republics, which by Turns arose and fell, on the very Principles here delivered. We have seen the Defects, as well as Excellencies, of our own public Constitution, both civil and religious: That its Form is excellent and unrivaled; but that the practical Application of this unrivaled Excellence is attended with Defects incurable: That it hath all along been inevitably counterworked by Manners and Principles discordant with its Genius, and discordant with each other: That for Want of a prescribed Code of Education, to which all the Members of the Community should legally submit, the Manners and Principles on which alone the State can rest, are ineffectually instilled, are vague, fluctuating, and self-contradictory.

Nothing, then, is more evident, than that some Reform in this great Point, is necessary, for the Security of public Freedom. Till this be effected, in Spite of all temporary Remedies, Licentiousness and Faction, tho' checked for a Time, will ever be gathering new Strength, and returning to the Charge with redoubled Fury.

This Reform, to some, may appear easy to effect: By others it will be derided, as wholly impracticable. Perhaps the Truth may lie between these two Opinions: To throw the Manners and Principles of a Nation into any new Channel, is certainly a Work of no small Difficulty.—On the other Hand, we seem to have many Materials lying round us, ready to be converted into the Means of this great Work. A pure and rational Religion; a generous System of Policy, founded on that Religion; Manners, tho' apparently degenerating, yet by no Means generally profligate; much true Religion, Integrity, and Honour among the middle Ranks; many Instances of domestic Worth among the higher; and in Spite of the Temptations that surround the Great, true Piety, and the moral Virtues adorning the most exalted Station.

Therefore, without dreaming of the perfect Republic of Plato;—and fairly acknowledging the incurable Defect of our political State, in not having a correspondent and adequate Code of Education inwrought into its first Essence;—we may yet hope, that in a secondary and inferior Degree, something of this Kind may be still inlaid: It cannot have that perfect Efficacy, as if it had been originally of the Piece: Yet, if well conducted, it may strengthen the weak Parts; and alleviate Defects, though not compleatly remove them.

Among what Ranks, in the Writer's Opinion, these Defects in Education chiefly lie, may be sufficiently collected from some of the preceding Sections. But as to the most effectual Methods of relieving these Defects, he pretends not at present to attempt so great a Subject.

This, however, he is well perswaded of; that till something of the Kind be attempted and performed; all the laboured Harangues that can be given from the Bench, the Pulpit, or the Press, will be of little Avail: They may tend occasionally to obviate some of the Evils of Licentiousness; but never can radically cure them.