 Chapter 1 Part E of the Wealth of Nations, Book 5. Article 2 of the Expense of the Institution for the Education of Youth. The institutions for the education of the youth may, in the same manner, furnish a revenue sufficient for defraying their own expense. The fee or honorary, which the scholar pays to the master, naturally constitutes a revenue of this kind. Even where the reward of the master does not arise altogether from this natural revenue, it still is not necessary that it should be derived from that general revenue of the society, of which the collection and application are, in most countries, assigned to the executive power. Through the greater part of Europe, accordingly, the endowment of schools and colleges makes either no charge upon that general revenue, or but a very small one. It everywhere arises chiefly from some local or provincial revenue, from the rent of some landed estate, or from the interest of some sum of money, allotted and put under the management of trustees for this particular purpose, sometimes by the sovereign himself and sometimes by some private donor. Have those public endowments contributed in general to promote the end of their institution? Have they contributed to encourage the diligence and to improve the abilities of the teachers? Have they directed the course of education towards objects more useful, both to the individual and to the public, than those to which it would naturally have gone of its own accord? It should not seem very difficult to give at least a probable answer to each of those questions. In every profession, the exertion of the greater part of those who exercise it is always in proportion to the necessity they are under of making that exertion. This necessity is greatest with those to whom the emoluments of their profession are the only source from which they expect their fortune, or even their ordinary revenue and subsistence. In order to acquire this fortune, or even to get this subsistence, they must, in the course of a year, execute a certain quantity of work of a known value. And where the competition is free, the rivalship of competitors, who are all endeavoring to jostle one another out of employment, obliges every man to endeavor to execute his work with a certain degree of exactness. The greatness of the objects which are to be acquired by success in some particular professions may, no doubt, sometimes animate the exertions of a few men of extraordinary spirit and ambition. Great objects, however, are evidently not necessary in order to occasion the greatest exertions. Exertionship and emulation render excellency, even in mean professions, an object of ambition and frequently occasion the very greatest exertions. Great objects on the contrary, alone and unsupported by the necessity of application, have seldom been sufficient to occasion any considerable exertion. In England, success in the profession of the law leads to some very great objects of ambition, and yet how few men, born to easy fortunes, have ever in this country been imminent in that profession. The endowments of schools and colleges have necessarily diminished, more or less, the necessity of application in the teachers. Their subsistence, so far as it arises from their salaries, is evidently derived from a fund, altogether independent of their success and reputation in their particular professions. In some universities, the salary makes but a part, and frequently but a small part, of the emoluments of the teacher, of which the greater part arises from the honoraries or fees of his pupils. The necessity of application, though always more or less diminished, is not, in this case, entirely taken away. Reputation in his profession is still of some importance to him, and he still has some dependency upon the affection, gratitude, and favorable report of those who have attended upon his instructions, and these favorable sentiments he is likely to gain in no way so well as by deserving them, that is, by the abilities and diligence with which he discharges every part of his duty. In other universities, the teacher is prohibited from receiving an honorary or fee from his pupils, and his salary constitutes the whole of the revenue which he derives from his office. His interest is, in this case, set as directly in opposition to his duty, as it is possible to set it. It is the interest of every man to live as much at his ease as he can, and if his emoluments are to be precisely the same, whether he does or does not perform some very laborious duty, it is certainly his interest, at least as interest is vulgarly understood, either to neglect it altogether, or if he is subject to some authority which will not suffer him to do so, to perform it in as careless and slovenly manner as that authority will permit. If he is naturally active and a lover of labor, it is his interest to employ that activity in any way from which he can derive some advantage, rather than in the performance of his duty, from which he can derive none. If the authority to which he is subject resides in the body corporate, the college or university, of which he himself is a member, and in which the greater part of the other members are, like himself, persons who either are or ought to be teachers, they are likely to make a common cause to be all very indulgent to one another, and every man to consent that his neighbor may neglect his duty, provided he himself is allowed to neglect his own. In the University of Oxford, the greater part of the public professors have, for these many years, given up altogether even the pretense of teaching. If the authority to which he is subject resides not so much in the body corporate of which he is a member, as in some other extraneous persons in the bishop of the diocese, for example, in the governor of the province, or perhaps in some minister of state, it is not indeed in this case very likely that he will be suffered to neglect his duty altogether. All that such superiors, however, can force him to do is to attend upon his pupils a certain number of hours, that is, to give a certain number of lectures in the week or in the year. What those lectures shall be must still depend upon the diligence of the teacher, and that diligence is likely to be proportioned to the motives which he has for exerting it. An extraneous jurisdiction of this kind, besides, is liable to be exercised both ignorantly and capriciously. In its nature it is arbitrary and discretionary, and the persons who exercise it, neither attending upon the lectures of the teacher themselves, nor perhaps understanding the sciences which it is his business to teach, are seldom capable of exercising it with judgment. From the insolence of office, too, they are frequently indifferent how they exercise it, and are very apt to censure or deprive him of his office wantonly and without any just cause. The person subject to such jurisdiction is necessarily degraded by it, and instead of being one of the most respectable, is rendered one of the meanest and most contemptible persons in the society. It is, by powerful protection only, that he can effectually guard himself against the bad usage to which he is at all times exposed. And this protection he is most likely to gain, not by ability or diligence in his profession, but by obsequiousness to the will of his superiors, and by being ready at all times to sacrifice to that will, the rights, the interest, and the honor of the body corporate of which he is a member. Whoever has attended for any considerable time to the administration of a French university must have had occasion to remark the effects which naturally result from an arbitrary and extraneous jurisdiction of this kind. Whatever forces a certain number of students to any college or university independent of the merit or reputation of the teachers tends more or less to diminish the necessity of that merit or reputation. The privileges of graduates in arts, in law, physics, and divinity, when they can be obtained only by residing a certain number of years in certain universities, necessarily force a certain number of students to such universities independent of the merit or reputation of the teachers. The privileges of graduates are a sort of statutes of apprenticeship which have contributed to the improvement of education just as the other statutes of apprenticeship have to that of arts and manufacturers. The charitable foundations of scholarships, exhibitions, bursaries, etc., necessarily attach a certain number of students to certain colleges independent altogether of the merit of those particular colleges. Were the students upon such charitable foundations left free to choose what college they liked best, such liberty might perhaps contribute to excite some emulation among different colleges. A regulation on the contrary which prohibited even the independent members of every particular college from leaving it and going to any other, without leave first asked and obtained of that which they meant to abandon, would tend very much to extinguish that emulation. If in each college the tutor or teacher who was to instruct each student in all arts and sciences should not be voluntarily chosen by the student but appointed by the head of the college, and if, in case of neglect, inability or bad usage, the student should not be allowed to change him for another, without leave first asked and obtained, such a regulation would not only tend very much to extinguish all emulation among the different tutors of the same college, but to diminish very much in all of them the necessity of diligence and of attention to their respective pupils. Such teachers, though very well paid by their students, might be as much disposed to neglect them as those who are not paid by them at all or who have no other recompense but their salary. If the teacher happens to be a man of sense, it must be an unpleasant thing to him to be conscious, while he is lecturing to his students, that he is either speaking or reading nonsense, or what is very little better than nonsense. It must, too, be unpleasant to him to observe that the greater part of his students desert his lectures, or perhaps attend upon them with plain enough marks of neglect, contempt, and derision. If he is obliged, therefore, to give a certain number of lectures, these motives alone, without any other interest, might dispose him to take some pains to give tolerably good ones. Several different expedients, however, may be fallen upon, which will effectually blunt the edge of all those incitements to diligence. The teacher, instead of explaining to his pupils himself the science in which he proposes to instruct them, may read some book upon it, and if this book is written in a foreign and dead language, by interpreting it to them into their own, or what would give him still less trouble by making them interpret it to him, and by now and then making an occasional remark upon it, he may flatter himself that he is giving a lecture. The slightest degree of knowledge and application will enable him to do this, without exposing himself to contempt or derision, by saying anything that is really foolish, absurd, or ridiculous. The discipline of the college at the same time may enable him to force all his pupils to the most regular attendance upon his sham lecture, and to maintain the most decent and respectful behavior during the whole time of the performance. The discipline of colleges and universities is in general contrived, not for the benefit of the students, but for the interest, or more properly speaking, for the ease of the masters. Its object is, in all cases, to maintain the authority of the master, and whether he neglects or performs his duty to oblige the students, in all cases, to behave to him as if he performed it with the greatest diligence and ability. It seems to presume perfect wisdom and virtue in the one order, and the greatest weakness and folly in the other. Where the masters, however, really perform their duty, there are no examples, I believe, that the greater part of the students ever neglect theirs. No discipline is ever requisite to force attendance upon lectures which are really worth the attending, as is well known wherever any such lectures are given. Force and restraint may, no doubt, be in some degree requisite in order to oblige children, or very young boys, to attend to those parts of education, which it is thought necessary for them to acquire during that early period of life. But after 12 or 13 years of age, provided the master does his duty, force or restraint can scarce ever be necessary to carry on any part of education. Such is the generosity of the greater part of young men, that so far from being disposed to neglect or despise the instructions of their master, provided he shows some serious intention of being of use to them, they are generally inclined to pardon a great deal of incorrectness in the performance of his duty, and sometimes even to conceal from the public a good deal of gross negligence. Those parts of education it is to be observed, for the teaching of which there are no public institutions, are generally the best taught. When a young man goes to a fencing or a dancing school, he does not indeed always learn to fence or to dance very well, but he seldom fails of learning to fence or to dance. The good effects of the writing school are not commonly so evident. The expense of a writing school is so great, that in most places it is a public institution. The three most essential parts of literary education, to read, write, and account, it still continues to be more common to acquire in private than in public schools, and it very seldom happens that anybody fails of acquiring them to the degree in which it is necessary to acquire them. In England, the public schools are much less corrupted than the universities. In the schools, the youth are taught, or at least may be taught, Greek, and Latin, that is, everything which the masters pretend to teach, or which it is expected that they should teach. In the universities, the youth neither are taught, nor always can find any proper means of being taught the sciences, which it is the business of those incorporated bodies to teach. The reward of the school master in most cases depends principally, in some cases almost entirely, upon the fees or honoraries of his scholars. Schools have no exclusive privileges. In order to obtain the honors of graduation, it is not necessary that a person should bring a certificate of his having studied a certain number of years at a public school. If upon examination he appears to understand what is taught there, no questions are asked about the place where he learned it. The parts of education which are commonly taught in universities, it may perhaps be said, are not very well taught. But had it not been for those institutions, they would not have been commonly taught at all, and both the individual and the public would have suffered a good deal from the want of those important parts of education. The present universities of Europe were originally, the greater part of them, ecclesiastical corporations, instituted for the education of churchmen. They were founded by the authority of the Pope, and were so entirely under his immediate protection that their members, whether masters or students, had all of them what was then called the benefit of clergy, that is, were exempted from the civil jurisdiction of the countries in which their respective universities were situated, and were amenable only to the ecclesiastical tribunals. What was taught in the greater part of those universities was suitable to the end of their institution, either theology, or something that was merely preparatory to theology. When Christianity was first established by law, a corrupted Latin had become the common language of all the western parts of Europe, the service of the church, accordingly, and the translation of the Bible, which were read in churches, were both in that corrupted Latin, that is, in the common language of the country. After the eruption of the barbarous nations who overturned the Roman Empire, Latin gradually ceased to be the language of any part of Europe. But the reverence of the people naturally preserves the established forms and ceremonies of religion long after the circumstances which first introduced and rendered them reasonable are no more. Though Latin, therefore, was no longer understood anywhere by the great body of the people, the whole service of the church still continued to be performed in that language. Two different languages were thus established in Europe in the same manner as in ancient Egypt, a language of the priests, and a language of the people, a sacred and a profane, a learned and an unlearned language. But it was necessary that the priests should understand something of that sacred and learned language in which they were to officiate, and the study of the Latin language therefore made, from the beginning, an essential part of university education. It was not so with that either of the Greek or of the Hebrew language. The infallible decrees of the church had pronounced the Latin translation of the Bible, commonly called the Latin Vulgate, to have been equally dictated by divine inspiration, and therefore of equal authority with the Greek and Hebrew originals. With the knowledge of those two languages therefore, not being indispensable requisite to a churchman, the study of them did not, for a long time, make a necessary part of the common course of university education. There are some Spanish universities, I am assured, in which the study of the Greek language has never yet made any part of that course. The first reformers found the Greek text of the New Testament, and even the Hebrew text of the old, more favorable to their opinions than the Vulgate translation, which, as might naturally be supposed, had been gradually accommodated to support the doctrines of the Catholic Church. They set themselves therefore to expose the many errors of that translation, which the Roman Catholic clergy were thus put under the necessity of defending or explaining. But this could not well be done without some knowledge of the original languages, of which the study was therefore gradually introduced into the greater part of the universities, both of those which embraced, and of those which rejected, the doctrines of the Reformation. The Greek language was connected with every part of that classical learning, which, though at first principally cultivated by Catholics and Italians, happened to come into fashion much about the same time that the doctrines of the Reformation were set on foot. In the greater part of universities, therefore, that language was taught previous to the study of philosophy, and as soon as the student had made some progress in the Latin. The Hebrew language, having no connection with classical learning, and, except the Holy Scriptures, being the language of not a single book and any esteem, the study of it did not commonly commence till after that of philosophy, and when the student had entered upon the study of theology. Originally, the first rudiments, both of the Greek and Latin languages, were taught in universities, and in some universities they still continue to be so. In others, it is expected that the students should have previously acquired at least the rudiments of one or both of those languages, of which the study continues to make everywhere a very considerable part of university education. The ancient Greek philosophy was divided into three great branches, physics, or natural philosophy, ethics, or moral philosophy, and logic. This general division seems perfectly agreeable to the nature of things. The great phenomena of nature, the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, eclipses, comets, thunder and lightning, and other extraordinary meteors, the generation, the life, growth, and dissolution of plants and animals, are objects which, as they necessarily excite the wonder, so they naturally call forth the curiosity of mankind to inquire into their causes. Superstition first attempted to satisfy this curiosity by referring all those wonderful appearances to the immediate agency of the gods. Philosophy afterwards endeavored to account for them from more familiar causes, or from such as mankind were better acquainted with than the agency of the gods. As those great phenomena are the first objects of human curiosity, so the science which pretends to explain them must naturally have been the first branch of philosophy that was cultivated. The first philosophers, accordingly, of whom history has preserved any account, appear to have been natural philosophers. In every age and country of the world, men must have attended to the characters, designs, and actions of one another, and many reputable rules and maxims for the conduct of human life must have been laid down and approved of by common consent. As soon as writing came into fashion, wise men, or those who fancied themselves such, would naturally endeavour to increase the number of those established and respected maxims, and to express their own sense of what was either proper or improper conduct, sometimes in the more artificial form of apologies, like what are called the fables of Asop, and sometimes in the more simple one of apathems or wise sayings, like the proverbs of Solomon, the verses of Theognis, and Facilities, and some part of the works of Hesiod. They might continue in this manner for a long time merely to multiply the number of those maxims of prudence and morality without even attempting to arrange them in any very distinct or a methodical order, much less to connect them together by one or more general principles, from which they were all deducible, like effects from their natural causes. The beauty of a systematical arrangement of different observations, connected by a few common principles, was first seen in the rude essays of those ancient times towards a system of natural philosophy. Something of the same kind was afterwards attempted in morals. The maxims of common life were arranged in some methodical order and connected together by a few common principles, in the same manner as they had attempted to arrange and connect the phenomena of nature. The science which pretends to investigate and explain those connecting principles is what is properly called moral philosophy. Different authors gave different systems, both of natural and moral philosophy. But the arguments by which they supported those different systems, far from being always demonstrations, were frequently at best but very slender probabilities, and sometimes mere sophisms, which had no other foundation but the inaccuracy and ambiguity of common language. Speculative systems have, in all ages of the world, been adopted for reasons too frivolous to have determined the judgment of any man of common sense, in a matter of the smallest pecuniary interest. Gross sophistry has scarce ever had any influence upon the opinions of mankind, except in matters of philosophy and speculation, and in these it has frequently had the greatest. The patrons of each system of natural and moral philosophy naturally endeavored to expose the weakness of the arguments adduced to support the systems which were opposite to their own. In examining those arguments they were necessarily led to consider the difference between a probable and a demonstrative argument, between a fallacious and a conclusive one, and logic or the science of the general principles of good and bad reasoning necessarily arose out of the observations which a scrutiny of this kind gave occasion to, though in its origin, posterior both to physics and to ethics, it was commonly taught, not indeed in all, but in the greater part of the ancient schools of philosophy previously to either of those sciences. The student, it seems to have been thought, ought to understand well the difference between good and bad reasoning before he was led to reason upon subjects of so great importance. This ancient division of philosophy into three parts was, in the greater part of the universities of Europe, changed for another into five. In the ancient philosophy whatever was taught concerning the nature either of the human mind or of the deity made a part of the system of physics. Those beings, in whatever their essence might be supposed to consist, were parts of the great system of the universe and parts, too, productive of the most important effects. Whatever human reason could either conclude or conjecture concerning them made, as it were, two chapters, though no doubt two very important ones, of the science which pretended to give an account of the origin and revolutions of the great system of the universe. But in the universities of Europe, where philosophy was taught only as subservient to theology, it was natural to dwell longer upon these two chapters than upon any other of the science. They were gradually more and more extended, and were divided into many inferior chapters till it last the doctrine of spirits, of which so little can be known, came to take up as much room in the system of philosophy as the doctrine of bodies, of which so much can be known. The doctrines concerning those two subjects were considered as making two distinct sciences. What are called metaphysics, or pneumatics, were set in opposition to physics, and were cultivated not only as the more sublime, but for the purposes of a particular profession as the more useful science of the two. The proper subject of experiment and observation, a subject in which a careful attention is capable of making so many useful discoveries, was almost entirely neglected. The subject in which, after a very few simple and almost obvious truths, the most careful attention can discover nothing but obscurity and uncertainty, and consequently produce nothing but subtleties and sophisms, was greatly cultivated. When those two sciences had thus been set in opposition to one another, the comparison between them naturally gave birth to a third, to what was called ontology, or the science which treated of the qualities and attributes which were common to both the subjects of the other two sciences. But if subtleties and sophisms composed the greater part of the metaphysics or pneumatics of the schools, they composed the whole of this cobweb science of ontology, which was likewise sometimes called metaphysics. Wherein consisted the happiness and perfection of a man, considered not only as an individual, but as the member of a family, of a state, and of the great society of mankind, was the object which the ancient moral philosophy proposed to investigate. In that philosophy, the duties of human life were treated of as subservient to the happiness and perfection of human life. But when moral, as well as natural philosophy, came to be taught only as subservient to theology, the duties of human life were treated of as chiefly subservient to the happiness of a life to come. In the ancient philosophy, the perfection of virtue was represented as necessarily productive to the person who possessed it of the most perfect happiness in this life. In the modern philosophy, it was frequently represented as generally, or rather as almost always, inconsistent with any degree of happiness in this life, and heaven was to be earned only by penance and mortification, by the austereities and abasement of a monk, not by the liberal, generous and spirited conduct of a man. Casuistry and anesthetic morality made up, in most cases, the greater part of the moral philosophy of the schools. By far the most important of all the different branches of philosophy became, in this manner, by far the most corrupted. Such, therefore, was the common course of philosophical education in the greater part of the universities in Europe. Logic was taught first, ontology came in the second place, pneumatology, comprehending the doctrine concerning the nature of the human soul and of the deity, in the third, in the fourth followed a debased system of moral philosophy, which was considered as immediately connected with the doctrines of pneumatology, with the immortality of the human soul, and with the rewards and punishments which, from the justice of the deity, were to be expected in a life to come. A short and superficial system of physics usually concluded the course. The alterations which the universities of Europe, thus introduced into the ancient course of philosophy, were all meant for the education of ecclesiastics, and to render it a more proper introduction to the study of theology. But the additional quantity of subtlety and sophistry, the casuistry and anesthetic morality which those alterations introduced into it certainly did not render it more for the education of gentlemen or men of the world, or more likely to either improve the understanding or to mend the heart. This course of philosophy is what still continues to be taught in the greater part of the universities of Europe, with more or less diligence, according as the constitution of each particular university happens to render diligence more or less necessary to the teachers. And some of the richest and best endowed universities, the tutors, content themselves with teaching a few unconnected shreds and parcels of this corrupted course, and even these they commonly teach very negligently and superficially. The improvements which, in modern times, have been made in several different branches of philosophy, have not, the greater part of them, been made in universities, though some no doubt have. The greater part of universities have not even been very forward to adopt those improvements after they were made, and several of those learned societies have chosen to remain, for a long time, the sanctuaries in which exploded systems and obsolete prejudices found shelter and protection after they had been hunted out of every other corner of the world. In general, the richest and best endowed universities have been slowest in adopting those improvements, and the most averse to permit any considerable change in the established plan of education. Those improvements were more easily introduced into some of the poorer universities in which the teachers, depending upon their reputation for the greater part of their subsistence, were obliged to pay more attention to the current opinions of the world. But though the public schools and universities of Europe were originally intended only for the education of a particular profession, that of churchmen, and though they were not always very diligent in instructing their pupils, even in the sciences which were supposed necessary for that profession, yet they gradually drew to themselves the education of almost all other people, particularly of almost all gentlemen and men of fortune. No better method, it seems, could be fallen upon of spending, with any advantage, the long interval between infancy and that period of life at which men began to apply in good earnest to the real business of the world, the business which is to employ them during the remainder of their days. The greater part of what is taught in schools and universities, however, does not seem to be the most proper preparation for that business. End of Book 5, Chapter 1, Part E. Chapter 1, Part F of the Wealth of Nations, Book 5. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Stephen Escalara. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. Book 5, Chapter 1, Part F of the Expenses of the Sovereign or Commonwealth. In England, it becomes every day, more and more the custom, to send young people to travel in foreign countries immediately upon their leaving school, and without sending them to any university. Our young people, it is said, generally return home much improved by their travels. A young man who goes abroad at 17 or 18 and returns home at 1 and 20, returns 3 or 4 years older than he was when he went abroad, and at that age it is very difficult not to improve a good deal in 3 or 4 years. In the course of his travels, he generally acquires some knowledge of one or two foreign languages, a knowledge, however, which is seldom sufficient to enable him either to speak or write them with propriety. In other respects, he commonly returns home more conceited, more unprincipled, more dissipated, and more incapable of any serious application, either to study or to business, than he could well have become in so short a time had he lived at home. By traveling so very young, by spending in the most frivolous dissipation the most previous years of his life, at a distance from the inspection and control of his parents and relations, every useful habit, which the earlier parts of his education might have had some tendency to form in him, instead of being riveted and affirmed, is almost necessarily either weakened or effaced. Nothing but the discredit into which the universities are allowing themselves to fall could ever have brought into repute so very absurd a practice as that of traveling at this early period of life. By sending his son abroad, a father delivers himself, at least for some time, from so disagreeable an object as that of a son unemployed, neglected, and going to ruin before his eyes. Such have been the effects of some of the modern institutions for education. Different plans and different institutions for education seem to have taken place in other ages and nations. In the Republics of Ancient Greece, every free citizen was instructed under the direction of the public magistrate in gymnastic exercises and in music. By gymnastic exercises it was intended to harden his body, to sharpen his courage, and to prepare him for the fatigues and dangers of war. And as the Greek militia was, by all accounts, one of the best that ever was in the world, this part of their public education must have answered completely the purpose for which it was intended. By the other part, music, it was proposed, at least by the philosophers and historians who have given us an account of those institutions, to humanize the mind, to soften the temper, and to dispose it for bringing all the social and moral duties of public and private life. In ancient Rome, the exercises of the campus marshes answered the same purpose as those of the gymnasium in ancient Greece, and they seem to have answered it equally well. But among the Romans there was nothing which corresponded to the musical education of the Greeks. The morals of the Romans, however, both in private and public life, seem to have been not only equal, but upon the whole a good deal superior to those of the Greeks. That they were superior in private life, we have the express testimony of Polybius and of Dionysius of Hala Carnassus, two authors well acquainted with both nations, and the whole tenor of the Greek and Roman history bears witness to the superiority of the public morals of the Romans. The good temper and moderation of contending factions seem to be the most essential circumstances in the public morals of a free people. But the factions of the Greeks were almost always violent and sanguinary, whereas till the time of the Graci no blood had ever been shed in any Roman faction, and from the time of the Graci the Roman Republic may be considered as in reality dissolved. Notwithstanding, however, the very respectable authority of Plato, Aristotle, and Polybius, and notwithstanding the very ingenious reasons by which Mr. Montesquieu endeavors to support that authority, it seems probable that the musical education of the Greeks had no great effect in mending their morals, since without any such education, those of the Romans were, upon the whole, superior. The respect of those ancient sages for the institutions of their ancestors had probably disposed them to find much political wisdom in what was, perhaps, merely an ancient custom, continued without an eruption from the earliest part of those societies to the times in which they had arrived at a considerable degree of refinement. Music and dancing are the great amusements of almost all barbarous nations, and the great accomplishments which are supposed to fit any man for entertaining his society. It is so at this day among the Negroes on the coast of Africa. It was so among the ancient Celts, among the ancient Scandinavians, and, as we may learn from Homer, among the ancient Greeks, in the times preceding the Trojan War. When the Greek tribes had formed themselves into little republics, it was natural that the study of those should, for a long time, make a part of the public and common education of the people. The masters who instructed the young people, either in music or in military exercises, do not seem to have been paid or even appointed by the state, either in Rome or even at Athens, the Greek Republic of whose laws and customs we are the best informed. The state required that every free citizen should fit himself for defending it in war, and should, upon that account, learn his military exercises. But it left him to learn them of such masters as he could find, and it seems to have advanced nothing for this purpose, but a public field or place of exercise, in which he should practice and perform them. In the early ages, both of the Greek and Roman republics, the other parts of education seem to have consisted in learning to read, write, and account, according to the arithmetic of the times. These accomplishments, the richer citizens seem frequently to have acquired at home by the assistance of some domestic pedagogue, who is generally either a slave or a freedman, and the poorer citizens in the schools of such masters as made a trade of teaching for hire. Such parts of education, however, were abandoned altogether to the care of the parents or guardians of each individual. It does not appear that the state ever assumed any inspection or direction of them. By law of Solon, indeed, the children were equated for maintaining those parents who had neglected to instruct them in some profitable trade or business. In the progress of refinement, when philosophy and rhetoric came into fashion, the better sort of people used to send their children to the schools of philosophers and rhetoricians in order to be instructed in these fashionable sciences. But those schools were not supported by the public. They were, for a long time, barely tolerated by it. The demand for philosophy and rhetoric was, for a long time, so small that the first professed teachers of either could not find constant employment in any one city, but were obliged to travel about from place to place. In this manner lived Zeno of Aelia, Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias, and many others. As the demand increased, the school, both of philosophy and rhetoric, became stationary, first in Athens, and afterwards in several other cities. The state, however, seems never to have encouraged them further than by assigning to some of them a particular place to teach in, which was sometimes done too by private donors. The state seems to have assigned the academy to Plato, the Lyceum to Aristotle, and the portico to Zeno of Sita, the founder of the Stoics. But Epicurus bequeathed his gardens to his own school. Till about atonious, however, no teacher appears to have had any salary from the public or to have had any other emoluments but what arose from the honorarius or fees of his scholars. The bounty which that philosophical emperor, as we learn from Lyceum, bestowed upon one of the teachers of philosophy probably lasted no longer than his own life. There was nothing equivalent to the privileges of graduation, and to have attended any of those schools was not necessary in order to be able to practice any particular trade or profession. If the opinion of their own utility could not draw scholars to them, the law neither forced anybody to go to them nor rewarded anybody for having gone to them. The teachers had no jurisdiction over their pupils, nor any other authority besides that natural authority which superior virtue and abilities never failed to procure from young people towards those who are entrusted at Rome the study of the civil law made a part of the education not of the greater part of the citizens but of some particular families. The young people however who wished to acquire knowledge in the law had no public school to go to and had no other method of studying it than by frequenting the company of such of their relations and friends as were supposed to understand it. It is perhaps worthwhile to remark that though the laws of the twelve tables were many of them copied from those of some ancient Greek republics, yet law never seems to have grown up to be a science in any republic of ancient Greece. In Rome it became a science very early and gave a considerable degree of illustration to those citizens who had the reputation of understanding it. In the republics of ancient Greece, particularly in Athens, the ordinary courts of justice consisted of numerous and therefore disorderly bodies of people who frequently decided almost at random, or as clamor, faction, and party spirit happened to determine. The ignomy of an unjust decision when it was to be divided among 500, a thousand, or fifteen hundred people, for some of their courts were so very numerous, could not fall very heavy upon any individual. At Rome on the contrary the principal courts of justice consisted either of a single judge or of a small number of judges whose characters, especially as they deliberated always in public, could not fail to be very much affected by any rash or unjust decision. In doubtful cases such as courts, from their anxieties to avoid blame would naturally endeavor to shelter themselves under the example or precedent of the judges who had sat before them, either in the same or in some other court. This attention to practice and precedent necessarily formed the Roman law into that regular and orderly system that had been delivered down to us. And the like attention has had the like effects upon the laws of every other country where such attention has taken place. The superiority of character in the Romans over that of the Greeks so much remarked by Polybius and Dionysius of Halicarnassus was probably more owing to the better constitution of their courts of justice than any of the circumstances to which those authors describe it. The Romans are said to have been particularly distinguished for their superior respect to an oath. But the people who are accustomed to make oath only before some diligent and well informed court of justice would naturally be much more attentive to what they swore than they who are accustomed to do the same thing before mobish and disorderly assemblies. The abilities, both civil and military, of the Greeks and Romans will readily be allowed to have been at least equal to those of any modern nation. Our prejudice is perhaps rather to rate them. But except in what related to military exercises the state seems to have been at no pains to form those great abilities, for I cannot be induced to believe that the musical education of the Greeks could be of much consequence in forming them. Masters, however, had been found, it seems, for instructing the better sort of people among those nations and every art and science in which the circumstances of their society rendered it necessary or convenient for them to be instructed. The demand for such instruction produced what it always produces, the talent for giving it, and the emulation which an unrestrained competition never fails to excite appears to have brought that talent to a very high degree of perfection. In the attention which the ancient philosophers excited, in the empire which they acquired over the opinions and principles of their auditors, in the faculty which they possessed of giving a certain tone and character to the conduct and conversation of those auditors, they appear to have been much superior to any modern teachers. In modern times, the diligence of public teachers is more or less corrupted by the circumstances which render them more or less independent of their success and reputation in their particular professions. Their salaries, too, put the private teacher, who would pretend to come into competition with them, in the same state with a merchant who attempts to trade without a bounty in competition with those who trade with them. If he sells his goods at nearly the same price, he cannot have the same profit, and poverty and beggary, at least, if not bankruptcy and ruin, will infallibly be his lot. If he attempts to sell them much dearer, he is likely to have so few customers that his circumstances will not be much mended. The privileges of graduation, besides, are in many countries necessary, or at least extremely convenient, to most men of learned professions, that is to the far greater part of those who have occasioned for a learned education. But those privileges can be obtained only by attending the lectures of the public teachers. The most careful attendance upon the ableist instructions of any private teacher cannot always give any title to demand them. It is from these different causes that the private teacher of any of the sciences, which are commonly taught in universities, is, in modern times, generally considered as in order of men of letters. A man of real abilities can scarce find out a more humiliating, or a more unprofitable, employment to turn them to. The endowments of schools and colleges have in this manner not only corrupted the diligence of public teachers, but have rendered it almost impossible to have any good private ones. Were there no public institutions for education, no system, no science would be taught for which there was not some demand, or which the circumstances of the times did not render it either necessary or convenient, or at least fashionable to learn. A private teacher could never find his account in teaching, either an exploded or antiquated system of a science acknowledged to be useful, or a science universally believed to be a mere useless and pedantic heap of sophistry and nonsense. Such systems, such sciences, can subsist nowhere, but in those incorporated societies for whose prosperity and revenue are in a great measure independent of their industry. Were there no public institutions for education, a gentleman, after going through with application and abilities, the most complete course of education which the circumstances of the times were supposed to afford, could not come into the world completely ignorant of everything which is the common subject of conversation among gentlemen and men of the world. There are no public institutions for the education of women, and there is accordingly nothing useless, absurd, or fantastical in the common course of their education. They are taught with their parents or guardians judge it necessary or useful for them to learn, and they are taught nothing else. Every part of their education tends evidently to some useful purpose, either to improve the natural attractions of their person, or to form their mind to reserve, to modesty, to chastity, and to autonomy, to render them both likely to become the mistresses of a family, and to behave properly when they have become such. In every part of her life a woman feels some convenience or advantage from every part of her education. It seldom happens that a man, in any part of his life, derives any convenience or advantage from some of the most laborious and troublesome parts of his education. Ought the public therefore to give no attention it may be asked to the education of the people, or if it ought to give any what are the different parts of education which it ought to attend to in the different orders of the people, and in what manner ought it to attend to them. In some cases the state of society necessarily places the greater part of individuals in such situations as naturally form in them without any attention of government, almost all the abilities and virtues which that state requires or perhaps can admit of. In other cases, the state of the society does not place the greater part of individuals in such situations and some attention of government is necessary in order to prevent the almost entire corruption and degeneracy of the great body of the people. In the progress of the division of labor the employment of the far greater part of those who live by labor, that is of the great body of the people comes to be confined to a few simple operations, frequently to one or two. But the understandings of the greater part of men are necessarily formed by their ordinary employments. The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations of which the effects to are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding or to exercise his invention and finding out expedience for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses therefore the habit of such exertion and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become. The torpor of his mind renders him not only incapable of relishing or bearing a part in any rational conversation, but of conceiving any generous, noble, or tender sentiment, and consequently of forming any just judgment concerning many even of the ordinary duties of private life. In the sense of interest of his country he is altogether incapable of judging and unless very particular pains have been taken to render him otherwise he is equally incapable of defending his country in war. The uniformity of his stationary life naturally corrupts the courage of his mind and makes him regard, with apporance, the irregular, uncertain and adventurous life of a soldier. It corrupts even the activity of his body and renders him incapable of exerting his strength and vigor and perseverance in any other employment than that to which he has been bred. His dexterity at his own particular trade seems in this manner to be acquired at the expense of his intellectual, social, and martial virtues. But in every improved and civilized society this is the state into which the laboring poor, that is the great body of the people must necessarily fall, unless government takes some pains to prevent it. It is otherwise in the barbarous societies as they are commonly called of hunters, of shepherds, and even of husbandmen in that rude state of husbandry which precedes the improvement of manufacturers and the extension of foreign commerce. In such societies the varied occupations of every man oblige every man to exert his capacity and to invent expedience for removing difficulties which are continually occurring. Invention is kept alive and the mind is not suffered to fall into that drowsy stupidity which in a civilized society seems to be numb the understanding of almost all the inferior ranks of people. In those barbarous societies as they are called every man it has already been observed is a warrior. Every man too is in some measure a statesman and can form a tolerable judgment concerning the interest of the society and the conduct of those who govern it. How far their chiefs are good judges and good leaders in war is obvious to the observation of almost every single man among them. In such a society indeed no man can well acquire that improved and refined understanding which a few men sometimes possess in a more civilized state. Though in a rude society there is a good deal of variety in the occupations of every individual there is not a great deal in those of the whole society. Every man does or is capable of doing almost everything the other man does or is capable of being. Every man has a considerable degree of knowledge, ingenuity and invention, but scarce any man has a great degree. The degree however which is commonly possessed is generally sufficient for conducting the whole simple business of the society. In a civilized state on the contrary though there is little variety in the occupations of the greater part of individuals there is an almost infinite variety in those of the whole society. These varied occupations present an almost infinite variety of objects to the contemplation of those few who being attached to no particular occupation themselves have leisure and inclination to examine the occupations of other people. The contemplation of so great a variety of objects necessarily exercises their minds in endless comparisons and combinations and renders their understandings in an extraordinary degree both acute and comprehensive. Unless those few however happen to be placed in some very particular situations their great abilities though honorable to themselves may contribute very little to the good government or happiness of their society. Notwithstanding the great abilities of those few all the nobler parts of the human character may be in a great measure obliterated and extinguished in the great body of the people. The education of the common people requires perhaps in a civilized and commercial society the attention of the public more than that of people of some rank and fortune. People of some rank and fortune are generally 18 or 19 years of age before they enter upon that particular business, profession or trade by which they propose to distinguish themselves in the world. They have before that full time to acquire or at least to fit themselves for afterwards acquiring every accomplishment which can recommend them to the public esteem or render them worthy of it. Their parents or guardians are generally sufficiently anxious that they should be so accomplished and are in most cases willing enough to lay out the expense which is necessary for that purpose. If they are not always properly educated it is seldom from the want of expense laid out upon their education but from the improper application of that expense. It is seldom from the want of masters but from the negligence and incapacity of the teachers who are to be had and from the difficulty or rather from the impossibility which there is in the present state of things of finding any better. The employments too in which people of some rank or fortune spend the greater part of their lives are not like those of the common people simple and uniform. There are almost all of them extremely complicated and such as exercise the head more than the hands. The understandings of those who are engaged can seldom grow torped for want of exercise. The employments of people of some rank and fortune besides are seldom such as harass them from morning to night. They generally have a good deal of leisure during which they may perfect themselves in every branch either of useful or ornamental knowledge of which they may have laid the foundation or for which they may have acquired some taste in the earlier part of life. It is otherwise with the common people they have little time to spare for education. Their parents can scarce afford to maintain them even in infancy. As soon as they are able to work they must apply to some trade by which they can earn their subsistence. That trade too is generally so simple and uniform as to give little exercise to the understanding. While at the same time their labor is both so constant and so severe that it leaves them little leisure and less inclination to apply to or to think of anything else. But though the common people cannot in any civilized society be so well instructed as people of some rank and fortune the most essential parts of education however to read, write, and account can be acquired at so early a period of life that the greater part even of those who are to be bred to the lowest occupations have time to acquire them before they can be employed in those occupations. For a very small expense the public can facilitate can encourage and can even impose upon almost the whole body of the people the necessity of acquiring those most essential parts of education. The public can facilitate this acquisition by establishing in every parish or district a little school where children may be taught for a reward so moderate that even a common laborer may afford it. The master being partly but not wholly paid by the public as if he was wholly or even principally paid by it he would soon learn to neglect his business. In Scotland the establishment of such parish schools has taught almost the whole common people to read and a very great proportion of them to write and account. In England the establishment of charity schools has had an effect of the same kind, though not so universally because the establishment is not so universal. If in those little schools the books by which the children are taught to read were a little more instructive than they commonly are and if instead of a little smattering in Latin which the children of the common people are sometimes taught there and which can scarce ever be of any use to them they were instructed in the elementary parts of geometry and mechanics the literary education of this rank of people would perhaps be as complete as can be. There is scarce a common trade which does not afford some opportunities of applying it to the principles of mechanics and which would not therefore gradually exercise and improve the common people in those principles the necessary introduction to the most sublime as well as to the most useful sciences. The public can encourage the acquisition of those most essential parts of education by giving small premiums and little badges of distinction to the children of the common people who excel in them. The public can impose upon almost the whole body of the people the necessity of acquiring the most essential parts of education by obliging every man to undergo an examination or probation in them before he can obtain the freedom in any corporation or be allowed to set up any trade either in a village or town corporate. It was in this manner by facilitating the acquisition of the military and gymnastic exercises by encouraging it and even by imposing upon the whole body of the people the necessity that the Greek and Roman republics maintain the martial spirit of their respective citizens. They facilitated the acquisition of those exercises by appointing a certain place for learning and practicing them and by granting to certain masters the privilege of teaching in that place. Those masters do not appear to have had either salaries or exclusive privileges of any kind. Their reward consisted altogether in what they got from their scholars who had learned his exercises in the public gymnasia had no sort of legal advantage over one who had learned them privately provided the latter had learned them equally well. Those republics encouraged the acquisition of those exercises by bestowing little premiums and badges of distinction upon those who excelled in them. To have gained a prize in the Olympic Isthmian or Anemian games gave illustration not only to the person who gained it the obligation which every citizen was under to serve a certain number of years if called upon in the armies of the republic sufficiently imposed the necessity of learning those exercises without which he could not be fit for that service. That in the progress of improvement the practice of military exercises unless government takes proper pains to support it goes gradually to decay and together with it the martial spirit of the great modern Europe sufficiently demonstrates. But the security of every society must always depend more or less upon the martial spirit of the great body of the people in the present times indeed that martial spirit alone and unsupported by a well-disciplined standing army would not perhaps be sufficient for the defense and security of any society but where every citizen had the spirit of a soldier a smaller standing army would surely be requisite that spirit besides would necessarily diminish very much the dangers to liberty whether real or imaginary which are commonly apprehended from a standing army as it would very much facilitate the operations of that army against a foreign invader so it would obstruct them as much if unfortunately they should ever be directed against the constitution of the state. The ancient institutions of Greece and Rome seem to have been much more effectual for maintaining the martial spirit of the great body of the people then the establishment of what are called the militias of modern times they were much more simple when they were once established they executed themselves and it required little or no attention from government to maintain them in the most perfect vigor whereas to maintain even intolerable execution the complex regulations of any modern militia requires the continual and painful attention of government without which they are constantly falling into total neglect and disuse the influence besides of the ancient institutions was much more universal by means of them the whole body of the people was completely instructed in the use of arms whereas it is but a very small part of them who can ever be so instructed by the regulations of any modern militia except perhaps that of Switzerland but a coward a man incapable either of defending or of revenging himself evidently wants one of the most essential parts of the character of a man he is as much mutilated and deformed in his mind as another is in his body who is either deprived of some of its most essential members or has lost the use of them he is evidently the more wretched and miserable of the two because happiness and misery which reside altogether in the mind must necessarily depend more upon the helpful or unhelpful the mutilated or entire then upon that of the body even though the martial spirit of the people were of no use towards the defense of the society yet to prevent that sort of mental mutilation deformity and wretchedness which cowardice necessarily involves in it from spreading themselves through the great body of the people was still deserve the most serious attention of government in the same manner as it would deserve its most serious attention to prevent a leprosy or any other loathsome and neither mortal nor dangerous from spreading itself among them though perhaps no other public good might result from such attention besides the prevention of so great a public evil the same thing may be said of the gross ignorance and stupidity which in a civilized society seems so frequently to benumb the understandings of all the inferior ranks of people a man without the proper use of the intellectual faculties of a man is if possible more contemptible than even a coward and seems to be mutilated and deformed in a still more essential part of the character of human nature though the state was to derive no advantage from the instruction of the inferior ranks of people it would still deserve its attention that they should not be altogether uninstructed the state however derives no inconsiderable advantage from their instruction the more they are instructed the less liable they are to the delusions of enthusiasm and superstition which among ignorant nations frequently occasion the most dreadful disorders and instructed and intelligent people besides are always more decent and orderly than an ignorant and stupid one they feel themselves each individually more respectable and more likely to obtain the respect of their lawful superiors and they are therefore more disposed to respect those superiors they are more disposed to examine and more capable of seeing through the interested complaints of faction and sedition and they are upon that account less apt to be misled into any wanton or unnecessary opposition to the measures of government in free countries where the safety of government depends very much upon the favorable judgment which the people may form of its conduct it must surely be of the highest importance that they should not be disposed to judge rashly or capriciously concerning it Chapter 1 Part F Chapter 1 Part G of the Wealth of Nations Book 5 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Stephen Escalera The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith Book 5 Chapter 1 Part G of the Expenses of the Sovereign or Commonwealth Article 3 of the Expense of the Institutions for the Instruction of People of All Ages the Institutions for the Instruction of People of All Ages are chiefly those for religious instruction this is a species of instruction of which the object is not so much to render the people good citizens in this world as to prepare them for another and a better world in the life to come the teachers of the doctrine in the same manner as other teachers may either depend altogether for their subsistence upon the voluntary contributions of their hearers or they may derive it from some other fund to which the law of their country may entitle them such as landed estate, a tithe or land tax and established salary or stipend their exertion, their zeal and industry are likely to be much greater in the former situation than in the latter the teachers of a new religion have always had a considerable advantage in attacking those ancient and established systems of which the clergy reposing themselves upon their benefices had neglected to keep up the fervor of faith and devotion in the great body of the people and having given themselves up to indolence were become altogether incapable of making any vigorous exertion in defense even of their own establishment the clergy of an established and well endowed religion frequently become of learning and elegance who possess all the virtues of gentlemen or which can recommend them to the esteem of gentlemen but they are apt gradually to lose the qualities both good and bad which gave them authority and influence with the inferior ranks of people and which had perhaps been the original causes of the success and establishment of their religion such a clergy when attacked by a set of popular and bold though perhaps stupid and ignorant enthusiasts to themselves as perfectly defenseless as the indolent, effeminate and full fed nations of the southern parts of Asia when they were invaded by the active hearty and hungry Tartars of the north such a clergy upon such an emergency have commonly no other resource than to call upon the civil magistrate to persecute destroy or drive out their adversaries as discerbers of the public peace it was thus that the Roman Catholic clergy called upon the civil magistrate to persecute the Protestants and the Church of England to persecute the dissenters and that in general every religious sect when it has once enjoyed for a century or two the security of a legal establishment has found itself incapable of making any vigorous defense against any new sect which chose to attack its doctrine or discipline upon such occasions the advantage in point of learning and good writing may sometimes be on the side of the established church but the arts of popularity all the arts of gaining proselytes are constantly on the side of its adversaries in England those arts have been long neglected by the well endowed clergy of the established church and are at present chiefly cultivated by the dissenters and by the Methodists the independent provisions however which in many places have been made for dissenting teachers by means of voluntary subscriptions of trust rights and other revasions of the law seem very much to have abated the activity of those teachers they have many of them become very learned ingenious and respectable men but they have in general ceased to be very popular preachers the Methodists without half the learning of the dissenters are much more in vogue in the church of Rome the industry and zeal of the inferior clergy are kept more alive by the powerful motive of self-interest then perhaps in any established Protestant church the parochial clergy derive many of them a very considerable part of their subsistence from the voluntary ablations of the people a source of revenue which confession gives them many opportunities of improving the mendicant orders derive their whole subsistence from such ablations it is with them as with the hussars and light infantry of some armies no plunder no pay the parochial clergy are like those teachers whose reward depends partly upon their salary and partly upon the fees or honoraries which they get from their pupils and these must always depend more or less upon their industry and reputation the mendicant orders are like those teachers whose subsistence depends altogether upon their industry they are obliged therefore to use every art which can animate the devotion of the common people the establishment of the two great mendicant orders of Saint Dominic and Saint Francis it is observed by Machiavelle revived in the 13th and 14th centuries the languishing faith and devotion of the Catholic Church in Roman Catholic countries the spirit of devotion is supported altogether by the monks and by the poor parochial clergy the great dignitaries of the church with all the accomplishments of gentlemen and men of the world and sometimes with those of men of learning are careful to maintain the necessary discipline over their inferiors but seldom give themselves any trouble about the instruction of the people most of the arts and professions in a state says by far the most illustrious philosopher and historian of the present age are of such a nature that while they promote the interests of the society they are also useful or agreeable to some individuals and in that case the constant rule of the magistrate except perhaps on the first introduction of any art is to leave the profession to itself and trust its encouragement to the individuals who reap the benefit of it by finding their profits to rise by the favor of their customers increase as much as possible their skill and industry and as matters are not disturbed by any injudicious tampering the commodity is always sure to be at all times nearly proportioned to the demand but there are also some callings which though useful and even necessary in a state bring no advantage or pleasure to any individual and the supreme power is obliged to alter its conduct to those professions it must give them public encouragement in order to their subsistence and it must provide against that negligence to which they will naturally be subject either by annexing particular honors to profession by establishing a long subordination of ranks and a strict dependence or by some other expedient the persons employed in the finances fleets and magistracy are instances of this order of men it may naturally be thought at first sight these a sticks belong to the first class and that their encouragement as well as that of lawyers and physicians may safely be entrusted to the liberality of individuals who are attached their doctrines and who find benefit or consolation from their spiritual ministry and assistance their industry and vigilance will no doubt be wedded by such an additional motive and their skill in the profession as well as their address and governing the minds of the people must receive daily increase from their increasing practice study and attention but if we consider the matter more closely we shall find that this interested diligence of the clergy is what every wise legislature will study to prevent because in every religion except the true it is highly pernicious and it has even a natural tendency to pervert the truth by infusing into it a strong mixture of superstition folly and delusion each ghostly practitioner in order to render himself more precious and sacred in the eyes of his retainers will inspire them with the most violent abhorrence of all other sex and continually endeavor by some novelty to excite the languid devotion of his audience no regard will be paid to truth, morals, or decency in the doctrines inculcated every tenant will be adopted that best suits the disorderly affections of the human frame customers will be drawn to each conventical by new industry and address in on the passions and credulity of the populace and in the end the civil magistrate will find that he has dearly paid for his intended frugality in saving a fixed establishment for the priests and that in reality the most decent and advantageous composition which he can make with the spiritual guides is to bribe their indolence by assigning stated salaries to their professions and rendering it superfluous for them to be farther active than merely to prevent their flock from strain in the midst of new pastors and in this manner ecclesiastical establishments though commonly they arose at first from religious views prove in the end advantageous to the political interests of society but whatever may have been the good or bad effects of the independent provision of the clergy it has perhaps been very seldom bestowed upon them from any view to those effects times of violent religious controversy times of equally violent political faction upon such occasions each political party has either found it or imagined it for his interest to league itself with someone or other of the contending religious sects but this could be done only by adopting or at least by favoring the tenants of that particular sect the sect which had the good fortune to be leagued with the conquering party necessarily shared in the victory of its ally favor and protection it was soon enabled in some degree to silence and subdue all its adversaries those adversaries had generally leagueed themselves with the enemies of the conquering party and were therefore the enemies of that party the clergy of this particular sect having thus become complete masters of the field and their influence and authority with the great body of the people being in its highest vigor they were powerful enough to over all the chiefs and leaders of their own and to oblige the civil magistrate to respect their opinions and inclinations their first demand was generally that he should silence and subdue all their adversaries and their second that he should bestow an independent provision on themselves as they had generally contributed a good deal to the victory it seemed not unreasonable that they should have some share in the spoil they were weary besides of humoring the people and of depending upon their caprice for a subsistence in making this demand therefore they consulted their own ease and comfort without troubling themselves about the effect which it might have in future times upon the influence and authority of their order the civil magistrate who could comply with their demand only by giving them something which he would have chosen much rather to take or to keep to himself was seldom very forward to granted necessity however always forced him to submit at last frequently not till after many delays evasions and affected excuses but if politics had never called in the aid of religion had the conquering party never adopted the tenets of one sect more than those of another when it had gained the victory it would probably have dealt equally and impartially with all the different sects and have allowed every man to choose his own priest and his own religion as he thought proper there would and in this case no doubt have been a great multitude of religious sects almost every different congregation might probably have had a little sect by itself or have entertained some peculiar tenets of its own each teacher would no doubt have felt himself under the necessity of making the utmost exertion and of using every art both to preserve and to increase the number of his disciples but as every other teacher would have felt himself under the same necessity the excess of no one teacher or sect of teachers could have been very great the interested and active zeal of religious teachers can be dangerous and troublesome only when there is either but one sect tolerated in the society or where the whole of a large society is divided into two or three great sects the teachers of each acting by concert and under a regular discipline and subordination but that zeal must be altogether innocent the society is divided into two or three hundred or perhaps into as many thousand small sects of which no one could be considerable enough to disturb the public tranquility the teachers of each sect seeing themselves surrounded on all sides with more adversaries and friends would be obliged to learn that candor and moderation which are so seldom to be found among the teachers of those great sects whose tenets, being supported by the civil magistrate are held in veneration by almost all the inhabitants of extensive kingdoms and empires and who therefore see nothing round them but followers disciples and humble admirers the teachers of each little sect finding themselves almost alone would be obliged to respect those of almost every other sect and the concessions which they would mutually find in both convenient and agreeable to make one to another might in time probably reduce the doctrine of the greater part of them to that pure and rational religion free from every mixture of absurdity imposter or fanaticism such as wise men have in all ages of the world wish to see established but such as positive law has perhaps never yet established and probably never will establish in any country because with regard to religion positive law always has been and probably always will be more or less influenced by popular superstition and enthusiasm this plan of ecclesiastical government or more properly of no ecclesiastical government was what the sect called independence a sect no doubt a very wild enthusiast proposed to establish in England towards the end of the civil war if it had been established though of a very unphilosophical origin it would probably by this time have been productive of the most philosophical good temper and moderation with regard to every sort of religious principle it has been established in Pennsylvania where though the Quakers happen to be the most numerous the law in reality favors no one sect more than another and it is there said to have been productive of this philosophical good temper and moderation but though this equality of treatment should not be productive of this good temper and moderation in all or even in the greater part of their religious sex of a particular country yet provided those sects were sufficiently numerous and each of them consequently too small to disturb the public tranquility the excessive zeal of each for its particular tenants could not well be productive of any very hurtful effects but on the contrary of several good ones and if the government was perfectly decided both to let them all alone and to oblige them all to let alone one another there is little danger that they would not of their own accord subdivide themselves fast enough so as soon to become sufficiently numerous in every civilized society in every society where the distinction of ranks has once been completely established there have been always two different schemes or systems of morality current at the same time of which the one may be called the strict or austere the other the liberal or if you will the loose system the former is generally admired and revered by the common people the latter is commonly more esteemed and adopted by what are called the people of fashion the degree of disapprobation with which we ought to mark the vices of levity the vices which are apt to arise from great prosperity and from the excess of gaiety and good humor seems to constitute the principle distinction between those two opposite schemes or systems and the liberal or loose system luxury wanton and even disorderly mirth the pursuit of pleasure to some degree of intemperance the breach of chastity at least in one of the two sexes etc provided they are not accompanied with gross indecency and do not lead to falsehood and injustice are generally treated with a good deal of indulgence and are easily either excused or pardoned altogether in the austere system on the contrary those excesses are regarded with the utmost abhorrence and detestation the vices of levity are always ruinous to the common people and a single weeks thoughtlessness and dissipation is often sufficient to undo a poor workman forever and to drive him through despair upon committing the most enormous crimes the wiser and better sort of the common people therefore have always the utmost abhorrence and detestation of such excesses which their experience tells them are so immediately fatal to people of their condition the disorder and extravagance of several years on the contrary will not always ruin a man of fashion the people of that rank are very apt to consider the power of indulging in some degree of excess as one of the advantages of their fortune and the liberty of doing so without censure or reproach as one of the privileges which belong to their station in people of their own station therefore they regard such excesses with but a small degree of disapprobation and censure them either very slightly or not at all almost all religious sex have begun among the common people from whom they have generally drawn their earliest as well as their most numerous proselytes the austere system of morality has accordingly been adopted by those sex almost constantly or with very few exceptions for there have been some it was the system by which they could best recommend themselves to that order of people to whom they first proposed their plan of reformation upon what had been before established many of them perhaps the greater part of them have even endeavored to gain credit by refining upon this austere system and by carrying it to some degree of folly and extravagance and the success of rigor has frequently recommended them more than anything else to the respect and veneration of the common people a man of rank and fortune is by his station the distinguished member of a great society who attend to every part of his conduct and who thereby oblige him to attend to every part of it himself his authority and consideration depend very much upon the respect which this society bears to him he dares not do anything which would disgrace or discredit him in it and he is oblige to a very strict observation of that species of morals whether liberal or austere which the general consent of this society prescribes to persons of his rank and fortune a man of low condition on the contrary is far from being a distinguished member of any great society while he remains in a country village his conduct may be attended to and he may be oblige to attend to it himself in this situation and in this situation only he may have what is called a character to lose but as soon as he comes into a great city he is sunk in obscurity and darkness his conduct is observed and attended to by nobody and he is therefore very likely to neglect it himself and to abandon himself to every sort of low profligacy and vice he never emerges so effectually from this obscurity his conduct never excites so much the attention of any respectable society as by his becoming the member of a small religious sect he from that moment acquires a degree of consideration which he never had before all his brother sectaries are for the credit of the sect interested to observe his conduct and if he gives occasion to any scandal if he deviates very much from those austere morals which they almost always require of one another to punish him by what is always a very severe punishment even where no evil effects attended, expulsion or excommunication from the sect in little religious sects accordingly the morals of the common people have been almost always remarkably regular and orderly generally much more so than in the established church the morals of those little sects indeed have frequently been rather disagreeably rigorous and unsocial there are two very easy and effectual remedies however by whose joint operation the state might without violence correct whatever was unsocial or disagreeably rigorous in the morals of all the little sects into which the country was divided the first of those remedies is the study of science and philosophy which the state might render almost universal among all people of middling or more than middling rank and fortune not by giving salaries to teachers in order to make them negligent and idle but by instituting some sort of probation even in the higher and more difficult sciences to be undergone by every person before he was permitted to exercise any liberal profession or before he could be received as a candidate for any honorable office of trust or profit if the state imposed upon this order of men the necessity of learning the occasion to give itself any trouble without providing them with proper teachers they would soon find better teachers for themselves than any whom the state could provide for them science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition and where all the superior ranks of people were secured from it the inferior ranks could not be much exposed to it the second of those remedies is the frequency and gaiety of public diversions the state by encouraging that is by giving entire liberty to all those who from their own interest would attempt without scandal or indecency to amuse and divert the people by painting poetry, music, dancing by all sorts of dramatic representations and exhibitions would easily dissipate in the greater part of them that melancholy and gloomy humor which is almost always the nurse of popular superstition and enthusiasm public diversions have always been the objects of dread and hatred to all the fanatical promoters of those popular frenzies the gaiety and good humor which those diversions inspire were altogether inconsistent with that temper of mind which was fittest for their purpose or which they could best work upon dramatic representations besides frequently exposing their artifices to public ridicule and sometimes even to public execration were upon that account more than all other diversions the objects of their peculiar apporance in a country where the law favored the teachers of no one religion more than those of another it would not be necessary that any of them should have any particular or immediate dependency upon the sovereign or executive power or that he should have anything to do either in appointing or in dismissing them from their offices in such a situation he would have no occasion to give himself any concern about them further than to keep the peace among them in the same manner as among the rest of his subjects that is to hinder them from persecuting abusing or oppressing one another but it is quite otherwise in countries where there is an established or governing religion the sovereign can in this case never be secure unless he has the means of influencing in a considerable degree the greater part of the teachers of that religion the clergy of every established church constitute a great incorporation they can act in concert and pursue their interest upon one plan and with one spirit as much as if they were under the direction of one man and they are frequently to under such direction their interest as an incorporated body is never the same with that of the sovereign and is sometimes directly opposite to it their great interest is to maintain their authority with the people and this authority depends upon the supposed certainty and importance of the whole doctrine which they inculcate and upon the supposed necessity of adopting every part of it with the most implicit faith in order to avoid eternal misery should the sovereign have the imprudence to appear either to deride or doubt himself of the most trifling part of their doctrine or from humanity attempt to protect those who did either the one or the other the punctilious honor of a clergy who have no sort of dependency upon him is immediately provoked to prescribe him as a person and to employ all the terrors of religion in order to oblige the people to transfer their allegiance to some more orthodox and obedient prince should he oppose any of their pretensions or usurpations the danger is equally great the princes who have dared in this manner to rebel against the church over and above this crime of rebellion have generally been charged to with the additional crime of heresy not withstanding their solemn protestations of their faith and humble submission to every tenet which she thought proper to prescribe to them but the authority of religion is superior to every other authority the fears which it suggests conquer all other fears when the authorized teachers of religion propagate through the great body of the people doctrine subversive of the authority of the sovereign it is by violence only or by the force of a standing army that he can maintain his authority even the standing army cannot in this case give him any lasting security because if the soldiers are not foreigners which can seldom be the case but drawn from the great body of the people which must almost always be the case they are likely to be soon corrupted by those very doctrines the revolutions which the turbulence of the Greek clergy was continually occasioning at Constantinople as long as the eastern empire subsisted the convulsions which during the course of several centuries the turbulence of the Roman clergy continually occasioning in every part of Europe sufficiently demonstrate how precarious and insecure must always be the situation of the sovereign who has no proper means of influencing the clergy of the established and governing religion of his country articles of faith as well as all other spiritual matters it is evident enough are not within the proper department of a temporal sovereign who though he may be very well qualified for protecting is seldom to be so for instructing the people with regard to such matters therefore his authority can seldom be sufficient to counterbalance the united authority of the clergy of the established church the public tranquility however and his own security may frequently depend upon the doctrines which they may think proper to propagate concerning such matters as he can seldom directly oppose their decision therefore with proper weight and authority it is necessary that he should be able and he can influence it only by the fears and expectations which he may excite in the greater part of the individuals of the order those fears and expectations may consist in the fear of deprivation or other punishment and in the expectation of further preferment in all Christian churches the beneficies of the clergy are a sort of freeholds which they enjoy not during pleasure but during life or good behavior if they held them by a more curious tenure and were liable to be turned out upon every slight disobligation either of the sovereign or of his ministers it would perhaps be impossible for them to maintain their authority with the people who would then consider them as mercenary dependents upon the court in the sincerity of whose instructions they could no longer have any confidence but should the sovereign attempt irregularly and by violence to deprive any number of clergymen of their freeholds on account propagated with more than ordinary zeal some factious or seditious doctrine he would only render by such persecution both them and their doctrine ten times more popular and therefore ten times more troublesome and dangerous than they had been before fear is in almost all cases a wretched instrument of government an ought in particular never to be employed against any order of men who have the smallest pretensions to independency to attempt to them serves only to irritate their bad humor and to confirm in them an opposition which more gentle usage perhaps might easily induce them either to soften or to lay aside altogether the violence which the French government usually employed in order to oblige all their parliaments or sovereign courts of justice to in register any unpopular edict very seldom succeeded the means commonly employed however the imprisonment of all the refactory members one would think were forcible enough the princes of the House of Stuart sometimes employed the like means in order to influence some of the members of the parliament of England and they generally found them equally intractable the parliament of England is now managed in another manner and the very small experiment which the Duke of Choiselle made about twelve years ago upon the parliament of France demonstrated sufficiently that all the parliaments of France might have been managed still more easily in the same experiment was not pursued for though management and persuasion are always the easiest and safest instruments of government as force and violence are the worst and the most dangerous yet such it seems is the natural insolence of man that he almost always disdains to use the good instrument except when he cannot or dare not use the bad one the French government could and durst use force and therefore disdain to use management and persuasion but there is no order of men it appears I believe from the experience of all ages upon whom it is so dangerous or rather so perfectly ruinous to employ force and violence as upon the respected clergy of an established church the rights the privileges the personal liberty of every individual ecclesiastic who is upon good terms with his own order are even in the most despotic government more respected than those of any other person of nearly equal fortune it is so in every gradation of despotism from that of the gentle and mild government of Paris to that of the violent and furious government of Constantinople but though this order of men can scarce ever be forced they may be managed as easily as any other and the security of the sovereign as well as the public tranquility seems to depend very much upon the means which he has of managing them and those means seem to preferment which he has to bestow upon them in the ancient constitution of the Christian church the bishop of each diocese was elected by the joint votes of the clergy and the people of the Episcopal city the people did not long retain their right of election and while they did retain it they almost always acted under the influence of the clergy who in such spiritual matters appeared to be their natural guides the clergy however soon grew weary of the them and found it easier to elect their own bishops themselves the Abbot in the same manner was elected by the monks of the monastery at least in the greater part of Abbasis all the inferior ecclesiastical benefices comprehended within the diocese were collated by the bishop who bestowed them upon such ecclesiastics as he thought proper all church preferments were in this manner in the disposal of the church the sovereign though he might have some direct influence in those elections and though it was sometimes usual to ask both his consent to elect and his approbation of the election yet had no direct or sufficient means of managing the clergy the ambition of every clergyman naturally led him to pay court not so much to his sovereign as to his own order from which only he could expect preferment through the greater part of Europe the pope gradually drew to himself first the collation of almost all Abbasis or of what were called consistorial benefices and afterwards by various machinations and pretenses of the greater part of inferior benefices comprehended within each diocese little more being left to the bishop than what was barely necessary to give him a decent authority with his own clergy by this arrangement the condition of the sovereign was still worse than it had been before the clergy of all the different countries of Europe were thus formed into a sort of spiritual army dispersed in different quarters indeed but of which all the movements and operations could now be directed by one head and conducted upon one uniform plan the clergy of each particular country might be considered as a particular detachment of that army of which the operations could easily be supported and seconded by all the other detachments quartered in the different countries round about each detachment was not only independent of the sovereign of the country in which it was quartered and by which it was maintained but dependent upon a foreign sovereign who could at any time turn its arms against the sovereign of that particular country and support them by the arms of all the other detachments those arms were the most formidable that can well be imagined in the ancient state of Europe before the establishment of arts and manufacturers the wealth of the clergy gave them the sort of influence over the common people which that of the great barons gave them over their respective basals tenets and retainers in the great landed states which the mistaken piety both of princes and private persons had bestowed upon the church jurisdictions were established of the same kind with those of the great barons and for the same reason in those great landed states the clergy or their bailiffs could easily keep the peace without the support or assistance either of the king or of any other person and neither the king nor any other person could keep the peace there without the support and assistance of the clergy the jurisdictions of the clergy therefore in their particular baronies or manners were equally independent and equally exclusive of the authority of the king's courts as those of the great temporal lords the tenets of the clergy were like those of the great barons almost all tenets at will entirely dependent upon their immediate lords and therefore liable to be called out at pleasure in order to fight in any quarrel in which the clergy proper to engage them over and above the rents of those estates the clergy possessed in the tithes a very large portion of the rents of all the other estates in every kingdom of Europe the revenues arising from both those species of rents were the greater part of them paid in kind in corn wine cattle poultry etc the quantity exceeded greatly what the clergy could themselves consume and there were neither arts nor manufacturers for the produce of which they could exchange the surplus the clergy could derive advantage from the cement surplus in no other way than by employing it as the great barons employed the like surplus of their revenues in the most profuse hospitality and in the most extensive charity both the hospitality and the charity of the ancient clergy accordingly are said to have been very great they not only maintained almost the whole poor of every kingdom but many knights and gentlemen had frequently no other means of subsistence than by traveling about from monastery to monastery under pretense of devotion but in reality to enjoy the hospitality of the clergy the retainers of some particular prelates were often as numerous as those of the greatest lay lords and the retainers of all the clergy taken together were perhaps more numerous than those of all the lay lords there was always much more union among the clergy than among the lay lords the former were under a regular and subordination to the papal authority the latter were under no regular discipline or subordination but almost always equally jealous of one another and of the king though the tenants and retainers of the clergy therefore had both together been less numerous than those of the great lay lords and their tenants were probably much less numerous yet their union would have rendered them more formidable the hospitality and charity of the clergy too not only gave them the command of the papal force but increased very much the weight of their spiritual weapons those virtues procured them the highest respect and veneration among all the inferior ranks of people of whom many were constantly and almost all occasionally fed by them everything belonging or related to so popular in order its possessions its privileges its doctrines necessarily appeared sacred in the eyes of the common people and every violation of them whether real or pretended the highest act of sacrilegious wickedness and profaneness in this state of things if the sovereign frequently found it difficult to resist the confederacy of a few of the great nobility we cannot wonder that he should find it still more so to resist the united force of the clergy of his own dominions supported by that of the clergy of all the neighboring dominions in such circumstances the wonder is not that he was sometimes obliged to yield but that he was able to resist end of book 5 chapter 1 part g