An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith [e book reader pdf TXT] 📗

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 maybe

taught for a reward so moderate, that even a common labourer may

afford it ; the master being partly, but not wholly, paid by the

public ; because, 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 establishmnent 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 to it the principles of geometry

and 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 their

military and gymnastic exercises, by encouraging it, and even by

imposing upon the whole body of the people the necessity of

learning those exercises, that the Greek and Roman republics

maintained the martial spirit of their respective citizens. They

facilitated the acquisition of those exercises, by appointing a

certain place for learning and practising them, and by granting

to certain masters the privilege of teaching in that place. Those

masters do not appear to have had eirher salaries or exclusive

privileges of any kind. Their reward consisted altogether in what

they got from their scholars ; and a citizen, who had learnt his

exercises in the public gymnasia, had no sort of legal advantage

over one who had learnt 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 Nemaean games, gave

illustration, not only to the person who gained it, but to his

whole family and kindred. 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 body of the people, the example of 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 defence

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, than 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 vigour. Whereas to maintain, even in

tolerable 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 healthful or unhealthful, the mutilated or entire state

of the mind, than upon that of the body. Even though the martial

spirit of the people were of no use towards the defence 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, would 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 offensive disease, though 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, seem 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. An 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

favourable 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.

 

Art. III. � 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 which contains this instruction, 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 a landed estate, a tythe

or land tax. an established salary or stipend. Their exertion,

their zeal and industry, are likely to be much greater in the

former situation than in the latter. In this respect, 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 fervour 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 defence even of their own establishment. The

clergy of an established and well endowed religion frequently

become men 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, feel themselves as

perfectly defenceless as the indolent, effeminate, and full fed

nations of the southern parts of Asia, when they were invaded by

the active, hardy, 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 disturbers 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 defence 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