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    AftT . II- The Proneness of a philosophizing Spirit to embrace Error ; with Remarks upon Mr . Lancaster ' s new System of Educa * tion , pointing out its Defects and Errors icith regard to reli gious Instruction and moral IManagevient : A Sermon preached at the yearly JSIeeting of the Sunday Schools in the Collegiate Church oj Manchester , on Monday ^ Muy IS , 1807 * By the Rev R Bartlow . Svo . pp . 32 . 1808 .

    Mr . Bat * low is master of the Free Grammar ' School of Win-\ yick , and we doubt not well qualified for teaching country lads yropria qua ? maribus , and inspiring : them with awe of the school-IT ? master , and reverence of the

    clergyman of the parish . As the opponent of Mr . Lancaster he is not quite so respectable . He and Mrs . Trimmer are to all appearance good sort of people , but persons of this description are best at home ; before the public they make no figure .

    Why , we asked ourselves when we received this pamphlet from our booksellers , is this alarm concerning Mr . Lancaster ? What has he done , or is he doing , to revive our fears of Jacobinism and atheism , of liberty , fraternity , and equality ? Truly , the cause of these apprehensions and fears is that he has invented , or rather

    anglicised a mode of education , by which the poor may be cheaply , speedily , and effectually taught reading , writing , and arithmetic ; and all this without any provision for their being indoctrinated with the Athiiiidsian creed ; this sensible smd ingenious Quaker

    professing himself satisfied , if he can make boys and girls strictly mo . nil , faithful , decent , obedient , * uul tractable . It is the growth of knowledge which terrifies our elderl y country esquires , village ftergymen . who left gollegp half a

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    century agon , c , and ancient maids who never felt a wish to read more v than the Common Prayer Book and Bible with the Apocrypha . The fear of knowledge seems to indicate a belief that knowledge is an enemy . It detects and exposes unfounded claims , casts contempt upon ignorance however

    caparisoned , makes adulation appear base and despicable , and se ( s up resistance to oppn ssion * Hence the uninformed , the superstitious , the proud and the tyrannical speak of it " with no friendl y voice , ' ' and call to it only to 4 * tell it how they hate its beams . "

    Mr . Lancaster is a harmless Quaker , making no higher pretensions than to good sense , and a competent share of information ; but the nmster of Winwick school represents him as a philosopher , who with the foimidnble engine of education threatens to " undermine and destroy every establish . *

    ed form of religion . " The church is in danger , because boys are to be seduced into good behaviour b y the high sentiments of emulation and pride , and not by the tear of the rod , and the dread of " Him *

    who has 10 , 000 ways of making them extremely miserable ; " " coi > pornl punishment is excluded , and fhe dictates of the divine wisdom of Solomon are become obsolete ! " little sinners arc to be shamed out of vice by ridicule ! school learning is disjoined from

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1808, page 509, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2396/page/53/