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of humanity , mistakes are the necessary instruments by which truth is brought to light , or , at least , indispensable conditions of the process . "—Pp . 138 , 139 . The position really taken by the advocates for the iziterposition of civil authority with regard to opinions , is ,
that novel errors are capable of overturning truths already established . But if authorized opinions are true , every examination will terminate in placing them in a clearer light . The only cause of apprehension of
opinions suffering from discussion is the suspicion that by a , certain process of reasoning they may be proved to be wrong . It is a work of difficulty to overturn even established error ; why then fear the overthrow of established
truth by the utmost license of discussion ? This alarm , which so frequently challenges power on its side , proceeds in most cases from a selfish regard to private interests , with which established opinions are considered to be interwoven .
The author treats in Section VI ., " On the free Publication of Opinions as affecting the People at large / ' Restrictions imposed with a view to guard the lower classes from error , imply a persuasion of infallibility in those who
impose them , which persuasion if it had always been acted upon , would have led , we know ,, to the suppression of truth and the encouragement of error . In an age of improvement and a land of liberty , the minds of the
people cannot be confined to any given ideas . By a thousand channels discussions are made famiJiar to them , and they become partakers in the doubts , difficulties and objections which their superiors in rank and knowledge entertain on every controvertible subject . tertain on every controvertible subject .
On the supposition , therefore , of established opinions being true , more error might prevail under a system of restraint than under perfect freedom of inquiry . Authority might prohibit the expression of contrary opinions , but it could not root them out of the
mind . Being kept secret , they could not be confuted ; and they would thus bid fair to last longer aud also to spread wider , than if they were freely exposed to the rigorous test of general examination . The only way to contract the empire of error is to increase the general power of discerning
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its character . The days of conceafment and mystery are past . 'There is now no resource but in a system of fairness and open dealings no feasible mode of preserving and propagating truth but by exalting ignorance into knowledge .
i € The universal edqcation of the poor , which no earthly power can prevent although it may retard it , is loudly demanded by the united voices of the moralist and politician . But if the people
are to be enlightened at all , it is unavailing and inconsistent to resort to half measures and timid expedients ; to treat them at once as men and as children ; to endow them with the power of thinking and at the same time to fetter its
exercise ; to make an appeal to their reason and yet to distrust its result ; to give them the stomach of a lion and feed them with the aliment of a lamb . The promoters of the universal education of the poor ought to be aware , that they are setting in motion , or at least accelerating
the action of an engine too powerful ta be controlled at their pleasure , and likely to prove fatal to all those parts of their own systems which rest not on the solid foundation of reality . They ought to know , that they are necessarily giving birth to a great deal of doubt and
investigation ; that they are undermining the power of prejudice , and the influence of mere -authority and prescription ; that they are creating an immense number of keen inquirers and original thinkers , whose intellectual force will be turned , in the first instance , upon those subjects which are dearest to the heart and of
most importance to society . "—Pp . 148 > 149 . We find the cheering sentiment of our author in this and other passages , expressed in his familiar way by Sir Win . Temple : ( Miscellanies , Pt . III . p . 301 : ) " Truth will be uppermost , one time or other , like cork , though kept down in the water . "
The V 11 th and last Section is " On the ultimate Inefficacy of Restraints on the Publication of Opinions , and their bad Effects in disturbing the natural Course of Improvement . " This is the natural conclusion of the whole
argument . In the present state of the world , it is questionable whether the progress of opinion can be much retarded by restraint and persecution ; and it is certain that it cannot be stopped . The various branches of knowledge are so intimately connect-
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< 528 Review . —Essays on the Formation and Publication ofOplr&om
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1822, page 628, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2517/page/44/
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