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Untitled Article
divine . The propositions of Lessing form the ground-work of the observations which follow . My design is rather to engage the interest of the reader in an inquiry of extraordinary importance , than to advocate propositions which , individually or collectively , must stand or fall by their own strength or weakness . The system is grounded on the conviction that the object of the Divine Government is to secure the ultimate perfection of all mankind . The
evidence in favour of this design is the same by which the attributes of Deity are ascertained , and it therefore forms no part of the present inquiry , which relates solely to the means used to secure this object . The rational faculty is the appointed instrument of human perfection . It is the endowment by which the race is distinguished from all inferior orders of beings ; the sole faculty to which all events bear a relation , to which all circumstances are subservient , through which the dispensations of Providence are rendered important , by which Providence itself is recognized . The cultivation of this faculty is therefore the chief object of the Divine care ; the
improvement of this endowment the most blessed effect of the Divine benignity . In the constitution of nature , as its laws are ordinarily administered , provision is made for the gradual development of reason in individuals ; and through them , in successive generations . As no two individuals are exposed to the operation of precisely similar influences , the improvement of individual minds is the sole means of the advancement of the race , according to what are called the natural methods of the Divine Government , and the
progress towards perfection must therefore be extremely gradual . The object of a revelation is to quicken the progress , and not , as is usually supposed , to change or supersede it . As , by a beneficent ordination of Providence , the perception of every new truth invigorates the perceptive power , the exhibition of facts which it would have required ae ; es to establish by inference , must assist , in an incalculable degree , the development of reason ; and this assistance is rendered yet more valuable by its extension to masses of people ; by its equal adaptation to a multitude of minds . Lessing calls this assistance education . ** Revelation / ' he says , " is to the whole race of mankind what education is to the individual . " " Education is a revelation
made to a single man ; and revelation is the education of the whole race of mankind which has taken place , and still continues to take place . * ' To serve the purpose of an analogy , this mode of expression may be allowed ; but it is not sufficiently accurate to be brought forward as an aphorism . Education does not consist in the exhibition of facts , nor chiefly in the inculcation of principles , but in the formation and strengthening of those powers by which facts are to be ascertained and principles deduced . Regarding education generally , however , as a means of improvement , the
analogy is sufficiently close ; and revelation , in its comparison with reason , may be described as a special , superadded to a general , system of education of the human race . The first object to be attained by a special system of this kind was to
antedate men ' s perception of a divine moral government . A few individuals might , by natural means , and after a great length of time , have formed some conception of such a providence ; but the necessary operations of the mind are complicated , and such as presuppose a considerable degree of intellectual advancement : and even when clearly established in the minds of a few , such a conception could not be easily or speedily imparted to the many .
Untitled Article
Education of the Human Race . 301
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1830, page 301, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2584/page/13/
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