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    I will conclude this lecture with a few words of disappointment as to the past , and of hope for the future , quoted from a work which has been dedicated respectfully to this powerful and beneficial Institution . 4 It may be thought a hard word , but it is not spoken in any spirit of offence , but simply because it is true , that just so much reform may be

    expected from the Church , and not one jot or tittle more , as is demanded by the general voice of the people . If a feeling of deep dissatisfaction , gradually increasing to indignation , should originate in the Mechanics ' Institutes , as being the most intelligent and the best informed of the people , should spread through the Political Unions , as being the most energetic of the people , and should at length pervade the whole body of

    the people , —a feeling of deep indignation at the manifest inactivity of the clergy , and at the gross ignorance in which they leave the people , ( for the reading of two set forms of prayer , and the preaching of two sermons per week , is indeed small work , often for large pay , and this small work is of a kind quite inadequate to the intellectual and moral wants of the people , ) it may be hoped that the clergy , at length shamed into giving a wholesome daily bread of instructive and interesting

    discipline , will at once redeem their own character from the charge of something very nearly approaching to utter neglect , and at the same time lead the mind of the people out of that house of bondage , ignorance , bigotry , fanaticism , sensuality , and irreligion , and place it in that promised land of knowledge and civilization which Providence intends it to enter . The National School-Room might , each evening of the week , be resorted to by the parents of the children who attend during the day , if

    they were sure of hearing , not dry heavy prosings , listened to with the decorous gravity of a sad dull duty , but a discipline of useful knowledge , interesting information , and elevating feeling . With an unfeigned re * 8 pect for what a learned writer has called 4 * Holy Places , ' * I cannot see one sound objection , but many verv strong reasons for desiring to find a " Daily Bread ! in the church itself , on the evening of each day , and for not more than an hour . But let us concede this point to those who consider the starting ill-timed difficulties a zealous watchfulness over the

    interests of the Church ; and in concession to their objections , let our supposed evening" meeting for instruction and amusement ( how well might these be concluded with prayer and praise ) be held not in the church itself , but in the National School-Room . There , if attention to the health and comfort of the persons who might be induced to attend these evening readings were carefully consulted , perhaps an useful and pleasant discovery might be made , namely , that the great theatre of the

    universe and the vast dfama of life , as the nhvaical laws of th « nnv anrl universe and the vast drama of life , as the physical laws of the one , and the moral consequences of the other , explained by clear-headed and right-hearted writers , should become commented on by an intelligent and interested reader ; perhaps , I repeat , it might be discovered that these subjects bo treated have in them sufficient to occupy the reason

    and interest the feelings of God ' s rational creatures . And if the people should learn at these evening readings to set a still higher value on their teacher , and the teacher should be taught to think more highly of the true-heartedness of the people ; and if both teacher and learner should discover additional reasons for reverencing the sanctity of truth , and

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    18 The Diffusion of Knowledge amongst the People .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1834, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2629/page/18/