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Untitled Article
political character : we find there critiques upon new works , notices of the fine arts , accounts of new inventions , and of Voyages for scientific discovery , facts in . astronomy , chemistry , medicine , geology , and history , agricultural reports , and articles upon every subject of human interest . It is quite true that a
newspaper paragraph does not embody so much knowledge as a profound philosophical treatise ; but the latter is not read by those whose attention is alread y too much engrossed by numerous cares and avocations , and the newspaper affords them , on the whole , as much information upon general subjects as they have leisure to acquire .
But let no one depreciate the value of that intelligence which is the especial province of a daily journal , and which is political ; that is to say , which treats of passing events , of the conduct of legislators , and of the principles of legislation , of the measures which are to promote the prosperity of millions , or involve them in hopeless misery . What is the history of the past , compared
with a knowledge of the world as it is ? What the most scientific researches to the stirring incidents in which life and property are at stake ? We have to do with the struggles and difficulties of society , in its bustling active scenes we have to take a part , and we require to know the circumstances in which we are placed , the relation in which we stand to others , to be put upon our guard against the sharks who prey upon ignorance and simplicity , to
have our liberty defined , that we may learn what we may do , and what we must refrain from doing ; and is a knowledge of these things to be forbidden in the nineteenth century ? Were it only that there is no other effective instrument for the promulgation of the laws , no other means of learning- the manner in which judges , magistrates , and juries , administer the laws , than a newspaper , it must be of inestimable importance to the people .
In reference to the all-important subject of national education , there is no engine that mi ght be made so powerful in forwarding this great work as cheap newspapers . To teach the art of reading is a very small part of the business of public instruction , we must teach the habit of reading * before we can create a
wellinformed mind , and before that habit can exist , the attention must be aroused , and an interest excited , which is always best done by those publications which treat of passing events . In country places we may often meet with adults who have been taught , when young " , to spell through a chapter of the New
Testament , but have never advanced any further , and have even forgotten what they knew of the art , for want of all access to works of sufficient novelty to make reading a source of pleasure , and remove from their minds the impression of a disagreeable task . Penny Magazines will do much to remedy this defect , but little or nothing compared with what might be effected by penny newspapers . What is it likely an unlettered villager will care
Untitled Article
108 The Taxes en Knowledge .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1834, page 108, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2630/page/24/
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