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Untitled Article
missionary , a denizen of a happy valley ; a real El Dorado , which , however , we qadly ^ fear 4 no man can find , ' as yet , be his maps ever so correct , or his researches ever so careful ! In this secluded retreat , it seems , is fixed a colony of the ancient children of the sun , ' who escaped from the devastation of Pizarro and his Christian murderers , and have there resided ever since , under the mild sway of the descendants of the Incas .
But Vela is not a simple admirer , fresh from a paradise of ignorants . He belongs to a community , who , though unknown to the world , are not themselves unknowing . With care and secrecy their sovereigns have , from time to time , by means of emissaries dispatched for the purpose , possessed themselves of the sciences of the European world ; and improving these advantages for the equal benefit of all , the people enjoy
an advanced state of civilization ; so that Vela , who lias sojourned some months at Lima , in the especial society of an English baptist missionary , is qualified , by his familiarity with our language and our literature , to take his station , in the first circles , as an intelligent foreigner ; and his inquiries and remarks have sufficient naivete to give them raciness , without the wearisomeness of perpetual wonderment and blunderment .
The grand position of our authors heroes is , that the present state and condition of society is based in error ; that this is evinced and declared by the misery and moral degradation that every where prevails ; —that to permit the effectuation of any radical improvement , a grand intellectual advancement must be made by the people in general ; that
the human race , being ' clay in the potter ' s hands / their actions the result of the circumstances with which they are surrounded , —the character of the individual formed for and not by him , —it is necessary , above all things , to commence by providing a better arrangement of circumstances for the individual . Infant schools are especially affected , ami the theory of example and imitation carefully developed .
But it is time we closed our remarks ; and we will conclude with the conclusion of the work . Hampden , who succeeds to a peerage , and takes his seat in the House of Lords , after various disappointments , determines to devote his time and talents to the carrying on of plans for the gradual and eventual improvement of the human race . He resolves to convert his noble mansion into ' a seminary for the children of the aristocracy / of all ages . *
The right wing of the house will be devoted to an infant boarding school , and lo the reception of children as soon as they can walk , and perhaps earlier . Boys and girls , under an unremitting moral superintendence , shall be educated together , without any distinction : —they shall , themselves , devote much attention to the conduct of the younger children , and become the chief
directors of large parochial and infant schools for the poor in our own neighbourhood . They shall also , accompanied by experienced persons , be particularly attentive to the poor themselves , suggesting improvements in their gardens and cottages ; so that , while they are thus advancing in moral education , they will ameliorate the condition of society . '—Vol . ii . page 274 .
In order to pursue these plans , Lord Ham p den resolves to resign his honours and his seat as an hereditary legislator . This determination he puts in practice , and the work concludes with his farewell speech , which generally recapitulates and condenses the aim and tendency of It may be not amis * to observe , that this part is scarcely fiction , 1 he author of the work having himself appropriated his residence at Hanwell to an ' Academic Institution / for carrying into effect his scheme of moral anil intellectual education *
Untitled Article
744 Ctitical Notices .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1834, page 744, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2638/page/70/
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