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    most necessary principles on the other side , and , above all , feeble © p inions and irresolute conduct between these two extremes , I look around for some remedy for these intellectual and moral evils , which must end in political evils , and 1 see it in such institutions as I am now addressing . Independently of the large

    means you possess of diffusing truth amongst the people , the mere fact that you afford truth a fair hearing must be alarming- to errors , whose greatest strength is in silence . Nor need I tell you that empty professions will be less likely to be made , when the most intelligent of those to whom they have to be made are known to be aware of their empiiness . Nor will even more sincere

    opinions be able to be held without observing the precept * prove all things / when there are intelligent persons who require opinions to be submitted to this fair test . I must recall to your remembrance once more the main object of my two lectures , from which we have not , indeed , wandered

    a single step , namely , to inquire into the best means of communicating knowledge to such audiences as are generally to be found in small country towns . Have I then been right in recommending our friend , who has succeeded in establishing a Mechanics ' Institution in Marlbro ' , * to commence by employing as good a reader as the Institution can secure , to read such works of genius , as are sure , when well read , to come home to the bosoms and business of all ; namely , by appealing to their consciences and reasons through their imaginations and feelings ? Will our friend be right , secondly , in leading minds not accustomed to physical experiments , nor to synthetical and analvtical

    reasoning's , more gradually than lectures on natural philosophy usually do , into the facts and principles of physical science ? Lastly , will our friend be right in bringing a knowledge of the action of imagination , and of the certainties of science , to bear on opinions which are often held with more vehemence of sincerity than evidence of truth , and which become the groundwork of fanaticism in one state of mind , and of scepticism in another ?

    I have thus endeavoured to point out to the notice of yourselves , and I hope of others , a few steps in a plan of public instruction , which would prove as easy to the teacher , as it would be pleasant to the pupil . The chief advantage of the plan I have proposed is , that , whilst it is plain to be understood , and not difficult of execution , ! even to men of the most moderate talents ; it is capable of any extension which the genius and information

    • The name of Welford will long be remembered with gratitude in Marlbro ' , as hiving given a powerful aid to the exertions of spirited and intelligent individuals ia their endeavours to > inspire thought and feeling into that Hmall country town . t Let me remark , that some of the most successful preachers I have heard in the Church have been readers of other men ' s sermonu . Having taken much pains to "&h out the force of other men ' s thoughts , they have , though very able men thernfelvet , done much more good than they could have done , if they had wasted them * tetoe * in original compotition .

    Untitled Article

    The Ttijfu&on of Knowledge amongst the People . Ht 9

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1834, page 279, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2632/page/47/