Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

20 INTRODUCTI()N.
(says Voltaire) 1" occurs but seldom in a nation where the literary taste is formed. The number of cultivated minds which
there abound, like the trees in a thick and flourishing forest,
prevent any single individual from rearing his head far above
the rest. Where trade is in few hands, we meet with a small
number of overgrown fortunes in the midst of a general poverty: in proportion as it extends, opulence becomes general,
and great fortunes rare. It is precisely because there is, at
present, much light and much cultivation in France, that we
are led to complain of the want of superior genius."
How far education conduces to happiness. —To what purpose,
indeed, it may be said, is all this labor? Is not the importance of every thing to man to be ultimately estimated by its
tendency to promote his happiness? And is not our daily experience sufficient to convince us, that this is, in general, by no
means proportioned to the culture which his nature has received? Nay, is there not some ground for suspecting, that the
lower orders of men enjoy, on the whole, a more enviable con
dition, than their more enlightened and refined superiors?
The truth, I apprehend, is, that happiness, in so far as it
arises from the mind itself, will be always proportioned to the
degree of perfection which its powers have attained; but that,
in cultivating these powers with a view to this most important
of all objects, it is essentially necessary that such a degree of
attention be bestowed on all of them, as may preserve them
in that state of relative strength, which appears to be agree..
able to the intentions of nature. In consequence of an exclusive attention to the culture of the imagination, the taste, the
reasoning faculty, or any of the active principles, it is possible
that the pleasures of h]uman life may be diminished, or its pains
increased; but the inconveniences which are experienced in such
cases are not to be ascribed to education, but to a partial and injudicious education. In such cases, it is possible that the poet,
the metaphysician, or the man of taste and refinement, may appear to disadvantage when compared with the vulgar; for such
is the benevolent appointment of Providence with respect to the
lower orders, that, although not one principle of their nature be