MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT SOCIETIES.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2239, 11 July 1870, Page 2

MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT SOCIETIES.

To the Editor of the Even ino Star.

“ A little learning is a dangerous tiling.” —Pope.

Sip.,—lf the "present age differs and cr - eels any preceding ones it does in this—the great and universal thirst for knowledge among the middle and lower classes especially. The channels that have been opened thereby arc as varied as the information they diffuse.

It is still within our recollection when mechanics’ institutes and popular literature were things unknown ; when education, I mean the higher education, was considered quite .unnecessary to any one who did not belong to the higher classes or professions, when the working man was quite satisfied to remain in that happy state “ When ignorance is bliss.” But when mechanics’ institutes and cheap literature were inaugurated, a new era dawned, and the clouds of darkness and ignorance that so long enslaved the working man, vanished, and soon they availed themselves of this groat boon, suddenly brought within their reach. Evening classes wore fstablished, and from among that very class, that until then seemed only tit to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, sprung some of the brightest ornaments of our literature, politics. &c. But alas the greatest blessings bestowed upon us are frequently misapplied, and fail to have that effect we should have hoped to follow. The mind so suddenly disenthralled from its bondage, and so excited by its emancipation, rushes, or is apt to, into that very extreme it would bo most desirable to avoid, viz., pedantic conceit. For like a tender plant ii not carefully tended and nurtured, wiil most assuredly run wild, and consequently lose all its strength and decay, so with a mind partly educated it must be taught to be patient and endeavour to see by its education its own insignificance and what a mere pigmy it is, compared with the boundless stores of knowledge yet unopened and unexplored—“A little learning is a dangerous thing : Drink deep, Ac.’’

Societies for tho mutual improvement of their members >v< re next established pretty generally over the country, where essays were delivered, debates held, kc. The pioneers of this channel of knowledge were, I doubt not commendable in their intentions, but to what result have they led, what arc the fruits of such societies 1 In the north of England, where they flourish most, 1 will allude to afterwards. The practice of such club is to propose a subject for debate, historical, religious, political, or otherwise. The parties, appointed by the committee, I believe, or by tbeir own choice, prepare themselves for the task ; the affirmative may be advocated by one who believes in that idea of the subject or he may not, it matters not. He argues for argument sake alone, so does his opponent. They each procure what ideas will suit their views of it, and any author consulted is consulted far as he possesses any argument suitable to their view. The' subject may be “Was Mahomet an impostor ?’’ or some such interesting subject; it passes off creditably, the actors are complimented by the audience on thfeir ability and for tho clear arguments, when the poor author who furnished it may he tho arguments verbatim, is left in obscurity, unacknowledged and unthanked. The consequent result is the parties acquire an inordinate amount of self-esteem ai\d surface information : the very nature of their reading cannot fa\l to confer this. I have rarely met one member of a debating club that I ‘could fairly call a well read man It is not only that the evil exists, in the north of Englaud, where I have said they flourish most,

the effect has been felt in a religions and social way infidel-:, freethinker;, and socialists, have always largely recruited from their ranks. Thin state is brought about l,v members arguing against settled truths ami ideas, merely for argument’s sake, and what was at one time merely pretence, becomes a settled conviction. Sir, it is with the best possible intentions I pen these lines. We have a society of this kind in this City, it is hardly long enough i:t existence to see its fruits, but I can already detect unmistakeahle signs, that they sometimes venture out of their depth. By tins practice they can never acquire that habit of careful and patient study which would undoubtedly benefit them much more materially than writing essays, &c. Apologising for so far intruding on your valuable space, I have, &c., J.M. Cargill street, July S.