USEFUL KNOWLEDGE; WITH A FEW HINTS TO MEMBERS OF MUTUAL INSTRUCTION SOCIETIES.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 6, 19 August 1842, Page 3

USEFUL KNOWLEDGE; WITH A FEW HINTS TO MEMBERS OF MUTUAL INSTRUCTION SOCIETIES.

(From the London Saturday JournalJ

The generation of young men who, some ten or fifteen years ago, were inspired with an intense desire for “ useful knowledge,” and who entered with eager and passionate earnestness into the agitations of the period, is now rapidly giving place to a new generation, to whom all these extraordinary events are but as matters of history. The youth who, in IS4O, numbers himscif amongst the men, by virtue of being •‘of age,” cannot be supposed to recollect, at least with anything like distinctness, what was the state of public feeling in 1830. There are youths, indeed, who at an early age begin to take an interest in public affairs, more especially if their seniors around them set the example; but these prematurely grave young gentlemen arc rare, and, on the whole, it is as little to be desired as expected to see youths “ politically” inclined before the age of fourteen or fifteen. After that period, however, we should certainly expect a young man, if possessed of any desire for improvement, to begin to take an interest in what is going on in the world around him; for from fourteen or fifteen begins the proper period of self-reliance and self-instruction. All our young men, then, who, in the present year, are from fifteen to twenty-one years of age, may be considered as having little or no personal experience of the state of public feeling eight and ten years ago, and therefore did not receive any of the “ electrical shocks” which stimulated the minds of those who are now their seniors. What then ? Has the whole of that mental agitation died away, and left no trace of its influence, no evidence of its power ? Far from it. The new generation, whom the census of 1841 will' number amongst the men of Britain, arc reaping the fruits of the “ useful knowledge” acquired by their immediate predeces-

sors; lV man dies, but society liveslike the wider and wider circles which mark where a stone has been thrown into the water, the impulse given to the mind of one generation acts on another, abated in force, but wideinn range. The aggregate number of reader's in Great Britain is far greater than it was ten or fifteen years ago. True, there is not such a directness or intensity of purpose. The increased number who have acquired the habit of reading are not so uneasily desirous of acquiring “ useful knowledge” as their predecessors, wl. en first awakened to the fact of their ignorance. Many now read merely for amusement, and can hardly be persuaded to read anything but what is funny, or exciting, or ridiculous. Not a few read only what is more or less absurd or pernicious. Still, out of the aggregate number, a very large portion—a large minority, if not a majority—are desirous of acquiring “ useful knowledge,” and* anxiously seek, according to their means and opportunities, for whatever will elevate their minds, add to their stock of information, and increase their capacity for thought. That the increased body of readers give encouragement to not a little that is worthless, is too true; and that men of ability, and even genius, are to be found, wlio degrade their powers by their application, and, looking merely to “ marketable value,” pander to vicious tastes, is a matter of sincere regret. But though, probably, the increase of mere readers goes on faster than the increase of true readers—those who read for a specific and good purpose—we. have no doubt whatever that tlie latter are far more numerous than they were a few years ago ; and that they pursue their objects with a distinctness and steadiness which is not only gratifying as regards themselves, but hopeful for the prospects of a future generation.

One of our reasons for so thinking is drawn from the apparent great increase in the number of the private associations of youths, to which the general name of Mutual Instruction Societies may be given. Some of these associations may flourish for a time, and then fade, leaving no apparent trace of their existence; others may fail for want of hearty co-operation, or even be split up by feuds and “ opposition;” while a few may be productive of positive injury, from improper or injudicious management. Still, here is a fact that the rising generation of young men are, even more than their predecessors, anxious for self-improvement, for mutual instruction, and for acquiring habits of thinking; and that, in pursuit of their objects, they are learning the power of self-reliance and of voluntary cooperation. To what uses, good or bad, ma}* this knowledge not he put!

(To be continued.)