THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

735

them extremely complicated, and such as exercise the headmore than the hands. The understandings ot those who areengaged in such employments can seldom grow torpid forwant of exercise. The employments of people of some rankand fortune, besides, are seldom such as harass them frommorning to night. They generally have a good deal of lei-sure, during which they may perfect themselves in everybranch either of useful or ornamental knowledge of whichthey may have laid the foundation, or for which they mayhave acquired some taste in the early part of life.

It is otherwise with the common people. They have littletime to spare for education. Their parents can scarce affordto maintain them even in infancy. As soon as they are ableto work, they must apply to some trade by which they canearn their subsistence. That trade too is generally so simpleand uniform as to give little exercise to the understanding;while, at the same time, their labour is both so constant andso severe, that it leaves them little leisure and less inclina-tion to apply to, or even to think of any thing else.

But though the common people cannot, in any civilizedsociety, be so well instructed as people of some rank and for-tune, the most essential parts of education, however, to read,write, and account, can be acquired as so early a period oflife, that the greater part even of those who are to be bred tothe lowest occupations have time to acquire them before theycan be employed in those occupations. For a very smallexpense the public can facilitate, can encourage, and caneven impose upon almost the whole body of the people, thenecessity of acquiring those most essential parts of education.

The public can facilitate this acquisition by establishingin every parish or district a little school, where children maybe taught for a reward so moderate, that even a .common la-bourer may afford it; the master being partly, but not whollypaid by the public; because, if he was wholly, or even prin-cipally paid by it, he would soon learn to neglect his busi-ness. Iu Scotland the establishment of such parish schoolshas taught almost the whole common people to read, and avery great proportion of them to write and account. In England,the establishment of charity schools has had an effect of thesame kind, though not so universally, because the establish-ment is not so universal. If in those little schools the booksby which the children are taught to read were a little moreinstructive than they commonly are; and if, instead of a little