This is a free government,
and a fatherly government, and a mild government, as ye all know; but it
is not a government that likes reading and writing; reading that leads to
the perusal of bad books, and writing that causes false signatures.
Fellow-citizens, for we are all equal, with the exception of certain
differences that need not now be named, it is a government for your good,
and therefore it is a government that likes itself, and whose first duty
it is to protect itself and its officers at all hazards, even though it
might by accident commit some seeming injustice. Fellow, canst thou read?"
"Indifferently, worshipful bailiff," returned Maso. "There are those who
get through a book with less trouble than myself."
"I warrant you, now, he means a good book but, as for a bad one, I'll
engage the varlet goes through it like a wild boar! This comes of
education among the ignorant! There is no more certain method to corrupt a
community, and to rivet it in beastly practices, than to educate the
ignorant. The enlightened can bear knowledge, for rich food does not harm
the stomach that is used to it, but it is hellebore to the ill-fed.
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