Correct thought he realised to be the
necessary precursor of right action; and he knew that correct thought is
impossible so long as old, inherited false ideas are unquestioningly
accepted and hold undisputed dominion over the human mind. Winstanley
seems to us to have realised that it was the ignorance of the many that,
in truth, maintained the privileges of the few; that the masses
themselves forge the fetters for their own enslavement, which, though
apparently as strong as iron bands, are, in truth, but things of
gossamer, easily to be broken by those who themselves have forged and
who themselves still maintain them.
In the next chapter (chap. v.) Winstanley briefly summarises his views
on education, and outlines the means by which he deemed both the
production and the distribution of wealth could be carried on without
having recourse to "the thieving art of buying and selling." It
commences as follows:
OF EDUCATION.
"Mankind in the days of his youth is like a young colt, wanton and
foolish, till he be broken in by education and correction; the
neglect of this care, or the want of wisdom in the performance of
it, hath been and is the cause of much division and trouble in the
world. Therefore the Law of a Common-wealth doth require that not
only a Father, but that all Overseers and Officers should make it
their work to educate children in good manners, and to see them
brought up in some trade or other, and to suffer no children in any
Parish to live in idleness and youthful pleasures all their days,
as many have been; but that they may be brought up like men and not
like beasts.
Pages:
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317