CHAPTER XVI.
EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE.
All the world knows, and says over and over again, that education is less advanced in the Papal States than in any country in Europe.

It is a source of universal regret that the nation which is, perhaps, of all others the most intelligent by God's grace, should be the most ignorant by the will of priests.

This people has been compared to a thorough-bred horse, reduced from racing to walking blindfolded, round and round, grinding corn.
But people who talk thus take a partial view of the question.

They don't, or they won't, see how entirely the development of public ignorance is in conformity with the principles of the Church, and how favourable it is to the maintenance of priestly government.
Religions are founded, not upon knowledge, or science, but upon faith, or, as some term it, credulity.

People have agreed to describe as an "act of faith" the operation of closing one's eyes in order to see better.