Excerpt from An Address, Delivered Before the Association of Teachers: And Friends of Popular Education, at Exeter, Dec; 28, 1836 That feature in our own times is the spirit of reform. Old Opinions are questioned and given up, and new ones adopted, in their stead - old habits of life are lain aside, like a worn out garment. Men feel restrained by the usages of their fathers and discard them as idle and useless - and invent new projects of business and of pleasure - and principles however long and well settled, are examined anew. A spirit of enquiry has gone out into the world penetrating the depths and recesses of society and ascending its highest places. And the question is, now, every day presented to our consideration, whether this or that principle is expedient or well founded - whether this or that institution cannot be given up and a better one substituted in its place. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.