As the minds of the inhabitants of the cities,from the causes above stated,do not appear to be exactly prepared for the reception of the Scripture,it seems most expedient for some time to come to offer it principally to the peasantry,by the greater part of whom there is so much ground for believing that it will be received with gratitude and joy.True it is that the Spanish peasantry are in general not so well educated as their brethren of the cities,their opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of letters having always been inferior;nevertheless it would be difficult to enter a cottage of which at least one of the inmates could not read,more or less.They are moreover a serious people,and any book upon religious subjects is far more certain of captivating their attention than one of a lighter character,and,above all,their minds have hitherto never been tainted by those unhappy notions of infidelity too prevalent amongst the other class.There is one feature which I wish to mention here,which is indeed common to the Spanish people in general but more particularly to the peasantry,namely,that whenever a book is purchased,whether good or bad,the purchaser entertains a firm intention of reading it,which he almost invariably puts into execution.I do not make this observation merely upon hearsay -though I have frequently heard it from quarters which I am bound to respect -many examples tending to substantiate the fact having come under my own knowledge.It is at least a great consolation to the distributor of the Word of God in Spain,that the seed which he casts around him is in general received by the earth beneath the surface,from which he is induced to trust that it will some day spring up and produce good fruit.
I now beg leave to repeat from a previous communication the manner in which I made my first attempt to distribute the Scriptures amongst the peasantry.I must here remind the Committee that until [I]myself solved the problem of the possibility,no idea had been entertained of introducing the Bible in the rural districts of countries exclusively Papist.This remark,which I make with the utmost humility,merely springs from an idea that a similar attempt,if made with boldness and decision,might prove equally successful in Italy,Mexico,and many other countries,even pagan,which have not yet been penetrated,particularly China and Grand Tartary,on the shores of which the Bible labours under great disadvantage and odium from being put into the hands of the natives by people seemingly in connection with those for whom it is impossible they can entertain much respect,as they are well known to contribute largely towards the corruption of the public morals.
But I now return to my subject,and proceed at once to the experiment which I made at different periods and in different provinces.