John Foster (1770 - 1843) was an English essayist who was educated for the Baptist ministry. He later devoted himself to a career in literature. He contributed nearly 200 articles to the Eclectic Review. He wrote: Essays, in a Series of Letters (1804), and Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance (1820), in which he urges the necessity of a national system of education. Foster traces the history of ignorance and its effect on various cultures. He discusses how ignorance leads to cruelty in the treatment of animals and the working classes. Foster disputes the claim that the working classes are better off ignorant. Foster concludes that religious ignorance has vast consequences. A nation must educate its population in order to progress