People Getting Dumber? Human Intelligence Has Declined Since Victorian Era, Research Suggests

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. I can answer that if you do not mind.

archive.org has free downloadable books.
I happen to very keen on the 1800's, and so I read prolific authors of that time.
not storybook authors as much as people who kept diaries and who wrote monographs on an incredible range of subjects.
check out William Cobbett, for example. He wrote what today we would call monographs on various aspects of farming, horticulture, animal husbandry, and money, on politics and travel.
Writing was a highly developed form of communication back then.

People who could afford an education were taught Greek and Latin, French, and history.
They could write and think in several languages, as a matter of course.
They read a great deal, which is a pretty impressive accomplishment considering many had only candlelight.

Of course the opposite is true, that there was little education for those who had little money and/or those who could not afford to take the time to read a lot.