the perfect figure is formed; like some of the secret processes of nature, which elude our observation and research, but terminate in her most curious and valuable productions.

And that the civilized man is to be classed as the most perfect, and not as a depraved part of the species, it can scarcely be necessary to prove. The union of various characters, whose bent of disposition has inclined them to the different pursuits which have been just enumerated as composing civilized life, produces the quick apprehension, the versatile talent, the accurate discernment, the steady conduct, which entitled man to be called the chief of created beings. What comparison is there between that perfection of the corporeal powers, which a constant dependence upon the senses has produced in the savage, and that habitual power of reason with which a cultivated mind is accustomed to trace events to their sources, and pursue them to their consequences? If experience assures us, that, wherever equality is established, savageness will continue, let us see to

what state equality would reduce the world. Observe the savage in his retirement; his eyes bent on vacancy, his stagnant mind making no compensation for the inactivity of his body; or follow him to his feast, which has no object but intemperate excess, and is succeeded by a deathlike torpor; or watch him when roused by hostility from his indolence, cherishing even by artificial means, hatred and revenge, and vigorous only to supplant his enemy by stratagem and treachery. Compare this representation, which it is mortifying to hold up as the description of a human being, not with the philosopher, whose active mind could even find in the bath a solution of his problem; not with another of the wonders of antiquity, who refused even to sleep a complete dominion over his faculties; but merely with the ordinary exertion and habitual activity of civilized existence; with the vigilant observation that unfolds the mysteries of nature, or the patient abstraction that facilitates the works of art; with the energy of animated conversation that dignifies the rational entertainment; and then let the moral

ist or historian misuse as he will the powers he owes to civilization, in extolling an uncivilized state, yet he can never disprove the acknowledged fact that inequality sharpens and exercises the natural powers of man, and that this exercise of the natural powers brings the human species to that degree of excellence which He who made him capable of it, intended him to attain.

III. At this point of the argument, however, I find myself opposed on my own ground by some of the latest advocates of equality. The Abbé Raynal and Rousseau, with others to whom allusion has heretofore been made, though perceiving that equality must produce savageness, still preferred the savage state for the sake of the equality. But another sect of inquirers, aspiring as anxiously as any one to the perfection of the human race, and enjoying indeed, a much brighter view of its perfectibility than common observers can be persuaded to entertain, recommend at the same time an equality of fortunes and conditions, as

tending both to produce that perfection, and to maintain it.* "The established administra

tion of property," we are told, "is the true levelling system with respect to the human species, by as much as the cultivation of intellect is more valuable and more characteristic of man, than the gratifications of vanity or appetite. Accumulation of property treads the powers of thought in the dust, extinguishes the sparks of genius, and reduces the great mass of mankind to be immersed in sordid cares; besides depriving the rich of the most salu

* I am aware it may be thought that I have paid too much attention to a writer now so completely forgotten as Mr. Godwin. But it seemed to me very much to the purpose of a treatise like the present, to show that the inequality of conditions which the ordinances of Providence render necessary, is also agreeable to the attribute of divine wisdom. And if this was to be proved, it was convenient to find the arguments on the opposite side concentrated, as in Mr. Godwin's Political Justice; and at the same time it was fair to take the ablest and best known statement of them that has appeared in this country.

It is probable, too, that many, though they may allow with Mr. Malthus that equality is unattainable in practice, may agree generally with Mr. Godwin that it is desirable in theory.

lated by the actual and immediate influence of the love of gain. It is sufficient to know, that the vast and complicated machine of human society, the movements of which are as intricate as the motion is constant, was originally actuated, and is kept in continual activity, by each individual's desire of bettering his own condition. Experience proves this; by showing us, from the examples of rude countries, that exertion is never made till it begins to be individually productive. Banish then superfluity, remove what is called "the gratification of vanity or appetite;" is it reasonable to imagine that the same industry will be employed, when the inducement by which it is excited has been taken away? The impulse, indeed, once caused, the active habits once introduced by the hope of individual advancement, reaches far beyond the immediate influence of the principle; but it does not follow that it would continue, if the principle itself were removed. That natural and spirit-stirring desire is the nourishment of the body politic; it is the fertilizing source which supplies the juices to the