88 on manufactures. —* May 23: 
vites to the most interesting discufsion !—Is it pof- 
sible for the manufacturing character to prevail among 
@ people, but with the general diminution of virtue? 
or may the line of manufacture be carried as far as 
it will go, and effectual means be devised to counter- 
act the many evd/s growing out of it, so detrimental 
to that morality which is the support of the society 
we live in? To observe the great body of a people, 
uniting in the eager pursuit of riches, honour, and 
pleasure, by means of an over-extended manufacture, 
though at the expence of almost every virtue, would 
make a peevifh philosopher decide unfavourably for 
human nature, though, I imagine, unjustly. The 
progrefs of manufactures being gradual, their effects 
on morals are seldom of a direct nature; and, by 
that means, they often fail to give to many concerned 
in them, that alarm for the diminution of many vir- 
tues that are natural to the human heart. The evil, 
at some time, must correct itself,_-the bow, when 
Strained too much, must break at last. Would it not 
then be best to stop at some point? or at any rate to 
set about applying remedies to the existing evils 
they have already occasioned ; and in some more ef- 
fectual/manner than has ever yet been practised, en- 
deavour to prevent the new. evils they daily threaten 
aus with ? A. Citizen™, 
* Nothing can be more just than the pertinent observations of this very 
sensible correspondent. In all sublu.iry affairs, there is a mixture of 
good and evil to be found ; and it is those alone who are unacquainted with 
the world who look for unbounded prosperity, wichout expecting that it 
will be attended with corresponding abatements. Energy of mind, when 
accompanied with virtuous dispositions, constitutes, as I fhould suppose, 
Ahe highest .exaltation of the -humog character; byt in most cases the 
