‘ 
oe aes on the constitution. 269 
talents of one man to another, they will afsume, of 
themselves, different degrees of superiority and sub-__ 
ordination, —different degrees of wealth and poverty, 
—different degrees of power and authority, wherever 
any number of them are placed together. 
Since then a diversity, in respect to wealth, autho, 
rity, and power, is natural, and must necefsarily take 
place in every community, where men, as they 
came from the hands of the Creator, are left to the 
freedom of their own wills, without constraint, we 
must conclude, that any. attempt to thwart this im, 
mutable decree of heaven will prove abortive; and 
that of course every such attempt is founded on ig 
norance, and must be productive of great disorders 
in society. 
Knowledge, said the great lord Bacon, with infinite 
propriety, is power. Wealth, where property is se= 
cured by the law, is power.—Industry is power. Who- 
ever is pofsefsed of any one of these, ima civilized 
state of society, must have power to a certain extent. 
He who is pofselsed of them all, in the highest degree, 
will-ever pofsefs, almost an unlimite: power among 
men. 
But all of these cannot be ats enjoyed by any one 
race of men. The man of parts, though he may 
transmit his wealth to his heir, cannot insure to him 
his talents ; and if he leaves to him his wealth, this 
very wealth naturally abates his industry. -It as na- 
turally prevents him from cultivating those energies 
of mind, with which nature has endowed him. In 
consequence of these defects, his power is of course 
abated, Indolence and folly engender difsipation ; ; 
