S3 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF A FUTURE STATE. 



and his successors were extending their conquests 

 over Syria, Palestine, Persia, and India, on the 

 east, and over Egypt, Barbary, Spain, and the 

 islands of the Mediterranean, on the west ; cut 

 ting in pieces with their swords all the enemies 

 of Islamism. In Europe, every kingdom was 

 shattered to its centre ; in the Mahommedan em 

 pire in Asia, the Caliphs, Sultans, and Emirs 

 were waging continual wars ; new sovereignties 

 were daily rising, and daily destroyed ; and Af 

 rica was rapidly depopulating, and verging to 

 wards desolation and barbarism. 



Amidst this universal clashing of nations, 

 when the whole earth became one theatre of 

 bloody revolutions, scenes of horror were dis 

 played, over which historians wished to draw a 

 veil, lest they should transmit an example of 

 inhumanity to succeeding ages the most fertile 

 and populous provinces were converted into 

 deserts, overspread with the scattered ruins of 

 villages and cities every thing was wasted and 

 destroyed with hostile cruelty famine raged to 

 such a degree that the living were constrained to 

 feed on the dead bodies of their fellow-citizens 

 prisoners were tortured with the most exquisite 

 cruelty, and the more illustrious they were, the 

 more barbarously were they insulted cities were 

 ieft without a living inhabitant public buildings 

 which resisted the violence of the flames were 

 levelled with the ground every art and science 

 was abandoned the Roman empire was shatter 

 ed to its centre and its power annihilated ava 

 rice, perfidy, hatred, treachery, arid malevolence 

 reigned triumphant ; and virtue, benevolence, and 

 every moral principle were trampled under foot. 



Such scenes of carnage and desolation have 

 been displayed to a certain extent and almost 

 without intermission, during the whole period of 

 this world s history. For the page of the histo 

 rian, whether ancient or modern, presents to our 

 view little more than revolting details of ambi 

 tious conquerors carrying ruin and devastation 

 in their train, of proud despots trampling on the 

 rights of mankind, of cities turned into ruinous 

 heaps, of countries desolated, of massacres per 

 petrated with infernal cruelty, of nations dashing 

 one against another, of empires wasted and de 

 stroyed, of political and religious dissensions, 

 and of the general progress of injustice, immo 

 rality, and crime. Compared with the details on 

 these subjects, all the other facts which have oc 

 curred in the history of mankind are considered 

 by the historian as mere interludes in the great 

 drama of the world, and almost unworthy of 

 being recorded. 



Were we to take a survey of the moral world 

 as it now stands, a similar prospect, on the whole, 

 would be presented to our view. Though the 

 shades of depravity with which it is overspread 

 are not so thick and dark, nor its commotions so 

 numerous and violent as in ancient times, yet 

 the aspect of every nation under heaven presents 



to our view, features which are directly opposite 

 to every thing we should expect to contemplate 

 in a world of systematic order, harmony, and 

 love. If we cast our eyes towards Asia we shall 

 find the greater part of five hundred millions of 

 human beings involved in political commotions, 

 immersed in vice, ignorance, and idolatry, and 

 groaning under the lash of tyrannical despots. 

 In Persia, the cruelty and tyranny of its rulers 

 have transformed many of its most fertile pro 

 vinces into scenes of desolation. In Turkey, 

 the avarice and fiend-like cruelty of the Grand 

 Seignior and his Bashaws have drenched the 

 shores of Greece with the blood of thousands, 

 turned Palestine into a wilderness, and rendered 

 Syria, Armenia, and Kurdistan scenes of injus 

 tice and rapine. In China and Japan a spirit 

 of pride and jealousy prevents the harmonious 

 intercourse of other branches of the human fa 

 mily, and infuses a cold-blooded selfishness into 

 the breasts of their inhabitants, and a contempt 

 of surrounding nations. Throughout Tartary, 

 Arabia, and Siberia, numerous hostile tribes are 

 incessantly prowling among deserts and forests 

 in quest of plunder, so that travellers are in con 

 tinual danger of being either robbed, or murder 

 ed, or dragged into captivity. If we turn our 

 eyes upon Africa, we behold human nature sunk 

 into a state of the deepest degradation the states 

 of Barbary in incessant hostile commotions, and 

 plundering neighbouring nations both by sea and 

 land the petty tyrants of Dahorny, Benin, As- 

 hantee, Congo, and Angola, waging incessant 

 wars with neighbouring tribes, masssacring 

 their prisoners in cold blood, arid decorating their 

 palaces with their skulls while other degraded 

 hordes, in conjunction with civilized nations, are 

 carrying oa a traffic in man-stealing and slavery, 

 which has stained the human character with 

 crimes at which humanity shudders. II&quot; we turn 

 our eyes towards Amtrica, we ^liall find that war 

 and hostile incursions are the principal employ 

 ments of their native tribes, and that the malig 

 nity of infernal demons, is displayed in the tor 

 tures they inflict upon the prisoners taken in 

 battle, while anarchy, intolerance, and political 

 commotions, still agitate a great proportion of 

 its more civilized inhabitants. If we take a sur 

 vey of the Eastern Archipelago, and of the isl 

 ands which are scattered over the Pacific Ocean, 

 we shall behold immense groups of human beings, 

 instead of living in harmony and affection, dis 

 playing the most ferocious dispositions towards 

 each other, hurling stones, spears and darts on 

 every stranger who attempts to land upon their 

 coasts; offering up human sacrifices to their in 

 fernal deities, and feasting with delight on the 

 flesh and blood of their enemies. 



If we direct our attention towards Europe, the 

 most tranquil and civilized portion of the globe 

 even here we shall behold numerous symptoms of 

 anarchy and moral disorder. During 



