EFFECTS OF HONESTY. 



105 



Wero tho law which forbids those actions to be 

 entirely set aside, or universally violated, it is 

 easy to foresee, that, in a very short time, the 

 whole assemblage of human beings would be 

 transformed into a set of lawless banditti. Peace, 

 harmony, and good neighbourhood, would be un 

 known among men ; the strong would plunder the 

 possessions of the weak, and deprive them of 

 every enjoyment ; children would rob their pa 

 rents, and parents their children ; brothers would 

 plunder brothers, and servants their masters; 

 buying and selling would cease, and all regular 

 trade and commerce would be destroyed : every 

 man s covetous eye would be directed to the 

 wealth and property of his neighbour, with a 

 view of depriving him of his enjoyments; and a 

 thousand schemes, either of treachery or of open 

 violence, would be contrived to effectuate his 

 purpose. Murders would be daily contrived and 

 perpetrated, for the purpose of more easily ob 

 taining possession of the wealth and estates of 

 the powerful and the opulent ; and every man s 

 life and happiness would be at the mercy of his 

 covetous neighbour. The inhabitants of one 

 province would rise up against those of another, 

 and, by force of arms, plunder them of all their 

 earthly treasu-s. One nation would invade the 

 territories of another, for the purpose of ravaging 

 its cities and provinces, and of appropriating its 

 wealth and riches ; and, in the midst of such law 

 less depredations, towns would be demolished, 

 villages consumed to ashes, the fruits of the earth 

 destroyed, men. women, and children, trampled 

 under foot, and crushed to death, and every city 

 and fertile field would present a scene of carnage 

 and desolation. In such a state of society, no 

 man could have confidence in his brother; fear 

 would be on every side ; uncertainty would at 

 tend every pursuit and possession ; of the wealth 

 which any one had acquired, and of the enjoy 

 ments which he possessed to-day, he might be 

 deprived before to-morrow; and if, by means of 

 circumspection and vigilance, and the strong arm 

 of power, he were enabled to maintain posses 

 sion of his property for one year, he could have 

 no rational ground to expect, that he would enjoy 

 it in security for another. And, as no one would 

 think of engaging in regular labour, while he 

 could subsist in plundering his weaker neighbours 

 the earth would soon be left uncultivated, the 

 useful arts would be abandoned, agricultural in 

 dustry and improvement would cease, and a uni 

 versal famine would overspread every land, which 

 vould thin the human race, and gradually exter 

 minate them from the face of the earth. 



Such scenes of plunder and depredation, have 

 .n fact been partially realized in every age and 

 nation of the world, and are still realized, to a 

 certain extent, even in nations which boast of 

 their progress in religion, in civilization, and in 

 ecience. The annals of the human race contain 

 little more than a number of melancholy records 



of wholesale robbery, committed by one tribe of 

 human beings upon another. One public robber 

 and desperado has arisen after another, in con 

 stant succession, and, at the head of numerous 

 armies, has violated the territories of peaceful in 

 dustry, demolished the habitations of their unof 

 fending inhabitants, broken down their furniture, 

 and consigned it to the flames ; wasted and de 

 voured the fruits of their ground, and plundered 

 them of every thing which could render existence 

 desirable. And the inferior ranks of mankind, 

 stimulated by the same principles which actuate 

 their superiors, have supported a system of pecu 

 lation, of cheating, of litigation, of injustice, and 

 oppression, which, were it left solely to its own 

 native energies, would soon undermine the foun 

 dations of the moral world. That such princi 

 ples and practices have never yet become uni 

 versal in their operation, is not owing so much to 

 any deficiency in their malignant tendency, as to 

 the over-ruling providence of the Moral Governor 

 of the world, who has, by his influence, and his 

 physical arrangements, confined the lawless pas 

 sions of men within certain bounds, beyond which 

 they cannot pass. 



Were a principle of honesty and of justice, in 

 regard to property, to pervade the mind of every 

 human being ; or, in other words, were the law 

 to which I am now adverting universally recog 

 nised, a new scene would open upon the moral 

 world, altogether different from what has hitherto 

 been displayed in the transactions of mankind. 

 The iron rod of oppression would be shivered to 

 atoms, and destroying armies would no longer 

 ravage the habitations of men. The crowds of 

 sharpers, cheats, and jockeys, that now stalk 

 through the world, with unblushing fronts, to en 

 trap the unwary, would forever disappear from 

 the world ; and impartial justice would reign 

 triumphant over every department of society. 

 No malignant purpose would ever be formed to 

 injure any one in his wealth and property ; and 

 all the harassing law-suits and prosecutions, 

 which now distress so many thousands of fami 

 lies, would be swept away. Every loan of money, 

 books, furniture, or utensils, would be returned 

 without injury, and v/ithout unnecessary delay; 

 and every debt punctually discharged, according 

 to the nature of the obligation, and at the period 

 at which it was due : Every bargain would be 

 transacted on the principles ofimmutable justice, 

 and the conditions of every con tract faithfully per 

 formed : No suspicions of knavery would ever 

 harbour in the breast, nor the least alarm at the 

 possible consequences of any mercantile trans 

 action. Public buildings would be secure from 

 the inroads of the genius of mischief, and gardens 

 and orchards from every wanton depredation. 

 Locks, and bars, and bolts, would no longer be 

 required for securing our substance from the pil 

 ferer and the robber ; and the iron gratings of a 

 bridewell or a jail, would never again remind uu 



