288 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



factory than when under his own immediate superintendence 

 and control. The evils of selfishness do not lie in a man s 

 appropriating to himself that to which he has a just claim, and 

 which he may enjoy without injury to his neighbor, but in the 

 appropriation of that to which he has no fair title, and which he 

 cannot so appropriate without injury to his neighbor, arid with 

 out an invasion of the just rights of other men. That meanness- 

 of selfishness, which some men exhibit, and which seeks the 

 exclusive enjoyment of whatever it can accumulate, irrespective 

 of the comfort, and at the expense of the toil, of others, that dog- 

 in-the-manger selfishness, which accumulates without imparting, 

 and seems to experience its highest zest in contrasting its own 

 fulness with the destitution and misery of others, is as odious as 

 it is criminal. On the other hand, that rational regard to one s 

 own interest which prompts a man continually to take the best 

 possible care of his body and mind ; to secure his health, that his 

 physical activity and vigor may be increased, and to cultivate 

 and improve his mind, that it may resemble, in its fruitfulness, a 

 well-tilled and enriched field ; to increase likewise his estate, and 

 embellish and adorn it : and to accumulate wealth that he may 

 multiply the sources of good to others, stimulate others to exer 

 tion, and lead to those generous improvements which wealth is 

 capable of producing, and to which it may be beneficially 

 applied, this is a sentiment, which, so far from being to be con 

 demned, is to be commended and cherished as the great instru 

 ment and spring, as much of social and public, as of personal 

 and individual good. 



Improvement of every kind lies in action. The happiness 

 which never satiates or wearies is to be found in the conscious 

 ness of progress. Who that has experienced a dead calm at sea, 



not a breath of wind to ruffle the waves, the vessel tossing from 

 one side to the other like a cork upon the water, the rigging 

 shaking, the sails flapping, the crew idle and listless, no progress 

 reported, and the whole company wearied, impatient, despond 

 ing, ill-humored, and compares this with a brisk gale blowing, 



every rope straightened, every sail spread and filled, the planks 

 of the ship creaking as it were with intense exertion, the masts 

 bending almost to breaking under their burden, the crew awake, 

 the passengers all animated with hope and delighted with the 

 certainty of progress, and the noble ship, with her priceless cargo 



