XV111 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 



or too much clothing, or too many of the substantial comforts of life. If they 

 get the comforts, or their substantial necessities are supplied, then certainly we 

 should desire that they should have the luxuries of life in addition, above all, 

 those simple luxuries which are the produce of their own honest labor, and to 

 which that circumstance alone will always give a peculiar zest. 



Can any thing be done to remedy or abate this great evil, and to turn aside 

 this rushing current, which threatens to accumulate in such masses of frightful 

 misery ? This is a great inquiry for the philanthropist, and for all governments 

 which have at heart the only proper object of government, that is, the welfare 

 of the governed. The Divine Providence often punishes human cupidity and 

 madness by its judgments ; but war, disease, famine, and floods, which sweep 

 away their tens and hundreds of thousands, are dreadful curatives. They seem 

 only temporary in their operation. They lay waste instead of fertilizing. They 

 make man s heart sink within him ; and they leave behind them nothing con 

 solatory or hopeful. No reflecting mind, at least no mind with any experience 

 of human life, will suppose for a moment that any effectual remedy can be at 

 once discovered or applied. It is only the madness, or enthusiasm, if the mildor 

 term is more fitting, of a French revolutionist, which dreams that the whole form 

 and relations of society can be suddenly changed, and that the next morning s 

 sun shall rise upon a cloudless sky, bringing back the golden age, dispelling all 

 the fogs and mists of night, drying up all the sources of human misery, and 

 pouring out a flood of universal peace, plenty, and happiness. 



While human weakness and passions remain what they are, no complete 

 remedy is ever to be even hoped for. It does not yet appear that Heaven designed 

 that man should realize an optimism in this world. To our humble views it 

 seems to be the aim of Divine Providence, by the limitations, uncertainties, 

 imperfections, and trials of this state, to stimulate a virtuous ambition, and to 

 arouse the minds of the well-disposed to all possible exertion to ameliorate the 

 condition of their fellow-men. There is one great encouragement to every phil 

 anthropic attempt. Little as any individual, or any combination of individuals, 

 can effect, yet I believe truly that no benevolent exertion, however humble, ever 

 failed to produce some good ; and experience constantly shows that seed, which 

 has been cast into the ground, may lie long concealed, may riot show itself above 

 the surface even during the lifetime of those who planted it, to gladden their 

 eyes, yet it may yield, though a late, an ample harvest. 



Every one knows the power of public opinion, and how all the world are influ 

 enced by fashion, or what is called general sentiment. I have heard of a man 

 who was asked, as is common on leaving church, &quot; how he liked the preacher.&quot; 

 His honest reply was, that &quot; he did not know ; he had not heard any body 



