PREFACE. 



recta et bona et ambulate in ea,&quot; this antipathy ex 

 claims, &quot; upon the old ways I will stand : right or 

 wrong I will stand in them.&quot; Does philosophy 

 propose any measure to meliorate the condition of 

 mankind : the placing a light house on a rock in 

 the ocean, or the establishment of an university ; the 

 abolition of the lottery, or the abolition of the slave 

 trade ; the annihilation of torture, or the mitigation 

 of sanguinary punishment, this labour of love is im 

 mediately resisted, and the evil prolonged for ages. 



&quot; If providence 



Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, 

 Our labour must be to pervert that end, 

 And out of good still to find means of evil; * 



Have we not seen, in our own time, the power 

 of this antipathy to perpetuate established error^ 

 by preserving for centuries the tyranny of arbi 

 trary imprisonment for debt. Christians were, 

 near two thousand years ago, admonished of the 

 duty of forgiveness ; and philosophy, during this 

 long interval, raised its voice amidst the prayers 

 of our religion, crying out, &quot; Man ought not to 

 be judge in his own cause and assign the punish- 

 nishment of his own pain :&quot; but wisdom crieth out 

 in the streets, and no man regardeth her. It 

 was not until after the struggle of centuries that re 

 ligion and philosophy triumphed over the senseless 

 clamour of ignorance, by the abolition, in the first 

 year of the reign of his present majesty, of this abo 

 mination to the land. 



