MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 167 



accomplishment of so desirable an end ; for it 

 appears to me that the character of mankind 

 ought to be new modelled before this can effect- 

 ually be done. 



Having long busied myself in wading through 

 systems of natural history, the orders, genera, 

 species and varieties, the whim has often struck 

 me to lay down an imaginary one of classing man- 

 kind. The genus homo may be made to consist 

 of three species and their varieties. The first 

 (including in one, the wise and the good) is honest 

 men ; the second is knaves ; and the third fools. 

 These and their gradations and varieties, gliding 

 into each other, form the present jumbled mass 

 of society the community of which we all form 

 a part. As any of these may happen to predom- 

 inate in the government of society, so, in exact 

 proportion, will the good, bad, and indifferent 

 effects of their management be felt by the whole 

 people. I think it will be admitted that, out of 

 the first species ought to be chosen the persons, 

 every man according to his mental powers and the 

 education he may have received to call forth these 

 powers, to fill every public office from the con- 

 stable upwards. Out of the two latter species, 

 when conjoined, are formed the great mass of the 

 wicked, gross, vulgar herd (high and low) of 

 mankind. Amongst these, knaves of great ability 

 ought to be particularly guarded against. They 

 are a kind of splendid devils who have from time 

 immemorial spread abroad much misery in the 

 world ; but, notwithstanding their abilities, they 

 would not have got forward in their public wicked- 

 ness, nor have formed their majorities, had they 

 not enlisted, as tools, their ready-made auxiliaries 



