742 Proposals for Forming 



is necessary to fix the attention and determine the 

 choice. 



But to return to the investigation of the causes that 

 impede the progress of useful improvement. Besides 

 those ah-eady mentioned, there are several others which, 

 though less obvious, tend nevertheless very powerfully 

 to obstruct and retard that progress. 



Those who propose improvements are commonly 

 suspected of being influenced by interested motives ; 

 and this suspicion (which is often but too well founded) 

 occasions little attention to be paid to such proposals 

 by the public. 



As the tacit recommendation of a respectable Public 

 Institution, where the things judged to be worthy of 

 the public notice would be merely exposed to view^ 

 would not be liable to this suspicion, it would certainly 

 have more weight. 



Not only suspicion, \^Vi\.jealotisy and envy have often 

 their share in obstructing the progress of improvement, 

 and in preventing the adoption of plans calculated to 

 promote the public good. 



The most meritorious exertions in promoting the 

 public prosperity are often viewed with suspicion, and 

 the fair fame that is derived from those exertions with 

 jealousy and envy ; and many who have too much good 

 sense not to perceive the merit of an undertaking evi- 

 dently useful, and too much regard for their reputation 

 not to appear to approve of it, are often very far, never- 

 theless, from wishing it success. 



This melancholy truth is, most unfortunately, known 

 to everybody, and does more, I am persuaded, to deter 

 sensible and well-disposed persons from coming forward 

 into the public view with plans for useful improvements 



