Ch. xiv. respecting future. Improvemeiits. 441 



provement in human society, which, before the 

 late wild speculations on this subject, was the 

 object of rational expectation. To the laws of 

 property and marriage, and to the apparently 

 narrow principle of self-interest which prompts 

 each individual to exert himself in bettering his 

 condition, we are indebted for all the noblest exer- 

 tions of human genius, for every thing that dis- 

 tinguishes the civilized from the savage state. A 

 strict inquiry into the principle of population 

 obliges us to conclude that we shall never be able 

 to throw down the ladder, by which we have 

 risen to this eminence; but it by no means proves, 

 that we may not rise higher by the same means. 

 The structure of society, in its great features, 

 will probably always remain unchanged. We 

 have every reason to believe that it will always 

 consist of a class of proprietors and a class of 

 labourers; but the condition of each, and the 

 proportion which they bear to each other, may 

 be so altered, as greatly to improve the harmony 

 and beauty of the whole. It would indeed be 

 a melancholy reflection that, while the views of 

 physical science are daily enlarging, so as scarcely 

 to be bounded by the most distant horizon, the 

 science of moral and political philosophy should 

 be confined within such narrow limits, or at best 

 be so feeble in its influence, as to be unable to 

 counteract the obstacles to human happiness 

 arising from a single cause. But however formi- 

 dable these obstacles may have appeared in some 



