472 APPENDIX. 



most eminently and peculiarly suited to a state of probation; 

 than that nearly all the evils of life might with the most per- 

 fect facility be removed, but for the perverseness and 

 wickedness of those who influence human institutions.* 



A person who held this latter opinion must necessarily 

 live in a constant state of irritation and disappointment. 

 The ardent expectations, with which he might begin life, 

 would soon receive the most cruel check. The regular pro- 

 gress of society, under the most favourable circumstances, 

 would to him appear slow and unsatisfactory; but instead 

 even of this regular progress, his eye would be more fre- 

 quently presented with retrograde movements, and the most 

 disheartening reverses. The changes, to which he had looked 

 forward with delight, would be found big with new and un- 

 looked-for evils ; and the characters, on which he had reposed 

 the most confidence, would be seen frequently deserting his 

 favourite cause, either from the lessons of experience or the 

 temptations of wealth and power. In this state of constant 

 disappointment, he would be but too apt to attribute every 

 thing to the worst motives ; he would be inclined to give up 

 the cause of improvement in despair; and judging of the whole 

 from a part, nothing but a peculiar goodness of heart and 

 amiableness of disposition could preserve him from that 

 sickly and disgusting misanthropy, M'hich is but too fre- 

 quently the end of such characters. 



On the contrary, a person who held the other opinion, as 

 he would set out with more moderate expectations, would 

 of course be less liable to disappointment. A comparison 

 of the best with the worst states of society, and the obvious 

 inference from analogy, that the best were capable of further 

 improvement, would constantly present to his mind a pro- 

 spect sufficiently animating to warrant his most persevering 

 exertions. But aware of the difficulties with which the sub- 

 ject was surrounded, knowing how often in the attempt to 

 attain one object some other had been lost, and that, though 

 society had made rapid advances in some directions, it had 



• The misery and vice arising from the pressure of tlie population too hard 

 against the limits of subsistence, and the misery and vice arising from prorois- 

 cnous intercourse, may be considered as the Scylla and Char^bdis of human 

 life. That it is possible for each individual to steer clear of both these rocks ig 

 certainly true, and a truth which I have endeavoured strongly to maintain; but 

 that these rocks do not form a difficulty independent of human institutions, no 

 person with any knowledge of the subject can venture to assert. 



