CHAP. XL.] IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. 461 



advanced equally in morals. It is true that among those 

 classes who have no wants that cannot be easily su])- 

 plied, and among whom public opinion has great influence, 

 the rights of others are fully respected. It is true, also, 

 that we have vastly extended the sphere of those rights, 

 and include within them all the brotherhood of man. But 

 it is not too much to say, that the mass of our populations 

 have not at all advanced beyond the savage code of 

 morals, and have in many cases sunk below it. A defi- 

 cient morality is the great blot of modern civilization, and 

 the greatest hindrance to true progress. 



During the last century, and especially in the last thirty 

 years, our intellectual and material advancement has been 

 too quickly achieved for us to reap the full benefit of it. 

 Our mastery over the forces of nature has led to a rapid 

 growth of population, and a vast accumulation of wealth ; 

 but these have brought with them such an amount of 

 poverty and crime, and have fostered the growth of so 

 much sordid feeling and so many fierce passions, that it 

 may well be questioned, whether the mental and moral 

 status of our population has not on the average been 

 lowered, and whether the evil has not overbalanced the 

 good. Compared with our wondrous progress in physical 

 science and its practical applications, our system of 

 government, of administering justice, of national educa- 

 tion, and our whole social and moral organization, remains 



