T 6 2 Literary and Philosophical Society, 



men who have received the moneyed fruits of their fathers' 

 labours give themselves to amusement or to idleness, and 

 we believe to vice. Have we not heard that Manchester 

 is a great centre of betting, the resort of unregulated 

 intellects, or men who will not make exertion, who have 

 no steady purpose, who have no desire to do good, but 

 who wish to live well even at the expense of others, — 

 men who seek to amass wealth by robbery, but in such a 

 manner that they cannot be punished, for such is betting 

 and mere speculation with the money of others. 



Dr. Barnes wished to avoid the evils of want of educa- 

 tion. All was right so far; right to seek to have our 

 manufacturers better taught than they were, and not to 

 leave us obliged, as we are now, to hurry forward schools 

 for practical science in fear lest our prosperity should 

 rapidly decay, on account of the greater care taken in the 

 education of our neighbours. But had he succeeded, no 

 man knows if the result would have been better ; it may 

 be that men would have been too far advanced in one 

 direction, missing a stage of life. It may be that the idle- 

 ness of abundance would have come soon, and a generation 

 or two have been lost to labour. Wealth of nations is 

 not always prosperity, and it is a question how far we are 

 prosperous men ; long-continued wealth produces idleness, 

 except in noble or ambitious minds ; a few shillings' increase 

 weekly are as wealth to a poor man ; and he was a wise 

 man who, when asked what is enough, answered ' a little 

 more.' Our newest aesthetic literature follows suit in loving 

 externals — does its best to destroy high motive, and con- 

 solidates the foundation of selfishness. 



When sin has no meaning man's conscience is guided 

 by his success, when hope is a delusion caused by the near- 



