of equality from the defence even of their own system. In Sparta, four hundred thousand slaves were devoted to forty thousand citizens. In Crete, nine tenths of mankind were doomed to slavery, to support the citizens in total idleness, excepting those exercises proper for warriors. In Peru, it has already been observed, that "a great body of the inhabitants were kept in a state of servitude." And to this servitude, no doubt, the Peruvians were indebted for the celebrated road of the Yncas, extending from Cusco to Quito, above fifteen hundred miles.

The political advantage, therefore, of equality is, we see, a splendid image *, which crumbles at the touch: and there would be no surer method of fixing mankind in stationary barbarism, if the con

* It is impossible that these obstacles to its practice should not have been felt by Mr. Godwin, during the close attention to the subject which his inquiry demanded; but by an ingenious rejection of all details, and an abundance of general remark, he has kept the total impracticability of the system out of the first view of the reader, who is charmed by the delusive prospect, and overlooks the impassable barriers that lie between.

stitution of things had not positively forbidden that it should ever be introduced into real or general practice. We are told, indeed, that a state of great intellectual improvement is to obviate the objection arising from indolence. Our experience, however, of the slow and painful progress of intellectual improvement does not authorize any sanguine expectations of a rapid or considerable advance beyond the present standard of civilized countries. The records of a hundred generations, during which we have a tolerable history of mankind, oblige us to conclude that there is no way by which the mind can be so effectually prompted to exertion, as by the prospect of those tangible rewards which minister comfort or supply necessity. When the race of men shall have been to such a degree improved, as to require no other motives of action * than benevolence, and a sense of public utility, the main prop

* "The moment I require any farther reason for supplying you, than the cogency of your claim, the mo ment, in addition to the dictates of benevolence, I demand a prospect of reciprocal advantage to myself, there is an end of that political justice and pure equality of which I treat." Pol. Just. ii. 513.

will certainly be taken from the argument which I have here pursued. But in the mean time it is not presumptuous to conclude, that the situation best calculated to improve by exercise the faculties of man, is civil society, consisting, as it does, of unequal fortunes, ranks, and conditions *.

* This must not be understood as favouring the accumulation of wealth into few hands. The more gradual the steps by which you ascend from the lowest to the highest fortune, the more advantageous is the state of the community. Much inconvenience results, in many countries, from the colossal fortunes of a few individuals, contrasted with general poverty. The civilization is always least advanced, where any of the intermediate steps are wanting.

CHAPTER IV.

Whether Equality or Inequality of Ranks and Fortunes, is the Condition best suited to the Exercise of Virtue.

Ir the advantages arising to mankind from their union in civil society could be pursued no farther, it would be a sufficient evidence of the Creator's wisdom, that he had provided for bringing the human race into a situation so favourable for the developement of their faculties, But intelligence, though the distinguishing ornament of our species, is still to be held inferior and subservient to virtue, And since the great object of our existence on earth is believed to be moral discipline, it might be difficult to reconcile the inequality of conditions with that main purpose of human life, unless a state consisting of such unequal conditions had a farther advantage, even beyond its first effect of bringing the mental faculties to their highest perfection. The truth is, however, that the inequality

of conditions, which is the foundation of civil society, affords not only the best improvement of the human faculties, but the best trial of the human virtues; it is the nursery most suited to their formation, and the theatre most fitted for their exercise.

The advocates of equality are not contented with denying this; they assert the very contrary. "Reduce all conditions to

equality," it has been said, "and the great occasions of crime will be cut off for ever." This bold declaration must not be admitted even in passing: for it is impossible to suppose any condition of things so equal, that no man shall desire what belongs to another. A change of this sort, if effected at all, must originate in the inward habits, and not in the outward situation of man. But the truer proposition is, that the great occasions of virtue would be cut off for ever, without any corresponding deduction on the score of vice *. A

* Pol. Justice, i. 462. The observations of Aristotle on this subject deserve attention, because he had an opportunity of seeing that of which we have no instance, the actual operation of a certain degree of equality with some share of comparative civilization. "The bare necessa