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error; neither can angel or man come in danger by it."

I think the argumentative nature of the science would guard the practice of the virtue from running into error or enthusiasm, while a constant contemplation of the virtue would guard the practice of the science from degenerating into worldlimindedness; and both together would tend to form the useful and accomplished citizen of a free country-the real but practical Christian.

CHAPTER IX.

Brief Recapitulation of the Third Book.

IN the first chapter of this book I have endeavoured to show, as a general axiom, that there is no certain standard for political conduct except moral truth, nor any certain rule for the discovery of moral truth but a reference to the revealed will of God. Hence it followed as a natural conclusion that whatever is consistent with this last must be politically expedient, and that whatever is prohibited by it must be politically mischievous. I also attempted to prove that not only the discovery of what is expedient in political practice, but also the power and the means of adhering to it in political agents, are to be drawn from the same source; for that all other sanctions, whether of argument, of interest, or of any other description, are too precarious and too little imperative upon the minds and wills of men to secure their perseverance in a straight

course.

Having advanced these propositions as general truths in the first chapter, I endeavoured in those which immediately follow to show the specific application of them to some particular and controverted points of practice connected with this treatise. And first, in chapters two, three, and four, I prosecuted an inquiry into the nature and extent of the duty of charity. In the first of those chapters an attempt was made to prove that the first and most unbounded exercise of that part of true and rational charity

which resolves itself into alms-giving, is perfectly compatible with the healthy progress of society and of population; because, as the objects of this charity increase in proportion to the whole number of the people, population also undergoes a proportionate abatement in the rate of its increase. Space, therefore, is afforded for the due exercise of almsgiving, without any undue encouragement to a vicious increase in the numbers of mankind.

It was however fully admitted and enforced, in the same chapter, that the moral and religious instruction of the poor is not only the most enlightened exercise of charity in individuals, but an imperative political duty on the part of the state; because it directly prevents or counteracts any eventual mischief which the injudicious exercise of mistaken charity in indiscriminate alms-giving may produce.

Since however the best of all charities are those which teach the poor to assist in providing for themselves, the object of the third chapter was to enter into a comparative estimate of the various plans for that laudable purpose. I trust that sufficient reasons have been given to justify the decided preference which I have ventured to entertain in favour of the recent institutions of Banks for the Savings of the Poor, equally on moral, political, and economical, views of the subject.

In the fourth and fifth chapters I endeavoured to detail the effects produced by the advancement of society into its higher stages upon the demand for the exercise of charity, and upon the means of meeting it; and to show that any comparative estimate of the sums expended in charity in different countries, which omits a full consideration of the state of society ex

isting in each, proceeds upon principles fundamentally erroneous, and can only lead to practical mischief. It further appears from this chapter that the demand for charitable exertion, and the means of meeting it, equally increase as society advances, and that the effects thereby produced on the comfort and happiness of different communities respectively depend not so much upon the amount of the sums given, as upon the mode in which they are expended. Where the expenditure is guided by the rules of morality, public happiness and private comfort are the results; while the contrary system leads of course to opposite consequences. No apprehension therefore need be entertained in permitting the most unbounded exercise of charity, provided it be directed towards the proper and legitimate objects. Such are the results which I have endeavoured to deduce from an inquiry into the nature and extent of the duty of charity.

In the sixth chapter I have endeavoured to convince the reader that the people, and especially the lower orders, may be permitted, without detriment to the healthy progress of population, to enjoy an option of entering into the marriage contract or abstaining from it, determinable upon moral considerations only, and entirely free from the speculations of statesmen upon political expediency;-that this liberty is expressly allowed by the words of Scripture, and when enjoyed in conformity with its instructions will be not only free from any evil consequences of a political nature, but is absolutely necessary to a due progress in public wealth, civilization and happiness, These conclusions are strictly derivable from the fundamental principles of the

first book of this treatise, and are drawn from the application of them to the question under discussion. I trust they have been sufficient to prove that, in a tolerably moral and well regulated community, it is perfectly feasible to relieve every distress which may eventually arise to individuals, from the enjoyment of such a system of liberty with respect to the marriage contract.

The object of the seventh chapter is to prove that the effects of the principle of population and of the progress of society have no necessary tendency to diminish the general sum of happiness enjoyed either by the whole community, or by the individuals of which it is composed, but that they only change the nature of the people's enjoyments; providing by a beautiful system of compensation, to all ranks of society, some countervailing advantage of a moral. and political nature, for every necessary privation which the new arrangements of the community bring in their train; so that a good citizen will have an equal probability of happiness in every stage of society, in proportion as he discharges the duties which its particular condition imposes upon him.

In the eighth chapter I have endeavoured more fully to illustrate, and to apply to the practical purposes of statesmen, the fundamental truth that the salutary tendency of population, as well as every other condition of the healthy progress of society, will operate in proportion to the general prevalence of religion, morality, liberty, and security of property; that these four blessings, however, are-in fact ultimately referable to the two first among them, the influence of which should be forwarded by .every method within the power of the state; especially by early

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