But apart from this, in such a condition of society, if there is little
suffering, there is little high enjoyment. The even flow of life forbids
the high excitement which is necessary for it. If there is little vice,
there is little place for the eminent virtues, which employ themselves
in controlling the disorders and remedying the evils of society, which,
like war and revolution, call forth the highest powers of man, whether
for good or for evil. If there is little misery, there is little room
for benevolence. Useful public institutions we may suppose to be
created, but not such as are merely ornamental. Elegant arts can be
little cultivated, for there are no means to reward the artists; nor the
higher literature, for no one will have leisure or means to cultivate it
for its own sake. Those who acquire what may be called liberal
education, will do so in order to employ it as the means of their own
subsistence or advancement in a profession, and literature itself will
partake of the sordidness of trade. In short, it is plain that in such a
state of society, the moral and intellectual faculties cannot be
cultivated to their highest perfection.

But whether that which I have described be the most desirable state of
society or no, it is certain that it can not continue. Mutation and
progress is the condition of human affairs. Though retarded for a time
by extraneous or accidental circumstances, the wheel must roll on. The
tendency of population is to become crowded, increasing the difficulty
of obtaining subsistence. There will be some without any property except
the capacity for labor. This they must sell to those who have the means
of employing them, thereby swelling the amount of their capital, and
increasing inequality. The process still goes on. The number of laborers
increases until there is a difficulty in obtaining employment. Then
competition is established. The remuneration of the laborer becomes
gradually less and less; a larger and larger proportion of the product
of his labor goes to swell the fortune of the capitalist; inequality
becomes still greater and more invidious, until the process ends in the
establishment of just such a state of things, as the same author
describes as now existing in England. After a most imposing picture of
her greatness and resources; of her superabounding capital, and all
pervading industry and enterprise; of her public institutions for
purposes of art, learning and benevolence;