exquisitely satisfactory. And there are three ways, in which
we may attempt the abatement of existing evils; or, there are three
agencies we may call in for this purpose.

In the first place, leaving individuals to the operation of the common
motives, we may labor at the social institutions, to adjust them to the
rule, that, each seeking his own, after the common apprehension of
present interests, may do so consistently with acting the part of a
good citizen--contributing something to the general welfare; or, at
least, not greatly detracting therefrom. Here, the agency employed,
the Greeks would have called by a name, from which we have derived the
word _politics_; which word, from abuse, has well nigh lost its
original sense, _The science of social welfare_. _Policy_, we might
say, for want of an exacter word.

The second way, in which we may seek the same result, is, to inculcate
juster apprehensions of present good--to inform and refine self-love;
to show, that the purest of present enjoyments, are like the loaves and
fishes distributed by divine hands, multiplying by division and
participation--the best of all being such as none can enjoy fully, till
they become the common property of the race. For want of a more
accurately defined term, the agent here introduced may be called
Philosophy; understanding by the term, the search, what would be the
conduct and preferences of a truly wise man, dispassionately seeking
for himself the best enjoyment of this life, uninformed of another to
follow.

Or, thirdly, we may seek to infuse a nobler principle than self-love,
however refined--even the charity, whose essence is, to love one's
neighbor as one's self; while, at the same time, this life being
earnestly contemplated as but the introductory part of an immense
whole, additional security is provided for the coincidence of interest
with duty. In a word, the third agency to be employed is _Religion_.

The whole subject thus sketched is one of which the writer is not
aware, that it has been distinctly defined, as a field for thought and
investigation. He has little to learn from the successes or the
failures of predecessors. Be this his excuse for seeming prosy and
dull; possibly for mistakes and crudities. He has the doubly
difficulty of attempting to turn thought into trains to which it is
not accustomed; and yet of offering no results so profound as to have
escaped other observers; or so sublime as to be the due