l_ condition--influence almost everything: the ship we set sail
in, the carriage we ride in, the implements of our labour, the utensils
we employ in our dwellings, even the comfort of our dwellings
themselves. Nay more, and of still greater importance, they influence
_ourselves_--the shape of our bodies, and the disposition of our souls.
The dash of a despot's pen, or a foolish act passed in Parliament, which
might appear to have no personal application to any one, may exert a
secret and invisible influence, that, in one single generation, will
make a whole people wicked in soul and ignoble in person.

I could prove what I state with the certainty of a geometric truth, but
I have no time now. Enough if I give you an illustration. Hear it,
then:--

Many years ago a law was passed in the British Parliament for the
taxation of ships, for they, like everything else, must pay for their
existence. There was a difficulty how to proportion this tax. It would
scarcely be just to make the owner of a poor little schooner pay the
enormous sum required from him who is the proprietor of a grand ship of
two thousand tons. It would at once eat up the profits of the lesser
craft, and _swamp_ her altogether. How, then, was this difficulty to be
got over? A reasonable solution appeared. Tax each vessel in
proportion to her tonnage.

The scheme was adopted; but then another difficulty presented itself.
How was this proportion to be obtained? It was by _bulk_ that the ships
were to be taxed; but tonnage is _weight_, not bulk. How, then, was
this new difficulty to be got over? Simply by taking some standard size
as the weight of a ton, and then ascertaining how many of these _sizes_
the vessel would contain. In fact, after all, it came to _measurement_,
not weight.

Next came the idea as to how the measurement was to be made, so that it
would exhibit the relative proportions of ships; and that was very
fittingly done by ascertaining in each the length of keel, the breadth
of beam, and the depth of the hold. These three, when multiplied
together, will give relative sizes of ships, _if these skips be properly
constructed_.

A law was thus obtained sufficiently just for taxation purposes, and you
would think (if you are a superficial thinker) that this law could in no
way exert any bad influence, except on those who had the tax to pay.

Not so; that simple, unsuspicious-looking law has caused more evil to
the human race, mo