poverty, and want, and cursing, and tears, and death. He
asked an egg, and he receives a scorpion. He gives him that which is
established and well known as a source of no good, but as tending to
produce beggary and wretchedness. Now, if this were practised in any
other business, it would be open fraud. If in any way you could palm
upon a farmer that which is not only _worthless_, but mischievous--that
which would certainly tend to ruin him and his family, _could there be_
any doubt about the nature of this employment? It makes no difference
here, that the man _supposes_ that it is for his good; or that he
applies for it. _You know_ that it is _not_ for his benefit, and you
know--what is the only material point under this head--that it will tend
to his ruin. Whatever _he_ may think about it, or whatever _he_ may
desire, you are well advised that it is an article that will tend to sap
the foundation of his morals and happiness, and conduce to the ruin of
his estate, and his body, and his soul; and you know, therefore, that
you are _not_ rendering him any really valuable consideration for his
property. The dealer may look on his gains in this matter--on his
houses, or mortgages, or lands, obtained as the result of this
business--with something like these reflections.

"This property has been gained from other men. It was theirs, honestly
acquired, and was necessary to promote their own happiness and the
happiness of their families. It has become mine by a traffic which has
not only taken it away from them, but which has ruined their peace,
corrupted their morals, sent woe and discord into their families, and
consigned them perhaps to an early and most loathsome grave. This
property has come from the hard earnings of other men; has passed into
my hands without any valuable compensation rendered; but has been
obtained only while I have been diffusing want, and woe, and death,
through their abodes."

Let the men engaged in this traffic look on their property thus gained;
let them survey the woe which has attended it; and then ask, as honest
men, whether it is a moral employment.

3. A man is bound to pursue such a business as shall tend to _promote
the welfare of the whole community_. This traffic does not. We have seen
that an honorable and lawful employment conduces to the welfare of the
whole social organization. But the welfare of the whole cannot be
promoted by this traffic. _Somewhere_ it must produce poverty, and
i