another, their families first, and glory next; in a
third, their families first, and liberty next; and so on, through the
whole range of objects of human desire. Once having discerned the mode,
he will find it easy to take the suffrage without much danger of
mistake.

The chief reason why the discourse of individuals, apart from the
observation of classes of facts, is almost purely deceptive as to
morals, is that the traveller can see no more than one in fifty thousand
of the people, and has no security that those he meets are a sample of
the whole. This difficulty does not interfere with one very important
advantage which he may obtain from conversation,--knowledge of and light
upon particular questions. A stranger might wish to learn the state of
Christianity in England. If he came to London, and began with
conversation, he might meet a Church-of-England-man one day, a Catholic
the next, a Presbyterian the third, a Quaker the fourth, a Methodist the
fifth, and so on, till the result was pure bewilderment. But if he
conversed with intelligent persons, he would find that questions were
pending respecting the church and dissent,--involving the very
principles of the administration of religion. The opinions he hears upon
these questions may be as various as the persons he converses with. He
may be unable to learn the true characters of the statesmen and
religious leaders concerned in their management: but he gains something
of more value. Light is thrown upon the state of things from which alone
these questions could have arisen. From free newspapers he might have
learned the nature of the controversy; but in social intercourse much
more is presented to him. He sees the array of opinions marshalled on
each side, or on all the sides of the question; and receives an
infinite number of suggestions and illustrations which could never have
reached him but from the conflict of intellects, and the diversity of
views and statements with which he is entertained in discourse. The
traveller in every country should thus welcome the discussion of
questions in which the inhabitants are interested, taking strenuous care
to hear the statements of every party. From the intimate connexion of
certain modes of opinion with all great questions, he will gain light
upon the whole condition of opinion from its exhibition in one case. New
subjects of research will be brought within his reach; new paths of
inquiry will be opened; new trains of ide