d--the substance of them being
also irrelevant to my main purpose. These few words about the
American war, with which they concluded, are, I think, worth
retaining:--"All methods of right government are to be
communicated to foreign nations by perfectness of example and
gentleness of patiently expanded power, not suddenly, nor at
the bayonet's point. And though it is the duty of every
nation to interfere, at bayonet point, if they have the
strength to do so, to save any oppressed multitude, or even
individual, from manifest violence, it is wholly unlawful to
interfere in such matter, except with sacredly pledged
limitation of the objects to be accomplished in the oppressed
person's favor, and with absolute refusal of all selfish
advantage and _increase of territory or of political power_
which might otherwise accrue from the victory."

142. But, however corrupted, the aristocracy of any nation may thus be
always divided into three great classes. First, the landed proprietors
and soldiers, essentially one political body (for the possession of
land can only be maintained by military power); secondly, the moneyed
men and leaders of commerce; thirdly, the professional men and masters
in science, art, and literature.

And we were to consider the proper duties of all these, and the laws
probably expedient respecting them. Whereupon, in the outset, we are
at once brought face to face with the great land question.

143. Great as it may be, it is wholly subordinate to those we have
hitherto been considering. The laws you make regarding methods of
labor, or to secure the genuineness of the things produced by it,
affect the entire moral state of the nation, and all possibility of
human happiness for them. The mode of distribution of the land only
affects their numbers. By this or that law respecting land you decide
whether the nation shall consist of fifty or of a hundred millions.
But by this or that law respecting work, you decide whether the given
number of millions shall be rogues, or honest men;--shall be wretches,
or happy men. And the question of numbers is wholly immaterial,
compared with that of character; or rather, its own materialness
depends on the prior determination of character. Make your nation
consist of knaves, and, as Emerson said long ago, it is but the case
of any other vermin--"the more, the worse." Or, to put the matter in
narrower limits, it is a