On the deck, the aspect is of
Cleopatra's galley--under hatches there is a slave hospital; while,
finally (and this is the most fatal difference of all), even the few
persons who care to interfere energetically, with purpose of doing
good, can, in a large society, discern so little of the real state of
evil to be dealt with, and judge so little of the best means of
dealing with it, that half of their best efforts will be misdirected,
and some may even do more harm than good. Whereas it is the sorrowful
law of this universe, that evil, even unconscious and unintended,
never fails of _its_ effect; and in a state where the evil and the
good, under conditions of individual "liberty," are allowed to contend
together, not only every _stroke_ on the Devil's side tells--but every
_slip_, (the mistakes of wicked men being as mischievous as their
successes); while on the side of right, there will be much direct and
fatal defeat, and, even of its measure of victory, half will be
fruitless.

67. It is true, of course, that, in the end of ends, nothing but the
right conquers; the prevalent thorns of wrong, at last, crackle away
in indiscriminate flame: and of the good seed sown, one grain in a
thousand some day comes up--and somebody lives by it; but most of our
great teachers, not excepting Carlyle and Emerson themselves, are a
little too encouraging in their proclamation of this comfort, not, to
my mind, very sufficient, when for the present our fields are full of
nothing but darnel instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley; and
none of them seem to me yet to have enough insisted on the inevitable
power and infectiousness of all evil, and the easy and utter
extinguishableness of good. Medicine often fails of its effect--but
poison never: and while, in summing the observation of past life, not
unwatchfully spent, I can truly say that I have a thousand times seen
patience disappointed of her hope, and wisdom of her aim, I have never
yet seen folly fruitless of mischief, nor vice conclude but in
calamity.

68. There is, however, one important condition in national economy, in
which the analogy of that of a ship's company is incomplete: namely,
that while labor at oar or sail is necessarily united, and can attain
no independent good, or personal profit, the labor properly undertaken
by the several members of a political community is necessarily, and
justly, within certain limits, independent; and obtains for them
independent a