the merest instruments. Every branch of knowledge, those necessary for the citizen at large included, have vastly expanded, and require patient study, which again requires time. The ancient states, I speak of the free and best, not indeed of those vast empires in the East, which were in a constant process of transformation, were, as we have seen, city states, in which the citizens could orally commune on their far less difficult questions of politics; we are in want of newspapers, reports and books, to weigh justly our politics, which to the blessing of mankind become daily more the questions of mutual compromise, of poising each other's rights, and hence less absolute or autarchical, but more complicated. The accumulation of wealth, that is, the saving and storing of labor, has increased; this, together with the infinitely greater population of modern states and brisker industry, has greatly elevated the common standard of comfort. A pauper in England receives among other things an allowance of tea; a private soldier is furnished with comforts in food and clothing of which the ancients knew nothing. Ancient civilisation was in its character Southern, an out-door civilisation, if I am permitted to use the expression; modern civilisation is Northern, an in-door civilisation, ever since the deep channel of the stream of civilisation has coursed with the Northern tribes. All these circumstances have contributed to elevate the standard of comfort and to make a degree of wealth, by way of property, or periodical remuneration for skill or knowledge, (wages, salaries), more desirable, indeed necessary. Merely to maintain a respectable position-I do not speak of a positively influential one-a considerable share in the national wealth is necessary. A man must be able to dress himself and family with propriety, and to keep his lodgings neat, merely not to sink below the common level, or to commune with others, without which he cannot share in the common stock of civilisation. A man in antiquity might contrive to live in a tub, and yet be styled a philosopher; in modern times he would be taken up under the vagrant law; it was possible to teach in ancient times, walking from place to place; a teacher, to have any influence now and to promote seriously and conscientiously the cause of knowledge, not merely to obtain money from the curious, must have at least a respectable station, though he may be poor, and honorably poor, in so far as this applies to the actual possession of property.

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(1) It may not seem gracious to quote one's own words, but if an author has previously written on a subject, which in a subsequent discussion he must discuss again, and he has at first expressed his thoughts as well as he is able, I do not see how he can avoid it. I may be permitted therefore to repeat here in a note a few words of a pamphlet of mine which was published some years ago by the Philadelphia Prison Society on the Relation between Education and Crime, especially as, from its nature, it cannot be in the hands of many. As the third reason why diffusion of knowledge is necessary, with reference to a diminution of crime, I said: "There are no individuals more exposed to crime, than the ignorant, in a civilised community; or, in other words, those individuals who are touched by the wants and desires of civilisation, or by the effects of general refinement, without being actually within the bosom of civilisation.

"It is on this latter point, that I greatly rest my opinion of the necessity of universal education with the European race. Civilisation exists with us; we cannot stop it, even were we desirous of doing so; and the outward effects of civilisation without knowledge, is the greatest bane that can befall any class or individual. Ignorance without civilisation is no peculiar source of crime ; ignorance with civilisation, is an unbounded source of crime;

both, because it lessens the means of subsistence, and lowers the individual in the general and his own esteem-it severs him from the instructed and educated. Instances are afforded to us in the lowest, most ignorant, and destitute classes in all large cities, or in some frontier tribes, who receive certain views and notions of civilisation, and yet live without education and instruction."

XXXII. Desire of wealth then, not desire of riches, is salutary as a national impulse and not immoral in the individual; but, before all, a generally diffused desire of independence is an absolute requisite for free and moral action-moral and mental independence within, and independence respecting social relations without. The latter may be attained in two different ways, either by acquiring the worldly means of independence, in property, trade or salary, or by lopping off our wants, to satisfy which, we only desire the former. The latter can be carried to a limited degree in modern times only, for, as was said, though a man were to resign all luxuries and expensive gratifications, he would still be, in modern times, very dependent without any means; he could not inform himself of the most important subjects of the times and would be excluded in a very great measure from intellectual intercouse. Instances, strongly illustrating this position, are not wanting in the literary history of the latest times. But though the desire of accumulated wealth if unalloyed by any base metal, is unimpeachable, and many of the noblest of mankind have possessed it together with an elevated spirit of liberality and true independence of mind, it is nevertheless true that very frequently a total absence of it is the accompaniment of nobly-fashioned souls, in patriots and statesmen as well as the votaries of science, the arts or religion. There is no general obligation to pursue wealth; all that can be

demanded upon ethical grounds is the endeavor to make ourselves independent; if we are so and feel so with small means, and if we can serve our species better by pursuing other branches, at the entire expense of the pursuit of wealth, be it so; but it is important to observe, that upon every consideration, private or political, it is necessary to keep ourselves free of debt, and not to live upon the bounty or support of others, in whatever form it may be proffered. (1) Being in debt is very - apt to hamper free action, to destroy the necessary freedom of judgment and buoyancy of mind, when that "res angusta domi," weighs upon the mind, and the citizen, as private citizen, magistrate, representative or leader feels dependent, straightened and cramped in his vote or any other political action. Not a few statesmen have been prevented from boldly and honestly taking that course which their genius or inmost and genuine bias of soul and sympathy pointed out to them, solely because they were indebted first in a monetary way and consequently by way of gratitude or decency, to those who assisted them. It is not necessary that they actually sell their better judgment: the worst effect of continued straightened circumstances is that they affect unconsciously even the nobler minds. Nor is it necessary to mention here how much influence there is always and necessarily attached to the possession of substantial property or to a sufficiency yielded by a profession in the community in which we live. All members feel that in weal and woe, we are entirely one with them. As to the establishment of a family, a competency is still more desirable. Still there are most noble souls in whom this element is so entirely wanting, that they alienate all worldly means so soon as they flow to them. They ought then to force themselves the more in some manner or other to contrive, not to collect wealth or riches, for, being against their nature, it would only harass them in turn, but surely to save so much as is necessary to keep them free from obligations to others. Yet so noble is it to be liberal, that the community will always be inclined indulgently to look upon such a man; while the fault on the other side, meanness, infallibly ruins a man in the esteem of his fellow-citizens, and justly so. For, while disregard of wealth, even in an injudicious degree, may and frequently does coexist with the best qualities of the soul, which indeed not unfrequently are the first cause of it, meanness is the cause and effect of a hundred other low qualities of soul, against all of which even excessive liberality is a proof and evidence. The almost unexampled influence which Pitt certainly did enjoy and by which he ruled England in a period of the greatest difficulty, was essentially aided and supported by the perfect conviction which all England had of his disinterestedness in money matters, and that while he made peer after peer, while he appointed others to the most lucrative offices, and millions passed through his hand, he was known to be neither extravagant nor ever even easy in circumstances, a situation which could only remain unembarrassing to so gifted a mind. Whatever may be the judgment which we feel called upon to pass in calm reflection, still we feel constrained to respect his disinterestedness, when we read that this premier of the wealthiest nation on the earth was giving a political dinner to the ambassadors and high functionaries up-stairs, while below-stairs an officer was waiting to lay hand on him for debt; especially if we remember that Pitt was