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Untitled Article
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Untitled Article
• Without any counterbalancing evil—than all the gentlemen with open purses and all the ladies in drab bonnets who benevolently busied themselves from year to year . Nor was fuel the only good procured . Bread and clothes and independence came in the same colliers , though nothing was charged for their freight . Manufactures which could not before be set up on account of the
expense of fuel , were established as soon as the obstacle was removed . A new market was opened to the industry of the people , and they earned their comforts instead of having to beg for them . In such cases as these , one individual , issuing a sound opinion through the press or in Parliament , may do more good than a score of charity committees with a score of members in each . Why do not more aspire after this truly effectual benevolence ?
Another and yet more important consideration to the good man is , that the application of moral principles varies with the social condition of man . Doubtless we shall find , when we reach a better state of knowledge , that these principles are immutable ; but we cannot use them in an abstract form . We know of none which have admitted of precisely the same application from the beginning of the world to this time . Modes of action which are
good in one age or position of circumstances , are bad in another , while the principle remains the same . If we attempt to frame moral systems , we must make them for present use only . We must provide for their being modified as the condition of society changes , or we shall do more harm than good . A moral system -which is good for a child is unfit for a man . A moral system which is suitable to an infant colony , is perfectly inapplicable to
an ancient empire . The regulations of a commercial must be different from those of an agricultural country . No man , therefore , can either teach or practise morals well , however sound in his general principles , unless he knows the circumstances in which his principles are to be applied . A clergyman may preach well on justice , and may have the most earnest desire to practise and encourage this virtue ; but he more than undoes his own
labour , if he persuades his people to countenance the interference of Government in the employment of private capital ; i . e ., to petition for penalties on any particular mode of investment . He may thus be injuring the interests of thousands , while he advocates the principles of justice . In like manner , if his
weekday labours are directed to the encouragement of almsgiving , instead of better modes of expenditure , he does more for the increase of pauperism , wretchedness , and crime , than a whole year ' s preaching on benevolence can counteract . If he were a political economist , he would not preach the less fervently , but he would accompany his enforcement of these principles with illustrations of their best application in the present state of society . He would be eloquent on the right of man to employ
Untitled Article
On the Duty of Studying Political tZconomi / . 2 d
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1832, page 29, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1804/page/29/
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