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whole correct and highly important There is only one point which may perhaps require to be in some degree modified or explained . " When engaged in promoting the happiness of others , we may , " says he , " in general expect success . When our benevolence is pure , and directed by a regard to the dictates of conscience and the will of God , it will seldom fail of
gaining its purpose . And yet disappointments must sometimes happen to the purest benevolence ; else our love of God and resignation to his will , which is the highest principle of all , could not be brought to perfection . But then this will happen so rarely as to make no alteration in our reasonings with respect to the general state of things ; which kind of reasoning and certainty is all that we are qualified for in our present condition .
What is here stated will probably be true , provided that the practical influence of the principle of benevolence is under the constant guidance of sound and rational views , not only of the extent of our own powers and opportunities , but also of the effects , remote as well as immediate , upon society at large of the conduct to which we may thus be incited . All this is of course necessarily included in the supposition , because nothing can he more manifest than that , other things being the same , it may be expected
that a man ' s success in any undertaking will be proportioned to the adaptation of his means for accomplishing it ; and in the present case these means in a great measure depend upon and consist in the possession of an enlightened understanding capable of taking a clear and comprehensive view of its own situation , and the absolute and relative practicability of the different undertakings which offer themselves to its notice . And probably the first labour of a really benevolent and , at the same time ,
judicious person , will be to acquire that kind of knowledge , particularly of the circumstances on which the true happiness of the lower classes of society mainly depend , and the manner-in which , in the very complicated social state which prevails in modern civilized nations , the multiplied relations which exist among different classes tend to promote or impede the true interests of all . Without some such knowledge as this , there is reason to be apprehensive that , with the most benevolent intentions , he
may often do more harm than good ; and it is but too manifest that many persons , with respect to whose pure and disinterested wishes to promote the good of their fellow-creatures there can scarcely be a question , have nevertheless been the instruments of great and extensive mischief . Some of the principles which it is desirable to bear in mind in the practical direction of the principle of benevolence are well stated by Dr . Chalmers , in his " Essays on the Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns , " a work of
extraordinary interest and value , which contains much sound theory on this subject , illustrated by its successful application to practice on no inconsiderable scale . The observations of Hartley are , perhaps , liable to some misapprehension ; and indeed it is not impossible that he himself may not have been sufficiently aware of the extent to which a want of the knowledge necessary for successfully concerting and executing measures intended to promote on a large scale the temporal interests of masses of mankind , has impeded the attainment of their professed object , or even ultimately
rendered them the instruments , not of good , but of great and serious evils . These subjects are now in many respects much better understood , and it is scarcely possible that any person of good sense , and accustomed to reflection , should fail to perceive the necessity of this caution , or the great complexity of operation of many institutions ori g inally suggested , no doubt , by the most benevolent and public-spirited motives . Still , however * when subjected to th $ limitation which we have now cn-
Untitled Article
Havtley ' s Rule of Life . 599
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1828, page 599, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2564/page/15/
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