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Untitled Article
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
tioiid people , whose ambition is Hot of the Most noble kind , pursue it with intense energy * The petty retailer , who hoards his small gains * is animated by the same passion as the merchant , whose revenue is like that of a prince . They seek fot- what is termed independence , which is still only a name for power , the power of obliging their fellow-creatures to labour for them , while
they rest in idleness . The word independence in the sense which is attached to it , is in fact a rnisndmer . Those who possess ' independence , ' as it is called , ate the rfiOst dependent of all people , for they rely upon others for the supply df all their wants . The peculiar constitution of civilized society , has , it is true , given them a certain amount of power over others , but a change in the construction of society would entirely destroy their power , and
exhibit them in the most helpless state of dependence . Nay , let them only try the experiment , by visiting rude countries . Let them sojourn in the back-woods of Canada , or the United States , or the Southern Pampas , and they will find that money is shorn of half its strength ; that there are numberless things which money cannot purchase * The only really independent man , if there be such a being , is the solitary savage , who runs down and devours
his prey like a wild beast . Even Daniel Boon , the patriarch of Kentucky , who lived the latter years of his life in absolute solitude , Warf not independent ; for though the skins of the wild animals he shot supplied him with clothing , and their flesh with food ; though the fallen leaves supplied his couch ; though he might even dig his own lead , and cast his own bullets ; though the rifle
he U 9 ed might never need repairs , beyond what he himself could bestow on it ; gtill , hid supply of powder Vrhs of necessity furnished by his fellow-men , and he was dependent on them for it . The only example we know of / of entire self-dependence in a civilized man , Is the case of Alexander Selkirk , on Juari Fernandez , and a Wretched state of existence he found it ; he was content enough
to exchange it for the dependence of civilisation , so soon as afi opportunity offered . The fact fc , amongst civilized nations , fell the members of the community are dependent on each other , and this necessity is of the highest Utility , as it draws the links of kindness , and all good feelings , closer . The time may possibly arrive , when increased knowledge may diminish this dependence , by enabling each to depend upon the resources of his own head
find hfttids ; but it is probable that by that time wisdom also will be much on the increase , and the mass of mankind will have discovered ! that tfue happiness consists more in bestowing , than in receiving services , and that the greatest amount of happiness is to
be found in the interchange of mutual kindness . Selnsh interest is too much the bond of union in the present order of things , but tre can conceive a time , when actual physical misery shall have ceased by the operation of better arrangements , when human beings will be fcfthnated by higher views than at t > feserit take their attention .
Untitled Article
g 06 On the Morality of Authort .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1833, page 306, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2614/page/18/
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