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But did they not afterwards improve ? Some few , bat many killed themselves by excess . But the next generation will improve by imperceptibly assimilating themselves to the manners and customs of the country . But , father , I have heard people here say that the manners and customs of Spanish countries are very immoral . That is simply because the definition of morals is different in the different countries . If by morality and immorality we understand good and evil , we may readily come to a general definition . That which produces more pleasure than pain , viewed in all its bearings both upon ourselves and our neighbours , must be good , by which word we commonly understand an emanation of God , or the good principle . And that which produces more pain than pleasure , viewed in all its bearings both upon ourselves and our neighbours , must be evil , by which word we commonly understand an emanation of the devil , or the evil principle .
But , father , are there not some things which are all good or all evil ? Very few , I apprehend . The proverb says , * It is an ill wind which blows nobody good ; ' and it might be readily reversed . It is a good wind which blows nobody evil .
Yes ; I remember when the locusts came in swarms , and were devouring all the fruit in the orchards , and the crops on the ground , a Pampero gale swept them all into the sea ; and then Don ***** was miserable for two months , for his ship parted her cable in the gale , and was lost .
There , boy , was a general good , and a partial evil . There cannot be a doubt that the former far outbalanced the latter . But , father , would it not have been better to have no locusts , and no gale , and then the ship might have been saved ( Thou art now diving beyond my vision , boy . Perhaps , though , Don ***** , who was a lazy , careless man , might take warning by the accident to get his ships better found afterwards . There can be no doubt of the extreme misery which arises at times from over population , yet even that evil has been accompanied by one advantage . What is that , father ? The extinction of the feudal system . You mean the system under which all the people were a kind of slaves to a few rich mea called lords and barons . Even so . Though the vassals were not actually bought and sold slaves , still they were tied to the soil , and the feudal lord was obliged to find them land far their support . But when they waxed too numerous he was glad to emancipate them , for they were more expense than profit to him . The extinction of the feudal system has commonly been attributed to the influence of Christianity , but , when opposed to
profit , Christianity would have availed as little with the oligarchy in those days as it does at present . Had the barons carried their brutal disregard of human feelings a step further , killing off the supernumerary children of their vassals , as they were accustomed to regulate the numbers of their cattle , it is to be feared that personal slavery would have continued for a much longer period .
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Juvenile L cssons . 7 6 5
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No . 83 . 3 I
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1833, page 765, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2626/page/33/
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