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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
m $## ; ' ^ Hicft partf those whom i-OfafaMHM ^ Wriiif ^ 'hiai H + Mi&r sfecltijA boosed to brother , and , by ' creating' i di ^ Ard ' 4 tid diVistbh itf faitiilifcs , brings the severest curse of life ta ^ ott them . I kne w tli f i&e sisters , co-heiresses to a not very ctihsiderable property : eVeil in their very childhood , I have heard those mrls der > recar «
the event of their having a brother , because , said they , ' He would take all . ' Here is an evidence of the preference of dead dross to living love ; the consequences flowing from such preference may easil y be calculated . Children are essentially better legislators than men . I never knew a question as to the division
of anything put to children , that they did not promptly decide upon an equal division ; justice is obvious , and their fresh minds immediately perceive it , unless where they have been corrupted b y a system of preference and injustice adopted towards themselves . I remember hearing a woman say to some children , regarding the crumbs of a plum-cake which they had been eating , 'It Was Harriet ' s cake , so she ought to have the crumbs . ' It is
tins aduh interference that makes the crumbs of charity so scanty , that even the permission to pick them up from under the ricW ^ xriaii ' s table is accorded as a boon , and received as a privilege . The love of property has produced everywhere a system of phmder , which actuates alike the governing and the governed , till 'Society has become little else than a habit of polite pillage ,
carried on with bows , and curtseys , and counterfeited complacency . As soon as the secret of making wealth became known , Appropriation ,, like a sordid stepmother , appeared ; she accumulated Xtito masses that which ought to have been diffused like the fertittfcjttg'dew and the invigorating sunshine . Partiality she made lter prime minister , by whom favourites have been elected , arid thjfy get much for doing nothing , at the expense of those Who get tftfext ft ? nothing * for doing a great deal . Society is divided into
the idle and the industrious ; alas ! there is a division yet more invidious , —those who enjoy everything and do nothing , and those Wib want everything , even the work which they would willingly dici'to keep life and soul together ; to be willing and able to work is ^ nldtb not enough ; the mere privilege to labour must be purchased by interest and favour . Sloth and superabundance have
ittade the ? former class wanton ; exercise and necessity have made th ^ latter ingenious : the one has contracted a vicious appetite for variet y ; the other exists under an unfortunate obligation to administer to that appetite . Labour and invention , from the
honourable office of supplying the necessaries , comforts , and embeHishments of life , are debased to the task of devising luxuries tmd embfezonnumts . Trinkets for the vain , toys for the weak , airM things yet worse for the vile , degraded industry is compelled t 6 pMltie& , or be quite starved , as it is mow half-starved : An hft ^ ftafcste dT the test po tters < tf one- -portion ! of the huthart kind
Untitled Article
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1835, page 344, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2645/page/52/
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