And, when I think thereon, almost I long to go!’
That is an unworthy opponent, who assails what assumes to be important truth, by no better argument than ridicule and sarcasm. That is a despicable one, unworthy of exciting any feelings but those of pity and contempt, who attempts to bring to bear upon it the blind and fierce prejudices of the multitude. This last is the prevalent mode of modern attack. By those, who deem that wisdom will die with them, and that they can learn nothing more, who dogmatize without examining, and measure the views of others by their own preconceived and settled opinions, all the foregoing doctrines, which militate with the established prejudices and habits of the age, will be denounced, I am aware, as heretical, imaginary, false.
‘He would teach people how to be happy,’ say they with a sneer, ‘as though they were not compelled to pursue happiness by a law of their natures.’ My business is not with such opponents, and I should consider their opposition an honor and a distinction.
The fact will remain true, be it welcomed, be it ridiculed, as it may, that a few, in all time, have found the means of being more comfortable and happy, than others in the same circumstances. They had a method of their own in creating this difference. That method might be so indicated, as to be reduced to general, and settled rules. This is the amount of the foregoing doctrines. The object has been to discuss and fix some of those rules. No moralist was ever so stupid, as to expect, that the world would not pursue its headlong course, inculcate what he might. Every one, who understands the analogy of the present to the past, will expect that no form of virtuous effort will be screened from question and ridicule; and that no purity of purpose will conquer the blind and fierce hate of the multitude.
But there will still be a few quiet, reflecting and philosophic people. What is better, the number will be always increasing. For such, are these my labors, and those, which I have adopted from another, chiefly designed. Their suffrage is an ample reward. Their plaudit is true fame. If they say, ‘we and those about us may be better and happier; let us make the effort to become so,’ my object is attained.
To encourage us to shake off the superincumbent load of indifference, ridicule, and opposition, and to make efforts to extend virtue and happiness, it is a sublime reflection, that a thought may outlive an empire. Babylon and Thebes are, now, nowhere to be found; but the moral lessons of the cotemporary wise and good, despised and disregarded, perhaps, in their day, have descended to us and are to be found everywhere. As the seminal principles of plants, borne through the wide spaces of the air by their downy wings, find at length a congenial spot, in which to settle down, and vegetate, these seeds of virtue and happiness, floating down the current of time, are still arrested, from age to age, by some kindred mind, in which they germinate, and produce their golden fruit. No intellect can conjecture, in how many instances, and to what degree, every fit moral precept may have come between the reason and passions of some one, balancing between the course of happiness and ruin, and may have inclined the scale in his favor. The consciousness of even an effort to achieve one such triumph is a sufficient satisfaction to a virtuous mind.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] E.g. Robert Owen and others of the atheistical school.
[B] These Notes will be found at the end of the volume. The small numerals, in the text, refer to them.