The great end of all human effort is, to improve upon the means which nature has furnished men with, for obtaining the objects of their wants and wishes, and to obviate, to counteract, or do away those inconveniencies =sic= and disadvantages which nature has thrown in the way of their enjoyment. {211}

With the mind, the same course should be used as with material bodies.  It is impossible, in either case, to create; but we may turn the good to as profitable an advantage as we are able, and counteract the bad.

To attempt to hinder men from following their propensities, when in power, is always arduous, generally ineffectual, and frequently impracticable; besides, when it can be done coercively, it infringes too much on the liberty and the enjoyment of mankind.  A controuling power should be employed as seldom as possible.

—–­ {211} Thus, in building a house, you form the stones, the clay, and other materials, which nature has furnished, in order to counteract the effect of heat or cold, moist or dry, as is most agreeable.  Thus, men have learned to melt and vitrify the sand on the sea-shore, to make glass, grind it into a form, and make a microscope to view the most minute objects of nature, or to bring the most distant nearer, by the telescope:  thus, rectifying the imperfection of human sight.  Perhaps the burning of coals to convert water into steam, and, with that steam, raising coals and water from the mine is the most complete triumph of human skill over physical difficulties.  How invention and discovery have improved the state of man since the time that the uses of corn and fire were unknown in Greece!!! -=-

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To attempt to smother the passions is vain, to controul them difficult; besides, it is from energy, arising from passions or propensities, that all good, as well as all evil, arise.  The business, then, will neither be to curb nor to crush, but to give a proper direction.  This is to be done by good habits, when young, and a proper education, which cannot be obtained by individual exertion, without the assistance of government; an assistance that it is therefore bound to give.

The general tendency of wealth and power are to enervate people, to make them proud and indolent, and, after a certain time, they leave a country.  Individuals have no means to counteract this tendency, unless the governing power of the country gives a general impulse to them, in cases where they can act, and acts itself, with care and attention, where individuals can do nothing.

In the case of education and manners, in the case of providing for children, individuals may do much, but government must not only give the means, but the impulse.  In the case of the soil becoming insufficient for the inhabitants, and of taxes and national debt increasing, government may stop the progress; and in the cases of individual bodies trenching on the general weal, as well as in the tendency of inventions, capital, &c. to emigrate to other countries, the government may counteract, and, perhaps, totally prevent them all.