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almost an invisible atom, compared with the great system of the heavens,-what a combination of simplicity and grandeur do we perceive! It is one universal design, or an infinity of design;-nothing seems to us little, becausé nothing is so little as not to proclaim the omnipotence which made it ;-and I may say too that nothing seems to us great in itself, because its very grandeur speaks to us of that immensity, before which all created greatness is scarcely to be perceived.

On particular arguments of this kind, however, that are as innumerable as the things which exist, it is not necessary to dwell. Those whom a single organized being, or even a single organ, such as the eye, the ear, the hand, does not convince of the being of a God,-who do not see him, not more in the social order of human society, than in a single instinct of animals, producing unconsciously, a result that is necessary for their continued existence, and yet a result which they cannot have foreknown-will not see him in all the innumerable instances that might be crowded together by philosophers and theologians.

The world, then, was made ;-there is a designing Power which formed it--a Power whose own admirable nature explains whatever is admirable on earth, and leaves to us instead of the wonder of ignorance, that wonder of knowledge and veneration which is not astonishment, but love and awe. BROWN.

LESSON 104.

Political Economy.

Tech'nical, belonging to arts; not in common or popular use. THE language of science is frequently its most difficult part, but in political economy there are few technical terms, and those easily comprehended. It may be defined as the science which teaches us to investigate the causes of the wealth and prosperity of nations.

In a country of savages, you find a small number of inhabitants spread over a vast tract of land. Depending on the precarious subsistence afforded by fishing and hunting, they are frequently subject to dearths and famines, which cut

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them off in great numbers. As soon as they begin to apply themselves to pasturage, their means of subsistence are brought within narrower limits, requiring only that degree of wandering necessary to provide fresh pasturage for their cattle. Their flocks ensuring them a more easy subsistence, their families begin to increase; they lose in a great measure their ferocity, and a considerable improvement takes place in their character.

By degrees the art of tillage is discovered, a small tract of ground becomes capable of feeding a greater relative number of people; the necessity of wandering in search of food is superseded; families begin to settle in fixed habitations; and the arts of social life are introduced and cultivated.

In the savage state scarcely any form of government is established; the people seem to be under no control but that of their military chiefs in time of warfare. The possession of flocks and herds in the pastoral state introduces property, and laws are necessary for its security; the elders and leaders therefore of these wandering tribes begin to establish laws, to violate which is to commit a crime and to incur a punishment. This is the origin of social order; and when in the third state the people settle in fixed habitations, the laws gradually assume the more regular form of a monarchical or republican government. Every thing now wears a new aspect; industry flourishes, the arts are invented, the use of metals is discovered; labour is subdivided; every one applies himself more particularly to a distinct employment, in which he becomes skilful. Thus, by slow degrees, this people of savages, whose origin was so rude and miserable, become a civilized people, who occupy a highly cultivated country, crossed by fine roads, leading to wealthy and populous cities, and carrying on an extensive trade with other countries.

The whole business of political economy is to study the causes which have thus co-operated to enrich and civilize a nation. This science, therefore, is essentially founded upon history, not the history of sovereigns, of wars, and of intrigues, but the history of the arts, and of trade, of discoveries, and of civilization. We see some countries, like America, increase rapidly in wealth and prosperity, whilst others, like Egypt and Syria, are impoverished, depopulated, and falling to decay; when the causes which produce these va

rious effects are well understood, some judgment may be formed of the measures which governments have adopted to contribute to the welfare of their people; whether certain branches of commerce should be encouraged in preference to others; whether it be proper to prohibit this or that kind of merchandise; whether any peculiar encouragement should be given to agriculture; whether it be right to establish by law the price of provisions or the price of labour, or whether they should be left without control; and whether many other measures, which influence the welfare of nations, should be adopted or rejected.

It is manifest, therefore, that political economy consists of two parts-theory and practice; the science and the art. The science comprehends a knowledge of the facts which have been enumerated; the art relates more particularly to legislation, and consists in doing whatever is requisite to contribute to the increase of national wealth, and avoiding whatever would be prejudicial to it. MRS. BRYAN.

QUESTIONS. 1. What is political economy? 2. What is the state of savage life? 3. What is the consequence of attending to pasturage? 4. What is the effect of discovering the art of tillage? 5. What introduces property? 6. What is the origin of social order? 7. What follows after the laws assume the regular form of a government? 8. On what is the science of political economy founded? 9. How may some judgment be formed of the measures of governments? 10. What does the science of political economy comprehend? 11. The art?

LESSON 105.
Property.

WHEN We consider the multitude who are in possession of means of enjoyment, that are to them the means only of selfish avarice or of profligate waste, and when, at the same time, we consider the multitudes, far more numerous, to whom a small share of that cumbrous and seemingly unprofitable wealth, would in an instant diffuse a comfort, that would make the heart of the indigent gay in his miserable hovel, and be like a dream of health itself to that pale cheek, which is slowly wasting on its wretched bed of straw, in cold and darkness, it might almost seem to the inconsiderate, at least for a

moment, that no expression of the social voice could be so beneficial, as that which should merely say, let there be no restraint of property, but let all the means of provision for the wants of mankind, be distributed according to the more or less imperious necessity of those wants, which all partake. It requires only the consideration of a moment, however, to perceive, that the very distribution, would, itself, be the most injurious boon that could be offered to indigence, that soon, under such a system of supposed freedom from the usurpations of the wealthy, there would only be one general penury, without the possibility of relief; and an industry, that would be exercised, not in plundering the wealthy, for there could not then be wealth to admit of plunder, but in snatching from the weaker some scanty morsel of a wretched aliment, that would scarcely be sufficient to repay the labour of the struggle, to him who was too powerful not to prevail. There would be no palaces, indeed, in such a system of equal rapine, and this might be considered as but a slight evil, from the small number of those who were stripped of them; but when the chambers of state had disappeared, where would be the cottage, or rather the whole hamlet of cottages, that might be expected to occupy its place? The simple dwellings of the unhappy peasant might be the last, indeed, to be invaded; but when the magnificent mansion had been stripped by the first band of plunderers, these too would soon find plunderers as rapacious. No elegant art could be exercised, no science cultivated, where the search of a precarious existence for the day, would afford us no leisure for studies or exercises beyond the supply of mere animal wants; and man, who, with property, is what we now behold him, and is to be, in his glorious progress even on earth, a being far nobler than we are capable, in our present circumstances, of divining, would, without property, soon become, in the lowest depth of brutal ignorance and wretchedness, what it is almost as difficult for our imagination to picture to us, as it would be for it to picture what he may become on earth, after the many long ages of successive improvement.

The great inequality of property, strange as it may seem to be at any one moment, is only the effect of that security and absolute command of property, which allows the continual accumulation of it by continued industry. If all things had been common to all,—instead of that beautiful.

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and populous earth which we behold,-where cities pour wealth on the fields, and the fields, in their turn, send plenty to the cities, where all are conferring aid and receiving aid, and the most sensual and selfish cannot consume a single luxury, without giving, however unintentionally, some comfort, or the means of comfort to others,-instead of this noble dwelling-place of so many noble inhabitants, we should have had a waste or a wilderness, and a few miserable stragglers, half famished on that wide soil which now gives abundance to millions. BROWN.

QUESTION. What reasons may be given for the institution of property?

LESSON 106.

Division of Labour.

Smelt'ing, the melting of ore in a furnace so as to extract the metal. In the more precious metals this is called refining.

THAT separation of employments, which, in political economy, is called the division of labour, can take place only in civilized countries. In the flourishing states of Europe and America we find men not only exclusively engaged in the exercise of one particular art, but that art subdivided into numerous branches, each of which forms a distinct occupation for the different workmen. Observe the accommodation of the most common artificer or day-labourer in a civilized and thriving country, and you will perceive that the number of people, of whose industry a part, though but a small part, has been employed in procuring him this accommodation, exceeds all computation. The woollen coat, for example, which covers the labourer, though it may appear coarse and rough, is the produce of the joint labour of a great number of workmen. The shepherds, the sorter of the wool, the carder, the dyer, the spinner, the weaver, the fuller, the dresser, with many others, must all join their different arts to complete even this ordinary production. How many merchants and carriers, besides, must have been employed in transporting the materials from some of those workmen to others who often live in a distant part of the country! How much com