stitution of the social state, may be meliorated, if not entirely removed.

·I. The poor shall never cease out of the land. Is this declaration of the inspired law-giver, to be regarded as exclusively applicable to his own country and people, or must it be extended to all nations, and to all future periods of time? We know that up to the present moment these words have been most truly prophetic of the condition of civilized man. Under every form of government, and in every varied state of society, distinctions, caused by the unequal distribution of wealth, have existed. Notwithstanding they have been often denounced as unjust and injurious, and efforts have repeatedly been made, both by legislative interference, and during the excitement of political commotions, to remove them; yet all has been unavailing. Nor have we any reason to believe that this condition of our being can be altered by any exertions of man, his own nature remaining what it is, and the arrangements of Divine Providence, in relation to him, continuing unchanged. Whilst one man is weak of body, and another possesses athletic strength; while the intellect of one is dull and inactive, and that of another bright and vigorous; while the energies of one are. paralized by frequent and long continued sickness, and another is incited to constant activity by unin

terrupted and elastic health-so long will the rich and poor meet together in human society; and so long must we acknowledge that the Lord is the maker of them all.*

These are causes sufficient to produce the effect, setting aside those that originate in the vices of men, as dissipated living, prodigality, improvidence, contrasted with the virtues of temperance, frugality and prudence. But notwithstanding the clearest indications that such is the ordinance of an overruling Providence, yet there have never been wanting those who have inveighed against it, and have thus either openly or by inference, charged God foolishly.† Some taking counsel of their own benevolent but visionary feelings, and wishing to distribute happiness more equally amongst men, have thought that this could be done by more nearly equalizing their outward condition; others have been incited by a restless impatience under their comparative inferiority, and have hoped to extend their own boundaries by removing the ancient landmarks; others, again, impelled by inordinate and unprincipled ambition, have been ever eager to catch the ear and secure the favor of the unthinking multitude, by flattering their ignorant prejudices, and inflaming their unhappy jealousies against those they esteem more favored by

* Proverbs, xxii. 2.

† Job, i. 22.

Proverbs, xxii. 28. Deut., xxvii. 17.

fortune than themselves. We need not look to past ages, nor to transatlantic countries, for such examples of enthusiastic and shortsighted benevolence on the one hand, or reckless and unprincipled avarice and ambition on the other. I do not think that in a community as intelligent as our own, and as well grounded in the great principles of moral and religious obligation, we are to apprehend any great danger from the prevalence of such false and pernicious doctrines. Still they should not be permitted to pass unnoticed. They should occasionally be brought forward to keep in general circulation the important considerations by which they are refuted; and they should uniformly be reprobated, not simply because they are speculatively untrue, but because they are at war with the permanent interests and the true happiness of society. This point I shall presently have occasion to notice and illustrate. In the mean time it is necessary to state more distinctly what we are to understand by the assertion that the poor shall never cease out of the land.

Is the human race then doomed forever to groan under the load of evils and miseries heaped upon society in consequence of exorbitant, heartless, and luxurious wealth, on the one hand, and abject and squalid poverty, on the other? Is the picture of the rich man clothed in purple and fine linen, and who

fared sumptuously every day, and the beggar, Lazarus, laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table*—is this picture destined to find its prototype sooner or later in all countries, and in all succeeding generations? God forbid! I would not by such an admission, imply a heavy suspicion against the doctrine of a wise and merciful superintending Providence. I draw a far different inference from the actual operations of this Providence, as we read them in the past history and present condition of the human race.

I exult in the conviction that the whole tendency of civilized society is to improvement in knowledge, virtue and happiness. I see the elements in vigorous activity, that are producing this effect, in the spread of the Gospel, the multiplication of the Bible, the diffusion of education, the progress of the temperance reformation, the prevailing conviction that peace is the greatest of earthly blessings to nations, and last of all, but by no means the least of all, in the increasing attention paid to that valuable science which is yet destined to shed innumerable blessings upon the family of man, Political Economy. [B]

While many other evils attendant upon the social state are thus to be gradually meliorated, if not entirely removed, I cannot believe that the great and

*Luke, xvi. 19.

obvious one now under consideration, will remain untouched. We know that at present there exists a vast difference between nations, in regard to the distribution of wealth amongst their respective inhabitants. Compare the condition of the humbler classes of society in Italy or Ireland, with that of the same classes in England, France or Holland ; and then again, compare the proportions of the rich and poor, and the number of degrees between their relative situations in these countries, and in our own favored and happy land. The contrast is manifest, and it is produced by causes which men begin to trace out and understand. This knowledge will be constantly increased by awakened interest and close observation; it will be disseminated by intelligent and philanthropic minds, and it will be applied more and more by individuals and by corporate and legislative bodies, to alleviating the sufferings of pauperism and to removing altogether the evils of a tolerated mendicity. The poor man will indeed still be found in every community, because riches and poverty are relative terms and indicate no absolute condition. We may reasonably hope, however, that at some future period in the progressive improvement of the human race, such a state as suffering indigence will be unknown. "These conditions, it has been well observed, are essentially distinct and