T H I N C I -
P L E S OF
-UNION-. -
C H A P. V.
General Principle's o f National Happinefs.— Increafe o f
Population.— Caufes o f Union.—Cultivation.—-Property._
Society.—Government.
i’jCuM genus HUMANDM primUm molle-bsere coepit. Lucretius, 1, r.
/ s ' H E odious humiliating fcenes o f barbarifm are fo irkfome and
do tedious to the mind o f the obferver, that it gives pleafure
tto know that they are paft. It is therefore not a common degree
o f felfdenial, fortitude, and heroifm, required in a man, to relign
his whole life to the education and ^improvement o f barbarians
to have the fcenes o f cruelty and o f debafement day after day
before his eyes, to fee his benevolent intentions oppofed and defeated,
and i f any improvements take place, to obferve their flow
and tardy growth. On the other hand, it is next to impoflible,
to defcribe the pleafing fatisfadtion, and the agreeable feelings
arifing at the fight o f happy fcenes, in a nation abounding with
•benevolence, and ihewing the firlt bloffoms o f focial feelings.
T h e pafling through the gloomy fcenes o f the firft, is a flight
.through utter and through middle darknefs.
And
And now that I am returning to the bright regions o f tropical
countries^ I feel the powerful influence o f the great fountain
o f setherial light, that gladdens every heart.
- - - . ~ Thee I revifit fafe,
And feel thy fov’ reign vital lamp.
MlLTO"N,
In order to treat the fubjedt I have undertaken, with that order,
clearnefs, and convidtion, which its extenfive utility, and intereft-
ing dodtrines require, let us in a Ihort excurfion on the general
principles o f focial life, and on the advantages and happinefs, which
reafonably may be expedted in civilized focieties, fix fome ideas that
may lead to the inveftigation o f this great and interefting dodtrine.
Man, fuch as he every where is, has a ftrong defire o f being as
happy as his circumftances will admit. T h e natural and moil
prefling wants, foon convince him that he cannot enjoy by him-
felf even a moderate fhare o f happinefs; and that uniting with
other human beings, is the moil effedtual means, not only o f
procuring the greateft degree of happinefs poflihle in his fituation $
but alfo o f infuring to him with certainty, an undifturbed enjoyment
o f it. He will foon be fenfible that his own happinefs
procured by the afliftance o f the united efforts o f other liuman
beings, depends likewife upon their happinefs j for no one who is
X x doomed
P R I N C I P
L E S OP
U N I O N .