468

CONCLUSION.

because it gives the only true security to person, property, andcharacter ; security in action and in repose, security in the exer-cise of industry and in the enjoyment of its fruits, security alikefrom the oppression of a ruler and the annoyance of an evil-disposed neighbour, security in the expression of opinion and inthe conscientious discharge of the duties of religion. This isthe true union of “ Principatus ac Libertas ” ; the freedom ofthe people united with the just authority of the government ;public order and tranquillity made consistent with the supremacyof the law ; the golden medium between two extremes (“ resdissociabiles ” ), in which Aristotle supposed all virtue to con-sist, and which the philosophical historian, Tacitus, contemplatedas the supreme and ultimate perfection of all government. *

But it may be useful to do something more, by way of review-ing the best practical means of advancing human happiness, thanto confine myself to general observations on the influence ofChristianity, knowledge, and freedom, as sources of improvementand enjoyment to mankind, which, however important, do notexhaust the subject.

1. Human happiness may be advanced, by still further inven-tions and improvements in labor-saving machinery.

It may be laid down, as one of the results of experienceamply sustained by the history of the arts, that mankind haveadvanced in intellectual, social, and moral improvement, in pro-portion as their physical condition and circumstances have im-proved. And that the physical improvement of mankind hasbeen accomplished chiefly by labor-saving machinery, in the mostextensive use of that phrase, may be easily and abundantly con-firmed. At first, men grabbled in the earth with their hands,when they had occasion to penetrate its surface, or remove anypart of it from one place to another, and this practice is not un-known in some countries at the present day. f This primitivemode of working the earth was soon aided by the sharpenedstick, which they afterward learned to harden in the fire. Withthis, their rude agriculture was pursued ; and this seems to have

* Life of Agricola, c. 3.

t See American Quarterly Review, for September 1834; p. 225.