Meantime, general humanity, (for to that we return, as, for our
purposes, what it really is, to bear in mind,) has always, in every
department, been full of perverse maleficence, and is so yet. In
downcast hours the soul thinks it always will be--but soon recovers
from such sickly moods. I myself see clearly enough the crude,
defective streaks in all the strata of the common people; the
specimens and vast collections of the ignorant, the credulous, the
unfit and uncouth, the incapable, and the very low and poor. The
eminent person just mention'd sneeringly asks whether we expect to
elevate and improve a nation's politics by absorbing such morbid
collections and qualities therein. The point is a formidable one,
and there will doubtless always be numbers of solid and reflective
citizens who will never get over it. Our answer is general, and
is involved in the scope and letter of this essay. We believe the
ulterior object of political and all other government, (having, of
course, provided for the police, the safety of life, property, and for
the basic statute and common law, and their administration, always
first in order,) to be among the rest, not merely to rule, to repress
disorder, &c., but to develop, to open up to cultivation, to encourage
the possibilities of all beneficent and manly outcroppage, and of that
aspiration for independence, and the pride and self-respect latent in
all characters. (Or, if there be exceptions, we cannot, fixing our
eyes on them alone, make theirs the rule for all.
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