QUESTIONS pertaining to man's temporal well-being, meet us at every step in the journey of life, and by their ever present importance almost rival those which concern his eternal interests, in their claims upon our earnest attention and sober consideration. Nor does this appear strange when we consider that human reason is our sole guide in the solution of the former, while the doubts and difficulties of the latter, may be all dispelled by the life-giving radiance of inspiration. Our confidence in the possibility of a faultless adjustment of social relations, may well be weakened, when we consider the evils and impediments which society has encountered in its progress. Yet there is in this case a mean between extravagant expectation and blank indifferencefor the social fabric has weathered its various vicissitudes, well enough to inspire confidence in its general stability, and encourage hope of its future improvement. But it has evils incorporated in its very framework, which at times threaten the downfall of the entire structure. It is the part of wisdom, therefore, to enquire into these evils, and if possible to provide for them a remedy, even though the agitation of the subject may strike alarm into timid and change-dreading minds.

The unequal distribution of property, between the laborer and capitalist, and the tendency towards a disproportionate increase between the number of laborers and the amount of capital, are two fundamental evils in the present constitution of society.

Without attempting to dispute the known advantages, in the various relations of life, arising from an accumulation of capital, or to advocate any of the leveling theories of the day, it will be profitable to trace briefly the results to which society seems tending under the operation

of these evils.

And first, in prominence, is the fact that social inequality is becoming greater that although money is constantly shifting hands, the current sets strongest in one direction; and hence that while the rich

are growing richer, the poor are sinking still deeper in poverty and degradation. It must be evident that any plan by which the demand for labor is diminished, whatever advantages it may confer upon the capitalist, is at the same time disastrous in its consequences to the laborer. A single invention in machinery may throw out of employment thousands who are forced to enter upon some other branch of labor, already overstocked. The constant development of physical science, and its great success in producing economical contrivances, lead us to believe that labor in the mechanic arts will suffer a still greater depreciation. Nor in this department of human activity alone are we to expect a diminution in the demand for manual employment. Landholders, by resorting to improved methods of cultivation, will deprive of their occupation numbers who have hitherto depended upon them for support; and in various branches of industry the operatives must lay aside their long-used implements of labor, as each new invention substitutes the agencies of nature for the immediate service of human hands. Whatever new avenues to employment may be laid open by the operation of other causes, it is believed that they will not be found adequate to com. pensate for those which improvements in machinery will almost effectually close. And if we take also into consideration the fact, that population increases more rapidly among the poor-that there is a constant multiplication of new hands to share in the limited supply of labor, and of new mouths to be furnished with the means of subsistence, we are forced to the conclusion that wages must be still farther diminished, and of course the poor must be deprived of nearly all their necessaries, and compelled to drag out their lives on the brink of starvation. Nor on the other hand, is it any the less capable of demonstration, that under such a state of things, wealth must inevitably be collected in the hands of a few. It is an universal apothegm, founded on a common phenomenon of human nature, that the possession of wealth induces desire of its increase. It is easy then to see that under the sway of this principle, how, when the poor man is forced to surrender the little he possesses to satisfy his passing wants, his moneyed neighbor will be benefitted at his expense, and thus widen the difference between the two great classes of society-the rich and the poor.

It is true that in our own country, under our more liberal institutions, where there is abundant demand for labor, these evils do not appear to be apprehended. But in the most prosperous countries of the old world, these speculations have become historic facts. A glance at the present condition of England, may be useful in showing us what must result everywhere under the operation of similar causes. Society in that country is a prey to many complicated disorders. The principle of competition is there allowed unbounded range and influence. All— of every rank in life-of every business and profession-seem actuated by one ruling motive, the desire of growing richer. The manufacturer strives for the best disposal of his wares, the capitalist for the highest interest of his money, and both work against the laborer to reduce his wages; while the laborer in his turn battles in unequal conflict against the miseries which science and capital heap upon him.

This complication of jostling interests, presents indeed a wonderful scene of activity and enterprise-has raised the nation to an unexampled height of prosperity and wealth. But this system of competition in its ultimate effects strengthens monopoly. The result has been the concentration of capital in the hands of a few, depriving more than half of the population of any share in property, and cutting off the laboring classes with the bare crumbs of subsistence. Time would fail, to portray in its true light the destitution of the great mass of the people, shut out from the enjoyment of social and moral privileges-condemned from their birth to a miserable slavery of mind and body-working on in gloomy despair, with no relief in the future, save death itself. When no longer able to avoid starvation by the utmost exertions, many throw themselves on society for support by the commission of crime. Where labor is a drug, and crime is at a premium, the ordinary course of social life must be seriously perverted, and no permanent amelioration can be expected from any save radical measures. This is not a sweeping conclusion, nor can it be called an ultra doctrine. Property was never intended to become accumulated for the destruction of the many, even if, when thus accumulated, it can be rendered the more productive; its inviolable sanctity sinks into insignificance when compared with the value of human life. Humanity and religion raise their voice above the voice of proscription and require the repeal of unequal laws and the reconstruction of social institutions. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness-the great end and aim of society-have all been invaded, and a thorough readjustment is loudly demanded. Viewed in this light our subject rises upon us in importance, and forces us to inquire with serious intention and calm judgment, what can be done to remedy the disorders of our social constitution.

Many good and wise men, who clearly perceive the condition of our present social state-the appalling load of misery, under which communities are reeling, shrink from the idea of reform. They maintain, and not without much truth, that man's inhumanity to man, his selfishness and depravity, is the cause of the vice and oppression which prevail in the world, and which bear down with an Atlæan weight upon three quarters of the human race. Reforms, therefore, which seek to change only the external relations of human existence, in anticipation of permanent amelioration, are but mockeries, and to effect them, would be but to place a new patch upon an old garment, or to whiten over a loathsome sepulchre, full of dead men's bones. For so long as the the heart is deceitful, above all things a prolific nest of evil purposes, so long will the world be full of suffering and tyrrany and irreligion, in the same old shapes, or new ones seven-fold worse than the former. Those who advocate reform and a readjustment of society, distract attention from the one thing needful, confound the real issues, and lead us to imagine that a social reconstruction will usher in the good time coming.' These views accord with our own so far as they go, and af

ford us the basis of the conviction that so much evil is not without its remedy; and if such remedy there be, as wise men we should seek after if haply we may find it. Now moral and physical evil are so

connected, that the former is often the consequence of the latter. How far, in the providence of God, pain may be employed as a means of moral discipline, we know not, yet it may be said, in general, take away sin and you will diminish suffering; and so, too, alleviate suffering and you will weaken the dominion of sin. Thus, moral improvement will generally keep pace with intellectual and social progress. It is contrary to the ordinary workings of nature, that a man should become wise or virtuous, with starvation continually staring him in the face. But surround him with outward comforts, give him time and material for thought, breathe into him the life of knowledge, then will the claims of duty and the intrinsic beauty of moral excellence exert their full and legitimate influence upon him, and render him a fit temple for the habitation of the divine faculties of the soul.

We often hear it asserted that the Creator of all things designed this world as a storehouse of misery, and ordained physical evil as a necessary condition of human existence. From this unauthorized assumption, it is argued, that every attempt to eradicate evil is a struggling against divine power, and must prove of no avail. Such an argument might well become the fatalist. It is in effect saying, that because a man must die, there is no use of trying to live. True it is, that the mixture of good and evil is an essential condition of our being here upon earth. We cannot indeed annihilate evil, but then it is our great duty to work out the triumph of good over it. Hence, although improvement must ever fall short of perfection, it is not shut up to any assignable limit. It is, moreover, a sufficient refutation of this argument to say, that although the social condition of the race has, within the historical period, undergone many fluctuations, still, on the whole, there has been a progress, and however numerous the present evils, they are fewer than ever before. Wealth is increasing-the arts of life are approaching nearer perfection-wars are less frequent, and less bloody-unequal laws are disappearing before enlightened legislation, and liberty is mounting the throne of oppression. Man is not the chained slave of circumstances; earnest action, persevering effort, may raise him "superior to his accidents."

There are many erroneous notions and absurd prejudices existing, with regard to the designs of those who contemplate a social amelioration. They have been branded as infidels by those who imagine that the Bible is a catalogue of positive ordinances and institutions, and that anything found therein, must have its counterpart, under any circumstances, and in any age. But the scriptures themselves show a progress. Ideas not occurring at first, afterward come in plain sight before us, and doctrines whose germs are found in the older books, attain their perfect development in the later writers. Religion is not a definite system of rules and conceptions; it is a principle of life, which may, nay must, be manifested under various forms in differerent stages of human progress. It is, however, a sufficient answer to such objectors, and one well suited to their strain of argumentation, to point to the description of the primitive church as given by the inspired apostle. It will there be seen, that Communism is not always the offspring of

infidelity that good Christians may be Socialists, and that St. Peter himself, the ecclesiastical progenitor of so many conservative prelates, was a member of an association.

Others, again, insist upon a preordained inequality between different portions of the human race, and will not lift a finger in effort to remove the incubus of ignorance and degradation which rests upon their fellow-men. How much more noble is the course of the truly benevolent and philanthropic man, who toils in spite of all discouragements, to ameliorate the condition of his fellows! His means may be ill advised-his zeal hot-but his hope is glorious. True, his object cannot be accomplished in a day; what ages of partial laws and injustice and degradation have effected, it may take ages to remedy; but still he lives and works in hope of the time when vice and misery shall be the exception, not the rule, and the earth, if not a paradise, shall be at least something better than a Pandemonium. And why may he not hope? Every change and revolution, however fearful in its immediate consequences, has contributed something to roll on the tide of moral and physical progression.

"Through the ages of the world an increasing purpose runs ;

And the thoughts of men are widened, in the process of the Suns."

In entering upon the consideration of some plans, which may ameliorate the present condition of social life, and give a better tendency to the increase of wealth and of physical advantages, we are conscious of approaching forbidden-we might have said hallowed ground. But the whole course of remark has tended to strip the subject of any usurped claim to sanctity. It is not intended in this essay to lay down any fixed and definite plan of reform; such a course would be presumptious. It is enough to have pointed out some of the more glaring faults, to have met the most common objections to any change, and to have presented in a brighter light, the efforts of those who are engaged in the cause of humanity. Still our task would be incomplete, did we not offer a few thoughts, which have been suggested in the progress of the present examination.

It must be obvious that inequality, the mother of tyranny, is the frequent source of many of the evils which affect the human race. At its very outset, favored by the natural feelings of the heart, unchecked by any positive institutions, it seems to gain ground with every onward movement of society. Did the passion for the acquisition of wealth cease with the attainment of a competency, we could not justly complain. But when this cannot satisfy man's craving desires, and an excess is as eagerly sought, then, however honest the means by which it may be gained, any farther acquisition is but a robbery of the rights of others.

How, let it now be asked, can the present evil be remedied? or, as this is rather the point, how can the poor be made richer? We cannot avoid the response, by making the rich poorer. We would deprecate any arrangement that would divide property equally among all; it could not, from the nature of things, endure. It would not avail here