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commerce and our wealth, the evils which necessarily accompany these when too eagerly
pursued, may increase to such gigantic dimensions as to be beyond our power to alleviate.
We should now clearly recognise the fact, that the wealth and knowledge and culture of
the few
do not constitute civilization, and do not of themselves advance us towards the 'per-
fect social state.' Our vast manufacturing system, our gigantic commerce, our crowded
towns and cities, support and continually renew a mass of human misery and crime
abso-
lutely
greater than has ever existed before. They create and maintain in life-long labour an
ever-increasing army, whose lot is the more hard to bear, by contrast with the pleasures, the
comforts, and the luxury which they see everywhere around them, but which they can never
hope to enjoy; and who, in this respect, are worse off than the savage in the midst of his
tribe.
This is not a result to boast of, or to be satisfied with; and, until there is a more general re-
cognition of this failure of our civilization—resulting mainly from our neglect to train and
develop more thoroughly the sympathetic feelings and moral faculties of our nature, and to
allow them a larger share of influence in our legislation, our commerce, and our whole so-
cial organization—we shall never, as regards the whole community, attain to any real or im-
portant superiority over the better class of savages.
This is the lesson I have been taught by my observations of uncivilized man. I now bid
my readers—Farewell!
