The Wilmingtonian, and Delaware register., 1825-10-06

fuenced by the circumstances In which he
is placed. They do not recollect that the
Immediately preceding state of every mans
mind is one of the most influential circum-
stances, which, cooperating with those from
without, produce his immediate subsequent
conduct
"The operator himself" in forming the
characters of others, is as much under the
Influence of circumstances, as those he is
operating upon: if he forget the common
external circumstances in which he is with
them enveloped; it, in order to gain his
point, he states as facts what are not true,
he IS eternally exposed to failure in his pro-
ject. The physical and moral knowledge
now acquired in Europe, is one of the cir
.cumstances most influential in the forma-
tion of character; but it is not in the pow
er OF any individual to blot out this knowl-
edge. Where knowledge has made, in
community, certain progress; the eX-
istence of that knowledge is a circum
| stlnce which no operator on character can
remove; and if his plans are formed in op
position to this knowledge, and accordance
with real facts are not lost sight of by Mr..
Owen, but form the basis of his arrange
ments. He docs not pretend-nor has he
the least inclination to try the experiment
that he could turn Englishman's children in
! to New Zealandcrs but that, availing him
self OF the existing state of knowledge, and
using no instrument inconsistent with truth
and real facts, he could modify SO usefully
for their happiness the circumstances in
which men are placed. by REMOVING tenn
TATIoNs TO EVIL, AND SUPPLYING MOTIVES
TO GOOD, as to add almost Indefinitely to that
happiness"
Page SOP on restraints Of law" To the
ignorant and poor productive labourers Of
general society, without the means of
comfortable subsistence, unprotected, ex-
posed to every temptation, how terrific are
the restraints of law an ever-impending
scourgc, warning them off from the means of
enjoyment of what their hands have pro-
duced. Physical pain Of all degrees is the
amiable, the well assorted guardian of all
insecurity. The dread of encounterng their
penalties, ever present to the minds of those
whom ten thousand accidents without any
fault oftheir own; OF their vCe-engender-
ing circumstances surrounding them, may
expose to the ,sitations of these penalties,
is one of the daily and dreadful association
of their lives.
els it then trihing advantage to shake
off from the mind these dreaded assecia
tions to throw out fear and all the withcr-
ing hosts of terrors, from amongst the mo-
tlves to human actions' Is it a trhing adj
vantage to arrange the eXcrtions of human
industry, that, all cause of contest between
individuals for property, (the fruitful source
of almost all vices as well rs crimes-wbe
thcr in its acquisition or cnjoyment,) must
be rcmoved' Is it trhing advantage that
by means of the facilities afforded for an
education directed solely to utility, those e.
vii passions which are the parents of the
remaining vices or crimes which are not
connected with property, shall be so nearly
eXtermnatcd as to require no further re-
pressive force than the gentle, but all-pcr-
vading contrsl of the moral sanction of pub
lie opinion ~
IF these proposed advantages can be de-
monstrated to be trihes, beautiful in theory,
BUT BEYOND THE POSSIBILITY OF
PRACTICAL RESULTS; and worth 10
.tle, nutue tnan the scofIs of modern re-
formers ; then let "ths foreigner, together
with his lectures at Washington last win
ter" be treated as a visionary enthusiast, and
the reverics of heated imagination and
dangerous only to few SIMPLE creatures,
reckless of adverse winds and tides" who
are scarcely worth our commsseration
EROSTRATUS.