New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1842-05-07
Prejudiccs ofihe W orid "a & inst Association


The combined Action Of each individual with
that of the mass cannot take place in our present
Societies where individual interest is always in
conflict with the collective interest w can Judge
Of the fact by forests and fisheries, which every
one ravagcs for his personal profit although tie
mass Of the Inhabitants desire their preservation,
As does the individual himself who commits the
ravage but he is led to do it by considerations of
personal gain. which induce him 10 act against
the interest. Of the mass. This j. ono Of the
shameful results Of civilized politics, which, in
practice, is always in dsplici:y Of action A.
though, in principle, i, takes Unity for its guide.
All Unity should produce system and combina-
ton of efforts Our civilized mechanism. our in
coherent system Of Industry, prosecuted by isola-
ted families. only produces collision Of individual
efforts, tending 10 general evil.
Convinced of ,hi. defect. our political ccono-
mists should have made the means Of realizing
Unity, the object of their search. 1t is only to be
found isagricultufal and domestic Associations But
we repeat that the first error Of the human mind
in this coniuncturc, has been me inference drawH
from a small obsfacle 10 n hrgcr 0ut the erro-
ncous presumption that, II trials in Association
with two or three families or twenty or thirty
families. had failed such trials would the more
certainly fail with two or three hundreds; wherca,
with the number seventy (suPPosing five per-
sons on an average iamiy,) success would
| have been easy, upon condition Of sounding and
determining step by step, the suitable organza-
ton.
The second error which has been committed in
Judging of Association or the orca nization Of true
Social Order il, hc da, sling contrast bctueen
oood and er,l. This is an error common to both
the leaned and the ignorant. The eiches unity
and other immense results which Associate ion pro-
misses discomfort the generality of mankind accus-
toned to the ni.eres of our present false Soct-
tes They declare that such results are chime
ras: that so much happiness is not made for
Nan: that they are illusions of an Harn,orv
vhtch is not possible. This contrast Of happy
Future with the present miserable State, has be-
come n general obstacle to investigation, and it is
the second of excu.abc inadycrtencies. TO ap-
preciate its falsenes., let US compare it with some
other erroneous prepossession of the same kind,
which experience has dissipated.
For four thousand years, the World did no,
hope to discover safe nautical guide, like the
Mariners Compass; it did not even think Of
serrching for it and navgators, although victims
of shipwrecks had become accustomed to consider
them a. an unavoidable Evil. How many among
them for the want of this guide, the discovery OF
which was so easy, must have murmurcd against
Providence Now that we possess II. we see
what dupes the Mariners Of Tyre or Carthage
who were deprived of it, would have been had
they refused to believe in the possibility oi such
discovery-as easy of being made then as in the
twelfth century If some Inventor had appeared
among them with this ncstimable Guide promls-
inc ,o direct vessels in the darkness OF night as
,vel "a n, noon day how great would their folly have
beop. had they answered, before any trial had been
mode that IL lcas impossible; that SO much hap
piness ,ras not mode for Mariners
The present Age falls into the same puerc cr-
ror respecting Association, declaring that IL Is i'm
po,si5le: that so much happiness i. not male
for Man. The scientific World commits this mis-
take whenever speculations of Use TO mankind are
discussed lit abandons all search before the
sage word IMPossIBLEi Immense labors, how
ever, are bestowed on political controversies and
metaphysical subtiltcs, which lead To no cNem-
nation Of social questions and from which the So
cial world derives advantage
If the Author Of the system of Association bad
fallen into tsi. error; if, instead of employing
thirty wears in calculating It's mechanism he had
declared that II trds too magnificent. therefore
impossible, the theory of Association would still
remain to be discovered. The sect OF Inross'-
bists has done a great deal of harm TO Mankind;
n more dangerous sect does not exist il is the
most pcrverse one in the scientific World.
The more an opera,ion-ihe means OF realizing
which we are ignorant offs proved useful, the
more firmly we should believe that the Creator,
convinced of its utility, must have reserved meas
ures for realizing it. This conviction would have
been a powerful stimuant TO Investigations but
such conviction requires an Age impressed with
4, true Hope in the Divinity, and n profound inth
in the universally of His Providence And what
will he the surprise of the present Age when 1t
see, that Association, which is declared imPossi-
bic. owing to the ma.nifccnce of its results, u
precisely the order, for which God has created
the Kingdoms of Nature, subject to our Industry,
and for which above all he has made the Passions,
now 80 rebcllious in our civilized System of inco-
heront Industry and isolated families.
Despair, Encouragement. Apathy and Abandon
men, Of all investigation, are the characteristics
Of the modern Age in all problems out Of tn gen
cral sphere of its science.
This faul, has delayed great number OF discoy-
eries among Others that of the Mariners Com
pass. which the Chinese possessed thousand
wears before Va.
| Al ..hx shn,1ld tho Divinity hnNc giveu II. De.