ABSTRACT
The last conversation had left a weight upon me, which was not lessened when I contemplated the question in solitude. I called to mind the melancholy view which Young has taken of the world in his unhappy poem: A part how small of the terraqueous globe Is tenanted by man! the rest a waste, Rocks, deserts, frozen seas and burning sands, Wild haunts of monsters, poisons, stings and death. Such is earth’s melancholy map! But, far More sad, this earth is a true map of man. 137 Sad as this representation is, I could not but acknowledge that the moral and intellectual view is not more consolatory than the poet felt it to be; and it was a less sorrowful consideration to think how large a portion of the habitable earth is possessed by savages, or by nations whom inhuman despotisms and monstrous superstitions have degraded in some respects [I, 62. FEUDAL SLAVERY] below the savage state, than to observe how small a part of what is called the civilized world is truly civilized; and in the most civilized parts to how small a portion of the inhabitants the real blessings of civilization are confined. In this mood how heartily should I have accorded with Owen of Lanark, if I could have agreed with that happiest and most beneficent and most practical of all enthusiasts, as well concerning the remedy as the disease! 138
