happiness than he? none; unless it can be shown that happiness is to be found in stone walls and furniture and land, in names and titles, rather than in the tender affections of the human heart.
It may thus be seen that the real blessings of life are much more generally and equally diffused, than by the unreflecting is apt to be supposed. In truth, the inequality in the conditions of men is more an appearance than a reality. For if there be equality of happiness, that is all that is essential. Differences in outward condition must ever exist, for the plain reason that there are different offices in society to be filled, and various works and uses to be carried on,—without which society would not be in a healthy or happy state. There must be farmers to till the soil, and so to "bring food out of the earth;" there must be laborers to level the ground, construct highways and canals, and thus to open communication between distant places; there must be artizans to build houses and furnish them with things necessary to comfort and enjoyment; there must be merchants, as mediums for exchanging the different products of industry; there must be physicians to cure diseases; lawyers and judges to administer the laws; and there must be clergymen, whose especial duty it shall be to hold up to men, in the midst of the hurry and bustle of worldly business, the great purpose of their being, and to remind them that there is a life beyond this, for which it is every wise man's duty to prepare: finally, there must be statesmen and legislators, whose province it shall be to have superintendence over the general order of the state, make such regulations as are needful for the public welfare, and manage matters pertaining to intercourse with other states and nations.
