This is placing things in a true light. The end of virtue is to despise those obstacles, which it cannot remove—to make that conducive to its splendour, which it is necessary to conquer:—not to change the face of nature, which is impossible; but to render nature, as it is, subservient, and conducive, to the happiness of humanity.
My principal object is to show that Mr. Shelley's scheme of sexual intercourse is not adapted either to the well-being, or the existence of Society, in a world like this; and I have deemed it just to show, that while he recommends it, as a great improvement, he does not take into consideration, any such world as ours; but a world purely ideal, which has scarcely any foundation in his own imagination. I say scarcely any foundation;—for if he had possessed decided and clear ideas upon the subject, he would not have confounded the contradictory ideas of a new world, and a reformation of the manners of the old! When his new world was created, it would have been ample time to lay down such a thesis of intercourse; if the creator of such new world had not spared Mr. Shelley the necessity of devising means for the supreme felicity of his creatures!
