PART. I : PHILOSOPHICAL REQUISITES. SECTION I.

He must have made up his mind as to what it is that he wants to know. Inrnphysical science, great results may be obtained by hap-hazardrnexperiments; but this is not the case in Morals. A chemist can hardlyrnfail of learning something by putting any substances together, under newrncircumstances, and seeing what will arise out of the combination; andrnsome striking discoveries happened in this way, in the infancy of thernscience; though no one doubts that more knowledge may be gained by thernchemist who has an aim in his mind, and who conducts his experiment onrnsome principle. In Morals, the latter method is the only one whichrnpromises any useful results. In the workings of the social system, allrnthe agents are known in the gross--all are determined. It is not theirrnnature, but the proportions in which they are combined, which have to bernascertained.rnrnWhat does the traveller want to know? He is aware that, wherever herngoes, he will find men, women, and children; strong men and weak men;rnjust men and selfish men. He knows that he will everywhere find arnnecessity for food, clothing, and shelter; and everywhere some mode ofrngeneral agreement how to live together. He knows that he will everywherernfind birth, marriage, and death; and therefore domestic affections. Whatrnresults from all these elements of social life does he mean to look for?rnrnFor want of settling this question, one traveller sees nothing truly,rnbecause the state of things is not consistent with his speculations asrnto how human beings ought to live together; another views the whole withrnprejudice, because it is not like what he has been accustomed to see atrnhome; yet each of these would shrink from the recognition of his folly,rnif it were fully placed before him. The first would be ashamed of havingrntried any existing community by an arbitrary standard of his own--an actrnmuch like going forth into the wilderness to see kings' houses full ofrnmen in soft raiment; and the other would perceive that differentrnnations may go on judging one another by themselves till doomsday,rnwithout in any way improving the chance of self-advancement and mutualrnunderstanding. Going out with the disadvantage of a habit of mindrnuncounteracted by an intellectual aim, will never do. The traveller mayrnas well stay at home, for anything he will gain in the way of socialrnknowledge.rnrnThe two considerations just mentioned must be subordinated to the grandrnone,--the only general one,--of the relative amount of human happiness.rnEvery element of social life derives its importance from this greatrnconsideration. The external conveniences of men, their internal emotionsrnand affections, their social arrangements, graduate in importancernprecisely in proportion as they affect the general happiness of thernsection of the race among whom they exist. Here then is the wiserntraveller's aim,--to be kept in view to the exclusion of prejudice, bothrnphilosophical and national. He must not allow himself to be perplexed orrndisgusted by seeing the great ends of human association pursued by meansrnwhich he could never have devised, and to the practice of which he couldrnnot reconcile himself. He is not to conclude unfavourably about the dietrnof the multitude because he sees them swallowing blubber, or scoopingrnout water-melons, instead of regaling themselves with beef and beer. Hernis not to suppose their social meetings a failure because they eat withrntheir fingers instead of with silver forks, or touch foreheads insteadrnof making a bow. He is not to conclude against domestic morals, onrnaccount of a diversity of methods of entering upon marriage. He mightrnas well judge of the minute transactions of manners all over the worldrnby what he sees in his native village. There, to leave the door open orrnto shut it bears no relation to morals, and but little to manners;rnwhereas, to shut the door is as cruel an act in a Hindoo hut as to leavernit open in a Greenland cabin. In short, he is to prepare himself tornbring whatever he may observe to the test of some high and broadrnprinciple, and not to that of a low comparative practice. To test onernpeople by another, is to argue within a very small segment of a circle;rnand the observer can only pass backwards and forwards at an equalrndistance from the point of truth. To test the morals and manners of arnnation by a reference to the essentials of human happiness, is to strikernat once to the centre, and to see things as they are.