power of tyrants
to arrest or annihilate, there arose a mass of progressive instruction,
an expanding atmosphere of science, which assures to future ages a solid
amelioration. This amelioration is a necessary effect of the laws of
nature; for, by the law of sensibility, man as invincibly tends to
render himself happy as the flame to mount, the stone to descend, or the
water to find its level. His obstacle is his ignorance, which misleads
him in the means, and deceives him in causes and effects. He will
enlighten himself by experience; he will become right by dint of errors;
he will grow wise and good because it is his interest so to be.
Ideas being communicated through the nation, whole classes will gain
instruction; science will become a vulgar possession, and all men will
know what are the principles of individual happiness and of public
prosperity. They will know the relations they bear to society, their
duties and their rights; they will learn to guard against the illusions
of the lust of gain; they will perceive that the science of morals is
a physical science, composed, indeed, of elements complicated in their
operation, but simple and invariable in their nature, since they
are only the elements of the organization of man. They will see the
propriety of being moderate and just, because in that is found the
advantage and security of each; they will perceive that the wish to
enjoy at the expense of another is a false calculation of ignorance,
because it gives rise to reprisal, hatred, and vengeance, and that
dishonesty is the never-failing offspring of folly.

Individuals will feel that private happiness is allied to public good:

The weak, that instead of dividing their interests, they ought to unite
them, because equality constitutes their force:

The rich, that the measure of enjoyment is bounded by the constitution
of the organs, and that lassitude follows satiety:

The poor, that the employment of time, and the peace of the heart,
compose the highest happiness of man. And public opinion, reaching kings
on their thrones, will force them to confine themselves to the limits of
regular authority.

Even chance itself, serving the cause of nations, will sometimes give
them feeble chiefs, who, through weakness, will suffer them to become
free; and sometimes enlightened chiefs, who, from a principle of virtue,
will free them.

And when nations, free and enlightened, shall become like great
individuals, the whole