e has conquered the kingdom in
which he was to dwell in his state. The full unfolding of his moral
powers was only possible in those states of society which are thus
brought into being by his conflict with all his physical faculties
against all the stubborn powers of the material universe; for out of the
same conquest Wealth is created. In this progress, and by means thus
brought into action, society is divided into classes. Property itself,
the allotment of the earth, takes place, because it is the bosom of the
earth that yields food. That great foundation of the stability of
communities is thus connected with the same necessity; and in the same
progress, and out of the same causes, arise the first great Laws by
which society is held together in order. Thus that whole wonderful
development of the Moral Nature of man, in all those various forms
which fill up the history of the race, in part arises out of, and is
always intimately blended with, the labours to which he has been aroused
by those first great necessities of his physical nature. But had the
tendency to increase his numbers been out of all proportion to the means
provided by nature, and infinitely multipliable by art, for the
subsistence of human beings, how could this magnificent march have moved
on?

Hence we may understand on what ground the ancient nations revered so
highly, and even deified, the authors of the primary arts of life. They
considered not the supply of the animal wants merely; but they
contemplated that mighty change in the condition of mankind to which
these arts have given origin. It is on this ground that they had raised
the character of human life, that Virgil assigns them their place in the
dwellings of bliss, among devoted patriots and holy priests, among those
whom song or prophecy had inspired, among those benefactors of the race
whose names were to live for ever, giving his own most beautiful
expression to the common sentiment of mankind.

"Hic manus ob patriam pugnando vulnera passi,
Quique sacerdotes casti, dum vita manebat,
Quique pii vates, et Phoebo digna locuti,
_Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes_,
Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo;
_Omnibus his_ nivea cinguntur tempora vitta."

"That's Latin for the minister and the dominie." "Wheesht! Heard you
ever the like o' that? Though I dinna understand a word o't, it gars me
a' grue." "Wheesht! wheesht!--we maun pit him intil Paurliment"--"Rat