that individuals can effect individual good:
this very restlessness, this very discontent with the exact place
that he occupies, makes the citizen a benefactor in his narrow circle.
Commerce, better than Charity, feeds the hungry and clothes the naked.
Ambition, better than brute affection, gives education to our children,
and teaches them the love of industry, the pride of independence, the
respect for others and themselves!

"In other words, a deference to such qualities as can best fit them to
get on in the world, and make the most money!"

"Take that view if you will; but the wiser, the more civilized the
State, the worse chances for the rogue to get on! There may be some art,
some hypocrisy, some avarice,--nay, some hardness of heart,--in paternal
example and professional tuition. But what are such sober infirmities
to the vices that arise from defiance and despair? Your savage has his
virtues, but they are mostly physical,--fortitude, abstinence, patience:
mental and moral virtues must be numerous or few, in proportion to
the range of ideas and the exigencies of social life. With the savage,
therefore, they must be fewer than with civilized men; and they are
consequently limited to those simple and rude elements which the
safety of his state renders necessary to him. He is usually hospitable;
sometimes honest. But vices are necessary to his existence as well
as virtues: he is at war with a tribe that may destroy his own; and
treachery without scruple, cruelty without remorse, are essential
to him; he feels their necessity, and calls them _virtues_! Even
the half-civilized man, the Arab whom you praise, imagines he has a
necessity for your money; and his robberies become virtues to him. But
in civilized States, vices are at least not necessary to the existence
of the majority; they are not, therefore, worshipped as virtues. Society
unites against them; treachery, robbery, massacre, are not essential
to the strength or safety of the community: they exist, it is true, but
they are not cultivated, but punished. The thief in St. Giles's has the
virtues of your savage: he is true to his companions, he is brave in
danger, he is patient in privation; he practises the virtues necessary
to the bonds of his calling and the tacit laws of his vocation. He might
have made an admirable savage: but surely the mass of civilized men are
better than the thief?"

Maltravers was struck, and paused a little before he replied; and the