he result of all his science
and observation, to leave a rule of life that might remain unimpeached
to the latest posterity, I ask, what kind of one would he form?"

"I suppose one," said Mr Merton, "that was the most adapted to the
general circumstances of the human species, and, which observed, would
confer the greatest degree of health and vigour."

"Right," said Mr Barlow; "I ask again, whether, observing the common
luxury and intemperance of the rich, he would take his directions from
the usages of a polite table, and recommend that heterogeneous
assemblage of contrary mixtures, high seasonings, poignant sauces,
fermented and distilled poisons, which is continually breeding diseases
in their veins, as the best means of preserving or regaining health?"

"Certainly not. That were to debase his heart, and sanction abuses,
instead of reforming them."

"Would he not, then, recommend simplicity of diet, light repasts, early
slumbers, and moderate exercise in the open air, if he judged them
salutary to human nature, even though fashionable prejudice had stamped
all these particulars with the mark of extreme vulgarity?"

"Were he to act otherwise, he must forfeit all pretensions either to
honesty or skill."

"Let us then apply all this to the mind, instead of the body, and
suppose for an instant, that some legislator, either human or divine,
who comprehended all the secret springs that govern the mind, was
preparing a universal code for all mankind; must he not imitate the
physician, and deliver general truths, however unpalatable, however
repugnant to particular prejudices, since upon the observance of these
truths alone the happiness of the species must depend?"

"I think so, indeed."

"Should such a person observe, that an immoderate desire and
accumulation of riches, a love of ostentatious trifles, unnecessary
splendour in all that relates to human life, and an habitual indulgence
of sensuality, tended not only to produce evil in all around, but even
in the individual himself, who suffered the tyranny of these vices; how
would you have the legislator act? Should he be silent?"

"No, certainly; he should arraign these pernicious habitudes by every
means within his power--by precept, by example."

"Should he also observe, that riches employed in another manner, in
removing the real miseries of humanity, in cherishing, comforting, and
supporting all around, produced a contrary effect, and tended equally to
mak