WASHINGTON, Jan. 5,
1850.
I went last evening
with Mr. ——— to hear Professor Johnson lecture. In walking home, we got into
some discussion about the condition of the country, and the prospects of
humanity in general. I found Mr. ——— apparently sceptical about any
amelioration of the condition of mankind, or that there is, in truth, "a
good time coming." When I spoke of sloughing off the vices of mankind, he
replied, that if men were to obey the laws of God, as I had been indicating,
the drain of vices would be stopped, and the race would soon become so numerous
as to lead of itself to infinite distress. I said, if men once understood their
duty, and the means of happiness, no man would have any more children than he
could support, educate, and leave in an eligible condition behind him, any more
than a judicious farmer would have more stock on his farm than he could support
with profit to himself, and with humanity to them. I told him, further, that
the bringing of a human being into this world, with a moral certainty of his
being unhappy and miserable, I regarded as a far greater crime, in the
abstract, than sending a human being out of it. Both seemed to be entirely new ideas
to him.
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