He does not
undertake to say how this rule is to be enforced--by what sanctions, or
by what authority it can be made effectual for the protection of
individual rights. But as the evil to be remedied is one arising chiefly
from the errors of public opinion, the corrective would naturally seem
to be the inculcation of sound principles and just sentiments, infusing
them into the social organization, and gradually enthroning them in the
public conscience. The bare announcement of truth, in a matter of such
transcendent importance, is an immense progress toward the goal of
improvement. Principles, well founded and of real value, once
understood, will eventually make their way. With all the errors of
society, and the wrong-headed stubbornness and selfishness of humanity,
with the immense obstructive power of established interests, the haughty
despotism of old opinions, and the petrified rigidity of social customs,
the solvent energy of truth nevertheless will penetrate every part of
the imposing fabric, and gradually undermine its foundations. Underlying
the whole, there is a broad foundation for improvement; and there is a
natural tendency in society to seize upon and appropriate good, whenever
fairly exhibited to its view and placed within its reach.
As embodying the general purpose of the author, and the principle which
he seeks to establish, we give the following passage, in his own words:
'The object of this essay is to assert one very simple principle,
as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the
individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means
used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral
coercion of public opinion.
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