{"product_id":"9781425553852","title":"The Works of the Rev Sydney Smith","description":"Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.\u003cbr\u003eThis is an OCR edition with typos.\u003cbr\u003eExcerpt from book:\u003cbr\u003er AUSTRALIA. (edinburgh Review, 1803.) Account of the English Colony of New South Wales. By Lieutenant- Colonel Collins of the Royal Marines. Vol. II. 4to. Cadell and Davies, London. To introduce an European population, and consequently, the arts and civilization of Europe, into such an untrodden country as New Holland, is to confer a lasting and important benefit upon the world. If man be destined for perpetual activity, and if the proper objects of that activity be the subjugation of physical difficulties, and of his own dangerous passions, how absurd are those systems which proscribe the acquisitions of science and the restraints of law, and would arrest the progress of man in the rudest and earliest stages of his existence! Indeed, opinions so very extravagant in their nature must be attributed rather to the wantonness of paradox, than to sober reflection, and extended inquiry. To suppose the savage state permanent, we must suppose the numbers of those who compose it to be stationary, and the various passions by which men have actually emerged from it to be extinct; and this is to suppose man a very different being from what he really is. To prove such a permanence beneficial (if it were possible), we must have recourse to matter of fact, and judge of the rude state of society, not from the praises of tranquil literati, but from the narratives of those who have seen it, through a nearer and better medium than that of imagination. There is an argument, however, for the continuation of evil, drawn from the ignorance of good; by which it is contended, that to teach men their situation can be better, is to teach them that it is bad, and to destroy that happiness which always results from an ignorance that any greater happiness is within our reach. All pains and pleasure...","brand":"University of Michigan Libr","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47028908982512,"sku":"9781425553852","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781425553852_p0.jpg?v=1763744253","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781425553852","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}