Seeing the great disparity there is between different conditions of human life， he ought constantly to endeavour to raise each class， and every individual of each class， to a class above it. This is the true equalization of mankind.
Not to pull down those who are exalted， and reduce all to a naked and savage equality. But to raise those who are abased； to communicate to every man all genuine pleasures， to elevate every man to all true wisdom and to make all men participators of a liberal and comprehensive benevolence. This is the path in which the reformers of mankind ought to travel. This is the prize they should pursue. Do you tell me， "that human society can never arrive at this improvement？" I do not stay to dispute that point with you.
We can come nearer it than we are. We can come nearer and nearer yet. This will not be the first time that persons， engaged in the indefatigable pursuit of some accomplishment， have arrived at an excellence that surpassed their most sanguine expectations.
The result of this part of the subject is， that those persons have been grossly mistaken who taught that virtue was to be pursued for its own sake， and represented pleasure and pain as trivial matters and unworthy consideration.
Virtue is upon no other account valuable， than as it is the instrument of the most exquisite pleasure. -- Be it observed， that it is one thing to say that pain is not an evil， which is absurd， and another thing to say that temporary pains and pleasures are to be despised， when the enduring of the one is necessary， and the declining the other unavoidable in the pursuit of excellent and permanent pleasure， which is a most fundamental precept of wisdom and morality.
Let us proceed to a second point announced by us in the outset， the consideration of how the subject of good and evil has been darkened by certain fabulists and system-builders. The system alluded to under this head， is that of the optimists， who teach "that everything in the universe， is for the best； and that， if anything had happened otherwise than it has happened， the result would have been， a diminution of the degree of happiness and good." That we may escape the error into which these persons have been led， by the daringness of their genius， and their mode of estimating things in the gross， and not in detail， we must be contented to follow experience， and not to outrun it.