12 Decr 1801

Maximum

Beginning

Terms[?]

2

On what precise ground I had happened to be numbered among the condemners of a

measure I had never presumed so much as to glance /glanced/ at is a question I

can answer no otherwise than by conjecture. I had brought to view an /the/

interference of the legislator in a case in which for the reason given,

according to my humble conception of the matter that interference might have as

well been spared: or I had talked about levels, and about things finding their

own level observing that level was a very proper thing to find, and that money,

if left to itself, would stand a good chance of finding it. What helps to

incline me to this conjecture is – that gentlemen when they have done me the

honour to join with me as they supposed /it seemed to them/ in opinion on this

subject /ground/, would /have/ sometimes whether for shortness or for ornament

refer /referred in this way/ to a law in hydrostatics as the ground for it.

Money according to in my opinion, I mean according to their edition of it – was

a sort of thing that would find its own level or that ought to be left to find.

Between what does naturally take place and what ought to take place, there is

indeed some difference: but it is a difference which moralists are apt enough to

overlook which they constantly overlook as often as they talk of the law of

nature, and which it is quite as easy for them to overlook, if instead of

sufferings and enjoyments, they betake themselves to measuring of levels. In the

play of convivial conversation I have never had the inurbanity to requite a

complement with a criticism: but on a serious occasion, speaking with that

sincerity and recollection that becomes a man who is addressing himself to the

public and to save a well intended and as I flattered myself a harmless

publication from being a cause of mischief and mistake, I must needs

say