Salmagundi; or, The whim-whams and opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, esq. [pseud.] and others. By William Irving, James Kirke Paulding and Washington Irving. Printed from the original ed., with a preface and notes by Evert A. Duyckinck.

EQUALITY. 283
society, pressing down and smothering every throb and pulsation
of liberal philanthropy.
But thou wilt perhaps ask, "What can these people dispute
about? One would suppose that, being all free and equal, they
would harmonize as brothers; children of the same parent, and
equal heirs of the same inheritance." This theory is most
exquisite, my good friend, but in practice it turns out the very
dream of a madman. Equality, Asem, is one of most consummate scoundrels that ever crept from the brain of a political
juggler-a fellow who thrusts his hand into the pocket of honest
industry, or enterprising talent, and squanders their hard-earned
profits on profligate idleness or indolent stupidity. There will
always be an inequality among mankind so long as a portion of
it is enlightened and industrious, and the rest idle and ignorant.
The one will acquire a larger share of wealth, and its attendant
comforts, refinements, and luxuries of life, and the influence and
power which those will always possess who have the greatest
ability of administering to the necessities of their fellow creatures. These advantages will inevitably excite envy; and envy
as inevitably begets ill-will-hence arises that eternal'warfare
which the lower orders of society are waging against those who
have raised themselves by their own merits, or have been raised
by the merits of their ancestors, above the common level. In a
nation possessed of quick feelings and impetuous passions, the
hostility might engender deadly broils and bloody commotions;
but here it merely vents itself in high-sounding words, which
lead to continual breaches of decorum, or in the insidious assassination of character, and a restless propensity among the base
to blacken every reputation which is fairer than their own.
I cannot help smiling sometimes to see the solicitude with
which the people of America, so called from the country having