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be expected to have time nor inclination to study the public welfare,
and, even if they had, they would want the means.

Government can never be better employed than in counteracting this
tendency to decay. It has the means, and is but performing its duty in
doing so. The previous step to all this, however, is a knowledge of
what is to be done, a full sense of the necessity of doing it, and a
disposition to submit to the regimen necessary.

For this purpose, both the government and the people must give up
something. The people must allow government to interfere in the
education of children, and, in that, give up a little of their liberty;
{146} and those who govern must attend to many things which are
generally neglected. To do the routine business of the day is the
occupation of most of the governments of Europe, whether in war or
at peace; they therefore habitually become agents of necessity, and
what can be procrastinated is never done; that is to say, what is good
is very seldom done, and what is necessary to prevent immediate evil,
is always the chief, and sometimes the only, occupation.

There are some men in the world who prosper merely because they
look beforehand, and conduct their affairs. There are others who, with
equal industry, and much more trouble and care, are always a little
behind, and allow their affairs to conduct them; such men never
succeed, and, if they can keep off the extreme of misfortune, it is all
that is to be expected.

Most governments, in wealthy nations, are like those latter species of