Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land, 1830-1840 - Page 37
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[Page 37]
wisdom of the grand scheme that individual interest and individual happiness is are closely interwoven with the general good, and it would seem that the one who exerts himself most in his own sphere, broad wide or narrow, is a worthy member of the great community, so long as his mind discards all three principles of selfishness and sordid selfishness which must ever prove an obstacle, and injurious to the common welfare. Right reason approves of this doctrine; if universal tolerance and general happiness were not the aim and end of the creation, all within man would be darkness, confusion, misery, and horror, and that moment a contrary doctrine should obtrude itself on my mind - I die. But if had we other guides dates, to judge by than human reason; we might err, and fail in establishing our doctrine position to the satisfaction of all, seeing how man acts so widely different in practice from the above theory. Therefore we call refer to the precepts of the most perfect, the highest and holiest being, who condescended to teach mankind to travel on the right road. This being, who loved his mother and his brothers unto tears, taught his Disciples who were his father and mother, his brethren and his sisters, and thereby established the doctrine of universal benevolence, and that the whole human race is but one community, dependent upon its general happiness through