On Naval Timber and Arboriculture; with Critical Notes on Authors who have Recently Treated the Subject of Planting Cover Image

O budulcu okrętowym i uprawie drzew oraz krytyczne uwagi o autorach, którzy ostatnio podejmowali problematykę upraw
On Naval Timber and Arboriculture; with Critical Notes on Authors who have Recently Treated the Subject of Planting

Author(s): Patrick Matthew
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Instytut Filozofii, Uniwersytet Zielonogórski
Keywords: social classes; primogeniture; races of man; circumstance-adaptive law

Summary/Abstract: There is a common practice in breeders to carefully select plants or animals to reproduction in order to obtain desirable variety. It has been forced upon man's notice in the dog, horse, cow, sheep, poultry — in the Apple, Pear, Plum, Gooseberry, Potato, Pea, which sport in infinite varieties, differing considerably in size, colour, taste, firmness of texture, period of growth, almost in every recognisable quality. Similar process of selection is also prevalent in the state of nature where survived only reproductive being the best possibly suited to its condition that its kind which appears intended to model the physical and mental or instinctive powers, to their highest perfection, and to continue them so. This natural process of selection sustains the lion in his strength, the hare in her swiftness, and the fox in his wiles. As nature, in all her modifications of life, has a power of increase far beyond what is needed to supply the place of what falls by Time’s decay, those individuals who possess not the requisite strength, swiftness, hardihood, or cunning, fall prematurely without reproducing — either a prey to their natural devourers, or sinking under disease, generally induced by want of nourishment, their place being occupied by the more perfect of their own kind, who are pressing on the means of subsistence. Thus there is common competition in the state of nature which kept natural balance of life. This competition is present also among different races of men and within societies where useless laws and privileges still appears. Consequently, the abolition of the law of entail and primogeniture, will, in the present state of civilization, not only add to the happiness of the proprietor, heighten morality, and give much greater stability to the social order, but will also give a general stimulus to industry and improvement, increasing the comforts and elevating the condition of the operative class. It would be wisdom in the noblesse of Europe to abolish every claim or law which serves to point them out a separate class, and, as quickly as possible, to merge themselves into the mass of the population. It is a law manifest in nature, that when the use of any thing is past, its existence is no longer kept up.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 12
  • Page Range: 109-126
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: English, Polish