1391ページ中502ページ

Such reflections appear visionary to the eye of the practical

statesman, but they are within the range of possibility to the

philosopher. He can imagine that in some distant age or clime,

and through the influence of some individual, the notion of

common property may or might have sunk as deep into the heart of

a race, and have become as fixed to them, as private property is

to ourselves. He knows that this latter institution is not more

than four or five thousand years old: may not the end revert to

the beginning? In our own age even Utopias affect the spirit of

legislation, and an abstract idea may exercise a great influence

on practical politics.