By a stake in society is meant, agreeable to universal convention, a multiplication of those interests which occupy us in our daily concerns--or what is vulgarly called property.

This principle works by exciting us to do right through those heavy investments of our own which would inevitably suffer were we to do wrong.

The proposition is now clear, nor can the premises readily be mistaken.

Happiness is the aim of society; and property, or a vested interest in that society, is the best pledge of our disinterestedness and justice, and the best qualification for its proper control.

It follows as a legitimate corollary that a multiplication of those interests will increase the stake, and render us more and more worthy of the trust by elevating us as near as may be to the pure and ethereal condition of the angels.