I was unwilling to believe that in no region of the world, or at no period could these ideas be realized.

It was plain that the nations of Europe were tending to greater depravity, and would be the prey of perpetual vicissitude.

All individual attempts at their reformation would be fruitless.

He therefore who desired the diffusion of right principles, to make a just system be adopted by a whole community, must pursue some extraordinary method.
In this state of mind I recollected my native country, where a few colonists from Britain had sown the germe of populous and mighty empires.

Attended, as they were, into their new abode, by all their prejudices, yet such had been the influence of new circumstances, of consulting for their own happiness, of adopting simple forms of government, and excluding nobles and kings from their system, that they enjoyed a degree of happiness far superior to their parent state.
To conquer the prejudices and change the habits of millions, are impossible.