text:  If there are few persons ready to devote themselves to the good of their species and carrying their attention beyond kindred and acquaintance to comprise the most distant posterity and regions the most remote within the scope of their benevolence; so there are few of those monsters in selfishness who would pursue their own petty interests when the happiness of millions is an obstacle to its gratification; but as a leaf before the eye will hide a universe self-love limits the intellectual horizon to a compass inconceivably narrow; and the prosperity of nations when placed in the balance with a riband or a pension has too often kicked the beam