text:  But it is not any general or vague declamation on the progress of corruption and the growing evils of society which he has brought forward; he has given a close and cogent chain of reasoning supported by a formidable array of historical facts and shown how it is that the evils have arisen--how they bear upon the condition of the great bulk of the people how they degrade their character how their habits corrupt their morals and destroy their happiness; and how irremediable under the prevailing ideas of the influential classes in society these evils have become