Yet he does not conceal from himself that it is to the interest of the governing class to prevent a revolution which, beneficent to the masses, would be fatal to themselves; nor does he conceive it possible until the fertility of men has been reduced to the capacity of the soil.

He speculates upon the chances of a new spirit among men, of an all-wise legislator, and of the beneficent example of colonies upon the later Owenite model.

But his book is contemporaneous with our own ideas rather than with the thoughts of his generation.

Nor does it seem to have excited any general attention.
It is five years after Rousseau that we see the first clear signs of his influence.

Naturally enough the men amongst whom the new spirit spread abroad were the Nonconformists.