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OF THE HUMAN SPECIES CONSIDERED, ETC.
Though his departing radiance mild o illuminate the hollow vale,
A singular means of improvenient has consisted in thera sion os different peoples and nations. Certain invaders have descended iapon more favoured regions than they supposed
our ignorance of many ancient inventions is objected. Butit is not contended that improvenient has been made Upon every particular branch of sormer knowledge and art. Alany secretsisse lost. Μuch valvabie disco very may be forgoiten. But was ingenuity ever more fertile than at present 8 Did invention evor convert itsolf into more gracemi and useful forins Z The quos-
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tion does not relate to an amendinent of the fame aris, but toa superiority over them by those Whicli are more excellent in desigia, and more conspicilous for utility.
re reiice is made by those that SurVive : and none are Wantingto whicli that reseretice is made in the most respecimi manner. Iany paris of these authors are mutilated, but enough remainsto Warrant an opinion ut least of the rest. The fato of tho
Aloxandrian libraries We must bitterly deplore: but is as hasbeen generalty underStood, iis Volumes Were principalty dovotodio theories on civit goVernment, the injury received by literaturo
The pre-eminence is claimed, by this class of objectors, most triumphantly for the ancients in the liberal and sino aris. But is this bo due in respect to eloquence, it is to their proportionate disadvantage. For the magic of that eloquence greatly lay in being the only medium os communicating impressions totho multitudo. This arose Dom the Scarcity of books, and very prevalent ignorance of them. And splendid as it is, iis uso and practice are So generalty Superseded by the press, by the common spirit of enquiry, by the wide diffusion os information,
expense. In patiating it may be presumed that the masters of modern Europe have transcended those of ancient Greece andRome. Sculpture may perhaps be able in these days to fhownothing Worthy of comparison With the antique. But this is anari Which respecis natiare: it is pure only as true to that standard: that standard has been Searched: RS improvement Was hopetess, nothing was test but imitation: this is too unambitious: and there ro this nobie ari has not been frequently pursiaed. We cannot rival their statuary by kindred Workmanship: we must, theresere, oppose to it the later discoveries of that philosophywithout whicli art is biit esseminate amusement. But the deseris of that philosophy are perhaps as superior to those of these relics, as Socrates the philosopher exceeded Socrates the Sculptor.
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OF THE HUMAN SPECIES CONSIDERED, ETC.
Certain retrogrades have, in dental of this doctrine, been imputed to the human minit. It is, dolabiless, impracticableto trace every Step and marti every degree of our progres8; andas much so, to resist some indications os degeneracy with whichpast history furnishes us. But the suspicion arises froin theirregularity of the progress: though not uniform it is successive. Thus, when the lido is flowing to the shore, it is dissiculi tojudge of iis course. Often the line of iis advance seems station-ary: and osten the wave salis stiori os sonte Which had precedodit. But a bold promontory, it may be, assiStS US to perceive tho rise of the flood. It evidently gains upon the stranti, Untilat longit, it swelis in Vith a rapidity and force not to be mis-
It may bo now demanded on What the complacen cy, Whichit is natural for iis to Dei toWards the present, is Warranted. Thero are t o character8 in the existing philosophy Worthy of particular attention. Ιt has no trace of that servility to Danies and thoories Whicli has osten been the bane of advancement. ΝΟ name any longer is authority, no System law. It was this deferenco whicli sor ages retarded the discovery of truth. Eventho Eclectics, though they abjured the dominion of any one school, yet fought for the fragments of truth only in the many.Μankind supposed that truth, Whenever found , must be Scho lastic. The passing generation has renounced this prejudice, and snds iis reWard.-The existing Philosophy Wears also an impressos utility, Which no philosophy Was Wont to boast. Practiculapplication Was dis lained. Abstraci speculations Were neces
most ordinary Wallis of lise, and aliis the most generat purpOSesos society. The wide spread circulation of knowledge is a most important characteristic of the day. We may assuredly chal- longo the period in Which enquiry, reading, and information, Were ever So generat and rise among men. Public opinion has acquired an unprecedented influence That voice Sooner or lateris hsard : and ho might as weli attempt to hush the tempestwho wishes to stisse it. Μany ancient customs indicate a modern
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rofinement of Deling and education. The funerat games and gladiatorial exhibitions os former times could not be tolerate lnow : and when in Our coliris the prisoner pleads bonesit of thoclergy,-We are reminded that he Who could read, an age or twobach, was distinguished Dom the crowd. These are endiaring proose of a great intellectual transition, as the buoy sor everstationary marks the drin and rapidity of the current. Iorais have, it is to be hoped, partaken of the progreSS: in War, former barbarities are not practised ; in society, vices hide theniselves in darkness whicli orice courted the day; in charity, tho sinosi bulldings of our cities and towns are conSecrated tomercy. The worid is more evenly peopled than ever it Wasbefore: and continentS, Once UnknoWn, noW put fortii Foungglories Whicli promise never to decay. Civiligation, in iis trusest Sense, never reached the fourth of iis present extent: and itis stili spreading and res ning itself. The words of the philosophical poet may be here applied -
A liope of somo bright reversion for our race, of Some ne order of things, has ever prevalled among men. Hope is thebest comforter that past vexation and fallure have lese ias. It was this vision os a future regeneration Whicli re est,ed thodying eye of the greatest anil Wisest of men. Poetry goon madethe expectation iis oWn. The leaves of the Sybil scatiored this promise. Philosophy, amid Surrounding ignorance and persecution, clung to this assurance. I commit my name, ' saidtho immortal Verulam, in his last testament, to posterity, after Some generations Shail be past.' This hope surely ought not tobe abandoned by us Without very decisive reasons. But it hasto encolanter many Serious Pre judices. There iS a great prone-
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DF THE HUMAN SPECIES CONSIDERED, Eaec. 143
ness to disparage present times, and this proneiaeSS is, theresore, more in alliance With the sear of human deterioration. Experimenis, generalty Very partiat, having Diled, these abettors, Who h ad stahod every hope of such improxement on their issue, in their mortification have joinod in the clamour that ait this hope was vatia. Tho idie sabies of perfectibility and optimismhave thrown this opinion, With which they have no more connec-tion than a horoscope With astronomy, into unmerited disgrace. The un&unded nar that such a coui se covertly implies political convulsion and disorganigation, has deterred many Dom invokingit. A nice observation is Wanting also for the perception of the progress to Which We reser an observation os certain tendericies pro und and noiseless. TO such observations the majority of men are Deither competent Dor inclined. It must be consessed that some of the grounds, on Whichthis expectation has been raised, are not the most happy. oneauthor, besore referred to, SuppoSeS that We mUSt proceed, hecause of the lassitude and ennui to Whicli our nature is dis posed. Ηe imagines that this must render iis thoughtsul, inorder to contrive against sucii an unpleasant Inood. Some have imagined that War is a guaranteo for this melioration, for asongineering and fortification are conducted on scientisc principios, it is impossibie for modern nations to relapse, und ulmost certain that war Wili draW fortii neW inventions. De Stael, mittilior beautiful eloquence, Suppo8eS the improVement to consistin tho mass of our ideas, to Whicli every age Will noW add, bymeans and in a quantity unknown to the fortiter. I am inclinodio anticipate this morat onset, rather on the present state of the
worid, though persuaded that the tendency belongs to the verymind of man. Nothing of discovery, or, Whicli is the samething, no particle os truth, hencesortii can be lost. A simple metachanical contrivance gives an immortality to science, literature,and, in a great degree, to art.-ΝeVer Were civit constitutions sosa volarabie to the developinent anil cultivation of genius in every depariment of enquiry and knowledge.-Νations begin to learn that peaco is consistent With political greatness and influonco. The peopte at large are becoming interested in philosophie
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eXperiments as the foundations of a datly subsistence.- Μindis aWake, no more to be rocked into flumbers or amused bydreams : but, intent on the day-star of iis liope, bouiads alongwith untiring vigour. The fearless fearch sor truth it disco- vers is the furest sign of contrition for past mistake, and thebrightest augury of future renovation. I Will here quote Dom an author of the present age a splendid passage in illustration, - a passage Which no author but one of the present age could have written: - I persuado myself that thρ life and faculties of mari, at the best but sta ri and limited, cannot beemployed more rationalty or laudably than in the search of knowledge: and especialty of that sori Whicli relates to Ourduty and conduces to our happiness. In these onquiries, there- fore, Whereuer Ι perceive any glimmering of truth hesore me, I readily pursve and endea uour to trace it to iis solarce, Without any reServe or caUtion of pushing the discovery too far, oropening too great a glare of it to the public. I look upon thodiscovery of any thing Whicli is true, as a valu te acquisitionto society: Whicli cannot possibiy huri or obstruct the goodos ct os any other truth Whatsoever; for they ali partake of
and liko tho drops of rain, Whicli tali separalely in to the river,
mix them solves ut once With the stream and strengthen thegenerat current.' .
The present forin and weight os public opinion constituto achies ground of auspiciolas hope concerning the species. It is an inheritance of nobi e thoughis and well-proved principies, whicli has hecome our oWn. It has gathered up the experience of truth and good Dona ali ages, and entailed it upon this. Nothing can hencesortii sede aWay. Nothing can hencesortii boineri. The elements are not Only indissolubie but restiess. They are in constant flux and strisse. Αnd though we might seek for them a more fetiled equilibrium and repose, yet, Whileso many important propositions are Walting for confirmation ordisproof, While so many transcendent questions are clatming tobe Worked out to their just solution, Whils even the foundations
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of so many hopes require to be laid, We must not murmur, thoughit is our tot to live amitist tho stir and conflict of suci, an agitation. The wave has rolled long and like an ocean-8weli; ourbark shivers iapon iis crest. The turmoil of the figlit precludes our knowing the key of the position and the plan of the batilo;wo only feel tho shoch. But the bilioW throbs with iis proper
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Vails, with glorious presages. What are iis signf8 It is thospirit os et indication. Μan Deis that he has been the subject os
atroclous Wrong. He has been crushed to the diast. His clatins have ali been mocked and spurned. Ηe but asseris himself, butthat assertion is a business of no mean impori, and must proveone of mighty earnest. It is the spirit of knowle e. The foui eis that, to be without it, is not good. As the eye coveis light, and even the flower of the cavern turias toWards it, man disdainstite ignorance whicli has been forcod upon him, and , more than in Who wait for the morning,'' involies the irradiation whichcan change mental darkness into day. It is the spirit of ind penderice. The postulates of intellectual exaction are refused. The Watchwords os generat opinion are stighted. Proos is craved.
Testis applied. Theory is sisted. It is the spirit of liberty. Thoquenchless passion Whicli soland an inbeing in the bos in of theenlightened and the virtuous sew of old, has now awakened anali but universat sympathy. Even the flave brealis his bonds, and shail idiot-sway hold nations captive 3 It is the spirit of dignity. Μan emulates his proper place and rank :
And though there may be much superficiat boast, though themataperi sciolist may be osten observed, though the assected confidence may be the look of vacancy, though the vavnted miseli may be the strui os conceit and the statk of pride, yet is there in ali that encourages our liope and cons s our augury, depili as Weli as diffusion, and strength as weli aslustre. The pillar is massive in every proportion to iis ornament. The bed of the river Will sustain every ruin os iis tides and every confluence of iis Walers. The time shali come Whenthe universat plan Will be expounded,-how ali has subservet one end, and hastened to ono goal. Then Shail we
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becimeath a stili higher condition to their descendanis i Ιt isdue to me, hoWever, to observe, that While Ι most sanguinelyand confidently indulge these visions, I dare not purgue them toail their extent, but in bellos, and under the guidance, of that Religion which Μontes luteu, Who Was certainly no fanatic, Sohappily describes: How admirable tho roligion whicli, While it seems only to have in vioW the felicity of the other liso, constitutes the happinoss of this in This is our anchor-liope. It fortisses us against ali fear oflasting and generat retrocessions. OtherWise we should bo vexeduntii We were sich at heart. The pendulum does not describe an
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Historia testis temporum, lux VeritatiS, vita memoriae, magiStra vitae, nuntia Vetustatis DCICERO De Oratore. Νobis non modo satis esse video quod factum esset id pronuntiare, sed etiam quo consilio quaque ratione geSta esSetit demonstrare. SΕΜ PRONIUS ASELLIO, quoted by Aulus Gellius, Nocti Attic : Lib. v. cap. I 8. Historiae decus est, et quasi anima, ut cum eventis cauSae copulentur. BACON De Augmentis Scientiarum, Lib. ii. caP. 4.