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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18202.txt b/18202.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7941fad --- /dev/null +++ b/18202.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2105 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Growth of Thought, by William Withington + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Growth of Thought + As Affecting the Progress of Society + +Author: William Withington + +Release Date: April 18, 2006 [EBook #18202] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROWTH OF THOUGHT *** + + + + +Produced by Jared Fuller + + + + +THE GROWTH OF THOUGHT +AS AFFECTING THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETY. + +By William Withington. + +1851. + + + + +Contents. + + +Part I. +Introductory. + +Life Defined. Intellectual Culture and Intellectual Life, +Distinguished. Human Life, a Problem. The Evil to be Managed. +Self-Love Considered under a Three-fold Aspect. Three Agencies for +meliorating the Human Condition. The Growth of Thought, Slow; and oft +most in unexpected quarter. + +Part II. + +Welfare as dependent on the Social Institutions. Limited Aim of the +Received Political Economy. An Enlightened Policy but the Effective +Aim at managing Self-Love, directed towards Present Goods, vulgarly +understood. The Political Fault of the Papacy. Its Substantial +Correction by the Reformation. Republicanism carried from Religion +into Legislation; still without a clear perception of its Principle. +Its Progress accordingly Slow. + +Part III. + +Philosophy the Second Agency for promoting General Welfare, as the +Educator of Self-Love; the Corrector of mistaken apprehensions of +Temporal Good; the Revealer of the ties which bind the Members of the +Human Family to One Lot, to suffer or rejoice together. Progress in +estimating Life. + +Part IV. + +Mightier Influences yet needed, to contend with the Powers of Evil. +Supplied by Man's recognizing the whole of his Being; the extent of his +Duties; the Duration of his Existence. Religion, supplying the defects +of the preceding Agencies; Considered in nine particulars. + +Conclusion. + +Recapitulation. Suggestions to Christian Ministers. + + + + +Preface. + + +A contemporary thus reveals the state of mind, through which he has +come to the persuasion of great insight into the realities, which stand +behind the veil: "What more natural, more spontaneous, more imperative, +than that the conditions of his future being should press themselves on +his anxious thought! Should we not suppose, the 'every third thought +would be his grave,' together with the momentous realities that lie +beyond it? If man is indeed, as Shakespeare describes him, 'a being of +large discourse, looking before and after,' we could scarcely resist +the belief, that, when once assured of the possibility of information +on his head, he would, as it were, _rush_ to the oracle, to have his +absorbing problems solved, and his restless heart relieved of its load +of uncertain forebodings."* [Bush's Statement of Reasons, &c., +p. 12.] + +Not less frequently or intensely, the writer's mind has turned to the +problem of applying know truth to the present, reconciling self-love +with justice and benevolence, and vindicating to godliness, the promise +of the life that now is. If, meanwhile, he has been "intruding into +those things which he hath not seen," like affecting an angelic +religion,--then it were hardly possible but that he should mistake +fancy for fact. But if his inquiries have been into what it is +given to know, then he cannot resist the belief, that some may derive +profit from the results of many fearfully anxious years, here +compressed within a few pages. He might have further compressed, just +saying: Mainly, political wisdom is the management of self-love; +civilization is the cultivation of self-love; the excrescenses of +civilization are the false refinements of self-love; while unselfish +love is substantial virtue,--the end of the commandments,--the +fulfilling of the law: Or, he might have enlarged indefinitely; more +especially might have been written on practically applying the +principles to the advancement of society. He may yet produce something +of the kind. Of the substance of the following pages he has only to +say, that, if false, the falsehood has probably become too much a part +of his nature to be ever separated. As to such minor considerations, +as logical arrangement and the niceties of style, he asks only the +criticism due to one, whose hands have been necessitated to guide the +plough oftener than the pen, through the best years of life. + + + + +The Growth of Thought, As Affecting the Progress of Society. + + + + +Part I. + +Introductory. + + +The meditation on human life--on the contrast between what _is_, and +what _might be_, on supposing a general concurrence to make the best of +things-yields emotions both painful and pleasing;--painful for the +demonstrations every where presented, of a love of darkness, rather +than light; pleasing, that the worst evils are seen to be so +remediable; and so clear the proofs of a gradual, but sure progress +towards the remedy. + +The writer is not very familiar with those authors, who have so much to +say on the problem of life--the question, What is life? He supposes +them to follow a train of thought, something like this: The life of a +creature is that perfection and flourish of its faculties, of which its +constitution is capable, and which some of the race are destined to +reach. Thus, the life of the lion is realized, when the animal ranges +undisputed lord of the sunny desert; finds sufficiency of prey for +himself and offspring, which he raises to inherit dominion; lives the +number of years he is capable of enjoying existence, and then closes +it, without excessive pains, lingering regrets, or fearful +anticipations. + +Life differs from happiness. It is supposable, that the lion, tamed +and petted, trained to feed somewhat after man's chosen manner, may be +as happy as if at liberty in his native range. But such happiness is +not the animal's life; since this implies the kind of happiness proper +to the creature's constitution, in distinction from that induced by +forced habits. + +To happiness add knowledge and intellectual culture, and all together +do not realize the idea of life. The tame lion may be taught many +arts, assimilating him to the intelligence of man; but these remove him +so much further from his appropriate life. Thus there may be a +cultivated intelligence, which constitutes no part of the creature's +life; and this without considering the same as a moral agent. + +Macauley remarks, that the Jesuits seem to have solved the problem, how +far intellectual culture may be carried, without producing intellectual +emancipation. I suppose it would be only varying the expression of his +thought to say, Jesuitical education strikingly exemplifies, how much +intellectual culture may be superinduced upon the mind, without +awakening intellectual life--without developing a spontaneous aptness +to appreciate, seek, find, embrace the truth. The head is filled with +the thoughts of others-many ascertained facts and just conclusions. It +can reason aright in the circles of thought, where it has been trained +to move; but elsewhere, no spontaneous activity--no self-directed power +of thinking justly on new emergencies and questions not yet settled by +rule--no spring within, from which living waters flow. + +The difference between intellectual culture and intellectual life +appears in the fact, that in regard to those mastering ideas, which to +after times mark one age as in advance of the preceding, the classical +scholars, the scientific luminaries, the constitutional expounders of +the day, are quite as likely to be behind the general sense of the age, +as to be in advance. + +The question, What is human life? arises on a contemplation like this: +There is no difficulty in determining the life of all the other tenants +of earth; unless, indeed, those which man has so long and so +universally subjected to his purposes, that the whereabouts, or indeed +the existence of the original stock, remains in doubt. The inferior +animals, left to themselves in favorable circumstances, manifest one +development, attain to one flourish, live the same life, from +generation to generation. Man may superinduce upon them what he +calls _improvements_, because they better fit them for _his_ purposes. +But said improvements are never transmitted from generation to its +successor; left to itself, the race reverts to proper life, the same it +has lived from the beginning. + +Man here presents a singular exception to the general rule of earth's +inhabitants. The favorite pursuits of one age are abandoned in the +next. This generation looks back on the earnest occupations of a +preceding, as the adult looks back on the sports and toys of childhood. +It is more than supposable, that the planning for the chances of +office, the competition for making most gain out of the least +productiveness--these earnest pursuits of the men of this age--in the +next will be resigned to the children of larger growth; just as are +now resigned the trappings of military glory. Where then is the human +mind ultimately to fix? Where is man to find so essentially his good, +as to fix his earnest pursuit in one direction, in which the race is +still to hold on? Such seems to be the question, What is life? + +The elements of that darkness, which excludes the light of life, may be +considered as these three: First, the excessive preponderance of +self-love, as the ruling motive of human conduct. Secondly, the +short-sightedness of self-love, in magnifying the present, at the cost +of the distant future. And, Thirdly, the grossness of self-love, in +preferring of present goods the vulgar and the sensible, to the refined +and more exquisitely satisfactory. And there are three ways, in which +we may attempt the abatement of existing evils; or, there are three +agencies we may call in for this purpose. + +In the first place, leaving individuals to the operation of the common +motives, we may labor at the social institutions, to adjust them to the +rule, that, each seeking his own, after the common apprehension of +present interests, may do so consistently with acting the part of a +good citizen--contributing something to the general welfare; or, at +least, not greatly detracting therefrom. Here, the agency employed, +the Greeks would have called by a name, from which we have derived the +word _politics_; which word, from abuse, has well nigh lost its +original sense, _The science of social welfare_. _Policy_, we might +say, for want of an exacter word. + +The second way, in which we may seek the same result, is, to inculcate +juster apprehensions of present good--to inform and refine self-love; +to show, that the purest of present enjoyments, are like the loaves and +fishes distributed by divine hands, multiplying by division and +participation--the best of all being such as none can enjoy fully, till +they become the common property of the race. For want of a more +accurately defined term, the agent here introduced may be called +Philosophy; understanding by the term, the search, what would be the +conduct and preferences of a truly wise man, dispassionately seeking +for himself the best enjoyment of this life, uninformed of another to +follow. + +Or, thirdly, we may seek to infuse a nobler principle than self-love, +however refined--even the charity, whose essence is, to love one's +neighbor as one's self; while, at the same time, this life being +earnestly contemplated as but the introductory part of an immense +whole, additional security is provided for the coincidence of interest +with duty. In a word, the third agency to be employed is _Religion_. + +The whole subject thus sketched is one of which the writer is not +aware, that it has been distinctly defined, as a field for thought and +investigation. He has little to learn from the successes or the +failures of predecessors. Be this his excuse for seeming prosy and +dull; possibly for mistakes and crudities. He has the doubly +difficulty of attempting to turn thought into trains to which it is +not accustomed; and yet of offering no results so profound as to have +escaped other observers; or so sublime as to be the due prize of +genius, venturing where few can soar. If he offers any thoughts new, +just, and important, they have rather been overlooked for their +simplicity and obviousness. One may dive too deep for that which +floats on the surface. Here are to be expected none of the splendid +results, which dazzle in the popular sciences. The cultivator of this +field can hope only to favor, imperceptibly it may be, the growth of +thoughts and sentiments, tending slowly to work out a better condition +of the human family. And he begs to commend that advice of Lacon, +which himself has found so profitable: "In the pursuit of knowledge, +follow it, wherever it is to be found; like fern, it is the produce of +all climates; and like coin, its circulation is not restricted to any +particular class. * * * * Pride is less ashamed of being ignorant, than +of being instructed; and she looks too high to find that, which very +often lies beneath her. Therefore condescend to men of low estate, and +be for wisdom, that which Alcibiades was for power." (Vol. I., p. +122.) + +The difficulty with us Americans, in the way of being instructed, has +been, that too proud, as if already possessed of the fullness of +political wisdom, we have withal cherished a self-distrust, forbidding +us to harmonize our institutions and modes of thinking into conformity +with our work and altered situation. We have seen the British nation, +choosing by the accident of birth a baby for its future sovereign, and +training it in a way the least possible calculated to favor relations +of acquaintance and sympathy with varied wants of the many; and our +first impression, I fear, has been our last: What drivellers! +Obstinately blind to the clearest lights of common sense! Whereas +wiser for us would it be, to derive from the spectacle these general +conclusion: that hard is it for the human mind to proceed in advance +of ideas received and fashionable; that the so-called independent and +original thinkers--leaders of public sentiment-are such as anticipate +by a little the general progress of thought, as our hill-tops catch +first by a little the beams of the rising sun, before they fill the +intervening valleys; that men's superiority in profound thought or +liberal ideas, in one direction, affords no security for their +attaining to mediocrity in others; and that one familiar with the +history of thought, may pronounce, with moral certainty, that such and +such ideas were never entertained in such or such society, where due +preparation did not exist. As we may confidently say, No mountain-top +can tower high enough, to catch the sunbeams at midnight; with equal +confidence we may say of many ideas now familiar as school-boy truths: +no intellect in ancient Greece or Rome soared high enough above the +mass to grasp them. + + + + +Part II. + +Welfare as Dependent on Policy. + + +As generally at all points, so the materialism of the age particularly +appears, in that the political economists take _wealth_, defining their +science in the vulgar acceptation, rather than in the good old English +sense, _welfare_, _well-being_. If they occasionally venture a remark +of a more liberal bearing on the general subject of public welfare; +such is the exception to the general rule. Money, with its equivalents +and exchangeables, is their usual theme in treating of wealth; thought +the common use of the word economy might suggest a higher science. For +he does not exhaust our idea of a good economist, who manages to have +at command abundant materials for rendering home happy; while, for lack +of wisdom to turn such materials to account, that home may be less +happy than the next-door neighbor's, where want is hardly staved off. +We exact, for fulfilling that character, wisdom in using the material +means--provision for physical, intellectual, and moral training of the +household--the just apportionment between labor and recreation-the +true contentment, which frets not at present imperfection, while it +still presses on to that perfection conceived to be attainable. Our +writers on political economy would do well, to give the word as liberal +a latitude of sense, as it legitimately assumes, when used in its +primitive meaning of _household management_. + +But, rather than attempt to raise a scientific term so much above its +received sense, I use another word, and say, Policy must begin with the +admission, that self-love is the mightiest mover of human conduct; and +not a self-love enlightened, deep, calculating, directed to the sources +of fullest contentment; but following the groveling estimate, that +riches, power, office, ease, being the object of envy or admiration, +are the chief goods of life. + +Every business man admits, that his security for men's conduct must be +found in their self-interest. He admits thus much practically, so for +as his own business is concerned; the exceptions being so rare, as not +to justify neglect of the general rule. Yet, neither business men nor +politicians grasp the principle clearly, nor consequently apply it +consistently. And he who would make a new application of it, is met +with charges of great uncharitableness. + +This backwardness to generalize a rule, found so necessary practically +to be followed, may be resolved into that flattering conceit of human +dignity, which is yielded reluctantly, inch by inch, as plain +demonstration wrests it away. And further, self-love conceals itself, +because generally it operates first to pervert the judgment. The +consciousness of preferring private interest to worthier +considerations, is too painful to be endured. The man therefore +strives, but too successfully, to misrepresent the case to himself. +He contrives to make that seem right, which tends to his own advantage. +But though indirect, the operation of self-love is none the less sure. +Whether the individual be any the less blamable, because self-love +assumes this disguise, is not now to be considered. + +There are individuals, to whom implicit confidence in their unguarded +honesty, proves but an added motive to be more tremulously sensitive, +not to abuse such confidence. There are, whom respect for their +calling binds wholly to more carefulness, to prove worthy of such +respect. So always if one is thoroughly pervaded with the right +spirit. But dealing with bodies of men, as men yet are, these two +rules should shape political institutions and social relations. + +First, so far as men can command confidence and respect, for the sake +of birth, calling, or office, so far they are relieved from the +necessity of seeking the same by personal qualifications; and +accordingly a body of men so protected, will perceptibly fall short +of the average, in the staple elements of respectability. + +Respect for station or calling so ample is here meant, as to satisfy +the average desire of approbation. The extent, to which this is +satisfied by the respect paid by the child, to the parent, for the +relation's sake, is so moderate, as one of the elements tending to the +formation of character, that it may be expected to operate generally as +it universally would, where the right spirit fully reigns. The remark +holds good, with moderate abatement, in the relation of teacher and +pupil. + +In the infancy of the Christian church, the relation between pastor and +flock was closely analogous to that between parents and children. On +the one side were men of a disinterested and paternal spirit, so +earnestly living the new life hid with Christ in God, that hardly the +possibility could be conceived of a desire to exalt and magnify self, +over the ignorance and degradation of their spiritual charge. On the +other side were men, children in knowledge, incapable of estimating the +ministry simply after the consciousness of benefits received. We are +not then to condemn the arrangement, which clothed the ministry with an +official dignity, the office being revered independently of the claims +of the man; nor to wonder, if the arrangement outlived the necessity, +or passed the bounds of moderation; or if it was not fully calculated, +the danger, lest men of the primitive spirit yield places to those of +an inferior stamp; and how truly eternal vigilance is the cost, at +which all things here must be saved from their tendencies to +deterioration. Accordingly the history of the Papacy for centuries +has been, that its ministers are sure of unbounded respect from the +populace, independently of their personal claims. The consequence is, +that while a few are thus moved to heroic and almost angelic devotion +to the spiritual good of their flocks, the many would never command +respect for what they are as men. + +Similar remarks may be applied to the infancy of civil society. The +prevalence of monarchy and aristocracy has been too universal, to be +charged wholly upon force or chance. And yet in the origin, rational +considerations can hardly be supposed to have been distinctly +entertained. Still there may have been a dim consciousness of thoughts +like these: It is so necessary that civil rulers be at all events +respected, and so uncertain how to secure due respect to men meriting +it, that we must invest a class of men with a factitious official +dignity, and take the risk--rather the certainty--of its proving, in +most cases, a cover for personal unworthiness, some degrees below the +ordinary standard of humanity. If there existed a dim consciousness of +such reasoning, it might have been well entertained. + +The second rule of Policy--the master maxim of political wisdom--is, +that no class of men must be expected to concur heartily, for +extirpating the evils, from which its own revenues and importance are +derived. Speaking of men acting in a body, there is no room for the +many exceptions, necessarily admitted to the rule, that with the +individual self-love is the ruling motive. The individual sometimes +yields to nobler considerations, than the calculations of self-interest. +In the corporation, the _esprit du corps_--the clannish +spirit--is sure to master it over public spirit. Devotion to the +honor, aggrandizement, wealth and power of the order, company, or +corporation, is more sure to control their acts as individuals. It is +less liable to self-rebuke for conscious meanness. It looks somewhat +more like the public spirit which ought to be. It is less liable to +occasional counteractions from impulses of honor, humanity, or regard +to reputation. + +Accordingly a body of men, so constituted as to find its best flourish +short of the perfection of the whole social system, will inevitably, +sooner or later, prove an obstacle to the onward march of improvement. + +A corporation is not necessarily a grievance and a sore on the body +politic. If it can have its full flourish, without let to the progress +of society, it may be harmless or beneficent. + +"_Sooner or later_;" be this condition marked, in estimating the +spiritual policy of Rome. The body of reverends, which mediates +between God and men, finds its best flourish, in just such degree of +popular intelligence as suffices for comprehending the specious +arguments, on which rest the claims of Holy Mother Church; and such +amount of conscientiousness as galls the offender, till he has +purchased absolution. More intelligence generally prevailing, and +better appreciation of the divine law as a living rule of duty, would +abate the awe in which the priesthood is held, and diminish the +revenues accruing from mediating between offending man and his offended +Maker. But Christianity found the world sunk below this moderate +standard of intelligence and morals. The best flourish of the +priesthood required in the people cultivation of understanding and +conscience, up to the point of caring for their account in heaven's +record. So the faulty relation between priesthood and people did not +at once appear in the results; and, accordingly, the weight of the +qualification, _sooner or later_. + +But in the early growth of society, considerations like the above have +been little attended to, compared with the obvious advantages of the +division of labor. As ordinarily each handicraft is best exercised by +those earliest and steadiest in their devotion to the trade; so it is +argued, universally, that the several departments of the public service +will be best attended to, by being left to their respective trades, +guilds, faculties, orders, or corporations, each strictly guarded from +unhallowed intrusion. So religion has been left to its official +functionaries, prescribing articles of belief and terms of salvation by +a divine right,--legislation to princes and nobles, equally claiming by +the same right to give law in temporals; and so of other general +interests. + +Now a movement has been slowly going on, through some centuries, for +working society into conformity with a rational rule; a rule not +overlooking the advantages of the division of labor, but taking in too +such qualifying considerations as the healthful stimulus of free +competition, watchfulness over public functionaries, and the necessity +of harmonizing private and corporate interests, with public duty. + +The movement has been slow; for the actors have dimly apprehended the +part they were acting, and the principles by themselves vindicated. +It has consisted of two principle acts. The Reformation carried +republicanism into religion: our own Revolution into legislation. +The two movements were parts of one whole; and, to get at the +principles at bottom, either will serve for both, as well as for what +may remain for finishing the work begun. + +The Reformation having been conducted by theologians, it was natural +that disproportionate importance should have been attached to +theological niceties. So far as Luther was right in regarding the +doctrine of justification by faith only as the great article at issue, +it must have been, because the opposite doctrine favored the conceit of +a mysterious mediating power vested in a priesthood--a conceit so +favorable to the aggrandizement of the order thus distinguished. But +considered as a _politic_ movement--as an advance in rightly adjusting +the social relations--the Reformation aimed principally at that ill +arrangement, by which the authorized expounders of the law divine found +their account, in involving that law in a glorious uncertainty, and +entrapping people in a frequent violation thereof. Considered as a +politic institution, Protestantism differs essentially from Popery, in +that it makes more of prevention than of remedy; gives the ministry its +best flourish, in the best welfare of the whole body; and pays for +spiritual health, rather than for spiritual sickness. If all +Protestants do not consistently so, the fact accords with the dim +understanding, on both sides, of the essential points contested. + +This dim understanding further appears, in that after all the political +discussion which has been, the success of republican institutions is +still appealed to, as vindicating the reign of justice and benevolence +in the public mind; mankind have within so much of the divine, are so +self-disposed to do right, that they do not need much control, but may +pretty safely be left to their own guidance. Nor is it left to the +mere demagogue to talk thus. + +Doubtful it may be, whether it should be called dimness of +understanding, or rather perverse ingenuity, that men reason thus, when +the facts are: So general is the disposition to abuse power, that +wherever it is accumulated, it will surely be abused; accordingly it +must be distributed as equally as possible. If government be made the +business of one part of the community--one tenth, or one hundredth, or +one thousandth--that part will inevitably exalt self, at the cost of +the others. So strong is self-love, turned towards temporal interests, +so acute to discern what tends to the one desired end, and so sure to +bend every thing that way, that men's temporal interests are pretty +safe in their own hands, and safe no where else. Now the legitimate +end of civil government being, to secure the temporal welfare of _all_, +_all_ must have a share in it, or the excluded portions must find their +rights neglected. + +It may have favored the common mistake, that the leaders in successful +republican movements have so often shown a heroic self-devotion and +disinterestedness--men like Luther, and Washington. But these are the +exceptions, the rare gems of humanity. If they were the fair +specimens, their work would never have been needed. Then we might +leave to a class the regulation, whether of our spirituals or +temporals, with the like advantage, that we leave the making of our +watches or our shoes to their respective trades. But the indistinct +apprehension, why the advantages of the division of labor fail in the +matter of government, accords well with the observation, that +republican principles make slow progress in the world, are held in +gross inconsistencies; and the most zealous assertors thereof in one +department, are oft found most strenuously opposed in others. + +It is thus that we are so slow to conform to one rule, our arrangements +for spiritual instruction; for preserving health; for preventing crime; +for cheaply, expeditiously, and satisfactorily settling disputed +claims; for furnishing the whole people with instruction in their +rights, interests, and duties; as well as that thorough cultivation of +the whole man, which the full success of republicanism requires. + + + + +Part III. + +Welfare as Dependent on Philosophy. + + +But the whole office of Policy, in arranging the social relations, +supposes the prevalence of an ill-informed and misdirected self-love. +And, accordingly, the second way of attempting the promotion of general +welfare is, to convey and impress just estimates of its constituents. +Such is the office of Philosophy: the study of the truly wise man-wise +for the present life--still leaving out man's hold on a future, and his +relations to his Maker. What would such an one pursue; as life's chief +ends--covet, as life's best goods? + +We still suppose self-love to be as really as ever the main-spring +to human conduct; but that self-love enlightened, regulated, refine-- +choosing first the goods which satisfy the nobler parts of man's +nature, and on a liberal estimate of the ties which bind society +together; in virtue of which, if one member suffer, all the members +suffer with it. + +The items, claiming to constitute life's happiness, may be divided into +two classes, distinguished by this important difference: one class +essentially such, that only a limited number of mankind can obtain +them;--if some succeed in the pursuit, their success involves the +failure of others: The other class are such, as to involve no +contradiction in the supposition of their becoming the common property +of all. The success of a part, far from obstructing, rather +facilitates the success of others; they constitute a store of wealth, +from which each may take his fill; and the more he takes, the more he +leaves, to satisfy the desires of all who come after. + +Now, in view of the case, Philosophy inquiring for life's chief goods, +cannot make them to be fortune's prizes, scattered to tempt the +cupidity of all; but which a few only can catch, while their luck +proves the disappointment and vexation of the many. The supposition +were monstrous. We so instinctively recoil from supposing such to be +the appointment of nature's Author, and so consciously grasp it for a +truth clear by its own light--the conviction of a provision fully made +in nature for all, whenever nature's wants are truly consulted--that we +may safely reject, by this test, every notion of temporal good, which +makes it consist preeminently in whatever, by the nature of the case, +can be the lot of but a limited number. + +Eminent above all other conceptions of temporal good, is that which +makes it to consist emphatically in the possession of money, or the +ability to command it by its equivalents. And because the capacities +of enjoyment have never been measured, nor material wealth rationally +estimated as a means of meeting those capacities, riches are prized, +not as a means, but an end; and becoming themselves the end, no amount +of possession lessens the desire to accumulate. + +A just philosophy argues on the case, that all cannot be rich, in the +common acceptation of the term, whether be considered the limits to +earth's productiveness, and the possibility of increasing material +wealth; or whether, _rich_ being more a relative than an absolute term, +that the supposition of _all rich_ is self-contradictory: therefore, +in a juster sense, the supposition of all rich must be admissible;--the +sense, namely, that whenever riches shall be reasonably estimated +simply as the means of meeting capacities of enjoyment surveyed and +known, then it will be found that the earth's productiveness, and the +stock of material wealth, admit each to take to the fullness of his +wants, leaving enough for all who come after. + +It is further the office of Philosophy to show in detail, what is thus +wrought out as a conclusion from general principles; to show how much +is consumed by artificial wants, and subjection to the tyranny of +fashion; to show how the correction of factitious desires would leave +natural and rational desires for better enjoyment than is now found, so +that self-love would find not occasion for envy, or repining at a +brother's prosperity. + +The unceasing desire to become richer would be, however, but a +mitigated evil, if men sought only wealth by production. The +aggravation of the case is, that they whom the desire most impels, seek +the increase of their own store, not by producing, but by contriving to +turn to their own stock the avails of the industry of others. Our +young men, in deplorable numbers, slide into the persuasion, that any +means of living and thriving are better than productive industry. +Hence the rush into trade, the professions, into speculations, where +the hazards are such, that the cool calculations of pure avarice would +rather incline a man to prefer the prospect of growing rich by digging +the earth. So much the preference of contrivance to labor overmaster +the mastering desire to become rich. + +But there is a strange hankering after whatever is of the nature of a +lottery. So the prizes are but splendid, no matter, if they are but +few compared with the blanks. We are given to presuming each on his +own good fortune. "Nothing venture, nothing have," has become a +proverb. So agriculture is treated as if it had no rewards, because +one ventures so little by engaging therein. And one might almost think +that the conscious earth resented the indignity. + +Aided by Philosophy, we shall argue on this matter thus: All cannot +live by their wits; the many must produce with the hands; and, the +greater the part who shuffle off the charge, the more heavily it falls +on others. The first law given to man in innocency, was, to keep the +garden and till it; the first after the loss of innocency, "In the +sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread;"--so a dispensation from such +law, given by Him, who best knows what is good for man, in whatever +state, is not worthy to stand high among life's blessings. + +More particularly we are taught in the same school, that the good thus +contemplated must cost something at least on the score of that best of +physical enjoyments--health. If it were duly appreciated, how high +this stands among life's goods, and how much its perfection depends on +freedom to the mind from the anxieties of hazardous speculation, and a +goodly amount of manly labor, of which the varied occupations of +agriculture are the most favorable of all; this consideration would +check the prevalent ambition to make the contrivance of the brain +supply the place of the labor of the hands. + +Health is commended to us, not only as among the first of present +goods, but as one, the security of which is placed very much in our own +power; if we will but study and practise the means. It is remarkable, +that, while the healing art is proverbial for its sects and +uncertainties--amid the disputes of homoeopaths and allopaths, +mineralists and herbalists, stimulators and depletors--there is a pretty +general agreement of parties on the laws of hygiene, or the art of +preserving health. We might find here a law, taught by the +constitution of nature, that its Author never intended healing to hold +an important place in the cause of human welfare. He meant it should +be well nigh dispensed with, by the obedience men should pay to laws, +which they may understand. + +The full appreciation of these considerations would tend greatly to +establish friendly relations in society; because, first, the good +contemplated is such, that the success of one in seeking, facilitates +the success of all. Secondly, it would abate the strife for +luxuries,--amassing without producing, and cultivating artificial +wants,--most fertile sources of discord. And, thirdly, it would +establish between physicians and their employers, relations the most +agreeable. + +Another most unmanageable misconception of life's good, makes one of +its choicest items to be, the possession of power and superiority. +To what depths of degradation will man depress his fellows, just to +contemplate the distance between his might and their weakness! If this +ambition seems less general than the desire of accumulating, or of +substituting contrivance for productiveness, it may be, because the +necessity of the case more limits the number who can bear rule; +otherwise, the passion for power might find as ready an entrance to as +many hearts as are taken by the love of gain, or the dislike to labor. +We may find in this thought a partial explanation of the fact, that the +thrift of the non-slaveholding States contrasted with the stagnation at +the South, is so powerless an argument addressed to the slaveholders +there; for you have not only to satisfy avarice of the superior +profitableness of free labor; you have still to contend with the lust +of dominion--the passion for power and superiority. To manage this +passion is the heaviest charge of policy--to provide that the offices +which must be intrusted to human hands, be filled peaceably and +worthily. + +Philosophy explodes this notion of good (as claiming to be eminently +such), in that it cannot stand the general test: It is a good, which a +few must share by detracting so much from the happiness of others. + +And further, to the love of power is submitted the consideration, that +knowledge is power. It may be feared, this maxim oft suggests scarce +other sense, that that deeper insight into the tricks of trade or +politics enables the possessor to outwit competitors for riches or +honors in the game. It is still a low understanding, that knowledge of +nature's laws multiplies the means of physical enjoyment. Knowledge is +power in a higher sense, in that it empowers the possessor to call +forth stores of enjoyment form objects, which seem to vulgar +apprehension most barren of utility. But knowledge--taken for the +round of mental cultivation--is power, in that it is competent to +yield to all more than the delightful sense of conscious superiority, +which vulgar ambition may afford to a few of its successful votaries; +a store, from which each in taking does but multiply the remainder. + +But to find it so one must look well, that he apprehend knowledge to be +a good of itself, independently of the distinction it confers. For a +vain ambition often takes this direction; and then it matters little to +one whether himself advance, or others be kept back--since, in either +case, the difference between him and them, the distinction chiefly +enjoyed, is the same. + +Now, the love of knowledge is prior in time to the love of distinction; +it should seem then, that, with proper care, it might maintain the +mastery over its rival. The child is delighted with the acquisition of +new ideas, before it thinks of turning them to a vain-glorious account. +It deserves to be considered, whether our modes of education, offering +prizes and honors of scholarship, do not train into the ascendancy that +love of distinction, which education ought and might keep subordinate; +which in fact is one of the greatest hinderances to progress;--for when +one's immediate aim is not truth itself, but the glory which attends +the acquisition, he meets a thousand sidelong impulses from the +straightforward search. + +That knowledge is a good which grows by being shared, is a truth more +fully apprehended, as the idea of knowledge is enlarged. It is +measurably so, while taken for eminence in common studies and the +received sciences. One's advance is facilitated by the advance of +others. + +Much more does this hold, when the distinction between intellectual +culture and intellectual life is made, and the preference due to the +latter apprehended. + +When the missionary enterprize was a new thing, in favor of the +missionary's being a married man was argued the advantage of having +children trained up in a Christian way before the eyes of the heathen. +But so completely has that expectation been disappointed, that now the +missionaries send home their children to be educated; alleging the +danger, lest their children become stumbling blocks, through the +apparent little difference between them and the heathen children. +And the difficulty is not, that they cannot there, as well as here, be +taught Latin, Greek, Mathematics--all the received sciences-the +branches of what is nominally education. It is not so much, that they +cannot there be shielded from evil influences abroad; as that their +children there want, what our children enjoy--the sight of magnificent +enterprises; a spirit of inquiry and freedom breathing all around them; +and the healthful contact and stimulus of multitudes of young minds, in +the like process of intellectual and moral training. It is such +nameless imperceptible influences, that awaken intellectual life, from +the mind, and determine the future man more than the teaching, which is +nominally education. Why else does the acknowledged excellence of the +teaching in the Prussian schools do so little to quicken intellectual +life--to form men of progressive thoughts? + +We should be repaid the whole cost of the missionary enterprize, were +it only in the clearness and importance of the lesson thus taught us, +as otherwise we should hardly have suspected--the doctrine of our +mutual dependencies and tendencies to a common average--how our +intellectual life is subject to the law, "Whether one member suffer, +all the members suffer with it." + +We may hence take instruction, first, in the matter of educating our +children. We have but half done our duty as parents, when we have +joined with such of our neighbors as better appreciate, or readier +furnish the means, of good instruction, to unite our children in a +select school, furnished with competent masters and ample apparatus. +The children of one neighborhood educate one another mainly. They +receive from one another more of those impressions which form the mind +and fix the after character, than all they get from their masters. +The carefully trained will receive a deleterious impression from the +neglected portion, despite of care to ward off evil influences. Or, +however successfully care may be applied, that is but negative success. +Our children still want the kindly stimulus to mental growth, to be +realized in a whole community of young minds, all sharing the like wise +training. + +We may hence take occasion, secondly, to mark (what is not so obvious), +that through life the same law binds us: the law, that our intellectual +life depends more on the state of society in which we exist, than on +our direct efforts at self-culture. Individual effort may give one +great preeminence before his associates in any of the acknowledged +sciences, though even in such their success facilitates his; and if he +prizes the knowledge--the truth--for itself, rather than for the +attending glory, he will find in another's success, that, "whether one +member be honored, all the members rejoice with it." But distinctively +is it so, in regard to the general progress of universal mind in +justness of thought and sentiment--those new developed master ideas +which mark the place of each successive age in the line of progression; +and in regard to which, the masters in the received sciences are quite +as often found lagging behind, as going before. + +In regard to this, we are all of us individually very like the several +drops which compose the mighty current of the Mississippi, moving with +resistless force to its destination. A few may outstrip by a little +the general progress of thought, and but a little; just as one drop in +the current may receive an impulse, carrying it a little in advance; +or, if we might suppose the drops gifted with intelligence, some by +self-directed effort and seizing opportunities, might speed themselves +a little. So study and determination will enable one to anticipate by +a little the birth of ideas. + +And, on the other hand, the current of thought none can resist. +Sometimes a man resolves to be so conservative, as to stick fast by the +old moorings--_he_ is not going to yield to popular impulses. But it +fares with him very much as it would with the single drop in the +Mississippi, which should resolve to stop in its place, and so reluct +against impulses and take advantage of all impediments. The result from +day to day would be, not that it had stopped in its place, or any thing +like it; but that its daily approach to the ocean was a little less +than that of its fellows. + +Thus we are brought round to the same position--that the attempt to +monopolize Heaven's best gifts to man, must be a very small affair-- +that the individual best consults his own attainments in knowledge, +after the sublimest sense of the term, by consulting the progress of +his neighbors and the race; just as the single drop in the Mississippi +sees its best hope of speedily reaching the ocean, in whatever gives +onward impulse to the whole current. + +The thought receives force from the consideration, that here +emphatically is that knowledge, which he who increaseth beyond the +average increase, increaseth sorrow. A saying of so much currency must +have some foundation in reality. And yet is not knowledge commended to +us as one of the richest sources of enjoyment? + + "Happy the mortal, who has traced effects + To their first cause." + +Where is the reconciling link between these seeming contradictions? + +Now eminence in any of the received sciences, or branches of +literature, has rich capabilities of affording happiness. To penetrate +the depths of mathematics, chemistry, or astronomy--to revel in the +stores of ancient lore;--all such pursuits generally become more +delightfully attractive, the further one advances; or, after the +ancient indefinite use of terms, _knowledge_ might be taken for the +just proportionate training of all the faculties, in distinction from +the teaching, which impresses so many items of truth. And such +education preeminently fits one to pass time happily. + +The maxim in question then applies emphatically to the forethought, +which anticipates the dawn of ideas.* [Or, more generally, we might +define, an accurate perception of the difference between _what is_ and +_what ought to be_--between reality and ideal perfection. Perhaps we +might say, _insight into logical futurity_.] And although, as above +said, none do greatly anticipate beyond the general sense of the age, +yet some may too much for their own comfort. + +This thought Schiller finely sets forth in his Cassandra. At the hour +of her sister's nuptials, while the rest give loose to merriment at the +festival, the prophetess wanders forth alone, complaining, that her +insight into futurity debars her from participation in the common joy. + + "To all its arms doth mirth unfold, + And every heart foregoes its cares, + And hope is busy in the old; + The bridal robe my sister wears, + And I alone, alone am weeping; + The sweet delusion mocks not me; + Around these walls destruction sweeping, + More near and near I see. + + A torch before my vision glows, + But not in Hymen's hand it shines; + A flame that to the welkin goes, + But not from holy offering shrines: + Glad hands the banquet are preparing, + And near and near the halls of state, + I hear the god that comes unsparing, + I hear the steps of fate. + + And men my prophet wail deride! + The solemn sorrow dies in scorn; + And lonely in the waste I hide + The tortured heart that would forewarn. + And the happy, unregarded, + Mocked by their fearful joy, I trod: + Oh! dark to me the lot awarded, + Thou evil Pythian god! + + Thine oracle in vain to be, + Oh! wherefore am I thus consigned, + With eyes that every truth must see, + Lone in the city of the blind? + Cursed with the anguish of a power + To view the fates I may not thrall; + The hovering tempest still must lower, + The horror must befall. + + Boots it, the veil to lift, and give + To sight the frowning fates beneath? + For error is the life we live, + And, oh, our knowledge is but death! + Take back the clear and awful mirror, + Shut from mine eyes the blood-red glare; + Thy truth is but a gift of terror, + When mortal lips declare. + + My blindness give to me once more, + The gay, dim senses that rejoice; + The past's delighted songs are o'er + For lips that speak a prophet's voice. + + To me _the future_ thou has granted; + I miss the moment from the chain-- + The happy present hour enchanted! + Take back thy gift again!"* [Bulwer's translation.] + +These lines express more than the trite observation, that a knowledge +of futurity would prove a torment to the possessor. Beneath that +obvious is couched the deeper moral, which expresses the sufferings of +the philosophic prophet--of the man who, too much for his own quiet, +anticipates reasonings, conclusions, sentiments, forms of social life +yet to prevail--the man to whom not coming events, but coming ideas, +cast their shadows before. If we could suppose one at the time of the +crusades, educated to associate and sympathize with the choice spirits +of the age, yet anticipating the sense of their age, in making the +comparative estimate of chivalrous adventure, and successful +cultivation of the arts of peace and industry; he must have felt +somewhat like Cassandra among the less gifted. If we could look on +life, as our successors will two hundred years hence, we too might +complain of being "lone in the city of the blind;" unless large Hope +and Benevolence enabled us to live on the future. Thus we find +additional motive to desiring a united and absolute, rather than an +individual and relative progress, in the consideration that knowledge +most worthily so called--whoso increaseth greatly beyond the average +attainment, doth so to his own sorrow. + +To complete the list of false estimates of good, refuted by one test, +we should allude to the frivolities of gentility and fashion-the +passion for wearing badges of distinction, however impotent or +unmeaning such may be. This is the very poorest form of finding +delight, in what from the nature of the case can be shared by few. +For its incommunicableness is its only recommendation. It is an icy +repellant, freezing up the kindly flow of sympathy with universal +humanity; and uncompensated loss of that best ingredient of earthly +felicity--the interchange of friendly feelings and offices; that store +of wealth, from which the more that take, and the fuller their share, +the more they leave to be taken by others. + +The foregoing may be treated as a fine and just speculation, but as +what ever must remain a barren speculation; as if it were after the +example of all ages, that men should mistake the material of happiness +for happiness itself. So it always has been, so it always will be, +that false notions of good usurp the place of the true, despite the +demonstrations of moralists and divines to the contrary. + +Mind, however, has not stood still in this matter. It has moved, and +that in the right direction. We may note a progress from age to age, +in coming to a just estimate of life. Start not at the use of terms, +rendered suspicious by the extravagancies of which they have been made +the vehicle. But we must not reject ideas great, just, or new, because +of the distortions and caricatures of little minds. If one idea +occupies the mind all them more for being great and just, it will be +likely to overmaster that mind, so as not to be produced in its fair +proportions, or rightly applied. So fare they, with whom the one idea +is, the progress of society--the growth of thought. The Mississippi in +its progress throws froth and scum on its surface, more conspicuous +than the under-running current. So radical folly and transcendental +nonsense is obtruded on the sight, from the sympathy of little minds +with the deeper current of thought. To gauge the progress of mind from +those who are most noisy on the matter, would be, like taking the +direction and rapidity of the Mississippi, from the froth, which the +wind blows hither and thither over its surface. + +"Let us go on to perfection"--"Forgetting the things behind, and +pressing onward to the things before." Such language describes +distinctively the American character, and the spirit of Christianity. +Only, where is perfection? What are the things before? If, as a +people, we do fully take these expressions in their author's sense, we +may hope there is one element of agreement, betokening good for the +future. + +It is encouraging, that the two rival systems, most boldly promising to +lead to perfection, both had their birth under political and mental +bondage. So evidently with Romanism, whether under its proper form and +name, or refined and disguised after the modern fashion. And the same +is true of the baptized infidelity imported from Germany. The German +mind is cramped and diseased by the bands which confine it. It is not +allowed to speculate freely on politics, and the many questions most +nearly touching present interests. Therefore, on the records and on +the doctrines which pertain to eternal interests, it falls with an +insane avidity for innovation, and runs into licentiousness a liberty +no where else enjoyed. Hence the levity, in dealing with things +sacred, in Germany often found in minds of the first and second orders, +here is taken up by those to the third and fourth--the copyists and +imitators; nay, by the buffoons who figure at the farces of mock +philanthropy. Now, though every folly must find minds whose caliber it +fits, we may hope the genuine American mind will not be extensively +beguiled by either of the misbegotten offspring of Europe's mental +servitude. + +But, to the point--progress made in estimating life. A few centuries +ago, a torrent of enthusiasm set in the direction of bearing the cross +into Asia, to fight for glory, and the propagation of Christianity, on +the fields of Palestine. Already the old Roman military character was +greatly improved on. Virtue, (_manliness_, a` vir-_man_) was no longer +supposed to fulfil its highest office in + + Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos. + +A delicate sense of honor, of the courtesy due to a foe and the +gallantry to the other sex, betoken a type of humanity in advance of +the brute ferocity of the best days of Rome. + +But, notwithstanding Mr. Burke's eloquence, and the opinion sometimes +expressed, that the courtly knight of the middle age, realized the +perfection of humanity; we have no reason to regret that the age of +chivalry is gone by, and that the age of speculation, and money-making, +and industrial enterprize has succeeded. The materialism of this age, +with all its faults, is better than the chivalry of an age gone by. +It tends to keep the world at peace; _that_ tended to perpetual +turmoil. The supposition _all rich_, according to modern ideas, is not +so flat a contradiction as the supposition _all glorious_, in military +heroism. As the past age estimated life's supreme good, the enjoyment +of a few _required_ the exclusion of the many from its benefits: as +this age estimates the enjoyment of some, _admits_ the exclusion of +others. Whether the mercantile spirit thoroughly entered into makes a +better man than did the spirit of chivalry, may be doubted; not so, +which best comports with the welfare of society. + +Now if one, at the time of the crusades, had so anticipated the spirit +of the age, as to picture to himself modern Europe and America, +manufacturing, trading, flocking to California, as if there a holy +sepulcher was to be rescued from hands profane, glorying chiefly in +mechanical development and mercantile enterprize; and had ventured to +suggest, that instead of trooping to Asia to fight for glory, and the +fancy of promoting religion by arguments of steel, it would be worthier +of the choice spirits of the age to stay at home, and by industry and +enterprize aim at multiplying the means of content to quiet life: +he might have found a harder task than now devolves on him, who urges, +that the materialism of this age must pass away, as has passed the +chivalry of the crusades; both for the same reason; the progress of +thought must outgrow the one, as it has outgrown the other. + +A new age with another spirit will be ushered in. What is to be the +spirit of that age? Are we to find the forebodings in the dreamy +sentimentalism, which boasts so much its flights beyond common material +ideas? I trow rather, we may trace the character of the coming age in +an increasing estimation of health, knowledge, mental cultivation, +intellectual life, and the flow of the social affections, as the prime +of earthly felicities--in an approximation towards rationally +estimating money (with the ability to command it) as the means of +meeting one's capacities of enjoyment--to be no longer worshipped as +itself the idol or the end. + +When a pestilential disease breaks out in the city, the plainness and +urgency of the case compel all to see in the sickness of one the danger +of all. Wants and discomforts, which charity had been too cold to +attend to, now considered as sources of contagion, are administered to +with a ready alacrity. The law is recognized, according to which, "if +one member suffers, all the members suffer with it." And this law will +be more fully recognized, as self-love is educated--as men better +understand their own welfare, and choose with reference to the whole of +their nature, and the duration of their existence. + +Self-love is a motive of the indifferent kind--not of itself +essentially good or bad. This appears from its being an essential part +of our nature. Indeed, we can hardly conceive it as within the +province of Omnipotence, to create a rational sentient being, who +should be indifferent to his own happiness. + +The advantages accruing from an educated self-love are: + +First, additional security, that the good work of charity be done; and +to all but the individual doer, it may matter little what be the +prompting motives. + +Secondly, the expansion of yet nobler principles. Each act favors the +growth of the sentiments, of which it is the expression. So he who +does as benevolence bids, though from a motive secondary on the score +of purity, will be likely again to do the same from yet purer motives. +So at least if the essential principle be there, though appearing no +more vividly than as a cold sense of duty. + +But, thirdly, self-love is made the rule and standard of charity: "Thou +shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." One must then first love himself, +in order to loving his neighbor. Keeping this rule, there is no danger +of loving thyself too well; rather, the more truly thou lovest thyself, +the more truly thou lovest thy neighbor. + +Suppose one to cherish the vulgar notion of life--that it consists in +the abundance of the things which one possesses, in the ability to live +without exertion, amid plenty of good cheer. Suppose him to love his +neighbor as himself. His charity must partake of the contraction and +grossness of his self-love. Suppose another to prize duly intellectual +riches. To him the discovery of a new principle in the physical, +intellectual, or moral world, brings a joy unsurpassed by the +merchant's, on the return of his heavily laden ship from a successful +voyage. As the best legacy to his children, he would leave them a good +education; and, knowing the natural influences and dependencies +existing between young minds, he aims to have all the children in +the neighborhood well educated, as the best security against failure in +the attempt to educate his own. If all is but a refined calculation, +how best to benefit himself and household; it is far more estimable and +amiable than the gross selfishness which grovels after vulgar goods, +and in the success of a brother sees an obstacle to its own success. +But if he too loves his neighbor as himself, why how far his self-love +is educated to find its satisfaction in nobler ends, by so much his +charity is better than the other's. + +There is hope for the future in the consideration, that self-interest, +the first, as well as love of approbation, the second, of the great +powers which move the world, indeed all the indifferent motives, are +getting still more into coincidence of action with justice and +benevolence. + +When Jesus enforced a duty by the consideration, "Then shalt thou have +worship [respect, approval,] in the presence of them that sit at meat +with thee," he implied two things; first, that regard to the world's +respectful esteem is not a censurable motive; and, secondly, that the +same operates to good, rather than to evil. So it must have been even +in that corrupt generation, so disposed to call evil good and good +evil. It must be much more so now, when public sentiment has so much +improved. Notwithstanding the danger of loving the praise of man more +than the praise of God, and the mischiefs resulting from such +preference, we should lose, on the whole, by eradicating the love of +human praise. Witness the accounts of the atrocious outbreaks of +depravity at the gold diggings, while society was yet unformed. +Witness, wherever cease the common restraints of civilization. + +Thus agents--so often the authors of discord and confusion, so often +the fire-brands to set the world in fumes--philanthropy is more and +more firing as her sure allies. + + "Even so, the torch of hellish flames + Becomes a leading light to heaven: + And so corruption's self becomes + To bread of life the living leaven." + +All analogies point to a still increasing vigor in the growth of the +kingdom of heaven. If the mustard tree is never seen growing, but only +to have grown; yet the greater the tree, the greater its power of daily +making large growth, without its growing being perceived. + +All considerations indicate the power of each to do something to +forward the consummation. No member of society is so insignificant, +that his spiritual life does not affect the health of the whole. The +obscurest, who cherishes a preference of ideal wealth over material +riches and sensual delights, does something towards forming a sane +public sentiment, just as surely as the tenant of the humblest city +dwelling, who keeps clean his own premises, does something towards +promoting the general health. + +It is well to review the progress made in estimating life--to impress +our minds with its existence as a reality; because mind and enterprize +just now tend so strongly to the material and mechanical, that we might +be tempted to doubt, whether any other improvement were to be thought +of. If so, we might well enough stop where we are. But we shall +contemplate with most satisfaction our multiplied facilities for +manufacturing, transportation, fertilizing the earth, and conveying +intelligence, if we see in the whole a store, from which we may draw +with good effect for promoting general welfare, whenever the true end +of these means shall be earnestly studied. Otherwise the discovery, +how to make two kernels of corn grow where one grew before, would all +redound to the tyranny of fashion, and only foreshadow an increase of +artificial wants, quite up to the increased supply; so that want would +still be as close treading on our heels as ever. + +But if we yet scarce attain to longer life, better health, or more +content, than fell to the lot of our fathers, with their simpler arts +and manner, because we are forgetting to discriminate between true and +false wants--between real and imaginary happiness: the true voice of +history still is, not that the material means must always thus fall +short of their legitimate end; but that, though the material and the +mechanical travel first and fastest, the moral and the spiritual are +following after. These in due time will reveal the meaning and the +value of our stored acquisitions. + +Dr. Franklin calculated, that the labor of all for three or four hours +a day, would furnish all the necessaries and all the conveniences of +life; supposing men freed from the exactions of an arbitrary fashion. +If he was near correctness, his time must be abundant in our day, when +the productiveness of machinery, and skill in the arts, are so much +improved. Then it is within existing possibilities, that every mind be +thoroughly cultivated; and every body taxed for labor, only to the +extent required by the conditions of its own best vigor and that of the +inhabiting mind. So far afield from truth is the common supposition, +that the many can receive but the elements of learning; while the few +must sacrifice bodily vigor to excessive intellectual cultivation. +Connect with this thought that before advanced of the irresistible +tendencies of our intellectual life to one average; and what a +boundless vista, in the direction of human progress, opens before us. + +As citizens of the republic, we have comparatively little cause to +exult in the conceit of being freer or happier than other communities; +much more in the chance, having broken the fetters of superstition and +tyranny, next to rend those of false habit and fashion--to enthrone +reason over the authority of one another's eyes and prejudices: to say +in truth,-- + + "Here the free spirit of mankind at length + Throws its last fetters off; and who shall place + A limit to the giant's untamed strength, + Or curb his swiftness in the forward race? + Far, like the comet's way through infinite space, + Stretches the long untravelled path of light + Into the depth of ages; we may trace, + Distant the brightening glory of his flight, + Till the receding beams are lost to human sight." + + *Bryant. + + + + +Part IV. + +Welfare as Dependent on Religion. + + +But in all our attempts to educate self-love into harmony with +Universal benevolence, we contend with the enemy, somewhat as Hercules +wrestled with Antaeus:-- + + Und erstickst du ihn nicht in den Luften frei, + Stets wachst ihm die Kraft anf der Erde neu.* + [If thou strangle him not high lifted in air, + Fresh strength from the earth he continues to share.] + +Thus we come to speak of present welfare, as dependent on the +cultivation of the whole man--on a recognition of his immortality, his +allegiance to his Maker, and his capacity for more disinterested +sentiments, than self-love, however modified. + +The influences thus accruing are a confirmation, from higher authority, +of the conclusions approved by philosophy, ethics, the prudence which +calculates how man should live with man, considered as but creatures of +earth--a _re-binding_--a _re-ligation_ to what was _obligation_ before; +and such precisely is the proper sense of the word _religion_. + +That the promise of the life that now is attaches to godliness-the +vivid recognition of a Father in heaven, with the union of reverence +and love cherished by a dutiful child--and that naught else secures the +possession, might be argued,-- + +1. First, as anticipated from the nature of the case. If man is +formed to own allegiance to his Maker, and to spend this life as +preparatory and introductory to a coming existence, then, till these +conditions are fulfilled, he must be expected, not to fill worthily his +place, as possessor of the present life; but must, in important points, +compare disadvantageously with the beasts that perish. If, like the +inferior races, ours attained to a life which should be the full +flourish of its demonstrable capacities, while immortality entered not +into account, then would fail one argument to prove us destined to an +hereafter. If the philosopher, from the examination of the chick +eaglet in the shell, knowing naught else of the animal, could make out +for it, within its narrow walls, a life answering to the indications of +its organization; he might fitly question, whether it were destined to +burst its prison, and soar aloft. And such embryo eaglet is man, +considered only as to what this life realizes. + +2. Historically, we are in little danger of being confounded on this +argument. The evidence from fact is very plain and positive, that men +have never become wise for the life that now is, but as they have first +become wise for the life that is to come; that self-love never becomes +a just prudence, till informed by the faith, hope, and charity of +Jesus; in a word, that in Him is life, and only through the light +derived from him is life realized to men. + +Seeking the lowest form of worldly wisdom--political science applied as +the agent for promoting general welfare--we may look in vain for a +beginning thus to apply such science, in any nation unblest by +revelation. + +They on whom the light has shone, have generally so imperfectly +comprehended it, that they have only attained to that vulgar love of +liberty, which Guizot defines to be removed but a step from the love of +power. Rather, we might say, that step is not--the two are but the +same thing. Viewed on one side, it is the hatred of being domineered +over; on the other, it is the love of domineering. + +Only where the Christian account of human character has been taken for +a sober reality, has been taken for a sober reality, has been +practically understood the rule of dividing power equally, because so +universal is the tendency to grasp it inordinately. Only (we may add) +where, better still, some good deference has been paid to the charge, +"Call no man master on earth, for one is your Master in heaven." If +this is the instruction, after which one becomes a republican, and +shapes his love liberty; the conclusion is equally obvious and +inevitable-call no man slave or vassal on earth, for One in heaven +is the common Master of all. + +Mistaking here, France has gone through a series of signal failures. +Her Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, still prove empty names; while want +and oppression stare millions in the face, despite the promises of more +than half a century's experimenting with revolutions. A vision of +political blessedness mocks her sight, which, like fabled enchanted +island, ever and anon seeming just within the grasp, still escapes, and +flies the faster, the faster it is pursued. O my country! mercy spare +thee from thus mistaking Heaven's high decree! + +But if we should allow to some of the more enlightened Gentiles of +antiquity, some degree of political wisdom; we might still look in vain +for their progress in that estimation of temporal wealth, which reveals +our community of interests, thus divesting self-love of its +hatefulness, by training it to its best satisfaction. Historically, we +every where find self-love too blind, freakish, springing upon +immediate results, too envenomed with maliciousness to calculate +prudently. + +3. Religion affords altogether the readiest, shortest, directest way +to the conclusion, that interest and duty most coincide. It brings the +man of humblest intellectual attainments at once to the conclusion, +which the prudent calculator may reach, after long research and +extensive induction of particulars; namely, that he cannot add +ultimately to his own stock of enjoyment, by detracting from another's +share. What might seem prudence at the expense of justice and +benevolence, may assume a contrary aspect, at the first flush of +conviction, that another life shall rectify the inequalities of this. + +Philosophy, having done its best at showing the interest of each in the +welfare of all, and how much would redound to the happiness of all if +all heartily concurred in thus regarding life, still labors at the +question, as the world goes, how the individual will fare, who takes a +course so different from the general current, as to devote his best +zeal to bettering the condition of that world, which will be likely so +little to appreciate his devotion. So that, as matter of fact, one is +little likely to see first (in earnestness) the reign of righteousness, +as the best security for the necessaries and conveniences of life, +unless in the faith which apprehends, that "all these things shall be +added" to those thus devoted to promoting the holy cause of humanity. + +4. Again; to the great majority of mankind, religion is the best spur +to the understanding, towards the conclusions of a just prudence. "The +entrance of the word giveth understanding to the simple," says the +Psalmist. How often have we found its so! How often the first impulse +to intellectual activity is given by the man's religious interest! How +often they, in whom a taste for reading could never be formed +otherwise, begin to read for satisfying their spiritual wants, and so +develop mental powers which else had ever lain dormant. + +If we mark those extremes of social humanity, the masses of Hindostan +and the people of New England--the monotonous stagnation there, and the +progressive enterprize here--we see a difference mainly attributable to +a religion whose very spirit is, forgetting the things behind, and +pressing onward to the things before. And, though this spirit may not +always go forth in accordance with the teaching of that religion, it is +none the less true, that such was its source; mind being awake, +enterprising, on the track of improvement, only where a lively faith in +Christianity has kindled the flame. Every where else, policy at best +presses so hard on the subject individuals, as tolerably to restrain +the passions from breaking out of one against another. Only "where the +spirit of the Lord is," ventured the experiment, of making the pressure +on each so light, as to become the best security for his keeping in +place. + +5. Philosophy fails (once more), because it has no adequate malady for +the moral malady under which our race labors. When we speak of men +weighing fairly the present and the future, comparing impartially the +substantial with the showy, the gross with the refined, and choosing +after the decision of a fully informed prudence, we suppose what does +not exist; "The good that I would, I do not; but the evil that I would +not, that I do." + + "The better seeing and approving, + Towards the worse I still am moving:" + +Such is the united testimony of Christian and heathen to that "law of +sin and death," through whose tyranny the united decisions of reason, +prudence and conscience are powerless, till what the law could not do, +"in that it was weak through the flesh," the grace of the Gospel +accomplishes; restoring reason and conscience to the throne, giving +effect to the conviction, how fully coincident are interest and duty-- +"that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled by us, who walk +not after the flesh, but after the spirit." + +Paul's account of this matter may have accommodated to it, what John +says of the command to mutual Christian love; that it is an old +history, and yet not an old but a new one. _Old_, in the sense, that, +from what time by one man sin came into the world and death by sin, +every one in earnest to fulfil the true end of his being, has found the +dame impotence attached to good resolves; the same supremacy gained by +the baser impulses, in the hour of trial; the same temptation to find +an excuse in what seems so like a law unavoidable, as if it were no +more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me, as if it were not the +responsible _I_ that did wrong: this _I_ being controlled by sin, which +is fancied as a foreign agent taking up a residence within, and +controlling the man in spite of him. And, escaped from this and the +like deceits, all have been brought to the stand, "O wretched man that +I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death!"--that species +of self-despair, finishing the preparation for that renewing influence, +which "is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God +that showeth mercy." Thus the enemy is raised _in die Luften frei_, no +more to receive fresh strength from mother Earth, to renew the contest +successfully. + +But this account, so old in one sense, is not so in another--in the +sense of being obsolete, or out of date. It still retains the +freshness of novelty, to answer to the last example of a man's ordering +life, as, he knows, meets the approval of his Judge, and his own truest +welfare. + +6. But "the end of the commandment," or the result of the process by +which the soul is put into condition to contend successfully with the +powers of evil, "is charity." So religion preeminently rebinds men to +the rule of not seeking their own advantage at the cost of others; +because it implants a principle, which might dispense with the +certainty of always calculating prudently in doing right. Charity +seeketh not her own--not one's own welfare calculated on the largest +scale, exclusively, or at the cost of the greatest good of the whole. +Thus it is essentially distinct from a prudence, however refined, and +calculating its ends through eternity. It is called "the bond of +perfectness," or a most perfect bond; because, if men were all devoted +thus disinterestedly, each to the good of the whole, society would be +perfectly held together, without other bond. All forms of civil +compact and voluntary association might be dispensed with. Even +prudence might fail to calculate, how the present sacrifice to general +good is to be compensated; and charity would rebind the man to love his +neighbor as himself, and do as he would receive again. + +It is further called "the perfect law of liberty;" as by a simple rule +it perfectly secures to individuals those immunities, which +constitutional provisions at best secure but imperfectly by complicated +apparatus, and where philosophy halts at the perversities of human +selfishness. + +7. Faith alone is the sure foundation, whereto to add virtue +[courage], and that for the further addition of knowledge. This +courage is _du Coeur_--of the heart, and alone gives that simple love +of truth, which, for _its_ sake, dares equally to be new and singular, +or to be vulgar and common-place. Without that foundation, assuming to +be courageous enough to leave the beaten track, and reject received +opinions, one does but attain to the bravery, which, in its efforts to +dare danger or opposition, is sure to overact its part. Who holds an +even balance in weighing evidence, equally guarded against rejecting +the old, because it is old, or the new, because it is new? I know not, +unless such as have apprehended the _urwahr_--the essential truth, +which throws all temporal considerations into the shade. + +There are two difficulties in the way of attempting changes in the +existing state of things, with good prospect of improvement. The first +arises from the force of habit, and a reluctance to try a new, it may +be, hazardous course. The other form the little discrimination +exercised, when men set about in earnest exchanging the old for the +new--discrimination to avoid treating the old as necessarily +antiquated, and the presumption of "laying again the foundation" of +all things. And these difficulties will hardly be met successfully, +except by men, in whom the fear of God has cast out other fear. + +The intelligent part of the people of southern Europe have been, for +many years, more thoroughly divested of reverence for the papacy, than +was Luther in the days of his greatest vehemence. But they have +quietly taken things as they are. They have wanted Luther's substitute +for superstition--a fervently religious spirit. They have had only +worldly and political motives, for wishing to see the old imposition +done away; and these have been powerless against natural apathy, and +the fixedness of old establishment. Infidelity and indifferentism +prove poor antagonists to superstition. + +But when this apathy is one overcome, then the difficulty is, to temper +with discretion the zeal for innovation. Throughout, such only as +heartily prize the true, because it is true, will be likely to shun +alike, rejecting the old for its antiquity, and the new for its +novelty. + +The first lesson is, to learn how much of human wisdom is but folly: +the second, that it is not yet all folly, but a good deal of it genuine +wisdom. And he will be most likely to unite these in the habit of +thinking soberly, who first moderates his estimate of human power and +wisdom, by marking how far their utmost flights had failed to +anticipate, what has proved the power of God and the wisdom of God to +the world's renovation. Such is the best preparation for still +learning, how much that wears the appearance of wisdom and science +unsubstantial. This best teaches so to reason soberly and +conscientiously, as not to run into licentiousness the liberty of +thinking. Religious zeal indeed has hitherto been little enough +tempered with discretion; but no other zeal has glowed so intensely, +without still more disastrous consequences, in setting the world on +fire. + +It is yet a consideration in point, that, as in all undertakings hope +of success best stimulates and sustains exertion; so the hope, that the +world's disorders will yet be cured, is best furnished by the faith, +which recognizes a Sovereign ordering and disposing all, bringing light +out of darkness; making the wrath of man to praise him, and the +remainder thereof pledged to restrain. Judging from history and +appearances, the philanthropist may often doubt, whether the race be +not destined still to go a ceaseless round; ever exchanging one +delusion for another, but no real progress. + +As it was in character for the prophetess of Apollo, it complain: + "My youth was by my tears corroded, + My sole familiar was my pain; + Each coming ill my heart foreboded, + And felt at first--in vain." +So the philosophic prophet may lament, that he anticipates so much more +clearly, what _ought_ to be, than what _will_ be; that he finds the +increase of knowledge, beyond the general sense of the age, to be but +the increase of sorrow. But the religious insight into futurity saves +from such anguish, by the hope which gilds and realizes the future: +hope for the race, armed with a higher assurance than philosophy can +work out, that and right and peace shall reign triumphant; and personal +hope, inasmuch as, however dark the prospect for earth's races may be, +the individual has a future, whose joy is his strength. + +9. And this habitual reference of the government of earth to its +Supreme Ruler, is not more necessary to the hope, that sustains +endurance, than to the patience which bides the time, in opposition to +the indecent, passionate haste, which defeats its own end. "He that +believeth shall not make haste." There is much fruitless haste to +bring the world to rights, for want of a lively belief in a sovereign +controlling Power; whose wisdom, whose goodness, whose resources, whose +interest, to bring the world to order and happiness, infinitely +transcend ours. Thus is missed the conclusion, if He can endure to see +the stream of evil flow on age after age; then discretion would set +some bounds to our zeal, to see all evil rectified. And the clearer +this conclusion is the result of faith, the surer the bounds will be +just such, as to save from losing all by a headlong precipitancy. + +In short, that habit of mind equally ready to accept the right and the +true, whether it come with a suspicious air of novelty and singularity, +or whether as old and vulgar it be scouted for being behind the age-- +that habit which neither yields to discouragements, nor favors the +fool-hardy haste, which calculates neither time nor its own strength; +which discriminates, when to "contend earnestly," and when to "let them +alone," the dogged adherents to falsehood and wrong, to the teachings +of time and circumstances, their conscience and their God, till every +plant which he hath not planted be rooted up by these mightier +energies--the habit, realizing all the good of the radical, in proving +all things, and all the glory of the conservative, in holding fast what +is good;--this habit, so favorable to human progress, but involving so +rare a combination of seemingly opposite qualities, as scarcely to be +accounted for on all apparent influences, has been well described, as a +"life hid with Christ in God." And truly has it been remarked, in view +of the general result of ordinary tendencies and influences in forming +one-sided characters, that _becoming as a little child_, expresses no +less fittingly the conditions of entering the kingdom of nature, and +thinking with the wise, than of entering the kingdom of heaven, and +worshipping with the holy. + +Of the spiritual more grievously than of the intellectual life is it +true, that, "whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with +it." Here emphatically does the individual labor hardly, to digest +into his life the conclusions of reason and conscience, in advance of +the average understanding of the age. Professor Lyell, speaking of the +Millerite phrenzy, and how some men of pretty sound mind were carried +away with it, remarks to this effect: "Religious delusion is like a +famine fever, which attacks first the hungry and emaciated, but in its +progress cuts down many of the well-fed and robust." + +So it is. So strong are our tendencies to one tone, that the +Christian, in setting to his worldly desires the bounds which his +religion exacts, feels to be exercising a self-denial--yielding the +temporal to the eternal. He scarce seems to himself to be acting the +part of true worldly wisdom. In reading the life of Dr. Payson, it is +obviously manifest, that his deeply spiritual views were not inwrought +harmoniously into his life's web, as would have been, if he had carried +along with him a whole community. + +The materialism of this age must pass away, as has passed the quixotism +of the crusades. Each has but expressed a stage in the progress of +thought; and neither measures the mature life of the soul. It is not +so certain to sight, what will be next grasped by this reaching onward +to the things before; whether a better reconcilement of the life that +now is with that which is to come, or whether a vaporing, misty +sentimentalism is to be the spirit of the next age. There are not +wanting indications, that the materialism of this age is to be followed +by a dreamy spiritualism, raising men above the observance of vulgar +duties, but not above the practice of the grossest vices. It is not +uncharitable to mark such tendencies, where we see canonized Rousseau, +the very embodiment of sensuality, egotism, and misanthropy; and +progress _so_ taught to be the law of _individual_ man, that, whether +going to commit his crimes at the brothel, or to expiate them on the +gallows, his tendencies are still and forever upward. + +We need better evidence than sight can afford, to say,-- + + "O no! a thousand cheerful omens give + Hope of yet happier days, whose dawn is nigh: + He who has tamed the elements, shall not live + The slave of his own passions; he whose eye + Unwinds the eternal dances of the sky, + And in the abyss of brightness dares to span + The sun's broad circle, rising yet more high, + In God's magnificent works his will shall scan; + And love and peace shall make their paradise with man." + *Bryant + + + + +Conclusion. + + +The matter of the preceding thoughts may be thus summed up. + +A progressive movement has been going on towards the rule, that, +self-love directed towards the material, the sensible, the showy, the +distinguishing, is so the ruling motive of human conduct, as to +constitute it the first requisite in adjusting the social relations, +that private interests, and class interests may not flourish best, +short of the best attainable flourish of the whole. When this point +shall be so thoroughly understood, that it shall be taken for no +reproach of any class of men to regard them practically as subject to +the common influences which control human conduct; we may expect an +effective move, for giving to the lawyer and to the physician a +relation to society, analogous to that sustained by the pastor among +Protestants; instead of leaving their professions to find their best +flourish, at about the vigor of intellectual and moral life, which just +now we live. + +But this idea loses its importance as another comes into appreciation, +--namely, that the conflicts of self-love with self-love, suppose +mistaken estimates of happiness to be uppermost; and, just in +proportion as men rightly estimate life, and truly love themselves, +they appreciate those strong, numberless, delicate, indissoluble ties, +which bind the members of the social body to suffer, or to rejoice +together. + +And this idea again lessens in importance, as yet a third gains the +ascendancy--the living conviction, that time is but the portal to +eternity; the soul meanwhile tasting "the powers of the world to come;" +and knowing the persuasiveness of that strongest call to mutual +endearment, "If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." + +And now the consideration of these three points is commended especially +to the attention of those, who, in the execution of their office and +ministry, have weekly access to the mind of the people. We mourn the +waning influence of the American pulpit. Where the power thence +emanating in the stirring days of trial to men's souls,--when its +ministers stood on that commanding point, where they caught the first +beams of rising day, and reflected the light in the face of the people? +At our Revolutionary period, ministers, in their earnestness to preach +to the times, might have come short in preaching eternity. So far +there was a mistake to be rectified; but they did well to preach to the +times. It is among the reasons, why religious so tempered political +zeal; and, accordingly, why, as our Revolution _was_ without a model, +so it _remains_ without a rival. It is well that the struggle came, +before the toad-eaters to capital's feed agents in legislative halls +occupied the high seats of moral influence. + +The true successors to the fathers are not the preachers of party +politics, but they who aim to supply the lack of all parties, in that +they fail to make liberty a means, valuable only as affording +facilities to improvement. + +We are exceedingly contracted in our notions of the Christian +preacher's just province. If we confine it to administering directly +to the soul's spiritual wants and everlasting interests, we stray wide +from the example, which God himself sets, when he writes a revelation +for man. The Bible is full of histories, maxims, laws, just as might +be expected in a book, which ignored any other life, than that which +now is. One half of it (within bounds) might remain as it is, on the +supposition, that men have neither hopes nor duties, but such as +pertain to them as joint tenants of this earthly life. + +If we would keep people superior to the impulses of appetite, and the +solicitations of sensual pleasure, we must attempt _servitute corporis +uti_ by _imperio animi_* [In Sallust's well known sentence _servitute_ +may be the object of _utimur_, _imperio_ the ablative of the means; or, +reversing the construction, the sense may be, by keeping the body in +subjection, we better maintain the mind's supremacy. Neither, I +believe, is the common understanding of the passage.]--by training the +mind to know its capacities and powers. If this be neglected, purely +spiritual influences, supposing them forthcoming, will hardly save the +body from unduly controlling the man. Vulgar ambition is to be +forestalled in the same way. _Imperium populi_ may be expected to be +attractive, in proportion as _imperium animi_ is unstudied, unknown; +and of course the full sense missed, in which knowledge is power. He +who knows the greatness of the world within, hears nothing strange in +the declaration-that "greater is he who ruleth his own spirit, than he +who taketh a city." That the recipients of a (so called) liberal +education so often become the votaries of vulgar ambition, and vulgar +pleasure too, is to be accounted for on the three-fold consideration: +first, that what passes for a liberal education is often a very +illiberal thing, doing very little to unfold the spirit to itself, +and so impress the greatness of mastering its capabilities; secondly, +that merely intellectual without moral influences, do not suffice; and +thirdly, the law is supreme, which binds all to suffer, in their +intellectual and spiritual life, from the mental and moral degradation +of a part. + +Jesus thought it not beneath the dignity of his office, nor the +sacredness of the Sabbath, nor the proprieties of the synagogue, to +discourse to people on politeness and good breeding; nor to enforce +attention to decorum, by the comparatively low consideration, "Then +shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with +thee." Unworthy alike, both the lesson and the motive, would cry a +false spirituality, if the example of such preaching were set by any +lower authority. A false spirituality it is, for it originates in +missing the close connection between the temporal and the spiritual, +the outward and the inward, the life that now is, and that which is to +come. + +In faithfully delivering the whole counsel of God, we may encounter +something like the wrath of the ruler of the synagogue, whose +spirituality was offended at the restoration of a withered hand on the +Sabbath. We may find, that we have cast pearls before swine. We may +be referred to Paul's determination to know nothing among the +Corinthians, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And, if we +minister to a people who, like the Corinthians, need to be fed with +milk and not meat; like them carnal, factious, party-spirited, and if +we would delicately hint to them their character--let us do it +indirectly, following Paul's example, when he put restraint on the +fullness of matter within, and discoursed only on the elements of +Christian doctrine. But shall the strong man be confined to a +milk diet, because the careful nurse ventures to supply nothing else to +the tender infant? If when for the time our people ought to be +teachers, they need to be taught again the first principles of the +oracle of God, we may reserve pearls for a worthier reception. But, if +they are well-grounded in the elements, let us lead them on to +perfection. + + Society's pillars, the temple's three P.s, + Philosophy, Policy, Piety--these + I commend to your notice. My labor is done: + May we meet in that city where temple is none, + Nor sun supervenes on the shadows of night; + Jehovah--the Lamb--are its temple and light. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Growth of Thought, by William Withington + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROWTH OF THOUGHT *** + +***** This file should be named 18202.txt or 18202.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/2/0/18202/ + +Produced by Jared Fuller + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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