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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44493 ***
+
+                                HISTORY
+                                   OF
+                        CIVILIZATION IN ENGLAND.
+
+
+                                   BY
+                          HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE.
+
+
+                           IN THREE VOLUMES.
+                                VOL. I.
+
+
+                             _NEW EDITION._
+
+
+                                TORONTO:
+                    ROSE-BELFORD PUBLISHING COMPANY,
+                            60 YORK STREET.
+                                 1878.
+
+
+
+
+                     ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+  STATEMENT OF THE RESOURCES FOR INVESTIGATING HISTORY, AND PROOFS OF THE
+  REGULARITY OF HUMAN ACTIONS. THESE ACTIONS ARE GOVERNED BY MENTAL AND
+  PHYSICAL LAWS: THEREFORE BOTH SETS OF LAWS MUST BE STUDIED, AND THERE
+  CAN BE NO HISTORY WITHOUT THE NATURAL SCIENCES.
+
+                                                                     PAGE
+
+  Materials for writing history                                       1-3
+
+  Narrow range of knowledge possessed by historians                   4-5
+
+  Object of the present work                                            6
+
+  Human actions, if not the result of fixed laws, must be due
+  to chance or to supernatural interference                             8
+
+  Probable origin of free-will and predestination                    9-12
+
+  Theological basis of predestination, and metaphysical basis
+  of free-will                                                      12-16
+
+  The actions of men are caused by their antecedents, which
+  exist either in the human mind or in the external world           18-20
+
+  Therefore history is the modification of man by nature, and
+  of nature by man                                                  20-21
+
+  Statistics prove the regularity of actions in regard to
+  murder and other crimes                                           22-26
+
+  Similar proof respecting suicides                                 27-29
+
+  Also respecting the number of marriages annually contracted       31-32
+
+  And respecting the number of letters sent undirected                 32
+
+  The historian must ascertain whether mind or nature has most
+  influenced human actions; and therefore there can be no
+  history without physical science                                  33-35
+
+  NOTE A. Passages from Kant on free-will and necessity             35-38
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+  INFLUENCE EXERCISED BY PHYSICAL LAWS OVER THE ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY
+  AND OVER THE CHARACTER OF INDIVIDUALS.
+
+  Man is affected by four classes of physical agents; namely,
+  climate, food, soil, and the general aspect of nature             39-41
+
+  Operation of these agents on the accumulation of wealth           41-51
+
+  Their operation on the distribution of wealth                     51-64
+
+  Illustrations of these principles from Ireland                    65-67
+
+  From Hindustan                                                    69-82
+
+  From Egypt                                                        82-93
+
+  From Central America                                              93-94
+
+  And from Mexico and Peru                                             95
+
+  Operation of physical laws in Brazil                            101-108
+
+  Influence of the general aspects of nature upon the imagination
+  and the understanding                                           118-119
+
+  Under some aspects, nature is more prominent than man;
+  under others, man more than nature                                  120
+
+  In the former case the imagination is more stimulated than
+  the understanding, and to this class all the earliest
+  civilizations belong                                            120-121
+
+  The imagination is excited by earthquakes and volcanoes         122-124
+
+  And by danger generally                                         125-126
+
+  Also by an unhealthy climate making life precarious             126-130
+
+  From these causes the civilizations exterior to Europe are
+  mainly influenced by the imagination, those in Europe by the
+  understanding                                                   130-132
+
+  This proposition illustrated by a comparison between Hindustan
+  and Greece                                                      132-147
+
+  Further illustration from Central America                       147-148
+
+  Chemical and physiological note on the connection between food
+  and animal heat                                                 148-151
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+  EXAMINATION OF THE METHOD EMPLOYED BY METAPHYSICIANS FOR DISCOVERING
+  MENTAL LAWS.
+
+  In the last chapter, two leading facts have been established,
+  which broadly separate Europe from other parts of the world     152-156
+
+  Hence it appears that of the two classes of mental and physical
+  laws the mental are the more important for the history of
+  Europe                                                          156-157
+
+  Examination of the two metaphysical methods of generalizing
+  mental laws                                                     158-165
+
+  Failure of these methods                                        165-167
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+  MENTAL LAWS ARE EITHER MORAL OR INTELLECTUAL. COMPARISON OF MORAL AND
+  INTELLECTUAL LAWS, AND INQUIRY INTO THE EFFECT PRODUCED BY EACH ON THE
+  PROGRESS OF SOCIETY.
+
+  The historical method of studying mental laws is superior to
+  the metaphysical method                                         168-174
+
+  The progress of society is twofold, moral and intellectual      174-175
+
+  Comparison of the moral with the intellectual element               175
+
+  There is no evidence that the natural faculties of man improve  176-177
+
+  Progress, therefore, depends on an improvement in the
+  circumstances under which the faculties come into play              178
+
+  The standard of action having varied in every age, the causes
+  of action must be variable                                          179
+
+  But moral truths have not changed                                   179
+
+  And intellectual truths are constantly changing                     181
+
+  Intellectual truths are the cause of progress                       182
+
+  Ignorant men are mischievous in proportion to their sincerity   183-185
+
+  Illustrations of this from Rome and Spain                       185-188
+
+  The diminution of religious persecution is owing to the
+  progress of knowledge                                           188-190
+
+  The diminution of the warlike spirit is owing to the same cause 190-192
+
+  Illustrations from Russia and Turkey                            195-197
+
+  As civilization advances, men of intellect avoid becoming
+  soldiers                                                            198
+
+  Illustrations of this from ancient Greece and modern Europe     198-202
+
+  The three principal ways in which the progress of knowledge
+  has lessened the warlike spirit are:
+  1. The invention of gunpowder                                   203-209
+  2. The discoveries made by political economists                 210-211
+  3. The application of steam to purposes of travelling           219-223
+
+  Inference to be drawn as to the causes of social progress       224-226
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+  INQUIRY INTO THE INFLUENCE EXERCISED BY RELIGION, LITERATURE, AND
+  GOVERNMENT.
+
+  Recapitulation of preceding arguments                               227
+
+  Moral feelings influence individuals, but do not affect society
+  in the aggregate                                                228-229
+
+  This being as yet little understood, historians have not
+  collected proper materials for writing history                      230
+
+  Reasons why the present history is restricted to England        231-235
+
+  Comparison of the history of England with that of France        235-236
+
+  With that of Germany                                            237-240
+
+  With that of the United States of America                       240-242
+
+  Necessity of ascertaining the fundamental laws of intellectual
+  progress                                                          243
+
+  Much may be gained in that respect from studying the histories
+  of Germany, America, France, Spain, and Scotland                244-246
+
+  Deductive spirit in Scotland                                    246-252
+
+  Influence of religion on the progress of society                253-266
+
+  Illustration from the efforts of missionaries                   254-256
+
+  Illustration from the Hebrews                                   257-258
+
+  Illustration from the early history of Christianity             259-262
+
+  And from Sweden and Scotland                                    263-266
+
+  Influence of literature on the progress of society              268-272
+
+  Influence of government on the progress of society              272-287
+
+  Illustrated by repeal of the corn-laws                          273-274
+
+  The best legislation abrogates former legislation                   275
+
+  The interference of politicians with trade has injured trade    276-278
+
+  Legislators have caused smuggling with all its attendant crimes 278-280
+
+  They have also increased hypocrisy and perjury                  281-283
+
+  By their laws against usury they have increased usury           283-284
+
+  By other laws they have hindered the advance of knowledge       284-285
+
+  England has been less interfered with in these ways than
+  other nations, and is therefore more prosperous than they       286-287
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+  ORIGIN OF HISTORY, AND STATE OF HISTORICAL LITERATURE DURING THE MIDDLE
+  AGES.
+
+  Conclusions arrived at by the preceding investigations              288
+
+  An inquiry into the changes in historical researches will throw
+  light on the changes in society                                 289-290
+
+  The earliest histories are ballads                              291-295
+
+  One cause of error in history was the invention of writing      296-300
+
+  A change of religion in any country also tends to corrupt its
+  early history                                                   300-307
+
+  But the most active cause of all was the influence of the
+  clergy                                                          307-308
+
+  Absurdities which were consequently believed                    309-317
+
+  Illustration of this from the history of Charlemagne by Turpin  318-321
+
+  And from the history of the Britons by Geoffrey                 321-325
+
+  The first improvement in writing history began in the
+  fourteenth and fifteenth centuries                                  325
+
+  But credulity was still prevalent, as is seen in Comines        327-328
+
+  And in the predictions of St[oe]ffler respecting the Deluge         330
+
+  Also in the work of Dr. Horst on the Golden Tooth               331-332
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+  OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH INTELLECT FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE
+  SIXTEENTH TO THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  This absurd way of writing history was the natural result of the
+  state of the age                                                    333
+
+  The spirit of doubt was a necessary precursor of improvement        334
+
+  Hence the supreme importance of scepticism                      335-336
+
+  Origin of religious toleration in England                           337
+
+  Hooker contrasted with Jewel                                    339-343
+
+  Scepticism and spirit of inquiry on other subjects              343-346
+
+  This tendency displayed in Chillingworth                        347-350
+
+  Chillingworth compared with Hooker and Jewel                        350
+
+  Subsequent movement in the same direction, and increasing
+  indifference to theological matters                             352-355
+
+  Great advantage of this                                         356-358
+
+  Under James I. and Charles I. this opposition to authority
+  assumes a political character                                   359-361
+
+  Under Charles II. it takes a frivolous form at court                363
+
+  Influence of this spirit upon Sir Thomas Browne                 365-367
+
+  Its influence upon Boyle                                        367-370
+
+  It causes the establishment of the Royal Society                    371
+
+  Impetus now given to physical science, and attempts of the
+  clergy to oppose it                                                 372
+
+  The clergy are naturally hostile to physical science, because
+  it lessens their own power                                      372-373
+
+  Illustration of this by the superstition of sailors and
+  agriculturists as compared with soldiers and mechanics          375-380
+
+  Legislative improvements in the reign of Charles II. in spite
+  of political degradation                                        380-386
+
+  These improvements were due to the sceptical and inquiring
+  spirit                                                          387-388
+
+  Aided by the vices of the king                                      388
+
+  And by his dislike of the church                                    389
+
+  He encouraged Hobbes, and neglected the ablest of the clergy    390-393
+
+  The clergy, to recover their ground, allied themselves with
+  James II.                                                       394-396
+
+  This alliance was dissolved by the Declaration of Indulgence    397-399
+
+  The clergy then united with the dissenters and brought about
+  the Revolution of 1688                                          399-400
+
+  Importance of the Revolution                                    401-403
+
+  But the clergy regretted it, and repented of their own act          403
+
+  Hostility between them and William III.                         405-410
+
+  Hence a schism in the church                                    410-413
+
+  Fresh encouragement thus given to scepticism                    413-414
+
+  Convocation first despised, and then abolished                  414-415
+
+  After the Revolution the ablest men confine themselves to
+  secular professions, and avoided entering the church                415
+
+  The clergy lost all offices out of the church, and their
+  numbers diminished in both Houses of Parliament                 416-418
+
+  The church rallied for a moment under Anne                      418-420
+
+  But was weakened by the dissenters, headed by Wesley and
+  Whitefield                                                      420-424
+
+  Theology separated from morals and from politics                424-426
+
+  Rapid succession of sceptical controversies                     427-429
+
+  Knowledge begins to be diffused, and takes a popular form       430-433
+
+  Political meetings, and publication of parliamentary debates    433-434
+
+  Doctrine of personal representation, and idea of independence       436
+
+  Corresponding change in the style of authors                    436-439
+
+  Hence great reforms became inevitable                           439-440
+
+  This tendency was aided by George I. and George II.             441-443
+
+  But discouraged by George III., under whom began a dangerous
+  political reaction                                              444-446
+
+  Ignorance of George III.                                            446
+
+  Subserviency of Pitt                                            446-449
+
+  Incompetence of other statesmen, and the king's hatred of
+  great men                                                       449-451
+
+  Deterioration of the House of Lords                             451-455
+
+  Ability and accomplishments of Burke                            458-461
+
+  He opposed the views of George III., and was neglected by him   462-467
+
+  Burke's subsequent hallucinations and violence                  467-476
+
+  The king now favoured him                                       476-477
+
+  Policy of George III. respecting America                        478-482
+
+  This policy reacted upon England                                482-483
+
+  Policy in regard to France                                      483-486
+
+  This also reacted upon England                                      486
+
+  And produced arbitrary laws against the liberties of England    487-493
+
+  Which were zealously enforced by the executive                  494-496
+
+  Gloomy political prospects of England late in the eighteenth
+  century                                                         496-498
+
+  But, owing to the progress of knowledge, a counter reaction
+  was preparing                                                   498-502
+
+  To which, and to the increasing power of public opinion,
+  England owes her great reforms of the nineteenth century        502-505
+
+
+
+
+                        LIST OF AUTHORS QUOTED.
+
+
+[In order to assist those who wish to verify my references, and also
+with the view of indicating the nature and extent of the materials which
+I have used, I have drawn up the following list of the principal works
+quoted. When no edition is mentioned, the size is 8vo _et infra_. When
+the name of the author is enclosed between brackets, the book is
+anonymous; but in such cases I have usually subjoined some authority who
+gives evidence of the authorship.]
+
+[Aarsens de Sommerdyck] Voyage d'Espagne, fait en l'année 1655. Paris,
+1665. 4to. Barbier (_Dictionnaire des Ouvrages Anonymes_, vol. ii. p.
+468, Paris, 1806) refers to an edition of 1666.
+
+Abd-Allatif, Relation de l'Égypte, traduite par Silvestre de Sacy.
+Paris, 1810. 4to.
+
+Aberdeen: Extracts from the Council Register of the Burgh of Aberdeen,
+from 1398 to 1570, printed for the Spalding Club. Aberdeen, 1844. 4to.
+
+Ibid., from 1570 to 1625, printed for the Spalding Club. Aberdeen, 1848.
+4to.
+
+Abernethy (J.) The Hunterian Oration for the year 1819. London, 1819.
+
+Abernethy (M. I.) Physicke for the Soule. London, 1622. 4to.
+
+Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland from 1124 to 1707. London,
+1814-1844. 11 vols. folio.
+
+Acts and Proceedings of the General Assemblies of the Kirk of Scotland,
+from 1560 to 1618. Edinburgh, 1839-1845. 3 vols. 4to.
+
+Acts of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, from 1638 to
+1842. Edinburgh, 1843.
+
+Adams (J.) Memoirs of the Life and Doctrines of John Hunter. 2nd edit.
+London, 1818.
+
+Adolphus (J.) History of England from the accession of George III.
+London, 1840-1845. 7 vols.
+
+Aguesseau (Chancelier d') Lettres inédites. Paris, 1823. 2 vols.
+
+Aikin (L.) Life of Addison. London, 1843. 2 vols.
+
+Albemarle (Earl of) Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham. Lond. 1852. 2
+vols.
+
+Alberoni (Cardinal) The History of. London, 1719.
+
+Alison (Sir A.) History of Europe, from the commencement of the French
+Revolution to 1815. Edinburgh, 1849, 1850. 14 vols.
+
+Allen (J.) Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative in England. London,
+1849. Anderson (J.) Prize Essay on the State of Society and Knowledge
+in the Highlands of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1827.
+
+Antequera (D. J. M.) Historia de la Legislacion Española. Madrid, 1849.
+
+Argyll (The Duke of) Presbytery Examined. London, 1848.
+
+Arnold (Dr.) Lectures on Modern History. London, 1843.
+
+Arnot (H.) The History of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, 1788. 4to.
+
+Asiatic Researches. London and Calcutta, 1799-1836. 20 vols. 4to.
+
+Aubrey (J.) Letters and Lives of Eminent Men. London, 1813. 2 vols.
+
+Audigier (M.) L'Origine des François. Paris, 1676. 2 vols.
+
+Azara (F.) Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale. Paris, 1809. 4 vols.
+
+
+Bacallar (V.) Commentarios de la Guerra de España, e Historia de su Rey
+Phelipe V. Genova. 2 vols. 4to (no date).
+
+Bacon (J. F.) Six Years in Biscay. London, 1838.
+
+Baillie (R.) Letters and Journals from 1637 to 1662, edited by D. Laing.
+Edinburgh, 1841-1842. 3 vols.
+
+Bain (A.) The Senses and the Intellect. London, 1855.
+
+Bakewell (R.) Introduction to Geology. London, 1838.
+
+Balfour (Sir J.) Historical Works, containing the Annals of Scotland.
+London, 1825. 4 vols.
+
+Balfour (J. H.) A Manual of Botany. London, 1849.
+
+Bancroft (G.) History of the American Revolution. London, 1852-1854. 3
+vols.
+
+Bannatyne (J.) Journal of Transactions in Scotland, from 1570 to 1573.
+Edinburgh, 1806.
+
+Barante (M.) Tableau de la Littérature Française au XVIII^e Siècle.
+Paris, 1847.
+
+Barrington (D.) Observations on the Statutes. 5th edit. London, 1796.
+4to.
+
+Barruel (L'Abbé) Mémoires pour l'Histoire du Jacobinisme. Hambourg,
+1803. 5 vols.
+
+Barry (G.) History of the Orkney Islands. Edinburgh, 1805. 4to.
+
+Bassompierre (Maréchal de) Mémoires. Paris, 1822, 1823. 3 vols.
+
+Bates (G.) Account of the late Troubles in England. London, 1685. 2
+vols.
+
+Baxter (R.) Life and Times, by himself. Published by M. Sylvester.
+London, 1696. Folio. 3 parts.
+
+Bazin (M. A.) Histoire de France sous Louis XIII. Paris, 1838. 4 vols.
+
+Beausobre (M.) Histoire Critique de Manichée et du Manichéisme.
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+
+Béclard (P. A.) Éléments d'Anatomie Générale. Paris, 1852.
+
+Bedford Correspondence, edited by Lord J. Russell. 1842-1846. 3 vols.
+
+Beechey (F. W.) Voyage to the Pacific. London, 1831. 2 vols. Belsham
+(W.) History of Great Britain, from 1688 to 1802. London, 1805. 12 vols.
+[Of this work I have used only the last seven volumes, which refer to a
+period for which Belsham was a contemporary authority. The earlier
+volumes are worthless.]
+
+[Benoist] Histoire de l'Édit de Nantes. Delft, 1693-1695. 5 vols. 4to.
+
+Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne) Works. London, 1843. 2 vols.
+
+Berwick (Maréchal de) Mémoires écrits par lui-même. Paris, 1778. 2 vols.
+
+Bichat (X.) Traité des Membranes. Paris, 1802.
+
+Bichat (X.) Anatomie Générale. Paris, 1821. 4 vols.
+
+Bichat (X.) Recherches sur la Vie et la Mort, édit. Magendie. Paris,
+1829.
+
+Binning (H.) Sermons, edited by J. Cochrane. Edinburgh, 1839, 1840. 3
+vols.
+
+Biographie Universelle. Paris, 1811-1828. 52 vols.
+
+Birch (T.) Life of Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury. London, 1753.
+
+Bisset (R.) Life of Edmund Burke. 2nd edit. London, 1800. 2 vols.
+
+Black (J.) Lectures on Chemistry, edited by John Robison. Edinburgh,
+1803. 2 vols. 4to.
+
+Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. London, 1809. 4 vols.
+
+Blainville (D.) Physiologie Générale et Comparée. Paris, 1833. 3 vols.
+
+Blair (R.) Autobiography, from 1593 to 1636; with a continuation to
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+
+Blanqui (M.) Histoire de l'Économie Politique en Europe. Paris, 1845. 2
+vols.
+
+Bogue (D.) and Bennett (J.) History of the Dissenters, from 1688 to
+1808. London, 1808-1812. 4 vols.
+
+Bohlen (P.) Das alte Indien, mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Aegypten.
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+
+[Boisel] Journal du Voyage d'Espagne. Paris, 1669. 4to. See Barbier,
+_Dict. des Ouvr. Anonymes_, vol. ii. p. 621, Paris. 1806.
+
+Bordas-Demoulin, Le Cartésianisme. Paris, 1843. 2 vols.
+
+Bossuet (Évêque de Meaux) Discours sur l'Histoire Universelle. Paris,
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+Boston (T.) Human Nature in its Four-fold State. Reprinted, London,
+1809.
+
+Bouillaud (J.) Philosophie Médicale. Paris, 1836.
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+Bouillé (M. de) Mémoires sur la Révolution Française. Paris, 1801-9. 2
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+
+Bouillier (M.) Histoire des divers Corps de la Maison Militaire des Rois
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+La Haye, 1727. 3 vols.
+
+Bourgoing (J. F.) Tableau de l'Espagne Moderne,
+quatrième édition. Paris, 1807. 3 vols.
+
+Bouterwek (F.) History of Spanish and Portuguese Literature. London,
+1823. 2 vols.
+
+Bowdich (T. E.) Mission to Ashantee. London, 1819. 4to.
+
+Bower (A.) History of the University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, 1817-1830.
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+
+Bowles (G.) Introduccion á la Historia Natural y á la Geografía Física
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+
+Bowles (W. L.) Life of Bishop Ken. London, 1830, 1831. 2 vols.
+
+Boyle (R.) Works. London, 1744. 5 vols. folio.
+
+Brand (A.) Description of Orkney, Zetland, Pightland-Firth, and
+Caithness. Edinburgh, 1701.
+
+Brande (W. T.) A Manual of Chemistry. London, 1848. 2 vols.
+
+Brewster (Sir D.) Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton. Edinburgh, 1855. 2 vols.
+
+Brienne (L. H. de Loménie) Mémoires inédits. Paris, 1828. 2 vols.
+
+Brissot (J. P.) Mémoires. Paris, 1830. 2 vols.
+
+British Association for Advancement of Science, Reports of. London,
+1833-1853. 21 vols.
+
+Brodie (Sir B.) Lectures on Pathology and Surgery. London, 1846.
+
+Brodie (Sir B.) Physiological Researches. London, 1851.
+
+Brougham (Lord) Sketches of Statesmen in the time of George III. London,
+1845. 6 vols.
+
+Brougham (Lord) Lives of Men of Letters and Science in the time of
+George III. London, 1845-1847. 2 vols.
+
+Brougham (Lord) Political Philosophy. 2nd edit. London, 1849. 3 vols.
+
+Broussais (F. J. V.) Examen des Doctrines Médicales. Paris, 1829-1834. 4
+vols.
+
+Broussais (F. J. V.) Cours de Phrénologie. Paris, 1836.
+
+Brown (A.) History of Glasgow. Glasgow, 1795, and Edinburgh, 1797. 2
+vols.
+
+Brown (T.) Lectures on the Philosophy of the Mind. Edinburgh, 1838.
+
+Browne (J.) History of the Highlands and of the Highland Clans. Glasgow,
+1838. 4 vols.
+
+Browne (Sir Thomas) Works and Correspondence, by S. Wilkin. London,
+1836. 4 vols.
+
+Buchanan (F.) Journey through Mysore, Canara, and Malabar. London, 1807.
+3 vols. 4to.
+
+Buchanan (G.) Rerum Scoticarum Historia, cura Man. Abredoniæ, 1762.
+
+Buchanan (J.) Sketches of the North-American Indians. London, 1824.
+
+Buckingham (Duke of) Memoirs of George III. London, 1853. 2 vols.
+
+Bullock (W.) Travels in Mexico. London, 1824. Bulstrode (Sir R.)
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+1654. London, 1772. 2 vols. 4to.
+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
+
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+
+
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+
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+1848. 4to.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+                  HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION IN ENGLAND.
+
+
+
+
+                        _GENERAL INTRODUCTION._
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+     STATEMENT OF THE RESOURCES FOR INVESTIGATING HISTORY, AND PROOFS OF
+     THE REGULARITY OF HUMAN ACTIONS. THESE ACTIONS ARE GOVERNED BY
+     MENTAL AND PHYSICAL LAWS: THEREFORE BOTH SETS OF LAWS MUST BE
+     STUDIED, AND THERE CAN BE NO HISTORY WITHOUT THE NATURAL SCIENCES.
+
+
+Of all the great branches of human knowledge, history is that upon which
+most has been written, and which has always been most popular. And it
+seems to be the general opinion that the success of historians has, on
+the whole, been equal to their industry; and that if on this subject
+much has been studied, much also is understood.
+
+This confidence in the value of history is very widely diffused, as we
+see in the extent to which it is read, and in the share it occupies in
+all plans of education. Nor can it be denied that, in a certain point of
+view, such confidence is perfectly justifiable. It cannot be denied that
+materials have been collected which, when looked at in the aggregate,
+have a rich and imposing appearance. The political and military annals
+of all the great countries in Europe, and of most of those out of
+Europe, have been carefully compiled, put together in a convenient form,
+and the evidence on which they rest has been tolerably well sifted.
+Great attention has been paid to the history of legislation, also to
+that of religion: while considerable, though inferior, labour has been
+employed in tracing the progress of science, of literature, of the fine
+arts, of useful inventions, and, latterly, of the manners and comforts
+of the people. In order to increase our knowledge of the past,
+antiquities of every kind have been examined; the sites of ancient
+cities have been laid bare, coins dug up and deciphered, inscriptions
+copied, alphabets restored, hieroglyphics interpreted, and, in some
+instances, long-forgotten languages reconstructed and re-arranged.
+Several of the laws which regulate the changes of human speech have been
+discovered, and, in the hands of philologists, have been made to
+elucidate even the most obscure periods in the early migration of
+nations. Political economy has been raised to a science, and by it much
+light has been thrown on the causes of that unequal distribution of
+wealth which is the most fertile source of social disturbance.
+Statistics have been so sedulously cultivated, that we have the most
+extensive information, not only respecting the material interests of
+men, but also respecting their moral peculiarities; such as, the amount
+of different crimes, the proportion they bear to each other, and the
+influence exercised over them by age, sex, education, and the like. With
+this great movement physical geography has kept pace: the phenomena of
+climate have been registered, mountains measured, rivers surveyed and
+tracked to their source, natural productions of all kinds carefully
+studied, and their hidden properties unfolded: while every food which
+sustains life has been chemically analysed, its constituents numbered
+and weighed, and the nature of the connexion between them and the human
+frame has, in many cases, been satisfactorily ascertained. At the same
+time, and that nothing should be left undone which might enlarge our
+knowledge of the events by which man is affected, there have been
+instituted circumstantial researches in many other departments; so that
+in regard to the most civilized people, we are now acquainted with the
+rate of their mortality, of their marriages, the proportion of their
+births, the character of their employments, and the fluctuations both
+in their wages and in the prices of the commodities necessary to their
+existence. These and similar facts have been collected, methodized, and
+are ripe for use. Such results, which form, as it were, the anatomy of a
+nation, are remarkable for their minuteness; and to them there have been
+joined other results less minute, but more extensive. Not only have the
+actions and characteristics of the great nations been recorded, but a
+prodigious number of different tribes in all the parts of the known
+world have been visited and described by travellers, thus enabling us to
+compare the condition of mankind in every stage of civilization, and
+under every variety of circumstance. When we moreover add, that this
+curiosity respecting our fellow-creatures is apparently insatiable; that
+it is constantly increasing; that the means of gratifying it are also
+increasing, and that most of the observations which have been made are
+still preserved;--when we put all these things together, we may form a
+faint idea of the immense value of that vast body of facts which we now
+possess, and by the aid of which the progress of mankind is to be
+investigated.
+
+But if, on the other hand, we are to describe the use that has been made
+of these materials, we must draw a very different picture. The
+unfortunate peculiarity of the history of man is, that although its
+separate parts have been examined with considerable ability, hardly any
+one has attempted to combine them into a whole, and ascertain the way in
+which they are connected with each other. In all the other great fields
+of inquiry, the necessity of generalization is universally admitted, and
+noble efforts are being made to rise from particular facts in order to
+discover the laws by which those facts are governed. So far, however, is
+this from being the usual course of historians, that among them a
+strange idea prevails, that their business is merely to relate events,
+which they may occasionally enliven by such moral and political
+reflections as seem likely to be useful. According to this scheme, any
+author who from indolence of thought, or from natural incapacity, is
+unfit to deal with the highest branches of knowledge, has only to pass
+some years in reading a certain number of books, and then he is
+qualified to be an historian; he is able to write the history of a great
+people, and his work becomes an authority on the subject which it
+professes to treat.
+
+The establishment of this narrow standard has led to results very
+prejudicial to the progress of our knowledge. Owing to it, historians,
+taken as a body, have never recognized the necessity of such a wide and
+preliminary study as would enable them to grasp their subject in the
+whole of its natural relations. Hence the singular spectacle of one
+historian being ignorant of political economy; another knowing nothing
+of law; another nothing of ecclesiastical affairs and changes of
+opinion; another neglecting the philosophy of statistics, and another
+physical science: although these topics are the most essential of all,
+inasmuch as they comprise the principal circumstances by which the
+temper and character of mankind have been affected, and in which they
+are displayed. These important pursuits being, however, cultivated, some
+by one man, and some by another, have been isolated rather than united:
+the aid which might be derived from analogy and from mutual illustration
+has been lost; and no disposition has been shown to concentrate them
+upon history, of which they are, properly speaking, the necessary
+components.
+
+Since the early part of the eighteenth century, a few great thinkers
+have indeed arisen, who have deplored the backwardness of history, and
+have done everything in their power to remedy it. But these instances
+have been extremely rare: so rare, that in the whole literature of
+Europe there are not more than three or four really original works which
+contain a systematic attempt to investigate the history of man according
+to those exhaustive methods which in other branches of knowledge have
+proved successful, and by which alone empirical observations can be
+raised to scientific truths.
+
+Among historians in general, we find, after the sixteenth century, and
+especially during the last hundred years, several indications of an
+increasing comprehensiveness of view, and of a willingness to
+incorporate into their works subjects which they would formerly have
+excluded. By this means their assemblage of topics has become more
+diversified, and the mere collection and relative position of parallel
+facts has occasionally suggested generalizations no traces of which can
+be found in the earlier literature of Europe. This has been a great
+gain, in so far as it has familiarized historians with a wider range of
+thought, and encouraged those habits of speculation, which, though
+liable to abuse, are the essential condition of all real knowledge,
+because without them no science can be constructed.
+
+But, notwithstanding that the prospects of historical literature are
+certainly more cheering now than in any former age, it must be allowed
+that, with extremely few exceptions, they are only prospects, and that
+as yet scarcely anything has been done towards discovering the
+principles which govern the character and destiny of nations. What has
+been actually effected I shall endeavour to estimate in another part of
+this introduction: at present it is enough to say, that for all the
+higher purposes of human thought history is still miserably deficient,
+and presents that confused and anarchical appearance natural to a
+subject of which the laws are unknown, and even the foundation
+unsettled.[1]
+
+  [1] A living writer, who has done more than any other to raise the
+      standard of history, contemptuously notices 'l'incohérente
+      compilation de faits déjà improprement qualifiée _d'histoire_.'
+      _Comte_, _Philosophie Positive_, vol. v. p. 18. There is much in
+      the method and in the conclusions of this great work with which I
+      cannot agree; but it would be unjust to deny its extraordinary
+      merits.
+
+Our acquaintance with history being so imperfect, while our materials
+are so numerous, it seems desirable that something should be done on a
+scale far larger than has hitherto been attempted, and that a strenuous
+effort should be made to bring up this great department of inquiry to a
+level with other departments, in order that we may maintain the balance
+and harmony of our knowledge. It is in this spirit that the present
+work has been conceived. To make the execution of it fully equal to the
+conception is impossible: still I hope to accomplish for the history of
+man something equivalent, or at all events analogous, to what has been
+effected by other inquirers for the different branches of natural
+science. In regard to nature, events apparently the most irregular and
+capricious have been explained, and have been shown to be in accordance
+with certain fixed and universal laws. This has been done because men of
+ability, and, above all, men of patient, untiring thought, have studied
+natural events with the view of discovering their regularity: and if
+human events were subjected to a similar treatment, we have every right
+to expect similar results. For it is clear that they who affirm that the
+facts of history are incapable of being generalized, take for granted
+the very question at issue. Indeed they do more than this. They not only
+assume what they cannot prove, but they assume what in the present state
+of knowledge is highly improbable. Whoever is at all acquainted with
+what has been done during the last two centuries, must be aware that
+every generation demonstrates some events to be regular and predictable,
+which the preceding generation had declared to be irregular and
+unpredictable: so that the marked tendency of advancing civilization is
+to strengthen our belief in the universality of order, of method, and of
+law. This being the case, it follows that if any facts, or class of
+facts, have not yet been reduced to order, we, so far from pronouncing
+them to be irreducible, should rather be guided by our experience of the
+past, and should admit the probability that what we now call
+inexplicable will at some future time be explained. This expectation of
+discovering regularity in the midst of confusion is so familiar to
+scientific men, that among the most eminent of them it becomes an
+article of faith: and if the same expectation is not generally found
+among historians, it must be ascribed partly to their being of inferior
+ability to the investigators of nature, and partly to the greater
+complexity of those social phenomena with which their studies are
+concerned.
+
+Both these causes have retarded the creation of the science of history.
+The most celebrated historians are manifestly inferior to the most
+successful cultivators of physical science: no one having devoted
+himself to history who in point of intellect is at all to be compared
+with Kepler, Newton, or many others that might be named.[2] And as to
+the greater complexity of the phenomena, the philosophic historian is
+opposed by difficulties far more formidable than is the student of
+nature; since, while on the one hand, his observations are more liable
+to those causes of error which arise from prejudice and passion, he, on
+the other hand, is unable to employ the great physical resource of
+experiment, by which we can often simplify even the most intricate
+problems in the external world.
+
+  [2] I speak merely of those who have made history their main pursuit.
+      Bacon wrote on it, but only as a subordinate object; and it
+      evidently cost him nothing like the thought which he devoted to
+      other subjects.
+
+It is not, therefore, surprising that the study of the movements of Man
+should be still in its infancy, as compared with the advanced state of
+the study of the movements of Nature. Indeed the difference between the
+progress of the two pursuits is so great, that while in physics the
+regularity of events, and the power of predicting them, are often taken
+for granted even in cases still unproved, a similar regularity is in
+history not only not taken for granted, but is actually denied. Hence it
+is that whoever wishes to raise history to a level with other branches
+of knowledge, is met by a preliminary obstacle; since he is told that in
+the affairs of men there is something mysterious and providential, which
+makes them impervious to our investigations, and which will always hide
+from us their future course. To this it might be sufficient to reply,
+that such an assertion is gratuitous; that it is by its nature incapable
+of proof; and that it is moreover opposed by the notorious fact that
+everywhere else increasing knowledge is accompanied by an increasing
+confidence in the uniformity with which, under the same circumstances,
+the same events must succeed each other. It will, however, be more
+satisfactory to probe the difficulty deeper, and inquire at once into
+the foundation of the common opinion that history must always remain in
+its present empirical state, and can never be raised to the rank of a
+science. We shall thus be led to one vast question, which indeed lies at
+the root of the whole subject, and is simply this: Are the actions of
+men, and therefore of societies, governed by fixed laws, or are they the
+result either of chance or of supernatural interference? The discussion
+of these alternatives will suggest some speculations of considerable
+interest.
+
+For, in reference to this matter, there are two doctrines, which appear
+to represent different stages of civilization. According to the first
+doctrine, every event is single and isolated, and is merely considered
+as the result of a blind chance. This opinion, which is most natural to
+a perfectly ignorant people, would soon be weakened by that extension of
+experience which supplies a knowledge of those uniformities of
+succession and of co-existence that nature constantly presents. If, for
+example, wandering tribes, without the least tincture of civilization,
+lived entirely by hunting and fishing, they might well suppose that the
+appearance of their necessary food was the result of some accident which
+admitted of no explanation. The irregularity of the supply, and the
+apparent caprice with which it was sometimes abundant and sometimes
+scanty, would prevent them from suspecting anything like method in the
+arrangements of nature; nor could their minds even conceive the
+existence of those general principles which govern the order of events,
+and by a knowledge of which we are often able to predict their future
+course. But when such tribes advance into the agricultural state, they,
+for the first time, use a food of which not only the appearance, but the
+very existence, seems to be the result of their own act. What they sow,
+that likewise do they reap. The provision necessary for their wants is
+brought more immediately under their own control, and is more palpably
+the consequence of their own labour. They perceive a distinct plan, and
+a regular uniformity of sequence, in the relation which the seed they
+put into the ground bears to the corn when arrived at maturity. They are
+now able to look to the future, not indeed with certainty, but with a
+confidence infinitely greater than they could have felt in their former
+and more precarious pursuits.[3] Hence there arises a dim idea of the
+stability of events; and for the first time there begins to dawn upon
+the mind a faint conception of what at a later period are called the
+Laws of Nature. Every step in the great progress will make their view of
+this more clear. As their observations accumulate, and as their
+experience extends over a wider surface, they meet with uniformities
+that they had never suspected to exist, and the discovery of which
+weakens that doctrine of chance with which they had originally set out.
+Yet a little further, and a taste for abstract reasoning springs up; and
+then some among them generalize the observations that have been made,
+and despising the old popular opinion, believe that every event is
+linked to its antecedent by an inevitable connexion, that such
+antecedent is connected with a preceding fact; and that thus the whole
+world forms a necessary chain, in which indeed each man may play his
+part, but can by no means determine what that part shall be.
+
+  [3] Some of the moral consequences of thus diminishing the
+      precariousness of food are noticed by M. Charles Comte in his
+      _Traité de Législation_, vol. ii. pp. 273-275. Compare _Mill's
+      History of India_, vol. i. pp. 180-181. But both these able writers
+      have omitted to observe that the change facilitates a perception of
+      the regularity of phenomena.
+
+Thus it is that, in the ordinary march of society, an increasing
+perception of the regularity of nature destroys the doctrine of Chance,
+and replaces it by that of Necessary Connexion. And it is, I think,
+highly probable that out of these two doctrines of Chance and Necessity
+there have respectively arisen the subsequent dogmas of Free Will and
+Predestination. Nor is it difficult to understand the manner in which,
+in a more advanced state of society, this metamorphosis would occur. In
+every country, as soon as the accumulation of wealth has reached a
+certain point, the produce of each man's labour becomes more than
+sufficient for his own support: it is therefore no longer necessary that
+all should work; and there is formed a separate class, the members of
+which pass their lives for the most part in the pursuit of pleasure; a
+very few, however, in the acquisition and diffusion of knowledge. Among
+these last there are always found some who, neglecting external events,
+turn their attention to the study of their own minds;[4] and such men,
+when possessed of great abilities, become the founders of new
+philosophies and new religions, which often exercise immense influence
+over the people who receive them. But the authors of these systems are
+themselves affected by the character of the age in which they live. It
+is impossible for any man to escape the pressure of surrounding
+opinions; and what is called a new philosophy or a new religion is
+generally not so much a creation of fresh ideas, but rather a new
+direction given to ideas already current among contemporary thinkers.[5]
+Thus, in the case now before us, the doctrine of Chance in the external
+world corresponds to that of Free Will in the internal: while the other
+doctrine of Necessary Connexion is equally analogous to that of
+Predestination; the only difference being that the first is a
+development by the metaphysician, the second by the theologian. In the
+first instance, the metaphysician setting out with the doctrine of
+Chance, carries into the study of the mind this arbitrary and
+irresponsible principle, which in its new field becomes Free Will; an
+expression by which all difficulties seem to be removed, since perfect
+freedom, itself the cause of all actions, is caused by none, but, like
+the doctrine of Chance, is an ultimate fact admitting of no further
+explanation.[6] In the second instance, the theologian taking up the
+doctrine of Necessary Connexion recasts it into a religious shape; and
+his mind being already full of conceptions of order and of uniformity,
+he naturally ascribes such undeviating regularity to the prescience of
+Supreme Power; and thus to the magnificent notion of One God there is
+added the dogma that by Him all things have from the beginning been
+absolutely pre-determined and preordained.
+
+  [4] On the relation between this and the previous creation of wealth,
+      see _Tennemann_, _Geschichte der Philosophie_, vol. i. p. 30; 'Ein
+      gewisser Grad von Cultur und Wohlstand ist eine nothwendige äussere
+      Bedingung der Entwickelung des philosophischen Geistes. So lange
+      der Mensch noch mit den Mitteln seiner Existenz und der Befriedigung
+      seiner thierischen Bedürfnisse beschäftiget ist, so lange gehet die
+      Entwickelung und Bildung seiner Geisteskräfte nur langsam von
+      statten, und er nähert sich nur Schritt vor Schritt einer freiern
+      Vernunftthätigkeit.' ... 'Daher finden wir, dass man nur in denen
+      Nationen anfing zu philosophiren, welche sich zu einer
+      beträchtlichen Stufe des Wohlstandes und der Cultur emporgehoben
+      hatten.' Hence, as I shall endeavour to prove in the next chapter,
+      the immense importance of the physical phenomena which precede and
+      often control the metaphysical. In the history of the Greek mind we
+      can distinctly trace the passage from physical to metaphysical
+      inquiries. See _Grote's History of Greece_, vol. iv. p. 519, edit.
+      1847. That the atomic doctrine, in its relation to chance, was a
+      natural precursor of Platonism, is remarked in _Broussais_, _Examen
+      des Doctrines Médicales_, vol. i. pp. 53, 54, an able though
+      one-sided work. Compare, respecting the Chance of the atomists,
+      _Ritter's History of Ancient Philosophy_, vol. i. p. 553; an
+      hypothesis, as Ritter says, 'destructive of all inner energy;'
+      consequently antagonistic to the psychological hypothesis which
+      subsequently sprang up and conquered it. That physical researches
+      came first, is moreover attested by Diogenes Laertius: [Greek: Merê
+      de philosophias tria, physikon, êthikon, dialektikon; physikon men,
+      to peri kosmou, kai tôn en autô; êthikon de, to peri biou kai tôn
+      pros hêmas; dialektikon de, to amphoterôn tous logous presbeuon;
+      kai mechri men' Archelaou to physikon eidos ên apo de Sôkratous,
+      hôs proeirêtai, to êthikon; apo de Zênônos tou 'Eleatou, to
+      dialektikon.] _De Vitis Philosophorum Pro[oe]m._ segm. 18, vol. i.
+      p. 12: compare lib. ii. segm. 16, vol. i. p. 89.
+
+  [5] Beausobre has some good remarks on this in his learned work
+      _Histoire Critique de Manichée_, vol. i. p. 179, where he says that
+      the great religious heresies have been founded on previous
+      philosophies. Certainly no one acquainted with the history of
+      opinions will admit the sweeping assertion of M. Stahl that 'la
+      philosophie d'un peuple a sa racine dans sa théologie.' _Klimrath_,
+      _Travaux_, vol. ii. p. 454, Paris, 1843.
+
+  [6] 'Also ist ein Wille, dem die blose gesetzgebende Form der Maxime
+      allein zum Gesetze dienen kann, ein freier Wille.' _Kritik der
+      praktischen Vernunft_ in _Kant's Werke_, vol. iv. p. 128. 'Hat
+      selber für sich eigentlich keinen Bestimmungsgrund.' _Metaphysik
+      der Sitten_ in _Werke_, vol. v. p. 12. 'Die unbedingte Causalität
+      der Ursache.' _Kritik der reinen Vernunft_ in _Werke_, vol. ii.
+      p. 339. See also _Prolegomena zu jeder künftigen Metaphysik_ in
+      vol. iii. p. 268.
+
+These opposite doctrines of free will and predestination[7] do, no
+doubt, supply a safe and simple solution of the obscurities of our
+being; and as they are easily understood, they are so suited to the
+average capacity of the human mind, that even at the present day an
+immense majority of men are divided between them; and they have not only
+corrupted the sources of our knowledge, but have given rise to religious
+sects, whose mutual animosities have disturbed society, and too often
+embittered the relations of private life. Among the more advanced
+European thinkers there is, however, a growing opinion that both
+doctrines are wrong or, at all events, that we have no sufficient
+evidence of their truth. And as this is a matter of great moment, it is
+important, before we proceed further, to clear up as much of it as the
+difficulties inherent in these subjects will enable us to do.
+
+  [7] That these doctrines, when treated according to the ordinary
+      methods of reasoning, not only oppose but exclude each other, would
+      be universally admitted if it were not for a desire generally felt
+      to save certain parts of each: it being thought dangerous to give
+      up free will on account of weakening moral responsibility, and
+      equally dangerous to give up predestination on account of impugning
+      the power of God. Various attempts have therefore been made to
+      reconcile liberty with necessity, and make the freedom of man
+      harmonize with the foreknowledge of the Deity. Compare on this
+      point a remarkable letter from Locke to Molyneux (_Locke's Works_,
+      vol. viii. p. 305), with the argument in one of Bentley's Sermons
+      (_Monk's Life of Bentley_, vol. ii. pp. 7, 8); also _Ritter's Hist.
+      of Ancient Philosophy_, vol. iv. pp. 143, 144; _Tennemann_, _Gesch.
+      der Philosophie_, vol. iv. pp. 301-304; _Copleston's Inquiry into
+      the Doctrines of Necessity and Predestination_, pp. 6, 7, 46, 69,
+      70, 85, 92, 108, 136; _Mosheim's Ecclesiastical Hist._, vol. i.
+      p. 207, vol. ii. p. 96; _Neander's Hist. of the Church_, vol. iv.
+      pp. 294, 389-391; _Bishop of Lincoln on Tertullian_, 1845, p. 323;
+      _Hodgson on Buddhism_, in _Transac. of Asiatic Society_, vol. ii.
+      p. 232.
+
+Whatever doubts may be thrown on the account which I have given of the
+probable origin of the ideas of free will and predestination, there
+can, at all events, be no dispute as to the foundation on which those
+ideas are now actually based. The theory of predestination is founded on
+a theological hypothesis; that of free will on a metaphysical
+hypothesis. The advocates of the first proceed on a supposition for
+which, to say the least of it, they have as yet brought forward no good
+evidence. They require us to believe that the Author of Creation, whose
+beneficence they at the same time willingly allow, has, notwithstanding
+His supreme goodness, made an arbitrary distinction between the elect
+and the non-elect; that He has from all eternity doomed to perdition
+millions of creatures yet unborn, and whom His act alone can call into
+existence: and that He has done this, not in virtue of any principle of
+justice, but by a mere stretch of despotic power.[8] This doctrine owes
+its authority among Protestants to the dark though powerful mind of
+Calvin; but in the early Church it was first systematically methodized
+by Augustin, who appears to have borrowed it from the Manicheans.[9] At
+all events, and putting aside its incompatibility with other notions
+which are supposed to be fundamental,[10] it must, in a scientific
+investigation, be regarded as a barren hypothesis, because, being beyond
+the province of our knowledge, we have no means of ascertaining either
+its truth or its falsehood.
+
+  [8] Even Ambrose, who never went so far as Augustin, states this
+      principle in its repulsive nakedness: 'Deus quos dignat vocat, quos
+      vult religiosos facit.' _Neander_, vol. iv. p. 287. Calvin declares
+      'that God, in predestinating from all eternity one part of mankind
+      to everlasting happiness, and another to endless misery, was led to
+      make this distinction by no other motive than His own good pleasure
+      and free will.' _Mosheim's Eccles. Hist._, vol. ii. p. 103, see also
+      p. 100; and _Carwithen's Hist. of the Church of England_, vol. i.
+      p. 552.
+
+  [9] On the Manichæan origin of Augustin's opinions, compare _Potter_,
+      _Esprit de l'Eglise_, vol. ii. p. 171, Paris, 1821; _Tomline's
+      Refutation of Calvinism_, 1817, pp. 571-576; _Southey's Book of the
+      Church_, 1824, vol. i. pp. 301, 302; _Matter_, _Hist. du
+      Gnosticisme_, 1828, vol. i. p. 325. However, Beausobre (_Histoire
+      de Manichée_, vol. ii. pp. 33-40) seems to have proved a difference
+      between the election of Augustin and that of Basilides.
+
+  [10] On the absurdity of 'an omnipotent arbitrary Deity,' and on the
+       incongruity of such a combination with [Greek: physei kalon kai
+       dikaion], see _Cudworth's Intellect. Syst._, vol. i. pp. 45, 419,
+       vol. iii. p. 241, vol. iv. p. 160. See also _Theodicee_ in _Kant's
+       Werke_, vol. vi. pp. 141, 142, and _Metaphysik der Sitten_ in vol.
+       v. p. 332, upon 'den göttlichen Zweck in Ansehung des menschlichen
+       Geschlechts.'
+
+The other doctrine, which has long been celebrated under the name of
+Free Will, is connected with Arminianism; but it in reality rests on the
+metaphysical dogma of the supremacy of human consciousness. Every man,
+it is alleged, feels and knows that he is a free agent: nor can any
+subtleties of argument do away with our consciousness of possessing a
+free will.[11] Now the existence of this supreme jurisdiction, which is
+thus to set at defiance all the ordinary methods of reasoning, involves
+two assumptions: of which the first, though possibly true, has never
+been proved; and the other is unquestionably false. These assumptions
+are, that there is an independent faculty called consciousness, and that
+the dictates of that faculty are infallible. But, in the first place, it
+is by no means certain that consciousness is a faculty; and some of the
+ablest thinkers have been of opinion that it is merely a state or
+condition of the mind.[12] Should this turn out to be the case, the
+argument falls to the ground; since, even if we admit that all the
+faculties of the mind, when completely exercised, are equally accurate,
+no one will make the same claim for every condition into which the mind
+itself may be casually thrown. However, waiving this objection, we may,
+in the second place, reply, that even if consciousness is a faculty, we
+have the testimony of all history to prove its extreme fallibility.[13]
+All the great stages through which, in the progress of civilization,
+the human race has successively passed, have been characterized by
+certain mental peculiarities or convictions, which have left their
+impress upon the religion, the philosophy, and the morals of the age.
+Each of these convictions has been to one period a matter of faith, to
+another a matter for derision;[14] and each of them has, in its own
+epoch, been as intimately bound up with the minds of men, and become as
+much a part of their consciousness, as is that opinion which we now term
+freedom of the will. Yet it is impossible that all these products of
+consciousness can be true, because many of them contradict each other.
+Unless, therefore, in different ages there are different standards of
+truth, it is clear that the testimony of a man's consciousness is no
+proof of an opinion being true; for if it were so, then two propositions
+diametrically opposed to each other might both be equally accurate.
+Besides this, another view may be drawn from the common operations of
+ordinary life. Are we not in certain circumstances conscious of the
+existence of spectres and phantoms; and yet is it not generally admitted
+that such beings have no existence at all? Should it be attempted to
+refute this argument by saying that such consciousness is apparent and
+not real, then I ask, What is it that judges between the consciousness
+which is genuine and that which is spurious?[15] If this boasted
+faculty deceives us in some things, what security have we that it will
+not deceive us in others? If there is no security, the faculty is not
+trustworthy. If there is a security, then, whatever it may be, its
+existence shows the necessity for some authority to which consciousness
+is subordinate, and thus does away with that doctrine of the supremacy
+of consciousness, on which the advocates of free will are compelled to
+construct the whole of their theory. Indeed, the uncertainty as to the
+existence of consciousness as an independent faculty, and the manner in
+which that faculty, if it exists, has contradicted its own suggestions,
+are two of the many reasons which have long since convinced me that
+metaphysics will never be raised to a science by the ordinary method of
+observing individual minds; but that its study can only be successfully
+prosecuted by the deductive application of laws which must be
+discovered historically, that is to say, which must be evolved by an
+examination of the whole of those vast phenomena which the long course
+of human affairs presents to our view.
+
+  [11] Johnson said to Boswell, 'Sir, we _know_ our will is free, and
+       there's an end on't.' _Boswell's Life of Johnson_, edit. Croker,
+       1848, p. 203. 'La question: Sommes-nous libres? me paraît
+       au-dessous de la discussion. Elle est résolue par le témoignage de
+       la conscience attestant que dans certains cas nous pourrions faire
+       le contraire de ce que nous faisons.' _Cousin_, _Hist. de la
+       Philosophie_, I. Série, vol. i. pp. 190, 191. 'Die Freiheit des
+       Menschen, als moralischen Wesens, gründet sich auf das sittliche
+       Bewusstseyn.' _Tennemann_, _Gesch. der Philosophie_, vol. v.
+       p. 161. That this is the only ground for believing in the freedom
+       of the will is so evident, that we need not notice the mystical
+       proof of Philo (_Ritter's Ancient Philosophy_, vol. iv. p. 447);
+       nor the physical one of the Basilidian monads (_Beausobre_, _Hist.
+       de Manichée_, vol. ii. p. 23); still less the argument of
+       Bardesanes, who thought to demonstrate freedom by the variety of
+       human customs! _Matter_, _Hist. du Gnosticisme_, vol. i. p. 323,
+       which should be compared with _Burdach's Physiologie comme Science
+       d'Observation_, vol. v. p. 50, Paris, 1839.
+
+  [12] Mr. James Mill (_Analysis of the Mind_, vol. i. pp. 171, 172) says
+       that consciousness and belief are the same, and that great error
+       has arisen from calling 'consciousness a feeling distinct from all
+       other feelings.' According to Locke (_Essay concerning Human
+       Understanding_, book ii. chap. i., Works, vol. i. p. 89),
+       'consciousness is the perception of what passes in a man's own
+       mind.' Brown (_Philosophy of the Mind_, pp. 67, 68) denies that
+       consciousness is a faculty: and Sir W. Hamilton complains of
+       'Reid's degradation of consciousness into a special faculty.'
+       _Notes to Reid's Works_, pp. 223, 297, 373. M. Cousin (_Hist. de
+       la Philosophie_, II. Série, vol. i. p. 131) pronounces
+       consciousness to be 'phénomène complexe;' and at p. 94, 'la
+       _condition_ nécessaire de l'intelligence c'est la conscience:'
+       while a still later writer (_Jobert's New System of Philosophy_,
+       vol. i. p. 25) declares that 'we have the consciousness of our
+       consciousness--this is certain.' The statement in Alciphron,
+       Dialogue vii. (_Berkeley's Works_, vol. i. pp. 505, 506) is equally
+       unsatisfactory: and what still further perplexes the question is
+       the existence of what is now recognised as 'double consciousness.'
+       See on this extraordinary phenomenon _Elliotson's Physiology_,
+       pp. 367-369, 1165; _Mayo's Physiology_, pp. 195, 196; _Prichard's
+       Treatise on Insanity_, pp. 450, 451; _Carpenter's Human
+       Physiology_, p. 379.
+
+  [13] This requires explanation. Consciousness is infallible as to the
+       _fact_ of its testimony; but fallible as to the _truth_. That we
+       are conscious of certain phenomena, is a proof that those phenomena
+       exist in the mind, or are presented to it; but to say that this
+       demonstrates the truth of the phenomena is to go a step further,
+       and not only offer a testimony, but also pass a judgment. The
+       moment we do this, we introduce the element of fallibility; because
+       consciousness and judgment put together cannot be always right,
+       inasmuch as judgment is often wrong.
+
+The late Blanco White, a thinker of considerable subtlety, says: 'The
+important distinction between _libertas a necessitate_ and _libertas a
+coactione_, is seldom attended to. Nothing whatever can _force_ my will:
+every man is more or less conscious of that fact: but at the same time
+we are, or may be, equally conscious that we are never decided without a
+motive.' _Life of B. White_, by Himself, 1845, vol. iii. p. 90. But how
+can a man be conscious 'that nothing whatever _can_ force his will'?
+This is not consciousness, but judgment: it is a judgment of what may
+be, not a consciousness of what is. If there is any meaning in the word
+'consciousness,' it must refer solely to the present, and can never
+include future contingencies as to what _may_ be or _can_ be.
+
+  [14] As Herder says, 'Was diese Nation ihrem Gedankenkreise
+       unentbehrlich hält, daran hat jene nie gedacht oder hält es gar
+       für schädlich.' _Ideen zur Gesch. der Menschheit_, vol. ii. p. 130.
+
+  [15] Plato was struck by the extreme difficulty of finding a standard
+       in the human mind whereby we may test the truth or falsehood of
+       spectral phenomena and dreams. And the only conclusion to which
+       this consummate thinker could arrive, was that whatever appears
+       true to the individual mind is true for him: which, however, is an
+       evasion of the problem, not a solution of it. See the Theætetus,
+       where Plato, as usual, puts his own speculations into the mouth of
+       Socrates. He opens the question at the beginning of sec. 39
+       (_Platonis Opera_, vol. iii. p. 426, edit. Bekker, Lond. 1826),
+       [Greek: Mê toinun apolipômen rhson elleipon autou. lepetai de
+       enupniôn te peri kai nosôn, tôn te allôn kai manias], &c. These are
+       the supposed sources of error; but Socrates, after discussing them,
+       and entangling Theætetus in a maze, sums up at the end of sec. 45,
+       p. 434, [Greek: alêthês ara emoi êh emê aisthêsis.] See further,
+       p. 515, on the formation of erroneous judgments; and respecting the
+       assertions made by many of the Greeks that [Greek: pasa phantsia
+       alêthês] and [Greek: pasa duxa alêthês], compare _Cudworth_,
+       vol. iii. p. 379, vol. iv. p. 118. For physiological considerations
+       concerning the preservation of consciousness in dreams and in
+       insanity, see _Broussais_, _Examen des Doctrines Médicales_,
+       vol. i. p. 406; his _Cours de Phrénologie_, p. 49; _Esquirol_,
+       _Maladies Mentales_, vol. i. p. 97, vol. ii. p. 790; _Simon's
+       Pathology_, p. 204; _Holland's Medical Notes_, p. 434; _Henle_,
+       _Anatomie Générale_, vol. ii. p. 287; _Burdach_, _Traité de
+       Physiologie_, vol. v. p. 223. See, too, the passages in Tennemann
+       which connect this difficulty with the theory of representation
+       (_Geschichte der Philosophie_, vol. i. p. 357, vol. ii. pp. 119,
+       159, vol. iii. p. 406, vol. iv. p. 418); and the attempt of
+       Berkeley (_Works_, vol. i. pp. 93, 101, 176) to turn it into a
+       defence of his own system, on the ground that our belief respecting
+       the external world may be as false when we are awake as when we
+       dream. The solution offered by the Stoics is merely a verbal and
+       unproved distinction: [Greek: diapherei de phantasia kai phantasma.
+       phantasma men gar esti dokêsis dianoias oia ginetai kata tous
+       upnous; phantasia de esti tupôsis en psuchê toutestin alloiôsis,
+       hôs ho Chrusippos en tê duôdekatê peri psuchês uphistatai.] _Diog.
+       Laert. de Vitis Philos._ lib. vii. segm. 50, vol. i. p. 395.
+
+Fortunately, however, for the object of this work, the believer in the
+possibility of a science of history is not called upon to hold either
+the doctrine of predestined events, or that of freedom of the will;[16]
+and the only positions which, in this stage of the inquiry, I shall
+expect him to concede are the following: That when we perform an action,
+we perform it in consequence of some motive or motives; that those
+motives are the results of some antecedents; and that, therefore, if we
+were acquainted with the whole of the antecedents, and with all the laws
+of their movements, we could with unerring certainty predict the whole
+of their immediate results. This, unless I am greatly mistaken, is the
+view which must be held by every man whose mind is unbiased by system,
+and who forms his opinions according to the evidence actually before
+him.[17] If, for example, I am intimately acquainted with the character
+of any person, I can frequently tell how he will act under some given
+circumstances. Should I fail in this prediction, I must ascribe my error
+not to the arbitrary and capricious freedom of his will, nor to any
+supernatural pre-arrangement, for of neither of these things have we the
+slightest proof; but I must be content to suppose either that I had been
+misinformed as to some of the circumstances in which he was placed, or
+else that I had not sufficiently studied the ordinary operations of his
+mind. If, however, I were capable of correct reasoning, and if, at the
+same time, I had a complete knowledge both of his disposition and of all
+the events by which he was surrounded, I should be able to foresee the
+line of conduct which, in consequence of those events, he would
+adopt.[18]
+
+  [16] Meaning by free will, a cause of action residing in the mind, and
+       exerting itself independently of motives. If any one says that we
+       have this power of acting without motives, but that in the
+       practical exercise of the power we are always guided by motives
+       either conscious or unconscious--if any one says this, he asserts
+       a barren proposition, which does not interfere with my views, and
+       which may or may not be true, but which most assuredly no one has
+       ever yet succeeded in proving.
+
+  [17] That is, according to the phenomenal evidence presented to the
+       understanding, and estimated by the ordinary logic with which the
+       understanding is conversant. But Kant has made a most remarkable
+       attempt to avoid the practical consequences of this, by asserting
+       that freedom, being an idea produced by the reason, must be
+       referred to transcendental laws of the reason; that is, to laws
+       which are removed from the domain of experience, and cannot be
+       verified by observation. In regard, however, to the scientific
+       conceptions of the understanding (as distinguished from the Reason)
+       he fully admits the existence of a Necessity destructive of
+       Liberty. In Note A, at the end of this chapter, I shall put
+       together the most important passages in which Kant unfolds this
+       view.
+
+  [18] This is, of course, an hypothetical case, merely given as an
+       illustration. We never can know the whole of any man's antecedents,
+       or even the whole of our own; but it is certain that the nearer we
+       approach to a complete knowledge of the antecedent, the more
+       likely we shall be to predict the consequent.
+
+Rejecting, then, the metaphysical dogma of free will, and the
+theological dogma of predestined events,[19] we are driven to the
+conclusion that the actions of men, being determined solely by their
+antecedents, must have a character of uniformity, that is to say, must,
+under precisely the same circumstances, always issue in precisely the
+same results. And as all antecedents are either in the mind or out of
+it, we clearly see that all the variations in the results, in other
+words, all the changes of which history is full, all the vicissitudes of
+the human race, their progress or their decay, their happiness or their
+misery, must be the fruit of a double action; an action of external
+phenomena upon the mind, and another action of the mind upon the
+phenomena.
+
+  [19] The doctrine of providential interference is bound up with that of
+       predestination, because the Deity, foreseeing all things, must have
+       foreseen His own intention to interfere. To deny this foresight, is
+       to limit the omniscience of God. Those, therefore, who hold that,
+       in particular cases, a special providence interrupts the ordinary
+       course of events, must also hold that in each case the interruption
+       had been predestined; otherwise they impeach one of the Divine
+       attributes. For, as Thomas Aquinas puts it (_Neander's History of
+       the Church_, vol. viii. p. 176), 'knowledge, as knowledge, does not
+       imply, indeed, causality; but in so far as it is a knowledge
+       belonging to the artist who forms, it stands in the relation of
+       causality to that which is produced by his art.'
+
+       The same argument is stated by Alciphron, though not quite so
+       conclusively; _Dialogue_ vii. sec. 20 in _Berkeley's Works_,
+       vol. i. p. 515: and as to the impossibility of Omniscience having
+       new knowledge or an afterthought, see _Hitchcock's Religion of
+       Geology_, 1851, pp. 267, 328; an ingenious work, but one which
+       leaves all the real difficulties untouched. Compare _Ritter's Hist.
+       of Ancient Philos._ vol. iv. pp. 326, 327, with _Tennemann_,
+       _Gesch. der Philos._ vol. vi. pp. 151, 342-345, vol. ix. pp. 81-94,
+       vol. xi. p. 178; and in particular, the question raised (vol. viii.
+       p. 242), 'Ob das Vorherwissen Gottes die Ursache der künftigen
+       Dinge sey, oder nicht.' It was to meet all this, that some asserted
+       the eternity of matter, and others the existence of two original
+       principles, one good and one evil. _Beausobre_, _Histoire de
+       Manichée_, vol. ii. pp. 145, 146, 252, 336.
+
+These are the materials out of which a philosophic history can alone be
+constructed. On the one hand, we have the human mind obeying the laws of
+its own existence, and, when uncontrolled by external agents, developing
+itself according to the conditions of its organization. On the other
+hand, we have what is called Nature, obeying likewise its laws; but
+incessantly coming into contact with the minds of men, exciting their
+passions, stimulating their intellect, and therefore giving to their
+actions a direction which they would not have taken without such
+disturbance. Thus we have man modifying nature, and nature modifying
+man; while out of this reciprocal modification all events must
+necessarily spring.
+
+The problem immediately before us, is to ascertain the method of
+discovering the laws of this double modification: and this, as we shall
+presently see, leads us into a preliminary inquiry as to which of the
+two modifications is the more important; that is to say, whether the
+thoughts and desires of men are more influenced by physical phenomena,
+or whether the physical phenomena are more influenced by them. For it is
+evident that whichever class is the more active, should if possible be
+studied before the other; and this, partly because its results will be
+more prominent, and therefore more easy to observe; and partly because
+by first generalizing the laws of the greater power we shall leave a
+smaller residue of unexplained facts than if we had begun by
+generalizing the laws of the lesser power. But, before entering into
+this examination, it will be convenient to state some of the most
+decisive proofs we now possess of the regularity with which mental
+phenomena succeed each other. By this means the preceding views will be
+considerably strengthened; and we shall, at the same time, be able to
+see what those resources are which have been already employed in
+elucidating this great subject.
+
+That the results actually effected are extremely valuable is evident,
+not only from the wide surface which the generalizations cover, but also
+from the extraordinary precautions with which they have been made. For
+while most moral inquiries have depended on some theological or
+metaphysical hypothesis, the investigations to which I allude are
+exclusively inductive; they are based on collections of almost
+innumerable facts, extending over many countries, thrown into the
+clearest of all forms, the form of arithmetical tables; and finally,
+they have been put together by men who, being for the most part mere
+government officials,[20] had no particular theory to maintain, and no
+interest in distorting the truth of the reports they were directed to
+make.
+
+  [20] _Dufau_, _Traité de Statistique_, pp. 75, 148.
+
+The most comprehensive inferences respecting the actions of men, which
+are admitted by all parties as incontestable truths, are derived from
+this or from analogous sources; they rest on statistical evidence, and
+are expressed in mathematical language. And whoever is aware of how much
+has been discovered by this single method, must not only recognize the
+uniformity with which mental phenomena succeed each other, but must, I
+think, feel sanguine that still more important discoveries will be made,
+so soon as there are brought into play those other powerful resources
+which even the present state of knowledge will abundantly supply.
+Without, however, anticipating future inquiries, we are, for the moment,
+only concerned with those proofs of the existence of a uniformity in
+human affairs which statisticians have been the first to bring forward.
+
+The actions of men are by an easy and obvious division separated into
+two classes, the virtuous and the vicious; and as these classes are
+correlative, and when put together compose the total of our moral
+conduct, it follows that whatever increases the one, will in a relative
+point of view diminish the other; so that if we can in any period detect
+a uniformity and a method in the vices of a people, there must be a
+corresponding regularity in their virtues; or if we could prove a
+regularity in their virtues, we should necessarily infer an equal
+regularity in their vices; the two sets of actions being, according to
+the terms of the division, merely supplementary to each other.[21] Or,
+to express this proposition in another way, it is evident that if it can
+be demonstrated that the bad actions of men vary in obedience to the
+changes in the surrounding society, we shall be obliged to infer that
+their good actions, which are, as it were, the residue of their bad
+ones, vary in the same manner; and we shall be forced to the further
+conclusion, that such variations are the result of large and general
+causes, which, working upon the aggregate of society, must produce
+certain consequences, without regard to the volition of those
+particular men of whom the society is composed.
+
+  [21] Some moralists have also established a third class of actions,
+       which they call indifferent, as belonging neither to virtue nor to
+       vice; and hence there arose the famous doctrine of probability,
+       set up by several eminent Romish casuists, and hotly attacked by
+       Pascal. But this, if we put aside its worst feature, namely its
+       practical bearings, is merely a question of definition; inasmuch
+       as every indifferent act must lean on the side either of evil or
+       of good, and may therefore be referred to the category to which it
+       inclines; and certainly every increase of vice diminishes virtue
+       relatively, though not always absolutely. Among the Greek
+       philosophers there was a schism on this point: [Greek: Areskei de
+       autois] (i.e. the Stoics) [Greek: mêden meson einai aretês kai
+       kakias; tôn peripatêtikôn metaxu aretês kai kakias einai legontôn
+       tên prokopên]. _Diog. Laert. de Vitis Philosophorum_, lib. vii.
+       segm. 127, vol. i. p. 445.
+
+Such is the regularity we expect to find, if the actions of men are
+governed by the state of the society in which they occur; while, on the
+other hand, if we can find no such regularity, we may believe that their
+actions depend on some capricious and personal principle peculiar to
+each man, as free will or the like. It becomes, therefore, in the
+highest degree important to ascertain whether or not there exists a
+regularity in the entire moral conduct of a given society; and this is
+precisely one of those questions for the decision of which statistics
+supply us with materials of immense value.
+
+For the main object of legislation being to protect the innocent against
+the guilty, it naturally followed that European governments, so soon as
+they became aware of the importance of statistics, should begin to
+collect evidence respecting the crimes they were expected to punish.
+This evidence has gone on accumulating, until it now forms of itself a
+large body of literature, containing, with the commentaries connected
+with it, an immense array of facts, so carefully compiled, and so well
+and clearly digested, that more may be learned from it respecting the
+moral nature of Man than can be gathered from all the accumulated
+experience of preceding ages.[22] But as it will be impossible in this
+Introduction to give anything like a complete statement of those
+inferences which, in the actual state of statistics, we are authorized
+to draw, I shall content myself with examining two or three of the most
+important, and pointing out the connexion between them.
+
+  [22] I say this advisedly: and whoever has examined these subjects must
+       be aware of the way in which writers on morals repeat the
+       commonplace and hackneyed notions of their predecessors; so that a
+       man, after reading everything that has been written on moral
+       conduct and moral philosophy, will find himself nearly as much in
+       the dark as when his studies first began. The most accurate
+       investigators of the human mind have hitherto been the poets,
+       particularly Homer and Shakespeare; but these extraordinary
+       observers mainly occupied themselves with the concrete phenomena
+       of life; and if they analyzed, as they probably did, they have
+       concealed the steps of the process, so that now we can only verify
+       their conclusions empirically. The great advance made by the
+       statisticians consists in applying to these inquiries the doctrine
+       of averages, which no one thought of doing before the eighteenth
+       century.
+
+Of all offences, it might well be supposed that the crime of murder is
+one of the most arbitrary and irregular. For when we consider that this,
+though generally the crowning act of a long career of vice, is often the
+immediate result of what seems a sudden impulse; that when premeditated,
+its committal, even with the least chance of impunity, requires a rare
+combination of favourable circumstances for which the criminal will
+frequently wait; that he has thus to bide his time, and look for
+opportunities he cannot control; that when the time has come his heart
+may fail him; that the question whether or not he shall commit the crime
+may depend on a balance of conflicting motives, such as fear of the law,
+a dread of the penalties held out by religion, the prickings of his own
+conscience, the apprehension of future remorse, the love of gain,
+jealousy, revenge, desperation;--when we put all these things together,
+there arises such a complication of causes, that we might reasonably
+despair of detecting any order or method in the result of those subtle
+and shifting agencies by which murder is either caused or prevented. But
+now, how stands the fact? The fact is, that murder is committed with as
+much regularity, and bears as uniform a relation to certain known
+circumstances, as do the movements of the tides, and the rotations of
+the seasons. M. Quetelet, who has spent his life in collecting and
+methodizing the statistics of different countries, states, as the result
+of his laborious researches, that 'in everything which concerns crime,
+the same numbers re-occur with a constancy which cannot be mistaken; and
+that this is the case even with those crimes which seem quite
+independent of human foresight, such, for instance, as murders, which
+are generally committed after quarrels arising from circumstances
+apparently casual. Nevertheless, we know from experience that every
+year there not only take place nearly the same number of murders, but
+that even the instruments by which they are committed are employed in
+the same proportion.'[23] This was the language used in 1835 by
+confessedly the first statistician in Europe, and every subsequent
+investigation has confirmed its accuracy. For later inquiries have
+ascertained the extraordinary fact that the uniform reproduction of
+crime is more clearly marked, and more capable of being predicted, than
+are the physical laws connected with the disease and destruction of our
+bodies. Thus, for instance, the number of persons accused of crime in
+France between 1826 and 1844 was, by a singular coincidence, about equal
+to the male deaths which took place in Paris during the same period, the
+difference being that the fluctuations in the amount of crime were
+actually smaller than the fluctuations in the mortality; while a similar
+regularity was observed in each separate offence, all of which obeyed
+the same law of uniform and periodical repetition.[24]
+
+  [23] 'Dans tout ce qui se rapporte aux crimes, les mêmes nombres se
+       reproduisent avec une constance telle, qu'il serait impossible de
+       la méconnaître, même pour ceux des crimes qui sembleraient devoir
+       échapper le plus à toute prévision humaine, tels que les meurtres,
+       puisqu'ils se commettent, en général, à la suite de rixes qui
+       naissent sans motifs, et dans les circonstances, en apparence,
+       les plus fortuites. Cependant l'expérience prouve que non-seulement
+       les meurtres sont annuellement à peu près en même nombre, mais
+       encore que les instrumens qui servent à les commettre sont employés
+       dans les mêmes proportions.' _Quetelet sur l'Homme_, Paris, 1835,
+       vol. i. p. 7; see also vol. ii. pp. 164, 247.
+
+  [24] 'Thus in twenty years' observations, the number of persons accused
+       of various crimes in France, and registered under their respective
+       ages, scarcely varies at any age from year to year, comparing the
+       proportion per cent. under each age with the totals. The number of
+       persons accused in all France, in the years 1826 to 1844, was about
+       equal to the deaths of males registered in Paris; but singularly
+       enough, the former results are more regular than the latter,
+       notwithstanding the accidental causes which might affect
+       them;--notwithstanding even a revolution in Paris, which convulsed
+       society and brought in a new dynasty.' _Brown on the Uniform Action
+       of the Human Will_, in _The Assurance Magazine_, no. viii., July
+       1852, pp. 349, 350. That the variations in crime are less than
+       those of mortality, is also noticed in _Statistique Morale_,
+       pp. 18, 34, in _Mémoires de l'Académie de Belgique_, vol. xxi.,
+       Bruxelles, 1848, 4to.
+
+This, indeed, will appear strange to those who believe that human
+actions depend more upon the peculiarities of each individual than on
+the general state of society. But another circumstance remains behind
+still more striking. Among public and registered crimes there is none
+which seems so completely dependent on the individual as suicide.
+Attempts to murder or to rob may be, and constantly are, successfully
+resisted; baffled sometimes by the party attacked, sometimes by the
+officers of justice. But an attempt to commit suicide is much less
+liable to interruption. The man who is determined to kill himself is not
+prevented at the last moment by the struggles of an enemy; and, as he
+can easily guard against the interference of the civil power,[25] his
+act becomes as it were isolated; it is cut off from foreign
+disturbances, and seems more clearly the product of his own volition
+than any other offence could possibly be. We may also add that, unlike
+crimes in general, it is rarely caused by the instigation of
+confederates; so that men, not being goaded into it by their companions,
+are uninfluenced by one great class of external associations which
+might hamper what is termed the freedom of their will. It may,
+therefore, very naturally be thought impracticable to refer suicide to
+general principles, or to detect anything like regularity in an offence
+which is so eccentric, so solitary, so impossible to control by
+legislation, and which the most vigilant police can do nothing to
+diminish. There is also another obstacle that impedes our view: this is,
+that even the best evidence respecting suicide must always be very
+imperfect. In cases of drowning, for example, deaths are liable to be
+returned as suicides which are accidental; while, on the other hand,
+some are called accidental which are voluntary.[26] Thus it is, that
+self-murder seems to be not only capricious and uncontrollable, but also
+very obscure in regard to proof; so that on all these grounds it might
+be reasonable to despair of ever tracing it to those general causes by
+which it is produced.
+
+  [25] The folly of lawgivers thinking that by their enactments they can
+       diminish suicide, is exposed by M. C. Comte in his _Traité de
+       Législation_, vol. i. p. 486. See also some good remarks by
+       Jefferson, in his observations on criminal law in _Appendix to
+       Jefferson's Memoirs, by Randolph_, vol. i. pp. 126, 127. Heber
+       (_Journey through India_, vol. i. pp. 389, 390) found that the
+       English Government had vainly attempted to check the suicides
+       frequently committed at Benares by drowning: and in our country
+       the interference of legislators is met by the perjury of jurors,
+       since, as Bentham says, English juries do not hesitate to violate
+       their oaths by declaring the suicide to be _non compos_.
+       _Principles of Penal Law_, in _Bentham's Works_, edit. Bowring,
+       1843, vol. i. pp. 479, 480. In regard to the determination of the
+       individual, and the impossibility of baffling his intention, there
+       are cases recorded of persons who, being deprived of the ordinary
+       means of destruction, put an end to life by holding their breath;
+       while others effected their purpose by turning back the tongue so
+       as to exclude air from the larynx. _Elliotson's Human Physiology_,
+       pp. 491, 492.
+
+  [26] This also applies to other cases besides those of drowning. See
+       _Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence_, 1846, pp. 587, 597; and on the
+       difficulty of always distinguishing a real suicide from an apparent
+       one, see _Esquirol_, _Maladies Mentales_, vol. i. p. 575. From a
+       third to a half of all suicides are by drowning. Compare _Dufau_,
+       _Traité de Statistique_, p. 304; _Winslow's Anatomy of Suicide_,
+       1840, p. 277; _Quetelet_, _Statistique Morale_, p. 66. But among
+       these, many are no doubt involuntary; and it is certain that
+       popular opinion grossly exaggerates the length of time during which
+       it is possible to remain under water. _Brodie's Surgery_, 1846,
+       pp. 89-92.
+
+These being the peculiarities of this singular crime, it is surely an
+astonishing fact, that all the evidence we possess respecting it points
+to one great conclusion, and can leave no doubt on our minds that
+suicide is merely the product of the general condition of society, and
+that the individual felon only carries into effect what is a necessary
+consequence of preceding circumstances.[27] In a given state of
+society, a certain number of persons must put an end to their own life.
+This is the general law; and the special question as to who shall commit
+the crime depends, of course, upon special laws; which, however, in
+their total action, must obey the large social law to which they are all
+subordinate. And the power of the larger law is so irresistible, that
+neither the love of life nor the fear of another world can avail
+anything towards even checking its operation. The causes of this
+remarkable regularity I shall hereafter examine; but the existence of
+the regularity is familiar to whoever is conversant with moral
+statistics. In the different countries for which we have returns, we
+find year by year the same proportion of persons putting an end to their
+own existence; so that, after making allowance for the impossibility of
+collecting complete evidence, we are able to predict, within a very
+small limit of error, the number of voluntary deaths for each ensuing
+period; supposing, of course, that the social circumstances do not
+undergo any marked change. Even in London, notwithstanding the
+vicissitudes incidental to the largest and most luxurious capital in the
+world, we find a regularity greater than could be expected by the most
+sanguine believer in social laws; since political excitement, mercantile
+excitement, and the misery produced by the dearness of food, are all
+causes of suicide, and are all constantly varying.[28] Nevertheless, in
+this vast metropolis, about 240 persons every year make away with
+themselves; the annual suicides oscillating, from the pressure of
+temporary causes, between 266, the highest, and 213, the lowest. In
+1846, which was the great year of excitement caused by the railway
+panic, the suicides in London were 266; in 1847 began a slight
+improvement, and they fell to 256; in 1848 they were 247; in 1849 they
+were 213; and in 1850 they were 229.[29]
+
+  [27] 'Tout semble dépendre de causes déterminées. Ainsi, nous trouvons
+       annuellement à peu près le même nombre de suicides, non-seulement
+       en général, mais encore en faisant la distinction des sexes, celle
+       des âges, ou même celle des instruments employés pour se détruire.
+       Une année reproduit si fidèlement les chiffres de l'année qui a
+       précédé, qu'on peut prévoir ce qui doit arriver dans l'année qui
+       va suivre.' _Quetelet_, _Statistique Morale_, 1848, p. 35; see
+       also p. 40.
+
+  [28] On the causes of suicides, see _Burdach's Traité de Physiologie_,
+       vol. v. pp. 476-478; and _Forry's Climate and its Endemic
+       Influences_, p. 329. The latest researches of M. Casper confirm
+       the statement of earlier statisticians, that suicide is more
+       frequent among Protestants than among Catholics. _Casper_,
+       _Denkwürdigkeiten zur medicinischen Statistik_, Berlin, 1846,
+       p. 139.
+
+  [29] See the tables in the _Assurance Magazine_, no. iv. p. 309, no.
+       v. p. 34, no. viii. p. 350. These are the only complete
+       consecutive returns of London suicides yet published; those issued
+       by the police being imperfect. _Assurance Magazine_, no. v. p. 53.
+       From inquiries made for me at the General Register Office, in
+       January 1856, I learnt that there was an intention of completing
+       the yearly returns, but I do not know if this has since been done.
+
+Such is some, and only some, of the evidence we now possess respecting
+the regularity with which, in the same state of society, the same crimes
+are necessarily reproduced. To appreciate the full force of this
+evidence, we must remember that it is not an arbitrary selection of
+particular facts, but that it is generalized from an exhaustive
+statement of criminal statistics, consisting of many millions of
+observations, extending over countries in different grades of
+civilization, with different laws, different opinions, different morals,
+different habits. If we add to this, that these statistics have been
+collected by persons specially employed for that purpose, with every
+means of arriving at the truth, and with no interest to deceive, it
+surely must be admitted that the existence of crime according to a fixed
+and uniform scheme, is a fact more clearly attested than any other in
+the moral history of man. We have here parallel chains of evidence
+formed with extreme care, under the most different circumstances, and
+all pointing in the same direction; all of them forcing us to the
+conclusion, that the offences of men are the result not so much of the
+vices of the individual offender as of the state of society into which
+that individual is thrown.[30] This is an inference resting on broad and
+tangible proofs accessible to all the world; and as such cannot be
+overturned, or even impeached, by any of those hypotheses with which
+metaphysicians and theologians have hitherto perplexed the study of
+past events.
+
+  [30] 'L'expérience démontre en effet, avec toute l'évidence possible,
+       cette opinion, qui pourra sembler paradoxale au premier abord, que
+       _c'est la société qui prépare le crime, et que le coupable n'est
+       que l'instrument qui l'exécute_.' _Quetelet sur l'Homme_, vol. ii.
+       p. 325.
+
+Those readers who are acquainted with the manner in which in the
+physical world the operations of the laws of nature are constantly
+disturbed, will expect to find in the moral world disturbances equally
+active. Such aberrations proceed, in both instances, from minor laws,
+which at particular points meet the larger laws, and thus alter their
+normal action. Of this, the science of mechanics affords a good example
+in the instance of that beautiful theory called the parallelogram of
+forces; according to which the forces are to each other in the same
+proportion as is the diagonal of their respective parallelograms.[31]
+This is a law pregnant with great results; it is connected with those
+important mechanical resources, the composition and resolution of
+forces; and no one acquainted with the evidence on which it stands, ever
+thought of questioning its truth. But the moment we avail ourselves of
+it for practical purposes, we find that in its action it is warped by
+other laws, such as those concerning the friction of air, and the
+different density of the bodies on which we operate, arising from their
+chemical composition, or, as some suppose, from their atomic
+arrangement. Perturbations being thus let in, the pure and simple action
+of the mechanical law disappears. Still, and although the results of the
+law are incessantly disturbed, the law itself remains intact.[32] Just
+in the same way, the great social law, that the moral actions of men
+are the product not of their volition, but of their antecedents, is
+itself liable to disturbances which trouble its operation without
+affecting its truth. And this is quite sufficient to explain those
+slight variations which we find from year to year in the total amount of
+crime produced by the same country. Indeed, looking at the fact that the
+moral world is far more abundant in materials than the physical world,
+the only ground for astonishment is that these variations should not be
+greater; and from the circumstance that the discrepancies are so
+trifling, we may form some idea of the prodigious energy of those vast
+social laws, which, though constantly interrupted, seem to triumph over
+every obstacle, and which, when examined by the aid of large numbers,
+scarcely undergo any sensible perturbation.[33]
+
+  [31] The diagonal always giving the resultant when each side represents
+       a force; and if we look on the resultant as a compound force, a
+       comparison of diagonals becomes a comparison of compounds.
+
+  [32] A law of nature being merely a generalization of relations, and
+       having no existence except in the mind, is essentially intangible;
+       and therefore, however small the law may be, it can never admit of
+       exceptions, though its operation may admit of innumerable
+       exceptions. Hence, as Dugald Stewart (_Philosophy of the Mind_,
+       vol. ii. p. 211) rightly says, we can only refer to the laws of
+       nature 'by a sort of figure or metaphor.' This is constantly lost
+       sight of even by authors of repute; some of whom speak of laws as
+       if they were causes, and therefore liable to interruption by larger
+       causes; while other writers pronounce them to be 'delegated
+       agencies' from the Deity. Compare _Prout's Bridgewater Treatise_,
+       pp. 318, 435, 495; _Sadler's Law of Population_, vol. ii. p. 67;
+       _Burdach's Physiologie_, vol. i. p. 160. Mr. Paget, in his able
+       work, _Lectures on Pathology_, vol. i. p. 481, vol. ii. p. 542,
+       with much greater accuracy calls such cases 'apparent exceptions'
+       to laws; but it would be better to say, 'exceptions to the
+       operations of laws.' The context clearly proves that Mr. Paget
+       distinctly apprehends the difference; but a slight alteration of
+       this kind would prevent confusion in the minds of ordinary readers.
+
+  [33] Mr. Rawson, in his _Inquiry into the Statistics of Crime in England
+       and Wales_ (published in the _Journal of the Statistical Society_,
+       vol. ii. pp. 316-344), says, p. 327, 'No greater proof can be given
+       of the possibility of arriving at certain constants with regard to
+       crime, than the fact which appears in the following table, that the
+       greatest variation which has taken place during the last three
+       years, in the proportion of any class of criminals at the same
+       period of life, has not exceeded a half per cent.' See also _Report
+       of British Association for 1839, Transac. of Sec._, p. 118. Indeed,
+       all writers who have examined the evidence are forced to admit this
+       regularity, however they may wish to explain it. M. Dufau (_Traité
+       de Statistique_, p. 144) says, 'Les faits de l'ordre moral sont,
+       aussi bien que ceux de l'ordre naturel, le produit de causes
+       constantes et régulières,' &c.; and at p. 367, 'C'est ainsi que le
+       monde moral se présente à nous, de ce point de vue, comme offrant,
+       de même que le monde physique, un ensemble continu d'effets dus à
+       des causes constantes et régulières, dont il appartient surtout à
+       la statistique de constater l'action.' See to the same effect
+       _Moreau-Christophe des Prisons en France_, Paris, 1838, pp. 53,
+       189.
+
+Nor is it merely the crimes of men which are marked by this uniformity
+of sequence. Even the number of marriages annually contracted, is
+determined, not by the temper and wishes of individuals, but by large
+general facts, over which individuals can exercise no authority. It is
+now known that marriages bear a fixed and definite relation to the price
+of corn;[34] and in England the experience of a century has proved that,
+instead of having any connexion with personal feelings, they are simply
+regulated by the average earnings of the great mass of the people:[35]
+so that this immense social and religious institution is not only
+swayed, but is completely controlled, by the price of food and by the
+rate of wages. In other cases, uniformity has been detected, though the
+causes of the uniformity are still unknown. Thus, to give a curious
+instance, we are now able to prove that even the aberrations of memory
+are marked by this general character of necessary and invariable order.
+The post-offices of London and of Paris have latterly published returns
+of the number of letters which the writers, through forgetfulness,
+omitted to direct; and, making allowance for the difference of
+circumstances, the returns are year after year copies of each other.
+Year after year the same proportion of letter-writers forget this simple
+act; so that for each successive period we can actually foretell the
+number of persons whose memory will fail them in regard to this
+trifling and, as it might appear, accidental occurrence.[36]
+
+  [34] 'It is curious to observe how intimate a relation exists between
+       the price of food and the number of marriages.' ... 'The relation
+       that subsists between the price of food and the number of marriages
+       is not confined to our own country; and it is not improbable that,
+       had we the means of ascertaining the facts, we should see the like
+       result in every civilized community. We possess the necessary
+       returns from France; and these fully bear out the view that has
+       been given.' _Porter's Progress of the Nation_, vol. ii. pp. 244,
+       245, London, 1838.
+
+  [35] 'The marriage returns of 1850 and 1851 exhibit the excess which
+       since 1750 has been invariably observed when the substantial
+       earnings of the people are above the average.' _Journal of
+       Statistical Society_, vol. xv. p. 185.
+
+  [36] See _Somerville's Physical Geography_, vol. ii. pp. 409-411, which,
+       says this able writer, proves that 'forgetfulness as well as free
+       will is under constant laws.' But this is using the word 'free
+       will' in a sense different from that commonly employed.
+
+To those who have a steady conception of the regularity of events, and
+have firmly seized the great truth that the actions of men, being guided
+by their antecedents, are in reality never inconsistent, but, however
+capricious they may appear, only form part of one vast scheme of
+universal order, of which we in the present state of knowledge can
+barely see the outline--to those who understand this, which is at once
+the key and the basis of history, the facts just adduced, so far from
+being strange, will be precisely what would have been expected and ought
+long since to have been known. Indeed, the progress of inquiry is
+becoming so rapid and so earnest, that I entertain little doubt that
+before another century has elapsed, the chain of evidence will be
+complete, and it will be as rare to find an historian who denies the
+undeviating regularity of the moral world, as it now is to find a
+philosopher who denies the regularity of the material world.
+
+It will be observed, that the preceding proofs of our actions being
+regulated by law, have been derived from statistics; a branch of
+knowledge which, though still in its infancy,[37] has already thrown
+more light on the study of human nature than all the sciences put
+together. But although the statisticians have been the first to
+investigate this great subject by treating it according to those methods
+of reasoning which in other fields have been found successful; and
+although they have, by the application of numbers, brought to bear upon
+it a very powerful engine for eliciting truth--we must not, on that
+account, suppose that there are no other resources remaining by which it
+may likewise be cultivated: nor should we infer that because the
+physical sciences have not yet been applied to history, they are
+therefore inapplicable to it. Indeed, when we consider the incessant
+contact between man and the external world, it is certain that there
+must be an intimate connexion between human actions and physical laws;
+so that if physical science had not hitherto been brought to bear upon
+history, the reason is, either that historians have not perceived the
+connexion, or else that, having perceived it, they have been destitute
+of the knowledge by which its workings can be traced. Hence there has
+arisen an unnatural separation of the two great departments of inquiry,
+the study of the internal and that of the external: and although, in the
+present state of European literature, there are some unmistakable
+symptoms of a desire to break down this artificial barrier, still it
+must be admitted that as yet nothing has been actually accomplished
+towards effecting so great an end. The moralists, the theologians, and
+the metaphysicians, continue to prosecute their studies without much
+respect for what they deem the inferior labours of scientific men; whose
+inquiries, indeed, they frequently attack, as dangerous to the interests
+of religion, and as inspiring us with an undue confidence in the
+resources of the human understanding. On the other hand, the cultivators
+of physical science, conscious that they are an advancing body, are
+naturally proud of their own success; and, contrasting their discoveries
+with the more stationary position of their opponents, are led to despise
+pursuits the barrenness of which has now become notorious.
+
+  [37] Achenwall, in the middle of the eighteenth century, is usually
+       considered to be the first systematic writer on statistics, and is
+       said to have given them their present name. See _Lewis_, _Methods
+       of Observation and Reasoning in Politics_, 1852, vol. i. p. 72;
+       _Biographie Universelle_, vol. i. p. 140; _Dufau_, _Traité de
+       Statistique_, pp. 9, 10. Even so late as 1800, the Bishop of
+       Llandaff wrote to Sir John Sinclair, 'I must think the kingdom is
+       highly indebted to you for bringing forward a species of knowledge
+       (statistics) wholly new in this country, though not new in other
+       parts of Europe.' _Sinclair's Correspondence_, vol. i. p. 230.
+       Sinclair, notwithstanding his industry, was a man of slender
+       powers, and did not at all understand the real importance of
+       statistics, of which, indeed, he took a mere practical view.
+       Since then statistics have been applied extensively to medicine;
+       and still more recently, and on a smaller scale, to philology and
+       to jurisprudence. Compare _Bouillaud_, _Philosophie Médicale_,
+       pp. 96, 186; _Renouard_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. ii. pp. 474,
+       475; _Esquirol_, _Maladies Mentales_, vol. ii. pp. 665-667;
+       _Holland's Medical Notes_, pp. 5, 472; _Vogel's Pathological
+       Anatomy_, pp. 15-17; _Simon's Pathology_, p. 180; _Phillips on
+       Scrofula_, pp. 70, 118, &c.; _Prichard's Physical Hist. of
+       Mankind_, vol. iv. p. 414; _Eschbach_, _Etude du Droit_,
+       pp. 392-394.
+
+It is the business of the historian to mediate between these two
+parties, and reconcile their hostile pretensions by showing the point at
+which their respective studies ought to coalesce. To settle the terms of
+this coalition, will be to fix the basis of all history. For since
+history deals with the actions of men, and since their actions are
+merely the product of a collision between internal and external
+phenomena, it becomes necessary to examine the relative importance of
+those phenomena; to inquire into the extent to which their laws are
+known; and to ascertain the resources for future discovery possessed by
+these two great classes, the students of the mind and the students of
+nature. This task I shall endeavour to accomplish in the next two
+chapters: and if I do so with anything approaching to success, the
+present work will at least have the merit of contributing something
+towards filling up that wide and dreary chasm, which, to the hindrance
+of our knowledge, separates subjects that are intimately related, and
+should never be disunited.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+                                NOTE A.
+
+'Der Begriff der Freiheit ist ein reiner Vernunftbegriff, der eben darum
+für die theoretische Philosophie transcendent, d. i. ein solcher ist,
+dem kein angemessenes Beispiel in irgend einer möglichen Erfahrung
+gegeben werden kann, welcher also keinen Gegenstand einer uns möglichen
+theoretischen Erkenntniss ausmacht, und schlechterdings nicht für ein
+constitutives, sondern lediglich als regulatives, und zwar nur bloss
+negatives Princip der speculativen Vernunft gelten kann, im praktischen
+Gebrauche der selben aber seine Realität durch praktische Grundsätze
+beweist, die, als Gesetze, eine Causalität der reinen Vernunft,
+unabhängig von allen empirischen Bedingungen (dem Sinnlichen überhaupt),
+die Willkühr zu bestimmen, und einen reinen Willen in uns beweisen, in
+welchem die sittlichen Begriffe und Gesetze ihren Ursprung haben.'
+_Metaphysik der Sitten_, in _Kant's Werke_, vol. v. pp. 20, 21. 'Würden
+die Gegenstände der Sinnenwelt für Dinge an sich selbst genommen, und
+die oben angeführten Naturgesetze für Gesetze der Dinge an sich selbst,
+so wäre der Widerspruch' (_i.e._ between Liberty and Necessity)
+'unvermeidlich. Ebenso, wenn das Subject der Freiheit gleich den übrigen
+Gegenständen als blose Erscheinung vorgestellt würde, so könnte
+ebensowohl der Widerspruch nicht vermieden werden; denn es würde
+ebendasselbe von einerlei Gegenständen in derselben Bedeutung zugleich
+bejaht und verneint werden. Ist aber Naturnothwendigkeit bloss auf
+Erscheinungen bezogen, und Freiheit bloss auf Dinge an sich selbst, so
+entspringt kein Widerspruch, wenn man gleich beide Arten von Causalität
+annimmt oder zugibt, so schwer oder unmöglich es auch sein möchte, die
+von der letzteren Art begreiflich zu machen.' ... 'Natur also und
+Freiheit eben demselben Dinge, aber in verschiedener Beziehung, einmal
+als Erscheinung, das andre Mal als einem Dinge an sich selbst ohne
+Widerspruch beigelegt werden können.' ... 'Nun kann ich ohne
+Widerspruch sagen: alle Handlungen vernünftiger Wesen, sofern sie
+Erscheinungen sind (in irgend einer Erfahrung angetroffen werden),
+stehen unter der Naturnothwendigkeit; eben dieselben Handlungen aber,
+bloss respective auf das vernünftige Subject und dessen Vermögen, nach
+blosser Vernunft zu handeln, sind frei.' _Prolegomena zu jeder künftigen
+Metaphysik_, in _Kant's Werke_, vol. iii. pp. 268-270. 'Denn ein
+Geschöpf zu sein und als Naturwesen bloss dem Willen seines Urhebers zu
+folgen; dennoch aber als freihandelndes Wesen (welches seinen vom
+äusseren Einfluss unabhängigen Willen hat, der dem ersteren vielfältig
+zuwider sein kann), der Zurechnung fähig zu sein, und seine eigene That
+doch auch zugleich als die Wirkung eines höheren Wesens anzusehen: ist
+eine Vereinbarung von Begriffen, die wir zwar in der Idee einer Welt,
+als des höchsten Gutes, zusammen denken müssen; die aber nur der
+einsehen kann, welcher bis zur Kenntniss der übersinnlichen
+(intelligiblen) Welt durchdringt und die Art einsieht, wie sie der
+Sinnenwelt zum Grunde liegt.' _Theodicee_, in _Kant's Werke_, vol. vi.
+p. 149. 'Nun wollen wir annehmen, die durch unsere Kritik nothwendig
+gemachte Unterscheidung der Dinge, als Gegenstände der Erfahrung, von
+eben denselben, als Dingen an sich selbst, wäre gar nicht gemacht, so
+müsste der Grundsatz der Causalität und mithin der Naturmechanismus in
+Bestimmung derselben durchaus von allen Dingen überhaupt als wirkenden
+Ursachen gelten. Von eben demselben Wesen also, z. B. der menschlichen
+Seele, würde ich nicht sagen können, ihr Wille sei frei, und er sei doch
+zugleich der Naturnothwendigkeit unterworfen, d. i. nicht frei, ohne in
+einen offenbaren Widerspruch zu gerathen; weil ich die Seele in beiden
+Sätzen in eben derselben Bedeutung, nämlich als Ding überhaupt (als
+Sache an sich selbst), genommen habe und, ohne vorhergehende Kritik,
+auch nicht anders nehmen konnte. Wenn aber die Kritik nicht geirrt hat,
+da sie das Object in zweierlei Bedeutung nehmen lehrt, nämlich als
+Erscheinung, oder als Ding an sich selbst; wenn die Deduction ihrer
+Verstandesbegriffe richtig ist, mithin auch der Grundsatz der Causalität
+nur auf Dinge im ersten Sinne genommen, nämlich so fern sie Gegenstände
+der Erfahrung sind, geht, eben dieselben aber nach der zweiten Bedeutung
+ihm nicht unterworfen sind, so wird eben derselbe Wille in der
+Erscheinung (den sichtbaren Handlungen) als dem Naturgesetze nothwendig
+gemäss und so fern nicht frei, und doch andererseits, als einem Dinge an
+sich selbst angehörig, jenem nicht unterworfen, mithin als frei gedacht,
+ohne dass hiebei ein Widerspruch vorgeht.' _Kritik der reinen Vernunft_,
+in _Kant's Werke_, vol. ii. p. 24. 'Und hier zeigt die zwar gemeine,
+aber betrügliche Voraussetzung der absoluten Realität der Erscheinungen
+sogleich ihren nachtheiligen Einfluss, die Vernunft zu verwirren. Denn
+sind Erscheinungen Dinge an sich selbst, so ist Freiheit nicht zu
+retten. Alsdann ist Natur die vollständige und an sich hinreichend
+bestimmende Ursache jeder Begebenheit, und die Bedingung derselben ist
+jederzeit nur in der Reihe der Erscheinungen enthalten, die sammt ihrer
+Wirkung unter dem Naturgesetze nothwendig sind. Wenn dagegen
+Erscheinungen für Nichts mehr gelten, als sie in der That sind, nämlich
+nicht für Dinge an sich, sondern blosse Vorstellungen, die nach
+empirischen Gesetzen zusammenhängen, so müssen sie selbst noch Gründe
+haben, die nicht Erscheinungen sind.' ... 'Hier habe ich nur die
+Anmerkung machen wollen, dass, da der durchgängige Zusammenhang aller
+Erscheinungen in einem Context der Natur ein unnachlässliches Gesetz
+ist, dieses alle Freiheit nothwendig umstürzen müsste, wenn man der
+Realität der Erscheinungen hartnäckig anhängen wollte. Daher auch
+diejenigen, welche hierin der gemeinen Meinung folgen, niemals dahin
+haben gelangen können, Natur und Freiheit mit einander zu vereinigen.'
+_Kritik_, in _Werke_, vol. ii. pp. 419, 420. Finally, at p. 433, 'Man
+muss wohl bemerken, dass wir hiedurch nicht die Wirklichkeit der
+Freiheit, als eines der Vermögen, welche die Ursache von den
+Erscheinungen unserer Sinnenwelt enthalten, haben darthun wollen. Denn
+ausser dass dieses gar keine transcendentale Betrachtung, die bloss mit
+Begriffen zu thun hat, gewesen sein würde, so könnte es auch nicht
+gelingen, indem wir aus der Erfahrung niemals auf Etwas, was gar nicht
+nach Erfahrungsgesetzen gedacht werden muss, schliessen können. Ferner
+haben wir auch gar nicht einmal die Möglichkeit der Freiheit beweisen
+wollen; denn dieses wäre auch nicht gelungen, weil wir überhaupt von
+keinem Realgrunde und keiner Causalität aus blossen Begriffen _a priori_
+die Möglichkeit erkennen können. Die Freiheit wird hier nur als
+transcendentale Idee behandelt, wodurch die Vernunft die Reihe der
+Bedingungen in der Erscheinung durch das sinnlich Unbedingte schlechthin
+aufzuheben denkt, dabei sich in eine Antinomie mit ihren eigenen
+Gesetzen, welche sie dem empirischen Gebrauche des Verstandes
+vorschreibt, verwickelt. Dass nun diese Antinomie auf einem blossen
+Scheine beruhe, und dass Natur der Causalität aus Freiheit wenigstens
+nicht widerstreite, das war das Einzige, was wir leisten konnten, und
+woran es uns auch einzig und allein gelegen war.'
+
+These passages prove that Kant saw that the phenomenal reality of Free
+Will is an indefensible doctrine: and as the present work is an
+investigation of the laws of phenomena, his transcendental philosophy
+does not affect my conclusions. According to Kant's view (and with which
+I am inclined to agree) the ordinary metaphysical and theological
+treatment of this dark problem is purely empirical, and therefore has no
+value. The denial of the supremacy of consciousness follows as a natural
+consequence, and is the result of the Kantian philosophy, and not, as is
+often said, the base of it.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+     INFLUENCE EXERCISED BY PHYSICAL LAWS OVER THE ORGANIZATION OF
+     SOCIETY AND OVER THE CHARACTER OF INDIVIDUALS.
+
+
+If we inquire what those physical agents are by which the human race is
+most powerfully influenced, we shall find that they may be classed under
+four heads: namely, Climate, Food, Soil, and the General Aspect of
+Nature; by which last, I mean those appearances which, though presented
+chiefly to the sight, have, through the medium of that or other senses,
+directed the association of ideas, and hence in different countries have
+given rise to different habits of national thought. To one of these four
+classes, may be referred all the external phenomena by which Man has
+been permanently affected. The last of these classes, or what I call the
+General Aspect of Nature, produces its principal results by exciting the
+imagination, and by suggesting those innumerable superstitions which are
+the great obstacles to advancing knowledge. And as, in the infancy of a
+people, the power of such superstitions is supreme, it has happened that
+the various Aspects of Nature have caused corresponding varieties in the
+popular character, and have imparted to the national religion
+peculiarities which, under certain circumstances, it is impossible to
+efface. The other three agents, namely, Climate, Food, and Soil, have,
+so far as we are aware, had no direct influence of this sort; but they
+have, as I am about to prove, originated the most important consequences
+in regard to the general organization of society, and from them there
+have followed many of those large and conspicuous differences between
+nations, which are often ascribed to some fundamental difference in the
+various races into which mankind is divided. But while such original
+distinctions of race are altogether hypothetical,[38] the discrepancies
+which are caused by difference of climate, food, and soil, are capable
+of a satisfactory explanation, and, when understood, will be found to
+clear up many of the difficulties which still obscure the study of
+history. I purpose, therefore, in the first place, to examine the laws
+of these three vast agents in so far as they are connected with Man in
+his social condition; and having traced the working of those laws with
+as much precision as the present state of physical knowledge will allow,
+I shall then examine the remaining agent, namely, the General Aspect of
+Nature, and shall endeavour to point out the most important divergencies
+to which its variations have, in different countries, naturally given
+rise.
+
+  [38] I cordially subscribe to the remark of one of the greatest thinkers
+       of our time, who says of the supposed differences of race, 'of all
+       vulgar modes of escaping from the consideration of the effect of
+       social and moral influences on the human mind, the most vulgar is
+       that of attributing the diversities of conduct and character to
+       inherent natural differences.' _Mill's Principles of Political
+       Economy_, vol. i. p. 390. Ordinary writers are constantly falling
+       into the error of assuming the existence of this difference, which
+       may or may not exist but which most assuredly has never been
+       proved. Some singular instances of this will be found in _Alison's
+       History of Europe_, vol. ii. p. 336, vol. vi. p. 136, vol. viii.
+       pp. 525, 526, vol. xiii. p. 347; where the historian thinks that
+       by a few strokes of his pen he can settle a question of the
+       greatest difficulty, connected with some of the most intricate
+       problems in physiology. On the supposed relation between race and
+       temperament, see _Comte_, _Philosophie Positive_, vol. iii. p. 355.
+
+Beginning, then, with climate, food, and soil, it is evident that these
+three physical powers are in no small degree dependent on each other:
+that is to say, there is a very close connexion between the climate of a
+country and the food which will ordinarily be grown in that country;
+while at the same time the food is itself influenced by the soil which
+produces it, as also by the elevation or depression of the land, by the
+state of the atmosphere, and, in a word, by all those conditions to the
+assemblage of which the name of Physical Geography is, in its largest
+sense, commonly given.[39]
+
+  [39] As to the proper limits of physical geography, see _Prichard on
+       Ethnology_, in _Report of the British Association for_ 1847,
+       p. 235. The word 'climate' I always use in the narrow and popular
+       sense. Dr. Forry and many previous writers make it nearly coincide
+       with 'physical geography:' 'Climate constitutes the aggregate of
+       all the external physical circumstances appertaining to each
+       locality in its relation to organic nature.' _Forry's Climate of
+       the United States and its Endemic Influences_, New York, 1842,
+       p. 127.
+
+The union between these physical agents being thus intimate, it seems
+advisable to consider them not under their own separate heads, but
+rather under the separate heads of the effects produced by their united
+action. In this way we shall rise at once to a more comprehensive view
+of the whole question; we shall avoid the confusion that would be caused
+by artificially separating phenomena which are in themselves
+inseparable; and we shall be able to see more clearly the extent of that
+remarkable influence, which, in an early stage of society, the powers of
+Nature exercise over the fortunes of Man.
+
+Of all the results which are produced among a people by their climate,
+food, and soil, the accumulation of wealth is the earliest, and in many
+respects the most important. For although the progress of knowledge
+eventually accelerates the increase of wealth, it is nevertheless
+certain that, in the first formation of society, the wealth must
+accumulate before the knowledge can begin. As long as every man is
+engaged in collecting the materials necessary for his own subsistence,
+there will be neither leisure nor taste for higher pursuits; no science
+can possibly be created, and the utmost that can be effected will be an
+attempt to economise labour by the contrivance of such rude and
+imperfect instruments as even the most barbarous people are able to
+invent.
+
+In a state of society like this, the accumulation of wealth is the first
+great step that can be taken, because without wealth there can be no
+leisure, and without leisure there can be no knowledge. If what a people
+consume is always exactly equal to what they possess, there will be no
+residue, and therefore, no capital being accumulated, there will be no
+means by which the unemployed classes may be maintained.[40] But if the
+produce is greater than the consumption, an overplus arises, which,
+according to well-known principles, increases itself, and eventually
+becomes a fund out of which, immediately or remotely, every one is
+supported who does not create the wealth upon which he lives. And now it
+is that the existence of an intellectual class first becomes possible,
+because for the first time there exists a previous accumulation, by
+means of which men can use what they did not produce, and are thus
+enabled to devote themselves to subjects for which at an earlier period
+the pressure of their daily wants would have left them no time.
+
+  [40] By unemployed classes, I mean what Adam Smith calls the
+       unproductive classes; and though both expressions are strictly
+       speaking inaccurate, the word 'unemployed' seems to convey more
+       clearly than any other the idea in the text.
+
+Thus it is that of all the great social improvements the accumulation of
+wealth must be the first, because without it there can be neither taste
+nor leisure for that acquisition of knowledge on which, as I shall
+hereafter prove, the progress of civilization depends. Now, it is
+evident that among an entirely ignorant people, the rapidity with which
+wealth is created will be solely regulated by the physical peculiarities
+of their country. At a later period, and when the wealth has been
+capitalized, other causes come into play; but until this occurs, the
+progress can only depend on two circumstances: first on the energy and
+regularity with which labour is conducted, and secondly on the returns
+made to that labour by the bounty of nature. And these two causes are
+themselves the result of physical antecedents. The returns made to
+labour are governed by the fertility of the soil, which is itself
+regulated partly by the admixture of its chemical components, partly by
+the extent to which, from rivers or from other natural causes, the soil
+is irrigated, and partly by the heat and humidity of the atmosphere. On
+the other hand, the energy and regularity with which labour is
+conducted, will be entirely dependent on the influence of climate. This
+will display itself in two different ways. The first, which is a very
+obvious consideration, is, that if the heat is intense, men will be
+indisposed, and in some degree unfitted, for that active industry which
+in a milder climate they might willingly have exerted. The other
+consideration, which has been less noticed, but is equally important,
+is, that climate influences labour not only by enervating the labourer
+or by invigorating him, but also by the effect it produces on the
+regularity of his habits.[41] Thus we find that no people living in a
+very northern latitude have ever possessed that steady and unflinching
+industry for which the inhabitants of temperate regions are remarkable.
+The reason of this becomes clear, when we remember that in the more
+northern countries the severity of the weather, and, at some seasons,
+the deficiency of light, render it impossible for the people to continue
+their usual out-of-door employments. The result is, that the working
+classes being compelled to cease from their ordinary pursuits, are
+rendered more prone to desultory habits; the chain of their industry is
+as it were broken, and they lose that impetus which long-continued and
+uninterrupted practice never fails to give. Hence there arises a
+national character more fitful and capricious than that possessed by a
+people whose climate permits the regular exercise of their ordinary
+industry. Indeed, so powerful is this principle, that we may perceive
+its operation even under the most opposite circumstances. It would be
+difficult to conceive a greater difference in government, laws,
+religion, and manners, than that which distinguishes Sweden and Norway
+on the one hand, from Spain and Portugal on the other. But these four
+countries have one great point in common. In all of them, continued
+agricultural industry is impracticable. In the two southern countries,
+labour is interrupted by the heat, by the dryness of the weather, and
+by the consequent state of the soil. In the two northern countries, the
+same effect is produced by the severity of the winter and the shortness
+of the days. The consequence is, that these four nations, though so
+different in other respects, are all remarkable for a certain
+instability and fickleness of character; presenting a striking contrast
+to the more regular and settled habits which are established in
+countries whose climate subjects the working classes to fewer
+interruptions, and imposes on them the necessity of a more constant and
+unremitting employment.[42]
+
+  [41] This has been entirely neglected by the three most philosophical
+       writers on climate: Montesquieu, Hume, and M. Charles Comte in his
+       _Traité de Législation_. It is also omitted in the remarks of
+       M. Guizot on the influence of climate, _Civilisation en Europe_,
+       p. 97.
+
+  [42] See the admirable remarks in _Laing's Denmark_, 1852, pp. 204, 366,
+       367; though Norway appears to be a better illustration than
+       Denmark. In _Rey's Science Sociale_, vol. i. pp. 195, 196, there
+       are some calculations respecting the average loss to agricultural
+       industry caused by changes in the weather; but no notice is taken
+       of the connexion between these changes, when abrupt, and the tone
+       of the national character.
+
+These are the great physical causes by which the creation of wealth is
+governed. There are, no doubt, other circumstances which operate with
+considerable force, and which, in a more advanced state of society,
+possess an equal, and sometimes a superior, influence. But this is at a
+later period; and looking at the history of wealth in its earliest
+stage, it will be found to depend entirely on soil and climate: the soil
+regulating the returns made to any given amount of labour; the climate
+regulating the energy and constancy of the labour itself. It requires
+but a hasty glance at past events, to prove the immense power of these
+two great physical conditions. For there is no instance in history of
+any country being civilized by its own efforts, unless it has possessed
+one of these conditions in a very favourable form. In Asia, civilization
+has always been confined to that vast tract where a rich and alluvial
+soil has secured to man that wealth without some share of which no
+intellectual progress can begin. This great region extends, with a few
+interruptions, from the east of Southern China to the western coasts of
+Asia Minor, of Ph[oe]nicia, and of Palestine. To the north of this
+immense belt, there is a long line of barren country which has
+invariably been peopled by rude and wandering tribes, who are kept in
+poverty by the ungenial nature of the soil, and who, as long as they
+remained on it, have never emerged from their uncivilized state. How
+entirely this depends on physical causes, is evident from the fact that
+these same Mongolian and Tartarian hordes have, at different periods,
+founded great monarchies in China, in India, and in Persia, and have, on
+all such occasions, attained a civilization nowise inferior to that
+possessed by the most nourishing of the ancient kingdoms. For in the
+fertile plains of Southern Asia,[43] nature has supplied all the
+materials of wealth; and there it was that these barbarous tribes
+acquired for the first time some degree of refinement, produced a
+national literature, and organized a national polity; none of which
+things they, in their native land, had been able to effect.[44] In the
+same way, the Arabs in their own country have, owing to the extreme
+aridity of their soil,[45] always been a rude and uncultivated people;
+for in their case, as in all others, great ignorance is the fruit of
+great poverty. But in the seventh century they conquered Persia;[46] in
+the eighth century they conquered the best part of Spain;[47] in the
+ninth century they conquered the Punjaub, and eventually nearly the
+whole of India.[48] Scarcely were they established in their fresh
+settlements, when their character seemed to undergo a great change.
+They, who in their original land were little else than roving savages,
+were now for the first time able to accumulate wealth, and, therefore,
+for the first time did they make some progress in the arts of
+civilization. In Arabia they had been a mere race of wandering
+shepherds;[49] in their new abodes they became the founders of mighty
+empires--they built cities, endowed schools, collected libraries; and
+the traces of their power are still to be seen at Cordova, at Bagdad,
+and at Delhi.[50] Precisely in the same manner, there is adjoining
+Arabia at the north, and only separated from it elsewhere by the narrow
+waters of the Red Sea, an immense sandy plain, which, covering the whole
+of Africa in the same latitude, extends westward until it reaches the
+shores of the Atlantic.[51] This enormous tract is, like Arabia, a
+barren waste;[52] and therefore, as in Arabia, the inhabitants have
+always been entirely uncivilized, acquiring no knowledge, simply because
+they have accumulated no wealth.[53] But this great desert is, in its
+eastern part, irrigated by the waters of the Nile, the overflowing of
+which covers the sand with a rich alluvial deposit, that yields to
+labour the most abundant, and indeed the most extraordinary,
+returns.[54] The consequence is, that in that spot, wealth was rapidly
+accumulated, the cultivation of knowledge quickly followed, and this
+narrow strip of land[55] became the seat of Egyptian civilization; a
+civilization which, though grossly exaggerated,[56] forms a striking
+contrast to the barbarism of the other nations of Africa, none of which
+have been able to work out their own progress, or emerge, in any degree,
+from the ignorance to which the penury of nature has doomed them.
+
+  [43] This expression has been used by different geographers in different
+       senses; but I take it in its common acceptation, without reference
+       to the more strictly physical view of Ritter and his followers in
+       regard to Central Asia. See _Prichard's Physical History of
+       Mankind_, vol. iv. p. 278, edit. 1844. At p. 92, Prichard makes the
+       Himalaya the southern boundary of Central Asia.
+
+  [44] There is reason to believe that the Tartars of Thibet received even
+       their alphabet from India. See the interesting Essay on Tartarian
+       Coins in _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. iv. pp. 276, 277; and
+       on the Scythian Alphabet, see vol. xii. p. 336.
+
+  [45] In _Somerville's Physical Geography_, vol. i. p. 132, it is said
+       that in Arabia there are 'no rivers;' but Mr. Wellsted (_Travels in
+       Arabia_, vol. ii. p. 409) mentions one which empties itself into
+       the sea five miles west of Aden. On the streams in Arabia, see
+       _Meiners über die Fruchtbarkeit der Länder_, vol. i. pp. 149, 150.
+       That the sole deficiency is want of irrigation appears from
+       Burckhardt, who says (_Travels in Arabia_, vol. i. p. 240), 'In
+       Arabia, wherever the ground can be irrigated by wells, the sands
+       may be soon made productive.' And for a striking description of one
+       of the oases of Oman, which shows what Arabia might have been with
+       a good river system, see _Journal of Geographical Society_, vol.
+       vii. pp. 106, 107.
+
+  [46] Mr. Morier (_Journal of Geog. Soc._ vol. vii. p. 230) says, 'the
+       conquest of Persia by the Saracens A.D. 651.' However, the fate of
+       Persia was decided by the battles of Kudseah and Nahavund, which
+       were fought in 638 and 641: see _Malcolm's History of Persia_,
+       vol. i. pp. xvi. 139, 142.
+
+  [47] In 712. _Hallam's Middle Ages_, vol. i. p. 369.
+
+  [48] They were established in the Punjaub early in the ninth century,
+       but did not conquer Guzerat and Malwa until five hundred years
+       later. Compare Wilson's note in the _Vishnu Purana_, pp. 481, 482,
+       with _Asiatic Researches_, vol. ix. pp. 187, 188, 203. On their
+       progress in the more southern part of the Peninsula, see _Journal
+       of Asiatic Society_, vol. iii. pp. 222, 223, vol. iv. pp. 28-30.
+
+  [49] 'A race of pastoral barbarians.' _Dickinson on the Arabic
+       Language_, in _Journal of Asiat. Society_, vol. v. p. 323. Compare
+       _Reynier_, _Economie des Arabes_, pp. 27, 28; where, however, a
+       very simple question is needlessly complicated. The old Persian
+       writers bestowed on them the courteous appellation of 'a band of
+       naked lizard-eaters.' _Malcolm's Hist. of Persia_, vol. i. p. 133.
+       Indeed, there are few things in history better proved than the
+       barbarism of a people whom some writers wish to invest with a
+       romantic interest. The eulogy passed on them by Meiners is rather
+       suspicious, for he concludes by saying, 'die Eroberungen der
+       Araber waren höchst selten so blutig und zerstörend, als die
+       Eroberungen der Tataren, Persen, Türken, u.s.w. in ältern und
+       neuern Zeiten waren.' _Fruchtbarkeit der Länder_, vol. i. p. 153.
+       If this is the best that can be said, the comparison with Tartars
+       and Turks does not prove much; but it is singular that this learned
+       author should have forgotten a passage in Diodorus Siculus which
+       gives a pleasant description of them nineteen centuries ago on the
+       eastern side: _Bibliothec. Hist._ lib. ii. vol. ii. p. 137.
+       [Greek: echousi de bion lêstrikon, kai pollên tês homorou chôras
+       katatrechontes lêsteuousin], &c.
+
+  [50] The only branch of knowledge which the Arabians ever raised to a
+       science was astronomy, which began to be cultivated under the
+       caliphs about the middle of the eighth century, and went on
+       improving until 'la ville de Bagdad fut, pendant le dixième siècle,
+       le théâtre principal de l'astronomie chez les orientaux.'
+       _Montucla_, _Histoire des Mathématiques_, vol. i. pp. 355, 364. The
+       old Pagan Arabs, like most barbarous people living in a clear
+       atmosphere, had such an empirical acquaintance with the celestial
+       phenomena as was used for practical purposes; but there is no
+       evidence to justify the common opinion that they studied this
+       subject as a science. Dr. Dorn (_Transactions of the Asiatic
+       Society_, vol. ii. p. 371) says, 'of a scientific knowledge of
+       astronomy among them no traces can be discovered.' Beausobre
+       (_Histoire de Manichée_, vol. i. p. 20) is quite enthusiastic about
+       the philosophy of the Arabs in the time of Pythagoras! and he tells
+       us, that 'ces peuples out toujours cultivé les sciences.' To
+       establish this fact, he quotes a long passage from a life of
+       Mohammed written early in the eighteenth century by
+       Boulainvilliers, whom he calls, 'un des plus beaux génies de
+       France.' If this is an accurate description, those who have read
+       the works of Boulainvilliers will think that France was badly off
+       for men of genius; and as to his life of Mohammed, it is little
+       better than a romance: the author was ignorant of Arabic, and knew
+       nothing which had not been already communicated by Maracci and
+       Pococke. See _Biographie Universelle_, vol. v. p. 321.
+
+       In regard to the later Arabian astronomers, one of their great
+       merits was to approximate to the value of the annual precession
+       much closer than Ptolemy had done. See _Grant's History of
+       Physical Astronomy_, 1852, p. 319.
+
+  [51] Indeed it goes beyond it: 'the trackless sands of the Sahara
+       desert, which is even prolonged for miles into the Atlantic Ocean
+       in the form of sandbanks.' _Somerville's Physical Geography_,
+       vol. i. p. 149. For a singular instance of one of these sandbanks
+       being formed into an island, see _Journal of Geograph. Society_,
+       vol. ii. p. 284. The Sahara desert, exclusive of Bornou and
+       Darfour, covers an area of 194,000 square leagues; that is, nearly
+       three times the size of France, or twice the size of the
+       Mediterranean. Compare _Lyell's Geology_, p. 694, with
+       _Somerville's Connexion of the Sciences_, p. 294. As to the
+       probable southern limits of the plateau of the Sahara, see
+       _Richardson's Mission to Central Africa_, 1853, vol. ii. pp. 146,
+       156; and as to the part of it adjoining the Mandingo country, see
+       _Mungo Park's Travels_, vol. i. pp. 237, 238. Respecting the
+       country south of Mandara, some scanty information was collected by
+       Denham in the neighbourhood of Lake Tchad. _Denham's Northern and
+       Central Africa_, pp. 121, 122, 144-146.
+
+  [52] Richardson, who travelled through it south of Tripoli, notices its
+       'features of sterility, of unconquerable barrenness.' _Richardson's
+       Sahara_, 1848, vol. i. p. 86; and see the striking picture at
+       p. 409. The long and dreary route from Mourzouk to Yeou, on Lake
+       Tchad, is described by Denham, one of the extremely few Europeans
+       who have performed that hazardous journey. _Denham's Central
+       Africa_, pp. 2-60. Even on the shore of the Tchad there is hardly
+       any vegetation, 'a coarse grass and a small bell-flower being the
+       only plants that I could discover,' p. 90. Compare his remark on
+       Bornou, p. 317. The condition of part of the desert in the
+       fourteenth century is described in the _Travels of Ibn Batuta_,
+       p. 233, which should be compared with the account given by Diodorus
+       Siculus of the journey of Alexander to the temple of Ammon.
+       _Bibliothec. Historic._ lib. xvii. vol. vii. p. 348.
+
+  [53] Richardson, who travelled in 1850 from Tripoli to within a few days
+       of Lake Tchad, was struck by the stationary character of the
+       people. He says, 'neither in the desert nor in the kingdoms of
+       Central Africa is there any march of civilization. All goes on
+       according to a certain routine established for ages past.'
+       _Mission to Central Africa_, vol. i. pp. 304, 305. See similar
+       remarks in _Pallme's Travels in Kordofan_, pp. 108, 109.
+
+  [54] Abd-Allatif, who was in Egypt early in the thirteenth century,
+       gives an interesting account of the rising of the Nile, to which
+       Egypt owes its fertility. _Abd-Allatif_, _Relation de l'Egypte_,
+       pp. 329-340, 374-376, and Appendix, p. 504. See also on these
+       periodical inundations. _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. iv.
+       pp. 101-104; and on the half-astronomical half theological notions
+       connected with them, pp. 372-377, vol. v. pp. 291, 292. Compare on
+       the religious importance of the Nile _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. i.
+       p. 409. The expression, therefore, of Herodotus (book ii. chap.
+       v. vol. i. p. 484), [Greek: dôron tou potamou] is true in a much
+       larger sense than he intended; since to the Nile Egypt owes all
+       the physical peculiarities which distinguish it from Arabia and
+       the great African desert. Compare _Heeren's African Nations_,
+       vol. ii. p. 58; _Reynier_, _Economie des Arabes_, p. 3; _Postan's
+       on the Nile and Indus_, in _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. vii.
+       p. 275; and on the difference between the soil of the Nile and
+       that of the surrounding desert, see _Volney_, _Voyage en Syrie et
+       en Egypte_, vol. i. p. 14.
+
+  [55] 'The average breadth of the valley from one mountain-range to the
+       other, between Cairo in Lower, and Edfoo in Upper Egypt, is only
+       about seven miles; and that of the cultivable land, whose limits
+       depend on the inundation, scarcely exceeds five and a half.'
+       _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. i. p. 216. According to
+       Gerard, 'the mean width of the valley between Syene and Cairo is
+       about nine miles.' Note in _Heeren's African Nations_, vol. ii.
+       p. 62.
+
+  [56] I will give one instance of this from an otherwise sensible writer,
+       and a man too of considerable learning: 'As to the physical
+       knowledge of the Egyptians, their cotemporaries gave them credit
+       for the astonishing power of their magic; and as we cannot suppose
+       that the instances recorded in Scripture were to be attributed to
+       the exertion of supernatural powers, we must conclude that they
+       were in possession of a more intimate knowledge of the laws and
+       combinations of nature than what is professed by the most learned
+       men of the present age.' _Hamilton's Ægyptiaca_, pp. 61, 62. It is
+       a shame that such nonsense should be written in the nineteenth
+       century: and yet a still more recent author (_Vyse on the
+       Pyramids_, vol. i. p. 28) assures us that 'the Egyptians, for
+       especial purposes, were endowed with great wisdom and science.'
+       Science properly so called, the Egyptians had none; and as to
+       their wisdom, it was considerable enough to distinguish them from
+       barbarous nations like the old Hebrews, but it was inferior to
+       that of the Greeks, and it was of course immeasurably below that
+       of modern Europe.
+
+These considerations clearly prove that of the two primary causes of
+civilization, the fertility of the soil is the one which in the ancient
+world exercised most influence. But in European civilization, the other
+great cause, that is to say, climate, has been the most powerful; and
+this, as we have seen, produces an effect partly on the capacity of the
+labourer for work, partly on the regularity or irregularity of his
+habits. The difference in the result has curiously corresponded with the
+difference in the cause. For, although all civilization must have for
+its antecedent the accumulation of wealth, still what subsequently
+occurs will be in no small degree determined by the conditions under
+which the accumulation took place. In Asia, and in Africa, the condition
+was a fertile soil, causing an abundant return; in Europe, it was a
+happier climate, causing more successful labour. In the former case, the
+effect depends on the relation between the soil and its produce; in
+other words, the mere operation of one part of external nature upon
+another. In the latter case, the effect depends on the relation between
+the climate and the labourer; that is, the operation of external nature
+not upon itself, but upon man. Of these two classes of relations, the
+first, being the less complicated, is the less liable to disturbance,
+and therefore came sooner into play. Hence it is, that, in the march of
+civilization, the priority is unquestionably due to the most fertile
+parts of Asia and Africa. But although their civilization was the
+earliest, it was very far, indeed, from being the best or most
+permanent. Owing to circumstances which I shall presently state, the
+only progress which is really effective depends, not upon the bounty of
+nature, but upon the energy of man. Therefore it is, that the
+civilization of Europe, which, in its earliest stage, was governed by
+climate, has shown a capacity of development unknown to those
+civilizations which were originated by soil. For the powers of nature,
+notwithstanding their apparent magnitude, are limited and stationary; at
+all events, we have not the slightest proof that they have ever
+increased, or that they will ever be able to increase. But the powers of
+man, so far as experience and analogy can guide us, are unlimited; nor
+are we possessed of any evidence which authorizes us to assign even an
+imaginary boundary at which the human intellect will, of necessity, be
+brought to a stand. And as this power which the mind possesses of
+increasing its own resources, is a peculiarity confined to man, and one
+eminently distinguishing him from what is commonly called external
+nature, it becomes evident that the agency of climate, which gives him
+wealth by stimulating his labour, is more favourable to his ultimate
+progress than the agency of soil, which likewise gives him wealth, but
+which does so, not by exciting his energies, but by virtue of a mere
+physical relation between the character of the soil and the quantity or
+value of the produce that it almost spontaneously affords.
+
+Thus far as to the different ways in which climate and soil affect the
+creation of wealth. But another point of equal, or perhaps of superior,
+importance remains behind. After the wealth has been created, a question
+arises as to how it is to be distributed; that is to say, what
+proportion is to go to the upper classes, and what to the lower. In an
+advanced stage of society, this depends upon several circumstances of
+great complexity, and which it is not necessary here to examine.[57] But
+in a very early stage of society, and before its later and refined
+complications have begun, it may, I think, be proved that the
+distribution of wealth is, like its creation, governed entirely by
+physical laws; and that those laws are moreover so active as to have
+invariably kept a vast majority of the inhabitants of the fairest
+portion of the globe in a condition of constant and inextricable
+poverty. If this can be demonstrated, the immense importance of such
+laws is manifest. For since wealth is an undoubted source of power, it
+is evident that, supposing other things equal, an inquiry into the
+distribution of wealth is an inquiry into the distribution of power,
+and, as such, will throw great light on the origin of those social and
+political inequalities, the play and opposition of which form a
+considerable part of the history of every civilized country.
+
+  [57] Indeed many of them are still unknown; for, as M. Rey justly
+       observes, most writers pay too exclusive an attention to the
+       production of wealth, and neglect the laws of its distribution.
+       _Rey_, _Science Sociale_, vol. iii. p. 271. In confirmation of
+       this, I may mention the theory of rent, which was only discovered
+       about half a century ago, and which is connected with so many
+       subtle arguments that it is not yet generally adopted; and even
+       some of its advocates have shown themselves unequal to defending
+       their own cause. The great law of the ratio between the cost of
+       labour and the profits of stock, is the highest generalization we
+       have reached respecting the distribution of wealth; but it cannot
+       be consistently admitted by anyone who holds that rent enters into
+       price.
+
+If we take a general view of this subject, we may say that after the
+creation and accumulation of wealth have once fairly begun, it will be
+distributed among two classes, those who labour, and those who do not
+labour; the latter being, as a class, the more able, the former the more
+numerous. The fund by which both classes are supported is immediately
+created by the lower class, whose physical energies are directed,
+combined, and as it were economized, by the superior skill of the upper
+class. The reward of the workmen is called their wages; the reward of
+the contrivers is called their profits. At a later period, there will
+arise what may be called the saving class; that is, a body of men who
+neither contrive nor work, but lend their accumulations to those who
+contrive, and in return for the loan, receive a part of that reward
+which belongs to the contriving class. In this case, the members of the
+saving class are rewarded for their abstinence in refraining from
+spending their accumulations, and this reward is termed the interest of
+their money; so that there is made a threefold division--Interest,
+Profits, and Wages. But this is a subsequent arrangement, which can only
+take place to any extent when wealth has been considerably accumulated;
+and in the stage of society we are now considering, this third, or
+saving class, can hardly be said to have a separate existence.[58] For
+our present purpose, therefore, it is enough to ascertain what those
+natural laws are, which, as soon as wealth is accumulated, regulate the
+proportion in which it is distributed to the two classes of labourers
+and employers.
+
+Now, it is evident that wages being the price paid for labour, the rate
+of wages must, like the price of all other commodities, vary according
+to the changes in the market. If the supply of labourers outstrips the
+demand, wages will fall; if the demand exceeds the supply, they will
+rise. Supposing, therefore, that in any country there is a given amount
+of wealth to be divided between employers and workmen, every increase in
+the number of the workmen will tend to lessen the average reward each
+can receive. And if we set aside those disturbing causes by which all
+general views are affected, it will be found that, in the long-run, the
+question of wages is a question of population; for although the total
+sum of the wages actually paid depends upon the largeness of the fund
+from which they are drawn, still the amount of wages received by each
+man must diminish as the claimants increase, unless, owing to other
+circumstances, the fund itself should so advance as to keep pace with
+the greater demands made upon it.[59]
+
+  [58] In a still more advanced stage, there is a fourth division of
+       wealth, and part of the produce of labour is absorbed by rent.
+       This, however, is not an element of price, but a consequence of it;
+       and in the ordinary march of affairs, considerable time must elapse
+       before it can begin. Rent, in the proper sense of the word, is the
+       price paid for using the natural and indestructible powers of the
+       soil, and must not be confused with rent commonly so called; for
+       this last also includes the profits of stock. I notice this,
+       because several of the opponents of Ricardo have placed the
+       beginning of rent too early, by overlooking the fact that apparent
+       rent is very often profits disguised.
+
+  [59] 'Wages depend, then, on the proportion between the number of the
+       labouring population, and the capital or other funds devoted to the
+       purchase of labour; we will say, for shortness, the capital. If
+       wages are higher at one time or place than at another, if the
+       subsistence and comfort of the class of hired labourers are more
+       ample, it is, and can be, for no other reason than because capital
+       bears a greater proportion to population. It is not the absolute
+       amount of accumulation or of production that is of importance to
+       the labouring class; it is not the amount even of the funds
+       destined for distribution among the labourers; it is the proportion
+       between those funds and the numbers among whom they are shared. The
+       condition of the class can be bettered in no other way than by
+       altering that proportion to their advantage; and every scheme for
+       their benefit which does not proceed on this as its foundation, is,
+       for all permanent purposes, a delusion.' _Mill's Principles of
+       Political Economy_, 1849, vol. i. p. 425. See also vol. ii.
+       pp. 264, 265, and _M'Culloch's Political Economy_, pp. 379, 380.
+       Ricardo, in his _Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn_,
+       has stated, with his usual terseness, the three possible forms of
+       this question: 'The rise or fall of wages is common to all states
+       of society, whether it be the stationary, the advancing, or the
+       retrograde state. In the stationary state, it is regulated wholly
+       by the increase or falling-off of the population. In the advancing
+       state, it depends on whether the capital or the population advance
+       at the more rapid course. In the retrograde state, it depends on
+       whether population or capital decrease with the greater rapidity.'
+       _Ricardo's Works_, p. 379.
+
+To know the circumstances most favourable to the increase of what may be
+termed the wages-fund is a matter of great moment, but is one with which
+we are not immediately concerned. The question we have now before us,
+regards not the accumulation of wealth, but its distribution; and the
+object is, to ascertain what those physical conditions are, which, by
+encouraging a rapid growth of population, over-supply the labour market,
+and thus keep the average rate of wages at a very low point.
+
+Of all the physical agents by which the increase of the labouring
+classes is affected, that of food is the most active and universal. If
+two countries, equal in all other respects, differ solely in this--that
+in one the national food is cheap and abundant, and in the other scarce
+and dear, the population of the former country will inevitably increase
+more rapidly than the population of the latter.[60] And, by a parity of
+reasoning, the average rate of wages will be lower in the former than in
+the latter, simply because the labour-market will be more amply
+stocked.[61] An inquiry, therefore, into the physical laws on which the
+food of different countries depends, is, for our present purpose, of the
+greatest importance; and fortunately it is one respecting which we are
+able, in the present state of chemistry and physiology, to arrive at
+some precise and definite conclusions.
+
+  [60] The standard of comfort being of course supposed the same.
+
+  [61] 'No point is better established, than that the supply of labourers
+       will always ultimately be in proportion to the means of supporting
+       them.' _Principles of Political Economy_, chap. xxi. in _Ricardo's
+       Works_, p. 176. Compare _Smith's Wealth of Nations_, book i.
+       chap. xi. p. 86, and _M'Culloch's Political Economy_, p. 222.
+
+The food consumed by man produces two, and only two, effects necessary
+to his existence. These are, first to supply him with that animal heat
+without which the functions of life would stop; and secondly, to repair
+the waste constantly taking place in his tissues, that is, in the
+mechanism of his frame. For each of these separate purposes there is a
+separate food. The temperature of our body is kept up by substances
+which contain no nitrogen, and are called non-azotized; the incessant
+decay in our organism is repaired by what are known as azotized
+substances, in which nitrogen is always found.[62] In the former case,
+the carbon of non-azotized food combines with the oxygen we take in, and
+gives rise to that internal combustion by which our animal heat is
+renewed. In the latter case, nitrogen having little affinity for
+oxygen,[63] the nitrogenous or azotized food is, as it were, guarded
+against combustion;[64] and being thus preserved, is able to perform its
+duty of repairing the tissues, and supplying those losses which the
+human organism constantly suffers in the wear and tear of daily life.
+
+  [62] The division of food into azotized and non-azotized is said to have
+       been first pointed out by Magendie. See _Müller's Physiology_,
+       vol. i. p. 525. It is now recognised by most of the best
+       authorities. See, for instance, _Liebig's Animal Chemistry_,
+       p. 134; _Carpenter's Human Physiology_, p. 685; _Brande's
+       Chemistry_, vol. ii. pp. 1218, 1870. The first tables of food
+       constructed according to it were by Boussingault; see an elaborate
+       essay by Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert on _The Composition of Foods_,
+       in _Report of British Association for 1852_, p. 323: but the
+       experiments made by these gentlemen are neither numerous nor
+       diversified enough to establish a general law; still less can we
+       accept their singular assertion, p. 346, that the comparative
+       prices of different foods are a test of the nutriment they
+       comparatively contain.
+
+  [63] 'Of all the elements of the animal body, nitrogen has the feeblest
+       attraction for oxygen; and, what is still more remarkable, it
+       deprives all combustible elements with which it combines, to a
+       greater or less extent, of the power of combining with oxygen, that
+       is, of undergoing combustion.' _Liebig's Letters on Chemistry_,
+       p. 372.
+
+  [64] The doctrine of what may be called the protecting power of some
+       substances is still imperfectly understood, and until late in the
+       eighteenth century, its existence was hardly suspected. It is now
+       known to be connected with the general theory of poisons. See
+       _Turner's Chemistry_, vol. i. p. 516. To this we must probably
+       ascribe the fact that several poisons which are fatal when applied
+       to a wounded surface, may be taken into the stomach with impunity.
+       _Brodie's Physiological Researches_, 1851, pp. 137, 138. It seems
+       more reasonable to refer this to chemical laws than to hold, with
+       Sir Benjamin Brodie, that some poisons 'destroy life by paralysing
+       the muscles of respiration without immediately affecting the
+       action of the heart.'
+
+These are the two great divisions of food;[65] and if we inquire into
+the laws which regulate the relation they bear to man, we shall find
+that in each division the most important agent is climate. When men live
+in a hot country, their animal heat is more easily kept up than when
+they live in a cold one; therefore they require a smaller amount of that
+non-azotized food, the sole business of which is to maintain at a
+certain point the temperature of the body. In the same way, they, in the
+hot country, require a smaller amount of azotized food, because on the
+whole their bodily exertions are less frequent, and on that account the
+decay of their tissues is less rapid.[66]
+
+  [65] Prout's well-known division into saccharine, oily, and albuminous,
+       appears to me of much inferior value, though I observe that it is
+       adopted in the last edition of _Elliotson's Human Physiology_,
+       pp. 65, 160. The division by M. Lepelletier into 'les alimens
+       solides et les boissons' is of course purely empirical.
+       _Lepelletier_, _Physiologie Médicale_, vol. ii. p. 100, Paris,
+       1832. In regard to Prout's classification, compare _Burdach's
+       Traité de Physiologie_, vol. ix. p. 240, with _Wagner's
+       Physiology_, p. 452.
+
+  [66] The evidence of an universal connexion in the animal frame between
+       exertion and decay, is now almost complete. In regard to the
+       muscular system, see _Carpenter's Human Physiology_, pp. 440, 441,
+       581, edit. 1846: 'there is strong reason to believe the waste or
+       decomposition of the muscular tissue to be in exact proportion to
+       the degree in which it is exerted.' This perhaps would be generally
+       anticipated even in the absence of direct proof; but what is more
+       interesting, is that the same principle holds good of the nervous
+       system. The human brain of an adult contains about one and a half
+       per cent of phosphorus; and it has been ascertained, that after
+       the mind has been much exercised, phosphates are excreted, and
+       that in the case of inflammation of the brain their excretion (by
+       the kidneys) is very considerable. See _Paget's Lectures on
+       Surgical Pathology_, 1853, vol. i. pp. 6, 7, 434; _Carpenter's
+       Human Physiology_, pp. 192, 193, 222; _Simon's Animal Chemistry_,
+       vol. ii. p. 426; _Henle_, _Anatomie Générale_, vol. ii. p. 172.
+       The reader may also consult respecting the phosphorus of the brain
+       the recent very able work of MM. Robin et Verdeil, _Chimie
+       Anatomique_, vol. i. p. 215, vol. ii. p. 348, Paris, 1853.
+       According to these writers (vol. iii. p. 445), its existence in
+       the brain was first announced by Hensing, in 1779.
+
+Since, therefore, the inhabitants of hot climates do, in their natural
+and ordinary state, consume less food than the inhabitants of cold ones,
+it inevitably follows that, provided other things remain equal, the
+growth of population will be more rapid in countries which are hot than
+in those which are cold. For practical purposes, it is immaterial
+whether the greater plenty of a substance by which the people are fed
+arises from a larger supply, or whether it arises from a smaller
+consumption. When men eat less, the result will be just the same as if
+they had more; because the same amount of nutriment will go farther, and
+thus population will gain a power of increasing more quickly than it
+could do in a colder country, where, even if provisions were equally
+abundant, they, owing to the climate, would be sooner exhausted.
+
+This is the first point of view in which the laws of climate are,
+through the medium of food, connected with the laws of population, and
+therefore with the laws of the distribution of wealth. But there is also
+another point of view, which follows the same line of thought, and will
+be found to strengthen the argument just stated. This is, that in cold
+countries, not only are men compelled to eat more than in hot ones, but
+their food is dearer, that is to say, to get it is more difficult, and
+requires a greater expenditure of labour. The reason of this I will
+state as briefly as possible, without entering into any details beyond
+those which are absolutely necessary for a right understanding of this
+interesting subject.
+
+The objects of food are, as we have seen, only two: namely, to keep up
+the warmth of the body, and repair the waste in the tissues.[67] Of
+these two objects, the former is effected by the oxygen of the air
+entering our lungs, and, as it travels through the system, combining
+with the carbon which we take in our food.[68] This combination of
+oxygen and carbon never can occur without producing a considerable
+amount of heat, and it is in this way that the human frame is maintained
+at its necessary temperature.[69] By virtue of a law familiar to
+chemists, carbon and oxygen, like all other elements, will only unite in
+certain definite proportions;[70] so that to keep up a healthy balance,
+it is needful that the food which contains the carbon should vary
+according to the amount of oxygen taken in: while it is equally needful
+that we should increase the quantity of both of these constituents
+whenever a greater external cold lowers the temperature of the body. Now
+it is obvious that in a very cold climate, this necessity of providing a
+nutriment more highly carbonized will arise in two distinct ways. In the
+first place, the air being denser, men imbibe at each inspiration a
+greater volume of oxygen than they would do in a climate where the air
+is rarefied by heat.[71] In the second place, cold accelerates their
+respiration, and thus obliging them to inhale more frequently than the
+inhabitants of hot countries, increases the amount of oxygen which they
+on an average take in.[72] On both these grounds the consumption of
+oxygen becomes greater: it is therefore requisite that the consumption
+of carbon should also be greater; since by the union of these two
+elements in certain definite proportions, the temperature of the body
+and the balance of the human frame can alone be maintained.[73]
+
+  [67] Though both objects are equally essential, the former is usually
+       the more pressing; and it has been ascertained by experiment, what
+       we should expect from theory, that when animals are starved to
+       death, there is a progressive decline in the temperature of their
+       bodies; so that the proximate cause of death by starvation is not
+       weakness, but cold. See _Williams's Principles of Medicine_,
+       p. 36; and on the connexion between the loss of animal heat and
+       the appearance of _rigor mortis_ in the contractile parts of the
+       body, see _Vogel's Pathological Anatomy of the Human Body_, p. 532.
+       Compare the important and thoughtful work of Burdach, _Physiologie
+       comme Science d'Observation_, vol. v. pp. 144, 436, vol. ix.
+       p. 231.
+
+  [68] Until the last twenty or five-and-twenty years, it used to be
+       supposed that this combination took place in the lungs; but more
+       careful experiments have made it probable that the oxygen unites
+       with the carbon in the circulation, and that the blood-corpuscules
+       are the carriers of the oxygen. Compare _Liebig's Animal
+       Chemistry_, p. 78; _Letters on Chemistry_, pp. 335, 336; _Turner's
+       Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 1319; _Müller's Physiology_, vol. i.
+       pp. 92, 159. That the combination does not take place in the
+       air-cells is moreover proved by the fact that the lungs are not
+       hotter than other parts of the body. See _Müller_, vol. i. p. 348;
+       _Thomson's Animal Chemistry_, p. 633; and _Brodie's Physiol.
+       Researches_, p. 33. Another argument in favour of the red
+       corpuscules being the carriers of oxygen, is that they are most
+       abundant in those classes of the vertebrata which maintain the
+       highest temperature; while the blood of invertebrata contains very
+       few of them; and it has been doubted if they even exist in the
+       lower articulata and mollusca. See _Carpenter's Human Physiol._
+       pp. 109, 532; _Grant's Comparative Anatomy_, p. 472; _Elliotson's
+       Human Physiol._ p. 159. In regard to the different dimensions of
+       corpuscules, see _Henle_, _Anatomie Générale_, vol. i. pp. 457-467,
+       494, 495; _Blainville_, _Physiologie Comparée_, vol. i. pp. 298,
+       299, 301-304; _Milne Edwards_, _Zoologie_, part i. pp. 54-56;
+       _Fourth Report of British Association_, pp. 117, 118; _Simon's
+       Animal Chemistry_, vol. i. pp. 103, 104; and, above all, the
+       important observations of Mr. Gulliver (_Carpenter_, pp. 105, 106).
+       These additions to our knowledge, besides being connected with the
+       laws of animal heat and of nutrition, will, when generalized,
+       assist speculative minds in raising pathology to a science. In the
+       mean time I may mention the relation between an examination of the
+       corpuscules and the theory of inflammation which Hunter and
+       Broussais were unable to settle: this is, that the proximate cause
+       of inflammation is the obstruction of the vessels by the adhesion
+       of the pale corpuscules. Respecting this striking generalization,
+       which is still on its trial, compare _Williams's Principles of
+       Medicine_, 1848, pp. 258-265, with _Paget's Surgical Pathology_,
+       1853, vol. i. pp. 313-317; _Jones and Sieveking's Pathological
+       Anatomy_, 1854, pp. 28, 105, 106. The difficulties connected with
+       the scientific study of inflammation are evaded in _Vogel's
+       Pathological Anatomy_, p. 418; a work which appears to me to have
+       been greatly overrated.
+
+  [69] On the amount of heat disengaged by the union of carbon and oxygen,
+       see the experiments of Dulong, in _Liebig's Animal Chemistry_,
+       p. 44; and those of Despretz, in _Thomson's Animal Chemistry_,
+       p. 634. Just in the same way, we find that the temperature of
+       plants is maintained by the combination of oxygen with carbon: see
+       _Balfour's Botany_, pp. 231, 232, 322, 323. As to the amount of
+       heat caused generally by chemical combination, there is an essay
+       well worth reading by Dr. Thomas Andrews in _Report of British
+       Association for 1849_, pp. 63-78. See also _Report for 1852,
+       Transac. of Sec._ p. 40, and _Liebig and Kopp's Reports on the
+       Progress of Chemistry_, vol. i. p. 34, vol. iii. p. 16, vol. iv.
+       p. 20; also _Pouillet_, _Elémens de Physique_, Paris, 1832,
+       vol. i. part i. p. 411.
+
+  [70] The law of definite proportions, which, since the brilliant
+       discoveries by Dalton, is the corner-stone of chemical knowledge,
+       is laid down with admirable clearness in _Turner's Elements of
+       Chemistry_, vol. i. pp. 146-151. Compare _Brande's Chemistry_,
+       vol. i. pp. 139-144; _Cuvier_, _Progrès des Sciences_, vol. ii.
+       p. 255; _Somerville's Connexion of the Sciences_, pp. 120, 121.
+       But none of these writers have considered the law so
+       philosophically as M. A. Comte, _Philosophie Positive_, vol. iii.
+       pp. 133-176, one of the best chapters in his very profound, but
+       ill-understood work.
+
+  [71] 'Ainsi, dans des temps égaux, la quantité d'oxygène consommée par
+       le même animal est d'autant plus grande que la température ambiante
+       est moins élevée.' _Robin et Verdeil_, _Chimie Anatomique_,
+       vol. ii. p. 44. Compare _Simon's Lectures on Pathology_, 1850,
+       p. 188, for the diminished quantity of respiration in a high
+       temperature; though one may question Mr. Simon's inference that
+       _therefore_ the blood is more venous in hot countries than in cold
+       ones. This is not making allowance for the difference of diet,
+       which corrects the difference of temperature.
+
+  [72] 'The consumption of oxygen in a given time may be expressed by the
+       number of respirations.' _Liebig's Letters on Chemistry_, p. 314;
+       and see _Thomson's Animal Chemistry_, p. 611. It is also certain
+       that exercise increases the number of respirations; and birds,
+       which are the most active of all animals, consume more oxygen than
+       any others. _Milne Edwards_, _Zoologie_, part i. p. 88, part ii.
+       p. 371; _Flourens_, _Travaux de Cuvier_, pp. 153, 154, 265, 266.
+       Compare, on the connexion between respiration and the locomotive
+       organs, _Beclard_, _Anatomie Générale_, pp. 39, 44; _Burdach_,
+       _Traité de Physiologie_, vol. ix. pp. 485, 556-559; _Carus's
+       Comparative Anatomy_, vol. i. pp. 99, 164, 358, vol. ii. pp. 142,
+       160; _Grant's Comparative Anatomy_, pp. 455, 495, 522, 529, 537;
+       _Rymer Jones's Animal Kingdom_, pp. 369, 440, 692, 714, 720;
+       _Owen's Invertebrata_, pp. 322, 345, 386, 505. Thus too it has been
+       experimentally ascertained, that in human beings exercise increases
+       the amount of carbonic-acid gas. _Mayo's Human Physiology_, p. 64;
+       _Liebig and Kopp's Reports_, vol. iii. p. 359.
+
+       If we now put these facts together, their bearing on the
+       propositions in the text will become evident; because, on the
+       whole, there is more exercise taken in cold climates than in hot
+       ones, and there must therefore be an increased respiratory action.
+       For proof that greater exercise is both taken and required,
+       compare _Wrangel's Polar Expedition_, pp. 79, 102; _Richardson's
+       Arctic Expedition_, vol. i. p. 385; _Simpson's North Coast of
+       America_, pp. 49,88, which should be contrasted with the contempt
+       for such amusements in hot countries. Indeed, in polar regions all
+       this is so essential to preserve a normal state, that scurvy can
+       only be kept off in the northern part of the American continent by
+       taking considerable exercise: see _Crantz_, _History of Greenland_,
+       vol. i. pp. 46, 62, 338.
+
+  [73] See the note at the end of this chapter.
+
+Proceeding from these chemical and physiological principles, we arrive
+at the conclusion, that the colder the country is in which a people
+live, the more highly carbonized will be their food. And this, which is
+a purely scientific inference, has been verified by actual experiment.
+The inhabitants of the polar regions consume large quantities of
+whale-oil and blubber; while within the tropics such food would soon put
+an end to life, and therefore the ordinary diet consists almost entirely
+of fruit, rice, and other vegetables. Now it has been ascertained by
+careful analysis, that in the polar food there is an excess of carbon;
+in the tropical food an excess of oxygen. Without entering into details,
+which to the majority of readers would be distasteful, it may be said
+generally, that the oils contain about six times as much carbon as the
+fruits, and that they have in them very little oxygen;[74] while
+starch, which is the most universal, and, in reference to nutrition,
+the most important constituent in the vegetable world,[75] is nearly
+half oxygen.[76]
+
+  [74] 'The fruits used by the inhabitants of southern climes do not
+       contain, in a fresh state, more than 12 per cent. of carbon; while
+       the blubber and train-oil which feed the inhabitants of polar
+       regions contain 66 to 80 per cent. of that element.' _Liebig's
+       Letters on Chemistry_, p. 320; see also p. 375, and _Turner's
+       Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 1315. According to Prout (_Mayo's Human
+       Physiol._ p. 136), 'the proportion of carbon in oily bodies varies
+       from about 60 to 80 per cent.' The quantity of oil and fat
+       habitually consumed in cold countries is remarkable. Wrangel
+       (_Polar Expedition_, p. 21) says of the tribes in the north-east
+       of Siberia, 'fat is their greatest delicacy. They eat it in every
+       possible shape; raw, melted, fresh, or spoilt.' See also _Simpson's
+       Discoveries on the North Coast of America_, pp. 147, 404.
+
+  [75] 'So common, that no plant is destitute of it.' _Lindley's Botany_,
+       vol. i. p. 111; and at p. 121, 'starch is the most common of all
+       vegetable productions.' Dr. Lindley adds (vol. i. p. 292), that it
+       is difficult to distinguish the grains of starch secreted by plants
+       from cytoblasts. See also on the starch-granules, first noticed by
+       M. Link, _Reports on Botany by the Ray Society_, pp. 223, 370; and
+       respecting its predominance in the vegetable world, compare
+       _Thomson's Chemistry of Vegetables_, pp. 650-652, 875; _Brande's
+       Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 1160; _Turner's Chemistry_, vol. ii.
+       p. 1236; _Liebig and Kopp's Reports_, vol. ii. pp. 97, 98, 122.
+
+  [76] The oxygen is 49.39 out of 100. See the table in _Liebig's Letters
+       on Chemistry_, p. 379. Amidin, which is the soluble part of starch,
+       contains 53.33 per cent. of oxygen. See _Thomson's Chemistry of
+       Vegetables_, p. 654, on the authority of Prout, who has the
+       reputation of being an accurate experimenter.
+
+The connexion between this circumstance and the subject before us is
+highly curious: for it is a most remarkable fact, and one to which I
+would call particular attention, that owing to some more general law, of
+which we are ignorant, highly carbonized food is more costly than food
+in which comparatively little carbon is found. The fruits of the earth,
+of which oxygen is the most active principle, are very abundant; they
+may be obtained without danger, and almost without trouble. But that
+highly carbonized food, which in a very cold climate is absolutely
+necessary to life, is not produced in so facile and spontaneous a
+manner. It is not, like vegetables, thrown up by the soil; but it
+consists of the fat, the blubber, and the oil[77] of powerful and
+ferocious animals. To procure it, man must incur great risk and expend
+great labour. And although this is undoubtedly a contrast of extreme
+cases, still it is evident that the nearer a people approach to either
+extremity, the more subject will they be to the conditions by which that
+extremity is governed. It is evident that, as a general rule, the colder
+a country is, the more its food will be carbonized; the warmer it is,
+the more its food will be oxidized.[78] At the same time, carbonized
+food, being chiefly drawn from the animal world, is more difficult to
+obtain than oxidized food, which is drawn from the vegetable world.[79]
+The result has been that among nations where the coldness of the climate
+renders a highly carbonized diet essential, there is for the most part
+displayed, even in the infancy of society, a bolder and more adventurous
+character, than we find among those other nations whose ordinary
+nutriment, being highly oxidized, is easily obtained, and indeed is
+supplied to them, by the bounty of nature, gratuitously and without a
+struggle.[80] From this original divergence there follow many other
+consequences, which, however, I am not now concerned to trace; my
+present object being merely to point out how this difference of food
+affects the proportion in which wealth is distributed to the different
+classes.
+
+  [77] Of which a single whale will yield 'cent vingt tonneaux.' _Cuvier_,
+       _Règne Animal_, vol. i. p. 297. In regard to the solid food,
+       Sir J. Richardson (_Arctic Expedition_, 1851, vol. i. p. 243)
+       says that the inhabitants of the Arctic regions only maintain
+       themselves by chasing whales and 'consuming blubber.'
+
+  [78] It is said, that to keep a person in health, his food, even in the
+       temperate parts of Europe, should contain 'a full eighth more
+       carbon in winter than in summer.' _Liebig's Animal Chemistry_,
+       p. 16.
+
+  [79] The most highly carbonized of all foods are undoubtedly yielded by
+       animals; the most highly oxidized by vegetables. In the vegetable
+       kingdom there is, however, so much carbon, that its predominance,
+       accompanied with the rarity of nitrogen, has induced chemical
+       botanists to characterize plants as carbonized, and animals as
+       azotized. But we have here to attend to a double antithesis.
+       Vegetables are carbonized in so far as they are non-azotized; but
+       they are oxidized in opposition to the highly carbonized animal
+       food of cold countries. Besides this, it is important to observe
+       that the carbon of vegetables is most abundant in the woody and
+       unnutritious part, which is not eaten; while the carbon of animals
+       is found in the fatty and oily parts, which are not only eaten,
+       but are, in cold countries, greedily devoured.
+
+  [80] Sir J. Malcolm (_History of Persia_, vol. ii. p. 380), speaking of
+       the cheapness of vegetables in the East, says, 'in some parts of
+       Persia fruit has hardly any value.' Cuvier, in a striking passage
+       (_Règne Animal_, vol. i. pp. 73, 74), has contrasted vegetable
+       with animal food, and thinks that the former, being so easily
+       obtained, is the more natural. But the truth is that both are
+       equally natural: though when Cuvier wrote scarcely anything was
+       known of the laws which govern the relation between climate and
+       food. On the skill and energy required to obtain food in cold
+       countries, see _Wrangel's Polar Expedition_, pp. 70, 71, 191, 192;
+       _Simpson's Discoveries on the North Coast of America_, p. 249;
+       _Crantz_, _History of Greenland_, vol. i. pp. 22, 32, 105, 131,
+       154, 155, vol. ii. pp. 203, 265, 324.
+
+The way in which this proportion is actually altered has, I hope, been
+made clear by the preceding argument; but it may be useful to
+recapitulate the facts on which the argument is based. The facts, then,
+are simply these. The rate of wages fluctuates with the population;
+increasing when the labour-market is under-supplied, diminishing when it
+is over-supplied. The population itself, though affected by many other
+circumstances, does undoubtedly fluctuate with the supply of food;
+advancing when the supply is plentiful, halting or receding when the
+supply is scanty. The food essential to life is scarcer in cold
+countries than in hot ones; and not only is it scarcer, but more of it
+is required;[81] so that on both grounds smaller encouragement is given
+to the growth of that population from whose ranks the labour-market is
+stocked. To express, therefore, the conclusion in its simplest form, we
+may say, that there is a strong and constant tendency in hot countries
+for wages to be low, in cold countries for them to be high.
+
+  [81] 'Cabanis' (_Rapports du Physique et du Moral_, p. 313) says, 'Dans
+       les temps et dans les pays froids on mange et l'on agit davantage.'
+       That much food is eaten in cold countries, and little in hot ones,
+       is mentioned by numerous travellers, none of whom are aware of the
+       cause. See _Simpson's Discov. on North Coast of America_, p. 218;
+       _Custine's Russie_, vol. iv. p. 66; _Wrangel's Expedition_, pp. 21,
+       327; _Crantz_, _History of Greenland_, vol. i. pp. 145, 360;
+       _Richardson's Central Africa_, vol. ii. p. 46; _Richardson's
+       Sahara_, vol. i. p. 137; _Denham's Africa_, p. 37; _Journal of
+       Asiatic Society_, vol. v. p. 144, vol. viii. p. 188; _Burckhardt's
+       Travels in Arabia_, vol. ii. p. 265; _Niebuhr_, _Description de
+       l'Arabie_, p. 45; _Ulloa's Voyage to South America_, vol. i.
+       pp. 403, 408; _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. iii. p. 283,
+       vol. vi. p. 85, vol. xix. p. 121; _Spix and Martius's Travels in
+       Brazil_, vol. i. p. 164; _Southey's History of Brazil_, vol. iii.
+       p. 848; _Volney_, _Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte_, vol. i. pp. 379,
+       380, 460; _Low's Sarawak_, p. 140.
+
+Applying now this great principle to the general course of history, we
+shall find proofs of its accuracy in every direction. Indeed, there is
+not a single instance to the contrary. In Asia, in Africa, and in
+America, all the ancient civilizations were seated in hot climates; and
+in all of them the rate of wages was very low, and therefore the
+condition of the labouring classes very depressed. In Europe, for the
+first time, civilization arose in a colder climate: hence the reward of
+labour was increased, and the distribution of wealth rendered more equal
+than was possible in countries where an excessive abundance of food
+stimulated the growth of population. This difference produced, as we
+shall presently see, many social and political consequences of immense
+importance. But before discussing them, it may be remarked that the only
+apparent exception to what has been stated is one which strikingly
+verifies the general law. There is one instance, and only one, of a
+great European people possessing a very cheap national food. This
+people, I need hardly say, are the Irish. In Ireland the labouring
+classes have for more than two hundred years been principally fed by
+potatoes, which were introduced into their country late in the
+sixteenth, or early in the seventeenth century.[82] Now, the peculiarity
+of the potato is, that until the appearance of the late disease, it was
+and perhaps still is, cheaper than any other food equally wholesome. If
+we compare its reproductive power with the amount of nutriment contained
+in it, we find that one acre of average land sown with potatoes will
+support twice as many persons as the same quantity of land sown with
+wheat.[83] The consequence is, that in a country where men live on
+potatoes, the population will, if other things are tolerably equal,
+increase twice as fast as in a country where they live on wheat. And so
+it has actually occurred. Until a very few years ago, when the face of
+affairs was entirely altered by pestilence and emigration, the
+population of Ireland was, in round numbers, increasing annually three
+per cent.; the population of England during the same period increasing
+one and a half per cent.[84] The result was, that in these two countries
+the distribution of wealth was altogether different. Even in England the
+growth of population is somewhat too rapid; and the labour-market being
+overstocked, the working classes are not sufficiently paid for their
+labour.[85] But their condition is one of sumptuous splendour, compared
+to that in which only a few years ago the Irish were forced to live. The
+misery in which they were plunged has no doubt always been aggravated by
+the ignorance of their rulers, and by that scandalous misgovernment
+which, until very recently, formed one of the darkest blots on the
+glory of England. The most active cause, however, was, that their wages
+were so low as to debar them, not only from the comforts, but from the
+common decencies of civilized life; and this evil condition was the
+natural result of that cheap and abundant food, which encouraged the
+people to so rapid an increase, that the labour-market was constantly
+gorged.[86] So far was this carried, that an intelligent observer who
+travelled through Ireland twenty years ago, mentioned that at that time
+the average wages were fourpence a day, and that even this wretched
+pittance could not always be relied upon for regular employment.[87]
+
+  [82] Meyen (_Geography of Plants_, 1846, p. 313) says that the potato
+       was introduced into Ireland in 1586; but according to
+       Mr. M'Culloch (_Dictionary of Commerce_, 1849, p. 1048), 'potatoes,
+       it is commonly thought, were not introduced into Ireland till 1610,
+       when a small quantity was sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to be planted
+       in a garden on his estate in the vicinity of Youghall.' Compare
+       _Loudon's Encyclop. of Agriculture_, p. 845: 'first planted by Sir
+       Walter Raleigh on his estate of Youghall, near Cork.'
+
+  [83] Adam Smith (_Wealth of Nations_, book i. chap. xi. p. 67) supposes
+       that it will support three times as many; but the statistics of
+       this great writer are the weakest part of his work, and the more
+       careful calculations made since he wrote bear out the statement in
+       the text. 'It admits of demonstration that an acre of potatoes will
+       feed double the number of people that can be fed from an acre of
+       wheat.' _Loudon's Encyclop. of Agriculture_, 5th edit. 1844,
+       p. 845. So, too, in _M'Culloch's Dict._ p. 1048, 'an acre of
+       potatoes will feed double the number of individuals that can be
+       fed from an acre of wheat.' The daily average consumption of an
+       able-bodied labourer in Ireland is estimated at nine and a half
+       pounds of potatoes for men, and seven and a half for women. See
+       _Phillips on Scrofula_, 1846, p. 177.
+
+  [84] _Malthus_, _Essay on Population_, vol. i. pp. 424, 425, 431, 435,
+       441, 442; _M'Culloch's Political Economy_, pp. 381, 382.
+
+  [85] The lowest agricultural wages in our time have been in England
+       about 1_s._ a day; while from the evidence collected by
+       Mr. Thornton in 1845, the highest wages then paid were in
+       Lincolnshire, and were rather more than 13_s._ a week; those in
+       Yorkshire and Northumberland being nearly as high. _Thornton on
+       Over-Population_, pp. 12-15, 24, 25. Godwin, writing in 1820,
+       estimates the average at 1_s._ 6_d._ a day. _Godwin on Population_,
+       p. 574. Mr. Phillips, in his work _On Scrofula_, 1846, p. 345,
+       says, 'at present the ratio of wages is from 9_s._ to 10_s._'
+
+  [86] The most miserable part, namely Connaught, in 1733, contained
+       242,160 inhabitants; and in 1821, 1,110,229. See _Sadler's Law of
+       Population_, vol. ii. p. 490.
+
+  [87] Mr. Inglis, who in 1834 travelled through Ireland with a particular
+       view to its economical state, says, as the result of very careful
+       inquiries, 'I am quite confident, that if the whole yearly earnings
+       of the labourers of Ireland were divided by the whole number of
+       labourers, the result would be under this sum--_Fourpence_ a day
+       for the labourers of Ireland.' _Inglis_, _Journey throughout
+       Ireland in 1834_, Lond. 1835, 2nd edit. vol. ii. p. 300. At
+       Balinasloe, in the county of Galway, 'A gentleman with whom I was
+       accidentally in company offered to procure, on an hour's warning,
+       a couple of hundred labourers at fourpence even for temporary
+       employment.' _Inglis_, vol. ii. p. 17. The same writer says
+       (vol. i. p. 263), that at Tralee 'it often happens that the
+       labourers, after working in the canal from five in the morning
+       until eleven in the forenoon, are discharged for the day with the
+       pittance of twopence.' Compare, in _Cloncurry's Recollections_,
+       Dublin, 1849, p. 310, a letter from Dr. Doyle written in 1829,
+       describing Ireland as 'a country where the market is always
+       overstocked with labour, and in which a man's labour is not worth,
+       at an average, more than threepence a day.'
+
+Such have been the consequences of cheap food in a country which, on the
+whole, possesses greater natural resources than any other in Europe.[88]
+And if we investigate on a larger scale the social and economical
+condition of nations, we shall see the same principle everywhere at
+work. We shall see that, other things remaining equal, the food of a
+people determines the increase of their numbers, and the increase of
+their numbers determines the rate of their wages. We shall moreover
+find, that when the wages are invariably low,[89] the distribution of
+wealth being thus very unequal, the distribution of political power and
+social influence will also be very unequal; in other words, it will
+appear that the normal and average relation between the upper and lower
+classes will, in its origin, depend upon those peculiarities of nature,
+the operations of which I have endeavoured to indicate.[90] After
+putting all these things together, we shall, I trust, be able to
+discern, with a clearness hitherto unknown, the intimate connexion
+between the physical and moral world; the laws by which that connexion
+is governed; and the reasons why so many ancient civilizations reached a
+certain stage of development, and then fell away, unable to resist the
+pressure of nature, or make head against those external obstacles by
+which their progress was effectually retarded.
+
+  [88] It is singular that so acute a thinker as Mr. Kay should, in his
+       otherwise just remarks on the Irish, entirely overlook the effect
+       produced on their wages by the increase of population. _Kay's
+       Social Condition of the People_, vol. i. pp. 8, 9, 92, 223,
+       306-324. This is the more observable, because the disadvantages of
+       cheap food have been noticed not only by several common writers,
+       but by the highest of all authorities on population, Mr. Malthus:
+       see the sixth edition of his _Essay on Population_, vol. i. p. 469,
+       vol. ii. pp. 123, 124, 383, 384. If these things were oftener
+       considered, we should not hear so much about the idleness and
+       levity of the Celtic race; the simple fact being, that the Irish
+       are unwilling to work, not because they are Celts, but because
+       their work is badly paid. When they go abroad, they get good wages,
+       and therefore they become as industrious as any other people.
+       Compare _Journal of Statistical Society_, vol. vii. p. 24, with
+       _Thornton on Over-Population_, p. 425; a very valuable work. Even
+       in 1799, it was observed that the Irish as soon as they left their
+       own country became industrious and energetic. See _Parliamentary
+       History_, vol. xxxiv. p. 222. So, too, in North America, 'they are
+       most willing to work hard.' _Lyell's Second Visit to the United
+       States_, 1849, vol. i. p. 187.
+
+  [89] By low wages, I mean low reward of labour, which is of course
+       independent both of the cost of labour and of the money-rate of
+       wages.
+
+  [90] In a recent work of considerable ingenuity (_Doubleday's True Law
+       of Population_, 1847, pp. 25-29, 69, 78, 123, 124, &c.) it is
+       noticed that countries are more populous when the ordinary food is
+       vegetable than when it is animal; and an attempt is made to explain
+       this on the ground that a poor diet is more favourable to fecundity
+       than a rich one. But though the fact of the greater increase of
+       population is indisputable, there are several reasons for being
+       dissatisfied with Mr. Doubleday's explanation.
+
+       1st. That the power of propagation is heightened by poor living, is
+       a proposition which has never been established physiologically;
+       while the observations of travellers and of governments are not
+       sufficiently numerous to establish it statistically.
+
+       2nd. Vegetable diet is as generous for a hot country as animal diet
+       is for a cold country; and since we know that, notwithstanding the
+       difference of food and climate, the temperature of the body varies
+       little between the equator and the poles (compare _Liebig's Animal
+       Chemistry_, p. 19; _Holland's Medical Notes_, p. 473; _Pouillet_,
+       _Elémens de Physique_, vol. i. part i. p. 414; _Burdach's Traité de
+       Physiologie_, vol. ix. p. 663), we have no reason to believe that
+       there is any other normal variation, but should rather suppose
+       that, in regard to all essential functions, vegetable diet and
+       external heat are equivalent to animal diet and external cold.
+
+       3rd. Even conceding, for the sake of argument, that vegetable
+       food increases the procreative power, this would only affect the
+       number of births, and not the density of population; for a
+       greater number of births may be, and often are, remedied by a
+       greater mortality; a point in regard to which Godwin, in trying
+       to refute Malthus, falls into serious error. _Godwin on
+       Population_, p. 317.
+
+       Since writing the above, I have found that these views of Mr.
+       Doubleday's were in a great measure anticipated by Fourier. See
+       _Rey_, _Science Sociale_; vol. i. p. 185.
+
+If, in the first place, we turn to Asia, we shall see an admirable
+illustration of what may be called the collision between internal and
+external phenomena. Owing to circumstances already stated, Asiatic
+civilization has always been confined to that rich tract where alone
+wealth could be easily obtained. This immense zone comprises some of the
+most fertile parts of the globe; and of all its provinces, Hindostan is
+certainly the one which for the longest period has possessed the
+greatest civilization.[91] And as the materials for forming an opinion
+respecting India are more ample than those respecting any other part of
+Asia,[92] I purpose to select it as an example, and use it to illustrate
+those laws which, though generalized from political economy, chemistry,
+and physiology, may be verified by that more extensive survey, the means
+of which history alone can supply.
+
+  [91] I use the word 'Hindostan' in the popular sense, as extending south
+       to Cape Comorin; though, properly speaking, it only includes the
+       country north of the Nerbudda. Compare _Mill's History of India_,
+       vol. ii. p. 178; _Bohlen_, _das alte Indien_, vol. i. p. 11;
+       _Meiners über die Länder in Asien_, vol. i. p. 224. The word
+       itself is not found in the old Sanscrit, and is of Persian origin.
+       _Halhed's Preface to the Gentoo Laws_, pp. xx. xxi.; _Asiatic
+       Researches_, vol. iii. pp. 368, 369.
+
+  [92] So that, in addition to works published on their philosophy,
+       religion, and jurisprudence, a learned geographer stated several
+       years ago, that 'kein anderes Asiatisches Reich ist in den letzten
+       drey Jahrhunderten von so vielen und so einsichtsvollen Europäern
+       durchreist und beschrieben worden, als Hindostan.' _Meiners_,
+       _Länder in Asien_, vol. i. p. 225. Since the time of Meiners, such
+       evidence has become still more precise and extensive; and is, I
+       think, too much neglected by M. Rhode in his valuable work on
+       India: 'Dem Zwecke dieser Arbeit gemäss, betrachten wir hier nur
+       Werke der Hindus selbst, oder Auszüge aus denselben als Quellen.'
+       _Rhode_, _Religiöse Bildung der Hindus_, vol. i. p. 43.
+
+In India, the great heat of the climate brings into play that law
+already pointed out, by virtue of which the ordinary food is of an
+oxygenous rather than of a carbonaceous character. This, according to
+another law, obliges the people to derive their usual diet not from the
+animal, but from the vegetable world, of which starch is the most
+important constituent. At the same time the high temperature,
+incapacitating men for arduous labour, makes necessary a food of which
+the returns will be abundant, and which will contain much nutriment in a
+comparatively small space. Here, then, we have some characteristics,
+which, if the preceding views are correct, ought to be found in the
+ordinary food of the Indian nations. So they all are. From the earliest
+period the most general food in India has been rice,[93] which is the
+most nutritive of all the cerealia;[94] which contains an enormous
+proportion of starch;[95] and which yields to the labourer an average
+return of at least sixty fold.[96]
+
+  [93] This is evident from the frequent and familiar mention of it in
+       that remarkable relic of antiquity, the Institutes of Menu. See
+       the _Institutes_, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iii. pp. 87,
+       132, 156, 200, 215, 366, 400, 403, 434. Thus too, in the
+       enumeration of Foods in _Vishnu Purana_, pp. 46, 47, rice is the
+       first mentioned. See further evidence in _Bohlen_, _das alte
+       Indien_, vol. i. p. 22, vol. ii. pp. 159, 160; _Wilson's Theatre
+       of the Hindus_, vol. i. part ii. pp. 15, 16, 37, 92, 95, vol. ii.
+       part ii. p. 35, part iii. p. 64; _Notes on the Ma-habharata_, in
+       _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. vii. p. 141; _Travels of Ibn
+       Batuta in Fourteenth Century_, p. 164; _Colebrooke's Digest of
+       Hindu Law_, vol. i. p. 499, vol. ii. pp. 44, 48, 436, 569, vol.
+       iii. pp. 11, 148, 205, 206, 207, 266, 364, 530; _Asiatic
+       Researches_, vol. vii. pp. 299, 302; _Ward on the Hindoos_, vol.
+       i. p. 209, vol. iii. p. 105.
+
+  [94] 'It contains a greater proportion of nutritious matter than any of
+       the cerealia.' _Somerville's Physical Geography_, vol. ii. p. 220.
+
+  [95] It contains from 83.8 to 85.07 percent of starch. _Brande's
+       Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 1624; _Thomson's Chemistry of Organic
+       Bodies_, p. 883.
+
+  [96] It is difficult to collect sufficient evidence to strike an
+       average; but in Egypt, according to Savary, rice 'produces eighty
+       bushels for one.' _Loudon's Encyclop. of Agriculture_, p. 173. In
+       Tennasserim, the yield is from 80 to 100. _Low's History of
+       Tennasserim_, in _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. iii. p. 29. In
+       South America, 250 fold, according to Spix and Martius (_Travels
+       in Brazil_, vol. ii. p. 79); or from 200 to 300, according to
+       Southey (_History of Brazil_, vol. iii. pp. 658, 806). The lowest
+       estimate given by M. Meyen is forty fold; the highest, which is
+       marsh rice in the Philippine Islands, 400 fold. _Meyen's Geography
+       of Plants_, 1846, p. 301.
+
+Thus possible is it, by the application of a few physical laws, to
+anticipate what the national food of a country will be, and therefore to
+anticipate a long train of ulterior consequences. What in this case is
+no less remarkable, is that though in the south of the peninsula, rice
+is not so much used as formerly, it has been replaced, not by animal
+food, but by another grain called ragi.[97] The original rice, however,
+is so suited to the circumstances I have described, that it is still the
+most general food of nearly all the hottest countries of Asia,[98] from
+which at different times it has been transplanted to other parts of the
+world.[99]
+
+  [97] _Elphinstone's History of India_, p. 7. Ragi is the Cynosurus
+       Corocanus of Linnæus; and, considering its importance, it has been
+       strangely neglected by botanical writers. The best account I have
+       seen of it is in _Buchanan's Journey through the Countries of
+       Mysore, Canara, and Malabar_, vol. i. pp. 100-104, 285, 286, 375,
+       376, 403, vol. ii. pp. 103, 104, vol. iii. pp. 239, 240, 296, 297.
+       In the large cities, millet is generally used; of which 'a
+       quantity sufficient for two meals may be purchased for about a
+       halfpenny.' _Gibson on Indian Agriculture_, in _Journal of Asiatic
+       Society_, vol. viii. p. 100.
+
+  [98] _Marsden's History of Sumatra_, pp. 56, 59; _Raffles' History of
+       Java_, vol. i. pp. 39, 106, 119, 129, 240; _Percival's Ceylon_,
+       pp. 337, 364; _Transac. of Society of Bombay_, vol. ii. p. 155;
+       _Transac. of Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 510; _Journal of Asiatic
+       Society_, vol. i. pp. 228, 247, vol. ii. pp. 44, 64, 251, 257,
+       262, 336, 344, vol. iii. pp. 8, 25, 300, 340, vol. iv. pp. 82, 83,
+       104, vol. v. pp. 241, 246; _Asiatic Researches_, vol. v. pp. 124,
+       229, vol. xii. p. 148, vol. xvi. pp. 171, 172; _Journal of
+       Geograph. Society_, vol. ii. p. 86, vol. iii. pp. 124, 295, 300,
+       vol. v. p. 263, vol. viii. pp. 341, 359, vol. xix. pp. 132, 137.
+
+  [99] Rice, so far as I have been able to trace it, has travelled
+       westward. Besides the historical evidence, there are philological
+       probabilities in favour of its being indigenous to Asia, and the
+       Sanscrit name for it has been very widely diffused. Compare
+       _Humboldt's Cosmos_, vol. ii. p. 472, with _Crawfurd's History of
+       the Indian Archipelago_, vol. i. p. 358. In the fourteenth
+       century, it was the common food on the Zanguebar Coast; and is now
+       universal in Madagascar. _Travels of Ibn Batuta in Fourteenth
+       Century_, p. 56; _Ellis's History of Madagascar_, vol. i. pp. 39,
+       297-304, vol. ii. p. 292; _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. iii.
+       p. 212. From Madagascar its seeds were, according to _M'Culloch's
+       Dictionary of Commerce_, p. 1105, carried to Carolina late in the
+       seventeenth century. It is now cultivated in Nicaragua (_Squier's
+       Central America_, vol. i. p. 38) and in South America
+       (_Henderson's Hist. of Brazil_, pp. 292, 307, 395, 440, 488),
+       where it is said to grow wild. Compare _Meyen's Geography of
+       Plants_, pp. 291, 297, with _Azara_, _Voyages dans l'Amérique
+       Méridionale_, vol. i. p. 100, vol. ii. p. 80. The ancient Greeks,
+       though acquainted with rice, did not cultivate it; and its
+       cultivation was first introduced into Europe by the Arabs. See
+       _Humboldt_, _Nouvelle Espagne_, vol. ii. pp. 409, 410.
+
+In consequence of these peculiarities of climate, and of food, there has
+arisen in India that unequal distribution of wealth which we must expect
+to find in countries where the labour-market is always redundant.[100]
+If we examine the earliest Indian records which have been
+preserved--records between two and three thousand years old--we find
+evidence of a state of things similar to that which now exists, and
+which, we may rely upon it, always has existed ever since the
+accumulation of capital once fairly began. We find the upper classes
+enormously rich, and the lower classes miserably poor. We find those by
+whose labour the wealth is created, receiving the smallest possible
+share of it; the remainder being absorbed by the higher ranks in the
+form either of rent or of profit. And as wealth is, after intellect, the
+most permanent source of power, it has naturally happened that a great
+inequality of wealth has been accompanied by a corresponding inequality
+of social and political power. It is not, therefore, surprising that
+from the earliest period to which our knowledge of India extends, an
+immense majority of the people, pinched by the most galling poverty, and
+just living from hand to mouth, should always have remained in a state
+of stupid debasement, broken by incessant misfortune, crouching before
+their superiors in abject submission, and only fit either to be slaves
+themselves or to be led to battle to make slaves of others.[101]
+
+  [100] So far as food is concerned, Diodorus Siculus notices the
+        remarkable fertility of India, and the consequent accumulation of
+        wealth. See two interesting passages in _Bibliothec. Hist._ lib.
+        ii. vol. ii. pp. 49, 50, 108, 109. But of the economical laws of
+        distribution he, like all the ancient writers, was perfectly
+        ignorant.
+
+  [101] An able and very learned apologist for this miserable people says,
+        'The servility so generally ascribed to the Hindu is never more
+        conspicuous than when he is examined as an evidence. But if it be
+        admitted that he acts as a slave, why blame him for not
+        possessing the virtues of a free man? _The oppression of ages has
+        taught him implicit submission._' _Vans Kennedy_, in
+        _Transactions of the Society of Bombay_, vol. iii. p. 144.
+        Compare the observations of Charles Hamilton in _Asiatic
+        Researches_, vol. i. p. 305.
+
+To ascertain the precise value of the average rate of wages in India for
+any long period, is impossible; because, although the amount might be
+expressed in money, still the value of money, that is, its purchasing
+power, is subject to incalculable fluctuations, arising from changes in
+the cost of production.[102] But, for our present purpose, there is a
+method of investigation which will lead to results far more accurate
+than any statement could be that depended merely on a collection of
+evidence respecting the wages themselves. The method is simply this:
+that inasmuch as the wealth of a country can only be divided into wages,
+rent, profits, and interest, and inasmuch as interest is on an average
+an exact measure of profits,[103] it follows that if among any people
+rent and interest are both high, wages must be low.[104] If, therefore,
+we can ascertain the current interest of money, and the proportion of
+the produce of the soil which is absorbed by rent, we shall get a
+perfectly accurate idea of the wages; because wages are the residue,
+that is, they are what is left to the labourers after rent, profits, and
+interest have been paid.
+
+  [102] The impossibility of having a standard of value, is clearly
+        pointed out in _Turgot's Réflexions sur la Formation et la
+        Distribution des Richesses_, in _[OE]uvres_, vol. v. pp. 51, 52.
+        Compare _Ricardo's Works_, pp. 11, 28-30, 46, 166, 253, 270, 401,
+        with _M'Culloch's Principles of Political Economy_, pp. 298, 299,
+        307.
+
+  [103] _Smith's Wealth of Nations_, book i. chap. ix. p. 37; where,
+        however, the proposition is stated rather too absolutely, since
+        the risks arising from an insecure state of society must be taken
+        into consideration. But that there is an average ratio between
+        interest and profits is obvious, and is distinctly laid down by
+        the Sanscrit jurists. See _Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law_,
+        vol. i. pp. 72, 81.
+
+  [104] Ricardo (_Principles of Political Economy_, chap. vi. in _Works_,
+        p. 65) says, 'whatever increases wages, necessarily reduces
+        profits.' And in chap. xv. p. 122, 'whatever raises the wages of
+        labour, lowers the profits of stock.' In several other places he
+        makes the same assertion, very much to the discomfort of the
+        ordinary reader, who knows that in the United States, for
+        instance, wages and profits are both high. But the ambiguity is
+        in the language, not in the thought; and in these and similar
+        passages Ricardo by wages meant cost of labour, in which sense
+        the proposition is quite accurate. If by wages we mean the reward
+        of labour, then there is no relation between wages and profits;
+        for when rent is low, both of them may be high, as is the case in
+        the United States. That this was the view of Ricardo is evident
+        from the following passage: 'Profits, it cannot be too often
+        repeated, depend on wages; not on nominal but real wages; not on
+        the number of pounds that may be annually paid to the labourer,
+        but on the number of days' work necessary to obtain those
+        pounds.' _Political Economy_, chap. vii., _Ricardo's Works_, p.
+        82. Compare _Mill's Principles of Political Economy_, vol. i. p.
+        509, vol. ii. p. 225.
+
+Now it is remarkable, that in India both interest and rent have always
+been very high. In the _Institutes of Menu_, which were drawn up about
+B.C. 900,[105] the lowest legal interest for money is fixed at fifteen
+per cent., the highest at sixty per cent.[106] Nor is this to be
+considered as a mere ancient law now fallen into disuse. So far from
+that, the _Institutes of Menu_ are still the basis of Indian
+jurisprudence;[107] and we know on very good authority, that in 1810 the
+interest paid for the use of money varied from thirty-six to sixty per
+cent.[108]
+
+  [105] I take the estimate of Mr. Elphinstone (_History of India_, pp.
+        225-228) as midway between Sir William Jones (_Works_, vol. iii.
+        p. 56) and Mr. Wilson (_Rig Veda Sanhita_, vol. i. p. xlvii.).
+
+  [106] _Institutes of Menu_, chap. viii. sec. 140-142, in _Works of Sir
+        W. Jones_, vol. iii. p. 295. The subsequent Sanscrit commentators
+        recognize nearly the same rate of interest, the minimum being
+        fifteen per cent. See _Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law_, vol. i.
+        pp. 29, 36, 43, 98, 99, 237, vol. ii. p. 70.
+
+  [107] In _Colebrooke's Digest_, vol. i. p. 454, and vol. iii. p. 229,
+        Menu is called 'the highest authority of memorial law,' and 'the
+        founder of memorial law.' The most recent historian of India, Mr.
+        Elphinstone, says (_Hist. of India_, p. 83) 'the code of Menu is
+        still the basis of the Hindu jurisprudence; and the principal
+        features remain unaltered to the present day.' This remarkable
+        code is also the basis of the laws of the Burmese, and even of
+        those of the Laos. _Journal of the Asiatic Society_, vol. ii. p.
+        271, vol. iii. pp. 28, 296, 332, vol. v. p. 252.
+
+  [108] See, in _Mill's History of India_, vol. i. p. 317, the report of a
+        committee of the House of Commons in 1810, in which it is stated
+        that the ryots paid 'the heavy interest of three, four, and five
+        per cent. per month.' Ward, writing about the same time, mentions
+        as much as seventy-five per cent. being given, and this
+        apparently without the lender incurring any extraordinary risk.
+        _Ward on the Hindoos_, vol. ii. p. 190.
+
+Thus much as to one of the elements of our present calculation. As to
+the other element, namely, the rent, we have information equally precise
+and trustworthy. In England and Scotland, the rent paid by the
+cultivator for the use of land is estimated in round numbers, taking one
+farm with another, at a fourth of the gross produce.[109] In France, the
+average proportion is about a third;[110] while in the United States of
+North America it is well known to be much less, and, indeed, in some
+parts, to be merely nominal.[111] But in India the legal rent, that is,
+the lowest rate recognized by the law and usage of the country, is
+one-half of the produce; and even this cruel regulation is not strictly
+enforced, since in many cases rents are raised so high, that the
+cultivator not only receives less than half the produce, but receives so
+little as to have scarcely the means of providing seed to sow the ground
+for the next harvest.[112]
+
+  [109] Compare the table in _Loudon's Encyclopædia of Agriculture_, p.
+        778, with _Mavor's note in Tusser's Five Hundred Points of
+        Husbandry_, p. 195, Lond. 1812, and _M'Culloch's Statistical
+        Account of the British Empire_, 1847, vol. i. p. 560.
+
+  [110] This is the estimate I have received from persons well acquainted
+        with French agriculture. The rent, of course, varies in each
+        separate instance, according to the natural powers of the soil,
+        according to the extent to which those powers have been improved,
+        and according to the facilities for bringing the produce to
+        market. But, notwithstanding these variations, there must be in
+        every country an average rent, depending upon the operation of
+        general causes.
+
+  [111] Owing to the immense supply of land preventing the necessity of
+        cultivating those inferior soils which older countries are glad
+        to use, and are therefore willing to pay a rent for the right of
+        using. In the United States, profits and wages (i.e. the reward
+        of the labourer, not the cost of labour) are both high, which
+        would be impossible if rent were also high.
+
+  [112] See _Rammohun Roy on the Judicial and Revenue Systems of India_,
+        1832, pp. 59-61, 63, 69, 92, 94. At p. 69, this high authority
+        says of the agricultural peasantry of Bengal: 'In an abundant
+        season, when the price of corn is low, the sale of their whole
+        crops is required to meet the demands of the landholder, leaving
+        little or nothing for seed or subsistence to the labourer or his
+        family.' In Cashmere, the sovereign received half the produce of
+        the rice-crop, leaving the other half to the cultivator.
+        _Moorcroft's Notices of Cashmere_, in _Journal of Geog. Society_,
+        vol. ii. p. 266.
+
+The conclusion to be drawn from these facts is manifest. Rent and
+interest being always very high, and interest varying, as it must do,
+according to the rate of profits, it is evident that wages must have
+been very low; for since there was in India a specific amount of wealth
+to be divided into rent, interest, profits, and wages, it is clear that
+the first three could only have been increased at the expense of the
+fourth; which is saying, in other words, that the reward of the
+labourers was very small in proportion to the reward received by the
+upper classes. And though this, being an inevitable inference, does not
+require extraneous support, it may be mentioned that in modern times,
+for which alone we have direct evidence, wages have in India always been
+excessively low, and the people have been, and still are, obliged to
+work for a sum barely sufficient to meet the exigencies of life.[113]
+
+  [113] Heber (_Journey through India_, vol. i. pp. 209, 356, 357, 359)
+        gives some curious instances of the extremely low rate at which
+        the natives are glad to work. As to the ordinary wages in India
+        in the present century, see _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. i.
+        p. 255, vol. v. p. 171; _Rammohun Roy on the Judicial and Revenue
+        Systems_, pp. 105, 106; _Sykes's Statistics of the Deccan Reports
+        of the British Association_, vol. vi. p. 321; _Ward's View of the
+        Hindoos_, vol. iii. p. 207; _Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law_,
+        vol. ii. p. 184. On wages in the south of India, the fullest
+        information will be found in Buchanan's valuable work, _Journey
+        through the Mysore, Canara, and Malabar_, vol. i. pp. 124, 125,
+        133, 171, 175, 216, 217, 298, 390, 415, vol. ii. pp. 12, 19, 22,
+        37, 90, 108, 132, 217, 218, 315, 481, 523, 525, 562, vol. iii.
+        pp. 35, 181, 226, 298, 321, 349, 363, 398, 428, 555. I wish that
+        all travellers were equally minute in recording the wages of
+        labour; a subject of far greater importance than those with which
+        they usually fill their books.
+
+        On the other hand, the riches possessed by the upper classes
+        have, owing to this mal-distribution of wealth, been always
+        enormous, and sometimes incredible. See _Forbes's Oriental
+        Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 297; _Bohlen_, _das alte Indien_, vol. ii.
+        p. 119; _Travels of Ibn Batuta_, p. 41; _Ward's Hindoos_, vol.
+        iii. p. 178. The autobiography of the Emperor Jehangueir contains
+        such extraordinary statements of his immense wealth, that the
+        Editor, Major Price, thinks that some error must have been made
+        by the copyist; but the reader will find in _Grote's History of
+        Greece_ (vol. xii. pp. 229, 245) evidence of the treasures which
+        it was possible for Asiatic rulers to collect in that state of
+        society. The working of this unequal distribution is thus stated
+        by Mr. Glyn (_Transac. of Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 482): 'The
+        nations of Europe have very little idea of the actual condition
+        of the inhabitants of Hindustan; they are more wretchedly poor
+        than we have any notion of. Europeans have hitherto been too apt
+        to draw their opinions of the wealth of Hindustan from the
+        gorgeous pomp of a few emperors, sultans, nawabs, and rajahs;
+        whereas a more intimate and accurate view of the real state of
+        society would have shown that these princes and nobles were
+        engrossing all the wealth of the country, whilst the great body
+        of the people were earning but a bare subsistence, groaning under
+        intolerable burdens, and hardly able to supply themselves with
+        the necessaries of life, much less with its luxuries.'
+
+This was the first great consequence induced in India by the cheapness
+and abundance of the national food.[114] But the evil by no means
+stopped there. In India, as in every other country, poverty provokes
+contempt, and wealth produces power. When other things are equal, it
+must be with classes of men as with individuals, that the richer they
+are, the greater the influence they will possess. It was therefore to be
+expected, that the unequal distribution of wealth should cause an
+unequal distribution of power; and as there is no instance on record of
+any class possessing power without abusing it, we may easily understand
+how it was that the people of India, condemned to poverty by the
+physical laws of their climate, should have fallen into a degradation
+from which they have never been able to escape. A few instances may be
+given to illustrate, rather than to prove, a principle which the
+preceding arguments have, I trust, placed beyond the possibility of
+dispute.
+
+  [114] Turner, who travelled in 1783 through the north-east of Bengal,
+        says: 'Indeed, the extreme poverty and wretchedness of these
+        people will forcibly appear, when we recollect how little is
+        necessary for the subsistence of a peasant in these regions. The
+        value of this can seldom amount to more than one penny per day,
+        even allowing him to make his meal of two pounds of boiled rice,
+        with a due proportion of salt, oil, vegetables, fish, and chili.'
+        _Turner's Embassy to Tibet_, p. 11. Ibn Batuta, who travelled in
+        Hindostan in the fourteenth century, says: 'I never saw a country
+        in which provisions were so cheap.' _Travels of Ibn Batuta_, p.
+        194.
+
+To the great body of the Indian people the name of Sudras is given;[115]
+and the native laws respecting them contain some minute and curious
+provisions. If a member of this despised class presumed to occupy the
+same seat as his superiors, he was either to be exiled or to suffer a
+painful and ignominious punishment.[116] If he spoke of them with
+contempt, his mouth was to be burned;[117] if he actually insulted them,
+his tongue was to be slit;[118] if he molested a Brahmin, he was to be
+put to death;[119] if he sat on the same carpet with a Brahmin, he was
+to be maimed for life;[120] if, moved by the desire of instruction, he
+even listened to the reading of the sacred books, burning oil was to be
+poured into his ears;[121] if, however, he committed them to memory, he
+was to be killed;[122] if he were guilty of a crime, the punishment for
+it was greater than that inflicted on his superiors;[123] but if he
+himself were murdered, the penalty was the same as for killing a dog, a
+cat, or a crow.[124] Should he marry his daughter to a Brahmin, no
+retribution that could be exacted in this world was sufficient; it was
+therefore announced that the Brahmin must go to hell, for having
+suffered contamination from a woman immeasurably his inferior.[125]
+Indeed, it was ordered that the mere name of a labourer should be
+expressive of contempt, so that his proper standing might be immediately
+known.[126] And lest this should not be enough to maintain the
+subordination of society, a law was actually made forbidding any
+labourer to accumulate wealth;[127] while another clause declared, that
+even though his master should give him freedom, he would in reality
+still be a slave; 'for,' says the lawgiver--'for of a state which is
+natural to him, by whom can he be divested?'[128]
+
+  [115] The Sudras are estimated by Ward (_View of the Hindoos_, vol. iii.
+        p. 281) at 'three-fourths of the Hindoos.' At all events, they
+        comprise the whole of the working classes; the Vaisyas not being
+        husbandmen, as they are often called, but landlords, owners of
+        cattle, and traders. Compare _Institutes of Menu_, chap. ix. sec.
+        326-333, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iii. pp. 380, 381, with
+        _Colebrooke's Digest_, vol. i. p. 15, from which it appears that
+        the Vaisyas were always the masters, and that the Sudra was to
+        'rely on agriculture for his subsistence.' The division,
+        therefore, between 'the industrious and the servile'
+        (_Elphinstone's History of India_, p. 12) is too broadly stated,
+        and we must, I think, take the definition of M. Rhode: 'Die Kaste
+        der Sudras umfasst die ganze arbeitende, oder um Lohn dienende
+        Classe des Volks.' _Relig. Bildung der Hindus_, vol. ii. p. 561.
+
+  [116] 'Either be banished with a mark on his hinder parts, or the king
+        shall cause a gash to be made on his buttock.' _Institutes of
+        Menu_, chap. viii. sec. 281, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol.
+        iii. p. 315. See also _Ward's View of the Hindoos_, vol. iii. p.
+        67.
+
+  [117] _Menu_, chap. viii. sec. 271, in _Jones's Works_, vol. iii.
+        p. 314.
+
+  [118] _Menu_, chap. viii. sec. 270.
+
+  [119] 'If a Sudra gives much and frequent molestation to a Brahmin, the
+        magistrate shall put him to death.' _Halhed's Code of Gentoo
+        Laws_, p. 262.
+
+  [120] _Halhed's Code of Gentoo Laws_, p. 207. As to the case of striking
+         a Brahmin, see _Rammohun Roy on the Veds_, p. 227, 2nd edit. 1832.
+
+  [121] 'And if a Sooder listens to the Beids of the Shaster, then the
+        oil, heated as before, shall be poured into his ears; and arzeez
+        and wax shall be melted together, and the orifice of his ears
+        shall be stopped up therewith.' _Halhed_, p. 262. Compare the
+        prohibition in _Menu_, chap. iv. sec. 99, chap. x. sec. 109-111,
+        in _Jones's Works_, vol. iii. pp. 174, 398.
+
+  [122] _Halhed_, p. 262: 'the magistrate shall put him to death.' In
+        Mrichchakati, the judge says to a Sudra, 'If you expound the
+        Vedas, will not your tongue be cut out?' _Wilson's Theatre of the
+        Hindus_, vol. i. part ii. p. 170.
+
+  [123] _Ward's View of the Hindoos_, vol. iv. p. 308. To this the only
+        exception was in the case of theft. _Mill's History of India_,
+        vol. i. pp. 193, 260. A Brahmin could 'on no account be capitally
+        punished.' _Asiatic Researches_, vol. xv. p. 44.
+
+  [124] _Menu_, chap. xi. sec. 132, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iii.
+        p. 422.
+
+  [125] 'A Brahmin, if he take a Sudra to his bed as his first wife, sinks
+        to the regions of torment.' _Institutes of Menu_, chap. iii. sec.
+        17, in _Jones_, vol. iii. p. 121. Compare the denial of funeral
+        rites, in _Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law_, vol. iii. p. 328.
+        And on the different hells invented by the Hindu clergy, see
+        _Vishnu Purana_, p. 207; _Ward's View of the Hindoos_, vol. ii.
+        pp. 182, 183; _Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus_, p. 113. The
+        curious details in _Rhode_, _die Religiöse Bildung der Hindus_,
+        vol. i. pp. 392, 393, rather refer to Buddhism, and should be
+        compared with _Journal Asiatique_, I. série, vol. viii. pp. 80,
+        81, Paris, 1826.
+
+  [126] _Menu_, chap. ii. sec. 31, in _Jones_, vol. iii. p. 87; also
+        noticed in _Rhode_, _Relig. Bildung_, vol. ii. p. 561: 'sein Name
+        soll schon Verachtung ausdrücken.' So, too, Mr. Elphinstone
+        (_History of India_, p. 17): 'the proper name of a Sudra is
+        directed to be expressive of contempt.' Compare _Origines du
+        Droit_, in _[OE]uvres de Michelet_, vol. ii. p. 387, Bruxelles,
+        1840.
+
+  [127] _Menu_, chap. x. sec. 129, in _Jones_, vol. iii. p. 401. This law
+        is pointed out by Mill (_History of India_, vol. i. p. 195) as an
+        evidence of the miserable state of the people, which, Mr. Wilson
+        (note in p. 213) vainly attempts to evade.
+
+  [128] 'A Sudra, though emancipated by his master, is not released from a
+        state of servitude; for of a state which is natural to him, by
+        whom can he be divested?' _Institutes of Menu_, chap. viii. sec.
+        414, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iii. p. 333.
+
+By whom, indeed, could he be divested? I ween not where that power was
+by which so vast a miracle could be worked. For in India, slavery,
+abject, eternal slavery, was the natural state of the great body of the
+people; it was the state to which they were doomed by physical laws
+utterly impossible to resist. The energy of those laws is, in truth, so
+invincible, that wherever they have come into play, they have kept the
+productive classes in perpetual subjection. There is no instance on
+record of any tropical country, in which wealth having been extensively
+accumulated, the people have escaped their fate; no instance in which
+the heat of the climate has not caused an abundance of food, and the
+abundance of food caused an unequal distribution, first of wealth, and
+then of political and social power. Among nations subjected to these
+conditions, the people have counted for nothing; they have had no voice
+in the management of the state, no control over the wealth their own
+industry created. Their only business has been to labour; their only
+duty to obey. Thus there has been generated among them, those habits of
+tame and servile submission, by which, as we know from history, they
+have always been characterized. For it is an undoubted fact, that their
+annals furnish no instance of their having turned upon their rulers, no
+war of classes, no popular insurrections, not even one great popular
+conspiracy. In those rich and fertile countries there have been many
+changes, but all of them have been from above, not from below. The
+democratic element has been altogether wanting. There have been in
+abundance, wars of kings, and wars of dynasties. There have been
+revolutions in the government, revolutions in the palace, revolutions on
+the throne; but no revolutions among the people;[129] no mitigation of
+that hard lot which nature, rather than man, assigned to them. Nor was
+it until civilization arose in Europe, that other physical laws came
+into operation, and therefore other results were produced. In Europe,
+for the first time, there was some approach to equality, some tendency
+to correct that enormous disproportion of wealth and power, which formed
+the essential weakness of the greatest of the more ancient countries.
+As a natural consequence, it is in Europe that everything worthy of the
+name of civilization has originated; because there alone have attempts
+been made to preserve the balance of its relative parts. There alone has
+society been organized according to a scheme, not indeed sufficiently
+large, but still wide enough to include all the different classes of
+which it is composed, and thus, by leaving room for the progress of
+each, to secure the permanence and advancement of the whole.
+
+  [129] An intelligent observer says, 'It is also remarkable how little
+        the people of Asiatic countries have to do in the revolutions of
+        their governments. They are never guided by any great and common
+        impulse of feeling, and take no part in events the most
+        interesting and important to their country and their own
+        prosperity.' _M'Murdo on the Country of Sindh_, in _Journal of
+        Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 250. Compare similar remarks in
+        _Herder's Ideen zur Geschichte_, vol. iii. p. 114; and even in
+        _Alison's History of Europe_, vol. x. pp. 419, 420.
+
+The way in which certain other physical peculiarities confined to
+Europe, have also accelerated the progress of Man by diminishing his
+superstition, will be indicated towards the end of this chapter; but as
+that will involve an examination of some laws which I have not yet
+noticed, it seems advisable, in the first place, to complete the inquiry
+now before us; and I therefore purpose proving that the line of argument
+which has been just applied to India, is likewise applicable to Egypt,
+to Mexico, and to Peru. For by thus including in a single survey, the
+most conspicuous civilizations of Asia, Africa, and America, we shall be
+able to see how the preceding principles hold good of different and
+distant countries; and we shall be possessed of evidence sufficiently
+comprehensive to test the accuracy of those great laws which, without
+such precaution, I might be supposed to have generalized from scanty and
+imperfect materials.
+
+The reasons why, of all the African nations, the Egyptians alone were
+civilized, have been already stated, and have been shown to depend on
+those physical peculiarities which distinguish them from the surrounding
+countries, and which, by facilitating the acquisition of wealth, not
+only supplied them with material resources that otherwise they could
+never have obtained, but also secured to their intellectual classes the
+leisure and the opportunity of extending the boundaries of knowledge. It
+is, indeed, true that, notwithstanding these advantages, they effected
+nothing of much moment; but this was owing to circumstances which will
+be hereafter explained; and it must, at all events, be admitted that
+they raised themselves far above every other people by whom Africa was
+inhabited.
+
+The civilization of Egypt being, like that of India, caused by the
+fertility of the soil, and the climate being also very hot,[130] there
+were in both countries brought into play the same laws; and there
+naturally followed the same results. In both countries we find the
+national food cheap and abundant: hence the labour-market over-supplied;
+hence a very unequal division of wealth and power; and hence all the
+consequences which such inequality will inevitably produce. How this
+system worked in India, I have just attempted to examine; and although
+the materials for studying the former condition of Egypt are much less
+ample, they are still sufficiently numerous to prove the striking
+analogy between the two civilizations, and the identity of those great
+principles which regulated the order of their social and political
+development.
+
+  [130] Volney (_Voyage en Egypte_, vol. i. pp. 58-63) has a good chapter
+        on the climate of Egypt.
+
+If we inquire into the most important circumstances which concerned the
+people of ancient Egypt, we shall see that they are exactly the
+counterpart of those that have been noticed in India. For, in the first
+place, as regards their ordinary food, what rice is to the most fertile
+parts of Asia, that are dates to Africa. The palm-tree is found in every
+country from the Tigris to the Atlantic;[131] and it supplies millions
+of human beings with their daily food in Arabia,[132] and in nearly the
+whole of Africa north of the equator.[133] In many parts of the great
+African desert it is indeed unable to bear fruit; but naturally it is a
+very hardy plant, and produces dates in such profusion, that towards the
+north of the Sahara they are eaten not only by man, but also by domestic
+animals.[134] And in Egypt, where the palm is said to be of spontaneous
+growth,[135] dates, besides being the chief sustenance of the people,
+are so plentiful, that from a very early period they have been given
+commonly to camels, the only beasts of burden generally used in that
+country.[136]
+
+  [131] It is, however, unknown in South Africa. See the account of the
+        Palmaceæ in _Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom_, 1847, p. 136, and
+        _Meyen's Geog. of Plants_, p. 337.
+
+  [132] 'Of all eatables used by the Arabs, dates are the most favourite.'
+        _Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia_, vol. i. p. 56. See also, for
+        proof of their abundance in the west of Arabia, vol. i. pp. 103,
+        157, 238, vol. ii. pp. 91, 100, 105, 118, 209, 210, 214, 253,
+        300, 331. And on the dates of Oman and the east of Arabia, see
+        _Wellsted's Travels in Arabia_, vol. i. pp. 188, 189, 236, 276,
+        290, 349. Compare _Niebuhr_, _Description de l'Arabie_, pp. 142,
+        296. Indeed, they are so important, that the Arabs have different
+        names for them according to the stages of their growth. Djewhari
+        says, 'La dénomination _balah_ précède le nom _bosr_; car la
+        datte se nomme d'abord _tala_, en suite _khalal_, puis _balah_,
+        puis _bosr_, puis _rotab_, et enfin _tamr_.' _De Sacy's note to
+        Abd-Allatif, Relation, de l'Egypte_, p. 74, and see p. 118. Other
+        notices of the dates of Arabia will be found in _Travels of Ibn
+        Batuta in Fourteenth Century_, p. 66; _Journal of Asiatic Soc._
+        vol. viii. p. 286; _Journal of Geograph. Soc._ vol. iv. p. 201,
+        vol. vi. pp. 53, 55, 58, 66, 68, 74, vol. vii. p. 32, vol. ix.
+        pp. 147, 151.
+
+  [133] Heeren (_Trade of the African Nations_, vol. i. p. 182) supposes
+        that in Africa, dates are comparatively little known south of 26°
+        north lat. But this learned writer is certainly mistaken; and a
+        reference to the following passages will show that they are
+        common as far down as the parallel of Lake Tchad, which is nearly
+        the southern limit of our knowledge of Central Africa; _Denham's
+        Central Africa_, p. 295; _Clapperton's Journal_, in _Appendix to
+        Denham_, pp. 34, 59; _Clapperton's Second Expedition_, p. 159.
+        Further east they are somewhat scarcer, but are found much more
+        to the south than is supposed by Heeren: see _Pallme's Kordofan_,
+        p. 220.
+
+  [134] 'Dates are not only the principal growth of the Fezzan oases, but
+        the main subsistence of their inhabitants. All live on dates;
+        men, women, and children, horses, asses, and camels, and sheep,
+        fowls, and dogs.' _Richardson's Travels in the Sahara_, vol. ii.
+        p. 323, and see vol. i. p. 343: as to those parts of the desert
+        where the palm will not bear, see vol. i. pp. 387, 405, vol. ii.
+        pp. 291, 363. Respecting the dates of western Africa, see
+        _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. xii. p. 204.
+
+  [135] 'It flourished spontaneously in the valley of the Nile.'
+        _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. ii. p. 372. As further
+        illustration of the importance to Africa of this beautiful plant,
+        it may be mentioned, that from the high-palm there is prepared a
+        peculiar beverage, which in some parts is in great request. On
+        this, which is called palm-wine, see _M'William's Medical
+        Expedition to the Niger_, pp. 71, 116; _Meredith's Gold Coast of
+        Africa_, 1812, pp. 55, 56; _Laird and Oldfield's Expedition into
+        the Interior of Africa_, 1837, vol. ii. pp. 170, 213; _Bowdich_,
+        _Mission to Ashantee_, pp. 69, 100, 152, 293, 386, 392. But I
+        doubt if this is the same as the palm-wine mentioned in
+        _Balfour's Botany_, 1849, p. 532. Compare _Tuckey's Expedition to
+        the Zaire_, pp. 155, 216, 224, 356.
+
+  [136] _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. ii. pp. 175-178. See also on
+        the abundance of dates, the extracts from an Arabian geographer
+        in _Quatremère_, _Recherches sur l'Egypte_, pp. 220, 221.
+
+From these facts, it is evident that, taking Egypt as the highest type
+of African civilization, and India as the highest type of Asiatic
+civilization, it may be said that dates are to the first civilization
+what rice is to the second. Now it is observable, that all the most
+important physical peculiarities found in rice are also found in dates.
+In regard to their chemistry, it is well known that the chief principle
+of the nutriment they contain is the same in both; the starch of the
+Indian vegetable being merely turned into the sugar of the Egyptian. In
+regard to the laws of climate, their affinity is equally obvious; since
+dates, like rice, belong to hot countries, and flourish most in or near
+the tropics.[137] In regard to their increase, and the laws of their
+connexion with the soil, the analogy is also exact; for dates, just the
+same as rice, require little labour, and yield abundant returns, while
+they occupy so small a space of land in comparison with the nutriment
+they afford, that upwards of two hundred palm-trees are sometimes
+planted on a single acre.[138]
+
+  [137] On their relation to the laws of climate, see the remarks
+        respecting the geographical limits of their power of ripening, in
+        _Jussieu's Botany_, edit. Wilson, 1849, p. 734.
+
+  [138] 'In the valley of the Nile, a feddan (1-3/4 acre) is sometimes
+        planted with 400 trees.' _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol.
+        ii. p. 178. At Moorzuk an entire date-palm is only worth about a
+        shilling. _Richardson's Central Africa_, vol. i. p. 111.
+
+Thus striking are the similarities to which, in different countries, the
+same physical conditions naturally give rise. At the same time, in
+Egypt, as in India, the attainment of civilization was preceded by the
+possession of a highly fertile soil; so that, while the exuberance of
+the land regulated the speed with which wealth was created, the
+abundance of the food regulated the proportions into which the wealth
+was divided. The most fertile part of Egypt is the Said;[139] and it is
+precisely there that we find the greatest display of skill and
+knowledge, the splendid remains of Thebes, Carnac, Luxor, Dendera, and
+Edfou.[140] It is also in the Said, or as it is often called the
+Thebaid, that a food is used which multiplies itself even more rapidly
+than either dates or rice. This is the dhourra, which until recently was
+confined to Upper Egypt,[141] and of which the reproductive power is so
+remarkable, that it yields to the labourer a return of two hundred and
+forty for one.[142] In Lower Egypt the dhourra was formerly unknown;
+but, in addition to dates, the people made a sort of bread from the
+lotos, which sprang spontaneously out of the rich soil of the Nile.[143]
+This must have been a very cheap and accessible food; while to it there
+was joined a profusion of other plants and herbs, on which the Egyptians
+chiefly lived.[144] Indeed so inexhaustible was the supply, that at the
+time of the Mohammedan invasion there were, in the single city of
+Alexandria, no less than four thousand persons occupied in selling
+vegetables to the people.[145]
+
+  [139] On the remarkable fertility of the Said, see _Abd-Allatif_,
+        _Relation de l'Egypte_, p. 3.
+
+  [140] The superiority of the ruins in Southern Egypt over those in the
+        northern part is noticed by Heeren (_African Nations_, vol. ii.
+        p. 69), and must, indeed, be obvious to whoever has studied the
+        monuments. In the Said the Coptic was preserved longer than in
+        Lower Egypt, and is known to philologists by the name of Misr.
+        See _Quatremère_, _Recherches sur la Langue de l'Egypte_, pp. 20,
+        41, 42. See also on the Saidic, pp. 134-140, and some good
+        remarks by Dr. Prichard (_Physical Hist._ vol. ii. p. 202); who,
+        however, adopts the paradoxical opinion of Georgi respecting the
+        origin of the language of the Thebaid.
+
+  [141] Abd-Allatif (_Relation de l'Egypte_, p. 32) says, that in his time
+        it was only cultivated in the Said. This curious work by
+        Abd-Allatif was written in A.D. 1203. _Relation_, p. 423. Meiners
+        thinks that Herodotus and other ancient writers refer to the
+        dhourra without mentioning it: 'diese Durra muss daher im Herodot
+        wie in andern alten Schriftstellern vorzüglich verstanden werden,
+        wenn von hundert, zwey hundert, und mehrfältigen Früchten, welche
+        die Erde trage, die Rede ist.' _Meiners_, _Fruchtbarkeit der
+        Länder_, vol. i. p. 139. According to Volney, it is the Holcus
+        Arundinaceus of Linnæus, and appears to be similar to millet; and
+        though that accurate traveller distinguishes between them, I
+        observe that Captain Haines, in a recent memoir, speaks of them
+        as being the same. Compare Haines in _Journal of Geog. Soc._ vol.
+        xv. p. 118, with _Volney_, _Voyage en Egypte_, vol. i. p. 195.
+
+  [142] 'The return is in general not less than 240 for one; and the
+        average price is about 3_s._ 9_d._ the ardeb, which is scarcely
+        3_d._ per bushel.' _Hamilton's Æqyptiaca_, p. 420. In Upper
+        Egypt, 'the doura constitutes almost the whole subsistence of the
+        peasantry,' p. 419. At p. 96, Hamilton says, 'I have frequently
+        counted 3,000 grains in one ear of doura, and each stalk has in
+        general four or five ears.' For an account, of the dhourra bread,
+        see _Volney_, _Voyage en Egypte_, vol. i. p. 161.
+
+  [143] [Greek: Epean plêrês genêtai ho potamos, kai ta pedia pelagisê,
+        phuetai en tô hudati krinea polla, ta Aiguptioi kaleousi lôton;
+        tauta epean drepsôsi, auainousi pros hêlion; kai epeita to ek tou
+        mesou tou lôtou tê mêkôni eon empheres, ptisantes poieuntai ex
+        autou artous optous puri.] _Herodot._ ii. 92, vol. i. p. 688.
+
+  [144] _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. ii. pp. 370-372, 400, vol.
+        iv. p. 59. Abd-Allatif gives a curious account of the different
+        vegetables grown in Egypt early in the thirteenth century.
+        _Relation_, pp. 16-36, and the notes of De Sacy, pp. 37-134. On
+        the [Greek: kyamos] of Herodotus there are some botanical remarks
+        worth reading in the _Correspondence of Sir J. E. Smith_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 224-232; but I doubt the assertion, p. 227, that
+        Herodotus 'knew nothing of any other kind of [Greek: kyamos] in
+        Egypt than that of the ordinary bean.'
+
+  [145] 'When Alexandria was taken by Amer, the lieutenant of the Caliph
+        Omer, no less than 4,000 persons were engaged in selling
+        vegetables in that city.' _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol.
+        ii. p. 372, and see vol. i. p. 277, vol. iv. p. 60. Niebuhr
+        (_Description de l'Arabie_, p. 136) says that the neighbourhood
+        of Alexandria is so fertile, that 'le froment y rend le
+        centuple.' See also on its rich vegetation, _Matter_, _Histoire
+        de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie_, vol. i. p. 52.
+
+From this abundance of the national food, there resulted a train of
+events strictly analogous to those which took place in India. In Africa
+generally, the growth of population, though on the one hand stimulated
+by the heat of the climate, was on the other hand checked by the poverty
+of the soil. But on the banks of the Nile this restraint no longer
+existed,[146] and therefore the laws already noticed came into
+uncontrolled operation. By virtue of those laws, the Egyptians were not
+only satisfied with a cheap food, but they required that food in
+comparatively small quantities; thus by a double process, increasing the
+limit to which their numbers could extend. At the same time the lower
+orders were able to rear their offspring with the greater ease, because,
+owing to the high rate of temperature, another considerable source of
+expense was avoided; the heat being such that, even for adults, the
+necessary clothes were few and slight, while the children of the working
+classes were entirely naked; affording a striking contrast to those
+colder countries where, to preserve ordinary health, a supply of warmer
+and more costly covering is essential. Diodorus Siculus, who travelled
+in Egypt nineteen centuries ago, says, that to bring up a child to
+manhood did not cost more than twenty drachmas, scarcely thirteen
+shillings English money; a circumstance which he justly notices as a
+cause of the populousness of the country.[147]
+
+  [146] The encouragement given to the increase of population by the
+        fertility arising from the inundation of the Nile, is observed by
+        many writers, but by none so judiciously as Malthus; _Essay on
+        Population_, vol. i. pp. 161-163. This great work, the principles
+        of which have been grossly misrepresented, is still the best
+        which has been written on the important subject of population,
+        though the author, from a want of sufficient reading, often errs
+        in his illustrations; while he, unfortunately, had no
+        acquaintance with those branches of physical knowledge which are
+        intimately connected with economical inquiries.
+
+  [147] [Greek: Trephousi de ta paidia meta tinos euchereias adapanou, kai
+        pantelôs apistou ... anupodetôn de tôn pleistôn kai gymnôn
+        trephomenon dia tên eukrasian tôn topôn, tên pasan dapanên oi
+        goneis, achris an eis hêlikian elthê to teknon, ou pleiô poiousi
+        drachmôn eikusi, di as aitias malista tên Aigupton sumbainei
+        poluanthrôpia diapherein, kai dia touto pleistas echein megalôn
+        ergôn kataskeuas.] _Bibliothec. Hist._ book i. chap. lxxx. vol.
+        i. p. 238.
+
+To compress into a single sentence the preceding remarks, it may be said
+that in Egypt the people multiplied rapidly, because while the soil
+increased their supplies, the climate lessened their wants. The result
+was, that Egypt was not only far more thickly peopled than any other
+country in Africa, but probably more so than any in the ancient world.
+Our information upon this point is indeed somewhat scanty, but it is
+derived from sources of unquestioned credibility. Herodotus, who the
+more he is understood the more accurate he is found to be,[148] states
+that in the reign of Amasis there were said to have been twenty thousand
+inhabited cities.[149] This may, perhaps, be considered an exaggeration;
+but what is very observable is, that Diodorus Siculus, who travelled in
+Egypt four centuries after Herodotus, and whose jealousy of the
+reputation of his great predecessor made him anxious to discredit his
+statements,[150] does nevertheless, on this important point, confirm
+them. For he not only remarks that Egypt was at that time as densely
+inhabited as any existing country, but he adds, on the authority of
+records which were then extant, that it was formerly the most populous
+in the world, having contained, he says, upwards of eighteen thousand
+cities.[151]
+
+  [148] Frederick Schlegel (_Philos. of Hist._ p. 247, London, 1846) truly
+        says, 'The deeper and more comprehensive the researches of the
+        moderns have been on ancient history, the more have their regard
+        and esteem for Herodotus increased.' His minute information
+        respecting Egypt and Asia Minor is now admitted by all competent
+        geographers; and I may add, that a recent and very able traveller
+        has given some curious proofs of his knowledge even of the
+        western parts of Siberia. See Erman's valuable work, _Travels in
+        Siberia_, vol. i. pp. 211, 297-301.
+
+  [149] [Greek: 'Ep' Amasios de basileos legetai Aigyptos malis-a dê tote
+        eudaimonêsai, kai ta apo tou potamou tê chôrê ginomena, kai ta
+        apo tês chôrês toisi anthrôpoisi kai polis en autê genesthai tas
+        apasas tote dismurias tas oikeomenas.] _Herodot._ book ii. chap.
+        clxxvii. vol. i. pp. 881, 882.
+
+  [150] Diodorus, who, though an honest and painstaking man, was in every
+        respect inferior to Herodotus, says, impertinently enough,
+        [Greek: osa men oun 'Êrodotos kai tines tôn tas Aiguptiôn prazeis
+        sun-tazamenôn eschediakasin, ekousiôs prokrinantes tês alêtheias
+        to paradoxologein, kai muthous plattein psuchagôgias eneka,
+        parêsomen.] _Biblioth. Hist._ book i. chap. lxix. vol. i. p. 207.
+        In other places he alludes to Herodotus in the same tone, without
+        actually mentioning him.
+
+  [151] [Greek: Poluanthrôpia de to men palaion polu proesche pantôn tôn
+        gnôrizomenon topôn kata, tên oikoumenên, kai kath' êmas de
+        oudenos tôn allôn dokei leipesthai. epi men gar tôn archaion
+        chronôn esche kômas axiologous, kai poleis pleious tôn murion kai
+        oktakischiliôn, ôs en tais anagraphais dranx esti
+        katakechôrismenon.] _Diod. Sic. Biblioth. Hist._ book i. chap.
+        xxxi. vol. i. p. 89.
+
+These were the only two ancient writers who, from personal knowledge,
+were well acquainted with the state of Egypt;[152] and their testimony
+is the more valuable because it was evidently drawn from different
+sources; the information of Herodotus being chiefly collected at
+Memphis, that of Diodorus at Thebes.[153] And whatever discrepancies
+there may be between these two accounts, they are both agreed respecting
+the rapid increase of the people, and the servile condition into which
+they had fallen. Indeed, the mere appearance of those huge and costly
+buildings, which are still standing, are a proof of the state of the
+nation that erected them. To raise structures so stupendous,[154] and
+yet so useless,[155] there must have been tyranny on the part of the
+rulers, and slavery on the part of the people. No wealth, however
+great, no expenditure, however lavish, could meet the expense which
+would have been incurred, if they had been the work of free men, who
+received for their labour a fair and honest reward.[156] But in Egypt,
+as in India, such considerations were disregarded, because everything
+tended to favour the upper ranks of society and depress the lower.
+Between the two there was an immense and impassable gap.[157] If a
+member of the industrious classes changed his usual employment, or was
+known to pay attention to political matters, he was severely
+punished;[158] and under no circumstances was the possession of land
+allowed to an agricultural labourer, to a mechanic, or indeed to any one
+except the king, the clergy, and the army.[159] The people at large were
+little better than beasts of burden; and all that was expected from them
+was an unremitting and unrequited labour. If they neglected their work,
+they were flogged; and the same punishment was frequently inflicted upon
+domestic servants, and even upon women.[160] These and similar
+regulations were well conceived; they were admirably suited to that vast
+social system, which, because it was based on despotism, could only be
+upheld by cruelty. Hence it was that, the industry of the whole nation
+being at the absolute command of a small part of it, there arose the
+possibility of rearing those vast edifices, which inconsiderate
+observers admire as a proof of civilization,[161] but which, in reality,
+are evidence of a state of things altogether depraved and unhealthy; a
+state in which the skill and the arts of an imperfect refinement injured
+those whom they ought to have benefited; so that the very resources
+which the people had created were turned against the people themselves.
+
+  [152] Notwithstanding the positive assertions of M. Matter (_Hist. de
+        l'Ecole d'Alexandrie_, vol. ii. p. 285; compare _Hist. du
+        Gnosticisme_, vol. i. p. 48), there is no good evidence for the
+        supposed travels in Egypt of the earlier Greeks, and it is even
+        questionable if Plato ever visited that country. ('Whether he
+        ever was in Egypt is doubtful.' _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. i. p. 60.)
+        The Romans took little interest in the subject (_Bunsen_, vol. i.
+        pp. 152-158); and, says M. Bunsen, p. 152, 'with Diodorus all
+        systematic inquiry into the history of Egypt ceases, not only on
+        the part of the Greeks, but of the ancients in general.' Mr.
+        Leake, in an essay on the Quorra, arrives at the conclusion, that
+        after the time of Ptolemy, the ancients made no additions to
+        their knowledge of African geography. _Journal of Geographical
+        Society_, vol. ii. p. 9.
+
+  [153] See on this some good remarks in _Heeren's African Nations_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 202-207; and as to the difference between the traditions
+        of Thebes and Memphis, see _Matter_, _Histoire de l'Ecole
+        d'Alexandrie_, vol. i. p. 7. The power and importance of the two
+        cities fluctuated, both being at different periods the capital.
+        _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. 54, 55, 244, 445, 446; _Vyse on
+        the Pyramids_, vol. iii. pp. 27, 100; _Sharpe's History of
+        Egypt_, vol. i. pp. 9, 19, 24, 34, 167, 185.
+
+  [154] Sir John Herschel (_Disc. on Natural Philosophy_, p. 60)
+        calculates that the great pyramid weighs twelve thousand seven
+        hundred and sixty million pounds. Compare _Lyell's Principles of
+        Geology_, p. 459, where the still larger estimate of six million
+        tons is given. But according to Perring, the present quantity of
+        masonry is 6,316,000 tons, or 82,110,000 cubic feet. See
+        _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. ii. p. 155, London, 1854, and _Vyse on the
+        Pyramids_, 1840, vol. ii. p. 113.
+
+  [155] Many fanciful hypotheses have been put forward as to the purpose
+        for which the pyramids were built; but it is now admitted that
+        they were neither more nor less than tombs for the Egyptian
+        kings! See _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. xvii. 88, 105, 372,
+        389; and _Sharpe's History of Egypt_, vol. i. p. 21.
+
+  [156] For an estimate of the expense at which, one of the pyramids could
+        be built in our time by European workmen, see _Vyse on the
+        Pyramids_, vol. ii. p. 268. On account, however, of the number of
+        disturbing causes, such calculations have little value.
+
+  [157] Those who complain that in Europe this interval is still too
+        great, may derive a species of satisfaction from studying the old
+        extra-European civilizations.
+
+  [158] _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. ii. pp. 8, 9. 'Nor was any
+        one permitted to meddle with political affairs, or to hold any
+        civil office in the state.' ... 'If any artizan meddled with
+        political affairs, or engaged in any other employment than the
+        one to which he had been brought up, a severe punishment was
+        instantly inflicted upon him.' Compare _Diod. Sic. Bibliothec.
+        Hist._ book i. chap. lxxiv. vol. i. p. 223.
+
+  [159] _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. i. p. 263, vol. ii. p. 2;
+        _Sharpe's History of Egypt_, vol. ii. p. 24.
+
+  [160] _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. ii. pp. 41, 42, vol. iii. p.
+        69, vol. iv. p. 131. Compare Ammianus Marcellinus, in _Hamilton's
+        Ægyptiaca_, p. 309.
+
+  [161] _Vyse on the Pyramids_, vol. i. p. 61, vol. ii. p. 92.
+
+That in such a society as this, much regard should be paid to human
+suffering, it would indeed be idle to expect.[162] Still, we are
+startled by the reckless prodigality with which, in Egypt, the upper
+classes squandered away the labour and the lives of the people. In this
+respect, as the monuments yet remaining abundantly prove, they stand
+alone and without a rival. We may form some idea of the almost
+incredible waste, when we hear that two thousand men were occupied for
+three years in carrying a single stone from Elephantine to Sais;[163]
+that the Canal of the Red Sea alone, cost the lives of a hundred and
+twenty thousand Egyptians;[164] and that to build one of the pyramids
+required the labour of three hundred and sixty thousand men for twenty
+years.[165]
+
+  [162] 'Ein König ahmte den andern nach, oder suchte ihn zu übertreffen;
+        indess das gutmüthige Volk seine Lebenstage am Baue dieser
+        Monumente verzehren musste. So entstanden wahrscheinlich die
+        Pyramiden und Obelisken Aegyptens. Nur in den ältesten Zeiten
+        wurden sie gebauet: denn die spätere Zeit und jede Nation, die
+        ein nützliches Gewerbe treiben lernte, bauete keine Pyramiden
+        mehr. Weit gefehlt also, dass Pyramiden ein Kennzeichen von der
+        Glückseligkeit und Aufklärung des alten Aegyptens seyn sollten,
+        sind sie ein unwidersprechliches Denkmal von dem Aberglauben und
+        der Gedankenlosigkeit sowohl der Armen, die da baueten, als der
+        Ehrgeizigen, die den Bau befahlen.' _Herder's Ideen zur
+        Geschichte_, vol. iii. pp. 103, 104: see also p. 293, and some
+        admirable remarks in _Volney's Voyage en Egypte_, vol. i. pp.
+        240, 241. Even M. Bunsen, notwithstanding his admiration, says of
+        one of the pyramids, 'the misery of the people, already
+        grievously oppressed, was aggravated by the construction of this
+        gigantic building.... The bones of the oppressors of the people
+        who for two whole generations harassed hundreds of thousands from
+        day to day,' &c. _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. ii. p. 176, a learned and
+        enthusiastic work.
+
+  [163] [Greek: Kai touto ekomizon men ep' etea tria dischilioi de oi
+        prosetetachato andres agôgees.] _Herodot._ book ii. chap. clxxv.
+        vol. i. p. 897. On the enormous weight of the stones which the
+        Egyptians sometimes carried, see _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. i. p.
+        379; and as to the machines employed, and the use of inclined
+        roads for the transit, see _Vyse on the Pyramids_, vol. i. p.
+        197, vol. iii. pp. 14, 38.
+
+  [164] _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. i. p. 70: but this learned
+        writer is unwilling to believe a statement so adverse to his
+        favourite Egyptians. It is likely enough that there is some
+        exaggeration; still no one can dispute the fact of an enormous
+        and unprincipled waste of human life.
+
+  [165] [Greek: Triakonta men yar kai ex muriades andrôn, ôs phasi, tais
+        tôn ergôn leitourgais prosêdreusan, to de pan kataskeuasma telos
+        esche mogis etôn eikosi dielthontôn.] _Diod. Sic. Bibliothec.
+        Hist._ book i. ch. lxiii. vol. i. p. 188.
+
+If, passing from the history of Asia and Africa, we now turn to the New
+World, we shall meet with fresh proof of the accuracy of the preceding
+views. The only parts of America which before the arrival of the
+Europeans were in some degree civilized, were Mexico and Peru;[166] to
+which may probably be added that long and narrow tract which stretches
+from the south of Mexico to the Isthmus of Panama. In this latter
+country, which is now known as Central America, the inhabitants, aided
+by the fertility of the soil,[167] seem to have worked out for
+themselves a certain amount of knowledge; since the ruins still extant,
+prove the possession of a mechanical and architectural skill too
+considerable to be acquired by any nation entirely barbarous.[168]
+Beyond this, nothing is known of their history; but the accounts we
+have of such buildings as Copan, Palenque, and Uxmal, make it highly
+probable that Central America was the ancient seat of a civilization, in
+all essential points similar to those of India and Egypt; that is to
+say, similar to them in respect to the unequal distribution of wealth
+and power, and the thraldom in which the great body of the people
+consequently remained.[169]
+
+  [166] 'When compared with other parts of the New World, Mexico and Peru
+        may be considered as polished states.' _History of America_, book
+        vii. in _Robertson's Works_, p. 904. See, to the same effect,
+        _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. v. p. 355.
+
+  [167] Compare _Squier's Central America_, vol. i. pp. 34, 244, 358, 421,
+        vol. ii. p. 307, with _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. iii.
+        p. 59, vol. viii. pp. 319, 323.
+
+  [168] Mr. Squier (_Central America_, vol. ii. p. 68); who explored
+        Nicaragua, says of the statues, 'the material, in every case, is
+        a black basalt, of great hardness, which, with the best of modern
+        tools, can only be cut with difficulty.' Mr. Stephens (_Central
+        America_, vol. ii. p. 355) found at Palenque 'elegant specimens
+        of art and models for study.' See also vol. iii. pp. 276, 389,
+        406, vol. iv. p. 293. Of the paintings at Chichen he says (vol.
+        iv. p. 311), 'they exhibit a freedom of touch which could only be
+        the result of discipline and training under masters.' At Copan
+        (vol. i. p. 151), 'it would be impossible, with the best
+        instruments of modern times, to cut stones more perfectly.' And
+        at Uxmal (vol. ii. p. 431), 'throughout, the laying and polishing
+        of the stones are as perfect as under the rules of the best
+        modern masonry.' Our knowledge of Central America is almost
+        entirely derived from these two writers; and although the work of
+        Mr. Stephens is much the more minute, Mr. Squier says (vol. ii.
+        p. 306), what I believe is quite true, that until the appearance
+        of his own book in 1853, the monuments in Nicaragua were entirely
+        unknown. Short descriptions of the remains in Guatemala and
+        Yucatan will be found in _Larenaudière's Mexique et Guatemala_,
+        pp. 308-327, and in _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. iii. pp.
+        60-63.
+
+  [169] See the remarks on Yucatan in _Prichard's Physical History of
+        Mankind_, vol. v. p. 348: 'a great and industrious, though
+        perhaps, as the writer above cited (Gallatin) observes, an
+        enslaved population. Splendid temples and palaces attest the
+        power of the priests and nobles, while as usual no trace remains
+        of the huts in which dwelt the mass of the nation.'
+
+But although the evidence from which we might estimate the former
+condition of Central America is almost entirely lost,[170] we are more
+fortunate in regard to the histories of Mexico and Peru. There are
+still existing considerable and authentic materials, from which we may
+form an opinion on the ancient state of those two countries, and on the
+nature and extent of their civilization. Before, however, entering upon
+this subject, it will be convenient to point out what those physical
+laws were which determined the localities of American civilization; or,
+in other words, why it was that in these countries alone, society should
+have been organized into a fixed and settled system, while the rest of
+the New World was peopled by wild and ignorant barbarians. Such an
+inquiry will be found highly interesting, as affording further proof of
+the extraordinary, and indeed irresistible, force with which the powers
+of nature have controlled the fortunes of man.
+
+  [170] Dr. M'Culloh (_Researches concerning the Aboriginal History of
+        America_, pp. 272-340) has collected from the Spanish writers
+        some meagre statements respecting the early condition of Central
+        America; but of its social state and history, properly so called,
+        nothing is known; nor is it even certain to what family of
+        nations the inhabitants belonged, though a recent author can find
+        'la civilisation guatemalienne ou misteco-zapotèque et mayaquiche
+        vivante pour nous encore dans les ruines de Mitla et de
+        Palenque.' _Mexique et Guatemala, par Larenaudière_, p. 8, Paris,
+        1843. Dr. Prichard, too, refers the ruins in Central America to
+        'the Mayan race:' see _Prichard on Ethnology_, in _Report of
+        British Association for 1847_, p. 252. But the evidence for these
+        and similar statements is very unsatisfactory.
+
+The first circumstance by which we must be struck, is that in America,
+as in Asia and Africa, all the original civilizations were seated in hot
+countries; the whole of Peru proper being within the southern tropic,
+the whole of Central America and Mexico within the northern tropic. How
+the heat of the climate operated on the social and political
+arrangements of India and Egypt, I have attempted to examine; and it
+has, I trust, been proved that the result was brought about by
+diminishing the wants and requirements of the people, and thus producing
+a very unequal distribution of wealth and power. But, besides this,
+there is another way in which the average temperature of a country
+affects its civilization, and the discussion of which I have reserved
+for the present moment, because it may be more clearly illustrated in
+America than elsewhere. Indeed, in the New World, the scale on which
+Nature works, being much larger than in the Old, and her forces being
+more overpowering, it is evident that her operations on mankind may be
+studied with greater advantage than in countries where she is weaker,
+and where, therefore, the consequences of her movements are less
+conspicuous.
+
+If the reader will bear in mind the immense influence which an abundant
+national food has been shown to exercise, he will easily understand how,
+owing to the pressure of physical phenomena, the civilization of
+America was, of necessity, confined to those parts where alone it was
+found by the discoverers of the New World. For, setting aside the
+chemical and geognostic varieties of soil, it may be said that the two
+causes which regulate the fertility of every country are heat and
+moisture.[171] Where these are abundant, the land will be exuberant;
+where they are deficient, it will be sterile. This rule is, of course,
+in its application subject to exceptions, arising from physical
+conditions which are independent of it; but if other things are equal,
+the rule is invariable. And the vast additions which, since the
+construction of isothermal lines, have been made to our knowledge of
+geographical botany, enable us to lay this down as a law of nature,
+proved not only by arguments drawn from vegetable physiology, but also
+by a careful study of the proportions in which plants are actually
+distributed in different countries.[172]
+
+  [171] Respecting the connection between the vegetable productions of a
+        country and its geognostic peculiarities, little is yet known;
+        but the reader may compare _Meyen's Geography of Plants_, p. 64,
+        with _Reports on Botany by the Ray Society_, 1846, pp. 70, 71.
+        The chemical laws of soil are much better understood, and have a
+        direct practical bearing on the use of manures. See _Turner's
+        Chemistry_, vol. ii. pp. 1310-1314; _Brande's Chemistry_, vol. i.
+        p. 691, vol. ii. pp. 1867-1869; _Balfour's Botany_, pp. 116-122;
+        _Liebig and Kopp's Reports_, vol. ii. pp. 315, 328, vol. iii. p.
+        463, vol. iv. pp. 438, 442, 446.
+
+  [172] As to the influence of heat and moisture on the geographical
+        distribution of plants, see _Henslow's Botany_, pp. 295-300, and
+        _Balfour's Botany_, pp. 560-563. Meyen (_Geog. of Plants_, p.
+        263) says, 'I, therefore, after allowing for local circumstances,
+        bring the vegetation of islands also under the law of nature,
+        according to which the number of species constantly increases
+        with increasing heat and corresponding humidity.' On the effect
+        of temperature alone, compare a note in _Erman's Siberia_, vol.
+        i. pp. 64, 65, with _Reports on Botany by the Ray Society_, pp.
+        339, 340. In the latter work, it is supposed that heat is the
+        most important of all single agents; and though this is probably
+        true, still the influence of humidity is immense. I may mention
+        as an instance of this, that it has been recently ascertained
+        that the oxygen used by seeds during germination, is not always
+        taken from the air, but is obtained by decomposing water. See the
+        curious experiments of Edwards and Colin in _Lindley's Botany_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 261, 262, London, 1848; and on the direct
+        nourishment which water supplies to vegetables, see Burdache's
+        great work, _Traité de Physiologie_, vol. ix. pp. 254, 398.
+
+A general survey of the continent of America will illustrate the
+connexion between this law and the subject now before us. In the first
+place, as regards moisture, all the great rivers in the New World are on
+the eastern coast, none of them on the western. The causes of this
+remarkable fact are unknown;[173] but it is certain that neither in
+North, nor in South America, does one considerable river empty itself
+into the Pacific; while on the opposite side there are numerous rivers,
+some of enormous magnitude, all of great importance, as the Negro, the
+La Plata, the San Francisco, the Amazon, the Orinoco, the Mississippi,
+the Alabama, the Saint John, the Potomac, the Susquehannah, the
+Delaware, the Hudson, and the Saint Lawrence. By this vast water-system
+the soil is towards the east constantly irrigated:[174] but towards the
+west there is in North America only one river of value, the Oregon;[175]
+while in South America, from the Isthmus of Panama to the Straits of
+Magellan, there is no great river at all.
+
+  [173] There is a difference between the watersheds of the eastern and
+        western ranges, which explains this in part, but not entirely;
+        and even if the explanation were more satisfactory than it is, it
+        is too proximate to the phenomenon to have much scientific value,
+        and must itself be referred to higher geological considerations.
+
+  [174] Of this irrigation some idea may be formed from an estimate that
+        the Amazon drains an area of 2,500,000 square miles; that its
+        mouth is 96 miles wide; and that it is navigable 2,200 miles from
+        its mouth. _Somerville's Physical Geography_, vol. i. p. 423.
+        Indeed, it is said in an essay on the Hydrography of South
+        America (_Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. ii. p. 250), that
+        'with the exception of one short portage of three miles, water
+        flows, and is for the most part navigable, between Buenos Ayres,
+        in 35° south latitude, to the mouth of the Orinoco, in nearly 9°
+        north.' See also on this river-system, vol. v. p. 93, vol. x. p.
+        267. In regard to North America, Mr. Rogers (_Geology of North
+        America_, p. 8, _Brit. Assoc. for 1834_) says, 'the area drained
+        by the Mississippi and all its tributaries is computed at
+        1,099,000 square miles.' Compare _Richardson's Arctic
+        Expedition_, vol. ii. p. 164.
+
+  [175] The Oregon, or Columbia as it is sometimes called, forms a
+        remarkable botanical line, which is the boundary of the
+        Californian flora. See _Reports on Botany by the Ray Society_, p.
+        113.
+
+But as to the other main cause of fertility, namely heat, we find in
+North America a state of things precisely the reverse. There we find
+that while the irrigation is on the east, the heat is on the west.[176]
+This difference of temperature between the two coasts is probably
+connected with some great meteorological law; for in the whole of the
+northern hemisphere, the eastern part of continents and of islands is
+colder than the western.[177] Whether, however, this is owing to some
+large and comprehensive cause, or whether each instance has a cause
+peculiar to itself, is an alternative, in the present state of
+knowledge, impossible to decide; but the fact is unquestionable, and its
+influence upon the early history of America is extremely curious. In
+consequence of it, the two great conditions of fertility have not been
+united in any part of the continent north of Mexico. The countries on
+the one side have wanted heat; those on the other side have wanted
+irrigation. The accumulation of wealth being thus impeded, the progress
+of society was stopped; and until, in the sixteenth century, the
+knowledge of Europe was brought to bear upon America, there is no
+instance of any people north of the twentieth parallel, reaching even
+that imperfect civilization to which the inhabitants of India and of
+Egypt easily attained.[178] On the other hand, south of the twentieth
+parallel, the continent suddenly changes its form, and, rapidly
+contracting, becomes a small strip of land, until it reaches the Isthmus
+of Panama. This narrow tract was the centre of Mexican civilization; and
+a comparison of the preceding arguments will easily show why such was
+the case; for the peculiar configuration of the land secured a very
+large amount of coast, and thus gave to the southern part of North
+America the character of an island. Hence there arose one of the
+characteristics of an insular climate, namely, an increase of moisture
+caused by the watery vapour which springs from the sea.[179] While,
+therefore, the position of Mexico near the equator gave it heat, the
+shape of the land gave it humidity; and this being the only part of
+North America in which these two conditions were united, it was likewise
+the only part which was at all civilized. There can be no doubt that if
+the sandy plains of California and southern Columbia, instead of being
+scorched into sterility, had been irrigated by the rivers of the east,
+or if the rivers of the east had been accompanied by the heat of the
+west, the result of either combination would have been that exuberance
+of soil by which, as the history of the world decisively proves, every
+early civilization was preceded. But inasmuch as, of the two elements of
+fertility, one was deficient in every part of America north of the
+twentieth parallel, it followed that, until that line was passed,
+civilization could gain no resting-place; and there never has been
+found, and we may confidently assert never will be found, any evidence
+that even a single ancient nation, in the whole of that enormous
+continent, was able to make much progress in the arts of life, or
+organize itself into a fixed and permanent society.
+
+  [176] For proof that the mean temperature of the western coast of North
+        America is higher than that of the eastern coast, see _Journal of
+        Geograph. Society_, vol. ix. p. 380, vol. xi. pp. 168, 216;
+        _Humboldt_, _la Nouvelle Espagne_, vol. i. pp. 42, 336;
+        _Richardson's Arctic Expedition_, vol. ii. pp. 214, 218, 219,
+        259, 260. This is well illustrated by the botanical fact, that on
+        the west coast the Coniferæ grow as high as 68° or 70° north
+        latitude; while on the east their northern limit is 60°. See an
+        Essay on the Morphology of the Coniferæ, in _Reports on Botany by
+        the Ray Society_, p. 8, which should be compared with _Forry on
+        the Climate of the United States and its Endemic Influences_, New
+        York, 1842, p. 89.
+
+  [177] 'Writers on climate have remarked that the eastern coasts of
+        continents in the northern hemisphere have a lower mean
+        temperature than the western coasts.' _Richardson on North
+        American Zoology_, p. 129, _Brit. Assoc. for_ 1836: see also
+        _Report for_ 1841, _Sections_, p. 28; _Davis's China_, vol. iii.
+        pp. 140, 141; _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. xxii. p. 176.
+
+  [178] The little that is known of the early state of the North-American
+        tribes has been brought together by Dr. M'Culloh in his learned
+        work, _Researches concerning America_, pp. 119-146. He says, p.
+        121, that they 'lived together without laws and civil
+        regulations.' In that part of the world, the population has
+        probably never been fixed; and we now know that the inhabitants
+        of the north-east of Asia have at different times passed over to
+        the north-west of America, as in the case of the Tschuktschi, who
+        are found in both continents. Indeed, Dobell was so struck by the
+        similarity between the North-American tribes and some he met with
+        nearly as far west as Tomsk, that he believed their origin to be
+        the same. See _Dobell's Travels in Kamtschatka and Siberia_,
+        1830, vol. ii. p. 112. And on this question of intercourse
+        between the two continents, compare _Crantz's History of
+        Greenland_, vol. i. pp. 259, 260, with _Richardson's Arctic
+        Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 362, 363, and _Prichard's Physical
+        History of Mankind_, vol. iv. pp. 458, 463, vol. v. pp. 371, 378.
+
+  [179] From general physical considerations, we should suppose a relation
+        between amount of rain and extent of coast; and in Europe, where
+        alone we have extensive meteorological records, the connexion has
+        been proved statistically. 'If the quantity of rain that falls in
+        different parts of Europe is measured, it is found to be less,
+        other things being equal, as we recede from the sea-shore.'
+        _Kaemtz's Meteorology_, 1845, p. 139. Compare pp. 91, 94. Hence,
+        no doubt, the greater rarity of rain as we advance north from
+        Mexico. 'Au nord du 20°, surtout depuis les 22° au 30° de
+        latitude, les pluies, que ne durent que pendant les mois de juin,
+        de juillet, d'août et de septembre, sont peu fréquentes dans
+        l'intérieur du pays.' _Humboldt_, _la Nouvelle Espagne_, vol. i.
+        p. 46.
+
+Thus far as to the physical agents which controlled the early destinies
+of North America. But in reference to South America, a different train
+of circumstances came into play; for the law by virtue of which the
+eastern coasts are colder than the western, is not only inapplicable to
+the southern hemisphere, but is replaced by another law precisely the
+reverse. North of the equator, the east is colder than the west; south
+of the equator, the east is hotter than the west.[180] If now, we
+connect this fact with what has been noticed respecting the vast
+river-system which distinguishes the east of America from the west, it
+becomes evident that in South America there exists that coöperation of
+heat and humidity in which North America is deficient. The result is,
+that the soil in the eastern part of South America is remarkable for its
+exuberance, not only within the tropic, but considerably beyond it; the
+south of Brazil, and even part of Uruguay, possessing a fertility not to
+be found in any country of North America situated under a corresponding
+latitude.
+
+  [180] 'The difference between the climates of the east and west coasts
+        of continents and islands, has also been observed in the southern
+        hemisphere but here the west coasts are colder than the east,
+        while in the northern hemisphere the east coasts are the colder.'
+        _Meyen's Geography of Plants_, 1846, p. 24.
+
+On a hasty view of the preceding generalizations, it might be expected
+that the eastern side of South America, being thus richly endowed by
+nature,[181] would have been the seat of one of those civilizations,
+which, in other parts of the world, similar causes produced. But if we
+look a little further, we shall find that what has just been pointed
+out, by no means exhausts even the physical bearings of this subject,
+and that we must take into consideration a third great agent, which has
+sufficed to neutralize the natural results of the other two, and to
+retain in barbarism the inhabitants of what otherwise would have been
+the most flourishing of all the countries of the New World.
+
+  [181] Mr. Darwin, who has written one of the most valuable works ever
+        published on South America, was struck by this superiority of the
+        eastern coast; and he mentions that 'fruits which ripen well and
+        are very abundant, such as the grape and fig, in latitude 41° on
+        the east coast, succeed very poorly in a lower latitude on the
+        opposite side of the continent.' _Darwin's Journal of
+        Researches_, Lond. 1840, p. 268. Compare _Meyen's Geog. of
+        Plants_, pp. 25, 188. So that the proposition of Daniell
+        (_Meteorological Essays_, p. 104, sec. xiv.) is expressed too
+        generally, and should be confined to continents north of the
+        equator.
+
+The agent to which I allude is the trade-wind; a striking phenomenon, by
+which, as we shall hereafter see, all the civilizations anterior to
+those of Europe were greatly and injuriously influenced. This wind
+covers no less than 56° of latitude; 28° north of the equator, and 28°
+south of it.[182] In this large tract, which comprises some of the most
+fertile countries in the world, the trade-wind blows, during the whole
+year, either from the north-east or from the south-east.[183] The causes
+of this regularity are now well understood, and are known to depend
+partly on the displacement of air at the equator, and partly on the
+motion of the earth; for the cold air from the poles is constantly
+flowing towards the equator, and thus producing northerly winds in the
+northern hemisphere, and southerly winds in the southern. These winds
+are, however, deflected from their natural course by the movement of the
+earth, as it revolves on its axis from west to east. And as the rotation
+of the earth is, of course, more rapid at the equator than elsewhere, it
+happens that in the neighbourhood of the equator the speed is so great
+as to outstrip the movements of the atmosphere from the poles, and
+forcing them into another direction, gives rise to those easterly
+currents which are called trade-winds.[184] What, however, we are now
+rather concerned with, is not so much an explanation of the trade-winds,
+as an account of the way in which this great physical phenomenon is
+connected with the history of South America.
+
+  [182] The trade-winds sometimes reach the thirtieth parallel. See
+        _Daniell's Meteorological Essays_, p. 469. Dr. Traill (_Physical
+        Geography_, Edin. 1838, p. 200), says, 'they extend to about 30°
+        on each side of the equator:' but I believe they are rarely found
+        so high; though Robertson is certainly wrong in supposing that
+        they are peculiar to the tropics; _History of America_, book iv.
+        in _Robertson's Works_, p. 781.
+
+  [183] 'In the northern hemisphere the trade-wind blows from the
+        north-east, and in the southern from the south-east.' _Meyen's
+        Geog. of Plants_, p. 42. Compare _Walsh's Brazil_, vol. i. p.
+        112, vol. ii. p. 494; and on the 'tropical east-wind' of the Gulf
+        of Mexico, see _Forry's Climate of the United States_, p. 206.
+        Dr. Forry says that it has given to the growth of the trees 'an
+        inclination from the sea.'
+
+  [184] Respecting the causes of the trade-winds, see _Somerville's
+        Connexion of the Physical Sciences_, pp. 136, 137; _Leslie's
+        Natural Philosophy_, p. 518; _Daniell's Meteorological Essays_,
+        pp. 44, 102, 476-481; _Kaemtz's Meteorology_, pp. 37-39; _Prout's
+        Bridgewater Treatise_, pp. 254-256. The discovery of the true
+        theory is often ascribed to Mr. Daniell; but Hadley was the real
+        discoverer. _Note in Prout_, p. 257. The monsoons, which popular
+        writers frequently confuse with the trade-winds, are said to be
+        caused by the predominance of land, and by the difference between
+        its temperature and that of the sea: see _Kaemtz_, pp. 42-45. On
+        what may be called the conversion of the trades into monsoons,
+        according to the laws very recently promulgated by M. Dove, see
+        _Report of British Association for_ 1847 (_Transac. of Sections_,
+        p. 30) and _Report for_ 1848, p. 94. The monsoons are noticed in
+        _Humboldt's Cosmos_, vol. ii. p. 485; _Asiatic Researches_, vol.
+        xviii. part i. p. 261; _Thirlwall's History of Greece_, vol. vii.
+        pp. 13, 55; _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. ii. p. 90, vol.
+        iv. pp. 8, 9, 148, 149, 169, vol. xi. p. 162, vol. xv. pp.
+        146-149, vol. xvi. p. 185, vol. xviii. pp. 67, 68, vol. xxiii. p.
+        112; _Low's Sarawak_, p. 30.
+
+The trade-wind, blowing on the eastern coast of South America, and
+proceeding from the east, crosses the Atlantic Ocean, and therefore
+reaches the land surcharged with the vapours accumulated in its passage.
+These vapours, on touching the shore, are, at periodical intervals,
+condensed into rain; and as their progress westward is checked by that
+gigantic chain of the Andes, which they are unable to pass,[185] they
+pour the whole of their moisture on Brazil, which, in consequence, is
+often deluged by the most destructive torrents.[186] This abundant
+supply, being aided by that vast river-system peculiar to the eastern
+part of America, and being also accompanied by heat, has stimulated the
+soil into an activity unequalled in any other part of the world.[187]
+Brazil, which is nearly as large as the whole of Europe, is covered with
+a vegetation of incredible profusion. Indeed, so rank and luxuriant is
+the growth, that Nature seems to riot in the very wantonness of power. A
+great part of this immense country is filled with dense and tangled
+forests, whose noble trees, blossoming in unrivalled beauty, and
+exquisite with a thousand hues, throw out their produce in endless
+prodigality. On their summit are perched birds of gorgeous plumage,
+which nestle in their dark and lofty recesses. Below, their base and
+trunks are crowded with brushwood, creeping plants, innumerable
+parasites, all swarming with life. There, too, are myriads of insects of
+every variety; reptiles of strange and singular form; serpents and
+lizards, spotted with deadly beauty: all of which find means of
+existence in this vast workshop and repository of Nature. And that
+nothing may be wanting to this land of marvels, the forests are skirted
+by enormous meadows, which, reeking with heat and moisture, supply
+nourishment to countless herds of wild cattle, that browse and fatten on
+their herbage; while the adjoining plains, rich in another form of life,
+are the chosen abode of the subtlest and most ferocious animals, which
+prey on each other, but which it might almost seem no human power can
+hope to extirpate.[188]
+
+  [185] _Lyell's Principles of Geology_, pp. 201, 714, 715; see also
+        _Somerville's Physical Geography_, vol. ii. p. 71. And on this
+        confining power of the Cordillera of the Andes, see _Azara_,
+        _Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale_, vol. i. p. 33. According
+        to Dr. Tschudi, the eastern chain is properly the Andes, and the
+        western the Cordillera; but this distinction is rarely made.
+        _Tschudi's Travels in Peru_, p. 290.
+
+  [186] On the rain of Brazil, see _Daniell's Meteorological Essays_,
+        p. 335; _Darwin's Journal_, pp. 11, 33; _Spix and Martius's
+        Travels in Brazil_, vol. ii. p. 113; _Gardner's Travels in
+        Brazil_, pp. 53, 99, 114, 175, 233, 394.
+
+  [187] Dr. Gardner, who looked at these things with the eye of a
+        botanist, says that near Rio de Janeiro the heat and moisture are
+        sufficient to compensate even the poorest soil; so that 'rocks,
+        on which scarcely a trace of earth is to be observed, are covered
+        with vellozias, tillandsias, melastomaceæ, cacti, orchideæ, and
+        ferns, and all in the vigour of life.' _Gardner's Travels in
+        Brazil_, p. 9. See also on this combination, _Walsh's Brazil_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 297, 298, a curious description of the rainy season:
+        'For eight or nine hours a day, during some weeks, I never had a
+        dry shirt on me; and the clothes I divested myself of at night, I
+        put on quite wet in the morning. When it did not rain, which was
+        very rare, there shone out in some places a burning sun; and we
+        went smoking along, the wet exhaling by the heat, as if we were
+        dissolving into vapour.'
+
+  [188] On the natural history of Brazil, I have compared a few notices in
+        _Swainson's Geography of Animals_, pp. 75-87, with _Cuvier_,
+        _Règne Animal_, vol. i. p. 460, vol. ii. pp. 28, 65, 66, 89, vol.
+        iv. pp. 51, 75, 258, 320, 394, 485, 561, vol. v. pp. 40, 195,
+        272, 334, 553; _Azara_, _Amérique Méridionale_, vol. i. pp.
+        244-388, and the greater part of vols. iii. and iv.; _Winckler_,
+        _Geschichte der Botanik_, pp. 378, 576-578; _Southey's History of
+        Brazil_, vol. i. p. 27, vol. iii. pp. 315, 823; _Gardner's
+        Brazil_, pp. 18, 32-34, 41-44, 131, 330; _Spix and Martius's
+        Brazil_, vol. i. pp. 207-209, 238-248, vol. ii. pp. 131, 160-163.
+        And as to the forests, which are among the wonders of the world,
+        _Somerville's Physical Geog._ vol. ii. pp. 204-206; _Prichard's
+        Physical History_, vol. v. p. 497; _Darwin's Journal_, pp. 11,
+        24; _Walsh's Brazil_, vol. i. p. 145, vol. ii. pp. 29, 30, 253.
+
+Such is the flow and abundance of life by which Brazil is marked above
+all the other countries of the earth.[189] But, amid this pomp and
+splendour of Nature, no place is left for Man. He is reduced to
+insignificance by the majesty with which he is surrounded. The forces
+that oppose him are so formidable that he has never been able to make
+head against them, never able to rally against their accumulated
+pressure. The whole of Brazil, notwithstanding its immense apparent
+advantages, has always remained entirely uncivilized; its inhabitants
+wandering savages, incompetent to resist those obstacles which the very
+bounty of Nature had put in their way. For the natives, like every
+people in the infancy of society, are averse to enterprise; and being
+unacquainted with the arts by which physical impediments are removed,
+they have never attempted to grapple with the difficulties that stopped
+their social progress. Indeed, those difficulties are so serious, that
+during more than three hundred years the resources of European knowledge
+have been vainly employed in endeavouring to get rid of them. Along the
+coast of Brazil, there has been introduced from Europe a certain amount
+of that civilization, which the natives by their own efforts could never
+have reached. But such civilization, in itself very imperfect, has never
+penetrated the recesses of the country; and in the interior there is
+still found a state of things similar to that which has always existed.
+The people, ignorant, and therefore brutal, practising no restraint, and
+recognizing no law, continue to live on in their old and inveterate
+barbarism.[190] In their country, the physical causes are so active,
+and do their work on a scale of such unrivalled magnitude, that it has
+hitherto been found impossible to escape from the effects of their
+united action. The progress of agriculture is stopped by impassable
+forests, and the harvests are destroyed by innumerable insects.[191] The
+mountains are too high to scale, the rivers are too wide to bridge;
+every thing is contrived to keep back the human mind, and repress its
+rising ambition. It is thus that the energies of Nature have hampered
+the spirit of Man. Nowhere else is there so painful a contrast between
+the grandeur of the external world and the littleness of the internal.
+And the mind, cowed by this unequal struggle, has not only been unable
+to advance, but without foreign aid it would undoubtedly have receded.
+For even at present, with all the improvements constantly introduced
+from Europe, there are no signs of real progress; while, notwithstanding
+the frequency of colonial settlements, less than one-fiftieth of the
+land is cultivated.[192] The habits of the people are as barbarous as
+ever; and as to their numbers, it is well worthy of remark, that Brazil,
+the country where, of all others, physical resources are most powerful,
+where both vegetables and animals are most abundant, where the soil is
+watered by the noblest rivers, and the coast studded by the finest
+harbours--this immense territory, which is more than twelve times the
+size of France, contains a population not exceeding six millions of
+people.[193]
+
+  [189] This extraordinary richness has excited the astonishment of all
+        who have seen it. Mr. Walsh, who had travelled in some very
+        fertile countries, mentions 'the exceeding fecundity of nature
+        which characterizes Brazil.' _Walsh's Brazil_, vol. ii. p. 19.
+        And a very eminent naturalist, Mr. Darwin, says (_Journal_, p.
+        29), 'In England, any person fond of natural history enjoys in
+        his walks a great advantage, by always having something to
+        attract his attention; but in these fertile climates, teeming
+        with life, the attractions are so numerous that he is scarcely
+        able to walk at all.'
+
+  [190] Azara (_Amérique Méridionale_, vol. ii. pp. 1-168) gives a
+        curious, but occasionally a disgusting account of the savage
+        natives in that part of Brazil south of 16°, to which his
+        observations were limited. And as to the inhabitants of other
+        parts, see _Henderson's History of Brazil_, pp. 28, 29, 107, 173,
+        248, 315, 473; _M'Culloh's Researches concerning America_, p. 77;
+        and the more recent account of Dr. Martius, in _Journal of
+        Geograph. Society_, vol. ii. pp. 191-199. Even in 1817, it was
+        rare to see a native in Rio de Janeiro (_Spix and Martius's
+        Travels in Brazil_, vol. i. p. 142); and Dr. Gardner (_Travels in
+        Brazil_, pp. 61, 62) says, that 'more than one nation of Indians
+        in Brazil' have returned to that savage life from which they had
+        apparently been reclaimed.
+
+  [191] Sir C. Lyell (_Principles of Geology_, p. 682) notices 'the
+        incredible number of insects which lay waste the crops in
+        Brazil;' and Mr. Swainson, who had travelled in that country,
+        says 'The red ants of Brazil are so destructive, and at the same
+        time so prolific, that they frequently dispute possession of the
+        ground with the husbandman, defy all his skill to extirpate their
+        colonies, and fairly compel him to leave his fields
+        uncultivated.' _Swainson on the Geography and Classification of
+        Animals_, p. 87. See more about these insects in _Darwin's
+        Journal_, pp. 37-43; _Southey's History of Brazil_, vol. i. pp.
+        144, 256, 333-335, 343, vol. ii. pp. 365, 642, vol. iii. p. 876;
+        _Spix and Martius's Travels in Brazil_, vol. i. p. 259, vol. ii.
+        p. 117; _Cuvier_, _Règne Animal_, vol. iv. p. 320.
+
+  [192] The cultivated land is estimated at from 1-1/2 to 2 per cent. See
+        _M'Culloch's Geog. Dict._ 1849, vol. i. p. 430.
+
+  [193] During the present century, the population of Brazil has been
+        differently stated at different times; the highest computation
+        being 7,000,000, and the lowest 4,000,000. Comp. _Humboldt_,
+        _Nouv. Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 855; _Gardner's Brazil_, p. 12;
+        _M'Culloch's Geog. Dict._ 1849, vol. i. pp. 430, 434. Mr. Walsh
+        describes Brazil as 'abounding in lands of the most exuberant
+        fertility, but nearly destitute of inhabitants.' _Walsh's
+        Brazil_, vol. i. p. 248. This was in 1828 and 1829, since which
+        the European population has increased; but, on the whole,
+        6,000,000 seems to be a fair estimate of what can only be known
+        approximatively. In _Alison's History_, vol. x. p. 229, the
+        number given is 5,000,000; but the area also is rather
+        understated.
+
+These considerations sufficiently explain why it is, that in the whole
+of Brazil there are no monuments even of the most imperfect
+civilization; no evidence that the people had, at any period, raised
+themselves above the state in which they were found when their country
+was first discovered. But immediately opposite to Brazil there is
+another country, which, though situated in the same continent, and lying
+under the same latitude, is subjected to different physical conditions,
+and therefore was the scene of different social results. This is the
+celebrated kingdom of Peru, which included the whole of the southern
+tropic, and which, from the circumstances just stated, was naturally the
+only part of South America where any thing approaching to civilization
+could be attained. In Brazil, the heat of the climate was accompanied by
+a twofold irrigation, arising first from the immense river-system
+incidental to the eastern coast; and secondly, from the abundant
+moisture deposited by the trade-winds. From this combination there
+resulted that unequalled fertility, which, so far as Man was concerned,
+defeated its own ends, stopping his progress by an exuberance, which,
+had it been less excessive, it would have aided. For, as we have clearly
+seen, when the productive powers of Nature are carried beyond a certain
+point, the imperfect knowledge of uncivilized men is unable to cope with
+them, or in any way turn them to their own advantage. If, however, those
+powers, being very active, are nevertheless confined within manageable
+limits, there arises a state of things similar to that noticed in Asia
+and Africa; where the profusion of Nature, instead of hindering social
+progress, favoured it, by encouraging that accumulation of wealth,
+without some share of which progress is impossible.
+
+In estimating, therefore, the physical conditions by which civilization
+was originally determined, we have to look, not merely at the
+exuberance, but also at what may be called the manageability of Nature;
+that is, we have to consider the ease with which the resources may be
+used, as well as the number of the resources themselves. Applying this
+to Mexico and Peru, we find that they were the countries of America
+where this combination most happily occurred. For though their resources
+were much less numerous than those of Brazil, they were far more easy to
+control; while at the same time the heat of the climate brought into
+play those other laws by which, as I have attempted to show, all the
+early civilizations were greatly influenced. It is a very remarkable
+fact, which, I believe, has never been observed, that even in reference
+to latitude, the present limit of Peru to the south corresponds with the
+ancient limit of Mexico to the north; while, by a striking, but to me
+perfectly natural coincidence, both these boundaries are reached before
+the tropical line is passed; the boundary of Mexico being 21° N. lat.,
+that of Peru 21-1/2° S. lat.[194]
+
+  [194] Vidaca being the most southerly point of the present Peruvian
+        coast; though the conquests of Peru, incorporated with the
+        empire, extended far into Chili, and within a few degrees of
+        Patagonia. In regard to Mexico, the northern limit of the empire
+        was 21°, on the Atlantic coast, and 19° on the Pacific.
+        _Prescott's History of Mexico_, vol. i. p. 2.
+
+Such is the wonderful regularity which history, when comprehensively
+studied, presents to our view. And if we compare Mexico and Peru with
+those countries of the Old World which have been already noticed, we
+shall find, as in all the civilizations anterior to those of Europe,
+that their social phenomena were subordinate to their physical laws. In
+the first place, the characteristics of their national food were
+precisely those met with in the most flourishing parts of Asia and
+Africa. For although few of the nutritious vegetables belonging to the
+Old World were found in the New, their place was supplied by others
+exactly analogous to rice and dates; that is to say, marked by the same
+abundance, by the same facility of growth, and by the same exuberant
+returns; therefore, followed by the same social results. In Mexico and
+Peru, one of the most important articles of food has always been maize,
+which, we have every reason to believe, was peculiar to the American
+continent.[195] This, like rice and dates, is eminently the product of a
+hot climate; and although it is said to grow at an elevation of upwards
+of 7,000 feet,[196] it is rarely seen beyond the fortieth parallel,[197]
+and its exuberance rapidly diminishes with the diminution of
+temperature. Thus, for example, in New California, its average yield is
+seventy or eighty fold;[198] but in Mexico Proper the same grain yields
+three or four hundred fold, and, under very favourable circumstances,
+even eight hundred fold.[199]
+
+  [195] A question has been raised as to the Asiatic origin of maize:
+        _Reynier_, _Economie des Arabes_, pp. 94, 95. But later and more
+        careful researches seem to have ascertained beyond much doubt
+        that it was unknown before America was discovered. Compare
+        _Meyen's Geography of Plants_, pp. 44, 303, 304; _Walckenaer's
+        note in Azara, Amérique Méridionale_, vol. i. p. 149; _Cuvier_,
+        _Progrès des Sciences Naturelles_, vol. ii. p. 354; _Cuvier_,
+        _Eloges Historiques_, vol. ii. p. 178; _Loudon's Encyclopædia of
+        Agriculture_, p. 829; _M'Culloch's Dict. of Commerce_, 1849, p.
+        831. The casual notices of maize by Ixtlilxochitl, the native
+        Mexican historian, show its general use as an article of food
+        before the arrival of the Spaniards: see _Ixtlilxochitl_,
+        _Histoire des Chichimèques_, vol. i. pp. 53, 64, 240, vol. ii.
+        p. 19.
+
+  [196] 'Maize, indeed, grows to the height of 7,200 feet above the level
+        of the sea, but only predominates between 3,000 and 6,000 of
+        elevation.' _Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom_, 1847, p. 112. This
+        refers to the tropical parts of South America; but the Zea Mais
+        is said to have been raised on the slopes of the Pyrenees 'at an
+        elevation of 3,000 to 4,000 feet.' See _Austen on the Forty Days'
+        Maize_, in _Report of Brit. Assoc. for_ 1849, _Trans. of Sec._
+        p. 68.
+
+  [197] M. Meyen (_Geog. of Plants_, p. 302) and Mr. Balfour (_Botany_, p.
+        567) suppose that in America 40° is about its limit; and this is
+        the case in regard to its extensive cultivation; but it is grown
+        certainly as high as 52°, perhaps as high as 54°, north latitude:
+        see _Richardson's Arctic Expedition_, 1851, vol. ii. pp. 49, 234.
+
+  [198] 'Sous la zone tempérée, entre les 33 et 38 degrés de latitude, par
+        exemple dans la Nouvelle Californie, le maïs ne produit, en
+        général, année commune, que 70 à 80 grains pour un.' _Humboldt_,
+        _la Nouvelle Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 375.
+
+  [199] 'La fécondité du Tlaolli, ou maïs mexicain, est au-delà de tout ce
+        que l'on peut imaginer en Europe. La plante, favorisée par de
+        fortes chaleurs et par beaucoup d'humidité, acquiert une hauteur
+        de deux à trois mètres. Dans les belles plaines qui s'étendent
+        depuis San Juan del Rio à Queretaro, par exemple dans les terres
+        de la grande métairie de l'Esperanza, une fanègue de maïs en
+        produit quelquefois huit cents. Des terrains fertiles en donnent,
+        année commune, trois à quatre cents.' _Humboldt_, _Nouv.
+        Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 374. Nearly the same estimate is given by
+        Mr. Ward: see _Ward's Mexico_, vol. i. p. 32, vol. ii. p. 230. In
+        Central America (Guatemala), maize returns three hundred for one.
+        _Mexique et Guatemala, par Larenaudière_, p. 257.
+
+A people who derived their sustenance from a plant of such extraordinary
+fecundity, had little need to exercise their industrious energies; while
+at the same time they had every opportunity of increasing their numbers,
+and thus producing a train of social and political consequences similar
+to those which I have noticed in India and in Egypt. Besides this, there
+were, in addition to maize, other kinds of food to which the same
+remarks are applicable. The potato, which, in Ireland, has brought about
+such injurious effects by stimulating the growth of population, is said
+to be indigenous to Peru; and although this is denied by a very high
+authority,[200] there is, at all events, no doubt that it was found
+there in great abundance when the country was first discovered by the
+Europeans.[201] In Mexico, potatoes were unknown till the arrival of
+the Spaniards; but both Mexicans and Peruvians lived to a great extent
+on the produce of the banana; a vegetable whose reproductive powers are
+so extraordinary, that nothing but the precise and unimpeachable
+testimony of which we are possessed could make them at all credible.
+This remarkable plant is, in America, intimately connected with the
+physical laws of climate; since it is an article of primary importance
+for the subsistence of man whenever the temperature passes a certain
+point.[202] Of its nutritive powers, it is enough to say, that an acre
+sown with it will support more than fifty persons; whereas the same
+amount of land sown with wheat in Europe will only support two
+persons.[203] As to the exuberance of its growth, it is calculated that,
+other circumstances remaining the same, its produce is forty-four times
+greater than that of potatoes, and a hundred and thirty-three times
+greater than that of wheat.[204]
+
+  [200] 'La pomme de terre n'est pas indigène au Pérou.' _Humboldt_,
+        _Nouv. Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 400. On the other hand, Cuvier
+        (_Histoire des Sciences Naturelles_, part ii. p. 185)
+        peremptorily says, 'il est impossible de douter qu'elle ne soit
+        originaire du Pérou:' see also his _Eloges Historiques_, vol. ii.
+        p. 171. Compare _Winckler_, _Gesch. der Botanik_, p. 92: 'Von
+        einem gewissen Carate unter den Gewächsen Peru's mit dem Namen
+        papas aufgeführt.'
+
+  [201] And has been used ever since for food. On the Peruvian potato
+        compare _Tschudi's Travels in Peru_, pp. 178, 368, 386; _Ulloa's
+        Voyage to South America_, vol. i. pp. 287, 288. In Southern Peru,
+        at the height of 13,000 or 14,000 feet, a curious process takes
+        place, the starch of the potato being frozen into saccharine. See
+        a valuable paper by Mr. Bollaert in _Journal of Geograph.
+        Society_, vol. xxi. p. 119.
+
+  [202] Humboldt (_Nouv. Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 359) says, 'partout où la
+        chaleur moyenne de l'année excède vingt-quatre degrés
+        centigrades, le fruit du bananier est un objet de culture du plus
+        grand intérêt pour la subsistance de l'homme.' Compare _Bullock's
+        Mexico_, p. 281.
+
+  [203] _M'Culloch's Geograph. Dict._, 1849, vol. ii. p. 315.
+
+  [204] 'Je doute qu'il existe une autre plante sur le globe, qui, sur un
+        petit espace de terrain, puisse produire une masse de substance
+        nourrissante aussi considérable.' ... 'Le produit des bananes
+        est par conséquent à celui du froment comme 133: 1--à celui des
+        pommes de terre comme 44: l'_Humboldt_, _Nouvelle Espagne_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 362, 363. See also _Prout's Bridgewater Treatise_, p.
+        333, edit. 1845; _Prescott's Peru_, vol. i. pp. 131, 132;
+        _Prescott's Mexico_, vol. i. p. 114. Earlier notices, but very
+        imperfect ones, of this remarkable vegetable may be found in
+        _Ulloa's South America_, vol. i. p. 74; and in _Boyle's Works_,
+        vol. iii. p. 590.
+
+It will now be easily understood why it was that, in all important
+respects, the civilizations of Mexico and Peru were strictly analogous
+to those of India and Egypt. In these four countries, as well as in a
+few others in Southern Asia and Central America, there existed an
+amount of knowledge, despicable indeed if tried by an European standard,
+but most remarkable if contrasted with the gross ignorance which
+prevailed among the adjoining and cotemporary nations. But in all of
+them there was the same inability to diffuse even that scanty
+civilization which they really possessed; there was the same utter
+absence of any thing approaching to the democratic spirit; there was the
+same despotic power on the part of the upper classes, and the same
+contemptible subservience on the part of the lower. For, as we have
+clearly seen, all these civilizations were affected by certain physical
+causes, which, though favourable to the accumulation of wealth, were
+unfavourable to a just subdivision of it. And as the knowledge of men
+was still in its infancy,[205] it was found impossible to struggle
+against these physical agents, or prevent them from producing those
+effects on the social organization which I have attempted to trace. Both
+in Mexico and in Peru, the arts, and particularly those branches of them
+which minister to the luxury of the wealthy classes, were cultivated
+with great success. The houses of the higher ranks were filled with
+ornaments and utensils of admirable workmanship; their chambers were
+hung with splendid tapestries; their dresses and their personal
+decorations betrayed an almost incredible expense; their jewels of
+exquisite and varied form; their rich and flowing robes embroidered with
+the rarest feathers, collected from the most distant parts of the
+empire: all supplying evidence of the possession of unlimited wealth,
+and of the ostentatious prodigality with which that wealth was
+wasted.[206] Immediately below this class came the people; and what
+their condition was, may be easily imagined. In Peru the whole of the
+taxes were paid by them; the nobles and the clergy being altogether
+exempt.[207] But as, in such a state of society, it was impossible for
+the people to accumulate property, they were obliged to defray the
+expenses of government by their personal labour, which was placed under
+the entire command of the state.[208] At the same time, the rulers of
+the country were well aware that, with a system like this, feelings of
+personal independence were incompatible; they therefore contrived laws
+by which, even in the most minute matters, freedom of action was
+controlled. The people were so shackled, that they could neither change
+their residence, nor alter their clothes, without permission from the
+governing powers To each man the law prescribed the trade he was to
+follow, the dress he was to wear, the wife he was to marry, and the
+amusements he was to enjoy.[209] Among the Mexicans the course of
+affairs was similar; the same physical conditions being followed by the
+same social results. In the most essential particular for which history
+can be studied, namely, the state of the people, Mexico and Peru are the
+counterpart of each other. For though there were many minor points of
+difference,[210] both were agreed in this, that there were only two
+classes--the upper class being tyrants, and the lower class being
+slaves. This was the state in which Mexico was found when it was
+discovered by the Europeans,[211] and towards which it must have been
+tending from the earliest period. And so insupportable had all this
+become, that we know, from the most decisive evidence, that the general
+disaffection it produced among the people was one of the causes which,
+by facilitating the progress of the Spanish invaders, hastened the
+downfall of the Mexican empire.[212]
+
+  [205] The only science with which they had much acquaintance was
+        astronomy, which the Mexicans appear to have cultivated with
+        considerable success. Compare the remark of La Place, in
+        _Humboldt_, _Nouvelle Espagne_, vol. i. p. 92, with _Prichard's
+        Physical History_, vol. v. pp. 323, 329; _M'Culloch's
+        Researches_, pp. 201-225; _Larenaudière's Mexique_, pp. 51, 52;
+        _Humboldt's Cosmos_, vol. iv. p. 456; _Journal of Geog. Society_,
+        vol. vii. p. 3. However, their astronomy, as might be expected,
+        was accompanied by astrology: see _Ixtlilxochitl_, _Histoire des
+        Chichimèques_, vol. i. p. 168, vol. ii. pp. 94, 111.
+
+  [206] The works of art produced by the Mexicans and Peruvians are
+        under-rated by Robertson: who, however, admits that he had never
+        seen them. _History of America_, book vii., in _Robertson's
+        Works_, pp. 909, 920. But during the present century considerable
+        attention has been paid to this subject: and in addition to the
+        evidence of skill and costly extravagance collected by Mr.
+        Prescott, _History of Peru_, vol. i. pp. 28, 142; _History of
+        Mexico_, vol. i. pp. 27, 28, 122, 256, 270, 307, vol. ii. pp.
+        115, 116, I may refer to the testimony of M. Humboldt, the only
+        traveller in the New World who has possessed a competent amount
+        of physical as well as historical knowledge. _Humboldt, Nouvelle
+        Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 483, and elsewhere. Compare Mr. Pentland's
+        observations on the tombs in the neighbourhood of Titicaca
+        (_Jour. of Geog. Soc._ vol. x. p. 554) with _M'Culloh's
+        Researches_, pp. 364-366; _Mexique par Larenaudière_, pp. 41, 42,
+        66; _Ulloa's South America_, vol. i. pp. 465, 466.
+
+  [207] 'The members of the royal house, the great nobles, even the public
+        functionaries, and the numerous body of the priesthood, were all
+        exempt from taxation. The whole duty of defraying the expenses of
+        the government belonged to the people.' _Prescott's History of
+        Peru_, vol. i. p. 56.
+
+  [208] Ondegardo emphatically says, 'Solo el trabajo de las personas era
+        el tributo que se dava, porque ellos no poseian otra cosa.'
+        _Prescott's Peru_, vol. i. p. 57. Compare _M'Culloh's
+        Researches_, p. 359. In Mexico the state of things was just the
+        same: 'Le petit peuple, qui ne possédait point de biens-fonds, et
+        qui ne faisait point de commerce, payait sa part des taxes en
+        travaux de différents genres; c'était par lui que les terres de
+        la couronne étaient cultivées, les ouvrages publics exécutés, et
+        les diverses maisons appartenantes à l'empereur construites ou
+        entretenues.' _Larenaudière's Mexique_, p. 39.
+
+  [209] Mr. Prescott notices this with surprise, though, under the
+        circumstances, it was in truth perfectly natural. He says (_Hist.
+        of Peru_, vol. i. p. 159), 'Under this extraordinary polity, a
+        people, advanced in many of the social refinements, well skilled
+        in manufactures and agriculture, were unacquainted, as we have
+        seen, with money. They had nothing that deserved to be called
+        property. They could follow no craft, could engage in no labour,
+        no amusement, but such as was specially provided by law. They
+        could not change their residence or their dress without a licence
+        from the government. They could not even exercise the freedom
+        which is conceded to the most abject in other countries--that of
+        selecting their own wives.'
+
+  [210] The Mexicans being, as Prichard says (_Physical History_, vol. v.
+        p. 467), of a more cruel disposition than the Peruvians; but our
+        information is too limited to enable us to determine whether this
+        was mainly owing to physical causes or to social ones. Herder
+        preferred the Peruvian civilization: 'der gebildetste Staat
+        dieses Welttheils, Peru.' _Ideen zur Geschichte der Menschheit_,
+        vol. i. p. 33.
+
+  [211] See in _Humboldt's Nouvelle Espagne_, vol. i. p. 101, a striking
+        summary of the state of the Mexican people at the time of the
+        Spanish Conquest: see also _History of America_, book vii., in
+        _Robertson's Works_, p. 907.
+
+  [212] _Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico_, vol. i. p. 34.
+        Compare a similar remark on the invasion of Egypt in _Bunsen's
+        Egypt_, vol. ii. p. 414.
+
+The further this examination is carried, the more striking becomes the
+similarity between those civilizations which flourished anterior to what
+may be called the European epoch of the human mind. The division of a
+nation into castes would be impossible in the great European countries;
+but it existed from a remote antiquity in Egypt, in India, and
+apparently in Persia.[213] The very same institution was rigidly
+enforced in Peru;[214] and what proves how consonant it was to that
+stage of society, is, that in Mexico, where castes were not established
+by law, it was nevertheless a recognised custom that the son should
+follow the occupation of his father.[215] This was the political symptom
+of that stationary and conservative spirit, which, as we shall hereafter
+see, has marked every country in which the upper classes have
+monopolized power. The religious symptom of the same spirit was
+displayed in that inordinate reverence for antiquity, and in that hatred
+of change, which the greatest of all the writers on America has well
+pointed out as an analogy between the natives of Mexico and those of
+Hindostan.[216] To this may be added, that those who have studied the
+history of the ancient Egyptians, have observed among that people a
+similar tendency. Wilkinson, who is well known to have paid great
+attention to their monuments, says that they were more unwilling than
+any other nation to alter their religious worship;[217] and Herodotus,
+who travelled in their country two thousand three hundred years ago,
+assures us that, while they preserved old customs, they never acquired
+new ones.[218] In another point of view, the similarity between these
+distant countries is equally interesting, since it evidently arises from
+the causes already noticed as common to both. In Mexico and Peru, the
+lower classes being at the disposal of the upper, there followed that
+frivolous waste of labour which we have observed in Egypt, and evidence
+of which may also be seen in the remains of those temples and palaces
+which are still found in several parts of Asia. Both Mexicans and
+Peruvians erected immense buildings, which were as useless as those of
+Egypt, and which no country could produce, unless the labour of the
+people were ill-paid and ill directed.[219] The cost of these monuments
+of vanity is unknown; but it must have been enormous; since the
+Americans, being ignorant of the use of iron,[220] were unable to employ
+a resource by which, in the construction of large works, labour is
+greatly abridged. Some particulars, however, have been preserved, from
+which an idea may be formed on this subject. To take, for instance, the
+palaces of their kings: we find that in Peru, the erection of the royal
+residence occupied, during fifty years, 20,000 men;[221] while that of
+Mexico cost the labour of no less than 200,000: striking facts, which,
+if all other testimonies had perished, would enable us to appreciate the
+condition of countries in which, for such insignificant purposes, such
+vast power was expended.[222]
+
+  [213] That there were castes in Persia is stated by Firdousi; and his
+        assertion, putting aside its general probability, ought to
+        outweigh the silence of the Greek historians, who, for the most
+        part, knew little of any country except their own. According to
+        Malcolm, the existence of caste in the time of Jemsheed, is
+        confirmed by some 'Mahomedan authors;' but he does not say who
+        they were. _Malcolm's History of Persia_, vol. i. pp. 505, 506.
+        Several attempts have been made, but very unsuccessfully, to
+        ascertain the period in which castes were first instituted.
+        Compare _Asiatic Researches_, vol. vi. p. 251; Heeren's _African
+        Nations_, vol. ii. p. 121; _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. ii. p. 410;
+        _Rammohun Roy on the Veds_, p. 269.
+
+  [214] _Prescott's History of Peru_, vol. i. pp. 143, 156.
+
+  [215] _Prescott's History of Mexico_, vol. i. p. 124.
+
+  [216] 'Les Américains, comme les habitans de l'Indoustan, et comme tous
+        les peuples qui ont gémi long-temps sous le despotisme civil et
+        religieux, tiennent avec une opiniâtreté extraordinaire à leurs
+        habitudes, à leurs m[oe]urs, à leurs opinions.... Au Mexique,
+        comme dans l'Indoustan, il n'étoit pas permis aux fidèles de
+        changer la moindre chose aux figures des idoles. Tout ce qui
+        appartenoit au rite des Aztèques et des Hindous étoit assujéti à
+        des lois immuables.' _Humboldt_, _Nouv. Espagne_, vol. i. pp. 95,
+        97. Turgot (_[OE]uvres_, vol. ii. pp. 226, 313, 314) has some
+        admirable remarks on this fixity of opinion natural to certain
+        states of society. See also _Herder's Ideen zur Geschichte_, vol.
+        iii. pp. 34, 35; and for other illustrations of this unpliancy of
+        thought, and adherence to old customs, which many writers suppose
+        to be an eastern peculiarity but which is far more widely spread,
+        and is, as Humboldt clearly saw, the result of an unequal
+        distribution of power, compare _Turner's Embassy to Tibet_, p.
+        41; _Forbes's Oriental Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 15, 164, vol. ii. p.
+        236; _Mill's History of India_, vol. ii. p. 214; _Elphinstone's
+        History of India_, p. 48; _Otter's Life of Clarke_, vol. ii. p.
+        109; _Transac. of Asiatic Society_, vol. ii. p. 64; _Journal of
+        Asiat. Society_, vol. viii. p. 116.
+
+  [217] 'How scrupulous the Egyptians were, above all people, in
+        permitting the introduction of new customs in matters relating to
+        the gods.' _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. iii. p. 262.
+        Compare p. 275. Thus, too, M. Bunsen notices the 'tenacity with
+        which the Egyptians adhered to old manners and customs.'
+        _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. ii. p. 64. See also some remarks on the
+        difference between this spirit and the love of novelty among the
+        Greeks, in _Ritter's History of Ancient Philosophy_, vol. iv. pp.
+        625, 626.
+
+  [218] _Herodot._ book ii. chap. 79: [Greek: patriosi de chreômenoi
+        nomoisi allon oudena epikteôntai]: and see the note in _Baehr_,
+        vol. i. p. 660: '[Greek: nomous] priores interpretes explicarunt
+        _cantilenas_, _hymnos_; Schweighæuserus rectius intellexit
+        _instituta ac mores_.' In the same way, in Timæus, Plato
+        represents an Egyptian priest saying to Solon, [Greek: Hellênes
+        aei paides este, gerôn de Hellên ouk estin]. And when Solon asked
+        what he meant, [Greek: Neoi este], was the reply, [Greek: tas
+        psychas pantes; oudemian gar en autais echete di archaian akoên
+        palaian doxan oude mathêma chronps polion ouden]. Chap. v. in
+        _Platonis Opera_, vol. vii. p. 242, edit. Bekker, Lond. 1826.
+
+  [219] The Mexicans appear to have been even more wantonly prodigal than
+        the Peruvians. See, respecting their immense pyramids, one of
+        which, Cholula had a base 'twice as broad as the largest Egyptian
+        pyramid,' _M'Culloh's Researches_, pp. 252-256; _Bullock's
+        Mexico_, pp. 111-115, 414; _Humboldt's Nouvelle Espagne_, vol. i.
+        pp. 240, 241.
+
+        [220] _Prescott's History of Mexico_, vol. i. p. 117, vol. iii.
+        p. 341; and _Prescott's History of Peru_, vol. i. p. 145. See
+        also _Haüy_, _Traité de Minéralogie_, Paris, 1801, vol. iv. p.
+        372.
+
+  [221] _Prescott's History of Peru_, vol. i. p. 18.
+
+  [222] Mr. Prescott (_History of Mexico_, vol. i. p. 153) says, 'We are
+        not informed of the time occupied in building this palace; but
+        200,000 workmen, it is said, were employed on it. However this
+        may be, it is certain that the Tezcucan monarchs, like those of
+        Asia and ancient Egypt, had the control of immense masses of men,
+        and would sometimes turn the whole population of a conquered
+        city, including the women, into the public works. The most
+        gigantic monuments of architecture which the world has witnessed
+        would never have been reared by the hands of freemen.' The
+        Mexican historian, Ixtlilxochitl, gives a curious account of one
+        of the royal palaces. See his _Histoire de Chichiméques_,
+        translated by Ternaux-Compans, Paris, 1840, vol. i. pp. 257-262,
+        chap. xxxvii.
+
+The preceding evidence, collected from sources of unquestioned
+credibility, proves the force of those great physical laws, which, in
+the most flourishing countries out of Europe, encouraged the
+accumulation of wealth, but prevented its dispersion; and thus secured
+to the upper classes a monopoly of one of the most important elements of
+social and political power. The result was, that in all those
+civilizations the great body of the people derived no benefit from the
+national improvements; hence, the basis of the progress being very
+narrow, the progress itself was very insecure.[223] When, therefore,
+unfavourable circumstances arose from without, it was but natural that
+the whole system should fall to the ground. In such countries, society,
+being divided against itself, was unable to stand. And there can be no
+doubt that long before the crisis of their actual destruction, these
+one-sided and irregular civilizations had begun to decay; so that their
+own degeneracy aided the progress of foreign invaders, and secured the
+overthrow of those ancient kingdoms, which, under a sounder system,
+might have been easily saved.
+
+  [223] This may be illustrated by a good remark of M. Matter, to the
+        effect that when the Egyptians had once lost their race of kings,
+        it was found impossible for the nation to reconstruct itself.
+        _Matter_, _Histoire de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie_, vol. i. p. 68; a
+        striking passage. In Persia, again, when the feeling of loyalty
+        decayed, so also did the feeling of national power. _Malcolm's
+        History of Persia_, vol. ii. p. 130. The history of the most
+        civilized parts of Europe presents a picture exactly the reverse
+        of this.
+
+Thus far as to the way in which the great civilizations exterior to
+Europe have been affected by the peculiarities of their food, climate,
+and soil. It now remains for me to examine the effect of those other
+physical agents to which I have given the collective name of Aspects of
+Nature, and which will be found suggestive of some very wide and
+comprehensive inquiries into the influence exercised by the external
+world in predisposing men to certain habits of thought, and thus giving
+a particular tone to religion, arts, literature, and, in a word, to all
+the principal manifestations of the human mind. To ascertain how this is
+brought about, forms a necessary supplement to the investigations just
+concluded. For, as we have seen that climate, food, and soil mainly
+concern the accumulation and distribution of wealth, so also shall we
+see that the Aspects of Nature concern the accumulation and distribution
+of thought. In the first case, we have to do with the material interests
+of Man; in the other case with his intellectual interests. The former I
+have analyzed as far as I am able, and perhaps as far as the existing
+state of knowledge will allow.[224] But the other, namely, the relation
+between the Aspects of Nature and the mind of Man, involves speculations
+of such magnitude, and requires such a mass of materials drawn from
+every quarter, that I feel very apprehensive as to the result; and I
+need hardly say, that I make no pretensions to anything approaching an
+exhaustive analysis, nor can I hope to do more than generalize a few of
+the laws of that complicated, but as yet unexplored, process by which
+the external world has affected the human mind, has warped its natural
+movements, and too often checked its natural progress.
+
+  [224] I mean in regard to the physical and economical generalizations.
+        As to the literature of the subject, I am conscious of many
+        deficiencies, particularly in respect to the Mexican and Peruvian
+        histories.
+
+The Aspects of Nature, when considered from this point of view, are
+divisible into two classes: the first class being those which are most
+likely to excite the imagination; and the other class being those which
+address themselves to the understanding commonly so called, that is, to
+the mere logical operations of the intellect. For although it is true
+that, in a complete and well-balanced mind, the imagination and the
+understanding each play their respective parts, and are auxiliary to
+each other, it is also true that, in a majority of instances, the
+understanding is too weak to curb the imagination and restrain its
+dangerous licence. The tendency of advancing civilization is to remedy
+this disproportion, and invest the reasoning powers with that authority,
+which, in an early stage of Society, the imagination exclusively
+possesses. Whether or not there is ground for fearing that the reaction
+will eventually proceed too far, and that the reasoning faculties will
+in their turn tyrannize over the imaginative ones, is a question of the
+deepest interest; but, in the present condition of our knowledge, it is
+probably an insoluble one. At all events, it is certain that nothing
+like such a state has yet been seen; since, even in this age, when the
+imagination is more under control than in any preceding one, it has far
+too much power; as might be easily proved, not only from the
+superstitions which in every country still prevail among the vulgar, but
+also from that poetic reverence for antiquity, which, though it has been
+long diminishing, still hampers the independence, blinds the judgment,
+and circumscribes the originality of the educated classes.
+
+Now, so far as natural phenomena are concerned, it is evident, that
+whatever inspires feelings of terror, or of great wonder, and whatever
+excites in the mind an idea of the vague and uncontrollable, has a
+special tendency to inflame the imagination, and bring under its
+dominion the slower and more deliberate operations of the understanding.
+In such cases, Man, contrasting himself with the force and majesty of
+Nature, becomes painfully conscious of his own insignificance. A sense
+of inferiority steals over him. From every quarter innumerable obstacles
+hem him in, and limit his individual will. His mind, appalled by the
+indefined and indefinable, hardly cares to scrutinize the details of
+which such imposing grandeur consists.[225] On the other hand, where
+the works of Nature are small and feeble, Man regains confidence; he
+seems more able to rely on his own power; he can, as it were, pass
+through and exercise authority in every direction. And as the phenomena
+are more accessible, it becomes easier for him to experiment on them, or
+to observe them with minuteness; an inquisitive and analytic spirit is
+encouraged, and he is tempted to generalize the appearances of Nature,
+and refer them to the laws by which they are governed.
+
+  [225] The sensation of fear, even when there is no danger, becomes
+        strong enough to destroy the pleasure that would otherwise be
+        felt. See, for instance, a description of the great mountain
+        boundary of Hindostan, in _Asiatic Researches_, vol. xi. p. 469:
+        'It is necessary for a person to place himself in our situation
+        before he can form a just conception of the scene. The depth of
+        the valley below, the progressive elevation of the intermediate
+        hills, and the majestic splendour of the cloud-capped Himalaya,
+        formed so grand a picture, that the mind was impressed with a
+        sensation of dread rather than of pleasure.' Compare vol. xiv. p.
+        116, Calcutta, 1822. In the Tyrol, it has been observed, that the
+        grandeur of the mountain scenery imbues the minds of the natives
+        with fear, and has caused the invention of many superstitious
+        legends. _Alison's Europe_, vol. ix. pp. 79, 80.
+
+Looking in this way at the human mind as affected by the Aspects of
+Nature, it is surely a remarkable fact, that all the great early
+civilizations were situated within and immediately adjoining the
+tropics, where those aspects are most sublime, most terrible, and where
+Nature is, in every respect, most dangerous to Man. Indeed, generally,
+in Asia, Africa, and America, the external world is more formidable than
+in Europe. This holds good not only of the fixed and permanent
+phenomena, such as mountains, and other great natural barriers, but also
+of occasional phenomena, such as earthquakes, tempests, hurricanes,
+pestilences; all of which are in those regions very frequent and very
+disastrous. These constant and serious dangers produce effects analogous
+to those caused by the sublimity of Nature, in so far, that in both
+cases there is a tendency to increase the activity of the imagination.
+For the peculiar province of the imagination being to deal with the
+unknown, every event which is unexplained, as well as important, is a
+direct stimulus to our imaginative faculties. In the tropics, events of
+this kind are more numerous than elsewhere; it therefore follows that in
+the tropics the imagination is most likely to triumph. A few
+illustrations of the working of this principle will place it in a
+clearer light, and will prepare the reader for the arguments based upon
+it.
+
+Of those physical events which increase the insecurity of Man,
+earthquakes are certainly among the most striking, in regard to the loss
+of life which they cause, as also in regard to their sudden and
+unexpected occurrence. There is reason to believe that they are always
+preceded by atmospheric changes which strike immediately at the nervous
+system, and thus have a direct physical tendency to impair the
+intellectual powers.[226] However this may be, there can be no doubt as
+to the effect they produce in encouraging particular associations and
+habits of thought. The terror which they inspire excites the imagination
+even to a painful extent, and, overbalancing the judgment, predisposes
+men to superstitious fancies. And what is highly curious, is, that
+repetition, so far from blunting such feelings, strengthens them. In
+Peru, where earthquakes appear to be more common than in any other
+country,[227] every succeeding visitation increases the general dismay;
+so that, in some cases, the fear becomes almost insupportable.[228] The
+mind is thus constantly thrown into a timid and anxious state: and men
+witnessing the most serious dangers, which they can neither avoid nor
+understand, become impressed with a conviction of their own inability,
+and of the poverty of their own resources.[229] In exactly the same
+proportion, the imagination is aroused, and a belief in supernatural
+interference actively encouraged. Human power failing, superhuman power
+is called in; the mysterious and the invisible are believed to be
+present; and there grow up among the people those feelings of awe and of
+helplessness, on which all superstition is based, and without which no
+superstition can exist.[230]
+
+  [226] 'Une augmentation d'électricité s'y manifeste aussi presque
+        toujours, et ils sont généralement annoncés par le mugissement
+        des bestiaux, par l'inquiétude des animaux domestiques, et dans
+        les hommes par cette sorte de malaise qui, en Europe, précède les
+        orages dans les personnes nerveuses.' _Cuvier_, _Prog. des
+        Sciences_, vol. i. p. 265. See also, on this 'Vorgefühl,' the
+        observation of Von Hoff, in Mr. Mallet's valuable essay on
+        earthquakes (_Brit. Assoc. for_ 1850, p. 68); and the
+        'foreboding' in _Tschudi's Peru_, p. 165; and a letter in
+        _Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. iv. p.
+        504. The probable connexion between earthquakes and electricity
+        is noticed in _Bakewell's Geology_, p. 434.
+
+  [227] 'Peru is more subject perhaps than any other country to the
+        tremendous visitation of earthquakes.' _M'Culloch's Geog. Dict._
+        1849. vol. ii. p. 499. Dr. Tschudi (_Travels in Peru_, p. 162)
+        says of Lima, 'at an average forty-five shocks may be counted on
+        in the year.' See also on the Peruvian earthquakes, pp. 43, 75,
+        87, 90.
+
+  [228] A curious instance of association of ideas conquering the
+        deadening effect of habit. Dr. Tschudi (_Peru_, p. 170),
+        describing the panic, says, 'no familiarity with the phenomenon
+        can blunt this feeling.' Beale (_South-Sea Whaling Voyage_, Lond.
+        1839, p. 205) writes, 'it is said at Peru, that the oftener the
+        natives of the place feel those vibrations of the earth, instead
+        of becoming habituated to them, as persons do who are constantly
+        exposed to other dangers, they become more filled with dismay
+        every time the shock is repeated, so that aged people often find
+        the terror a slight shock will produce almost insupportable.'
+        Compare _Darwin's Journal_, pp. 422, 423. So, too, in regard to
+        Mexican earthquakes, Mr. Ward observes, that 'the natives are
+        both more sensible than strangers of the smaller shocks, and more
+        alarmed by them.' _Ward's Mexico_, vol. ii. p. 55. On the
+        physiological effects of the fear caused by earthquakes, see the
+        remarkable statement by Osiander in _Burdach's Physiologie comme
+        Science d'Observation_, vol. ii. pp. 223, 224. That the fear
+        should be not deadened by familiarity, but increased by it, would
+        hardly be expected by speculative reasoners unacquainted with the
+        evidence; and we find, in fact, that the Pyrrhonists asserted
+        that [Greek: hoi goun seisma par' hois synechôs apotelountai, ou
+        thaumazontai; oud' ho hêlios, hoti kath' hêmeran horatai.] _Diog.
+        Laert. de Vitis Philos._ lib. ix. segm. 87, vol. i. p. 591.
+
+  [229] Mr. Stephens, who gives a striking description of ancearthquake
+        in Central America, emphatically says, 'I never felt myself so
+        feeble a thing before.' _Stephens's Central America_, vol. i. p.
+        383. See also the account of the effects produced on the mind by
+        an earthquake, in _Transac. of Soc. of Bombay_, vol. iii. p. 98,
+        and the note at p. 105.
+
+  [230] The effect of earthquakes in encouraging superstition, is noticed
+        in Lyell's admirable work, _Principles of Geology_, p. 492.
+        Compare a myth on the origin of earthquakes in _Beausobre_,
+        _Histoire Critique de Manichée_, vol. i. p. 243.
+
+Further illustration of this may be found even in Europe, where such
+phenomena are, comparatively speaking, extremely rare. Earthquakes and
+volcanic eruptions are more frequent and more destructive in Italy, and
+in the Spanish and Portuguese peninsula, than in any other of the great
+countries; and it is precisely there that superstition is most rife,
+and the superstitious classes most powerful. Those were the countries
+where the clergy first established their authority, where the worst
+corruptions of Christianity took place, and where superstition has
+during the longest period retained the firmest hold. To this may be
+added another circumstance, indicative of the connexion between these
+physical phenomena and the predominance of the imagination. Speaking
+generally, the fine arts are addressed more to the imagination; the
+sciences to the intellect.[231] Now it is remarkable, that all the
+greatest painters, and nearly all the greatest sculptors, modern Europe
+has possessed, have been produced by the Italian and Spanish peninsulas.
+In regard to science, Italy has no doubt had several men of conspicuous
+ability; but their numbers are out of all proportion small when compared
+with her artists and poets. As to Spain and Portugal, the literature of
+those two countries is eminently poetic, and from their schools have
+proceeded some of the greatest painters the world has ever seen. On the
+other hand, the purely reasoning faculties have been neglected, and the
+whole Peninsula, from the earliest period to the present time, does not
+supply to the history of the natural sciences a single name of the
+highest merit; not one man whose works form an epoch in the progress of
+European knowledge.[232]
+
+  [231] The greatest men in science, and in fact all very great men, have
+        no doubt been remarkable for the powers of their imagination. But
+        in art the imagination plays a far more conspicuous part than in
+        science; and this is what I mean to express by the proposition in
+        the text. Sir David Brewster, indeed, thinks that Newton was
+        deficient in imagination: 'the weakness of his imaginative
+        powers.' _Brewster's Life of Newton_, 1855, vol. ii. p. 133. It
+        is impossible to discuss so large a question in a note; but to my
+        apprehension, no poet, except Dante and Shakespeare, ever had an
+        imagination more soaring and more audacious than that possessed
+        by Sir Isaac Newton.
+
+  [232] The remarks made by Mr. Ticknor on the absence of science in
+        Spain, might be extended even further than he has done. See
+        _Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature_, vol. iii. pp. 222,
+        223. He says, p. 237, that in 1771, the University of Salamanca
+        being urged to teach the physical sciences, replied, 'Newton
+        teaches nothing that would make a good logician or metaphysician,
+        and Gassendi and Descartes do not agree so well with revealed
+        truth as Aristotle does.'
+
+The manner in which the Aspects of Nature, when they are very
+threatening, stimulate the imagination,[233] and by encouraging
+superstition discourage knowledge, may be made still more apparent by
+one or two additional facts. Among an ignorant people, there is a direct
+tendency to ascribe all serious dangers to supernatural intervention;
+and a strong religious sentiment being thus aroused,[234] it constantly
+happens, not only that the danger is submitted to, but that it is
+actually worshipped. This is the case with some of the Hindus in the
+forest of Malabar;[235] and many similar instances will occur to whoever
+has studied the condition of barbarous tribes.[236] Indeed, so far is
+this carried, that in some countries the inhabitants, from feelings of
+reverential fear, refuse to destroy wild-beasts and noxious reptiles;
+the mischief these animals inflict being the cause of the impunity they
+enjoy.[237]
+
+  [233] In _Asiatic Researches_, vol. vi. pp. 35, 36, there is a good
+        instance of an earthquake giving rise to a theological fiction.
+        See also vol. i. pp. 154-157; and compare _Coleman's Mythology of
+        the Hindus_, p. 17.
+
+  [234] See for example, _Asiatic Researches_, vol. iv. pp. 56, 57, vol.
+        vii. p. 94; and the effect produced by a volcano, in _Journal of
+        Geograph. Society_, vol. v. p. 388. See also vol. xx. p. 8, and a
+        practical recognition of the principle by Sextus Empiricus, in
+        _Tennemann's Geschichte der Philosophie_, vol. i. p. 292. Compare
+        the use the clergy made of a volcanic eruption in Iceland
+        (_Wheaton's History of the Northmen_, p. 42); and see further
+        _Raffles' History of Java_, vol. i. pp. 29, 274, and _Tschudi's
+        Peru_, pp. 64, 167, 171.
+
+  [235] The Hindus in the Iruari forests, says Mr. Edye, 'worship and
+        respect everything from which they apprehend danger.' _Edye on the
+        Coast of Malabar_, in _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. ii.
+        p. 337.
+
+  [236] Dr. Prichard (_Physical History_, vol. iv. p. 501) says 'The tiger
+        is worshipped by the Hajin tribe in the vicinity of the Garrows
+        or Garrudus.' Compare _Transactions of Asiatic Society_, vol. iii.
+        p. 66. Among the Garrows themselves, this feeling is so strong,
+        that 'the tiger's nose strung round a woman's neck is considered
+        as a great preservative in childbirth.' _Coleman's Mythology of
+        the Hindus_, p. 321. The Seiks have a curious superstition
+        respecting wounds inflicted by tigers (_Burne's Bokhara_, 1834,
+        vol. iii. p. 140); and the Malasir believe that these animals are
+        sent as a punishment for irreligion. _Buchanan's Journey through
+        the Mysore_, vol. ii. p. 385.
+
+  [237] The inhabitants of Sumatra are, for superstitious reasons, most
+        unwilling to destroy tigers, though they commit frightful
+        ravages. _Marsden's History of Sumatra_, pp. 149, 254. The
+        Russian account of the Kamtschatkans says, 'besides the
+        above-mentioned gods, they pay a religious regard to several
+        animals from which they apprehend danger.' _Grieve's History of
+        Kamtschatka_, p. 205. Bruce mentions that in Abyssinia, hyænas
+        are considered 'enchanters' and the inhabitants 'will not touch
+        the skin of a hyæna till it has been prayed over and exorcised by
+        a priest.' _Murray's Life of Bruce_, p. 472. Allied to this, is
+        the respect paid to bears (_Erman's Siberia_, vol. i. p. 492,
+        vol. ii. pp. 42, 43); also the extensively-diffused worship of
+        the serpent, whose wily movements are well calculated to inspire
+        fear, and therefore rouse the religious feelings. The danger
+        apprehended from noxious reptiles is connected with the Dews of
+        the Zendavesta. See _Matter's Histoire du Gnosticisme_, vol. i.
+        p. 380, Paris, 1828.
+
+It is in this way, that the old tropical civilizations had to struggle
+with innumerable difficulties unknown to the temperate zone, where
+European civilization has long flourished. The devastations of animals
+hostile to man, the ravages of hurricanes, tempests, earthquakes,[238]
+and similar perils, constantly pressed upon them, and affected the tone
+of their national character. For the mere loss of life was the smallest
+part of the inconvenience. The real mischief was, that there were
+engendered in the mind, associations which made the imagination
+predominate over the understanding; which infused into the people a
+spirit of reverence instead of a spirit of inquiry; and which encouraged
+a disposition to neglect the investigation of natural causes, and
+ascribe events to the operation of supernatural ones.
+
+  [238] To give one instance of the extent to which these operate, it may
+        be mentioned, that in 1815 an earthquake and volcanic eruption
+        broke forth in Sumbawa, which shook the ground 'through an area
+        of 1,000 miles in circumference,' and the detonations of which
+        were heard at a distance of 970 geographical miles. _Somerville's
+        Connexion of the Physical Sciences_, p. 283; _Hitchcock's
+        Religion of Geology_, p. 190; _Low's Sarawak_, p. 10; _Bakewell's
+        Geology_, p. 438.
+
+Everything we know of those countries proves how active this tendency
+must have been. With extremely few exceptions, health is more
+precarious, and disease more common, in tropical climates than in
+temperate ones. Now, it has been often observed, and indeed is very
+obvious, that the fear of death makes men more prone to seek
+supernatural aid than they would otherwise be. So complete is our
+ignorance respecting another life, that it is no wonder if even the
+stoutest heart should quail at the sudden approach of that dark and
+untried future. On this subject the reason is perfectly silent; the
+imagination, therefore, is uncontrolled. The operation of natural causes
+being brought to an end, supernatural causes are supposed to begin.
+Hence it is, that whatever increases in any country the amount of
+dangerous disease, has an immediate tendency to strengthen superstition,
+and aggrandize the imagination at the expense of the understanding. This
+principle is so universal, that, in every part of the world, the vulgar
+ascribe to the intervention of the Deity those diseases which are
+peculiarly fatal, and especially those which have a sudden and
+mysterious appearance. In Europe it used to be believed that every
+pestilence was a manifestation of the divine anger;[239] and this
+opinion, though it has long been dying away, is by no means extinct,
+even in the most civilized countries.[240] Superstition of this kind
+will of course be strongest, either where medical knowledge is most
+backward, or where disease is most abundant. In countries where both
+these conditions are fulfilled, the superstition is supreme; and even
+where only one of the conditions exists, the tendency is so
+irresistible, that, I believe, there are no barbarous people who do not
+ascribe to their good or evil deities, not only extraordinary diseases,
+but even many of the ordinary ones to which they are liable.[241]
+
+  [239] In the sixteenth century, 'Les différentes sectes s'accordèrent
+        néanmoins à regarder les maladies graves et dangereuses comme un
+        effet immédiat de la puissance divine; idée que Fernel contribua
+        encore à répandre davantage. On trouve dans Paré plusieurs
+        passages de la Bible, cités pour prouver que la colère de Dieu
+        est la seule cause de la peste, qu'elle suffit pour provoquer ce
+        fléau, et que sans elle les causes éloignées ne sauraient agir.'
+        _Sprengel_, _Histoire de la Médecine_, vol. iii. p. 112. The same
+        learned writer says of the Middle Ages (vol. ii. p. 372),
+        'D'après l'esprit généralement répandu dans ces siècles de
+        barbarie, on croyait la lèpre envoyée d'une manière immédiate par
+        Dieu.' See also pp. 145, 346, 431. Bishop Heber says that the
+        Hindus deprive lepers of caste and of the right of possessing
+        property, because they are objects of 'Heaven's wrath.' _Heber's
+        Journey through India_, vol. ii. p. 330. On the Jewish opinion,
+        see _Le Clerc_, _Bibliothèque Universelle_, vol. iv. p. 402,
+        Amsterdam, 1702. And as to the early Christians, see _Maury_,
+        _Légendes Pieuses_, p. 68, Paris, 1843: though M. Maury ascribes
+        to 'les idées orientales reçues par le christianisme,' what is
+        due to the operation of a much wider principle.
+
+  [240] Under the influence of the inductive philosophy, the theological
+        theory of disease was seriously weakened before the middle of the
+        seventeenth century; and by the middle, or at all events the
+        latter half, of the eighteenth century, it had lost all its
+        partisans among scientific men. At present it still lingers on
+        among the vulgar; and traces of it may be found in the writings
+        of the clergy, and in the works of other persons little
+        acquainted with physical knowledge. When the cholera broke out in
+        England, attempts were made to revive the old notion; but the
+        spirit of the age was too strong for such efforts to succeed; and
+        it may be safely predicted that men will never return to their
+        former opinions, unless they first return to their former
+        ignorance. As a specimen of the ideas which the cholera tended to
+        excite, and of their antagonism to all scientific investigation,
+        I may refer to a letter written in 1832 by Mrs. Grant, a woman of
+        some accomplishments, and not devoid of influence
+        (_Correspondence of Mrs. Grant_, London, 1844, vol. iii. pp. 216,
+        217), where she states that 'it appears to me great presumption
+        to indulge so much as people do in speculation and conjecture
+        about a disease so evidently a peculiar infliction, and different
+        from all other modes of suffering hitherto known.' This desire to
+        limit human speculation is precisely the feeling which long
+        retained Europe in darkness; since it effectually prevented those
+        free inquiries to which we are indebted for all the real
+        knowledge we possess. The doubts of Boyle upon this subject
+        supply a curious instance of the transitory state through which
+        the mind was passing in the seventeenth century, and by which the
+        way was prepared for the great liberating movement of the next
+        age. Boyle, after stating both sides of the question, namely, the
+        theological and the scientific, adds, 'and it is the less likely
+        that these sweeping and contagious maladies should be always sent
+        for the punishment of impious men, because I remember to have
+        read in good authors, that as some plagues destroyed both men and
+        beasts, so some other did peculiarly destroy brute animals of
+        very little consideration or use to men, as cats,' &c.
+
+        'Upon these and the like reasons, I have sometimes suspected that
+        in the controversy about the origin of the plague, namely,
+        whether it be natural or supernatural, neither of the contending
+        parties is altogether in the right; since it is very possible
+        that some pestilences may not break forth without an
+        extraordinary, though perhaps not immediate, interposition of
+        Almighty God, provoked by the sins of men; and yet other plagues
+        may be produced by a tragical concourse of merely natural
+        causes.' _Discourse on the Air_, in _Boyle's Works_, vol. iv. pp.
+        288, 289. '_Neither of the contending parties is altogether in
+        the right!_'--an instructive passage towards understanding the
+        compromising spirit of the seventeenth century; standing midway,
+        as it did, between the credulity of the sixteenth, and the
+        scepticism of the eighteenth.
+
+  [241] To the historian of the human mind, the whole question is so full
+        of interest, that I shall refer in this note to all the evidence
+        I have been able to collect: and whoever will compare the
+        following passages may satisfy himself that there is in every
+        part of the world an intimate relation between ignorance
+        respecting the nature and proper treatment of a disease, and the
+        belief that such disease is caused by supernatural power, and is
+        to be cured by it. _Burton's Sindh_, p. 146, London, 1851;
+        _Ellis's Polynesian Researches_, vol. i. p. 395, vol. iii. pp.
+        36, 41, vol. iv. pp. 293, 334, 375; _Cullen's Works_, Edinb.
+        1827, vol. ii. pp. 414, 434; _Esquirol_, _Maladies Mentales_,
+        vol. i. pp. 274, 482; _Cabanis_, _Rapports du Physique et du
+        Moral_, p. 277; _Volney_, _Voyage en Syrie_, vol. i. p. 426;
+        _Turner's Embassy to Tibet_, p. 104; _Syme's Embassy to Ava_,
+        vol. ii. p. 211; _Ellis's Tour through Hawaii_, pp. 282, 283,
+        332, 333; _Renouard_, _Histoire de la Médecine_, vol. i. p. 398;
+        _Broussais_, _Examen des Doctrines Médicales_, vol. i. pp. 261,
+        262; _Grote's History of Greece_, vol. i. p. 485 (compare p. 251,
+        and vol. vi. p. 213); _Grieve's History of Kamtschatka_, p. 217;
+        _Journal of Statist. Soc._ vol. x. p. 10; _Buchanan's North
+        American Indians_, pp. 256, 257; _Halkett's North American
+        Indians_, pp. 36, 37, 388, 393, 394; _Catlin's North American
+        Indians_, vol. i. pp. 35-41; _Briggs on the Aboriginal Tribes of
+        India_, in _Report of Brit. Assoc. for 1850_, p. 172;
+        _Transactions of Soc. of Bombay_, vol. ii. p. 30; _Percival's
+        Ceylon_, p. 201; _Buchanan's Journey through the Mysore_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 27, 152, 286, 528, vol. iii. pp. 23, 188, 253 (so, too,
+        M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, _Anomalies de l'Organization_, vol.
+        iii. p. 380, says that when we were quite ignorant of the cause
+        of monstrous births, the phenomenon was ascribed to the
+        Deity,--'de là aussi l'intervention supposée de la divinité;' and
+        for an exact verification of this, compare _Burdach_, _Traité de
+        Physiologie_, vol. ii. p. 247, with _Journal of Geog. Soc._ vol.
+        xvi. p. 113); _Ellis's History of Madagascar_, vol. i. pp. 224,
+        225; _Prichard's Physical History_, vol. i. p. 207, vol. v. p.
+        492; _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. iii. p. 230, vol. iv. p.
+        158; _Asiatic Researches_, vol. iii. pp. 29, 156, vol. iv. pp.
+        56, 58, 74, vol. xvi. pp. 215, 280; _Neander's History of the
+        Church_, vol. iii. p. 119; _Crawfurd's History of the Indian
+        Archipelago_, vol. i. p. 328; _Low's Sarawak_, pp. 174, 261;
+        _Cook's Voyages_, vol. i. p. 229; _Mariner's Tonga Islands_, vol.
+        i. pp. 194, 350-360, 374, 438, vol. ii. pp. 172, 230; _Huc's
+        Travels in Tartary and Thibet_, vol. i. pp. 74-77; _Richardson's
+        Travels in the Sahara_, vol. i. p. 27; _M'Culloh's Researches_,
+        p. 105; _Journal of Geog. Soc._ vol. i. p. 41, vol. iv. p. 260,
+        vol. xiv. p. 37. And in regard to Europe, compare _Spence_,
+        _Origin of the Laws of Europe_, p. 322; _Turner's Hist. of
+        England_, vol. iii. p. 443; _Phillips on Scrofula_, p. 255;
+        _Otter's Life of Clarke_, vol. i. pp. 265, 266, which may be
+        illustrated by the 'sacred' disease of Cambyses, no doubt
+        epilepsy; see _Herodot._ lib. iii. chap. xxxiv. vol. ii. p. 63.
+
+Here, then, we have another specimen of the unfavourable influence,
+which, in the old civilizations, external phenomena exercised over the
+human mind. For those parts of Asia where the highest refinement was
+reached, are, from various physical causes, much more unhealthy than
+the most civilized parts of Europe.[242] This fact alone must have
+produced a considerable effect on the national character,[243] and the
+more so, as it was aided by those other circumstances which I have
+pointed out, all tending in the same direction. To this may be added,
+that the great plagues by which Europe has at different periods been
+scourged, have, for the most part, proceeded from the East, which is
+their natural birthplace, and where they are most fatal. Indeed, of
+those cruel diseases now existing in Europe, scarcely one is indigenous;
+and the worst of them were imported from tropical countries in and after
+the first century of the Christian era.[244]
+
+  [242] Heat, moisture, and consequent rapid decomposition of vegetable
+        matter, are certainly among the causes of this; and to them may
+        perhaps be added the electrical state of the atmosphere in the
+        tropics. Compare _Holland's Medical Notes_, p. 477; _M'William's
+        Medical Expedition to the Niger_, pp. 157, 185; _Simon's
+        Pathology_, p. 269; _Forry's Climate and its Endemic Influences_,
+        p. 158. M. Lepelletier says, rather vaguely (_Physiologie
+        Médicale_, vol. iv. p. 527), that the temperate zones are
+        'favorables à l'exercice complet et régulier des phénomènes
+        vitaux.'
+
+  [243] And must have strengthened the power of the clergy; for, as
+        Charlevoix says with great frankness, 'pestilences are the
+        harvests of the ministers of God.' _Southey's History of Brazil_,
+        vol. ii. p. 254.
+
+  [244] For evidence of the extra-European origin of European diseases,
+        some of which, such as the small-pox, have passed from epidemics
+        into endemics, compare _Encyclop. of the Medical Sciences_, 4to,
+        1847, p. 728; _Transactions of Asiatic Society_, vol. ii. pp. 54,
+        55; _Michaelis on the Laws of Moses_, vol. iii. p. 313;
+        _Sprengel_, _Histoire de la Médecine_, vol. ii. pp. 33, 195;
+        _Wallace's Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind_, pp. 81, 82;
+        _Huetiana_, Amst. 1723, pp. 132-135; _Sanders on the Small Pox_,
+        Edinb. 1813, pp. 3-4; _Wilks's Hist. of the South of India_, vol.
+        iii. pp. 16-21; _Clot-Bey de la Peste_, Paris, 1840, p. 227.
+
+Summing up these facts, it may be stated, that in the civilizations
+exterior to Europe, all nature conspired to increase the authority of
+the imaginative faculties, and weaken the authority of the reasoning
+ones. With the materials now existing, it would be possible to follow
+this vast law to its remotest consequences, and show how in Europe it is
+opposed by another law diametrically opposite, and by virtue of which
+the tendency of natural phenomena is, on the whole, to limit the
+imagination, and embolden the understanding: thus inspiring Man with
+confidence in his own resources, and facilitating the increase of his
+knowledge, by encouraging that bold, inquisitive, and scientific spirit,
+which is constantly advancing, and on which all future progress must
+depend.
+
+It is not to be supposed that I can trace in detail the way in which,
+owing to these peculiarities, the civilization of Europe has diverged
+from all others that preceded it. To do this, would require a learning
+and a reach of thought to which hardly any single man ought to pretend;
+since it is one thing to have a perception of a large and general truth,
+and it is another thing to follow out that truth in all its
+ramifications, and prove it by such evidence as will satisfy ordinary
+readers. Those, indeed, who are accustomed to speculations of this
+character, and are able to discern in the history of man something more
+than a mere relation of events, will at once understand that in these
+complicated subjects, the wider any generalization is, the greater will
+be the chance of apparent exceptions; and that when the theory covers a
+very large space, the exceptions may be innumerable, and yet the theory
+remain perfectly accurate. The two fundamental propositions which I
+hope to have demonstrated, are, 1st, That there are certain natural
+phenomena which act on the human mind by exciting the imagination; and
+2dly, That those phenomena are much more numerous out of Europe than in
+it. If these two propositions are admitted, it inevitably follows, that
+in those countries where the imagination has received the stimulus, some
+specific effects must have been produced; unless, indeed, the effects
+have been neutralized by other causes. Whether or not there have been
+antagonistic causes, is immaterial to the truth of the theory, which is
+based on the two propositions just stated. In a scientific point of
+view, therefore, the generalization is complete; and it would perhaps be
+prudent to leave it as it now stands, rather than attempt to confirm it
+by further illustrations, since all particular facts are liable to be
+erroneously stated, and are sure to be contradicted by those who dislike
+the conclusions they corroborate. But in order to familiarize the reader
+with the principles I have put forward, it does seem advisable that a
+few instances should be given of their actual working: and I will,
+therefore, briefly notice the effects they have produced in the three
+great divisions of Literature, Religion, and Art. In each of these
+departments, I will endeavour to indicate how the leading features have
+been affected by the Aspects of Nature; and with a view of simplifying
+the inquiry, I will take the two most conspicuous instances on each
+side, and compare the manifestations of the intellect of Greece with
+those of the intellect of India: these being the two countries
+respecting which the materials are most ample, and in which the physical
+contrasts are most striking.
+
+If, then, we look at the ancient literature of India, even during its
+best period, we shall find the most remarkable evidence of the
+uncontrolled ascendency of the imagination. In the first place, we have
+the striking fact that scarcely any attention has been paid to prose
+composition; all the best writers having devoted themselves to poetry,
+as being most congenial to the national habits of thought. Their works
+on grammar, on law, on history, on medicine, on mathematics, on
+geography, and on metaphysics, are nearly all poems, and are put
+together according to a regular system of versification.[245] The
+consequence is, that while prose writing is utterly despised, the art of
+poetry has been cultivated so assiduously, that the Sanscrit can boast
+of metres more numerous and more complicated than have ever been
+possessed by any of the European languages.[246]
+
+  [245] 'So verwandelt das geistige Leben des Hindu sich in wahre Poesie,
+        und das bezeichnende Merkmal seiner ganzen Bildung ist:
+        Herrschaft der Einbildungskraft über den Verstand; im geraden
+        Gegensatz mit der Bildung des Europäers, deren allgemeiner
+        Charakter in der Herrschaft des Verstandes über die
+        Einbildungskraft besteht. Es wird dadurch begreiflich, dass die
+        Literatur der Hindus nur eine poetische ist; dass sie überreich
+        an Dichterwerken, aber arm am wissenschaftlichen Schriften sind;
+        dass ihre heiligen Schriften, ihre Gesetze und Sagen poetisch,
+        und grösstentheils in Versen geschrieben sind; ja dass Lehrbücher
+        der Grammatik, der Heilkunde, der Mathematik und Erdbeschreibung
+        in Versen verfasst sind.' _Rhode_, _Religiöse Bildung der
+        Hindus_, vol. ii. p. 626. Thus, too, we are told respecting one of
+        their most celebrated metaphysical systems, that 'the best text
+        of the Sanchya is a short treatise in verse.' _Colebrooke on the
+        Philosophy of the Hindus_, in _Transactions of Asiatic Society_,
+        vol. i. p. 23. And in another place the same high authority says
+        (_Asiatic Researches_, vol. x. p. 439), 'the metrical treatises
+        on law and other sciences are almost entirely composed in this
+        easy verse.' M. Klaproth, in an analysis of a Sanscrit history of
+        Cashmere, says, 'comme presque toutes les compositions hindoues,
+        il est écrit en vers.' _Journal Asiatique_, I. série, vol. vii.
+        p. 8, Paris, 1825. See also, in vol. vi. pp. 175, 176, the
+        remarks of M. Burnouf: 'Les philosophes indiens, comme s'ils ne
+        pouvaient échapper aux influences poétiques de leur climat,
+        traitent les questions de la métaphysique le plus abstraite par
+        similitudes et métaphores.' Compare vol. vi. p. 4, 'le génie
+        indien si poétique et si religieux;' and see _Cousin_, _Hist. de
+        la Philosophie_, II. série, vol. i. p. 27.
+
+  [246] Mr. Yates says of the Hindus, that no other people have ever
+        'presented an equal variety of poetic compositions. The various
+        metres of Greece and Rome have filled Europe with astonishment;
+        but what are these, compared with the extensive range of Sanscrit
+        metres under its three classes of poetical writing?' _Yates on
+        Sanscrit Alliteration_, in _Asiatic Researches_, vol. xx. p. 159,
+        Calcutta, 1836. See also on the Sanscrit metres, p. 321, and an
+        Essay by Colebrooke, vol. x. pp. 389-474. On the metrical system
+        of the Vedas, see Mr. Wilson's note in the _Rig Veda Sanhita_,
+        vol. ii. p. 135.
+
+This peculiarity in the form of Indian literature is accompanied by a
+corresponding peculiarity in its spirit. For it is no exaggeration to
+say, that in that literature every thing is calculated to set the reason
+of man at open defiance. An imagination, luxuriant even to disease, runs
+riot on every occasion. This is particularly seen in those productions
+which are most eminently national, such as the Ramayana, the Mahabharat,
+and the Puranas in general. But we also find it even in their
+geographical and chronological systems, which of all others might be
+supposed least liable to imaginative flights. A few examples of the
+statements put forward in the most authoritative books, will supply the
+means of instituting a comparison with the totally opposite condition of
+the European intellect, and will give the reader some idea of the extent
+to which credulity can proceed, even among a civilized people.[247]
+
+  [247] In Europe, as we shall see in the sixth chapter of this volume;
+        the credulity was at one time extraordinary; but the age was then
+        barbarous, and barbarism is always credulous. On the other hand,
+        the examples gathered from Indian literature will be taken from
+        the works of a lettered people, written in a language extremely
+        rich, and so highly polished, that some competent judges have
+        declared it equal, if not superior, to the Greek.
+
+Of all the various ways in which the imagination has distorted truth,
+there is none that has worked so much harm as an exaggerated respect for
+past ages. This reverence for antiquity is repugnant to every maxim of
+reason, and is merely the indulgence of a poetic sentiment in favour of
+the remote and unknown. It is, therefore, natural that, in periods when
+the intellect was comparatively speaking inert, this sentiment should
+have been far stronger than it now is; and there can be little doubt
+that it will continue to grow weaker, and that in the same proportion
+the feeling of progress will gain ground; so that veneration for the
+past will be succeeded by hope for the future. But formerly the
+veneration was supreme, and innumerable traces of it may be found in the
+literature and popular creed of every country. It is this, for instance,
+which inspired the poets with their notion of a golden age, in which
+the world was filled with peace, in which evil passions were stilled,
+and crimes were unknown. It is this, again, which gave to theologians
+their idea of the primitive virtue and simplicity of man, and of his
+subsequent fall from that high estate. And it is this same principle
+which diffused a belief that in the olden times, men were not only more
+virtuous and happy, but also physically superior in the structure of
+their bodies; and that by this means they attained to a larger stature,
+and lived to a greater age, than is possible for us, their feeble and
+degenerate descendants.
+
+Opinions of this kind, being adopted by the imagination in spite of the
+understanding, it follows that the strength of such opinions becomes, in
+any country, one of the standards by which we may estimate the
+predominance of the imaginative faculties. Applying this test to the
+literature of India, we shall find a striking confirmation of the
+conclusions already drawn. The marvellous feats of antiquity with which
+the Sanscrit books abound, are so long and so complicated, that it would
+occupy too much space to give even an outline of them; but there is one
+class of these singular fictions which is well worth attention, and
+admits of being briefly stated. I allude to the extraordinary age which
+man was supposed to have attained in former times. A belief in the
+longevity of the human race, at an early period of the world, was the
+natural product of those feelings which ascribed to the ancients an
+universal superiority over the moderns; and this we see exemplified in
+some of the Christian, and in many of the Hebrew writings. But the
+statements in these works are tame and insignificant when compared with
+what is preserved in the literature of India. On this, as on every
+subject, the imagination of the Hindus distanced all competition. Thus,
+among an immense number of similar facts, we find it recorded that in
+ancient times the duration of the life of common men was 80,000
+years,[248] and that holy men lived to be upwards of 100,000.[249] Some
+died a little sooner, others a little later; but in the most flourishing
+period of antiquity, if we take all classes together, 100,000 years was
+the average.[250] Of one king, whose name was Yudhishthir, it is
+casually mentioned that he reigned 27,000 years;[251] while another,
+called Alarka, reigned 66,000.[252] They were cut off in their prime,
+since there are several instances of the early poets living to be about
+half-a-million.[253] But the most remarkable case is that of a very
+shining character in Indian history, who united in his single person the
+functions of a king and a saint. This eminent man lived in a pure and
+virtuous age, and his days were, indeed, long in the land; since, when
+he was made king, he was two million years old: he then reigned
+6,300,000 years; having done which, he resigned his empire, and lingered
+on for 100,000 years more.[254]
+
+  [248] 'The limit of life was vol. xvi. p. 456, Calcutta, 1828. 80,000
+        years.' _Asiatic Researches_. This was likewise the estimate of
+        the Tibetan divines, according to whom men formerly 'parvenaient
+        à l'âge de 80,000 ans.' _Journal Asiatique_, I. série, vol. iii.
+        p. 199, Paris, 1823.
+
+  [249] 'Den Hindu macht dieser Widerspruch nicht verlegen, da er seine
+        Heiligen 100,000 Jahre und länger leben lässt.' _Rhode_, _Relig.
+        Bildung der Hindus_, vol. i. p. 175.
+
+  [250] In the _Dabistan_, vol. ii. p. 47, it is stated of the earliest
+        inhabitants of the world, that 'the duration of human life in
+        this age extended to one hundred thousand common years.'
+
+  [251] Wilford (_Asiatic Researches_, vol. v. p. 242) says, 'When the
+        Puranics speak of the kings of ancient times, they are equally
+        extravagant. According to them, King Yudhishthir reigned
+        seven-and-twenty thousand years.'
+
+  [252] 'For sixty thousand and sixty hundred years no other youthful
+        monarch except Alarka reigned over the earth.' _Vishnu Purana_,
+        p. 408.
+
+  [253] And sometimes more. In the Essay on Indian Chronology in _Works of
+        Sir W. Jones_, vol. i. p. 325, we hear of 'a conversation between
+        Valmic and Vyasa, ... two bards whose ages were separated by a
+        period of 864,000 years.' This passage is also in _Asiatic
+        Researches_, vol. ii. p. 399.
+
+  [254] 'He was the first king, first anchoret, and first saint; and is
+        therefore entitled Prathama-Raja, Prathama Bhicshacara, Prathama
+        Jina, and Prathama Tirthancara. At the time of his inauguration
+        as king, his age was 2,000,000 years. He reigned 6,300,000 years,
+        and then resigned his empire to his sons: and having employed
+        100,000 years in passing through the several stages of austerity
+        and sanctity, departed from this world on the summit of a
+        mountain named Ashtapada.' _Asiatic Researches_, vol. ix. p. 305.
+
+The same boundless reverence for antiquity made the Hindus refer every
+thing important to the most distant periods; and they frequently assign
+a date which is absolutely bewildering.[255] Their great collection of
+laws, called the _Institutes of Menu_, is certainly less than 3,000
+years old; but the Indian chronologists, so far from being satisfied
+with this, ascribe to them an age that the sober European mind finds a
+difficulty even in conceiving. According to the best native authorities,
+these Institutes were revealed to man about two thousand million years
+before the present era.[256]
+
+  [255] 'Speculationen über Zahlen sind dem Inder so geläufig, dass selbst
+        die Sprache einen Ausdruck hat für eine Unität mit 63 Nullen,
+        nämlich Asanke, eben weil die Berechnung der Weltperioden diese
+        enorme Grössen nothwendig machte, denn jene einfachen 12,000
+        Jahre schienen einem Volke, welches so gerne die höchstmögliche
+        Potenz auf seine Gottheit übertragen mögte, viel zu geringe zu
+        seyn.' _Bohlen_, _das alte Indien_, vol. ii. p. 298.
+
+  [256] _Elphinstone's History of India_, p. 136, 'a period exceeding
+        4,320,000 multiplied by six times seventy-one.'
+
+All this is but a part of that love of the remote, that straining after
+the infinite, and that indifference to the present, which characterizes
+every branch of the Indian intellect. Not only in literature, but also
+in religion and in art, this tendency is supreme. To subjugate the
+understanding, and exalt the imagination, is the universal principle. In
+the dogmas of their theology, in the character of their gods, and even
+in the forms of their temples, we see how the sublime and threatening
+aspects of the external world have filled the mind of the people with
+those images of the grand and the terrible, which they strive to
+reproduce in a visible form, and to which they owe the leading
+peculiarities of their national culture.
+
+Our view of this vast process may be made clearer by comparing it with
+the opposite condition of Greece. In Greece, we see a country altogether
+the reverse of India. The works of nature, which in India are of
+startling magnitude, are in Greece far smaller, feebler, and in every
+way less threatening to man. In the great centre of Asiatic
+civilization, the energies of the human race are confined, and as it
+were intimidated, by the surrounding phenomena. Besides the dangers
+incidental to tropical climates, there are those noble mountains, which
+seem to touch the sky, and from whose sides are discharged mighty
+rivers, which no art can divert from their course, and which no bridge
+has ever been able to span. There, too, are impassable forests, whole
+countries lined with interminable jungle, and beyond them, again, dreary
+and boundless deserts; all teaching Man his own feebleness, and his
+inability to cope with natural forces. Without, and on either side,
+there are great seas, ravaged by tempests far more destructive than any
+known in Europe, and of such sudden violence, that it is impossible to
+guard against their effects. And, as if in those regions every thing
+combined to cramp the activity of Man, the whole line of coast, from the
+mouth of the Ganges to the extreme south of the peninsula, does not
+contain a single safe and capacious harbour, not one port that affords a
+refuge, which is perhaps more necessary there than in any other part of
+the world.[257]
+
+  [257] Symes (_Embassy to Ava_, vol. iii. p. 278) says: 'From the mouth
+        of the Ganges to Cape Comorin, the whole range of our continental
+        territory, there is not a single harbour capable of affording
+        shelter to a vessel of 500 tons burden.' Indeed, according to
+        Percival, there is with the exception of Bombay, no harbour,
+        'either on the Coromandel or Malabar coasts, in which ships can
+        moor in safety at all seasons of the year.' _Percival's Account
+        of Ceylon_, pp. 2, 15, 66.
+
+But in Greece, the aspects of nature are so entirely different, that the
+very conditions of existence are changed. Greece, like India, forms a
+peninsula; but while in the Asiatic country every thing is great and
+terrible, in the European country every thing is small and feeble. The
+whole of Greece occupies a space somewhat less than the kingdom of
+Portugal,[258] that is about a fortieth part of what is now called
+Hindustan.[259] Situated in the most accessible part of a narrow sea, it
+had easy contact on the east with Asia Minor, on the west with Italy, on
+the south with Egypt. Dangers of all kinds were far less numerous than
+in the tropical civilizations. The climate was more healthy;[260]
+earthquakes were less frequent; hurricanes were less disastrous;
+wild-beasts and noxious animals less abundant. In regard to the other
+great features, the same law prevails. The highest mountains in Greece
+are less than one-third of the Himalaya, so that nowhere do they reach
+the limit of perpetual snow.[261] As to rivers, not only is there
+nothing approaching those imposing volumes which are poured down from
+the mountains of Asia, but nature is so singularly sluggish, that
+neither in Northern nor in Southern Greece do we find any thing beyond a
+few streams, which are easily forded, and which, indeed, in the summer
+season, are frequently dried up.[262]
+
+  [258] 'Altogether its area is somewhat less than that of Portugal.'
+        _Grote's History of Greece_, vol. ii. p. 302; and the same remark
+        in _Thirlwall's History of Greece_, vol. i. p. 2, and in
+        _Heeren's Ancient Greece_, 1845, p. 16. M. Heeren says, 'But even
+        if we add all the islands, its square contents are a third less
+        than those of Portugal.'
+
+  [259] The area of Hindostan being, according to Mr. M'Culloch (_Geog.
+        Dict._ 1849, vol. i. p. 993), 'between 1,200,000 and 1,300,000
+        square miles.'
+
+  [260] In the best days of Greece, those alarming epidemics, by which the
+        country was subsequently ravaged, were comparatively little
+        known: see _Thirlwall's History of Greece_, vol. iii. p. 134,
+        vol. viii. p. 471. This may be owing to large cosmical causes, or
+        to the simple fact, that the different forms of pestilence had
+        not yet been imported from the East by actual contact. On the
+        vague accounts we possess of the earlier plagues, see _Clot-Bey
+        de la Peste_, Paris, 1840. pp. 21, 46, 184. The relation even of
+        Thucydides is more satisfactory to scholars than to pathologists.
+
+  [261] 'Mount Guino, the highest point in Greece, and near its northern
+        boundary, is 8,239 feet high.... No mountain in Greece reaches
+        the limit of perpetual snow.' _M'Culloch's Geog. Dict._ 1849,
+        vol. i. p. 924. Compare the table of mountains in Baker's Memoir
+        on North Greece, in _Journal of Geographical Society_, vol. vii.
+        p. 94, with _Bakewell's Geology_, pp. 621, 622.
+
+  [262] 'Greece has no navigable river.' _M'Culloch's Geog. Dict._ vol. i.
+        p. 924. 'Most of the rivers of Greece are torrents in early
+        spring, and dry before the end of the summer.' _Grote's History
+        of Greece_, vol. ii. p. 286.
+
+These striking differences in the material phenomena of the two
+countries gave rise to corresponding differences in their mental
+associations. For as all ideas must arise partly from what are called
+spontaneous operations in the mind, and partly from what is suggested to
+the mind by the external world, it was natural that so great an
+alteration in one of the causes should produce an alteration in the
+effects. The tendency of the surrounding phenomena was in India to
+inspire fear; in Greece to give confidence. In India Man was
+intimidated; in Greece he was encouraged. In India obstacles of every
+sort were so numerous, so alarming, and apparently so inexplicable, that
+the difficulties of life could only be solved by constantly appealing to
+the direct agency of supernatural causes. Those causes being beyond the
+province of the understanding, the resources of the imagination were
+incessantly occupied in studying them; the imagination itself was
+overworked, its activity became dangerous, it encroached on the
+understanding, and the equilibrium of the whole was destroyed. In Greece
+opposite circumstances were followed by opposite results. In Greece
+Nature was less dangerous, less intrusive, and less mysterious than in
+India. In Greece, therefore, the human mind was less appalled, and less
+superstitious; natural causes began to be studied; physical science
+first became possible; and Man, gradually waking to a sense of his own
+power, sought to investigate events with a boldness not to be expected
+in those other countries, where the pressure of Nature troubled his
+independence, and suggested ideas with which knowledge is incompatible.
+
+The effect of these habits of thought on the national religion must be
+very obvious to whoever has compared the popular creed of India with
+that of Greece. The mythology of India, like that of every tropical
+country, is based upon terror, and upon terror, too, of the most
+extravagant kind. Evidence of the universality of this feeling abounds
+in the sacred books of the Hindus, in their traditions, and even in the
+very form and appearance of their gods. And so deeply is all this
+impressed on the mind, that the most popular deities are invariably
+those with whom images of fear are most intimately associated. Thus, for
+example, the worship of Siva is more general than any other; and as to
+its antiquity, there is reason to believe that it was borrowed by the
+Brahmins from the original Indians.[263] At all events, it is very
+ancient, and very popular; and Siva himself forms, with Brahma and
+Vishnu, the celebrated Hindu Triad. We need not, therefore, be surprised
+that with this god are connected images of terror, such as nothing but a
+tropical imagination could conceive. Siva is represented to the Indian
+mind as a hideous being, encircled by a girdle of snakes, with a human
+skull in his hand, and wearing a necklace composed of human bones. He
+has three eyes; the ferocity of his temper is marked by his being
+clothed in a tiger's skin; he is represented as wandering about like a
+madman, and over his left shoulder the deadly cobra di capella rears its
+head. This monstrous creation of an awe-struck fancy has a wife Doorga,
+called sometimes Kali, and sometimes by other names.[264] She has a body
+of dark blue; while the palms of her hands are red, to indicate her
+insatiate appetite for blood. She has four arms, with one of which she
+carries the skull of a giant; her tongue protrudes, and hangs lollingly
+from her mouth; round her waist are the hands of her victims; and her
+neck is adorned with human heads strung together in a ghastly row.[265]
+
+  [263] See Stevenson on _The Anti-Brahmanical Religion of the Hindus_, in
+        _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. viii. pp. 331, 332, 336, 338.
+        Mr. Wilson (_Journal_, vol. iii. p. 204) says, 'The prevailing
+        form of the Hindu religion in the south of the peninsula was, at
+        the commencement of the Christian era, and some time before it
+        most probably, that of Siva.' See also vol. v. p. 85, where it is
+        stated that Siva 'is the only Hindu god to whom honour is done at
+        Ellora.' Compare _Transac. of Soc. of Bombay_, vol. iii. p. 521;
+        _Heeren's Asiatic Nations_, 1846, vol. ii. pp. 62, 66. On the
+        philosophical relations between the followers of Siva and those
+        of Vishnu, see _Ritter's Hist. of Ancient Philosophy_, vol. iv.
+        pp. 334, 335; and the noticeable fact (_Buchanan's Mysore_, vol.
+        ii. p. 410), that even the Naimar caste, whose 'proper deity' is
+        Vishnu, 'wear on their foreheads the mark of Siva.' As to the
+        worship of Siva in the time of Alexander the Great, see
+        _Thirlwall's History of Greece_, vol. vii. p. 36; and for further
+        evidence of its extent, _Bohlen_, _das alte Indien_, vol. i. pp.
+        29, 147, 206, and _Transac. of Asiatic Society_, vol. ii. pp. 50,
+        294.
+
+  [264] So it is generally stated by the Hindu theologians; but, according
+        to Rammohun Roy, Siva had two wives. See _Rammohun Roy on the
+        Veds_, p. 90.
+
+  [265] On these attributes and representations of Siva and Doorga, see
+        _Rhode_, _Religiöse Bildung der Hindus_, vol. ii. p. 241;
+        _Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus_, pp. 63, 92; _Bohlen_, _das
+        alte Indien_, vol. i. p. 207; _Ward's Religion of the Hindoos_,
+        vol. i. pp. xxxvii. 27, 145; _Transac. of Society of Bombay_,
+        vol. i. pp. 215, 221. Compare the curious account of an image
+        supposed to represent Mahadeo, in _Journal Asiatique_, I. série,
+        vol. i. p. 354, Paris, 1822.
+
+If we now turn to Greece, we find, even in the infancy of its religion,
+not the faintest trace of any thing approaching to this. For, in Greece,
+the causes of fear being less abundant, the expression of terror was
+less common. The Greeks, therefore, were by no means disposed to
+incorporate into their religion those feelings of dread natural to the
+Hindus. The tendency of Asiatic civilization was to widen the distance
+between men and their deities; the tendency of Greek civilization was to
+diminish it. Thus it is, that in Hindostan all the gods had something
+monstrous about them; as Vishnu with four hands, Brahma with five heads,
+and the like.[266] But the gods of Greece were always represented in
+forms entirely human.[267] In that country, no artist would have gained
+attention, if he had presumed to portray them in any other shape. He
+might make them stronger than men, he might make them more beautiful;
+but still they must be men. The analogy between God and Man, which
+excited the religious feelings of the Greeks, would have been fatal to
+those of the Hindus.
+
+  [266] _Ward on the Religion of the Hindoos_, vol. i. p. 35; _Transac. of
+        Society of Bombay_, vol. i. p. 223. Compare the gloss in the
+        _Dabistan_, vol. ii. p. 202.
+
+  [267] 'The Greek gods were formed like men, with greatly increased
+        powers and faculties, and acted as men would do if so
+        circumstanced, but with a dignity and energy suited to their
+        nearer approach to perfection. The Hindu gods, on the other hand,
+        though endued with human passions, have always something
+        monstrous in their appearance, and wild and capricious in their
+        conduct. They are of various colours, red, yellow, and blue; some
+        have twelve heads, and most have four hands. They are often
+        enraged without a cause, and reconciled without a motive.'
+        _Elphinstone's History of India_, pp. 96, 97. See also _Erskine
+        on the Temple of Elephanta_, in _Transac. of Society of Bombay_,
+        vol. i. p. 246; and the _Dabistan_, vol. i. p. cxi.
+
+This difference between the artistic expressions of the two religions
+was accompanied by an exactly similar difference between their
+theological traditions. In the Indian books, the imagination is
+exhausted in relating the feats of the gods; and the more obviously
+impossible any achievement is, the greater the pleasure with which it
+was ascribed to them. But the Greek gods had not only human forms, but
+also human attributes, human pursuits, and human tastes.[268] The men of
+Asia, to whom every object of nature was a source of awe, acquired such
+habits of reverence, that they never dared to assimilate their own
+actions with the actions of their deities. The men of Europe, encouraged
+by the safety and inertness of the material world, did not fear to
+strike a parallel, from which they would have shrunk had they lived amid
+the dangers of a tropical country. It is thus that the Greek divinities
+are so different from those of the Hindus, that in comparing them we
+seem to pass from one creation into another. The Greeks generalized
+their observations upon the human mind, and then applied them to the
+gods.[269] The coldness of women was figured in Diana; their beauty and
+sensuality in Venus; their pride in Juno; their accomplishments in
+Minerva. To the ordinary avocations of the gods the same principle was
+applied. Neptune was a sailor; Vulcan was a smith; Apollo was sometimes
+a fiddler, sometimes a poet, sometimes a keeper of oxen. As to Cupid, he
+was a wanton boy, who played with his bow and arrows; Jupiter was an
+amorous and good-natured king; while Mercury was indifferently
+represented either as a trustworthy messenger, or else as a common and
+notorious thief.
+
+  [268] 'In the material polytheism of other leading ancient nations, the
+        Egyptians, for example, the incarnation of the Deity was chiefly,
+        or exclusively, confined to animals, monsters, or other fanciful
+        emblems.... In Greece, on the other hand, it was an almost
+        necessary result of the spirit and grace with which the deities
+        were embodied in human forms, that they should also be burdened
+        with human interests and passions. Heaven, like earth, had its
+        courts and palaces, its trades and professions, its marriages,
+        intrigues, divorces.' _Mure's History of the Literature of
+        Ancient Greece_, vol. i. pp. 471, 472. So, too, Tennemann
+        (_Geschichte der Philosophie_, vol. iii. p. 419): 'Diese Götter
+        haben Menschengestalt.... Haben die Götter aber nicht nur
+        menschliche Gestalt, sondern auch einen menschlichen Körper, so
+        sind sie als Menschen auch denselben Unvollkommenheiten,
+        Krankheiten und dem Tode unterworfen; dieses streitet mit dem
+        Begriffe,' _i.e._ of Epicurus. Compare _Grote's History of
+        Greece_, vol. i. p. 596: 'The mythical age was peopled with a
+        mingled aggregate of gods, heroes, and men, so confounded
+        together, that it was often impossible to distinguish to which
+        class any individual name belonged.' See also the complaint of
+        Xenophanes, in _Müller's Hist. of Lit. of Greece_, London, 1856,
+        p. 251.
+
+  [269] The same remark applies to beauty of form, which they first aimed
+        at in the statues of men, and then brought to bear upon the
+        statues of the gods. This is well put in Mr. Grote's important
+        work, _History of Greece_, vol. iv. pp. 133, 134, edit. 1847.
+
+Precisely the same tendency to approximate human forces towards
+superhuman ones, is displayed in another peculiarity of the Greek
+religion. I mean, that in Greece we for the first time meet with
+hero-worship, that is, the deification of mortals. According to the
+principles already laid down, this could not be expected in a tropical
+civilization, where the Aspects of Nature filled Man with a constant
+sense of his own incapacity. It is, therefore, natural that it should
+form no part of the ancient Indian religion;[270] neither was it known
+to the Egyptians,[271] nor to the Persians,[272] nor, so far as I am
+aware, to the Arabians.[273] But in Greece, Man being less humbled,
+and, as it were, less eclipsed, by the external world, thought more of
+his own powers, and human nature did not fall into that discredit in
+which it elsewhere sank. The consequence was, that the deification of
+mortals was a recognized part of the national religion at a very early
+period in the history of Greece;[274] and this has been found so natural
+to Europeans, that the same custom was afterwards renewed with eminent
+success by the Romish Church. Other circumstances, of a very different
+character, are gradually eradicating this form of idolatry; but its
+existence is worth observing, as one of the innumerable illustrations of
+the way in which European civilization has diverged from all those that
+preceded it.[275]
+
+  [270] 'But the worship of deified heroes is no part of that system.'
+        _Colebrooke on the Vedas_, in _Asiatic Researches_, vol. viii.
+        p. 495.
+
+  [271] _Mackay's Religious Development_, vol. ii. p. 53, Lond. 1850.
+        Compare _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. iv. pp. 148, 318;
+        and _Matter_, _Histoire de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie_, vol. i. p. 2;
+        the 'culte des grands hommes,' which afterwards arose in
+        Alexandria (_Matter_, vol. i. p. 54), must have been owing to
+        Greek influence.
+
+  [272] There are no indications of it in the Zendavesta; and Herodotus
+        says, that the Persians were unlike the Greeks, in so far as they
+        disbelieved in a god having a human form; book i. chap. cxxxi.
+        vol. i. p. 308: [Greek: ouk anthrôpophyeas enomisan tous theous,
+        kataper hoi Hellênes einai].
+
+  [273] I am not acquainted with any evidence connecting this worship with
+        the old Arabian religion; and it was certainly most alien to the
+        spirit of Mohammedanism.
+
+  [274] _Mure's History of the Literature of Greece_, vol. i. pp. 28, 500,
+        vol. ii. p. 402: very good remarks on a subject handled
+        unsatisfactorily by Coleridge; _Literary Remains_, vol. i. p.
+        185. Thirlwall (_History of Greece_, vol. i. p. 207) admits that
+        'the views and feelings out of which it (the worship of heroes)
+        arose, seem to be clearly discernible in the Homeric poems.'
+        Compare _Cudworth's Intellectual System_, vol. ii. pp. 226, 372.
+        In the Cratylus, chap. xxxiii., Socrates is represented as
+        asking, [Greek: Ouk oistha hoti hêmitheoi oi hêrôes]; _Platonis
+        Opera_, vol. iv. p. 227, edit. Bekker, Lond. 1826. And in the
+        next century, Alexander obtained for his friend, Hephæstion, the
+        right of being 'worshipped as a hero' _Grote's History of
+        Greece_, vol. xii. p. 339.
+
+  [275] The adoration of the dead, and particularly the adoration of
+        martyrs, was one great point of opposition between the orthodox
+        church and the Manichæans (_Beausobre_, _Histoire Critique de
+        Manichée_, vol. i. p. 316, vol. ii. pp. 651, 669); and it is easy
+        to understand how abhorrent such a practice must have been to the
+        Persian heretics.
+
+It is thus, that in Greece every thing tended to exalt the dignity of
+man, while in India every thing tended to depress it.[276] To sum up the
+whole, it may be said that the Greeks had more respect for human
+powers; the Hindus for superhuman. The first dealt more with the known
+and available; the other with the unknown and mysterious.[277] And by a
+parity of reasoning, the imagination, which the Hindus, being oppressed
+by the pomp and majesty of nature, never sought to control, lost its
+supremacy in the little peninsula of ancient Greece. In Greece, for the
+first time in the history of the world, the imagination was, in some
+degree, tempered and confined by the understanding. Not that its
+strength was impaired, or its vitality diminished. It was broken-in and
+tamed; its exuberance was checked, its follies were chastised. But that
+its energy remained, we have ample proof in those productions of the
+Greek mind which have survived to our own time. The gain, therefore, was
+complete; since the inquiring and sceptical faculties of the human
+understanding were cultivated, without destroying the reverential and
+poetic instincts of the imagination. Whether or not the balance was
+accurately adjusted, is another question; but it is certain that the
+adjustment was more nearly arrived at in Greece than in any previous
+civilization.[278] There can, I think, be little doubt that,
+notwithstanding what was effected, too much authority was left to the
+imaginative faculties, and that the purely reasoning ones did not
+receive, and never have received, sufficient attention. Still, this does
+not affect the great fact, that the Greek literature is the first in
+which this deficiency was somewhat remedied, and in which there was a
+deliberate and systematic attempt to test all opinions by their
+consonance with human reason, and thus vindicate the right of Man to
+judge for himself on matters which are of supreme and incalculable
+importance.
+
+  [276] M. Cousin, in his eloquent and ingenious work (_Histoire de la
+        Philosophie_, 3e série, vol. i. pp. 183, 187), has some judicious
+        observations on what he calls 'l'époque de l'infini' of the East,
+        contrasted with that 'du fini,' which began in Europe. But as to
+        the physical causes of this, he only admits the grandeur of
+        nature, overlooking those natural elements of mystery and of
+        danger by which religious sentiments were constantly excited.
+
+  [277] A learned orientalist says, that no people have made such efforts
+        as the Hindus 'to solve, exhaust, comprehend, what is insolvable,
+        inexhaustible, incomprehensible.' _Troyer's Preliminary Discourse
+        on the Dabistan_, vol. i. p. cviii.
+
+  [278] This is noticed by Tennemann, who, however, has not attempted to
+        ascertain the cause: 'Die Einbildungskraft des Griechen war
+        schöpferisch, sie schuf in seinem Innern neue Ideenwelten; aber
+        er wurde doch nie verleitet, die idealische Welt mit der
+        wirklichen zu verwechseln, weil sie immer mit einem richtigen
+        Verstande und gesunder Beurtheilungskraft verbunden war.'
+        _Geschichte der Philosophie_, vol. i. p. 8; and vol. vi. p. 490,
+        he says, 'Bei allen diesen Mängeln und Fehlern sind doch die
+        Griechen die einzige Nation der alten Welt, welche Sinn für
+        Wissenschaft hatte, und zu diesem Behufe forschte. Sie haben doch
+        die Bahn gebrochen, und den Weg zur Wissenschaft geebnet.' To the
+        same effect, _Sprengel_, _Histoire de la Médecine_, vol. i. p.
+        215. And on this difference between the Eastern and the European
+        mind, see _Matter_, _Histoire du Gnosticisme_, vol. i. pp. 18,
+        233, 234. So, too, Kant (_Logik_, in _Kant's Werke_, vol. i. p.
+        350), 'Unter allen Völkern haben also die Griechen erst
+        angefangen zu philosophiren. Denn sie haben zuerst versucht,
+        nicht an dem Leitfaden der Bilder die Vernunfterkenntnisse zu
+        cultiviren, sondern _in abstracto_; statt dass die anderen Völker
+        sich die Begriffe immer nur durch Bilder _in concreto_
+        verständlich zu machen suchten.'
+
+I have selected India and Greece as the two terms of the preceding
+comparison, because our information respecting those countries is most
+extensive, and has been most carefully arranged. But every thing we know
+of the other tropical civilizations confirms the views I have advocated
+respecting the effects produced by the Aspects of Nature. In Central
+America extensive excavations have been made; and what has been brought
+to light proves that the national religion was, like that of India, a
+system of complete and unmitigated terror.[279] Neither there nor in
+Mexico, nor in Peru, nor in Egypt, did the people desire to represent
+their deities in human forms, or ascribe to them human attributes. Even
+their temples are huge buildings, often constructed with great skill,
+but showing an evident wish to impress the mind with fear, and offering
+a striking contrast to the lighter and smaller structures which the
+Greeks employed for religious purposes. Thus, even in the style of
+architecture do we see the same principle at work; the dangers of the
+tropical civilization being more suggestive of the infinite, while the
+safety of the European civilization was more suggestive of the finite.
+To follow out the consequences of this great antagonism, it would be
+necessary to indicate how the infinite, the imaginative, the synthetic,
+and the deductive, are all connected; and are opposed, on the other
+hand, by the finite, the sceptical, the analytic, and the inductive. A
+complete illustration of this would carry me beyond the plan of this
+Introduction and would perhaps exceed the resources of my own knowledge;
+and I must now leave to the candour of the reader what I am conscious is
+but an imperfect sketch, but what may, nevertheless, suggest to him
+materials for future thought, and, if I might indulge the hope, may open
+to historians a new field, by reminding them that every where the hand
+of Nature is upon us, and that the history of the human mind can only be
+understood by connecting with it the history and the aspects of the
+material universe.
+
+  [279] Thus, of one of the idols at Copan, 'The intention of the sculptor
+        seems to have been to excite terror.' _Stephens's Central
+        America_, vol. i. p. 152; at p. 159, 'The form of sculpture most
+        generally used was a death's head.' At Mayapan (vol. iii. p.
+        133), 'representations of human figures or animals with hideous
+        features and expressions, in producing which the skill of the
+        artist seems to have been expended;' and again, p. 412,
+        'unnatural and grotesque faces.'
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+                            NOTE 36 to p. 61.
+
+As these views have a social and economical importance quite independent
+of their physiological value, I will endeavour, in this note, to fortify
+them still further, by showing that the connexion between carbonized
+food and the respiratory functions may be illustrated by a wider survey
+of the animal kingdom.
+
+The gland most universal among the different classes of animals is the
+liver;(a) and its principal business is to relieve the system of its
+superfluous carbon, which it accomplishes by secreting bile, a highly
+carbonized fluid.(b) Now, the connexion between this process and the
+respiratory functions is highly curious. For, if we take a general view
+of animal life, we shall find that the liver and lungs are nearly always
+compensatory; that is to say, when one organ is small and inert, the
+other is large and active. Thus, reptiles have feeble lungs, but a
+considerable liver;(c) and thus, too, in fishes, which have no lungs, in
+the ordinary sense of the word, the size of the liver is often
+enormous.(d) On the other hand, insects have a very large and
+complicated system of air tubes; but their liver is minute, and its
+functions are habitually sluggish.(e) If, instead of comparing the
+different classes of animals, we compare the different stages through
+which the same animal passes, we shall find further confirmation of this
+wide and striking principle. For the law holds good even before birth;
+since in the unborn infant the lungs have scarcely any activity, but
+there is an immense liver, which is full of energy and pours out bile in
+profusion.(f) And so invariable is this relation, that in man the liver
+is the first organ which is formed: it is preponderant during the whole
+period of f[oe]tal life; but it rapidly diminishes when, after birth,
+the lungs come into play, and a new scheme of compensation is
+established in the system.(g)
+
+  [a] 'The most constant gland in the animal kingdom is the liver.'
+      _Grant's Comp. Anat._ p. 576. See also _Béclard_, _Anat. Gén._ p.
+      18, and _Burdach_, _Traité de Physiol._ vol. ix. p. 580. Burdach
+      says, 'Il existe dans presque tout le règne animal;' and the latest
+      researches have detected the rudiments of a liver even in the
+      Entozoa and Rotifera. _Rymer Jones's Animal Kingdom_, 1855, p. 183,
+      and _Owen's Invertebrata_, 1855, p. 104.
+
+  [b] Until the analysis made by Demarçay in 1837, hardly any thing was
+      known of the composition of bile; but this accomplished chemist
+      ascertained that its essential constituent is choleate of soda, and
+      that the choleic acid contains nearly sixty-three per cent. of
+      carbon. Compare _Thomson's Animal Chemistry_, pp. 59, 60, 412, 602,
+      with _Simon's Chemistry_, vol. ii. pp. 17-21.
+
+  [c] 'The size of the liver and the quantity of the bile are not
+      proportionate to the quantity of the food and frequency of eating;
+      but inversely to the size and perfection of the lungs.... The
+      liver is proportionately larger in reptiles, which have lungs with
+      large cells incapable of rapidly decarbonizing the blood.' _Good's
+      Study of Medicine_, 1829, vol. i. pp. 32, 33. See _Cuvier_, _Règne
+      Animal_, vol. ii. p. 2, on 'la petitesse des vaisseaux pulmonaires'
+      of reptiles.
+
+  [d] _Carus's Comparative Anatomy_, vol. ii. p. 230; _Grant's Comp.
+      Anat._ pp. 385, 596; _Rymer Jones's Animal Kingdom_, p. 646.
+
+  [e] Indeed it has been supposed by M. Gaëde that the 'vaisseaux
+      biliares' of some insects were not 'sécréteurs;' but this opinion
+      appears to be erroneous. See Latreille, in _Cuvier_, _Règne
+      Animal_, vol. iv. pp. 297, 298.
+
+  [f] 'La prédominance du foie avant la naissance' is noticed by Bichat
+      (_Anatomie Générale_, vol. ii. p. 272), and by many other
+      physiologists; but Dr. Elliotson appears to have been one of the
+      first to understand a fact, the explanation of which we might
+      vainly seek for in the earlier writers. 'The hypothesis, that one
+      great use of the liver was, like that of the lungs, to remove
+      carbon from the system, with this difference, that the alteration
+      of the capacity of the air caused a reception of caloric into the
+      blood, in the case of the lungs, while the hepatic excretion takes
+      place without introduction of caloric, was, I recollect, a great
+      favourite with me when a student.... The Heidelberg professors
+      have adduced many arguments to the same effect. In the f[oe]tus,
+      for whose temperature the mother's heat must be sufficient, the
+      lungs perform no function; but the liver is of great size, and bile
+      is secreted abundantly, so that the meconium accumulates
+      considerably during the latter months of pregnancy.' _Elliotson's
+      Human Physiology_, 1840, p. 102. In _Lepelletier's Physiologie
+      Médicale_, vol. i. p. 466, vol. ii. pp. 14, 546, 550, all this is
+      sadly confused.
+
+  [g] 'The liver is the first-formed organ in the embryo. It is
+      developed from the alimentary canal, and at about the third week
+      fills the whole abdomen, and is one-half the weight of the entire
+      embryo.... At birth it is of very large size, and occupies the
+      whole upper part of the abdomen.... The liver diminishes rapidly
+      after birth, probably from obliteration of the umbilical vein.'
+      _Wilson's Human Anatomy_, 1851, p. 638. Compare _Burdach's
+      Physiologie_, vol. iv. p. 447, where it is said of the liver in
+      childhood, 'Cet organe croît avec lenteur, surtout comparativement
+      aux poumons; le rapport de ceux-ci au foie étant à peu près de 1:3
+      avant la respiration, il était de 1:1.86 après l'établissement de
+      cette dernière fonction.' See also p. 91, and vol. iii. p. 483; and
+      on the predominance of the liver in f[oe]tal life, see the remarks
+      of Serres (_Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire_, _Anomalies de l'Organisation_,
+      vol. ii. p. 11), whose generalization is perhaps a little
+      premature.
+
+These facts, interesting to the philosophic physiologist, are of great
+moment in reference to the doctrines advocated in this chapter. Inasmuch
+as the liver and lungs are compensatory in the history of their
+organization, it is highly probable that they are also compensatory in
+the functions they perform; and that what is left undone by one will
+have to be accomplished by the other. The liver, therefore, fulfilling
+the duty, as chemistry teaches us, of decarbonizing the system by
+secreting a carbonized fluid, we should expect, even in the absence of
+any further evidence, that the lungs would be likewise decarbonizing; in
+other words, we should expect that if, from any cause, we are surcharged
+with carbon, our lungs must assist in remedying the evil. This brings
+us, by another road, to the conclusion that highly carbonized food has a
+tendency to tax the lungs; so that the connexion between a carbonized
+diet and the respiratory functions, instead of being, as some assert, a
+crude hypothesis, is an eminently scientific theory, and is corroborated
+not only by chemistry, but by the general scheme of the animal kingdom,
+and even by the observation of embryological phenomena. The views of
+Liebig, and of his followers, are indeed supported by so many analogies,
+and harmonize so well with other parts of our knowledge, that nothing
+but a perverse hatred of generalization, or an incapacity for dealing
+with large speculative truths, can explain the hostility directed
+against conclusions which have been gradually forcing themselves upon us
+since Lavoisier, seventy years ago, attempted to explain the respiratory
+functions by subjecting them to the laws of chemical combination.
+
+In this, and previous notes (see in particular notes 30, 31, 35), I have
+considered the connexion between food respiration, and animal heat, at a
+length which will appear tedious to readers uninterested in
+physiological pursuits; but the investigation has become necessary, on
+account of the difficulties raised by experimenters, who, not having
+studied the subject comprehensively, object to certain parts of it. To
+mention what, from the ability and reputation of the author, is a
+conspicuous instance of this, Sir Benjamin Brodie has recently published
+a volume (_Physiological Researches_, 1851) containing some ingeniously
+contrived experiments on dogs and rabbits, to prove that heat is
+generated rather by the nervous system than by the respiratory organs.
+Without following this eminent surgeon into all its details, I may be
+permitted to observe, 1st, That, as a mere matter of history, no great
+physiological truth has ever yet been discovered, nor has any great
+physiological fallacy been destroyed, by such limited experiments on a
+single class of animals; and this is partly because in physiology a
+crucial instance is impracticable, owing to the fact that we deal with
+resisting and living bodies, and partly because every experiment
+produces an abnormal condition, and thus lets in fresh causes, the
+operation of which is incalculable; unless, as often happens in the
+inorganic world, we can control the whole phenomenon. 2nd, That the
+other department of the organic world, namely, the vegetable kingdom,
+has, so far as we are aware, no nervous system, but nevertheless
+possesses heat; and we moreover know that the heat is a product of
+oxygen and carbon (see note 32 to chapter ii.). 3d, That the evidence of
+travellers respecting the different sorts of food, and the different
+quantities of food, used in hot countries and in cold ones, is
+explicable by the respiratory and chemical theories of the origin of
+animal heat, but is inexplicable by the theory of the nervous origin of
+heat.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+  EXAMINATION OF THE METHOD EMPLOYED BY METAPHYSICIANS FOR DISCOVERING
+                              MENTAL LAWS.
+
+
+The evidence that I have collected seems to establish two leading facts,
+which, unless they can be impugned, are the necessary basis of universal
+history. The first fact is, that in the civilizations out of Europe, the
+powers of nature have been far greater than in those in Europe. The
+second fact is, that those powers have worked immense mischief; and that
+while one division of them has caused an unequal distribution of wealth,
+another division of them has caused an unequal distribution of thought,
+by concentrating attention upon subjects which inflame the imagination.
+So far as the experience of the past can guide us, we may say, that in
+all the extra European civilizations, these obstacles are insuperable:
+certainly no nation has ever yet overcome them. But Europe, being
+constructed upon a smaller plan than the other quarters of the
+world--being also in a colder region, having a less exuberant soil, a
+less imposing aspect, and displaying in all her physical phenomena much
+greater feebleness--it was easier for Man to discard the superstitions
+which Nature suggested to his imagination; and it was also easier for
+him to effect, not, indeed, a just division of wealth, but something
+nearer to it, than was practicable in the older countries.
+
+Hence it is that, looking at the history of the world as a whole, the
+tendency has been, in Europe, to subordinate nature to man; out of
+Europe, to subordinate man to nature. To this there are, in barbarous
+countries, several exceptions; but in civilized countries the rule has
+been universal. The great division, therefore, between European
+civilization and non-European civilization, is the basis of the
+philosophy of history, since it suggests the important consideration,
+that if we would understand, for instance, the history of India, we must
+make the external world our first study, because it has influenced man
+more than man has influenced it. If, on the other hand, we would
+understand the history of a country like France or England, we must make
+man our principal study, because nature being comparatively weak, every
+step in the great progress has increased the dominion of the human mind
+over the agencies of the external world. Even in those countries where
+the power of man has reached the highest point, the pressure of nature
+is still immense; but it diminishes in each succeeding generation,
+because our increasing knowledge enables us not so much to control
+nature as to foretell her movements, and thus obviate many of the evils
+she would otherwise occasion. How successful our efforts have been, is
+evident from the fact, that the average duration of life constantly
+becomes longer, and the number of inevitable dangers fewer; and what
+makes this the more remarkable is, that the curiosity of men is keener,
+and their contact with each other closer, than in any former period; so
+that while apparent hazards are multiplied, we find from experience that
+real hazards are, on the whole, diminished.[280]
+
+  [280] This diminution of casualties is undoubtedly one cause, though a
+        slight one, of the increased duration of life; but the most
+        active cause is a general improvement in the physical condition
+        of man: see _Sir B. Brodie's Lectures on Pathology and Surgery_,
+        p. 212; and for proof that civilized men are stronger than
+        uncivilized ones, see _Quetelet_, _sur l'Homme_, vol. ii. pp. 67,
+        272; _Lawrence's Lectures on Man_, pp. 275, 276; _Ellis's
+        Polynesian Researches_, vol. i. p. 98; _Whately's Lectures on
+        Political Economy_, 8vo. 1831, p. 59; _Journal of the Statistical
+        Society_, vol. xvii. pp. 32, 33; _Dufau_, _Traité de
+        Statistique_, p. 107; _Hawkins's Medical Statistics_, p. 232.
+
+If, therefore, we take the largest possible view of the history of
+Europe, and confine ourselves entirely to the primary cause of its
+superiority over other parts of the world, we must resolve it into the
+encroachment of the mind of man upon the organic and inorganic forces
+of nature. To this all other causes are subordinate.[281] For we have
+seen that wherever the powers of nature reached a certain height, the
+national civilization was irregularly developed, and the advance of the
+civilization stopped. The first essential was, to limit the interference
+of these physical phenomena; and that was most likely to be accomplished
+where the phenomena were feeblest and least imposing. This was the case
+with Europe; it is accordingly in Europe alone, that man has really
+succeeded in taming the energies of nature, bending them to his own
+will, turning them aside from their ordinary course, and compelling them
+to minister to his happiness, and subserve the general purposes of human
+life.
+
+  [281] The general social consequences of this I shall hereafter
+        consider; but the mere economical consequences are well expressed
+        by Mr. Mill: 'Of the features which characterize this progressive
+        economical movement of civilized nations, that which first
+        excites attention, through its intimate connexion with the
+        phenomena of Production, is the perpetual, and, so far as human
+        foresight can extend, the unlimited, growth of man's power over
+        nature. Our knowledge of the properties and laws of physical
+        objects shows no sign of approaching its ultimate boundaries; it
+        is advancing more rapidly, and in a greater number of directions
+        at once, than in any previous age or generation, and affording
+        such frequent glimpses of unexplored fields beyond, as to justify
+        the belief that our acquaintance with nature is still almost in
+        its infancy.' _Mill's Principles of Polit. Economy_, vol. ii. pp.
+        246-7.
+
+All around us are the traces of this glorious and successful struggle.
+Indeed, it seems as if in Europe there was nothing man feared to
+attempt. The invasions of the sea repelled, and whole provinces, as in
+the case of Holland, rescued from its grasp, mountains cut through and
+turned into level roads; soils of the most obstinate sterility becoming
+exuberant, from the mere advance of chemical knowledge; while, in regard
+to electric phenomena, we see the subtlest, the most rapid, and the most
+mysterious of all forces, made the medium of thought, and obeying even
+the most capricious behests of the human mind.
+
+In other instances, where the products of the external world have been
+refractory, man has succeeded in destroying what he could hardly hope to
+subjugate. The most cruel diseases, such as the plague, properly so
+called, and the leprosy of the Middle Ages,[282] have entirely
+disappeared from the civilized parts of Europe; and it is scarcely
+possible that they should ever again be seen there. Wild beasts and
+birds of prey have been extirpated, and are no longer allowed to infest
+the haunts of civilised men. Those frightful famines, by which Europe
+used to be ravaged several times in every century,[283] have ceased; and
+so successfully have we grappled with them, that there is not the
+slightest fear of their ever returning with any thing like their former
+severity. Indeed, our resources are now so great, that we could at
+worst, only suffer from a slight and temporary scarcity: since, in the
+present state of knowledge, the evil would be met at the outset by
+remedies which chemical science could easily suggest.[284]
+
+  [282] What this horrible disease once was, may be estimated from the
+        fact, 'qu'au treizième siècle on comptait en France seulement,
+        deux mille léproseries, et que l'Europe entière renfermait
+        environ dix-neuf mille établissemens semblables.' _Sprengel_,
+        _Histoire de la Médecine_, vol. ii. p. 374. As to the mortality
+        caused by the plague, see _Clot-Bey_, _de la Peste_, Paris, 1840,
+        pp. 62, 63, 185, 292.
+
+  [283] For a curious list of famines, see an essay by Mr. Farr, in
+        _Journal of the Statistical Society_, vol. ix. pp. 159-163. He
+        says, that in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries,
+        the average was, in England, one famine every fourteen years.
+
+  [284] In the opinion of one of the highest living authorities, famine
+        is, even in the present state of chemistry, 'next to impossible.'
+        _Herschel's Discourse on Natural Philosophy_, p. 65. Cuvier
+        (_Recueil des Eloges_, vol. i. p. 10) says that we have succeeded
+        'a rendre toute famine impossible.' See also _Godwin on
+        Population_, p. 500; and for a purely economical argument to
+        prove the impossibility of famine, see _Mill's Principles of
+        Political Economy_, vol. ii. p. 258; and compare a note in
+        _Ricardo's Works_, p. 191. The Irish famine may seem an
+        exception: but it could have been easily baffled except for the
+        poverty of the people, which frustrated our efforts to reduce it
+        to a dearth.
+
+It is hardly necessary to notice how, in numerous other instances, the
+progress of European civilization has been marked by the diminished
+influence of the external world: I mean, of course, those peculiarities
+of the external world which have an existence independent of the wishes
+of man, and were not created by him. The most advanced nations do, in
+their present state, owe comparatively little to those original features
+of nature which, in every civilization out of Europe, exercised
+unlimited power. Thus, in Asia and elsewhere, the course of trade, the
+extent of commerce, and many similar circumstances, were determined by
+the existence of rivers, by the facility with which they could be
+navigated, and by the number and goodness of the adjoining harbours.
+But, in Europe, the determining cause is, not so much these physical
+peculiarities, as the skill and energy of man. Formerly the richest
+countries were those in which nature was most bountiful; now the richest
+countries are those in which man is most active. For, in our age of the
+world, if nature is parsimonious, we know how to compensate her
+deficiencies. If a river is difficult to navigate, or a country
+difficult to traverse, our engineers can correct the error, and remedy
+the evil. If we have no rivers, we make canals; if we have no natural
+harbours, we make artificial ones. And so marked is this tendency to
+impair the authority of natural phenomena, that it is seen even in the
+distribution of the people, since, in the most civilized parts of
+Europe, the population of the towns is everywhere outstripping that of
+the country; and it is evident that the more men congregate in great
+cities, the more they will become accustomed to draw their materials of
+thought from the business of human life, and the less attention they
+will pay to those peculiarities of nature, which are the fertile source
+of superstition, and by which, in every civilization out of Europe, the
+progress of man was arrested.
+
+From these facts it may be fairly inferred, that the advance of European
+civilization is characterized by a diminishing influence of physical
+laws, and an increasing influence of mental laws. The complete proof of
+this generalization can be collected only from history; and therefore I
+must reserve a large share of the evidence on which it is founded for
+the future volumes of this work. But that the proposition is
+fundamentally true must be admitted by whoever, in addition to the
+arguments just adduced, will concede two premiss is, neither of which
+seem susceptible of much dispute. The first premiss is, that we are in
+possession of no evidence that the powers of nature have ever been
+permanently increased; and that we have no reason to expect that any
+such increase can take place. The other premiss is, that we have
+abundant evidence that the resources of the human mind have become more
+powerful, more numerous, and more able to grapple with the difficulties
+of the external world; because every fresh accession to our knowledge
+supplies fresh means with which we can either control the operations of
+nature, or, failing in that, can foresee the consequences, and thus
+avoid what it is impossible to prevent; in both instances, diminishing
+the pressure exercised on us by external agents.
+
+If these premisses are admitted, we are led to a conclusion which is of
+great value for the purpose of this Introduction. For, if the measure of
+civilization is the triumph of the mind over external agents, it becomes
+clear, that of the two classes of laws which regulate the progress of
+mankind, the mental class is more important than the physical. This,
+indeed, is assumed by one school of thinkers as a matter of course,
+though I am not aware that its demonstration has been hitherto attempted
+by any thing even approaching an exhaustive analysis. The question,
+however, as to the originality of my arguments, is one of very trifling
+moment; but what we have to notice is, that in the present stage of our
+inquiry, the problem with which we started has become simplified, and a
+discovery of the laws of European history is resolved, in the first
+instance, into a discovery of the laws of the human mind. These mental
+laws, when ascertained, will be the ultimate basis of the history of
+Europe; the physical laws will be treated as of minor importance, and as
+merely giving rise to disturbances, the force and the frequency of which
+have, during several centuries, perceptibly diminished.
+
+If we now inquire into the means of discovering the laws of the human
+mind, the metaphysicians are ready with an answer; and they refer us to
+their own labours as supplying a satisfactory solution. It therefore
+becomes necessary to ascertain the value of their researches, to measure
+the extent of their resources, and, above all, to test the validity of
+that method which they always follow, and by which alone, as they
+assert, great truths can be elicited.
+
+The metaphysical method, though necessarily branching into two
+divisions, is, in its origin, always the same, and consists in each
+observer studying the operations of his own mind.[285] This is the
+direct opposite of the historical method; the metaphysician studying one
+mind, the historian studying many minds. Now, the first remark to make
+on this is, that the metaphysical method is one by which no discovery
+has ever yet been made in any branch of knowledge. Every thing we at
+present know has been ascertained by studying phenomena, from which all
+casual disturbances having been removed, the law remains as a
+conspicuous residue.[286] And this can only be done by observations so
+numerous as to eliminate the disturbances, or else by experiments so
+delicate as to isolate the phenomena. One of these conditions is
+essential to all inductive science; but neither of them does the
+metaphysician obey. To isolate the phenomenon is for him an
+impossibility; since no man, into whatever state of reverie he may be
+thrown, can entirely cut himself off from the influence of external
+events, which must produce an effect on his mind, even when he is
+unconscious of their presence. As to the other condition, it is by the
+metaphysician set at open defiance; for his whole system is based on the
+supposition that, by studying a single mind, he can get the laws of all
+minds; so that while he, on the one hand, is unable to isolate his
+observations from disturbances, he, on the other hand, refuses to adopt
+the only remaining precaution--he refuses so to enlarge his survey as to
+eliminate the disturbances by which his observations are troubled.[287]
+
+  [285] 'As the metaphysician carries within himself the materials of his
+        reasoning, he is not under a necessity of looking abroad for
+        subjects of speculation or amusement.' _Stewart's Philosophy of
+        the Mind_, vol. i. p. 462; and the same remark, almost literally
+        repeated, at vol. iii. p. 260. Locke makes what passes in each
+        man's mind the sole source of metaphysics, and the sole test of
+        their truth. _Essay concerning Human Understanding_, in _Locke's
+        Works_, vol. i. pp. 18, 76, 79, 121, 146, 152, 287, vol. ii. pp.
+        141, 243.
+
+  [286] The deductive sciences form, of course, an exception to this; but
+        the whole theory of metaphysics is founded on its inductive
+        character, and on the supposition that it consists of generalized
+        observations, and that from them alone the science of mind can be
+        raised.
+
+  [287] These remarks are only applicable to those who follow the purely
+        metaphysical method of investigation. There is, however, a very
+        small number of metaphysicians, among whom M. Cousin is the most
+        eminent in France, in whose works we find larger views, and an
+        attempt to connect historical inquiries with metaphysical ones;
+        thus recognizing the necessity of verifying their original
+        speculations. To this method there can be no objection, provided
+        the metaphysical conclusions are merely regarded as hypothesis,
+        which require verification to raise them to theories. But,
+        instead of this cautious proceeding, the almost invariable plan
+        is, to treat the hypothesis as if it were a theory already
+        proved, and as if there remained nothing to do but to give
+        historical illustrations of truths established by the
+        psychologist. This confusion between illustration and
+        verification appears to be the universal failing of those who,
+        like Vico and Fichte, speculate upon historical phenomena _à
+        priori_.
+
+This is the first and fundamental objection to which metaphysicians are
+exposed, even on the threshold of their science. But if we penetrate a
+little deeper, we shall meet with another circumstance, which, though
+less obvious, is equally decisive. After the metaphysician has taken for
+granted that, by studying one mind, he can discover the laws of all
+minds, he finds himself involved in a singular difficulty as soon as he
+begins to apply even this imperfect method. The difficulty to which I
+allude is one which, not being met with in any other pursuit, seems to
+have escaped the attention of those who are unacquainted with
+metaphysical controversies. To understand, therefore, its nature, it is
+requisite to give a short account of those two great schools, to one of
+which all metaphysicians must necessarily belong.
+
+In investigating the nature of the human mind, according to the
+metaphysical scheme, there are two methods of proceeding, both of which
+are equally obvious, and yet both of which lead to entirely different
+results. According to the first method, the inquirer begins by examining
+his sensations. According to the other method, he begins by examining
+his ideas. These two methods always have led, and always must lead, to
+conclusions diametrically opposed to each other. Nor are the reasons of
+this difficult to understand. In metaphysics, the mind is the instrument
+as well as the material on which the instrument is employed. The means
+by which the science must be worked out, being thus the same as the
+object upon which it works, there arises a difficulty of a very peculiar
+kind. This difficulty is, the impossibility of taking a comprehensive
+view of the whole of the mental phenomena; because, however extensive
+such a view may be, it must exclude the state of the mind by which, or
+in which, the view itself is taken. Hence we may perceive what, I think,
+is a fundamental difference between physical and metaphysical inquiries.
+In physics, there are several methods of proceeding, all of which lead
+to the same results. But in metaphysics, it will invariably be found,
+that if two men of equal ability, and equal honesty, employ different
+methods in the study of the mind, the conclusions which they obtain will
+also be different. To those who are unversed in these matters, a few
+illustrations will set this in a clearer light. Metaphysicians who begin
+by the study of ideas observe in their own minds an idea of space.
+Whence, they ask, can this arise? It cannot, they say, owe its origin to
+the senses, because the senses only supply what is finite and
+contingent; whereas the idea of space is infinite and necessary.[288] It
+is infinite, since we cannot conceive that space has an end; and it is
+necessary, since we cannot conceive the possibility of its
+non-existence. Thus far the idealist. But the sensualist, as he is
+called,[289]--he who begins, not with ideas, but with sensations,
+arrives at a very different conclusion. He remarks that we can have no
+idea of space until we have first had an idea of objects; and that the
+ideas of objects can only be the results of the sensations which those
+objects excite. As to the idea of space being necessary, this, he says,
+only results from the circumstance that we never can perceive an object
+which does not bear a certain position to some other object. This forms
+an indissoluble association between the idea of position and the idea of
+an object; and as this association is constantly repeated before us, we
+at length find ourselves unable to conceive an object without position,
+or, in other words, without space.[290] As to space being infinite,
+this, he says, is a notion we get by conceiving a continual addition to
+lines, or to surfaces, or to bulk, which are the three modifications of
+extension.[291] On innumerable other points we find the same discrepancy
+between the two schools. The idealist,[292] for example, asserts that
+our notions of cause, of time, of personal identity, and of substance,
+are universal and necessary; that they are simple; and that not being
+susceptible of analysis, they must be referred to the original
+constitution of the mind.[293] On the other hand, the sensationalist, so
+far from recognizing the simplicity of these ideas, considers them to be
+extremely complex, and looks upon their universality and necessity as
+merely the result of a frequent and intimate association.[294]
+
+  [288] Compare _Stewart's Philosophy of the Mind_, vol. ii. p. 194, with
+        _Cousin_, _Hist. de la Philosophie_, II. série, vol. ii. p. 92.
+        Among the Indian metaphysicians, there was a sect which declared
+        space to be the cause of all things. _Journal of Asiatic Soc._
+        vol. vi. pp. 268, 290. See also the _Dabistan_, vol. ii. p. 40,
+        which, however, was contrary to the Vedas. _Rammohun Roy on the
+        Veds_, 1832, pp. 8, 111. In Spain, the doctrine of the infinity
+        of space is heretical. _Doblado's Letters_, p. 96; which should
+        be compared with the objection of Irenæus against the
+        Valentinians, in _Beausobre_, _Histoire de Manichée_, vol. ii. p.
+        275. For the different theories of space, I may, moreover, refer
+        to _Ritter's Hist. of Ancient Philosophy_, vol. i. pp. 451, 473,
+        477, vol. ii. p. 314, vol. iii. pp. 195-204; _Cudworth's
+        Intellectual System_, vol. i. p. 191, vol. iii. pp. 230, 472;
+        _Kritik der reinen Vernunft_, in _Kant's Werke_, vol. ii. pp. 23,
+        62, 81, 120, 139, 147, 256, 334, 347; _Tennemann_, _Geschichte
+        der Philosophie_, vol. i. p. 109, vol. ii. p. 303, vol. iii. pp.
+        130-137, vol. iv. p. 284, vol. v. pp. 384-387, vol. vi. p. 99,
+        vol. viii. pp. 87, 88, 683, vol. ix. pp. 257, 355, 410, vol. x.
+        p. 79, vol. xi. pp. 195, 385-389.
+
+  [289] This is the title conferred by M. Cousin upon nearly all the
+        greatest English metaphysicians, and upon Condillac and all his
+        disciples in France, their system having 'le nom mérité de
+        sensualisme.' _Cousin_, _Histoire de la Philosophie_, II. série,
+        vol. ii. p. 88. The same name is given to the same school, in
+        _Feuchtersleben's Medical Psychology_, p. 52, and in _Renouard's
+        Histoire de la Médecine_, vol. i. p. 346, vol. ii. p. 368. In
+        _Jobert's New System of Philosophy_, vol. ii. p. 334, 8vo. 1849,
+        it is called 'sensationalism,' which seems a preferable
+        expression.
+
+  [290] This is very ably argued by Mr. James Mill in his _Analysis of the
+        Phenomena of the Human Mind_, vol. ii. pp. 32, 93-95, and
+        elsewhere. Compare _Essay concerning Human Understanding_, in
+        _Locke's Works_, vol. i. pp. 147, 148, 154, 157, and the
+        ingenious distinction, p. 198, 'between the idea of the infinity
+        of space, and the idea of a space infinite.' At p. 208, Locke
+        sarcastically says, 'But yet, after all this, there being men who
+        persuade themselves that they have clear, positive, comprehensive
+        ideas of infinity, it is fit they enjoy their privilege; and I
+        should be very glad (with some others that I know, who
+        acknowledge they have none such) to be better informed by their
+        communication.'
+
+  [291] _Mill's Analysis of the Mind_, vol. ii. pp. 96, 97. See also the
+        _Examination of Malebranche_, in _Locke's Works_, vol. viii. pp.
+        248, 249; and _Müller's Elements of Physiology_, vol. ii. p.
+        1081, which should be compared with _Comte_, _Philosophie
+        Positive_, vol. i. p. 354.
+
+  [292] I speak of idealists in opposition to sensationalists; though the
+        word idealist is often used by metaphysicians in a very different
+        sense. On the different kinds of idealism, see _Kritik der reinen
+        Vernunft_, and _Prolegomena zu jeder künftigen Metaphysik_, in
+        _Kant's Werke_, vol. ii. pp. 223, 389, vol. iii. pp. 204, 210,
+        306, 307. According to him, the Cartesian idealism is empirical.
+
+  [293] Thus, Dugald Stewart (_Philosophical Essays_, Edin. 1810, p. 33)
+        tells us of 'the simple idea of personal identity.' And Reid
+        (_Essays on the Powers of the Mind_, vol. i. p. 354) says, 'I
+        know of no ideas or notions that have a better claim to be
+        accounted simple and original than those of space and time.' In
+        the Sanscrit metaphysics, time is 'an independent cause.' See the
+        _Vishnu Purana_, pp. 10, 216.
+
+  [294] 'As Space is a comprehensive word, including all positions, or the
+        whole of synchronous order, so Time is a comprehensive word,
+        including all successions, or the whole of successive order.'
+        _Mill's Analysis of the Mind_, vol. ii. p. 100; and on the
+        relation of time to memory, vol. i. p. 252. In _Jobert's New
+        System of Philosophy_, vol. i. p. 33, it is said that 'time is
+        nothing but the succession of events, and we know events by
+        experience only.' See also p. 133, and compare respecting time
+        _Condillac_, _Traité des Sensations_, pp. 104-114, 222, 223,
+        331-333. To the same effect is _Essay concerning Human
+        Understanding_, book ii. chap. xiv., in _Locke's Works_, vol. i.
+        p. 163; and see his second reply to the Bishop of Worcester, in
+        _Works_, vol. iii. pp. 414-416; and as to the idea of substance,
+        see vol. i. pp. 285-290, 292, 308, vol. iii. pp. 5, 10, 17.
+
+This is the first important difference which is inevitably consequent on
+the adoption of different methods. The idealist is compelled to assert,
+that necessary truths and contingent truths have a different
+origin.[295] The sensationalist is bound to affirm that they have the
+same origin.[296] The further these two great schools advance, the more
+marked does their divergence become. They are at open war in every
+department of morals, of philosophy, and of art. The idealists say that
+all men have essentially the same notion of the good, the true, and the
+beautiful. The sensationalists affirm that there is no such standard,
+because ideas depend upon sensations, and because the sensations of men
+depend upon the changes in their bodies, and upon the external events by
+which their bodies are affected.
+
+  [295] Reid (_Essays on the Powers of the Mind_, vol. i. p. 281) says,
+        that necessary truths 'cannot be the conclusions of the senses;
+        for our senses testify only what is, and not what must
+        necessarily be.' See also vol. ii. pp. 53, 204, 239, 240, 281.
+        The same distinction is peremptorily asserted in _Whewell's
+        Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences_, 8vo, 1847, vol. i. pp.
+        60-73, 140; and see _Dugald Stewart's Philosophical Essays_, pp.
+        123, 124. Sir W. Hamilton (_Additions to Reid's Works_, p. 754)
+        says, that non-contingent truths 'have their converse absolutely
+        incogitable.' But this learned writer does not mention how we are
+        to know when anything is 'absolutely incogitable.' That we cannot
+        cogitate an idea, is certainly no proof of its being incogitable;
+        for it may be cogitated at some later period, when knowledge is
+        more advanced.
+
+  [296] This is asserted by all the followers of Locke; and one of the
+        latest productions of that school declares, that 'to say that
+        necessary truths cannot be acquired by experience, is to deny the
+        most clear evidence of our senses and reason.' _Jobert's New
+        System of Philosophy_, vol. i. p. 58.
+
+Such is a short specimen of the opposite conclusions to which the ablest
+metaphysicians have been driven, by the simple circumstance that they
+have pursued opposite methods of investigation. And this is the more
+important to observe, because, after these two methods have been
+employed, the resources of metaphysics are evidently exhausted.[297]
+Both parties agree that mental laws can only be discovered by studying
+individual minds, and that there is nothing in the mind which is not the
+result either of reflection or of sensation. The only choice, therefore,
+they have to make, is between subordinating the results of sensation to
+the laws of reflection, or else subordinating the results of reflection
+to the laws of sensation. Every system of metaphysics has been
+constructed according to one of these schemes; and this must always
+continue to be the case, because, when the two schemes are added
+together, they include the totality of metaphysical phenomena. Each
+process is equally plausible;[298] the supporters of each are equally
+confident; and, by the very nature of the dispute, it is impossible that
+any middle term should be found; nor can there ever be an umpire,
+because no one can mediate between metaphysical controversies without
+being a metaphysician, and no one can be a metaphysician without being
+either a sensationalist or an idealist; in other words, without
+belonging to one of those very parties whose claims he professes to
+judge.[299]
+
+  [297] To avoid misapprehension, I may repeat, that, here and elsewhere,
+        I mean by metaphysics, that vast body of literature which is
+        constructed on the supposition that the laws of the human mind
+        can be generalized _solely_ from the facts of individual
+        consciousness. For this scheme, the word 'metaphysics' is rather
+        inconvenient, but it will cause no confusion if this definition
+        of it is kept in view by the reader.
+
+  [298] What a celebrated historian of philosophy says of Platonism, is
+        equally true of all the great metaphysical systems: 'Dass sie ein
+        zusammenhängendes harmonisches Ganzes ausmachen (_i.e._ the
+        leading propositions of it) fällt in die Augen.' _Tennemann_,
+        _Geschichte der Philosophie_, vol. ii. p. 527. And yet he
+        confesses (vol. iii. p. 52) of it and the opposite system: 'und
+        wenn man auf die Beweise siehet, so ist der Empirismus des
+        Aristoteles nicht besser begründet als der Rationalismus des
+        Plato.' Kant admits that there can be only one true system, but
+        is confident that he has discovered what all his predecessors
+        have missed. _Die Metaphysik der Sitten_, in _Kant's Werke_, vol.
+        v. p. 5, where he raises the question, 'ob es wohl mehr, als eine
+        Philosophie geben könne.' In the _Kritik_, and in the
+        _Prolegomena zujeder künftigen Metaphysik_, he says that
+        metaphysics have made no progress, and that the study can hardly
+        be said to exist. _Werke_, vol. ii. pp. 49, 50, vol. iii. pp.
+        166, 246.
+
+  [299] We find a curious instance of this, in the attempt made by M.
+        Cousin to found an eclectic school; for this very able and
+        learned man has been quite unable to avoid the one-sided view
+        which is to every metaphysician an essential preliminary; and he
+        adopts that fundamental distinction between necessary ideas and
+        contingent ideas, by which the idealist is separated from the
+        sensationalist: 'la grande division des idées aujourd'hui établie
+        est la division des idées contingentes et des idées nécessaires.'
+        _Cousin_, _Hist. de la Philosophie_, II. série, vol. i. p. 82:
+        see also vol. ii. p. 92, and the same work, I. série, vol. i. pp.
+        249, 267, 268, 311, vol. iii. pp. 51-54. M. Cousin constantly
+        contradicts Locke, and then says he has refuted that profound and
+        vigorous thinker; while he does not even state the arguments of
+        James Mill, who, as a metaphysician, is the greatest of our
+        modern sensationalists, and whose views, whether right or wrong,
+        certainly deserve notice from an eclectic historian of
+        philosophy.
+
+        Another eclectic, Sir W. Hamilton, announces (_Discussions on
+        Philosophy_, p. 597) 'an undeveloped philosophy, which, I am
+        confident, is founded upon truth. To this confidence I have come,
+        not merely through the convictions of my own consciousness, but
+        by finding in this system a centre and conciliation for the most
+        opposite of philosophical opinions.' But, at p. 589, he summarily
+        disposes of one of the most important of these philosophical
+        opinions as 'the superficial edifice of Locke.'
+
+On these grounds, we must, I think, arrive at the conclusion, that as
+metaphysicians are unavoidably, and by the very nature of their inquiry,
+broken up into two completely antagonistic schools, the relative truth
+of which there are no means of ascertaining; as they, moreover, have but
+few resources, and as they use those resources according to a method by
+which no other science has ever been developed,--we, looking at these
+things, ought not to expect that they can supply us with sufficient data
+for solving those great problems which the history of the human mind
+presents to our view. And whoever will take the pains fairly to estimate
+the present condition of mental philosophy, must admit that,
+notwithstanding the influence it has always exercised over some of the
+most powerful minds, and through them over society at large, there is,
+nevertheless, no other study which has been so zealously prosecuted, so
+long continued, and yet remains so barren of results. In no other
+department has there been so much movement, and so little progress. Men
+of eminent abilities, and of the greatest integrity of purpose, have in
+every civilized country, for many centuries, been engaged in
+metaphysical inquiries; and yet at the present moment their systems, so
+far from approximating towards truth, are diverging from each other with
+a velocity which seems to be accelerated by the progress of knowledge.
+The incessant rivalry of the hostile schools, the violence with which
+they have been supported, and the exclusive and unphilosophic confidence
+with which each has advocated its own method,--all these things have
+thrown the study of the mind into a confusion only to be compared to
+that in which the study of religion has been thrown by the controversies
+of the theologians.[300] The consequence is, that if we except a very
+few of the laws of association, and perhaps I may add the modern
+theories of vision and of touch,[301] there is not to be found in the
+whole compass of metaphysics a single principle of importance, and at
+the same time of incontestable truth. Under these circumstances, it is
+impossible to avoid a suspicion that there is some fundamental error in
+the manner in which these inquiries have been prosecuted. For my own
+part, I believe that, by mere observation of our own minds, and even by
+such rude experiments as we are able to make upon them, it will be
+impossible to raise psychology to a science; and I entertain very little
+doubt that metaphysics can only be successfully studied by an
+investigation of history so comprehensive as to enable us to understand
+the conditions which govern the movements of the human race.[302]
+
+  [300] Berkeley, in a moment of candour, inadvertently confesses what is
+        very damaging to the reputation of his own pursuits: 'Upon the
+        whole, I am inclined to think that the far greater part, if not
+        all, of those difficulties which have hitherto amused
+        philosophers, and blocked up the way to knowledge, are entirely
+        owing to ourselves. That we have first raised a dust, and then
+        complain we cannot see.' _Principles of Human Knowledge_, in
+        _Berkeley's Works_, vol. i. p. 74. Every metaphysician and
+        theologian should get this sentence by heart: 'That we have first
+        raised a dust, and then complain we cannot see.'
+
+  [301] Some of the laws of association, as stated by Hume and Hartley,
+        are capable of historical verification, which would change the
+        metaphysical hypothesis into a scientific theory. Berkeley's
+        theory of vision, and Brown's theory of touch, have, in the same
+        way, been verified physiologically; so that we now know what
+        otherwise we could only have suspected.
+
+  [302] In regard to one of the difficulties stated in this chapter as
+        impeding metaphysicians, it is only just to quote the remarks of
+        Kant: 'Wie aber das Ich, der ich denke, von dem Ich, das sich
+        selbst anschaut, unterschieden (indem ich mir noch andere
+        Anschauungsart wenigstens als möglich vorstellen kann), und doch
+        mit diesem letzteren als dasselbe Subject einerlei sei, wie ich
+        also sagen könne: Ich als Intelligenz und denkend Subject,
+        erkenne mich selbst als gedachtes Object, so fern ich mir noch
+        über das in der Anschauung gegeben bin, nur, gleich anderen
+        Phänomenen, nicht wie ich vor dem Verstande bin, sondern wie ich
+        mir erscheine, hat nicht mehr auch nicht weniger Schwierigkeit
+        bei sich, als wie ich mir selbst überhaupt ein Object und zwar
+        der Anschauung und innerer Wahrnehmungen sein könne.' _Kritik der
+        reinen Vernunft_, in _Kant's Werke_, vol. ii. p. 144. I am very
+        willing to let the question rest on this: for to me it appears
+        that both cases are not only equally difficult, but, in the
+        present state of our knowledge, are equally impossible.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV.
+
+  MENTAL LAWS ARE EITHER MORAL OR INTELLECTUAL. COMPARISON OF MORAL AND
+  INTELLECTUAL LAWS, AND INQUIRY INTO THE EFFECT PRODUCED BY EACH ON THE
+                          PROGRESS OF SOCIETY.
+
+
+In the preceding chapter, it has, I trust, been made apparent, that,
+whatever may hereafter be the case, we, looking merely at the present
+state of our knowledge, must pronounce the metaphysical method to be
+unequal to the task, often imposed upon it, of discovering the laws
+which regulate the movements of the human mind. We are, therefore,
+driven to the only remaining method, according to which mental phenomena
+are to be studied, not simply as they appear in the mind of the
+individual observer, but as they appear in the actions of mankind at
+large. The essential opposition between these two plans is very obvious:
+but it may perhaps be well to bring forward further illustration of the
+resources possessed by each for the investigation of truth; and for this
+purpose, I will select a subject which, though still imperfectly
+understood, supplies a beautiful instance of the regularity with which,
+under the most conflicting circumstances, the great Laws of Nature are
+able to hold their course.
+
+The case to which I refer, is that of the proportion kept up in the
+births of the sexes; a proportion which if it were to be greatly
+disturbed in any country, even for a single generation, would throw
+society into the most serious confusion, and would infallibly cause a
+great increase in the vices of the people.[303] Now, it has always been
+suspected that, on an average, the male and female births are tolerably
+equal; but, until very recently, no one could tell whether or not they
+are precisely equal, or, if unequal, on which side there is an
+excess.[304] The births being the physical result of physical
+antecedents, it was clearly seen that the laws of the births must be in
+those antecedents; that is to say, that the causes of the proportion of
+the sexes must reside in the parents themselves.[305] Under these
+circumstances, the question arose, if it was not possible to elucidate
+this difficulty by our knowledge of animal physiology; for it was
+plausibly said, 'Since physiology is a study of the laws of the
+body,[306] and since all births are products resulting from the body,
+it follows that if we know the laws of the body, we shall know the laws
+of the birth.' This was the view taken by physiologists of our
+origin;[307] and this is precisely the view taken by metaphysicians of
+our history. Both parties believed that it was possible at once to rise
+to the cause of the phenomenon, and by studying its laws predict the
+phenomenon itself. The physiologist said, 'By studying individual
+bodies, and thus ascertaining the laws which regulate the union of the
+parents, I will discover the proportion of the sexes, because the
+proportion is merely the result to which the union gives rise.' Just in
+the same way, the metaphysician says, 'By studying individual minds, I
+will ascertain the laws which govern their movements; and in that way I
+will predict the movements of mankind, which are obviously compounded of
+the individual movements.'[308] These are the expectations which have
+been confidently held out, by physiologists respecting the laws of the
+sexes, and by metaphysicians respecting the laws of history. Towards the
+fulfilment, however, of these promises the metaphysicians have done
+absolutely nothing; nor have the physiologists been more successful,
+although their views have the support of anatomy, which admits of the
+employment of direct experiment, a resource unknown to metaphysics. But
+towards settling the present question, all this availed them nothing;
+and physiologists are not yet possessed of a single fact which throws
+any light on this problem: Is the number of male births equal to female
+births--is it greater, or is it less?
+
+  [303] Thus we find that the Crusades, by diminishing the proportion of
+        men to women in Europe, increased licentiousness. See a curious
+        passage in _Sprengel_, _Histoire de la Médecine_, vol. ii. p.
+        376. In Yucatan, there is generally a considerable excess of
+        women, and the result is prejudicial to morals. _Stephens's
+        Central America_, vol. iii. pp. 380, 429. On the other hand,
+        respecting the state of society produced by an excess of males,
+        see _Mallet's Northern Antiquities_, p. 259; _Journal of
+        Geographical Society_, vol. xv. p. 45, vol. xvi. p. 307;
+        _Southey's Commonplace Book_, third series, p. 579.
+
+  [304] On this question a variety of conflicting statements may be seen
+        in the old writers. Goodman, early in the seventeenth century,
+        supposed that more females were born than males. _Southey's
+        Commonplace Book_, third series, p. 696. Turgot (_[OE]uvres_,
+        vol. ii. p. 247) rightly says, 'il naît un peu plus d'hommes que
+        de femmes;' but the evidence was too incomplete to make this more
+        than a lucky guess; and I find that even Herder, writing in 1785,
+        takes for granted that the proportion was about equal: 'ein
+        ziemliches Gleichmass in den Geburten beider Geschlechter'
+        (_Ideen zur Geschichte_, vol. ii. p. 149), and was sometimes in
+        favour of girls, 'ja, die Nachrichten mehrerer Reisenden machen
+        es wahrscheinlich, dass in manchen dieser Gegenden wirklich mehr
+        Töchter als Söhne geboren werden.'
+
+  [305] A question, indeed, has been raised as to the influence exercised
+        by the state of the mind during the period of orgasm. But
+        whatever this influence may be, it can only affect the subsequent
+        birth through and by physical antecedents, which in every case
+        must be regarded as the proximate cause. If, therefore, the
+        influence were proved to exist, we should still have to search
+        for physical laws: though such laws would of course be considered
+        merely as secondary ones, resolvable into some higher
+        generalization.
+
+  [306] Some writers treat physiology as a study of the laws of life. But
+        this, looking at the subject as it now stands, is far too bold a
+        step, and several branches of knowledge will have to be raised
+        from their present empirical state, before the phenomena of life
+        can be scientifically investigated. The more rational mode seems
+        to be, to consider physiology and anatomy as correlative; the
+        first forming the dynamical, and the second forming the statical
+        part of the study of organic structure.
+
+  [307] 'Voulez-vous savoir de quoi dépend le sexe des enfants? Fernel
+        vous répond, sur la foi des anciens, qu'il dépend des qualités de
+        la semence du père et de la mère.' _Renouard_, _Histoire de la
+        Médecine_, Paris, 1846, vol. ii. p. 106; see also, at p. 185, the
+        opinion of Hippocrates, adopted by Galen; and similar views in
+        _Lepelletier_, _Physiologie Médicale_, vol. iv. p. 332, and
+        _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. i. pp. 252, 10, vol. ii.
+        p. 115, vol. iv. p. 62. For further information as to the
+        opinions which have been held respecting the origin of sexes, see
+        _Beausobre_, _Histoire de Manichée_, vol. ii. p. 417; _Asiatic
+        Researches_, vol. iii. pp. 358, 361; _Vishnu Purana_, p. 349;
+        _Works of Sir William Jones_, vol. iii. p. 126; _Ritter's History
+        of Ancient Philosophy_, vol. iii. p. 191; _Denham and
+        Clapperton's Africa_, pp. 323, 324; _Maintenon_, _Lettres
+        Inédites_, vol. ii. p. 62; and the view of Hohl (_Burdach's
+        Physiologie_, vol. ii. p. 472), 'que les femmes chez lesquelles
+        prédomine le système artériel procréent des garçons, au lieu que
+        celles dont le système veineux a la prédominance mettent au monde
+        des filles.' According to Anaxagoras the question was extremely
+        simple: [Greek: kai arrena men apo tôn dexiôn, thêlea de apo tôn
+        aristerôn.] _Diog. Laert._ ii. 9, vol. i. p. 85.
+
+  [308] 'Le metaphysicien se voit comme la source de l'évidence et le
+        confident de la nature: Moi seul, dit-il, je puis généraliser les
+        idées, et découvrir le germe des événements qui se développent
+        journellement dans le monde physique et moral; et c'est par moi
+        seul que l'homme peut être éclairé.' _Helvetius_, _de l'Esprit_,
+        vol. i. p. 86. Compare _Herder_, _Ideen zur Geschichte der
+        Menschheit_, vol. ii. p. 105. Thus, too, M. Cousin (_Hist. de la
+        Philosophie_, II. série, vol. i. p. 131) says, 'Le fait de la
+        conscience transporté de l'individu dans l'espèce et dans
+        l'histoire, est la clef de tous les développements de
+        l'humanité.'
+
+These are questions to which all the resources of physiologists, from
+Aristotle down to our own time, afford no means of reply.[309] And yet
+at the present day we, by the employment of what now seems a very
+natural method, are possessed of a truth which the united abilities of a
+long series of eminent men failed to discover. By the simple experiment
+of registering the number of births and their sexes; by extending this
+registration over several years, in different countries,--we have been
+able to eliminate all casual disturbances, and ascertain the existence
+of a law which, expressed in round numbers, is, that for every twenty
+girls there are born twenty-one boys: and we may confidently say, that
+although the operations of this law are of course liable to constant
+aberrations, the law itself is so powerful, that we know of no country
+in which during a single year the male births have not been greater than
+the female ones.[310]
+
+  [309] Considering the very long period during which physiology has been
+        studied, it is remarkable how little the physiologists have
+        contributed towards the great and final object of all science,
+        namely, the power of predicting events. To me it appears that the
+        two principal causes of this are, the backwardness of chemistry,
+        and the still extremely imperfect state of the microscope, which
+        even now is so inaccurate an instrument, that when a high power
+        is employed, little confidence can be placed in it; and the
+        examination, for instance, of the spermatozoa has led to the most
+        contradictory results. In regard to chemistry, MM. Robin and
+        Verdeil, in their recent great work, have ably proved what
+        manifold relations there are between it and the further progress
+        of our knowledge of the animal frame; though I venture to think
+        that these eminent writers have shown occasionally an undue
+        disposition to limit the application of chemical laws to
+        physiological phenomena. See _Robin et Verdeil_, _Chimie
+        Anatomique et Physiologique_, Paris, 1853, vol. i. pp. 20, 34,
+        167, 337, 338, 437, 661, vol. ii. pp. 136, 137, 508, vol. iii.
+        pp. 135, 144, 183, 281, 283, 351, 547. The increasing tendency of
+        chemistry to bring under its control what are often supposed to
+        be purely organic phenomena, is noticed cautiously in _Turner's
+        Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 1308, London, 1847; and boldly in
+        _Liebig's Letters on Chemistry_, 1851, pp. 250, 251. The
+        connexion between chemistry and physiology is touched on rather
+        too hastily in _Bouilland_, _Philosophie Médicale_, pp. 160, 257;
+        _Broussais_, _Examen des Doctrines Médicales_, vol. iii. p. 166;
+        _Brodie's Lectures on Pathology_, p. 48; _Henle_, _Traité
+        d'Anatomie_, vol. i. pp. 25, 26; _Feuchtersleben's Medical
+        Psychology_, p. 88; but better in _Holland's Medical Notes_,
+        1839, p. 270, a thoughtful and suggestive work. On the necessity
+        of chemistry for increasing our knowledge of embryology, compare
+        _Wagner's Physiology_, pp. 131, 132 note, with _Burdach_, _Traité
+        de Physiologie_, vol. iv. pp. 59, 168.
+
+  [310] It used to be supposed that some of the eastern countries formed
+        an exception to this; but more precise observations have
+        contradicted the loose statements of the earlier travellers, and
+        in no part of the world, so far as our knowledge extends, are
+        more girls born than boys; while in every part of the world for
+        which we have statistical returns, there is a slight excess on
+        the side of male births. Compare _Marsden's History of Sumatra_,
+        p. 234; _Raffles' History of Java_, vol. i. pp. 81, 82; _Sykes on
+        the Statistics of the Deccan_, in _Reports of British
+        Association_, vol. vi. pp. 246, 261, 262; _Niebuhr_, _Description
+        de l'Arabie_, p. 63; _Humboldt_, _Nouv. Espagne_, vol. i. p. 139;
+        _McWilliam_, _Medical History of Expedition to the Niger_, p.
+        113; _Elliotson's Human Physiology_, p. 795; _Thomson's Hist. of
+        Royal Society_, p. 531; _Sadler's Law of Population_, vol. i. pp.
+        507, 511, vol. ii. pp. 324, 335; _Paris and Fonblanque's Medical
+        Jurisprudence_, vol. i. p. 259; _Journal of Statist. Soc._ vol.
+        iii. pp. 263, 264, vol. xvii. pp. 46, 123; _Journal of
+        Geographical Soc._ vol. xx. p. 17; _Fourth Report of British
+        Association_, pp. 687, 689, _Report for_ 1842, pp. 144, 145;
+        _Transac. of Sections for_ 1840, p. 174, _for_ 1847, p. 96, _for_
+        1849, p. 87; _Dufau_, _Traité de Statistique_, pp. 24, 209, 210;
+        _Burdach_, _Traité de Physiologie_, vol. ii. pp. 56, 57, 273,
+        274, 281, vol. v. p. 373; _Hawkins's Medical Statistics_, pp.
+        221, 222.
+
+The importance and the beautiful regularity of this law make us regret
+that it still remains an empirical truth, not having yet been connected
+with the physical phenomena by which its operations are caused.[311]
+But this is immaterial to my present purpose, which is only to notice
+the method by which the discovery has been made. For this method is
+obviously analogous to that by which I propose to investigate the
+operations of the human mind; while the old and unsuccessful method is
+analogous to that employed by the metaphysicians. As long as
+physiologists attempted to ascertain the laws of the proportion of sexes
+by individual experiments, they effected absolutely nothing towards the
+end they hoped to achieve. But when men became dissatisfied with these
+individual experiments, and instead of them, began to collect
+observations less minute, but more comprehensive, then it was that the
+great law of nature, for which during many centuries they had vainly
+searched, first became unfolded to their view. Precisely in the same
+way, as long as the human mind is only studied according to the narrow
+and contracted method of metaphysicians, we have every reason for
+thinking that the laws which regulate its movements will remain unknown.
+If, therefore, we wish to effect anything of real moment, it becomes
+necessary that we should discard those old schemes, the insufficiency of
+which is demonstrated by experience as well as by reason; and that we
+should substitute in their place such a comprehensive survey of facts as
+will enable us to eliminate those disturbances which, owing to the
+impossibility of experiment, we shall never be able to isolate.
+
+  [311] In _Müller's Physiology_, vol. ii. p. 1657, a work of great
+        authority, it is said, that 'the causes which determine the sex
+        of the embryo are unknown, although it appears that the relative
+        age of the parents has some influence over the sex of the
+        offspring.' That the relative age of the parents does affect the
+        sex of their children, may, from the immense amount of evidence
+        now collected, be considered almost certain; but M. Müller,
+        instead of referring to physiological writers, ought to have
+        mentioned that the statisticians, and not the physiologists, were
+        the first to make this discovery. On this curious question, see
+        _Carpenter's Human Physiology_, p. 746; _Sadler's Law of
+        Population_, vol. ii. pp. 333, 336, 342; _Journal of Statistical
+        Society_, vol. iii. pp. 263, 264. In regard to animals below man,
+        we find from numerous experiments, that among sheep and horses
+        the age of the parents 'has a very great general influence upon
+        the sex' of the offspring. _Elliotson's Physiology_, pp. 708,
+        709; and see _Cuvier_, _Progrès des Sciences Naturelles_, vol.
+        ii. p. 406. As to the relation between the origin of sex and the
+        laws of arrested development, compare _Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire_,
+        _Hist. des Anomalies de l'Organisation_, vol. ii. pp. 33, 34, 73,
+        vol. iii. p. 278, with _Lindley's Botany_, vol. ii. p. 81. In
+        _Esquirol_, _Maladies Mentales_, vol. i. p. 302, there is a
+        singular case recorded by Lamotte, which would seem to connect
+        this question with pathological phenomena, though it is uncertain
+        whether the epilepsy was an effect or a cognate symptom.
+
+The desire that I feel to make the preliminary views of this
+Introduction perfectly clear, is my sole apology for having introduced a
+digression which, though adding nothing to the strength of the argument,
+may be found useful as illustrating it, and will at all events enable
+ordinary readers to appreciate the value of the proposed method. It now
+remains for us to ascertain the manner in which, by the application of
+this method, the laws of mental progress may be most easily discovered.
+
+If, in the first place, we ask what this progress is, the answer seems
+very simple: that it is a two-fold progress, Moral and Intellectual; the
+first having more immediate relation to our duties, the second to our
+knowledge. This is a classification which has been frequently laid down,
+and with which most persons are familiar. And so far as history is a
+narration of results, there can be no doubt that the division is
+perfectly accurate. There can be no doubt that a people are not really
+advancing, if, on the one hand, their increasing ability is accompanied
+by increasing vice, or if, on the other hand, while they are becoming
+more virtuous, they likewise become more ignorant. This double
+movement, moral and intellectual, is essential to the very idea of
+civilization, and includes the entire theory of mental progress. To be
+willing to perform our duty is the moral part; to know how to perform it
+is the intellectual part: while the closer these two parts are knit
+together, the greater the harmony with which they work; and the more
+accurately the means are adapted to the end, the more completely will
+the scheme of our life be accomplished, and the more securely shall we
+lay a foundation for the further advancement of mankind.
+
+A question, therefore, now arises of great moment: namely, which of
+these two parts or elements of mental progress is the most important.
+For the progress itself being the result of their united action, it
+becomes necessary to ascertain which of them works more powerfully, in
+order that we may subordinate the inferior element to the laws of the
+superior one. If the advance of civilization, and the general happiness
+of mankind, depend more on their moral feelings than on their
+intellectual knowledge, we must of course measure the progress of
+society by those feelings; while if, on the other hand, it depends
+principally on their knowledge, we must take as our standard the amount
+and success of their intellectual activity. As soon as we know the
+relative energy of these two components, we shall treat them according
+to the usual plan for investigating truth; that is to say, we shall look
+at the product of their joint action as obeying the laws of the more
+powerful agent, whose operations are casually disturbed by the inferior
+laws of the minor agent.
+
+In entering into this inquiry, we are met by a preliminary difficulty,
+arising from the loose and careless manner in which ordinary language is
+employed on subjects that require the greatest nicety and precision. For
+the expression, Moral and Intellectual Progress, is suggestive of a
+serious fallacy. In the manner in which it is generally used, it conveys
+an idea that the moral and intellectual faculties of men are, in the
+advance of civilization, naturally more acute and more trustworthy than
+they were formerly. But this, though it may possibly be true, has never
+been proved. It may be that, owing to some physical causes still
+unknown, the average capacity of the brain is, if we compare long
+periods of time, becoming gradually greater; and that therefore the
+mind, which acts through the brain, is, even independently of education,
+increasing in aptitude and in the general competence of its views.[312]
+Such, however, is still our ignorance of physical laws, and so
+completely are we in the dark as to the circumstances which regulate the
+hereditary transmission of character, temperament,[313] and other
+personal peculiarities, that we must consider this alleged progress as
+a very doubtful point; and, in the present state of our knowledge, we
+cannot safely assume that there has been any permanent improvement in
+the moral or intellectual faculties of man, nor have we any decisive
+ground for saying that those faculties are likely to be greater in an
+infant born in the most civilized part of Europe, than in one born in
+the wildest region of a barbarous country.[314]
+
+  [312] That the natural powers of the human brain are improving because
+        they are capable of transmission, is a favourite doctrine with
+        the followers of Gall, and is adopted by M. A. Comte
+        (_Philosophie Positive_, vol. iv. pp. 384, 385); who, whoever,
+        admits that it has never been sufficiently verified: 'sans que
+        toutefois l'expérience ait encore suffisamment prononcé.' Dr.
+        Prichard, whose habits of thought were very different, seems,
+        nevertheless, inclined to lean in this direction; for his
+        comparison of skulls led him to the conclusion, that the present
+        inhabitants of Britain, 'either as the _result of many ages of
+        greater intellectual cultivation_, or from some other cause,
+        have, as I am persuaded, much more capacious braincases than
+        their forefathers.' _Prichard's Physical History of Mankind_,
+        vol. i. p. 305. Even if this were certain, it would not prove
+        that the contents of the crania were altered, though it might
+        create a presumption; and the general question must, I think,
+        remain unsettled until the researches begun by Blumenbach, and
+        recently continued by Morton, are carried out upon a scale far
+        more comprehensive than has hitherto been attempted. Compare
+        _Burdach_, _Traité de Physiologie_, vol. ii. p. 253; where,
+        however, the question is not stated with sufficient caution.
+
+  [313] None of the laws of hereditary descent connected with the
+        formation of character, have yet been generalized; nor is our
+        knowledge much more advanced respecting the theory of
+        temperaments, which still remains the principal obstacle in the
+        way of the phrenologists. The difficulties attending the study of
+        temperaments, and the obscurity in which this important subject
+        is shrouded, may be estimated by whoever will compare what has
+        been said upon it by the following writers: _Müller's
+        Physiology_, vol. ii. pp. 1406-1410; _Elliotson's Human
+        Physiology_, pp. 1059-1062; _Blainville_, _Physiologie Générale
+        et Comparée_, vol. i. pp. 168, 264, 265, vol. ii. pp. 43, 130,
+        214, 328, 329, vol. iii. pp. 54, 74, 118, 148, 149, 284, 285;
+        _Williams's Principles of Medicine_, pp. 16, 17, 112, 113;
+        _Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire_, _Anomalies de l'Organisation_, vol. i.
+        pp. 186, 190; _Broussais_, _Examen des Doctrines Médicales_, vol.
+        i. pp. 204, 205, vol. iii. p. 276; _Renouard_, _Hist. de la
+        Médecine_, vol. i. p. 326; _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_,
+        vol. i. p. 380, vol. ii. p. 408, vol. iii. p. 21, vol. v. p. 325,
+        vol. vi. p. 492; _Esquirol_, _Maladies Mentales_, vol. i. pp. 39,
+        226, 429, 594, vol. ii. p. 29; _Lepelletier_, _Physiol.
+        Médicale_, vol. i. pp. 139, 281, vol. iii. pp. 372-429, vol. iv.
+        pp. 93, 123, 133, 143, 148, 177; _Henle_, _Anatomie Générale_,
+        vol. i. p. 474, vol. ii. pp. 288, 289, 316; _Bichat_, _Anatomie
+        Générale_, vol. i. p. 207, vol. ii. p. 444, vol. iii. pp. 310,
+        507, vol. iv. pp. 281, 399, 400, 504; _Bichat sur la Vie_, pp.
+        80, 81, 234, 235; _Phillips on Scrofula_, p. 9; _Feuchtersleben's
+        Medical Psychology_, pp. 143-145; _[OE]uvres de Fontenelle_,
+        Paris, 1766, vol. v. p. 110; _Cullen's Works_, Edinb. 1827, vol.
+        i. pp. 214-221; _Cabanis_, _Rapports du Physique et du Moral_,
+        pp. 76-83, 229-261, 520-533; _Noble on the Brain_, pp. 370-376;
+        _Combe's North America_, vol. i. pp. 126-128. Latterly, attention
+        has been paid to the chemistry of the blood as it varies in the
+        various temperaments; and this seems a more satisfactory method
+        than the old plan of merely describing the obvious symptoms of
+        the temperament. _Clark on Animal Physiology_, in _Fourth Report
+        of the British Association_, p. 126; _Simon's Animal Chemistry_,
+        vol. i. p. 236; _Wagner's Physiology_, p. 262.
+
+  [314] We often hear of hereditary talents, hereditary vices, and
+        hereditary virtues; but whoever will critically examine the
+        evidence will find that we have no proof of their existence. The
+        way in which they are commonly proved is in the highest degree
+        illogical; the usual course being for writers to collect
+        instances of some mental peculiarity found in a parent and in his
+        child, and then to infer that the peculiarity was bequeathed. By
+        this mode of reasoning we might demonstrate any proposition;
+        since in all large fields of inquiry there are a sufficient
+        number of empirical coincidences to make a plausible case in
+        favour of whatever view a man chooses to advocate. But this is
+        not the way in which truth is discovered; and we ought to inquire
+        not only how many instances there are of hereditary talents, &c.
+        but how many instances there are of such qualities not being
+        hereditary. Until something of this sort is attempted, we can
+        know nothing about the matter inductively: while, until
+        physiology and chemistry are much more advanced, we can know
+        nothing about it deductively.
+
+        These considerations ought to prevent us from receiving
+        statements (_Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence_, pp. 644, 678, and
+        many other books) which positively affirm the existence of
+        hereditary madness and hereditary suicide; and the same remark
+        applies to hereditary disease (on which see some admirable
+        observations in _Phillips on Scrofula_, pp. 101-120, London,
+        1846); and with still greater force does it apply to hereditary
+        vices and hereditary virtues; inasmuch as ethical phenomena have
+        not been registered as carefully as physiological ones, and
+        therefore our conclusions respecting them are even more
+        precarious.
+
+Whatever, therefore, the moral and intellectual progress of men may be,
+it resolves itself not into a progress of natural capacity,[315] but
+into a progress, if I may so say, of opportunity; that is, an
+improvement in the circumstances under which that capacity after birth
+comes into play. Here, then, lies the gist of the whole matter. The
+progress is one, not of internal power, but of external advantage. The
+child born in a civilized land is not likely, as such, to be superior to
+one born among barbarians; and the difference which ensues between the
+acts of the two children will be caused, so far as we know, solely by
+the pressure of external circumstances; by which I mean the surrounding
+opinions, knowledge, associations; in a word, the entire mental
+atmosphere in which the two children are respectively nurtured.
+
+  [315] To what has been already stated, I will add the opinions of two of
+        the most profound among modern thinkers. 'Men, I think, have been
+        much the same for natural endowments in all times.' _Conduct of
+        the Understanding_, in _Locke's Works_, vol. ii. p. 361. 'Les
+        dispositions primitives agissent également chez les peuples
+        barbares et chez les peuples policés; ils sont vraisemblablement
+        les mêmes dans tous les lieux et dans tous les tems.... Plus il
+        y aura d'hommes, et plus vous aurez de grands hommes ou d'hommes
+        propres à devenir grands.' _Progrès de l'Esprit Humain_, in
+        _[OE]uvres de Turgot_, vol. ii. p. 264. The remarks of Dr. Brown
+        (_Lectures on the Mind_, p. 57), if I rightly understand his
+        rhetorical language, apply not to natural capacity, but to that
+        which is acquired: see the end of his ninth Lecture.
+
+On this account it is evident, that if we look at mankind in the
+aggregate, their moral and intellectual conduct is regulated by the
+moral and intellectual notions prevalent in their own time. There are,
+of course, many persons who will rise above those notions, and many
+others who will sink below them. But such cases are exceptional, and
+form a very small proportion of the total amount of those who are nowise
+remarkable either for good or for evil. An immense majority of men must
+always remain in a middle state, neither very foolish nor very able,
+neither very virtuous nor very vicious, but slumbering on in a peaceful
+and decent mediocrity, adopting without much difficulty the current
+opinions of the day, making no inquiry, exciting no scandal, causing no
+wonder, just holding themselves on a level with their generation, and
+noiselessly conforming to the standard of morals and of knowledge common
+to the age and country in which they live.
+
+Now, it requires but a superficial acquaintance with history to be aware
+that this standard is constantly changing, and that it is never
+precisely the same even in the most similar countries, or in two
+successive generations in the same country. The opinions which are
+popular in any nation vary in many respects almost from year to year;
+and what in one period is attacked as a paradox or a heresy, is in
+another period welcomed as a sober truth; which, however, in its turn is
+replaced by some subsequent novelty. This extreme mutability in the
+ordinary standard of human actions shows that the conditions on which
+the standard depends must themselves be very mutable; and those
+conditions, whatever they may be, are evidently the originators of the
+moral and intellectual conduct of the great average of mankind.
+
+Here, then, we have a basis on which we can safely proceed. We know that
+the main cause of human actions is extremely variable; we have only,
+therefore, to apply this test to any set of circumstances which are
+supposed to be the cause, and if we find that such circumstances are not
+very variable, we must infer that they are not the cause we are
+attempting to discover.
+
+Applying this test to moral motives, or to the dictates of what is
+called moral instinct, we shall at once see how extremely small is the
+influence those motives have exercised over the progress of
+civilization. For there is, unquestionably, nothing to be found in the
+world which has undergone so little change as those great dogmas of
+which moral systems are composed. To do good to others; to sacrifice for
+their benefit your own wishes; to love your neighbour as yourself; to
+forgive your enemies; to restrain your passions; to honour your parents;
+to respect those who are set over you: these, and a few others, are the
+sole essentials of morals; but they have been known for thousands of
+years, and not one jot or tittle has been added to them by all the
+sermons, homilies, and text-books which moralists and theologians have
+been able to produce.[316]
+
+  [316] That the system of morals propounded in the New Testament
+        contained no maxim which had not been previously enunciated, and
+        that some of the most beautiful passages in the Apostolic
+        writings are quotations from pagan authors, is well known to
+        every scholar; and so far from supplying, as some suppose, an
+        objection against Christianity, it is a strong recommendation of
+        it, as indicating the intimate relation between the doctrines of
+        Christ and the moral sympathies of mankind in different ages. But
+        to assert that Christianity communicated to man moral truths
+        previously unknown, argues, on the part of the assertor, either
+        gross ignorance or else wilful fraud. For evidence of the
+        knowledge of moral truths possessed by barbarous nations,
+        independently of Christianity, and for the most part previous to
+        its promulgation, compare _Mackay's Religious Development_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 376-380; _Mure's Hist. of Greek Literature_, vol. ii. p.
+        398, vol. iii. p. 380; _Prescott's History of Mexico_, vol. i. p.
+        31; _Elphinstone's History of India_, p. 47; _Works of Sir W.
+        Jones_, vol. i. pp. 87, 168, vol. iii. pp. 105, 114; _Mill's
+        History of India_, vol. i. p. 419; _Bohlen_, _das alte Indien_,
+        vol. i. pp. 364-366; _Beausobre_, _Histoire de Manichée_, vol. i.
+        pp. 318, 319; _Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus_, p. 193;
+        _Transac. of Soc. of Bombay_, vol. iii. p. 198; _Transac. of
+        Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 5, vol. iii. pp. 283, 284; _Asiatic
+        Researches_, vol. vi. p. 271, vol. vii. p. 40, vol. xvi. pp. 130,
+        277, vol. xx. pp. 460, 461; _The Dabistan_, vol. i. pp. 328, 338;
+        _Catlin's North-American Indians_, vol. ii. p. 243; _Syme's
+        Embassy to Ava_, vol. ii. p. 389; _Davis's Chinese_, vol. i. p.
+        196, vol. ii. pp. 136, 233; _Journal Asiatique_, I. série, vol.
+        iv. p. 77, Paris, 1824.
+
+But, if we contrast this stationary aspect of moral truths with the
+progressive aspect of intellectual truths, the difference is indeed
+startling.[317] All the great moral systems which have exercised much
+influence have been fundamentally the same; all the great intellectual
+systems have been fundamentally different. In reference to our moral
+conduct, there is not a single principle now known to the most
+cultivated Europeans, which was not likewise known to the ancients. In
+reference to the conduct of our intellect, the moderns have not only
+made the most important additions to every department of knowledge that
+the ancients ever attempted to study, but besides this, they have upset
+and revolutionized the old methods of inquiry; they have consolidated
+into one great scheme all those resources of induction which Aristotle
+alone dimly perceived; and they have created sciences, the faintest idea
+of which never entered the mind of the boldest thinker antiquity
+produced.
+
+  [317] Sir James Mackintosh was so struck by the stationary character of
+        moral principles, that he denies the possibility of their
+        advance, and boldly affirms that no further discoveries can be
+        made in morals: 'Morality admits no discoveries.... More than
+        three thousand years have elapsed since the composition of the
+        Pentateuch; and let any man, if he is able, tell me in what
+        important respect the rule of life has varied since that distant
+        period. Let the Institutes of Menu be explored with the same
+        view; we shall arrive at the same conclusion. Let the books of
+        false religion be opened; it will be found that their moral
+        system is, in all its grand features, the same.... The fact is
+        evident that no improvements have been made in practical
+        morality.... The facts which lead to the formation of moral
+        rules are as accessible, and must be as obvious, to the simplest
+        barbarian as to the most enlightened philosopher.... The case of
+        the physical and speculative sciences is directly opposite. There
+        the facts are remote and scarcely accessible.... From the
+        countless variety of the facts with which they are conversant, it
+        is impossible to prescribe any bounds to their future
+        improvement. It is otherwise with morals. They have hitherto been
+        stationary; and, in my opinion, they are likely for ever to
+        continue so.' _Life of Mackintosh, edited by his Son_, London,
+        1835, vol. i. pp. 119-122. Condorcet (_Vie de Turgot_, p. 180)
+        says, 'La morale de toutes les nations a été la même;' and Kant
+        (_Logik_, in _Kant's Werke_, vol. i. p. 356), 'In der
+        Moral-philosophie sind wir nicht weiter gekommen, als die Alten.'
+
+These are, to every educated man, recognized and notorious facts; and
+the inference to be drawn from them is immediately obvious. Since
+civilization is the product of moral and intellectual agencies, and
+since that product is constantly changing, it evidently cannot be
+regulated by the stationary agent; because, when surrounding
+circumstances are unchanged, a stationary agent can only produce a
+stationary effect. The only other agent is the intellectual one; and
+that this is the real mover may be proved in two distinct ways: first,
+because being, as we have already seen, either moral or intellectual,
+and being, as we have also seen, not moral, it must be intellectual;
+and, secondly, because the intellectual principle has an activity and a
+capacity for adaptation, which, as I undertake to show, is quite
+sufficient to account for the extraordinary progress that, during
+several centuries, Europe has continued to make.
+
+Such are the main arguments by which my view is supported; but there are
+also other and collateral circumstances which are well worthy of
+consideration. The first is, that the intellectual principle is not only
+far more progressive than the moral principle, but is also far more
+permanent in its results. The acquisitions made by the intellect are, in
+every civilized country, carefully preserved, registered in certain
+well-understood formulas, and protected by the use of technical and
+scientific language; they are easily handed down from one generation to
+another, and thus assuming an accessible, or, as it were, a tangible
+form, they often influence the most distant posterity, they become the
+heirlooms of mankind, the immortal bequest of the genius to which they
+owe their birth. But the good deeds effected by our moral faculties are
+less capable of transmission; they are of a more private and retiring
+character; while, as the motives to which they owe their origin are
+generally the result of self-discipline and of self-sacrifice, they have
+to be worked out by every man for himself; and thus, begun by each anew,
+they derive little benefit from the maxims of preceding experience, nor
+can they well be stored up for the use of future moralists. The
+consequence is, that although moral excellence is more amiable, and to
+most persons more attractive, than intellectual excellence, still, it
+must be confessed that, looking at ulterior results, it is far less
+active, less permanent, and, as I shall presently prove, less productive
+of real good. Indeed, if we examine the effects of the most active
+philanthropy, and of the largest and most disinterested kindness, we
+shall find that those effects are, comparatively speaking, short-lived;
+that there is only a small number of individuals they come in contact
+with and benefit; that they rarely survive the generation which
+witnessed their commencement; and that, when they take the more durable
+form of founding great public charities, such institutions invariably
+fall, first into abuse, then into decay, and after a time are either
+destroyed, or perverted from their original intention, mocking the
+effort by which it is vainly attempted to perpetuate the memory even of
+the purest and most energetic benevolence.
+
+These conclusions are no doubt very unpalatable; and what makes them
+peculiarly offensive is, that it is impossible to refute them. For the
+deeper we penetrate into this question, the more clearly shall we see
+the superiority of intellectual acquisitions over moral feeling.[318]
+There is no instance on record of an ignorant man who, having good
+intentions, and supreme power to enforce them, has not done far more
+evil than good. And whenever the intentions have been very eager, and
+the power very extensive, the evil has been enormous. But if you can
+diminish the sincerity of that man, if you can mix some alloy with his
+motives, you will likewise diminish the evil which he works. If he is
+selfish as well as ignorant, it will often happen that you may play off
+his vice against his ignorance, and by exciting his fears restrain his
+mischief. If, however, he has no fear, if he is entirely unselfish, if
+his sole object is the good of others, if he pursues that object with
+enthusiasm, upon a large scale, and with disinterested zeal, then it is
+that you have no check upon him, you have no means of preventing the
+calamities which, in an ignorant age, an ignorant man will be sure to
+inflict. How entirely this is verified by experience, we may see in
+studying the history of religious persecution. To punish even a single
+man for his religious tenets, is assuredly a crime of the deepest dye;
+but to punish a large body of men, to persecute an entire sect, to
+attempt to extirpate opinions, which, growing out of the state of
+society in which they arise, are themselves a manifestation of the
+marvellous and luxuriant fertility of the human mind,--to do this is not
+only one of the most pernicious, but one of the most foolish acts that
+can possibly be conceived. Nevertheless, it is an undoubted fact that an
+overwhelming majority of religious persecutors have been men of the
+purest intentions, of the most admirable and unsullied morals. It is
+impossible that this should be otherwise. For they are not
+bad-intentioned men, who seek to enforce opinions which they believe to
+be good. Still less are they bad men, who are so regardless of temporal
+considerations as to employ all the resources of their power, not for
+their own benefit, but for the purpose of propagating a religion which
+they think necessary to the future happiness of mankind. Such men as
+these are not bad, they are only ignorant; ignorant of the nature of
+truth, ignorant of the consequences of their own acts. But, in a moral
+point of view, their motives are unimpeachable. Indeed, it is the very
+ardour of their sincerity which warms them into persecution. It is the
+holy zeal by which they are fired that quickens their fanaticism into a
+deadly activity. If you can impress any man with an absorbing conviction
+of the supreme importance of some moral or religious doctrine; if you
+can make him believe that those who reject that doctrine are doomed to
+eternal perdition; if you then give that man power, and by means of his
+ignorance blind him to the ulterior consequences of his own act,--he
+will infallibly persecute those who deny his doctrine; and the extent
+of his persecution will be regulated by the extent of his sincerity.
+Diminish the sincerity, and you will diminish the persecution: in other
+words, by weakening the virtue you may check the evil. This is a truth
+of which history furnishes such innumerable examples, that to deny it
+would be not only to reject the plainest and most conclusive arguments,
+but to refuse the concurrent testimony of every age. I will merely
+select two cases, which, from the entire difference in their
+circumstances, are very apposite as illustrations: the first being from
+the history of Paganism, the other from the history of Christianity; and
+both proving the inability of moral feelings to control religious
+persecution.
+
+  [318] One part of the argument is well stated by Cuvier, who says, 'Le
+        bien que l'on fait aux hommes, quelque grand qu'il soit, est
+        toujours passager; les vérités qu'on leur laisse sont
+        éternelles.' _Cuvier_, _Eloges Historiques_, vol. ii. p. 304.
+
+I. The Roman emperors, as is well known, subjected the early Christians
+to persecutions, which, though they have been exaggerated, were frequent
+and very grievous. But what to some persons must appear extremely
+strange, is, that among the active authors of these cruelties, we find
+the names of the best men who ever sat on the throne; while the worst
+and most infamous princes were precisely those who spared the
+Christians, and took no heed of their increase. The two most thoroughly
+depraved of all the emperors were certainly Commodus and Elagabalus;
+neither of whom persecuted the new religion, or indeed adopted any
+measures against it. They were too reckless of the future, too selfish,
+too absorbed in their own infamous pleasures, to mind whether truth or
+error prevailed; and being thus indifferent to the welfare of their
+subjects, they cared nothing about the progress of a creed, which they,
+as Pagan emperors, were bound to regard as a fatal and impious delusion.
+They, therefore, allowed Christianity to run its course, unchecked by
+those penal laws which more honest, but more mistaken, rulers would
+assuredly have enacted.[319] We find, accordingly, that the great enemy
+of Christianity was Marcus Aurelius: a man of kindly temper, and of
+fearless, unflinching honesty, but whose reign was characterized by a
+persecution from which he would have refrained had he been less in
+earnest about the religion of his fathers.[320] And to complete the
+argument, it may be added, that the last and one of the most strenuous
+of the opponents of Christianity, who occupied the throne of the Cæsars,
+was Julian: a prince of eminent probity, whose opinions are often
+attacked, but against whose moral conduct even calumny itself has hardly
+breathed a suspicion.[321]
+
+  [319] 'The first year of Commodus must be the epocha of the toleration.
+        From all these authorities, it appears beyond exception, that
+        Commodus put a stop to the persecution in the first year of his
+        reign.... Not one writer, either heathen or Christian, makes
+        Commodus a persecutor.' _Letters concerning the Thundering
+        Legion_, in _Moyle's Works_, vol. ii. p. 266, London, 1726.
+        'Heliogabalus also, though in other respects the most infamous of
+        all princes, and perhaps the most odious of all mortals, showed
+        no marks of bitterness or aversion to the disciples of Jesus.'
+        _Mosheim's Eccl. History_, vol. i. p. 66: see also _Milman's
+        Hist. of Christianity_, London, 1840, vol. ii. p. 225.
+
+  [320] Dr. Milman (_History of Christianity_, 1840, vol. ii. p. 159)
+        says, 'A blameless disciple in the severest school of philosophic
+        morality, the austerity of Marcus rivalled that of the Christians
+        in its contempt of the follies and diversions of life; yet his
+        native kindliness of disposition was not hardened or embittered
+        by the severity or the pride of his philosophy. With Aurelius,
+        nevertheless, Christianity found not only a fair and high-minded
+        competitor for the command of the human mind; not only a rival in
+        the exaltation of the soul of man to higher views and more
+        dignified motives; but a violent and intolerant persecutor.' M.
+        Guizot compares him with Louis IX. of France; and certainly there
+        was in both an evident connexion between sincerity and
+        persecution: 'Marc Auréle et saint Louis sont peut-être les deux
+        seuls princes qui, en toute occasion, aient fait de leurs
+        croyances morales la première règle de leur conduite: Marc
+        Auréle, stoicien; saint Louis, chrétien.' _Guizot_, _Civilisation
+        en France_, vol. iv. p. 142. Even Duplessis Mornay (_Mém._ vol.
+        iv. p. 374) calls him 'le meilleur des empereurs payens;' and
+        Ritter (_Hist. of Philos._ vol. iv. p. 222), 'the virtuous and
+        noble emperor.'
+
+  [321] Neander (_History of the Church_, vol. i. p. 122) observes, that
+        the best emperors opposed Christianity, and that the worst ones
+        were indifferent to its encroachments. The same remark, in regard
+        to Marcus and Commodus, is made by Gibbon (_Decline and Fall_,
+        chap. xvi. p. 220, Lond. 1836). Another writer, of a very
+        different character, ascribes this peculiarity to the wiles of
+        the devil: 'In the primitive times, it is observed that the best
+        emperors were some of them stirred up by Satan to be the
+        bitterest persecutors of the Church.' _Memoirs of Colonel
+        Hutchinson_, p. 85.
+
+II. The second illustration is supplied by Spain; a country of which it
+must be confessed, that in no other have religious feelings exercised
+such sway over the affairs of men. No other European nation has produced
+so many ardent and disinterested missionaries, zealous self-denying
+martyrs, who have cheerfully sacrificed their lives in order to
+propagate truths which they thought necessary to be known. Nowhere else
+have the spiritual classes been so long in the ascendant; nowhere else
+are the people so devout, the churches so crowded, the clergy so
+numerous. But the sincerity and the honesty of purpose by which the
+Spanish people, taken as a whole, have always been marked, have not only
+been unable to prevent religious persecution, but have proved the means
+of encouraging it. If the nation had been more lukewarm, it would have
+been more tolerant. As it was, the preservation of the faith became the
+first consideration; and everything being sacrificed to this one object,
+it naturally happened that zeal begat cruelty, and the soil was prepared
+in which the Inquisition took root and flourished. The supporters of
+that barbarous institution were not hypocrites, but enthusiasts.
+Hypocrites are for the most part too supple to be cruel. For cruelty is
+a stern and unbending passion; while hypocrisy is a fawning and flexible
+art, which accommodates itself to human feelings, and flatters the
+weakness of men in order that it may gain its own ends. In Spain, the
+earnestness of the nation, being concentrated on a single topic, carried
+everything before it; and hatred of heresy becoming a habit, persecution
+of heresy was thought a duty. The conscientious energy with which that
+duty was fulfilled is seen in the history of the Spanish Church. Indeed,
+that the inquisitors were remarkable for an undeviating and
+incorruptible integrity, may be proved in a variety of ways, and from
+different and independent sources of evidence. This is a question to
+which I shall hereafter return; but there are two testimonies which I
+cannot omit, because, from the circumstances attending them, they are
+peculiarly unimpeachable. Llorente, the great historian of the
+Inquisition, and its bitter enemy, had access to its private papers; and
+yet, with the fullest means of information, he does not even insinuate a
+charge against the moral character of the inquisitors; but while
+execrating the cruelty of their conduct, he cannot deny the purity of
+their intentions.[322] Thirty years earlier, Townsend, a clergyman of
+the Church of England, published his valuable work on Spain;[323] and
+though, as a Protestant and an Englishman, he had every reason to be
+prejudiced against the infamous system which he describes, he also can
+bring no charge against those who upheld it; but having occasion to
+mention its establishment at Barcelona, one of its most important
+branches, he makes the remarkable admission, that all its members are
+men of worth, and that most of them are of distinguished humanity.[324]
+
+  [322] By which, indeed, he is sorely puzzled. 'On reconnaîtra mon
+        impartialité dans quelques circonstances où je fais remarquer
+        chez les inquisiteurs des dispositions généreuses; ce qui me
+        porte à croire que les atroces sentences rendues par le
+        Saint-Office, sont plutôt une conséquence de ses lois organiques,
+        qu'un effet du caractère particulier de ses membres.' _Llorente_,
+        _Histoire Critique de l'Inquisition d'Espagne_, vol. i. p.
+        xxiii.: compare vol. ii. pp. 267, 268, vol. iv. p. 153.
+
+  [323] Highly spoken of by the late Blanco White, a most competent judge.
+        See _Doblado's Letters from Spain_, p. 5.
+
+  [324] 'It is, however, universally acknowledged, for the credit of the
+        corps at Barcelona, that all its members are men of worth, and
+        most of them distinguished for humanity.' _Townsend's Journey
+        through Spain, in 1786 and 1787_, vol. i. p. 122, Lond. 1792.
+
+These facts, startling as they are, form a very small part of that vast
+mass of evidence which history contains, and which decisively proves the
+utter inability of moral feelings to diminish religious persecution. The
+way in which the diminution has been really effected by the mere
+progress of intellectual acquirements, will be pointed out in another
+part of this volume; when we shall see that the great antagonist of
+intolerance is not humanity, but knowledge. It is to the diffusion of
+knowledge, and to that alone, that we owe the comparative cessation of
+what is unquestionably the greatest evil men have ever inflicted on
+their own species. For that religious persecution is a greater evil than
+any other, is apparent, not so much from the enormous and almost
+incredible number of its known victims,[325] as from the fact that the
+unknown must be far more numerous, and that history gives no account of
+those who have been spared in the body, in order that they might suffer
+in the mind. We hear much of martyrs and confessors--of those who were
+slain by the sword, or consumed in the fire; but we know little of that
+still larger number who, by the mere threat of persecution, have been
+driven into an outward abandonment of their real opinions; and who, thus
+forced into an apostasy the heart abhors, have passed the remainder of
+their life in the practice of a constant and humiliating hypocrisy. It
+is this which is the real curse of religious persecution. For in this
+way, men being constrained to mask their thoughts, there arises a habit
+of securing safety by falsehood, and of purchasing impunity with deceit.
+In this way fraud becomes a necessary of life; insincerity is made a
+daily custom; the whole tone of public feeling is vitiated, and the
+gross amount of vice and of error fearfully increased. Surely, then, we
+have reason to say, that, compared to this, all other crimes are of
+small account; and we may well be grateful for that increase of
+intellectual pursuits which has destroyed an evil that some among us
+would even now willingly restore.
+
+  [325] In 1546, the Venetian ambassador at the court of the Emperor
+        Charles V. stated, in an official report to his own government on
+        his return home, 'that in Holland and in Friesland, more than
+        30,000 persons have suffered death at the hands of justice for
+        Anabaptist errors.' _Correspondence of Charles V. and his
+        Ambassadors_, edited by William Bradford, Lond. 8vo, 1850, p.
+        471. In Spain, the Inquisition, during the eighteen years of
+        Torquemada's ministry, punished, according to the lowest
+        estimate, upwards of 105,000 persons, of whom 8,800 were burned.
+        _Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella_, vol. i. p. 265.
+        In Andalusia alone, during a single year, the Inquisition put to
+        death 2,000 Jews, 'besides 17,000 who underwent some form of
+        punishment less severe than that of the stake.' _Ticknor's
+        History of Spanish Literature_, vol. i. p. 410. For other
+        statistical evidence on this horrible subject, see _Llorente_,
+        _Histoire de l'Inquisition_, vol. i. pp. 160, 229, 238, 239, 279,
+        280, 406, 407, 455, vol. ii. pp. 77, 116, 376, vol. iv. p. 31;
+        and, above all, the summary at pp. 242-273.
+
+The principle I am advocating is of such immense importance in practice
+as well as in theory, that I will give yet another instance of the
+energy with which it works. The second greatest evil known to
+mankind--the one by which, with the exception of religious persecution,
+most suffering has been caused--is, unquestionably, the practice of war.
+That this barbarous pursuit is, in the progress of society, steadily
+declining, must be evident, even to the most hasty reader of European
+history.[326] If we compare one country with another, we shall find that
+for a very long period wars have been becoming less frequent; and now so
+clearly is the movement marked, that, until the late commencement of
+hostilities, we had remained at peace for nearly forty years: a
+circumstance unparalleled, not only in our own country, but also in the
+annals of every other country which has been important enough to play a
+leading part in the affairs of the world.[327] The question arises, as
+to what share our moral feelings have had in bringing about this great
+improvement. And if this question is answered, not according to
+preconceived opinions, but according to the evidence we possess, the
+answer will certainly be, that those feelings have had no share at all.
+For it surely will not be pretended that the moderns have made any
+discoveries respecting the moral evils of war. On this head nothing is
+now known that has not been known for many centuries. That defensive
+wars are just, and that offensive wars are unjust, are the only two
+principles which, on this subject, moralists are able to teach. These
+two principles were as clearly laid down, as well understood, and as
+universally admitted, in the Middle Ages, when there was never a week
+without war, as they are at the present moment, when war is deemed a
+rare and singular occurrence. Since, then, the actions of men respecting
+war have been gradually changing, while their moral knowledge respecting
+it has not been changing, it is palpably evident that the changeable
+effect has not been produced by the unchangeable cause. It is impossible
+to conceive an argument more decisive than this. If it can be proved
+that, during the last thousand years, moralists or theologians have
+pointed out a single evil caused by war, the existence of which was
+unknown to their predecessors,--if this can be proved, I will abandon
+the view for which I am contending. But if, as I most confidently
+assert, this cannot be proved, then it must be conceded that, no
+additions having been made on this subject to the stock of morals, no
+additions can have been made to the result which the morals
+produce.[328]
+
+  [326] On the diminished love of war, which is even more marked than the
+        actual diminution of war, see some interesting remarks in
+        _Comte_, _Philosophie Positive_, vol. iv. pp. 488, 713, vol. vi.
+        pp. 68, 424-436, where the antagonism between the military spirit
+        and the industrial spirit is, on the whole, well worked out;
+        though some of the leading phenomena have escaped the attention
+        of this eminent philosopher, from his want of acquaintance with
+        the history and present state of political economy.
+
+  [327] In _Pellew's Life of Sidmouth_, 1847, vol. iii. p. 137, this
+        prolonged peace is gravely ascribed to 'the wisdom of the
+        adjustment of 1815;' in other words, to the proceedings of the
+        Congress of Vienna!
+
+  [328] Unless more zeal has been displayed in the diffusion of moral and
+        religious principles; in which case it would be possible for the
+        principles to be stationary, and yet their effects be
+        progressive. But so far from this, it is certain that in the
+        Middle Ages there were, relatively to the population, more
+        churches than there are now; the spiritual classes were far more
+        numerous, the proselyting spirit far more eager, and there was a
+        much stronger determination to prevent purely scientific
+        inferences from encroaching on ethical ones. Indeed, during the
+        Middle Ages, the moral and religious literature outweighed all
+        the profane literature put together; and surpassed it, not only
+        in bulk, but also in the ability of its cultivators. Now,
+        however, the generalizations of moralists have ceased to control
+        the affairs of men, and have made way for the larger doctrine of
+        expediency, which includes all interests and all classes.
+        Systematic writers on morals reached their zenith in the
+        thirteenth century, fell off rapidly after that period, were, as
+        Coleridge well says, opposed by 'the genius of Protestantism:'
+        and, by the end of the seventeenth century, became extinct in the
+        most civilized countries; the _Ductor Dubitantium_ of Jeremy
+        Taylor being the last comprehensive attempt of a man of genius to
+        mould society solely according to the maxims of moralists.
+        Compare two interesting passages in _Mosheim's Ecclesiast.
+        Hist._, vol. i. p. 338, and _Coleridge's Friend_, vol. iii. p.
+        104.
+
+Thus far as to the influence exercised by moral feelings in increasing
+our distaste for war. But if, on the other hand, we turn to the human
+intellect, in the narrowest sense of the term, we shall find that every
+great increase in its activity has been a heavy blow to the warlike
+spirit. The full evidence for this I shall hereafter detail at
+considerable length; and in this Introduction I can only pretend to
+bring forward a few of those prominent points, which, being on the
+surface of history, will be at once understood.
+
+Of these points, one of the most obvious is, that every important
+addition made to knowledge increases the authority of the intellectual
+classes, by increasing the resources which they have to wield. Now, the
+antagonism between these classes and the military class is evident: it
+is the antagonism between thought and action, between the internal and
+the external, between argument and violence, between persuasion and
+force; or, to sum up the whole, between men who live by the pursuits of
+peace and those who live by the practice of war. Whatever, therefore, is
+favourable to one class, is manifestly unfavourable to the other.
+Supposing the remaining circumstances to be the same, it must happen,
+that as the intellectual acquisitions of a people increase, their love
+of war will diminish; and if their intellectual acquisitions are very
+small, their love of war will be very great.[329] In perfectly barbarous
+countries, there are no intellectual acquisitions; and the mind being a
+blank and dreary waste, the only resource is external activity,[330] the
+only merit personal courage. No account is made of any man, unless he
+has killed an enemy; and the more he has killed, the greater the
+reputation he enjoys.[331] This is the purely savage state; and it is
+the state in which military glory is most esteemed, and military men
+most respected.[332] From this frightful debasement, even up to the
+summit of civilization, there is a long series of consecutive steps;
+gradations, at each of which something is taken from the dominion of
+force, and something given to the authority of thought. Slowly, and one
+by one, the intellectual and pacific classes begin to arise; at first
+held in great contempt by warriors, but nevertheless gradually gaining
+ground, increasing in number and in power, and at each increase
+weakening that old military spirit, in which all other tendencies had
+formerly been absorbed. Trade, commerce, manufactures, law, diplomacy,
+literature, science, philosophy,--all these things, originally unknown,
+became organized into separate studies, each study having a separate
+class, and each class insisting on the importance of its own pursuit. Of
+these classes, some are, no doubt, less pacific than others; but even
+those which are the least pacific, are, of course, more so than men
+whose associations are entirely military, and who see in every fresh war
+that chance of personal distinction, from which, during peace, they are
+altogether debarred.[333]
+
+  [329] Herder boldly asserts that man originally, and by virtue of his
+        organization, is peaceably disposed; but this opinion is
+        decisively refuted by the immense additions which, since the time
+        of Herder, have been made to our knowledge of the feelings and
+        habits of savages. 'Indessen ist's wahr, dass der Bau des
+        Menschen vorzüglich auf die Vertheidigung, nicht auf den Angriff
+        gerichtet ist: in diesem muss ihm die Kunst zu Hülfe kommen, in
+        jener aber ist er von Natur das kräftigste Geschöpf der Erde.
+        Seine Gestalt selbst lehret ihn also Friedlichkeit, nicht
+        räuberische Mordverwüstung,--der Humanität erstes Merkmal.'
+        _Ideen zur Geschichte_, vol. i. p. 185.
+
+  [330] Hence, no doubt, that acuteness of the senses, natural, and indeed
+        necessary, to an early state of society, and which, being at the
+        expense of the reflecting faculties, assimilates man to the lower
+        animals. See _Carpenter's Human Physiology_, p. 404; and a fine
+        passage in _Herder's Ideen zur Geschichte_, vol. ii. p. 12: 'Das
+        abstehende thierische Ohr, das gleichsam immer lauscht und
+        horchet, das kleine scharfe Auge, das in der weitesten Ferne den
+        kleinsten Rauch oder Staub gewahr wird, der weisse
+        hervorbleckende, knochenbenagende Zahn, der dicke Hals und die
+        zurückgebogene Stellung ihres Kopfes auf demselben.' Compare
+        _Prichard's Physical Hist. of Mankind_, vol. i. pp. 292, 293;
+        _Azara_, _Amérique Méridionale_, vol. ii. p. 18; _Wrangel's Polar
+        Expedition_, p. 384; _Pallme's Travels in Kordofan_, pp. 132,
+        133.
+
+  [331] 'Among some Macedonian tribes, the man who had never slain an
+        enemy was marked by a degrading badge.' _Grote's History of
+        Greece_, vol. xi. p. 397. Among the Dyaks of Borneo, 'a man
+        cannot marry until he has procured a human head; and he that has
+        several may be distinguished by his proud and lofty bearing, for
+        it constitutes his patent of nobility.' _Earl's Account of
+        Borneo_, in _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. iv. p. 181. See
+        also _Crawfurd on Borneo_, in _Journal of Geog. Soc._, vol.
+        xxiii. pp. 77, 80. And for similar instances of this absorption
+        of all other ideas into warlike ones, compare _Journal of Geog.
+        Soc._, vol. x. p. 357; _Mallet's Northern Antiquities_, pp. 158,
+        159, 195; _Thirlwall's Hist. of Greece_, vol. i. pp. 226, 284,
+        vol. viii. p. 209; _Henderson's History of Brazil_, p. 475;
+        _Southey's History of Brazil_, vol. i. pp. 126, 248; _Asiatic
+        Researches_, vol. ii. p. 188, vol. vii. p. 193; _Transactions of
+        Bombay Society_, vol. ii. pp. 51, 52; _Hoskins's Travels in
+        Ethiopia_, p. 163; _Origines du Droit_, in _[OE]uvres de
+        Michelet_, vol. ii. pp. 333, 334 note. So also the Thracians:
+        [Greek: gês de ergatên atimotaton. to sên apo polemoi kai
+        lêistuos, kalliston.] _Herodotus_, book v. chap. 6, vol. iii. p.
+        10, edit. Baehr.
+
+  [332] Malcolm (_History of Persia_, vol. i. p. 204) says of the Tartars,
+        'There is only one path to eminence, that of military renown.'
+        Thus, too, in the _Institutes of Timour_, p. 269: 'He only is
+        equal to stations of power and dignity, who is well acquainted
+        with the military art, and with the various modes of breaking and
+        defeating hostile armies.' The same turn of mind is shown in the
+        frequency and evident delight with which Homer relates battles--a
+        peculiarity noticed in _Mure's Greek Literature_, vol. ii. pp.
+        63, 64, where an attempt is made to turn it into an argument to
+        prove that the Homeric poems are all by the same author; though
+        the more legitimate inference would be that the poems were all
+        composed in a barbarous age.
+
+  [333] To the prospect of personal distinction there was formerly added
+        that of wealth; and in Europe, during the Middle Ages, war was a
+        very lucrative profession, owing to the custom of exacting heavy
+        ransom for the liberty of prisoners. See Barrington's learned
+        work, _Observations on the Statutes_, pp. 390-393. In the reign
+        of Richard II. 'a war with France was esteemed as almost the only
+        method by which an English gentleman could become rich.' Compare
+        _Turner's Hist. of England_, vol. vi. p. 21. Sainte Palaye
+        (_Mémoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie_, vol. i. p. 311) says, 'La
+        guerre enrichissoit alors par le butin, et par les rançons, celui
+        qui la faisoit avec le plus de valeur, de vigilance et
+        d'activité. La rançon étoit, ce semble, pour l'ordinaire, une
+        année des revenus du prisonnier.' For an analogy with this, see
+        _Rig Veda Sanhita_, vol. i. p. 208, sec. 3, and vol. ii. p. 265,
+        sec. 13. In Europe, the custom of paying a ransom for
+        prisoners-of-war survived the Middle Ages, and was only put an
+        end to by the peace of Munster, in 1648. _Manning's Commentaries
+        on the Law of Nations_, 1839, p. 162; and on the profits formerly
+        made, pp. 157, 158.
+
+Thus it is that, as civilization advances, an equipoise is established,
+and military ardour is balanced by motives which none but a cultivated
+people can feel. But among a people whose intellect is not cultivated,
+such a balance can never exist. Of this we see a good illustration in
+the history of the present war.[334] For the peculiarity of the great
+contest in which we are engaged is, that it was produced, not by the
+conflicting interests of civilized countries, but by a rupture between
+Russia and Turkey, the two most barbarous monarchies now remaining in
+Europe. This is a very significant fact. It is highly characteristic of
+the actual condition of society, that a peace of unexampled length
+should have been broken, not, as former peaces were broken, by a quarrel
+between two civilized nations, but by the encroachments of the
+uncivilized Russians on the still more uncivilized Turks. At an earlier
+period, the influence of intellectual, and therefore pacific, habits was
+indeed constantly increasing, but was still too weak, even in the most
+advanced countries, to control the old warlike habits: hence there arose
+a desire for conquest, which often outweighed all other feelings, and
+induced great nations like France and England to attack each other on
+the slightest pretence, and seek every opportunity of gratifying the
+vindictive hatred with which both contemplated the prosperity of their
+neighbour. Such, however, is now the progress of affairs, that these two
+nations, laying aside the peevish and irritable jealousy they once
+entertained, are united in a common cause, and have drawn the sword, not
+for selfish purposes, but to protect the civilized world against the
+incursions of a barbarous foe.
+
+  [334] I wrote this in 1855.
+
+This is the leading feature which distinguishes the present war from its
+predecessors. That a peace should last for nearly forty years, and
+should then be interrupted, not, as heretofore, by hostilities between
+civilized states, but by the ambition of the only empire which is at
+once powerful and uncivilized--is one of many proofs that a dislike to
+war is a cultivated taste peculiar to an intellectual people. For no one
+will pretend that the military predilections of Russia are caused by a
+low state of morals, or by a disregard of religious duties. So far from
+this, all the evidence we have shows that vicious habits are not more
+common in Russia than in France or England;[335] and it is certain that
+the Russians submit to the teachings of the church with a docility
+greater than that displayed by their civilized opponents.[336] It is,
+therefore, clear that Russia is a warlike country, not because the
+inhabitants are immoral, but because they are unintellectual. The fault
+is in the head, not in the heart. In Russia, the national intellect
+being little cultivated, the intellectual classes lack influence; the
+military class, therefore, is supreme. In this early stage of society,
+there is as yet no middle rank,[337] and consequently the thoughtful and
+pacific habits which spring from the middle ranks have no existence. The
+minds of men, deprived of mental pursuits,[338] naturally turn to
+warlike ones, as the only resource remaining to them. Hence it is that,
+in Russia, all ability is estimated by a military standard. The army is
+considered to be the greatest glory of the country: to win a battle, or
+outwit an enemy, is valued as one of the noblest achievements of life;
+and civilians, whatever their merits may be, are despised by this
+barbarous people, as beings of an altogether inferior and subordinate
+character.[339]
+
+  [335] Indeed some have supposed that there is less immorality in Russia
+        than in Western Europe; but this idea is probably erroneous. See
+        _Stirling's Russia_, Lond. 1841, pp. 59, 60. The benevolence and
+        charitable disposition of the Russians are attested by Pinkerton,
+        who had good means of information, and was by no means prejudiced
+        in their favour. See _Pinkerton's Russia_, Lond. 1833, pp. 335,
+        336. Sir John Sinclair also says they are 'prone to acts of
+        kindness and charity.' _Sinclair's Correspondence_, vol. ii. p.
+        241.
+
+  [336] The reverence of the Russian people for their clergy has attracted
+        the attention of many observers, and is, indeed, too notorious to
+        require proof.
+
+  [337] A very observing and intelligent writer says, 'Russia has only two
+        ranks--the highest and the lowest.' _Letters from the Baltic_,
+        Lond. 1841, vol. ii. p. 185. 'Les marchands, qui formeraient une
+        classe moyenne, sont en si petit nombre qu'ils ne peuvent marquer
+        dans l'état: d'ailleurs presque tous sont étrangers; ... où donc
+        trouver cette classe moyenne qui fait la force des états?'
+        _Custine's Russie_, vol. ii. pp. 125, 126: see also vol. iv.
+        p. 74.
+
+  [338] A recent authoress, who had admirable opportunities of studying
+        the society of St. Petersburg, which she estimated with that fine
+        tact peculiar to an accomplished woman, was amazed at this state
+        of things among classes surrounded with every form of luxury and
+        wealth: 'a total absence of all rational tastes or literary
+        topics.... Here it is absolutely _mauvais genre_ to discuss a
+        rational subject--mere _pédanterie_ to be caught upon any topics
+        beyond dressing, dancing, and a _jolie tournure_.' _Letters from
+        the Baltic_, 1841, vol. ii. p. 233. M. Custine (_La Russie en
+        1839_, vol. i. p. 321) says 'Règle générale, personne ne profère
+        jamais un mot qui pourrait intéresser vivement quelqu'un.' At
+        vol. ii. p. 195, 'De toutes les facultés de l'intelligence, la
+        seule qu'on estime ici c'est le tact.' Another writer of repute,
+        M. Kohl, contemptuously observes, that in Russia, 'the depths of
+        science are not even guessed at.' _Kohl's Russia_, 1842, Lond. p.
+        142.
+
+  [339] According to Schnitzler, 'Precedence is determined, in Russia, by
+        military rank; and an ensign would take the _pas_ of a nobleman
+        not enrolled in the army, or occupying some situation giving
+        military rank.' _M'Culloch's Geog. Dict._ 1849, vol. ii. p. 614.
+        The same thing is stated in _Pinkerton's Russia_, 1833, p. 321.
+        M. Erman, who travelled through great part of the Russian empire,
+        says, 'In the modern language of St. Petersburg, one constantly
+        hears a distinction of the greatest importance, conveyed in the
+        inquiry which is habitually made respecting individuals of the
+        educated class: Is he a plain-coat or a uniform?' _Erman's
+        Siberia_, vol. i. p. 45. See also on this preponderance of the
+        military classes, which is the inevitable fruit of the national
+        ignorance, _Kohl's Russia_, pp. 28, 194; _Stirling's Russia under
+        Nicholas the First_, p. 7; _Custine's Russie_, vol. i. pp. 147,
+        152, 252, 266, vol. ii. pp. 71, 128, 309, vol. iii. p. 328, vol.
+        iv. p. 284. Sir A. Alison (_History of Europe_, vol. ii. pp. 391,
+        392) says, 'The whole energies of the nation are turned towards
+        the army. Commerce, the law, and all civil employments, are held
+        in no esteem; the whole youth of any consideration betake
+        themselves to the profession of arms.' The same writer (vol. x.
+        p. 566) quotes the remark of Bremner, that 'nothing astonishes
+        the Russian or Polish noblemen so much as seeing the estimation
+        in which the civil professions, and especially the bar, are held
+        in Great Britain.'
+
+In England, on the other hand, opposite causes have produced opposite
+results. With us intellectual progress is so rapid, and the authority of
+the middle class so great, that not only have military men no influence
+in the government of the state, but there seemed at one time even a
+danger lest we should push this feeling to an extreme; and lest, from
+our detestation of war, we should neglect those defensive precautions
+which the enmity of other nations makes it advisable to adopt. But this
+at least we may safely say, that, in our country, a love of war is, as a
+national taste, utterly extinct. And this vast result has been effected,
+not by moral teachings, nor by the dictates of moral instinct; but by
+the simple fact, that in the progress of civilization there have been
+formed certain classes of society which have an interest in the
+preservation of peace, and whose united authority is sufficient to
+control those other classes whose interest lies in the prosecution of
+war.
+
+It would be easy to conduct this argument further, and to prove how, by
+an increasing love of intellectual pursuits, the military service
+necessarily declines, not only in reputation, but likewise in ability.
+In a backward state of society men of distinguished talents crowd to the
+army, and are proud to enrol themselves in its ranks. But, as society
+advances, new sources of activity are opened, and new professions arise,
+which, being essentially mental, offer to genius opportunities for
+success more rapid than any formerly known. The consequence is, that in
+England, where these opportunities are more numerous than elsewhere, it
+nearly always happens that if a father has a son whose faculties are
+remarkable, he brings him up to one of the lay professions, where
+intellect, when accompanied by industry, is sure to be rewarded. If,
+however, the inferiority of the boy is obvious, a suitable remedy is at
+hand: he is made either a soldier or a clergyman; he is sent into the
+army, or hidden in the church. And this, as we shall hereafter see, is
+one of the reasons why, as society advances, the ecclesiastical spirit
+and the military spirit never fail to decline. As soon as eminent men
+grow unwilling to enter any profession, the lustre of that profession
+will be tarnished: first its reputation will be lessened, and then its
+power will be abridged. This is the process through which Europe is
+actually passing, in regard both to the church and to the army. The
+evidence, so far as the ecclesiastical profession is concerned, will be
+found in another part of this work. The evidence respecting the military
+profession is equally decisive. For although that profession has in
+modern Europe produced a few men of undoubted genius, their number is so
+extremely small, as to amaze us at the dearth of original ability. That
+the military class, taken as a whole, has a tendency to degenerate, will
+become still more obvious if we compare long periods of time. In the
+ancient world, the leading warriors were not only possessed of
+considerable accomplishments, but were comprehensive thinkers in
+politics as well as in war, and were in every respect the first
+characters of their age. Thus--to give only a few specimens from a
+single people--we find that the three most successful statesmen Greece
+ever produced were Solon, Themistocles, and Epaminondas,--all of whom
+were distinguished military commanders. Socrates, supposed by some to be
+the wisest of the ancients, was a soldier; and so was Plato; and so was
+Antisthenes, the celebrated founder of the Cynics. Archytas, who gave a
+new direction to the Pythagorean philosophy; and Melissus, who developed
+the Eleatic philosophy--were both of them well-known generals, famous
+alike in literature and in war. Among the most eminent orators,
+Pericles, Alcibiades, Andocides, Demosthenes, and Æschines were all
+members of the military profession; as also were the two greatest tragic
+writers, Æschylus and Sophocles. Archilochus, who is said to have
+invented iambic verses, and whom Horace took as a model, was a soldier;
+and the same profession could likewise boast of Tyrtæus, one of the
+founders of elegiac poetry, and of Alcæus, one of the best composers of
+lyric poetry. The most philosophic of all the Greek historians was
+certainly Thucydides; but he, as well as Xenophon and Polybius, held
+high military appointments, and on more than one occasion succeeded in
+changing the fortunes of war. In the midst of the hurry and turmoil of
+camps, these eminent men cultivated their minds to the highest point
+that the knowledge of that age would allow: and so wide is the range of
+their thoughts, and such the beauty and dignity of their style, that
+their works are read by thousands who care nothing about the sieges and
+battles in which they were engaged.
+
+These were among the ornaments of the military profession in the ancient
+world; and all of them wrote in the same language, and were read by the
+same people. But in the modern world this identical profession,
+including many millions of men, and covering the whole of Europe, has
+never been able, since the sixteenth century, to produce ten authors who
+have reached the first class either as writers or as thinkers. Descartes
+is an instance of an European soldier combining the two qualities; he
+being as remarkable for the exquisite beauty of his style as for the
+depth and originality of his inquiries. This, however, is a solitary
+case; and there is, I believe, no second one of a modern military writer
+thus excelling in both departments. Certainly, the English army, during
+the last two hundred and fifty years, affords no example of it, and has,
+in fact, only possessed two authors, Raleigh and Napier, whose works are
+recognized as models, and are studied merely for their intrinsic merit.
+Still, this is simply in reference to style; and these two historians,
+notwithstanding their skill in composition, have never been reputed
+profound thinkers on difficult subjects, nor have they added anything of
+moment to the stock of our knowledge. In the same way, among the
+ancients, the most eminent soldiers were likewise the most eminent
+politicians, and the best leaders of the army were generally the best
+governors of the state. But here, again, the progress of society has
+wrought so great a change, that for a long period instances of this have
+been excessively rare. Even Gustavus Adolphus and Frederick the Great
+failed ignominiously in their domestic policy, and showed themselves as
+short-sighted in the arts of peace as they were sagacious in the arts of
+war. Cromwell, Washington, and Napoleon are, perhaps, the only
+first-rate modern warriors of whom it can be fairly said, that they were
+equally competent to govern a kingdom and command an army. And, if we
+look at England as furnishing a familiar illustration, we see this
+remark exemplified in our two greatest generals, Marlborough and
+Wellington. Marlborough was a man not only of the most idle and
+frivolous pursuits, but was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies
+made him the ridicule of his contemporaries; and of politics he had no
+other idea but to gain the favour of the sovereign by flattering his
+mistress, to desert the brother of that sovereign at his utmost need,
+and afterwards, by a double treachery, turn against his next benefactor,
+and engage in a criminal, as well as a foolish, correspondence with the
+very man whom a few years before he had infamously abandoned. These were
+the characteristics of the greatest conqueror of his age, the hero of a
+hundred fights, the victor of Blenheim and of Ramilies. As to our other
+great warrior, it is indeed true that the name of Wellington should
+never be pronounced by an Englishman without gratitude and respect:
+these feelings are, however, due solely to his vast military services,
+the importance of which it would ill become us to forget. But whoever
+has studied the civil history of England during the present century
+knows full well that this military chief, who in the field shone without
+a rival, and who, to his still greater glory be it said, possessed an
+integrity of purpose, an unflinching honesty, and a high moral feeling,
+which could not be surpassed, was nevertheless utterly unequal to the
+complicated exigencies of political life. It is notorious, that in his
+views of the most important legislative measures he was always in the
+wrong. It is notorious, and the evidence of it stands recorded in our
+Parliamentary Debates, that every great measure which was carried, every
+great improvement, every great step in reform, every concession to the
+popular wishes, was strenuously opposed by the Duke of Wellington,
+became law in spite of his opposition, and after his mournful
+declarations that by such means the security of England would be
+seriously imperilled. Yet there is now hardly a forward schoolboy who
+does not know that to these very measures the present stability of our
+country is mainly owing. Experience, the great test of wisdom, has
+amply proved, that those vast schemes of reform, which the Duke of
+Wellington spent his political life in opposing, were, I will not say
+expedient or advisable, but were indispensably necessary. That policy of
+resisting the popular will which he constantly advised is precisely the
+policy which has been pursued, since the Congress of Vienna, in every
+monarchy except our own. The result of that policy is written for our
+instruction: it is written in that great explosion of popular passion,
+which in the moment of its wrath upset the proudest thrones, destroyed
+princely families, ruined noble houses, desolated beautiful cities. And
+if the counsel of our great general had been followed, if the just
+demands of the people had been refused--this same lesson would have been
+written in the annals of our own land; and we should most assuredly have
+been unable to escape the consequence of that terrible catastrophe, in
+which the ignorance and selfishness of rulers did, only a few years ago,
+involve a large part of the civilized world.
+
+Thus striking is the contrast between the military genius of ancient
+times, and the military genius of modern Europe. The causes of this
+decay are clearly traceable to the circumstance that, owing to the
+immense increase of intellectual employments, few men of ability will
+now enter a profession into which, in antiquity, men of ability eagerly
+crowded, as supplying the best means of exercising those faculties
+which, in more civilized countries, are turned to a better account.
+This, indeed, is a very important change; and thus to transfer the most
+powerful intellects from the arts of war to the arts of peace, has been
+the slow work of many centuries, the gradual, but constant,
+encroachments of advancing knowledge. To write the history of those
+encroachments would be to write the history of the human intellect--a
+task impossible for any single man adequately to perform. But the
+subject is one of such interest, and has been so little studied, that
+though I have already carried this analysis farther than I had intended,
+I cannot refrain from noticing what appear to me to be the three leading
+ways in which the warlike spirit of the ancient world has been weakened
+by the progress of European knowledge.
+
+The first of these arose out of the invention of Gunpowder; which,
+though a warlike contrivance, has in its results been eminently
+serviceable to the interests of peace.[340] This important invention is
+said to have been made in the thirteenth century;[341] but was not in
+common use until the fourteenth, or even the beginning of the fifteenth,
+century. Scarcely had it come into operation, when it worked a great
+change in the whole scheme and practice of war. Before this time, it was
+considered the duty of nearly every citizen to be prepared to enter the
+military service, for the purpose either of defending his own country,
+or of attacking others.[342] Standing armies were entirely unknown; and
+in their place there existed a rude and barbarous militia, always ready
+for battle, and always unwilling to engage in those peaceful pursuits
+which were then universally despised. Nearly every man being a soldier,
+the military profession, as such, had no separate existence; or, to
+speak more properly, the whole of Europe composed one great army, in
+which all other professions were merged. To this the only exception was
+the ecclesiastical profession; but even that was affected by the general
+tendency, and it was not at all uncommon to see large bodies of troops
+led to the field by bishops and abbots, to most of whom the arts of war
+were in those days perfectly familiar.[343] At all events, between these
+two professions men were necessarily divided: the only avocations were
+war and theology; and if you refused to enter the church, you were bound
+to serve in the army. As a natural consequence, everything of real
+importance was altogether neglected. There were, indeed, many priests
+and many warriors, many sermons and many battles.[344] But, on the other
+hand, there was neither trade, nor commerce, nor manufactures; there was
+no science, no literature: the useful arts were entirely unknown; and
+even the highest ranks of society were unacquainted, not only with the
+most ordinary comforts, but with the commonest decencies of civilized
+life.
+
+  [340] The consequences of the invention of gunpowder are considered very
+        superficially by Frederick Schlegel (_Lectures on the History of
+        Literature_, vol. ii. pp. 37, 38), and by Dugald Stewart
+        (_Philosophy of the Mind_, vol. i. p. 262). They are examined
+        with much greater ability, though by no means exhaustively, in
+        _Smith's Wealth of Nations_, book v. chap. i. pp. 292, 296, 297;
+        _Herder's Ideen zur Geschichte der Menschheit_, vol. iv. p. 301;
+        _Hallam's Middle Ages_, vol. ii. p. 470.
+
+  [341] From the following authorities, it appears impossible to trace it
+        further back than the thirteenth century; and it is doubtful
+        whether the Arabs were, as is commonly supposed, the inventors:
+        _Humboldt's Cosmos_, vol. ii. p. 590; _Koch_, _Tableaux des
+        Révolutions_, vol. i. p. 242; _Beckmann's History of Inventions_,
+        1846, vol. ii. p. 505; _Histoire Lit. de la France_, vol. xx. p.
+        236; _Thomson's History of Chemistry_, vol. i. p. 36; _Hallam's
+        Middle Ages_, vol. i. p. 341. The statements in _Erman's
+        Siberia_, vol. i. pp. 370, 371, are more positive than the
+        evidence we are possessed of will justify; but there can be no
+        doubt that a sort of gunpowder was at an early period used in
+        China, and in other parts of Asia.
+
+  [342] _Vattel, le Droit des Gens_, vol. ii. p. 129; _Lingard's History
+        of England_, vol. ii. pp. 356, 357. Among the Anglo-Saxons, 'all
+        free men and proprietors of land, except the ministers of
+        religion, were trained to the use of arms, and always held ready
+        to take the field at a moment's warning.' _Eccleston's English
+        Antiquities_, p. 62. 'There was no distinction between the
+        soldier and the citizen.' _Palgrave's Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth_,
+        vol. i. p. 200.
+
+  [343] On these warlike ecclesiastics, compare _Grose's Military Antiq._
+        vol. i. pp. 67-8; _Lingard's Hist. of England_, vol. ii. pp. 26,
+        183, vol. iii. p. 14; _Turner's Hist. of England_, vol. iv. p.
+        458, vol. v. pp. 92, 402, 406; _Mosheim's Eccl. History_, vol. i.
+        pp. 173, 193, 241; _Crichton's Scandinavia_, Edinb. 1838, vol. i.
+        p. 220. Such opponents were the more formidable, because in those
+        happy days it was sacrilege for a layman to lay hands on a
+        bishop. In 1095 his Holiness the Pope caused a council to
+        declare, 'Quòd qui apprehenderit episcopum omnino exlex fiat.'
+        _Matthæi Paris Historia Major_, p. 18. As the context contains no
+        limitation of this, it would follow that a man became spiritually
+        outlawed if he, even in self-defence, took a bishop prisoner.
+
+  [344] As Sharon Turner observes of England under the Anglo-Saxon
+        government, 'war and religion were the absorbing subjects of this
+        period.' _Turner's History of England_, vol. iii. p. 263. And a
+        recent scientific historian says of Europe generally: 'alle
+        Künste und Kenntnisse, die sich nicht auf das edle Kriegs-, Rauf-
+        und Raubhandwerk bezogen, waren überflüssig und schädlich. Nur
+        etwas Theologie war vonnöthen, um die Erde mit dem Himmel zu
+        verbinden.' _Winckler, Geschichte der Botanik_, 1854, p. 56.
+
+But so soon as gunpowder came into use, there was laid the foundation of
+a great change. According to the old system, a man had only to possess,
+what he generally inherited from his father, either a sword or a bow,
+and he was ready equipped for the field.[345] According to the new
+system, new means were required, and the equipment became more costly
+and more difficult. First, there was the supply of gunpowder;[346] then
+there was the possession of muskets, which were expensive weapons, and
+considered difficult to manage.[347] Then, too, there were other
+contrivances to which gunpowder naturally gave rise, such as pistols,
+bombs, mortars, shells, mines, and the like.[348] All these things, by
+increasing the complication of the military art, increased the necessity
+of discipline and practice; while, at the same time, the change that was
+being effected in the ordinary weapons deprived the great majority of
+men of the possibility of procuring them. To suit these altered
+circumstances, a new system was organized: and it was found advisable to
+train up bodies of men for the sole purpose of war, and to separate
+them as much as possible from those other employments in which formerly
+all soldiers were occasionally engaged. Thus it was that there arose
+standing armies; the first of which were formed in the middle of the
+fifteenth century,[349] almost immediately after gunpowder was generally
+known. Thus, too, there arose the custom of employing mercenary troops;
+of which we find a few earlier instances, though the practice was not
+fully established until the latter part of the fourteenth century.[350]
+
+  [345] In 1181, Henry II. of England ordered that every man should have
+        either a sword or bow; which he was not to sell, but leave to his
+        heir: 'cæteri autem omnes haberent wanbasiam, capellum ferreum,
+        lanceam et gladium, vel arcum et sagittas: et prohibuit ne
+        aliquis arma sua venderet vel invadiaret; sed cùm moreretur,
+        daret illa propinquiori hæredi suo.' _Rog. de Hov. Annal. in
+        Scriptores post Bedam_, p. 348 rev. In the reign of Edward I., it
+        was ordered that every man possessing land to the value of forty
+        shillings should keep 'a sword, bow and arrows, and a dagger....
+        Those who were to keep bows and arrows might have them out of the
+        forest.' _Grose's Military Antiquities_, vol. ii. pp. 301, 302.
+        Compare _Geijer's History of the Swedes_, part i. p. 94. Even
+        late in the fifteenth century, there were at the Universities of
+        Oxford and Cambridge, 'in each from four to five thousand
+        scholars, all grown up, carrying swords and bows, and in great
+        part gentry.' _Sir William Hamilton on the History of
+        Universities_, in _Hamilton's Philosoph. Discussions_, p. 414.
+        One of the latest attempts made to revive archery was a warrant
+        issued by Elizabeth in 1596, and printed by Mr. Collier in the
+        _Egerton Papers_, pp. 217-220, edit. Camden Soc. 1840. In the
+        south-west of England, bows and arrows did not finally disappear
+        from the muster-rolls till 1599; and in the meantime the musket
+        gained ground. See _Yonge's Diary_, edit. Camden Soc. 1848,
+        p. xvii.
+
+  [346] It is stated by many writers that no gunpowder was manufactured in
+        England until the reign of Elizabeth. _Camden's Elizabeth_, in
+        _Kennett's History_, vol. ii. p. 388, London, 1719; _Strickland's
+        Queens of England_, vol. vi. p. 223, Lond. 1843; _Grose's
+        Military Antiquities_, vol. i. p. 378. But Sharon Turner
+        (_History of England_, vol. vi. pp. 490, 491, Lond. 1839) has
+        shown, from an order of Richard III. in the Harleian manuscripts,
+        that it was made in England in 1483; and Mr. Eccleston (_English
+        Antiquities_, p. 182, Lond. 1847) states, that the English both
+        made and exported it as early as 1411: compare p. 202. At all
+        events, it long remained a costly article; and even in the reign
+        of Charles I., I find a complaint of its dearness, 'whereby the
+        train-bands are much discouraged in their exercising.'
+        _Parliament. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 655. In 1686, it appears from the
+        _Clarendon Correspondence_, vol. i. p. 413, that the wholesale
+        price ranged from about 2_l._ 10_s._ to 3_l._ per barrel. On the
+        expense of making it in the present century, see _Liebig and
+        Kopp's Reports on Chemistry_, vol. iii. p. 325, Lond. 1852.
+
+  [347] The muskets were such miserable machines, that, in the middle of
+        the fifteenth century, it took a quarter of an hour to charge and
+        fire one. _Hallam's Middle Ages_, vol. i. p. 342. Grose
+        (_Military Antiquities_, vol. i. p. 146, vol. ii. pp. 292, 337)
+        says, that the first mention of muskets in England is in 1471;
+        and that rests for them did not become obsolete until the reign
+        of Charles I. In the recent edition of _Beckmann's History of
+        Inventions_, Lond. 1846, vol. ii. p. 535, it is strangely
+        supposed that muskets were 'first used at the battle of Pavia.'
+        Compare _Daniel_, _Histoire de la Milice_, vol. i. p. 464, with
+        _Smythe's Military Discourses_, in _Ellis's Original Letters_, p.
+        53, edit. Camden Society.
+
+  [348] Pistols are said to have been invented early in the sixteenth
+        century. _Grose's Military Antiq._ vol. i. pp. 102, 146.
+        Gunpowder was first employed in mining towns in 1487. _Prescott's
+        Hist. of Ferdinand and Isabella_, vol. ii. p. 32; _Koch_,
+        _Tableaux des Révolutions_, vol. i. p. 243; _Daniel_, _Histoire
+        de la Milice Française_, vol. i. p. 574. Daniel (_Milice
+        Française_, vol. i. pp. 580, 581) says that bombs were not
+        invented till 1588; and the same thing is asserted in _Biographie
+        Universelle_, vol. xv. p. 248: but, according to Grose (_Military
+        Antiq._ vol. i. p. 387), they are mentioned by Valturinus in
+        1472. On the general condition of the French artillery in the
+        sixteenth century, see _Relations des Ambassadeurs Vénitiens_,
+        vol. i. pp. 94, 476, 478, Paris, 1838, 4to: a curious and
+        valuable publication. There is some doubt as to the exact period
+        in which cannons were first known; but they were certainly used
+        in war before the middle of the fourteenth century. See _Bohlen_,
+        _das alte Indien_, vol. ii. p. 63; _Daniel_, _Histoire de la
+        Milice_, vol. i. pp. 441, 442.
+
+  [349] _Blackstone's Commentaries_, vol. i. p. 413; _Daniel, Hist. de la
+        Milice_, vol. i. p. 210, vol. ii. pp. 491, 493; _[OE]uvres de
+        Turgot_, vol. viii. p. 228.
+
+  [350] The leading facts respecting the employment of mercenary troops
+        are indicated with great judgment by Mr. Hallam, in his _Middle
+        Ages_, vol. i. p. 328-337.
+
+The importance of this movement was soon seen, by the change it effected
+in the classification of European society. The regular troops being,
+from their discipline, more serviceable against the enemy, and also more
+immediately under the control of the government, it naturally followed
+that, as their merits became understood, the old militia should fall,
+first into disrepute, then be neglected, and then sensibly diminish. At
+the same time, this diminution in the number of undisciplined soldiers
+deprived the country of a part of its warlike resources, and therefore
+made it necessary to pay more attention to the disciplined ones, and to
+confine them more exclusively to their military duties. Thus it was that
+a division was first broadly established between the soldier and the
+civilian; and there arose a separate military profession,[351] which,
+consisting of a comparatively small number of the total amount of
+citizens, left the remainder to settle in some other pursuit.[352] In
+this way immense bodies of men were gradually weaned from their old
+warlike habits; and being, as it were, forced into civil life, their
+energies became available for the general purposes of society, and for
+the cultivation of those arts of peace which had formerly been
+neglected. The result was, that the European mind, instead of being, as
+heretofore, solely occupied either with war or with theology, now struck
+out into a middle path, and created those great branches of knowledge to
+which modern civilization owes its origin. In each successive generation
+this tendency towards a separate organization was more marked; the
+utility of a division of labour became clearly recognized; and by this
+means knowledge itself advanced, the authority of this middle or
+intellectual class correspondingly increased. Each addition to its power
+lessened the weight of the other two classes, and checked those
+superstitious feelings and that love of war, on which, in an early state
+of society, all enthusiasm is concentrated. The evidence of the growth
+and diffusion of this intellectual principle is so full and decisive,
+that it would be possible, by combining all the branches of knowledge,
+to trace nearly the whole of its consecutive steps. At present, it is
+enough to say, that, taking a general view, this third, or intellectual,
+class, first displayed an independent, though still a vague, activity in
+the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; that in the sixteenth century,
+this activity, assuming a distinct form, showed itself in religious
+outbreaks; that in the seventeenth century, its energy, becoming more
+practical, was turned against the abuses of government, and caused a
+series of rebellions, from which hardly any part of Europe escaped; and
+finally, that in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it has
+extended its aim to every department of public and private life,
+diffusing education, teaching legislators, controlling kings, and, above
+all, settling on a sure foundation that supremacy of Public Opinion, to
+which not only constitutional princes, but even the most despotic
+sovereigns, are now rendered strictly amenable.
+
+  [351] Grose (_Military Antiquities_, vol. i. pp. 310, 311) says, that
+        until the sixteenth century, English soldiers had no professional
+        dress, but 'were distinguished by badges of their leaders' arms,
+        similar to those now worn by watermen.' It was also early in the
+        sixteenth century that there first arose a separate military
+        literature. _Daniel_, _Hist. de la Milice_, vol. i. p. 380: 'Les
+        auteurs, qui ont écrit en détail sur la discipline militaire: or
+        ce n'est guères que sous François I, et sous l'Empereur Charles
+        V, que les Italiens, les François, les Espagnols et les Allemans
+        ont commencé à écrire sur ce sujet.'
+
+  [352] The change from the time when every layman was a soldier, is very
+        remarkable. Adam Smith (_Wealth of Nations_, book v. chap. i. p.
+        291) says, 'Among the civilized nations of modern Europe, it is
+        commonly computed, that not more than the one-hundredth part of
+        the inhabitants of any country can be employed as soldiers,
+        without ruin to the country which pays the expense of their
+        service.' The same proportion is given in _Sadler's Law of
+        Population_, vol. i. p. 292; and in _Grandeur et Décadence des
+        Romains_, chap. iii.--_[OE]uvres de Montesquieu_, p. 130: also in
+        _Sharpe's History of Egypt_, vol. i. p. 105; and in _Alison's
+        History of Europe_, vol. xii. p. 318.
+
+These, indeed, are vast questions; and, without some knowledge of them,
+no one can understand the present condition of European society, or form
+the least idea of its future prospects. It is, however, sufficient that
+the reader can now perceive the way in which so slight a matter as the
+invention of gunpowder diminished the warlike spirit, by diminishing the
+number of persons to whom the practice of war was habitual. There were,
+no doubt, other and collateral circumstances which tended in the same
+direction; but the use of gunpowder was the most effectual, because, by
+increasing the difficulty and expense of war, it made a separate
+military profession indispensable; and thus, curtailing the action of
+the military spirit, left an overplus, an unemployed energy, which soon
+found its way to the pursuits of peace, infused into them a new life,
+and began to control that lust of conquest, which, though natural to a
+barbarous people, is the great enemy of knowledge, and is the most fatal
+of those diseased appetites by which even civilized countries are too
+often afflicted.
+
+The second intellectual movement, by which the love of war has been
+lessened, is much more recent, and has not yet produced the whole of its
+natural effects. I allude to the discoveries made by Political Economy:
+a branch of knowledge with which even the wisest of the ancients had not
+the least acquaintance, but which possesses an importance it would be
+difficult to exaggerate, and is, moreover, remarkable, as being the only
+subject immediately connected with the art of government that has yet
+been raised to a science. The practical value of this noble study,
+though perhaps only fully known to the more advanced thinkers, is
+gradually becoming recognized by men of ordinary education: but even
+those by whom it is understood seem to have paid little attention to the
+way in which, by its influence, the interests of peace, and therefore of
+civilization, have been directly promoted.[353] The manner in which this
+has been brought about, I will endeavour to explain, as it will furnish
+another argument in support of that great principle which I wish to
+establish.
+
+  [353] The pacific tendencies of political economy are touched on very
+        briefly in _Blanqui_, _Histoire de l'Economie Politique_, vol.
+        ii. p. 207; and in _Twiss's Progress of Political Economy_,
+        p. 240.
+
+It is well known, that, among the different causes of war, commercial
+jealousy was formerly one of the most conspicuous; and there are
+numerous instances of quarrels respecting the promulgation of some
+particular tariff, or the protection of some favourite manufacture.
+Disputes of this kind were founded upon the very ignorant, but the very
+natural notion, that the advantages of commerce depend upon the balance
+of trade, and that whatever is gained by one country must be lost by
+another. It was believed that wealth is composed entirely of money; and
+that it is, therefore, the essential interest of every people to import
+few commodities and much gold. Whenever this was done, affairs were said
+to be in a sound and healthy state; but, if this was not done, it was
+declared that we were being drained of our resources, and that some
+other country was getting the better of us, and was enriching itself at
+our expense.[354] For this the only remedy was to negotiate a
+commercial treaty, which should oblige the offending nation to take more
+of our commodities, and give us more of their gold: if, however, they
+refused to sign the treaty, it became necessary to bring them to reason;
+and for this purpose an armament was fitted out to attack a people who,
+by lessening our wealth, had deprived us of that money by which alone
+trade could be extended in foreign markets.[355]
+
+  [354] This favourite doctrine is illustrated in a curious 'Discourse,'
+        written in 1578, and printed in _Stow's London_, in which it is
+        laid down, that if our exports exceed our imports, we gain by the
+        trade; but that, if they are less, we lose. _Stow's London_,
+        edit. Thoms, 1842, p. 205. Whenever this balance was disturbed,
+        politicians were thrown into an agony of fear. In 1620, James I.
+        said, in one of his long speeches, 'It's strange that my Mint
+        hath not gone this eight or nine years; but I think the fault of
+        the want of money is the uneven balancing of trade.' _Parl.
+        History_, vol. i. p. 1179; see also the debate 'On the Scarcity
+        of Money,' pp. 1194-1196. In 1620, the House of Commons, in a
+        state of great alarm, passed a resolution, 'That the importation
+        of tobacco out of Spain is one reason of the scarcity of money in
+        this kingdom.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. i. p. 1198. In 1627, it was
+        actually argued in the House of Commons that the Netherlands were
+        being weakened by their trade with the East Indies, because it
+        carried money out of the country! _Parl. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 220.
+        Half a century later, the same principle was advocated by Sir
+        William Temple in his Letters, and also in his Observations upon
+        the United Provinces. _Temple's Works_, vol. i. p. 175, vol. ii.
+        pp. 117, 118.
+
+  [355] In 1672, the celebrated Earl of Shaftesbury, then Lord Chancellor,
+        announced that the time had come when the English must go to war
+        with the Dutch; for that it was 'impossible both should stand
+        upon a balance; and that, if we do not master their trade, they
+        will ours. They or we must truckle. One must and will give the
+        law to the other. There is no compounding, where the contest is
+        for the trade of the whole world.' _Somers' Tracts_, vol. viii.
+        p. 39. A few months later, still insisting on the propriety of
+        the war, he gave as one of his reasons that it 'was necessary to
+        the trade of England that there should be a fair adjustment of
+        commerce in the East Indies.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. iv. p. 587. In
+        1701, Stepney, a diplomatist and one of the lords of trade,
+        published an essay, strongly insisting on the benefits which
+        would accrue to English commerce by a war with France. _Somers'
+        Tracts_, vol. xi. pp. 199, 217; and he says, p. 205, that one of
+        the consequences of peace with France would be 'the utter ruin
+        and destruction of our trade.' See also, in vol. xiii. p. 688,
+        the remarks on the policy of William III. In 1743, Lord
+        Hardwicke, one of the most eminent men of his time, said, in the
+        House of Lords, 'If our wealth is diminished, it is time to ruin
+        the commerce of that nation which has driven us from the markets
+        of the Continent--by sweeping the seas of their ships, and by
+        blockading their ports.' _Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors_,
+        vol. v. p. 89.
+
+This misconception of the true nature of barter was formerly
+universal;[356] and being adopted even by the ablest politicians, was
+not only an immediate cause of war, but increased those feelings of
+natural hatred by which war is encouraged; each country thinking that it
+had a direct interest in diminishing the wealth of its neighbours.[357]
+In the seventeenth, or even late in the sixteenth century, there were,
+indeed, one or two eminent thinkers who exposed some of the fallacies
+upon which this opinion was based.[358] But their arguments found no
+favour with those politicians by whom European affairs were then
+administered. It is doubtful if they were known; and it is certain that,
+if known, they were despised by statesmen and legislators, who, from the
+constancy of their practical occupations, cannot be supposed to have
+sufficient leisure to master each new discovery that is successively
+made; and who in consequence are, as a body, always in the rear of their
+age. The result was, that they went blundering on in the old track,
+believing that no commerce could flourish without their interference,
+troubling that commerce by repeated and harassing regulations, and
+taking for granted that it was the duty of every government to benefit
+the trade of their own people by injuring the trade of others.[359]
+
+  [356] In regard to the seventeenth century, see _Mill's History of
+        India_, vol. i. pp. 41, 42. To this I may add, that even Locke had
+        very confused notions respecting the use of money in trade. See
+        _Essay on Money_, in _Locke's Works_, vol. iv.; and in particular
+        pp. 9, 10, 12, 20, 21, 49-52. Berkeley, profound thinker as he
+        was, fell into the same errors, and assumes the necessity of
+        maintaining the balance of trade, and lessening our imports in
+        proportion as we lessen our exports. See the _Querist_, Nos.
+        xcix. clxi., in _Berkeley's Works_, vol. ii. pp. 246, 250: see
+        also his proposal for a sumptuary law, in _Essay towards
+        Preventing the Ruin of Great Britain_, in _Works_, vol. ii. p.
+        190. The economical views of Montesquieu (_Esprit des Lois_,
+        livre xx. chap. xii. in _[OE]uvres_, p. 353) are as hopelessly
+        wrong; while Vattel (_Droit des Gens_, vol. i. pp. 111, 117, 118,
+        206) goes out of his way to praise the mischievous interference
+        of the English government, which he recommends as a pattern to
+        other states.
+
+  [357] The Earl of Bristol, a man of some ability, told the House of
+        Lords, in 1642, that it was a great advantage to England for
+        other countries to go to war with each other; because by that
+        means we should get their money, or, as he called it, their
+        'wealth.' See his speech, in _Parl. History_, vol. ii. pp.
+        1274-1279.
+
+  [358] Serra, who wrote in 1613, is said to have been the first to prove
+        the absurdity of discouraging the exportation of the precious
+        metals. See _Twiss on the Progress of Political Economy_, pp. 8,
+        12, 13. But I believe that the earliest approach towards modern
+        economical discoveries is a striking essay published in 1581, and
+        ascribed to William Stafford. It will be found in the _Harleian
+        Miscellany_, vol. ix. pp. 139-192, edit. Park, 1812; and the
+        title, _Brief Conceipt of English Policy_, gives an inadequate
+        idea of what is, on the whole, the most important work on the
+        theory of politics which had then appeared: since the author not
+        only displays an insight into the nature of price and value, such
+        as no previous thinker possessed, but he points out clearly the
+        causes of that system of enclosures which is the leading
+        economical fact in the reign of Elizabeth, and is intimately
+        connected with the rise of the poor-laws. Some account of this
+        essay is given by Dr. Twiss; but the original is easily
+        accessible, and should be read by every student of English
+        history. Among other heretical propositions, it recommends free
+        trade in corn.
+
+  [359] In regard to the interference of the English legislature, it is
+        stated by Mr. M'Culloch (_Polit. Econ._ p. 269), on the authority
+        of a committee of the House of Commons, that before the year
+        1820, 'no fewer than two thousand laws with respect to commerce
+        had been passed at different periods.' It may be confidently
+        asserted, that every one of those laws was an unmitigated evil,
+        since no trade, and indeed no interest of any kind, can be
+        protected by government without inflicting immeasurably greater
+        loss upon the unprotected interests and trades; while, if the
+        protection is universal, the loss will be universal. Some
+        striking instances of the absurd laws which have been passed
+        respecting trade, are collected in _Barrington's Observations on
+        the Statutes_, pp. 279-285. Indeed, it was considered necessary
+        that every parliament should do something in this way; and
+        Charles II., in one of his speeches, says, 'I pray, contrive any
+        good short bills which may improve the industry of the nation
+        ... and so God bles your councils.' _Parl. History_, vol. iv. p.
+        291. Compare the remarks on the fishery-trade, in _Somers'
+        Tracts_, vol. xii. p. 33.
+
+But in the eighteenth century, a long course of events, which I shall
+hereafter trace, prepared the way for a spirit of improvement, and a
+desire for reform, of which the world had then seen no example. This
+great movement displayed its energy in every department of knowledge;
+and now it was that a successful attempt was first made to raise
+Political Economy to a science, by discovering the laws which regulate
+the creation and diffusion of wealth. In the year 1776, Adam Smith
+published his _Wealth of Nations_; which, looking at its ultimate
+results, is probably the most important book that has ever been written,
+and is certainly the most valuable contribution ever made by a single
+man towards establishing the principles on which government should be
+based. In this great work, the old theory of protection as applied to
+commerce was destroyed in nearly all its parts;[360] the doctrine of the
+balance of trade was not only attacked, but its falsehood was
+demonstrated; and innumerable absurdities, which had been accumulating
+for ages, were suddenly swept away.[361]
+
+  [360] To this the only exception of any moment is the view taken of the
+        usury-laws, which Jeremy Bentham has the honour of demolishing.
+
+  [361] Before Adam Smith, the principal merit is due to Hume; but the
+        works of that profound thinker were too fragmentary to produce
+        much effect. Indeed, Hume, notwithstanding his vast powers, was
+        inferior to Smith in comprehensiveness as well as in industry.
+
+If the _Wealth of Nations_ had appeared in any preceding century, it
+would have shared the fate of the great works of Stafford and Serra; and
+although the principles which it advocated would, no doubt, have excited
+the attention of speculative thinkers, they would, in all probability,
+have produced no effect on practical politicians, or, at all events,
+would only have exercised an indirect and precarious influence. But the
+diffusion of knowledge had now become so general, that even our ordinary
+legislators were, in some degree, prepared for these great truths,
+which, in a former period, they would have despised as idle novelties.
+The result was, that the doctrines of Adam Smith soon found their way
+into the House of Commons;[362] and, being adopted by a few of the
+leading members, were listened to with astonishment by that great
+assembly, whose opinions were mainly regulated by the wisdom of their
+ancestors, and who were loth to believe that anything could be
+discovered by the moderns which was not already known to the ancients.
+But it is in vain that such men as these always set themselves up to
+resist the pressure of advancing knowledge. No great truth which has
+once been found has ever afterwards been lost; nor has any important
+discovery yet been made which has not eventually carried everything
+before it. Even so, the principles of Free Trade, as demonstrated by
+Adam Smith, and all the consequences which flow from them, were vainly
+struggled against by the most overwhelming majorities of both Houses of
+Parliament. Year by year the great truth made its way; always advancing,
+never receding.[363] The majority was at first deserted by a few men of
+ability, then by ordinary men, then it became a minority, then even the
+minority began to dwindle; and at the present day, eighty years after
+the publication of Smith's _Wealth of Nations_, there is not to be found
+any one of tolerable education who is not ashamed of holding opinions
+which, before the time of Adam Smith, were universally received.
+
+  [362] The first notice I have observed of the _Wealth of Nations_ in
+        Parliament is in 1783; and between then and the end of the
+        century it is referred to several times, and latterly with
+        increasing frequency. See _Parliamentary History_, vol. xxiii. p.
+        1152, vol. xxvi. pp. 481, 1035, vol. xxvii. p. 385, vol. xxix.
+        pp. 834, 905, 982, 1065, vol. xxx. pp. 330, 333, vol. xxxii. p.
+        2, vol. xxxiii. pp. 353, 386, 522, 548, 549, 563, 774, 777, 778,
+        822, 823, 824, 825, 827, 1249, vol. xxxiv. pp. 11, 97, 98, 141,
+        142, 304, 473, 850, 901, 902, 903. It is possible that one or two
+        passages may have been overlooked; but I believe that these are
+        the only instances of Adam Smith being referred to during
+        seventeen years. From a passage in _Pellew's Life of Sidmouth_,
+        vol. i. p. 51, it appears that even Addington was studying Adam
+        Smith in 1787.
+
+  [363] In 1797, Pulteney, in one of his financial speeches, appealed to
+        'the authority of Dr. Smith, who, it was well said, would
+        persuade the present generation and govern the next.' _Parl.
+        Hist._ vol. xxxiii. p. 778. In 1813, Dugald Stewart (_Philosophy
+        of the Human Mind_, vol. ii. p. 472) announced that the doctrine
+        of free trade 'has now, I believe, become the prevailing creed of
+        thinking men all over Europe.' And in 1816, Ricardo said, 'The
+        reasoning by which the liberty of trade is supported is so
+        powerful, that it is daily obtaining converts. It is with
+        pleasure that I see the progress which this great principle is
+        making amongst those whom we should have expected to cling the
+        longest to old prejudices.' _Proposals for an Economical
+        Currency_, in _Ricardo's Works_, p. 407.
+
+Such is the way in which great thinkers control the affairs of men, and
+by their discoveries regulate the march of nations. And truly the
+history of this one triumph alone should be enough to repress the
+presumption of statesmen and legislators, who so exaggerate the
+importance of their craft as to ascribe great results to their own
+shifting and temporary contrivances. For, whence did they derive that
+knowledge, of which they are always ready to assume the merit? How did
+they obtain their opinions? How did they get at their principles? These
+are the elements of their success; and these they can only learn from
+their masters--from those great teachers, who, moved by the inspiration
+of genius, fertilize the world with their discoveries. Well may it be
+said of Adam Smith, and said, too, without fear of contradiction, that
+this solitary Scotchman has, by the publication of one single work,
+contributed more towards the happiness of man, than has been effected by
+the united abilities of all the statesmen and legislators of whom
+history has preserved an authentic account.
+
+The result of these great discoveries I am not here concerned to
+examine, except so far as they aided in diminishing the energy of the
+warlike spirit. And the way in which they effected this may be easily
+stated. As long as it was generally believed that the wealth of a
+country consists of its gold, it was of course also believed that the
+sole object of trade is to increase the influx of the precious metals;
+it, therefore, became natural that Government should be expected to take
+measures by which such influx could be secured. This, however, could
+only be done by draining other countries of their gold; a result which
+they, for precisely the same reasons, strenuously resisted. The
+consequence was, that any idea of real reciprocity was impossible: every
+commercial treaty was an attempt made by one nation to outwit
+another;[364] every new tariff was a declaration of hostility; and that
+which ought to be the most peaceable of all pursuits became one of the
+causes of those national jealousies and national animosities, by which
+war is mainly promoted.[365] But when it was once clearly understood
+that gold and silver are not wealth, but are merely the representatives
+of wealth; when men began to see that wealth itself solely consists of
+the value which skill and labour can add to the raw material, and that
+money is of no possible use to a nation except to measure and circulate
+their riches; when these great truths were recognized,[366] all the old
+notions respecting the balance of trade, and the supreme importance of
+the precious metals, at once fell to the ground. These enormous errors
+being dispersed, the true theory of barter was easily worked out. It was
+perceived, that if commerce is allowed to be free, its advantages will
+be shared by every country which engages in it; that, in the absence of
+monopoly, the benefits of trade are of necessity reciprocal; and that,
+so far from depending on the amount of gold received, they simply arise
+from the facility with which a nation gets rid of those commodities
+which it can produce most cheaply, and receives in return those
+commodities which it could only produce at a great expense, but which
+the other nation can, from the skill of its workmen, or from the bounty
+of nature, afford to supply at a lower rate. From this it followed,
+that, in a mercantile point of view, it would be as absurd to attempt to
+impoverish a people with whom we trade, as it would be in a tradesman to
+wish for the insolvency of a rich and frequent customer. The result is,
+that the commercial spirit, which formerly was often warlike, is now
+invariably pacific.[367] And although it is perfectly true that not one
+merchant out of a hundred is familiar with the arguments on which these
+economical discoveries are founded, that does not prevent the effect
+which the discoveries themselves produce on his own mind. The mercantile
+class is, like every other, acted upon by causes which only a few
+members of that class are able to perceive. Thus, for instance, of all
+the innumerable opponents of protection, there are very few indeed who
+can give valid reasons to justify their opposition. But this does not
+prevent the opposition from taking place. For an immense majority of men
+always follow with implicit submission the spirit of their own time; and
+the spirit of the time is merely its knowledge, and the direction that
+knowledge takes. As, in the ordinary avocations of daily life, everyone
+is benefited, in the increase of his comforts, and of his general
+security, by the progress of many arts and sciences, of which perhaps he
+does not even know the name, just so is the mercantile class benefited
+by those great economical discoveries which, in the course of two
+generations, have already effected a complete change in the commercial
+legislation of this country, and which are now operating slowly, but
+steadily, upon those other European states where, public opinion being
+less powerful, it is more difficult to establish great truths and
+extirpate old abuses. While, therefore, it is perfectly true, that among
+merchants, a comparatively small number are acquainted with political
+economy, it is not the less true that they owe a large part of their
+wealth to the political economists; who, by removing the obstacles with
+which the ignorance of successive governments had impeded trade, have
+now settled on a solid foundation that commercial prosperity which is by
+no means the least of our national glories. Most assuredly is it also
+true, that this same intellectual movement has lessened the chance of
+war, by ascertaining the principles which ought to regulate our
+commercial relations with foreign countries; by proving, not only the
+inutility, but the positive mischief, caused by interfering with them;
+and finally, by exploding those long-established errors, which, inducing
+men to believe that nations are the natural enemies of each other,
+encouraged those evil feelings, and fostered those national jealousies,
+to the strength of which the military spirit owed no small share of its
+former influence.
+
+  [364] Sir Theodore Janson, in his _General Maxims of Trade_, published
+        in 1713, lays it down as a principle universally recognized, that
+        'All the nations of Europe seem to strive who shall outwit one
+        another in point of trade; and they concur in this maxim, that
+        the less they consume of foreign commodities, the better it is
+        for them.' _Somers' Tracts_, vol. xiii. p. 292. Thus, too, in a
+        _Dialogue between an Englishman and a Dutchman_, published in
+        1700, the Dutchman is represented as boasting that his government
+        had 'forced treaties of commerce exclusive to all other nations.'
+        _Somers' Tracts_, vol. xi. p. 376. This is the system of 'narrow
+        selfishness' denounced by Dr. Story, in his noble work, _Conflict
+        of Laws_, 1841, p. 32.
+
+  [365] 'It cannot, indeed, be denied that mistaken views of commerce,
+        like those so frequently entertained of religion, have been the
+        cause of many wars and of much bloodshed.' _M'Culloch's
+        Principles of Political Economy_, p. 140. See also pp. 37, 38:
+        'It has made each nation regard the welfare of its neighbours as
+        incompatible with its own: hence the reciprocal desire of
+        injuring and impoverishing each other; and hence that spirit of
+        commercial rivalry, which has been the immediate or remote cause
+        of the greater number of modern wars.'
+
+  [366] On the rapid diffusion during the present century of the
+        principles worked out by the economists, compare _Laing's
+        Sweden_, pp. 356-358, with a note to the last edition of _Malthus
+        on Population_, 1826, vol. ii. pp. 354, 355.
+
+  [367] 'The feelings of rival tradesmen, prevailing among nations,
+        overruled for centuries all sense of the general community of
+        advantage which commercial countries derive from the prosperity
+        of one another; and that commercial spirit, which is now one of
+        the strongest obstacles to wars, was during a certain period of
+        European history their principal cause.' _Mill's Political
+        Economy_, 1849, vol. ii. p. 221. This great change in the
+        feelings of the commercial classes did not begin before the
+        present century, and has not been visible to ordinary observers
+        until the last five-and-twenty or thirty years; but it was
+        foretold in a remarkable passage written by Herder in 1787; see
+        his _Ideen zur Geschichte_, vol. iii. pp. 292, 293.
+
+The third great cause by which the love of war has been weakened, is the
+way in which discoveries respecting the application of Steam to the
+purposes of travelling have facilitated the intercourse between
+different countries, and thus aided in destroying that ignorant contempt
+which one nation is too apt to feel for another. Thus, for instance, the
+miserable and impudent falsehoods which a large class of English writers
+formerly directed against the morals and private character of the
+French, and, to their shame be it said, even against the chastity of
+French women, tended not a little to embitter the angry feelings then
+existing between the two first countries of Europe; irritating the
+English against French vices, irritating the French against English
+calumnies. In the same way, there was a time when every honest
+Englishman firmly believed that he could beat ten Frenchmen; a class of
+beings whom he held in sovereign contempt, as a lean and stunted race,
+who drank claret instead of brandy, who lived entirely off frogs;
+miserable infidels, who heard mass every Sunday, who bowed down before
+idols, and who even worshipped the Pope. On the other hand, the French
+were taught to despise us, as rude unlettered barbarians, without either
+taste or humanity; surly, ill-conditioned men, living in an unhappy
+climate, where a perpetual fog, only varied by rain, prevented the sun
+from ever being seen; suffering from so deep and inveterate a
+melancholy, that physicians had called it the English spleen; and under
+the influence of this cruel malady constantly committing suicide,
+particularly in November, when we were well known to hang and shoot
+ourselves by thousands.[368]
+
+  [368] That there are more suicides in gloomy weather than in fine
+        weather used always to be taken for granted, and was a favourite
+        topic with the French wits, who were never weary of expatiating
+        on our love of self-murder, and on the relation between it and
+        our murky climate. Unfortunately for such speculations, the fact
+        is exactly opposite to what is generally supposed, and we have
+        decisive evidence that there are more suicides in summer than in
+        winter. See _Quetelet sur l'Homme_, vol. ii. pp. 152, 158;
+        _Tissot de la Manie du Suicide_, Paris, 1840, pp. 50, 149, 150;
+        _Journal of Statistical Society_, vol. i. p. 102; _Winslow's
+        Anatomy of Suicide_, 1840, pp. 131, 132; _Hawkins's Medical
+        Statistics_, p. 170.
+
+Whoever has looked much into the older literature of France and England,
+knows that these were the opinions which the two first nations of
+Europe, in the ignorance and simplicity of their hearts, held respecting
+each other. But the progress of improvement, by bringing the two
+countries into close and intimate contact, has dissipated these foolish
+prejudices, and taught each people to admire, and, what is still more
+important, to respect each other. And the greater the contact, the
+greater the respect. For, whatever theologians may choose to assert, it
+is certain that mankind at large has far more virtue than vice, and that
+in every country good actions are more frequent than bad ones. Indeed,
+if this were otherwise, the preponderance of evil would long since have
+destroyed the human race, and not even have left a single man to lament
+the degeneracy of his species. An additional proof of this is the fact,
+that the more nations associate with each other, and the more they see
+and know of their fellow-creatures, the more quickly do ancient enmities
+disappear. This is because an enlarged experience proves that mankind is
+not so radically bad as we from our infancy are taught to believe. But
+if vices were really more frequent than virtues, the result would be,
+that the increasing amalgamation of society would increase our bad
+opinion of others; because, though we may love our own vices, we do not
+generally love the vices of our neighbours. So far, however, is this
+from being the actual consequence, that it has always been found that
+those whose extensive knowledge makes them best acquainted with the
+general course of human actions, are precisely those who take the most
+favourable view of them. The greatest observer and the most profound
+thinker is invariably the most lenient judge. It is the solitary
+misanthrope, brooding over his fancied wrongs, who is most prone to
+depreciate the good qualities of our nature, and exaggerate its bad
+ones. Or else it is some foolish and ignorant monk, who, dreaming away
+his existence in an idle solitude, flatters his own vanity by denouncing
+the vices of others; and thus declaiming against the enjoyments of life,
+revenges himself on that society from which by his own superstition he
+is excluded. These are the sort of men who insist most strongly on the
+corruption of our nature, and on the degeneracy into which we have
+fallen. The enormous evil which such opinions have brought about, is
+well understood by those who have studied the history of countries in
+which they are, and have been, most prevalent. Hence it is that, among
+the innumerable benefits derived from advancing knowledge, there are few
+more important than those improved facilities of communication,[369]
+which, by increasing the frequency with which nations and individuals
+are brought into contact, have, to an extraordinary extent, corrected
+their prejudices, raised the opinion which each forms of the other,
+diminished their mutual hostility, and thus diffusing a more favourable
+view of our common nature, have stimulated us to develop those boundless
+resources of the human understanding, the very existence of which it was
+once considered almost a heresy to assert.
+
+  [369] Respecting which I will only mention one fact, in regard to our
+        own country. By the returns of the Board of Trade, it appears
+        that the passengers annually travelling by railway amounted in
+        1842 to nineteen millions; but in 1852 they had increased to more
+        than eighty-six millions. _Journal of Statistical Society_, vol.
+        xvi. p. 292.
+
+This is precisely what has occurred in modern Europe. The French and
+English people have, by the mere force of increased contact, learned to
+think more favourably of each other, and to discard that foolish
+contempt in which both nations formerly indulged. In this, as in all
+cases, the better one civilized country is acquainted with another, the
+more it will find to respect and to imitate. For of all the causes of
+national hatred, ignorance is the most powerful. When you increase the
+contact, you remove the ignorance, and thus you diminish the
+hatred.[370] This is the true bond of charity; and it is worth all the
+lessons which moralists and divines are able to teach. They have pursued
+their vocation for centuries, without producing the least effect in
+lessening the frequency of war. But it may be said without the
+slightest exaggeration, that every new railroad which is laid down, and
+every fresh steamer which crosses the Channel, are additional guarantees
+for the preservation of that long and unbroken peace which, during forty
+years, has knit together the fortunes and the interests of the two most
+civilized nations of the earth.
+
+  [370] Of this, Mr. Stephens (in his valuable work, _Central America_,
+        vol. i. pp. 247-8) relates an interesting instance in the case of
+        that remarkable man Carrera: 'Indeed, in no particular had he
+        changed more than in his opinion of foreigners; a happy
+        illustration of the effect of personal intercourse in breaking
+        down prejudices against individuals or classes.' Mr. Elphinstone
+        (_History of India_, p. 195) says, 'Those who have known the
+        Indians longest have always the best opinion of them: but _this
+        is rather a compliment to human nature than to them, since it is
+        true of every other people_.' Compare an instructive passage in
+        _Darwin's Journal of Researches_, p. 421, with _Burdach_, _Traité
+        de Physiologie comme Science d'Observation_, vol. ii. p. 61.
+
+I have thus, so far as my knowledge will permit, endeavoured to indicate
+the causes which have diminished religious persecution and war: the two
+greatest evils with which men have yet contrived to afflict their
+fellow-creatures. The question of the decline of religious persecution I
+have only briefly noticed, because it will be more fully handled in a
+subsequent part of this volume. Enough, however, has been advanced to
+prove how essentially it is an intellectual process, and how little good
+can be effected on this subject by the operation of moral feelings. The
+causes of the decline of the warlike spirit I have examined at
+considerable, and, perhaps, to some readers, at tedious length, and the
+result of that examination has been, that the decline is owing to the
+increase of the intellectual classes, to whom the military classes are
+necessarily antagonistic. In pushing the inquiry a little deeper, we
+have, by still further analysis, ascertained the existence of three vast
+though subsidiary causes, by which the general movement has been
+accelerated. These are--the invention of Gunpowder, the discoveries of
+Political Economy, and the discovery of improved means of Locomotion.
+Such are the three great modes or channels by which the progress of
+knowledge has weakened the old warlike spirit; and the way in which they
+have effected this has, I trust, been clearly pointed out. The facts and
+arguments which I have brought forward, have, I can conscientiously say,
+been subjected to careful and repeated scrutiny; and I am quite unable
+to see on what possible ground their accuracy is to be impugned. That
+they will be disagreeable to certain classes, I am well aware; but the
+unpleasantness of a statement is hardly to be considered a proof of its
+falsehood. The sources from which the evidence has been derived are
+fully indicated; and the arguments, I hope, fairly stated. And from them
+there results a most important conclusion. From them we are bound to
+infer, that the two oldest, greatest, most inveterate, and most
+widely-spread evils which have ever been known, are constantly, though,
+on the whole, slowly, diminishing; and that their diminution has been
+effected, not at all by moral feelings, nor by moral teachings, but
+solely by the activity of the human intellect, and by the inventions and
+discoveries which, in a long course of successive ages, man has been
+able to make.
+
+Since, then, in the two most important phenomena which the progress of
+society presents, the moral laws have been steadily and invariably
+subordinate to the intellectual laws, there arises a strong presumption
+that in inferior matters the same process has been followed. To prove
+this in its full extent, and thus raise the presumption to an absolute
+certainty, would be to write, not an Introduction to history, but the
+History itself. The reader must, therefore, be satisfied for the present
+with what, I am conscious, is merely an approach towards demonstration;
+and the complete demonstration must necessarily be reserved for the
+future volumes of this work: in which I pledge myself to show that the
+progress Europe has made from barbarism to civilization is entirely due
+to its intellectual activity; that the leading countries have now, for
+some centuries, advanced sufficiently far to shake off the influence of
+those physical agencies by which in an earlier state their career might
+have been troubled; and that although the moral agencies are still
+powerful, and still cause occasional disturbances, these are but
+aberrations, which, if we compare long periods of time, balance each
+other, and thus in the total amount entirely disappear. So that, in a
+great and comprehensive view, the changes in every civilized people are,
+in their aggregate, dependent solely on three things: first, on the
+amount of knowledge possessed by their ablest men; secondly, on the
+direction which that knowledge takes, that is to say, the sort of
+subjects to which it refers: thirdly, and above all, on the extent to
+which the knowledge is diffused, and the freedom with which it pervades
+all classes of society.
+
+These are the three great movers of every civilized country; and
+although their operation is frequently disturbed by the vices or the
+virtues of powerful individuals, such moral feelings correct each other,
+and the average of long periods remains unaffected. Owing to causes of
+which we are ignorant, the moral qualities do, no doubt, constantly
+vary; so that in one man, or perhaps even in one generation, there will
+be an excess of good intentions; in another an excess of bad ones. But
+we have no reason to think that any permanent change has been effected
+in the proportion which those who naturally possess good intentions bear
+to those in whom bad ones seem to be inherent. In what may be called the
+innate and original morals of mankind, there is, so far as we are aware,
+no progress. Of the different passions with which we are born, some are
+more prevalent at one time, some at another; but experience teaches us
+that, as they are always antagonistic, they are held in balance by the
+force of their own opposition. The activity of one motive is corrected
+by the activity of another. For to every vice there is a corresponding
+virtue. Cruelty is counteracted by benevolence; sympathy is excited by
+suffering; the injustice of some provokes the charity of others; new
+evils are met by new remedies, and even the most enormous offences that
+have ever been known have left behind them no permanent impression. The
+desolation of countries and the slaughter of men are losses which never
+fail to be repaired, and at the distance of a few centuries every
+vestige of them is effaced. The gigantic crimes of Alexander or Napoleon
+become after a time void of effect, and the affairs of the world return
+to their former level. This is the ebb and flow of history, the
+perpetual flux to which by the laws of our nature we are subject. Above
+all this, there is a far higher movement; and as the tide rolls on, now
+advancing, now receding, there is, amid its endless fluctuations, one
+thing, and one alone, which endures for ever. The actions of bad men
+produce only temporary evil, the actions of good men only temporary
+good; and eventually the good and the evil altogether subside, are
+neutralized by subsequent generations, absorbed by the incessant
+movements of future ages. But the discoveries of great men never leave
+us; they are immortal, they contain those eternal truths which survive
+the shock of empires, outlive the struggles of rival creeds, and witness
+the decay of successive religions. All these have their different
+measures and their different standards; one set of opinions for one age,
+another set for another. They pass away like a dream; they are as the
+fabric of a vision, which leaves not a rack behind. The discoveries of
+genius alone remain: it is to them we owe all that we now have, they are
+for all ages and all times; never young, and never old, they bear the
+seeds of their own life; they flow on in a perennial and undying stream;
+they are essentially cumulative, and, giving birth to the additions
+which they subsequently receive, they thus influence the most distant
+posterity, and after the lapse of centuries produce more effect than
+they were able to do even at the moment of their promulgation.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+    INQUIRY INTO THE INFLUENCE EXERCISED BY RELIGION, LITERATURE, AND
+                               GOVERNMENT.
+
+
+By applying to the history of Man those methods of investigation which
+have been found successful in other branches of knowledge, and by
+rejecting all preconceived notions which would not bear the test of
+those methods, we have arrived at certain results, the heads of which it
+may now be convenient to recapitulate. We have seen that our actions,
+being solely the result of internal and external agencies, must be
+explicable by the laws of those agencies; that is to say, by mental laws
+and by physical laws. We have also seen that mental laws are, in Europe,
+more powerful than physical laws; and that, in the progress of
+civilization, their superiority is constantly increasing, because
+advancing knowledge multiplies the resources of the mind, but leaves the
+old resources of nature stationary. On this account, we have treated the
+mental laws as being the great regulators of progress; and we have
+looked at the physical laws as occupying a subordinate place, and as
+merely displaying themselves in occasional disturbances, the force and
+frequency of which have been long declining, and are now, on a large
+average, almost inoperative. Having, by this means, resolved the study
+of what may be called the dynamics of society into the study of the laws
+of the mind, we have subjected these last to a similar analysis; and we
+have found that they consist of two parts, namely, moral laws and
+intellectual laws. By comparing these two parts, we have clearly
+ascertained the vast superiority of the intellectual laws; and we have
+seen, that as the progress of civilization is marked by the triumph of
+the mental laws over the physical, just so is it marked by the triumph
+of the intellectual laws over the moral ones. This important inference
+rests on two distinct arguments. First, that moral truths being
+stationary, and intellectual truths being progressive, it is highly
+improbable that the progress of society should be due to moral
+knowledge, which for many centuries has remained the same, rather than
+to intellectual knowledge, which for many centuries has been incessantly
+advancing. The other argument consists in the fact, that the two
+greatest evils known to mankind have not been diminished by moral
+improvement; but have been, and still are, yielding to the influence of
+intellectual discoveries. From all this it evidently follows, that if we
+wish to ascertain the conditions which regulate the progress of modern
+civilization, we must seek them in the history of the amount and
+diffusion of intellectual knowledge; and we must consider physical
+phenomena and moral principles as causing, no doubt, great aberrations
+in short periods, but in long periods correcting and balancing
+themselves, and thus leaving the intellectual laws to act uncontrolled
+by these inferior and subordinate agents.
+
+Such is the conclusion to which we have been led by successive analyses,
+and on which we now take our stand. The actions of individuals are
+greatly affected by their moral feelings and by their passions; but
+these being antagonistic to the passions and feelings of other
+individuals, are balanced by them; so that their effect is, in the great
+average of human affairs, nowhere to be seen; and the total actions of
+mankind, considered as a whole, are left to be regulated by the total
+knowledge of which mankind is possessed. And of the way in which
+individual feeling and individual caprice are thus absorbed and
+neutralized, we find a clear illustration in the facts already brought
+forward respecting the history of crime. For by those facts it is
+decisively proved, that the amount of crime committed in a country is,
+year after year, reproduced with the most startling uniformity, not
+being in the least affected by those capricious and personal feelings to
+which human actions are too often referred. But if, instead of examining
+the history of crime year by year, we were to examine it month by
+month, we should find less regularity; and if we were to examine it hour
+by hour, we should find no regularity at all; neither would its
+regularity be seen, if, instead of the criminal records of a whole
+country, we only knew those of a single street, or of a single family.
+This is because the great social laws by which crime is governed, can
+only be perceived after observing great numbers or long periods; but in
+a small number, and a short period, the individual moral principle
+triumphs, and disturbs the operation of the larger and intellectual law.
+While, therefore, the moral feelings by which a man is urged to commit a
+crime, or to abstain from it, will produce an immense effect on the
+amount of his own crimes, they will produce no effect on the amount of
+crimes committed by the society to which he belongs; because, in the
+long-run, they are sure to be neutralized by opposite moral feelings,
+which cause in other men an opposite conduct. Just in the same way, we
+are all sensible that moral principles do affect nearly the whole of our
+actions; but we have incontrovertible proof that they produce not the
+least effect on mankind in the aggregate, or even on men in very large
+masses, provided that we take the precaution of studying social
+phenomena for a period sufficiently long, and on a scale sufficiently
+great, to enable the superior laws to come into uncontrolled operation.
+
+The totality of human actions being thus, from the highest point of
+view, governed by the totality of human knowledge, it might seem a
+simple matter to collect the evidence of the knowledge, and, by
+subjecting it to successive generalizations, ascertain the whole of the
+laws which regulate the progress of civilization. And that this will be
+eventually done, I do not entertain the slightest doubt. But,
+unfortunately, history has been written by men so inadequate to the
+great task they have undertaken, that few of the necessary materials
+have yet been brought together. Instead of telling us those things which
+alone have any value,--instead of giving us information respecting the
+progress of knowledge, and the way in which mankind has been affected by
+the diffusion of that knowledge,--instead of these things, the vast
+majority of historians fill their works with the most trifling and
+miserable details: personal anecdotes of kings and courts; interminable
+relations of what was said by one minister, and what was thought by
+another; and, what is worse than all, long accounts of campaigns,
+battles, and sieges, very interesting to those engaged in them, but to
+us utterly useless, because they neither furnish new truths, nor do they
+supply the means by which new truths may be discovered. This is the real
+impediment which now stops our advance. It is this want of judgment, and
+this ignorance of what is most worthy of selection, which deprives us of
+materials that ought long since to have been accumulated, arranged, and
+stored-up for future use. In other great branches of knowledge,
+observation has preceded discovery; first the facts have been
+registered, and then their laws have been found. But in the study of the
+history of Man, the important facts have been neglected, and the
+unimportant ones preserved. The consequence is, that whoever now
+attempts to generalize historical phenomena must collect the facts, as
+well as conduct the generalization. He finds nothing ready to his hand.
+He must be the mason as well as the architect; he must not only scheme
+the edifice, but likewise excavate the quarry. The necessity of
+performing this double labour entails upon the philosopher such enormous
+drudgery, that the limits of an entire life are unequal to the task; and
+history, instead of being ripe, as it ought to be, for complete and
+exhaustive generalizations, is still in so crude and informal a state,
+that not the most determined and protracted industry will enable any one
+to comprehend the really important actions of mankind, during even so
+short a period as two successive centuries.
+
+On account of these things, I have long since abandoned my original
+scheme; and I have reluctantly determined to write the history, not of
+general civilization, but of the civilization of a single people. While,
+however, by this means, we curtail the field of inquiry, we
+unfortunately diminish the resources of which the inquiry is possessed.
+For although it is perfectly true, that the totality of human actions,
+if considered in long periods, depends on the totality of human
+knowledge, it must be allowed that this great principle, when applied
+only to one country, loses something of its original value. The more we
+diminish our observations, the greater becomes the uncertainty of the
+average; in other words, the greater the chance of the operation of the
+larger laws being troubled by the operation of the smaller. The
+interference of foreign governments; the influence exercised by the
+opinions, literature, and customs of a foreign people; their invasions,
+perhaps even their conquests; the forcible introduction by them of new
+religions, new laws, and new manners,--all these things are
+perturbations, which, in a view of universal history, equalize each
+other, but which, in any one country, are apt to disturb the natural
+march, and thus render the movements of civilization more difficult to
+calculate. The manner in which I have endeavoured to meet this
+difficulty will be presently stated; but what I first wish to point out,
+are the reasons which have induced me to select the history of England
+as more important than any other, and therefore as the most worthy of
+being subjected to a complete and philosophic investigation.
+
+Now, it is evident that, inasmuch as the great advantage of studying
+past events consists in the possibility of ascertaining the laws by
+which they were governed, the history of any people will become more
+valuable in proportion as their movements have been least disturbed by
+agencies not arising from themselves. Every foreign or external
+influence which is brought to bear upon a nation is an interference with
+its natural development, and therefore complicates the circumstances we
+seek to investigate. To simplify complications, is, in all branches of
+knowledge, the first essential of success. This is very familiar to the
+cultivators of physical science, who are often able, by a single
+experiment, to discover a truth which innumerable observations had
+vainly searched; the reason being, that by experimenting on phenomena,
+we can disentangle them from their complications; and thus isolating
+them from the interference of unknown agencies, we leave them, as it
+were, to run their own course, and disclose the operation of their own
+law.
+
+This, then, is the true standard by which we must measure the value of
+the history of any nation. The importance of the history of a country
+depends, not upon the splendour of its exploits, but upon the degree to
+which its actions are due to causes springing out of itself. If,
+therefore, we could find some civilized people who had worked out their
+civilization entirely by themselves; who had escaped all foreign
+influence, and who had been neither benefited nor retarded by the
+personal peculiarities of their rulers,--the history of such a people
+would be of paramount importance; because it would present a condition
+of normal and inherent development; it would show the laws of progress
+acting in a state of isolation; it would be, in fact, an experiment
+ready-made, and would possess all the value of that artificial
+contrivance to which natural science is so much indebted.
+
+To find such a people as this is obviously impossible; but the duty of
+the philosophic historian is, to select for his especial study the
+country in which the conditions have been most closely followed. Now, it
+will be readily admitted, not only by ourselves, but by intelligent
+foreigners, that in England, during, at all events, the last three
+centuries, this has been done more constantly and more successfully than
+in any other country. I say nothing of the number of our discoveries,
+the brilliancy of our literature, or the success of our arms. These are
+invidious topics; and other nations may perhaps deny to us those
+superior merits which we are apt to exaggerate. But I take up this
+single position, that of all European countries, England is the one
+where, during the longest period, the government has been most
+quiescent, and the people most active; where popular freedom has been
+settled on the widest basis; where each man is most able to say what he
+thinks, and do what he likes; where every one can follow his own bent,
+and propagate his own opinions; where, religious persecution being
+little known, the play and flow of the human mind may be clearly seen,
+unchecked by those restraints to which it is elsewhere subjected; where
+the profession of heresy is least dangerous, and the practice of dissent
+most common; where hostile creeds flourish side by side, and rise and
+decay without disturbance, according to the wants of the people,
+unaffected by the wishes of the church, and uncontrolled by the
+authority of the state; where all interests, and all classes, both
+spiritual and temporal, are most left to take care of themselves; where
+that meddlesome doctrine called Protection was first attacked, and where
+alone it has been destroyed; and where, in a word, those dangerous
+extremes to which interference gives rise having been avoided, despotism
+and rebellion are equally rare, and concession being recognized as the
+groundwork of policy, the national progress has been least disturbed by
+the power of privileged classes, by the influence of particular sects,
+or by the violence of arbitrary rulers.
+
+That these are the characteristics of English history is notorious; to
+some men a matter of boast, to others of regret. And when to these
+circumstances we add, that England, owing to its insular formation,[371]
+was, until the middle of the last century, rarely visited by foreigners,
+it becomes evident that, in our progress as a people, we have been less
+affected than any other by the two main sources of interference, namely,
+the authority of government, and the influence of foreigners. In the
+sixteenth century, it became a fashion, among the English nobility, to
+travel abroad;[372] but it was by no means the fashion for foreign
+nobility to travel in England. In the seventeenth century, the custom of
+travelling for amusement spread so much, that, among the rich and idle
+classes, there were few Englishmen who did not, at least once in their
+life, cross the Channel; while the same classes in other countries,
+partly because they were less wealthy, partly from an inveterate dislike
+to the sea, hardly ever entered our island, unless compelled to do so on
+some particular business. The result was, that in other countries, and
+particularly in France and Italy, the inhabitants of the great cities
+became gradually accustomed to foreigners, and, like all men, were
+imperceptibly influenced by what they often saw. On the other hand,
+there were many of our cities in which none but Englishmen ever set
+their feet;[373] and inhabitants, even of the metropolis, might grow old
+without having once seen a single foreigner, except, perhaps, some dull
+and pompous ambassador taking his airing on the banks of the Thames. And
+although it is often said that, after the restoration of Charles II.,
+our national character began to be greatly influenced by French
+example,[374] this, as I shall fully prove, was confined to that small
+and insignificant part of society which hung about the court; nor did it
+produce any marked effect upon the two most important classes,--the
+intellectual class, and the industrious class. The movement may, indeed,
+be traced in the most worthless parts of our literature,--in the
+shameless productions of Buckingham, Dorset, Etherege, Killigrew,
+Mulgrave, Rochester, and Sedley. But neither then, nor at a much later
+period, were any of our great thinkers influenced by the intellect of
+France;[375] on the contrary, we find in their ideas, and even in their
+style, a certain rough and native vigour, which, though offensive to our
+more polished neighbours, has at least the merit of being the indigenous
+product of our own country.[376] The origin and extent of that connexion
+between the French and English intellects which subsequently arose, is a
+subject of immense importance; but, like most others of real value, it
+has been entirely neglected by historians. In the present work, I shall
+attempt to supply this deficiency: in the mean time I may say, that
+although we have been, and still are, greatly indebted to the French for
+our improvement in taste, in refinement, in manners, and indeed in all
+the amenities of life, we have borrowed from them nothing absolutely
+essential, nothing by which the destinies of nations are permanently
+altered. On the other hand, the French have not only borrowed from us
+some very valuable political institutions, but even the most important
+event in French history is due, in no small degree, to our influence.
+Their revolution of 1789 was, as is well known, brought about, or, to
+speak more properly, was mainly instigated, by a few great men, whose
+works, and afterwards whose speeches, roused the people to resistance;
+but what is less known, and nevertheless is certainly true, is, that
+these eminent leaders learnt in England that philosophy and those
+principles by which, when transplanted into their own country, such
+fearful and yet such salutary results were effected.[377]
+
+  [371] Coleridge well says, 'it is the chief of many blessings derived
+        from the insular character and circumstances of our country, that
+        our social institutions have formed themselves out of our proper
+        needs and interests.' _Coleridge on the Constitution of the
+        Church and State_, 8vo. 1830, pp. 20, 21. The political
+        consequences of this were much noticed at the time of the French
+        Revolution. See _Mémoires de La Fayette_, vol. i. p. 404,
+        Bruxelles, 1837.
+
+  [372] In another place, I shall collect the evidence of the rapidly
+        increasing love of travelling in the sixteenth century; but it is
+        interesting to observe, that during the latter half of the
+        century there was first established the custom of appointing
+        travelling tutors. Compare _Barrington's Observations on the
+        Statutes_, p. 218, with a letter from Beza, written in 1598, in
+        _Mémoires et Correspondence de Du Plessis Mornay_, vol. ix. p.
+        81.
+
+  [373] In regard to the society of women, this was still more observable,
+        even at a much later period; and when the Countess de Boufflers
+        visited England, at the beginning of the reign of George III.,
+        'on lui faisoit un mérite de sa curiosité de voir l'Angleterre;
+        car on remarquoit qu'elle étoit la seule dame françoise de
+        qualité qui fût venue en voyageuse depuis deux cents ans: on ne
+        comprenoit point, dans cette classe, les ambassadrices, ni la
+        duchesse de Mazarin, qui y étoient venues par nécessité.'
+        _Dutens_, _Mémoires d'un Voyageur_, vol. i. p. 217. Compare
+        _Mémoires de Madame de Genlis_, vol. viii. p. 241.
+
+  [374] _Orme's Life of Owen_, p. 288; _Mahon's History of England_,
+        vol. ii. p. 211; and many other writers.
+
+  [375] The only Englishman of genius who, during this period, was
+        influenced by the French mind, was Dryden; but this is chiefly
+        apparent in his plays, the whole of which are now deservedly
+        forgotten. His great works, and, above all, those wonderful
+        satires, in which he distances every competitor, except Juvenal,
+        are thoroughly national, and, as mere specimens of English, are,
+        if I may express my own judgment, to be ranked immediately after
+        Shakspeare. In Dryden's writings there are unquestionably many
+        Gallicisms of expression, but few Gallicisms of thought; and it
+        is by these last that we must estimate the real amount of foreign
+        influence. Sir Walter Scott goes so far as to say, 'It will admit
+        of question, whether any single French word has been naturalized
+        upon the sole authority of Dryden.' _Scott's Life of Dryden_, p.
+        523, 8vo. 1808. Rather a bold assertion. As to the opinion of
+        Fox, see Lord Holland's preface to _Fox's James II._, 4to. 1808,
+        p. xxxii.
+
+  [376] Another circumstance which has maintained the independence, and
+        therefore increased the value, of our literature, is, that in no
+        great country have literary men been so little connected with the
+        government, or rewarded by it. That this is the true policy, and
+        that to protect literature is to injure it, are propositions for
+        the proof of which I must refer to chap. xi. of this volume--on
+        the system of Louis XIV. In the mean time, I will quote the
+        following words from a learned and, what is much better, a
+        thoughtful writer: 'Nor must he who will understand the English
+        institutions leave out of view the character of the enduring
+        works which had sprung from the salient energy of the English
+        mind. Literature had been left to develop itself. William of
+        Orange was foreign to it; Anne cared not for it; the first George
+        knew no English; the second not much.' _Bancroft's History of the
+        American Revolution_, vol. ii. p. 48. Compare _Forster's Life of
+        Goldsmith_, 1854, vol. i. pp. 93-96, vol. ii. p. 480.
+
+  [377] See, for evidence of this influence of England, chap. v. of the
+        second volume.
+
+It will not, I hope, be supposed, that by these remarks I mean to cast
+any reflection on the French: a great and admirable people; a people in
+many respects superior to ourselves; a people from whom we have still
+much to learn, and whose deficiencies, such as they are, arise from the
+perpetual interference of a long line of arbitrary rulers. But, looking
+at this matter historically, it is unquestionably true that we have
+worked out our civilization with little aid from them, while they have
+worked out theirs with great aid from us. At the same time, it must also
+be admitted, that our governments have interfered less with us than
+their governments have interfered with them. And without in the least
+prejudging the question as to which is the greater country, it is solely
+on these grounds that I consider our history more important than theirs:
+and I select for especial study the progress of English civilization,
+simply because, being less affected by agencies not arising from itself,
+we can the more clearly discern in it the normal march of society, and
+the undisturbed operation of those great laws by which the fortunes of
+mankind are ultimately regulated.
+
+After this comparison between the relative value of French and English
+history, it seems scarcely necessary to examine the claims which may be
+put forward for the history of other countries. Indeed, there are only
+two in whose favour any thing can be said: I mean Germany, considered as
+a whole, and the United States of North America. As to the Germans, it
+is undoubtedly true, that since the middle of the eighteenth century
+they have produced a greater number of profound thinkers than any other
+country, I might perhaps say, than all other countries put together. But
+the objections which apply to the French are still more applicable to
+the Germans. For the protective principle has been, and still is,
+stronger in Germany than in France. Even the best of the German
+governments are constantly interfering with the people; never leaving
+them to themselves, always looking after their interests, and meddling
+in the commonest affairs of daily life. Besides this, the German
+literature, though now the first in Europe, owes it origin, as we shall
+hereafter see, to that great sceptical movement, by which, in France,
+the Revolution was preceded. Before the middle of the eighteenth
+century, the Germans, notwithstanding a few eminent names, such as
+Kepler and Leibnitz, had no literature of real value; and the first
+impetus which they received, was caused by their contact with the French
+intellect, and by the influence of those eminent Frenchmen who, in the
+reign of Frederick the Great, flocked to Berlin,[378] a city which has
+ever since been the head-quarters of philosophy and science. From this
+there have resulted some very important circumstances, which I can here
+only briefly indicate. The German intellect, stimulated by the French
+into a sudden growth, has been irregularly developed; and thus hurried
+into an activity greater than the average civilization of the country
+requires. The consequence is, that there is no nation in Europe in which
+we find so wide an interval between the highest minds and the lowest
+minds. The German philosophers possess a learning, and a reach of
+thought, which places them at the head of the civilized world. The
+German people are more superstitious, more prejudiced, and,
+notwithstanding the care which the government takes of their education,
+more really ignorant, and more unfit to guide themselves, than are the
+inhabitants either of France or of England.[379] This separation and
+divergence of the two classes is the natural result of that artificial
+stimulus, which a century ago was administered to one of the classes,
+and which thus disturbed the normal proportions of society. Owing to
+this, the highest intellects have, in Germany, so outstripped the
+general progress of the nation, that there is no sympathy between the
+two parties; nor are there at present any means by which they may be
+brought into contact. Their great authors address themselves, not to
+their country, but to each other. They are sure of a select and learned
+audience, and they use what, in reality, is a learned language; they
+turn their mother-tongue into a dialect, eloquent indeed, and very
+powerful, but so difficult, so subtle, and so full of complicated
+inversions, that to their own lower classes it is utterly
+incomprehensible.[380] From this, there have arisen some of the most
+marked peculiarities of German literature. For, being deprived of
+ordinary readers, it is cut off from the influence of ordinary
+prejudice; and hence, it has displayed a boldness of inquiry, a
+recklessness in the pursuit of truth and a disregard of traditional
+opinions, which entitle it to the highest praise. But, on the other
+hand, this same circumstance has produced that absence of practical
+knowledge, and that indifference to material and physical interests, for
+which the German literature is justly censured. As a matter of course,
+all this has widened the original breach, and increased the distance
+which separates the great German thinkers from that dull and plodding
+class, which, though it lies immediately beneath them, still remains
+uninfluenced by their knowledge, and uncheered by the glow and fire of
+their genius.
+
+  [378] The history of this remarkable, though short-lived, union between
+        the French and German intellects will be traced in the next
+        volume; but its first great effect, in stimulating, or rather in
+        creating, the German literature, is noticed by one of the most
+        learned of their own writers: 'Denn einestheils war zu diesen
+        Gegenständen immer die lateinische Sprache gebraucht und die
+        Muttersprache zu wenig cultivirt worden, anderntheils wurden
+        diese Schriften auch meistentheils nur von Gelehrten, und zwar
+        Universitätsgelehrten, für welche sie auch hauptsächlich bestimmt
+        waren, gelesen. Gegen die Mitte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts, als
+        mehrere englische und französische Werke gelesen und übersetzt
+        wurden, und durch die Vorliebe des Königs von Preussen
+        Friedrichs II., der von Franzosen gebildet worden war,
+        französische Gelehrte besonders geehrt und angestellt wurden,
+        entstand ein Wetteifer der Deutschen, auch in dem schriftlichen
+        Vortrage nicht zurück zu bleiben, und die Sprache hob sich bald
+        zu einem hohen Grade von Vollkommenheit.' _Tennemann_,
+        _Geschichte der Philosophie_, vol. xi. pp. 286, 287.
+
+  [379] A popular view of the system of national education established in
+        Germany will be found in _Kay's Social Condition and Education of
+        the People of Europe_, vol. ii. pp. 1-344. But Mr. Kay, like most
+        literary men, overrates the advantages of literary acquirements,
+        and underrates that education of the faculties which neither
+        books nor schools can impart to a people who are debarred from
+        the exercise of civil and political rights. In the history of the
+        protective spirit (chaps. ix. and x. of the present volume), I
+        shall return to this subject, in connexion with France; and in
+        the next volume I shall examine it in regard to German
+        civilization. In the mean time, I must be allowed to protest
+        against the account Mr. Kay has given of the results of
+        compulsory education; an agreeable picture, drawn by an amiable
+        and intelligent writer, but of the inaccuracy of which I possess
+        decisive evidence. Two points only I will now refer to: 1st. The
+        notorious fact, that the German people, notwithstanding their
+        so-called education, are unfit to take any share in political
+        matters, and have no aptitude for the practical and
+        administrative parts of government. 2nd. The fact, equally
+        notorious to those who have studied the subject, that there are
+        more popular superstitions in Prussia, the most educated part of
+        Germany, than there are in England; and that the tenacity with
+        which men cling to them is greater in Prussia than in England.
+        For illustration of the practical working, in individual cases,
+        of compulsory education, and of the hardship it causes, see a
+        scandalous occurrence, related in _Laing's Notes of a Traveller_,
+        8vo. 1842, p. 165, first series; and on the physical evils
+        produced by German education, see _Phillips on Scrofula_, London,
+        1846, pp. 253, 254, where there is some useful evidence of the
+        consequences of 'that great German sin of over-regulation.'
+
+  [380] This is well stated by Mr. Laing, by far the ablest traveller who
+        has published observations on European society: 'German authors,
+        both the philosophic and the poetic, address themselves to a
+        public far more intellectual, and more highly cultivated, than
+        our reading public.... In our literature, the most obscure and
+        abstruse of metaphysical or philosophical writers _take the
+        public mind in a far lower state_, simply cognisant of the
+        meaning of language, and possessed of the ordinary reasoning
+        powers.... The social influence of German literature is,
+        consequently, confined within a narrower circle. It has no
+        influence on the mind of the lower, or even of the middle classes
+        in active life, who have not the opportunity or leisure to screw
+        their faculties up to the pitch-note of their great writers. The
+        reading public must devote much time to acquire the knowledge,
+        tone of feeling, and of imagination, necessary to follow the
+        writing public. The social economist finds accordingly in Germany
+        the most extraordinary dulness, inertness of mind, and ignorance,
+        below a certain level, with the most extraordinary intellectual
+        development, learning, and genius, at or above it.' _Laing's
+        Notes of a Traveller_, first series, pp. 266, 267. The same acute
+        observer says, in a later work (_Notes_, third series, 8vo. 1852,
+        p. 12): 'The two classes speak and think in different languages.
+        The cultivated German language, the language of German
+        literature, is not the language of the common man, nor even of
+        the man far up in the middle ranks of society,--the farmer,
+        tradesman, shopkeeper.' See also pp. 351, 352, 354. It is
+        singular that so clear and vigorous a thinker as Mr. Laing
+        evidently is, should have failed in detecting the cause of this
+        peculiar phenomenon.
+
+In America, on the other hand, we see a civilization precisely the
+reverse of this. We see a country, of which it has been truly said, that
+in no other are there so few men of great learning, and so few men of
+great ignorance.[381] In Germany, the speculative classes and the
+practical classes are altogether disunited; in America, they are
+altogether fused. In Germany, nearly every year brings forward new
+discoveries, new philosophies, new means by which the boundaries of
+knowledge are to be enlarged. In America, such inquiries are almost
+entirely neglected: since the time of Jonathan Edwards no great
+metaphysician has appeared; little attention has been paid to physical
+science; and, with the single exception of jurisprudence,[382] scarcely
+anything has been done for those vast subjects on which the Germans are
+incessantly labouring. The stock of American knowledge is small, but it
+is spread through all classes; the stock of German knowledge is immense,
+but it is confined to one class. Which of these two forms of
+civilization is the more advantageous, is a question we are not now
+called upon to decide. It is enough for our present purpose, that in
+Germany, there is a serious failure in the diffusion of knowledge; and,
+in America, a no less serious one in its accumulation. And as
+civilization is regulated by the accumulation and diffusion of
+knowledge, it is evident that no country can even approach to a complete
+and perfect pattern, if, cultivating one of these conditions to an
+excess, it neglects the cultivation of the other. Indeed, from this want
+of balance and equilibrium between the two elements of civilization,
+there have arisen in America and in Germany those great but opposite
+evils, which, it is to be feared, will not be easily remedied; and
+which, until remedied, will certainly retard the progress of both
+countries, notwithstanding the temporary advantages which such
+one-sided energy does for the moment always procure.
+
+  [381] 'Je ne pense pas qu'il y ait de pays dans le monde où, proportion
+        gardée avec la population, il se trouve aussi peu d'ignorants et
+        moins de savants qu'en Amérique.' _Tocqueville de la Démocratie
+        en Amérique_, vol. i. p. 91.
+
+  [382] The causes of this exception I shall endeavour to trace in the
+        next volume; but it is interesting to notice, that, as early as
+        1775, Burke was struck by the partiality of the Americans for
+        works on law. See _Burke's Speech_, in _Parliamentary History_,
+        vol. xviii. p. 495; or in _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p. 188. He
+        says: 'In no country perhaps in the world is the law so general a
+        study. The profession itself is numerous and powerful; and in
+        most provinces it takes the lead. The greater number of the
+        deputies sent to the Congress were lawyers. But all who read--and
+        most do read--endeavour to obtain some smattering in that
+        science. I have been told by an eminent bookseller, that in no
+        branch of his business, after tracts of popular devotion, were so
+        many books as those on the law exported to the plantations. The
+        colonists have now fallen into the way of printing them for their
+        own use. I hear that they have sold nearly as many of
+        Blackstone's Commentaries in America as in England.' Of this
+        state of society, the great works of Kent and Story were, at a
+        later period, the natural result. On the respect at present felt
+        for the legal profession, see _Lyell's Second Visit to the United
+        States_, 1849, vol. i. p. 45; and as to the judges, _Combe's N.
+        America_, vol. ii. p. 329.
+
+I have very briefly, but I hope fairly, and certainly with no conscious
+partiality, endeavoured to estimate the relative value of the history of
+the four leading countries of the world. As to the real greatness of the
+countries themselves, I offer no opinion; because each considers itself
+to be first. But, unless the facts I have stated can be controverted, it
+certainly follows, that the history of England is, to the philosopher,
+more valuable than any other; because he can more clearly see in it the
+accumulation and diffusion of knowledge going hand-in-hand; because that
+knowledge has been less influenced by foreign and external agencies; and
+because it has been less interfered with, either for good or for evil,
+by those powerful, but frequently incompetent men, to whom the
+administration of public affairs is entrusted.
+
+It is on account of these considerations, and not at all from those
+motives which are dignified with the name of patriotism, that I have
+determined to write the history of my own country, in preference to that
+of any other; and to write it in a manner as complete, and as
+exhaustive, as the materials which are now extant will enable me to do.
+But, inasmuch as the circumstances already stated, render it impossible
+to discover the laws of society solely by studying the history of a
+single nation, I have drawn up the present Introduction in order to
+obviate some of the difficulties with which this great subject is
+surrounded. In the earlier chapters, I have attempted to mark out the
+limits of the subject considered as a whole, and fix the largest
+possible basis upon which it can rest. With this view, I have looked at
+civilization as broken into two vast divisions: the European division,
+in which Man is more powerful than Nature; and the non-European
+division, in which Nature is more powerful than Man. This has led us to
+the conclusion, that national progress, in connexion with popular
+liberty, could have originated in no part of the world except in Europe;
+where, therefore, the rise of real civilization, and the encroachments
+of the human mind upon the forces of nature, are alone to be studied.
+The superiority of the mental laws over the physical, being thus
+recognized as the groundwork of European history, the next step has
+been, to resolve the mental laws into moral and intellectual, and prove
+the superior influence of the intellectual ones in accelerating the
+progress of Man. These generalizations appear to me the essential
+preliminaries of history, considered as a science; and, in order to
+connect them with the special history of England, we have now merely to
+ascertain the fundamental condition of intellectual progress, as, until
+that is done, the annals of any people can only present an empirical
+succession of events, connected by such stray and casual links as are
+devised by different writers, according to their different principles.
+The remaining part of this Introduction will, therefore, be chiefly
+occupied in completing the scheme I have sketched, by investigating the
+history of various countries in reference to those intellectual
+peculiarities on which the history of our own country supplies no
+adequate information. Thus, for instance, in Germany, the accumulation
+of knowledge has been far more rapid than in England; the laws of the
+accumulation of knowledge may, on that account, be most conveniently
+studied in German history, and then applied deductively to the history
+of England. In the same way, the Americans have diffused their knowledge
+much more completely than we have done; I, therefore, purpose to explain
+some of the phenomena of English civilization by those laws of
+diffusion, of which, in American civilization, the workings may be most
+clearly seen, and hence the discovery most easily made. Again, inasmuch
+as France is the most civilized country in which the protective spirit
+is very powerful, we may trace the occult tendencies of that spirit
+among ourselves, by studying its obvious tendencies among our
+neighbours. With this view, I shall give an account of French history,
+in order to illustrate the protective principle, by showing the injury
+it has inflicted on a very able and enlightened people. And, in an
+analysis of the French Revolution, I shall point out how that great
+event was a reaction against the protective spirit; while, as the
+materials for the reaction were drawn from England, we shall also see in
+it the way in which the intellect of one country acts upon the intellect
+of another; and we shall arrive at some results respecting that
+interchange of ideas which is likely to become the most important
+regulator of European affairs. This will throw much light on the laws of
+international thought; and, in connexion with it, two separate chapters
+will be devoted to a History of the Protective Spirit, and an
+Examination of its relative intensity in France and England. But the
+French, as a people, have, since the beginning or middle of the
+seventeenth century, been remarkably free from superstition; and,
+notwithstanding the efforts of their government, they are very averse to
+ecclesiastical power: so that, although their history displays the
+protective principle in its political form, it supplies little evidence
+respecting its religious form; while, in our own country, the evidence
+is also scanty. Hence, my intention is, to give a view of Spanish
+history; because in it we may trace the full results of that protection
+against error which the spiritual classes are always eager to afford. In
+Spain, the church has, from a very early period, possessed more
+authority, and the clergy have been more influential, both with the
+people and the government, than in any other country; it will,
+therefore, be convenient to study in Spain the laws of ecclesiastical
+development, and the manner in which that development affects the
+national interests. Another circumstance, which operates on the
+intellectual progress of a nation, is the method of investigation that
+its ablest men habitually employ. This method can only be one of two
+kinds; it must be either inductive, or deductive. Each of these belongs
+to a different form of civilization, and is always accompanied by a
+different style of thought, particularly in regard to religion and
+science. These differences are of such immense importance, that, until
+their laws are known, we cannot be said to understand the real history
+of past events. Now, the two extremes of the difference are,
+undoubtedly, Germany and the United States; the Germans being
+pre-eminently deductive, the Americans inductive. But Germany and
+America are, in so many other respects, diametrically opposed to each
+other, that I have thought it expedient to study the operations of the
+deductive and inductive spirit in countries between which a closer
+analogy exists; because the greater the similarity between two nations,
+the more easily can we trace the consequences of any single divergence,
+and the more conspicuous do the laws of that divergence become. Such an
+opportunity occurs in the history of Scotland, as compared with that of
+England. Here we have two nations, bordering on each other, speaking the
+same language, reading the same literature, and knit together by the
+same interests. And yet it is a truth, which seems to have escaped
+attention, but the proof of which I shall fully detail, that, until the
+last thirty or forty years, the Scotch intellect has been even more
+entirely deductive than the English intellect has been inductive. The
+inductive tendencies of the English mind, and the almost superstitious
+reverence with which we cling to them, have been noticed with regret by
+a few, and a very few, of our ablest men.[383] On the other hand, in
+Scotland, particularly during the eighteenth century, the great
+thinkers, with hardly an exception, adopted the deductive method. Now,
+the characteristic of deduction, when applied to branches of knowledge
+not yet ripe for it, is, that it increases the number of hypotheses from
+which we reason downwards, and brings into disrepute the slow and
+patient ascent peculiar to inductive inquiry. This desire to grasp at
+truth by speculative, and, as it were, foregone conclusions, has often
+led the way to great discoveries; and no one, properly instructed, will
+deny its immense value. But when it is universally followed, there is
+imminent danger lest the observation of mere empirical uniformities
+should be neglected; and lest thinking men should grow impatient at
+those small and proximate generalizations which, according to the
+inductive scheme, must invariably precede the larger and higher ones.
+Whenever this impatience actually occurs, there is produced serious
+mischief. For these lower generalizations form a neutral ground, which
+speculative minds and practical minds possess in common, and on which
+they meet. If this ground is cut away, the meeting is impossible. In
+such case, there arises among the scientific classes an undue contempt
+for inferences which the experience of the vulgar has drawn, but of
+which the laws seem inexplicable; while, among the practical classes,
+there arises a disregard of speculations so wide, so magnificent, and of
+which the intermediate and preliminary steps are hidden from their gaze.
+The results of this in Scotland are highly curious, and are, in several
+respects, similar to those which we find in Germany; since in both
+countries the intellectual classes have long been remarkable for their
+boldness of investigation and their freedom from prejudice, and the
+people at large equally remarkable for the number of their superstitions
+and the strength of their prejudices. In Scotland this is even more
+striking than in Germany; because the Scotch, owing to causes which have
+been little studied, are, in practical matters, not only industrious and
+provident, but singularly shrewd. This, however, in the higher
+departments of life, has availed them nothing; and, while there is no
+country which possesses a more original, inquisitive, and innovating
+literature than Scotland does, so also is there no country, equally
+civilized, in which so much of the spirit of the Middle Ages still
+lingers, in which so many absurdities are still believed, and in which
+it would be so easy to rouse into activity the old feelings of religious
+intolerance.
+
+  [383] Particularly Coleridge and Mr. John Mill. But, with the greatest
+        possible respect for Mr. Mill's profound work on Logic, I must
+        venture to think that he has ascribed too much to the influence
+        of Bacon in encouraging the inductive spirit, and too little to
+        those other circumstances which gave rise to the Baconian
+        philosophy, and to which that philosophy owes its success.
+
+The divergence, and indeed the hostility, thus established between the
+practical and speculative classes, is the most important fact in the
+history of Scotland, and is partly cause and partly effect of the
+predominance of the deductive method. For this descending scheme being
+opposed to the ascending or inductive scheme, neglects those lower
+generalizations which are the only ones that both classes understand,
+and, therefore, the only ones where they sympathize with each other. The
+inductive method, as popularized by Bacon, gave great prominence to
+these lower or proximate truths; and this, though it has often made the
+intellectual classes in England too utilitarian, has at all events saved
+them from that state of isolation in which they would otherwise have
+remained. But in Scotland the isolation has been almost complete,
+because the deductive method has been almost universal. Full evidence of
+this will be collected in the third volume; but, that I may not leave
+the subject entirely without illustration, I will notice very briefly
+the principal instances that occurred during those three generations in
+which Scotch literature reached its highest excellence.
+
+During this period, which comprises nearly a century, the tendency was
+so unmistakable as to form a striking phenomenon in the annals of the
+human mind. The first great symptom was a movement begun by Simson,
+professor at the University of Glasgow, and continued by Stewart,
+professor at the University of Edinburgh. These able men made strenuous
+efforts to revive the pure Greek geometry, and depreciate the algebraic
+or symbolical analysis.[384] Hence there arose among them, and among
+their disciples, a love of the most refined methods of solution, and a
+contempt for those easier, but less elegant ones, which we owe to
+algebra.[385] Here we clearly see the isolating and esoteric character
+of a scheme which despises what ordinary understandings can quickly
+master, and which had rather proceed from the ideal to the tangible,
+than mount from the tangible to the ideal. Just at the same time, the
+same spirit was displayed, in another branch of inquiry, by Hutcheson,
+who, though an Irishman by birth, was educated in the University of
+Glasgow, and was professor there. In his celebrated moral and æsthetic
+researches, he, in the place of inductive reasoning from palpable facts,
+substituted deductive reasoning from impalpable principles; ignoring the
+immediate and practical suggestions of the senses, and believing that by
+a hypothetical assumption of certain laws, he could descend upon the
+facts, instead of rising from the facts in order to learn the laws.[386]
+His philosophy exercised immense influence among metaphysicians;[387]
+and his method of working downwards, from the abstract to the concrete,
+was adopted by another and a still greater Scotchman, the illustrious
+Adam Smith. How Smith favoured the deductive form of investigation is
+apparent in his _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, likewise in his _Essay on
+Language_,[388] and even in his fragment on the _History of Astronomy_,
+in which he, from general considerations, undertook to prove what the
+march of astronomical discovery must have been, instead of first
+ascertaining what it had been.[389] The _Wealth of Nations_, again, is
+entirely deductive, since in it Smith generalizes the laws of wealth,
+not from the phenomena of wealth, nor from statistical statements, but
+from the phenomena of selfishness; thus making a deductive application
+of one set of mental principles to the whole set of economical
+facts.[390] The illustrations with which his great book abounds are no
+part of the real argument: they are subsequent to the conception; and if
+they were all admitted, the work, though less interesting and perhaps
+less influential, would, in a scientific point of view, be equally
+valuable. To give another instance: the works of Hume, his metaphysical
+essays alone excepted, are all deductive; his profound economical
+inquiries are essentially _a priori_, and might have been written
+without any acquaintance with those details of trade and finance from
+which, according to the inductive scheme, they should have been
+generalized.[391] Thus, too, in his _Natural History of Religion_, he
+endeavoured simply by reflection, and independently of evidence, to
+institute a purely speculative investigation into the origin of
+religious opinions.[392] In the same way, in his _History of England_,
+instead of first collecting the evidence, and then drawing inferences
+from it, he began by assuming that the relations between the people and
+the government must have followed a certain order, and he either
+neglected or distorted the facts by which this supposition was
+contradicted.[393] These different writers, though varying in their
+principles, and in the subjects they studied, were all agreed as to
+their method; that is to say, they were all agreed to investigate truth
+rather by descent than by ascent. The immense social importance of this
+peculiarity I shall examine in the third volume, where I shall endeavour
+to ascertain how it affected the national civilization, and caused some
+curious contrasts with the opposite, and more empirical, character of
+English literature. In the meantime, and merely to state what will be
+hereafter proved, I may add, that the deductive method was employed, not
+only by those eminent Scotchmen I have mentioned, but was carried into
+the speculative _History of Civil Society_ by Ferguson; into the study
+of legislation by Mill; into the study of jurisprudence by Mackintosh;
+into geology by Hutton; into thermotics by Black and Leslie; into
+physiology by Hunter, by Alexander Walker, and by Charles Bell; into
+pathology by Cullen; into therapeutics by Brown and Currie.
+
+  [384] Simson was appointed in 1711; and even before he began to lecture,
+        he drew up 'a translation of the three first books of
+        L'Hospital's Conic Sections, in which geometrical demonstrations
+        are substituted for the algebraical of the original, according to
+        Mr. Simson's early taste on this subject.' _Trail's Life and
+        Writings of Robert Simson_, 1812, 4to. p. 4. This was probably
+        the rudiment of his work on Conic Sections, published in 1735.
+        _Montucla_, _Histoire des Mathématiques_, vol. iii. p. 12. On the
+        difference between the ancient and modern schemes, there are some
+        ingenious, though perhaps scarcely tenable, remarks in Dugald
+        Stewart's _Philosophy of the Mind_, vol. ii. pp. 354 seq. and p.
+        380. See also _Comte_, _Philosophie Positive_, vol. i. pp.
+        383-395. Matthew Stewart, the mathematical professor at
+        Edinburgh, was the father of Dugald. See, respecting him and his
+        crusade against the modern analysis, _Bower's History of the
+        University of Edinburgh_, vol. ii. pp. 357-360, vol. iii. p. 249;
+        and a strange passage in _First Report of the British
+        Association_, p. 59.
+
+  [385] One of Simson's great reasons for recommending the old analysis,
+        was that it was 'more elegant' than the comparatively modern
+        practice of introducing algebraic calculations into geometry. See
+        _Trail's Simson_, 1812, 4to. pp. 27, 67; a valuable work, which
+        Lord Brougham, in his hasty life of Simson, calls, 'a very
+        learned and exceedingly ill-written, indeed hardly readable'
+        book. _Brougham's Men of Letters and Science_, vol. i. p. 482,
+        8vo. 1845. Dr. Trail's style is clearer, and his sentences are
+        less involved, than Lord Brougham's; and he had moreover the
+        great advantage of understanding the subject upon which he wrote.
+
+  [386] Sir James Mackintosh (_Dissertation on Ethical Philosophy_, p.
+        208) says of Hutcheson, 'To him may also be ascribed that
+        proneness to multiply ultimate and original principles in human
+        nature, which characterized the Scottish school till the second
+        extinction of a passion for metaphysical speculation in
+        Scotland.' There is an able view of Hutcheson's philosophy in
+        _Cousin_, _Histoire de la Philosophie_, I. série, vol. iv. pp. 31
+        seq.; written with clearness and eloquence, but perhaps
+        overpraising Hutcheson.
+
+  [387] On its influence, see a letter from Mackintosh to Parr, in
+        _Memoirs of Mackintosh_, by his Son, vol. i. p. 334. Compare
+        _Letters from Warburton to Hurd_, pp. 37, 82.
+
+  [388] Which is added to his _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, edit. 1822,
+        2 volumes. Compare a letter which Smith wrote in 1763 on the
+        origin of language (in _Nichols's Literary Illustrations of the
+        Eighteenth Century_, vol. iii. pp. 515, 516), which exhibits, on
+        a small scale, the same treatment, as distinguished from a
+        generalization of the facts which are supplied by a comprehensive
+        comparison of different languages. Dr. Arnold speaks slightingly
+        of such investigations. He says, 'Attempts to explain the
+        phenomena of language _a priori_ seem to me unwise.' _Arnold's
+        Miscellaneous Works_, p. 385. This would lead into a discussion
+        too long for a note, but it appears to me that those _a priori_
+        inferences are, to the philologist, what hypotheses are to the
+        inductive natural philosopher; and if this be the case, they are
+        extremely important, because no really fruitful experiment ever
+        can be made unless it is preceded by a judicious hypothesis. In
+        the absence of such an hypothesis, men may grope in the dark for
+        centuries, accumulating facts without obtaining knowledge.
+
+  [389] See, for instance, his attempt to prove, from general reasonings
+        concerning the human mind, that there was a necessary relation in
+        regard to the order in which men promulgated the system of
+        concentric spheres and that of eccentric spheres and epicycles.
+        _History of Astronomy_, in _Smith's Philosophical Essays_, 1795,
+        4to. pp. 31, 36, which it may be convenient to compare with
+        _Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences_, 1847, vol. ii.
+        pp. 53, 60, 61. This striking fragment of Adam Smith's is
+        probably little read now; but it is warmly praised by one of the
+        greatest living philosophers, M. A. Comte, in his _Philosophie
+        Positive_, vol. vi. p. 319.
+
+  [390] The two writers who have inquired most carefully into the method
+        which political economists ought to follow, are Mr. John Mill
+        (_Essays on Unsettled Questions of Political Economy_, 1844, pp.
+        120-164) and Mr. Rae (_New Principles of Political Economy_,
+        1834, pp. 328-351). Mr. Rae, in his ingenious work, objects to
+        Adam Smith that he transgressed the rules of the Baconian
+        philosophy, and thus prevented his inferences from being as
+        valuable as they would have been if he had treated his subject
+        inductively. But Mr. Mill, with great force of reasoning, has
+        proved that the deductive plan is the only one by which political
+        economy can be raised to a science. He says, p. 143, political
+        economy is 'essentially an _abstract_ science, and its method is
+        the method _a priori_;' and at p. 146, that the _a posteriori_
+        method is 'altogether inefficacious.' To this I may add, that the
+        modern theory of rent, which is now the corner-stone of political
+        economy, was got at, not by generalizing economical facts, but by
+        reasoning downwards after the manner of geometricians. Indeed,
+        those who oppose the theory of rent, always do so on the ground
+        that it is contradicted by facts; and then, with complete
+        ignorance of the philosophy of method, they infer that therefore
+        the theory is wrong. See, for instance, _Jones on the
+        Distribution of Wealth_, 8vo. 1831: a book containing some
+        interesting facts, but vitiated by this capital defect of method.
+        See also _Journal of Statistical Society_, vol. i. p. 317, vol.
+        vi. p. 322; where it is said that economical theories should be
+        generalized from statistical facts. Compare vol. xvii. p. 116,
+        vol. xviii. p. 101.
+
+  [391] A striking instance has lately come to light of the sagacity with
+        which Hume employed this method. See _Burton's Life and
+        Correspondence of Hume_, vol. ii. p. 486; where we find, that
+        immediately Hume had read the _Wealth of Nations_, he detected
+        Smith's error concerning rent being an element of price: so that
+        it now appears that Hume was the first to make this great
+        discovery, as far as the idea is concerned; though Ricardo has
+        the merit of proving it.
+
+  [392] The historical facts he introduces are merely illustrations; as
+        any one will see who will read _The Natural History of Religion_,
+        in _Hume's Philos. Works_, Edinb. 1826, vol. iv. pp. 435-513. I
+        may mention, that there is a considerable similarity between the
+        views advocated in this remarkable essay and the religious stages
+        of _Comte's Philosophie Positive_; for Hume's early form of
+        polytheism is evidently the same as M. Comte's fetichism, from
+        which both these writers believe that monotheism subsequently
+        arose, as a later and more refined abstraction. That this was the
+        course adopted by the human mind is highly probable, and is
+        confirmed by the learned researches of Mr. Grote. See his
+        _History of Greece_, vol. i. pp. 462, 497, vol. v. p. 22. The
+        opposite and more popular opinion, of monotheism preceding
+        idolatry, was held by most of the great earlier writers, and is
+        defended by many moderns, and among others by Dr. Whewell
+        (_Bridgewater Treatise_, p. 256), who expresses himself with
+        considerable confidence: see also _Letters from Warburton to
+        Hurd_, p. 239. Compare _Thirlwall's History of Greece_, vol. i.
+        p. 183, Lond. 1835, with the 'einige Funken des Monotheismus' of
+        Kant, _Kritik der reinen Vernunft_, in _Kant's Werke_, vol. ii.
+        p. 455.
+
+  [393] That is to say, he treated historical facts as merely illustrative
+        of certain general principles, which he believed could be proved
+        without the facts; so that, as M. Schlosser (_History of the
+        Eighteenth Century_, vol. ii. p. 76) well says, 'History with
+        Hume was only a subordinate pursuit, only a means by which he
+        might introduce his philosophy,' &c. Considering how little is
+        known of the principles which govern social and political
+        changes, there can be no doubt that Hume was premature in the
+        application of this method; but it is absurd to call the method
+        dishonest, since the object of his History was, not to _prove_
+        conclusions, but to _illustrate_ them: and he therefore thought
+        himself justified in selecting the illustrations. I am simply
+        stating his views, without at all defending them; indeed, I
+        believe that in this respect he was seriously in the wrong.
+
+This is an outline of the plan I purpose to follow in the present
+Introduction, and by means of which I hope to arrive at some results of
+permanent value. For by studying different principles in those countries
+where they have been most developed, the laws of the principles will be
+more easily unfolded than if we had studied them in countries where they
+are very obscure. And, inasmuch as, in England, civilization has
+followed a course more orderly, and less disturbed, than in any other
+country, it becomes the more necessary, in writing its history, to use
+some resources like those which I have suggested. What makes the history
+of England so eminently valuable is, that nowhere else has the national
+progress been so little interfered with, either for good or for evil.
+But the mere fact that our civilization has, by this means, been
+preserved in a more natural and healthy state, renders it incumbent on
+us to study the diseases to which it is liable, by observing those other
+countries where social disease is more rife. The security and the
+durability of civilization must depend on the regularity with which its
+elements are combined, and on the harmony with which they work. If any
+one element is too active, the whole composition will be in danger.
+Hence it is, that although the laws of the composition of the elements
+will be best ascertained wherever we can find the composition most
+complete, we must, nevertheless, search for the laws of each separate
+element wherever we can find the element itself most active. While,
+therefore, I have selected the history of England, as that in which the
+harmony of the different principles has been longest maintained, I have,
+precisely on that account, thought it advisable to study each principle
+separately in the country where it has been most powerful, and where, by
+its inordinate development, the equilibrium of the entire structure has
+been disturbed.
+
+By adopting these precautions, we shall be able to remove many of the
+difficulties which still beset the study of history. Before, however,
+entering that wide field which now lies in our way, it will be well to
+clear up some preliminary points, which I have not yet noticed, and the
+discussion of which may obviate certain objections that might otherwise
+be raised. The subjects to which I allude, are Religion, Literature, and
+Government: three topics of vast importance, and which, in the opinion
+of many persons, are the prime movers of human affairs. That this
+opinion is altogether erroneous will be amply proved in the present
+work; but as the opinion is widely spread, and is very plausible, it is
+necessary that we should at once come to some understanding respecting
+it, and inquire into the real nature of that influence, which these
+three great powers do actually exercise over the progress of
+civilization.
+
+Now, in the first place, it is evident that if a people were left
+entirely to themselves, their religion, their literature, and their
+government would be, not the causes of their civilization, but the
+effects of it. Out of a certain condition of society certain results
+naturally follow. Those results may, no doubt, be tampered with by some
+external agency; but if that is not done, it is impossible that a highly
+civilized people, accustomed to reason and to doubt, should ever embrace
+a religion of which the glaring absurdities set reason and doubt at
+defiance. There are many instances of nations changing their religion,
+but there is no instance of a progressive country voluntarily adopting a
+retrogressive religion; neither is there any example of a declining
+country ameliorating its religion. It is of course true, that a good
+religion is favourable to civilization, and a bad one unfavourable to
+it. Unless, however, there is some interference from without, no people
+will ever discover that their religion is bad until their reason tells
+them so; but if their reason is inactive, and their knowledge
+stationary, the discovery will never be made. A country that continues
+in its old ignorance will always remain in its old religion. Surely
+nothing can be plainer than this. A very ignorant people will, by virtue
+of their ignorance, incline towards a religion full of marvels; a
+religion which boasts of innumerable gods, and which ascribes every
+occurrence to the immediate authority of those gods. On the other hand,
+a people whose knowledge makes them better judges of evidence, and who
+are accustomed to that most difficult task, the practice of doubting,
+will require a religion less marvellous, less obtrusive; one that taxes
+their credulity less heavily. But will you, therefore, say, that the
+badness of the first religion causes the ignorance; and that the
+goodness of the second religion causes the knowledge? Will you say, that
+when one event precedes another, the one which comes first is the
+effect, and the one which follows afterwards is the cause? This is not
+the way in which men reason on the ordinary affairs of life; and it is
+difficult to see why they should reason thus respecting the history of
+past events.
+
+The truth is, that the religious opinions which prevail in any period
+are among the symptoms by which that period is marked. When the opinions
+are deeply rooted, they do, no doubt, influence the conduct of men; but
+before they can be deeply rooted, some intellectual change must first
+have taken place. We may as well expect that the seed should quicken in
+the barren rock, as that a mild and philosophic religion should be
+established among ignorant and ferocious savages. Of this innumerable
+experiments have been made, and always with the same result. Men of
+excellent intentions, and full of a fervent though mistaken zeal, have
+been, and still are, attempting to propagate their own religion among
+the inhabitants of barbarous countries. By strenuous and unremitting
+activity, and frequently by promises, and even by actual gifts, they
+have, in many cases, persuaded savage communities to make a profession
+of the Christian religion. But whoever will compare the triumphant
+reports of the missionaries with the long chain of evidence supplied by
+competent travellers, will soon find that such profession is only
+nominal, and that these ignorant tribes have adopted, indeed, the
+ceremonies of the new religion, but have by no means adopted the
+religion itself. They receive the externals, but there they stop. They
+may baptize their children; they may take the sacrament; they may flock
+to the church. All this they may do, and yet be as far removed from the
+spirit of Christianity as when they bowed the knee before their former
+idols. The rites and forms of a religion lie on the surface; they are at
+once seen, they are quickly learned, easily copied by those who are
+unable to penetrate to that which lies beneath. It is this deeper and
+inward change which alone is durable; and this the savage can never
+experience while he is sunk in an ignorance that levels him with the
+brutes by which he is surrounded. Remove the ignorance, and then the
+religion may enter. This is the only course by which ultimate benefit
+can be effected. After a careful study of the history and condition of
+barbarous nations, I do most confidently assert, that there is no well
+attested case of any people being permanently converted to Christianity,
+except in those very few instances where missionaries, being men of
+knowledge, as well as men of piety, have familiarized the savage with
+habits of thought, and, by thus stimulating his intellect, have prepared
+him for the reception of those religious principles, which, without
+such stimulus, he could never have understood.[394]
+
+  [394] A writer of great authority has made some remarks on this, which
+        are worth attending to: 'Ce fut alors que les Jésuites
+        pénétrèrent dans la Chine pour y prêcher l'évangile. Ils ne
+        tardèrent pas à s'apercevoir qu'un des moyens les plus efficaces
+        pour s'y maintenir, en attendant le moment que le ciel avoit
+        marqué pour éclairer ce vaste empire, étoit d'étaler des
+        connoissances astronomiques.' _Montucla_, _Histoire des
+        Mathématiques_, vol. i. p. 468; and see vol. ii. pp. 586, 587.
+        Cuvier delicately hints at the same conclusion. He says of Emery:
+        'Il se souvenait que l'époque où le christianisme a fait le plus
+        de conquêtes, et où ses ministres ont obtenu le plus de respect,
+        est celle où ils portaient chez les peuples convertis les
+        lumières des lettres, en même temps que les vérités de la
+        religion, et où ils formaient à la fois dans les nations l'ordre
+        le plus éminent et le plus éclairé.' _Cuvier_, _Eloges
+        Historiques_, vol. iii. p. 170. Even Southey (_History of
+        Brazil_, vol. ii. p. 378) says: 'Missionaries have always
+        complained of the fickleness of their converts; and they must
+        always complain of it, till they discover that some degree of
+        civilization must precede conversion, or at least accompany it.'
+        And see to the same effect, _Halkett's Notes on the North
+        American Indians_, pp. 352, 353; and _Combe's North America_,
+        vol. i. p. 250, vol. ii. p. 353.
+
+It is in this way that, looking at things upon a large scale, the
+religion of mankind is the effect of their improvement, not the cause of
+it. But, looking at things upon a small scale, or taking what is called
+a practical view of some short and special period, circumstances will
+occasionally occur which disturb this general order, and apparently
+reverse the natural process. And this, as in all such cases, can only
+arise from the peculiarities of individual men; who, moved by the minor
+laws which regulate individual actions, are able, by their genius or
+their energy, to interfere with the operation of those greater laws
+which regulate large societies. Owing to circumstances still unknown,
+there appear, from time to time, great thinkers, who, devoting their
+lives to a single purpose, are able to anticipate the progress of
+mankind, and to produce a religion or a philosophy, by which important
+effects are eventually brought about. But, if we look into history, we
+shall clearly see that, although the origin of a new opinion may be thus
+due to a single man, the result which the new opinion produces will
+depend on the condition of the people among whom it is propagated. If
+either a religion or a philosophy is too much in advance of a nation, it
+can do no present service, but must bide its time, until the minds of
+men are ripe for its reception. Of this innumerable instances will occur
+to most readers. Every science and every creed has had its martyrs; men
+exposed to obloquy, or even to death, because they knew more than their
+contemporaries, and because society was not sufficiently advanced to
+receive the truths which they communicated. According to the ordinary
+course of affairs, a few generations pass away, and then there comes a
+period when these very truths are looked upon as commonplace facts; and
+a little later, there comes another period, in which they are declared
+to be necessary, and even the dullest intellects wonder how they could
+ever have been denied. This is what happens when the human mind is
+allowed to have fair play, and to exercise itself, with tolerable
+freedom, in the accumulation and diffusion of knowledge. If, however, by
+violent, and therefore by artificial, means, this same society is
+prevented from exercising its intellect, then the truths, however
+important they may be, can never be received. For why should certain
+truths be rejected in one age, and acknowledged in another? The truths
+remain the same; their ultimate recognition must, therefore, be due to a
+change in the society which now accepts what it had before despised.
+Indeed, history is full of evidence of the utter inefficiency even of
+the noblest principles, when they are promulgated among a very ignorant
+nation. Thus it was that the doctrine of One God, taught to the Hebrews
+of old, remained for many centuries altogether inoperative. The people
+to whom it was addressed had not yet emerged from barbarism; they were,
+therefore, unable to raise their minds to so elevated a conception. Like
+all other barbarians, they craved after a religion which would feed
+their credulity with incessant wonders; and which, instead of
+abstracting the Deity to a single essence, would multiply their gods
+until they covered every field, and swarmed in every forest. This is the
+idolatry which is the natural fruit of ignorance; and this it is to
+which the Hebrews were perpetually recurring. Notwithstanding the most
+severe and unremitting punishments, they, at every opportunity,
+abandoned that pure theism which their minds were too backward to
+receive, and relapsed into superstitions which they could more easily
+understand,--into the worship of the golden calf, and the adoration of
+the brazen serpent. Now, and in this age of the world, they have long
+ceased to do these things. And why? Not because their religious feelings
+are more easily aroused, or their religious fears more often excited. So
+far from this, they are dissevered from their old associations; they
+have lost for ever those scenes by which men might well have been moved.
+They are no longer influenced by those causes which inspired emotions,
+sometimes of terror, sometimes of gratitude. They no longer witness the
+pillar of cloud by day, or the pillar of fire by night; they no longer
+see the Law being given from Sinai, nor do they hear the thunder rolling
+from Horeb. In the presence of these great appeals, they remained
+idolaters in their hearts, and whenever an opportunity occurred, they
+became idolaters in their practice, and this they did because they were
+in that state of barbarism, of which idolatry is the natural product. To
+what possible circumstance can their subsequent change be ascribed,
+except to the simple fact, that the Hebrews, like all other people, as
+they advanced in civilization, began to abstract and refine their
+religion, and, despising the old worship of many gods, thus by slow
+degrees elevated their minds to that steady perception of One Great
+Cause, which, at an earlier period, it had been vainly attempted to
+impress upon them?
+
+Thus intimate is the connexion between the opinions of a people and
+their knowledge; and thus necessary is it that, so far as nations are
+concerned, intellectual activity should precede religious improvement.
+If we require further illustrations of this important truth, we shall
+find them in the events which occurred in Europe soon after the
+promulgation of Christianity. The Romans were, with rare exceptions, an
+ignorant and barbarous race; ferocious, dissolute, and cruel. For such a
+people, Polytheism was the natural creed; and we read, accordingly, that
+they practised an idolatry which a few great thinkers, and only a few,
+ventured to despise. The Christian religion, falling among these men,
+found them unable to appreciate its sublime and admirable doctrines. And
+when, a little later, Europe was overrun by fresh immigrations, the
+invaders, who were even more barbarous than the Romans, brought with
+them those superstitions which were suited to their actual condition. It
+was upon the materials arising from these two sources that Christianity
+was now called to do her work. The result is most remarkable. For after
+the new religion seemed to have carried all before it, and had received
+the homage of the best part of Europe, it was soon found that nothing
+had been really effected. It was soon found that society was in that
+early stage in which superstition is inevitable; and in which men, if
+they do not have it in one form, will have it in another. It was in vain
+that Christianity taught a simple doctrine, and enjoined a simple
+worship. The minds of men were too backward for so great a step, and
+required more complicated forms, and a more complicated belief. What
+followed is well known to the students of ecclesiastical history. The
+superstition of Europe, instead of being diminished, was only turned
+into a fresh channel. The new religion was corrupted by the old follies.
+The adoration of idols was succeeded by the adoration of saints; the
+worship of the Virgin was substituted for the worship of Cybele;[395]
+Pagan ceremonies were established in Christian churches; not only the
+mummeries of idolatry, but likewise its doctrines, were quickly added,
+and were incorporated and worked into the spirit of the new religion;
+until, after a lapse of a few generations, Christianity exhibited so
+grotesque and hideous a form, that its best features were lost, and the
+lineaments of its earlier loveliness altogether destroyed.[396]
+
+  [395] This is curiously illustrated by the fact, that the 25th of March,
+        which is now called Lady-day, in honour of the Virgin Mary, was,
+        in Pagan times, called Hilaria, and was dedicated to Cybele, the
+        mother of the gods. Compare _Blunt's Vestiges of Ancient
+        Manners_, 8vo. 1823, pp. 51-55, with _Hampson's Medii Ævi
+        Kalendarium_, 8vo. 1841, vol. i. pp. 56, 177.
+
+  [396] On this interesting subject, the two best English books are,
+        _Middleton's Letter from Rome_, and _Priestley's History of the
+        Corruption of Christianity_; the former work being chiefly
+        valuable for ritual corruptions, the latter work for doctrinal
+        ones. _Blunt's Vestiges of Ancient Manners_ is also worth
+        reading; but is very inferior to the two treatises just named,
+        and is conceived in a much narrower spirit.
+
+After some centuries were passed, Christianity slowly emerged from these
+corruptions; many of which, however, even the most civilized countries
+have not yet been able to throw off.[397] Indeed, it was found
+impossible to effect even the beginning of a reform, until the European
+intellect was, in some degree, roused from its lethargy. The knowledge
+of men, gradually advancing, made them indignant at superstitions which
+they had formerly admired. The way in which their indignation increased,
+until, in the sixteenth century, it broke out into that great event
+which is well called the Reformation, forms one of the most interesting
+subjects in modern history. But, for our present purpose, it is enough
+to keep in mind the memorable and important fact that, for centuries
+after Christianity was the established religion of Europe, it failed to
+bear its natural fruit, because its lot was cast among a people whose
+ignorance compelled them to be superstitious, and who, on account of
+their superstition, defaced a system which, in its original purity, they
+were unable to receive.[398]
+
+  [397] The large amount of Paganism which still exists in every Christian
+        sect, forms an argument against an ingenious distinction which M.
+        Bunsen has made between the change of a religion and that of a
+        language; alterations in a religion being, as he supposes, always
+        more abrupt than those in a language. _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. i.
+        pp. 358, 359.
+
+  [398] It was necessary, says M. Maury, that the church 'se rapprochât
+        davantage de l'esprit grossier, inculte, ignorant du barbare.'
+        _Maury_, _Légendes Pieuses du Moyen Age_, p. 101. An exactly
+        similar process has taken place in India, where the Puranas are
+        to the Vedas what the works of the Fathers are to the New
+        Testament. Compare _Elphinstone's History of India_, pp. 87, 88,
+        98; _Wilson's Preface to the Vishnu Parana_, p. 7; and
+        _Transactions of Bombay Society_, vol. i. p. 205. So that as M.
+        Max Müller well expresses it, the Puranas are 'a secondary
+        formation of Indian mythology.' _Müller on the Languages of
+        India_, in _Reports of British Association for 1847_, p. 324.
+
+Indeed, in every page of history, we meet with fresh evidence of the
+little effect religious doctrines can produce upon a people, unless
+preceded by intellectual culture. The influence exercised by
+Protestantism, as compared with Catholicism, affords an interesting
+example of this. The Catholic religion bears to the Protestant religion
+exactly the same relation that the Dark Ages bear to the sixteenth
+century. In the Dark Ages, men were credulous and ignorant; they
+therefore produced a religion which required great belief and little
+knowledge. In the sixteenth century, their credulity and ignorance,
+though still considerable, were rapidly diminishing, and it was found
+necessary to organize a religion suited to their altered circumstances:
+a religion more favourable to free inquiry; a religion less full of
+miracles, saints, legends, and idols; a religion of which the ceremonies
+were less frequent, and less burdensome; a religion which should
+discourage penance, fasting, confession, celibacy, and those other
+mortifications which had long been universal. All this was done by the
+establishment of Protestantism; a mode of worship which, being thus
+suited to the age, made, as is well known, speedy progress. If this
+great movement had been allowed to proceed without interruption, it
+would, in the course of a few generations, have overthrown the old
+superstition, and established in its place a simpler and less
+troublesome creed; the rapidity with which this was done, being, of
+course, proportioned to the intellectual activity of the different
+countries. But, unfortunately, the European governments, who are always
+meddling in matters with which they have no concern, thought it their
+duty to protect the religious interests of the people; and making
+common cause with the Catholic clergy, they, in many instances, forcibly
+stopped the heresy, and thus arrested the natural development of the
+age. This interference was, in nearly all cases, well intended, and is
+solely to be ascribed to the ignorance of rulers respecting the proper
+limits of their functions: but the evils caused by this ignorance it
+would be difficult to exaggerate. During almost a hundred and fifty
+years, Europe was afflicted by religious wars, religious massacres, and
+religious persecutions; not one of which would have arisen, if the great
+truth had been recognised, that the state has no concern with the
+opinions of men, and no right to interfere, even in the slightest
+degree, with the form of worship which they may choose to adopt. This
+principle was, however, formerly unknown, or at all events unheeded; and
+it was not until the middle of the seventeenth century that the great
+religious contests were brought to a final close, and the different
+countries settled down into their public creeds; which, in the essential
+points, have never since been permanently altered; no nation having, for
+more than two hundred years, made war upon another on account of its
+religion; and all the great Catholic countries having, during the same
+period, remained Catholic, all the great Protestant ones remained
+Protestant.
+
+From this it has arisen, that, in several of the European countries, the
+religious development has not followed its natural order, but has been
+artificially forced into an unnatural one. According to the natural
+order, the most civilized countries should all be Protestants, and the
+most uncivilized ones Catholics. In the average of instances this is
+actually the case; so that many persons have been led into the singular
+error, of ascribing all modern enlightenment to the influence of
+Protestantism; overlooking the important fact, that until the
+enlightenment had begun, Protestantism was never required. But although,
+in the ordinary course of affairs, the advance of the Reformation would
+have been the measure, and the symptom, of that advance of knowledge by
+which it was preceded, still, in many cases, the authority of the
+government and of the church acted as disturbing causes, and frustrated
+the natural progress of religious improvement. And, after the treaty of
+Westphalia had fixed the political relations of Europe, the love of
+theological strife so greatly subsided, that men no longer thought it
+worth their while to raise a religious revolution, and to risk their
+lives in an attempt to overturn the creed of the state. At the same
+time, governments, not being themselves particularly fond of
+revolutions, have encouraged this stationary condition; and very
+naturally, and, as it appears to me, very wisely, have made no great
+alteration, but have left the national establishments as they found
+them; that is to say, the Protestant ones Protestant, and the Catholic
+ones Catholic. Hence it is, that the national religion professed by any
+country at the present moment, is no decisive criterion of the present
+civilization of the country; because the circumstances which fixed the
+religion occurred long since, and the religion remains endowed and
+established by the mere continuance of an impetus which was formerly
+given.
+
+Thus far as to the origin of the ecclesiastical establishments of
+Europe. But, in their practical consequences, we see some results which
+are highly instructive. For many countries owing their national creed,
+not to their own proper antecedents, but to the authority of powerful
+individuals, it will be invariably found, that in such countries the
+creed does not produce the effects which might have been expected from
+it, and which, according to its terms, it ought to produce. Thus, for
+instance, the Catholic religion is more superstitious, and more
+intolerant, than the Protestant; but it by no means follows, that those
+countries which profess the former creed, must be more superstitious,
+and more intolerant, than those which profess the latter. So far from
+this, the French are not only quite as free from those odious qualities
+as are the most civilized Protestants, but they are more free from them
+than some Protestant nations, as the Scotch and the Swedes. Of the
+highly-educated class, I am not here speaking; but of the clergy, and of
+the people generally, it must be admitted, that in Scotland there is
+more bigotry, more superstition, and a more thorough contempt for the
+religion of others, than there is in France. And in Sweden, which is one
+of the oldest Protestant countries in Europe,[399] there is, not
+occasionally, but habitually, an intolerance and a spirit of
+persecution, which would be discreditable to a Catholic country; but
+which is doubly disgraceful when proceeding from a people who profess to
+base their religion on the right of private judgment.[400]
+
+  [399] The doctrines of Luther were first preached in Sweden in 1519;
+        and, in 1527, the principles of the Reformation were formally
+        adopted in an assembly of the States at Westeraas, which enabled
+        Gustavus Vasa to seize the property of the church. _Geijer's
+        History of the Swedes_, part i. pp. 110, 118, 119; _Mosheim's
+        Ecclesiastical History_, vol. ii. p. 22; _Crichton and Wheaton's
+        History of Scandinavia_, vol. i. pp. 399, 400. The apostasy
+        proceeded so favourably, that De Thou (_Histoire Univ._ vol.
+        xiii. p. 312) says, in 1598, 'Il y avoit déjà si long-tems que ce
+        culte étoit établi en Suède, qu'il étoit comme impossible de
+        trouver, soit parmi le peuple, soit parmi les seigneurs,
+        quelqu'un qui se souvînt d'avoir vu dans ce roïaume l'exercice
+        public de la religion catholique.'
+
+  [400] On the state of things in 1838, see some curious, and indeed
+        shameful, details in _Laing's Sweden_, 8vo. London, 1839. Mr.
+        Laing, though himself a Protestant, truly says, that in
+        Protestant Sweden there 'is inquisition law, working in the hands
+        of a Lutheran state-church, as strongly as in Spain or Portugal
+        in the hands of a Roman Catholic Church.' _Laing's Sweden_, p.
+        324. In the seventeenth century, it was ordered by the Swedish
+        Church, and the order was confirmed by government, that 'if any
+        Swedish subject change his religion, he shall be banished the
+        kingdom, and lose all right of inheritance, both for himself and
+        his descendants.... If any bring into the country teachers of
+        another religion, he shall be fined and banished.' _Burton's
+        Diary_, vol. iii. p. 387, 8vo. 1828. To this may be added, that
+        it was not till 1781 that Roman Catholics were allowed to
+        exercise their religion in Sweden. See _Crichton's History of
+        Scandinavia_, Edinb. 1838, vol. ii. p. 320. See also, on this
+        intolerant spirit, _Whitelocke's Journal of the Swedish Embassy_,
+        vol. i. pp. 164, 412, vol. ii. p. 312.
+
+These things show, what it would be easy to prove by a wider induction,
+that when, from special, or, as they are called, accidental causes, any
+people profess a religion more advanced than themselves, it will not
+produce its legitimate effect.[401] The superiority of Protestantism
+over Catholicism consists in its diminution of superstition and
+intolerance, and in the check which it gives to ecclesiastical power.
+But the experience of Europe teaches us, that when the superior religion
+is fixed among an inferior people, its superiority is no longer seen.
+The Scotch and the Swedes,--and to them might be added some of the Swiss
+cantons,--are less civilized than the French, and are therefore more
+superstitious. This being the case, it avails them little that they have
+a religion better than the French. It avails them little that, owing to
+circumstances which have long since passed away, they, three centuries
+ago, adopted a creed to which the force of habit, and the influence of
+tradition, now oblige them to cling. Whoever has travelled in Scotland
+with sufficient attention to observe the ideas and opinions of the
+people, and whoever will look into Scotch theology, and read the history
+of the Scotch Kirk, and the proceedings of the Scotch Assemblies and
+Consistories, will see how little the country has benefited by its
+religion, and how wide an interval there is between its intolerant
+spirit and the natural tendencies of the Protestant Reformation. On the
+other hand, whoever will subject France to a similar examination, will
+see an illiberal religion accompanied by liberal views, and a creed full
+of superstitions professed by a people among whom superstition is
+comparatively rare.
+
+  [401] We see a good instance of this in the case of the Abyssinians, who
+        have professed Christianity for centuries; but, as no pains were
+        taken to cultivate their intellect, they found the religion too
+        pure for them: they, therefore, corrupted it, and, down to the
+        present moment, they have not made the slightest progress. The
+        accounts given by Bruce of them are well known; and a traveller,
+        who visited them in 1839, says: 'Nothing can be more corrupt than
+        the nominal Christianity of this unhappy nation. It is mixed up
+        with Judaism, Mahommedanism, and idolatry, and is a mass of rites
+        and superstitions which cannot mend the heart.' _Kraff's Journal
+        at Ankobar_, in _Journal of Geographical Society_, vol. x. p.
+        488; see also vol. xiv. p. 13: and for a similar state of things
+        in America, see the account of the Quiché Indians, in _Stephens's
+        Central America_, vol. ii. pp. 191, 192. Compare _Squier's
+        Central America_, vol. i. pp. 322, 323, with _Halkett's
+        North-American Indians_, pp. 29, 212, 268. For further
+        confirmation of this view, in another part of the world, see
+        _Tuckey's Expedition to the Zaire_, pp. 79, 80, 165.
+
+The simple fact is, that the French have a religion worse than
+themselves; the Scotch have a religion better than themselves. The
+liberality of France is as ill suited to Catholicism, as the bigotry of
+Scotland is ill suited to Protestantism. In these, as in all similar
+cases, the characteristics of the creed are overpowered by the
+characteristics of the people; and the national faith is, in the most
+important points, altogether inoperative, because it does not harmonize
+with the civilization of the country in which it is established. How
+idle, then, it is to ascribe the civilization to the creed; and how
+worse than foolish are the attempts of government to protect a religion
+which, if suited to the people, will need no protection, and, if
+unsuited to them, will work no good!
+
+If the reader has seized the spirit of the preceding arguments, he will
+hardly require that I should analyze with equal minuteness the second
+disturbing cause, namely, Literature. It is evident, that what has
+already been said respecting the religion of a people, is, in a great
+measure, applicable to their literature. Literature,[402] when it is in
+a healthy and unforced state, is simply the form in which the knowledge
+of a country is registered; the mould in which it is cast. In this, as
+in the other cases we have considered, individual men may of course take
+great steps, and rise to a great height above the level of their age.
+But if they rise beyond a certain point, their present usefulness is
+impaired; if they rise still higher, it is destroyed.[403] When the
+interval between the intellectual classes and the practical classes is
+too great, the former will possess no influence, the latter will reap no
+benefit. This is what occurred in the ancient world, when the distance
+between the ignorant idolatry of the people and the refined systems of
+philosophers was altogether impassable;[404] and this is the principal
+reason why the Greeks and Romans were unable to retain the civilization
+which they for a short time possessed. Precisely the same process is at
+the present moment going on in Germany, where the most valuable part of
+literature forms an esoteric system, which, having nothing in common
+with the nation itself, produces no effect on the national civilization.
+The truth is, that although Europe has received great benefit from its
+literature, this is owing, not to what the literature has originated,
+but to what it has preserved. Knowledge must be acquired, before it can
+be written; and the only use of books is, to serve as a storehouse in
+which the treasures of the intellect are safely kept, and where they
+may be conveniently found. Literature, in itself, is but a trifling
+matter; and is merely valuable as being the armory in which the weapons
+of the human mind are laid up, and from which, when required, they can
+be quickly drawn. But he would be a sorry reasoner, who, on that
+account, should propose to sacrifice the end, that he might obtain the
+means; who should hope to defend the armory by giving up the weapons,
+and who should destroy the treasure, in order to improve the magazine in
+which the treasure is kept.
+
+  [402] I use the word literature, not as opposed to science, but in its
+        larger sense, including everything which is written--'taking the
+        term literature in its primary sense, of an application of
+        letters to the records of facts or opinions.' _Mure's History of
+        the Literature of Greece_, vol. iv. p. 50.
+
+  [403] Compare _Tocqueville_, _Démocratie en Amérique_, vol. ii. p. 130,
+        with some admirable remarks on the Sophists in _Grote's History
+        of Greece_, vol. viii. p. 481. Sir W. Hamilton, whose learning
+        respecting the history of opinions is well known, says,
+        'Precisely in proportion as an author is in advance of his age,
+        is it likely that his works will be neglected.' _Hamilton's
+        Discussions on Philosophy_, p. 186. Thus, too, in regard to the
+        line arts, Sir Joshua Reynolds (_Fourth Discourse_, in _Works_,
+        vol. i. p. 363) says, 'Present time and future may be considered
+        as rivals; and he who solicits the one, must expect to be
+        discountenanced by the other.'
+
+  [404] Hence the intellectually exclusive and, as M. Neander well terms
+        it, 'aristocratic spirit of antiquity.' _Neander's History of the
+        Church_, vol. i. pp. 40, 97, vol. ii. p. 31. This is constantly
+        overlooked by writers who use the word 'democracy' loosely;
+        forgetting that, in the same age, democracies of politics may be
+        very common, while democracies of thought are very rare. For
+        proof of the universal prevalence formerly of this esoteric and
+        aristocratic spirit, see the following passages: _Ritter's
+        History of Ancient Philosophy_, vol. i. p. 338, vol. iii. pp. 9,
+        17; _Tennemann_, _Geschichte der Philosophie_, vol. ii. pp. 200,
+        205, 220; _Beausobre_, _Histoire Critique de Manichée_, vol. ii.
+        p. 41; _Matter_, _Histoire du Gnosticisme_, vol. i. p. 13, vol.
+        ii. pp. 83, 370; _Sprengel_, _Histoire de la Médecine_, vol. i.
+        p. 250; _Grote's History of Greece_, vol. i. p. 561, vol. iv. p.
+        544; _Thirlwall's History of Greece_, vol. ii. p. 150, vol. vi.
+        p. 95; _Warburton's Works_, vol. vii. pp. 962, 972, 4to. 1788;
+        _Sharpe's History of Egypt_, vol. ii. p. 174; _Cudworth's
+        Intellect. System_, vol. ii. pp. 114, 365, 443, vol. iii. p. 20.
+
+Yet this is what many persons are apt to do. From literary men, in
+particular, we hear too much of the necessity of protecting and
+rewarding literature, and we hear too little of the necessity of that
+freedom and boldness, in the absence of which the most splendid
+literature is altogether worthless. Indeed, there is a general tendency,
+not to exaggerate the advantages of knowledge,--for that is
+impossible,--but to misunderstand what that is in which knowledge really
+consists. Real knowledge, the knowledge on which all civilization is
+based, solely consists in an acquaintance with the relations which
+things and ideas bear to each other and to themselves; in other words,
+in an acquaintance with physical and mental laws. If the time should
+ever come when all these laws are known, the circle of human knowledge
+will then be complete; and, in the interim, the value of literature
+depends upon the extent to which it communicates either a knowledge of
+the laws, or the materials by which the laws may be discovered. The
+business of education is to accelerate this great movement, and thus
+increase the fitness and aptitude of men, by increasing the resources
+which they possess. Towards this purpose, literature, so far as it is
+auxiliary, is highly useful. But to look upon an acquaintance with
+literature as one of the objects of education, is to mistake the order
+of events, and to make the end subservient to the means. It is because
+this is done, that we often find what are called highly educated men,
+the progress of whose knowledge has been actually retarded by the
+activity of their education. We often find them burdened by prejudices,
+which their reading, instead of dissipating, has rendered more
+inveterate.[405] For literature, being the depository of the thoughts of
+mankind, is full, not only of wisdom, but also of absurdities. The
+benefit, therefore, which is derived from literature, will depend, not
+so much upon the literature itself, as upon the skill with which it is
+studied, and the judgment with which it is selected. These are the
+preliminary conditions of success; and if they are not obeyed, the
+number and the value of the books in a country become a matter quite
+unimportant. Even in an advanced stage of civilization, there is always
+a tendency to prefer those parts of literature which favour ancient
+prejudices, rather than those which oppose them; and in cases where this
+tendency is very strong, the only effect of great learning will be, to
+supply the materials which may corroborate old errors, and confirm old
+superstitions. In our time such instances are not uncommon; and we
+frequently meet with men whose erudition ministers to their ignorance,
+and who the more they read, the less they know. There have been states
+of society in which this disposition was so general, that literature has
+done far more harm than good. Thus, for example, in the whole period
+from the sixth to the tenth centuries, there were not in all Europe more
+than three or four men who dared to think for themselves; and even they
+were obliged to veil their meaning in obscure and mystical language. The
+remaining part of society was, during these four centuries, sunk in the
+most degrading ignorance. Under these circumstances, the few who were
+able to read, confined their studies to works which encouraged and
+strengthened their superstition, such as the legends of the saints, and
+the homilies of the fathers. From these sources they drew those lying
+and impudent fables, of which the theology of that time is principally
+composed.[406] These miserable stories were widely circulated, and were
+valued as solid and important truths. The more the literature was read,
+the more the stories were believed; in other words, the greater the
+learning, the greater the ignorance.[407] And I entertain no doubt, that
+if, in the seventh and eighth centuries, which were the worst part of
+that period,[408] all knowledge of the alphabet had for a while been
+lost, so that men could no longer read the books in which they
+delighted, the subsequent progress of Europe would have been more rapid
+than it really was. For when the progress began, its principal
+antagonist was that credulity which the literature had fostered. It was
+not that better books were wanting, but it was that the relish for such
+books was extinct. There was the literature of Greece and Rome, which
+the monks not only preserved, but even occasionally looked into and
+copied. But what could that avail such readers as they? So far from
+recognizing the merit of the ancient writers, they were unable to feel
+even the beauties of their style, and they trembled at the boldness of
+their inquiries. At the first glimpse of the light, their eyes were
+blinded. They never turned the leaves of a pagan author without
+standing aghast at the risk they were running; and they were in constant
+fear, lest by imbibing any of his opinions, they should involve
+themselves in a deadly sin. The result was, that they willingly laid
+aside the great master-pieces of antiquity; and in their place they
+substituted those wretched compilations, which corrupted their taste,
+increased their credulity, strengthened their errors, and prolonged the
+ignorance of Europe, by embodying each separate superstition in a
+written and accessible form, thus perpetuating its influence, and
+enabling it to enfeeble the understanding even of a distant posterity.
+
+  [405] Locke has noticed this 'learned ignorance,' for which many men are
+        remarkable. See a fine passage in the _Essay on Human
+        Understanding_, book iii. chap. x. in _Locke's Works_, vol. ii.
+        p. 27, and similar remarks in his _Conduct of the Understanding_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 350, 364, 365, and in his _Thoughts on Education_,
+        vol. viii. pp. 84-87. If this profound writer were now alive what
+        a war he would wage against our great universities and public
+        schools, where innumerable things are still taught which no one
+        is concerned to understand, and which few will take the trouble
+        to remember. Compare _Condorcet_, _Vie de Turgot_, pp. 255, 256
+        note.
+
+  [406] The statistics of this sort of literature would prove a curious
+        subject for inquiry. No one, I believe, has thought it worth
+        while to sum them up; but M. Guizot has made an estimate that the
+        Bollandist collection contains more than twenty-five thousand
+        lives of saints; 'à en juger par approximation, ils contiennent
+        plus de 25,000 vies de saints.' _Guizot_, _Histoire de la
+        Civilisation en France_, vol. ii. p. 32. It is said (_Ledwich's
+        Antiquities of Ireland_, p. 62) that of St. Patrick alone, there
+        were sixty-six biographers before Joceline.
+
+  [407] For, as Laplace observes, in his remarks on the sources of error
+        in connexion with the doctrine of probabilities, 'C'est à
+        l'influence de l'opinion de ceux que la multitude juge les plus
+        instruits, et à qui elle a coutume de donner sa confiance sur les
+        plus importants objets de la vie, qu'est due la propagation de
+        ces erreurs qui, dans les temps d'ignorance, ont couvert la face
+        du monde.' _Bouillaud_, _Philosophie Médicale_, p. 218.
+
+  [408] M. Guizot (_Civilisation en France_, vol. ii. pp. 171, 172) thinks
+        that, on the whole, the seventh was even worse than the eighth;
+        but it is difficult to choose between them.
+
+It is in this way that the nature of the literature possessed by a
+people is of very inferior importance, in comparison with the
+disposition of the people by whom the literature is to be read. In what
+are rightly termed the Dark Ages, there was a literature in which
+valuable materials were to be found; but there was no one who knew how
+to use them. During a considerable period, the Latin language was a
+vernacular dialect;[409] and, if men had chosen, they might have studied
+the great Latin authors. But to do this, they must have been in a state
+of society very different from that in which they actually lived. They,
+like every other people, measured merit by the standard commonly
+received in their own age; and, according to their standard, the dross
+was better than the gold. They, therefore, rejected the gold, and
+hoarded up the dross. What took place then is, on a smaller scale,
+taking place now. Every literature contains something that is true, and
+much that is false; and the effect it produces will chiefly depend upon
+the skill with which the truth is discriminated from the falsehood. New
+ideas, and new discoveries, possess prospectively an importance
+difficult to exaggerate; but until the ideas are received, and the
+discoveries adopted, they exercise no influence, and, therefore, work no
+good. No literature can ever benefit a people, unless it finds them in a
+state of preliminary preparation. In this respect, the analogy with
+religious opinions is complete. If the religion and the literature of a
+country are unsuited to its wants, they will be useless, because the
+literature will be neglected, and the religion will be disobeyed. In
+such cases, even the ablest books are unread, and the purest doctrines
+despised. The works fall into oblivion; the faith is corrupted by
+heresy.
+
+  [409] Some of the results of Latin being colloquially employed by the
+        monks are judiciously stated in _Herder's Ideen zur Geschichte
+        der Menschheit_, vol. iv. pp. 202, 203. The remarks on this
+        custom by Dugald Stewart refer to a later period. _Stewart's
+        Philosophy of the Mind_, vol. iii. pp. 110, 111.
+
+The other opinion to which I have referred is, that the civilization of
+Europe is chiefly owing to the ability which has been displayed by the
+different governments, and to the sagacity with which the evils of
+society have been palliated by legislative remedies. To any one who has
+studied history in its original sources, this notion must appear so
+extravagant, as to make it difficult to refute it with becoming gravity.
+Indeed, of all the social theories which have ever been broached, there
+is none so utterly untenable, and so unsound in all its parts, as this.
+In the first place, we have the obvious consideration, that the rulers
+of a country have, under ordinary circumstances, always been the
+inhabitants of that country; nurtured by its literature, bred to its
+traditions, and imbibing its prejudices. Such men are, at best, only the
+creatures of the age, never its creators. Their measures are the result
+of social progress, not the cause of it. This may be proved, not only by
+speculative arguments, but also by a practical consideration, which any
+reader of history can verify for himself. No great political
+improvement, no great reform, either legislative or executive, has ever
+been originated in any country by its rulers. The first suggesters of
+such steps have invariably been bold and able thinkers, who discern the
+abuse, denounce it, and point out how it is to be remedied. But long
+after this is done, even the most enlightened governments continue to
+uphold the abuse, and reject the remedy. At length, if circumstances are
+favourable, the pressure from without becomes so strong, that the
+government is obliged to give way; and, the reform being accomplished,
+the people are expected to admire the wisdom of their rulers, by whom
+all this has been done. That this is the course of political
+improvement, must be well known to whoever has studied the law-books of
+different countries in connexion with the previous progress of their
+knowledge. Full and decisive evidence of this will be brought forward in
+the present work; but, by way of illustration, I may refer to the
+abolition of the corn-laws, undoubtedly one of the most remarkable facts
+in the history of England during this century. The propriety, and,
+indeed, the necessity, of their abolition, is now admitted by every one
+of tolerable information; and the question arises, as to how it was
+brought about. Those Englishmen who are little versed in the history of
+their country will say, that the real cause was the wisdom of
+Parliament; while others, attempting to look a little further, will
+ascribe it to the activity of the Anti-Corn-Law League, and the
+consequent pressure put upon Government. But whoever will minutely trace
+the different stages through which this great question successively
+passed, will find, that the Government, the Legislature, and the League,
+were the unwitting instruments of a power far greater than all other
+powers put together. They were simply the exponents of that march of
+public opinion, which on this subject had begun nearly a century before
+their time. The steps of this vast movement I shall examine on another
+occasion; at present it is enough to say, that soon after the middle of
+the eighteenth century, the absurdity of protective restrictions on
+trade was so fully demonstrated by the political economists, as to be
+admitted by every man who understood their arguments, and had mastered
+the evidence connected with them. From this moment, the repeal of the
+corn-laws became a matter, not of party, nor of expediency, but merely
+of knowledge. Those who knew the facts, opposed the laws; those who were
+ignorant of the facts, favoured the laws. It was, therefore, clear, that
+whenever the diffusion of knowledge reached a certain point, the laws
+must fall. The merit of the League was, to assist this diffusion; the
+merit of the Parliament was, to yield to it. It is, however, certain,
+that the members both of League and Legislature could at best only
+slightly hasten what the progress of knowledge rendered inevitable. If
+they had lived a century earlier, they would have been altogether
+powerless, because the age would not have been ripe for their labours.
+They were the creatures of a movement which began long before any of
+them were born; and the utmost they could do was, to put into operation
+what others had taught, and repeat, in louder tones, the lessons they
+had learned from their masters. For, it was not pretended, they did not
+even pretend themselves, that there was anything new in the doctrines
+which they preached from the hustings, and disseminated in every part of
+the kingdom. The discoveries had long since been made, and were
+gradually doing their work; encroaching upon old errors, and making
+proselytes in all directions. The reformers of our time swam with the
+stream: they aided what it would have been impossible long to resist.
+Nor is this to be deemed a slight or grudging praise of the services
+they undoubtedly rendered. The opposition they had to encounter was
+still immense; and it should always be remembered, as a proof of the
+backwardness of political knowledge, and of the incompetence of
+political legislators, that although the principles of free trade had
+been established for nearly a century by a chain of arguments as solid
+as those on which the truths of mathematics are based, they were to the
+last moment strenuously resisted; and it was only with the greatest
+difficulty that Parliament was induced to grant what the people were
+determined to have, and the necessity of which had been proved by the
+ablest men during three successive generations.
+
+I have selected this instance as an illustration, because the facts
+connected with it are undisputed, and, indeed, are fresh in the memory
+of us all. For it was not concealed at the time, and posterity ought to
+know, that this great measure, which, with the exception of the Reform
+Bill, is by far the most important ever passed by a British parliament,
+was, like the Reform Bill, extorted from the legislature by a pressure
+from without; that it was conceded, not cheerfully, but with fear; and
+that it was carried by statesmen who had spent their lives in opposing
+what they now suddenly advocated. Such was the history of these events;
+and such likewise has been the history of all those improvements which
+are important enough to rank as epochs in the history of modern
+legislation.
+
+Besides this, there is another circumstance worthy the attention of
+those writers who ascribe a large part of European civilization to
+measures originated by European governments. This is, that every great
+reform which has been effected, has consisted, not in doing something
+new, but in undoing something old. The most valuable additions made to
+legislation have been enactments destructive of preceding legislation;
+and the best laws which have been passed, have been those by which some
+former laws were repealed. In the case just mentioned, of the corn-laws,
+all that was done was to repeal the old laws, and leave trade to its
+natural freedom. When this great reform was accomplished, the only
+result was, to place things on the same footing as if legislators had
+never interfered at all. Precisely the same remark is applicable to
+another leading improvement in modern legislation, namely, the decrease
+of religious persecution. This is unquestionably an immense boon;
+though, unfortunately, it is still imperfect, even in the most civilized
+countries. But it is evident that the concession merely consists in
+this: that legislators have retraced their own steps, and undone their
+own work. If we examine the policy of the most humane and enlightened
+governments, we shall find this to be the course they have pursued. The
+whole scope and tendency of modern legislation is, to restore things to
+that natural channel from which the ignorance of preceding legislation
+has driven them. This is one of the great works of the present age; and
+if legislators do it well, they will deserve the gratitude of mankind.
+But though we may thus be grateful to individual lawgivers, we owe no
+thanks to lawgivers, considered as a class. For since the most valuable
+improvements in legislation are those which subvert preceding
+legislation, it is clear that the balance of good cannot be on their
+side. It is clear, that the progress of civilization cannot be due to
+those who, on the most important subjects, have done so much harm, that
+their successors are considered benefactors, simply because they reverse
+their policy, and thus restore affairs to the state in which they would
+have remained, if politicians had allowed them to run on in the course
+which the wants of society required.
+
+Indeed, the extent to which the governing classes have interfered, and
+the mischiefs which that interference has produced, are so remarkable,
+as to make thoughtful men wonder how civilization could advance, in the
+face of such repeated obstacles. In some of the European countries, the
+obstacles have, in fact, proved insuperable, and the national progress
+is thereby stopped. Even in England, where, from causes which I shall
+presently relate, the higher ranks have for some centuries been less
+powerful than elsewhere, there has been inflicted an amount of evil,
+which, though much smaller than that incurred in other countries, is
+sufficiently serious to form a melancholy chapter in the history of the
+human mind. To sum up these evils would be to write a history of English
+legislation; for it may be broadly stated, that, with the exception of
+certain necessary enactments respecting the preservation of order, and
+the punishment of crime, nearly everything which has been done, has been
+done amiss. Thus, to take only such conspicuous facts as do not admit of
+controversy, it is certain that all the most important interests have
+been grievously damaged by the attempts of legislators to aid them.
+Among the accessories of modern civilization, there is none of greater
+moment than trade, the spread of which has probably done more than any
+other single agent to increase the comfort and happiness of man. But
+every European government which has legislated respecting trade, has
+acted as if its main object were to suppress the trade, and ruin the
+traders. Instead of leaving the national industry to take its own
+course, it has been troubled by an interminable series of regulations,
+all intended for its good, and all inflicting serious harm. To such a
+height has this been carried, that the commercial reforms which have
+distinguished England during the last twenty years, have solely
+consisted in undoing this mischievous and intrusive legislation. The
+laws formerly enacted on this subject, and too many of which are still
+in force, are marvellous to contemplate. It is no exaggeration to say,
+that the history of the commercial legislation of Europe presents every
+possible contrivance for hampering the energies of commerce. Indeed, a
+very high authority, who has maturely studied this subject, has recently
+declared, that if it had not been for smuggling, trade could not have
+been conducted, but must have perished, in consequence of this incessant
+interference.[410] However paradoxical this assertion may appear, it
+will be denied by no one who knows how feeble trade once was, and how
+strong the obstacles were which opposed it. In every quarter, and at
+every moment, the hand of government was felt. Duties on importation,
+and duties on exportation; bounties to raise up a losing trade, and
+taxes to pull down a remunerative one; this branch of industry
+forbidden, and that branch of industry encouraged; one article of
+commerce must not be grown, because it was grown in the colonies;
+another article might be grown and bought, but not sold again, while a
+third article might be bought and sold, but not leave the country. Then,
+too, we find laws to regulate wages; laws to regulate prices; laws to
+regulate profits; laws to regulate the interest of money; custom-house
+arrangements of the most vexatious kind, aided by a complicated scheme,
+which was well called the sliding-scale,--a scheme of such perverse
+ingenuity, that the duties constantly varied on the same article, and no
+man could calculate beforehand what he would have to pay. To this
+uncertainty, itself the bane of all commerce, there was added a severity
+of exaction, felt by every class of consumers and producers. The tolls
+were so onerous, as to double and often quadruple the cost of
+production. A system was organized, and strictly enforced, of
+interference with markets, interference with manufactories, interference
+with machinery, interference even with shops. The towns were guarded by
+excisemen, and the ports swarmed with tide-waiters, whose sole business
+was to inspect nearly every process of domestic industry, peer into
+every package, and tax every article; while, that absurdity might be
+carried to its extreme height, a large part of all this was by way of
+protection: that is to say, the money was avowedly raised, and the
+inconvenience suffered, not for the use of the government, but for the
+benefit of the people; in other words, the industrious classes were
+robbed, in order that industry might thrive.
+
+  [410] 'C'est à la contrebande que le commerce doit de n'avoir pas péri
+        sous l'influence du régime prohibitif; tandis que ce régime
+        condamnait les peuples à s'approvisionner aux sources les plus
+        éloignées, la contrebande rapprochait les distances, abaissait
+        les prix, et neutralisait l'action funeste des monopoles.'
+        _Blanqui_, _Histoire de l'Economie, Politique en Europe_, Paris,
+        1845, vol. ii. pp. 25, 26.
+
+Such are some of the benefits which European trade owes to the paternal
+care of European legislators. But worse still remains behind. For the
+economical evils, great as they were, have been far surpassed by the
+moral evils which this system produced. The first inevitable consequence
+was, that, in every part of Europe, there arose numerous and powerful
+gangs of armed smugglers, who lived by disobeying the laws which their
+ignorant rulers had imposed. These men, desperate from the fear of
+punishment,[411] and accustomed to the commission of every crime,
+contaminated the surrounding population; introduced into peaceful
+villages vices formerly unknown; caused the ruin of entire families;
+spread, wherever they came, drunkenness, theft, and dissoluteness; and
+familiarized their associates with those coarse and swinish debaucheries
+which were the natural habits of so vagrant and lawless a life.[412] The
+innumerable crimes arising from this,[413] are directly chargeable upon
+the European governments by whom they were provoked. The offences were
+caused by the laws; and now that the laws are repealed, the offences
+have disappeared. But it will hardly be pretended, that the interests of
+civilization have been advanced by such a policy as this. It will
+hardly be pretended, that we owe much to a system which, having called
+into existence a new class of criminals, at length retraces its steps;
+and, though it thus puts an end to the crime, only destroys what its own
+acts had created.
+
+  [411] The 19 Geo. II. c. 34, made 'all forcible acts of smuggling,
+        carried on in defiance of the laws, or _even in disguise to evade
+        them_, felony without benefit of clergy.' _Blackstone's
+        Commentaries_, vol. iv. p. 155. Townsend, who travelled through
+        France in 1786, says, that when any of the numerous smugglers
+        were taken, 'some of them are hanged, some are broken upon the
+        wheel, and some are burnt alive.' _Townsend's Spain_, vol. i. p.
+        85, edit. 1792. On the general operation of the French laws
+        against smugglers in the eighteenth century, compare _Tucker's
+        Life of Jefferson_, vol. i. pp. 213, 214, with _Parliamentary
+        History_, vol. ix. p. 1240.
+
+  [412] In a work of considerable ability, the following account is given
+        of the state of things in England and France so late as the year
+        1824: 'While this was going forward on the English coast, the
+        smugglers on the opposite shore were engaged, with much more
+        labour, risk, and expense, in introducing English woollens, by a
+        vast system of fraud and lying, into the towns, past a series of
+        custom-houses. In both countries, there was an utter
+        dissoluteness of morals connected with these transactions.
+        Cheating and lying were essential to the whole system;
+        drunkenness accompanied it; contempt for all law grew up under
+        it; honest industry perished beneath it; and it was crowned with
+        murder.' _Martineau's History of England during Thirty Years'
+        Peace_, vol. i. p. 341, 8vo. 1849.
+
+  [413] For evidence of the extraordinary extent to which smuggling was
+        formerly carried, and that not secretly, but by powerful bodies
+        of armed men, see _Parliamentary History_, vol. ix. pp. 243, 247,
+        1290, 1345, vol. x. pp. 394, 405, 530, 532, vol. xi. p. 935. And
+        on the number of persons engaged in it, compare _Tomline's Life
+        of Pitt_, vol. i. p. 359: see also _Sinclair's History of the
+        Public Revenue_, vol. iii. p. 232; _Otter's Life of Clarke_, vol.
+        i. p. 391. In France, the evil was equally great. M. Lemontey
+        says, that early in the eighteenth century, 'la contrebande
+        devenait une profession ouverte, et des compagnies de cavalerie
+        désertèrent tout entières leurs étendards pour suivre contre le
+        fisc cette guerre populaire.' _Lemontey_, _Essai sur
+        l'Etablissement monarchique de Louis XIV_, p. 430. According to
+        Townsend, there were, in 1786, 'more than 1500 smugglers in the
+        Pyrenees.' _Townsend's Journey through Spain_, vol. i. p. 84.
+
+It is unnecessary to say, that these remarks do not affect the real
+services rendered to society by every tolerably organized government. In
+all countries, a power of punishing crime, and of framing laws, must
+reside somewhere; otherwise the nation is in a state of anarchy. But the
+accusation which the historian is bound to bring against every
+government which has hitherto existed is, that it has overstepped its
+proper functions, and, at each step, has done incalculable harm. The
+love of exercising power has been found to be so universal, that no
+class of men who have possessed authority have been able to avoid
+abusing it. To maintain order, to prevent the strong from oppressing the
+weak, and to adopt certain precautions respecting the public health, are
+the only services which any government can render to the interests of
+civilization. That these are services of immense value, no one will
+deny; but it cannot be said, that by them civilization is advanced, or
+the progress of Man accelerated. All that is done is, to afford the
+opportunity of progress; the progress itself must depend upon other
+matters. And that this is the sound view of legislation, is, moreover,
+evident from the fact, that as knowledge is becoming more diffused, and
+as an increasing experience is enabling each successive generation
+better to understand the complicated relations of life; just in the same
+proportion are men insisting upon the repeal of those protective laws,
+the enactment of which was deemed by politicians to be the greatest
+triumph of political foresight.
+
+Seeing, therefore, that the efforts of government in favour of
+civilization are, when most successful, altogether negative; and seeing
+too, that when those efforts are more than negative, they become
+injurious,--it clearly follows, that all speculations must be erroneous
+which ascribe the progress of Europe to the wisdom of its rulers. This
+is an inference which rests not only on the arguments already adduced,
+but on facts which might be multiplied from every page of history. For
+no government having recognized its proper limits, the result is, that
+every government has inflicted on its subjects great injuries; and has
+done this nearly always with the best intentions. The effects of its
+protective policy in injuring trade, and, what is far worse, in
+increasing crime, have just been noticed; and to these instances,
+innumerable others might be added. Thus, during many centuries, every
+government thought it was its bounden duty to encourage religious truth,
+and discourage religious error. The mischief this has produced is
+incalculable. Putting aside all other considerations, it is enough to
+mention its two leading consequences; which are, the increase of
+hypocrisy, and the increase of perjury. The increase of hypocrisy is the
+inevitable result of connecting any description of penalty with the
+profession of particular opinions. Whatever may be the case with
+individuals, it is certain that the majority of men find an extreme
+difficulty in long resisting constant temptation. And when the
+temptation comes to them in the shape of honour and emolument, they are
+too often ready to profess the dominant opinions, and abandon, not
+indeed their belief, but the external marks by which that belief is made
+public. Every man who takes this step is a hypocrite; and every
+government which encourages this step to be taken, is an abettor of
+hypocrisy and a creator of hypocrites. Well, therefore, may we say, that
+when a government holds out as a bait, that those who profess certain
+opinions shall enjoy certain privileges, it plays the part of the
+tempter of old, and, like the Evil One, basely offers the good things of
+this world to him who will change his worship and deny his faith. At the
+same time, and as a part of this system, the increase of perjury has
+accompanied the increase of hypocrisy. For legislators, plainly seeing
+that proselytes thus obtained could not be relied upon, have met the
+danger by the most extraordinary precautions; and compelling men to
+confirm their belief by repeated oaths, have thus sought to protect the
+old creed against the new converts. It is this suspicion as to the
+motives of others, which has given rise to oaths of every kind and in
+every direction. In England, even the boy at college is forced to swear
+about matters which he cannot understand, and which far riper minds are
+unable to master. If he afterwards goes into Parliament, he must again
+swear about his religion; and at nearly every stage of political life he
+must take fresh oaths; the solemnity of which is often strangely
+contrasted with the trivial functions to which they are the prelude. A
+solemn adjuration of the Deity being thus made at every turn, it has
+happened, as might have been expected, that oaths, enjoined as a matter
+of course, have at length degenerated into a matter of form. What is
+lightly taken, is easily broken. And the best observers of English
+society,--observers too whose characters are very different, and who
+hold the most opposite opinions,--are all agreed on this, that the
+perjury habitually practised in England, and of which government is the
+immediate creator, is so general, that it has become a source of
+national corruption, has diminished the value of human testimony, and
+shaken the confidence which men naturally place in the word of their
+fellow-creatures.[414]
+
+  [414] Archbishop Whately says, what hardly any thinking man will now
+        deny, 'If oaths were abolished--leaving the penalties for false
+        witness (no unimportant part of our security) unaltered--I am
+        convinced that, on the whole, testimony would be more trustworthy
+        than it is.' _Whately's Elements of Rhetoric_, 8vo. 1850, p. 47.
+        See also on the amount of perjury caused by English legislation,
+        _Jeremy Bentham's Works_, edit. Bowring, vol. ii. p. 210, vol. v.
+        pp. 191-229, 454-466, vol. vi. pp. 314, 315; _Orme's Life of
+        Owen_, p. 195; _Locke's Works_, vol. iv. p. 6; _Berkeley's
+        Works_, vol. ii. p. 196; _Whiston's Memoirs_, pp. 33, 411-413;
+        _Hamilton's Discussions on Philosophy and Literature_, pp. 454,
+        522, 527, 528. Sir W. Hamilton sums up: 'But if the perjury of
+        England stands pre-eminent in the world, the perjury of the
+        English Universities, and of Oxford in particular, stands
+        pre-eminent in England,' p. 528. Compare _Priestley's Memoirs_,
+        vol. i. p. 374 and _Baker's Life of Sir Thomas Bernard_, 1819,
+        pp. 188, 189.
+
+The open vices, and, what is much more dangerous, the hidden
+corruption, thus generated in the midst of society by the ignorant
+interference of Christian rulers, is indeed a painful subject; but it is
+one which I could not omit in an analysis of the causes of civilization.
+It would be easy to push the inquiry still further, and to show how
+legislators, in every attempt they have made to protect some particular
+interests, and uphold some particular principles, have not only failed,
+but have brought about results diametrically opposite to those which
+they proposed. We have seen that their laws in favour of industry have
+injured industry; that their laws in favour of religion have increased
+hypocrisy; and that their laws to secure truth have encouraged perjury.
+Exactly in the same way, nearly every country has taken steps to prevent
+usury, and keep down the interest of money; and the invariable effect
+has been to increase usury, and raise the interest of money. For, since
+no prohibition, however stringent, can destroy the natural relation
+between demand and supply, it has followed, that when some men want to
+borrow, and other men want to lend, both parties are sure to find means
+of evading a law which interferes with their mutual rights.[415] If the
+two parties were left to adjust their own bargain undisturbed, the usury
+would depend on the circumstances of the loan; such as the amount of
+security, and the chance of repayment. But this natural arrangement has
+been complicated by the interference of government.[416] A certain risk
+being always incurred by those who disobey the law, the usurer, very
+properly, refuses to lend his money unless he is also compensated for
+the danger he is in from the penalty hanging over him. This compensation
+can only be made by the borrower, who is thus obliged to pay what in
+reality is a double interest: one interest for the natural risk on the
+loan, and another interest for the extra risk from the law. Such, then,
+is the position in which every European legislature has placed itself.
+By enactments against usury, it has increased what it wished to destroy;
+it has passed laws, which the imperative necessities of men compel them
+to violate: while, to wind up the whole, the penalty for such violation
+falls on the borrowers; that is, on the very class in whose favour the
+legislators interfered.[417]
+
+  [415] 'L'observation rigoureuse de ces loix seroit destructive de tout
+        commerce; aussi ne sont-elles pas observées rigoureusement.'
+        _Mémoire sur les Prêts d'Argent_, sec. xiv., in _[OE]uvres de
+        Turgot_, vol. v. pp. 278, 279. Compare _Ricardo's Works_, pp.
+        178, 179, with _Condorcet_, _Vie de Turgot_, pp. 53, 54, 228.
+
+  [416] Aided by the church. Ecclesiastical councils contain numerous
+        regulations against usury; and, in 1179, Pope Alexander ordered
+        that usurers were not to be buried: 'Quia in omnibus ferè locis
+        crimen usurarum invaluit; ut multi negotiis prætermissis quasi
+        licitè usuras exerceant; et qualiter utriusque testamenti pagina
+        condemnetur, non attendunt: ideò constituimus, ut usurarii
+        manifesti nec ad communionem recipiantur altaris, nec
+        Christianam, si in hoc peccato decesserint, accipiant sepulturam,
+        sed nec oblationem eorum quisquam accipiat.' _Rog. de Hoved.
+        Annal. in Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam_, p. 335, Lond.
+        1596, folio. In Spain, the Inquisition took cognizance of usury.
+        See _Llorente_, _Histoire de l'Inquisition_, vol. i. p. 339.
+        Compare _Ledwich's Antiquities of Ireland_, p. 133.
+
+  [417] The whole subject of the usury laws has been treated by Bentham in
+        so complete and exhaustive a manner, that I cannot do better than
+        refer the reader to his admirable 'Letters.' A part only of the
+        question is discussed, and that very imperfectly, in _Rey's
+        Science Sociale_, vol. iii. pp. 64, 65. On the necessity of usury
+        to mitigate the effects of a commercial panic, see _Mill's
+        Principles of Political Economy_, vol. ii. p. 185.
+
+In the same meddling spirit, and with the same mistaken notions of
+protection, the great Christian governments have done other things still
+more injurious. They have made strenuous and repeated efforts to destroy
+the liberty of the press, and prevent men from expressing their
+sentiments on the most important questions in politics and religion. In
+nearly every country, they, with the aid of the church, have organized a
+vast system of literary police; the sole object of which is, to abrogate
+the undoubted right of every citizen to lay his opinions before his
+fellow-citizens. In the very few countries where they have stopped short
+of these extreme steps, they have had recourse to others less violent,
+but equally unwarrantable. For even where they have not openly forbidden
+the free dissemination of knowledge, they have done all that they could
+to check it. On all the implements of knowledge, and on all the means by
+which it is diffused, such as paper, books, political journals, and the
+like, they have imposed duties so heavy, that they could hardly have
+done worse if they had been the sworn advocates of popular ignorance.
+Indeed, looking at what they have actually accomplished, it may be
+emphatically said, that they have taxed the human mind. They have made
+the very thoughts of men pay toll. Whoever wishes to communicate his
+ideas to others, and thus do what he can to increase the stock of our
+acquirements, must first pour his contributions into the imperial
+exchequer. That is the penalty inflicted on him for instructing his
+fellow-creatures. That is the blackmail which government extorts from
+literature; and on receipt of which it accords its favour, and agrees to
+abstain from further demands. And what causes all this to be the more
+insufferable, is the use which is made of these and similar exactions,
+wrung from every kind of industry, both bodily and mental. It is truly a
+frightful consideration, that knowledge is to be hindered, and that the
+proceeds of honest labour, of patient thought, and sometimes of profound
+genius, are to be diminished, in order that a large part of their scanty
+earnings may go to swell the pomp of an idle and ignorant court,
+minister to the caprice of a few powerful individuals, and too often
+supply them with the means of turning against the people resources which
+the people called into existence.
+
+These, and the foregoing statements, respecting the effects produced on
+European society by political legislation, are not doubtful or
+hypothetical inferences, but are such as every reader of history may
+verify for himself. Indeed, some of them are still acting in England;
+and, in one country or another, the whole of them may be seen in full
+force. When put together, they compose an aggregate so formidable, that
+we may well wonder how, in the face of them, civilization has been able
+to advance. That, under such circumstances, it has advanced, is a
+decisive proof of the extraordinary energy of Man; and justifies a
+confident belief, that as the pressure of legislation is diminished,
+and the human mind less hampered, the progress will continue with
+accelerated speed. But it is absurd, it would be a mockery of all sound
+reasoning, to ascribe to legislation any share in the progress; or to
+expect any benefit from future legislators, except that sort of benefit
+which consists in undoing the work of their predecessors. This is what
+the present generation claims at their hands; and it should be
+remembered that what one generation solicits as a boon, the next
+generation demands as a right. And, when the right is pertinaciously
+refused, one of two things has always happened: either the nation has
+retrogaded, or else the people have risen. Should the government remain
+firm, this is the cruel dilemma in which men are placed. If they submit,
+they injure their country; if they rebel, they may injure it still more.
+In the ancient monarchies of the East, their usual plan was to yield; in
+the monarchies of Europe, it has been to resist. Hence those
+insurrections and rebellions which occupy so large a space in modern
+history, and which are but repetitions of the old story, the undying
+struggle between oppressors and oppressed. It would, however, be unjust
+to deny, that in one country the fatal crisis has now for several
+generations been successfully averted. In one European country, and in
+one alone, the people have been so strong and the government so weak,
+that the history of legislation, taken as a whole, is, notwithstanding a
+few aberrations, the history of slow, but constant concession: reforms
+which would have been refused to argument, have been yielded from fear;
+while from the steady increase of democratic opinions, protection after
+protection, and privilege after privilege, have, even in our time, been
+torn away; until the old institutions, though they retain their former
+name, have lost their former vigour, and there no longer remains a doubt
+as to what their fate must ultimately be. Nor need we add, that in this
+same country, where, more than in any other of Europe, legislators are
+the exponents and the servants of the popular will, the progress has, on
+this account, been more undeviating than elsewhere; there has been
+neither anarchy nor revolution; and the world has been made familiar
+with the great truth, that one main condition of the prosperity of a
+people is, that its rulers shall have very little power, that they shall
+exercise that power very sparingly, and that they shall by no means
+presume to raise themselves into supreme judges of the national
+interests, or deem themselves authorized to defeat the wishes of those
+for whose benefit alone they occupy the post entrusted to them.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI.
+
+  ORIGIN OF HISTORY, AND STATE OF HISTORICAL LITERATURE DURING THE MIDDLE
+                                  AGES.
+
+
+I have now laid before the reader an examination of those conspicuous
+circumstances to which the progress of civilization is commonly
+ascribed; and I have proved that such circumstances, so far from being
+the cause of civilization, are at best only its effects; and that
+although religion, literature, and legislation do, undoubtedly, modify
+the condition of mankind, they are still more modified by it. Indeed, as
+we have clearly seen, they, even in their most favourable position, can
+be but secondary agents; because, however beneficial their apparent
+influence may be, they are themselves the product of preceding changes,
+and their results will vary according to the variations of the society
+on which they work.
+
+It is thus that, by each successive analysis, the field of the present
+inquiry has been narrowed, until we have found reason to believe that
+the growth of European civilization is solely due to the progress of
+knowledge, and that the progress of knowledge depends on the number of
+truths which the human intellect discovers, and on the extent to which
+they are diffused. In support of this proposition, I have, as yet, only
+brought forward such general arguments as establish a very strong
+probability; which, to raise to a certainty, will require an appeal to
+history in the widest sense of the term. Thus to verify speculative
+conclusions by an exhaustive enumeration of the most important
+particular facts, is the task which I purpose to execute so far as my
+powers will allow; and in the preceding chapter I have briefly stated
+the method according to which the investigation will be conducted.
+Besides this, it has appeared to me that the principles which I have
+laid down may also be tested by a mode of proceeding which I have not
+yet mentioned, but which is intimately connected with the subject now
+before us. This is, to incorporate with an inquiry into the progress of
+the history of Man, another inquiry into the progress of History itself.
+By this means, great light will be thrown on the movements of society;
+since there must always be a connexion between the way in which men
+contemplate the past, and the way in which they contemplate the present;
+both views being in fact different forms of the same habits of thought,
+and therefore presenting, in each age, a certain sympathy and
+correspondence with each other. It will, moreover, be found, that such
+an inquiry into what I call the history of history, will establish two
+leading facts of considerable value. The first fact is, that during the
+last three centuries, historians, taken as a class, have shown a
+constantly increasing respect for the human intellect, and an aversion
+for those innumerable contrivances by which it was formerly shackled.
+The second fact is, that during the same period, they have displayed a
+growing tendency to neglect matters once deemed of paramount importance,
+and have been more willing to attend to subjects connected with the
+condition of the people and the diffusion of knowledge. These two facts
+will be decisively established in the present Introduction; and it must
+be admitted, that their existence corroborates the principles which I
+have propounded. If it can be ascertained, that as society has improved,
+historical literature has constantly tended in one given direction,
+there arises a very strong probability in favour of the truth of those
+views towards which it is manifestly approaching. Indeed, it is a
+probability of this sort which makes it so important for the student of
+any particular science to be acquainted with its history; because there
+is always a fair presumption that when general knowledge is advancing,
+any single department of it, if studied by competent men, is also
+advancing, even when the results may have been so small as to seem
+unworthy of attention. Hence it becomes highly important to observe the
+way in which, during successive ages, historians have shifted their
+ground; since we shall find that such changes have in the long-run
+always pointed to the same quarter, and are, in reality, only part of
+that vast movement by which the human intellect, with infinite
+difficulty, has vindicated its own rights, and slowly emancipated itself
+from those inveterate prejudices which long impeded its action.
+
+With a view to these considerations, it seems advisable that, when
+examining the different civilizations into which the great countries of
+Europe have diverged, I should also give an account of the way in which
+history has been commonly written in each country. In the employment of
+this resource, I shall be mainly guided by a desire to illustrate the
+intimate connexion between the actual condition of a people and their
+opinions respecting the past; and, in order to keep this connexion in
+sight, I shall treat the state of historical literature, not as a
+separate subject, but as forming part of the intellectual history of
+each nation. The present volume will contain a view of the principal
+characteristics of French civilization until the great Revolution; and
+with that there will be incorporated an account of the French
+historians, and of the remarkable improvements they introduced into
+their own departments of knowledge. The relation which these
+improvements bore to the state of society from which they proceeded, is
+very striking, and will be examined at some length; while, in the next
+volume, the civilization and the historical literature of the other
+leading countries will be treated in a similar manner. Before, however,
+entering into these different subjects, it has occurred to me, that a
+preliminary inquiry into the origin of European history would be
+interesting, as supplying information respecting matters which are
+little known, and also as enabling the reader to understand the extreme
+difficulty with which history has reached its present advanced, but
+still very imperfect, state. The materials for studying the earliest
+condition of Europe have long since perished; but the extensive
+information we now possess concerning barbarous nations will supply us
+with a useful resource, because they have all much in common; the
+opinions of extreme ignorance being, indeed, every where the same,
+except when modified by the differences which nature presents in various
+countries. I have, therefore, no hesitation in employing the evidence
+which has been collected by competent travellers, and drawing inferences
+from it respecting that period of the European mind, of which we have no
+direct knowledge. Such conclusions will, of course, be speculative; but,
+during the last thousand years, we are quite independent of them,
+inasmuch as every great country has had chroniclers of its own since the
+ninth century, while the French have an uninterrupted series since the
+sixth century. In the present chapter, I intend to give specimens of the
+way in which, until the sixteenth century, history was habitually
+written by the highest European authorities. Its subsequent improvement
+during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, will be related under
+the separate heads of the countries where the progress was made; and as
+history, previous to the improvement, was little else than a tissue of
+the grossest errors, I will, in the first place, examine the leading
+causes of its universal corruption, and indicate the steps by which it
+was so disfigured that, during several centuries, Europe did not possess
+a single man who had critically studied the past, or who was even able
+to record with tolerable accuracy the events of his own time.
+
+At a very early period in the progress of a people, and long before they
+are acquainted with the use of letters, they feel the want of some
+resource, which in peace may amuse their leisure, and in war may
+stimulate their courage. This is supplied to them by the invention of
+ballads; which form the groundwork of all historical knowledge, and
+which, in one shape or another, are found among some of the rudest
+tribes of the earth. They are, for the most part, sung by a class of men
+whose particular business it is thus to preserve the stock of
+traditions. Indeed, so natural is this curiosity as to past events,
+that there are few nations to whom these bards or minstrels are unknown.
+Thus, to select a few instances, it is they who have preserved the
+popular traditions, not only of Europe,[418] but also of China, Tibet,
+and Tartary;[419] likewise of India,[420] of Scinde,[421] of
+Belochistan,[422] of Western Asia,[423] of the islands of the Black
+Sea,[424] of Egypt,[425] of Western Africa,[426] of North America,[427]
+of South America,[428] and of the islands in the Pacific.[429]
+
+  [418] For an account of the ancient bards of Gaul, see the _Benedictine
+        Hist. Lit. de la France_, vol. i. part i. pp. 25-28. Those of
+        Scotland are noticed in _Barry's Hist. of the Orkney Islands_, p.
+        89; and for a modern instance in the island of Col, near Mull,
+        see _Otter's Life of Clarke_, vol. i. p. 307. As to the Irish
+        bards in the seventh century, see _Sharon Turner's Hist. of
+        England_, vol. iii. p. 571. Spenser's account of them in the
+        sixteenth century (_Somers Tracts_, vol. i. pp. 590, 591) shows
+        that the order was then falling into contempt; and in the
+        seventeenth century this is confirmed by Sir William Temple;
+        _Essay on Poetry_, in _Temple's Works_, vol. iii. pp. 431, 432.
+        But it was not till the eighteenth century that they became
+        extinct; for Mr. Prior (_Life of Goldsmith_, vol. i. pp. 36, 37)
+        says, that Carolan, 'the last of the ancient Irish bards,' died
+        in 1738. Without them the memory of many events would have been
+        entirely lost; since, even at the end of the seventeenth century,
+        there being no registers in Ireland, the ordinary means of
+        recording facts were so little known, that parents often took the
+        precaution of having the names and ages of children marked on
+        their arms with gunpowder. See _Kirkman's Memoirs of Charles
+        Macklin_, 8vo. 1799, vol. i. pp. 144, 145, a curious book.
+        Compare, respecting Carolan, _Nichols's Illustrations of the
+        Eighteenth Century_, vol. vii. pp. 688-694.
+
+  [419] On these Toolholos, as they are called, see _Huc's Travels in
+        Tartary, Thibet, and China_, vol. i. pp. 65-67. Huc says, p. 67,
+        'These poet-singers, who remind us of the minstrels and
+        rhapsodists of Greece, are also very numerous in China; but they
+        are, probably, no where so numerous or so popular as in Thibet.'
+
+  [420] On the bards of the Deccan, see _Wilks's History of the South of
+        India_, 4to. 1810, vol. i. pp. 20, 21, and _Transac. of the
+        Bombay Soc._ vol. i. p. 162. For those of other parts of India,
+        see _Heber's Journey_, vol. ii. pp. 452-455; _Burnes on the
+        North-west Frontier of India_, in _Journal of Geog. Soc._ vol.
+        iv. pp. 110, 111; _Prinsep_, in _Journal of Asiat. Soc._ vol.
+        viii. p. 395; _Forbes's Oriental Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 376, 377,
+        543; and _Asiatic Researches_, vol. ix. p. 78. They are mentioned
+        in the oldest Veda, which is also the oldest of all the Indian
+        books. See _Rig Veda Sanhita_, vol. i. p. 158.
+
+  [421] See _Burton's Sindh_, p. 56, 8vo. 1851.
+
+  [422] _Burton's Sindh_, p. 59.
+
+  [423] _Burnes's Travels into Bokhara_, 8vo. 1834, vol. ii. pp. 107, 115,
+        116.
+
+  [424] _Clarke's Travels_, 8vo. 1816, vol. ii. p. 101.
+
+  [425] Compare _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. ii. p. 304, with
+        _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. i. p. 96, vol. ii. p. 92.
+
+  [426] I have mislaid my note on the bards of Western Africa, and can
+        only refer to a hasty notice in _Mungo Park's Travels_, vol. i.
+        p. 70. 8vo. 1817.
+
+  [427] _Buchanan's Sketches of the North-American Indians_, p. 337.
+
+  [428] _Prescott's History of Peru_, vol. i. pp. 31, 32, 117.
+
+  [429] _Ellis_, _Polynesian Researches_, vol. i. pp. 85, 199, 411;
+        _Ellis_, _Tour through Hawaii_, p. 91. Compare _Cook's Voyages_,
+        vol. v. p. 237, with _Beechey's Voyage to the Pacific_, vol. ii.
+        p. 106. Some of these ballads have been collected, but, I
+        believe, not published. See _Cheever's Sandwich Islands_, 8vo.
+        1851, p. 181.
+
+In all these countries, letters were long unknown; and, as a people in
+that state have no means of perpetuating their history except by oral
+tradition, they select the form best calculated to assist their memory;
+and it will, I believe, be found that the first rudiments of knowledge
+consist always of poetry, and often of rhyme.[430] The jingle pleases
+the ear of the barbarian, and affords a security that he will hand it
+down to his children in the unimpaired state in which he received
+it.[431] This guarantee against error increases still further the value
+of these ballads; and instead of being considered as a mere amusement,
+they rise to the dignity of judicial authorities.[432] The allusions
+contained in them, are satisfactory proofs to decide the merits of rival
+families, or even to fix the limits of those rude estates which such a
+society can possess. We therefore find, that the professed reciters and
+composers of these songs are the recognized judges in all disputed
+matters; and as they are often priests, and believed to be inspired, it
+is probably in this way that the notion of the divine origin of poetry
+first arose.[433] These ballads will, of course, vary, according to the
+customs and temperaments of the different nations, and according to the
+climate to which they are accustomed. In the south they assume a
+passionate and voluptuous form; in the north they are rather remarkable
+for their tragic and warlike character.[434] But, notwithstanding these
+diversities, all such productions have one feature in common. They are
+not only founded on truth, but making allowance for the colourings of
+poetry, they are all strictly true. Men who are constantly repeating
+songs which they constantly hear, and who appeal to the authorized
+singers of them as final umpires in disputed questions, are not likely
+to be mistaken on matters, in the accuracy of which they have so lively
+an interest.[435]
+
+  [430] It is a singular proof of the carelessness with which the history
+        of barbarous nations has been studied, that authors constantly
+        assert rhyme to be a comparatively recent contrivance; and even
+        Pinkerton, writing to Laing in 1799, says, 'Rhyme was not known
+        in Europe till about the ninth century.' _Pinkerton's Literary
+        Correspondence_, vol. ii. p. 92. The truth is, that rhyme was not
+        only known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, but was used, long
+        before the date Pinkerton mentions, by the Anglo-Saxons, by the
+        Irish, by the Welsh, and, I believe, by the Brétons. See _Mure's
+        Hist. of the Literature of Greece_, vol. ii. p. 113; _Hallam's
+        Lit. of Europe_, vol. i. p. 31; _Villemarqué_, _Chants Populaires
+        de la Bretagne_, vol. i. pp. lviii. lix. compared with
+        _Souvestre_, _les Derniers Bretons_, p. 143; _Turner's Hist. of
+        England_, vol. iii. pp. 383, 643, vol. vii. pp. 324, 328, 330.
+        Rhyme is also used by the Fantees (_Bowdich_, _Mission to
+        Ashantee_, p. 358); by the Persians (_Transac. of Bombay Soc._
+        vol. ii. p. 82); by the Chinese (_Transac. of Asiatic Soc._ vol.
+        ii. pp. 407, 409, and _Davis's Chinese_, vol. ii. p. 269); by the
+        Malays (_Asiatic Researches_, vol. x. pp. 176, 196); by the
+        Javanese (_Crawfurd's Hist. of the Indian Archipelago_, vol. ii.
+        pp. 19, 20); and by the Siamese (_Transac. of Asiatic Soc._ vol.
+        iii. p. 299).
+
+  [431] The habit thus acquired, long survives the circumstances which
+        made it necessary. During many centuries, the love of
+        versification was so widely diffused, that works in rhyme were
+        composed on nearly all subjects, even in Europe; and this
+        practice, which marks the ascendency of the imagination, is, as I
+        have shown, a characteristic of the great Indian civilization,
+        where the understanding was always in abeyance. On early French
+        historians who wrote in rhyme, see _Monteil_, _Hist. des divers
+        Etats_, vol. vi. p. 147. Montucla (_Hist. des Mathémat._ vol. i.
+        p. 506) mentions a mathematical treatise, written in the
+        thirteenth century, 'en vers techniques.' Compare the remarks of
+        Matter (_Hist. de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie_, vol. ii. pp. 179-183) on
+        the scientific poetry of Aratus; and on that of Hygin, p. 250.
+        Thus, too, we find an Anglo-Norman writing 'the Institutes of
+        Justinian in verse;' _Turner's Hist. of England_, vol. vii. p.
+        307: and a Polish historian composing 'his numerous works on
+        genealogy and heraldry mostly in rhyme.' _Talvi's Language and
+        Literature of the Slavic Nations_, 8vo. 1850, p. 246. Compare
+        _Origines du Droit Français_, in _[OE]uvres de Michelet_, vol.
+        ii. p. 310.
+
+  [432] Mr. Ellis, a missionary in the South-Sea Islands, says of the
+        inhabitants, 'Their traditionary ballads were a kind of standard,
+        or classical authority, to which they referred for the purpose of
+        determining any disputed fact in their history.' And when doubts
+        arose, 'as they had no records to which they could at such times
+        refer, they could only oppose one oral tradition to another;
+        which unavoidably involved the parties in protracted, and often
+        obstinate debates.' _Ellis_, _Polynesian Researches_, vol. i. pp.
+        202, 203. Compare _Elphinstone's Hist. of India_, p. 66; _Laing's
+        Heimskringla_, 8vo. 1844, vol. i. pp. 50, 51; _Twell's Life of
+        Pocock_, edit. 1816, p. 143.
+
+  [433] The inspiration of poetry is sometimes explained by its
+        spontaneousness (_Cousin_, _Hist. de la Philosophie_, II^e série,
+        vol. i. pp. 135, 136); and there can be no doubt that one cause
+        of the reverence felt for great poets, is the necessity they seem
+        to experience of pouring out their thoughts without reference to
+        their own wishes. Still, it will, I believe, be found, that the
+        notion of poetry being a divine art is most rife in those states
+        of society in which knowledge is monopolised by the bards, and in
+        which the bards are both priests and historians. On this
+        combination of pursuits, compare a note in _Malcolm's Hist. of
+        Persia_, vol. i. p. 90, with _Mure's Hist. of the Lit. of
+        Greece_, vol. i. p. 148, vol. ii. p. 228, and _Petrie's_ learned
+        work, _Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland_, Dublin, 1845, p.
+        354. For evidence of the great respect paid to bards, see
+        _Mallet's Northern Antiquities_, pp. 234-236; _Wheaton's Hist. of
+        the Northmen_, pp. 50, 51; _Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit._ vol. i. p.
+        3; _Warton's Hist. of English Poetry_, 1840, vol. i. pp. xxvi.
+        xl.; _Grote's Hist. of Greece_, vol. ii. p. 182, 1st edit.; and
+        on their important duties, see the laws of M[oe]lmund,
+        _Villemarqué_, _Chants Populaires de la Bretagne_, 1846, vol. i.
+        pp. v. and vi.; _Thirlwall's Hist. of Greece_, vol. i. p. 229;
+        and _Origines du Droit_, in _[OE]uvres de Michelet_, vol. ii. p.
+        372.
+
+  [434] _Villemarqué_, _Chants Populaires_, vol. i. p. lv.
+
+  [435] As to the general accuracy of the early ballads, which has been
+        rashly attacked by several writers, and among others by Sir
+        Walter Scott, see _Villemarqué_, _Chants Populaires_, vol. i. pp.
+        xxv.-xxxi., and _Talvi's Slavic Nations_, p. 150. On the tenacity
+        of oral tradition, compare _Niebuhr's History of Rome_, 1847,
+        vol. i. p. 230, with _Laing's Denmark_, pp. 197, 198, 350;
+        _Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen_, pp. 38, 39, 57-59. Another
+        curious illustration of this is, that several barbarous nations
+        continue to repeat the old traditions in the old words, for so
+        many generations, that at length the very language becomes
+        unintelligible to the majority of those who recite them. See
+        _Mariner's Account of the Tonga Islands_, vol. i. p. 156, vol.
+        ii. p. 217, and _Catlin's North-American Indians_, vol. i. p.
+        126.
+
+This is the earliest, and most simple, of the various stages through
+which history is obliged to pass. But, in the course of time, unless
+unfavourable circumstances intervene, society advances, and, among other
+changes, there is one in particular of the greatest importance: I mean
+the introduction of the art of writing, which, before many generations
+are passed, must effect a complete alteration in the character of the
+national traditions. The manner in which this occurs has, so far as I am
+aware, never been pointed out; and it will, therefore, be interesting to
+attempt to trace some of its details.
+
+The first, and perhaps the most obvious consideration, is that the
+introduction of the art of writing gives permanence to the national
+knowledge, and thus lessens the utility of that oral information, in
+which all the acquirements of an unlettered people must be contained.
+Hence it is, that as a country advances, the influence of tradition
+diminishes, and traditions themselves become less trustworthy.[436]
+Besides this, the preservers of these traditions lose, in this stage of
+society, much of their former reputation. Among a perfectly unlettered
+people, the singers of ballads are, as we have already seen, the sole
+depositories of those historical facts on which the fame, and often the
+property, of their chieftains principally depend. But, when this same
+nation becomes acquainted with the art of writing, it grows unwilling to
+intrust these matters to the memory of itinerant singers, and avails
+itself of its new art to preserve them in a fixed and material form. As
+soon as this is effected, the importance of those who repeat the
+national traditions is sensibly diminished. They gradually sink into an
+inferior class, which, having lost its old reputation, no longer
+consists of those superior men to whose abilities it owed its former
+fame.[437] Thus we see, that although, without letters, there can be no
+knowledge of much importance, it is nevertheless true, that their
+introduction is injurious to historical traditions in two distinct
+ways: first by weakening the traditions, and secondly by weakening the
+class of men whose occupation it is to preserve them.
+
+  [436] That the invention of letters would at first weaken the memory, is
+        noticed in Plato's Phædrus, chap. 135 (_Platonis Opera_, vol. i.
+        p. 187, edit. Bekker, Lond. 1826); where, however, the argument
+        is pushed rather too far.
+
+  [437] This inevitable decline in the ability of the bards is noticed,
+        though, as it appears to me, from a wrong point of view, in
+        _Mure's Literat. of Greece_, vol. ii. p. 230.
+
+But this is not all. Not only does the art of writing lessen the number
+of traditionary truths, but it directly encourages the propagation of
+falsehoods. This is effected by what may be termed a principle of
+accumulation, to which all systems of belief have been deeply indebted.
+In ancient times, for example, the name of Hercules was given to several
+of those great public robbers who scourged mankind, and who, if their
+crimes were successful, as well as enormous, were sure after their death
+to be worshipped as heroes.[438] How this appellation originated is
+uncertain; but it was probably bestowed at first on a single man, and
+afterwards on those who resembled him in the character of their
+achievements.[439] This mode of extending the use of a single name is
+natural to a barbarous people;[440] and would cause little or no
+confusion, as long as the traditions of the country remained local and
+unconnected. But as soon as these traditions became fixed by a written
+language, the collectors of them, deceived by the similarity of name,
+assembled the scattered facts, and, ascribing to a single man these
+accumulated exploits, degraded history to the level of a miraculous
+mythology.[441] In the same way, soon after the use of letters was known
+in the North of Europe, there was drawn up by Saxo Grammaticus the life
+of the celebrated Ragnar Lodbrok. Either from accident or design, this
+great warrior of Scandinavia, who had taught England to tremble, had
+received the same name as another Ragnar, who was prince of Jutland
+about a hundred years earlier. This coincidence would have caused no
+confusion, as long as each district preserved a distinct and independent
+account of its own Ragnar. But, by possessing the resource of writing,
+men became able to consolidate the separate trains of events, and, as it
+were, fuse two truths into one error. And this was what actually
+happened. The credulous Saxo put together the different exploits of both
+Ragnars, and, ascribing the whole of them to his favourite hero, has
+involved in obscurity one of the most interesting parts of the early
+history of Europe.[442]
+
+  [438] Varro mentions forty-four of these vagabonds, who were all called
+        Hercules. See a learned article in _Smith's Biog. and Mythology_,
+        vol. ii. p. 401, 8vo. 1846. See also _Mackay's Religious
+        Development of the Greeks and Hebrews_, vol. ii. pp. 71-79. On
+        the relation between Hercules and Melcarth, compare _Matter_,
+        _Hist. du Gnosticisme_, vol. i. p. 257, with _Heeren's Asiatic
+        Nations_, vol. i. p. 295, 8vo. 1846. And as to the Hercules of
+        Egypt, _Prichard's Analysis of Egyptian Mythology_, 1838, pp.
+        109, 115-119. As to the confusion of the different Hercules by
+        the Dorians, see _Thirlwall's Hist. of Greece_, vol. i. p. 257;
+        and compare p. 130.
+
+  [439] This appears to be the opinion of Frederick Schlegel; _Schlegel's
+        Lectures on the History of Literature_, Edinb. 1818, vol. i.
+        p. 260.
+
+  [440] The habit of generalizing names precedes that more advanced state
+        of society in which men generalize phenomena. If this proposition
+        is universally true, which I take it to be, it will throw some
+        light on the history of disputes between the nominalists and the
+        realists.
+
+  [441] We may form an idea of the fertility of this source of error from
+        the fact, that in Egypt there were fifty-three cities bearing the
+        same name: 'L'auteur du Kamous nous apprend qu'il y a en Egypte
+        cinquante-trois villes du nom de Schobra: en effet, j'ai retrouvé
+        tous ces noms dans les deux dénombremens déjà cités.'
+        _Quatremère_, _Recherches sur la Langue et la Littérature de
+        l'Egypte_, p. 199.
+
+  [442] On this confusion respecting Ragnar Lodbrok, see _Geijer's History
+        of Sweden_, part i. pp. 13, 14; _Lappenberg's Anglo-Saxon Kings_,
+        vol. ii. p. 31; _Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen_, p. 150;
+        _Mallet's Northern Antiquities_, p. 383; _Crichton's
+        Scandinavia_, vol. i. p. 116. A comparison of these passages will
+        justify the sarcastic remark of Koch on the history of Swedish
+        and Danish heroes; _Koch_, _Tableau des Révolutions_, vol. i. p.
+        57 note.
+
+The annals of the North afford another curious instance of this source
+of error. A tribe of Finns, called Quæns, occupied a considerable part
+of the eastern coast of the Gulf of Bothnia. Their country was known as
+Quænland; and this name gave rise to a belief that, to the north of the
+Baltic, there was a nation of Amazons. This would easily have been
+corrected by local knowledge; but, by the use of writing, the flying
+rumour was at once fixed; and the existence of such a people is
+positively affirmed in some of the earliest European histories.[443]
+Thus, too, Abo, the ancient capital of Finland, was called Turku, which,
+in the Swedish language, means a market-place. Adam of Bremen, having
+occasion to treat of the countries adjoining the Baltic,[444] was so
+misled by the word Turku, that this celebrated historian assures his
+readers that there were Turks in Finland.[445]
+
+  [443] _Prichard's Physical Hist. of Mankind_, vol. iii. p. 273. The
+        Norwegians still give to the Finlanders the name of Quæner. See
+        _Dillon's Lapland and Iceland_, 8vo. 1840, vol. ii. p. 221.
+        Compare _Laing's Sweden_, pp. 45, 47. The Amazon river in South
+        America owes its name to a similar fable. _Henderson's Hist. of
+        Brazil_, p. 453; _Southey's Hist. of Brazil_, vol. i. p. 112;
+        _M'Culloh's Researches concerning America_, pp. 407, 408; and
+        _Journal of Geog. Soc._ vol. xv. p. 65, for an account of the
+        wide diffusion of this error.
+
+  [444] Sharon Turner (_Hist. of England_, vol. iv. p. 30) calls him 'the
+        Strabo of the Baltic;' and it was from him that most of the
+        geographers in the Middle Ages derived their knowledge of the
+        North.
+
+  [445] 'It was called in Finnish _Turku_, from the Swedish word _torg_,
+        which signifies a market-place. The sound of this name misled Adam
+        of Bremen into the belief that there were Turks in Finland.'
+        _Cooley's Hist. of Maritime and Inland Discovery_, London, 1830,
+        vol. i. p. 211.
+
+To these illustrations many others might be added, showing how mere
+names deceived the early historians, and gave rise to relations which
+were entirely false, and might have been rectified on the spot; but
+which, owing to the art of writing, were carried into distant countries,
+and thus placed beyond the reach of contradiction. Of such cases, one
+more may be mentioned, as it concerns the history of England. Richard
+I., the most barbarous of our princes, was known to his contemporaries
+as the Lion; an appellation conferred upon him on account of his
+fearlessness, and the ferocity of his temper.[446] Hence it was said
+that he had the heart of a lion; and the title C[oe]ur de Lion not only
+became indissolubly connected with his name, but actually gave rise to a
+story, repeated by innumerable writers, according to which he slew a
+lion in single combat.[447] The name gave rise to the story; the story
+confirmed the name; and another fiction was added to that long series of
+falsehoods of which history mainly consisted during the Middle Ages.
+
+  [446] The chronicler of his crusade says, that he was called Lion on
+        account of his never pardoning an offence: 'Nihil injuriarum
+        reliquit inultum: unde et unus (_i.e._ the King of France) dictus
+        est Agnus a Griffonibus, alter Leonis nomen accepit.' _Chronicon
+        Ricardi Divisiensis de Rebus gestis Ricardi Primi_, edit.
+        Stevenson, Lond. 1838, p. 18. Some of the Egyptian kings received
+        the name of Lion 'from their heroic exploits.' _Vyse on the
+        Pyramids_, vol. iii. p. 116.
+
+  [447] See Price's learned Preface to _Warton's History of English
+        Poetry_, vol. i. p. 21; and on the similar story of Henry the
+        Lion, see _Maury_, _Légendes du Moyen Age_, p. 160. Compare the
+        account of Duke Godfrey's conflict with a bear, in _Matthæi Paris
+        Historia Major_, p. 29, Lond. 1684, folio. I should not be
+        surprised if the story of Alexander and the Lion (_Thirlwall's
+        History of Greece_, vol. vi. p. 305) were equally fabulous.
+
+The corruptions of history, thus naturally brought about by the mere
+introduction of letters, were, in Europe, aided by an additional cause.
+With the art of writing, there was, in most cases, also communicated a
+knowledge of Christianity; and the new religion not only destroyed many
+of the Pagan traditions, but falsified the remainder, by amalgamating
+them with monastic legends. The extent to which this was carried would
+form a curious subject for inquiry; but one or two instances of it will
+perhaps be sufficient to satisfy the generality of readers.
+
+Of the earliest state of the great Northern nations we have little
+positive evidence; but several of the lays in which the Scandinavian
+poets related the feats of their ancestors, or of their contemporaries,
+are still preserved; and, notwithstanding their subsequent corruption,
+it is admitted by the most competent judges that they embody real and
+historical events. But in the ninth and tenth centuries, Christian
+missionaries found their way across the Baltic, and introduced a
+knowledge of their religion among the inhabitants of Northern
+Europe.[448] Scarcely was this effected, when the sources of history
+began to be poisoned. At the end of the eleventh century, Sæmund
+Sigfussen, a Christian priest, gathered the popular, and hitherto
+unwritten, histories of the North into what is called the Elder Edda;
+and he was satisfied with adding to his compilation the corrective of a
+Christian hymn.[449] A hundred years later, there was made another
+collection of the native histories; but the principle which I have
+mentioned, having had a longer time to operate, now displayed its
+effects still more clearly. In this second collection, which is known by
+the name of the Younger Edda, there is an agreeable mixture of Greek,
+Jewish, and Christian fables; and, for the first time in the
+Scandinavian annals, we meet with the widely diffused fiction of a
+Trojan descent.[450]
+
+  [448] The first missionary was Ebbo, about the year 822. He was followed
+        by Anschar, who afterwards pushed his enterprise as far as
+        Sweden. The progress was, however, slow; and it was not till the
+        latter half of the 11th century that Christianity was established
+        firmly in the North. See _Neander's Hist. of the Church_, vol. v.
+        pp. 373, 374, 379, 380, 400-402; _Mosheim's Eccles. Hist._ vol.
+        i. pp. 188, 215, 216; _Barry's Hist. of the Orkney Islands_, p.
+        125. It is often supposed that some of the Danes in Ireland were
+        Christians as early as the reign of Ivar I.; but this is a
+        mistake, into which Ledwich fell by relying on a coin, which in
+        reality refers to Ivar II. _Petrie's Ecclesiastical Architecture
+        of Ireland_, p. 225; and _Ledwich's Antiquities of Ireland_, p.
+        159.
+
+  [449] Mr. Wheaton (_History of Northmen_, p. 60) says, that Sæmund
+        'merely added one song of his own composition, of a moral and
+        Christian religious tendency; so as thereby to consecrate and
+        leaven, as it were, the whole mass of Paganism.'
+
+  [450] _Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen_, pp. 89, 90; _Mallet's Northern
+        Antiquities_, pp. 377, 378, 485; _Schlegel's Lectures on the
+        History of Literature_, vol. i. p. 265. Indeed, these
+        interpolations are so numerous, that the earlier German
+        antiquaries believed the Edda to be a forgery by the northern
+        monks,--a paradox which Müller refuted more than forty years ago.
+        _Note in Wheaton_, p. 61. Compare _Palgrave's English
+        Commonwealth, Anglo-Saxon Period_, vol. i. p. 135.
+
+If, by way of further illustration, we turn to other parts of the world,
+we shall find a series of facts confirming this view. We shall find
+that, in those countries where there has been no change of religion,
+history is more trustworthy and connected than in those countries where
+such a change has taken place. In India, Brahmanism, which is still
+supreme, was established at so early a period, that its origin is lost
+in the remotest antiquity.[451] The consequence is, that the native
+annals have never been corrupted by any new superstition; and the
+Hindus are possessed of historic traditions more ancient than can be
+found among any other Asiatic people.[452] In the same way, the Chinese
+have for upwards of 2,000 years preserved the religion of Fo, which is a
+form of Buddhism.[453] In China, therefore, though the civilization has
+never been equal to that of India, there is a history, not, indeed, as
+old as the natives would wish us to believe, but still stretching back
+to several centuries before the Christian era, from whence it has been
+brought down to our own times in an uninterrupted succession.[454] On
+the other hand, the Persians, whose intellectual development was
+certainly superior to that of the Chinese, are nevertheless without any
+authentic information respecting the early transactions of their ancient
+monarchy.[455] For this I can see no possible reason, except the fact,
+that Persia, soon after the promulgation of the Koran, was conquered by
+the Mohammedans, who completely subverted the Parsee religion, and thus
+interrupted the stream of the national traditions.[456] Hence it is
+that, putting aside the myths of the Zendavesta, we have no native
+authorities for Persian history of any value, until the appearance, in
+the eleventh century, of the Shah Nameh; in which, however, Ferdousi has
+mingled the miraculous relations of those two religions by which his
+country had been successively subjected.[457] The result is, that if it
+were not for the various discoveries which have been made, of
+monuments, inscriptions, and coins, we should be compelled to rely on
+the scanty and inaccurate details in the Greek writers for our knowledge
+of the history of one of the most important of the Asiatic
+monarchies.[458]
+
+  [451] As is evident from the conflicting statements made by the best
+        orientalists, each of whom has some favourite hypothesis of his
+        own respecting its origin. It is enough to say, that we have no
+        account of India existing without Brahmanism; and as to its real
+        history, nothing can be understood, until more steps have been
+        taken towards generalizing the laws which regulate the growth of
+        religious opinions.
+
+  [452] Dr. Prichard (_Physical Hist. of Mankind_, vol. iv. pp. 101-105)
+        thinks that the Hindus have a history beginning B.C. 1391.
+        Compare _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. i. pp. 311, 312. Mr. Wilson
+        says, that even the genealogies in the Puranas are, 'in all
+        probability, much more authentic than has been sometimes
+        supposed.' Wilson's note in _Mill's Hist. of India_, vol. i. pp.
+        161, 162. See also his preface to the _Vishnu Purana_, p. lxv.;
+        and _Asiatic Researches_, vol. v. p. 244.
+
+  [453] _Journal of Asiatic Soc._ vol. vi. p. 251; _Herder_, _Ideen zur
+        Geschichte_, vol. iv. p. 70; _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. i. p.
+        104. I learn from a note in _Erman's Siberia_, vol. ii. p. 306,
+        that one of the missionaries gravely suggests that 'Buddhism
+        originated in the errors of the Manichæans, and is therefore but
+        an imitation of Christianity.'
+
+  [454] M. Bunsen says, that the Chinese have 'a regular chronology,
+        extending back 3,000 years B.C.' _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. i. p. 240.
+        See also _Humboldt's Cosmos_, vol. ii. p. 475, vol. iv. p. 455;
+        _Renouard_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. i. pp. 47, 48; and the
+        statements of Klaproth and Rémusat, in _Prichard's Physical
+        Hist._ vol. iv. pp. 476, 477. The superior exactness of the
+        Chinese annals is sometimes ascribed to their early knowledge of
+        printing, with which they claim to have been acquainted in B.C.
+        1100. _Meidinger's Essay_, in _Journal of Statistical Society_,
+        vol. iii. p. 163. But the fact is, that printing was unknown in
+        China till the ninth or tenth century after Christ, and moveable
+        types were not invented before 1041. _Humboldt's Cosmos_, vol.
+        ii. p. 623; _Transac. of Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 7; _Journal
+        Asiatique_, vol. i. p. 137, Paris, 1822; _Davis's Chinese_, vol.
+        i. pp. 174, 178, vol. iii. p. 1. There are some interesting
+        papers on the early history of China in _Journal of Asiat. Soc._
+        vol. i. pp. 57-86, 213-222, vol. ii. pp. 166-171, 276-287.
+
+  [455] 'From the death of Alexander (323 B.C.) to the reign of Ardeshir
+        Babegan (Artaxerxes), the founder of the Sassanian dynasty (200
+        A.D.), a period of more than five centuries, is almost a blank in
+        the Persian history.' _Troyer's Preliminary Discourse to the
+        Dabistan_, 8vo. 1843, vol. i. pp. lv. lvi. See to the same effect
+        _Erskine on the Zend-Avesta_, in _Transac. of Soc. of Bombay_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 303-305; and _Malcolm's Hist. of Persia_, vol. i. p.
+        68. The ancient Persian traditions are said to have been Pehlvi;
+        _Malcolm_, vol. i. pp. 501-505; but if so, they have all
+        perished, p. 555: compare Rawlinson's note in _Journal of Geog.
+        Soc._ vol. x. p. 82.
+
+  [456] On the antagonism between Mohammedanism and the old Persian
+        history, see a note in _Grote's Hist. of Greece_, vol. i. p. 623.
+        Even at present, or, at all events, during this century, the best
+        education in Persia consisted in learning the elements of Arabic
+        grammar, 'logic, jurisprudence, the traditions of their prophet,
+        and the commentaries on the Koran.' _Vans Kennedy on Persian
+        Literature_, in _Transac. of Bombay Society_, vol. ii. p. 62. In
+        the same way the Mohammedans neglected the old history of India,
+        and would, no doubt, have destroyed or corrupted it; but they
+        never had anything like the hold of India that they had of
+        Persia, and, above all, they were unable to displace the native
+        religion. However, their influence, so far as it went, was
+        unfavourable; and Mr. Elphinstone (_Hist. of India_, p. 468)
+        says, that till the sixteenth century there was no instance of a
+        Mussulman carefully studying Hindu literature.
+
+  [457] On the Shah Nameh, see _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iv. pp. 544,
+        545, vol. v. p. 594; _Mill's Hist. of India_, vol. ii. pp. 64,
+        65; _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. iv. p. 225. It is supposed
+        by a very high authority that the Persian cuneiform inscriptions
+        'will enable us, in the end, to introduce something like
+        chronological accuracy and order into the myths and traditions
+        embodied in the Shah Nameh.' _Rawlinson on the Inscriptions of
+        Assyria and Babylonia_, in _Journal of Asiat. Soc._ vol. xii. p.
+        446.
+
+  [458] On the ignorance of the Greeks respecting Persian history, see
+        Vans Kennedy, in _Transac. of Soc. of Bombay_, vol. ii. pp. 119,
+        127-129, 136. Indeed, this learned writer says (p. 138) he is
+        'inclined to suspect that no Greek author ever derived his
+        information from any native of Persia Proper, that is, of the
+        country to the east of the Euphrates.' See also on the
+        perplexities in Persian chronology, _Grote's Hist. of Greece_,
+        vol. vi. p. 496, vol. ix. p. 3, vol. x. p. 405; and _Donaldson's
+        New Cratylus_, 1839, p. 87 note. As to the foolish stories which
+        the Greeks relate respecting Achæmenes, compare _Malcolm's Hist.
+        of Persia_, vol. i. p. 18, with _Heeren's Asiatic Nations_, vol.
+        i. p. 243. Even Herodotus, who is invaluable in regard to Egypt,
+        is not to be relied upon for Persia; as was noticed long ago by
+        Sir W. Jones, in the preface to his _Nader Shah_ (_Jones's
+        Works_, vol. v. p. 540), and is partly admitted by Mr. Mure
+        (_History of the Literature of Ancient Greece_, vol. iv. p. 338,
+        8vo. 1853).
+
+Even among more barbarous nations, we see the same principle at work.
+The Malayo-Polynesian race is well known to ethnologists, as covering an
+immense series of islands, extending from Madagascar to within 2,000
+miles of the western coast of America.[459] The religion of these
+widely scattered people was originally Polytheism, of which the purest
+forms were long preserved in the Philippine Islands.[460] But in the
+fifteenth century, many of the Polynesian nations were converted to
+Mohammedanism;[461] and this was followed by a process precisely the
+same as that which I have pointed out in other countries. The new
+religion, by changing the current of the national thoughts, corrupted
+the purity of the national history. Of all the islands in the Indian
+Archipelago, Java was the one which reached the highest
+civilization.[462] Now, however, the Javanese have not only lost their
+historical traditions, but even those lists of their kings which are
+extant are interpolated with the names of Mohammedan saints.[463] On the
+other hand, we find that in the adjacent island of Bali, where the old
+religion is still preserved,[464] the legends of Java are remembered and
+cherished by the people.[465]
+
+  [459] That is, to Easter Island, which appears to be its furthest
+        boundary (_Prichard's Phys. Hist._ vol. v. p. 6); and of which
+        there is a good account in _Beechey's Voyage to the Pacific_,
+        vol. i. pp. 43-58, and a notice in _Jour. of Geog. Society_, vol.
+        i. p. 195. The language of Easter Island has been long known to
+        be Malayo-Polynesian; for it was understood by a native of the
+        Society Islands, who accompanied Cook (_Cook's Voyages_, vol.
+        iii. pp. 294, 308; and _Prichard_, vol. v. p. 147: compare
+        _Marsden's History of Sumatra_, p. 164). Ethnologists have not
+        usually paid sufficient honour to this great navigator, who was
+        the first to remark the similarity between the different
+        languages in Polynesia proper. _Cook's Voyages_, vol. ii. pp. 60,
+        61, vol. iii. pp. 230, 280, 290, vol. iv. p. 305, vol. vi. p.
+        230, vol. vii. p. 115. As to Madagascar being the western limit
+        of this vast race of people, see _Asiatic Researches_, vol. iv.
+        p. 222; _Reports on Ethnology by Brit. Assoc. for 1847_, pp. 154,
+        216, 250; and _Ellis's Hist. of Madagascar_, vol. i. p. 133.
+
+  [460] Also the seat of the Tagala language; which, according to William
+        Humboldt, is the most perfect of all the forms of the
+        Malayo-Polynesian. _Prichard's Physical Hist._ vol. v. pp. 36,
+        51, 52.
+
+  [461] _Marsden's History of Sumatra_, p. 281. De Thou (_Hist. Univ._
+        vol. xiii. p. 59) supposes that the Javanese did not become
+        Mohammedans till late in the sixteenth century; but it is now
+        known that their conversion took place at least a hundred years
+        earlier, the old religion being finally abolished in 1478. See
+        _Crawfurd's Hist. of the Indian Archipelago_, vol. ii. p. 312;
+        _Low's Sarawak_, p. 96; and _Raffles' Hist. of Java_, vol. i. pp.
+        309, 349, vol. ii. pp. 1, 66, 254. The doctrines of Mohammed
+        spread quickly; and the Malay pilgrims enjoy the reputation, in
+        modern times, of being among the most scrupulously religious of
+        those who go to the Hadj. _Burckhardt's Arabia_, vol. ii. pp. 96,
+        97.
+
+  [462] The Javanese civilization is examined at great length by William
+        Humboldt, in his celebrated work, _Ueber die Kawi Sprache_,
+        Berlin, 1836. From the evidence supplied by some early Chinese
+        writings, which have only recently been published, there are good
+        grounds for believing that the Indian Colonies were established
+        in Java in the first century after Christ. See _Wilson on the Foe
+        Kue Ki_, in _Journal of Asiat. Soc._ vol. v. p. 137; compare vol.
+        vi. p. 320.
+
+  [463] _Crawfurd's Hist. of the Indian Archipelago_, vol. ii. p. 297.
+        Compare with this the exactness with which, even in the island of
+        Celebes, the dates were preserved 'before the introduction of
+        Mahomedanism.' _Crawfurd_, vol. i. p. 306. For similar Footnote:
+        instances of royal genealogies being obscured by the introduction
+        into them of the names of gods, see _Kemble's Saxons in England_,
+        vol. i. pp. 27, 335.
+
+  [464] _Asiatic Researches_, vol. x. p. 191, vol. xiii. p. 128. In the
+        Appendix to _Raffles' Hist. of Java_, vol. ii. p. cxlii., it is
+        said, that 'in Bali not more than one in two hundred, if so many,
+        are Mahomedans.' See also p. 65, and vol. i. p. 530.
+
+  [465] Indeed, the Javanese appear to have no other means of acquiring
+        the old Kawi traditions than by learning them from natives of
+        Bali. See note to an Essay on the Island of Bali, in _Asiatic
+        Researches_, vol. xiii. p. 162, Calcutta, 1820, 4to. Sir Stamford
+        Raffles (_Hist. of Java_, vol. i. p. 400) says, 'It is chiefly to
+        Bali that we must look for illustrations of the ancient state of
+        the Javans.' See also p. 414.
+
+It would be useless to adduce further evidence respecting the manner in
+which, among an imperfectly civilized people, the establishment of a new
+religion will always affect the accuracy of their early history. I need
+only observe, that in this way the Christian priests have obscured the
+annals of every European people they converted, and have destroyed or
+corrupted the traditions of the Gauls,[466] of the Welsh, of the
+Irish,[467] of the Anglo-Saxons,[468] of the Sclavonic nations,[469] of
+the Finns,[470] and even of the Icelanders.[471]
+
+  [466] Respecting the corruption of Druidical traditions in Gaul by
+        Christian priests, see _Villemarqué_, _Chants Populaires de la
+        Bretagne_, Paris, 1846, vol. i. pp. xviii. xix.
+
+  [467] The injury done to the traditions handed down by Welsh and Irish
+        bards, is noticed in Dr. Prichard's valuable work, _Physical
+        Hist. of Mankind_, vol. iii. p. 184, 8vo, 1841. See also
+        _Warton's Hist. of English Poetry_, vol. i. p. xxxvii. note.
+
+  [468] See the remarks on Beowulf, in _Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit._ vol. i.
+        p. 7, 8vo, 1842. See also pp. 13, 14: and compare _Kemble's
+        Saxons in England_, vol. i. p. 331.
+
+  [469] _Talvi's Language and Literature of the Slavic Nations_, 8vo,
+        1850, p. 231. The Pagan songs of the Slovaks, in the north-west
+        of Hungary, were for a time preserved; but even they are now
+        lost. _Talvi_, p. 216.
+
+  [470] The monkish chroniclers neglected the old Finnish traditions; and
+        allowing them to perish, preferred the inventions of Saxo and
+        Johannes Magnus. _Prichard's Physical Hist._ vol. iii. pp. 284,
+        285.
+
+  [471] For an instance in which the monks have falsified the old
+        Icelandic traditions, see Mr. Keightley's learned book on _Fairy
+        Mythology_, 8vo, 1850, p. 159.
+
+Besides all this, there occurred other circumstances tending in the same
+direction. Owing to events which I shall hereafter explain, the
+literature of Europe, shortly before the final dissolution of the Roman
+Empire, fell entirely into the hands of the clergy, who were long
+venerated as the sole instructors of mankind. For several centuries, it
+was extremely rare to meet with a layman who could read or write; and of
+course it was still rarer to meet with one able to compose a work.
+Literature, being thus monopolized by a single class, assumed the
+peculiarities natural to its new masters.[472] And as the clergy, taken
+as a body, have always looked on it as their business to enforce belief,
+rather than encourage inquiry, it is no wonder if they displayed in
+their writings the spirit incidental to the habits of their profession.
+Hence, as I have already observed, literature, during many ages, instead
+of benefiting society, injured it, by increasing credulity, and thus
+stopping the progress of knowledge. Indeed, the aptitude for falsehood
+became so great, that there was nothing men were unwilling to believe.
+Nothing came amiss to their greedy and credulous ears. Histories of
+omens, prodigies, apparitions, strange portents, monstrous appearances
+in the heavens, the wildest and most incoherent absurdities, were
+repeated from mouth to mouth, and copied from book to book, with as much
+care as if they were the choicest treasures of human wisdom.[473] That
+Europe should ever have emerged from such a state, is the most decisive
+proof of the extraordinary energy of Man, since we cannot even conceive
+a condition of society more unfavourable to his progress. But it is
+evident, that until the emancipation was effected, the credulity and
+looseness of thought which were universal, unfitted men for habits of
+investigation, and made it impossible for them to engage in a successful
+study of past affairs, or even record with accuracy what was taking
+place around them.[474]
+
+  [472] The Rev. Mr. Dowling, who looks back with great regret to this
+        happy period, says, 'Writers were almost universally
+        ecclesiastics. Literature was scarcely anything but a religious
+        exercise; for everything that was studied, was studied with a
+        reference to religion. The men, therefore, who wrote history,
+        wrote ecclesiastical history.' _Dowling's Introduction to the
+        Critical Study of Ecclesiastical History_, 8vo, 1838, p. 56; a
+        work of some talent, but chiefly interesting as a manifesto by an
+        active party.
+
+  [473] Thus, for instance, a celebrated historian, who wrote at the end
+        of the twelfth century says of the reign of William Rufus:
+        'Ejusdem regis tempore, ut ex parte supradictum est, in sole,
+        luna, et stellis multa signa visa sunt, mare quoque littus
+        persæpe egrediebatur, et homines et animalia submersit, villas et
+        domos quamplures subvertit. In pago qui Barukeshire nominatur,
+        ante occisionem regis sanguis de fonte tribus septimanis
+        emanavit. Multis etiam Normannis diabolus in horribili specie se
+        frequenter in silvis ostendens, plura cum eis de rege et Ranulfo,
+        et quibusdam aliis locutus est. Nec mirum, nam illorum tempore
+        ferè omnis legum siluit justitia, causisque justitiæ subpositis,
+        sola in principibus imperabat pecunia.' _Rog. de Hoveden Annal.
+        in Scriptores post Bedam_, p. 268. See also the same work, pp.
+        356-358; and compare _Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum_,
+        part i. pp. 266, 289, part ii. p. 298.
+
+  [474] Even the descriptions of natural objects which historians
+        attempted in the Middle Ages, were marked by the same
+        carelessness. See some good observations by Dr. Arnold, on Bede's
+        account of the Solent Sea. _Arnold's Lectures on Modern History_,
+        pp. 102, 103.
+
+If, therefore, we recur to the facts just cited, we may say that,
+omitting several circumstances altogether subordinate, there were three
+leading causes of the corruption of the history of Europe in the Middle
+Ages. The first cause was, the sudden introduction of the art of
+writing, and the consequent fusion of different local traditions, which,
+when separate, were accurate, but when united were false. The second
+cause was, the change of religion; which acted in two ways, producing
+not merely an interruption of the old traditions, but also an
+interpolation of them. And the third cause, probably the most powerful
+of all, was, that history became monopolized by a class of men whose
+professional habits made them quick to believe, and who, moreover, had a
+direct interest in increasing the general credulity, since it was the
+basis upon which their own authority was built.
+
+By the operation of these causes, the history of Europe became corrupted
+to an extent for which we can find no parallel in any other period. That
+there was, properly speaking, no history, was the smallest part of the
+inconvenience; but, unhappily, men, not satisfied with the absence of
+truth, supplied its place by the invention of falsehood. Among
+innumerable instances of this, there is one species of inventions worth
+noticing, because they evince that love of antiquity, which is a marked
+characteristic of those classes by whom history was then written. I
+allude to fictions regarding the origin of different nations, in all of
+which the spirit of the Middle Ages is very discernible. During many
+centuries, it was believed by every people that they were directly
+descended from ancestors who had been present at the siege of Troy. That
+was a proposition which no one thought of doubting.[475] The only
+question was, as to the details of so illustrious a lineage. On this,
+however, there was a certain unanimity of opinion; since, not to mention
+inferior countries, it was admitted that the French were descended from
+Francus, whom everybody knew to be the son of Hector; and it was also
+known that the Britons came from Brutus, whose father was no other than
+Æneas himself.[476]
+
+  [475] In _Le Long's Bibliothèque Historique de la France_, vol. ii.
+        p. 3, it is said, that the descent of the kings of France from
+        the Trojans was universally believed before the sixteenth
+        century: 'Cette descendance a été crue véritable près de huit
+        cents ans, et soutenue par tous les écrivains de notre histoire;
+        la fausseté n'en a été reconnue qu'au commencement du seizième
+        siècle.' Polydore Vergil, who died in the middle of the sixteenth
+        century, attacked this opinion in regard to England, and thereby
+        made his history unpopular. See _Ellis's Preface to Polydore
+        Vergil_, p. xx. 4to, 1844, published by the Camden Society. 'He
+        discarded Brute, as an unreal personage.' In 1128, Henry I., king
+        of England, inquired from a learned man respecting the early
+        history of France. The answer is preserved by an historian of the
+        thirteenth century: 'Regum potentissime, inquiens, sicut pleræque
+        gentes Europæ, ita Franci a Trojanis originem duxerunt.' _Matthæi
+        Paris Hist. Major_, p. 59. See also _Rog. de Hov. in Scriptores
+        post Bedam_, p. 274. On the descent of the Britons from Priam and
+        Æneas, see _Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum_, part i. p.
+        66. Indeed, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, their
+        Trojan origin was stated as a notorious fact, in a letter written
+        to Pope Boniface by Edward I., and signed by the English
+        nobility. See _Warton's Hist. of English Poetry_, vol. i. pp.
+        131, 132; and _Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors_, vol. i.
+        p. 185.
+
+  [476] The general opinion was, that Brutus, or Brute, was the son of
+        Æneas; but some historians affirmed that he was the
+        great-grandson. See _Turner's Hist. of England_, vol. i. p. 63,
+        vol. vii. p. 220.
+
+Touching the origin of particular places, the great historians of the
+Middle Ages are equally communicative. In the accounts they give of
+them, as well as in the lives they write of eminent men, the history
+usually begins at a very remote period; and the events relating to their
+subject are often traced back, in an unbroken series, from the moment
+when Noah left the ark, or even when Adam passed the gates of
+Paradise.[477] On other occasions, the antiquity they assign is somewhat
+less; but the range of their information is always extraordinary. They
+say, that the capital of France is called after Paris, the son of Priam,
+because he fled there when Troy was overthrown.[478] They also mention
+that Tours owed its name to being the burial-place of Turonus, one of
+the Trojans;[479] while the city of Troyes was actually built by the
+Trojans, as its etymology clearly proves.[480] It was well ascertained
+that Nuremberg was called after the Emperor Nero;[481] and Jerusalem
+after King Jebus,[482] a man of vast celebrity in the Middle Ages, but
+whose existence later historians have not been able to verify. The river
+Humber received its name because, in ancient times, a king of the Huns
+had been drowned in it.[483] The Gauls derived their origin, according
+to some, from Galathia, a female descendant of Japhet; according to
+others, from Gomer, the son of Japhet.[484] Prussia was called after
+Prussus, a brother of Augustus.[485] This was remarkably modern; but
+Silesia had its name from the prophet Elisha--from whom, indeed, the
+Silesians descended;[486] while as to the city of Zurich, its exact date
+was a matter of dispute, but it was unquestionably built in the time of
+Abraham.[487] It was likewise from Abraham and Sarah that the gipsies
+immediately sprung.[488] The blood of the Saracens was less pure, since
+they were only descended from Sarah--in what way it is not mentioned;
+but she probably had them by another marriage, or, may be, as the fruit
+of an Egyptian intrigue.[489] At all events, the Scotch certainly came
+from Egypt; for they were originally the issue of Scota, who was a
+daughter of Pharaoh, and who bequeathed to them her name.[490] On sundry
+similar matters, the Middle Ages possessed information equally
+valuable. It was well known that the city of Naples was founded on
+eggs;[491] and it was also known, that the order of St. Michael was
+instituted in person by the archangel, who was himself the first knight,
+and to whom, in fact, chivalry owes its origin.[492] In regard to the
+Tartars, that people, of course, proceeded from Tartarus; which some
+theologians said was an inferior kind of hell, but others declared to be
+hell itself.[493] However this might be, the fact of their birth-place
+being from below was indisputable, and was proved by many circumstances
+which showed the fatal and mysterious influence they were able to
+exercise. For the Turks were identical with the Tartars; and it was
+notorious, that since the Cross had fallen into Turkish hands, all
+Christian children had ten teeth less than formerly; a universal
+calamity, which there seemed to be no means of repairing.[494]
+
+  [477] In the _Notes to a Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483_, pp.
+        183-187, edit. 4to, 1827, there is a pedigree, in which the
+        history of the bishops of London is traced back, not only to the
+        migration of Brutus from Troy, but also to Noah and Adam. Thus,
+        too, Goropius, in his history of Antwerp, written in the
+        sixteenth century: 'Vond zoowell de Nederlandsche taal als de
+        Wysbegeerte van Orpheus in de ark van Noach.' _Van Kampen_,
+        _Geschiedenis der Letteren_, 8vo, 1821, vol. i. p. 91; see also
+        p. 86. In the thirteenth century, Mathew Paris (_Historia Major_,
+        p. 352) says of Alfred, 'Hujus genealogia in Anglorum historiis
+        perducitur usque ad Adam primum parentem.' See, to the same
+        effect, _Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum_, part i. pp.
+        323, 324, 415. In William of Malmesbury's Chronicle (_Scriptores
+        post Bedam_, p. 22 rev.) the genealogy of the Saxon kings is
+        traced back to Adam. For other, and similar, instances, see a
+        note in _Lingard's History of England_, vol. i. p. 403. And Mr.
+        Ticknor (_History of Spanish Literature_, vol. i. p. 509)
+        mentions that the Spanish chroniclers present 'an uninterrupted
+        succession of Spanish kings from Tubal, a grandson of Noah.'
+
+  [478] Monteil, in his curious book, _Histoire des divers Etats_, vol. v.
+        p. 70, mentions the old belief 'que les Parisiens sont du sang
+        des rois des anciens Troyens, par Paris, fils de Priam.' Even in
+        the seventeenth century this idea was not extinct; and Coryat,
+        who travelled in France in 1608, gives another version of it. He
+        says, 'As for her name of Paris, she hath it (as some write) from
+        Paris, the eighteenth king of Gallia Celtica, whom some write to
+        have been lineally descended from Japhet, one of the three sons
+        of Noah, and to have founded this city.' _Coryat's Crudities_,
+        1611, reprinted 1776, vol. i. pp. 27, 28.
+
+  [479] 'Erat ibi quidam Tros nomine Turonus Bruti nepos.... De nomine
+        ipsius prædicta civitas Turonis vocabulum nacta est; quia ibidem
+        sepultus fuit.' _Galfredi Monumet. Hist. Briton._ lib. i. cap.
+        xv. p. 19. And Mathew of Westminster, who wrote in the fourteenth
+        century, says (_Flores Historiarum_, part i. p. 17): 'Tros nomine
+        Turnus.... De nomine verò ipsius Turonorum civitas vocabulum
+        traxit, quia ibidem, ut testatur Homerus, sepultus fuit.'
+
+  [480] 'On convient bien que les Troyens de notre Troyes sont du sang des
+        anciens Troyens.' _Monteil_, _Divers Etats_, vol. v. p. 69.
+
+  [481] Monconys, who was in Nuremberg in 1663, found this opinion still
+        held there; and he seems himself half inclined to believe it;
+        for, in visiting a castle, he observes, 'Mais je ne sçai si c'est
+        un ouvrage de Néron, comme l'on le dit, et que même le nom de
+        Nuremberg en vient.' _Voyages de Monconys_, vol. iv. p. 141,
+        edit. Paris, 1695.
+
+  [482] 'Deinceps regnante in ea Jebusæo, dicta Jebus, et sic ex Jebus et
+        Salem dicta est Jebussalem. Unde post dempta _b_ littera et
+        addita _r_, dicta est Hierusalem.' _Matthæi Paris Historia
+        Major_, p. 43. This reminds me of another great writer, who was
+        one of the fathers, and was moreover a saint, and who, says M.
+        Matter, 'dérive les Samaritains du roi Samarius, fils de Canaan.'
+        _Matter_, _Hist. du Gnosticisme_, vol. i. p. 41.
+
+  [483] 'Humber rex Hunnorum ... ad flumen diffugiens, submersus est intra
+        ipsum, et nomen suum flumini reliquit.' _Matthæi Westmonast.
+        Flores Historiarum_, part i. p. 19.
+
+  [484] These two opinions, which long divided the learned world, are
+        stated in _Le Long_, _Bibliothèque Historique de la France_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 5, 49.
+
+  [485] See a curious allusion to this in _De Thou_, _Hist. Univ._
+        vol. viii. p. 160; where, however, it is erroneously supposed to
+        be a Russian invention.
+
+  [486] 'The Silesians are not without voluminous writers upon their
+        antiquities; and one of them gravely derives the name and descent
+        of his country from the prophet Elisha.' _Adams's Letters on
+        Silesia_, p. 267, Lond. 8vo, 1804.
+
+  [487] In 1608, Coryat, when in Zurich, was 'told by the learned
+        Hospinian that their city was founded in the time of Abraham.'
+        _Coryat's Crudities_, vol. i. Epistle to the Reader, sig. D. I
+        always give the most recent instance I have met with, because, in
+        the history of the European intellect, it is important to know
+        how long the spirit of the Middle Ages survived in different
+        countries.
+
+  [488] They were 'seuls enfants légitimes' of Abraham and Sarah.
+        _Monteil_, _Divers Etats_, vol. v. p. 19.
+
+  [489] Mathew Paris, who is apprehensive lest the reputation of Sarah
+        should suffer, says, 'Saraceni perversé se putant ex Sara dici;
+        sed veriùs Agareni dicuntur ab Agar; et Ismaelitæ, ab Ismaele
+        filio Abrahæ.' _Hist. Major_, p. 357. Compare a similar passage
+        in _Mezeray_, _Histoire de France_, vol. i. p. 127: 'Sarrasins,
+        ou de la ville de Sarai, ou de Sara femme d'Abraham, duquel ils
+        se disent faussement légitimes héritiers.' After this, the idea,
+        or the fear of the idea, soon died away; and Beausobre (_Histoire
+        Critique de Manichée_, vol. i. p. 24) says: 'On dérive
+        vulgairement le nom de Sarrasins du mot arabe Sarah, ou Sarak,
+        qui signifie effectivement voleur.' A good example of a secular
+        turn given to a theological etymology. For a similar case in
+        northern history, see _Whitelocke's Journal of the Swedish
+        Embassy_, vol. i. pp. 190, 191.
+
+  [490] Early in the fourteenth century, this was stated, in a letter to
+        the Pope, as a well-known historical fact. See _Lingard's Hist.
+        of England_, vol. ii. p. 187: 'They are sprung from Scota the
+        daughter of Pharaoh, who landed in Ireland, and whose descendants
+        wrested, by force of arms, the northern half of Britain from the
+        progeny of Brute.'
+
+  [491] Mr. Wright (_Narratives of Sorcery_, 8vo, 1851, vol. i. p. 115)
+        says, 'The foundation of the city of Naples upon eggs, and the
+        egg on which its fate depended, seem to have been legends
+        generally current in the Middle Ages;' and he refers to
+        _Montfaucon_, _Monumens de la Mon. Fr._ vol. ii. p. 329, for
+        proof, that by the statutes of the order of the Saint Esprit, 'a
+        chapter of the knights was appointed to be held annually in
+        castello ovi incantati in mirabili periculo.'
+
+  [492] 'The order of Saint Michael, in France, pretends to the possession
+        of a regular descent from Michael the Archangel, who, according
+        to the enlightened judgment of French antiquarians, was the
+        premier chevalier in the world; and it was he, they say, who
+        established the earliest chivalric order in Paradise itself.'
+        _Mills's Hist. of Chivalry_, vol. i. pp. 363, 364.
+
+  [493] The etymology of Tartars from Tartarus is ascribed to the piety of
+        Saint Louis in _Prichard's Physical History_, vol. iv. p. 278;
+        but I think that I have met with it before his time, though I
+        cannot now recover the passage. The earliest instance I remember
+        is in 1241, when the saint was twenty-six years old. See a letter
+        from the emperor Frederick, in _Matthæi Paris Historia Major_, p.
+        497: 'Pervenissent dicti Tartari (imo Tartarei),' &c; and on the
+        expression of Louis, see p. 496: 'Quos vocamus Tartaros ad suas
+        Tartareas sedes.' Since the thirteenth century, the subject has
+        attracted the attention of English divines; and the celebrated
+        theologian Whiston mentions 'my last famous discovery, or rather
+        my revival of Dr. Giles Fletcher's famous discovery, that the
+        Tartars are no other than the ten tribes of Israel, which have
+        been so long sought for in vain.' _Memoirs of the Life and
+        Writings of William Whiston_, p. 575. Compare, on the opinions
+        held respecting the Tartars, _Journal Asiatique_, I^e série, vol.
+        vi. p. 374, Paris, 1825.
+
+  [494] Peignot (_Dict. des Livres_, vol. ii. p. 69, Paris, 1806) says,
+        that Rigord, in his history of Philip Augustus, assures his
+        readers 'que depuis que la vraie croix a été prise par les Turcs,
+        les enfans n'ont plus que 20 ou 23 dents, au lieu qu'ils en
+        avaient 30 ou 32 auparavant.' Even in the fifteenth century, it
+        was believed that the number of teeth had diminished from 32 to
+        22, or at most 24. See _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 481, 482, Paris, 1815. Compare _Hecker on the Black
+        Death_, pp. 31, 32, in his learned work, _Epidemics of the Middle
+        Ages_, published by the Sydenham Society.
+
+Other points relating to the history of past events were cleared up with
+equal facility. In Europe during many centuries, the only animal food in
+general use was pork; beef, veal, and mutton, being comparatively
+unknown.[495] It was, therefore, with no small astonishment that the
+crusaders, on returning from the East, told their countrymen that they
+had been among a people who, like the Jews, thought pork unclean, and
+refused to eat it. But the feelings of lively wonder which this
+intelligence excited, were destroyed as soon as the cause of the fact
+was explained. The subject was taken up by Mathew Paris, the most
+eminent historian during the thirteenth century, and one of the most
+eminent during the Middle Ages.[496] This celebrated writer informs us,
+that the Mohammedans refuse to eat pork on account of a singular
+circumstance which happened to their prophet. It appears that Mohammed,
+having, on one occasion, gorged himself with food and drink till he was
+in a state of insensibility, fell asleep on a dunghill, and, in this
+disgraceful condition, was seen by a litter of pigs. The pigs attacked
+the fallen prophet, and suffocated him to death; for which reason his
+followers abominate pigs, and refuse to partake of their flesh.[497]
+This striking fact explains one great peculiarity of the
+Mohammedans;[498] and another fact, equally striking, explains how it
+was that their sect came into existence. For it was well known, that
+Mohammed was originally a cardinal, and only became a heretic because he
+failed in his design of being elected pope.[499]
+
+  [495] In the sacred books of the Scandinavians, pork is represented as
+        the principal food, even in heaven. See _Mallet's Northern
+        Antiquities_, p. 105. It was the chief food of the Irish in the
+        twelfth century: _Ledwich_, _Antiquities of Ireland_, Dublin,
+        1804, p. 370; and also of the Anglo-Saxons at an earlier period:
+        _Turner's Hist. of England_, vol. iii. p. 22. In France it was
+        equally common, and Charlemagne kept in his forests immense
+        droves of pigs. _Note in Esprit des Lois_, in _[OE]uvres de
+        Montesquieu_, p. 513. In Spain those who did not like pork were
+        tried by the Inquisition as suspected Jews: _Llorente_, _Hist. de
+        l'Inquisition_, vol. i. pp. 269, 442, 445. Late in the sixteenth
+        century, there was a particular disease, said to be caused by the
+        quantity of it eaten in Hungary. _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la
+        Médecine_, vol. iii. p. 93; and even at present, the barbarous
+        Lettes are passionately fond of it. _Kohl's Russia_, pp. 386,
+        387. In the middle of the sixteenth century, I find that Philip
+        II., when in England, generally dined on bacon; of which he ate
+        so much, as frequently to make himself very ill. See _Ambassades
+        de Messieurs de Noailles en Angleterre_, vol. v. pp. 240, 241,
+        edit. 1763. The ambassador writes, that Philip was 'grand mangeur
+        oultre mesure,' and used to consume large quantities 'de lard,
+        dont il faict le plus souvent son principal repas.' In the Middle
+        Ages, 'les Thuringiens payaient leur tribut en porcs, la denrée
+        la plus précieuse de leur pays.' _[OE]uvres de Michelet_, vol.
+        ii. p. 389.
+
+  [496] Sismondi (_Hist. des Français_, vol. vii. pp. 325, 326) passes a
+        high eulogy upon him; and Mosheim (_Ecclesiast. History_, vol. i.
+        p. 313) says: 'Among the historians (of the thirteenth century),
+        the first place is due to Mathew Paris; a writer of the highest
+        merit, both in point of knowledge and prudence.'
+
+  [497] _Matthæi Paris Historia Major_, p. 362. He concludes his account
+        by saying, 'Unde adhuc Saraceni sues præ cæteris animalibus
+        exosas habent et abominabiles.' Mathew Paris obtained his
+        information from a clergyman, 'quendam magni nominis celebrem
+        prædicatorem,' p. 360. According to Mathew of Westminster, the
+        pigs not only suffocated Mohammed, but actually ate the greater
+        part of him: 'In maxima parte a porcis corrosum invenerunt.'
+        _Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum_, part i. p. 215.
+
+  [498] By a singular contradiction, the African Mohammedans now 'believe
+        that a great enmity subsists between hogs and Christians.' _Mungo
+        Park's Travels_, vol. i. p. 185. Many medical authors have
+        supposed that pork is peculiarly unwholesome in hot countries;
+        but this requires confirmation: and it is certain, that it is
+        recommended by Arabian physicians, and is more generally eaten
+        both in Asia and in Africa than is usually believed. Comp.
+        _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. ii. p. 323; _Volney_,
+        _Voyage en Syrie_, vol. i. p. 449; _Buchanan's Journey through
+        the Mysore_, vol. ii. p. 88, vol. iii. p. 57; _Raffles' Hist. of
+        Java_, vol. ii. p. 5; _Ellis's Hist. of Madagascar_, vol. i. pp.
+        201, 403, 416; _Cook's Voyages_, vol. ii. p. 265; _Burnes's
+        Travels into Bokhara_, vol. iii. p. 141. As facts of this sort
+        are important physiologically and socially, it is advisable that
+        they should be collected; and I therefore add, that the
+        North-American Indians are said to have 'a disgust for pork.'
+        _Journal of the Geog. Society_, vol. xv. p. 30; and that Dobell
+        (_Travels_, vol. ii. p. 260, 8vo, 1830) says, 'I believe there is
+        more pork eaten in China than in all the rest of the world put
+        together.'
+
+  [499] This idea, which was a favourite one in the Middle Ages, is said
+        to have been a Rabbinical invention. See _Lettres de Gui Patin_,
+        vol. iii. p. 127: 'que Mahomet, le faux prophète, avait été
+        cardinal; et que, par dépit de n'avoir été pape, il s'étoit fait
+        hérésiarque.'
+
+In regard to the early history of Christianity, the great writers of the
+Middle Ages were particularly inquisitive; and they preserved the memory
+of events, of which otherwise we should have been entirely ignorant.
+After Froissart, the most celebrated historian of the fourteenth
+century, was certainly Mathew of Westminster, with whose name, at least,
+most readers are familiar. This eminent man directed his attention,
+among other matters, to the history of Judas, in order to discover the
+circumstances under which the character of that arch-apostate was
+formed. His researches seem to have been very extensive; but their
+principal results were, that Judas, when an infant, was deserted by his
+parents, and exposed on an island called Scarioth, from whence he
+received the name of Judas Iscariot. To this the historian adds, that
+after Judas grew up, he, among other enormities, slew his own father,
+and then married his own mother.[500] The same writer, in another part
+of his history, mentions a fact interesting to those who study the
+antiquities of the Holy See. Some questions had been raised as to the
+propriety of kissing the pope's toe, and even theologians had their
+doubts touching so singular a ceremony. But this difficulty also was set
+at rest by Mathew of Westminster, who explains the true origin of the
+custom. He says, that formerly it was usual to kiss the hand of his
+holiness; but that towards the end of the eighth century, a certain lewd
+woman, in making an offering to the pope, not only kissed his hand, but
+also pressed it. The pope--his name was Leo--seeing the danger, cut off
+his hand, and thus escaped the contamination to which he had been
+exposed. Since that time, the precaution has been taken of kissing the
+pope's toe instead of his hand; and lest any one should doubt the
+accuracy of this account, the historian assures us that the hand, which
+had been cut off five or six hundred years before, still existed in
+Rome, and was indeed a standing miracle, since it was preserved in the
+Lateran in its original state, free from corruption.[501] And as some
+readers might wish to be informed respecting the Lateran itself, where
+the hand was kept, this also is considered by the historian, in another
+part of his great work, where he traces it back to the emperor Nero. For
+it is said that this wicked persecutor of the faith, on one occasion,
+vomited a frog covered with blood, which he believed to be his own
+progeny, and therefore caused to be shut up in a vault, where it
+remained hidden for some time. Now, in the Latin language, _latente_
+means hidden, and _rana_ means a frog; so that, by putting these two
+words together, we have the origin of the Lateran, which, in fact, was
+built where the frog was found.[502]
+
+  [500] See the ample details in _Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum_,
+        part i. pp. 86, 87; and at p. 88, 'Judas matrem suam uxorem
+        duxerat, et quòd patrem suum occiderat.'
+
+  [501] This took place in the year 798. _Matthæi Westmonast. Flores
+        Historiarum_, part i. p. 293. The historian thus concludes his
+        relation: 'Et statutum est nunc quòd numquam extunc manus Papæ ab
+        offerentibus deoscularetur, sed pes. Cùm ante fuerat consuetudo
+        quòd manus, non pes, deoscularetur. In hujus miraculi memoriam
+        reservatur adhuc manus abscissa in thesauro lateranensi, quam
+        dominus custodit incorruptam ad laudem matris suæ.'
+
+  [502] '... Ita ut Nero se puero gravidum existimaret.... Tandem dolore
+        nimio vexatus, medicis ait: Accelerate tempus partus, quia
+        languore vix anhelitum habeo respirandi. Tunc ipsum ad vomitum
+        impotionaverunt, et ranam visu terribilem, humoribus infectam, et
+        sanguine edidit cruentatam.... Unde et pars illa civitatis, ut
+        aliqui dicunt, ubi rana latuerat, Lateranum, à latente rana,
+        nomen accepit.' _Matthæi Westmonast._ part i. p. 98. Compare the
+        account given by Roger of Hoveden, of a woman who vomited two
+        toads. _Script. post Bedam_, p. 457 rev. In the Middle Ages there
+        were many superstitions respecting these animals, and they appear
+        to have been used by heralds as marks of degradation. See
+        _Lankester's Memorials of Ray_, p. 197.
+
+It would be easy to fill volumes with similar notions, all of which were
+devoutly believed in those ages of darkness, or, as they have been well
+called, Ages of Faith. Those, indeed, were golden days for the
+ecclesiastical profession, since the credulity of men had reached a
+height which seemed to ensure to the clergy a long and universal
+dominion. How the prospects of the church were subsequently darkened,
+and how the human reason began to rebel, will be related in another part
+of this Introduction, where I shall endeavour to trace the rise of that
+secular and sceptical spirit to which European civilization owes its
+origin. But, before closing the present chapter, it may be well to give
+a few more illustrations of the opinions held in the Middle Ages; and,
+for this purpose, I will select the two historical accounts, which, of
+all others, were the most popular, exercised most influence, and were
+most universally believed.
+
+The histories to which I refer, are those of Arthur and Charlemagne;
+both of which bear the names of dignitaries of the church, and were
+received with the respect due to their illustrious authors. That
+concerning Charlemagne is called the Chronicle of Turpin, and purports
+to be written by Turpin, archbishop of Rheims, a friend of the emperor
+and his companion in war.[503] From some passages it contains, there is
+reason to think that it was really composed at the beginning of the
+twelfth century;[504] but, in the Middle Ages, men were not nice in
+these matters, and no one was likely to dispute its authenticity.
+Indeed, the name of an archbishop of Rheims was sufficient
+recommendation; and we find accordingly, that in the year 1122 it
+received the formal approbation of the pope;[505] and that Vincent de
+Beauvais, one of the most celebrated writers in the thirteenth century,
+and tutor to the sons of Louis IX., mentions it as a work of value, and
+as being the principal authority for the reign of Charlemagne.[506]
+
+  [503] '... Ego Turpinus in valle Caroli loco præfato, astante rege,' &c.
+        _De Vita Caroli Magni_, p. 74, edit. Ciampi.
+
+  [504] Turner (_History of England_, vol. vii. pp. 250-268) has attempted
+        to prove that it was written by Calixtus II.; but his arguments,
+        though ingenious and learned, are not decisive. Warton (_Hist.
+        Eng. Poetry_, vol. i. p. 128) says it was composed about 1110.
+
+  [505] The pope 'statuit historiam Sancti Caroli descriptam a beato
+        Turpino Remensi Archiepiscopo esse authenticam.' _Note in
+        Turner_, vol. vii. p. 250.
+
+  [506] In his famous Speculum, 'il recommande spécialement les études
+        historiques, dont il paraît que la plupart de ses contemporains
+        méconnaissaient l'utilité; mais lorsqu'il indique les sources où
+        il puisera ce genre d'instruction, c'est Turpin qu'il désigne
+        comme le principal historien de Charlemagne.' _Histoire
+        Littéraire de la France_, vol. xviii. p. 474, Paris, 1835, 4to;
+        see also p. 517; and on its influence in Spain, see _Ticknor's
+        History of Spanish Literature_, vol. i. pp. 222, 223.
+
+A book thus generally read, and sanctioned by such competent judges,
+must be a tolerable standard for testing the knowledge and opinions of
+those times. On this account, a short notice of it will be useful for
+our present purpose, as it will enable us to understand the extreme
+slowness with which history has improved, and the almost imperceptible
+steps by which it advanced, until fresh life was breathed into it by the
+great thinkers of the eighteenth century.
+
+In the Chronicle of Turpin, we are informed that the invasion of Spain
+by Charlemagne took place in consequence of the direct instigation of
+St. James, the brother of St. John.[507] The apostle, being the cause of
+the attack, adopted measures to secure its success. When Charlemagne
+besieged Pamplona, that city made an obstinate resistance; but as soon
+as prayers were offered up by the invaders, the walls suddenly fell to
+the ground.[508] After this, the emperor rapidly overran the whole
+country, almost annihilated the Mohammedans, and built innumerable
+churches.[509] But, the resources of Satan are inexhaustible. On the
+side of the enemy, a giant now appeared, whose name was Fenacute, and
+who was descended from Goliath of old.[510] This Fenacute was the most
+formidable opponent the Christians had yet encountered. His strength was
+equal to that of forty men;[511] his face measured one cubit; his arms
+and legs four cubits; his total height was twenty cubits. Against him
+Charlemagne sent the most eminent warriors; but they were easily
+discomfited by the giant; of whose prodigious force some idea may be
+formed from the fact, that the length even of his fingers was three
+palms.[512] The Christians were filled with consternation. In vain did
+more than twenty chosen men advance against the giant; not one returned
+from the field; Fenacute took them all under his arms, and carried them
+off into captivity.[513] At length the celebrated Orlando came forward,
+and challenged him to mortal combat. An obstinate fight ensued; and the
+Christian, not meeting with the success he expected, engaged his
+adversary in a theological discussion.[514] Here the pagan was easily
+defeated; and Orlando, warmed by the controversy, pressed on his enemy,
+smote the giant with his sword, and dealt him a fatal wound. After
+this, the last hope of the Mohammedans was extinct; the Christian arms
+had finally triumphed, and Charlemagne divided Spain among those gallant
+followers who had aided him in effecting its conquest.[515]
+
+  [507] _Caroli Magni Historia_, edit. Ciampi, pp. 3-5.
+
+  [508] '... Muri collapsi funditus corruerunt.' _De Vita Caroli_, p. 5.
+        On this, Ciampi, in his notes on Turpin, gravely says (pp. 94,
+        95): 'Questo fatto della presa di Pamplona è reso maraviglioso
+        per la subitanea caduta delle mura, a somiglianza delle mura di
+        Gerico.' This reminds me of a circumstance mentioned by Monconys,
+        who, on visiting Oxford in 1663, was shown a horn which was
+        preserved in that ancient city, because it was said to be made in
+        the same way as that by which the walls of Jericho were blown
+        down: 'Les Juifs tiennent que leurs ancêtres se servirent de
+        pareilles pour abbattre les murailles de Jérico.' _Voyages de
+        Monconys_, vol. iii. p. 95, edit. Paris, 1695.
+
+  [509] _De Vita Caroli_, cap. v. pp. 11, 12; is headed 'De ecclesiis quas
+        Carolus fecit.'
+
+  [510] 'Gigas nomine Fenacutus, qui fuit de genere Goliat.' _De Vita
+        Caroli_, p. 39.
+
+  [511] 'Vim xl. fortium possidebat.' p. 39.
+
+  [512] 'Erat enim statura ejus quasi cubitis xx., facies erat longa quasi
+        unius cubiti, et nasus illius unius palmi mensurati, et brachia
+        et crura ejus quatuor cubitorum erant, et digiti ejus tribus
+        palmis,' p. 40.
+
+  [513] _De Vita Caroli_, p. 40.
+
+  [514] Ibid. pp. 43-47.
+
+  [515] _De Vita Caroli_, p. 52. On the twelve peers of Charlemagne, in
+        connexion with Turpin, see _Sismondi_, _Hist. des Français_, vol.
+        v. pp. 246, 537, 538, vol. vi. p. 534.
+
+On the history of Arthur, the Middle Ages possessed information equally
+authentic. Different accounts had been circulated respecting this
+celebrated king;[516] but their comparative value was still unsettled,
+when, early in the twelfth century, the subject attracted the attention
+of Geoffrey, the well-known Archdeacon of Monmouth. This eminent man, in
+A.D. 1147, published the result of his inquiries, in a work which he
+called _History of the Britons_.[517] In this book, he takes a
+comprehensive view of the whole question; and not only relates the life
+of Arthur, but also traces the circumstances which prepared the way for
+the appearance of that great conqueror. In regard to the actions of
+Arthur, the historian was singularly fortunate, inasmuch as the
+materials necessary for that part of his subject were collected by
+Walter Archdeacon of Oxford, who was a friend of Geoffrey, and who, like
+him, took great interest in the study of history.[518] The work is,
+therefore, the joint composition of the two archdeacons; and is entitled
+to respect, not only on this account, but also because it was one of the
+most popular of all the productions of the Middle Ages.
+
+  [516] The Welsh, however, accused Gildas of having thrown his history
+        'into the sea.' _Palgrave's Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth_, vol. i. p.
+        453. The industrious Sharon Turner (_Hist. of England_, vol. i.
+        pp. 282-295) has collected a great deal of evidence respecting
+        Arthur; of whose existence he, of course, entertains no doubt.
+        Indeed, at p. 292, he gives us an account of the discovery, in
+        the twelfth century, of Arthur's body!
+
+  [517] In _Turner's Hist. of England_, vol. vii. pp. 269, 270, it is said
+        to have appeared in 1128; but Mr. Wright (_Biog. Brit. Lit._ vol.
+        ii. p. 144) seems to have proved that the real date is 1147.
+
+  [518] Geoffrey says, 'A Gualtero Oxinefordensi in multis historiis
+        peritissimo viro audivit' (_i.e. ille_ Geoffrey) 'vili licet
+        stylo, breviter tamen propalabit, quæ pr[oe]lia inclytus ille rex
+        post victoriam istam, in Britanniam reversus, cum nepote suo
+        commiserit.' _Galfredi Monumetensis Historia Britonum_, lib. xi.
+        sec. i. p. 200. And in the dedication to the Earl of Gloucester,
+        p. 1, he says, 'Walterus Oxinefordensis archidiaconus, vir in
+        oratoria arte atque in exoticis historiis eruditus.' Compare
+        _Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum_, part i. p. 248.
+
+The earlier part of this great history is occupied with the result of
+those researches which the Archdeacon of Monmouth had made into the
+state of Britain before the accession of Arthur. With this we are not so
+much concerned; though it may be mentioned, that the archdeacon
+ascertained that, after the capture of Troy, Ascanius fled from the
+city, and begat a son, who became father to Brutus.[519] In those days,
+England was peopled by giants, all of whom were slain by Brutus; who,
+having extirpated the entire race, built London, settled the affairs of
+the country, and called it, after himself, by the name of Britain.[520]
+The archdeacon proceeds to relate the actions of a long line of kings
+who succeeded Brutus, most of whom were remarkable for their abilities,
+and some were famous for the prodigies which occurred in their time.
+Thus, during the government of Rivallo, it rained blood for three
+consecutive days;[521] and when Morvidus was on the throne, the coasts
+were infested by a horrid sea-monster, which, having devoured
+innumerable persons, at length swallowed the king himself.[522]
+
+  [519] _Galfredi Historia Britonum_, pp. 3, 4.
+
+  [520] 'Erat tunc nomen insulæ Albion, quæ a nemine, exceptis paucis
+        gigantibus, inhabitabatur.... Denique Brutus de nomine suo
+        insulam Britanniam, sociosque suos Britones appellat.' _Galf.
+        Hist. Britonum_, p. 20.
+
+  [521] 'In tempore ejus tribus diebus cecidit pluvia sanguinea, et
+        muscarum affluentia; quibus homines moriebantur.' _Hist. Brit._
+        p. 36.
+
+  [522] 'Advenerat namque ex partibus Hibernici maris inauditæ feritatis
+        bellua, quæ incolas maritimos sine intermissione devorabat.
+        Cumque fama aures ejus attigisset, accossit ipse ad illam, et
+        solus cum sola congressus est. At cum omnia tela sua in illam in
+        vanum consumpsisset, acceleravit monstrum illud, et apertis
+        faucibus ipsum velut pisciculum devoravit.' _Hist. Brit._ p. 51.
+
+These and similar matters are related by the Archdeacon of Monmouth as
+the fruit of his own inquiries; but in the subsequent account of Arthur,
+he was aided by his friend the Archdeacon of Oxford. The two archdeacons
+inform their readers, that King Arthur owed his existence to a magical
+contrivance of Merlin, the celebrated wizard; the particulars of which
+they relate with a minuteness which, considering the sacred character of
+the historians, is rather remarkable.[523] The subsequent actions of
+Arthur did not belie his supernatural origin. His might nothing was able
+to withstand. He slew an immense number of Saxons; he overran Norway,
+invaded Gaul, fixed his court at Paris, and made preparations to effect
+the conquest of all Europe.[524] He engaged two giants in single combat,
+and killed them both. One of these giants, who inhabited the Mount of
+St. Michael, was the terror of the whole country, and destroyed all the
+soldiers sent against him, except those he took prisoners, in order to
+eat them while they were yet alive.[525] But he fell a victim to the
+prowess of Arthur; as also did another giant, named Ritho, who was, if
+possible, still more formidable. For Ritho, not content with warring on
+men of the meaner sort, actually clothed himself in furs which were
+entirely made of the beards of the kings he had killed.[526]
+
+  [523] The particulars of the intrigue are in _Galf. Hist. Brit._
+        pp. 151, 152. For information respecting Merlin, see also
+        _Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum_, part i. pp. 161, 162;
+        and _Naudé_, _Apologie pour les Grands Hommes_, pp. 308, 309,
+        318, 319, edit. Amsterdam, 1712.
+
+  [524] _Hist. Britonum_, pp. 167-170; a brilliant chapter.
+
+  [525] 'Sed et plures capiebat quos semivivos devorabat.' _Hist. Brit._
+        p. 181.
+
+  [526] 'Hic namque ex barbis regum quos peremerat, fecerat sibi pelles,
+        et mandaverat Arturo ut barbam suam diligenter excoriaret, atque
+        excoriatam sibi dirigeret: ut quemadmodum ipse ceteris præerat
+        regibus, ita quoque in honorem ejus ceteris barbis ipsam
+        superponeret.' _Galf. Hist. Brit._ p. 184.
+
+Such were the statements which, under the name of history, were laid
+before the world in the twelfth century; and that, too, not by obscure
+writers, but by high dignitaries of the church. Nor was anything
+wanting by which the success of the work might be ensured. Its vouchers
+were the Archdeacon of Monmouth, and the Archdeacon of Oxford; it was
+dedicated to Robert Earl of Gloucester, the son of Henry I.; and it was
+considered so important a contribution to the national literature, that
+its principal author was raised to the bishopric of Asaph,--a preferment
+which he is said to owe to his success in investigating the annals of
+English history.[527] A book thus stamped with every possible mark of
+approbation, is surely no bad measure of the age in which it was
+admired. Indeed, the feeling was so universal, that, during several
+centuries, there are not more than two or three instances of any critic
+suspecting its accuracy.[528] A Latin abridgment of it was published by
+the well-known historian, Alfred of Beverley;[529] and, in order that it
+might be more generally known, it was translated into English by
+Layamon,[530] and into Anglo-Norman, first by Gaimar, and afterwards by
+Wace;[531] zealous men, who were anxious that the important truths it
+contained should be diffused as widely as circumstances would allow.
+
+  [527] 'It was partly, perhaps, the reputation of this book, which
+        procured its author the bishopric of St. Asaph.' _Life of
+        Geoffrey of Monmouth_, in _Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit._ vol. ii. p.
+        144, 8vo, 1846. According to the Welsh writers, he was Bishop of
+        Llandaff. See _Stephens's Literature of the Kymry_, 8vo, 1849, p.
+        323.
+
+  [528] Mr. Wright (_Biog. Brit. Lit._ vol. ii. p. 146) says: 'Within a
+        century after its first publication, it was generally adopted by
+        writers on English history; and during several centuries, only
+        one or two rare instances occur of persons who ventured to speak
+        against its veracity.' And Sir Henry Ellis says of Polydore
+        Vergil, who wrote early in the sixteenth century, 'For the
+        repudiation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's history, Polydore Vergil
+        was considered almost as a man deprived of reason. Such were the
+        prejudices of the time.' _Polydore Vergil's English Hist._ vol.
+        i. p. x. edit. Ellis, 1846, 4to. See also, on its popularity,
+        _Lappenberg's Hist. of the Anglo-Saxon Kings_, vol. i. p. 102. In
+        the seventeenth century, which was the first sceptical century in
+        Europe, men began to open their eyes on these matters; and Boyle,
+        for example, classes together 'the fabulous labours of Hercules,
+        and exploits of Arthur of Britain.' _Boyle's Works_, vol. iv. p.
+        425.
+
+  [529] _Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit._ vol. ii. p. 156; _Turner's Hist. of
+        England_, vol. vii. p. 282.
+
+  [530] According to Mr. Wright (_Biog. Brit._ vol. ii. p. 439), it was
+        translated through the medium of Wace. But it would be more
+        correct to say, that Layamon made the absurdities of Geoffrey the
+        basis of his work, rather than translated them; for he amplifies
+        15,000 lines of Wace's _Brut_ into 32,000 of his own jargon. See
+        _Sir F. Madden's Preface to Layamon's Brut_, 8vo, 1847, vol. i.
+        p. xiii. I cannot refrain from bearing testimony to the great
+        philological value of this work of Layamon's, by the publication
+        of which its accomplished editor has made an important
+        contribution towards the study of the history of the English
+        language. So far, however, as Layamon is concerned, we can only
+        contemplate with wonder an age of which he was considered an
+        ornament.
+
+  [531] _Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit._ vol. ii. pp. 151, 207; _Hallam's
+        Literature of Europe_, vol. i. p. 35.
+
+It will hardly be necessary that I should adduce further evidence of the
+way in which history was written during the Middle Ages; for the
+preceding specimens have not been taken at random, but have been
+selected from the ablest and most celebrated authors; and as such
+present a very favourable type of the knowledge and judgment of Europe
+in those days. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, there
+appeared, for the first time, faint signs of an approaching change;[532]
+but this improvement was not very marked until late in the sixteenth
+century, or even early in the seventeenth. The principal steps of this
+interesting movement will be traced in another part of the Introduction,
+when I shall show, that although in the seventeenth century the progress
+was unmistakable, there was no attempt to take a comprehensive view of
+history until nearly the middle of the eighteenth century; when the
+subject was studied, first by the great French thinkers, then by one or
+two of the Scotch, and, some years later, by the Germans. This
+reformation of history was connected, as I shall point out, with other
+intellectual changes, which corresponded to it, and which affected the
+social relations of all the principal countries of Europe. But, without
+anticipating what will be found in another part of this volume, it is
+sufficient to say, that not only was no history written before the end
+of the sixteenth century, but that the state of society was such as to
+make it impossible for one to be written. The knowledge of Europe was
+not yet ripe enough to enable it to be successfully applied to the study
+of past events. For we are not to suppose that the deficiencies of the
+early historians were caused by a lack of natural abilities. The average
+intellect of men is probably always the same; but the pressure exercised
+on them by society is constantly varying. It was, therefore, the general
+condition of society, which, in former days, compelled even the ablest
+writers to believe the most childish absurdities. Until that condition
+was altered, the existence of history was impossible, because it was
+impossible to find any one who knew what was most important to relate,
+what to reject, and what to believe.
+
+  [532] Of which Froissart is the earliest instance; since he is the
+        first who took a secular view of affairs, all the preceding
+        historians being essentially theological. In Spain, too, we find,
+        late in the fourteenth century, a political spirit beginning to
+        appear among historians. See the remarks on Ayala, in _Ticknor's
+        Hist. of Spanish Lit._ vol. i. pp. 165, 166; where, however, Mr.
+        Ticknor represents Froissart as more unworldly than he really
+        was.
+
+The consequence was, that even when history was studied by men of such
+eminent abilities as Macchiavelli and Bodin, they could turn it to no
+better account than to use it as a vehicle for political speculations;
+and in none of their works do we find the least attempt to rise to
+generalizations large enough to include all the social phenomena. The
+same remark applies to Comines, who, though inferior to Macchiavelli and
+Bodin, was an observer of no ordinary acuteness, and certainly displays
+a rare sagacity in his estimation of particular characters. But this was
+due to his own intellect; while the age in which he lived made him
+superstitious, and, for the larger purposes of history, miserably
+shortsighted. His shortsightedness is strikingly shown in his utter
+ignorance of that great intellectual movement, which, in his own time,
+was rapidly overthrowing the feudal institutions of the Middle Ages; but
+to which he never once alludes, reserving his attention for those
+trivial political intrigues in the relation of which he believed
+history to consist.[533] As to his superstition, it would be idle to
+give many instances of that; since no man could live in the fifteenth
+century without having his mind enfeebled by the universal credulity. It
+may, however, be observed, that though he was personally acquainted with
+statesmen and diplomatists, and had, therefore, the fullest opportunity
+of seeing how enterprises of the fairest promise are constantly ruined,
+merely by the incapacity of those who undertake them, he, on all
+important occasions, ascribes such failure, not to the real cause, but
+to the immediate interference of the Deity. So marked, and so
+irresistible, was the tendency of the fifteenth century, that this
+eminent politician, a man of the world, and well skilled in the arts of
+life, deliberately asserts that battles are lost, not because the army
+is ill supplied, nor because the campaign is ill conceived, nor because
+the general is incompetent; but because the people or their prince are
+wicked, and Providence seeks to punish them. For, says Comines, war is a
+great mystery; and being used by God as the means of accomplishing his
+wishes, He gives victory, sometimes to one side, sometimes to the
+other.[534] Hence, too, disturbances occur in the state, solely by
+divine disposition; and they never would happen, except that princes or
+kingdoms, having become prosperous, forget the source from which their
+prosperity proceeded.[535]
+
+  [533] On this, Arnold says, truly enough, 'Comines's Memoirs are
+        striking from their perfect unconsciousness: the knell of the
+        Middle Ages had been already sounded, yet Comines has no other
+        notions than such as they had tended to foster; he describes
+        their events, their characters, their relations, as if they were
+        to continue for centuries.' _Arnold's Lectures on Modern
+        History_, p. 118. To this I may add, that whenever Comines has
+        occasion to mention the lower classes, which is very rarely the
+        case, he speaks of them with great contempt. See two striking
+        instances in _Mémoires de Philippe de Comines_, vol. ii. pp. 277,
+        287, edit. Paris, 1826.
+
+  [534] He says, that a field of battle is 'un des accomplissemens des
+        [oe]uvres que Dieu a commencées aucunes fois par petites mouvetez
+        et occasions, et en donnant la victoire aucunes fois à l'un, et
+        aucunes fois à l'autre: et est cecy mystère si grand, que les
+        royaumes et grandes seigneuries en prennent aucunes fois fins et
+        désolations, et les autres accroissement, et commencement de
+        régner.' _Mém. de Comines_, vol. i. pp. 361, 362. Respecting the
+        wanton invasion of Italy, he says, that the expedition might have
+        been easily ruined if the enemy had thought of poisoning the
+        wells or the food: 'mais ils n'y eussent point failly, s'ils y
+        eussent voulu essayer; mais il est de croire que nostre sauveur
+        et rédempteur Jésus-Christ leur ostoit leur vouloir.' vol. iii.
+        p. 154. So, he adds, p. 155, 'pour conclure l'article, semble que
+        nostre seigneur Jésus-Christ ait voulu que toute la gloire du
+        voyage ait esté attribuée à luy.' Compare the _Institutes of
+        Timour_, p. 7; an instructive combination of superstition and
+        ferocity.
+
+  [535] 'Mais mon advis est que cela ne se fait que par disposition
+        divine; car quand les princes ou royaumes out esté en grande
+        prospérité ou richesses, et ils ont mesconnoissance dont procède
+        telle grâce, Dieu leur dresse un ennemi ou ennemie, dont nul ne
+        se douteroit, comme vous pouvez voir par les rois nommez en la
+        Bible, et par ce que puis peu d'années en avez veu en cette
+        Angleterre, et en cette maison de Bourgogne et autres lieux que
+        avez veu et voyez tous les jours.' _Mém. de Comines_, vol. i. pp.
+        388, 389. See also his remarks on the Duke of Burgundy, vol. ii.
+        p. 179; and in particular, his extraordinary digression, livre v.
+        chap. xviii. vol. ii. pp. 290-298.
+
+Such attempts as these, to make politics a mere branch of theology,[536]
+are characteristic of the time; and they are the more interesting, as
+the work of a man of great ability, and of one, too, who had grown old
+in the experience of public life. When views of this sort were
+advocated, not by a monk in his cloister, but by a distinguished
+statesman, well versed in public affairs, we may easily imagine what was
+the average intellectual condition of those who were every way his
+inferiors. It is but too evident, that from them nothing could be
+expected; and that many steps had yet to be taken, before Europe could
+emerge from the superstition in which it was sunk, and break through
+those grievous impediments which hindered its future progress.
+
+  [536] Dr. Lingard (_Hist. of England_, vol. i. p. 357) says, 'From the
+        doctrine of a superintending providence, the piety of our
+        ancestors had drawn a rash but very convenient inference, that
+        success is an indication of the Divine will, and that, of course,
+        to resist a victorious competitor, is to resist the judgment of
+        heaven:' see also p. 114. The last vestige of this once universal
+        opinion is the expression, which is gradually falling into
+        disuse, of 'appealing to the God of Battles.'
+
+But, though much remained to be done, there can be no doubt that the
+movement onward was uninterrupted, and that, even while Comines was
+writing, there were unequivocal symptoms of a great and decisive change.
+Still, they were only indications of what was approaching; and about a
+hundred years elapsed, after his death, before the progress was apparent
+in the whole of its results. For, though the Protestant Reformation was
+a consequence of this progress, it was for some time unfavourable to it,
+by encouraging the ablest men in the discussion of questions
+inaccessible to human reason, and thus diverting them from subjects in
+which their efforts would have been available for the general purposes
+of civilization. Hence we find, that little was really accomplished
+until the end of the sixteenth century, when, as we shall see in the
+next two chapters, the theological fervour began to subside in England
+and France, and the way was prepared for that purely secular philosophy,
+of which Bacon and Descartes were the exponents, but by no means the
+creators.[537] This epoch belongs to the seventeenth century, and from
+it we may date the intellectual regeneration of Europe; just as from the
+eighteenth century we may date its social regeneration. But during the
+greater part of the sixteenth century, the credulity was still
+universal, since it affected not merely the lowest and most ignorant
+classes, but even those who were best educated. Of this innumerable
+proofs might be given; though, for the sake of brevity, I will confine
+myself to two instances, which are particularly striking, from the
+circumstances attending them, and from the influence they exercised over
+men who might be supposed little liable to similar delusions.
+
+  [537] See _Guizot_, _Civilisation en Europe_, p. 166; the best passage
+        in that able, but rather unequal work: 'Parcourez l'histoire du
+        v^e au xvi^e siècle; c'est la théologie qui possède et dirige
+        l'esprit humain; toutes les opinions sont empreintes de
+        théologie; les questions philosophiques, politiques, historiques,
+        sont toujours considérées sous un point de vue théologique.
+        L'église est tellement souveraine dans l'ordre intellectuel, que
+        même les sciences mathématiques et physiques sont tenues de se
+        soumettre à ses doctrines. L'esprit théologique est en quelque
+        sort le sang qui a coulé dans les veines du monde européen
+        jusqu'à Bacon et Descartes. Pour la première fois, Bacon en
+        Angleterre, et Descartes en France, ont jeté l'intelligence hors
+        des voies de la théologie.' A noble passage, and perfectly true:
+        but what would have been the effect produced by Bacon and
+        Descartes, if, instead of living in the seventeenth century, they
+        had lived in the seventh? Would their philosophy have been
+        equally secular; or, being equally secular, would it have been
+        equally successful?
+
+At the end of the fifteenth, and early in the sixteenth century,
+St[oe]ffler, the celebrated astronomer, was professor of mathematics at
+Tübingen. This eminent man rendered great services to astronomy, and was
+one of the first who pointed out the way of remedying the errors in the
+Julian calendar, according to which time was then computed.[538] But
+neither his abilities nor his knowledge could protect him against the
+spirit of his age. In 1524, he published the result of some abstruse
+calculations, in which he had been long engaged, and by which he had
+ascertained the remarkable fact, that in that same year the world would
+again be destroyed by a deluge. This announcement, made by a man of such
+eminence, and made, too, with the utmost confidence, caused a lively and
+universal alarm.[539] News of the approaching event was rapidly
+circulated, and Europe was filled with consternation. To avoid the first
+shock, those who had houses by the sea, or on rivers, abandoned
+them;[540] while others, perceiving that such measures could only be
+temporary, adopted more active precautions. It was suggested that, as a
+preliminary step, the Emperor Charles V. should appoint inspectors to
+survey the country, and mark those places which, being least exposed to
+the coming flood, would be most likely to afford a shelter. That this
+should be done, was the wish of the imperial general, who was then
+stationed at Florence, and by whose desire a work was written
+recommending it.[541] But the minds of men were too distracted for so
+deliberate a plan; and besides, as the height of the flood was
+uncertain, it was impossible to say whether it would not reach the top
+of the most elevated mountains. In the midst of these and similar
+schemes, the fatal day drew near, and nothing had yet been contrived on
+a scale large enough to meet the evil. To enumerate the different
+proposals which were made and rejected, would fill a long chapter. One
+proposal is, however, worth noticing, because it was carried into effect
+with great zeal, and is, moreover, very characteristic of the age. An
+ecclesiastic of the name of Auriol, who was then professor of canon law
+at the University of Toulouse, revolved in his own mind various
+expedients by which this universal disaster might be mitigated. At
+length it occurred to him that it was practicable to imitate the course
+which, on a similar emergency, Noah had adopted with eminent success.
+Scarcely was the idea conceived, when it was put into execution. The
+inhabitants of Toulouse lent their aid; and an ark was built, in the
+hope that some part, at least, of the human species might be preserved,
+to continue their race, and repeople the earth, after the waters should
+have subsided, and the land again become dry.[542]
+
+  [538] Compare _Biog. Univ._ vol. xliii. p. 577, with _Montucla_, _Hist.
+        des Mathématiques_, vol. i. p. 678.
+
+  [539] Naudé mentions, that in France it drove many persons almost mad:
+        'In Gallia parum afuit quin ad insaniam homines non paucos
+        periculi metu (diluvium) adegerit.' _Bayle_, in voce
+        _Stofflerus_, note B.
+
+  [540] 'Nam Petrus Cirvellus Hispanorum omnium sui temporis doctissimus,
+        cum theologiæ, in almo Complutensi gymnasio, lectoris munere
+        fungeretur, et vero multos, ut ipsemet inquit, fluviis vel mari
+        finitimos populos, jam stupido metu perculsos, domicilia ac sedes
+        mutare vidisset, ac prædia, supellectilem, bonaque omnia, contra
+        justum valorem sub actione distrahere, ac alia loca vel
+        altitudine, vel siccitate magis secura requirere, sui officii
+        esse putavit, in publica illa consternatione, quam de nihilo
+        excitare persuasum non habebat,' &c. _Bayle_, note B.
+
+  [541] Ibid.
+
+  [542] In addition to the account in Bayle, the reader may refer to
+        _Biog. Univ._ vol. iii. p. 88, vol. xxxi. p. 283, vol. xliii. pp.
+        577, 578; _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. iii. p. 251;
+        _Delambre_, _Hist. de l'Astronomie du Moyen Age_, Paris, 1819,
+        4to, p. 376; _Montucla_, _Hist. des Mathématiques_, vol. i. p.
+        622; _Dict. Philosoph._, article _Astrologie_, in _[OE]uvres de
+        Voltaire_, vol. xxxvii. pp. 148, 149.
+
+About seventy years after this alarm had passed away, there happened
+another circumstance, which for a time afforded occupation to the most
+celebrated men in one of the principal countries of Europe. At the end
+of the sixteenth century, terrible excitement was caused by a report
+that a golden tooth had appeared in the jaw of a child born in Silesia.
+The rumour, on being investigated, turned out to be too true. It became
+impossible to conceal it from the public; and the miracle was soon known
+all over Germany, where, being looked on as a mysterious omen, universal
+anxiety was felt as to what this new thing might mean. Its real import
+was first unfolded by Dr. Horst. In 1595, this eminent physician
+published the result of his researches, by which it appears that, at the
+birth of the child, the sun was in conjunction with Saturn, at the sign
+Aries. The event, therefore, though supernatural, was by no means
+alarming. The golden tooth was the precursor of a golden age, in which
+the emperor would drive the Turks from Christendom, and lay the
+foundations of an empire that would last for thousands of years. And
+this, says Horst, is clearly alluded to by Daniel, in his well-known
+second chapter, where the prophet speaks of a statue with a golden
+head.[543]
+
+  [543] This history of the golden tooth is partly related by De Thou: see
+        his _Hist. Univ._ vol. xi. pp. 634, 635. And on the controversy
+        to which it gave rise, compare _Hist. des Oracles_, chap. iv., in
+        _[OE]uvres de Fontenelle_, vol. ii. pp. 219, 220, ed. Paris,
+        1766; _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. iii. pp. 247-249;
+        _Biog. Univ._, vol. xx. p. 579.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+  OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH INTELLECT FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE
+             SIXTEENTH TO THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+It is difficult for an ordinary reader, living in the middle of the
+nineteenth century, to understand, that only three hundred years before
+he was born, the public mind was in the benighted state disclosed in the
+preceding chapter. It is still more difficult for him to understand that
+the darkness was shared not merely by men of an average education, but
+by men of considerable ability, men in every respect among the foremost
+of their age. A reader of this sort may satisfy himself that the
+evidence is indisputable; he may verify the statements I have brought
+forward, and admit that there is no possible doubt about them; but even
+then he will find it hard to conceive that there ever was a state of
+society in which such miserable absurdities were welcomed as sober and
+important truths, and were supposed to form an essential part of the
+general stock of European knowledge.
+
+But a more careful examination will do much to dissipate this natural
+astonishment. In point of fact, so far from wondering that such things
+were believed, the wonder would have been if they were rejected. For in
+those times, as in all others, every thing was of a piece. Not only in
+historical literature, but in all kinds of literature, on every
+subject--in science, in religion, in legislation--the presiding
+principle was a blind and unhesitating credulity. The more the history
+of Europe anterior to the seventeenth century is studied, the more
+completely will this fact be verified. Now and then a great man arose,
+who had his doubts respecting the universal belief; who whispered a
+suspicion as to the existence of giants thirty feet high, of dragons
+with wings, and of armies flying through the air; who thought that
+astrology might be a cheat, and necromancy a bubble; and who even went
+so far as to raise a question respecting the propriety of drowning every
+witch and burning every heretic. A few such men there undoubtedly were;
+but they were despised as mere theorists, idle visionaries, who,
+unacquainted with the practice of life, arrogantly opposed their own
+reason to the wisdom of their ancestors. In the state of society in
+which they were born, it was impossible that they should make any
+permanent impression. Indeed, they had enough to do to look to
+themselves, and provide for their own security; for, until the latter
+part of the sixteenth century, there was no country in which a man was
+not in great personal peril if he expressed open doubts respecting the
+belief of his contemporaries.
+
+Yet it is evident, that until doubt began, progress was impossible. For,
+as we have clearly seen, the advance of civilization solely depends on
+the acquisitions made by the human intellect, and on the extent to which
+those acquisitions are diffused. But men who are perfectly satisfied
+with their own knowledge, will never attempt to increase it. Men who are
+perfectly convinced of the accuracy of their opinions, will never take
+the pains of examining the basis on which they are built. They look
+always with wonder, and often with horror, on views contrary to those
+which they inherited from their fathers; and while they are in this
+state of mind, it is impossible that they should receive any new truth
+which interferes with their foregone conclusions.
+
+On this account it is, that although the acquisition of fresh knowledge
+is the necessary precursor of every step in social progress, such
+acquisition must itself be preceded by a love of inquiry, and therefore
+by a spirit of doubt; because without doubt there will be no inquiry,
+and without inquiry there will be no knowledge. For knowledge is not an
+inert and passive principle, which comes to us whether we will or no;
+but it must be sought before it can be won; it is the product of great
+labour and therefore of great sacrifice. And it is absurd to suppose
+that men will incur the labour, and make the sacrifice, for subjects
+respecting which they are already perfectly content. They who do not
+feel the darkness, will never look for the light. If on any point we
+have attained to certainty, we make no further inquiry on that point;
+because inquiry would be useless, or perhaps dangerous. The doubt must
+intervene, before the investigation can begin. Here, then, we have the
+act of doubting as the originator, or, at all events, the necessary
+antecedent, of all progress. Here we have that scepticism, the very name
+of which is an abomination to the ignorant; because it disturbs their
+lazy and complacent minds; because it troubles their cherished
+superstitions; because it imposes on them the fatigue of inquiry; and
+because it rouses even sluggish understandings to ask if things are as
+they are commonly supposed, and if all is really true which they from
+their childhood have been taught to believe.
+
+The more we examine this great principle of scepticism, the more
+distinctly shall we see the immense part it has played in the progress
+of European civilization. To state in general terms, what in this
+Introduction will be fully proved, it may be said, that to scepticism we
+owe that spirit of inquiry, which, during the last two centuries, has
+gradually encroached on every possible subject; has reformed every
+department of practical and speculative knowledge; has weakened the
+authority of the privileged classes, and thus placed liberty on a surer
+foundation; has chastized the despotism of princes; has restrained the
+arrogance of the nobles; and has even diminished the prejudices of the
+clergy. In a word, it is this which has remedied the three fundamental
+errors of the olden time: errors which made the people, in politics too
+confiding; in science too credulous; in religion too intolerant.
+
+This rapid summary of what has actually been effected, may perhaps
+startle those readers to whom such large investigations are not
+familiar. The importance, however, of the principle at issue is so
+great, that I purpose in this Introduction to verify it by an
+examination of all the prominent forms of European civilization. Such an
+inquiry will lead to the remarkable conclusion, that no single fact has
+so extensively affected the different nations as the duration, the
+amount, and above all the diffusion, of their scepticism. In Spain, the
+church, aided by the Inquisition, has always been strong enough to
+punish sceptical writers, and prevent, not indeed the existence, but the
+promulgation of sceptical opinions.[544] By this means the spirit of
+doubt being quenched, knowledge has for several centuries remained
+almost stationary; and civilization, which is the fruit of knowledge,
+has also been stationary. But in England and France, which, as we shall
+presently see, are the countries where scepticism first openly appeared,
+and where it has been most diffused, the results are altogether
+different; and the love of inquiry being encouraged, there has arisen
+that constantly-progressive knowledge to which these two great nations
+owe their prosperity. In the remaining part of this volume, I shall
+trace the history of this principle in France and England, and examine
+the different forms under which it has appeared, and the way in which
+those forms have affected the national interests. In the order of the
+investigation, I shall give the precedence to England; because, for the
+reasons already stated, its civilization must be deemed more normal than
+that of France; and therefore, notwithstanding its numerous
+deficiencies, it approaches the natural type more closely than its
+great neighbour has been able to do. But as the fullest details
+respecting English civilization will be found in the body of the present
+work, I intend in the Introduction to devote merely a single chapter to
+it, and to consider our national history simply in reference to the
+immediate consequences of the sceptical movement; reserving for a future
+occasion those subsidiary matters which, though less comprehensive, are
+still of great value. And as the growth of religious toleration is
+undoubtedly the most important of all, I will, in the first place, state
+the circumstances under which it appeared in England in the sixteenth
+century; and I will then point out how other events, which immediately
+followed, were part of the same progress, and were indeed merely the
+same principles acting in different directions.
+
+  [544] On the influence of the French literature, which, late in the
+        eighteenth century, crept into Spain in spite of the church, and
+        diffused a considerable amount of scepticism among the most
+        educated classes, compare _Llorente_, _Hist. de l'Inquisition_,
+        vol. i. p. 322, vol. ii. p. 543, vol. iv. pp. 98, 99, 102, 148;
+        _Doblado's Letters from Spain_, pp. 115, 119, 120, 133, 231, 232;
+        _Lord Holland's Foreign Reminiscences_, edit. 1850, p. 76;
+        _Southey's Hist. of Brazil_, vol. iii. p. 607; and an imperfect
+        statement of the same fact in _Alison's Hist. of Europe_, vol. x.
+        p. 8. In regard to the Spanish colonies, compare _Humboldt_,
+        _Nouv. Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 818, with _Ward's Mexico_, vol. i.
+        p. 83.
+
+A careful study of the history of religious toleration will prove, that
+in every Christian country where it has been adopted, it has been forced
+upon the clergy by the authority of the secular classes.[545] At the
+present day, it is still unknown to those nations among whom the
+ecclesiastical power is stronger than the temporal power; and as this,
+during many centuries, was the general condition, it is not wonderful
+that, in the early history of Europe, we should find scarcely a trace of
+so wise and benevolent an opinion. But at the moment when Elizabeth
+mounted the throne of England, our country was about equally divided
+between two hostile creeds; and the queen, with remarkable ability,
+contrived during some time so to balance the rival powers, as to allow
+to neither a decisive preponderance. This was the first instance which
+had been seen in Europe of a government successfully carried on without
+the active participation of the spiritual authority; and the consequence
+was, that for several years the principle of toleration, though still
+most imperfectly understood, was pushed to an extent which is truly
+surprising for so barbarous an age.[546] Unhappily, after a time,
+various circumstances, which I shall relate in their proper place,
+induced Elizabeth to change a policy which she, even with all her
+wisdom, perhaps considered to be a dangerous experiment, and for which
+the knowledge of the country was as yet hardly ripe. But although she
+now allowed the Protestants to gratify their hatred against the
+Catholics, there was, in the midst of the sanguinary scenes which
+followed, one circumstance very worthy of remark. Although many persons
+were most unquestionably executed merely for their religion, no one
+ventured to state their religion as the cause of their execution.[547]
+The most barbarous punishments were inflicted upon them; but they were
+told that they might escape the punishment by renouncing certain
+principles which were said to be injurious to the safety of the
+state.[548] It is true, that many of these principles were such as no
+Catholic could abandon without at the same time abandoning his religion,
+of which they formed an essential part. But the mere fact that the
+spirit of persecution was driven to such a subterfuge, showed that a
+great progress had been made by the age. A most important point, indeed,
+was gained when the bigot became a hypocrite; and when the clergy,
+though willing to burn men for the good of their souls, were obliged to
+justify their cruelty by alleging considerations of a more temporal,
+and, as they considered, a less important character.[549]
+
+  [545] Nearly two hundred years ago, Sir William Temple observed that in
+        Holland the clergy possessed less power than in other countries;
+        and that, therefore, there existed an unusual amount of
+        toleration. _Observations upon the United Provinces_, in
+        _Temple's Works_, vol. i. pp. 157-162. About seventy years later,
+        the same inference was drawn by another acute observer, Le Blanc,
+        who, after mentioning the liberality which the different sects
+        displayed towards each other in Holland, adds, 'La grande raison
+        d'une harmonie si parfaite est que tout s'y régle par les
+        séculiers de chacune de ces religions, et qu'on n'y souffriroit
+        pas des ministres, dont le zèle imprudent pourroit détruire cette
+        heureuse correspondance.' _Le Blanc_, _Lettres d'un Français_,
+        vol. i. p. 73. I merely give these as illustrations of an
+        important principle, which I shall hereafter prove.
+
+  [546] 'In the first eleven years of her reign, not one Roman Catholic
+        was prosecuted capitally for religion.' _Neal's Hist. of the
+        Puritans_, vol. i. p. 444; and the same remark in _Collier's
+        Eccles. Hist._ vol. vii. p. 252, edit. 1840.
+
+  [547] Without quoting the impudent defence which Chief-Justice Popham
+        made, in 1606, for the barbarous treatment of the Catholics
+        (_Campbell's Chief Justices_, vol. i. p. 225), I will give the
+        words of the two immediate successors of Elizabeth. James I.
+        says: 'The trewth is, according to my owne knowledge, the late
+        queene of famous memory never punished any Papist for religion.'
+        _Works of King James_, London, 1616, folio, p. 252. And Charles
+        I. says: 'I am informed, neither Queen Elizabeth nor my father
+        did ever avow that any priest in their times was executed merely
+        for religion.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 713.
+
+  [548] This was the defence set up in 1583, in a work called _The
+        Execution of Justice in England_, and ascribed to Burleigh. See
+        _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. i. pp. 146, 147; and _Somers
+        Tracts_, vol. i. pp. 189-208: 'a number of persons whom they term
+        as martyrs,' p. 195; and at p. 202, the writer attacks those who
+        have 'entitled certain that have suffered for treason to be
+        martyrs for religion.' In the same way, the opponents of Catholic
+        Emancipation in our time, found themselves compelled to abandon
+        the old theological ground, and to defend the persecution of the
+        Catholics rather by political arguments than by religious ones.
+        Lord Eldon, who was by far the most influential leader of the
+        intolerant party, said, in a speech in the House of Lords, in
+        1810, that 'the enactments against the Catholics were meant to
+        guard, not against the abstract opinions of their religion, but
+        against the political dangers of a faith which acknowledged a
+        foreign supremacy.' _Twiss's Life of Eldon_, vol. i. p. 435; see
+        also pp. 483, 501, 577-580. Compare _Alison's Hist._ vol. vi. pp.
+        379 seq., a summary of the debate in 1805.
+
+  [549] Mr. Sewell seems to have this change in view in his _Christian
+        Politics_, 8vo, 1844, p. 277. Compare _Coleridge's note_ in
+        _Southey's Life of Wesley_, vol. i. p. 270. An able writer says
+        of the persecutions which, in the seventeenth century, the Church
+        of England directed against her opponents: 'This is the stale
+        pretence of the clergy in all countries, after they have
+        solicited the government to make penal laws against those they
+        call heretics or schismaticks, and prompted the magistrates to a
+        vigorous execution, then they lay all the odium on the civil
+        power for whom they have no excuse to allege, but that such men
+        suffered, not for religion, but for disobedience to the laws.'
+        _Somers Tracts_, vol. xii. p. 534. See also _Butler's Mem. of the
+        Catholics_, vol. i. p. 389, and vol. ii. pp. 44-46.
+
+A remarkable evidence of the change that was then taking place, is found
+in the two most important theological works which appeared in England
+during the reign of Elizabeth. _Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity_ was
+published at the end of the sixteenth century,[550] and is still
+considered one of the greatest bulwarks of our national church. If we
+compare this work with _Jewel's Apology for the Church of England_,
+which was written thirty years before it,[551] we shall at once be
+struck by the different methods these eminent writers employed. Both
+Hooker and Jewel were men of learning and genius. Both of them were
+familiar with the Bible, the Fathers, and the Councils. Both of them
+wrote with the avowed object of defending the Church of England; and
+both of them were well acquainted with the ordinary weapons of
+theological controversy. But here the resemblance stops. The men were
+very similar; their works are entirely different. During the thirty
+years which had elapsed, the English intellect had made immense
+progress; and the arguments which in the time of Jewel were found
+perfectly satisfactory, would not have been listened to in the time of
+Hooker. The work of Jewel is full of quotations from the Fathers and the
+Councils, whose mere assertions, when they are uncontradicted by
+Scripture, he seems to regard as positive proofs. Hooker, though he
+shows much respect to the Councils, lays little stress upon the Fathers,
+and evidently considered that his readers would not pay much attention
+to their unsupported opinions. Jewel inculcates the importance of faith;
+Hooker insists upon the exercise of reason.[552] The first employs all
+his talents in collecting the decisions of antiquity, and in deciding
+upon the meaning which they may be supposed to bear. The other quotes
+the ancients, not so much from respect for their authority, as with the
+view of illustrating his own arguments. Thus, for instance, both Hooker
+and Jewel assert the undoubted right of the sovereign to interfere in
+ecclesiastical affairs. Jewel, however, fancied that he had proved the
+right, when he had pointed out that it was exercised by Moses, by
+Joshua, by David, and by Solomon.[553] On the other hand, Hooker lays
+down that this right exists, not because it is ancient, but because it
+is advisable; and because it is unjust to suppose that men who are not
+ecclesiastics will consent to be bound by laws which ecclesiastics alone
+have framed.[554] In the same opposite spirit do these great writers
+conduct their defence of their own church. Jewel, like all the authors
+of his time, had exercised his memory more than his reason; and he
+thinks to settle the whole dispute by crowding together texts from the
+Bible, with the opinions of the commentators upon them.[555] But Hooker,
+who lived in the age of Shakespeare and Bacon, found himself
+constrained to take views of a far more comprehensive character. His
+defence rests neither upon tradition nor upon commentators, nor ever
+upon revelation; but he is content that the pretensions of the hostile
+parties shall be decided by their applicability to the great exigencies
+of society, and by the ease with which they adapt themselves to the
+general purposes of ordinary life.[556]
+
+  [550] The first four books, which are in every point of view the most
+        important, were published in 1594. _Walton's Life of Hooker_, in
+        _Wordsworth's Ecclesiast. Biog._ vol. iii. p. 509. The sixth book
+        is said not to be authentic; and doubts have been thrown upon the
+        seventh and eighth books; but Mr. Hallam thinks that they are
+        certainly genuine. _Literature of Europe_, vol. ii. pp. 24, 25.
+
+  [551] _Jewel's Apology_ was written in 1561 or 1562. See _Wordsworth's
+        Eccles. Biog._ vol. iii. p. 313. This work, the Bible, and _Fox's
+        Martyrs_, were ordered, in the reign of Elizabeth, 'to be fixed
+        in all parish churches, to be read by the people.' _Aubrey's
+        Letters_, vol. ii. p. 42. The order, in regard to Jewel's
+        _Defence_, was repeated by James I. and Charles I. _Butler's Mem.
+        of the Catholics_, vol. iv. p. 413.
+
+  [552] 'Wherefore the natural measure whereby to judge our doings is, the
+        sentence of Reason determining and setting down what is good to
+        be done.' _Eccl. Polity_, book i. sec. viii. in _Hooker's Works_,
+        vol. i. p. 99. He requires of his opponents, 'not to exact at our
+        hands for every action the knowledge of some place of Scripture
+        out of which we stand bound to deduce it, as by divers
+        testimonies they seek to enforce; but rather, as the truth is, so
+        to acknowledge, that _it sufficeth if such actions be framed
+        according to the law of reason_.' Book ii. sec. i. _Works_, vol.
+        i. p. 151. 'For men to be tied and led by authority, as it were
+        with a kind of captivity of judgment, and, though there be reason
+        to the contrary, not to listen unto it, but to follow, like
+        beasts, the first in the herd, they know not nor care not
+        whither: this were brutish. Again, that authority of men should
+        prevail with men, either against or above Reason, is no part of
+        our belief. Companies of learned men, be they never so great and
+        reverend, are to yield unto Reason.' Book ii. sec. vii. vol. i.
+        pp. 182, 183. In book v. sec. viii. vol. ii. p. 23, he says, that
+        even 'the voice of the church' is to be held inferior to reason.
+        See also a long passage in book vii. sec. xi. vol. iii. p. 152;
+        and on the application of reason to the general theory of
+        religion, see vol. i. pp. 220-223, book iii. sec. viii. Again, at
+        p. 226: 'Theology, what is it, but the science of things divine?
+        What science can be attained unto, without the help of natural
+        discourse and Reason?' And he indignantly asks those who insist
+        on the supremacy of faith, 'May we cause our faith without Reason
+        to appear reasonable in the eyes of men?' vol. i. p. 230.
+
+  [553] After referring to Isaiah, he adds: 'Præter, inquam, hæc omnia, ex
+        historiis et optimorum temporum exemplis videmus pios principes
+        procurationem ecclesiarum ab officio suo nunquam putasse alienam.
+
+        'Moses civilis magistratus, ac ductor populi, omnem religionis,
+        et sacrorum rationem, et accepit a Deo, et populo tradidit, et
+        Aaronem episcopum de aureo vitulo, et de violata religione,
+        vehementer et graviter castigavit. Josue, etsi non aliud erat,
+        quàm magistratus civilis, tamen cùm primùm inauguraretur et
+        præficeretur populo, accepit mandata nominatim de religione,
+        deque colendo Deo.
+
+        'David rex, cùm omnis jam religio, ab impio rege Saule prorsus
+        esset dissipata, reduxit arcam Dei, hoc est, religionem
+        restituit: nec tantùm adfuit ut admonitor aut hortator operis,
+        sed etiam psalmos et hymnos dedit, et classes disposuit, et
+        pompam instituit, et quodammodo præfuit sacerdotibus.
+
+        'Salomon rex ædificavit templum Domino, quod ejus pater David
+        animo tantùm destinaverat: et postremò orationem egregiam habuit
+        ad populum de religione, et cultu Dei; et Abiatharum episcopum
+        postea summovit, et in ejus locum Sadocum surrogavit.' _Apolog.
+        Eccles. Anglic._ pp. 161, 162.
+
+  [554] He says that, although the clergy may be supposed more competent
+        than laymen to regulate ecclesiastical matters, this will
+        practically avail them nothing: 'It were unnatural not to think
+        the pastors and bishops of our souls a great deal more fit than
+        men of secular trades and callings; howbeit, when all which the
+        wisdom of all sorts can do is done, for the devising of laws in
+        the church, it is the general consent of all that giveth them the
+        form and vigour of laws; without which they could be no more unto
+        us than the counsels of physicians to the sick.' _Ecclesiastical
+        Polity_, book viii. sec. vi. vol. iii. p. 303. He adds, p. 326:
+        'Till it be proved that some special law of Christ hath for ever
+        annexed unto the clergy alone the power to make ecclesiastical
+        laws, we are to hold it a thing most _consonant with equity and
+        reason_, that no ecclesiastical laws be made in a Christian
+        commonwealth, without consent as well of the laity as of the
+        clergy, but least of all without consent of the highest power.'
+
+  [555] 'Quòd si docemus sacrosanctum Dei evangelium, et veteres
+        episcopos, atque ecclesiam primitivam nobiscum facere.' If this
+        be so, then, indeed, 'speramus, neminem illorum' (his opponents)
+        'ita negligentem fore salutis suæ, quin ut velit aliquando
+        cogitationem suscipere, ad utros potiùs se adjungat.' _Apolog.
+        Eccles. Anglic._ p. 17. At p. 53, he indignantly asks if any one
+        will dare to impeach the Fathers: 'Ergo Origenes, Ambrosius,
+        Augustinus, Chrysostomus, Gelasius, Theodoretus erant desertores
+        fidei catholicæ? Ergo tot veterum episcoporum et doctorum virorum
+        tanta consensio nihil aliud erat quàm conspiratio hæreticorum?
+        Aut quod tum laudabatur in illis, id nunc damnatur in nobis?
+        Quodque in illis erat catholicum, id nunc mutatis tantùm hominum
+        voluntatibus, repentè factum est schismaticum? Aut quod olim erat
+        verum, nunc statim, quia istis non placet, erit falsum?' His work
+        is full of this sort of eloquent, but, as it appears to our age,
+        pointless declamation.
+
+  [556] This large view underlies the whole of the _Ecclesiastical
+        Polity_. I can only afford room for a few extracts, which will be
+        illustrations rather than proofs: the proof will be obvious to
+        every competent reader of the work itself. 'True it is, the
+        ancienter the better ceremonies of religion are; howbeit not
+        absolutely true and without exception; _but true only so far
+        forth as those different ages do agree_ in the state of those
+        things for which, at the first, those rites, orders, and
+        ceremonies were instituted.' vol. i. p. 36. 'We count those
+        things perfect which want nothing requisite for the end whereto
+        they were instituted.' vol. i. p. 191. 'Because when a thing doth
+        cease to be available unto the end which gave it being, the
+        continuance of it must then of necessity appear superfluous.' And
+        even of the laws of God, he boldly adds: 'Notwithstanding the
+        authority of their Maker, the mutability of that end for which
+        they are made doth also make them changeable.' vol. i. p. 236.
+        'And therefore laws, though both ordained of God himself, and the
+        end for which they were ordained continuing, may notwithstanding
+        cease, if by alteration of persons or times they be found
+        unsufficient to attain unto that end.' vol. i. p. 238. At p. 240:
+        'I therefore conclude, that neither God's being Author of laws
+        for government of his church, nor his committing them unto
+        Scripture, is any reason sufficient wherefore all churches should
+        for ever be bound to keep them without change.' See, too, vol.
+        iii. p. 169, on 'the exigence of necessity.' Compare pp. 182,
+        183, and vol. i. p. 323, vol. ii. pp. 273, 424. Not a vestige of
+        such arguments can be found in Jewel; who, on the contrary, says
+        (_Apologia_, p. 114), 'Certè in religionem Dei nihil gravius dici
+        potest, quàm si ea accusetur novitatis. Ut enim in Deo ipso, ita
+        in ejus cultu nihil oportet esse novum.'
+
+It requires but little penetration to see the immense importance of the
+change which these two great works represent. As long as an opinion in
+theology was defended by the old dogmatic method, it was impossible to
+assail it without incurring the imputation of heresy. But when it was
+chiefly defended by human reasoning, its support was seriously weakened.
+For by this means the element of uncertainty was let in. It might be
+alleged, that the arguments of one sect are as good as those of another;
+and that we cannot be sure of the truth of our principles, until we have
+heard what is to be said on the opposite side. According to the old
+theological theory, it was easy to justify the most barbarous
+persecution. If a man knew that the only true religion was the one which
+he professed, and if he also knew that those who died in a contrary
+opinion were doomed to everlasting perdition--if he knew these things
+beyond the remotest possibility of a doubt, he might fairly argue, that
+it is merciful to punish the body in order to save the soul, and secure
+to immortal beings their future salvation, even though he employed so
+sharp a remedy as the halter or the stake.[557] But if this same man is
+taught to think that questions of religion are to be settled by reason
+as well as by faith, he can scarcely avoid the reflection, that the
+reason even of the strongest minds is not infallible, since it has led
+the ablest men to the most opposite conclusions. When this idea is once
+diffused among a people, it cannot fail to influence their conduct. No
+one of common sense and common honesty will dare to levy upon another,
+on account of his religion, the extreme penalty of the law, when he
+knows it possible that his own opinions may be wrong, and that those of
+the man he has punished may be right. From the moment when questions of
+religion begin to evade the jurisdiction of faith, and submit to the
+jurisdiction of reason, persecution becomes a crime of the deepest dye.
+Thus it was in England in the seventeenth century. As theology became
+more reasonable, it became less confident, and therefore more merciful.
+Seventeen years after the publication of the great work of Hooker, two
+men were publicly burned by the English bishops, for holding heretical
+opinions.[558] But this was the last gasp of expiring bigotry; and since
+that memorable day, the soil of England has never been stained by the
+blood of a man who has suffered for his religious creed.[559]
+
+  [557] Archbishop Whately has made some very good remarks on this. See
+        his _Errors of Romanism traced to their Origin in Human Nature_,
+        pp. 237, 238.
+
+  [558] Their names were Legat and Wightman, and they suffered in 1611:
+        see the contemporary account in _Somers Tracts_, vol. ii. pp.
+        400-408. Compare _Blackstone's Comment._ vol. iv. p. 49;
+        _Harris's Lives of the Stuarts_, vol. i. pp. 143, 144; and note
+        in _Burton's Diary_, vol. i. p. 118. Of these martyrs to their
+        opinions, Mr. Hallam says: 'The first was burned by King, bishop
+        of London; the second by Neyle, of Litchfield.' _Const. Hist._
+        vol. i. pp. 611, 612.
+
+  [559] It should be mentioned, to the honour of the Court of Chancery,
+        that late in the sixteenth, and early in the seventeenth century,
+        its powers were exerted against the execution of those cruel
+        laws, by which the Church of England was allowed to persecute men
+        who differed from its own views. See _Campbell's Chancellors_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 135, 176, 231.
+
+We have thus seen the rise of that scepticism which in physics must
+always be the beginning of science, and in religion must always be the
+beginning of toleration. There is, indeed, no doubt that in both cases
+individual thinkers may, by a great effort of original genius,
+emancipate themselves from the operation of this law. But in the
+progress of nations no such emancipation is possible. As long as men
+refer the movements of the comets to the immediate finger of God, and as
+long as they believe that an eclipse is one of the modes by which the
+Deity expresses his anger, they will never be guilty of the blasphemous
+presumption of attempting to predict such supernatural appearances.
+Before they could dare to investigate the causes of these mysterious
+phenomena, it is necessary that they should believe, or at all events
+that they should suspect, that the phenomena themselves were capable of
+being explained by the human mind. In the same way, until men are
+content in some degree to bring their religion before the bar of their
+own reason, they never can understand how it is that there should be a
+diversity of creeds, or how any one can differ from themselves without
+being guilty of the most enormous and unpardonable crime.[560]
+
+  [560] 'To tax any one, therefore, with want of reverence, because he
+        pays no respect to what we venerate, is either irrelevant, or is
+        a mere confusion. The fact, so far as it is true, is no reproach,
+        but an honour; because to reverence all persons and all things is
+        absolutely wrong: reverence shown to that which does not deserve
+        it, is no virtue; no, nor even an amiable weakness, but a plain
+        folly and sin. But if it be meant that he is wanting in proper
+        reverence, not respecting what is really to be respected, that is
+        assuming the whole question at issue, because what we call
+        divine, he calls an idol; and as, supposing that we are in the
+        right, we are bound to fall down and worship, so, supposing him
+        to be in the right, he is no less bound to pull it to the ground
+        and destroy it.' _Arnold's Lectures on Modern History_, pp. 210,
+        211. Considering the ability of Dr. Arnold, considering his great
+        influence, and considering his profession, his antecedents, and
+        the character of the university in which he was speaking, it must
+        be allowed that this is a remarkable passage, and one well worthy
+        the notice of those who wish to study the tendencies of the
+        English mind during the present generation.
+
+If we now continue to trace the progress of opinions in England, we
+shall see the full force of these remarks. A general spirit of inquiry,
+of doubt, and even of insubordination, began to occupy the minds of men.
+In physics, it enabled them, almost at a blow, to throw off the shackles
+of antiquity, and give birth to sciences founded not on notions of old,
+but on individual observations and individual experiments.[561] In
+politics, it stimulated them to rise against the government, and
+eventually bring their king to the scaffold. In religion, it vented
+itself in a thousand sects, each of which proclaimed, and often
+exaggerated, the efficiency of private judgment.[562] The details of
+this vast movement form one of the most interesting parts of the
+history of England: but without anticipating what I must hereafter
+relate, I will at present mention only one instance, which, from the
+circumstances attending it, is very characteristic of the age. The
+celebrated work by Chillingworth on the _Religion of Protestants_, is
+generally admitted to be the best defence which the Reformers have been
+able to make against the Church of Rome.[563] It was published in
+1637,[564] and the position of the author would induce us to look for
+the fullest display of bigotry that was consistent with the spirit of
+his time. Chillingworth had recently abandoned the creed which he now
+came forward to attack; and he, therefore, might be expected to have
+that natural inclination to dogmatize with which apostasy is usually
+accompanied. Besides this, he was the godson and the intimate friend of
+Laud,[565] whose memory is still loathed, as the meanest, the most
+cruel, and the most narrowminded man who ever sat on the episcopal
+bench.[566] He was, moreover, a fellow of Oxford, and was a constant
+resident at that ancient university, which has always been esteemed as
+the refuge of superstition, and which has preserved to our own day its
+unenviable fame.[567] If now we turn to the work that was written under
+these auspices, we can scarcely believe that it was produced in the same
+generation, and in the same country, where, only twenty-six years
+before, two men had been publicly burned because they advocated opinions
+different to those of the established church. It is, indeed, a most
+remarkable proof of the prodigious energy of that great movement which
+was now going on, that its pressure should be felt under circumstances
+the most hostile to it which can possibly be conceived; and that a
+friend of Laud, and a fellow of Oxford, should, in a grave theological
+treatise, lay down principles utterly subversive of that theological
+spirit which for many centuries had enslaved the whole of Europe.
+
+  [561] On the connexion between the rise of the Baconian philosophy and
+        the change in the spirit of theologians, compare _Comte_,
+        _Philosophie Positive_, vol. v. p. 701, with _Whately on Dangers
+        to Christian Faith_, pp. 148, 149. It favoured, as Tennemann
+        (_Gesch. der Philos._ vol. x. p. 14) says, the 'Belebung der
+        selbstthätigen Kraft des menschlichen Geistes;' and hence the
+        attack on the inductive philosophy in _Newman's Development of
+        Christian Doctrine_, pp. 179-183. But Mr. Newman does not seem to
+        be aware how irrevocably we are now pledged to the movement which
+        he seeks to reverse.
+
+  [562] The rapid increase of heresy in the middle of the seventeenth
+        century is very remarkable, and it greatly aided civilization in
+        England by encouraging habits of independent thought. In Feb.
+        1646-7, Boyle writes from London, 'There are few days pass here,
+        that may not justly be accused of the brewing or broaching of
+        some new opinion. Nay, some are so studiously changling in that
+        particular, they esteem an opinion as a diurnal, after a day or
+        two scarce worth the keeping. If any man have lost his religion,
+        let him repair to London, and I'll warrant him he shall find it:
+        I had almost said too, and if any man has a religion, let him but
+        come hither now, and he shall go near to lose it.' _Birch's Life
+        of Boyle_, in _Boyle's Works_, vol. i. pp. 20, 21. See also
+        _Bates's Account of the late Troubles_, edit. 1685, part ii. p.
+        219, on 'that unbridled licentiousness of hereticks which grew
+        greater and greater daily.' Compare to the same effect _Carlyle's
+        Cromwell_, vol. i. p. 289; _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. i. p.
+        608; and _Carwithen's Hist. of the Church of England_, vol. ii.
+        p. 203: 'sectaries began to swarm.'
+
+  [563] Not to quote the opinions of inferior men respecting
+        Chillingworth, it is enough to mention, that Lord Mansfield said
+        he was 'a perfect model of argumentation.' _Butler's
+        Reminiscences_, vol. i. p. 126. Compare a letter from Warburton,
+        in _Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. iv.
+        p. 849.
+
+  [564] _Des Maizeaux_, _Life of Chillingworth_, p. 141.
+
+  [565] _Aubrey's Letters and Lives_, vol. ii. p. 285; _Des Maizeaux_,
+        _Life of Chillingworth_, pp. 2, 9. The correspondence between
+        Laud and Chillingworth is supposed to be lost. _Des Maizeaux_, p.
+        12. Carwithen (_Hist. of the Church of England_, vol. ii. p. 214)
+        says, 'Laud was the godfather of Chillingworth.'
+
+  [566] The character of Laud is now well understood and generally known.
+        His odious cruelties made him so hated by his contemporaries,
+        that after his condemnation, many persons shut up their shops,
+        and refused to open them till he was executed. This is mentioned
+        by Walton, an eye-witness. See _Walton's Life of Sanderson_, in
+        _Wordsworth's Eccles. Biog._ vol. iv. p. 429.
+
+  [567] A modern writer suggests, with exquisite simplicity, that
+        Chillingworth derived his liberal principles _from_ Oxford: 'the
+        very same college which nursed the high intellect and tolerant
+        principles of Chillingworth.' _Bowles's Life of Bishop Ken_, vol.
+        i. p. xxi.
+
+In this great work, all authority in matters of religion is openly set
+at defiance. Hooker, indeed, had appealed from the jurisdiction of the
+Fathers to the jurisdiction of reason; he had, however, been careful to
+add, that the reason of individuals ought to bow before that of the
+church, as we find it expressed in great Councils, and in the general
+voice of ecclesiastical tradition.[568] But Chillingworth would hear of
+none of these things. He would admit of no reservations which tended to
+limit the sacred right of private judgment. He not only went far beyond
+Hooker in neglecting the Fathers,[569] but he even ventured to despise
+the Councils. Although the sole object of his work was to decide on the
+conflicting claims of the two greatest sects into which the Christian
+Church has broken, he never quotes as authorities the Councils of that
+very church respecting which the disputes were agitated.[570] His strong
+and subtle intellect, penetrating the depths of the subject, despised
+that sort of controversy which had long busied the minds of men. In
+discussing the points upon which the Catholics and Protestants were at
+issue, he does not inquire whether the doctrines in question met the
+approval of the early church, but he asks if they are in accordance with
+human reason; and he does not hesitate to say that, however true they
+may be, no man is bound to believe them if he finds that they are
+repugnant to the dictates of his own understanding. Nor will he consent
+that faith should supply the absence of authority. Even this favourite
+principle of theologians is by Chillingworth made to yield to the
+supremacy of the human reason.[571] Reason, he says, gives us
+knowledge; while faith only gives us belief, which is a part of
+knowledge, and is, therefore, inferior to it. It is by reason, and not
+by faith, that we must discriminate in religious matters; and it is by
+reason alone that we can distinguish truth from falsehood. Finally, he
+solemnly reminds his readers, that in religious matters no one ought to
+be expected to draw strong conclusions from imperfect premises, or to
+credit improbable statements upon scanty evidence; still less, he says,
+was it ever intended that men should so prostitute their reason, as to
+believe with infallible faith that which they are unable to prove with
+infallible arguments.[572]
+
+  [568] Hooker's undue respect for the Councils of the Church is noticed
+        by Mr. Hallam, _Const. Hist._ vol. i. p. 213. Compare the
+        hesitating remarks in _Coleridge's Literary Remains_, vol. iii.
+        pp. 35, 36.
+
+  [569] Reading the Fathers he contemptuously calls travelling on a
+        'north-west discovery.' _Chillingworth's Religion of
+        Protestants_, p. 366. Even to Augustine, who was probably the
+        ablest of them, Chillingworth pays no deference. See what he says
+        at pp. 196, 333, 376; and as to the authority of the Fathers in
+        general, see pp. 252, 346. Chillingworth observed, happily
+        enough, that churchmen 'account them fathers when they are for
+        them, and children when they are against them.' _Calamy's Life_,
+        vol. i. p. 253.
+
+  [570] As to the supposed authority of Councils, see _Religion of
+        Protestants_, pp. 132, 463. It affords curious evidence of the
+        slow progress of theologians to observe the different spirit in
+        which some of our clergy consider these matters. See, for
+        instance, _Palmer on the Church_, 1839, vol. ii. pp. 150-171. In
+        no other branch of inquiry do we find this obstinate
+        determination to adhere to theories which all thinking men have
+        rejected for the last two centuries.
+
+  [571] Indeed, he attempts to fasten the same doctrine upon the
+        Catholics; which, if he could have done, would of course have
+        ended the controversy. He says, rather unfairly, 'Your church you
+        admit, because you think you have reason to do so; so that by
+        you, as well as Protestants, all is finally resolved into your
+        own reason.' _Relig. of Protest._ p. 134.
+
+  [572] 'God desires only that we believe the conclusion, as much as the
+        premises deserve; that the strength of our faith be equal or
+        proportionable to the credibility of the motives to it.' _Relig.
+        of Protest._ p. 66. 'For my part, I am certain that God hath
+        given us our reason to discern between truth and falsehood; and
+        he that makes not this use of it, but believes things he knows
+        not why, I say it is by chance that he believes the truth, and
+        not by choice; and I cannot but fear that God will not accept of
+        this sacrifice of fools.' p. 133. 'God's spirit, if he please,
+        may work more,--a certainty of adherence beyond a certainty of
+        evidence; but neither God doth, nor man may, require of us, as
+        our duty, to give a greater assent to the conclusion than the
+        premises deserve; to build an infallible faith upon motives that
+        are only highly credible and not infallible; as it were a great
+        and heavy building upon a foundation that hath not strength
+        proportionate.' p. 149. 'For faith is not knowledge, no more than
+        three is four, but eminently contained in it; so that he that
+        knows, believes, and something more; but he that believes many
+        times does not know--nay, if he doth barely and merely believe,
+        he doth never know.' p. 412. See also p. 417.
+
+No one of ordinary reflection can fail to perceive the manifest tendency
+of these opinions. But what is more important to observe is, the process
+through which, in the march of civilization, the human mind had been
+obliged to pass before it could reach such elevated views. The
+Reformation, by destroying the dogma of an infallible church, had of
+course weakened the reverence which was paid to ecclesiastical
+antiquity. Still, such was the force of old associations, that our
+countrymen long continued to respect what they had ceased to venerate.
+Thus it was, that Jewel, though recognizing the supreme authority of the
+Bible, had, in cases where it was silent or ambiguous, anxiously
+appealed to the early church, by whose decision he supposed all
+difficulties could be easily cleared. He, therefore, only used his
+reason to ascertain the discrepancies which existed between Scripture
+and tradition; but when they did not clash, he paid what is now
+considered a superstitious deference to antiquity. Thirty years after
+him came Hooker;[573] who made a step in advance, and laying down
+principles from which Jewel would have shrunk with fear, did much to
+weaken that which it was reserved for Chillingworth utterly to destroy.
+Thus it is, that these three great men represent the three distinct
+epochs of the three successive generations in which they respectively
+lived. In Jewel, reason is, if I may so say, the superstructure of the
+system; but authority is the basis upon which the superstructure is
+built. In Hooker, authority is only the superstructure, and reason is
+the basis.[574] But in Chillingworth, whose writings were harbingers of
+the coming storm, authority entirely disappears, and the whole fabric of
+religion is made to rest upon the way in which the unaided reason of man
+shall interpret the decrees of an omnipotent God.
+
+  [573] On the connexion between the Reformation and the views advocated
+        in the _Ecclesiastical Polity_, compare _Newman's Development of
+        Christian Doctrine_, p. 47, with some able remarks by Locke, in
+        _King's Life of Locke_, vol. ii. pp. 99-101. Locke, who was
+        anything but a friend to the church, was a great admirer of
+        Hooker, and in one place calls him 'the arch-philosopher.' _Essay
+        on Government_, in _Locke's Works_, vol. iv. p. 380.
+
+  [574] The opposition between Jewel and Hooker was so marked, that some
+        of the opponents of Hooker quoted against him Jewel's Apology.
+        See _Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog._ vol. iii. p. 513. Dr. Wordsworth
+        calls this 'curious;' but it would be much more curious if it had
+        not happened. Compare the remarks made by the Bishop of Limerick
+        (_Parr's Works_, vol. ii. p. 470, _Notes on the Spital Sermon_),
+        who says, that Hooker 'opened that fountain of reason,' &c.;
+        language which will hardly be considered too strong by those who
+        have compared the _Ecclesiastical Polity_ with the theological
+        works previously produced by the English church.
+
+The immense success of this great work of Chillingworth, must have aided
+that movement of which it is itself an evidence.[575] It formed a
+decisive vindication of religious dissent;[576] and thus justified the
+breaking up of the Anglican church, which the same generation lived to
+witness. Its fundamental principle was adopted by the most influential
+writers of the seventeenth century,--such as Hales, Owen, Taylor,
+Burnet, Tillotson, Locke, and even the cautious and time-serving Temple;
+all of whom insisted upon the authority of private judgment, as forming
+a tribunal from which no one had the power of appeal. The inference to
+be drawn from this seems obvious.[577] If the ultimate test of truth is
+individual judgment, and if no one can affirm that the judgments of men,
+which are often contradictory, can ever be infallible, it follows of
+necessity that there is no decisive criterion of religious truth. This
+is a melancholy, and, as I firmly believe, a most inaccurate conclusion;
+but it is one which every nation must entertain, before it can achieve
+that great work of toleration, which, even in our own country, and in
+our own time, is not yet consummated. It is necessary that men should
+learn to doubt, before they begin to tolerate; and that they should
+recognize the fallibility of their own opinions, before they respect the
+opinions of their opponents.[578] This great process is far from being
+yet completed in any country; and the European mind, barely emerged from
+its early credulity, and from an overweening confidence in its own
+belief, is still in a middle, and, so to say, a probationary stage. When
+that stage shall be finally passed, when we shall have learned to
+estimate men solely by their character and their acts, and not at all by
+their theological dogmas, we shall then be able to form our religious
+opinions by that purely transcendental process, of which in every age
+glimpses have been granted to a few gifted minds. That this is the
+direction in which things are now hastening, must be clear to every one
+who has studied the progress of modern civilization. Within the short
+space of three centuries, the old theological spirit has been compelled,
+not only to descend from its long-established supremacy, but to abandon
+those strongholds to which, in the face of advancing knowledge, it has
+vainly attempted to secure a retreat. All its most cherished pretensions
+it has been forced gradually to relinquish.[579] And although in England
+a temporary prominence has recently been given to certain religious
+controversies, still the circumstances attending them show the
+alteration in the character of the age. Disputes which, a century ago,
+would have set the whole kingdom in a flame, are now regarded with
+indifference by the vast majority of educated men. The complications of
+modern society, and the immense variety of interests into which it is
+divided, have done much to distract the intellect, and to prevent it
+from dwelling upon subjects which a less-occupied people would deem of
+paramount importance. Besides this, the accumulations of science are far
+superior to those of any former age, and offer suggestions of such
+surpassing interest, that nearly all our greatest thinkers devote to
+them the whole of their time, and refuse to busy themselves with matters
+of mere speculative belief. The consequence is, that what used to be
+considered the most important of all questions, is now abandoned to
+inferior men, who mimic the zeal, without possessing the influence of
+those really great divines whose works are among the glories of our
+early literature. These turbulent polemics have, indeed, distracted the
+church by their clamour, but they have not made the slightest impression
+upon the great body of English intellect; and an overwhelming majority
+of the nation is notoriously opposed to that monastic and ascetic
+religion which it is now vainly attempted to reconstruct. The truth is,
+that the time for these things has gone by. Theological interests have
+long ceased to be supreme; and the affairs of nations are no longer
+regulated according to ecclesiastical views.[580] In England, where the
+march has been more rapid than elsewhere, this change is very
+observable. In every other department we have had a series of great and
+powerful thinkers, who have done honour to their country, and have won
+the admiration of mankind. But for more than a century, we have not
+produced a single original work in the whole field of controversial
+theology. For more than a century, the apathy on this subject has been
+so marked, that there has been made no addition of value to that immense
+mass of divinity which, among thinking men, is in every successive
+generation losing something of its former interest.[581]
+
+  [575] Des Maizeaux (_Life of Chillingworth_, pp. 220, 221) says: 'His
+        book was received with a general applause; and, what perhaps
+        never happened to any other controversial work of that bulk, two
+        editions of it were published within less than five months....
+        The quick sale of a book, and especially of a book of
+        controversy, in folio, is a good proof that the author hit the
+        taste of his time.' See also _Biographia Britannica_, edit.
+        Kippis, vol. iii. pp. 511, 512.
+
+  [576] Or, as Calamy cautiously puts it, Chillingworth's work 'appeared
+        to me to go a great way towards the justifying of moderate
+        conformity.' _Calamy's Life_, vol. i. p. 234. Compare _Palmer on
+        the Church_, vol. i. pp. 267, 268; and what is probably an
+        allusion to Chillingworth in _Doddridge's Correspond. and Diary_,
+        vol. ii. p. 81. See also the opinion of Hobbes, in _Aubrey's
+        Letters and Lives_, vol. ii. pp. 288, 629.
+
+  [577] A short but able view of the aspect which the English mind now
+        began to assume, will be found in _Stäudlin_, _Geschichte der
+        theologischen Wissenschaften_, vol. ii. pp. 95 seq.
+
+  [578] In _Whately's Dangers to Christian Faith_, pp. 188-198, there is a
+        perspicuous statement of the arguments now commonly received
+        against coercing men for their religious opinions. But the most
+        powerful of these arguments are based entirely upon expediency,
+        which would have insured their rejection in an age of strong
+        religious convictions. Some, and only some, of the theological
+        difficulties respecting toleration, are noticed in _Coleridge's
+        Lit. Remains_, vol. i. pp. 312-315; and in another work (_The
+        Friend_, vol. i. p. 73), he mentions, what is the real fact 'that
+        same indifference which makes toleration so easy a virtue with
+        us.' See also _Archdeacon Hare's Guesses at Truth_, 2nd series,
+        1848, p. 278; and _Nichols's Illustrations of Lit. Hist._ vol. v.
+        p. 817: 'a spirit of mutual toleration and forbearance has
+        appeared (at least one good consequence of religious
+        indifference).'
+
+  [579] It would be idle to offer proofs of so notorious a fact; but the
+        reader will be interested by some striking remarks in
+        _Capefigue_, _Hist. de la Réforme_, vol. i. pp. 228, 229.
+
+  [580] A writer intimately acquainted with the social condition of the
+        great European countries, says: 'Ecclesiastical power is almost
+        extinct as an active element in the political or social affairs
+        of nations or of individuals, in the cabinet or in the family
+        circle; and a new element, literary power, is taking its place in
+        the government of the world.' _Laing's Denmark_, 1852, p. 82. On
+        this natural tendency in regard to legislation, see _Meyer_,
+        _Esprit des Institut. Judiciaires_, vol. i. p. 267 note; and a
+        good summary in _Stäudlin_, _Gesch. der theolog. Wissenschaften_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 304, 305. It is not surprising to find that many of
+        the clergy complain of a movement so subversive of their own
+        power. Compare _Ward's Ideal of a Christian Church_, pp. 40,
+        108-111, 388; _Sewell's Christian Politics_, pp. 276, 277, 279;
+        _Palmer's Treatise on the Church_, vol. ii. p. 361. It is thus
+        that everything is tending to confirm the remarkable prediction
+        of Sir James Mackintosh, that 'church-power (unless some
+        revolution, auspicious to priestcraft, should replunge Europe in
+        ignorance) will certainly not survive the nineteenth century.'
+        _Mem. of Mackintosh_, vol. i. p. 67.
+
+  [581] 'The "divines" in England at the present day, her bishops,
+        professors, and prebendaries, are not theologians. They are
+        logicians, chemists, skilled in the mathematics, historians, poor
+        commentators upon Greek poets.' _Theodore Parker's Critical and
+        Miscellaneous Writings_, 1848, p. 302. At p. 33, the same high
+        authority says: 'But, within the present century, what has been
+        written in the English tongue, in any department of theological
+        scholarship, which is of value and makes a mark on the age? The
+        _Bridgewater Treatises_, and the new edition of _Paley_,--we
+        blush to confess it,--are the best things.' Sir William Hamilton
+        (_Discussions on Philosophy_, 1852, p. 699) notices the decline
+        of 'British theology,' though he appears ignorant of the cause of
+        it. The Rev. Mr. Ward (_Ideal of a Christian Church_, p. 405)
+        remarks, that 'we cannot wonder, however keenly we may mourn, at
+        the decline and fall of dogmatic theology.' See also _Lord
+        Jeffrey's Essays_, vol. iv. p. 337: 'Warburton, we think, was the
+        last of our great divines.... The days of the Cudworths and
+        Barrows, the Hookers and Taylors, are long gone by.' Dr. Parr was
+        the only English theologian since Warburton who possessed
+        sufficient learning to retrieve this position; but he always
+        refused to do so, being, unconsciously to himself, held back by
+        the spirit of his age. Thus, we find him writing to Archbishop
+        Magee, in 1823: 'As to myself, I long ago determined not to take
+        any active part in polemical theology.' _Parr's Works_, vol. vii.
+        p. 11.
+
+        In the same way, since the early part of the eighteenth century,
+        hardly any one has carefully read the Fathers, except for mere
+        historical and secular purposes. The first step was taken about
+        the middle of the seventeenth century, when the custom of quoting
+        them in sermons began to be abandoned. _Burnet's Own Time_, vol.
+        i. pp. 329, 330; _Orme's Life of Owen_, p. 184. After this they
+        rapidly fell into contempt; and the Rev. Mr. Dowling (_Study of
+        Ecclesiast. History_, p. 195) asserts, that 'Waterland, who died
+        in 1740, was the last of our great patristical scholars.' To this
+        I may add, that nine years subsequent to the death of Waterland,
+        the obvious decay of professional learning struck Warburton,
+        afterwards Bishop of Gloucester, so much, that he wrote to
+        Jortin, somewhat roughly, 'anything makes a divine among our
+        parsons.' See his _Letter_, written in 1749, in _Nichols's
+        Illustrations of Lit. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 173; and for other
+        evidence of the neglect by the clergy of their ancient studies,
+        see _Jones's Memoirs of Horne, Bishop of Norwich_, pp. 68, 184;
+        and the complaint of Dr. Knowler, in 1766, in _Nichols's Lit.
+        Anec._ vol. ii. p. 130. Since then, attempts have been made at
+        Oxford to remedy this tendency; but such attempts, being opposed
+        by the general march of affairs, have been, and must be, futile.
+        Indeed, so manifest is the inferiority of these recent efforts,
+        that one of the most active cultivators in that field frankly
+        admits, that, in point of knowledge, his own party has effected
+        nothing; and he even asserts, with great bitterness, that 'it is
+        melancholy to say it, but the chief, perhaps the only, English
+        writer who has any claim to be considered an ecclesiastical
+        historian, is the infidel Gibbon.' _Newman on the Develop. of
+        Christ. Doct._ p. 5.
+
+These are only some of the innumerable signs, which must be discerned by
+every man who is not blinded by the prejudices of an imperfect
+education. An immense majority of the clergy,--some from ambitious
+feelings, but the greater part, I believe, from conscientious
+motives,--are striving to check the progress of that scepticism which is
+now gathering in upon us from every quarter.[582] It is time that these
+well-intentioned, though mistaken, men should see the delusion under
+which they labour. That by which they are so much alarmed, is the
+intermediate step which leads from superstition to toleration. The
+higher order of minds have passed through this stage, and are
+approaching what is probably the ultimate form of the religious history
+of the human race. But the people at large, and even some of those who
+are commonly called educated men, are only now entering that earlier
+epoch in which scepticism[583] is the leading feature of the mind. So
+far, therefore, from our apprehensions being excited by this
+rapidly-increasing spirit, we ought rather to do everything in our power
+to encourage that which, though painful to some, is salutary to all;
+because by it alone can religious bigotry be effectually destroyed. Nor
+ought we to be surprised that, before this can be done, a certain degree
+of suffering must first intervene.[584] If one age believes too much, it
+is but a natural reaction that another age should believe too little.
+Such are the imperfections of our nature, that we are compelled, by the
+very laws of its progress, to pass through those crises of scepticism
+and of mental distress, which to a vulgar eye are states of national
+decline and national shame; but which are only as the fire by which the
+gold must be purged before it can leave its dross in the pot of the
+refiner. To apply the imagery of the great allegorist, it is necessary
+that the poor pilgrim, laden with the weight of accumulated
+superstitions, should struggle through the Slough of Despond and the
+Valley of Death, before he can reach that glorious city, glittering with
+gold and with jewels, of which the first sight is sufficient recompense
+for his toils and his fears.
+
+  [582] As some writers, moved by their wishes rather than by their
+        knowledge, seek to deny this, it may be well to observe, that the
+        increase of scepticism since the latter part of the eighteenth
+        century is attested by an immense mass of evidence, as will
+        appear to whoever will compare the following authorities:
+        _Whately's Dangers to Christian Faith_, p. 87; _Kay's Social
+        Condition of the People_, vol. ii. p. 506; _Tocqueville_, _de la
+        Démocratie_, vol. iii. p. 72; _J. H. Newman on Development_, pp.
+        28, 29; _F. W. Newman's Natural History of the Soul_, p. 197;
+        _Parr's Works_, vol. ii. p. 5, vol. iii. pp. 688, 689; _Felkin's
+        Moral Statistics_, in _Journal of Statist. Soc._ vol. i. p. 541;
+        _Watson's Observations on the Life of Wesley_, pp. 155, 194;
+        _Matter_, _Hist. du Gnosticisme_, vol. ii. p. 485; _Ward's Ideal
+        of a Christian Church_, pp. 266, 267, 404; _Turner's Hist. of
+        England_, vol. ii. pp. 129, 142, vol. iii. p. 509; _Priestley's
+        Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 127, 128, 446, vol. ii. p. 751; _Cappe's
+        Memoirs_, p. 367; _Nichols's Lit. Anec. of Eighteenth Century_,
+        vol. iv. p. 671, vol. viii. p. 473; _Nichols's Illust. of Lit.
+        Hist._ vol. v. p. 640; _Combe's Notes on the United States_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 171, 172, 183.
+
+  [583] It has been suggested to me by an able friend, that there is a
+        class of persons who will misunderstand this expression; and that
+        there is another class who, without misunderstanding it, will
+        intentionally misrepresent its meaning. Hence, it may be well to
+        state distinctly what I wish to convey by the word 'scepticism.'
+        By scepticism I merely mean hardness of belief; so that an
+        increased scepticism is an increased perception of the difficulty
+        of proving assertions; or, in other words, it is an increased
+        application, and an increased diffusion, of the rules of
+        reasoning, and of the laws of evidence. This feeling of
+        hesitation and of suspended judgment has, in every department of
+        thought, been the invariable preliminary to all the intellectual
+        revolutions through which the human mind has passed; and without
+        it, there could be no progress, no change, no civilization. In
+        physics, it is the necessary precursor of science; in politics,
+        of liberty; in theology, of toleration. These are the three
+        leading forms of scepticism; it is, therefore, clear, that in
+        religion the sceptic steers a middle course between atheism and
+        orthodoxy, rejecting both extremes, because he sees that both are
+        incapable of proof.
+
+  [584] What a learned historian has said of the effect which the method
+        of Socrates produced on a very few Greek minds, is applicable to
+        that state through which a great part of Europe is now passing:
+        'The Socratic dialectics, clearing away from the mind its mist of
+        fancied knowledge, and laying bare the real ignorance, produced
+        an immediate effect, like the touch of the torpedo. The
+        newly-created consciousness of ignorance was alike unexpected,
+        painful, and humiliating,--a season of doubt and discomfort, yet
+        combined with an internal working and yearning after truth, never
+        before experienced. Such intellectual quickening, which could
+        never commence until the mind had been disabused of its original
+        illusion of false knowledge, was considered by Socrates not
+        merely as the index and precursor, but as the indispensable
+        condition of future progress.' _Grote's Hist. of Greece_, vol.
+        viii. pp. 614, 615, 8vo, 1851. Compare _Kritik der reinen
+        Vernunft_, in _Kant's Werke_, vol. ii. pp. 572, 577. 'So ist der
+        Skeptizismus ein Ruheplatz für die menschliche Vernunft, da sie
+        sich über ihre dogmatische Wanderung besinnen und den Entwurf von
+        der Gegend machen kann, wo sie sich befindet, um ihren Weg
+        fernerhin mit mehrerer Sicherheit wählen zu können, aber nicht
+        ein Wohnplatz zum beständigen Aufenthalte.... So ist das
+        skeptische Verfahren zwar an sich selbst für die Vernunftfragen
+        nicht befriedigend, aber doch vorübend, um ihre Vorsichtigkeit zu
+        erwecken und auf gründliche Mittel zu weisen, die sie in ihren
+        rechtmässigen Besitzen sichern können.'
+
+During the whole of the seventeenth century, this double movement of
+scepticism and of toleration continued to advance; though its progress
+was constantly checked by the two successors of Elizabeth, who in every
+thing reversed the enlightened policy of the great queen. These princes
+exhausted their strength in struggling against the tendencies of an age
+they were unable to understand; but, happily, the spirit which they
+wished to quench had reached a height that mocked their control. At the
+same time, the march of the English mind was still farther aided by the
+nature of those disputes which, during half a century, divided the
+country. In the reign of Elizabeth, the great contest had been between
+the church and its opponents; between those who were orthodox, and those
+who were heretical. But in the reigns of James and Charles, theology was
+for the first time merged in politics. It was no longer a struggle of
+creeds and dogmas; but it was a struggle between those who favoured the
+crown, and those who supported the parliament. The minds of men, thus
+fixed upon matters of real importance, neglected those inferior pursuits
+that had engrossed the attention of their fathers.[585] When, at length,
+public affairs had reached their crisis, the hard fate of the king,
+which eventually advanced the interests of the throne, was most
+injurious to those of the church. There can, indeed, be no doubt that
+the circumstances connected with the execution of Charles, inflicted a
+blow upon the whole system of ecclesiastical authority, from which, in
+this country, it has never been able to recover. The violent death of
+the king excited the sympathies of the people; and by thus strengthening
+the hands of the royalists, hastened the restoration of the
+monarchy.[586] But the mere name of that great party which had risen to
+power, was suggestive of the change that, in a religious point of view,
+was taking place in the national mind. It was, indeed, no light thing,
+that England should be ruled by men who called themselves Independents;
+and who, under that title, not only beat back the pretensions of the
+clergy, but professed an unbounded contempt for all those rites and
+dogmas which the clergy had, during many centuries, continued to
+amass.[587] True it is, that the Independents did not always push to
+their full extent the consequences of their own doctrines.[588] Still,
+it was a great matter to have those doctrines recognized by the
+constituted authorities of the state. Besides this, it is important to
+remark, that the Puritans were more fanatical than superstitious.[589]
+They were so ignorant of the real principles of government, as to direct
+penal laws against private vices; and to suppose that immorality could
+be stemmed by legislation.[590] But, notwithstanding this serious
+error, they always resisted the aggressions even of their own clergy;
+and the destruction of the old episcopal hierarchy, though perhaps too
+hastily effected, must have produced many beneficial results. When the
+great party by whom these things were accomplished, was at length
+overthrown, the progress of events still continued to tend in the same
+direction. After the Restoration, the church, though reinstated in her
+ancient pomp, had evidently lost her ancient power.[591] At the same
+time, the new king, from levity, rather than from reason, despised the
+disputes of theologians, and treated questions of religion with what he
+considered a philosophic indifference.[592] The courtiers followed his
+example, and thought they could not err in imitating him, whom they
+regarded as the Lord's anointed. The results were such as must be
+familiar even to the most superficial readers of English literature.
+That grave and measured scepticism, by which the Independents had been
+characterized, lost all its decorum when it was transplanted into the
+ungenial atmosphere of a court. The men by whom the king was surrounded,
+were unequal to the difficulties of suspense; and they attempted to
+fortify their doubts by the blasphemous expression of a wild and
+desperate infidelity. With scarcely an exception, all those writers who
+were most favoured by Charles, exhausted the devices of their ribald
+spirit, in mocking a religion, of the nature of which they were
+profoundly ignorant. These impious buffooneries would, by themselves,
+have left no permanent impression on the age; but they deserve
+attention, because they were the corrupt and exaggerated representatives
+of a more general tendency. They were the unwholesome offspring of that
+spirit of disbelief, and of that daring revolt against authority, which
+characterized the most eminent Englishmen during the seventeenth
+century. It was this which caused Locke to be an innovator in his
+philosophy, and an Unitarian in his creed. It was this which made Newton
+a Socinian; which forced Milton to be the great enemy of the church, and
+which not only turned the poet into a rebel, but tainted with Arianism
+the _Paradise Lost_. In a word, it was the same contempt for tradition,
+and the same resolution to spurn the yoke, which, being first carried
+into philosophy by Bacon, was afterwards carried into politics by
+Cromwell; and which, during that very generation, was enforced in
+theology by Chillingworth, Owen, and Hales; in metaphysics by Hobbes and
+Glanvil; and in the theory of government by Harrington, Sydney, and
+Locke.
+
+  [585] Dr. Arnold, whose keen eye noted this change, says (_Lectures on
+        Modern History_, p. 232), 'What strikes us predominantly, is,
+        that what, in Elizabeth's time, was a controversy between
+        divines, was now a great political contest between the crown and
+        the parliament.' The ordinary compilers, such as Sir A. Alison
+        (_Hist. of Europe_, vol. i. p. 51), and others, have entirely
+        misrepresented this movement; an error the more singular, because
+        the eminently political character of the struggle was recognized
+        by several contemporaries. Even Cromwell, notwithstanding the
+        difficult game he had to play, distinctly stated, in 1655, that
+        the origin of the war was not religious. See _Carlyle's
+        Cromwell_, vol. iii. p. 103; and corroborative evidence in
+        _Walker's History of Independency_, part i. p. 132. James I. also
+        saw that the Puritans were more dangerous to the state than to
+        the church: 'do not so far differ from us in points of religion,
+        as in their confused form of policy and parity; being ever
+        discontented with the present government, and impatient to suffer
+        any superiority; which maketh their sects insufferable in any
+        well-governed commonwealth.' _Speech of James I._, in _Parl.
+        Hist._ vol. i. p. 982. See also the observations ascribed to De
+        Foe, in _Somers Tracts_, vol. ix. p. 572: 'The king and
+        parliament fell out about matters of civil right; ... the first
+        difference between the king and the English parliament did not
+        respect religion, but civil property.'
+
+  [586] See _Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion_, p. 716. Sir W. Temple,
+        in his _Memoirs_, observes, that the throne of Charles II. was
+        strengthened by 'what had passed in the last reign.' _Temple's
+        Works_, vol. ii. p. 344. This may be illustrated by the remarks
+        of M. Lamartine on the execution of Louis XVI. _Hist. des
+        Girondins_, vol. v. pp. 86-7: 'Sa mort, au contraire, aliénait de
+        la cause française cette partie immense des populations qui ne
+        juge les événements humains que par le c[oe]ur. La nature humaine
+        est pathétique; la république l'oublia, elle donna à la royauté
+        quelque chose du martyre, à la liberté quelque chose de la
+        vengeance. Elle prépara ainsi une réaction contre la cause
+        républicaine, et mit du côté de la royauté la sensibilité,
+        l'intérêt, les larmes d'une partie des peuples.'
+
+  [587] The energy with which the House of Commons, in 1646, repelled the
+        pretensions of 'the Assembly of Divines,' is one of many proofs
+        of the determination of the predominant party not to allow
+        ecclesiastical encroachments. See the remarkable details in
+        _Parl. Hist._ vol. iii. pp. 459-463; see also p. 1305. As a
+        natural consequence, the Independents were the first sect which,
+        when possessed of power, advocated toleration. Compare _Orme's
+        Life of Owen_, pp. 63-75, 102-111; _Somers Tracts_, vol. xii. p.
+        542; _Walker's Hist. of Independency_, part ii. pp. 50, 157, part
+        iii. p. 22; _Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion_, pp. 610, 640.
+        Some writers ascribe great merit to Jeremy Taylor for his
+        advocacy of toleration (_Heber's Life of Taylor_, p. xxvii.; and
+        _Parr's Works_, vol. iv. p. 417); but the truth is that when he
+        wrote the famous _Liberty of Prophesying_, his enemies were in
+        power; so that he was pleading for his own interests. When,
+        however, the Church of England again obtained the upper hand,
+        Taylor withdrew the concessions which he had made in the season
+        of adversity. See the indignant remarks of Coleridge (_Lit.
+        Remains_, vol. iii. p. 250), who, though a great admirer of
+        Taylor, expresses himself strongly on this dereliction: see also
+        a recently published _Letter to Percy, Bishop of Dromore_, in
+        _Nichols's Illustrations of Lit. History_, vol. vii. p. 464.
+
+  [588] However, Bishop Short (_History of the Church of England_, 8vo,
+        1847, pp. 452, 458) says, what is undoubtedly true, that the
+        hostility of Cromwell to the church was not theological, but
+        political. The same remark is made by Bishop Kennet. _Note_ in
+        _Burton's Diary_, vol. ii. p. 479. See also _Vaughan's Cromwell_,
+        vol. i. p. xcvii.; and on the generally tolerant spirit of this
+        great man, see _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 14; and the
+        evidence in _Harris's Lives of the Stuarts_, vol. iii. pp. 37-47.
+        But the most distinct recognition of the principle, is in a
+        _Letter from Cromwell to Major-General Crawford_, recently
+        printed in _Carlyle's Cromwell_, vol. i. pp. 201, 202, 8vo, 1846.
+        In it Cromwell writes, 'Sir, the state, in choosing men to serve
+        it, takes no notice of their opinions; if they be willing
+        faithfully to serve it--that satisfies.' See additional proof in
+        _Carwithen's Hist. of the Church of Engl._ vol. ii. pp. 245, 249.
+
+  [589] No one can understand the real history of the Puritans, who does
+        not take this into consideration. In the present Introduction, it
+        is impossible to discuss so large a subject; and I must reserve
+        it for the future part of this work, in which the history of
+        England will be specially treated. In the mean time, I may
+        mention, that the distinction between fanaticism and superstition
+        is clearly indicated, but not analyzed, by Archbishop Whately, in
+        his _Errors of Romanism traced to their Origin in Human Nature_,
+        p. 49. This should be compared with _Hume's Philosophical Works_,
+        vol. iii. pp. 81-89, Edinb. 1826, on the difference between
+        enthusiasm and superstition; a difference which is noticed, but,
+        as it appears to me, misunderstood, by Maclaine, in his
+        _Additions to Mosheim's Ecclesiast. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 38.
+
+  [590] Compare _Barrington's Observations on the Statutes_, p. 143, with
+        _Burton's Diary of the Parliaments of Cromwell_, vol. i. pp.
+        xcviii. 145, 392, vol. ii. pp. 35, 229. In 1650, a second
+        conviction of fornication was made felony, without benefit of
+        clergy; but, after the Restoration, Charles II. and his friends
+        found this law rather inconvenient; so it was repealed. See
+        _Blackstone's Commentaries_, vol. iv. p. 65.
+
+  [591] See _Life of Ken, by a Layman_, edit. 1854, vol. i. p. 51. At
+        p. 129, the same writer says, with sorrow, 'The church recovered
+        much of her temporal possessions, but not her spiritual rule.'
+        The power of the bishops was abridged 'by the destruction of the
+        court of high-commission.' _Short's Hist. of the Church of
+        England_, p. 595. See also, on the diminished influence of the
+        Church-of-England clergy after the Restoration, _Southey's Life
+        of Wesley_, vol. i. pp. 278, 279; and _Watson's Observations on
+        the Life of Wesley_, pp. 129-131.
+
+  [592] Buckingham and Halifax, the two men who were perhaps best
+        acquainted with Charles II., both declared that he was a deist.
+        Compare _Lingard's Hist. of Engl._ vol. viii. p. 127, with
+        _Harris's Lives of the Stuarts_, vol. v. p. 55. His subsequent
+        conversion to Catholicism is exactly analogous to the increased
+        devotion of Louis XIV. during the later years of his life. In
+        both cases, superstition was the natural refuge of a worn-out and
+        discontented libertine, who had exhausted all the resources of
+        the lowest and most grovelling pleasures.
+
+The progress which the English intellect was now making towards shaking
+off ancient superstitions,[593] was still further aided by the
+extraordinary zeal displayed in the cultivation of the physical
+sciences. This, like all great social movements, is clearly traceable to
+the events by which it was preceded. It was partly cause, and partly
+effect, of the increasing incredulity of the age. The scepticism of the
+educated classes made them dissatisfied with those long-established
+opinions, which only rested on unsupported authority; and this gave rise
+to a desire to ascertain how far such notions might be verified or
+refuted by the real condition of things. A curious instance of the
+rapid progress of this spirit may be found in the works of an author who
+was one of the most eminent among the mere literary men of his time.
+While the Civil War was barely decided, and three years before the
+execution of the king, Sir Thomas Browne published his celebrated work,
+called _Inquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors_.[594] This able and
+learned production has the merit of anticipating some of those results
+which more modern inquirers have obtained;[595] but it is chiefly
+remarkable, as being the first systematic and deliberate onslaught ever
+made in England upon those superstitious fancies which were then
+prevalent respecting the external world. And what is still more
+interesting is, that the circumstances under which it appeared make it
+evident, that while the learning and genius of the author belonged to
+himself, the scepticism which he displayed respecting popular belief was
+forced on him by the pressure of the age.
+
+  [593] One of the most curious instances of this may be seen in the
+        destruction of the old notions respecting witchcraft. This
+        important revolution in our opinions was effected, so far as the
+        educated classes are concerned, between the Restoration and the
+        Revolution; that is to say, in 1660, the majority of educated men
+        still believed in witchcraft; while in 1688, the majority
+        disbelieved it. In 1665, the old orthodox view was stated by
+        Chief-Baron Hale, who, on a trial of two women for witchcraft,
+        said to the jury: 'That there are such creatures as witches, I
+        make no doubt at all; for, first, the Scriptures have affirmed so
+        much; secondly, the wisdom of all nations hath provided laws
+        against such persons, which is an argument of their confidence of
+        such a crime.' _Campbell's Lives of the Chief Justices_, vol. i.
+        pp. 565, 566. This reasoning was irresistible, and the witches
+        were hung; but the change in public opinion began to affect even
+        the judges, and after this melancholy exhibition of the
+        Chief-Baron, such scenes became gradually rarer; though Lord
+        Campbell is mistaken in supposing (p. 563) that this was 'the
+        last capital conviction in England for the crime of bewitching.'
+        So far from this, three persons were executed at Exeter for
+        witchcraft in 1682. See _Hutchinson's Historical Essay concerning
+        Witchcraft_, 1720, pp. 56, 57. Hutchinson says: 'I suppose these
+        are the last three that have been hanged in England.' If,
+        however, one may rely upon a statement made by Dr. Parr, two
+        witches were hung at Northampton in 1705; and in '1712, five
+        other witches suffered the same fate at the same place.' _Parr's
+        Works_, vol. iv. p. 182, 8vo, 1828. This is the more shameful,
+        because, as I shall hereafter prove, from the literature of that
+        time, a disbelief in the existence of witches had become almost
+        universal among educated men; though the old superstition was
+        still defended on the judgment-seat and in the pulpit. As to the
+        opinions of the clergy, compare _Cudworth's Intellect. Syst._
+        vol. iii. pp. 345, 348; _Vernon Correspond._ vol. ii. pp. 302,
+        303; _Burt's Letters from the North of Scotland_, vol. i. pp.
+        220, 221; _Wesley's Journals_, pp. 602, 713. Wesley, who had more
+        influence than all the bishops put together, says: 'It is true,
+        likewise, that the English in general, and, indeed, most of the
+        men of learning in Europe, have given up all accounts of witches
+        and apparitions as mere old wives' fables. I am sorry for
+        it.... The giving up witchcraft is, in effect, giving up the
+        Bible.... But I cannot give up, to all the Deists in Great
+        Britain, the existence of witchcraft, till I give up the credit
+        of all history, sacred and profane.'
+
+        However, all was in vain. Every year diminished the old belief;
+        and in 1736, a generation before Wesley had recorded these
+        opinions, the laws against witchcraft were repealed, and another
+        vestige of superstition effaced from the English statute-book.
+        See _Barrington on the Statutes_, p. 407; _Note_ in _Burton's
+        Diary_, vol. i. p. 26; _Harris's Life of Hardwicke_, vol. i. p.
+        307.
+
+        To this it may be interesting to add, that in Spain a witch was
+        burned so late as 1781. _Ticknor's Hist. of Spanish Literature_,
+        vol. iii. p. 238.
+
+  [594] The first edition was published in 1646. _Works of Sir Thomas
+        Browne_, vol. ii. p. 163.
+
+  [595] See the notes in Mr. Wilkin's edition of _Browne's Works_, Lond.
+        1836, vol. ii. pp. 284, 360, 361.
+
+In or about 1633, when the throne was still occupied by a superstitious
+prince; when the Church of England was at the height of her apparent
+power; and when men were incessantly persecuted for their religious
+opinions--this same Sir Thomas Browne wrote his _Religio Medici_,[596]
+in which we find all the qualities of his later work, except the
+scepticism. Indeed, in the _Religio Medici_, there is shown a credulity
+that must have secured the sympathy of those classes which were then
+dominant. Of all the prejudices which at that time were deemed an
+essential part of the popular creed, there was not one which Browne
+ventured to deny. He announces his belief in the philosopher's
+stone;[597] in spirits, and tutelary angels;[598] and in
+palmistry.[599] He not only peremptorily affirms the reality of witches,
+but he says that those who deny their existence are not merely infidels,
+but atheists.[600] He carefully tells us that he reckons his nativity,
+not from his birth, but from his baptism; for before he was baptized, he
+could not be said to exist.[601] To these touches of wisdom, he moreover
+adds, that the more improbable any proposition is, the greater his
+willingness to assent to it; but that when a thing is actually
+impossible, he is on that very account prepared to believe it.[602]
+
+  [596] The precise date is unknown; but Mr. Wilkin supposes that it was
+        written 'between the years 1633 and 1635.' Preface to _Religio
+        Medici_, in _Browne's Works_, vol. ii. p. 4.
+
+  [597] Ibid. vol. ii. p. 58.
+
+  [598] Ibid. vol. ii. p. 47.
+
+  [599] Or, as he calls it, 'chiromancy.' _Religio Medici_, in _Browne's
+        Works_, vol. ii. p. 89.
+
+  [600] 'For my part, I have ever believed, and do now know, that there
+        are witches. They that doubt of these, do not only deny them, but
+        spirits; and are obliquely, and upon consequence, a sort, not of
+        infidels, but atheists.' Ibid. vol. ii. pp. 43, 44.
+
+  [601] 'From this I do compute or calculate my nativity.' Ibid. vol. ii.
+        p. 64.
+
+  [602] _Religio Medici_, sec. ix. in _Browne's Works_, vol. ii. pp. 13,
+        14: unfortunately too long to extract. This is the 'credo quia
+        impossibile est,' originally one of Tertullian's absurdities, and
+        once quoted in the House of Lords by the Duke of Argyle, as 'the
+        ancient religious maxim.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. xi. p. 802. Compare
+        the sarcastic remark on this maxim in the _Essay concerning Human
+        Understanding_, book iv. chap. xviii. _Locke's Works_, vol. ii.
+        p. 271. It was the spirit embodied in this sentence which
+        supplied Celsus with some formidable arguments against the
+        Fathers. _Neander's Hist. of the Church_, vol. i. pp. 227, 228.
+
+Such were the opinions put forth by Sir Thomas Browne in the first of
+the two great works he presented to the world. But in his _Inquiries
+into Vulgar Errors_, there is displayed a spirit so entirely different,
+that if it were not for the most decisive evidence, we could hardly
+believe it to be written by the same man. The truth, however, is, that
+during the twelve years which elapsed between the two works, there was
+completed that vast social and intellectual revolution, of which the
+overthrow of the church and the execution of the king were but minor
+incidents. We know from the literature, from the private correspondence,
+and from the public acts of that time, how impossible it was, even for
+the strongest minds, to escape the effects of the general intoxication.
+No wonder, then, that Browne, who certainly was inferior to several of
+his contemporaries, should have been affected by a movement which they
+were unable to resist. It would have been strange, indeed, if he alone
+had remained uninfluenced by that sceptical spirit, which, because it
+had been arbitrarily repressed, had now broken all bounds, and in the
+reaction soon swept away those institutions which vainly attempted to
+stop its course.
+
+It is in this point of view that a comparison of the two works becomes
+highly interesting, and, indeed, very important. In this, his later
+production, we hear no more about believing things because they are
+impossible; but we are told of 'the two great pillars of truth,
+experience and solid reason.'[603] We are also reminded that one main
+cause of error is 'adherence unto authority;'[604] that another is,
+'neglect of inquiry;'[605] and, strange to say, that a third is
+'credulity.'[606] All this was not very consistent with the old
+theological spirit; and we need not, therefore, be surprised that Browne
+not only exposes some of the innumerable blunders of the Fathers,[607]
+but, after speaking of errors in general, curtly adds: 'Many others
+there are, which we resign unto divinity, and perhaps deserve not
+controversy.'[608]
+
+  [603] _Inquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors_, book iii. chap. xxviii.
+        in _Browne's Works_, vol. ii. p. 534.
+
+  [604] Ibid. book i. chap. vii. vol. ii. p. 225.
+
+  [605] 'A supinity, or neglect of inquiry.' Ibid. book i. chap. v.
+        vol. ii. p. 211.
+
+  [606] 'A third cause of common errors is the credulity of men.' Book i.
+        chap. v. vol. ii. p. 208.
+
+  [607] See two amusing instances in vol. ii. pp. 267, 438.
+
+  [608] _Vulgar and Common Errors_, book vii. chap. xi., in _Browne's
+        Works_, vol. iii. p. 326.
+
+The difference between these two works is no bad measure of the rapidity
+of that vast movement which, in the middle of the seventeenth century,
+was seen in every branch of practical and speculative life. After the
+death of Bacon, one of the most distinguished Englishmen was certainly
+Boyle, who, if compared with his contemporaries, may be said to rank
+immediately below Newton, though, of course, very inferior to him as an
+original thinker.[609] With the additions he made to our knowledge we
+are not immediately concerned; but it may be mentioned, that he was the
+first who instituted exact experiments into the relation between colour
+and heat;[610] and by this means, not only ascertained some very
+important facts, but laid a foundation for that union between optics and
+thermotics, which, though not yet completed, now merely waits for some
+great philosopher to strike out a generalization large enough to cover
+both, and thus fuse the two sciences into a single study. It is also to
+Boyle, more than to any other Englishman, that we owe the science of
+hydrostatics, in the state in which we now possess it.[611] He is the
+original discoverer of that beautiful law, so fertile in valuable
+results, according to which the elasticity of air varies as its
+density.[612] And, in the opinion of one of the most eminent modern
+naturalists, it was Boyle who opened up those chemical inquiries, which
+went on accumulating until, a century later, they supplied the means by
+which Lavoisier and his contemporaries fixed the real basis of
+chemistry, and enabled it for the first time to take its proper stand
+among those sciences that deal with the external world.[613]
+
+  [609] Monk (_Life of Bentley_, vol. i. p. 37) says, that Boyle's
+        discoveries 'have placed his name in a rank second only to that
+        of Newton;' and this, I believe, is true, notwithstanding the
+        immense superiority of Newton.
+
+  [610] Compare _Powell on Radiant Heat_ (_Brit. Assoc._ vol. i. p. 287),
+        with _Lloyd's Report on Physical Optics_, 1834, p. 338. For the
+        remarks on colours, see _Boyle's Works_, vol. ii. pp. 1-40; and
+        for the account of his experiments, pp. 41-80; and a slight
+        notice in _Brewster's Life of Newton_, vol. i. pp. 155, 156, 236.
+        It is, I think, not generally known, that Power is said to be
+        indebted to Boyle for originating some of his experiments on
+        colours. See a letter from Hooke, in _Boyle's Works_, vol. v. p.
+        533.
+
+  [611] Dr. Whewell (_Bridgewater Treatise_, p. 266) well observes, that
+        Boyle and Pascal are to hydrostatics what Galileo is to
+        mechanics, and Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton to astronomy. See
+        also on Boyle, as the founder of hydrostatics, _Thomson's Hist.
+        of the Royal Society_, pp. 397, 398; and his _Hist. of
+        Chemistry_, vol. i. p. 204.
+
+  [612] This was discovered by Boyle about 1650, and confirmed by Mariotte
+        in 1676. See _Whewell's Hist. of the Inductive Sciences_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 557, 588; _Thomson's Hist. of Chemistry_, vol. i. p. 215;
+        _Turner's Chemistry_, vol. i. pp. 41, 200; _Brande's Chemistry_,
+        vol. i. p. 363. This law has been empirically verified by the
+        French Institute, and found to hold good for a pressure even of
+        twenty-seven atmospheres. See _Challis on the Mathematical Theory
+        of Fluids_, in _Sixth Report of Brit. Assoc._ p. 226; and
+        _Herschel's Nat. Philos._ p. 231. Although Boyle preceded
+        Mariotte by a quarter of a century, the discovery is rather
+        unfairly called the law of Boyle and Mariotte; while foreign
+        writers, refining on this, frequently omit the name of Boyle
+        altogether, and term it the law of Mariotte! See, for instance,
+        _Liebig's Letters on Chemistry_, p. 126; _Monteil Divers Etats_,
+        vol. viii. p. 122; _Kaemtz's Meteorology_, p. 236; _Comte_,
+        _Philos. Pos._ vol. i. pp. 583, 645, vol. ii. pp. 484, 615;
+        _Pouillet_, _Elémens de Physique_, vol. i. p. 339, vol. ii. pp.
+        58, 183.
+
+  [613] 'L'un des créateurs de la physique expérimentale, l'illustre
+        Robert Boyle, avait aussi reconnu, dès le milieu du dix-septième
+        siècle, une grande partie des faits qui servent aujourd'hui de
+        base à cette chimie nouvelle.' _Cuvier_, _Progrès des Sciences_,
+        vol. i. p. 30. The 'aussi' refers to Rey. See also _Cuvier_,
+        _Hist. des Sciences Naturelles_, part ii. pp. 322, 346-349. A
+        still more recent writer says, that Boyle 'stood, in fact, on the
+        very brink of the pneumatic chemistry of Priestley; he had in his
+        hand the key to the great discovery of Lavoisier.' _Johnston on
+        Dimorphous Bodies_, in _Reports of Brit. Assoc._ vol. vi. p. 163.
+        See further respecting Boyle, _Robin et Verdeil_, _Chimie
+        Anatomique_, Paris, 1853, vol. i. pp. 576, 577, 579, vol. ii. p.
+        24; and _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. iv. p. 177.
+
+The application of these discoveries to the happiness of Man, and
+particularly to what may be called the material interests of
+civilization, will be traced in another part of this work; but what I
+now wish to observe, is the way in which such investigations harmonized
+with the movement I am attempting to describe. In the whole of his
+physical inquiries, Boyle constantly insists upon two fundamental
+principles: namely, the importance of individual experiments, and the
+comparative unimportance of the facts which, on these subjects,
+antiquity has handed down.[614] These are the two great keys to his
+method: they are the views which he inherited from Bacon, and they are
+also the views which have been held by every man who, during the last
+two centuries, has added anything of moment to the stock of human
+knowledge. First to doubt,[615] then to inquire, and then to discover,
+has been the process universally followed by our great teachers. So
+strongly did Boyle feel this, that though he was an eminently religious
+man,[616] he gave to the most popular of his scientific works the title
+of _The Sceptical Chemist_; meaning to intimate, that until men were
+sceptical concerning the chemistry of their own time, it would be
+impossible that they should advance far in the career which lay before
+them. Nor can we fail to observe that this remarkable work, in which
+such havoc was made with old notions, was published in 1661,[617] the
+year after the accession of Charles II., in whose reign the spread of
+incredulity was indeed rapid, since it was seen not only among the
+intellectual classes, but even among the nobles and personal friends of
+the king. It is true, that in that rank of society, it assumed an
+offensive and degenerate form. But the movement must have been one of no
+common energy which, in so early a stage, could thus penetrate the
+recesses of the palace, and excite the minds of the courtiers; a lazy
+and feeble race, who from the frivolity of their habits are, under
+ordinary circumstances, predisposed to superstition, and prepared to
+believe whatever the wisdom of their fathers has bequeathed to them.
+
+  [614] This disregard of ancient authority appears so constantly in his
+        works, that it is difficult to choose among innumerable passages
+        which might be quoted. I will select one which strikes me as well
+        expressed, and is certainly very characteristic. In his _Free
+        Inquiry into the vulgarly received Notion of Nature_, he says
+        (_Boyle's Works_, vol. iv. p. 359), 'For I am wont to judge of
+        opinions as of coins: I consider much less, in any one that I am
+        to receive, whose inscription it bears, than what metal it is
+        made of. It is indifferent enough to me whether it was stamped
+        many years or ages since, or came but yesterday from the mint.'
+        In other places he speaks of the 'schoolmen' and 'gownmen' with a
+        contempt not much inferior to that expressed by Locke himself.
+
+  [615] In his _Considerations touching Experimental Essays_, he says
+        (_Boyle's Works_, vol. i. p. 197), 'Perhaps you will wonder,
+        Pyrophilus, that in almost every one of the following essays I
+        should speak so doubtingly, and use so often _perhaps_, _it
+        seems_, _it is not improbable_, and such other expressions as
+        argue a diffidence of the truth of the opinions I incline to,'
+        &c. Indeed, this spirit is seen at every turn. Thus his _Essay on
+        Crystals_, which, considering the then state of knowledge, is a
+        remarkable production, is entitled 'Doubts and Experiments
+        touching the curious Figures of Salts.' _Works_, vol. ii. p. 488.
+        It is, therefore, with good reason that M. Humboldt terms him
+        'the cautious and doubting Robert Boyle.' _Humboldt's Cosmos_,
+        vol. ii. p. 730.
+
+  [616] On the sincere Christianity of Boyle, compare _Burnet's Lives and
+        Characters_, edit. Jebb, 1833, pp. 351-360; _Life of Ken, by a
+        Layman_, vol. i. pp. 32, 33; _Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise_, p.
+        273. He made several attempts to reconcile the scientific method
+        with the defence of established religious opinions. See one of
+        the best instances of this, in _Boyle's Works_, vol. v. pp. 38,
+        39.
+
+  [617] _The Sceptical Chemist_ is in _Boyle's Works_, vol. i.
+        pp. 290-371. It went through two editions in the author's
+        lifetime, an unusual success for a book of that kind. _Boyle's
+        Works_, vol. i. p. 375, vol. iv. p. 89, vol. v. p. 345. I find
+        from a letter written in 1696 (_Fairfax Correspondence_, vol. iv.
+        p. 344), that Boyle's works were then becoming scarce, and that
+        there was an intention of reprinting the whole of them. In regard
+        to the _Sceptical Chemist_, it was so popular, that it attracted
+        the attention of Monconys, a French traveller, who visited London
+        in 1663, and from whom we learn that it was to be bought for four
+        shillings, 'pour quatre chelins.' _Voyages de Monconys_, vol.
+        iii. p. 67, edit. 1695; a book containing some very curious facts
+        respecting London in the reign of Charles II.; but, so far as I
+        am aware, not quoted by any English historian. In _Sprengel's
+        Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. v. pp. 78-9, there is a summary of
+        the views advocated in the _Sceptical Chemist_, respecting which
+        Sprengel says, 'Ce fut cependant aussi en Angleterre que
+        s'élevèrent les premiers doutes sur l'exactitude des explications
+        chimiques.'
+
+In everything this tendency was now seen. Everything marked a growing
+determination to subordinate old notions to new inquiries. At the very
+moment when Boyle was prosecuting his labours, Charles II. incorporated
+the Royal Society, which was formed with the avowed object of increasing
+knowledge by direct experiment.[618] And it is well worthy of remark,
+that the charter now first granted to this celebrated institution
+declares that its object is the extension of natural knowledge, as
+opposed to that which is supernatural.[619]
+
+  [618] 'From the nature and constitution of the Royal Society, the
+        objects of their attention were necessarily unlimited. The
+        physical sciences, however, or those which are promoted by
+        experiment, were their declared objects; and experiment was the
+        method which they professed to follow in accomplishing their
+        purpose.' _Thomson's Hist. of the Royal Society_, p. 6. When the
+        society was first instituted, experiments were so unusual, that
+        there was a difficulty of finding the necessary workmen in
+        London. See a curious passage in _Weld's Hist. of the Royal
+        Society_, 1848, vol. ii. p. 88.
+
+  [619] Dr. Paris (_Life of Sir H. Davy_, 1831, vol. ii. p. 178) says,
+        'The charter of the Royal Society states, that it was established
+        for the improvement of _natural_ science. This epithet _natural_
+        was originally intended to imply a meaning, of which very few
+        persons, I believe, are aware. At the period of the establishment
+        of the society, the arts of witchcraft and divination were very
+        extensively encouraged; and the word _natural_ was therefore
+        introduced in contradistinction to _supernatural_.' The charters
+        granted by Charles II. are printed in _Weld's History of the
+        Royal Society_, vol. ii. pp. 481-521. Evelyn (_Diary,_ 13 _Aug._
+        1662, vol. ii. p. 195) mentions, that the object of the Royal
+        Society was 'natural knowledge.' See also _Aubrey's Letters and
+        Lives_, vol. ii. p. 358; _Pulteney's Hist. of Botany_, vol. ii.
+        pp. 97, 98; and on the distinction thus established in the
+        popular mind between natural and supernatural, compare _Boyle's
+        Works_, vol. ii. p. 455, vol. iv. pp. 288, 359.
+
+It is easy to imagine with what terror and disgust these things were
+viewed by those inordinate admirers of antiquity who, solely occupied in
+venerating past ages, are unable either to respect the present or hope
+for the future. These great obstructors of mankind played, in the
+seventeenth century, the same part as they play in our own day,
+rejecting every novelty, and therefore opposing every improvement. The
+angry contest which arose between the two parties, and the hostility
+directed against the Royal Society, as the first institution in which
+the idea of progress was distinctly embodied, are among the most
+instructive parts of our history, and on another occasion I shall relate
+them at considerable length. At present it is enough to say, that the
+reactionary party, though led by an overwhelming majority of the clergy,
+was entirely defeated; as, indeed, was to be expected, seeing that their
+opponents had on their side nearly all the intellect of the country, and
+were moreover reinforced by such aid as the court could bestow. The
+progress was, in truth, so rapid as to carry away with it some of the
+ablest members even of the ecclesiastical profession; their love of
+knowledge proving too strong for the old traditions in which they had
+been bred. But these were exceptional cases, and, speaking generally,
+there is no doubt that in the reign of Charles II. the antagonism
+between physical science and the theological spirit was such as to
+induce nearly the whole of the clergy to array themselves against the
+science, and seek to bring it into discredit. Nor ought we to be
+surprised that they should have adopted this course. That inquisitive
+and experimental spirit which they wished to check was not only
+offensive to their prejudices, but it was also detrimental to their
+power. For, in the first place, the mere habit of cultivating physical
+science taught men to require a severity of proof which it was soon
+found that the clergy were, in their own department, unable to supply.
+And, in the second place, the additions made to physical knowledge
+opened new fields of thought, and thus tended still further to divert
+attention from ecclesiastical topics. Both these effects would of course
+be limited to the comparatively few persons who were interested in
+scientific inquiries: it is, however, to be observed, that the ultimate
+results of such inquiries must have been extended over a far wider
+surface. This may be called their secondary influence; and the way in
+which it operated is well worth our attention, because an acquaintance
+with it will go far to explain the reason of that marked opposition
+which has always existed between superstition and knowledge.
+
+It is evident, that a nation perfectly ignorant of physical laws will
+refer to supernatural causes all the phenomena by which it is
+surrounded.[620] But so soon as natural science begins to do its work,
+there are introduced the elements of a great change. Each successive
+discovery, by ascertaining the law that governs certain events, deprives
+them of that apparent mystery in which they were formerly involved.[621]
+The love of the marvellous becomes proportionably diminished; and when
+any science has made such progress as to enable those who are acquainted
+with it to foretell the events with which it deals, it is clear that the
+whole of those events are at once withdrawn from the jurisdiction of
+supernatural, and brought under the authority of natural powers.[622]
+The business of physical philosophy is, to explain external phenomena
+with a view to their prediction; and every successful prediction which
+is recognised by the people causes a disruption of one of those links
+which, as it were, bind the imagination to the occult and invisible
+world. Hence it is that, supposing other things equal, the superstition
+of a nation must always bear an exact proportion to the extent of its
+physical knowledge. This may be in some degree verified by the ordinary
+experience of mankind. For if we compare the different classes of
+society, we shall find that they are superstitious in proportion as the
+phenomena with which they are brought in contact have or have not been
+explained by natural laws. The credulity of sailors is notorious, and
+every literature contains evidence of the multiplicity of their
+superstitions, and of the tenacity with which they cling to them.[623]
+This is perfectly explicable by the principle I have laid down.
+Meteorology has not yet been raised to a science; and the laws which
+regulate winds and storms being in consequence still unknown, it
+naturally follows, that the class of men most exposed to their dangers
+should be precisely the class which is most superstitious.[624] On the
+other hand, soldiers live upon an element much more obedient to man, and
+they are less liable than sailors to those risks which defy the
+calculations of science. Soldiers, therefore, have fewer inducements to
+appeal to supernatural interference; and it is universally observed,
+that as a body they are less superstitious than sailors. If, again, we
+compare agriculturists with manufacturers, we shall see the operation of
+the same principle. To the cultivators of land, one of the most
+important circumstances is the weather, which, if it turn out
+unfavourable, may at once defeat all their calculations. But science not
+having yet succeeded in discovering the laws of rain, men are at present
+unable to foretell it for any considerable period; the inhabitant of the
+country is, therefore, driven to believe that it is the result of
+supernatural agency, and we still see the extraordinary spectacle of
+prayers offered up in our churches for dry weather or for wet weather; a
+superstition which to future ages will appear as childish as the
+feelings of pious awe with which our fathers regarded the presence of a
+comet, or the approach of an eclipse. We are now acquainted with the
+laws which determine the movements of comets and eclipses; and as we are
+able to predict their appearance, we have ceased to pray that we may be
+preserved from them.[625] But because our researches into the phenomena
+of rain happen to have been less successful,[626] we resort to the
+impious contrivance of calling in the aid of the Deity to supply those
+deficiencies in science which are the result of our own sloth; and we
+are not ashamed, in our public churches, to prostitute the rites of
+religion by using them as a cloak to conceal an ignorance we ought
+frankly to confess.[627] The agriculturist is thus taught to ascribe to
+supernatural agency the most important phenomena with which he is
+concerned;[628] and there can be no doubt that this is one of the causes
+of those superstitious feelings by which the inhabitants of the country
+are unfavourably contrasted with those of the town.[629] But the
+manufacturer, and, indeed, nearly every one engaged in the business of
+cities, has employments, the success of which being regulated by his own
+abilities, has no connexion with those unexplained events that perplex
+the imagination of the cultivators of the earth. He who, by his
+ingenuity, works up the raw material, is evidently less affected by
+uncontrollable occurrences, than he by whom the raw material is
+originally grown. Whether it is fair, or whether it is wet, he pursues
+his labours with equal success, and learns to rely solely upon his own
+energy, and the cunning of his own arm. As the sailor is naturally more
+superstitious than the soldier, because he has to deal with a more
+unstable element; just in the same way is the agriculturist more
+superstitious than the mechanic, because he is more frequently and more
+seriously affected by events which the ignorance of some men makes them
+call capricious, and the ignorance of other men makes them call
+supernatural.
+
+  [620] The speculative view of this tendency has been recently
+        illustrated in the most comprehensive manner by M. Auguste Comte,
+        in his _Philosophie Positive_; and his conclusions in regard to
+        the earliest stage of the human mind are confirmed by everything
+        we know of barbarous nations; and they are also confirmed, as he
+        has decisively proved, by the history of physical science. In
+        addition to the facts he has adduced, I may mention, that the
+        history of geology supplies evidence analogous to that which he
+        has collected from other departments.
+
+        A popular notion of the working of this belief in supernatural
+        causation may be seen in a circumstance related by Combe. He
+        says, that in the middle of the eighteenth century the country
+        west of Edinburgh was so unhealthy, 'that every spring the
+        farmers and their servants were seized with fever and ague.' As
+        long as the cause of this was unknown, 'these visitations were
+        believed to be sent by Providence;' but after a time the land was
+        drained, the ague disappeared, and the inhabitants perceived that
+        what they had believed to be supernatural was perfectly natural,
+        and that the cause was the state of the land, not the
+        intervention of the Deity. _Combe's Constitution of Man_, Edinb.
+        1847, p. 156.
+
+  [621] I say apparent mystery, because it does not at all lessen the real
+        mystery. But this does not affect the accuracy of my remark,
+        inasmuch as the people at large never enter into such subtleties
+        as the difference between Law and Cause; a difference, indeed,
+        which is so neglected, that it is often lost sight of even in
+        scientific books. All that the people know is, that events which
+        they once believed to be directly controlled by the Deity, and
+        modified by Him, are not only foretold by the human mind, but are
+        altered by human interference. The attempts which Paley and
+        others have made to solve this mystery by rising from the laws to
+        the cause, are evidently futile, because to the eye of reason the
+        solution is as incomprehensible as the problem; and the arguments
+        of the natural theologians, in so far as they are arguments, must
+        depend on reason. As Mr. Newman truly says, 'A God uncaused and
+        existing from eternity, is to the full as incomprehensible as a
+        world uncaused and existing from eternity. We must not reject the
+        latter theory as incomprehensible; for so is every other possible
+        theory.' _Newman's Natural History of the Soul_, 1849, p. 36. The
+        truth of this conclusion is unintentionally confirmed by the
+        defence of the old method, which is set up by Dr. Whewell in his
+        _Bridgewater Treatise_, pp. 262-5; because the remarks made by
+        that able writer refer to men who, from their vast powers, were
+        most likely to rise to that transcendental view of religion which
+        is slowly but steadily gaining ground among us. Kant, probably
+        the deepest thinker of the eighteenth century, clearly saw that
+        no arguments drawn from the external world could prove the
+        existence of a First Cause. See, among other passages, two
+        particularly remarkable in _Kritik der reinen Vernunft_, _Kant's
+        Werke_, vol. ii. pp. 478, 481, on 'der physikotheologische
+        Beweis.'
+
+  [622] This is tersely expressed by M. Lamennais: 'Pourquoi les corps
+        gravitent-ils les uns vers les autres? Parceque Dieu l'a voulu,
+        disaient les anciens. Parceque les corps s'attirent, dit la
+        science.' _Maury_, _Légendes du Moyen Age_, p. 33. See to the
+        same effect _Mackay's Religious Development_, 1850, vol. i. pp.
+        5, 30, 31, and elsewhere. See also a partial statement of the
+        antithesis in _Copleston's Inquiry into Necessity and
+        Predestination_, p. 49; an ingenious but overrated book.
+
+  [623] I much regret that I did not collect proof of this at an earlier
+        period of my reading. But having omitted taking the requisite
+        notes, I can only refer, on the superstition of sailors to
+        _Heber's Journey through India_, vol. i. p. 423; _Richardson's
+        Travels in the Sahara_, vol. i. p. 11; _Burckhardt's Travels in
+        Arabia_, vol. ii. p. 347; _Davis's Chinese_, vol. iii. pp. 16,
+        17; _Travels of Ibn Batuta in the Fourteenth Century_, p. 43;
+        _Journal of Asiat. Soc._ vol. i. p. 9; _Works of Sir Thomas
+        Browne_, vol. i. p. 130; _Alison's Hist. of Europe_, vol. iv. p.
+        566; _Burnes's Travels into Bokhara_, vol. iii. p. 53; _Leigh
+        Hunt's Autobiography_, 1850, vol. ii. p. 255; _Cumberland's
+        Memoirs_, 1807, vol. i. pp. 422-425; _Walsh's Brazil_, vol. i.
+        pp. 96, 97; _Richardson's Arctic Expedition_, vol. i. p. 93;
+        _Holcroft's Memoirs_, vol. i. p. 207, vol. iii. p. 197.
+
+  [624] Andokides, when accused before the dikastery at Athens, said, 'No,
+        dikasts; the dangers of accusation and trial are human, but the
+        dangers encountered at sea are divine.' _Grote's Hist. of
+        Greece_, vol. xi. p. 252. Thus, too, it has been observed, that
+        the dangers of the whale-fishery stimulated the superstition of
+        the Anglo-Saxons. See _Kemble's Saxons in England_, vol. i. pp.
+        390, 391. Erman, who mentions the dangerous navigation of the
+        Lake of Baikal, says, 'There is a saying at Irkutsk, that it is
+        only upon the Baikal, in the autumn, that a man learns to pray
+        from his heart.' _Erman's Travels in Siberia_, vol. ii. p. 186.
+
+  [625] In Europe, in the tenth century, an entire army fled before one of
+        those appearances, which would now scarcely terrify a child:
+        'Toute l'armée d'Othon se dispersa subitement à l'apparition
+        d'une éclipse de soleil, qui la remplit de terreur, et qui fut
+        regardée comme l'annonce du malheur qu'on attendait depuis
+        longtemps.' _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. ii. p. 368.
+        The terror inspired by eclipses was not finally destroyed before
+        the eighteenth century; and in the latter half of the seventeenth
+        century they still caused great fear both in France and in
+        England. See _Evelyn's Diary_, vol. ii. p. 52, vol. iii. p. 372;
+        _Carlyle's Cromwell_, vol. ii. p. 366; _Lettres de Patin_, vol.
+        iii. p. 36. Compare _Voyages de Monconys_, vol. v. p. 104, with
+        _Hare's Guesses at Truth_, 2nd series, pp. 194, 195. There
+        probably never has been an ignorant nation whose superstition has
+        not been excited by eclipses. For evidence of the universality of
+        this feeling, see _Symes's Embassy to Ava_, vol. ii. p. 296;
+        _Raffles' Hist. of Java_, vol. i. p. 530; _Southey's Hist. of
+        Brazil_, vol. i. p. 354, vol. ii. p. 371; _Marsden's Hist. of
+        Sumatra_, p. 159; _Niebuhr_, _Description de l'Arabie_, p. 105;
+        _Moffat's Southern Africa_, p. 337; _Mungo Park's Travels_, vol.
+        i. p. 414; _Moorcroft's Travels in the Himalayan Provinces_, vol.
+        ii. p. 4; _Crawfurd's Hist. of the Indian Archipelago_, vol. i.
+        p. 305; _Ellis's Polynesian Researches_, vol. i. p. 331;
+        _Mackay's Religious Development_, vol. i. p. 425; _Works of Sir
+        W. Jones_, vol. iii. p. 176, vol. vi. p. 16; _Wilson's Note_ in
+        the _Vishnu Purana_, p. 140; _Wilson's Theatre of the Hindus_,
+        vol. i. part ii. p. 90; _Montucla_, _Hist. des Mathématiques_,
+        vol. i. p. 444; _Asiatic Researches_, vol. xii. p. 484; _Ward's
+        View of the Hindoos_, vol. i. p. 101; _Prescott's Hist. of Peru_,
+        vol. i. p. 123; _Kohl's Russia_, p. 374; _Thirlwall's Hist. of
+        Greece_, vol. iii. p. 440, vol. vi. p. 216; _Murray's Life of
+        Bruce_, p. 103; _Turner's Embassy to Tibet_, p. 289; _Grote's
+        Hist. of Greece_, vol. vii. p. 432, vol. xii. pp. 205, 557;
+        _Journal Asiatique_, I^e série, vol. iii. p. 202, Paris, 1823;
+        _Clot-Bey_, _de la Peste_, Paris, 1840, p. 224.
+
+        In regard to the feelings inspired by comets, and the influence
+        of Bayle in removing those superstitions late in the seventeenth
+        century, compare _Tennemann_, _Gesch. der Philosoph._, vol. xi.
+        p. 252; _Le Vassor_, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, vol. iii. p. 415;
+        _Lettres de Sevigné_, vol. iv. p. 336; _Autobiography of Sir S.
+        D'Ewes_, edit. Halliwell, vol. i. pp. 122, 123, 136.
+
+  [626] On the peculiar complications which have retarded meteorology, and
+        thus prevented us from accurately predicting the weather, compare
+        _Forbes on Meteorology_, in _Second Report of British
+        Association_, pp. 249-251; _Cuvier_, _Progrès des Sciences_, vol.
+        i. pp. 69, 248; _Kaemtz's Meteorology_, pp. 2-4; _Prout's
+        Bridgewater Treatise_, pp. 290-295; _Somerville's Physical Geog._
+        vol. ii. pp. 18, 19. But all the best authorities are agreed that
+        this ignorance cannot last long; and that the constant advance
+        which we are now making in physical science will eventually
+        enable us to explain even these phenomena. Thus, for instance,
+        Sir John Leslie says, 'It cannot be disputed, however, that all
+        the changes which happen in the mass of our atmosphere, involved,
+        capricious, and irregular as they may appear, are yet the
+        necessary results of principles as fixed, and perhaps as simple,
+        as those which direct the revolutions of the solar system. Could
+        we unravel the intricate maze, we might trace the action of each
+        distinct cause, and hence deduce the ultimate effects arising
+        from their combined operation. With the possession of such data,
+        we might safely predict the state of the weather at any future
+        period, as we now calculate an eclipse of the sun or moon, or
+        foretell a conjunction of the planets.' _Leslie's Natural
+        Philosophy_, p. 405: see also p. 185, and the remarks of Mr. Snow
+        Harris (_Brit. Assoc. for 1844_, p. 241), and of Mr. Hamilton
+        (_Journal of Geog. Soc._ vol. xix. p. xci.) Thus, too, Dr.
+        Whewell (_Bridgewater Treatise_, p. 3) says, that 'the changes of
+        winds and skies are produced by causes, of whose rules "no
+        philosophical mind" will doubt the fixity.'
+
+  [627] This connexion between ignorance and devotion is so clearly
+        marked, that many nations have a separate god for the weather, to
+        whom they say their prayers. In countries where men stop short of
+        this, they ascribe the changes to witchcraft, or to some other
+        supernatural power. See _Mariner's Tonga Islands_, vol. ii. pp.
+        7, 108; _Tuckey's Expedit. to the Zaire_, pp. 214, 215; _Ellis's
+        Hist. of Madagascar_, vol. ii. p. 354; _Asiatic Researches_, vol.
+        vi. pp. 193, 194, 297, vol. xvi. pp. 223, 342; _Southey's Hist.
+        of Brazil_, vol. iii. p. 187; _Davis's Chinese_, vol. ii. p. 154;
+        _Beausobre_, _Hist. de Manichée_, vol. ii. p. 394; _Cudworth's
+        Intellect. Syst._ vol. ii. p. 539. The Hindus refer rain to
+        supernatural causes in the _Rig Veda_, which is the oldest of
+        their religious books; and they have held similar notions ever
+        since. _Rig Veda Sanhita_, vol. i. pp. xxx. 10, 19, 26, 145, 175,
+        205, 224, 225, 265, 266, vol. ii. pp. 28, 41, 62, 110, 153, 158,
+        164, 166, 192, 199, 231, 258, 268, 293, 329; _Journal of Asiatic
+        Soc._ vol. iii. p. 91; _Coleman's Mythol. of the Hindus_, p. 111;
+        _Ward's View of the Hindoos_, vol. i. p. 38. See further two
+        curious passages in the _Dabistan_, vol. i. p. 115, vol. ii. p.
+        337; and on the 'Rain-makers,' compare _Catlin's North-American
+        Indians_, vol. i. pp. 134-140, with _Buchanan's North-American
+        Indians_, pp. 258, 260: also a precisely similar class in Africa
+        (_Moffat's Southern Africa_, pp. 305-325), and in Arabia
+        (_Niebuhr_, _Desc. de l'Arabie_, pp. 237, 238).
+
+        Coming to a state of society nearer our own, we find that in the
+        ninth century it was taken for granted in Christian countries
+        that wind and hail were the work of wizards (_Neander's Hist. of
+        the Church_, vol. vi. pp. 118, 139); that similar views passed on
+        to the sixteenth century, and were sanctioned by Luther (_Maury_,
+        _Légendes Pieuses_, pp. 18, 19); and finally, that when Swinburne
+        was in Spain, only eighty years ago, he found the clergy on the
+        point of putting an end to the opera, because they 'attributed
+        the want of rain to the influence of that ungodly entertainment.'
+        _Swinburne's Travels through Spain in 1775 and 1776_, vol. i. p.
+        177, 2nd edit. London, 1787.
+
+  [628] See some remarks by the Rev. Mr. Ward, which strike me as rather
+        incautious, and which certainly are dangerous to his own
+        profession, as increasing the hostility between it and science,
+        in _Ward's Ideal of a Christian Church_, p. 278. What Coleridge
+        has said, is worth attending to: see _The Friend_, vol. iii. pp.
+        222, 223.
+
+  [629] M. Kohl, whose acuteness as a traveller is well known, has found
+        that the agricultural classes are the 'most blindly ignorant and
+        prejudiced' of all. _Kohl's Russia_, p. 365. And Sir R.
+        Murchison, who has enjoyed extensive means of observation,
+        familiarly mentions the 'credulous farmers.' _Murchison's
+        Siluria_, p. 61. In Asia, exactly the same tendency has been
+        noticed: see _Marsden's Hist. of Sumatra_, p. 63. Some curious
+        evidence of agricultural superstitions respecting the weather may
+        be seen in _Monteil_, _Hist. des divers Etats_, vol. iii. pp. 31,
+        39.
+
+It would be easy, by an extension of these remarks, to show how the
+progress of manufactures, besides increasing the national wealth, has
+done immense service to civilization, by inspiring Man with a confidence
+in his own resources;[630] and how, by giving rise to a new class of
+employments, it has, if I may so say, shifted the scene in which
+superstition is most likely to dwell. But to trace this would carry me
+beyond my present limits; and the illustrations already given are
+sufficient to explain how the theological spirit must have been
+diminished by that love of experimental science, which forms one of the
+principal features in the reign of Charles II.[631]
+
+  [630] In this point of view, the opposite tendencies of agriculture and
+        manufactures are judiciously contrasted by Mr. Porter, at the end
+        of his essay on the _Statistics of Agriculture_, _Journal of the
+        Statist. Soc._ vol. ii. pp. 295, 296.
+
+  [631] Indeed, there never has been a period in England in which physical
+        experiments were so fashionable. This is merely worth observing
+        as a symptom of the age, since Charles II. and the nobles were
+        not likely to add, and did not add, anything to our knowledge;
+        and their patronage of science, such as it was, degraded it
+        rather than advanced it. Still, the prevalence of the taste is
+        curious; and in addition to the picture drawn by Mr. Macaulay
+        (_Hist. of England_, 1st edit. vol. i. pp. 408-412), I may refer
+        the reader to _Monconys' Voyages_, vol. iii. p. 31; _Sorbiere's
+        Voyage to England_, pp. 32, 33; _Evelyn's Diary_, vol. ii. pp.
+        199, 286; _Pepys' Diary_, vol. i. p. 375, vol. ii. p. 34, vol.
+        iii. p. 85, vol. iv. p. 229; _Burnet's Own Time_, vol. i. pp.
+        171, 322, vol. ii. p. 275; _Burnet's Lives_, p. 144; _Campbell's
+        Chief-Justices_, vol. i. p. 582.
+
+I have now laid before the reader what I conceive to be the point of
+view from which we ought to estimate a period whose true nature seems to
+me to have been grievously misunderstood. Those political writers who
+judge events without regard to that intellectual development of which
+they are but a part, will find much to condemn, and scarcely anything to
+approve, in the reign of Charles II. By such authors, I shall be
+censured for having travelled out of that narrow path in which history
+has been too often confined. And yet I am at a loss to perceive how it
+is possible, except by the adoption of such a course, to understand a
+period which, on a superficial view, is full of the grossest
+inconsistencies. This difficulty will be rendered very obvious, if we
+compare for a moment the nature of the government of Charles with the
+great things which, under that government, were peaceably effected.
+Never before was there such a want of apparent connexion between the
+means and the end. If we look only at the characters of the rulers, and
+at their foreign policy, we must pronounce the reign of Charles II. to
+be the worst that has ever been seen in England. If, on the other hand,
+we confine our observations to the laws which were passed, and to the
+principles which were established, we shall be obliged to confess that
+this same reign forms one of the brightest epochs in our national
+annals. Politically and morally, there were to be found in the
+government all the elements of confusion, of weakness, and of crime. The
+king himself was a mean and spiritless voluptuary, without the morals of
+a Christian, and almost without the feelings of a man.[632] His
+ministers, with the exception of Clarendon, whom he hated for his
+virtues, had not one of the attributes of statesmen, and nearly all of
+them were pensioned by the crown of France.[633] The weight of taxation
+was increased,[634] while the security of the kingdom was
+diminished.[635] By the forced surrender of the charters of the towns,
+our municipal rights were endangered.[636] By shutting the exchequer,
+our national credit was destroyed.[637] Though immense sums were spent
+in maintaining our naval and military power, we were left so
+defenceless, that when a war broke out, which had long been preparing,
+we seemed suddenly to be taken by surprise. Such was the miserable
+incapacity of the government, that the fleets of Holland were able, not
+only to ride triumphant round our coasts, but to sail up the Thames,
+attack our arsenals, burn our ships, and insult the metropolis of
+England.[638] Yet, notwithstanding all these things, it is an undoubted
+fact, that in this same reign of Charles II. more steps were taken in
+the right direction than had been taken, in any period of equal length,
+during the twelve centuries we had occupied the soil of Britain. By the
+mere force of that intellectual movement, which was unwittingly
+supported by the crown, there were effected, in the course of a few
+years, reforms which changed the face of society.[639] The two great
+obstacles by which the nation had long been embarrassed, consisted of a
+spiritual tyranny and a territorial tyranny: the tyranny of the church
+and the tyranny of the nobles. An attempt was now made to remedy these
+evils; not by palliatives, but by striking at the power of the classes
+who did the mischief. For now it was that a law was placed on the
+statute-book, taking away that celebrated writ, which enabled the
+bishops or their delegates to cause those men to be burned whose
+religion was different to their own.[640] Now it was that the clergy
+were deprived of the privilege of taxing themselves, and were forced to
+submit to an assessment made by the ordinary legislature.[641] Now, too,
+there was enacted a law forbidding any bishop, or any ecclesiastical
+court, to tender the _ex-officio_ oath, by which the church had hitherto
+enjoyed the power of compelling a suspected person to criminate
+himself.[642] In regard to the nobles, it was also during the reign of
+Charles II. that the House of Lords, after a sharp struggle, was obliged
+to abandon its pretensions to an original jurisdiction in civil suits;
+and thus lost for ever an important resource for extending its own
+influence.[643] It was in the same reign that there was settled the
+right of the people to be taxed entirely by their representatives; the
+House of Commons having ever since retained the sole power of proposing
+money bills, and regulating the amount of imposts, merely leaving to the
+Peers the form of consenting to what has been already determined.[644]
+These were the attempts which were made to bridle the clergy and the
+nobles. But there were also effected other things of equal importance.
+By the destruction of the scandalous prerogatives of Purveyance and
+Preemption, a limit was set to the power of the sovereign to vex his
+refractory subjects.[645] By the Habeas Corpus Act, the liberty of every
+Englishman was made as certain as law could make it; it being guaranteed
+to him, that if accused of crime, he, instead of languishing in prison,
+as had often been the case, should be brought to a fair and speedy
+trial.[646] By the Statute of Frauds and Perjuries, a security hitherto
+unknown was conferred upon private property.[647] By the abolition of
+general impeachments, an end was put to a great engine of tyranny, with
+which powerful and unscrupulous men had frequently ruined their
+political adversaries.[648] By the cessation of those laws which
+restricted the liberty of printing, there was laid the foundation of
+that great Public Press, which, more than any other single cause, has
+diffused among the people a knowledge of their own power, and has thus,
+to an almost incredible extent, aided the progress of English
+civilization.[649] And, to complete this noble picture, there were
+finally destroyed those feudal incidents, which our Norman conquerors
+had imposed,--the military tenures; the court of wards; the fines for
+alienation; the right of forfeiture for marriage by reason of tenure;
+the aids, the homages, the escuages, the primer seisins; and all those
+mischievous subtleties, of which the mere names sound in modern ears as
+a wild and barbarous jargon, but which pressed upon our ancestors as
+real and serious evils.[650]
+
+  [632] His treatment of his young wife immediately after marriage is
+        perhaps the worst thing recorded of this base and contemptible
+        prince. _Lister's Life of Clarendon_, vol. ii. pp. 145-153. This
+        is matter of proof; but Burnet (_Own Time_, vol. i. p. 522, and
+        vol. ii. p. 467) whispers a horrible suspicion, which I cannot
+        believe to be true, even of Charles II., and which Harris, who
+        has collected some evidence of his astounding profligacy, does
+        not mention, though he quotes one of the passages in Burnet.
+        _Harris's Lives of the Stuarts_, vol. v. pp. 36-43. However, as
+        Dr. Parr says, in reference to another accusation against him,
+        'There is little occasion to blacken the memory of that wicked
+        monarch, Charles II., by the aid of invidious conjectures.'
+        _Notes on James II._ in _Parr's Works_, vol. iv. p. 477. Compare
+        _Fox's History of James II._ p. 71.
+
+  [633] Even Clarendon has been charged with receiving bribes from
+        Louis XIV.; but for this there appears to be no good authority.
+        Compare _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. ii. pp. 66, 67 note, with
+        _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. iii, p. 213.
+
+  [634] _Lister's Life of Clarendon_, vol. ii. p. 377; _Harris's Lives of
+        the Stuarts_, vol. iv. pp. 340-344.
+
+  [635] Immediately after the Restoration, the custom began of appointing
+        to naval commands incompetent youths of birth, to the
+        discouragement of those able officers who had been employed under
+        Cromwell. Compare _Burnet's Own Time_, vol. i. p. 290, with
+        _Pepys' Diary_, vol. ii. p. 413, vol. iii. pp. 68, 72.
+
+  [636] _Harris's Lives of the Stuarts_, vol. v. pp. 323-328. The court
+        was so bent on abrogating the charter of the city of London, that
+        Saunders was made chief-justice for the express purpose. See
+        _Campbell's Chief-Justices_, vol. ii. p. 59. Roger North says
+        (_Lives of the Norths_, vol. ii. p. 67), 'Nothing was accounted
+        at court so meritorious as the procuring of charters, as the
+        language then was.' Compare _Bulstrode's Memoirs_, pp. 379, 388.
+
+  [637] The panic caused by this scandalous robbery is described by
+        De Foe; _Wilson's Life of De Foe_, vol. i. p. 52. See also
+        _Calamy's Life of Himself_, vol. i. p. 78; _Parker's Hist. of his
+        Own Time_, pp. 141-143. The amount stolen by the king is
+        estimated at 1,328,526_l._ _Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue_,
+        vol. i. p. 315. According to Lord Campbell, 'nearly a million and
+        a half.' _Lives of the Chancellors_, vol. iv. p. 113.
+
+  [638] There is a very curious account in _Pepys' Diary_, vol. iii.
+        pp. 242-264, of the terror felt by the Londoners on this
+        occasion. Pepys himself buried his gold (p. 261 and pp. 376-379).
+        Evelyn (_Diary_, vol. ii. p. 287) says: 'The alarme was so
+        greate, that it put both country and citty into a paniq, feare,
+        and consternation, such as I hope I shall never see more; every
+        body was flying, none knew why or whither.'
+
+  [639] The most important of these reforms were carried, as is nearly
+        always the case, in opposition to the real wishes of the ruling
+        classes. Charles II. and James II. often said of the Habeas
+        Corpus Act, 'that a government could not subsist with such a
+        law.' _Dalrymple's Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 104. Lord-Keeper
+        Guilford was even opposed to the abolition of military tenures.
+        'He thought,' says his brother, 'the taking away of the tenures a
+        desperate wound to the liberties of the people of England.'
+        _Lives of the Norths_, vol. ii. p. 82. These are the sort of men
+        by whom great nations are governed. A passage in _Life of James,
+        by Himself_, edit. Clarke, vol. ii. p. 621, confirms the
+        statement in Dalrymple, so far as James is concerned. This should
+        be compared with a letter from Louis XIV., in the Barillon
+        correspondence. Appendix to _Fox's James II._ p. cxxiv.
+
+  [640] _Blackstone's Commentaries_, vol. iv. p. 48; _Campbell's
+        Chancellors_, vol. iii. p. 431. This destruction of the writ _De
+        Hæretico comburendo_ was in 1677. It is noticed in _Palmer's
+        Treatise on the Church_, vol. i. p. 500; and in _Collier's
+        Ecclesiast. Hist._ vol. viii. p. 478.
+
+  [641] This was in 1664. See the account of it in _Collier's Ecclesiast.
+        Hist._ vol. viii. pp. 463-466. Collier, who is evidently
+        displeased by the change, says: 'The consenting, therefore, to be
+        taxed by the temporal Commons, makes the clergy more dependent on
+        a foreign body, takes away the right of disposing of their own
+        money, and lays their estates in some measure at discretion.' See
+        also, on the injury this has inflicted on the church, _Lathbury's
+        Hist. of Convocation_, pp. 259, 260. And Coleridge (_Literary
+        Remains_, vol. iv. pp. 152, 153) points this out as
+        characterizing one of the three 'grand evil epochs of our present
+        church.' So marked, however, was the tendency of that time, that
+        this most important measure was peaceably effected by an
+        arrangement between Sheldon and Clarendon. See the notes by
+        Onslow in _Burnet's Own Time_, vol. i. p. 340, vol. iv. pp. 508,
+        509. Compare Lord Camden's statement (_Parl. Hist._ vol. xvi. p.
+        169) with the speech of Lord Bathurst (vol. xxii. p. 77); and of
+        Lord Temple on Tooke's case (vol. xxxv. p. 1357). Mr. Carwithen
+        (_Hist. of the Church of England_, vol. ii. p. 354, Oxford, 1849)
+        grieves over 'this deprivation of the liberties of the English
+        clergy.'
+
+  [642] 13 Car. II. c. 12. Compare _Stephens's Life of Tooke_, vol. i.
+        pp. 169, 170, with _Blackstone's Commentaries_, vol. iii. p. 101.
+        Mr. Hallam (_Const. Hist._ vol. i. pp. 197, 198) has adduced
+        evidence of the way in which the clergy were accustomed to injure
+        their opponents by the _ex-officio_ oath.
+
+  [643] This was the issue of the famous controversy respecting Skinner,
+        in 1669; and 'from this time,' says Mr. Hallam, 'the Lords have
+        tacitly abandoned all pretensions to an original jurisdiction in
+        civil suits.' _Const. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 184. There is an account
+        of this case of Skinner, which was connected with the East-India
+        Company, in _Mill's Hist. of India_, vol. i. pp. 102, 103.
+
+  [644] _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. ii. pp. 189-192; and _Eccleston's
+        English Antiquities_, p. 326. The disputes between the two houses
+        respecting taxation, are noticed very briefly in _Parker's Hist.
+        of his Own Time_, pp. 135, 136.
+
+  [645] The 'famous rights of purveyance and preemption' were abolished by
+        12 Car. II. c. 24. _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 11. Burke,
+        in his magnificent speech on Economical Reform, describes the
+        abuses of the old system of purveyance. _Burke's Works_, vol. i.
+        p. 239. See also _Kemble's Saxons in England_, vol. ii. p. 88,
+        note; _Barrington on the Statutes_, pp. 183-185, 237; _Lingard's
+        Hist. of England_, vol. ii. pp. 338, 339; _Sinclair's Hist. of
+        the Revenue_, vol. i. p. 232; _Parl. Hist._ vol. iii. p. 1299.
+        These passages will give an idea of the iniquities practised
+        under this 'right,' which, like most gross injustices, was one of
+        the good old customs of the British constitution, being at least
+        as ancient as Canute. See _Allen on the Royal Prerogative_, p.
+        152. Indeed, a recent writer of considerable learning (_Spence_,
+        _Origin of the Laws of Europe_, p. 319) derives it from the Roman
+        law. A bill had been brought in to take it away in 1656. See
+        _Burton's Cromwellian Diary_, vol. i. p. 81. When Adam Smith
+        wrote, it still existed in France and Germany. _Wealth of
+        Nations_, book iii. chap. ii. p. 161.
+
+  [646] On the Habeas Corpus Act, which became law in 1679, see
+        _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. iii. pp. 345-347; _Mackintosh_,
+        _Revolution of 1688_, p. 49; and _Lingard's Hist. of England_,
+        vol. viii. p. 17. The peculiarities of this law, as compared with
+        the imitations of it in other countries, are clearly stated in
+        _Meyer_, _Esprit des Institutions Judiciaires_, vol. ii. p. 283.
+        Mr. Lister (_Life of Clarendon_, vol. ii. p. 454) says:
+        'Imprisonment in gaols beyond the seas was not prevented by law
+        till the passing of the Habeas Corpus Act, in 1679.'
+
+  [647] Blackstone (_Commentaries_, vol. iv. p. 439) calls this 'a great
+        and necessary security to private property;' and Lord Campbell
+        (_Chancellors_, vol. iii. p. 423) terms it 'the most important
+        and most beneficial piece of juridical legislation of which we
+        can boast.' On its effects, compare Jones's valuable _Commentary
+        on Isæus_ (_Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iv. p. 239) with
+        _Story's Conflict of Laws_, pp. 521, 522, 627, 884; and _Tayler
+        on Statute Law_, in _Journal of Statistical Society_, vol. xvii.
+        p. 150.
+
+  [648] Lord Campbell (_Lives of the Chancellors_, vol. iii. p. 247) says,
+        that the struggle in 1667 'put an end to general impeachments.'
+
+  [649] Printing at first was regulated by royal proclamations; then by
+        the Star-chamber; and afterwards by the Long Parliament. The
+        decrees of the Star-chamber were taken as the basis of 13 and 14
+        Car. II. c. 33; but this act expired in 1679, and was not renewed
+        during the reign of Charles II. Compare _Blackstone's Comment._
+        vol. iv. p. 152, with _Hunt's Hist. of Newspapers_, vol. i. p.
+        154, and _Fox's Hist. of James II._ p. 146.
+
+  [650] The fullest account I have seen in any history, of this great
+        Revolution, which swept away the traditions and the language of
+        feudalism, is that given in _Harris's Lives of the Stuarts_, vol.
+        iv. pp. 369-378. But Harris, though an industrious collector, was
+        a man of slender ability, and not at all aware of the real nature
+        of a change, of which the obvious and immediately practical
+        results formed the smallest part. The true point of view is, that
+        it was a formal recognition by the legislature that the Middle
+        Ages were extinct, and that it was necessary to inaugurate a more
+        modern and innovating policy. Hereafter I shall have occasion to
+        examine this in detail, and show how it was merely a symptom of a
+        revolutionary movement. In the meantime the reader may refer to
+        the very short notices in _Dalrymple's Hist. of Feudal Property_,
+        p. 89; _Blackstone's Comment._ vol. ii. pp. 76, 77; _Hallam's
+        Const. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 11; _Parl. Hist._ vol. iv. pp. 53, 167,
+        168; _Meyer_, _Institutions Judiciaires_, vol. ii. p. 58.
+
+These were the things which were done in the reign of Charles II.; and
+if we consider the miserable incompetence of the king, the idle
+profligacy of his court, the unblushing venality of his ministers, the
+constant conspiracies to which the country was exposed from within, and
+the unprecedented insults to which it was subjected from without; if we,
+moreover, consider that to all this there were added two natural
+calamities of the most grievous description,--a Great Plague, which
+thinned society in all its ranks, and scattered confusion through the
+kingdom, and a Great Fire, which, besides increasing the mortality from
+the pestilence, destroyed in a moment those accumulations of industry by
+which industry itself is nourished;--if we put all these things
+together, how can we reconcile inconsistencies apparently so gross? How
+could so wonderful a progress be made in the face of these unparalleled
+disasters? How could such men, under such circumstances, effect such
+improvements? These are questions which our political compilers are
+unable to answer; because they look too much at the peculiarities of
+individuals, and too little at the temper of the age in which those
+individuals live. Such writers do not perceive that the history of every
+civilized country is the history of its intellectual development, which
+kings, statesmen, and legislators are more likely to retard than to
+hasten; because, however great their power may be, they are at best the
+accidental and insufficient representatives of the spirit of their time;
+and because, so far from being able to regulate the movements of the
+national mind, they themselves form the smallest part of it, and, in a
+general view of the progress of Man, are only to be regarded as the
+puppets who strut and fret their hour upon a little stage; while, beyond
+them, and on every side of them, are forming opinions and principles
+which they can scarcely perceive, but by which alone the whole course of
+human affairs is ultimately governed.
+
+The truth is, that the vast legislative reforms, for which the reign of
+Charles II. is so remarkable, merely form a part of that movement,
+which, though traceable to a much earlier period, had only for three
+generations been in undisguised operation. These important improvements
+were the result of that bold, sceptical, inquiring, and reforming
+spirit, which had now seized the three great departments of Theology, of
+Science, and of Politics. The old principles of tradition, of authority,
+and of dogma, were gradually becoming weaker; and of course, in the same
+proportion, there was diminished the influence of the classes by whom
+those principles were chiefly upheld. As the power of particular
+sections of society thus declined, the power of the people at large
+increased. The real interests of the nation began to be perceived, so
+soon as the superstitions were dispersed by which those interests had
+long been obscured. This, I believe, is the real solution of what at
+first seems a curious problem,--namely, how it was that such
+comprehensive reforms should have been accomplished in so bad, and in
+many respects so infamous, a reign. It is, no doubt, true, that those
+reforms were essentially the result of the intellectual march of the
+age; but, so far from being made in spite of the vices of the sovereign,
+they were actually aided by them. With the exception of the needy
+profligates who thronged his court, all classes of men soon learned to
+despise a king who was a drunkard, a libertine, and a hypocrite; who had
+neither shame nor sensibility; and who, in point of honour, was unworthy
+to enter the presence of the meanest of his subjects. To have the throne
+filled for a quarter of a century by such a man as this, was the surest
+way of weakening that ignorant and indiscriminate loyalty, to which the
+people have often sacrificed their dearest rights. Thus, the character
+of the king, merely considered from this point of view, was eminently
+favourable to the growth of national liberty.[651] But the advantage
+did not stop there. The reckless debaucheries of Charles made him abhor
+everything approaching to restraint; and this gave him a dislike to a
+class, whose profession, at least, pre-supposes a conduct of more than
+ordinary purity. The consequence was, that he, not from views of
+enlightened policy, but merely from a love of vicious indulgence, always
+had a distaste for the clergy; and, so far from advancing their power,
+frequently expressed for them an open contempt.[652] His most intimate
+friends directed against them those coarse and profligate jokes which
+are preserved in the literature of the time; and which, in the opinion
+of the courtiers, were to be ranked among the noblest specimens of human
+wit. From men of this sort the church had, indeed, little to apprehend;
+but their language, and the favour with which it was received, are part
+of the symptoms by which we may study the temper of that age. Many other
+illustrations will occur to most readers; I may, however, mention one,
+which is interesting on account of the eminence of the philosopher
+concerned in it. The most dangerous opponent of the clergy in the
+seventeenth century, was certainly Hobbes, the subtlest dialectician of
+his time; a writer, too, of singular clearness, and, among British
+metaphysicians, inferior only to Berkeley. This profound thinker
+published several speculations very unfavourable to the church, and
+directly opposed to principles which are essential to ecclesiastical
+authority. As a natural consequence, he was hated by the clergy; his
+doctrines were declared to be highly pernicious; and he was accused of
+wishing to subvert the national religion, and corrupt the national
+morals.[653] So far did this proceed, that, during his life, and for
+several years after his death, every man who ventured to think for
+himself was stigmatized as a Hobbist, or, as it was sometimes called, a
+Hobbian.[654] This marked hostility on the part of the clergy was a
+sufficient recommendation to the favour of Charles. The king, even
+before his accession, had imbibed many of his principles;[655] and,
+after the Restoration, he treated the author with what was deemed a
+scandalous respect. He protected him from his enemies; he somewhat
+ostentatiously hung up his portrait in his own private room at
+Whitehall;[656] and he even conferred a pension on this, the most
+formidable opponent who had yet appeared against the spiritual
+hierarchy.[657]
+
+  [651] Mr. Hallam has a noble passage on the services rendered to English
+        civilization by the vices of the English court: 'We are, however,
+        much indebted to the memory of Barbara Duchess of Cleveland,
+        Louisa Duchess of Portsmouth, and Mrs. Eleanor Gwyn. We owe a
+        tribute of gratitude to the Mays, the Killigrews, the
+        Chiffinches, and the Grammonts. They played a serviceable part in
+        ridding the kingdom of its besotted loyalty. They saved our
+        forefathers from the Star-chamber and the High-commission court;
+        they laboured in their vocation against standing armies and
+        corruption; they pressed forward the great ultimate security of
+        English freedom--the expulsion of the House of Stuart.' _Hallam's
+        Const. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 50.
+
+  [652] Burnet (_Own Time_, vol. i. p. 448) tells us that, in 1667, the
+        king, even at the council-board, expressed himself against the
+        bishops, and said, that the clergy 'thought of nothing but to get
+        good benefices, and to keep a good table.' See also, on his
+        dislike to the bishops, vol. ii. p. 22; and _Pepys' Diary_, vol.
+        iv. p. 2. In another place, vol. iv. p. 42, Pepys writes: 'And I
+        believe the hierarchy will in a little time be shaken, whether
+        they will or no; the king being offended with them, and set upon
+        it, as I hear.' Evelyn, in a conversation with Pepys, noticed
+        with regret such conduct of Charles, 'that a bishop shall never
+        be seen about him, as the king of France hath always.' _Pepys_,
+        vol. iii. p. 201. Evelyn, in his benevolent way, ascribes this to
+        'the negligence of the clergy;' but history teaches us that the
+        clergy have never neglected kings, except when the king has first
+        neglected them. Sir John Reresby gives a curious account of a
+        conversation Charles II. held with him respecting 'mitred heads,'
+        in which the feeling of the king is very apparent. _Reresby's
+        Travels and Memoirs_, p. 238.
+
+  [653] On the animosity of the clergy against Hobbes, and on the extent
+        to which he reciprocated it, compare _Aubrey's Letters and
+        Lives_, vol. ii. pp. 532, 631; _Tennemann_, _Gesch. der Philos._
+        vol. x. p. 111; with the angry language of Burnet (_Own Time_,
+        vol. i. p. 322), and of Whiston (_Memoirs_, p. 251). See also
+        _Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses_, edit. Bliss, vol. iii. p. 1211.
+        Monconys, who was in London in 1663, says of Hobbes, 'Il me dit
+        l'aversion que tous les gens d'église tant catholiques que
+        protestans avoient pour lui.' _Monconys' Voyages_, vol. iii. p.
+        43; and p. 115, 'M. Hobbes, que je trouvai toujours fort ennemi
+        des prêtres catholiques et des protestans.' About the same time,
+        Sorbiere was in London; and he writes respecting Hobbes: 'I know
+        not how it comes to pass, the clergy are afraid of him, and so
+        are the Oxford mathematicians and their adherents; wherefore his
+        majesty (Charles II.) was pleased to make a very good comparison
+        when he told me, he was like a bear, whom they baited with dogs
+        to try him.' _Sorbiere's Voyage to England_, p. 40.
+
+  [654] This was a common expression for whoever attacked established
+        opinions late in the seventeenth, and even early in the
+        eighteenth century. For instances of it, see _Baxter's Life of
+        Himself_, folio, 1696, part iii. p. 48; _Boyle's Works_, vol. v.
+        pp. 505, 510; _Monk's Life of Bentley_, vol. i. p. 41; _Vernon
+        Correspond._ vol. iii. p. 13; _King's Life of Locke_, vol. i. p.
+        191; _Brewster's Life of Newton_, vol. ii. p. 149.
+
+  [655] Burnet says, they 'made deep and lasting impressions on the king's
+        mind.' _Own Time_, vol. i. p. 172.
+
+  [656] A likeness, by Cooper. See _Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses_, edit.
+        Bliss, vol. iii. p. 1208.
+
+  [657] _Sorbiere's Voyage to England_, p. 39; _Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses_,
+        vol. iii. p. 1208. On the popularity of the works of Hobbes in
+        the reign of Charles II. compare _Pepys' Diary_, vol. iv. p. 164,
+        with _Lives of the Norths_, vol. iii. p. 339.
+
+If we look for a moment at the ecclesiastical appointments of Charles,
+we shall find evidence of the same tendency. In his reign, the highest
+dignities in the church were invariably conferred upon men who were
+deficient either in ability or in honesty. It would perhaps be an
+over-refinement to ascribe to the king a deliberate plan for lowering
+the reputation of the episcopal bench; but it is certain, that if he had
+such a plan, he followed the course most likely to effect his purpose.
+For it is no exaggeration to say, that, during his life, the leading
+English prelates were, without exception, either incapable or insincere;
+they were unable to defend what they really believed, or else they did
+not believe what they openly professed. Never before were the interests
+of the Anglican church so feebly guarded. The first Archbishop of
+Canterbury appointed by Charles was Juxon, whose deficiencies were
+notorious; and of whom his friends could only say, that his want of
+ability was compensated by the goodness of his intentions.[658] When he
+died, the king raised up as his successor Sheldon, whom he had
+previously made Bishop of London; and who not only brought discredit on
+his order by acts of gross intolerance,[659] but who was so regardless
+of the common decencies of his station, that he used to amuse his
+associates, by having exhibitions in his own house, imitating the way in
+which the Presbyterians delivered their sermons.[660] After the death of
+Sheldon, Charles appointed to the archbishopric Sancroft; whose
+superstitious fancies exposed him to the contempt even of his own
+profession, and who was as much despised as Sheldon had been hated.[661]
+In the rank immediately below this, we find the same principle at work.
+The three Archbishops of York, during the reign of Charles II., were
+Frewen, Stearn, and Dolben; who were so utterly devoid of ability, that
+notwithstanding their elevated position, they are altogether forgotten,
+not one reader out of a thousand having ever heard their names.[662]
+
+  [658] Bishop Burnet says of him, at his appointment: 'As he was never a
+        great divine, so he was now superannuated.' _Own Time_, vol. i.
+        p. 303.
+
+  [659] Of which his own friend, Bishop Parker, gives a specimen. See
+        _Parker's History of his own Time_, pp. 31-33. Compare _Neal's
+        Hist. of the Puritans_, vol. iv. p. 429; _Wilson's Mem. of De
+        Foe_, vol. i. p. 46.
+
+  [660] In 1669, Pepys was at one of these entertainments, which took
+        place not only at the house, but in the presence of the
+        archbishop. See the scandalous details in _Pepys' Diary_, vol.
+        iv. pp. 321, 322; or in _Wilson's De Foe_, vol. i. pp. 44, 45.
+
+  [661] Burnet, who knew Sancroft, calls him 'a poor-spirited and fearful
+        man' (_Own Time_, vol. iii. p. 354); and mentions (vol. iii. p.
+        138) an instance of his superstition, which will be easily
+        believed by whoever has read his ridiculous sermons, which D'Oyly
+        has wickedly published. See Appendix to _D'Oyly's Sancroft_, pp.
+        339-420. Dr. Lake says that everybody was amazed when it was
+        known that Sancroft was to be archbishop. _Lake's Diary_, 30th
+        Dec. 1677, p. 18, in vol. i. of the _Camden Miscellany_, 1847,
+        4to. His character, so far as he had one, is fairly drawn by Dr.
+        Birch: 'slow, timorous, and narrow-spirited, but at the same time
+        a good, honest, and well-meaning man.' _Birch's Life of
+        Tillotson_, p. 151. See also respecting him, _Macaulay's Hist. of
+        England_, vol. ii. p. 616, vol. iii. p. 77, vol. iv. pp. 40-42.
+
+  [662] Frewen was so obscure a man, that there is no life of him either
+        in _Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary_, or in Rose's more
+        recent, but inferior work. The little that is known of Stearn, or
+        Sterne, is unfavourable. Compare _Burnet_, vol. ii. p. 427, with
+        _Baxter's Life of Himself_, folio, 1696, part ii. p. 338. And of
+        Dolben I have been unable to collect anything of interest, except
+        that he had a good library. See the traditionary account in
+        _Jones's Memoirs of Bishop Horne_, p. 66.
+
+Such appointments as these are indeed striking; and what makes them more
+so, is, that they were by no means necessary; they were not forced on
+the king by court intrigue, nor was there a lack of more competent men.
+The truth seems to be, that Charles was unwilling to confer
+ecclesiastical promotion upon any one who had ability enough to increase
+the authority of the church, and restore it to its former pre-eminence.
+At his accession, the two ablest of the clergy were undoubtedly Jeremy
+Taylor and Isaac Barrow. Both of them were notorious for their loyalty;
+both of them were men of unspotted virtue; and both of them have left a
+reputation which will hardly perish while the English language is
+remembered. But Taylor, though he had married the king's sister,[663]
+was treated with marked neglect; and, being exiled to an Irish
+bishopric, had to pass the remainder of his life in what, at that time,
+was truly called a barbarous country.[664] As to Barrow, who, in point
+of genius, was probably superior to Taylor,[665] he had the
+mortification of seeing the most incapable men raised to the highest
+posts in the church, while he himself was unnoticed; and,
+notwithstanding that his family had greatly suffered in the royal
+cause,[666] he received no sort of preferment until five years before
+his death, when the king conferred on him the mastership of Trinity
+College, Cambridge.[667]
+
+  [663] His wife was Joanna Bridges, a bastard of Charles I. Compare
+        _Notes and Queries_, vol. vii. p. 305, with _Heber's Life of
+        Jeremy Taylor_, in _Taylor's Works_, vol. i. p. xxxiv. Bishop
+        Heber, p. xxxv. adds, 'But, notwithstanding the splendour of such
+        an alliance, there is no reason to believe that it added
+        materially to Taylor's income.'
+
+  [664] Coleridge (_Lit. Remains_, vol. iii. p. 208) says, that this
+        neglect of Jeremy Taylor by Charles 'is a problem of which
+        perhaps his virtues present the most probable solution.'
+
+  [665] Superior, certainly, in comprehensiveness, and in the range of his
+        studies; so that it is aptly said by a respectable authority,
+        that he was at once 'the great precursor of Sir Isaac Newton, and
+        the pride of the English pulpit.' _Wordsworth's Ecclesiast.
+        Biog._ vol. iv. p. 344. See also, respecting Barrow, _Montucla_,
+        _Hist. des Mathémat._ vol. ii. pp. 88, 89, 359, 360, 504, 505,
+        vol. iii. pp. 436-438.
+
+  [666] 'His father having suffered greatly in his estate by his
+        attachment to the royal cause.' _Chalmers's Biog. Dict._ vol. iv.
+        p. 39.
+
+  [667] Barrow, displeased at not receiving preferment after the
+        Restoration, wrote the lines:
+
+        'Te magis optavit rediturum Carole nemo;
+          Et sensit nemo te rediisse minus.'
+
+        _Hamilton's Life of Barrow_, in _Barrow's Works_, Edinb. 1845,
+        vol. i. p. xxiii.
+
+It is hardly necessary to point out how all this must have tended to
+weaken the church, and accelerate that great movement for which the
+reign of Charles II. is remarkable.[668] At the same time, there were
+many other circumstances which, in this preliminary sketch, it is
+impossible to notice, but which were stamped with the general character
+of revolt against ancient authority. In a subsequent volume, this will
+be placed in a still clearer light, because I shall have an opportunity
+of bringing forward evidence which, from the abundance of its details,
+would be unsuited to the present Introduction. Enough, however, has been
+stated, to indicate the general march of the English mind, and supply
+the reader with a clue by which he may understand those still more
+complicated events, which, as the seventeenth century advanced, began to
+thicken upon us.
+
+  [668] Everything Mr. Macaulay has said on the contempt into which the
+        clergy fell in the reign of Charles II. is perfectly accurate;
+        and from evidence which I have collected, I know that this very
+        able writer, of whose immense research few people are competent
+        judges, has rather understated the case than overstated it. On
+        several subjects I should venture to differ from Mr. Macaulay;
+        but I cannot refrain from expressing my admiration of his
+        unwearied diligence, of the consummate skill with which he has
+        arranged his materials, and of the noble love of liberty which
+        animates his entire work. These are qualities which will long
+        survive the aspersions of his puny detractors,--men who, in point
+        of knowledge and ability, are unworthy to loosen the shoe-latchet
+        of him they foolishly attack.
+
+A few years before the death of Charles II., the clergy made a great
+effort to recover their former power by reviving those doctrines of
+Passive Obedience and Divine Right, which are obviously favourable to
+the progress of superstition.[669] But as the English intellect was now
+sufficiently advanced to reject such dogmas, this futile attempt only
+increased the opposition between the interests of the people as a body,
+and the interests of the clergy as a class. Scarcely had this scheme
+been defeated, when the sudden death of Charles placed on the throne a
+prince whose most earnest desire was to restore the Catholic church, and
+reinstate among us that mischievous system which openly boasts of
+subjugating the reason of Man. This change in affairs was, if we
+consider it in its ultimate results, the most fortunate circumstance
+which could have happened to our country. In spite of the difference of
+their religion, the English clergy had always displayed an affection
+towards James, whose reverence for the priesthood they greatly admired;
+though they were anxious that the warmth of his affections should be
+lavished on the Church of England and not on the Church of Rome. They
+were sensible of the advantages which would accrue to their own order,
+if his piety could be turned into a new channel.[670] They saw that it
+was for his interest to abandon his religion; and they thought that to a
+man so cruel and so vicious, his own interest would be the sole
+consideration.[671] The consequence was, that in one of the most
+critical moments of his life, they made in his favour a great and
+successful effort; and they not only used all their strength to defeat
+the bill by which it was proposed to exclude him from the succession,
+but when the measure was rejected, they presented an address to Charles,
+congratulating him on the result.[672] When James actually mounted the
+throne, they continued to display the same spirit. Whether they still
+hoped for his conversion, or whether, in their eagerness to persecute
+the dissenters, they overlooked the danger to their own church, is
+uncertain; but it is one of the most singular and unquestionable facts
+in our history, that for some time there existed a strict alliance
+between a Protestant hierarchy and a Popish king.[673] The terrible
+crimes which were the result of this compact are but too notorious. But
+what is more worthy of attention is, the circumstance that caused the
+dissolution of this conspiracy between the crown and the church. The
+ground of the quarrel was an attempt made by the king to effect, in some
+degree, a religious toleration. By the celebrated Test and Corporation
+Acts, it had been ordered, that all persons who were employed by
+government should be compelled, under a heavy penalty, to receive the
+sacrament according to the rites of the English church. The offence of
+James was, that he now issued what was called a Declaration of
+Indulgence, in which he announced his intention of suspending the
+execution of these laws.[674] From this moment, the position of the two
+great parties was entirely changed. The bishops clearly perceived that
+the statutes which it was thus attempted to abrogate, were highly
+favourable to their own power; and hence, in their opinion, formed an
+essential part of the constitution of a Christian country. They had
+willingly combined with James, while he assisted them in persecuting men
+who worshipped God in a manner different from themselves.[675] So long
+as this compact held good, they were indifferent as to matters which
+they considered to be of minor importance. They looked on in silence,
+while the king was amassing the materials with which he hoped to turn a
+free government into an absolute monarchy.[676] They saw Jeffreys and
+Kirke torturing their fellow-subjects; they saw the gaols crowded with
+prisoners, and the scaffold streaming with blood.[677] They were well
+pleased that some of the best and ablest men in the kingdom should be
+barbarously persecuted; that Baxter should be thrown into prison, and
+that Howe should be forced into exile. They witnessed with composure the
+most revolting cruelties, because the victims of them were the opponents
+of the English church. Although the minds of men were filled with terror
+and with loathing, the bishops made no complaint. They preserved their
+loyalty unimpaired, and insisted on the necessity of humble submission
+to the Lord's anointed.[678] But the moment James proposed to protect
+against persecution those who were hostile to the church; the moment he
+announced his intention of breaking down that monopoly of offices and of
+honours which the bishops had long secured for their own party;--the
+moment this took place, the hierarchy became alive to the dangers with
+which the country was threatened from the violence of so arbitrary a
+prince.[679] The king had laid his hand on the ark, and the guardians of
+the temple flew to arms. How could they tolerate a prince who would not
+allow them to persecute their enemies? How could they support a
+sovereign who sought to favour those who differed from the national
+church? They soon determined on the line of conduct it behoved them to
+take. With an almost unanimous voice, they refused to obey the order by
+which the king commanded them to read in their churches the edict for
+religious toleration.[680] Nor did they stop there. So great was their
+enmity against him they had recently cherished, that they actually
+applied for aid to those very dissenters whom, only a few weeks before,
+they had hotly persecuted; seeking by magnificent promises to win over
+to their side men they had hitherto hunted even to the death.[681] The
+most eminent of the Nonconformists were far from being duped by this
+sudden affection.[682] But their hatred of Popery, and their fear of the
+ulterior designs of the king, prevailed over every other consideration;
+and there arose that singular combination between churchmen and
+dissenters, which has never since been repeated. This coalition, backed
+by the general voice of the people, soon overturned the throne, and gave
+rise to what is justly deemed one of the most important events in the
+history of England.
+
+  [669] _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. ii. pp. 142, 143, 153-156; from which
+        it appears that this movement began about 1681. The clergy, as a
+        body, are naturally favourable to this doctrine; and the
+        following passage, published only twelve years ago, will give the
+        reader an idea of the views that some of them entertain. The Rev.
+        Mr. Sewell (_Christian Politics_, Lond. 1844, p. 157) says, that
+        the reigning prince is 'a being armed with supreme physical power
+        by the hand and permission of Providence; as such, the lord of
+        our property, the master of our lives, the fountain of honour,
+        the dispenser of law, before whom each subject must surrender his
+        will and conform his actions.... Who, when he errs, errs as a
+        man, and not as a king, and is responsible, not to man, but to
+        God.' And at p. 111, the same writer informs us that the church,
+        'with one uniform, unhesitating voice, has proclaimed the duty of
+        "passive obedience."' See also on this slavish tenet, as upheld
+        by the church, _Wordsworth's Ecclesiast. Biog._ vol. iv. p. 668;
+        _Life of Ken, by a Layman_, vol. ii. p. 523; _Lathbury's Hist. of
+        Convocation_, p. 228; _Lathbury's Nonjurors_, pp. 50, 135, 197;
+        and a letter from Nelson, author of the _Fasts and Festivals_, in
+        _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. iv. p. 216. With good reason,
+        therefore, did Fox tell the House of Commons, that 'by being a
+        good churchman, a person might become a bad citizen.' _Parl.
+        Hist._ vol. xxix. p. 1377.
+
+  [670] The Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1678, was engaged in an attempt
+        to convert James; and in a letter to the Bishop of Winchester, he
+        notices the 'happy consequences' which would result from his
+        success. See this characteristic letter in _Clarendon Corresp._
+        vol. ii. pp. 465, 466. See also the motives of the bishops,
+        candidly but broadly stated, in Mr. Wilson's valuable work, _Life
+        of De Foe_, vol. i. p. 74.
+
+  [671] In a high-church pamphlet, published in 1682, against the Bill of
+        Exclusion, the cause of James is advocated; but the inconvenience
+        he would suffer by remaining a Catholic is strongly insisted
+        upon. See the wily remarks in _Somers Tracts_, vol. viii.
+        pp. 258, 259.
+
+  [672] _Wordsworth's Ecclesiast. Biog._ vol. iv. p. 665. On their
+        eagerness against the bill, see _Harris's Lives of the Stuarts_,
+        vol. v. p. 181; _Burnet's Own Time_, vol. ii. p. 246; _Somers
+        Tracts_, vol. x. pp. 216, 253; _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol.
+        iii. p. 353; _Carwithen's Hist. of the Church of England_, vol.
+        ii. p. 431.
+
+  [673] At the accession of James II. 'the pulpits throughout England
+        resounded with thanksgivings; and a numerous set of addresses
+        flattered his Majesty, in the strongest expressions, with
+        assurances of unshaken loyalty and obedience, without limitation
+        or reserve.' _Neal's Hist. of the Puritans_, vol. v. p. 2. See
+        also _Calamy's Life_, vol. i. p. 118.
+
+  [674] On the 18th March, 1687, the king announced to the Privy Council
+        that he had determined 'to grant, by his own authority, entire
+        liberty of conscience to all his subjects. On the 4th April
+        appeared the memorable Declaration of Indulgence.' _Macaulay's
+        Hist. of England_, vol. ii. p. 211; and see _Life of James II._,
+        edited by Clarke, vol. ii, p. 112. There is a summary of the
+        Declaration in _Neal's Hist. of the Puritans_, vol. v. pp. 30,
+        31. As to the second Declaration, see _Macaulay_, vol. ii. pp.
+        344, 345; _Clarendon Correspond._ vol. ii. p. 170.
+
+  [675] It was in the autumn of 1685, that the clergy and the government
+        persecuted the dissenters with the greatest virulence. See
+        _Macaulay's Hist._ vol. i. pp. 667, 668. Compare _Neal's Hist. of
+        the Puritans_, vol. v. pp. 4-12, with a letter from Lord
+        Clarendon, dated 21st December 1685, in _Clarendon Correspond._
+        vol. i. p. 192. It is said (_Burnet's Own Time_, vol. iii. pp.
+        175, 176), that on many occasions the church party made use of
+        the ecclesiastical courts to extort money from the
+        Nonconformists; and for confirmation of this, see _Mackintosh's
+        Revolution of 1688_, pp. 173, 640.
+
+  [676] It appears from the accounts in the War Office, that James, even
+        in the first year of his reign, had a standing army of nearly
+        20,000 men. _Mackintosh's Revolution_, pp. 3, 77, 688: 'A
+        disciplined army of about 20,000 men was, for the first time,
+        established during peace in this island.' As this naturally
+        inspired great alarm, the king gave out that the number did not
+        exceed 15,000. _Life of James II._, edited by Clarke, vol. ii.
+        pp. 52, 57.
+
+  [677] Compare _Burnet_, vol. iii. pp. 55-62, with _Dalrymple's Memoirs_,
+        vol. i. part i. book ii. pp. 198-203. Ken, so far as I remember,
+        was the only one who set his face against these atrocities. He
+        was a very humane man, and did what he could to mitigate the
+        sufferings of the prisoners in Monmouth's rebellion; but it is
+        not mentioned that he attempted to stop the persecutions directed
+        against the innocent Nonconformists, who were barbarously
+        punished, not because they rebelled, but because they dissented.
+        _Life of Ken, by a Layman_, vol. i. p. 298.
+
+  [678] 'From the conduct of the clergy in this and the former reign, it
+        is quite clear, that if the king had been a Protestant, of the
+        profession of the Church of England, or even a quiet, submissive
+        Catholic, without any zeal for his religion,--confining himself
+        solely to matters of state, and having a proper respect for
+        church property,--he might have plundered other Protestants at
+        his pleasure, and have trampled upon the liberties of his
+        country, without the danger of resistance.' _Wilson's Life of De
+        Foe_, vol. i. p. 136. Or, as Fox says, 'Thus, as long as James
+        contented himself with absolute power in civil matters, and did
+        not make use of his authority against the church, everything went
+        smooth and easy.' _Fox's Hist. of James II._, p. 165.
+
+  [679] Compare _Neal's Hist. of the Puritans_, vol. v. p. 58, with _Life
+        of James II._, edit. Clarke, vol. ii. p. 70; where it is well
+        said, that the clergy of the Church of England 'had preached
+        prerogative and the sovereign power to the highest pitch, while
+        it was favourable to them; but when they apprehended the least
+        danger from it, they cried out as soon as the shoe pinched,
+        though it was of their own putting on.' See also pp. 113, 164.
+        What their servility was to the crown, while they thought that
+        the crown was with them, may be estimated from the statement of
+        De Foe: 'I have heard it publicly preached, that if the king
+        commanded my head, and sent his messengers to fetch it, I was
+        bound to submit, and stand while it was cut off.' _Wilson's Life
+        of De Foe_, vol. i. p. 118.
+
+  [680] D'Oyly (_Life of Sancroft_, p. 164) says, 'On the whole, it is
+        supposed that not more than 200 out of the whole body of clergy,
+        estimated at 10,000, complied with the king's requisition.' 'Only
+        seven obeyed in the city of London, and not above 200 all England
+        over.' _Burnet's Own Time_, vol. iii. p. 218. On Sunday, 20th May
+        1688, Lord Clarendon writes: 'I was at St. James's church; in the
+        evening I had an account that the Declaration was read only in
+        four churches in the city and liberties.' _Clarendon Corresp._
+        vol. ii. pp. 172, 173. When this conduct became known, it was
+        observed that the church 'supported the crown only so long as she
+        dictated to it; and became rebellious at the moment when she was
+        forbidden to be intolerant.' _Mackintosh's Revolution of 1688_,
+        p. 255.
+
+  [681] The first advances were made when the Declaration of the king in
+        favour of 'liberty of conscience' was on the point of being
+        issued, and immediately after the proceedings at Oxford had shown
+        his determination to break down the monopoly of offices possessed
+        by the church. 'The clergy at the same time prayed and entreated
+        the dissenters to appear on their side, and stand by the
+        Establishment, making large promises of favour and brotherly
+        affection if ever they came into power.' _Neal's Hist. of the
+        Puritans_, vol. v. p. 29. See also, at pp. 58, 59, the
+        conciliating letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury after the
+        Declaration. 'Such,' says Neal, 'such was the language of the
+        church in distress!' Compare _Birch's Life of Tillotson_, p. 153;
+        _Ellis's Correspond._ vol. ii. p. 63; _Ellis's Orig. Letters_,
+        2nd series, vol. iv. p. 117; _Mackintosh's Revolution_, p. 286;
+        _Somers Tracts_, vol. ix. p. 132; _Macaulay's Hist. of England_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 218, 219.
+
+  [682] See the indignant language of De Foe _Wilson's Life of De Foe_,
+        vol. i. pp. 130, 131, 133, 134; and a _Letter from a Dissenter to
+        the Petitioning Bishops_, in _Somers Tracts_, vol. ix. pp. 117,
+        118. The writer says: 'Pray, my lords, let me ask you a question.
+        Suppose the king, instead of his Declaration, had issued out a
+        proclamation, commanding justices of the peace, constables,
+        informers, and all other persons, to be more rigorous, if
+        possible, against dissenters, and do their utmost to the perfect
+        quelling and destroying them; and had ordered this to be read in
+        your churches in the time of divine service,--would you have made
+        any scruple of that?'
+
+Thus it was, that the proximate cause of that great revolution which
+cost James his crown, was the publication by the king of an edict of
+religious toleration, and the consequent indignation of the clergy at
+seeing so audacious an act performed by a Christian prince. It is true,
+that if other things had not conspired, this alone could never have
+effected so great a change. But it was the immediate cause of it,
+because it was the cause of the schism between the church and the
+throne, and of the alliance between the church and the dissenters. This
+is a fact never to be forgotten. We ought never to forget, that the
+first and only time the Church of England has made war upon the crown,
+was when the crown had declared its intention of tolerating, and in some
+degree protecting, the rival religions of the country.[683] There is no
+doubt that the Declaration which was then issued was illegal, and that
+it was conceived in an insidious spirit. But declarations equally
+illegal, equally insidious, and much more tyrannical, had on other
+occasions been made by the sovereign, without exciting the anger of the
+clergy.[684] These are things which it is good for us to ponder. These
+are lessons of inestimable value for those to whom it is given, not,
+indeed, to direct, but in some degree to modify, the march of public
+opinion. As to the people in general, it is impossible for them to
+exaggerate the obligations which they and all of us owe to the
+Revolution of 1688. But let them take heed that superstition does not
+mingle with their gratitude. Let them admire that majestic edifice of
+national liberty, which stands alone in Europe like a beacon in the
+midst of the waters; but let them not think that they owe anything to
+men who, in contributing to its erection, sought the gratification of
+their own selfishness, and the consolidation of that spiritual power
+which by it they fondly hoped to secure.
+
+  [683] That this was the immediate cause, so far as the head of the
+        church-party was concerned, is unblushingly avowed by the
+        biographer and defender of the then Archbishop of Canterbury.
+        'The order published from the king in council, May 4th, 1688,
+        directing the archbishops and bishops to send to the clergy in
+        their respective dioceses the Declaration for Liberty of
+        Conscience, to be publicly read in all the churches of the
+        kingdom, made it impossible for the Archbishop of Canterbury to
+        abstain any longer from engaging in an open and declared
+        opposition to the counsels under which the king was now unhappily
+        acting.' _D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft_, p. 151.
+
+  [684] Some writers have attempted to defend the clergy, on the ground
+        that they thought it illegal to publish a declaration of this
+        kind. But such a defence is incompatible with their doctrine of
+        passive obedience; and besides this, it was contradicted by
+        precedents and decisions of their own. Jeremy Taylor, in his
+        _Ductor Dubitantium_, their great work of authority, asserts that
+        'the unlawful proclamations and edicts of a true prince may be
+        published by the clergy in their several charges.' _Heber's Life
+        of Taylor_, p. cclxxxvi. Heber adds: 'I wish I had not found this
+        in Taylor; and I thank Heaven that the principle was not adopted
+        by the English clergy in 1687.' But why was it not adopted in
+        1687? Simply because in 1687 the king attacked the monopoly
+        enjoyed by the clergy; and therefore the clergy forgot their
+        principle, that they might smite their enemy. And what makes the
+        motives of this change still more palpable is, that as late as
+        1681, the Archbishop of Canterbury caused the clergy to read a
+        Declaration issued by Charles II.; and that in a revised copy of
+        the Liturgy he had also added to the rubric to the same effect.
+        See _Neal's Hist. of the Puritans_, vol. v. p. 56. Compare
+        _Calamy's Own Life_, vol. i. pp. 199, 200; _Mackintosh's
+        Revolution_, pp. 242, 243; _D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft_, p. 152;
+        _King's Life of Locke_, vol. i. p. 259; _Life of James II._,
+        edit. Clarke, vol. ii. p. 156.
+
+It is, indeed, difficult to conceive the full amount of the impetus
+given to English civilization by the expulsion of the House of Stuart.
+Among the most immediate results, may be mentioned the limits that were
+set to the royal prerogative;[685] the important steps that were taken
+towards religious toleration;[686] the remarkable and permanent
+improvement in the administration of justice;[687] the final abolition
+of a censorship over the press;[688] and, what has not excited
+sufficient attention, the rapid growth, of those great monetary
+interests by which, as we shall hereafter see, the prejudices of the
+superstitious classes have in no small degree been counterbalanced.[689]
+These are the main characteristics of the reign of William III.; a reign
+often aspersed, and little understood,[690] but of which it may be truly
+said, that, taking its difficulties into due consideration, it is the
+most successful and the most splendid recorded in the history of any
+country. But these topics rather belong to the subsequent volumes of
+this work; and at present we are only concerned in tracing the effects
+of the Revolution upon that ecclesiastical power by which it was
+immediately brought about.
+
+  [685] They are summed up in a popular pamphlet ascribed to Lord Somers,
+        and printed in _Somers Tracts_, vol. x. pp. 263, 264. The
+        diminished respect felt for the crown after 1688 is judiciously
+        noticed in _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. i. p. 9.
+
+  [686] The Toleration Act was passed in 1689. A copy of it is given by
+        the historians of the dissenters, who call it their Magna Charta.
+        See _Bogue and Bennett's History of the Dissenters_, vol. i. pp.
+        187-198. The historian of the Catholics equally allows that the
+        reign of William III. is 'the era from which their enjoyment of
+        religious toleration may be dated.' _Butler's Memoirs of the
+        Catholics_, vol. iii. pp. 122, 139. This is said by Mr. Butler in
+        regard, not to the Protestant dissenters, but to the Catholics;
+        so that we have the admission of both parties as to the
+        importance of this epoch. Even the shameful act forced upon
+        William in 1700 was, as Mr. Hallam truly says, evaded in its
+        worst provisions. _Const. Hist._ vol. ii. pp. 332, 333.
+
+  [687] _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. iv. pp. 102, 355, and his
+        _Chief-Justices_, vol. ii. pp. 95, 116, 118, 136, 142, 143. See
+        also _Barrington's Observations on the Statutes_, pp. 23, 102,
+        558; and even _Alison's Hist. of Europe_, vol. i. p. 236, vol.
+        ix. p. 243; an unwary concession from such an enemy to popular
+        liberty.
+
+  [688] This was effected before the end of the seventeenth century. See
+        _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. iv. pp. 121, 122. Compare Lord
+        Camden on Literary Property, in _Parl. Hist._ vol. xvii. p. 994;
+        _Hunt's History of Newspapers_, vol. i. pp. 161, 162; _Somers
+        Tracts_, vol. xiii. p. 555; and a more detailed account in
+        _Macaulay's Hist. of England_, vol. iv. pp. 348 seq. 540 seq.;
+        though Mr. Macaulay in ascribing, p. 353, so much to the
+        influence of Blount, has not, I think, sufficiently dwelt on the
+        operation of larger and more general causes.
+
+  [689] Mr. Cooke (_Hist. of Party_, vol. ii. pp. 5, 148) notices this
+        remarkable rise of the monied classes early in the eighteenth
+        century; but he merely observes, that the consequence was to
+        strengthen the Whig party. Though this is undoubtedly true, the
+        ultimate results, as I shall hereafter point out, were far more
+        important than any political or even economical consequences. It
+        was not till 1694 that the Bank of England was established; and
+        this great institution at first met with the warmest opposition
+        from the admirers of old times, who thought it must be useless
+        because their ancestors did without it. See the curious details
+        in _Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue_, vol. iii. pp. 6-9; and on
+        the connexion between it and the Whigs, see _Macaulay's Hist. of
+        England_, vol. iv. p. 502. There is a short account of its origin
+        and progress in _Smith's Wealth of Nations_, book ii. chap. ii.
+        p. 130.
+
+  [690] Frequently misunderstood, even by those who praise it. Thus, for
+        instance, a living writer informs us that, 'great as have been
+        the obligations which England owes, in many different views, to
+        the Revolution, it is beyond all question the greatest, that it
+        brought in a sovereign instructed in the art of overcoming the
+        ignorant impatience of taxation which is the invariable
+        characteristic of free communities; and thus gave it a government
+        capable of turning to the best account the activity and energy of
+        its inhabitants, at the same time that it had the means given it
+        of maintaining their independence.' _Alison's Hist. of Europe_,
+        vol. vii. p. 5. This, I should suppose, is the most eccentric
+        eulogy ever passed on William III.
+
+Scarcely had the clergy succeeded in expelling James, when the greater
+number of them repented of their own act.[691] Indeed, even before he
+was driven from the country, several things had occurred to make them
+doubt the policy of the course they were pursuing. During the last few
+weeks that he was allowed to reign, he had shown symptoms of increasing
+respect for the English hierarchy. The archbishopric of York had so long
+been vacant, as to cause a belief that it was the intention of the crown
+either to appoint to it a Catholic, or else to seize its revenues.[692]
+But James, to the delight of the church, now filled up this important
+office by nominating Lamplugh, who was well known to be a stanch
+churchman and a zealous defender of episcopal privileges.[693] Just
+before this, the king also rescinded the order by which the Bishop of
+London had been suspended from the exercise of his functions.[694] To
+the bishops in general he made great promises of future favour;[695]
+some of them, it was said, were to be called to his privy council; and,
+in the meantime, he cancelled that ecclesiastical commission which, by
+limiting their power, had excited their anger.[696] Besides this, there
+occurred some other circumstances which the clergy now had to consider.
+It was rumoured, and it was generally believed, that William was no
+great admirer of ecclesiastical establishments; and that, being a friend
+to toleration, he was more likely to diminish the power than increase
+the privileges of the English hierarchy.[697] It was also known that he
+favoured the Presbyterians, whom the Church not unreasonably regarded as
+her bitterest enemies.[698] And when, in addition to all this, William,
+on mere grounds of expediency, actually abolished episcopacy in
+Scotland, it became evident that, by thus repudiating the doctrine of
+divine right, he had directed a great blow against those opinions on
+which, in England, ecclesiastical authority was based.[699]
+
+  [691] On their sudden repentance, and on the causes of it, see _Neal's
+        Hist. of the Puritans_, vol. v. p. 71.
+
+  [692] _Mackintosh's Revolution of 1688_, pp. 81, 191. After the death of
+        Archbishop Dolben, 'the see was kept vacant for more than two
+        years,' and Cartwright hoped to obtain it. See _Cartwright's
+        Diary_, by Hunter, 4to, 1843, p. 45. In the same way, we find
+        from a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury (_Clarendon
+        Corresp._ vol. i. p. 409) that in May 1686 uneasiness was felt
+        because the Irish bishoprics were not filled up. Compare
+        _Burnet_, vol. iii. p. 103. Carwithen (_Hist. of the Ch. of
+        England_, vol. ii. p. 492) says, that James had intended to raise
+        the Jesuit Petre to the archbishopric.
+
+  [693] Lamplugh was translated from the bishopric of Exeter to the
+        archbishopric of York in November 1688. See the contemporary
+        account in the _Ellis Correspondence_, vol. ii. p. 303, and
+        _Ellis's Original Letters_, second series, vol. iv. p. 151. He
+        was a most orthodox man; and not only hated the dissenters, but
+        showed his zeal by persecuting them. _Wilson's Life of De Foe_,
+        vol. i. pp. 94, 95. Compare an anecdote of him in _Baxter's Life
+        of Himself_, folio, 1696, part iii. pp. 178, 179.
+
+  [694] In a letter, dated London, 29th September 1688 (_Ellis_,
+        _Correspondence_, vol. ii. p. 224, and _Ellis's Orig. Letters_,
+        second series, vol. iv. p. 128), it is stated, that the Bishop of
+        London's 'suspension is taken off.' See also _Somers Tracts_,
+        vol. ix. p. 215. This is the more observable, because, according
+        to Johnstone, there was an intention, in December 1687, of
+        depriving him. _Mackintosh's Revolution_, pp. 211, 212.
+
+  [695] This disposition on the part of the king again to favour the
+        bishops and the church became a matter of common remark in
+        September 1688. See _Ellis Correspond._ vol. ii. pp. 201, 202,
+        209, 219, 224, 225, 226, 227; _Clarendon Correspond._ vol. ii.
+        pp. 188, 192. Sir John Reresby, who was then in London, writes,
+        in October 1688, that James 'begins again to court the Church of
+        England.' _Reresby's Memoirs_, p. 357. Indeed, the difficulties
+        of James were now becoming so great, that he had hardly any
+        choice.
+
+  [696] _Ellis Correspond._ vol. ii. p. 211; _Life of James II._, edit.
+        Clarke, vol. ii. p. 189.
+
+  [697] In November 1687, it was said that he wished the dissenters to
+        have 'entire liberty for the full exercise of their religion,'
+        and to be freed 'from the severity of the penal laws.' _Somers
+        Tracts_, vol. ix. p. 184. This is the earliest distinct notice I
+        have seen of William's desire to deprive the church of the power
+        of punishing nonconformists; but after he arrived in England his
+        intentions became obvious. In January 1688-9 the friends of the
+        church complained 'that the countenance he gave the dissenters
+        gave too much cause of jealousy to the Church of England.'
+        _Clarendon Correspond._ vol. ii. p. 238. Compare _Neal's Hist. of
+        the Puritans_, vol. v. p. 81; _Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of the
+        Dissenters_, vol. ii. p. 318; _Birch's Life of Tillotson_, pp.
+        156, 157; _Somers Tracts_, vol. x. p. 341, vol. xi. p. 108.
+        Burnet, in his summary of the character of William, observes
+        that, 'his indifference as to the forms of church-government, and
+        his being zealous for toleration, together with his cold
+        behaviour towards the clergy, gave them generally very ill
+        impressions of him.' _Own Time_, vol. iv. p. 550. At p. 192 the
+        bishop says, 'He took no notice of the clergy, and seemed to have
+        little concern in the matters of the church or of religion.'
+
+  [698] Sir John Reresby, who was an attentive observer of what was going
+        on, says, 'The prince, upon his arrival, seemed more inclined to
+        the Presbyterians than to the members of the church; which
+        startled the clergy.' _Reresby's Memoirs_, p. 375: see also pp.
+        399, 405: 'the church-people hated the Dutch, and had rather turn
+        Papists than receive the Presbyterians among them.' Compare
+        _Evelyn's Diary_, vol. iii. p. 281: 'the Presbyterians, our new
+        governors.'
+
+  [699] Burnet (_Own Time_, vol. iv. p. 50) says of the clergy in 1689:
+        'The king was suspected by them, by reason of the favour showed
+        to dissenters; but chiefly for his abolishing episcopacy in
+        Scotland, and his consenting to the setting up presbytery there.'
+        On this great change, compare _Bogue and Bennett's History of
+        Dissenters_, vol. ii. pp. 379-384; _Barry's Hist. of the Orkney
+        Islands_, p. 257; _Neal's Hist. of the Puritans_, vol. v. pp. 85,
+        86: and on the indignation felt by the Anglican clergy at the
+        abolition of episcopacy in Scotland, see a contemporary pamphlet
+        in _Somers Tracts_, vol. ix. pp. 510, 516, where fears are
+        expressed lest William should effect a similar measure in
+        England. The writer very fairly observes, p. 522, 'For if we give
+        up the _jus divinum_ of episcopacy in Scotland, we must yield it
+        also as to England. And then we are wholly precarious.' See also
+        vol. x. pp. 341, 503; _Lathbury's Hist. of Convocation_, pp. 277,
+        278; and _Macpherson's Original Papers_, vol. i. p. 509.
+
+While these things were agitating the public mind, the eyes of men were
+naturally turned upon the bishops, who, though they had lost much of
+their former power, were still respected by a large majority of the
+people as the guardians of the national religion. But at this critical
+moment they were so blinded, either by their ambition or by their
+prejudices, that they adopted a course which of all others was the most
+injurious to their reputation. They made a sudden attempt to reverse
+that political movement of which they were themselves the principal
+originators. Their conduct on this occasion amply confirms that account
+of their motives which I have already given. If, in aiding those
+preliminary measures by which the Revolution was effected, they had been
+moved by a desire of relieving the nation from despotism, they would
+have eagerly welcomed that great man at whose approach the despot took
+to flight. This is what the clergy would have done, if they had loved
+their country better than they loved their order. But they pursued a
+precisely opposite course; because they preferred the petty interests of
+their own class to the welfare of the great body of the people, and
+because they would rather that the country should be oppressed than that
+the church should be humbled. Nearly the whole of the bishops and clergy
+had, only a few weeks before, braved the anger of their sovereign sooner
+than read in their churches an edict for religious toleration, and seven
+of the most influential of the episcopal order had, in the same cause,
+willingly submitted to the risk of a public trial before the ordinary
+tribunals of the land. This bold course they professed to have adopted,
+not because they disliked toleration, but because they hated tyranny.
+And yet when William arrived in England, and when James stole away from
+the kingdom like a thief in the night, this same ecclesiastical
+profession pressed forward to reject that great man, who, without
+striking a blow, had by his mere presence saved the country from the
+slavery with which it was threatened. We shall not easily find in modern
+history another instance of such gross inconsistency, or rather, let us
+say, of such selfish and reckless ambition. For this change of plan, far
+from being concealed, was so openly displayed, and the causes of it were
+so obvious, that the scandal was laid bare before the whole country.
+Within the space of a few weeks the apostasy was consummated. The first
+in the field was the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, anxious to retain
+his office, had promised to wait upon William. But when he saw the
+direction things were likely to take, he withdrew his promise, and would
+not recognize a prince who showed such indifference to the sacred
+order.[700] Indeed, so great was his anger, that he sharply rebuked his
+chaplain for presuming to pray for William and Mary, although they had
+been proclaimed with the full consent of the nation, and although the
+crown had been delivered to them by the solemn and deliberate act of a
+public convention of the estates of the realm.[701] While such was the
+conduct of the primate of England, his brethren were not wanting to him
+in this great emergency of their common fate. The oath of allegiance was
+refused not only by the Archbishop of Canterbury, but also by the Bishop
+of Bath and Wells, by the Bishop of Chester, by the Bishop of
+Chichester, by the Bishop of Ely, by the Bishop of Gloucester, by the
+Bishop of Norwich, by the Bishop of Peterborough, and by the Bishop of
+Worcester.[702] As to the inferior clergy, our information is less
+precise; but it is said that about six hundred of them imitated their
+superiors in declining to recognize for their king him whom the country
+had elected.[703] The other members of this turbulent faction were
+unwilling, by so bold a measure, to incur that deprivation of their
+livings with which William would probably have visited them. They,
+therefore, preferred a safer and more inglorious opposition, by which
+they could embarrass the government without injuring themselves, and
+could gain the reputation of orthodoxy without incurring the pains of
+martyrdom.
+
+  [700] _Burnet's Own Time_, vol. iii. p. 340. Burnet, who had the best
+        means of information, says, 'Though he had once agreed to it, yet
+        would not come.' Lord Clarendon, in his _Diary_, 3rd January
+        1688-9, writes, that the archbishop expressed to him on that day
+        his determination neither to call on William nor even to send to
+        him (_Clarendon Correspond._ vol. ii. p. 240); and this
+        resolution appears to have been taken deliberately: 'he was
+        careful not to do it, for the reasons he formerly gave me.'
+
+  [701] See the account given by his chaplain Wharton, in _D'Oyly's Life
+        of Sancroft_, p. 259, where it is stated that the archbishop was
+        very irate ('vehementer excandescens'), and told him, 'that he
+        must thenceforward desist from offering prayers for the new king
+        and queen, or else from performing the duties of his chapel.' See
+        also _Birch's Life of Tillotson_, p. 144. Thus too the Bishop of
+        Norwich declared 'that he would not pray for King William and
+        Queen Mary.' _Clarendon Correspond._ vol. ii. p. 263. The same
+        spirit was universal among the high-church clergy; and when
+        public prayers were offered up for the king and queen, they were
+        called by the nonjurors 'the immoral prayers,' and this became a
+        technical and recognized expression. _Life of Ken, by a Layman_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 648, 650.
+
+  [702] _Lathbury's Hist. of the Nonjurors_, p. 45; _D'Oyly's Sancroft_,
+        p. 260.
+
+  [703] Nairne's Papers mention, in 1693, 'six hundred ministers who have
+        not taken the oaths.' _Macpherson's Orig. Papers_, vol. i. p. 459.
+
+The effect which all this produced on the temper of the nation may be
+easily imagined. The question was now narrowed to an issue which every
+plain man could at once understand. On the one side, there was an
+overwhelming majority of the clergy.[704] On the other side there was
+all the intellect of England, and all her dearest interests. The mere
+fact that such an opposition could exist without kindling a civil war,
+showed how the growing intelligence of the people had weakened the
+authority of the ecclesiastical profession. Besides this, the opposition
+was not only futile, but it was also injurious to the class that made
+it.[705] For it was now seen that the clergy only cared for the people
+as long as the people cared for them. The violence with which these
+angry men[706] set themselves against the interests of the nation
+clearly proved the selfishness of that zeal against James, of which they
+had formerly made so great a merit. They continued to hope for his
+return, to intrigue for him, and in some instances to correspond with
+him; although they well knew that his presence would cause a civil war,
+and that he was so generally hated that he dared not show his face in
+England unless protected by the troops of a foreign and hostile
+power.[707]
+
+  [704] The only friends William possessed among the clergy were the
+        low-churchmen, as they were afterwards called; and it is supposed
+        that they formed barely a tenth of the entire body in 1689: 'We
+        should probably overrate their numerical strength, if we were to
+        estimate them at a tenth part of the priesthood.' _Macaulay's
+        Hist. of England_, vol. iii. p. 74.
+
+  [705] The earliest allusion I have seen to the injury the clergy were
+        inflicting on the church, by their conduct after the arrival of
+        William, is in _Evelyn's Diary_, vol. iii. p. 273,--a curious
+        passage, gently hinting at the 'wonder of many,' at the behaviour
+        of 'the Archbishop of Canterbury, and some of the rest.' With
+        Evelyn, who loved the church, this was an unpleasant subject; but
+        others were less scrupulous; and in parliament, in particular,
+        men did not refrain from expressing what must have been the
+        sentiments of every impartial observer. In the celebrated debate,
+        in January 1688-9, when the throne was declared vacant, Pollexfen
+        said: 'Some of the clergy are for one thing, some for another; I
+        think they scarce know what they would have.' _Parl. Hist._ vol.
+        v. p. 55. In February, Maynard, one of the most influential
+        members, indignantly said: 'I think the clergy are out of their
+        wits; and I believe, if the clergy should have their wills, few
+        or none of us should be here again.' _Ibid._ vol. v. p. 129. The
+        clergy were themselves bitterly sensible of the general
+        hostility; and one of them writes, in 1694: 'The people of
+        England, who were so excessively enamoured of us when the bishops
+        were in the tower, that they hardly forbore to worship us, are
+        now, I wish I could say but cool and very indifferent towards
+        us.' _Somers Tracts_, vol. ix. p. 525. The growing indignation
+        against the clergy, caused by their obvious desire to sacrifice
+        the country to the interests of the church, is strikingly
+        displayed in a letter from Sir Roland Gwyne, written in 1710, and
+        printed in _Macpherson's Orig. Papers_, vol. ii. p. 207.
+
+  [706] They are so called by Burnet: 'these angry men, that had raised
+        this flame in the church.' _Own Time_, vol. v. p. 17.
+
+  [707] Indeed, the high-church party, in their publications, distinctly
+        intimated, that if James were not recalled, he should be
+        reinstated by a foreign army. _Somers Tracts_, vol. x. pp. 377,
+        405, 457, 462. Compare _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. ii. p.
+        138. Burnet (_Own Time_, vol. iv. pp. 361, 362) says, they were
+        'confounded' when they heard of the peace of 1697; and Calamy
+        (_Life of Himself_, vol. ii. p. 322) makes the same remark on the
+        death of Louis XIV.: 'It very much puzzled the counsels of the
+        Jacobites, and spoiled their projects.'
+
+But this was not the whole of the damage which, in those anxious times,
+the church inflicted upon herself. When the bishops refused to take the
+oaths to the new government, measures were adopted to remove them from
+their sees; and William did not hesitate to eject by force of law the
+Archbishop of Canterbury and five of his brethren.[708] The prelates,
+smarting under the insult, were goaded into measures of unusual
+activity. They loudly proclaimed that the powers of the church, which
+had long been waning, were now extinct.[709] They denied the right of
+the legislature to pass a law against them. They denied the right of the
+sovereign to put that law into execution.[710] They not only continued
+to give themselves the title of bishops, but they made arrangements to
+perpetuate the schism which their own violence had created. The
+Archbishop of Canterbury, as he insisted upon being called, made a
+formal renunciation of his imaginary right into the hands of Lloyd,[711]
+who still supposed himself to be Bishop of Norwich, although William had
+recently expelled him from his see. The scheme of these turbulent
+priests was then communicated to James, who willingly supported their
+plan for establishing a permanent feud in the English church.[712] The
+result of this conspiracy between the rebellious prelates and the
+pretended king, was the appointment of a series of men who gave
+themselves out as forming the real episcopacy, and who received the
+homage of every one who preferred the claims of the church to the
+authority of the state.[713] This mock succession of imaginary bishops
+continued for more than a century;[714] and, by dividing the allegiance
+of churchmen, lessened the power of the church.[715] In several
+instances, the unseemly spectacle was exhibited of two bishops for the
+same place; one nominated by the spiritual power, the other nominated by
+the temporal power. Those who considered the church as superior to the
+state, of course attached themselves to the spurious bishops; while the
+appointments of William were acknowledged by that rapidly increasing
+party, who preferred secular advantages to ecclesiastical theories.[716]
+
+  [708] _D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft_, p. 266; _Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog._
+        iv. p. 683.
+
+  [709] Sancroft, on his death-bed, in 1693, prayed for the 'poor
+        suffering church, which, by this revolution, is almost
+        destroyed.' _D'Oyly's Sancroft_, p. 311; and _Macpherson's
+        Original Papers_, vol. i. p. 280. See also _Remarks_, published
+        in 1693 (_Somers Tracts_, vol. x. p. 504) where it is said, that
+        William had, 'as far as possible he could, dissolved the true old
+        Church of England;' and that, 'in a moment of time, her face was
+        so altered, as scarce to be known again.'
+
+  [710] 'Ken, though deprived, never admitted in the secular power the
+        right of deprivation; and it is well known that he studiously
+        retained his title.' _Bowles's Life of Ken_, vol. ii. p. 225.
+        Thus, too, Lloyd, so late as 1703, signs himself, 'Wm. Nor.'
+        (_Life of Ken, by a Layman_, vol. ii. p. 720); though, having
+        been legally deprived, he was no more bishop of Norwich than he
+        was emperor of China. And Sancroft, in the last of his letters,
+        published by D'Oyly (_Life_, p. 303), signs 'W. C.'
+
+  [711] The strange document, by which he appointed Dr. Lloyd his
+        vicar-general, is printed in Latin, in _D'Oyly's Sancroft_, p.
+        295, and in English, in _Life of Ken, by a Layman_, vol. ii.
+        p. 640.
+
+  [712] _Lathbury's Hist. of the Nonjurors_, p. 96; _Life of Ken, by a
+        Layman_, vol. ii. pp. 641, 642.
+
+  [713] The struggle between James and William was essentially a struggle
+        between ecclesiastical interests and secular interests; and this
+        was seen as early as 1689, when, as we learn from Burnet, who was
+        much more a politician than a priest, 'the church was as the word
+        given out by the Jacobite party, under which they might more
+        safely shelter themselves,' _Own Time_, vol. iv. p. 57. See also,
+        on this identification of the Jacobites with the church, _Birch's
+        Life of Tillotson_, p. 222; and the argument of Dodwell, pp. 246,
+        247, in 1691. Dodwell justly observed, that the successors of the
+        deprived bishops were schismatical, in a spiritual point of view;
+        and that, 'if they should pretend to lay authority as sufficient,
+        they would overthrow the being of a church as a society.' The
+        bishops appointed by William were evidently intruders, according
+        to church principles; and as their intrusion could only be
+        justified according to lay principles, it followed that the
+        success of the intrusion was the triumph of lay principles over
+        church ones. Hence it is, that the fundamental idea of the
+        rebellion of 1688, is the elevation of the state above the
+        church; just as the fundamental idea of the rebellion of 1642, is
+        the elevation of the commons above the crown.
+
+  [714] According to Dr. D'Oyly (_Life of Sancroft_, p. 297), Dr. Gordon
+        'died in London, November 1779, and is supposed to have been the
+        last nonjuring bishop.' In _Short's Hist. of the Church of
+        England_, p. 583, Lond. 1847, it is also stated, that 'this
+        schism continued till 1779.' But Mr. Hallam (_Const. Hist._ vol.
+        ii. p. 404) has pointed out a passage in the _State Trials_,
+        which proves that another of the bishops, named Cartwright, was
+        still living at Shrewsbury in 1793; and Mr. Lathbury (_Hist. of
+        the Nonjurors_, Lond. 1845, p. 412) says, that he died in 1799.
+
+  [715] Calamy (_Own Life_, vol. i. pp. 328-330, vol. ii. pp. 338, 357,
+        358) gives an interesting account of these feuds within the
+        church, consequent upon the revolution. Indeed, their bitterness
+        was such, that it was necessary to coin names for the two
+        parties; and, between 1700 and 1702, we, for the first time, hear
+        the expressions, high-church and low-church. See _Burnet's Own
+        Time_, vol. iv. p. 447, vol. v. p. 70. Compare _Wilson's Life of
+        De Foe_, vol. ii. p. 26; _Parl. Hist._ vol. vi. pp. 162, 498. On
+        the difference between them, as it was understood in the reign of
+        Anne, see _Somers Tracts_, vol. xii. p. 532, and _Macpherson's
+        Orig. Papers_, vol. ii. p. 166. On the dawning schism in the
+        church, see the speech of Sir T. Littleton, in 1690, _Parl.
+        Hist._ vol. v. p. 593. Hence many complained that they could not
+        tell which was the real church. See curious evidence of this
+        perplexity in _Somers Tracts_, vol. ix. pp. 477-481.
+
+  [716] The alternative is fairly stated in a letter written in 1691
+        (_Life of Ken, by a Layman_, vol. ii. p. 599): 'If the deprived
+        bishop be the only lawful bishop, then the people and clergy of
+        his diocese are bound to own him, and no other; then all the
+        bishops who own the authority of a new archbishop, and live in
+        communion with him, are schismatics; and the clergy who live in
+        communion with schismatical bishops are schismatics themselves;
+        and the whole Church of England now established by law is
+        schismatical.'
+
+Such were some of the events which, at the end of the seventeenth
+century, widened the breach that had long existed between the interests
+of the nation and the interests of the clergy.[717] There was also
+another circumstance which considerably increased this alienation. Many
+of the English clergy, though they retained their affection for James,
+did not choose to brave the anger of the government, or risk the loss of
+their livings. To avoid this, and to reconcile their conscience with
+their interest, they availed themselves of a supposed distinction
+between a king by right and a king in possession.[718] The consequence
+was, that while with their lips they took an oath of allegiance to
+William, they in their hearts paid homage to James; and, while they
+prayed for one king in their churches, they were bound to pray for
+another in their closets.[719] By this wretched subterfuge, a large
+body of the clergy were at once turned into concealed rebels; and we
+have it on the authority of a contemporary bishop, that the
+prevarication of which these men were notoriously guilty was a still
+further aid to that scepticism, the progress of which he bitterly
+deplores.[720]
+
+  [717] Lord Mahon (_Hist. of England_, vol. ii. p. 245) notices, what he
+        terms, the 'unnatural alienation between the church and state,'
+        consequent upon the Revolution of 1688: and on the diminished
+        power of the church caused by the same event, see _Phillimore's
+        Mem. of Lyttleton_, vol. i. p. 352.
+
+  [718] The old absurdity of _de facto_ and _de jure_; as if any man could
+        retain a right to a throne which the people would not allow him
+        to occupy!
+
+  [719] In 1715, Leslie, by far the ablest of them, thus states their
+        position: 'You are now driven to this dilemma,--swear, or swear
+        not; if you swear, you kill the soul; and if you swear not, you
+        kill the body, in the loss of your bread.' _Somers Tracts_, vol.
+        xiii. p. 686. The result of the dilemma was what might have been
+        expected; and a high-church writer, in the reign of William III.,
+        boasts (_Somers Tracts_, vol. x. p. 344) that the oaths taken by
+        the clergy were no protection to the government: 'not that the
+        government receives any security from oaths.' Whiston, too, says
+        in his _Memoirs_, p. 30: 'Yet do I too well remember that the far
+        greatest part of those of the university and clergy that then
+        took the oaths to the government, seemed to me to take them with
+        a doubtful conscience, if not against its dictates.' This was in
+        1693; and, in 1710, we find: 'There are now circumstances to make
+        us believe that the Jacobite clergy have the like instructions to
+        take any oaths, to get possession of a pulpit for the service of
+        the cause, to bellow out the hereditary right, the pretended
+        title of the Pretender.' _Somers Tracts_, vol. xii. p. 641. A
+        knowledge of this fact, or, at all events, a belief of it, was
+        soon diffused; and, eight years later, the celebrated Lord.
+        Cowper, then lord chancellor, said, in the House of Lords, 'that
+        his majesty had also the best part of the landed, and all the
+        trading interest; _that as to the clergy, he would say
+        nothing--but that it was notorious that the majority of the
+        populace had been poisoned, and that the poison was not yet quite
+        expelled_.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. vii. p. 541; also given, but not
+        quite _verbatim_, in _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. iv. p. 365.
+
+  [720] 'The prevarication of too many in so sacred a matter contributed
+        not a little to fortify the growing atheism of the present age.'
+        _Burnet's Own Time_, vol. iii. p. 381. See also, to the same
+        effect, vol. iv. pp. 176, 177; and a remarkable passage in
+        _Somers Tracts_, vol. xii. p. 573. I need hardly add, that it was
+        then usual to confuse scepticism with atheism; though the two
+        things are not only different, but incompatible. In regard to the
+        quibble respecting _de facto_ and _de jure_, and the use made of
+        it by the clergy, the reader should compare _Wilson's Mem. of De
+        Foe_, vol. i. pp. 171, 172; _Somers Tracts_, vol. ix. p. 531;
+        _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. iv. p. 409; and a letter from the
+        Rev. Francis Jessop, written in 1717, in _Nichols's Lit.
+        Illustrations_, vol. iv. pp. 120-123.
+
+As the eighteenth century advanced, the great movement of liberation
+rapidly proceeded. One of the most important of the ecclesiastical
+resources had formerly been Convocation; in which the clergy, by meeting
+in a body, were able to discountenance in an imposing manner whatever
+might be hostile to the church; and had, moreover, an opportunity, which
+they sedulously employed, of devising schemes favourable to the
+spiritual authority.[721] But, in the progress of the age, this weapon
+also was taken from them. Within a very few years after the Revolution,
+Convocation fell into general contempt;[722] and, in 1717, this
+celebrated assembly was finally prorogued by an act of the crown, it
+being justly considered that the country had no further occasion for its
+services.[723] Since that period, this great council of the English
+church has never been allowed to meet for the purpose of deliberating on
+its own affairs, until a few years ago, when, by the connivance of a
+feeble government, it was permitted to reassemble. So marked, however,
+has been the change in the temper of the nation, that this once
+formidable body does not now retain even a semblance of its ancient
+influence; its resolutions are no longer feared, its discussions are no
+longer studied; and the business of the country continues to be
+conducted without regard to those interests which, only a few
+generations ago, were considered by every statesman to be of supreme
+importance.[724]
+
+  [721] Among which must be particularly mentioned the practice of
+        censuring all books that encouraged free inquiry. In this
+        respect, the clergy were extremely mischievous. See _Lathbury's
+        Hist. of Convocation_, pp. 124, 286, 338, 351; and _Wilson's Life
+        of De Foe_, vol. ii. p. 170.
+
+  [722] In 1704, Burnet (_Own Time_, vol. v. p. 138) says of Convocation,
+        'but little opposition was made to them, as very little regard
+        was had to them.' In 1700, there was a squabble between the upper
+        and lower house of Convocation for Canterbury; which, no doubt,
+        aided these feelings. See _Life of Archbishop Sharp_, edited by
+        Newcome, vol. i. p. 348, where this wretched feud is related with
+        great gravity.
+
+  [723] Charles Butler (_Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 95) says, that the
+        final prorogation was in 1720; but, according to all the other
+        authorities I have met with, it was in 1717. See _Hallam's Const.
+        Hist._ vol. ii. p. 395; _Lathbury's Hist. of Convocation_, p.
+        385; _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. i. p. 302; _Monk's Life of
+        Bentley_, vol. ii. p. 350.
+
+  [724] A letter, written by the Rev. Thomas Clayton in 1727, is worth
+        reading, as illustrating the feelings of the clergy on this
+        subject. He asserts, that one of the causes of the obvious
+        degeneracy of the age is, that, owing to Convocation not being
+        allowed to meet, 'bold and impious books appear barefaced to the
+        world without any public censure.' See this letter in _Nichols's
+        Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. iv. pp. 414-416;
+        and compare with it, _Letters between Warburton and Hurd_, pp.
+        310-312.
+
+Indeed, immediately after the Revolution, the tendency of things became
+too obvious to be mistaken, even by the most superficial observers. The
+ablest men in the country no longer flocked into the church, but
+preferred those secular professions in which ability was more likely to
+be rewarded.[725] At the same time, and as a natural part of the great
+movement, the clergy saw all the offices of power and emolument, which
+they had been used to hold, gradually falling out of their hands. Not
+only in the dark ages, but even so late as the fifteenth century, they
+were still strong enough to monopolize the most honourable and lucrative
+posts in the empire.[726] In the sixteenth century, the tide began to
+turn against them, and advanced with such steadiness, that, since the
+seventeenth century, there has been no instance of any ecclesiastic
+being made lord chancellor;[727] and, since the beginning of the
+eighteenth century, there has been no instance of one receiving any
+diplomatic appointment, or, indeed, holding any important office in the
+state.[728] Nor has this increasing ascendency of laymen been confined
+to the executive government. On the contrary, we find in both Houses of
+Parliament the same principle at work. In the early and barbarous
+periods of our history, one half of the House of Lords consisted of
+temporal peers; the other half of spiritual ones.[729] By the beginning
+of the eighteenth century, the spiritual peers, instead of forming
+one-half of the upper house, had dwindled away to one-eighth;[730] and,
+in the middle of the nineteenth century, they have still further shrunk
+to one-fourteenth:[731] thus supplying a striking numerical instance of
+that diminution of ecclesiastical power which is an essential requisite
+of modern civilization. Precisely in the same way, more than fifty
+years have elapsed since any clergyman has been able to take his seat as
+a representative of the people; the House of Commons having, in 1801,
+formally closed their doors against a profession which, in the olden
+time, would have been gladly admitted, even by the proudest and most
+exclusive assembly.[732] In the House of Lords, the bishops still retain
+their seats; but their precarious tenure is everywhere remarked, and the
+progress of public opinion is constantly pointing to a period, which
+cannot now be far distant, when the Peers will imitate the example set
+by the Commons, and will induce the legislature to relieve the upper
+house of its spiritual members; since they, by their habits, their
+tastes, and their traditions, are evidently unfitted for the profane
+exigencies of political life.[733]
+
+  [725] On the decline of ability in ecclesiastical literature, see note
+        38 in this chapter. In 1685, a complaint was made that secular
+        professions were becoming more sought after than ecclesiastical
+        ones. See _England's Wants_, sec. lvi. in _Somers Tracts_, vol.
+        ix. p. 231, where the writer mournfully states, that in his time
+        'physic and law, professions ever acknowledged in all nations to
+        be inferior to divinity, are generally embraced by gentlemen, and
+        sometimes by persons nobly descended, and _preferred much above
+        the divine's profession_.' This preference was, of course, most
+        displayed by young men of intellect; and a large amount of energy
+        being thus drawn off from the church, gave rise to that decay of
+        spirit and of general power which has been already noticed; and
+        which is also indicated by Coleridge, in his remarks on the
+        'apologising theology' which succeeded the Revolution.
+        _Coleridge's Lit. Remains_, vol. iii. pp. 51, 52, 116, 117, 119.
+        Compare _Stephen's Essays on Ecclesiast. Biog._ 2d edit. 1850,
+        vol. ii. p. 66, on 'this depression of theology;' and _Hare's
+        Mission of the Comforter_, 1850, p. 264, on the 'intellectually
+        feebler age.' Evelyn, in 1691, laments the diminished energy then
+        beginning to be observed among 'young preachers.' _Evelyn's
+        Diary_, vol. iii. p. 309; and for another notice, in 1696, of
+        this 'dead and lifeless way of preaching,' see _Life of
+        Cudworth_, p. 35, in vol. i. of _Cudworth's Intellect Syst._
+
+  [726] Sharon Turner, describing the state of things in England in the
+        fifteenth century, says, 'Clergymen were secretaries of
+        government, the privy seals, cabinet councillors, treasurers of
+        the crown, ambassadors, commissioners to open parliament, and to
+        Scotland; presidents of the king's council, supervisors of the
+        royal works, chancellors, keepers of the records, the masters of
+        the rolls, and even the physicians, both to the king and to the
+        duke of Gloucester, during the reign of Henry VI. and
+        afterwards.' _Turner's Hist. of England_, vol. vi. p. 132. On
+        their enormous wealth, see _Eccleston's English Antiquities_, p.
+        146: 'In the early part of the fourteenth century, it is
+        calculated that very nearly one-half of the soil of the kingdom
+        was in the hands of the clergy.'
+
+  [727] In 1625, Williams bishop of Lincoln was dismissed from his office
+        of lord-keeper; and Lord Campbell observes (_Lives of the
+        Chancellors_, vol. ii. p. 492): 'This is the last time that an
+        ecclesiastic has held the great seal of England; and,
+        notwithstanding the admiration in some quarters of mediæval
+        usages, I presume the experiment is not likely to be soon
+        repeated.'
+
+  [728] Monk (_Life of Bentley_, vol. i. p. 222) says, that Dr. John
+        Robinson, bishop of Bristol, was 'lord privy seal, and
+        plenipotentiary at the treaty of Utrecht; and is the last
+        ecclesiastic in England who has held any of the high offices of
+        state.' A high-church writer, in 1712, complains of the efforts
+        that were being made to 'thrust the churchmen out of their places
+        of power in the government.' _Somers Tracts_, vol. xiii. p. 211.
+
+  [729] In and after the reign of Henry III. 'the number of archbishops,
+        bishops, abbots, priors, and ecclesiastical persons was for the
+        most part equal to, and very often far exceeded, the number of
+        the temporal lords and barons.' _Parry's Parliaments and Councils
+        of England_, London, 1839, p. xvii. Of this Mr. Parry gives
+        several instances; the most remarkable of which is, that 'in 49
+        Henry III., 120 prelates, and only 23 temporal lords, were
+        summoned.' This, of course, was an extreme case.
+
+  [730] See an analysis of the House of Lords, in 1713, in _Mahon's Hist.
+        of England_, vol. i. pp. 43-45; from which it appears that the
+        total was 207, of whom 26 were spiritual. This includes the
+        Catholics.
+
+  [731] By the returns in Dod for 1854, I find that the House of Lords
+        contains 436 members, of whom 30 belong to the episcopal bench.
+
+  [732] For different accounts, and of course different views, of this
+        final expulsion of the clergy from the House of Commons, see
+        _Pellew's Life of Sidmouth_, vol. i. pp. 419, 420; _Stephens's
+        Mem. of Tooke_, vol. ii. pp. 247-260; _Holland's Mem. of the Whig
+        Party_, vol. i. pp. 178-180; _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. vii.
+        p. 148; _Twiss's Life of Eldon_, vol. i. p. 263; _Adolphus's
+        Hist. of George III._, vol. vii. p. 487.
+
+  [733] That the banishment of the clergy from the lower house was the
+        natural prelude to the banishment of the bishops from the upper,
+        was hinted at the time, and with regret, by a very keen observer.
+        In the discussion 'on the Bill to prevent Persons in Holy Orders
+        from sitting in the House of Commons,' Lord Thurlow 'mentioned
+        the tenure of the bishops at this time, and said, if the bill
+        went to disfranchise the lower orders of the clergy, it might go
+        the length of _striking at the right of the reverend bench
+        opposite to seats in that house_; though he knew it had been held
+        that the reverend prelates sat, in the right of their baronies,
+        as temporal peers.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxxv. p. 1542.
+
+While the fabric of superstition was thus tottering from internal decay,
+and while that ecclesiastical authority which had formerly played so
+great a part was gradually yielding to the advance of knowledge, there
+suddenly occurred an event which, though it might naturally have been
+expected, evidently took by surprise even those whom it most interested.
+I allude, of course, to that great religious revolution, which was a
+fitting supplement to the political revolution which preceded it. The
+dissenters, who were strengthened by the expulsion of James, had by no
+means forgotten those cruel punishments which the Church of England, in
+the days of her power, had constantly inflicted upon them; and they felt
+that the moment had now come when they could assume towards her a bolder
+front than that on which they had hitherto ventured.[734] Besides this,
+they had in the mean time received fresh causes of provocation. After
+the death of our great king William III., the throne was occupied by a
+foolish and ignorant woman, whose love for the clergy would, in a more
+superstitious age, have led to dangerous results.[735] Even as it was, a
+temporary reaction took place, and during her reign the church was
+treated with a deference which William had disdained to show.[736] The
+natural consequence immediately followed. New measures of persecution
+were devised, and fresh laws were passed against those Protestants who
+did not conform to the doctrines and discipline of the English
+church.[737] But after the death of Anne the dissenters quickly rallied;
+their hopes revived,[738] their numbers continued to increase, and in
+spite of the opposition of the clergy, the laws against them were
+repealed.[739] As by these means they were placed more on a level with
+their opponents, and as their temper was soured by the injuries they had
+recently received, it was clear that a great struggle between the two
+parties was inevitable.[740] For by this time the protracted tyranny of
+the English clergy had totally destroyed those feelings of respect
+which, even in the midst of hostility, often linger in the mind; and by
+the influence of which, if they had still existed, the contest might
+perhaps have been averted. But such motives of restraint were now
+despised; and the dissenters, exasperated by incessant persecution,[741]
+determined to avail themselves of the declining power of the church.
+They had resisted her when she was strong; it was hardly to be expected
+that they would spare her when she was feeble. Under two of the most
+remarkable men of the eighteenth century, Whitefield, the first of
+theological orators,[742] and Wesley, the first of theological
+statesmen,[743] there was organized a great system of religion, which
+bore the same relation to the Church of England that the Church of
+England bore to the Church of Rome. Thus, after an interval of two
+hundred years, a second spiritual Reformation was effected in our
+country. In the eighteenth century the Wesleyans were to the Bishops
+what, in the sixteenth century, the Reformers were to the Popes.[744] It
+is indeed true, that the dissenters from the Church of England, unlike
+the dissenters from the Church of Rome, soon lost that intellectual
+vigour for which at first they were remarkable. Since the death of their
+great leaders, they have not produced one man of original genius; and
+since the time of Adam Clarke, they have not had among them even a
+single scholar who has enjoyed an European reputation. This mental
+penury is perhaps owing, not to any circumstances peculiar to their
+sect, but merely to that general decline of the theological spirit, by
+which their adversaries have been weakened as well as themselves.[745]
+Be this as it may, it is at all events certain, that the injury they
+have inflicted on the English church is far greater than is generally
+supposed, and, I am inclined to think, is hardly inferior to that which
+in the sixteenth century Protestantism inflicted upon Popery. Setting
+aside the actual loss in the number of its members,[746] there can be
+no doubt that the mere formation of a Protestant faction, unopposed by
+the government, was a dangerous precedent; and we know from contemporary
+history that it was so considered by those who were most interested in
+the result.[747] Besides this, the Wesleyans displayed an organization
+so superior to that of their predecessors the Puritans, that they soon
+became a centre round which the enemies of the church could conveniently
+rally. And, what is perhaps still more important, the order, regularity,
+and publicity, by which their proceedings have usually been marked,
+distinguished them from other sects; and by raising them as it were to
+the dignity of a rival establishment, have encouraged the diminution of
+that exclusive and superstitious respect which was once paid to the
+Anglican hierarchy.[748]
+
+  [734] It is impossible now to ascertain the full extent to which the
+        Church of England, in the seventeenth century, persecuted the
+        dissenters; but Jeremy White is said to have had a list of sixty
+        thousand of these sufferers between 1660 and 1688, of whom no
+        less than five thousand died in prison. _Bogue and Bennett's
+        Hist. of the Dissenters_, vol. i. p. 108. On the cruel spirit
+        which the clergy displayed in the reign of Charles II. compare
+        _Harris's Lives of the Stuarts_, vol. v. p. 106; _Orme's Life of
+        Owen_, p. 344; _Somers Tracts_, vol. xii. p. 534. Indeed, Harwood
+        frankly said in the House of Commons, in 1672, 'Our aim is to
+        bring all dissenting men into the Protestant church, and he that
+        is not willing to come into the church should not have ease.'
+        _Parl. Hist._ vol. iv. p. 530. On the zeal with which this
+        principle was carried out, see an account, written in 1671, in
+        _Somers Tracts_, vol. vii. pp. 586-615; and the statement of De
+        Foe, in _Wilson's Life of De Foe_, vol. ii. pp. 443-444.
+
+  [735] Besides the correspondence which the Duchess of Marlborough
+        preserved for the instruction of posterity, we have some
+        materials for estimating the abilities of Anne in the letters
+        published in _Dalrymple's Memoirs_. In one of them Anne writes,
+        soon after the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was issued,
+        'It is a melancholy prospect that all we of the Church of England
+        have. All the sectaries may now do what they please. Every one
+        has the free exercise of their religion, on purpose, no doubt, to
+        ruin us, which I think to all impartial judges is very plain.'
+        _Dalrymple's Memoirs_, appendix to book v. vol. ii. p. 173.
+
+  [736] See a notable passage in _Somers Tracts_, vol. xii. p. 558, which
+        should be compared with Wilson's _Life of De Foe_, vol. iii.
+        p. 372.
+
+  [737] _Bogue and Bennett's History of the Dissenters_, vol. i.
+        pp. 228-230, 237, 260-277; and _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. ii.
+        pp. 396, 397. Mr. Hallam says, 'It is impossible to doubt for an
+        instant, that if the queen's life had preserved the Tory
+        government for a few years, every vestige of the toleration would
+        have been effaced.' It appears from the _Vernon Correspond._ vol.
+        iii. p. 228, Lond. 1841, that soon after the accession of Anne,
+        there was a proposal 'to debar dissenters of their votes in
+        elections;' and we know from Burnet (_Own Time_, vol. v. pp. 108,
+        136, 137, 218) that the clergy would have been glad if Anne had
+        displayed even more zeal against them than she really did.
+
+  [738] _Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of the Dissenters_, vol. iii. p. 118.
+        In Ivimey's _History of the Baptists_, it is said that the death
+        of Anne was an 'answer to the dissenters' prayers.' _Southey's
+        Commonplace Book_, third series, p. 135; see also p. 147, on the
+        joy of the dissenters at the death of this troublesome woman.
+
+  [739] Two of the worst of them, 'the act against occasional conformity,
+        and that restraining education, were repealed in the session of
+        1719.' _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 398. The repeal of the
+        act against occasional conformity was strenuously opposed by the
+        archbishops of York and of Canterbury (_Bogue and Bennett's Hist.
+        of the Dissenters_, vol. iii. p. 132); but their opposition was
+        futile; and when the Bishop of London, in 1726, wished to strain
+        the Act of Toleration, he was prevented by Yorke, the
+        attorney-general. See the pithy reply of Yorke, in _Harris's Life
+        of Hardwicke_, vol. i. pp. 193, 194.
+
+  [740] At the end of the seventeenth century, great attention was excited
+        by the way in which the dissenters were beginning to organize
+        themselves into societies and synods. See, in the _Vernon
+        Correspond._ vol. ii. pp. 128-130, 133, 156, some curious
+        evidence of this, in letters written by Vernon, who was then
+        secretary of state; and on the apprehensions caused by the
+        increase of their schools, and by their systematic interference
+        in elections, see _Life of Archbishop Sharp_, edited by Newcome,
+        vol. i. pp. 125, 358. The church was eager to put down all
+        dissenters' schools; and in 1705, the Archbishop of York told the
+        House of Lords that he 'apprehended danger from the increase of
+        dissenters, and particularly from the many academies set up by
+        them.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. vi. pp. 492, 493. See also, on the
+        increase of their schools, pp. 1351, 1352.
+
+  [741] In _Somers Tracts_, vol. xii. p. 684, it is stated, that in the
+        reign of Charles II. 'this hard usage had begotten in the
+        dissenters the utmost animosity against the persecuting
+        churchmen.' Their increasing discontent, in the reign of Anne,
+        was observed by Calamy. See _Calamy's Own Life_, vol. ii. pp.
+        244, 255, 274, 284, 285.
+
+  [742] If the power of moving the passions be the proper test by which to
+        judge an orator, we may certainly pronounce Whitefield to be the
+        greatest since the apostles. His first sermon was delivered in
+        1736 (_Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. ii. pp. 102, 122); his
+        field-preaching began in 1739 (_Southey's Life of Wesley_, vol.
+        i. pp. 196, 197); and the eighteen thousand sermons which he is
+        said to have poured forth during his career of thirty-four years
+        (_Southey's Wesley_, vol. ii. p. 531) produced the most
+        astonishing effects on all classes, educated and uneducated. For
+        evidence of the excitement caused by this marvellous man, and of
+        the eagerness with which his discourses were read as well as
+        heard, see _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. ii. pp. 546, 547, and his
+        _Illustrations_, vol. iv. pp. 302-304; _Mem. of Franklin, by
+        Himself_, vol. i. pp. 161-167; _Doddridge's Correspond._ vol. iv.
+        p. 55; _Stewart's Philos. of the Mind_, vol. iii. pp. 291, 292;
+        _Lady Mary Montagu's Letters_, in her Works, 1803, vol. iv. p.
+        162; _Correspond. between Ladies Pomfret and Hartford_, 2nd edit.
+        1806, vol. i. pp. 138, 160-162; _Marchmont Papers_, vol. ii. p.
+        377.
+
+  [743] Of whom Mr. Macaulay has said (_Essays_, vol. i. p. 221, 3rd
+        edit.), that his 'genius for government was not inferior to that
+        of Richelieu;' and strongly as this is expressed, it will hardly
+        appear an exaggeration to those who have compared the success of
+        Wesley with his difficulties.
+
+  [744] It was in 1739 that Wesley first openly rebelled against the
+        church, and refused to obey the Bishop of Bristol, who ordered
+        him to quit his diocese. _Southey's Life of Wesley_, vol. i. pp.
+        226, 243. In the same year he began to preach in the fields. See
+        the remarkable entry in his _Journals_, p. 78, 29th March, 1739.
+
+  [745] They frankly confess that 'indifference has been another enemy to
+        the increase of the dissenting cause.' _Bogue and Bennett's Hist.
+        of the Dissenters_, vol. iv. p. 320. In _Newman's Development of
+        Christian Doctrine_, pp. 39-43, there are some remarks on the
+        diminished energy of Wesleyanism, which Mr. Newman seems to
+        ascribe to the fact that the Wesleyans have reached that point in
+        which 'order takes the place of enthusiasm.' p. 43. This is
+        probably true; but I still think that the larger cause has been
+        the more active one.
+
+  [746] Walpole, in his sneering way, mentions the spread of Methodism in
+        the middle of the eighteenth century (_Walpole's Letters_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 266, 272); and Lord Carlisle, in 1775, told the House of
+        Lords (_Parl. Hist._ vol. xviii. p. 634) 'that Methodism was
+        daily gaining ground, particularly in the manufacturing towns;'
+        while, to come down still later, it appears from a letter by the
+        Duke of Wellington to Lord Eldon(_Twiss's Life of Eldon_, vol.
+        ii. p. 35) that about 1808 it was making proselytes in the army.
+
+        These statements, though accurate, are somewhat vague; but we
+        have other and more precise evidence respecting the rapid growth
+        of religious dissent. According to a paper found in one of the
+        chests of William III., and printed by Dalrymple (_Memoirs_, vol.
+        ii. part ii., appendix to chapter i. p. 40), the proportion in
+        England of conformists to nonconformists was as 22-4/5 to 1.
+        Eighty-four years after the death of William, the dissenters,
+        instead of comprising only a twenty-third, were estimated at 'a
+        fourth part of the whole community.' Letter from Watson to the
+        Duke of Rutland, written in 1786, in _Life of Watson, Bishop of
+        Llandaff_, vol. i. p. 246. Since then, the movement has been
+        uninterrupted; and the returns recently published by government
+        disclose the startling fact, that on Sunday, 31st March 1851, the
+        members of the Church of England who attended morning service
+        only exceeded by one-half the Independents, Baptists, and
+        Methodists who attended at their own places of worship. See the
+        Census Table, in _Journal of Statist. Soc._ vol. xviii. p. 151.
+        If this rate of decline continues, it will be impossible for the
+        Church of England to survive another century the attacks of her
+        enemies.
+
+  [747] The treatment which the Wesleyans received from the clergy, many
+        of whom were magistrates, shows what would have taken place if
+        such violence had not been discouraged by the government. See
+        _Southey's Life of Wesley_, vol. i. pp. 395-406. Wesley has
+        himself given many details, which Southey did not think proper to
+        relate, of the calumnies and insults to which he and his
+        followers were subjected by the clergy. See _Wesley's Journals_,
+        pp. 114, 145, 178, 181, 198, 235, 256, 275, 375, 562, 619, 637,
+        646. Compare _Watson's Observations on Southey's Wesley_, pp.
+        173, 174; and for other evidence of the treatment of those who
+        differed from the church, see _Correspondence and Diary of
+        Doddridge_, vol. ii. p. 17, vol. iii. pp. 108, 131, 132, 144,
+        145, 156. Grosley, who visited England in 1765, says of
+        Whitefield, 'The ministers of the established religion did their
+        utmost to baffle the new preacher; they preached against him,
+        representing him to the people as a fanatic, a visionary, &c.
+        &c.; in fine, they opposed him with so much success, that they
+        caused him to be pelted with stones in every place where he
+        opened his mouth to the public.' _Grosley's Tour to London_,
+        Lond. 1772, vol. i. p. 356.
+
+  [748] That Wesleyanism encouraged dissent by imparting to it an orderly
+        character, which in some degree approximated to
+        church-discipline, is judiciously observed in _Bogue and
+        Bennett's History of the Dissenters_, vol. iii. pp. 165, 166. But
+        these writers deal rather too harshly with Wesley; though there
+        is no doubt that he was a very ambitious man, and over-fond of
+        power. At an early period of his career he began to aim at
+        objects higher than those attempted by the Puritans, whose
+        efforts, particularly in the sixteenth century, he looked at
+        somewhat contemptuously. Thus, for instance, in 1747, only eight
+        years after he had revolted against the church, he expresses in
+        his Journal his wonder 'at the weakness of those holy confessors'
+        (the Elizabethan Puritans), 'many of whom spent so much of their
+        time and strength in disputing about surplice and hoods, or
+        kneeling at the Lord's Supper!' _Journals_, p. 249, March 13th,
+        1747. Such warfare as this would have ill satisfied the soaring
+        mind of Wesley; and from the spirit which pervades his voluminous
+        Journals, as well as from the careful and far-seeing provisions
+        which he made for managing his sect, it is evident that this
+        great schismatic had larger views than any of his predecessors,
+        and that he wished to organize a system capable of rivalling the
+        established church.
+
+But these things, interesting as they are, only formed a single step of
+that vast process by which the ecclesiastical power was weakened, and
+our countrymen thus enabled to secure a religious liberty, imperfect
+indeed, but far superior to that possessed by any other people. Among
+the innumerable symptoms of this great movement, there were two of
+peculiar importance. These were, the separation of theology, first from
+morals, and then from politics. The separation from morals was effected
+late in the seventeenth century; the separation from politics before the
+middle of the eighteenth century. And it is a striking instance of the
+decline of the old ecclesiastical spirit, that both of these great
+changes were begun by the clergy themselves. Cumberland, bishop of
+Peterborough, was the first who endeavoured to construct a system of
+morals without the aid of theology.[749] Warburton, bishop of
+Gloucester, was the first who laid down that the state must consider
+religion in reference, not to revelation, but to expediency; and that it
+should favour any particular creed, not in proportion to its truth, but
+solely with a view to its general utility.[750] Nor were these mere
+barren principles, which subsequent inquirers were unable to apply. The
+opinions of Cumberland, pushed to their furthest extent by Hume,[751]
+were shortly afterwards applied to practical conduct by Paley,[752] and
+to speculative jurisprudence by Bentham and Mill;[753] while the
+opinions of Warburton, spreading with still greater rapidity, have
+influenced our legislative policy, and are now professed, not only by
+advanced thinkers, but even by those ordinary men, who, if they had
+lived fifty years earlier, would have shrunk from them with unassembled
+fear.[754]
+
+  [749] Mr. Hallam (_Lit. of Europe_, vol. iii. p. 390) says, that
+        Cumberland 'seems to have been the first Christian writer who
+        sought to establish systematically the principles of moral right
+        independently of revelation.' See also, on this important change,
+        _Whewell's Hist. of Moral Philosophy in England_, pp. 12, 54. The
+        dangers always incurred by making theology the basis of morals
+        are now pretty well understood; but by no writer have they been
+        pointed out more clearly than by M. Charles Comte: see the able
+        exposition in his _Traité de Législation_, vol. i. pp. 223-247.
+        There is a short and unsatisfactory account of Cumberland's book
+        in _Mackintosh's Ethical Philosophy_, pp. 134-137. He was a man
+        of considerable learning, and is noticed by M. Quatremère as one
+        of the earliest students of Coptic. _Quatremère sur la Langue et
+        la Littérature de l'Egypte_, p. 89. He was made a bishop in 1691,
+        having published the _De Legibus_ in 1672. _Chalmers's Biog.
+        Dict._ vol. xi. pp. 133, 135.
+
+  [750] This was in his work entitled _The Alliance between Church and
+        State_, which first appeared, according to Hurd (_Life of
+        Warburton_, 1794, 4to, p. 13), in 1736, and, as may be supposed,
+        caused great scandal. The history of its influence I shall trace
+        on another occasion; in the mean time, the reader should compare,
+        respecting its tendency, _Palmer on the Church_, vol. ii. pp.
+        313, 322, 323; _Parr's Works_, vol. i. pp. 657, 665, vol. vii. p.
+        128; _Whately's Dangers to Christian Faith_, p. 190; and
+        _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. iii. p. 18. In January 1739-40,
+        Warburton writes to Stukeley (_Nichols's Illustrations_, vol. ii.
+        p. 53): 'But you know how dangerous new roads in theology are, by
+        the clamour of the bigots against me.' See also some letters
+        which passed between him and the elder Pitt in 1762, on the
+        subject of expediency, printed in _Chatham Correspond._ vol. ii.
+        pp. 184 seq. Warburton writes, p. 190, 'My opinion is, and ever
+        was, that the state has nothing at all to do with errors in
+        religion, nor the least right so much as to attempt to repress
+        them.' To make such a man a bishop was a great feat for the
+        eighteenth century, and would have been an impossible one for the
+        seventeenth.
+
+  [751] The relation between Cumberland and Hume consists in the entirely
+        secular plan according to which both investigated ethics; in
+        other respects, there is great difference between their
+        conclusions; but if the anti-theological method is admitted to be
+        sound, it is certain that the treatment of the subject by Hume is
+        more consequential from the premisses, than is that by his
+        predecessor. It is this which makes Hume a continuator of
+        Cumberland; though with the advantage, not only of coming half a
+        century after him, but of possessing a more comprehensive mind.
+        The ethical speculations of Hume are in the third book of his
+        _Treatise of Human Nature_ (_Hume's Philosophical Works_, Edin.
+        1826, vol. ii. pp. 219 seq.), and in his _Inquiry concerning the
+        Principles of Morals_, ibid. vol. iv. pp. 237-365.
+
+  [752] The moral system of Paley, being essentially utilitarian,
+        completed the revolution in that field of inquiry; and as his
+        work was drawn up with great ability, it exercised immense
+        influence in an age already prepared for its reception. His
+        _Moral and Political Philosophy_ was published in 1785; in 1786
+        it became a standard book at Cambridge; and by 1805 it had
+        'passed through fifteen editions.' _Meadley's Memoirs of Paley_,
+        pp. 127, 145. Compare _Whewell's Hist. of Moral Philosophy_,
+        p. 176.
+
+  [753] That the writings of these two eminent men form part of the same
+        scheme, is well known to those who have studied the history of
+        the school to which they belong; and on the intellectual relation
+        they bore to each other, I cannot do better than refer to a very
+        striking letter by James Mill himself, in _Bentham's Works_,
+        edit. Bowring, vol. x. pp. 481, 482.
+
+  [754] The repeal of the Test Act, the admission of Catholics into
+        Parliament, and the steadily increasing feeling in favour of the
+        admission of the Jews, are the leading symptoms of this great
+        movement. On the gradual diffusion among us of the doctrine of
+        expediency, which, on all subjects not yet raised to sciences,
+        ought to be the sole regulator of human actions, see a
+        remarkable, but a mournful letter, written in 1812, in the _Life
+        of Wilberforce_, vol. iv. p. 28. See also the speech of Lord
+        Eldon in 1828, in _Twiss's Life of Eldon_, vol. ii. p. 203.
+
+Thus it was that, in England, theology was finally severed from the two
+great departments of ethics and of government. As, however, this
+important change was at first not of a practical, but solely of an
+intellectual character, its operation was, for many years, confined to a
+small class, and has not yet produced the whole of those results which
+we have every reason to anticipate. But there were other circumstances
+which tended in the same direction, and which, being known to all men of
+tolerable education, produced effects more immediate, though perhaps
+less permanent. To trace their details, and point out the connexion
+between them, will be the business of part of the future volumes of this
+work: at present, I can only glance at the leading features. Of these,
+the most prominent were: The great Arian controversy, which, rashly
+instigated by Whiston, Clarke, and Waterland, disseminated doubts among
+nearly all classes;[755] the Bangorian controversy, which, involving
+matters of ecclesiastical discipline hitherto untouched, led to
+discussions dangerous to the power of the church;[756] the great work
+of Blackburne on the Confessional, which at one moment almost caused a
+schism in the Establishment itself;[757] the celebrated dispute
+respecting miracles between Middleton, Church, and Dodwell, continued,
+with still larger views, by Hume, Campbell, and Douglas; [758] the
+exposure of the gross absurdities of the Fathers, which, already begun
+by Daillé and Barbeyrac, was followed up by Cave, Middleton, and Jortin;
+the important and unrefuted statements of Gibbon, in his fifteenth and
+sixteenth chapters; the additional strength conferred on those chapters
+by the lame attacks of Davis, Chelsum, Whitaker, and Watson;[759] while,
+not to mention inferior matters, the century was closed amid the
+confusion caused by that decisive controversy between Porson and Travis,
+respecting the text of the Heavenly Witnesses, which excited immense
+attention,[760] and was immediately accompanied by the discoveries of
+geologists, in which, not only was the fidelity of the Mosaic cosmogony
+impugned, but its accuracy was shown to be impossible.[761] These
+things, following each other in rapid and startling succession,
+perplexed the faith of men, disturbed their easy credulity, and produced
+effects on the public mind, which can only be estimated by those who
+have studied the history of that time in its original sources. Indeed,
+they cannot be understood, even in their general bearings, except by
+taking into consideration some other circumstances with which the great
+progress was intimately connected.
+
+  [755] From a curious passage in _Hutton's Life of Himself_, p. 27, we
+        learn that, in 1739, the scepticism of the Anti-Trinitarians had
+        penetrated among the tradesmen at Nottingham. Compare, respecting
+        the spread of this heresy, _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. viii. p.
+        375; _Priestley's Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 25, 26, 53; _Doddridge's
+        Correspond. and Diary_, vol. ii. p. 477, note; and on Peirce, who
+        took an active part, and whom Whiston boasts of having corrupted,
+        see _Whiston's Memoirs_, pp. 143, 144. Sharp, who was Archbishop
+        of York when the controversy began, foresaw its dangerous
+        consequences. _Life of Sharp_, edited by Newcome, vol. ii. pp. 7,
+        8, 135, 136. See further _Maclaine's note_ in _Mosheim's
+        Ecclesiast. Hist._ vol. ii. pp. 293, 294; _Lathbury's Hist. of
+        Convocation_, pp. 338, 342, 351; and a note in _Butler's
+        Reminisc._ vol. i. pp. 206, 207.
+
+  [756] Mr. Butler (_Mem. of the Catholics_, vol. iii. pp. 182-184,
+        347-350) notices with evident pleasure the effect of this famous
+        controversy in weakening the Anglican Church. Compare _Bogue and
+        Bennett's Hist. of the Dissenters_, vol. iii. pp. 135-141.
+        Whiston (_Memoirs_, p. 244) says: 'And, indeed, this Bangorian
+        controversy seemed for a great while to engross the attention of
+        the public.' See more about it in _Lathbury's Hist. of
+        Convocation_, pp. 372-383; _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. i. p. 152,
+        vol. ix. pp. 433, 434, 516; _Nichols's Illustrations_, vol. i. p.
+        840; _Bishop Newton's Life of Himself_, pp. 177, 178.
+
+  [757] _The Confessional_, a most able attack on the subscription of
+        creeds and articles, was published in 1766; and, according to a
+        contemporary observer, 'it excited a general spirit of inquiry.'
+        _Cappe's Memoirs_, pp. 147, 148. The consequence was, that in
+        1772 a society was instituted by Blackburne and other clergy of
+        the Church of England, with the avowed object of doing away with
+        all subscriptions in religion. _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. i. p.
+        570; _Illustrations_, vol. vi. p. 854. A petition against the
+        Articles was at once drawn up, signed by 200 clergy (_Adolphus's
+        George III._ vol. i. p. 506), and brought before the House of
+        Commons. In the animated debate which followed, Sir William
+        Meredith said that 'the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of
+        England were framed when the spirit of free inquiry, when liberal
+        and enlarged notions, were yet in their infancy.' _Parl. Hist._
+        vol. xvii. p. 246. He added, p. 247: 'Several of the Articles are
+        absolutely unintelligible, and, indeed, contradictory and
+        absurd.' Lord George Germain said: 'In my apprehension, some of
+        the Articles are incomprehensible, and some self-contradictory;'
+        p. 265. Mr. Sawbridge declared that the Articles are 'strikingly
+        absurd;' Mr. Salter that they are 'too absurd to be defended;'
+        and Mr. Dunning that they are 'palpably ridiculous,' p. 294. For
+        further information on this attempt at reform, see _Disney's Life
+        of Jebb_, pp. 31-36; _Meadley's Mem. of Paley_, pp. 88-94;
+        _Hodgson's Life of Porteus_, pp. 38-40; _Memoirs of Priestley_,
+        vol. ii. p. 582; and a characteristic notice in _Palmer's
+        Treatise on the Church_, vol. i. pp. 270, 271.
+
+  [758] Hume says, that on his return from Italy in 1749, he found 'all
+        England in a ferment on account of Dr. Middleton's _Free
+        Inquiry_.' _Hume's Life of Himself_, in his _Works_, vol. i. p.
+        7. See also, on the excitement caused by this masterly attack,
+        _Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. ii. p.
+        176; which should be compared with _Doddridge's Correspond._ vol.
+        iv. pp. 536, 537: and on the 'miraculous controversy' in general,
+        see _Porteus's Life of Secker_, 1797, p. 38; _Phillimore's Mem.
+        of Lyttleton_, vol. i. p. 161; _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. ii.
+        pp. 440, 527, vol. iii. pp. 535, 750, vol. v. pp. 417, 418, 600;
+        _Hull's Letters_, 1778, vol. i. p. 109; _Warburton's Letters to
+        Hurd_, pp. 49, 50.
+
+  [759] _Gibbon's Decline and Fall_ has now been jealously scrutinized by
+        two generations of eager and unscrupulous opponents; and I am
+        only expressing the general opinion of competent judges when I
+        say, that by each successive scrutiny it has gained fresh
+        reputation. Against his celebrated fifteenth and sixteenth
+        chapters, all the devices of controversy have been exhausted; but
+        the only result has been, that while the fame of the historian is
+        untarnished, the attacks of his enemies are falling into complete
+        oblivion. The work of Gibbon remains; but who is there who feels
+        any interest in what was written against him?
+
+  [760] On the effect produced by these matchless letters of Porson, see
+        _Harford's Life of Bishop Burgess_, p. 374; and as to the
+        previous agitation of the question in England, see _Calamy's Own
+        Life_, vol. ii. pp. 442, 443; _Monk's Life of Bentley_, vol. ii.
+        pp. 16-19, 146, 286-289; _Butler's Reminiscences_, vol. i. p.
+        211. Compare _Somers Tracts_, vol. xii. p. 137, vol. xiii.
+        p. 458.
+
+  [761] The sceptical character of geology was first clearly exhibited
+        during the last thirty years of the eighteenth century.
+        Previously, the geologists had, for the most part, allied
+        themselves with the theologians; but the increasing boldness of
+        public opinion now enabled them to institute independent
+        investigations, without regard to doctrines hitherto received. In
+        this point of view, much was effected by the researches of
+        Hutton, whose work, says Sir Charles Lyell, contains the first
+        attempt 'to explain the former changes of the earth's crust by
+        reference exclusively to natural agents.' _Lyell's Principles of
+        Geology_, p. 50. To establish this method was, of course, to
+        dissolve the alliance with the theologians; but an earlier
+        symptom of the change was seen in 1773, that is, fifteen years
+        before Hutton wrote: see a letter in _Watson's Life of Himself_,
+        vol. i. p. 402, where it is stated that the 'freethinkers'
+        attacked the 'Mosaic account of the world's age, especially since
+        the publication of Mr. Brydone's _Travels Through Sicily and
+        Malta_.' According to Lowndes (_Bibliographer's Manual_, vol. i.
+        p. 279), Brydone's book was published in 1773; and in 1784 Sir
+        William Jones notices the tendency of these inquiries: see his
+        _Discourse on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India_, in which he
+        observes (_Works_, vol. i. p. 233) with regret, that he lived in
+        'an age when some intelligent and virtuous persons are inclined
+        to doubt the authenticity of the accounts delivered by Moses
+        concerning the primitive world.' Since then, the progress of
+        geology has been so rapid, that the historical value of the
+        writings of Moses is abandoned by all enlightened men, even among
+        the clergy themselves. I need only refer to what has been said by
+        two of the most eminent of that profession, Dr. Arnold and Mr.
+        Baden Powell. See the observations of Arnold in _Newman's Phases
+        of Faith_, p. 111 (compare pp. 122, 123); and the still more
+        decisive remarks in _Powell's Sermons on Christianity without
+        Judaism_, 1856, pp. 38, 39. For other instances, see _Lyell's
+        Second Visit to the United States_, 1849, vol. i. pp. 219, 220.
+
+For, in the mean time, an immense change had begun, not only among
+speculative minds, but also among the people themselves. The increase of
+scepticism stimulated their curiosity; and the diffusion of education
+supplied the means of gratifying it. Hence, we find that one of the
+leading characteristics of the eighteenth century, and one which
+pre-eminently distinguished it from all that preceded, was a craving
+after knowledge on the part of those classes from whom knowledge had
+hitherto been shut out. It was in that great age, that there were first
+established schools for the lower orders on the only day they had time
+to attend them,[762] and newspapers on the only day they had time to
+read them.[763] It was then that there were first seen, in our country,
+circulating libraries;[764] and it was then, too, that the art of
+printing, instead of being almost confined to London, began to be
+generally practised in country-towns.[765] It was also in the eighteenth
+century, that the earliest systematic efforts were made to popularize
+the sciences, and facilitate the acquisition of their general
+principles, by writing treatises on them in an easy and untechnical
+style:[766] while, at the same time, the invention of Encyclopædias
+enabled their results to be brought together, and digested in a form
+more accessible than any hitherto employed.[767] Then, too, we first
+meet with literary periodical reviews; by means of which large bodies
+of practical men acquired information, scanty indeed, but every way
+superior to their former ignorance.[768] The formation of societies for
+purchasing books now became general;[769] and, before the close of the
+century, we hear of clubs instituted by reading men among the
+industrious classes.[770] In every department, the same eager curiosity
+was shown. In the middle of the eighteenth century, debating societies
+sprung up among tradesmen;[771] and this was followed by a still bolder
+innovation, for, in 1769, there was held the first public meeting ever
+assembled in England, the first in which it was attempted to enlighten
+Englishmen respecting their political rights.[772] About the same time,
+the proceedings in our courts of law began to be studied by the people,
+and communicated to them through the medium of the daily press.[773]
+Shortly before this, political newspapers arose,[774] and a sharp
+struggle broke out between them and the two Houses of Parliament
+touching the right of publishing the debates; the end of which was, that
+both houses, though aided by the crown, were totally defeated; and, for
+the first time, the people were able to study the proceedings of the
+national legislature, and thus gain some acquaintance with the national
+affairs.[775] Scarcely was this triumph completed, when fresh stimulus
+was given by the promulgation of that great political doctrine of
+personal representation,[776] which must eventually carry all before it;
+and the germ of which may be traced late in the seventeenth century,
+when the true idea of personal independence began to take root and
+flourish.[777] Finally, it was reserved for the eighteenth century to
+set the first example of calling on the people to adjudicate upon those
+solemn questions of religion in which hitherto they had never been
+consulted, although it is now universally admitted that to their growing
+intelligence these, and all other matters, must ultimately be
+referred.[778]
+
+  [762] It is usually supposed that Sunday-schools were began by Raikes,
+        in 1781; but, though he appears to have been the first to
+        organize them on a suitable scale, there is no doubt that they
+        were established by Lindsey, in or immediately after 1765. See
+        _Cappe's Memoir's_, pp. 118, 122; _Harford's Life of Burgess_, p.
+        92; _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. iii. pp. 430, 431, vol. ix. p.
+        540; _Chalmers's Biog. Dict._ vol. xxv. p. 485; _Journ. of Stat.
+        Soc._ vol. x. p. 196, v. xiii. p. 265; _Hodgson's Life of
+        Porteus_, p. 92. It is said, in _Spencer's Social Statics_, p.
+        343, that the clergy of the Church of England were, as a body,
+        opposed to the establishment of Sunday-schools. (Compare
+        _Watson's Observations on Southey's Wesley_, p. 149.) At all
+        events, they increased rapidly, and by the end of the century had
+        become common. See _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. v. pp. 678, 679;
+        _Nichols's Illustrations_, vol. i. p. 460; _Life of Wilberforce_,
+        vol. i. p. 180, vol. ii. p. 296; _Wesley's Journals_, pp. 806,
+        897.
+
+  [763] Mr. Hunt (_Hist. of Newspapers_, vol. i. p. 273) makes no mention
+        of Sunday newspapers earlier than a notice by Crabbe in 1785; but
+        in 1799, Lord Belgrave said, in the House of Commons, that they
+        first appeared 'about the year 1780.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxxiv.
+        p. 1006. In 1799, Wilberforce tried to have a law enacted to
+        suppress them. _Life of Wilberforce_, vol. ii. pp. 338, 424.
+
+  [764] When Franklin came to London, in 1725, there was not a single
+        circulating library in the metropolis. See _Franklin's Life of
+        Himself_, vol. i. p. 64; and, in 1697, 'the only library in
+        London which approached the nature of a public library was that
+        of Sion College, belonging to the London clergy.' _Ellis's
+        Letters of Literary Men_, p. 245. The exact date of the earliest
+        circulating library I have not yet ascertained; but, according to
+        Southey (_The Doctor_, edit. Warter, 1848, p. 271), the first set
+        up in London was about the middle of the eighteenth century, by
+        Samuel Fancourt. Hutton (_Life of Himself_, p. 279) says, 'I was
+        the first who opened a circulating library in Birmingham, in
+        1751.' Other notices of them, during the latter half of the
+        century, will be found in _Coleridge's Biographia Literaria_,
+        vol. ii. p. 329, edit. 1847; _Leigh Hunt's Autobiography_, vol.
+        i. p. 260; _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. iii. pp. 648, 682;
+        _Nichols's Illustrations_, vol. i. p. 424; _Whewell's Hist. of
+        Moral Philosophy_, p. 190; _Sinclair's Correspond._ vol. i. p.
+        143. Indeed, they increased so rapidly, that some wise men
+        proposed to tax them, 'by a licence, at the rate of 2_s._ 6_d._
+        per 100 volumes per annum.' _Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue_,
+        vol. iii. p. 268.
+
+  [765] In 1746, Gent, the well-known printer, wrote his own life. In this
+        curious work, he states, that in 1714 there were 'few printers in
+        England, except London, at that time; none then, I am sure, at
+        Chester, Liverpool, Whitehaven, Preston, Manchester, Kendal, and
+        Leeds, as for the most part now abound.' _Life of Thomas Gent_,
+        pp. 20, 21. (Compare a list of country printing-houses, in 1724,
+        in _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. i. p. 289.) How this state of
+        things was remedied, is a most important inquiry for the
+        historian; but in this note I can only give a few illustrations
+        of the condition of different districts. The first
+        printing-office in Rochester was established by Fisher, who died
+        in 1786 (_Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. iii. p. 675); the first in
+        Whitby, was in 1770 (_Illustrations_, vol. iii. p. 787); and
+        Richard Greene, who died in 1793, 'was the first who brought a
+        printing-press to Lichfield' (_Ibid._ vol. vi. p. 320). In the
+        reign of Anne, there was not a single bookseller in Birmingham
+        (_Southey's Commonplace Book_, 1st series, 1849, p. 568); but, in
+        1749, we find a printer established there (_Hull's Letters_,
+        Lond. 1778, vol. i. p. 92); and, in 1774, there was a printer
+        even in Falkirk (_Parl. Hist._ vol. xvii. p. 1099). In other
+        parts the movement was slower; and we are told that, about 1780,
+        'there was scarcely a bookseller in Cornwall.' _Life of Samuel
+        Drew, by his Son_, 1834, pp. 40, 41.
+
+  [766] Desaguliers and Hill were the two first writers who gave
+        themselves up to popularizing physical truths. At the beginning
+        of the reign of George I. Desaguliers was 'the first who read
+        lectures in London on experimental philosophy.' _Southey's
+        Commonplace Book_, 3d series, 1850, p. 77. See also _Penny
+        Cyclopædia_, vol. viii. p. 430; and, on his elementary works,
+        compare _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. vi. p. 81. As to Hill, he is
+        said to have set the example of publishing popular scientific
+        works in numbers; a plan so well suited to that inquisitive age,
+        that, if we believe Horace Walpole, he 'earned fifteen guineas a
+        week.' _Letter to Henry Zouch_, January 3rd, 1761, in _Walpole's
+        Letters_, vol. iv. p. 117, edit. 1840.
+
+        In the latter half of the eighteenth century, the demand for
+        books on the natural sciences rapidly increased (see, among many
+        other instances which might be quoted, a note in _Pulteney's
+        Hist. of Botany_, vol. ii. p. 180); and, early in the reign of
+        George III., Priestley began to write popularly on physical
+        subjects. (_Memoirs of Priestley_, vol. i. pp. 288, 289.)
+        Goldsmith did something in the same direction (_Prior's Life of
+        Goldsmith_, vol. i. pp. 414, 469, vol. ii. p. 198); and Pennant,
+        whose earliest work appeared in 1766, was 'the first who treated
+        the natural history of Britain in a popular and interesting
+        style.' _Swainson on the Study of Natural History_, p. 50. In the
+        reign of George II., publishers began to encourage elementary
+        works on chemistry. _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. ix. p. 763.
+
+  [767] In 1704, 1708, and 1710, Harris published his _Dictionary of Arts
+        and Sciences_; and from this, according to _Nichols's Lit. Anec._
+        vol. ix. pp. 770, 771, has 'originated all the other dictionaries
+        and cyclopædias that have since appeared.' Compare vol. v. p.
+        659; and _Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of the Dissenters_, vol. iv.
+        p. 500.
+
+  [768] Late in the seventeenth century, an attempt was first made in
+        England to establish literary journals. _Hallam's Lit. of
+        Europe_, vol. iii. p. 539; and _Dibdin's Bibliomania_, 1842, p.
+        16. But reviews, as we now understand the word, meaning a
+        critical publication, were unknown before the accession of George
+        II.; but, about the middle of his reign, they began to increase.
+        Compare _Wright's England under the House of Hanover_, 1848, vol.
+        i. p. 304, with _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. iii. pp. 507, 508. At
+        an earlier period, the functions of reviews were performed, as
+        Monk says, by pamphlets. _Monk's Life of Bentley_, vol. i. p.
+        112.
+
+  [769] As we find from many casual notices of book clubs and book
+        societies. See, for example, _Doddridge's Correspond._ vol. ii.
+        pp. 57, 119; _Jesse's Life of Selwyn_, vol. ii. p. 23; _Nichols's
+        Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. v. pp. 184, 824,
+        825; _Wakefield's Life of Himself_, vol. i. p. 528; _Memoirs of
+        Sir J. E. Smith_, vol. i. p. 8; _Life of Roscoe, by his Son_,
+        vol. i. p. 228 (though this last was perhaps a circulating
+        library).
+
+  [770] 'Numerous associations or clubs, composed principally of reading
+        men of the lower ranks.' _Life of Dr. Currie, by his Son_, vol.
+        i. p. 175.
+
+  [771] Of which the most remarkable was that called the Robin-Hood
+        Society; respecting which the reader should compare _Campbell's
+        Lives of the Chancellors_, vol. vi. p. 373; _Grosley's London_,
+        vol. i. p. 150; _Parl. Hist._ vol. xvii. p. 301; _Southey's
+        Commonplace Book_, 4th series, p. 339; _Forster's Life of
+        Goldsmith_, vol. i. p. 310; _Prior's Life of Goldsmith_, vol. i.
+        pp. 419, 420; _Prior's Life of Burke_, p. 75; _Nichols's Lit.
+        Anec._ vol. iii. p. 154.
+
+  [772] 'From the summer of 1769 is to be dated the first establishment of
+        public meetings in England.' _Albemarle's Mem. of Rockingham_,
+        vol. ii. p. 93. 'Public meetings, ... through which the people
+        might declare their newly-acquired consciousness of power, ...
+        cannot be distinctly traced higher than the year 1769; but they
+        were now (_i.e._ in 1770) of daily occurrence.' _Cooke's Hist. of
+        Party_, vol. iii. p. 187. See also _Hallam's Const. Hist._ vol.
+        ii. p. 420.
+
+  [773] The most interesting trials were first noticed in newspapers
+        towards the end of the reign of George II. _Campbell's
+        Chancellors_, vol. v. p. 52, vol. vi. p. 54.
+
+  [774] In 1696, the only newspapers were weekly; and the first daily
+        paper appeared in the reign of Anne. Compare _Simmonds's Essay on
+        Newspapers_, in _Journal of Statist. Society_, vol. iv. p. 113,
+        with _Hunt's Hist. of Newspapers_, vol. i. pp. 167, 175, vol. ii.
+        p. 90; and _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. iv. p. 80. In 1710, they,
+        instead of merely communicating news, as heretofore, began to
+        take part in 'the discussion of political topics' (_Hallam's
+        Const. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 443); and, as this change had been
+        preceded a very few years by the introduction of cheap political
+        pamphlets (see a curious passage in _Wilson's Life of De Foe_,
+        vol. ii. p. 29), it became evident that a great movement was at
+        hand in regard to the diffusion of such inquiries. Within twenty
+        years after the death of Anne, the revolution was completed; and
+        the press, for the first time in the history of the world, was
+        made an exponent of public opinion. The earliest notice of this
+        new power which I have met in parliament, is in a speech
+        delivered by Danvers, in 1738; which is worth quoting, both
+        because it marks an epoch, and because it is characteristic of
+        that troublesome class to which the man belonged. 'But I
+        believe,' says this distinguished legislator,--'but I believe the
+        people of Great Britain are governed by a power that never was
+        heard of, as a supreme authority, in any age or country before.
+        This power, sir, does not consist in the absolute will of the
+        prince, in the direction of parliament, in the strength of an
+        army, in the influence of the clergy, neither, sir, is it a
+        petticoat government: but, sir, it is the government of the
+        press. The stuff which our weekly newspapers are filled with, is
+        received with greater reverence than acts of parliament; and the
+        sentiments of one of these scribblers have more weight with the
+        multitude than the opinion of the best politician in the
+        kingdom.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. x. p. 448.
+
+  [775] This great contest was brought to a close in 1771 and 1772; when,
+        as Lord Campbell says, 'the right of publishing parliamentary
+        debates was substantially established.' _Campbell's Chancellors_,
+        vol. v. p. 511, vol. vi. p. 90. For further information
+        respecting this important victory, see _Cooke's Hist. of Party_,
+        vol. iii. pp. 179-184; _Almon's Correspond. of Wilkes_, 1805,
+        vol. v. p. 63; _Stephens's Mem. of Tooke_, vol. i. pp. 329-351;
+        _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. v. p. 290; and, on its connexion
+        with _Junius's Letters_, see _Forster's Life of Goldsmith_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 183, 184.
+
+        George III., always consistent and always wrong, strenuously
+        opposed this extension of the popular rights. In 1771, he wrote
+        to Lord North: 'It is highly necessary that this strange and
+        lawless method of publishing debates in the papers should be put
+        a stop to. But is not the House of Lords the best court to bring
+        such miscreants before; as it can fine, as well as imprison, and
+        has broader shoulders to support the odium of so salutary a
+        measure?' _App. to Mahon_, vol. v. p. xlviii.; and _note_ in
+        _Walpole's George III._ vol. iv. p. 280, where the words, 'in the
+        papers,' are omitted; but I copy the letter, as printed by Lord
+        Mahon. In other respects, both versions are the same; so that we
+        now know the idea George III. had of what constituted a
+        miscreant.
+
+  [776] Lord John Russell, in his work on the _History of the English
+        Constitution_, says: 'Dr. Jebb, and after him Mr. Cartwright,
+        broached the theory of personal representation;' but this appears
+        to be a mistake, since the theory is said to have been first put
+        forward by Cartwright, in 1776. Compare _Russell on the
+        Constitution_, 1821, pp. 240, 241, with _Life and Corresp. of
+        Cartwright_, 1826, vol. i. pp. 91, 92. A letter in the _Life of
+        Dr. Currie_, vol. ii. pp. 307-314, shows the interest which even
+        sober and practical men were beginning to feel in the doctrine
+        before the end of the century.
+
+  [777] On this I have a philological remark of some interest,--namely,
+        that there is reason to believe that 'the word "independence," in
+        its modern acceptation,' does not occur in our language before
+        the early part of the eighteenth century. See _Hare's Guesses at
+        Truth_, 2nd series, 1848, p. 262. A similar change, though at a
+        later period, took place in France. See the observations on the
+        word 'individualisme,' in _Tocqueville_, _Démocratie en
+        Amérique_, vol. iv. p. 156; and in the later work, by the same
+        author, _L'Ancien Régime_, Paris, 1856, pp. 148, 149.
+
+  [778] Archbishop Whately (_Dangers to Christian Faith_, pp. 76, 77)
+        says: 'Neither the attacks on our religion, nor the evidences in
+        its support, were, to any great extent, brought forward in a
+        popular form, till near the close of the last century. On both
+        sides, the learned (or those who professed to be such) seem to
+        have agreed in this,--that the mass of the people were to
+        acquiesce in the decision of their superiors, and neither should,
+        nor could, exercise their own minds on the question.' This is
+        well put, and quite true; and should be compared with the
+        complaint in _Wakefield's Life of Himself_, vol. ii. p. 21;
+        _Nichols's Lit. Anec. of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. viii. p.
+        144; and _Hodgson's Life of Bishop Porteus_, pp. 73, 74, 122,
+        125, 126. See also a speech by Mansfield, in 1781 (_Parl. Hist._
+        vol. xxii. p. 265), when an attempt was made to put down the
+        'Theological Society.' The whole debate is worth reading; not on
+        account of its merits, but because it supplies evidence of the
+        prevailing spirit.
+
+In connexion with all this, there was a corresponding change in the very
+form and make of our literature. The harsh and pedantic method, which
+our great writers had long been accustomed to employ, was ill suited to
+an impetuous and inquisitive generation, thirsting after knowledge, and
+therefore intolerant of obscurities formerly unheeded. Hence it was
+that, early in the eighteenth century, the powerful, but cumbrous,
+language, and the long, involved sentences, so natural to our ancient
+authors, were, notwithstanding their beauty, suddenly discarded, and
+were succeeded by a lighter and simpler style, which, being more rapidly
+understood, was better suited to the exigencies of the age.[779]
+
+  [779] Coleridge (_Lit. Remains_, vol. i. pp. 230 seq.) has made some
+        interesting remarks on the vicissitudes of English style; and he
+        justly observes, p. 238, that, 'after the Revolution, the spirit
+        of the nation became much more commercial than it had been
+        before; a learned body, or clerisy, as such, gradually
+        disappeared; and literature in general began to be addressed to
+        the common, miscellaneous public.' He goes on to lament this
+        change; though, in that, I disagree with him. See also _The
+        Friend_, vol. i. p. 19, where he contrasts the modern style with
+        'the stately march and difficult evolutions' of the great writers
+        of the seventeenth century. Compare, on this alteration, the
+        preface to Nader Shah, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. v. p.
+        544. See also, in _Harford's Life of Burgess_, pp. 40, 41, a
+        curious letter from Monboddo, the last of our really great
+        pedants, mourning over this characteristic of modern composition.
+        He terms it contemptuously a 'short cut of a style;' and wishes
+        to return to 'the true ancient taste,' with plenty of
+        'parentheses!'
+
+        The truth is, that this movement was merely part of that tendency
+        to approximate the different classes of society which was first
+        clearly seen in the eighteenth century, and which influenced not
+        only the style of author, but also their social habits. Hume
+        observes that, in the 'last age,' learned men had separated
+        themselves too much from the world; but that, in his time, they
+        were becoming more 'conversible.' _Essay V._, in _Hume's
+        Philosophical Works_, vol. iv. pp. 539, 540. That 'philosophers'
+        were growing men of the world, is also noticed in a curious
+        passage in _Alciphron_, dial. i., in _Berkeley's Works_, vol. i.
+        p. 312; and, respecting the general social amalgamation, see a
+        letter to the Countess of Bute, in 1753, in _Works of Lady Mary
+        Montagu_, edit. 1803, vol. iv. pp. 194, 195. As to the influence
+        of Addison, who led the way in establishing the easy, and
+        therefore democratic, style, and who, more than any single
+        writer, made literature popular, compare _Aikin's Life of
+        Addison_, vol. ii. p. 65, with _Turner's Hist. of England_, vol.
+        ii. p. 7. Subsequently a reaction was attempted by Johnson,
+        Gibbon, and Parr; but this, being contrary to the spirit of the
+        age, was short-lived.
+
+The extension of knowledge being thus accompanied by an increased
+simplicity in the manner of its communication, naturally gave rise to a
+greater independence in literary men, and a greater boldness in literary
+inquiries. As long as books, either from the difficulty of their style,
+or from the general incuriosity of the people, found but few readers, it
+was evident that authors must rely upon the patronage of public bodies,
+or of rich and titled individuals. And, as men are always inclined to
+flatter those upon whom they are dependent, it too often happened that
+even our greatest writers prostituted their abilities by fawning upon
+the prejudices of their patrons. The consequence was that literature, so
+far from disturbing ancient superstitions, and stirring up the mind to
+new inquiries, frequently assumed a timid and subservient air, natural
+to its subordinate position. But now all this was changed. Those servile
+and shameful dedications;[780] that mean and crouching spirit; that
+incessant homage to mere rank and birth; that constant confusion between
+power and right; that ignorant admiration for everything which is old,
+and that still more ignorant contempt for everything which, is new:--all
+these features became gradually fainter: and authors, relying upon the
+patronage of the people, began to advocate the claims of their new
+allies with a boldness upon which they could not have ventured in any
+previous age.[781]
+
+  [780] And the servility was, for the most part, well paid; indeed,
+        rewarded far more than it was worth. During the sixteenth,
+        seventeenth, and early part of the eighteenth century, a sum of
+        money was invariably presented to the author in return for his
+        dedication. Of course, the grosser the flattery, the larger the
+        sum. On the relation thus established between authors and men of
+        rank, and on the eagerness with which even eminent writers looked
+        to their patrons for gratuities, varying from 40_s._ to 100_l._,
+        see _Drake's Shakespeare and his Times_, 1817, 4to. vol. ii. p.
+        225; _Monk's Life of Bentley_, vol. i. pp. 194, 309; _Whiston's
+        Memoirs_, p. 203; _Nichols's Illustrations_, vol. ii. p. 709;
+        _Harris's Life of Hardwicke_, vol. iii. p. 35; _Bunbury's Life of
+        Hanmer_, p. 81. Compare a note in _Burton's Diary_, vol. iii. p.
+        52; and as to the importance of fixing on a proper person to whom
+        to dedicate, see _Ellis's Letters Lit. Men_, pp. 231-234; and the
+        matter-of-fact remark in _Bishop Newton's Life_, p. 14; also,
+        _Hughes's Letters_, edit. 1773, vol. iii. p. xxxi. appendix.
+
+        About the middle of the eighteenth century was the turning-point
+        of this deplorable condition; and Watson, for instance, in 1769,
+        laid it down as a rule, 'never to dedicate to those from whom I
+        expected favours.' _Watson's Life of Himself_, vol. i. p. 54. So,
+        too, Warburton, in 1758, boasts that his dedication was not, as
+        usual, 'occupied by trifles or falsehoods.' See his letter, in
+        _Chatham Correspond._ vol. i. p. 315. Nearly at the same period,
+        the same change was effected in France, where D'Alembert set the
+        example of ridiculing the old custom. See _Brougham's Men of
+        Letters_, vol. ii. pp. 439, 440; _Correspond. de Madame
+        Dudeffand_, vol. ii. p. 148; and _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_, vol.
+        xl. p. 41, vol. lxi. p. 285.
+
+  [781] When Le Blanc visited England, in the middle of the reign of
+        George II., the custom of authors relying upon the patronage of
+        individuals was beginning to die away, and the plan of publishing
+        by subscription had become general. See the interesting details
+        in _Le Blanc_, _Lettres d'un Français_, vol. i. pp. 305-308; and
+        for the former state of things, see vol. ii. pp. 148-153. Burke,
+        who came to London in 1750, observes, with surprise, that
+        'writers of the first talents are left to the capricious
+        patronage of the public. Notwithstanding discouragement,
+        literature is cultivated to a high degree.' _Prior's Life of
+        Burke_, p. 21. This increasing independence also appears from the
+        fact that, in 1762, we find the first instance of a popular
+        writer attacking public men by name; authors having previously
+        confined themselves 'to the initials only of the great men whom
+        they assailed.' _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. v. p. 19. The
+        feud between literature and rank may be further illustrated by an
+        entry in Holcroft's Diary for 1798, _Mem. of Holcroft_, vol. iii.
+        p. 28.
+
+From all these things there resulted consequences of vast importance.
+From this simplification, independence, and diffusion[782] of knowledge,
+it necessarily happened, that the issue of those great disputes to which
+I have alluded became, in the eighteenth century, more generally known
+than would have been possible in any preceding century. It was now known
+that theological and political questions were being constantly agitated,
+in which genius and learning were on one side, and orthodoxy and
+tradition on the other. It became known that the points which were
+mooted were not only as to the credibility of particular facts, but also
+as to the truth of general principles, with which the interests and
+happiness of Man were intimately concerned. Disputes which had hitherto
+been confined to a very small part of society began to spread far and
+wide, and suggest doubts that served as materials for national thought.
+The consequence was, that the spirit of inquiry became every year more
+active, and more general; the desire for reform constantly increased;
+and if affairs had been allowed to run on in their natural course, the
+eighteenth century could not have passed away without decisive and
+salutary changes both in the church and the state. But soon after the
+middle of this period, there unfortunately arose a series of political
+combinations which disturbed the march of events, and eventually
+produced a crisis so full of danger, that, among any other people, it
+would certainly have ended either in a loss of liberty or in a
+dissolution of government. This disastrous reaction, from the effects of
+which England has, perhaps, barely recovered, has never been studied
+with anything like the care its importance demands; indeed, it is so
+little understood, that no historian has traced the opposition between
+it and that great intellectual movement of which I have just sketched an
+outline. On this account, as also with the view of giving more
+completeness to the present chapter, I intend to examine its most
+important epochs, and point out, so far as I am able, the way in which
+they are connected with each other. According to the scheme of this
+Introduction, such an inquiry must, of course, be very cursory, as its
+sole object is to lay a foundation for those general principles, without
+which history is a mere assemblage of empirical observations,
+unconnected, and therefore unimportant. It must likewise be remembered,
+that as the circumstances about to be considered were not social, but
+political, we are the more liable to err in our conclusions respecting
+them; and this partly because the materials for the history of a people
+are more extensive, more indirect, and therefore less liable to be
+garbled, than are those for the history of a government; and partly
+because the conduct of small bodies of men, such as ministers and kings,
+is always more capricious, that is to say, less regulated by known
+laws, than is the conduct of those large bodies collectively called
+society, or a nation.[783] With this precautionary remark, I will now
+endeavour to trace what, in a mere political point of view, is the
+reactionary and retrogressive period of English history.
+
+  [782] In England, the marked increase in the number of books took place
+        during the latter half of the eighteenth century, and
+        particularly after 1756. See some valuable evidence in _Journal
+        of the Statistical Society_, vol. iii. pp. 383, 384. To this I
+        may add, that between 1753 and 1792, the circulation of
+        newspapers was more than doubled. _Hunt's Hist. of Newspapers_,
+        vol. i. p. 252.
+
+  [783] The apparent caprice and irregularity in small numbers arise from
+        the perturbations produced by the operation of minor and usually
+        unknown laws. In large numbers, these perturbations have a
+        tendency to balance each other; and this I take to be the sole
+        foundation of the accuracy obtained by striking an average. If we
+        could refer all phenomena to their laws, we should never use
+        averages. Of course, the expression _capricious_ is, strictly
+        speaking, inaccurate, and is merely a measure of our ignorance.
+
+It must be considered as a most fortunate circumstance, that after the
+death of Anne,[784] the throne should be occupied for nearly fifty years
+by two princes, aliens in manners and in country, of whom one spoke our
+language but indifferently, and the other knew it not at all.[785] The
+immediate predecessors of George III. were, indeed, of so sluggish a
+disposition, and were so profoundly ignorant of the people they
+undertook to govern,[786] that, notwithstanding their arbitrary temper,
+there was no danger of their organizing a party to extend the
+boundaries of the royal prerogative.[787] And as they were foreigners,
+they never had sufficient sympathy with the English church to induce
+them to aid the clergy in their natural desire to recover their former
+power.[788] Besides this, the fractious and disloyal conduct of many of
+the hierarchy must have tended to alienate the regard of the sovereign,
+as it had already cost them the affection of the people.[789]
+
+  [784] The temporary political reaction under Anne is well related by
+        Lord Cowper, in his _Hist. of Parties_, printed in appendix to
+        _Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors_, vol. iv. p. 411, 412. This
+        able work of Lord Campbell's, though rather inaccurate for the
+        earlier period, is particularly valuable for the history of the
+        eighteenth century.
+
+  [785] See _Reminiscences of the Courts of George I. and George II. by
+        Horace Walpole_, pp. lv. xciv.; and _Mahon's Hist. of England_,
+        vol. i. pp. 100, 235. The fault of George II. was in his bad
+        pronunciation of English; but George I. was not even able to
+        pronounce it badly, and could only converse with his minister,
+        Sir Robert Walpole, in Latin. The French court saw this state of
+        things with great pleasure; and in December 1714, Madame de
+        Maintenon wrote to the Princess des Ursins (_Lettres inédites de
+        Maintenon_, vol. iii. p. 157): 'On dit que le nouveau roi
+        d'Angleterre se dégoûte de ses sujets, et que ses sujets sont
+        dégoûtés de lui. Dieu veuille remettre le tout en meilleur
+        ordre!' On the effect this produced on the language spoken at the
+        English court, compare _Le Blanc_, _Lettres d'un Français_, vol.
+        i. p. 159.
+
+  [786] In 1715, Leslie writes respecting George I., that he is 'a
+        stranger to you, and altogether ignorant of your language, your
+        laws, customs, and constitution.' _Somers Tracts_, vol. xiii. p.
+        703.
+
+  [787] Great light has been thrown upon the character of George II. by
+        the recent publication of _Lord Hervey's Memoirs_; a curious
+        work, which fully confirms what we know from other sources
+        respecting the king's ignorance of English politics. Indeed, that
+        prince cared for nothing but soldiers and women; and his highest
+        ambition was to combine the reputation of a great general with
+        that of a successful libertine. Besides the testimony of Lord
+        Hervey, it is certain, from other authorities, that George II.
+        was despised as well as disliked, and was spoken of
+        contemptuously by observers of his character, and even by his own
+        ministers. See the _Marchmont Papers_, vol. i. pp. 29, 181, 187.
+
+        In reference to the decline of the royal authority, it is
+        important to observe, that since the accession of George I. none
+        of our sovereigns have been allowed to be present at state
+        deliberations. See _Bancroft's American Revolution_, vol. ii. p.
+        47, and _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. iii. p. 191.
+
+  [788] See the remarks said to be written by Bishop Atterbury, in _Somers
+        Tracts_, vol. xiii. p. 534, contrasting the affection Anne felt
+        for the church with the coldness of George I. The whole of the
+        pamphlet (pp. 521-541) ought to be read. It affords a curious
+        picture of a baffled churchman.
+
+  [789] The ill-feeling which the Church of England generally bore against
+        the government of the two first Georges was openly displayed, and
+        was so pertinaceous as to form a leading fact in the history of
+        England. In 1722, Bishop Atterbury was arrested, because he was
+        known to be engaged in a treasonable conspiracy with the
+        Pretender. As soon as he was seized, the church offered up
+        prayers for him. 'Under the pretence,' says Lord Mahon,--'under
+        the pretence of his being afflicted with the gout, he was
+        publicly prayed for in most of the churches of London and
+        Westminster.' _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. ii. p. 38. See
+        also _Parl. Hist._ vol. vii. p. 988, and vol. viii. p. 347.
+
+        At Oxford, where the clergy have long been in the ascendant, they
+        made such efforts to instill their principles as to call down the
+        indignation of the elder Pitt, who, in a speech in Parliament in
+        1754, denounced that university, which he said had for many years
+        'been raising a succession of treason--there never was such a
+        seminary!' _Walpole's Mem. of George II._ vol. i. p. 413. Compare
+        the _Bedford Correspondence_, vol. i. pp. 594, 595, with
+        _Harris's Life of Hardwicke_, vol. ii. p. 383; and on the temper
+        of the clergy generally after the death of Anne, _Parl. Hist._
+        vol. vii. pp. 541, 542; _Bowles's Life of Ken_, vol. ii. pp. 188,
+        189; _Monk's Life of Bentley_, vol. i. pp. 370, 426.
+
+        The immediate consequence of this was very remarkable. For the
+        government and the dissenters, being both opposed by the church,
+        naturally combined together: the dissenters using all their
+        influence against the Pretender, and the government protecting
+        them against ecclesiastical prosecutions. See evidence of this in
+        _Doddridge's Correspond. and Diary_, vol. i. p. 30, vol. ii. p.
+        321, vol. iii. pp. 110, 125, vol. iv. pp. 428, 436, 437;
+        _Hutton's Life of Himself_, pp. 159, 160; _Parl. Hist._ vol.
+        xxviii. pp. 11, 393, vol. xxix. pp. 1434, 1463; _Memoirs of
+        Priestley_, vol. ii. p. 506; _Life of Wakefield_, vol. i. p. 220.
+
+These circumstances, though in themselves they may be considered
+trifling, were in reality of great importance, because they secured to
+the nation the progress of that spirit of inquiry, which, if there had
+been a coalition between the crown and the church, it would have been
+attempted to stifle. Even as it was, some attempts were occasionally
+made; but they were comparatively speaking rare, and they lacked the
+vigour which they would have possessed, if there had been an intimate
+alliance between the temporal and spiritual authorities. Indeed, the
+state of affairs was so favourable, that the old Tory faction, pressed
+by the people and abandoned by the crown, was unable for more than forty
+years to take any share in the government.[790] At the same time,
+considerable progress, as we shall hereafter see, was made in
+legislation; and our statute-book, during that period, contains ample
+evidence of the decline of the powerful party by which England had once
+been entirely ruled.
+
+  [790] 'The year 1762 forms an era in the history of the two factions,
+        since it witnessed the destruction of that monopoly of honours
+        and emoluments which the Whigs had held for forty-five years.'
+        _Cooke's Hist. of Party_, vol. ii. p. 406. Compare _Albemarle's
+        Memoirs of Rockingham_, vol. ii. p. 92. Lord Bolingbroke clearly
+        foresaw what would happen in consequence of the accession of
+        George I. Immediately after the death of Anne, he wrote to the
+        Bishop of Rochester: 'But the grief of my soul is this, I see
+        plainly that the Tory party is gone.' _Macpherson's Original
+        Papers_, vol. ii. p. 651.
+
+But by the death of George II. the political aspect was suddenly
+changed, and the wishes of the sovereign became once more antagonistic
+to the interests of the people. What made this the more dangerous was,
+that, to a superficial observer, the accession of George III. was one of
+the most fortunate events that could have occurred. The new king was
+born in England, spoke English as his mother tongue,[791] and was said
+to look upon Hanover as a foreign country, whose interests were to be
+considered of subordinate importance.[792] At the same time, the last
+hopes of the House of Stuart were now destroyed;[793] the Pretender
+himself was languishing in Italy, where he shortly after died; and his
+son, a slave to vices which seemed hereditary in that family, was
+consuming his life in an unpitied and ignominious obscurity.[794]
+
+  [791] Grosley, who visited England only five years after the accession
+        of George III., mentions the great effect produced upon the
+        English when they heard the king pronounce their language without
+        'a foreign accent.' _Grosley's Tour to London_, vol. ii. p. 106.
+        It is well known that the king, in his first speech, boasted of
+        being a Briton; but what is, perhaps, less generally known is,
+        that the honour was on the side of the country: 'What a lustre,'
+        said the House of Lords in their address to him,--'what a lustre
+        does it cast upon the name of Briton when you, sir, are pleased
+        to esteem it amongst your glories!' _Parl. Hist._ vol. xv. p.
+        986.
+
+  [792] _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxix. p. 955; _Walpole's Mem. of George III._
+        vol. i. pp. 4, 110.
+
+  [793] The accession of George III. is generally fixed on as the period
+        when English Jacobinism became extinct. See _Butler's
+        Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 92. At the first court held by the
+        new king, it was observed, says Horace Walpole, that 'the Earl of
+        Litchfield, Sir Walter Bagot, and the principal Jacobites went to
+        court.' _Walpole's Mem. of George III._ vol. i. p. 14. Only three
+        years earlier the Jacobites had been active; and in 1757, Rigby
+        writes to the Duke of Bedford: 'Fox's election at Windsor is very
+        doubtful. There is a Jacobite subscription of 5,000_l._ raised
+        against him, with Sir James Dashwood's name at the head of it.'
+        _Bedford Correspond._ vol. ii. p. 261.
+
+  [794] Charles Stuart was so stupidly ignorant, that at the age of
+        twenty-five he could hardly write, and was altogether unable to
+        spell. _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. iii. pp. 165, 166, and
+        appendix, p. ix. After the death of his father, in 1766, this
+        abject creature, who called himself king of England, went to
+        Rome, and took to drinking. _Ibid._ vol. iii. pp. 351-353. In
+        1779, Swinburne saw him at Florence, where he used to appear
+        every night at the opera, perfectly drunk. _Swinburne's Courts of
+        Europe_, vol. i. pp. 253-255; and in 1787, only the year before
+        he died, he continued the same degrading practice. See a letter
+        from Sir J. E. Smith, written from Naples in March 1787, in
+        _Smith's Correspond._ vol. i. p. 208. Another letter, written as
+        early as 1761 (_Grenville Papers_, vol. i. p. 366), describes
+        'the young Pretender always drunk.'
+
+And yet these circumstances, which appeared so favourable, did of
+necessity involve the most disastrous consequences. The fear of a
+disputed succession being removed, the sovereign was emboldened to a
+course on which he otherwise would not have ventured.[795] All those
+monstrous doctrines respecting the rights of kings, which the Revolution
+was supposed to have destroyed, were suddenly revived.[796] The clergy,
+abandoning the now hopeless cause of the Pretender, displayed the same
+zeal for the House of Hanover which they had formerly displayed for the
+House of Stuart. The pulpits resounded with praises of the new king, of
+his domestic virtues, of his piety, but above all of his dutiful
+attachment to the English church. The result was, the establishment of
+an alliance between the two parties more intimate than any that had been
+seen in England since the time of Charles I.[797] Under their auspices,
+the old Tory faction rapidly rallied, and were soon able to dispossess
+their rivals of the management of the government. This reactionary
+movement was greatly aided by the personal character of George III.; for
+he, being despotic as well as superstitious, was equally anxious to
+extend the prerogative, and strengthen the church. Every liberal
+sentiment, everything approaching to reform, nay, even the mere mention
+of inquiry, was an abomination in the eyes of that narrow and ignorant
+prince. Without knowledge, without taste, without even a glimpse of one
+of the sciences, or a feeling for one of the fine arts, education had
+done nothing to enlarge a mind which nature had more than usually
+contracted.[798] Totally ignorant of the history and resources of
+foreign countries, and barely knowing their geographical position, his
+information was scarcely more extensive respecting the people over whom
+he was called to rule. In that immense mass of evidence now extant, and
+which consists of every description of private correspondence, records
+of private conversation and of public acts, there is not to be found the
+slightest proof that he knew any one of those numerous things which the
+governor of a country ought to know; or, indeed, that he was acquainted
+with a single duty of his position, except that mere mechanical routine
+of ordinary business, which might have been effected by the lowest clerk
+in the meanest office in his kingdom.
+
+  [795] On the connexion between the decline of the Stuart interest and
+        the increased power of the crown under George III., compare
+        _Thoughts on the Present Discontents_, in _Burke's Works_, vol.
+        i. pp. 127, 128, with _Watson's Life of Himself_, vol. i. p. 136;
+        and for an intimation that this result was expected, see
+        _Grosley's London_, vol. ii. p. 252.
+
+  [796] _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. v. p. 245: 'The divine indefeasible
+        right of kings became the favourite theme--in total forgetfulness
+        of its incompatibility with the parliamentary title of the
+        reigning monarch.' Horace Walpole (_Mem. of George III._ vol. i.
+        p. 16) says, that in 1760 'prerogative became a fashionable
+        word.'
+
+  [797] The respect George III. always displayed for church-ceremonies
+        formed of itself a marked contrast with the indifference of his
+        immediate predecessors; and the change was gratefully noticed.
+        Compare _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. v. pp. 54, 55, with the
+        extract from Archbishop Secker, in _Bancroft's American
+        Revolution_, vol. i. p. 440. For other evidence of the admiration
+        both parties felt and openly expressed for each other, see an
+        address from the bishop and clergy of St. Asaph (_Parr's Works_,
+        vol. vii. p. 352), and a letter from the king to Pitt (_Russell's
+        Memorials of Fox_, vol. iii. p. 251), which should be compared
+        with _Priestley's Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 137, 138.
+
+  [798] The education of George III. had been shamefully neglected; and
+        when he arrived at manhood he never attempted to repair its
+        deficiencies, but remained during his long life in a state of
+        pitiable ignorance. Compare _Brougham's Statesmen_, vol. i. pp.
+        13-15; _Walpole's Mem. of George III._ vol. i. p. 55; _Mahon's
+        Hist. of England_, vol. iv. pp. 54, 207.
+
+The course of proceeding which such a king as this was likely to follow
+could be easily foreseen. He gathered round his throne that great party,
+who, clinging to the tradition of the past, have always made it their
+boast to check the progress of their age. During the sixty years of his
+reign, he, with the sole exception of Pitt, never willingly admitted to
+his councils a single man of great ability;[799] not one whose name is
+associated with any measure of value either in domestic or in foreign
+policy. Even Pitt only maintained his position in the state by
+forgetting the lessons of his illustrious father, and abandoning those
+liberal principles in which he had been educated, and with which he
+entered public life. Because George III. hated the idea of reform, Pitt
+not only relinquished what he had before declared to be absolutely
+necessary,[800] but did not hesitate to persecute to the death the party
+with whom he had once associated in order to obtain it.[801] Because
+George III. looked upon slavery as one of those good old customs which
+the wisdom of his ancestors had consecrated, Pitt did not dare to use
+his power for procuring its abolition, but left to his successors the
+glory of destroying that infamous trade, on the preservation of which
+his royal master had set his heart.[802] Because George III. detested
+the French, of whom he knew as much as he knew of the inhabitants of
+Kamtchatka or of Tibet, Pitt, contrary to his own judgment, engaged in a
+war with France by which England was seriously imperilled, and the
+English people burdened with a debt that their remotest posterity will
+be unable to pay.[803] But, notwithstanding all this, when Pitt, only a
+few years before his death, showed a determination to concede to the
+Irish some small share of their undoubted rights, the king dismissed him
+from office; and the king's friends, as they were called,[804] expressed
+their indignation at the presumption of a minister who could oppose the
+wishes of so benign and gracious a master.[805] And when, unhappily for
+his own fame, this great man determined to return to power, he could
+only recover office by conceding that very point for which he had
+relinquished it; thus setting the mischievous example of the minister of
+a free country sacrificing his own judgment to the personal prejudices
+of the reigning sovereign.
+
+  [799] See some good remarks by Lord John Russell in his Introduction to
+        the _Bedford Correspondence_, vol. iii. p. lxii.
+
+  [800] In a motion for reform in Parliament in 1782, he declared that it
+        was 'essentially necessary.' See his speech, in _Parl. Hist._
+        vol. xxii. p. 1418. In 1784 he mentioned 'the necessity of a
+        parliamentary reform,' vol. xxiv. p. 349; see also pp. 998, 999.
+        Compare _Disney's Life of Jebb_, p. 209. Nor is it true, as some
+        have said, that he afterwards abandoned the cause of reform
+        because the times were unfavourable to it. On the contrary, he,
+        in a speech delivered in 1800, said (_Parl. Hist._ vol. xxxv. p.
+        47): 'Upon this subject, sir, I think it right to state the
+        inmost thoughts of my mind; I think it right to declare my most
+        decided opinion, that, _even if the times were proper for
+        experiments, any, even the slightest, change in such a
+        constitution must be considered as an evil_.' It is remarkable
+        that, even as early as 1783, Paley appears to have suspected the
+        sincerity of Pitt's professions in favour of reform. See
+        _Meadley's Memoirs of Paley_, p. 121.
+
+  [801] In 1794 Grey taunted him with this in the House of Commons:
+        'William Pitt, the reformer of that day, was William Pitt, the
+        prosecutor, ay and persecutor too, of reformers now.' _Parl.
+        Hist._ vol. xxxi. p. 532; compare vol. xxxiii. p. 659. So, too,
+        Lord Campbell (_Chief-Justices_, vol. ii. p. 544): 'He afterwards
+        tried to hang a few of his brother reformers who continued steady
+        in the cause.' See further, on this damning fact in the career of
+        Pitt, _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. vii. p. 105; _Brougham's
+        Statesmen_, vol. ii. p. 21; _Belsham's History_, vol. ix. pp. 79,
+        242; _Life of Cartwright_, vol. i. p. 198; and even a letter from
+        the mild and benevolent Roscoe, in _Life of Roscoe, by his Son_,
+        vol. i. p. 113.
+
+  [802] Such was the king's zeal in favour of the slave-trade, that in
+        1770 'he issued an instruction under his own hand commanding the
+        governor (of Virginia), upon pain of the highest displeasure, to
+        assent to no law by which the importation of slaves should be in
+        any respect prohibited or obstructed.' _Bancroft's American
+        Revolution_, vol. iii. p. 456: so that, as Mr. Bancroft
+        indignantly observes, p. 469, while the courts of law had decided
+        'that as soon as any slave set his foot on English ground he
+        becomes free, the king of England stood in the path of humanity,
+        and made himself the pillar of the colonial slave-trade.' The
+        shuffling conduct of Pitt in this matter makes it hard for any
+        honest man to forgive him. Compare _Brougham's Statesmen_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 14, 103-105; _Russell's Mem. of Fox_, vol. iii. pp. 131,
+        278, 279; _Belsham's Hist. of Great Britain_, vol. x. pp. 34, 35;
+        _Life of Wakefield_, vol. i. p. 197; _Porter's Progress of the
+        Nation_, vol. iii. p. 426; _Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party_,
+        vol. ii. p. 157; and the striking remarks of Francis, in _Parl.
+        Hist._ vol. xxxii. p. 949.
+
+  [803] That Pitt wished to remain at peace, and was hurried into the war
+        with France by the influence of the court, is admitted by the
+        best-informed writers, men in other respects of different
+        opinions. See, for instance, _Brougham's Statesmen_, vol. ii. p.
+        9; _Rogers's Introduction to Burke's Works_, p. lxxxiv.;
+        _Nicholls's Recollections_, vol. ii. pp. 155, 200.
+
+  [804] The mere existence of such a party, with such a name, shows how,
+        in a political point of view, England was receding during this
+        period from the maxims established at the Revolution. Respecting
+        this active faction, compare the indignant remarks of Burke
+        (_Works_, vol. i. p. 133) with _Albemarle's Rockingham_, vol. i.
+        pp. 5, 307; _Buckingham's Mem. of George III._ vol. i. p. 284,
+        vol. ii. p. 154; _Russell's Mem. of Fox_, vol. i. pp. 61, 120,
+        vol. ii. pp. 50, 77; _Bedford Correspond._ vol. iii. p. xlv.;
+        _Parr's Works_, vol. viii. p. 513; _Butler's Reminiscences_, vol.
+        i. p. 74; _Burke's Correspond._ vol. i. p. 352; _Walpole's George
+        III._ vol. iv. p. 315; _The Grenville Papers_, vol. ii. pp. 33,
+        34, vol. iii. p. 57, vol. iv. p. 79, 152, 219, 303; _Parl. Hist._
+        vol. xvi. pp. 841, 973, vol. xviii. pp. 1005, 1246, vol. xix. pp.
+        435, 856, vol. xxii. pp. 650, 1173.
+
+  [805] See an extraordinary passage in _Pellew's Life of Sidmouth_,
+        vol. i. p. 334.
+
+As it was hardly possible to find other ministers, who to equal
+abilities would add equal subservience, it is not surprising that the
+highest offices were constantly filled by men of notorious
+incapacity.[806] Indeed, the king seemed to have an instinctive
+antipathy to everything great and noble. During the reign of George II.
+the elder Pitt had won for himself a reputation which covered the world,
+and had carried to an unprecedented height the glories of the English
+name.[807] He, however, as the avowed friend of popular rights,
+strenuously opposed the despotic principles of the court; and for this
+reason he was hated by George III. with a hatred that seemed barely
+compatible with a sane mind.[808] Fox was one of the greatest statesmen
+of the eighteenth century, and was better acquainted than any other with
+the character and resources of those foreign nations with which our own
+interests were intimately connected.[809] To this rare and important
+knowledge he added a sweetness and an amenity of temper which extorted
+the praises even of his political opponents.[810] But he, too, was the
+steady supporter of civil and religious liberty; and he, too, was so
+detested by George III., that the king, with his own hand, struck his
+name out of the list of privy councillors,[811] and declared that he
+would rather abdicate the throne than admit him to a share in the
+government.[812]
+
+  [806] This decline in the abilities of official men was noticed by
+        Burke, in 1770, as a necessary consequence of the new system.
+        Compare _Thoughts on the Present Discontents_ (_Burke's Works_,
+        vol. i. p. 149) with his striking summary (_Parl. Hist._ vol.
+        xvi. p. 879) of the degeneracy during the first nine years of
+        George III. 'Thus situated, the question at last was not, who
+        could do the public business best, but who would undertake to do
+        it at all. Men of talents and integrity would not accept of
+        employments where they were neither allowed to exercise their
+        judgment nor display the rectitude of their hearts.' In 1780,
+        when the evil had become still more obvious, the same great
+        observer denounced it in his celebrated address to his Bristol
+        constituents. 'At present,' he says, 'it is the plan of the court
+        to make its servants insignificant.' _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p.
+        257. See further _Parr's Works_, vol. iii. pp. 256, 260, 261.
+
+  [807] The military success of his administration is related in very
+        strong language, but not unfairly, in _Mahon's Hist. of England_,
+        vol. iv. pp. 108, 185, 186, and see the admirable summary in
+        _Brougham's Statesmen_, vol. i. pp. 33, 34: and for evidence of
+        the fear with which he inspired the enemies of England, compare
+        _Mahon_, vol. v. p. 165 note; _Bedford Correspond._ vol. iii. pp.
+        87, 246, 247; _Walpole's Letters to Mann_, vol. i. p. 304, edit.
+        1843; _Walpole's Mem. of George III._ vol. ii. p. 232; and the
+        reluctant admission in _Georgel, Mémoires_, vol. i. pp. 79, 80.
+
+  [808] Lord Brougham (_Sketches of Statesmen_, vol. i. pp. 22, 33) has
+        published striking evidence of what he calls 'the truly savage
+        feelings' with which George III. regarded Lord Chatham (compare
+        _Russell's Mem. of Fox_, vol. i. p. 129). Indeed, the sentiments
+        of the king were even displayed in the arrangements at the
+        funeral of the great minister. _Note in Adolphus's Hist. of
+        George III._ vol. ii. p. 568; and for other evidence of ill-will,
+        see two notes from the king to Lord North, in _Mahon's Hist. of
+        England_, vol. vi. appendix, pp. lii. liv.; _The Grenville
+        Papers_, vol. ii. p. 386; _Bancroft's American Revolution_, vol.
+        i. p. 438.
+
+  [809] Lord Brougham (_Sketches of Statesmen_, vol. i. p. 219) says: 'It
+        may be questioned if any politician, in any age, ever knew so
+        thoroughly the various interests and the exact position of all
+        the countries with which his own had dealings to conduct or
+        relations to maintain.' See also _Parr's Works_, vol. iv. pp. 14,
+        15; _Russell's Mem. of Fox_, vol. i. pp. 320, 321, vol. ii. pp.
+        91, 243; _Bisset's Life of Burke_, vol. i. p. 338.
+
+  [810] Burke, even after the French Revolution, said, that Fox 'was of
+        the most artless, candid, open, and benevolent disposition,
+        disinterested in the extreme; of a temper mild and placable even
+        to a fault, without one drop of gall in his whole constitution.'
+        Speech on the Army Estimates in 1790, in _Parl. Hist._ vol.
+        xxviii. p. 356. For further evidence, compare _Alison's Hist. of
+        Europe_, vol. vii. p. 171; _Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party_,
+        vol. i. pp. 3, 273; _Trotter's Mem. of Fox_, pp. xi. xii., 24,
+        178, 415.
+
+  [811] _Adolphus's Hist. of George III._ vol. vi. p. 692. A singular
+        circumstance connected with this wanton outrage is related in the
+        _Mem. of Holcroft_, vol. iii. p. 60.
+
+  [812] Compare _Adolphus's Hist. of George III._ vol. iv. pp. 107, 108,
+        with _Russell's Mem. of Fox_, vol. i. pp. 191, 287, 288, vol. ii.
+        p. 44. Dutens, who had much intercourse with English politicians,
+        heard of the threat of abdication in 1784. _Dutens's Mémoires_,
+        vol. iii. p. 104. Lord Holland says, that during the fatal
+        illness of Fox, 'the king had watched the progress of Mr. Fox's
+        disorder. He could hardly suppress his indecent exultation at his
+        death.' _Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party_, vol. ii. p. 49.
+
+While this unfavourable change was taking place in the sovereign and
+ministers of the country, a change equally unfavourable was being
+effected in the second branch of the imperial legislature. Until the
+reign of George III., the House of Lords was decidedly superior to the
+House of Commons in the liberality and general accomplishments of its
+members. It is true, that in both houses there prevailed a spirit which
+must be called narrow and superstitious, if tried by the larger standard
+of the present age. But among the peers such feelings were tempered by
+an education that raised them far above those country gentlemen and
+ignorant fox-hunting squires of whom the lower house was then chiefly
+composed. From this superiority in their knowledge, there naturally
+followed a larger and more liberal turn of thought than was possessed by
+those who were called the representatives of the people. The result was,
+that the old Tory spirit, becoming gradually weaker in the upper house,
+took refuge in the lower; where, for about sixty years after the
+Revolution, the high-church party and the friends of the Stuarts formed
+a dangerous faction.[813] Thus, for instance, the two men who rendered
+the most eminent services to the Hanoverian dynasty, and therefore to
+the liberties of England, were undoubtedly Somers and Walpole. Both of
+them were remarkable for their principles of toleration, and both of
+them owed their safety to the interference of the House of Lords.
+Somers, early in the eighteenth century, was protected by the peers from
+the scandalous prosecution instituted against him by the other house of
+parliament.[814] Forty years after this, the Commons, who wished to hunt
+Walpole to the death, carried up a bill encouraging witnesses to appear
+against him by remitting to them the penalties to which they might be
+liable.[815] This barbarous measure had been passed through the lower
+house without the least difficulty; but in the Lords it was rejected by
+a preponderance of nearly two to one.[816] In the same way the Schism
+Act, by which the friends of the church subjected the dissenters to a
+cruel persecution,[817] was hurried through the Commons by a large and
+eager majority.[818] In the Lords, however, the votes were nearly
+balanced; and although the bill was passed, amendments were added by
+which the violence of its provisions was in some degree softened.[819]
+
+  [813] In 1725, the Duke of Wharton, in a letter to the Pretender, after
+        mentioning some proceedings in the Commons, adds, 'In the House
+        of Lords our number is so small, that any behaviour there will be
+        immaterial.' _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. ii. appendix, p.
+        xxiii. See also, respecting the greater strength of the Tories in
+        the House of Commons, _Somers Tracts_, vol. xi. p. 242, vol.
+        xiii. pp. 524, 531; _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. iv. p. 158;
+        _Campbell's Chief-Justices_, vol. ii. p. 156.
+
+  [814] Compare _Vernon Correspond._ vol. iii. p. 149, with _Burnet's Own
+        Time_, vol. iv. p. 504. Burnet says, 'All the Jacobites joined to
+        support the pretensions of the Commons.' The Commons complained
+        that the Lords had shown 'such an indulgence to the person
+        accused as is not to be paralleled in any parliamentary
+        proceedings.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. v. p. 1294. See also their angry
+        remonstrance, pp. 1314, 1315.
+
+  [815] _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. iii. p. 122.
+
+  [816] 'Content, 47; non-content, 92.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. xii. p. 711.
+        Mr. Phillimore (_Mem. of Lyttleton_, vol. i. p. 213) ascribes
+        this to the exertions of Lord Hardwicke; but the state of parties
+        in the upper house is sufficient explanation; and even in 1735 it
+        was said that 'the Lords were betwixt the devil and the deep
+        sea,' the devil being Walpole. _Marchmont Papers_, vol. ii. p.
+        59. Compare _Bishop Newton's Life of Himself_, p. 60.
+
+  [817] See an account of some of its provisions in _Mahon's Hist. of
+        England_, vol. i. pp. 80, 81. The object of the bill is frankly
+        stated in _Parl. Hist._ vol. vi. p. 1349, where we are informed
+        that 'as the farther discouragement and even ruin of the
+        dissenters was thought necessary for accomplishing this scheme,
+        it was begun with the famous Schism Bill.'
+
+  [818] By 237 to 126. _Parl. Hist._ vol. vi. p. 1351.
+
+  [819] _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. i. p. 83; _Bunbury's Correspond.
+        of Hanmer_, p. 48. The bill was carried in the Lords by 77
+        against 72.
+
+This superiority of the upper house over the lower was, on the whole,
+steadily maintained during the reign of George II.;[820] the ministers
+not being anxious to strengthen the high-church party in the Lords, and
+the king himself so rarely suggesting fresh creations as to cause a
+belief that he particularly disliked increasing their numbers.[821]
+
+  [820] 'If we scrutinize the votes of the peers from the period of the
+        revolution to the death of George II., we shall find a very great
+        majority of the old English nobility to have been the advocates
+        of Whig principles.' _Cooke's Hist. of Party_, vol. iii. p. 363.
+
+  [821] Compare _Harris's Life of Hardwicke_, vol. iii. p. 519, with the
+        conversation between Sir Robert Walpole and Lord Hervey, in
+        _Hervey's Mem. of George II._ vol. ii. p. 251, edit. 1848.
+
+It was reserved for George III., by an unsparing use of his prerogative,
+entirely to change the character of the upper house, and thus lay the
+foundation for that disrepute into which since then the peers have been
+constantly falling. The creations he made were numerous beyond all
+precedent; their object evidently being to neutralize the liberal spirit
+hitherto prevailing, and thus turn the House of Lords into an engine for
+resisting the popular wishes, and stopping the progress of reform.[822]
+How completely this plan succeeded, is well known to the readers of our
+history; indeed, it was sure to be successful, considering the character
+of the men who were promoted. They consisted almost entirely of two
+classes: of country gentlemen, remarkable for nothing but their wealth,
+and the number of votes their wealth enabled them to control;[823] and
+of mere lawyers, who had risen to judicial appointments partly from
+their professional learning, but chiefly from the zeal with which they
+repressed the popular liberties, and favoured the royal
+prerogative.[824]
+
+  [822] _Cooke's Hist. of Party_, vol. iii. pp. 363, 364, 365, 463; _Parl.
+        Hist._ vol. xviii. p. 1418, vol. xxiv. p. 493, vol. xxvii. p.
+        1069, vol. xxix. pp. 1334, 1494, vol. xxxiii. pp. 90, 602, 1315.
+
+  [823] This was too notorious to be denied; and in the House of Commons,
+        in 1800, Nicholls taunted the Government with 'holding out a
+        peerage, or elevation to a higher rank in the peerage, to every
+        man who could procure a nomination to a certain number of seats
+        in parliament.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxxv. p. 762. So, too,
+        Sheridan, in 1792, said (vol. xxix. p. 1333), 'In this country
+        peerages had been bartered for election interest.'
+
+  [824] On this great influx of lawyers into the House of Lords, most of
+        whom zealously advocated arbitrary principles, see _Belsham's
+        Hist. of Great Britain_, vol. vii. pp. 266, 267; _Adolphus's
+        Hist. of George III._ vol. iii. p. 363; _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxxv.
+        p. 1523.
+
+That this is no exaggerated description, may be ascertained by any one
+who will consult the lists of the new peers made by George III. Here and
+there we find an eminent man, whose public services were so notorious
+that it was impossible to avoid rewarding them; but, putting aside those
+who were in a manner forced upon the sovereign, it would be idle to deny
+that the remainder, and of course the overwhelming majority, were marked
+by a narrowness and illiberality of sentiment which, more than anything
+else, brought the whole order into contempt.[825] No great thinkers; no
+great writers; no great orators; no great statesmen; none of the true
+nobility of the land,--were to be found among the spurious nobles
+created by George III. Nor were the material interests of the country
+better represented in this strange composition. Among the most important
+men in England, those engaged in banking and commerce held a high place:
+since the end of the seventeenth century their influence had rapidly
+increased; while their intelligence, their clear, methodical habits,
+and their general knowledge of affairs, made them every way superior to
+those classes from whom the upper house was now recruited. But in the
+reign of George III. claims of this sort were little heeded; and we are
+assured by Burke, whose authority on such a subject no one will dispute,
+that there never had been a time in which so few persons connected with
+commerce were raised to the peerage.[826]
+
+  [825] It was foretold at the time, that the effect of the numerous
+        creations made during Pitt's power would be to lower the House of
+        Lords. Compare _Butler's Reminiscences_, vol. i. p. 76, with
+        Erskine's speech in _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxix. p. 1330; and see
+        Sheridan's speech, vol. xxxiii. p. 1197. But their language,
+        indignant as it is, was restrained by a desire of not wholly
+        breaking with the court. Other men, who were more independent in
+        their position, and cared nothing for the chance of future
+        office, expressed themselves in terms such as had never before
+        been heard within the walls of Parliament. Rolle, for instance,
+        declared that 'there had been persons created peers during the
+        present minister's power, who were not fit to be his grooms.'
+        _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxvii. p. 1198. Out of doors, the feeling of
+        contempt was equally strong; see _Life of Cartwright_, vol. i. p.
+        278; and see the remark even of the courtly Sir W. Jones, on the
+        increasing disregard for learning shown by 'the nobles of our
+        days.' _Preface to Persian Grammar_, in _Jones's Works_, vol. ii.
+        p. 125.
+
+  [826] In his _Thoughts on French Affairs_, written in 1791, he says, 'At
+        no period in the history of England have so few peers been taken
+        out of trade, or from families newly created by commerce.'
+        _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p. 566. Indeed, according to Sir
+        Nathaniel Wraxall (_Posthumous Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 66, 67,
+        Lond. 1836), the only instance when George III. broke this rule
+        was when Smith the banker was made Lord Carrington. Wraxall is an
+        indifferent authority, and there may be other cases; but they
+        were certainly very few, and I cannot call any to mind.
+
+It would be endless to collect all the symptoms which mark the political
+degeneracy of England during this period; a degeneracy the more
+striking, because it was opposed to the spirit of the time, and because
+it took place in spite of a great progress, both social and
+intellectual. How that progress eventually stopped the political
+reaction, and even forced it to retrace its own steps, will appear in
+another part of this work; but there is one circumstance which I cannot
+refrain from noticing at some length, since it affords a most
+interesting illustration of the tendency of public affairs, while at the
+same time it exhibits the character of one of the greatest men, and,
+Bacon alone excepted, the greatest thinker, who has ever devoted himself
+to the practice of English politics.
+
+The slightest sketch of the reign of George III. would indeed be
+miserably imperfect if it were to omit the name of Edmund Burke. The
+studies of this extraordinary man not only covered the whole field of
+political inquiry,[827] but extended to an immense variety of subjects,
+which, though apparently unconnected with politics, do in reality bear
+upon them as important adjuncts; since, to a philosophic mind, every
+branch of knowledge lights up even those that seem most remote from it.
+The eulogy passed upon him by one who was no mean judge of men,[828]
+might be justified, and more than justified, by passages from
+his works, as well as by the opinions of the most eminent of his
+contemporaries.[829] Thus it is, that while his insight into the
+philosophy of jurisprudence has gained the applause of lawyers,[830] his
+acquaintance with the whole range and theory of the fine arts has won
+the admiration of artists;[831] a striking combination of two pursuits,
+often, though erroneously, held to be incompatible with each other. At
+the same time, and notwithstanding the occupations of political life, we
+know on good authority, that he had paid great attention to the history
+and filiation of languages;[832] a vast subject, which within the last
+thirty years has become an important resource for the study of the human
+mind, but the very idea of which had, in its large sense, only begun to
+dawn upon a few solitary thinkers. And, what is even more remarkable,
+when Adam Smith came to London full of those discoveries which have
+immortalized his name, he found to his amazement that Burke had
+anticipated conclusions the maturing of which cost Smith himself many
+years of anxious and unremitting labour.[833]
+
+  [827] Nicholls, who knew him, says, 'The political knowledge of Mr.
+        Burke might be considered almost as an encyclopædia; every man
+        who approached him received instruction from his stores.'
+        _Nicholls's Recollections_, vol. i. p. 20.
+
+  [828] 'The excursions of his genius are immense. His imperial fancy has
+        laid all nature under tribute, and has collected riches from
+        every scene of the creation, and every walk of art.' _Works of
+        Robert Hall_, London, 1846, p. 196. So, too, Wilberforce says of
+        him, 'He had come late into Parliament, and had had time to lay
+        in vast stores of knowledge. The field from which he drew his
+        illustrations was magnificent. Like the fabled object of the
+        fairy's favours, whenever he opened his mouth pearls and diamonds
+        dropped from him.' _Life of Wilberforce_, vol. i. p. 159.
+
+  [829] Lord Thurlow is said to have declared, what I suppose is now the
+        general opinion of competent judges, that the fame of Burke would
+        survive that of Pitt and Fox. _Butler's Reminiscences_, vol. i.
+        p. 169. But the noblest eulogy on Burke was pronounced by a man
+        far greater than Thurlow. In 1790, Fox stated in the House of
+        Commons, 'that if he were to put all the political information
+        which he had learnt from books, all which he had gained from
+        science, and all which any knowledge of the world and its affairs
+        had taught him, into one scale, and the improvement which he had
+        derived from his right hon. friend's instruction and conversation
+        were placed in the other, he should be at a loss to decide to
+        which to give the preference.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxviii. p. 363.
+
+  [830] Lord Campbell (_Lives of the Chief-Justices_, vol. ii. p. 443)
+        says, 'Burke, a philosophic statesman, deeply imbued with the
+        scientific principles of jurisprudence.' See also, on his
+        knowledge of law, _Butler's Reminiscences_, vol. i. p. 131; and
+        _Bisset's Life of Burke_, vol. i. p. 230.
+
+  [831] Barry, in his celebrated Letter to the Dilettanti Society, regrets
+        that Burke should have been diverted from the study of the fine
+        arts into the pursuit of politics, because he had one of those
+        'minds of an admirable expansion and catholicity, so as to
+        embrace the whole concerns of art, ancient as well as modern,
+        domestic as well as foreign.' _Barry's Works_, vol. ii. p. 538,
+        4to, 1809. In the _Annual Register_ for 1798, p. 329, 2nd edit.,
+        it is stated that Sir Joshua Reynolds 'deemed Burke the best
+        judge of pictures that he ever knew.' See further _Works of Sir
+        J. Reynolds_, Lond. 1846, vol. i. p. 185; and _Bisset's Life of
+        Burke_, vol. ii. p. 257. A somewhat curious conversation between
+        Burke and Reynolds, on a point of art, is preserved in
+        _Holcroft's Memoirs_, vol. ii. pp. 276, 277.
+
+  [832] See a letter from Winstanley, the Camden Professor of Ancient
+        History, in _Bisset's Life of Burke_, vol. ii. pp. 390, 391, and
+        in _Prior's Life of Burke_, p. 427. Winstanley writes, 'It would
+        have been exceedingly difficult to have met with a person who
+        knew more of the philosophy, the history, and filiation of
+        languages, or of the principles of etymological deduction, than
+        Mr. Burke.'
+
+  [833] Adam Smith told Burke, 'after they had conversed on subjects of
+        political economy, that he was the only man who, without
+        communication, thought on these topics exactly as he did.'
+        _Bisset's Life of Burke_, vol. ii. p. 429; and see _Prior's Life
+        of Burke_, p. 58; and on his knowledge of political economy,
+        _Brougham's Sketches of Statesmen_, vol. i. p. 205.
+
+To these great inquiries, which touch the basis of social philosophy,
+Burke added a considerable acquaintance with physical science, and even
+with the practice and routine of mechanical trades. All this was so
+digested and worked into his mind, that it was ready on every occasion;
+not, like the knowledge of ordinary politicians, broken and wasted in
+fragments, but blended into a complete whole, fused by a genius that
+gave life even to the dullest pursuits. This, indeed, was the
+characteristic of Burke, that in his hands nothing was barren. Such was
+the strength and exuberance of his intellect, that it bore fruit in all
+directions, and could confer dignity upon the meanest subjects, by
+showing their connexion with general principles and the part they have
+to play in the great scheme of human affairs.
+
+But what has always appeared to me still more remarkable in the
+character of Burke, is the singular sobriety with which he employed his
+extraordinary acquirements. During the best part of his life, his
+political principles, so far from being speculative, were altogether
+practical. This is particularly striking, because he had every
+temptation to adopt an opposite course. He possessed materials for
+generalization far more ample than any politician of his time, and he
+had a mind eminently prone to take large views. On many occasions, and
+indeed whenever an opportunity occurred, he showed his capacity as an
+original and speculative thinker. But the moment he set foot on
+political ground, he changed his method. In questions connected with the
+accumulation and distribution of wealth he saw that it was possible, by
+proceeding from a few simple principles, to construct a deductive
+science available for the commercial and financial interests of the
+country. Further than this he refused to advance, because he knew that,
+with this single exception, every department of politics was purely
+empirical, and was likely long to remain so. Hence it was, that he
+recognized in all its bearings that great doctrine, which even in our
+own days is too often forgotten, that the aim of the legislator should
+be, not truth, but expediency. Looking at the actual state of knowledge,
+he was forced to admit, that all political principles have been raised
+by hasty induction from limited facts; and that, therefore, it is the
+part of a wise man, when he adds to the facts, to revise the induction,
+and, instead of sacrificing practice to principles, modify the
+principles that he may change the practice. Or, to put this in another
+way, he lays it down that political principles are at the best but the
+product of human reason; while political practice has to do with human
+nature and human passions, of which reason forms but a part;[834] and
+that, on this account, the proper business of a statesman is, to
+contrive the means by which certain ends may be effected, leaving it to
+the general voice of the country to determine what those ends shall be,
+and shaping his own conduct, not according to his own principles, but
+according to the wishes of the people for whom he legislates, and whom
+he is bound to obey.[835]
+
+  [834] 'Politics ought to be adjusted, not to human reasonings, but to
+        human nature; of which the reason is but a part, and by no means
+        the greatest part.' _Observations on a late State of the Nation_,
+        in _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p. 113. Hence the distinction he had
+        constantly in view between the generalizations of philosophy,
+        which ought to be impregnable, and those of politics, which must
+        be fluctuating; and hence in his noble work, _Thoughts on the
+        Cause of the present Discontents_, he says (vol. i. p. 136), 'No
+        lines can be laid down for civil or political wisdom. They are a
+        matter incapable of exact definition.' See also p. 151, on which
+        he grounds his defence of the spirit of party; it being evident
+        that if truth were the prime object of the political art, the
+        idea of party, as such, would be indefensible. Compare with this
+        the difference between 'la vérité en soi' and 'la vérité
+        sociale,' as expounded by M. Rey in his _Science Sociale_, vol.
+        ii. p. 322, Paris, 1842.
+
+  [835] In 1780 he plainly told the House of Commons that 'the people are
+        the masters. They have only to express their wants at large and
+        in gross. We are the expert artists; we are the skilful workmen,
+        to shape their desires into perfect form, and to fit the utensil
+        to the use. They are the sufferers, they tell the symptoms of the
+        complaint; but we know the exact seat of the disease, and how to
+        apply the remedy according to the rules of art. How shocking
+        would it be to see us pervert our skill into a sinister and
+        servile dexterity, for the purpose of evading our duty, and
+        _defrauding our employers, who are our natural lords_, of the
+        object of their just expectations!' _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p.
+        254. In 1777, in his _Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol_
+        (_Works_, vol. i. p. 216), 'In effect, to follow, not to force,
+        the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical
+        dress, and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the
+        community,--is the true end of legislature.' In his _Letter on
+        the Duration of Parliament_ (vol. ii. p. 430), 'It would be
+        dreadful, indeed, if there was any power in the nation capable of
+        resisting its unanimous desire, or even the desire of any very
+        great and decided majority of the people. The people may be
+        deceived in their choice of an object. _But I can scarcely
+        conceive any choice they can make to be so very mischievous, as
+        the existence of any human force capable of resisting it._' So,
+        too, he says (vol. i. pp. 125, 214), that when government and the
+        people differ, government is generally in the wrong: compare pp.
+        217, 218, 276, vol. ii. p. 440. And to give only one more
+        instance, but a very decisive one, he, in 1772, when speaking on
+        a Bill respecting the Importation and Exportation of Corn, said,
+        'On this occasion I give way to the present Bill, not because I
+        approve of the measure in itself, but because I think it prudent
+        to yield to the spirit of the times. _The people will have it so;
+        and it is not for their representatives to say nay._ I cannot,
+        however, help entering my protest against the general principles
+        of policy on which it is supported, because I think them
+        extremely dangerous.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. xvii. p. 480.
+
+It is these views, and the extraordinary ability with which they were
+advocated, which make the appearance of Burke a memorable epoch in our
+political history.[836] We had, no doubt, other statesmen before him,
+who denied the validity of general principles in politics; but their
+denial was only the happy guess of ignorance, and they rejected theories
+which they had never taken the pains to study. Burke rejected them
+because he knew them. It was his rare merit that, notwithstanding every
+inducement to rely upon his own generalizations, he resisted the
+temptation; that, though rich in all the varieties of political
+knowledge, he made his opinions subservient to the march of events; that
+he recognized as the object of government, not the preservation of
+particular institutions, nor the propagation of particular tenets, but
+the happiness of the people at large; and, above all, that he insisted
+upon an obedience to the popular wishes, which no statesman before him
+had paid, and which too many statesmen since him have forgotten. Our
+country, indeed, is still full of those vulgar politicians, against whom
+Burke raised his voice; feeble and shallow men, who, having spent their
+little force in resisting the progress of reform, find themselves at
+length, compelled to yield; and then, so soon as they have exhausted the
+artifices of their petty schemes, and, by their tardy and ungraceful
+concessions, have sown the seed of future disaffection, they turn upon
+the age by which they have been baffled; they mourn over the degeneracy
+of mankind; they lament the decay of public spirit; and they weep for
+the fate of a people, who have been so regardless of the wisdom of their
+ancestors, as to tamper with a constitution already hoary with the
+prescription of centuries.
+
+  [836] The effect which Burke's profound views produced in the House of
+        Commons, where, however, few men were able to understand them in
+        their full extent, is described by Dr. Hay, who was present at
+        one of his great speeches; which, he says, 'seemed a kind of new
+        political philosophy.' _Burke's Correspond._ vol. i. p. 103.
+        Compare a letter from Lee, written in the same year, 1766, in
+        _Forster's Life of Goldsmith_, vol. ii. pp. 38, 39; and in
+        _Bunbury's Correspond. of Hanmer_, p. 458.
+
+Those who have studied the reign of George III. will easily understand
+the immense advantage of having a man like Burke to oppose these
+miserable delusions; delusions which have been fatal to many countries,
+and have more than once almost ruined our own.[837] They will also
+understand that, in the opinion of the king, this great statesman was,
+at best, but an eloquent declaimer, to be classed in the same category
+with Fox and Chatham; all three ingenious men, but unsafe, unsteady,
+quite unfit for weighty concerns, and by no means calculated for so
+exalted an honour as admission into the royal councils. In point of
+fact, during the thirty years Burke was engaged in public life, he never
+once held an office in the cabinet;[838] and the only occasions on
+which he occupied even a subordinate post, were in those very short
+intervals when the fluctuations of politics compelled the appointment of
+a liberal ministry.
+
+Indeed the part taken by Burke in public affairs must have been very
+galling to a king who thought everything good that was old, and
+everything right that was established.[839] For, so far was this
+remarkable man in advance of his contemporaries, that there are few of
+the great measures of the present generation which he did not
+anticipate, and zealously defend. Not only did he attack the absurd laws
+against forestalling and regrating,[840] but, by advocating the freedom
+of trade, he struck at the root of all similar prohibitions.[841] He
+supported those just claims of the Catholics,[842] which, during his
+lifetime, were obstinately refused; but which were conceded, many years
+after his death, as the only means of preserving the integrity of the
+empire. He supported the petition of the Dissenters, that they might be
+relieved from the restrictions to which, for the benefit of the Church
+of England, they were subjected.[843] Into other departments of politics
+he carried the same spirit. He opposed the cruel laws against
+insolvents,[844] by which, in the time of George III., our statute-book
+was still defaced; and he vainly attempted to soften the penal
+code,[845] the increasing severity of which was one of the worst
+features of that bad reign.[846] He wished to abolish the old plan of
+enlisting soldiers for life;[847] a barbarous and impolitic practice, as
+the English legislature began to perceive several years later.[848] He
+attacked the slave-trade;[849] which, being an ancient usage, the king
+wished to preserve, as part of the British constitution.[850] He
+refuted,[851] but, owing to the prejudices of the age, was unable to
+subvert, the dangerous power exercised by the judges, who, in criminal
+prosecutions for libel, confined the jury to the mere question of
+publication; thus taking the real issue into their own hands, and making
+themselves the arbiters of the fate of those who were so unfortunate as
+to be placed at their bar.[852] And, what many will think not the least
+of his merits, he was the first in that long line of financial reformers
+to whom we are deeply indebted.[853] Notwithstanding the difficulties
+thrown in his way, he carried through Parliament a series of bills, by
+which several useless places were entirely abolished, and, in the single
+office of paymaster-general, a saving effected to the country of
+25,000_l._ a year.[854]
+
+  [837] Burke was never weary of attacking the common argument, that,
+        because a country has long flourished under some particular
+        custom, therefore the custom must be good. See an admirable
+        instance of this in his speech on the power of the
+        attorney-general to file informations _ex officio_; where he
+        likens such reasoners to the father of Scriblerus, who 'venerated
+        the rust and canker which exalted a brazen pot-lid into the
+        shield of a hero.' He adds: 'But, sir, we are told that the time
+        during which this power existed, is the time during which
+        monarchy most flourished: and what, then, can no two things
+        subsist together but as cause and effect? May not a man have
+        enjoyed better health during the time that he walked with an
+        oaken stick, than afterwards, when he changed it for a cane,
+        without supposing, like the Druids, that there are occult virtues
+        in oak, and that the stick and the health were cause and effect?'
+        _Parl. Hist._ vol. xvi. pp. 1190, 1191.
+
+  [838] This, as Mr. Cooke truly says, is an instance of aristocratic
+        prejudice; but it is certain that a hint from George III. would
+        have remedied the shameful neglect. _Cooke's Hist. of Party_,
+        vol. iii. p. 277, 278.
+
+  [839] It is easy to imagine how George III. must have been offended by
+        such sentiments as these: 'I am not of the opinion of those
+        gentlemen who are against disturbing the public repose; I like a
+        clamour whenever there is an abuse. The fire-bell at midnight
+        disturbs your sleep, but it keeps you from being burnt in your
+        bed. The hue and cry alarms the county, but preserves all the
+        property of the province.' Burke's speech on Prosecutions for
+        Libels, in 1771, in _Parl. Hist._ vol. xvii. p. 54.
+
+  [840] He moved their repeal. _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxvi. p. 1169. Even Lord
+        Chatham issued, in 1766, a proclamation against forestallers and
+        regraters, very much to the admiration of Lord Mahon, who says,
+        'Lord Chatham acted with characteristic energy.' _Mahon's Hist.
+        of England_, vol. v. p. 166. More than thirty years later, and
+        after Burke's death, Lord Kenyon, then chief-justice, eulogised
+        these preposterous laws. _Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party_, vol.
+        i. p. 167. Compare _Adolphus's Hist. of George III._ vol. vii. p.
+        406; and _Cockburn's Memorials of his Time_, Edinb. 1856, p. 73.
+
+  [841] 'That liberality in the commercial system, which, I trust, will
+        one day be adopted.' _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p. 223. And, in his
+        letter to Burgh (_Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 409), 'But that to which I
+        attached myself the most particularly, was to fix the principle
+        of a free trade in all the ports of these islands, as founded in
+        justice, and beneficial to the whole; but principally to this,
+        the seat of the supreme power.'
+
+  [842] _Prior's Life of Burke_, p. 467; _Burke's Works_, vol. i. pp.
+        263-271, 537-561, vol. ii. pp. 431-447. He refutes (vol. i. p.
+        548) the notion that the coronation oath was intended to bind the
+        crown in its legislative capacity. Compare _Mem. of Mackintosh_,
+        vol. i. pp. 170, 171, with _Butler's Reminiscences_, vol. i. p.
+        134.
+
+  [843] _Parl. Hist._ vol. xvii. pp. 435, 436, vol. xx. p. 306. See also
+        _Burke's Correspondence_, vol. ii. pp. 17, 18; and _Prior's Life
+        of Burke_, p. 143.
+
+  [844] _Burke's Works_, vol. i. pp. 261, 262, part of his speech at
+        Bristol.
+
+  [845] _Prior's Life of Burke_, p. 317. See also his admirable remarks,
+        in _Works_, vol. ii. p. 417; and his speech, in _Parl. Hist._
+        vol. xxviii. p. 146.
+
+  [846] On this increasing cruelty of the English laws, compare _Parr's
+        Works_, vol. iv. pp. 150, 259, with _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxii. p.
+        271, vol. xxiv. p. 1222, vol. xxvi. p. 1057, vol. xxviii. p. 143;
+        and, in regard to the execution of them, see _Life of Romilly, by
+        Himself_, vol. i. p. 65; and _Alison's Hist. of Europe_, vol. ix.
+        p. 620.
+
+  [847] In one short speech (_Parl. Hist._ vol. xx. pp. 150, 151), he has
+        almost exhausted the arguments against enlistment for life.
+
+  [848] In 1806, that is nine years after the death of Burke, parliament
+        first authorized enlistment for a term of years. See an account
+        of the debates in _Alison's Hist. of Europe_, vol. vii. pp.
+        380-391. Compare _Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth
+        Century_, vol. v. p. 475; and _Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party_,
+        vol. ii. p. 116.
+
+  [849] _Prior's Life of Burke_, p. 316; _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxvii. p. 502,
+        vol. xxviii. pp. 69, 96; and _Life of Wilberforce_, vol. i. pp.
+        152, 171, contain evidence of his animosity against the
+        slave-trade, and a more than sufficient answer to the
+        ill-natured, and, what is worse, the ignorant, remark about
+        Burke, in the _Duke of Buckingham's Mem. of George III._ vol. i.
+        p. 350.
+
+  [850] On the respect which George III. felt for the slave-trade, see
+        note 259 to this chapter. I might also have quoted the testimony
+        of Lord Brougham: 'The court was decidedly against abolition.
+        George III. always regarded the question with abhorrence, as
+        savouring of innovation.' _Brougham's Statesmen_, vol. ii. p.
+        104. Compare _Combe's North America_, vol. i. p. 332.
+
+  [851] _Burke's Works_, vol. ii. pp. 490-496; _Parl. Hist._ vol. xvii.
+        pp. 44-55, a very able speech, delivered in 1771. Compare a
+        letter to Dowdeswell, in _Burke's Correspond._ vol. i. pp. 251,
+        252.
+
+  [852] The arguments of Burke anticipated, by more than twenty years,
+        Fox's celebrated Libel Bill, which was not passed till 1792;
+        although, in 1752, juries had begun, in spite of the judges, to
+        return general verdicts on the merits. See _Campbell's
+        Chancellors_, vol. v. pp. 238, 243, 341-345, vol. vi. p. 210; and
+        _Meyer_, _Institutions Judiciaires_, vol. ii. pp. 204, 205,
+        Paris, 1823.
+
+  [853] Mr. Farr, in his valuable essay on the statistics of the civil
+        service (in _Journal of Statist. Soc._ vol. xii. pp. 103-125),
+        calls Burke 'one of the first and ablest financial reformers in
+        parliament,' p. 104. The truth, however, is, that he was not only
+        one of the first, but the first. He was the first man who laid
+        before parliament a general and systematic scheme for diminishing
+        the expenses of government; and his preliminary speech on that
+        occasion is one of the finest of all his compositions.
+
+  [854] _Prior's Life of Burke_, pp. 206, 234. See also, on the
+        retrenchments he effected, _Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 84, 85; _Burke's Correspond._ vol. iii. p. 14; and
+        _Bisset's Life of Burke_, vol. ii. pp. 57-60.
+
+These things alone are sufficient to explain the animosity of a prince
+whose boast it was, that he would bequeath the government to his
+successor in the same state as that in which he had received it. There
+was, however, another circumstance by which the royal feelings were
+still further wounded. The determination of the king to oppress the
+Americans was so notorious that, when the war actually broke out, it was
+called the 'king's war,' and those who opposed it were regarded as the
+personal enemies of their sovereign.[855] In this, however, as in all
+other questions, the conduct of Burke was governed, not by traditions
+and principles, such as George III. cherished, but by large views of
+general expediency. Burke, in forming his opinions respecting this
+disgraceful contest, refused to be guided by arguments respecting the
+right of either party.[856] He would not enter into any discussion as to
+whether a mother country has the right to tax her colonies, or whether
+the colonies have a right to tax themselves. Such points he left to be
+mooted by those politicians who, pretending to be guided by principles,
+are, in reality, subjugated by prejudice.[857] For his own part he was
+content to compare the cost with the gain. It was enough for Burke that,
+considering the power of our American colonies, considering their
+distance from us, and considering the probability of their being aided
+by France, it was not advisable to exercise the power; and it was,
+therefore, idle to talk of the right. Hence he opposed the taxation of
+America, not because it was unprecedented, but because it was
+inexpedient. As a natural consequence he likewise opposed the
+Boston-Port Bill, and that shameful bill, to forbid all intercourse with
+America, which was not inaptly called the starvation plan; violent
+measures, by which the king hoped to curb the colonies, and break the
+spirit of those noble men, whom he hated even more than he feared.[858]
+
+  [855] In 1788, Lord Rockingham said, in the House of Lords, 'Instead of
+        calling the war, the war of parliament, or of the people, it was
+        called the king's war, his majesty's favourite war.' _Parl.
+        Hist._ vol. xix. p. 857. Compare _Cooke's Hist. of Party_, vol.
+        iii. p. 235, with the pungent remarks in _Walpole's George III._
+        vol. iv. p. 114. Nicholls (_Recollections_, vol. i. p. 35) says:
+        'The war was considered as the war of the king personally. Those
+        who supported it were called the king's friends; while those who
+        wished the country to pause, and reconsider the propriety of
+        persevering in the contest, were branded as disloyal.'
+
+  [856] 'I am not here going into the distinction of rights, nor
+        attempting to mark their boundaries. I do not enter into these
+        metaphysical distinctions; I hate the very sound of them.' Speech
+        on American taxation in 1774, in _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p. 173.
+        In 1775 (vol. i. p. 192): 'But my consideration is narrow,
+        confined, and wholly limited to the policy of the question.' At
+        p. 183: we should act in regard to America, not 'according to
+        abstract ideas of right, by no means according to mere general
+        theories of government; the resort to which appears to me, in our
+        present situation, no better than arrant trifling.' In one of his
+        earliest political pamphlets, written in 1769, he says, that the
+        arguments of the opponents of America 'are conclusive; conclusive
+        as to right; but the very reverse as to policy and practice,'
+        vol. i. p. 112. Compare a letter, written in 1775, in _Burke's
+        Correspond._ vol. ii. p. 12.
+
+  [857] In 1766, George III. writes to Lord Rockingham (_Albemarle's
+        Rockingham_, vol. i. pp. 271, 272): 'Talbot is as right as I can
+        desire, in the Stamp Act; strong for our declaring our right, but
+        willing to repeal!' In other words, willing to offend the
+        Americans, by a speculative assertion of an abstract right, but
+        careful to forego the advantage which that right might produce.
+
+  [858] The intense hatred with which George III. regarded the Americans,
+        was so natural to such a mind as his, that one can hardly blame
+        his constant exhibition of it during the time that the struggle
+        was actually impending. But what is truly disgraceful is, that,
+        after the war was over, he displayed this rancour on an occasion
+        when, of all others, he was bound to suppress it. In 1786,
+        Jefferson and Adams were in England officially, and, as a matter
+        of courtesy to the king, made their appearance at court. So
+        regardless, however, was George III. of the common decencies of
+        his station, that he treated these eminent men with marked
+        incivility, although they were then paying their respects to him
+        in his own palace. See _Tucker's Life of Jefferson_, vol. i. p.
+        220; and _Mem. and Corresp. of Jefferson_, vol. i. p. 54.
+
+It is certainly no faint characteristic of those times, that a man like
+Burke, who dedicated to politics abilities equal to far nobler things,
+should, during thirty years, have received from his prince neither
+favour nor reward. But George III. was a king whose delight it was to
+raise the humble and exalt the meek. His reign, indeed, was the golden
+age of successful mediocrity; an age in which little men were favoured,
+and great men depressed; when Addington was cherished as a statesman,
+and Beattie pensioned as a philosopher; and when, in all the walks of
+public life, the first conditions of promotion were, to fawn upon
+ancient prejudices, and support established abuses.
+
+This neglect of the most eminent of English politicians is highly
+instructive; but the circumstances which followed, though extremely
+painful, have a still deeper interest, and are well worth the attention
+of those whose habits of mind lead them to study the intellectual
+peculiarities of great men.
+
+For, at this distance of time, when his nearest relations are no more,
+it would be affectation to deny that Burke, during the last few years of
+his life, fell into a state of complete hallucination. When the French
+Revolution broke out, his mind, already fainting under the weight of
+incessant labour, could not support the contemplation of an event so
+unprecedented, so appalling, and threatening results of such frightful
+magnitude. And, when the crimes of that great revolution, instead of
+diminishing, continued to increase, then it was that the feelings of
+Burke finally mastered his reason; the balance tottered; the proportions
+of that gigantic intellect were disturbed. From this moment, his
+sympathy with present suffering was so intense, that he lost all memory
+of the tyranny by which the sufferings were provoked. His mind, once so
+steady, so little swayed by prejudice and passion, reeled under the
+pressure of events which turned the brains of thousands.[859] And
+whoever will compare the spirit of his latest works with the dates of
+their publication, will see how this melancholy change was aggravated by
+that bitter bereavement, from which he never rallied, and which alone
+was sufficient to prostrate the understanding of one in whom the
+severity of the reason was so tempered, so nicely poised, by the warmth
+of the affections. Never, indeed, can there be forgotten those touching,
+those exquisite allusions to the death of that only son, who was the joy
+of his soul, and the pride of his heart, and to whom he fondly hoped to
+bequeath the inheritance of his imperishable name. Never can we forget
+that image of desolation under which the noble old man figured his
+immeasurable grief 'I live in an inverted order. They who ought to have
+succeeded me, have gone before me. They who should have been to me as
+posterity, are in the place of ancestors.... The storm has gone over
+me, and I lie like one of those old oaks which the late hurricane has
+scattered about me. I am stripped of all my honours; I am torn up by the
+roots, and lie prostrate on the earth.'[860]
+
+  [859] All great revolutions have a direct tendency to increase insanity,
+        as long as they last, and probably for some time afterwards: but
+        in this, as in other respects, the French revolution stands alone
+        in the number of its victims. On the horrible, but curious
+        subject of madness caused by the excitement of the events which
+        occurred in France late in the eighteenth century, compare
+        _Prichard on Insanity in relation to Jurisprudence_, 1842, p. 90;
+        his _Treatise on Insanity_, 1835, pp. 161, 183, 230, 339;
+        _Esquirol_, _Maladies Mentales_, vol. i. pp. 43, 53, 54, 66, 211,
+        447, vol. ii. pp. 193, 726; _Feuchtersleben's Medical
+        Psychology_, p. 254; _Georget, De la Folie_, p. 156; _Pinel,
+        Traité sur l'Aliénation Mentale_, pp. 30, 108, 109, 177, 178,
+        185, 207, 215, 257, 349, 392, 457, 481; _Alison's Hist. of
+        Europe_, vol. iii. p. 112.
+
+  [860] _Burke's Works_, vol. ii. p. 268.
+
+It would, perhaps, be displaying a morbid curiosity, to attempt to raise
+the veil, and trace the decay of so mighty a mind.[861] Indeed, in all
+such cases, most of the evidence perishes; for those who have the best
+opportunities of witnessing the infirmities of a great man, are not
+those who most love to relate them. But it is certain, that the change
+was first clearly seen immediately after the breaking out of the French
+Revolution; that it was aggravated by the death of his son; and that it
+became progressively worse till death closed the scene.[862] In his
+_Reflections on the French Revolution_; in his _Remarks on the Policy of
+the Allies_: in his _Letter to Elliot_; in his _Letter to a Noble Lord_;
+and in his _Letters on a Regicide Peace_, we may note the consecutive
+steps of an increasing, and at length an uncontrollable, violence. To
+the single principle of hatred of the French Revolution, he sacrificed
+his oldest associations and his dearest friends. Fox, as is well known,
+always looked up to Burke as to a master, from whose lips he had
+gathered the lessons of political wisdom.[863] Burke, on his side, fully
+recognized the vast abilities of his friend, and loved him for that
+affectionate disposition, and for those winning manners, which, it has
+often been said, none who saw them could ever resist. But now, without
+the slightest pretence of a personal quarrel, this long intimacy[864]
+was rudely severed. Because Fox would not abandon that love of popular
+liberty which they had long cherished in common, Burke, publicly, and in
+his place in parliament, declared that their friendship was at an end;
+for that he would never more hold communion with a man who lent his
+support to the French people.[865] At the same time, and indeed the
+very evening on which this occurred, Burke, who had hitherto been
+remarkable for the courtesy of his manners,[866] deliberately insulted
+another of his friends, who was taking him home in his carriage; and, in
+a state of frantic excitement, insisted on being immediately set down,
+in the middle of the night, in a pouring rain, because he could not, he
+said, remain seated by 'a friend to the revolutionary doctrines of the
+French.'[867]
+
+  [861] The earliest unmistakable instances of those violent outbreaks
+        which showed the presence of disease, were in the debates on the
+        regency bill, in February 1789, when Sir Richard Hill, with
+        brutal candour, hinted at Burke's madness, even in his presence.
+        _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxvii. p. 1249. Compare a letter from Sir
+        William Young, in _Buckingham's Mem. of George III._ 1853, vol.
+        ii. p. 73; 'Burke finished his wild speech in a manner next to
+        madness.' This was in December 1788; and, from that time until
+        his death, it became every year more evident that his intellect
+        was disordered. See a melancholy description of him in a letter,
+        written by Dr. Currie in 1792 (_Life of Currie_, vol. ii. p.
+        150); and, above all, see his own incoherent letter, in 1796, in
+        his _Correspond. with Laurence_, p. 67.
+
+  [862] His son died in August 1794 (_Burke's Correspond._ vol. iv. p.
+        224); and his most violent works were written between that period
+        and his own death, in July 1797.
+
+  [863] 'This disciple, as he was proud to acknowledge himself.'
+        _Brougham's Statesmen_, vol. i. p. 218. In 1791, Fox said, that
+        Burke 'had taught him everything he knew in politics.' _Parl.
+        Hist._ vol. xxix. p. 379. See also _Adolphus's Hist. of George
+        III._ vol. iv. pp. 472, 610; and a letter from Fox to Parr, in
+        _Parr's Works_, vol. vii. p. 287.
+
+  [864] It had begun in 1766, when Fox was only seventeen. _Russell's Mem.
+        of Fox_, vol. i. p. 26.
+
+  [865] On this painful rupture, compare with the _Parliamentary History,
+        Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party_, vol. i. pp. 10, 11; _Prior's
+        Life of Burke_, pp. 375-379; _Tomline's Life of Pitt_, vol. ii.
+        pp. 385-395. The complete change in Burke's feelings towards his
+        old friend also appears in a very intemperate letter, written to
+        Dr. Laurence in 1797. _Burke's Correspond. with Laurence_, p.
+        152. Compare _Parr's Works_, vol. iv. pp. 67-80, 84-90, 109.
+
+  [866] Which used to be contrasted with the bluntness of Johnson; these
+        eminent men being the two best talkers of their time. See
+        _Bisset's Life of Burke_, vol. i. p. 127.
+
+  [867] _Rogers's Introduction to Burke's Works_, p. xliv.; _Prior's Life
+        of Burke_, p. 384.
+
+Nor is it true, as some have supposed, that this mania of hostility was
+solely directed against the criminal part of the French people. It would
+be difficult, in that or in any other age, to find two men of more
+active, or indeed enthusiastic benevolence, than Condorcet and La
+Fayette. Besides this, Condorcet was one of the most profound thinkers
+of his time, and will be remembered as long as genius is honoured among
+us.[868] La Fayette was no doubt inferior to Condorcet in point of
+ability; but he was the intimate friend of Washington, on whose conduct
+he modelled his own,[869] and by whose side he had fought for the
+liberties of America: his integrity was, and still is, unsullied: and
+his character had a chivalrous and noble turn, which Burke, in his
+better days, would have been the first to admire.[870] Both, however,
+were natives of that hated country whose liberties they vainly attempted
+to achieve. On this account, Burke declared Condorcet to be guilty of
+'impious sophistry;'[871] to be a 'fanatic atheist, and furious
+democratic republican;'[872] and to be capable of 'the lowest, as well
+as the highest and most determined villainies.'[873] As to La Fayette,
+when an attempt was made to mitigate the cruel treatment he was
+receiving from the Prussian government, Burke not only opposed the
+motion made for that purpose in the House of Commons, but took the
+opportunity of grossly insulting the unfortunate captive, who was then
+languishing in a dungeon.[874] So dead had he become on this subject,
+even to the common instincts of our nature, that, in his place in
+parliament, he could find no better way of speaking of this injured and
+high-souled man, than by calling him a ruffian: 'I would not,' says
+Burke,--'I would not debase my humanity by supporting an application in
+behalf of such a horrid ruffian.'[875]
+
+  [868] There is an interesting account of the melancholy death of this
+        remarkable man in _Lamartine_, _Hist. des Girondins_, vol. viii.
+        pp. 76-80; and a contemporary relation in _Musset-Pathay_, _Vie
+        de Rousseau_, vol. ii. pp. 42-47.
+
+  [869] This is the honourable testimony of a political opponent; who
+        says, that after the dissolution of the Assembly 'La Fayette se
+        conforma à a conduite de Washington, qu'il avait pris pour
+        modèle.' _Cassagnac_, _Révolution Française_, vol. iii. pp. 370,
+        371. Compare the grudging admission of his enemy Bouillé, _Mém.
+        de Bouillé_, vol. i. p. 125; and for proofs of the affectionate
+        intimacy between Washington and La Fayette, see _Mém. de
+        Lafayette_, vol. i. pp. 16, 21, 29, 44, 55, 83, 92, 111, 165,
+        197, 204, 395, vol. ii. p. 123.
+
+  [870] The Duke of Bedford, no bad judge of character, said in 1794, that
+        La Fayette's 'whole life was an illustration of truth,
+        disinterestedness, and honour.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxxi. p. 664.
+        So, too, the continuator of Sismondi (_Hist. des Français_, vol.
+        xxx. p. 355), 'La Fayette, le chevalier de la liberté
+        d'Amérique;' and Lamartine (_Hist. des Girondins_, vol. iii. p.
+        200), 'Martyr de la liberté après en avoir été le héros.' Ségur,
+        who was intimately acquainted with him, gives some account of his
+        noble character, as it appeared when he was a boy of nineteen.
+        _Mém. de Ségur_, vol. i. pp. 106, 107. Forty years later, Lady
+        Morgan met him in France; and what she relates shows how little
+        he had changed, and how simple his tastes and the habits of his
+        mind still were. _Morgan's France_, vol. ii. pp. 285-312. Other
+        notices, from personal knowledge, will be found in _Life of
+        Roscoe_, vol. ii. p. 178; and in _Trotter's Mem. of Fox_, pp. 319
+        seq.
+
+  [871] 'The impious sophistry of Condorcet.' _Letter to a Noble Lord_, in
+        _Burke's Works_, vol. ii. p. 273.
+
+  [872] _Thoughts on French Affairs_ in _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p. 574.
+
+  [873] 'Condorcet (though no marquis, as he styled himself before the
+        Revolution) is a man of another sort of birth, fashion, and
+        occupation from Brissot; but in every principle and every
+        disposition, to the lowest as well as the highest and most
+        determined villainies, fully his equal.' _Thoughts on French
+        Affairs_, in _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p. 579.
+
+  [874] 'Groaning under the most oppressive cruelty in the dungeons of
+        Magdeburg.' _Belsham's Hist. of Great Brit._ vol. ix. p. 151. See
+        the afflicting details of his sufferings, in _Mém. de Lafayette_,
+        vol. i. p. 479, vol. ii. pp. 75, 77, 78, 80, 91, 92; and on the
+        noble equanimity with which he bore them, see _De Staël_, _Rév.
+        Françoise_, Paris, 1820, vol. ii. p. 103.
+
+  [875] It is hardly credible that such language should have been applied
+        to a man like La Fayette; but I have copied it from the
+        _Parliamentary History_, vol. xxxi. p. 51, and from _Adolphus_,
+        vol. v. p. 593. The only difference is, that in Adolphus the
+        expression is 'I would not debase my humanity;' but in the _Parl.
+        Hist._, 'I would not debauch my humanity.' But both authorities
+        are agreed as to the term 'horrid ruffian' being used by Burke.
+        Compare _Burke's Correspondence with Laurence_, pp. 91, 99.
+
+As to France itself, it is 'Cannibal Castle;'[876] it is 'the republic
+of assassins;'[877] it is 'a hell;'[878] its government is composed of
+'the dirtiest, lowest, most fraudulent, most knavish, of
+chicaners;'[879] its National Assembly are 'miscreants;'[880] its people
+are 'an allied army of Amazonian and male cannibal Parisians;'[881] they
+are 'a nation of murderers;'[882] they are 'the basest of mankind;'[883]
+they are 'murderous atheists;'[884] they are 'a gang of robbers;'[885]
+they are 'the prostitute outcasts of mankind;'[886] they are 'a
+desperate gang of plunderers, murderers, tyrants, and atheists.'[887] To
+make the slightest concessions to such a country in order to preserve
+peace, is offering victims 'on the altars of blasphemed regicide;'[888]
+even to enter into negotiations is 'exposing our lazar sores at the door
+of every proud servitor of the French republic, where the court-dogs
+will not deign to lick them.'[889] When our ambassador was actually in
+Paris, he 'had the honour of passing his mornings in respectful
+attendance at the office of a regicide pettifogger;'[890] and we were
+taunted with having sent a 'peer of the realm to the scum of the
+earth.'[891] 'France has no longer a place in Europe; it is expunged
+from the map; its very name should be forgotten.[892] Why, then, need
+men travel in it? Why need our children learn its language? and why are
+we to endanger the morals of our ambassadors? who can hardly fail to
+return from such a land with their principles corrupted, and with a wish
+to conspire against their own country.'[893]
+
+  [876] _Burke's Works_, vol. ii. p. 319. In every instance I quote the
+        precise words employed by Burke.
+
+  [877] _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 279.
+
+  [878] Burke's speech, in _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxxi. p. 379.
+
+  [879] _Burke's Works_, vol. ii. p. 335.
+
+  [880] _Burke's Corresp._ vol. iii. p. 140.
+
+  [881] _Burke's Works_, vol. ii. p. 322.
+
+  [882] _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxx. p. 115.
+
+  [883] _Ibid._ p. 112.
+
+  [884] _Ibid._ p. 188.
+
+  [885] _Ibid._ p. 435.
+
+  [886] _Ibid._ p. 646; the concluding sentence of one of Burke's speeches
+        in 1793.
+
+  [887] _Ibid._ vol. xxxi. p. 426.
+
+  [888] _Burke's Works_, vol. ii. p. 320.
+
+  [889] _Ibid._ p. 286.
+
+  [890] _Ibid._ p. 322.
+
+  [891] _Ibid._ p. 318.
+
+  [892] _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxviii. p. 353, vol. xxx. p. 390; _Adolphus_,
+        vol. iv. p. 467.
+
+  [893] In the _Letters on a Regicide Peace_, published the year before he
+        died, he says, 'These ambassadors may easily return as good
+        courtiers as they went: but can they ever return from that
+        degrading residence loyal and faithful subjects; or with any true
+        affection to their master, or true attachment to the
+        constitution, religion, or laws of their country? There is great
+        danger that they who enter smiling into this Tryphonian cave,
+        will come out of it sad and serious conspirators; and such will
+        continue as long as they live.' _Burke's Works_, vol. ii. p. 282.
+        He adds in the same work, p. 381, 'Is it for this benefit we open
+        "the usual relations of peace and amity?" Is it for this our
+        youth of both sexes are to form themselves by travel? Is it for
+        this that with expense and pains we form their lisping infant
+        accents to the language of France?... Let it be remembered,
+        that no young man can go to any part of Europe without taking
+        this place of pestilential contagion in his way; and, whilst the
+        less active part of the community will be debauched by this
+        travel, whilst children are poisoned at these schools, our trade
+        will put the finishing hand to our ruin. No factory will be
+        settled in France, that will not become a club of complete French
+        Jacobins. The minds of young men of that description will receive
+        a taint in their religion, their morals, and their politics,
+        which they will in a short time communicate to the whole
+        kingdom.'
+
+This is sad, indeed, from such a man as Burke once was; but what
+remains, shows still more clearly how the associations and composition
+of his mind had been altered. He who, with humanity not less than with
+wisdom, had strenuously laboured to prevent the American war, devoted
+the last few years of his life to kindle a new war, compared to which
+that with America was a light and trivial episode. In his calmer
+moments, no one would have more willingly recognized that the opinions
+prevalent in any country are the inevitable results of the circumstances
+in which that country had been placed. But now he sought to alter those
+opinions by force. From the beginning of the French Revolution, he
+insisted upon the right, and indeed upon the necessity, of compelling
+France to change her principles;[894] and, at a later period, he blamed
+the allied sovereigns for not dictating to a great people the government
+they ought to adopt.[895] Such was the havoc circumstances had made in
+his well-ordered intellect, that to this one principle he sacrificed
+every consideration of justice, of mercy, and of expediency. As if war,
+even in its mildest form, were not sufficiently hateful, he sought to
+give to it that character of a crusade[896] which increasing knowledge
+had long since banished: and loudly proclaiming that the contest was
+religious rather than temporal, he revived old prejudices in order to
+cause fresh crimes.[897] He also declared that the war should be carried
+on for revenge as well as for defence, and that we must never lay down
+our arms until we had utterly destroyed the men by whom the Revolution
+was brought about.[898] And, as if these things were not enough, he
+insisted that this, the most awful of all wars, being begun, was not to
+be hurried over; although it was to be carried on for revenge as well as
+for religion, and the resources of civilized men were to be quickened by
+the ferocious passions of crusaders, still it was not to be soon ended;
+it was to be durable; it must have permanence; it must, says Burke, in
+the spirit of a burning hatred, be protracted in a long war: 'I speak it
+emphatically, and with a desire that it should be marked, in a _long_
+war.'[899]
+
+  [894] In _Observations on the Conduct of the Minority_, 1793, he says,
+        that during four years he had wished for 'a general war against
+        jacobins and jacobinism.' _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p. 611.
+
+  [895] For, in the first place, 'the united sovereigns very much injured
+        their cause by admitting that they had nothing to do with the
+        interior arrangements of France.' _Heads for Consideration on the
+        Present State of Affairs_, written in November 1792, in _Burke's
+        Works_, vol. i. p. 583. And that he knew that this was not merely
+        a question of destroying a faction, appears from the observable
+        circumstance, that even in January 1791 he wrote to Trevor
+        respecting war, 'France is weak indeed, divided and deranged; but
+        God knows, when the things came to be tried, whether the invaders
+        would not find that their enterprise _was not to support a party,
+        but to conquer a kingdom_.' _Burke's Correspond._ vol. iii. p.
+        184.
+
+  [896] As Lord J. Russell truly calls it, _Mem. of Fox_, vol. iii. p. 34.
+        See also _Schlosser's Eighteenth Century_, vol. ii. p. 93, vol.
+        v. p. 109, vol. vi. p. 291; _Nicholls's Recollections_, vol. i.
+        p. 300; _Parr's Works_, vol. iii. p. 242.
+
+  [897] 'We cannot, if we would, delude ourselves about the true state of
+        this dreadful contest. _It is a religious war._' _Remarks on the
+        Policy of the Allies_, in _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p. 600.
+
+  [898] See the long list of proscriptions in _Burke's Works_, vol. i. p.
+        604. And the principle of revenge is again advocated in a letter
+        written in 1793, in _Burke's Correspond._ vol. iv. p. 183. And in
+        1794, he told the House of Commons that 'the war must no longer
+        be confined to the vain attempt of raising a barrier to the
+        lawless and savage power of France; but must be directed to the
+        only rational end it can pursue; namely, the entire destruction
+        of the desperate horde which gave it birth.' _Parl. Hist._ vol.
+        xxxi. p. 427.
+
+  [899] _Letters on a Regicide Peace_, in _Burke's Works_, vol. ii. p.
+        291. In this horrible sentence, perhaps the most horrible ever
+        penned by an English politician, the italics are not my own; they
+        are in the text.
+
+It was to be a war to force a great people to change their government.
+It was to be a war carried on for the purpose of punishment. It was also
+to be a religious war. Finally, it was to be a long war. Was there ever
+any other man who wished to afflict the human race with such extensive,
+searching, and protracted calamities? Such cruel, such reckless, and yet
+such deliberate opinions, if they issued from a sane mind, would
+immortalize even the most obscure statesman, because they would load his
+name with imperishable infamy. For where can we find, even among the
+most ignorant or most sanguinary politicians, sentiments like these? Yet
+they proceed from one who, a very few years before, was the most eminent
+political philosopher England has ever possessed. To us it is only given
+to mourn over so noble a wreck. More than this no one should do. We may
+contemplate with reverence the mighty ruin; but the mysteries of its
+decay let no man presume to invade, unless, to use the language of the
+greatest of our masters, he can tell how to minister to a diseased mind,
+pluck the sorrows which are rooted in the memory, and raze out the
+troubles that are written in the brain.
+
+It is a relief to turn from so painful a subject, even though we descend
+to the petty, huckstering politics of the English court. And truly, the
+history of the treatment experienced by the most illustrious of our
+politicians, is highly characteristic of the prince under whom he lived.
+While Burke was consuming his life in great public services, labouring
+to reform our finances, improve our laws, and enlighten our commercial
+policy,--while he was occupied with these things, the king regarded him
+with coldness and aversion.[900] But when the great statesman
+degenerated into an angry brawler; when, irritated by disease, he made
+it the sole aim of his declining years to kindle a deadly war between
+the two first countries of Europe, and declared that to this barbarous
+object he would sacrifice all other questions of policy, however
+important they might be;[901]--then it was that a perception of his vast
+abilities began to dawn upon the mind of the king. Before this, no one
+had been bold enough to circulate in the palace even a whisper of his
+merits. Now, however, in the successive, and eventually the rapid
+decline of his powers, he had fallen almost to the level of the royal
+intellect; and now he was first warmed by the beams of the royal favour.
+Now he was a man after the king's own heart.[902] Less than two years
+before his death, there was settled upon him, at the express desire of
+George III., two considerable pensions;[903] and the king even wished to
+raise him to the peerage, in order that the House of Lords might benefit
+by the services of so great a counsellor.[904]
+
+  [900] 'I know,' said Burke, in one of those magnificent speeches which
+        mark the zenith of his intellect,--'I know the map of England as
+        well as the noble lord, or as any other person; and I know that
+        the way I take is not the road to preferment.' _Parl. Hist._ vol.
+        xvii. p. 1269.
+
+  [901] See, among many other instances, an extraordinary passage on
+        'Jacobinism,' in his _Works_, vol. ii. p. 449, which should be
+        compared with a letter he wrote in 1792, respecting a proposed
+        coalition ministry, _Correspond._ vol. iii. pp. 519, 520: 'But my
+        advice was, that as a foundation of the whole, the political
+        principle must be settled as the preliminary, namely, "a total
+        hostility to the French system, at home and abroad."'
+
+  [902] The earliest evidence I have met with of the heart of George III.
+        beginning to open towards Burke, is in August 1791; see in
+        _Burke's Correspondence_, vol. iii. p. 278, an exquisitely absurd
+        account of his reception at the levee. Burke must have been
+        fallen, indeed, before he could write such a letter.
+
+  [903] 'Said to have originated in the express wish of the king.'
+        _Prior's Life of Burke_, p. 489. Mr. Prior estimates these
+        pensions at 3,700_l._ a-year; but if we may rely on Mr. Nicholls,
+        the sum was even greater: 'Mr. Burke was rewarded with two
+        pensions, estimated to be worth 40,000_l._' _Nicholls's
+        Recollections_, vol. i. p. 136. Burke was sixty-five; and a
+        pension of 3,700_l._ a-year would not be worth 40,000_l._, as the
+        tables were then calculated. The statement of Mr. Prior is,
+        however, confirmed by Wansey, in 1794. See _Nichols's Lit. Anec.
+        of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. iii. p. 81.
+
+  [904] _Prior's Life of Burke_, p. 460; _Nichols's Lit. Anec._ vol. iii.
+        p. 81; _Bisset's Life of Burke_, vol. ii. p. 414.
+
+This digression respecting the character of Burke has been longer than I
+had anticipated; but it will not, I hope, be considered unimportant;
+for, in addition to the intrinsic interest of the subject, it
+illustrates the feelings of George III. towards great men, and it shows
+what the opinions were which in his reign it was thought necessary to
+hold. In the sequel of this work, I shall trace the effect of such
+opinions upon the interests of the country, considered as a whole; but
+for the object of the present Introduction, it will be sufficient to
+point out the connexion in one or two more of those prominent instances,
+the character of which is too notorious to admit of discussion.
+
+Of these leading and conspicuous events, the American war was the
+earliest, and for several years it almost entirely absorbed the
+attention of English politicians. In the reign of George II. a proposal
+had been made to increase the revenue by taxing the colonies; which, as
+the Americans were totally unrepresented in parliament, was simply a
+proposition to tax an entire people without even the form of asking
+their consent. This scheme of public robbery was rejected by that able
+and moderate man who was then at the head of affairs; and the
+suggestion, being generally deemed impracticable, fell to the ground,
+and seems, indeed, hardly to have excited attention.[905] But what was
+deemed by the government of George II. to be a dangerous stretch of
+arbitrary power, was eagerly welcomed by the government of George III.
+For the new king, having the most exalted notion of his own authority,
+and being, from his miserable education, entirely ignorant of public
+affairs, thought that to tax the Americans for the benefit of the
+English, would be a masterpiece of policy. When, therefore, the old idea
+was revived, it met with his cordial acquiescence; and when the
+Americans showed their intention of resisting this monstrous injustice,
+he was only the more confirmed in his opinion that it was necessary to
+curb their unruly will. Nor need we be surprised at the rapidity with
+which such angry feelings broke out. Indeed, looking, on the one hand,
+at the despotic principles which, for the first time since the
+Revolution, were now revived at the English court; and looking, on the
+other hand, at the independent spirit of the colonists,--it was
+impossible to avoid a struggle between the two parties; and the only
+questions were, as to what form the contest would take, and towards
+which side victory was most likely to incline.[906]
+
+  [905] 'It had been proposed to Sir Robert Walpole to raise the revenue
+        by imposing taxes on America; but that minister, who could
+        foresee beyond the benefit of the actual moment, declared it must
+        be a bolder man than himself who should venture on such an
+        expedient.' _Walpole's George III._ vol. ii. p. 70. Compare
+        _Phillimore's Mem. of Lyttleton_, vol. ii. p. 662; _Bancroft's
+        American Revolution_, vol. i. p. 96; _Belsham's Hist. of Great
+        Britain_, vol. v. p. 102.
+
+  [906] That some sort of rupture was unavoidable, must, I think, be
+        admitted; but we are not bound to believe the assertion of Horace
+        Walpole, who says (_Mem. of George II._ vol. i. p. 397) that in
+        1754 he predicted the American rebellion. Walpole, though a keen
+        observer of the surface of society, was not the man to take a
+        view of this kind; unless, as is hardly probable, he heard an
+        opinion to that effect expressed by his father. Sir Robert
+        Walpole may have said something respecting the increasing love of
+        liberty in the colonies; but it was impossible for him to foresee
+        how that love would be fostered by the arbitrary proceedings of
+        the government of George III.
+
+On the part of the English government, no time was lost. Five years
+after the accession of George III., a bill was brought into parliament
+to tax the Americans;[907] and so complete had been the change in
+political affairs, that not the least difficulty was found in passing a
+measure which, in the reign of George II., no minister had dared to
+propose. Formerly, such a proposal, if made, would certainly have been
+rejected; now the most powerful parties in the state were united in its
+favour. The king, on every occasion, paid a court to the clergy, to
+which, since the death of Anne, they had been unaccustomed; he was,
+therefore, sure of their support, and they zealously aided him in every
+attempt to oppress the colonies.[908] The aristocracy, a few leading
+Whigs alone excepted, were on the same side, and looked to the taxation
+of America as a means of lessening their own contributions.[909] As to
+George III., his feelings on the subject were notorious;[910] and the
+more liberal party not having yet recovered from the loss of power
+consequent on the death of George II., there was little fear of
+difficulties from the cabinet; it being well known that the throne was
+occupied by a prince whose first object was to keep ministers in strict
+dependence on himself, and who, whenever it was practicable, called into
+office such weak and flexible men as would yield unhesitating submission
+to his wishes.[911]
+
+  [907] The general proposition was introduced in 1764; the bill itself
+        early in 1765. See _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. v. pp. 82,
+        85; and _Grenville Papers_, vol. ii. pp. 373, 374. On the
+        complete change of policy which this indicated, see _Brougham's
+        Polit. Philos._ part iii. p. 328.
+
+  [908] The correspondence of that time contains ample proof of the
+        bitterness of the clergy against the Americans. Even in 1777,
+        Burke wrote to Fox: 'The Tories do universally think their power
+        and consequence involved in the success of this American
+        business. The clergy are astonishingly warm in it; and what the
+        Tories are when embodied and united with their natural head, the
+        crown, and animated by their clergy, no man knows better than
+        yourself.' _Burke's Works_, vol. ii. p. 390. Compare _Bishop
+        Newton's Life of Himself_, pp. 134, 157.
+
+  [909] 'The overbearing aristocracy desired some reduction of the land
+        tax, at the expense of America.' _Bancroft's Hist. of the
+        American Revolution_, vol. ii. p. 414. The merchants, on the
+        other hand, were opposed to these violent proceedings. See, on
+        this contrast between the landed and commercial interests, a
+        letter from Lord Shelburne, in 1774, and another from Lord
+        Camden, in 1775, in _Chatham Correspond._ vol. iv. pp. 341, 401.
+        See also the speeches of Trecothick and Vyner, in _Parl. Hist._
+        vol. xvi. p. 507, vol. xviii. p. 1361.
+
+  [910] It was believed at the time, and it is not improbable, that the
+        king himself suggested the taxation of America, to which
+        Grenville at first objected. Compare _Wraxall's Mem. of his own
+        Time_, vol. ii. pp. 111, 112, with _Nicholl's Recollections_,
+        vol. i. pp. 205, 386. This may have been merely a rumour; but it
+        is quite consistent with everything we know of the character of
+        George III., and there can, at all events, be no doubt as to his
+        feelings respecting the general question. It is certain that he
+        over-persuaded Lord North to engage in the contest with America,
+        and induced that minister to go to war, and to continue it even
+        after success had become hopeless. See _Bancroft's American
+        Revolution_, vol. iii. pp. 307, 308; _Russell's Mem. of Fox_,
+        vol. i. pp. 247, 254; and the _Bedford Correspond._ vol. iii. p.
+        li. See also, in regard to the repeal of the Stamp Act, the
+        _Grenville Papers_, vol. iii. p. 373; a curious passage, with
+        which Lord Mahon, the last edition of whose history was published
+        in the same year (1853), appears to have been unacquainted.
+        _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. v. p. 139. In America the
+        sentiments of the king were well known. In 1775, Jefferson writes
+        from Philadelphia: 'We are told, and everything proves it true,
+        that he is the bitterest enemy we have.' _Jefferson's
+        Correspond._ vol. i. p. 153. And in 1782 Franklin writes to
+        Livingston, 'The king hates us most cordially.' _Life of
+        Franklin_, vol. ii. p. 126.
+
+  [911] 'A court,' as Lord Albemarle observes,--'a court that required
+        ministers to be, not the public servants of the state, but the
+        private domestics of the sovereign.' _Albemarle's Mem. of
+        Rockingham_, vol. i. p. 248. Compare _Bancroft's American
+        Revolution_, vol. ii. p. 109. In the same way, Burke, in 1767,
+        writes: 'His majesty never was in better spirits. He has got a
+        ministry weak and dependent; and, what is better, willing to
+        continue so.' _Burke's Correspond._ vol. i. p. 133. Ten years
+        later, Lord Chatham openly taunted the king with this disgraceful
+        peculiarity: 'Thus to pliable men, not capable men, was the
+        government of this once glorious empire intrusted.' _Chatham's
+        Speech in 1777_, in _Adolphus_, vol. ii. pp. 499, 500.
+
+Everything being thus prepared, there followed those events which were
+to be expected from such a combination. Without stopping to relate
+details which are known to every reader, it may be briefly mentioned
+that, in this new state of things, the wise and forbearing policy of the
+preceding reign was set at naught, and the national councils guided by
+rash and ignorant men, who soon brought the greatest disasters upon the
+country, and within a few years actually dismembered the empire. In
+order to enforce the monstrous claim of taxing a whole people without
+their consent, there was waged against America a war ill-conducted,
+unsuccessful, and, what is far worse, accompanied by cruelties
+disgraceful to a civilized nation.[912] To this may be added, that an
+immense trade was nearly annihilated; every branch of commerce was
+thrown into confusion;[913] we were disgraced in the eyes of
+Europe;[914] we incurred an expense of 140,000,000_l._;[915] and we
+lost by far the most valuable colonies any nation has ever possessed.
+
+  [912] For some evidence of the ferocity with which this war was
+        conducted by the English, see _Tucker's Life of Jefferson_, vol.
+        i. pp. 138, 139, 160; _Jefferson's Mem. and Correspond._ vol. i.
+        pp. 352, 429, vol. ii. pp. 336, 337; _Almon's Correspond. of
+        Wilkes_, vol. v. pp. 229-232, edit. 1805; _Adolphus's Hist. of
+        George III._ vol. ii. pp. 362, 391. These horrible cruelties were
+        frequently mentioned in parliament, but without producing the
+        least effect on the king or his ministers. See _Parl. Hist._ vol.
+        xix. pp. 371, 403, 423, 424, 432, 438, 440, 477, 487, 488, 489,
+        567, 578, 579, 695, 972, 1393, 1394, vol. xx. p. 43. Among the
+        expenses of the war which government laid before parliament, one
+        of the items was for 'five gross of scalping knives.' _Parl.
+        Hist._ vol. xix. pp. 971, 972. See further _Mém. de Lafayette_,
+        vol. i. pp. 23, 25, 99.
+
+  [913] In Manchester, 'in consequence of the American troubles, nine in
+        ten of the artisans in that town had been discharged from
+        employment.' This was stated in 1766, by no less an authority
+        than Conway. _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. v. p. 135. As the
+        struggle became more obstinate the evil was more marked, and
+        ample evidence of the enormous injury inflicted on England will
+        be found by comparing _Franklin's Correspondence_, vol. i. p.
+        352; _Adolphus's Hist. of George III._ vol. ii. p. 261; _Burke's
+        Works_, vol. i. p. 111; _Parl. Hist._ vol. xviii. pp. 734, 951,
+        963, 964, vol. xix. pp. 259, 341, 710, 711, 1072; _Walpole's Mem.
+        of George III._ vol. ii. p. 218.
+
+  [914] Even Mr. Adolphus, in his Tory history, says, that in 1782 'the
+        cause of Great Britain seemed degraded to the lowest state; ill
+        success and the prevalent opinion of mismanagement rendered the
+        espousal of it among the selfish powers of the continent almost
+        disreputable.' _Hist. of George III._ vol. iii. pp. 391, 392. For
+        proof of the opinions held in foreign countries respecting this,
+        I cannot do better than refer to _Mém. de Ségur_, vol. iii. pp.
+        184, 185; _[OE]uvres de Turgot_, vol. ix. p. 377; _Soulavie_,
+        _Mém. de Louis XVI._ vol. iv. pp. 363, 364; _Koch_, _Tableau des
+        Révolutions_, vol. ii. pp. 190-194; _Mem. of Mallet du Pan_, vol.
+        i. p. 37.
+
+  [915] Sir John Sinclair, in his _Hist. of the Revenue_, vol. ii. p. 114,
+        says 139,171,876_l._
+
+Such were the first fruits of the policy of George III. But the mischief
+did not stop there. The opinions which it was necessary to advocate in
+order to justify this barbarous war, recoiled upon ourselves. In order
+to defend the attempt to destroy the liberties of America, principles
+were laid down which, if carried into effect, would have subverted the
+liberties of England. Not only in the court, but in both houses of
+parliament, from the episcopal bench, and from the pulpits of the
+church-party, there were promulgated doctrines of the most dangerous
+kind--doctrines unsuited to a limited monarchy, and, indeed,
+incompatible with it. The extent to which this reaction proceeded is
+known to very few readers, because the evidence of it is chiefly to be
+found in the parliamentary debates, and in the theological literature,
+particularly the sermons of that time, none of which are now much
+studied. But, not to anticipate matters belonging to another part of
+this work, it is enough to say that the danger was so imminent as to
+make the ablest defenders of popular liberty believe that everything was
+at stake; and that if the Americans were vanquished, the next step would
+be to attack the liberties of England, and endeavour to extend to the
+mother-country the same arbitrary government which by that time would
+have been established in the colonies.[916]
+
+  [916] Dr. Jebb, an able observer, thought that the American war 'must be
+        decisive of the liberties of both countries.' _Disney's Life of
+        Jebb_, p. 92. So, too, Lord Chatham wrote in 1777, 'poor England
+        will have fallen upon her own sword.' _The Grenville Papers_,
+        vol. iv. p. 573. In the same year, Burke said of the attempt made
+        to rule the colonies by military force, 'that the establishment
+        of such a power in America will utterly ruin our finances (though
+        its certain effect), is the smallest part of our concern. It will
+        become an apt, powerful, and certain engine for the destruction
+        of our freedom here.' _Burke's Works_, vol. ii. p. 399. Compare
+        vol. i. pp. 189, 210; _Parl. Hist._ vol. xvi. pp. 104, 107, 651,
+        652, vol. xix. pp. 11, 1056, vol. xx. p. 119, vol. xxi. p. 907.
+        Hence it was that Fox wished the Americans to be victorious
+        (_Russell's Mem. of Fox_, vol. i. p. 143); for which some writers
+        have actually accused him of want of patriotism!
+
+Whether or not these fears were exaggerated, is a question of
+considerable difficulty; but after a careful study of that time, and a
+study too from sources not much used by historians, I feel satisfied
+that they who are best acquainted with the period will be the most
+willing to admit that, though the danger may have been overrated, it was
+far more serious than men are now inclined to believe. At all events, it
+is certain that the general aspect of political affairs was calculated
+to excite great alarm. It is certain, that during many years, the
+authority of the crown continued to increase, until it reached a height
+of which no example had been seen in England for several generations. It
+is certain that the Church of England exerted all her influence in
+favour of those despotic principles which the king wished to enforce. It
+is also certain that, by the constant creation of new peers, all holding
+the same views, the character of the House of Lords was undergoing a
+slow but decisive change; and that, whenever a favourable opportunity
+arose, high judicial appointments and high ecclesiastical appointments
+were conferred upon men notorious for their leaning towards the royal
+prerogative. These are facts which cannot be denied; and, putting them
+together, there remains, I think, no doubt, that the American war was a
+great crisis in the history of England, and that if the colonists had
+been defeated, our liberties would have been for a time in considerable
+jeopardy. From that risk we were saved by the Americans, who with heroic
+spirit resisted the royal armies, defeated them at every point, and at
+length, separating themselves from the mother-country, began that
+wonderful career, which, in less than eighty years, has raised them to
+an unexampled prosperity, and which to us ought to be deeply
+interesting, as showing what may be effected by the unaided resources of
+a free people.
+
+Seven years after this great contest had been brought to a successful
+close, and the Americans, happily for the interests of mankind, had
+finally secured their independence, another nation rose up and turned
+against its rulers. The history of the causes of the French Revolution
+will be found in another part of this volume; at present we have only to
+glance at the effects it produced upon the policy of the English
+government. In France, as is well known, the movement was extremely
+rapid; the old institutions, which were so corrupted as to be utterly
+unfit for use, were quickly destroyed; and the people, frenzied by
+centuries of oppression, practised the most revolting cruelties,
+saddening the hour of their triumph by crimes that disgraced the noble
+cause for which they struggled.
+
+All this, frightful as it was, did nevertheless form a part of the
+natural course of affairs; it was the old story of tyranny exciting
+revenge, and revenge blinding men to every consequence except the
+pleasure of glutting their own passions. If, under these circumstances,
+France had been left to herself, the Revolution, like all other
+revolutions, would soon have subsided, and a form of government have
+arisen suited to the actual condition of things. What the form would
+have been, it is impossible now to say; that, however, was a question
+with which no foreign country had the slightest concern. Whether it
+should be an oligarchy, or a despotic monarchy, or a republic, it was
+for France to decide; but it was evidently not the business of any other
+nation to decide for her. Still less was it likely that, on so delicate
+a point, France would submit to dictation from a country which had
+always been her rival, and which not unfrequently had been her bitter
+and successful enemy.
+
+But these considerations, obvious as they are, were lost upon George
+III., and upon those classes which were then in the ascendant. The fact
+that a great people had risen against their oppressors disquieted the
+consciences of men in high places. The same evil passions, and indeed
+the same evil language, which a few years before were directed against
+the Americans, were now turned against the French; and it was but too
+clear that the same results would follow.[917] In defiance of every
+maxim of sound policy, the English ambassador was recalled from France
+simply because that country chose to do away with the monarchy, and
+substitute a republic in its place. This was the first decisive step
+towards an open rupture, and it was taken, not because France had
+injured England, but because France had changed her government.[918] A
+few months later, the French, copying the example of the English in the
+preceding century,[919] brought their king to a public trial, sentenced
+him to die, and struck off his head in the midst of his own capital. It
+must be allowed that this act was needless, that it was cruel, and that
+it was grossly impolitic. But it is palpably evident that they who
+consented to the execution were responsible only to God and their
+country; and that any notice of it from abroad, which bore the
+appearance of a threat, would rouse the spirit of France, would unite
+all parties into one, and would induce the nation to adopt as its own a
+crime of which it might otherwise have repented, but which it could not
+now abjure without incurring the shame of having yielded to the
+dictation of a foreign power.
+
+  [917] In 1792, and therefore before the war broke out, Lord Lansdowne,
+        one of the extremely few peers who escaped from the prevailing
+        corruption, said,'The present instance recalled to his memory the
+        proceedings of this country previous to the American war. The
+        same abusive and degrading terms were applied to the Americans
+        that were now used to the National Convention,--_the same
+        consequences might follow_.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxx. p. 155.
+
+  [918] Compare _Belsham's Hist. of Great Britain_, vol. viii. p. 490,
+        with _Tomline's Life of Pitt_, vol. ii. p. 548. The letter to
+        Lord Gower, the English minister in Paris, is printed in _Parl.
+        Hist._ vol. xxx. pp. 143, 144. Its date is 17th August, 1792.
+
+  [919] Just before the Revolution, Robert de Saint-Vincent pertinently
+        remarked, by way of caution, that the English 'have dethroned
+        seven of their kings, and beheaded the eighth.' _Mem. of Mallet
+        du Pan_, vol. i. p. 146; and we are told in _Alison's Europe_
+        (vol. ii. pp. 199, 296, 315), that in 1792 Louis 'anticipated the
+        fate of Charles I.' Compare _Williams's Letters from France_, 2nd
+        edit. 1796, vol. iv. p. 2.
+
+In England, however, as soon as the fate of the king was known, the
+government, without waiting for explanation, and without asking for any
+guarantee as to the future, treated the death of Louis as an offence
+against itself, and imperiously ordered the French residents to quit the
+country:[920] thus wantonly originating a war which lasted twenty
+years, cost the lives of millions, plunged all Europe into confusion,
+and, more than any other circumstance, stopped the march of
+civilization, by postponing for a whole generation those reforms, which,
+late in the eighteenth century, the progress of affairs rendered
+indispensable.
+
+  [920] Belsham (_Hist. of Great Britain_, vol. viii. p. 525) supposes,
+        and probably with reason, that the English government was bent
+        upon war even before the death of Louis; but it appears
+        (_Tomline's Pitt_, vol. ii. p. 599) that it was not until the
+        24th of January 1793, that Chauvelin was actually ordered to
+        leave England, and that this was in consequence of 'the British
+        ministers having received information of the execution of the
+        king of France.' Compare _Belsham_, vol. viii. p. 530. The common
+        opinion, therefore, seems correct, that the proximate cause of
+        hostilities was the execution of Louis. See _Alison's Hist._ vol.
+        ii. p. 522, vol. v. p. 249, vol. vi. p. 656; and _Newmarch_, in
+        _Journal of Statist. Soc._ vol. xviii. p. 108.
+
+The European results of this, the most hateful, the most unjust, and the
+most atrocious war, England has ever waged against any country, will be
+hereafter considered;[921] at present I confine myself to a short
+summary of its leading effects on English society.
+
+  [921] Lord Brougham (_Sketches of Statesmen_, vol. i. p. 79) rightly
+        says of this war, that 'the youngest man living will not survive
+        the fatal effects of this flagrant political crime.' So eager,
+        however, was George III. in its favour, that when Wilberforce
+        separated himself from Pitt on account of the war, and moved an
+        amendment on the subject in the House of Commons, the king showed
+        his spite by refusing to take any notice of Wilberforce the next
+        time he appeared at court. _Life of Wilberforce_, vol. ii. pp.
+        10, 72.
+
+What distinguishes this sanguinary contest from all preceding ones, and
+what gives to it its worst feature, is, that it was eminently a war of
+opinions,--a war which we carried on, not with a view to territorial
+acquisitions, but with the object of repressing that desire for reforms
+of every kind, which had now become the marked characteristic of the
+leading countries of Europe.[922] As soon, therefore, as hostilities
+began the English government had a twofold duty to perform it had to
+destroy a republic abroad, and it had to prevent improvement at home.
+The first of these duties it fulfilled by squandering the blood and the
+treasure of England, till it had thrown nearly every family into
+mourning, and reduced the country to the verge of national bankruptcy.
+The other duty it attempted to execute by enacting a series of laws
+intended to put an end to the free discussion of political questions,
+and stifle that spirit of inquiry which was every year becoming more
+active. These laws were so comprehensive, and so well calculated to
+effect their purpose, that if the energy of the nation had not prevented
+their being properly enforced, they would either have destroyed every
+vestige of popular liberty, or else have provoked a general rebellion.
+Indeed, during several years the danger was so imminent, that, in the
+opinion of some high authorities, nothing could have averted it, but the
+bold spirit with which our English juries, by their hostile verdicts,
+resisted the proceedings of government, and refused to sanction laws
+which the crown had proposed, and to which a timid and servile
+legislature had willingly consented.[923]
+
+  [922] In 1793 and subsequently, it was stated both by the opposition,
+        and also by the supporters of government, that the war with
+        France was directed against doctrines and opinions, and that one
+        of its main objects was to discourage the progress of democratic
+        institutions. See, among many other instances, _Parl. Hist._ vol.
+        xxx. pp. 413, 417, 1077, 1199, 1200, 1283, vol. xxxi. pp. 466,
+        592, 649, 680, 1036, 1047, vol. xxxiii. pp. 603, 604; _Nicholls's
+        Recollections_, vol. ii. pp. 156, 157.
+
+  [923] Lord Campbell (_Lives of the Chancellors_, vol. vi. p. 449) says,
+        that if the laws passed in 1794 had been enforced, 'the only
+        chance of escaping servitude would have been civil war.' Compare
+        _Brougham's Statesmen_, vol. i. p. 237, vol. ii. pp. 63, 64, on
+        our 'escape from proscription and from arbitrary power ... during
+        the almost hopeless struggle from 1793 to 1801.' Both these
+        writers pay great and deserved honour to the successful efforts
+        of Erskine with juries. Indeed the spirit of our jurors was so
+        determined, that in 1794, at Tooke's trial, they only consulted
+        eight minutes before bringing in a verdict of acquittal.
+        _Stephens's Mem. of Horne Tooke_, vol. ii. p. 147; see also, on
+        this crisis, _Life of Cartwright_, vol. i. p. 210. The people
+        sympathised throughout with the victims; and while the trial of
+        Hardy was pending, the attorney-general, Scott, was always mobbed
+        when he left the court, and on one occasion his life was in
+        danger. _Twiss's Life of Eldon_, vol. i. pp. 185, 186. Compare
+        _Holcroft's Memoirs_, vol. ii. pp. 180, 181.
+
+We may form some idea of the magnitude of the crisis by considering the
+steps which were actually taken against the two most important of all
+our institutions, namely, the freedom of the public press, and the
+right of assembling in meetings for the purpose of public discussion.
+These are, in a political point of view, the two most striking
+peculiarities which distinguish us from every other European people. As
+long as they are preserved intact, and as long as they are fearlessly
+and frequently employed, there will always be ample protection against
+those encroachments on the part of government which cannot be too
+jealously watched, and to which even the freest country is liable. To
+this may be added, that these institutions possess other advantages of
+the highest order. By encouraging political discussion, they increase
+the amount of intellect brought to bear upon the political business of
+the country. They also increase the total strength of the nation, by
+causing large classes of men to exercise faculties which would otherwise
+lie dormant, but which by these means are quickened into activity, and
+become available for other purposes of social interest.
+
+But in the period we are now considering, it was deemed advisable that
+the influence of the people should be lessened; it was, therefore,
+thought improper that they should strengthen their abilities by
+exercising them. To relate the details of that bitter war, which, late
+in the eighteenth century, the English government carried on against
+every kind of free discussion, would lead me far beyond the limits of
+this Introduction; and I can only hastily refer to the vindictive
+prosecutions, and, whenever a verdict was obtained, the vindictive
+punishments, of men like Adams, Bonney, Crossfield, Frost, Gerald,
+Hardy, Holt, Hodson, Holcroft, Joyce, Kidd, Lambert, Margarot, Martin,
+Muir, Palmer, Perry, Skirving, Stannard, Thelwall, Tooke, Wakefield,
+Wardie, Winterbotham: all of whom were indicted, and many of whom were
+fined, imprisoned, or transported, because they expressed their
+sentiments with freedom, and because they used language such as in our
+time is employed with perfect impunity, by speakers at public meetings,
+and by writers in the public press.
+
+As, however, juries in several cases refused to convict men who were
+prosecuted for these offences, it was determined to recur to measures
+still more decisive. In 1795, a law was passed, by which it was
+manifestly intended to put an end for ever to all popular discussions
+either on political or religious matters. For by it every public meeting
+was forbidden, unless notice of it were inserted in a newspaper five
+days beforehand;[924] such notice to contain a statement of the objects
+of the meeting, and of the time and place where it was to assemble. And,
+to bring the whole arrangement completely under the supervision of
+government, it was ordered, that not only should the notice, thus
+published, be signed by householders, but that the original manuscript
+should be preserved, for the information of the justices of the peace,
+who might require a copy of it: a significant threat, which, in those
+days, was easily understood.[925] It was also enacted that, even after
+these precautions had been taken, any single justice might compel the
+meeting to disperse, if, in his opinion, the language held by the
+speakers was calculated to bring the sovereign or the government into
+contempt; while, at the same time, he was authorized to arrest those
+whom he considered to be the offenders.[926] The power of dissolving a
+public meeting, and of seizing its leaders, was thus conferred upon a
+common magistrate, and conferred too without the slightest provision
+against its abuse. In other words, the right of putting an end to all
+public discussions on the most important subjects, was lodged in the
+hands of a man appointed by the crown, and removable by the crown at its
+own pleasure. To this it was added, that if the meeting should consist
+of twelve, or upwards of twelve persons, and should remain together for
+one hour after being ordered to separate,--in such case, the penalty of
+death was to be inflicted, even if only twelve disobeyed this the
+arbitrary command of a single and irresponsible magistrate.[927]
+
+  [924] 'Five days at least.' _Stat. 36 George III._ c. 8, § 1. This
+        applied to meetings 'holden for the purpose or on the pretext of
+        considering of or preparing any petition, complaint,
+        remonstrance, or declaration, or other address to the king, or to
+        both houses, or either house, of parliament, for alteration of
+        matters established in church or state, or for the purpose or on
+        the pretext of deliberating upon any grievance in church or
+        state.' The only exceptions allowed were in the case of meetings
+        called by magistrates, officials, and the majority of the grand
+        jury.
+
+  [925] The insertor of the notice in the newspaper 'shall cause such
+        notice and authority to be carefully preserved, ... and cause a
+        true copy thereof (if required) to be delivered to any justice of
+        the peace for the county, city, town, or place where such person
+        shall reside, or where such newspaper shall be printed, and who
+        shall require the same.' _36 George III._ c. 8, § 1.
+
+  [926] C. 8, §§ 6 and 7, referring to 'meetings on notice;' and to
+        persons holding language which shall even 'tend to incite.' These
+        two sections are very remarkable.
+
+  [927] 'It shall be adjudged,' says the Act, 'felony without benefit of
+        clergy; and the offenders therein shall be adjudged felons, and
+        shall suffer death as in case of felony without benefit of
+        clergy.' _36 George III._ c. 8, § 6.
+
+In 1799, another law was passed, forbidding any open field, or place of
+any kind, to be used for lecturing, or for debating, unless a specific
+license for such place had been obtained from the magistrates. It was
+likewise enacted, that all circulating-libraries, and all reading-rooms,
+should be subject to the same provision; no person, without leave from
+the constituted authorities, being permitted to lend on hire in his own
+house, newspapers, pamphlets, or even books of any kind.[928] Before
+shops of this sort could be opened, a license must first be obtained
+from two justices of the peace; which, however, was to be renewed at
+least once a year, and might be revoked at any intermediate period.[929]
+If a man lent books without the permission of the magistrates, or if he
+allowed lectures or debates, 'on any subject whatever,' to be held under
+his roof, then, for such grievous crime, he was to be fined 100_l._
+a-day; and every person who aided him, either by presiding over the
+discussion, or by supplying a book, was for each offence to be fined
+20_l._ The proprietor of so pernicious an establishment was not only to
+suffer from these ruinous fines, but was declared liable to still
+further punishment as the keeper of a disorderly house.[930]
+
+  [928] _Stat. 39 George III._ c. 79, § 15.
+
+  [929] The license 'shall be in force for the space of one year and no
+        longer, or for any less space of time therein to be specified;
+        and which license it shall be lawful for the justices of the
+        peace' &c. 'to revoke and declare void, and no longer in force,
+        by any order of such justices; ... and thereupon such license
+        shall cease and determine, and be thenceforth utterly void and of
+        no effect.' _39 George III._ c. 79, § 18.
+
+  [930] Such things are so incredible, that I must again quote the words
+        of the Act: 'Every house, room, or place, which shall be opened
+        or used as a place of meeting for the purpose of reading books,
+        pamphlets, newspapers, or other publications, and to which any
+        person shall be admitted by payment of money' (if not regularly
+        licensed by the authorities), ... 'shall be deemed a
+        disorderly house;' and the person opening it shall 'be otherwise
+        punished as the law directs in case of disorderly houses.' _39
+        George III._ c. 79, § 15. The germ of this law may be found in
+        _36 George III._ c. 8, § § 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Nowhere are the
+        weakest parts of the human mind more clearly seen than in the
+        history of legislation.
+
+To modern ears it sounds somewhat strange, that the owner of a public
+reading-room should not only incur extravagant fines, but should also be
+punished as the keeper of a disorderly house; and that all this should
+happen to him, simply because he opened his shop without asking
+permission from the local magistrates. Strange, however, as this
+appears, it was, at all events, consistent, since it formed part of a
+regular plan for bringing, not only the actions of men, but even their
+opinions, under the direct control of the executive government. Thus it
+was that the laws, now for the first time passed, against newspapers,
+were so stringent, and the prosecution of authors so unrelenting, that
+there was an evident intention to ruin every public writer who expressed
+independent sentiments.[931] These measures, and others of a similar
+character, which will hereafter be noticed, excited such alarm, that, in
+the opinion of some of the ablest observers, the state of public affairs
+was becoming desperate, perhaps irretrievable. The extreme despondency
+with which, late in the eighteenth century, the best friends of liberty
+looked to the future, is very observable, and forms a striking feature
+in their private correspondence.[932] And although comparatively few men
+venture to express such sentiments in public, Fox, whose fearless temper
+made him heedless of risk, openly stated what would have checked the
+government, if anything could have done so. For this eminent statesman,
+who had been minister more than once, and was afterwards minister again,
+did not hesitate to say, from his place in parliament, in 1795, that if
+these, and other shameful laws which were proposed, should be actually
+passed, forcible resistance to the government would be merely a question
+of prudence; and that the people, if they felt themselves equal to the
+conflict, would be justified in withstanding the arbitrary measures by
+which their rulers sought to extinguish their liberties.[933]
+
+  [931] See the particulars in _Hunt's Hist. of Newspapers_, vol. i. pp.
+        281-4. Mr. Hunt says, p. 284: 'In addition to all these laws,
+        directed solely towards the press, other statutes were made to
+        bear upon it, for the purpose of repressing the free expression
+        of popular opinion.' In 1793, Dr. Currie writes: 'The
+        prosecutions that are commenced by government all over England
+        against printers, publishers, &c. would astonish you; and most of
+        these are for offences committed many months ago. The printer of
+        the _Manchester Herald_ has had seven different indictments
+        preferred against him for paragraphs in his paper; and six
+        _different_ indictments for selling or disposing of six different
+        copies of Paine,--all previous to the _trial_ of Paine. The man
+        was opulent, supposed worth 20,000_l._; but these different
+        actions will ruin him, as they were intended to do.' _Currie's
+        Life_, vol. i. pp. 185, 186. See also a letter from Roscoe to
+        Lord Lansdowne, in _Life of Roscoe_, vol. i. p. 124; and _Mem. of
+        Holcroft_, vol. ii. pp. 151, 152: 'Printers and booksellers all
+        over the kingdom were hunted out for prosecution.' See further,
+        _Life of Cartwright_, vol. i. pp. 199, 200; _Adolphus's Hist. of
+        George III._ vol. v. pp. 525, 526; _Mem. of Wakefield_, vol. ii.
+        p. 69.
+
+  [932] In 1793, Dr. Currie, after mentioning the attempts made by
+        government to destroy the liberty of the press, adds: 'For my
+        part, I foresee troubles, and conceive the nation was never in
+        such a dangerous crisis.' _Currie's Mem._ vol. i. p. 186. In
+        1795, Fox writes (_Russell's Mem. of Fox_, vol. iii. pp. 124,
+        125): 'There appears to me to be no choice at present, but
+        between an absolute surrender of the liberties of the people and
+        a vigorous exertion, attended, I admit, with considerable hazard,
+        at a time like the present. My view of things is, I own, very
+        gloomy; and I am convinced that, in a very few years, this
+        government will become completely absolute, or that confusion
+        will arise of a nature almost as much to be deprecated as
+        despotism itself.' In the same year, Dr. Raine writes (_Parr's
+        Works_, vol. vii. p. 533): 'The mischievous conduct of men in
+        power has long made this country an uneasy dwelling for the
+        moderate and peaceful man; their present proceedings render our
+        situation alarming, and our prospects dreadful.' See also p. 530.
+        In 1796, the Bishop of Llandaff writes (_Life of Watson_, vol.
+        ii. pp. 36, 37): 'The malady which attacks the constitution
+        (influence of the crown) is without remedy; violent applications
+        might be used; their success would be doubtful, and I, for one,
+        never wish to see them tried.' Compare vol. i. p. 222. And, in
+        1799, Priestley dreaded a revolution; but, at the same time,
+        thought there was 'no longer any hope of a peaceable and gradual
+        reform.' _Mem. of Priestley_, vol. i. pp. 198, 199.
+
+  [933] In this memorable declaration, Fox said, that 'he had a right to
+        hope and expect that these bills, which positively repealed the
+        Bill of Rights, and cut up the whole of the constitution by the
+        roots, by changing our limited monarchy into an absolute
+        despotism, would not be enacted by parliament against the
+        declared sense of a great majority of the people. If, however,
+        ministers were determined, by means of the corrupt influence they
+        possessed in the two houses of parliament, to pass the bills in
+        direct opposition to the declared sense of a great majority of
+        the nation, and they should be put in force with all their
+        rigorous provisions, if his opinion were asked by the people as
+        to their obedience, he should tell them, that it was no longer a
+        question of moral obligation and duty, but of prudence. It would,
+        indeed, be a case of extremity alone which could justify
+        resistance; and the only question would be, whether that
+        resistance was prudent.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxxii. p. 383. On
+        this, Windham remarked, and Fox did not deny, that 'the meaning
+        obviously was, that the right hon. gentleman would advise the
+        people, whenever they were strong enough, to resist the execution
+        of the law;' and to this both Sheridan and Grey immediately
+        assented, pp. 385-387.
+
+Nothing, however, could stop the government in its headlong career. The
+ministers, secure of a majority in both houses of parliament, were able
+to carry their measures in defiance of the people, who opposed them by
+every mode short of actual violence.[934] And as the object of these new
+laws was, to check the spirit of inquiry, and prevent reforms, which
+the progress of society rendered indispensable, there were also brought
+into play other means subservient to the same end. It is no exaggeration
+to say, that for some years England was ruled by a system of absolute
+terror.[935] The ministers of the day, turning a struggle of party into
+a war of proscription, filled the prisons with their political
+opponents, and allowed them, when in confinement, to be treated with
+shameful severity.[936] If a man was known to be a reformer, he was
+constantly in danger of being arrested; and if he escaped that, he was
+watched at every turn, and his private letters were opened as they
+passed through the post-office.[937] In such cases, no scruples were
+allowed. Even the confidence of domestic life was violated. No opponent
+of government was safe under his own roof, against the tales of
+eavesdroppers and the gossip of servants. Discord was introduced into
+the bosom of families, and schisms caused between parents and their
+children.[938] Not only were the most strenuous attempts made to
+silence the press, but the booksellers were so constantly prosecuted
+that they did not dare to publish a work if its author were obnoxious to
+the court.[939] Indeed, whoever opposed the government was proclaimed an
+enemy to his country.[940] Political associations and public meetings
+were strictly forbidden. Every popular leader was in personal danger;
+and every popular assemblage was dispersed, either by threats or by
+military execution. That hateful machinery, familiar to the worst days
+of the seventeenth century, was put into motion. Spies were paid;
+witnesses were suborned; juries were packed.[941] The coffee-houses, the
+inns, and the clubs, were filled with emissaries of the government, who
+reported the most hasty expressions of common conversation.[942] If, by
+these means, no sort of evidence could be collected, there was another
+resource, which was unsparingly used. For, the habeas-corpus act being
+constantly suspended, the crown had the power of imprisoning without
+inquiry, and without limitation, any person offensive to the ministry,
+but of whose crime no proof was attempted to be brought.[943]
+
+  [934] 'Never had there appeared, in the memory of the oldest man, so
+        firm and decided a plurality of adversaries to the ministerial
+        measures, as on this occasion (_i.e._ in 1795): the interest of
+        the public seemed so deeply at stake, that individuals, not only
+        of the decent, but of the most vulgar professions, gave up a
+        considerable portion of their time and occupations in attending
+        the numerous meetings that were called in every part of the
+        kingdom, to the professed intent of counteracting this attempt of
+        the ministry.' _Note in Parl. History_, vol. xxxii. p. 381. It
+        was at this period that Fox made the declaration which I have
+        quoted in the previous note.
+
+  [935] It was called at the time the 'Reign of Terror;' and so indeed it
+        was for every opponent of government. See _Campbell's
+        Chancellors_, vol. vi. p. 441; _Mem. of Wakefield_, vol. ii. p.
+        67; and _Trotter's Mem. of Fox_, p. 10.
+
+  [936] 'The iniquitous system of secret imprisonment, under which Pitt
+        and Dundas had now filled all the gaols with parliamentary
+        reformers; men who were cast into dungeons without any public
+        accusation, and from whom the habeas-corpus suspension act had
+        taken every hope of redress.' _Cooke's Hist. of Party_, vol. iii.
+        p. 447. On the cruelty with which these political opponents of
+        government were treated when in prison, see _Stephens's Mem. of
+        Tooke_, vol. ii. pp. 121, 125, 423; _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxxiv.
+        pp. 112, 113, 126, 129, 170, 515, vol. xxxv. pp. 742, 743;
+        _Cloncurry's Recollections_, pp. 46, 86, 87, 140, 225.
+
+  [937] _Life of Currie_, vol. ii. p. 160; _Stephens's Mem. of Tooke_,
+        vol. ii. pp. 118, 119.
+
+  [938] In 1793, Roscoe writes: 'Every man is called on to be a spy upon
+        his brother.' _Life of Roscoe_, vol. i. p. 127. Compare Fox's
+        statement (_Parl. Hist._ vol. xxx. p. 21), that what government
+        had done was, 'to erect every man, not merely into an inquisitor,
+        but into a judge, a spy, an informer,--to set father against
+        father, brother against brother; and in this way you expect to
+        maintain the tranquillity of the country.' See also vol. xxx. p.
+        1529; and a remarkable passage, in _Coleridge's Biog. Lit._ (vol.
+        i. p. 192), on the extent of 'secret defamation,' in and after
+        1793. For further evidence of this horrible state of society, see
+        _Mem. of Holcroft_, vol. ii. pp. 150, 151; _Stephens's Mem. of
+        Horne Tooke_, vol. ii. pp. 115, 116.
+
+  [939] There was even considerable difficulty in finding a printer for
+        Tooke's great philological work, _The Diversions of Purley_. See
+        _Stephens's Mem. of Tooke_, vol. ii. pp. 345-348. In 1798, Fox
+        wrote to Cartwright (_Life of Cartwright_, vol. i. p. 248): 'The
+        decision against Wakefield's publisher appears to me decisive
+        against the liberty of the press; and, indeed, after it, one can
+        hardly conceive how any prudent tradesman can venture to publish
+        anything that can, in any way, be disagreeable to the ministers.'
+
+  [940] Those who opposed the slave-trade were called jacobins, and
+        'enemies to the ministers;' and the celebrated Dr. Currie was
+        pronounced to be a jacobin, and an 'enemy to his country,'
+        because he remonstrated against the shameful manner in which the
+        English government, in 1800, allowed the French prisoners to be
+        treated. _Life of Currie_, vol. i. pp. 330, 332; _Life of
+        Wilberforce_, vol. i. pp. 342-344, vol. ii. pp. 18, 133; _Parl.
+        Hist._ vol. xxx. p. 654, vol. xxxi. p. 467, vol. xxxiii. p. 1387,
+        vol. xxxiv. pp. 1119, 1485.
+
+  [941] _Life of Cartwright_, vol. i. p. 209; _Hunt's Hist. of
+        Newspapers_, vol. ii. p. 104; _Belsham's Hist._ vol. ix. p. 227;
+        _Adolphus's Hist._ vol. vi. p. 264; _Annual Register for 1795_,
+        pp. 156, 160; _Stephens's Mem. of Tooke_, vol. ii. p. 118; _Life
+        of Currie_, vol. i. p. 172; _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. vi. p.
+        316, vol. vii. p. 316; _Life of Wilberforce_, vol. iv. pp. 369,
+        377; _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxxi. pp. 543, 667, 668, 1067, vol.
+        xxxii. pp. 296, 302, 366, 367, 374, 664, vol. xxxv. pp. 1538,
+        1540; _Holcroft's Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 190.
+
+        [942] In addition to the passages referred to in the preceding
+        note; compare _Hutton's Life of Himself_, p. 209, with
+        _Campbell's Chancellors_, vol. vi. p. 441, vol. vii. p. 104, and
+        _Adolphus's Hist. of George III._ vol. vi. p. 45. In 1798,
+        Caldwell wrote to Sir James Smith (_Correspondence of Sir J. E.
+        Smith_, vol. ii. p. 143): 'The power of the crown is become
+        irresistible. The new scheme of inquisition into every man's
+        private circumstances is beyond any attempt I have ever heard of
+        under Louis XIV.'
+
+  [943] In 1794, Fox said, in his speech on the habeas-corpus suspension
+        bill: 'Every man who talked freely, every man who detested, as he
+        did from his heart, this war, might be, and would be, in the
+        hands and at the mercy of ministers. Living under such a
+        government, and being subject to insurrection, comparing the two
+        evils, he confessed, he thought the evil they were pretending to
+        remedy, was less than the one they were going to inflict by the
+        remedy itself.' _Parl. Hist._ vol. xxxi. p. 509. In 1800, Lord
+        Holland stated, in the House of Lords, that, of 'the seven years
+        of the war, the habeas-corpus act had been suspended five; and,
+        of the multitudes who had been imprisoned in virtue of that
+        suspension, few had been brought to trial, and only one
+        convicted.' vol. xxxiv. pp. 1486. See also vol. xxxv. pp. 609,
+        610. On the effect of the suspension of the habeas-corpus act
+        upon literature, see _Life of Currie_, vol. i. p. 506.
+
+Such was the way in which, at the end of the eighteenth century, the
+rulers of England, under pretence of protecting the institutions of the
+country, oppressed the people, for whose benefit alone those
+institutions ought to exist. Nor was even this the whole of the injury
+they actually inflicted. Their attempts to stop the progress of opinions
+were intimately connected with that monstrous system of foreign policy,
+by which there has been entailed upon us a debt of unexampled magnitude.
+To pay the interest of this, and to meet the current expenses of a
+profuse and reckless administration, taxes were laid upon nearly every
+product of industry and of nature. In the vast majority of cases, these
+taxes fell upon the great body of the people,[944] who were thus placed
+in a position of singular hardship For the upper classes not only
+refused to the rest of the nation the reforms which were urgently
+required, but compelled the country to pay for the precautions which, in
+consequence of the refusal, it was thought necessary to take. Thus it
+was that the government diminished the liberties of the people, and
+wasted the fruit of their industry, in order to protect that very people
+against opinions which the growth of their knowledge had irresistibly
+forced upon them.
+
+  [944] See decisive evidence of this, in _Porter's Progress of the
+        Nation_, vol. ii. pp. 283-285; and, on the enormous increase of
+        expense and taxation, see _Pellew's Life of Sidmouth_, vol. i. p.
+        358, vol. ii. p. 47.
+
+It is not surprising that, in the face of these circumstances, some of
+the ablest observers should have despaired of the liberties of England,
+and should have believed that, in the course of a few years, a despotic
+government would be firmly established. Even we, who, looking at these
+things half a century after they occurred, are able to take a calmer
+view, and who moreover possess the advantages of a larger knowledge, and
+a riper experience, must nevertheless allow that, so far as political
+events were concerned, the danger was more imminent than at any moment
+since the reign of Charles I. But what was forgotten then, and what is
+too often forgotten now, is, that political events form only one of the
+many parts which compose the history of a great country. In the period
+we have been considering, the political movement was, no doubt, more
+threatening than it had been for several generations. On the other hand,
+the intellectual movement was, as we have seen, highly favourable, and
+its influence was rapidly spreading. Hence it was that, while the
+government of the country tended in one direction, the knowledge of the
+country tended in another; and while political events kept us back,
+intellectual events urged us forward. In this way, the despotic
+principles that were enforced were, in some degree, neutralized; and
+although it was impossible to prevent them from causing great suffering,
+still the effect of that suffering was to increase the determination of
+the people to reform a system under which such evils could be inflicted.
+For while they felt the evils, the knowledge which they had obtained
+made them see the remedy. They saw that the men who were at the head of
+affairs were despotic; but they saw, too, that the system must be
+wrong, which could secure to such men such authority. This confirmed
+their dissatisfaction, and justified their resolution to effect some
+fresh arrangement, which should allow their voices to be heard in the
+councils of the state.[945] And that resolution, I need hardly add, grew
+stronger and stronger, until it eventually produced those great
+legislative reforms which have already signalized the present century,
+have given a new tone to the character of public men, and changed the
+structure of the English parliament.
+
+  [945] A careful observer of what was going on late in the eighteenth
+        century, expresses what, early in the nineteenth century, was
+        becoming the conviction of most men of plain, sound
+        understanding, who had no interest in the existing corruption:
+        'Immoderate taxation, the result of the unnecessary wars of the
+        reign of George III., is the cause of our embarrassments; and
+        that immoderate taxation has been occasioned by the House of
+        Commons being composed of men not interested to protect the
+        property of the people.'--_Nicholl's Recollections_, vol. i.
+        p. 213.
+
+It is thus that, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, the
+increase and diffusion of knowledge were in England, directly
+antagonistic to the political events which occurred during the same
+period. The extent and the nature of that antagonism I have endeavoured
+to explain, as clearly as the complexity of the subject, and the limits
+of this Introduction, enable me to do. We have seen that, looking at our
+country as a whole, the obvious tendency of affairs was to abridge the
+authority of the church, the nobles, and the crown, and thus give
+greater play to the power of the people. Looking, however, at the
+country, not as a whole, but looking merely at its political history, we
+find that the personal peculiarities of George III., and the
+circumstances under which he came to the throne, enabled him to stop the
+great progress, and eventually cause a dangerous reaction. Happily for
+the fortunes of England, those principles of liberty which he and his
+supporters wished to destroy, had before his reign become so powerful,
+and so widely diffused, that they not only resisted this political
+reaction, but seemed to gain fresh strength from the contest. That the
+struggle was arduous, and at one time extremely critical, it is
+impossible to deny. Such, however, is the force of liberal opinions,
+when they have once taken root in the popular mind, that notwithstanding
+the ordeal to which they were exposed, and notwithstanding the
+punishments inflicted on their advocates, it was found impossible to
+stifle them; it was found impossible even to prevent their increase.
+Doctrines subversive of every principle of freedom were personally
+favoured by the sovereign, openly avowed by the government, and
+zealously defended by the most powerful classes; and laws in accordance
+with these doctrines were placed on our statute-book, and enforced in
+our courts. All, however, was in vain. In a few years that generation
+began to pass away; a better one succeeded in its place; and the system
+of tyranny fell to the ground. And thus it is, that in all countries
+which are even tolerably free, every system must fall if it opposes the
+march of opinions, and gives shelter to maxims and institutions
+repugnant to the spirit of the age. In this sort of contest, the
+ultimate result is never doubtful. For the vigour of an arbitrary
+government depends merely on a few individuals, who, whatever their
+abilities may be, are liable, after their death, to be replaced by timid
+and incompetent successors. But the vigour of public opinion is not
+exposed to these casualties; it is unaffected by the laws of mortality;
+it does not flourish to-day and decline to-morrow; and so far from
+depending on the lives of individual men, it is governed by large
+general causes, which, from their very comprehensiveness, are in short
+periods scarcely seen, but on a comparison of long periods, are found to
+outweigh all other considerations, and reduce to insignificance those
+little stratagems by which princes and statesmen think to disturb the
+order of events, and mould to their will the destinies of a great and
+civilized people.
+
+These are broad and general truths, which will hardly be questioned by
+any man who, with a competent knowledge of history, has reflected much
+on the nature and conditions of modern society. But during the period we
+have been considering, they were utterly neglected by our political
+rulers, who not only thought themselves able to check the growth of
+opinions, but entirely mistook the very end and object of government. In
+those days, it was believed that government is made for the minority, to
+whose wishes the majority are bound humbly to submit. It was believed
+that the power of making laws must always be lodged in the hands of a
+few privileged classes; that the nation at large has no concern with
+those laws, except to obey them;[946] and that it is the duty of a wise
+government to secure the obedience of the people by preventing them from
+being enlightened by the spread of knowledge.[947] We may surely deem it
+a remarkable circumstance, that these notions, and the schemes of
+legislation founded upon them, should, within half a century, have died
+away so completely, that they are no longer advocated, even by men of
+the most ordinary abilities. What is still more remarkable is, that this
+great change should have been effected, not by any external event, nor
+by a sudden insurrection of the people, but by the unaided action of
+moral force,--the silent, though overwhelming pressure of public
+opinion. This has always seemed to me a decisive proof of the natural,
+and, if I may so say, the healthy march of English civilization. It is a
+proof of an elasticity, and yet a sobriety of spirit, such as no other
+nation has ever displayed. No other nation could have escaped from such
+a crisis, except by passing through a revolution, of which the cost
+might well have exceeded the gain. The truth, however, is, that in
+England the course of affairs, which I have endeavoured to trace since
+the sixteenth century, had diffused among the people a knowledge of
+their own resources, and a skill and independence in the use of them,
+imperfect, indeed, but still far superior to that possessed by any other
+of the great European countries. Besides this, other circumstances,
+which will be hereafter related,[948] had, so early as the eleventh
+century, begun to affect our national character, and had assisted in
+imparting to it that sturdy boldness, and, at the same time, those
+habits of foresight, and of cautious reserve, to which the English mind
+owes its leading peculiarities. With us, therefore, the love of liberty
+has been tempered by a spirit of prudence, which has softened its
+violence, without impairing its strength. It is this which, more than
+once, has taught our countrymen to bear even considerable oppression
+rather than run the risk of rising against their oppressors. It has
+taught them to stay their hands; it has taught them to husband their
+force until they can use it with irresistible effect. To this great and
+valuable habit we owe the safety of England late in the eighteenth
+century. If the people had risen, they would have staked their all; and
+what the result of that desperate game would have been, no man can say.
+Happily for them, and for their posterity, they were content to wait yet
+a little; they were willing to bide their time, and watch the issue of
+things. Of this noble conduct their descendants reap the reward. After
+the lapse of a few years, the political crisis began to subside, and the
+people re-entered on their former rights. For although their rights had
+been in abeyance, they were not destroyed, simply because the spirit
+still existed by which they were originally won. Nor can any one doubt
+that, if those evil days had been prolonged, that same spirit which had
+animated their fathers in the reign of Charles I. would have again
+broken forth, and society have been convulsed by a revolution, the bare
+idea of which is frightful to contemplate. In the mean time, all this
+was avoided; and although popular tumults did arise in different parts
+of the country, and although the measures of government caused a
+disaffection of the most serious kind,[949] still the people, taken as a
+whole, remained firm, and patiently reserved their force till a better
+time, when, for their benefit, a new party was organized in the state,
+by whom their interests were successfully advocated even within the
+walls of parliament.
+
+  [946] Bishop Horsley, the great champion of the existing state of
+        things, said in the House of Lords, in 1795, that he 'did not
+        know what the mass of the people in any country had to do with
+        the laws, but to obey them.' _Cooke's Hist. of Party_, vol. iii.
+        p. 435. Compare _Godwin on Population_, p. 569.
+
+  [947] Lord Cockburn (_Life of Jeffrey_, 1852, vol. i. pp. 67, 68) says:
+        'If there was any principle that was reverenced as indisputable
+        by almost the whole adherents of the party in power sixty, or
+        even fifty, or perhaps even forty years ago, it was that the
+        ignorance of the people was necessary for their obedience to the
+        law.' One argument was, 'that to extend instruction, would be to
+        multiply the crime of forgery!' _Porter's Progress of the
+        Nation_, vol. iii. p. 205.
+
+  [948] See chapters ix. and x., on the history of the protective spirit.
+
+  [949] Sir A. Alison notices in his _History_, (vol. iv. p. 213) 'how
+        widely the spirit of discontent was diffused' in 1796; and the
+        only wonder is, that the people were able to keep it in bounds.
+        That, however, is a question which writers of his stamp never
+        consider.
+
+This great and salutary reaction began early in the present century; but
+the circumstances which accompanied it are so extremely complicated, and
+have been so little studied, that I cannot pretend in this Introduction
+to offer even a sketch of them. It is sufficient to say, what must be
+generally known, that for nearly fifty years the movement has continued
+with unabated speed. Everything which has been done, has increased the
+influence of the people. Blow after blow has been directed against those
+classes which were once the sole depositaries of power. The Reform Bill,
+the Emancipation of the Catholics, and the Repeal of the Corn-laws, are
+admitted to be the three greatest political achievements of the present
+generation. Each of these vast measures has depressed a powerful party.
+The extension of the suffrage has lessened the influence of hereditary
+rank, and has broken up that great oligarchy of landowners, by which the
+House of Commons had long been ruled. The abolition of Protection has
+still further enfeebled the territorial aristocracy; while those
+superstitious feelings by which the ecclesiastical order is mainly
+upheld, received a severe shock, first by the repeal of the Test and
+Corporation Acts, and afterwards by the admission of Catholics into the
+legislature; steps which are with reason regarded as supplying
+precedents of mischievous import for the interests of the Established
+Church.[950] These measures, and others which are now obviously
+inevitable, have taken, and will continue to take, power from particular
+sections of society, in order to confer it upon the people at large.
+Indeed, the rapid progress of democratic opinions is a fact which no one
+in the present day ventures to deny. Timid and ignorant men are alarmed
+at the movement; but that there is such a movement is notorious to all
+the world. No one now dares to talk of bridling the people, or of
+resisting their united wishes. The utmost that is said is, that efforts
+should be made to inform them as to their real interests, and enlighten
+public opinion; but every one allows that, so soon as public opinion is
+formed, it can no longer be withstood. On this point all are agreed; and
+this new power, which is gradually superseding every other, is now
+obeyed by those very statesmen who, had they lived sixty years ago,
+would have been the first to deny its authority, ridicule its
+pretensions, and, if possible, extinguish its liberty.
+
+  [950] Bishop Burgess, in a letter to Lord Melbourne, bitterly complained
+        that Catholic emancipation was 'the extinction of the purely
+        Protestant character of the British legislature.' _Harford's Life
+        of Burgess_, p. 506: see also pp. 238, 239, 369, 370. There can
+        be no doubt that the bishop rightly estimated the danger to his
+        own party; and as to the Corporation and Test Acts, which, says
+        another bishop (_Tomline's Life of Pitt_, vol. ii. p. 604), 'were
+        justly regarded as the firmest bulwarks of the British
+        constitution,' the feeling was so strong, that at an episcopal
+        meeting in 1787, there were only two members who were willing to
+        repeal these persecuting laws. See _Bishop Watson's Life of
+        Himself_, vol. i. p. 262. Lord Eldon, who to the last stood up
+        for the church, pronounced the bill for repealing these acts to
+        be a 'revolutionary bill.' _Twiss's Life of Eldon_, vol. ii.
+        p. 202.
+
+Such is the great gap which separates the public men of our time from
+those who nourished under that bad system which George III. sought to
+perpetuate. And it is evident, that this vast progress was brought about
+rather by destroying the system, than by improving the men. It is also
+evident, that the system perished because it was unsuited to the age;
+in other words, because a progressive people will never tolerate an
+unprogressive government. But it is a mere matter of history, that our
+legislators, even to the last moment, were so terrified by the idea of
+innovation, that they refused every reform until the voice of the people
+rose high enough to awe them into submission, and forced them to grant
+what, without such pressure, they would by no means have conceded.
+
+These things ought to serve as a lesson to our political rulers. They
+ought also to moderate the presumption of legislators, and teach them
+that their best measures are but temporary expedients, which it will be
+the business of a later and riper age to efface. It would be well if
+such considerations were to check the confidence, and silence the
+loquacity, of those superficial men, who, raised to temporary power,
+think themselves bound to guarantee certain institutions, and uphold
+certain opinions. They ought clearly to understand, that it does not lie
+within their function thus to anticipate the march of affairs, and
+provide for distant contingencies. In trifling matters, indeed, this may
+be done without danger; though, as the constant changes in the laws of
+every country abundantly prove, it is also done without benefit. But in
+reference to those large and fundamental measures which bear upon the
+destiny of a people, such anticipation is worse than useless,--it is
+highly injurious. In the present state of knowledge, politics, so far
+from being a science, is one of the most backward of all the arts; and
+the only safe course for the legislator is, to look upon his craft as
+consisting in the adaptation of temporary contrivances to temporary
+emergencies.[951] His business is to follow the age, and not at all to
+attempt to lead it. He should be satisfied with studying what is passing
+around him; and should modify his schemes, not according to the notions
+he has inherited from his fathers, but according to the actual
+exigencies of his own time. For he may rely upon it, that the movements
+of society have now become so rapid, that the wants of one generation
+are no measure of the wants of another; and that men, urged by a sense
+of their own progress, are growing weary of idle talk about the wisdom
+of their ancestors, and are fast discarding those trite and sleepy
+maxims which have hitherto imposed upon them, but by which they will not
+consent to be much longer troubled.
+
+  [951] Sir C. Lewis, though in his learned work he over-estimates the
+        resources possessed by politicians, does nevertheless allow that
+        they are rarely able to anticipate the manner in which their
+        measures will work. _Lewis on the Methods of Observation and
+        Reasoning in Politics_, 1852, vol. ii. pp. 360-362. A writer of
+        repute, M. Flassan, says (_Hist. de la Diplomatie_, vol. i. p.
+        19): 'On doit être très-indulgent sur les erreurs de la
+        politique, à cause de la facilité qu'il y a à en commettre,
+        erreurs auxquelles la sagesse même quelquefois entraîne.' The
+        first part of this sentence is true enough; but it conveys a
+        truth which ought to repress that love of interfering with the
+        natural march of affairs which still characterizes politicians,
+        even in the freest countries.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+                        END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
+
+
+                           LONDON: PRINTED BY
+                 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
+                          AND PARLIAMENT STREET
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+The original spelling and minor inconsistencies in the spelling and
+formatting have been maintained.
+
+Inconsistent hyphenation and accents are as in the original if not marked
+as a misprint.
+
+Text in italics has been marked with underscores (_text_).
+
+The ligature oe has been marked as [oe].
+
+The sign ^ has been used as a superscript.
+
+The table below lists all corrections applied to the original text.
+
+  p. v: -5 -> 4-5
+  p. vi: 154-156 -> 152-156
+  p. xi: the authorship -> the authorship.
+  p. xvii: his Life, written by Himself. -> himself.
+  p. xix: edit. Meibomius. Amstel. -> Amstel,
+  p. xxi: Diplomatie Erançaise -> Française
+  p. xxi: London, 1818. 2 vols -> vols.
+  p. xxviii: A Journey though -> through
+  p. xxxvi: of 1569. London, 1840 -> 1840.
+  p. xxxviii: Literature. London, 1849 -> 1849.
+  p. xli: The Journals of. London -> The Journals of London
+  p. xlii: Camd. Soc. 1848 4to -> 1848. 4to.
+  p. 10: lib. ii. segm. 16, vol -> vol.
+  p. 22: not always absolutely, -> absolutely.
+  p. 40: vol. vi. p. 136. -> 136,
+  p. 54: with the greater rapidity. -> rapidity.'
+  p. 57: one and a half per cent. -> cent
+  p. 60: Carus' Comparative Anatomy -> Carus's
+  p. 64: when it is over-supplied -> over-supplied.
+  p. 64: 'Cabanis -> 'Cabanis'
+  p. 64: _Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia_ -> _Arabia_,
+  p. 64: Déscrition -> Description
+  p. 64: Ulloa' -> Ulloa's
+  p. 64: vol. i. pp. 379, 380, 460,; -> 460;
+  p. 66: Phillip's on Scrofula -> Phillips
+  p. 69: So too, in North America -> So, too, in North America
+  p. 70: Theatre of the Indus ->  Hindus
+  p. 72: Craufurd's History -> Crawfurd's History
+  p. 72: _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol -> vol.
+  p. 72: l'AmériqueMéridionale -> l'Amérique Méridionale
+  p. 80: he be divested? -> divested?'
+  p. 84: 170, 213; _Bowditch_ -> _Bowdich_
+  p. 94: throughout, the laying -> 'throughout
+  p. 97: in nearly 9° north. -> north.'
+  p. 97: p.113. -> p. 113.
+  p. 103: vol. ii. p. 113, -> vol. ii. p. 113;
+  p. 108: was 21°,on the -> was 21°, on the
+  p. 109: of elevation. -> elevation.'
+  p. 111: l.'_Humboldt_ -> l'_Humboldt_
+  p. 113: belonged to the people. -> people.'
+  p. 119: natural progress -> natural progress.
+  p. 122: _Brit. Assoc. for_ 1850, p. 68; -> p. 68);
+  p. 123: comme Science d' Observation -> d'Observation
+  p. 126: they apprehend danger. -> danger.'
+  p. 126: Garrows or Garrudus. -> Garrudus.'
+  p. 130: vol. i. p. 41; -> 41,
+  p. 130: _Phillips on Scrofula_, p. 255: -> 255;
+  p. 133: _Religiöse Bildung der Hindus_, vol -> vol.
+  p. 135: _Asiatic Researches_ -> _Asiatic Researches_.
+  p. 137: Speculationen über Zahlen -> 'Speculationen
+  p. 143: Müller's Hist -> Müller's Hist.
+  p. 147: Stephen's Central America -> Stephens's
+  p. 148: _Béclard_. -> _Béclard_,
+  p. 150: The views of Liebeg -> Liebig
+  p. 158: can be raised -> can be raised.
+  p. 158: _Locke's Works_, vol. i, -> vol. i.
+  p. 164: generalized _solely_ from from the -> _solely_ from the
+  p. 167: ich mir noch and ere -> andere
+  p. 170: _Asiatic Researches_, vol. iii, -> vol. iii.
+  p. 171: promises the metphysicians -> metaphysicians
+  p. 177: Geoffroy Saint Hilaire -> Saint-Hilaire
+  p. 177: _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. i. p. 380; -> p. 380,
+  p. 183: vol. ii. p. 304 -> 304.
+  p. 193: Ideen zur Gesckichte -> Ideen zur Geschichte
+  p. 197: l'intelligence, la seule q'uon -> qu'on
+  p. 205: and a dagger -> dagger.
+  p. 207: sur ce sujet. -> sujet.'
+  p. 208: became clearly recognied -> recognized
+  p. 211: balancing of trade. -> trade.'
+  p. 212: _Mill's History of India_, vol -> vol.
+  p. 215: pp. 834, 905 -> 905,
+  p. 249: Nichol's Literary Illustrations -> Nichols's
+  p. 256: le plus éclairé. -> éclairé.'
+  p. 267: _Geschichte der Philosophie_, vol. ii, -> vol. ii.
+  p. 293: vol. iii. pp. 383. -> 383,
+  p. 294: [OE]uvresde -> [OE]uvres de
+  p. 295: Poetry, 1840 -> 1840,
+  p. 302: have for upwards of 2000 years -> 2,000 years
+  p. 302: extending back 3000 years -> 3,000 years
+  p. 304: from Madagascar to within 2000 miles -> 2,000 miles
+  p. 304: in Polynesia Proper -> proper
+  p. 310: Troyens, par Pàris -> Paris
+  p. 314: vol. ii. p. 389 -> 389.
+  p. 315: prædicatorem,' p. 360 -> 360.
+  p. 325: progress was unmistakeable -> unmistakable
+  p. 330: of mathematics at Tubingen -> Tübingen
+  p. 332: _Biog. Univ._ -> _Biog. Univ._,
+  p. 342: 'Quodque in illis -> Quodque in illis
+  p. 358: pp. 572, 577 -> 577.
+  p. 375: _Richardson's Travels in the Sahara_, vol. i. p 11 -> p. 11
+  p. 378: Cudworth's Intellect -> Intellect.
+  p. 379: affected by uncontrolable -> uncontrollable
+  p. 389: In another place, vol -> vol.
+  p. 392: Chalmers' Biographical -> Chalmers's
+  p. 393: Chalmers' Biog. -> Chalmers's Biog.
+  p. 397: vol. ii. pp. 52. -> 52,
+  p. 400: De Foe (_Wilson's -> De Foe _Wilson's
+  p. 404: September 1688 (_Ellis_ -> _Ellis_,
+  p. 409: _Parl. Hist._ vol. v -> vol. v.
+  p. 411: vol. ii. pp. 640. -> p. 640.
+  p. 412: 72 Calamy -> 172 Calamy
+  p. 423: Southey's Wesley, pp -> pp.
+  p. 425: Whateley's Dangers -> Whately's
+  p. 426: Hist.of Moral -> Hist. of Moral
+  p. 429: eighteenth century. Proviously -> Previously
+  p. 434: vol. ii. p. 29), it become -> became
+  p. 437: with plenty of 'parentheses'! -> 'parentheses!'
+  p. 442: such efforts to instil -> instill
+  p. 445: _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol. v -> vol. v.
+  p. 447: So too Lord Campbell -> So, too, Lord Campbell
+  p. 449: rectitude of their hearts. -> hearts.'
+  p. 451: Dutens' Mémoires -> Dutens's
+  p. 453: So too Sheridan -> So, too, Sheridan
+  p. 465: the very sound of them. -> them.'
+  p. 467: vol. i. pp. 43. -> 43,
+  p. 468: _Buckingham's Mem. of George III._ 1853. -> 1853,
+  p. 474: the united sovereigns -> 'the united sovereigns
+  p. 475: a _long_ war. -> war.'
+  p. 477: _Bisset's Life of Burke_, vol -> vol.
+  p. 480: 'Without stopping to relate -> Without stopping to relate
+  p. 481: vol. i. p. 352, -> vol. i. p. 352;
+  p. 481: says 139,171,876_l_ -> 139,171,876_l._
+  p. 487: Stephen's Mem. of -> Stephens's
+  p. 493: immediately assented, p. 385-387. -> pp. 385-387.
+  p. 494: _Stephens's Mem. of Tooke_, vol -> vol.
+  p. 494: Compare Fox's statment -> statement
+  p. 494: to erect every man,not -> man, not
+  p. 494: Mem. of Horne Tooke -> Mem. of Horne Tooke,
+  p. 496: See also vol. xxxv. p. 609, 610. -> pp. 609, 610.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Civilization in England, 
+Vol. 1 of 3, by Henry Thomas Buckle
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44493 ***