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diff --git a/44493-h/44493-h.htm b/44493-h/44493-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4fd2ff2 --- /dev/null +++ b/44493-h/44493-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,26385 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of History Of Civilization in England, Vol. I, by Henry Thomas Buckle. + </title> + <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1 {text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + font-weight: bold; + font-size: 2em; + clear: both; + } + + h2 {text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + font-size: 1.5em; + clear: both; + } + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; + text-indent: 1em; +} + +p.one { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; + text-indent: -1em; +} + + p.title {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; + line-height: 1.4em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + + p.noindent {margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: 10%; + text-align: justify; + font-size: 1em; + line-height: 1.4em; + text-indent: 0; + } + + hr.hr65 {width: 65%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 17.5%; + margin-right: 17.5%; + clear: both; + } + + hr.hr95 {width: 95%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 2.5%; + margin-right: 2.5%; + clear: both; + } + + div.note {border: black 1px dashed; + padding: 0.5em; + } + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + + td.chaptitle {text-align: left; padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;} + td.page {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} + .tdc {text-align: center;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 5%; + text-align: center; +} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ + +.poem-container {text-align: center;} + + .poem {display: inline-block; + text-align: left; + } + + .stanza span, + .stanza div, + .stanza p { + display: block; + line-height: 1.2em; + margin-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; + margin-top: 0; + } + + .poem br {display: none;} + + .poem .stanza {padding: 0.5em 0;} + + .poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; + } + + .poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; + } + + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44493 ***</div> + +<h1>HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION IN ENGLAND.</h1> + +<p class="title">BY<br /><br /> +<span style="font-size: 150%">HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE.</span><br /><br /><br /> +IN THREE VOLUMES.<br /><br /> +<span style="font-size: 125%">VOL. I.</span><br /><br /><br /> +<span style="font-size: 125%"><i>NEW EDITION.</i></span><br /><br /><br /> +<span style="font-size: 150%">TORONTO:<br /> +ROSE-BELFORD PUBLISHING COMPANY,</span><br /> +<span style="font-size: 125%">60 YORK STREET.<br /> +1878.</span></p> + +<hr class="hr95" /> + +<h2>ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table summary="TOC"> + <colgroup> + <col width="90%" /> + <col width="10%" /> + </colgroup> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span style="font-size: 125%">CHAPTER I.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span class="blockquot">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.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle"> </td> + <td class="page">PAGE</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Materials for writing history</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_1">1–3</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Narrow range of knowledge possessed by historians</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_4">4–5</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Object of the present work</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_6">6</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Human actions, if not the result of fixed laws, must be due to chance or to supernatural interference</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Probable origin of free-will and predestination</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_9">9–12</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Theological basis of predestination, and metaphysical basis of free-will</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_12">12–16</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The actions of men are caused by their antecedents, which exist either in the human mind or +in the external world</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_18">18–20</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Therefore history is the modification of man by nature, and of nature by man</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_20">20–21</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Statistics prove the regularity of actions in regard to murder and other crimes</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_22">22–26</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Similar proof respecting suicides</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_27">27–29</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Also respecting the number of marriages annually contracted</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_31">31–32</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">And respecting the number of letters sent undirected</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The historian must ascertain whether mind or nature has most influenced human actions; and +therefore there can be no history without physical science</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_35">33–35</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle"><span class="smcap">Note A.</span> Passages from Kant on free-will and necessity</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_35">35–38</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span style="font-size: 125%"><br />CHAPTER II.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span class="blockquot">INFLUENCE EXERCISED BY PHYSICAL LAWS OVER THE ORGANIZATION +OF SOCIETY AND OVER THE CHARACTER OF INDIVIDUALS.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Man is affected by four classes of physical agents; namely, climate, food, soil, and the general aspect of nature</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_39">39–41</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Operation of these agents on the accumulation of wealth</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_41">41–51</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Their operation on the distribution of wealth</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_51">51–64</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Illustrations of these principles from Ireland</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_65">65–67</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">From Hindustan</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_69">69–82</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">From Egypt</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_82">82–93</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">From Central America</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_93">93–94</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">And from Mexico and Peru</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Operation of physical laws in Brazil</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_101">101–108</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Influence of the general aspects of nature upon the imagination and the understanding</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_118">118–119</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Under some aspects, nature is more prominent than man; under others, man more than nature</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">In the former case the imagination is more stimulated than the understanding, and to this +class all the earliest civilizations belong</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_120">120–121</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The imagination is excited by earthquakes and volcanoes</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_122">122–124</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">And by danger generally</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_125">125–126</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Also by an unhealthy climate making life precarious</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_126">126–130</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">From these causes the civilizations exterior to Europe are mainly influenced by the +imagination, those in Europe by the understanding</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_130">130–132</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">This proposition illustrated by a comparison between Hindustan and Greece</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_132">132–147</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Further illustration from Central America</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_147">147–148</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Chemical and physiological note on the connection between food and animal heat</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_148">148–151</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span style="font-size: 125%"><br />CHAPTER III.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span class="blockquot">EXAMINATION OF THE METHOD EMPLOYED BY METAPHYSICIANS +FOR DISCOVERING MENTAL LAWS.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">In the last chapter, two leading facts have been established, which broadly separate Europe +from other parts of the world</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_152">152–156</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Hence it appears that of the two classes of mental and physical laws the mental are the more +important for the history of Europe</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_156">156–157</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Examination of the two metaphysical methods of generalizing mental laws</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_158">158–165</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Failure of these methods</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_165">165–167</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span style="font-size: 125%"><br />CHAPTER IV.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span class="blockquot">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.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The historical method of studying mental laws is superior to the metaphysical method</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_168">168–174</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The progress of society is twofold, moral and intellectual</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_174">174–175</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Comparison of the moral with the intellectual element</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">There is no evidence that the natural faculties of man improve</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_176">176–177</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Progress, therefore, depends on an improvement in the circumstances under which the faculties come into play</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_178">178</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The standard of action having varied in every age, the causes of action must be variable</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">But moral truths have not changed</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">And intellectual truths are constantly changing</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Intellectual truths are the cause of progress</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Ignorant men are mischievous in proportion to their sincerity</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_183">183–185</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Illustrations of this from Rome and Spain</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_185">185–188</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The diminution of religious persecution is owing to the progress of knowledge</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_188">188–190</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The diminution of the warlike spirit is owing to the same cause</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_190">190–192</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Illustrations from Russia and Turkey</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_195">195–197</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">As civilization advances, men of intellect avoid becoming soldiers</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Illustrations of this from ancient Greece and modern Europe</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_198">198–202</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The three principal ways in which the progress of knowledge has lessened the warlike spirit are:</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">1. The invention of gunpowder</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_203">203–209</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">2. The discoveries made by political economists</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_210">210–211</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">3. The application of steam to purposes of travelling</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_219">219–223</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Inference to be drawn as to the causes of social progress</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_224">224–226</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span style="font-size: 125%"><br />CHAPTER V.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span class="blockquot">INQUIRY INTO THE INFLUENCE EXERCISED BY RELIGION, LITERATURE, AND GOVERNMENT.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Recapitulation of preceding arguments</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Moral feelings influence individuals, but do not affect society in the aggregate</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_228">228–229</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">This being as yet little understood, historians have not collected proper materials for writing history</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Reasons why the present history is restricted to England</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_231">231–235</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Comparison of the history of England with that of France</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_235">235–236</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">With that of Germany</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_237">237–240</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">With that of the United States of America</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_240">240–242</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Necessity of ascertaining the fundamental laws of intellectual progress</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Much may be gained in that respect from studying the histories of Germany, America, France, +Spain, and Scotland</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_244">244–246</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Deductive spirit in Scotland</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_246">246–252</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Influence of religion on the progress of society</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_253">253–266</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Illustration from the efforts of missionaries</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_254">254–256</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Illustration from the Hebrews</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_257">257–258</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Illustration from the early history of Christianity</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_259">259–262</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">And from Sweden and Scotland</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_263">263–266</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Influence of literature on the progress of society</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_268">268–272</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Influence of government on the progress of society</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_272">272–287</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Illustrated by repeal of the corn-laws</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_273">273–274</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The best legislation abrogates former legislation</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_275">275</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The interference of politicians with trade has injured trade</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_276">276–278</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Legislators have caused smuggling with all its attendant crimes</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_278">278–280</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">They have also increased hypocrisy and perjury</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_281">281–283</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">By their laws against usury they have increased usury</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_283">283–284</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">By other laws they have hindered the advance of knowledge</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_284">284–285</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">England has been less interfered with in these ways than other nations, and is therefore more +prosperous than they</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_286">286–287</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span style="font-size: 125%"><br />CHAPTER VI.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span class="blockquot">ORIGIN OF HISTORY, AND STATE OF HISTORICAL LITERATURE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Conclusions arrived at by the preceding investigations</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">An inquiry into the changes in historical researches will throw light on the changes in society</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_289">289–290</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The earliest histories are ballads</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_291">291–295</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">One cause of error in history was the invention of writing</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_296">296–300</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">A change of religion in any country also tends to corrupt its early history</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_300">300–307</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">But the most active cause of all was the influence of the clergy</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_307">307–308</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Absurdities which were consequently believed</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_309">309–317</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Illustration of this from the history of Charlemagne by Turpin</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_318">318–321</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">And from the history of the Britons by Geoffrey</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_321">321–325</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The first improvement in writing history began in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_325">325</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">But credulity was still prevalent, as is seen in Comines</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_327">327–328</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">And in the predictions of Stœffler respecting the Deluge</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_330">330</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Also in the work of Dr. Horst on the Golden Tooth</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_331">331–332</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span style="font-size: 125%"><br />CHAPTER VII.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span class="blockquot">OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH INTELLECT FROM THE +MIDDLE OF THE SIXTEENTH TO THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">This absurd way of writing history was the natural result of the state of the age</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_333">333</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The spirit of doubt was a necessary precursor of improvement</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_334">334</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Hence the supreme importance of scepticism</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_335">335–336</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Origin of religious toleration in England</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_337">337</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Hooker contrasted with Jewel</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_339">339–343</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Scepticism and spirit of inquiry on other subjects</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_343">343–346</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">This tendency displayed in Chillingworth</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_347">347–350</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Chillingworth compared with Hooker and Jewel</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_350">350</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Subsequent movement in the same direction, and increasing indifference to theological matters</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_352">352–355</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Great advantage of this</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_356">356–358</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Under James I. and Charles I. this opposition to authority assumes a political character</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_359">359–361</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Under Charles II. it takes a frivolous form at court</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_363">363</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Influence of this spirit upon Sir Thomas Browne</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_365">365–367</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Its influence upon Boyle</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_367">367–370</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">It causes the establishment of the Royal Society</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_371">371</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Impetus now given to physical science, and attempts of the clergy to oppose it</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_372">372</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The clergy are naturally hostile to physical science, because it lessens their own power</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_372">372–373</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Illustration of this by the superstition of sailors and agriculturists as compared with soldiers and mechanics</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_375">375–380</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Legislative improvements in the reign of Charles II. in spite of political degradation</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_380">380–386</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">These improvements were due to the sceptical and inquiring spirit</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_387">387–388</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Aided by the vices of the king</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_388">388</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">And by his dislike of the church</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_389">389</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">He encouraged Hobbes, and neglected the ablest of the clergy</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_390">390–393</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The clergy, to recover their ground, allied themselves with James II.</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_394">394–396</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">This alliance was dissolved by the Declaration of Indulgence</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_397">397–399</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The clergy then united with the dissenters and brought about the Revolution of 1688</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_399">399–400</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Importance of the Revolution</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_401">401–403</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">But the clergy regretted it, and repented of their own act</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_403">403</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Hostility between them and William III.</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_405">405–410</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Hence a schism in the church</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_410">410–413</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Fresh encouragement thus given to scepticism</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_413">413–414</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Convocation first despised, and then abolished</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_414">414–415</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">After the Revolution the ablest men confine themselves to secular professions, and avoided entering the church</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_415">415</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The clergy lost all offices out of the church, and their numbers diminished in both Houses of Parliament</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_416">416–418</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The church rallied for a moment under Anne</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_418">418–420</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">But was weakened by the dissenters, headed by Wesley and Whitefield</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_420">420–424</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Theology separated from morals and from politics</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_424">424–426</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Rapid succession of sceptical controversies</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_427">427–429</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Knowledge begins to be diffused, and takes a popular form</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_430">430–433</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Political meetings, and publication of parliamentary debates</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_433">433–434</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Doctrine of personal representation, and idea of independence</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_436">436</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Corresponding change in the style of authors</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_436">436–439</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Hence great reforms became inevitable</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_439">439–440</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">This tendency was aided by George I. and George II.</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_441">441–443</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">But discouraged by George III., under whom began a dangerous political reaction</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_444">444–446</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Ignorance of George III.</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_446">446</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Subserviency of Pitt</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_446">446–449</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Incompetence of other statesmen, and the king's hatred of great men</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_449">449–451</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Deterioration of the House of Lords</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_451">451–455</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Ability and accomplishments of Burke</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_458">458–461</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">He opposed the views of George III., and was neglected by him</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_462">462–467</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Burke's subsequent hallucinations and violence</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_467">467–476</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">The king now favoured him</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_476">476–477</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Policy of George III. respecting America</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_478">478–482</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">This policy reacted upon England</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_482">482–483</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Policy in regard to France</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_483">483–486</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">This also reacted upon England</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_486">486</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">And produced arbitrary laws against the liberties of England</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_487">487–493</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Which were zealously enforced by the executive</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_494">494–496</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">Gloomy political prospects of England late in the eighteenth century</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_476">496–498</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">But, owing to the progress of knowledge, a counter reaction was preparing</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_498">498–502</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="chaptitle">To which, and to the increasing power of public opinion, England owes her great reforms of +the nineteenth century</td> + <td class="page" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_502">502–505</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<hr class="hr95" /> + +<h2>LIST OF AUTHORS QUOTED.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot">[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 <i>et infra</i>. 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.]</div> + +<p class="one">[Aarsens de Sommerdyck] Voyage d'Espagne, fait en l'année 1655. +Paris, 1665. 4to. Barbier (<i>Dictionnaire des Ouvrages Anonymes</i>, +vol. ii. p. 468, Paris, 1806) refers to an edition of 1666.</p> + +<p class="one">Abd-Allatif, Relation de l'Égypte, traduite par Silvestre de Sacy. +Paris, 1810. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Aberdeen: Extracts from the Council Register of the Burgh of +Aberdeen, from 1398 to 1570, printed for the Spalding Club. +Aberdeen, 1844. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Ibid., from 1570 to 1625, printed for the Spalding Club. Aberdeen, +1848. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Abernethy (J.) The Hunterian Oration for the year 1819. London, +1819.</p> + +<p class="one">Abernethy (M. I.) Physicke for the Soule. London, 1622. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland from 1124 to 1707. London, +1814–1844. 11 vols. folio.</p> + +<p class="one">Acts and Proceedings of the General Assemblies of the Kirk of +Scotland, from 1560 to 1618. Edinburgh, 1839–1845. 3 vols. +4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Acts of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, from 1638 +to 1842. Edinburgh, 1843.</p> + +<p class="one">Adams (J.) Memoirs of the Life and Doctrines of John Hunter. +2nd edit. London, 1818.</p> + +<p class="one">Adolphus (J.) History of England from the accession of George III. +London, 1840–1845. 7 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Aguesseau (Chancelier d') Lettres inédites. Paris, 1823. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Aikin (L.) Life of Addison. London, 1843. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Albemarle (Earl of) Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham. Lond. +1852. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Alberoni (Cardinal) The History of. London, 1719.</p> + +<p class="one">Alison (Sir A.) History of Europe, from the commencement of the +French Revolution to 1815. Edinburgh, 1849, 1850. 14 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Allen (J.) Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative in England. +London, 1849.</p> + +<p class="one">Anderson (J.) Prize Essay on the State of Society and Knowledge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span> +in the Highlands of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1827.</p> + +<p class="one">Antequera (D. J. M.) Historia de la Legislacion Española. Madrid, +1849.</p> + +<p class="one">Argyll (The Duke of) Presbytery Examined. London, 1848.</p> + +<p class="one">Arnold (Dr.) Lectures on Modern History. London, 1843.</p> + +<p class="one">Arnot (H.) The History of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, 1788. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Asiatic Researches. London and Calcutta, 1799–1836. 20 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Aubrey (J.) Letters and Lives of Eminent Men. London, 1813. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Audigier (M.) L'Origine des François. Paris, 1676. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Azara (F.) Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale. Paris, 1809. +4 vols.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Bacallar (V.) Commentarios de la Guerra de España, e Historia de +su Rey Phelipe V. Genova. 2 vols. 4to (no date).</p> + +<p class="one">Bacon (J. F.) Six Years in Biscay. London, 1838.</p> + +<p class="one">Baillie (R.) Letters and Journals from 1637 to 1662, edited by D. +Laing. Edinburgh, 1841–1842. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Bain (A.) The Senses and the Intellect. London, 1855.</p> + +<p class="one">Bakewell (R.) Introduction to Geology. London, 1838.</p> + +<p class="one">Balfour (Sir J.) Historical Works, containing the Annals of Scotland. +London, 1825. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Balfour (J. H.) A Manual of Botany. London, 1849.</p> + +<p class="one">Bancroft (G.) History of the American Revolution. London, 1852–1854. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Bannatyne (J.) Journal of Transactions in Scotland, from 1570 to +1573. Edinburgh, 1806.</p> + +<p class="one">Barante (M.) Tableau de la Littérature Française au XVIII<sup>e</sup> Siècle. +Paris, 1847.</p> + +<p class="one">Barrington (D.) Observations on the Statutes. 5th edit. London, +1796. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Barruel (L'Abbé) Mémoires pour l'Histoire du Jacobinisme. Hambourg, +1803. 5 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Barry (G.) History of the Orkney Islands. Edinburgh, 1805. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Bassompierre (Maréchal de) Mémoires. Paris, 1822, 1823. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Bates (G.) Account of the late Troubles in England. London, 1685. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Baxter (R.) Life and Times, by himself. Published by M. Sylvester. +London, 1696. Folio. 3 parts.</p> + +<p class="one">Bazin (M. A.) Histoire de France sous Louis XIII. Paris, 1838. +4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Beausobre (M.) Histoire Critique de Manichée et du Manichéisme. +Amsterdam, 1734–9. 2 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Béclard (P. A.) Éléments d'Anatomie Générale. Paris, 1852.</p> + +<p class="one">Bedford Correspondence, edited by Lord J. Russell. 1842–1846. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Beechey (F. W.) Voyage to the Pacific. London, 1831. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Belsham (W.) History of Great Britain, from 1688 to 1802. London,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span> +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.]</p> + +<p class="one">[Benoist] Histoire de l'Édit de Nantes. Delft, 1693–1695. +5 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne) Works. London, 1843. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Berwick (Maréchal de) Mémoires écrits par lui-même. Paris, 1778. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Bichat (X.) Traité des Membranes. Paris, 1802.</p> + +<p class="one">Bichat (X.) Anatomie Générale. Paris, 1821. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Bichat (X.) Recherches sur la Vie et la Mort, édit. Magendie. +Paris, 1829.</p> + +<p class="one">Binning (H.) Sermons, edited by J. Cochrane. Edinburgh, 1839, +1840. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Biographie Universelle. Paris, 1811–1828. 52 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Birch (T.) Life of Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury. London, +1753.</p> + +<p class="one">Bisset (R.) Life of Edmund Burke. 2nd edit. London, 1800. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Black (J.) Lectures on Chemistry, edited by John Robison. Edinburgh, +1803. 2 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. London, 1809. +4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Blainville (D.) Physiologie Générale et Comparée. Paris, 1833. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Blair (R.) Autobiography, from 1593 to 1636; with a continuation +to 1680, by W. Row, edited by T. M'Crie for the Wodrow Society. +Edinburgh, 1848.</p> + +<p class="one">Blanqui (M.) Histoire de l'Économie Politique en Europe. Paris, +1845. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Bogue (D.) and Bennett (J.) History of the Dissenters, from 1688 to +1808. London, 1808–1812. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Bohlen (P.) Das alte Indien, mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Aegypten. +Königsberg, 1830. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">[Boisel] Journal du Voyage d'Espagne. Paris, 1669. 4to. See +Barbier, <i>Dict. des Ouvr. Anonymes</i>, vol. ii. p. 621, Paris. 1806.</p> + +<p class="one">Bordas-Demoulin, Le Cartésianisme. Paris, 1843. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Bossuet (Évêque de Meaux) Discours sur l'Histoire Universelle. +Paris, 1844.</p> + +<p class="one">Boston (T.) Sermons. Glasgow, 1752.</p> + +<p class="one">Boston (T.) Human Nature in its Four-fold State. Reprinted, London, +1809.</p> + +<p class="one">Bouillaud (J.) Philosophie Médicale. Paris, 1836.</p> + +<p class="one">Bouillé (M. de) Mémoires sur la Révolution Française. Paris, +1801–9. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Bouillier (M.) Histoire des divers Corps de la Maison Militaire des +Rois de France. Paris, 1818.</p> + +<p class="one">Boulainvilliers (Comte) Histoire de l'Ancien Gouvernement de la +France. La Haye, 1727. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Bourgoing (J. F.) Tableau de l'Espagne Moderne, quatrième édition.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span> +Paris, 1807. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Bouterwek (F.) History of Spanish and Portuguese Literature. +London, 1823. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Bowdich (T. E.) Mission to Ashantee. London, 1819. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Bower (A.) History of the University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, +1817–1830. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Bowles (G.) Introduccion á la Historia Natural y á la Geografía +Física de España. Tercera edicion. Madrid, 1789. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Bowles (W. L.) Life of Bishop Ken. London, 1830, 1831. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Boyle (R.) Works. London, 1744. 5 vols. folio.</p> + +<p class="one">Brand (A.) Description of Orkney, Zetland, Pightland-Firth, and +Caithness. Edinburgh, 1701.</p> + +<p class="one">Brande (W. T.) A Manual of Chemistry. London, 1848. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Brewster (Sir D.) Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton. Edinburgh, 1855. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Brienne (L. H. de Loménie) Mémoires inédits. Paris, 1828. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Brissot (J. P.) Mémoires. Paris, 1830. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">British Association for Advancement of Science, Reports of. London, +1833–1853. 21 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Brodie (Sir B.) Lectures on Pathology and Surgery. London, 1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Brodie (Sir B.) Physiological Researches. London, 1851.</p> + +<p class="one">Brougham (Lord) Sketches of Statesmen in the time of George III. +London, 1845. 6 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Brougham (Lord) Lives of Men of Letters and Science in the time +of George III. London, 1845–1847. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Brougham (Lord) Political Philosophy. 2nd edit. London, 1849. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Broussais (F. J. V.) Examen des Doctrines Médicales. Paris, 1829–1834. +4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Broussais (F. J. V.) Cours de Phrénologie. Paris, 1836.</p> + +<p class="one">Brown (A.) History of Glasgow. Glasgow, 1795, and Edinburgh, +1797. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Brown (T.) Lectures on the Philosophy of the Mind. Edinburgh, +1838.</p> + +<p class="one">Browne (J.) History of the Highlands and of the Highland Clans. +Glasgow, 1838. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Browne (Sir Thomas) Works and Correspondence, by S. Wilkin. +London, 1836. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Buchanan (F.) Journey through Mysore, Canara, and Malabar. +London, 1807. 3 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Buchanan (G.) Rerum Scoticarum Historia, cura Man. Abredoniæ, +1762.</p> + +<p class="one">Buchanan (J.) Sketches of the North-American Indians. London, +1824.</p> + +<p class="one">Buckingham (Duke of) Memoirs of George III. London, 1853. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Bullock (W.) Travels in Mexico. London, 1824.</p> + +<p class="one">Bulstrode (Sir R.) Memoirs of Charles I. and Charles II. London,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span> +1721.</p> + +<p class="one">Bunbury (Sir H.) Correspondence of Sir Thomas Hanmer. London, +1838.</p> + +<p class="one">Bunsen (C. C. J.) Egypt's Place in Universal History. London, +1848–1854. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Burckhardt (J. L.) Travels in Arabia. London, 1829. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Burdach (C. F.) Traité de Physiologie considérée comme Science +d'Observation. Paris, 1837–1841. 9 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Burke (E.) Correspondence with Laurence. London, 1827.</p> + +<p class="one">Burke (E.) Works, by H. Rogers. London, 1841. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Burke (E.) Correspondence between 1744 and 1797. London, 1844. +4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Burnes (Sir A.) Travels into Bokhara. London, 1834. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Burnet (Bishop Gr.) History of his own Time. Oxford, 1823. +6 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Burnet (Bishop G.) Lives and Characters, edit. Jebb. London, 1833.</p> + +<p class="one">Burnet (Bishop G.) Memoirs of the Lives of James and William, +Dukes of Hamilton and Castle-Herald. Oxford, 1852.</p> + +<p class="one">Burton (J. H.) Life and Correspondence of David Hume. Edinburgh, +1846, 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Burton (J. H.) Lives of Simon Lord Lovat, and Duncan Forbes of +Culloden. London, 1847.</p> + +<p class="one">Burton (J. H.) Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland. London, +1852. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Burton (J. H.) History of Scotland, from 1689 to 1748. London, +1853. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Burton (R. F.) Sindh, and the Races in the Valley of the Indus. +London, 1851.</p> + +<p class="one">Burton (T.) Diary, from 1655 to 1659. London, 1828. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Butler (C.) Memoirs of the English, Irish, and Scottish Catholics. +London, 1822. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Butler (C.) Reminiscences. London, 1824–1827. 2 vols.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Cabanis (P. J. G.) Rapports du Physique et du Moral de l'Homme. +Paris, 1843.</p> + +<p class="one">Cabarrus (D. F.) Elogio de Carlos III. Madrid, 1789. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Cabarrus (Conde de) Cartas sobre los Obstaculos que la Naturaleza, +la Opinion, y las Leyes oponen á la Felicidad Publica. Madrid, +1813.</p> + +<p class="one">Calamy (E.) Account of my own Life, 1631–1731. London, 1829. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Calderwood (D.) History of the Kirk of Scotland, edited by T. +Thomson for the Wodrow Society. Edinburgh, 1842–1849. +8 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Campan (Madame) Mémoires sur Marie-Antoinette. Paris, 1826. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Campbell (Lord) Lives of the Lord Chancellors of England. 3rd +edit. London, 1848–1850. 7 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Campbell (Lord) Lives of the Chief Justices of England. London,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</a></span> +1849. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Campion (H. de) Mémoires. Paris, 1807.</p> + +<p class="one">[Campomanes] Discurso sobre la Educacion Popular de los Artesanos. +Madrid, 1775.</p> + +<p class="one">[Campomanes] Apéndice á la Educacion Popular. Madrid, 1775–1777. +4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Capefigue (M.) Histoire de la Réforme, de la Ligue et du Règne +de Henri IV. Bruxelles, 1834, 1835. 8 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Capefigue (M.) Richelieu, Mazarin et la Fronde. Paris, 1844. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Capefigue (M.) Louis XIV. Paris, 1844. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Capmany (A de) Qüestiones Criticas sobre varios Puntos de Historia +economica, &c. Madrid, 1807.</p> + +<p class="one">Cappe (C.) Memoirs, written by herself. London, 1822.</p> + +<p class="one">Carlyle (Rev. Dr. Alexander) Autobiography. 2nd edit. Edinburgh, +1860.</p> + +<p class="one">Carlyle (T.) Letters and Speeches of Cromwell. 2nd edit. London, +1846. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Carpenter (W. B.) Principles of Human Physiology. 3rd edit. +London, 1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Cartwright (Major) Life and Correspondence. London, 1826. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Carus (C. G.) Comparative Anatomy of Animals. London, 1827. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Carwithen (J. B. S.) History of the Church of England. Oxford, +1849. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Cassagnac (M. A. G. de) Causes de la Révolution Française. Paris, +1850. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Castro (A.) Examen Filosofico sobre las principales causas de la +Decadencia de España. Cadiz, 1852.</p> + +<p class="one">Catlin (G.) Letters on the North-American Indians. London, 1841. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Chalmers (G.) Caledonia. London, 1807–1824. 3 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Chalmers (P.) Historical and Statistical Account of Dunfermline. +Edinburgh, 1844.</p> + +<p class="one">Chambers (R.) Domestic Annals of Scotland, from the Reformation +to the Revolution. Edinburgh, 1858. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Charron (P.) De la Sagesse. Amsterdam, 1782. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Chatham (Earl of) Correspondence. London, 1838–1840. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Chillingworth (W.) The Religion of Protestants. London, 1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Chronicle of Perth (The) from 1210 to 1668. Edinburgh, 1831. +4to. Published by the Maitland Club.</p> + +<p class="one">Circourt (A. de) Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne. Paris, 1846. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Clapperton (H.) Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa. +London, 1829. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Clarendon (Earl of) State Papers. Oxford, 1767–1786. 3 vols. +folio.</p> + +<p class="one">Clarendon (Earl of) The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</a></span> +in England; also his Life, written by himself. Oxford, 1843.</p> + +<p class="one">Clarendon's Correspondence and Diary, by S. W. Singer. London, +1828. 2 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Clarke (C.) An Examination of the Internal State of Spain. London, +1818.</p> + +<p class="one">Clarke (E.) Letters concerning the Spanish Nation, written at +Madrid in 1760 and 1761. London, 1763. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Cloncurry (Lord) Recollections and Correspondence. Dublin, 1849.</p> + +<p class="one">Clot-Bey (A. B.) De la Peste observée en Égypte. Paris, 1840.</p> + +<p class="one">Cloud (A) of Witnesses for the Royal Prerogatives of Jesus Christ. +10th edit. Glasgow, 1779.</p> + +<p class="one">Cockburn (J.) Jacob's Vow, or Man's Felicity and Duty. Edinburgh, +1696.</p> + +<p class="one">Colebrooke (H. T.) A Digest of Hindu Law. Calcutta, 1801. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Coleman (C.) Mythology of the Hindus. London, 1832. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Coleridge (S. T.) Literary Remains. London, 1836–1839. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Coleridge (S. T.) The Friend. London, 1844. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Combe (G.) Notes on the United States of North America. Edinburgh, +1841. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Comines (P. de) Mémoires, édit. Petitot. 1826. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Comte (A.) Cours de Philosophie Positive. Paris, 1830–1842. +6 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Comte (C.) Traité de Législation. Paris, 1835. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Conde (J. A.) Historia de la Dominacion de los Arabes en España. +Paris, 1840.</p> + +<p class="one">Condillac (E. B.) Traité des Sensations. Paris, 1798.</p> + +<p class="one">Condorcet (Marquis de) Vie de Turgot. 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Cours de l'Histoire de la Philosophie moderne, II<sup>e</sup> série. +Paris, 1847. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Cowper (W.) Heaven Opened. London, 1631. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Coxe (W.) Memoirs of the Kings of Spain of the House of Bourbon. +2nd edit. London, 1815. 5 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Crantz (D.) History of Greenland. London, 1767. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Crawfurd (G.) The History of the Shire of Renfrew. Paisley<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</a></span> +1782. 3 parts, 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Crawfurd (J.) History of the Indian Archipelago. Edinburgh, 1820. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Crichton (A.) The Life and Diary of Lieut.-Col. J. Blackader. +Edinburgh, 1824.</p> + +<p class="one">Croker (R.) Travels through several Provinces of Spain and Portugal. +London, 1799.</p> + +<p class="one">Crookshank (W.) History of the Church of Scotland, from 1660 to +1688. Edinburgh, 1812. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Cudworth (R.) The True Intellectual System of the Universe. London, +1820. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Cullen (W.) Works. Edinburgh, 1827. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Currie (J.) Life and Correspondence, by his Son. London, 1831. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Custine (Marquis de) La Russie en 1839. Paris, 1843. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Cuvier (G.) Recueil des Éloges Historiques. Paris, 1819–1827. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Cuvier (G.) Le Règne Animal. Paris, 1829. 5 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Cuvier (G.) Histoire des Sciences Naturelles depuis leur Origine. +Paris, 1831.</p> + +<p class="one">Cuvier (G.) Histoire des Progrès des Sciences Naturelles depuis +1789. Bruxelles, 1837, 1838. 2 vols.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Dabistan (The) translated from the Persian, by D. Shea and A. Troyer. +Paris, 1843. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Dacier (M.) Rapport sur les Progrès de l'Histoire et de la Littérature +depuis 1789. Paris, 1810. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Dalrymple (Sir D.) Annals of Scotland, from 1057 to 1371. 3rd edit. +Edinburgh, 1819. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Dalrymple (J.) History of Feudal Property in Great Britain. +London, 1758.</p> + +<p class="one">Dalrymple (J.) Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland. London, +1790. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Dalrymple (W.) Travels through Spain and Portugal in 1774. London, +1777. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Daniel (G.) Histoire de la Milice Françoise. Paris, 1721. 2 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Daniell (J. F.) Meteorological Essays. London, 1827.</p> + +<p class="one">Darwin (C.) Journal of Researches in Geology and Natural History. +London, 1840.</p> + +<p class="one">[D'Aulnoy (Madame)] Relation du Voyage d'Espagne. Lyon, 1693. +2 vols. See Ticknor's <i>History of Spanish Literature</i>, vol. ii. pp. +320, 321.</p> + +<p class="one">Davies (C. M.) History of Holland. London, 1841–1844. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Davila (G. G.) Historia de la Vida y Hechos del Inclito Monarca +Amado y Santo D. Felipe Tercero. Reprinted, Madrid, 1771. Folio.</p> + +<p class="one">Davis (J. F.) The Chinese. London, 1844. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">De Foe (D.) The History of the Union between England and Scotland. +London, 1786. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">De Lisle (Romé) Essai de Cristallographie. Paris, 1772.</p> + +<p class="one">De Lisle (Romé) Cristallographie. Paris, 1783. 4 vols. 8vo.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[xix]</a></span></p> + +<p class="one">Denham (D.) Travels in Northern and Central Africa. London, +1826. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Denholm (J.) The History of the City of Glasgow and Suburbs. +3rd edition. Glasgow, 1804.</p> + +<p class="one">Descartes (R.) Œuvres, par V. Cousin. Paris, 1824–1826. 11 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Des Maizeaux (P.) Life of Chillingworth. London, 1725.</p> + +<p class="one">Des Réaux (Tallemant) Les Historiettes. 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Life of Dr. John Jebb, in vol. i. of Jebb's Works. +London, 1787.</p> + +<p class="one">Diurnal (A) of Remarkable Occurrents that have passed within the +Country of Scotland, since the Death of James IV. till the year +1575. Published by the Bannatyne Club. Edinburgh, 1833. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Dobell (P.) Travels in Kamtchatka and Siberia. London, 1830. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Doblado's Letters from Spain (by Rev. B. White). London, 1822.</p> + +<p class="one">Doddridge (P.) Correspondence and Diary. London, 1829–1831. +5 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Doubleday (T.) The True Law of Population. London, 1847.</p> + +<p class="one">Dowling (J. G.) Introduction to the Study of Ecclesiastical History. +London, 1838.</p> + +<p class="one">D'Oyly (G.) Life of Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury. London, +1840.</p> + +<p class="one">Duclos (M.) Mémoires secrets sur Louis XIV et Louis XV. Paris, +1791. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Du Deffand (Madame) Correspondance inédite. 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A Commentarie upon the Book of the Revelation. +Glasgow, 1680. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Dutens (L.) Mémoires d'un Voyageur qui se repose. Londres, 1806. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Duvernet (J.) Vie de Voltaire. Genève, 1786.</p> + +<p class="one">Duvernet (J.) Histoire de la Sorbonne. Paris, 1791. 2 vols.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Eccleston (J.) Introduction to English Antiquities. London, 1847.</p> + +<p class="one">Edwards (M.) Zoologie. Paris, 1841, 1842. 2 parts.</p> + +<p class="one">Elliotson (J.) Human Physiology. London, 1840.</p> + +<p class="one">Ellis Correspondence (The) 1686–1688, edited by G. A. Ellis. +London, 1829. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Ellis (Sir H.) Original Letters of Literary Men. Camden Soc. +1843. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Ellis (W.) A Tour through Hawaii. London, 1827.</p> + +<p class="one">Ellis (W.) Polynesian Researches. London, 1831. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Ellis (W.) History of Madagascar. 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Aberdeen, 1843. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Extracts from the Registers of the Presbytery of Glasgow, and of +the Kirk Sessions of the Parishes of Cambusnethan, Humbie, +and Stirling. 4to (no date).</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Fairfax Correspondence (The) edited by G. W. Johnson and +R. Bell. London, 1848, 1849. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Fanshawe (Lady) Memoirs, written by herself. London, 1830.</p> + +<p class="one">Faraday (M.) Discourse on the Conservation of Force. London, +1857.</p> + +<p class="one">Fauriel (M.) Histoire de la Gaule Méridionale sous la Domination +des conquérants Germains. Paris, 1836. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Felice (G.) History of the Protestants of France. London, 1853.</p> + +<p class="one">Fergusson (J.) A Brief Exposition of the Epistles of Paul. London, +reprinted from the original editions, 1656–1674.</p> + +<p class="one">Feuchtersleben (E.) The Principles of Medical Psychology.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[xxi]</a></span> +Sydenham Soc. 1847.</p> + +<p class="one">Flassan (M.) Histoire de la Diplomatie Française. Paris, 1811. +7 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">[Fleming (R.)] The Fulfilling of the Scripture, 1681. See Fleming's +<i>Rise and Fall of Rome</i>, edit. London, 1848, p. xi.</p> + +<p class="one">Fletcher (A. of Saltoun) Political Works. Glasgow, 1749.</p> + +<p class="one">Fleury (M.) Histoire Ecclésiastique. Paris, 1758–1761. 36 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Florez (F. H.) Memorias de las Reynas Catholicas. Madrid, 1761. +2 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Flourens (P.) Histoire des Travaux de Cuvier. Paris, 1845.</p> + +<p class="one">Fontenay-Mareuil (Marquis de) Mémoires. Paris, 1826. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Fontenelle (B. de) Éloges, in vols. v. and vi. of Œuvres. Paris, +1766.</p> + +<p class="one">Foot (J.) The Life of John Hunter. London, 1794.</p> + +<p class="one">Forbes (J.) Oriental Memoirs. London, 1834. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Forbes (J.) Certaine Records touching the Estate of the Kirk, in +1605 and 1606. Published by the Wodrow Society. Edinburgh, +1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Ford (R.) Hand-Book for Spain. 2nd edit. London, 1847.</p> + +<p class="one">Fordun (J.) Scotichronicon, cum Supplementis et Continuatione +W. Boweri, cura W. Goodall. Edinburgi, 1775. 2 vols. folio.</p> + +<p class="one">Forner (J. P.) Oracion Apologética por la España y su Mérito +Literario. Madrid, 1786.</p> + +<p class="one">Forry (S.) Climate of the United States, and its Endemic Influences. +New York, 1842.</p> + +<p class="one">Forster (J.) Life and Times of Goldsmith. 2nd edit. London, +1854. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Fountainhall (Lord) Notes of Scottish Affairs, from 1680 till 1701. +Edinburgh, 1822. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Fox (C. J.) History of the Early Part of the Reign of James II. +London, 1808. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Franck (R.) Northern Memoirs, writ in the year 1658. A new +edition. Edinburgh, 1821.</p> + +<p class="one">Franklin (B.) Private Correspondence. London, 1817. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Franklin (B.) Life, by himself. London, 1818. 2 vols.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Galfridus Monumetensis, Historia Britonum, edit. Giles. London, +1844.</p> + +<p class="one">Gardner (G.) Travels in the Interior of Brazil. London, 1849.</p> + +<p class="one">Geddes (M.) Miscellaneous Tracts. 3rd edit. London, 1730. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Genlis (Madame de) Mémoires sur le XVIII<sup>e</sup> Siècle. Paris, 1825. +10 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Gent (T.) Life, by himself. London, 1832.</p> + +<p class="one">Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (I.) Histoire des Anomalies de l'Organisation +chez l'Homme et les Animaux. Bruxelles, 1837. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Georgel (L'Abbé) Mémoires. Paris, 1817, 1818. 6 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Georget (M.) De la Folie. Paris, 1820.</p> + +<p class="one">Gibson (J.) History of Glasgow. Glasgow, 1777.</p> + +<p class="one">Gillespie (G.) Aaron's Rod Blossoming, or the Divine Ordinance of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[xxii]</a></span> +Church Government Vindicated. London, 1646. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Giraud (C.) Précis de l'Ancien Droit coutumier français. Paris, +1852.</p> + +<p class="one">Godoy (Prince of the Peace) Memoirs, written by himself. London, +1836. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Godwin (W.) Of Population; or the Power of Increase in Mankind. +London, 1820.</p> + +<p class="one">Gordon (P.) A Short Abridgement of Britane's Distemper, from +1639 to 1649. Printed for the Spalding Club. Aberdeen, 1844. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Göthe (J. W.) Wahrheit und Dichtung, in vol. ii. of Werke. +Stuttgart, 1837.</p> + +<p class="one">Government (The) and Order of the Church of Scotland. 1641. +Reprinted, Edinburgh, 1690.</p> + +<p class="one">Gramont (Le Maréchal de) Mémoires, édit. Petitot et Monmerqué. +Paris, 1826, 1827. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Grant (R.) History of Physical Astronomy. London, 1852.</p> + +<p class="one">Grant (R. E.) Comparative Anatomy. London, 1841.</p> + +<p class="one">Gray (A.) Great and Precious Promises. Glasgow, 1740.</p> + +<p class="one">Gray (A.) The Spiritual Warfare, or Sermons concerning the Nature +of Mortification. Glasgow, 1840.</p> + +<p class="one">Green (J. H.) Vital Dynamics. London, 1840.</p> + +<p class="one">Grégoire (M.) Histoire des Confesseurs. Paris, 1824.</p> + +<p class="one">Gregory (D.) History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland, +from 1493 to 1625. Edinburgh, 1836.</p> + +<p class="one">Grenville Papers (The) edited by W. J. Smith. London, 1852, 1853. +4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Grierson (Dr.) History of St. Andrews. Cupar, 1838.</p> + +<p class="one">Grieve (J.) The History of Kamtschatka, translated from the Russian. +Gloucester, 1764. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Grimm et Diderot, Correspondance Littéraire. Paris, 1813, 1814. +17 vols. [This important work consists of three parts, besides +a supplement; but in quoting it I have always followed the +ordinary lettering, making the supplement vol. xvii.]</p> + +<p class="one">Grose (F.) Military Antiquities; a History of the English Army. +London, 1812. 2 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Grosley (M.) A Tour to London. London, 1772. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Grote (G.) History of Greece. London, 1846–1856. 12 vols. +1st edit. of vols. i. ii. iii. iv. ix. x. xi. xii.; 2nd edit. of vols. v. vi. +vii. viii.</p> + +<p class="one">Grove (W. R.) The Correlation of Physical Forces. 3rd edit. +London, 1855.</p> + +<p class="one">Guizot (M.) Histoire de la Civilisation en France. Paris, 1846. +4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Guizot (M.) Histoire de la Civilisation en Europe. Paris, 1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Guizot (M.) Essais sur l'Histoire de France. Paris, 1847.</p> + +<p class="one">Guthrie (J.) Considerations contributing unto the Discovery of the +Dangers that threaten Religion in the Church of Scotland. Reprint, +Edinburgh, 1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Guthry (H. Bishop of Dunkeld) Memoirs. London, 1702.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[xxiii]</a></span></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Halhed (N. B.) Code of Gentoo Laws. London, 1777.</p> + +<p class="one">Halkett (J.) Notes respecting the Indians of North America. +London, 1825.</p> + +<p class="one">Hallam (H.) Constitutional History of England. London, 1842. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Hallam (H.) Introduction to the Literature of Europe. London, +1843. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Hallam (H.) Europe during the Middle Ages. London, 1846. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Hallam (H.) Supplemental Notes to Europe during the Middle +Ages. London, 1848.</p> + +<p class="one">Halyburton (T.) The Great Concern of Salvation. Edinburgh, +1722.</p> + +<p class="one">Hamilton (W.) Ægyptiaca. London, 1809. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Hamilton (Sir W.) Notes and Dissertations to Reid. Edinburgh, +1852.</p> + +<p class="one">Hamilton (Sir W.) Discussions on Philosophy and Literature. +London, 1852.</p> + +<p class="one">Hare's Guesses at Truth. First and second series. London, 1847, +1848. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Harford (J. S.) Life of T. Burgess, Bishop of Salisbury. London, +1841.</p> + +<p class="one">Harris (G.) Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. London, 1847. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Harris (W.) Lives of James I., Charles I., Cromwell, and Charles +II. London, 1814. 5 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Hasse (C. E.) An Anatomical Description of the Diseases of the +Organs of Circulation and Respiration. Sydenham Society. +London, 1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Hausset (Madame du) Mémoires. Paris, 1824.</p> + +<p class="one">Haüy (R. J.) Traité de Minéralogie. Paris, 1801. 5 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Hawkins (B.) Elements of Medical Statistics. London, 1829.</p> + +<p class="one">Heber (Bishop) Life of Jeremy Taylor, in vol. i. of Taylor's Works. +London, 1828.</p> + +<p class="one">Heber (Bishop) Journey through the Upper and Southern Provinces +of India. London, 1828. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Heeren (A. H. L.) Politics, Intercourse, and Trade of the African +Nations. Oxford, 1838. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Heeren (A. H. L.) Politics, Intercourse, and Trade of the Asiatic +Nations. London, 1846. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Helvétius (C. A.) De l'Esprit. Amsterdam, 1759. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Henderson (J.) History of Brazil. London, 1821. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Henle (J.) Traité d'Anatomie Générale. Paris, 1843. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Henslow (J. S.) Descriptive and Physiological Botany. London, +1837.</p> + +<p class="one">Herder (J. G.) Ideen zur Geschichte der Menschheit. Stuttgart, +1827, 1828. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Herodoti Musæ, edit. Baehr. Lipsiæ, 1830–1835. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Heron (R.) Observations made in a Journey through the Western<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiv" id="Page_xxiv">[xxiv]</a></span> +Counties of Scotland, in 1792. 2nd edit. Perth, 1799. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Herschel (Sir J.) Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy. +London, 1831.</p> + +<p class="one">Hewson (W.) Works, edited by G. Gulliver for the Sydenham Society. +London, 1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Historie (The) and Life of King James the Sext, from 1566 to 1596. +Published by the Bannatyne Club. Edinburgh, 1825. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Hitchcock (E.) The Religion of Geology. London, 1851.</p> + +<p class="one">Hodgson (J.) The Hunterian Oration, delivered at the Royal College +of Surgeons in 1855. London (no date).</p> + +<p class="one">Hodgson (R.) Life of Porteus, Bishop of London. London, 1811.</p> + +<p class="one">Holcroft (T.) Memoirs, by himself: continued by Hazlitt. London, +1816. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Holland (Sir H.) Medical Notes. London, 1839.</p> + +<p class="one">Holland (Lord) Memoirs of the Whig Party. London, 1852–1854. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Holles (Lord) Memoirs. London, 1699.</p> + +<p class="one">Hollinshead (R.) The Scottish Chronicle. Arbroath, 1805. 2 vols. +4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Home (J.) The History of the Rebellion in the year 1745. London, +1802. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Hooker (R.) Ecclesiastical Polity. London, 1830. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Hoskins (G. A.) Spain as it is. London, 1851. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Howell (J.) Letters. Eleventh edition. London, 1754.</p> + +<p class="one">Howie (J.) Biographia Scoticana. 2nd edit. Glasgow, 1781.</p> + +<p class="one">Huetius (P. D.) Commentarius de Rebus ad eum pertinentibus. +Amstel. 1718.</p> + +<p class="one">Humboldt (A.) Essai sur la Nouvelle Espagne. Paris, 1811. 2 vols. +4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Humboldt (A.) Cosmos. London, 1848–1852. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Hume (D.) Commentaries on the Law of Scotland respecting Crimes. +Edinburgh, 1797. 2 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Hume (D.) Philosophical Works. Edinburgh, 1826. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Hume (D.) Letters of Eminent Persons to. Edinburgh, 1849.</p> + +<p class="one">Hume (D. of Godscroft) The History of the House and Race of +Douglas and Angus. Edinburgh, 1743. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Hunt (F. K.) History of Newspapers. London, 1850. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Hunter (J.) Works, edited by J. F. Palmer. London, 1835–1837. +4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Hunter (J.) Essays and Observations on Natural History, &c. +edited by R. Owen. London, 1861. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Hutcheson (F.) An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty +and Virtue. 4th edit. London, 1738.</p> + +<p class="one">Hutcheson (F.) A System of Moral Philosophy; with the Life of +Hutcheson, by W. Leechman. London, 1755. 2 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Hutcheson (F.) An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions +and Affections. 3rd edit. Glasgow, 1769.</p> + +<p class="one">Hutcheson (G.) Exposition on the Twelve Small Prophets. London,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxv" id="Page_xxv">[xxv]</a></span> +1654, 1655. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Hutcheson (G.) An Exposition of the Book of Job, being the sum +of 316 Sermons preached in the City of Edenburgh. London, +1669. Folio.</p> + +<p class="one">Hutchinson (Colonel) Memoirs of, by his Widow. London, +1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Hutton (J.) Theory of the Earth. Edinburgh, 1795. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Hutton (W.) Life of, by himself. London, 1816.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Ibn Batuta, Travels in the Fourteenth Century, translated from +Arabic by S. Lee. London, 1829. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Inglis (H. D.) Spain in 1830. London, 1831. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Interest (The) of Scotland considered with regard to Police, Trade, +&c. Edinburgh, 1733.</p> + +<p class="one">Irving (J.) The History of Dumbartonshire. 2nd edit. Dumbarton, +1860. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Ixtlilxochitl, Histoire des Chichimèques ou des anciens Rois de +Tezcuco. Paris, 1840. 2 vols.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Jacobite Memoirs of the Rebellion of 1745, edited, from the Manuscripts +of the late Bishop Forbes, by R. Chambers. Edinburgh, +1834.</p> + +<p class="one">James II., The Life of, from Memoirs by his own hand, by J. S. +Clarke. London, 1816. 2 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Janer (F.) Condition Social de los Moriscos de España. Madrid, +1857.</p> + +<p class="one">Jefferson (T.) Memoirs and Correspondence, by Randolph. London, +1829. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Jehangueir (The Emperor) Memoirs, by himself, translated from +Persian by D. Price. London, 1829. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Jewel (J.) Apologia Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ. London, 1581.</p> + +<p class="one">Jobert (A. C. G.) Ideas or Outlines of a New System of Philosophy. +London, 1848, 1849. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Johnston (L. F. C.) Institutes of the Civil Law of Spain. London, +1825.</p> + +<p class="one">Johnstone (The Chevalier de) Memoirs of the Rebellion in 1745 and +1746. 3rd edit. London, 1822.</p> + +<p class="one">Joly (G.) Mémoires. Paris, 1825.</p> + +<p class="one">Jones (C. H.) and Sieveking (E. H.) Pathological Anatomy. London, +1854.</p> + +<p class="one">Jones (R.) Organization of the Animal Kingdom. London, 1855.</p> + +<p class="one">Jones (W.) Life of G. Horne, Bishop of Norwich. London, 1795.</p> + +<p class="one">Jones (Sir W.) Works. London, 1799. 6 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Journal Asiatique. Paris, 1822–1827. 11 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Journal of the Asiatic Society. London, 1834–1851. 14 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Journal of the Geographical Society. London, 1833 (2nd edit. of +vol. i.) to 1853. 23 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Jussieu's Botany, by J. H. Wilson. London, 1849. +Kaemtz (L. F.) Course of Meteorology. London, 1845.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Kant (J.) Werke. Leipzig, 1838, 1839. 10 vols.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxvi" id="Page_xxvi">[xxvi]</a></span></p> + +<p class="one">Kay (J.) Condition and Education of the People in England and +Europe. London, 1850. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Keith (R.) A Catalogue of the Bishops of Scotland. Edinburgh, +1755. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Keith (R.) History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland, +from the beginning of the Reformation to 1568. Published by +the Spottiswoode Society. Edinburgh, 1844–1850. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Kemble (J. M.) The Saxons in England. London, 1849. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Ken (Bishop of Bath and Wells) Life of, by a Layman. London, +1854. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Kennedy (W.) Annals of Aberdeen. London, 1818. 2 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">King (Lord) Life of J. Locke. London, 1830. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Kirkton (J.) The Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland, +from the Restoration to 1678, edited from the MSS. by +C. K. Sharpe. Edinburgh, 1817. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Klimrath (H.) Travaux sur l'Histoire du Droit Français. Paris, +1843. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Knox (J.) History of the Reformation in Scotland, edited by +D. Laing, for the Wodrow Society. Edinburgh, 1846–1848. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Koch (M.) Tableau des Révolutions de l'Europe. Paris, 1823. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Kohl (J. G.) Russia. London, 1842.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Labat (P.) Voyages en Espagne et en Italie. Paris, 1730. Vol. i. +containing his travels in Spain.</p> + +<p class="one">Laborde (A.) A View of Spain. London, 1809. 5 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lacretelle (C.) Histoire de France pendant le XVIII<sup>e</sup> Siècle. +Bruxelles, 1819. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lafayette (Général) Mémoires, Correspondance et Manuscrits. +Bruxelles, 1837–1839. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lafuente (M.) Historia General de España. Madrid, 1850–1857. +19 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Laing (M.) The History of Scotland, from 1603 to 1707. 3rd edit. +London, 1819. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Laing (S.) Sweden in 1838. London, 1839.</p> + +<p class="one">Laing (S.) Notes on the Social and Political State of Europe. London, +1842.</p> + +<p class="one">Laing (S.) Second Series of Notes on Europe. London, 1850.</p> + +<p class="one">Laing (S.) Denmark, being the Third Series of Notes. London, +1852.</p> + +<p class="one">Laird (M.) Memoirs of the Life and Experiences, with a Preface by +the Rev. Mr. Cock. 2nd edit. Glasgow, 1781.</p> + +<p class="one">Lamartine (A. de) Histoire des Girondins. Bruxelles, 1847. +8 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lamont (J. of Newton) Diary, from 1649 to 1671. Edinburgh, +1830. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Lankester (E.) Memorials of John Ray. Ray Society, 1846.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxvii" id="Page_xxvii">[xxvii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="one">Larenaudière (M. de) Mexique et Guatemala. Paris, 1843.</p> + +<p class="one">Lathbury (T.) History of the Convocation of the Church of England. +London, 1842.</p> + +<p class="one">Lathbury (T.) History of the Nonjurors. London, 1845.</p> + +<p class="one">Lavallée (T.) Histoire des Français. Paris, 1847. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lawrence (W.) Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, and the Natural +History of Man. London, 1844.</p> + +<p class="one">Lawson (J. P.) The Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. Edinburgh, +1836.</p> + +<p class="one">Lawson (J. P.) The Book of Perth. Edinburgh, 1847.</p> + +<p class="one">Le Blanc (L'Abbé) Letters d'un François. Lyon, 1758. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Ledwich (E.) Antiquities of Ireland. Dublin, 1804. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Le Long (J.) Bibliothèque Historique de la France. Paris, 1768–1778. +5 vols. folio.</p> + +<p class="one">Lémontey (P. E.) L'Établissement Monarchique de Louis XIV. +Paris, 1818.</p> + +<p class="one">Lenet (P.) Mémoires. Paris, 1826. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lepan (M.) Vie de Voltaire. Paris, 1837.</p> + +<p class="one">Lepelletier (A.) Physiologie Médicale. Paris, 1831–1833. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lerminier (E.) Philosophie du Droit. Paris, 1831. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lesley (J.) The History of Scotland, from 1436 to 1561. Published +by the Bannatyne Club. Edinburgh, 1830. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Leslie (J.) An Experimental Inquiry into the Nature and Propagation +of Heat. London, 1804.</p> + +<p class="one">Leslie (Sir J.) Treatises on Natural and Chemical Philosophy. +Edinburgh, 1838.</p> + +<p class="one">Letters from Spain, &c. by an English Officer. London, 1788. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland. London, 1815. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Letters of Queen Elizabeth and James VI. of Scotland, edited by +J. Bruce, for the Camden Society. London, 1849. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Lettice (I.) Letters on a Tour through Various Parts of Scotland in +1792. Edinburgh, 1794.</p> + +<p class="one">Le Vassor (M.) Histoire du Règne de Louis XIII. Amst. 1701–1711. +10 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lewes (G. H.) The Spanish Drama. London, 1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Liebig (J.) Animal Chemistry. London, 1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Liebig (J.) Letters on Chemistry in its relation to Physiology. London, +1851.</p> + +<p class="one">Liebig and Kopp's Reports of the Progress of Chemistry and the +allied Sciences. London, 1849–1853. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lindley (J.) The Vegetable Kingdom. London 1847.</p> + +<p class="one">Lindley (J.) An Introduction to Botany. London, 1848. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lindsay (R. of Pitscottie) The Chronicles of Scotland. Edinburgh, +1814. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lingard (J.) History of England. Paris, 1840. 8 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lister (M.) An Account of Paris at the close of the Seventeenth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxviii" id="Page_xxviii">[xxviii]</a></span> +Century. Shaftesbury (no date).</p> + +<p class="one">Lister (T. H.) Life and Correspondence of the first Earl of Clarendon. +London, 1837, 1838. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Llorente (D. J. A.) Histoire Critique de l'Inquisition d'Espagne. +Paris, 1817, 1818. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Locke (J.) Works. London, 1794. 9 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lockhart Papers (The). London, 1817. 2 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Longchamp et Wagnière, Mémoires sur Voltaire. Paris, 1826. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">London (J. C.) An Encyclopædia of Agriculture. London, 1844.</p> + +<p class="one">Louville (Marquis de) Mémoires. Paris, 1818. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Low (H.) Sarawak; its Inhabitants and Productions. London, +1835.</p> + +<p class="one">Ludlow (E.) Memoirs. Edinburgh, 1751. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Lyell (Sir C.) Principles of Geology. 9th edit. London, 1853.</p> + +<p class="one">Lyon (C. J.) History of St. Andrews. Edinburgh, 1843. 2 vols.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Mably (L'Abbé) Observations sur l'Histoire de France. Paris, +1823. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Macaulay (T. B.) History of England. London, 1849–1855. 1st +edit. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Mackay (R. W.) The Progress of the Intellect in the Religious Development +of the Greeks and Hebrews. London, 1850. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Mackenzie (Sir G.) The Laws and Customs of Scotland in Matters +Criminal. Edinburgh, 1699. Folio.</p> + +<p class="one">Mackintosh (Sir J.) History of the Revolution in England in 1688. +London, 1834. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Mackintosh (Sir J.) Memoirs, by his Son. London, 1835. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Mackintosh (Sir J.) Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy. +Edinburgh, 1837.</p> + +<p class="one">[Macky (J.)] A Journey through Scotland. 2nd edit. London, 1732. +See Watt's <i>Bibliotheca Britannica</i>, vol. ii. p. 631, m.</p> + +<p class="one">Macpherson (D.) Annals of Commerce. London, 1805. 4 vols. +4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Macpherson (J.) Original Papers, from the Restoration to the Accession +of the House of Hanover. London, 1775. 2 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">M'Crie (T.) The Life of Andrew Melville. Edinburgh, 1819. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">M'Crie (T.) History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation +in Spain in the Sixteenth Century. Edinburgh, 1829.</p> + +<p class="one">M'Crie (T.) The Life of John Knox, edited by A. Crichton. 2nd +edit. Edinburgh, 1841.</p> + +<p class="one">M'Culloch (J. R.) The Principles of Political Economy. Edinburgh, +1843.</p> + +<p class="one">M'Culloh (J. H.) Researches concerning the Aboriginal History of +America. Baltimore, 1829.</p> + +<p class="one">M'Ure (J.) The History of Glasgow. A new edition. Glasgow, +1830.</p> + +<p class="one">M'William (J. O.) Medical History of the Expedition to the Niger.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxix" id="Page_xxix">[xxix]</a></span> +London, 1843.</p> + +<p class="one">Mahon (Lord) Spain under Charles II., or Extracts from the Correspondence +of A. Stanhope, 1690–1699. London, 1840.</p> + +<p class="one">Mahon (Lord) History of England, from 1713 to 1783. London, +1853, 1854. 7 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Maintenon (Madame de) Lettres inédites de, et de la Princesse des +Ursins. Paris, 1826. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Malcolm (Sir J.) History of Persia. London, 1829. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Mallet's Northern Antiquities, edit. Blackwell. London, 1847.</p> + +<p class="one">Mallet du Pan, Memoirs and Correspondence. London, 1852. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Mallet (Messrs. R. and J. W.) The Earthquake Catalogue of the +British Association. From the Transactions of the British Association +for the Advancement of Science. London, 1858.</p> + +<p class="one">Malthus (T. R.) An Essay on the Principles of Population. London, +1826. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Manning (W. O.) Commentaries on the Law of Nations. London, +1839.</p> + +<p class="one">Marchant (J.) The History of the Present Rebellion. London, 1746.</p> + +<p class="one">Marchmont Papers, from 1685 to 1750. London, 1831. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Mariana (P. J.) Historia General de España, y la Continuacion por +Miniana. Madrid, 1794, 1795. 10 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Mariner (W.) An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands. +London, 1818. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Marmontel (J. F.) Mémoires. Paris, 1805. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Marsden (W.) History of Sumatra. London, 1783. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Martinez de la Mata, Dos Discursos, los publica J. A. Canga. +Madrid, 1794. This author wrote in the middle of the seventeenth +century, and supplies some extremely curious information +respecting the economical state of Spain.</p> + +<p class="one">Matter (M.) Histoire du Gnosticisme. Paris, 1828. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Matter (M.) Histoire de l'École d'Alexandrie. Paris, 1840–1844. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Matthæi Paris Historia Major, edit. Wats. London, 1684. Folio.</p> + +<p class="one">Matthæi Westmonasteriensis Flores Historiarum. London, 1570. +2 vols. folio.</p> + +<p class="one">Maury (L. F. A.) Légendes Pieuses du Moyen Age. Paris, 1843.</p> + +<p class="one">May (T.) History of the Long Parliament. London, 1647. 3 books, +folio.</p> + +<p class="one">Mayo (H.) Outlines of Human Physiology. London, 1837.</p> + +<p class="one">Meadley (G. W.) Memoirs of W. Paley. Edinburgh, 1810.</p> + +<p class="one">Meiners (E.) Betrachtungen über die Fruchtbarkeit &c. der Länder +in Asien. Lübeck, 1795, 1796. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Melvill (J.) Autobiography and Diary, edited by R. Pitcairn for the +Wodrow Society. Edinburgh, 1842.</p> + +<p class="one">Mendoza (D. H.) Guerra de Granada que hizo el Rei D. Felipe II. +contra los Moriscos. Valencia, 1776. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Mercer (A.) The History of Dunfermline. Dunfermline, 1828.</p> + +<p class="one">Mercier (M.) J. J. Rousseau considéré comme l'un des premiers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxx" id="Page_xxx">[xxx]</a></span> +Auteurs de la Révolution. Paris, 1791. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Meyen (F. J. F.) Outlines of the Geography of Plants. London, +1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Meyer (J. D.) Esprit, Origine et Progrès des Institutions Judiciaires. +Paris, 1823. 5 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Mezeray (F. E.) Histoire de France. Paris, 1643–1651. 3 vols. +folio.</p> + +<p class="one">Michelet (M.) Origines du Droit Français, in vol. ii. of Œuvres. +Bruxelles, 1840.</p> + +<p class="one">Mignet (M.) Négociations relatives à la Succession d'Espagne sous +Louis XIV. Paris, 1835–1842. 4 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Mill (J.) Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind. London, +1829. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Mill (J.) The History of British India, edited by H. H. Wilson. +London, 1848 (the first two vols. only).</p> + +<p class="one">Mill (J. S.) Principles of Political Economy. London, 1849. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Mills (C.) History of Chivalry. London, 1825. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Miscellany (The) of the Wodrow Society, edited by D. Laing. Edinburgh, +1844.</p> + +<p class="one">Moffat (R.) Southern Africa. 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The author was 'chaplain to a Scotch Regiment.' +See <i>Records of the Kirk Session, &c., of Aberdeen</i>, edit. +Spalding Club; Aberdeen, 1846, 4to, pp. lxi. lxv.</p> + +<p class="one">Mosheim (J. L.) Ecclesiastical History. London, 1839. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Motley (J. L.) History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic. London, +1858. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Motteville (Mme.) Mémoires, édit. Petitot. Paris, 1824. 5 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Moysie (D.) Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland, from 1577 to 1603. +Printed by the Bannatyne Club. Edinburgh, 1830. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Muirhead (J. P.) The Life of James Watt. 2nd edit. London, 1859.</p> + +<p class="one">Müller (J.) Elements of Physiology. London, 1840–1842. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Murchison (Sir R.) Siluria. London, 1854.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxi" id="Page_xxxi">[xxxi]</a></span></p> + +<p class="one">Mure (W.) History of the Language and Literature of Ancient +Greece. London, 1850–1853. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Muriel (A.) Gobierno del Señor Rey Don Carlos III. Madrid, +1839.</p> + +<p class="one">Murray (A.) Life of J. Bruce. Edinburgh, 1808. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Musset-Pathay (V. D.) Vie de J. J. Rousseau. Paris, 1822. +2 vols.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Naphtali, or the Wrestling of the Church of Scotland for the +Kingdom of Christ. Printed in the year 1667.</p> + +<p class="one">Napier (M.) The Life and Times of Montrose, illustrated from +original Manuscripts. Edinburgh, 1840.</p> + +<p class="one">Navarrete (M. F.) Vida de Cervantes, prefixed to Don Quijote. +Barcelona, 1839.</p> + +<p class="one">Navarrete (M. F.) Noticia Biográfica del Marques de la Ensenada, +in vol. ii. of Navarrete Opúsculos. Madrid, 1848.</p> + +<p class="one">Neal (D.) History of the Puritans, from 1517 to 1688. London, +1822. 5 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Neander (A.) History of the Christian Religion and Church. 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Dictionnaire des Livres condamnés au feu. Paris, +1806. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Pellew (G.) Life and Correspondence of Lord Sidmouth. London, +1847. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Pennant (T.) Tour in Scotland. 4th edit. Dublin, 1775. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Penny (G.) Traditions of Perth. Perth, 1836.</p> + +<p class="one">Pepys (S.) Diary, from 1659 to 1669. London, 1828. 5 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Percival (R.) Account of the Island of Ceylon. London, 1805. +4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Peterborough (C. M. Earl of) Memoir of, with Selections from his +Correspondence. London, 1853. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Petrie (G.) Ecclesiastical Architecture and Round Towers of Ireland. +Dublin, 1845.</p> + +<p class="one">Phillimore (R.) Memoirs of Lord Lyttelton, from 1734 to 1773. +London, 1845. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Phillips (B.) Scrofula, its Nature, Causes, and Prevalence. London, +1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Pinel (P.) Traité sur l'Aliénation Mentale. 2nd edit. 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History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxiii" id="Page_xxxiii">[xxxiii]</a></span> +Paris, 1842. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Prescott (W. H.) History of the Conquest of Mexico. London, +1850. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Prescott (W. H.) History of the Conquest of Peru. London, 1850. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Prescott (W. H.) History of the Reign of Philip II. London, +1857–1859. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Prichard (J. C.) A Treatise on Insanity. London, 1835.</p> + +<p class="one">Prichard (J. C.) Insanity in relation to Jurisprudence. London, +1842.</p> + +<p class="one">Prichard (J. C.) Researches into the Physical History of Mankind. +London, 1841–1847. 5 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Priestley (J.) Memoirs by himself, continued by his Son. London, +1806, 1807. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Prior (J.) Life of O. Goldsmith. London, 1837. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Prior (J.) Memoir of E. Burke. 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London, 1852. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Raumer (F. von) History of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxiv" id="Page_xxxiv">[xxxiv]</a></span> +illustrated by original Documents. London. 1835. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Ray (J.) Second Itinerary in 1661, in Memorials of Ray, edited by +E. Lankester for the Ray Society. London, 1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Ray (J.) Correspondence, edited by E. Lankester. Ray Society, 1848.</p> + +<p class="one">Reid (T.) Essays on the Powers of the Human Mind. Edinburgh, +1808. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Reid (T.) An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of +Common Sense. 7th edit. Edinburgh, 1814.</p> + +<p class="one">Relations des Ambassadeurs Vénitiens sur les Affaires de France +au XVI<sup>e</sup> Siècle. Paris, 1838. 2 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Renouard (P. V.) Histoire de la Médecine. Paris, 1846. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Reports on Botany by the Ray Society. 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A Mission to Central Africa. London, 1853. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Richardson (Sir J.) Arctic Searching Expedition. London, 1851. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Richelieu (Cardinal) Mémoires sur le Règne de Louis XIII. Paris, +1823. 10 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Ridpath (G.) The Border History of England and Scotland. Berwick, +1848. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Rig-Veda-Sanhita, translated from Sanscrit by H. H. Wilson. +London, 1850–1854. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Rio (A. F.) Historia del Reinado de Carlos III. en España. Madrid, +1856. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Ripperda (Duke de) Memoirs of. 2nd edit. London, 1740.</p> + +<p class="one">Ritchie (T. E.) Life of David Hume. London, 1807.</p> + +<p class="one">Ritter (H.) History of Ancient Philosophy. London, 1838–1846. +4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Rivarol (M.) Mémoires. Paris, 1824.</p> + +<p class="one">Robe (J.) Narratives of the Extraordinary Work of the Spirit of +God. 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London, 1833. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Row (J.) The History of the Kirk of Scotland, from 1558 to 1637, +with a Continuation to July 1639. Published by the Wodrow +Society. Edinburgh, 1842.</p> + +<p class="one">Russell (Lord J.) Memorials and Correspondence of C. J. Fox. +London, 1853, 1854. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Russell (M.) History of the Church in Scotland. London, 1834. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Rutherford (S.) Christ Dying. London, 1647. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Rutherford (S.) A Free Disputation against Pretended Liberty of +Conscience. London, 1649. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Rutherford (S.) Three Hundred and Fifty-Two Religious Letters, +between 1638 and 1649. Reprinted, Glasgow, 1824.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Sadler (M. T.) The Law of Population. London, 1830. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Sadler (Sir R.) State Papers and Letters, edited by R. Clifford, +with Notes by W. Scott. 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London, 1727.</p> + +<p class="one">Scotland, a Modern Account of, written from thence by an English +Gentleman, printed in the year 1670, in vol. vi. of the Harleian +Miscellany. 1810. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Scriptores post Bedam Rerum Anglicarum. London, 1596. Folio.</p> + +<p class="one">Ségur (Le Comte de) Mémoires ou Souvenirs. Paris, 1825–1827. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Select Biographies, edited for the Wodrow Society by the Rev. W.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxvi" id="Page_xxxvi">[xxxvi]</a></span> +K. Tweedie. Edinburgh, 1845–1847. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Selections from the Minutes of the Synod of Fife, from 1611 to +1687. Printed for the Abbotsford Club. Edinburgh, 1837. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Selections from the Minutes of the Presbyteries of St. Andrews and +Cupar, from 1641 to 1698. Printed for the Abbotsford Club. +Edinburgh, 1837. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Selections from the Registers of the Presbytery of Lanark, from +1623 to 1709. Printed for the Abbotsford Club. Edinburgh, +1839. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Selections from the Records of the Kirk Session, Presbytery, and +Synod of Aberdeen. Printed for the Spalding Club. Aberdeen, +1846. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Sempere (M.) Histoire des Cortès d'Espagne. Bordeaux, 1815.</p> + +<p class="one">Sempere (M.) Considérations sur les Causes de la Grandeur et de +la Décadence de la Monarchie Espagnole. Paris, 1826. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Sermons by Eminent Divines in the two last Centuries. Edinburgh, +1814.</p> + +<p class="one">Sevigné (Madame de) Lettres. Paris, 1843. 6 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Sewell (W.) Christian Politics. London, 1845.</p> + +<p class="one">Sharp (Archbishop of York) Life, edited by T. Newcome. London, +1825. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">[Sharp, Sir C.] Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569. London, +1840.</p> + +<p class="one">Sharpe (S.) History of Egypt. London, 1852. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">[Shields (A.)] A Hind let loose. Printed in the year 1687. See +Howie's <i>Biographia Scoticana</i>, p. 576.</p> + +<p class="one">Shields (A.) The Scots Inquisition. Edinburgh, 1745.</p> + +<p class="one">Shields (A.) An Enquiry into Church Communion. 2nd edit. +Edinburgh, 1747.</p> + +<p class="one">Short (Bishop of St. Asaph) History of the Church of England, to +1688. London, 1847.</p> + +<p class="one">Simon (Duc de) Mémoires publiés sur le Manuscrit original. Paris, +1842. 40 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Simon (J.) Lectures on General Pathology. London, 1850.</p> + +<p class="one">Simon (J. F.) Animal Chemistry. London, 1845, 1846. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Simpson (T.) Discoveries on the North Coast of America. London, +1843.</p> + +<p class="one">Sinclair (G.) Satan's Invisible World Discovered. Reprinted, Edinburgh, +1780.</p> + +<p class="one">Sinclair (Sir J.) Statistical Account of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1791–1799. +21 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Sinclair (Sir J.) History of the Public Revenue of the British Empire. +London, 1803, 1804. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Sinclair (Sir J.) The Correspondence of. London, 1831. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Sismondi (J. C. L.) Historical View of the Literature of the South +of Europe, with Notes by T. Roscoe. London, 1846. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Sismondi (J. C. L. S. de) Histoire des Français. Paris, 1821–1844. +31 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Skene (W. F.) The Highlanders of Scotland, their Origin, History,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxvii" id="Page_xxxvii">[xxxvii]</a></span> +and Antiquities. London, 1837. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Smedley (E.) History of the Reformed Religion in France. London, +1832–1834. 3 vols. 8vo.</p> + +<p class="one">Smith (A.) The Theory of Moral Sentiments. London, 1822. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Smith (A.) An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth +of Nations. Edinburgh, 1839.</p> + +<p class="one">Smith (Sir J. E.) 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A Rare Soul-strengthening and Comforting Cordial +for Old and Young Christians. Edited, in 1729, by the Rev. +William Cupples. Paisley, 1786.</p> + +<p class="one">Stewart (D.) Biographical Memoirs of Smith, Robertson, and Reid. +Edinburgh, 1811. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Stewart (D.) Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. +London, 1792–1827. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Story (J.) Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws. London, 1841.</p> + +<p class="one">Sully (Duc de) Mémoires des Sages et Royales Œconomies, édit. +Petitot. Paris, 1820, 1821. 9 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Swainson (W.) Discourse on the Study of Natural History. London, +1834.</p> + +<p class="one">Swainson (W.) Geography and Classification of Animals. London, +1835.</p> + +<p class="one">Swinburne (H.) Travels through Spain in 1775 and 1776. 2nd edit. +London, 1787. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Swinburne (H.) The Courts of Europe at the close of the last Century. +London, 1841. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Symes (M.) Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava. 2nd edit. London, +1800. 3 vols.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Talon (Omer) Mémoires. Paris, 1827. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Talvi's Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the +Slavic Nations. New York, 1850.</p> + +<p class="one">Tapia (E. de) Historia de la Civilizacion Española. Madrid, 1840. +4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Taylor (A. S.) Manual of Medical Jurisprudence. London, 1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Temple (Sir W.) Works. London, 1814. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Tennemann (W. G.) Geschichte der Philosophie. Leipzig, 1798–1819. +11 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Thirlwall (Bishop of St. David's) History of Greece. London, 1835–1850. +8 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Thomson (J.) Life of William Cullen. 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Edinburgh, 1845. +7 vols.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Udal ap Rhys, A Tour through Spain and Portugal. 2nd edit. +London, 1760.</p> + +<p class="one">Ulloa (A.) A Voyage to South America. London, 1772. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Uztariz (G.) Theorica y Practica de Comercio y de Marina. Tercera +impression. Madrid, 1757. Folio.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Vander Hammen (L.) Don Filipe el Prudente, segundo deste Nombre. +Madrid, 1632. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Vattel (M. de) Le Droit des Gens. Paris, 1820. 2 vols.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xl" id="Page_xl">[xl]</a></span></p> + +<p class="one">Vaughan (R.) The Protectorate of Cromwell. London, 1839. +2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Velazquez (L. J.) Origenes de la Poesia Castellana. Malaga, 1754. +4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Vernon (J.) Letters, from 1696 to 1708. London, 1841. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Villars (Madame de) Lettres. Amsterdam, 1759. 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London, 1839.</p> + +<p class="one">Watson (R.) The History of the Reign of Philip III. King of Spain. +3rd edit. London, 1839.</p> + +<p class="one">Watson (T.) Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Physic. +4th edit. London, 1857. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Watt (J.) Correspondence, on his Discovery of the Theory of the +Composition of Water, edited by J. P. Muirhead. London, 1846.</p> + +<p class="one">Wellsted (J. R.) Travels in Arabia. London, 1838. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Wesley (John) The Journals of. London, 1851.</p> + +<p class="one">Whately (Archbishop of Dublin) The Errors of Romanism traced to +their Origin in Human Nature. London, 1830.</p> + +<p class="one">Whately (Archbishop of Dublin) Essays on some of the Dangers to +Christian Faith. London, 1839.</p> + +<p class="one">Wheaton (H.) History of the Northmen, to the Conquest of England +by William of Normandy. London, 1831.</p> + +<p class="one">Whewell (W.) History of the Inductive Sciences. London, 1847. +3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Whewell (W.) Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, founded upon +their History. London, 1847. 2 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Whewell (W.) Bridgewater Treatise. London, 1852.</p> + +<p class="one">Whewell (W.) Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy in +England. London, 1852.</p> + +<p class="one">Whiston (W.) Memoirs, written by himself. London, 1749.</p> + +<p class="one">[White (B.)] Doblado's Letters from Spain. London, 1822.</p> + +<p class="one">White (Blanco) Practical and Internal Evidence against Catholicism. +London, 1826.</p> + +<p class="one">Whitelocke (Commissioner) Journal of the Swedish Embassy in +1653 and 1654. London, 1772. 2 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Wilberforce (W.) Life, by his Sons. London, 1838. 5 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Wilkinson (Sir J. G.) Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. +1st series, edit. 1842; 2nd series, edit. 1841. 5 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Williams (C. J. B.) Principles of Medicine. 2nd edit. London, +1848.</p> + +<p class="one">Wilson (H.) Account of the Pelew Islands. 2nd edit. London, 1788. +4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Wilson (H. H.) Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindus, translated +from the Sanscrit. Calcutta, 1827. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Wilson (W.) Memoirs of Daniel Defoe. London, 1830. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Winckler (E.) Geschichte der Botanik. Frankfurt-am-M. 1854.</p> + +<p class="one">Winstanley (W.) The Loyal Martyrology. London, 1665.</p> + +<p class="one">Winwood (Sir R.) Memorials of Affairs of State, from his Papers. +London, 1725. 3 vols. folio.</p> + +<p class="one">Wishart (G.) Memoirs of James Graham, Marquis of Montrose.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xlii" id="Page_xlii">[xlii]</a></span> +Edinburgh, 1819.</p> + +<p class="one">Wodrow (R.) Collections upon the Lives of the Reformers and +Ministers of the Church of Scotland. Edit. Maitland Club. +Glasgow, 1834–1848. 4to. 4 vols. in 2.</p> + +<p class="one">Wodrow (R.) History of the Church of Scotland. Glasgow, 1838. +4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Wodrow (R.) Analecta, or Materials for a History of Remarkable +Providences. Edit. Maitland Club. 1842, 1843. 4 vols. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Wodrow (R.) Life of the Rev. Robert Bruce, prefixed to Bruce's +Sermons. Edit. Wodrow Society. Edinburgh, 1843.</p> + +<p class="one">Wodrow (R.) Correspondence. Edit. Wodrow Society. Edinburgh, +1842, 1843. 3 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Wordsworth (C.) Ecclesiastical Biography. London, 1839. 4 vols.</p> + +<p class="one">Wrangel (F.) Narrative of an Expedition to the Polar Sea. London, +1840.</p> + +<p class="one">Wright (T.) Biographia Britannica Literaria; Anglo-Saxon and +Anglo-Norman Periods. London, 1842–1846. 2 vols.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Ximenez (F. J.) Vida y Virtudes del Venerable Siervo de Dios +D. J. de Ribera, Arçobispo de Valencia. Roma, 1734. 4to.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="one">Yañez (J.) Memorias para la Historia de Don Felipe III. Madrid, +1723. 4to.</p> + +<p class="one">Yonge (W.) Diary, from 1604 to 1628, edited by G. Roberts. +Camd. Soc. 1848. 4to.</p> + +<hr class="hr95" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + +<p class="title"><span style="font-size: 175%;">HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION IN ENGLAND.</span></p> + +<p class="title"><span style="font-size: 150%;"><i>GENERAL INTRODUCTION.</i></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot">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.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Among historians in general, we find, after the sixteenth +century, and especially during the last hundred +years, several indications of an increasing comprehensiveness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>Both these causes have retarded the creation of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> and such men, when possessed of +great abilities, become the founders of new philosophies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>These opposite doctrines of free will and predestination<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +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.</p> + +<p>Whatever doubts may be thrown on the account +which I have given of the probable origin of the ideas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> At +all events, and putting aside its incompatibility with +other notions which are supposed to be fundamental,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Should this turn out to be the case, the argument +falls to the ground; since, even if we admit that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> All the great stages<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> 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?<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> If this boasted faculty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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;<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> If, for +example, I am intimately acquainted with the character +of any person, I can frequently tell how he will act<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p>Rejecting, then, the metaphysical dogma of free will, +and the theological dogma of predestined events,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> +had no particular theory to maintain, and no interest +in distorting the truth of the reports they were directed +to make.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +without regard to the volition of those +particular men of whom the society is composed.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> But as it will be impossible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +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.’<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p>This, indeed, will appear strange to those who believe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +247; in 1849 they were 213; and in 1850 they were +229.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +theologians have hitherto perplexed the study of past +events.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> Just in the same way, the great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p>Nor is it merely the crimes of men which are marked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> 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:<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +memory will fail them in regard to this trifling and, as +it might appear, accidental occurrence.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> has already thrown more light on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + +<p class="title"><span class="smcap">Note A.</span></p> + +<p>‘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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +sittlichen Begriffe und Gesetze ihren Ursprung haben.’ <i>Metaphysik +der Sitten</i>, in <i>Kant's Werke</i>, 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>i.e.</i> 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.’ +<i>Prolegomena zu jeder künftigen Metaphysik</i>, in <i>Kant's Werke</i>, 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.’ <i>Theodicee</i>, in <i>Kant's Werke</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +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.’ <i>Kritik der reinen +Vernunft</i>, in <i>Kant's Werke</i>, 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.’ <i>Kritik</i>, in <i>Werke</i>, 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 <i>a +priori</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +Einzige, was wir leisten konnten, und woran es uns auch einzig und +allein gelegen war.’</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<p class="noindent">Footnotes:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> 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 <i>d'histoire</i>.’ <i>Comte</i>, +<i>Philosophie Positive</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Some of the moral consequences of thus diminishing the +precariousness of food are noticed by M. Charles Comte in his <i>Traité de +Législation</i>, vol. ii. pp. 273–275. Compare <i>Mill's History of India</i>, +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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> On the relation between this and the previous creation of +wealth, see <i>Tennemann</i>, <i>Geschichte der Philosophie</i>, 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 <i>Grote's History of +Greece</i>, vol. iv. p. 519, edit. 1847. That the atomic doctrine, in its +relation to chance, was a natural precursor of Platonism, is remarked in +<i>Broussais</i>, <i>Examen des Doctrines Médicales</i>, vol. i. pp. 53, 54, an +able though one-sided work. Compare, respecting the Chance of the +atomists, <i>Ritter's History of Ancient Philosophy</i>, 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: +Μέρη δὲ φιλοσοφίας τρία, φυσικὸν, +ᾐθικὸν διαλεκτικόν⋅ φυσικὸν μὲν, +τὸ περὶ κόσμου, καὶ τῶν ἐν αυτῶ⋅ +ᾐθικὸν δὲ, τὸ περὶ βιου καὶ τῶυ +πρὸς ἡμᾶς⋅ διαλεκτικὸν δὲ, τὸ +ἀμφοτέρων τοὺς λόγους τὸ πυσβεῦου⋅ +καὶ μέχρι μὲν᾿ Αρχελάου τὸ φυσικὸν +εῒδος ἦν ἀπὸ δὲ Σωκράτους, ὡς +προείρηται, τὸ ἠθικόν⋅ ἀπὸ δἐ +Ζήνωνος τοῦ Ἑλεάτον, τὸ διαλεκτικόν. + <i>De Vitis Philosophorum Proœm.</i> segm. 18, vol. i. p. 12: compare lib. ii. segm. +16, vol. i. p. 89.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Beausobre has some good remarks on this in his learned work +<i>Histoire Critique de Manichée</i>, 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.’ <i>Klimrath</i>, <i>Travaux</i>, vol. ii. p. 454, +Paris, 1843.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> ‘Also ist ein Wille, dem die blose gesetzgebende Form der +Maxime allein zum Gesetze dienen kann, ein freier Wille.’ <i>Kritik der +praktischen Vernunft</i> in <i>Kant's Werke</i>, vol. iv. p. 128. ‘Hat selber +für sich eigentlich keinen Bestimmungsgrund.’ <i>Metaphysik der Sitten</i> in +<i>Werke</i>, vol. v. p. 12. ‘Die unbedingte Causalität der Ursache.’ <i>Kritik +der reinen Vernunft</i> in <i>Werke</i>, vol. ii. p. 339. See also <i>Prolegomena +zu jeder künftigen Metaphysik</i> in vol. iii. p. 268.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> 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 (<i>Locke's Works</i>, vol. viii. p. 305), with the argument in one +of Bentley's Sermons (<i>Monk's Life of Bentley</i>, vol. ii. pp. 7, 8); also +<i>Ritter's Hist. of Ancient Philosophy</i>, vol. iv. pp. 143, 144; +<i>Tennemann</i>, <i>Gesch. der Philosophie</i>, vol. iv. pp. 301–304; <i>Copleston's +Inquiry into the Doctrines of Necessity and Predestination</i>, pp. 6, 7, +46, 69, 70, 85, 92, 108, 136; <i>Mosheim's Ecclesiastical Hist.</i>, vol. i. +p. 207, vol. ii. p. 96; <i>Neander's Hist. of the Church</i>, vol. iv. pp. +294, 389–391; <i>Bishop of Lincoln on Tertullian</i>, 1845, p. 323; <i>Hodgson +on Buddhism</i>, in <i>Transac. of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. ii. p. 232.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Even Ambrose, who never went so far as Augustin, states +this principle in its repulsive nakedness: ‘Deus quos dignat vocat, quos +vult religiosos facit.’ <i>Neander</i>, 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.’ <i>Mosheim's Eccles. Hist.</i>, vol. ii. p. 103, see also p. 100; and +<i>Carwithen's Hist. of the Church of England</i>, vol. i. p. 552.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> On the Manichæan origin of Augustin's opinions, compare +<i>Potter</i>, <i>Esprit de l'Eglise</i>, vol. ii. p. 171, Paris, 1821; <i>Tomline's +Refutation of Calvinism</i>, 1817, pp. 571–576; <i>Southey's Book of the +Church</i>, 1824, vol. i. pp. 301, 302; <i>Matter</i>, <i>Hist. du Gnosticisme</i>, +1828, vol. i. p. 325. However, Beausobre (<i>Histoire de Manichée</i>, vol. +ii. pp. 33–40) seems to have proved a difference between the election of +Augustin and that of Basilides.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> On the absurdity of ‘an omnipotent arbitrary Deity,’ and +on the incongruity of such a combination with φύσει καλὸν καὶ δίκαιον, +see <i>Cudworth's Intellect. Syst.</i>, vol. i. pp. 45, 419, vol. +iii. p. 241, vol. iv. p. 160. See also <i>Theodicee</i> in <i>Kant's Werke</i>, +vol. vi. pp. 141, 142, and <i>Metaphysik der Sitten</i> in vol. v. p. 332, +upon ‘den göttlichen Zweck in Ansehung des menschlichen Geschlechts.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Johnson said to Boswell, ‘Sir, we <i>know</i> our will is free, +and there's an end on't.’ <i>Boswell's Life of Johnson</i>, 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.’ <i>Cousin</i>, <i>Hist. de la Philosophie</i>, I. Série, vol. i. +pp. 190, 191. ‘Die Freiheit des Menschen, als moralischen Wesens, +gründet sich auf das sittliche Bewusstseyn.’ <i>Tennemann</i>, <i>Gesch. der +Philosophie</i>, 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 (<i>Ritter's Ancient Philosophy</i>, vol. iv. p. +447); nor the physical one of the Basilidian monads (<i>Beausobre</i>, <i>Hist. +de Manichée</i>, vol. ii. p. 23); still less the argument of Bardesanes, +who thought to demonstrate freedom by the variety of human customs! +<i>Matter</i>, <i>Hist. du Gnosticisme</i>, vol. i. p. 323, which should be compared +with <i>Burdach's Physiologie comme Science d'Observation</i>, vol. v. p. 50, +Paris, 1839.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Mr. James Mill (<i>Analysis of the Mind</i>, 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 (<i>Essay concerning Human +Understanding</i>, book ii. chap. i., Works, vol. i. p. 89), ‘consciousness +is the perception of what passes in a man's own mind.’ Brown +(<i>Philosophy of the Mind</i>, pp. 67, 68) denies that consciousness is a +faculty: and Sir W. Hamilton complains of ‘Reid's degradation of +consciousness into a special faculty.’ <i>Notes to Reid's Works</i>, pp. 223, +297, 373. M. Cousin (<i>Hist. de la Philosophie</i>, II. Série, vol. i. p. +131) pronounces consciousness to be ‘phénomène complexe;’ and at p. 94, +‘la <i>condition</i> nécessaire de l'intelligence c'est la conscience:’ while +a still later writer (<i>Jobert's New System of Philosophy</i>, vol. i. p. +25) declares that ‘we have the consciousness of our consciousness—this +is certain.’ The statement in Alciphron, Dialogue vii. (<i>Berkeley's +Works</i>, 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 <i>Elliotson's Physiology</i>, pp. 367–369, 1165; <i>Mayo's +Physiology</i>, pp. 195, 196; <i>Prichard's Treatise on Insanity</i>, pp. 450, +451; <i>Carpenter's Human Physiology</i>, p. 379.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> This requires explanation. Consciousness is infallible as +to the <i>fact</i> of its testimony; but fallible as to the <i>truth</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>The late Blanco White, a thinker of considerable subtlety, says: ‘The +important distinction between <i>libertas a necessitate</i> and <i>libertas a +coactione</i>, is seldom attended to. Nothing whatever can <i>force</i> 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.’ <i>Life of B. White</i>, by Himself, 1845, vol. iii. p. 90. But how +can a man be conscious ‘that nothing whatever <i>can</i> 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 <i>may</i> be or <i>can</i> be.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> As Herder says, ‘Was diese Nation ihrem Gedankenkreise +unentbehrlich hält, daran hat jene nie gedacht oder hält es gar für +schädlich.’ <i>Ideen zur Gesch. der Menschheit</i>, vol. ii. p. 130.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> 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 (<i>Platonis Opera</i>, vol. iii. p. 426, +edit. Bekker, Lond. 1826), Μὴ τοίνυν ἀπολίπωμεν +ὃσον ἐλλεῖπον αὐτοῦ. +λείπεται δὲ ἐνυπνίων τε πέρι καὶ νόσων, τῶν +τε ἄλλων καὶ μανίας, +&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, ἁληθὴς ᾰρα ἐμοὶ ἡ ἐμὴ αῐσθησις. See +further, p. 515, on the formation of erroneous judgments; and respecting +the assertions made by many of the Greeks that πᾶσα φαντασία ἀληθὴς +and πᾶσα δύξα ἀληθὴς, compare <i>Cudworth</i>, vol. iii. +p. 379, vol. iv. p. 118. For physiological considerations concerning the +preservation of consciousness in dreams and in insanity, see +<i>Broussais</i>, <i>Examen des Doctrines Médicales</i>, vol. i. p. 406; his +<i>Cours de Phrénologie</i>, p. 49; <i>Esquirol</i>, <i>Maladies Mentales</i>, vol. i. +p. 97, vol. ii. p. 790; <i>Simon's Pathology</i>, p. 204; <i>Holland's Medical +Notes</i>, p. 434; <i>Henle</i>, <i>Anatomie Générale</i>, vol. ii. p. 287; +<i>Burdach</i>, <i>Traité de Physiologie</i>, vol. v. p. 223. See, too, the +passages in Tennemann which connect this difficulty with the theory of +representation (<i>Geschichte der Philosophie</i>, vol. i. p. 357, vol. ii. +pp. 119, 159, vol. iii. p. 406, vol. iv. p. 418); and the attempt of +Berkeley (<i>Works</i>, 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: +διαφέρει δὲ φαντασία καὶ φάντασμα. +φάντασμα μὲν γάρ ἐστι δόκησις +διανοίας οἴα γίνται κατὰ τοὺς +ὔπνους⋅ φαντασία δέ ἐστι τύπωσις +ἐν ψυχῇ τουτέστιν ἀλλοίωσις, ὡς +ὁ Χρύσιππος ἐν τῇ δνωδεκάτη περὶ +ψυῆς ὐφίσταται +<i>Diog. Laert. de Vitis Philos.</i> lib. vii. segm. 50, +vol. i. p. 395.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> 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 (<i>Neander's History of the Church</i>, 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.’</p> + +<p>The same argument is stated by Alciphron, though not quite so +conclusively; <i>Dialogue</i> vii. sec. 20 in <i>Berkeley's Works</i>, vol. i. p. +515: and as to the impossibility of Omniscience having new knowledge or +an afterthought, see <i>Hitchcock's Religion of Geology</i>, 1851, pp. 267, +328; an ingenious work, but one which leaves all the real difficulties +untouched. Compare <i>Ritter's Hist. of Ancient Philos.</i> vol. iv. pp. 326, +327, with <i>Tennemann</i>, <i>Gesch. der Philos.</i> 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. <i>Beausobre</i>, <i>Histoire de +Manichée</i>, vol. ii. pp. 145, 146, 252, 336.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Dufau</i>, <i>Traité de Statistique</i>, pp. 75, 148.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> 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: Ἁρέσκει δὲ αὐτοὶς (i.e. the Stoics) +μηδὲν μέσον εἶναι ἀρετῆς και +κακίας⋅ τῶν περιπατητκῶν μεταξὺ +ἀρετῆς καὶ κακίας εἶναι λεγόντων +τὴν προκοπήν. <i>Diog. Laert. de Vitis +Philosophorum</i>, lib. vii. segm. 127, vol. i. p. 445.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Quetelet sur l'Homme</i>, Paris, 1835, vol. i. p. 7; see +also vol. ii. pp. 164, 247.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Brown on the Uniform Action of the Human Will</i>, in <i>The +Assurance Magazine</i>, no. viii., July 1852, pp. 349, 350. That the +variations in crime are less than those of mortality, is also noticed in +<i>Statistique Morale</i>, pp. 18, 34, in <i>Mémoires de l'Académie de +Belgique</i>, vol. xxi., Bruxelles, 1848, 4to.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> The folly of lawgivers thinking that by their enactments +they can diminish suicide, is exposed by M. C. Comte in his <i>Traité de +Législation</i>, vol. i. p. 486. See also some good remarks by Jefferson, +in his observations on criminal law in <i>Appendix to Jefferson's Memoirs, +by Randolph</i>, vol. i. pp. 126, 127. Heber (<i>Journey through India</i>, 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 <i>non compos</i>. +<i>Principles of Penal Law</i>, in <i>Bentham's Works</i>, 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. <i>Elliotson's Human Physiology</i>, pp. 491, 492.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> This also applies to other cases besides those of +drowning. See <i>Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence</i>, 1846, pp. 587, 597; and +on the difficulty of always distinguishing a real suicide from an +apparent one, see <i>Esquirol</i>, <i>Maladies Mentales</i>, vol. i. p. 575. From +a third to a half of all suicides are by drowning. Compare <i>Dufau</i>, +<i>Traité de Statistique</i>, p. 304; <i>Winslow's Anatomy of Suicide</i>, 1840, +p. 277; <i>Quetelet</i>, <i>Statistique Morale</i>, 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. <i>Brodie's Surgery</i>, 1846, pp. 89–92.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Quetelet</i>, <i>Statistique Morale</i>, 1848, p. 35; see also p. 40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> On the causes of suicides, see <i>Burdach's Traité de +Physiologie</i>, vol. v. pp. 476–478; and <i>Forry's Climate and its Endemic +Influences</i>, p. 329. The latest researches of M. Casper confirm the +statement of earlier statisticians, that suicide is more frequent among +Protestants than among Catholics. <i>Casper</i>, <i>Denkwürdigkeiten zur +medicinischen Statistik</i>, Berlin, 1846, p. 139.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> See the tables in the <i>Assurance Magazine</i>, 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. <i>Assurance Magazine</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> ‘L'expérience démontre en effet, avec toute l'évidence +possible, cette opinion, qui pourra sembler paradoxale au premier abord, +que <i>c'est la société qui prépare le crime, et que le coupable n'est que +l'instrument qui l'exécute</i>.’ <i>Quetelet sur l'Homme</i>, vol. ii. p. 325.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> 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 (<i>Philosophy of the Mind</i>, 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 +<i>Prout's Bridgewater Treatise</i>, pp. 318, 435, 495; <i>Sadler's Law of +Population</i>, vol. ii. p. 67; <i>Burdach's Physiologie</i>, vol. i. p. 160. +Mr. Paget, in his able work, <i>Lectures on Pathology</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Mr. Rawson, in his <i>Inquiry into the Statistics of Crime +in England and Wales</i> (published in the <i>Journal of the Statistical +Society</i>, 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 <i>Report of British Association +for 1839, Transac. of Sec.</i>, 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 (<i>Traité de Statistique</i>, 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 +<i>Moreau-Christophe des Prisons en France</i>, Paris, 1838, pp. 53, 189.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Porter's Progress +of the Nation</i>, vol. ii. pp. 244, 245, London, 1838.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Journal of Statistical +Society</i>, vol. xv. p. 185.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> See <i>Somerville's Physical Geography</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> 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 <i>Lewis</i>, <i>Methods of +Observation and Reasoning in Politics</i>, 1852, vol. i. p. 72; <i>Biographie +Universelle</i>, vol. i. p. 140; <i>Dufau</i>, <i>Traité de Statistique</i>, 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.’ <i>Sinclair's +Correspondence</i>, 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 <i>Bouillaud</i>, <i>Philosophie Médicale</i>, pp. 96, 186; +<i>Renouard</i>, <i>Hist. de la Médecine</i>, vol. ii. pp. 474, 475; <i>Esquirol</i>, +<i>Maladies Mentales</i>, vol. ii. pp. 665–667; <i>Holland's Medical Notes</i>, +pp. 5, 472; <i>Vogel's Pathological Anatomy</i>, pp. 15–17; <i>Simon's +Pathology</i>, p. 180; <i>Phillips on Scrofula</i>, pp. 70, 118, &c.; +<i>Prichard's Physical Hist. of Mankind</i>, vol. iv. p. 414; <i>Eschbach</i>, +<i>Etude du Droit</i>, pp. 392–394.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot">INFLUENCE EXERCISED BY PHYSICAL LAWS OVER THE ORGANIZATION +OF SOCIETY AND OVER THE CHARACTER OF INDIVIDUALS.</div> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +original distinctions of race are altogether hypothetical,<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<p>The union between these physical agents being thus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +accumulated, there will be no means by which the +unemployed classes may be maintained.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p> + +<p>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 Phœnicia, and of Palestine. To the north of this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> In the +same way, the Arabs in their own country have, owing +to the extreme aridity of their soil,<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> always been a rude +and uncultivated people; for in their case, as in all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +others, great ignorance is the fruit of great poverty. +But in the seventh century they conquered Persia;<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> +in the eighth century they conquered the best part of +Spain;<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> in the ninth century they conquered the +Punjaub, and eventually nearly the whole of India.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> +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;<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> +in their new abodes they became the founders +of mighty empires—they built cities, endowed schools,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +collected libraries; and the traces of their power are +still to be seen at Cordova, at Bagdad, and at Delhi.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> This enormous tract is, like Arabia,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +a barren waste;<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> and therefore, as in Arabia, the inhabitants +have always been entirely uncivilized, +acquiring no knowledge, simply because they have +accumulated no wealth.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> +The consequence is, that in that spot, wealth was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +rapidly accumulated, the cultivation of knowledge +quickly followed, and this narrow strip of land<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> became +the seat of Egyptian civilization; a civilization which, +though grossly exaggerated,<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>These considerations clearly prove that of the two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> But in a very early stage of society, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +class, can hardly be said to have a separate existence.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> + +<p>To know the circumstances most favourable to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> An inquiry, therefore,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> the nitrogenous or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +azotized food is, as it were, guarded against combustion;<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> +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.</p> + +<p>These are the two great divisions of food;<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> + +<p>Since, therefore, the inhabitants of hot climates do,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> By virtue of a law familiar +to chemists, carbon and oxygen, like all other +elements, will only unite in certain definite proportions;<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> +so that to keep up a healthy balance, it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> On both these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p> + +<p>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;<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> while starch,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +which is the most universal, and, in reference to nutrition, +the most important constituent in the vegetable +world,<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> is nearly half oxygen.<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p> + +<p>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<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> From this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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;<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>Applying now this great principle to the general<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> The consequence is, that in a country<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p> + +<p>Such have been the consequences of cheap food in a +country which, on the whole, possesses greater natural +resources than any other in Europe.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> And if we investigate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> After<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> And as the materials for forming an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +opinion respecting India are more ample than those +respecting any other part of Asia,<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> which is the most nutritive of all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +cerealia;<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> which contains an enormous proportion of +starch;<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> and which yields to the labourer an average +return of at least sixty fold.<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +from which at different times it has been transplanted +to other parts of the world.<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> it follows that if among +any people rent and interest are both high, wages must +be low.<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>Now it is remarkable, that in India both interest and +rent have always been very high. In the <i>Institutes of +Menu</i>, which were drawn up about <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 900,<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> the lowest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +legal interest for money is fixed at fifteen per cent., the +highest at sixty per cent.<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> Nor is this to be considered +as a mere ancient law now fallen into disuse. So far +from that, the <i>Institutes of Menu</i> are still the basis of +Indian jurisprudence;<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> In France, the average proportion is about +a third;<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> while in the United States of North America<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +it is well known to be much less, and, indeed, in some +parts, to be merely nominal.<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a></p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +obliged to work for a sum barely sufficient to meet the +exigencies of life.<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a></p> + +<p>This was the first great consequence induced in India +by the cheapness and abundance of the national food.<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>To the great body of the Indian people the name of +Sudras is given;<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> and the native laws respecting them +contain some minute and curious provisions. If a +member of this despised class presumed to occupy the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +same seat as his superiors, he was either to be exiled +or to suffer a painful and ignominious punishment.<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> +If he spoke of them with contempt, his mouth was to +be burned;<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> if he actually insulted them, his tongue +was to be slit;<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> if he molested a Brahmin, he was to +be put to death;<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> if he sat on the same carpet with a +Brahmin, he was to be maimed for life;<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> 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;<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> if, however, he committed them +to memory, he was to be killed;<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> if he were guilty of +a crime, the punishment for it was greater than that +inflicted on his superiors;<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> but if he himself were +murdered, the penalty was the same as for killing a +dog, a cat, or a crow.<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span><a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> +And lest this should not be enough to maintain the +subordination of society, a law was actually made forbidding +any labourer to accumulate wealth;<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> 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?’<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +must, at all events, be admitted that they raised themselves +far above every other people by whom Africa +was inhabited.</p> + +<p>The civilization of Egypt being, like that of India, +caused by the fertility of the soil, and the climate +being also very hot,<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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;<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> and it supplies millions of human +beings with their daily food in Arabia,<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a> and in nearly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +the whole of Africa north of the equator.<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a> And in Egypt, where +the palm is said to be of spontaneous growth,<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> dates,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +created, the abundance of the food regulated the proportions +into which the wealth was divided. The most +fertile part of Egypt is the Said;<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> and of which the +reproductive power is so remarkable, that it yields to +the labourer a return of two hundred and forty for +one.<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> In Lower Egypt the dhourra was formerly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a></p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> and therefore<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id="FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +found to be,<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id="FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> states that in the reign of Amasis there +were said to have been twenty thousand inhabited +cities.<a name="FNanchor_149_149" id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_149_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id="FNanchor_150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id="FNanchor_151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a></p> + +<p>These were the only two ancient writers who, from +personal knowledge, were well acquainted with the +state of Egypt;<a name="FNanchor_152_152" id="FNanchor_152_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_152_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a> and their testimony is the more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +valuable because it was evidently drawn from different +sources; the information of Herodotus being chiefly +collected at Memphis, that of Diodorus at Thebes.<a name="FNanchor_153_153" id="FNanchor_153_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_153_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a> +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,<a name="FNanchor_154_154" id="FNanchor_154_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a> +and yet so useless,<a name="FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_155_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a> there must have been tyranny on +the part of the rulers, and slavery on the part of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_156_156" id="FNanchor_156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id="FNanchor_157_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a> If a member of the industrious classes changed +his usual employment, or was known to pay attention +to political matters, he was severely punished;<a name="FNanchor_158_158" id="FNanchor_158_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_158_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id="FNanchor_159_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_159_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_160_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_161_161" id="FNanchor_161_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_161_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>That in such a society as this, much regard should +be paid to human suffering, it would indeed be idle to +expect.<a name="FNanchor_162_162" id="FNanchor_162_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_162_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a> 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;<a name="FNanchor_163_163" id="FNanchor_163_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_163_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a> that the Canal of the Red Sea alone,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +cost the lives of a hundred and twenty thousand +Egyptians;<a name="FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_164_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> and that to build one of the pyramids +required the labour of three hundred and sixty thousand +men for twenty years.<a name="FNanchor_165_165" id="FNanchor_165_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_165_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a></p> + +<p>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;<a name="FNanchor_166_166" id="FNanchor_166_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_166_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_167_167" id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_167_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_168_168" id="FNanchor_168_168"></a><a href="#Footnote_168_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> Beyond this, nothing is known of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_169_169" id="FNanchor_169_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_169_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a></p> + +<p>But although the evidence from which we might +estimate the former condition of Central America is +almost entirely lost,<a name="FNanchor_170_170" id="FNanchor_170_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_170_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a> we are more fortunate in regard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_171_171" id="FNanchor_171_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_171_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_172_172" id="FNanchor_172_172"></a><a href="#Footnote_172_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a></p> + +<p>A general survey of the continent of America will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_173_173" id="FNanchor_173_173"></a><a href="#Footnote_173_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a> 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:<a name="FNanchor_174_174" id="FNanchor_174_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_174_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a> but towards the west there is in North +America only one river of value, the Oregon;<a name="FNanchor_175_175" id="FNanchor_175_175"></a><a href="#Footnote_175_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a> while<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +in South America, from the Isthmus of Panama to the +Straits of Magellan, there is no great river at all.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_176_176" id="FNanchor_176_176"></a><a href="#Footnote_176_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_177_177" id="FNanchor_177_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_177_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +imperfect civilization to which the inhabitants of India +and of Egypt easily attained.<a name="FNanchor_178_178" id="FNanchor_178_178"></a><a href="#Footnote_178_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_179_179" id="FNanchor_179_179"></a><a href="#Footnote_179_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a> While, therefore, +the position of Mexico near the equator gave it heat,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_180_180" id="FNanchor_180_180"></a><a href="#Footnote_180_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_181_181" id="FNanchor_181_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_181_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_182_182" id="FNanchor_182_182"></a><a href="#Footnote_182_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a> In this large tract, +which comprises some of the most fertile countries in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +the world, the trade-wind blows, during the whole +year, either from the north-east or from the south-east.<a name="FNanchor_183_183" id="FNanchor_183_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_183_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_184_184" id="FNanchor_184_184"></a><a href="#Footnote_184_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a> What, however, we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_185_185" id="FNanchor_185_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_185_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a> they pour +the whole of their moisture on Brazil, which, in +consequence, is often deluged by the most destructive +torrents.<a name="FNanchor_186_186" id="FNanchor_186_186"></a><a href="#Footnote_186_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_187_187" id="FNanchor_187_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_187_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a> Brazil, which is nearly as +large as the whole of Europe, is covered with a vegetation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_188_188" id="FNanchor_188_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_188_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a></p> + +<p>Such is the flow and abundance of life by which +Brazil is marked above all the other countries of +the earth.<a name="FNanchor_189_189" id="FNanchor_189_189"></a><a href="#Footnote_189_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a> But, amid this pomp and splendour of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_190_190" id="FNanchor_190_190"></a><a href="#Footnote_190_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> In their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_191_191" id="FNanchor_191_191"></a><a href="#Footnote_191_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_192_192" id="FNanchor_192_192"></a><a href="#Footnote_192_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_193_193" id="FNanchor_193_193"></a><a href="#Footnote_193_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 21½° S. lat.<a name="FNanchor_194_194" id="FNanchor_194_194"></a><a href="#Footnote_194_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a></p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_195_195" id="FNanchor_195_195"></a><a href="#Footnote_195_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_196_196" id="FNanchor_196_196"></a><a href="#Footnote_196_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a> it is rarely seen beyond the fortieth parallel,<a name="FNanchor_197_197" id="FNanchor_197_197"></a><a href="#Footnote_197_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a> +and its exuberance rapidly diminishes with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +diminution of temperature. Thus, for example, in New +California, its average yield is seventy or eighty fold;<a name="FNanchor_198_198" id="FNanchor_198_198"></a><a href="#Footnote_198_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a> +but in Mexico Proper the same grain yields three or four +hundred fold, and, under very favourable circumstances, +even eight hundred fold.<a name="FNanchor_199_199" id="FNanchor_199_199"></a><a href="#Footnote_199_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a></p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_200_200" id="FNanchor_200_200"></a><a href="#Footnote_200_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a> there +is, at all events, no doubt that it was found there in great +abundance when the country was first discovered by the +Europeans.<a name="FNanchor_201_201" id="FNanchor_201_201"></a><a href="#Footnote_201_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a> In Mexico, potatoes were unknown till the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_202_202" id="FNanchor_202_202"></a><a href="#Footnote_202_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_203_203" id="FNanchor_203_203"></a><a href="#Footnote_203_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_204_204" id="FNanchor_204_204"></a><a href="#Footnote_204_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_205_205" id="FNanchor_205_205"></a><a href="#Footnote_205_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +wasted.<a name="FNanchor_206_206" id="FNanchor_206_206"></a><a href="#Footnote_206_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_207_207" id="FNanchor_207_207"></a><a href="#Footnote_207_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_208_208" id="FNanchor_208_208"></a><a href="#Footnote_208_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_209_209" id="FNanchor_209_209"></a><a href="#Footnote_209_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_210_210" id="FNanchor_210_210"></a><a href="#Footnote_210_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_211_211" id="FNanchor_211_211"></a><a href="#Footnote_211_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_212_212" id="FNanchor_212_212"></a><a href="#Footnote_212_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a></p> + +<p>The further this examination is carried, the more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_213_213" id="FNanchor_213_213"></a><a href="#Footnote_213_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a> +The very same institution was rigidly enforced in +Peru;<a name="FNanchor_214_214" id="FNanchor_214_214"></a><a href="#Footnote_214_214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_215_215" id="FNanchor_215_215"></a><a href="#Footnote_215_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_216_216" id="FNanchor_216_216"></a><a href="#Footnote_216_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a> To this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_217_217" id="FNanchor_217_217"></a><a href="#Footnote_217_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_218_218" id="FNanchor_218_218"></a><a href="#Footnote_218_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_219_219" id="FNanchor_219_219"></a><a href="#Footnote_219_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_220_220" id="FNanchor_220_220"></a><a href="#Footnote_220_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a> 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;<a name="FNanchor_221_221" id="FNanchor_221_221"></a><a href="#Footnote_221_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_222_222" id="FNanchor_222_222"></a><a href="#Footnote_222_222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a></p> + +<p>The preceding evidence, collected from sources of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_223_223" id="FNanchor_223_223"></a><a href="#Footnote_223_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_224_224" id="FNanchor_224_224"></a><a href="#Footnote_224_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_225_225" id="FNanchor_225_225"></a><a href="#Footnote_225_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a> On the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Of those physical events which increase the insecurity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_226_226" id="FNanchor_226_226"></a><a href="#Footnote_226_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a> +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,<a name="FNanchor_227_227" id="FNanchor_227_227"></a><a href="#Footnote_227_227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a> every +succeeding visitation increases the general dismay; so +that, in some cases, the fear becomes almost insupportable.<a name="FNanchor_228_228" id="FNanchor_228_228"></a><a href="#Footnote_228_228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a> +The mind is thus constantly thrown into a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_229_229" id="FNanchor_229_229"></a><a href="#Footnote_229_229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_230_230" id="FNanchor_230_230"></a><a href="#Footnote_230_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_231_231" id="FNanchor_231_231"></a><a href="#Footnote_231_231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_232_232" id="FNanchor_232_232"></a><a href="#Footnote_232_232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a></p> + +<p>The manner in which the Aspects of Nature, when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +they are very threatening, stimulate the imagination,<a name="FNanchor_233_233" id="FNanchor_233_233"></a><a href="#Footnote_233_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a> +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,<a name="FNanchor_234_234" id="FNanchor_234_234"></a><a href="#Footnote_234_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a> 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;<a name="FNanchor_235_235" id="FNanchor_235_235"></a><a href="#Footnote_235_235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a> +and many similar instances will occur to whoever +has studied the condition of barbarous tribes.<a name="FNanchor_236_236" id="FNanchor_236_236"></a><a href="#Footnote_236_236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a> Indeed, +so far is this carried, that in some countries the inhabitants, +from feelings of reverential fear, refuse to destroy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +wild-beasts and noxious reptiles; the mischief these animals +inflict being the cause of the impunity they enjoy.<a name="FNanchor_237_237" id="FNanchor_237_237"></a><a href="#Footnote_237_237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a></p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_238_238" id="FNanchor_238_238"></a><a href="#Footnote_238_238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_239_239" id="FNanchor_239_239"></a><a href="#Footnote_239_239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a> and +this opinion, though it has long been dying away, is by +no means extinct, even in the most civilized countries.<a name="FNanchor_240_240" id="FNanchor_240_240"></a><a href="#Footnote_240_240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +Superstition of this kind will of course be strongest, +either where medical knowledge is most backward, or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_241_241" id="FNanchor_241_241"></a><a href="#Footnote_241_241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +than the most civilized parts of Europe.<a name="FNanchor_242_242" id="FNanchor_242_242"></a><a href="#Footnote_242_242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a> This fact +alone must have produced a considerable effect on the +national character,<a name="FNanchor_243_243" id="FNanchor_243_243"></a><a href="#Footnote_243_243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_244_244" id="FNanchor_244_244"></a><a href="#Footnote_244_244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a></p> + +<p>Summing up these facts, it may be stated, that in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +and on metaphysics, are nearly all poems, and are +put together according to a regular system of versification.<a name="FNanchor_245_245" id="FNanchor_245_245"></a><a href="#Footnote_245_245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_246_246" id="FNanchor_246_246"></a><a href="#Footnote_246_246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a></p> + +<p>This peculiarity in the form of Indian literature is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_247_247" id="FNanchor_247_247"></a><a href="#Footnote_247_247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_248_248" id="FNanchor_248_248"></a><a href="#Footnote_248_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a> and that holy men lived to be upwards of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +100,000.<a name="FNanchor_249_249" id="FNanchor_249_249"></a><a href="#Footnote_249_249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_250_250" id="FNanchor_250_250"></a><a href="#Footnote_250_250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a> Of one king, whose name was Yudhishthir, +it is casually mentioned that he reigned 27,000 +years;<a name="FNanchor_251_251" id="FNanchor_251_251"></a><a href="#Footnote_251_251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a> while another, called Alarka, reigned +66,000.<a name="FNanchor_252_252" id="FNanchor_252_252"></a><a href="#Footnote_252_252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a> They were cut off in their prime, since +there are several instances of the early poets living to +be about half-a-million.<a name="FNanchor_253_253" id="FNanchor_253_253"></a><a href="#Footnote_253_253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_254_254" id="FNanchor_254_254"></a><a href="#Footnote_254_254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a></p> + +<p>The same boundless reverence for antiquity made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +the Hindus refer every thing important to the most +distant periods; and they frequently assign a date which +is absolutely bewildering.<a name="FNanchor_255_255" id="FNanchor_255_255"></a><a href="#Footnote_255_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a> Their great collection of +laws, called the <i>Institutes of Menu</i>, 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.<a name="FNanchor_256_256" id="FNanchor_256_256"></a><a href="#Footnote_256_256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_257_257" id="FNanchor_257_257"></a><a href="#Footnote_257_257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a></p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_258_258" id="FNanchor_258_258"></a><a href="#Footnote_258_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a> that is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +about a fortieth part of what is now called Hindustan.<a name="FNanchor_259_259" id="FNanchor_259_259"></a><a href="#Footnote_259_259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a> +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;<a name="FNanchor_260_260" id="FNanchor_260_260"></a><a href="#Footnote_260_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_261_261" id="FNanchor_261_261"></a><a href="#Footnote_261_261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_262_262" id="FNanchor_262_262"></a><a href="#Footnote_262_262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a></p> + +<p>These striking differences in the material phenomena<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_263_263" id="FNanchor_263_263"></a><a href="#Footnote_263_263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_264_264" id="FNanchor_264_264"></a><a href="#Footnote_264_264" class="fnanchor">[264]</a> 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_265_265" id="FNanchor_265_265"></a><a href="#Footnote_265_265" class="fnanchor">[265]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_266_266" id="FNanchor_266_266"></a><a href="#Footnote_266_266" class="fnanchor">[266]</a> But the gods of Greece were always represented +in forms entirely human.<a name="FNanchor_267_267" id="FNanchor_267_267"></a><a href="#Footnote_267_267" class="fnanchor">[267]</a> In that country, +no artist would have gained attention, if he had presumed +to portray them in any other shape. He might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_268_268" id="FNanchor_268_268"></a><a href="#Footnote_268_268" class="fnanchor">[268]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_269_269" id="FNanchor_269_269"></a><a href="#Footnote_269_269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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;<a name="FNanchor_270_270" id="FNanchor_270_270"></a><a href="#Footnote_270_270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a> neither was it known to the Egyptians,<a name="FNanchor_271_271" id="FNanchor_271_271"></a><a href="#Footnote_271_271" class="fnanchor">[271]</a> nor +to the Persians,<a name="FNanchor_272_272" id="FNanchor_272_272"></a><a href="#Footnote_272_272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a> nor, so far as I am aware, to the Arabians.<a name="FNanchor_273_273" id="FNanchor_273_273"></a><a href="#Footnote_273_273" class="fnanchor">[273]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_274_274" id="FNanchor_274_274"></a><a href="#Footnote_274_274" class="fnanchor">[274]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_275_275" id="FNanchor_275_275"></a><a href="#Footnote_275_275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a></p> + +<p>It is thus, that in Greece every thing tended to exalt +the dignity of man, while in India every thing tended to +depress it.<a name="FNanchor_276_276" id="FNanchor_276_276"></a><a href="#Footnote_276_276" class="fnanchor">[276]</a> To sum up the whole, it may be said that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_277_277" id="FNanchor_277_277"></a><a href="#Footnote_277_277" class="fnanchor">[277]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_278_278" id="FNanchor_278_278"></a><a href="#Footnote_278_278" class="fnanchor">[278]</a> There can, I think, be little doubt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_279_279" id="FNanchor_279_279"></a><a href="#Footnote_279_279" class="fnanchor">[279]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + +<p class="title"><span class="smcap">Note 36</span> to p. <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The gland most universal among the different classes of animals +is the liver;<a name="FNanchor_a_a" id="FNanchor_a_a"></a><a href="#Footnote_a_a" class="fnanchor">[a]</a> and its principal business is to relieve the system of +its superfluous carbon, which it accomplishes by secreting bile, a +highly carbonized fluid.<a name="FNanchor_b_b" id="FNanchor_b_b"></a><a href="#Footnote_b_b" class="fnanchor">[b]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +small and inert, the other is large and active. Thus, reptiles have +feeble lungs, but a considerable liver;<a name="FNanchor_c_c" id="FNanchor_c_c"></a><a href="#Footnote_c_c" class="fnanchor">[c]</a> and thus, too, in fishes, +which have no lungs, in the ordinary sense of the word, the size of +the liver is often enormous.<a name="FNanchor_d_d" id="FNanchor_d_d"></a><a href="#Footnote_d_d" class="fnanchor">[d]</a> 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.(<a name="FNanchor_e_e" id="FNanchor_e_e"></a><a href="#Footnote_e_e" class="fnanchor">[e]</a>) 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.<a name="FNanchor_f_f" id="FNanchor_f_f"></a><a href="#Footnote_f_f" class="fnanchor">[f]</a> 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 fœtal life; +but it rapidly diminishes when, after birth, the lungs come into +play, and a new scheme of compensation is established in the +system.<a name="FNanchor_g_g" id="FNanchor_g_g"></a><a href="#Footnote_g_g" class="fnanchor">[g]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<p class="noindent">Footnotes:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_a_a" id="Footnote_a_a"></a><a href="#FNanchor_a_a"><span class="label">[a]</span></a>‘The most constant gland in the animal kingdom is the liver.’ <i>Grant's +Comp. Anat.</i> p. 576. See also <i>Béclard</i>, <i>Anat. Gén.</i> p. 18, and <i>Burdach</i>, <i>Traité de +Physiol.</i> 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. <i>Rymer Jones's Animal Kingdom</i>, 1855, p. 183, +and <i>Owen's Invertebrata</i>, 1855, p. 104.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_b_b" id="Footnote_b_b"></a><a href="#FNanchor_b_b"><span class="label">[b]</span></a>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 <i>Thomson's Animal Chemistry</i>, +pp. 59, 60, 412, 602, with <i>Simon's Chemistry</i>, vol. ii. pp. 17–21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_c_c" id="Footnote_c_c"></a><a href="#FNanchor_c_c"><span class="label">[c]</span></a>‘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.’ <i>Good's Study of Medicine</i>, 1829, vol. i. pp. 32, 33. See <i>Cuvier</i>, +<i>Règne Animal</i>, vol. ii. p. 2, on ‘la petitesse des vaisseaux pulmonaires’ of +reptiles.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_d_d" id="Footnote_d_d"></a><a href="#FNanchor_d_d"><span class="label">[d]</span></a><i>Carus's Comparative Anatomy</i>, vol. ii. p. 230; <i>Grant's Comp. Anat.</i> pp. 385, +596; <i>Rymer Jones's Animal Kingdom</i>, p. 646.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_e_e" id="Footnote_e_e"></a><a href="#FNanchor_e_e"><span class="label">[e]</span></a>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 <i>Cuvier</i>, <i>Règne Animal</i>, vol. iv. pp. 297, 298.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_f_f" id="Footnote_f_f"></a><a href="#FNanchor_f_f"><span class="label">[f]</span></a>‘La prédominance du foie avant la naissance’ is noticed by Bichat +(<i>Anatomie Générale</i>, 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 fœtus, +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.’ <i>Elliotson's Human Physiology</i>, 1840, p. 102. In <i>Lepelletier's +Physiologie Médicale</i>, vol. i. p. 466, vol. ii. pp. 14, 546, 550, all this is sadly +confused.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_g_g" id="Footnote_g_g"></a><a href="#FNanchor_g_g"><span class="label">[g]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Wilson's Human Anatomy</i>, 1851, p. 638. Compare <i>Burdach's +Physiologie</i>, 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 fœtal life, see the remarks of +Serres (<i>Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire</i>, <i>Anomalies de l'Organisation</i>, vol. ii. p. 11), whose +generalization is perhaps a little premature.</p></div> +</div> + +<p>These facts, interesting to the philosophic physiologist, are of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 (<i>Physiological Researches</i>, +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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<p class="noindent">Footnotes:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Mill's Principles of Political Economy</i>, 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 <i>Alison's History of Europe</i>, 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 <i>Comte</i>, <i>Philosophie Positive</i>, vol. iii. p. 355.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> As to the proper limits of physical geography, see +<i>Prichard on Ethnology</i>, in <i>Report of the British Association for</i> +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.’ <i>Forry's Climate of the United States and +its Endemic Influences</i>, New York, 1842, p. 127.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> This has been entirely neglected by the three most +philosophical writers on climate: Montesquieu, Hume, and M. Charles +Comte in his <i>Traité de Législation</i>. It is also omitted in the remarks +of M. Guizot on the influence of climate, <i>Civilisation en Europe</i>, p. +97.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> See the admirable remarks in <i>Laing's Denmark</i>, 1852, pp. +204, 366, 367; though Norway appears to be a better illustration than +Denmark. In <i>Rey's Science Sociale</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> 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 <i>Prichard's Physical History of Mankind</i>, +vol. iv. p. 278, edit. 1844. At p. 92, Prichard makes the Himalaya the +southern boundary of Central Asia.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> There is reason to believe that the Tartars of Thibet +received even their alphabet from India. See the interesting Essay on +Tartarian Coins in <i>Journal of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. iv. pp. 276, 277; +and on the Scythian Alphabet, see vol. xii. p. 336.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> In <i>Somerville's Physical Geography</i>, vol. i. p. 132, it is +said that in Arabia there are ‘no rivers;’ but Mr. Wellsted (<i>Travels in +Arabia</i>, vol. ii. p. 409) mentions one which empties itself into the sea +five miles west of Aden. On the streams in Arabia, see <i>Meiners über die +Fruchtbarkeit der Länder</i>, vol. i. pp. 149, 150. That the sole +deficiency is want of irrigation appears from Burckhardt, who says +(<i>Travels in Arabia</i>, 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 <i>Journal of +Geographical Society</i>, vol. vii. pp. 106, 107.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Mr. Morier (<i>Journal of Geog. Soc.</i> vol. vii. p. 230) says, +‘the conquest of Persia by the Saracens <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 651.’ However, the fate of +Persia was decided by the battles of Kudseah and Nahavund, which were +fought in 638 and 641: see <i>Malcolm's History of Persia</i>, vol. i. pp. +xvi. 139, 142.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> In 712. <i>Hallam's Middle Ages</i>, vol. i. p. 369.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> 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 <i>Vishnu Purana</i>, pp. 481, 482, with +<i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. ix. pp. 187, 188, 203. On their progress in +the more southern part of the Peninsula, see <i>Journal of Asiatic +Society</i>, vol. iii. pp. 222, 223, vol. iv. pp. 28–30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> ‘A race of pastoral barbarians.’ <i>Dickinson on the Arabic +Language</i>, in <i>Journal of Asiat. Society</i>, vol. v. p. 323. Compare +<i>Reynier</i>, <i>Economie des Arabes</i>, 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.’ <i>Malcolm's Hist. of Persia</i>, 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.’ <i>Fruchtbarkeit der Länder</i>, 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: +<i>Bibliothec. Hist.</i> lib. ii. vol. ii. p. 137. ἕχουσι +δὲ βίον λῃςτρικὸν, καὶ πολλὴν +τῆς ὁμόρον χώρας κατατρέχοντες +λῃστεύουσιν, &c.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Montucla</i>, +<i>Histoire des Mathématiques</i>, 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 +(<i>Transactions of the Asiatic Society</i>, vol. ii. p. 371) says, ‘of a +scientific knowledge of astronomy among them no traces can be +discovered.’ Beausobre (<i>Histoire de Manichée</i>, 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 <i>Biographie Universelle</i>, vol. +v. p. 321.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Grant's History of Physical Astronomy</i>, 1852, +p. 319.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Somerville's Physical Geography</i>, vol. i. p. +149. For a singular instance of one of these sandbanks being formed into +an island, see <i>Journal of Geograph. Society</i>, 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 <i>Lyell's Geology</i>, p. +694, with <i>Somerville's Connexion of the Sciences</i>, p. 294. As to the +probable southern limits of the plateau of the Sahara, see <i>Richardson's +Mission to Central Africa</i>, 1853, vol. ii. pp. 146, 156; and as to the +part of it adjoining the Mandingo country, see <i>Mungo Park's Travels</i>, +vol. i. pp. 237, 238. Respecting the country south of Mandara, some +scanty information was collected by Denham in the neighbourhood of Lake +Tchad. <i>Denham's Northern and Central Africa</i>, pp. 121, 122, 144–146.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Richardson, who travelled through it south of Tripoli, +notices its ‘features of sterility, of unconquerable barrenness.’ +<i>Richardson's Sahara</i>, 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. <i>Denham's Central Africa</i>, 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 +<i>Travels of Ibn Batuta</i>, p. 233, which should be compared with the +account given by Diodorus Siculus of the journey of Alexander to the +temple of Ammon. <i>Bibliothec. Historic.</i> lib. xvii. vol. vii. p. 348.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Mission to Central Africa</i>, +vol. i. pp. 304, 305. See similar remarks in <i>Pallme's Travels in +Kordofan</i>, pp. 108, 109.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> 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. <i>Abd-Allatif</i>, <i>Relation de l'Egypte</i>, +pp. 329–340, 374–376, and Appendix, p. 504. See also on these periodical +inundations. <i>Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians</i>, 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 <i>Bunsen's Egypt</i>, vol. i. p. 409. The expression, therefore, +of Herodotus (book ii. chap. v. vol. i. p. 484), δῶρον τοῦ ποταμοῦ +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 <i>Heeren's African Nations</i>, +vol. ii. p. 58; <i>Reynier</i>, <i>Economie des Arabes</i>, p. 3; <i>Postan's on the +Nile and Indus</i>, in <i>Journal of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. vii. p. 275; and +on the difference between the soil of the Nile and that of the +surrounding desert, see <i>Volney</i>, <i>Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte</i>, vol. +i. p. 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Wilkinson's +Ancient Egyptians</i>, vol. i. p. 216. According to Gerard, ‘the mean width +of the valley between Syene and Cairo is about nine miles.’ Note in +<i>Heeren's African Nations</i>, vol. ii. p. 62.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Hamilton's Ægyptiaca</i>, pp. 61, 62. It is a shame that such +nonsense should be written in the nineteenth century: and yet a still +more recent author (<i>Vyse on the Pyramids</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> 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. <i>Rey</i>, +<i>Science Sociale</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> ‘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.’ +<i>Mill's Principles of Political Economy</i>, 1849, vol. i. p. 425. See also +vol. ii. pp. 264, 265, and <i>M'Culloch's Political Economy</i>, pp. 379, +380. Ricardo, in his <i>Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn</i>, +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.’ <i>Ricardo's Works</i>, p. 379.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> The standard of comfort being of course supposed the +same.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> ‘No point is better established, than that the supply of +labourers will always ultimately be in proportion to the means of +supporting them.’ <i>Principles of Political Economy</i>, chap. xxi. in +<i>Ricardo's Works</i>, p. 176. Compare <i>Smith's Wealth of Nations</i>, book i. +chap. xi. p. 86, and <i>M'Culloch's Political Economy</i>, p. 222.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> The division of food into azotized and non-azotized is +said to have been first pointed out by Magendie. See <i>Müller's +Physiology</i>, vol. i. p. 525. It is now recognised by most of the best +authorities. See, for instance, <i>Liebig's Animal Chemistry</i>, p. 134; +<i>Carpenter's Human Physiology</i>, p. 685; <i>Brande's Chemistry</i>, 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 <i>The Composition of Foods</i>, in <i>Report of British Association +for 1852</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Liebig's Letters on Chemistry</i>, p. 372.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> 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 <i>Turner's +Chemistry</i>, 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. <i>Brodie's Physiological +Researches</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> 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 <i>Elliotson's Human Physiology</i>, pp. +65, 160. The division by M. Lepelletier into ‘les alimens solides et les +boissons’ is of course purely empirical. <i>Lepelletier</i>, <i>Physiologie +Médicale</i>, vol. ii. p. 100, Paris, 1832. In regard to Prout's +classification, compare <i>Burdach's Traité de Physiologie</i>, vol. ix. p. +240, with <i>Wagner's Physiology</i>, p. 452.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> 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 <i>Carpenter's Human Physiology</i>, 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 <i>Paget's Lectures on Surgical Pathology</i>, 1853, vol. +i. pp. 6, 7, 434; <i>Carpenter's Human Physiology</i>, pp. 192, 193, 222; +<i>Simon's Animal Chemistry</i>, vol. ii. p. 426; <i>Henle</i>, <i>Anatomie +Générale</i>, 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, <i>Chimie Anatomique</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> 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 <i>Williams's Principles of Medicine</i>, p. 36; and +on the connexion between the loss of animal heat and the appearance of +<i>rigor mortis</i> in the contractile parts of the body, see <i>Vogel's +Pathological Anatomy of the Human Body</i>, p. 532. Compare the important +and thoughtful work of Burdach, <i>Physiologie comme Science +d'Observation</i>, vol. v. pp. 144, 436, vol. ix. p. 231.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> 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 <i>Liebig's Animal Chemistry</i>, p. 78; +<i>Letters on Chemistry</i>, pp. 335, 336; <i>Turner's Chemistry</i>, vol. ii. p. +1319; <i>Müller's Physiology</i>, 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 <i>Müller</i>, +vol. i. p. 348; <i>Thomson's Animal Chemistry</i>, p. 633; and <i>Brodie's +Physiol. Researches</i>, 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 <i>Carpenter's Human Physiol.</i> pp. 109, 532; <i>Grant's +Comparative Anatomy</i>, p. 472; <i>Elliotson's Human Physiol.</i> p. 159. In +regard to the different dimensions of corpuscules, see <i>Henle</i>, +<i>Anatomie Générale</i>, vol. i. pp. 457–467, 494, 495; <i>Blainville</i>, +<i>Physiologie Comparée</i>, vol. i. pp. 298, 299, 301–304; <i>Milne Edwards</i>, +<i>Zoologie</i>, part i. pp. 54–56; <i>Fourth Report of British Association</i>, +pp. 117, 118; <i>Simon's Animal Chemistry</i>, vol. i. pp. 103, 104; and, +above all, the important observations of Mr. Gulliver (<i>Carpenter</i>, 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 <i>Williams's Principles of Medicine</i>, 1848, pp. +258–265, with <i>Paget's Surgical Pathology</i>, 1853, vol. i. pp. 313–317; +<i>Jones and Sieveking's Pathological Anatomy</i>, 1854, pp. 28, 105, 106. The +difficulties connected with the scientific study of inflammation are +evaded in <i>Vogel's Pathological Anatomy</i>, p. 418; a work which appears +to me to have been greatly overrated.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> On the amount of heat disengaged by the union of carbon and +oxygen, see the experiments of Dulong, in <i>Liebig's Animal Chemistry</i>, +p. 44; and those of Despretz, in <i>Thomson's Animal Chemistry</i>, p. 634. +Just in the same way, we find that the temperature of plants is +maintained by the combination of oxygen with carbon: see <i>Balfour's +Botany</i>, 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 <i>Report of British Association for 1849</i>, pp. +63–78. See also <i>Report for 1852, Transac. of Sec.</i> p. 40, and <i>Liebig +and Kopp's Reports on the Progress of Chemistry</i>, vol. i. p. 34, vol. +iii. p. 16, vol. iv. p. 20; also <i>Pouillet</i>, <i>Elémens de Physique</i>, +Paris, 1832, vol. i. part i. p. 411.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> 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 <i>Turner's Elements +of Chemistry</i>, vol. i. pp. 146–151. Compare <i>Brande's Chemistry</i>, vol. +i. pp. 139–144; <i>Cuvier</i>, <i>Progrès des Sciences</i>, vol. ii. p. 255; +<i>Somerville's Connexion of the Sciences</i>, pp. 120, 121. But none of +these writers have considered the law so philosophically as M. A. Comte, +<i>Philosophie Positive</i>, vol. iii. pp. 133–176, one of the best chapters +in his very profound, but ill-understood work.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Robin et Verdeil</i>, <i>Chimie Anatomique</i>, +vol. ii. p. 44. Compare <i>Simon's Lectures on Pathology</i>, 1850, p. 188, +for the diminished quantity of respiration in a high temperature; though +one may question Mr. Simon's inference that <i>therefore</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> ‘The consumption of oxygen in a given time may be +expressed by the number of respirations.’ <i>Liebig's Letters on +Chemistry</i>, p. 314; and see <i>Thomson's Animal Chemistry</i>, 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. <i>Milne Edwards</i>, <i>Zoologie</i>, part i. p. 88, part ii. p. +371; <i>Flourens</i>, <i>Travaux de Cuvier</i>, pp. 153, 154, 265, 266. Compare, +on the connexion between respiration and the locomotive organs, +<i>Beclard</i>, <i>Anatomie Générale</i>, pp. 39, 44; <i>Burdach</i>, <i>Traité de +Physiologie</i>, vol. ix. pp. 485, 556–559; <i>Carus's Comparative Anatomy</i>, +vol. i. pp. 99, 164, 358, vol. ii. pp. 142, 160; <i>Grant's Comparative +Anatomy</i>, pp. 455, 495, 522, 529, 537; <i>Rymer Jones's Animal Kingdom</i>, +pp. 369, 440, 692, 714, 720; <i>Owen's Invertebrata</i>, pp. 322, 345, 386, +505. Thus too it has been experimentally ascertained, that in human +beings exercise increases the amount of carbonic-acid gas. <i>Mayo's Human +Physiology</i>, p. 64; <i>Liebig and Kopp's Reports</i>, vol. iii. p. 359.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Wrangel's Polar +Expedition</i>, pp. 79, 102; <i>Richardson's Arctic Expedition</i>, vol. i. p. +385; <i>Simpson's North Coast of America</i>, 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 <i>Crantz</i>, <i>History +of Greenland</i>, vol. i. pp. 46, 62, 338.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> See the note at the end of this chapter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Liebig's Letters on +Chemistry</i>, p. 320; see also p. 375, and <i>Turner's Chemistry</i>, vol. ii. +p. 1315. According to Prout (<i>Mayo's Human Physiol.</i> 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 (<i>Polar Expedition</i>, 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 +<i>Simpson's Discoveries on the North Coast of America</i>, pp. 147, 404.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> ‘So common, that no plant is destitute of it.’ <i>Lindley's +Botany</i>, 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, +<i>Reports on Botany by the Ray Society</i>, pp. 223, 370; and respecting its +predominance in the vegetable world, compare <i>Thomson's Chemistry of +Vegetables</i>, pp. 650–652, 875; <i>Brande's Chemistry</i>, vol. ii. p. 1160; +<i>Turner's Chemistry</i>, vol. ii. p. 1236; <i>Liebig and Kopp's Reports</i>, +vol. ii. pp. 97, 98, 122.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> The oxygen is 49.39 out of 100. See the table in <i>Liebig's +Letters on Chemistry</i>, p. 379. Amidin, which is the soluble part of +starch, contains 53.33 per cent. of oxygen. See <i>Thomson's Chemistry of +Vegetables</i>, p. 654, on the authority of Prout, who has the reputation +of being an accurate experimenter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Of which a single whale will yield ‘cent vingt tonneaux.’ +<i>Cuvier</i>, <i>Règne Animal</i>, vol. i. p. 297. In regard to the solid food, Sir +J. Richardson (<i>Arctic Expedition</i>, 1851, vol. i. p. 243) says that the +inhabitants of the Arctic regions only maintain themselves by chasing +whales and ‘consuming blubber.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Liebig's Animal Chemistry</i>, p. +16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Sir J. Malcolm (<i>History of Persia</i>, 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 (<i>Règne Animal</i>, 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 <i>Wrangel's Polar +Expedition</i>, pp. 70, 71, 191, 192; <i>Simpson's Discoveries on the North +Coast of America</i>, p. 249; <i>Crantz</i>, <i>History of Greenland</i>, vol. i. pp. +22, 32, 105, 131, 154, 155, vol. ii. pp. 203, 265, 324.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> ‘Cabanis’ (<i>Rapports du Physique et du Moral</i>, 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 <i>Simpson's Discov. on North Coast of America</i>, p. 218; +<i>Custine's Russie</i>, vol. iv. p. 66; <i>Wrangel's Expedition</i>, pp. 21, 327; +<i>Crantz</i>, <i>History of Greenland</i>, vol. i. pp. 145, 360; <i>Richardson's +Central Africa</i>, vol. ii. p. 46; <i>Richardson's Sahara</i>, vol. i. p. 137; +<i>Denham's Africa</i>, p. 37; <i>Journal of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. v. p. 144, +vol. viii. p. 188; <i>Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia</i>, vol. ii. p. +265; <i>Niebuhr</i>, <i>Description de l'Arabie</i>, p. 45; <i>Ulloa's Voyage to +South America</i>, vol. i. pp. 403, 408; <i>Journal of Geograph. Society</i>, +vol. iii. p. 283, vol. vi. p. 85, vol. xix. p. 121; <i>Spix and Martius's +Travels in Brazil</i>, vol. i. p. 164; <i>Southey's History of Brazil</i>, vol. +iii. p. 848; <i>Volney</i>, <i>Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte</i>, vol. i. pp. 379, +380, 460; <i>Low's Sarawak</i>, p. 140.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> Meyen (<i>Geography of Plants</i>, 1846, p. 313) says that the +potato was introduced into Ireland in 1586; but according to Mr. +M'Culloch (<i>Dictionary of Commerce</i>, 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 <i>Loudon's Encyclop. +of Agriculture</i>, p. 845: ‘first planted by Sir Walter Raleigh on his +estate of Youghall, near Cork.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Adam Smith (<i>Wealth of Nations</i>, 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.’ <i>Loudon's +Encyclop. of Agriculture</i>, 5th edit. 1844, p. 845. So, too, in +<i>M'Culloch's Dict.</i> 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 <i>Phillips on Scrofula</i>, 1846, p. 177.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> <i>Malthus</i>, <i>Essay on Population</i>, vol. i. pp. 424, 425, +431, 435, 441, 442; <i>M'Culloch's Political Economy</i>, pp. 381, 382.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> The lowest agricultural wages in our time have been in +England about 1<i>s.</i> 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<i>s.</i> a week; those in Yorkshire and +Northumberland being nearly as high. <i>Thornton on Over-Population</i>, pp. +12–15, 24, 25. Godwin, writing in 1820, estimates the average at 1<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i> a day. <i>Godwin on Population</i>, p. 574. Mr. Phillips, in his work +<i>On Scrofula</i>, 1846, p. 345, says, ‘at present the ratio of wages is +from 9<i>s.</i> to 10<i>s.</i>’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> The most miserable part, namely Connaught, in 1733, +contained 242,160 inhabitants; and in 1821, 1,110,229. See <i>Sadler's Law +of Population</i>, vol. ii. p. 490.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> 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—<i>Fourpence</i> a day for the +labourers of Ireland.’ <i>Inglis</i>, <i>Journey throughout Ireland in 1834</i>, +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.’ <i>Inglis</i>, 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 <i>Cloncurry's Recollections</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> 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. <i>Kay's Social +Condition of the People</i>, 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 <i>Essay on Population</i>, 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 <i>Journal of Statistical Society</i>, vol. vii. p. 24, with +<i>Thornton on Over-Population</i>, 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 <i>Parliamentary History</i>, +vol. xxxiv. p. 222. So, too, in North America, ‘they are most willing to +work hard.’ <i>Lyell's Second Visit to the United States</i>, 1849, vol. i. +p. 187.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> In a recent work of considerable ingenuity (<i>Doubleday's +True Law of Population</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Liebig's Animal +Chemistry</i>, p. 19; <i>Holland's Medical Notes</i>, p. 473; <i>Pouillet</i>, +<i>Elémens de Physique</i>, vol. i. part i. p. 414; <i>Burdach's Traité de +Physiologie</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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. <i>Godwin on Population</i>, p. 317.</p> + +<p>Since writing the above, I have found that these views of Mr. +Doubleday's were in a great measure anticipated by Fourier. See <i>Rey</i>, +<i>Science Sociale</i>; vol. i. p. 185.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> 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 <i>Mill's History of +India</i>, vol. ii. p. 178; <i>Bohlen</i>, <i>das alte Indien</i>, vol. i. p. 11; +<i>Meiners über die Länder in Asien</i>, vol. i. p. 224. The word itself is +not found in the old Sanscrit, and is of Persian origin. <i>Halhed's +Preface to the Gentoo Laws</i>, pp. xx. xxi.; <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. +iii. pp. 368, 369.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Meiners</i>, +<i>Länder in Asien</i>, 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.’ <i>Rhode</i>, <i>Religiöse +Bildung der Hindus</i>, vol. i. p. 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> This is evident from the frequent and familiar mention of +it in that remarkable relic of antiquity, the Institutes of Menu. See +the <i>Institutes</i>, in <i>Works of Sir W. Jones</i>, vol. iii. pp. 87, 132, +156, 200, 215, 366, 400, 403, 434. Thus too, in the enumeration of Foods +in <i>Vishnu Purana</i>, pp. 46, 47, rice is the first mentioned. See further +evidence in <i>Bohlen</i>, <i>das alte Indien</i>, vol. i. p. 22, vol. ii. pp. 159, +160; <i>Wilson's Theatre of the Hindus</i>, vol. i. part ii. pp. 15, 16, 37, +92, 95, vol. ii. part ii. p. 35, part iii. p. 64; <i>Notes on the +Ma-habharata</i>, in <i>Journal of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. vii. p. 141; +<i>Travels of Ibn Batuta in Fourteenth Century</i>, p. 164; <i>Colebrooke's +Digest of Hindu Law</i>, vol. i. p. 499, vol. ii. pp. 44, 48, 436, 569, +vol. iii. pp. 11, 148, 205, 206, 207, 266, 364, 530; <i>Asiatic +Researches</i>, vol. vii. pp. 299, 302; <i>Ward on the Hindoos</i>, vol. i. p. +209, vol. iii. p. 105.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> ‘It contains a greater proportion of nutritious matter +than any of the cerealia.’ <i>Somerville's Physical Geography</i>, vol. ii. +p. 220.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> It contains from 83.8 to 85.07 percent of starch. +<i>Brande's Chemistry</i>, vol. ii. p. 1624; <i>Thomson's Chemistry of Organic +Bodies</i>, p. 883.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> It is difficult to collect sufficient evidence to strike +an average; but in Egypt, according to Savary, rice ‘produces eighty +bushels for one.’ <i>Loudon's Encyclop. of Agriculture</i>, p. 173. In +Tennasserim, the yield is from 80 to 100. <i>Low's History of +Tennasserim</i>, in <i>Journal of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. iii. p. 29. In South +America, 250 fold, according to Spix and Martius (<i>Travels in Brazil</i>, +vol. ii. p. 79); or from 200 to 300, according to Southey (<i>History of +Brazil</i>, 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. <i>Meyen's Geography of Plants</i>, 1846, p. 301.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> <i>Elphinstone's History of India</i>, 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 <i>Buchanan's Journey through the Countries of Mysore, +Canara, and Malabar</i>, 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.’ <i>Gibson on Indian Agriculture</i>, +in <i>Journal of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. viii. p. 100.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> <i>Marsden's History of Sumatra</i>, pp. 56, 59; <i>Raffles' +History of Java</i>, vol. i. pp. 39, 106, 119, 129, 240; <i>Percival's +Ceylon</i>, pp. 337, 364; <i>Transac. of Society of Bombay</i>, vol. ii. p. 155; +<i>Transac. of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. i. p. 510; <i>Journal of Asiatic +Society</i>, 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; <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. v. pp. 124, 229, vol. xii. p. +148, vol. xvi. pp. 171, 172; <i>Journal of Geograph. Society</i>, vol. ii. p. +86, vol. iii. pp. 124, 295, 300, vol. v. p. 263, vol. viii. pp. 341, +359, vol. xix. pp. 132, 137.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> 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 +<i>Humboldt's Cosmos</i>, vol. ii. p. 472, with <i>Crawfurd's History of the +Indian Archipelago</i>, vol. i. p. 358. In the fourteenth century, it was +the common food on the Zanguebar Coast; and is now universal in +Madagascar. <i>Travels of Ibn Batuta in Fourteenth Century</i>, p. 56; +<i>Ellis's History of Madagascar</i>, vol. i. pp. 39, 297–304, vol. ii. p. +292; <i>Journal of Geograph. Society</i>, vol. iii. p. 212. From Madagascar +its seeds were, according to <i>M'Culloch's Dictionary of Commerce</i>, p. +1105, carried to Carolina late in the seventeenth century. It is now +cultivated in Nicaragua (<i>Squier's Central America</i>, vol. i. p. 38) and +in South America (<i>Henderson's Hist. of Brazil</i>, pp. 292, 307, 395, 440, +488), where it is said to grow wild. Compare <i>Meyen's Geography of +Plants</i>, pp. 291, 297, with <i>Azara</i>, <i>Voyages dans l'Amérique +Méridionale</i>, 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 <i>Humboldt</i>, <i>Nouvelle +Espagne</i>, vol. ii. pp. 409, 410.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> 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 <i>Bibliothec. Hist.</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> 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? <i>The oppression of ages has taught him implicit +submission.</i>’ <i>Vans Kennedy</i>, in <i>Transactions of the Society of Bombay</i>, +vol. iii. p. 144. Compare the observations of Charles Hamilton in +<i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. i. p. 305.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> The impossibility of having a standard of value, is +clearly pointed out in <i>Turgot's Réflexions sur la Formation et la +Distribution des Richesses</i>, in <i>Œuvres</i>, vol. v. pp. 51, 52. Compare +<i>Ricardo's Works</i>, pp. 11, 28–30, 46, 166, 253, 270, 401, with +<i>M'Culloch's Principles of Political Economy</i>, pp. 298, 299, 307.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> <i>Smith's Wealth of Nations</i>, 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 <i>Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law</i>, vol. i. pp. 72, 81.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> Ricardo (<i>Principles of Political Economy</i>, chap. vi. in +<i>Works</i>, 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.’ <i>Political Economy</i>, chap. vii., +<i>Ricardo's Works</i>, p. 82. Compare <i>Mill's Principles of Political +Economy</i>, vol. i. p. 509, vol. ii. p. 225.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> I take the estimate of Mr. Elphinstone (<i>History of +India</i>, pp. 225–228) as midway between Sir William Jones (<i>Works</i>, vol. +iii. p. 56) and Mr. Wilson (<i>Rig Veda Sanhita</i>, vol. i. p. xlvii.).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> <i>Institutes of Menu</i>, chap. viii. sec. 140–142, in <i>Works +of Sir W. Jones</i>, vol. iii. p. 295. The subsequent Sanscrit commentators +recognize nearly the same rate of interest, the minimum being fifteen +per cent. See <i>Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law</i>, vol. i. pp. 29, 36, +43, 98, 99, 237, vol. ii. p. 70.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> In <i>Colebrooke's Digest</i>, 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 (<i>Hist. of India</i>, 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. <i>Journal of the +Asiatic Society</i>, vol. ii. p. 271, vol. iii. pp. 28, 296, 332, vol. v. +p. 252.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> See, in <i>Mill's History of India</i>, 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. <i>Ward on the Hindoos</i>, vol. +ii. p. 190.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> Compare the table in <i>Loudon's Encyclopædia of +Agriculture</i>, p. 778, with <i>Mavor's note in Tusser's Five Hundred Points +of Husbandry</i>, p. 195, Lond. 1812, and <i>M'Culloch's Statistical Account +of the British Empire</i>, 1847, vol. i. p. 560.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> See <i>Rammohun Roy on the Judicial and Revenue Systems of +India</i>, 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. <i>Moorcroft's Notices of Cashmere</i>, in <i>Journal +of Geog. Society</i>, vol. ii. p. 266.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> Heber (<i>Journey through India</i>, 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 <i>Journal of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. i. p. 255, vol. +v. p. 171; <i>Rammohun Roy on the Judicial and Revenue Systems</i>, pp. 105, +106; <i>Sykes's Statistics of the Deccan Reports of the British +Association</i>, vol. vi. p. 321; <i>Ward's View of the Hindoos</i>, vol. iii. +p. 207; <i>Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law</i>, vol. ii. p. 184. On wages in +the south of India, the fullest information will be found in Buchanan's +valuable work, <i>Journey through the Mysore, Canara, and Malabar</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Forbes's Oriental Memoirs</i>, vol. ii. p. 297; <i>Bohlen</i>, +<i>das alte Indien</i>, vol. ii. p. 119; <i>Travels of Ibn Batuta</i>, p. 41; +<i>Ward's Hindoos</i>, 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 <i>Grote's History of Greece</i> +(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 (<i>Transac. of +Asiatic Society</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Turner's Embassy to Tibet</i>, p. 11. +Ibn Batuta, who travelled in Hindostan in the fourteenth century, says: +‘I never saw a country in which provisions were so cheap.’ <i>Travels of +Ibn Batuta</i>, p. 194.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> The Sudras are estimated by Ward (<i>View of the Hindoos</i>, +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 <i>Institutes of Menu</i>, chap. ix. sec. 326–333, in +<i>Works of Sir W. Jones</i>, vol. iii. pp. 380, 381, with <i>Colebrooke's +Digest</i>, 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’ (<i>Elphinstone's History of India</i>, 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.’ <i>Relig. Bildung der Hindus</i>, vol. ii. p. 561.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> ‘Either be banished with a mark on his hinder parts, or the +king shall cause a gash to be made on his buttock.’ <i>Institutes of +Menu</i>, chap. viii. sec. 281, in <i>Works of Sir W. Jones</i>, vol. iii. p. +315. See also <i>Ward's View of the Hindoos</i>, vol. iii. p. 67.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> <i>Menu</i>, chap. viii. sec. 271, in <i>Jones's Works</i>, vol. +iii. p. 314.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> <i>Menu</i>, chap. viii. sec. 270.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> ‘If a Sudra gives much and frequent molestation to a +Brahmin, the magistrate shall put him to death.’ <i>Halhed's Code of +Gentoo Laws</i>, p. 262.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> <i>Halhed's Code of Gentoo Laws</i>, p. 207. As to the case of +striking a Brahmin, see <i>Rammohun Roy on the Veds</i>, p. 227, 2nd edit. +1832.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Halhed</i>, p. 262. Compare the prohibition in +<i>Menu</i>, chap. iv. sec. 99, chap. x. sec. 109–111, in <i>Jones's Works</i>, +vol. iii. pp. 174, 398.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> <i>Halhed</i>, 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?’ <i>Wilson's Theatre of the Hindus</i>, vol. +i. part ii. p. 170.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> <i>Ward's View of the Hindoos</i>, vol. iv. p. 308. To this the +only exception was in the case of theft. <i>Mill's History of India</i>, vol. +i. pp. 193, 260. A Brahmin could ‘on no account be capitally punished.’ +<i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. xv. p. 44.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> <i>Menu</i>, chap. xi. sec. 132, in <i>Works of Sir W. Jones</i>, +vol. iii. p. 422.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> ‘A Brahmin, if he take a Sudra to his bed as his first +wife, sinks to the regions of torment.’ <i>Institutes of Menu</i>, chap. iii. +sec. 17, in <i>Jones</i>, vol. iii. p. 121. Compare the denial of funeral +rites, in <i>Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law</i>, vol. iii. p. 328. And on +the different hells invented by the Hindu clergy, see <i>Vishnu Purana</i>, +p. 207; <i>Ward's View of the Hindoos</i>, vol. ii. pp. 182, 183; <i>Coleman's +Mythology of the Hindus</i>, p. 113. The curious details in <i>Rhode</i>, <i>die +Religiöse Bildung der Hindus</i>, vol. i. pp. 392, 393, rather refer to +Buddhism, and should be compared with <i>Journal Asiatique</i>, I. série, +vol. viii. pp. 80, 81, Paris, 1826.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> <i>Menu</i>, chap. ii. sec. 31, in <i>Jones</i>, vol. iii. p. 87; +also noticed in <i>Rhode</i>, <i>Relig. Bildung</i>, vol. ii. p. 561: ‘sein Name +soll schon Verachtung ausdrücken.’ So, too, Mr. Elphinstone (<i>History of +India</i>, p. 17): ‘the proper name of a Sudra is directed to be expressive +of contempt.’ Compare <i>Origines du Droit</i>, in <i>Œuvres de Michelet</i>, +vol. ii. p. 387, Bruxelles, 1840.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> <i>Menu</i>, chap. x. sec. 129, in <i>Jones</i>, vol. iii. p. 401. +This law is pointed out by Mill (<i>History of India</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> ‘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?’ <i>Institutes of Menu</i>, chap. viii. sec. +414, in <i>Works of Sir W. Jones</i>, vol. iii. p. 333.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> 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.’ <i>M'Murdo on the +Country of Sindh</i>, in <i>Journal of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. i. p. 250. +Compare similar remarks in <i>Herder's Ideen zur Geschichte</i>, vol. iii. p. +114; and even in <i>Alison's History of Europe</i>, vol. x. pp. 419, 420.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> Volney (<i>Voyage en Egypte</i>, vol. i. pp. 58–63) has a good +chapter on the climate of Egypt.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> It is, however, unknown in South Africa. See the account +of the Palmaceæ in <i>Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom</i>, 1847, p. 136, and +<i>Meyen's Geog. of Plants</i>, p. 337.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> ‘Of all eatables used by the Arabs, dates are the most +favourite.’ <i>Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia</i>, 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 <i>Wellsted's Travels +in Arabia</i>, vol. i. pp. 188, 189, 236, 276, 290, 349. Compare <i>Niebuhr</i>, +<i>Description de l'Arabie</i>, 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 +<i>balah</i> précède le nom <i>bosr</i>; car la datte se nomme d'abord <i>tala</i>, en +suite <i>khalal</i>, puis <i>balah</i>, puis <i>bosr</i>, puis <i>rotab</i>, et enfin +<i>tamr</i>.'’ <i>De Sacy's note to Abd-Allatif, Relation, de l'Egypte</i>, p. 74, +and see p. 118. Other notices of the dates of Arabia will be found in +<i>Travels of Ibn Batuta in Fourteenth Century</i>, p. 66; <i>Journal of +Asiatic Soc.</i> vol. viii. p. 286; <i>Journal of Geograph. Soc.</i> vol. iv. p. +201, vol. vi. pp. 53, 55, 58, 66, 68, 74, vol. vii. p. 32, vol. ix. pp. +147, 151.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> Heeren (<i>Trade of the African Nations</i>, 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; <i>Denham's Central Africa</i>, p. +295; <i>Clapperton's Journal</i>, in <i>Appendix to Denham</i>, pp. 34, 59; +<i>Clapperton's Second Expedition</i>, p. 159. Further east they are somewhat +scarcer, but are found much more to the south than is supposed by +Heeren: see <i>Pallme's Kordofan</i>, p. 220.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Richardson's Travels in the Sahara</i>, 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 <i>Journal of Geograph. Society</i>, vol. +xii. p. 204.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> ‘It flourished spontaneously in the valley of the Nile.’ +<i>Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians</i>, 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 <i>M'William's Medical Expedition to the Niger</i>, pp. +71, 116; <i>Meredith's Gold Coast of Africa</i>, 1812, pp. 55, 56; <i>Laird and +Oldfield's Expedition into the Interior of Africa</i>, 1837, vol. ii. pp. +170, 213; <i>Bowdich</i>, <i>Mission to Ashantee</i>, pp. 69, 100, 152, 293, 386, +392. But I doubt if this is the same as the palm-wine mentioned in +<i>Balfour's Botany</i>, 1849, p. 532. Compare <i>Tuckey's Expedition to the +Zaire</i>, pp. 155, 216, 224, 356.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> <i>Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians</i>, vol. ii. pp. 175–178. See +also on the abundance of dates, the extracts from an Arabian geographer +in <i>Quatremère</i>, <i>Recherches sur l'Egypte</i>, pp. 220, 221.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> On their relation to the laws of climate, see the remarks +respecting the geographical limits of their power of ripening, in +<i>Jussieu's Botany</i>, edit. Wilson, 1849, p. 734.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> ‘In the valley of the Nile, a feddan (1¾ acre) is +sometimes planted with 400 trees.’ <i>Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians</i>, vol. +ii. p. 178. At Moorzuk an entire date-palm is only worth about a +shilling. <i>Richardson's Central Africa</i>, vol. i. p. 111.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> On the remarkable fertility of the Said, see +<i>Abd-Allatif</i>, <i>Relation de l'Egypte</i>, p. 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> The superiority of the ruins in Southern Egypt over those +in the northern part is noticed by Heeren (<i>African Nations</i>, 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 +<i>Quatremère</i>, <i>Recherches sur la Langue de l'Egypte</i>, pp. 20, 41, 42. +See also on the Saidic, pp. 134–140, and some good remarks by Dr. +Prichard (<i>Physical Hist.</i> vol. ii. p. 202); who, however, adopts the +paradoxical opinion of Georgi respecting the origin of the language of +the Thebaid.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> Abd-Allatif (<i>Relation de l'Egypte</i>, p. 32) says, that in +his time it was only cultivated in the Said. This curious work by +Abd-Allatif was written in <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1203. <i>Relation</i>, 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.’ <i>Meiners</i>, <i>Fruchtbarkeit der Länder</i>, 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 <i>Journal of Geog. Soc.</i> +vol. xv. p. 118, with <i>Volney</i>, <i>Voyage en Egypte</i>, vol. i. p. 195.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> ‘The return is in general not less than 240 for one; and +the average price is about 3<i>s.</i> 9<i>d.</i> the ardeb, which is scarcely +3<i>d.</i> per bushel.’ <i>Hamilton's Æqyptiaca</i>, 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 <i>Volney</i>, <i>Voyage en Egypte</i>, vol. +i. p. 161.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> Ἐπεὰν πλήρης γένηται ὁ +ποταμὸς, καὶ τὰ πεδία πελαγίσῃ, +φύεται ἐν τῷ ὅδατι κρίνεα πολλὰ, +τὰ Αἰγύπτιοι καλέουσι λωτόν⋅ +ταῦτα ἐπεὰν δρέψωσι, αὐαίνουσι +πρὸς ἥλιον⋅ καὶ ἔπειτα τὸ ἐκ τοῦ +μέσου τοῦ λωτοῦ τῇ μήκωνι +ἐὸν ἐμφερὲς, πτίσαντες ποιεῦνται ἐξ +αὐτοῦ ᾰρτους ὀπτοὺς πυρίπυρί. +<i>Herodot.</i> ii. 92, vol. i. p. 688.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> <i>Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians</i>, 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. +<i>Relation</i>, pp. 16–36, and the notes of De Sacy, pp. 37–134. On the +κύαμσς of Herodotus there are some botanical remarks worth +reading in the <i>Correspondence of Sir J. E. Smith</i>, vol. ii. pp. +224–232; but I doubt the assertion, p. 227, that Herodotus ‘knew nothing +of any other kind of κύαμσς in Egypt than that of the ordinary +bean.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians</i>, vol. ii. p. +372, and see vol. i. p. 277, vol. iv. p. 60. Niebuhr (<i>Description de +l'Arabie</i>, p. 136) says that the neighbourhood of Alexandria is so +fertile, that ‘le froment y rend le centuple.’ See also on its rich +vegetation, <i>Matter</i>, <i>Histoire de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie</i>, vol. i. p. +52.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> 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; <i>Essay on +Population</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147_147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> +Τρέφουσι δὲ τὰ παιδία μετά +τινος εὐχερείας ἀαπάνου, +καὶ παντελῶς ἀπίστον … ἀνυποδέτων +δὲ τῶν πλείστων καὶ +γυμνῶν τρεφομένων διὰ τὴν +εὐκρασιαν τῶν τόπων, τὴν πᾶσαν +δαπάνην οἱ γονεῒς, ᾰχρις ἂν εἰς +ἡλικίαν ἒλθῃ τὸ τέκνον, οὐ πλείω +ποιοῦσι δραχμῶν εῐκοσι, δἰ ἂς αἰτς +μάλιστα τὴν Αἴγυπτον συμβαίνει +πολυανθρωπίᾳ διαθέρειν, καὶ διὰ +τοῦτο πλείστας ἔχειν μεγάλων +ἔργωνκατασκευάς. +<i>Bibliothec. Hist.</i> book i. chap. lxxx. vol. i. p. 238.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148_148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> Frederick Schlegel (<i>Philos. of Hist.</i> 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, <i>Travels in Siberia</i>, vol. i. pp. 211, 297–301.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_149_149" id="Footnote_149_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor_149_149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> Ἐπ᾽ Ἀμάσιος δὲ βασιλέος +λέγεται Αἴγυπτος μάλισ-α δὴτότε +εὐδαιμονῆσαι, καὶ τὰ ἀπὸ τοῦ +ποταμοῦ τῇ χώρῃς τοῒσι ἀνθρπισι. +καὶ πόλις ἐν αὐτῇγενέσθαι τὰς +ἁπάσας τότε δισμνρίας τὰς οἰκεομένας. <i>Herodot.</i> book ii. chap. clxxvii. vol. +i. pp. 881, 882.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_150_150" id="Footnote_150_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor_150_150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> Diodorus, who, though an honest and painstaking man, was +in every respect inferior to Herodotus, says, impertinently enough, +ὅσα μὲν οὖν Ἠόδοτος καί τινες +τῶν τὰς Αἀγυπτίων πδάξεις συνταξαμένων +ἐσχεδιάκασιν, ἑκουσίως +προκρίναντες τῆς ἀληθείας τὸ +παραδοξολογεῖν, καὶ μύθους πλάττειν φυχαγωγίας ἕνεκα, παρήσομεν. +<i>Biblioth. Hist.</i> book i. chap. lxix. vol. i. p. 207. In other places he +alludes to Herodotus in the same tone, without actually mentioning him.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_151_151" id="Footnote_151_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor_151_151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> Πολυανθρωπία δὲ τὸ μὲν +παλαιὸν πολὺ προέσχε πάντων +τῶν γνωριζομένων τόπων κατὰ +τὴν οἰκουμένην, καὶ καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς δὲ +οὐδενὸς τῶν ᾰλλων δοκεῒ λείπεσθαι. +ἐπὶ μὲν γὰρ τῶν ἀχαίων χρόνων +ἔσχε κώμας ἀξιολόγους, καὶ πόλεις +πλείους τῶν μυρίων καὶ ὀκτακισχιλίων, +ὡ ἐν ταῒς ἀναγραφαῖς ὁρᾶν +ἐστι κατακεχωρισμένον. +<i>Diod. Sic. Biblioth. Hist.</i> book i. chap. xxxi. vol. i. p. 89.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_152_152" id="Footnote_152_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor_152_152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> Notwithstanding the positive assertions of M. Matter +(<i>Hist. de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie</i>, vol. ii. p. 285; compare <i>Hist. du +Gnosticisme</i>, 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.’ <i>Bunsen's Egypt</i>, vol. i. p. 60.) The Romans took little +interest in the subject (<i>Bunsen</i>, 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. <i>Journal of +Geographical Society</i>, vol. ii. p. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_153_153" id="Footnote_153_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor_153_153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> See on this some good remarks in <i>Heeren's African +Nations</i>, vol. ii. pp. 202–207; and as to the difference between the +traditions of Thebes and Memphis, see <i>Matter</i>, <i>Histoire de l'Ecole +d'Alexandrie</i>, vol. i. p. 7. The power and importance of the two cities +fluctuated, both being at different periods the capital. <i>Bunsen's +Egypt</i>, vol. ii. pp. 54, 55, 244, 445, 446; <i>Vyse on the Pyramids</i>, vol. +iii. pp. 27, 100; <i>Sharpe's History of Egypt</i>, vol. i. pp. 9, 19, 24, +34, 167, 185.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_154_154" id="Footnote_154_154"></a><a href="#FNanchor_154_154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> Sir John Herschel (<i>Disc. on Natural Philosophy</i>, p. 60) +calculates that the great pyramid weighs twelve thousand seven hundred +and sixty million pounds. Compare <i>Lyell's Principles of Geology</i>, 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 <i>Bunsen's Egypt</i>, vol. ii. p. 155, London, +1854, and <i>Vyse on the Pyramids</i>, 1840, vol. ii. p. 113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_155_155" id="Footnote_155_155"></a><a href="#FNanchor_155_155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> 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 +<i>Bunsen's Egypt</i>, vol. ii. pp. xvii. 88, 105, 372, 389; and <i>Sharpe's +History of Egypt</i>, vol. i. p. 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_156_156" id="Footnote_156_156"></a><a href="#FNanchor_156_156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> For an estimate of the expense at which, one of the +pyramids could be built in our time by European workmen, see <i>Vyse on +the Pyramids</i>, vol. ii. p. 268. On account, however, of the number of +disturbing causes, such calculations have little value.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_157_157" id="Footnote_157_157"></a><a href="#FNanchor_157_157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_158_158" id="Footnote_158_158"></a><a href="#FNanchor_158_158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> <i>Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians</i>, 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 <i>Diod. Sic. Bibliothec. Hist.</i> book i. chap. lxxiv. vol. i. p. +223.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_159_159" id="Footnote_159_159"></a><a href="#FNanchor_159_159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> <i>Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians</i>, vol. i. p. 263, vol. ii. +p. 2; <i>Sharpe's History of Egypt</i>, vol. ii. p. 24.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_160_160" id="Footnote_160_160"></a><a href="#FNanchor_160_160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> <i>Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians</i>, vol. ii. pp. 41, 42, +vol. iii. p. 69, vol. iv. p. 131. Compare Ammianus Marcellinus, in +<i>Hamilton's Ægyptiaca</i>, p. 309.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_161_161" id="Footnote_161_161"></a><a href="#FNanchor_161_161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> <i>Vyse on the Pyramids</i>, vol. i. p. 61, vol. ii. p. 92.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_162_162" id="Footnote_162_162"></a><a href="#FNanchor_162_162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Herder's Ideen zur +Geschichte</i>, vol. iii. pp. 103, 104: see also p. 293, and some admirable +remarks in <i>Volney's Voyage en Egypte</i>, 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. <i>Bunsen's Egypt</i>, vol. ii. p. 176, a +learned and enthusiastic work.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_163_163" id="Footnote_163_163"></a><a href="#FNanchor_163_163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> +Καὶ τοῦτο ἐκόμιζον μὲν ἐπ᾽ +ἔτεα τρία διοχίλιοι δὲ οἱ οσετετάχατο +ᾰνδρες ἀγωγέες. <i>Herodot.</i> book ii. chap. clxxv. +vol. i. p. 897. On the enormous weight of the stones which the Egyptians +sometimes carried, see <i>Bunsen's Egypt</i>, vol. i. p. 379; and as to the +machines employed, and the use of inclined roads for the transit, see +<i>Vyse on the Pyramids</i>, vol. i. p. 197, vol. iii. pp. 14, 38.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_164_164" id="Footnote_164_164"></a><a href="#FNanchor_164_164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> <i>Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_165_165" id="Footnote_165_165"></a><a href="#FNanchor_165_165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> +Τριάκοντα μὲν γὰρ καὶ ἒξ +μυριάδες ἀνὃρῶν, ὥς φασι, ταῖς +τῶν ἔργων λειτουργίαισμα +τέλος ἔσχε μόγις ἐτῶν εἴκοσι +διελθόντων <i>Diod. Sic. Bibliothec. +Hist.</i> book i. ch. lxiii. vol. i. p. 188.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_166_166" id="Footnote_166_166"></a><a href="#FNanchor_166_166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> ‘When compared with other parts of the New World, Mexico +and Peru may be considered as polished states.’ <i>History of America</i>, +book vii. in <i>Robertson's Works</i>, p. 904. See, to the same effect, +<i>Journal of Geograph. Society</i>, vol. v. p. 355.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_167_167" id="Footnote_167_167"></a><a href="#FNanchor_167_167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> Compare <i>Squier's Central America</i>, vol. i. pp. 34, 244, +358, 421, vol. ii. p. 307, with <i>Journal of Geograph. Society</i>, vol. +iii. p. 59, vol. viii. pp. 319, 323.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_168_168" id="Footnote_168_168"></a><a href="#FNanchor_168_168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> Mr. Squier (<i>Central America</i>, 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 (<i>Central +America</i>, 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 +<i>Larenaudière's Mexique et Guatemala</i>, pp. 308–327, and in <i>Journal of +Geograph. Society</i>, vol. iii. pp. 60–63.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_169_169" id="Footnote_169_169"></a><a href="#FNanchor_169_169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a> See the remarks on Yucatan in <i>Prichard's Physical +History of Mankind</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_170_170" id="Footnote_170_170"></a><a href="#FNanchor_170_170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> Dr. M'Culloh (<i>Researches concerning the Aboriginal +History of America</i>, 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.’ <i>Mexique et Guatemala, +par Larenaudière</i>, p. 8, Paris, 1843. Dr. Prichard, too, refers the +ruins in Central America to ‘the Mayan race:’ see <i>Prichard on +Ethnology</i>, in <i>Report of British Association for 1847</i>, p. 252. But the +evidence for these and similar statements is very unsatisfactory.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_171_171" id="Footnote_171_171"></a><a href="#FNanchor_171_171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> Respecting the connection between the vegetable +productions of a country and its geognostic peculiarities, little is yet +known; but the reader may compare <i>Meyen's Geography of Plants</i>, p. 64, +with <i>Reports on Botany by the Ray Society</i>, 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 <i>Turner's Chemistry</i>, vol. +ii. pp. 1310–1314; <i>Brande's Chemistry</i>, vol. i. p. 691, vol. ii. pp. +1867–1869; <i>Balfour's Botany</i>, pp. 116–122; <i>Liebig and Kopp's Reports</i>, +vol. ii. pp. 315, 328, vol. iii. p. 463, vol. iv. pp. 438, 442, 446.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_172_172" id="Footnote_172_172"></a><a href="#FNanchor_172_172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> As to the influence of heat and moisture on the +geographical distribution of plants, see <i>Henslow's Botany</i>, pp. +295–300, and <i>Balfour's Botany</i>, pp. 560–563. Meyen (<i>Geog. of Plants</i>, +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 <i>Erman's Siberia</i>, vol. i. pp. 64, 65, with <i>Reports on Botany +by the Ray Society</i>, 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 <i>Lindley's Botany</i>, vol. ii. pp. 261, 262, +London, 1848; and on the direct nourishment which water supplies to +vegetables, see Burdache's great work, <i>Traité de Physiologie</i>, vol. ix. +pp. 254, 398.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_173_173" id="Footnote_173_173"></a><a href="#FNanchor_173_173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_174_174" id="Footnote_174_174"></a><a href="#FNanchor_174_174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> 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. <i>Somerville's Physical Geography</i>, vol. i. p. 423. Indeed, it +is said in an essay on the Hydrography of South America (<i>Journal of +Geograph. Society</i>, 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 (<i>Geology +of North America</i>, p. 8, <i>Brit. Assoc. for 1834</i>) says, ‘the area +drained by the Mississippi and all its tributaries is computed at +1,099,000 square miles.’ Compare <i>Richardson's Arctic Expedition</i>, vol. +ii. p. 164.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_175_175" id="Footnote_175_175"></a><a href="#FNanchor_175_175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> The Oregon, or Columbia as it is sometimes called, forms +a remarkable botanical line, which is the boundary of the Californian +flora. See <i>Reports on Botany by the Ray Society</i>, p. 113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_176_176" id="Footnote_176_176"></a><a href="#FNanchor_176_176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> For proof that the mean temperature of the western coast +of North America is higher than that of the eastern coast, see <i>Journal +of Geograph. Society</i>, vol. ix. p. 380, vol. xi. pp. 168, 216; +<i>Humboldt</i>, <i>la Nouvelle Espagne</i>, vol. i. pp. 42, 336; <i>Richardson's +Arctic Expedition</i>, 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 <i>Reports on Botany by the Ray Society</i>, p. 8, which should be +compared with <i>Forry on the Climate of the United States and its Endemic +Influences</i>, New York, 1842, p. 89.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_177_177" id="Footnote_177_177"></a><a href="#FNanchor_177_177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> ‘Writers on climate have remarked that the eastern coasts +of continents in the northern hemisphere have a lower mean temperature +than the western coasts.’ <i>Richardson on North American Zoology</i>, p. +129, <i>Brit. Assoc. for</i> 1836: see also <i>Report for</i> 1841, <i>Sections</i>, p. +28; <i>Davis's China</i>, vol. iii. pp. 140, 141; <i>Journal of Geograph. +Society</i>, vol. xxii. p. 176.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_178_178" id="Footnote_178_178"></a><a href="#FNanchor_178_178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> 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, <i>Researches concerning +America</i>, 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 +<i>Dobell's Travels in Kamtschatka and Siberia</i>, 1830, vol. ii. p. 112. +And on this question of intercourse between the two continents, compare +<i>Crantz's History of Greenland</i>, vol. i. pp. 259, 260, with +<i>Richardson's Arctic Expedition</i>, vol. i. pp. 362, 363, and <i>Prichard's +Physical History of Mankind</i>, vol. iv. pp. 458, 463, vol. v. pp. 371, +378.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_179_179" id="Footnote_179_179"></a><a href="#FNanchor_179_179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Kaemtz's +Meteorology</i>, 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.’ <i>Humboldt</i>, <i>la Nouvelle Espagne</i>, +vol. i. p. 46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_180_180" id="Footnote_180_180"></a><a href="#FNanchor_180_180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Meyen's +Geography of Plants</i>, 1846, p. 24.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_181_181" id="Footnote_181_181"></a><a href="#FNanchor_181_181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Darwin's Journal of Researches</i>, Lond. 1840, p. 268. +Compare <i>Meyen's Geog. of Plants</i>, pp. 25, 188. So that the proposition +of Daniell (<i>Meteorological Essays</i>, p. 104, sec. xiv.) is expressed too +generally, and should be confined to continents north of the equator.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_182_182" id="Footnote_182_182"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182_182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> The trade-winds sometimes reach the thirtieth parallel. +See <i>Daniell's Meteorological Essays</i>, p. 469. Dr. Traill (<i>Physical +Geography</i>, 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; <i>History of America</i>, book iv. in <i>Robertson's Works</i>, +p. 781.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_183_183" id="Footnote_183_183"></a><a href="#FNanchor_183_183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> ‘In the northern hemisphere the trade-wind blows from the +north-east, and in the southern from the south-east.’ <i>Meyen's Geog. of +Plants</i>, p. 42. Compare <i>Walsh's Brazil</i>, vol. i. p. 112, vol. ii. p. +494; and on the ‘tropical east-wind’ of the Gulf of Mexico, see <i>Forry's +Climate of the United States</i>, p. 206. Dr. Forry says that it has given +to the growth of the trees ‘an inclination from the sea.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_184_184" id="Footnote_184_184"></a><a href="#FNanchor_184_184"><span class="label">[184]</span></a> Respecting the causes of the trade-winds, see +<i>Somerville's Connexion of the Physical Sciences</i>, pp. 136, 137; +<i>Leslie's Natural Philosophy</i>, p. 518; <i>Daniell's Meteorological +Essays</i>, pp. 44, 102, 476–481; <i>Kaemtz's Meteorology</i>, pp. 37–39; +<i>Prout's Bridgewater Treatise</i>, pp. 254–256. The discovery of the true +theory is often ascribed to Mr. Daniell; but Hadley was the real +discoverer. <i>Note in Prout</i>, 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 <i>Kaemtz</i>, 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 <i>Report of British Association for</i> +1847 (<i>Transac. of Sections</i>, p. 30) and <i>Report for</i> 1848, p. 94. The +monsoons are noticed in <i>Humboldt's Cosmos</i>, vol. ii. p. 485; <i>Asiatic +Researches</i>, vol. xviii. part i. p. 261; <i>Thirlwall's History of +Greece</i>, vol. vii. pp. 13, 55; <i>Journal of Geograph. Society</i>, 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; +<i>Low's Sarawak</i>, p. 30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_185_185" id="Footnote_185_185"></a><a href="#FNanchor_185_185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> <i>Lyell's Principles of Geology</i>, pp. 201, 714, 715; see +also <i>Somerville's Physical Geography</i>, vol. ii. p. 71. And on this +confining power of the Cordillera of the Andes, see <i>Azara</i>, <i>Voyages +dans l'Amérique Méridionale</i>, 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. <i>Tschudi's Travels in Peru</i>, p. +290.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_186_186" id="Footnote_186_186"></a><a href="#FNanchor_186_186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> On the rain of Brazil, see <i>Daniell's Meteorological +Essays</i>, p. 335; <i>Darwin's Journal</i>, pp. 11, 33; <i>Spix and Martius's +Travels in Brazil</i>, vol. ii. p. 113; <i>Gardner's Travels in Brazil</i>, pp. +53, 99, 114, 175, 233, 394.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_187_187" id="Footnote_187_187"></a><a href="#FNanchor_187_187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Gardner's Travels in Brazil</i>, p. 9. See also on this +combination, <i>Walsh's Brazil</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_188_188" id="Footnote_188_188"></a><a href="#FNanchor_188_188"><span class="label">[188]</span></a> On the natural history of Brazil, I have compared a few +notices in <i>Swainson's Geography of Animals</i>, pp. 75–87, with <i>Cuvier</i>, +<i>Règne Animal</i>, 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; +<i>Azara</i>, <i>Amérique Méridionale</i>, vol. i. pp. 244–388, and the greater +part of vols. iii. and iv.; <i>Winckler</i>, <i>Geschichte der Botanik</i>, pp. +378, 576–578; <i>Southey's History of Brazil</i>, vol. i. p. 27, vol. iii. +pp. 315, 823; <i>Gardner's Brazil</i>, pp. 18, 32–34, 41–44, 131, 330; <i>Spix +and Martius's Brazil</i>, 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, <i>Somerville's Physical Geog.</i> vol. ii. pp. 204–206; <i>Prichard's +Physical History</i>, vol. v. p. 497; <i>Darwin's Journal</i>, pp. 11, 24; +<i>Walsh's Brazil</i>, vol. i. p. 145, vol. ii. pp. 29, 30, 253.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_189_189" id="Footnote_189_189"></a><a href="#FNanchor_189_189"><span class="label">[189]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Walsh's Brazil</i>, vol. ii. p. 19. And a very +eminent naturalist, Mr. Darwin, says (<i>Journal</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_190_190" id="Footnote_190_190"></a><a href="#FNanchor_190_190"><span class="label">[190]</span></a> Azara (<i>Amérique Méridionale</i>, 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 <i>Henderson's +History of Brazil</i>, pp. 28, 29, 107, 173, 248, 315, 473; <i>M'Culloh's +Researches concerning America</i>, p. 77; and the more recent account of +Dr. Martius, in <i>Journal of Geograph. Society</i>, vol. ii. pp. 191–199. +Even in 1817, it was rare to see a native in Rio de Janeiro (<i>Spix and +Martius's Travels in Brazil</i>, vol. i. p. 142); and Dr. Gardner (<i>Travels +in Brazil</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_191_191" id="Footnote_191_191"></a><a href="#FNanchor_191_191"><span class="label">[191]</span></a> Sir C. Lyell (<i>Principles of Geology</i>, 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.’ <i>Swainson on the Geography and +Classification of Animals</i>, p. 87. See more about these insects in +<i>Darwin's Journal</i>, pp. 37–43; <i>Southey's History of Brazil</i>, vol. i. +pp. 144, 256, 333–335, 343, vol. ii. pp. 365, 642, vol. iii. p. 876; +<i>Spix and Martius's Travels in Brazil</i>, vol. i. p. 259, vol. ii. p. 117; +<i>Cuvier</i>, <i>Règne Animal</i>, vol. iv. p. 320.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_192_192" id="Footnote_192_192"></a><a href="#FNanchor_192_192"><span class="label">[192]</span></a> The cultivated land is estimated at from 1½ to 2 per +cent. See <i>M'Culloch's Geog. Dict.</i> 1849, vol. i. p. 430.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_193_193" id="Footnote_193_193"></a><a href="#FNanchor_193_193"><span class="label">[193]</span></a> 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. <i>Humboldt</i>, <i>Nouv. +Espagne</i>, vol. ii. p. 855; <i>Gardner's Brazil</i>, p. 12; <i>M'Culloch's Geog. +Dict.</i> 1849, vol. i. pp. 430, 434. Mr. Walsh describes Brazil as +‘abounding in lands of the most exuberant fertility, but nearly +destitute of inhabitants.’ <i>Walsh's Brazil</i>, 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 <i>Alison's History</i>, vol. x. p. 229, the number +given is 5,000,000; but the area also is rather understated.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_194_194" id="Footnote_194_194"></a><a href="#FNanchor_194_194"><span class="label">[194]</span></a> 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. <i>Prescott's History of Mexico</i>, +vol. i. p. 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_195_195" id="Footnote_195_195"></a><a href="#FNanchor_195_195"><span class="label">[195]</span></a> A question has been raised as to the Asiatic origin of +maize: <i>Reynier</i>, <i>Economie des Arabes</i>, 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 <i>Meyen's Geography of +Plants</i>, pp. 44, 303, 304; <i>Walckenaer's note in Azara, Amérique +Méridionale</i>, vol. i. p. 149; <i>Cuvier</i>, <i>Progrès des Sciences +Naturelles</i>, vol. ii. p. 354; <i>Cuvier</i>, <i>Eloges Historiques</i>, vol. ii. +p. 178; <i>Loudon's Encyclopædia of Agriculture</i>, p. 829; <i>M'Culloch's +Dict. of Commerce</i>, 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 +<i>Ixtlilxochitl</i>, <i>Histoire des Chichimèques</i>, vol. i. pp. 53, 64, 240, +vol. ii. p. 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_196_196" id="Footnote_196_196"></a><a href="#FNanchor_196_196"><span class="label">[196]</span></a> ‘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.' <i>Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom</i>, 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 <i>Austen on the Forty Days' Maize</i>, in <i>Report of Brit. +Assoc. for</i> 1849, <i>Trans. of Sec.</i> p. 68.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_197_197" id="Footnote_197_197"></a><a href="#FNanchor_197_197"><span class="label">[197]</span></a> M. Meyen (<i>Geog. of Plants</i>, p. 302) and Mr. Balfour +(<i>Botany</i>, 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 +<i>Richardson's Arctic Expedition</i>, 1851, vol. ii. pp. 49, 234.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_198_198" id="Footnote_198_198"></a><a href="#FNanchor_198_198"><span class="label">[198]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Humboldt</i>, <i>la +Nouvelle Espagne</i>, vol. ii. p. 375.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_199_199" id="Footnote_199_199"></a><a href="#FNanchor_199_199"><span class="label">[199]</span></a> ‘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.’ +<i>Humboldt</i>, <i>Nouv. Espagne</i>, vol. ii. p. 374. Nearly the same estimate +is given by Mr. Ward: see <i>Ward's Mexico</i>, vol. i. p. 32, vol. ii. p. +230. In Central America (Guatemala), maize returns three hundred for +one. <i>Mexique et Guatemala, par Larenaudière</i>, p. 257.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_200_200" id="Footnote_200_200"></a><a href="#FNanchor_200_200"><span class="label">[200]</span></a> ‘La pomme de terre n'est pas indigène au Pérou.’ +<i>Humboldt</i>, <i>Nouv. Espagne</i>, vol. ii. p. 400. On the other hand, Cuvier +(<i>Histoire des Sciences Naturelles</i>, part ii. p. 185) peremptorily says, +‘il est impossible de douter qu'elle ne soit originaire du Pérou:’ see +also his <i>Eloges Historiques</i>, vol. ii. p. 171. Compare <i>Winckler</i>, +<i>Gesch. der Botanik</i>, p. 92: ‘Von einem gewissen Carate unter den +Gewächsen Peru's mit dem Namen papas aufgeführt.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_201_201" id="Footnote_201_201"></a><a href="#FNanchor_201_201"><span class="label">[201]</span></a> And has been used ever since for food. On the Peruvian +potato compare <i>Tschudi's Travels in Peru</i>, pp. 178, 368, 386; <i>Ulloa's +Voyage to South America</i>, 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 <i>Journal of Geograph. Society</i>, vol. xxi. p. 119.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_202_202" id="Footnote_202_202"></a><a href="#FNanchor_202_202"><span class="label">[202]</span></a> Humboldt (<i>Nouv. Espagne</i>, 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 <i>Bullock's Mexico</i>, p. +281.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_203_203" id="Footnote_203_203"></a><a href="#FNanchor_203_203"><span class="label">[203]</span></a> <i>M'Culloch's Geograph. Dict.</i>, 1849, vol. ii. p. 315.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_204_204" id="Footnote_204_204"></a><a href="#FNanchor_204_204"><span class="label">[204]</span></a> ‘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'<i>Humboldt</i>, <i>Nouvelle Espagne</i>, vol. ii. pp. 362, +363. See also <i>Prout's Bridgewater Treatise</i>, p. 333, edit. 1845; +<i>Prescott's Peru</i>, vol. i. pp. 131, 132; <i>Prescott's Mexico</i>, vol. i. p. +114. Earlier notices, but very imperfect ones, of this remarkable +vegetable may be found in <i>Ulloa's South America</i>, vol. i. p. 74; and in +<i>Boyle's Works</i>, vol. iii. p. 590.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_205_205" id="Footnote_205_205"></a><a href="#FNanchor_205_205"><span class="label">[205]</span></a> 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 <i>Humboldt</i>, +<i>Nouvelle Espagne</i>, vol. i. p. 92, with <i>Prichard's Physical History</i>, +vol. v. pp. 323, 329; <i>M'Culloch's Researches</i>, pp. 201–225; +<i>Larenaudière's Mexique</i>, pp. 51, 52; <i>Humboldt's Cosmos</i>, vol. iv. p. +456; <i>Journal of Geog. Society</i>, vol. vii. p. 3. However, their +astronomy, as might be expected, was accompanied by astrology: see +<i>Ixtlilxochitl</i>, <i>Histoire des Chichimèques</i>, vol. i. p. 168, vol. ii. pp. +94, 111.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_206_206" id="Footnote_206_206"></a><a href="#FNanchor_206_206"><span class="label">[206]</span></a> The works of art produced by the Mexicans and Peruvians +are under-rated by Robertson: who, however, admits that he had never +seen them. <i>History of America</i>, book vii., in <i>Robertson's Works</i>, 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, <i>History of Peru</i>, vol. +i. pp. 28, 142; <i>History of Mexico</i>, 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. <i>Humboldt, +Nouvelle Espagne</i>, vol. ii. p. 483, and elsewhere. Compare Mr. +Pentland's observations on the tombs in the neighbourhood of Titicaca +(<i>Jour. of Geog. Soc.</i> vol. x. p. 554) with <i>M'Culloh's Researches</i>, pp. +364–366; <i>Mexique par Larenaudière</i>, pp. 41, 42, 66; <i>Ulloa's South +America</i>, vol. i. pp. 465, 466.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_207_207" id="Footnote_207_207"></a><a href="#FNanchor_207_207"><span class="label">[207]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Prescott's History of Peru</i>, +vol. i. p. 56.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_208_208" id="Footnote_208_208"></a><a href="#FNanchor_208_208"><span class="label">[208]</span></a> Ondegardo emphatically says, ‘Solo el trabajo de las +personas era el tributo que se dava, porque ellos no poseian otra cosa.’ +<i>Prescott's Peru</i>, vol. i. p. 57. Compare <i>M'Culloh's Researches</i>, 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.’ <i>Larenaudière's Mexique</i>, p. +39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_209_209" id="Footnote_209_209"></a><a href="#FNanchor_209_209"><span class="label">[209]</span></a> Mr. Prescott notices this with surprise, though, under +the circumstances, it was in truth perfectly natural. He says (<i>Hist. of +Peru</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_210_210" id="Footnote_210_210"></a><a href="#FNanchor_210_210"><span class="label">[210]</span></a> The Mexicans being, as Prichard says (<i>Physical History</i>, +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.’ +<i>Ideen zur Geschichte der Menschheit</i>, vol. i. p. 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_211_211" id="Footnote_211_211"></a><a href="#FNanchor_211_211"><span class="label">[211]</span></a> See in <i>Humboldt's Nouvelle Espagne</i>, vol. i. p. 101, a +striking summary of the state of the Mexican people at the time of the +Spanish Conquest: see also <i>History of America</i>, book vii., in +<i>Robertson's Works</i>, p. 907.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_212_212" id="Footnote_212_212"></a><a href="#FNanchor_212_212"><span class="label">[212]</span></a> <i>Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico</i>, vol. i. +p. 34. Compare a similar remark on the invasion of Egypt in <i>Bunsen's +Egypt</i>, vol. ii. p. 414.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_213_213" id="Footnote_213_213"></a><a href="#FNanchor_213_213"><span class="label">[213]</span></a> 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. <i>Malcolm's +History of Persia</i>, vol. i. pp. 505, 506. Several attempts have been +made, but very unsuccessfully, to ascertain the period in which castes +were first instituted. Compare <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. vi. p. 251; +Heeren's <i>African Nations</i>, vol. ii. p. 121; <i>Bunsen's Egypt</i>, vol. ii. +p. 410; <i>Rammohun Roy on the Veds</i>, p. 269.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_214_214" id="Footnote_214_214"></a><a href="#FNanchor_214_214"><span class="label">[214]</span></a> <i>Prescott's History of Peru</i>, vol. i. pp. 143, 156.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_215_215" id="Footnote_215_215"></a><a href="#FNanchor_215_215"><span class="label">[215]</span></a> <i>Prescott's History of Mexico</i>, vol. i. p. 124.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_216_216" id="Footnote_216_216"></a><a href="#FNanchor_216_216"><span class="label">[216]</span></a> ‘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 mœurs, 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.’ <i>Humboldt</i>, +<i>Nouv. Espagne</i>, vol. i. pp. 95, 97. Turgot (<i>Œuvres</i>, vol. ii. pp. +226, 313, 314) has some admirable remarks on this fixity of opinion +natural to certain states of society. See also <i>Herder's Ideen zur +Geschichte</i>, 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 <i>Turner's Embassy to Tibet</i>, p. 41; +<i>Forbes's Oriental Memoirs</i>, vol. i. pp. 15, 164, vol. ii. p. 236; +<i>Mill's History of India</i>, vol. ii. p. 214; <i>Elphinstone's History of +India</i>, p. 48; <i>Otter's Life of Clarke</i>, vol. ii. p. 109; <i>Transac. of +Asiatic Society</i>, vol. ii. p. 64; <i>Journal of Asiat. Society</i>, vol. +viii. p. 116.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_217_217" id="Footnote_217_217"></a><a href="#FNanchor_217_217"><span class="label">[217]</span></a> ‘How scrupulous the Egyptians were, above all people, in +permitting the introduction of new customs in matters relating to the +gods.’ <i>Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians</i>, vol. iii. p. 262. Compare p. +275. Thus, too, M. Bunsen notices the ‘tenacity with which the Egyptians +adhered to old manners and customs.’ <i>Bunsen's Egypt</i>, vol. ii. p. 64. +See also some remarks on the difference between this spirit and the love +of novelty among the Greeks, in <i>Ritter's History of Ancient +Philosophy</i>, vol. iv. pp. 625, 626.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_218_218" id="Footnote_218_218"></a><a href="#FNanchor_218_218"><span class="label">[218]</span></a> <i>Herodot.</i> book ii. chap. 79: +πατρίοισι δὲ χρεώμενοι νόμοισι, +ἔλλον οὀδέα ἐιτέωνται: and see the note in +<i>Baehr</i>, vol. i. p. 660: ‘νόμους priores interpretes +explicarunt <i>cantilenas</i>, <i>hymnos</i>; Schweighæuserus rectius intellexit +<i>instituta ac mores</i>.’ In the same way, in Timæus, Plato represents an +Egyptian priest saying to Solon, Ἕλληνες ἀεὶ παῖδές +ἐστε, γέρων δὲ Ἕλλην οὐκ ἔστιν. +And when Solon asked what he meant, Νέοι ἐστε, was the reply, τὰς ψυχὰς πάντες⋅ οὐδεμίαν γὰρ ἐν +αὐταῖς ἔχετε δὶ ἀρχαίαν ἀκοὴν +πολιὸν δόξαν οὐδὲ μάθημα χρόνφ +πολιὸν οὐδέν. Chap. v. in <i>Platonis Opera</i>, vol. vii. p. 242, edit. Bekker, +Lond. 1826.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_219_219" id="Footnote_219_219"></a><a href="#FNanchor_219_219"><span class="label">[219]</span></a> 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,’ <i>M'Culloh's Researches</i>, pp. 252–256; <i>Bullock's Mexico</i>, pp. +111–115, 414; <i>Humboldt's Nouvelle Espagne</i>, vol. i. pp. 240, 241.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_220_220" id="Footnote_220_220"></a><a href="#FNanchor_220_220"><span class="label">[220]</span></a> <i>Prescott's History of Mexico</i>, vol. i. p. 117, vol. iii. +p. 341; and <i>Prescott's History of Peru</i>, vol. i. p. 145. See also +<i>Haüy</i>, <i>Traité de Minéralogie</i>, Paris, 1801, vol. iv. p. 372.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_221_221" id="Footnote_221_221"></a><a href="#FNanchor_221_221"><span class="label">[221]</span></a> <i>Prescott's History of Peru</i>, vol. i. p. 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_222_222" id="Footnote_222_222"></a><a href="#FNanchor_222_222"><span class="label">[222]</span></a> Mr. Prescott (<i>History of Mexico</i>, 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 <i>Histoire de Chichiméques</i>, +translated by Ternaux-Compans, Paris, 1840, vol. i. pp. 257–262, chap. +xxxvii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_223_223" id="Footnote_223_223"></a><a href="#FNanchor_223_223"><span class="label">[223]</span></a> 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. <i>Matter</i>, +<i>Histoire de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie</i>, vol. i. p. 68; a striking passage. +In Persia, again, when the feeling of loyalty decayed, so also did the +feeling of national power. <i>Malcolm's History of Persia</i>, vol. ii. p. +130. The history of the most civilized parts of Europe presents a +picture exactly the reverse of this.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_224_224" id="Footnote_224_224"></a><a href="#FNanchor_224_224"><span class="label">[224]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_225_225" id="Footnote_225_225"></a><a href="#FNanchor_225_225"><span class="label">[225]</span></a> 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 <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, 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. <i>Alison's Europe</i>, vol. ix. pp. 79, 80.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_226_226" id="Footnote_226_226"></a><a href="#FNanchor_226_226"><span class="label">[226]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Cuvier</i>, <i>Prog. des Sciences</i>, vol. i. +p. 265. See also, on this ‘Vorgefühl,’ the observation of Von Hoff, in +Mr. Mallet's valuable essay on earthquakes (<i>Brit. Assoc. for</i> 1850, p. +68); and the ‘foreboding’ in <i>Tschudi's Peru</i>, p. 165; and a letter in +<i>Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century</i>, vol. iv. p. 504. +The probable connexion between earthquakes and electricity is noticed in +<i>Bakewell's Geology</i>, p. 434.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_227_227" id="Footnote_227_227"></a><a href="#FNanchor_227_227"><span class="label">[227]</span></a> ‘Peru is more subject perhaps than any other country to +the tremendous visitation of earthquakes.’ <i>M'Culloch's Geog. Dict.</i> +1849. vol. ii. p. 499. Dr. Tschudi (<i>Travels in Peru</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_228_228" id="Footnote_228_228"></a><a href="#FNanchor_228_228"><span class="label">[228]</span></a> A curious instance of association of ideas conquering the +deadening effect of habit. Dr. Tschudi (<i>Peru</i>, p. 170), describing the +panic, says, ‘no familiarity with the phenomenon can blunt this +feeling.’ Beale (<i>South-Sea Whaling Voyage</i>, 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 <i>Darwin's Journal</i>, 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.’ <i>Ward's Mexico</i>, vol. ii. p. 55. On the physiological +effects of the fear caused by earthquakes, see the remarkable statement +by Osiander in <i>Burdach's Physiologie comme Science d'Observation</i>, +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 οὁ γοῦν σεισμὰ παρ᾽ οὗς συνεχῶς +ἀποτελοῦνται, οὐ θαυμάζοντο⋅ οὐδ᾽ +ὁ ἥλιος, ὅτι καθ᾽ ἡμέραν ὁράαι. <i>Diog. Laert. de Vitis Philos.</i> lib. ix. segm. 87, +vol. i. p. 591.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_229_229" id="Footnote_229_229"></a><a href="#FNanchor_229_229"><span class="label">[229]</span></a> Mr. Stephens, who gives a striking description of an +earthquake in Central America, emphatically says, ‘I never felt myself +so feeble a thing before.’ <i>Stephens's Central America</i>, vol. i. p. 383. +See also the account of the effects produced on the mind by an +earthquake, in <i>Transac. of Soc. of Bombay</i>, vol. iii. p. 98, and the +note at p. 105.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_230_230" id="Footnote_230_230"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230_230"><span class="label">[230]</span></a> The effect of earthquakes in encouraging superstition, is +noticed in Lyell's admirable work, <i>Principles of Geology</i>, p. 492. +Compare a myth on the origin of earthquakes in <i>Beausobre</i>, <i>Histoire +Critique de Manichée</i>, vol. i. p. 243.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_231_231" id="Footnote_231_231"></a><a href="#FNanchor_231_231"><span class="label">[231]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Brewster's Life +of Newton</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_232_232" id="Footnote_232_232"></a><a href="#FNanchor_232_232"><span class="label">[232]</span></a> The remarks made by Mr. Ticknor on the absence of science +in Spain, might be extended even further than he has done. See +<i>Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_233_233" id="Footnote_233_233"></a><a href="#FNanchor_233_233"><span class="label">[233]</span></a> In <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, 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 <i>Coleman's Mythology of the +Hindus</i>, p. 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_234_234" id="Footnote_234_234"></a><a href="#FNanchor_234_234"><span class="label">[234]</span></a> See for example, <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. iv. pp. 56, +57, vol. vii. p. 94; and the effect produced by a volcano, in <i>Journal +of Geograph. Society</i>, vol. v. p. 388. See also vol. xx. p. 8, and a +practical recognition of the principle by Sextus Empiricus, in +<i>Tennemann's Geschichte der Philosophie</i>, vol. i. p. 292. Compare the +use the clergy made of a volcanic eruption in Iceland (<i>Wheaton's +History of the Northmen</i>, p. 42); and see further <i>Raffles' History of +Java</i>, vol. i. pp. 29, 274, and <i>Tschudi's Peru</i>, pp. 64, 167, 171.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_235_235" id="Footnote_235_235"></a><a href="#FNanchor_235_235"><span class="label">[235]</span></a> The Hindus in the Iruari forests, says Mr. Edye, ‘worship +and respect everything from which they apprehend danger.’ <i>Edye on the +Coast of Malabar</i>, in <i>Journal of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. ii. p. 337.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_236_236" id="Footnote_236_236"></a><a href="#FNanchor_236_236"><span class="label">[236]</span></a> Dr. Prichard (<i>Physical History</i>, vol. iv. p. 501) says +‘The tiger is worshipped by the Hajin tribe in the vicinity of the +Garrows or Garrudus.’ Compare <i>Transactions of Asiatic Society</i>, 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.’ <i>Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus</i>, +p. 321. The Seiks have a curious superstition respecting wounds +inflicted by tigers (<i>Burne's Bokhara</i>, 1834, vol. iii. p. 140); and the +Malasir believe that these animals are sent as a punishment for +irreligion. <i>Buchanan's Journey through the Mysore</i>, vol. ii. p. 385.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_237_237" id="Footnote_237_237"></a><a href="#FNanchor_237_237"><span class="label">[237]</span></a> The inhabitants of Sumatra are, for superstitious +reasons, most unwilling to destroy tigers, though they commit frightful +ravages. <i>Marsden's History of Sumatra</i>, 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.’<i>Grieve's History of Kamtschatka</i>, 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.’ <i>Murray's Life of Bruce</i>, p. 472. Allied to +this, is the respect paid to bears (<i>Erman's Siberia</i>, 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 +<i>Matter's Histoire du Gnosticisme</i>, vol. i. p. 380, Paris, 1828.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_238_238" id="Footnote_238_238"></a><a href="#FNanchor_238_238"><span class="label">[238]</span></a> 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. <i>Somerville's Connexion +of the Physical Sciences</i>, p. 283; <i>Hitchcock's Religion of Geology</i>, p. +190; <i>Low's Sarawak</i>, p. 10; <i>Bakewell's Geology</i>, p. 438.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_239_239" id="Footnote_239_239"></a><a href="#FNanchor_239_239"><span class="label">[239]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Sprengel</i>, <i>Histoire +de la Médecine</i>, 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.’ <i>Heber's Journey +through India</i>, vol. ii. p. 330. On the Jewish opinion, see <i>Le Clerc</i>, +<i>Bibliothèque Universelle</i>, vol. iv. p. 402, Amsterdam, 1702. And as to +the early Christians, see <i>Maury</i>, <i>Légendes Pieuses</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_240_240" id="Footnote_240_240"></a><a href="#FNanchor_240_240"><span class="label">[240]</span></a> 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 (<i>Correspondence of Mrs. +Grant</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>‘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.’ <i>Discourse on the Air</i>, in <i>Boyle's Works</i>, vol. iv. pp. 288, +289. ‘<i>Neither of the contending parties is altogether in the +right!</i>’—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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_241_241" id="Footnote_241_241"></a><a href="#FNanchor_241_241"><span class="label">[241]</span></a> 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. <i>Burton's Sindh</i>, p. 146, +London, 1851; <i>Ellis's Polynesian Researches</i>, vol. i. p. 395, vol. iii. +pp. 36, 41, vol. iv. pp. 293, 334, 375; <i>Cullen's Works</i>, Edinb. 1827, +vol. ii. pp. 414, 434; <i>Esquirol</i>, <i>Maladies Mentales</i>, vol. i. pp. 274, +482; <i>Cabanis</i>, <i>Rapports du Physique et du Moral</i>, p. 277; <i>Volney</i>, +<i>Voyage en Syrie</i>, vol. i. p. 426; <i>Turner's Embassy to Tibet</i>, p. 104; +<i>Syme's Embassy to Ava</i>, vol. ii. p. 211; <i>Ellis's Tour through Hawaii</i>, +pp. 282, 283, 332, 333; <i>Renouard</i>, <i>Histoire de la Médecine</i>, vol. i. +p. 398; <i>Broussais</i>, <i>Examen des Doctrines Médicales</i>, vol. i. pp. 261, +262; <i>Grote's History of Greece</i>, vol. i. p. 485 (compare p. 251, and +vol. vi. p. 213); <i>Grieve's History of Kamtschatka</i>, p. 217; <i>Journal of +Statist. Soc.</i> vol. x. p. 10; <i>Buchanan's North American Indians</i>, pp. +256, 257; <i>Halkett's North American Indians</i>, pp. 36, 37, 388, 393, 394; +<i>Catlin's North American Indians</i>, vol. i. pp. 35–41; <i>Briggs on the +Aboriginal Tribes of India</i>, in <i>Report of Brit. Assoc. for 1850</i>, p. +172; <i>Transactions of Soc. of Bombay</i>, vol. ii. p. 30; <i>Percival's +Ceylon</i>, p. 201; <i>Buchanan's Journey through the Mysore</i>, vol. ii. pp. +27, 152, 286, 528, vol. iii. pp. 23, 188, 253 (so, too, M. Geoffroy +Saint Hilaire, <i>Anomalies de l'Organization</i>, 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 +<i>Burdach</i>, <i>Traité de Physiologie</i>, vol. ii. p. 247, with <i>Journal of +Geog. Soc.</i> vol. xvi. p. 113); <i>Ellis's History of Madagascar</i>, vol. i. +pp. 224, 225; <i>Prichard's Physical History</i>, vol. i. p. 207, vol. v. p. +492; <i>Journal of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. iii. p. 230, vol. iv. p. 158; +<i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. iii. pp. 29, 156, vol. iv. pp. 56, 58, 74, +vol. xvi. pp. 215, 280; <i>Neander's History of the Church</i>, vol. iii. p. +119; <i>Crawfurd's History of the Indian Archipelago</i>, vol. i. p. 328; +<i>Low's Sarawak</i>, pp. 174, 261; <i>Cook's Voyages</i>, vol. i. p. 229; +<i>Mariner's Tonga Islands</i>, vol. i. pp. 194, 350–360, 374, 438, vol. ii. +pp. 172, 230; <i>Huc's Travels in Tartary and Thibet</i>, vol. i. pp. 74–77; +<i>Richardson's Travels in the Sahara</i>, vol. i. p. 27; <i>M'Culloh's +Researches</i>, p. 105; <i>Journal of Geog. Soc.</i> vol. i. p. 41, vol. iv. p. +260, vol. xiv. p. 37. And in regard to Europe, compare <i>Spence</i>, <i>Origin +of the Laws of Europe</i>, p. 322; <i>Turner's Hist. of England</i>, vol. iii. +p. 443; <i>Phillips on Scrofula</i>, p. 255; <i>Otter's Life of Clarke</i>, vol. +i. pp. 265, 266, which may be illustrated by the ‘sacred’ disease of +Cambyses, no doubt epilepsy; see <i>Herodot.</i> lib. iii. chap. xxxiv. vol. +ii. p. 63.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_242_242" id="Footnote_242_242"></a><a href="#FNanchor_242_242"><span class="label">[242]</span></a> 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 <i>Holland's Medical Notes</i>, p. 477; <i>M'William's Medical +Expedition to the Niger</i>, pp. 157, 185; <i>Simon's Pathology</i>, p. 269; +<i>Forry's Climate and its Endemic Influences</i>, p. 158. M. Lepelletier +says, rather vaguely (<i>Physiologie Médicale</i>, vol. iv. p. 527), that the +temperate zones are ‘favorables à l'exercice complet et régulier des +phénomènes vitaux.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_243_243" id="Footnote_243_243"></a><a href="#FNanchor_243_243"><span class="label">[243]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Southey's History of Brazil</i>, vol. ii. p. +254.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_244_244" id="Footnote_244_244"></a><a href="#FNanchor_244_244"><span class="label">[244]</span></a> 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 <i>Encyclop. of the Medical Sciences</i>, +4to, 1847, p. 728; <i>Transactions of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. ii. pp. 54, +55; <i>Michaelis on the Laws of Moses</i>, vol. iii. p. 313; <i>Sprengel</i>, +<i>Histoire de la Médecine</i>, vol. ii. pp. 33, 195; <i>Wallace's Dissertation +on the Numbers of Mankind</i>, pp. 81, 82; <i>Huetiana</i>, Amst. 1723, pp. +132–135; <i>Sanders on the Small Pox</i>, Edinb. 1813, pp. 3–4; <i>Wilks's +Hist. of the South of India</i>, vol. iii. pp. 16–21; <i>Clot-Bey de la +Peste</i>, Paris, 1840, p. 227.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_245_245" id="Footnote_245_245"></a><a href="#FNanchor_245_245"><span class="label">[245]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Rhode</i>, <i>Religiöse Bildung +der Hindus</i>, 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.’ <i>Colebrooke on the Philosophy of +the Hindus</i>, in <i>Transactions of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. i. p. 23. And in +another place the same high authority says (<i>Asiatic Researches</i>, 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.’ <i>Journal Asiatique</i>, 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 <i>Cousin</i>, <i>Hist. de la Philosophie</i>, II. série, vol. +i. p. 27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_246_246" id="Footnote_246_246"></a><a href="#FNanchor_246_246"><span class="label">[246]</span></a> 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?’ <i>Yates on Sanscrit +Alliteration</i>, in <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, 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 <i>Rig Veda Sanhita</i>, vol. ii. p. 135.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_247_247" id="Footnote_247_247"></a><a href="#FNanchor_247_247"><span class="label">[247]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_248_248" id="Footnote_248_248"></a><a href="#FNanchor_248_248"><span class="label">[248]</span></a> ‘The limit of life was vol. xvi. p. 456, Calcutta, 1828. +80,000 years.’ <i>Asiatic Researches</i>. This was likewise the estimate of +the Tibetan divines, according to whom men formerly ‘parvenaient à l'âge +de 80,000 ans.’ <i>Journal Asiatique</i>, I. série, vol. iii. p. 199, Paris, +1823.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_249_249" id="Footnote_249_249"></a><a href="#FNanchor_249_249"><span class="label">[249]</span></a> ‘Den Hindu macht dieser Widerspruch nicht verlegen, da er +seine Heiligen 100,000 Jahre und länger leben lässt.’ <i>Rhode</i>, <i>Relig. +Bildung der Hindus</i>, vol. i. p. 175.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_250_250" id="Footnote_250_250"></a><a href="#FNanchor_250_250"><span class="label">[250]</span></a> In the <i>Dabistan</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_251_251" id="Footnote_251_251"></a><a href="#FNanchor_251_251"><span class="label">[251]</span></a> Wilford (<i>Asiatic Researches</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_252_252" id="Footnote_252_252"></a><a href="#FNanchor_252_252"><span class="label">[252]</span></a> ‘For sixty thousand and sixty hundred years no other +youthful monarch except Alarka reigned over the earth.’ <i>Vishnu Purana</i>, +p. 408.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_253_253" id="Footnote_253_253"></a><a href="#FNanchor_253_253"><span class="label">[253]</span></a> And sometimes more. In the Essay on Indian Chronology in +<i>Works of Sir W. Jones</i>, 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 <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, +vol. ii. p. 399.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_254_254" id="Footnote_254_254"></a><a href="#FNanchor_254_254"><span class="label">[254]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Asiatic +Researches</i>, vol. ix. p. 305.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_255_255" id="Footnote_255_255"></a><a href="#FNanchor_255_255"><span class="label">[255]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Bohlen</i>, +<i>das alte Indien</i>, vol. ii. p. 298.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_256_256" id="Footnote_256_256"></a><a href="#FNanchor_256_256"><span class="label">[256]</span></a> <i>Elphinstone's History of India</i>, p. 136, ‘a period +exceeding 4,320,000 multiplied by six times seventy-one.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_257_257" id="Footnote_257_257"></a><a href="#FNanchor_257_257"><span class="label">[257]</span></a> Symes (<i>Embassy to Ava</i>, 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.’ <i>Percival's Account of Ceylon</i>, pp. 2, 15, +66.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_258_258" id="Footnote_258_258"></a><a href="#FNanchor_258_258"><span class="label">[258]</span></a> ‘Altogether its area is somewhat less than that of +Portugal.’ <i>Grote's History of Greece</i>, vol. ii. p. 302; and the same +remark in <i>Thirlwall's History of Greece</i>, vol. i. p. 2, and in +<i>Heeren's Ancient Greece</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_259_259" id="Footnote_259_259"></a><a href="#FNanchor_259_259"><span class="label">[259]</span></a> The area of Hindostan being, according to Mr. M'Culloch +(<i>Geog. Dict.</i> 1849, vol. i. p. 993), ‘between 1,200,000 and +1,300,000 square miles.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_260_260" id="Footnote_260_260"></a><a href="#FNanchor_260_260"><span class="label">[260]</span></a> In the best days of Greece, those alarming epidemics, by +which the country was subsequently ravaged, were comparatively little +known: see <i>Thirlwall's History of Greece</i>, 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 <i>Clot-Bey de la Peste</i>, Paris, 1840. pp. 21, 46, +184. The relation even of Thucydides is more satisfactory to scholars +than to pathologists.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_261_261" id="Footnote_261_261"></a><a href="#FNanchor_261_261"><span class="label">[261]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>M'Culloch's Geog. Dict.</i> 1849, vol. i. p. +924. Compare the table of mountains in Baker's Memoir on North Greece, +in <i>Journal of Geographical Society</i>, vol. vii. p. 94, with <i>Bakewell's +Geology</i>, pp. 621, 622.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_262_262" id="Footnote_262_262"></a><a href="#FNanchor_262_262"><span class="label">[262]</span></a> ‘Greece has no navigable river.’ <i>M'Culloch's Geog. +Dict.</i> vol. i. p. 924. ‘Most of the rivers of Greece are torrents in +early spring, and dry before the end of the summer.’ <i>Grote's History of +Greece</i>, vol. ii. p. 286.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_263_263" id="Footnote_263_263"></a><a href="#FNanchor_263_263"><span class="label">[263]</span></a> See Stevenson on <i>The Anti-Brahmanical Religion of the +Hindus</i>, in <i>Journal of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. viii. pp. 331, 332, 336, +338. Mr. Wilson (<i>Journal</i>, 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 +<i>Transac. of Soc. of Bombay</i>, vol. iii. p. 521; <i>Heeren's Asiatic +Nations</i>, 1846, vol. ii. pp. 62, 66. On the philosophical relations +between the followers of Siva and those of Vishnu, see <i>Ritter's Hist. +of Ancient Philosophy</i>, vol. iv. pp. 334, 335; and the noticeable fact +(<i>Buchanan's Mysore</i>, 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 +<i>Thirlwall's History of Greece</i>, vol. vii. p. 36; and for further +evidence of its extent, <i>Bohlen</i>, <i>das alte Indien</i>, vol. i. pp. 29, +147, 206, and <i>Transac. of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. ii. pp. 50, 294.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_264_264" id="Footnote_264_264"></a><a href="#FNanchor_264_264"><span class="label">[264]</span></a> So it is generally stated by the Hindu theologians; but, +according to Rammohun Roy, Siva had two wives. See <i>Rammohun Roy on the +Veds</i>, p. 90.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_265_265" id="Footnote_265_265"></a><a href="#FNanchor_265_265"><span class="label">[265]</span></a> On these attributes and representations of Siva and +Doorga, see <i>Rhode</i>, <i>Religiöse Bildung der Hindus</i>, vol. ii. p. 241; +<i>Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus</i>, pp. 63, 92; <i>Bohlen</i>, <i>das alte +Indien</i>, vol. i. p. 207; <i>Ward's Religion of the Hindoos</i>, vol. i. pp. +xxxvii. 27, 145; <i>Transac. of Society of Bombay</i>, vol. i. pp. 215, 221. +Compare the curious account of an image supposed to represent Mahadeo, +in <i>Journal Asiatique</i>, I. série, vol. i. p. 354, Paris, 1822.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_266_266" id="Footnote_266_266"></a><a href="#FNanchor_266_266"><span class="label">[266]</span></a> <i>Ward on the Religion of the Hindoos</i>, vol. i. p. 35; +<i>Transac. of Society of Bombay</i>, vol. i. p. 223. Compare the gloss in +the <i>Dabistan</i>, vol. ii. p. 202.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_267_267" id="Footnote_267_267"></a><a href="#FNanchor_267_267"><span class="label">[267]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Elphinstone's History of India</i>, pp. 96, 97. See +also <i>Erskine on the Temple of Elephanta</i>, in <i>Transac. of Society of +Bombay</i>, vol. i. p. 246; and the <i>Dabistan</i>, vol. i. p. cxi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_268_268" id="Footnote_268_268"></a><a href="#FNanchor_268_268"><span class="label">[268]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Mure's +History of the Literature of Ancient Greece</i>, vol. i. pp. 471, 472. So, +too, Tennemann (<i>Geschichte der Philosophie</i>, 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>i.e.</i> of Epicurus. +Compare <i>Grote's History of Greece</i>, 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 <i>Müller's Hist. of Lit. of Greece</i>, London, 1856, p. +251.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_269_269" id="Footnote_269_269"></a><a href="#FNanchor_269_269"><span class="label">[269]</span></a> 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, +<i>History of Greece</i>, vol. iv. pp. 133, 134, edit. 1847.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_270_270" id="Footnote_270_270"></a><a href="#FNanchor_270_270"><span class="label">[270]</span></a> ‘But the worship of deified heroes is no part of that +system.’ <i>Colebrooke on the Vedas</i>, in <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. viii. +p. 495.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_271_271" id="Footnote_271_271"></a><a href="#FNanchor_271_271"><span class="label">[271]</span></a> <i>Mackay's Religious Development</i>, vol. ii. p. 53, Lond. +1850. Compare <i>Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians</i>, vol. iv. pp. 148, 318; +and <i>Matter</i>, <i>Histoire de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie</i>, vol. i. p. 2; the +‘culte des grands hommes,’ which afterwards arose in Alexandria +(<i>Matter</i>, vol. i. p. 54), must have been owing to Greek influence.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_272_272" id="Footnote_272_272"></a><a href="#FNanchor_272_272"><span class="label">[272]</span></a> 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: οὐκ ἀνθρωποφυέας ἐνόμισαν τοὺς θεοὺς, +κατάπερ Ἔλληνες εῖναι.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_273_273" id="Footnote_273_273"></a><a href="#FNanchor_273_273"><span class="label">[273]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_274_274" id="Footnote_274_274"></a><a href="#FNanchor_274_274"><span class="label">[274]</span></a> <i>Mure's History of the Literature of Greece</i>, vol. i. pp. +28, 500, vol. ii. p. 402: very good remarks on a subject handled +unsatisfactorily by Coleridge; <i>Literary Remains</i>, vol. i. p. 185. +Thirlwall (<i>History of Greece</i>, 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 <i>Cudworth's +Intellectual System</i>, vol. ii. pp. 226, 372. In the Cratylus, chap. +xxxiii., Socrates is represented as asking, Οὐκ οἶσθα ὅτι +ἡμίθεοι ἥρωες; +<i>Platonis Opera</i>, 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’ <i>Grote's History +of Greece</i>, vol. xii. p. 339.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_275_275" id="Footnote_275_275"></a><a href="#FNanchor_275_275"><span class="label">[275]</span></a> The adoration of the dead, and particularly the adoration +of martyrs, was one great point of opposition between the orthodox +church and the Manichæans (<i>Beausobre</i>, <i>Histoire Critique de Manichée</i>, +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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_276_276" id="Footnote_276_276"></a><a href="#FNanchor_276_276"><span class="label">[276]</span></a> M. Cousin, in his eloquent and ingenious work (<i>Histoire +de la Philosophie</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_277_277" id="Footnote_277_277"></a><a href="#FNanchor_277_277"><span class="label">[277]</span></a> A learned orientalist says, that no people have made such +efforts as the Hindus ‘to solve, exhaust, comprehend, what is +insolvable, inexhaustible, incomprehensible.’ <i>Troyer's Preliminary +Discourse on the Dabistan</i>, vol. i. p. cviii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_278_278" id="Footnote_278_278"></a><a href="#FNanchor_278_278"><span class="label">[278]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Geschichte der Philosophie</i>, 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, <i>Sprengel</i>, <i>Histoire de la Médecine</i>, vol. i. p. 215. And +on this difference between the Eastern and the European mind, see +<i>Matter</i>, <i>Histoire du Gnosticisme</i>, vol. i. pp. 18, 233, 234. So, too, +Kant (<i>Logik</i>, in <i>Kant's Werke</i>, 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 <i>in abstracto</i>; statt dass +die anderen Völker sich die Begriffe immer nur durch Bilder <i>in +concreto</i> verständlich zu machen suchten.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_279_279" id="Footnote_279_279"></a><a href="#FNanchor_279_279"><span class="label">[279]</span></a> Thus, of one of the idols at Copan, ‘The intention of the +sculptor seems to have been to excite terror.’ <i>Stephens's Central +America</i>, 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.’</p></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot">EXAMINATION OF THE METHOD EMPLOYED BY METAPHYSICIANS FOR +DISCOVERING MENTAL LAWS.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_280_280" id="FNanchor_280_280"></a><a href="#Footnote_280_280" class="fnanchor">[280]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +of the mind of man upon the organic and inorganic +forces of nature. To this all other causes are subordinate.<a name="FNanchor_281_281" id="FNanchor_281_281"></a><a href="#Footnote_281_281" class="fnanchor">[281]</a> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In other instances, where the products of the external<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_282_282" id="FNanchor_282_282"></a><a href="#Footnote_282_282" class="fnanchor">[282]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_283_283" id="FNanchor_283_283"></a><a href="#Footnote_283_283" class="fnanchor">[283]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_284_284" id="FNanchor_284_284"></a><a href="#Footnote_284_284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a></p> + +<p>It is hardly necessary to notice how, in numerous +other instances, the progress of European civilization has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>If we now inquire into the means of discovering the +laws of the human mind, the metaphysicians are ready<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_285_285" id="FNanchor_285_285"></a><a href="#Footnote_285_285" class="fnanchor">[285]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_286_286" id="FNanchor_286_286"></a><a href="#Footnote_286_286" class="fnanchor">[286]</a> 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_287_287" id="FNanchor_287_287"></a><a href="#Footnote_287_287" class="fnanchor">[287]</a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_288_288" id="FNanchor_288_288"></a><a href="#Footnote_288_288" class="fnanchor">[288]</a> It is infinite, since we cannot conceive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_289_289" id="FNanchor_289_289"></a><a href="#Footnote_289_289" class="fnanchor">[289]</a>—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.<a name="FNanchor_290_290" id="FNanchor_290_290"></a><a href="#Footnote_290_290" class="fnanchor">[290]</a> As to space being infinite, this, he says, is a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +notion we get by conceiving a continual addition to lines, +or to surfaces, or to bulk, which are the three modifications +of extension.<a name="FNanchor_291_291" id="FNanchor_291_291"></a><a href="#Footnote_291_291" class="fnanchor">[291]</a> On innumerable other points we +find the same discrepancy between the two schools. The +idealist,<a name="FNanchor_292_292" id="FNanchor_292_292"></a><a href="#Footnote_292_292" class="fnanchor">[292]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_293_293" id="FNanchor_293_293"></a><a href="#Footnote_293_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_294_294" id="FNanchor_294_294"></a><a href="#Footnote_294_294" class="fnanchor">[294]</a></p> + +<p>This is the first important difference which is inevitably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +consequent on the adoption of different methods. +The idealist is compelled to assert, that necessary truths +and contingent truths have a different origin.<a name="FNanchor_295_295" id="FNanchor_295_295"></a><a href="#Footnote_295_295" class="fnanchor">[295]</a> The sensationalist +is bound to affirm that they have the same +origin.<a name="FNanchor_296_296" id="FNanchor_296_296"></a><a href="#Footnote_296_296" class="fnanchor">[296]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +are evidently exhausted.<a name="FNanchor_297_297" id="FNanchor_297_297"></a><a href="#Footnote_297_297" class="fnanchor">[297]</a> 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;<a name="FNanchor_298_298" id="FNanchor_298_298"></a><a href="#Footnote_298_298" class="fnanchor">[298]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +idealist; in other words, without belonging to one of +those very parties whose claims he professes to judge.<a name="FNanchor_299_299" id="FNanchor_299_299"></a><a href="#Footnote_299_299" class="fnanchor">[299]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_300_300" id="FNanchor_300_300"></a><a href="#Footnote_300_300" class="fnanchor">[300]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_301_301" id="FNanchor_301_301"></a><a href="#Footnote_301_301" class="fnanchor">[301]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_302_302" id="FNanchor_302_302"></a><a href="#Footnote_302_302" class="fnanchor">[302]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<p class="noindent">Footnotes:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_280_280" id="Footnote_280_280"></a><a href="#FNanchor_280_280"><span class="label">[280]</span></a> 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 <i>Sir B. Brodie's Lectures on Pathology and Surgery</i>, p. 212; and for +proof that civilized men are stronger than uncivilized ones, see +<i>Quetelet</i>, <i>sur l'Homme</i>, vol. ii. pp. 67, 272; <i>Lawrence's Lectures on +Man</i>, pp. 275, 276; <i>Ellis's Polynesian Researches</i>, vol. i. p. 98; +<i>Whately's Lectures on Political Economy</i>, 8vo. 1831, p. 59; <i>Journal of +the Statistical Society</i>, vol. xvii. pp. 32, 33; <i>Dufau</i>, <i>Traité de +Statistique</i>, p. 107; <i>Hawkins's Medical Statistics</i>, p. 232.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_281_281" id="Footnote_281_281"></a><a href="#FNanchor_281_281"><span class="label">[281]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Mill's Principles of Polit. Economy</i>, vol. ii. pp. +246–7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_282_282" id="Footnote_282_282"></a><a href="#FNanchor_282_282"><span class="label">[282]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Sprengel</i>, <i>Histoire de la Médecine</i>, +vol. ii. p. 374. As to the mortality caused by the plague, see +<i>Clot-Bey</i>, <i>de la Peste</i>, Paris, 1840, pp. 62, 63, 185, 292.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_283_283" id="Footnote_283_283"></a><a href="#FNanchor_283_283"><span class="label">[283]</span></a> For a curious list of famines, see an essay by Mr. Farr, in +<i>Journal of the Statistical Society</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_284_284" id="Footnote_284_284"></a><a href="#FNanchor_284_284"><span class="label">[284]</span></a> In the opinion of one of the highest living authorities, +famine is, even in the present state of chemistry, ‘next to impossible.’ +<i>Herschel's Discourse on Natural Philosophy</i>, p. 65. Cuvier (<i>Recueil +des Eloges</i>, vol. i. p. 10) says that we have succeeded ‘a rendre toute +famine impossible.’ See also <i>Godwin on Population</i>, p. 500; and for a +purely economical argument to prove the impossibility of famine, see +<i>Mill's Principles of Political Economy</i>, vol. ii. p. 258; and compare a +note in <i>Ricardo's Works</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_285_285" id="Footnote_285_285"></a><a href="#FNanchor_285_285"><span class="label">[285]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Stewart's Philosophy of the +Mind</i>, 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. <i>Essay +concerning Human Understanding</i>, in <i>Locke's Works</i>, vol. i. pp. 18, 76, +79, 121, 146, 152, 287, vol. ii. pp. 141, 243.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_286_286" id="Footnote_286_286"></a><a href="#FNanchor_286_286"><span class="label">[286]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_287_287" id="Footnote_287_287"></a><a href="#FNanchor_287_287"><span class="label">[287]</span></a> 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 <i>à priori</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_288_288" id="Footnote_288_288"></a><a href="#FNanchor_288_288"><span class="label">[288]</span></a> Compare <i>Stewart's Philosophy of the Mind</i>, vol. ii. p. +194, with <i>Cousin</i>, <i>Hist. de la Philosophie</i>, II. série, vol. ii. p. +92. Among the Indian metaphysicians, there was a sect which declared +space to be the cause of all things. <i>Journal of Asiatic Soc.</i> vol. vi. +pp. 268, 290. See also the <i>Dabistan</i>, vol. ii. p. 40, which, however, +was contrary to the Vedas. <i>Rammohun Roy on the Veds</i>, 1832, pp. 8, 111. +In Spain, the doctrine of the infinity of space is heretical. <i>Doblado's +Letters</i>, p. 96; which should be compared with the objection of Irenæus +against the Valentinians, in <i>Beausobre</i>, <i>Histoire de Manichée</i>, vol. +ii. p. 275. For the different theories of space, I may, moreover, refer +to <i>Ritter's Hist. of Ancient Philosophy</i>, vol. i. pp. 451, 473, 477, +vol. ii. p. 314, vol. iii. pp. 195–204; <i>Cudworth's Intellectual +System</i>, vol. i. p. 191, vol. iii. pp. 230, 472; <i>Kritik der reinen +Vernunft</i>, in <i>Kant's Werke</i>, vol. ii. pp. 23, 62, 81, 120, 139, 147, +256, 334, 347; <i>Tennemann</i>, <i>Geschichte der Philosophie</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_289_289" id="Footnote_289_289"></a><a href="#FNanchor_289_289"><span class="label">[289]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Cousin</i>, <i>Histoire de la Philosophie</i>, II. série, vol. ii. p. 88. The +same name is given to the same school, in <i>Feuchtersleben's Medical +Psychology</i>, p. 52, and in <i>Renouard's Histoire de la Médecine</i>, vol. i. +p. 346, vol. ii. p. 368. In <i>Jobert's New System of Philosophy</i>, vol. +ii. p. 334, 8vo. 1849, it is called ‘sensationalism,’ which seems a +preferable expression.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_290_290" id="Footnote_290_290"></a><a href="#FNanchor_290_290"><span class="label">[290]</span></a> This is very ably argued by Mr. James Mill in his +<i>Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind</i>, vol. ii. pp. 32, 93–95, +and elsewhere. Compare <i>Essay concerning Human Understanding</i>, in +<i>Locke's Works</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_291_291" id="Footnote_291_291"></a><a href="#FNanchor_291_291"><span class="label">[291]</span></a> <i>Mill's Analysis of the Mind</i>, vol. ii. pp. 96, 97. See +also the <i>Examination of Malebranche</i>, in <i>Locke's Works</i>, vol. viii. +pp. 248, 249; and <i>Müller's Elements of Physiology</i>, vol. ii. p. 1081, +which should be compared with <i>Comte</i>, <i>Philosophie Positive</i>, vol. i. +p. 354.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_292_292" id="Footnote_292_292"></a><a href="#FNanchor_292_292"><span class="label">[292]</span></a> 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 <i>Kritik der +reinen Vernunft</i>, and <i>Prolegomena zu jeder künftigen Metaphysik</i>, in +<i>Kant's Werke</i>, vol. ii. pp. 223, 389, vol. iii. pp. 204, 210, 306, 307. +According to him, the Cartesian idealism is empirical.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_293_293" id="Footnote_293_293"></a><a href="#FNanchor_293_293"><span class="label">[293]</span></a> Thus, Dugald Stewart (<i>Philosophical Essays</i>, Edin. 1810, +p. 33) tells us of ‘the simple idea of personal identity.’ And Reid +(<i>Essays on the Powers of the Mind</i>, 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 <i>Vishnu Purana</i>, pp. 10, 216.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_294_294" id="Footnote_294_294"></a><a href="#FNanchor_294_294"><span class="label">[294]</span></a> ‘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.’ +<i>Mill's Analysis of the Mind</i>, vol. ii. p. 100; and on the relation of +time to memory, vol. i. p. 252. In <i>Jobert's New System of Philosophy</i>, +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 <i>Condillac</i>, <i>Traité des Sensations</i>, pp. +104–114, 222, 223, 331–333. To the same effect is <i>Essay concerning +Human Understanding</i>, book ii. chap. xiv., in <i>Locke's Works</i>, vol. i. +p. 163; and see his second reply to the Bishop of Worcester, in <i>Works</i>, +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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_295_295" id="Footnote_295_295"></a><a href="#FNanchor_295_295"><span class="label">[295]</span></a> Reid (<i>Essays on the Powers of the Mind</i>, 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 <i>Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive +Sciences</i>, 8vo, 1847, vol. i. pp. 60–73, 140; and see <i>Dugald Stewart's +Philosophical Essays</i>, pp. 123, 124. Sir W. Hamilton (<i>Additions to +Reid's Works</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_296_296" id="Footnote_296_296"></a><a href="#FNanchor_296_296"><span class="label">[296]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Jobert's New System of +Philosophy</i>, vol. i. p. 58.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_297_297" id="Footnote_297_297"></a><a href="#FNanchor_297_297"><span class="label">[297]</span></a> 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 <i>solely</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_298_298" id="Footnote_298_298"></a><a href="#FNanchor_298_298"><span class="label">[298]</span></a> 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>i.e.</i> the +leading propositions of it) fällt in die Augen.’ <i>Tennemann</i>, +<i>Geschichte der Philosophie</i>, 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. <i>Die Metaphysik der Sitten</i>, in +<i>Kant's Werke</i>, vol. v. p. 5, where he raises the question, ‘ob es wohl +mehr, als eine Philosophie geben könne.’ In the <i>Kritik</i>, and in the +<i>Prolegomena zujeder künftigen Metaphysik</i>, he says that metaphysics +have made no progress, and that the study can hardly be said to exist. +<i>Werke</i>, vol. ii. pp. 49, 50, vol. iii. pp. 166, 246.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_299_299" id="Footnote_299_299"></a><a href="#FNanchor_299_299"><span class="label">[299]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Cousin</i>, <i>Hist. de la Philosophie</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>Another eclectic, Sir W. Hamilton, announces (<i>Discussions on +Philosophy</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_300_300" id="Footnote_300_300"></a><a href="#FNanchor_300_300"><span class="label">[300]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Principles of +Human Knowledge</i>, in <i>Berkeley's Works</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_301_301" id="Footnote_301_301"></a><a href="#FNanchor_301_301"><span class="label">[301]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_302_302" id="Footnote_302_302"></a><a href="#FNanchor_302_302"><span class="label">[302]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Kritik der +reinen Vernunft</i>, in <i>Kant's Werke</i>, 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.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot">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.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_303_303" id="FNanchor_303_303"></a><a href="#Footnote_303_303" class="fnanchor">[303]</a> Now, it has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_304_304" id="FNanchor_304_304"></a><a href="#Footnote_304_304" class="fnanchor">[304]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_305_305" id="FNanchor_305_305"></a><a href="#Footnote_305_305" class="fnanchor">[305]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_306_306" id="FNanchor_306_306"></a><a href="#Footnote_306_306" class="fnanchor">[306]</a> and since all births<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_307_307" id="FNanchor_307_307"></a><a href="#Footnote_307_307" class="fnanchor">[307]</a> 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.’<a name="FNanchor_308_308" id="FNanchor_308_308"></a><a href="#Footnote_308_308" class="fnanchor">[308]</a> These are the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +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?</p> + +<p>These are questions to which all the resources of +physiologists, from Aristotle down to our own time, +afford no means of reply.<a name="FNanchor_309_309" id="FNanchor_309_309"></a><a href="#Footnote_309_309" class="fnanchor">[309]</a> And yet at the present day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_310_310" id="FNanchor_310_310"></a><a href="#Footnote_310_310" class="fnanchor">[310]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +phenomena by which its operations are caused.<a name="FNanchor_311_311" id="FNanchor_311_311"></a><a href="#Footnote_311_311" class="fnanchor">[311]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_312_312" id="FNanchor_312_312"></a><a href="#Footnote_312_312" class="fnanchor">[312]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_313_313" id="FNanchor_313_313"></a><a href="#Footnote_313_313" class="fnanchor">[313]</a> and other personal peculiarities, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_314_314" id="FNanchor_314_314"></a><a href="#Footnote_314_314" class="fnanchor">[314]</a></p> + +<p>Whatever, therefore, the moral and intellectual progress<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +of men may be, it resolves itself not into a progress +of natural capacity,<a name="FNanchor_315_315" id="FNanchor_315_315"></a><a href="#Footnote_315_315" class="fnanchor">[315]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>On this account it is evident, that if we look at mankind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Applying this test to moral motives, or to the dictates<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_316_316" id="FNanchor_316_316"></a><a href="#Footnote_316_316" class="fnanchor">[316]</a></p> + +<p>But, if we contrast this stationary aspect of moral<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +truths with the progressive aspect of intellectual truths, +the difference is indeed startling.<a name="FNanchor_317_317" id="FNanchor_317_317"></a><a href="#Footnote_317_317" class="fnanchor">[317]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>These are, to every educated man, recognized and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_318_318" id="FNanchor_318_318"></a><a href="#Footnote_318_318" class="fnanchor">[318]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_319_319" id="FNanchor_319_319"></a><a href="#Footnote_319_319" class="fnanchor">[319]</a> We find,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_320_320" id="FNanchor_320_320"></a><a href="#Footnote_320_320" class="fnanchor">[320]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_321_321" id="FNanchor_321_321"></a><a href="#Footnote_321_321" class="fnanchor">[321]</a></p> + +<p>II. The second illustration is supplied by Spain; a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_322_322" id="FNanchor_322_322"></a><a href="#Footnote_322_322" class="fnanchor">[322]</a> +Thirty years earlier, Townsend, a clergyman of +the Church of England, published his valuable work +on Spain;<a name="FNanchor_323_323" id="FNanchor_323_323"></a><a href="#Footnote_323_323" class="fnanchor">[323]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_324_324" id="FNanchor_324_324"></a><a href="#Footnote_324_324" class="fnanchor">[324]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_325_325" id="FNanchor_325_325"></a><a href="#Footnote_325_325" class="fnanchor">[325]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_326_326" id="FNanchor_326_326"></a><a href="#Footnote_326_326" class="fnanchor">[326]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_327_327" id="FNanchor_327_327"></a><a href="#Footnote_327_327" class="fnanchor">[327]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_328_328" id="FNanchor_328_328"></a><a href="#Footnote_328_328" class="fnanchor">[328]</a></p> + +<p>Thus far as to the influence exercised by moral feelings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_329_329" id="FNanchor_329_329"></a><a href="#Footnote_329_329" class="fnanchor">[329]</a> In perfectly barbarous countries,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +there are no intellectual acquisitions; and the mind +being a blank and dreary waste, the only resource is +external activity,<a name="FNanchor_330_330" id="FNanchor_330_330"></a><a href="#Footnote_330_330" class="fnanchor">[330]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_331_331" id="FNanchor_331_331"></a><a href="#Footnote_331_331" class="fnanchor">[331]</a> This is the purely savage state; +and it is the state in which military glory is most +esteemed, and military men most respected.<a name="FNanchor_332_332" id="FNanchor_332_332"></a><a href="#Footnote_332_332" class="fnanchor">[332]</a> From<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_333_333" id="FNanchor_333_333"></a><a href="#Footnote_333_333" class="fnanchor">[333]</a></p> + +<p>Thus it is that, as civilization advances, an equipoise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_334_334" id="FNanchor_334_334"></a><a href="#Footnote_334_334" class="fnanchor">[334]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>This is the leading feature which distinguishes the +present war from its predecessors. That a peace should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_335_335" id="FNanchor_335_335"></a><a href="#Footnote_335_335" class="fnanchor">[335]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_336_336" id="FNanchor_336_336"></a><a href="#Footnote_336_336" class="fnanchor">[336]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_337_337" id="FNanchor_337_337"></a><a href="#Footnote_337_337" class="fnanchor">[337]</a> and consequently +the thoughtful and pacific habits which spring from the +middle ranks have no existence. The minds of men, +deprived of mental pursuits,<a name="FNanchor_338_338" id="FNanchor_338_338"></a><a href="#Footnote_338_338" class="fnanchor">[338]</a> naturally turn to warlike<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_339_339" id="FNanchor_339_339"></a><a href="#Footnote_339_339" class="fnanchor">[339]</a></p> + +<p>In England, on the other hand, opposite causes have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The first of these arose out of the invention of Gunpowder;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +which, though a warlike contrivance, has in +its results been eminently serviceable to the interests +of peace.<a name="FNanchor_340_340" id="FNanchor_340_340"></a><a href="#Footnote_340_340" class="fnanchor">[340]</a> This important invention is said to have +been made in the thirteenth century;<a name="FNanchor_341_341" id="FNanchor_341_341"></a><a href="#Footnote_341_341" class="fnanchor">[341]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_342_342" id="FNanchor_342_342"></a><a href="#Footnote_342_342" class="fnanchor">[342]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_343_343" id="FNanchor_343_343"></a><a href="#Footnote_343_343" class="fnanchor">[343]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_344_344" id="FNanchor_344_344"></a><a href="#Footnote_344_344" class="fnanchor">[344]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>But so soon as gunpowder came into use, there was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_345_345" id="FNanchor_345_345"></a><a href="#Footnote_345_345" class="fnanchor">[345]</a> 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;<a name="FNanchor_346_346" id="FNanchor_346_346"></a><a href="#Footnote_346_346" class="fnanchor">[346]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +then there was the possession of muskets, which were +expensive weapons, and considered difficult to manage.<a name="FNanchor_347_347" id="FNanchor_347_347"></a><a href="#Footnote_347_347" class="fnanchor">[347]</a> +Then, too, there were other contrivances to which gunpowder +naturally gave rise, such as pistols, bombs, +mortars, shells, mines, and the like.<a name="FNanchor_348_348" id="FNanchor_348_348"></a><a href="#Footnote_348_348" class="fnanchor">[348]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_349_349" id="FNanchor_349_349"></a><a href="#Footnote_349_349" class="fnanchor">[349]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_350_350" id="FNanchor_350_350"></a><a href="#Footnote_350_350" class="fnanchor">[350]</a></p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_351_351" id="FNanchor_351_351"></a><a href="#Footnote_351_351" class="fnanchor">[351]</a> which, consisting of a comparatively<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +small number of the total amount of citizens, left the +remainder to settle in some other pursuit.<a name="FNanchor_352_352" id="FNanchor_352_352"></a><a href="#Footnote_352_352" class="fnanchor">[352]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_353_353" id="FNanchor_353_353"></a><a href="#Footnote_353_353" class="fnanchor">[353]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_354_354" id="FNanchor_354_354"></a><a href="#Footnote_354_354" class="fnanchor">[354]</a> For this the only remedy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_355_355" id="FNanchor_355_355"></a><a href="#Footnote_355_355" class="fnanchor">[355]</a></p> + +<p>This misconception of the true nature of barter was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +formerly universal;<a name="FNanchor_356_356" id="FNanchor_356_356"></a><a href="#Footnote_356_356" class="fnanchor">[356]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_357_357" id="FNanchor_357_357"></a><a href="#Footnote_357_357" class="fnanchor">[357]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_358_358" id="FNanchor_358_358"></a><a href="#Footnote_358_358" class="fnanchor">[358]</a> But their arguments found<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_359_359" id="FNanchor_359_359"></a><a href="#Footnote_359_359" class="fnanchor">[359]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> +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 <i>Wealth of Nations</i>; 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;<a name="FNanchor_360_360" id="FNanchor_360_360"></a><a href="#Footnote_360_360" class="fnanchor">[360]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_361_361" id="FNanchor_361_361"></a><a href="#Footnote_361_361" class="fnanchor">[361]</a></p> + +<p>If the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> 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;<a name="FNanchor_362_362" id="FNanchor_362_362"></a><a href="#Footnote_362_362" class="fnanchor">[362]</a> +and, being adopted by a few of the leading<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_363_363" id="FNanchor_363_363"></a><a href="#Footnote_363_363" class="fnanchor">[363]</a> 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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +and at the present day, eighty years after the publication +of Smith's <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +to outwit another;<a name="FNanchor_364_364" id="FNanchor_364_364"></a><a href="#Footnote_364_364" class="fnanchor">[364]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_365_365" id="FNanchor_365_365"></a><a href="#Footnote_365_365" class="fnanchor">[365]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_366_366" id="FNanchor_366_366"></a><a href="#Footnote_366_366" class="fnanchor">[366]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_367_367" id="FNanchor_367_367"></a><a href="#Footnote_367_367" class="fnanchor">[367]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_368_368" id="FNanchor_368_368"></a><a href="#Footnote_368_368" class="fnanchor">[368]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +important than those improved facilities of communication,<a name="FNanchor_369_369" id="FNanchor_369_369"></a><a href="#Footnote_369_369" class="fnanchor">[369]</a> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_370_370" id="FNanchor_370_370"></a><a href="#Footnote_370_370" class="fnanchor">[370]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +the extent to which the knowledge is diffused, and the +freedom with which it pervades all classes of society.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<p class="noindent">Footnotes:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_303_303" id="Footnote_303_303"></a><a href="#FNanchor_303_303"><span class="label">[303]</span></a> Thus we find that the Crusades, by diminishing the +proportion of men to women in Europe, increased licentiousness. See a +curious passage in <i>Sprengel</i>, <i>Histoire de la Médecine</i>, vol. ii. p. +376. In Yucatan, there is generally a considerable excess of women, and +the result is prejudicial to morals. <i>Stephens's Central America</i>, vol. +iii. pp. 380, 429. On the other hand, respecting the state of society +produced by an excess of males, see <i>Mallet's Northern Antiquities</i>, p. +259; <i>Journal of Geographical Society</i>, vol. xv. p. 45, vol. xvi. p. +307; <i>Southey's Commonplace Book</i>, third series, p. 579.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_304_304" id="Footnote_304_304"></a><a href="#FNanchor_304_304"><span class="label">[304]</span></a> 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. <i>Southey's Commonplace +Book</i>, third series, p. 696. Turgot (<i>Œuvres</i>, 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’ (<i>Ideen zur Geschichte</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_305_305" id="Footnote_305_305"></a><a href="#FNanchor_305_305"><span class="label">[305]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_306_306" id="Footnote_306_306"></a><a href="#FNanchor_306_306"><span class="label">[306]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_307_307" id="Footnote_307_307"></a><a href="#FNanchor_307_307"><span class="label">[307]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Renouard</i>, <i>Histoire de la +Médecine</i>, Paris, 1846, vol. ii. p. 106; see also, at p. 185, the +opinion of Hippocrates, adopted by Galen; and similar views in +<i>Lepelletier</i>, <i>Physiologie Médicale</i>, vol. iv. p. 332, and <i>Sprengel</i>, +<i>Hist. de la Médecine</i>, 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 <i>Beausobre</i>, <i>Histoire de Manichée</i>, +vol. ii. p. 417; <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. iii. pp. 358, 361; <i>Vishnu +Purana</i>, p. 349; <i>Works of Sir William Jones</i>, vol. iii. p. 126; +<i>Ritter's History of Ancient Philosophy</i>, vol. iii. p. 191; <i>Denham and +Clapperton's Africa</i>, pp. 323, 324; <i>Maintenon</i>, <i>Lettres Inédites</i>, +vol. ii. p. 62; and the view of Hohl (<i>Burdach's Physiologie</i>, 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: καὶ ἄρρενα +μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν δεξιῶ,θήλεα δὲ ἀπὸ +τῶν ἀριστερῶν. +<i>Diog. Laert.</i> ii. 9, vol. i. p. 85.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_308_308" id="Footnote_308_308"></a><a href="#FNanchor_308_308"><span class="label">[308]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Helvetius</i>, <i>de l'Esprit</i>, vol. i. p. 86. +Compare <i>Herder</i>, <i>Ideen zur Geschichte der Menschheit</i>, vol. ii. p. +105. Thus, too, M. Cousin (<i>Hist. de la Philosophie</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_309_309" id="Footnote_309_309"></a><a href="#FNanchor_309_309"><span class="label">[309]</span></a> 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 <i>Robin et Verdeil</i>, <i>Chimie Anatomique et Physiologique</i>, 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 +<i>Turner's Chemistry</i>, vol. ii. p. 1308, London, 1847; and boldly in +<i>Liebig's Letters on Chemistry</i>, 1851, pp. 250, 251. The connexion +between chemistry and physiology is touched on rather too hastily in +<i>Bouilland</i>, <i>Philosophie Médicale</i>, pp. 160, 257; <i>Broussais</i>, <i>Examen +des Doctrines Médicales</i>, vol. iii. p. 166; <i>Brodie's Lectures on +Pathology</i>, p. 48; <i>Henle</i>, <i>Traité d'Anatomie</i>, vol. i. pp. 25, 26; +<i>Feuchtersleben's Medical Psychology</i>, p. 88; but better in <i>Holland's +Medical Notes</i>, 1839, p. 270, a thoughtful and suggestive work. On the +necessity of chemistry for increasing our knowledge of embryology, +compare <i>Wagner's Physiology</i>, pp. 131, 132 note, with <i>Burdach</i>, +<i>Traité de Physiologie</i>, vol. iv. pp. 59, 168.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_310_310" id="Footnote_310_310"></a><a href="#FNanchor_310_310"><span class="label">[310]</span></a> 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 <i>Marsden's History of Sumatra</i>, p. 234; <i>Raffles' +History of Java</i>, vol. i. pp. 81, 82; <i>Sykes on the Statistics of the +Deccan</i>, in <i>Reports of British Association</i>, vol. vi. pp. 246, 261, +262; <i>Niebuhr</i>, <i>Description de l'Arabie</i>, p. 63; <i>Humboldt</i>, <i>Nouv. +Espagne</i>, vol. i. p. 139; <i>McWilliam</i>, <i>Medical History of Expedition to +the Niger</i>, p. 113; <i>Elliotson's Human Physiology</i>, p. 795; <i>Thomson's +Hist. of Royal Society</i>, p. 531; <i>Sadler's Law of Population</i>, vol. i. +pp. 507, 511, vol. ii. pp. 324, 335; <i>Paris and Fonblanque's Medical +Jurisprudence</i>, vol. i. p. 259; <i>Journal of Statist. Soc.</i> vol. iii. pp. +263, 264, vol. xvii. pp. 46, 123; <i>Journal of Geographical Soc.</i> vol. +xx. p. 17; <i>Fourth Report of British Association</i>, pp. 687, 689, <i>Report +for</i> 1842, pp. 144, 145; <i>Transac. of Sections for</i> 1840, p. 174, <i>for</i> +1847, p. 96, <i>for</i> 1849, p. 87; <i>Dufau</i>, <i>Traité de Statistique</i>, pp. +24, 209, 210; <i>Burdach</i>, <i>Traité de Physiologie</i>, vol. ii. pp. 56, 57, +273, 274, 281, vol. v. p. 373; <i>Hawkins's Medical Statistics</i>, pp. 221, +222.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_311_311" id="Footnote_311_311"></a><a href="#FNanchor_311_311"><span class="label">[311]</span></a> In <i>Müller's Physiology</i>, 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 <i>Carpenter's Human Physiology</i>, p. 746; <i>Sadler's Law of +Population</i>, vol. ii. pp. 333, 336, 342; <i>Journal of Statistical +Society</i>, 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. <i>Elliotson's Physiology</i>, pp. 708, 709; and see <i>Cuvier</i>, +<i>Progrès des Sciences Naturelles</i>, vol. ii. p. 406. As to the relation +between the origin of sex and the laws of arrested development, compare +<i>Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire</i>, <i>Hist. des Anomalies de l'Organisation</i>, vol. +ii. pp. 33, 34, 73, vol. iii. p. 278, with <i>Lindley's Botany</i>, vol. ii. +p. 81. In <i>Esquirol</i>, <i>Maladies Mentales</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_312_312" id="Footnote_312_312"></a><a href="#FNanchor_312_312"><span class="label">[312]</span></a> 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 (<i>Philosophie +Positive</i>, 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 <i>result of many ages +of greater intellectual cultivation</i>, or from some other cause, have, as +I am persuaded, much more capacious braincases than their +forefathers.’ <i>Prichard's Physical History of Mankind</i>, 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 <i>Burdach</i>, <i>Traité de Physiologie</i>, vol. ii. p. 253; where, +however, the question is not stated with sufficient caution.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_313_313" id="Footnote_313_313"></a><a href="#FNanchor_313_313"><span class="label">[313]</span></a> 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: +<i>Müller's Physiology</i>, vol. ii. pp. 1406–1410; <i>Elliotson's Human +Physiology</i>, pp. 1059–1062; <i>Blainville</i>, <i>Physiologie Générale et +Comparée</i>, vol. i. pp. 168, 264, 265, vol. ii. pp. 43, 130, 214, 328, +329, vol. iii. pp. 54, 74, 118, 148, 149, 284, 285; <i>Williams's +Principles of Medicine</i>, pp. 16, 17, 112, 113; <i>Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire</i>, +<i>Anomalies de l'Organisation</i>, vol. i. pp. 186, 190; +<i>Broussais</i>, <i>Examen des Doctrines Médicales</i>, vol. i. pp. 204, 205, +vol. iii. p. 276; <i>Renouard</i>, <i>Hist. de la Médecine</i>, vol. i. p. 326; +<i>Sprengel</i>, <i>Hist. de la Médecine</i>, vol. i. p. 380, vol. ii. p. 408, +vol. iii. p. 21, vol. v. p. 325, vol. vi. p. 492; <i>Esquirol</i>, <i>Maladies +Mentales</i>, vol. i. pp. 39, 226, 429, 594, vol. ii. p. 29; <i>Lepelletier</i>, +<i>Physiol. Médicale</i>, vol. i. pp. 139, 281, vol. iii. pp. 372–429, vol. +iv. pp. 93, 123, 133, 143, 148, 177; <i>Henle</i>, <i>Anatomie Générale</i>, vol. +i. p. 474, vol. ii. pp. 288, 289, 316; <i>Bichat</i>, <i>Anatomie Générale</i>, +vol. i. p. 207, vol. ii. p. 444, vol. iii. pp. 310, 507, vol. iv. pp. +281, 399, 400, 504; <i>Bichat sur la Vie</i>, pp. 80, 81, 234, 235; <i>Phillips +on Scrofula</i>, p. 9; <i>Feuchtersleben's Medical Psychology</i>, pp. 143–145; +<i>Œuvres de Fontenelle</i>, Paris, 1766, vol. v. p. 110; <i>Cullen's +Works</i>, Edinb. 1827, vol. i. pp. 214–221; <i>Cabanis</i>, <i>Rapports du +Physique et du Moral</i>, pp. 76–83, 229–261, 520–533; <i>Noble on the +Brain</i>, pp. 370–376; <i>Combe's North America</i>, 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. <i>Clark on Animal Physiology</i>, in <i>Fourth Report of the +British Association</i>, p. 126; <i>Simon's Animal Chemistry</i>, vol. i. p. +236; <i>Wagner's Physiology</i>, p. 262.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_314_314" id="Footnote_314_314"></a><a href="#FNanchor_314_314"><span class="label">[314]</span></a> 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. +</p> +<p> +These considerations ought to prevent us from receiving statements +(<i>Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence</i>, 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 <i>Phillips on Scrofula</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_315_315" id="Footnote_315_315"></a><a href="#FNanchor_315_315"><span class="label">[315]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Conduct of the +Understanding</i>, in <i>Locke's Works</i>, 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.’ <i>Progrès de l'Esprit Humain</i>, in <i>Œuvres de Turgot</i>, +vol. ii. p. 264. The remarks of Dr. Brown (<i>Lectures on the Mind</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_316_316" id="Footnote_316_316"></a><a href="#FNanchor_316_316"><span class="label">[316]</span></a> 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 <i>Mackay's Religious Development</i>, vol. ii. pp. 376–380; <i>Mure's +Hist. of Greek Literature</i>, vol. ii. p. 398, vol. iii. p. 380; +<i>Prescott's History of Mexico</i>, vol. i. p. 31; <i>Elphinstone's History of +India</i>, p. 47; <i>Works of Sir W. Jones</i>, vol. i. pp. 87, 168, vol. iii. +pp. 105, 114; <i>Mill's History of India</i>, vol. i. p. 419; <i>Bohlen</i>, <i>das +alte Indien</i>, vol. i. pp. 364–366; <i>Beausobre</i>, <i>Histoire de Manichée</i>, +vol. i. pp. 318, 319; <i>Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus</i>, p. 193; +<i>Transac. of Soc. of Bombay</i>, vol. iii. p. 198; <i>Transac. of Asiatic +Society</i>, vol. i. p. 5, vol. iii. pp. 283, 284; <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, +vol. vi. p. 271, vol. vii. p. 40, vol. xvi. pp. 130, 277, vol. xx. pp. +460, 461; <i>The Dabistan</i>, vol. i. pp. 328, 338; <i>Catlin's North-American +Indians</i>, vol. ii. p. 243; <i>Syme's Embassy to Ava</i>, vol. ii. p. 389; +<i>Davis's Chinese</i>, vol. i. p. 196, vol. ii. pp. 136, 233; <i>Journal +Asiatique</i>, I. série, vol. iv. p. 77, Paris, 1824.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_317_317" id="Footnote_317_317"></a><a href="#FNanchor_317_317"><span class="label">[317]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Life of Mackintosh, edited by his Son</i>, London, 1835, vol. i. pp. +119–122. Condorcet (<i>Vie de Turgot</i>, p. 180) says, ‘La morale de toutes +les nations a été la même;’ and Kant (<i>Logik</i>, in <i>Kant's Werke</i>, vol. +i. p. 356), ‘In der Moral-philosophie sind wir nicht weiter gekommen, +als die Alten.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_318_318" id="Footnote_318_318"></a><a href="#FNanchor_318_318"><span class="label">[318]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Cuvier</i>, <i>Eloges Historiques</i>, vol. ii. p. 304.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_319_319" id="Footnote_319_319"></a><a href="#FNanchor_319_319"><span class="label">[319]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Letters concerning the Thundering Legion</i>, in <i>Moyle's +Works</i>, 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.’ <i>Mosheim's +Eccl. History</i>, vol. i. p. 66: see +also <i>Milman's Hist. of Christianity</i>, +London, 1840, vol. ii. +p. 225.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_320_320" id="Footnote_320_320"></a><a href="#FNanchor_320_320"><span class="label">[320]</span></a> Dr. Milman (<i>History of +Christianity</i>, 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.’ <i>Guizot</i>, <i>Civilisation +en France</i>, vol. iv. p. 142. +Even Duplessis Mornay (<i>Mém.</i> +vol. iv. p. 374) calls him ‘le +meilleur des empereurs payens;’ +and Ritter (<i>Hist. of Philos.</i> +vol. iv. p. 222), ‘the virtuous +and noble emperor.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_321_321" id="Footnote_321_321"></a><a href="#FNanchor_321_321"><span class="label">[321]</span></a> Neander (<i>History of the +Church</i>, 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 +(<i>Decline and Fall</i>, 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.’ <i>Memoirs +of Colonel Hutchinson</i>, p. 85.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_322_322" id="Footnote_322_322"></a><a href="#FNanchor_322_322"><span class="label">[322]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Llorente</i>, <i>Histoire Critique de +l'Inquisition d'Espagne</i>, vol. i. p. xxiii.: compare vol. ii. pp. 267, +268, vol. iv. p. 153.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_323_323" id="Footnote_323_323"></a><a href="#FNanchor_323_323"><span class="label">[323]</span></a> Highly spoken of by the late Blanco White, a most +competent judge. See <i>Doblado's Letters from Spain</i>, p. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_324_324" id="Footnote_324_324"></a><a href="#FNanchor_324_324"><span class="label">[324]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Townsend's Journey through +Spain, in 1786 and 1787</i>, vol. i. p. 122, Lond. 1792.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_325_325" id="Footnote_325_325"></a><a href="#FNanchor_325_325"><span class="label">[325]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Correspondence of Charles V. and his Ambassadors</i>, 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. <i>Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, 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.’ <i>Ticknor's History of Spanish +Literature</i>, vol. i. p. 410. For other statistical evidence on this +horrible subject, see <i>Llorente</i>, <i>Histoire de l'Inquisition</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_326_326" id="Footnote_326_326"></a><a href="#FNanchor_326_326"><span class="label">[326]</span></a> On the diminished love of war, which is even more marked +than the actual diminution of war, see some interesting remarks in +<i>Comte</i>, <i>Philosophie Positive</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_327_327" id="Footnote_327_327"></a><a href="#FNanchor_327_327"><span class="label">[327]</span></a> In <i>Pellew's Life of Sidmouth</i>, 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!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_328_328" id="Footnote_328_328"></a><a href="#FNanchor_328_328"><span class="label">[328]</span></a> 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 <i>Ductor Dubitantium</i> 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 <i>Mosheim's Ecclesiast. Hist.</i>, vol. i. p. 338, +and <i>Coleridge's Friend</i>, vol. iii. p. 104.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_329_329" id="Footnote_329_329"></a><a href="#FNanchor_329_329"><span class="label">[329]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Ideen zur Geschichte</i>, vol. i. p. 185.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_330_330" id="Footnote_330_330"></a><a href="#FNanchor_330_330"><span class="label">[330]</span></a> 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 <i>Carpenter's Human Physiology</i>, p. 404; and a fine passage +in <i>Herder's Ideen zur Geschichte</i>, 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 <i>Prichard's Physical Hist. of Mankind</i>, vol. i. pp. 292, 293; +<i>Azara</i>, <i>Amérique Méridionale</i>, vol. ii. p. 18; <i>Wrangel's Polar +Expedition</i>, p. 384; <i>Pallme's Travels in Kordofan</i>, pp. 132, 133.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_331_331" id="Footnote_331_331"></a><a href="#FNanchor_331_331"><span class="label">[331]</span></a> ‘Among some Macedonian tribes, the man who had never slain +an enemy was marked by a degrading badge.’ <i>Grote's History of Greece</i>, +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.’ <i>Earl's Account of Borneo</i>, in <i>Journal of Asiatic Society</i>, +vol. iv. p. 181. See also <i>Crawfurd on Borneo</i>, in <i>Journal of Geog. +Soc.</i>, vol. xxiii. pp. 77, 80. And for similar instances of this +absorption of all other ideas into warlike ones, compare <i>Journal of +Geog. Soc.</i>, vol. x. p. 357; <i>Mallet's Northern Antiquities</i>, pp. 158, +159, 195; <i>Thirlwall's Hist. of Greece</i>, vol. i. pp. 226, 284, vol. +viii. p. 209; <i>Henderson's History of Brazil</i>, p. 475; <i>Southey's +History of Brazil</i>, vol. i. pp. 126, 248; <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. ii. +p. 188, vol. vii. p. 193; <i>Transactions of Bombay Society</i>, vol. ii. pp. +51, 52; <i>Hoskins's Travels in Ethiopia</i>, p. 163; <i>Origines du Droit</i>, in +<i>Œuvres de Michelet</i>, vol. ii. pp. 333, 334 note. So also the +Thracians: γῆς δὲ ἐργάτην +καὶ ληιστύος, κάλλιστον. +<i>Herodotus</i>, book v. chap. 6, vol. iii. p. 10, edit. Baehr.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_332_332" id="Footnote_332_332"></a><a href="#FNanchor_332_332"><span class="label">[332]</span></a> Malcolm (<i>History of Persia</i>, vol. i. p. 204) says of the +Tartars, ‘There is only one path to eminence, that of military renown.’ +Thus, too, in the <i>Institutes of Timour</i>, 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 +<i>Mure's Greek Literature</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_333_333" id="Footnote_333_333"></a><a href="#FNanchor_333_333"><span class="label">[333]</span></a> 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, +<i>Observations on the Statutes</i>, 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 <i>Turner's Hist. of +England</i>, vol. vi. p. 21. Sainte Palaye (<i>Mémoires sur l'ancienne +Chevalerie</i>, 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 <i>Rig Veda Sanhita</i>, 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. <i>Manning's Commentaries on the Law of +Nations</i>, 1839, p. 162; and on the profits formerly made, pp. 157, 158.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_334_334" id="Footnote_334_334"></a><a href="#FNanchor_334_334"><span class="label">[334]</span></a> I wrote this in 1855.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_335_335" id="Footnote_335_335"></a><a href="#FNanchor_335_335"><span class="label">[335]</span></a> Indeed some have supposed that there is less immorality in +Russia than in Western Europe; but this idea is probably erroneous. See +<i>Stirling's Russia</i>, 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 <i>Pinkerton's Russia</i>, Lond. 1833, pp. 335, 336. Sir John +Sinclair also says they are ‘prone to acts of kindness and charity.’ +<i>Sinclair's Correspondence</i>, vol. ii. p. 241.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_336_336" id="Footnote_336_336"></a><a href="#FNanchor_336_336"><span class="label">[336]</span></a> The reverence of the Russian people for their clergy has +attracted the attention of many observers, and is, indeed, too notorious +to require proof.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_337_337" id="Footnote_337_337"></a><a href="#FNanchor_337_337"><span class="label">[337]</span></a> A very observing and intelligent writer says, ‘Russia has +only two ranks—the highest and the lowest.’ <i>Letters from the Baltic</i>, +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?’ <i>Custine's Russie</i>, vol. ii. pp. +125, 126: see also vol. iv. p. 74.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_338_338" id="Footnote_338_338"></a><a href="#FNanchor_338_338"><span class="label">[338]</span></a> 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 <i>mauvais genre</i> to discuss a rational subject—mere +<i>pédanterie</i> to be caught upon any topics beyond dressing, dancing, and +a <i>jolie tournure</i>.’ <i>Letters from the Baltic</i>, 1841, vol. ii. p. 233. +M. Custine (<i>La Russie en 1839</i>, 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.’ <i>Kohl's Russia</i>, 1842, Lond. p. +142.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_339_339" id="Footnote_339_339"></a><a href="#FNanchor_339_339"><span class="label">[339]</span></a> According to Schnitzler, ‘Precedence is determined, in +Russia, by military rank; and an ensign would take the <i>pas</i> of a +nobleman not enrolled in the army, or occupying some situation giving +military rank.’ <i>M'Culloch's Geog. Dict.</i> 1849, vol. ii. p. 614. The +same thing is stated in <i>Pinkerton's Russia</i>, 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?’ <i>Erman's Siberia</i>, vol. i. p. 45. See also on this +preponderance of the military classes, which is the inevitable fruit of +the national ignorance, <i>Kohl's Russia</i>, pp. 28, 194; <i>Stirling's Russia +under Nicholas the First</i>, p. 7; <i>Custine's Russie</i>, +vol. i. pp. 147, 152, 252, 266, vol. ii. pp. 71, 128, 309, vol. iii. p. +328, vol. iv. p. 284. Sir A. Alison (<i>History of Europe</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_340_340" id="Footnote_340_340"></a><a href="#FNanchor_340_340"><span class="label">[340]</span></a> The consequences of the invention of gunpowder are +considered very superficially by Frederick Schlegel (<i>Lectures on the +History of Literature</i>, vol. ii. pp. 37, 38), and by Dugald Stewart +(<i>Philosophy of the Mind</i>, vol. i. p. 262). They are examined with much +greater ability, though by no means exhaustively, in <i>Smith's Wealth of +Nations</i>, book v. chap. i. pp. 292, 296, 297; <i>Herder's Ideen zur +Geschichte der Menschheit</i>, vol. iv. p. 301; <i>Hallam's Middle Ages</i>, +vol. ii. p. 470.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_341_341" id="Footnote_341_341"></a><a href="#FNanchor_341_341"><span class="label">[341]</span></a> 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: +<i>Humboldt's Cosmos</i>, vol. ii. p. 590; <i>Koch</i>, <i>Tableaux des Révolutions</i>, +vol. i. p. 242; <i>Beckmann's History of Inventions</i>, 1846, vol. ii. p. +505; <i>Histoire Lit. de la France</i>, vol. xx. p. 236; <i>Thomson's History +of Chemistry</i>, vol. i. p. 36; <i>Hallam's Middle Ages</i>, vol. i. p. 341. +The statements in <i>Erman's Siberia</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_342_342" id="Footnote_342_342"></a><a href="#FNanchor_342_342"><span class="label">[342]</span></a> <i>Vattel, le Droit des Gens</i>, vol. ii. p. 129; <i>Lingard's +History of England</i>, 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.’ <i>Eccleston's English Antiquities</i>, p. 62. ‘There was +no distinction between the soldier and the citizen.’ <i>Palgrave's +Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth</i>, vol. i. p. 200.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_343_343" id="Footnote_343_343"></a><a href="#FNanchor_343_343"><span class="label">[343]</span></a> On these warlike ecclesiastics, compare <i>Grose's Military +Antiq.</i> vol. i. pp. 67–8; <i>Lingard's Hist. of England</i>, vol. ii. pp. 26, +183, vol. iii. p. 14; <i>Turner's Hist. of England</i>, vol. iv. p. 458, vol. +v. pp. 92, 402, 406; <i>Mosheim's Eccl. History</i>, vol. i. pp. 173, 193, +241; <i>Crichton's Scandinavia</i>, 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.’ <i>Matthæi Paris Historia Major</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_344_344" id="Footnote_344_344"></a><a href="#FNanchor_344_344"><span class="label">[344]</span></a> As Sharon Turner observes of England under the Anglo-Saxon +government, ‘war and religion were the absorbing subjects of this +period.’ <i>Turner's History of England</i>, 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.’ <i>Winckler, +Geschichte der Botanik</i>, 1854, p. 56.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_345_345" id="Footnote_345_345"></a><a href="#FNanchor_345_345"><span class="label">[345]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Rog. de Hov. Annal. in Scriptores post Bedam</i>, 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.’ <i>Grose's Military Antiquities</i>, vol. ii. pp. 301, +302. Compare <i>Geijer's History of the Swedes</i>, 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.’ <i>Sir William +Hamilton on the History of Universities</i>, in <i>Hamilton's Philosoph. +Discussions</i>, 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 <i>Egerton Papers</i>, 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 <i>Yonge's Diary</i>, edit. Camden Soc. 1848, p. xvii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_346_346" id="Footnote_346_346"></a><a href="#FNanchor_346_346"><span class="label">[346]</span></a> It is stated by many writers that no gunpowder was +manufactured in England until the reign of Elizabeth. <i>Camden's +Elizabeth</i>, in <i>Kennett's History</i>, vol. ii. p. 388, London, 1719; +<i>Strickland's Queens of England</i>, vol. vi. p. 223, Lond. 1843; <i>Grose's +Military Antiquities</i>, vol. i. p. 378. But Sharon Turner (<i>History of +England</i>, 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 (<i>English Antiquities</i>, 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.’ +<i>Parliament. Hist.</i> vol. ii. p. 655. In 1686, it appears from the +<i>Clarendon Correspondence</i>, vol. i. p. 413, that the wholesale price +ranged from about 2<i>l.</i> 10<i>s.</i> to 3<i>l.</i> per barrel. On the expense of +making it in the present century, see <i>Liebig and Kopp's Reports on +Chemistry</i>, vol. iii. p. 325, Lond. 1852.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_347_347" id="Footnote_347_347"></a><a href="#FNanchor_347_347"><span class="label">[347]</span></a> 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. <i>Hallam's Middle Ages</i>, vol. i. p. 342. Grose (<i>Military +Antiquities</i>, 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 <i>Beckmann's History of Inventions</i>, Lond. 1846, vol. ii. p. +535, it is strangely supposed that muskets were ‘first used at the +battle of Pavia.’ Compare <i>Daniel</i>, <i>Histoire de la Milice</i>, vol. i. p. +464, with <i>Smythe's Military Discourses</i>, in <i>Ellis's Original Letters</i>, +p. 53, edit. Camden Society.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_348_348" id="Footnote_348_348"></a><a href="#FNanchor_348_348"><span class="label">[348]</span></a> Pistols are said to have been invented early in the +sixteenth century. <i>Grose's Military Antiq.</i> vol. i. pp. 102, 146. +Gunpowder was first employed in mining towns in 1487. <i>Prescott's Hist. +of Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, vol. ii. p. 32; <i>Koch</i>, <i>Tableaux des +Révolutions</i>, vol. i. p. 243; <i>Daniel</i>, <i>Histoire de la Milice Française</i>, +vol. i. p. 574. Daniel (<i>Milice Française</i>, vol. i. pp. 580, 581) says +that bombs were not invented till 1588; and the same thing is asserted +in <i>Biographie Universelle</i>, vol. xv. p. 248: but, according to Grose +(<i>Military Antiq.</i> vol. i. p. 387), they are mentioned by Valturinus in +1472. On the general condition of the French artillery in the sixteenth +century, see <i>Relations des Ambassadeurs Vénitiens</i>, 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 <i>Bohlen</i>, <i>das alte Indien</i>, vol. ii. p. 63; <i>Daniel</i>, +<i>Histoire de la Milice</i>, vol. i. pp. 441, 442.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_349_349" id="Footnote_349_349"></a><a href="#FNanchor_349_349"><span class="label">[349]</span></a> <i>Blackstone's Commentaries</i>, vol. i. p. 413; <i>Daniel, +Hist. de la Milice</i>, vol. i. p. 210, vol. ii. pp. 491, 493; <i>Œuvres +de Turgot</i>, vol. viii. p. 228.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_350_350" id="Footnote_350_350"></a><a href="#FNanchor_350_350"><span class="label">[350]</span></a> The leading facts respecting the employment of mercenary +troops are indicated with great judgment by Mr. Hallam, in his <i>Middle +Ages</i>, vol. i. p. 328–337.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_351_351" id="Footnote_351_351"></a><a href="#FNanchor_351_351"><span class="label">[351]</span></a> Grose (<i>Military Antiquities</i>, 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. <i>Daniel</i>, +<i>Hist. de la Milice</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_352_352" id="Footnote_352_352"></a><a href="#FNanchor_352_352"><span class="label">[352]</span></a> The change from the time when every layman was a soldier, +is very remarkable. Adam Smith (<i>Wealth of Nations</i>, 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 <i>Sadler's Law of Population</i>, vol. i. p. 292; and in <i>Grandeur et +Décadence des Romains</i>, chap. iii.—<i>Œuvres de +Montesquieu</i>, p. 130: also in <i>Sharpe's History of Egypt</i>, vol. i. p. +105; and in <i>Alison's History of Europe</i>, vol. xii. p. 318.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_353_353" id="Footnote_353_353"></a><a href="#FNanchor_353_353"><span class="label">[353]</span></a> The pacific tendencies of political economy are touched on +very briefly in <i>Blanqui</i>, <i>Histoire de l'Economie Politique</i>, vol. ii. +p. 207; and in <i>Twiss's Progress of Political Economy</i>, p. 240.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_354_354" id="Footnote_354_354"></a><a href="#FNanchor_354_354"><span class="label">[354]</span></a> This favourite doctrine is illustrated in a curious +‘Discourse,’ written in 1578, and printed in <i>Stow's London</i>, 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. <i>Stow's London</i>, 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.’ <i>Parl. History</i>, 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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! <i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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. <i>Temple's +Works</i>, vol. i. p. 175, vol. ii. pp. 117, 118.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_355_355" id="Footnote_355_355"></a><a href="#FNanchor_355_355"><span class="label">[355]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Somers' Tracts</i>, 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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. <i>Somers' Tracts</i>, 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.’ <i>Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors</i>, vol. v. +p. 89.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_356_356" id="Footnote_356_356"></a><a href="#FNanchor_356_356"><span class="label">[356]</span></a> In regard to the seventeenth century, see <i>Mill's History +of India</i>, 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 <i>Essay +on Money</i>, in <i>Locke's Works</i>, 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 <i>Querist</i>, Nos. xcix. clxi., in <i>Berkeley's Works</i>, vol. ii. pp. +246, 250: see also his proposal for a sumptuary law, in <i>Essay towards +Preventing the Ruin of Great Britain</i>, in <i>Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 190. The +economical views of Montesquieu (<i>Esprit des Lois</i>, livre xx. chap. xii. +in <i>Œuvres</i>, p. 353) are as hopelessly wrong; while Vattel (<i>Droit +des Gens</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_357_357" id="Footnote_357_357"></a><a href="#FNanchor_357_357"><span class="label">[357]</span></a> 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 +<i>Parl. History</i>, vol. ii. pp. 1274–1279.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_358_358" id="Footnote_358_358"></a><a href="#FNanchor_358_358"><span class="label">[358]</span></a> 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 <i>Twiss on the Progress of Political Economy</i>, 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 <i>Harleian Miscellany</i>, vol. +ix. pp. 139–192, edit. Park, 1812; and the title, <i>Brief Conceipt of +English Policy</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_359_359" id="Footnote_359_359"></a><a href="#FNanchor_359_359"><span class="label">[359]</span></a> In regard to the interference of the English legislature, +it is stated by Mr. M'Culloch (<i>Polit. Econ.</i> 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 <i>Barrington's Observations on the Statutes</i>, 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.’ <i>Parl. +History</i>, vol. iv. p. 291. Compare the remarks on the fishery-trade, in +<i>Somers' Tracts</i>, vol. xii. p. 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_360_360" id="Footnote_360_360"></a><a href="#FNanchor_360_360"><span class="label">[360]</span></a> To this the only exception of any moment is the view taken +of the usury-laws, which Jeremy Bentham has the honour of demolishing.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_361_361" id="Footnote_361_361"></a><a href="#FNanchor_361_361"><span class="label">[361]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_362_362" id="Footnote_362_362"></a><a href="#FNanchor_362_362"><span class="label">[362]</span></a> The first notice I have observed of the <i>Wealth of +Nations</i> 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 <i>Parliamentary History</i>, 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 <i>Pellew's Life of +Sidmouth</i>, vol. i. p. 51, it appears that even Addington was studying +Adam Smith in 1787.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_363_363" id="Footnote_363_363"></a><a href="#FNanchor_363_363"><span class="label">[363]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. +xxxiii. p. 778. In 1813, Dugald Stewart (<i>Philosophy of the Human Mind</i>, +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.’ <i>Proposals for an Economical Currency</i>, in +<i>Ricardo's Works</i>, p. 407.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_364_364" id="Footnote_364_364"></a><a href="#FNanchor_364_364"><span class="label">[364]</span></a> Sir Theodore Janson, in his <i>General Maxims of Trade</i>, +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.’ +<i>Somers' Tracts</i>, vol. xiii. p. 292. Thus, too, in a <i>Dialogue between +an Englishman and a Dutchman</i>, published in 1700, the Dutchman is +represented as boasting that his government had ‘forced treaties of +commerce exclusive to all other nations.’ <i>Somers' Tracts</i>, vol. xi. p. +376. This is the system of ‘narrow selfishness’ denounced by Dr. Story, +in his noble work, <i>Conflict of Laws</i>, 1841, p. 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_365_365" id="Footnote_365_365"></a><a href="#FNanchor_365_365"><span class="label">[365]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>M'Culloch's Principles +of Political Economy</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_366_366" id="Footnote_366_366"></a><a href="#FNanchor_366_366"><span class="label">[366]</span></a> On the rapid diffusion during the present century of the +principles worked out by the economists, compare <i>Laing's Sweden</i>, pp. +356–358, with a note to the last edition of <i>Malthus on Population</i>, +1826, vol. ii. pp. 354, 355.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_367_367" id="Footnote_367_367"></a><a href="#FNanchor_367_367"><span class="label">[367]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Mill's Political Economy</i>, 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 +<i>Ideen zur Geschichte</i>, vol. iii. pp. 292, 293.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_368_368" id="Footnote_368_368"></a><a href="#FNanchor_368_368"><span class="label">[368]</span></a> 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 <i>Quetelet sur +l'Homme</i>, vol. ii. pp. 152, 158; <i>Tissot de la Manie du Suicide</i>, Paris, +1840, pp. 50, 149, 150; <i>Journal of Statistical Society</i>, vol. i. p. +102; <i>Winslow's Anatomy of Suicide</i>, 1840, pp. 131, 132; <i>Hawkins's +Medical Statistics</i>, p. 170.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_369_369" id="Footnote_369_369"></a><a href="#FNanchor_369_369"><span class="label">[369]</span></a> 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. <i>Journal of Statistical Society</i>, vol. xvi. p. +292.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_370_370" id="Footnote_370_370"></a><a href="#FNanchor_370_370"><span class="label">[370]</span></a> Of this, Mr. Stephens (in his valuable work, <i>Central +America</i>, 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 (<i>History of India</i>, p. 195) +says, ‘Those who have known the Indians longest have always the best +opinion of them: but <i>this is rather a compliment to human nature than +to them, since it is true of every other people</i>.’ Compare an +instructive passage in <i>Darwin's Journal of Researches</i>, p. 421, with +<i>Burdach</i>, <i>Traité de Physiologie comme Science d'Observation</i>, vol. ii. +p. 61.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot">INQUIRY INTO THE INFLUENCE EXERCISED BY RELIGION, LITERATURE, AND GOVERNMENT.</div> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>This, then, is the true standard by which we must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_371_371" id="FNanchor_371_371"></a><a href="#Footnote_371_371" class="fnanchor">[371]</a> 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;<a name="FNanchor_372_372" id="FNanchor_372_372"></a><a href="#Footnote_372_372" class="fnanchor">[372]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_373_373" id="FNanchor_373_373"></a><a href="#Footnote_373_373" class="fnanchor">[373]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_374_374" id="FNanchor_374_374"></a><a href="#Footnote_374_374" class="fnanchor">[374]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +France;<a name="FNanchor_375_375" id="FNanchor_375_375"></a><a href="#Footnote_375_375" class="fnanchor">[375]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_376_376" id="FNanchor_376_376"></a><a href="#Footnote_376_376" class="fnanchor">[376]</a> 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_377_377" id="FNanchor_377_377"></a><a href="#Footnote_377_377" class="fnanchor">[377]</a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>After this comparison between the relative value of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_378_378" id="FNanchor_378_378"></a><a href="#Footnote_378_378" class="fnanchor">[378]</a> a city which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_379_379" id="FNanchor_379_379"></a><a href="#Footnote_379_379" class="fnanchor">[379]</a> This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_380_380" id="FNanchor_380_380"></a><a href="#Footnote_380_380" class="fnanchor">[380]</a> From<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_381_381" id="FNanchor_381_381"></a><a href="#Footnote_381_381" class="fnanchor">[381]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +science; and, with the single exception of jurisprudence,<a name="FNanchor_382_382" id="FNanchor_382_382"></a><a href="#Footnote_382_382" class="fnanchor">[382]</a> +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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +notwithstanding the temporary advantages which such +one-sided energy does for the moment always procure.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_383_383" id="FNanchor_383_383"></a><a href="#Footnote_383_383" class="fnanchor">[383]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_384_384" id="FNanchor_384_384"></a><a href="#Footnote_384_384" class="fnanchor">[384]</a> Hence there arose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_385_385" id="FNanchor_385_385"></a><a href="#Footnote_385_385" class="fnanchor">[385]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_386_386" id="FNanchor_386_386"></a><a href="#Footnote_386_386" class="fnanchor">[386]</a> +His philosophy exercised immense influence among +metaphysicians;<a name="FNanchor_387_387" id="FNanchor_387_387"></a><a href="#Footnote_387_387" class="fnanchor">[387]</a> and his method of working downwards,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +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 <i>Theory of +Moral Sentiments</i>, likewise in his <i>Essay on Language</i>,<a name="FNanchor_388_388" id="FNanchor_388_388"></a><a href="#Footnote_388_388" class="fnanchor">[388]</a> +and even in his fragment on the <i>History of Astronomy</i>, +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.<a name="FNanchor_389_389" id="FNanchor_389_389"></a><a href="#Footnote_389_389" class="fnanchor">[389]</a> The <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> +mental principles to the whole set of economical facts.<a name="FNanchor_390_390" id="FNanchor_390_390"></a><a href="#Footnote_390_390" class="fnanchor">[390]</a> +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 +<i>a priori</i>, 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.<a name="FNanchor_391_391" id="FNanchor_391_391"></a><a href="#Footnote_391_391" class="fnanchor">[391]</a> Thus, too, in his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> +<i>Natural History of Religion</i>, he endeavoured simply by +reflection, and independently of evidence, to institute a +purely speculative investigation into the origin of +religious opinions.<a name="FNanchor_392_392" id="FNanchor_392_392"></a><a href="#Footnote_392_392" class="fnanchor">[392]</a> In the same way, in his <i>History +of England</i>, 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.<a name="FNanchor_393_393" id="FNanchor_393_393"></a><a href="#Footnote_393_393" class="fnanchor">[393]</a> These different writers, though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> +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 <i>History of Civil +Society</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +the reception of those religious principles, which, without +such stimulus, he could never have understood.<a name="FNanchor_394_394" id="FNanchor_394_394"></a><a href="#Footnote_394_394" class="fnanchor">[394]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +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?</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_395_395" id="FNanchor_395_395"></a><a href="#Footnote_395_395" class="fnanchor">[395]</a> +Pagan ceremonies were established in Christian +churches; not only the mummeries of idolatry, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_396_396" id="FNanchor_396_396"></a><a href="#Footnote_396_396" class="fnanchor">[396]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_397_397" id="FNanchor_397_397"></a><a href="#Footnote_397_397" class="fnanchor">[397]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_398_398" id="FNanchor_398_398"></a><a href="#Footnote_398_398" class="fnanchor">[398]</a></p> + +<p>Indeed, in every page of history, we meet with fresh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_399_399" id="FNanchor_399_399"></a><a href="#Footnote_399_399" class="fnanchor">[399]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_400_400" id="FNanchor_400_400"></a><a href="#Footnote_400_400" class="fnanchor">[400]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> +its legitimate effect.<a name="FNanchor_401_401" id="FNanchor_401_401"></a><a href="#Footnote_401_401" class="fnanchor">[401]</a> 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_402_402" id="FNanchor_402_402"></a><a href="#Footnote_402_402" class="fnanchor">[402]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_403_403" id="FNanchor_403_403"></a><a href="#Footnote_403_403" class="fnanchor">[403]</a> When the interval between<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_404_404" id="FNanchor_404_404"></a><a href="#Footnote_404_404" class="fnanchor">[404]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +more inveterate.<a name="FNanchor_405_405" id="FNanchor_405_405"></a><a href="#Footnote_405_405" class="fnanchor">[405]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> +of the fathers. From these sources they drew those +lying and impudent fables, of which the theology of that +time is principally composed.<a name="FNanchor_406_406" id="FNanchor_406_406"></a><a href="#Footnote_406_406" class="fnanchor">[406]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_407_407" id="FNanchor_407_407"></a><a href="#Footnote_407_407" class="fnanchor">[407]</a> And +I entertain no doubt, that if, in the seventh and eighth +centuries, which were the worst part of that period,<a name="FNanchor_408_408" id="FNanchor_408_408"></a><a href="#Footnote_408_408" class="fnanchor">[408]</a> +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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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;<a name="FNanchor_409_409" id="FNanchor_409_409"></a><a href="#Footnote_409_409" class="fnanchor">[409]</a> 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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_410_410" id="FNanchor_410_410"></a><a href="#Footnote_410_410" class="fnanchor">[410]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_411_411" id="FNanchor_411_411"></a><a href="#Footnote_411_411" class="fnanchor">[411]</a> and accustomed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_412_412" id="FNanchor_412_412"></a><a href="#Footnote_412_412" class="fnanchor">[412]</a> The innumerable crimes arising from this,<a name="FNanchor_413_413" id="FNanchor_413_413"></a><a href="#Footnote_413_413" class="fnanchor">[413]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_414_414" id="FNanchor_414_414"></a><a href="#Footnote_414_414" class="fnanchor">[414]</a></p> + +<p>The open vices, and, what is much more dangerous,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_415_415" id="FNanchor_415_415"></a><a href="#Footnote_415_415" class="fnanchor">[415]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_416_416" id="FNanchor_416_416"></a><a href="#Footnote_416_416" class="fnanchor">[416]</a> A certain risk being always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_417_417" id="FNanchor_417_417"></a><a href="#Footnote_417_417" class="fnanchor">[417]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<p class="noindent">Footnotes:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_371_371" id="Footnote_371_371"></a><a href="#FNanchor_371_371"><span class="label">[371]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Coleridge on the Constitution of the Church and +State</i>, 8vo. 1830, pp. 20, 21. The political consequences of this were +much noticed at the time of the French Revolution. See <i>Mémoires de La +Fayette</i>, vol. i. p. 404, Bruxelles, 1837.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_372_372" id="Footnote_372_372"></a><a href="#FNanchor_372_372"><span class="label">[372]</span></a> 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 <i>Barrington's Observations on the Statutes</i>, p. 218, with a +letter from Beza, written in 1598, in <i>Mémoires et Correspondence de Du +Plessis Mornay</i>, vol. ix. p. 81.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_373_373" id="Footnote_373_373"></a><a href="#FNanchor_373_373"><span class="label">[373]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Dutens</i>, <i>Mémoires d'un Voyageur</i>, vol. +i. p. 217. Compare <i>Mémoires de Madame de Genlis</i>, vol. viii. p. 241.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_374_374" id="Footnote_374_374"></a><a href="#FNanchor_374_374"><span class="label">[374]</span></a> <i>Orme's Life of Owen</i>, p. 288; <i>Mahon's History of +England</i>, vol. ii. p. 211; and many other writers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_375_375" id="Footnote_375_375"></a><a href="#FNanchor_375_375"><span class="label">[375]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Scott's Life of Dryden</i>, p. 523, +8vo. 1808. Rather a bold assertion. As to the opinion of Fox, see Lord +Holland's preface to <i>Fox's James II.</i>, 4to. 1808, p. xxxii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_376_376" id="Footnote_376_376"></a><a href="#FNanchor_376_376"><span class="label">[376]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Bancroft's History of the American +Revolution</i>, vol. ii. p. 48. Compare <i>Forster's Life of Goldsmith</i>, +1854, vol. i. pp. 93–96, vol. ii. p. 480.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_377_377" id="Footnote_377_377"></a><a href="#FNanchor_377_377"><span class="label">[377]</span></a> See, for evidence of this influence of England, chap. v. of +the second volume.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_378_378" id="Footnote_378_378"></a><a href="#FNanchor_378_378"><span class="label">[378]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Tennemann</i>, <i>Geschichte der Philosophie</i>, vol. xi. pp. +286, 287.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_379_379" id="Footnote_379_379"></a><a href="#FNanchor_379_379"><span class="label">[379]</span></a> A popular view of the system of national education +established in Germany will be found in <i>Kay's Social Condition and +Education of the People of Europe</i>, 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 <i>Laing's Notes of a Traveller</i>, 8vo. 1842, p. +165, first series; and on the physical evils produced by German +education, see <i>Phillips on Scrofula</i>, London, 1846, pp. 253, 254, where +there is some useful evidence of the consequences of ‘that great German +sin of over-regulation.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_380_380" id="Footnote_380_380"></a><a href="#FNanchor_380_380"><span class="label">[380]</span></a> 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 <i>take the public mind in a far +lower state</i>, 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.’ <i>Laing's Notes of a Traveller</i>, first series, pp. 266, 267. +The same acute observer says, in a later work (<i>Notes</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_381_381" id="Footnote_381_381"></a><a href="#FNanchor_381_381"><span class="label">[381]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Tocqueville de la +Démocratie en Amérique</i>, vol. i. p. 91.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_382_382" id="Footnote_382_382"></a><a href="#FNanchor_382_382"><span class="label">[382]</span></a> 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 <i>Burke's Speech</i>, in <i>Parliamentary History</i>, vol. xviii. p. +495; or in <i>Burke's Works</i>, 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 +<i>Lyell's Second Visit to the United States</i>, 1849, vol. i. p. 45; and as +to the judges, <i>Combe's N. America</i>, vol. ii. p. 329.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_383_383" id="Footnote_383_383"></a><a href="#FNanchor_383_383"><span class="label">[383]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_384_384" id="Footnote_384_384"></a><a href="#FNanchor_384_384"><span class="label">[384]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Trail's Life and Writings of +Robert Simson</i>, 1812, 4to. p. 4. This was probably the rudiment of his +work on Conic Sections, published in 1735. <i>Montucla</i>, <i>Histoire des +Mathématiques</i>, 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 <i>Philosophy of the Mind</i>, vol. ii. +pp. 354 seq. and p. 380. See also <i>Comte</i>, <i>Philosophie Positive</i>, 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, <i>Bower's History of the University of +Edinburgh</i>, vol. ii. pp. 357–360, vol. iii. p. 249; and a strange +passage in <i>First Report of the British Association</i>, p. 59.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_385_385" id="Footnote_385_385"></a><a href="#FNanchor_385_385"><span class="label">[385]</span></a> 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 +<i>Trail's Simson</i>, 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. <i>Brougham's Men +of Letters and Science</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_386_386" id="Footnote_386_386"></a><a href="#FNanchor_386_386"><span class="label">[386]</span></a> Sir James Mackintosh (<i>Dissertation on Ethical +Philosophy</i>, 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 <i>Cousin</i>, <i>Histoire de la +Philosophie</i>, I. série, vol. iv. pp. 31 seq.; written with +clearness and eloquence, but perhaps overpraising Hutcheson.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_387_387" id="Footnote_387_387"></a><a href="#FNanchor_387_387"><span class="label">[387]</span></a> On its influence, see a letter from Mackintosh to Parr, in +<i>Memoirs of Mackintosh</i>, by his Son, vol. i. p. 334. Compare <i>Letters +from Warburton to Hurd</i>, pp. 37, 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_388_388" id="Footnote_388_388"></a><a href="#FNanchor_388_388"><span class="label">[388]</span></a> Which is added to his <i>Theory of Moral Sentiments</i>, edit. +1822, 2 volumes. Compare a letter which Smith wrote in 1763 on the +origin of language (in <i>Nichols's Literary Illustrations of the +Eighteenth Century</i>, 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 <i>a priori</i> seem to +me unwise.’ <i>Arnold's Miscellaneous Works</i>, p. 385. This would lead into +a discussion too long for a note, but it appears to me that those <i>a +priori</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_389_389" id="Footnote_389_389"></a><a href="#FNanchor_389_389"><span class="label">[389]</span></a> 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. <i>History +of Astronomy</i>, in <i>Smith's Philosophical Essays</i>, 1795, 4to. pp. 31, 36, +which it may be convenient to compare with <i>Whewell's Philosophy of the +Inductive Sciences</i>, 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 +<i>Philosophie Positive</i>, vol. vi. p. 319.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_390_390" id="Footnote_390_390"></a><a href="#FNanchor_390_390"><span class="label">[390]</span></a> The two writers who have inquired most carefully into the +method which political economists ought to follow, are Mr. John Mill +(<i>Essays on Unsettled Questions of Political Economy</i>, 1844, pp. +120–164) and Mr. Rae (<i>New Principles of Political Economy</i>, 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 <i>abstract</i> science, and its method is the +method <i>a priori</i>;’ and at p. 146, that the <i>a posteriori</i> 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, <i>Jones on the +Distribution of Wealth</i>, 8vo. 1831: a book containing some interesting +facts, but vitiated by this capital defect of method. See also <i>Journal +of Statistical Society</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_391_391" id="Footnote_391_391"></a><a href="#FNanchor_391_391"><span class="label">[391]</span></a> A striking instance has lately come to light of the +sagacity with which Hume employed this method. See <i>Burton's Life and +Correspondence of Hume</i>, vol. ii. p. 486; where we find, that +immediately Hume had read the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_392_392" id="Footnote_392_392"></a><a href="#FNanchor_392_392"><span class="label">[392]</span></a> The historical facts he introduces are merely +illustrations; as any one will see who will read <i>The Natural History of +Religion</i>, in <i>Hume's Philos. Works</i>, 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 <i>Comte's +Philosophie Positive</i>; 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 <i>History of Greece</i>, 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 (<i>Bridgewater Treatise</i>, p. +256), who expresses himself with considerable confidence: see also +<i>Letters from Warburton to Hurd</i>, p. 239. Compare <i>Thirlwall's History +of Greece</i>, vol. i. p. 183, Lond. 1835, with the ‘einige Funken des +Monotheismus’ of Kant, <i>Kritik der reinen Vernunft</i>, in <i>Kant's Werke</i>, +vol. ii. p. 455.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_393_393" id="Footnote_393_393"></a><a href="#FNanchor_393_393"><span class="label">[393]</span></a> 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 (<i>History of the +Eighteenth Century</i>, 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 +<i>prove</i> conclusions, but to <i>illustrate</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_394_394" id="Footnote_394_394"></a><a href="#FNanchor_394_394"><span class="label">[394]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Montucla</i>, +<i>Histoire des Mathématiques</i>, 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.’ <i>Cuvier</i>, +<i>Eloges Historiques</i>, vol. iii. p. 170. Even Southey (<i>History of +Brazil</i>, 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, +<i>Halkett's Notes on the North American Indians</i>, pp. 352, 353; and +<i>Combe's North America</i>, vol. i. p. 250, vol. ii. p. 353.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_395_395" id="Footnote_395_395"></a><a href="#FNanchor_395_395"><span class="label">[395]</span></a> 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 <i>Blunt's Vestiges of Ancient Manners</i>, 8vo. +1823, pp. 51–55, with <i>Hampson's Medii Ævi Kalendarium</i>, 8vo. 1841, vol. +i. pp. 56, 177.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_396_396" id="Footnote_396_396"></a><a href="#FNanchor_396_396"><span class="label">[396]</span></a> On this interesting subject, the two best English books +are, <i>Middleton's Letter from Rome</i>, and <i>Priestley's History of the +Corruption of Christianity</i>; the former work being chiefly valuable for +ritual corruptions, the latter work for doctrinal ones. <i>Blunt's +Vestiges of Ancient Manners</i> is also worth reading; but is very inferior +to the two treatises just named, and is conceived in a much narrower +spirit.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_397_397" id="Footnote_397_397"></a><a href="#FNanchor_397_397"><span class="label">[397]</span></a> 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. <i>Bunsen's Egypt</i>, vol. i. pp. 358, +359.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_398_398" id="Footnote_398_398"></a><a href="#FNanchor_398_398"><span class="label">[398]</span></a> It was necessary, says M. Maury, that the church ‘se +rapprochât davantage de l'esprit grossier, inculte, ignorant du +barbare.’ <i>Maury</i>, <i>Légendes Pieuses du Moyen Age</i>, 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 +<i>Elphinstone's History of India</i>, pp. 87, 88, 98; <i>Wilson's Preface to +the Vishnu Parana</i>, p. 7; and <i>Transactions of Bombay Society</i>, vol. i. +p. 205. So that as M. Max Müller well expresses it, the Puranas are ‘a +secondary formation of Indian mythology.’ <i>Müller on the Languages of +India</i>, in <i>Reports of British Association for 1847</i>, p. 324.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_399_399" id="Footnote_399_399"></a><a href="#FNanchor_399_399"><span class="label">[399]</span></a> 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. <i>Geijer's History of +the Swedes</i>, part i. pp. 110, 118, 119; <i>Mosheim's Ecclesiastical +History</i>, vol. ii. p. 22; <i>Crichton and Wheaton's History of +Scandinavia</i>, vol. i. pp. 399, 400. The apostasy proceeded so +favourably, that De Thou (<i>Histoire Univ.</i> 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_400_400" id="Footnote_400_400"></a><a href="#FNanchor_400_400"><span class="label">[400]</span></a> On the state of things in 1838, see some curious, and +indeed shameful, details in <i>Laing's Sweden</i>, 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.’ <i>Laing's Sweden</i>, 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.’ <i>Burton's Diary</i>, 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 <i>Crichton's History of +Scandinavia</i>, Edinb. 1838, vol. ii. p. 320. See also, on this intolerant +spirit, <i>Whitelocke's Journal of the Swedish Embassy</i>, vol. i. pp. 164, +412, vol. ii. p. 312.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_401_401" id="Footnote_401_401"></a><a href="#FNanchor_401_401"><span class="label">[401]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Kraff's Journal at Ankobar</i>, in <i>Journal +of Geographical Society</i>, 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 <i>Stephens's Central America</i>, vol. ii. pp. 191, 192. Compare +<i>Squier's Central America</i>, vol. i. pp. 322, 323, with <i>Halkett's +North-American Indians</i>, pp. 29, 212, 268. For further confirmation of +this view, in another part of the world, see <i>Tuckey's Expedition to the +Zaire</i>, pp. 79, 80, 165.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_402_402" id="Footnote_402_402"></a><a href="#FNanchor_402_402"><span class="label">[402]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Mure's History of the Literature of +Greece</i>, vol. iv. p. 50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_403_403" id="Footnote_403_403"></a><a href="#FNanchor_403_403"><span class="label">[403]</span></a> Compare <i>Tocqueville</i>, <i>Démocratie en Amérique</i>, vol. ii. +p. 130, with some admirable remarks on the Sophists in <i>Grote's History +of Greece</i>, 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.’ <i>Hamilton's Discussions on Philosophy</i>, p. +186. Thus, too, in regard to the line arts, Sir Joshua Reynolds (<i>Fourth +Discourse</i>, in <i>Works</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_404_404" id="Footnote_404_404"></a><a href="#FNanchor_404_404"><span class="label">[404]</span></a> Hence the intellectually exclusive and, as M. Neander well +terms it, ‘aristocratic spirit of antiquity.’ <i>Neander's History of the +Church</i>, 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: <i>Ritter's History of Ancient Philosophy</i>, vol. i. p. +338, vol. iii. pp. 9, 17; <i>Tennemann</i>, <i>Geschichte der Philosophie</i>, +vol. ii. pp. 200, 205, 220; <i>Beausobre</i>, <i>Histoire Critique de +Manichée</i>, vol. ii. p. 41; <i>Matter</i>, <i>Histoire du Gnosticisme</i>, vol. i. +p. 13, vol. ii. pp. 83, 370; <i>Sprengel</i>, <i>Histoire de la Médecine</i>, vol. +i. p. 250; <i>Grote's History of Greece</i>, vol. i. p. 561, vol. iv. p. 544; +<i>Thirlwall's History of Greece</i>, vol. ii. p. 150, vol. vi. p. 95; +<i>Warburton's Works</i>, vol. vii. pp. 962, 972, 4to. 1788; <i>Sharpe's +History of Egypt</i>, vol. ii. p. 174; <i>Cudworth's Intellect. System</i>, vol. +ii. pp. 114, 365, 443, vol. iii. p. 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_405_405" id="Footnote_405_405"></a><a href="#FNanchor_405_405"><span class="label">[405]</span></a> Locke has noticed this ‘learned ignorance,’ for which many +men are remarkable. See a fine passage in the <i>Essay on Human +Understanding</i>, book iii. chap. x. in <i>Locke's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 27, +and similar remarks in his <i>Conduct of the Understanding</i>, vol. ii. pp. +350, 364, 365, and in his <i>Thoughts on Education</i>, 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 <i>Condorcet</i>, <i>Vie de Turgot</i>, pp. +255, 256 note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_406_406" id="Footnote_406_406"></a><a href="#FNanchor_406_406"><span class="label">[406]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Guizot</i>, <i>Histoire de la Civilisation en France</i>, vol. +ii. p. 32. It is said (<i>Ledwich's Antiquities of Ireland</i>, p. 62) that +of St. Patrick alone, there were sixty-six biographers before Joceline.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_407_407" id="Footnote_407_407"></a><a href="#FNanchor_407_407"><span class="label">[407]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Bouillaud</i>, <i>Philosophie Médicale</i>, p. 218.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_408_408" id="Footnote_408_408"></a><a href="#FNanchor_408_408"><span class="label">[408]</span></a> M. Guizot (<i>Civilisation en France</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_409_409" id="Footnote_409_409"></a><a href="#FNanchor_409_409"><span class="label">[409]</span></a> Some of the results of Latin being colloquially employed +by the monks are judiciously stated in <i>Herder's Ideen zur Geschichte +der Menschheit</i>, vol. iv. pp. 202, 203. The remarks on this custom by +Dugald Stewart refer to a later period. <i>Stewart's Philosophy of the +Mind</i>, vol. iii. pp. 110, 111.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_410_410" id="Footnote_410_410"></a><a href="#FNanchor_410_410"><span class="label">[410]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Blanqui</i>, <i>Histoire de +l'Economie, Politique en Europe</i>, Paris, 1845, vol. ii. pp. 25, 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_411_411" id="Footnote_411_411"></a><a href="#FNanchor_411_411"><span class="label">[411]</span></a> The 19 Geo. II. c. 34, made ‘all forcible acts of +smuggling, carried on in defiance of the laws, or <i>even in disguise to +evade them</i>, felony without benefit of clergy.’ <i>Blackstone's +Commentaries</i>, 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.’ <i>Townsend's Spain</i>, vol. i. p. 85, edit. 1792. On the general +operation of the French laws against smugglers in the eighteenth +century, compare <i>Tucker's Life of Jefferson</i>, vol. i. pp. 213, 214, +with <i>Parliamentary History</i>, vol. ix. p. 1240.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_412_412" id="Footnote_412_412"></a><a href="#FNanchor_412_412"><span class="label">[412]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Martineau's History of England during Thirty Years' Peace</i>, +vol. i. p. 341, 8vo. 1849.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_413_413" id="Footnote_413_413"></a><a href="#FNanchor_413_413"><span class="label">[413]</span></a> For evidence of the extraordinary extent to which +smuggling was formerly carried, and that not secretly, but by powerful +bodies of armed men, see <i>Parliamentary History</i>, 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 <i>Tomline's Life of Pitt</i>, vol. +i. p. 359: see also <i>Sinclair's History of the Public Revenue</i>, vol. +iii. p. 232; <i>Otter's Life of Clarke</i>, 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.’ <i>Lemontey</i>, <i>Essai sur +l'Etablissement monarchique de Louis XIV</i>, p. 430. According to +Townsend, there were, in 1786, ‘more than 1500 smugglers in the +Pyrenees.’ <i>Townsend's Journey through Spain</i>, vol. i. p. 84.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_414_414" id="Footnote_414_414"></a><a href="#FNanchor_414_414"><span class="label">[414]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Whately's Elements of Rhetoric</i>, 8vo. 1850, p. 47. See also on the +amount of perjury caused by English legislation, <i>Jeremy Bentham's +Works</i>, edit. Bowring, vol. ii. p. 210, vol. v. pp. 191–229, 454–466, +vol. vi. pp. 314, 315; <i>Orme's Life of Owen</i>, p. 195; <i>Locke's Works</i>, +vol. iv. p. 6; <i>Berkeley's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 196; <i>Whiston's Memoirs</i>, +pp. 33, 411–413; <i>Hamilton's Discussions on Philosophy and Literature</i>, +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 <i>Priestley's Memoirs</i>, vol. i. p. 374 and +<i>Baker's Life of Sir Thomas Bernard</i>, 1819, pp. 188, 189.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_415_415" id="Footnote_415_415"></a><a href="#FNanchor_415_415"><span class="label">[415]</span></a> ‘L'observation rigoureuse de ces loix seroit destructive +de tout commerce; aussi ne sont-elles pas observées rigoureusement.’ +<i>Mémoire sur les Prêts d'Argent</i>, sec. xiv., in <i>Œuvres de Turgot</i>, +vol. v. pp. 278, 279. Compare <i>Ricardo's Works</i>, pp. 178, 179, with +<i>Condorcet</i>, <i>Vie de Turgot</i>, pp. 53, 54, 228.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_416_416" id="Footnote_416_416"></a><a href="#FNanchor_416_416"><span class="label">[416]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Rog. +de Hoved. Annal. in Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam</i>, p. 335, +Lond. 1596, folio. In Spain, the Inquisition took cognizance of usury. +See <i>Llorente</i>, <i>Histoire de l'Inquisition</i>, vol. i. p. 339. Compare +<i>Ledwich's Antiquities of Ireland</i>, p. 133.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_417_417" id="Footnote_417_417"></a><a href="#FNanchor_417_417"><span class="label">[417]</span></a> 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 <i>Rey's Science +Sociale</i>, vol. iii. pp. 64, 65. On the necessity of usury to mitigate +the effects of a commercial panic, see <i>Mill's Principles of Political +Economy</i>, vol. ii. p. 185.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot">ORIGIN OF HISTORY, AND STATE OF HISTORICAL LITERATURE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_418_418" id="FNanchor_418_418"></a><a href="#Footnote_418_418" class="fnanchor">[418]</a> but +also of China, Tibet, and Tartary;<a name="FNanchor_419_419" id="FNanchor_419_419"></a><a href="#Footnote_419_419" class="fnanchor">[419]</a> likewise of India,<a name="FNanchor_420_420" id="FNanchor_420_420"></a><a href="#Footnote_420_420" class="fnanchor">[420]</a> of +Scinde,<a name="FNanchor_421_421" id="FNanchor_421_421"></a><a href="#Footnote_421_421" class="fnanchor">[421]</a> of Belochistan,<a name="FNanchor_422_422" id="FNanchor_422_422"></a><a href="#Footnote_422_422" class="fnanchor">[422]</a> of Western Asia,<a name="FNanchor_423_423" id="FNanchor_423_423"></a><a href="#Footnote_423_423" class="fnanchor">[423]</a> of the islands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +of the Black Sea,<a name="FNanchor_424_424" id="FNanchor_424_424"></a><a href="#Footnote_424_424" class="fnanchor">[424]</a> of Egypt,<a name="FNanchor_425_425" id="FNanchor_425_425"></a><a href="#Footnote_425_425" class="fnanchor">[425]</a> of Western Africa,<a name="FNanchor_426_426" id="FNanchor_426_426"></a><a href="#Footnote_426_426" class="fnanchor">[426]</a> of North +America,<a name="FNanchor_427_427" id="FNanchor_427_427"></a><a href="#Footnote_427_427" class="fnanchor">[427]</a> of South America,<a name="FNanchor_428_428" id="FNanchor_428_428"></a><a href="#Footnote_428_428" class="fnanchor">[428]</a> and of the islands in the +Pacific.<a name="FNanchor_429_429" id="FNanchor_429_429"></a><a href="#Footnote_429_429" class="fnanchor">[429]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_430_430" id="FNanchor_430_430"></a><a href="#Footnote_430_430" class="fnanchor">[430]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_431_431" id="FNanchor_431_431"></a><a href="#Footnote_431_431" class="fnanchor">[431]</a> This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_432_432" id="FNanchor_432_432"></a><a href="#Footnote_432_432" class="fnanchor">[432]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_433_433" id="FNanchor_433_433"></a><a href="#Footnote_433_433" class="fnanchor">[433]</a> These ballads will, of course, vary, according to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_434_434" id="FNanchor_434_434"></a><a href="#Footnote_434_434" class="fnanchor">[434]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_435_435" id="FNanchor_435_435"></a><a href="#Footnote_435_435" class="fnanchor">[435]</a></p> + +<p>This is the earliest, and most simple, of the various +stages through which history is obliged to pass. But,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_436_436" id="FNanchor_436_436"></a><a href="#Footnote_436_436" class="fnanchor">[436]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_437_437" id="FNanchor_437_437"></a><a href="#Footnote_437_437" class="fnanchor">[437]</a> Thus we see, that +although, without letters, there can be no knowledge of +much importance, it is nevertheless true, that their introduction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_438_438" id="FNanchor_438_438"></a><a href="#Footnote_438_438" class="fnanchor">[438]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_439_439" id="FNanchor_439_439"></a><a href="#Footnote_439_439" class="fnanchor">[439]</a> This mode of extending the use +of a single name is natural to a barbarous people;<a name="FNanchor_440_440" id="FNanchor_440_440"></a><a href="#Footnote_440_440" class="fnanchor">[440]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +exploits, degraded history to the level of a miraculous +mythology.<a name="FNanchor_441_441" id="FNanchor_441_441"></a><a href="#Footnote_441_441" class="fnanchor">[441]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_442_442" id="FNanchor_442_442"></a><a href="#Footnote_442_442" class="fnanchor">[442]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +people is positively affirmed in some of the earliest +European histories.<a name="FNanchor_443_443" id="FNanchor_443_443"></a><a href="#Footnote_443_443" class="fnanchor">[443]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_444_444" id="FNanchor_444_444"></a><a href="#Footnote_444_444" class="fnanchor">[444]</a> was so misled by the word Turku, +that this celebrated historian assures his readers that +there were Turks in Finland.<a name="FNanchor_445_445" id="FNanchor_445_445"></a><a href="#Footnote_445_445" class="fnanchor">[445]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_446_446" id="FNanchor_446_446"></a><a href="#Footnote_446_446" class="fnanchor">[446]</a> Hence it was said that he had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> +the heart of a lion; and the title Cœur 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.<a name="FNanchor_447_447" id="FNanchor_447_447"></a><a href="#Footnote_447_447" class="fnanchor">[447]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_448_448" id="FNanchor_448_448"></a><a href="#Footnote_448_448" class="fnanchor">[448]</a> Scarcely was this effected, when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_449_449" id="FNanchor_449_449"></a><a href="#Footnote_449_449" class="fnanchor">[449]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_450_450" id="FNanchor_450_450"></a><a href="#Footnote_450_450" class="fnanchor">[450]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_451_451" id="FNanchor_451_451"></a><a href="#Footnote_451_451" class="fnanchor">[451]</a> The consequence is, that the native annals<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_452_452" id="FNanchor_452_452"></a><a href="#Footnote_452_452" class="fnanchor">[452]</a> In the same way, the Chinese have for upwards +of 2,000 years preserved the religion of Fo, which +is a form of Buddhism.<a name="FNanchor_453_453" id="FNanchor_453_453"></a><a href="#Footnote_453_453" class="fnanchor">[453]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_454_454" id="FNanchor_454_454"></a><a href="#Footnote_454_454" class="fnanchor">[454]</a> On the other hand, the Persians,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_455_455" id="FNanchor_455_455"></a><a href="#Footnote_455_455" class="fnanchor">[455]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_456_456" id="FNanchor_456_456"></a><a href="#Footnote_456_456" class="fnanchor">[456]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_457_457" id="FNanchor_457_457"></a><a href="#Footnote_457_457" class="fnanchor">[457]</a> The result is, that if it were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_458_458" id="FNanchor_458_458"></a><a href="#Footnote_458_458" class="fnanchor">[458]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_459_459" id="FNanchor_459_459"></a><a href="#Footnote_459_459" class="fnanchor">[459]</a> The religion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> +of these widely scattered people was originally Polytheism, +of which the purest forms were long preserved +in the Philippine Islands.<a name="FNanchor_460_460" id="FNanchor_460_460"></a><a href="#Footnote_460_460" class="fnanchor">[460]</a> But in the fifteenth century, +many of the Polynesian nations were converted +to Mohammedanism;<a name="FNanchor_461_461" id="FNanchor_461_461"></a><a href="#Footnote_461_461" class="fnanchor">[461]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_462_462" id="FNanchor_462_462"></a><a href="#Footnote_462_462" class="fnanchor">[462]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_463_463" id="FNanchor_463_463"></a><a href="#Footnote_463_463" class="fnanchor">[463]</a> On the other hand, we find that in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> +adjacent island of Bali, where the old religion is still +preserved,<a name="FNanchor_464_464" id="FNanchor_464_464"></a><a href="#Footnote_464_464" class="fnanchor">[464]</a> the legends of Java are remembered and +cherished by the people.<a name="FNanchor_465_465" id="FNanchor_465_465"></a><a href="#Footnote_465_465" class="fnanchor">[465]</a></p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_466_466" id="FNanchor_466_466"></a><a href="#Footnote_466_466" class="fnanchor">[466]</a> of the Welsh, of the Irish,<a name="FNanchor_467_467" id="FNanchor_467_467"></a><a href="#Footnote_467_467" class="fnanchor">[467]</a> of +the Anglo-Saxons,<a name="FNanchor_468_468" id="FNanchor_468_468"></a><a href="#Footnote_468_468" class="fnanchor">[468]</a> of the Sclavonic nations,<a name="FNanchor_469_469" id="FNanchor_469_469"></a><a href="#Footnote_469_469" class="fnanchor">[469]</a> of the +Finns,<a name="FNanchor_470_470" id="FNanchor_470_470"></a><a href="#Footnote_470_470" class="fnanchor">[470]</a> and even of the Icelanders.<a name="FNanchor_471_471" id="FNanchor_471_471"></a><a href="#Footnote_471_471" class="fnanchor">[471]</a></p> + +<p>Besides all this, there occurred other circumstances<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_472_472" id="FNanchor_472_472"></a><a href="#Footnote_472_472" class="fnanchor">[472]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_473_473" id="FNanchor_473_473"></a><a href="#Footnote_473_473" class="fnanchor">[473]</a> That Europe should ever have emerged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_474_474" id="FNanchor_474_474"></a><a href="#Footnote_474_474" class="fnanchor">[474]</a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>By the operation of these causes, the history of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_475_475" id="FNanchor_475_475"></a><a href="#Footnote_475_475" class="fnanchor">[475]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_476_476" id="FNanchor_476_476"></a><a href="#Footnote_476_476" class="fnanchor">[476]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_477_477" id="FNanchor_477_477"></a><a href="#Footnote_477_477" class="fnanchor">[477]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_478_478" id="FNanchor_478_478"></a><a href="#Footnote_478_478" class="fnanchor">[478]</a> They also mention<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> +that Tours owed its name to being the burial-place of +Turonus, one of the Trojans;<a name="FNanchor_479_479" id="FNanchor_479_479"></a><a href="#Footnote_479_479" class="fnanchor">[479]</a> while the city of Troyes +was actually built by the Trojans, as its etymology +clearly proves.<a name="FNanchor_480_480" id="FNanchor_480_480"></a><a href="#Footnote_480_480" class="fnanchor">[480]</a> It was well ascertained that Nuremberg +was called after the Emperor Nero;<a name="FNanchor_481_481" id="FNanchor_481_481"></a><a href="#Footnote_481_481" class="fnanchor">[481]</a> and Jerusalem +after King Jebus,<a name="FNanchor_482_482" id="FNanchor_482_482"></a><a href="#Footnote_482_482" class="fnanchor">[482]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_483_483" id="FNanchor_483_483"></a><a href="#Footnote_483_483" class="fnanchor">[483]</a> The Gauls derived their +origin, according to some, from Galathia, a female +descendant of Japhet; according to others, from Gomer, +the son of Japhet.<a name="FNanchor_484_484" id="FNanchor_484_484"></a><a href="#Footnote_484_484" class="fnanchor">[484]</a> Prussia was called after Prussus,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> +a brother of Augustus.<a name="FNanchor_485_485" id="FNanchor_485_485"></a><a href="#Footnote_485_485" class="fnanchor">[485]</a> This was remarkably modern; +but Silesia had its name from the prophet Elisha—from +whom, indeed, the Silesians descended;<a name="FNanchor_486_486" id="FNanchor_486_486"></a><a href="#Footnote_486_486" class="fnanchor">[486]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_487_487" id="FNanchor_487_487"></a><a href="#Footnote_487_487" class="fnanchor">[487]</a> It was likewise from Abraham and Sarah +that the gipsies immediately sprung.<a name="FNanchor_488_488" id="FNanchor_488_488"></a><a href="#Footnote_488_488" class="fnanchor">[488]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_489_489" id="FNanchor_489_489"></a><a href="#Footnote_489_489" class="fnanchor">[489]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_490_490" id="FNanchor_490_490"></a><a href="#Footnote_490_490" class="fnanchor">[490]</a> On sundry similar matters, the Middle Ages<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> +possessed information equally valuable. It was well +known that the city of Naples was founded on eggs;<a name="FNanchor_491_491" id="FNanchor_491_491"></a><a href="#Footnote_491_491" class="fnanchor">[491]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_492_492" id="FNanchor_492_492"></a><a href="#Footnote_492_492" class="fnanchor">[492]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_493_493" id="FNanchor_493_493"></a><a href="#Footnote_493_493" class="fnanchor">[493]</a> However this might be, +the fact of their birth-place being from below was +indisputable, and was proved by many circumstances<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_494_494" id="FNanchor_494_494"></a><a href="#Footnote_494_494" class="fnanchor">[494]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_495_495" id="FNanchor_495_495"></a><a href="#Footnote_495_495" class="fnanchor">[495]</a> It was, therefore, with no small astonishment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_496_496" id="FNanchor_496_496"></a><a href="#Footnote_496_496" class="fnanchor">[496]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_497_497" id="FNanchor_497_497"></a><a href="#Footnote_497_497" class="fnanchor">[497]</a> This striking fact explains one great +peculiarity of the Mohammedans;<a name="FNanchor_498_498" id="FNanchor_498_498"></a><a href="#Footnote_498_498" class="fnanchor">[498]</a> and another fact,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_499_499" id="FNanchor_499_499"></a><a href="#Footnote_499_499" class="fnanchor">[499]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_500_500" id="FNanchor_500_500"></a><a href="#Footnote_500_500" class="fnanchor">[500]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_501_501" id="FNanchor_501_501"></a><a href="#Footnote_501_501" class="fnanchor">[501]</a> 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, <i>latente</i> means hidden, and <i>rana</i> 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.<a name="FNanchor_502_502" id="FNanchor_502_502"></a><a href="#Footnote_502_502" class="fnanchor">[502]</a></p> + +<p>It would be easy to fill volumes with similar notions,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_503_503" id="FNanchor_503_503"></a><a href="#Footnote_503_503" class="fnanchor">[503]</a> From some passages it contains, there is reason +to think that it was really composed at the beginning +of the twelfth century;<a name="FNanchor_504_504" id="FNanchor_504_504"></a><a href="#Footnote_504_504" class="fnanchor">[504]</a> but, in the Middle Ages,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_505_505" id="FNanchor_505_505"></a><a href="#Footnote_505_505" class="fnanchor">[505]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_506_506" id="FNanchor_506_506"></a><a href="#Footnote_506_506" class="fnanchor">[506]</a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_507_507" id="FNanchor_507_507"></a><a href="#Footnote_507_507" class="fnanchor">[507]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_508_508" id="FNanchor_508_508"></a><a href="#Footnote_508_508" class="fnanchor">[508]</a> After this, the emperor rapidly overran<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> +the whole country, almost annihilated the Mohammedans, +and built innumerable churches.<a name="FNanchor_509_509" id="FNanchor_509_509"></a><a href="#Footnote_509_509" class="fnanchor">[509]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_510_510" id="FNanchor_510_510"></a><a href="#Footnote_510_510" class="fnanchor">[510]</a> +This Fenacute was the most formidable opponent the +Christians had yet encountered. His strength was +equal to that of forty men;<a name="FNanchor_511_511" id="FNanchor_511_511"></a><a href="#Footnote_511_511" class="fnanchor">[511]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_512_512" id="FNanchor_512_512"></a><a href="#Footnote_512_512" class="fnanchor">[512]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_513_513" id="FNanchor_513_513"></a><a href="#Footnote_513_513" class="fnanchor">[513]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_514_514" id="FNanchor_514_514"></a><a href="#Footnote_514_514" class="fnanchor">[514]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_515_515" id="FNanchor_515_515"></a><a href="#Footnote_515_515" class="fnanchor">[515]</a></p> + +<p>On the history of Arthur, the Middle Ages possessed +information equally authentic. Different accounts had +been circulated respecting this celebrated king;<a name="FNanchor_516_516" id="FNanchor_516_516"></a><a href="#Footnote_516_516" class="fnanchor">[516]</a> 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 <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1147, published the +result of his inquiries, in a work which he called +<i>History of the Britons</i>.<a name="FNanchor_517_517" id="FNanchor_517_517"></a><a href="#Footnote_517_517" class="fnanchor">[517]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_518_518" id="FNanchor_518_518"></a><a href="#Footnote_518_518" class="fnanchor">[518]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>The earlier part of this great history is occupied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_519_519" id="FNanchor_519_519"></a><a href="#Footnote_519_519" class="fnanchor">[519]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_520_520" id="FNanchor_520_520"></a><a href="#Footnote_520_520" class="fnanchor">[520]</a> 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;<a name="FNanchor_521_521" id="FNanchor_521_521"></a><a href="#Footnote_521_521" class="fnanchor">[521]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_522_522" id="FNanchor_522_522"></a><a href="#Footnote_522_522" class="fnanchor">[522]</a></p> + +<p>These and similar matters are related by the Archdeacon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_523_523" id="FNanchor_523_523"></a><a href="#Footnote_523_523" class="fnanchor">[523]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_524_524" id="FNanchor_524_524"></a><a href="#Footnote_524_524" class="fnanchor">[524]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_525_525" id="FNanchor_525_525"></a><a href="#Footnote_525_525" class="fnanchor">[525]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_526_526" id="FNanchor_526_526"></a><a href="#Footnote_526_526" class="fnanchor">[526]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_527_527" id="FNanchor_527_527"></a><a href="#Footnote_527_527" class="fnanchor">[527]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_528_528" id="FNanchor_528_528"></a><a href="#Footnote_528_528" class="fnanchor">[528]</a> A Latin abridgment +of it was published by the well-known historian, +Alfred of Beverley;<a name="FNanchor_529_529" id="FNanchor_529_529"></a><a href="#Footnote_529_529" class="fnanchor">[529]</a> and, in order that it might be +more generally known, it was translated into English +by Layamon,<a name="FNanchor_530_530" id="FNanchor_530_530"></a><a href="#Footnote_530_530" class="fnanchor">[530]</a> and into Anglo-Norman, first by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> +Gaimar, and afterwards by Wace;<a name="FNanchor_531_531" id="FNanchor_531_531"></a><a href="#Footnote_531_531" class="fnanchor">[531]</a> zealous men, who +were anxious that the important truths it contained +should be diffused as widely as circumstances would +allow.</p> + +<p>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;<a name="FNanchor_532_532" id="FNanchor_532_532"></a><a href="#Footnote_532_532" class="fnanchor">[532]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> +relation of which he believed history to consist.<a name="FNanchor_533_533" id="FNanchor_533_533"></a><a href="#Footnote_533_533" class="fnanchor">[533]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_534_534" id="FNanchor_534_534"></a><a href="#Footnote_534_534" class="fnanchor">[534]</a> Hence, too,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_535_535" id="FNanchor_535_535"></a><a href="#Footnote_535_535" class="fnanchor">[535]</a></p> + +<p>Such attempts as these, to make politics a mere +branch of theology,<a name="FNanchor_536_536" id="FNanchor_536_536"></a><a href="#Footnote_536_536" class="fnanchor">[536]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> +which it was sunk, and break through those grievous +impediments which hindered its future progress.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_537_537" id="FNanchor_537_537"></a><a href="#Footnote_537_537" class="fnanchor">[537]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>At the end of the fifteenth, and early in the sixteenth +century, Stœffler, 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.<a name="FNanchor_538_538" id="FNanchor_538_538"></a><a href="#Footnote_538_538" class="fnanchor">[538]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_539_539" id="FNanchor_539_539"></a><a href="#Footnote_539_539" class="fnanchor">[539]</a> +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;<a name="FNanchor_540_540" id="FNanchor_540_540"></a><a href="#Footnote_540_540" class="fnanchor">[540]</a> while others, perceiving that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_541_541" id="FNanchor_541_541"></a><a href="#Footnote_541_541" class="fnanchor">[541]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_542_542" id="FNanchor_542_542"></a><a href="#Footnote_542_542" class="fnanchor">[542]</a></p> + +<p>About seventy years after this alarm had passed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_543_543" id="FNanchor_543_543"></a><a href="#Footnote_543_543" class="fnanchor">[543]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<p class="noindent">Footnotes:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_418_418" id="Footnote_418_418"></a><a href="#FNanchor_418_418"><span class="label">[418]</span></a> For an account of the ancient bards of Gaul, see the +<i>Benedictine Hist. Lit. de la France</i>, vol. i. part i. pp. 25–28. Those +of Scotland are noticed in <i>Barry's Hist. of the Orkney Islands</i>, p. 89; +and for a modern instance in the island of Col, near Mull, see <i>Otter's +Life of Clarke</i>, vol. i. p. 307. As to the Irish bards in the seventh +century, see <i>Sharon Turner's Hist. of England</i>, vol. iii. p. 571. +Spenser's account of them in the sixteenth century (<i>Somers Tracts</i>, +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; <i>Essay on Poetry</i>, in <i>Temple's Works</i>, vol. iii. pp. +431, 432. But it was not till the eighteenth century that they became +extinct; for Mr. Prior (<i>Life of Goldsmith</i>, 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 <i>Kirkman's +Memoirs of Charles Macklin</i>, 8vo. 1799, vol. i. pp. 144, 145, a curious +book. Compare, respecting Carolan, <i>Nichols's Illustrations of the +Eighteenth Century</i>, vol. vii. pp. 688–694.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_419_419" id="Footnote_419_419"></a><a href="#FNanchor_419_419"><span class="label">[419]</span></a> On these Toolholos, as they are called, see <i>Huc's Travels +in Tartary, Thibet, and China</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_420_420" id="Footnote_420_420"></a><a href="#FNanchor_420_420"><span class="label">[420]</span></a> On the bards of the Deccan, see <i>Wilks's History of the +South of India</i>, 4to. 1810, vol. i. pp. 20, 21, and <i>Transac. of the +Bombay Soc.</i> vol. i. p. 162. For those of other parts of India, see +<i>Heber's Journey</i>, vol. ii. pp. 452–455; <i>Burnes on the North-west +Frontier of India</i>, in <i>Journal of Geog. Soc.</i> vol. iv. pp. 110, 111; +<i>Prinsep</i>, in <i>Journal of Asiat. Soc.</i> vol. viii. p. 395; <i>Forbes's +Oriental Memoirs</i>, vol. i. pp. 376, 377, 543; and <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, +vol. ix. p. 78. They are mentioned in the oldest Veda, which is also the +oldest of all the Indian books. See <i>Rig Veda Sanhita</i>, vol. i. p. 158.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_421_421" id="Footnote_421_421"></a><a href="#FNanchor_421_421"><span class="label">[421]</span></a> See <i>Burton's Sindh</i>, p. 56, 8vo. 1851.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_422_422" id="Footnote_422_422"></a><a href="#FNanchor_422_422"><span class="label">[422]</span></a> <i>Burton's Sindh</i>, p. 59.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_423_423" id="Footnote_423_423"></a><a href="#FNanchor_423_423"><span class="label">[423]</span></a> <i>Burnes's Travels into Bokhara</i>, 8vo. 1834, vol. ii. pp. +107, 115, 116.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_424_424" id="Footnote_424_424"></a><a href="#FNanchor_424_424"><span class="label">[424]</span></a> <i>Clarke's Travels</i>, 8vo. 1816, vol. ii. p. 101.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_425_425" id="Footnote_425_425"></a><a href="#FNanchor_425_425"><span class="label">[425]</span></a> Compare <i>Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians</i>, vol. ii. p. 304, +with <i>Bunsen's Egypt</i>, vol i. p. 96, vol. ii. p. 92.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_426_426" id="Footnote_426_426"></a><a href="#FNanchor_426_426"><span class="label">[426]</span></a> I have mislaid my note on the bards of Western Africa, and +can only refer to a hasty notice in <i>Mungo Park's Travels</i>, vol. i. p. +70. 8vo. 1817.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_427_427" id="Footnote_427_427"></a><a href="#FNanchor_427_427"><span class="label">[427]</span></a> <i>Buchanan's Sketches of the North-American Indians</i>, p. +337.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_428_428" id="Footnote_428_428"></a><a href="#FNanchor_428_428"><span class="label">[428]</span></a> <i>Prescott's History of Peru</i>, vol. i. pp. 31, 32, 117.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_429_429" id="Footnote_429_429"></a><a href="#FNanchor_429_429"><span class="label">[429]</span></a> <i>Ellis</i>, <i>Polynesian Researches</i>, vol. i. pp. 85, 199, +411; <i>Ellis</i>, <i>Tour through Hawaii</i>, p. 91. Compare <i>Cook's Voyages</i>, +vol. v. p. 237, with <i>Beechey's Voyage to the Pacific</i>, vol. ii. p. 106. +Some of these ballads have been collected, but, I believe, not +published. See <i>Cheever's Sandwich Islands</i>, 8vo. 1851, p. 181.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_430_430" id="Footnote_430_430"></a><a href="#FNanchor_430_430"><span class="label">[430]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Pinkerton's Literary +Correspondence</i>, 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 <i>Mure's Hist. of the +Literature of Greece</i>, vol. ii. p. 113; <i>Hallam's Lit. of Europe</i>, vol. +i. p. 31; <i>Villemarqué</i>, <i>Chants Populaires de la Bretagne</i>, vol. i. pp. +lviii. lix. compared with <i>Souvestre</i>, <i>les Derniers Bretons</i>, p. 143; +<i>Turner's Hist. of England</i>, vol. iii. pp. 383, 643, vol. vii. +pp. 324, 328, 330. Rhyme is also used by the Fantees (<i>Bowdich</i>, +<i>Mission to Ashantee</i>, p. 358); by the Persians (<i>Transac. of Bombay +Soc.</i> vol. ii. p. 82); by the Chinese (<i>Transac. of Asiatic Soc.</i> vol. +ii. pp. 407, 409, and <i>Davis's Chinese</i>, vol. ii. p. 269); by the Malays +(<i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. x. pp. 176, 196); by the Javanese +(<i>Crawfurd's Hist. of the Indian Archipelago</i>, vol. ii. pp. 19, 20); and +by the Siamese (<i>Transac. of Asiatic Soc.</i> vol. iii. p. 299).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_431_431" id="Footnote_431_431"></a><a href="#FNanchor_431_431"><span class="label">[431]</span></a> 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 <i>Monteil</i>, +<i>Hist. des divers Etats</i>, vol. vi. p. 147. Montucla (<i>Hist. des +Mathémat.</i> vol. i. p. 506) mentions a mathematical treatise, written in +the thirteenth century, ‘en vers techniques.’ Compare the remarks of +Matter (<i>Hist. de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie</i>, 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;’ +<i>Turner's Hist. of England</i>, vol. vii. p. 307: and a Polish historian +composing ‘his numerous works on genealogy and heraldry mostly in +rhyme.’ <i>Talvi's Language and Literature of the Slavic Nations</i>, 8vo. +1850, p. 246. Compare <i>Origines du Droit Français</i>, in +<i>Œuvres de Michelet</i>, vol. ii. p. 310.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_432_432" id="Footnote_432_432"></a><a href="#FNanchor_432_432"><span class="label">[432]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Ellis</i>, <i>Polynesian Researches</i>, vol. i. pp. 202, 203. Compare +<i>Elphinstone's Hist. of India</i>, p. 66; <i>Laing's Heimskringla</i>, 8vo. +1844, vol. i. pp. 50, 51; <i>Twell's Life of Pocock</i>, edit. 1816, p. 143.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_433_433" id="Footnote_433_433"></a><a href="#FNanchor_433_433"><span class="label">[433]</span></a> The inspiration of poetry is sometimes explained by its +spontaneousness (<i>Cousin</i>, <i>Hist. de la Philosophie</i>, II<sup>e</sup> 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 +<i>Malcolm's Hist. of Persia</i>, vol. i. p. 90, with <i>Mure's Hist. of the +Lit. of Greece</i>, vol. i. p. 148, vol. ii. p. 228, and <i>Petrie's</i> learned +work, <i>Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland</i>, Dublin, 1845, p. 354. +For evidence of the great respect paid to bards, see <i>Mallet's Northern +Antiquities</i>, pp. 234–236; <i>Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen</i>, pp. 50, +51; <i>Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit.</i> vol. i. p. 3; <i>Warton's Hist. of English +Poetry</i>, 1840, vol. i. pp. xxvi. xl.; <i>Grote's Hist. of Greece</i>, +vol. ii. p. 182, 1st edit.; and on their important duties, see the laws +of Mœlmund, <i>Villemarqué</i>, <i>Chants Populaires de la Bretagne</i>, 1846, +vol. i. pp. v. and vi.; <i>Thirlwall's Hist. of Greece</i>, vol. i. p. 229; +and <i>Origines du Droit</i>, in <i>Œuvres de Michelet</i>, vol. ii. p. 372.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_434_434" id="Footnote_434_434"></a><a href="#FNanchor_434_434"><span class="label">[434]</span></a> <i>Villemarqué</i>, <i>Chants Populaires</i>, vol. i. p. lv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_435_435" id="Footnote_435_435"></a><a href="#FNanchor_435_435"><span class="label">[435]</span></a> 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 <i>Villemarqué</i>, <i>Chants Populaires</i>, vol. i. pp. xxv.–xxxi., +and <i>Talvi's Slavic Nations</i>, p. 150. On the tenacity of oral tradition, +compare <i>Niebuhr's History of Rome</i>, 1847, vol. i. p. 230, with <i>Laing's +Denmark</i>, pp. 197, 198, 350; <i>Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen</i>, 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 <i>Mariner's +Account of the Tonga Islands</i>, vol. i. p. 156, vol. ii. p. 217, and +<i>Catlin's North-American Indians</i>, vol. i. p. 126.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_436_436" id="Footnote_436_436"></a><a href="#FNanchor_436_436"><span class="label">[436]</span></a> That the invention of letters would at first weaken the +memory, is noticed in Plato's Phædrus, chap. 135 (<i>Platonis Opera</i>, vol. +i. p. 187, edit. Bekker, Lond. 1826); where, however, the argument is +pushed rather too far.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_437_437" id="Footnote_437_437"></a><a href="#FNanchor_437_437"><span class="label">[437]</span></a> This inevitable decline in the ability of the bards is +noticed, though, as it appears to me, from a wrong point of view, in +<i>Mure's Literat. of Greece</i>, vol. ii. p. 230.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_438_438" id="Footnote_438_438"></a><a href="#FNanchor_438_438"><span class="label">[438]</span></a> Varro mentions forty-four of these vagabonds, who were all +called Hercules. See a learned article in <i>Smith's Biog. and Mythology</i>, +vol. ii. p. 401, 8vo. 1846. See also <i>Mackay's Religious Development of +the Greeks and Hebrews</i>, vol. ii. pp. 71–79. On the relation between +Hercules and Melcarth, compare <i>Matter</i>, <i>Hist. du Gnosticisme</i>, vol. i. +p. 257, with <i>Heeren's Asiatic Nations</i>, vol. i. p. 295, 8vo. 1846. And +as to the Hercules of Egypt, <i>Prichard's Analysis of Egyptian +Mythology</i>, 1838, pp. 109, 115–119. As to the confusion of the different +Hercules by the Dorians, see <i>Thirlwall's Hist. of Greece</i>, vol. i. p. +257; and compare p. 130.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_439_439" id="Footnote_439_439"></a><a href="#FNanchor_439_439"><span class="label">[439]</span></a> This appears to be the opinion of Frederick Schlegel; +<i>Schlegel's Lectures on the History of Literature</i>, Edinb. 1818, vol. i. +p. 260.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_440_440" id="Footnote_440_440"></a><a href="#FNanchor_440_440"><span class="label">[440]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_441_441" id="Footnote_441_441"></a><a href="#FNanchor_441_441"><span class="label">[441]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Quatremère</i>, +<i>Recherches sur la Langue et la Littérature de l'Egypte</i>, p. 199.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_442_442" id="Footnote_442_442"></a><a href="#FNanchor_442_442"><span class="label">[442]</span></a> On this confusion respecting Ragnar Lodbrok, see <i>Geijer's +History of Sweden</i>, part i. pp. 13, 14; <i>Lappenberg's Anglo-Saxon +Kings</i>, vol. ii. p. 31; <i>Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen</i>, p. 150; +<i>Mallet's Northern Antiquities</i>, p. 383; <i>Crichton's Scandinavia</i>, vol. +i. p. 116. A comparison of these passages will justify the sarcastic +remark of Koch on the history of Swedish and Danish heroes; <i>Koch</i>, +<i>Tableau des Révolutions</i>, vol. i. p. 57 note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_443_443" id="Footnote_443_443"></a><a href="#FNanchor_443_443"><span class="label">[443]</span></a> <i>Prichard's Physical Hist. of Mankind</i>, vol. iii. p. 273. +The Norwegians still give to the Finlanders the name of Quæner. See +<i>Dillon's Lapland and Iceland</i>, 8vo. 1840, vol. ii. p. 221. Compare +<i>Laing's Sweden</i>, pp. 45, 47. The Amazon river in South America owes its +name to a similar fable. <i>Henderson's Hist. of Brazil</i>, p. 453; +<i>Southey's Hist. of Brazil</i>, vol. i. p. 112; <i>M'Culloh's Researches +concerning America</i>, pp. 407, 408; and <i>Journal of Geog. Soc.</i> vol. xv. +p. 65, for an account of the wide diffusion of this error.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_444_444" id="Footnote_444_444"></a><a href="#FNanchor_444_444"><span class="label">[444]</span></a> Sharon Turner (<i>Hist. of England</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_445_445" id="Footnote_445_445"></a><a href="#FNanchor_445_445"><span class="label">[445]</span></a> ‘It was called in Finnish <i>Turku</i>, from the Swedish word +<i>torg</i>, which signifies a market-place. The sound of this name misled +Adam of Bremen into the belief that there were Turks in Finland.’ +<i>Cooley's Hist. of Maritime and Inland Discovery</i>, London, 1830, vol. i. +p. 211.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_446_446" id="Footnote_446_446"></a><a href="#FNanchor_446_446"><span class="label">[446]</span></a> 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>i.e.</i> the King of France) dictus est +Agnus a Griffonibus, alter Leonis nomen accepit.’ <i>Chronicon Ricardi +Divisiensis de Rebus gestis Ricardi Primi</i>, edit. Stevenson, Lond. 1838, +p. 18. Some of the Egyptian kings received the name of Lion ‘from their +heroic exploits.’ <i>Vyse on the Pyramids</i>, vol. iii. p. 116.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_447_447" id="Footnote_447_447"></a><a href="#FNanchor_447_447"><span class="label">[447]</span></a> See Price's learned Preface to <i>Warton's History of +English Poetry</i>, vol. i. p. 21; and on the similar story of Henry the +Lion, see <i>Maury</i>, <i>Légendes du Moyen Age</i>, p. 160. Compare the account +of Duke Godfrey's conflict with a bear, in <i>Matthæi Paris Historia +Major</i>, p. 29, Lond. 1684, folio. I should not be surprised if the story +of Alexander and the Lion (<i>Thirlwall's History of Greece</i>, vol. vi. p. +305) were equally fabulous.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_448_448" id="Footnote_448_448"></a><a href="#FNanchor_448_448"><span class="label">[448]</span></a> 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 <i>Neander's Hist. of the Church</i>, vol. v. pp. 373, 374, 379, +380, 400–402; <i>Mosheim's Eccles. Hist.</i> vol. i. pp. 188, 215, 216; +<i>Barry's Hist. of the Orkney Islands</i>, 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. <i>Petrie's Ecclesiastical +Architecture of Ireland</i>, p. 225; and <i>Ledwich's Antiquities of +Ireland</i>, p. 159.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_449_449" id="Footnote_449_449"></a><a href="#FNanchor_449_449"><span class="label">[449]</span></a> Mr. Wheaton (<i>History of Northmen</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_450_450" id="Footnote_450_450"></a><a href="#FNanchor_450_450"><span class="label">[450]</span></a> <i>Wheaton's Hist. of the Northmen</i>, pp. 89, 90; <i>Mallet's +Northern Antiquities</i>, pp. 377, 378, 485; <i>Schlegel's Lectures on the +History of Literature</i>, 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. <i>Note in Wheaton</i>, p. 61. Compare <i>Palgrave's +English Commonwealth, Anglo-Saxon Period</i>, vol. i. p. 135.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_451_451" id="Footnote_451_451"></a><a href="#FNanchor_451_451"><span class="label">[451]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_452_452" id="Footnote_452_452"></a><a href="#FNanchor_452_452"><span class="label">[452]</span></a> Dr. Prichard (<i>Physical Hist. of Mankind</i>, vol. iv. pp. +101–105) thinks that the Hindus have a history beginning B.C. 1391. +Compare <i>Works of Sir W. Jones</i>, 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 +<i>Mill's Hist. of India</i>, vol. i. pp. 161, 162. See also his preface to +the <i>Vishnu Purana</i>, p. lxv.; and <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. v. p. 244.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_453_453" id="Footnote_453_453"></a><a href="#FNanchor_453_453"><span class="label">[453]</span></a> <i>Journal of Asiatic Soc.</i> vol. vi. p. 251; <i>Herder</i>, <i>Ideen +zur Geschichte</i>, vol. iv. p. 70; <i>Works of Sir W. Jones</i>, vol. i. p. +104. I learn from a note in <i>Erman's Siberia</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_454_454" id="Footnote_454_454"></a><a href="#FNanchor_454_454"><span class="label">[454]</span></a> M. Bunsen says, that the Chinese have ‘a regular +chronology, extending back 3,000 years <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>’ <i>Bunsen's Egypt</i>, vol. i. p. +240. See also <i>Humboldt's Cosmos</i>, vol. ii. p. 475, vol. iv. p. 455; +<i>Renouard</i>, <i>Hist. de la Médecine</i>, vol. i. pp. 47, 48; and the statements +of Klaproth and Rémusat, in <i>Prichard's Physical Hist.</i> 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. <i>Meidinger's Essay</i>, in <i>Journal of +Statistical Society</i>, 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. <i>Humboldt's Cosmos</i>, vol. +ii. p. 623; <i>Transac. of Asiatic Society</i>, vol. i. p. 7; <i>Journal +Asiatique</i>, vol. i. p. 137, Paris, 1822; <i>Davis's Chinese</i>, vol. i. pp. +174, 178, vol. iii. p. 1. There are some interesting papers on the early +history of China in <i>Journal of Asiat. Soc.</i> vol. i. pp. 57–86, 213–222, +vol. ii. pp. 166–171, 276–287.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_455_455" id="Footnote_455_455"></a><a href="#FNanchor_455_455"><span class="label">[455]</span></a> ‘From the death of Alexander (323 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>) to the reign of +Ardeshir Babegan (Artaxerxes), the founder of the Sassanian dynasty (200 +<span class="smcap">a.d.</span>), a period of more than five centuries, is almost a blank in the +Persian history.’ <i>Troyer's Preliminary Discourse to the Dabistan</i>, 8vo. +1843, vol. i. pp. lv. lvi. See to the same effect <i>Erskine on the +Zend-Avesta</i>, in <i>Transac. of Soc. of Bombay</i>, vol. ii. pp. 303–305; and +<i>Malcolm's Hist. of Persia</i>, vol. i. p. 68. The ancient Persian +traditions are said to have been Pehlvi; <i>Malcolm</i>, vol. i. pp. 501–505; +but if so, they have all perished, p. 555: compare Rawlinson's note in +<i>Journal of Geog. Soc.</i> vol. x. p. 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_456_456" id="Footnote_456_456"></a><a href="#FNanchor_456_456"><span class="label">[456]</span></a> On the antagonism between Mohammedanism and the old +Persian history, see a note in <i>Grote's Hist. of Greece</i>, 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.’ <i>Vans Kennedy on Persian Literature</i>, in +<i>Transac. of Bombay Society</i>, 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 (<i>Hist. of India</i>, p. 468) +says, that till the sixteenth century there was no instance of a +Mussulman carefully studying Hindu literature.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_457_457" id="Footnote_457_457"></a><a href="#FNanchor_457_457"><span class="label">[457]</span></a> On the Shah Nameh, see <i>Works of Sir W. Jones</i>, vol. iv. +pp. 544, 545, vol. v. p. 594; <i>Mill's Hist. of India</i>, vol. ii. pp. 64, +65; <i>Journal of Asiatic Society</i>, 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.’ +<i>Rawlinson on the Inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia</i>, in <i>Journal of +Asiat. Soc.</i> vol. xii. p. 446.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_458_458" id="Footnote_458_458"></a><a href="#FNanchor_458_458"><span class="label">[458]</span></a> On the ignorance of the Greeks respecting Persian history, +see Vans Kennedy, in <i>Transac. of Soc. of Bombay</i>, 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, <i>Grote's +Hist. of Greece</i>, vol. vi. p. 496, vol. ix. p. 3, vol. x. p. 405; and +<i>Donaldson's New Cratylus</i>, 1839, p. 87 note. As to the foolish stories +which the Greeks relate respecting Achæmenes, compare <i>Malcolm's Hist. +of Persia</i>, vol. i. p. 18, with <i>Heeren's Asiatic Nations</i>, 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 <i>Nader Shah</i> (<i>Jones's Works</i>, vol. v. p. 540), and is +partly admitted by Mr. Mure (<i>History of the Literature of Ancient +Greece</i>, vol. iv. p. 338, 8vo. 1853).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_459_459" id="Footnote_459_459"></a><a href="#FNanchor_459_459"><span class="label">[459]</span></a> That is, to Easter Island, which appears to be its +furthest boundary (<i>Prichard's Phys. Hist.</i> vol. v. p. 6); and of which +there is a good account in <i>Beechey's Voyage to the Pacific</i>, vol. i. +pp. 43–58, and a notice in <i>Jour. of Geog. Society</i>, 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 (<i>Cook's Voyages</i>, vol. iii. pp. 294, 308; and +<i>Prichard</i>, vol. v. p. 147: compare <i>Marsden's History of Sumatra</i>, 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. <i>Cook's Voyages</i>, 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 <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. iv. p. 222; <i>Reports on +Ethnology by Brit. Assoc. for 1847</i>, pp. 154, 216, 250; and <i>Ellis's +Hist. of Madagascar</i>, vol. i. p. 133.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_460_460" id="Footnote_460_460"></a><a href="#FNanchor_460_460"><span class="label">[460]</span></a> Also the seat of the Tagala language; which, according to +William Humboldt, is the most perfect of all the forms of the +Malayo-Polynesian. <i>Prichard's Physical Hist.</i> vol. v. pp. 36, 51, 52.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_461_461" id="Footnote_461_461"></a><a href="#FNanchor_461_461"><span class="label">[461]</span></a> <i>Marsden's History of Sumatra</i>, p. 281. De Thou (<i>Hist. +Univ.</i> 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 <i>Crawfurd's Hist. of the +Indian Archipelago</i>, vol. ii. p. 312; <i>Low's Sarawak</i>, p. 96; and +<i>Raffles' Hist. of Java</i>, 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. <i>Burckhardt's Arabia</i>, vol. ii. +pp. 96, 97.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_462_462" id="Footnote_462_462"></a><a href="#FNanchor_462_462"><span class="label">[462]</span></a> The Javanese civilization is examined at great length by +William Humboldt, in his celebrated work, <i>Ueber die Kawi Sprache</i>, +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 <i>Wilson on the Foe Kue Ki</i>, in <i>Journal of +Asiat. Soc.</i> vol. v. p. 137; compare vol. vi. p. 320.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_463_463" id="Footnote_463_463"></a><a href="#FNanchor_463_463"><span class="label">[463]</span></a> <i>Crawfurd's Hist. of the Indian Archipelago</i>, 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.’ <i>Crawfurd</i>, vol. i. p. 306. For similar Footnote: +instances of royal genealogies being obscured by the introduction into +them of the names of gods, see <i>Kemble's Saxons in England</i>, vol. i. pp. +27, 335.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_464_464" id="Footnote_464_464"></a><a href="#FNanchor_464_464"><span class="label">[464]</span></a> <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. x. p. 191, vol. xiii. p. 128. +In the Appendix to <i>Raffles' Hist. of Java</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_465_465" id="Footnote_465_465"></a><a href="#FNanchor_465_465"><span class="label">[465]</span></a> 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 <i>Asiatic +Researches</i>, vol. xiii. p. 162, Calcutta, 1820, 4to. Sir Stamford +Raffles (<i>Hist. of Java</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_466_466" id="Footnote_466_466"></a><a href="#FNanchor_466_466"><span class="label">[466]</span></a> Respecting the corruption of Druidical traditions in Gaul +by Christian priests, see <i>Villemarqué</i>, <i>Chants Populaires de la +Bretagne</i>, Paris, 1846, vol. i. pp. xviii. xix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_467_467" id="Footnote_467_467"></a><a href="#FNanchor_467_467"><span class="label">[467]</span></a> The injury done to the traditions handed down by Welsh and +Irish bards, is noticed in Dr. Prichard's valuable work, <i>Physical Hist. +of Mankind</i>, vol. iii. p. 184, 8vo, 1841. See also <i>Warton's Hist. of +English Poetry</i>, vol. i. p. xxxvii. note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_468_468" id="Footnote_468_468"></a><a href="#FNanchor_468_468"><span class="label">[468]</span></a> See the remarks on Beowulf, in <i>Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit.</i> +vol. i. p. 7, 8vo, 1842. See also pp. 13, 14: and compare <i>Kemble's +Saxons in England</i>, vol. i. p. 331.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_469_469" id="Footnote_469_469"></a><a href="#FNanchor_469_469"><span class="label">[469]</span></a> <i>Talvi's Language and Literature of the Slavic Nations</i>, +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. <i>Talvi</i>, +p. 216.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_470_470" id="Footnote_470_470"></a><a href="#FNanchor_470_470"><span class="label">[470]</span></a> The monkish chroniclers neglected the old Finnish +traditions; and allowing them to perish, preferred the inventions of +Saxo and Johannes Magnus. <i>Prichard's Physical Hist.</i> vol. iii. pp. 284, +285.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_471_471" id="Footnote_471_471"></a><a href="#FNanchor_471_471"><span class="label">[471]</span></a> For an instance in which the monks have falsified the old +Icelandic traditions, see Mr. Keightley's learned book on <i>Fairy +Mythology</i>, 8vo, 1850, p. 159.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_472_472" id="Footnote_472_472"></a><a href="#FNanchor_472_472"><span class="label">[472]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Dowling's Introduction to the Critical Study of Ecclesiastical +History</i>, 8vo, 1838, p. 56; a work of some talent, but chiefly +interesting as a manifesto by an active party.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_473_473" id="Footnote_473_473"></a><a href="#FNanchor_473_473"><span class="label">[473]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Rog. de Hoveden Annal. in +Scriptores post Bedam</i>, p. 268. See also the same work, pp. 356–358; and +compare <i>Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum</i>, part i. pp. 266, 289, +part ii. p. 298.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_474_474" id="Footnote_474_474"></a><a href="#FNanchor_474_474"><span class="label">[474]</span></a> 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. <i>Arnold's Lectures on Modern History</i>, pp. 102, 103.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_475_475" id="Footnote_475_475"></a><a href="#FNanchor_475_475"><span class="label">[475]</span></a> In <i>Le Long's Bibliothèque Historique de la France</i>, 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 <i>Ellis's Preface to +Polydore Vergil</i>, 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.’ <i>Matthæi Paris Hist. Major</i>, +p. 59. See also <i>Rog. de Hov. in Scriptores post Bedam</i>, p. 274. On the +descent of the Britons from Priam and Æneas, see <i>Matthæi Westmonast. +Flores Historiarum</i>, 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 <i>Warton's Hist. of English Poetry</i>, vol. i. pp. +131, 132; and <i>Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors</i>, vol. i. p. 185.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_476_476" id="Footnote_476_476"></a><a href="#FNanchor_476_476"><span class="label">[476]</span></a> The general opinion was, that Brutus, or Brute, was the +son of Æneas; but some historians affirmed that he was the +great-grandson. See <i>Turner's Hist. of England</i>, vol. i. p. 63, vol. +vii. p. 220.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_477_477" id="Footnote_477_477"></a><a href="#FNanchor_477_477"><span class="label">[477]</span></a> In the <i>Notes to a Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483</i>, +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.’ <i>Van Kampen</i>, <i>Geschiedenis der Letteren</i>, 8vo, +1821, vol. i. p. 91; see also p. 86. In the thirteenth century, Mathew +Paris (<i>Historia Major</i>, p. 352) says of Alfred, ‘Hujus genealogia in +Anglorum historiis perducitur usque ad Adam primum parentem.’ See, to +the same effect, <i>Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum</i>, part i. pp. +323, 324, 415. In William of Malmesbury's Chronicle (<i>Scriptores post +Bedam</i>, p. 22 rev.) the genealogy of the Saxon kings is traced back to +Adam. For other, and similar, instances, see a note in <i>Lingard's +History of England</i>, vol. i. p. 403. And Mr. Ticknor (<i>History of +Spanish Literature</i>, vol. i. p. 509) mentions that the Spanish +chroniclers present ‘an uninterrupted succession of Spanish kings from +Tubal, a grandson of Noah.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_478_478" id="Footnote_478_478"></a><a href="#FNanchor_478_478"><span class="label">[478]</span></a> Monteil, in his curious book, <i>Histoire des divers Etats</i>, +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.’ <i>Coryat's Crudities</i>, 1611, reprinted 1776, vol. i. pp. 27, 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_479_479" id="Footnote_479_479"></a><a href="#FNanchor_479_479"><span class="label">[479]</span></a> ‘Erat ibi quidam Tros nomine Turonus Bruti nepos…. De +nomine ipsius prædicta civitas Turonis vocabulum nacta est; quia ibidem +sepultus fuit.’ <i>Galfredi Monumet. Hist. Briton.</i> lib. i. cap. xv. p. +19. And Mathew of Westminster, who wrote in the fourteenth century, says +(<i>Flores Historiarum</i>, part i. p. 17): ‘Tros nomine Turnus…. De nomine +verò ipsius Turonorum civitas vocabulum traxit, quia ibidem, ut testatur +Homerus, sepultus fuit.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_480_480" id="Footnote_480_480"></a><a href="#FNanchor_480_480"><span class="label">[480]</span></a> ‘On convient bien que les Troyens de notre Troyes sont du +sang des anciens Troyens.’ <i>Monteil</i>, <i>Divers Etats</i>, vol. v. p. 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_481_481" id="Footnote_481_481"></a><a href="#FNanchor_481_481"><span class="label">[481]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Voyages de Monconys</i>, vol. iv. p. 141, edit. Paris, 1695.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_482_482" id="Footnote_482_482"></a><a href="#FNanchor_482_482"><span class="label">[482]</span></a> ‘Deinceps regnante in ea Jebusæo, dicta Jebus, et sic ex +Jebus et Salem dicta est Jebussalem. Unde post dempta <i>b</i> littera et +addita <i>r</i>, dicta est Hierusalem.’ <i>Matthæi Paris Historia Major</i>, 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.’ <i>Matter</i>, <i>Hist. du +Gnosticisme</i>, vol. i. p. 41.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_483_483" id="Footnote_483_483"></a><a href="#FNanchor_483_483"><span class="label">[483]</span></a> ‘Humber rex Hunnorum … ad flumen diffugiens, submersus +est intra ipsum, et nomen suum flumini reliquit.’ <i>Matthæi Westmonast. +Flores Historiarum</i>, part i. p. 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_484_484" id="Footnote_484_484"></a><a href="#FNanchor_484_484"><span class="label">[484]</span></a> These two opinions, which long divided the learned world, +are stated in <i>Le Long</i>, <i>Bibliothèque Historique de la France</i>, vol. +ii. pp. 5, 49.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_485_485" id="Footnote_485_485"></a><a href="#FNanchor_485_485"><span class="label">[485]</span></a> See a curious allusion to this in <i>De Thou</i>, <i>Hist. Univ.</i> +vol. viii. p. 160; where, however, it is erroneously supposed to be a +Russian invention.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_486_486" id="Footnote_486_486"></a><a href="#FNanchor_486_486"><span class="label">[486]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Adams's Letters on Silesia</i>, +p. 267, Lond. 8vo, 1804.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_487_487" id="Footnote_487_487"></a><a href="#FNanchor_487_487"><span class="label">[487]</span></a> In 1608, Coryat, when in Zurich, was ‘told by the learned +Hospinian that their city was founded in the time of Abraham.’ <i>Coryat's +Crudities</i>, vol. i. Epistle to the Reader, sig. <span class="smcap">D</span>. 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_488_488" id="Footnote_488_488"></a><a href="#FNanchor_488_488"><span class="label">[488]</span></a> They were ‘seuls enfants légitimes’ of Abraham and Sarah. +<i>Monteil</i>, <i>Divers Etats</i>, vol. v. p. 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_489_489" id="Footnote_489_489"></a><a href="#FNanchor_489_489"><span class="label">[489]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Hist. Major</i>, p. 357. Compare a similar passage in <i>Mezeray</i>, +<i>Histoire de France</i>, 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 (<i>Histoire Critique de Manichée</i>, 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 <i>Whitelocke's Journal of the Swedish Embassy</i>, +vol. i. pp. 190, 191.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_490_490" id="Footnote_490_490"></a><a href="#FNanchor_490_490"><span class="label">[490]</span></a> Early in the fourteenth century, this was stated, in a +letter to the Pope, as a well-known historical fact. See <i>Lingard's +Hist. of England</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_491_491" id="Footnote_491_491"></a><a href="#FNanchor_491_491"><span class="label">[491]</span></a> Mr. Wright (<i>Narratives of Sorcery</i>, 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 <i>Montfaucon</i>, <i>Monumens de la Mon. +Fr.</i> 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_492_492" id="Footnote_492_492"></a><a href="#FNanchor_492_492"><span class="label">[492]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Mills's Hist. of +Chivalry</i>, vol. i. pp. 363, 364.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_493_493" id="Footnote_493_493"></a><a href="#FNanchor_493_493"><span class="label">[493]</span></a> The etymology of Tartars from Tartarus is ascribed to the +piety of Saint Louis in <i>Prichard's Physical History</i>, 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 <i>Matthæi Paris Historia Major</i>, 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.’ <i>Memoirs of the Life and +Writings of William Whiston</i>, p. 575. Compare, on the opinions held +respecting the Tartars, <i>Journal Asiatique</i>, I<sup>e</sup> série, vol. vi. p. 374, +Paris, 1825.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_494_494" id="Footnote_494_494"></a><a href="#FNanchor_494_494"><span class="label">[494]</span></a> Peignot (<i>Dict. des Livres</i>, 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 +<i>Sprengel</i>, <i>Hist. de la Médecine</i>, vol. ii. pp. 481, 482, Paris, 1815. +Compare <i>Hecker on the Black Death</i>, pp. 31, 32, in his learned work, +<i>Epidemics of the Middle Ages</i>, published by the Sydenham Society.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_495_495" id="Footnote_495_495"></a><a href="#FNanchor_495_495"><span class="label">[495]</span></a> In the sacred books of the Scandinavians, pork is +represented as the principal food, even in heaven. See <i>Mallet's +Northern Antiquities</i>, p. 105. It was the chief food of the Irish in the +twelfth century: <i>Ledwich</i>, <i>Antiquities of Ireland</i>, Dublin, 1804, p. +370; and also of the Anglo-Saxons at an earlier period: <i>Turner's Hist. +of England</i>, vol. iii. p. 22. In France it was equally common, and +Charlemagne kept in his forests immense droves of pigs. <i>Note in Esprit +des Lois</i>, in <i>Œuvres de Montesquieu</i>, p. 513. In Spain those who did +not like pork were tried by the Inquisition as suspected Jews: +<i>Llorente</i>, <i>Hist. de l'Inquisition</i>, 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. <i>Sprengel</i>, <i>Hist. de la +Médecine</i>, vol. iii. p. 93; and even at present, the barbarous Lettes +are passionately fond of it. <i>Kohl's Russia</i>, 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 <i>Ambassades de Messieurs de +Noailles en Angleterre</i>, 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.’ <i>Œuvres +de Michelet</i>, vol. ii. p. 389.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_496_496" id="Footnote_496_496"></a><a href="#FNanchor_496_496"><span class="label">[496]</span></a> Sismondi (<i>Hist. des Français</i>, vol. vii. pp. 325, 326) +passes a high eulogy upon him; and Mosheim (<i>Ecclesiast. History</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_497_497" id="Footnote_497_497"></a><a href="#FNanchor_497_497"><span class="label">[497]</span></a> <i>Matthæi Paris Historia Major</i>, 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.’ <i>Matthæi Westmonast. Flores +Historiarum</i>, part i. p. 215.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_498_498" id="Footnote_498_498"></a><a href="#FNanchor_498_498"><span class="label">[498]</span></a> By a singular contradiction, the African Mohammedans now +‘believe that a great enmity subsists between hogs and Christians.’ +<i>Mungo Park's Travels</i>, 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. <i>Sprengel</i>, <i>Hist. de la +Médecine</i>, vol. ii. p. 323; <i>Volney</i>, <i>Voyage en Syrie</i>, vol. i. p. 449; +<i>Buchanan's Journey through the Mysore</i>, vol. ii. p. 88, vol. iii. p. +57; <i>Raffles' Hist. of Java</i>, vol. ii. p. 5; <i>Ellis's Hist. of +Madagascar</i>, vol. i. pp. 201, 403, 416; <i>Cook's Voyages</i>, vol. ii. p. +265; <i>Burnes's Travels into Bokhara</i>, 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.’ <i>Journal of the Geog. +Society</i>, vol. xv. p. 30; and that Dobell (<i>Travels</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_499_499" id="Footnote_499_499"></a><a href="#FNanchor_499_499"><span class="label">[499]</span></a> This idea, which was a favourite one in the Middle Ages, +is said to have been a Rabbinical invention. See <i>Lettres de Gui Patin</i>, +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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_500_500" id="Footnote_500_500"></a><a href="#FNanchor_500_500"><span class="label">[500]</span></a> See the ample details in <i>Matthæi Westmonast. Flores +Historiarum</i>, part i. pp. 86, 87; and at p. 88, ‘Judas matrem suam +uxorem duxerat, et quòd patrem suum occiderat.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_501_501" id="Footnote_501_501"></a><a href="#FNanchor_501_501"><span class="label">[501]</span></a> This took place in the year 798. <i>Matthæi Westmonast. +Flores Historiarum</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_502_502" id="Footnote_502_502"></a><a href="#FNanchor_502_502"><span class="label">[502]</span></a> ‘… 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.’ +<i>Matthæi Westmonast.</i> part i. p. 98. Compare the account given by Roger +of Hoveden, of a woman who vomited two toads. <i>Script. post Bedam</i>, 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 <i>Lankester's Memorials of Ray</i>, p. 197.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_503_503" id="Footnote_503_503"></a><a href="#FNanchor_503_503"><span class="label">[503]</span></a> ‘… Ego Turpinus in valle Caroli loco præfato, astante +rege,’ &c. <i>De Vita Caroli Magni</i>, p. 74, edit. Ciampi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_504_504" id="Footnote_504_504"></a><a href="#FNanchor_504_504"><span class="label">[504]</span></a> Turner (<i>History of England</i>, 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 +(<i>Hist. Eng. Poetry</i>, vol. i. p. 128) says it was composed about 1110.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_505_505" id="Footnote_505_505"></a><a href="#FNanchor_505_505"><span class="label">[505]</span></a> The pope ‘statuit historiam Sancti Caroli descriptam a +beato Turpino Remensi Archiepiscopo esse authenticam.’ <i>Note in Turner</i>, +vol. vii. p. 250.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_506_506" id="Footnote_506_506"></a><a href="#FNanchor_506_506"><span class="label">[506]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Histoire Littéraire de la France</i>, +vol. xviii. p. 474, Paris, 1835, 4to; see also p. 517; and on its +influence in Spain, see <i>Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature</i>, vol. +i. pp. 222, 223.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_507_507" id="Footnote_507_507"></a><a href="#FNanchor_507_507"><span class="label">[507]</span></a> <i>Caroli Magni Historia</i>, edit. Ciampi, pp. 3–5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_508_508" id="Footnote_508_508"></a><a href="#FNanchor_508_508"><span class="label">[508]</span></a> ‘… Muri collapsi funditus corruerunt.’ <i>De Vita Caroli</i>, +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.’ <i>Voyages de Monconys</i>, vol. iii. p. 95, edit. Paris, 1695.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_509_509" id="Footnote_509_509"></a><a href="#FNanchor_509_509"><span class="label">[509]</span></a> <i>De Vita Caroli</i>, cap. v. pp. 11, 12; is headed ‘De +ecclesiis quas Carolus fecit.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_510_510" id="Footnote_510_510"></a><a href="#FNanchor_510_510"><span class="label">[510]</span></a> ‘Gigas nomine Fenacutus, qui fuit de genere Goliat.’ <i>De +Vita Caroli</i>, p. 39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_511_511" id="Footnote_511_511"></a><a href="#FNanchor_511_511"><span class="label">[511]</span></a> ‘Vim xl. fortium possidebat.’ p. 39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_512_512" id="Footnote_512_512"></a><a href="#FNanchor_512_512"><span class="label">[512]</span></a> ‘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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_513_513" id="Footnote_513_513"></a><a href="#FNanchor_513_513"><span class="label">[513]</span></a> <i>De Vita Caroli</i>, p. 40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_514_514" id="Footnote_514_514"></a><a href="#FNanchor_514_514"><span class="label">[514]</span></a> Ibid. pp. 43–47.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_515_515" id="Footnote_515_515"></a><a href="#FNanchor_515_515"><span class="label">[515]</span></a> <i>De Vita Caroli</i>, p. 52. On the twelve peers of +Charlemagne, in connexion with Turpin, see <i>Sismondi</i>, <i>Hist. des +Français</i>, vol. v. pp. 246, 537, 538, vol. vi. p. 534.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_516_516" id="Footnote_516_516"></a><a href="#FNanchor_516_516"><span class="label">[516]</span></a> The Welsh, however, accused Gildas of having thrown his +history ‘into the sea.’ <i>Palgrave's Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth</i>, vol. i. +p. 453. The industrious Sharon Turner (<i>Hist. of England</i>, 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!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_517_517" id="Footnote_517_517"></a><a href="#FNanchor_517_517"><span class="label">[517]</span></a> In <i>Turner's Hist. of England</i>, vol. vii. pp. 269, 270, +it is said to have appeared in 1128; but Mr. Wright (<i>Biog. Brit. Lit.</i> +vol. ii. p. 144) seems to have proved that the real date is 1147.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_518_518" id="Footnote_518_518"></a><a href="#FNanchor_518_518"><span class="label">[518]</span></a> Geoffrey says, ‘A Gualtero Oxinefordensi in multis +historiis peritissimo viro audivit’ (<i>i.e. ille</i> Geoffrey) ‘vili licet +stylo, breviter tamen propalabit, quæ prœlia inclytus ille rex post +victoriam istam, in Britanniam reversus, cum nepote suo commiserit.’ +<i>Galfredi Monumetensis Historia Britonum</i>, 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 <i>Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum</i>, +part i. p. 248.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_519_519" id="Footnote_519_519"></a><a href="#FNanchor_519_519"><span class="label">[519]</span></a> <i>Galfredi Historia Britonum</i>, pp. 3, 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_520_520" id="Footnote_520_520"></a><a href="#FNanchor_520_520"><span class="label">[520]</span></a> ‘Erat tunc nomen insulæ Albion, quæ a nemine, exceptis +paucis gigantibus, inhabitabatur…. Denique Brutus de nomine suo +insulam Britanniam, sociosque suos Britones appellat.’ <i>Galf. Hist. +Britonum</i>, p. 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_521_521" id="Footnote_521_521"></a><a href="#FNanchor_521_521"><span class="label">[521]</span></a> ‘In tempore ejus tribus diebus cecidit pluvia sanguinea, +et muscarum affluentia; quibus homines moriebantur.’ <i>Hist. Brit.</i> p. +36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_522_522" id="Footnote_522_522"></a><a href="#FNanchor_522_522"><span class="label">[522]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Hist. Brit.</i> p. 51.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_523_523" id="Footnote_523_523"></a><a href="#FNanchor_523_523"><span class="label">[523]</span></a> The particulars of the intrigue are in <i>Galf. Hist. +Brit.</i> pp. 151, 152. For information respecting Merlin, see also +<i>Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum</i>, part i. pp. 161, 162; and +<i>Naudé</i>, <i>Apologie pour les Grands Hommes</i>, pp. 308, 309, 318, 319, +edit. Amsterdam, 1712.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_524_524" id="Footnote_524_524"></a><a href="#FNanchor_524_524"><span class="label">[524]</span></a> <i>Hist. Britonum</i>, pp. 167–170; a brilliant chapter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_525_525" id="Footnote_525_525"></a><a href="#FNanchor_525_525"><span class="label">[525]</span></a> ‘Sed et plures capiebat quos semivivos devorabat.’ <i>Hist. +Brit.</i> p. 181.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_526_526" id="Footnote_526_526"></a><a href="#FNanchor_526_526"><span class="label">[526]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Galf. +Hist. Brit.</i> p. 184.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_527_527" id="Footnote_527_527"></a><a href="#FNanchor_527_527"><span class="label">[527]</span></a> ‘It was partly, perhaps, the reputation of this book, +which procured its author the bishopric of St. Asaph.’ <i>Life of Geoffrey +of Monmouth</i>, in <i>Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit.</i> vol. ii. p. 144, 8vo, 1846. +According to the Welsh writers, he was Bishop of Llandaff. See +<i>Stephens's Literature of the Kymry</i>, 8vo, 1849, p. 323.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_528_528" id="Footnote_528_528"></a><a href="#FNanchor_528_528"><span class="label">[528]</span></a> Mr. Wright (<i>Biog. Brit. Lit.</i> 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.’ <i>Polydore Vergil's +English Hist.</i> vol. i. p. x. edit. Ellis, 1846, 4to. See also, on its +popularity, <i>Lappenberg's Hist. of the Anglo-Saxon Kings</i>, 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.’ <i>Boyle's Works</i>, vol. iv. p. 425.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_529_529" id="Footnote_529_529"></a><a href="#FNanchor_529_529"><span class="label">[529]</span></a> <i>Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit.</i> vol. ii. p. 156; <i>Turner's +Hist. of England</i>, vol. vii. p. 282.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_530_530" id="Footnote_530_530"></a><a href="#FNanchor_530_530"><span class="label">[530]</span></a> According to Mr. Wright (<i>Biog. Brit.</i> 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 <i>Brut</i> into 32,000 of his own jargon. See <i>Sir F. Madden's +Preface to Layamon's Brut</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_531_531" id="Footnote_531_531"></a><a href="#FNanchor_531_531"><span class="label">[531]</span></a> <i>Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit.</i> vol. ii. pp. 151, 207; +<i>Hallam's Literature of Europe</i>, vol. i. p. 35.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_532_532" id="Footnote_532_532"></a><a href="#FNanchor_532_532"><span class="label">[532]</span></a> 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 <i>Ticknor's Hist. of Spanish +Lit.</i> vol. i. pp. 165, 166; where, however, Mr. Ticknor represents +Froissart as more unworldly than he really was.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_533_533" id="Footnote_533_533"></a><a href="#FNanchor_533_533"><span class="label">[533]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Arnold's Lectures on Modern History</i>, 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 <i>Mémoires de Philippe de Comines</i>, vol. ii. pp. +277, 287, edit. Paris, 1826.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_534_534" id="Footnote_534_534"></a><a href="#FNanchor_534_534"><span class="label">[534]</span></a> He says, that a field of battle is ‘un des +accomplissemens des œuvres 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.’ +<i>Mém. de Comines</i>, 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 <i>Institutes +of Timour</i>, p. 7; an instructive combination of superstition and +ferocity.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_535_535" id="Footnote_535_535"></a><a href="#FNanchor_535_535"><span class="label">[535]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Mém. +de Comines</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_536_536" id="Footnote_536_536"></a><a href="#FNanchor_536_536"><span class="label">[536]</span></a> Dr. Lingard (<i>Hist. of England</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_537_537" id="Footnote_537_537"></a><a href="#FNanchor_537_537"><span class="label">[537]</span></a> See <i>Guizot</i>, <i>Civilisation en Europe</i>, p. 166; the best +passage in that able, but rather unequal work: ‘Parcourez l'histoire du +v<sup>e</sup> au xvi<sup>e</sup> 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?</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_538_538" id="Footnote_538_538"></a><a href="#FNanchor_538_538"><span class="label">[538]</span></a> Compare <i>Biog. Univ.</i> vol. xliii. p. 577, with +<i>Montucla</i>, <i>Hist. des Mathématiques</i>, vol. i. p. 678.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_539_539" id="Footnote_539_539"></a><a href="#FNanchor_539_539"><span class="label">[539]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Bayle</i>, in voce <i>Stofflerus</i>, note +B.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_540_540" id="Footnote_540_540"></a><a href="#FNanchor_540_540"><span class="label">[540]</span></a> ‘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. +<i>Bayle</i>, note B.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_541_541" id="Footnote_541_541"></a><a href="#FNanchor_541_541"><span class="label">[541]</span></a> Ibid.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_542_542" id="Footnote_542_542"></a><a href="#FNanchor_542_542"><span class="label">[542]</span></a> In addition to the account in Bayle, the reader may refer +to <i>Biog. Univ.</i> vol. iii. p. 88, vol. xxxi. p. 283, vol. xliii. pp. +577, 578; <i>Sprengel</i>, <i>Hist. de la Médecine</i>, vol. iii. p. 251; +<i>Delambre</i>, <i>Hist. de l'Astronomie du Moyen Age</i>, Paris, 1819, 4to, p. +376; <i>Montucla</i>, <i>Hist. des Mathématiques</i>, vol. i. p. 622; <i>Dict. +Philosoph.</i>, article <i>Astrologie</i>, in <i>Œuvres de Voltaire</i>, vol. +xxxvii. pp. 148, 149.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_543_543" id="Footnote_543_543"></a><a href="#FNanchor_543_543"><span class="label">[543]</span></a> This history of the golden tooth is partly related by De +Thou: see his <i>Hist. Univ.</i> vol. xi. pp. 634, 635. And on the +controversy to which it gave rise, compare <i>Hist. des Oracles</i>, chap. +iv., in <i>Œuvres de Fontenelle</i>, vol. ii. pp. 219, 220, ed. Paris, +1766; <i>Sprengel</i>, <i>Hist. de la Médecine</i>, vol. iii. pp. 247–249; <i>Biog. +Univ.</i>, vol. xx. p. 579.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot">OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH INTELLECT FROM THE +MIDDLE OF THE SIXTEENTH TO THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>This rapid summary of what has actually been effected, +may perhaps startle those readers to whom such large<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_544_544" id="FNanchor_544_544"></a><a href="#Footnote_544_544" class="fnanchor">[544]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_545_545" id="FNanchor_545_545"></a><a href="#Footnote_545_545" class="fnanchor">[545]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_546_546" id="FNanchor_546_546"></a><a href="#Footnote_546_546" class="fnanchor">[546]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_547_547" id="FNanchor_547_547"></a><a href="#Footnote_547_547" class="fnanchor">[547]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_548_548" id="FNanchor_548_548"></a><a href="#Footnote_548_548" class="fnanchor">[548]</a> It is true, that many of these principles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_549_549" id="FNanchor_549_549"></a><a href="#Footnote_549_549" class="fnanchor">[549]</a></p> + +<p>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. <i>Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity</i> was +published at the end of the sixteenth century,<a name="FNanchor_550_550" id="FNanchor_550_550"></a><a href="#Footnote_550_550" class="fnanchor">[550]</a> and is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> +still considered one of the greatest bulwarks of our +national church. If we compare this work with <i>Jewel's +Apology for the Church of England</i>, which was written +thirty years before it,<a name="FNanchor_551_551" id="FNanchor_551_551"></a><a href="#Footnote_551_551" class="fnanchor">[551]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_552_552" id="FNanchor_552_552"></a><a href="#Footnote_552_552" class="fnanchor">[552]</a> The first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_553_553" id="FNanchor_553_553"></a><a href="#Footnote_553_553" class="fnanchor">[553]</a> On the other hand, Hooker lays down<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_554_554" id="FNanchor_554_554"></a><a href="#Footnote_554_554" class="fnanchor">[554]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_555_555" id="FNanchor_555_555"></a><a href="#Footnote_555_555" class="fnanchor">[555]</a> But Hooker, who lived in the age of Shakespeare<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_556_556" id="FNanchor_556_556"></a><a href="#Footnote_556_556" class="fnanchor">[556]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_557_557" id="FNanchor_557_557"></a><a href="#Footnote_557_557" class="fnanchor">[557]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span> +great work of Hooker, two men were publicly burned +by the English bishops, for holding heretical opinions.<a name="FNanchor_558_558" id="FNanchor_558_558"></a><a href="#Footnote_558_558" class="fnanchor">[558]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_559_559" id="FNanchor_559_559"></a><a href="#Footnote_559_559" class="fnanchor">[559]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> +without being guilty of the most enormous and unpardonable +crime.<a name="FNanchor_560_560" id="FNanchor_560_560"></a><a href="#Footnote_560_560" class="fnanchor">[560]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_561_561" id="FNanchor_561_561"></a><a href="#Footnote_561_561" class="fnanchor">[561]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_562_562" id="FNanchor_562_562"></a><a href="#Footnote_562_562" class="fnanchor">[562]</a> The details of this vast movement form<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> +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 <i>Religion of Protestants</i>, is generally +admitted to be the best defence which the Reformers +have been able to make against the Church of +Rome.<a name="FNanchor_563_563" id="FNanchor_563_563"></a><a href="#Footnote_563_563" class="fnanchor">[563]</a> It was published in 1637,<a name="FNanchor_564_564" id="FNanchor_564_564"></a><a href="#Footnote_564_564" class="fnanchor">[564]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_565_565" id="FNanchor_565_565"></a><a href="#Footnote_565_565" class="fnanchor">[565]</a> whose memory is still loathed, +as the meanest, the most cruel, and the most narrowminded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span> +man who ever sat on the episcopal bench.<a name="FNanchor_566_566" id="FNanchor_566_566"></a><a href="#Footnote_566_566" class="fnanchor">[566]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_567_567" id="FNanchor_567_567"></a><a href="#Footnote_567_567" class="fnanchor">[567]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_568_568" id="FNanchor_568_568"></a><a href="#Footnote_568_568" class="fnanchor">[568]</a> But Chillingworth would hear of none of +these things. He would admit of no reservations which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span> +tended to limit the sacred right of private judgment. +He not only went far beyond Hooker in neglecting the +Fathers,<a name="FNanchor_569_569" id="FNanchor_569_569"></a><a href="#Footnote_569_569" class="fnanchor">[569]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_570_570" id="FNanchor_570_570"></a><a href="#Footnote_570_570" class="fnanchor">[570]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_571_571" id="FNanchor_571_571"></a><a href="#Footnote_571_571" class="fnanchor">[571]</a> Reason, he says,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_572_572" id="FNanchor_572_572"></a><a href="#Footnote_572_572" class="fnanchor">[572]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_573_573" id="FNanchor_573_573"></a><a href="#Footnote_573_573" class="fnanchor">[573]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_574_574" id="FNanchor_574_574"></a><a href="#Footnote_574_574" class="fnanchor">[574]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>The immense success of this great work of Chillingworth,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span> +must have aided that movement of which it is +itself an evidence.<a name="FNanchor_575_575" id="FNanchor_575_575"></a><a href="#Footnote_575_575" class="fnanchor">[575]</a> It formed a decisive vindication +of religious dissent;<a name="FNanchor_576_576" id="FNanchor_576_576"></a><a href="#Footnote_576_576" class="fnanchor">[576]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_577_577" id="FNanchor_577_577"></a><a href="#Footnote_577_577" class="fnanchor">[577]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_578_578" id="FNanchor_578_578"></a><a href="#Footnote_578_578" class="fnanchor">[578]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_579_579" id="FNanchor_579_579"></a><a href="#Footnote_579_579" class="fnanchor">[579]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_580_580" id="FNanchor_580_580"></a><a href="#Footnote_580_580" class="fnanchor">[580]</a> In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_581_581" id="FNanchor_581_581"></a><a href="#Footnote_581_581" class="fnanchor">[581]</a></p> + +<p>These are only some of the innumerable signs, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_582_582" id="FNanchor_582_582"></a><a href="#Footnote_582_582" class="fnanchor">[582]</a> It is time that these well-intentioned,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> +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<a name="FNanchor_583_583" id="FNanchor_583_583"></a><a href="#Footnote_583_583" class="fnanchor">[583]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_584_584" id="FNanchor_584_584"></a><a href="#Footnote_584_584" class="fnanchor">[584]</a> If one age believes too much, it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_585_585" id="FNanchor_585_585"></a><a href="#Footnote_585_585" class="fnanchor">[585]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_586_586" id="FNanchor_586_586"></a><a href="#Footnote_586_586" class="fnanchor">[586]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_587_587" id="FNanchor_587_587"></a><a href="#Footnote_587_587" class="fnanchor">[587]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> +True it is, that the Independents did not always +push to their full extent the consequences of their own +doctrines.<a name="FNanchor_588_588" id="FNanchor_588_588"></a><a href="#Footnote_588_588" class="fnanchor">[588]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_589_589" id="FNanchor_589_589"></a><a href="#Footnote_589_589" class="fnanchor">[589]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_590_590" id="FNanchor_590_590"></a><a href="#Footnote_590_590" class="fnanchor">[590]</a> But, notwithstanding this serious error,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_591_591" id="FNanchor_591_591"></a><a href="#Footnote_591_591" class="fnanchor">[591]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_592_592" id="FNanchor_592_592"></a><a href="#Footnote_592_592" class="fnanchor">[592]</a> 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> +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 <i>Paradise Lost</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>The progress which the English intellect was now +making towards shaking off ancient superstitions,<a name="FNanchor_593_593" id="FNanchor_593_593"></a><a href="#Footnote_593_593" class="fnanchor">[593]</a> was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span> +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 <i>Inquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors</i>.<a name="FNanchor_594_594" id="FNanchor_594_594"></a><a href="#Footnote_594_594" class="fnanchor">[594]</a> +This able and learned production has the merit of +anticipating some of those results which more modern +inquirers have obtained;<a name="FNanchor_595_595" id="FNanchor_595_595"></a><a href="#Footnote_595_595" class="fnanchor">[595]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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 +<i>Religio Medici</i>,<a name="FNanchor_596_596" id="FNanchor_596_596"></a><a href="#Footnote_596_596" class="fnanchor">[596]</a> in which we find all the qualities of +his later work, except the scepticism. Indeed, in the +<i>Religio Medici</i>, 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;<a name="FNanchor_597_597" id="FNanchor_597_597"></a><a href="#Footnote_597_597" class="fnanchor">[597]</a> in spirits, and tutelary angels;<a name="FNanchor_598_598" id="FNanchor_598_598"></a><a href="#Footnote_598_598" class="fnanchor">[598]</a> and in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> +palmistry.<a name="FNanchor_599_599" id="FNanchor_599_599"></a><a href="#Footnote_599_599" class="fnanchor">[599]</a> He not only peremptorily affirms the reality +of witches, but he says that those who deny their existence +are not merely infidels, but atheists.<a name="FNanchor_600_600" id="FNanchor_600_600"></a><a href="#Footnote_600_600" class="fnanchor">[600]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_601_601" id="FNanchor_601_601"></a><a href="#Footnote_601_601" class="fnanchor">[601]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_602_602" id="FNanchor_602_602"></a><a href="#Footnote_602_602" class="fnanchor">[602]</a></p> + +<p>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 <i>Inquiries into Vulgar Errors</i>, +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.’<a name="FNanchor_603_603" id="FNanchor_603_603"></a><a href="#Footnote_603_603" class="fnanchor">[603]</a> We are also +reminded that one main cause of error is ‘adherence +unto authority;’<a name="FNanchor_604_604" id="FNanchor_604_604"></a><a href="#Footnote_604_604" class="fnanchor">[604]</a> that another is, ‘neglect of inquiry;’<a name="FNanchor_605_605" id="FNanchor_605_605"></a><a href="#Footnote_605_605" class="fnanchor">[605]</a> +and, strange to say, that a third is ‘credulity.’<a name="FNanchor_606_606" id="FNanchor_606_606"></a><a href="#Footnote_606_606" class="fnanchor">[606]</a> +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,<a name="FNanchor_607_607" id="FNanchor_607_607"></a><a href="#Footnote_607_607" class="fnanchor">[607]</a> but, after speaking +of errors in general, curtly adds: ‘Many others there +are, which we resign unto divinity, and perhaps deserve +not controversy.’<a name="FNanchor_608_608" id="FNanchor_608_608"></a><a href="#Footnote_608_608" class="fnanchor">[608]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_609_609" id="FNanchor_609_609"></a><a href="#Footnote_609_609" class="fnanchor">[609]</a> With the additions he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_610_610" id="FNanchor_610_610"></a><a href="#Footnote_610_610" class="fnanchor">[610]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_611_611" id="FNanchor_611_611"></a><a href="#Footnote_611_611" class="fnanchor">[611]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_612_612" id="FNanchor_612_612"></a><a href="#Footnote_612_612" class="fnanchor">[612]</a> And, in the opinion of one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_613_613" id="FNanchor_613_613"></a><a href="#Footnote_613_613" class="fnanchor">[613]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_614_614" id="FNanchor_614_614"></a><a href="#Footnote_614_614" class="fnanchor">[614]</a> These are the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_615_615" id="FNanchor_615_615"></a><a href="#Footnote_615_615" class="fnanchor">[615]</a> +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,<a name="FNanchor_616_616" id="FNanchor_616_616"></a><a href="#Footnote_616_616" class="fnanchor">[616]</a> he gave to the most popular +of his scientific works the title of <i>The Sceptical Chemist</i>; +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,<a name="FNanchor_617_617" id="FNanchor_617_617"></a><a href="#Footnote_617_617" class="fnanchor">[617]</a> the +year after the accession of Charles II., in whose reign<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_618_618" id="FNanchor_618_618"></a><a href="#Footnote_618_618" class="fnanchor">[618]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_619_619" id="FNanchor_619_619"></a><a href="#Footnote_619_619" class="fnanchor">[619]</a></p> + +<p>It is easy to imagine with what terror and disgust<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>It is evident, that a nation perfectly ignorant of +physical laws will refer to supernatural causes all the +phenomena by which it is surrounded.<a name="FNanchor_620_620" id="FNanchor_620_620"></a><a href="#Footnote_620_620" class="fnanchor">[620]</a> But so soon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_621_621" id="FNanchor_621_621"></a><a href="#Footnote_621_621" class="fnanchor">[621]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> +of natural powers.<a name="FNanchor_622_622" id="FNanchor_622_622"></a><a href="#Footnote_622_622" class="fnanchor">[622]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_623_623" id="FNanchor_623_623"></a><a href="#Footnote_623_623" class="fnanchor">[623]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> +dangers should be precisely the class which is most +superstitious.<a name="FNanchor_624_624" id="FNanchor_624_624"></a><a href="#Footnote_624_624" class="fnanchor">[624]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_625_625" id="FNanchor_625_625"></a><a href="#Footnote_625_625" class="fnanchor">[625]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span> +But because our researches into the phenomena of rain +happen to have been less successful,<a name="FNanchor_626_626" id="FNanchor_626_626"></a><a href="#Footnote_626_626" class="fnanchor">[626]</a> we resort to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_627_627" id="FNanchor_627_627"></a><a href="#Footnote_627_627" class="fnanchor">[627]</a> The agriculturist is thus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span> +taught to ascribe to supernatural agency the most important +phenomena with which he is concerned;<a name="FNanchor_628_628" id="FNanchor_628_628"></a><a href="#Footnote_628_628" class="fnanchor">[628]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_629_629" id="FNanchor_629_629"></a><a href="#Footnote_629_629" class="fnanchor">[629]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span> +seriously affected by events which the ignorance of some +men makes them call capricious, and the ignorance of +other men makes them call supernatural.</p> + +<p>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;<a name="FNanchor_630_630" id="FNanchor_630_630"></a><a href="#Footnote_630_630" class="fnanchor">[630]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_631_631" id="FNanchor_631_631"></a><a href="#Footnote_631_631" class="fnanchor">[631]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_632_632" id="FNanchor_632_632"></a><a href="#Footnote_632_632" class="fnanchor">[632]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_633_633" id="FNanchor_633_633"></a><a href="#Footnote_633_633" class="fnanchor">[633]</a> The weight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span> +of taxation was increased,<a name="FNanchor_634_634" id="FNanchor_634_634"></a><a href="#Footnote_634_634" class="fnanchor">[634]</a> while the security of the +kingdom was diminished.<a name="FNanchor_635_635" id="FNanchor_635_635"></a><a href="#Footnote_635_635" class="fnanchor">[635]</a> By the forced surrender +of the charters of the towns, our municipal rights were +endangered.<a name="FNanchor_636_636" id="FNanchor_636_636"></a><a href="#Footnote_636_636" class="fnanchor">[636]</a> By shutting the exchequer, our national +credit was destroyed.<a name="FNanchor_637_637" id="FNanchor_637_637"></a><a href="#Footnote_637_637" class="fnanchor">[637]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_638_638" id="FNanchor_638_638"></a><a href="#Footnote_638_638" class="fnanchor">[638]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_639_639" id="FNanchor_639_639"></a><a href="#Footnote_639_639" class="fnanchor">[639]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_640_640" id="FNanchor_640_640"></a><a href="#Footnote_640_640" class="fnanchor">[640]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_641_641" id="FNanchor_641_641"></a><a href="#Footnote_641_641" class="fnanchor">[641]</a> Now, too, there was enacted a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> +law forbidding any bishop, or any ecclesiastical court, +to tender the <i>ex-officio</i> oath, by which the church had +hitherto enjoyed the power of compelling a suspected +person to criminate himself.<a name="FNanchor_642_642" id="FNanchor_642_642"></a><a href="#Footnote_642_642" class="fnanchor">[642]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_643_643" id="FNanchor_643_643"></a><a href="#Footnote_643_643" class="fnanchor">[643]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_644_644" id="FNanchor_644_644"></a><a href="#Footnote_644_644" class="fnanchor">[644]</a> These +were the attempts which were made to bridle the +clergy and the nobles. But there were also effected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_645_645" id="FNanchor_645_645"></a><a href="#Footnote_645_645" class="fnanchor">[645]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_646_646" id="FNanchor_646_646"></a><a href="#Footnote_646_646" class="fnanchor">[646]</a> By the Statute +of Frauds and Perjuries, a security hitherto unknown +was conferred upon private property.<a name="FNanchor_647_647" id="FNanchor_647_647"></a><a href="#Footnote_647_647" class="fnanchor">[647]</a> By the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_648_648" id="FNanchor_648_648"></a><a href="#Footnote_648_648" class="fnanchor">[648]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_649_649" id="FNanchor_649_649"></a><a href="#Footnote_649_649" class="fnanchor">[649]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_650_650" id="FNanchor_650_650"></a><a href="#Footnote_650_650" class="fnanchor">[650]</a></p> + +<p>These were the things which were done in the reign<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_651_651" id="FNanchor_651_651"></a><a href="#Footnote_651_651" class="fnanchor">[651]</a> But the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_652_652" id="FNanchor_652_652"></a><a href="#Footnote_652_652" class="fnanchor">[652]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_653_653" id="FNanchor_653_653"></a><a href="#Footnote_653_653" class="fnanchor">[653]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_654_654" id="FNanchor_654_654"></a><a href="#Footnote_654_654" class="fnanchor">[654]</a> 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;<a name="FNanchor_655_655" id="FNanchor_655_655"></a><a href="#Footnote_655_655" class="fnanchor">[655]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_656_656" id="FNanchor_656_656"></a><a href="#Footnote_656_656" class="fnanchor">[656]</a> and he even conferred a pension on +this, the most formidable opponent who had yet appeared +against the spiritual hierarchy.<a name="FNanchor_657_657" id="FNanchor_657_657"></a><a href="#Footnote_657_657" class="fnanchor">[657]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_658_658" id="FNanchor_658_658"></a><a href="#Footnote_658_658" class="fnanchor">[658]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_659_659" id="FNanchor_659_659"></a><a href="#Footnote_659_659" class="fnanchor">[659]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_660_660" id="FNanchor_660_660"></a><a href="#Footnote_660_660" class="fnanchor">[660]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_661_661" id="FNanchor_661_661"></a><a href="#Footnote_661_661" class="fnanchor">[661]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_662_662" id="FNanchor_662_662"></a><a href="#Footnote_662_662" class="fnanchor">[662]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_663_663" id="FNanchor_663_663"></a><a href="#Footnote_663_663" class="fnanchor">[663]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_664_664" id="FNanchor_664_664"></a><a href="#Footnote_664_664" class="fnanchor">[664]</a> As to +Barrow, who, in point of genius, was probably superior +to Taylor,<a name="FNanchor_665_665" id="FNanchor_665_665"></a><a href="#Footnote_665_665" class="fnanchor">[665]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_666_666" id="FNanchor_666_666"></a><a href="#Footnote_666_666" class="fnanchor">[666]</a> he received no sort of preferment until +five years before his death, when the king conferred on +him the mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge.<a name="FNanchor_667_667" id="FNanchor_667_667"></a><a href="#Footnote_667_667" class="fnanchor">[667]</a></p> + +<p>It is hardly necessary to point out how all this must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span> +have tended to weaken the church, and accelerate that +great movement for which the reign of Charles II. is +remarkable.<a name="FNanchor_668_668" id="FNanchor_668_668"></a><a href="#Footnote_668_668" class="fnanchor">[668]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_669_669" id="FNanchor_669_669"></a><a href="#Footnote_669_669" class="fnanchor">[669]</a> But as the English intellect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_670_670" id="FNanchor_670_670"></a><a href="#Footnote_670_670" class="fnanchor">[670]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span> +would be the sole consideration.<a name="FNanchor_671_671" id="FNanchor_671_671"></a><a href="#Footnote_671_671" class="fnanchor">[671]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_672_672" id="FNanchor_672_672"></a><a href="#Footnote_672_672" class="fnanchor">[672]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_673_673" id="FNanchor_673_673"></a><a href="#Footnote_673_673" class="fnanchor">[673]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span> +now issued what was called a Declaration of Indulgence, +in which he announced his intention of suspending the +execution of these laws.<a name="FNanchor_674_674" id="FNanchor_674_674"></a><a href="#Footnote_674_674" class="fnanchor">[674]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_675_675" id="FNanchor_675_675"></a><a href="#Footnote_675_675" class="fnanchor">[675]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_676_676" id="FNanchor_676_676"></a><a href="#Footnote_676_676" class="fnanchor">[676]</a> +They saw Jeffreys and Kirke torturing their +fellow-subjects; they saw the gaols crowded with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span> +prisoners, and the scaffold streaming with blood.<a name="FNanchor_677_677" id="FNanchor_677_677"></a><a href="#Footnote_677_677" class="fnanchor">[677]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_678_678" id="FNanchor_678_678"></a><a href="#Footnote_678_678" class="fnanchor">[678]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_679_679" id="FNanchor_679_679"></a><a href="#Footnote_679_679" class="fnanchor">[679]</a> The king had laid his hand on the ark, and +the guardians of the temple flew to arms. How could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_680_680" id="FNanchor_680_680"></a><a href="#Footnote_680_680" class="fnanchor">[680]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_681_681" id="FNanchor_681_681"></a><a href="#Footnote_681_681" class="fnanchor">[681]</a> The most eminent of the Nonconformists<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span> +were far from being duped by this sudden affection.<a name="FNanchor_682_682" id="FNanchor_682_682"></a><a href="#Footnote_682_682" class="fnanchor">[682]</a> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span> +country.<a name="FNanchor_683_683" id="FNanchor_683_683"></a><a href="#Footnote_683_683" class="fnanchor">[683]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_684_684" id="FNanchor_684_684"></a><a href="#Footnote_684_684" class="fnanchor">[684]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>It is, indeed, difficult to conceive the full amount of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_685_685" id="FNanchor_685_685"></a><a href="#Footnote_685_685" class="fnanchor">[685]</a> the important steps that were +taken towards religious toleration;<a name="FNanchor_686_686" id="FNanchor_686_686"></a><a href="#Footnote_686_686" class="fnanchor">[686]</a> the remarkable +and permanent improvement in the administration of +justice;<a name="FNanchor_687_687" id="FNanchor_687_687"></a><a href="#Footnote_687_687" class="fnanchor">[687]</a> the final abolition of a censorship over the +press;<a name="FNanchor_688_688" id="FNanchor_688_688"></a><a href="#Footnote_688_688" class="fnanchor">[688]</a> and, what has not excited sufficient attention,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_689_689" id="FNanchor_689_689"></a><a href="#Footnote_689_689" class="fnanchor">[689]</a> These are the main characteristics +of the reign of William III.; a reign often aspersed, +and little understood,<a name="FNanchor_690_690" id="FNanchor_690_690"></a><a href="#Footnote_690_690" class="fnanchor">[690]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had the clergy succeeded in expelling +James, when the greater number of them repented of +their own act.<a name="FNanchor_691_691" id="FNanchor_691_691"></a><a href="#Footnote_691_691" class="fnanchor">[691]</a> Indeed, even before he was driven<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_692_692" id="FNanchor_692_692"></a><a href="#Footnote_692_692" class="fnanchor">[692]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_693_693" id="FNanchor_693_693"></a><a href="#Footnote_693_693" class="fnanchor">[693]</a> Just before this, the king also rescinded +the order by which the Bishop of London had been +suspended from the exercise of his functions.<a name="FNanchor_694_694" id="FNanchor_694_694"></a><a href="#Footnote_694_694" class="fnanchor">[694]</a> To +the bishops in general he made great promises of future +favour;<a name="FNanchor_695_695" id="FNanchor_695_695"></a><a href="#Footnote_695_695" class="fnanchor">[695]</a> some of them, it was said, were to be called<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span> +to his privy council; and, in the meantime, he cancelled +that ecclesiastical commission which, by limiting their +power, had excited their anger.<a name="FNanchor_696_696" id="FNanchor_696_696"></a><a href="#Footnote_696_696" class="fnanchor">[696]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_697_697" id="FNanchor_697_697"></a><a href="#Footnote_697_697" class="fnanchor">[697]</a> +It was also known that he favoured the Presbyterians, +whom the Church not unreasonably regarded as her +bitterest enemies.<a name="FNanchor_698_698" id="FNanchor_698_698"></a><a href="#Footnote_698_698" class="fnanchor">[698]</a> And when, in addition to all this,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_699_699" id="FNanchor_699_699"></a><a href="#Footnote_699_699" class="fnanchor">[699]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_700_700" id="FNanchor_700_700"></a><a href="#Footnote_700_700" class="fnanchor">[700]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_701_701" id="FNanchor_701_701"></a><a href="#Footnote_701_701" class="fnanchor">[701]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_702_702" id="FNanchor_702_702"></a><a href="#Footnote_702_702" class="fnanchor">[702]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_703_703" id="FNanchor_703_703"></a><a href="#Footnote_703_703" class="fnanchor">[703]</a> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span> +at once understand. On the one side, there was an +overwhelming majority of the clergy.<a name="FNanchor_704_704" id="FNanchor_704_704"></a><a href="#Footnote_704_704" class="fnanchor">[704]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_705_705" id="FNanchor_705_705"></a><a href="#Footnote_705_705" class="fnanchor">[705]</a> 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<a name="FNanchor_706_706" id="FNanchor_706_706"></a><a href="#Footnote_706_706" class="fnanchor">[706]</a> set themselves against the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_707_707" id="FNanchor_707_707"></a><a href="#Footnote_707_707" class="fnanchor">[707]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_708_708" id="FNanchor_708_708"></a><a href="#Footnote_708_708" class="fnanchor">[708]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_709_709" id="FNanchor_709_709"></a><a href="#Footnote_709_709" class="fnanchor">[709]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_710_710" id="FNanchor_710_710"></a><a href="#Footnote_710_710" class="fnanchor">[710]</a> They not only continued<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_711_711" id="FNanchor_711_711"></a><a href="#Footnote_711_711" class="fnanchor">[711]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_712_712" id="FNanchor_712_712"></a><a href="#Footnote_712_712" class="fnanchor">[712]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_713_713" id="FNanchor_713_713"></a><a href="#Footnote_713_713" class="fnanchor">[713]</a> This mock succession of imaginary bishops<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span> +continued for more than a century;<a name="FNanchor_714_714" id="FNanchor_714_714"></a><a href="#Footnote_714_714" class="fnanchor">[714]</a> and, by dividing +the allegiance of churchmen, lessened the power of the +church.<a name="FNanchor_715_715" id="FNanchor_715_715"></a><a href="#Footnote_715_715" class="fnanchor">[715]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_716_716" id="FNanchor_716_716"></a><a href="#Footnote_716_716" class="fnanchor">[716]</a></p> + +<p>Such were some of the events which, at the end of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span> +the seventeenth century, widened the breach that had +long existed between the interests of the nation and +the interests of the clergy.<a name="FNanchor_717_717" id="FNanchor_717_717"></a><a href="#Footnote_717_717" class="fnanchor">[717]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_718_718" id="FNanchor_718_718"></a><a href="#Footnote_718_718" class="fnanchor">[718]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_719_719" id="FNanchor_719_719"></a><a href="#Footnote_719_719" class="fnanchor">[719]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_720_720" id="FNanchor_720_720"></a><a href="#Footnote_720_720" class="fnanchor">[720]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_721_721" id="FNanchor_721_721"></a><a href="#Footnote_721_721" class="fnanchor">[721]</a> 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;<a name="FNanchor_722_722" id="FNanchor_722_722"></a><a href="#Footnote_722_722" class="fnanchor">[722]</a> and, in 1717, this celebrated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span> +assembly was finally prorogued by an act of the crown, +it being justly considered that the country had no further +occasion for its services.<a name="FNanchor_723_723" id="FNanchor_723_723"></a><a href="#Footnote_723_723" class="fnanchor">[723]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_724_724" id="FNanchor_724_724"></a><a href="#Footnote_724_724" class="fnanchor">[724]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_725_725" id="FNanchor_725_725"></a><a href="#Footnote_725_725" class="fnanchor">[725]</a> At the same time, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_726_726" id="FNanchor_726_726"></a><a href="#Footnote_726_726" class="fnanchor">[726]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span> +chancellor;<a name="FNanchor_727_727" id="FNanchor_727_727"></a><a href="#Footnote_727_727" class="fnanchor">[727]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_728_728" id="FNanchor_728_728"></a><a href="#Footnote_728_728" class="fnanchor">[728]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_729_729" id="FNanchor_729_729"></a><a href="#Footnote_729_729" class="fnanchor">[729]</a> 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;<a name="FNanchor_730_730" id="FNanchor_730_730"></a><a href="#Footnote_730_730" class="fnanchor">[730]</a> and, in the middle of the nineteenth +century, they have still further shrunk to one-fourteenth:<a name="FNanchor_731_731" id="FNanchor_731_731"></a><a href="#Footnote_731_731" class="fnanchor">[731]</a> +thus supplying a striking numerical instance +of that diminution of ecclesiastical power which is an +essential requisite of modern civilization. Precisely in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_732_732" id="FNanchor_732_732"></a><a href="#Footnote_732_732" class="fnanchor">[732]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_733_733" id="FNanchor_733_733"></a><a href="#Footnote_733_733" class="fnanchor">[733]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_734_734" id="FNanchor_734_734"></a><a href="#Footnote_734_734" class="fnanchor">[734]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_735_735" id="FNanchor_735_735"></a><a href="#Footnote_735_735" class="fnanchor">[735]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_736_736" id="FNanchor_736_736"></a><a href="#Footnote_736_736" class="fnanchor">[736]</a> The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_737_737" id="FNanchor_737_737"></a><a href="#Footnote_737_737" class="fnanchor">[737]</a> +But after the death of Anne the dissenters quickly +rallied; their hopes revived,<a name="FNanchor_738_738" id="FNanchor_738_738"></a><a href="#Footnote_738_738" class="fnanchor">[738]</a> their numbers continued +to increase, and in spite of the opposition of the clergy, +the laws against them were repealed.<a name="FNanchor_739_739" id="FNanchor_739_739"></a><a href="#Footnote_739_739" class="fnanchor">[739]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_740_740" id="FNanchor_740_740"></a><a href="#Footnote_740_740" class="fnanchor">[740]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_741_741" id="FNanchor_741_741"></a><a href="#Footnote_741_741" class="fnanchor">[741]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_742_742" id="FNanchor_742_742"></a><a href="#Footnote_742_742" class="fnanchor">[742]</a> and +Wesley, the first of theological statesmen,<a name="FNanchor_743_743" id="FNanchor_743_743"></a><a href="#Footnote_743_743" class="fnanchor">[743]</a> there was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_744_744" id="FNanchor_744_744"></a><a href="#Footnote_744_744" class="fnanchor">[744]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_745_745" id="FNanchor_745_745"></a><a href="#Footnote_745_745" class="fnanchor">[745]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_746_746" id="FNanchor_746_746"></a><a href="#Footnote_746_746" class="fnanchor">[746]</a> there can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_747_747" id="FNanchor_747_747"></a><a href="#Footnote_747_747" class="fnanchor">[747]</a> Besides this, the Wesleyans<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_748_748" id="FNanchor_748_748"></a><a href="#Footnote_748_748" class="fnanchor">[748]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_749_749" id="FNanchor_749_749"></a><a href="#Footnote_749_749" class="fnanchor">[749]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_750_750" id="FNanchor_750_750"></a><a href="#Footnote_750_750" class="fnanchor">[750]</a> Nor were these mere<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span> +barren principles, which subsequent inquirers were +unable to apply. The opinions of Cumberland, pushed +to their furthest extent by Hume,<a name="FNanchor_751_751" id="FNanchor_751_751"></a><a href="#Footnote_751_751" class="fnanchor">[751]</a> were shortly +afterwards applied to practical conduct by Paley,<a name="FNanchor_752_752" id="FNanchor_752_752"></a><a href="#Footnote_752_752" class="fnanchor">[752]</a> and +to speculative jurisprudence by Bentham and Mill;<a name="FNanchor_753_753" id="FNanchor_753_753"></a><a href="#Footnote_753_753" class="fnanchor">[753]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_754_754" id="FNanchor_754_754"></a><a href="#Footnote_754_754" class="fnanchor">[754]</a></p> + +<p>Thus it was that, in England, theology was finally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_755_755" id="FNanchor_755_755"></a><a href="#Footnote_755_755" class="fnanchor">[755]</a> the Bangorian controversy, +which, involving matters of ecclesiastical discipline +hitherto untouched, led to discussions dangerous to +the power of the church;<a name="FNanchor_756_756" id="FNanchor_756_756"></a><a href="#Footnote_756_756" class="fnanchor">[756]</a> the great work of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span> +Blackburne on the Confessional, which at one moment +almost caused a schism in the Establishment itself;<a name="FNanchor_757_757" id="FNanchor_757_757"></a><a href="#Footnote_757_757" class="fnanchor">[757]</a> +the celebrated dispute respecting miracles between +Middleton, Church, and Dodwell, continued, with still +larger views, by Hume, Campbell, and Douglas; <a name="FNanchor_758_758" id="FNanchor_758_758"></a><a href="#Footnote_758_758" class="fnanchor">[758]</a> the +exposure of the gross absurdities of the Fathers, which,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_759_759" id="FNanchor_759_759"></a><a href="#Footnote_759_759" class="fnanchor">[759]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_760_760" id="FNanchor_760_760"></a><a href="#Footnote_760_760" class="fnanchor">[760]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_761_761" id="FNanchor_761_761"></a><a href="#Footnote_761_761" class="fnanchor">[761]</a> These things, following each other in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_762_762" id="FNanchor_762_762"></a><a href="#Footnote_762_762" class="fnanchor">[762]</a> and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span> +newspapers on the only day they had time to read +them.<a name="FNanchor_763_763" id="FNanchor_763_763"></a><a href="#Footnote_763_763" class="fnanchor">[763]</a> It was then that there were first seen, in our +country, circulating libraries;<a name="FNanchor_764_764" id="FNanchor_764_764"></a><a href="#Footnote_764_764" class="fnanchor">[764]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_765_765" id="FNanchor_765_765"></a><a href="#Footnote_765_765" class="fnanchor">[765]</a> It was also in the eighteenth century,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span> +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:<a name="FNanchor_766_766" id="FNanchor_766_766"></a><a href="#Footnote_766_766" class="fnanchor">[766]</a> while, at the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span> +time, the invention of Encyclopædias enabled their +results to be brought together, and digested in a form +more accessible than any hitherto employed.<a name="FNanchor_767_767" id="FNanchor_767_767"></a><a href="#Footnote_767_767" class="fnanchor">[767]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_768_768" id="FNanchor_768_768"></a><a href="#Footnote_768_768" class="fnanchor">[768]</a> The formation of societies +for purchasing books now became general;<a name="FNanchor_769_769" id="FNanchor_769_769"></a><a href="#Footnote_769_769" class="fnanchor">[769]</a> and, +before the close of the century, we hear of clubs instituted +by reading men among the industrious classes.<a name="FNanchor_770_770" id="FNanchor_770_770"></a><a href="#Footnote_770_770" class="fnanchor">[770]</a> +In every department, the same eager curiosity was +shown. In the middle of the eighteenth century, debating +societies sprung up among tradesmen;<a name="FNanchor_771_771" id="FNanchor_771_771"></a><a href="#Footnote_771_771" class="fnanchor">[771]</a> and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_772_772" id="FNanchor_772_772"></a><a href="#Footnote_772_772" class="fnanchor">[772]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_773_773" id="FNanchor_773_773"></a><a href="#Footnote_773_773" class="fnanchor">[773]</a> Shortly before this, political newspapers +arose,<a name="FNanchor_774_774" id="FNanchor_774_774"></a><a href="#Footnote_774_774" class="fnanchor">[774]</a> and a sharp struggle broke out between them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_775_775" id="FNanchor_775_775"></a><a href="#Footnote_775_775" class="fnanchor">[775]</a> +Scarcely was this triumph completed, when fresh stimulus +was given by the promulgation of that great +political doctrine of personal representation,<a name="FNanchor_776_776" id="FNanchor_776_776"></a><a href="#Footnote_776_776" class="fnanchor">[776]</a> which +must eventually carry all before it; and the germ of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span> +which may be traced late in the seventeenth century, +when the true idea of personal independence began to +take root and flourish.<a name="FNanchor_777_777" id="FNanchor_777_777"></a><a href="#Footnote_777_777" class="fnanchor">[777]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_778_778" id="FNanchor_778_778"></a><a href="#Footnote_778_778" class="fnanchor">[778]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_779_779" id="FNanchor_779_779"></a><a href="#Footnote_779_779" class="fnanchor">[779]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_780_780" id="FNanchor_780_780"></a><a href="#Footnote_780_780" class="fnanchor">[780]</a> +that mean and crouching spirit; that incessant homage +to mere rank and birth; that constant confusion between +power and right; that ignorant admiration for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_781_781" id="FNanchor_781_781"></a><a href="#Footnote_781_781" class="fnanchor">[781]</a></p> + +<p>From all these things there resulted consequences of +vast importance. From this simplification, independence, +and diffusion<a name="FNanchor_782_782" id="FNanchor_782_782"></a><a href="#Footnote_782_782" class="fnanchor">[782]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span> +regulated by known laws, than is the conduct of those +large bodies collectively called society, or a nation.<a name="FNanchor_783_783" id="FNanchor_783_783"></a><a href="#Footnote_783_783" class="fnanchor">[783]</a> +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.</p> + +<p>It must be considered as a most fortunate circumstance, +that after the death of Anne,<a name="FNanchor_784_784" id="FNanchor_784_784"></a><a href="#Footnote_784_784" class="fnanchor">[784]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_785_785" id="FNanchor_785_785"></a><a href="#Footnote_785_785" class="fnanchor">[785]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_786_786" id="FNanchor_786_786"></a><a href="#Footnote_786_786" class="fnanchor">[786]</a> that, notwithstanding their arbitrary temper, +there was no danger of their organizing a party to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span> +extend the boundaries of the royal prerogative.<a name="FNanchor_787_787" id="FNanchor_787_787"></a><a href="#Footnote_787_787" class="fnanchor">[787]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_788_788" id="FNanchor_788_788"></a><a href="#Footnote_788_788" class="fnanchor">[788]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_789_789" id="FNanchor_789_789"></a><a href="#Footnote_789_789" class="fnanchor">[789]</a></p> + +<p>These circumstances, though in themselves they may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_790_790" id="FNanchor_790_790"></a><a href="#Footnote_790_790" class="fnanchor">[790]</a> +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.</p> + +<p>But by the death of George II. the political aspect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_791_791" id="FNanchor_791_791"></a><a href="#Footnote_791_791" class="fnanchor">[791]</a> and was said to look +upon Hanover as a foreign country, whose interests +were to be considered of subordinate importance.<a name="FNanchor_792_792" id="FNanchor_792_792"></a><a href="#Footnote_792_792" class="fnanchor">[792]</a> At +the same time, the last hopes of the House of Stuart +were now destroyed;<a name="FNanchor_793_793" id="FNanchor_793_793"></a><a href="#Footnote_793_793" class="fnanchor">[793]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_794_794" id="FNanchor_794_794"></a><a href="#Footnote_794_794" class="fnanchor">[794]</a></p> + +<p>And yet these circumstances, which appeared so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_795_795" id="FNanchor_795_795"></a><a href="#Footnote_795_795" class="fnanchor">[795]</a> All +those monstrous doctrines respecting the rights of +kings, which the Revolution was supposed to have +destroyed, were suddenly revived.<a name="FNanchor_796_796" id="FNanchor_796_796"></a><a href="#Footnote_796_796" class="fnanchor">[796]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_797_797" id="FNanchor_797_797"></a><a href="#Footnote_797_797" class="fnanchor">[797]</a> Under their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[446]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_798_798" id="FNanchor_798_798"></a><a href="#Footnote_798_798" class="fnanchor">[798]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span> +man of great ability;<a name="FNanchor_799_799" id="FNanchor_799_799"></a><a href="#Footnote_799_799" class="fnanchor">[799]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_800_800" id="FNanchor_800_800"></a><a href="#Footnote_800_800" class="fnanchor">[800]</a> but did not hesitate +to persecute to the death the party with whom he +had once associated in order to obtain it.<a name="FNanchor_801_801" id="FNanchor_801_801"></a><a href="#Footnote_801_801" class="fnanchor">[801]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span> +of which his royal master had set his heart.<a name="FNanchor_802_802" id="FNanchor_802_802"></a><a href="#Footnote_802_802" class="fnanchor">[802]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_803_803" id="FNanchor_803_803"></a><a href="#Footnote_803_803" class="fnanchor">[803]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_804_804" id="FNanchor_804_804"></a><a href="#Footnote_804_804" class="fnanchor">[804]</a> expressed their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span> +indignation at the presumption of a minister who could +oppose the wishes of so benign and gracious a master.<a name="FNanchor_805_805" id="FNanchor_805_805"></a><a href="#Footnote_805_805" class="fnanchor">[805]</a> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_806_806" id="FNanchor_806_806"></a><a href="#Footnote_806_806" class="fnanchor">[806]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_807_807" id="FNanchor_807_807"></a><a href="#Footnote_807_807" class="fnanchor">[807]</a> He, however,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_808_808" id="FNanchor_808_808"></a><a href="#Footnote_808_808" class="fnanchor">[808]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_809_809" id="FNanchor_809_809"></a><a href="#Footnote_809_809" class="fnanchor">[809]</a> +To this rare and important knowledge he +added a sweetness and an amenity of temper which +extorted the praises even of his political opponents.<a name="FNanchor_810_810" id="FNanchor_810_810"></a><a href="#Footnote_810_810" class="fnanchor">[810]</a> +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,<a name="FNanchor_811_811" id="FNanchor_811_811"></a><a href="#Footnote_811_811" class="fnanchor">[811]</a> and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span> +declared that he would rather abdicate the throne than +admit him to a share in the government.<a name="FNanchor_812_812" id="FNanchor_812_812"></a><a href="#Footnote_812_812" class="fnanchor">[812]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_813_813" id="FNanchor_813_813"></a><a href="#Footnote_813_813" class="fnanchor">[813]</a> Thus, for instance, the two +men who rendered the most eminent services to the +Hanoverian dynasty, and therefore to the liberties of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_814_814" id="FNanchor_814_814"></a><a href="#Footnote_814_814" class="fnanchor">[814]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_815_815" id="FNanchor_815_815"></a><a href="#Footnote_815_815" class="fnanchor">[815]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_816_816" id="FNanchor_816_816"></a><a href="#Footnote_816_816" class="fnanchor">[816]</a> In the same +way the Schism Act, by which the friends of the church +subjected the dissenters to a cruel persecution,<a name="FNanchor_817_817" id="FNanchor_817_817"></a><a href="#Footnote_817_817" class="fnanchor">[817]</a> was +hurried through the Commons by a large and eager +majority.<a name="FNanchor_818_818" id="FNanchor_818_818"></a><a href="#Footnote_818_818" class="fnanchor">[818]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_819_819" id="FNanchor_819_819"></a><a href="#Footnote_819_819" class="fnanchor">[819]</a></p> + +<p>This superiority of the upper house over the lower<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span> +was, on the whole, steadily maintained during the reign +of George II.;<a name="FNanchor_820_820" id="FNanchor_820_820"></a><a href="#Footnote_820_820" class="fnanchor">[820]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_821_821" id="FNanchor_821_821"></a><a href="#Footnote_821_821" class="fnanchor">[821]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_822_822" id="FNanchor_822_822"></a><a href="#Footnote_822_822" class="fnanchor">[822]</a> 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;<a name="FNanchor_823_823" id="FNanchor_823_823"></a><a href="#Footnote_823_823" class="fnanchor">[823]</a> +and of mere lawyers, who had risen to judicial appointments +partly from their professional learning, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span> +chiefly from the zeal with which they repressed the +popular liberties, and favoured the royal prerogative.<a name="FNanchor_824_824" id="FNanchor_824_824"></a><a href="#Footnote_824_824" class="fnanchor">[824]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_825_825" id="FNanchor_825_825"></a><a href="#Footnote_825_825" class="fnanchor">[825]</a> 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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_826_826" id="FNanchor_826_826"></a><a href="#Footnote_826_826" class="fnanchor">[826]</a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_827_827" id="FNanchor_827_827"></a><a href="#Footnote_827_827" class="fnanchor">[827]</a> but extended to an immense variety of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_828_828" id="FNanchor_828_828"></a><a href="#Footnote_828_828" class="fnanchor">[828]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_829_829" id="FNanchor_829_829"></a><a href="#Footnote_829_829" class="fnanchor">[829]</a> +Thus it is, that while his insight into the +philosophy of jurisprudence has gained the applause of +lawyers,<a name="FNanchor_830_830" id="FNanchor_830_830"></a><a href="#Footnote_830_830" class="fnanchor">[830]</a> his acquaintance with the whole range and +theory of the fine arts has won the admiration of artists;<a name="FNanchor_831_831" id="FNanchor_831_831"></a><a href="#Footnote_831_831" class="fnanchor">[831]</a> +a striking combination of two pursuits, often,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_832_832" id="FNanchor_832_832"></a><a href="#Footnote_832_832" class="fnanchor">[832]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_833_833" id="FNanchor_833_833"></a><a href="#Footnote_833_833" class="fnanchor">[833]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[459]</a></span> +of which reason forms but a part;<a name="FNanchor_834_834" id="FNanchor_834_834"></a><a href="#Footnote_834_834" class="fnanchor">[834]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_835_835" id="FNanchor_835_835"></a><a href="#Footnote_835_835" class="fnanchor">[835]</a></p> + +<p>It is these views, and the extraordinary ability with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span> +which they were advocated, which make the appearance +of Burke a memorable epoch in our political history.<a name="FNanchor_836_836" id="FNanchor_836_836"></a><a href="#Footnote_836_836" class="fnanchor">[836]</a> +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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_837_837" id="FNanchor_837_837"></a><a href="#Footnote_837_837" class="fnanchor">[837]</a> 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;<a name="FNanchor_838_838" id="FNanchor_838_838"></a><a href="#Footnote_838_838" class="fnanchor">[838]</a> and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_839_839" id="FNanchor_839_839"></a><a href="#Footnote_839_839" class="fnanchor">[839]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_840_840" id="FNanchor_840_840"></a><a href="#Footnote_840_840" class="fnanchor">[840]</a> but, by advocating the freedom of trade, +he struck at the root of all similar prohibitions.<a name="FNanchor_841_841" id="FNanchor_841_841"></a><a href="#Footnote_841_841" class="fnanchor">[841]</a> He +supported those just claims of the Catholics,<a name="FNanchor_842_842" id="FNanchor_842_842"></a><a href="#Footnote_842_842" class="fnanchor">[842]</a> which,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_843_843" id="FNanchor_843_843"></a><a href="#Footnote_843_843" class="fnanchor">[843]</a> +Into other departments of politics he carried +the same spirit. He opposed the cruel laws against +insolvents,<a name="FNanchor_844_844" id="FNanchor_844_844"></a><a href="#Footnote_844_844" class="fnanchor">[844]</a> by which, in the time of George III., our +statute-book was still defaced; and he vainly attempted +to soften the penal code,<a name="FNanchor_845_845" id="FNanchor_845_845"></a><a href="#Footnote_845_845" class="fnanchor">[845]</a> the increasing severity of +which was one of the worst features of that bad +reign.<a name="FNanchor_846_846" id="FNanchor_846_846"></a><a href="#Footnote_846_846" class="fnanchor">[846]</a> He wished to abolish the old plan of enlisting +soldiers for life;<a name="FNanchor_847_847" id="FNanchor_847_847"></a><a href="#Footnote_847_847" class="fnanchor">[847]</a> a barbarous and impolitic practice, +as the English legislature began to perceive several +years later.<a name="FNanchor_848_848" id="FNanchor_848_848"></a><a href="#Footnote_848_848" class="fnanchor">[848]</a> He attacked the slave-trade;<a name="FNanchor_849_849" id="FNanchor_849_849"></a><a href="#Footnote_849_849" class="fnanchor">[849]</a> which, +being an ancient usage, the king wished to preserve, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></span> +part of the British constitution.<a name="FNanchor_850_850" id="FNanchor_850_850"></a><a href="#Footnote_850_850" class="fnanchor">[850]</a> He refuted,<a name="FNanchor_851_851" id="FNanchor_851_851"></a><a href="#Footnote_851_851" class="fnanchor">[851]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_852_852" id="FNanchor_852_852"></a><a href="#Footnote_852_852" class="fnanchor">[852]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_853_853" id="FNanchor_853_853"></a><a href="#Footnote_853_853" class="fnanchor">[853]</a> 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<i>l.</i> a year.<a name="FNanchor_854_854" id="FNanchor_854_854"></a><a href="#Footnote_854_854" class="fnanchor">[854]</a></p> + +<p>These things alone are sufficient to explain the animosity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[465]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_855_855" id="FNanchor_855_855"></a><a href="#Footnote_855_855" class="fnanchor">[855]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_856_856" id="FNanchor_856_856"></a><a href="#Footnote_856_856" class="fnanchor">[856]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[466]</a></span> +who, pretending to be guided by principles, are, in +reality, subjugated by prejudice.<a name="FNanchor_857_857" id="FNanchor_857_857"></a><a href="#Footnote_857_857" class="fnanchor">[857]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_858_858" id="FNanchor_858_858"></a><a href="#Footnote_858_858" class="fnanchor">[858]</a></p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[467]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_859_859" id="FNanchor_859_859"></a><a href="#Footnote_859_859" class="fnanchor">[859]</a> +And whoever will compare the spirit of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[468]</a></span> +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.’<a name="FNanchor_860_860" id="FNanchor_860_860"></a><a href="#Footnote_860_860" class="fnanchor">[860]</a></p> + +<p>It would, perhaps, be displaying a morbid curiosity, +to attempt to raise the veil, and trace the decay of so +mighty a mind.<a name="FNanchor_861_861" id="FNanchor_861_861"></a><a href="#Footnote_861_861" class="fnanchor">[861]</a> Indeed, in all such cases, most of +the evidence perishes; for those who have the best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[469]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_862_862" id="FNanchor_862_862"></a><a href="#Footnote_862_862" class="fnanchor">[862]</a> In his <i>Reflections on the French Revolution</i>; +in his <i>Remarks on the Policy of the Allies</i>: in his +<i>Letter to Elliot</i>; in his <i>Letter to a Noble Lord</i>; and in his +<i>Letters on a Regicide Peace</i>, 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.<a name="FNanchor_863_863" id="FNanchor_863_863"></a><a href="#Footnote_863_863" class="fnanchor">[863]</a> 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<a name="FNanchor_864_864" id="FNanchor_864_864"></a><a href="#Footnote_864_864" class="fnanchor">[864]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_865_865" id="FNanchor_865_865"></a><a href="#Footnote_865_865" class="fnanchor">[865]</a> At the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[470]</a></span> +time, and indeed the very evening on which this +occurred, Burke, who had hitherto been remarkable for +the courtesy of his manners,<a name="FNanchor_866_866" id="FNanchor_866_866"></a><a href="#Footnote_866_866" class="fnanchor">[866]</a> 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.’<a name="FNanchor_867_867" id="FNanchor_867_867"></a><a href="#Footnote_867_867" class="fnanchor">[867]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_868_868" id="FNanchor_868_868"></a><a href="#Footnote_868_868" class="fnanchor">[868]</a> 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,<a name="FNanchor_869_869" id="FNanchor_869_869"></a><a href="#Footnote_869_869" class="fnanchor">[869]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[471]</a></span> +turn, which Burke, in his better days, would have been +the first to admire.<a name="FNanchor_870_870" id="FNanchor_870_870"></a><a href="#Footnote_870_870" class="fnanchor">[870]</a> 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;’<a name="FNanchor_871_871" id="FNanchor_871_871"></a><a href="#Footnote_871_871" class="fnanchor">[871]</a> to be a ‘fanatic +atheist, and furious democratic republican;’<a name="FNanchor_872_872" id="FNanchor_872_872"></a><a href="#Footnote_872_872" class="fnanchor">[872]</a> and to +be capable of ‘the lowest, as well as the highest and +most determined villainies.’<a name="FNanchor_873_873" id="FNanchor_873_873"></a><a href="#Footnote_873_873" class="fnanchor">[873]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_874_874" id="FNanchor_874_874"></a><a href="#Footnote_874_874" class="fnanchor">[874]</a> So dead had he become<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[472]</a></span> +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.’<a name="FNanchor_875_875" id="FNanchor_875_875"></a><a href="#Footnote_875_875" class="fnanchor">[875]</a></p> + +<p>As to France itself, it is ‘Cannibal Castle;’<a name="FNanchor_876_876" id="FNanchor_876_876"></a><a href="#Footnote_876_876" class="fnanchor">[876]</a> it is +‘the republic of assassins;’<a name="FNanchor_877_877" id="FNanchor_877_877"></a><a href="#Footnote_877_877" class="fnanchor">[877]</a> it is ‘a hell;’<a name="FNanchor_878_878" id="FNanchor_878_878"></a><a href="#Footnote_878_878" class="fnanchor">[878]</a> its +government is composed of ‘the dirtiest, lowest, most +fraudulent, most knavish, of chicaners;’<a name="FNanchor_879_879" id="FNanchor_879_879"></a><a href="#Footnote_879_879" class="fnanchor">[879]</a> its National +Assembly are ‘miscreants;’<a name="FNanchor_880_880" id="FNanchor_880_880"></a><a href="#Footnote_880_880" class="fnanchor">[880]</a> its people are ‘an allied +army of Amazonian and male cannibal Parisians;’<a name="FNanchor_881_881" id="FNanchor_881_881"></a><a href="#Footnote_881_881" class="fnanchor">[881]</a> +they are ‘a nation of murderers;’<a name="FNanchor_882_882" id="FNanchor_882_882"></a><a href="#Footnote_882_882" class="fnanchor">[882]</a> they are ‘the +basest of mankind;’<a name="FNanchor_883_883" id="FNanchor_883_883"></a><a href="#Footnote_883_883" class="fnanchor">[883]</a> they are ‘murderous atheists;’<a name="FNanchor_884_884" id="FNanchor_884_884"></a><a href="#Footnote_884_884" class="fnanchor">[884]</a> +they are ‘a gang of robbers;’<a name="FNanchor_885_885" id="FNanchor_885_885"></a><a href="#Footnote_885_885" class="fnanchor">[885]</a> they are ‘the prostitute +outcasts of mankind;’<a name="FNanchor_886_886" id="FNanchor_886_886"></a><a href="#Footnote_886_886" class="fnanchor">[886]</a> they are ‘a desperate gang of +plunderers, murderers, tyrants, and atheists.’<a name="FNanchor_887_887" id="FNanchor_887_887"></a><a href="#Footnote_887_887" class="fnanchor">[887]</a> To +make the slightest concessions to such a country in order +to preserve peace, is offering victims ‘on the altars of +blasphemed regicide;’<a name="FNanchor_888_888" id="FNanchor_888_888"></a><a href="#Footnote_888_888" class="fnanchor">[888]</a> 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.’<a name="FNanchor_889_889" id="FNanchor_889_889"></a><a href="#Footnote_889_889" class="fnanchor">[889]</a> When our ambassador<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[473]</a></span> +was actually in Paris, he ‘had the honour of passing his +mornings in respectful attendance at the office of a +regicide pettifogger;’<a name="FNanchor_890_890" id="FNanchor_890_890"></a><a href="#Footnote_890_890" class="fnanchor">[890]</a> and we were taunted with +having sent a ‘peer of the realm to the scum of the +earth.’<a name="FNanchor_891_891" id="FNanchor_891_891"></a><a href="#Footnote_891_891" class="fnanchor">[891]</a> ‘France has no longer a place in Europe; it +is expunged from the map; its very name should be forgotten.<a name="FNanchor_892_892" id="FNanchor_892_892"></a><a href="#Footnote_892_892" class="fnanchor">[892]</a> +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.’<a name="FNanchor_893_893" id="FNanchor_893_893"></a><a href="#Footnote_893_893" class="fnanchor">[893]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[474]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_894_894" id="FNanchor_894_894"></a><a href="#Footnote_894_894" class="fnanchor">[894]</a> +and, at a later period, he blamed the allied sovereigns +for not dictating to a great people the government +they ought to adopt.<a name="FNanchor_895_895" id="FNanchor_895_895"></a><a href="#Footnote_895_895" class="fnanchor">[895]</a> 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<a name="FNanchor_896_896" id="FNanchor_896_896"></a><a href="#Footnote_896_896" class="fnanchor">[896]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_897_897" id="FNanchor_897_897"></a><a href="#Footnote_897_897" class="fnanchor">[897]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[475]</a></span> +men by whom the Revolution was brought about.<a name="FNanchor_898_898" id="FNanchor_898_898"></a><a href="#Footnote_898_898" class="fnanchor">[898]</a> +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 <i>long</i> war.’<a name="FNanchor_899_899" id="FNanchor_899_899"></a><a href="#Footnote_899_899" class="fnanchor">[899]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[476]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_900_900" id="FNanchor_900_900"></a><a href="#Footnote_900_900" class="fnanchor">[900]</a> 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;<a name="FNanchor_901_901" id="FNanchor_901_901"></a><a href="#Footnote_901_901" class="fnanchor">[901]</a>—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.<a name="FNanchor_902_902" id="FNanchor_902_902"></a><a href="#Footnote_902_902" class="fnanchor">[902]</a> Less than two years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[477]</a></span> +before his death, there was settled upon him, at the +express desire of George III., two considerable pensions;<a name="FNanchor_903_903" id="FNanchor_903_903"></a><a href="#Footnote_903_903" class="fnanchor">[903]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_904_904" id="FNanchor_904_904"></a><a href="#Footnote_904_904" class="fnanchor">[904]</a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[478]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_905_905" id="FNanchor_905_905"></a><a href="#Footnote_905_905" class="fnanchor">[905]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_906_906" id="FNanchor_906_906"></a><a href="#Footnote_906_906" class="fnanchor">[906]</a></p> + +<p>On the part of the English government, no time was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[479]</a></span> +lost. Five years after the accession of George III., a +bill was brought into parliament to tax the Americans;<a name="FNanchor_907_907" id="FNanchor_907_907"></a><a href="#Footnote_907_907" class="fnanchor">[907]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_908_908" id="FNanchor_908_908"></a><a href="#Footnote_908_908" class="fnanchor">[908]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_909_909" id="FNanchor_909_909"></a><a href="#Footnote_909_909" class="fnanchor">[909]</a> As to George +III., his feelings on the subject were notorious;<a name="FNanchor_910_910" id="FNanchor_910_910"></a><a href="#Footnote_910_910" class="fnanchor">[910]</a> and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[480]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_911_911" id="FNanchor_911_911"></a><a href="#Footnote_911_911" class="fnanchor">[911]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[481]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_912_912" id="FNanchor_912_912"></a><a href="#Footnote_912_912" class="fnanchor">[912]</a> To this +may be added, that an immense trade was nearly annihilated; +every branch of commerce was thrown into +confusion;<a name="FNanchor_913_913" id="FNanchor_913_913"></a><a href="#Footnote_913_913" class="fnanchor">[913]</a> we were disgraced in the eyes of Europe;<a name="FNanchor_914_914" id="FNanchor_914_914"></a><a href="#Footnote_914_914" class="fnanchor">[914]</a> +we incurred an expense of 140,000,000<i>l.</i>;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[482]</a></span><a name="FNanchor_915_915" id="FNanchor_915_915"></a><a href="#Footnote_915_915" class="fnanchor">[915]</a> +and we lost by far the most valuable colonies any nation +has ever possessed.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_916_916" id="FNanchor_916_916"></a><a href="#Footnote_916_916" class="fnanchor">[916]</a></p> + +<p>Whether or not these fears were exaggerated, is a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[483]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[484]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_917_917" id="FNanchor_917_917"></a><a href="#Footnote_917_917" class="fnanchor">[917]</a> In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[485]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_918_918" id="FNanchor_918_918"></a><a href="#Footnote_918_918" class="fnanchor">[918]</a> A +few months later, the French, copying the example of +the English in the preceding century,<a name="FNanchor_919_919" id="FNanchor_919_919"></a><a href="#Footnote_919_919" class="fnanchor">[919]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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:<a name="FNanchor_920_920" id="FNanchor_920_920"></a><a href="#Footnote_920_920" class="fnanchor">[920]</a> thus wantonly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[486]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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;<a name="FNanchor_921_921" id="FNanchor_921_921"></a><a href="#Footnote_921_921" class="fnanchor">[921]</a> at present I confine myself to a short +summary of its leading effects on English society.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_922_922" id="FNanchor_922_922"></a><a href="#Footnote_922_922" class="fnanchor">[922]</a> As soon, therefore, as hostilities began the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[487]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_923_923" id="FNanchor_923_923"></a><a href="#Footnote_923_923" class="fnanchor">[923]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[488]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>As, however, juries in several cases refused to convict<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[489]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_924_924" id="FNanchor_924_924"></a><a href="#Footnote_924_924" class="fnanchor">[924]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_925_925" id="FNanchor_925_925"></a><a href="#Footnote_925_925" class="fnanchor">[925]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_926_926" id="FNanchor_926_926"></a><a href="#Footnote_926_926" class="fnanchor">[926]</a> +The power of dissolving a public meeting, and +of seizing its leaders, was thus conferred upon a +common magistrate, and conferred too without the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[490]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_927_927" id="FNanchor_927_927"></a><a href="#Footnote_927_927" class="fnanchor">[927]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_928_928" id="FNanchor_928_928"></a><a href="#Footnote_928_928" class="fnanchor">[928]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_929_929" id="FNanchor_929_929"></a><a href="#Footnote_929_929" class="fnanchor">[929]</a> 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<i>l.</i> 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<i>l.</i> The proprietor of so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[491]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_930_930" id="FNanchor_930_930"></a><a href="#Footnote_930_930" class="fnanchor">[930]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_931_931" id="FNanchor_931_931"></a><a href="#Footnote_931_931" class="fnanchor">[931]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[492]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_932_932" id="FNanchor_932_932"></a><a href="#Footnote_932_932" class="fnanchor">[932]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[493]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_933_933" id="FNanchor_933_933"></a><a href="#Footnote_933_933" class="fnanchor">[933]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_934_934" id="FNanchor_934_934"></a><a href="#Footnote_934_934" class="fnanchor">[934]</a> And as the +object of these new laws was, to check the spirit of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[494]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_935_935" id="FNanchor_935_935"></a><a href="#Footnote_935_935" class="fnanchor">[935]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_936_936" id="FNanchor_936_936"></a><a href="#Footnote_936_936" class="fnanchor">[936]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_937_937" id="FNanchor_937_937"></a><a href="#Footnote_937_937" class="fnanchor">[937]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_938_938" id="FNanchor_938_938"></a><a href="#Footnote_938_938" class="fnanchor">[938]</a> Not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[495]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_939_939" id="FNanchor_939_939"></a><a href="#Footnote_939_939" class="fnanchor">[939]</a> Indeed, +whoever opposed the government was proclaimed an +enemy to his country.<a name="FNanchor_940_940" id="FNanchor_940_940"></a><a href="#Footnote_940_940" class="fnanchor">[940]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_941_941" id="FNanchor_941_941"></a><a href="#Footnote_941_941" class="fnanchor">[941]</a> The coffee-houses, the inns, +and the clubs, were filled with emissaries of the government, +who reported the most hasty expressions of +common conversation.<a name="FNanchor_942_942" id="FNanchor_942_942"></a><a href="#Footnote_942_942" class="fnanchor">[942]</a> If, by these means, no sort<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[496]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_943_943" id="FNanchor_943_943"></a><a href="#Footnote_943_943" class="fnanchor">[943]</a></p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_944_944" id="FNanchor_944_944"></a><a href="#Footnote_944_944" class="fnanchor">[944]</a> +who were thus placed in a position of singular hardship<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[497]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[498]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_945_945" id="FNanchor_945_945"></a><a href="#Footnote_945_945" class="fnanchor">[945]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[499]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>These are broad and general truths, which will +hardly be questioned by any man who, with a competent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[500]</a></span> +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;<a name="FNanchor_946_946" id="FNanchor_946_946"></a><a href="#Footnote_946_946" class="fnanchor">[946]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_947_947" id="FNanchor_947_947"></a><a href="#Footnote_947_947" class="fnanchor">[947]</a> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[501]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_948_948" id="FNanchor_948_948"></a><a href="#Footnote_948_948" class="fnanchor">[948]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[502]</a></span> +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,<a name="FNanchor_949_949" id="FNanchor_949_949"></a><a href="#Footnote_949_949" class="fnanchor">[949]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[503]</a></span> +legislature; steps which are with reason regarded as +supplying precedents of mischievous import for the interests +of the Established Church.<a name="FNanchor_950_950" id="FNanchor_950_950"></a><a href="#Footnote_950_950" class="fnanchor">[950]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[504]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_951_951" id="FNanchor_951_951"></a><a href="#Footnote_951_951" class="fnanchor">[951]</a> His business is to follow the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[505]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<p class="noindent">Footnotes:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_544_544" id="Footnote_544_544"></a><a href="#FNanchor_544_544"><span class="label">[544]</span></a> 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 <i>Llorente</i>, <i>Hist. de l'Inquisition</i>, vol. i. p. 322, +vol. ii. p. 543, vol. iv. pp. 98, 99, 102, 148; <i>Doblado's Letters from +Spain</i>, pp. 115, 119, 120, 133, 231, 232; <i>Lord Holland's Foreign +Reminiscences</i>, edit. 1850, p. 76; <i>Southey's Hist. of Brazil</i>, vol. +iii. p. 607; and an imperfect statement of the same fact in <i>Alison's +Hist. of Europe</i>, vol. x. p. 8. In regard to the Spanish colonies, +compare <i>Humboldt</i>, <i>Nouv. Espagne</i>, vol. ii. p. 818, with <i>Ward's +Mexico</i>, vol. i. p. 83.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_545_545" id="Footnote_545_545"></a><a href="#FNanchor_545_545"><span class="label">[545]</span></a> 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. +<i>Observations upon the United Provinces</i>, in <i>Temple's Works</i>, 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.’ <i>Le Blanc</i>, <i>Lettres d'un Français</i>, vol. i. p. 73. I +merely give these as illustrations of an important principle, which I +shall hereafter prove.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_546_546" id="Footnote_546_546"></a><a href="#FNanchor_546_546"><span class="label">[546]</span></a> ‘In the first eleven years of her reign, not one Roman +Catholic was prosecuted capitally for religion.’ <i>Neal's Hist. of the +Puritans</i>, vol. i. p. 444; and the same remark in <i>Collier's Eccles. +Hist.</i> vol. vii. p. 252, edit. 1840.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_547_547" id="Footnote_547_547"></a><a href="#FNanchor_547_547"><span class="label">[547]</span></a> Without quoting the impudent defence which Chief-Justice +Popham made, in 1606, for the barbarous treatment of the Catholics +(<i>Campbell's Chief Justices</i>, 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.’ <i>Works of King James</i>, 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. ii. p. 713.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_548_548" id="Footnote_548_548"></a><a href="#FNanchor_548_548"><span class="label">[548]</span></a> This was the defence set up in 1583, in a work called <i>The +Execution of Justice in England</i>, and ascribed to Burleigh. See +<i>Hallam's Const. Hist.</i> vol. i. pp. 146, 147; and <i>Somers Tracts</i>, 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.’ +<i>Twiss's Life of Eldon</i>, vol. i. p. 435; see also pp. 483, 501, 577–580. +Compare <i>Alison's Hist.</i> vol. vi. pp. 379 seq., a summary of the debate +in 1805.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_549_549" id="Footnote_549_549"></a><a href="#FNanchor_549_549"><span class="label">[549]</span></a> Mr. Sewell seems to have this change in view in his +<i>Christian Politics</i>, 8vo, 1844, p. 277. Compare <i>Coleridge's note</i> in +<i>Southey's Life of Wesley</i>, 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.’ <i>Somers Tracts</i>, vol. xii. p. 534. See also <i>Butler's Mem. of the +Catholics</i>, vol. i. p. 389, and vol. ii. pp. 44–46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_550_550" id="Footnote_550_550"></a><a href="#FNanchor_550_550"><span class="label">[550]</span></a> The first four books, which are in every point of view the +most important, were published in 1594. <i>Walton's Life of Hooker</i>, in +<i>Wordsworth's Ecclesiast. Biog.</i> 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. +<i>Literature of Europe</i>, vol. ii. pp. 24, 25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_551_551" id="Footnote_551_551"></a><a href="#FNanchor_551_551"><span class="label">[551]</span></a> <i>Jewel's Apology</i> was written in 1561 or 1562. See +<i>Wordsworth's Eccles. Biog.</i> vol. iii. p. 313. This work, the Bible, and +<i>Fox's Martyrs</i>, were ordered, in the reign of Elizabeth, ‘to be fixed +in all parish churches, to be read by the people.’ <i>Aubrey's Letters</i>, +vol. ii. p. 42. The order, in regard to Jewel's <i>Defence</i>, was repeated +by James I. and Charles I. <i>Butler's Mem. of the Catholics</i>, vol. iv. p. +413.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_552_552" id="Footnote_552_552"></a><a href="#FNanchor_552_552"><span class="label">[552]</span></a> ‘Wherefore the natural measure whereby to judge our doings +is, the sentence of Reason determining and setting down what is good to +be done.’ <i>Eccl. Polity</i>, book i. sec. viii. in <i>Hooker's Works</i>, 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 <i>it sufficeth if +such actions be framed according to the law of reason</i>.’ Book ii. sec. +i. <i>Works</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_553_553" id="Footnote_553_553"></a><a href="#FNanchor_553_553"><span class="label">[553]</span></a> 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.</p> + +<p>‘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.</p> + +<p>‘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.</p> + +<p>‘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.’ <i>Apolog. Eccles. Anglic.</i> pp. 161, 162.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_554_554" id="Footnote_554_554"></a><a href="#FNanchor_554_554"><span class="label">[554]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Ecclesiastical Polity</i>, 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 <i>consonant with +equity and reason</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_555_555" id="Footnote_555_555"></a><a href="#FNanchor_555_555"><span class="label">[555]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Apolog. Eccles. Anglic.</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_556_556" id="Footnote_556_556"></a><a href="#FNanchor_556_556"><span class="label">[556]</span></a> This large view underlies the whole of the <i>Ecclesiastical +Polity</i>. 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; <i>but true only so far forth as those different ages +do agree</i> 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 (<i>Apologia</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_557_557" id="Footnote_557_557"></a><a href="#FNanchor_557_557"><span class="label">[557]</span></a> Archbishop Whately has made some very good remarks on +this. See his <i>Errors of Romanism traced to their Origin in Human +Nature</i>, pp. 237, 238.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_558_558" id="Footnote_558_558"></a><a href="#FNanchor_558_558"><span class="label">[558]</span></a> Their names were Legat and Wightman, and they suffered in +1611: see the contemporary account in <i>Somers Tracts</i>, vol. ii. pp. +400–408. Compare <i>Blackstone's Comment.</i> vol. iv. p. 49; <i>Harris's Lives +of the Stuarts</i>, vol. i. pp. 143, 144; and note in <i>Burton's Diary</i>, +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.’ <i>Const. Hist.</i> vol. i. pp. 611, 612.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_559_559" id="Footnote_559_559"></a><a href="#FNanchor_559_559"><span class="label">[559]</span></a> 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 <i>Campbell's Chancellors</i>, vol. ii. pp. +135, 176, 231.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_560_560" id="Footnote_560_560"></a><a href="#FNanchor_560_560"><span class="label">[560]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Arnold's Lectures on Modern History</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_561_561" id="Footnote_561_561"></a><a href="#FNanchor_561_561"><span class="label">[561]</span></a> On the connexion between the rise of the Baconian +philosophy and the change in the spirit of theologians, compare <i>Comte</i>, +<i>Philosophie Positive</i>, vol. v. p. 701, with <i>Whately on Dangers to +Christian Faith</i>, pp. 148, 149. It favoured, as Tennemann (<i>Gesch. der +Philos.</i> vol. x. p. 14) says, the ‘Belebung der selbstthätigen Kraft des +menschlichen Geistes;’ and hence the attack on the inductive philosophy +in <i>Newman's Development of Christian Doctrine</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_562_562" id="Footnote_562_562"></a><a href="#FNanchor_562_562"><span class="label">[562]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Birch's Life of Boyle</i>, in <i>Boyle's Works</i>, vol. i. pp. 20, +21. See also <i>Bates's Account of the late Troubles</i>, edit. 1685, part +ii. p. 219, on ‘that unbridled licentiousness of hereticks which grew +greater and greater daily.’ Compare to the same effect <i>Carlyle's +Cromwell</i>, vol. i. p. 289; <i>Hallam's Const. Hist.</i> vol. i. p. 608; and +<i>Carwithen's Hist. of the Church of England</i>, vol. ii. p. 203: +‘sectaries began to swarm.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_563_563" id="Footnote_563_563"></a><a href="#FNanchor_563_563"><span class="label">[563]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Butler's Reminiscences</i>, vol. i. p. +126. Compare a letter from Warburton, in <i>Nichols's Illustrations of the +Eighteenth Century</i>, vol. iv. p. 849.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_564_564" id="Footnote_564_564"></a><a href="#FNanchor_564_564"><span class="label">[564]</span></a> <i>Des Maizeaux</i>, <i>Life of Chillingworth</i>, p. 141.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_565_565" id="Footnote_565_565"></a><a href="#FNanchor_565_565"><span class="label">[565]</span></a> <i>Aubrey's Letters and Lives</i>, vol. ii. p. 285; <i>Des +Maizeaux</i>, <i>Life of Chillingworth</i>, pp. 2, 9. The correspondence between +Laud and Chillingworth is supposed to be lost. <i>Des Maizeaux</i>, p. 12. +Carwithen (<i>Hist. of the Church of England</i>, vol. ii. p. 214) says, +‘Laud was the godfather of Chillingworth.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_566_566" id="Footnote_566_566"></a><a href="#FNanchor_566_566"><span class="label">[566]</span></a> 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 <i>Walton's Life of Sanderson</i>, in <i>Wordsworth's +Eccles. Biog.</i> vol. iv. p. 429.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_567_567" id="Footnote_567_567"></a><a href="#FNanchor_567_567"><span class="label">[567]</span></a> A modern writer suggests, with exquisite simplicity, that +Chillingworth derived his liberal principles <i>from</i> Oxford: ‘the very +same college which nursed the high intellect and tolerant principles of +Chillingworth.’ <i>Bowles's Life of Bishop Ken</i>, vol. i. p. xxi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_568_568" id="Footnote_568_568"></a><a href="#FNanchor_568_568"><span class="label">[568]</span></a> Hooker's undue respect for the Councils of the Church is +noticed by Mr. Hallam, <i>Const. Hist.</i> vol. i. p. 213. Compare the +hesitating remarks in <i>Coleridge's Literary Remains</i>, vol. iii. pp. 35, +36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_569_569" id="Footnote_569_569"></a><a href="#FNanchor_569_569"><span class="label">[569]</span></a> Reading the Fathers he contemptuously calls travelling on +a ‘north-west discovery.’ <i>Chillingworth's Religion of Protestants</i>, 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.’ <i>Calamy's Life</i>, vol. i. p. 253.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_570_570" id="Footnote_570_570"></a><a href="#FNanchor_570_570"><span class="label">[570]</span></a> As to the supposed authority of Councils, see <i>Religion of +Protestants</i>, 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, <i>Palmer on the +Church</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_571_571" id="Footnote_571_571"></a><a href="#FNanchor_571_571"><span class="label">[571]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Relig. of +Protest.</i> p. 134.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_572_572" id="Footnote_572_572"></a><a href="#FNanchor_572_572"><span class="label">[572]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Relig. of +Protest.</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_573_573" id="Footnote_573_573"></a><a href="#FNanchor_573_573"><span class="label">[573]</span></a> On the connexion between the Reformation and the views +advocated in the <i>Ecclesiastical Polity</i>, compare <i>Newman's Development +of Christian Doctrine</i>, p. 47, with some able remarks by Locke, in +<i>King's Life of Locke</i>, 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.’ <i>Essay on Government</i>, in <i>Locke's +Works</i>, vol. iv. p. 380.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_574_574" id="Footnote_574_574"></a><a href="#FNanchor_574_574"><span class="label">[574]</span></a> The opposition between Jewel and Hooker was so marked, +that some of the opponents of Hooker quoted against him Jewel's Apology. +See <i>Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog.</i> 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 (<i>Parr's +Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 470, <i>Notes on the Spital Sermon</i>), who says, that +Hooker ‘opened that fountain of reason,’ &c.; language which will hardly +be considered too strong by those who have compared the <i>Ecclesiastical +Polity</i> with the theological works previously produced by the English +church.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_575_575" id="Footnote_575_575"></a><a href="#FNanchor_575_575"><span class="label">[575]</span></a> Des Maizeaux (<i>Life of Chillingworth</i>, 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 <i>Biographia +Britannica</i>, edit. Kippis, vol. iii. pp. 511, 512.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_576_576" id="Footnote_576_576"></a><a href="#FNanchor_576_576"><span class="label">[576]</span></a> Or, as Calamy cautiously puts it, Chillingworth's work +‘appeared to me to go a great way towards the justifying of moderate +conformity.’ <i>Calamy's Life</i>, vol. i. p. 234. Compare <i>Palmer on the +Church</i>, vol. i. pp. 267, 268; and what is probably an allusion to +Chillingworth in <i>Doddridge's Correspond. and Diary</i>, vol. ii. p. 81. +See also the opinion of Hobbes, in <i>Aubrey's Letters and Lives</i>, vol. +ii. pp. 288, 629.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_577_577" id="Footnote_577_577"></a><a href="#FNanchor_577_577"><span class="label">[577]</span></a> A short but able view of the aspect which the English mind +now began to assume, will be found in <i>Stäudlin</i>, <i>Geschichte der +theologischen Wissenschaften</i>, vol. ii. pp. 95 seq.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_578_578" id="Footnote_578_578"></a><a href="#FNanchor_578_578"><span class="label">[578]</span></a> In <i>Whately's Dangers to Christian Faith</i>, 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 <i>Coleridge's Lit. Remains</i>, vol. i. pp. 312–315; and in +another work (<i>The Friend</i>, 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 <i>Archdeacon Hare's +Guesses at Truth</i>, 2nd series, 1848, p. 278; and <i>Nichols's +Illustrations of Lit. Hist.</i> vol. v. p. 817: ‘a spirit of mutual +toleration and forbearance has appeared (at least one good consequence +of religious indifference).’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_579_579" id="Footnote_579_579"></a><a href="#FNanchor_579_579"><span class="label">[579]</span></a> It would be idle to offer proofs of so notorious a fact; +but the reader will be interested by some striking remarks in +<i>Capefigue</i>, <i>Hist. de la Réforme</i>, vol. i. pp. 228, 229.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_580_580" id="Footnote_580_580"></a><a href="#FNanchor_580_580"><span class="label">[580]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Laing's Denmark</i>, 1852, p. 82. On this natural tendency in +regard to legislation, see <i>Meyer</i>, <i>Esprit des Institut. Judiciaires</i>, +vol. i. p. 267 note; and a good summary in <i>Stäudlin</i>, <i>Gesch. der +theolog. Wissenschaften</i>, 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 <i>Ward's Ideal of a Christian Church</i>, pp. 40, +108–111, 388; <i>Sewell's Christian Politics</i>, pp. 276, 277, 279; +<i>Palmer's Treatise on the Church</i>, 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.’ <i>Mem. of Mackintosh</i>, vol. i. p. 67.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_581_581" id="Footnote_581_581"></a><a href="#FNanchor_581_581"><span class="label">[581]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Theodore Parker's Critical and Miscellaneous Writings</i>, +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 <i>Bridgewater Treatises</i>, and the new edition of +<i>Paley</i>,—we blush to confess it,—are the best things.’ Sir William +Hamilton (<i>Discussions on Philosophy</i>, 1852, p. 699) notices the decline +of ‘British theology,’ though he appears ignorant of the cause of it. +The Rev. Mr. Ward (<i>Ideal of a Christian Church</i>, p. 405) remarks, that +‘we cannot wonder, however keenly we may mourn, at the decline and fall +of dogmatic theology.’ See also <i>Lord Jeffrey's Essays</i>, 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.’ <i>Parr's Works</i>, vol. vii. p. 11.</p> + +<p>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. <i>Burnet's Own Time</i>, vol. i. pp. 329, 330; <i>Orme's Life of +Owen</i>, p. 184. After this they rapidly fell into contempt; and the Rev. +Mr. Dowling (<i>Study of Ecclesiast. History</i>, 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 +<i>Letter</i>, written in 1749, in <i>Nichols's Illustrations of Lit. Hist.</i> +vol. ii. p. 173; and for other evidence of the neglect by the clergy of +their ancient studies, see <i>Jones's Memoirs of Horne, Bishop of +Norwich</i>, pp. 68, 184; and the complaint of Dr. Knowler, in 1766, in +<i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> 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.’ <i>Newman on the +Develop. of Christ. Doct.</i> p. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_582_582" id="Footnote_582_582"></a><a href="#FNanchor_582_582"><span class="label">[582]</span></a> 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: <i>Whately's Dangers to Christian +Faith</i>, p. 87; <i>Kay's Social Condition of the People</i>, vol. ii. p. 506; +<i>Tocqueville</i>, <i>de la Démocratie</i>, vol. iii. p. 72; <i>J. H. Newman on +Development</i>, pp. 28, 29; <i>F. W. Newman's Natural History of the Soul</i>, +p. 197; <i>Parr's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 5, vol. iii. pp. 688, 689; <i>Felkin's +Moral Statistics</i>, in <i>Journal of Statist. Soc.</i> vol. i. p. 541; +<i>Watson's Observations on the Life of Wesley</i>, pp. 155, 194; <i>Matter</i>, +<i>Hist. du Gnosticisme</i>, vol. ii. p. 485; <i>Ward's Ideal of a Christian +Church</i>, pp. 266, 267, 404; <i>Turner's Hist. of England</i>, vol. ii. pp. +129, 142, vol. iii. p. 509; <i>Priestley's Memoirs</i>, vol. i. pp. 127, 128, +446, vol. ii. p. 751; <i>Cappe's Memoirs</i>, p. 367; <i>Nichols's Lit. Anec. +of Eighteenth Century</i>, vol. iv. p. 671, vol. viii. p. 473; <i>Nichols's +Illust. of Lit. Hist.</i> vol. v. p. 640; <i>Combe's Notes on the United +States</i>, vol. ii. pp. 171, 172, 183.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_583_583" id="Footnote_583_583"></a><a href="#FNanchor_583_583"><span class="label">[583]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_584_584" id="Footnote_584_584"></a><a href="#FNanchor_584_584"><span class="label">[584]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Grote's Hist. of Greece</i>, vol. viii. pp. +614, 615, 8vo, 1851. Compare <i>Kritik der reinen Vernunft</i>, in <i>Kant's +Werke</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_585_585" id="Footnote_585_585"></a><a href="#FNanchor_585_585"><span class="label">[585]</span></a> Dr. Arnold, whose keen eye noted this change, says +(<i>Lectures on Modern History</i>, 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 (<i>Hist. of Europe</i>, 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 <i>Carlyle's +Cromwell</i>, vol. iii. p. 103; and corroborative evidence in <i>Walker's +History of Independency</i>, 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.’ <i>Speech of James I.</i>, +in <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. i. p. 982. See also the observations ascribed to +De Foe, in <i>Somers Tracts</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_586_586" id="Footnote_586_586"></a><a href="#FNanchor_586_586"><span class="label">[586]</span></a> See <i>Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion</i>, p. 716. Sir W. +Temple, in his <i>Memoirs</i>, observes, that the throne of Charles II. was +strengthened by ‘what had passed in the last reign.’ <i>Temple's Works</i>, +vol. ii. p. 344. This may be illustrated by the remarks of M. Lamartine +on the execution of Louis XVI. <i>Hist. des Girondins</i>, 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 +cœur. 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_587_587" id="Footnote_587_587"></a><a href="#FNanchor_587_587"><span class="label">[587]</span></a> 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 <i>Parl. +Hist.</i> 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 <i>Orme's Life of Owen</i>, pp. +63–75, 102–111; <i>Somers Tracts</i>, vol. xii. p. 542; <i>Walker's Hist. of +Independency</i>, part ii. pp. 50, 157, part iii. p. 22; <i>Clarendon's Hist. +of the Rebellion</i>, pp. 610, 640. Some writers ascribe great merit to +Jeremy Taylor for his advocacy of toleration (<i>Heber's Life of Taylor</i>, +p. xxvii.; and <i>Parr's Works</i>, vol. iv. p. 417); but the truth is that +when he wrote the famous <i>Liberty of Prophesying</i>, 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 (<i>Lit. Remains</i>, vol. iii. p. 250), who, +though a great admirer of Taylor, expresses himself strongly on this +dereliction: see also a recently published <i>Letter to Percy, Bishop of +Dromore</i>, in <i>Nichols's Illustrations of Lit. History</i>, vol. vii. p. +464.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_588_588" id="Footnote_588_588"></a><a href="#FNanchor_588_588"><span class="label">[588]</span></a> However, Bishop Short (<i>History of the Church of England</i>, +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. <i>Note</i> in <i>Burton's Diary</i>, +vol. ii. p. 479. See also <i>Vaughan's Cromwell</i>, vol. i. p. xcvii.; and +on the generally tolerant spirit of this great man, see <i>Hallam's Const. +Hist.</i> vol. ii. p. 14; and the evidence in <i>Harris's Lives of the +Stuarts</i>, vol. iii. pp. 37–47. But the most distinct recognition of the +principle, is in a <i>Letter from Cromwell to Major-General Crawford</i>, +recently printed in <i>Carlyle's Cromwell</i>, 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 <i>Carwithen's Hist. of +the Church of Engl.</i> vol. ii. pp. 245, 249.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_589_589" id="Footnote_589_589"></a><a href="#FNanchor_589_589"><span class="label">[589]</span></a> 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 <i>Errors of Romanism +traced to their Origin in Human Nature</i>, p. 49. This should be compared +with <i>Hume's Philosophical Works</i>, 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 +<i>Additions to Mosheim's Ecclesiast. Hist.</i> vol. ii. p. 38.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_590_590" id="Footnote_590_590"></a><a href="#FNanchor_590_590"><span class="label">[590]</span></a> Compare <i>Barrington's Observations on the Statutes</i>, p. +143, with <i>Burton's Diary of the Parliaments of Cromwell</i>, 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 <i>Blackstone's Commentaries</i>, vol. +iv. p. 65.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_591_591" id="Footnote_591_591"></a><a href="#FNanchor_591_591"><span class="label">[591]</span></a> See <i>Life of Ken, by a Layman</i>, 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.’ <i>Short's Hist. of the Church of England</i>, p. 595. See +also, on the diminished influence of the Church-of-England clergy after +the Restoration, <i>Southey's Life of Wesley</i>, vol. i. pp. 278, 279; and +<i>Watson's Observations on the Life of Wesley</i>, pp. 129–131.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_592_592" id="Footnote_592_592"></a><a href="#FNanchor_592_592"><span class="label">[592]</span></a> Buckingham and Halifax, the two men who were perhaps best +acquainted with Charles II., both declared that he was a deist. Compare +<i>Lingard's Hist. of Engl.</i> vol. viii. p. 127, with <i>Harris's Lives of +the Stuarts</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_593_593" id="Footnote_593_593"></a><a href="#FNanchor_593_593"><span class="label">[593]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Campbell's Lives of the Chief Justices</i>, 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 <i>Hutchinson's Historical Essay concerning +Witchcraft</i>, 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.’ <i>Parr's Works</i>, 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 <i>Cudworth's Intellect. Syst.</i> vol. iii. pp. 345, +348; <i>Vernon Correspond.</i> vol. ii. pp. 302, 303; <i>Burt's Letters from +the North of Scotland</i>, vol. i. pp. 220, 221; <i>Wesley's Journals</i>, 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.’</p> + +<p>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 <i>Barrington on the Statutes</i>, +p. 407; <i>Note</i> in <i>Burton's Diary</i>, vol. i. p. 26; <i>Harris's Life of +Hardwicke</i>, vol. i. p. 307.</p> + +<p>To this it may be interesting to add, that in Spain a witch was burned +so late as 1781. <i>Ticknor's Hist. of Spanish Literature</i>, vol. iii. p. +238.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_594_594" id="Footnote_594_594"></a><a href="#FNanchor_594_594"><span class="label">[594]</span></a> The first edition was published in 1646. <i>Works of Sir +Thomas Browne</i>, vol. ii. p. 163.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_595_595" id="Footnote_595_595"></a><a href="#FNanchor_595_595"><span class="label">[595]</span></a> See the notes in Mr. Wilkin's edition of <i>Browne's Works</i>, +Lond. 1836, vol. ii. pp. 284, 360, 361.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_596_596" id="Footnote_596_596"></a><a href="#FNanchor_596_596"><span class="label">[596]</span></a> The precise date is unknown; but Mr. Wilkin supposes that +it was written ‘between the years 1633 and 1635.’ Preface to <i>Religio +Medici</i>, in <i>Browne's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_597_597" id="Footnote_597_597"></a><a href="#FNanchor_597_597"><span class="label">[597]</span></a> Ibid. vol. ii. p. 58.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_598_598" id="Footnote_598_598"></a><a href="#FNanchor_598_598"><span class="label">[598]</span></a> Ibid. vol. ii. p. 47.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_599_599" id="Footnote_599_599"></a><a href="#FNanchor_599_599"><span class="label">[599]</span></a> Or, as he calls it, ‘chiromancy.’ <i>Religio Medici</i>, in +<i>Browne's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 89.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_600_600" id="Footnote_600_600"></a><a href="#FNanchor_600_600"><span class="label">[600]</span></a> ‘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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_601_601" id="Footnote_601_601"></a><a href="#FNanchor_601_601"><span class="label">[601]</span></a> ‘From this I do compute or calculate my nativity.’ Ibid. +vol. ii. p. 64.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_602_602" id="Footnote_602_602"></a><a href="#FNanchor_602_602"><span class="label">[602]</span></a> <i>Religio Medici</i>, sec. ix. in <i>Browne's Works</i>, 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xi. p. 802. Compare the sarcastic +remark on this maxim in the <i>Essay concerning Human Understanding</i>, book +iv. chap. xviii. <i>Locke's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 271. It was the spirit +embodied in this sentence which supplied Celsus with some formidable +arguments against the Fathers. <i>Neander's Hist. of the Church</i>, vol. i. +pp. 227, 228.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_603_603" id="Footnote_603_603"></a><a href="#FNanchor_603_603"><span class="label">[603]</span></a> <i>Inquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors</i>, book iii. chap. +xxviii. in <i>Browne's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 534.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_604_604" id="Footnote_604_604"></a><a href="#FNanchor_604_604"><span class="label">[604]</span></a> Ibid. book i. chap. vii. vol. ii. p. 225.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_605_605" id="Footnote_605_605"></a><a href="#FNanchor_605_605"><span class="label">[605]</span></a> ‘A supinity, or neglect of inquiry.’ Ibid. book i. chap. +v. vol. ii. p. 211.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_606_606" id="Footnote_606_606"></a><a href="#FNanchor_606_606"><span class="label">[606]</span></a> ‘A third cause of common errors is the credulity of men.’ +Book i. chap. v. vol. ii. p. 208.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_607_607" id="Footnote_607_607"></a><a href="#FNanchor_607_607"><span class="label">[607]</span></a> See two amusing instances in vol. ii. pp. 267, 438.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_608_608" id="Footnote_608_608"></a><a href="#FNanchor_608_608"><span class="label">[608]</span></a> <i>Vulgar and Common Errors</i>, book vii. chap. xi., in +<i>Browne's Works</i>, vol. iii. p. 326.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_609_609" id="Footnote_609_609"></a><a href="#FNanchor_609_609"><span class="label">[609]</span></a> Monk (<i>Life of Bentley</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_610_610" id="Footnote_610_610"></a><a href="#FNanchor_610_610"><span class="label">[610]</span></a> Compare <i>Powell on Radiant Heat</i> (<i>Brit. Assoc.</i> vol. i. +p. 287), with <i>Lloyd's Report on Physical Optics</i>, 1834, p. 338. For the +remarks on colours, see <i>Boyle's Works</i>, vol. ii. pp. 1–40; and for the +account of his experiments, pp. 41–80; and a slight notice in +<i>Brewster's Life of Newton</i>, 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 <i>Boyle's Works</i>, vol. v. p. 533.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_611_611" id="Footnote_611_611"></a><a href="#FNanchor_611_611"><span class="label">[611]</span></a> Dr. Whewell (<i>Bridgewater Treatise</i>, 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, <i>Thomson's Hist. of the Royal +Society</i>, pp. 397, 398; and his <i>Hist. of Chemistry</i>, vol. i. p. 204.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_612_612" id="Footnote_612_612"></a><a href="#FNanchor_612_612"><span class="label">[612]</span></a> This was discovered by Boyle about 1650, and confirmed by +Mariotte in 1676. See <i>Whewell's Hist. of the Inductive Sciences</i>, vol. +ii. pp. 557, 588; <i>Thomson's Hist. of Chemistry</i>, vol. i. p. 215; +<i>Turner's Chemistry</i>, vol. i. pp. 41, 200; <i>Brande's Chemistry</i>, 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 <i>Challis on the Mathematical Theory of Fluids</i>, in <i>Sixth Report of +Brit. Assoc.</i> p. 226; and <i>Herschel's Nat. Philos.</i> 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, <i>Liebig's Letters on +Chemistry</i>, p. 126; <i>Monteil Divers Etats</i>, vol. viii. p. 122; <i>Kaemtz's +Meteorology</i>, p. 236; <i>Comte</i>, <i>Philos. Pos.</i> vol. i. pp. 583, 645, vol. +ii. pp. 484, 615; <i>Pouillet</i>, <i>Elémens de Physique</i>, vol. i. p. 339, +vol. ii. pp. 58, 183.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_613_613" id="Footnote_613_613"></a><a href="#FNanchor_613_613"><span class="label">[613]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Cuvier</i>, <i>Progrès des Sciences</i>, vol. +i. p. 30. The ‘aussi’ refers to Rey. See also <i>Cuvier</i>, <i>Hist. des +Sciences Naturelles</i>, 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.’ <i>Johnston on Dimorphous Bodies</i>, in +<i>Reports of Brit. Assoc.</i> vol. vi. p. 163. See further respecting Boyle, +<i>Robin et Verdeil</i>, <i>Chimie Anatomique</i>, Paris, 1853, vol. i. pp. 576, +577, 579, vol. ii. p. 24; and <i>Sprengel</i>, <i>Hist. de la Médecine</i>, vol. +iv. p. 177.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_614_614" id="Footnote_614_614"></a><a href="#FNanchor_614_614"><span class="label">[614]</span></a> 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 <i>Free Inquiry +into the vulgarly received Notion of Nature</i>, he says (<i>Boyle's Works</i>, +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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_615_615" id="Footnote_615_615"></a><a href="#FNanchor_615_615"><span class="label">[615]</span></a> In his <i>Considerations touching Experimental Essays</i>, he +says (<i>Boyle's Works</i>, 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 <i>perhaps</i>, <i>it seems</i>, <i>it is not +improbable</i>, 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 <i>Essay on Crystals</i>, which, considering the then +state of knowledge, is a remarkable production, is entitled ‘Doubts and +Experiments touching the curious Figures of Salts.’ <i>Works</i>, vol. ii. p. +488. It is, therefore, with good reason that M. Humboldt terms him ‘the +cautious and doubting Robert Boyle.’ <i>Humboldt's Cosmos</i>, vol. ii. p. +730.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_616_616" id="Footnote_616_616"></a><a href="#FNanchor_616_616"><span class="label">[616]</span></a> On the sincere Christianity of Boyle, compare <i>Burnet's +Lives and Characters</i>, edit. Jebb, 1833, pp. 351–360; <i>Life of Ken, by a +Layman</i>, vol. i. pp. 32, 33; <i>Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise</i>, 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 <i>Boyle's Works</i>, vol. v. pp. 38, 39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_617_617" id="Footnote_617_617"></a><a href="#FNanchor_617_617"><span class="label">[617]</span></a> <i>The Sceptical Chemist</i> is in <i>Boyle's Works</i>, vol. i. pp. +290–371. It went through two editions in the author's lifetime, an +unusual success for a book of that kind. <i>Boyle's Works</i>, vol. i. p. +375, vol. iv. p. 89, vol. v. p. 345. I find from a letter written in +1696 (<i>Fairfax Correspondence</i>, 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 <i>Sceptical Chemist</i>, 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.’ <i>Voyages de +Monconys</i>, 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 <i>Sprengel's Hist. +de la Médecine</i>, vol. v. pp. 78–9, there is a summary of the views +advocated in the <i>Sceptical Chemist</i>, respecting which Sprengel says, +‘Ce fut cependant aussi en Angleterre que s'élevèrent les premiers +doutes sur l'exactitude des explications chimiques.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_618_618" id="Footnote_618_618"></a><a href="#FNanchor_618_618"><span class="label">[618]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Thomson's Hist. of the Royal +Society</i>, 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 <i>Weld's Hist. of the Royal Society</i>, +1848, vol. ii. p. 88.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_619_619" id="Footnote_619_619"></a><a href="#FNanchor_619_619"><span class="label">[619]</span></a> Dr. Paris (<i>Life of Sir H. Davy</i>, 1831, vol. ii. p. 178) +says, ‘The charter of the Royal Society states, that it was established +for the improvement of <i>natural</i> science. This epithet <i>natural</i> 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 <i>natural</i> was therefore introduced in contradistinction to +<i>supernatural</i>.’ The charters granted by Charles II. are printed in +<i>Weld's History of the Royal Society</i>, vol. ii. pp. 481–521. Evelyn +(<i>Diary,</i> 13 <i>Aug.</i> 1662, vol. ii. p. 195) mentions, that the object of +the Royal Society was ‘natural knowledge.’ See also <i>Aubrey's Letters +and Lives</i>, vol. ii. p. 358; <i>Pulteney's Hist. of Botany</i>, vol. ii. pp. +97, 98; and on the distinction thus established in the popular mind +between natural and supernatural, compare <i>Boyle's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. +455, vol. iv. pp. 288, 359.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_620_620" id="Footnote_620_620"></a><a href="#FNanchor_620_620"><span class="label">[620]</span></a> The speculative view of this tendency has been recently +illustrated in the most comprehensive manner by M. Auguste Comte, in his +<i>Philosophie Positive</i>; 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.</p> + +<p>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. <i>Combe's Constitution of Man</i>, Edinb. 1847, +p. 156.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_621_621" id="Footnote_621_621"></a><a href="#FNanchor_621_621"><span class="label">[621]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Newman's Natural History of the Soul</i>, 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 <i>Bridgewater +Treatise</i>, 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 <i>Kritik der reinen Vernunft</i>, <i>Kant's +Werke</i>, vol. ii. pp. 478, 481, on ‘der physikotheologische Beweis.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_622_622" id="Footnote_622_622"></a><a href="#FNanchor_622_622"><span class="label">[622]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Maury</i>, <i>Légendes du Moyen Age</i>, p. 33. See to the same effect +<i>Mackay's Religious Development</i>, 1850, vol. i. pp. 5, 30, 31, and +elsewhere. See also a partial statement of the antithesis in +<i>Copleston's Inquiry into Necessity and Predestination</i>, p. 49; an +ingenious but overrated book.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_623_623" id="Footnote_623_623"></a><a href="#FNanchor_623_623"><span class="label">[623]</span></a> 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 <i>Heber's +Journey through India</i>, vol. i. p. 423; <i>Richardson's Travels in the +Sahara</i>, vol. i. p. 11; <i>Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia</i>, vol. ii. p. +347; <i>Davis's Chinese</i>, vol. iii. pp. 16, 17; <i>Travels of Ibn Batuta in +the Fourteenth Century</i>, p. 43; <i>Journal of Asiat. Soc.</i> vol. i. p. 9; +<i>Works of Sir Thomas Browne</i>, vol. i. p. 130; <i>Alison's Hist. of +Europe</i>, vol. iv. p. 566; <i>Burnes's Travels into Bokhara</i>, vol. iii. p. +53; <i>Leigh Hunt's Autobiography</i>, 1850, vol. ii. p. 255; <i>Cumberland's +Memoirs</i>, 1807, vol. i. pp. 422–425; <i>Walsh's Brazil</i>, vol. i. pp. 96, +97; <i>Richardson's Arctic Expedition</i>, vol. i. p. 93; <i>Holcroft's +Memoirs</i>, vol. i. p. 207, vol. iii. p. 197.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_624_624" id="Footnote_624_624"></a><a href="#FNanchor_624_624"><span class="label">[624]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Grote's Hist. of Greece</i>, +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 +<i>Kemble's Saxons in England</i>, 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.’ <i>Erman's Travels in Siberia</i>, vol. ii. +p. 186.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_625_625" id="Footnote_625_625"></a><a href="#FNanchor_625_625"><span class="label">[625]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Sprengel</i>, <i>Hist. de la Médecine</i>, 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 <i>Evelyn's Diary</i>, +vol. ii. p. 52, vol. iii. p. 372; <i>Carlyle's Cromwell</i>, vol. ii. p. 366; +<i>Lettres de Patin</i>, vol. iii. p. 36. Compare <i>Voyages de Monconys</i>, vol. +v. p. 104, with <i>Hare's Guesses at Truth</i>, 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 <i>Symes's Embassy to Ava</i>, vol. ii. p. 296; <i>Raffles' Hist. +of Java</i>, vol. i. p. 530; <i>Southey's Hist. of Brazil</i>, vol. i. p. 354, +vol. ii. p. 371; <i>Marsden's Hist. of Sumatra</i>, p. 159; <i>Niebuhr</i>, +<i>Description de l'Arabie</i>, p. 105; <i>Moffat's Southern Africa</i>, p. 337; +<i>Mungo Park's Travels</i>, vol. i. p. 414; <i>Moorcroft's Travels in the +Himalayan Provinces</i>, vol. ii. p. 4; <i>Crawfurd's Hist. of the Indian +Archipelago</i>, vol. i. p. 305; <i>Ellis's Polynesian Researches</i>, vol. i. +p. 331; <i>Mackay's Religious Development</i>, vol. i. p. 425; <i>Works of Sir +W. Jones</i>, vol. iii. p. 176, vol. vi. p. 16; <i>Wilson's Note</i> in the +<i>Vishnu Purana</i>, p. 140; <i>Wilson's Theatre of the Hindus</i>, vol. i. part +ii. p. 90; <i>Montucla</i>, <i>Hist. des Mathématiques</i>, vol. i. p. 444; +<i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. xii. p. 484; <i>Ward's View of the Hindoos</i>, +vol. i. p. 101; <i>Prescott's Hist. of Peru</i>, vol. i. p. 123; <i>Kohl's +Russia</i>, p. 374; <i>Thirlwall's Hist. of Greece</i>, vol. iii. p. 440, vol. +vi. p. 216; <i>Murray's Life of Bruce</i>, p. 103; <i>Turner's Embassy to +Tibet</i>, p. 289; <i>Grote's Hist. of Greece</i>, vol. vii. p. 432, vol. xii. +pp. 205, 557; <i>Journal Asiatique</i>, I<sup>e</sup> série, vol. iii. p. 202, Paris, +1823; <i>Clot-Bey</i>, <i>de la Peste</i>, Paris, 1840, p. 224.</p> + +<p>In regard to the feelings inspired by comets, and the influence of Bayle +in removing those superstitions late in the seventeenth century, compare +<i>Tennemann</i>, <i>Gesch. der Philosoph.</i>, vol. xi. p. 252; <i>Le Vassor</i>, +<i>Hist. de Louis XIII</i>, vol. iii. p. 415; <i>Lettres de Sevigné</i>, vol. iv. +p. 336; <i>Autobiography of Sir S. D'Ewes</i>, edit. Halliwell, vol. i. pp. +122, 123, 136.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_626_626" id="Footnote_626_626"></a><a href="#FNanchor_626_626"><span class="label">[626]</span></a> On the peculiar complications which have retarded +meteorology, and thus prevented us from accurately predicting the +weather, compare <i>Forbes on Meteorology</i>, in <i>Second Report of British +Association</i>, pp. 249–251; <i>Cuvier</i>, <i>Progrès des Sciences</i>, vol. i. pp. +69, 248; <i>Kaemtz's Meteorology</i>, pp. 2–4; <i>Prout's Bridgewater +Treatise</i>, pp. 290–295; <i>Somerville's Physical Geog.</i> 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.’ +<i>Leslie's Natural Philosophy</i>, p. 405: see also p. 185, and the remarks +of Mr. Snow Harris (<i>Brit. Assoc. for 1844</i>, p. 241), and of Mr. +Hamilton (<i>Journal of Geog. Soc.</i> vol. xix. p. xci.) Thus, too, Dr. +Whewell (<i>Bridgewater Treatise</i>, p. 3) says, that ‘the changes of winds +and skies are produced by causes, of whose rules “no philosophical mind” +will doubt the fixity.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_627_627" id="Footnote_627_627"></a><a href="#FNanchor_627_627"><span class="label">[627]</span></a> 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 <i>Mariner's Tonga Islands</i>, vol. ii. pp. 7, 108; +<i>Tuckey's Expedit. to the Zaire</i>, pp. 214, 215; <i>Ellis's Hist. of +Madagascar</i>, vol. ii. p. 354; <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. vi. pp. 193, +194, 297, vol. xvi. pp. 223, 342; <i>Southey's Hist. of Brazil</i>, vol. iii. +p. 187; <i>Davis's Chinese</i>, vol. ii. p. 154; <i>Beausobre</i>, <i>Hist. de +Manichée</i>, vol. ii. p. 394; <i>Cudworth's Intellect. Syst.</i> vol. ii. p. +539. The Hindus refer rain to supernatural causes in the <i>Rig Veda</i>, +which is the oldest of their religious books; and they have held similar +notions ever since. <i>Rig Veda Sanhita</i>, 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; <i>Journal of Asiatic +Soc.</i> vol. iii. p. 91; <i>Coleman's Mythol. of the Hindus</i>, p. 111; +<i>Ward's View of the Hindoos</i>, vol. i. p. 38. See further two curious +passages in the <i>Dabistan</i>, vol. i. p. 115, vol. ii. p. 337; and on the +‘Rain-makers,’ compare <i>Catlin's North-American Indians</i>, vol. i. pp. +134–140, with <i>Buchanan's North-American Indians</i>, pp. 258, 260: also a +precisely similar class in Africa (<i>Moffat's Southern Africa</i>, pp. +305–325), and in Arabia (<i>Niebuhr</i>, <i>Desc. de l'Arabie</i>, pp. 237, 238).</p> + +<p>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 (<i>Neander's Hist. of the Church</i>, vol. vi. +pp. 118, 139); that similar views passed on to the sixteenth century, +and were sanctioned by Luther (<i>Maury</i>, <i>Légendes +Pieuses</i>, 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.’ <i>Swinburne's Travels through +Spain in 1775 and 1776</i>, vol. i. p. 177, 2nd edit. London, 1787.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_628_628" id="Footnote_628_628"></a><a href="#FNanchor_628_628"><span class="label">[628]</span></a> 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 +<i>Ward's Ideal of a Christian Church</i>, p. 278. What Coleridge has said, +is worth attending to: see <i>The Friend</i>, vol. iii. pp. 222, 223.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_629_629" id="Footnote_629_629"></a><a href="#FNanchor_629_629"><span class="label">[629]</span></a> 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. <i>Kohl's Russia</i>, p. 365. And Sir R. Murchison, who +has enjoyed extensive means of observation, familiarly mentions the +‘credulous farmers.’ <i>Murchison's Siluria</i>, p. 61. In Asia, exactly the +same tendency has been noticed: see <i>Marsden's Hist. of Sumatra</i>, p. 63. +Some curious evidence of agricultural superstitions respecting the +weather may be seen in <i>Monteil</i>, <i>Hist. des divers Etats</i>, vol. iii. +pp. 31, 39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_630_630" id="Footnote_630_630"></a><a href="#FNanchor_630_630"><span class="label">[630]</span></a> 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 <i>Statistics of Agriculture</i>, <i>Journal of +the Statist. Soc.</i> vol. ii. pp. 295, 296.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_631_631" id="Footnote_631_631"></a><a href="#FNanchor_631_631"><span class="label">[631]</span></a> 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 (<i>Hist. of England</i>, 1st edit. vol. i. +pp. 408–412), I may refer the reader to <i>Monconys' Voyages</i>, vol. iii. +p. 31; <i>Sorbiere's Voyage to England</i>, pp. 32, 33; <i>Evelyn's +Diary</i>, vol. ii. pp. 199, 286; <i>Pepys' Diary</i>, vol. i. p. 375, vol. ii. +p. 34, vol. iii. p. 85, vol. iv. p. 229; <i>Burnet's Own Time</i>, vol. i. +pp. 171, 322, vol. ii. p. 275; <i>Burnet's Lives</i>, p. 144; <i>Campbell's +Chief-Justices</i>, vol. i. p. 582.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_632_632" id="Footnote_632_632"></a><a href="#FNanchor_632_632"><span class="label">[632]</span></a> His treatment of his young wife immediately after marriage +is perhaps the worst thing recorded of this base and contemptible +prince. <i>Lister's Life of Clarendon</i>, vol. ii. pp. 145–153. This is +matter of proof; but Burnet (<i>Own Time</i>, 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. <i>Harris's Lives of the Stuarts</i>, 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.’ +<i>Notes on James II.</i> in <i>Parr's Works</i>, vol. iv. p. 477. Compare <i>Fox's +History of James II.</i> p. 71.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_633_633" id="Footnote_633_633"></a><a href="#FNanchor_633_633"><span class="label">[633]</span></a> Even Clarendon has been charged with receiving bribes from +Louis XIV.; but for this there appears to be no good authority. Compare +<i>Hallam's Const. Hist.</i> vol. ii. pp. 66, 67 note, with <i>Campbell's +Chancellors</i>, vol. iii, p. 213.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_634_634" id="Footnote_634_634"></a><a href="#FNanchor_634_634"><span class="label">[634]</span></a> <i>Lister's Life of Clarendon</i>, vol. ii. p. 377; <i>Harris's +Lives of the Stuarts</i>, vol. iv. pp. 340–344.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_635_635" id="Footnote_635_635"></a><a href="#FNanchor_635_635"><span class="label">[635]</span></a> 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 <i>Burnet's Own Time</i>, vol. i. p. 290, with <i>Pepys' +Diary</i>, vol. ii. p. 413, vol. iii. pp. 68, 72.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_636_636" id="Footnote_636_636"></a><a href="#FNanchor_636_636"><span class="label">[636]</span></a> <i>Harris's Lives of the Stuarts</i>, 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 <i>Campbell's +Chief-Justices</i>, vol. ii. p. 59. Roger North says (<i>Lives of the +Norths</i>, vol. ii. p. 67), ‘Nothing was accounted at court so meritorious +as the procuring of charters, as the language then was.’ Compare +<i>Bulstrode's Memoirs</i>, pp. 379, 388.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_637_637" id="Footnote_637_637"></a><a href="#FNanchor_637_637"><span class="label">[637]</span></a> The panic caused by this scandalous robbery is described +by De Foe; <i>Wilson's Life of De Foe</i>, vol. i. p. 52. See also <i>Calamy's +Life of Himself</i>, vol. i. p. 78; <i>Parker's Hist. of his Own Time</i>, pp. +141–143. The amount stolen by the king is estimated at 1,328,526<i>l.</i> +<i>Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue</i>, vol. i. p. 315. According to Lord +Campbell, ‘nearly a million and a half.’ <i>Lives of the Chancellors</i>, +vol. iv. p. 113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_638_638" id="Footnote_638_638"></a><a href="#FNanchor_638_638"><span class="label">[638]</span></a> There is a very curious account in <i>Pepys' Diary</i>, 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 (<i>Diary</i>, +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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_639_639" id="Footnote_639_639"></a><a href="#FNanchor_639_639"><span class="label">[639]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Dalrymple's +Memoirs</i>, 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.’ <i>Lives of the Norths</i>, vol. ii. p. 82. These are the +sort of men by whom great nations are governed. A passage in <i>Life of +James, by Himself</i>, 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 <i>Fox's James II.</i> p. cxxiv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_640_640" id="Footnote_640_640"></a><a href="#FNanchor_640_640"><span class="label">[640]</span></a> <i>Blackstone's Commentaries</i>, vol. iv. p. 48; <i>Campbell's +Chancellors</i>, vol. iii. p. 431. This destruction of the writ <i>De +Hæretico comburendo</i> was in 1677. It is noticed in <i>Palmer's Treatise on +the Church</i>, vol. i. p. 500; and in <i>Collier's Ecclesiast. Hist.</i> vol. +viii. p. 478.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_641_641" id="Footnote_641_641"></a><a href="#FNanchor_641_641"><span class="label">[641]</span></a> This was in 1664. See the account of it in <i>Collier's +Ecclesiast. Hist.</i> 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, <i>Lathbury's Hist. of Convocation</i>, pp. +259, 260. And Coleridge (<i>Literary Remains</i>, 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 +<i>Burnet's Own Time</i>, vol. i. p. 340, vol. iv. pp. 508, 509. Compare Lord +Camden's statement (<i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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 (<i>Hist. of the Church of England</i>, +vol. ii. p. 354, Oxford, 1849) grieves over ‘this deprivation of the +liberties of the English clergy.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_642_642" id="Footnote_642_642"></a><a href="#FNanchor_642_642"><span class="label">[642]</span></a> 13 Car. II. c. 12. Compare <i>Stephens's Life of Tooke</i>, +vol. i. pp. 169, 170, with <i>Blackstone's Commentaries</i>, vol. iii. p. +101. Mr. Hallam (<i>Const. Hist.</i> vol. i. pp. 197, 198) has adduced +evidence of the way in which the clergy were accustomed to injure their +opponents by the <i>ex-officio</i> oath.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_643_643" id="Footnote_643_643"></a><a href="#FNanchor_643_643"><span class="label">[643]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Const. Hist.</i> vol. ii. p. 184. There is an account of this case +of Skinner, which was connected with the East-India Company, in <i>Mill's +Hist. of India</i>, vol. i. pp. 102, 103.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_644_644" id="Footnote_644_644"></a><a href="#FNanchor_644_644"><span class="label">[644]</span></a> <i>Hallam's Const. Hist.</i> vol. ii. pp. 189–192; and +<i>Eccleston's English Antiquities</i>, p. 326. The disputes between the two +houses respecting taxation, are noticed very briefly in <i>Parker's Hist. +of his Own Time</i>, pp. 135, 136.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_645_645" id="Footnote_645_645"></a><a href="#FNanchor_645_645"><span class="label">[645]</span></a> The ‘famous rights of purveyance and preemption’ were +abolished by 12 Car. II. c. 24. <i>Hallam's Const. Hist.</i> vol. ii. p. 11. +Burke, in his magnificent speech on Economical Reform, describes the +abuses of the old system of purveyance. <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. i. p. 239. +See also <i>Kemble's Saxons in England</i>, vol. ii. p. 88, note; <i>Barrington +on the Statutes</i>, pp. 183–185, 237; <i>Lingard's Hist. of England</i>, vol. +ii. pp. 338, 339; <i>Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue</i>, vol. i. p. 232; +<i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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 <i>Allen on the Royal +Prerogative</i>, p. 152. Indeed, a recent writer of considerable learning +(<i>Spence</i>, <i>Origin of the Laws of Europe</i>, p. 319) derives it from the +Roman law. A bill had been brought in to take it away in 1656. See +<i>Burton's Cromwellian Diary</i>, vol. i. p. 81. When Adam Smith wrote, it +still existed in France and Germany. <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, book iii. +chap. ii. p. 161.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_646_646" id="Footnote_646_646"></a><a href="#FNanchor_646_646"><span class="label">[646]</span></a> On the Habeas Corpus Act, which became law in 1679, see +<i>Campbell's Chancellors</i>, vol. iii. pp. 345–347; <i>Mackintosh</i>, +<i>Revolution of 1688</i>, p. 49; and <i>Lingard's Hist. of England</i>, vol. +viii. p. 17. The peculiarities of this law, as compared with the +imitations of it in other countries, are clearly stated in <i>Meyer</i>, +<i>Esprit des Institutions Judiciaires</i>, vol. ii. p. 283. Mr. Lister +(<i>Life of Clarendon</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_647_647" id="Footnote_647_647"></a><a href="#FNanchor_647_647"><span class="label">[647]</span></a> Blackstone (<i>Commentaries</i>, vol. iv. p. 439) calls this +‘a great and necessary security to private property;’ and Lord Campbell +(<i>Chancellors</i>, 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 <i>Commentary on Isæus</i> (<i>Works +of Sir W. Jones</i>, vol. iv. p. 239) with <i>Story's Conflict of Laws</i>, pp. +521, 522, 627, 884; and <i>Tayler on Statute Law</i>, in <i>Journal of +Statistical Society</i>, vol. xvii. p. 150.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_648_648" id="Footnote_648_648"></a><a href="#FNanchor_648_648"><span class="label">[648]</span></a> Lord Campbell (<i>Lives of the Chancellors</i>, vol. iii. p. +247) says, that the struggle in 1667 ‘put an end to general +impeachments.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_649_649" id="Footnote_649_649"></a><a href="#FNanchor_649_649"><span class="label">[649]</span></a> 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 <i>Blackstone's Comment.</i> vol. iv. p. 152, +with <i>Hunt's Hist. of Newspapers</i>, vol. i. p. 154, and <i>Fox's Hist. of +James II.</i> p. 146.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_650_650" id="Footnote_650_650"></a><a href="#FNanchor_650_650"><span class="label">[650]</span></a> 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 <i>Harris's Lives of the Stuarts</i>, 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 <i>Dalrymple's Hist. of Feudal +Property</i>, p. 89; <i>Blackstone's Comment.</i> vol. ii. pp. 76, 77; <i>Hallam's +Const. Hist.</i> vol. ii. p. 11; <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. iv. pp. 53, 167, 168; +<i>Meyer</i>, <i>Institutions Judiciaires</i>, vol. ii. p. 58.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_651_651" id="Footnote_651_651"></a><a href="#FNanchor_651_651"><span class="label">[651]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Hallam's Const. Hist.</i> vol. ii. p. 50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_652_652" id="Footnote_652_652"></a><a href="#FNanchor_652_652"><span class="label">[652]</span></a> Burnet (<i>Own Time</i>, 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 <i>Pepys' Diary</i>, 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.’ <i>Pepys</i>, 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. <i>Reresby's Travels and +Memoirs</i>, p. 238.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_653_653" id="Footnote_653_653"></a><a href="#FNanchor_653_653"><span class="label">[653]</span></a> On the animosity of the clergy against Hobbes, and on the +extent to which he reciprocated it, compare <i>Aubrey's Letters and +Lives</i>, vol. ii. pp. 532, 631; <i>Tennemann</i>, <i>Gesch. der Philos.</i> vol. x. +p. 111; with the angry language of Burnet (<i>Own Time</i>, vol. i. p. 322), +and of Whiston (<i>Memoirs</i>, p. 251). See also <i>Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses</i>, +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.’ <i>Monconys' Voyages</i>, 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.’ <i>Sorbiere's Voyage to +England</i>, p. 40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_654_654" id="Footnote_654_654"></a><a href="#FNanchor_654_654"><span class="label">[654]</span></a> 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 <i>Baxter's Life of Himself</i>, +folio, 1696, part iii. p. 48; <i>Boyle's Works</i>, vol. v. pp. 505, 510; +<i>Monk's Life of Bentley</i>, vol. i. p. 41; <i>Vernon Correspond.</i> vol. iii. +p. 13; <i>King's Life of Locke</i>, vol. i. p. 191; <i>Brewster's Life of +Newton</i>, vol. ii. p. 149.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_655_655" id="Footnote_655_655"></a><a href="#FNanchor_655_655"><span class="label">[655]</span></a> Burnet says, they ‘made deep and lasting impressions on +the king's mind.’ <i>Own Time</i>, vol. i. p. 172.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_656_656" id="Footnote_656_656"></a><a href="#FNanchor_656_656"><span class="label">[656]</span></a> A likeness, by Cooper. See <i>Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses</i>, +edit. Bliss, vol. iii. p. 1208.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_657_657" id="Footnote_657_657"></a><a href="#FNanchor_657_657"><span class="label">[657]</span></a> <i>Sorbiere's Voyage to England</i>, p. 39; <i>Wood's Athenæ +Oxonienses</i>, vol. iii. p. 1208. On the popularity of the works of Hobbes +in the reign of Charles II. compare <i>Pepys' Diary</i>, vol. iv. p. 164, +with <i>Lives of the Norths</i>, vol. iii. p. 339.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_658_658" id="Footnote_658_658"></a><a href="#FNanchor_658_658"><span class="label">[658]</span></a> Bishop Burnet says of him, at his appointment: ‘As he was +never a great divine, so he was now superannuated.’ <i>Own Time</i>, vol. i. +p. 303.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_659_659" id="Footnote_659_659"></a><a href="#FNanchor_659_659"><span class="label">[659]</span></a> Of which his own friend, Bishop Parker, gives a specimen. +See <i>Parker's History of his own Time</i>, pp. 31–33. Compare <i>Neal's Hist. +of the Puritans</i>, vol. iv. p. 429; <i>Wilson's Mem. of De Foe</i>, vol. i. p. +46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_660_660" id="Footnote_660_660"></a><a href="#FNanchor_660_660"><span class="label">[660]</span></a> 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 <i>Pepys' Diary</i>, vol. iv. pp. 321, 322; or +in <i>Wilson's De Foe</i>, vol. i. pp. 44, 45.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_661_661" id="Footnote_661_661"></a><a href="#FNanchor_661_661"><span class="label">[661]</span></a> Burnet, who knew Sancroft, calls him ‘a poor-spirited and +fearful man’ (<i>Own Time</i>, 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 <i>D'Oyly's Sancroft</i>, pp. 339–420. Dr. Lake +says that everybody was amazed when it was known that Sancroft was to be +archbishop. <i>Lake's Diary</i>, 30th Dec. 1677, p. 18, in vol. i. of the +<i>Camden Miscellany</i>, 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.’ <i>Birch's Life of +Tillotson</i>, p. 151. See also respecting him, <i>Macaulay's Hist. of +England</i>, vol. ii. p. 616, vol. iii. p. 77, vol. iv. pp. 40–42.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_662_662" id="Footnote_662_662"></a><a href="#FNanchor_662_662"><span class="label">[662]</span></a> Frewen was so obscure a man, that there is no life of him +either in <i>Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary</i>, or in Rose's more recent, +but inferior work. The little that is known of Stearn, or Sterne, is +unfavourable. Compare <i>Burnet</i>, vol. ii. p. 427, with <i>Baxter's Life of +Himself</i>, 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 <i>Jones's Memoirs of Bishop Horne</i>, p. 66.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_663_663" id="Footnote_663_663"></a><a href="#FNanchor_663_663"><span class="label">[663]</span></a> His wife was Joanna Bridges, a bastard of Charles I. +Compare <i>Notes and Queries</i>, vol. vii. p. 305, with <i>Heber's Life of +Jeremy Taylor</i>, in <i>Taylor's Works</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_664_664" id="Footnote_664_664"></a><a href="#FNanchor_664_664"><span class="label">[664]</span></a> Coleridge (<i>Lit. Remains</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_665_665" id="Footnote_665_665"></a><a href="#FNanchor_665_665"><span class="label">[665]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Wordsworth's Ecclesiast. Biog.</i> +vol. iv. p. 344. See also, respecting Barrow, <i>Montucla</i>, <i>Hist. des +Mathémat.</i> vol. ii. pp. 88, 89, 359, 360, 504, 505, vol. iii. pp. +436–438.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_666_666" id="Footnote_666_666"></a><a href="#FNanchor_666_666"><span class="label">[666]</span></a> ‘His father having suffered greatly in his estate by his +attachment to the royal cause.’ <i>Chalmers's Biog. Dict.</i> vol. iv. p. 39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_667_667" id="Footnote_667_667"></a><a href="#FNanchor_667_667"><span class="label">[667]</span></a> Barrow, displeased at not receiving preferment after the +Restoration, wrote the lines:</p> + +<div class="poem-container"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Te magis optavit rediturum Carole nemo;</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Et sensit nemo te rediisse minus.’</span><br /> +</div></div></div> + +<p><i>Hamilton's Life of Barrow</i>, in <i>Barrow's Works</i>, Edinb. 1845, vol. i. +p. xxiii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_668_668" id="Footnote_668_668"></a><a href="#FNanchor_668_668"><span class="label">[668]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_669_669" id="Footnote_669_669"></a><a href="#FNanchor_669_669"><span class="label">[669]</span></a> <i>Hallam's Const. Hist.</i> 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 +(<i>Christian Politics</i>, 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, <i>Wordsworth's Ecclesiast. Biog.</i> vol. iv. p. 668; <i>Life of +Ken, by a Layman</i>, vol. ii. p. 523; <i>Lathbury's Hist. of Convocation</i>, +p. 228; <i>Lathbury's Nonjurors</i>, pp. 50, 135, 197; and a letter from +Nelson, author of the <i>Fasts and Festivals</i>, in <i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> +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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxix. p. 1377.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_670_670" id="Footnote_670_670"></a><a href="#FNanchor_670_670"><span class="label">[670]</span></a> 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 <i>Clarendon Corresp.</i> vol. ii. pp. 465, +466. See also the motives of the bishops, candidly but broadly stated, +in Mr. Wilson's valuable work, <i>Life of De Foe</i>, vol. i. p. 74.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_671_671" id="Footnote_671_671"></a><a href="#FNanchor_671_671"><span class="label">[671]</span></a> 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 <i>Somers Tracts</i>, vol. viii. pp. +258, 259.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_672_672" id="Footnote_672_672"></a><a href="#FNanchor_672_672"><span class="label">[672]</span></a> <i>Wordsworth's Ecclesiast. Biog.</i> vol. iv. p. 665. On +their eagerness against the bill, see <i>Harris's Lives of the Stuarts</i>, +vol. v. p. 181; <i>Burnet's Own Time</i>, vol. ii. p. 246; <i>Somers Tracts</i>, +vol. x. pp. 216, 253; <i>Campbell's Chancellors</i>, vol. iii. p. 353; +<i>Carwithen's Hist. of the Church of England</i>, vol. ii. p. 431.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_673_673" id="Footnote_673_673"></a><a href="#FNanchor_673_673"><span class="label">[673]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Neal's +Hist. of the Puritans</i>, vol. v. p. 2. See also <i>Calamy's Life</i>, vol. i. +p. 118.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_674_674" id="Footnote_674_674"></a><a href="#FNanchor_674_674"><span class="label">[674]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Macaulay's Hist. of England</i>, +vol. ii. p. 211; and see <i>Life of James II.</i>, edited by Clarke, vol. ii, +p. 112. There is a summary of the Declaration in <i>Neal's Hist. of the +Puritans</i>, vol. v. pp. 30, 31. As to the second Declaration, see +<i>Macaulay</i>, vol. ii. pp. 344, 345; <i>Clarendon Correspond.</i> vol. ii. p. +170.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_675_675" id="Footnote_675_675"></a><a href="#FNanchor_675_675"><span class="label">[675]</span></a> It was in the autumn of 1685, that the clergy and the +government persecuted the dissenters with the greatest virulence. See +<i>Macaulay's Hist.</i> vol. i. pp. 667, 668. Compare <i>Neal's Hist. of the +Puritans</i>, vol. v. pp. 4–12, with a letter from Lord Clarendon, dated +21st December 1685, in <i>Clarendon Correspond.</i> vol. i. p. 192. It is +said (<i>Burnet's Own Time</i>, 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 +<i>Mackintosh's Revolution of 1688</i>, pp. 173, 640.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_676_676" id="Footnote_676_676"></a><a href="#FNanchor_676_676"><span class="label">[676]</span></a> 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. <i>Mackintosh's Revolution</i>, 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. +<i>Life of James II.</i>, edited by Clarke, vol. ii. pp. 52, 57.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_677_677" id="Footnote_677_677"></a><a href="#FNanchor_677_677"><span class="label">[677]</span></a> Compare <i>Burnet</i>, vol. iii. pp. 55–62, with <i>Dalrymple's +Memoirs</i>, 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. <i>Life of Ken, by a Layman</i>, vol. +i. p. 298.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_678_678" id="Footnote_678_678"></a><a href="#FNanchor_678_678"><span class="label">[678]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Wilson's Life of De Foe</i>, 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.’ <i>Fox's Hist. of James II.</i>, p. 165.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_679_679" id="Footnote_679_679"></a><a href="#FNanchor_679_679"><span class="label">[679]</span></a> Compare <i>Neal's Hist. of the Puritans</i>, vol. v. p. 58, +with <i>Life of James II.</i>, 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.’ <i>Wilson's Life of De Foe</i>, +vol. i. p. 118.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_680_680" id="Footnote_680_680"></a><a href="#FNanchor_680_680"><span class="label">[680]</span></a> D'Oyly (<i>Life of Sancroft</i>, 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.’ +<i>Burnet's Own Time</i>, 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.’ <i>Clarendon Corresp.</i> 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.’ <i>Mackintosh's +Revolution of 1688</i>, p. 255.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_681_681" id="Footnote_681_681"></a><a href="#FNanchor_681_681"><span class="label">[681]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Neal's Hist. of the Puritans</i>, 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 <i>Birch's Life of Tillotson</i>, p. 153; <i>Ellis's +Correspond.</i> vol. ii. p. 63; <i>Ellis's Orig. Letters</i>, 2nd series, vol. +iv. p. 117; <i>Mackintosh's Revolution</i>, p. 286; <i>Somers Tracts</i>, vol. ix. +p. 132; <i>Macaulay's Hist. of England</i>, vol. ii. pp. 218, 219.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_682_682" id="Footnote_682_682"></a><a href="#FNanchor_682_682"><span class="label">[682]</span></a> See the indignant language of De Foe <i>Wilson's Life of +De Foe</i>, vol. i. pp. 130, 131, 133, 134; and a <i>Letter from a Dissenter +to the Petitioning Bishops</i>, in <i>Somers Tracts</i>, 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?’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_683_683" id="Footnote_683_683"></a><a href="#FNanchor_683_683"><span class="label">[683]</span></a> 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.’ <i>D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft</i>, p. 151.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_684_684" id="Footnote_684_684"></a><a href="#FNanchor_684_684"><span class="label">[684]</span></a> 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 <i>Ductor Dubitantium</i>, +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.’ <i>Heber's Life of Taylor</i>, 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 <i>Neal's Hist. of the +Puritans</i>, vol. v. p. 56. Compare <i>Calamy's Own Life</i>, vol. i. pp. 199, +200; <i>Mackintosh's Revolution</i>, pp. 242, 243; <i>D'Oyly's Life of +Sancroft</i>, p. 152; <i>King's Life of Locke</i>, vol. i. p. 259; <i>Life of +James II.</i>, edit. Clarke, vol. ii. p. 156.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_685_685" id="Footnote_685_685"></a><a href="#FNanchor_685_685"><span class="label">[685]</span></a> They are summed up in a popular pamphlet ascribed to Lord +Somers, and printed in <i>Somers Tracts</i>, vol. x. pp. 263, 264. The +diminished respect felt for the crown after 1688 is judiciously noticed +in <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, vol. i. p. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_686_686" id="Footnote_686_686"></a><a href="#FNanchor_686_686"><span class="label">[686]</span></a> 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 <i>Bogue and Bennett's History of the Dissenters</i>, 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.’ <i>Butler's Memoirs of the Catholics</i>, 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. <i>Const. Hist.</i> vol. ii. pp. 332, 333.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_687_687" id="Footnote_687_687"></a><a href="#FNanchor_687_687"><span class="label">[687]</span></a> <i>Campbell's Chancellors</i>, vol. iv. pp. 102, 355, and his +<i>Chief-Justices</i>, vol. ii. pp. 95, 116, 118, 136, 142, 143. See also +<i>Barrington's Observations on the Statutes</i>, pp. 23, 102, 558; and even +<i>Alison's Hist. of Europe</i>, vol. i. p. 236, vol. ix. p. 243; an unwary +concession from such an enemy to popular liberty.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_688_688" id="Footnote_688_688"></a><a href="#FNanchor_688_688"><span class="label">[688]</span></a> This was effected before the end of the seventeenth +century. See <i>Campbell's Chancellors</i>, vol. iv. pp. 121, 122. Compare +Lord Camden on Literary Property, in <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xvii. p. 994; +<i>Hunt's History of Newspapers</i>, vol. i. pp. 161, 162; <i>Somers Tracts</i>, +vol. xiii. p. 555; and a more detailed account in <i>Macaulay's Hist. of +England</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_689_689" id="Footnote_689_689"></a><a href="#FNanchor_689_689"><span class="label">[689]</span></a> Mr. Cooke (<i>Hist. of Party</i>, 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 <i>Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue</i>, vol. iii. pp. 6–9; +and on the connexion between it and the Whigs, see <i>Macaulay's Hist. of +England</i>, vol. iv. p. 502. There is a short account of its origin and +progress in <i>Smith's Wealth of Nations</i>, book ii. chap. ii. p. 130.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_690_690" id="Footnote_690_690"></a><a href="#FNanchor_690_690"><span class="label">[690]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Alison's Hist. of +Europe</i>, vol. vii. p. 5. This, I should suppose, is the most eccentric +eulogy ever passed on William III.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_691_691" id="Footnote_691_691"></a><a href="#FNanchor_691_691"><span class="label">[691]</span></a> On their sudden repentance, and on the causes of it, see +<i>Neal's Hist. of the Puritans</i>, vol. v. p. 71.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_692_692" id="Footnote_692_692"></a><a href="#FNanchor_692_692"><span class="label">[692]</span></a> <i>Mackintosh's Revolution of 1688</i>, 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 <i>Cartwright's Diary</i>, by +Hunter, 4to, 1843, p. 45. In the same way, we find from a letter to the +Archbishop of Canterbury (<i>Clarendon Corresp.</i> vol. i. p. 409) that in +May 1686 uneasiness was felt because the Irish bishoprics were not +filled up. Compare <i>Burnet</i>, vol. iii. p. 103. Carwithen (<i>Hist. of the +Ch. of England</i>, vol. ii. p. 492) says, that James had intended to raise +the Jesuit Petre to the archbishopric.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_693_693" id="Footnote_693_693"></a><a href="#FNanchor_693_693"><span class="label">[693]</span></a> Lamplugh was translated from the bishopric of Exeter to +the archbishopric of York in November 1688. See the contemporary account +in the <i>Ellis Correspondence</i>, vol. ii. p. 303, and <i>Ellis's Original +Letters</i>, 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. <i>Wilson's Life of De Foe</i>, vol. i. pp. 94, 95. Compare an anecdote +of him in <i>Baxter's Life of Himself</i>, folio, 1696, part iii. pp. 178, +179.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_694_694" id="Footnote_694_694"></a><a href="#FNanchor_694_694"><span class="label">[694]</span></a> In a letter, dated London, 29th September 1688 (<i>Ellis</i>, +<i>Correspondence</i>, vol. ii. p. 224, and <i>Ellis's Orig. Letters</i>, second +series, vol. iv. p. 128), it is stated, that the Bishop of London's +‘suspension is taken off.’ See also <i>Somers Tracts</i>, vol. ix. p. 215. +This is the more observable, because, according to Johnstone, there was +an intention, in December 1687, of depriving him. <i>Mackintosh's +Revolution</i>, pp. 211, 212.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_695_695" id="Footnote_695_695"></a><a href="#FNanchor_695_695"><span class="label">[695]</span></a> 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 <i>Ellis Correspond.</i> vol. ii. pp. 201, 202, 209, 219, 224, 225, +226, 227; <i>Clarendon Correspond.</i> 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.’ <i>Reresby's Memoirs</i>, p. +357. Indeed, the difficulties of James were now becoming so great, that +he had hardly any choice.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_696_696" id="Footnote_696_696"></a><a href="#FNanchor_696_696"><span class="label">[696]</span></a> <i>Ellis Correspond.</i> vol. ii. p. 211; <i>Life of James II.</i>, +edit. Clarke, vol. ii. p. 189.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_697_697" id="Footnote_697_697"></a><a href="#FNanchor_697_697"><span class="label">[697]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Somers Tracts</i>, 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.’ <i>Clarendon Correspond.</i> vol. ii. p. +238. Compare <i>Neal's Hist. of the Puritans</i>, vol. v. p. 81; <i>Bogue and +Bennett's Hist. of the Dissenters</i>, vol. ii. p. 318; <i>Birch's Life of +Tillotson</i>, pp. 156, 157; <i>Somers Tracts</i>, 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.’ <i>Own Time</i>, +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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_698_698" id="Footnote_698_698"></a><a href="#FNanchor_698_698"><span class="label">[698]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Reresby's Memoirs</i>, 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 <i>Evelyn's Diary</i>, vol. iii. p. +281: ‘the Presbyterians, our new governors.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_699_699" id="Footnote_699_699"></a><a href="#FNanchor_699_699"><span class="label">[699]</span></a> Burnet (<i>Own Time</i>, 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 <i>Bogue and Bennett's History of Dissenters</i>, vol. ii. +pp. 379–384; <i>Barry's Hist. of the Orkney Islands</i>, p. 257; <i>Neal's +Hist. of the Puritans</i>, 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 <i>Somers Tracts</i>, 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 +<i>jus divinum</i> 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; <i>Lathbury's Hist. of Convocation</i>, pp. 277, 278; and <i>Macpherson's +Original Papers</i>, vol. i. p. 509.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_700_700" id="Footnote_700_700"></a><a href="#FNanchor_700_700"><span class="label">[700]</span></a> <i>Burnet's Own Time</i>, 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 <i>Diary</i>, 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 +(<i>Clarendon Correspond.</i> 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_701_701" id="Footnote_701_701"></a><a href="#FNanchor_701_701"><span class="label">[701]</span></a> See the account given by his chaplain Wharton, in +<i>D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft</i>, 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 <i>Birch's Life of Tillotson</i>, p. 144. Thus too the Bishop of Norwich +declared ‘that he would not pray for King William and Queen Mary.’ +<i>Clarendon Correspond.</i> 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. <i>Life +of Ken, by a Layman</i>, vol. ii. pp. 648, 650.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_702_702" id="Footnote_702_702"></a><a href="#FNanchor_702_702"><span class="label">[702]</span></a> <i>Lathbury's Hist. of the Nonjurors</i>, p. 45; <i>D'Oyly's +Sancroft</i>, p. 260.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_703_703" id="Footnote_703_703"></a><a href="#FNanchor_703_703"><span class="label">[703]</span></a> Nairne's Papers mention, in 1693, ‘six hundred ministers +who have not taken the oaths.’ <i>Macpherson's Orig. Papers</i>, vol. i. p. +459.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_704_704" id="Footnote_704_704"></a><a href="#FNanchor_704_704"><span class="label">[704]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Macaulay's Hist. of England</i>, vol. +iii. p. 74.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_705_705" id="Footnote_705_705"></a><a href="#FNanchor_705_705"><span class="label">[705]</span></a> 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 <i>Evelyn's Diary</i>, 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.’ +<i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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.’ <i>Ibid.</i> 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.’ <i>Somers Tracts</i>, 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 <i>Macpherson's Orig. Papers</i>, vol. ii. p. 207.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_706_706" id="Footnote_706_706"></a><a href="#FNanchor_706_706"><span class="label">[706]</span></a> They are so called by Burnet: ‘these angry men, that had +raised this flame in the church.’ <i>Own Time</i>, vol. v. p. 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_707_707" id="Footnote_707_707"></a><a href="#FNanchor_707_707"><span class="label">[707]</span></a> Indeed, the high-church party, in their publications, +distinctly intimated, that if James were not recalled, he should be +reinstated by a foreign army. <i>Somers Tracts</i>, vol. x. pp. 377, 405, +457, 462. Compare <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, vol. ii. p. 138. Burnet +(<i>Own Time</i>, vol. iv. pp. 361, 362) says, they were ‘confounded’ when +they heard of the peace of 1697; and Calamy (<i>Life of Himself</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_708_708" id="Footnote_708_708"></a><a href="#FNanchor_708_708"><span class="label">[708]</span></a> <i>D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft</i>, p. 266; <i>Wordsworth's Eccl. +Biog.</i> iv. p. 683.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_709_709" id="Footnote_709_709"></a><a href="#FNanchor_709_709"><span class="label">[709]</span></a> Sancroft, on his death-bed, in 1693, prayed for the ‘poor +suffering church, which, by this revolution, is almost destroyed.’ +<i>D'Oyly's Sancroft</i>, p. 311; and <i>Macpherson's Original Papers</i>, vol. i. +p. 280. See also <i>Remarks</i>, published in 1693 (<i>Somers Tracts</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_710_710" id="Footnote_710_710"></a><a href="#FNanchor_710_710"><span class="label">[710]</span></a> ‘Ken, though deprived, never admitted in the secular +power the right of deprivation; and it is well known that he studiously +retained his title.’ <i>Bowles's Life of Ken</i>, vol. ii. p. 225. Thus, too, +Lloyd, so late as 1703, signs himself, ‘Wm. Nor.’ (<i>Life of Ken, by a +Layman</i>, 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 (<i>Life</i>, p. 303), signs ‘W. +C.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_711_711" id="Footnote_711_711"></a><a href="#FNanchor_711_711"><span class="label">[711]</span></a> The strange document, by which he appointed Dr. Lloyd his +vicar-general, is printed in Latin, in <i>D'Oyly's Sancroft</i>, p. 295, and +in English, in <i>Life of Ken, by a Layman</i>, vol. ii. p. 640.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_712_712" id="Footnote_712_712"></a><a href="#FNanchor_712_712"><span class="label">[712]</span></a> <i>Lathbury's Hist. of the Nonjurors</i>, p. 96; <i>Life of Ken, +by a Layman</i>, vol. ii. pp. 641, 642.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_713_713" id="Footnote_713_713"></a><a href="#FNanchor_713_713"><span class="label">[713]</span></a> 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,’ <i>Own Time</i>, vol. iv. p. 57. See also, on this +identification of the Jacobites with the church, <i>Birch's Life of +Tillotson</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_714_714" id="Footnote_714_714"></a><a href="#FNanchor_714_714"><span class="label">[714]</span></a> According to Dr. D'Oyly (<i>Life of Sancroft</i>, p. 297), Dr. +Gordon ‘died in London, November 1779, and is supposed to have been the +last nonjuring bishop.’ In <i>Short's Hist. of the Church of England</i>, p. +583, Lond. 1847, it is also stated, that ‘this schism continued till +1779.’ But Mr. Hallam (<i>Const. Hist.</i> vol. ii. p. 404) has pointed out a +passage in the <i>State Trials</i>, which proves that another of the bishops, +named Cartwright, was still living at Shrewsbury in 1793; and Mr. +Lathbury (<i>Hist. of the Nonjurors</i>, Lond. 1845, p. 412) says, that he +died in 1799.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_715_715" id="Footnote_715_715"></a><a href="#FNanchor_715_715"><span class="label">[715]</span></a> Calamy (<i>Own Life</i>, 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 <i>Burnet's Own Time</i>, +vol. iv. p. 447, vol. v. p. 70. Compare <i>Wilson's Life of De Foe</i>, vol. +ii. p. 26; <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. vi. pp. 162, 498. On the difference +between them, as it was understood in the reign of Anne, see <i>Somers +Tracts</i>, vol. xii. p. 532, and <i>Macpherson's Orig. Papers</i>, vol. ii. p. +166. On the dawning schism in the church, see the speech of Sir T. +Littleton, in 1690, <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. v. p. 593. Hence many complained +that they could not tell which was the real church. See curious evidence +of this perplexity in <i>Somers Tracts</i>, vol. ix. pp. 477–481.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_716_716" id="Footnote_716_716"></a><a href="#FNanchor_716_716"><span class="label">[716]</span></a> The alternative is fairly stated in a letter written in +1691 (<i>Life of Ken, by a Layman</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_717_717" id="Footnote_717_717"></a><a href="#FNanchor_717_717"><span class="label">[717]</span></a> Lord Mahon (<i>Hist. of England</i>, 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 <i>Phillimore's Mem. of +Lyttleton</i>, vol. i. p. 352.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_718_718" id="Footnote_718_718"></a><a href="#FNanchor_718_718"><span class="label">[718]</span></a> The old absurdity of <i>de facto</i> and <i>de jure</i>; as if any +man could retain a right to a throne which the people would not allow +him to occupy!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_719_719" id="Footnote_719_719"></a><a href="#FNanchor_719_719"><span class="label">[719]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Somers Tracts</i>, 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 (<i>Somers +Tracts</i>, 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 <i>Memoirs</i>, 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.’ <i>Somers Tracts</i>, 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; <i>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</i>.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. vii. p. 541; also given, but not quite +<i>verbatim</i>, in <i>Campbell's Chancellors</i>, vol. iv. p. 365.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_720_720" id="Footnote_720_720"></a><a href="#FNanchor_720_720"><span class="label">[720]</span></a> ‘The prevarication of too many in so sacred a matter +contributed not a little to fortify the growing atheism of the present +age.’ <i>Burnet's Own Time</i>, vol. iii. p. 381. See also, to the same +effect, vol. iv. pp. 176, 177; and a remarkable passage in <i>Somers +Tracts</i>, 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 <i>de +facto</i> and <i>de jure</i>, and the use made of it by the clergy, the reader +should compare <i>Wilson's Mem. of De Foe</i>, vol. i. pp. 171, 172; <i>Somers +Tracts</i>, vol. ix. p. 531; <i>Campbell's Chancellors</i>, vol. iv. p. 409; and +a letter from the Rev. Francis Jessop, written in 1717, in <i>Nichols's +Lit. Illustrations</i>, vol. iv. pp. 120–123.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_721_721" id="Footnote_721_721"></a><a href="#FNanchor_721_721"><span class="label">[721]</span></a> 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 <i>Lathbury's Hist. of +Convocation</i>, pp. 124, 286, 338, 351; and <i>Wilson's Life of De Foe</i>, +vol. ii. p. 170.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_722_722" id="Footnote_722_722"></a><a href="#FNanchor_722_722"><span class="label">[722]</span></a> In 1704, Burnet (<i>Own Time</i>, 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 <i>Life of Archbishop Sharp</i>, edited by Newcome, vol. +i. p. 348, where this wretched feud is related with great gravity.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_723_723" id="Footnote_723_723"></a><a href="#FNanchor_723_723"><span class="label">[723]</span></a> Charles Butler (<i>Reminiscences</i>, 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 <i>Hallam's Const. Hist.</i> +vol. ii. p. 395; <i>Lathbury's Hist. of Convocation</i>, p. 385; <i>Mahon's +Hist. of England</i>, vol. i. p. 302; <i>Monk's Life of Bentley</i>, vol. ii. p. +350.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_724_724" id="Footnote_724_724"></a><a href="#FNanchor_724_724"><span class="label">[724]</span></a> 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 <i>Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth +Century</i>, vol. iv. pp. 414–416; and compare with it, <i>Letters between +Warburton and Hurd</i>, pp. 310–312.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_725_725" id="Footnote_725_725"></a><a href="#FNanchor_725_725"><span class="label">[725]</span></a> 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 <i>England's Wants</i>, sec. lvi. in <i>Somers Tracts</i>, 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 <i>preferred much above the divine's profession</i>.’ 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. <i>Coleridge's Lit. +Remains</i>, vol. iii. pp. 51, 52, 116, 117, 119. Compare <i>Stephen's Essays +on Ecclesiast. Biog.</i> 2d edit. 1850, vol. ii. p. 66, on ‘this depression +of theology;’ and <i>Hare's Mission of the Comforter</i>, 1850, p. 264, on +the ‘intellectually feebler age.’ Evelyn, in 1691, laments the +diminished energy then beginning to be observed among ‘young preachers.’ +<i>Evelyn's Diary</i>, vol. iii. p. 309; and for another notice, in 1696, of +this ‘dead and lifeless way of preaching,’ see <i>Life of Cudworth</i>, p. +35, in vol. i. of <i>Cudworth's Intellect Syst.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_726_726" id="Footnote_726_726"></a><a href="#FNanchor_726_726"><span class="label">[726]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Turner's Hist. of England</i>, +vol. vi. p. 132. On their enormous wealth, see <i>Eccleston's English +Antiquities</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_727_727" id="Footnote_727_727"></a><a href="#FNanchor_727_727"><span class="label">[727]</span></a> In 1625, Williams bishop of Lincoln was dismissed from +his office of lord-keeper; and Lord Campbell observes (<i>Lives of the +Chancellors</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_728_728" id="Footnote_728_728"></a><a href="#FNanchor_728_728"><span class="label">[728]</span></a> Monk (<i>Life of Bentley</i>, 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.’ +<i>Somers Tracts</i>, vol. xiii. p. 211.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_729_729" id="Footnote_729_729"></a><a href="#FNanchor_729_729"><span class="label">[729]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Parry's Parliaments and Councils of +England</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_730_730" id="Footnote_730_730"></a><a href="#FNanchor_730_730"><span class="label">[730]</span></a> See an analysis of the House of Lords, in 1713, in +<i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, vol. i. pp. 43–45; from which it appears +that the total was 207, of whom 26 were spiritual. This includes the +Catholics.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_731_731" id="Footnote_731_731"></a><a href="#FNanchor_731_731"><span class="label">[731]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_732_732" id="Footnote_732_732"></a><a href="#FNanchor_732_732"><span class="label">[732]</span></a> For different accounts, and of course different views, of +this final expulsion of the clergy from the House of Commons, see +<i>Pellew's Life of Sidmouth</i>, vol. i. pp. 419, 420; <i>Stephens's Mem. of +Tooke</i>, vol. ii. pp. 247–260; <i>Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party</i>, vol. +i. pp. 178–180; <i>Campbell's Chancellors</i>, vol. vii. p. 148; <i>Twiss's +Life of Eldon</i>, vol. i. p. 263; <i>Adolphus's Hist. of George III.</i>, vol. +vii. p. 487.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_733_733" id="Footnote_733_733"></a><a href="#FNanchor_733_733"><span class="label">[733]</span></a> 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 <i>striking at the +right of the reverend bench opposite to seats in that house</i>; though he +knew it had been held that the reverend prelates sat, in the right of +their baronies, as temporal peers.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxxv. p. 1542.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_734_734" id="Footnote_734_734"></a><a href="#FNanchor_734_734"><span class="label">[734]</span></a> 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. <i>Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of the +Dissenters</i>, vol. i. p. 108. On the cruel spirit which the clergy +displayed in the reign of Charles II. compare <i>Harris's Lives of the +Stuarts</i>, vol. v. p. 106; <i>Orme's Life of Owen</i>, p. 344; <i>Somers +Tracts</i>, 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. iv. p. 530. On the zeal with +which this principle was carried out, see an account, written in 1671, +in <i>Somers Tracts</i>, vol. vii. pp. 586–615; and the statement of De Foe, +in <i>Wilson's Life of De Foe</i>, vol. ii. pp. 443–444.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_735_735" id="Footnote_735_735"></a><a href="#FNanchor_735_735"><span class="label">[735]</span></a> 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 <i>Dalrymple's Memoirs</i>. 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.’ <i>Dalrymple's Memoirs</i>, appendix to book +v. vol. ii. p. 173.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_736_736" id="Footnote_736_736"></a><a href="#FNanchor_736_736"><span class="label">[736]</span></a> See a notable passage in <i>Somers Tracts</i>, vol. xii. p. +558, which should be compared with Wilson's <i>Life of De Foe</i>, vol. iii. +p. 372.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_737_737" id="Footnote_737_737"></a><a href="#FNanchor_737_737"><span class="label">[737]</span></a> <i>Bogue and Bennett's History of the Dissenters</i>, vol. i. +pp. 228–230, 237, 260–277; and <i>Hallam's Const. Hist.</i> 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 <i>Vernon Correspond.</i> 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 (<i>Own Time</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_738_738" id="Footnote_738_738"></a><a href="#FNanchor_738_738"><span class="label">[738]</span></a> <i>Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of the Dissenters</i>, vol. iii. +p. 118. In Ivimey's <i>History of the Baptists</i>, it is said that the death +of Anne was an ‘answer to the dissenters' prayers.’ <i>Southey's +Commonplace Book</i>, third series, p. 135; see also p. 147, on the joy of +the dissenters at the death of this troublesome woman.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_739_739" id="Footnote_739_739"></a><a href="#FNanchor_739_739"><span class="label">[739]</span></a> Two of the worst of them, ‘the act against occasional +conformity, and that restraining education, were repealed in the session +of 1719.’ <i>Hallam's Const. Hist.</i> vol. ii. p. 398. The repeal of the act +against occasional conformity was strenuously opposed by the archbishops +of York and of Canterbury (<i>Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of the +Dissenters</i>, 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 <i>Harris's Life of Hardwicke</i>, vol. i. pp. 193, +194.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_740_740" id="Footnote_740_740"></a><a href="#FNanchor_740_740"><span class="label">[740]</span></a> 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 <i>Vernon +Correspond.</i> 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 <i>Life of Archbishop +Sharp</i>, 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.’ +<i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. vi. pp. 492, 493. See also, on the increase of their +schools, pp. 1351, 1352.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_741_741" id="Footnote_741_741"></a><a href="#FNanchor_741_741"><span class="label">[741]</span></a> In <i>Somers Tracts</i>, 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 <i>Calamy's Own Life</i>, vol. ii. pp. 244, 255, 274, 284, 285.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_742_742" id="Footnote_742_742"></a><a href="#FNanchor_742_742"><span class="label">[742]</span></a> 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 +(<i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> vol. ii. pp. 102, 122); his field-preaching +began in 1739 (<i>Southey's Life of Wesley</i>, 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 (<i>Southey's Wesley</i>, 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 <i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> vol. ii. pp. 546, 547, and his +<i>Illustrations</i>, vol. iv. pp. 302–304; <i>Mem. of Franklin, by Himself</i>, +vol. i. pp. 161–167; <i>Doddridge's Correspond.</i> vol. iv. p. 55; +<i>Stewart's Philos. of the Mind</i>, vol. iii. pp. 291, 292; <i>Lady Mary +Montagu's Letters</i>, in her Works, 1803, vol. iv. p. 162; <i>Correspond. +between Ladies Pomfret and Hartford</i>, 2nd edit. 1806, vol. i. pp. 138, +160–162; <i>Marchmont Papers</i>, vol. ii. p. 377.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_743_743" id="Footnote_743_743"></a><a href="#FNanchor_743_743"><span class="label">[743]</span></a> Of whom Mr. Macaulay has said (<i>Essays</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_744_744" id="Footnote_744_744"></a><a href="#FNanchor_744_744"><span class="label">[744]</span></a> 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. <i>Southey's Life of Wesley</i>, vol. i. pp. 226, 243. +In the same year he began to preach in the fields. See the remarkable +entry in his <i>Journals</i>, p. 78, 29th March, 1739.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_745_745" id="Footnote_745_745"></a><a href="#FNanchor_745_745"><span class="label">[745]</span></a> They frankly confess that ‘indifference has been another +enemy to the increase of the dissenting cause.’ <i>Bogue and Bennett's +Hist. of the Dissenters</i>, vol. iv. p. 320. In <i>Newman's Development of +Christian Doctrine</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_746_746" id="Footnote_746_746"></a><a href="#FNanchor_746_746"><span class="label">[746]</span></a> Walpole, in his sneering way, mentions the spread of +Methodism in the middle of the eighteenth century (<i>Walpole's Letters</i>, +vol. ii. pp. 266, 272); and Lord Carlisle, in 1775, told the House of +Lords (<i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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(<i>Twiss's Life of Eldon</i>, vol. ii. p. 35) that about 1808 it +was making proselytes in the army.</p> + +<p>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 (<i>Memoirs</i>, vol. ii. part ii., appendix +to chapter i. p. 40), the proportion in England of conformists to +non-conformists was as 22<sup>4</sup>/<sub>5</sub> 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 <i>Life of Watson, +Bishop of Llandaff</i>, 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 <i>Journal of Statist. Soc.</i> +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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_747_747" id="Footnote_747_747"></a><a href="#FNanchor_747_747"><span class="label">[747]</span></a> 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 +<i>Southey's Life of Wesley</i>, 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 <i>Wesley's Journals</i>, pp. 114, 145, 178, 181, 198, 235, +256, 275, 375, 562, 619, 637, 646. Compare <i>Watson's Observations on +Southey's Wesley</i>, pp. 173, 174; and for other evidence of the +treatment of those who differed from the church, see <i>Correspondence and +Diary of Doddridge</i>, 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.’ <i>Grosley's Tour to London</i>, +Lond. 1772, vol. i. p. 356.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_748_748" id="Footnote_748_748"></a><a href="#FNanchor_748_748"><span class="label">[748]</span></a> That Wesleyanism encouraged dissent by imparting to it an +orderly character, which in some degree approximated to +church-discipline, is judiciously observed in <i>Bogue and Bennett's +History of the Dissenters</i>, 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!’ <i>Journals</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_749_749" id="Footnote_749_749"></a><a href="#FNanchor_749_749"><span class="label">[749]</span></a> Mr. Hallam (<i>Lit. of Europe</i>, 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, +<i>Whewell's Hist. of Moral Philosophy in England</i>, 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 <i>Traité +de Législation</i>, vol. i. pp. 223–247. There is a short and +unsatisfactory account of Cumberland's book in <i>Mackintosh's Ethical +Philosophy</i>, pp. 134–137. He was a man of considerable learning, and is +noticed by M. Quatremère as one of the earliest students of Coptic. +<i>Quatremère sur la Langue et la Littérature de l'Egypte</i>, p. 89. He was +made a bishop in 1691, having published the <i>De Legibus</i> in 1672. +<i>Chalmers's Biog. Dict.</i> vol. xi. pp. 133, 135.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_750_750" id="Footnote_750_750"></a><a href="#FNanchor_750_750"><span class="label">[750]</span></a> This was in his work entitled <i>The Alliance between +Church and State</i>, which first appeared, according to Hurd (<i>Life of +Warburton</i>, 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, <i>Palmer on the Church</i>, vol. ii. pp. 313, 322, 323; <i>Parr's +Works</i>, vol. i. pp. 657, 665, vol. vii. p. 128; <i>Whately's Dangers to +Christian Faith</i>, p. 190; and <i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> vol. iii. p. 18. In +January 1739–40, Warburton writes to Stukeley (<i>Nichols's +Illustrations</i>, 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 <i>Chatham Correspond.</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_751_751" id="Footnote_751_751"></a><a href="#FNanchor_751_751"><span class="label">[751]</span></a> 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 +<i>Treatise of Human Nature</i> (<i>Hume's Philosophical Works</i>, Edin. 1826, +vol. ii. pp. 219 seq.), and in his <i>Inquiry concerning the Principles of +Morals</i>, ibid. vol. iv. pp. 237–365.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_752_752" id="Footnote_752_752"></a><a href="#FNanchor_752_752"><span class="label">[752]</span></a> 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 <i>Moral and Political Philosophy</i> +was published in 1785; in 1786 it became a standard book at Cambridge; +and by 1805 it had ‘passed through fifteen editions.’ <i>Meadley's Memoirs +of Paley</i>, pp. 127, 145. Compare <i>Whewell's Hist. of Moral Philosophy</i>, +p. 176.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_753_753" id="Footnote_753_753"></a><a href="#FNanchor_753_753"><span class="label">[753]</span></a> 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 <i>Bentham's Works</i>, edit. Bowring, vol. +x. pp. 481, 482.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_754_754" id="Footnote_754_754"></a><a href="#FNanchor_754_754"><span class="label">[754]</span></a> 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 <i>Life of Wilberforce</i>, vol. iv. p. 28. See also +the speech of Lord Eldon in 1828, in <i>Twiss's Life of Eldon</i>, vol. ii. +p. 203.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_755_755" id="Footnote_755_755"></a><a href="#FNanchor_755_755"><span class="label">[755]</span></a> From a curious passage in <i>Hutton's Life of Himself</i>, 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, <i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> vol. viii. p. 375; +<i>Priestley's Memoirs</i>, vol. i. pp. 25, 26, 53; <i>Doddridge's Correspond. +and Diary</i>, vol. ii. p. 477, note; and on Peirce, who took an active +part, and whom Whiston boasts of having corrupted, see <i>Whiston's +Memoirs</i>, pp. 143, 144. Sharp, who was Archbishop of York when the +controversy began, foresaw its dangerous consequences. <i>Life of Sharp</i>, +edited by Newcome, vol. ii. pp. 7, 8, 135, 136. See further <i>Maclaine's +note</i> in <i>Mosheim's Ecclesiast. Hist.</i> vol. ii. pp. 293, 294; +<i>Lathbury's Hist. of Convocation</i>, pp. 338, 342, 351; and a note in +<i>Butler's Reminisc.</i> vol. i. pp. 206, 207.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_756_756" id="Footnote_756_756"></a><a href="#FNanchor_756_756"><span class="label">[756]</span></a> Mr. Butler (<i>Mem. of the Catholics</i>, vol. iii. pp. +182–184, 347–350) notices with evident pleasure the effect of this +famous controversy in weakening the Anglican Church. Compare <i>Bogue and +Bennett's Hist. of the Dissenters</i>, vol. iii. pp. 135–141. Whiston +(<i>Memoirs</i>, 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 <i>Lathbury's Hist. of Convocation</i>, pp. 372–383; +<i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> vol. i. p. 152, vol. ix. pp. 433, 434, 516; +<i>Nichols's Illustrations</i>, vol. i. p. 840; <i>Bishop Newton's Life of +Himself</i>, pp. 177, 178.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_757_757" id="Footnote_757_757"></a><a href="#FNanchor_757_757"><span class="label">[757]</span></a> <i>The Confessional</i>, 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.’ <i>Cappe's Memoirs</i>, 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. <i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> vol. i. p. 570; +<i>Illustrations</i>, vol. vi. p. 854. A petition against the Articles was at +once drawn up, signed by 200 clergy (<i>Adolphus's George III.</i> 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.’ <i>Parl. +Hist.</i> 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 <i>Disney's Life of Jebb</i>, pp. 31–36; <i>Meadley's Mem. of Paley</i>, pp. +88–94; <i>Hodgson's Life of Porteus</i>, pp. 38–40; <i>Memoirs of Priestley</i>, +vol. ii. p. 582; and a characteristic notice in <i>Palmer's Treatise on +the Church</i>, vol. i. pp. 270, 271.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_758_758" id="Footnote_758_758"></a><a href="#FNanchor_758_758"><span class="label">[758]</span></a> Hume says, that on his return from Italy in 1749, he +found ‘all England in a ferment on account of Dr. Middleton's <i>Free +Inquiry</i>.’ <i>Hume's Life of Himself</i>, in his <i>Works</i>, vol. i. p. 7. See +also, on the excitement caused by this masterly attack, <i>Nichols's +Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century</i>, vol. ii. p. 176; which should +be compared with <i>Doddridge's Correspond.</i> vol. iv. pp. 536, 537: and on +the ‘miraculous controversy’ in general, see <i>Porteus's Life of Secker</i>, +1797, p. 38; <i>Phillimore's Mem. of Lyttleton</i>, vol. i. p. 161; +<i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> vol. ii. pp. 440, 527, vol. iii. pp. 535, 750, +vol. v. pp. 417, 418, 600; <i>Hull's Letters</i>, 1778, vol. i. p. 109; +<i>Warburton's Letters to Hurd</i>, pp. 49, 50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_759_759" id="Footnote_759_759"></a><a href="#FNanchor_759_759"><span class="label">[759]</span></a> <i>Gibbon's Decline and Fall</i> 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?</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_760_760" id="Footnote_760_760"></a><a href="#FNanchor_760_760"><span class="label">[760]</span></a> On the effect produced by these matchless letters of +Porson, see <i>Harford's Life of Bishop Burgess</i>, p. 374; and as to the +previous agitation of the question in England, see <i>Calamy's Own Life</i>, +vol. ii. pp. 442, 443; <i>Monk's Life of Bentley</i>, vol. ii. pp. 16–19, +146, 286–289; <i>Butler's Reminiscences</i>, vol. i. p. 211. Compare <i>Somers +Tracts</i>, vol. xii. p. 137, vol. xiii. p. 458.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_761_761" id="Footnote_761_761"></a><a href="#FNanchor_761_761"><span class="label">[761]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Lyell's Principles of +Geology</i>, 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 <i>Watson's Life of Himself</i>, 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 <i>Travels Through +Sicily and Malta</i>.’ According to Lowndes (<i>Bibliographer's Manual</i>, 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 +<i>Discourse on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India</i>, in which he +observes (<i>Works</i>, 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 <i>Newman's +Phases of Faith</i>, p. 111 (compare pp. 122, 123); and the still more +decisive remarks in <i>Powell's Sermons on Christianity without Judaism</i>, +1856, pp. 38, 39. For other instances, see <i>Lyell's Second Visit to the +United States</i>, 1849, vol. i. pp. 219, 220.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_762_762" id="Footnote_762_762"></a><a href="#FNanchor_762_762"><span class="label">[762]</span></a> 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 <i>Cappe's +Memoir's</i>, pp. 118, 122; <i>Harford's Life of Burgess</i>, p. 92; <i>Nichols's +Lit. Anec.</i> vol. iii. pp. 430, 431, vol. ix. p. 540; <i>Chalmers's Biog. +Dict.</i> vol. xxv. p. 485; <i>Journ. of Stat. Soc.</i> vol. x. p. 196, v. xiii. +p. 265; <i>Hodgson's Life of Porteus</i>, p. 92. It is said, in <i>Spencer's +Social Statics</i>, p. 343, that the clergy of the Church of England were, +as a body, opposed to the establishment of Sunday-schools. (Compare +<i>Watson's Observations on Southey's Wesley</i>, p. 149.) At all events, +they increased rapidly, and by the end of the century had become common. +See <i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> vol. v. pp. 678, 679; <i>Nichols's +Illustrations</i>, vol. i. p. 460; <i>Life of Wilberforce</i>, vol. i. p. 180, +vol. ii. p. 296; <i>Wesley's Journals</i>, pp. 806, 897.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_763_763" id="Footnote_763_763"></a><a href="#FNanchor_763_763"><span class="label">[763]</span></a> Mr. Hunt (<i>Hist. of Newspapers</i>, 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxxiv. p. 1006. +In 1799, Wilberforce tried to have a law enacted to suppress them. <i>Life +of Wilberforce</i>, vol. ii. pp. 338, 424.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_764_764" id="Footnote_764_764"></a><a href="#FNanchor_764_764"><span class="label">[764]</span></a> When Franklin came to London, in 1725, there was not a +single circulating library in the metropolis. See <i>Franklin's Life of +Himself</i>, 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.’ <i>Ellis's Letters of Literary Men</i>, p. +245. The exact date of the earliest circulating library I have not yet +ascertained; but, according to Southey (<i>The Doctor</i>, edit. Warter, +1848, p. 271), the first set up in London was about the middle of the +eighteenth century, by Samuel Fancourt. Hutton (<i>Life of Himself</i>, 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 <i>Coleridge's Biographia Literaria</i>, vol. +ii. p. 329, edit. 1847; <i>Leigh Hunt's Autobiography</i>, vol. i. p. 260; +<i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> vol. iii. pp. 648, 682; <i>Nichols's +Illustrations</i>, vol. i. p. 424; <i>Whewell's Hist. of Moral Philosophy</i>, +p. 190; <i>Sinclair's Correspond.</i> 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<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> per 100 volumes per annum.’ <i>Sinclair's Hist. of +the Revenue</i>, vol. iii. p. 268.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_765_765" id="Footnote_765_765"></a><a href="#FNanchor_765_765"><span class="label">[765]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Life of Thomas Gent</i>, pp. 20, +21. (Compare a list of country printing-houses, in 1724, in <i>Nichols's +Lit. Anec.</i> 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 (<i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> vol. iii. p. 675); the first in Whitby, +was in 1770 (<i>Illustrations</i>, vol. iii. p. 787); and Richard Greene, who +died in 1793, ‘was the first who brought a printing-press to Lichfield’ +(<i>Ibid.</i> vol. vi. p. 320). In the reign of Anne, there was not a single +bookseller in Birmingham (<i>Southey's Commonplace Book</i>, 1st series, +1849, p. 568); but, in 1749, we find a printer established there +(<i>Hull's Letters</i>, Lond. 1778, vol. i. p. 92); and, in 1774, there was a +printer even in Falkirk (<i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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.’ <i>Life of Samuel Drew, by his +Son</i>, 1834, pp. 40, 41.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_766_766" id="Footnote_766_766"></a><a href="#FNanchor_766_766"><span class="label">[766]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Southey's Commonplace Book</i>, 3d +series, 1850, p. 77. See also <i>Penny Cyclopædia</i>, vol. viii. p. 430; +and, on his elementary works, compare <i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> 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.’ <i>Letter to Henry Zouch</i>, January 3rd, 1761, in <i>Walpole's +Letters</i>, vol. iv. p. 117, edit. 1840.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Pulteney's Hist. of Botany</i>, vol. ii. +p. 180); and, early in the reign of George III., Priestley began to +write popularly on physical subjects. (<i>Memoirs of Priestley</i>, vol. i. +pp. 288, 289.) Goldsmith did something in the same direction (<i>Prior's +Life of Goldsmith</i>, 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.’ +<i>Swainson on the Study of Natural History</i>, p. 50. In the reign of +George II., publishers began to encourage elementary works on chemistry. +<i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> vol. ix. p. 763.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_767_767" id="Footnote_767_767"></a><a href="#FNanchor_767_767"><span class="label">[767]</span></a> In 1704, 1708, and 1710, Harris published his <i>Dictionary +of Arts and Sciences</i>; and from this, according to <i>Nichols's Lit. +Anec.</i> vol. ix. pp. 770, 771, has ‘originated all the other dictionaries +and cyclopædias that have since appeared.’ Compare vol. v. p. 659; and +<i>Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of the Dissenters</i>, vol. iv. p. 500.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_768_768" id="Footnote_768_768"></a><a href="#FNanchor_768_768"><span class="label">[768]</span></a> Late in the seventeenth century, an attempt was first +made in England to establish literary journals. <i>Hallam's Lit. of +Europe</i>, vol. iii. p. 539; and <i>Dibdin's Bibliomania</i>, 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 <i>Wright's England under +the House of Hanover</i>, 1848, vol. i. p. 304, with <i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> +vol. iii. pp. 507, 508. At an earlier period, the functions of reviews +were performed, as Monk says, by pamphlets. <i>Monk's Life of Bentley</i>, +vol. i. p. 112.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_769_769" id="Footnote_769_769"></a><a href="#FNanchor_769_769"><span class="label">[769]</span></a> As we find from many casual notices of book clubs and +book societies. See, for example, <i>Doddridge's Correspond.</i> vol. ii. pp. +57, 119; <i>Jesse's Life of Selwyn</i>, vol. ii. p. 23; <i>Nichols's +Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century</i>, vol. v. pp. 184, 824, 825; +<i>Wakefield's Life of Himself</i>, vol. i. p. 528; <i>Memoirs of Sir J. E. +Smith</i>, vol. i. p. 8; <i>Life of Roscoe, by his Son</i>, vol. i. p. 228 +(though this last was perhaps a circulating library).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_770_770" id="Footnote_770_770"></a><a href="#FNanchor_770_770"><span class="label">[770]</span></a> ‘Numerous associations or clubs, composed principally of +reading men of the lower ranks.’ <i>Life of Dr. Currie, by his Son</i>, vol. +i. p. 175.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_771_771" id="Footnote_771_771"></a><a href="#FNanchor_771_771"><span class="label">[771]</span></a> Of which the most remarkable was that called the +Robin-Hood Society; respecting which the reader should compare +<i>Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors</i>, vol. vi. p. 373; <i>Grosley's +London</i>, vol. i. p. 150; <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xvii. p. 301; <i>Southey's +Commonplace Book</i>, 4th series, p. 339; <i>Forster's Life of Goldsmith</i>, +vol. i. p. 310; <i>Prior's Life of Goldsmith</i>, vol. i. pp. 419, 420; +<i>Prior's Life of Burke</i>, p. 75; <i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> vol. iii. p. +154.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_772_772" id="Footnote_772_772"></a><a href="#FNanchor_772_772"><span class="label">[772]</span></a> ‘From the summer of 1769 is to be dated the first +establishment of public meetings in England.’ <i>Albemarle's Mem. of +Rockingham</i>, 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>i.e.</i> in 1770) of daily occurrence.’ <i>Cooke's Hist. of Party</i>, vol. +iii. p. 187. See also <i>Hallam's Const. Hist.</i> vol. ii. p. 420.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_773_773" id="Footnote_773_773"></a><a href="#FNanchor_773_773"><span class="label">[773]</span></a> The most interesting trials were first noticed in +newspapers towards the end of the reign of George II. <i>Campbell's +Chancellors</i>, vol. v. p. 52, vol. vi. p. 54.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_774_774" id="Footnote_774_774"></a><a href="#FNanchor_774_774"><span class="label">[774]</span></a> In 1696, the only newspapers were weekly; and the first +daily paper appeared in the reign of Anne. Compare <i>Simmonds's Essay on +Newspapers</i>, in <i>Journal of Statist. Society</i>, vol. iv. p. 113, with +<i>Hunt's Hist. of Newspapers</i>, vol. i. pp. 167, 175, vol. ii. p. 90; and +<i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> vol. iv. p. 80. In 1710, they, instead of merely +communicating news, as heretofore, began to take part in ‘the discussion +of political topics’ (<i>Hallam's Const. Hist.</i> 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 <i>Wilson's Life of De +Foe</i>, 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.’ +<i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. x. p. 448.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_775_775" id="Footnote_775_775"></a><a href="#FNanchor_775_775"><span class="label">[775]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Campbell's +Chancellors</i>, vol. v. p. 511, vol. vi. p. 90. For further information +respecting this important victory, see <i>Cooke's Hist. of Party</i>, vol. +iii. pp. 179-184; <i>Almon's Correspond. of Wilkes</i>, 1805, vol. v. p. 63; +<i>Stephens's Mem. of Tooke</i>, vol. i. pp. 329–351; <i>Mahon's Hist. of +England</i>, vol. v. p. 290; and, on its connexion with <i>Junius's Letters</i>, +see <i>Forster's Life of Goldsmith</i>, vol. ii. pp. 183, 184.</p> + +<p>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?’ <i>App. to Mahon</i>, vol. v. p. xlviii.; +and <i>note</i> in <i>Walpole's George III.</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_776_776" id="Footnote_776_776"></a><a href="#FNanchor_776_776"><span class="label">[776]</span></a> Lord John Russell, in his work on the <i>History of the +English Constitution</i>, 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 <i>Russell on the Constitution</i>, 1821, pp. +240, 241, with <i>Life and Corresp. of Cartwright</i>, 1826, vol. i. pp. 91, +92. A letter in the <i>Life of Dr. Currie</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_777_777" id="Footnote_777_777"></a><a href="#FNanchor_777_777"><span class="label">[777]</span></a> 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 <i>Hare's +Guesses at Truth</i>, 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 <i>Tocqueville</i>, <i>Démocratie en Amérique</i>, vol. iv. +p. 156; and in the later work, by the same author, <i>L'Ancien Régime</i>, +Paris, 1856, pp. 148, 149.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_778_778" id="Footnote_778_778"></a><a href="#FNanchor_778_778"><span class="label">[778]</span></a> Archbishop Whately (<i>Dangers to Christian Faith</i>, 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 <i>Wakefield's Life of Himself</i>, vol. ii. p. 21; +<i>Nichols's Lit. Anec. of the Eighteenth Century</i>, vol. viii. p. 144; and +<i>Hodgson's Life of Bishop Porteus</i>, pp. 73, 74, 122, 125, 126. See also +a speech by Mansfield, in 1781 (<i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_779_779" id="Footnote_779_779"></a><a href="#FNanchor_779_779"><span class="label">[779]</span></a> Coleridge (<i>Lit. Remains</i>, 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 <i>The Friend</i>, 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 <i>Works of Sir W. Jones</i>, vol. v. p. 544. See also, in +<i>Harford's Life of Burgess</i>, 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!’</p> + +<p>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.’ +<i>Essay V.</i>, in <i>Hume's Philosophical Works</i>, vol. iv. pp. 539, 540. That +‘philosophers’ were growing men of the world, is also noticed in a +curious passage in <i>Alciphron</i>, dial. i., in <i>Berkeley's Works</i>, vol. i. +p. 312; and, respecting the general social amalgamation, see a letter to +the Countess of Bute, in 1753, in <i>Works of Lady Mary Montagu</i>, 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 <i>Aikin's +Life of Addison</i>, vol. ii. p. 65, with <i>Turner's Hist. of England</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_780_780" id="Footnote_780_780"></a><a href="#FNanchor_780_780"><span class="label">[780]</span></a> 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<i>s.</i> to 100<i>l.</i>, see <i>Drake's Shakespeare and his Times</i>, +1817, 4to. vol. ii. p. 225; <i>Monk's Life of Bentley</i>, vol. i. pp. 194, +309; <i>Whiston's Memoirs</i>, p. 203; <i>Nichols's Illustrations</i>, vol. ii. p. +709; <i>Harris's Life of Hardwicke</i>, vol. iii. p. 35; <i>Bunbury's Life of +Hanmer</i>, p. 81. Compare a note in <i>Burton's Diary</i>, vol. iii. p. 52; and +as to the importance of fixing on a proper person to whom to dedicate, +see <i>Ellis's Letters Lit. Men</i>, pp. 231–234; and the matter-of-fact +remark in <i>Bishop Newton's Life</i>, p. 14; also, <i>Hughes's Letters</i>, edit. +1773, vol. iii. p. xxxi. appendix.</p> + +<p>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.’ +<i>Watson's Life of Himself</i>, 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 <i>Chatham Correspond.</i> 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 <i>Brougham's +Men of Letters</i>, vol. ii. pp. 439, 440; <i>Correspond. de Madame +Dudeffand</i>, vol. ii. p. 148; and <i>Œuvres de Voltaire</i>, vol. xl. p. +41, vol. lxi. p. 285.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_781_781" id="Footnote_781_781"></a><a href="#FNanchor_781_781"><span class="label">[781]</span></a> 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 <i>Le +Blanc</i>, <i>Lettres d'un Français</i>, 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.’ <i>Prior's +Life of Burke</i>, 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.’ +<i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, vol. v. p. 19. The feud between literature +and rank may be further illustrated by an entry in Holcroft's Diary for +1798, <i>Mem. of Holcroft</i>, vol. iii. p. 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_782_782" id="Footnote_782_782"></a><a href="#FNanchor_782_782"><span class="label">[782]</span></a> 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 <i>Journal of the +Statistical Society</i>, vol. iii. pp. 383, 384. To this I may add, that +between 1753 and 1792, the circulation of newspapers was more than +doubled. <i>Hunt's Hist. of Newspapers</i>, vol. i. p. 252.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_783_783" id="Footnote_783_783"></a><a href="#FNanchor_783_783"><span class="label">[783]</span></a> 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 <i>capricious</i> is, strictly speaking, inaccurate, +and is merely a measure of our ignorance.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_784_784" id="Footnote_784_784"></a><a href="#FNanchor_784_784"><span class="label">[784]</span></a> The temporary political reaction under Anne is well +related by Lord Cowper, in his <i>Hist. of Parties</i>, printed in appendix +to <i>Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_785_785" id="Footnote_785_785"></a><a href="#FNanchor_785_785"><span class="label">[785]</span></a> See <i>Reminiscences of the Courts of George I. and George +II. by Horace Walpole</i>, pp. lv. xciv.; and <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, +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 (<i>Lettres inédites de Maintenon</i>, 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 <i>Le Blanc</i>, <i>Lettres d'un Français</i>, vol. i. p. 159.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_786_786" id="Footnote_786_786"></a><a href="#FNanchor_786_786"><span class="label">[786]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Somers Tracts</i>, vol. xiii. p. 703.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_787_787" id="Footnote_787_787"></a><a href="#FNanchor_787_787"><span class="label">[787]</span></a> Great light has been thrown upon the character of George +II. by the recent publication of <i>Lord Hervey's Memoirs</i>; 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 <i>Marchmont Papers</i>, vol. i. pp. 29, 181, 187.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Bancroft's +American Revolution</i>, vol. ii. p. 47, and <i>Campbell's Chancellors</i>, vol. +iii. p. 191.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_788_788" id="Footnote_788_788"></a><a href="#FNanchor_788_788"><span class="label">[788]</span></a> See the remarks said to be written by Bishop Atterbury, +in <i>Somers Tracts</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_789_789" id="Footnote_789_789"></a><a href="#FNanchor_789_789"><span class="label">[789]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, vol. +ii. p. 38. See also <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. vii. p. 988, and vol. viii. p. +347.</p> + +<p>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!'’<i>Walpole's Mem. +of George II.</i> vol. i. p. 413. Compare the <i>Bedford Correspondence</i>, +vol. i. pp. 594, 595, with <i>Harris's Life of Hardwicke</i>, vol. ii. p. +383; and on the temper of the clergy generally after the death of Anne, +<i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. vii. pp. 541, 542; <i>Bowles's Life of Ken</i>, vol. ii. +pp. 188, 189; <i>Monk's Life of Bentley</i>, vol. i. pp. 370, 426.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Doddridge's +Correspond. and Diary</i>, vol. i. p. 30, vol. ii. p. 321, vol. iii. pp. +110, 125, vol. iv. pp. 428, 436, 437; <i>Hutton's Life of Himself</i>, pp. +159, 160; <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxviii. pp. 11, 393, vol. xxix. pp. 1434, +1463; <i>Memoirs of Priestley</i>, vol. ii. p. 506; <i>Life of Wakefield</i>, vol. +i. p. 220.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_790_790" id="Footnote_790_790"></a><a href="#FNanchor_790_790"><span class="label">[790]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Cooke's +Hist. of Party</i>, vol. ii. p. 406. Compare <i>Albemarle's Memoirs of +Rockingham</i>, 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.’ +<i>Macpherson's Original Papers</i>, vol. ii. p. 651.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_791_791" id="Footnote_791_791"></a><a href="#FNanchor_791_791"><span class="label">[791]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Grosley's Tour to London</i>, 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!’ <i>Parl. +Hist.</i> vol. xv. p. 986.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_792_792" id="Footnote_792_792"></a><a href="#FNanchor_792_792"><span class="label">[792]</span></a> <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxix. p. 955; <i>Walpole's Mem. of +George III.</i> vol. i. pp. 4, 110.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_793_793" id="Footnote_793_793"></a><a href="#FNanchor_793_793"><span class="label">[793]</span></a> The accession of George III. is generally fixed on as the +period when English Jacobinism became extinct. See <i>Butler's +Reminiscences</i>, 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.’ <i>Walpole's +Mem. of George III.</i> 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<i>l.</i> raised against him, with Sir James +Dashwood's name at the head of it.’ <i>Bedford Correspond.</i> vol. ii. p. +261.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_794_794" id="Footnote_794_794"></a><a href="#FNanchor_794_794"><span class="label">[794]</span></a> Charles Stuart was so stupidly ignorant, that at the age +of twenty-five he could hardly write, and was altogether unable to +spell. <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, 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. +<i>Ibid.</i> vol. iii. pp. 351–353. In 1779, Swinburne saw him at Florence, +where he used to appear every night at the opera, perfectly drunk. +<i>Swinburne's Courts of Europe</i>, 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 +<i>Smith's Correspond.</i> vol. i. p. 208. Another letter, written as early +as 1761 (<i>Grenville Papers</i>, vol. i. p. 366), describes ‘the young +Pretender always drunk.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_795_795" id="Footnote_795_795"></a><a href="#FNanchor_795_795"><span class="label">[795]</span></a> On the connexion between the decline of the Stuart +interest and the increased power of the crown under George III., compare +<i>Thoughts on the Present Discontents</i>, in <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. i. pp. +127, 128, with <i>Watson's Life of Himself</i>, vol. i. p. 136; and for an +intimation that this result was expected, see <i>Grosley's London</i>, vol. +ii. p. 252.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_796_796" id="Footnote_796_796"></a><a href="#FNanchor_796_796"><span class="label">[796]</span></a> <i>Campbell's Chancellors</i>, 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 (<i>Mem. of George III.</i> vol. i. p. 16) +says, that in 1760 ‘prerogative became a fashionable word.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_797_797" id="Footnote_797_797"></a><a href="#FNanchor_797_797"><span class="label">[797]</span></a> 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 <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, vol. v. pp. 54, +55, with the extract from Archbishop Secker, in <i>Bancroft's American +Revolution</i>, 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 (<i>Parr's Works</i>, vol. vii. p. 352), +and a letter from the king to Pitt (<i>Russell's Memorials of Fox</i>, vol. +iii. p. 251), which should be compared with <i>Priestley's Memoirs</i>, vol. +i. pp. 137, 138.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_798_798" id="Footnote_798_798"></a><a href="#FNanchor_798_798"><span class="label">[798]</span></a> 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 <i>Brougham's Statesmen</i>, vol. i. pp. 13–15; +<i>Walpole's Mem. of George III.</i> vol. i. p. 55; <i>Mahon's Hist. of +England</i>, vol. iv. pp. 54, 207.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_799_799" id="Footnote_799_799"></a><a href="#FNanchor_799_799"><span class="label">[799]</span></a> See some good remarks by Lord John Russell in his +Introduction to the <i>Bedford Correspondence</i>, vol. iii. p. lxii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_800_800" id="Footnote_800_800"></a><a href="#FNanchor_800_800"><span class="label">[800]</span></a> In a motion for reform in Parliament in 1782, he declared +that it was ‘essentially necessary.’ See his speech, in <i>Parl. Hist.</i> +vol. xxii. p. 1418. In 1784 he mentioned ‘the necessity of a +parliamentary reform,’ vol. xxiv. p. 349; see also pp. 998, 999. Compare +<i>Disney's Life of Jebb</i>, 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 (<i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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, <i>even if the times were proper +for experiments, any, even the slightest, change in such a constitution +must be considered as an evil</i>.’ 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 <i>Meadley's Memoirs of Paley</i>, p. +121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_801_801" id="Footnote_801_801"></a><a href="#FNanchor_801_801"><span class="label">[801]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. +xxxi. p. 532; compare vol. xxxiii. p. 659. So, too, Lord Campbell +(<i>Chief-Justices</i>, 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, <i>Campbell's +Chancellors</i>, vol. vii. p. 105; <i>Brougham's Statesmen</i>, vol. ii. p. 21; +<i>Belsham's History</i>, vol. ix. pp. 79, 242; <i>Life of Cartwright</i>, vol. i. +p. 198; and even a letter from the mild and benevolent Roscoe, in <i>Life +of Roscoe, by his Son</i>, vol. i. p. 113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_802_802" id="Footnote_802_802"></a><a href="#FNanchor_802_802"><span class="label">[802]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Bancroft's American Revolution</i>, 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 <i>Brougham's Statesmen</i>, vol. ii. pp. 14, +103–105; <i>Russell's Mem. of Fox</i>, vol. iii. pp. 131, 278, 279; +<i>Belsham's Hist. of Great Britain</i>, vol. x. pp. 34, 35; <i>Life of +Wakefield</i>, vol. i. p. 197; <i>Porter's Progress of the Nation</i>, vol. iii. +p. 426; <i>Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party</i>, vol. ii. p. 157; and the +striking remarks of Francis, in <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxxii. p. 949.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_803_803" id="Footnote_803_803"></a><a href="#FNanchor_803_803"><span class="label">[803]</span></a> 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, <i>Brougham's Statesmen</i>, vol. ii. p. 9; <i>Rogers's +Introduction to Burke's Works</i>, p. lxxxiv.; <i>Nicholls's Recollections</i>, +vol. ii. pp. 155, 200.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_804_804" id="Footnote_804_804"></a><a href="#FNanchor_804_804"><span class="label">[804]</span></a> 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 (<i>Works</i>, +vol. i. p. 133) with <i>Albemarle's Rockingham</i>, vol. i. pp. 5, 307; +<i>Buckingham's Mem. of George III.</i> vol. i. p. 284, vol. ii. p. 154; +<i>Russell's Mem. of Fox</i>, vol. i. pp. 61, 120, vol. ii. pp. 50, 77; +<i>Bedford Correspond.</i> vol. iii. p. xlv.; <i>Parr's Works</i>, vol. viii. p. +513; <i>Butler's Reminiscences</i>, vol. i. p. 74; <i>Burke's Correspond.</i> vol. +i. p. 352; <i>Walpole's George III.</i> vol. iv. p. 315; <i>The Grenville +Papers</i>, vol. ii. pp. 33, 34, vol. iii. p. 57, vol. iv. p. 79, 152, 219, +303; <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xvi. pp. 841, 973, vol. xviii. pp. 1005, 1246, +vol. xix. pp. 435, 856, vol. xxii. pp. 650, 1173.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_805_805" id="Footnote_805_805"></a><a href="#FNanchor_805_805"><span class="label">[805]</span></a> See an extraordinary passage in <i>Pellew's Life of +Sidmouth</i>, vol. i. p. 334.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_806_806" id="Footnote_806_806"></a><a href="#FNanchor_806_806"><span class="label">[806]</span></a> This decline in the abilities of official men was noticed +by Burke, in 1770, as a necessary consequence of the new system. Compare +<i>Thoughts on the Present Discontents</i> (<i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. i. p. 149) +with his striking summary (<i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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.’ <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. i. p. 257. See further <i>Parr's +Works</i>, vol. iii. pp. 256, 260, 261.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_807_807" id="Footnote_807_807"></a><a href="#FNanchor_807_807"><span class="label">[807]</span></a> The military success of his administration is related in +very strong language, but not unfairly, in <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, +vol. iv. pp. 108, 185, 186, and see the admirable summary in <i>Brougham's +Statesmen</i>, vol. i. pp. 33, 34: and for evidence of the fear with which +he inspired the enemies of England, compare <i>Mahon</i>, vol. v. p. 165 +note; <i>Bedford Correspond.</i> vol. iii. pp. 87, 246, 247; <i>Walpole's +Letters to Mann</i>, vol. i. p. 304, edit. 1843; <i>Walpole's Mem. of George +III.</i> vol. ii. p. 232; and the reluctant admission in +<i>Georgel, Mémoires</i>, vol. i. pp. 79, 80.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_808_808" id="Footnote_808_808"></a><a href="#FNanchor_808_808"><span class="label">[808]</span></a> Lord Brougham (<i>Sketches of Statesmen</i>, 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 +<i>Russell's Mem. of Fox</i>, vol. i. p. 129). Indeed, the sentiments of the +king were even displayed in the arrangements at the funeral of the great +minister. <i>Note in Adolphus's Hist. of George III.</i> vol. ii. p. 568; and +for other evidence of ill-will, see two notes from the king to Lord +North, in <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, vol. vi. appendix, pp. lii. liv.; +<i>The Grenville Papers</i>, vol. ii. p. 386; <i>Bancroft's American +Revolution</i>, vol. i. p. 438.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_809_809" id="Footnote_809_809"></a><a href="#FNanchor_809_809"><span class="label">[809]</span></a> Lord Brougham (<i>Sketches of Statesmen</i>, 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 <i>Parr's Works</i>, vol. iv. pp. 14, 15; <i>Russell's Mem. +of Fox</i>, vol. i. pp. 320, 321, vol. ii. pp. 91, 243; <i>Bisset's Life of +Burke</i>, vol. i. p. 338.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_810_810" id="Footnote_810_810"></a><a href="#FNanchor_810_810"><span class="label">[810]</span></a> 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 <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxviii. p. 356. For +further evidence, compare <i>Alison's Hist. of Europe</i>, vol. vii. p. 171; +<i>Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party</i>, vol. i. pp. 3, 273; <i>Trotter's Mem. +of Fox</i>, pp. xi. xii., 24, 178, 415.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_811_811" id="Footnote_811_811"></a><a href="#FNanchor_811_811"><span class="label">[811]</span></a> <i>Adolphus's Hist. of George III.</i> vol. vi. p. 692. A +singular circumstance connected with this wanton outrage is related in +the <i>Mem. of Holcroft</i>, vol. iii. p. 60.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_812_812" id="Footnote_812_812"></a><a href="#FNanchor_812_812"><span class="label">[812]</span></a> Compare <i>Adolphus's Hist. of George III.</i> vol. iv. pp. +107, 108, with <i>Russell's Mem. of Fox</i>, 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. <i>Dutens's Mémoires</i>, 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.’ <i>Holland's Mem. of the +Whig Party</i>, vol. ii. p. 49.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_813_813" id="Footnote_813_813"></a><a href="#FNanchor_813_813"><span class="label">[813]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, vol. ii. appendix, p. xxiii. +See also, respecting the greater strength of the Tories in the House of +Commons, <i>Somers Tracts</i>, vol. xi. p. 242, vol. xiii. pp. 524, 531; +<i>Campbell's Chancellors</i>, vol. iv. p. 158; <i>Campbell's Chief-Justices</i>, +vol. ii. p. 156.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_814_814" id="Footnote_814_814"></a><a href="#FNanchor_814_814"><span class="label">[814]</span></a> Compare <i>Vernon Correspond.</i> vol. iii. p. 149, with +<i>Burnet's Own Time</i>, 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.’ +<i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. v. p. 1294. See also their angry remonstrance, pp. +1314, 1315.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_815_815" id="Footnote_815_815"></a><a href="#FNanchor_815_815"><span class="label">[815]</span></a> <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, vol. iii. p. 122.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_816_816" id="Footnote_816_816"></a><a href="#FNanchor_816_816"><span class="label">[816]</span></a> ‘Content, 47; non-content, 92.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xii. +p. 711. Mr. Phillimore (<i>Mem. of Lyttleton</i>, 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. <i>Marchmont Papers</i>, vol. ii. p. 59. Compare <i>Bishop Newton's +Life of Himself</i>, p. 60.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_817_817" id="Footnote_817_817"></a><a href="#FNanchor_817_817"><span class="label">[817]</span></a> See an account of some of its provisions in <i>Mahon's +Hist. of England</i>, vol. i. pp. 80, 81. The object of the bill is frankly +stated in <i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_818_818" id="Footnote_818_818"></a><a href="#FNanchor_818_818"><span class="label">[818]</span></a> By 237 to 126. <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. vi. p. 1351.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_819_819" id="Footnote_819_819"></a><a href="#FNanchor_819_819"><span class="label">[819]</span></a> <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, vol. i. p. 83; <i>Bunbury's +Correspond. of Hanmer</i>, p. 48. The bill was carried in the Lords by 77 +against 72.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_820_820" id="Footnote_820_820"></a><a href="#FNanchor_820_820"><span class="label">[820]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Cooke's Hist. of Party</i>, vol. iii. p. 363.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_821_821" id="Footnote_821_821"></a><a href="#FNanchor_821_821"><span class="label">[821]</span></a> Compare <i>Harris's Life of Hardwicke</i>, vol. iii. p. 519, +with the conversation between Sir Robert Walpole and Lord Hervey, in +<i>Hervey's Mem. of George II.</i> vol. ii. p. 251, edit. 1848.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_822_822" id="Footnote_822_822"></a><a href="#FNanchor_822_822"><span class="label">[822]</span></a> <i>Cooke's Hist. of Party</i>, vol. iii. pp. 363, 364, 365, +463; <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xviii. p. 1418, vol. xxiv. p. 493, vol. xxvii. +p. 1069, vol. xxix. pp. 1334, 1494, vol. xxxiii. pp. 90, 602, 1315.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_823_823" id="Footnote_823_823"></a><a href="#FNanchor_823_823"><span class="label">[823]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxxv. p. 762. So, too, Sheridan, in 1792, said (vol. +xxix. p. 1333), ‘In this country peerages had been bartered for election +interest.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_824_824" id="Footnote_824_824"></a><a href="#FNanchor_824_824"><span class="label">[824]</span></a> On this great influx of lawyers into the House of Lords, +most of whom zealously advocated arbitrary principles, see <i>Belsham's +Hist. of Great Britain</i>, vol. vii. pp. 266, 267; <i>Adolphus's Hist. of +George III.</i> vol. iii. p. 363; <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxxv. p. 1523.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_825_825" id="Footnote_825_825"></a><a href="#FNanchor_825_825"><span class="label">[825]</span></a> 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 <i>Butler's Reminiscences</i>, vol. i. p. 76, with +Erskine's speech in <i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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.’ <i>Parl. +Hist.</i> vol. xxvii. p. 1198. Out of doors, the feeling of contempt was +equally strong; see <i>Life of Cartwright</i>, 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.’ <i>Preface to Persian +Grammar</i>, in <i>Jones's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 125.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_826_826" id="Footnote_826_826"></a><a href="#FNanchor_826_826"><span class="label">[826]</span></a> In his <i>Thoughts on French Affairs</i>, 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.’ +<i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. i. p. 566. Indeed, according to Sir Nathaniel +Wraxall (<i>Posthumous Memoirs</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_827_827" id="Footnote_827_827"></a><a href="#FNanchor_827_827"><span class="label">[827]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Nicholls's +Recollections</i>, vol. i. p. 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_828_828" id="Footnote_828_828"></a><a href="#FNanchor_828_828"><span class="label">[828]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Works of Robert +Hall</i>, 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.’ <i>Life of +Wilberforce</i>, vol. i. p. 159.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_829_829" id="Footnote_829_829"></a><a href="#FNanchor_829_829"><span class="label">[829]</span></a> 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. <i>Butler's Reminiscences</i>, 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. +xxviii. p. 363.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_830_830" id="Footnote_830_830"></a><a href="#FNanchor_830_830"><span class="label">[830]</span></a> Lord Campbell (<i>Lives of the Chief-Justices</i>, vol. ii. p. +443) says, ‘Burke, a philosophic statesman, deeply imbued with the +scientific principles of jurisprudence.’ See also, on his knowledge of +law, <i>Butler's Reminiscences</i>, vol. i. p. 131; and <i>Bisset's Life of +Burke</i>, vol. i. p. 230.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_831_831" id="Footnote_831_831"></a><a href="#FNanchor_831_831"><span class="label">[831]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Barry's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 538, 4to, 1809. In the <i>Annual +Register</i> 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 <i>Works of Sir J. Reynolds</i>, Lond. 1846, vol. i. p. 185; and +<i>Bisset's Life of Burke</i>, vol. ii. p. 257. A somewhat curious +conversation between Burke and Reynolds, on a point of art, is preserved +in <i>Holcroft's Memoirs</i>, vol. ii. pp. 276, 277.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_832_832" id="Footnote_832_832"></a><a href="#FNanchor_832_832"><span class="label">[832]</span></a> See a letter from Winstanley, the Camden Professor of +Ancient History, in <i>Bisset's Life of Burke</i>, vol. ii. pp. 390, 391, and +in <i>Prior's Life of Burke</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_833_833" id="Footnote_833_833"></a><a href="#FNanchor_833_833"><span class="label">[833]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Bisset's +Life of Burke</i>, vol. ii. p. 429; and see <i>Prior's Life of Burke</i>, p. 58; +and on his knowledge of political economy, <i>Brougham's Sketches of +Statesmen</i>, vol. i. p. 205.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_834_834" id="Footnote_834_834"></a><a href="#FNanchor_834_834"><span class="label">[834]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Observations on a late State of the Nation</i>, in +<i>Burke's Works</i>, 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, <i>Thoughts on the Cause of the present Discontents</i>, +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 <i>Science Sociale</i>, vol. ii. p. 322, Paris, +1842.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_835_835" id="Footnote_835_835"></a><a href="#FNanchor_835_835"><span class="label">[835]</span></a> 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 <i>defrauding our employers, who are our natural +lords</i>, of the object of their just expectations!’ <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. +i. p. 254. In 1777, in his <i>Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol</i> (<i>Works</i>, +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 <i>Letter on the Duration of Parliament</i> (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. <i>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.</i>’ 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. <i>The people will have it +so; and it is not for their representatives to say nay.</i> I cannot, +however, help entering my protest against the general principles of +policy on which it is supported, because I think them extremely +dangerous.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xvii. p. 480.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_836_836" id="Footnote_836_836"></a><a href="#FNanchor_836_836"><span class="label">[836]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Burke's Correspond.</i> vol. i. p. 103. Compare a letter from +Lee, written in the same year, 1766, in <i>Forster's Life of Goldsmith</i>, +vol. ii. pp. 38, 39; and in <i>Bunbury's Correspond. of Hanmer</i>, p. 458.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_837_837" id="Footnote_837_837"></a><a href="#FNanchor_837_837"><span class="label">[837]</span></a> 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 <i>ex officio</i>; 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?’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xvi. pp. 1190, 1191.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_838_838" id="Footnote_838_838"></a><a href="#FNanchor_838_838"><span class="label">[838]</span></a> 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. <i>Cooke's Hist. of Party</i>, vol. +iii. p. 277, 278.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_839_839" id="Footnote_839_839"></a><a href="#FNanchor_839_839"><span class="label">[839]</span></a> 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 <i>Parl. Hist.</i> +vol. xvii. p. 54.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_840_840" id="Footnote_840_840"></a><a href="#FNanchor_840_840"><span class="label">[840]</span></a> He moved their repeal. <i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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.’ <i>Mahon's Hist. of +England</i>, vol. v. p. 166. More than thirty years later, and after +Burke's death, Lord Kenyon, then chief-justice, eulogised these +preposterous laws. <i>Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party</i>, vol. i. p. 167. +Compare <i>Adolphus's Hist. of George III.</i> vol. vii. p. 406; and +<i>Cockburn's Memorials of his Time</i>, Edinb. 1856, p. 73.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_841_841" id="Footnote_841_841"></a><a href="#FNanchor_841_841"><span class="label">[841]</span></a> ‘That liberality in the commercial system, which, I +trust, will one day be adopted.’ <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. i. p. 223. And, +in his letter to Burgh (<i>Ibid.</i> 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_842_842" id="Footnote_842_842"></a><a href="#FNanchor_842_842"><span class="label">[842]</span></a> <i>Prior's Life of Burke</i>, p. 467; <i>Burke's Works</i>, 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 <i>Mem. of Mackintosh</i>, vol. i. pp. 170, +171, with <i>Butler's Reminiscences</i>, vol. i. p. 134.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_843_843" id="Footnote_843_843"></a><a href="#FNanchor_843_843"><span class="label">[843]</span></a> <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xvii. pp. 435, 436, vol. xx. p. 306. +See also <i>Burke's Correspondence</i>, vol. ii. pp. 17, 18; and <i>Prior's +Life of Burke</i>, p. 143.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_844_844" id="Footnote_844_844"></a><a href="#FNanchor_844_844"><span class="label">[844]</span></a> <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. i. pp. 261, 262, part of his speech +at Bristol.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_845_845" id="Footnote_845_845"></a><a href="#FNanchor_845_845"><span class="label">[845]</span></a> <i>Prior's Life of Burke</i>, p. 317. See also his admirable +remarks, in <i>Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 417; and his speech, in <i>Parl. Hist.</i> +vol. xxviii. p. 146.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_846_846" id="Footnote_846_846"></a><a href="#FNanchor_846_846"><span class="label">[846]</span></a> On this increasing cruelty of the English laws, compare +<i>Parr's Works</i>, vol. iv. pp. 150, 259, with <i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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 <i>Life of Romilly, by Himself</i>, +vol. i. p. 65; and <i>Alison's Hist. of Europe</i>, vol. ix. p. 620.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_847_847" id="Footnote_847_847"></a><a href="#FNanchor_847_847"><span class="label">[847]</span></a> In one short speech (<i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xx. pp. 150, +151), he has almost exhausted the arguments against enlistment for +life.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_848_848" id="Footnote_848_848"></a><a href="#FNanchor_848_848"><span class="label">[848]</span></a> 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 <i>Alison's Hist. of Europe</i>, vol. vii. pp. +380–391. Compare <i>Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century</i>, +vol. v. p. 475; and <i>Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party</i>, vol. ii. p. +116.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_849_849" id="Footnote_849_849"></a><a href="#FNanchor_849_849"><span class="label">[849]</span></a> <i>Prior's Life of Burke</i>, p. 316; <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. +xxvii. p. 502, vol. xxviii. pp. 69, 96; and <i>Life of Wilberforce</i>, 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 <i>Duke of +Buckingham's Mem. of George III.</i> vol. i. p. 350.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_850_850" id="Footnote_850_850"></a><a href="#FNanchor_850_850"><span class="label">[850]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Brougham's Statesmen</i>, vol. ii. p. 104. Compare +<i>Combe's North America</i>, vol. i. p. 332.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_851_851" id="Footnote_851_851"></a><a href="#FNanchor_851_851"><span class="label">[851]</span></a> <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. ii. pp. 490–496; <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. +xvii. pp. 44–55, a very able speech, delivered in 1771. Compare a letter +to Dowdeswell, in <i>Burke's Correspond.</i> vol. i. pp. 251, 252.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_852_852" id="Footnote_852_852"></a><a href="#FNanchor_852_852"><span class="label">[852]</span></a> 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 <i>Campbell's Chancellors</i>, vol. v. +pp. 238, 243, 341–345, vol. vi. p. 210; and <i>Meyer</i>, <i>Institutions +Judiciaires</i>, vol. ii. pp. 204, 205, Paris, 1823.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_853_853" id="Footnote_853_853"></a><a href="#FNanchor_853_853"><span class="label">[853]</span></a> Mr. Farr, in his valuable essay on the statistics of the +civil service (in <i>Journal of Statist. Soc.</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_854_854" id="Footnote_854_854"></a><a href="#FNanchor_854_854"><span class="label">[854]</span></a> <i>Prior's Life of Burke</i>, pp. 206, 234. See also, on the +retrenchments he effected, <i>Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue</i>, vol. ii. +pp. 84, 85; <i>Burke's Correspond.</i> vol. iii. p. 14; and <i>Bisset's Life of +Burke</i>, vol. ii. pp. 57–60.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_855_855" id="Footnote_855_855"></a><a href="#FNanchor_855_855"><span class="label">[855]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> +vol. xix. p. 857. Compare <i>Cooke's Hist. of Party</i>, vol. iii. p. 235, +with the pungent remarks in <i>Walpole's George III.</i> vol. iv. p. 114. +Nicholls (<i>Recollections</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_856_856" id="Footnote_856_856"></a><a href="#FNanchor_856_856"><span class="label">[856]</span></a> ‘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 <i>Burke's Works</i>, 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 <i>Burke's +Correspond.</i> vol. ii. p. 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_857_857" id="Footnote_857_857"></a><a href="#FNanchor_857_857"><span class="label">[857]</span></a> In 1766, George III. writes to Lord Rockingham +(<i>Albemarle's Rockingham</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_858_858" id="Footnote_858_858"></a><a href="#FNanchor_858_858"><span class="label">[858]</span></a> 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 <i>Tucker's Life of Jefferson</i>, vol. i. p. 220; +and <i>Mem. and Corresp. of Jefferson</i>, vol. i. p. 54.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_859_859" id="Footnote_859_859"></a><a href="#FNanchor_859_859"><span class="label">[859]</span></a> 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 <i>Prichard on Insanity in +relation to Jurisprudence</i>, 1842, p. 90; his <i>Treatise on Insanity</i>, +1835, pp. 161, 183, 230, 339; <i>Esquirol</i>, <i>Maladies Mentales</i>, vol. i. pp. +43, 53, 54, 66, 211, 447, vol. ii. pp. 193, 726; <i>Feuchtersleben's +Medical Psychology</i>, p. 254; <i>Georget, De la Folie</i>, p. 156; <i>Pinel, +Traité sur l'Aliénation Mentale</i>, pp. 30, 108, 109, 177, 178, 185, 207, +215, 257, 349, 392, 457, 481; <i>Alison's Hist. of Europe</i>, vol. iii. p. +112.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_860_860" id="Footnote_860_860"></a><a href="#FNanchor_860_860"><span class="label">[860]</span></a> <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 268.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_861_861" id="Footnote_861_861"></a><a href="#FNanchor_861_861"><span class="label">[861]</span></a> 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. <i>Parl. Hist.</i> +vol. xxvii. p. 1249. Compare a letter from Sir William Young, in +<i>Buckingham's Mem. of George III.</i> 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 (<i>Life of +Currie</i>, vol. ii. p. 150); and, above all, see his own incoherent +letter, in 1796, in his <i>Correspond. with Laurence</i>, p. 67.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_862_862" id="Footnote_862_862"></a><a href="#FNanchor_862_862"><span class="label">[862]</span></a> His son died in August 1794 (<i>Burke's Correspond.</i> vol. +iv. p. 224); and his most violent works were written between that period +and his own death, in July 1797.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_863_863" id="Footnote_863_863"></a><a href="#FNanchor_863_863"><span class="label">[863]</span></a> ‘This disciple, as he was proud to acknowledge himself.’ +<i>Brougham's Statesmen</i>, vol. i. p. 218. In 1791, Fox said, that Burke +‘had taught him everything he knew in politics.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. +xxix. p. 379. See also <i>Adolphus's Hist. of George III.</i> vol. iv. pp. +472, 610; and a letter from Fox to Parr, in <i>Parr's Works</i>, vol. vii. p. +287.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_864_864" id="Footnote_864_864"></a><a href="#FNanchor_864_864"><span class="label">[864]</span></a> It had begun in 1766, when Fox was only seventeen. +<i>Russell's Mem. of Fox</i>, vol. i. p. 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_865_865" id="Footnote_865_865"></a><a href="#FNanchor_865_865"><span class="label">[865]</span></a> On this painful rupture, compare with the <i>Parliamentary +History, Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party</i>, vol. i. pp. 10, 11; +<i>Prior's Life of Burke</i>, pp. 375–379; <i>Tomline's Life of Pitt</i>, 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. <i>Burke's Correspond. with Laurence</i>, p. 152. Compare +<i>Parr's Works</i>, vol. iv. pp. 67–80, 84–90, 109.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_866_866" id="Footnote_866_866"></a><a href="#FNanchor_866_866"><span class="label">[866]</span></a> Which used to be contrasted with the bluntness of +Johnson; these eminent men being the two best talkers of their time. See +<i>Bisset's Life of Burke</i>, vol. i. p. 127.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_867_867" id="Footnote_867_867"></a><a href="#FNanchor_867_867"><span class="label">[867]</span></a> <i>Rogers's Introduction to Burke's Works</i>, p. +xliv.; <i>Prior's Life of Burke</i>, p. 384.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_868_868" id="Footnote_868_868"></a><a href="#FNanchor_868_868"><span class="label">[868]</span></a> There is an interesting account of the melancholy death +of this remarkable man in <i>Lamartine</i>, <i>Hist. des Girondins</i>, vol. viii. +pp. 76–80; and a contemporary relation in <i>Musset-Pathay</i>, <i>Vie de +Rousseau</i>, vol. ii. pp. 42–47.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_869_869" id="Footnote_869_869"></a><a href="#FNanchor_869_869"><span class="label">[869]</span></a> 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.’ +<i>Cassagnac</i>, <i>Révolution Française</i>, vol. iii. pp. 370, 371. Compare the +grudging admission of his enemy Bouillé, <i>Mém. de Bouillé</i>, vol. i. p. +125; and for proofs of the affectionate intimacy between Washington and +La Fayette, see <i>Mém. de Lafayette</i>, vol. i. pp. 16, 21, 29, 44, 55, 83, +92, 111, 165, 197, 204, 395, vol. ii. p. 123.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_870_870" id="Footnote_870_870"></a><a href="#FNanchor_870_870"><span class="label">[870]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxxi. p. 664. So, +too, the continuator of Sismondi (<i>Hist. des Français</i>, vol. xxx. p. +355), ‘La Fayette, le chevalier de la liberté d'Amérique;’ and Lamartine +(<i>Hist. des Girondins</i>, 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. <i>Mém. de Ségur</i>, 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. <i>Morgan's France</i>, vol. ii. pp. 285–312. Other notices, +from personal knowledge, will be found in <i>Life of Roscoe</i>, vol. ii. p. +178; and in <i>Trotter's Mem. of Fox</i>, pp. 319 seq.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_871_871" id="Footnote_871_871"></a><a href="#FNanchor_871_871"><span class="label">[871]</span></a> ‘The impious sophistry of Condorcet.’ <i>Letter to a Noble +Lord</i>, in <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 273.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_872_872" id="Footnote_872_872"></a><a href="#FNanchor_872_872"><span class="label">[872]</span></a> <i>Thoughts on French Affairs</i> in <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. i. +p. 574.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_873_873" id="Footnote_873_873"></a><a href="#FNanchor_873_873"><span class="label">[873]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Thoughts on French Affairs</i>, in <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. +i. p. 579.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_874_874" id="Footnote_874_874"></a><a href="#FNanchor_874_874"><span class="label">[874]</span></a> ‘Groaning under the most oppressive cruelty in the +dungeons of Magdeburg.’ <i>Belsham's Hist. of Great Brit.</i> vol. ix. p. +151. See the afflicting details of his sufferings, in <i>Mém. de +Lafayette</i>, vol. i. p. 479, vol. ii. pp. 75, 77, 78, 80, 91, 92; and on +the noble equanimity with which he bore them, see <i>De Staël</i>, <i>Rév. +Françoise</i>, Paris, 1820, vol. ii. p. 103.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_875_875" id="Footnote_875_875"></a><a href="#FNanchor_875_875"><span class="label">[875]</span></a> It is hardly credible that such language should have been +applied to a man like La Fayette; but I have copied it from the +<i>Parliamentary History</i>, vol. xxxi. p. 51, and from <i>Adolphus</i>, vol. v. +p. 593. The only difference is, that in Adolphus the expression is ‘I +would not debase my humanity;’ but in the <i>Parl. Hist.</i>, ‘I would not +debauch my humanity.’ But both authorities are agreed as to the term +‘horrid ruffian’ being used by Burke. Compare <i>Burke's Correspondence +with Laurence</i>, pp. 91, 99.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_876_876" id="Footnote_876_876"></a><a href="#FNanchor_876_876"><span class="label">[876]</span></a> <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 319. In every instance I +quote the precise words employed by Burke.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_877_877" id="Footnote_877_877"></a><a href="#FNanchor_877_877"><span class="label">[877]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> vol. ii. p. 279.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_878_878" id="Footnote_878_878"></a><a href="#FNanchor_878_878"><span class="label">[878]</span></a> Burke's speech, in <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxxi. p. 379.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_879_879" id="Footnote_879_879"></a><a href="#FNanchor_879_879"><span class="label">[879]</span></a> <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 335.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_880_880" id="Footnote_880_880"></a><a href="#FNanchor_880_880"><span class="label">[880]</span></a> <i>Burke's Corresp.</i> vol. iii. p. 140.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_881_881" id="Footnote_881_881"></a><a href="#FNanchor_881_881"><span class="label">[881]</span></a> <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 322.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_882_882" id="Footnote_882_882"></a><a href="#FNanchor_882_882"><span class="label">[882]</span></a> <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxx. p. 115.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_883_883" id="Footnote_883_883"></a><a href="#FNanchor_883_883"><span class="label">[883]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> p. 112.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_884_884" id="Footnote_884_884"></a><a href="#FNanchor_884_884"><span class="label">[884]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> p. 188.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_885_885" id="Footnote_885_885"></a><a href="#FNanchor_885_885"><span class="label">[885]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> p. 435.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_886_886" id="Footnote_886_886"></a><a href="#FNanchor_886_886"><span class="label">[886]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> p. 646; the concluding sentence of one of Burke's +speeches in 1793.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_887_887" id="Footnote_887_887"></a><a href="#FNanchor_887_887"><span class="label">[887]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> vol. xxxi. p. 426.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_888_888" id="Footnote_888_888"></a><a href="#FNanchor_888_888"><span class="label">[888]</span></a> <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 320.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_889_889" id="Footnote_889_889"></a><a href="#FNanchor_889_889"><span class="label">[889]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> p. 286.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_890_890" id="Footnote_890_890"></a><a href="#FNanchor_890_890"><span class="label">[890]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> p. 322.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_891_891" id="Footnote_891_891"></a><a href="#FNanchor_891_891"><span class="label">[891]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> p. 318.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_892_892" id="Footnote_892_892"></a><a href="#FNanchor_892_892"><span class="label">[892]</span></a> <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxviii. p. 353, vol. xxx. p. 390; +<i>Adolphus</i>, vol. iv. p. 467.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_893_893" id="Footnote_893_893"></a><a href="#FNanchor_893_893"><span class="label">[893]</span></a> In the <i>Letters on a Regicide Peace</i>, 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.’ <i>Burke's Works</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_894_894" id="Footnote_894_894"></a><a href="#FNanchor_894_894"><span class="label">[894]</span></a> In <i>Observations on the Conduct of the Minority</i>, 1793, +he says, that during four years he had wished for ‘a general war against +jacobins and jacobinism.’ <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. i. p. 611.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_895_895" id="Footnote_895_895"></a><a href="#FNanchor_895_895"><span class="label">[895]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Heads for Consideration on the +Present State of Affairs</i>, written in November 1792, in <i>Burke's Works</i>, +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 <i>was +not to support a party, but to conquer a kingdom</i>.’ <i>Burke's +Correspond.</i> vol. iii. p. 184.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_896_896" id="Footnote_896_896"></a><a href="#FNanchor_896_896"><span class="label">[896]</span></a> As Lord J. Russell truly calls it, <i>Mem. of Fox</i>, vol. +iii. p. 34. See also <i>Schlosser's Eighteenth Century</i>, vol. ii. p. 93, +vol. v. p. 109, vol. vi. p. 291; <i>Nicholls's Recollections</i>, vol. i. p. +300; <i>Parr's Works</i>, vol. iii. p. 242.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_897_897" id="Footnote_897_897"></a><a href="#FNanchor_897_897"><span class="label">[897]</span></a> ‘We cannot, if we would, delude ourselves about the true +state of this dreadful contest. <i>It is a religious war.</i>’ <i>Remarks on +the Policy of the Allies</i>, in <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. i. p. 600.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_898_898" id="Footnote_898_898"></a><a href="#FNanchor_898_898"><span class="label">[898]</span></a> See the long list of proscriptions in <i>Burke's Works</i>, +vol. i. p. 604. And the principle of revenge is again advocated in a +letter written in 1793, in <i>Burke's Correspond.</i> 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxxi. p. 427.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_899_899" id="Footnote_899_899"></a><a href="#FNanchor_899_899"><span class="label">[899]</span></a> <i>Letters on a Regicide Peace</i>, in <i>Burke's Works</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_900_900" id="Footnote_900_900"></a><a href="#FNanchor_900_900"><span class="label">[900]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. +xvii. p. 1269.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_901_901" id="Footnote_901_901"></a><a href="#FNanchor_901_901"><span class="label">[901]</span></a> See, among many other instances, an extraordinary passage +on ‘Jacobinism,’ in his <i>Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 449, which should be +compared with a letter he wrote in 1792, respecting a proposed coalition +ministry, <i>Correspond.</i> 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.”’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_902_902" id="Footnote_902_902"></a><a href="#FNanchor_902_902"><span class="label">[902]</span></a> The earliest evidence I have met with of the heart of +George III. beginning to open towards Burke, is in August 1791; see in +<i>Burke's Correspondence</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_903_903" id="Footnote_903_903"></a><a href="#FNanchor_903_903"><span class="label">[903]</span></a> ‘Said to have originated in the express wish of the +king.’ <i>Prior's Life of Burke</i>, p. 489. Mr. Prior estimates these +pensions at 3,700<i>l.</i> 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<i>l.</i>’ <i>Nicholls's Recollections</i>, vol. i. p. +136. Burke was sixty-five; and a pension of 3,700<i>l.</i> a-year would not +be worth 40,000<i>l.</i>, as the tables were then calculated. The statement +of Mr. Prior is, however, confirmed by Wansey, in 1794. See <i>Nichols's +Lit. Anec. of the Eighteenth Century</i>, vol. iii. p. 81.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_904_904" id="Footnote_904_904"></a><a href="#FNanchor_904_904"><span class="label">[904]</span></a> <i>Prior's Life of Burke</i>, p. 460; <i>Nichols's Lit. Anec.</i> +vol. iii. p. 81; <i>Bisset's Life of Burke</i>, vol. ii. p. 414.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_905_905" id="Footnote_905_905"></a><a href="#FNanchor_905_905"><span class="label">[905]</span></a> ‘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.’ +<i>Walpole's George III.</i> vol. ii. p. 70. Compare <i>Phillimore's Mem. of +Lyttleton</i>, vol. ii. p. 662; <i>Bancroft's American Revolution</i>, vol. i. +p. 96; <i>Belsham's Hist. of Great Britain</i>, vol. v. p. 102.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_906_906" id="Footnote_906_906"></a><a href="#FNanchor_906_906"><span class="label">[906]</span></a> 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 (<i>Mem. of George II.</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_907_907" id="Footnote_907_907"></a><a href="#FNanchor_907_907"><span class="label">[907]</span></a> The general proposition was introduced in 1764; the bill +itself early in 1765. See <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, vol. v. pp. 82, +85; and <i>Grenville Papers</i>, vol. ii. pp. 373, 374. On the complete +change of policy which this indicated, see <i>Brougham's Polit. Philos.</i> +part iii. p. 328.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_908_908" id="Footnote_908_908"></a><a href="#FNanchor_908_908"><span class="label">[908]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. +ii. p. 390. Compare <i>Bishop Newton's Life of Himself</i>, pp. 134, 157.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_909_909" id="Footnote_909_909"></a><a href="#FNanchor_909_909"><span class="label">[909]</span></a> ‘The overbearing aristocracy desired some reduction of +the land tax, at the expense of America.’ <i>Bancroft's Hist. of the +American Revolution</i>, 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 <i>Chatham Correspond.</i> +vol. iv. pp. 341, 401. See also the speeches of Trecothick and Vyner, in +<i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xvi. p. 507, vol. xviii. p. 1361.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_910_910" id="Footnote_910_910"></a><a href="#FNanchor_910_910"><span class="label">[910]</span></a> 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 <i>Wraxall's Mem. of his own Time</i>, +vol. ii. pp. 111, 112, with <i>Nicholl's Recollections</i>, 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 <i>Bancroft's +American Revolution</i>, vol. iii. pp. 307, 308; <i>Russell's Mem. of Fox</i>, +vol. i. pp. 247, 254; and the <i>Bedford Correspond.</i> vol. iii. p. li. See +also, in regard to the repeal of the Stamp Act, the <i>Grenville Papers</i>, +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. <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, 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.’ <i>Jefferson's +Correspond.</i> vol. i. p. 153. And in 1782 Franklin writes to Livingston, +‘The king hates us most cordially.’ <i>Life of Franklin</i>, vol. ii. p. +126.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_911_911" id="Footnote_911_911"></a><a href="#FNanchor_911_911"><span class="label">[911]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Albemarle's Mem. of Rockingham</i>, +vol. i. p. 248. Compare <i>Bancroft's American Revolution</i>, 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.’ <i>Burke's Correspond.</i> 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.’ <i>Chatham's Speech in +1777</i>, in <i>Adolphus</i>, vol. ii. pp. 499, 500.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_912_912" id="Footnote_912_912"></a><a href="#FNanchor_912_912"><span class="label">[912]</span></a> For some evidence of the ferocity with which this war was +conducted by the English, see <i>Tucker's Life of Jefferson</i>, vol. i. pp. +138, 139, 160; <i>Jefferson's Mem. and Correspond.</i> vol. i. pp. 352, 429, +vol. ii. pp. 336, 337; <i>Almon's Correspond. of Wilkes</i>, vol. v. pp. +229–232, edit. 1805; <i>Adolphus's Hist. of George III.</i> 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 +<i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xix. +pp. 971, 972. See further <i>Mém. de Lafayette</i>, vol. i. pp. 23, 25, 99.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_913_913" id="Footnote_913_913"></a><a href="#FNanchor_913_913"><span class="label">[913]</span></a> 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. <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, 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 +<i>Franklin's Correspondence</i>, vol. i. p. 352; <i>Adolphus's Hist. of George +III.</i> vol. ii. p. 261; <i>Burke's Works</i>, vol. i. p. 111; <i>Parl. Hist.</i> +vol. xviii. pp. 734, 951, 963, 964, vol. xix. pp. 259, 341, 710, 711, +1072; <i>Walpole's Mem. of George III.</i> vol. ii. p. 218.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_914_914" id="Footnote_914_914"></a><a href="#FNanchor_914_914"><span class="label">[914]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Hist. of George III.</i> vol. iii. pp. 391, 392. For proof +of the opinions held in foreign countries respecting this, I cannot do +better than refer to <i>Mém. de Ségur</i>, vol. iii. pp. 184, 185; <i>Œuvres +de Turgot</i>, vol. ix. p. 377; <i>Soulavie</i>, <i>Mém. de Louis XVI.</i> vol. iv. +pp. 363, 364; <i>Koch</i>, <i>Tableau des Révolutions</i>, vol. ii. pp. 190–194; +<i>Mem. of Mallet du Pan</i>, vol. i. p. 37.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_915_915" id="Footnote_915_915"></a><a href="#FNanchor_915_915"><span class="label">[915]</span></a> Sir John Sinclair, in his <i>Hist. of the Revenue</i>, vol. +ii. p. 114, says 139,171,876<i>l.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_916_916" id="Footnote_916_916"></a><a href="#FNanchor_916_916"><span class="label">[916]</span></a> Dr. Jebb, an able observer, thought that the American war +‘must be decisive of the liberties of both countries.’ <i>Disney's Life of +Jebb</i>, p. 92. So, too, Lord Chatham wrote in 1777, ‘poor England will +have fallen upon her own sword.’ <i>The Grenville Papers</i>, 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.’ <i>Burke's +Works</i>, vol. ii. p. 399. Compare vol. i. pp. 189, 210; <i>Parl. Hist.</i> +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 (<i>Russell's Mem. of Fox</i>, vol. i. p. 143); for which some +writers have actually accused him of want of patriotism!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_917_917" id="Footnote_917_917"></a><a href="#FNanchor_917_917"><span class="label">[917]</span></a> 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,—<i>the same consequences might follow</i>.’ +<i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxx. p. 155.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_918_918" id="Footnote_918_918"></a><a href="#FNanchor_918_918"><span class="label">[918]</span></a> Compare <i>Belsham's Hist. of Great Britain</i>, vol. viii. p. +490, with <i>Tomline's Life of Pitt</i>, vol. ii. p. 548. The letter to Lord +Gower, the English minister in Paris, is printed in <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. +xxx. pp. 143, 144. Its date is 17th August, 1792.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_919_919" id="Footnote_919_919"></a><a href="#FNanchor_919_919"><span class="label">[919]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Mem. of +Mallet du Pan</i>, vol. i. p. 146; and we are told in <i>Alison's Europe</i> +(vol. ii. pp. 199, 296, 315), that in 1792 Louis ‘anticipated the fate +of Charles I.’ Compare <i>Williams's Letters from France</i>, 2nd edit. 1796, +vol. iv. p. 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_920_920" id="Footnote_920_920"></a><a href="#FNanchor_920_920"><span class="label">[920]</span></a> Belsham (<i>Hist. of Great Britain</i>, 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 (<i>Tomline's +Pitt</i>, 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 <i>Belsham</i>, vol. viii. p. +530. The common opinion, therefore, seems correct, that the proximate +cause of hostilities was the execution of Louis. See <i>Alison's Hist.</i> +vol. ii. p. 522, vol. v. p. 249, vol. vi. p. 656; and <i>Newmarch</i>, in +<i>Journal of Statist. Soc.</i> vol. xviii. p. 108.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_921_921" id="Footnote_921_921"></a><a href="#FNanchor_921_921"><span class="label">[921]</span></a> Lord Brougham (<i>Sketches of Statesmen</i>, 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. <i>Life of +Wilberforce</i>, vol. ii. pp. 10, 72.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_922_922" id="Footnote_922_922"></a><a href="#FNanchor_922_922"><span class="label">[922]</span></a> 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, <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxx. pp. 413, 417, +1077, 1199, 1200, 1283, vol. xxxi. pp. 466, 592, 649, 680, 1036, 1047, +vol. xxxiii. pp. 603, 604; <i>Nicholls's Recollections</i>, vol. ii. pp. 156, +157.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_923_923" id="Footnote_923_923"></a><a href="#FNanchor_923_923"><span class="label">[923]</span></a> Lord Campbell (<i>Lives of the Chancellors</i>, 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 +<i>Brougham's Statesmen</i>, 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. <i>Stephens's Mem. of Horne Tooke</i>, vol. ii. p. 147; see also, +on this crisis, <i>Life of Cartwright</i>, 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. <i>Twiss's Life of +Eldon</i>, vol. i. pp. 185, 186. Compare <i>Holcroft's Memoirs</i>, vol. ii. pp. +180, 181.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_924_924" id="Footnote_924_924"></a><a href="#FNanchor_924_924"><span class="label">[924]</span></a> ‘Five days at least.’ <i>Stat. 36 George III.</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_925_925" id="Footnote_925_925"></a><a href="#FNanchor_925_925"><span class="label">[925]</span></a> 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.’ <i>36 George III.</i> c. 8, § 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_926_926" id="Footnote_926_926"></a><a href="#FNanchor_926_926"><span class="label">[926]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_927_927" id="Footnote_927_927"></a><a href="#FNanchor_927_927"><span class="label">[927]</span></a> ‘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.’ +<i>36 George III.</i> c. 8, § 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_928_928" id="Footnote_928_928"></a><a href="#FNanchor_928_928"><span class="label">[928]</span></a> <i>Stat. 39 George III.</i> c. 79, § 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_929_929" id="Footnote_929_929"></a><a href="#FNanchor_929_929"><span class="label">[929]</span></a> 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.’ <i>39 George III.</i> c. +79, § 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_930_930" id="Footnote_930_930"></a><a href="#FNanchor_930_930"><span class="label">[930]</span></a> 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.’ <i>39 George III.</i> c. 79, § 15. The +germ of this law may be found in <i>36 George III.</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_931_931" id="Footnote_931_931"></a><a href="#FNanchor_931_931"><span class="label">[931]</span></a> See the particulars in <i>Hunt's Hist. of Newspapers</i>, 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 <i>Manchester Herald</i> has had seven +different indictments preferred against him for paragraphs in his paper; +and six <i>different</i> indictments for selling or disposing of six +different copies of Paine,—all previous to the <i>trial</i> of Paine. The +man was opulent, supposed worth 20,000<i>l.</i>; but these different actions +will ruin him, as they were intended to do.’ <i>Currie's Life</i>, vol. i. +pp. 185, 186. See also a letter from Roscoe to Lord Lansdowne, in <i>Life +of Roscoe</i>, vol. i. p. 124; and <i>Mem. of Holcroft</i>, vol. ii. pp. 151, +152: ‘Printers and booksellers all over the kingdom were hunted out for +prosecution.’ See further, <i>Life of Cartwright</i>, vol. i. pp. 199, 200; +<i>Adolphus's Hist. of George III.</i> vol. v. pp. 525, 526; <i>Mem. of +Wakefield</i>, vol. ii. p. 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_932_932" id="Footnote_932_932"></a><a href="#FNanchor_932_932"><span class="label">[932]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Currie's Mem.</i> vol. i. p. 186. In 1795, Fox writes (<i>Russell's +Mem. of Fox</i>, 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 (<i>Parr's Works</i>, 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 (<i>Life of Watson</i>, 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.’ <i>Mem. of Priestley</i>, vol. i. pp. +198, 199.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_933_933" id="Footnote_933_933"></a><a href="#FNanchor_933_933"><span class="label">[933]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_934_934" id="Footnote_934_934"></a><a href="#FNanchor_934_934"><span class="label">[934]</span></a> ‘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>i.e.</i> 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.’ <i>Note in Parl. History</i>, +vol. xxxii. p. 381. It was at this period that Fox made the declaration +which I have quoted in the previous note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_935_935" id="Footnote_935_935"></a><a href="#FNanchor_935_935"><span class="label">[935]</span></a> It was called at the time the ‘Reign of Terror;’ and so +indeed it was for every opponent of government. See <i>Campbell's +Chancellors</i>, vol. vi. p. 441; <i>Mem. of Wakefield</i>, vol. ii. p. 67; and +<i>Trotter's Mem. of Fox</i>, p. 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_936_936" id="Footnote_936_936"></a><a href="#FNanchor_936_936"><span class="label">[936]</span></a> ‘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.’ <i>Cooke's Hist. of Party</i>, vol. iii. p. 447. On +the cruelty with which these political opponents of government were +treated when in prison, see <i>Stephens's Mem. of Tooke</i>, vol. ii. pp. 121, +125, 423; <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxxiv. pp. 112, 113, 126, 129, 170, 515, +vol. xxxv. pp. 742, 743; <i>Cloncurry's Recollections</i>, pp. 46, 86, 87, +140, 225.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_937_937" id="Footnote_937_937"></a><a href="#FNanchor_937_937"><span class="label">[937]</span></a> <i>Life of Currie</i>, vol. ii. p. 160; <i>Stephens's Mem. of +Tooke</i>, vol. ii. pp. 118, 119.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_938_938" id="Footnote_938_938"></a><a href="#FNanchor_938_938"><span class="label">[938]</span></a> In 1793, Roscoe writes: ‘Every man is called on to be a +spy upon his brother.’ <i>Life of Roscoe</i>, vol. i. p. 127. Compare Fox's +statement (<i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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 <i>Coleridge's Biog. Lit.</i> (vol. i. p. 192), on the extent of ‘secret +defamation,’ in and after 1793. For further evidence of this horrible +state of society, see <i>Mem. of Holcroft</i>, vol. ii. pp. 150, 151; +<i>Stephens's Mem. of Horne Tooke</i>, vol. ii. pp. 115, 116.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_939_939" id="Footnote_939_939"></a><a href="#FNanchor_939_939"><span class="label">[939]</span></a> There was even considerable difficulty in finding a +printer for Tooke's great philological work, <i>The Diversions of Purley</i>. +See <i>Stephens's Mem. of Tooke</i>, vol. ii. pp. 345–348. In 1798, Fox wrote +to Cartwright (<i>Life of Cartwright</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_940_940" id="Footnote_940_940"></a><a href="#FNanchor_940_940"><span class="label">[940]</span></a> 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. <i>Life +of Currie</i>, vol. i. pp. 330, 332; <i>Life of Wilberforce</i>, vol. i. pp. +342–344, vol. ii. pp. 18, 133; <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxx. p. 654, vol. +xxxi. p. 467, vol. xxxiii. p. 1387, vol. xxxiv. pp. 1119, 1485.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_941_941" id="Footnote_941_941"></a><a href="#FNanchor_941_941"><span class="label">[941]</span></a> <i>Life of Cartwright</i>, vol. i. p. 209; <i>Hunt's Hist. of +Newspapers</i>, vol. ii. p. 104; <i>Belsham's Hist.</i> vol. ix. p. 227; +<i>Adolphus's Hist.</i> vol. vi. p. 264; <i>Annual Register for 1795</i>, pp. 156, +160; <i>Stephens's Mem. of Tooke</i>, vol. ii. p. 118; <i>Life of Currie</i>, vol. +i. p. 172; <i>Campbell's Chancellors</i>, vol. vi. p. 316, vol. vii. p. 316; +<i>Life of Wilberforce</i>, vol. iv. pp. 369, 377; <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. xxxi. +pp. 543, 667, 668, 1067, vol. xxxii. pp. 296, 302, 366, 367, 374, 664, +vol. xxxv. pp. 1538, 1540; <i>Holcroft's Memoirs</i>, vol. ii. p. 190.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_942_942" id="Footnote_942_942"></a><a href="#FNanchor_942_942"><span class="label">[942]</span></a> In addition to the passages referred to in the preceding +note; compare <i>Hutton's Life of Himself</i>, p. 209, +with <i>Campbell's Chancellors</i>, vol. vi. p. 441, vol. vii. p. 104, and +<i>Adolphus's Hist. of George III.</i> vol. vi. p. 45. In 1798, Caldwell +wrote to Sir James Smith (<i>Correspondence of Sir J. E. Smith</i>, 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.’</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_943_943" id="Footnote_943_943"></a><a href="#FNanchor_943_943"><span class="label">[943]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Parl. Hist.</i> 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 <i>Life of +Currie</i>, vol. i. p. 506.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_944_944" id="Footnote_944_944"></a><a href="#FNanchor_944_944"><span class="label">[944]</span></a> See decisive evidence of this, in <i>Porter's Progress of +the Nation</i>, vol. ii. pp. 283–285; and, on the enormous increase of +expense and taxation, see <i>Pellew's Life of Sidmouth</i>, vol. i. p. 358, +vol. ii. p. 47.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_945_945" id="Footnote_945_945"></a><a href="#FNanchor_945_945"><span class="label">[945]</span></a> 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.’—<i>Nicholl's Recollections</i>, vol. i. p. +213.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_946_946" id="Footnote_946_946"></a><a href="#FNanchor_946_946"><span class="label">[946]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Cooke's Hist. of Party</i>, vol. iii. p. 435. Compare +<i>Godwin on Population</i>, p. 569.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_947_947" id="Footnote_947_947"></a><a href="#FNanchor_947_947"><span class="label">[947]</span></a> Lord Cockburn (<i>Life of Jeffrey</i>, 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!’ <i>Porter's Progress of the Nation</i>, vol. iii. +p. 205.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_948_948" id="Footnote_948_948"></a><a href="#FNanchor_948_948"><span class="label">[948]</span></a> See chapters ix. and x., on the history of the protective +spirit.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_949_949" id="Footnote_949_949"></a><a href="#FNanchor_949_949"><span class="label">[949]</span></a> Sir A. Alison notices in his <i>History</i>, (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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_950_950" id="Footnote_950_950"></a><a href="#FNanchor_950_950"><span class="label">[950]</span></a> 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.’ <i>Harford's Life of +Burgess</i>, 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 (<i>Tomline's +Life of Pitt</i>, 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 <i>Bishop Watson's Life of +Himself</i>, 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.’ <i>Twiss's Life of Eldon</i>, vol. ii. p. 202.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_951_951" id="Footnote_951_951"></a><a href="#FNanchor_951_951"><span class="label">[951]</span></a> 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. <i>Lewis on the Methods of Observation and Reasoning +in Politics</i>, 1852, vol. ii. pp. 360–362. A writer of repute, M. +Flassan, says (<i>Hist. de la Diplomatie</i>, 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.</p></div> +</div> + +<p class="title">END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + +<p class="title">LONDON: PRINTED BY<br /> +SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br /> +AND PARLIAMENT STREET</p> + +<hr class="hr65" /> + +<div class="note"> +<p style="text-align: center;"><b>Transcriber's Note</b></p> + +<p>The original spelling and minor inconsistencies in the spelling and formatting have +been maintained.</p> + +<p>Inconsistent hyphenation and accents are as in the original if not marked +as a misprint.</p> + +<table summary="corrections"> + <tr> + <td><b>The table below lists all corrections applied to the original text.</b></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. v: -5 → 4–5</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. vi: 154–156 → 152–156</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. xi: the authorship → the authorship.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. xvii: his Life, written by Himself. → himself.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. xix: edit. Meibomius. Amstel. → Amstel,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. xxi: Diplomatie Erançaise → Française</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. xxi: London, 1818. 2 vols → vols.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. xxviii: A Journey though → through</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. xxxvi: of 1569. London, 1840 → 1840.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. xxxviii: Literature. London, 1849 → 1849.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. xli: The Journals of. London → The Journals of London</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. xlii: Camd. Soc. 1848 4to → 1848. 4to.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 22: not always absolutely, → absolutely.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 40: vol. vi. p. 136. → 136,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 54: with the greater rapidity. → rapidity.’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 57: one and a half per cent. → cent</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 60: Carus' Comparative Anatomy → Carus's</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 64: when it is over-supplied → over-supplied.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 64: ‘Cabanis → '‘Cabanis’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 64: <i>Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia</i> → <i>Arabia</i>,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 64: Déscrition → Description</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 64: Ulloa' → Ulloa's</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 64: vol. i. pp. 379, 380, 460,; → 460;</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 66: Phillip's on Scrofula → Phillips</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 69: So too, in North America → So, too, in North America</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 70: Theatre of the Indus → Hindus</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 72: Craufurd's History → Crawfurd's History</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 72: <i>Journal of Geograph. Society</i>, vol → vol.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 72: l'AmériqueMéridionale → l'Amérique Méridionale</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 80: he be divested? → divested?’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 84: 170, 213; <i>Bowditch</i> → <i>Bowdich</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 94: throughout, the laying → 'throughout</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 97: in nearly 9° north. → north.’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 97: p.113. → p. 113.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 103: vol. ii. p. 113, → vol. ii. p. 113;</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 108: was 21°,on the → was 21°, on the</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 109: of elevation. → elevation.’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 111: l.'<i>Humboldt</i> → l'<i>Humboldt</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 113: belonged to the people. → people.’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 119: natural progress → natural progress.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 122: <i>Brit. Assoc. for</i> 1850, p. 68; → p. 68);</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 123: comme Science d' Observation → d'Observation</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 126: they apprehend danger. → danger.’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 126: Garrows or Garrudus. → Garrudus.’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 130: vol. i. p. 41; → 41,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 130: <i>Phillips on Scrofula</i>, p. 255: → 255;</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 133: <i>Religiöse Bildung der Hindus</i>, vol → vol.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 135: <i>Asiatic Researches</i> → <i>Asiatic Researches</i>.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 137: Speculationen über Zahlen → ‘Speculationen</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 143: Müller's Hist → Müller's Hist.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 147: Stephen's Central America → Stephens's</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 148: <i>Béclard</i>. → <i>Béclard</i>,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 150: The views of Liebeg → Liebig</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 158: can be raised → can be raised.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 158: <i>Locke's Works</i>, vol. i, → vol. i.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 164: generalized <i>solely</i> from from the → <i>solely</i> from the</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 167: ich mir noch and ere → andere</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 170: <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. iii, → vol. iii.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 171: promises the metphysicians → metaphysicians</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 177: Geoffroy Saint Hilaire → Saint-Hilaire</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 177: <i>Hist. de la Médecine</i>, vol. i. p. 380; → p. 380,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 183: vol. ii. p. 304 → 304.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 193: Ideen zur Gesckichte → Ideen zur Geschichte</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 197: l'intelligence, la seule q'uon → qu'on</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 205: and a dagger → dagger.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 207: sur ce sujet. → sujet.’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 208: became clearly recognied → recognized</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 211: balancing of trade. → trade.’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 212: <i>Mill's History of India</i>, vol → vol.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 215: pp. 834, 905 → 905,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 249: Nichol's Literary Illustrations → Nichols's,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 256: le plus éclairé. → éclairé.’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 267: <i>Geschichte der Philosophie</i>, vol. ii, → vol. ii.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 293: vol. iii. pp. 383. → 383,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 294: Œuvresde → Œuvres de</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 295: Poetry, 1840 → 1840,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 302: have for upwards of 2000 years → 2,000 years</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 302: extending back 3000 years → 3,000 years</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 304: from Madagascar to within 2000 miles → 2,000 miles</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 304: in Polynesia Proper → proper</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 310: Troyens, par Pàris → Paris</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 314: vol. ii. p. 389 → 389.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 315: prædicatorem,’ p. 360 → 360.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 325: progress was unmistakeable → unmistakable</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 330: of mathematics at Tubingen → Tübingen</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 332: <i>Biog. Univ.</i> → <i>Biog. Univ.</i>,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 342: ‘Quodque in illis → Quodque in illis</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 358: pp. 572, 577 → 577.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 375: <i>Richardson's Travels in the Sahara</i>, vol. i. p 11 → p. 11</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 378: Cudworth's Intellect → Intellect.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 379: affected by uncontrolable → uncontrollable</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 389: In another place, vol → vol.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 392: Chalmers' Biographical → Chalmers's</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 393: Chalmers' Biog. → Chalmers's Biog.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 397: vol. ii. pp. 52. → 52,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 404: September 1688 (<i>Ellis</i> → <i>Ellis</i>,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 409: <i>Parl. Hist.</i> vol. v → vol. v.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 411: vol. ii. pp. 640. → p. 640.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 412: 72 Calamy → 172 Calamy</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 423: Southey's Wesley, pp → pp.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 425: Whateley's Dangers → Whately's</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 426: Hist.of Moral → Hist. of Moral</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 429: eighteenth century. Proviously → Previously</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 434: vol. ii. p. 29), it become → became</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 437: with plenty of ‘parentheses’! → ‘parentheses!’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 442: such efforts to instil → instill</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 445: <i>Mahon's Hist. of England</i>, vol. v → vol. v.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 447: So too Lord Campbell → So, too, Lord Campbell</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 449: rectitude of their hearts. → hearts.’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 451: Dutens' Mémoires → Dutens's</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 453: So too Sheridan → So, too, Sheridan</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 465: the very sound of them. → them.’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 467: vol. i. pp. 43. → 43,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 468: <i>Buckingham's Mem. of George III.</i> 1853. → 1853,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 474: the united sovereigns → ‘the united sovereigns</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 475: a <i>long</i> war. → war.’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 477: <i>Bisset's Life of Burke</i>, vol → vol.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 480: ‘Without stopping to relate → Without stopping to relate</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 481: vol. i. p. 352, → vol. i. p. 352;</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 481: says 139,171,876<i>l</i> → 139,171,876<i>l.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 487: Stephen's Mem. of → Stephens's</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 493: immediately assented, p. 385–387. → pp. 385–387.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 494: <i>Stephens's Mem. of Tooke</i>, vol → vol.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 494: Compare Fox's statment → statement</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 494: to erect every man,not → man, not</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 494: Mem. of Horne Tooke → Mem. of Horne Tooke,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>p. 496: See also vol. xxxv. p. 609, 610. → pp. 609, 610.</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44493 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/44493-h/images/cover.jpg b/44493-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..547f350 --- /dev/null +++ b/44493-h/images/cover.jpg |
