the race has not become extinct. If in such a state of society, population could increase, and be supported, what may we not expect in an age of peace, art, science and industry. Man is not always to waste his energies in strife and licentiousness. Slow as his progress is, he is growing wiser. Terrible as the struggle has been, terrible as it still is, and for centuries promises to be, the mass of the people are yet to be elevated. The universal conviction of civilized nations, the providence of God in the overthrow of tyrannical governments, and in the establishment of popular institutionsright, reason, justice, conscience, prophecy-every thing-proclaims this to be the destiny of the human race. We are not wandering into Utopia, but are still surrounded by the familiar landmarks of our own part of the world, while we see the shadows of a coming state of society lovelier and better than has yet been known. In causes already in operation, the progressive state of the useful arts and sciences, the general and thorough education of the people, the efforts made for the suppression of vice, we have a pledge of human advancement surpassing all the experience of the past, realizing all our predictions of the fu ture. If prophecy did not point to this universal elevation of the race, the events of the last three centuries would lead us to expect it. Every improvement from the printing press to the telegraph, has pointed in this direction. A better cultivation of the earth must follow the progress of man in intelligence and virtue. Human life will be more secure; as a race, man will live longer; his body will be more vigorous; he will be more willing to labor and know how to labor to better advantage; his taste will be more refined; and his love of the beautiful will prompt him to adorn the earth which he cultivates. The race will be multiplied many fold, and every man will want

not only the necessaries of life, but all that can minister to his comfort and enjoyment-and the result must be, the renovation of the earth. The wilderness will be turned into a garden. The desert will blossom as the rose. Notwithstanding the devastations of war, famine, pestilence and vice, the present population of the earth is supposed to be about nine hundred millions. It has been calculated that North America might support the whole, without any improvements in agriculture. So long as there are millions of fertile acres uncultivated and tens of millions which can readily be made fertile," no measures need be devised to suppress population," or to kill off the surplus. Where there is thought to be a redundance of population, it is demonstrabie that if all the land were allowed to be cultivated, double the number of inhabitants could be supported. In Ireland one-eighth of the population, we are told, have died for want of subsistence. But not a fourth of the soil is under cultivation. Previous to the French Revolution of 1790, starvation was common among the peasantry; more dying for want of bread every year, than were killed during the reign of terror. And the cry of "over-population," was heard; but it came from those whose hunting grounds, if cultivated, would have given abundance to every family. Some parts of Europe, and the southern part of Asia, are thickly popu lated; though by no means in proportion to the capabilities of the soil. But what shall we say of North and South America, Central and Northern Asia, Africa, New Holland, Russia, and the islands of the Ocean? In all these countries there is the smallest fraction of population compared with what the land might sustain. We say this, of those tracts which can be tilled with compara. tive ease, and with the means already in use. But let agricultural science and the physical force which has

hitherto been expended in war, crime and folly, be applied to the work of cultivating the soil, and scarcely a mountain top or sandy desert can withstand the onset. If any state in Europe will for a century to come, make the effort to cultivate the soil, which it has expended in war alone, every acre of land will wear the aspect of a fertile field. Richard Arkwright has already a monument to his memory more glorious than any ancient conqueror. Professor Liebig shall be called blessed long after military heroism has ceased to be eulogized.

The tables are turning. A new era has dawned. The world is squaring accounts with feudalism, and tyranny; the reckoning may be long and difficult, perhaps fearful, for the conviction is keen that there has been foul play. But of the final result there can be no doubt. Society will assume new forms, become cemented by new and nobler interests, and aim at nobler objects. We are not disposed to be severe, much less revengeful, towards the past. We see much to praise. We are not unmindful that we are reaping many rich harvests, the result of past toil and suffering. We well know that we are still tolerating some of the sorest evils which have cursed the race. Perfection, in every thing, is of slow growth. It required many geological ages to prepare the world for man-to per fect its strata, to make ready its soil. These were ages of commotion and attrition. It was necessary that it should be thus with the growth and perfection of society.

But

while we gaze with mingled emotions of sadness and sublimity at the fearful grandeur of the revolutions and plunges of the sweltering chaos, we contemplate the fertility and beauty, the quiet and blessedness of the final result with unmingled delight. That it will always be necessary to have these convulsions continue-these scenes of des

olation acted over, to keep the moral world from stagnation, we can not believe. We look for the promised age of peace, when it shall be the ambition of rulers and subjects, to subdue the earth to such a state of fertility. In that day the great. ness of a nation will depend on the amount of its productive industry. Gunpowder will be still needed to blast rocks and level mountainsnot to desolate kingdoms. Great men will still pant for "deeds of great renown." But glory will lie in a new direction. The world will continue to honor its heroes, but they will be of a different character. In that day men will be praised for the blessings they confer and not for the miseries they inflict.

In

One great feature of this approaching change will be the more equal division of land, and consequently its more thorough cultiva tion. The tendency of all modern revolutions is to this result. many countries no change for the better can possibly take place without it. No other cause has operated so powerfully in Europe to impoverish the people as the monopoly of the soil by a few proprietors. The laborer has had to toil for a pittance under the pressure of rents and taxes, a tenth part of which would drive a New Englander mad. And yet under these hard condi tions, the laboring class has lived and multiplied. What then may not be accomplished under a better arrangement-such as we enjoy in this country-perfected by experi ence-securing to every industrious man a chance of bettering his condition-of becoming a landholder-of owning the spot he cultivates? Then may we expect him to make his house the abode of plenty. A man may support himself and nine others, with no unusual means of cultivation and within the ordinary hours of labor. But improvements in the art of agriculture will be made. Institutions have been

endowed for the purpose. We are yet to have not only professors of agriculture in the University, but the practical applications of science to tillage, are to be taught in our public schools. We have no opinion to express as to the extent that land will be subdivided and owned by the cultivator. Theories upon this point are useless. When God distributed Palestine among the Hebrews, He made provision for each tribe and family. And from the law respecting the restoration of forfeited or alienated land at stated periods, we know that He designed a good degree of equality. The abolition of the laws of entail as connected with primogeniture, would, in some countries, lead to the most beneficial results. A change in this one particular would affect the whole social state. We can not well see how legislation can do more for a people in respect to the division of land than it has done in our own country. The division of farms at the decease of the owner among his several heirs, is an admirable feature of our system. Our farmers generally, it is believed, expend their efforts upon too large a surface. The minute subdivison of land leads to a more thorough cultivation, so that production is thereby increased and the whole face of the country improved. Whether it would be wise to limit the ownership of land to a certain number of acres, to each individual, we do not pretend to decide. But if there is any foundation for what we have said respecting the progress of man, there is also for believing that not only nomadic tribes but great landholders must give place to those who will cultivate the soil. The earth must be laid open to the plough; and the laborer must be a freeman, tilling his own fields or receiving wages for his services to another. He who toils as a mere serf or slave, hopeless and heartless, is not the man to transform the wilderness into a gar

den. He may dig from the earth a living for himself and his master, but he will not subdue the earth nor can he advance in knowledge and virtue like the free and cheerful laborer. Severe as God's curse upon the earth was, he did not doom it to be a slave plantation. Man has made it so to a melancholy extent. God's sentence was, that it should be a field of labor, that by means of labor man should earn his living and promote his welfare. Should the time ever come when all men labor for themselves in some useful calling, and avoid the vice of prodigality, every family will have an attractive home, and every mind be thoroughly educated. Let that time come. Let one change succeed another in the tenure of property, so long as any abuse remains to be corrected or any improvement to be made. Let the human race go upon their great mission of labor -tasking their utmost capacities— and forcing the reluctant earth into a luxuriant field.

We admit that in most countries there are apparently insuperable obstacles in the way of a more equal division of land-such a division and ownership as shall lead to the most thorough and profitable culti vation of the soil. Violent revolutions, we hope, will not be needed to effect this object. But it must be realized. We predict no absolute equality. Different degrees of wealth will continue as long as men differ in economy, enterprise and skill; and this will be till the end of time. But the monstrous inequality that has forced the mass of the race into hopeless poverty, must, in the course of events, come to an end. Or if a landed aristocracy is still to exist, it will be upon such conditions as shall give the laborer a full remuneration for his services and every encouragement to exertion.

What we have said has reference to the progress of society in civilized countries. If we can read the

destiny of civilized man, we know what must ultimately be that of half civilized and barbarous nations. The facilities of intercourse assure us of the final elevation of the whole family of man. The romance of distance is at an end. A man that has traveled ten thousand miles is no longer a curiosity. The charm is broken. Mankind are hastening, some for commercial purposes, and others impelled by humanity and Christian faith, to the remotest regions of the earth. The empire of the Great Khan has revealed its mysteries. Timbuctoo is no longer an Eldorado, but a poor emporium for salt, ivory and gums. The Niger now, like all sensible rivers, runs into the ocean. The earth with its inhabitants, is well known. Many of the most fertile and beautiful portions of the earth, once densely populated, are now desolate; barbarism has taken the place of ancient civilization. But science, and literature, art, commerce and Christianity, on visiting those slumbering nations will breathe into them a nobler life. They will carry with them elements of progress and permanency never before known. Peace instead of war will follow as a matter of principle as well as of policy, with industry and skill in its train; and the consequence will be an abundance of the material of living, of enjoyment, and of mental culture, for all classes, for the lowest as well as the highest. The few shall no longer enslave the many; but the earth shall be for man according to the original grant of the Creator. The natural fertility of Asia and Africa, and their inexhaustible résources for agricultural improvement, are awaiting the new life which Christianity and a higher civilization will impart to those benighted regions.

How soon our expectations will be realized, we do not pretend to foresee. The divine plan may, for aught we can say, require many VOL. VI.

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generations for its fulfillment. That the plan is far from being completed is evident. In this day many interpreters of the prophets are very sanguine and very impatient. They declare that they can not see any provision for time beyond a few years. But we find no such revelation in the word of God-no time specified when the earth shall be destroyed, or the present order of things changed. But we do find the Bible full of promises of an unknown future of universal righteousness; and every step of progress toward this result is a pledge that the earth shall again yield her increase that every portion of it shall be subdued to the use of man. The Great Ruler of the world will take time to complete this plan. He finishes all that He begins. He would not commission man to subdue the earth and withdraw the commission as soon as man had learned the true science of cultivation. Nor would He send his servants to proclaim salvation to all nations, and recall them from the work as soon as they were commencing it in earnest. The clear tendency of. things is towards a millenial state. This progress has been growing more and more rapid for three centuries. It is a general progress,— embracing every thing that can elevate and bless mankind. We are just coming into possession of knowledge that will make this progress sure and permanent. And God will not stay its onward course till man's mission of labor is accomplished, and the race redeemed.

There is progress.

A day of peace is promised; and shall it not be as long as the days of war have been? A day of light, also; and shall it not be as bright as the night has been dark? Knowledge is to fill the earth; and will it not flow wherever there is ignorance to be enlightened? Sin has abounded; and grace shall much more abound. The sword is to be chang

A WARLIKE as well as a lewd and effeminate age is known by its literature. We can not doubt that the reign of Charles II. was infamous for the licentiousness of the court and the people, when the books of that period so clearly evince the fact; when history recorded, without a blush, the debauchery and vile intrigues of the King and his ministers, and biography celebrated the exploits of the most depraved characters; when low satires and amatory songs became the popular poetry; when the drama exhibited, without a moral, shameful scenes of vice, and the performers were applauded in proportion to their skill in representing the basest passions; when the adventures of a Rochester and a Buckingham were themes of romance; when the elegant arts partook of the general corruption, music lent its voluptuous swell" to the lascivious dances of lords and ladies, and painting was employed in the production of obscene pictures and in displaying the beauty of the king's mistresses; and though Milton lived in this degenerate age, among the writers of the day, "his muse appeared like the chaste lady of the Masque-lofty, spotless and serene." The age of chivalry was fruitful not only in deeds of valor and courtesy-in the adventures of roving knights, rapacious barons,

*Washington and his Generals, by J. T. Headley. Baker & Scribner, New York.

and the exploits of the crusaders, but in descriptions of battles and tournaments, tales of Arthur and Charlemagne, rules of chivalry, the martial legends of the monks, and the metrical fictions of the Trouveurs.

The heroic periods of our own country are marked by corresponding illuminations along the path of her literature. The war of the revolution, undertaken for the establishment of colonial rights, waged for independence, and won through valor and patriotism, closed amidst the general rejoicing of an emanci pated people. The writers of that day, sympathizing with the soldier, proclaimed their sentiments in pamphlets, sermons, orations, narratives, memoirs, histories, which furnished materials to subsequent writers for an endless succession of martial books. In the war of 1812, prosecuted for the defense of " free trade and sailors' rights," when our navy won victories on sea and lake, and our chivalry renown behind logs and cotton bags, and our invincible columns marched up to Canada and then marched back again,—the Browns, the Jacksons, the Woods, the Wools, the Scotts, the Ripleys, the Pikes, the Perrys, the Hulls, the Macdonoughs, the Decaturs, lived in countless volumes of heroic story, to mark the time of their achievements by the warlike tone of our literature. The "Peninsular campaign," or the conquest of some live Indians, of the Seminole tribe,