entitled to look forward. For our own part, we will confess we have no such expectations. There will be improvements, we make no doubt, in all the mechanical and domestic arts;-better methods of working metal, and preparing cloth-more commodious vehicles, and more efficient implements of war. Geography will be made more complete, and astronomy more precise-natural history will be enlarged and digested; and perhaps some little improvement suggested in the forms of administering law. But as to any general enlargement of the understanding, or more prevailing vigour of judgment, we will own, than the tendency seems to be all the other way; and that we think strong sense, and extended views of human affairs, are more likely to be found, and to be listened to at this moment, than two or three hundred years hereafter. The truth is, we suspect, that the vast and enduring products of the virgin soil can no longer be reared in that factitious mould to which cultivation has since given existence; and that its forced and deciduous progeny will go on degenerating, till some new deluge shall restore the vigour of the glebe by a temporary destruction of all its generations.

Hitherto we have spoken only of the higher and more instructive classes of society, to whom it is reasonable to suppose that the perfection of wisdom and happiness will come first, in their progress through the whole race of men; and we have seen what reason there is to doubt of their near approach. The lower orders however, we think, have still less good fortune to reckon on. In the whole history of the species, there has been nothing at all comparable to the improvement of England within the last century; never any where was there such an increase of wealth and luxury—so many admirable inventions in the arts-so many works of learning and ingenuity -such a progress in cultivation-such an enlargement of commerce ;—and yet, in that century, the number of paupers in England has increased fourfold, and is now rated at one-tenth of her whole population; and, notwithstanding the enormous sums that are levied and given privately for their relief, and the multitudes that are drained off by the waste of war, the peace of the country is perpetually threatened by the outrages of famishing multitudes. This fact of itself is decisive, we think, as to the effect of general refinement and intelligence on the condition of the lower orders; but it is not difficult to trace the steps of its operation. Increasing refinement and ingenuity lead naturally to the establishment of manufactures; and not only enable society to spare a great proportion of its agricultural labourers for this purpose, but actually encourage the breeding of an additional population, to be maintained out of the profits of this new occupation. For a time, too, this answers; and the artisan shares in the conveniencies to which his labours have contributed to give birth: but it is in the very nature of the manufacturing system to be liable to great fluctuation, occasional check, and possible destruction; and, at all events, it has a tendency to produce a greater population than it can permanently support in comfort or prosperity. The average rate of wages, for the last forty years, has been insufficient to maintain a labourer with a tolerably large family;—and yet such have been the occasional fluctuations, and such the sanguine calculations of persons incapable of taking a comprehensive view of the whole, that the manufacturing population has been prodigiously increased in the same period. It is the interest of the manufacturer to keep this population in excess, as the only sure means of keeping wages low; and wherever the mean of subsistence are uncertain, and liable to variation, it seems to be the general law of our na

ture, that the population should be adapted to the highest, and not to the average rate of supply. In India, where a dry season used to produce a failure of the crop, once in every ten or twelve years, the population was always up to the measure of the greatest abundance; and in manufacturing countries, the miscalculation is still more sanguine and erroneous. Such countries, therefore, are always overpeopled; and it seems to be the necessary effect of increasing talent and refinement, to convert all countries into this denomination. China, the oldest manufacturing nation in the world, and by far the greatest that ever existed with the use of little machinery, has always suffered from a redundant population, and has always kept the largest part of its inhabitants in a state of the greatest poverty.

The effect then which is produced on the lower orders of society, by that increase of industry and refinement, and that multiplication of conveniences which are commonly looked upon as the surest tests of increasing prosperity, is to convert the peasants into manufacturers, and the manufacturers into paupers; while the chance of their ever emerging from this condition becomes constantly less, the more complete and mature the system is which had originally produced it. When manufactures are long established, and thoroughly understood, it will always be found, that persons possessed of a large capital can carry them on upon lower profits than persons of any other description; and the natural tendency of this system, therefore, is to throw the whole business into the hands of great capitalists; and thus not only to render it next to impossible for a common workman to advance himself into the condition of a master, but to drive from the competition the greater part of those moderate dealers by whose prosperity alone the general happiness of the nation can be promoted. The state of the operative manufacturers, therefore, seems every day more hopelessly stationary; and that great body of the people, it appears to us, is likely to grow into a fixed and degraded caste, out of which no person can hope to escape who has once been enrolled among its members. They cannot look up to the rank of master manufacturers; because, without capital, it will every day be more impossible to engage in that occupation,-and back they cannot go to the labours of agriculture, because there is no demand for their services. The improved system of farming furnishes an increased produce with many fewer hands than were formerly employed in procuring a much smaller return; and besides all this, the lower population has actually increased to a far greater amount than ever was at any time employed in the cultivation of the ground.

To remedy all these evils, which are likely, as we conceive, to be aggravated, rather than relieved, by the general progress of refinement and intelligence, we have little to look to but the beneficial effects of this increasing intelligence upon the lower orders themselves; -and we are far from undervaluing this influence. By the universal adoption of a good system of education, habits of foresight and self-control, and rigid economy, may in time no doubt be pretty generally introduced, instead of the improvidence and profligacy which too commonly characterise the larger assemblages of our manufacturing population; and if these lead, as they are likely to do, to the general institution of Friendly Societies among the workmen, a great palliative will have been provided for the disadvantages of a situation, which must always be considered as one of the least fortunate which Providence has assigned to any of the human race.

There is no end, however, we find, to these speculations; and we must

VOL. III.

15

here close our remarks on Perfectibility, without touching upon the political changes which are likely to be produced by a long course of progressive refinements and scientific improvement-though we are afraid that an enlightened anticipation would not be much more cheering in this view than in any of those we have hitherto considered. Luxury and refinement have a tendency undoubtedly to make men sensual and selfish; and, in that state, increased talent and intelligence is apt only to render them more mercenary and servile. Among the prejudices which this kind of philosophy roots out, that of patriotism is among the first to be surmounted;and then, a dangerous opposition to power, and a sacrifice of interest to affection, speedily come to be considered as romantic. Arts are discovered to palliate the encroachments of arbitrary power; and a luxurious, patronising, and vicious monarchy is firmly established amidst the adulations of a corrupt nation.

STRICTURES ON MAD. DE STAEL'S ESTIMATE OF THE METAPHYSICAL SYSTEMS OF GERMANY.*

The few persons in Great Britain who continue to take an interest in speculative philosophy, will certainly complain of some injustice in Mad. de Staël's work in her estimate of metaphysical systems.

The moral painter of nations is indeed more authorised than the speculative philosopher to try these opinions by their tendencies and results. When the logical consequences of an opinion are false, the opinion itself must also be false but whether the supposed pernicious influence of the adoption, or habitual contemplation of an opinion, be a legitimate objection to the opinion itself, is a question which has not yet been decided to the general satisfaction, nor perhaps even stated with sufficient precision.

:

There are certain facts in human nature, derived either from immediate consciousness or unvarying observation, which are more certain than the conclusions of any abstract reasoning, and which metaphysical theories are destined only to explain. That a theory is at variance with such facts, and logically leads to the denial of their existence, is a strictly philosophical objection to the theory that there is a real distinction between right and wrong, in some measure apprehended and felt by all men that moral sentiments and disinterested affections, however originating, are actually a part of our nature that praise and blame, reward and punishment, may be properly bestowed on actions according to their moral character,-are principles as much more indubitable as they are more important than any theoretical conclusions. Whether they be demonstrated by reason, or perceived by intuition, or revealed by a primitive sentiment, they are equally indispensable parts of every sound mind. Every reasonable man is entitled instantly to reject a new opinion avowedly repugnant to those convictions from which he cannot depart. They are facts, which it is the office of theory to explain, and which no true theory can deny. But the mere inconvenience or danger of an opinion can never be allowed as an argument against its truth. It is indeed the duty of every good man to

* De l'Allemagne, par Mad. de Staël.-Vol. xxii. page 227. October, 1813.

present to the public what he believes to be truth, in such a manner as may least wound the feelings or disturb the principles of the simple and the ignorant and that duty is not always easily reconcilable with the duties of sincerity and free enquiry.-The collision of such conflicting duties is the painful and inevitable consequence of the ignorance of the multitude, and of the immature state, even in the highest minds, of the great talent for presenting truth under all its aspects, and adapting it to all the degrees of capacity or varieties of prejudice which distinguish men. That talent must one day be formed; and we may be perfectly assured that the whole of truth can never be injurious to the whole of virtue.

In the mean time, eloquent philosophers* would act more magnanimously, and therefore, perhaps, more wisely,-if they were to suspend, during discussion, their moral anger against doctrines which they deem pernicious; and while they estimate actions, habits, and institutions by their tendency, if they were to weigh opinions in the mere balance of reason, virtue in action required the impulse of sentiment, and even of enthusiasm. But in theoretical researches, her champions must not appear to decline the combat on any ground chosen by their adversaries, and, least of all, on that of intellect. To call in the aid of popular feelings in philosophical contests is some avowal of weakness. It seems a more magnanimous wisdom to defy attack from every quarter, and by every weapon; and to use no topics which can be thought to imply an unworthy doubt whether the principles of virtue be impregnable by argument, or to betray an irreverent distrust of the final and perfect harmony between morality and truth.

Our moral philosophers will wonder that Mad. de Staël seems to be acquainted with the doctrine of utility, only in the offensive form of universal selfishness. In this respect it is true, she resembles the German philosophers. But the selfish system, properly so called, has long been exploded in this island. Hobbes, the last philosopher of high rank who espoused it, has indeed discovered wonderful power in the analysis of perception and reason; but his superiority forsakes him when he attempts a theory of emotion and sentiment. The character of system has been foolishly ascribed to the maxims of the Duc de la Rochefoucault ;- -a series of poignant and brilliant epigrams, with the usual epigrammatic exaggeration against the selfishness of the world, by a disinterested, affectionate and gallant man. With not less absurdity, the title of the founder of an ethical theory has been bestowed on Mandeville, a satirist for the populace, with a coarse athletic understanding, and a fancy that contemplated only the low and ludicrous aspects of human nature, but eminently endowed with the talents of vulgar drollery or plebeian declamation. Perhaps it must be allowed that Paley has made too near approaches, especially in his definition of virtue, to this system. He was a person of unrivalled practical understanding. His prudential counsels are admirable; and he is one of the safest guides through human life. But he rather teaches duty than inspires virtue. His school is more likely to form blameless and respectable men, than to send forth those moral heroes who are not afraid to die for their beloved friends or for their country. Neither his understanding nor his character peculiarly fitted him for a theorist. Nature had endowed and disposed him for the conduct of affairs. He was averse from the subtleties of speculation, and he perhaps looked with the contempt natural to the stern

The observation may be applied to Cicero and Stewart, Philos. Ess. 186., as well as Mad. de Staël.

shrewdness of the world on that ardour and that refinement of feeling which alone can reveal to us some of the most important secrets of our own moral constitution. Reason, without sensibility, is as much without materials in morals, as she would be without the eye, in inquiries into the nature of light and colours. But, in justice to this eminent and excellent person, the principal ornament of the English church in the last half century, it must be added, that the species of interest held out by religion, being remote from us, unlike the vulgar objects which are commonly comprehended under the name of interest, and, from its sublime and inscrutable nature, capable of being refined by a pure mind, until synonymous with indefinite progress in reason and virtue, has little of that tendency to lower the moral sentiments which cannot be denied to belong to systems of prudential ethics, founded on a perpetual calculation of the near and gross interests of the present world. Nor must it be forgotten, that the ardour of the devotional affections must render the religious moralist unconsciously disinterested in his feelings, whatever may be the selfish taint of his theory.

A scoffer might with some truth tell us, that German philosophy is founded in a repugnance to every system which has experience for its basis, or happiness for its end. Mad. de Staël would probably justify the repugnance, by contending that the metaphysics of experience uniformly led to sceptism, and the ethics of utility naturally terminated in selfishness. There is indeed a permanent hostility between modes of philosophy still more irreconcilable in their spirit and genius, than repugnant in their doctrines; which, since the beginning of speculation, has divided individuals, nations, and ages, rather by their temper and circumstances, than in any proportion to the force of argument. Some philosophical disputes are, in truth, the forms assumed by antagonist principles in human nature. Among the more remarkable instances of this speculative war are the controversies between scepticism and dogmatism; between calculation and enthusiasm; and between ethical systems founded on utility, and those in which, under various names, the moral principle is considered as ultimate in theory, as it is unanimously acknowledged to be supreme in practice.

It is possible in speculation to preserve the harmony of these principles, by assigning to each its due rank and its proper sphere. But, in practice, the irregular variety of events and passions and characters is perpetually impelling them beyond their end, and driving them without their province. Calm minds and tranquil periods tend towards the one-sensibility and enthusiasm, turbulence and revolution towards the other.-Peculiar conditions of society sometimes exhibit the excess of the one and of the other at the same moment. Thus, under the tyranny of the Emperors, the Roman nobility, according to their various characters, either braved oppression, with stoical enthusiasm, or escaped from it into a slightly systematised voluptuousness, which borrowed the name of Epicurus, though it breathed nothing of the spirit of that pure and amiable moralist.

There is no logical tie between the opinions ranged on either side. They are frequently disjoined, and even at variance with each other. They are examples, chosen from many others, of a permanent contest, not indeed of reason, but of the reasoning faculties with the common feelings of mankind.

The two principles which in one of these controversies have struggled for the ascendant, from the time of Epicurus and Zeno, to that of Paley