A FEW HARD QUESTIONS.

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gloom by which his soul was oppressed at that time, he has left a striking monument behind him in his "Inquiries into the Course of Nature in the Development of the Human Species," a work which, as it appears primâ facie to contradict his other writings, preceding as well as succeeding, can be understood in the connexion which it has with them, only, when considered as expressive of the tumult which the misanthropic suggestions of experience raised up in his soul against the oracles of faith and love so loudly declared in his bosom. To analyse its contents, to place its truths out of the false light in which they appear, into the light of verity in which they ought to stand, to trace its errors to their fountainhead, and to correct them, would be an undertaking far beyond the design of the present pages, involving a depth of metaphysical research, and an extent of volume, which would not easily be endured; but to extract a few of the most characteristic passages will be of great avail in illustrating the tortuous march of Pestalozzi's genius.

The questions which he proposes to himself at the onset are the following:

"What am I? What is the human species ?

"What have I done? What is the human species doing?

"I want to know what the course of my life, such as it has been, has made of me? and I want to know what the course of life, such as it has been, has made of the human species?

"I want to know on what ground my volition and my opinions rest, and must rest, under the circumstances in which I am placed?

"I want to know on what ground the volition of the human species and its opinions rest, and must rest, under the circumstances in which it is placed ?"

As a preliminary to their solution, he gives this compendious outline of the "march of civilization :"

"By the helplessness of his animal condition man is brought to knowledge.

"Knowledge leads to acquisition, acquisition to possession.

"Possession leads to the formation of society.

"Society leads to power and honour.

"Power and honour lead to the relation of ruler and subject.

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THE MARCH OF CIVILIZATION.

"The relation of ruler and subject lead to the distinction of nobles and commons, and to the crown.

"All these relations call for a state of law.

"The state of law calls for civil liberty.

"The want of law entails tyranny and slavery; that is to say, a state of things in which men constitute a society without the intervention of laws for their improvement, and the maintenance of mutual obligations.

"Following the course of nature in another direction, I find in myself a certain benevolence, by which acquisition, honour, property, and power, ennoble my mind, whilst without it, all these privileges of my social condition only tend to degrade me more deeply.

"Tracing this benevolence to its source, I find it to be essentially of sensual, animal origin; but I find likewise within myself a power, which will ennoble its very root, and benevolence so ennobled I call love. But there is a danger still, of love being lost in my longing for self-gratification; I feel desolate as an orphan, and I seek to rise beyond the power of imagination, beyond the limits of all research and knowledge that is possible here below, to the fountainhead of my existence, to derive from thence help against the desolation of my being, against all the ills and weaknesses of my nature."

The social compact is, in his opinion, nothing more or less than a truce entered into by the animal propensities of all parties, which would otherwise be at constant war with one another:

"Let the social constitution be ever so well whited a wall, and let the animal dispositions of power wear ever so admirably the mark of humanity, man never will truly and freely submit to an arrangement, which gives to any one the right to visit by flaying, the aberrations of his animal tendencies. The relation of man to man, in the social state is merely animal. As a mass, as a people, man submits himself not to the powers of the state in his moral capacity; in entering society, there is nothing he contemplates less than the service of God and the love due to his neighbour. He enters society with a view to gratify himself, and to enjoy all those things which, to a sensual and animal being, are the indispensable conditions of satisfaction and happiness.

"The social law is, therefore, not in any wise a moral law, but à mere modification of the animal law.

Meanwhile, power is deeply interested in my moral condition, that my animal tendencies may never come in conflict with its own propensities. This is the reason why all over the earth it endeavours to represent the social relation as a moral tie, at least on one side. But the disposition of power to represent itself as morally related to the people, does not alter the position in which it really stands to them; and if the persons in power,

SAVAGE REFINEMENT.

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stimulated by their immoral tendencies, encourage the delusion for their own ends, with a view to cover their civil lawlessness, and their social injustice, they do nothing else but what the wolf and the fox also would do, if they could, with a view to inspire the sheep and the hen with unbounded confidence. Nevertheless, the hen does well to sleep on trees at night, and the sheep to keep to the shepherd, in spite of all that the wolf may say."

Such a view of the social compact should not be too harshly condemned, so long as there is truth in the following definition of honour:

"The savage who cuts into his skin as into a piece of board, daubs himself with dirty colours, and pierces his nose and ears, that he may suspend in them something glittering, exerts himself, with all this, much less, and gives himself less pain, than a European does for the same purpose.

"The Otaheitian toilette, and the European, are not essentially different, nor is the order of the bone' of the South Sea islander any way inferior to the various orders in our part of the globe.

66 'Throughout the whole world, the wish of distinction induces the animal man, to esteem the tail of his coat, or a ring in his nose, higher than himself, and to slay his brother for gin, beads, and ribbons, provided there be any one willing and able to pay such a price for murder.”

Nothing, however, can more fully exemplify the view which pervades the whole work, than the picture which it gives of man:

"I see him in his cave, the prey of every power in nature, in equal danger from the tooth of the stronger, and the venom of the weaker brute; the sun dries up the fountain from which he drinks, the rain fills his cavern with mire; streams undermine the dike which protects his dwelling, or the sands of the desert cover his habitation; burning winds deprive him of his sight, the exhalations of the morass stop his breath; and if, for three successive days, he be unable to obtain a fish or a rat, he must die.

"Yet under all climates does he preserve his existence, and overcomes the ills of earth.

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Inexpressibly improvident, he sleeps whenever his wants are satisfied; and whenever he has nothing to fear, he suns himself, or he follows after the prey. "His hands are ever stained with the blood of his brother; like a tyger he defends his den, and raves against his own species; he claims the ends of the earth as his own, and perpetrates whatever he chooses under the sun.

"He knows of no law and of no Lord; his will is his only law, and of sin he asks: What is it?'

"But much as it charms him, the bloodstained freedom of earth, he is unable to endure it; he falls asleep under the sunny palm-tree; in plenty a gnat stings him to death, and in want his own wrath consumes him.

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THE STATE OF NATURE.

“In whatever condition he be, he longs for a better law than that of his club. "In whatever condition he be, he grows weary of waging never-ceasing war against his species, and he seeks union with those whose murderer he was.

"But under the icy pole, scorn and fear allow him not to venture upon peace his heart, cold as the earth, freezes within his bosom; while, under the glowing beams of the opposite climate, his brain is consumed in a fiery rage under the injuries and miseries which he endures, and he refrains from the step which would humanize him.

“Even under the mildest climate he is afraid of his own species; he flees before the man that dwells beyond the mountains, and yet again he slays the stranger before whose people he trembles.

"Nevertheless, it is under this climate that he first stretches out the hand of peace to his brother.

"The harmonious feeling of animal satisfaction tranquillizes his spirit, while in other climates, where nature exhausts his strength, and abandons him to manifold ills, his disposition grows restless and savage.

“But where nature leads him gently by the hand, he leaves his cave with a timid, rather than a savage step. He finds a stone that is too heavy, a branch that is too high for him; he feels that, if another man were with him, he might lift the stone, he might reach the branch; he sees another man near, and a feeling rushes through him, as of hunger and mighty thirst; he is compelled to approach his brother, and in his eye there beams a look such as never beamed in it before; it is the thought, we can help one another; the eye of his brother responds to his look, their bosoms heave, they feel as they never felt before; their hands are joined, they lift the stone, they reach the branch; a new smile of joy appears on their countenances; they perceive what their united efforts can accomplish.

“They enjoy their knowledge; with their knowledge their power increases, and their enjoyment with their power; the signs of union between them are multiplied, and their voice breaks forth into language.

"They speak.

"Now it is done. As the sea by the rocky shore, so is the bloodstained liberty of earth arrested by the word of man.

“For it was waste and desolate, before the breath of his mouth, the word of his lips went over the earth.

"It is by the breath of his mouth that man builds up his world, and himself.

“As long as he was dumb, he was a brute; he speaks, and he has become

man.

“Ignorance and suspicion, want and fear, now lose the terrible sway which they exercised over him, and their tyrant law is abolished.

'In his word mannow acknowledges the basis of his rights and of his duties.

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"He has renounced the bloodstained liberty of his nature for himself, and

for his whole species.

"By his word he has become man, subject to the law which is in him, and which he has now given to himself.

"Therefore does he value his word so high; he wishes it to live for ever; he engraves it on tables of stone and of brass, and bards sing in lofty strains the law which he has given to himself, and which he claims as his own.

"How, then? Was the liberty of my nature bloodstained before it knew any law? and was I a brute before I spoke? Is it true that ignorance and suspicion preceded love, confidence, and knowledge, as the thorn and the thistle precede the goodly fruits of the ground, and that the fell sway of bestiality contaminated the earth, before justice and faithfulness offered for her sacrifices of atonement?

"Is it not true, then, that man lived, at first, peaceably on the earth, that he divided it without violence, without injustice, without blood? Is it not true, that the distinction of mine and thine arose from his feelings of justice and equity?

"Is it true, on the contrary, that man divided the earth before he united on it; that he invaded, before he possessed; transgressed, before he laboured; destroyed, before he produced; oppressed, before he cherished; murdered, before he conversed; that the breath of his mouth breathed treason, before there was a word formed on his tongue to declare a law?

"I was corrupt in bestiality, before I became civilized and human; the period of my animal innocence passed away as a moment; my brutal corruption broke in upon me suddenly, and lasted long; and it was only when I was bowed down under the wretchedness of its effects, that I submitted my neck to the yoke of society.

"It is done, however, and all the clay of the earth has now its lord; touch it not, if it be not thine own; the fowl in the air, and the fish in the water has its lord; though thou be thirsty, roll not the stone from a well which is not thine own; though thou be hungry, tear no fruit from a tree, no ear from a haum which is not thine own, nor dare to kill the game that crosses thy way.

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'They will hang thee for it. Shudder not: thou thyself hast submitted to this law; the earth would have remained a wilderness, and an abode of wild beasts, and man would have been the most helpless of brutes, if thou hadst not submitted.

"But thou hast submitted, and thy cave is changed into a house; thy house separates thee from the earth, and ties thee to property, and property constitutes thee a member of society. Thy cares are extended over the objects of thy love, the helpmates of thy labours; they reach beyond the grave, for thy son shall be thine heir, thy brother shall defend thy widow, and thy friend provide for thy infant. What then hast thou lost?

"A thousand means and ways are offered to thee, for turning to account