tion of tenderness and melancholy which is called the love of country."

"How profound must be his grief if he left his country in flourishing prosperity, and finds it on his return, deserted or torn by political convulsions? Those who live in the midst of factions, growing old with them as it were, hardly perceive the difference between the past and the present; but the traveller who returns to his paternal plains, and finds every thing ruined during his absence, is at once struck with the changes which surround him. His eyes mournfully range through the desolate enclosure, as we look at an unfortunate friend after a long separation, and observe with regret the ravages which time and care have made on his countenance. Such were doubtless the feelings of the Athenian sage, when, after the first delights of return, he cast an eye upon his country.

"He saw nothing around him but a chaos of anarchy and misery-nothing but division of opinion and consequent disturbances. The citizens appeared to be transformed into so many conspirators. There were scarcely two heads to be found which thought alike, and scarcely two arms which had acted in concert. Each person was a faction in himself; and though all agreed in hating the last constitution, all differed as to the mode of regime to be substituted for it."

The description so beautifully expressed has always had its counterpart in similar epochs-and it is no wonder then, that such states should be designated as the “ times of greatest unhappiness to our species-passages into which we have no reason to rejoice at our entrance, save from the hope of being sooner landed on the opposite shore."

T

HAVE WE GROUNDS FOR BELIEVING THAT THE WHOLE OF THE CIVILIZED WORLD IS ABOUT TO UNDERGO A GREAT AND LASTING CHANGE -OR IS AT PRESENT IN A STATE OF TRANSITION?

THIS idea is frequently broached in the writings of popular, and what have been termed liberal authors of the present times---and may be met with in a variety of forms corresponding to the favourite wishes and customary dogmas of the authors.

Thus one man looks for a speedy and lasting destruction of all the errors which he has been accustomed to conceive as vitiating the religious creed to which only he has pledged his faithanother hopes for the equally certain termination of the empire which the Christian faith itself has so long exercised over the minds of men—a third is chiefly busied with the expectation that social and political life are to assume forms corresponding with some ideal model, which he has either conceived for himself, or has borrowed from the favourite studies of his youth-while a fourth is chiefly intent on the purification of the philosophical tenets of mankind, and hopes that the period has now dawned, when science will be seen in shapes different from any which it has previously assumed, and when by its influence a new style of thinking on all other subjects will become current in the minds and in the intercourse of men.

These are the vague and indistinct forms in which this general expectation presents itself to different minds, according to their peculiar modes of thought or the favourite studies to which they have devoted themselves,-and there are at all times multitudes by whom the impression of such expectations is readily caught, and in whom, without assuming any definite form, it has at least the pernicious effect of lessening their reverence for all ex

isting institutions, without being able to supply them with any definite improvements by which present things, on the supposition of their being supplanted, are to be replaced.

In all cases, it implies that the civilized world is, at the present moment, in what we have termed a state of transition--a great and lasting change, which is to affect the whole nations of Europe at the least---which is to be attended with the destruction of all present institutions and forms of belief-to lead to some ideal models of society and of faith, which have not yet been distinctly stated---and to produce all this grandeur and duration of effect, either suddenly, and without any great havoc upon earth---or at any rate, by a force which no opposing influences will be for any length of time able to resist.

All this, however, is inconsistent with the notion of a state of transition, as we have defined it in the preceding note---which we have considered as one of those epochs, periodical to mankind--in which knowledge and corruption have kept pace with each other, and are operating in one common work of destruction---and which, as they are the times of greatest unhappiness to the human species, commonly are proportioned in their endurance, and in the succession of measures and changes to which they give occasion, to the extent of the destruction they are destined to ac complish---and to the magnitude of the effect, for the future regeneration of mankind, which is to result from their occurrence.

Now, according to this description of a state of transition, there must, for its occurrence, be the three following conditions :-In the first place, a state of things essentially bad, or at least not in conformity with the advanced notions and tastes which mankind have acquired. In the second place, great improvements in the views which the human race have obtained of the capabilities of their nature, and of the rights which, by their situation in existence, they are authorized to claim. And lastly, an incompatibility between the state of things at present existing-and any conceivable application to that state, of the attainments in knowledge which the human mind has actually made. Let us then endeavour to ascertain how far all these things are the case at present---and in what sense, and how far they justify the expectation of that great alteration in the condition of the civilized

world, which has, in the works of some writers, been so confidently anticipated.

So far as the governments or forms of political institution which prevail in Europe are concerned, we see indeed a system of institutions, which have had their origin in a remote antiquity ---though essentially different in their complexion and tendencies from those which distinguished the classical ages of Greece or of Rome---institutions, however, under the influence of which the human race has already attained an unprecedented height of science and of refinement---and which have, in all the ages of their endurance, been especially favourable to the development of those high and romantic feelings of loyalty and reverence, which give a peculiar grace to the social intercourse of men—though at the same time, from their very nature, not equally favourable to that interference of popular influence which has sometimes been considered as the true test of human liberty and improve

ment.

We farther find a religion prevailing over Europe, which has been in excellent harmony with the forms of government-and the systems of social life, by which it has, from its first ages, been characterized—a religion founded on the loftiest and most reverential sentiments that can be awakened in the human breast -and serving, while it purifies and consoles private life, to counteract in some measure that tendency to the suppression of popular influence which we have already stated as the inherent character of the forms of government with which it has been associated.

We find the civilized world pervaded by a style of thinking on philosophical subjects, derived, indeed, from the notions of very early ages, and viewing mankind in their most obvious, and, it may be, limited aspects-but yet sound in its views, so far as it has proceeded and only needing to be improved and extended by the introduction of a style of thinking, founded on wider notions of the true relations of the species—and accustomed to contemplate man from higher and more commanding points of view.

And, in the last place, we find all these forms of government -of religion-and of philosophy-connected with and generating a style of manners and of social conduct in harmony with them

selves—a style grave-generous-and romantic-favourable to loyalty and to all the graces and accomplishments of life-and taking as its foundation that reverence for rank and legitimate authority, which, though it does not correspond with the republican model of conduct, is yet one of the safest bulwarks of human society—and may become the ground-work of some of the loftiest and most graceful attainments of our nature.

So much for the actual condition of that world which is so confidently expected to be overthrown by the new notions and lately acquired powers of the race that has peopled it. Our next inquiry, therefore, is, what is now the state of the human mind in relation to this condition of things--and what have been the advances which it has made, so far outstripping, as it is supposed, the order of social life with which it has been connected?

Doubtless, this is an age in which many have been running to and fro throughout the earth, and knowledge has been increased-men have acquired more extended and juster notions of their position in nature-of their duties---and of their rights---and a boundless prospect of still further improvement is opened up, over which, with the great and hitherto unexperienced aids which have been afforded to their career, the human race may be expected to proceed with constantly augmented celerity and success. That improved knowledge too, it cannot be doubted, must affect the institutions with which, at any period of its progress, it may chance to be associated;---the forms of political life which have hitherto characterized the civilized nations of Europe have, it must further be considered, something of the rust of antiquity, and of the rude grandeur of their origin still adhering to them---and, moreover, there is no need, on the part of their most zealous advocates and friends, for the maintenance of the assertion---that they, any more than any thing else that has a place in this progressive and ever changing world, are for ever to be exempt from all alteration or decay.

Taking it for granted then, that there are things which may be made better in all the forms of life and of belief to which we have been accustomed, and which yet, with all this imperfection, have been the means of carrying the human race to an unprecedented height in the career of improvement-our next question suggested by this subject is-in what way is the application of the