besotted with self, that they fail to see and acknowledge the supremacy of benevolence: it is only because they are occupied by the pressure of the present, that they are so insensible to the future. Men who can abstract themselves sufficiently to take a wider view of human history and of the operations of the human mind, arrive at the conclusions here stated. Self is seen by them to be only a provisional Sovereign, who, in the fulness of time, must give place to the rightful monarch, Benevolence---they see the party of the latter power increasing every day, and the world becoming always more and more fitted to submit to its sway. It is not meant that men will ever altogether abandon the selfish motives which, at present, though aiming, in the first place, at individual interests, tend in the main to the general good. All that is to be expected is, that mercy and kindness shall be the supreme sentiments in the human constitution---that no man or family or nation shall seek individual, separately from general good---that, confident of a return of kindness, or certain that no other means will procure it, men and tribes shall extend the hand of friendship to each other---and that all should at length seek their happiness as much in the good of others as in their own."

Whatever truth there may be in all this, as a prophecy of what is to be, there can be no doubt as to its authority as a maxim of human conduct---or as to the fact which it implies, that the more enlightened a man is---that is to say, the wider the views he habi tually entertains of the motives and tendencies of human actions... the less will he be inclined to indulge any lasting opinions hostile to the interests of his fellow creatures---or fitted to lessen the good will, which the highest and most delightful affections of his heart tell him it is at once his duty and his interest to entertain towards them. In other words, a man of extensive views is always, in the same proportion, a person who entertains liberal notions of all the springs of human conduct.

ORGANIC CHANGES IN SOCIETY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM AND OTHER CHANGES.

THERE is no change whatever in the established usages or institutions of a community, that a wise man would not be disposed to consider with the utmost deliberation and caution-because the relations of almost every such change must be more numerous and important than any extent of human wisdom is capable completely of appreciating-and the spectacle of a whole nation setting themselves on purpose to find out whatever may strike them as fit to be altered, is in truth one of the most absurd, and, if it were not so pregnant with danger, we should be disposed to say-ridiculous that it is possible to conceive.

But there are several essential peculiarities of organic changes in the form of a government-and especially those organic changes which imply an extension of the powers and privileges of the people, which ought to be constantly kept in viewalthough there is reason to believe that their importance has not been duly estimated by those who have, in some of the most difficult circumstances, been disposed to venture on such changes.

In the first place, such changes or extensions of popular rights and privileges, when once sanctioned, are conclusive and irrevocable-because, whatever may be the mischiefs or disorders in society to which they undeniably lead, the people never can be convinced that such mischiefs have been owing to their lack of wisdom or of prudence-the gift therefore must survive, with all its evil consequences, till society shall be finally dissolved by the magnitude of the mischiefs that have been produced-and the rule, consequently, is imperative and indisputable-that such changes should never be made the subjects of experiment-nor ever ventured on, till their necessity is beyond all question-and till all classes are agreed that they ought to be conceded. To act on any other views implies, if not bad intention,-which certainly cannot al

ways be predicated-yet assuredly a want of insight into the nature and tendencies of things, which ought to have disqualified all those who are subject to it from any active interference with the great interests of a nation.

But, besides this conclusive and irrevocable nature of such organic changes they have also an inherent tendency to propagate themselves-and finally to advance to a length, which their original movers may fairly be considered as never having contemplated. They are commonly preceded by symptoms of a spirit on the part of the people, which it is of the utmost importance to soothe and to divert the gift is commonly attended with a struggle between opposite parties, in the course of which this spirit is incalculably augmented in virulence and in the diffusion it is capable of attaining-and when it has been bestowed, there are still vast masses of the community who consider themselves as unjustly excluded from the privileges which others, not more intelligent or worthy than themselves, have been thought fit to exercise-and who are therefore prepared to enforce their own rights upon the very precedent which the rulers of the state have already set before them. It is, therefore, the most short-sighted of all wisdom, to say that, in such matters, thus far will we go and no farther--for the gift has an inherent tendency to propagate itself---which ought to have been taken into account when the first proposal was made of conceding it to the people---and in all such cases there is the same, and almost as glaring an absurdity, in pretending to limit the progress of that which, by its very nature and necessary operation, is diffusive, as there would be in propelling a rolling body down an acclivity, with the purpose and hope that it should stop its course when it had attained to but the half of the descent down which it had been propelled. This tendency of certain things to continue and augment themselves, is one which seems not hitherto to have been well considered by legislators---but which must be taken into account by all wise lawgivers---and ought, indeed, to be regarded by them as one of the most important to be ascertained, in any change which may be meditated.

Still farther, when the spirit to which we have been alluding has been awakened-the spirit of demand for privileges-and of indignation at their being withheld-it becomes irresistible by almost any power which man can oppose to its progress. Concession will not soothe it, because it will still insist that only half the

debt has been discharged while any thing remains which it may be disposed to claim-persuasion has no effect on it, because, being far more a feeling than a result of reason, there is no room for the application of arguments, which in this, as in all similar cases, -however well founded or convincing they may be---are set at nought by the very nature of the subject to which they are attempted to be applied,---and opposition only seems to irritate and to spread the evil which it was meant to have crushed into nonexistence. The only hope for the allaying of any such spirit, when once awakened in the heart of a people, must rest on the chance of some great event occurring which shall draw the popular propensity into some other course---such as the occurrence of a war in which all hearts are united---or some equally stimulating and generally felt cause of excitation---but as such events are not within the reach of human choice---and as neither concession, nor persuasion, nor resistance, are of any avail, the disease may, on an ordinary calculation of human means of correction, be presumed to be incurable, till the constitution has been destroyed by the violence of its action---and a new order has been established, from which the destructive force has been with all care excluded.

It is simply, therefore, within the bounds of possibility that such a spirit, when once excited-and fostered by the gift of extensive privileges to the people, shall be stopped in its progress till anarchy, and all the miseries which it occasions, have made themselves be felt to the uttermost—and the sword of a despot has once more made the unhappy people feel how different are the blessings of true and well-regulated freedom from either the uproar of democratical fury-or the deadening influence of military and despotic sway. A people, under the influence of the former of these powers, presents the most awful spectacle which this world can furnish for it is human nature turning its own hands against every thing that should be most dear to its affections and regards -and the latter is only endurable as the sole cure for such extent of misery ;---and the heart of the patriot, therefore, when such things are in progress---or when the spirit even has been only awakened, which in its destined course necessarily leads to such results, may well be excused for the utmost gloom of its anticipations---and cannot, indeed, avoid feeling the prophetic words rise involuntarily into utterance---" Oh my country."

433

MEN AND THEIR TIMES.

IT has sometimes been asked, whether men form the times in which they flourish-or whether, on the other hand, the character of the men is not rather brought forth and developed by the peculiarities of the times in which they are called to act.

There are facts and appearances which may be adduced on both sides of the argument-for nothing is more obvious, than that the character even of one individual-when that character is remarkable for ability-and when at the same time it is placed in an influential position, often gives a new turn to all preceding circumstances-and seems to alter for a time the whole destiny of the community with which he is connected.

And, on the other hand, it is in accordance with reason and observation, that circumstances often seem to generate, or at least to call forth into operation, men fitted to the emergencies which the times have occasioned and whose powers, which otherwise would have slumbered in silence, or at least never have attained their actual energy- -seem to gain force and influence commensurate with the events which they are called to govern.

It is further true, that sometimes, during the lifetime of an individual, one portion of his history seems characterized by the complete mastery which he has obtained over all the events that come in his way-and that after a period of unexampled prosperity and success-the star of his destiny seems to decline from its ascendent, and, with no obvious abatement on his own part, either of energy or of prudence, he is unfortunate to the end of his career in every transaction in which he takes a part. The recent history of modern times will supply obvious instances of this fact.

But, putting all these speculations aside as to the mutual influences of characters and events, which it is better, and more ac

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