Thebes or Babylon, or even among the pro- | expedient for one individual, might be just faned relics of Athens or Rome.

We are not inclined, however, to push this very far. The world is certainly something the wiser for its past experience; and there is an accumulation of useful knowledge, which we think likely to increase. The invention of printing and fire-arms, and the perfect communication that is established over all Europe, insures us, we think, against any considerable falling back in respect of the sciences; or the arts and attainments that minister to the conveniences of ordinary life. We have no idea that any of the important discoveries of modern times will ever again be lost or forgotten; or that any future generation will be put to the trouble of inventing, for a second time, the art of making gunpowder or telescopes the astronomy of Newton, or the mechanics of Watt. All knowledge which admits of demonstration will advance, we have no doubt, and extend itself; and all processes will be improved, that do not interfere with the passions of human nature, or the apparent interests of its ruling classes. But with regard to every thing depending on probable reasoning, or susceptible of debate, and especially with regard to every thing touching morality and enjoyment, we really are not sanguine enough to reckon on any considerable improvement; and suspect that men will go on blundering in speculation, and transgressing in practice, pretty nearly as they do at present, to the latest period of their history.

the reverse for another. Ease and obscurity are the summum bonum of one description of men; while others have an irresistible voca tion to strenuous enterprise, and a positive delight in contention and danger. Nor is the magnitude of our virtues and vices referable to a more invariable standard. Intemperance is less a vice in the robust, and dishonesty less foolish in those who care but little for the scorn of society. Some men find their chief happiness in relieving sorrow-some in sympathizing with mirth. Some, again, de rive most of their enjoyment from the exer cise of their reasoning faculties-others from that of their imagination;-while a third sort attend to little but the gratification of their senses, and a fourth to that of their vanity. One delights in crowds, and another in solitude;-one thinks of nothing but glory, and another of comfort;-and so on, through all the infinite variety, and infinite combinations, of human tastes, temperaments, and habits. Now, it is plain, that each of those persons not only will, but plainly ought to pursue a different road to the common object of hap piness; and that they must clash and conse quently often jostle with each other, even if each were fully aware of the peculiarity of his own notions, and of the consequences of all that he did in obedience to their impulses. It is altogether impossible, therefore, we humbly conceive, that men should ever settle the point as to what is, on the whole, the wisest course of conduct, or the best dispo sition of mind; or consequently take even the first step towards that perfection of moral science, or that cordial concert and co-operation in their common pursuit of happiness which is the only alternative to their fatal opposition.

In the nature of things, indeed, there can be no end to disputes upon probable, or what is called moral evidence; nor to the contradictory conduct and consequent hostility and oppression, which must result from the opposite views that are taken of such subjects;and this, partly, because the elements that This impossibility will become more appaenter into the calculation are so vast and nu- rent when it is considered, that the only inmerous, that many of the most material must strument by which it is pretended that this always be overlooked by persons of ordinary moral perfection is to be attained, is such a talent and information; and partly because general illumination of the intellect as to make there not only is no standard by which the all men fully aware of the consequences of value of those elements can be ascertained their actions; while the fact is, that it is not, and made manifest, but that they actually in general, through ignorance of their consehave a different value for almost every dif- quences, that actions producing misery are ferent individual. With regard to all nice, actually performed. When the misery is inand indeed all debateable questions of happi- flicted upon others, the actors most frequently ness or morals, therefore, there never can be disregard it, upon a fair enough comparison any agreement among men; because, in re- of its amount with the pain they should inality, there is no truth in which they can flict on themselves by forbearance; and even agree. All questions of this kind turn upon when it falls on their own heads, they will a comparison of the opposite advantages and generally be found rather to have been undisadvantages of any particuliar course of con- lucky in the game, than to have been truly duct or habit of mind: but these are really unacquainted with its hazards; and to have of very different magnitude and importance to ventured with as full a knowledge of the different persons; and their decision, there- risks, as the fortunes of others can ever imfore, even if they all saw the whole con- press on the enterprizing. There are many sequences, or even the same set of conse- men, it should always be recollected, to whom quences, must be irreconcileably diverse. If the happiness of others gives very little satis the matter in deliberation, for example, be, faction, and their sufferings very little pain, whether it is better to live without toil or ex--and who would rather eat a luxurious meal ertion, but, at the same time, without wealth or glory, or to venture for both upon a scene of labour and hazard-it is easy to see, that the determination which would be wise and

by themselves, than scatter plenty and grati tude over twenty famishing cottages. No enlightening of the understanding will make such men the instruments of general happi

ess: and wherever there is a competition-powerful interest, those feelings of ennus wherever the question is stirred as to whose which steal upon every condition from which clams shall be renounced or asserted, we are hazard and anxiety are excluded, and drive all such men, we fear, in a greater or a less us into danger and suffering as a relief. While degree. There are others, again, who pre- human nature continues to be distinguished by ame upon their own good fortune, with a de- those attributes, we do not see any chance of gree of confidence that no exposition of the war being superseded by the increase of wis chances of failure can ever repress; and in dom and morality. all cases where failure is possible, there must be a risk of suffering from its occurrence, however prudent the venture might have appeared. These, however, are the chief sources of all the unhappiness which results from the nduct of man-and they are sources which we do not see that the improved intellect, or added experience of the species, is likely to close or diminish.

We should be pretty well advanced in the career of perfectibility, if all the inhabitants of Europe were as intelligent, and upright, and considerate, as Sir John Moore, or Lord Nelson, or Lord Collingwood, or Lord Wellington-but we should not have the less war, we take it, with all its attendant miseries. The more wealth and intelligence, and liberty, there is in a country indeed, the Take the case, for example, of War-by greater love we fear there will always be for far the most prolific and extensive pest of the war;-for a gentleman is uniformly a more human race, whether we consider the suffer- pugnacious animal than a plebeian, and a free ngs it inflicts, or the happiness it prevents man than a slave. The case is the same, and see whether it is likely to be arrested by with the minor contentions that agitate civil the progress of intelligence and civilization. life, and shed abroad the bitter waters of poIn the first place, it is manifest, that instead litical animosity, and grow up into the ranof becoming less frequent or destructive, in cours and atrocities of faction and cabal. The proportion to the rapidity of that progress, leading actors in those scenes are not the our European wars have, in point of fact, been lowest or most debased characters in the incomparably more constant, and more san- country-but, almost without exception, of guinary, since Europe became signally en- the very opposite description. It would be lightened and humanized-and that they too romantic to suppose, that the whole popuhave uniformly been most obstinate and most lation of any country should ever be raised to popular, in its most polished countries. The the level of our Fox and Pitt, Burke, Windbrush Laplanders, and bigoted and profli- ham, or Grattan; and yet if that miraculous gate Italians, have had long intervals of re-improvement were to take place, we know pose; but France and England are now pretty regularly at war, for about fourscore years out of every century. In the second place, the lovers and conductors of war are by no means the most ferocious or stupid of their species -but for the most part the very contrary; and their delight in it, notwithstanding their compassion for human suffering, and their complete knowledge of its tendency to produce suffering, seems to us sufficient almost of itself to discredit the confident prediction of those who assure us, that when men have attamed to a certain degree of intelligence, war must necessarily cease among all the nations of the earth. There can be no better lustration indeed, than this, of the utter fulity of all those dreams of perfectibility; which are founded on a radical ignorance of what it is that constitutes the real enjoyment of human nature, and upon the play of how many principles and opposite stimuli that happness depends, which, it is absurdly imagined. would be found in the mere negation of suffering, or in a state of Quakerish placidity, dulness, and uniformity. Men delight war, in spite of the pains and miseries which they know it entails upon them and their fellows, because it exercises all the talents, and calls out all the energies of their ature-because it holds them out conspicuously as objects of public sentiment and general sympathy-because it gratifies their pride of art, and gives them a lofty sentiment of their own power, worth and courage-but principally because it sets the game of exist. ence upon a higher stake, and dispels, by its

that they would be at least as far from agree ing, as they are at present; and may fairly conclude, that they would contend with far greater warmth and animosity.

For that great class of evils, therefore, which arise from contention, emulation, and diversity of opinion upon points which admit of no demonstrative solution, it is evident that the general increase of intelligence would afford no remedy; and there even seems to be reason for thinking that it would increase their amount. If we turn to the other great source of human suffering, the abuse of power and wealth, and the other means of enjoyment, we suspect we shall not find any ground for indulging in more sanguine expectations. Take the common case of youthful excess and imprudence, for example, in which the evil commonly rests on the head of the transgressor- the injury done to fortune, by thoughtless expense-to health and character, by sensual indulgence, and to the whole felicity of after life, by rash and unsorted marriages. The whole mischief and hazard of such practices, we are persuaded, is just as thoroughly known and understood at present, as it will be when the world is five thousand years older; and as much pains are now taken to impress the ardent spirits of youth with the belief of those hazards, as can well be taken by the monitors who may discharge that office in the most remote futurity. But the truth is, that the offenders do not offend so much in ignorance, as in presumption. They know very well, that men are oftener ruined than enriched at the gaming table;

and that love marriages, clapt up under age, are frequently followed by divorces: But they know too, that this is not always the case; and they flatter themselves that their good luck, and good judgment, will class them among the exceptions, and not among the ordinary examples of the rule. They are told well enough, for the most part, of the excessive folly of acting upon such a presumption, in matters of such importance :-But it is the nature of youth, to despise much of the wisdom that is thus pressed upon them; and to think well of their fortune and sagacity, till they have actually had experience of their slipperiness. We really have no idea that their future teachers will be able to change this nature or to destroy the eternal distinction between the character of early and mature life; and therefore it is, that we despair of the cure of the manifold evils that spring from this source; and remain persuaded, that young men will be nearly as foolish, and as incapable of profiting by the experience of their seniors, ten thousand years hence, as they are at this moment.

within the reach, nor suited to the taste, of any very great proportion of the sufferers and that the cultivation of waste lands, and the superintendence of tippling-houses and charity schools, have not always been found such effectual and delightful remedies as the inditers of godly romances have sometimes represented. So that those whom fortune has cruelly exempted from the necessity of doing any thing, have been led very generally to do evil of their own accord; and have fancied that they rather diminished than added to the sum of human misery, by engaging in intrigues and gaming-clubs, and establishing coteries for detraction or sen suality

The real and radical difficulty is to find some laudable pursuit that will permanently interest-some worthy object that will continue to captivate and engross the faculties: and this, instead of becoming easier in proportion as our intelligence increases, obvious: ly becomes more difficult. It is knowledge that destroys enthusiasm, and dispels all those prejudices of admiration which people sim-. pler minds with so many idols of enchant ment. It is knowledge that distracts by its variety, and satiates by its abundance, and generates, by its communication, that dark and cold spirit of fastidiousness and derision which revenges on those whom it possesses, the pangs which it inflicts on those on whom it is exerted. Yet it is to the increase of knowledge and talents alone, that the prophets of perfectibility look forward for the cure of all our vices and all our unhappiness!

With regard to the other glittering curses of life-the heartless dissipations-the cruel seductions the selfish extravagance-the rejection of all interesting occupation or serious affection, which blast the splendid summit of human fortune with perpetual barrenness and discomfort-we can only say, that as they are miseries which now exist almost exclusively among the most polished and intelligent of the species, we do not think it very probable, at least, that they will be eradicated by rendering the species in general Even as to intellect, and the pleasures that more polished and intelligent. They are not are to be derived from the exercise of a vigor occasioned, we think, by ignorance or im- ous understanding, we doubt greatly whether proper education; but by that eagerness for we ought to look forward to posterity with strong emotion and engrossing occupation, any very lively feelings of envy or humiliawhich still proclaim it to be the irreversible tion. More knowledge they probably will destiny of man to earn his bread by the sweat have-as we have undoubtedly more know. of his brows. It is a fact indeed rather per- ledge than our ancestors had two hundred plexing and humiliating to the advocates of years ago; but for vigour of understanding, perfectibility, that as soon as a man is de- or pleasure in the exercise of it, we must beg livered from the necessity of subsisting him- leave to demur. The more there is already self, and providing for his family, he gene- known, the less there remains to be discover rally falls into a state of considerable unhap-ed; and the more time a man is obliged to piness; and if some fortunate anxiety, or spend in ascertaining what his predecessors necessity for exertion, does not come to his have already established, the less he will relief, is commonly obliged to seek for a have to bestow in adding to its amount.slight and precarious distraction in vicious The time, however, is of less consequence; and unsatisfactory pursuits. It is not for but the habits of mind that are formed by want of knowing that they are unsatisfactory walking patiently, humbly, and passively in that he persists in them, nor for want of the paths that have been traced by others, being told of their folly and criminality;-for are the very habits that disqualify us for moralists and divines have been occupied vigorous and independent excursions of our with little else for the best part of a century; own. There is a certain degree of knowledge and writers of all descriptions, indeed, have to be sure, that is but wholesome aliment to charitably expended a good part of their own the understanding-materials for it to work ennui in copious directions for the innocent upon-or instruments to facilitate its labours: and effectual reduction of that common ene--but a larger quantity is apt to oppress and my. In spite of all this, however, the malady encumber it; and as industry, which is ex has increased with our wealth and refine-cited by the importation of the raw material, ment; and has brought along with it the may be superseded and extinguished by the increase of all those vices and follies in which introduction of the finished manufacture, so its victims still find themselves constrained the minds which are stimulated to activity to seek a temporary relief. The truth is, by a certain measure of instruction may, that military and senatorial glory is neither unquestionably, be reduced to a state of pas

ve and languid acquiescence, by a more | cannot fail to be struck with the prodigious profuse and redundant supply. waste of time, and of labour, that is necesMadame de Staël, and the other advocates sary for the attainment of a very inconsiderof her system, talk a great deal of the pro-able portion of original knowledge. His prodigious advantage of having the results of the gress is as slow as that of a man who is laborious discoveries of one generation made making a road, compared with that of those matters of familiar and elementary know- who afterwards travel over it; and he feels, ledge in another; and for practical utility, it that in order to make a very small advance may be so: but nothing, we conceive, can in one department of study, he must consent be so completely destructive of all intellec- to sacrifice very great attainments in others. tual enterprise, and all force and originality He is disheartened, too, by the extreme inof thinking, as this very process, of the re-significance of any thing that he can expect duction of knowledge to its results, or the to contribute, when compared with the great multiplication of those summary and accessi- store that is already in possession of the pubble pieces of information in which the stu- lic; and is extremely apt to conclude, that it dent is saved the whole trouble of investiga-is not only safer, but more profitable to folton, and put in possession of the prize, with-low, than to lead; and that it is fortunate for cat either the toils or the excitement of the the lovers of wisdom, that our ancestors have contest. This, in the first place, necessarily accumulated enough of it for our use, as well makes the prize much less a subject of ex- as for their own. nitation or delight to him; for the chief plea- But while the general diffusion of knowsure is in the chase itself, and not in the ob-ledge tends thus powerfully to repress all ject which it pursues; and he who sits at original and independent speculation in indihome, and has the dead game brought to the viduals, it operates still more powerfully in side of his chair, will be very apt, we be- rendering the public indifferent and unjust to leve, to regard it as nothing better than an their exertions. The treasures they have inaufragrant vermin. But, in the next place, it herited from their predecessors are so ample, does him no good; for he misses altogether as not only to take away all disposition to the invigorating exercise, and the invaluable labour for their farther increase, but to lead training to habits of emulation and sagacity them to undervalue and overlook any little and courage, for the sake of which alone the addition that may be made to them by the pursuit is deserving of applause. And, in voluntary offerings of individuals. The works the last place, he not only fails in this way of the best models are perpetually before their to acquire the qualities that may enable him eyes, and their accumulated glory in their reto run down knowledge for himself, but nec-membrance; the very variety of the sorts of essarily finds himself without taste or inducement for such exertions. He thinks, and in one sense he thinks justly, that if the proper object of study be to acquire knowledge, he Ca employ his time much more profitably in implicitly listening to the discoveries of others, than in a laborious attempt to discover something for himself. It is infinitely more fatiguing to think, than to remember; and Incomparably shorter to be led to an object, than to explore our own way to it. It is in conceivable what an obstruction this furnishes to the original exercise of the under- In such a condition of society, it is obvious standing in a certain state of information; and that men must be peculiarly disinclined from how effectually the general diffusion of easily indulging in those bold and original speculaaccessible knowledge operates as a bounty tions, for which their whole training had preindolence and mental imbecility.viously disqualified them; and we appeal to Where the quantity of approved and collected our readers, whether there are not, at this day, knowledge is already very great in any coun- apparent symptoms of such a condition of soty, it is naturally required of all well edu- ciety. A childish love of novelty may indeed cated persons to possess a considerable share give a transient popularity to works of mere it and where it has also been made very amusement; but the age of original genius, accessible, by being reduced to its summary and of comprehensive and independent reaand ultimate results, an astonishing variety soning, seems to be over. Instead of such those abstracts may be stowed away in works as those of Bacon, and Shakspeare, and with scarcely any fatigue or Taylor, and Hooker, we have Encyclopædias, exercise to the other faculties. The whole and geographical compilations, and county mass of attainable intelligence, however, must histories, and new editions of black letter austill be beyond the reach of any individual; thors-and trashy biographies and posthumous and he may go on, therefore, to the end of a letters and disputations upon prosody-and long and industrious life, constantly acquir-ravings about orthodoxy and methodism. Men g knowledge in this cheap and expeditious of general information and curiosity seldom ner. But if, in the course of these pas- think of adding to the knowledge that is ive and humble researches, he should be already in the world; and the inferior persons tempted to inquire a little for himself, he upon whom that task is consequently devolved,

the

memory,

excellence which are constantly obtruded on their notice, renders excellence itself cheap and vulgar in their estimation. As the mere possessors or judges of such things, they are apt to ascribe to themselves a character of superiority, which renders any moderate performance unworthy of their regard; and their cold and languid familiarity with what is best, ultimately produces no other effect than to render them insensible to its beauties, and at the same time intolerant of all that appears to fall short of it.

carry it on, for the most part, by means of that and more instructed classes of society,—to minute subdivision of labour which is the whom it is reasonable to suppose that the pergreat secret of the mechanical arts, but can fection of wisdom and happiness will come never be introduced into literature without first, in their progress through the whole race depriving its higher branches of all force, dig- of men; and we have seen what reason there nity, or importance. One man spends his life is to doubt of their near approach. The in improving a method of dyeing cotton red; lower orders, however, we think, have still -another in adding a few insects to a cata- less good fortune to reckon on. In the whole logue which nobody reads;-a third in settling history of the species, there has been nothing the metres of a few Greek Choruses;--a at all comparable to the improvement of Engfourth in decyphering illegible romances, or land within the last century; never anywhere old grants of farms; a fifth in picking rotten was there such an increase of wealth and luxbones out of the earth;-a sixth in describing ury-so many admirable inventions in the all the old walls and hillocks in his parish; arts-so many works of learning and ingeand five hundred others in occupations equal-nuity-such a progress in cultivation-such ly liberal and important: each of them being, an enlargement of commerce:—and yet, in for the most part, profoundly ignorant of every that century, the number of paupers in Engthing out of his own narrow department, and land has increased fourfold, and is now rated very generally and deservedly despised, by at one tenth of her whole population; and, his competitors for the favour of that public- notwithstanding the enormous sums that are which despises and supports them all. 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 deci sive, 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.

Such, however, it appears to us, is the state of mind that is naturally produced by the great accumulation and general diffusion of various sorts of knowledge. Men learn, instead of reasoning. Instead of meditating, they remember; and, in place of the glow of inventive genius, or the warmth of a generous admiration, nothing is to be met with, in society, but timidity on the one hand, and fas- Increasing refinement and ingenuity lead tidiousness on the other-a paltry accuracy, naturally to the establishment of manufacand a more paltry derision-a sensibility to tures; and not only enable society to spare a small faults, and an incapacity of great merits great proportion of its agricultural labourers -a disposition to exaggerate the value of for this purpose, but actually encourage the knowledge that is not to be used, and to un- breeding of an additional population, to be derrate the importance of powers which have maintained out of the profits of this new occeased to exist. If these, however, are the cupation. For a time, too, this answers; and consequences of accumulated and diffused the artisan shares in the conveniences to which knowledge, it may well be questioned whether his labours have contributed to give birth; the human intellect will gain in point of dig- but it is in the very nature of the manufac nity and energy by the only certain acquisi- turing system, to be liable to great fluctuation, tions to which we are entitled to look forward. occasional check, and possible destruction; For our own part, we will confess we have no and at all events, it has a tendency to produce such expectations. There will be improve- a greater population than it can permanently ments, we make no doubt, in all the mechani- support in comfort or prosperity. The average cal and domestic arts;-better methods of rate of wages, for the last forty years, has working metal, and preparing cloth;-more been insufficient to maintain a labourer with commodious vehicles, and more efficient im- a tolerably large family;-and yet such have plements of war. Geography will be made been the occasional fluctuations, and such the more complete, and astronomy more precise; sanguine calculations of persons incapable of -natural history will be enlarged and di- taking a comprehensive view of the whole, gested; and perhaps some little improve- that the manufacturing population has been ment suggested in the forms of administering prodigiously increased in the same period. It law. But as to any general enlargement of is the interest of the manufacturer to keep the understanding, or more prevailing vigour this population in excess, as the only sure of judgment, we will own, that the tendency means of keeping wages low; and wherever seems to be all the other way; and that we the means of subsistence are uncertain, and think strong sense, and extended views of liable to variation, it seems to be the general human affairs, are more likely to be found, law of our nature, that the population should and to be listened to at this moment, than be adapted to the highest, and not to the two or three hundred years hereafter. The average rate of supply. In India, where a dry truth is, we suspect, that the vast and endur- season used to produce a failure of the crop, ing products of the virgin soil can no longer once in every ten or twelve years, the popu be reared in that factitious mould to which lation was always up to the measure of the cultivation has since given existence; and that greatest abundance; and in manufacturing its forced and deciduous progeny will go on countries, the miscalculation is still more sandegenerating, till some new deluge shall re-guine and erroneous. Such countries, therestore the vigour of the glebe by a temporary destruction of all its generations.

Hitherto we have spoken only of the higher

fore, are always overpeopled; and it seems to be the necessary effect of increasing talent and refinement, to convert all countries into this