into the Protestantism of the North British, has reached, also, the interior of the Edinburgh. In the first article of the number for January, 1851, we find the following: "It does seem as if the time were come for genius to find a new field for its development and display; and there are many hopeful indications that the same glorious faculty which has reaped harvests of enduring laurels in most other departments, is about to take up the case of man himself. The time is come for the leading spirits to devote themselves, heart and soul, to the solution of those perilous enigmas of life which have so long formed our perplexity and our despair, and to the cure of those social anomalies which darken the fair face of the modern world, and make us feel, sadly and humbly, how imperfect and partial is the civilization we exult in. It cannot be that the same intellect which has wrung from nature her most hidden secrets, which has triumphed over the most gigantic material obstructions, ..... should not, when fairly applied to social and administrative science, be competent to rectify our errors and to smooth our path; unless, indeed, society take refuge in the dreary creed, which never shall be ours, that the problem before us is insoluble, and the wretchedness around us inherent and incurable." These are words of grand promise from a periodical so conservative and influential as the Edinburgh Review. Clearly, the question of human well-being is becoming an open one in Great Britain: it has forced itself upon the attention of the enlightened, in such manner that neither shutting eyes nor stopping ears has sufficed to keep it away; neither ridicule, nor scorn, nor denunciation has been able to repress its swelling vigour. The subject must be considered fairly, openly, thoroughly: if met candidly and earnestly, by men in power and men of wealth, it will involve no revolution, but a more faithful performance of Christian duties. In 1850, appeared The Method of the Divine Government, Physical and Moral, by Rev. JAMES MCCоSH, a Scottish divine, a large and elaborate work, the merits of which were at once admitted, and placed the author in a high rank as a profound thinker and able writer. He could not, however, traverse the whole field of the providence of God, as had been the habit of the theologians aforetime, without touching, in several points, the growing topic of human welfare: "Ever since the days of Adam Smith, we have been seeking to promote a great abstraction, which we call national wealth; and in looking to it, we forget that to which it should be a mere stepping-stone-national happiness and national virtue. A traveller is filled with admiration of our large factories," &c. "But has he entered the houses in which the workmen live?-has he sitten at their boards and viewed their domestic arrangements?-has he inquired ..... into the character of woman, as affected by the state of society, or her work, which takes her from her family, or renders her unfit for the management of it?-has he inquired into the training of the rising generation?-has he visited those humble and humbling abodes, to which the poor and outcast are driven by crime or misfortune?-has he visited those crowded lanes of our cities, whose physical is not so polluted as their moral atmosphere, but in which the heart-larger than even the imagination-of Dr. Chalmers used to feel a livelier interest than in the gorgeous scenes of nature he so much admired? If he has done this, he will be ready to doubt whether any country, in any age, has produced a more demoralized or debauched population than the masses to be found in our large cities, (and not a few of our agricultural labourers are no better,) possessing, as they do, little of civilization but its vices, and the knowledge and wealth of the classes above them producing in them only discontent and jealousy."-Pages 263, 264, Am. Ed. "It does look as if our earth were waiting for something greater or better than has ever yet been realized.".... "Does it not appear as if these great and beauteous works of God were preserved for a grander purpose than they have ever yet served?--that this air is yet to be breathed by, and the light of these heavenly bodies to shine upon, beings as pure as themselves are?" "How universal, too, the restlessness, how deep the groanings and travailings of the human race! This world is not now and never has been what its inhabitants wish it to be. Hence the constant endeavours to improve it. Whether taken individually or collectively, human kind do not feel themselves to be at ease."..... "What never ending schemes for the improvement of mankind, all proceeding on the principle that mankind need to be improved!" "Can we suppose such universal desires and expectations would be excited without a deep reason? Do not the universality and the fundamental depth of the desires seem to indicate that they may be gratified?" ..... "Let it be frankly admitted that there is progress in the world. There is progress in agriculture, there is progress in all the arts and in all the sciences." ..... "But is there to be a physical and intellectual, and no moral progress? Is the less to advance and the greater to remain stationary ?" "Some of these considerations may be regarded as brought from a distance; yet by their collection and clustering, they seem to us to form a pleasant belt of light-a kind of milky way, hung over our world, in this its dark night, to give light to the traveller who has set out in search of truth."-Pages 467-469. These extracts exhibit either the efforts of a deep thinker groping his way in a subject with which he was not yet familiar, or of one who, understanding the subject, was feeling the pulse of his readers, to know how far he might go in aspirations for human progress. In either case, the inquiry arises, how Christian men, believers in the Scriptures, can so wholly overlook the four Gospels as not to perceive the ample light they shed upon these dark problems and deep imaginings? He must either have been labouring in the mists of theology, or have been afraid to speak out his sentiments in an atmosphere of theology. Few Scottish divines could have ventured upon the career of Dr. Chalmers; and even with his courage, few could venture upon a subject, the paths of which were so hedged in by the prejudices of education. Among the works placed in our hands since we commenced these notes, is The Theory of Human Progression and Natural Probability of a Reign of Justice, (8vo., London and Edinburgh, 1850,) which we regard as a striking evidence of the advance of social science in Great Britain. We can only commend it to the reader's notice, as a volume of more than ordinary ability. It is the offspring of a profound thinker, but of one who has not sufficiently explored the whole ground of social science to be an equally safe guide in all places. His chief rosition is that knowledge is reform-that the increase of knowledge mast be the basis of all human progression. He regards Divine revelation as an indispensable accompaniment of all other knowledge, which must ever be kept within Christian limits and inspired with Christian aims. The author does not believe that pauperism comes from God: "It is man's doing, and man's doing alone. God has abundantly supplied man with all the means of support; and where he cannot find support, we must not look to the arrangements of the Almighty, but to those of men, and to the mode in which they have portioned out the earth. To charge the poverty of man on God, is to blaspheme the Creator, instead of bowing down in reverent thankfulness for the profusion of his goodness. He has given enough, abundance, more than sufficient; and if man has not enough, we must look to the mode in which God's gifts have been distributed. There is enough, enough for all, abundantly enough; and all that is requisite, is freedom to labour on the soil and extract from it the produce that God intended for man's support." "If we find, at one end of society, a few thousand individuals with enor mous wealth, for which they work not, and never have worked, and on the other end of society, millions born on the same soil, with barely the necessaries of life, and too often in abject destitution, there is no other possible conclusion than that this poverty arises from man's arrangements.". "If Englishmen discover that pauperism and wretchedness are unnecessary; that the Divine Being never intended such things; that the degradation of the labouring population, their moral degradation consequent on poverty, is the curse of the laws, and not of nature, does any man suppose that Englishmen would not be justified in abolishing such laws, or that they will not abolish them?"-Page 313-315. ..... ..... This writer is a vehement opponent of the whole theory of political economy, as now held by the chiefs of that school. He states his objections strongly, and, we think, convincingly. They are so well founded, that we may wonder why he did not take the welfare of man, which he avers to be the true object of political economy, as the subject of his volume. It would have formed a much clearer radiating point for his inquiries than the indefinite term knowledge. He thus commits the very error, and indulges in the very same kind of fallacy which lead astray the writers of political economy: he exalts the means above the end. Knowledge is a means of human progression, an indispensable means; but human welfare is only to be achieved by a variety of means-knowledge among the rest. So industry, wealth, and commerce are means of human welfare, and can only be properly treated in that aspect. The attempt to construct a science out of the facts of industry, wealth, and commerce, without any regard to human well-being, or to any moral considerations, is as baseless as knowledge, apart from men to know. The leading imperfection of this very creditable performance may be traced to this erroneous startingpoint. A work which attracts much attention, appeared a few months since in London, with the title, Social Statics, by Herbert Spencer. It is apparently an attempt to consecrate some of the more refined of the Malthusian doctrines, by placing them on more specious grounds, and assuming new data and a more popular line of argument: it comes to the aid of the political economists, by offering them a basis for their whole fabric different from that which they ever claimed. It comes to the aid of the English institutions, not only by assuming a theory of society which adopts the views of the few who hold the power and the wealth of the country, but by starting from the present distribution of power, rank and wealth, with the position that the perfection of society consists in the perfect liberty of every individual to do what he pleases, provided he infringes not the liberty or rights of others. That is, the present distribution of the good things of this world must not be changed in the United Kingdom; but that being conceded, the man of power and the man without, the man of wealth and the pauper, should each have the largest and most perfect liberty consistent with their not touching each other. This is the highest and most ingenious sublimation of English political philosophy which has yet been given to the world; and it is given forth under the plausible colours of the largest liberty. It forbids the thought of charity or brotherhood or sacrifice; it consecrates selfishness and individual ism as the prime feature of society. It forbids all deliberation for the common good-all legislation for the present good of the greatest number. Its principle is, the least possible restriction, the fewest possible enactments-the weak must be left to their weakness, the strong must be trusted with their strength, the unprotected must not look for favour, and government must resolve itself into the lowest possible agent of non-intervention. It may be hoped this is the last specimen we shall see of that philosophy which aims to exalt the present institutions of society into the first principles of social science. This volume of Mr. Spencer is characterized by clearness and severe logic, and the ability of the writer increases the regret that it is not employed in the service of humanity. When a logical mind like his shall, in a survey of social statics, set his compass from the point of human welfare, we shall see him developing a very different system from that which we have noticed. It will be a system in which public good will be pursued with a view to individual welfare; in which politics, political economy, and Christianity will be found blending their efforts and interests in the sole consideration of social happiness; in which selfishness will not be consecrated, under the name of the largest individual liberty, as a fundamental principle of society, but self-denial and mutual kindness taken as the basis of human society. The following works, omitted in the catalogue at page 294, are worthy of being consulted : Essays on the Principles of Charitable Institutions, 8vo., London,⚫ 1836 1838 The Claims of Labour-Duties of Employers and Employed, 12mo., 1845 The Elevation of the People, Moral, Instructional, and Social, by Rev. 1846 Over-population and its Remedy, by Wm. Thomas Thornton, 8vo., London, The Organization of Industry, by T. C. Banfield, 8vo., London, · · 1846 1847 1848 |