power of public opinion, which is the only sure and ultimate guardian either of freedom or of virtue, is greater or less exactly as the public is more or less enlightened; and that this public can never be trained to the habit of just and commanding sentiments, except under the influence of a sound and progressive literature. The abuse of power, and the abuse of the means of enjoyment, are the great sources of misery and depravity in an advanced stage of society. Both originate with those who stand on the highest stages of human fortune; and the cure is to be found, in both cases, only in the enlightened opinion of those who stand a little lower.

Liberty, it will not be disputed, is still more clearly dependent on intelligence than morality itself. When the governors are ignorant, they are naturally tyrannical. Force is the obvious resource of those who are incapable of convincing; and the more unworthy any one is of the power with which he is invested, the more rigorously will he exercise that power. But it is in the intelligence of the people themselves that the chief bulwark of their freedom will be found to consist; and all the principles of political amelioration to originate. This is true, however, as Madame de Staël observes, only of what she terms "la haute littérature;" or the general cultivation of philosophy, eloquence, history, and those other departments of learning which refer chiefly to the heart and the understanding, and depend upon a knowledge of human nature, and an attentive study of all that contributes to its actual enjoyments. What is merely for delight, again, and addresses itself exclusively to the imagination, has neither so noble a genealogy, nor half so illustrious a progeny. Poetry and works of gaiety and amusement, together with music and the sister arts of painting and sculpture, have a much slighter connection either with virtue or with freedom. Though among their most graceful ornaments, they may yet flourish under tyrants, and be relished in the midst of the greatest and most debasing corruption of manners. It is a fine and a just remark too, of Madame de Staël, that the pursuits which minister to mere delight, and give to life its charm and voluptuousness, generally produce a great indifference about dying. They supersede and displace all the stronger passions and affections, by which alone we are bound very closely to existence; and, while they habituate the mind to transitory and passive impressions, seem naturally connected with those images of indolence and intoxication and slumber, to which the idea of death is so readily assimilated, in characters of this description. When life, in short, is considered as nothing more than an amusement, its termination is contemplated with far less emotion, and its course, upon the whole, is overshadowed with deeper clouds of ennui, than when it is presented as a scene of high duties and honourable labours, and holds out to us at every turn-not the perishable pastimes of the passing hour, but the fixed and distant objects of those serious and

lofty aims which connect us with a long futurity.

The introduction ends with an eloquent profession of the author's unshaken faith in the philosophical creed of Perfectibility:— upon which, as it does not happen to be our creed, and is very frequently brought into notice in the course of the work, we must here be indulged with a few preliminary observations.

This splendid illusion, which seems to have succeeded that of Optimism in the favour of philosophical enthusiasts, and rests, like it, upon the notion that the whole scheme of a beneficent Providence is to be developed in this world, is supported by Madame de Staël upon a variety of grounds: and as, like most other illusions, it has a considerable admixture of truth, it is supported, in many points, upon grounds that are both solid and ingenious. She relies chiefly, of course, upon the experience of the past; and, in particular, upon the marked and decided superiority of the moderns in respect of thought and reflec tion-their more profound knowledge of hu man feelings, and more comprehensive views of human affairs. She ascribes less import ance than is usually done to our attainments in mere science, and the arts that relate to matter; and augurs less confidently as to the future fortune of the species, from the exploits of Newton, Watt, and Davy, than from those of Bacon, Bossuet, Locke, Hume, and Voltaire. In eloquence, too, and in taste and fancy, she admits that there has been a less conspicuous advancement; because, in these things, there is a natural limit or point of perfection, which has been already attained: But there are no boundaries to the increase of human knowledge, or to the discovery of the means of human happiness; and every step that is gained in those higher walks, is gained, she conceives, for posterity, and for ever.

The great objection derived from the signal check which the arts and civility of life received from the inroads of the northern barbarians on the decline of the Roman power, and the long period of darkness and degrada tion which ensued, she endeavours to obviate, by a very bold and ingenious speculation. It is her object here to show that the invasion of the northern tribes not only promoted their own civilization more effectually than any thing else could have done, but actually imparted to the genius of the vanquished, a character of energy, solidity, and seriousness, which could never have sprung up of itself in the volatile regions of the South. The amalgamation of the two races, she thinks, has produced a mighty improvement on both; and the vivacity, the elegance and versatility of the warmer latitudes, been mingled, infinitely to their mutual advantage, with the majestic melancholy, the profound thought, and the sterner morality of the North. This combination, again, she conceives, could have been effected in no way so happily as by the successful invasion of the ruder people; and the conciliating influence of that common faith, which at once repressed the frivolous

and

It would be very agreeable to believe all this-in spite of the grudging which would necessarily arise, from the reflection that we ourselves were born so much too soon for vir tue and enjoyment in this world. But it is really impossible to overlook the manifold imperfections of the reasoning on which this splendid anticipation is founded;-though it may be worth while to ascertain, if possible, what degree it is founded in truth.

and mollified the ferocious tendencies of our people; and are every day extending their nature. The temporary disappearance there-empire, and multiplying their progeny. Ma. fore of literature and politeness, upon the first dame de Staël sees no reason to doubt, there shock of this mighty collision, was but the fore, that they will one day inherit the whole subsidence of the sacred flame under the earth; and, under their reign, she takes it to heaps of fuel which were thus profusely be clear, that war, and poverty, and all the provided for its increase; and the seeming misery that arises from vice and ignorance, waste and sterility that ensued, was but the will disappear from the face of society; first aspect of the fertilizing flood and accu- that men, universally convinced that justice mulated manure under which vegetation was and benevolence are the true sources of enburied for a while, that it might break out joyment, will seek their own happiness in a at last with a richer and more indestructible constant endeavour to promote that of their luxuriance. The human intellect was neither neighbours. dead nor inactive, she contends, during that long slumber, in which it was collecting vigour for unprecedented exertions; and the occupations to which it was devoted, though not of the most brilliant or attractive description, were perhaps the best fitted for its ultimate and substantial improvement. The subtle distinctions, the refined casuistry, and ingenious logic of the school divines, were all favourable to habits of careful and accu-in rate thinking; and led insensibly to a far The first thing that occurs to a sober-mindmore thorough and profound knowledge of ed listener to this dream of perfectibility, is human nature-the limits of its faculties and the extreme narrowness of the induction from the grounds of its duties-than had been which these sweeping conclusions are so conattained by the more careless inquirers of fidently deduced. A progress that is in its antiquity. When men, therefore, began again own nature infinite and irresistible, must to reason upon human affairs, they were found necessarily have been both universal and to have made an immense progress during the unremitting; and yet the evidence of its experiod when all appeared to be either retro-istence is founded, if we do not deceive ourgrade or stationary; and Shakspeare, Bacon, selves, upon the history of a very small porMachiavel, Montaigne, and Galileo, who ap- tion of the human race, for a very small num peared almost at the same time, in the most ber of generations. The proposition is, that distant countries of Europe, each displayed a the human species is advancing, and bas alreach of thought and a power of reasoning ways been advancing, to a state of perfection, which we should look for in vain in the elo- by a law of their nature, of the existence of quent dissertaions of the classical ages. To which their past history and present state them succeeded such men as Jeremy Taylor, leave no room to doubt. But when we cast Molière, Pascal, Locke, and La Bruyère-all a glance upon this high destined species, of them observers of a character, to which we find this necessary and eternal progress there is nothing at all parallel in antiquity; scarcely begun, even now, in the old inhabi and yet only preparing the way, in the sucted continent of Africa-stationary, as far ceeding age, for Montesquieu, Hume, Voltaire, back as our information reaches, in ChinaSmith, Burke, Bentham, Malthus, and so many and retrograde, for a period of at least twelve others; who have made the world familiar centuries, and up to this day, in Egypt, India, with truths, which, however important and Persia, and Greece. Even in our own Europe, demonstrable at all times, certainly never which contains probably less than one tenth entered into the conception of the earlier in- part of our kind, it is admitted, t'iat, for ophabitants of the world. Those truths, and wards of a thousand years, this great work of others still more important, of which they moral nature not only stood still, but went are destined to be the parents, have already, visibly backwards, over its fairest regions; according to Madame de Staël, produced a and though there has been a prodigious proprodigious alteration, and an incalculable im-gress in England and France and Germany provement on the condition of human nature.during the last two hundred years, it may be Through their influence, assisted no doubt by doubted whether any thing of this sort can that of the Gospel, slavery has been abolished, be said of Spain or Italy; or various other trade and industry set free from restriction, and war disarmed of half its horrors; while, in private life, women have been restored to their just rank in society; sentiments of justice and humanity have been universally cultivated, and public opinion been armed with a power which renders every other both safe and salutary.

Many of these truths, which were once the doubtful or derided discoveries of men of original genius, are now admitted as elementary principles in the reasonings of ordinary

portions, even of this favoured quarter of the world. It may be very natural for Madame de Staël, or for us, looking only to what has happened in our own world, and in our own times, to indulge in those dazzling views of the unbounded and universal improvement of the whole human race; but such specu lations would appear rather wild, we suspect, to those whose lot it is to philosophize among the unchanging nations of Asia; and would probably carry even something of ridicule with them, if propounded upon the ruins of

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 vocation 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, derive most of their enjoyment from the exercise 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 happiness; and that they must clash and consequently 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 disposition 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 satisthe 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 gratitude over twenty famishing cottages. No enlightening of the understanding will make such men the instruments of general happi

MADAME DE STAËL HOLSTEIN.

45

ness; 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 claims 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 sume 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 wischances 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 conduct 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.

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.

career of perfectibility, if all the inhabitants of Europe were as intelligent, and upright, We should be pretty well advanced in the 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 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 liberty, there is in a country indeed, the human race, whether we consider the suffer- pugnacious animal than a plebeian, and a free ings 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, Windbrutish 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 attained to a certain degree of intelligence, war must necessarily cease among all the nations of the earth. There can be no better illustration indeed, than this, of the utter futility 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 happiness 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 in 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 nature 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 existence upon a higher stake, and dispels, by its

which arise from contention, emulation, and
diversity of opinion upon points which admit
For that great class of evils, therefore,
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 enjoy-
ment, 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 trans-
gressor-the injury done to fortune, by
thoughtless expense-to health and character,
by sensual indulgence, and to the whole feli-
city of after life, by rash and unsorted mar-
riages. 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 en gaging in intrigues and gaming-clubs, and establishing coteries for detraction or sensuality

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!

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, obviously becomes more difficult. It is knowledge that destroys enthusiasm, and dispels all those prejudices of admiration which people simWith regard to the other glittering curses pler minds with so many idols of enchantof life-the heartless dissipations-the cruel ment. It is knowledge that distracts by its seductions-the selfish extravagance-the re-variety, and satiates by its abundance, and jection of all interesting occupation or serious generates, by its communication, that dark 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 knowof 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 fivered 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 has increased with our wealth and refinement; and has brought along with it the increase of all those vices and follies in which its victims still find themselves constrained to seek a temporary relief. The truth is, that military and senatorial glory is neither

encumber it; and as industry, which is excited by the importation of the raw material, may be superseded and extinguished by the introduction of the finished manufacture, so the minds which are stimulated to activity. by a certain measure of instruction may, unquestionably, be reduced to a state of pas