2 has ascendancy mind has accendancy (1) Imagination undslighetene. inclines to sensuality, Pract. Athink (21 Remon to Atherin proper or Theoretical 3. Spiritual, spirit has ascor dency (1) Spirit rules seus directly abrolutes almost instrues of ruled lect. §.5. Jr. Peter in, there in woh-Eirit ruler Sease encorated this the Intellect (1) Imagination 5.5. Jar Inde. Works, Letter of Raw bry & superstition 121 Reason (S. Paul, Faiths, Sheath and to deeption, Schise. 3. Magination & Reason, duly balanced ideal Ex. Jews itt. PROGRESSION BY ANTAGONISM: A THEORY, INVOLVING CONSIDERATIONS TOUCHING THE PRESENT POSITION, ADVERTISEMENT. THE following pages comprise my impressions relative to the present position, duties, and destiny of Great Britain, as the heir of past, and trustee of future civilization. I offer them, of course, solely as a Theory, although conviction of its truth, and the necessary conciseness of statement, may have given me the appearance of a dogmatism which I would most earnestly disclaim. I know well that for my own sake it might be prudent to delay the publication; there must be many inaccuracies, and I may find much to modify hereafter: but believing, as I do, that the principle is sound, and the general outline correct, having tested it in many ways, and especially in long and minute researches into the history of Christian Art, wherein I have found a safe and sure guide, affording a principle of classification and a standard of criticism, for which I elsewhere sought in vain,*-hearing, moreover, the cry that rises up on all sides, the yearning, agonising cry, from the youthful, ingenuous, truth-seeking 6 * I had originally intended prefixing this essay to the Sketches of the History of Christian Art,' now in the press, but circumstances have occasioned my abandoning that idea. I may refer to them, however, prospectively, as illustrating by a particular example the general principles here laid down,-as forming a tower, as it were, of the castle of which I have here sketched the plan and laid the foundations-a plan too extensive for my own or any single hand to execute, and which I should be delighted therefore to see carried out by others. hearts of England for a key to the enigma of our times, and feeling through my own experience that the Theory in question solves that enigma; and believing, finally, that it contains an acorn of truth, which, dropped within the vase of our present shallow and bounded philosophy, must necessarily burst it in its expansion, and, falling on the rich virgin soil beneath, shoot up again towards heaven, a stately tree, of Life no less than KnowledgeI cannot hesitate; I feel that now or never is the time it should be set forth; and any blame or misapprehension that may temporarily attach to myself is of little consequence in comparison.* Haigh, 1 July, 1846. * I have been urged to subjoin proofs, authorities, and illustrations throughout the succeeding argument. I have added a few illustrations, but to enumerate the proofs and authorities at large would be tedious and well nigh impossible; every line would require a volume of them; the reader's memory will supply them better. My object has been conciseness; and I feel confidence in the recollection that many of the detached and subsidiary principles here asserted are generally recognised, although unconnectedly and without appreciation of their mutual relation and of the law that binds them all together. |