Progress

If we lonk ;it mankind in ihe ' gnte' their inora] and int i:l!cotual cciaduet is regulated by the tnorul and ' intellectmi! hotiona prevnlant in tiieir '' uwn time. There r.re, of eourse irmny persons vvho will riso above those notions, and many otbets whowill sink below tberö. ut such cuses are exot'jiüonal, and l'orrn a very sinall prol"ilionof tbe total iimmmt of tluwe who are nowise remarkable either for good or evil. An immense majoriiy (if men must always romaio in a middle state, neither very fooliefa nor very uble, neiihcr very virtuous nor very vicious, but s-lumbering on in u peaccful and decent, mediocrity, adopting without much difficnliy tlie cunrnt ojúriions ol the d.iy, making no inqnin', excjling no t--a 1 ;i I, cnnsing no wonder, just bold tlieii:.-filves on a level with thnir jeriüration and noiselessly coninniiiiif; to the s'nndard of moráis and of knowledge coiiiuion to the age and country in whicli they live. Nnw, it icqiiir'H but a KUpeificiai acqu;tiiit;ince ith history to bü aware thal this standard ia co?islaully banking, and ihat it is never preciiely the Fume even in the most similar counti íes, or n two su?cessive gencrations in ihe same countiy. TIih opinions which aro popular iu any nation, vary in niany respecta almost froni year to year ; and vfhat in one period is attacked as a paradox or heresy is iu anctber period welcomed aa a sober trnth ; whichj however, in its turn is roplacjd by s()lne Bubscrjnciit novelty. Tliis extremo tntitabilitv in l!ie oidinary standard of binniih actions, shows that the conditions on whioh tbe standaid depends must thc-niselves be very mutable ; and those conditions, wbatever tht-y inny be, are evidently ihe onginaloiv of the i; oral and intelleotual cundi'ct nf the great sverago of mankind. Here, then, we have a basis on vvhich e can saffly procted We kunw tbat the ïuuii) causo of human actii'ns is extruinely vat iaVjie ; we have ouly, tlieielore, to üpply lliis test to auv .-et of üircumsiunutiA wbiofl are snpposed to l)o the úuMse wo are attumpting to discover. Applvnig tliis lest to rnoral motives, or to the díctate of what is called moral in.-tiuct, we shall at once see how i-tretnely small is the nftuenee tliose üioiives have exercisud over the progi-ess of civilízate. For there is unquesiionalily tiothing to be found in tlie vvorld a bich hus undergone so httle change as thosu greal dogmas oi whieh moral systeras are composed. - To do good to others ; to saeritice lor their benefit your mvn wishes; tol ove your neigiibor as yourself; to forgive your eneiHies ; to restrain your passious ; to honor your parents; to respect those ulm are set over you: these, and a fow others, ure the solé essentials of moráis ; uut they have been known for thousauds of Jtar, and not one jot or title has been added lo them, by all the serrnons, homilie, and text-books whieh moralista and theoiogians have been able to produce. But f we contrast Ibis stationary aspect of moral truths with the progressive aspect of intellectual truths the ditfereuce is indeed startling. All the great moral sys'enis whicü have exeroised mucli influence, have been fundamentally the same; all the great intellectual systems have been fuudamentally different. In referenee to our moral condaet, there is not a singlo principie Dow known to the most cuítivated Europeans, which was not likewise known to the andents. In reference to the conduct ot onr intellect, the modems have not on!y made the most important additions to every departmeul of knowledge tbtit the ancients ever attempted to study, but beBides this, they have upset and revolutionized the old methods of inquiry; they have Consolidated into one great scheme all those resources of induction which Aristotle alone dimly perceived ; and they have ereated t-cieuces, the faintest idea of which never entered the mind of the boldest thinker antiquity produced. These aret to every educated man, recognized and notorious iacts; and the inference to bb drawn frorn them is iirimediately obvious. Since civil ization is the product of moral and intellectual agencies, and since tha.t product is constantiy ehanging, it evidently can not be regulated by the stationary agent; becnuse, when surrounding circunistances are unchangeil, a stationary agent can ouly produce a stationary effect. The ouly other agent is the intellei'.tiMl oue ; and that this is the real mover may be proved in two dislinct ways; first, beciuse being as we have alreudy seen, either moral or intellectual, and boing as we have already Been, nol moral, it must be intellectual ; and secundly, because the intellectual principio has un aclmty and a oapacity lor adapation, which, as I undertake to show, is quite sufficient to account for the extraordinaiy progress th at, during several ceuiuries, Euiope