MASTER NEGATIVE NO. 91-80116 MICROFILMED 1992 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK as part of the "Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project" Funded by the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Library COPYRIGHT STATEMENT The copyright law of the United States - Title 17, United States Code - concerns the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material... Columbia University Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of the copyright law. AUTHOR: TUCKER, GEORGE TITLE: A DISCOURSE ON THE PROGRESS.. PLACE: RICHMOND DA TE : 1853 } COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT RTRTTOHRAPl^fTr MTCROFOWM TARGET Master Negative # 9\'S0ll6'fc Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record I 108 Z2 ! Tucker, George 1775-1861 A discourse on the progress of philosophy and its influence on the intellectual and moral cliaracter of man, delivered before the Virginia historical and phil- osophical society, February 5, 1835 • • • Richmond 1835 17 p From the Sout ' \ hern literary messenger No 7 of a vol 'of pamphlets Restrictions on Use: >» TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA REDUCTION RATIO: iiX iIlM SIZE: ^SLn ^-, - IMAGEPLACEMENT: IA®;iB HB _^^^^^^ (^ r^ DATE FILMED:__^r^_7r_?/. INITIALS_i^^LX' FILMED BY: RFSF.ARCH PURTTCATIONS. INC WOODB RIDGE, CT Association for Information and Image Management 1100 Wayne Avenue. Suite 1100 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 Centimeter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 mm ■;''|']f|'|''['|7!7[7';'[''|'l''|'|''|';'i|'';'|'';'|'f^ Inches 2 3 1.0 I.I 1.25 ■■ =21= 3.0 '™=^ Sj* "3.2 63 US i& 14.0 1.4 23 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.6 1 MfiNUFfiCTURED TO PIIM STRNDPRDS BY fiPPLIED IMOGE, INC. ■^>. O '^ '4' x < 0. 7 f A DISCOURSE ON TUB PROGRESS OF PHILOSOPHY, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL CHARACTER OF MAN ; DELIVERED BEFORE THE VIRGINIA HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 5, 1835; BY GEORGE TUCKER, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the Unirersity of Virginia. Originally published in the Southern. lAterary Messenger. RICH|IOND : PRINTED BY T. W. WHITE, ^PPOSITB THE BELL TAVERN. 1835. A DISCOURSE ON THE PROGRESS OF PHILOSOPHY, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE INTKLLKCTUAL AND MORAL CHARACTER OF MAN; DELIVERED BEFORE THE VIRGINIA HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 5, 1835 ; BY GEORGE TUCKER, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Virginia. Originally published in the Southern Idterary Messenger. RICHMOND : i PRINTED BY T. W. WHITE, OPPOSITE THU BULL TAVBRK. 1835. '\m "' DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. A DISCOURSE On the Progreas of Philosophy, and its Influence on the Intel- lectual and Moral Character of Man ; delivered before the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society, February 3, 1835. By George Tucker, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Virginia. ATr. President, arid Gentlemen of the Society : — I FEEL (he weight of the task I have underta- ken to perform, the more sensibly, when T recol- lect the brilliant qualifications of the member* who was the first choice of the society, and that 1 must disappoint the expectations which that choice so naturally raised. The grave and sober specu- lations which I am about to sul)mit to your consi- deration will, I fear, but poorly compensate those who hear me, for the graces of elocution, the rich, but chaste imagery, and the rare felicity of dic- tion by which that gentleman is distinguished; and I regret on your account, as well as my own, that he has thus unexpectedly failed to fulfil the wishes of his associates. F have thought it would not be unappropriate lo the occasion, to present to the society some views of the influence which philosophy has exercised, and must continue to exercise, over civilized man. Amidst the din of political controversy, and the hustling concerns of life, it is well sometimes to withdraw our thoughts from the tumultuous scenes around us to the calm views of rational specula- tion. Our minds may be not merely refreshed by the cliange, but they are likely to acquire eleva- tion and purity in being thus severed from sordid and selfish pursuits, and made to contemplate hu- man concerns in the transparent medium of truth and philosophy. Philosophy ! a term to which some attach a mysterious import, as implying a kind of know- ledge unattainable except by a few gifted minds — whilst others regard it as more an object of aver- sion than of affection, — inculcating a system of thought and action equally at war with nature and common sense, — as a perversion of human reason and feeling, at once cold and repulsive to others, and profitless to the possessor. This is not the philosophy of which I propose to speak, but her counterfeit ; which, being as bold and forward as the other is modest and retiring, has made herself more known to the world than the character she personates, and has thus brought discredit on the name. By philosophy, I mean that power of perceiv- ing truths which are not obvious — of seeing the complicated relations of things, and of seeing them as they really are, unperverted by passion or pre- judice. So far from being repugnant to nature and common sense, it constantly appeals to these lor the justness of its precepts. It is indeed Hea- ♦ James McDowell, Eaq. of Rockbridge. soUj exercising its highest attributes in the multi- farious concerns of human life. Such was the philosophy of Newton and Locke, and of our own illustrious Franklin. It will be the object of the following remarks to show, that this philosophy is gradually increasing and diffusing itself over the world ; that it now mingles in all human concerns, and gives to the present age its distinguishing characteristics ; that its progress must still continue, and more and more influence the character of man and civilized socie- ty ; and that in no country is its influence likely to be more extensively or beneficently felt than in this. The most superficial observer must be struck with the prodigious advancement of the human in- tellect, when he compares the opposite extremes of society. The savage, when his mind is roused from a state of apathy, passes into one of strong emotion; for he is cajjable of intense feelings, but not of profound and comprehensive thought. He knows but few facts ; and they have not that va- riety and complexity which distinguish the know- ledge of the civilized man. All that he sees and hears, is heard and seen by the men of civilization ; but to this the latter is always adding the percep- tion of new and intricate relations, of which the former is incapable. Thus, compare the know- ledge of the relations of numbers possessed by one who barely knows how many fives there are in twenty, with that of him who can mark out the paths of the planets, calculate their mutual attrac- tions, and predict a distant eclipse t6 a minute ; or the few and simple rules of justice among a tribe of savages, to the intricate and multifarious codes of civilized society; nay, extend the comparison to any other department of human knowledge, and there will be found the same difference between the two, as exists between the wigwam of mud or bark, without a door, window or chimney, and the solid and spacious hall in which we are assembled. Nor is this all ; for as the reason, in common with every other faculty, is strengthened by exercise, the severer and more incessant exercise to which it is subjected by the multiplication of new rela- tions, is constantly increasing the authority of ^ reason, and weakening tlie dominion of the pas- sions and prejudices. The mind therefore becomes, with the progress of civilization, more capable of perceiving rela- tions — more imbued with a knowledge of these relations — more comprehensive — more capable of making remote deductions. It perceives more truths that are complex and difficult — and has more capacity to detect illusion and error. We thus see human reason gradually extending its em- pire, successfully assailing former prejudice, and fashioning human institutions to purposes of utili- ty. We see men more and more inclined to value every object only in proportion as it conduces to the happiness of the greater number ; and to con. DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. aider nothing as permanently connected with that bappinesp, but what gives gratification to the senses without debasing them; to the intellect without misleading it; and to the passions when fulfilling their legitimate objects. It is thus we see each succeedbg generation regarding with in- difference, and even with contemptuous ridicule, what commanded 4he veneration of a former age. It would exceed the limits of such a discourse as the present to give even an outline of the ad- vancement of reason, as exhibited in the vatious branches of science. Nor is it necessary. It will be sufficient for us to give our attention to some few striking facts in the progress of science and art, especially in those cases which being iiwrc re- cent, are at once better known to us, and have a nearer relation to our interests. Let us turn to any department of human knowledge or inquiry, and we see the clearest manifestations of the grow- ing philosophical spirit of which I speak. 1^ If we look at the character of civil government, we find that every revolution — every im|iortant change — is the result of the progress of philoso- phy — of the extension of the empire of reason. Once kings were regarded as deriving their pow- er not from the consent of the people, but imme- diately from the Deity. They were said to be the Lord's anointed ; and implicit obedience — unresist- ing submission to the mandate of the sovereign, was enjoined not merely as a civil, but as a reli- gious duty. In two out of the four quarters of the world, we all know how much these opinions are changed ; and that there, with the thinking portion at least, government is now regarded as an institution cre- ated solely for the happiness of the people ; that they are the judges of what constitutes that happi- ness ; and that government may be changed, either as to its form or agents, whenever it is proved in- capable of fulfilling its main purpose. This prin- ciple of reason and common sense caused and jus- tified the establishment of the Commonwealth in England; the restoration of the monarchy; the subsequent revolution in 1688; the American re- volution in 1776 ; the French revolution of 1789, under all its various phases; and that which pro- duced a change of dynasty in 1830. We have seen the operation of the same principle in sepa- rating the Spanish provinces on this continent from the mother country. We have seen it in the separation of Belgium from Holland, and in the liberation of Greece from the Turkish yoke. 1^ Every subordinate institution too, is now judgetl according as it tends to promote the welfare of the community ; and the notion of rights of particu- lar classes and orders of men, fiirther than they can be shown to rest on this foundation, is deemed presumptuous and absurd. Even the rights of property itself, the most sacred of any, because they are the most obvious and are possessed by a greater number, are derived from the same source, and are regulated and controlled by it. Every tax in a popular government — every restriction on the free use of one's own, — whether it be in the form of a prohibition against gaming, or of laying out a new road, or of an inspection law, recog- nizes this principle. It governs legislatures in conferring rights as well as abridging them. They all find their authority and justification in the pub- lic good ; nor does any one now attempt to resist a tax or defend a privilege, but by appealing to this great test of right, the interests of the community. You see too in jurisprudence, that all those principles which grow out of barbarous usages, or were the result of accident, or of mistaken theory, are gradually made to give way to the light of reason and the spirit of philosophy. They con- form more and more to the common sense and common feelings of mankind. Crimes which once incurred the severest penalties of the law, are crimes no longer; modes of trial originating in supersti- tion have been abolished; many of the frivolous niceties of pleading, or rules founded on a state of things which no longer exist — such as that which excluded written testimony from the common law courts, and which, like noisome weeds, choked up the administration of justice, have been eradicated, in spite of the cry which always will be raised against innovation, and which some of our best principles, as well as our weakest prejudices, con- cur in raising. Nor have we yet reached the end of this course of salutary reform. The administration of justice may be still more simple ; and though the rules of projierty and of civil rights must always be nume- rous and complicated in a civilized community, yet this necessity furnishes a further reason why the modes of investigating truth and the rules of evidence should possess all practicable simplicity. Tlie spirit of philosophy has been actively at work here. In some instances, perhaps, it has been too far in advance of the age, and under the influence of the pride of discovery and reform, or provoked by opposition, it may have been urged farther than reason and propriety would warrant. It has, how- ever, arraigned the whole system of judicial evi- dence, and endeavored to show that the rules for the examination of contested facts are so errone- ous or defective, that the truth is commonly disco- vered better out of court than in it; and that questions about which all the world is satisfied, when technically examined by tribunals created purposely for their investigation, either receive no answer, or a wrong one. The official expounders of the law, partaking of the liberal spirit of the age, have of late years greatly narrowed the ob- jections to the competency of witnesses; but it is only the legislature and public opinion which are adequate to a complete reform, and they will one day assuredly bring it. There is much seeming force in many of the other objections of the reformers to the present very artificial and complicated system of jurispru- dence; but whether their views are satisfactory or otherwise, they equally serve to show the pre- valent disposition of men to bring all human con- cerns to the bar of reason, and make them submit to her decrees. There is nothing in which the progress of rea- son and philosophy are more shown, than in the subject of relig ion. A large part, perhaps I may say, the best part of religion, as it is most produc- tive of good results, is the religion of the heart; and consists in a profound and thorough sense of the wisdom and beneficence of the Creator— of thanksgiving for the blessings he has vouchsafed to frail and humble beings like ourselves — to^igo- rous self-examinations by our own conscience— to fervent aspirations after moral excellence in this life, and a purer and higher state of existence hereafter. But all of these are impulses of the feelings, rather than the cold dictates of the rea- soning faculty; and being dependant on the laws of our emotions, which are as unchangeable as our forms, and probably as much the result of organi- zation, are the same in character, if not in degree, in every stage of society. But while philosophy has not altered, and could not alter these impulses of the heart, we may see here also its benignant operations. It has driven away from religion the superstitions which fraud ' and credulity combined had gathered around it. Man no longer imputes to the Deity the same vio- lent and ignoble passions by which the baser part of his own nature is agitated ; and instead of regard- ing cruelty and vengeance as attributes of the Su- preme Being, he is invested with those qualities which appear to our feeble conceptions more con- sonant with divine perfection. Thus mercy to human frailty and pity for human suffering, are regarded as divine attributes no less than wisdom and power. On the part of its votaries, humility is invoked to take the place of pride ; forgiveness of injuries to supersede resentment ; meekness and patience and long suffering are held to indicate a truer devotion than pompous rites and vain cere- monies; and instead of incense and sacrifices, good deeds to his fellow mortals, and a lowly and penitent spirit, are deemed the most acceptable of- ferings which man can make to his Creator. In this transformation, Mr. President, you recognize the leading precepts of Christianity, which may well be called the most philosophical of all reli- gions. It is true that afler this religion became the creed of those northern barbarians, who poured like an avalanche over the south of Europe, Chris- tianity became greatly perverted from its original simplicity and purity ; but it was not destined to remain forever shrouded in these mists of barba- rism. Afler the growing spirit of philosophy pre- pared men's minds for its reception and welcome, it broke forth in its pristine beauty and splendor. The further continuance of the abuses of the chris- tian church was inconsistent with the increase of general intelligence; and the reformation must have taken place had Martin Luther never exist- ed, or had the Dominican friars never carried on the traffic in indulgences; though it might not have happened at the precise time, or in the precise manner in which it did occur. In truth, man's religion, as well as every thing else relative to his opinions and feelings, partakes of the character of the age; and we are warrant- ed in saying, that the christian religion in the mid- dle ages must as necessarily have been subject to its corruptions, its superstitions, and its persecu- tions, among a people so rude as that which then swayed the destinies of Europe, as that after the discovery of the art of printing, the revival of let- ters, and the general progress of science and phi- losophy, these foul exhalations should disappear. It has been supposed, that the spirit of philoso- phy which has been so hostile to superstition, is also unfavorable to true religion ; and many, list- ening to their fears rather than their reason, have readily yielded to that opinion. But they have been too hasty in drawing general conclusions from par- ticular facts. It is true that many of the philoso- phers of France, and some of those of Great Bri- tain, during the last century, were not only op- posed to the prevailing creeds of their country, but seemed to have no very fervid religious feel- ings of any kind; but they were led first to make war on what they regarded as the abuses of reli- gion, and then their attacks appear to be levelled against every thing which bore its name. It is highly probable that, by a natural process of the mFnd, from coming to hate the corruptions of Christianity, they felt a prejudice against every thing which was associated with it. But on the other hand, we have seen some, occupying the very highest places in the scale of philosophers, who were sincere and zealous christians. Besides, the present age, which is the most philosophical the world has ever seen, is also the most generally and ardently devoted to Christianity, as is evinced by the extraordinary number of Churches, Bible So- cieties, Missionary Societies, Sunday Schools, &c. Let then the sincerely devout and i)ious dismiss their fears. The foundations of religion are seat- ed in the very nature and constitution of man ; in the deepest recesses of his heart. It is a want of his moral nature, as indispensable as food to his physical ; and philosophy tends only to separate it from a part of the dross with which every thing earthly more or less mingles, and to leave its own pure essence undiminished and untouched. Let us now pass to the subject of hterature,' where we shall see the same evidences of the DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. 1 growing influence of philosophy and reason over the minds of men. Thus poetry, in its efforts to pletM and elevale the mind, 'Cy exciting the ima- gination and feelings, now never addresses us un- attended by philosophy. Her favorite occupation of late has been to delineate the dispositions and characters of men; to reveal the secret ivorkings of the passions and the sources of human sympa- thy ; to exhibit the human mind, in short, under its roost impressive phases. The prevalent ta^te of the age is for metaphysical poetry ; by which I mean, poetry imbued with philosophy, — |>oelry which lays bare the anatomy of the human heart, and discloses all the springs and machinery by which it is put in play. Those who are gifled with this beautiful talent, have conformed to the ruling taste, and their success has been proportionate. It is to this circumstance that Byron owes part of his popularity ; for in exhibiting the most subtle pro- cesses of human passion, its energies and its sus- ceptibilities, be is superior to any of his predeces- sors; though in the mere embellishment of smooth and felicitous diction, and of agreeable 4nd varied rhythm, or even in the higher attributes of lively imagery and lofty conception, he can boast of no su- periority. Perhaps it would be more correct to say, that the metaphysical character of his poetry pro- ceeded not so much from his wish to adapt it to the public taste, as because he himself partook of the character of his age ; that he wrote metaphysically and philosophically because he spoke and thought in this way, and he so spoke and thought from the very same causes as his contemporaries. This inference is the more warranted, when we find the same tincture of philosophy in the poetry of his contemporaries,— Southey, Wordsworth, Campbell and Coleridge.* Even Moore infuses into his amatory poems as much philosophy as the subject will admit, though it is of the sensual school of Epicurus. Sometimes we see the spirit of philosophy controlling the poetic spirit, as was the case with Shelley, Coleridge and some others, in whose ix)elry the precepts of philosophy were more obscured by the restraints of verso than aid- ed by its ornaments. It is an unnatural alliance, and both the poetry and the philosophy are the worse for the union. In other works of imagination, those intended for the stage, and in the region of romance, we see the same proofs of the progress of philosophy. Wal- ter Scott's novels are, throughout, the same exhi- bitions of man, whether acting, speaking or think- ing, which a philosopher would take. We are made to see, not by the formality of an instructor, or the impertinence of a cicerofw, but by the con- summate fidelity and skill of the representation, t The recent poetry of coniinertul Europe exhibits the same psychological character } as for instance, that of Alfieri and Monte in Italy, of Odethe and Tieck in Germany, and of Beran- ger in France. every motive and passion of the actors laid open to our view, and in strict conformity to what we liad often previously observed, though we may not have made it the special subject of reflection. There never was before so much philosophy taught by one writer, or taught in so pleasing a mode, or taught to so many disciples. Such a gallery of moral pictures could not have been created before the nineteenth century ; and though they had been, they would not have met with the same unbounded popularity, but, like Milton's Paradise Lost, would have been in ad- vance of the spirit of the age. In the drama, the plays of Joanna Baillie, and of Byron, are the most metaphysical of all dra- matic productions — so much so, as to make them unsuited either to the tastes or ca()acitiesof a pro- miscuous audience. The tragedies of Vollaire are of a more philosophical character tiian tliose of Ra- cine or Corneille, and these again more philosophi- cal than the earlier productions of the French drama. But it is in history that we most clearly per- ceive the spirit of tlic age. Formerly it consisted in little more than a recital of the actions of prin- ces, public or private ; and no occurrence in the annals of a nation was deemed worthy of comme- moration, except battles and conquests, revolutions and insurrections — with now and then the notice of a plague, (amine, earthquake or other general calamity. Now, however, the historian aims to make us acquainted with the progress of society and the arts of civilization ; with the advancement or decline of religion, literature, laws, manners, commerce — every thing indeed, which is connect- ed with the Ijappiness or dignity of man ; he does this, not only because he deems these subjects more worthy the attention of an enlarged and liberal mind, but also because we can, from a faithful narrative of these events, traced out from their causes, and to their eflects, learn the lessons of wisdom — and seeing tlie approach of evil, be bet- ter able to avert or mitigate it. It is in this spirit that all history must now Le written, to be ap- proved or even read. In the study of language, we perceive the same evidences of our intellectual advancement. By arranging the elements of speech according to the physical organs employed in their utterance, great light has been thrown on etymology, and in this way, aflinities have been traced, first among lan- guages, and through them among nations appa- rently unconnected. And as all language consists of signs of our mental o|)erations, the general principles of grammar have been sought in the laws of the mind; while language in turn, has been sometimes successfully invoketl to explain those laws; and thus philology and mental philo- sophy have assisted in elucidating each other. This branch of phUosophy (which treats of our mental Ikcul ties) has not indeed made as much progress as many others; for it admits not the discovery of new facts. But neitlicr Iras this been stationary. Great improvements have been made in analyzing its compound states ; in separating its original from its derivative properties; in tracing many seemingly diverse operations to one simple principle. To be convinced of this improvement, we have only to regard the theory of associations as it now is, compared with the slight and vogue notice of it by Locke ; or advert to the opinions of the same eminent man on the foundation of mo- rals. He maintained that there was no original pro- pensity in mankind to appBoveone action as , irtu- ous, and another as vicious; and that there waS no practical principle which was approved or con- demned by all nations. He even denied that pa- rental affection, the strongest feeling in the mater- nal bosom, was an original feeling. He refers to the inventions of travellers in support of his theory, and was as credulous of the anomalous facts they related, as he was skeptical of innate propensities. Thus he says : " It is familiar among the Mingrelians, a people professing Christianity, to bury their children alive without scruple; he asserts that the Caribbees were wont to fat and eat their own children ;" and that a people of Peru who followed this practice, used, when by the course of nature they no longer had a prospect of more chil- dren to eat, " to kill and eat the mothers." A more intimate acquaintance with the people of this globe, and juster modes of reasoning, have dissipated these illusions; and if I mistake not,, the laws of the mind will, in no distant day, be traced with an accuracy and precision little infe rior to those which prevail in most brancheso physics. In the science of political economy too, we see the advance of the light^ofphilosophy. The er- rors which were the result of general and deep- rooted prejudices, have yielded to the force of reason ; and all enlightened men now agree that nothing is so injurious to national prosperity as too much regulation ; and that the desire which man- kind have to increase their means of enjoyment, operates more unceasingly, and sagaciously, and be- neficially, than any schemes of the government, however vigilant, intelligent and free from bias ; since governments at best can operate only by general rules, which injure some in benefiting others,— while the sagacity of individuals, with few exceptions, devises the best rules for each par- ticular case. It was for philosophy also to discover the connec- tion between good government and the national prosperity, and that a community will have the most industry, skill and thrift, where property is best protected— where every one can freely exer- cise his talents or his capital, and securely enjoy the fruits they have yielded. Philosophy, or un- prejudiced reason, if you prefer it, also refuted an error once prevalent, that one country, or one part of a country, was injured by another's wellare ; and proved both by reasoning and example, that every accession of wealth or prosperity, expe- rienced by one portion, radiates light and heat to all around it. If the progress of philosophy, or human reason, has done so much in the moral sciences, it has done yet more in the physical branches of know- ledsre for the material world — more invites our attention and speculation — is more within the reach of experiment, and the benefits it confers are more direct and obvious. It would be foreign to my purpose, if I were competent to the task, to mark the steps by which man has passed from conjecture to certainty — from rash hypothesis to theories founded on cautious observation and ex- periment — from inquiries which, if successful, had only gratified curiosity, to discoveries and im- provements immediately conducive to the benefits of society. To enable us to appreciate the advance of science, it is sufficient for us to look at what the condition of man now is, compared with what it was. In whatever direction we turn our eyes, we be- I hold some triumph of mind over matter. We j cannot see a ship, a book, a gun, a watch — scarce- ly the commonest implement or utensil — without being made sensible of the wonders achieved by human science and art, — the result of the com- bined efforts of a thousand minds and ten thousand hands, embodied in a form that has added incal- culably to man's power and enjoyment. If we take the departments of knowledge separately, we are filled with admiration at the labor by which it has climbed, and the elevation it has attained. Astronomy, not content with teaching us the iiiofioiis of the planets and moons of our system, and by them, enabling us to traverse the pathless ocean with the certainty with which we travel by land — of itself a glorious achievement of science — now undertakes to estimate the weight and density of these bodies — their influence on one another — of the smallest on the largest — the flight of comets, and even some of the changes of position in the stars themselves. Optics has taught us new laws of light, and has subjected the most subtle and the most rapid body in nature to measurements, of as much certainty as the gross portions of matter. We now know the weight, density, motions, elas- ticity of the air we breathe, and which encom- passes the earth ; the laws of sound — its velocity, force, repercussion, musical tone. By electri- city, magnetism, galvanism, are revealed to us new fluidsof the existence of which we did not for- merly dream. Their laws have been investigated with all the accuracy, acuteness and unwearied diligence which belongs to modern science; and though this branch of physics is every day re- 8 DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. celTing new accessions, it already forms a copious •cience of itself While yet in the full career of discovery, it affords jMjrsuasive evidence of the close affinity if not identity of light, heiit, mag- netisra, electricity and galvanism. The progress of chemistry, shows us the growth of the human intellecTnTlts numerous useful re- aulU. In the power it has acquired over brute matter, it has added infinitely to our means of comfort or enjoyment, by improving the useful arts of husbandry, metallurgy, dying, bleaching, lanning, brewing and medicine. Some of these improvements have, indeed, been the effect of ac- cident"; but many, nay the most of them, have been the result of human inquiry and sagacity. And the atomic theory, which gives us an insight into some of the primary laws of matter, is a pure deduction of reason. By chemical discoveries, useful processes which once required months, or even years, are now ef- fected in a few days. The chemist has found means to separate one of several properties from a drug, •o that its medicinal effect may be undiminished jind unaffected by other tww hiwo i i properties origi- lally^with it. Light, which formerly was fur- *nished only by the valuable substances of wax, tallow, spermaceti or oil, has been supplied o( a better quality, from the cheajiest and most abun- dant objects in nature; and these improvements are but the precursors of the more splendid reti- nue which are hereafter destined to make their appearance. This science gives us assurance that all those substances which are most indispensable to man, because they repair the waste which is un- ceasingly going on in his bodily frame, are dis- persed in boundless profusion throughout the uni- verse, but under forms and combinations which conceal them from our unassisted senses ; and that it may be within the scope of human art to sepa- rate those which are nutritious, and assimilate with our system, from those that are of a noxious or neutral character, and thus to modify the law which has hitherto limited the numbers of man- kind. It is now thought whatever vegetable sub- stances can l>e made soluble can be made digesti- ble, in proof of which, a German chemist* has already succeeded in converting ligneous sub- stances into wholesome aliment ; and it has long been known that sugar may be made by a similar chemical conversion. What would have been the transmutation for which the alchemist of former days consumed so many anxious days and sleepless nights, compared v/ith these.' Gold owes its extra- ordinary value to its scarcity, and had the adept succeeded in making it at pleasure, he would have lessened its value in the same proportion as he in- creased the quantity. If he could have converted copper into gold, the gold would have been worth ♦ Professor Autonrieth of Tubingen. no more than the copper, except for the expense of the transmutation. And if society had gained some advantage in lieing able to substitute it for metals that are liable to rust, yet it would have lost as much by the destruction of its property of containing great value in a small bulk, and its consequent unfitness to perform the functions of money. It is not improbable that some of these splendid visions of science may never be realized : but then other discoveries and improvements may take place of equal and greater imjwrtance; and should those ho|)es be verified, would they exhibit a greater triumph of art than has been witnessed in our day r they are certainly not more beyond the hounds of seeming probability than balloons, and diving bells, and rail roads, would have appeared to a former age. The most extravagant fiuicy in which the man of science has indulged would scarcely exceed the wonders now wrought by steam, whether we con- sider the simplicity of the means, or the magnitude of the results. When in every vessel of heated water mankind had always seen a vapor arise, who could have supposed that in this simple fact, nature had furnished an agent, which by skilfully managing, he could multiply his natural strength a thousand fold, and move from place to place with the swiftness of a bird? By the alternate produc tion and condensation of this vapor, which he is able to do by the very common agents of fire and water, he is able to extract the ponderous minerals from the bowels of the earth, having made it pre- viously drain off the water which put them out of his reach. By the same power he fashions the metal he has made, into bars, or sheets, or rods, according to his various purposes. By it he per- forms all those operations which require incessant action as well as preterhuman strength ; and thus it is made to spin and weave, to saw and bore and plane. By this he grinds his flour, cuts and pol- ishes marble, prints newspapers, and transtiers both himself and his commodities from place to place, by land or by water, with a rapidity which had existed only in the creations of an eastern imagi- nation ; and what is no less admirable, with a di- minution of fatigue equal to the increase of s|)eeil. The kindred sciences of geology and mineralogy have undergone the same improvements as that of chemistry. And by a course of inductive reason- ing, founded on careful observation, the changes which the outer crust of our earth, to the small comparative extent that we are able to penetrate it, have been most satisfactorily shown, and refer- red to their several chemical or mechanical agents. It has also afforded data from which important facts in the history of organized beings have been deduced, and thus it has shed a light on a branch of knowledge from which it seemed most remote. The notion which once prevailed^ that no species of animals is extinct, has been incontestibly dis- proved ; and it has shown not only that there were many s|)ecies which not only do not now exist, but which could not subsist in the present state of the world. Where important facts have not been discovered by human reason, we see its power exerted in profiting by those which accident has suggested ; as in Galvani's discovery and that of Haiiy in crystallography, of vaccination and many others. Of all the branches of human knowledge there is no one which sooner exercised the understand- ings of men than that of medicine, first as a prac- tical art, and then as a science, as there is none to which he is impelled by stronger motives; and accordingly we find it practised by a separate class, in some of the rudest nations. Yet long and diligently as it has been cultivated, it has made prodigious advances of late years, and human rea- son has here too achieved its accustomed triumphs. In the surgical branch diseases are cured every day, often too by young and inexperienced opera- tors, that were once deemed immedicable, and often proved fatal. The materia medica has been im- proved both by happy accidents, and the scientific labors of the chemist — and the science, trustin<'- only to cautious observation and experiment, has profited as much by what it has rejected from the catalogue of sanative remedies, as what it has added. Reason has here taken the place of super- stition and blind credulity, and few prescriptions are now made on purely empirical grounds. W^e have the most conclusive evidence of the advance of the medical science, in the greater average length of life now, compared with former periods. It has in England increased in 31 years from 1 in 33 to 1 in 58. A similar increase has been found to have taken place in every nation of Europe. In Great Britain, France and Germany, the ave- rage increase has been from 1 in 30 to 1 in 38 in less than two generations. And if a part of this melioration may be attributed to the moral im- provement of men, to the greater wealth and com- fort of a greater number, the diminution of intem- perance and other vices, a part also seems fairly attributable to the medical science ; but in either way it attests the progress of reason and philosophy. The progress of those sciences which exercise no other faculty but the reason, also attest the increase and vigor of the human faculties. Al- gebra is not only more generally cultivated tlian in a former age, but it is now applied to every species of regular form and motion that matter can assume, and has thus reached conclusions which seemed unattainable by human skill ; and the cal- culus which one generation readily performs, was scarcely intelligible to that which preceded it. Even our most familiar and household concerns show the increased influence of "reason over our actions. The dress of both sexes is more con- formable to nature than formerly, and less biassed by caprice and arbitrary or accidental forms. I need only, by way of proof, refer to hair iiowder and buckles, and the tight ligatures which once bound our limbs or bodies, but bind them no longer. Forms have been discarded or abridged and made subservient to convenience — our modes of eating, drinking and sleeping— all the ordinary habits of social life prove the growing ascendancy of reason over habit and prejudice. Though in all of these we may occasionally see some retro- grade steps. The more philosophical spirit of modern, com- pared with ancient limes, is illustrated by what was then considered as the seven wonders of the world. They boasted of magnitude or costliness — of some enormous expenditure of human labor in a pyramid, a statue or temple, which was fitted to make a strong impression on the senses. But what are the objects which now fill men's minds with admiration and astonishment.^ They are such as are addressed to their powers of reflection — great moral changes like the American or French revolutions; the liberation of Greece or of Span- ish America : or if they be of a physical character, then they are of some successful effort of science and art which directly conduces to the benefit of mankind ; such, for instance, as the application of steam to manufactures and navigation — the New York Canal, the Manchester Rail Road, and the Thames Tunnel. These, and such as these, are the world's wonders in our day. Such then, Mr. President, is the character of the changes which the mind of man has wrought on physical nature, as well as in the improvement of his own condition ; and these in turn have ef- fected an immense change in the character of his mind. lie has become less svbjected to the dominion I of his senses and more to that of his reason. He I is necessarily made to perceive an infinite number of new and intricate relations, which the progress of knowledge and civilization are ever adding to those which previously existed, and his reasoning faculties have acquired strength in proportion to their exercise. From particular facts he is con- tinually deducing general laws; and from those general laws, laws still more comprehensive. The consequence of which is, that the elaborate deduc- tions of one age become the obvious truths of that which succeeds it, and each succeeding generation is more capable of intricate processes of reasoning than its predecessor. In the same proportion too, as reason acquires strength, the dominion of the passions becomes weaker. They are less likely to be excited by unworthy causes, and less violent when excited. Reason obviously tends to prevent those mental perturbations which arise from false views of things, as from mistaken notions of right — from the exaggerations of future good or evil, and ill '.5 10 DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. Jl wrong estimates of their probability. Many ob- jects which a more ignorant age has deemed im- portant, the light of philosophy exhibits in their real insignificance. And in addition to all these direct causes, it seems not improbable that our minds being now so much more occupied in no- ticing causes and effects, and other important re- lations, will be less prone to strong emotions, except' 80 far as they may have the sanction of reason. Let me not be understood to favor, the dream of some speculatists, that philosophy will ever eradicate the passions. This result is neither possible nor desirable. It is in their proi^er in- dulgence that consists all that is called either hap- piness or virtue, and all that deserves to be so considered by a moral and intellectual bemg. They are "The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife « Gives all the strength and color of our life." The passions have been aptly compared to the winds which impel the ship on the ocean of life,* preceded it : so man, in his onward progress to a higher state of existence, does occasionally make oblique and even retrograde steps. By the influ- ence of those prejudices which have not yet been dislodged from their strong holds— under the sway of our passions, which indeed may be regulated, but can never be extinguished, reason for awhile succumbs and philosophy disappears. Thus, in the Reformation, the struggle between those who sought to gel rid of the ancient abuses, and those who endeavored to maintain them, was accompa- nied with ferocity, cruelty and injustice ; and men were often hated and persecuted in proportion to their sincerity in avowing their real sentiments, and their firmness in maintaining them. Then too, we beheld those who had been the victims of oppression, when power changed hands, becoming persecutors in turn; and this, not on the principle of retaliation, but because the new persecutors were impelled by the same blind fury as their predecessors, in regarding a mere difference of winds which impel me snip on mc uv-^an vi ...-, opinion as synonymous with crime. but reason performs higher functions than " the | philosophy had not then advanced far enough f-ard " It sits at the helm, and guides the course Ifo teach them that men were responsible only to of the bark when the gale is not too strong, and takes in sail when it is. One of the consequences of this growing ascen- dancy of reason is, that there will be less inequality in the civil condition of mankind; and happy are they whose political institutions enable them to accommodate themselves to the change, without going through the process of blood and violence. Whatever may be the advantages, real or sup- posed, of a difference of ranks, the institution ori^'inated in accident, and is supported by illu- sions, which natural enough in a certain stage of society, the light of philosophy tends to dissipate ; and as ghosts, witches and other shadows of the night have vanished at the approaching dawn of reason, the further progress of day will extinguish hereditary rank, which, when it does not, like faux-fire, shine by its own corruption, emits an ineffectual ray at best. If the preceding views are correct, it would follow that in our reasonings from the past to the future we must take these changes of the human character into account, and if we do, that they would sometimes lead us to expect different re- tulU hereafter from those which formerly look place under similar circumstances. The failure to make allowance for these changes, has produced rouch groundless apprehension, much mistaken con- fidence, and much false vaticination. In thus speaking of the gradual progress of reason and philosophy, I do not mean to say that the advancement is uninterrupted. Far from it. Though the tide may be rising, each individual wave does not always reach as far as that which ♦ [On life's vaat ocean dberaely we sail, Kmsob the eard, \m paaaioii if Um gal«.}— Pope. their own conscience and their God for their modes of faith; and that punishment tended to make hypocrites of the bad and martyrs of the good, but converts of none. They had yet to learn that the unadulterated common sense of that portion of mankind, who were less frenzied by zeal, revolted at such injustice; and that their sympathies acted more powerfully in favor of the sufferer, than their fears in favor of their persecutors ; a truth which has suggested the maxim that " the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." The French revolution also furnished a signal instance of the retrograde steps of philosophy. The oppressions, the injustice, the absurdities of the French monarchy, and above all, the incon- gruities of many of its institutions with the state of knowledge and of private society in France, could not be corrected without calling forth all the strongest impulses of our nature— the worst passions of the worst men, as well as the nobler feelings of the best. The advanced state of reason and philosophy among the educated classes, acting on the sense of justice, indelibly stamped on the heart of man, made the mass of the nation see and feel the odium of their civil institutions, and de- termined them to attempt a remedy. They were prompted in their schemes, and quickened in their sensibility by the superior social condition of their neighbors, the English, and yet more by the American revolution and its happy issue. Be- fore this great event, their notice of the defects or abuses of their government was confined to phi- losophical speculatists— to rhetorical declaimers— or to those who wielded the lighter, but no less efficient weajwns of ridicule— to all of whom many of those cUisses who most profited by the existing abuses, bowing to the resistless force of truth, and not foreseeing the danger to themselves, gave their cordial support. Public opinion was thus gradually gaining strength and unanimity ; and when accident afforded a favorable occasion for the reformers to act, every one was astonished at the rapidity .and force with which they acted. But there were strong interests and passions arrayed on the other side, and the shock of the conflict was violent in proportion. As soon as the cry of reform and change was sounded, every furious and ignoble passion — every sordid and profligate and depraved motive, hoping to profit by the confusion, entered into the strife, and corrupted the whole mass. Then it was that in the heart of Christendom, we saw a city, asso- ciated in our minds with every refinement of civilization — the emporium of science, literature and the arts — suddenly transformed into a moral desert. The annals of mankind had recorded no such metamorphosis. To the senses indeed, all the monuments of science and art and social im- provement remained, but they seemed to belong to other times. Every thing relative to the hu- man character was forcibly overturned, or wrest- ed from its natural position. Women without humanity or timidity, at one moment braving death, and at another tliirsting for blood. Science and practical art employed in devising new modes of taking away life. Statesmen and legislators engrossed by the one great subject of how they might exterminate citizens no less than foreign enemies. Speculative minds racking their inven- tions to frame excuses for these enormities, or in makins: frivolous chan<»;es in the names of streets and provinces — of the months and days — while Religion, finding nothing congenial to her own mildness and purity, fled from the country, and the infuriated multitude hallooed and exulted in her retreat : and in the metropolis of fashion, which had given the laws of dress to all Europe, and one of whose most distinguished literati* had asserted that the apparel was a part of the man, an attention to outward appearance was deemed pre- sumptive evidence of aristocracy. Nor was tiiere a more certain mode of awakening suspicion of incivism, than to seem to be devout, or moral, or gentlemanly, unless these obnoxious qualities were redeemed by some accompaniment of crime. There have been those who would make phi- losophy responsible for these extravagances and excesses, because it had been assiduously culti- vated in Paris, just before the Revolution, and some of its maxims were appealed to in justifica- tion of the excesses. But nothing can be more unjust. There was mingled with the enlightened part of the Paris population, a far larger por- tion which was immersed in the grossest ignorance. *The Count de Buffon. They had been brought up as it were in a prison house, into which the surrounding light of heaven could never penetrate ; and, when set free from the restraints of law, they were powerful instruments of mischief in the hands of those who were at once skilful and unscrupulous in using them. There were also those who partook of the intellectual light of the age, but who from a faulty education, or accident, or the unjust institutions of society had not proportional moral improvement — men who saw the inequality with which the goods of life were distributed ; that those who had the smallest share were the most numerous ; and that they might be prompted to the inclination, as they already had the ability, to be their own carvers. An alli- ance was thus tbrmed between cunning and igno- rance — the cunning few and ignorant many — and no wonder that in a short time, all that was vene- rable and virtuous and generous, as well as all that had been tyrannical and oppressive, were fu- riously assailed and beatevi to the ground. The progress of knowledge had no other agency in producing this result, than that a portion of society borrowed its intellectual light without approach- ing near enough to profit by its moral warmth : and it is as unreasonable to blame philosophy for these outrages, as to blame religion for the bloody massacres and merciless persecutions which were perpetrated in her name. With far greater rea- son may the moderation observed by the mob of Paris, in the three day revolution of 1830, be as- cribed to the influence of the liberal and philoso- phical spirit, which had been gaining ground throughout the civilized world, and particularly in France for twenty years before : and it deserves notice, that this moderation, as well as the occa- sion on which it would be exercised, was confi- dently predicted in tl)is country, by a French gentleman,* now enjoying an elevated rank in France ; and he founded his prediction on the im- proved character of the population of Paris. Having thus taken a view of the past effects of the progress of philosophy, let us now look before us, and endeavoring to scan the future, learn what are hereafter to be its effects on the world, especi- ally on that portion of it, in which we are most interested. We are sometimes reproached with being more disposed to look at what our country will be, than at what it is; but when the changes are so rapid and great, we should not only betray a strange insensibility to our future destiny, but be grossly wanting in prudence, not to keep the fact constantly present to our minds. It should af- fect our policy, legislation, and even our indi- vidual contracts and schemes of profit ; and while we do not object to other nations seeing, in the I 111 ♦ General Bernard, whose anticipations of the leading event* of that revolution, in a conversation with the author, had all the accuracy of history. 2 12 DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. 13 mirror of the i>a8t, interesting? memorials of their former ^\ot}\ they may suffer us to look at ours, through the prism of hope. In which objects are a little distorted without being exaggerated, and appear in hues delightfully gay and diversified. L*t us see then how the certain progress of popu- lation, and the probable progress of reason and philosophy are likely to affect us. Of the rapid advancement of the United States in numbers, powers and wealth, we have now a moral certainty. After the lapse of forty years, we have seen that their population continues to double at the rate which Franklin long ago assumed, and we have full confirmation of the views taken by Malthus more than thirty years ago, and by Frank- lin long before him, that mankind continue thus to increase where the means of subsistence are easy. There will hardly be any change in this particular here, before our numbers have reached 60 persons to a square mile. Perhaps when we consider the remarkable fertility of the larger part, not before we have reached 100 : but with the former limit, our country would contain 100 millions of inhabi- tants, in three periods of doubling, or in 75 years. Some doubts have been entertained whether our future increase will not diminish in an increasing ratio; and a very general error as to the rate of increase, exhibited at the last census, has favored that opinion. But in point of fact, the increase for the ten years ending in 1830, was a fraction more than 34 j)er cent., instead of a fraction more than 33 per cent., as our almanacs and other peri- otlicals have stated, because they did not attend to the fact, that the last census shewed the increase only for nine years and ten months. This result is so unexampled and so great, that it requires an effort for us to conceive its reality; yet it rests upon as satisfactory grounds as any future event whatever: and it is not a remote improbability, that some who now hear me will live to see our population amount to 100 millions. For our jwlitical organization we have nothing to desire, if our present government continues. The self-healing power, which more or less per- vades all bodies, politic as well as natural, has unrestricted vigor here, and may be expected to bring an adequate remedy for every political dis- ease likely to arise. But one of the evils apprehended by some, is a dissolution of the Union ; and it is asked, if this has already been seriously threateneil, how will it be when tlie sources of collision and rivalship shall be multiplied— when all fear of tbreign ag- greaswn, which now operates as a band to keep us together, shall be removed— when personal am- bition shall seek, by a separation, that field for its enterprises which the Union does not afford— and the natural increase of an indigent and ignorant daw ihall furnish him with ready tools for his lel- fiih projectf? But I do not see the probability that tiie proud liopes, which dictated a perpetual league among the stales, are to be disappointed. It seems to me that the occasions in which their interests clash are few, compared with those in which they coin- cide, and that one of the strongest ligaments of union is the diversity of pursuits among the states, by which they are all benefited by a free commercial intercourse. Thus, some produce grain and cattle, others, fish, or sugar, or rice and cotton : some are exclusively agricultural in their pursuits, and are of course venders of raw produce, whilst others are manufacturing states, and purchasers of raw produce: some are largely concerned in navi- gation, whilst others are inland. Thus all are gainers by an interchangeof their respective com- modities and species of industry ; and this mutual commerce, founded in mutual interests, will less and less recjuire aid from the government. We may, moreover, reasonably expect, that these sources of mutual benefit and intercourse will increase, and that new products of agriculture and manufactures will arise under some propitious accident or kindness of nature, will extend the mu- tual dei>endence of the states, and proiwrtionally multiply the bonds of union. Each state will be im- j)ortant to the rest for its useful products, and they in turn will be valuable to it, both for affording a market, and for the products they give in ex- kchange. The commerce, too, will be the more profitable, and likely to be the more extensive, by its being free from imposts or vexatious re- strictions. Under the fostering care of this free- dom, we may ex|>ect that wine, and silk, and the olive may be added to the protlucts of the south— and that whenever labor shall fall to the point of merely earning a subsistence, tea may be also cul- tivated ; as no doubt some part of our country is similar in climate to China, since it is not only in a correspondent latitude, but on the same side of its continent. The time will come when mostof our manufac- tures can be procured from the northern or middle states cheaper than from Europe, and when those states will also furnish a larger market for the pro- ducts of the south The time has already come when cotton, and rice, and tobacco, if that pernicious weed shall always constitute one of man's artificial wants, can be procured more cheaply from the southern states than elsewhere; and though there is not, within the present limits of the United States, as much land adapted to the cane as will supply its future inhabitants with sugar, without that in- crease of price which must greatly diminish its rate of consumption, yet the trade in this useful commoe also affecting tiieir rightSj and will vindicate l)oth, by an appeal to force, if necessary : and thus the question of separation will always be a question of war. The constitutional question, which may have been previously agitated, will be drowned in the din and tumult of arms, and finally decided by the issue of the war. Victory is the great arbiter of right in national disputes, and that scale of justice on which slie hapi>ens to light, is almost sure to preponderate. I have been supjwsing the case of a single state, or even a small section of states to desire a sepa- ration. But it may be asked whether all the states may not voluntarily consent to a dissolution ; or at least so large a portion as to make resistance on the part of the rest ho{)eless. I answer that I am not able to conceive any such general and pow- erful cause, nor do I know of any example of a simi- lar voluntary disseverance in history. In every case in which an integral community, whether consolidated or confederate, has been separated, it has been by violence, and commonly external vio- lence — either by one nation, subjugating another, or by some successful leader succeeding by his arts and talents in arraying one part against the rest : or the parts of a great empire have been par- titioned among the descendants or legatees of the last occupant — none of which causes of separation can be expected to operate here. It is indeed a conceivable thing for some prominent and popular individual to excite a particular slate to discontent, and finally to civil war ; and although we have happily had no example of such flagitiousness, we have seen enough to make us think it possible : yet whatever may be the supposed success of such men at home, there will always be many counter- actions to their influence in the adjoining states, and in the same degree that the agitator is a popu- lar idol in his own state, he will be an object of suspicion in the adjoining states, who will judge of him by his actions, unaffected by his arts or the imposing lustre of his personal qualities. Our own past history affords some confirmation of these views. It is, for example, now seen, since the veil which once concealed the acts of the Hart- ford Convention, has been partially raised, that the power of the agents in that combination to sepa- rate the union was far less than had been supposed, and that they could not have led on the states there represented to make that shew of resistance to the general government which excited appre- hensions for the union, if they had professed any other than the moderate and legitimate objects of making their peculiar interests more respected, and of providing additional guards against the in- vasion of those interests in the time to come. It now appears, that however we may disapprove the means used to effectuate their objects, the ends were blameless; and there is much reason to be- lieve that the moment the separation of the states had shewn itself to be the ultimate object of their leaders, that moment they would have been desert- ed by the larger part of their followers. The case of him whose history has been so preg- nant of instruction to lawless ambition, and who eighteen years ago was arraigned in this very capitol for the highest of all crimes, affords another instructive example. So long as his object was believed to be the settlement of the Washita lands, he may have ranked among his follmvers the most honest and patriotic of the land. So long as he merely proposed to emancipate the Mexicans from the Spanish yoke, the generous and enterprising youth of the west, as unsuspicious of guile in others as they were incapable of it themselves, might have flocked to his standard, and even glo- ried in the act of self-devotion : but no sooner was it known that the infatuated man was pursuing the phantom of individual aggrandizement, at the expense of his country's peace and in violation of her laws, than he was " left alone in his glory." 14 DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. 15 Most of his followers abandoned him from princi- ple, and the few who were without principle, de- serted him from cowardice. It if peculiarly grati- fying that both of these examples so strikingly exhibit the attachment of the American people to the union, as it will probably be only in one or the other of these modes tliat its integrity will ever be assailed. The event by which the union was still more seriously threatened, has been too recent for ipe to say much of it on the present occasion. Yet I may be permitted to remark, without opening wounds hanlly yet cicatrized, that both those who apprehend disunion and those who dread consoli- dation may draw salutary lessons from that event ; and that each party may, by a course of impru- dence, promote the very evil of which it is most apprehensive. I will add, that it affords additional evidence of the strength of the ligaments which bind us together, for if those who felt themselves aggrieved by the general government, had been less sensible of the value— es no less than to the fears of the community. There is another safeguard against both disunion and consolidation, to be founil in the diffusion of in- struction among all classes of people ; to which ob- ject all the states have given encouragement. Be- sides the general moral effects which such mental culture is found to produce, wherever it has been tried, it will make the mischiefs of a single na- tional government or of several disnnited govern- ments, which are already so obvious to those who have reflection and forecast, intelligible to all. The diffusion of intelligence will operate advan- tageously to the same end in another way. It will raise the self-respect and honest pride of the indigent classes, and these sentiments afford the best" security against an over-crowded population and its deleterious consequences, for they naturally tend to raise the ordinary standard of comfort, and the higher that is, the sooner do the checks to im- provident marriages begin to operate. Supposing our federal union to be thus endur- ing, the progress of philosophy may be expected to continue with our advancement in numbers and wealth, and to exhibit itself in the increased vigor of the reasoning faculties ; the greater purity of religion ; the better government of the passions ; an enlarged dominion over physical nature; a deeper insight into the multifarious laws of mind and matter; and a general amelioration of our con- dition, social, intellectual, and moral. But dan- gers and evils are apprehended by some, when we shall have a large class of manufacturers. This must eventually be the condition of the greater part of the population of every civilized country, since in no other way can the greater part of a dense jwpulation find employment. A small pro- portion of the community is sufficient to cultivate the soil, especially with so fertile a territory as the greater part of the United States ; and the rest must be employed in raanuAictures, or starve. Be- sides, the products of this species of industry are as essential to our comfort and enjoyment, if not to our subsistence, as raw produce. We must have clothes, furniture, utensils, and books, as well as food : and when our numbers shall be sufficiently great to consume the whole of our raw produce, as in time it certainly will be, we shall cease to export ; and the great mass of its consumers here, must fulfil the inevitable ultimate destiny of man— he must labor for his subsistence, either in tilling the earth, or in giving to its products some new form, which by ministering to the wants of others, may enable him to satisfy his own. The people of the United States must therefore become a manufacturing people, as well as their progeni- tors, and that too at no very remote period. At present, most of our citizens are agriculturists, be- cause they find a ready sale for their redundant pro- ducts ; but while it may be easy to obtain a market for the surplus produce of fourteen millions of peo- ple, it may not be equally easy to find a vent abroad for the prmlucts of the one hundred millions before spoken of; or even of the fifty millions which our numbers will certainly reach in less than another half century. Tt must be recollected that while we increase at the rate of three per cent, per annum, our customers do not increase beyond the rate of one per cent., and some scarcely increase at all. Those therefore, who will be thus spared from agriculture, must be employed in manufactures. The }K)litical effects of so large a class of manu- facturers in our country, has suggested two very opposite theories. According to one, the influence of property will be increased by the change ; ac- cording to the other, its rights will be endangered. The advocates of the.first opinion say, that capital has the same relation to manufactures that land has to agricultural labor; for it is only large capi- tals that can be advantageously employed in the principal manufactures; and that the laborers in both species of industry, will feel their dependence on their employers. It will therefore happen that the votes given immediately by the laboring class, will be substantially the votes of the rich landlord or capitalist. But on the other hand, it has been apprehended, and not without some show of reason, that the working class, having the power in their own hands, by the preponderance of numbers, need only to act in concert, to control the course of legislation. It is further urged, that if the means of popular instruction can become general, or though that should be found impracticable, if the intelligence of the community should increase with the progress of society, that this class will more readily feel its power, have stronger inducements to exercise it, and be better able to devise the means. Admitting concerted action practicable, as it would be obviously desirable, what, it is asked, is to hinder these men from ridding them- selves of their pro|)ortion of the taxes.^— of ap- propriating to themselves the property of the rich by various legislative devices, as in limiting the prices of provisions, in planning expensive schemes in which the utility would be exclusively to them- selves, or not in proportion to the cost, — or even in some moment of madness and reckless injustice, of passingan Agrarian law.? It is vain to urge that as such a violation of the rights of property would have the ultimate effect of injuring all classes, or at least a far greater number than it would benefit, it is contrary to the general instinct of self inte- rest to suppose the greater portion of the commu- nity would pursue it ; for these remote interests might not be perceived, and though they were, they would not prevail against the force of present temptation. But the argument assumes that there will be a majority of the community who will feel a present interest in such violations of the rights of property, and this proposition may well be questioned. In our country, where industry and capital are free to exercise themselves in any way, there will al- ways be a gradation of classes from the richest to the poorest, so as to make the line which separates them an imperceptible one. We have no political institutions, and few prejudices to make such a sep- aration. Every one is estimated according to his individual merits, little affected by those of his an- cestors : and although somewhat of the honor or discredit of parents attaches to the child, yet it is probably little more than is warranted by the pre- sumption that there is a resemblance between them. We are not distinguished into castes as in India, where one portion of society engrosses all the more honorable and agreeable employ- ments of life, and the other is allotted to its most irksome and debasing offices; nor into Patrician and Plebeian, as in Rome ; nor into lords and com- mons, as in England ; nor noblesse and canaille^ as formerly in France and the rest of Europe ; dis- tinctions which at once provoke combination and make it more practicable. Nor is the indigent class likely to be as large in this country as in most others. Our institutions, in many ways, favor both the acquisition and the diffusion of property. In the first place, by their being more exempt from restrictions. No trade or occupation is lettered by monopolies or corpo- ration laws, or laws of apprenticeship, so that in- dustry and talent being free to act, wherever and however they please, are likely to find the situa- tions in which they can be most profitably ex- erted. In the next place, all offices and professions which are means of acquiring properly, or are of themselves a valuable property, while they last, are thrown open to the competition of all ; and we see them as often, or moreolten, won by those who were born in poverty, and who have been accus- tomed to rely on their own resources, than by the pampered sons of wealth and luxury. And lastly, the diffusion of property is the great- er by the practice of dividing an estate among all the children of a family ; which, either by the act of law, or the will of the deceased proprietor, has become almost universal. The law of primogeni- ture, by artificially damming up property to pre- vent its natural diffusion, must increase the num- ber of the poor in the same degree that it increases the number of the rich. The estate which re- mains in the same family in England for three generations, and continues throughout the property of a single individual, is here distributed among twenty or thirty, and often a far greater number. This single change in our municipal law, would necessarily have the effect of converting the IC DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. 17 properly holders into a majority of the com- munity. Whenever, then, the line between the rich and the poor is drawn in this country, it will always comprehend a far smaller proportion of the last class than in any other, so long m our civil insti- tutions retain their present character ; and the number of |»eople who have property to some amount, and who have the hope of acquiring it, will always be much greater than those who have none. When it is further recollected that th«ise who have made their own fortunes— a very nu- merous class in all free countries -are likely to possess energy and intelligence; they may also be expected to possess an influence more than pro- portionate to their numbers. To these considera- tions we may add the connections which arise from favors received or expected, by the poor from tlie rich ; the influence of habit; the protection of the laws; the restraints of morality, of indolence, and fear, and they seem sufficient to assure us that ap- prehensions of a mischievous combination of the poor against the rich, are groundless ; and that all whichlhe indigent class can effect for their own advantage by combination, may not prove a suffi- cient antagonist to the influence the rich will be able to exert over them. I know of no instance of a successful combina- tion of the indigent classes, except in the case of the Agrarian laws at Rome. But this subject has been greatly misunderstood, and there never was a more well founded complaint than that which the poor made against the rich, on that occasion Modern historians seem to have followed up the injustice, by misrepresenting the facts, and assail- ing the character of those who had been previously defrauded of their property. The diligent re- searches of German scholars* have shewn incon- testibly that the Agrarian laws, for which the Gracchi lost their lives, concerned only the public lands, which had been obtained by conquest, and not those which formetl part of the territory of the ancient republic. As these public lands were charged with a very moderate,— merely nominal j-ent,— it was necessary to imjiose some limit upon the portion which a single individual could obtain, which was accordingly fixed at 500 jugera — equal to about 312 of our acres. But the Patrician class soon found means to evade this law, and having engrossed these lands, the purposes for which they were set apart — of affording the means of support to the poor, and of rewarding those by whose bravery and toils they had been won — was thus completely defeated : and the redundant population, unprovidetl with the means of subsistence, were obliged to become the bondsmen of the rich. Ti- berius Gracchus endeavored to have this flagrant wrong, which was a political mischief, as well as • Hereon and Nicbuhr. a moral injustice, corrected: and whatever may have been his motives, he so evidently had right on his side, that he finally prevailed. But because he succeeded in defending the unquestioned rights of the injured party, does it follow that he would have had equal success in defending injustice.' Because he was able to sustain the violated rights of property, would he have been also aide to de- stroy them? Certainly not: For he with diffi- culty succeeded, even at the cost of his life : and success would have been im})Ossible but for the dauntless intrepidity and the zealous support which the goodness of his cause inspired. To the progress of our literature and science we may look with unalloyed hoj>es. In many branch- es, both ornamental and useful, we are still behind the country from which we are descended ; and we fall as far short of her in the quantity of original productions as in the quality. But this, we confi- dently trust, is but a temporary inferiority. Our whole faculties are now engaged in cultivating the choicest fruits of civilization, and by and by we shall turn our attention to its flowers. Our late rapid advancement in letters affords a sure presage of future excellence, and symptoms of this gratifying change gladden our eyes in every direc- tion. As soon as the more imperious wants of the country shall be satisfied, and men of superior pow- ers and attainments shall have filled the learned professions, and offices requiring science and talent, then we shall begin to form a class of men of let- ters, who will devote their leisure and genius to minister to our intellectual wants : And they will find here a wide field both for speculation and de- scription, political, physical and moral. We are justified in pronouncing that our literature will have freshness, boldness, richness and variety, and I would fain hope, the crowning grace of simplicity. Poetry, though not destined again to receive divine honors, or even the same profound homage as in a later day, will always occupy a high place in the world of letters : for the pleasure which can be con - veyed to the mind by rhythm, imagery and fervid sentiment combined, are immutable; but the high- er province of intellect will be to instruct and con- vince ; to aid us in the arduous duties of life — whe- ther as members of a profession, as citizens of the state, or as moral and responsible beings. Un- til that dav arrives, let us cherish those institu- tions which best serve to preserve and diff*use a knowledge of science and letters, as well as to in- crease a taste for them ; and never relax in our ex- ertions until we are at least upon a level with the highest. Next to an elevated moral character, this is the most proper object of national ambition: and while I should be content that this country may never give birth to a Phidias, or Canova, a Ra- phael or Titian — that it should not produce as good musicians as Italy or Germany — as beautiful mil- linery as Paris — as cheap or good cutlery as Shef- field — I should be mortified to think that we should never be able to boast of such |)oets as Byron or Pope, such historians as Hume or Gibbon, such moralists as Johnson, such novelists as Walter Scott, or such mathematicians as La Place. In looking into our future destiny, I have not allowed myself to travel into the regions of fancy, but have confined my attention to those results which seemed fairly deducible from causes now vi- sibly operating; and which are in conformity with thepast experience of mankind. I have not indulged in those overstrained speculations with wWcl^sojisie have contemplated the future progress ofyilioSfoS phy, but have endeavored to avoid on the one hand, those views of future evil, which it is the nature of gloomy tempers to entertain, and on the other, tliose visions of future excellence or perfection incom- patible with our past experience; such, for exam- ple, as ihe dreams, first of Condorcet, and after- wards of Godwin. Of a similar character, ( fear, are the predictions of those who think that war may be banished from the civilized world. With- out doubt it is the tendency of the progress of rea- son and philosophy, to lessen the chances of war : in the same way as refinement of manners checks personal conflicts among individuals. But it will, probably, no more put an end to them in one case, than in the other ; and the time may never come, when the interests of nations will not clash, when they will not differ in opinion about their respec- tive rights; when they will not be willing to re- sent sup|)osed injustice, and hazard their lives to gratify their resentment. Nor can occasions be wanting at any time to call forth these motives to war. Nations may have rivalship in trade; rival- ship in fisheries ; they may differ about bounda- ries, or the construction of treaties ; or they may be involved in the disputes of others. These causes must be regarded as inseparable from the condi- tion of man, even if he should no longer be exposed to the danger of war, from mere differences of opinion on some speculative points in religion, po- litics or morals. It may then prove in all fu- ture time, as it has proved in all time past, that it is man's nature to quarrel and fight, no less than to love or to hate, and the only difference may be as to the occasions of war, and the mode of car- rying it on : in short, that this ultimate argument of republics as well as kings, will continue to be appealed to, as it always has been, when all others have failed. J f this is to be regarded as a part of man's inevi- table destiny, let us not indulge in vain repinings at it — but endeavor to prevent it as far as we can, by a course of justice, and moderation, and forbear- ance: and if, nevertheless, our efforts should be unavailing, let the philosophic and patriotic mind find consolation in the fact, that though war is the cause of much human misery, it calls forth many vir- tues, and affords occasion for the display of some of the noblest traits of our character— courage, patri- otism, generosity, disinterestedness and every form of virtuous self-denial. It gives a stimulus to all the more elevated and severer virtues. It breaks up the icy frost of selfishness, which in the still times of peace may congeal about the heart. The love of country never burns with a purer or stronger flame than in the bosom of the patriotic soldier : nor can any thing but war enable a citizen to make the same sacrifices, or so prove his self devotion to his country. It may then be among the dis- pensations of the ruler of the universe, that war, as well as peace, is necessary for the development and the preservation of some of our highest quali- ties, and to fulfil our destiny. Nor let us vainly hope to extinguish national more than individual resentment, but merely to regulate it — to reserve it for those occasions which a sense of justice prompts and reason sanctions : and although it is but a blind arbiter of disputes, it is the only one, in some circumstances, that can be appealed to. Having thus, Mr. President, brought to your notice, with less of condensation than 1 could have wished, the great and rapid strides which human reason is now making in the civilized world, as ex- hibited in every field of intellectual exercise : hav- ing noticed the unequivocal signs that this pro- gress will yet continue, that we cannot assign to it any precise limits, and that in all estimates of the future, we must take it into consideration: hav- ing endeavored to infer its probable effects on our condition, taken in connection with the other changes to which we are destined, I have dis- charged my main purpose. Yet I do not feel that I have entirely fulfilled my duty as a member of the Society, unless I say something of its particu- lar objects. One of these objects was to collect and preserve the perishable memorials of the past history of Vir- ginia, from the time it was a colony to the present day. While this is a subject which must always be one of lively interest to her citizens, it is also one in which diligence will be amply rewarded. Our early colonial history more abounds in events of a striking and diversified character, than that of any of the other colonies; and this state, moreover, has a sort of parental relation to nearly all the states to the south and west. Full justice has never yet been done to this subject. There are indeed points in the history of the settlement of the colony, which require elucidation, and for which the materials are to be found, if at all, only in the archives of England. But on our later history much light has been thrown by a diligent examination of the laws of the colony ; and somewhat may be further glean- ed from a search into those records of the county courts, which have yet escaped the ravages of war and time. The records of these courts, whose du- ties were always of a very miscellaneous charac- ter, may communicate much information concern- i 18 DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. DISCOURSE ON PHILOSOPHY. 17 ing the state itf ■ociety, tho habiU, manners and ways of thinking of the people. The authentic de- tails of the public offences and their punishment, is no insignificant portion of a nation's history. Much has been done in this way by Hening's CollecUon of the Statutes at Large ; and though a large portion of the treasure has already be^n drawn from this mine, it has not been exhausted. After paying a just tribute to the industry and general accuracy of that work, it also suggests a caution to future inquirers against a spirit of skepticism towards preceding narratives, merely because some inac- curacies have been discovered. Of this I may be allowed to mention one or two examples, as in the endeavor to shew (in which Burke concurs,) that the account of all preceding historians of the loyalty of Virginia towards the House of Stuart, immediately before and after the Commonwealth, was erroneous — and that l)ecause Robertson in his posthumcus historical sketch was plainly mis- taken in saying that no man suffered capitally " for his participation in Bacon's rebellion," he is not entitled to credit: or, when Bacon, according to all previous accounts, had, during a wet sjiell, at the most sickly season of the year, in the county of Gloucester, been seized with a dysentery which proved mortal, to suggest that a death so little violating probability, should be deemed myste- rious, and warranted the suspicion of poison by his enemies. The history of the settlements of the west exists only in tradition or family letters, and its mate- rials ought to be collected and preservetl, while it is not too late. The contest between the pioneer of civilization and the native savage, is full of daring adventure and romantic interest. If the command of gunjiowder, and the use of iron ulti- mately gave victory to the former, it was one always dearly bought. The Indians defended their native rights with desperate valor and consummate address, and it was only inch by inch that they yielded their native soil to the invaders. The origin of some anomalous enactments in the statute book, also invite inquiry. Thus in the year 1647, lawyers werelorbidden to take any fees whatever, and in 1658 they were excluded from the legislature. For this uncourteous act, it must be confessed that their descendants have made the amende honorable. The medical profession seemed also an object of jealousy with the planter; as by another law,* physicians were required to swear to the value of their drugs. There is too, a good deal of uncertainty and in- consistency in the statistical accounts of the state. On the duty of the present generation to collect and preserve every thing relative to the revolution, I need not lay any stress. There are still numer- ous papers in many families, of no sort of value to them, that may yet shed light on that interesting era. * Pasaed in 1640, In all that concerns the other object of this Socie- ty, the physical history of the state, every thing is yet to be done. The reconls here are before us, and are indestructible in any reasonable term of time; but we must first labor to remove the rubbish which conceals them, and then study to decipher them. This is a tempting field of research, as it may not only add to our stock of information, but also to our store of worldly wealtli. The great Appalachian chain of mountains, which traverses the United States from Maine to Alabama, is broader no where than in V irginia, or consists of a greater number of distinct ridges, and no where has it given as clear indications of abounding in mineral wealth. We have found in it already gold, copper, lead, iron, manganese, gypsum, salt, coal, nitre, alum, mar- ble in great variety , besides other minerals that are useful in the arts ; and a more diligent and scientific search than has yet been made, may by increas- ing their number increase the profit of those canals and roads that are now projected, and give rise to others not yet contemplated. Our demand for fossil coal is of growing im|K)rtance ; for our increasing population at once increases the demand for luel, and diminishes the supply of wood. I was happy to see last evening, the specimen of anthracite coal from the county of Augusta ; and the value of that mineral deserved the hi gh eulogy it received. We may form some idea of the importance of fossil coal, from the fact that steam engines in England are now computed to perform annually, the work of four hundred millions of men! a number nearly double to that now living on the whole globe. Nor is the geology of the state to be disre- crjirded. Ever since a careful examination of tho materials of the earth's surface has been found to afford indications of iu past changes, this science lias l)een diligently and successfully culti- vated in Europe, and has not been neglected in some parts of the United States. It is high time that Virginia should contribute her quota to its re- searches. We should be the more stimulated to cultivate this branch of science in the United States, in consequence of the remarkable regu- larity of the different formations on this continent. Thus along the coast below the falls, we have south of Long Island the tertiary formation ; be- tween the falls and the Blue Ridge, the primi- tive; and the great Mississippi Valley, from the Alleghany to the Rocky Mountains, is principally secondary. There are however, occasional ex- ceptions to these general rules, and they should be noticed with care. As our useful minerals lie near the surface, our observations will, for a long lime to come, be principally confined to that ; but as there are instances of shafts being sunk in search of salt water or gold, the strata should be carefully noted ; and where any pit of unusual depth is sunk. it would be well to make experiments on the jheat of the earth, before the admission of the or- dinary air has altered its temperature. It has bng been asserted that there was an internal heat \m the interior of the earth, and further observation seems to confirm it. This fact has lately had a seemingly conclusive verification in England. A [sliaft had been sunk there in pursuit of coal, to the lextraordinary depth of nearly fifteen hundred feet ; [md by a number of careful experiments, the heat It the bottom was found to be 28° hotter than the average heat of the earth in this latitude, R hich would seem to show an increase at the rate U a degree of Fahrenheit for every sixty feet.* Should this correctly indicate the measure of the earth's internal heat, then at the depth of some- thing less than two miles, we should come to the lemperature of boiling water. When we recol- lect that this heat is not farther removed from us [than a two thousandth part of the distance to the centre, (bearing about the same proportion to the learth as the parchment stretched over it, does to an ordinary globe,) it seems to afford a ready solution for volcanoes, earthquakes, and many geological jihenoraena ; and may even excite our wonder, that [>ome of these results of so miglity an agent are pot more frequent and terrible than they are. And jthen we recollect that the confines between orga- laized matter, and that form of it which is incon- histent with animal or vegetable life, approach so ' See London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine for iDifceraber 1834. This experiment coincides with the theory re- |iirding the internal heat of the earth, promulgated by a member «lhe French Institute (Mons. Cordier,) in a memoir presented Jothat association about six years since, in which he gives a de- *il of numerous observations and experiments on which he bunded his theory, now fully confirmed by the more decisive lexiMjrunent in England. near each other, it is calculated to humble the pride of man, that he has been upon this globe all but six thousand years without a suspicion of the fact. There are also problems concerning our cli- mate which well deserve solution. The acknow- ledged difference between the eastern and western coasts of climates, has been attributed, with a great show of reason, to the prevalence of the westerly winds; and of the fact of their greater prevalence^ there/ is the most satisfactory general ) evidence-4)ut it is discreditable that the amount of the difference should not be as well ascertained as the fiict itself. The average difference can be ascertained only by repeated and accurate obser- vations. It has also been asserted that the temperature of the Mississippi Valley is higher than that of the At- lantic coast. Mr. Jefferson long ago advanced this opinion, and it was adopted by Volney ; but there is strong reason to believe that the direct contrary is the fact. It is, however, high time that this ques- tion should be settled by a series of thermomelri- cal observations, and a comparison of facts de- rived from the vegetable world. We have, Mr. President, been three years in existence, and as yet have done little. Let us be- stir ourselves in the cause of science and of our country ; and endeavor, under some disadvantages, to give Virginia the same rank in science and lite- rature that she has always maintained in her devo- tion to civil liberty and political integrity. Though borne along with the rest of the world, by the great current of philosophy of which I have been speaking, we should not fold our arms in listless apathy, but diligently ply our oars, lest we should be left further behind by those in advance of us, and be overtaken by those now in our rear. I ^ ^ COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES I i' 1010683194 / •^^'^^'MBI^ U'^T ■»^^ na .» Z2 / • BOUND APR 2 6 1955 ■>-.s 1 ■> , » t ^'„ 1 y^ \^' " V ^ V