vation of all the amiable virtues. In those domestic recesses, at once the emblems and the component parts of the grander associations, virtue and intelligence are very frequently found to inspire the breasts, not only of the majority, but of the whole. Is it difficult to believe, that this favourable change will extend over the larger social scales? and may not even instances be adduced of its actual introduction into some of those minor public communities of which the greatest empires are chiefly composed? If we admit the fact of the progressive advance of improvement, it is impossible to deny the probability of the eventual triumph of the good over the evil principle, by the acquisition of a majority of virtuous minds in any particular nation; and the step from that point to the one indicated as the mark of the last stage of civilization, although necessarily a long one, is equally sure of ultimate attainment.

It is not for the Christian who stedfastly believes the doctrine, founded as it unquestionably is upon the highest class of moral evidence, of the primeval degradation of the human nature, to propagate the impious, and, in a philosophical sense, the irrational notion of the eventual perfectibility of man. To the end of time man will continue to be a weak, an erring, and a dependant creature-deriving every thing, even the virtue and happiness which it is competent to him to attain, from the bounty of his Almighty Creator. But with indelible marks of debility, he is still susceptible of all the blessings and enjoyments which must surround him in the last stage of civilized life. Weakness and dependence, such as necessarily attach to an imperfect nature, are not incompatible with a high range of virtue and improvement: crimes may be infinitely diminished in number and degree, and our mental powers undergo indefinite improvement, without encouraging us to hope for the premature attainment of that superior station which can belong only to a higher order of existence. There is, in fact, nothing revolting, either to reason or religion, in our anticipations of that pre-eminent degree of civilization which is comprehended in our view of the eighth stage. If we select from any one of the numerous classes of life, high or low, an individual who, with the qualifications indispensable or proper for his particular station, unites nearly all the virtue and intelligence of which he may be capable, or with which his peculiar duties and pursuits may not be incompatible, we shall obtain a perfect specimen of the essential constituents of the era in question. Persons whose conduct and attainments fully answer all the points of this description are at this day to be found in considerable numbers in every rank; and we only contend for the probability of their eventual increase, by the means we have already sufficiently explained, so as to form a decided majority over the less laudable and accomplished parts of society.

The attainment of this point includes the prospect of the simultaneous acquisition of immense improvements in science and the art of government: what is more directly applicable to our present inquiry, it includes the certainty of the final establishment of permanent peace. If knowledge is an essential ingredient of power, virtue is no less indispensable to secure its duration; and the union of those high properties in the better half of mankind must inevitably lead to that state of society in which the dominion of the evil passions will be excluded, and their general influence so far weakened as effectually to prevent the further intrusion of the horrors of war.

Beyond this point our peculiar subject does not require us to direct our view. It is, however, evident, that such is the force of virtue, that after it has once reached the triumphant station to which we have alluded, it can neither continue stationary, nor can its course be retrograde it will infallibly increase in power, and at length guide the universal Christian world into such a blissful state of moral organization, as may, in its fruits, fully correspond with the cheering prophetic representations of the inspired

writers.

Chapter VIII.
Recapitulation.

The foregoing outline of the progress of civilization will apply, in all its points, only to those nations whose course has been uniformly gradual, and uninterrupted by extraordinary circumstances. It has frequently happened, that settlements have been made on desolate and barbarous shores, by a people already advanced to one or other of the stages delineated: in comparing their case with the preceding observations, it is evident that we must consider their history, not from the date of their emigration, but as commencing with that of their progenitors in the parent country. Circumstances which draw together, in intimate bands, two separate societies, the one arrived only at an early, and the other at a later stage of civilization, must influence, in an extraordinary manner, the fortunes of the former: in consequence of such contact, some of the intermediate gradations will necessarily be rapidly passed, so as to render their distinctive character imperceptible to a superficial observer. But our general survey is, we trust, sufficiently accurate for the purpose to which it is intended to be subservient in the course of this treatise.

After stating these points in qualification, it may perhaps be scarcely necessary to add, that we would not be understood to insist upon the exclusive appropriation, in every instance, of the several marks indicated to the respective stages into which the grand march of civilization has been divided. Cases may undoubtedly be adduced, in which some of them, particularly those relating to the uses of a circulating medium, may appear to require a different distribution; but it will be readily perceived, that we have principally had in view the simple and unbiassed progress of a people emerging out of a state of absolute barbarism, without reference to the various accessary circumstances which, in the history of every nation, have not failed, more or less, to disturb what we conceive to be the natural order. There are two opposite theories respecting the order of civilization: one which deduces all the improvements of which the human nature is susceptible from the spontaneous operation of unassisted reason; another, which unites with this agent the more potent influence of religion. The respective advocates of these different systems are the friends of, and the enemies to, the doctrine of a celestial revelation.

They who insist upon the sufficiency of reason, trace the barbarian from a state of absolute darkness, and lead him, by the native power of mind, to one of high cultivation. Christianity, as well as the various heresies which have sprung from it, and the false religion of the Pagan world, are considered, in the gross, under the general name of superstitions, as mere incidents in the affairs of nations: they are acknowledged to influence the tide of civilization; but being supposed to be altogether factitious, and to rest solely on the basis of opinion, are held to be continually subject to a reaction, which may at some undefined period of human history throw society back to the same deplorable state in which religion or (to use the synonymous appellation of this school) superstition first found it.

A more cheering view of this interesting subject is taken by the other party. They consider Christianity as intimately connected with the concerns of life, and regulating, with an omnipotent hand, the temporal as well as the spiritual interests of society. Expanding itself, under various points of view, according to the mental capacity of the beings of whose existence it is the germ and preserver, over innumerable worlds, and through immeasurable space, it assumed with us part of its present distinctive character immediately after an extraordinary event had lowered or corrupted the nature of man. A gleam of the light it at that time afforded followed the wandering tribes, which, subsequently to the great deluge, spread themselves over the face of the earth: more or less assisted or deteriorated by adventitious circumstances, some of those tribes sunk into a state of darkness little less obscure than that attributed to them by the sceptical sect, but always retain

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ing a small spark of the original flame, which, however, was, through their ignorance, frequently diverted to the worst purposes. But it still survived, and, although nearly extinguished, not altogether divested of its energetic property, was assistant to reason in operating the final extrication of the miserable savage. From the first to the conclusion of the fourth era, the travellers in the march of civilization are misled by the false religion to which we before adverted, and which, continually increasing in pomp and influence, is, when left wholly to its own resources, daily farther removed from the true standard.

About the close of that period, the Christian religion was exhibited to the world in the peculiar form in which it is now known to us. The blessed Saviour appeared, and fulfilled his great mission among a people prepared by an extraordinary destination for his reception. The time selected for the stupendous event was when Paganism, and its calamitous attendants, had acquired such strength as nearly to quench the genuine spark of the original revelation, and to threaten, by a chain of inevitable consequences, to drive backward the course of civilization, and afterwards to plunge the world into a state of darkness still more hopeless than that from which it had, to a certain extent, emerged.

A nation which has adopted Christianity by consent of the majority, as a standard of religious faith, has passed into the fifth stage of civilization, and secured itself from the danger of the reaction of the decisive nature to which society is supposed, by the advocates for exclusive reason, to be at all times liable.

By grounding our conclusions upon the basis of Christianity as well as of reason, our prospect is, therefore, cleared of that uncertainty by which it is otherwise obscured. Christianity, a dispensation immediately emanating from God, we are assured by reason, as well as revelation, must accomplish all it proposes to perform; and we know from the same source, that none of its mighty and benevolent ends are compatible with the ignorance and depravity of society. Hence the assurance which the enlightened Christian entertains of the continued progression and permanent duration of the general improvement of the world.

To proceed with our summary. The fifth stage is engrossed by the business of establishing a superior religion towards its close, and by the necessary duties attending its purification, or separation from the worst ingredients of the ancient superstition: the various improvements which are characteristic of the sixth conclude at that point which marks the state of the most polished communities of our own times.

The future has been divided into two additional eras. At the conclusion of the first, one nation at least is supposed to be so circumstanced as to possess a highly-improved population, a majority of which are, so far as is consistent with human frailty, decidedly virtuous, and nearly, if not wholly freed from those prejudices which have hitherto impeded the progress of civilization. We have pointed to the inevitable results of such a situation. The simplification of the system of government, and the gradual removal of a variety of useless institutions and customs which at present embarrass society, -the attainment of the highest practicable liberty, together with perfect security of life and property, the advance of the arts and sciences, and, chiefly, a considerable alteration and amendment of various anomalous arrangements, which have, from time to time, been adopted in ages of defective experience, for the professed, but questionable, object of promoting the interests of religion.

The last era opens with the universal diffusion of those important benefits, when the degree of civilization to which we are now aspiring shall mark the internal economy of all the nations of the earth. Such a state of things, it is evident, would not only be productive of general happiness, but be conducive to the still further improvement of each particular community. And here it is proper to declare distinctly our firm conviction, grounded, as we humbly but confidently conceive, upon the calm deductions of reason, as

well as the less ordinary source of knowledge providentially placed within our reach, that Christianity, in some of its various legitimate formularies, will eventually spread over the whole habitable globe,-that it will completely supplant idolatry, although shielded in its strongest holds by the most inveterate prejudices,-and that the equally deleterious superstitions which, amidst the gloom of ignorance, have sprung up since the advent of the Messiah, will gradually yield to its superior influence. We cheerfully rest all our hopes of future prosperity upon this interesting point of faith, and candidly admit, that the chief of our most important conclusions are built upon no other foundation.

But we hazard little in thus openly exposing the main-spring of all our flattering expectations. The attention of mankind is daily more and more directed to the evidences of that holy dispensation, and every liberal and enlightened mind is, sooner or later, induced to acknowledge, that CHRISTIANITY and TRUTH are synonymous terms.

Magna est veritas, et prævalebit.

We cannot believe ourselves to exist under the immediate superintendence of an Almighty Being, the author and dispenser of every good,-we cannot fix our hopes of personal durable advantage upon the religion which we receive and cherish as his peculiar and most valuable gift, without feeling the conviction, that a benefit of this high character cannot be for ever partially distributed, but must at length be indiscriminately administered to all the family of man. In vain shall we find arrayed against this doctrine the difficulties and impediments which, to our narrow apprehension, appear to confound our ardent expectations of so great an event: that event is in the hands of an Agent before whom all opposition is powerless, and to the accomplishment of whose designs all circumstances, however unfriendly their apparent tendency, concur with the force of fate.

(To be continued.)

BAY LEAVES; BY T. C. SMITH.

EDINBURGH-CONSTABLE & COMPANY.

1824.

So much poetry, and good poetry, too, is now ushered into the world, only to be forgotten, that if the doctrine of the calculation of chances were to be applied to the subject, the result would present an appalling prospect to the candidates for poetical fame. And yet, with such a prospect before them, and in defiance of demonstration itself, we have no doubt that they could continue to increase, and multiply, and replenish the earth, pretty much as they do at present, when they are permitted to draw their conclusions for themselves. And the reason of this we take to be, that the noisy pleasure derived from popularity is quite a separate matter from the quiet but seducing njoyment of composition; that poery must be, in a great measure, like irtue-its own reward; and that a nan may feel very indifferent as to he given number of copies which he nay circulate, while he can secure to himself, in the mean time, the plea

sures arising from "retired leisure," and the cultivation of all those refined and benevolent feelings which we delight (and surely not in vain) to associate with the study of poetry.

How far this observation may be applicable to the little volume before us we cannot say; but we think it likely, from the appearance of many of the pieces it contains, that in their composition the author thought much more of giving vent to his own feelings, and of refining his taste, and relieving the dryness of other studies and duties by this exercise, than of mere writing for the public. And hence there is something natural, and unaffected, and pleasing about it;— an absence of that artificial excitement, and laboured exaltation of feeling, which are the natural result of a desire to strike and to captivate that callous and "many-headed beast, the town ;" and at the same time more care, more correctness, both of thought and versification, 3 Y*