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character. It may begin in a very simple intention; it may be conducted for a while with great singleness of purpose; but ere long it is likely to feel the impulse which, in this country, is hurrying everything to the ballot-box. That is the real source of power; and honest men, who find themselves unable speedily enough to accomplish their purposes by any other means, may be so far wrested from their simplicity, as to be willing to bring their cause to that dangerous ordeal. Or even if they retain their simplicity, elements may mingle with their enterprise which they did not seek; and they may discover at last, that, in the array of their numbers, they have only raised up an army, convenient and ready to the hand of some artful demagogue. The party leader will smile in himself at their zeal, and use their services; and they will find, like the Independents and Roundheads in the time of the second Charles, that they have been deceived and betrayed.

Another danger from the sway of public opinion, and especially of associations, is that of narrowing and prostrating the intellect of the country. It has been maintained by a modern French historian,* that the free action and rapid progress of the body of the people, is unfavourable to the production of great men; that the nurturing of great minds needs leisure, repose, a fixed order of things, freeing them from the distraction of surrounding events. This opinion, though it obviously requires many qualifications, has a certain plausibility; and it suggests the inquiry, whether the ratio of individual greatness among us, has not decreased with the general advancement of society. One thing, at any rate, is certain, that mind cannot grow but in freedom; it must be bold, fearless, independent, or it cannot rise: but the tendency of an overwhelming public opinion, is to make it timid and time-serving. The multiplicity of associations increases this effect: it multiplies the questions on which it is dangerous or disagreeable to speak plainly. One can scarcely speak on any subject now, but there is some adherent of some society or some party present, to be wounded or offended by his freedom. Really, we are tempted to say, that something must be done, some compact formed, some new freedom obtained in society, or all liberty of general conversation will sink into whispers and inuendoes. Besides, associations naturally tend, not only to restrain general freedom of mind, but to narrow and contract the views of their votaries. Opinion naturally loses expansion and freedom amidst the action and pressure of an association. A pledge, or a test, must be brief and general; and is likely to sacrifice truth as well as freedom, in the cautious and politic terms with which it must be announced. Associations are scarce likely to be the school of philosophy, still less of a philosophical spirit. A votary is apt to think that there is no plan like his plan; every plan must yield to it, all means flow to it, all voices be secured for it. He would gladly forestall all that ministers to the decoration of life, and turn it into his treasury. He will not look with a wide and comprehensive survey upon life, and see how many and varied are the means that contribute to its welfare. With him there is but one thing in the world, and that is the Missions, or the Education Society, or the Poor's Fund, or the Ministry for the Poor.

Finally; there are moral dangers of a general nature, arising from

* Guizot.

that concentrated action of public opinion, which is witnessed in associa tions. There is danger that virtue will lose something, and not a little, of its manliness, simplicity, and spontaneity; that men will be more attentive to outward appearances than to inward qualities; more religious than good, more correct than virtuous, more charitable than generous, and more strict than pure.

It is said that intemperance has decreased in this country. Is it an honest, and not an enforced reform? Has no evasion, concealment, or hypocrisy, resulted from the mode in which this enterprise has been carried forward? The very history of the temperance pledges, shows that there is such a danger. At first, they contained a promise of abstinence from spirituous drink, except when they were used as medicine : but it soon appeared that it was not safe to leave this qualification in the hands of the people, and the prescription of a physician was required. But as a single prescription of this kind might spread license over a man's whole life, it was found necessary to restrict his use to the single instance prescribed for. Then, again, abuses crept in, under the disguises, the new and false appellations, which spirituous drinks received; till, at length, no barrier against hypocrisy could be framed but an unqualified pledge of total abstinence from everything that can intoxicate. This is throughout a history of evasions; and it should admonish the temperance societies to beware how they press assent beyond conviction; to beware, lest they make men the slaves of opinion, rather than willing subjects of the law of conscience.

Again; the charities of our people, their contributions to the various benevolent enterprises of the day, are immense and unexampled. I rejoice to see it; I wish they were doubled; they ought to be doubled, at least on the part of the rich. But while I yield my sympathy and admiration to the spectacle of a great people rising up with associated power, to fulfil its duties to the poor and neglected, and to the heathen, I cannot help charging it upon this people, to see that its charities be really pure and generous. I must confess, that I look with some doubt and pain upon the moral administration of this business of soliciting charities. I fear that there is no delicate or proper regard paid to the freedom and conscience of the giver; that all sorts of influences are, too often, unscrupulously brought to bear on him, and to wrest from him a reluctant donation. A great association, when it presents itself before an individual, may very properly urge upon him his duties; but let it not urge its own authority, or the universal example, to induce him to do that which he is not, in his own mind and conscience, prepared and ready to do. I once knew the agent of a religious charity to receive this answer from the person applied to: "I shall give, because you have asked me, but not because I wish to give, or because I take any interest in your object.' Then, sir," was the reply, "I cannot receive your nation." The answer was right. Any other ground is degrading both to the giver and receiver. But I fear that this is not the ground usually taken by the solicitors of charity. I must confess, that I have never heard of another instance, yet I would hope, for the honour of our national liberality, that it is not rare. Charity loses all its sublimity and beauty the moment it ceases to be voluntary and free. There are miseries enough, God knoweth, and man may see, to touch our hearts with unforced pity. There are wastes of ignorance spread

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ing far and wide; there are vices whelming thousands in wo and shame; there are victims of penury and guilt sighing in ten thousand dwellings all around us. Let then charity stand forward to relieve, with pitying heart and open hand, and not with an iron palm, half closed by a feeling baser than avarice, and doling out just so much as will maintain its reputation. Odious gifts, that profane the name of inercy! not, if so I could fill a thousand treasuries, would I touch one of them. Dishonoured would be the very glory of a nation's benevolence, if its gifts are cankered, if its fountains are poisoned, by that taint of slavish homage to public opinion.

But

Do you ask, in fine, why I lay such stress on this point-freedom? This is my answer; and my apology, if any be needed, for occupying so much attention with this point. I know of no intellect worth possessing, without freedom. I know of no virtue worth the name, without freedom. A mind chained, a virtue enforced, lose entirely their proper character: they are no longer mind and virtue. mind and virtue are the only enduring treasures of individuals or of nations. You may present to me the picture of boundless physical prosperity, but if these are gone, all is gone. An iron materialism will press, like incumbent fate, upon the heart of the nation; and quench for ever the hope and heroism, the light and glory, of the country! You may tell me of free institutions, and they may be your boast; you may tell me of suffrage and the ballot, of the constitution and the laws; unreal mockery is it all, if there is not a free mind and a free heart in the people! A temple of freedom, fair and majestic as the dreams of philosophy or poetry ever fancied, may be built on these shores; but if slaves walk beneath it, if the very ministers at its altars are held in abject bondage to those tyrants of the spirit, fear and opinion,-what will it be, but a temple deserted of its Divinity! what will it be but the great tomb of Liberty!

ON SOCIAL AMBITION

MARK ix. 34: "By the way, they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest."

THIS dispute is not yet ended. And as Jesus reasoned with it in the case referred to in our text, and in many others, so do I conceive that this questioning of the mind about worldly distinctions, still needs to be reasoned with. Nay, the progress of modern society is daily furnishing additional occasion for the argument.

There are, indeed, many and high reasonings required to meet the exigencies of modern civilization. Questions concerning governments, concerning the balance of political powers, concerning the rights that are to be acknowledged, and the restraints that are to be enforced, are spreading themselves among all reading and reflecting persons throughout the civilized world. Thinking men, in an age like this, must think about questions such as these. Nor is it an easy, nor would it be a thankless task to solve them. But I confess that I should yet be more grateful to him, who would answer satisfactorily all the questions that arise concerning the social relationship of man to man; and who could effectually teach men to dwell together, not merely as brethren in equality, but as brethren in spite of inequality. This is, indeed, a larger theme than I propose now to discuss. It would involve an inquiry into the manners of society, into the manners of different classes towards each other, not only transcending my present limits, but requiring, perhaps, greater freedom of treatment than public discourse allows for its proper illustration.

I shall invite your attention, at present, to a single point-social ambition, and the spirit with which its trials are to be met.

Why, let us ask, in the first place, is such a field opened in life for the display of this passion? Between creatures of the same birth, of the same soul and faculty, and, especially, of the same passion for the notice and admiration of their fellows, why, in general, are such immense distinctions permitted? Why is one clothed with purple and fine linen, and why fareth he sumptuously every day, while his brother-man sitteth by his gate in rags, and beggary? Why does one stand in the cold shadow of neglect, while another passes by amidst throng, and shout, and festal splendour? Why do such extremes of power and weakness present themselves in the form of our common humanity? Why is it so ordained that a man, ay, and many a man, is obliged to say this, -"I am as industrious and honest, I am as rich and wise as my neighbour, and, perchance, no worse; and yet it availeth me not; I have striven hard for a place in the world and in society, and yet, mere birth or connexions, or fortuitous fashion, or clanship, social or political, gives that to another, which I cannot obtain"? In short, for nature's

craving approbation and regard, and the visible expression of those sentiments, why is a condition of things ordained, which constantly disappoints this passion, and often unjustly?

To such questioning I know it is common to reply, that difference of situation gives occasion for the exercise of various social virtues; that for man, if there were none above him, there would be no call for reverence; if none below, there would be no opportunity for condescension and forbearance; that without power, there could not be protection, nor submission without dependence; that riches and poverty are appointed spheres-the one for generosity, the other for gratitude. Now, with this answer, I confess I am not satisfied. To those who stand in higher situations, it may, no doubt, be very acceptable doctrine; but I scarcely think it can be, or ought to be, very satisfactory to the poor or neglected, to be told, that they are placed in that state in order that they may learn to reverence their superiors; especially, when those very superiors frequently owe their elevation to the caprice of fashion, the worldliness of society, or the injustice of political institutions. Nor does this inequality of the social condition seem necessary for the end stated. Suppose that all men stood upon a perfect level; there would still be occasion for reverence and pity; for generosity and forbearance; for mutual help and kindness. Besides, it would be but a gross view of society, and a still grosser view of our great and spiritual humanity, to see the virtues of either as chiefly dependant on a mere transient, perishable condition; as if nothing but inferiority could inspire a man with emotions of gratitude and admiration, and nothing but lofty state could fill him with benignity and kindness; as if a rich man were never to be pitied, and a poor man never to be envied; as if all the great and trying experiences, a sensitive and suffering nature, were to be merged in the mere conditions of being well or ill fed.

It may seem quite unnecessary and useless, to advert to reasonings such as I have now noticed. It may be thought enough to say, that the inequalities of the human condition result from the very attributes of human nature. It is true that they do. Yet one may seek, perhaps, if not a final cause, yet the proper use to be made, even of that which belongs to the inevitable constitution of things. And so doing, I should say that inequality of condition is to be regarded as a grand trial and test of our fidelity to high principle-to the loftiest rectitude. If I stood by one who towered far above me; if he were conspicuous before the world, and the shadow of his greatness flung me into obscurity; if, moreover, we had been companions and competitors, and I had laboured as hard as he, and yet had failed to rise to the same elevation in talent, or in social claims, or if I had risen to it, and yet the world would not see it; if, I say, I stood thus contrasted with another, thus neglected in comparison with him, and then should ask myself, whereto served this difference, I should say-not to work in me necessarily any reverence or gratitude towards my fellow, but to prove and test and work out in me a reverence for the greatness of virtue-to put me upon those deep, unfathomed principles of my nature, that absorb all considerations of self-to fill me with a divine disinterestedness towards another's virtue, with a divine calmness in the consciousness of my own-to raise me above, and carry me beyond, all worldly complainings, to the recognition. of the supreme privilege, blessing, happiness of loving the infinite beauty

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