fluence which their learning might have obtained for them in the parent country, with the obscurity of their condition in this; when we contrast what they relinquished or might have gotten there with what they encountered here, it is impossible to feel less than admiration of the martyr-like spirit of the men. This is a sentiment rising up involuntarily from every view of the characters of the Pilgrim Fathers. Their history is one of continually fresh, as it is of exhaustless interest. The same facts, the same personages, must be exhibited, but under what variety of illustration, and forms of excellence! And if, in the beginning of their strength, rather we should say, in the extremity of their weakness and perplexity, they valued so highly and spared no pains to perpetuate a learned ministry,* it cannot be deemed of less importance at the present day, when intelligence is widely diffused, and the means of good education are within the power almost of the humblest. It is true, the people do not now, as formerly, depend on their ministers for their knowledge. But this only makes the necessity of a thoroughly trained clergy the more urgent. For in proportion to the intelligence of the hearer must obviously be the learning of the teacher. The spirit of the times is eminently favorable to a high standard of theological attainment. Whole denominations of Christians, who once looked with jealousy upon learning, as unfriendly to piety, have become converts to more liberal views; and are already among the foremost in endowing and sustaining their literary institutions. We heartily rejoice in this spirit, and we hope that from no false notions of expediency or economy, or wish to supply a temporary demand in the new settlements of our country, will this standard be suffered The following is an extract of a letter written in 1642, and published in New England's First Fruits.' 'After God had carried us safe to New England, and we had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God's worship, and settled the civil government, one of the next things wee longed for and looked after, was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers should lie in the dust. And as wee were thinking and consulting how to effect this great work, it pleased God to stir up the heart of one Mr. Harvard, a godly gentleman and lover of learning, then living among us, to give the one half of his estate, towards the erecting of a colledge, and all his library,' to fall. The danger is more, we think, to be apprehended in our oldest seminaries than in the new. It should not be forgotten under any circumstances, that learning in the clergy is vital not only to the just influence of the profession, but of what is of unspeakably greater importance,-to the cause of truth and charity. The sophistry of infidelity on the one hand, and the extravagancies of fanaticism on the other, cannot be successfully encountered but with the help of learning. And, in general, we may be confident, that a thoroughly learned clergy will be a catholic one. * We take pleasure in adducing upon this subject the sentiments of a lamented individual, who in an official capacity devoted himself with his characteristic ardor of purpose to the cause of theological education, and whose testimony is the result of intelligent and faithful observation. 'So strong is my conviction of the propriety of raising rather than lowering the standard of education, in all our seminaries of learning, that without pretending to extraordinary foresight, I will venture to predict the ultimate failure of any academy, college, or theological seminary, in which the plan of a superficial education is adopted. The community will not long support an institution, which is known to pursue such a system.' It may fairly be doubted, whether in the end any thing is to be gained for the church, by abridging for any young man a term of study, as at present settled by the soundest experience. Public opinion has declared most fully in favor of a thorough and liberal course of education for the ministry. And those institutions, which set out upon a different plan, have been compelled to change, and to conform to the model of the highest and most liberal standards.' * The Rev. Dr. Cornelius, in Edwards's Memoir of his Life. VOL. XXXVIII. NO. 83. 64 ART. X.-Progress and Limits of Social Improvement. Principi di Scienza Nuova di Giambattista Vico d'intorno alla comune Natura delle Nazioni colla vita dell' Autore scritto da lui medesimo. Edizione sesta. 3 vol. 8vo. Milano. 1816. The New Science; or a Treatise on the Principles that regulate the Origin, Progress and Decline of Nations. By J. B. VICO, with a Life of the Author, written by Himself. THE enquiry into the laws that regulate the progress, and determine the limits of the improvement of society,-which has become of late familiar to the public mind,-was not much agitated in the ancient schools of philosophy. It is chiefly, in fact, within the last half century that the speculations on this subject have begun to assume the form of definite theories. At the opening of the French Revolution, when the whole Christian world was in eager expectation of some great results that were to follow from this political movement, the boldest and most ardent thinkers started the idea, that a complete reform in the institutions of society would bring about the entire abolition of moral and physical evil in all their forms, and convert the earth into a paradise of perfect innocence and happiness, where we should flourish forever in immortal youth, without, of course, any wish or necessity of a better state hereafter. This system has been popularly called the theory of the perfectibility of man, and is not to be confounded with the sounder notions which encourage us to believe in the possibility of great improvements in the condition of particular individuals and societies, but always within moderate and reasonable limits. The partisans of this extravagant scheme were not undeceived by the fatal reverses, that so soon overclouded the fair promise of that memorable period. The oceans of innocent blood, that deluged the streets of Paris for five years, could not quench the fiery faith with which these enthusiastic souls adhered to their delusive visions of ideal perfection. It was in the dungeons of Robespierre,-from which he only escaped to die by the effects of poison, administered by his own hand, as the only resource against a more ignominious fate,-that Condorcet, the apostle of this school, composed his essay on the progress of the human mind. At the same time, when this doctrine was in full vogue in France, it also obtained a temporary currency in England, and may be found, set forth in full relief, in the Political Justice of Godwin ;-a work, which, strange as it may seem, was received with general enthusiasm by the reading public. The strong good sense of the mass of the people, enlightened by the practical refutation of these extravagant theories afforded by the progress of the French Revolution, pretty soon dissipated this delusion, which, as the opinion of a party, may now be said to be extinct. An attempt has indeed been lately made to revive the system, and even to use it as the basis of a practical reform of the institutions of society, by two or three individuals, who, after failing to realize their hopes at home, condescended to make our country the theatre of their benevolent exertions. We allude to Mr. Owen, and his female associate, Miss Wright. The small success which they met with in this quarter, renders it superfluous to dwell at length on the particular form in which they manifested their opinions. Mr. Owen, with whom we had some slight personal acquaintance soon after his arrival in this country, said at that time that he was quite certain of being able, within five years, to reorganize after his own fashion, or in one word, to Owenize our whole vast Republic. More than eight years have since elapsed, and the single, and not very flourishing establishment at New Harmony, is thus far the only result of his labors. Indeed, this great reformer has since returned to his own country, in no very pleasant disposition towards us, affirming publicly, that we are incapable of self-government, and, of course, unworthy to be governed by him; while it appears, that his fellow-laborer,after much lecturing against the old-fashioned system of matrimony, has lately condescended to change her name ;-no doubt on the principle of Benedict in the play, that when she lectured on the advantages to women of dispensing with husbands, she did not think that she should live to be herself a wife. The same general tendency of opinion and feeling, which gave rise to the theory of perfectibility in France, displayed itself in Germany, under a somewhat more scientific,-perhaps we may say more plausible form,-although the leading characteristics of the German system are substantially the same with those of the French one. The friends of letters and humanity will always be forward in acknowledging their obligations to the Germans, as well for their earnest and persevering efforts in the reformation of religion and the restoration of classical learning, as for much of the best fruit that has been gathered within the last half century from almost every field in the vast domains of science. Nor can we be justly said to underrate their high deserts, when we add, that individuals, and even considerable classes of writers, belonging to this illustrious and excellent nation, to which we of Saxon stock look with pride and pleasure as our parent, have at different periods and particularly within the one just mentioned, indulged in wild speculations on many important points in metaphysical and moral philosophy. Perceiving however, or thinking they perceived, about the period of the opening of the French Revolution, a strong tendency towards an improvement of the condition of society in Europe, and wishing to connect this encouraging fact with the general course of the history of man, the German writers persuaded themselves that the species, like the individual, naturally goes through a process of education, by which it is gradually moulded, fashioned and perfected, so as to pass from a very rude original state through a long course of intermediate changes into one of indefinite purity and excellence. On this system, the generations that immediately followed the deluge, were the infants of our kind; the Greeks and Romans, and the other various nations that occupy the middle period of history were in a state of adolescence; towards the close of the last century, the human race began to approach maturity, and it was supposed that by the beginning of the next millennium, at the year 2000, they would have made such farther progress as to exhibit our nature in something like a state of perfection. Such was, in substance, the theory proposed by the Germans, and which is particularly developed with a good deal of eloquence and plausibility by Herder, in his Philosophy of the History of Man, a work in its time of great celebrity and influence. The system retains many partisans among the * The opinion of Herder was not embraced by all his friends of the Weimar school. Schiller, for example, has condensed the substance of a much more reasonable doctrine into a single couplet. Der Mensch wird alt und der Mensch wird jung, |
