Advance, fight, destroy; be the strongest, and thou wilt be free.

The child trained up to war, receiving from education but two ideas-the love of his native town, and the contempt of all other civilisations,-the man living free only on condition of his renouncing the exercise of his own will; repelling as a weakness all the arts, all the sciences, which might have enlightened and polished him-seeing on the rest of the earth nothing but enemies, barbarians, and countries to be conquered, or slaves to be enchained; separating himself, in fact, from all other nations by pride, and from the human race by ignorance; such was the humanity of ancient times: such was the law imposed upon the heroic nations of Greece.

To limit a people to one sole idea, to allow it only one passion, and to unloose this passion against the world: such was the essence of a republican government as it existed at Crete, Sparta, Athens, and Rome, and this government was based upon the same principle as is a despotic government.

In a republican government the people is the despot, and its subjects are all the nations which surround it. Its caprices and its desires turn the world upside down; others must either serve it, or die.

Thus, the greatest effort of ancient legislation was to transfer despotism from the master to the subject; to imbue a nation with the will of a tyrant. They gave to this thing the name of liberty, and the violation of all the laws of nature was termed virtue.

And, let it not be supposed that I would deny the glorious influences of those institutions. Their action was frequently heroic. We have seen emanate from them some sublime characters, and instances of noble devotedness: they gave universal dominion to a handful of men,

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but they did nothing for the happiness of Greece; they did little for the advancement of humanity.

It has been said that these institutions have become impossible at the present day because we are wanting in virtue. It would have been more true to say that they could not be reproduced because they violate three of the great laws of nature which are now recognised by all civilised nations. The sentiment of the Divinity, that is to say, the knowledge and the love of one only God; the sentiment of sociability, that is to say, the unity of the human species; and lastly, perfectibility, which does not allow the human race to retrograde towards the past. All the virtues of Sparta, Rome, and Athens, were hostile to humanity; we could not return to them without degrading ourselves. What European people could coolly hunt down the Helots as the law of Sparta decreed? What father would consent to sell his son three times over, or to kill him, as was permitted by the Roman law? What hero could make war for the sake of pillage and carnage, and on the smoking ruins of seventy cities would dare to sell by auction a hundred and fifty thousand citizens, in order to distribute the money to his army, as Paulus Emilius did in Epirus? which procured him the honours of a triumph, together with the admiration of the Roman people, and almost that of posterity.

The reign of Rome was that of a robber: it aggrandized itself by war and pillage, and therefore it fell by its riches and by war.

Let us no longer say that these institutions are become impossible because we are wanting in virtue; let us rather say, that they are become impossible because humanity and truth are beginning to prevail upon the earth.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

OF THE HOPES OF THE FUTURE.

"Je n'ai vu dans la liberté que tous les hommes reclament, que le développement harmonique de leurs facultés."

BONSTETTEN, Etude de l'Homme.

"Le gout et l'admiration du stationnaire viennent des jugemens faux que l'on porte sur la vérité des faits, et sur la nature de l'homme : sur la vérité des faits, parcequ'on suppose que les anciens mœurs étaient plus pures que les mœurs modernes; complete erreur: sur la nature de l'homme, parcequ'on ne veut pas voir que l'esprit humain est perfectible."

CHATEAUBRIAND.

THIS cursory examination of human laws, as confronted with the laws of nature, has shown us the world shaking off its chains, and advancing with rapid strides towards truth. In order to complete this picture, let us cast our eyes upon the moral state of the world, not within the narrow limits of the kingdoms into which the ground is partitioned off, but in the large divisions established by the different forms of belief which constitute various classes of their populations. The luminous point lies entirely in the progress of the Gospel, because the Gospel in its primitive purity is itself but the expression of the laws of nature. It is sufficient to appreciate this light in order to know the future destiny of the human race.

At the present day more than one-third of the inhabitants of the globe have received the law of Christ, and live beneath the influence of this law which gives life to nations. Europe is the centre of this new civilisation, of

which the starting point is France and England. There arise and are developed the generous ideas of humanity and of liberty, of which the circle is perpetually enlarging itself, and which are being diffused from nation to nation throughout Europe; and from Europe throughout the world.

To this sublime junction of intellects, the United States of America come with all the ardour of youth, to join themselves to old Europe. 'More fortunate than ourselves, they have had no middle ages. England, by trying to govern them, inspired them with the desire of independence. They learned from their masters to cherish liberty, and the first news of their success was a great example to the nations of the old world.

Thus, young America was free at her birth. No habits of vassallage, no regrets for the past, no gothic prejudices, disturbed her victory; she had not to struggle against those theocracies which keep the people in the abjection of misery and of ignorance; she did not see her soil defiled by the superstitions of brahmins or the fury of proselytism. All the sects which are there established possess the spirit of the Gospel. Oh! spectacle never before viewed by mortal eyes! she is born with liberty, tolerance, and intelligence, she escapes at the same time from priests and from barbarism! Her most ancient recollections are those of her glory, and of her deliverance, and without having passed through the darkness of childhood, she arrives at the age of truth rich in experience, and in the reason of the human race.

One single blot defaces the picture-slavery still shows itself there, and women live beneath the weight of an inequality which offends the law of nature. Here are two causes of degradation and unhappiness. But let these causes disappear, and we should see the deserts of America produce nations greater than those of antiquity.

Already, it must be admitted, slavery is attacked on all sides, and it is women who inflict upon it the most deadly blows. In their sacred assembly they have declared that they would not address themselves to men, but to God, who alone can touch the heart of man and render it accessible to the voice of Gospel and to pity. The first article of their convention makes it a duty for all American women to pray for the destruction of a crime which is qualified by the title of a national crime; and this prayer will be universal and perpetual over the whole surface of the United States, until the cessation of the crime. Antiquity never witnessed so great an event. But this is not all: joining works to their prayers, the women have determined upon opening schools, and undertaking themselves to teach the slaves. "We will exert," say they, "all our influence to promote the instruction and the emancipation of our brothers and sisters, the slaves; and so long as there shall be in our churches benches on which they must sit separated from the rest, we will go and place ourselves on these benches, and pray for them by their side." * O women of America, blessed be ye among women! and be your children blessed, for you have understood the evangelical doctrine, and have known its charity!

Such is the America of the United States; a new world which is born to new ideas. Such will be the America of the south after its triumph, for the nation must triumph

* Report of the Convention of American women of the city of New York for the Abolition of Slavery; sitting of 9th May, 1837, and three following days. This convention has been regularly constituted by seventy-one delegates from the states of New Hampshire, Massachussets, Rhode Island, New York, Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. A hundred and three other ladies of the states of Connecticut and Carolina have been declared corresponding members, and almost all of them repaired to the general meeting.