The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-31 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 31, 1857.

Two lovers, soon after their happy union, are separated by
death. How vivid is the faith of the survivor that they shall
meet again' Surely somewhere they shall be reunited. Is
there not space enough—ire there not stars enough in the
wide heavens? And all they want is a little space to lave
in—some foot•hohl given them in the creation. All the
rest of their eternal joy they carry with them—such joy as
it would surely be amazing waste and prodigality to let fall
out of the universe.

What if they had lived and loved a little longer on the
earth? Perhaps the star would not have been wanted.
If, however, we turn to the political conversa-
tions, we shall find some important questions
discussed with great shrewdness and subtlety.
For instance, the following logomachy on pro-
grees

Clarence: As a man of science, you cannot deny that
the history of our whole world manifests a process of de•
velopment, and that the history of the human species does
so in an especial and most remarkahle manner. As a
man of science, you must allow that, if the same species
continues to exist, it will continue to develop.

Seckendoif : Ad infinitum—eh? But if you appeal to
science, you must be bound by science. If you find that
human nature develops itself from age to age, you have no
right to conclude that it will develop itself in any other
fashion or manner than it has hitherto done. Develop-
ment, accrlrding to your account, is the normal state of
this creature. It puts forth a fuller and more varied life.
Well, then, imagine in the future Of you can imagine what
does not yet exist) It life still more complex, still more
varied. But as you have hitherto had a simultaneous de
velopment of good and evil (or what we are accustomed to
call such), what other anticipation have you a right to form
than that there will be still further development of both
good and evil? A community in which there should be a
still greeter variety in individual development, would lead
us to anticipate still greater diversity of conduct, and of
opinion on social and moral subjects.
The path of progress is the path of life. If it has been
rugged and tortuous hitherto, why should it not continue
to be rugged and tortuous? War and conquest have been,
and still are, the great agents in civilising the world.
Famine has driven the race over the face of the earth, and
is still doing so. The surplus population, as it is politely
called, of the more advanced and prosperous nations are
exterminating the weaker and less progressive races—red,
black, tawny, yellow, and the like.

Man does not put forth his blossoms exactly like the lily
and the rose. What you call his development is a very
turbulent business. The strea u of life runs broader,
fuller—not purer or more peacefully. The last novelty,
the last development that history will have to record of
these our times is, that we have added to war and civil
discord the charming variety of revolution. This is the
last bud or blossom that you have to point to. Our tree of
life has produced this amongst its other novelties. I ask
you on what possible grounds can you predict a time when
it is to put forth none but good fruit, or what you are
pleased to call such ? Permit a physiologist to remark,
that when we speak of the development of ens species, we
do not imply a complete departure from the type.
Clarence: But you have not grasped the truth that this
progressive development is but the progressive manifestation
of the Divine Idea, or the great whole. More and fuller
life is a nearer approximation to the complete whole ; in
which complete whole every part becomes itself more
exalted by reason of the increased relationships it has. If
I begin a sketch, and put down upor the paper a church
here and a windmill there, they look crude enough ; except
that they are on the same paper, they seem to have no relit.
tionship to each other. But as I fill in the rest of the
picture, not only do I put more objects on the paper, but
my church and my windmill are related to all these new
objects. and now harmonise together in a quite novel man-
ner. Fuller life is better life; development is progress,
because that whole is being developed in whici, every part
becomes raised, and exalted, and harmonious.

Seckendorf : As development proceeds does diversity
increase between man and man, and we ale now accus•
tomed to say that the greatest of men shrink into littleness
when placed beside Humanity. Now, this greater variety
of individual character, brought about by the violet:: of
arts. of occupation, of knowledge, points to a fuller life ;
but how do you find in it any indication of that moral per-
fection of society, or that perfect whole, and that better
life, that yon delight to prophesy? The very nature of
things suggests a limit to moral progress. If you have
few rules of conduct, and all men are agreed upon them,
you have the maximum of obedience. The old Persisna,
if indeed they limited their code to the virtue of telling
truth, would very rigidly enforce this rale amongst them-
selves. He who did not tell truth would be at once stig-
matised. But if there is a very complex life. and many
rules of conduct, you have-1, Diversity of judgment
weakening the force of opinion ; and, 2, You have many
rules of conduct to enforce. and the man who has broken
one may yet have obeyed others. Men are now of very
mixed characters : their faults get pardoned for their vie•
tees, and the opprobrium of public op nion no longer falls
with the same pitiless decision. That very complexity of
human society which constitutes your progress is limiting
and restricting that force of opinion on which you are
counting for a perfect morality.

Briefly this. In speaking of development
from analogy we must not forget that evil is
developed as well as good. Perhaps ; but de-
velopment, by perfecting the proportions and
relations of society, tends, ex vi terminoruni, to
the extinction of such evil. No; for there is
a counteracting element in the increased
diversity of opinion which must inevitably