Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-05-01


every would stand ready when he the world
endow him with cradlcs and nurseries, and schools,
and shoes and coats and breeches and breakfast, and
supper and lodging, and whatever else makes life COM
Portable and thus leave him free to do only the special
work which God empowers him to do" X, NJ tl
Inasmuch moral distinctops--the distinctions OF
good and eyexst only where hostile divided inter-
ests exists among men, so Of necessity the divine hie
which exacts perfect unity Of interests among its sub
ecs win at its coming utterly obiterate moral dstinc
tons from the face Of the earth In other words the
perfect life is not moral because il involves harmony 50
complete among be fatal to the existing diner
ences Of good and evil "No man ever antagonzss his
neighbors interest with view Of promoting his
owns and IL therefore, you release men from tins temp
taon by removing their existing social inequalities you
utterly vacae every shade Of moral diversity among
them"
"a state Of society may exist, without the slightest
prejudice to morality, in which, Notwithstanding each
and all its members the public and private interests
may be tremendously related to allow the utmost
possible freedom to all the appetites and passions 81 human
nature. But do not stop here. am not content with
merely saying that state Of society which puts man IN
harmony with his natures in equivalent terms ensures
him the ample qualification of all his apNites and pas
sions may exist without prejudice to the interests Of mo-
raty claim that such state Of society is absolutely
Indispensable those interests insist that such state
Of society is the actual fulfment Of all morality is the
destined consummation Of all Law and prophecy is, in
fact the necessary basis of Gods kingdom EARTH"
(. We instnctiyely feel that society has right to
guaranty mans nature ampler satisfaction than
anothers that natural want is in every case the ample
title to- and the only Of natural qualification
and that socetys prime function therefore is, not 70 or
dan inequalities in this regard, but utterly to destroy
them fast they come to her notice The diversity
Of human gifts has been ordainng these inequalities all
along the course Of history or giving one man superior
natural endowments to another But socetys business
is not to legislate for few, but for all She should
therefore to reduce these inequalities pherepsr they hare
arisen and all the material succor, the same
exemption from outward want, which has been realized
hitherto only by the few The province Of society lies
wholly in providing for mans material Development in
removing from that sphere every thing like organized in
Justice and inequality The development Of his genius
to God, who, doubt not would be found amply compe
tent TO the task whenever society should consent to in
| augurate Him." $500 ~. III. -
Here we close extracts taken passim from these
Lectures and Mscelanies p especially directing the
notice Of readers to the concluding paragraph being Mr.
Jamess polite and condescending certificate to the COM
| potency of the Deity. epa.iss si8 s
Our readers will not of course, suppose that atten
ton has been attracted these specuatons by their in
trnsc novelty, for it is all difficult trace the
paternity and pedigree of nearly every prominent idea
embodied at secondhand by Mr. James in his Communists
tic and heosophic reveres Fchte with his work the
Destination Of Man y swedenborg, with his New Jeru
salem revelations and rhapsodies Fourier
with his anaoges and correspondence between and
natures the young school" of Hegeans, such as Ruge,
and Feuerbach and Ronge with their humantary visions
of social regeneration Spnosa with his phiosophism
respecting God and Creation and old Lebntz, with
his doctrine of the pre-establshed harmony" all
clearly discernibe in the composite and eclectic pho
sopher whose work are considering work which
shows the great advance of humantary ideas in
modern philosophers such old fogies as Aristotle
with his Politics, Xenophon with his Economies, Plato
with his ideal Republic and Laws, Justnian with his
Commentaries, More with his Utopia, Feneon with his
-.
Social Contract Robert Owen with his Harmonsts, and
Monsieur CADET with his afectionate Icarias gsrsi
1t is plain that the eyes of the American philosopher
have been dAzsled by the splendid illusion which,
like mirage Of the desert has cheated many sanguine
students of historical science The philosophical hstor
rinns would convince that the unitsry man ia con-
stanty approxnang towards the goal Of human perfect
ability in the gradual progress marked by the evouons
Of history Mr.. James arrives the conclusion by
his "nefaceable conviction of mans inward righteous
ness and of the intimate alliance subssng between God
and the human soul which only needs to have the social
gives and legislative letters stricken off in order install
itself in the full uiton Of consummats and supernal be-
attitude. The "new heavens and earth wherein dwell
eth righteousness, in the opinion of such thinker
visionary only to be ushered in by grand social
catacysm, by gradual process, through the adj
of positive SCIENCE and it is evident that by the
phrase positive science Mr.. James the thing
does Monsieur Auguste Comte. The antagonsm which
exists between and external nature, according
to his theory, is only initial and medatory to the ut
mate and manifest destiny which requires of man to
ubde the earth; and told that every power Of
ture will eventually be rendered subservient to the
Of mans moral Intellectual and physical life until final
ly the veil of the temple shall be rent from top to bot
TOM and the Holy of Holes shall stand suddenly revealed
in the hneaments of immaculate and omnpotent hui
mainly" The phalansterans of Monsieur Fourier have
always been sorey gaveed reconcile the performance
Of certain mental Offices in social life with their concep
tons Of mans dignity and their theory Of human equality
and universal brotherhood Cooks, chambermads boot
blacks and sweeps hostlers and walters and sculions
have been thus far found necessary agents in the
bestadusted Of their social paralleogams Mr. James
however in the gradual progress of positive philoso
ply sees the "good time coming when science shall be
the only mental on the face Of the earth when the rea
tons Of to external nature shah be so scientifically
constructed that he will have need to take thought
saying what shall we eats or what shall we drink or
wherewiha shall be clothed for Society Invested
with the potent wand Of subject nature win be changed
into greater than the Deus Fortuna Of the ethnic mytho
logy from her conuccpa she dspenses with bsnecent
hand, upon each conner into the renovated earth
cradles and nurseries, and schools, and shoes and
COATS and breeches and breakfast and supper and lode
ing and whatever else makes life comfortable leaving
each scion of the social stock to dc only the
special worklwhich God empowers him to do.' Lfsnow
adays is fardel but it will be worth living in those
days, and it is confidently expected that suicide win be-