The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1854-12-15

classified together, nor rising intoa higher
species. Each member of the race is in will
affection and intellect consubstantial with
every other. No passion, no noble or de-
grading affection, no generous or selfish i'm
pulse has ever appeared, ofwhich the germ,
does not exist in every breast. No science
has been reached, no ought generated, no
truth discovered, which has not from ull time
existed potentially in every human mind
The belief In the progress Of the race does
not, therefore spring from the supposed pos
sibility of his acquiring new faculties, or
coming into the possession of new nature
Still less does truth change. They speak
falsely who say that truth is the daughter Of
time; it is the child of eternity, and as old as
the Divine mind. The perez pton Of it takes
place in the order of time; truth itself knows
nothing Of the successions of ages. Neither
does morality need to perfect itself; it is
what it always has been and always will te.
Its dis motions are older than the sea or dry
land, ,han the Earth or the sun. The rels-
ton Of good to evil is from the beginning,
and is unalterable. The progress of man
consists in this; that he himself arrives at
the perception Of truth. The Divine mind,
which s its source left it to be discovered,
developed and appropriated by finite crea-
lures
The life of an individual is but breath;
it comes forth like flower, and fees like
shadow. Were no other progress therefore,
possible than that ofthe Individual, one age
would have little advantage over another
But as every man partakes of the same fac
ulties, and is co-substantial with all, it fol-
lows that the race also has an existence of
its own; and this existence becomes richer,
moreFaried, free. and complete, as time ad-
vances. Common sense implies oy its We
name, tina! each individual is to contribute
some share towards the general intel igence
The many are wiser than the few; the null
titude than the philosopher; the race than
the individuals; and each successive age
than its predecessors. The sac | condition
of century, its faith end its institutions, are
always analogous otis acquisitions. Meth
or philosophy, nor government, nor political
institutions, nor religious krow edge, can
remain much behind, or go IN ch in advance,
of the totally Of contemporary intelligence -
The age furnishes to the master workman
the materials with which he builds. The
outbreak Of a revolution is bet the pulsation
Of the age, heath!u or spasmotic, according
to its harmony with the sum Of human knewl-
edge at the time. Each new philosophical
system is the heliograph of the passing con-
dtion Of ubliC ought. The state in which
we are is mans natural state at this moment,
but it neither should be nor can be mis- per-
manent state, for social existence is flowing
on in eternal motion, with nothing fixed but
the certainty of change. Now, by the ne
cessi'y o! the human mind, take: collectively,
is always towards s)mething better. There
exists in each Individual, alongside of his
own personality the ideal man who repre-
sents the race. He bears about within him
self the consciousness that this life is a
struggle, and at every moment he feels the
antagonism between his own limited nature
and the better life of which he couceives. -
He cannot state II proposition respecting y
finite object, but it includes also reference
to the infinite. lie cannot form Judgment
but i, combines ideal truth and partial error,
and, as consequence, sets i'll action the an-
tagonism between the true and the perfect
on the one side, and the false and the i'm
perfect on the other And in this contest
the true and the perfect must prevail, for
they have the advantage of being perennial.