The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-10-18
The Vice of Modern Thought.

AC 4CC VI
Since Jeremy Bentham announced his great
principle Of Felicity" which DR.. South
wood Smith declared entitled him to the same
rank in the moral universe to which Sir Isaac
Newton attained in the physical, the world
has been afflicted by vast number Of philos-
ophers in pettiooats and brooches, who insist
upon fitting against established institutions
They clap q new fashioned theory on their
heads, as Don Quixotte did the BARRIERS ba-
sin, and fad giants in wine skins and wind
mills, where ordinary mortals, like Sancho,
can see nothing but contrivances to carry
our wine, or to grind our corn. The vice of
the age seems to consist in Selling upon alb
stract principles, which, az such, are very
fine, and attempting to apply them to the
strange mass Of passions and prejudices, of
good and evil, OF sense and nonsense, which
make up the moral world. Mr. Mill, for ex-
ample, is great logicjan, but a poor states
man. He enuncated abstract principles with
clearness and force but when he comes to
apply these principles, they have no elastici-
ty to meet the inequalities Of human nature
he proposes measures of reform for man as
an ideal animal. This, as we have said, is
the great evil Of the present day, and in this
country we are condemned to the misery of
being partsans, seizing upon captivating
distractions and urging the application of
Utopian dreams in the affairs of daily ife
For example, the glittering generality" of
universal equality" which has not even the
merit of appealing to Us as an abstraction
beyond controversy, is attractive to the mass
es Of men. 1t appeals to the vanity of the
great body Of the people, and presents itself
to the popular mind as a fundamental max
i'm Of fee government but applied without
re friction, it must result simply, in disast-
rcu3 failure. The failure will follow in the
attempt, just as inevitably as the tower which
rose on the plains Of Shinar ended in the
confusion Of its builders, and from the same
reason; the attempt is 10 contravention Of the
divine economy which has stamped inequali-
ty on certain races. as for example, in the
case of the Ethiopian.
But plain as this proposition is to US,
manifest as this fact is in our eyes, being
part of our experience, still the Mills and the
Greeleys, the Phlilpses and the Anna Dick
insons of the day look at the abstract princi-
pie and ignore the facts Or rather shutting
their eyes to the facts as they exist, create an
ideal and romantic world in which they gen.
eralize upon facts Of their own creation.
They are cross between Logicians and Poets,
and the breed is very bad one for the adj
miuistration of public affairs.
The great danger Of the present, not only
on this side Of the Atlantic, but in Europe,
seems to be that the reformers Of the day are
bent on carrying into effect some of the wild
visions which belong to a Poetical School of
Philosophers, who lay down certain beautiful
theories, and then elevate all men up to these
standards Of ideal excellence
The dreamers might manage to give us
Platonic sketch Of an admirable Republic or
very good Constitutions after the m lnner of
Locke; but when they come to deal, with
the great fact Man, they are not only Ben
thanites but Bedlamites to boot, and in this
is the chief danger to modern society.