The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-05-23

ceedlng in human society has primarily a re-
ligious rather than an intellectual character.
~.
However, this may be, the eighteenth century.
tho rationalistio century par ercetcncc, did I'M
Questionably believe, as q cardinal article or
faith, in tho supremacy Of reason as an agent In
the progress of society. This belief was nour-
ishcd and sustained by the great scientific dis
~coveries of tho age. and It tended TO produce
that assurance or dream of tho possibility OF
boundlcss advance for tho race which formed
part Of the revolutionary crcod. The new evangel
had It's apostles and prophets and martyrs. To
our author there is something sublime and pa
thetic In their unalterable optimism. He quotes
the glowing words which celebrated the prom
ised golden age seen In vision by the prescribed
Condorcet In the closing pages OF his unfinished
"Progres dc l'Esprit Human" The contemplo-
ton Of the happier future Of humanity is de-
scribed by Condorcet as q refuge for tho philoso-
pher, into which the recollections OF his perse-
cutors can never follow him, sin which. living
in thought with man reinstated in the rights
and tho dignity Of his nature, he forgets man
tormentcd and corrupted by greed. by base
fear. by envy The eighteenth century. how
ever. was not, of course, merely q rationalistic
age. There had been In England, as well as in
France and Germany, a great acknowledgements
of the passions. There had been a great out
break Of religious emotion In the movement
which was represented by Whitefleld and Wes-
ley. In literature the sentimental movement
represented oonspicuously by such works as
Rousseau's LA noureHo Helofse," Goethe's
"werther," and Sterne's "Tristram Shandy"
ran its course, and, in Prof. Dowdcn's opinion,
would have perished through its own excuses,
had 1t not eventually turned somewhat away
from literature and coalesced with tho new
philanthropy Of the times. The worship Of
passion, the abandonment to sentiment. had been
dissolvents of moral and social order; accord
ing to the eentimentalists. the first of duties
was no longer to act Alright but to be touched by
a delicate distress. Under their affectations,
however, lay a real refining Of human sympathy.
In its more robust form, the tender emotion of
the time passed into the new philanthropy. and,
among the sources which went to form the revo-
lutionary stream. this is pronounced not the
least important. Tho cause of revolution seemed
to many thinkers. and especially to the younger
and more ardent spirits, to be the cause Of hui
mainly. The laws were harsh, and were admin
istered with little pity; the criminal,
therefore, the generous or amiable crimi-
nal. became a favorite with imaginative
writers. Human nature, so 1t was clio
qucntly preached, is essentially good; the
unreasonable and unfeeling arrangements Of
society are tho chief causes Of crime.
When the Bastille fell, what was this. it was
asked, but the fulfllment Of the u~naccomplished
work Of John Howard Charles James Fox
only gave expression to the sentiment of many
of his contemporaries when he exclaimed, How
much the greatest event it is that ever happened
in the world And how much the best I" This,
although the fall of the Bastille did, as a matter
of fact, set free exactly seven prisoners, four of
whom were accused of forgery, one was an idiot
and one was detained at the request of his fam
lily. The Bastille. however, served well enough
as a symbol for the imagination; its ruins typi-
fled the ashes Of the old regime, from which the
phoenix of human happiness and freedom was
to rise. Philanthropy. in a word. then entered
on its revolutionary apothcosis.
Meanwhile. in the days before this apotheosis.
imagination had played its part in England and
was set upon defining certain actual evils and
ascertaining the way to practical reform. The
English Penal Code was still one Of savage
severity. 1t was something gained when, in
1888, the cruel procession to Tyburn was
abolished. A great statesman. who sub
sequently proved himself no admirer of the
French revolution, Edmund Burke. pleaded
for a revisal Of that code, which he de-
scribed as abominable. The great work of
Towards life on behalf of prison reform began
as early as 1773 with his appointment as High
hSA "a 49, VI
ard and that of Wilberforce are instances of the
debt which the humanitarian movement of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries owed to the
Evangelical revival. Among the philanthropic
efforts of the times, that on behalf Of the aboli-
ton of the slave trade was the most considera-
BILE. Into it entered something of the revolu-
tionary feeling for liberty. and yet more of the
sentiment Of fraternity. AS early, indeed, MS
1868 William Penn had denounced the cruelty
"a Al = M --l L.. l. A. A..
Friends had never been quito insensible to its
evils. The exertions of the Quakers in days
preceding the great upheaval in France were
ably seconded by Granville Sharpe. GARRISON.
and Wilberforce. members of the Church OF
England. On this subject there was no serious
difference of opinion between Pitt. and Fox,
and Burke. In 1880 the latter prepared n
code for the mitigation and ultimate abol-
ishment of tho traffic in human lives.
but he eventually lost hope in the possi-
biiity of bringing his aim to n successful issue.
Our author recalls the melancholy fact that the
direct cause why the abolition of the slave trade
was not attained before the close of the eigh-
teenth century was that violent outbreak on be-
half Of freedom in which it's admirers saw the
Immediate emancipation Of the world. In the
panic created by the French revolution the in
terests of tho oppressed African receded. The
eighteenth century. in the words of Mr.. Lecky.
ended with the temporary defeat or a cause
which, ten years before. seemed on the eve OF
triumph. Nevertheless. the younger spirits of
the revolutionary movement in English litern-
ture. and. in particular. Southey. remained ar
dent champions Of negro emancipation.
III.
Besides tho idea Of human perfectibility and
the humanitarian passion. a third element en-
tered into the revolutionary spirit before the
Revolution. and produced remarkable effects in
literature as we'll as in life. The keynote of this
third element has been expressed by Mr.. Morley
In the word "simplifcation." The Revolution
was, or aimed at being, "a return to nature" an
elastic phrase capable Of many meanings.
When Pope and Addison pleaded for a return
to nature they meant a return to good sense.
the common intelligence and the observation of
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