that therefore permanent union among all nations is a thing impossible. Arguments of this nature are founded on the his tory of the great ancient empires, whose fate is held by many to prove the instability of all human government. But such analogies are utterly fallacious. I have already shewn that the empires of antiquity were founded on principles the very opposite of those for which I now contend, and which modern governments are proceeding to adopt. Their policy was to raise themselves by the downfall of others; to exalt the few by the subjection of the many; not to identify the interests of other nations with their own, to join them on terms of equality, to admit them to equal rights, and so promote the good of all. Their decline, therefore, merely tends to establish, that the permanent existence of any single state must depend on its recog nition of the rights of others.

It now remains to take a rapid survey of some of the various causes which have operated, or which are still operating, to destroy the spirit of national exclusiveness. The first of these was the Reformation. When the torch which was lighted in England by Wickliffe, was carried by Jerome into continental Europe, and passed through the hands of Huss and Luther, thousands, roused by the signal, gathered round the standards of religious liberty. Men then began to feel that love of freedom, and hatred of spiritual tyranny, were stronger bands of union than community of country. In the words of an eloquent and profound writer :

"A livelier and more immediate interest than national advan tages or patriotism, and entirely independent of civil relations, began to actuate whole states and individual citizens; an inte rest capable of uniting numerous and distant nations, while it was frequently wanting among the subjects of the same government. With the reformed inhabitant of Geneva, for instance, of England, of Germany, or of Holland, the French Calvinist possessed a point of union which he had not with his own Catholic fellow-citizens. Thus he ceased in one important par ticular to be the citizen of a single state, and to confine his at tention and his sympathies to that alone. His views extended; he learned to connect his own fortunes with the fate of his own religion in other countries, and to identify their cause with his own. Princes now ventured, for the first time, to bring for ward the affairs of other countries in their own councils, and to expect attention and assistance. External occurrences are, for the first time, interwoven with domestic policy, and that aid is readily accorded to the religious confederate which would have been refused to the mere neighbour, and still more to the dis tant foreigner. The inhabitant of the palatinate leaves his na tive country to fight side by side with his religious associate of

France against the common enemy of their faith. The Hugue." not draws his sword against the country which persecutes him, and sheds bis blood in the defence of the liberties of Holland. Swiss is arrayed against Swiss, German against German, to decide the succession of France, on the banks of the Loire and Seine. The Dane crosses the Eider, and the Swede the Baltic, to break the chains which are forged for the freedom of Germany."*

The French revolution also, which shook the foundations of arbitrary power in every country, did much to destroy national antipathy, by leaguing together the lovers of freedom in distant lands, by creating new and powerful bonds of union; and though the outrages in which that event terminated delayed the progress of liberty, in whose name they were committed, still, as it has been well observed, the surface of national antipathy was broken up, a party, which has gradually increased in strength, was formed in favour of France, the events of the late revolution greatly removed the evil impression of the first, and time has weakened, if not destroyed, the jealousy which so long existed between France and other countries, especially our own.†

Again, the progress of science and literature among nations has contributed much, and will yet contribute more, to overthrow the barriers which have too long existed between them; while it will not, as religious creeds have too often done, substitute distinctions of another kind. When men shall be engaged in similar pursuits, all tending to increase the happiness of the individual and the race, national hostilities will be forgotten in the predominant desire for the improvement of the world. When we turn our attention to the occasional instances which have hitherto occurred, when, for example, we remember that, in 1810, when the jealousies between this island and France ran highest, a prize was awarded by the French Institute to

Schiller's History of the Thirty Years' War, vol. i. p. 47.

As an instance I may quote the reasoning which Davila attributes to the Protestant preachers, when the proposal to demand succours from Queen Elizabeth against the League was objected to, on the ground that advantage would thus be given to the English, the inveterate enemies of France. "I predicanti, che in tutte le deliberationi ottenevano grandissima autorità, é erano a guisa d'oracoli venerati, allegavano non dover si tener conto di queste cose terrene, ove si tratta della dottrina celeste, e della propagatione della parola di Dio, e però convenirsi vilipendere ogn' altra consideratione pur che fosse protetta la religione, e confirmata la libertà della fede."-Davila, Guerre Civili di Francia, lib. iii. The same effect was produced in an opposite way. The balance of power in Europe being deranged by the Reformation, mutual interest produced alliances among nations irrespectively of religious differences. "So strangely did the previous dissensions of the world, beginning in spiritual hate, yet tend to cement the political relations of states which differed in their religious creeds."-Nugent's Life of Hampden, vol. i, p. 111.

+ Bulwer, England and the English, vol. i. p. 103.

PHRENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF PATRIOTISM.

Sir Humphrey Davy for his chemical discoveries, and that, too, against the wish of Napoleon himself, I think we can scarcely overrate the power of common pursuit of science, in uniting mankind with a bond of common fellowship.

The same result will be advanced by the increased rapidity and ease of communication among consequently augmented freedom of intercourse, the mutual exdifferent countries, and the change of habits, sentiments, and thought. Nations will feel an increased interest in each other's proceedings, and an increased anxiety for each other's welfare. Separated as they now are, and slow as is even the present communication among them, events which happen in one country become old, and lose their interest before they reach the rest; distance of place produces the same result as distance of time; events in the history of our own island a hundred years ago scarcely excite our attention; they pass coldly over our ear; we reason upon them indeed, but it is because they apply to present occurrences; they rouse no vivid emotions, no alternations between hope and fear, certainty and doubt. But the day's news are regarded with very different feelings; they occupy our whole mind; they form the subject of ordinary conversation; they excite us to inquiry and serious reflection. And so it is with events in a foreign coun try. Facts have lost their freshness, their awakening power, when they reach us long after their occurrence; and we may see an indication of the effect of opposite circumstances in the increased anxiety and attention with which, during late years, intelligence of the proceedings of continental governments has been expected and received. +

Much, indeed every thing, is to be hoped from the diffusion of Christianity, when it shall cease to be regarded as a system of ceremonies or metaphysical subtleties, whose character can change with change of country; when its doctrines shall be

Nahum Capen's Life of Spurzheim, and Paris' Life of Davy. Another example may be mentioned. nificence for which she was so justly distinguished, settled a pension on Euler, Catharine the First of Russia, with that muas a reward for the services which he had rendered to the Russian academy; and, be it told to her honour, when Euler resigned his situation in the St Petersburg academy, and retired to Berlin, it was still regularly paid, though Russia and Prussia were then in open hostilities.-Wilson's Biography of the Blind, p. 70.

+ Even with our present knowledge, it is impossible to assign probable limits to the speed which may yet be given to communication of thought. The recent invention of the electric telegraph, which appears to have occur red simultaneously to two, if not three, individuals in different parts of Europe, if carried out, promises to render the words of the Abbé Morellet an actual truth, instead of a bold figure of speech. tablement singulière, comment d'une extrémité de la terre à l'autre, on peut "C'est une chose vérise trouver si bien d'accord; on dirait qu' un fil electrique, traversant le monde, communique nos ideés et nos impressions reciproques."

comprised in the paternity of God, and the consequent fraternity of man; and its duties summed up in piety to the one, and benevolence to the other.

I cannot now trace further the operation of these and other causes which are, even at this moment, fermenting beneath the surface of society, and altering its whole constitution,-giving the man of science the assurance that every discovery he makes is enlarging the dominion of all mankind over nature,-teaching the lover of freedom that of every blow which is given to tyranny in one country, the shock is felt in every other, carrying over land and over sea the influence of acts and thoughts of noble minds in the most distant regions,-joining together all lovers of their species, however separated by space,—and gradually identifying every individual with the great cause of humanity.

I have now completed the observations which I proposed to make on patriotism or zeal for country. I have given my reasons for condemning, not the feeling itself, but the indiscriminate applause bestowed upon it, and the high or rather supreme rank which it has attained among the virtues. I would repeat what I stated at the commencement of this paper, that I do not agree with those who reprobate our domestic and social affections, our love of friends, our love of country, as selfish and opposed to sound benevolence. I contend not for their extinction, which is neither possible nor desirable, but for their due regulation. When guided by reason and enlightened principles, they are most powerful auxiliaries to benevolence itself. To love our neighbours as ourselves is the highest injunction even of Christianity. It is the man who loves his children most devotedly who can enter most deeply into a parent's feelings. The same love of country, which, unguided by benevolence, may prompt us to trample on the rights of other nations, will, when guided by benevolence, enable us better to appreciate, and more to respect, the love which other nations bear to their country. Though we did not love our own home, or our own land, we might perhaps pity the condition of the kidnapped Negro, and condemn the injustice of the trafficker in his flesh, but where would be the intense sympathy with which we make the case our own? Where the depth of indignation with which we resent the injury, as if offered to ourselves? He who loves not what is near will be indifferent to what is remote; and he who loves not the individual can have no true fellow-feeling for the

Sir James Mackintosh remarks: "The philosophy of this age has weakened the prejudice of nationality; but it has reached the further stage of estimating the great value of the principle." Of Sir James Mackintosh it was justly said by A. W. Schlegel, "Il était éminemment Anglais par son patriotisme, et cosmopolite par l'absence des préjugés nationaux."

race. As love of country is purest and strongest when it springs from the charities of home; so philanthropy can have no sounder or deeper foundation than in the love of our country. men, whom, by the very fact of their being our countrymen, by the close communion of interests and of feelings which that word involves, nature has recommended in a peculiar manner to our hearts. What the root is to the trunk, the trunk is to the branches. And as the tree which is bound to its native soil, and nourished by a thousand roots, rises with a strong and upright stem, and flings wide its shady boughs, so the love of country rooted in the numerous domestic relations is at once the most powerful and the most likely to expand into universal benevolence.*

In conclusion, I would observe that it is important to examine this subject as much as possible apart from the influence of early habit and education, and the delusive charms with which literature generally, and more especially poetry, have invested it. Too much of poetry, from the time of Homer to that of Burns, has been devoted to the exaltation of ill-regulated feelings. It is the prerogative of genius to adorn whatever it touches, and, considering the general predominance of evil sions, it is not surprising that the poetry which borrows from pasthem its inspiration should be so generally acceptable. It is to be regretted that genius has been too often employed in softening down the odiousness of vice, and rendering it attractive. The propensity, which of all others is the lowest when uncontrolled, its triumph over all moral obligation, have called forth more eloquent poetry than any other feeling. Such writings melt the heart and excite the sympathies of every reader, even though he may condemn their spirit; and it is this influence which is to be most earnestly deprecated. It has been said that the chief evil of vice is its grossness. But certainly in no other form is it to others less dangerous or seducing. The drunkenness of the sot can call forth no feeling but disgust and com

Life of Sir J. Mackintosh, by his Son, vol. i. p. 77. Coleridge, Zapolya, P. I. Act. IV. Works, vol. ii. p. 370. Ode to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Table-Talk, ii, 228. Letters, &c. vol. i. p. 65-1836. Letter from Pope to Swift, quoted in Coleridge's Letters, &c. ii. p. 55. circle of general philanthropy, which, in the present stage of human nature, "The extensive comprehends in its circumference the destinies of the whole species, originat ed and still proceeds from that narrower circle of domestic affections, which first set limits to the empire of selfishness, and, by purifying the passions and enlarging the affections of mankind, has given to the views of benevolence an increasing and illimitable expansion, which will finally diffuse happiness and peace over the whole surface of the world."-Headlong Hall, c. XV. This principle, besides its many other applications, furnishes the true reason against the celibacy of the clergy, which even Lord Bacon in his Essays approves, when he says that childless men are the greatest lovers of their race, and which Cobbett, in his History of the Reformation, so perversely defends.