in the enforcement of the great Christian law of love; for, truly, in no other way can it be blessed at all above other conditions of civil society.

The principle of equality, the claim which men are putting forward to be respected as men, threatens to assume dangerous forms, in the creation of parties among us. If ever the wealthy and powerful shall, by proud assumption, or unrighteous oppression, array the mass of the people against them, they will be answerable for that anarchy, which may sweep every thing before it, and their own prosperity and pretensions with the rest. If ever the numerical strength of the country, without that apology, ay, or with it, rise and combine against property and talent, to level them in the dust, they will have the poor consolation of reflecting that they have destroyed the only system that gives them any liberty, or makes them of any account. We have, however, only to ask of any Middling-interest, or Working-men's party, that they will respect the true principle of equality, that they will respect themselves as men; and we shall feel that from this quarter, all is safe.

For the safe operation of this great principle of Republicanism, we are bound to be the more anxious, because it is the principle that is now going forth to do its work among the nations; and every people looks to us, to keep bright and clear the beacon-light, by which they are guided.

It is impossible not to hope every thing, and we had almost said, to fear every thing, from that contest for human rights among the nations of Europe, which has for some time been as evidently approaching, as it is now evidently begun. Men are demanding to be respected as men. Who does not feel that they must at length succeed?—that the strongest claim of human nature must prevail, if it once arise in its true character and its sovereign majesty? But when this great claim is no longer the meditation of philosophers alone, when it is no longer a fair and beautiful theory, but has become a feeling, and a universal feeling; when human nature is awaking with indignant might, from long ages of oppression; when entire nations are stirred throughout by the spirit of Revolution, and the popular impulse heaves from its whole oceanbed, it is impossible not to look with trembling to the issue. We fearfully ask, and the fear is not a vague one, will there be enough courage and wisdom and sobriety and moderation, successfully to work out the great reform? Or, according to

the prediction of one of our own Sages, must the civilized world wade through oceans of blood to a state of freedom and happiness?

In this great contest, far as we are from it, much is to depend on us. Let it not be said with boasting, but in all humility and fear and trembling. The spectacle of disorder, disunion, and failure among us, will dishearten the friends, and embolden the foes of liberty, all over the world. It will be a dark cloud in the West, that will spread blackness and fear upon the paths of coming generations.

Let it be said, then, and let it be repeated, that this united Republic owes to itself, and to the world, a mighty duty. Every member of this vast and favored community is bound to consider it, and to act upon that deep and sober consideration. The world has hitherto been working out its way to virtue and happiness, under the weight of burdensome and oppressive institutions. The great relations of government and society, indeed, have been improving since the feudal age; in Germany, in France, and in England, they have made considerable advances, but in this country, they have a free course; and here, to adopt the language of Scripture, prophetic of moral progress, here, if any where on earth, they must be glorified.' The hope of the world's improvement, the noblest and most sublime of all hopes, that are limited to this world, associated with philanthropy and with piety, with the love of human kind and the loftiest contemplations of Providence, that hope must, if any where, have its fulfilment here.

This is no vague declamation. It is in the homes of human affection; it is in human hearts overshadowed and darkened till now; it is in the souls of men, degraded and borne down by ecclesiastical, by political, and social error and folly; it is in the children of our bosoms, and in our children's children, that we wish to see this blessed improve

ment.

We say, then, and repeat, that this country, where a new theatre is opened by Heaven for human improvement, owes to the world, to humanity, to suffering and sorrowing human nature, a solemn and stupendous duty;-a duty, vast as its empire, its spreading population, and its yet unproved resources. It owes that duty to the thousands who have sighed for so happy a condition, and so noble an opportunity; owes it to the sages of old philosophy, to the suffering apostles of

religion, to the martyrs of liberty; owes it to the Ciceros and the Senecas, to the Hampdens and the Sidneys, to the noble spirits all over the world, that, struggling against oppression, have fallen in sacrifice on the very altars which their virtues had built! And if we fail in this duty, if we are unfaithful to this great trust, if we prove recreant and false to the great behest that is laid upon us, the blood of the scaffold and the stake will make inquisition for the tremendous default; the groans of a thousand battle-fields will rise against us; the sorrows of an hundred generations will reproach the base desertion of our trust;-our memory will live in the accusing voice of all coming ages, our epitaph will be the lamentation of the world!

EFFECTS OF CIVIL LIBERTY UPON THE MIND.

I ACCOUNT Civil liberity as the chief good of states, because it accords with and ministers to energy and elevation of mind. Nor is this a truth so remote or obscure as to need laborious proof or illustration. For consider what civil liberty means. It consists in the removal of all restraint, but such as the public weal demands. And what is the end and benefit of removing restraint? It is that men may put forth their powers, and act from themselves. Vigorous and invigorating action is the chief fruit of all outward freedom. Why break the chains from the captive, but that he may bring into play his liberated limbs? Why open his prison, but that he may go forth, and open his eyes on a wide prospect, and exert and enjoy his various energies? Liberty, which does not minister to action and the growth of power, is only a name, is no better than slavery.

The chief benefit of free institutions is clear and unutterably precious. Their chief benefit is, that they aid freedom of mind, that they give scope to man's faculties, that they throw him on his own resources, and summon him to work out his own happiness. It is, that, by removing restraint from intellect, they favor force, originality, and enlargement of thought. It is, that, by removing restraint from worship, they favor the ascent of the soul to God. It is, that, by removing restraint from industry, they stir up invention and enterprize to explore and subdue the material world, and thus rescue the race from those sore physical wants and pains,

which narrow and blight the mind. It is, that they cherish noble sentiments, frankness, courage, and self-respect.

Free institutions contribute in no small degree to freedom and force of mind, by teaching the essential equality of men, and their right and duty to govern themselves; and I cannot but consider the superiority of an elective government, as consisting very much in the testimony which it bears to these ennobling truths. It has often been said, that a good code of laws, and not the form of government, is what determines a people's happiness. But good laws, if not springing from the community, if imposed by a master, would lose much of their value. The best code is that, which has its origin in the will of the people who obey it; which, whilst it speaks with authority, still recognizes self-government as the primary right and duty of a rational being, and which thus cherishes in the individual, be his condition what it may, a just self-respect.

We may learn, that the chief good and the most precious fruit of civil liberty is spiritual freedom and power, by considering what is the chief evil of tyranny. I know that tyranny does evil by invading men's outward interests, by making property and life insecure, by robbing the laborer to pamper the noble and king. But its worst influence is within. Its chief curse is, that it breaks and tames the spirit, sinks man in his own eyes, takes away vigor of thought and action, substitutes for conscience an outward rule, makes him abject, cowardly, a parasite and cringing slave. This is the curse of tyranny. It wars with the soul, and thus it wars with God. We read in theologians and poets of angels fighting against the Creator, of battles in heaven. But God's throne in heaven is unassailable. The only war against God is against his image, against the divine principle in the soul, and this is waged by tyranny in all its forms. We here see the chief curse of tyranny; and this should teach us that civil freedom is a blessing, chiefly as it reverences the human soul, and ministers to its growth and power.

Without this inward, spiritual freedom, outward liberty is of little worth. What boots it, that I am crushed by no foreign yoke, if, through ignorance and vice, through selfishness and fear, I want the command of my own mind? The worst tyrants are those which establish themselves in our own breasts. The man who wants force of principle and purpose, is a slave, however free the air he breathes. The

mind, after all, is our only possession, or, in other words, we possess all things through its energy and enlargement; and civil institutions are to be estimated by the free and pure minds to which they give birth.

EXTRACT FROM THE 'VISION OF LIBERTY.'

An old Gothic Castle reared by despotism, is on fire.
But soon it spread-

Waving, rushing, fierce, and red,
From wall to wall, from tower to tower,
Raging with resistless power;

Till every fervent pillar glow'd,

And every stone seem'd burning coal,
Instinct with living heat, that flow'd

Like streaming radiance from the kindled pole.

Beautiful, fearful, grand,

Silent as death, I saw the fabric stand.

At length a crackling sound began;
From side to side throughout the pile it ran;
And louder yet, and louder grew,

Till now in rattling peals it flew.

Huge shiver'd fragments from the pillars broke,
Like fiery sparkles from the anvil's stroke.
The shatter'd walls were rent and riven,
And piecemeal driven

Like blazing comets through the troubled sky.
'Tis done; what centuries had rear'd

In quick explosion disappear'd,

Nor even its ruins met my wond'ring eye.

But in their place,

Bright with more than human grace,

Robed in more than mortal seeming,

Radiant glory in her face,

And eyes with heaven's own brightness beaming;
Rose a fair majestic form,

As the mild rainbow from the storm.
I mark'd her smile, I knew her eye;
And when, with gesture of command,
She waved aloft the cap-crown'd wand,
My slumbers fled mid shouts of 'LIBERTY!'

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