civilization is constantly advancing. There must be, therefore, some dynamical and active force at work somewhere in society to cause this advance; some impetus, initiative, and self-evolved /power which is not the mere reflex of the material and social surroundings, but which, while breaking down the old religious philosophies, pushes on these conditions to higher and higher developments. Were it not so, indeed, we should, like the lower animals, tread the same monotonous round for ever. And when we ask what this dynamical power is this power that communicates the impulse, sets the ball a-rolling, and initiates a new departure in civilization and progress-the answer will be found in that same Ideal in the mind of man which has not as yet been realized in this world, but which cannot rest until it has conformed the real world more and (more to its image. It is this Ideal which is constantly building up the New Civilization which ever lies more or less concealed under the Old, and which, when the Old has decayed and fallen to pieces, comes forth to take its place. This Ideal Xhas many sides, but they may be all summed up in the old J v " and well-recognized forms-the love of Beauty, the love of ,,Right, the love of Truth. The love of Beauty, with the splendid Art, Poetry, and Music of the ages to which it has given rise, need not detain us here; as its effects in elevating and refining the mind are so well and so universally recognized. The love of Right, while always softly active, like sunlight, ever and anon bursts forth like a flood of rolling fire when tyranny and oppression are full, blasting and withering; and 'when the hopes of mankind seem most crushed and forlorn, rising in its majesty to vindicate the infinitude of the soul. But unless reinforced by the reception of some new and regenerating truth into the general mind, or attended by some wide-spread and radical change in the material and social conditions, its effects are evanescent and transitory; and the startled world, wakened perhaps for a moment from its dreams by the bright meteoric splendour, sinks again into sleep and darkness. It is the love of Truth, making Science our fourth... and last great factor-its instrument,—that is the real and final dynamic and germinative force in civilization. It finds its agents in those solitary and sequestered individuals, who, impelled by its spirit, throw a more comprehensive glance over the field of existence, see things in subtler and wider relations, open up new riches and magnificence in tracts hitherto barren or unexplored, and give a new and deeper interpretation to life. Such men have been, on the one hand, the Spiritual Thinkers, who have founded religions and systems of philosophy; and on the other, the Scientific Observers, who have discovered the physical laws of Nature. And when these men arise, then it is that the Old Civilization begins to heave and ferment with the fire new-lit in its inwards, which, working outwards from the central heart to the sodden and torpid extremities, gradually transforms and revivifies the whole, But observe that these successive religions and philosophies do not follow one another as complete transformations, like the shifting scenes in a panorama, but glide imperceptibly into each other rather, each one being blended and interfused with all that have preceded it. The pure religion of Christ, for example, falling on Pagan times, becomes tinged in its ritual with Pagan idolatry, and in its creed with Pagan philosophy. Its simple and homogeneous structure, when stretched on the loom, is swiftly set upon by Greek metaphysicians, Egyptian mystics, Neo-platonists, Jews, and Orientalists generally, who interweave it with their subtleties, and dye or stain it with their peculiar superstitions, sentiments, and habits of thought. Learned Divines are kept busy in Ecumenical Councils and elsewhere, superintending the selection of fibres, and blending of colours; an Emperor occasionally standing by and dictating the particular threads of subtlety which are to be interwoven, while his Empress, perhaps, is indulging her preference by choosing the colour which most strikes her fancy. In the meantime, heresies and schisms are falling out here and there' -rents in the texture, slits in the seam-which, however, are promptly darned up again; until, after infinite effort, the vast and variegated web at last issues from the loom, one and indivisible the omnipotent Roman Catholic Church which over-stretches the world. After enwrapping the nations in its all-embracing folds during the long sleep of the Middle Ages, it begins again to show signs of disintegration. Grecian Thought and Culture, set free by the Mahommedan conquests, are again at work, loosening the cohesion of its well-knit texture; heresies follow one another with ever-increasing rapidity; until, with the Revival of Learning, the great Protestant schism splits it through the centre, and leaves a yawning gap between its opposing sides. But still the disintegration goes on. Liberty of private judgment, once admitted, cannot again be suppressed. Criticism becomes scientific, and, when applied to history and chronology, gradually destroys the credibility of much of that old and revered record on which the religious faith of ages has been nourished. In the meantime, solitary men, scattered here and there over Europe, have again taken to investigating Nature at first hand, in one or other small section of her vast operations, and are discovering uniformities and laws in phenomena hitherto regarded as casual, capricious, or dependent on some supernatural will. Starting from different points, and working outwards in enlarging circles, they have gradually extended their generalizations until, meeting and combining as Modern Science, they have eaten away almost the last fibres of the old creed, and gone far in remodelling the structure of society. But Science herself, like the cosmogonies and religious philosophies which preceded her, has not been able to preserve her essential purity throughout. Her earlier generalizations were all more or less tinged with the metaphysical and quasi-theological conceptions of the times in which they arose; and, indeed, not until quite recently, has she altogether freed herself from these impurities. But, /having at last succeeded in reducing all the operations of the material world to one vast uniformity, nothing is now wanting to complete her triumph but that she should animate this otherwise dead and unmeaning mechanism with an intelligent and informing Soul. While Science-in the form of Spiritual Insight and Natural LawLaw-has thus removed from above, as it were, those successive theological stays which, by fixing each existing régime, would prevent civilization advancing; in the meantime, when applied to the mechanical, chemical, and industrial arts, it has pushed forward from below those material and social conditions out of which each successive civilization immediately and directly springs. It were needless, indeed, to recount again the discoveries and inventions which, since the Middle Ages, have so completely changed the face of the world; suffice it to say only, that by increasing the products of labour and facilitating their distribution, by diffusing knowledge and equalizing the power of the different classes and peoples, it has gone a great way towards equalizing the rights, duties, privileges, and responsibilities of all, and so preparing the way for a rise in men's ideals. And if, as is not improbable, the same inventions, discoveries, and arts, which have broken down the old Feudal concentration of authority and power in the hands of a par-` ticular class, and have been gradually equalizing the conditions of all classes, are now showing a tendency, by the operation of economic laws as inexorable, to an Industrial concentration no less pernicious, but in a different form, it is to Science that the Future will be confided-that science which, by diving into the deep elements of the problem-material and social-and ascertaining the physical and spiritual laws on which it depends, will, by again enabling us to equalize the conditions, prepare the way for a new and higher social régime than any that History has yet recorded. FINIS. |