our colleagues had not discovered; and in decrying our predecessors, instead of profiting by their labors. It is true that the pick or the crowbar would be exceedingly inappropriate tools for giving the last finish of taste to a splendid golden vase; but had they never been used for excavation, the ore would not have been furnished; and what a variety of intermediate hands must be employed between that which first opened the mine and that which finally touches the vessel! The pioneer who commenced the opening of the forest should not be despised by him who subsequently occupies the mansion and enjoys the wealth of the harvest and the luxury of the scene. Human science, like human labor, is progressive, and the peculiar duty of the philosopher, like that of the workman, is to exert himself for the improvement of what he received in а state of imperfection.

I am far from being an advocate for the modern theory of what is called the perfectibility and gradual progress to perfection of the human mind. My observations and reflec

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have led me to the conclusion, that God has given this lower world, with all its accumulated treasures and productions, as well as the firmament by which it is surrounded, and studded as it is with so many glorious decorations, as a vast field for man's temporal occupation; to search out their several parts, to discover their relations, their properties, their uses, their affinities, their opposition, to turn them to the purposes of his own happiness here; I shall not in this place advert to their uses for hereafter. This investigation, this application, is what I call philosophy. The astronomer who, by his patient and laborious observations and calculations, enables the navigator in the midst of the waste of waters to know his place and to pursue his proper course; the mathematician and the algebraist, who give to the ship-builder, the engineer, and to SO many others, the rules by whose observance they can securely attain the useful objects of their pursuit; the botanist who secures to us the benefits of our diversified veg

etation; the chemist who, by analysis and composition, turns such an immense mass of varied productions to the most extensive account; the physician who applies them to the solace of the human family; the anatomist who, by his almost godlike skill, is able to detect and to remove the obstructions as well as to repair the defects of the animal system; the legislator and the jurist who establish and reduce to practice the great principles by whose operation peace, prosperity and liberty are guarded; they who study to provide and to prepare for use the great articles of sustenance, of clothing, of shelter, of defence, of comfort and convenience for the children of Adam: all these form the vast aggregate of the several classes of philosophy. It is true that the climate, the soil, the productions, the temperament, the habits, the special wants and peculiar tastes of nations greatly vary, and that for these variations considerable allowance should be made; yet in all great principle of philosophy is the same; that is, to extend our discoveries in that range which is subject to our research, and turn the discovery to beneficial account.

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From this view, it would seem that the duty of the philosopher was simple, and that, by his faithful attention to its discharge, man must necessarily make constant and rapid progress to perfection; for he has only to pursue what he had received, to add his own observations to those of his predecessors, and to transmit the increased fund to those who succeed him; and since this is what really occurs, why should not man speedily arrive at perfection? The theory is plausible, but history and reflection will correct its fallacy. That the duty of the philosopher has been properly described, I readily admit; but that the specified result should be obtained, it is necessary, first, that all which has been acquired should have been preserved; and secondly, that the point of perfection should not be too remote. The advocates for what is called perfectibility, perhaps, never seriously examine either of these topics.

Let us try this theory of the progress of the mind, or

as it is sometimes called, the march of intellect, by the the test of facts. Think you was the mind of Homer more feeble than that of Milton? Was Virgil or Horace as far below the mental grade of Pope or Dryden, or these latter below Byron or Moore, as their intervened centuries between them? Had the intellect of Demosthenes less vigor than that of Patrick Henry? Or was Or was Cicero twenty degrees upon the scale of forensic merit below William Pinckney or Daniel Webster, or even Baron Vaux and Brougham, the Lord High Chancellor of England? What shall I say of Archimedes and Euclid? Are we to find the proofs of this theory in the legislation of Greece and Rome, in the tactics of Cæsar, in the architecture of antiquity, in the statuary of the remote ages, in the minds that planned and the powers that erected the pyramids of Egypt? It is true that though the energies of the mind be unchanged, the facts upon which they upon which they operate may be extended and varied as time advances in his course. In the morning, the little speck, which is scarcely perceptible upon the verge of the horizon, alone breaks the serene uniformity of the vacant fields of air; but as the the day advances it ascends and approximates, whilst other collections appear, accumulate, and unite; the pregnant storm shrouds the meridian sun, and envelopes the ocean in its shade, until amidst the echoes of the heavens it is discharged and expires; yet the unchanged observer pre-existed and survives.

How frequently have we witnessed a noble patrimony broken up and scattered by a dissipated heir! How often has the flood or the storm swept away a splendid mansion, and reduced a rich plantation to a desert! How many times has a licentious soldiery or an unruly mob devastated a noble capital in which the wealth of nature and the decorations of art abounded! So, too, has the sloth or luxury of one age dissipated the mental acquisitions of those which preceded it; an incursion of barbarians has frequently swept science from its domain, and

covered the land with ignorance and ruin and despair. When nations are disturbed for the purpose of ambition or the vengeance of disappointment; when the public mind is filled with discontent and indignation; when maddened hosts fly to arms and rush to mutual destruction in the rage of battle; or when the heavy yoke of robust despotism presses upon a crushed people; or when, animated by the spirit of liberty, men rise to rise to assert their rights and to overthrow their oppressors; in times like these, under circumstances of this description, especially before copies of works were multiplied by the introduction of the press, and the few that existed being destroyed by the wantonness of the victor or the indignation of the vanquished, how frequent and how extensive was the destruction of the records and of the collections of the philosopher! Thus has the knowledge of many an ancient art been obliterated. The evidence of their existence, like the remnants of stained glass which are still found in many ancient churches, lets in upon us a soft and mellowed light, which informs that if we possess knowledge which did not exist amongst men of other days, they enjoyed some which has not reached us; like many a rich cargo that has been lost at sea, it is covered with the waters of oblivion. Who will undertake to assert that the mass of what has been lost does not equal the bulk of what exists to-day? I am far from inclining to the opinion that it does; but I think it would savor of rashness boldly to make either assertion.

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But suppose all the ancient discoveries to have been faithfully preserved and the new ones duly transmitted; when will the accumulation fill up the measure of perfection? What is its capacity? Should a myriad of men be continually occupied in depositing grains of sand, when would they form a globe whose axles would touch opposed points in the orbit of Herschel? Let us compare the progress of mind with the progress of motion. If we take our observations upon what was the perfection of the mind in the Augustan age and what it is to-day, you may assume

superiority to the fullest extent of your disposition, you will at all events allow that the progress has not been with the rapidity of light. And yet, even with this acceleration, when would you reach those fixed stars that show so dimly in their distance? Yet is the immensity of Him who alone is perfection spread abroad infinitely beyond where their faintest rays terminate in an opposite direction! When do we hope to reach it? I therefore admit that there is abundant room for the continual progress of philosophical improvement, though I cannot subscribe to the fallacious theory of human perfectibility. I allow that there are great incentives for approaching as nearly as we can to perfection, though we can never attain it; like the asymptotes of the hyperbola; He, who alone is perfect, continues in one changeless direction through eternity, whilst, though the created mind, like the curve, should continually approximate as it advances, yet will they never coincide. There is another circumstance also upon which I desire. to observe. Men do not always receive with implicit confidence the principles and facts of whose truth their predecessors were satisfied. The patrimony of the philosopher is not like material wealth, manifestly prepared and made quite available. And to a certain extent, this too is useful. First principles need scarcely an explanation, they readily receive our assent; but it is otherwise with the conclusions to which the ancients have arrived. In some cases our pride, our curiosity, our spirit of independence, our love of novelty, will lead us not only to question and doubt, but to use our efforts to prove them erroneous. This disposition, moderately indulged, has frequently been of the greatest advantage in detecting error, in correcting mistakes, and in protecting truth by the erection of new bulwarks, or of rendering it more bright by collision. When carried beyond its proper limits, it has not only been a waste of time and of energies, but a source of perplexity and error. How many fine minds have been ruined by this most mischievous practice? This was the great source