"Bonaparte entertained a feverish apprehension of the effects of literature on the general mind, the public journals were under the daily and constant superintendence of the police, and their editors were summoned before Fouché (the Minister of Police) when any thing was inserted which could be considered as disrespectful to his authority. Threats and promises were liberally employed on such occasions, and such journalists as proved refractory were soon made to feel, that the former were no vain menaces. The suppression of the offensive newspaper was often accompanied by the banishment or imprisonment of the editor. The same measure was dealt to authors, booksellers, and publishers, respecting whom the jealousy of Bonaparte amounted to a species of disease."*

Such is the press, and it is well for all those whose influence consists in the use of it, whether as authors or publishers, to understand, in its full measure, the mighty power of the instrument which they are accustomed to wield, and for the rightful employment of which they are morally responsible. The Emperor of the French, in the very zenith of his success, a success unrivalled, perhaps, in the history of the world, heard with anxiety, alarm, and dismay its tone of rebuke and reprobation, although couched in a foreign language, and coming from a foreign country. When we consider, therefore, that the private and public conduct of the great mass of mankind is regulated by no higher standard of morals than is required by the force of public opinion, and that public opinion is moulded and directed, as well. as declared, chiefly by the press, we may understand how immeasurably important it is, that it should raise a voice, clear, decided, unshrinking, and well-sustained, on the side of good morals.

The pulpit, in Christian countries, is a means of moral influence and efficiency, whose value it is not easy to estimate too highly. Of the fifteen millions of inhabitants, which this country contains, a very large proportion are in the habit of listening to weekly pulpit instruction; and the portion thus instructed, by reason of their superior education, morals, and general under

* Life of Napoleon, Vol. I. p. 500; Vol. II. p. 17.

standing, are accustomed to wield a commanding influence over those who are strangers to the moral and religious influence imparted by the pulpit. The pulpit, too, has a manifest advantage over the press, in respect to its use of the living voice, with which to make impression and convey instruction; in respect to its having an assembly drawn together on a day specially consecrated to the purpose of its instructions, and whose attention, therefore, is neither absorbed by the allurements of pleasure, nor by the cares and perplexities of business; and, again, in respect to morals and religion being the province, which it is its office specially to guard, illustrate, and enforce. And it may well be doubted, whether the pulpit has ever yet availed itself of the full measure of its legitimate, peculiar powers," to give effective moral and religious instruction to mankind. Its efficiency must depend on the education, piety, and devotedness of the Christian ministry.

II. It only remains, that I give a very brief review of the best practical means of advancing human happiness.

In general terms, it may be said, that every thing promotive of good morals, is preeminently productive of happiness. In this view, Christianity, as it is the basis and sanction of Christian morals, is more effective than any, or every, other means of advancing the welfare of mankind. Again, knowledge is happiness, as well as power and virtue, — happiness, both in the acquisition and in the possession. And were the pursuit of it nothing more than an amusement, it would deserve the preference over all other amusements, for many reasons. Of these, indeed, the chief is, that it must, almost of necessity, become superior to a mere amusement; it must invigorate the mind as well as entertain it, and refine and elevate the character, while it gives to listlessness and weariness their most agreeable excitement and relaxation. But, omitting this consideration, it is still of all amusements the best, for other reasons. So far from losing any part of its zest with time, the longer it is known, the more it is loved. There is no other pastime that can be compared with it in variety. Even to him who has been longest conversant with it, it has still as much novelty to offer as at first. It may be resorted to by all, in all circumstances; by both sexes, by the young and the old, in the city and in the country, by him who has only his

stolen half hour to give to it, and by him who can give it the livelong day, in company with others, or in solitude, which it converts into the most delightful society.

Above all, it is the cheapest of all amusements, and consequently, the most universally accessible. Reading is emphatically the poor man's luxury; for it is, of all luxuries, that which can be obtained at the least cost. Still the rich man is not without his advantages in this, as in other things. He may prosecute the business of mental cultivation to a much greater extent, than the poorer and middle classes of society. He has, if he chooses, a degree of leisure and freedom from interruption, greatly exceeding what the generality of men enjoy. Others have seldom more than the mere fragments of the day to give to study, after the bulk of it has been consumed in procuring merely the bread that perisheth; he may make literature and philosophy the vocation of his life. To be enabled to do this, or to do it only in small part, many have willingly embraced comparative poverty in preference to riches. Among the philosophers of antiquity, some are said to have spontaneously disencumbered themselves of their inheritances, that the cares of managing their estates might not interrupt their philosophic pursuits.

Moreover, political freedom is a most fertile source of happiness, if we may judge from the ardor with which it has been coveted, and the costly sacrifices of time and labor, of blood and treasure, which men have been ready to make, for the sake of obtaining it. The encouraging, elevating, and inspiriting effects ascribed to freedom by Longinus, have already been adverted to, as also the discouraging, dispiriting, and deteriorating tendency of despotism. The union of liberty with order is, indeed, a treasure, which cannot well be prized too highly. In this alone, are to be found the stability of governments, the prosperity of nations, the confidence of men of business, the regular employment of husbandmen, the improvement of the arts, and the steady growth of a people in knowledge, virtue, and happiness. Anarchy and confusion are the severest forms of tyranny. Freedom, the most precious inheritance of nations, is itself chiefly valuable

*See Library of Entertaining Knowledge, Vol. VIII. Part 1. pp. 2-4.

because it gives the only true security to person, property, and character; security in action and in repose, security in the exercise of industry and in the enjoyment of its fruits, security alike from the oppression of a ruler and the annoyance of an evildisposed neighbour, security in the expression of opinion and in the conscientious discharge of the duties of religion. This is the true union of "Principatus ac Libertas"; the freedom of the people united with the just authority of the government; public order and tranquillity made consistent with the supremacy of the law; the golden medium between two extremes (“res dissociabiles"), in which Aristotle supposed all virtue to consist, and which the philosophical historian, Tacitus, contemplated as the supreme and ultimate perfection of all government.

*

But it may be useful to do something more, by way of reviewing the best practical means of advancing human happiness, than to confine myself to general observations on the influence of Christianity, knowledge, and freedom, as sources of improvement and enjoyment to mankind, which, however important, do not exhaust the subject.

1. Human happiness may be advanced, by still further inventions and improvements in labor-saving machinery.

It may be laid down, as one of the results of experience amply sustained by the history of the arts, that mankind have advanced in intellectual, social, and moral improvement, in proportion as their physical condition and circumstances have improved. And that the physical improvement of mankind has been accomplished chiefly by labor-saving machinery, in the most extensive use of that phrase, may be easily and abundantly confirmed. At first, men grabbled in the earth with their hands, when they had occasion to penetrate its surface, or remove any part of it from one place to another, and this practice is not unknown in some countries at the present day. † This primitive mode of working the earth was soon aided by the sharpened stick, which they afterward learned to harden in the fire. With this, their rude agriculture was pursued; and this seems to have

* Life of Agricola, c. 3.

See American Quarterly Review, for September 1834; p. 225.

been as far as the aborigines of this continent (except the Mexicans and Peruvians) had advanced. The interval between the metallic spade, the axe, and the hoe, and any implement of husbandry which they had made, was, in the progress of invention, immense. The invention of the plough and the cart, and the application of the strength of animals to agriculture, and to the carrying of burthens, was another most important step in advance. These were arts of the first necessity, they supplied the primitive wants of life, and civilization kept an exact pace with their invention.

The first garments, too, seem to have been the bark of trees, and the skins of wild animals caught in the chase; consequently clothing was too scanty and too filthy to serve the purposes of health and decency, to say nothing of comfort and ornament. At length, the distaff and the loom were invented, and mankind made fresh advances in the career of improvement. Permanent means of subsistence, a sufficiency of clothing, and settled habitations, have almost, if not quite, always preceded any considerable advances in civilization.

Again, almost any one of the arts might be taken, and its history would be seen to keep an even pace with the improvement of mankind. The history of the working of iron, for instance, and applying it to the purposes of life, would afford the most abundant and instructive materials to this effect, if my limits permitted me to employ them. In truth, in tracing the history of our race, there is no clearer index, by which to mark the progress of civilization in any given era, than the extent and variety of the uses to which this most valuable of the metals was, at that time, applied. And its use is extending at this day more rapidly, perhaps, than at any previous period. Within a very few years, iron looms, iron roofs, iron steam-boats, and iron roads (railways) have been introduced.

But I must not dismiss this copious part of the subject, without enlarging still further. The first person who saw the descent of water to the ocean, saw, in such descent, the elements of water power; and the first person who saw water boiling, saw, in the expansive force of the steam, the elements of steam power. But there was a wide interval between the first observation of the existence of water power, and even the first of the successive