By the power of this strong principle, this urgent tendency to more and better than has yet been attained, this self-unfolding of the human mind, a whole nation moves on together in its career of improvement. And through slow centuries it may advance, conquering its difficult way through many impediments. It may reach at last the height of powerful, splendid, and beautiful civilization. Will it then be able to maintain itself at that height? It might seem that it should. For if it has advanced by the very pleasure of the good it attained, it might seem that it should be retained at its height, by experience of the same pleasure. If the intellect rejoices in knowledge, then a nation possessing knowledge should never decline from it. If we love arts because it is the nature of imagination to delight in beauty, then imagination which brought them forth should preserve them. If the culture of society is grateful to the nature of the human spirit, then, having reached that culture, it should never relapse from it into a state of like barbarism.

To know whether there is any validity in such conclusions as these, we must inquire whether there are any conditions which must go along with this improvement to make it practicable? Now, though it is undoubted that such progressive unfolding of the powers and capacities of the mind is perfectly suited to its nature, so that the very force of nature will carry it forward, yet there is undoubtedly a condition which is necessary to be maintained, in order to allow nature thus to exert herself. This condition is, that the temper of the mind should be that of pride and joy. If the spirit is damped by sorrow and fear, if it`

labours under depression, however nature may call on it to unfold its powers, it will not hear the call. It will sit cowering over its grief, and gathered up into itself. But let pride swell the bosom, and joy flow through the veins, and whatever capacities of power or pleasure are in the mind it will bring them forth. It will then feel its own faculties, and rejoice in them. It will expand its whole being in the gladdening sunshine. This we feel in ourselves at every moment; and what we feel of ourselves in moments, is equally true of a whole nation, advancing in its mighty course of improvement, through ages. It is necessary, therefore, that the temper of mind of the people should be that of undepressed courage and vigour; and as long as this temper is maintained, the very consciousness of progress will fill the mind with that pride of joy which awakens its sensibility to its own nature, and produces in it the desire and capacity of farther progress. Thus, then, there appears something like a consistency in the account of that whole great course of improvement; for it takes place during the period while the nation is, by its political circumstances, yet disturbed and unsettled, kept in a state of excitation and vigour; and the rude strength that nature gave has never been softened away. Here, then, we may conceive a powerful race going on in their slow progress of political improvement, forming their laws, moulding through much agitation their internal constitution, and gallantly defending themselves from aggression of their foes. In the mean time, we may understand, that, supposing some slight notice of improvement to have been given them, in order that they might feel what their nature desired, they will

go forward in various improvements, developing many beautiful and powerful faculties: advancing and exalting their state of life, and the character of their mind. For their bold and vigorous spirit is open to be affected with whatever will exalt and adorn them. It is open to generous and aspiring conceptions of itself. It is disposed to scorn its own degradation, and to leap eagerly forward to its own glory. Thus, among such a people, there may be indefinite improvement; nor will there be any attainment of stern intellectual effort, which their pride will not urge them to achieve; nor will there be any beauty of human life, or of delightful art, which the gladness and tenderness of their uncorrupted and happy nature will not enable them to embrace with vivid gratification.

Such, then, are the conditions under which this inherent tendency of the human mind, to unfold itself in various and powerful improvement, may be exerted. It is necessary that the temper of spirit in the whole nation should be that of exultation and conscious power. And this is indeed the temper which accompanies the advancement of nations. For they strongly feel their progress. They look forward with heightening expectation. They feel that they rise above the ages they have left behind; and that there is a bright progress before them, which they have triumphantly to run. Nor is more necessary to the duction of this hopeful spirit of national feeling, than that the mind itself should be sustained in vigour, by those circumstances, whatever they may be, on which the courage and magnanimity of a people, and the robustness of their spirit, are upheld.

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But if this be a just delineation of the progress of a nation, and if causes may thus be assigned which account for it, not as the product of extraordinary circumstances, but as the result of a necessary tendency in the human mind, what light, it may now be asked, does this reasoning throw on the question we wished to consider; namely, whether, having attained this high state of various advancement, there is any possibility that a nation may retain it, against those causes of decay, which the old experience of the world seems to show to be involved with the very course of human affairs?

The first question that suggests itself is, whether it is possible for a people to remain stationary in knowledge, in art, in manners? Having reached a great height in all, so that little room for progress lies before them, may they maintain that height, and not decline, though they have no longer the ardent spirit of progress to animate their exertion? Knowledge is grateful and elevating to the individual mind as a possession, though there be no ambitious spirit of discovery in the age to bear it forwards in indefatigable research. Whatever beautiful works imagination has thrown forth, whether they be treasured up in the silence of letters, or speak in living forms, or adorn the cities of the people and the land,-if there is a feeling of delight, admiration, and love, in the human soul, to which they naturally address themselves, there is no need, it would seem, that the mind should fall away from that which it possesses, because there is no longer incitement before it to new and greater creations. The mind has formed a world of wealth to itself. Has it no power to enjoy it? Does it live only in the

accumulation of treasures, and has it no capacity of, or delight as noble, in their possession? In the character of the human faculties, in the nature of the individual mind, we may say confidently, that there is nothing to incapacitate it for this calm, happy, and unambitious possession of the riches of intellect and imagination which other ages have brought forth: the mind does not naturally lapse from them, it rather moulds itself upon them, and derives from them the unfolding of its own character and its deepest delight. On this point we are authorised to speak, from our own experience, among whom the works of ages, long since buried in the dust, and tongues no longer spoken among men, are still cherished with reverence and delight; and much of our intellectual cultivation, not of ourselves merely, but of all Europe, is derived from them. Turn, in like manner, to any other of the subjects of this progress. of the human race: the arts which minister to the ordinary enjoyment and necessities of life, the laws which the meditation and the experience of ages have matured, and still there is no inherent reason why the mind which has acquired should forego them: the use is understood and felt, and the same disposition which made it wish to acquire, will make it wish to retain.

There does not appear, then, to be in the nature of the acquisitions themselves, which are made by the human mind in this progress, any thing necessarily perishable. There is nothing towards which distaste should grow by the possession. But all that is gained has that inherent value to the human being, that adaptation to his faculties, or to his condition, which must make him feel his wealth in the possession, and