the spirit to conceive and to adopt these better institutions is derived from religion.

One often hears that the savage is distinguished from the civilized man by his greater freedom, or, at least, his greater personal freedom, as if the action of laws were necessarily so hostile to liberty as to make their absence favorable to its widest, though not, as all agree, to its most beneficent expansion. It is, however, to be remarked, that, if the barbarian be not constrained by laws, he is utterly subject to the force or the violence which the want of laws allows; he may not be constrained, but he is certainly not protected. And, to connect the foregoing with the present considerations, it may be added, that, supposing the savage to be free as the air he breathes, he has no faculties save those of ferocity, craft, and sometimes foresight, to employ in his desert liberty. One illustration will be sufficient to lead the reader to the reflections it is desirable he should make at the outset of a history of liberty; but it might be argued, in the same manner, that freedom fails or flourishes, whether in a democracy or under a despotism, according to the nature of the laws from which it springs, and that of the powers in which it may be said to flow.

We must return, however, to trace the various degrees of liberty which relate more immediately to the various laws by which men live in civilization. One is personal, another social, and a third political; not that these are the only names which liberty bears, but that they may here be taken as describing

the three divisions under which all others may be numbered. Personal liberty belongs to the individual, as the freedom to think, to speak, and to act as he will; its measure depends, more than that of any other freedom, upon the capacities with which the individual is endowed, but its enjoyment, of course, like that of all freedom, is secured through the laws by which society is controlled and upheld. Social liberty belongs to men as members of society; it does not make them citizens, but protects their persons and their possessions, and unites them, whether of a larger or a smaller number, in industry and general prosperity. Political liberty belongs to citizens, that is, to men who bear their parts in government as well as in society; nor does it simply effect participation in public affairs and public privileges, but, where rightly employed, assists its possessors to activity and knowledge in all the concerns of life. This rightful use of political liberty is as simple as it is here important to be defined. Based upon laws that must indispensably maintain the public and the private privileges of the country or the race on which it is bestowed or by which it is acquired, it further needs to be raised by the virtue and the capacity of the individual, as well as by the strength and the integrity of the nation, into whose hands it has been committed. In other words, a state may be called free, because it possesses political liberty, when its freedom, the existence of which cannot be denied, is of shallow springs, of turbid courses, and of bitter ends. The investigation of this apparent anomaly

will be the moral, so to speak, of the present history.

The monuments of antiquity have become the ruins of modern times. But the institutions existing in the remotest eras must have been sufficient, for a season, to the assistance and the preservation of the races amongst whom they were founded. As defences against actual evil, they endured until they were set up as barriers against coming good; when their destruction was as Providential as their formation had been. No race of which the memory has been retained upon the earth ever lived for itself alone; nor are the purposes for which one after another was brought into existence to be now fulfilled by our admiration of their greatness or our compassion for their shame. Between India and Egypt, Egypt and Greece, Greece and Rome, or between any nations of any period and those of our own, there was and is the same general connection in all the common attributes and responsibilities of humanity. "As travellers in a foreign country make every sight a lesson, so ought we," says Bishop Hall," "in this our pilgrimage." Nor need we stand here, as from afar, to watch the distant flames; we can go towards them, if we will, to cheer our faith by the light they yet give in our day and generation. It is not merely to seek for things which have been con

5

5"The largest portion of that history which we commonly call ancient is practically modern."-Arnold, App. I. Thucyd. Mr. Carlyle says as truly, that "the whole Past is the possession of the Pres

ent; the past had always something true, and is a precious possession." Hero Worship, Lect. I.

IV.

6 Art of Divine Meditation, Ch.

sumed, that we here return. There were "vanities," as St. Paul declared, at Lystra, of which we may take our account in thankfulness that they are for ever ended; but there are still the "witnesses," as the same apostle wrote, in which God is yet manifest, and by which we may ourselves be strengthened and directed forward.8

"What seemed an idol hymn now breathes of THEE!"'9

7 Acts, XIV. 15 et seq. Romans, ter VIII. for the conclusion of the I. 19 et seq. preceding statements. 9 Keble.

8 The reader is referred to Chap

THE first truth for men to recognize, however imperfectly, is their dependence upon a superior Power; a truth as full of terror to the heathen, as of consolation to the Christian. The earth to its early inhabitants seemed infested with mysteries which they could never clearly resolve; in their eyes, the rainbow and the thunder-cloud were equally dreadful; and wherever imagination was most active, the deepest solemnities and the greatest fears existed. Superstitious awe was the dominant principle of life; and so completely was it hindered from relief or tenderness, that its dominion could not but be overpowering and irresistible. The feeling from which it sprung can hardly be called faith; it was rather obedience to dark enigmas and cruel penances that crushed the mind or swayed the body without once reaching to the heart. The knowledge included in a system on this foundation would depend upon its interpreters; and the superiority they acquired in matters of belief would quickly extend itself over all