Isles or, for aught we can tell, the Association which we are about to form might come under his interdict. Here we have a great favour to request. Willa Magistrate allow us to keep back his observations upon the price of provisions; and "Publicola" his remarks upon the Tread-mill? We shall take no part in the dispute between " Mr. C. Fyshe Palmer," and the "John Bull." In attendance upon that paper, stupidity, scurrility, and falsehood, now walk hand in hand. They are the three-linked and inseparable graces which adorn it: "Segnesque nodum solvere gratiæ." It is really beneath the farther notice of the Council of Ten. A ministerialist inquires why we entertain "so strong an antipathy against the Quarterly Review." Antipathy against the Quarterly Review! we entertain no feeling of the kind. We believe that we have done-we know that we are ready to do, the most ample justice to the ability and acquirements of its contributors, as well as to the abundance of useful information and excellent writing, of which it is the vehicle. But we are sorry to see the Quarterly Review becoming its own enemy: we are sorry to see it hurting its own fame, and the feelings of able and honourable men, by ill-judged, ill-natured, and foolish attacks: we are sorry to see it deserting the great public objects which it ought to pursue, in subserviency to the private interest of an individual bookseller-although we have no reason to doubt, that Mr. Murray is as liberal and respectable a man, as any person who is, or has ever been, in his profession. To talk about the forbearance and delicacy and etiquette, which ought to be reciprocally observed by periodical publications, is sheer cant and nonsense. It is well that they should keep a check upon each other. We pass our strictures freely and fearlessly upon the follies and delinquencies of the Quarterly Review: our follies and delinquencies, inaccuracies and inadvertencies, may soon become, in turn, the subject of its animadversions. This is as it should be, the public are gainers by such opposition. When periodical publications are rubbed against one another, the contact sharpens the edge and polishes the surface of them all. We feel particularly obliged to A., for his letter. With regard to our ulterior views we beg leave to refer our readers to the following speech of the Projector, which was delivered at the last meeting of the Council; although it has not been fully ratified by the sanction of the President, and the approbation of the other members, it was thought so far deserving of consideration, that they have ordered it to be printed: there is at least nothing alarming in its length. Gentlemen, SCHEMES BY THE PROJECTOR. The greater part of our species bud and grow, as the leaves of spring; flourish as the leaves of summer; fade and fall away, as the leaves of autumn. They are carried along by every external impulse; they are the sport of every wind of heaven. They live as if they never were to die; they die, without its being known or felt or remembered, that they have ever lived. They drag on a mere vegetative being from the cradle to the grave; and think of little or nothing but the gratification of animal wants, or animal desires, from the first cry of the child to the last groans of the expiring man. But far from us must be this I had almost ventured to call it-nonentity of existence. We must do at least something in our generation. Already have we begun a great and important work ;-but our labours are yet in their infancy-in their very swaddling clothes. Every one of us must be like the Cæsar of the poet : Nil actum reputans, dum quid superesset agendum. We, my most worthy friends and coadjutors, must not doze out our life in one leaden and lethargic slumber ; we must not follow with servile and implicit obedience in the beaten track of prejudice and habit; we must not miserably content ourselves, With all the nurse and all the priest has taught. [Here Clericus smiled, and the President looked grave.] We, Gentlemen, must be practical philosophers—but not philosophers by profession. Philosophers by profession have been charlatans and impostors in all ages; arrogant and selfish idlers, puffed up with inordinate vanity and conceit, who have entangled themselves in the webs of their own sophistry, and frittered away their intellect in dogmas, and quibbles, and speculative fancies. It should be our study to be philosophers in our principles, and good citizens in our actions. A mere contemplative philosopher belongs, as the political economist might inform us, to the most unproductive class of human beings, which exists. His light is hidden; it burns and dies, like the sepulchral lamp, without affording either illumination or warmth. We are Englishmen, and in England the best and truest philosophers are they who live in the world, instruct it by their precepts, and improve it by their example; who perform their duties as citizens, as patriots, as Christians, as members of a large and well-regulated community. [Here the President nodded his assent.] Gentlemen! I shall now proceed with confidence in the approbation of our President. I am warm and sanguine. Such is my nature; and I scarcely wish it to be altered. Would that I could strike into your breasts some sparks of that sacred fire, which burns with most intense and quenchless ardour in the noblest natures-some portion of that half-divine enthusiasm, which, in the execution of a worthy project, "hopeth all things" to be attainable, and "believeth all things" to be possible. Gentlemen! we have commenced with honour, and we must proceed with spirit. We must attempt, Nil parvum, aut humili modo, Nil mortale. Nothing that's low, or in an humble strain, I have pondered long and deeply upon all these things; and my meditations have led me, step by step, to the conclusions and the projects which I shall now submit to your consideration: First, Gentlemen, our plan must be enlarged. I have a scheme for the establishment of other works in concert with our present publication; for the more effectual prosecution of our designs, the diffusion of our opinions, and the extension of our influence upon the public mind. If such a scheme is adopted, something of our individual dignity must be lost; since the Council of Ten will become only part of a larger and more powerful Association. Our next business, when our plan is put upon a scale adapted and adequate to its objects, must be to look seriously to a gradual amelioration in the general condition of mankind. If we cannot indulge in the glorious dreams of human perfectability, let us rejoice in an assured hope, that much improvement is within the reach of them who seek it. Much may be done negatively, much may be done positively; much by the removal of evil, much by the introduction of good. Much may be done now; and if a right foundation is laid, what is there that may not be done hereafter? The plans, of which I here present you the written details, embrace, first, the religious state of man; secondly, his political state; thirdly, his moral and social state. Literature, the arts, public spectacles and amusements are connected with both the latter heads. Some of you may laugh at all Utopian theorists, from Plato to Mr. Owen: but read these plans, examine them, digest them; and you will find them not so chimerical and visionary as you may imagine. At the worst, there will be a solid and substantial pleasure in attempting schemes of general philanthropy and benevolence. It is better to fail in high and useful aims, than to succeed in trifling and unworthy pursuits: nor is an entire failure possible, where the effort is made with sincerity and in earnest. Fame is nothing-power is nothing-wealth, after the attainment of an honourable independence, is nothing; but it is a reality, to feel upon our death-bed that it is well for the world that we have lived. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES, |