98 A WORD FOR PHILOSOPHY. 



These principles have doubtless borne a " hostile aspect" towards 

 the greater part of existing governments, which have supported them- 

 selves upon maxims so much the reverse ; but has Philosophy urged 

 the demolition of all such governments ? Certainly not, unless she is 

 identified with fanaticism. It has been her invariable method first 

 to recommend to the usurpers of undue authority to repair their 

 wrongs by gradual concessions ; and, secondly, to the sufferers under 

 tyranny, to state their grievances in a quiet way, and patiently, though 

 firmly, to expect redress. This she has done as the decided friend of 

 peace; for Philosophy (and Philosophy alone) has been incessantly 

 employed in lifting up her voice against war, that monstrous aggre- 

 gate of all the evils, natural and moral, that conspire against human 

 happiness. The works of all the writers, ancient and modern, who 

 have merited the title of philosophers, may be confidently appealed to 

 for their strenuous endeavours to correct the false opinions of men with 

 respect to the glory of warriors and conquerors, and to inculcate the 

 superior claims to admiration and gratitude arising from the successful 

 culture of the beneficent arts. 



Had, then, the dictates of Philosophy been equally listened to by 

 the governors and governed, REFORMS might have been effected by 

 mutual agreement to the advantage of both, and a progress have been 

 made towards that melioration of the state of mankind which a phi- 

 lanthropist can never cease to have in view amidst all his disappoint- 

 ments. That such expectations have failed through the predominance 

 of the selfish principle, combined with the impetuous and ungovern- 

 able character of a particular nation, is not the fault of Philosophy. 

 She held up a torch to point out the safest path to a necessary re- 

 formation, but incendiaries snatched it from her for the purposes of 

 mischief. It is acknowledged that some of the evil proceeded from the 

 fanaticism of her honest but deluded votaries ; but much more from 

 those who disclaimed all connection with her. The most sanguinary 

 tyrant of the French revolution was notoriously the foe to all mental 

 cultivation, and obliterated the precepts of philosophy in the blood of 

 its professors ! And no one can " suspect" the man who now aims at 

 uniting all Europe in the fetters of a military despotism, of an incli- 

 nation to promote liberal discussions on the rights of man and the 

 foundation of government. In point of fact it appears that the sole 

 European power that steadily resists the present tendency to a uni- 

 versal barbarism of civil polity, is that which is most enlightened by 



