LITERARY NOTICES. 



845 



however, be " the pale cast of thought " 

 til at would " sickly o'er " the good reso- 

 lutions of reformers, but simply stall- 

 fed obstruction that would crowd them 

 aside. That things will come to such 

 » pass in this country we are not pre- 

 pared at present to predict. It is by 

 no means certain that the "reform" 

 principle will gain any more victories. 

 There is much impatience at present of 

 the difficulties it interposes in the dis- 

 tribution of patronage. We have, how- 

 ever, with our present ideas of the 

 functions of government, just the two 

 evils to choose between — the Scylla of 

 the spoils system and the Charybdis of 

 bureaucracy. Of course, we may try to 

 combine the two, so as to have some 

 experience of the evils of both ; but the 

 probability is, that sooner or later one 

 or other will decisively carry the day. 



Now, Mr. Spencer says : The whole 

 trouble arises from your having so 

 many offices to dispose of, and that 

 comes of your having crowded so 

 many functions upon the Government. 

 You have brought on a condition of 

 things dangerous to the peace and 

 stability of the state. Had you left to 

 private initiative and responsibility a 

 very large part of what you now place 

 on the shoulders of the Government, 

 the office-seeking nuisance could never 

 have grown to its present dimensions, 

 nor could bureaucracy ever have been 

 the incubus it now is on the life and 

 energies of many communities. The 

 time has come to unload, to repeal laws 

 rather than to enact new ones. The 

 organic growth of society is checked 

 when you resort to what may, by com- 

 parison, be called the mechanical meth- 

 ods of legislation and governmental 

 control. It is under the regime of free- 

 dom, not under that of compulsion, 

 that social bonds are knit. If you would 

 have virtue to grow strong, you must 

 let it have its full value as virtue in the 

 world; you must not try to equalize 

 all varieties of character by repressive 

 laws. If, however, you are determined 



to abandon organic methods, and to 

 operate exclusively by means of the 

 policeman's truncheon, more or less 

 politely concealed, prepare yourselves 

 for great convulsions, for the condition 

 you will induce will not and can not be 

 one of stable equilibrium. 



The warning has been uttered. It 

 remains to be seen whether it will be 

 as the voice of one crying in the wilder- 

 ness, or whether it will prove the sig- 

 nal for a new awakening of political in- 

 telligence, and the formation of a new 

 and higher conception of the social state. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Rise of Intellectual Liberty, from 

 Thales to Copernicus. By Frederick 

 May Holland, author of the " Reign of 

 the Stoics." New York : Henry Holt k 

 Co. Pp. 458. Price, $3.50. 



The author of this book has chosen a 

 magnificent subject, and, although it is for- 

 midable in extent and much of it involved in 

 obscurity, and all of it complicated with 

 great questions of history and human prog- 

 ress, he has yet been able to throw much 

 new light upon that liberalization of thought 

 which went very unsteadily forward during 

 twenty-two hundred years, before the great 

 modern movement of the development for 

 intellectual liberty. The work is a delinea- 

 tion of tendencies, a series of sketches of 

 the great minds who at different times and 

 under varied circumstances, and with un- 

 equal effect, have struck for independence 

 of thought, a presentation of the counter- 

 forces that have antagonized intellectual 

 liberty, and an account of the working of 

 all those larger agencies which have in dif- 

 ferent degrees hindered or promoted free- 

 dom and independence of thought. With- 

 out having subjected the work to critical 

 scrutiny, we are much impressed by the evi- 

 dence it shows of extensive and conscien- 

 tious labor, the freshness and interest of its 

 chief subject-matter, the untrammeled treat- 

 ment of the subject, and the vigor of the 

 portrayal of that long and agonizing con- 

 flict with bigotry and intolerance, religious 

 and political, public and private, which is 

 the price of our modern liberty of thinking. 



