Human Physiology. 469 



reforms of the French Revolution of 1793 were accomplished 

 was very terrible. Better a gradual change than a volcanic 

 eruption of human passions a saturnalia of blood and crime. 



And it is doubtful if the reforms accomplished were worth what 

 they cost. To seize the land and divide it in small parcels 

 among the people is not the way to constitute a true society or 

 best method of life, but may hinder it, and be an aggravation 

 and perpetuation of petty selfishness. The hereditary aristo- 

 cracy and great proprietors, dispossessed, exiled, or murdered, 

 were a loss to the nation from which it has never recovered. 

 France wants to-day what England has a class of men able 

 and ready to become leaders in every great national and social 

 movement. The superiority of Germany to France in the late 

 war was in the leadership of her nobility. Emperor, Kings, 

 and Princes executed the plans of Bismarck and Von Moltke. 



To divide the soil of England among the people, in their 

 present condition and with their present social organisation, 

 would be of little advantage. A few years would see a large 

 portion of it in the hands of greedy capitalists. The rest would 

 be converted into ugly little farms; the timber would be destroyed; 

 and all sorts of nuisances deform the country. In the same 

 way higher wages mean, to great masses of people, not more of 

 the comforts and true enjoyments of life, but more beer, gin, 

 and tobacco; more selfish sensuality and waste of life. Better 

 the present system, with its gradual ameliorations, than violent 

 changes for which people are unprepared, which are based upon 

 no true principle, and which can result in no permanent bene- 

 fit. So much I cheerfully concede to a cautious and wise 

 conservatism. No one can be more solicitous to preserve all 

 that is just and good and beautiful in the present social state 

 no one more anxious to avoid the errors and crimes of violent 

 political and social revolutions. Happily, the English people 

 are conservative in their character, traditionally and habitually 

 loyal, and but little liable to excitement and disorder; but they 



