ARRANGEMENT OF ANIMALS, 83 



human being has something distinguishing, in form, pro- 

 portions, countenance, gesture, voice — in feelings, thought, 

 and temper — in mental as well as corporeal physiognomy. 

 This variety is the source of every thing beautiful and in- 

 teresting in the external world — the foundation of the whole 

 moral fabric of the universe. 



I cannot help pointing out to you how strongly the voice 

 of Nature, so clearly expressed in this obvious law, opposes 

 all attempts at making mankind act or think alike. Yet 

 the legislators and rulers of the world have persisted, for 

 centuries, in endeavouring to reduce the opinions, the be- 

 lief of their subjects, to certain fancied standards of per- 

 fection — to impress on human thought that dreary same- 

 ness, and dull monotony, which all the discipline and all 

 the rigour of a religious sect have been hardly able to main- 

 tain in the outward garb of its followers. The mind, how- 

 ever, cannot be drilled — cannot be made to move at the 

 word of command ; it scorns all shackles ; and rises with 

 fresh energy from every new attempt to bind it down on 

 this bed of Procrustes. 



All the oppression and persecution, all the bloodshed 

 and misery, which the attempts to produce uniformity have 

 occasioned, are, however, a less evil than the success of 

 these mad efforts would be, were it possible for them to 

 succeed in opposition to the natural constitution of the 

 human mind — to the general scheme and plain design of 

 Nature. 



The most powerful monarch of modern history, who 

 exhibited the rare example of a voluntary retreat from the 

 cares of empire while still fully able to wield the sceptre, 

 was rendered sensible of the extreme folly he had been 

 guilty of, in attempting to produce uniformity of opinion 

 among the numerous subjects of his extensive dominions, 

 by finding himself unable to make even tv/o watches go 

 alike, although every part of this simple mechanism was 

 constructed, formed, and adjusted by himself. The dear 

 experience and the candid confession of Charles V. were 

 thrown away on his bigoted son ; who repeated, on a still 



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