"The period
thus rapidly described, wich begins with the animal globules preying on the
plant globules i the primeval sea, and which end with the conquest, by the
carvoruos shepherds, of the vegetable eaters in the river plains , may betermed the period of
War. Throungouth that period mind was developed by necessity . The lower
animals merely strive to live , to produce females, and to rear their young. It
is so ordered by Nature that by so striving to live they develop their phisical
structur ; they obtain fait glimmerings
of reason; they think and deliberate , they sympathize and love. They becom
Man. In the same way the primeval men have no other object tha to kipe the clan
alive. It is so ordered by Nature that, in striving to preserve the existence
of clan , they not only aquire the arts of agriculture, domestication, and
navigation; They not only discover fire,
and its use in cooking, in war and metalurgy; they not only detect the hidden
property of plants, and apply them to save their own lives from disease, and to
destroy their enemies in battle; they not only learn to manipulate Nature, and
to distribute water by machinery; but they also, by means of the long
life-battle , are developed into moral beings; they live according to the
golden rules, in order they may exist, or, in other words, they do exist because
they live according to the golden rule.
They have with them innate affections, wich are as truly weapons as hte tiger's
teeth and the serpent's fang; wich
belong, therefor, to the period of War. Thei first laws, both social and
religious, are enacted only as war measures. The laws relating to marriage and
property are intended to increas the fertility and power of the clan; The laws
relating to religion are intended to preserve the clan from the fury of the
gods, against whom, at an earlier period they actually went to war. But out of
this feeling of sympathy, which arose in necessity , arises a secondary
sentiment, the love of esteem; and hence wars, which at first were waged merely
in self-defense, or to win food grounds and female necessary for the subsistence and perpetuation of the
clan, are now waged for superfluities, power, and the love of glory; commerce,
which was founded i necessity, is continued
for the acquisition of ornaments and luxuries; science,which at first
was mean of life, provides wealth, and ispurued for fame ; music and desing
which were originally instincts of the hand and voice, are develop into
arts. It is therefore natural for man to
endeavor to better himself in life, that he may obtain he admiration of his
comrades. He desires to increase his means of renown in the professios and the arts. Thus
man presses apon man , and the whole mass rises in knowlege, in power, and in
wealth. But owin to division of classes resulting from war, and also from the natural inequality of man, the
greter part of the human population could not obey their instictive aspiration;
they were condemned to remain stationary and inert. By means of caste, slavery,
the system of privileged classes and monopolies, the people were forbidden to raise
themselves in life; they were doomed to die as they were born. But that they might not be althogeter without
hope, they were taugth by their rulers that they would be rewarded with honor
and happiness in a future state. The Egyptian fellah receive the good tidings
that there was no cast after death: the Cristian serf was consoled with the
text that the poor will inherit the kingdom of heaven. This long and gloomy
period of the human race may be enitled R e l i g i o n. History is confined to
the upper classes. All the discoveries and inventions and exploits of ancien
times are due to the efforts of an aristocracy; not only the Persian and Hindoos,
but also the Greeks and Romans, were merely small societies of gentlemen
reigning over a multitude of slaves. The virtues of the lower classes were loyalty, piety, obedience. The
third period is that of liberty: it belong only to Europe and to mdern times. A
midle class of intelligence and wealth rises between the arisocracy and and the plebeians. They contend with the monopolies of caste and birth; they demand power for themselves;
they expouse the cause of their poorer brethren; they will not admit that
equality in heaven is a valid reason for
inequality on th earth; they deny that the aristocracy of priests know more of
divine matters than other men; they
interpret the sacred books for themselves, and translate them into the vulgar
tongue ; thy separate religion from temporal government, and reduce it to a
system of metaphisics and morality. It is in this period tht we are at present.
Loyalty to the king has been transformed
into patriotism; and piety, or the worship of God, will give way to the
reverence of law and the love of mankind. Thus the mind will be elevated , the affectious
deepened and enlarged ; morality ,
ceasing to be entangled with theology,
will be applied exclusively to virtue.
It is difficult to find a title for the
fourth period, as we have as yet no words which expresses at the same time the
utmost developmen of morals. I have chosen
the word I n t e l e c t, because by the education of the intellect the moral
sense is of necessity inproved. In this last period the destiny of Man willl be
fulfilled. He was not send upon the earth to prepare himself for existince in
another world; he was sent upon the earth that he may beautify it as dwelling,
and subdue it to his use; that he may exalt
his intellectual and moral power until he had attained perfection, and
had raised himself for that ideal which
he now expresses by the name of God, but which, however sublime it may appear to our weak and inperfect minds,
is far bellow the splendor and majesty of
that Power by whom the universe was made.“
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