certainly could not have promised very fair at the commencement of his pilgrimage upon earth! The earth itself has advanced toward perfection and adaptation to the wants of organized beings, by various stages and grades of improvement, and it is in harmony with all analogy to suppose that the races of animals and men have kept pace in their improvement with the globe which they inhabit.

How can man be considered an utterly degraded being, when his natural endowments are such as we have supposed? Take one of the sentiments proper to man-Ideality, or the love of the beautiful and perfect-and consider if a being endowed with this faculty has not at least some redeeming qualities! I quote a beautiful passage from Mr. George Combe:*

"Where Ideality exists to a considerable extent, there is an innate desire for the beautiful, and an instinctive love and admiration of it. The arrangements of the Creator in the material world are so far from being in opposition to it, that objects calculated in the highest degree to excite and gratify the feeling are every where scattered in the most profuse abundance. What are the flowers that deck the fields, combining perfect elegance of form with the most exquisite loveliness, delicacy and harmony of tint, but objects addressed purely to Ideality, and the subordinate faculties of Color and Form? They enjoy not their beauty themselves, and afford neither food, raiment, nor protection, to the corporeal frame of man, and on this account some persons have been led to view them as merely Nature's vanities and shows, possessed of neither dignity nor utility. But the individual in whom Ideality is large will in rapture say, that these objects, and the lofty mountain, the deep glen, the roaring cataract, and all the varied loveliness of hill and dale, fountain and fresh shade, afford to him the banquet of the mind; that they pour into his soul a stream of pleasure so intense, and yet so pure and elevated, that in comparison with it all the gratifications of sense and animal propensity sink into insipidity and insignificance. In short, to the phrenologist, the existence of this faculty in the mind, and of external objects fitted to gratify it, is one among numberless instances of the boundless beneficence of the Creator toward man; for it is a faculty purely of enjoyment-one whose sole use is to refine, exalt and extend the range of our other powers, to confer on us higher susceptibilities of improvement, and a keener relish for all that is great and glorious in the universe."

Let us now continue our inquiry into the nature of man for the purpose of ascertaining from his mental constitution what are his natural wants and emotions, with a view to a correct derivation of his rights. Our inquiry will not be vain, for in this country there can be no excuse for the denial of a single *Lectures, p. 218.

right to any human being. We have but to prove a right and it may be established by law. Here is encouragement for the investigation of human rights. We are our own lawgivers, and our own tyrants, if, indeed, tyranny exist at all.

What, then, let us inquire, is the first great natural want of man arising from the constitution of his mind? It is the society of his fellow-man.

He may

The hermit restrains and perverts his nature. escape controversy with others, but he makes war upon himself. He exists without living, and dies while he liyes-for it is the essence of human life to dwell in such a position, as that all the faculties of the understanding shall have full and various employment, and that all the desires and emotions of our nature shall have frequent, wholesome, and harmonious gratification and exercise.

Man is so constituted that this cannot take place except, in general society. Accordingly, all tradition and history represent man as associated in some manner with his fellow-men. From the earliest ages to the present time, in some form or another, under some sort of league or fellowship, the various tribes, races and nations of mankind have associated together, have acknowledged some common head, king, or government, or have been leagued by some compact, voluntarily entered into, and often enduring for centuries, guarantied only by the spontaneous and universal feeling of an inward and all-absorbing desire of man's nature for companionship with his fellow-man. This arises not from a calculation of greater security, nor from the facilities which society affords for pecuniary gain. Society owes not its origin to a sense of fear, nor to the love of money. Neither of these is sufficient to bind man to society in its worst forms, and at the hazard of sacrificing many of his dearest rights and interests. The worst social condition he can better endure than solitude. He can bear the severest. blow of tyranny rather than banishment from the face of man. Accordingly, he will endure the bitterest oppression in preference to the sweetest solitude. It must be, then, that for some great cause society is as necessary to his moral nature as food or

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atmospheric air is to his physical-that there are many deep demands of his higher nature that can only be answered in the midst of men, and which, unsatisfied, leave such an aching void in his soul, that life becomes a burden out of human society. And here I beg to repeat, that this arises not from a sense of fear, nor from the want or insecurity of property, out of society. You may wall in the solitary man so that nothing can harm him; you may give him all of this world's goods that he can enjoy in his lonely place, and he will pine away and wish to die; for the aching void of his nature is not filled, and he yet needs, as the vital air of heaven, the exhilarating influences of human society. These alone can breathe into his moral nature the breath of life. Surround him with men, and his moral powers, his higher and nobler faculties spring into activity, and he moves in the moral and intellectual majesty of the noblest work of the Creator upon earth. How is this? It may be thus explained:

If it can be made to appear that man, in the social state, hath, as respects a large number of his desires and wants, as sure a guaranty for their gratification as he can possibly have out of it, then it follows that, as respects these, he loses nothing by going into society. If, moreover, it shall appear that, as to other portions of his nature, he can be better gratified in the midst of men, than as a solitary being, in so far as this portion of humanity is concerned, he becomes a gainer by human fellowship; so that, if the case were left here, we should have shown that man gains something, and surrenders nothing, in the social state. But if, in proceeding further, it can be established that his noblest endowments of intellect and sentiment cannot be exercised or gratified in any respect, except in the midst of men, then we show a case of moral necessity,-that the human constitution demands society, and we establish the absolute right of man to dwell in the society of his fellow-men.

It will suffice to refer to a few instances in which the pow ers of our nature are as well protected and exercised,—and others in which they are better provided for in society, than in the solitary state.

1. The love of life. Life is safest in society. Such is the man's nature that he will protect his fellow, rather than do him harm. Benevolence prompts to sympathy and kind protection; and the sense of justice adds force and certainty to the operation of natural beneficence. All history shows that men, in society, guaranty, in some form, and by some mode or action, the right to life. Besides, in civilized life, where the arts and sciences have attained to any considerable advancement or perfection, the comforts of life, and the means of its protection and safeguard, are so abundant and well applied, that a great increase of security and protection to life is thereby afforded.

2. The means of subsistence are greatly increased in the midst of the most civilized nations of mankind, by a superior cultivation of the earth, by commerce, mechanical invention, and more extended and diligent labor.

3. The desire of property is held in most sacred regard by societies of men, its acquisition fostered, and the right to exclusive possession universally acknowledged. This right is not surrendered or abridged, necessarily, by society; while the means of attainment are greatly increased, by an interchange of commodities, a division of labor, improvement in the arts and sciences, and intellectual cultivation; and there need be no interference with it, except for contributions for the general good, which in amount fall far short of the advantages for its acquisition and protection gained by society. Property gains by society, over and above all loss in contributions for the public use.

4. The loves of the sexes, in all well-regulated societies, are protected by the laws, and their sacred exclusiveness held inviolable. In this respect, man and woman are greatly ele vated and improved by their social organization in civilized life.

5. The same may be said of the love of offspring. The parent's love, hope, and pride, receive far greater gratification in society, than it is possible for the solitary man to enjoy.

It thus appears, that these instinctive desires derive a greater gratification by human fellowship, than in solitude, and as

yet man is a gainer by communion with his brethren. A slight degree of reflection will also show how finely his nobler nature is attuned to human fellowship.

We may concede that the solitary man may exercise his reverence and awe-that his wonder may be indulged—and that his love of the beautiful, and his pride, may be gratified to some extent in splitude, yet it would not be difficult to show a decided advantage in all these respects arising to him from extensive human intercourse. But there remain certain well-defined powers, sentiments, and faculties, peculiar to man, which can have no satisfactory exercise out of general society.

1. "The faculty of language," says Mr. Combe, “implies the presence of intelligent beings, with whom we may communicate by speech." In how many ways is this medium of communicating ideas brought into requisition amid the multitudes of men: from simple exclamation, rising upward to the accomplished discourse, the eloquent oration, the exciting romance, the drama, the epic poem, the page of history! What a world of thought and action stands thus revealed to the human intellect !

2. Benevolence demands a wide field of enterprise and exertion. It enfolds all created beings in its love. The more extended its field of action, the greater gratification flows from it. It demands many objects on which to rest with kind sympathy and expansive love. It would embrace a world of intelligent and sensitive beings. With what sweet expression it adorns the human countenance! How doth it exalt that noble brow, and light up the features with an expression of love and tenderness, which makes it the welcome visitant of the cottage and the palace-of the abode of suffering and distress, as well as the scene of happiness and joy! Give place among men for this gentle visitant-this minister of mercy-and bright radiance of the divinity among the dwellers upon the earth. Benevolence demands the society of men, to rejoice in their joy, to sorrow in their griefs, to cheer the desponding, and to shed her radiant smile of love and tenderness