In strictness, the vital refinements are the moral and intellectual steps. The appearance of the Hebrew Moses, of the Indian Buddh,--in Greece, of the Seven Wise Masters, of the acute and upright Socrates, and of the Stoic Zeno,--in Judea, the advent of Jesus,--and in modern Christendom, of the realists Huss, Savonarola, and Luther, are causal facts which carry forward races to new convictions, and elevate the rule of life. In the presence of these agencies, it is frivolous to insist on the invention of printing or gunpowder, of steam-power or gas-light, percussion-caps and rubber-shoes, which are toys thrown off from that security, freedom, and exhilaration which a healthy morality creates in society. These arts add a comfort and smoothness to house and street life; but a purer morality, which kindles genius, civilizes civilization, casts backward all that we held sacred into the profane, as the flame of oil throws a shadow when shined upon by the flame of the Bude-light. Not the less the popular measures of progress will ever be the arts and the laws. But if there be a country which cannot stand any one of these tests,--a country where knowledge cannot be diffused without perils of mob-law and statute-law,--where speech is not free,--where the post-office is violated, mail-bags opened, and letters tampered with,--where public debts and private debts outside of the State are repudiated,--where liberty is attacked in the primary institution of their social life,--where the position of the white woman is injuriously affected by the outlawry of the black woman,--where the arts, such as they have, are all imported, having no indigenous life,--where the laborer is not secured in the earnings of his own hands,--where suffrage is not free or equal,--that country is, in all these respects, not civil, but barbarous, and no advantages of soil, climate, or coast can resist these suicidal mischiefs. Morality is essential, and all the incidents of morality,--as, justice to the subject, and personal liberty. Montesquieu says,--"Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free"; and the remark holds not less, but more, true of the culture of men than of the tillage of land. And the highest proof of civility is, that the whole public action of the State is directed on securing the greatest good of the greatest number.