But this is not the only point in the general doctrine of delivery
which we find produced again in its specific applications. Through all
the divisions of this discourse on Learning, and not in that part of
it only in which the Art of its Tradition is openly treated, we find
that the prescribed form of it is one which will adapt it to the
popular preconceptions; and that it must be a form which will make it
not only universally acceptable, but universally attractive; that it
is not only a form which will throw open the gates of the new school
to all comers, but one that will bring in mankind to its benches. Not
under the head of Method only, or under the head of Delivery and
Tradition, but in those parts of the work in which the substance of
the new learning is treated, we find dispersed intimations and
positive assertions, that the form of it is, at the same time, popular
and enigmatical,--not openly philosophical, and not 'magisterial,'--
but insensibly didactic; and that it is, in its principal and
higher departments--in those departments on which this plan for
the human relief concentrates its forces--essentially POETICAL. That
is what we find in the body of the work; and the author repeats
in detail what he has before made a point of telling us, in general,
under this head of Delivery and Tradition of knowledge, that he
sees no reason why that same instrument, which is so powerful for
delusion and error, should not be restored to its true uses as an
instrument of the human advancement, and a vehicle, though a veiled
_one_--a beautiful and universally-welcome vehicle--for bringing in on
this Globe Theatre the knowledges that men are most in need of.
The doctrine which is to be conveyed in this so subtle and artistic
manner is none other than the Doctrine of Human Nature and Human Life,
or, as this author describes it here, the Scientific Doctrine of
MORALITY and POLICY. It is that new doctrine of human nature and human
life which the science of nature in general creates. It is the light
which universal science, collected from the continent of nature, gives
to that insular portion of it 'which is the end and term of natural
philosophy in the intention of man.' Under these heads of _Morality_
and _Policy_, the whole subject is treated here. But to return to the
latter.
The question of Civil Government is, in the light of this science, a
very difficult one; and this philosopher, like the one we have already
quoted on this subject, is disposed to look with much suspicion on
propositions for violent and sudden renovations in the state, and
immediate abolitions and cures of social evil. He too takes a
naturalist's estimate of those larger wholes, and their virtues, and
faculties of resistance.
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