Each has but expressed a stage in the progress of
thought; and neither measures the mature life of the soul. It is not
so certain to sight, what will be next grasped by this reaching onward
to the things before; whether a better reconcilement of the life that
now is with that which is to come, or whether a vaporing, misty
sentimentalism is to be the spirit of the next age. There are not
wanting indications, that the materialism of this age is to be followed
by a dreamy spiritualism, raising men above the observance of vulgar
duties, but not above the practice of the grossest vices. It is not
uncharitable to mark such tendencies, where we see canonized Rousseau,
the very embodiment of sensuality, egotism, and misanthropy; and
progress _so_ taught to be the law of _individual_ man, that, whether
going to commit his crimes at the brothel, or to expiate them on the
gallows, his tendencies are still and forever upward.
We need better evidence than sight can afford, to say,--
"O no! a thousand cheerful omens give
Hope of yet happier days, whose dawn is nigh:
He who has tamed the elements, shall not live
The slave of his own passions; he whose eye
Unwinds the eternal dances of the sky,
And in the abyss of brightness dares to span
The sun's broad circle, rising yet more high,
In God's magnificent works his will shall scan;
And love and peace shall make their paradise with man.
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