claim to give more votes than others, or receive a support from the state. But he can and will claim to exert a greater moral and intellectual influence than others, to stand higher and be more respected than others. And nature guarantees his claim, for republicanism is the order of nature; the aristocracy of a republic is the aristocracy of nature. It is an error to think a patriarchal government resembles a monarchy; the father rules on the ground of merit, not of birth; he rules on the true republican ground, and so does the sachem of the Indian tribe. And each of nature's governors, each and all, rule on the score of merit, - merit measured by the unenlightened sense, while with us, as we have before said, the judge of merit should and must be Him that inhabiteth eternity.

"This Christian republicanism we hope will one day abide in the West; it is the social and political philosophy which is to become the marked faith of this land. Old in theory, it will, applied to practice, be new; and though it must ever come short of the point of perfection, much, very much, may be done towards its growth and power; and much is doing even now, while we write.

“And a new religious philosophy is to spring up here; not a new system of religious faith and rite, but new principles of religious thought, feeling, word, and action. Unitarianism we do not hope nor wish to see the one creed here ; identity of doctrine God never meant should be, for he gave us our minds, and placed us where we are; by the last he made us Christians rather than Turks, and by the first he made us Calvinists, Methodists, or Unitarians. Until the original and broad differences between men are done away, the same proofs, arguments, appeals, will affect them differently; and there is as little chance of their agreeing as there is that the herdsman of Bukharia will become Christian. He may be made so, and the strong bonds of temper and training may be rent, and far-sundered sectarians be united;

but such a union will not be general. One man is born a Socinian, another a Calvinist, a third a disciple of Emanuel Swedenborg. And never in this valley may the Sabbath smile upon a dead uniformity! Long may the follower of the Genevan here pour forth his unwritten prayer! Long may the clergyman of the Episcopal Church lose himself in the beauty and devotion of his most beautiful service, the Roman Catholic, in his vast cathedral, speak the words of truth and wisdom to those who, of all, most need them, the Methodist seek God in the wilderness, and the Baptist call aloud to him from the water-courses! We would not blot out one church, nor take from any the faith which forms his staff.

"The religious ideas which we hope may become the life of faith here are those of the Reformation, as they were in the breast of Luther when passion slept, and the strong voice of his own good and right sense spake out, Freedom from naked authority; toleration in heart as well as act; modesty, hope, faith, in doctrine and demeanour; appeals to the reason not the understanding which rejects mysteries that reason receives, but the true reason which takes hold on the mysterious moral, as on the mathematical truth, and believes rather than passion and prejudice ;these form the central points of that philosophy which, old in the world of thought, is yet unknown in the world of feeling and action; but which we trust may find a dwelling upon our plains, and walk unfettered among the green pastures, and by the still waters, of the West.

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Next, as to the literature which we hope may reign here, even before this age is closed; and which must, in a measure, precede the social, political, and religious principles to which we have pointed. What is the literature of an age and country? It is the mass of written wisdom and folly which has been created and chosen out to bear upon and mould the mind of that age and place. It consists of the

school manuals of the grown-up children; it is one means by which they educate themselves; and in this age is a very important means. The philosophy of a literature is formed by the general principles in harmony with which it is built up. The great ideas which we look to see govern literature in the West are, in the abstract, aged, and, alas! feeble also; but, in practice, are little known. They flow from the object and influence of literature, as given in the above definition; they regard writings as means, more or less mighty, to influence for good or evil all to whom they go; and of course look with a keen regard at all who write. Under their rule, even their foes would not be forced to silence; for that would be indeed to do evil that good might come; but all enemies would be won away from enmity. Is the literature of this age and land created and governed by the philosophy we speak of? When Byron's poetry runs afar on before Southey and Wordsworth; when Bulwer and D'Israeli are re-read more often than Edgeworth, and perhaps Scott; when novels too nerveless to live a poor month overthrow history, poetry, science, is the literature of this age fitted to raise the age? We fear not; and if the time does go on, and not back, it is, we think, despite the leading literature. But all truth, whether of time, place, and act, as in history and science; of character and nature, as in poetry and fiction; or of abstract thought, as in ethics, all can and should be so chosen and given as to work good. In all lands there is, at this time, a wish, an effort, to have such a literature; but nowhere do we think it can be looked for with so much hope as in the centre of this country.

"Having now very briefly sketched what the peculiar philosophy of the West will be, we proceed to say why we believe it will be so.

"In Europe, society grew from barbarism to civilization; and the shreds and tatters of barbarism are about it to this day. Upon our Atlantic coast, society was born republican,

grew up semi-aristocratic, if not in name in spirit, and was at maturity once more thrown back to its first state. In South America it began in aristocracy yet more rotten; and to this day is unsound. Now, upon the state and health of society depends the character of politics, religion, and lit erature, as truly as the state and health of society depend upon them; it is action and reaction for ever.

"But in the West, as we have said before, society was born republican; it first saw the light when the great ideas which we think are to find a home here were strongly spoken and written, though very little acted upon. The peculiar philosophy to which we have before referred was therefore from the first the philosophy of this section in a greater degree than of any other section or country.

This, then, gives us good reason to say that here we may look for the more full development, not in theory, but in practice, of this philosophy, for as yet it is not fully developed; and, indeed, strong antagonist principles have been seen among us, and our dangers are equal to our privileges.

"Another reason which leads us to hope much from the West is the enthusiasm of the Western character. Enthusiasm is a virtue; a virtue much wanting in the New England character, and which not unfrequently runs into a vice at the South. At the West we find a medium; the warmth of one zone has combined well with the cool judgment of the other; and while there is enough of the former to produce great changes, and changes based upon abstract truth, and aloof from mere worldly interest, we think there is good sense enough growing up among us to keep such changes from excess.

"A third peculiarity of the West is, that men from all lands, with all manner of prejudices, habits, and modes of action, meet here; and the result of their meeting is, so to neutralize one another as to leave us open, unbiased, as a people unprejudiced; and therefore better ground for

the growth of good or evil seed than any whose modes and characters were fixed and stony.

"A fourth reason is, that in the West there has been of necessity much independence heretofore, and that independence, and consequent individuality, still continue. Men and women think more for themselves, are less under the influence of authority; they are not all of one growth, made after one pattern. In most lands, before the minds of the mass came to act upon politics and religion, they had lost their first individual freedom; here they have not to the same degree. These are our chief reasons for thinking that the philosophy or great principles of social and political eminence, of religious thought and action, and literary prominence, will be here what thousands have said they ought to be everywhere, but what they have not been anywhere. And if they are, if the West shall make merit the test of rank, and grant rank to merit; if those great and influential doctrines of Christianity, which all revere, should find a home here; if free, fair inquiry, and spiritual toleration and charity, shall dwell here; and if our literature shall aid in the growth, and the strength, and the support of these principles, then will the West, of a truth, be great. And be it remembered, that whether all this shall or shall not be depends upon the educated, influential writers, speakers, and actors of the West; upon their backs is the burden, and, if true to their duty, they will not faint under it. Theirs is the burden, and theirs will be the honor of success, or the disgrace of failure; of failure, for failure may come. There are many and great dangers about us; these, at some future time, we shall attempt to point out. Not that they are hidden, but custom blinds us to them; and, indeed, what many look on as our safeguards, we fear may prove the source of our downfall."

1837. "MASSES US. INDIVIDUALS.

There is a tendency