nacle, Norwich, has accepted a very hearty and unanimous call to the pastorate of the Congregational Free Church, Mold, and entered upon his new and en larged sphere, on Sunday, May 22, preaching in the morning, on "Philip, the model preacher ;" and in the evening, on "Nehemiah, the model worker." CONTRIBUTIONS, COLLECTIONS, AND SUBSCRIPTIONS, IN BEHALF OF THE COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON'S MISSIONARY SOCIETY FOR THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS. Tunbridge Wells:-Rev. G. JONES. Shoreham (Rev. C. Knowles)... 0 15 8 110 Contributions, &c. to be sent to the Treasurer, Mr. FREDERICK WM. WILLCOCKS, Myddelton Villas, Lloyd Square, London, W.C. 220 1 1 0 0 10 0 THE FREE CHURCH OF ENGLAND MAGAZINE. The Nineteenth Century:-No. 11. THE last fifty years have been the most remarkable and the most memorable in the history of mind and the progress of humanity. So long as the resources of a nation are expended in war, there can be but little surplus power to devote to the higher department of culture. is laid upon the shrine of Mars and devoted to the god of battles. But from the campaign of Waterloo, in 1815, up to the French Revolution in 1848, all Europe enjoyed profound peace. During those thirty years, there was nothing to interfere with the freer play and the intenser application of the human intellect. Nor could anything more clearly indicate the degree of mental power put forth during that period than the progress of science. Never were so many of the scattered lines and rays of light brought to a focus, and in their concentration and power made to bear on our more modern discoveries. There is not a single branch of scientific inquiry which has not been searched and sifted with the most laborious industry; there is not a scientific fact whose truth has not been put to the severest test; there is not a single scientific discovery which has not been proved and determined by actual experiment. Not only has the domain of science been enlarged, but also enriched with the most splendid contributions. New facts have been brought to light; fresh discoveries have come up with deeper and freer inquiry; a more truly philosophic spirit has been awakened; the older theories have been abandoned for the teachings of a profounder wisdom, and the results of a wider experience. Philosophy now sits enthroned, and the nations are prostrate at her feet. The outward and artificial distinctions of rank and wealth are giving way to intellectual eminence and moral worth. The man of letters is preferred to the man of title; and literature, by taking on a purer and more vital character, is infusing new life and energy into the people, and promising the regeneration of all classes. It is no common pleasure to record the triumphs of mechanical and natural science. The mechanical genius of the age is unrivalled, and its fruits are most rare and most acceptable. Look simply at our machinery, and to the application of steam to that machinery; think in how many ways it can be employed, and to how many ends it can be adapted; and this of itself forms an era in the history and the progress of our common race. But the domain of science would have been neither so large nor so rich, but for the establishment and the freer working of the press. Every scientific fact being published, and every philosophical truth being propounded, and then sent on the wings of the morning to the four quarters of the globe, quickened intellect, and gave to it a new and mightier impulse. Never did the philosophy and the science of civilized nations challenge a more profound homage than at this moment; never, in both these departments, could there be found so many rare and profoundly-written works in almost all the languages of Europe. And with the advancement of science has been the progress of the arts. If" during the public calamities and general anarchy of the seventeenth century, the natural sciences, in all their various branches, made silent but very extraordinary progress ;" and if "numberless were the advantages of these new discoveries to all the useful arts and sciences," what shall we say of the improvement and the progress of the last fifty years, in the midst of all but universal and unbroken peace? For an answer to this question we point to the GREAT EXHIBITION, which was opened with royal splendour, and amid the most loyal demonstrations of the most loyal people under God's bright sky. There, in the midst of the most beautiful and the most varied products of nature, you had the riper fruits of the human intellect, of human skill, and of human industry. At no former period in our world's history could such a scheme as was involved in this Exhibition have been carried into effect. At no earlier date in the calendar of years could you have commanded the same amount of contributions, or of the same character. The building itself was a splendid monument of science and of art, and, with its own interior contents, challenged the admiration and extorted the praise of every beholder. But we must not linger even amid the collected treasures of the world's skill, and where everything promised a flow and feast of soul. We have spoken of the press; but for its clearer, deeper, and more vital teachings, the Nineteenth Century would never have taken on its present character. We mean not to say, that the European press is all that we could desire. There may be as much corrupt and corrupting literature now as ever. Authors may be as forward as ever in feeding the lowest passions of human nature. There are thousands on thousands, all whose longings are after mere animal gratification, and who greedily devour every book that promises to minister to their taste. But such works are not equal to those of another and a higher character. The spread of education has given to a larger body of the people a capacity to read; and the fact that the education is of a better quality, has tended to improve, refine, and elevate the taste. To meet this improved and advanced state of the public mind, the works of the press must correspond. Men must write in conformity with the spirit of the age. To a certain extent it is true that they give cast and complexion to the age; but it is not less true that the age impresses itself upon them. The age makes the men, not less than the men make the age. It may be added, that the one determines the other. Given the character of a people, and it is easy to tell the character of the times in which they live. Again, tell the character of the times, and we shall be at no loss to determine the character and condition of the people. Now, the character of a people is always reflected in their literature; and, on the whole, never was the literature of Europe more robust, or healthy, or vital. It has been long giving tone and strength to the popular mind, and lifting it into the higher regions of thought and feeling. Nor can anything speak so loudly in favour of the progress of the English mind in particular, as the fact that, while the land is studded with schools for the instruction of the poorest and most neglected of our population, we have our Mechanics' Institutes, our Philosophical Associations, and our Schools of Design; and that our working men are creating a literature of their own, and are pressing into the foremost ranks of the scientific and the learned. It is by this class that many of the facts of science have been evolved, and that many of the improvements in the arts have been effected. This is one of the most striking features in this the most striking age of the world's development. The people form the base of the great pyramid of society, and on the character of the foundation depend the strength and the perpetuity of the entire superstructure. In connexion with the progress of education, the freedom of the press, and the character of our literature, we must take up those social changes and improvements which cannot fail to impress the most unreflecting among us. We deny not that society is yet only in a transition state; that it still exhibits many blemishes and many defects; that the spirit of regeneration and of power must yet go farther down among the masses; that there are darker regions yet to be explored, and more deadly evils yet to be rooted up; but who will assert that the amount of vice and crime has not been diminished; that the hidden springs of society have not been touched and purified; that the circle of individual happiness and of social comfort has not been widened? Let any man compare the social condition of England, of Europe, of the world, at the present day, with what it was a hundred years ago; and he will find himself in the midst of a new state of things. Not only has society thrown off its coarser incrustations, but the manners and habits of the people are either changed or modified. This is true, not of one class only, but of all classes. The secret influence which has converted the cottage of the poor man into a home of light and comfort, has gone upward and still upward till it has touched the coronet and the crown. Society appears as if it had been thrown into a new and purer mould, and to whose very existence it seems essential that all things should be new and pure. If this social regeneration be indicative of the power of an inward intellectual and moral life, then in proportion as this life is developed will it be impossible to keep men in political bondage. Governments, however long and however firmly established, must relax, and adapt their policy to the advanced state of society. It was in consequence of shutting their eyes to this fact, that the governments of Europe were thrown into such consternation and confusion in 1848-that year of unparalleled revolu tions and changes. The interior life of the nations claimed a freer and a fuller expression. It was not the love of violence or of change which produced that revolution. Unhappily, violence and a thousand other evils were mixed up with it; but its producing cause was the force of principles universally recognised and acknowledged by ourselves, and slowly taken up by our Continental neighbours; and because princes and powers dared to ignore these principles, and throw back the people on despotism, princes were hurled from their thrones, crowns were trodden in the dust, sceptres were thrown away from hands too feeble to wield them, and justice triumphed over oppression. England escaped the general catastrophe, just because England was in advance of all nations in the freedom, the intelligence, and the happiness of her people. While all Europe was convulsed, she, like her own sea-girt isle-which looks out from every point on the great blue ocean, when that ocean is lashing her shore round and round, and fears no evil-awaited the issue of events with dignified ease and composure. England had found what the other nations were seeking, and for which they were now prepared to pour out their blood. We look upon that year of revolutions as a crisis in the history of human progress and of human liberty, on which were dependent mighty results. The spirit which animated the people was checked-was repressed, but not extinguished. It survived the crisis. It was laid, but not to rest. It sleeps not, neither slumbers; and, when it shall again rise to assert its freedom, who can predict the issue? In her struggle for liberty, Europe had the sympathy of all the civilised nations of the earth; and if her liberty had then been achieved, it might have hastened on that grand universal brotherhood of man for which all creation sighs and waits. |