of his nature to be ever separated. As to such minor considerations,
as logical arrangement and the niceties of style, he asks only the
criticism due to one, whose hands have been necessitated to guide the
plough oftener than the pen, through the best years of life.




The Growth of Thought, As Affecting the Progress of Society.




Part I.

Introductory.


The meditation on human life--on the contrast between what _is_, and
what _might be_, on supposing a general concurrence to make the best of
things-yields emotions both painful and pleasing;--painful for the
demonstrations every where presented, of a love of darkness, rather
than light; pleasing, that the worst evils are seen to be so
remediable; and so clear the proofs of a gradual, but sure progress
towards the remedy.

The writer is not very familiar with those authors, who have so much to
say on the problem of life--the question, What is life? He supposes
them to follow a train of thought, something like this: The life of a
creature is that perfection and flourish of its faculties, of which its