circumstances, has an inexhaustible source of agreeable and exciting contemplations. A man sees beauty and order where the uninformed and uninquiring eye sees nothing but darkness and confusion. His sphere of research is as boundless as humanity itself. A thousand interesting topics of investigation are incessantly demanding his attention, so that his faculties. are kept in a state of perpetual activity, highly conducive to the augmentation and perfection of his knowledge.

He

The politician has likewise one great advantage, in common indeed with all who make human nature their study, that the objects of his thoughts lie every way around him, and are altogether independent of external circumstances and advantages. The range of his operations is confined to his own bosom, and the pleasures derivable from contemplation can be enjoyed in all situations of life. The astronomer and the chemist need numerous and costly instruments for the perfection of their knowledge; but the politician can dispense with all such material and artistic aids. can pursue his speculations, apart from the agitations and annoyances of the busy world around him, where passion, and prejudice, and interest, are continually disturbing the equable movements of the understanding, and repressing its ardour in the pursuit of truth. The contemplation of the general laws of social life, apart from mere individual feelings and ends, can be carried on to an indefinite extent by the unassisted intellect; and political problems, requiring the noblest faculties of the mind can be solved either by the wayside, or in the secluded recesses of the closet.

As we advance in our reasonings on political science,

and systematically arrange and weigh the results of experience, we more prominently bring out to public view, the progressive character of this important branch of knowledge. The complicated nature of the social and moral relations of mankind becomes less apparent and bewildering. We are enabled to grapple more closely and successfully with the grand problem, how the advantages of general government are to be secured to the masses of the people with the least inconvenience and expence? As our information extends, we recognise more clearly those physical and moral principles on which the governmental affairs of the world rest; and feel more and more convinced that, however temporarily trifled with or disregarded, they must sooner or later become the leading objects of attention in the minds of all statesmen and politicians. When the mind once seizes hold of the idea, that great and noble ends are to be achieved, by which the general condition of human life is to be vastly improved, and all the members of society placed in a more elevated and improved condition, we no longer look supinely on the course of events, but feel the spirit of activity, vigorous within us, and an inward consciousness, that we shall be able to subdue and overcome many of these formidable evils and perplexities, which nature seems to have almost indispensably interwoven with man's social existence. It is this cheering hope of conquest, that will ultimately bear down those obstacles, which selfishness, passion, prejudice, and ignorance, oppose to the fairest hopes, and highest prospects of civil and political improvements, in all parts of the world.

Political science is the embodiment of civilization,

For

in its most extensive meaning and application. its successful and complete exposition, we must investigate the character of a nation, and the principles of human nature generally; and if we are content to be guided by the fundamental laws displayed in the government of the world, and not thwart their obvious intentions, there will be scarcely any assignable limits to the progress we shall make in the science of government, and the improvement of mankind. We gain renewed confidence and power in every successful development of a general principle of polity; and the more the mind of a nation is directed to the general laws of social existence, the more cheerfully and unreservedly does it commit itself to their operation, and more elevated, disinterested, and benevolent, does it become in all its movements and aspirations.

General information increases the political sagacity of a people,-leads them to develope and discuss new principles and projects of civil government,-and makes them sensitively alive to every proposed change in their social polity. Had many of the axioms of the science of citizenship, that are now the common inheritance of even the mass of the people in many nations, been propounded all at once, they would, in all probability, not only have been rejected, but their authors treated as wild and dangerous visionaries. But as they have been developed in the slow succession of ages, they teach us the useful lesson, that what may be regarded as erroneous and pernicious in one age, may be considered true and salutary in the next; and that the power of man over his own social nature and destiny, may be indefinitely increased, by steadily directed thought, and careful observation. Such is

the plastic and expansive consistency of the human character, that as his views of society enlarge, and his wants and desires multiply, in the same ratio do his facilities for their gratification increase. His faculties are again invigorated, and directed to fresh channels of inquiry; and he is thus, in his aggregate capacity, led on from one step to another, till he penetrates into the inmost recesses of the body corporate, laying bare all its extensive and complicated tissues of passions, motives, wants, purposes, and designs.

CHAPTER I.

A FEW GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS, CONSIDERED AS RECORDS ON POLITICAL

SPECULATION.

As a matter of chronological precedence, the political writings of the Old Testament ought to be first considered. They are unquestionably the oldest records we possess of the human family, and of the regular and systematic construction of a given theory of social order and legislative policy. But it is necessary to premise, that there are insuperable objections against subjecting these writings, on account of their political importance, to a complete and minute analysis, at the commencement of this work; and for this, among other powerful reasons, that they have for many centuries been the great test, by which other systems of political speculation have been tried; and, in numberless occasions, the direct incentives to the varied labours of political writers themselves. To commence, therefore, with a formal examination and development of what may aptly enough be termed the politics of the Bible, would be premature; inasmuch as it would be anticipating a great portion of the matter of inquiry and discussion,

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