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SPECULATORS AMONG THE STARS.-PART I.

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But let our reader note well, at lection of intelligent creatures, where reside umph over the dogmatical and self-satisfied inintelligence, perception of truth, recognition fidel.” * of moral law, and reverence for a Divine starting, the above mighty "IF:" which he Creator and Governor."* His Essay branches may regard as the comet's nucleus, drawing into three great divisions, in disposing of the after it an enormous and dismaying train of conjectural plurality of worlds, and suggesting consequences, sweeping into annihilation man's Dr. Whewell gives a lucid and terse account the reality of the unity of the world. First, hopes equally with his fears. he considers the constitution of man: secondly, that of the earth which he inhabits, its of the scope of Dr. Chalmers's eloquent deoadaptation, structure, and position: lastly, its lamation, his ingenious suggestions, and his neighbors in the heavens-the solar system to astronomical or philosophical arguments, which which it belongs, the fixed stars, and the neb- he deems "of great weight; and, upon the ule; and as to these, he declares that "a clos- whole, such as we may both assent to, as sciI think, however, that there are er inquiry, with increased means of observation, entifically true, and accept as rationally pergives no confirmation to the conjecture which suasive. certain aspects of the universe at first sight other arguments, also drawn from scientific suggested to man, that there may be other discoveries, which bear in a very important bodies, like the earth, tenanted by other crea- and striking manner upon the opinions in tures like man,-some characters of whose question, and which Chalmers has not referred nature seem to remove or lessen the difficulties to; and I conceive that there are philosophicwe may at first feel in regarding the earth as, al views of another kind, which, for those who in a unique and special manner, the field of desire and will venture to regard the universe God's providence and government." This and its Creator in the wider and deeper relais not the order in which Dr. Whewell pro- tions which appear to be open to human specBut "WHAT IS MAN?" is the pregnant ceeds, but it is that which we shall observe, in ulation, may be a source of satisfaction."† giving our readers such a brief and intelligible account as we can of this singularly bold question of the royal Psalmist; and Dr. WheEssay. He himself commences with a beau- well gives an account of man, at once ennotiful sketch of the state of "Astronomical Dis-bling and solemnizing; in strict accordance, coveries," with which Dr. Chalmers dealt in moreover, with revelation, and with those his celebrated Discourses; by no means under- views of his moral and intellectual nature unistating the amount of them, with reference versally entertained by the believers in reprincipally to the number of the heavenly vealed religion. We know of no man living bodies" a countless host of worlds, arranged entitled to speak with more authority on such in planetary systems, having years and sea- subjects than Dr. Whewell; and we think it sons, days and nights, as we have;" as to impossible for any thoughtful person to read which, "it is at least a likely suggestion that the portions of his Essay relating to this subthey have also inhabitants-intelligent beings, ject, without feelings of awe and reverence who can reckon those days and years-who towards our Maker. Not that any new condisubsist on the fruits which the seasons bring tions of human nature are suggested, or any peforth, and have their daily and yearly occupa- culiarly original views of it presented; tions, according to their faculties." If this knowledge on the subject is, as it were, conworld be merely one of innumerable other densed into a focus, and then brought to bear worlds, all, like it, the workmanship of God, upon the question, What is mau, that his all the seats of life-like it, occupied by intel- Maker should be mindful of him, and visit ligent creatures, capable of will, law, obedi-him? and thereby render the earth, in a ence, disobedience, as man is,-to hold that it unique and special manner, the field of God's alone should have been the scene of God's providence and government. Lord Boling care and kindness, and still more, of His spe- broke objected to the Mosaic account of the cial interposition, communication, and person-creation, and "that man is made, by Moses, al dealings with its individual inhabitants, in as the final end, if not of the whole creation, the way, which religion teaches, is, the objector yet, at least, of a system;" but let us rememis conceived te maintain, in the highest degree ber, that Moses also tells us that God deter"that God did, accordingly, create extravagant, incredible, and absurd." § Such mined to "make man in Our image, after Our is, as we have seen, the assertion of Thomas likeness; Paine; and Dr. Whewell proposes to discuss man in His own image-with special signifithis vast speculative question, "not as an ob-cance, twice asserting the fact, that in the im jection urged by an opponent, but rather as a age of God created He him; and he tells us "to that, after the flood, God assigned this as a difficulty felt by a friend of religion;" examine rather how we can quiet the troubled reason for visiting the crime of murder with and perplexed believer, than how we can tri- death-Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man † Ibid., p. 359. Ibid., pp. 98, 99.

* Essay, p. 359.
Ibid., pp. 94, 95.

* Essay, p. 108.

but our

† Ibid., p. 104.

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shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has given him. Now, the existence of a God made He man. The full import of that body of creatures, capable of such a law, of awful and mysterious expression, the image such a trial, and of such an elevation, as man and likeness of God, man, in his fallen state, is the subject and has the power of-that is, may never know. Adam possibly knew orig- of rising from one stage of virtue to another, inally; and his descendants believe, that it by a gradual and successive purification and consists in their Intellectual and Moral nature. elevation of the desires, affections and habits, The former is, in some measure, of the same in a degree, so far as we know, without limit nature as the Divine mind of the Creator;* -is, according to all we can conceive, infithe laws which man discoyers in the creation nitely more worthy of the Divine Power and must be laws known to God; those which Wisdom, in the creation of the universe, than man sees to be true-those of geometry, for any number of planets occupied by creatures instance-God also must see to be true. That having no such lot, no such law, no such cathere were, from the beginning, in the Crea- pacities, and no such responsibilities. Howtor's mind, creative thoughts, is a doctrine in- ever imperfectly the moral law may be obeyvolved in every intelligent view of creation-ed; however ill the greater part of mankind a doctrine which has recently received splen- may respond to the appointment which places did illustration by a living great discoverer them here in a state of moral probation; howin the field of natural knowledge."t Law ever few there may be, who use the capaciimplies a lawgiver, even when we do not see ties and means of their moral purification and the object of the law; even as design implies elevation; still that there is such a plan in the a designer, when we do not see the object of creation, and that any respond to its appointthe design. The laws of nature are the indi-ments, is really a view of the universe which cations of the operation of the Divine mind, we can conceive to be suitable to the nature and are revealed to us, as such, by the opera- of God, because we can approve it, in virtue tions of our mind, by which we come to dis- of the moral nature which He has given us. cover them. They are the utterances of the One school of moral discipline, one theatre of Creator, delivered in language which we can moral action, one arena of moral contests for understand and being thus Language, they the highest prizes, is a sufficient centre for inare the utterances of an Intelligent Spirit. numerable hosts of stars and planets, globes of fire and earth, water and air, whether or not tenanted by corals and madrepores, fishes and creeping things. So great and majestic are those names of RIGHT and GOOD, DUTY and VIRTUE, that all mere material or animal existence is worthless in the comparison. Man's moral progress is a progress towards a likeness with God; and such a progress, even more than a progress towards an intellectual likeness with God, may be conceived as making the soul of man fit to endure for ever with God, and therefore, as making this earth a preparatory stage of human souls, to fit them for eternity-a nursery of plants, which are to be this moral life be really only the commencefully unfolded in a celestial garden. And if ment of an infinite Divine plan, beginning upon earth, and destined to endure for endless ages after our earthly life, we need no array of other worlds in the universe, to give sufficient dignity and majesty to the scheme of the Creator.

If man, when he attains to a knowledge of such laws, is really admitted, in some degree, to the view with which the Creator himself beholds his creation; if we can gather, from the conditions of such knowledge, that his intellect partakes of the nature of the Divine intellect; if his mind, in its clearest and largest contemplation, harmonizes with the Divine mind,-we have in this a reason which may well seem to us very powerful, why, even if the earth alone be the habitation of intelligent beings, still the great work of creation is not wasted. If God have placed on the earth a creature who can so far sympathize with Him (if we may venture upon the expression), who can raise his intellect into some accordance with the creative intellect; and that not once only, nor by few steps, but through an indefinite gradation of discoveries more and more comprehensive, more and more profound, each an advance, however slight, towards a Divine Insight; then, so far as intellect alone, of which alone we are here speaking, can make man a worthy object of all the vast magnificence of creative power, we can hardly shrink from believing that he is so.

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The author of the Essay then ascends to an infinitely greater and grander altitude:

"If, by any act of the divine government, the number of those men should be much increased, who raise themselves towards the moral standard which God has appointed, and thus towards a likeness to God, and a prospect of a future eternal union with him; such an act of Divine government would do far more towards making the universe a scene in which God's goodness and greatness were largely displayed,

a far more interesting field of devout meditation than the possible addition to it of the inhabitants of distant stars, connected, in some inscrutable manner, with the Divine Plan.*

than could be done by any amount of peopling | men in the present age; as in former ages, such a of planets with creatures who were capable of view of creation was sufficient to overwhelm men moral agency, or with creatures whose capacity with awe, and gratitude, and love, and to make for the development of their moral faculties was them confess, in the most emphatic language, small, and would continue to be small, till such that all such feelings were an inadequate response an act of Divine government was performed. to the view of the scheme of Divine Providence The interposition of God, in the history of man, which was revealed to them. The thousands of to remedy man's feebleness in moral and spiritual millions of inhabitants of the earth, to whom the tasks, and to enable those who profit by the in- effects of the Divine love extend, will not seem, terposition to ascend towards a union with God, to the greater part of religious persons, to need is an event entirely out of the range of those the addition of more, in order to fill our minds natural courses of events which belong to our with vast and affecting contemplations, so far as subject and to such an interposition, therefore, we are capable of pursuing such contemplations. we must refer with great reserve; using great cau- The possible extension of God's spiritual kingtion that we do not mix up speculations and conjec-dom upon the earth will probably appear to them tures of our own with what has been revealed to man concerning such an interposition. But this, it would seem, we may say, that such a Divine interposition for the moral and spiritual elevation of the human race, and for the encouragement and aid "In this state of our knowledge," Dr. Whewell of those who seek the purification and elevation subsequently adds, after recapitulating the whole of their nature, and an eternal union with God, course of the argument indicated by the lines is far more suitable to the idea of a God of infi- above placed in italics, "and with such grounds nite goodness, purity, and greatness, than any of belief, to dwell upon the plurality of worlds of supposed multiplication of a population on our intellectual and moral creatures as a highly proown planet, or on any other, not provided with bable doctrine, must, we think, be held to be emsuch means of moral and spiritual progress. And inently rash and unphilosophical. On such a if we were, instead of such a supposition, to im- subject, where the evidences are so imperfect, and agine to ourselves, in other regions of the universe, our power of estimating analogies so small, far a moral population, purified and elevated with- be it from us to speak positively and dogmaticout the aid, or need, of any such Divine interpo- ally. And if any one holds the opinion, on whatsition, the supposed possibility of such a moral ever evidence, that there are other spheres of the race, would make the sin and misery, which de- Divine government than this earth, other spheres form and sadden the aspect of our earth, appear in which God has subjects and servants, other more dark and dismal still. We should, there-beings who do his will, and who, it may be, are fore, it would seem, find no theological congru- connected with the moral and religious interests ity, and no religious consolation, in the assump- of man, we do not breathe a syllable against tion of a plurality of worlds of moral beings; such a belief, but on the contrary, regard it with while, to place the seats of those worlds in the a ready and respectful sympathy: it is a belief stars and the planets, would be, as we have already which finds an echo in pious and benevolent shown, a step discountenanced by physical rea-hearts, and is of itself an evidence of that relisons; and discountenanced the more, the more gious and spiritual character in man, which is the light of science is thrown upon it."* one of the points of our argument. But it would be very rash, and unadvised-a proceeding Should it be urged, that if the creation of unwarranted, we think, by religion, and certainly at variance with all that science teaches-to place one world of such creatures as man, exalts so those other extra-human spheres of Divine gov highly our views of the dignity and impor-ernment in the planets and in the stars. tance of the plan of creation, the belief in many such worlds must elevate still more our sentiments of admiration and reverence of the greatness and goodness of the Creator; and must be a belief, on that account, to be accepted and cherished by pious minds, Dr. Whewell replies in the following weighty pas-pass to those stars-as unlikely that inhabitants

sage:

We cannot think ourselves authorized to assert cosmological doctrines, selected arbitrarily by ourselves, on the ground of their exalting our sentiments of admiration and reverence for the Deity, when the weight of all the evidence which we can obtain respecting the constitution of the universe, is against them. It appears to me, that to discover one great scheme of moral and religious government, which is the spiritual centre of the universe, may well suffice for the religious sentiments of * Essay, pp. 370, 371.

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regard to these bodies, if we reason at all, we must reason on physical grounds; we must suppose, as to a great extent we can prove, that the law and properties of terrestrial matter and motion apply to them also. On such grounds it is as improbable that visitants from Jupiter, or from Sirius, can come to the earth, as that men can

of those stars know and take an interest in human affairs, as that we can learn what they are doing. A belief in the Divine government of other races of spiritual creatures, besides the human race, and in Divine ministrations committed to such beings, cannot be connected with our physical and astronomical views of the nature of the stars and planets, without making a mixture altogether incongruous and incoherent-a mixture of what is material, and what is spiritual, adverse alike to sound religion and to sound philosophy.t

* Essay, pp. 371, 372. † Ibid., pp. 375 376..

Deity; and still less does religious philosophy favor the belief of man's insignificance in the eyes of God. What great things, according to the views which religion teaches, has He done for mankind, and for each man!”*

Those possessing a competent acquaintance warnings. But warnings may also be useful with the doctrines of theology, and ethical on the other side, warnings against selfand metaphysical discussions, cannot, we disparagement,-against the belief that man think, read this necessarily faint and imper-is not an important object in the eyes of the fect outline of what Dr. Whewell has thus far Creator. I do not know what philosophy repadvanced on the subject, without appreciating resents man as insignificant in the eyes of the the caution and discretion with which he handles the subject which he here discusses one of a critical character-in all its aspects and bearings. It is deeply suggestive to reflecting minds, who may be disposed to note with satisfaction how closely his doctrine, as But man's intellectual and moral nature thus far developed, quadrates with those of being of such dignity and value in the estimathe Christian system. He has well reminded tion of God, other circumstances connected us, in the "Dialogue," of a saying of Kant, with him tend in the same direction, says Dr. that two things impressed him with awe,-the Whewell, and point him out as a special and starry heaven without him, and the moral unique existence, in every way worthy of his principle within; and the current of his reflec- transcendent position. He is created by a tions tends towards that awful passage in the direct and special act of the Deity, and placed New Testament,-words which fell from the and continued, under circumstances of a most lips of the Saviour of mankind,-"For what remarkable character, upon the locality preis a man profited, if he shall gain the whole pared for him. We need hardly say that Dr. world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" "For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works." These two questions (to say nothing of the significance of the expression with reference to the subject now under discussion, "the whole world"), and the reason which is pro- of a direct act of creation, and diflering not posed to those who would answer the question, as that which should govern the choice between their own soul and the whole world, justify our attaching the highest conceivable value and importance to man, as a rational, a moral, an accountable being. In the

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Whewell repudiates the irreligious, idle, and unphilosophical notion that man is merely the result of material development out of a long series of animal existences. This figment Dr. Whewell easily demolishes, on philosophical grounds, in common with all the great scientific men of the age; and having vindicated for man the dignity of his origin, as the result

only in his kind, but in his order, from all other creations, proceeds to consider his relations to his earthily abode. This brings us to the second stage of his argument, to which we now proceed; premising that it necessarily involves considerations relating to the constiDialogue," an objector suggests: tution of man, physically, intellectually, and But in your inclination to make man the morally, and especially as a being of procentre of creation, and the object of all the gressive development. This stage is to be rest of the universe, are you not forgetting found in two chapters of the " Essay," the the admonitions of those who warn us against fifth and sixth, respectively entitled, Geolthis tendency of self-glorification? You will ogy," and "The Argument from Geology,”— recollect how much of this warning there is in both written with uncommon ability, and exthe "Essay on Man":hibiting proofs of the great importance attached to them by the author. Even those who may altogether dissent from his main conclusions, will appreciate the interesting and instructive, the masterly and suggestive outline which he gives of this noble twin-sister of Astronomy,Geology. We are disposed to hazard a conjecture, that the governing idea developed in these chapters, was the origin of the whole speculation to which the "Essay" is devoted.

Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine?
Earth for whose use ? Pride answers "Tis for

mine."

To imagine ourselves of so much consequence in the eyes of the Creator, is natural to us, self-occupied as we are, till philosophy rebukes such conceit." To which it is justly answered: "It is quite right to attend to such

THE ZOUAVES. Who and what are the Zouaves? Are they Africans or Frenchmen, and when were their corps first organized ?—IGNo RAMUS. [The Zouaves are natives of the French provinces of Algiers, disciplined and exercised by French officers, and now forming a part of *Matt. xvi 26. 27

TO BE CONTINUED.]

the French contingent employed in the Crimea and the siege of Sebastopol. They hold exactly the same relation to the French army that the Sepoys in India have to the regular British troops.]-Notes and Queries.

* Dialogue, pp. 53, 54.

From Blackwood's Magazine.
THE SECRET AGENT.*

discontented the people would be to see a change in the system that had so long existed; in fact, that they would never submit to it, and that it would be perilous to attempt it. The ministers, who had served long under the deceased duke and during the whole of the regency of the duchess, were devoted to her. Duke Alfred, young and inexperienced, fell into the snare; and when, after a time, he perceived that he was a mere puppet, and that far from being devotedly attached to his mother's system, the people murmured at his inactivity, and looked to him for the redress of many abuses that had crept in under a government blindly attached to old and time-worn institutions, it had become doubly difficult for him to regain the ground he at first had too easily ceded.

The least attempt of his at independent action, the slightest indication of an intention to govern his own duchy, or even his own palace, was a signal for intrigues to thwart him,-for most respectful but ominous remonstrances on the part of the elderly ministers, to whom, from his infancy, he had been taught to look up as his father's wise and faithful advisers and truest

THE tales and spirited military sketches of Mr. F. W. Hack länder, which in Germany have met with a highly favorable reception, are pretty well known in England, not only to readers of German, but some of them, if we mistake not, through the medium of translations. But we are not aware that Mr. Hackländer's fame as a dramatist has as yet crossed the water. The author of "Guardroom Adventures," "Soldier's Life in Peace-time," and other pleasant volumes, has written two plays, the earliest of which is now before us. We have not had an opportunity of seeing it acted, but it is extremely amusing to read, and must be still more so upon the stage. The leading idea of the piece, upon which the whole plot hinges, is excellent; and Mr. Hackländer, although he may not have made of it all that would have been made had it occurred to a Scribe, deserves great credit for the manner in which he has worked it out. We miss the wit and sparkle that a French dramatist would have thrown into the dialogue, and to which the French language is more favorable friends,-and for a display of shattered nerves on than the German. It occurs to us more than once, in the course of the five acts, that the play would have been more effective (and quite long enough) in three; but we admire and heartily laugh at the capital situations and quid pro quos in which it abounds. From an early period of the piece there is little difficulty in foreseeing how it will end. Its author has not aimed at startling his audience by an unexpected catastrophe, but has preferred tickling them by a succession of ludicrous complications, for which he cleverly keeps them unprepared. Throughout the play the spectator is, in one sense, behind the scenes. He is in the confidence of the two lovers, who combine to mystify an imperious and ambitious dowager and a set of time-serving ministers and courtiers, more bent on keeping their places, than on doing their duty to their Sovereign. The harmless and ingenious contrivances by which the duke and his pretty cousin outwit and frighten with a shadow the experienced prime-minister and the court chamberlain of thirty years' standing, are all exposed to the amused eyes of the audience as soon as they are put in practice. The play is one of intrigue, not of mystery, and little is left to conjecture; but the interest is sustained to the very end, and would be still more vivid and incessant if some of the scenes were shortened and the three-act form adopted.

the part of his mother, a stout, resolute, loudvoiced old lady, who enjoyed the health of a milkmaid, but whose voice dwindled and grew tremulous, and who could hardly cross the room without assistance, as soon as her son showed a disposition to have a way of his own. Thus beset and cramped, the unlucky Duke, nominally regnant, but far from dominant, knew not how to break the meshes that environed him. He was a cipher at his own court; the ministers assembled in council in his mother's apartments; the most important decisions were come to without his being consulted. In smaller matters, too, he met with systematic opposition; for it was feared that, if he once tasted the sweets of a little power, he might grow greedy and grasp at more. Young, generous, and loving to see cheerful faces around him, he gave orders that his palace-gardens should be open to the public, and that the band of his regiment of body-guards should play there on Sundays, and he himself took pleasure in walking amongst the people. The Premier, Count Steinhausen, held this for a dangerous innovation, because it had been made on the Duke's sole authority. Had he been first consulted, he confidentially informed his old friend and particular crony, the Grand Chamberlain, he should have found it the most fitting and natural thing in the world to afford the people so innocent a recreation. But, done without The sovereign of a German State has been for his previous approbation, he looked upon the many years dead, and his son sits in his place, opening of the gardens as improper,-upon the but can hardly be said to reign in his stead. playing of the band as a desecration of the SabDuring Duke Ålfred's long minority, and during | bath. He would have done better to have left an extensive tour he subsequently made, the his sovereign at liberty to act as he pleased, at dowager duchess held the reins of state. On his least within his own private domain. His perreturn, she reluctantly resigned to him the name sistent remonstrances exasperated the Duke. of ruler and the appearance of authority, but They were supported by the duchess, whose she resigned to him no more. He was told how

* Der Geheime Agent, Lustspiel in funf Aufzugen. Von F. W. Hacklander. (The Secret Agent, a Comedy, in five ncts.) Stuttgart, Krabbe; London, Williams and Norgate, 1851.

feeble nerves could not endure the noise of the music and the coarse merriment of the crowd.

Her son yielded, but not until he had made up his mind to put an end to the sort of slavery in which he lived.

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