defective diffusion of wealth and civilisation which has been attained. Here, again, we are necessarily brought to a consideration of that condition of human affairs which is specially treated of in the holy writings, but which so few men have shown themselves inclined to view in the light there presented to the world, or under the operating influence of faith, so as to receive and understand the explanation, together with the great social principle, there delivered. Here, again, as in other instances, our writers on Political Economy, in order to command and sustain their own false views, and impotent attempts to elucidate the principles of human action and association, or, I ought rather to say, in order to persuade men that there is no such thing as truth, principle, or general law, and that, under this deficiency, they may act freely or wholly without truth, principle, or general law are under the necessity of casting the great fact of a natural impediment placed in the way of natural development -nature, as they would say, acting contrary to herself into the region of obscurity; and so keep all men as ignorant of the meaning of this great fact as they themselves are ignorant of it. The reader will remember that I have lately quoted from the work of Adam Smith a passage having reference to this great branch of the subject, by which I showed that this writer, who could undertake to perform what he called an elucidation of the causes causes of the creation of "The Wealth of Nations," was unable to give any explanation of the manner in which men OUGHT to have used, and ought now to use, the faculty of speech and reason; for he declared merely that the division and subdivision of labour, or the judicious course of distributing employment, by which men had been able to build up the power of nations in the way it has been built up, might be a result of the faculties of speech and reason, but that no clear or intelligible account could be given of it. But this bad and mean course this begging to have the field of ignorance granted as the field of knowledge and of action - a course so often resorted to by our writers on Political Economy - and so indispensable for keeping themselves afloat will not do. The great fact of a natural impediment raised against human communication has to be brought prominently forward and explained, the necessity for it discerned, and the practical wisdom of it gratefully acknowledged. In the early part of that historical description of the events of the world, and of human social progress, which is conveyed by the holy writings, information is transmitted to us of the reason why such an extraordinary impediment to human action and association, as that which is presented by the confusion of language, was raised and enforced so that it has operated most powerfully throughout the whole course of man's action upon the earth, and operates powerfully now. It is declared to us, that this great impediment against natural action was raised for the purpose of counteracting or diminishing the flood of evil consequences which man would entail on his race by reason of the indulgence in unjust ambition, or a desire and a determination to do and to enjoy great things to adopt his own suggestions and inventions. regardless of that divine law which is ordained for influencing and guiding all action, and without which all action, instead of being to general society of a good, useful, and sustaining character, is bad and injurious. The impediment, therefore, was implanted on the foundation of mercy, and though not operating actively for this could be done only by the true and just spirit — has operated restrainingly, and so has prevented man from doing a great deal of the wrong and mischief to his own race which he would have done if this impediment against his bad communication and progress had not been established. - The significant part of that passage of the holy writings. where the confusion of language is alluded to, is contained in those words by which the reason is given for the necessity of the great impediment and obstruction to the intercommunication of human thought, and the conjunction of human social action, being raised. If, on any occasion, a slight attempt be made to discuss the subject on its merits, or to elicit and apply its truth, then an evasion is advanced on the ground that the dispensation under which we now live is different from that of fore time, that we believe in, hold, and have to diffuse, true religion: the religion brought and delivered to the world by Jesus Christ. But then, when the mind is directed to, and an examination made of, the general motive by which men are actuated in desiring a destruction of the language-barrier, and when the general social course which is proposed as the issue of the contemplated free and full intercommunication of all people, is also investigated and made apparent, then prevarication is found to be necessary, and is resorted to; for the undeniable motive is, the acquisition of money together with the acquisition of more pleasure and enjoyment. It is true, indeed, that whenever and wherever we go we carry with us the book of truth, this remaining unchanged by us, but the main practical question is - How do we interpret this book? what course of social action, or what sense and practical truth, do we extract from it? Unhappily, there is another book that is, on all occasions, carried side by side with God's book of truth. This book is the human heart. A false interpretation of the true book is made, and this false interpretation is received and cherished, because it has been made to coincide with men's own opinions, habits, desires, or lusts. The interpretation extant, received, and influential, is that which suits the varied commercial markets of the world. But we see on all sides the pretext of the diffusion of religion advanced, and some there are, no doubt, who advance it sincerely, but this is not the general fact, the general motive, or the general object. This pretext of promoting religion, and civilisation by means of it, has in all ages been advanced, and glory claimed for it. Thus when Cortèz, and his Spanish companions, opened communication with the people of Southern America, it was thought and declared to be a good and glorious privilege to convey a knowledge of the Gospel to the poor benighted heathen of that region. And so it was. But what was the main motive, what the conduct of the Spanish adventurers, as well as of those who have followed them? Did the motive consist of pure love? Did the conduct exhibit, and has it since exhibited, Christian action? Was Christian-Christian -civilisation promoted? The page of history, read down to the present moment, supplies the answer. I will now adduce the passage of the holy writings where the fact of the confusion of language is recorded. The words are as follow: "The people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do." The great matter alluded to by the words "this they begin to do," is the proud, ambitious, and self-glorifying attempt of constructing the Tower of Babel. Under this figure, offering as it does an ever-standing fact of a people resolving on, and doing, that which their own imaginations suggest- adopting license instead of law and so casting aside social duty -- — in fluenced mainly, if not wholly, by their own lust and pleasure, * Genesis, xi. 7. is precisely that principle and course which are involved in that free action embodied and commended in our prevailing system of Political Economy. All religion the duty owing from man to his Creator, in the first place; and then the social duty owing from man to his fellow-man in the next place; is especially excluded from this system; and then men are taught and persuaded to believe that this system of free suggestion, free projection, free invention, free production, and free consumption, or general free action,- all these being comprised by the principle and system of free communion or free trade, is the beneficial system. The apprehensive and philosophical mind of Lord Bacon, -taking a far more extensive and correct view of the human character, and of the construction of human society, than has been taken by our modern philosophical writers — was able to see clearly the reason why the great impediment to human communication and to human coaction-the Confusion of Language was raised, and that it constituted a necessary, salutary, and wise restraint and infliction. The great philosopher understood the character of human ambition - bad ambition-the unsocial and destructive character and operation of this ambition; the ambition issuing from covetousness, against the unjust action of which passion the confusion of language was a formidable, though not an insuperable, barrier. It was under this perception and conviction, that Bacon wrote as follows:-"In the age after the flood the first great judgment of God upon the ambition of man was the confusion of tongues, whereby the open trade and intercourse of learning and knowledge was chiefly imbarred." Thus, it is shown that this great man discerned the true and useful character of the great barrier that was specially raised by God himself * * Lord Bacon's Works, Advancement of Learning, vol. i. p. 42. |