union which man is endowed for forming with his fellowman by means of the divided application of labour, or the mutual and general support and reliance which emanate from an agreed adoption of separated employments, and an agreed exchange of commodities, do not appear to have received any recognition by the minds of that class of writers, or statesmen, or of theological professors, of whom the modern school of Social and Political Economy is composed.

With regard to the all-important social law here referred to, I have been engaged in directing attention to its constitution, and in showing the necessity there is that this law, or rule of action, should be attached to the simple fact of production, in order that a right and beneficial appropriation of the multiplied elements which the earth contains, and which are nurtured and matured by her varied climates, shall be insured to man, who is intrusted with them for his use and enjoyment.

This law, which is that of degree or proportions, conducts to a clear perception of that beautiful social connexion and support in the action and in the condition of man, which was, and is, intended to be formed and to be cemented by means of the appropriation of the material things of the world by human labour, directed by human desire and will. I have now to adduce a very remarkable and complete corroboration of my argument from the works of a writer who, it may be presumed, had not directed his attention, in any special manner, to the science of Social and Political Economy. He was a man, however, whose spirit soared so far above the low sphere of general human contemplation, —who, by the power of an intuition unequalled in the range of mere human intelligence, commanded such an extensive view of both moral and physical law, of divine and human truth, that the instance of his genius which I am about to adduce,

need not excite surprise. The writer to whom I allude is Shakspeare. In his play of "Troilus and Cressida," he has to describe a scene where the Greek chiefs are assembled in council for the purpose of discussing the causes of the want of success on the part of the Greeks, in their attempts to conquer the Trojan army. He selects Ulysses as his chief speaker, and in an address to the council, delivered by this warrior and statesman, the cause of weakness and failure, together with the cause of strength and success, having to be shown, the poet has selected the two principles whose agency I have elucidated, and has dwelt with peculiar force upon the character and operation of each. These are, the good and sustaining principle on the one side; and the uncreating and destructive principle on the other; the one being that of conjunction or union, the other that of disunion, confliction, or competition. The delineation is minute, accurate, and forcible, and in the highest degree philosophical and beautiful. The passages given in altered letters are done so by me. The description is as follows:

"Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down,

VOL. I.

And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master

But for these instances.

The speciality of rule hath been neglected:

And look how many Grecian tents do stand

Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.
When that the general is not like the hive,

To whom the foragers shall all repair,

What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.

The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,
Observe DEGREE, priority, and place;

Insisture, course, PROPORTION, season, form,

Office, and custom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthroned and sphered
Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye

D D

Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,

And posts, like the commandment of a King,

Sans check, to good and bad. But when the planets
In evil mixture to disorder wander,

What plagues and what portents! what mutiny!
What raging of the sea, shaking of earth!

Commotion in the winds! frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate

THE UNITY AND MARRIED CALM OF STATES,

Quite from their fixture! O, when degree is shak'd,
Which is the ladder of all high designs,

The enterprise is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree stand in authentick place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,

And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy. The bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores
And make a sop of all this solid globe.
Strength should be lord of imbecility,

And the rude son should strike his father dead, Force should be right; or, rather, right and wrong (Between whose endless jar justice resides)

Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then everything includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;

And appetite, an universal wolf,

So doubly seconded with will and power,

Must make perforce an universal prey,

And, last, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
This chaos, when degree is suffocate,

Follows the choaking.

And this neglection of degree it is,

That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose
It hath to climb. The General's disdain'd
By him one step below; he, by the next;
That next, by him beneath; so every step
Exampled by the first pace that is sick
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever,
Of pale and bloodless emulation:

And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length,

Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength."

It is not necessary that I should comment, at any length, upon the above noble composition. The comprehensiveness, beauty, and truth of the ideas, conveyed to us by the most expressive language, are derived by a perception and knowledge of the character and operation of original and eternal natural law. The description here given will be recognised and deeply felt by all whose natures contain any leaven of genius. In the cases of those persons whose feelings have become contracted and withered, by the blighting influence and power of self-love, and whose intellects are occupied and choked by false and dull matter, there will be a total imperviousness to the admission of all the truth that is contained in these noble thoughts; but in these cases, the difficulty of perception will arise out of the inaptitude of the recipient whose purification and elevation are not to be effected by any description, or mere human argument, that can be adduced and placed before them.

is

The part of the passage to which I will first draw attention "the speciality of rule." These words require much meditation to be applied to them. It may then be seen that they have a meaning the most comprehensive, as they signify the great principle-operating both generally and specially

which is essential to be superinduced over the actions of every community of people. The poet declares, that this speciality of rule" can be realised only by the strict observance and fulfilment of a great universal law. He thus describes it:

"Degree being vizarded,

The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.

The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,
Observe degree, priority, and place;

Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,

Office and custom, in all line of order."

Having thus described the beneficial and all-regulating

agency which the law is ordained to exercise over every department of the natural sphere, insuring construction and preservation, he proceeds next to describe the consequences of a departure from this law of union and just proportion. His description is thus:

"But when the planets

In evil mixture to disorder wander,

What plagues and what portents! what mutiny!
What raging of the sea! shaking of earth!
Commotions in the winds! frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate,

The unity and married calm of states,

Quite from their fixture! O, when degree is shak'd
Which is the ladder of all high designs,

The enterprise is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree stand in authentick place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,

And, hark! what discord follows! each thing meet:
In mere oppugnancy."

Having thus described the evil effects that result both from a neglection and infraction of the great law, the poet then applies the law to the subject of Social and Political Economy, to political philosophy, or the general welfare of nations, comprising the vast interests of a nation in one most expressive line, which is this::

"The unity and married calm of states ; '

thus maintaining, under a beautiful metaphor, that the principle by which the interests of persons who are joined together in communities and kingdoms, are constructed and cemented, is ONE, and is identical with that by which persons united in marriage are bound together.

In describing the consequences that result from a rejection