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Article HISTORICAL VIEWS OF PROGRESS. Page 1 of 6 →
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Historical Views Of Progress.
HISTORICAL VIEWS OF PROGRESS .
OUTLINES OF LECTURE II . BY RICHARD HART . It would save mankind a vast deal of aimless hypothesis ancl causeless conjecture , if , instead of endeavouring to improve theoretically upon the wisdom of the mode in which the affairs of the world proceed , they were to take things simply as they are or have been , ancl reason upon them as accomplished facts . Butinstead of pursuing this common
, sense and obvious course , they are constantly occupied in presenting them in some new and unreal point of view , leaving out some of the main ancl essential facts , or adding new and suppositious circumstances ; in fact , enacting Hamlet with the part of Hamlet omitted , ancl then drawing inconclusive and practically worthless conclusions , from which no lessons of wisdom or guidance for the future can be extracted by the shrewdest alchemy of intellectual research and investigation .
Take a recent instance . The fall of Louis Phillippe . We have had it pronounced with all the force of oracular wisdom ancl ex post facto prophecy , that if Louis Phillippe had remained firm , if he had not dismissed his Ministers , if ihe troops had been kept well in hand , if they had not been forbidden to fire upon the people , he , Louis Phillippe , would still have been king of the French , the barricades and the men of the faubourgs notwithstanding .
Here is a bundle of ifs , for the contemplation of which we are asked to lose sight of broad realities and substantial facts . Ancl to what end forsooth ? To the end that we may lose the knowledge to be gained from the study of practical truths in speculations upon airy and substantial nothings , which , at the first touch of memory would fade away , and ,
like the baseless fabric of a vision , leave not a wreck behind . What boots it to us to know what Louis Phillippe might have been , if he had done something whieh he did not do , when we know what he did and what he is ? The past life of Louis Phillippe—his clinging to peace and peaceful professions , in the midst of preparations for war- —his tortuous and underground policy—his daring , where he had craftily before-hand
satisfied himself that the risk was small—his unscrupulousness in following out his designs—his false confidence in the firmness and stability of his overturned power , were all the natural and introductory steps to that blindness of danger , when it stood within arm ' s length of him—to that persistence in despotic purposes—to that facility with which he sacrificed his advisers which preceded his fall from power . He had ascended the ladder step by step , till his foot was upon the
topmost round , and then , more intent upon further ascent , than upon the means of ascending , he strove to mount still higher , found that there was no support for his footing , and fell . The causes had arrived at their culminating point , the measure was full , ancl the effect followed . He had strict stern justice meted out to him , in the form of cause and effect ; the chain of circumstance was formedhe himself was a linkand with it his power was dragged
, , down . We know all this , what need then of teasing us with ifs , which never were and never can be aught else ? No ! let us cease to perplex ourselves about what would and might have been , ancl seek to know what has been , what is , and what must be . Let us descard the unsubstantial chimeras ancl phantom fancies ol VOL . vi . 3 p
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Historical Views Of Progress.
HISTORICAL VIEWS OF PROGRESS .
OUTLINES OF LECTURE II . BY RICHARD HART . It would save mankind a vast deal of aimless hypothesis ancl causeless conjecture , if , instead of endeavouring to improve theoretically upon the wisdom of the mode in which the affairs of the world proceed , they were to take things simply as they are or have been , ancl reason upon them as accomplished facts . Butinstead of pursuing this common
, sense and obvious course , they are constantly occupied in presenting them in some new and unreal point of view , leaving out some of the main ancl essential facts , or adding new and suppositious circumstances ; in fact , enacting Hamlet with the part of Hamlet omitted , ancl then drawing inconclusive and practically worthless conclusions , from which no lessons of wisdom or guidance for the future can be extracted by the shrewdest alchemy of intellectual research and investigation .
Take a recent instance . The fall of Louis Phillippe . We have had it pronounced with all the force of oracular wisdom ancl ex post facto prophecy , that if Louis Phillippe had remained firm , if he had not dismissed his Ministers , if ihe troops had been kept well in hand , if they had not been forbidden to fire upon the people , he , Louis Phillippe , would still have been king of the French , the barricades and the men of the faubourgs notwithstanding .
Here is a bundle of ifs , for the contemplation of which we are asked to lose sight of broad realities and substantial facts . Ancl to what end forsooth ? To the end that we may lose the knowledge to be gained from the study of practical truths in speculations upon airy and substantial nothings , which , at the first touch of memory would fade away , and ,
like the baseless fabric of a vision , leave not a wreck behind . What boots it to us to know what Louis Phillippe might have been , if he had done something whieh he did not do , when we know what he did and what he is ? The past life of Louis Phillippe—his clinging to peace and peaceful professions , in the midst of preparations for war- —his tortuous and underground policy—his daring , where he had craftily before-hand
satisfied himself that the risk was small—his unscrupulousness in following out his designs—his false confidence in the firmness and stability of his overturned power , were all the natural and introductory steps to that blindness of danger , when it stood within arm ' s length of him—to that persistence in despotic purposes—to that facility with which he sacrificed his advisers which preceded his fall from power . He had ascended the ladder step by step , till his foot was upon the
topmost round , and then , more intent upon further ascent , than upon the means of ascending , he strove to mount still higher , found that there was no support for his footing , and fell . The causes had arrived at their culminating point , the measure was full , ancl the effect followed . He had strict stern justice meted out to him , in the form of cause and effect ; the chain of circumstance was formedhe himself was a linkand with it his power was dragged
, , down . We know all this , what need then of teasing us with ifs , which never were and never can be aught else ? No ! let us cease to perplex ourselves about what would and might have been , ancl seek to know what has been , what is , and what must be . Let us descard the unsubstantial chimeras ancl phantom fancies ol VOL . vi . 3 p