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    transparent talk only , and that the beautiful manners he described belonged to an entirely different world from this . " Property makes man a conqueror , a sovereign . "Now Property as an institution of human society expresses or grows out of this instinct of sovereignty in man . While the instinct is as yet misunderstood or unrecognised by the individual , while its full issues are as yet unimagined by him , Bociety lends all her force to educate it under this form of an aspiration after property , or a desire to appropriate to oneself land , houses , money , precious stones , and whatsoever else evidences one ' s power over nature . From the beginning of history , society has known no other function than this , the conservation of the right of private property against the encroachments of merely natural might . Society is

    the bulwark which human instinct erects against the forces of outward nature . It is the weapon by which man subdues nature to himself , to the service of his proper infinitude . Look at the moral law for example which lies at the basis of society , and you immediately perceive that its operation is to impose limits upon natural desire , or forbid it invading the bounds of neighbouring property . It says to every man thou shalt not take , nor even desire or covet , anything that is thy neighbour's . Thus the moral law is nothing more nor less than an affirmation of the sacredness of private property . It virtually asserts an individuality in man superior to that conferred by his nature . Hence , as I said before , the sole function of society from the beginning has been to guard the interests of property , or elevate human life above the condition of a mere natural community , a mere community of natural interests .

    " Let my meaning be clearly understood . I say that the entire aim and business of society hitherto has been to guard the interests of property , or to discriminate sharply between might and right . And I further say that the reason why society makes this discrimination , the reason why it has so jealously espoused the interests of private property , is , that property has always symbolized man ' s destined sovereignty over nature , of which sovereignty society or fellowship among men is the indispensable means or instrument . You all know that either of you individually would be totally incompetent to the subjugation of nature ; that all your present enjoyment of its bounties , the food you eat , the raiment you put on , the house you live in , the streets and roads you traverse , the tools you use , the books you read , the words you employ for the expression of your feelings and thoughts , are all the outgrowth of an organized fellowship or society among men . You will easily understand me therefore when I say that man ' s destined sovereignty over nature can never come about except by society , that society or fellowship among men is its indispensable means , or instrument .

    " Property then symbolizes this destined sovereignty . But here you may ask , ' why symbolizes it ? Why may not Property be a final fact itself , symbolizin g nothing ? You yourself showed a little while ago how universally men respected it : Why , therefore , should it not end in itself , having no ulterior significance ?' " The answer is plain . Men are ashamed of the respect they pay it . Property cannot be a final fact of history , cannot be a good in itself , cannot be a divine end in humanity , because every man , in proportion to his inward culture , in proportion to his genius , is ashamed of the deference he pays it . He feels this deference to be a mere trick of his servile and scullion nature , and inwardly or individually renounces it every time it recurs . The fact is that it is only among the lowest persons intellectually , persons in whom the sensuous imagination predominates , that you find any open profession of respect for it left . Among slaves , in fact among negroes as a class , and among the retainers of great families , in short among all persons in whom self-respect has never been developed or fostered , it still exerts an unrebuked dominion . But there it stops . No man of refinement allows it any indulgence .

    " But there is another reason why private property cannot be considered a final fact of humanity . And this is that in proportion to its magnitude , it tends to belittle the possessor by overlaying his true sovereignty , his true humanitary attributes . " A man of very large possessions , unless he lias come into them by inheritance , is almost wholly absorbed by them . Instead of being rendered free and careless , his life is a perpetual servitude . His whole energy becomes demanded by the care of his property , while he himself gradually lapses from unqualified manhood into the mere man of money . I believe from information that one of the richest men in town superintends the daily progress of his children in education , and reads Homer with his boys in the original . But he inherited his property . He who made it had notoriously little time for Homer , or any other elegant accomplishment . Now clearly no one can suppose that to bo a final good , or a good in itself , which the more it in jKXsscnfied becomes u burden to the possessor , and the more it is prized becomes u degradation to him .

    " Ah a general thing therefore we may say , the larger the possessions the smaller the man . The more luggage a man has with him , the greater we may conclude is his distance from home . Hence Jesus of Nazareth , who alone hi history lias aflirined the essential divinity of man , not as a dogma but as a practical truth pregnant with incalculable consequences to the kingdoms of this world , staggered the fairest pretenders by liia searching criticism . On one occasion , wo find a young man adorned with every inornl excellency fitted to attract the love of Jesus , presenting himself before him with a view to ascertain how he should iichiuvc everlasting life . Jesus told him to sell all that he had , or to abandon alibis ] K ) sscssions , and follow him . Hut the youth drew buck sorrowful , because his possessions wore very great . Whereupon the Christ uttered his famous reflection upon the difficulty those who were rich must encounter in entering the divine kingdom .

    " Clearly they who stop in the letter hero will be grievously mistaken . They who see no riches more dangerous than money , have yet to learn the alphabet , of ChriHtiimity . It is not our pecuniary possessions but our moral ones chietly , that play the traitor to our manhood . When 1 stand remarkably well with my fellows for piety and good morals , it is extremely hard for me to l > elieve that , the divino life will not pay n greater deference to me than to one who is completely destitute of Huch standing . But it is u great mistake , a mistake fatal to true manhood . Doubtless I . deserve greatly better at the- bunds of society , of society us at present constituted , than my antagonist , because I support nil her institutions . And society actually gives me my deserts , pronounces me an eminently good man . But if I thereupon suppose that tin * moral wealth of mine , extremely valuable as it inny bo for the maintenance of an imperfect social condition , is going to further ni ) 1 upward success , is going <<> give ine any God-ward advantage over thieves and hiu-Iotrt , I simply mistake a fundamental feature of the divine perfection , which is to bo thankful for nothing . The Deity gives us all things in giving Jlhmclf to uh , in giving uh a selfhood , and hence He takes it oh n doubtful compliment when any

    one attempts to eke out that gift , or make it more resplendent by the contrast of another ' s natural or moral infirmity . " The socialism he rather hints at than proclaims , is of a reli gious cha racter , which would demand more space than we can afford to set forth intelligibly ; let us rather glance at the way he disposes of the " envy " argument . " The source of envy is always arbitrary privilege . It is always inflamed by some purely conventional superiority allowed one person over others . You never envy the power or genius of another ; you envy him some special outward advantage or privilege he enjoys .

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    " In a true society or fellowship among men , then , envy would be impossible , because no arbitrary distinctions , no such thing as exclusive privilege , in which alone envy has its source , would exist . Why would not these things exist ? Because a true society , a society scientifically organized , would confer no unequal property , no exclusive privilege upon its subjects . That is to say , a true society would guarantee to every man , woman , and child , for the whole term of hia natural life , food , clothing , shelter , and the opportunities of an education adapted to his tastes j leaving all the distinction he might achieve to himself , to his own genius freely influencing the homage of his fellow men . Where society observed this wisdom , all envy would at once disappear . Its provender would be cut off .

    Remove the incitements it now finds in privilege , in arbitrary advantage , and you would no more see one man envious of another than you now see the nose envious of the ear , or the hand envious of the brain . In short let genius become the hierarchical principle , and constitute the sole measure of one's social distinction ; and society would instantly become orderly . For genius ( by which term all along you observe I mean nothing technical in man , but simply his power of ideal action , his faculty of acting without reference either to passion or appetite , and solely with reference " to the infinite beauty , the infinite goodness and truth , which animates his soul ) constitutes the real presence of God in man , and all men therefore acknowledge it with a spontaneous devotion . "

    We will conclude with one more passage :- — " A great dread besets the European mind , lest the people , in case of a succesful insurrection against authority , should plunge into the maddest disorder , and sweep from the earth at one blow all the trophies and memorials of our past civilization . I cannot but believe that this fear vitally wrongs the popular instincts . There is doubtless a scum and froth of society attaching to both extremes , rich and poor alike , which is prone to every excess ; but this would instantly disappear the moment that the true substantial manhood of both sides should be allowed to flow

    together in loving fraternity , by the destruction of the puny prejudices which now divide them . This scum , this froth , grows on either side out of this unhappy division . It attests the attrition of two forces which are essentially one and should know therefore no divided interests . It strikes me consequently that in any decisive uprising of the people , both sides alike would instantly unite to rid themselves of this factitious and disorderly element . The European revolution of 1848 indeed fully justified this prevision . The thief , or the destructionist of whatever sort , when refractory to counsel , was instantly shot down to show that the will of the people when freely expressed is the will of God , and tolerates no lower

    righteousness . " But it seems to me that there can be no just apprehension of disorder in regard to the great mass of mankind , whether rich or poor . Property is universally felt to be a prime monument and measure of man ' s essential divinity , marking the extent of his conquest of nature . It is so much clear gain for mankind , so much actual advance upon primeval chaos and night . It is indeed very unscientifically distributed as yet , distributed in such a manner as to provoke incessant vice and crime : but this is because the symbol still absorbs the regftrd which is due only to the substance . Man's true proprium or property is his selfhood , is God within him , in other words , the inseparable fountain of hia life . H | s natural proprium or

    apparent selfhood is simply a basis for the due manifestation of this essential one . Hence when human fellowship or society is perfect , our natural or external proprium will be commensurate with our inward or divine one ; that is to say , the whole earth with all the resources of society will be the equal heritage of every man . Now property as a symbol or type is bound of course to obey tlie law of its antitype : is bound , that is , to become more and more equally distributed amongst the great mass of society . But clearly this is to be done only by the legislative application of scientific principles , and not by the brutal dissipation of the thing distributed . " We must reserve for a future article his Lectures on the OJd and New Theology .

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    ARE THE STARS INHABITED ? JZlcctricity and the Electric Telegraph ; to which is added , The Chemistry of the Stars . By Dr . George Wilson . ( The Traveller's Library . ) Longman and Co . If the wisest of ancient philosophers could but take up this little volume , and understand its two essays ( an If as immense in rpgard to intellectual distance as to distance in time ) , he would marvel indped at the development of science in this " our wondrous mother age , " and would rccoginso the truth contained in the noble lines" For I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs , And the thoughts of wen are widened by the process of the huiih . "

    The Electric Telegraph , the wonder of applied science , and tho Chemistry of the Stars , one of the wonders of tho inquisitorial intellect piercing into tho dim remotenesses of space ! 13 ut our present object « s not to picture the elevated eyebrows of ancient phil osophy . Wo wish to call attention to two popular and interesting cssayg , and more especially to that one which undertakes to answer the question of tho universality ot organic life . Dr . George Wilson is an eloquent and thoughtful writer , and his essay on tho Mlectric Telegraph , which created a sensation on its iirst appearance in tho . / Edinburgh Review , will bo perhaps more generally appreciated than his essay on tho Chemistry of tho Stars ( somewhat loosely named ) , which we now propose to notice .

    it is difficult for man to relinquish tho old notion of tho universe being made subordinate to him , and made wholly for him . When science know little more of the stars than that thoy were the gaslights as well as tho poetry of heaven , " this notion of supremacy obtained ready crodence . When science brought its telescopic revelations to show" that

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    782 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 14, 1852, page 782, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1947/page/18/