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Untitled Article
God , who has ordered everything' in nature according to measure , weight , and number , who , according to these principles , has regulated the essence of things , their form and connexion , their course and subsistence , so that from the vast fabric of the universe to the smallest particle of dust ; from the power , which holds earths and suns together , to the most delicate fibre of the spider ' s web , there is only one governing spirit of wisdom , goodness , and power ; who , moreover , in . the structure of the human soul and body , has so wonderfully planned all things , that , when we venture even from afar to trace the purposes
of the All-wise , we are lost in the abyss of his thoughts , that such a Being , in the general destination and ordering of our race , should deviate from his course of wisdom and goodness , and act here without a plan ? From my youth these thoughts possessed me , and every new work , which appeared on the history of mankind , and in which I looked for contributions to the development of my favourite idea , was to me a discovered treasure . I rejoiced to perceive that this species of philosophical inquiry was latterly coming more into vogue , and
availed myself of every assistance which circumstances offered . My
book will , however , shew that in the present state of our knowledge , no complete system of the philosophy of history can be written ; it may be , perhaps , at the close of a hundred or a thousand years . ' With that excursive flight of imagination , which was peculiar to him , Herder deduces his philosophy , as he himself expresses it , from heaven , and occupies the two or three first chapters of
his work with some speculations on the relative position of our earth in the solar system , on the agencies of the atmosphere by which it is encompassed , and on the revolutions which it has probably undergone , before it became the dwelling-place of man . As it is the moral wisdom rather than the physiology of Herder , that we are desirous of recommending to the notice of our readers ,
and as most of these topics have since his time been discussed with superior , ' science and more extended observation , we shall not pursue him through this part of his work . After noticing the direction of the principal mountain-chains .
as the skeleton or frame work on which the continental masses of the Old and New Worlds have been formed , he thus points out the subserviency of physical geography to correct views of the progress of society , and shows how closely natural and civil history are connected . 'Nature has laid down , as it were , the rough but fixed ground-plan of the whole of human history , and of its revolutions , in the direction
which she has given to the mountain ranges , and to the streams , which she has poured down their sides . How nations here and there broke through their original limits and discovered broader lands—How they advanced along the course of streams , and in fruitful spots built huts , villages , and towns—How they entrenched themselves , in a manner , between mountains and deserts , with perhaps a river in the midst , and then called the region , which nature and habitude had thus insulated for them , their own—How , in such places , varying according to the character of the country , different modes of life , and , finally , states sprung up , till at last , mankind reached the ocean , and were compelled
Untitled Article
The Philosophy of the History of Mankind V 37
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1832, page 37, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1804/page/37/
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