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* All that can be said is , that Providence employed the Roman state and the Latin tongue , as a bridge on which might be conveyed to us some portion of the treasures of the ancient world The bridge was the worst that could have been chosen ; since its very erection has robbed us of the greatest part of that , of which it was designed to be the passage . The Romans destroyed and
were destroyed ; but the destroyers cannot be the preservers of the world . They roused and exasperated all nations , till at last they became their prey ; and Providence wrought no miracle on their behalf . Let us then consider this like every other natural phenomenon , whose causes and consequences we would freely investigate , without fitting it to some arbitrarily assumed plan .
. The Romans were what they were capable of being ; with them everything perished or subsisted , which must perish or which must subsist . Ages roll onward , and with them that child of ages , multiform humanity . Everything has blossomed on earth , that could blossom , —everything in its season and in its sphere ; it has passed its flowering , and will blossom again when its season returns . The work of Providence moves forward in its eternal
course , according to grand and universal laws . ' * Herder was favourably inclined to the doctrine of Spinoza ; and perhaps the traces of this tendency are visible in the species of necessity which he appears to inculcate in the foregoing extract . He has also ventured upon pretty strong language , in order to expose the extravagances of those philosophers , who ^ like Candide , find in all things , without discrimination , proofs of
le meilleur des mondes possibles . We too perceive the influence of his favourite doctrine , that there is a natural correspondence between the manners and institutions of a people , and their climate and geographical position , which cannot be violated with impunity . But either we do not clearly apprehend Herder ' s
meaning , or his reasonings in this part of his work are confused and inconclusive ! The diversities observable among different nations are often only diversities of ignorance and barbarism ; and , while we are far from thinking with certain theoretical reformers , that the perfection of humanity will be attained by raising it everywhere to one fixed and uniform standard , to the total destruction
of all national distinctions ; yet it must surely be admitted , that a free exchange of ideas between distant communities , arising from their use of a language reciprocally understood , tends to equalise their respective advantages , and so far to assimilate their condition and character , as to qualify them for the enjoyment of common blessings . We may conceive , moreover , that , in the sluggish state in which men commence their social career , no agencies , but those of war and conquest , would be sufficiently powerful to break down the barriers of nature , and bring remote countries
* Book XIV . vi . pp . 271—5 .
Untitled Article
The Philosophy of the History of Mankind . 221
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1832, page 221, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1810/page/5/
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