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Untitled Article
justice tb his philosophy , if we did not state that , in its general spirit , it is full of hope for the future interests of human nature . The value of his work appears to us to consist far more in its collateral suggestions , and in oblique glances on the diversified topics that come before him in pursuing his subject , than in any general conclusions of great importance , which he succeeds in establishing . His favourite position , which is so incessantly
repeated , that in every age and in every country humanity has invariably exhibited , under the combined influence of climate , physical exigency , and tradition , all the effects of which it was capable , is little more than an identical proposition . In this fundamental axiom ,. if it may be so called , is wrapped up the necessarian principle of his philosophy ; but conjoined with a firm belief in the tendency of human nature to improve , and in its original fitness for the exercise of reason and virtue . In his view , the
great hinderance to the improvement of mankind , and more especially of individual man , an object which he never loses sight of in a zeal for the perfection of the species , has always arisen from the violent interruptions , occasioned by wars and oppressions , to the course originally marked out by nature . The necessary and eternal distinctions of climate , according to him , are sacred , and should be inviolable ; so that , while he contends that all men are
destined for a progressive amelioration , the mode , the course , the degree of that amelioration , cannot be universally the same , but must vary with the varying exigencies of time and place . Happily , as he observes , the distinctive are less powerful than the conservative agencies of society ; what corrupts and debases , is perishable—what nourishes and blesses mankind , is lasting .
In proceeding with the history of European civilization , a new object attracts our regards , in the original population of " the western provinces of the Roman empire ; and had we time , it would be interesting to give some account of Herder ' s speculations on the Basque tribes , the Gaels , the Cymri , the Finns , Germans , and Sclavonians ; but the space which we have still left , we must devote to a subject of more importance—the origin and influence of Christianity . We give Herder ' s own words : —
* Although it seems extraordinary that a revolution of such extensive influence as Christianity should have originated in a country so despised as Judaea , yet , upon a nearer survey , we discover historical reasons for the fact . This revolution was a spiritual one ; and , contemptible as the Jewish people might seem to
the Greeks and Romans , it was their peculiar distinction among all the nations of Europe and Asia , to possess writings of the highest antiquity , on which their civil constitution was founded , and which gave rise , in accordance with the principles of this constitution , to a peculiar species of knowledge and literature . Neither the Greeks nor the Romans possessed a similar code of religious and political enactments , bourid up with the most ancient
Untitled Article
The Philosophy of the History of Mankind . 228
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1832, page 223, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1810/page/7/
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