Page:Aesthetic Papers.djvu/108

98 From this statement, the dangers to which our political system is exposed are obvious. It is the same as that to which every man is exposed,—the revolving in a vicious circle of unenlightened passion, unprogressive mind, and headlong will. The national safety, like man's individual salvation, depends upon the intelligence being informed by a Spirit above itself, so that it may mediate wisely between the passion and the will; elevating the character of the one, and directing the movements of the other. In short, a true spirit of culture must do for the national heart what the ever-incoming grace of God does for the individual soul. The chief danger to a nation and to a man is from within, that the passion and the will may be too strong for the uncultured intelligence. And the danger in our nation is in proportion to the breadth of the national life. All humanity is in it. Our geographical extent and position expose us to the access of all temptation. Not a pleasure, not a dominion, but is opened upon our desire. Every susceptibility of human nature to ambition, to avarice, and to sensual induldulgenceindulgence [sic], is addressed. What an original affluence of intellect, what a training of mind, is necessary in order to grasp all this life, and legislate for it in such a manner that it may not prove suicidal! In truth, man seems to be placed under the United States' government, free of the universe, and, as in the case of Adam in his garden, amid such a luxuriance of all that is desirable, that the chances are entirely that he shall miss of the tree of life, which is not so obvious to the eyes, but requireth that they be "purged with euphrasie and rue."

Nevertheless, it is our only hope that we should eat of the tree of life, and the passion of this people be subjected to the which breathes in a baptism of fire from the Rock of Joseph, whence rose man glorified as God. In other words, we must be educated by our religion, which comprehends in its scope the life that now is, no less than that which is to come;—a religion which honoreth the spirit in its regenerate human manifestation, even as it honoreth it absolute and unmanifest in the Father.

To explain:—The religion we profess teaches us, that