-

name, have often attacked the rights of others. You had to establish fraternity on the earth, the reign of God, the reign of love; instead of that, each one has thought only of himself, and each one has had only his own proper interest in view. Hatred and envy have animated you. Search your hearts, and most of you will find there this secret thought: 'I labor and suffer; such an one is indolent and satiated with enjoyments. Why he, rather than I?' And your greatest desire is to be in his place, to live like him, and act like him.

"Now, that would not be to destroy the evil, but to perpetuate it. The evil is in the injustice, and not in that it is this one rather than that one who profits by the injustice. "Would you succeed? Accomplish good ends by good means. Confound not the power that is guided by justice and charity with brutal and ferocious violence. "Would you succeed? Think of your brethren as much as of yourselves. Let their cause be your cause, their good your good, their evil your evil. See and feel not only for yourselves but for them. Let your indifference be transformed into profound sympathy, and your selfishness into generous devotion. You will then no longer remain isolated individuals, with whom a few who are better united will do what they please. You will become one, and when you are one you will be all; and who will then dare to interpose between you and the end you would attain? Isolated at present, because each one is occupied only with himself, with his own personal objects, you are made to oppose each other, and are mastered one by the other; when you shall have but one interest, one will, one common action, where is the power that can vanquish you?

"But comprehend well your task, or you will always fail. "It is not in your power, individually, to better your destiny; for the mass will still continue in a state of equal suffering, and the world remain unchanged. Good and evil will still subsist in the same proportions; they will only be differently distributed, with regard to persons.

"One will mount, another descend, and that will be all. "The object is not to substitute one domination for another. Of what consequence is it who bears sway? All domination implies separate classes, consequently privileges, consequently conflicting interests, and, by virtue of the laws made by the privileged classes to secure the advantages of their superior position, the sacrifice of the many to the few. The people are as the manure of the earth where they take

root.

"Behold your task, it is great. It is to form the universal family, to build the city of God, and, progressively, by unceasing effort, to realize his work in Humanity.

"When, loving each other like brothers, you mutually treat each other like brothers; when each one, seeking his own in the common good, is always ready to devote himself for all the members of the common family, who are in turn equally ready to devote themselves for him; then, most of the evils under the weight of which the human race now groans, will disappear, as the mists of morning are dissipated at the rising of the sun. And thus will God's will be accomplished,for it is his will that love, gradually, and ever more and more intimately uniting the scattered elements of Humanity, and organizing them in one sole body, should cause them to become one as He himself is one." - pp. 29-37.

Here is the end at which the people should aim. But without a knowledge of the means necessary to gain it, their labors will be fruitless. Poor, weary travellers, desiring to reach a habitation for the night, must learn the way.

"Many speak to you only of your duties; others speak to you only of your rights. This is dangerously to separate what is in fact inseparable. You should know both your duties and your rights, that you may perform the one and defend the other. Otherwise you will never escape from your misery.

66

Right and duty are like two palm-trees, which bear fruit only when growing side by side.

"Your right is you, your liberty, your life.

"Can it be that each one has not the right of living, the right of preserving that which he holds from God?

"Can it be that each one has not the right uninterruptedly to develop and employ his corporeal and spiritual faculties, to provide for his wants, to meliorate his condition, to rise more and more from the condition of the brute, and be ever approaching nearer to God?

"Can any one justly retain a poor human being in ignorance and in misery, in deprivation and abasement, when his efforts for escape are hurtful to none, or hurtful to those only, who found their well-being on iniquity by founding it on the misfortunes of others?

"The anger of these bad men, when the weak shake off the chains that bind them, is it not the anger of the ferocious

beast with its struggling victim? And their complaints, are they not the complaints of the vulture at the escape of its prey?

"Now, what is true of one is true of all.

All ought

to live, all ought to enjoy a lawful liberty of action, all ought to accomplish their end by an incessant development. and perfecting of themselves. People ought then mutually to respect the rights of each other, and it is there where duty, justice, commences.

"But justice suffices not for the wants of Humanity. Each one under his own government does indeed fully enjoy his rights; but he remains isolated in the world, deprived of the succor and aid necessary to all. Does a man want bread, they would say; let him seek it; do I prevent him? I have taken nothing that belonged to him; each one to himself and each one for himself. They would repeat the words of Cain : 'Am I my brother's keeper?' The widow, the orphan, the sick, the feeble, would be abandoned ; – no reciprocal support, no disinterested kindness; - everywhere selfishness and indifference; -no more of genuine relations, no more sharing of joys or sorrows, no more of common feeling. Life, retired to the centre of each heart, would be consumed in solitude, like a lamp in a tomb, which shines only upon the ruins of man; for a man without heart, compassion, sympathy, love, - what is he but a moving corpse?

"And since we have need of each other, for mutual support, like frail plants which are agitated and bent by the slightest winds, since mankind would perish without a mutual communication of the goods individually possessed by virtue of the law of justice, another law is necessary for the preservation of the human race; and that law is CHARITY. ity, which forms a single living body of the scattered members of Humanity, is the consummation of duty, of which the foundation is justice.

Char

"What would a man be, deprived of all liberty on earth, - who could neither go, nor come, nor act, but as another commanded or permitted? What would an entire people be, reduced to this condition? The savage beasts live happier and less degraded in the bosom of their forests.

"Moreover, what would a man be, selfishly concentrated within himself, neither directly injuring nor serving any one, dreaming only of himself, living only for himself? What can a people be, composed of unconnected individuals, where no one sympathizes with the misfortunes of others, nor feels himself obliged to aid or assist his fellow creatures; where

all interchange of services is but a calculation of interest; where the groan of suffering, the lamentation of grief, the sob of distress, the cry of hunger, evaporate in the air as unmeaning sounds; where no blessings are diffused by a secret impulsion of that love which alone knows what it is to possess, because it enjoys only that which it gives?

"This people, like the scattered grains abandoned upon the ground after the harvest has been gathered, would soon rot in the dirt, if it were not swept away by one of those tempests, which God has ordered occasionally to pass over the world for its purification.

"It is right that frees, but it is duty that unites; the union of the two is life, and their perfect union is perfect life."pp. 41-46.

These extracts show the spirit of the work, and suggest its principal doctrines. We should be glad, had we room, to make one other extract, exhibiting the manner in which the Abbé views religion, but must be content to refer to the book itself.

After what we have said, and the extracts we have made, we need not commend the book to our readers. It should be the pocket companion of every citizen of the Republic. It should lie on the table with the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, and the Psalm Book; and if the Board of Education wish to escape utter damnation, they will obtain leave to make it a volume in their Common School Library. It only remains for us to return our thanks to the translator for giving this work to our community in an English dress. He could not have employed more profitably the few hours for study he is able to snatch from his official duties. The work is a public benefit. And let us add, the translation is among our finest specimens of translation from the French. The translator has entered into the heart of his author, and sympathized entirely with his spirit; and his version is beautiful and accurate, not unworthy of the original. We subjoin the note with which he introduces it.

"The problem of man's existence, its conditions, the rights. resulting from those conditions, and the duties involved, is now commanding the attention due to its importance. We see

Humanity, not as it originally came from the hands of its Creator, but such as the events of thousands of years have made it. We mistake habit for nature, and lose the power of distinguishing between the natural and the artificial. It is desirable to recover and to exercise this power; to analyze man, society; to ascertain the original condition of the one, and trace the history of the other; to ascertain the rights and duties of the one, and the origin, objects, and legitimate powers of the other. While seeking for light upon these and kindred questions, accident threw in my way" Le Livre du Peuple," by the celebrated Abbé de la Mennais, and it occurred to me that a translation might be beneficial to those whose minds are exercised on these subjects. Although more particularly addressed to the people of Europe, who are now suffering many evils and oppressions from which we have happily escaped, it nevertheless contains much that is applicable to every people in every age; and with the hope that it may be useful, if not in teaching rights, at least in exciting to the performance of duties, this volume is respectfully commended to his fellow citizens by- THE TRANSLATOR.

pp. 3-5. EDITOR.

Rev. Mr. N.-I AM fortunate in meeting with you, for I am come to get a few books for Mrs. N., and the girls; and you are so much au fait as to new publications, that you will help me to choose.

Prof. P. — Willingly; the task will not be long; our shelves do not groan beneath a weight of solid bullion of late. But what sort of books do the ladies want?

Rev. Mr. N.—O ladies' reading of course, sentimental, lyrical, and ludicrous, Shakspeare, perhaps, - taste and the musical glasses, certainly.

Prof. P.-Well, here is a book that every one reads. It bears the promising title of Hyperion.