of the Censors of old, to enter into the houses of the citizens, and inspect their domestic privacy; although we have no power, like them, to nominate a senator, or degrade a knight from his rank, we still hope, on the one hand, to be the guardians of morality, and add the sanction of our applause to such as are an ornament to their stations; while we study, on the other, to drive the false pretender to public virtue from the eminence which he has usurped, and prevent the vices of individuals from being hurtful to the community.

There is yet another suggestion, which we have borrowed from another nation. We refer to the Secret Tribunals, established in Germany during the darker ages of modern history: our Council, too, will be a Secret Tribunal. It will be a tribunal before which many must be summoned; and its jurisdiction will be almost universal. Yet, on the whole, our forms of trial, condemnation, and punishment, will not be such as were observed by our German predecessors, nor connected with them by many ties of resemblance or affinity; we should be indeed sorry, by our methods of proceeding, to present a living image of that mysterious assembly, or recall any of the horrible associations connected with the name.

We come, secondly, to the nature of our undertaking. But, at this point, there are two or three preliminary observations, which we feel anxious to make. It is possible that some parts of our report have been written in a tone of levity, and perhaps even of flippancy, which may well appear incompatible with the serious prosecution of any great, or useful, or important objects. If it be so, we have only to express our regret; and lay down, once for all, the principle on which we have acted hitherto, and must act hereafter. We repeat, then, that a mixture of gaiety and playfulness is absolutely indispensable to our success. To preserve a grave and solemn uniformity would have the inevitable effect of making our design abortive; and rendering our efforts not merely inefficient but inoperative. The fault, if there is one, is not our fault, but the fault of the age. We must be read; we must be popular. This is our very first business; for, if we are not, where is our utility? In that case, we might as well throw down our

pens, put a stop to our inquiries, and slumber away our lives in listless inactivity: in that case,

Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone.

We, who write for the public, must, as far as the higher duties of morality and decency permit, conform ourselves to the public taste. Any other course is absurd: the world can do much better without us, than we can do without the world. Now, the truth is, that the readers of the present day, will turn with distaste from severe speculatiens, however ingenious; from dry, abstract, didactic discussions, however excellent-unless they are enlivened by the sallies of a poignant ridicule, or brightened by the play of a vivid imagination. Who, we might ask, is, at this particular time, the most admired speaker in the House of Commons? or why is he the most admired? Substantial and wholesome food is now nauseated, as mere physic, unless it is spiced, and garnished, and sweetened, and disguised. Nor would there, we may add, be any difficulty in proving, that there is a great variety of topics which can only be treated in a light and sportive manner, if they are handled with propriety and effect; and after all the

Quid vetat ?

ridentem dicere verum

is not the less true from having been so often quoted. We have said too much, perhaps, where there can be so little difference of opinion; but our excuse must be found in an anxiety to remove, at the outset, certain erroneous impressions, which, if they exist at all, must exist to our prejudice. If, then, there be any man, who is inclined to think that we have trifled with our subjects-that we have treated our own project as a mere exercise of intellect or fancy; or, at best, as some matter of amusement for our idle hours: we do here beg, entreat, and conjure him to pause for a single moment before he proceeds, that he may not carry farther with him the mistaken and groundless notion which he has entertained; but, on the contrary, do us the justice to believe that the following remarks are written in the most sincere and sober earnestness, with a perfect conviction on our minds of the truth and importance of every proposition which we advance, and a determined resolu

tion to act throughout according to the spirit of that conviction.

We return to the nature of our undertaking. We shall probably make ourselves better understood by dividing this, the most extensive branch of the discussion, into two separate departments; and considering, in the first place, the objects to which our views will be directed-and, in the second, the means to which we shall have recourse for putting them into execution.

First, then, our ruling object is the advancement of political and social philosophy. In these few words are contained the very pith and marrow of our plan: for we conceive to be included under this comprehensive head all the great practical interests of man-whether we regard him in public or private life-as engaged and borne along amidst the general mass of the community, or surrounded by his family in the asylum and sanctuary of his home: and herein is the key to our whole design, that our philosophy is the philosophy of life; the subject matter of our inquiries is man: man, and the real, vital, daily, and hourly concerns of man. According to our notion of the terms, the consideration of man in all his various relations, and the study of political and social philosophy, are synonymous expressions, phrases of the same identical import; or, in short, the same leading idea developed in a different form of words.

But each of these expressions is too general: we feel that neither of them conveys our meaning vividly and distinctly to the mind: and yet we know of none more adequate to our purpose. Again, then, we shall be more intelligible by being more particular; and enumerating the various subjects which are embraced, in our conception, under the phrase of political and social philosophy. The principal of these are Religion; Politics; Law; Education, Philanthropy, Science as connected with practical and philanthropic objects, Literature, and Criticism; the fine and the useful Arts; the general frame and structure of society, with the habits, feelings, and diversions, of the people. Let not the reader be startled at the extravagance of our ambition, when we tell him that it is our intention

to grasp all these subjects; and, moreover, to follow our own plan, and examine them upon a new system: for, as to grasping them all, they are so intermixed, so interwoven, so linked, and dove-tailed together, and they reflect so much reciprocal light upon each other, that it is, in reality, at once easier and more advantageous to combine them in one scheme, than to consider any of them separately; and as to our new system, it is nothing more than a determination to follow up in practice those fundamental and eternal principles, of which the theoretical excellence has ever been acknowledged. We are no system-mongers by profession; we pretend not to make many discoveries in religion, or politics, or morality, or taste; nor do we suppose that there are, in these regions, many discoveries to be made. They are no terra incognita, which has been left until our time uncolonized, undescribed, or unexplored. But in the world self-interest neutralizes knowledge; the blindness of prejudice counteracts and destroys the light of experience; and the torrent of human passion and ambition sweeps away the land-marks of prudence, and breaks down the barriers of virtue. Against these evils it is our object to provide; and our plan for the attainment of this end is simply to return ourselves, and carry back the thoughts of others, to maxims long recognised and universally approved. But it is really too tedious and irksome to have at every step to guard against misconception: we will no more turn from the straight path of our discussion for any such purpose; it is a mere waste of our own time, and the reader's patience.

To proceed then, we mentioned Religion as the first subject comprehended under the general head of political and social philosophy. Here it is evident, as we have before hinted, that we consider Religion, not in its highest point of view, but as it relates to the temporal, rather than the eternal, interests of the species: as it is the foundation of all civil institutions; the cement which can alone give strength, coherence, or stability to every compact between man and man; to every treaty between nation and nation'; as it is that, in short, which, even if it were a fiction as

it regards man and his Maker, it would still be necessary to invent for the regulation, nay, for the very subsistence, of all public and private intercourse; for the purpose of carrying governments forward, and holding societies together. For ourselves, then, we come not as teachers of Divinity, or ministers of the Gospel: the "odium theologicum" is not among the incitements which will inspire our zeal, or quicken our exertions: and we have no intention to engage, as volunteers, in polemical disputations, or put upon us the whole armour of controversy. These things are not within the scope of our labours: and we rejoice, that they are not. We have other and no less animating duties to perform. We pledge ourselves to assist the great cause of Christianity, and promote its diffusion throughout the world, according to the means to be detailed hereafter in another stage of this exposition of our plan. We shall steadily and fearlessly direct our attention to the opposite evils, which are the bane and canker of religion; on the one side, infidelity; on the other, fanaticism; on the one side, the frost and torpor of indifference; on the other, the blight and mildew of bigotry. On the one side, therefore, we shall keep a check upon licentious and profligate productions, and endeavour to put them down by the methods of ridicule and exposure, rather than of legal prosecution: on the other, we shall make no scruple to unmask those corrupters and mystifiers of Religion, who disguise their avarice, and many more of the basest and most unworthy motives, under the garb of superior sanctity; those whining, canting, puling, hypocrites, who have done more real mischief to the cause of religion, than all the infidels who ever wrote, and all the blasphemers who ever uttered their impieties; because, while they have alarmed the well-disposed into superstitious gloom, and often into absolute insanity, they have afforded to the enemies of the Christian faith, both arms and points of attack; they have held up religion to the scorn and contempt of the unbeliever; and are themselves, in truth, only deserving of laughter, if any thing connected with such a subject could give rise to such an emotion. We