at Naples. Now, what would he not have done if he had lived now, and could have availed himself of all our vast acquisitions in physical science ? " 2 After the Scienza Nuova1 read Spinoza, De Monarchia ex rationis præscripto. They differed-Vico in thinking that society tended to monarchy; Spinoza in thinking it tended to democracy. Now, Spinoza's ideal democracy was realised by a contemporary-not in a nation, for that is impossible, but in a sect—I mean by George Fox and his Quakers.3 COLOT APRIL 24, 1832. OLOURS may best be expressed by a heptad, the largest possible formula for things finite, as the pentad is the smallest possible form. Indeed, the heptad of things finite is in all cases reducible to the pentad. The adorable tetractys, or tetrad, is the formula of God; which, again, is reducible into, and is, in reality, the same with, the Trinity. Take colours thus : 1 See Michelet's Principes de la Philosophie de l'Histoire, &c. Paris, 1827. An admirable analysis of Vico.-H. N. C. 2 Tractatus Politici, c. vi.-H. N. C. 3 Spinoza died in 1677; Fox in 1681.-H. N. C. THE APRIL 28, 1832. Destruction of Jerusalem.-Epic Poem. As HE destruction of Jerusalem is the only subject now remaining for an epic poem; a subject which, like Milton's Fall of Man, should interest all Christendom, as the Homeric War of Troy interested all Greece. There would be difficulties, as there are in all subjects; and they must be mitigated and thrown into the shade, as Milton has done with the numerous difficulties in the Paradise Lost. But there would be a greater assemblage of grandeur and splendour than can now be found in any other theme. for the old mythology, incredulus odi; and yet there must be a mythology, or a quasi-mythology, for an epic poem. Here there would be the completion of the prophecies-the termination of the first revealed national religion under the violent assault of Paganism, itself the immediate forerunner and condition of the spread of a revealed mundane religion ; and then you would have the character of the Roman and the Jew, and the awfulness, the completeness, the justice. I schemed it at twenty-five; but, alas! venturum expectat. I APRIL 29, 1832. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.-Black.-Identity.* NEVER said that the vox populi was of course the vox Dei. It may be; but it may be, and with equal probability, a priori, vox Diaboli. That the voice of ten millions of men calling for the same thing, is a spirit, I believe; but whether that be a spirit of Heaven or Hell, I can only know by trying the thing called for by the prescript of reason and God's will. Black is the negation of colour in its greatest energy. Without lustre, it indicates or represents vacuity, as, for instance, in the dark mouth of a cavern; add lustre, and it will represent the highest degree of solidity, as in a polished ebony box. In finite forms there is no real and absolute identity. God alone is identity. In the former, the prothesis is a bastard prothesis, a quasi identity only. APRIL 30, 1832. I Asgill and Defoe. KNOW no genuine Saxon English superior to Asgill's. I think his and Defoe's irony often finer than Swift's. MAY 1, 1832. Horne Tooke.-Fox and Pitt. HORNE TOOKE'S advice to the Friends of the People was profound: If you wish to be powerful, pretend to be powerful." Fox and Pitt constantly played into each other's hands. Mr. Stuart, of the Courier, who was very knowing in the politics of the day, soon found out the gross lies and impostures of that club' as to its numbers and told Fox so. Yet, instead of disclaiming them and exposing the pretence, as he ought to have done, Fox absolutely exaggerated their numbers and sinister intentions; and Pitt, who also knew the lie, took him at his word, and argued against him triumphantly on his own premisses.1 Fox's Gallicism, too, was a treasury of weapons to Pitt. He could never conceive the French right without making the English wrong. Ah! I remember it vex'd my soul to see So grand a cause, so proud a realm 'See June 8, 1833. M I CANNOT genius. MAY 2, 1832. Horner. say that I thought Mr. Horner a man of He seemed to me to be one of those men who have not very extended minds, but who know what they know very well-shallow streams, and clear because they are shallow. There was great goodness about him. MAY 3, 1832. Adiaphori.-Citizens and Christians. is one of those men who go far to shake my faith in a future state of existence; I mean, on account of the difficulty of knowing where to place him. I could not bear to roast him; he is not so bad as all that comes to: but then, on the other hand, to have to sit down with such a fellow in the very lowest pot-house of heaven is utterly inconsistent with the belief of that place being a place of happiness for me. In two points of view I reverence man; first, as a citizen, a part of, or in order to, a nation; and, secondly, as a Christian. If men are neither the one nor the other, but a mere aggregation of individual bipeds, who acknowledge no national unity, nor believe with me in Christ, I have no more personal sympathy with them than with the dust beneath my feet." MAY 21, 1832. Professor Park.-English Constitution.-Democracy.-Milton and Sidney. PROFESSOR PARK talks about its being very doubtful whether the constitution described by Blackstone ever in fact existed. In the same manner, suppose, it is 1 Do not believe it. 2 In his "Dogmas of the Constitution, four Lectures on the Theory and Practice of the Constitution, delivered at the King's College, London," 1832. Lecture I. There was a stiffness, and an occasional uncouthness in Professor Park's style; but his two works, the one just doubtful whether the moon is made of green cheese, or whether the souls of Welchmen do, in point of fact, go to heaven on the backs of mites. Blackstone's was the age of shallow law. Monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, as such, exclude each the other: but if the elements are to interpenetrate, how absurd to call a lump of sugar hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon! nay, to take three lumps, and call the first hydrogen; the second, oxygen; and the third, carbon! Don't you see that each is in all, and all in each? The democracy of England, before the Reform Bill, was, where it ought to be, in the corporations, the vestries, the joint-stock companies, &c. The power, in a democracy, is in focal points, without a centre; and in proportion as such democratical power is strong, the strength of the central government ought to be intense-otherwise the nation will fall to pieces. We have just now incalculably increased the democratical action of the people, and, at the same time, weakened the executive power of the government. It was the error of Milton, Sidney, and others of that age, to think it possible to construct a purely aristocratical government, defecated of all passion, and ignorance, and sordid motive. The truth is, such a government would be weak from its utter want of sympathy with the people to be governed by it. MAY 25, 1832. De Vi Minimorum,—Hahnemann.—Luther. MERCURY strongly illustrates the theory de vi mini morum. Divide five grains into fifty doses, and they may poison you irretrievably. I don't believe in all that Hahnemann says; but he is a fine fellow, and, like most mentioned, and his "Contre-Projet to the Humphreysian Code," are full of original views and vigorous reasonings. To those who wished to see the profession of the law assume a more scientific character than for the most part it has hitherto done in England, the early death of John James Park was a very great loss.-H. N. C. |