The fundamental principle of this divine law of nature reconciles us wonderfully not only with the appearance of our species all over the Globe, but likewise with its variations through the different periods of time. Everywhere man is what he was capable of rendering himself, what he had the will and the power to become. Were he contented with his condition, or were the means of his improvement not yet ripened in the ample field of time; he remained for ages what he was, and became nothing more. But if he employed the instruments God had given him for his use, his understanding, power, and all the opportunities that a favorable current conveyed to him; he raised himself higher with art, and improved himself with courage. If he did not this, his very indolence showed, that he was little sensible of his misfortune: for every lively feeling of injustice, accompanied by intelligence and strength, must become an emancipating power. The long submission to despotism, for instance, arose by no means from the overbearing might of the despots: the easy, confiding weakness of their subjects, and latterly their patient indolence, were its great and only supports. For, it must be confessed, it is easier to bear with patience, than to redress ourselves with vigor; and hence so many nations have forborne to assert the right that God has conferred on them in the divine gift of reason.
Still there is no doubt, generally speaking, that what has not yet appeared upon Earth will at some future period appear: for no prescription is a bar to the rights of man, and the powers, that God has implanted in him, are ineradicable. We are astonished, to see how far the Greeks and Romans advanced in a few centuries, in their sphere of objects: for, though the aim of their exertions was not always the most pure, they proved, that they were capable of reaching it. Their image shines in history, and animates every one, who resembles them, to similar and better exertions, under the same and greater assistance of fate. In this view the whole history of nations is to us a school, for instructing us in the course, by which we are to reach the lovely goal of humanity and worth. So many celebrated nations of old attained an inferior aim: why should not we succeed in the pursuit of a purer and nobler object? They were men like us: their call to the best form of humanity was ours, according to the circumstances of the times, to our knowledge, and to our duties. What they could perform without a miracle, we can and ought to perform: the deity assists us only by means of our own industry, our own understanding, our own powers. When he had created the Earth, and all its irrational inhabitants, he formed man, and said to him: “be my image; a god upon Earth; rule and dispose. Whatever of noble and excellent thy nature will permit thee to produce, bring forth: I will assist thee by no miracle; for I have placed thy own fate in thy own hand: but all my sacred, eternal laws of nature will be thy aids.”
Let us consider some of these natural laws, which, according to the testimony of history, have promoted the progress of humanity in our species; and, as truly as they are the natural laws of God, will continue, to promote it.
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