Thirdly. It follows likewise, that, whenever the equilibrium of reason and humanity is disturbed among men, a return to it seldom occurs, except by violent oscillations from one extreme to the other. One passion kicks up the scale of reason, another drives it down, and thus history goes on for years and ages, before the period of tranquility returns. Thus Alexander destroyed the equilibrium of an extensive region of the World; and it was long after his death before the storm subsided. Thus Rome disturbed the peace of the Globe for more than a thousand years; and half a World of savage nations was requisite for the slow restoration of its quiet. The peaceable progress of an asymptote could by no means be expected, in these convulsions of countries and nations. The channel of cultivation on our Earth, with its abrupt corners, its salient and reentering angles, scarcely ever exhibits a gentle stream, but rather the rushing of a torrent from the mountains. Such are the effects of human passions. It is evident, too, that the general composition of our species is calculated and established on such alternating vibrations. As our walk is a continual falling to the right and to the left, and yet we advance at every step, so is the progress of cultivation in races of men, and in whole nations. Individually we often try both extremes, before we hit the point of rest, as the pendulum oscillates from side to side. Generations are renewed in continual change; and in spite of all the direct precepts of tradition, the son advances in his own way. Aristotle was assiduous to distinguish himself from Plato, Epicurus from Zeno, till more tranquil posterity could at last impartially profit by both extremes. Thus, as in the machine of our body, the work of time proceeds to the good of the human race by necessary opposition, and acquires from it permanent health. But through whatever turnings and angles the stream of human reason may wind and break, it arose from the eternal fountain of truth, and by virtue of its nature can never be lost in its course. Whoever draws from it, draws life and duration.
For the rest, both reason and justice hinge on one and the same law of nature, from which the stability of our being likewise flows. Reason weighs and compares the relations of things, that she may dispose them in durable symmetry. Justice is nothing else than a moral symmetry of reason, the formula of the equilibrium of contending powers, on the harmony of which the whole creation reposes. Thus one and the same law reaches from the Sun, and from all the suns in the universe, to the most insignificant human action: one law upholds all beings, and their systems; the relation of their powers to periodical rest and order.
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