he unchangeableness
of man.

The refutation of these sayings has been the history of humanity, and
yet no argument on political or social topics fails to contain them in
one form or another. Even now, in the tremendous debate maintained by
common logic and 'fist law' between our North and South, we find them
enunciated with a clearness and precision unequaled in any state paper,
unless we except that in which William the Conqueror coolly styled
himself king 'by the right of the sword.' Science, which modestly
announces itself as incomplete the nearer it approaches completion, has
been assumed to be perfect by those most ignorant of it, in order that
its mere observations as to climate and races may be found to prove
that as man is, so he was in all ages, and so must be, 'forever and
forever as we rove.' Races now vanished in the twilight of time have
been boldly declared to be the prototypes of others, now themselves
changing into new forms, and we, unconsciously, like the old Hebrew in
Heine's Italy, repeat curses over the ancient graves of long-departed
foes--ignorant that those curses were long since fulfilled by the
unconquerable and terrible laws which ever hurry us onward and upward,
from everlasting to everlasting, from the first Darkness to the infinite
word of Light.

The assumption that mankind always has been and will be the same,
involves the conclusion that the elements of slavery and scoundrelism,
of suffering and of disorder, are immutable in essence and in
proportion, and that human exertion wastes itself in vain when it
aspires to anything save a rank in the upper ten millions. As for the
mass,--'tis a great pity,--_mais, que voulez vous?_ It is the fortune of
life's war; and then who knows? Perhaps they are as happy in their
sphere as anybody. Only see how they dance! And then they
drink--gracious goodness, how they swig it off! the gay creatures!
Oh,'tis a very fine world, gentlemen, especially if you whitewash it
well, and keep up a plenty of Potemkin card cottages along the road
which winds through the wilderness. But above all--never forget that
they--drink.

It was well enough for a stormy past, but it may not be so well for the
future, that man is prone to hero-worship. Under circumstances, varying,
however, immensely, be it observed, humanity has produced Menus,
Confuciuses, Platos, Ciceros, Sidneys, Spinozas, scholars and gentlemen,
and the ordinary student, seeing them all through a Claude