and how to analyze the constituent parts of society-he must not give up an existing good for a something better in his idea of contingencies; he must not consider that as an evil which ultimately contributes to the good of the whole; he must be able to distinguish between the expedient and inexpedient, the possible and impossible; he must learn not to spurn at the tolerable, and fly all abroad on the ideal wings of perfection; and, above all, he must beware of the sin which doth most easily beset reformers, an overweening conceit of their own abilities; he should have some share of diffidence, some doubts as to the truth of his opinions, where they run counter to those of thinking men in all ages; when, as in the present case, as the Doctor himself confesses, the arrangements he execrates with all the bile of the new-fashioned philanthropy," flow from the natural propensities of mankind." How far these requisites for pulling down, and re-constructing the fabric of society, unite in the present writer, will be seen as we pro ceed. Having, as above, ascertained his healing qualifications, Dr. Hall next goes on to prove that his patient is sick; and, mercy on us! what a group of dangerous symptoms he has conjured up, all uniting in the diseased and bloated carcass of civilized and manufactur ing man. As constituting a portion of a civilized and manufac turing society, we should have been dreadfully alarmed, had we not suspected that this might be a medical trick, not uncommon among practitioners of a certain class, who represent the case of their patient as almost desperate, that his death, should he die, may be attributed to incurable disease, and, should he recover, that the Doctor may have all the credit of his recovery. With this two-edged sword many a leech has fought his way successfully through the world. Somewhat cheered by this reflection, we can look upon his awful list of mortal symptoms without trembling. He thus commences his work. "We understand by civilization, that manner of living in societies of men, which is opposite to that of those who are called savages; such as are the natives of North America, &c. "It consists in the study and knowledge of the sciences, and in the production and enjoyment of the conveniences, elegancies, and luxuries of life. "It does not seem to arise from any particular constitution of governments, or to be attributable to the administration of them, but to flow from the natural propensities of mankind." This state of man, flowing from his natural propensities, we are told produces instead of happiness, only idleness and tyranny in the few, and to the many poverty, disease, sufferings of every kind, a life of misery, and premature death. The employments of the poor, he tells us, are injurious to health, their minds are uncultivated, their moral and spiritual instruction neglected, they are unhappy, and they are starved. As for the rich, they are the very drones of society, use less, nay hurtful members. Whence does this melancholy and degraded state of society originate? The Doctor will tell you it springs, he says, from wealth, which itself is the monstrous and baleful offspring of civilization, manufactures and commerce, the three mortal symptoms of diseased society, the cause and sign of real national poverty, ignorance, debility, and barbarism! We will not venture to appal our readers, by introducing them into all the dungeons of the Doctor's Pandaemonium; it is Dante's Inferno upon earth, with this mortifying difference, that the innocent are the sufferers, the guilty comparatively exempt from punishment. Whoever is disposed to take a full view, of this Phantasmagoria must read the book, and, if he be strong in faith, will be wretched to his heart's content. For our own part, who are inclined to believe that matters are rather tolerable, we shall content ourselves with examining, in one or two instances, whether this Spagnolette of a political economist be as faithful as he is tremendous in his delineations. Civilization, he tells us, hurts population to such a degree, that supposing a country highly civilized to contain ten millions of inhabitants, 500,000 fall a sacrifice every year to causes "attributable to extremne civilization, a loss greater than the most destructive wars have ever occasioned." In this statement the Doctor is at variance with matter of fact; for civilized countries have ever been found, ceteris paribus, to be the most populous. Having thus killed his 500,000 a year, he goes on to tell us how it is brought about. It is occasioned by the poor not having plenty of good meat and drink; by their not having soft beds, large houses, and lofty rooms; by a want of things" proper to use from the cellar, the kitchen, the garden, or Apothecary's Shop," &c. Besides all this, he assures us that the yearly 500,000 must die, unless the milk of the mothers be "sufficiently animalized.” For this purpose "the woman should be well fed with a full proportion of animal food; perhaps, some quantity (he does not say what quantity, a serious omission in a prescription; the women will, we are afraid, consider it as ad libitum) of good beer: live in good houses; good air; be employed in wholesome and pleasant exercises; and void of care!" There is one part of this dietetic regimen which would have surprized us, had not the Doctor accustomed us to his blowing hot and cold as suits his conveniency. How comes it that articles from the Apothecary's Shop are recommended as preservatives of life by him who has, in the same book, condemned almost the whole contents of the Pharmacopoeia as useless, if not hurtful: nay, who has decidedly pronounced "there is no doubt that the mischief done in practice (meaning medical practice) exceeds the benefit" But the most wonderful ingredient in the prescription is the void of care! In what a hopeless state must our ten millions be, if they are to lose their yearly 500,000, unless we can contrive to drive away care from the mothers. Among all his receipts, Dr. Hall has not given us one for the cure of this disease, which, ever since the fall, has stuck close to the human race, and ever will, we are afraid, unless a greater than the Doctor arise. On the subject of population, and the comforts of life, the writer is disposed to contrast the misery which he asserts is the portion of this civilized country, with the blessings which he says abound in the less civilized American States. In this comparison he does not advance a step without either asserting what is evidendy not true, or he conceals the truth, by keeping out of sight what should have entered into the statement. In America, he tells us there are no rich and poor; that* "the condition of all is the same; (p. 2) but that here, there is a degrading and ruinous distinction, viz. into rich and poor. But, had he wished fairly to represent the existing condition of the American States, he would have said, and truly said, that there, as well as here, are to be found both rich and poor; and moreover, that the food and comforts of the lower classes there are not to be compared with those of the meanest industrious manufacturer in this kingdom. -In the same spirit he attributes the rapid population of the Ame rican States, solely to their having plenty of good food, and every essential to make life comfortable and happy; without taking into the account the thousands, and tens of thousands which have been poured into that country from Europe for these many years past. Where, we presume to ask the Doctor, do the back-settlers, and the other lower orders in America (for there are such) get their good meat and drink, their soft beds, large houses, lofty rooms, &c.? How are their cellars, their kitchens, their gardens, &c. stored? And where do they find that great assistant to population, the apothecary's shop? Good, Doctor, in all these things our happy American brethren are more deficient than this miserable country. As to the remaining ingredient in the Doctor's populating prescription, we have not heard that either the medical, or mental physicians on the other side of the Atlantic, have yet discovered an effectual care-bane; had they made that blessed discovery, the rapid population would no longer be matter of wonder. As things now are, it will be in vain to look in the Western world for the long-lost country of El Dorado, where tout va bien; what may happen when the United States shall have adopted that code of happiness, which the Doctor, mounted on his hippogriff," plucked from the pale-faced moon," and kindly gave to the world in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and five, we pretend not to determine. The Doctor having now proved that civilization has made of man the most wretched being that exists, goes on to advertise his infallible remedy. At first he proceeds with some degree of modesty; he proposes only the abolition of the law of primogeniture," and "the prohibition by law" of all" refined manufactures," of course of every art in which genius and taste are now employed, that the hands now unprofitably, nay destructively occupied, may be turned to the * This he contradicts at page 254, when he has another object in view, viz. to warn the Americans against a rising aristocracy. 13 plough. plough. But this is mere dull sobriety to what follows; he is only pruning his wings for the daring flight whic succeeds; "mox sese attollit in auras-et caput inter nubila condit." To ensure plenty and happiness to man, the Dr. proposes that the present rotten fabric of society should be demolished, and rebuilt on the firm basis of perfect equality. "Mr. Eden has supposed that there are seventy-two millions of acres of land in England. If, then, the people amount to two millions of families, there would be an average of thirty-six acres for each family.This portion of land, greater or less, according to the size of the family, would most plentifully supply it with every thing that is wanted. It would also supply labour for two horses or bullocks to work on the land; and would be a proper quantity to keep them employed; and with this quantity of land, the owner might procure a sufficiency for his own use, and wherewithal to barter for implements of husbandry, such as ploughs, harrows, carts, &c. : "The distribution of land might be conducted in the manner follow. ing the state, that is, the collected body of the people, might, as is natural, be possessed of all the land in the nation. By it, it might be parcelled out as aboye, and to it might revert wholly on the extinction of any of the families, and in part on the decease of any of them. But if the number of families should increase, more allotments might be made, composed of parcels taken from the old ones, which would of course lessen in size as the number increased. "And this would be the whole of the business of first reducing, and afterwards keeping up, the equal state among men; for this alone would keep all other things sufficiently equal to prevent any of the present incon. veniences and surely this is not impossible or impracticable." On the land, thus apportioned, Dr. Hall's Arcadians are to work out, not only their own happiness, but their own salvation; and he has no doubts that they would do both; for this state of life "would give the proper proportion of action, so as to leave the necessary time for rest, which, by the interchange, would give reciprocally to each other its duc relish; of which the third ingredient (of happiness) pleasure, is chiefly composed;" and, as they would be more virtuous than the corrupted sons of civilization, their fate hereafter would not be doubtful. The Dr. goes on to develope, his plan "We have seen the quantity of the produce of the poor is eight or ten times greater than the quantity consumed by themselves; consequently, one-eighth or tenth part of the time he is now confined to labour would be sufficient to furnish him with those things which he at present enjoys; or if he should, as he would, no doubt, choose to be better supplied, one-fourth, or one-third of the time he is now confined to labour, would be sufficient to obtain plenty for himself and his family: and this would perhaps be rendered less, by retaining such machinery as would be appli cable to the coarse manufactures, which would yet be useful in this me dium dium state-thus availing ourselves, for the use and real benefit of the people, of that which has been hitherto applied to uses so injurious to them." "The labour of a father of a family, working a few hours daily on the land, would produce all the food necessary for its comfortable subsistence; and the industry of the other parts of the family would furnish what was necessary for their clothing, &c.; the few things which these would not yield, might be provided by certain persons that might be reserved from the manufacturers, who must be, in that case, sacrificed to the public good, and therefore should be as few as possible; and those should be requited amply for their submitting to such disadvantages, and be furnished with other gratifications, to counterbalance them. I know but of few things necessary to the most complete happiness, which any inhabited country in the world might not in this manner furnish for itself, These few things are medicines, but these are in number very small, not exceeding half a score, or a few more. These articles, namely, the Peruvian bark, opium, quicksilver, brimstone, wine, &c. being almost the only articles in the Materia Medica that are deemed specifics, or that, perhaps, contain any healing virtues at all; the power of all the other drugs to do good being very doubtful, whilst their powers to do harm are very great; a society therefore may be, without any great loss, de. prived of them; and perhaps, considering the unskilful hands who gene. rally use them, without any loss at all. Of these which we have men. tioned, three only are of foreign growth, of which a few ships yearly would bring home, to any nation, the quantity required. "If it was thought proper to retain the knowledge and practice of certain languages, arts, and sciences, a few men, whose geniuses for them were distinguishable, might be selected, and likewise sacrificed to the public good; who should also be amply compensated, and in return be provided with necessaries from the surplus in individual hands: and as mankind would in general enjoy leisure, which would be employed by every person according to his inclinations and talents, there would be a much greater chance of obtaining men of great proficiency in every science than there is at present, out of the few that apply themselves to study of any kind.” Should it be objected that, supposing this happy state as favourable to the procreative powers, and to the health of young and old, as it is maintained it would be, the land in process of time would prove insufficient to support the immense population that must ensue, the Dr. has foreseen the objection, and has a remedy at hand; for he is infallible in the case of plethora, as well as consumption. He has, therefore, given us an agricultural plan, by the following of which we are assured that Great Britain might, and would support, we know not how many more millions than it now contains. For the plan at large we must refer to the work; but one article is so truly characteristic of the degrading apathy boasted of by modern philosophism, that we cannot withhold it from our readers. "Animal manure is composed either of the bodies of animals after death, or of the excrementitious parts that proceed from them during life. I 4 "Animals |