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    change in the circumstances of society in Great Britain , before the profession of a writer will possess that sort of consideration and respectability which is now possessed , for instance , by the hi ghly gentlemanly profession of the bar . The moral revolution , of

    which one of the many effects would be to exalt public writers to a station and consequence proportioned to their real power , mi g ht be mightily accelerated by their own efforts ; but our men of letters have in general no consciousness of being below their proper station ; they are too morally abject to be worthy of , or even aspire to , a higher . But I must pause . Were I to comment upon every unfounded assertion of M . Chales at as much length as I have in this one

    instance , my criticism would be nearly three times as long as his three articles combined . I will let him off with a remark or two upon one more topic . One of Mr . Bulwer ' s complaints is that moral philosophy , the philosophy of man ' s spiritual nature , his intellect , his feelings , and his duties , meets with little cultivation in England . To Wb& M . Chales makes answer : ' Tant mieux , mille fois ; la morale scientifique , divide par chapitres , la morale de parade , m ' ennuie ; elle

    est sterile autant que pompeuse : la morale pratique est la seule bonne / &c . &c . ; and wisely tells us that discussions and subtilties on morals are not morality , and that Greece , Rome , Italy , &c , were least-moral , in the ages in which morality was most talked about . cIYue ; and if M . Chales can establish that the neglect of moral science in England arises from our being in a state of primeval simplicity , in which a few great and fixed principles of morals are universally acknowledged and firmly rooted in

    ^ our hearts , and that it is from the unswerving firmness of our habitual regard for our duty that we consider all discussion of it superfluous , I shall agree with him that his fine talk is strictly to the point and altogether conclusive . But it argues no small share of primitive simplicity in M . Chales , that he should ascribe to us that sort of virtue which consists in the ignorance of evil .

    The fact is , M . Chales is completely out in his philosophy ; he has confounded the effect , or rather symjjtom , and eventual remedy , of a decline in public morals , with the cause . The Greeks and Romans did not become immoral by theorizing on morals , though they did not ( perhaps ) begin to theorize on morals until tney were becoming immoral . / When ethical

    speculations come into vogue , it is generall y symptomatic of a decay , or at least ( in the medical sense ) a critical period in a nation ' s morals . And wh y so ? Because it is a proof that the people are no longer united by a common faith ; that the popular creed has begun to give way before the progress of knowledge . But there never was , and never will be , a virtuous people , where there is not unanimity , or an agreement nearl y approaching to it , in their notions of virtue . The most immoral periods in a nation ' s history are

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    804 The Journal de » DhbaU and the English .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1834, page 394, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2634/page/10/