THINKINGS FROM JEREMY BENTHAM.

THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY. By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question; or, what is the same thing in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness. I say of every action whatsoever; and, therefore, not only of every action of a private individual, but of every measure of government.

LOVE OF HAVING THE LAST WORD. Some men have a failing which is a source of great annoyance to others, and for which they pay the penalty by making the conversation less agreeable, and even at times making their conversation intolerable; it is the habit of stickling for the final word. Right or wrong in the controversy, subdued or victorious, there are persons who insist on exercising the petty and vexatious despotism of uttering the last sentence that is uttered. This disposition is the out-break of pride in a very offensive shape. It is the usurpation of dominion over the self-love of other men, on a ground where men are ordinarily most sensitive. It is, in fact, a determination to humiliate him with whom you have been holding intercourse-to humiliate him, not by the success of an irresistible argument, but by an intrusion of a tyrannic power. Avoid then the act, lest the act should create the habit; and if the habit exist, extra-regarding prudence requires that it should be got rid of. Watch yourself, and inquire of any friend on whose sincerity you can rely-inquire, if you are quite sure you will not be hurt by his reply, whether the infirmity is exhibited by, or has been observed in you; and if it be, correct the infirmity.

A SAGE'S OPINION OF OATHS.-The oaths and other engagements with which the statute book swarms, are with few, if any exceptions, a great deal worse than useless. Either they have an exclusionary effect; or by their emptiness, and looseness, they afford to those who have taken them, the pretence of acting under a sense of obligation, while no such sense is in their hearts. Hear a judge talk of his oath ? What is that oath? A piece of old woman's tattle that is never seen by any body, means nothing, and has nothing in it which has any tendency to bind any body. Oh, yes! one thing it has; and that is a promise never to take money fee of any body. But this he breaks in the face of the day, and most days of his life. And thus it is, that, in the teeth of Magna Charta, he denies justice to all but the rich, and makes them pay for it!

EDUCATION. On this subject, as most others, strange notions have been entertained in the world-that nothing in a mind is better than anything; or, that if something must be there, that something is better supplied by chance than by design, as if fortune were wisdom's surest guide. But, "nothing" will not keep its hold in any mind. Be it as it may with space, nature endures no vacuum in minds. The mind is a field, in which, so sure as man sows not wheat, so sure will the devil be to sow tares. Another strange notion, if another it may be termed, which has been entertained-as if there were a repugnancy between morality and letters, as if the health of the affections and moral faculties depended, in this rank of life more than any other, upon a morbid state of the intellectual letters, it has been said, may be an instrument of fraud; so may bread, if discharged from the mouth of a cannon, be an instrument of death.

NO INNOVATION.-To say all new things are bad, or at any event, at their commencement; for of all the old things ever seen or heard of there is not one that was not once new. Whatever is now establishment was once innovation. He who on this ground condemns a proposed measure, condemns in the same breath whatsoever he would be most adverse to be thought to disapprove. He condemns the Revolution, the Reformation, the assumption made by the House of Commons of a part in the penning of the laws in the reign of Henry VI., the institution of the House of Commons itself in the reign of Henry III.; all these he bids us regard as the sure forerunners of the monster Anarchy, but particularly the birth and first efficient agency of the House of Commons; an innovation, in comparison of which all others, past or future, are for efficiency, and consequently mischievous. ness, but as grains of dust in the balance.

SONG OF THE RED REPUBLICAN.

Ay, tyrants, build your bulwarks! forge your fetters! link your chains!
As brims your guilt-cup fuller, our's of grief runs to the drains:
Still, as on Christ's brow, crowns of thorn for Freedom's martyrs twine,-
Still batten on live hearts, and madden o'er the hot blood-wine!
Murder men sleeping; or awake-torture them dumb with pain,
And tear with hands all bloody-red Mind's jewels from the brain!
Your feet are on us, tyrants: strike, and hush Earth's wail of sorrow!
Your sword of power, so red to-day, shall kiss the dust to-morrow!
Oh, but 'twill be a merry day, the world shall set apart,
When Strife's last sword is broken in the last crown'd pauper's heart!
And it shall come-despite of rifle, rope, and rack, and scaffold:
Once more we lift the earnest brow, and battle on unbaffled!
Alas! the hopes that have gone down, the young life vainly spilt,
Th' Eternal Murder still sits crown'd and thron'd in damning guilt!
Still in God's golden sun the tyrants' bloody banner burns;
And priests-Hell's midnight bravoes-desecrate Rome's patriot urns!
See how th' oppressors of the poor with serpents hunt our blood!
Hear from the dark the groan and curse go madd'ning up to God!
They kill and trample us poor worms till Earth is dead men's dust;
Death's red tooth daily drains our hearts; but end-ay, end it must!
The herald of our coming Christ leaps in the womb of Time;
The poor's grand army treads the Age's march with step sublime!
Our's is the mighty Future, and what marvel, brother men,

If the devoured of ages should turn devourers, then?

Our hopes ran mountains high,—we sung at heart,-wept tears of gladness,—
When France, the bravely beautiful, dash'd down her sceptred madness;
And Hungary her one-hearted race of mighty heroes hurled

In the death-gap of the nations, as a bulwark for the world!

Oh, Hungary-gallant Hungary-proud and glorious thou wert,

Feeding the world's soul like a river gushing from God's heart!

And Rome-where Freedom's heroes bled, to make her breast beat higher,
How her eyes redden'd with the flash of her ancestral fire!

Mothers of children, who shall live the gods of future story

Your blood shall blossom from the dust, and crown the world with glory!
We'll tread them down yet-curse and crown, Czar, Kaizer, King, and Slave;
And Mind shall lord it in the court of high-throned fool and knave!

Oh, brothers of the bounding heart! look thro' tears and smile;
Our land is rife with sound of fetters snapping 'neath the file;

I lay my hand on England's heart, and in each life-throb mark
The pealing thought of freedom ring its tocsin in the dark!

I see the toiler hath become a glorious, Christ-like preacher,

And as he wins a crust shines proudly forth the great world-teacher;
Still he toils on; but, tyrant, 'tis a mighty thing when slaves,

Who delve their lives into their work, know that they dig your graves!
Anarchs, your doom comes swiftly, brave and eagle spirits climb
To ring Oppression's thunder knell from the watch-towers of time!
A spirit of Cromwellian might is stirring at this hour;

And thought burns eloquent in men's eyes with more than speechful power!

Old England, cease the mummer's part! wake starveling, serf and slave!
Rouse, in the majesty of wrong, great kindred of the brave!

Speak, and the world shall answer with her voices myriad-fold;
And men, like gods, shall grapple with the giant wrongs of old!

Now, mothers of the people, give your babes heroic milk!

Sires, soul your sons to daring deeds: no more soft words of silk!
Great spirits of the heaven-homed Dead-take shape, and walk our mind!
Their glory smites our upward look: we seem no longer blind!
They tell us how they broke their bonds, and whisper "so may ye!"
One sharp, stern struggle, and the slaves of centuries are free!
The people's heart, with pulse like cannon, panteth for the fray!
And brothers, gallant brothers! we'll be with you in that day!

GERALD MASSEY.

BELIEF.-I am not afraid of those tender and scrupulous consciences, who are ever cautious of professing and believing too much; if they are sincerely in the wrong, Iforgive their errors, and respect their integrity. The men I am afraid of, are the men who believe every thing, subscribe to every thing, and vote for every thing.-Bishop Shipley.

THE DEMON OF DESPOTISM.

AN ALLEGORIC HISTORY.

BY RICHARD OTLEY.

(Continued from last number.)

At length, the moon sunk below the western horizon, and that glorious luminary the sun was absent; when indulging in a reverie on the future, I seated myself in one of the deepest and gloomiest shadows of one of earth's highest mountains. "What," I soliloquised, "will be the destiny of this newly discovered race? What are their capabilities, what their motives of action? Will their governing principles be love or hatred; harmony and peace, or strife and war?" Doubt, anxious doubt, moved my soul; hope, not bright and cheering, but like the solitary rays of the sun, darting through the murky clouds of one of winter's gloomiest, wildest days, alternately illuminated or threw darker shades over the boundless vista of the future. Whilst I thus sat brooding over the future destinies of man, light-dim and feebleskirted the eastern heavens; gradually but slowly it increased, until first the verge, then the broad disk of the sun showed itself, and he moved in his godlike march towards the zenith. The new race bowed towards the east, and paid adoration to the ascending divinity; incense ascended from the tops of the mountains; altars were erected on the hills, and in the forests; the blood of victims was shed; the moans of these victims, the shouts of the approving multitude, the veneration paid to man by man,-these are, must be, and will be, the triumphant powers, mutually acting in the minds of men, for the creation and perpetuation of tyranny and despotism. "Thus," I exclaimed, "shall I reign!"

"Fear! What is that? The elements only warred; and yet men bow and beseech;-they pray, they sacrifice! This feeling in this weak race, is omnipotent for evil. The lamb, the ox, fall first; other sacrifices must and will follow, and I must have supremacy on earth. In whom? Where? How?" Thus thoughts crowded upon thoughts in quick succession; and all nature responded, "Over man himself. The priest first, the tyrant afterwards!" Day and night rolled on, season succeeded season; men multiplied upon the earth; the priests assembled, assumed a sanctity and authority, seized upon the fears of the people, contemplated the motions and influences of the heavenly bodies, believed, or pretended to believe, that these ruled the destinies of the human family; called them gods; instituted rites and forms of worship; adored, towards the east in the morning and west in the evening, the rising and setting Lord of the heavenly hosts; and thus man universally fell into my power, and I arose supreme over his destinies, and became absolute; and his happiness or misery now hangs upon my fiat!

In the deep caverns of the earth, in the gloom and solitude of the woods and forests, the priests assembled, and devoted themselves to meditation and worship. The lust of power, the ambition to govern, became their ruling passion. I fanned the spark until it grew into a volcano. I nurtured the germ until it increased and spread out its branches over the surface of the earth, until kings, princes, and priests reposed under its shade. Soon the work of mystery commenced. Ignorant of the influences of the elements, every good, every disaster, was traced to the gods. The swamps and marshes on the great plains of the earth sent forth fatal effluvia; the sun shone through a false and illusive medium; the air was filled with pestilence; men looked pale in their countenances the impress of the fear of death; they drooped and sunk into

the earth! Death was in every home. Except the moanings and lamentations of the dying, there was stillness and silence abroad, not even a breath of air moved over the surface of the earth; men disappeared, sunk in the ocean of time, and were known no more, for ever. The priests proclaim that the supreme divinity is offended, sacrifices are demanded, that which is most valued and loved of men, must be a voluntary offering to the gods. These priests looked gloomy, walked with an air of sacred mystery; clothed themselves in symbolical attire; called a conclave for grave consultation, and then proclaimed that the daughter of a king must be the salvation of the people.

In this I congratulated myself, in having partially consummated a masterly stroke of policy. The manacles of bondage were now firmly rivetted on the deluded human race. This," I exclaimed, "is the triumph of the Demon of Despotism!" The morning was gloomy, but not clouded; the sun shone, but his light was lurid and the air hazy. The multitude was assembled. The place selected was a grove of oaks; a rude procession was formed; a number of priests clothed in yellow preceded; after these followed unskilled musicians beating drums and timbrels; behind these was seen a tall majestic female, clothed in long flowing robes of white; her countenance deathly pale, her young soul quivered on her lips; the multitude gave a shout of joy, but a tear stole silently down the cheeks of the innocent victim. Near the devoted maiden, when the procession had reached the grove of oaks, stood the aged parent. He was tall and stately in his person; his painful duty was to hand the human victim to the priest. When he took the hand of his devoted daughter, it slightly trembled, his eyes were suffused with tears, a deep but suppressed sigh heaved from his heart. He then folded his arms, and watched the holy rite, with a stern fixedness of purpose depicted in his wild look and unmoved countenance. The high-priest uncovered the bosom of the young woman; she stood before him the emblem of beauty and innocence; he muttered a prayer to the Lord of heaven, the Sun; a gloomy sternness spread itself over his features; he raised the knife; it descended directly to the heart of the victim; she fell struggling on the altar, breathing out her pure soul a sacrifice for the people. This religious sacrifice effectually established the spiritual and political despotism of the priesthood. When I beheld this I laughed, in mockery and scorn, over the future destinies of

man.

A few days after this event, the winds blew in all the fury of the tempest,-action gave purity to the air,-the purity of the air health to the human being. This was attributed to the mysterious interference of some deity. The priesthood seized upon the auspicious event, proclaimed the love and mercy of this benevolent divinity, though they omitted to instruct the people that if this Being had the power to remove, he had also the power to prevent, this calamity, which would have been a much more godlike display of love and mercy.

Having succeeded in my design, with a joyous exultation, I prepared for, and entered upon, new adventures. "This proud race imagine," I said, "that they are created in the image of Good or God. I will transform them into evil beings. One portion shall be filled with pride, they shall glory in false and worthless diguities and grandeur; the other and the greater portion shall be poor mental imbeciles, shall bow down to shadows and pray to nonentities. But whither shall I wing my way? It is morning; how pure and pellucid is the light! how rapid its motion! Yet with greater speed I must traverse these waters; they appear to be boundless, and lie

under the placid face of heaven, reflecting the golden rays of the sun, as if they were one solid piece of polished silver. How peaceful and harmonious are the elements, fit emblems of yonder race; yet war and discord shall be the portion of man. Yonder appears some small dark speck in the distant verge of the ocean, like dark spots on the sun's disk; as I near them, they look like miniature worlds, in the midst of the trackless waters. On them are moving multitudes of human beings; perhaps they are governed by the influence of peace and love; if so, I must diffuse amongst them the elements of discord, strife, and war. Supremacy, civil and spiritual superiority: what enchanting names! How these visionary sons of God will slaughter each other for the phantoms! Here, on the summit of these cloud-capped hills, I take my seat, and observe the motions and pursuits of this proud but weak race. How is this? They live in peace, are free, and each independent of the other. They fish, hunt, and enjoy the spontaneous productions of the earth, in equality and independence. But unrestrained ambition and insatiable avarice shall break through all. What is now being accomplished? Ah! one more powerful than his brethren, possessing more shrewdness and cunning, is measuring and marking out the land on the bank of some river. He is proclaiming that it belongs to him and his followers, exclusively; that all the fish caught in that river, and all the fruits of the valley, though they cost no labour in their production, are not to be touched or tasted but by his permission. At this violation of their natural rights, the outcast people assemble. Indignation and wrath glow in their countanances; they arm with clubs; each engage priests to offer up sacrifices and prayers to the divinity for the victory. The work is done, completed. How they destroy each other! The virgin earth is stained with human blood! The priests of each party ascend the hills and offer up burnt offerings and prayers that their especial followers may triumph through the divine aid. What a divinity have they imagined! How the true Divinity must abhor equally the deluders an d the delusion! Again I proclaim myself supreme over the dark and dar'«ening destines of man."

Whilst I thus sat brooding over the incipient evil of my own creating, I cast a prophetic glance into the future; mighty thoughts elevated and expanded my soul; generation pushed generation into the infinite ocer a of eternity: each advanced and receded with the rapidity of the waves of the boundless waters that surrounded me. "Science," I exclaimed, "and what shall be called Civilization, shall advance; man's mind shall be vast and comprehensive; the world shall be his laboratory; the univers e, with the starry heavens, his magnificent temple of devotion. Yet this Science shall destroy Man himself; the element of war shall spring out; of the earth; and what should lead to peace, I will convert into instrum ents and inventions for his ruin.-But what is that which I now behold? The work of evil proceeds more rapidly than I could have hoped. How busy are these sons of folly and madness; clubs, spikes, and other i istruments of destruction are called into existence: they form into companies, they distinguish themselves into clans and hordes,-they join batt ie, the earth is again saturated with blood! How eagerly each seeks the other's lifehow the contest rages-how the one party rushes on the of her which recedes; the other again prevail,-like the winds and the waves in the storm, -force contends with force,—until one master-movement bears all down before it. Hark, the triumphant shout! they rush upon the vanquished,