"2. To last is thus defined, by the same authority: 'to endure; to continue.' ( 5.) Therefore, lasting, the present participle of this verb, means continuing, that is, continuing now, enduring now, or at present. (§ 6.) "Now, put these two sets of definitions together, and we have the true sense of the compound everlasting, thus: a) now continuing or enduring at any time; or, now continuing at all times; or, now continuing for ever; or, now continuing as an enforcement. b) Only the first and the last of these, can be the signification; because, we must be careful to preserve the sense of present time, on account of the present tense of the participle lasting, that is included in the compound word; and it would be absurd to say that any thing is now continuing at all times, or is now continuing for ever. We must, therefore, set these aside from the list. c) We prefer the last signification, namely, continuing now as an enforcement; because, the condition of convicts in the state-prison, is obviously an enforced punishment, and this is probably what is meant by calling it everlasting. d) If, however, our opponents choose the first signification, it amounts to what is nearly the same: that, at any time when the authors were writing, the convicts were continuing in prison, in punishment, &c. (See §'s 7-11.) This, then, is all that is implied by everlasting punishment. 66 3. There is also another sense of the word ever, as we gather from some of its compounds. Ever-green is thus defined by Johnson: 'verdant through the year.' Here, ever means a year. e) According to this, everlasting would be, continuing through the year; that is, through the present year, because, the participle is present. (§ 12.) Everlasting punishment is, therefore, punishment for a year. "4. The termination, lasting, may also be an adjective form, from the adverb last; which is thus defined by Johnson: the last time; the time before the present; in conclusion.' (§ 13.) In this case, (as no derivative can mean more than its primitive, § 14,) everlasting only relates to f) any time before the present, or to any time in conclusion; so that the American writers, when they use this word, mean to assert expressly that State-prison punishment is either past already, or is now coming to a conclusion. 180 Absurdities of Philological Hypercriticism. [April, (§ 15.) And, that this is really the fact, appears from the movements of the Prison Discipline Society. (§ 16-18.) "We have thus given all the possible significations of everlasting. The world will judge, for itself, whether we have refuted the Dr.'s positions. "II. 1. For ever. Taking the definitions, just recapitulated, this phrase can only mean, for any time; or, for all times; or, for a year; or, for enforcement, (§ 19.) — the last being the probable meaning, in the subject now in question, for reasons already given. Accordingly, to 'suffer for ever,' is literally to suffer by way of enforcement. This is all. If, however, it implies any duration, it may be only for any conceivable point of time, or, at most, for a year. (§ 20.) That it must be a limited period, is demonstrated by the following: "2. For ever and ever, &c. Now, did for ever signify eternal, as our opponents contend, then for ever and ever would signify twice eternal; and for ever more, eternal and more still, all which would be absurd. Obviously, the phrase means, literally, a) for any time and another time; in short, a period just twice as long as the former. (§ 21.) Or, more probably, b) for two enforcements, (§ 19); because, as we have seen, the phrase is often used of those convicts who are, for the second time, in enforced imprisonment. (§'s 22, 23.) In some instances, however, c) for two years, according to the signification of ever in the compound, ever-green. And this is rather confirmed by the examples we have detected of its reference to such as were sentenced to an imprisonment of two years, (§ 24)." &c. &c. Diss. in Bavensi Phil. Arctioris Acad. habita. Tom. xiii. pp. 711-713. I confess that one reason, with me, for sending you these Extracts, is that they seem to resemble, in some respects, certain criticisms that I used to be vexed with, among our American theologians. If, however, they serve to entertain you, that will be a better reason. I find the publications of the Society an exhaustless fund of amusement, as you may well suppose, when I tell you they amount to twenty-seven enormous octavo volumes. Should the state of my health make it necessary for me to remain here till Spring, I may select three or four other specimens, which I have marked for your diversion. I am, &c. C. T. Y. P. S. I have been told of a Society, in Eastern Germany, that would seem to be the counterpart of the WörterklauberVereinigung. The members, it is said, discard philology altogether, and pretend to divine all facts, and the significance of all language, by means exclusively of their own self-consciousness. A friend assures me, that, in their examination of the " great question" concerning our State-prison punishment, they maintain that it is the sense of constraint which our spiritual nature feels, before it recognizes itself as the Infinite. I am promised the loan of their publications. Should I find any thing very amusing, look for it in my next. ART. XII. Destiny of the Human Race. WHAT are the prospects of our race? What are its current tendencies? What are the hopes which we may entertain for it? What is the temporal destiny that awaits it? In a word, what will be its position thousands of ages in the future? I ask these questions, not with reference to any particular people or nation, but with reference to universal humanity, considered as a unit. They relate not merely to the progress of the race in the arts and sciences, in literature and knowledge, or in physical resources; but to its progress in what should be the end of all progress — virtue. Others have frequently detailed the rapid growth of particular cities and sections of country; the rise and progress of certain sects and parties; the unparalleled increase of light and knowledge, and the wonderful triumphs of Christian truth, during given periods. It is mine to inquire, Whither does all this tend? What are the final issues? Is the course of our race, in the long run, onwards? or, is it one of eternal vacillation and uncertainty? Whoever, with a philosophic eye, scans the past, and rightly reads the present, will behold, in the temporal destiny of our race, "a brighter, loftier life for man." He will easily come to believe that a future will ultimately be reached, the glory of which, it has been given few to conceive; that the wearisome efforts, which have proved so many heart-burdens, and have saddened the hours of so many of God's spiritual noblemen, will surely work out a measure of redemption for man; that the philanthropic in the past, the benevolent in the present, and the thoroughly christian in the future, are all so many agencies in the successful moulding and attempering of humanity; that even the failures of the unsuccessful, are but advances in disguise. I am aware that the past presents its retrogression and national overthrows. I am aware that the lost arts of Egypt, the exhumed treasures of Herculaneum, and the classic ruins of Greece and Rome to say nothing of Nineveh, Babylon, Jerusalem, and their sister cities in I am aware that all these are eloquent in their stories of national reverses. And I may be pointed to these, as evidence of the necessary transientness of human good, and of the groundlessness of all high cherished hopes. ruins But I feel constrained to question this testimony. It is true, nations rise, and fall again. But a nation's fall is the world's advance. A given point in a carriage wheel, climbs its curve to its highest altitude, then descends a like curve to the ground again; but the wheel, in the meantime, is constantly rolling onward. So both individuals and nations are born, attain to their maturity, decay in their age, and pass away. Their experience, however, whether it be written in joyousness, or in sorrow, is so much added to the world's treasury of good-to the stock of experimental facts, wherein the world's wisdom lies. In judging of the world's advance, we meet with a very serious difficulty in the outset. The greatness of the scale of measurement, transcends the limits of our powers of vision. The lessons of practical wisdom, taught us in the criminal, or virtuous life, of a single individual, may be easily understood. A large part of that life is before us. We behold, at a single glance, both cause and effect, as exhibited therein. But when we attempt to consider, in conjunction, the lessons drawn from many millions of in dividual lives-to observe, not the reflex consequences alone, which result to each individual of the whole number, but the effects they mutually produce upon each other, and especially upon the generations that shall come after them to attempt thus to draw, from individual observations, the higher lessons of national experience, is a much more difficult task. Besides; not only must lessons of national wisdom be deduced from the combined influence of many millions of cotemporary individuals, but that influence must be viewed in the phase it assumes when modified by the influence of several successive generations. Rightly to catch this phase, in the case of any nation cotemporary with the observer, requires a breadth of vision, and a depth of penetration, rarely possessed. Look upon any of the prominent nations of the earth, at the present moment. Who can read to us the ultimate lessons they may furnish? Take, as examples, England and the United States the two great competitors upon the theatre of national experiment. They lie before us, both marred in their fair proportions, by the moral anomalies they present. The philanthropy of the one, in the freeing of its slaves, trumpeted the world around, contrasts strangely with its pauperism, its oppression, its immense national debt, and its unholy and cruel warfares. The civilized world has long stood amazed at the spectacle it presents. And its recent political movements, so far from removing the previously existing incongruities, serve but to make confusion worse confounded. Nor have I any thing more favorable to remark of the other. Its emblazoned declaration of Equal Rights, and professed love of liberty, fall upon the ear, in strange discordant tones, as they mingle with the cries of its three millions of slaves. Now we may define the various already operating causes of national growth, and decay; but who will attempt to unfold, in advance, the truths which the experience of these nations will finally illustrate? The long line of their national being, stretches out before us, reaching far on into the future. We behold but few points in that line. far too few, from which to determine the cycle of their national being. He who studied the history of the Roman Empire in the early part of the 12th century of its being, |