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which they are discussed is pregnant with instruction for all persons, and applicable to a great variety of occasions; and every body who cares about the government of life, or takes a serious interest in the philosophical knowledge of men and manners, will find his account in a diligent study of it.

Much wanted, however, and well timed as the book appears to us to be, it is in danger, we fear, of falling into temporary neglect; and we could almost wish it had been aimed more to catch immediate attention, though at the risk of detracting something from its permanent value. It is written in a tone of subdued earnestness, with an almost total abstinence from false effects and exaggerated expressions; and its leading characteristic is unqualified, uncompromising good sense, brought to the consideration of all matters, great and small; with a steady resolution to treat no subject as unworthy to be gravely written about, which is worthy to be seriously entertained by a wise man, with a view to conduct and action. Those qualities, while they stamp it unequivocally a sterling and standard work, must at the same time prevent it from being immediately appreciated as it deserves; except by those who may be disposed to read it with a kind of interest which is rarely felt by contemporary readers in any work which is not posthumous. By the generality, the work of a living author will always be read carelessly and inadvertently; for they always expect to find every thing done to their hands by him; and if they miss any of his meanings, they are satisfied with thinking, not only that it is his fault-which it may or may not be, but that he is the loser; which, if the meanings be worth any thing, he certainly is not. We have endeavoured, for our own part, to keep clear of this delusion, and to read the book as if it were our business, not to deal out critical judgments for the sake of the author and his publisher, but to understand its value for our own benefit and to proclaim it for the benefit of the public.

The task of pointing out defects we would willingly dispense with altogether; knowing how much healthier it is for the mind to be engaged in feeding freely on what is good than in pointing out what is bad. But it sometimes happens that the detection of one error is the removal of many. A defect in one part will often, by placing the reader in a false position, make other parts appear defective likewise, which are not so in reality. And few persons will be at the pains of correcting the fault, and re-adjusting their position for themselves. The principal faults which we have observed in this book are of this kind; and do in fact, as it appears to us, throw more difficulties in the way of ordinary readers than they can be reasonably expected to overcome.

In the first place, the little (which is not so unimportant a thing as it may be thought, for it gives the first direction to the reader's expectation) seems to us ill chosen; as tending to raise anticipations which the work itself is neither calculated nor intended to fulfil. The name seems to promise a finished portrait of a Statesman, ideal or actual,-or at least a finished sketch, more or less roughly executed, but made out in all its parts, and exhibiting all his proportions; whereas we are presented only with the disjecta membra, thrown together with little regard to their completeness, and with no attempt at all to show how they will compose into a consistent figure. We cannot regard this as a trifle. On all subjects which do not admit of exact treatment it is necessary to have a constant reference to the purpose of the writer, in order to interpret his meanings rightly. If we set out with a wrong notion of this purpose, we are less likely to correct that notion as we proceed, than to misinterpret every thing else with reference to it. The 'Statesman' must look to suffer much irrelevant criticism from this cause. People will perplex themselves with attempting to discover in each paragraph a more direct bearing on the character of the 'Statesman,' than it was meant to have. Hence the meaning of some passages will be distorted; that of others overstretched; detached observations will be misconstrued with reference to what goes before; what are meant merely for remarks will be taken for precepts; qualities and practices which are only described, will be understood as recommended.

The difficulty is increased by the division of the book into chapters, and still further by the orderly arrangement of the first five or six of them; in which the education, the fortunes, and the duties of a statesman are treated of, if not with completeness, yet with a coherency which prolongs the promise of the titlepage.

It must at the same time be observed, that this fault, whatever it be, is entirely confined to the title and the typographical arrangement. The preface and the conclusion warn us what to look for. But as it is usual to skip the preface, and at least not to begin with the conclusion, we suspect that the original misdirection will send more people the wrong way than the warning will set right again. Otherwise we should have had nothing to object; for we cannot better describe the real nature, purposes, and pretensions of the book, than in Mr Taylor's own words. In the preface, after speaking of the want of some coherent body of doctrine on administrative government, as it ought to be exercised in a free state, he proceeds

I should be much indeed misunderstood, if, in pointing to this want in our literature, I were supposed to advance, on the part of the volume thus introduced, the slightest pretension to supply it. Amongst the dreams of juvenile presumption, it had, I acknowledge, at one time entered into my fancy, that if life should be long continued to me, and leisure should by any happy accident accrue upon it, I might, in the course of years, undertake such an enterprise. When this vision lost some of its original brightness, I still conceived that I might be enabled to blot from Bacon's note of "deficients" so much of the doctrine" De Negotiis" as belongs to the division which he has entitled "De Occasionibus Sparsis." But the colours of this exhalation also faded in due season; and when the scheme came to be chilled and condensed, the contents of the following volume were the only result that, for the present at least, I could hope to realize.'-Preface. p. x.

On reviewing these contents, he speaks in his Conclusion thus

I close these dissertations with a full sense of the incoherent manner in which they have been brought together,-shaping themselves into no system, falling into no methodized sequence, and holding to each other by hardly any thing beyond their relevancy to one subject. My apology for so offering them is, that if I had applied myself to devise a system, or even a connected succession, I must necessarily have written more from speculative meditation, less from knowledge. What I knew practically, or by reflection flowing from circumstances, must have been connected by what I might persuade myself that I knew inventively, or by reflection flowing from reflection. I am well aware of the weight and value which is given to a work by a just and harmonious incorporation of its parts. But I may be permitted to say, that there is also a value currently and not unduly attached to what men are prompted to think concerning matters within their knowledge. Perceiving that I was not in a condition to undertake such a work as might combine both values, the alternative which I have chosen is that of treating the topics severally, as they were thrown up by the sundry suggestion of experience.

It is possible, indeed, that by postponing my work to a future period, a further accumulation of experience might have enabled me to improve it in the matter of connexion and completeness, without derogating from the other claim. But it has appeared to me that there are considerations which render the present time seasonable for the publication of a book even thus imperfect upon this theme.'-P. 261.

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That the work does not possess that double value which Mr Taylor distinctly disclaims for it, we have certainly no right to complain, even if we were otherwise disposed to regret it. But we do in fact rate so highly that kind of value which it does possess, that we are glad he did not risk the loss of that, in an attempt to combine the other with it. Where the object is general instruction, enquiry, or illumination, and not to prove some specific point, or recommend some specific act, dispersed and apho

ristic writing is on many accounts the best. Dispersed observations can be better depended on for sincerity than those which are made to complete a treatise, or to support a theory; for, in the latter case, if they do not fit their place naturally, there is a strong temptation to adapt them to it; and if not insincere, they will often be found to be empty. Thoughts, called forth by the passing occasion, or strongly suggested by present experience, are always valuable, so far as they go-for they represent something in nature. Those suggested only by general theory and speculation, have often no value at all, and represent nothing. Moreover, the former, if written down as occasion presses them from the mind, are certain to be not only more sincere and substantial in themselves, but more just and forcible in the expression. Like notes made on the spot, or sketches taken from nature, they are better left as they are. Every attempt to retouch them from imagination or from memory, diminishes their force and truth. Add to this, that as knowledge, when conveyed in a dispersed manner, is handled with more soundness and vigour in the writing, so it is commonly better digested in the reading. When presented in a complete and systematic form, it is generally either swallowed whole, or dismissed altogether The particular truths which build up and vivify the system-if not corrupted to give a show of support to it-pass alike untasted by those who accept, and by those who reject the whole. By the one, they are indolently received as true; by the other, they are not less indolently set aside as false, or from the purpose. In either case is the reader induced to turn his own mind loose upon the matter presented to it, to work upon and digest it for itself, and derive its own conclusion; which is the only just and reasonable process by which mind acts upon mind, and knowledge is increased and multiplied.

There is, no doubt, something very noble and imposing in a complete and comprehensive system, made out in all its features, and supported by the coherency of its parts. But such systems are rarely without some mixture of falsehood-and the falsehood passes current with the rest. These are the false gods that steal away man's worship from the truth. Not only is the mind of the reader dazzled and won by their beauty, their pretensions, and the final rest to enquiry which they seem to promise; but the patient and laborious circumspection with which the monitor himself sets out is not unfrequently exhausted in the construction of them, and turns into mere devotion before they are completed. Of all the systems invented to provide a final solution for the doubts and difficulties which perplex an intricate question, where

is that one which does not contain, in one part or another, some prodigious assumption?

'We figure to ourselves

The thing we like; and then we build it up,

As chance will have it, on the rock or sand:

For Thought is tired of wandering through the world,

And homebound Fancy runs her bark ashore ;'-*

Words which we would almost venture to fix as a motto to every book that ever professed to contain a system.

For his own personal reputation, indeed, Mr Taylor might have done better had he given to his book that appearance of absoluteness and pretension which is fitted to catch indolent attentions, and to make men think less of the quality of the matter, and more of the authority of the writer. But his object being not to provide men with opinions on administrative government, but to set their minds freely at work about it; to ring a bell to 'call other wits together-which is the meaner office ;'-to draw attention to the subject rather than to himself; to excite enquiry rather than satisfy it;—he has on all accounts, we think, judged wisely in choosing the dispersed manner of discussion.

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At any rate, whatever may be thought about the mode of treatment which Mr Taylor has thought fit to adopt, the book must be taken for what it is. It distinctly professes to be in its nature fragmentary. We are not, therefore, to look for completeness in its several parts; we are not to fancy that questions which are not discussed are thereby represented as unimportant; that duties which are not urged are meant to be considered unessential; that distinctions not dwelt on have been, therefore, overlooked. The reader must fill up the picture to himself. He is not to enquire whether the writer has said every thing in the way of qualification and explanation which is necessary to prevent his judgments and precepts from being misunderstood; but whether they are capable of being so explained and qualified as to be free from objection. Obvious, however, as this is, it is not less obvious that such a task requires more candour, and a more simple and serious spirit than is usually brought to the perusal of a new work, by the author of,' &c. ; and more trouble than the generality of readers will think fit to impose upon themselves; and that much misconception and some offence will arise in consequence. We certainly wish that Mr Taylor had provided against this more carefully, which he might have done,

Philip Van Artevelde.

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