ily defined, of each
nation, and its practical consequences,--the pursuit by each individual
of his own interest and his own _well-being_, the satisfaction of his
own desires,--and the impossibility of any sovereign _duty_, to which
all the citizens, from those who govern down to the humblest of the
governed, owe obedience and sacrifice.

Which of these doctrines will be most potent to lead our nation to high
things? Let us not forget that, although the educated, intellectual, and
virtuous may be willing to admit that the _well-being_ of the individual
should be founded--even at the cost of sacrifice--upon the _well-being_
of the many, the majority will, as they always have done, understand
their _well-being_ to mean their positive satisfaction or enjoyment;
they will reject the notion of sacrifice as painful, and endeavor to
realize their own happiness, even to the injury of others. They will
seek it one day from liberty, the next from the deceitful promises of a
despot; but the practical result of encouraging them to strive for the
realization of their own happiness as a right, will inevitably be to
lead them to the mere gratification of their own individual egotism.

If you reject all Supreme law, all Providential guidance, all aim, all
obligation imposed by the belief in a mission towards humanity, you have
no right to prescribe _your_ conception of _well-being_ to others, as
worthier or better. You have no certain basis, no principle upon which
to found a system of education; you have nothing left but force, if you
are strong enough to impose it. Such was the method adopted by the
French Revolutionists, and they, in their turn, succumbed to the force
of others, without knowing in the name of what to protest. And you would
have to do the same. Without God, you must either accept anarchy as the
normal condition of things,--and this is impossible,--or you must seek
your authority in the _force_ of this or that individual, and thus open
the way to despotism and tyranny.

But what then becomes of the idea of progress?--what of the conception
we have lately gained from historic science of the gradual but
infallible education of humanity,--of the link of _solidary_ ascending
life which unites succeeding generations,--of the duty of sacrificing,
if need be, the present generation to the elevation and morality of the
generations of the future,--of the pre-eminence of the fatherland over
individuals, and the certainty that