philosophy out of the world, and to silence forever
the voice of Human Consciousness, is a piece of pretension on behalf of
which we decline to strain our hospitality.

Our notice of this work would, however, be both incomplete and unjust,
did we forbear to say, that, in its avowed idea, the author has got hold
of a genuine analogy. Not that we approve the details of his scheme; the
details, we verily believe, are as nearly all wrong as an able and
studious man could make them. But the general idea of a correspondence
between individual and social life, of an organic existence in
civilizations and a consequent subjection to the law of organisms, is a
rich mine, and one that will sooner or later be worked to profit. And
the definite, emphatic announcement of it in Dr. Draper's work, however
awkwardly done, suffices to make the work one of grave importance.

Every system of civilization is in some degree special. None is
universal; none represents purely the spirit of humanity; none contains
all the possibilities of society. Not being universal, none can be, in
its form, perpetual. The universal asserts its supremacy; all that is
partial must be temporary. The human spirit takes back, as it were, into
its bosom each sally of civilization before pulsing anew. Thus, even on
their ideal side, civilizations have their law of limitation; and to
know what this law of limitation definitely is constitutes now one of
the great _desiderata_ of the world. We believe, that, _ceteris
paribus_, the duration of a civilization is proportioned to its depth
and breadth,--that is, to the degree in which it represents the total
resource and possibility of the human spirit.

Again, every system of civilization has a body, an institution, an
established and outward interpretation of social relationship. In
respect to this it is mortal. In respect to this it has a law of growth
and decay. In respect to this, moreover, it is subject to what we call
accident, the chances of the world. In fine, the bodies of individuals
and of civilizations, the fixed forms, that is, in which they are
instituted, serve the same uses and obey the same law.

Now a work which should deal in a really great and profound way with
this _corpus_ of civilizations,--not spending itself in a mere tedious,
endless demonstration that such _corpus_ exists, and has therefore its
youth and its age, but really explaining its physiology and
pathology,--such a work would be no le