in their full
benefits; and _below_ the capacity of the superior ranks, who, though
fitted for the right use and enjoyment of more liberal and higher social
adaptations, are nevertheless obliged to cramp their natures and dwarf
their activities to the measure of the capacities of the more numerous
circle of citizens.

Three classes have thus far been named as the _personnel_ of any
Society. There is, however, a body of individuals which, although made
up of persons from the three classes above indicated, constitute, in a
peculiar sense, a distinct order. This includes the Philosophers, Poets,
Scientists--the Thinkers of all kinds--who are in advance of the best
institutions of either Monarchical or Democratic countries; who see
farther into the future than even the great bulk of men of intelligence
and high development; who especially understand the transient nature and
inadequate provisions of existing societies, and feel the need of better
conditions for intellectual, social, and moral growth.

It is from this body of men that the incentives to progress chiefly
spring. They behold the errors which encumber old systems--they are,
indeed, too apt to conceive them as _wholly_ composed of errors. To
them, the common and current beliefs appear to be simply superstitious.
It irks them that humanity should wallow in its ignorance and blindness.
They chafe and fret against the organizations which embody and foster
what they are firmly convinced is _all_ false. The Church is, in their
eyes, only a vast agglomeration of priests, some of them self-deceived
through ignorance; most of them not so, but deliberately bolstering up
an obsolete faith for place, profit, and power. The State, both as
existing in the past and now, is likewise, in their understanding, a
tremendous engine of tyranny, keeping the light of knowledge from the
masses; withholding liberty; and hindering the prosperity of mankind.

That there is much truth in such opinions, too much by far, is not to be
denied. That Society needs regeneration in all departments of its
life--political, religious, industrial, and social--is plainly apparent.
But there is an essential omission in the kind of reform which is
spontaneously taking place at this time, and which is lauded by Mill,
Buckle, Spencer, Draper, and the advanced Thinkers of the day generally,
as the true direction in which change should be made; an omission which
will bring Society to disastrous revolution, e