end in
part, at least, upon the prejudices, passions, vices, and weaknesses, of
men. The development of the logic of human affairs waits for a
philosopher who shall study and comprehend the living millions of our
race, as the philosophers now study and comprehend the subjects of
physical science. We have no guaranty that this can ever be done. As
mind is above matter, the mental philosopher enters upon the most varied
and difficult field of labor.

Keeping this fact in mind, it appears to be true that every person of
observation, reading, and reflection, is something of a mental
philosopher, though much the larger number have no knowledge of physical
science. And especially must the student of history have a system of
mental philosophy; but often, no doubt, his system is too crude for
general notice. Every historian connects the events of his narrative by
some thread of philosophy or speculation; every reader observes some
connection, though he may never develop it to himself, between the
events and changes of national and ethnological life; and even the
observer whose vision is limited by his own horizon in time and space
marks a dependence, and speaks of cause and effect. All this follows
from the existence and nature of man. Man is not inert, nor even
passive, merely; and his activity will continually organize itself into
facts and forms, ever changing in character, it may be, yet subject to
a law as wise and fixed as that of planetary motion.

The Independence of the British Colonies in America, declared on the 4th
of July, 1776, is not an isolated fact; nor is the Declaration itself a
hasty and overwrought production of a young and enthusiastic adventurer
in the cause of liberty.

The passions and the reason of men connected the Declaration of
Independence with the massacre in King-street, of March 5th, 1770; with
the passage and repeal of the Stamp Act; with the attempt to enforce the
Writs of Assistance; with the act to close the port of Boston; with the
peace of 1763; with the Act of Settlement of 1688; with the execution of
Charles I., and the Protectorate of Cromwell; with the death of Hampden;
with the confederation of 1643; with the royal charters granted to the
respective colonies; with the compact made on board the Mayflower; and,
finally, and distinctly, and chiefly,--as the basis of the greatest
legal argument of modern times, made by the Massachusetts House of
Representatives, from 1765 to 1775,--wit