the mechanic, all make use of the discoveries of their predecessors and of the materials they accumulated; but not one of them halts and stops, or exclaims that this or that is a final measure, a ne plus ultra, a boundary not to be passed; quite the contrary; each, in his respective pursuit, converts transmitted information into an instrument with which to facilitate future researches. Thus the river of knowledge, being constantly supplied with fresh tributary streams, widens its banks and deepens its channel, and, as it rolls along, spreads its refreshing waters over the whole region of science. If we investigate the laws by which the physical world is governed, we find them to consist in motion, attraction, and gravitation, and by applying this knowledge to the mechanical arts, man has created a commercial revolution in the production and distribution of wealth. Nations, uninstructed in natural philosophy, make but a slow progress in civilization, for being unacquainted with the latent properties of the elements, they cannot use them as agents. But when we have become acquainted with their nature, we are able to subdue them, to mould them to our will, to make them our auxiliaries, and render them subservient to our wants and wishes. Time was when man roamed about in a state of nudity, and scratched the soil with his fingers or loosened it with a rude stick. Such must have been the origin of agriculture, and agriculture is the first in order of all the arts. Pass in mental review the wide interval included between this initial point of civilization and the present period, and consider the multiplicity of invented tools which the genius of man has constructed to facilitate his labours in the various stages of social progression, and then deny, if you can, the principle of change and the capacity of human improvement; deny, if you can, that the grand lever of civilization is a cultivated understanding. Since a knowledge of the laws which govern the physical world gives man the power of commanding and directing the elements, so also does a knowledge of the laws which regulate the human mind, make man acquainted with the principles of human action. Those principles influence our individual and social condition and conduct. Philosophers have ranged them under three divisions, the mechanical, the animal, and the rational; the two former being common to man and brute, the latter being the exclusive and distinctive prerogative of man. They have also pointed out the line of demarcation which separates instinct from reason, which, in many cases, have so strong an apparent resemblance to each other, that they have been confounded together. Instinct is a limited faculty, and its limitations are easily determined but reason is an unlimited faculty, at least no man can assign its boundaries. From instinct, the bee constructs its comb: the beaver, its dam; the bird, its nest. These they accomplish to perfection, but they cannot form any thing else. Moreover, they never improve or pass a certain limit: bees have precisely : the same habits now as they had in the days of Virgil. No succeeding generation of birds, beasts, fishes, or insects, is superior to the preceding one they learn nothing from experience; they are a species of animated mechanism, discharging perfectly well the functions of their organization, but never attempting any thing that was previously unknown to their How different is the case with reason: it has every attribute of elasticity and expansibility: it is curbed by no reign, but advances onward from fact to fact, from phenomenon to phenomenon, from the most simple idea to the most complex proposition. race. The principles of action develope themselves as the human being progresses from infancy to manhood, and as his intellectual faculties are expanded. The actions of an infant are purely mechanical, as for instance sucking and swallowing. These are very complicated operations, and unless children could perform them from instinct, they would die as soon as born, and the earth be speedily unpeopled. In the period of adolescence the animal passions begin to exhibit themselves. On the right or wrong use of these, human happiness materially depends. For instance : hunger is an animal desire. Superstition induces the fanatic to abstain from eating a sufficiency of food, and makes fasting a religious duty. Gluttony drives the gourmand to the opposite extreme. In both these cases, the animal passion is abused, and disease, perhaps premature death, is occasioned either by starvation or repletion. The sensible man steers the middle course, and renders his appetite subservient to his health. The same reasoning may be applied to drinking, to lust, to bodily exercise, and to the whole animal economy of our nature. When the judgment is matured, and habits of reflection are formed, the rational principles of action gain the ascendancy, and these controul the animal passions and restrain their abuse. Now it is precisely on this account that education is invaluable, because it alone can fully develope the intellectual faculties, and make reason triumphant over the passions. This holds true, not only in respect to individuals, but the rule may be extended to nations, which are composed of masses of individuals, and on this ground we maintain that national education ought to be the chief duty of every government. What, in fact, constitutes the true greatness of a country? Is it wealth? No. The riches of India could not save her from British aggression nay, her gold and silver attracted the invader, whom they could not repel. Is it an extended surface of territory? Certainly not. So far as square miles are concerned, Turkey is an important country, but she is the very reverse of powerful, nor are her inhabitants happy. Is it a numerous population? Far from it. China holds more living beings than all Europe, and yet she is vastly inferior in true greatness to the small state of Holland. The strength and happiness of nations, therefore, as well as of individuals, depend on the exercise of the mental faculties and the ascendancy of the rational over the animal principles of action. In this consists the essential spirit of civilization. Where mind is actively developed, society progresses; when it is stagnant, society becomes stationary: where it is enchained, society retrogrades. Impressed with these sentiments, we shall endeavour to make this Magazine a vehicle for the diffusion of useful and entertaining knowledge. among the inhabitants of the Channel Islands. Our object is purely educational, and, provided we furnish intellectual food to our readers, it must be quite immaterial to them from what source it is derived. It is our anxious desire to stimulate into vigorous action the thinking principle, to produce habits of reflection, and create a spirit of inquiry and research. We declare open and unceasing war against prejudice, which is a leaden dead-weight on the elasticity of mind. Our ambition will be to lay down general principles on all the controverted subjects we discuss, and then point out their application to particular cases. We have no respect for opinions merely because they are ancient, or popular, or advocated by any dominant sect or party: they must either be true or false, and on that difference alone their value or their worthlessness depend. Experience has proved that periodical Literature is one of the most powerful agents in circulating opinion. This species of writing has been recognized in England from the days of Steele and Addison; and though Modern Reviews and Magazines are widely dissimilar from the "Spectator" and "Tatler," yet they are of the same family. The great evil of existing journalism is the rancorous spirit of party by which it is infected, a spirit exclusive, illiberal, factious, and intolerant, which desires rather to secure victory than investigate truth. Thus only one side of a question is brought fairly into view, and a series of ingenious fallacies are invented to mislead and warp the judgment. The community are separated into factions, and each holds extreme opinions. Every middle term, or connecting link of reconciliation or accommodation, is unceasingly attacked and rudely destroyed, while the worst feelings of implacable hostility are inflamed among the different sections of society. Fair play or impartial criticism are out of the question, and an author is praised or censured, not on account of the merits or demerits of his works, but on account of his political opinions. The system adopted in these party publications is merely to discuss some of the minute details of the subjects on which they treat, while general principles are studiously concealed. The writers are thus enabled to present only such portions of the matter in controversy as suit their own purposes, and the great majority of readers, carried away by occasional bursts of eloquence, or deceived by artful sophisms, unwittingly receive a part for the whole, and confound gratuitous assumptions with proved facts. Such, we regret to say, is the character of the principal organs of modern periodical Literature. In their footsteps we are not inclined to walk. Reflecting on the spirit of the age in which we live, we find it to be eminently distinguished by its intellectual character. The love and pursuit of knowledge has now become an almost universal passion. Literature is cultivated both in the drawing-room of the rich and the cottage of the poor; in the study of the scholar and the workshop of the mechanic. The press daily teems with new publications, and still the supply never satisfies the demand. Nor is this to be wondered at, if we pay the least attention to the spread of education. Reading and writing are no longer rare accomplishments, and every year throws an accession of consumers into the literary market. Thus the grand intellectual movement is annually sweeping over a more extended space, and acquiring an accelerated velocity, and as it moves onward in its course, it uproots idle prejudices, scarifies the weeds of ignorance, and saps the temples of superstition. In our generation much has been done for infant education, compared with the efforts of our ancestors, but the schools hitherto established have been the work of individuals, not of the government. Their institution has been voluntary, not compulsory. They are the offspring of private generosity, not of the national will. To the full extent of their action and influence, we regard these infant schools as a blessing to the country, but we lament that their action and influence is too limited. We insist on the policy of educating every member of the community without exception, and we hold this to be the chief duty of the legislature. On a future occasion we propose fully to explain our sentiments on this subject; for the present, we must content ourselves with observing, that the main object of this Magazine being educational in the widest sense of the term, will endeavour to assist the development of mind in every department of literature and science. It is difficult, not to say impossible, to devise a plan for carrying our wishes into effect, to which many objections may not be raised; but as we must select some method, we shall at once state the one on which we have decided. The actual demand for knowledge has naturally created a vast supply, but there is an evil in this excess which requires correction. We must attend rather to the quality, than the quantity, of the articles furnished. In a course of study, time is a most important consideration. An hour employed in the perusal of an ill-written book, is an hour lost. It appears, then, highly desirable that some classification should be made of standard works; so that every one may know how to form a select library, and possess, as it were, an index of reference to the general subjects of literature. We shall endeavour to accomplish this object by throwing into a condensed form whatever appears valuable in buried learning, so that our readers, at the least possible outlay of time and money, may acquire a knowledge of the thoughts and deeds of past generations. If this Magazine receives public encouragement, then its accumulated volumes will of themselves form a select collection of useful and entertaining information, within reach of the poorest mechanic who chooses to devote three pence per week, or one half penny per day, to the improvement of his mind. We shall endeavour to stamp a masculine character on the Guernsey AND JERSEY MAGAZINE, and exclude every thing that smacks of small talk or gossip. Our pages aspire to more than a temporary interest or a fleeting popularity. Truth is immutable and general principles are eternal; neither can be warped or invalidated by caprice or fashion, by fine, imprisonment, or death. It will be our study to collect materials for thinking, and encourage a taste for literary and scientific investigation. Believing that humanity is susceptible of a high degree of social amelioration; that man is qualified by his mental organization, and destined by his nature constantly to advance towards perfectibility; and being convinced that he can only attain to this end by subduing the animal passions and regulating his whole conduct by the rational principles of action, we shall seize every opportunity to recommend the usefulness and enforce the duty of private and public education; for prejudice and error, illiberality and intolerance, can only be detected and effectually subdued by the open and fearless collision of argument. "One of the great obstacles to the advancement of truth," says Lord Bacon in his Advancement to Learning, "is an impatience of doubt, and an unadvised haste to assertion, without due and mature suspension of judgment: for the two ways of contemplation are not unlike the two ways of action, commonly spoken of by the ancients; of which one was a plain and smooth way in the beginning, but in the end impassible; the other rough and troublesome in the entrance, but after a while fair and even so it is in contemplations, —if a man will begin in certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he can be content to begin with doubts, and have patience a while, he shall end in certainties." We earnestly entreat our younger readers to treasure up this advice of one of the greatest men that ever lived, and when they have meditated upon it, they will be able to appreciate the solid value of general principles, nor will they hesitate to admit the consequences of those principles, when rightly deduced, even though they should militate against their received opinions. In this consists the whole art of drawing truth out of the well. LINES ADDRESSED TO THE CRITICS. SEVERE their task, who in this critic age Fresh characters spring up as heretofore; |