Such,alas,is by means my way of construing the matter;if it were,I should have had the happiness of remaining silent,and been without call to speak here.It is because the contrary of all this is deeply manifest to me,and appears to be forgotten by multitudes of my contemporaries,that I have had to undertake addressing a word to them.The contrary of all this;--and the farther I look into the roots of all this,the more hateful,ruis and dismal does the state of mind all this could have originated in appear to me.To examine this recipe of a Parliament,how fit it is for governing Nations,nay how fit it may be,in these new times,for governing England itself where we are used to it so long:this,too,is an alarming inquiry,to which all thinking men,and good citizens of their country,who have an ear for the small still voices and eternal intimations,across the temporary clamors and loud blaring proclamations,are solemnly invited.Invited by the rigorous fact itself;which will one day,and that perhaps soon,demand practical decision or redecision of it from us,--with emous penalty if we decide it wrong!I think we shall all have to consider this question,one day;better perhaps than later,when the leisure may be less.If a Parliament,with suffrages and universal or any conceivable kind of suffrages,is the method,then certainly let us set about discovering the kind of suffrages,and rest moment till we have got them.But it is possible a Parliament may be the method!Possible the inveterate ions of the English People may have settled it as the method,and the Everlasting Laws of Nature may have settled it as the method!the whole method;the method at all,if taken as the whole?If a Parliament with never such suffrages is the method settled by this latter authority,then it will urgently behoove us to become aware of that fact,and to quit such method;--we may depend upon it,however unanimous we be,every step taken in that direction will,by the Eternal Law of things,be a step from improvement,towards it.
Towards it,I say,if so!Unanimity of voting,--that will do hing for us if so.Your ship can double Cape Horn by its excellent plans of voting.The ship may vote this and that,above decks and below,in the most harmonious exquisitely constitutional manner:the ship,to get round Cape Horn,will find a set of conditions already voted for,and fixed with adamantine rigor by the ancient Elemental Powers,who are entirely careless how you vote.If you can,by voting or without voting,ascertain these conditions,and valiantly conform to them,you will get round the Cape:if you can,the ruffian Winds will blow you ever back again;the inexorable Icebergs,dumb privy-councillors from Chaos,will nudge you with most chaotic "admonition;"you will be flung half frozen on the Patagonian cliffs,or admonished into shivers by your iceberg councillors,and sent sheer down to Davy Jones,and will never get round Cape Horn at all!Unanimity on board ship;--yes indeed,the ship's crew may be very unanimous,which doubtless,for the time being,will be very comfortable to the ship's crew,and to their Phantasm Captain if they have one:but if the tack they unanimously steer upon is guiding them into the belly of the Abyss,it will profit them much!--Ships accordingly do use the ballot-box at all;and they reject the Phantasm species of Captains:one wishes much some other Entities--since all entities lie under the same rigorous set of laws--could be brought to show as much wisdom,and sense at least of self-preservation,the first command of Nature.Phantasm Captains with unanimous votings:this is considered to be all the law and all the prophets,at present.
If a man could shake out of his mind the universal se of political doctors in this generation and in the last generation or two,and consider the matter face to face,with his own sincere intelligence looking at it,I venture to say he would find this a very extraordinary method of navigating,whether in the Straits of Magellan or the undiscovered Sea of Time.To prosper in this world,to gain felicity,victory and improvement,either for a man or a nation,there is but one thing requisite,That the man or nation can discern what the true regulations of the Universe are in regard to him and his pursuit,and can faithfully and steadfastly follow these.These will lead him to victory;whoever it may be that sets him in the way of these,--were it Russian Autocrat,Chartist Parliament,Grand Lama,Force of Public Opinion,Archbishop of Canterbury,M'Croudy the Seraphic Doctor with his Last-evangel of Political Ecoy,--sets him in the sure way to please the Author of this Universe,and is his friend of friends.And again,whoever does the contrary is,for a like reason,his enemy of enemies.This may be taken as fixed.
And by what method ascertain the monition of the gods in regard to our affairs?How decipher,with best fidelity,the eternal regulation of the Universe;and read,from amid such confused embroilments of human clamor and folly,what the real Divine Message to us is?A divine message,or eternal regulation of the Universe,there verily is,in regard to every conceivable procedure and affair of man:faithfully following this,said procedure or affair will prosper,and have the whole Universe to second it,and carry it,across the fluctuating contradictions,towards a victorious goal;following this,mistaking this,disregarding this,destruction and wreck are certain for every affair.How find it?All the world answers me,"Count heads;ask Universal Suffrage,by the ballot-boxes,and that will tell."Universal Suffrage,ballot-boxes,count of heads?Well,--Iperceive we have got into strange spiritual latitudes indeed.
