Euripides, on the contrary, political allusions are much more broadly stated-as, for instance, in the "Heraclida" and the "Suppliants;" whilst the methodical pains he uniformly takes to exalt his modern Philosophy and Theology, at the expense of the old schools, cannot but be considered as foreign to the province of tragic art, and consequently faulty intrusions.

Thus has the connection existing between Greek Tragedy and the religion and politics of that country, been briefly traced. If leisure be granted me, I shall animadvert, in a future paper, on the rise and progress of Athenian Comedy; limiting my remarks, of course, as on the present occasion, to the great striking features-the "basso-reliefs," as it were rather than detailing the minutia of the Comic Drama. ADOLPH.

THOUGHTS ON SOCIAL PROGRESS.

THE most marked feature in the philosophy of the present age is an idea that has been peculiarly its own, born within the present century, and, indeed, for the most part, nursed and cherished in the hearts of only the living generation.

Having for its object the advancement of the people in all that relates to their welfare, physical, intellectual, and moral, it may well be called the world's new good cause; and it is one, we hope, that is destined ere long, like Aaron's rod, to swallow up all minor interests, all petty wars of faction and party, all strifes and wranglings, all reproaches, and all wrongs, that have so long embittered our social condition.

Yet even now, when progress has become the watchword of a numerous and increasing circle, it is not very clearly understood, or agreed among them, by what path we are to reach the desired goal; and as it does not follow that every movement is an advance, it may be well, while fully acknowledging the grandeur of the theory, to give some thought to the signs and probabilities of its realization.

The great principle on which the cause is founded is an earnest faith in the perfectibility of the human race; but the extent of this perfectibility is very differently laid down.

Knowing that our nature, in its present state, is a compound of evil and good, we deem that a holy and beneficent Creator never created our hearts so, but that every evil quality is but the abuse or misdirecton of a good one-the result of bad education, early example, unfortunate circumstance, or frequently the degrading effect of unequal and oppressive laws, and unwise institutions; and that, therefore, the true means of amelioration is not so much to punish and preach against sin, as to remove the causes that produce it.

Every statistical table that is published bears out this view. We find that as a nation becomes enlightened and free, violence and crime diminish-we find that the bulk of criminals spring from the lowest class of every community-that they are mostly utterly uneducated-and that their number diminishes and increases in exact accordance with the improvement or relapse in the nation's prosperity: and therefore as a man's chance of virtue or vice, or perhaps the destiny of his immortal spirit,

depends so much on the accident of his mortal birth, the first means of amelioration is to spread wholesome knowledge through the lowest depths of society, and as far as possible to alleviate the misery of their circumstances.

There are others who take a widely different view: they think that as the world grows older, it is departing farther from what they call its primeval purity; that the knowledge we are so eagerly striving after, is still the fruit of the old tree; that we are indeed attaining to the wisdom of the serpent, but are losing the innocence of the dove. These are the men who sing the glories of the past times, who love to speak of "merry England," and "the brave days of old." They make a stir about progress, it is true; but their progress is but a retrogression; their panacea for social evils is a return to the ignorance, superstition, and servitude (which they term simplicity, piety, and loyalty) of our forefathers.

We are told that, in these "good old times," men were better fed, better clothed, better housed, and happier than now. We are sceptical of this; but even were it the case, it could only be said of man the animal; -man the intellectul being, slumbered in darkness; the sunshine of mental light that beamed from heaven to man was appropriated by the few; it bad, indeed, kindled on the mountain-tops, but the valley and the plain were deep in shade; and age after age was doomed to pass, before a few faint rays penetrated the mists of ignorance that brooded over them. Now, happily, in these our modern times, the darkness is vanishing, the sunlight of knowledge hath dispelled the clouds, the pale mists are rolling back to the mountain-tops; and though darkness still slumbers in the deep valleys, the plains are bright and glad.

And shall we, the children of hope, lay aside our vivid thoughts, our earnest longings, our high aspirations after the great and true? and for what? to be again but as clods of the valley, or at best but as beasts of the field.

These upholders of the "good old times" may declaim against the education of the people, and the extension of their social privileges, as only tending to make the masses discontented and unhappy. Such language would be worthy of Egyptian taskmasters towards their Jewish bondsmen-worthy of modern slaveholders towards their sable victims, but utterly unworthy of a Christian towards his humble fellow-menperchance the very class from which he himself is sprung.

The first step towards the amelioration of the people is to teach them the full degradation and bitterness of their lot. Let them see it, and feel it, in all its deformity; but at the same time accord to them the means and the hope, that they may be nerved to strong exertion. Let laws and governments do all they can to provide the means and remove the restrictions, and then the people will rise by their own energies.

It is true that much misery, much ignorance, and much dark crime, still exist, notwithstanding any efforts that have yet been made for their removal nay, in some measure, may be the fruits of these efforts; but fermentation and disorder is the character of every transition state, either in mind or matter, and should not therefore limit our exertions, or damp our hopes.

The manifest tendency of the cause of progress is towards equalization. In saying this, we are no mere Utopian dreamers; we do not seek

an agrarian law, nor do we expect any perfect equality of power or property; this, even if established by arbitrary authority, could not exist for a day-nor should it, for it would deaden all exertion, be a complete check on all progression in science and arts, and turn the active energetic mind of man back to the listless apathy of ignorance and despair. The equality sought is only that of privilege-just and equal laws for all men, and the abolition of all laws that, by favouring class interests, foment the jarrings of faction and party. To arrive at this, it is almost useless to alter and cobble the existing code; it has become so confused and unintelligible, that a sweeping change is necessary.

The fewer laws a nation has, the better for its people; and when mankind become more wise, and just, and charitable, how few will be really required!

If a new code of laws were formed periodically, to supersede the former, it would much simplify the administration of law, by clearing up the confusion that the intermediate years' changes had produced. At all events, such a clearing up is much wanted now. Some laws that have never been repealed would disgrace a barbarous state, and, although, fallen into disuse, it is absurd that they should remain on the statutebook.

Let a new and simple code be formed, not crude or hasty, to meet the exigency of the time, but after the cool and calm deliberation and study of the wise of all parties; and if any class at all is to be protected, let it be the poor, who cannot well protect themselves.

The middle classes, who have sprung from the people, should never tire of labouring for the people; and though they themselves have encountered all difficulties, and have overcome, they should not the less strive to remove obstructions from the path of others. Alas! that we so often see it otherwise! Nature has not endowed all men alike; and to those who are strong, and high-minded, and energetic, what pride and pleasure it ought to be to smooth the way of the more feeble, and to aid the progress of the low in heart!

Equal in importance to just laws, are wise institutions; and in those now established, the cause of progress does not, in the meantime, require any sweeping change, though some modifications, to meet the spirit of the times, are requisite. But there is one institution wanting, which seems to us so urgently called for, that we rejoice in thinking it will ere long be established-we mean a complete system of universal national education education free from the trammels of sect or of party, but that, by cultivating the heart and the intellect, will enlist the sympathies of all, leaving religious creed and political opinion to the conscience of

each.

If kept within these bounds, it could be no interference with individual freedom to make it compulsory, and the general interests of society require that it should be so; for surely it is as necessary to make a law against ignorance, as against crime, which is its offspring. No child should be permitted to injure the community by growing up in mental and moral darkness.

There is one feature in society, which, though originally laudable in itself, has been a considerable bar to our social progress, and it is one that can only be removed by a fuller recognition of the laws of charity

and kindness. We have striven, perhaps too earnestly, after indepedence of character, the extreme of which is isolation and individualism; and, forgetting that union is strength, we have neglected that holy principle of brotherhood which ought to be an element in all society. Zealous and sympathetic co-operation is the most powerful means of working out great results; but we have yet to see this principle carried out to its full extent, and in the right direction.

The more enlightened a people becomes, the farther do their sympathies extend. In days of yore, it was clan against clan; but as these small communities became a little enlightened, they learned that those whom they used to deem enemies, were not so utterly hateful and contemptible as their fathers had taught them to believe; and this produced union into petty states. Still there was no great improvement; they had extended the boundary-line that hemmed in their sympathies, but the new line was maintained as strictly as the old, and all beyond it were enemies, whom their religious and social duties alike commanded them to exterminate. By degrees, these petty states became cemented into kingdoms, these again into empires; and so mankind have gone on from the earliest time to the present, gradually extending the line, but while it existed, never crossing its limit. In the "good old times,"-nay, even in our own remembrance,-Englishmen and Frenchmen were bitter foes-" by nature," it was said,-everything that was mean and contemptible in each other's eyes; and it is only now that men are beginning to learn that there may be some good in one another, even although they be separated by a river or a mountain-ridge.

Hitherto, men have always had a line to enclose their sympathies, whether it has been that of clan, country, or empire; it is only in the present aspect, that we trace the dawning of a more universal benevolence, and it is in this dawning that we recognise the strongest evidence of social progress: we draw from it conclusions that lead to unbounded hopes, pointing to the possibility of a universal peace. Men will learn that their best interests require it-their commercial relations will secure it and in time to come, they will wonder at the mad folly of former ages, that could plunge into scenes of blood and slaughter without a cause, and, shunning such infatuation, will cultivate a fellowship that spurns the fictitious boundary of a river or a sea, and embraces the world in its scope.

Then, indeed, we may learn that the progress of the human race in civilization, and in all the noblest attributes of mind, is limited by no narrow barrier; and although, for the present generation, it be allowed only to dream and to hope, let it ever be with a striving, and a yearning towards a better destiny, assured, that though doubt may darken the path, and ignorance fetter our progress, the coming time dawns with a higher augury than any that has preceded it.

Let all earnest and thinking men aid in developing the good that is to come; and though, in the meantime, many of us die while watching and waiting for the morning, each still keeping in heart his deep faith in the destinies of the world, and cherishing the trust that his own efforts may not have been wholy unmarked in the working out of so glorious an idea.

PAISLEY:-PRINTED BY JOHN NEILSON AND CO.

THE

RENFREWSHIRE MAGAZINE.

JUNE, 1847.

SHAKSPEARE'S "HAMLET."

THIS is, in our opinion, the bard's chef-d'œuvre the monument alike of his genius and his fame. The two are indeed inseparable; and so long as the one survives the influence of time, the other will also live in the memory of admiring man. Shakspeare has here united all the magic powers of his pencil; light and shade, so to speak, are mingled in happy unity; hues, the most diverse and brilliant, are blended together in sweetest harmony; and the scholar rises from a study of its beauties with similar feelings as does the artist from a "Titian," a "Michael Angelo," or a "Rubens." It has been well observed, that there is but one avenue to the human heart, and that genius (whether in painting, sculpture, music, or poetry) possesses the master-key which unlocks that mystic gate. We envy not, indeed, the feelings of the man who can deny that "Hamlet" has made a powerful, an irresistible impression on his feelings. Horace's words are applicable to such a dull, insensate piece of humanity: Illi robur et æs triplex-"In triple brass his heart's encased." What a world of philosophy may be found throughout the piece! The famous soliloquy is itself one of the most powerful arguments against suicidal guilt: it is sound philosophy, for it is based on Religion; and Religion is Truth! Again, how witty are the remarks made by Hamlet whilst he feigns madness! what pungent satire-what excellent precepts! Well might it be said of him, that "there is a method in his madness." Ophelia, too, is a beau-ideal of female loveliness, and maiden innocence. The strength of her attachment to the object of her love ever and anon impels her to break through her maiden reserve, and seek her "love's company." She lingers oft to listen to the music of his words; they are melodious to her ear. Her melancholy fate is replete with the highest tragic pathos: it would melt stones, and draw sympathy from very rocks. We should like to see a census of the tears that have been shed by feeling woman, and the sighs that have agitated the maiden bosom, on the first reading of Ophelia's watery death. We ourselves have wept tears of compassion-such tears as no other heroine, but one, ever drew from our eyes: that heroine was "Pauline Deschapelles " (Lady of Lyons), when personified by Helen Faucit. An able commentator on Shakspeare has remarked, that no character in our author's