less intimate, but rather may be inconceivably more so. If the will of Jacob could by conforming to certain laws cause the cattle of Laban to foal speckled calves; if the will of the pigeon-fancier of today can develop the Tumbler and Pouter out of native breeds; may not the will of God by precisely analogous methods make these very creative forces its ready servitors? The fact that such forces exist, instead of precluding the idea of the interposition of will, strongly suggests it. Our own experience ought to teach us this, utilizing as we have so many of the mechanical and vital forces.

Huxley thinks that all the differences between men and brutes are traceable to the effects of the gift of speech, and that it might come from the very slightest change in the structure of the nerves that control the muscles attached to the vocal cords. Let these muscles vary never so slightly from their present exact parallel action, and we would be struck dumb and sink soon into brute life. While controverting the conclusion to which he endeavors to lead us by this unquestioned fact concerning the structure and working of our vocal organs, we acknowledge the service he renders in revealing how, by the slightest exercise of the Divine will, informed as it is by an infinite knowledge, the widest revolutions of change in organic life may be inaugurated and then entrusted for their further development to the effect of forces already at work in the world under established law. May not even Huxley's "spontaneous," and Darwin's "fortuitous" variations be the result of this Divine interference, if it be true in any instance that species have thus begun? As these theorists make no pretensions to having discovered the origin of these individual variations, how can they reasonably object to our reverently regarding them as the results of direct volitions of Divinity? As the intellectual and emotional states of the mother at certain critical periods in the development of the fetus leave upon it an indelible impress, possibly God may by dropping a simple suggestion at those times of crisis effect any desired change; for surely He can communicate with his creatures if they can with each other: indeed, we may safely say His facilities for this mental commerce as far transcend ours as does His knowledge of mental law.

While, then, we can hold it quite probable that creations have come through birth under law, we can also perceive how this system of conditional forces can help rather than hinder the efficient interposition of Divine will. We can therefore offer no welcome to

the thought that God ended direct personal shaping of the destiny of His creatures in a past so remote that eons of geologic time have since then rolled by in an almost endless succession; for the very theory that thus removes Him as a Creator, when followed out to its legitimate logical conclusions, equally removes him as Father and Friend, as the sympathetic Answerer of the passionate pleadings of stricken. hearts. WM. W. KINSLEY.

THE

ment.

THE NEXT AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

HE "differentiation" of occupations, to borrow a word from develop the language of Science, is one of the traits of social developIts progress might be distinctly, though laboriously, traced in a historical review, but its extent is visible at a glance when we' compare the conditions of an ancient and of a modern community, or in the same age, of a young settlement and a city. No doubt the individual man grows more equally in every direction, where he combines with the labors either of hunter, herdsman or farmer, those of artisan and soldier and legislator; but equally certain is it that in no one of these directions is so great progress made, and therefore not only men but Man so fully developed, as where each member of the community does that work for which he is best fitted.

I propose to speak of the manner of the application of this principle of the Subdivision of Labor to political affairs in the United States.

Springing in barbaric times from physical or mental superiorityits common root everywhere-European Oligarchy, improving by culture, like the primitive type of many a noble fruit, had grown here and there, long before the American Revolution, into a true Aristocracy, a government of the Best. But the tree was too much diseased to allow of transplantation in a new and uncongenial soil. No other form of government than that of a Republic could have been formed here by our ancestors, however much we choose to accredit them with a pure love of Republicanism. A government based on the presence of a privileged class implies the previous existence of Privilege, which is not made by law, but grows and then makes the law that recognizes its existence. In a State like ours, therefore,

without class distinctions, the right of suffrage and of office must be free to all, except by such restrictions as property, age, or residence may fix. But a theory is not always immediately proved by practice. The habit of deference, in small communities, to men of wealth and education, possessions then generally combined, and held by those connected with the higher social class in the mother countries, placed, for a long time, good men in office. In the older States, too, many places, now filled by popular vote, were long in the gift

of the Executive.

But the reaction from the doctrine of hereditary power, during the French Revolution, soon made all men, save the coolest, incredulous of any possible virtue in the root of so noxious a plant, and forgetful that special fitness or training were as necessary in public as in private business. The further unsettling of ancient traditions by Bonaparte's wars; the rapid growth of the country by immigrants thrown out from the European turmoil; the discoveries in science leading to the substitution of the factory system for the old handwork, with the consequent opening of many new and short avenues to wealth without culture-all these hastened the development of whatever evils are peculiar to democracy. Momentum increases rapidly on a downward road. Even a universal education, not universally thorough, like a swollen stream spreading over a flat country, fertilizing it for the future, at the cost of devastation and miasma in the present, does perhaps as much harm as good. If any art can be mastered in three or four years after leaving the Academy, if capital and even wealth will rapidly follow, why should it not be possible to make a Congressman or a Legislator between the primary meeting and the opening of the session; and if it "pays" equally well, why should not an intelligent youth, with his fortune to make, enter upon politics as well as any other business? Finis coronat opus. Starting upon this basis, the qualifications are reached, and the business made to pay.

The same causes, or similar, have drawn the originally governing class away from State affairs. Except in the South, where this class more largely and longer held its wealth in land, the capital of the nation, which had been represented in State or National governments by such men as Washington, Adams, Jay, and Livingston, began to accredit its delegates rather to meetings of stockholders of manufacturing, canal, railroad, and mining companies; and an intellect

which a century ago would have sought as its natural field the national Presidency, is now more ambitious of that of a Great Trunk Line.

So it has come to pass, that while the principle of the subdivision of labor is in practice recognized in our politics, as well as in everything else, the essential good results of the principle are not obtained. It is no doubt true that in our free society those best qualified for their respective pursuits generally follow them; and that the abilities which naturally seek their exercise on the judicial bench, would not do so much credit to their possessor on that of the shoemaker. But unless we are mistaken in our estimate of the requirements of public station, a reverse rule there holds. Specific persons follow politics professionally, but they are not usually those best qualified. It is not that men enter the service of the State after less time of direct preparation than formerly. For though the Parnassus of excellence in all things be as high as ever, yet the aids to the ascent are so much greater that no man's claim to have made it can be doubted on the mere ground of shortness of time. The trouble is a deeper one. The Psalmist-King asked, "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place?" and he would answer here as he did in the theocracy wherein he reigned-"He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully."

Whence then are our governing classes? Who does not know the young lawyer, with mind untrained to laborious study, or the skilled activity of intellectual fence, but with cunning and unscrupulousness developed in petty suits before magistrates' courts, and sharpened by need; or the salesman, broken down by drink, become the seedy dependant of a newspaper itself dependent on fearful office-holders; or the shiftless mechanic who never mastered his trade; or the adventurer who never attempted one, but having run through a small inheritance, considers that the world owes him a living? These are the men who are used by those of a higher species in the same genus, the differences being in the degree of development of talents, audacity, or money. Under the guidance of the latter, the former select the persons who, with themselves, shall attend, and the delegates who shall be elected, at the primary meeting. When the nominating convention is held, the agents see that the officers previously determined are chosen, and the prin

cipals duly nominated as candidates. While the superiors dictate the endorsements of the press, manage ratification meetings, and collect funds from business men who believe the country's prosperity identified with the success of their traditional party, but who have no time to meddle with politics, the lower class attends to the polls, before, during, and after election. An election so laid and incubated, produces the brood of legislators and others, who besides other labors make the various minor executive officers. And here comes the reward of the workers. However ignorant of the duties to which they may be assigned, they are fully competent to fulfill their obligations, and alive to the opportunities of becoming "bosses" in their turn. Such a wondrous scheme is more than a Ring; it is a series of Rings making a chain too strong to be easily broken a Chinese Puzzle too intricate to be easily thrown off.

"These be thy gods, oh Israel!" These are the specialists to whom the custom of the country confides the direction of its affairs. This is the Oligarchy (not the Aristocracy) of America! This is the privileged class into whose hands we are fallen in our recoil from the privileged classes of Europe.1

With the certainty of an echo comes the first inevitably proposed remedy for this state of things: "Every good citizen (as well as the bad) should attend the primary meetings, and see that good nominations are made, and the party machinery honestly worked until the election." There was a time when every citizen was notified to appear under arms once a year, to qualify himself to serve the country as a soldier. Regular troops and volunteer organizations have now taken charge of that specialty. There are persons living who can remember when it was also every citizen's duty to assist with his private bucket at the extinguishment of fires, in what are now our large cities. The same movement towards organization that subdivides other forms of labor in large communities, has confided this branch to the Fire Department. A "good" citizen who, under the pressure of conscience, attends alone and without previous preparation a primary meeting, finds himself very much in the position of one who should "make suggestions" to an engine foreman at a fire. How shall he who steals a few hours from

It is hardly necessary to say, that I am not unconscious of the existence of many honest and able men in every department of our government; but I am speaking of classes, not individuals.