It is curious to trace the operation of the moral law of polarity in the
history of politics, religion, &c. When the maximum of one tendency has
been attained, there is no gradual decrease, but a direct transition to its
minimum, till the opposite tendency has attained its maximum; and then you
see another corresponding revulsion. With the Restoration came in all at
once the mechanico-corpuscular philosophy, which, with the increase of
manufactures, trade, and arts, made every thing in philosophy, religion,
and poetry objective; till, at length, attachment to mere external
worldliness and forms got to its maximum,--when out burst the French
revolution; and with it every thing became immediately subjective, without
any object at all. The Rights of Man, the Sovereignty of the People, were
subject and object both. We are now, I think, on the turning point again.
This Reform seems the _ne plus ultra_ of that tendency of the public mind
which substitutes its own undefined notions or passions for real objects
and historical actualities. There is not one of the ministers--except the
one or two revolutionists among them--who has ever given us a hint,
throughout this long struggle, as to _what_ he really does believe will be
the product of the bill; what sort of House of Commons it will make for the
purpose of governing this empire soberly and safely. No; they have
actualized for a moment a wish, a fear, a passion, but not an idea.
_April_ 1. 1832.