S daily intercourse with each other! But to contend against this diversity, is to contend

I against our nature’s constant production. Such is the subtle and inherent nature of this individuality, that it accompanies every one in every thing he does, and any attempt to conquer it is like undertaking to walk away from his mode of walking, or to run away from his breath—the very effort calls it more decidedly into play.

S Out of the indestructibility or inalienability of this Individuality grows the ABSOLUTE RIGHT of its exercise, or the absolute SOVEREIGNTY OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL.

We now come to an important and serious application of the facts evolved.

I Words are the principal means of our intellectual intercourse, and they form the basis of all our institutions; but here again this subtle Individuality sets at naught the profoundest thoughts and the most careful phraseology. There is no certainty of any written laws, or rules, or institutions, or S verbal precepts being understood in the same manner by any number of persons. This Individuality is unconquerable, and therefore RISES ABOVE ALL INSTITUTIONS. To require S conformity in the appreciation of sentiments, or in the interpretation of language, or uniformity of thought, feeling, or action where there is no natural coincidence, is a fundamental error in human legislation—a madness that would be only equaled by requiring all to possess the same countenance or the same stature.

Individuality thus rising above all prescriptions, all authority, every one, by the very S necessities of nature, IS RAISED ABOVE, instead of being under institutions based on language. Institutions thus become subordinate to our judgment and subject to our convenience; and the hitherto inverted pyramid of human affairs thus assumes its true position! Are you alarmed at this sudden plunge into an unknown, an uncultivated region? You are alarmed at your own redemption! After many years of patient 1

watchfulness of the world’s movements and of laborious experiments, we see in this Individuality the germ of a future so magnificent, so bright and dazzling, that the eye can scarcely look upon it. We see that, as it is both inexpedient and impossible to overcome this Individuality, we must conform our institutions TO IT! Man-made laws thus become suggestive—not tyrannical masters, but useful cooperators. Institutions will be “made for man, not man for institutions!” Their introduction will be peaceful, and their progress proportioned to the benefits they confer! We see by it the violence of all disputes and controversies, whether religious, political, or domestic***’, or pecuniary, suddenly neutralized by a power as soft and genial as the gentle breath of a beneficent spirit! We see a remedy for the antagonisms of Individuals and of Nations!—a conservative against the decay of Empires!—a check to desolating ambition, and the whole field of human enterprise opened for beneficence! We discover a reasonable explanation of the antagonisms between ruled and rulers, between despotism and liberty! and we have found the deep seated, unseen causes of the political, religious, and pecuniary confusion and sufferings of the race, and of the disastrous defeats of Revolutions and reformatory movements. We behold in INDIVIDUALITY the long-sought principle of order, harmony, and progress!

We will endeavor to justify the apparent extravagance of our announcements by a few familiar illustrations, although the complete elucidation of Individuality must be the work of time and much more extended opportunities.*

INDIVIDUALITY, Division, Disconnection, Disunion, is the Principle of Order, Harmony, and Progress.

I When one finds his different papers, bills, receipts, orders, letters, etc., all in one confused heap, and wishes to restore them to order, what does he do but separate, disconnect, divide, and disunite them—putting each Individual kind in an Individual place, until all are Individualized? If a mechanic goes to his tool-chest, and finds all in confusion, what does he do to restore them to order, but disconnect, divide, separate, individualize them?

I It is within every one’s experience, that when many things of any kind are

1 heterogeneously mixed together, separation, disconnection, division, ***Individuality

restores them to order, but no other process will do it.

I If a multitude of ideas crowd at once upon the mind of a speaker or a writer, what can he do to prevent confusion, but divide his subject, disconnect, DISUNITE its parts, giving to each an Individual time and place.

It is this which constitutes the principal element of the very highest grade of criticism, as is shown by the foregoing quota-

————————————————————

See forthcoming works on practical details.

tions relative to the various appreciations of language, and sentiment, and dress.

When two persons are talking at once, there is not sufficient Individuality in either voice to separate it from the other. Both UNITING together, they make nothing but confusion. The efforts of both them and their auditors are thrown away. The remedy is 1

obviously to disconnect, to Individualize them.

The more the letters of an alphabet differ from each other, i.e., the more Individuality each possesses, the more efficient and perfect are they for the purposes intended. The same is true with regard to arithmetical figures, and every thing of this kind.

When we mark a number of things for the purpose of distinguishing one from another, we use different marks; but to mark all alike, would only increase the confusion.

PHONOGRAPHY, a gigantic improvement in letters, which is probably to work a total 1

revolution in literature and book education, consists in Individualizing the elements of speech and the signs which represent them—giving to every Individual element an Individual sign or representative.

The same is the case with a Mathematical Notation of Music (published, though 1

unknown to the public). The elements of musical sounds are divided, separated, DISUNITED; each one having its peculiar Individual representative on paper; and this alone constitutes the foundation of an improvement for the general diffusion of musical knowledge, and in effective performance, which will probably at some future day make the world wonder at the crudeness and barbarism which, for upward of four hundred years, have been allowed to obscure and conceal the beauties and powers of this most heavenly element of social intercourse, from the mass of mankind. Musical harmony is

produced by those sounds only which DIFFER from each other. A continuous reiteration of 1

one note, in all j*** respects the same, has no charms for any one. The beats of a drum, although the same as to “tune” are not so as to stress or accent; in this respect they differ, I

and this difference occurring at regular intervals, the strong contrasted with the weak, enables the attention to dwell upon them, with more or less satisfaction; but the unremitted repetition of one dull, unvarying sound would either not command attention or make us run mad.

1 It is when the voice or an instrument sounds DIFFERENT notes, one after the other, that we obtain melody; and it is only when DIFFERENT notes are sounded together that we produce HARMONY. The key-note, its fifth, its octave, and its tenth, when sounded

I together, produce a delightful chord; but these are all DIFFERENT from each other, and they retain their separate Individualities, even while thus associated in the closest possible manner; so that, while all are sounding together, the practiced ear can distinguish either from the others. They never become combined. They never UNITE into one sound, even in the most complicated, nor in the most enchanting, harmonious associations! If such were the result—if they were to loose their individualities in association, and to UNITE into one sound, all musical harmony would be unknown, or be suddenly swept from the earth, as social harmony has been by violations of the individualities of man. It is to the indestructible Individuality of each note in music that we are indebted for all that we enjoy from this most humanizing art; and it is through a watchful regard to the equally indestructible individualities of man, that he is to be indebted for the harmony of society.

INDIVIDUALITY, Definiteness, Disconnection, Division, Disunion is the great Principle of Social Harmony, Order, and Progress.

1 The commencement of constitutional governments was the first step of progress in politics, and it was disconnecting, dividing, disuniting the subjects of legislative action from those which were reserved sacred to the people.

The disconnection of Church and State was a master-stroke for freedom and harmony. The great moving power—the very soul of the Protestant Reformation was, that it left every one free to interpret the Scriptures according to his own Individual views.

[Responsibility must be Individual, or there is no responsibility at all.]

The directing power, or the lead of every movement must be individual, or there is no lead, no order, nothing but confusion. The lead may be a person or a thing—an idea or a principle; but it must be an Individuality, or it cannot lead; and those who are led must have an individual or similar impulse, and both that and the lead must coincide or harmonize, to insure order and progress.

The masses in a city, when meeting each other upon the side-walk, without any thing to lead to one Individual understanding, may turn out in diverse ways to avoid collision. One turns to the right, the other to the left, and they both counteract each other; and both stop, both change again, with the same result—no progress—nothing can result but

uncertainty and confusion, until there is some definite understanding between them, which both cooperate to carry out. (Definite-ness is attained only by an Individuality of meaning in the proposition advanced). Some one Individual suggests through the papers that every one turn to the right on meeting another. As it is for the interest, and is the wish of every one to avoid collision and delay, their inclinations and interests coincide with the idea thus thrown out, and the confusion is at an end. Here is individuality of purpose, individuality of understanding, individuality in the regulating or governing power, or lead, and yet the governing power is not a person, but an idea. Therefore, although the lead or governing power must be an individuality, it need not necessarily be a person. It is sufficient that it is an individuality; that is, notwithstanding that thousands accept the suggestion, it has but one meaning to any, and to all; and hence its success as a regulator. But if two suggestions were thrown out at the same time, the one proposing to turn to the right, and the other to the left, and no one individual understanding were arrived at, and if each one had not an interest in avoiding collision, they would neutralize each other, and confusion must be the result. Can we not see (Democrats as we are) that here may be an explanation of the defense of absolutism in governments, for the suppression of diversities of opinion, suppression of the freedom of the press, etc.? Here is in miniature the grand issue between despotism and liberty! What is the solution? I answer, the right of supreme Individuality must be accorded to every one; and though it is entirely impracticable to exercise this right in the present close connections and combinations of society, the true business of us all is to invent***, modes by which all these connections and amalgamated interests can be Individualized, so that each can exercise his right of individuality at his own cost, without involving or counteracting others; then, that his cooperation must not be required in any thing wherein his own inclinations do not concur or harmonize with the object in view. I admit that this makes it necessary that the interests of the individual should harmonize with the public interests! This is entirely impossible upon any principles now known to the public, and this explains the motive for the introduction of these new Elements of society.

We propose to throw out such ideas or discoveries as, when they come to be examined, may, like any other definite or scientific truths, become like the suggestions relative to the side-walk, the regulators of the movements of each individual, by the coincidence between these suggestions and his interests, or self-preservation.

Blackstone, and other theorists, are fatally mistaken when they think they get “one general will” by a concurrence of vote. Many influences may decide a vote contrary to the feelings and views of the voters; and, more than this, perhaps no two in twenty will understand or appreciate a measure, or foresee its consequences alike, even while they are voting for it. There may be ten thousand hidden unconscious diversities among the voters which cannot be made manifest till the measure comes to be put in practice; when, perhaps, nine out of ten of the voters will be more or less disappointed, because the result does not coincide with their particular***, individual expectations.

These inventions are all too short-sighted and too defective to be allowed to govern the great interests of mankind! I admit, that when we have once committed the mistake of getting into too close connections, it is impossible for each to exercise his right of Individuality; that then, perhaps, to be governed by the wishes of the greatest number (if we could ascertain them!) might be the best expedient; but it is only an expedient, a very imperfect one—dangerous when great interests are involved, and positively destructive to the security of person and property, from the uncertainty of the turning of the vote, or of the permanence of the institution resulting from it. One man may turn the whole vote, and often for want of definiteness (Individuality) in the meaning of the terms of the laws, their interpretation and administration are, of necessity, left to an individual; and this is despotism! The whole process is like traveling in a circle too large to be taken in at a glance, but yet, without being aware of it, we travel toward the point whence we set out, although we take the first steps in the opposite direction! Disconnecting all interests, and allowing each to be absolute despot or sovereign over his own, at his own cost, is the only solution that is worthy of thought. Good thinkers never committed a more fatal mistake than in expecting harmony from an attempt to overcome individuality, and in trying to make a state or a nation an “Individual! ” The individuality of each person is perfectly indestructible! A state or a nation is a multitude of indestructible individualities, and cannot, by any possibility, be converted into any thing else! The horrid consequences of these monstrous and abortive attempts to overcome simple truth and nature, are displayed on every page of the world’s melancholy history. A few instances will illustrate.

Lamartine, in his admirable history of the first French Revolution, says:

“Among the posthumous notes of Robespierre, were found the following: ‘There must be one will; and this will must be either Republican or Royalist, ...... all diplomacy is impossible as long as we have not unity of power.’”

We here see the very root of his policy and the explanation of his sanguinary career. It was precisely the same root from which have sprung all the ancient as well as modern political and social fallacies. It was a demand for “unity!” “one-ness of mind,” “one-ness of action,” where coincidence was impossible. The demand disregarded all nature’s Individualities, demanded the annihilation of all diversity, and made dissent a crime! Therefore, all were criminal by necessity, for no two had the power to be alike! The true basis for society is exactly the opposite of all this. It is FREEDOM to differ in all things, or the SOVEREIGNTY OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL.

Having the Liberty to differ does not make us differ, but, on the contrary, it is a common ground upon, which all can meet, a particular in which the feelings of all coincide, and is the first true step in social harmony. Giving full latitude to every experiment (at the cost of the experimenters), brings every thing to a test, and insures a harmonious conclusion. Among a multitude of untried routes, only one of which is right, the more Liberty there is to differ and take different routes, the sooner will all come to a harmonious conclusion as to the right one; and this is*** the only possible mode by which the harmonious result aimed at can be attained. Compulsion, even upon the right

road, will never be harmonious. The SOVEREIGNTY or THE INDIVIDUAL will be found on trial to be indispensable to harmony in every step of social reorganization, and when this is violated or infringed, then that harmony will be sure,*** to be disturbed.

Robespierre may have carried the old idea a little farther than some Republicans, but he carried it no farther than the Grecians, the Venetians, and even the ancient and modern advocates of Community of property. In all of them, as well as in all forms of organized society, the first and great leading idea was and is, to sink the Individual in the state or body politic ***f when nothing short of the very opposite of this, which is, RAISING EVERY INDIVIDUAL ABOVE THE STATE, ABOVE INSTITUTIONS, ABOVE SYSTEMS, ABOVE MAN-MADE LAWS, will enable

society to take the first successful step toward its harmonious adjustment.* Lamartine, page 337:

“Couthon said, ‘Citizens, Capet is accused of great crimes, and in my opinion he is guilty. Accused, he must be judged, for eternal justice demands that every guilty man shall be condemned. By whom shall he be condemned? By you, whom the Nation has constituted the great tribunal of the state.’”

Hero, by a jumble of sounding words, “great crimes,” “eternal justice,” “great tribunal of the state,” all of which mean nothing whatever but the barbarian imagination of the speaker, a phantom h*** got up called the state, which is made to absolve the murderers from the responsibility of the murder. If this responsibility had rested individually upon Couthon, where, in truth, the whole of all that he was talking about existed, he would have shrunk back from taking the first step. But throwing all the responsibility upon the soulless phantom called the state, there was no longer any check to crime! This is raising institutions or the state above the Individual!

Again:

“The family of Louis XVI. being in prison, the municipal guard were always present at all their meals and other meetings, and prevented all confidential conversations; even their private feelings were suppressed (by order of authority). They were ordered not to speak in a low voice, but to talk aloud, and in French—any other language was forbidden. Madame Elizabeth, having once forgotten this order,

————————————————————

To common eyes this will appear strange or impracticable—on this point see “Practical Details.”

spoke a few words in a low tone to her brother (the King), when the municipal in authority scolded her violently, and said, ‘The secrets of tyrants are conspiracies against the people, Speak out!’ said he ‘or be silent—the Nation should hear every thing,’”

Here again, the Nation, the state was every thing, the Individual nothing! The king, his wife, his amiable sister, and their children had no rights left! The Nation, authority, the

institution, had annihilated all, and a dying sister must not speak to a dying brother, but their bleeding hearts must be laid bare by heartless authority, and trampled under the feet of the horrid monster of the imagination called “the Nation!” This is raising the Nation above the individual! Human institutions above Humanity! The true order is frightfully inverted! The individual should be THE ALL, and the Nation should be a multitude of sovereign Individuals, or be nothing.

Again, page 289. Speaking of Louis XVI, in prison, Lamartine says:

“The uniformity of this life began to change to custom and peace of mind. The daily presence of beings mutually beloved (his family was with him), their mutual tenderness, more felt since the etiquette of a court no longer opposed the effusion of the sentiments of nature.”

The free play of the natural family feelings, even to a king in prison, was preferable to the constraint of a court etiquette, which is imposed professedly for the “dignity of the state!” This again, is sacrificing the Individual to the state.

Page 483:

“Robespierre was repudiating the wholesale murders that had disgraced the Revolution,

***Marat felt sore under the responsibility that rested on him, and jumping up, shouted aloud, ‘they were a National Vengeance.’”

What would he have done for a scape-goat if the people had not been trained in the dogma of the state every thing, the individual nothing!

An elderly lady in the country, hearing that her daughter had been thrust into prison the day before, on suspicion of being opposed to the revolution, hastened in dreadful alarm to the city, alighted at a hotel, and in her phrensy of grief, gave vent to some expressions that were immediately interpreted into disapprobation of the Revolution. She and her daughter both met at ten o’clock the next day, for the last time in the world, at the guillotine!

The Revolution had become the all-in-all—Humanity was blotted out. The laws, rules, and edicts of the Revolution were above all else—the revolution was the great Juggernaut, to which it was thought a virtue to procure victims. This is raising Institutions above the Individual!

Page 351:

“Robespierre himself, in returning in the evening to Duplay’s house, and conversing on the sentence just passed upon the king, seemed to protest against the vote of the Duke of Orleans. ‘The miserable man.’ said he, he was only required to listen to his own heart and make himself an exception. He would not or dare not do so’”

And why dared not the Duke of Orleans to listen to his own individual heart and make himself an exception? Because the public would not sanction it—they knew nothing of the right of Individuality. The institution of the Revolution had become every thing, the Individual nothing.

Robespierre said to the National Convention of France:

“Besides, do you not perceive that by giving up the citizens to the Individuality of religion, you kindle the signal of discord in every town and village? Some would have a religion, others would wish for none, and they would thus become mutual objects of contempt and hatred.”

Why would they have become mutual objects of contempt and hatred? Simply because this Individuality was not recognized as the absolute right of every person, and was not known as the great principle of order and harmony. Diversity could only beget enmity where conformity was demanded! Robespierre himself lost his own life in an attempt to enforce conformity!

Page 309:

“As the king was conducted to the guillotine, no insult, no imprecation arose from the multitude. If it had been asked of each of these two hundred thousand citizens, actors or spectators in this funeral of a living man, ‘Must this man, one against all, die?’ not one would have replied, ‘Yes.’ But circumstances were so combined, by the misfortunes and pressure of the times, that all accomplished, unhesitatingly, what, isolated, no one would have consented to.”

What plainer evidence do we require to prove that isolated, or individual responsibilities and actions would constitute the true corrective for the enormities that have always been committed under the barbarian notion, that something called the state, or the law, was superior to humanity, or that institutions should rise above the individual, instead of being subordinate and useful to the individual.

Page 254:

“Any other man than Robespierre would have felt the influences of these reminiscences, and a feeling of generous pity would have stolen over his mind .... but Calculation had superseded all natural feelings in his mind, and the more he stifled every sentiment of humanity, the nearer did he, in his own imagination, approach to superhuman greatness; and the more he endured from the struggle, the ‘more persuaded was he of its justice.”

Robespierre was all this time only consistently sacrificing every thing and every body to the phantom in his imagination called the republic, the Revolution, or the state!

Page 127:

“Danton, cruel on the whole, but capable of pity in detail, yielded to the solicitations of friendship and the dictates of his own heart, and released (on the previous evening) several persons in whose fate he had felt an interest. Ordering crimes to be committed through the ferocity of system, and not the ferocity of nature, he seemed happy to rescue victims from himself.”

How evidently the system had risen ABOVE the man! The idea of the absolute inviolability of every person must lead and predominate in any movement, or it will proceed in confusion and end in despair.

Page 140:

“Cazotte was imprisoned separately from his daughter. The judges did what assassins shrank from, and Cazotte perished.”

It was the ferocity of system that made the judges worse than assassins. The “ferocity of system” commences at the point where it begins to rise above man!

Page 160:

“‘Louis XVI. will lose his head on the scaffold,’ wrote Fonfrede to his Brothers of Bordeaux. ‘The Majority desire it, and Liberty and Equality demand it as much as universal justice, The sacrifice is great. Condemn a man to death!*** My heart revolts at the idea, but duty speaks, and I bid my heart be still.’”

The “ferocity of system” had deluded Fronfrede with regard to “duty.” The “right of majorities” and of “justice!” I understand the first step in justice to be the inviolability of person, whether it be King or Beggar. This is also the true foundation of Liberty and “equality.” Political systems, to the contrary, only prove their fallacy and their wickedness.

Vol. iii., page 288:

“The republic was no longer a society, but a massacre of conquered men upon a battlefield. The fury of ideas is more implacable than the fury of men; for men have heart, and opinion has none. Systems are brutal forces, which bewail not even that which they crush. As the bullets on a battlefield, they strike without choice, without justice, and frustrate the end which was assigned to them. The Revolution had belied its doctrine by its tyranny. It stained its right by its violence. It dishonored its struggles by its executions.”

Nothing can be more true than these comments on the Revolution; but what is the root of all this ferocity of system? and what is the remedy? The root is the erecting of systems above Men! The state above the Individual! Human laws above Humanity! The Remedy must be the SOVEREIGNTY OP THE INDIVIDUAL, at his own cost, preserved through all the ramifications of the social state.*

————————————————————

See Practical Details of Equitable Commerce.

Page 243:

“The horror of living had conquered the horror of death. Young girls and children begged to fall beside their fathers and kinsfolk thus shot down; and daily the judges had to refuse the supplications of despair, imploring the penalty of death, less fearful than that of living. Every day they granted or refused these requests. The barbarity of these proconsuls did not await crime, but

prejudged it in name, education, or rank. They struck in anticipation of the future. They anticipated years—they immolated infancy for its opinions to come, old age for its past opinions, women for the crimes of tenderness and tears. Mourning was forbidden as under Tiberius. Many were punished for having had a sorrowful countenance or a mourning garb. Nature was distorted into an accusation; and to be pure, it had become necessary to repudiate nature. All virtues were reversed in the human heart. The Jacobinism of the proconsuls of Lyons had overthrown the instincts of men; false patriotism had overthrown humanity.”

In other and shorter terms, ‘the INSTITUTIONS HAD OVERTHROWN THE INDIVIDUAL!!*** Vol. iii., page 166:

“The Girondists were removed during the night to their last place of detention, the Conciergerie, where the Queen was still confined. Thus the same roof covered the fallen queen and the men who hurled her from her throne on the 10th of August! The victim of royalty and the victims of the Republic.”

Both parties brought to the same end from the same cause!***” A striking, a melancholy, and impressive lesson to all builders of political or social institutions! It matters not what form a government assumes on paper—Absolute Despotisms, qualified Monarchies, Republics, or Reform combinations, all raise the institutions, or an external power, above the individual, and, consequently, all have their victims in their turn, or, rather, in one form or another, ALL ARE VICTIMS! The sovereignty of every Individual, or raising the Individual above all institutions, and all external power or authority, is the only remedy.

Page 417:

“‘The number and barbarity of the executions, the innocence of the victims, the distribution of the spoil, the derision of judgment, the streams of blood, and the heaps of corpses, had transformed the nation into an executioner and the government into a machine of murder.”

Whoever studies this era in the world’s sad history, as a lesson to Mankind, will see that no other result could possibly have been attained after having once annihilated all respect to the RIGHT OF INDIVIDUALITY, and made the state policy the all in all. From this one great grand error have all organized societies of men and women been victimized, in one form or another. All social calculations have been frustrated, and, up to this moment, anarchy, confusion, and suffering pervades the earth. By this first false step men’s minds have become inverted, and all men’s political and social relations are correspondingly deranged.

The state, the society, the institutions, the body politic, the nation, the system, or customs we live in, must not be permitted to become primary, but must be secondary! Neither man, nor man-made laws or systems, must rise above man; but laws, rules, and institutions, must be subject to man’s purposes! Human institutions must not rise above Humanity! Man must not be distorted to fit institutions, but institutions must be made to fit man! The state, or body politic, must RESULT FROM INDIVIDUALITY, instead of crushing

it. If we would have a prosperous state, it must result from the prosperity of the individuals who compose the state. Where every individual is rich, the state will be rich. Where every individual is secure in his person and property, the nation, or state, is secure. Where every individual thrives, there will be a thriving state or nation. Where every individual should do justice, there justice would reign in the state or Nation. Where every Individual should be free, there would be a free state or a free nation. The liberty, freedom, or sovereignty of a state or Nation, must consist of the sovereignty of the individuals who compose the state or Nation. But there never was a prosperous nation where every individual languished!

No rich nation, where the property of all its members was consumed in building up national glory! A state or Nation, cannot be secure in person and property, where the person and property of every Individual is under institutions which are liable to unforeseen changes! There can be no just state or Nation, where every individual is ignorant or indifferent to what constitutes justice! There can be no FREE state or Nation, where every Individual lives UNDER, instead of ABOVE, the customs, laws, and institutions of the state or Nation!!

An illustration of Individuality, as the great principle of order, is seen in any movement of much magnitude, which must, of necessity, embrace a great number of parts. A large post-office is divided into different departments, each Department having an individual place. There is a place for Delivery, a place for Deposit, a place for Females, a place for Males, a place for newspapers, a place for unadvertised letters, and a place for letters that have been advertised. Some of these departments are again subdivided (or Individualized). The advertised letters are placed under different Alphabetical heads, and different places of delivery are established for one kind of letters, to avoid the confusion of too much mixture. One place for the delivery of letters ranging from A to D, another for those ranging from D to H, etc., and the ultimatum would be to have an individual place for the delivery of all letters ranging under any one Individual letter of the Alphabet. The perfection would be dividing the parts until they were indivisible; in other words, the perfection of order would consist of perfect Individuality. Another illustration is seen in an army. The commander-in-chief is the Individual leader of the whole. Other officers under him, each have the lead of a particular individualized portion of the body. Each of these portions is again divided, and an individual has the particular lead of each of these most minute subdivisions. All these different leads coincide with each other. All this is*** a beautiful development of order, without which nothing could be accomplished! Only one more step is in the same direction wanting! And this is, that the lead which each individual subordinate or soldier has by nature within him, should COINCIDE or harmonize with all the other leads, as in the post- office, or else, that he should ***not be required to act! If this would present a check to action, it would check only vicious action, and furnish the only corrective for that vulgar and criminal ambition that has so uniformly desolated and cursed the world. The word

“commander” would then be changed into the word leader.

Lamartine, in his History of .the French Revolution, vol. ii., page 370, says that Lilienhorn, one of the conspiring assassins of Gustavus, King of Sweden, confessed that he was seduced into the crime by the ambition of commanding the National Guard during the tumult that would be likely to follow the king’s death.

The eclat attached to commanders, Heroes, etc., is the result of ignorance relative to their merits. A whole army of commanders-in-chief could do nothing if there were more than one commander-in-chief. It makes not so much difference who is leader! Great results are attained not so much because this or that person is leader, but because there is Individuality in the lead. Every person is an individual, and therefore possesses the essential qualification for a leader! It is Individuality, therefore, that is entitled to the eclat, rather than the person who happens to become the agent to act it out. Now, if this had been generally known, Lilienhorn would not have conspired against the life of Gustavus, for the prospect of the eclat of commanding the National Guard—Gustavus, a peaceful and philosophical friend of justice, might not have been assassinated, His influence might have modified the conduct of the surrounding powers, and the frightful catastrophe of the revolution might have been averted! Such are the magnificent tendencies of a knowledge of Individuality; and nature, true to her great purpose, the elevation and perfection of the race, is, and always has been, silently, though irresistibly at work, counteracting the blunders of her children, dividing and subdividing political parties, religious sects, and all National, state, and social combinations, and dragging them through with their faces stubbornly averted, toward the true harmonious, peaceful, prosperous, happy condition of ultimate Individuality.

Nothing is more common than the remark that “no two persons are alike,” that “circumstances alter cases,” that “we must agree to disagree,” etc., and yet we are constantly forming institutions that require us to be alike, which make no allowance for the Individuality of persons or circumstances, and which render it necessary for us to agree, and leave us no liberty to differ from each other, nor to modify our conduct according to circumstances.

“***[check against para.] To every thing there is a season, and time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to “pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build up; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get and a time to. lose; a time to keep and a time to cast away; a time to rend and a time to sew; a time to keep silence and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate; a time of war and a time of peace.”

Such is the Individuality of times.

There is an Individuality of countenance, stature, gait, voice, which characterize every one, and each of these peculiarities is inseparable from the person; he has no power to divest himself of them—they constitute parts of his physical Individuality; and were it not so, the most inconceivable confusion would derange all our social intercourse! Every one would be liable to the same name! One man would be mistaken for another! Our

relations and friends would be strangers to us! “No security of person, of possessions! No justice between men! No distinction between friends or foes. All would be mere guess-work ***‘or chance, and universal confusion would reign triumphant. How much, then, are we indebted to Individuality, even in these four particulars of physical conformation! The fact, that these peculiarities of each are inseparable from each—not to be conquered—not to be divided or separated from each, is apparently the only part of social order that man, in his ***had career of “policy” and expediency, has not overthrown or smothered. I have spoken of only four of the peculiarities of human character, and if these confer such benefits upon society, what may we not expect on a full development of all the capacities, physical, mental, and moral, with which every one is, to a greater or less extent, invested! but no two alike; and if the little intellectual development now extant results in an individuality that makes men and women restive and ungovernable under the existing institutions, what are we to expect for the future! Not only are no two minds alike now, but no one remains the same from one hour to another! Old impressions are becoming obliterated, new ones being made—new combinations of old thoughts constantly being formed, and old combinations exploded. The surrounding atmosphere, the contact of various persons and circumstances, all contribute to make us more the mirrors of passing things than the possessors of any fixed character, and we have no power to be otherwise; therefore, to require us to be stationary blocks, all of one size, hewn out by laws, institutions, or customs, is a monstrous piece of injustice, and it is impossible in the very nature of things.

I have seen a youth, who, from habitual inclination, rejected meat as an article of food, in one minute converted into, as it were, a ravenous wolf. He jumped at, and seized a raw chicken, tore a piece from its leg with his teeth, and chewed it with a voracity truly frightful; but while in the very act, in less than a second, he suddenly stopped, and sickened at what he had done! All this was effected by the direction of electro-nervous currents upon different parts of the brain by artificial means;* but we are apparently surrounded with this fluid at all times, and we cannot say beforehand what effects it shall produce upon us! Where, now, is the right in pledging ourselves to be consistently of this or that character! and where the right in others to demand of us to conform to their modes of thought or action? and where is the authority for human institutions to rise above humanity, and say, with the tone of command, “be ye this,” or, “be ye that!” “thus far shalt thou go, and no farther?”

I saw a youth in a company of twenty-three persons (selected for his known scrupulous regard to the rights of property), in one minute and a half converted into a daring thief. He stole money purposely laid in his way before the eyes of the whole company, hid the money, and then denied it with the boldness and assurance of a hardened professor. In a second he was made extremely conscientious, and sunk down with grief, shame, remorse, as if he would have gladly hidden himself from himself and all the world in the very depths of the grave; and our most soothing efforts were

necessary for his relief, assuring him that it was all our work. The scene was extremely affecting. There was scarcely a dry eye in the company, and the exclamation was made, “O God! that lawmakers could only get the lesson that we have had to-night.”

To what purpose, O legislators, do ye say, “thou shalt not steal?” To what end are all your horrid inventions for punishment! Stealing still goes on, and ye only repeat “thou shalt not steal,” and still punish, even though you said at first that punishment was a remedy! Ye have no remedy! but only inflict tenfold more evils by your abortive attempts to over come effects without consulting causes, or opening your eyes and ears to explanations! Our security against fire and gunpowder is in our knowledge of their natures and their incalculable modes of action, which knowledge raises us above

————————————————————

See Dr. Joseph Burhanan’s discoveries in Neurology

their dangers, and renders them useful and comparatively harmless. Our remedies and securities against social evils are in our knowledge of our own natures, our inevitable modes of action, our true positions with regard to each other, and to our institutions. Even man-made laws, rules, precepts, dogmas, counsel, advice, may all be rendered comparatively harmless and useful by not allowing them to rise above the higher law, the highest utility, the SOVEREIGNTY of the INDIVIDUAL. We are liable to be deceived and disappointed in ourselves, as well as in others, until we are aware of this liability, which raises us above the danger; and we are subject, not only to constant changes, but to actions and temporary reactions, over which (at the time) we have no control whatever. The intrinsic philosophy of reactions may be beyond our reach, but the facts are notorious, that the reaction of fatigue of mind or body is rest; that the reaction of intense friendship is intense enmity; the reaction of intense love is indifference, a temporary or intense hatred; the reaction of great benevolence is temporary malevolence; the reaction of philanthropy is misanthropy; the reaction of great hope or expectations is temporary or great despair; the reaction of great popularity is sudden unpopularity; and it is well known that the greatest benefactors of the race, from high popularity, have often suddenly fallen victims to an unaccountable public hatred.

It is also notorious, that all of us are liable to strange inconsistencies of character, and that no effort on our part can prevent it; that the most reasonable are sometimes very unreasonable; the most accurate observers are very often under mistake; the most consistent are sometimes inconsistent; the most wise are sometimes foolish; the most rational sometimes insane! How unreasonable, then, how inconsistent, how unwise, how absurd, to promise for ourselves, or to demand of others, always to be reasonable, correct, consistent, and wise! under all these changes, and actions, and reactions, and inconsistencies of character, over which (at the time) we have no control whatever. How difficult to regulate our-selves! How impossible to

govern others!

Add to all these unavoidable idiosyncrasies of character, the nice and peculiar

influences of the conditions of the vital organs, the circulation of the blood, the influence of intangible agents, all combining and acting differently, perhaps, on every different constitution, and like the changes of the kaleidoscope, seldom or never twice alike, even upon the same individual! Add these again to what has been said in the foregoing pages, and to all that passes in our daily experience, bearing directly upon the point under consideration, and we shall then get only a glimpse of Individuality; then consider on what foundation rest all customs laws, and institutions which demand conformity! They are all directly opposed to this inevitable individuality, and are therefore FALSE!!! and the great problem must be solved with the broadest admission of the ABSOLUTE RIGHT OF SUPREME INDIVIDUALITY. The exercise of this right being impracticable in combined or amalgamated interests and responsibilities, universal harmony demands that those be universally disintegrated, INDIVIDUALIZED.