We may say here, however, for the purpose of reserving the still more
radical consideration of the nature of this conflict for some future
day, that, adverse as these theories of social existence are--distinct
and conflicting as are these two civilizations--antagonistic and
irreconcilable as these contending political and moral forces now seem,
and for present practical purposes must be taken to be--they are not
_essentially_ irreconcilable. Slavery, bad as it is, represents a truth
in the larger Compound Truth of an Integral Social Philosophy. A deeper
understanding of the whole problem of human society, possessed by the
leading personages, North and South, would have saved the necessity of
this war--would at this day even, adjust it peaceably, harmoniously, and
perfectly, and would render unnecessary the whole view of the subject
which we are now taking. The world, however, is not yet quite prepared
for the peaceable intervention of scientific and truly philosophic
methods in the settlement of its disputes; and the knowledge of the
existence, even, of such methods, is as yet too little diffused to make
them in any sense available for the purposes of the hour. The point of
view from which these papers are being written, is, indeed, as stated in
the last preceding number, higher than that of the ordinary politician,
the constitutional lawyer, or even that of common statesmanship and
patriotic devotion.
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