We learn that Mr. Etzler is a native of
Germany, and originally published his book in Pennsylvania, ten or twelve
years ago; and now a second English edition, from the original American one,
is demanded by his readers across the water, owing, we suppose, to the recent
spread of Fourier’s doctrines. It is one of the signs of the times. We
confess that we have risen from reading this book with enlarged ideas, and
grander conceptions of our duties in this world. It did expand us a little.
It is worth attending to, if only that it entertains large questions.
Consider what Mr. Etzler proposes:
“Fellow-men! I promise to show the means of creating a paradise within
ten years, where everything desirable for human life may be had by every man
in superabundance, without labor, and without pay; where the whole face of
nature shall be changed into the most beautiful forms, and man may live in
the most magnificent palaces, in all imaginable refinements of luxury, and in
the most delightful gardens; where he may accomplish, without labor, in one
year, more than hitherto could be done in thousands of years; may level
mountains, sink valleys, create lakes, drain lakes and swamps, and intersect
the land everywhere with beautiful canals, and roads for transporting heavy
loads of many thousand tons, and for traveling one thousand miles in
twenty-four hours; may cover the ocean with floating islands movable in any
desired direction with immense power and celerity, in perfect security, and
with all comforts and luxuries, bearing gardens and palaces, with thousands
of families, and provided with rivulets of sweet water; may explore the
interior of the globe, and travel from pole to pole in a fortnight; provide
himself with means, unheard of yet, for increasing his knowledge of the
world, and so his intelligence; lead a life of continual happiness, of
enjoyments yet unknown; free himself from almost all the evils that afflict
mankind, except death, and even put death far beyond the common period of
human life, and finally render it less afflicting. Mankind may thus live in
and enjoy a new world, far superior to the present, and raise themselves far
higher in the scale of being.”
It would seem from this and various indications beside, that there is a
transcendentalism in mechanics as well as in ethics. While the whole field of
the one reformer lies beyond the boundaries of space, the other is pushing
his schemes for the elevation of the race to its utmost limits. While one
scours the heavens, the other sweeps the earth. One says he will reform
himself, and then nature and circumstances will be right. Let us not obstruct
ourselves, for that is the greatest friction. It is of little importance
though a cloud obstruct the view of the astronomer compared with his own
blindness. The other will reform nature and circumstances, and then man will
be right. Talk no more vaguely, says he, of reforming the world — I
will reform the globe itself. What matters it whether I remove this humor out
of my flesh, or this pestilent humor from the fleshy part of the globe? Nay,
is not the latter the more generous course? At present the globe goes with a
shattered constitution in its orbit.
