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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18804-8.txt b/18804-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..846d3d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/18804-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6373 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Prose Masterpieces from Modern Essayists, by +James Anthony Froude, Edward A. Freeman, William Ewart Gladstone, John Henry Newman and Leslie Stephen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Prose Masterpieces from Modern Essayists + +Author: James Anthony Froude, Edward A. Freeman, William Ewart Gladstone, John Henry Newman and Leslie Stephen + +Release Date: July 10, 2006 [EBook #18804] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROSE MASTERPIECES *** + + + + +Produced by Stephen Hope, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + PROSE MASTERPIECES + + FROM + + MODERN ESSAYISTS + + + FROUDE, FREEMAN, GLADSTONE, NEWMAN, LESLIE STEPHEN + + NEW YORK & LONDON + G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS + The Knickerbocker Press + 1891 + + The Knickerbocker Press + Electrotyped and Printed by + G. P. Putnam's Sons + + + + + CONTENTS. PAGE + + THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY. By James Anthony Froude 3 + + RACE AND LANGUAGE. By Edward A. Freeman 55 + + KIN BEYOND SEA. By William Ewart Gladstone 151 + + PRIVATE JUDGMENT. By John Henry Newman 221 + + AN APOLOGY FOR PLAINSPEAKING. By Leslie Stephen 281 + + + + +[Illustration] + +JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE. + +BORN 1818. + + + + +THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY. + +A LECTURE DELIVERED BY JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION +FEBRUARY 5, 1864. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,--I have undertaken to speak to you this +evening on what is called the Science of History. I fear it is a dry +subject; and there seems, indeed, something incongruous in the very +connection of such words as Science and History. It is as if we were to +talk of the color of sound, or the longitude of the Rule-of-three. Where +it is so difficult to make out the truth on the commonest disputed fact +in matters passing under our very eyes, how can we talk of a science in +things long past, which come to us only through books? It often seems to +me as if History was like a child's box of letters, with which we can +spell any word we please. We have only to pick out such letters as we +want, arrange them as we like, and say nothing about those which do not +suit our purpose. + +I will try to make the thing intelligible, and I will try not to weary +you; but I am doubtful of my success either way. First, however, I wish +to say a word or two about the eminent person whose name is connected +with this way of looking at History, and whose premature death struck us +all with such a sudden sorrow. Many of you, perhaps, recollect Mr. +Buckle as he stood not so long ago in this place. He spoke more than an +hour without a note,--never repeating himself, never wasting words; +laying out his matter as easily and as pleasantly as if he had been +talking to us at his own fireside. We might think what we pleased of Mr. +Buckle's views, but it was plain enough that he was a man of uncommon +power; and he had qualities also--qualities to which he, perhaps, +himself attached little value--as rare as they were admirable. + +Most of us, when we have hit on something which we are pleased to think +important and original, feel as if we should burst with it. We come out +into the book-market with our wares in hand, and ask for thanks and +recognition. Mr. Buckle, at an early age, conceived the thought which +made him famous, but he took the measure of his abilities. He knew that +whenever he pleased he could command personal distinction, but he cared +more for his subject than for himself. He was contented to work with +patient reticence, unknown and unheard of, for twenty years; and then, +at middle life, he produced a work which was translated at once into +French and German, and, of all places in the world, fluttered the +dovecots of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg. + +Goethe says somewhere, that as soon as a man has done any thing +remarkable, there seems to be a general conspiracy to prevent him from +doing it again. He is feasted, fêted, caressed; his time is stolen from +him by breakfasts, dinners, societies, idle businesses of a thousand +kinds. Mr. Buckle had his share of all this; but there are also more +dangerous enemies that wait upon success like his. He had scarcely won +for himself the place which he deserved, than his health was found +shattered by his labors. He had but time to show us how large a man he +was, time just to sketch the outlines of his philosophy, and he passed +away as suddenly as he appeared. He went abroad to recover strength for +his work, but his work was done with and over. He died of a fever at +Damascus, vexed only that he was compelled to leave it uncompleted. +Almost his last conscious words were: "My book, my book! I shall never +finish my book!" He went away as he had lived, nobly careless of +himself, and thinking only of the thing which he had undertaken to do. + +But his labor had not been thrown away. Disagree with him as we might, +the effect which he had already produced was unmistakable, and it is not +likely to pass away. What he said was not essentially new. Some such +interpretation of human things is as early as the beginning of thought. +But Mr. Buckle, on the one hand, had the art which belongs to men of +genius: he could present his opinions with peculiar distinctness; and, +on the other hand, there is much in the mode of speculation at present +current among us for which those opinions have an unusual fascination. +They do not please us, but they excite and irritate us. We are angry +with them; and we betray, in being so, an uneasy misgiving that there +may be more truth in those opinions than we like to allow. + +Mr. Buckle's general theory was something of this kind: When human +creatures began first to look about them in the world they lived in, +there seemed to be no order in any thing. Days and nights were not the +same length. The air was sometimes hot and sometimes cold. Some of the +stars rose and set like the sun; some were almost motionless in the sky; +some described circles round a central star above the north horizon. The +planets went on principles of their own; and in the elements there +seemed nothing but caprice. Sun and moon would at times go out in +eclipse. Sometimes the earth itself would shake under men's feet; and +they could only suppose that earth and air and sky and water were +inhabited and managed by creatures as wayward as themselves. + +Time went on, and the disorder began to arrange itself. Certain +influences seemed beneficent to men, others malignant and destructive; +and the world was supposed to be animated by good spirits and evil +spirits, who were continually fighting against each other, in outward +nature and in human creatures themselves. Finally, as men observed more +and imagined less, these interpretations gave way also. Phenomena the +most opposite in effect were seen to be the result of the same natural +law. The fire did not burn the house down if the owners of it were +careful, but remained on the hearth and boiled the pot; nor did it seem +more inclined to burn a bad man's house down than a good man's, provided +the badness did not take the form of negligence. The phenomena of nature +were found for the most part to proceed in an orderly, regular way, and +their variations to be such as could be counted upon. From observing the +order of things, the step was easy to cause and effect. An eclipse, +instead of being a sign of the anger of Heaven, was found to be the +necessary and innocent result of the relative position of sun, moon, and +earth. The comets became bodies in space, unrelated to the beings who +had imagined that all creation was watching them and their doings. By +degrees caprice, volition, all symptoms of arbitrary action, disappeared +out of the universe; and almost every phenomenon in earth or heaven was +found attributable to some law, either understood or perceived to exist. +Thus nature was reclaimed from the imagination. The first fantastic +conception of things gave way before the moral; the moral in turn gave +way before the natural; and at last there was left but one small tract +of jungle where the theory of law had failed to penetrate,--the doings +and characters of human creatures themselves. + +There, and only there, amidst the conflicts of reason and emotion, +conscience and desire, spiritual forces were still conceived to exist. +Cause and effect were not traceable when there was a free volition to +disturb the connection. In all other things, from a given set of +conditions the consequences necessarily followed. With man, the word +"law" changed its meaning; and instead of a fixed order, which he could +not choose but follow, it became a moral precept, which he might disobey +if he dared. + +This it was which Mr. Buckle disbelieved. The economy which prevailed +throughout nature, he thought it very unlikely should admit of this +exception. He considered that human beings acted necessarily from the +impulse of outward circumstances upon their mental and bodily condition +at any given moment. Every man, he said, acted from a motive; and his +conduct was determined by the motive which affected him most powerfully. +Every man naturally desires what he supposes to be good for him; but, to +do well, he must know well. He will eat poison, so long as he does not +know that it is poison. Let him see that it will kill him, and he will +not touch it. The question was not of moral right and wrong. Once let +him be thoroughly made to feel that the thing is destructive, and he +will leave it alone by the law of his nature. His virtues are the result +of knowledge; his faults, the necessary consequence of the want of it. A +boy desires to draw. He knows nothing about it: he draws men like trees +or houses, with their centre of gravity anywhere. He makes mistakes +because he knows no better. We do not blame him. Till he is better +taught, he cannot help it. But his instruction begins. He arrives at +straight lines; then at solids; then at curves. He learns perspective, +and light and shade. He observes more accurately the forms which he +wishes to represent. He perceives effects, and he perceives the means by +which they are produced. He has learned what to do; and, in part, he has +learned how to do it. His after-progress will depend on the amount of +force which his nature possesses; but all this is as natural as the +growth of an acorn. You do not preach to the acorn that it is its duty +to become a large tree; you do not preach to the art-pupil that it is +his duty to become a Holbein. You plant your acorn in favorable soil, +where it can have light and air, and be sheltered from the wind; you +remove the superfluous branches, you train the strength into the leading +shoots. The acorn will then become as fine a tree as it has vital force +to become. The difference between men and other things is only in the +largeness and variety of man's capacities; and in this special capacity, +that he alone has the power of observing the circumstances favorable to +his own growth, and can apply them for himself, yet, again, with this +condition,--that he is not, as is commonly supposed, free to choose +whether he will make use of these appliances or not. When he knows what +is good for him, he will choose it; and he will judge what is good for +him by the circumstances which have made him what he is. + +And what he would do, Mr. Buckle supposed that he always had done. His +history had been a natural growth as much as the growth of the acorn. +His improvement had followed the progress of his knowledge; and, by a +comparison of his outward circumstances with the condition of his mind, +his whole proceedings on this planet, his creeds and constitutions, his +good deeds and his bad, his arts and his sciences, his empires and his +revolutions, would be found all to arrange themselves into clear +relations of cause and effect. + +If, when Mr. Buckle pressed his conclusions we objected the difficulty +of finding what the truth about past times really was, he would admit it +candidly as far as concerned individuals; but there was not the same +difficulty, he said, with masses of men. We might disagree about the +character of Julius or Tiberius Cæsar, but we could know well enough the +Romans of the Empire. We had their literature to tell us how they +thought; we had their laws to tell us how they governed; we had the +broad face of the world, the huge mountainous outline of their general +doings upon it, to tell us how they acted. He believed it was all +reducible to laws, and could be made as intelligible as the growth of +the chalk cliffs or the coal measures. + +And thus consistently Mr. Buckle cared little for individuals. He did +not believe (as some one has said) that the history of mankind is the +history of its great men. Great men with him were but larger atoms, +obeying the same impulses with the rest, only perhaps a trifle more +erratic. With them or without them, the course of things would have been +much the same. + +As an illustration of the truth of his view, he would point to the new +science of Political Economy. Here already was a large area of human +activity in which natural laws were found to act unerringly. Men had +gone on for centuries trying to regulate trade on moral principles. They +would fix wages according to some imaginary rule of fairness; they would +fix prices by what they considered things ought to cost; they encouraged +one trade or discouraged another, for moral reasons. They might as well +have tried to work a steam-engine on moral reasons. The great statesmen +whose names were connected with these enterprises might have as well +legislated that water should run up-hill. There were natural laws, fixed +in the conditions of things; and to contend against them was the old +battle of the Titans against the gods. + +As it was with political economy, so it was with all other forms of +human activity; and as the true laws of political economy explained the +troubles which people fell into in old times because they were ignorant +of them, so the true laws of human nature, as soon as we knew them, +would explain their mistakes in more serious matters, and enable us to +manage better for the future. Geographical position, climate, air, soil, +and the like, had their several influences. The northern nations are +hardy and industrious, because they must till the earth if they would +eat the fruits of it, and because the temperature is too low to make an +idle life enjoyable. In the south, the soil is more productive, while +less food is wanted and fewer clothes; and, in the exquisite air, +exertion is not needed to make the sense of existence delightful. +Therefore, in the south we find men lazy and indolent. + +True, there are difficulties in these views; the home of the languid +Italian was the home also of the sternest race of whom the story of +mankind retains a record. And again, when we are told that the Spaniards +are superstitious because Spain is a country of earthquakes, we remember +Japan, the spot in all the world where earthquakes are most frequent, +and where at the same time there is the most serene disbelief in any +supernatural agency whatsoever. + +Moreover, if men grow into what they are by natural laws, they cannot +help being what they are; and if they cannot help being what they are, a +good deal will have to be altered in our general view of human +obligations and responsibilities. + +That, however, in these theories there is a great deal of truth, is +quite certain, were there but a hope that those who maintain them would +be contented with that admission. A man born in a Mahometan country +grows up a Mahometan; in a Catholic country, a Catholic; in a Protestant +country, a Protestant. His opinions are like his language: he learns to +think as he learns to speak; and it is absurd to suppose him responsible +for being what nature makes him. We take pains to educate children. +There is a good education and a bad education; there are rules well +ascertained by which characters are influenced; and, clearly enough, it +is no mere matter for a boy's free will whether he turns out well or +ill. We try to train him into good habits; we keep him out of the way of +temptations; we see that he is well taught; we mix kindness and +strictness; we surround him with every good influence we can command. +These are what are termed the advantages of a good education; and if we +fail to provide those under our care with it, and if they go wrong, the +responsibility we feel is as much ours as theirs. This is at once an +admission of the power over us of outward circumstances. + +In the same way, we allow for the strength of temptations, and the like. + +In general, it is perfectly obvious that men do necessarily absorb, out +of the influences in which they grow up, something which gives a +complexion to their whole after-character. + +When historians have to relate great social or speculative changes, the +overthrow of a monarchy, or the establishment of a creed, they do but +half their duty if they merely relate the events. In an account, for +instance, of the rise of Mahometanism, it is not enough to describe the +character of the Prophet, the ends which he set before him, the means +which he made use of, and the effect which he produced; the historian +must show what there was in the condition of the Eastern races which +enabled Mahomet to act upon, them so powerfully; their existing beliefs, +their existing moral and political condition. + +In our estimate of the past, and in our calculations of the future, in +the judgments which we pass upon one another, we measure responsibility, +not by the thing done, but by the opportunities which people have had of +knowing better or worse. In the efforts which we make to keep our +children from bad associations or friends, we admit that external +circumstances have a powerful effect in making men what they are. + +But are circumstances every thing? That is the whole question. A +science of history, if it is more than a misleading name, implies that +the relation between cause and effect holds in human things as +completely as in all others; that the origin of human actions is not to +be looked for in mysterious properties of the mind, but in influences +which are palpable and ponderable. + +When natural causes are liable to be set aside and neutralized by what +is called volition, the word Science is out of place. If it is free to +man to choose what he will do or not do, there is no adequate science of +him. If there is a science of him, there is no free choice, and the +praise or blame with which we regard one another are impertinent and out +of place. + +I am trespassing upon these ethical grounds because, unless I do, the +subject cannot be made intelligible. Mankind are but an aggregate of +individuals; History is but the record of individual action: and what is +true of the part is true of the whole. + +We feel keenly about such things, and, when the logic becomes +perplexing, we are apt to grow rhetorical about them. But rhetoric is +only misleading. Whatever the truth may be, it is best that we should +know it; and for truth of any kind we should keep our heads and hearts +as cool as we can. + +I will say at once, that, if we had the whole case before us; if we were +taken, like Leibnitz's Tarquin, into the council-chamber of Nature, and +were shown what we really were, where we came from, and where we were +going, however unpleasant it might be for some of us to find ourselves, +like Tarquin, made into villains, from the subtle necessities of "the +best of all possible worlds,"--nevertheless, some such theory as Mr. +Buckle's might possibly turn out to be true. Likely enough, there is +some great "equation of the universe" where the value of the unknown +quantities can be determined. But we must treat things in relation to +our own powers and positions, and the question is, whether the sweep of +those vast curves can be measured by the intellect of creatures of a day +like ourselves. + +The "Faust" of Goethe, tired of the barren round of earthly knowledge, +calls magic to his aid. He desires, first, to see the spirit of the +Macrocosmos, but his heart fails him before he ventures that tremendous +experiment, and he summons before him, instead, the spirit of his own +race. There he feels himself at home. The stream of life and the storm +of action, the everlasting ocean of existence, the web and the woof, +and the roaring loom of Time,--he gazes upon them all, and in passionate +exultation claims fellowship with the awful thing before him. But the +majestic vision fades, and a voice comes to him,--"Thou art fellow with +the spirits which thy mind can grasp, not with me." + +Had Mr. Buckle tried to follow his principles into detail, it might have +fared no better with him than with "Faust." + +What are the conditions of a science? and when may any subject be said +to enter the scientific stage? I suppose when the facts begin to resolve +themselves into groups; when phenomena are no longer isolated +experiences, but appear in connection and order; when, after certain +antecedents, certain consequences are uniformly seen to follow; when +facts enough have been collected to furnish a basis for conjectural +explanation; and when conjectures have so far ceased to be utterly vague +that it is possible in some degree to foresee the future by the help of +them. + +Till a subject has advanced as far as this, to speak of a science of it +is an abuse of language. It is not enough to say that there must be a +science of human things because there is a science of all other things. +This is like saying the planets must be inhabited because the only +planet of which we have any experience is inhabited. It may or may not +be true, but it is not a practical question; it does not affect the +practical treatment of the matter in hand. + +Let us look at the history of Astronomy. + +So long as sun, moon, and planets were supposed to be gods or angels; so +long as the sword of Orion was not a metaphor, but a fact; and the +groups of stars which inlaid the floor of heaven were the glittering +trophies of the loves and wars of the Pantheon,--so long there was no +science of Astronomy. There was fancy, imagination, poetry, perhaps +reverence, but no science. As soon, however, as it was observed that the +stars retained their relative places; that the times of their rising and +setting varied with the seasons; that sun, moon, and planets moved among +them in a plane, and the belt of the Zodiac was marked out and +divided,--then a new order of things began. Traces of the earlier stage +remained in the names of the signs and constellations, just as the +Scandinavian mythology survives now in the names of the days of the +week; but, for all that, the understanding was now at work on the thing; +science had begun, and the first triumph of it was the power of +foretelling the future. Eclipses were perceived to recur in cycles of +nineteen years, and philosophers were able to say when an eclipse was to +be looked for. The periods of the planets were determined. Theories were +invented to account for their eccentricities; and, false as those +theories might be, the position of the planets could be calculated with +moderate certainty by them. The very first result of the science, in its +most imperfect stage, was a power of foresight; and this was possible +before any one true astronomical law had been discovered. + +We should not therefore question the possibility of a science of history +because the explanations of its phenomena were rudimentary or imperfect: +that they might be, and long continue to be, and yet enough might be +done to show that there was such a thing, and that it was not entirely +without use. But how was it that in those rude days, with small +knowledge of mathematics, and with no better instruments than flat walls +and dial-plates, those first astronomers made progress so considerable? +Because, I suppose, the phenomena which they were observing recurred, +for the most part, within moderate intervals; so that they could +collect large experience within the compass of their natural lives; +because days and months and years were measurable periods, and within +them the more simple phenomena perpetually repeated themselves. + +But how would it have been if, instead of turning on its axis once in +twenty-four hours, the earth had taken a year about it; if the year had +been nearly four hundred years; if man's life had been no longer than it +is, and for the initial steps of astronomy there had been nothing to +depend upon except observations recorded in history? How many ages would +have passed, had this been our condition, before it would have occurred +to any one, that, in what they saw night after night, there was any kind +of order at all? + +We can see to some extent how it would have been, by the present state +of those parts of the science which in fact depend on remote recorded +observations. The movements of the comets are still extremely uncertain. +The times of their return can be calculated only with the greatest +vagueness. + +And yet such a hypothesis as I have suggested would but inadequately +express the position in which we are in fact placed toward history. +There the phenomena never repeat themselves. There we are dependent +wholly on the record of things said to have happened once, but which +never happen or can happen a second time. There no experiment is +possible; we can watch for no recurring fact to test the worth of our +conjectures. It has been suggested fancifully, that, if we consider the +universe to be infinite, time is the same as eternity, and the past is +perpetually present. Light takes nine years to come to us from Sirius: +those rays which we may see to-night, when we leave this place, left +Sirius nine years ago; and could the inhabitants of Sirius see the earth +at this moment, they would see the English army in the trenches before +Sebastopol, Florence Nightingale watching at Scutari over the wounded at +Inkermann, and the peace of England undisturbed by "Essays and Reviews." + +As the stars recede into distance, so time recedes with them; and there +may be, and probably are, stars from which Noah might be seen stepping +into the ark, Eve listening to the temptation of the serpent, or that +older race, eating the oysters and leaving the shell-heaps behind them, +when the Baltic was an open sea. + +Could we but compare notes, something might be done; but of this there +is no present hope, and without it there will be no science of history. +Eclipses, recorded in ancient books, can be verified by calculations, +and lost dates can be recovered by them; and we can foresee, by the laws +which they follow, when there will be eclipses again. Will a time ever +be when the lost secret of the foundation of Rome can be recovered by +historic laws? If not, where is our science? It may be said that this is +a particular fact, that we can deal satisfactorily with general +phenomena affecting eras and cycles. Well, then, let us take some +general phenomenon; Mahometanism, for instance, or Buddhism. Those are +large enough. Can you imagine a science which would have[1] _foretold_ +such movements as those? The state of things out of which they rose is +obscure; but, suppose it not obscure, can you conceive that, with any +amount of historical insight into the old Oriental beliefs, you could +have seen that they were about to transform themselves into those +particular forms and no other? + +It is not enough to say, that, after the fact, you can understand +partially how Mahometanism came to be. All historians worth the name +have told us something about that. But when we talk of science, we mean +something with more ambitious pretences, we mean something which can +foresee as well as explain; and, thus looked at, to state the problem is +to show its absurdity. As little could the wisest man have foreseen this +mighty revolution, as thirty years ago such a thing as Mormonism could +have been anticipated in America; as little as it could have been +foreseen that table-turning and spirit-rapping would have been an +outcome of the scientific culture of England in the nineteenth century. + +The greatest of Roman thinkers, gazing mournfully at the seething mass +of moral putrefaction round him, detected and deigned to notice among +its elements a certain detestable superstition, so he called it, rising +up amidst the offscouring of the Jews, which was named Christianity. +Could Tacitus have looked forward nine centuries to the Rome of Gregory +VII, could he have beheld the representative of the majesty of the +Cæsars holding the stirrup of the Pontiff of that vile and execrated +sect, the spectacle would scarcely have appeared to him the fulfilment +of a national expectation, or an intelligible result of the causes in +operation round him. Tacitus, indeed, was born before the science of +history; but would M. Comte have seen any more clearly? + +Nor is the case much better if we are less hard upon our philosophy; if +we content ourselves with the past, and require only a scientific +explanation of that. + +First, for the facts themselves. They come to us through the minds of +those who recorded them, neither machines nor angels, but fallible +creatures, with human passions and prejudices. Tacitus and Thucydides +were perhaps the ablest men who ever gave themselves to writing history; +the ablest, and also the most incapable of conscious falsehood. Yet even +now, after all these centuries, the truth of what they relate is called +in question. Good reasons can be given to show that neither of them can +be confidently trusted. If we doubt with these, whom are we to believe? + +Or, again, let the facts be granted. To revert to my simile of the box +of letters, you have but to select such facts as suit you, you have but +to leave alone those which do not suit you, and, let your theory of +history be what it will, you can find no difficulty in providing facts +to prove it. + +You may have your Hegel's philosophy of history, or you may have your +Schlegel's philosophy of history; you may prove from history that the +world is governed in detail by a special Providence; you may prove that +there is no sign of any moral agent in the universe, except man; you may +believe, if you like it, in the old theory of the wisdom of antiquity; +you may speak, as was the fashion in the fifteenth century, of "our +fathers, who had more wit and wisdom than we"; or you may talk of "our +barbarian ancestors," and describe their wars as the scuffling of kites +and crows. + +You may maintain that the evolution of humanity has been an unbroken +progress toward perfection; you may maintain that there has been no +progress at all, and that man remains the same poor creature that he +ever was; or, lastly, you may say, with the author of the "Contract +Social," that men were purest and best in primeval simplicity,-- + + "When wild in woods the noble savage ran." + +In all or any of these views, history will stand your friend. History, +in its passive irony, will make no objection. Like Jarno, in Goethe's +novel, it will not condescend to argue with you, and will provide you +with abundant illustrations of any thing which you may wish to believe. + +"What is history," said Napoleon, "but a fiction agreed upon?" "My +friend," said Faust to the student, who was growing enthusiastic about +the spirit of past ages,--"my friend, the times which are gone are a +book with seven seals; and what you call the spirit of past ages is but +the spirit of this or that worthy gentleman in whose mind those ages are +reflected." + +One lesson, and only one, history may be said to repeat with +distinctness: that the world is built somehow on moral foundations; +that, in the long run, it is well with the good; in the long run, it is +ill with the wicked. But this is no science; it is no more than the old +doctrine taught long ago by the Hebrew prophets. The theories of M. +Comte and his disciples advance us, after all, not a step beyond the +trodden and familiar ground. If men are not entirely animals, they are +at least half animals, and are subject in this aspect of them to the +conditions of animals. So far as those parts of man's doings are +concerned, which neither have, nor need have, any thing moral about +them, so far the laws of him are calculable. There are laws for his +digestion, and laws of the means by which his digestive organs are +supplied with matter. But pass beyond them, and where are we? In a world +where it would be as easy to calculate men's actions by laws like those +of positive philosophy as to measure the orbit of Neptune with a foot +rule, or weigh Sirius in a grocer's scale. + +And it is not difficult to see why this should be. The first principle, +on which the theory of a science of history can be plausibly argued, is +that all actions whatsoever arise from self-interest. It may be +enlightened self-interest, it may be unenlightened; but it is assumed as +an axiom, that every man, in whatever he does, is aiming at something +which he considers will promote his happiness. His conduct is not +determined by his will; it is determined by the object of his desire. +Adam Smith, in laying the foundations of political economy, expressly +eliminates every other motive. He does not say that men never act on +other motives; still less, that they never ought to act on other +motives. He asserts merely that, as far as the arts of production are +concerned, and of buying and selling, the action of self-interest may +be counted upon as uniform. What Adam Smith says of political economy, +Mr. Buckle would extend over the whole circle of human activity. + +Now, that which especially distinguishes a high order of man from a low +order of man--that which constitutes human goodness, human greatness, +human nobleness--is surely not the degree of enlightenment with which +men pursue their own advantage: but it is self-forgetfulness, it is +self-sacrifice; it is the disregard of personal pleasure, personal +indulgence, personal advantages remote or present, because some other +line of conduct is more right. + +We are sometimes told that this is but another way of expressing the +same thing; that, when a man prefers doing what is right, it is only +because to do right gives him a higher satisfaction. It appears to me, +on the contrary, to be a difference in the very heart and nature of +things. The martyr goes to the stake, the patriot to the scaffold, not +with a view to any future reward, to themselves, but because it is a +glory to fling away their lives for truth and freedom. And so through +all phases of existence, to the smallest details of common life, the +beautiful character is the unselfish character. Those whom we most love +and admire are those to whom the thought of self seems never to occur; +who do simply and with no ulterior aim--with no thought whether it will +be pleasant to themselves or unpleasant--that which is good and right +and generous. + +Is this still selfishness, only more enlightened? I do not think so. The +essence of true nobility, is neglect of self. Let the thought of self +pass in, and the beauty of a great action is gone, like the bloom from a +soiled flower. Surely it is a paradox to speak of the self-interest of a +martyr who dies for a cause, the triumph of which he will never enjoy; +and the greatest of that great company in all ages would have done what +they did, had their personal prospects closed with the grave. Nay, there +have been those so zealous for some glorious principle as to wish +themselves blotted out of the book of Heaven if the cause of Heaven +could succeed. + +And out of this mysterious quality, whatever it be, arise the higher +relations of human life, the higher modes of human obligation. Kant, the +philosopher, used to say that there were two things which overwhelmed +him with awe as he thought of them. One was the star-sown deep of +space, without limit and without end; the other was, right and wrong. +Right, the sacrifice of self to good; wrong, the sacrifice of good to +self,--not graduated objects of desire, to which we are determined by +the degrees of our knowledge, but wide asunder as pole and pole, as +light and darkness: one the object of infinite love; the other, the +object of infinite detestation and scorn. It is in this marvellous power +in men to do wrong (it is an old story, but none the less true for +that),--it is in this power to do wrong--wrong or right, as it lies +somehow with ourselves to choose--that the impossibility stands of +forming scientific calculations of what men will do before the fact, or +scientific explanations of what they have done after the fact. If men +were consistently selfish, you might analyze their motives; if they were +consistently noble they would express in their conduct the laws of the +highest perfection. But so long as two natures are mixed together, and +the strange creature which results from the combination is now under one +influence and now under another, so long you will make nothing of him +except from the old-fashioned moral--or, if you please, +imaginative--point of view. + +Even the laws of political economy itself cease to guide us when they +touch moral government. So long as labor is a chattel to be bought and +sold, so long, like other commodities, it follows the condition of +supply and demand. But if, for his misfortune, an employer considers +that he stands in human relations toward his workmen; if he believes, +rightly or wrongly, that he is responsible for them; that in return for +their labor he is bound to see that their children are decently taught, +and they and their families decently fed and clothed and lodged; that he +ought to care for them in sickness and in old age,--then political +economy will no longer direct him, and the relations between himself and +his dependents will have to be arranged on quite other principles. + +So long as he considers only his own material profit, so long supply and +demand will settle every difficulty; but the introduction of a new +factor spoils the equation. + +And it is precisely in this debatable ground of low motives and noble +emotions; in the struggle, ever failing yet ever renewed, to carry truth +and justice into the administration of human society; in the +establishment of states and in the overthrow of tyrannies; in the rise +and fall of creeds; in the world of ideas; in the character and deeds of +the great actors in the drama of life, where good and evil fight out +their everlasting battle, now ranged in opposite camps, now and more +often in the heart, both of them, of each living man,--that the true +human interest of history resides. The progress of industries, the +growth of material and mechanical civilization, are interesting; but +they are not the most interesting. They have their reward in the +increase of material comforts; but, unless we are mistaken about our +nature, they do not highly concern us after all. + +Once more: not only is there in men this baffling duality of principle, +but there is something else in us which still more defies scientific +analysis. + +Mr. Buckle would deliver himself from the eccentricities of this and +that individual by a doctrine of averages. Though he cannot tell whether +A, B, or C will cut his throat, he may assure himself that one man in +every fifty thousand, or thereabout (I forget the exact proportion), +will cut his throat, and with this he consoles himself. No doubt it is a +comforting discovery. Unfortunately, the average of one generation need +not be the average of the next. We may be converted by the Japanese, +for all that we know, and the Japanese methods of taking leave of life +may become fashionable among us. Nay, did not Novalis suggest that the +whole race of men would at last become so disgusted with their +impotence, that they would extinguish themselves by a simultaneous act +of suicide, and make room for a better order of beings? Anyhow, the +fountain out of which the race is flowing perpetually changes; no two +generations are alike. Whether there is a change in the organization +itself we cannot tell; but this is certain,--that, as the planet varies +with the atmosphere which surrounds it, so each new generation varies +from the last, because it inhales as its atmosphere the accumulated +experience and knowledge of the whole past of the world. These things +form the spiritual air which we breathe as we grow; and, in the infinite +multiplicity of elements of which that air is now composed, it is +forever a matter of conjecture what the minds will be like which expand +under its influence. + +From the England of Fielding and Richardson to the England of Miss +Austen, from the England of Miss Austen to the England of Railways and +Free Trade, how vast the change! Yet perhaps Sir Charles Grandison +would not seem so strange to us now as one of ourselves will seem to our +great-grandchildren. The world moves faster and faster; and the +difference will probably be considerably greater. + +The temper of each new generation is a continual surprise. The Fates +delight to contradict our most confident expectations. Gibbon believed +that the era of conquerors was at an end. Had he lived out the full life +of man, he would have seen Europe at the feet of Napoleon. But a few +years ago we believed the world had grown too civilized for war, and the +Crystal Palace in Hyde Park was to be the inauguration of a new era. +Battles bloody as Napoleon's are now the familiar tale of every day; and +the arts which have made greatest progress are the arts of destruction. +What next? We may strain our eyes into the future which lies beyond this +waning century; but never was conjecture more at fault. It is blank +darkness, which even the imagination fails to people. + +What, then, is the use of History, and what are its lessons? If it can +tell us little of the past, and nothing of the future, why waste our +time over so barren a study? + +First, it is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of +right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, +but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. For every false +word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust or +vanity, the price has to be paid at last; not always by the chief +offenders, but paid by some one. Justice and truth alone endure and +live. Injustice and falsehood may be long-lived, but doomsday comes at +last to them, in French revolutions and other terrible ways. + +That is one lesson of history. Another is, that we should draw no +horoscopes; that we should expect little, for what we expect will not +come to pass. Revolutions, reformations,--those vast movements into +which heroes and saints have flung themselves, in the belief that they +were the dawn of the millennium,--have not borne the fruit which they +looked for. Millenniums are still far away. These great convulsions +leave the world changed,--perhaps improved, but not improved as the +actors in them hoped it would be. Luther would have gone to work with +less heart, could he have foreseen the Thirty Years' War, and in the +distance the theology of Tubingen. Washington might have hesitated to +draw the sword against England, could he have seen the country which he +made as we see it now.[2] + +The most reasonable anticipations fail us, antecedents the most apposite +mislead us, because the conditions of human problems never repeat +themselves. Some new feature alters every thing,--some element which we +detect only in its after-operation. + +But this, it may be said, is but a meagre outcome. Can the long records +of humanity, with all its joys and sorrows, its sufferings and its +conquests, teach us more than this? Let us approach the subject from +another side. + +If you were asked to point out the special features in which +Shakespeare's plays are so transcendently excellent, you would mention +perhaps, among others, this--that his stories are not put together, and +his characters are not conceived, to illustrate any particular law or +principle. They teach many lessons, but not any one prominent above +another; and when we have drawn from them all the direct instruction +which they contain, there remains still something unresolved,--something +which the artist gives, and which the philosopher cannot give. + +It is in this characteristic that we are accustomed to say Shakespeare's +supreme _truth_ lies. He represents real life. His drama teaches as life +teaches,--neither less nor more. He builds his fabrics, as Nature does, +on right and wrong; but he does not struggle to make Nature more +systematic than she is. In the subtle interflow of good and evil; in the +unmerited sufferings of innocence; in the disproportion of penalties to +desert; in the seeming blindness with which justice, in attempting to +assert itself, overwhelms innocent and guilty in a common +ruin,--Shakespeare is true to real experience. The mystery of +life he leaves as he finds it; and, in his most tremendous +positions, he is addressing rather the intellectual emotions than the +understanding,--knowing well that the understanding in such things is at +fault, and the sage as ignorant as the child. + +Only the highest order of genius can represent Nature thus. An inferior +artist produces either something entirely immoral, where good and evil +are names, and nobility of disposition is supposed to show itself in the +absolute disregard of them, or else, if he is a better kind of man, he +will force on Nature a didactic purpose; he composes what are called +moral tales, which may edify the conscience, but only mislead the +intellect. + +The finest work of this kind produced in modern times is Lessing's play +of "Nathan the Wise." The object of it is to teach religious toleration. +The doctrine is admirable, the mode in which it is enforced is +interesting; but it has the fatal fault that it is not true. Nature does +not teach religious toleration by any such direct method; and the result +is--no one knew it better than Lessing himself--that the play is not +poetry, but only splendid manufacture. Shakespeare is eternal; Lessing's +"Nathan" will pass away with the mode of thought which gave it birth. +One is based on fact; the other, on human theory about fact. The theory +seems at first sight to contain the most immediate instruction; but it +is not really so. + +Cibber and others, as you know, wanted to alter Shakespeare. The French +king, in "Lear," was to be got rid of; Cordelia was to marry Edgar, and +Lear himself was to be rewarded for his sufferings by a golden old age. +They could not bear that Hamlet should suffer for the sins of Claudius. +The wicked king was to die, and the wicked mother; and Hamlet and +Ophelia were to make a match of it, and live happily ever after. A +common novelist would have arranged it thus; and you would have had your +comfortable moral that wickedness was fitly punished, and virtue had its +due reward, and all would have been well. But Shakespeare would not have +it so. Shakespeare knew that crime was not so simple in its +consequences, or Providence so paternal. He was contented to take the +truth from life; and the effect upon the mind of the most correct theory +of what life ought to be, compared to the effect of the life itself, is +infinitesimal in comparison. + +Again, let us compare the popular historical treatment of remarkable +incidents with Shakespeare's treatment of them. Look at "Macbeth." You +may derive abundant instruction from it,--instruction of many kinds. +There is a moral lesson of profound interest in the steps by which a +noble nature glides to perdition. In more modern fashion you may +speculate, if you like, on the political conditions represented there, +and the temptation presented in absolute monarchies to unscrupulous +ambition; you may say, like Doctor Slop, these things could not have +happened under a constitutional government: or, again, you may take up +your parable against superstition; you may dilate on the frightful +consequences of a belief in witches, and reflect on the superior +advantages of an age of schools and newspapers. If the bare facts of the +story had come down to us from a chronicler, and an ordinary writer of +the nineteenth century had undertaken to relate them, his account, we +may depend upon it, would have been put together upon one or other of +these principles. Yet, by the side of that unfolding of the secrets of +the prison-house of the soul, what lean and shrivelled anatomies the +best of such descriptions would seem! + +Shakespeare himself, I suppose, could not have given us a theory of what +he meant; he gave us the thing itself, on which we might make whatever +theories we pleased. + +Or, again, look at Homer. + +The "Iliad" is from two to three thousand years older than "Macbeth," +and yet it is as fresh as if it had been written yesterday. We have +there no lessons save in the emotions which rise in us as we read. Homer +had no philosophy; he never struggles to press upon us his views about +this or that; you can scarcely tell, indeed, whether his sympathies are +Greek or Trojan: but he represents to us faithfully the men and women +among whom he lived. He sang the tale of Troy, he touched his lyre, he +drained the golden beaker in the halls of men like those on whom he was +conferring immortality. And thus, although no Agamemnon, king of men, +ever led a Grecian fleet to Ilium; though no Priam sought the midnight +tent of Achilles; though Ulysses and Diomed and Nestor were but names, +and Helen but a dream, yet, through Homer's power of representing men +and women, those old Greeks will still stand out from amidst the +darkness of the ancient world with a sharpness of outline which belongs +to no period of history except the most recent. For the mere hard +purposes of history, the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are the most effective +books which ever were written. We see the hall of Menelaus, we see the +garden of Alcinous, we see Nausicaa among her maidens on the shore, we +see the mellow monarch sitting with ivory sceptre in the market-place +dealing out genial justice. Or, again, when the wild mood is on, we can +hear the crash of the spears, the rattle of the armor as the heroes +fall, and the plunging of the horses among the slain. Could we enter the +palace of an old Ionian lord, we know what we should see there; we know +the words in which he would address us. We could meet Hector as a +friend. If we could choose a companion to spend an evening with over a +fireside, it would be the man of many counsels, the husband of Penelope. + +I am not going into the vexed question whether history or poetry is the +more true. It has been sometimes said that poetry is the more true, +because it can make things more like what our moral sense would prefer +they should be. We hear of poetic justice and the like, as if nature and +fact were not just enough. + +I entirely dissent from that view. So far as poetry attempts to improve +on truth in that way, so far it abandons truth, and is false to itself. +Even literal facts, exactly as they were, a great poet will prefer +whenever he can get them. Shakespeare in the historical plays is +studious, wherever possible, to give the very words which he finds to +have been used; and it shows how wisely he was guided in this, that +those magnificent speeches of Wolsey are taken exactly, with no more +change than the metre makes necessary, from Cavendish's Life. +Marlborough read Shakespeare for English history, and read nothing else. +The poet only is not bound, when it is inconvenient, to what may be +called the accidents of facts. It was enough for Shakespeare to know +that Prince Hal in his youth had lived among loose companions, and the +tavern in Eastcheap came in to fill out his picture; although Mrs. +Quickly and Falstaff and Poins and Bardolph were more likely to have +been fallen in with by Shakespeare himself at the Mermaid, than to have +been comrades of the true Prince Henry. It was enough for Shakespeare to +draw real men, and the situation, whatever it might be, would sit easy +on them. In this sense only it is that poetry is truer than +History,--that it can make a picture more complete. It may take +liberties with time and space, and give the action distinctness by +throwing it into more manageable compass. But it may not alter the real +conditions of things, or represent life as other than it is. The +greatness of the poet depends on his being true to Nature, without +insisting that Nature shall theorize with him, without making her more +just, more philosophical, more moral than reality; and, in difficult +matters, leaving much to reflection which cannot be explained. + +And if this be true of poetry--if Homer and Shakespeare are what they +are from the absence of every thing didactic about them--may we not thus +learn something of what history should be, and in what sense it should +aspire to teach? + +If poetry must not theorize, much less should the historian theorize, +whose obligations to be true to fact are even greater than the poet's. +If the drama is grandest when the action is least explicable by laws, +because then it best resembles life, then history will be grandest also +under the same conditions. "Macbeth," were it literally true, would be +perfect history; and so far as the historian can approach to that kind +of model, so far as he can let his story tell itself in the deeds and +words of those who act it out, so far is he most successful. His work is +no longer the vapor of his own brain, which a breath will scatter; it is +the thing itself, which will have interest for all time. A thousand +theories may be formed about it,--spiritual theories. Pantheistic +theories, cause and effect theories? but each age will have its own +philosophy of history, and all these in turn will fail and die. Hegel +falls out of date, Schlegel falls out of date, and Comte in good time +will fall out of date; the thought about the thing must change as we +change; but the thing itself can never change; and a history is durable +or perishable as it contains more or least of the writer's own +speculations. The splendid intellect of Gibbon for the most part kept +him true to the right course in this; yet the philosophical chapters for +which he has been most admired or censured may hereafter be thought the +least interesting in his work. The time has been when they would not +have been comprehended; the time may come when they will seem +commonplace. + +It may be said, that in requiring history to be written like a drama, we +require an impossibility. + +For history to be written with the complete form of a drama, doubtless +is impossible; but there are periods, and these the periods, for the +most part, of greatest interest to mankind, the history of which may be +so written that the actors shall reveal their characters in their own +words; where mind can be seen matched against mind, and the great +passions of the epoch not simply be described as existing, but be +exhibited at their white heat in the souls and hearts possessed by them. +There are all the elements of drama--drama of the highest order--where +the huge forces of the times are as the Grecian destiny, and the power +of the man is seen either stemming the stream till it overwhelms him, or +ruling while he seems to yield to it. + +It is Nature's drama,--not Shakespeare's, but a drama none the less. + +So at least it seems to me. Wherever possible, let us not be told +_about_ this man or that. Let us hear the man himself speak, let us see +him act, and let us be left to form our own opinions about him. The +historian, we are told, must not leave his readers to themselves. He +must not only lay the facts before them: he must tell them what he +himself thinks about those facts. In my opinion, this is precisely what +he ought not to do. Bishop Butler says somewhere, that the best book +which could be written would be a book consisting only of premises, from +which the readers should draw conclusions for themselves. The highest +poetry is the very thing which Butler requires, and the highest history +ought to be. We should no more ask for a theory of this or that period +of history, than we should ask for a theory of "Macbeth" or "Hamlet." +Philosophies of history, sciences of history,--all these there will +continue to be: the fashions of them will change, as our habits of +thought will change; each new philosopher will find his chief employment +in showing that before him no one understood any thing; but the drama of +history is imperishable, and the lessons of it will be like what we +learn from Homer or Shakespeare,--lessons for which we have no words. + +The address of history is less to the understanding than to the higher +emotions. We learn in it to sympathize with what is great and good; we +learn to hate what is base. In the anomalies of fortune we feel the +mystery of our mortal existence; and in the companionship of the +illustrious natures who have shaped the fortunes of the world, we escape +from the littlenesses which cling to the round of common life, and our +minds are tuned in a higher and nobler key. + +For the rest, and for those large questions which I touched in +connection with Mr. Buckle, we live in times of disintegration, and none +can tell what will be after us. What opinions, what convictions, the +infant of to-day will find prevailing on the earth, if he and it live +out together to the middle of another century, only a very bold man +would undertake to conjecture. "The time will come," said Lichtenberg, +in scorn at the materializing tendencies of modern thought,--"the time +will come when the belief in God will be as the tales with which old +women frighten children; when the world will be a machine, the ether a +gas, and God will be a force." Mankind, if they last long enough on the +earth, may develop strange things out of themselves; and the growth of +what is called the Positive Philosophy is a curious commentary on +Lichtenberg's prophecy. But whether the end be seventy years hence, or +seven hundred,--be the close of the mortal history of humanity as far +distant in the future as its shadowy beginnings seem now to lie behind +us,--this only we may foretell with confidence,--that the riddle of +man's nature will remain unsolved. There will be that in him yet which +physical laws will fail to explain,--that something, whatever it be, in +himself and in the world, which science cannot fathom, and which +suggests the unknown possibilities of his origin and his destiny. There +will remain yet + + "Those obstinate questionings + Of sense and outward things; + Falling from us, vanishing; + Blank misgivings of a creature + Moving about in worlds not realized; + High instincts, before which our mortal nature + Doth tremble like a guilty thing surprised." + +There will remain + + "Those first affections, + Those shadowy recollections, + Which, be they what they may, + Are yet the fountain-light of all our day,-- + Are yet the master-light of all our seeing,-- + Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make + Our noisy years seem moments in the being + Of the Eternal Silence." + + + + +EDWARD A. FREEMAN. + +BORN 1823. + + + + +RACE AND LANGUAGE. + +BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN. + + +It is no very great time since the readers of the English newspapers +were, perhaps a little amused, perhaps a little startled, at the story +of a deputation of Hungarian students going to Constantinople to present +a sword of honor to an Ottoman general. The address and the answer +enlarged on the ancient kindred of Turks and Magyars, on the long +alienation of the dissevered kinsfolk, on the return of both in these +later times to a remembrance of the ancient kindred and to the friendly +feelings to which such kindred gave birth. The discourse has a strange +sound when we remember the reigns of Sigismund and Wladislaus, when we +think of the dark days of Nikopolis and Varna, when we think of Huniades +encamped at the foot of Hæmus, and of Belgrade beating back Mahomet the +Conqueror from her gates. The Magyar and the Ottoman embracing with the +joy of reunited kinsfolk is a sight which certainly no man would have +looked forward to in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. At an earlier +time the ceremony might have seemed a degree less wonderful. If a man +whose ideas are drawn wholly from the modern map should sit down to +study the writings of Constantine Porphyrogennêtos, he would perhaps be +startled at finding Turks and Franks spoken of as neighbors, at finding +_Turcia_ and _Francia_--we must not translate [Greek: Tourkia] and +[Greek: Phrangia] by _Turkey_ and _France_--spoken of as border-lands. A +little study will perhaps show him that the change lies almost wholly in +the names and not in the boundaries. The lands are there still, and the +frontier between them has shifted much less than one might have looked +for in nine hundred years. Nor has there been any great change in the +population of the two countries. The Turks and the Franks of the +Imperial geographer are there still, in the lands which he calls Turcia +and Francia; only we no longer speak of them as Turks and Franks. The +Turks of Constantine are Magyars; the Franks of Constantine are Germans. +The Magyar students may not unlikely have turned over the Imperial +pages, and they may have seen how their forefathers stand described +there. We can hardly fancy that the Ottoman general is likely to have +given much time to lore of such a kind. Yet the Ottoman answer was as +brim full of ethnological and antiquarian sympathy as the Magyar +address. It is hardly to be believed that a Turk, left to himself, would +by his own efforts have found out the primeval kindred between Turk and +Magyar. He might remember that Magyar exiles had found a safe shelter on +Ottoman territory; he might look deep enough into the politics of the +present moment to see that the rule of Turk and Magyar alike is +threatened by the growth of Slavonic national life. But the idea that +Magyar and Turk owe each other any love or any duty, directly on the +ground of primeval kindred, is certainly not likely to have presented +itself to the untutored Ottoman mind. In short, it sounds, as some one +said at the time, rather like the dream of a professor who has run wild +with an ethnological craze, than like the serious thought of a practical +man of any nation. Yet the Magyar students seem to have meant their +address quite seriously. And the Turkish general, if he did not take it +seriously, at least thought it wise to shape his answer as if he did. As +a piece of practical politics, it sounds like Frederick Barbarossa +threatening to avenge the defeat of Crassus upon Saladin, or like the +French of the revolutionary wars making the Pope Pius of those days +answerable for the wrongs of Vercingetorix. The thing sounds like +comedy, almost like conscious comedy. But it is a kind of comedy which +may become tragedy, if the idea from which it springs get so deeply +rooted in men's minds as to lead to any practical consequences. As long +as talk of this kind does not get beyond the world of hot-headed +students, it may pass for a craze. It would be more than a craze, if it +should be so widely taken up on either side that the statesmen on either +side find it expedient to profess to take it up also. + +To allege the real or supposed primeval kindred between Magyars and +Ottomans as a ground for political action, or at least for political +sympathy, in the affairs of the present moment, is an extreme case--some +may be inclined to call it a _reductio ad absurdum_--of a whole range of +doctrines and sentiments which have in modern days gained a great power +over men's minds. They have gained so great a power that those who may +regret their influence cannot afford to despise it. To make any +practical inference from the primeval kindred of Magyar and Turk is +indeed pushing the doctrine of race, and of sympathies arising from +race, as far as it well can be pushed. Without plunging into any very +deep mysteries, without committing ourselves to any dangerous theories +in the darker regions of ethnological inquiry, we may perhaps be allowed +at starting to doubt whether there is any real primeval kindred between +the Ottoman and the Finnish Magyar. It is for those who have gone +specially deep into the antiquities of the non-Aryan races to say +whether there is or is not. At all events, as far as the great facts of +history go, the kindred is of the vaguest and most shadowy kind. It +comes to little more than the fact that Magyars and Ottomans are alike +non-Aryan invaders who have made their way into Europe within recorded +times, and that both have, rightly or wrongly, been called by the name +of Turks. These do seem rather slender grounds on which to build up a +fabric of national sympathy between two nations, when several centuries +of living practical history all pull the other way. It is hard to +believe that the kindred of Turk and Magyar was thought of when a +Turkish Pasha ruled at Buda. Doubtless Hungarian Protestants often +deemed, and not unreasonably deemed, that the contemptuous toleration of +the Moslem Sultan was a lighter yoke than the persecution of the +Catholic Emperor. But it was hardly on grounds of primeval kindred that +they made the choice. The ethnological dialogue held at Constantinople +does indeed sound like ethnological theory run mad. But it is the very +wildness of the thing which gives it its importance. The doctrine of +race, and of sympathies springing from race, must have taken very firm +hold indeed of men's minds before it could be carried out in a shape +which we are tempted to call so grotesque as this. + +The plain fact is that the new lines of scientific and historical +inquiry which have been opened in modern times have had a distinct and +deep effect upon the politics of the age. The fact may be estimated in +many ways, but its existence as a fact cannot be denied. Not in a merely +scientific or literary point of view, but in one strictly practical, the +world is not the same world as it was when men had not yet dreamed of +the kindred between Sanscrit, Greek, and English, when it was looked on +as something of a paradox to hint that there was a distinction between +Celtic and Teutonic tongues and nations. Ethnological and philological +researches--I do not forget the distinction between the two, but for the +present I must group them together--have opened the way for new national +sympathies, new national antipathies, such as would have been +unintelligible a hundred years ago. A hundred years ago a man's +political likes and dislikes seldom went beyond the range which was +suggested by the place of his birth or immediate descent. Such birth or +descent made him a member of this or that political community, a subject +of this or that prince, a citizen--perhaps a subject--of this or that +commonwealth. The political community of which he was a member had its +traditional alliances and traditional enmities, and by those alliances +and enmities the likes and dislikes of the members of that community +were guided. But those traditional alliances and enmities were seldom +determined by theories about language or race. The people of this or +that place might be discontented under a foreign government; but, as a +rule, they were discontented only if subjection to that foreign +government brought with it personal oppression, or at least political +degradation. Regard or disregard of some purely local privilege or +local feeling went for more than the fact of a government being native +or foreign. What we now call the sentiment of nationality did not go for +much; what we call the sentiment of race went for nothing at all. Only a +few men here and there would have understood the feelings which have led +to those two great events of our own time, the political reunion of the +German and Italian nations after their long political dissolution. Not a +soul would have understood the feelings which have allowed Panslavism to +be a great practical agent in the affairs of Europe, and which have made +talk about "the Latin race," if not practical, at least possible. Least +of all, would it have been possible to give any touch of political +importance to what would have then seemed so wild a dream as a primeval +kindred between Magyar and Ottoman. + +That feelings such as these, and the practical consequences which have +flowed from them, are distinctly due to scientific and historical +teaching there can, I think, be no doubt. Religious sympathy and purely +national sympathy are both feelings of much simpler growth, which need +no deep knowledge nor any special teaching. The cry which resounded +through Christendom when the Holy City was taken by the Mussulmans, the +cry which resounded through Islam when the same city was taken by the +Christians, the spirit which armed England to support French Huguenots +and which armed Spain to support French Leaguers, all spring from +motives which lie on the surface. Nor need we seek for any explanation +but such as lies on the surface for the natural wish for closer union +which arose among Germans or Italians who found themselves parted off by +purely dynastic arrangements from men who were their countrymen in every +thing else. Such a feeling has to strive with the counter-feeling which +springs from local jealousies and local dislikes; but it is a perfectly +simple feeling, which needs no subtle research either to arouse or to +understand it. So, if we draw our illustrations from the events of our +own time, there is nothing but what is perfectly simple in the feeling +which calls Russia, as the most powerful of Orthodox states, to the help +of her Orthodox brethren everywhere, and which calls the members of the +Orthodox Church everywhere to look to Russia as their protector. The +feeling may have to strive against a crowd of purely political +considerations, and by those purely political considerations it may be +outweighed. But the feeling is in itself altogether simple and natural. +So again, the people of Montenegro and of the neighboring lands in +Herzegovina and by the _Bocche_ of Cattaro feel themselves countrymen in +every sense but the political accident which keeps them asunder. They +are drawn together by a tie which every one can understand, by the same +tie which would draw together the people of three adjoining English +counties, if any strange political action should part them asunder in +like manner. The feeling here is that of nationality in the strictest +sense, nationality in a purely local or geographical sense. It would +exist all the same if Panslavism had never been heard of; it might exist +though those who feel it had never heard of the Slavonic race at all. It +is altogether another thing when we come to the doctrine of race, and of +sympathies founded on race, in the wider sense. Here we have a feeling +which professes to bind together, and which as a matter of fact has had +a real effect in binding together, men whose kindred to one another is +not so obvious at first sight as the kindred of Germans, Italians, or +Serbs who are kept asunder by nothing but a purely artificial political +boundary. It is a feeling at whose bidding the call to union goes forth +to men whose dwellings are geographically far apart, to men who may have +had no direct dealings with one another for years or for ages, to men +whose languages, though the scholar may at once see that they are +closely akin, may not be so closely akin as to be mutually intelligible +for common purposes. A hundred years back the Servian might have cried +for help to the Russian on the ground of common Orthodox faith; he would +hardly have called for help on the ground of common Slavonic speech and +origin. If he had done so, it would have been rather by way of grasping +at any chance, however desperate or far-fetched, than as putting forward +a serious and well understood claim which he might expect to find +accepted and acted on by large masses of men. He might have received +help, either out of genuine sympathy springing from community of faith +or from the baser thought than he could be made use of as a convenient +political tool. He would have got but little help purely on the ground +of a community of blood and speech which had had no practical result for +ages. When Russia in earlier days interfered between the Turk and his +Christian subjects, there is no sign of any sympathy felt or possessed +for Slavs as Slavs. Russia dealt with Montenegro, not, as far as one +can see, out of any Slavonic brotherhood, but because an independent +Orthodox state at enmity with the Turk could not fail to be a useful +ally. The earlier dealings of Russia with the subject nations were far +more busy among the Greeks than among the Slavs. In fact, till quite +lately, all the Orthodox subjects of the Turk were in most European eyes +looked on as alike Greeks. The Orthodox Church has been commonly known +as the Greek Church; and it has often been very hard to make people +understand that the vast mass of the members of that so-called Greek +Church are not Greek in any other sense. In truth we may doubt whether, +till comparatively lately, the subject nations themselves were fully +alive to the differences of race and speech among them. A man must in +all times and places know whether he speaks the same language as another +man; but he does not always go on to put his consciousness of difference +into the shape of a sharply drawn formula. Still less does he always +make the difference the ground of any practical course of action. The +Englishman in the first days of the Norman Conquest felt the hardships +of foreign rule, and he knew that those hardships were owing to foreign +rule. But he had not learned to put his sense of hardship into any +formula about an oppressed nationality. So, when the policy of the Turk +found that the subtle intellect of the Greek could be made use of as an +instrument of dominion over the other subject nations, the Bulgarian +felt the hardship of the state of things in which, as it was +proverbially said, his body was in bondage to the Turk and his soul in +bondage to the Greek. But we may suspect that this neatly turned proverb +dates only from the awakening of a distinctly national Bulgarian feeling +in modern times. The Turk was felt to be an intruder and an enemy, +because his rule was that of an open oppressor belonging to another +creed. The Greek, on the other hand, though his spiritual dominion +brought undoubted practical evils with it, was not felt to be an +intruder and an enemy in the same sense. His quicker intellect and +superior refinement made him a model. The Bulgarian imitated the Greek +tongue and Greek manners; he was willing in other lands to be himself +looked on as a Greek. It is only in quite modern times, under the direct +influence of the preaching of the doctrine of race, that a hard and fast +line has been drawn between Greeks and Bulgarians. That doctrine has +cut two ways. It has given both nations, Greek and Bulgarian alike, a +renewed national life, national strength, national hopes, such as +neither of them had felt for ages. In so doing, it has done one of the +best and most hopeful works of the age. But in so doing, it has created +one of the most dangerous of immediate political difficulties. In +calling two nations into a renewed being, it has arrayed them in enmity +against each other, and that in the face of a common enemy in whose +presence all lesser differences and jealousies ought to be hushed into +silence. + +There is then a distinct doctrine of race, and of sympathies founded an +race, distinct from the feeling of community of religion, and distinct +from the feeling of nationality in the narrower sense. It is not so +simple or easy a feeling as either of those two. It does not in the same +way lie on the surface; it is not in the same way grounded on obvious +facts which are plain to every man's understanding. The doctrine of race +is essentially an artificial doctrine, a learned doctrine. It is an +inference from facts which the mass of mankind could never have found +out for themselves; facts which, without a distinctly learned teaching, +could never be brought home to them in any intelligible shape. Now what +is the value of such a doctrine? Does it follow that, because it is +confessedly artificial, because it springs, not from a spontaneous +impulse, but from a learned teaching, it is therefore necessarily +foolish, mischievous, perhaps unnatural? It may perhaps be safer to hold +that, like many other doctrines, many other sentiments, it is neither +universally good nor universally bad, neither inherently wise nor +inherently foolish. It may be safer to hold that it may, like other +doctrines and sentiments, have a range within which it may work for +good, while in some other range it may work for evil. It may in short be +a doctrine which is neither to be rashly accepted, nor rashly cast +aside, but one which may need to be guided, regulated modified, +according to time, place, and circumstance. I am not now called on so +much to estimate the practical good and evil of the doctrine as to work +out what the doctrine itself is, and to try to explain some difficulties +about it, but I must emphatically say that nothing can be more shallow, +nothing more foolish, nothing more purely sentimental, than the talk of +those who think that they can simply laugh down or shriek down any +doctrine or sentiment which they themselves do not understand. A belief +or a feeling which has a practical effect on the conduct of great masses +of men, sometimes on the conduct of whole nations, may be very false and +very mischievous; but it is in every case a great and serious fact, to +be looked gravely in the face. Men who sit at their ease and think that +all wisdom is confined to themselves and their own clique may think +themselves vastly superior to the great emotions which stir our times, +as they would doubtless have thought themselves vastly superior to the +emotions which stirred the first Saracens or the first Crusaders. But +the emotions are there all the same, and they do their work all the +same. The most highly educated man in the most highly educated society +cannot sneer them out of being. + +But it is time to pass to the more strictly scientific aspect of the +subject. The doctrine of race, in its popular form, is the direct +offspring of the study of scientific philology; and yet it is just now, +in its popular form at least, somewhat under the ban of scientific +philologers. There is nothing very wonderful in this. It is in fact the +natural course of things which might almost have been reckoned on +beforehand. When the popular mind gets hold of a truth, it seldom gets +hold of it with strict scientific precision. It commonly gets hold of +one side of the truth; it puts forth that side of the truth only. It +puts that side forth in a form which may not be in itself distorted or +exaggerated, but which practically becomes distorted and exaggerated, +because other sides of the same truth are not brought into their due +relation with it. The popular idea thus takes a shape which is naturally +offensive to men of strict precision, and which men of strict scientific +precision have naturally, and from their own point of view quite +rightly, risen up to rebuke. Yet it may often happen that, while the +scientific statement is the only true one for scientific purposes, the +popular version may also have a kind of practical truth for the somewhat +rough and ready purposes of a popular version. In our present case +scientific philologers are beginning to complain, with perfect truth and +perfect justice from their own point of view, that the popular doctrine +of race confounds race and language. They tell us, and they do right to +tell us, that language is no certain test of race, that men who speak +the same tongue are not therefore necessarily men of the same blood. +And they tell us further, that from whatever quarter the alleged popular +confusion came, it certainly did not come from any teaching of +scientific philologers. + +The truth of all this cannot be called in question. We have too many +instances in recorded history of nations laying aside the use of one +language and taking to the use of another, for any one who cares for +accuracy to set down language as any sure test of race. In fact, the +studies of the philologer and those of the ethnologer strictly so called +are quite distinct, and they deal with two wholly different sets of +phenomena. The science of the ethnologer is strictly a physical science. +He has to deal with purely physical phenomena; his business lies with +the different varieties of the human body, and specially, to take that +branch of his inquiries which most impresses the unlearned, with the +various conformations of the human skull. His researches differ in +nothing from those of the zoölogist or the palæontologist, except that +he has to deal with the physical phenomena of man, while they deal with +the physical phenomena of other animals. He groups the different races +of men, exactly as the others group the genera and species of living or +extinct mammals or reptiles. The student of ethnology as a physical +science may indeed strengthen his conclusions by evidence of other +kinds, evidence from arms, ornaments, pottery, modes of burial. But all +these are secondary; the primary ground of classification is the +physical conformation of man himself. As to language, the ethnological +method, left to itself, can find out nothing whatever. The science of +the ethnologer then is primarily physical; it is historical only in that +secondary sense in which palæontology, and geology itself, may fairly be +called historical. It arranges the varieties of mankind according to a +strictly physical classification; what the language of each variety may +have been, it leaves to the professors of another branch of study to +find out. + +The science of the philologer, on the other hand, is strictly +historical. There is doubtless a secondary sense in which purely +philological science may be fairly called physical, just as there is a +secondary sense in which pure ethnology may be called historical. That +is to say, philology has to deal with physical phenomena, so far as it +has to deal with the physical aspect of the sounds of which human +language is made up. Its primary business, like the primary business of +any other historical science, is to deal with phenomena which do not +depend on physical laws, but which do depend on the human will. The +science of language is, in this respect, like the science of human +institutions or of human beliefs. Its subject-matter is not, like that +of pure ethnology, what man is, but, like that of any other historical +science, what man does. It is plain that no man's will can have any +direct influence on the shape of his skull. I say no direct influence, +because it is not for me to rule how far habits, places of abode, modes +of life, a thousand things which do come under the control of the human +will, may indirectly affect the physical conformation of a man himself +or of his descendants. Some observers have made the remark that men of +civilized nations who live in a degraded social state do actually +approach to the physical type of inferior races. However this may be, it +is quite certain, that as no man can by taking thought add a cubit to +his stature, so no man can by taking thought make his skull +brachycephalic or dolichocephalic. But the language which a man speaks +does depend upon his will; he can by taking thought make his speech +Romance or Teutonic. No doubt he has in most cases practically no choice +in the matter. The language which he speaks is practically determined +for him by fashion, habit, early teaching, a crowd of things over which +he has practically no control. But still the control is not physical and +inevitable, as it is in the case of the shape of his skull. If we say +that he cannot help speaking in a particular way; that is, that he +cannot help speaking a particular language, this simply means that his +circumstances are such that no other way of speaking presents itself to +his mind. And in many cases, he has a real choice between two or more +ways of speaking; that is, between two or more languages. Every word +that a man speaks is the result of a real, though doubtless unconscious, +act of his free will. We are apt to speak of gradual changes in +language, as in institutions or any thing else, as if they were the +result of a physical law, acting upon beings who had no choice in the +matter. Yet every change of the kind is simply the aggregate of various +acts of the will on the part of all concerned. Every change in speech, +every introduction of a new sound or a new word, was really the result +of an act of the will of some one or other. The choice may have been +unconscious; circumstances may have been such as practically to give him +but one choice; still he did choose; he spoke in one way, when there was +no physical hindrance to his speaking in another way, when there was no +physical compulsion to speak at all. The Gauls need not have changed +their own language for Latin; the change was not the result of a +physical necessity, but of a number of acts of the will on the part of +this and that Gaul. Moral causes directed their choice, and determined +that Gaul should become a Latin-speaking land. But whether the skulls of +the Gauls should be long or short, whether their hair should be black or +yellow, those were points over which the Gauls themselves had no direct +control whatever. + +The study of men's skulls then is a study which is strictly physical, a +study of facts over which the will of man has no direct control. The +study of men's languages is strictly an historical study, a study of +facts over which the will of man has a direct control. It follows +therefore from the very nature of the two studies that language cannot +be an absolutely certain test of physical descent. A man cannot, under +any circumstances, choose his own skull; he may, under some +circumstances, choose his own language. He must keep the skull which has +been given him by his parents; he cannot, by any process of taking +thought, determine what kind of skull he will hand on to his own +children. But he may give up the use of the language which he has +learned from his parents, and he may determine what language he will +teach to his children. The physical characteristics of a race are +unchangeable, or are changed only by influences over which the race +itself has no direct control. The language which the race speaks may be +changed, either by a conscious act of the will or by that power of +fashion which is in truth the aggregate of countless unconscious acts of +the will. And, as the very nature of the case thus shows that language +is no sure test of race, so the facts of recorded history equally prove +the same truth. Both individuals and whole nations do in fact often +exchange the language of their forefathers for some other language. A +man settles in a foreign country. He learns the language of that +country; sometimes he forgets the use of his own language. His children +may perhaps speak both tongues; if they speak one tongue only, it will +be the tongue of the country where they live. In a generation or two all +trace of foreign origin will have passed away. Here then language is no +test of race. If the great-grandchildren speak the language of their +great-grandfathers, it will simply be as they may speak any other +foreign language. Here are men who by speech belong to one nation, by +actual descent to another. If they lose the physical characteristics of +the race to which the original settler belonged, it will be due to +intermarriage, to climate, to some cause altogether independent of +language. Every nation will have some adopted children of this kind, +more or fewer; men who belong to it by speech, but who do not belong to +it by race. And what happens in the case of individuals happens in the +case of whole nations. The pages of history are crowded with cases in +which nations have cast aside the tongue of their forefathers, and have +taken instead the tongue of some other people. Greek in the East, Latin +in the West, became the familiar speech of millions who had not a drop +of Greek or Italian blood in their veins. The same has been the case in +later times with Arabic, Persian, Spanish, German, English. Each of +those tongues has become the familiar speech of vast regions where the +mass of the people are not Arabian, Spanish, or English, otherwise than +by adoption. The Briton of Cornwall has, slowly but in the end +thoroughly, adopted the speech of England. In the American continent +full-blooded Indians preside over commonwealths which speak the tongue +of Cortes and Pizarro. In the lands to which all eyes are now turned, +the Greek, who has been busily assimilating strangers ever since he +first planted his colonies in Asia and Sicily, goes on busily +assimilating his Albanian neighbors. And between renegades, janissaries, +and mothers of all nations, the blood of many a Turk must be physically +any thing rather than Turkish. The inherent nature of the case, and the +witness of recorded history, join together to prove that language is no +certain test of race, and that the scientific philologers are doing good +service to accuracy of expression and accuracy of thought by +emphatically calling attention to the fact that language is no such +test. + +But, on the other hand, it is quite possible that the truth to which our +attention is just now most fittingly called may, if put forth too +broadly and without certain qualifications, lead to error quite as +great as the error at which it is aimed. I do not suppose that any one +ever thought that language was, necessarily and in all cases, an +absolute and certain test. If anybody does think so, he has put himself +altogether out of court by shutting his eyes to the most manifest facts +of the case. But there can be no doubt that many people have given too +much importance to language as a test of race. Though they have not +wholly forgotten the facts which tell the other way, they have not +brought them out with enough prominence. But I can also believe that +many people have written and spoken on the subject in a way which cannot +be justified from a strictly scientific point of view, but which may +have been fully justified from the point of view of the writers and +speakers themselves. It may often happen that a way of speaking may not +be scientifically accurate, but may yet be quite near enough to the +truth for the purposes of the matter in hand. It may, for some practical +or even historical purpose, be really more true than the statement which +is scientifically more exact. Language is no certain test of race; but +if a man, struck by this wholesome warning, should run off into the +belief that language and race have absolutely nothing to do with one +another, he had better have gone without the warning. For in such a case +the last error would be worse than the first. The natural instinct of +mankind connects race and language. It does not assume that language is +an infallible test of race; but it does assume that language and race +have something to do with one another. It assumes, that though language +is not an accurately scientific test of race, yet it is a rough and +ready test which does for many practical purposes. To make something +more of an exact definition, one might say, that though language is not +a test of race, it is, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, a +presumption of race; that though it is not a test of race, yet it is a +test of something which, for many practical purposes, is the same as +race. + +Professor Max Müller warned us long ago that we must not speak of a +Celtic skull. Mr. Sayce has more lately warned us that we must not infer +from community of Aryan speech that there is any kindred in blood +between this or that Englishman and this or that Hindoo. And both +warnings are scientifically true. Yet any one who begins his studies on +these matters with Professor Müller's famous Oxford Essay will +practically come to another way of looking at things. He will fill his +mind with a vivid picture of the great Aryan family, as yet one, +dwelling in one place, speaking one tongue, having already taken the +first steps toward settled society, recognizing the domestic relations, +possessing the first rudiments of government and religion, and calling +all these first elements of culture by names of which traces still abide +here and there among the many nations of the common stock. He will go on +to draw pictures equally vivid of the several branches of the family +parting off from the primeval home. One great branch he will see going +to the south-east, to become the forefathers of the vast, yet isolated +colony in the Asiatic lands of Persia and India. He watches the +remaining mass sending off wave after wave, to become the forefathers of +the nations of historical Europe. He traces out how each branch starts +with its own share of the common stock--how the language, the creed, the +institutions, once common to all, grow up into different, yet kindred, +shapes, among the many parted branches which grew up, each with an +independent life and strength of its own. This is what our instructors +set before us as the true origin of nations and their languages. And, +in drawing out the picture, we cannot avoid, our teachers themselves do +not avoid, the use of words which imply that the strictly family +relation, the relation of community of blood, is at the root of the +whole matter. We cannot help talking about the family and its branches, +about parents, children, brothers, sisters, cousins. The nomenclature of +natural kindred exactly fits the case; it fits it so exactly that no +other nomenclature could enable us to set forth the case with any +clearness. Yet we cannot be absolutely certain that there was any real +community of blood in the whole story. We really know nothing of the +origin of language or the origin of society. We may make a thousand +ingenious guesses; but we cannot prove any of them. It may be that the +group which came together, and which formed the primeval society which +spoke the primeval Aryan tongue, were not brought together by community +of blood, but by some other cause which threw them in one another's way. +If we accept the Hebrew genealogies, they need not have had any +community of blood nearer than common descent from Adam and Noah. That +is, they need not have been all children of Shem, of Ham, or of +Japheth; some children of Shem, some of Ham, and some of Japheth may +have been led by some cause to settle together. Or if we believe in +independent creations of men, or in the development of men out of +mollusks, the whole of the original society need not have been +descendants of the same man or the same mollusk. In short, there is no +theory of the origin of man which requires us to believe that the +primeval Aryans were a natural family; they may have been more like an +accidental party of fellow-travellers. And if we accept them as a +natural family, it does not follow that the various branches which grew +into separate races and nations, speaking separate though kindred +languages, were necessarily marked off by more immediate kindred. It may +be that there is no nearer kindred in blood between this or that +Persian, this or that Greek, this or that Teuton, than the general +kindred of all Aryans. For, when this or that party marched off from the +common home, it does follow that those who marched off together were +necessarily immediate brothers or cousins. The party which grew into +Hindoos or Teutons may not have been made up exclusively of one set of +near kinsfolk. Some of the children of the same parents or forefathers +may have marched one way, while others marched another way, or stayed +behind. We may, if we please, indulge our fancy by conceiving that there +may actually be family distinctions older than distinctions of nation +and race. It may be that the Gothic _Amali_ and the Roman _Æmilii_--I +throw out the idea as a mere illustration--were branches of a family +which had taken a name before the division of Teuton and Italian. Some +of the members of that family may have joined the band of which came the +Goths, while other members joined the band of which came the Romans. +There is no difference but the length of time to distinguish such a +supposed case from the case of an English family, one branch of which +settled in the seventeenth century at Boston in Massachusetts, while +another branch stayed behind at Boston in Holland. Mr. Sayce says truly +that the use of a kindred language does not prove that the Englishman +and the Hindoo are really akin in race; for, as he adds, many Hindoos +are men of non-Aryan race who have simply learned to speak tongues of +Sanscrit origin. He might have gone on to say, with equal truth, that +there is no positive certainty that there was any community in blood +among the original Aryan group itself, and that if we admit such +community of blood in the original Aryan group, it does not follow that +there is any further special kindred between Hindoo and Hindoo or +between Englishman and Englishman. The original group may not have been +a family, but an artificial union. And if it was a family, those of its +members who marched together east or west or north or south may have had +no tie of kindred beyond the common cousinship of all. + +Now the tendency of this kind of argument is to lead to something a good +deal more startling than the doctrine that language is no certain test +of race. Its tendency is to go on further, and to show that race is no +certain test of community of blood. And this comes pretty nearly to +saying that there is no such thing as race at all. For our whole +conception of race starts from the idea of community of blood. If the +word "race" does not mean community of blood, it is hard to see what it +does mean. Yet it is certain that there can be no positive proof of real +community of blood, even among those groups of mankind which we +instinctively speak of as families and races. It is not merely that the +blood has been mingled in after-times; there is no positive proof that +there was any community of blood in the beginning. No living Englishman +can prove with absolute certainty that he comes in the male line of any +of the Teutonic settlers in Britain in the fifth or sixth centuries. I +say in the male line, because any one who is descended from any English +king can prove such descent, though he can prove it only through a long +and complicated web of female successions. But we may be sure that in no +other case can such a pedigree be proved by the kind of proof which +lawyers would require to make out the title to an estate or a peerage. +The actual forefathers of the modern Englishman may chance to have been, +not true-born Angles or Saxons, but Britons, Scots, in later days +Frenchmen, Flemings, men of any other nation who learned to speak +English and took to themselves English names. But supposing that a man +could make out such a pedigree, supposing that he could prove that he +came in the male line of some follower of Hengest or Cerdic, he would be +no nearer to proving original community of blood either in the +particular Teutonic race or in the general Aryan family. If direct +evidence is demanded, we must give up the whole doctrine of families +and races, as far as we take language, manners, institutions, any thing +but physical conformation, as the distinguishing marks of races and +families. That is to say, if we wish never to use any word of whose +accuracy we cannot be perfectly certain, we must leave off speaking of +races and families at all from any but the purely physical side. We must +content ourselves with saying that certain groups of mankind have a +common history, that they have languages, creeds, and institutions in +common, but that we have no evidence whatever to show how they came to +have languages, creeds, and institutions in common. We cannot say for +certain what was the tie which brought the members of the original group +together, any more than we can name the exact time and the exact place +when and where they came together. + +We may thus seem to be landed in a howling wilderness of scientific +uncertainty. The result of pushing our inquiries so far may seem to be +to show that we really know nothing at all. But in truth the uncertainty +is no greater than the uncertainty which attends all inquiries in the +historical sciences. Though a historical fact may be recorded in the +most trustworthy documents, though it may have happened in our own +times, though we may have seen it happen with our own eyes, yet we +cannot have the same certainty about it as the mathematician has about +the proposition which he proves to absolute demonstration. We cannot +have even that lower degree of certainty which the geologist has with +regard to the order of succession between this and that _stratum_. For +in all historical inquiries we are dealing with facts which themselves +come within the control of human will and human caprice, and the +evidence for which depends on the trustworthiness of human informants, +who may either purposely deceive or unwittingly mislead. A man may lie; +he may err. The triangles and the rocks can neither lie nor err. I may +with my own eyes see a certain man do a certain act; he may tell me +himself, or some one else may tell me, that he is the same man who did +some other act; but as to his statement I cannot have absolute +certainty, and no one but myself can have absolute certainty as to the +statement which I make as to the facts which I saw with my own eyes. +Historical evidence may range through every degree, from the barest +likelihood to that undoubted moral certainty on which every man acts +without hesitation in practical affairs. But it cannot get beyond this +last standard. If, then, we are ever to use words like race, family, or +even nation, to denote groups of mankind marked off by any kind of +historical, as distinguished from physical, characteristics, we must be +content to use those words, as we use many other words, without being +able to prove that our use of them is accurate, as mathematicians judge +of accuracy. I cannot be quite sure that William the Conqueror landed at +Pevensey, though I have strong reasons for believing that he did so. And +I have strong reasons for believing many facts about race and language +about which I am much further from being quite sure than I am about +William's landing at Pevensey. In short, in all these matters, we must +be satisfied to let presumption very largely take the place of actual +proof; and, if we only let presumption in, most of our difficulties at +once fly away. Language is no certain test of race; but it is a +presumption of race. Community of race, as we commonly understand race, +is no certain proof of original community of blood; but it is a +presumption of original community of blood. The presumption amounts to +moral proof, if only we do not insist on proving such physical community +of blood as would satisfy a genealogist. It amounts to moral proof, if +all that we seek is to establish a relation in which the community of +blood is the leading idea, and in which, where natural community of +blood does not exist, its place is supplied by something which by a +legal fiction is looked upon as its equivalent. + +If, then, we do not ask for scientific, for what we may call physical, +accuracy, but if we are satisfied with the kind of proof which is all +that we can ever get in the historical sciences--if we are satisfied to +speak in a way which is true for popular and practical purposes--then we +may say that language has a great deal to do with race, as race is +commonly understood, and that race has a great deal to do with community +of blood. If we once admit the Roman doctrine of adoption, our whole +course is clear. The natural family is the starting-point of every +thing; but we must give the natural family the power of artificially +enlarging itself by admitting adoptive members. A group of mankind is +thus formed, in which it does not follow that all the members have any +natural community of blood, but in which community of blood is the +starting-point, in which those who are connected by natural community of +blood form the original body within whose circle the artificial members +are admitted. A group of mankind thus formed is something quite +different from a fortuitious concurrence of atoms. Three or four +brothers by blood, with a fourth or fifth man whom they agree to look on +as filling in every thing the same place as a brother by blood, form a +group which is quite unlike a union of four or five men, none of whom is +bound by any tie of blood to any of the others. In the latter kind of +union the notion of kindred does not come in at all. In the former kind +the notion of kindred is the groundwork of every thing; it determines +the character of every relation and every action, even though the +kindred between some members of the society and others may be owing to a +legal fiction and not to natural descent. All that we know of the growth +of tribes, races, nations, leads us to believe that they grew in this +way. Natural kindred was the groundwork, the leading and determining +idea; but, by one of those legal fictions which have had such an +influence on all institutions, adoption was in certain cases allowed to +count as natural kindred.[3] + +The usage of all languages shows that community of blood was the leading +idea in forming the greater and smaller groups of mankind. Words like +[Greek: phylon, genos], _gens_, _natio_, _kin_, all point to the natural +family as the origin of all society. The family in the narrower sense, +the children of one father in one house, grew into a more extended +family, the _gens_. Such were the Alkmaiônidai, the Julii, or the +Scyldingas, the real or artificial descendants of a real or supposed +forefather. The nature of the _gens_ has been set forth often enough. If +it is a mistake to fancy that every Julius or Cornelius was the natural +kinsman of every other Julius or Cornelius, it is equally a mistake to +think that the _gens Julia_ or _Cornelia_ was in its origin a mere +artificial association, into which the idea of natural kindred did not +enter. It is indeed possible that really artificial _gentes_, groups of +men of whom it might chance that none were natural kinsmen, were formed +in later times after the model of the original _gentes_. Still such +imitation would bear witness to the original conception of the _gens_. +It would be the doctrine of adoption turned the other way; instead of a +father adopting a son, a number of men would agree to adopt a common +father. The family then grew into the _gens_; the union of _gentes_ +formed the state, the political community, which in its first form was +commonly a tribe. Then came the nation, formed of a union of tribes. +Kindred, real or artificial, is the one basis on which all society and +all government has grown up. + +Now it is plain, that as soon as we admit the doctrine of artificial +kindred--that is, as soon as we allow the exercise of the law of +adoption, physical purity of race is at an end. Adoption treats a man as +if he were the son of a certain father; it cannot really make him the +son of that father. If a brachycephalic father adopts a dolichocephalic +son, the legal act cannot change the shape of the adopted son's skull. I +will not undertake to say whether, not indeed the rite of adoption, but +the influences and circumstances which would spring from it, might not, +in the course of generations, affect even the skull of the man who +entered a certain _gens_, tribe, or nation by artificial adoption only. +If by any chance the adopted son spoke a different language from the +adopted father, the rite of adoption itself would not of itself change +his language. But it would bring him under influences which would make +him adopt the language of his new _gens_ by a conscious act of the will, +and which would make his children adopt it by the same unconscious act +of the will by which each child adopts the language of his parents. The +adopted son, still more the son of the adopted son, became, in speech, +in feelings, in worship, in every thing but physical descent, one with +the _gens_ into which he was adopted. He became one of that _gens_ for +all practical, political, historical, purposes. It is only the +physiologist who could deny his right to his new position. The nature of +the process is well expressed by a phrase of our own law. When the +nation--the word itself keeps about it the remembrance of birth as the +groundwork of every thing--adopts a new citizen, that is, a new child of +the state, he is said to be _naturalized_. That is, a legal process puts +him in the same position, and gives him the same rights, as a man who +is a citizen and a son by birth. It is assumed that the rights of +citizenship come by nature--that is, by birth. The stranger is admitted +to them only by a kind of artificial birth; he is naturalized by law; +his children are in a generation or two naturalized in fact. There is +now no practical distinction between the Englishman whose forefathers +landed with William, or even between the Englishman whose forefathers +sought shelter from Alva or from Louis the Fourteenth, and the +Englishman whose forefathers landed with Hengest. It is for the +physiologist to say whether any difference can be traced in their +several skulls; for all practical purposes, historical or political, all +distinction between these several classes has passed away. + +We may, in short, say that the law of adoption runs through every thing, +and that it may be practised on every scale. What adoption is at the +hands of the family, naturalization is at the hands of the state. And +the same process extends itself from adopted or naturalized individuals +to large classes of men, indeed to whole nations. When the process takes +place on this scale, we may best call it assimilation. Thus Rome +assimilated the continental nations of Western Europe to that degree +that, allowing for a few survivals here and there, not only Italy, but +Gaul and Spain, became Roman. The people of those lands, admitted step +by step to the Roman franchise, adopted the name and tongue of Romans. +It must soon have been hard to distinguish the Roman colonist in Gaul or +Spain from the native Gaul or Spaniard who had, as far as in him lay, +put on the guise of a Roman. This process of assimilation has gone on +everywhere and at all times. When two nations come in this way into +close contact with one another, it depends on a crowd of circumstances +which shall assimilate the other, or whether they shall remain distinct +without assimilation either way. Sometimes the conquerors assimilate +their subjects; sometimes they are assimilated by their subjects; +sometimes conquerors and subjects remain distinct forever. When +assimilation either way does take place, the direction which it takes in +each particular case will depend, partly on their respective numbers, +partly on their degrees of civilization. A small number of less +civilized conquerors will easily be lost among a greater number of more +civilized subjects, and that even though they give their name to the +land and people which they conquer. The modern Frenchman represents, +not the conquering Frank, but the conquered Gaul, or, as he called +himself, the conquered Roman. The modern Bulgarian represents, not the +Finnish conqueror, but the conquered Slav. The modern Russian +represents, not the Scandinavian ruler, but the Slav who sent for the +Scandinavian to rule over him. And so we might go on with endless other +cases. The point is that the process of adoption, naturalization, +assimilation, has gone on everywhere. No nation can boast of absolute +purity of blood, though no doubt some nations come much nearer to it +than others. When I speak of purity of blood, I leave out of sight the +darker questions which I have already raised with regard to the groups +of mankind in days before recorded history. I assume great groups like +Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, as having what we may call a real corporate +existence, however we may hold that that corporate existence began. My +present point is that no existing nation is, in the physiologist's sense +of purity, purely Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, or any thing else. All +races have assimilated a greater or less amount of foreign elements. +Taking this standard, one which comes more nearly within the range of +our actual knowledge than the possibilities of unrecorded times, we may +again say that, from the purely scientific or physiological point of +view, not only is language no test of race, but that, at all events +among the great nations of the world, there is no such thing as purity +of race at all. + +But, while we admit this truth, while we even insist upon it from the +strictly scientific point of view, we must be allowed to look at it with +different eyes from a more practical standing point. This is the +standing point, whether of history which is the politics of the past, or +of politics which are the history of the present. From this point of +view, we may say unhesitatingly that there are such things as races and +nations, and that to the grouping of those races and nations language is +the best guide. We cannot undertake to define with any philosophical +precision the exact distinction between race and race, between nation +and nation. Nor can we undertake to define with the like precision in +what way the distinctions between race and race, between nation and +nation, began. But all analogy leads us to believe that tribes, nations, +races, were all formed according to the original model of the family, +the family which starts from the idea of the community of blood, but +which allows artificial adoption to be its legal equivalent. In all +cases of adoption, naturalization, assimilation, whether of individuals +or of large classes of men, the adopted person or class is adopted into +an existing community. Their adoption undoubtedly influences the +community into which they are adopted. It at once destroys any claim on +the part of that community to purity of blood, and it influences the +adopting community in many ways, physical and moral. A family, a tribe, +or a nation, which has largely recruited itself by adopted members, +cannot be the same as one which has never practised adoption at all, but +all whose members come of the original stock. But the influence which +the adopting community exercises upon its adopted members is far greater +than any influence which they exercise upon it. It cannot change their +blood; it cannot give them new natural forefathers; but it may do every +thing short of this; it may make them, in speech, in feeling, in +thought, and in habit, genuine members of the community which has +artificially made them its own. While there is not in any nation, in any +race, any such thing as strict purity of blood, yet there is in each +nation, in each race, a dominant element--or rather something more than +an element--something which is the true essence of the race or nation, +something which sets its standard and determines its character, +something which draws to itself and assimilates to itself all other +elements. It so works that all other elements are not co-equal elements +with itself, but mere infusions poured into an already existing body. +Doubtless these infusions do in some measure influence the body which +assimilates them; but the influence which they exercise is as nothing +compared to the influence which they undergo. We may say that they +modify the character of the body into which they are assimilated; they +do not affect its personality. Thus, assuming the great groups of +mankind as primary facts, the origin of which lies beyond our certain +knowledge, we may speak of families and races, of the great Aryan family +and of the races into which it parted, as groups which have a real, +practical existence, as groups founded on the ruling primeval idea of +kindred, even though in many cases the kindred may not be by natural +descent, but only by law of adoption. The Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic +races of man are real living and abiding groups, the distinction +between which we must accept among the primary facts of history. And +they go on as living and abiding groups, even though we know that each +of them has assimilated many adopted members, sometimes from other +branches of the Aryan family, sometimes from races of men alien to the +whole Aryan stock. These races which, in a strictly physiological point +of view, have no existence at all, have a real existence from the more +practical point of view of history and politics. The Bulgarian calls to +the Russian for help, and the Russian answers to his call for help, on +the ground of their being alike members of the one Slavonic race. It may +be that, if we could trace out the actual pedigree of this or that +Bulgarian, of this or that Russian, we might either find that there was +no real kindred between them, or we might find that there was a real +kindred, but a kindred which must be traced up to another stock than +that of the Slav. In point of actual blood, instead of both being Slavs, +it may be that one of them comes, it may be that both of them come, of a +stock which is not Slavonic or even Aryan. The Bulgarian may chance to +be a Bulgarian in a truer sense than he thinks; for he may come of the +blood of those original Finnish conquerors who gave the Bulgarian name +to the Slavs among whom they were merged. And if this or that Bulgarian +may chance to come of the stock of Finnish conquerors assimilated by +their Slavonic subjects, this or that Russian may chance to come of the +stock of Finnish subjects assimilated by their Slavonic conquerors. It +may then so happen that the cry for help goes up and is answered on a +ground of kindred which in the eye of the physiologist has no existence. +Or it may happen that the kindred is real in a way which neither the +suppliant nor his helper thinks of. But in either case, for the +practical purposes of human life, the plea is a good plea; the kindred +on which it is founded is a real kindred. It is good by the law of +adoption. It is good by the law the force of which we all admit whenever +we count a man as an Englishman whose forefathers, two generations or +twenty generations back, came to our shores as strangers. For all +practical purposes, for all the purposes which guide men's actions, +public or private, the Russian and the Bulgarian, kinsmen so long +parted, perhaps in very truth no natural kinsmen at all, are members of +the same race, bound together by the common sentiment of race. They +belong to the same race, exactly as an Englishman whose forefathers came +into Britain fourteen hundred years back, and an Englishman whose +forefathers came only one or two hundred years back, are alike members +of the same nation, bound together by a tie of common nationality. + +And now, having ruled that races and nations, though largely formed by +the working of an artificial law, are still real and living things, +groups in which the idea of kindred is the idea around which every thing +has grown, how are we to define our races and our nations? How are we to +mark them off one from the other? Bearing in mind the cautions and +qualifications which have been already given, bearing in mind large +classes of exceptions which will presently be spoken of, I say +unhesitatingly that for practical purposes there is one test, and one +only, and that that test is language. It is hardly needful to show that +races and nations cannot be defined by the merely political arrangements +which group men under various governments. For some purposes of ordinary +language, for some purposes of ordinary politics, we are tempted, +sometimes driven, to take this standard. And in some parts of the +world, in our own Western Europe for instance, nations and governments +do, in a rough way, fairly answer to one another. And, in any case, +political divisions are not without their influence on the formation of +national divisions, while national divisions ought to have the greatest +influence on political divisions. That is to say, _primâ facie_ a nation +and government should coincide. I say only _primâ facie_; for this is +assuredly no inflexible rule; there are often good reasons why it should +be otherwise; only, whenever it is otherwise, there should be some good +reason forthcoming. It might even be true that in no case did a +government and a nation exactly coincide, and yet it would none the less +be the rule that a government and a nation should coincide. That is to +say, so far as a nation and a government coincide, we accept it as the +natural state of things, and ask no question as to the cause. So far as +they do not coincide, we mark the case as exceptional, by asking what is +the cause. And by saying that a government and a nation should coincide +we mean that, as far as possible, the boundaries of governments should +be so laid out as to agree with the boundaries of nations. That is, we +assume the nation as something already existing, something primary, to +which the secondary arrangements of government should, as far as +possible, conform. How then do we define the nation, which is, if there +is no especial reason to the contrary, to fix the limits of a +government? Primarily, I say, as a rule, but a rule subject to +exceptions,--as a _primâ facie_ standard, subject to special reasons to +the contrary,--we define the nation by language. We may at least apply +the test negatively. It would be unsafe to rule that all speakers of the +same language must have a common nationality; but we may safely say that +where there is not community of language, there is no common nationality +in the highest sense. It is true that without community of language +there may be an artificial nationality, a nationality which may be good +for all political purposes, and which may engender a common national +feeling. Still this is not quite the same thing as that fuller national +unity which is felt where there is community of language. In fact +mankind instinctively takes language as the badge of nationality. We so +far take it as the badge, that we instinctively assume community of +language as a nation as the rule, and we set down any thing that departs +from that rule as an exception. The first idea suggested by the word +Frenchman or German or any other national name, is that he is a man who +speaks French or German as his mother-tongue. We take for granted, in +the absence of any thing to make us think otherwise, that a Frenchman is +a speaker of French and that a speaker of French is a Frenchman. Where +in any case it is otherwise, we mark that case as an exception, and we +ask the special cause. Again, the rule is none the less the rule, nor +the exceptions the exceptions, because the exceptions may easily +outnumber the instances which conform to the rule. The rule is still the +rule, because we take the instances which conform to it as a matter of +course, while in every case which does not conform to it we ask for the +explanation. All the larger countries of Europe provide us with +exceptions; but we treat them all as exceptions. We do not ask why a +native of France speaks French. But when a native of France speaks as +his mother-tongue some other tongue than French, when French, or +something which popularly passes for French, is spoken as his +mother-tongue by some one who is not a native of France, we at once ask +the reason. And the reason will be found in each case in some special +historical cause which withdraws that case from the operation of the +general law. A very good reason can be given why French, or something +which popularly passes for French, is spoken in parts of Belgium and +Switzerland whose inhabitants are certainly not Frenchmen. But the +reason has to be given, and it may fairly be asked. + +In the like sort, if we turn to our own country, whenever within the +bounds of Great Britain we find any tongue spoken other than English, we +at once ask the reason and we learn the special historic cause. In a +part of France and a part of Great Britain we find tongues spoken which +differ alike from English and from French, but which are strongly akin +to one another. We find that these are the survivals of a group of +tongues once common to Gaul and Britain, but which the settlement of +other nations, the introduction and the growth of other tongues, have +brought down to the level of survivals. So again we find islands which +both speech and geographical position seem to mark as French, but which +are dependencies, and loyal dependencies, of the English crown. We soon +learn the cause of the phenomenon which seems so strange. Those islands +are the remains of a state and a people which adopted the French tongue, +but which, while it remained one, did not become a part of the French +state. That people brought England by force of arms under the rule of +their own sovereigns. The greater part of that people were afterward +conquered by France, and gradually became French in feeling as well as +in language. But a remnant clave to their connection with the land which +their forefathers had conquered, and that remnant, while keeping the +French tongue, never became French in feeling. This last case, that of +the Norman islands, is a specially instructive one. Normandy and England +were politically connected, while language and geography pointed rather +to a union between Normandy and France. In the case of continental +Normandy, where the geographical tie was strongest, language and +geography together could carry the day, and the continental Norman +became a Frenchman. In the islands, where the geographical tie was less +strong, political traditions and manifest interest carried the day +against language and a weaker geographical tie. The insular Norman did +not become a Frenchman. But neither did he become an Englishman. He +alone remained Norman, keeping his own tongue and his own laws, but +attached to the English crown by a tie at once of tradition and of +advantage. Between states of the relative size of England and the Norman +islands, the relation naturally becomes a relation of dependence on the +part of the smaller members of the union. But it is well to remember +that our forefathers never conquered the forefathers of the men of the +Norman islands, but that their forefathers did once conquer ours. + +These instances, and countless others, bear out the position that, while +community of language is the most obvious sign of common nationality, +while it is the main element, or something more than an element, in the +formation of nationality, the rule is open to exceptions of all kinds, +and that the influence of language is at all times liable to be +overruled by other influences. But all the exceptions confirm the rule, +because we specially remark those cases which contradict the rule, and +we do not specially remark those cases which do not conform to it. + +In the cases which we have just spoken of, the growth of the nation as +marked out by language, and the growth of the exceptions to the rule of +language, have both come through the gradual, unconscious working of +historical causes. Union under the same government, or separation under +separate governments, have been among the foremost of those historical +causes. The French nation consists of the people of all that extent of +continuous territory which has been brought under the rule of the French +kings. But the working of the cause has been gradual and unconscious. +There was no moment when any one deliberately proposed to form a French +nation by joining together all the separate duchies and counties which +spoke the French tongue. Since the French nation has been formed, men +have proposed to annex this or that land on the ground that its people +spoke the French tongue, or perhaps only some tongue akin to the French +tongue. But the formation of the French nation itself was the work of +historical causes, the work doubtless of a settled policy acting through +many generations, but not the work of any conscious theory about races +and languages. It is a special mark of our time, a special mark of the +influence which doctrines about race and language have had on men's +minds, that we have seen great nations united by processes in which +theories of race and language really have had much to do with bringing +about their union. If statesmen have not been themselves moved by such +theories, they have at least found that it suited their purpose to make +use of such theories as a means of working on the minds of others. In +the reunion of the severed German and Italian nations, the conscious +feeling of nationality, and the acceptance of a common language as the +outward badge of nationality, had no small share. Poets sang of language +as the badge of national union; statesmen made it the badge, so far as +political considerations did not lead them to do anything else. The +revived kingdom of Italy is very far from taking in all the speakers of +the Italian tongue. Lugano, Trent, Aquileia--to take places which are +clearly Italian, and not to bring in places of more doubtful +nationality, like the cities of Istria and Dalmatia--form no part of the +Italian political body, and Corsica is not under the same rule as the +other two great neighboring islands. But the fact that all these places +do not belong to the Italian body at once suggests the twofold question, +why they do not belong to it, and whether they ought not to belong to +it. History easily answers the first question; it may perhaps also +answer the second question in a way which will say Yes as regards one +place and No as regards another. Ticino must not lose her higher +freedom; Trieste must remain the needful mouth for southern Germany; +Dalmatia must not be cut off from the Slavonic mainland; Corsica would +seem to have sacrificed national feeling to personal hero-worship. But +it is certainly hard to see why Trent and Aquileia should be kept apart +from the Italian body. On the other hand, the revived Italian kingdom +contains very little which is not Italian in speech. It is perhaps by a +somewhat elastic view of language that the dialect of Piedmont and the +dialect of Sicily are classed under one head; still, as a matter of +fact, they have a single classical standard, and they are universally +accepted as varieties of the same tongue. But it is only in a few Alpine +valleys that languages are spoken which, whether Romance or Teutonic, +are in any case not Italian. The reunion of Italy, in short, took in all +that was Italian, save when some political cause hindered the rule of +language from being followed. Of any thing not Italian by speech so +little has been taken in that the non-Italian parts of Italy, +Burgundian Aosta and the Seven German Communes--if these last still keep +their Teutonic language,--fall under the rule that there are some things +too small for laws to pay heed to. + +But it must not be forgotten that all this simply means that in the +lands of which we have just been speaking the process of adoption has +been carried out on the largest scale. Nations, with languages as their +rough practical test, have been formed; but they have been formed with +very little regard to physical purity of blood. In short, throughout +Western Europe assimilation has been the rule. That is to say, in any of +the great divisions of Western Europe, though the land may have been +settled and conquered over and over again, yet the mass of the people of +the land have been drawn to some one national type. Either some one +among the races inhabiting the land has taught the others to put on its +likeness, or else a new national type has arisen which has elements +drawn from several of those races. Thus the modern Frenchman may be +defined as produced by the union of blood which is mainly Celtic with a +speech which is mainly Latin, and with an historical polity which is +mainly Teutonic. That is, he is neither Gaul, Roman, nor Frank, but a +fourth type which has drawn important elements from all three. Within +modern France this new national type has so far assimilated all others +as to make every thing else merely exceptional. The Fleming of one +corner, the Basque of another, even the far more important Breton of a +third corner, have all in this way become mere exceptions to the general +type of the country. If we pass into our own islands, we shall find that +the same process has been at work. If we look to Great Britain only, we +shall find that, though the means have not been the same, yet the end +has been gained hardly less thoroughly than in France. For all real +political purposes, for every thing which concerns a nation in the face +of other nations, Great Britain is as thoroughly united as France is. +Englishmen, Scotchmen, Welshmen, feel themselves one people in the +general affairs of the world. A secession of Scotland or Wales is as +unlikely as a secession of Normandy or Languedoc. The part of the island +which is not thoroughly assimilated in language, that part which still +speaks Welsh or Gaelic, is larger in proportion than the non-French part +of modern France. But however much either the northern or the western +Briton may, in a fit of antiquarian politics, declaim against the Saxon, +for all practical political purposes he and the Saxon are one. The +distinction between the southern and the northern English--for the men +of Lothian and Fife must allow me to call them by this last name--is, +speaking politically and without ethnological or linguistic precision, +much as if France and Aquitaine had been two kingdoms united on equal +terms, instead of Aquitaine being merged in France. When we cross into +Ireland, we indeed find another state of things, and one which comes +nearer to some of the phenomena which we shall come to in other parts of +the world. Ireland is, most unhappily, not so firmly united to Great +Britain as the different parts of Great Britain are to one another. +Still even here the division arises quite as much from geographical and +historical causes as from distinctions of race strictly so called. If +Ireland had had no wrongs, still two great islands can never be so +thoroughly united as a continuous territory can be. On the other hand, +in point of language, the discontented part of the United Kingdom is +much less strongly marked off than that fraction of the contented part +which is not thoroughly assimilated. Irish is certainly not the +language of Ireland in at all the same degree in which Welsh is the +language of Wales. The Saxon has commonly to be denounced in the Saxon +tongue. + +In some other parts of Western Europe, as in the Spanish and +Scandinavian peninsulas, the coincidence of language and nationality is +stronger than it is in France, Britain, or even Italy. No one speaks +Spanish except in Spain or in the colonies of Spain. And within Spain +the proportion of those who do not speak Spanish, namely the Basque +remnant, is smaller than the non-assimilated element in Britain and +France. Here two things are to be marked: First, the modern Spanish +nation has been formed, like the French, by a great process of +assimilation; secondly, the actual national arrangements of the Spanish +peninsula are wholly due to historical causes, we might almost say +historical accidents, and those of very recent date. Spain and Portugal +are separate kingdoms, and we look on their inhabitants as forming +separate nations. But this is simply because a Queen of Castile in the +fifteenth century married a King of Aragon. Had Isabel married a King of +Portugal, we should now talk of Spain and Aragon as we now talk of +Spain and Portugal, and we should count Portugal for part of Spain. In +language, in history, in every thing else, Aragon was really more +distinct from Castile than Portugal was. The King of Castile was already +spoken of as King of Spain, and Portugal would have merged in the +Spanish kingdom at last as easily as Aragon did. In Scandinavia, on the +other hand, there must have been less assimilation than anywhere else. +In the present kingdoms of Norway and Sweden, there must be a nearer +approach to actual purity of blood than in any other part of Europe. One +cannot fancy that much Finnish blood has been assimilated, and there +have been no conquests or settlements later than that of the Northmen +themselves. + +When we pass into Central Europe we shall find a somewhat different +state of things. The distinctions of race seem to be more lasting. While +the national unity of the German Empire is greater than that of either +France or Great Britain, it has not only subjects of other languages, +but actually discontented subjects, in three corners, on its French, its +Danish, and its Polish frontiers. We ask the reason, and it will be at +once answered that the discontent of all three is the result of recent +conquest, in two cases of very recent conquest indeed. But this is one +of the very points to be marked; the strong national unity of the German +Empire has been largely the result of assimilation; and these three +parts, where recent conquest has not yet been followed by assimilation, +are chiefly important because, in all three cases, the discontented +territory is geographically continuous with a territory of its own +speech outside the Empire. This does not prove that assimilation can +never take place; but it will undoubtedly make the process longer and +harder. + +So again, wherever German-speaking people dwell outside the bounds of +the revived German state, as well as when that revived German state +contains other than German-speaking people, we ask the reason and we can +find it. Political reasons forbade the immediate annexation of Austria, +Tyrol, and Salzburg. Combined political and geographical reasons, and, +if we look a little deeper, ethnological reasons too, forbade the +annexation of Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia. Some reason or other +will, it may be hoped, always be found to hinder the annexation of +lands which, like Zürich and Bern, have reached a higher political +level. Outlying brethren in Transsilvania or at Saratof again come under +the rule "De minimis non curat lex." In all these cases the rule that +nationality and language should go together, yields to unavoidable +circumstances. But, on the other hand, where French or Danish or +Slavonic or Lithuanian is spoken within the bounds of the new Empire, +the principle that language is the badge of nationality, that without +community of language nationality is imperfect, shows itself in another +shape. One main object of modern policy is to bring these exceptional +districts under the general rule by spreading the German language in +them. Everywhere, in short, wherever a power is supposed to be founded +on nationality, the common feeling of mankind instinctively takes +language as the test of nationality. We assume language as the test of a +nation, without going into any minute questions as to the physical +purity of blood in that nation. A continuous territory, living under the +same government and speaking the same tongue, forms a nation for all +practical purposes. If some of its inhabitants do not belong to the +original stock by blood, they at least belong to it by adoption. + +The question may now fairly be asked, What is the case in those parts of +the world where people who are confessedly of different races and +languages inhabit a continuous territory and live under the same +government? How do we define nationality in such cases as these? The +answer will be very different in different cases, according to the means +by which the different national elements in such a territory have been +brought together. They may form what I have already called an artificial +nation, united by an act of its own free will. Or it may be simply a +case where distinct nations, distinct in every thing which can be looked +on as forming a nation, except the possession of an independent +government, are brought together, by whatever causes, under a common +ruler. The former case is very distinctly an exception which proves the +rule, and the latter is, though in quite another way, an exception which +proves the rule also. Both cases may need somewhat more in the way of +definition. We will begin with the first, the case of a nation which has +been formed out of elements which differ in language, but which still +have been brought together so as to form an artificial nation. In the +growth of the chief nations of Western Europe, the principle which was +consciously or unconsciously followed has been that the nation should be +marked out by language, and the use of any tongue other than the +dominant tongue of the nation should be at least exceptional. But there +is one nation in Europe, one which has a full right to be called a +nation in a political sense, which has been formed on the directly +opposite principle. The Swiss Confederation has been formed by the union +of certain detached fragments of the German, Italian, and Burgundian +nations. It may indeed be said that the process has been in some sort a +process of adoption, that the Italian and Burgundian elements have been +incorporated into an already existing German body; that, as those +elements were once subjects or dependents or protected allies, the case +is one of clients or freedmen who have been admitted to the full +privileges of the _gens_. This is undoubtedly true, and it is equally +true of a large part of the German element itself. Throughout the +Confederation, allies and subjects have been raised to the rank of +confederates. But the former position of the component elements does not +matter for our purpose. As a matter of fact, the foreign dependencies +have all been admitted into the Confederation on equal terms. German is +undoubtedly the language of a great majority of the Confederation; but +the two recognized Romance languages are each the speech, not of a mere +fragment or survival, like Welsh in Britain or Breton in France, but of +a large minority forming a visible element in the general body. The +three languages are all of them alike recognized as national languages, +though, as if to keep up the universal rule that there should be some +exceptions to all rules, a fourth language still lives on within the +bounds of the Confederation, which is not admitted to the rights of the +other three, but is left in the state of a fragment or a survival.[4] Is +such an artificial body as this to be called a nation? It is plainly not +a nation by blood or by speech. It can hardly be called a nation by +adoption. For, if we choose to say that the three elements have all +agreed to adopt one another as brethren, yet it has been adoption +without assimilation. Yet surely the Swiss Confederation is a nation. It +is not a a mere power, in which various nations are brought together, +whether willingly or unwillingly, under a common ruler, but without any +further tie of union. For all political purposes, the Swiss +Confederation is a nation, a nation capable of as strong and true +national feeling as any other nation. Yet it is a nation purely +artificial, one in no way defined by blood or speech. It thus proves the +rule in two ways. We at once feel that this artificially formed nation, +which has no common language, but each of whose elements speaks a +language common to itself with some other nation, is something different +from those nations which are defined by a universal or at least a +predominant language. We mark it as an exception, as something different +from other cases. And when we see how nearly this artificial nation +comes, in every point but that of language, to the likeness of those +nations which are defined by language, we see that it is a nation +defined by language which sets the standard, and after the model of +which the artificial nation forms itself. The case of the Swiss +Confederation and its claim to rank as a nation would be like the case +of those _gentes_, if any such there were, which did not spring even +from the expansion of an original family, but which were artificially +formed in imitation of those which did, and which, instead of a real or +traditional forefather, chose for themselves an adopted one. + +In the Swiss Confederation, then, we have a case of a nation formed by +an artificial process, but which still is undoubtedly a nation in the +face of other nations. We now come to the other class, in which +nationality and language keep the connection which they have elsewhere, +but in which nations do not even in the roughest way answer to +governments. We have only to go into the Eastern lands of Europe to find +a state of things in which the notion of nationality, as marked out by +language and national feeling, has altogether parted company from the +notion of political government. It must be remembered that this state of +things is not confined to the nations which are or have lately been +under the yoke of the Turk. It extends also to the nations or fragments +of nations which make up the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In all the lands +held by these two powers we come across phenomena of geography, race, +and language, which stand out in marked contrast with any thing to which +we are used in Western Europe. We may perhaps better understand what +those phenomena are, if we suppose a state of things which sounds absurd +in the West, but which has its exact parallel in many parts of the East. +Let us suppose that in a journey through England we came successively to +districts, towns, or villages, where we found, one after another, first, +Britons speaking Welsh; then Romans speaking Latin; then Saxons or +Angles speaking an older form of our own tongue; then Scandinavians +speaking Danish; then Normans speaking Old-French; lastly perhaps a +settlement of Flemings, Huguenots, or Palatines, still remaining a +distinct people and speaking their own tongue. Or let us suppose a +journey through Northern France, in which we found at different stages, +the original Gaul, the Roman, the Frank, the Saxon of Bayeux, the Dane +of Coutances, each remaining a distinct people, each of them keeping the +tongue which they first brought with them into the land. Let us suppose +further that, in many of these cases, a religious distinction was added +to a national distinction. Let us conceive one village Roman Catholic, +another Anglican, others Nonconformist of various types, even if we do +not call up any remnants of the worshippers of Jupiter or of Woden. All +this seems absurd in any Western country, and absurd enough it is. But +the absurdity of the West is the living reality of the East. There we +may still find all the chief races which have ever occupied the country, +still remaining distinct, still keeping separate tongues, and those for +the most part, their own original tongues. Within the present and late +European dominions of the Turk, the original races, those whom we find +there at the first beginnings of history, are all there still, and two +of them keep their original tongues. They form three distinct nations. +First of all there are the Greeks. We have not here to deal with them as +the representatives of that branch of the Roman Empire which adopted +their speech, but simply as one of the original elements in the +population of the Eastern peninsula. Known almost down to our own day by +their historical name of Romans, they have now fallen back on the name +of Hellênes. And to that name they have a perfectly good claim. If the +modern Greeks are not all true Hellênes, they are an aggregate of +adopted Hellênes gathered round and assimilated to a true Hellenic +kernel. Here we see the oldest recorded inhabitants of a large part of +the land abiding, and abiding in a very different case from the remnants +of the Celt and the Iberian in Western Europe. The Greeks are no +survival of a nation; they are a true and living nation, a nation whose +importance is quite out of its proportion to its extent in mere numbers. +They still abide, the predominant race in their own ancient and again +independent land, the predominant race in those provinces of the +continental Turkish dominion which formed part of their ancient land, +the predominant race through all the shores and islands of the Ægæan and +of part of the Euxine also. In near neighborhood to the Greeks still +live another race of equal antiquity, the Skipetar or Albanians. These, +as I believe is no longer doubted, represent the ancient Illyrians. The +exact degree of their ethnical kindred with the Greeks is a scientific +question which need not here be considered; but the facts that they are +more largely intermingled with the Greeks than any of the other +neighboring nations, that they show a special power of identifying +themselves with the Greeks, a power, so to speak, of becoming Greeks +and making part of the artificial Greek nation, are matters of practical +history. It must never be forgotten, that among the worthies of the +Greek War of Independence, some of the noblest were not of Hellenic but +Albanian blood. The Orthodox Albanian easily turns into a Greek; and the +Mahometan Albanian is something which is broadly distinguished from a +Turk. He has, as he well may have, a strong national feeling, and that +national feeling has sometimes got the better of religious divisions. If +Albania is among the most backward parts of the peninsula, still it is, +by all accounts, the part where there is most hope of men of different +religions joining together against the common enemy. + +Here then are two ancient races, the Greeks and another race, not indeed +so advanced, so important, or so widely spread, but a race which equally +keeps a real national being. There is also a third ancient race which +survives as a distinct people, though they have for ages adopted a +foreign language. These are the Vlachs or Roumans, the surviving +representatives of the great race, call it Thracian or any other, which +at the beginning of history held the great inland mass of the Eastern +peninsula, with the Illyrians to the west of them and the Greeks to the +south. Every one knows, that in the modern principality of Roumania and +in the adjoining parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, there is to be +seen that phenomenon so unique in the East, a people who not only, as +the Greeks did till lately, still keep the Roman name, but who speak +neither Greek nor Turkish, neither Slav nor Skipetar, but a dialect of +Latin, a tongue akin, not to the tongues of any of their neighbors, but +to the tongues of Gaul, Italy, and Spain. And any one who has given any +real attention to this matter knows that the same race is to be found, +scattered here and there, if in some parts only as wandering shepherds, +in the Slavonic, Albanian, and Greek lands south of the Danube. The +assumption has commonly been that this outlying Romance people owe their +Romance character to the Roman colonization of Dacia under Trajan. In +this view, the modern Roumans would be the descendants of Trajan's +colonists and of Dacians who had learned of them to adopt the speech and +manners of Rome. But when we remember that Dacia was the first Roman +province to be given up--that the modern Roumania was for ages the +highway of every barbarian tribe on its way from the East to the +West--that the land has been conquered and settled and forsaken over and +over again,--it would be passing strange if this should be the one land, +and its people the one race, to keep the Latin tongue when it has been +forgotten in all the neighboring countries. In fact, this idea has been +completely dispersed by modern research. The establishment of the +Roumans in Dacia is of comparatively recent date, beginning only in the +thirteenth century. The Roumans of Wallachia, Moldavia, and +Transsilvania, are isolated from the scattered Rouman remnant on Pindos +and elsewhere. They represent that part of the inhabitants of the +peninsula which became Latin, while the Greeks remained Greek, and the +Illyrians remained barbarian. Their lands, Moesia, Thrace specially so +called, and Dacia, were added to the empire at various times from +Augustus to Trajan. That they should gradually adopt the Latin language +is in no sort wonderful. Their position with regard to Rome was exactly +the same as that of Gaul and Spain. Where Greek civilization had been +firmly established, Latin could nowhere displace it. Where Greek +civilization was unknown, Latin overcame the barbarian tongue. It would +naturally do so in this part of the East exactly as it did in the +West.[5] + +Here then we have in the Southeastern peninsula three nations which have +all lived on to all appearances from the very beginnings of European +history, three distinct nations, speaking three distinct languages. We +have nothing answering to this in the West. It needs no proof that the +speakers of Celtic and Basque in Gaul and in Spain do not hold the same +position in Western Europe which the Greeks, Albanians, and Roumans do +in Eastern Europe. In the East the most ancient inhabitants of the land +are still there, not as scraps or survivals, not as fragments of nations +lingering on in corners, but as nations in the strictest sense, nations +whose national being forms an element in every modern and political +question. They all have their memories, their grievances, and their +hopes; and their memories, their grievances, and their hopes are all of +a practical and political kind. Highlanders, Welshmen, Bretons, French +Basques, whatever we say of the Spanish brethren, have doubtless +memories, but they have hardly political grievances or hopes. Ireland +may have political grievances; it certainly has political hopes; but +they are not exactly of the same kind as the grievances or hopes of the +Greek, the Albanian, and the Rouman. Let Home Rule succeed to the extent +of setting up an independent king and parliament of Ireland, yet the +language and civilization of that king and parliament would still be +English. Ireland would form an English state, politically hostile, it +may be, to Great Britain, but still an English state. No Greek, +Albanian, or Rouman state would be in the same way either Turkish or +Austrian. + +On these primitive and abiding races came, as on other parts of Europe, +the Roman conquest. That conquest planted Latin colonies on the +Dalmatian coast, where the Latin tongue still remains in its Italian +variety as the speech of literature and city life; it Romanized one +great part of the earlier inhabitants; it had the great political effect +of all, that of planting the Roman power in a Greek city, and thereby +creating a state, and in the end a nation, which was Roman on one side, +and Greek on the other. Then came the Wandering of the Nations, on +which, as regards men of our own race, we need not dwell. The Goths +marched at will through the Eastern Empire; but no Teutonic settlement +was ever made within its bounds, no lasting Teutonic settlement was ever +made even on its border. The part of the Teuton in the West was played, +far less perfectly indeed, by the Slav in the East. He is there what the +Teuton is here, the great representative of what we may call the modern +European races, those whose part in history began after the +establishment of the Rouman power. The differences between the position +of the two races are chiefly these. The Slav in the East has præ-Roman +races standing alongside of him in a way in which the Teuton has not in +the West. On the Greeks and Albanians he has had but little influence; +on the Rouman and his language his influence has been far greater, but +hardly so great as the influence of the Teuton on the Romance nations +and languages of Western Europe. The Slav too stands alongside of races +which have come in since his own coming, in a way in which the Teuton in +the West is still further from doing. That is to say, besides Greeks, +Albanians, and Roumans, he stands alongside of Bulgarians, Magyars, and +Turks, who have nothing to answer to them in the West. The Slav, in the +time of his coming, in the nature of his settlement, answers roughly to +the Teuton; his position is what that of the Teuton would be, if Western +Europe had been brought under the power of an alien race at some time +later than his own settlement. The Slavs undoubtedly form the greatest +element in the population of the Eastern peninsula, and they once +reached more widely still. Taking the Slavonic name in its widest +meaning, they occupy all the lands from the Danube and its great +tributaries southward to the strictly Greek border. The exceptions are +where earlier races remain, Greek or Italian on the coast-line, Albanian +in the mountains. The Slavs hold the heart of the peninsula, and they +hold more than the peninsula itself. The Slav lives equally on both +sides of what is or was the frontier of the Austrian and Ottoman +empires; indeed, but for another set of causes which have effected +Eastern Europe, the Slav might have reached uninterruptedly from the +Baltic to the Ægæan. + +This last set of causes are those which specially distinguish the +histories of Eastern and of Western Europe; a set of causes which, +though exactly twelve hundred years old,[6] are still fresh and living, +and which are the special causes which have aggravated the special +difficulties of the last five hundred years. In Western Europe, though +we have had plenty of political conquests, we have had no national +migrations since the days of the Teutonic settlements--at least, if we +may extend these last so as to take in the Scandinavian settlements in +Britain and Gaul. The Teuton has pressed to the East at the expense of +the Slav and the Old-Prussian: the borders between the Romance and the +Teutonic nations in the West have fluctuated; but no third set of +nations has come in, strange alike to the Roman and the Teuton and to +the whole Aryan family. As the Huns of Attila showed themselves in +Western Europe as passing ravagers, so did the Magyars at a later day; +so did the Ottoman Turks in a day later still, when they besieged Vienna +and laid waste the Venetian mainland. But all these Turanian invaders +appeared in Western Europe simply as passing invaders; in Eastern Europe +their part has been widely different. Besides the temporary dominion of +Avars, Patzinaks, Chazars, Cumans, and a crowd of others, three bodies +of more abiding settlers, the Bulgarians, the Magyars, and the Mongol +conquerors of Russia, have come in by one path; a fourth, the Ottoman +Turks, have come in by another path. Among all these invasions we have +one case of thorough assimilation, and only one. The original Finnish +Bulgarians have, like Western conquerors, been lost among Slavonic +subjects and neighbors. The geographical function of the Magyar has been +to keep the two great groups of Slavonic nations apart. To his coming, +more than to any other cause, we may attribute the great historical gap +which separates the Slav of the Baltic from his southern kinsfolk. The +work of the Ottoman Turk we all know. These latter settlers remain +alongside of the Slav, just as the Slav remains alongside of the earlier +settlers. The Slavonized Bulgarians are the only instance of +assimilation such as we are used to in the West. All the other races, +old and new, from the Albanian to the Ottoman, are still there, each +keeping its national being and its national speech. And in one part of +the ancient Dacia we must add quite a distinct element, the element of +Teutonic occupation in a form unlike any in which we see it in the West, +in the shape of the Saxons of Transsilvania. + +We have thus worked out our point in detail. While in each Western +country some one of the various races which have settled in it has, +speaking roughly, assimilated the others, in the lands which are left +under the rule of the Turk, or which have been lately delivered from his +rule, all the races that have ever settled in the country still abide +side by side. So when we pass into the lands which form the +Austro-Hungarian monarchy, we find that that composite dominion is just +as much opposed as the dominion of the Turk is to those ideas of +nationality toward which Western Europe has been long feeling its way. +We have seen by the example of Switzerland that it is possible to make +an artificial nation out of fragments which have split off from three +several nations. But the Austro-Hungarian monarchy is not a nation, not +even an artificial nation of this kind. Its elements are not bound +together in the same way as the three elements of the Swiss +Confederation. It does indeed contain one whole nation in the form of +the Magyars: we might say that it contains two, if we reckon the Czechs +for a distinct nation. Of its other elements, we may for the moment set +aside those parts of Germany which are so strangely united with the +crowns of Hungary and Dalmatia. In those parts of the monarchy which +come within the more strictly Eastern lands--the _Roman_ and the +_Rouman_,--we may so distinguish the Romance-speaking inhabitants of +Dalmatia and the Romance-speaking inhabitants of Transsilvania. The Slav +of the north and of the south, the Magyar conqueror, the Saxon +immigrant, all abide as distinct races. That the Ottoman is not to be +added to our list in Hungary, while he is to be added in lands farther +south, is simply because he has been driven out of Hungary, while he is +allowed to abide in lands farther south. No point is more important to +insist on now than the fact that the Ottoman once held the greater part +of Hungary by exactly the same right, the right of the strongest, as +that by which he still holds Macedonia and Epeiros. It is simply the +result of a century of warfare, from Sobieski to Joseph the Second, +which fixed the boundary which only yesterday seemed eternal to +diplomatists, but which now seems to have vanished. That boundary has +advanced and gone back over and over again. As Buda once was Turkish, +Belgrade has more than once been Austrian. The whole of the southeastern +lands, Austrian, Turkish, and independent, from the Carpathian Mountains +southward, present the same characteristic of permanence and +distinctness among the several races which occupy them. The several +races may lie, here in large continuous masses, there in small detached +settlements; but there they all are in their distinctness. There is +among them plenty of living and active national feeling; but while in +the West political arrangements for the most part follow the great lines +of national feeling, in the East the only way in which national feeling +can show itself is by protesting, whether in arms or otherwise, +against existing political arrangements. Save the Magyars alone, the +ruling race in the Hungarian kingdom, there is no case in those lands in +which the whole continuous territory inhabited by speakers of the same +tongue is placed under a separate national government of its own. And, +even in this case, the identity between nation and government is +imperfect in two ways. It is imperfect, because, after all, though +Hungary has a separate national government in internal matters, yet it +is not the Hungarian kingdom, but the Austro-Hungarian monarchy of which +it forms a part, which counts as a power among the other powers of +Europe. And the national character of the Hungarian government is +equally imperfect from the other side. It is national as regards the +Magyar; it is not national as regards the Slav, the Saxon, and the +Rouman. Since the liberation of part of Bulgaria, no whole European +nation is under the rule of the Turk. No one nation of the Southeast +peninsula forms a single national government. One fragment of a nation +is free under a national government, another fragment is ruled by +civilized strangers, a third is trampled down by barbarians. The +existing states of Greece, Roumania, and Servia are far from taking in +the whole of the Greek, Rouman, and Servian nations. In all these lands, +Austrian, Turkish, and independent, there is no difficulty in marking +off the several nations; only in no case do the nations answer to any +existing political power. + +In all these cases, where nationality and government are altogether +divorced, language becomes yet more distinctly the test of nationality +than it is in Western lands where nationality, and government do to +some extent coincide. And when nationality and language do not coincide +in the East, it is owing to another cause, of which also we know nothing +in the West. In many cases religion takes the place of nationality; or +rather the ideas of religion and nationality can hardly be +distinguished. In the West a man's nationality is in no way affected by +the religion which he professes, or even by his change from one religion +to another. In the East it is otherwise. The Christian renegade who +embraces Islam becomes for most practical purposes a Turk. Even if, as +in Crete and Bosnia, he keeps his Greek or Slavonic language, he remains +Greek or Slav only in a secondary sense. For the first principle of the +Mahometan religion, the lordship of the true believer over the infidel, +cuts off the possibility of any true national fellowship between the +true believer and the infidel. Even the Greek or Armenian who embraces +the Latin creed goes far toward parting with his nationality as well as +with his religion. For the adoption of the Latin creed implies what is +in some sort the adoption of a new allegiance, the accepting of the +authority of the Roman Bishop. In the Armenian indeed we are come very +near to the phenomena of the further East, where names like Parsee and +Hindoo, names in themselves as strictly ethnical as Englishman or +Frenchman, have come to express distinctions in which religion and +nationality are absolutely the same thing. Of this whole class of +phenomena the Jew is of course the crowning example. But we speak of +these matters here only as bringing in an element in the definition of +nationality to which we are unused in the West. But it quite comes +within our present subject to give one definition from the Southeastern +lands. What is the Greek? Clearly he who is at once a Greek in speech +and Orthodox in faith. The Hellenic Mussulmans in Crete, even the +Hellenic Latins in some of the other islands, are at the most imperfect +members of the Hellenic body. The utmost that can be said is that they +keep the power of again entering that body, either by their own return +to the national faith, or by such a change in the state of things as +shall make difference in religion no longer inconsistent with true +national fellowship. + +Thus, wherever we go, we find language to be the rough practical test of +nationality. The exceptions are many; they may perhaps outnumber the +instances which conform to the rule. Still they are exceptions. +Community of language does not imply community of blood; it might be +added that diversity of language does not imply diversity of blood. But +community of language is, in the absence of any evidence to the +contrary, a presumption of the community of blood, and it is proof of +something which for practical purposes is the same as community of +blood. To talk of "the Latin race," is in strictness absurd. We know +that the so-called race is simply made up of those nations which adopted +the Latin language. The Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonic races may +conceivably have been formed by a like artificial process. But the +presumption is the other way; and if such a process ever took place, it +took place long before history began. The Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonic +races come before us as groups of mankind marked out by the test of +language. Within those races separate nations are again marked out by a +stricter application of the test of language. Within the race we may +have languages which are clearly akin to each other, but which need not +be mutually intelligible. Within the nation we have only dialects which +are mutually intelligible, or which, at all events, gather round some +one central dialect which is intelligible to all. We take this standard +of races and nations, fully aware that it will not stand a physiological +test, but holding that for all practical purposes adoption must pass as +equivalent to natural descent. And, among the practical purposes which +are affected by the facts of race and nationality, we must, as long as a +man is what he is, as long as he has not been created afresh according +to some new scientific pattern, not shrink from reckoning those generous +emotions which, in the present state of European feeling, are beginning +to bind together the greater as well as the lesser groups of mankind. +The sympathies of men are beginning to reach wider than could have been +dreamed of a century ago. The feeling which was once confined to the +mere household extended itself to the tribe or the city. From the tribe +or city it extended itself to the nation; from the nation it is +beginning to extend itself to the whole race. In some cases it can +extend itself to the whole race far more easily than in others. In some +cases historical causes have made nations of the same race bitter +enemies, while they have made nations of different races friendly +allies. The same thing happened in earlier days between tribes and +cities of the same nation. But, when hindrances of this kind do not +exist, the feeling of race, as something beyond the narrower feeling of +nationality, is beginning to be a powerful agent in the feelings and +actions of men and of nations. A long series of mutual wrongs, conquest, +and oppression on one side, avenged by conquest and oppression on the +other side, have made the Slav of Poland and the Slav of Russia the +bitterest of enemies. No such hindrance exists to stop the flow of +natural and generous feeling between the Slav of Russia and the Slav of +the Southeastern lands. Those whose statesmanship consists in some +hand-to-mouth shift for the moment, whose wisdom consists in refusing to +look either back to the past or onward to the future, cannot understand +this great fact of our times; and what they cannot understand they mock +at. But the fact exists and does its work in spite of them. And it does +its work none the less because in some cases the feeling of sympathy is +awakened by a claim of kindred, where, in the sense of the physiologist +or the genealogist, there is no kindred at all. The practical view, +historical or political, will accept as members of this or that race or +nation many members whom the physiologist would shut out, whom the +English lawyer would shut out, but whom the Roman lawyer would gladly +welcome to every privilege of the stock on which they were grafted. The +line of the Scipios, of the Cæsars, and of the Antonines, was continued +by adoption; and for all practical purposes the nations of the earth +have agreed to follow the examples set them by their masters. + + + + +WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. + +BORN 1809. + + + + +KIN BEYOND SEA[7] + +BY WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. + + "When Love unites, wide space divides in vain, + And hands may clasp across the spreading main." + + +It is now nearly half a century since the works of De Tocqueville and De +Beaumont, founded upon personal observation, brought the institutions of +the United States effectually within the circle of European thought and +interest. They were co-operators, but not upon an equal scale. De +Beaumont belongs to the class of ordinary, though able, writers: De +Tocqueville was the Burke of his age, and his treatise upon America may +well be regarded as among the best books hitherto produced for the +political student of all times and countries. + +But higher and deeper than the concern of the Old World at large in the +thirteen colonies, now grown into thirty-eight States, besides eight +Territories, is the special interest of England in their condition and +prospects. + +I do not speak of political controversies between them and us, which are +happily, as I trust, at an end. I do not speak of the vast contribution +which, from year to year, through the operations of a colossal trade, +each makes to the wealth and comfort of the other; nor of the friendly +controversy, which in its own place it might be well to raise, between +the leanings of America to Protectionism, and the more daring reliance +of the old country upon free and unrestricted intercourse with all the +world. Nor of the menace which, in the prospective development of her +resources, America offers to the commercial pre-eminence of England.[8] +On this subject I will only say that it is she alone who, at a coming +time, can, and probably will, wrest from us that commercial primacy. We +have no title, I have no inclination, to murmur at the prospect. If she +acquires it, she will make the acquisition by the right of the +strongest; but, in this instance, the strongest means the best. She +will probably become what we are now, the head servant in the great +household of the world, the employer of all employed; because her +service will be the most and ablest. We have no more title against her, +than Venice, or Genoa, or Holland has had against us. One great duty is +entailed upon us, which we, unfortunately, neglect: the duty of +preparing, by a resolute and sturdy effort, to reduce our public +burdens, in preparation for a day when we shall probably have less +capacity than we have now to bear them. + +Passing by all these subjects, with their varied attractions, I come to +another, which lies within the tranquil domain of political philosophy. +The students of the future, in this department, will have much to say in +the way of comparison between American and British institutions. The +relationship between these two is unique in history. It is always +interesting to trace and to compare Constitutions, as it is to compare +languages; especially in such instances as those of the Greek States and +the Italian Republics, or the diversified forms of the feudal system in +the different countries of Europe. But there is no parallel in all the +records of the world to the case of that prolific British mother, who +has sent forth her innumerable children over all the earth to be the +founders of half-a-dozen empires. She, with her progeny, may almost +claim to constitute a kind of Universal Church in politics. But, among +these children, there is one whose place in the world's eye and in +history is superlative: it is the American Republic. She is the eldest +born. She has, taking the capacity of her land into view as well as its +mere measurement, a natural base for the greatest continuous empire ever +established by man. And it may be well here to mention what has not +always been sufficiently observed, that the distinction between +continuous empire, and empire severed and dispersed over sea, is vital. +The development, which the Republic has effected, has been unexampled in +its rapidity and force. While other countries have doubled, or at most +trebled, their population, she has risen, during one single century of +freedom, in round numbers, from two millions to forty-five. As to +riches, it is reasonable to establish, from the decennial stages of the +progress thus far achieved, a series for the future; and, reckoning upon +this basis, I suppose that the very next census, in the year 1880, will +exhibit her to the world as certainly the wealthiest of all the nations. +The huge figure of a thousand millions sterling, which may be taken +roundly as the annual income of the United Kingdom, has been reached at +a surprising rate; a rate which may perhaps be best expressed by saying, +that if we could have started forty or fifty years ago from zero, at the +rate of our recent annual increment, we should now have reached our +present position. But while we have been advancing with this portentous +rapidity, America is passing us by as if in a canter. Yet even now the +work of searching the soil and the bowels of the territory, and opening +out her enterprise throughout its vast expanse, is in its infancy. The +England and the America of the present are probably the two strongest +nations of the world. But there can hardly be a doubt, as between the +America and the England of the future, that the daughter, at some no +very distant time, will, whether fairer or less fair, be unquestionably +yet stronger than the mother. + + "O matre forti filia fortior."[9] + +But all this pompous detail of material triumphs, whether for the one +or for the other, is worse than idle, unless the men of the two +countries shall remain, or shall become, greater than the mere things +that they produce, and shall know how to regard those things simply as +tools and materials for the attainments of the highest purposes of their +being. Ascending, then, from the ground-floor of material industry +toward the regions in which these purposes are to be wrought out, it is +for each nation to consider how far its institutions have reached a +state in which they can contribute their maximum to the store of human +happiness and excellence. And for the political student all over the +world, it will be beyond any thing curious as well as useful to examine +with what diversities, as well as what resemblances, of apparatus the +two greater branches of a race born to command have been minded, or +induced, or constrained to work out, in their sea-severed seats, their +political destinies according to the respective laws appointed for them. + +No higher ambition can find vent in a paper such as this, than to +suggest the position and claims of the subject, and slightly to indicate +a few outlines, or, at least, fragments, of the working material. + +In many and the most fundamental respects the two still carry in +undiminished, perhaps in increasing, clearness, the notes of resemblance +that beseem a parent and a child. + +Both wish for self-government; and, however grave the drawbacks under +which in one or both it exists, the two have, among the great nations of +the world, made the most effectual advances toward the true aim of +rational politics. + +They are similarly associated in their fixed idea that the force, in +which all government takes effect, is to be constantly backed, and, as +it were, illuminated, by thought in speech and writing. The ruler of St. +Paul's time "bare the sword" (Rom. xiii: 4). Bare, it as the Apostle +says, with a mission to do right; but he says nothing of any duty, or +any custom, to show by reason that he was doing right. Our two +governments, whatsoever they do, have to give reasons for it; not +reasons which will convince the unreasonable, but reasons which on the +whole will convince the average mind, and carry it unitedly forward in a +course of action, often, though not always, wise, and carrying within +itself provisions, where it is unwise, for the correction of its own +unwisdom before it grow into an intolerable rankness. They are +governments, not of force only, but of persuasion. + +Many more are the concords, and not less vital than these, of the two +nations, as expressed in their institutions. They alike prefer the +practical to the abstract. They tolerate opinion, with only a reserve on +behalf of decency; and they desire to confine coercion to the province +of action, and to leave thought, as such, entirely free. They set a high +value on liberty for its own sake. They desire to give full scope to the +principle of self-reliance in the people, and they deem self-help to be +immeasurably superior to help in any other form; to be the only help, in +short, which ought not to be continually, or periodically, put upon its +trial, and required to make good its title. They mistrust and mislike +the centralization of power; and they cherish municipal, local, even +parochial liberties, as nursery grounds, not only for the production +here and there of able men, but for the general training of public +virtue and independent spirit. They regard publicity as the vital air of +politics; through which alone, in its freest circulation, opinions can +be thrown into common stock for the good of all, and the balance of +relative rights and claims can be habitually and peaceably adjusted. It +would be difficult in the case of any other pair of nations, to present +an assemblage of traits at once so common and so distinctive, as has +been given in this probably imperfect enumeration. + +There were, however, the strongest reasons why America could not grow +into a reflection or repetition of England. Passing from a narrow island +to a continent almost without bounds, the colonists at once and vitally +altered their conditions of thought as well as of existence, in relation +to the most important and most operative of all social facts, the +possession of the soil. In England, inequality lies embedded in the very +base of the social structure; in America it is a late, incidental, +unrecognized product, not of tradition, but of industry and wealth, as +they advance with various and, of necessity, unequal steps. Heredity, +seated as an idea in the heart's core of Englishmen, and sustaining far +more than it is sustained by those of our institutions which express it, +was as truly absent from the intellectual and moral store, with which +the colonists traversed the Atlantic, as if it had been some forgotten +article in the bills of lading that made up their cargoes. Equality +combined with liberty, and renewable at each descent from one +generation to another, like a lease with stipulated breaks, was the +groundwork of their social creed. In vain was it sought, by arrangements +such as those connected with the name of Baltimore or of Penn, to +qualify the action of those overpowering forces which so determined the +case. Slavery itself, strange as it now may seem, failed to impair the +theory however it may have imported into the practice a hideous +solecism. No hardier republicanism was generated in New England than in +the Slave States of the South, which produced so many of the great +statesmen of America. + +It may be said that the North, and not the South, had the larger number +of colonists; and was the centre of those commanding moral influences +which gave to the country as a whole its political and moral atmosphere. +The type and form of manhood for America was supplied neither by the +Recusant in Maryland, nor by the Cavalier in Virginia, but by the +Puritan of New England; and it would have been a form and type widely +different could the colonization have taken place a couple of centuries, +or a single century, sooner. Neither the Tudor, nor even the Plantagenet +period, could have supplied its special form. The Reformation was a +cardinal factor in its production; and this in more ways than one. + +Before that great epoch, the political forces of the country were +represented on the whole by the monarch on one side, and the people on +the other. In the people, setting aside the latent vein of Lollardism, +there was a general homogeneity with respect to all that concerned the +relation of governors and governed. In the deposition of sovereigns, the +resistance to abuses, the establishment of institutions for the defence +of liberty, there were no two parties to divide the land. But, with the +Reformation, a new dualism was sensibly developed among us. Not a +dualism so violent as to break up the national unity, but yet one so +marked and substantial, that thenceforward it was very difficult for any +individual or body of men to represent the entire English character, and +the old balance of its forces. The wrench which severed the Church and +people from the Roman obedience left for domestic settlement thereafter +a tremendous internal question, between the historical and the new, +which in its milder form perplexes us to this day. Except during the +short reign of Edward VI, the civil power, in various methods and +degrees, took what may be termed the traditionary side, and favored the +development of the historical more than the individual aspect of the +national religion. These elements confronted one another during the +reigns of the earlier Stuarts, not only with obstinacy but with +fierceness. There had grown up with the Tudors, from a variety of +causes, a great exaggeration of the idea of royal power; and this +arrived, under James I and Charles I, at a rank maturity. Not less, but +even more masculine and determined, was the converse development. Mr. +Hallam saw, and has said, that at the outbreak of the Great Rebellion, +the old British Constitution was in danger, not from one party but from +both. In that mixed fabric had once been harmonized the ideas, both of +religious duty, and of allegiance as related to it, which were now held +in severance. The hardiest and dominating portion of the American +colonists represented that severance in its extremest form, and had +dropped out of the order of the ideas, which they carried across the +water, all those elements of political Anglicism, which give to +aristocracy in this country a position only second in strength to that +of freedom. State and Church alike had frowned upon them; and their +strong reaction was a reaction of their entire nature, alike of the +spiritual and the secular man. All that was democratic in the policy of +England, and all that was Protestant in her religion, they carried with +them, in pronounced and exclusive forms, to a soil and a scene +singularly suited for their growth. + +It is to the honor of the British Monarchy that, upon the whole, it +frankly recognized the facts, and did not pedantically endeavor to +constrain by artificial and alien limitations the growth of the infant +states. It is a thing to be remembered that the accusations of the +colonies in 1776 were entirely levelled at the king actually on the +throne, and that a general acquittal was thus given by them to every +preceding reign. Their infancy had been upon the whole what their +manhood was to be, self-governed and republican. Their Revolution, as we +call it, was like ours in the main, a vindication of liberties inherited +and possessed. It was a Conservative revolution; and the happy result +was that, notwithstanding the sharpness of the collision with the +mother-country, and with domestic loyalism, the Thirteen Colonies made +provision for their future in conformity, as to all that determined +life and manners with the recollections of their past. The two +Constitutions of the two countries express indeed rather the differences +than the resemblances of the nations. The one is a thing grown, the +other a thing made; the one a _praxis_, the other a _poiesis_: the one +the offspring of tendency and indeterminate time, the other of choice +and of an epoch. But, as the British Constitution is the most subtle +organism which has proceeded from the womb and the long gestation of +progressive history, so the American Constitution is, so-far as I can +see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the +brain and purpose of man. It has had a century of trial, under the +pressure of exigencies caused by an expansion unexampled in point of +rapidity and range: and its exemption from formal change, though not +entire, has certainly proved the sagacity of the constructors, and the +stubborn strength of the fabric. + +One whose life has been greatly absorbed in working, with others, the +institutions of his own country, has not had the opportunities necessary +for the careful and searching scrutiny of institutions elsewhere. I +should feel, in looking at those of America, like one who attempts to +scan the stars with the naked eye. My notices can only be few, faint, +and superficial; they are but an introduction to what I have to say of +the land of my birth. A few sentences will dispose of them. + +America, whose attitude toward England has always been masculine and +real, has no longer to anticipate at our hands the frivolous and +offensive criticisms which were once in vogue among us. But neither +nation prefers (and it would be an ill sign if either did prefer) the +institutions of the other; and we certainly do not contemplate the great +Republic in the spirit of mere optimism. We see that it has a marvellous +and unexampled adaptation for its peculiar vocation; that it must be +judged, not in the abstract, but under the fore-ordered laws of its +existence; that it has purged away the blot with which we brought it +into the world; that it gravely and vigorously grapples with the problem +of making a continent into a state; and that it treasures with fondness +the traditions of British antiquity, which are in truth unconditionally +its own, as well, and as much as they are ours. The thing that perhaps +chiefly puzzles the inhabitants of the old country is why the American +people should permit their entire existence to be continually disturbed +by the business of the Presidential elections; and, still more, why they +should raise to its maximum the intensity of this perturbation by +providing, as we are told, for what is termed a clean sweep of the +entire civil service, in all its ranks and departments, on each +accession of a chief magistrate. We do not perceive why this arrangement +is more rational than would be a corresponding usage in this country on +each change of Ministry. Our practice is as different as possible. We +limit to a few scores of persons the removals and appointments on these +occasions; although our Ministries seem to us, not unfrequently, to be +more sharply severed from one another in principle and tendency than are +the successive Presidents of the great Union. + +It would be out of place to discuss in this article occasional phenomena +of local corruption in the United States, by which the nation at large +can hardly be touched: or the mysterious manipulations of votes for the +Presidency, which are now understood to be under examination; or the +very curious influences which are shaping the politics of the negroes +and of the South. These last are corollaries to the great +slave-question: and it seems very possible that after a few years we may +see most of the laborers, both in the Southern States and in England, +actively addicted to the political support of that section of their +countrymen who to the last had resisted their emancipation. + +But if there be those in this country who think that American democracy +means public levity and intemperance, or a lack of skill and sagacity in +politics, or the absence of self-command and self-denial, let them bear +in mind a few of the most salient and recent facts of history which may +profitably be recommended to their reflections. We emancipated a million +of negroes by peaceful legislation; America liberated four or five +millions by a bloody civil war: yet the industry and exports of the +Southern States are maintained, while those of our negro colonies have +dwindled; the South enjoys all its franchises, but we have, _proh +pudor!_ found no better method of providing for peace and order in +Jamaica, the chief of our islands, than by the hard and vulgar, even +where needful, expedient of abolishing entirely its representative +institutions. + +The Civil War compelled the States, both North and South, to train and +embody a million and a half of men, and to present to view the greatest, +instead of the smallest, armed forces in the world. Here there was +supposed to arise a double danger. First, that on a sudden cessation of +the war, military life and habits could not be shaken off, and, having +become rudely and widely predominant, would bias the country toward an +aggressive policy, or, still worse, would find vent in predatory or +revolutionary operations. Secondly, that a military caste would grow up +with its habits of exclusiveness and command, and would influence the +tone of politics in a direction adverse to republican freedom. But both +apprehensions proved to be wholly imaginary. The innumerable soldiery +was at once dissolved. Cincinnatus, no longer an unique example, became +the commonplace of every day, the type and mould of a nation. The whole +enormous mass quietly resumed the habits of social life. The generals of +yesterday were the editors, the secretaries, and the solicitors of +to-day. The just jealousy of the State gave life to the now forgotten +maxim of Judge Blackstone, who denounced as perilous the erection of a +separate profession of arms in a free country. The standing army, +expanded by the heat of civil contest to gigantic dimensions, settled +down again into the framework of a miniature with the returning +temperature of civil life, and became a power wellnigh invisible, from +its minuteness, amidst the powers which sway the movements of a society +exceeding forty millions. + +More remarkable still was the financial sequel to the great conflict. +The internal taxation for Federal purposes, which before its +commencement had been unknown, was raised, in obedience to an exigency +of life and death, so as to exceed every present and every past example. +It pursued and worried all the transactions of life. The interest of the +American debt grew to be the highest in the world, and the capital +touched five hundred and sixty millions sterling. Here was provided for +the faith and patience of the people a touchstone of extreme severity. +In England, at the close of the great French war, the propertied +classes, who were supreme in Parliament, at once rebelled against the +Tory Government, and refused to prolong the income tax even for a single +year. We talked big, both then and now, about the payment of our +national debt; but sixty-three years have since elapsed, all of them +except two called years of peace, and we have reduced the huge total by +about one ninth; that is to say, by little over one hundred millions, or +scarcely more than one million and a half a year. This is the conduct of +a State elaborately digested into orders and degrees, famed for wisdom +and forethought, and consolidated by a long experience. But America +continued long to bear, on her unaccustomed and still smarting +shoulders, the burden of the war taxation. In twelve years she has +reduced her debt by one hundred and fifty-eight millions sterling, or at +the rate of thirteen millions for every year. In each twelve months she +has done what we did in eight years; her self-command, self-denial, and +wise forethought for the future have been, to say the least, eightfold +ours. These are facts which redound greatly to her honor; and the +historian will record with surprise that an enfranchised nation +tolerated burdens which in this country a selected class, possessed of +the representation, did not dare to face, and that the most unmitigated +democracy known to the annals of the world resolutely reduced at its own +cost prospective liabilities of the State, which the aristocratic, and +plutocratic, and monarchical government of the United Kingdom has been +contented ignobly to hand over to posterity. And such facts should be +told out. It is our fashion so to tell them, against as well as for +ourselves; and the record of them may some day be among the means of +stirring us up to a policy more worthy of the name and fame of England. + +It is true, indeed, that we lie under some heavy and, I fear, increasing +disadvantages, which amount almost to disabilities. Not, however, any +disadvantage respecting power, as power is commonly understood. But, +while America has a nearly homogeneous country, and an admirable +division of political labor between the States individually and the +Federal Government, we are, in public affairs, an overcharged and +overweighted people.[10] + +We have undertaken the cares of empire upon a scale, and with a +diversity, unexampled in history; and, as it has not yet pleased +Providence to endow us with brain-force and animal strength in an +equally abnormal proportion, the consequence is that we perform the work +of government, as to many among its more important departments, in a +very superficial and slovenly manner. The affairs of the three +associated kingdoms, with their great diversities of law, interest, and +circumstance, make the government of them, even if they stood alone, a +business more voluminous, so to speak, than that of any other +thirty-three millions of civilized men. To lighten the cares of the +central legislature by judicious devolution, it is probable that much +might be done; but nothing is done, or even attempted to be done. The +greater colonies have happily attained to a virtual self-government; yet +the aggregate mass of business connected with our colonial possessions +continues to be very large. The Indian Empire is of itself a charge so +vast, and demanding so much thought and care, that if it were the sole +transmarine appendage to the crown, it would amply tax the best ordinary +stock of human energies. Notoriously it obtains from the Parliament only +a small fraction of the attention it deserves. Questions affecting +individuals, again, or small interests, or classes, excite here a +greater interest, and occupy a larger share of time, than, perhaps, in +any other community. In no country, I may add, are the interests of +persons or classes so favored when they compete with those of the +public; and in none are they more exacting, or more wakeful to turn this +advantage to the best account. With the vast extension of our enterprise +and our trade, comes a breadth of liability not less large, to consider +every thing that is critical in the affairs of foreign states; and the +real responsibilities thus existing for us, are unnaturally inflated for +us by fast-growing tendencies toward exaggeration of our concern in +these matters, and even toward setting up fictitious interests in cases +where none can discern them except ourselves, and such continental +friends as practice upon our credulity and our fears for purposes of +their own. Last of all, it is not to be denied that in what I have been +saying, I do not represent the public sentiment. The nation is not at +all conscious of being overdone. The people see that their House of +Commons is the hardest-working legislative assembly in the world: and, +this being so, they assume it is all right. Nothing pays better, in +point of popularity, than those gratuitous additions to obligations +already beyond human strength, which look like accessions or assertion +of power; such as the annexation of new territory, or the silly +transaction known as the purchase of shares in the Suez Canal. + +All my life long I have seen this excess of work as compared with the +power to do it; but the evil has increased with the surfeit of wealth, +and there is no sign that the increase is near its end. The people of +this country are a very strong people; but there is no strength that can +permanently endure, without provoking inconvenient consequences, this +kind of political debauch. It may be hoped, but it cannot be predicted, +that the mischief will be encountered and subdued at the point where it +will have become sensibly troublesome, but will not have grown to be +quite irremediable. + +The main and central point of interest, however, in the institutions of +a country is the manner in which it draws together and compounds the +public forces in the balanced action of the State. It seems plain that +the formal arrangements for this purpose in America are very different +from ours. It may even be a question whether they are not, in certain +respects, less popular; whether our institutions do not give more rapid +effect, than those of the Union, to any formed opinion, and resolved +intention, of the nation. + +In the formation of the Federal Government we seem to perceive three +stages of distinct advancement. First, the formation of the +Confederation, under the pressure of the War of Independence. Secondly, +the Constitution, which placed the Federal Government in defined and +direct relation with the people inhabiting the several States. Thirdly, +the struggle with the South, which for the first time, and definitely, +decided that to the Union, through its Federal organization, and not to +the State governments, were reserved all the questions not decided and +disposed of by the express provisions of the Constitution itself.[11] +The great _arcanum imperii_, which with us belongs to the three branches +of the Legislature, and which is expressed by the current phrase, +"omnipotence of Parliament," thus became the acknowledged property of +the three branches of the Federal Legislature; and the old and +respectable doctrine of State independence is now no more than an +archæological relic, a piece of historical antiquarianism. Yet the +actual attributions of the State authorities cover by far the largest +part of the province of government; and by this division of labor and +authority, the problem of fixing for the nation a political centre of +gravity is divested of a large part of its difficulty and danger, in +some proportions to the limitations of the working precinct. + +Within that precinct, the initiation as well as the final sanction in +the great business of finance is made over to the popular branch of the +Legislature, and a most interesting question arises upon the comparative +merits of this arrangement, and of our method, which theoretically +throws upon the Crown the responsibility of initiating public charge, +and under which, until a recent period, our practice was in actual and +even close correspondence with this theory. + +We next come to a difference still more marked. The Federal Executive is +born anew of the nation at the end of each four years, and dies at the +end. But, during the course of those years, it is independent, in the +person both of the President and of his Ministers, alike of the people, +of their representatives, and of that remarkable body, the most +remarkable of all the inventions of modern politics, the Senate of the +United States. In this important matter, whatever be the relative +excellencies and defects of the British and American systems, it is most +certain that nothing would induce the people of this country, or even +the Tory portion of them, to exchange our own for theirs. It may, +indeed, not be obvious to the foreign eye what is the exact difference +of the two. Both the representative chambers hold the power of the +purse. But in America its conditions are such that it does not operate +in any way on behalf of the Chamber or of the nation, as against the +Executive. In England, on the contrary, its efficiency has been such +that it has worked out for itself channels of effective operation, such +as to dispense with its direct use, and avoid the inconveniences which +might be attendant upon that use. A vote of the House of Commons, +declaring a withdrawal of its confidence, has always sufficed for the +purpose of displacing a Ministry; nay, persistent obstruction of its +measures, and even lighter causes, have conveyed the hint, which has +been obediently taken. But the people, how is it with them? Do not the +people in England part with their power, and make it over to the House +of Commons, as completely as the American people part with it to the +President? They give it over for four years: we for a period which on +the average is somewhat more: they, to resume it at a fixed time; we, on +an unfixed contingency, and at a time which will finally be determined, +not according to the popular will, but according to the views which a +Ministry may entertain of its duty or convenience. + +All this is true; but it is not the whole truth. In the United Kingdom, +the people as such cannot commonly act upon the Ministry as such. But +mediately, though not immediately, they gain the end: for they can work +upon that which works upon the Ministry, namely, on the House of +Commons. Firstly, they have not renounced, like the American people, the +exercise of their power for a given time; and they are at all times free +by speech, petition, public meeting, to endeavor to get it back in full +by bringing about a dissolution. Secondly, in a Parliament with nearly +660 members, vacancies occur with tolerable frequency; and, as they are +commonly filled up forthwith, they continually modify the color of the +Parliament, conformably, not to the past, but to the present feeling of +the nation; or, at least, of the constituency, which for practical +purposes is different indeed, yet not very different. But, besides +exercising a limited positive influence on the present, they supply a +much less limited indication of the future. Of the members who at a +given time sit in the House of Commons, the vast majority, probably more +than nine-tenths, have the desire to sit there again, after a +dissolution which may come at any moment. They therefore study political +weather-wisdom, and in varying degrees adapt themselves to the +indications of the sky. It will now be readily perceived how the popular +sentiment in England, so far as it is awake, is not meanly provided with +the ways of making itself respected, whether for the purpose of +displacing and replacing a Ministry, or of constraining it (as sometimes +happens) to alter or reverse its policy sufficiently, at least, to +conjure down the gathering and muttering storm. + +It is true, indeed, that every nation is of necessity, to a great +extent, in the condition of the sluggard with regard to public policy; +hard to rouse, harder to keep aroused, sure after a little while to sink +back into his slumber:-- + + "Pressitque jacentem + Dulcis et alta quies, placidæque simillima morti." + + --Æn., vi., 522. + +The people have a vast, but an encumbered power; and, in their struggles +with overweening authority, or with property, the excess of force, which +they undoubtedly possess, is more than counterbalanced by the constant +wakefulness of the adversary, by his knowledge of their weakness, and by +his command of opportunity. But this is a fault lying rather in the +conditions of human life than in political institutions. There is no +known mode of making attention and inattention equal in their results. +It is enough to say that in England, when the nation can attend, it can +prevail. So we may say, then, that in the American Union the Federal +Executive is independent for each four years both of the Congress and of +the people. But the British Ministry is largely dependent on the people +whenever the people firmly will it; and is always dependent on the House +of Commons, except of course when it can safely and effectually appeal +to the people. + +So far, so good. But if we wish really to understand the manner in which +the Queen's Government over the British Empire is carried on, we must +now prepare to examine into some sharper contrasts than any which our +path has yet brought into view. The power of the American Executive +resides in the person of the actual President, and passes from him to +his successor. His Ministers, grouped around him, are the servants, not +only of his office, but of his mind. The intelligence, which carries on +the Government, has its main seat in him. The responsibility of failures +is understood to fall on him; and it is round his head that success +sheds its halo. The American Government is described truly as a +Government composed of three members, of three powers distinct from one +another. The English Government is likewise so described, not truly, but +conventionally. For in the English Government there has gradually formed +itself a fourth power, entering into and sharing the vitality of each of +the other three, and charged with the business of holding them in +harmony as they march. + +This Fourth Power is the Ministry, or more properly the Cabinet. For the +rest of the Ministry is subordinate and ancillary; and, though it +largely shares in many departments the labors of the Cabinet, yet it has +only a secondary and derivative share in the higher responsibilities. No +account of the present British Constitution is worth having which does +not take this Fourth Power largely and carefully into view. And yet it +is not a distinct power, made up of elements unknown to the other three; +any more than a sphere contains elements other than those referable to +the three co-ordinates, which determine the position of every point in +space. The Fourth Power is parasitical to the three others; and lives +upon their life, without any separate existence. One portion of it forms +a part, which may be termed an integral part, of the House of Lords, +another of the House of Commons; and the two conjointly, nestling within +the precinct of Royalty, form the inner Council of the Crown, assuming +the whole of its responsibilities, and in consequence wielding, as a +rule, its powers. The Cabinet is the threefold hinge that connects +together for action the British Constitution of King or Queen, Lords and +Commons. Upon it is concentrated the whole strain of the Government, and +it constitutes from day to day the true centre of gravity for the +working system of the State, although the ultimate superiority of force +resides in the representative chamber. + +There is no statute or legal usage of this country which requires that +the Ministers of the Crown should hold seats in the one or the other +House of Parliament. It is perhaps upon this account that, while most of +my countrymen would, as I suppose, declare it to be a becoming and +convenient custom, yet comparatively few are aware how near the seat of +life the observance lies, how closely it is connected with the equipoise +and unity of the social forces. It is rarely departed from, even in an +individual case; never, as far as my knowledge goes, on a wider scale. +From accidental circumstances it happened that I was Secretary of State +between December 1845 and July 1846, without a seat in the House of +Commons. This (which did not pass wholly without challenge) is, I +believe, by much the most notable instance for the last fifty years; and +it is only within the last fifty years that our Constitutional system +has completely settled down. Before the reform of Parliament it was +always easy to find a place for a Minister excluded from his seat; as +Sir Robert Peel for example, ejected from Oxford University, at once +found refuge and repose at Tamworth. I desire to fix attention on the +identification, in this country, of the Minister with the member of a +House of Parliament. + +It is, as to the House of Commons, especially, an inseparable and vital +part of our system. The association of the Ministers with the +Parliament, and through the House of Commons with the people, is the +counterpart of their association as Ministers with the Crown and the +prerogative. The decisions that they take are taken under the competing +pressure of a bias this way and a bias that way, and strictly represent +what is termed in mechanics the composition of forces. Upon them, thus +placed, it devolves to provide that the House of Parliament shall +loyally counsel and serve the Crown, and that the Crown shall act +strictly in accordance with its obligations to the nation. I will not +presume to say whether the adoption of the rule in America would or +would not lay the foundation of a great change in the Federal +Constitution; but I am quite sure that the abrogation of it in England +would either alter the form of government, or bring about a crisis. +That it conduces to the personal comfort of Ministers, I will not +undertake to say. The various currents of political and social +influences meet edgeways in their persons, much like the conflicting +tides in St. George's Channel or the Straits of Dover; for, while they +are the ultimate regulators of the relations between the Crown on the +one side, and the people through the Houses of Parliament on the other, +they have no authority vested in them to coerce or censure either way. +Their attitude toward the Houses must always be that of deference; their +language that of respect, if not submission. Still more must their +attitude and language toward the Sovereign be the same in principle, and +yet more marked in form; and this, though upon them lies the ultimate +responsibility of deciding what shall be done in the Crown's name in +every branch of administration, and every department of policy, coupled +only with the alternative of ceasing to be Ministers, if what they may +advisedly deem the requisite power of action be denied them. + +In the ordinary administration of the government, the Sovereign +personally is, so to speak, behind the scenes; performing, indeed, many +personal acts by the Sign-manual, or otherwise, but, in each and all of +them, covered by the counter-signature or advice of Ministers, who stand +between the august Personage and the people. There is, accordingly, no +more power, under the form of our Constitution, to assail the Monarch in +his personal capacity, or to assail through him, the line of succession +to the Crown, than there is at chess to put the king in check. In truth, +a good deal, though by no means the whole, of the philosophy of the +British Constitution is represented in this central point of the +wonderful game, against which the only reproach--the reproach of Lord +Bacon--is that it is hardly a relaxation, but rather a serious tax upon +the brain. + +The Sovereign in England is the symbol of the nation's unity, and the +apex of the social structure; the maker (with advice) of the laws; the +supreme governor of the Church; the fountain of justice; the sole source +of honor; the person to whom all military, all naval, all civil service +is rendered. The Sovereign owns very large properties; receives and +holds, in law, the entire revenue of the State; appoints and dismisses +Ministers; makes treaties; pardons crime, or abates its punishment; +wages war, or concludes peace; summons and dissolves the Parliament; +exercises these vast powers for the most part without any specified +restraint of law; and yet enjoys, in regard to these and every other +function, an absolute immunity from consequences. There is no provision +in the law of the United Empire, or in the machinery of the +Constitution, for calling the Sovereign to account; and only in one +solitary and improbable, but perfectly defined, case--that of his +submitting to the jurisdiction of the Pope--is he deprived by Statute of +the Throne. Setting aside that peculiar exception, the offspring of a +necessity still freshly felt when it was made, the Constitution might +seem to be founded on the belief of a real infallibility in its head. +Less, at any rate, cannot be said than this. Regal right has, since the +Revolution of 1688, been expressly founded upon contract; and the breach +of that contract destroys the title to the allegiance of the subject. +But no provision, other than the general rule of hereditary succession, +is made to meet either this case, or any other form of political +miscarriage or misdeed. It seems as though the Genius of the Nation +would not stain its lips by so much as the mere utterance of such a +word; nor can we put this state of facts into language more justly than +by saying that the Constitution would regard the default of the Monarch, +with his heirs, as the chaos of the State, and would simply trust to the +inherent energies of the several orders of society for its legal +reconstruction. + +The original authorship of the representative system is commonly +accorded to the English race. More clear and indisputable is its title +to the great political discovery of Constitutional Kingship. And a very +great discovery it is. Whether it is destined, in any future day, to +minister in its integrity to the needs of the New World, it may be hard +to say. In that important branch of its utility which is negative, it +completely serves the purposes of the many strong and rising Colonies of +Great Britain, and saves them all the perplexities and perils attendant +upon successions to the headship of the Executive. It presents to them, +as it does to us, the symbol of unity, and the object of all our +political veneration, which we love to find rather in a person, than in +an abstract entity, like the State. But the Old World, at any rate, +still is, and may long continue, to constitute the living centre of +civilization, and to hold the primacy of the race; and of this great +society the several members approximate, in a rapidly extending series, +to the practice and idea of Constitutional Kingship. The chief States of +Christendom, with only two exceptions, have, with more or less +distinctness, adopted it. Many of them, both great and small, have +thoroughly assimilated it to their system. The autocracy of Russia, and +the Republic of France, each of them congenial to the present wants of +the respective countries, may yet, hereafter, gravitate toward the +principle, which elsewhere has developed so large an attractive power. +Should the current, that has prevailed through the last half-century, +maintain its direction and its strength, another fifty years may see all +Europe adhering to the theory and practice of this beneficent +institution, and peaceably sailing in the wake of England. + +No doubt, if tried by an ideal standard, it is open to criticism. +Aristotle and Plato, nay, Bacon, and perhaps Leibnitz, would have +scouted it as a scientific abortion. Some men would draw disparaging +comparisons between the mediæval and the modern King. In the person of +the first was normally embodied the force paramount over all others in +the country, and on him was laid a weight of responsibility and toil so +tremendous, that his function seems always to border upon the +superhuman; that his life commonly wore out before the natural term; and +that an indescribable majesty, dignity, and interest surround him in his +misfortunes, nay, almost in his degradation; as, for instance, amidst + + "The shrieks of death, through Berkeley's roof that ring, + Shrieks of an agonizing King."[12] + +For this concentration of power, toil, and liability, milder realities +have now been substituted; and Ministerial responsibility comes between +the Monarch and every public trial and necessity, like armor between the +flesh and the spear that would seek to pierce it; only this is an armor +itself also fleshy, at once living and impregnable. It may be said, by +an adverse critic, that the Constitutional Monarch is only a depository +of power, as an armory is a depository of arms; but that those who wield +the arms, and those alone, constitute the true governing authority. And +no doubt this is so far true, that the scheme aims at associating in the +work of government with the head of the State the persons best adapted +to meet the wants and wishes of the people, under the conditions that +the several aspects of supreme power shall be severally allotted; +dignity and visible authority shall lie wholly with the wearer of the +crown, but labor mainly, and responsibility wholly, with its servants. +From hence, without doubt, it follows that should differences arise, it +is the will of those in whose minds the work of government is +elaborated, that in the last resort must prevail. From mere labor, power +may be severed; but not from labor joined with responsibility. This +capital and vital consequence flows out of the principle that the +political action of the Monarch shall everywhere be mediate and +conditional upon the concurrence of confidential advisers. It is +impossible to reconcile any, even the smallest, abatement of this +doctrine, with the perfect, absolute immunity of the Sovereign from +consequences. There can be in England no disloyalty more gross, as to +its effects, than the superstition which affects to assign to the +Sovereign a separate, and so far as separate, transcendental sphere of +political action. Anonymous servility has, indeed, in these last days, +hinted such a doctrine[13]; but it is no more practicable to make it +thrive in England, than to rear the jungles of Bengal on Salisbury +Plain. + +There is, indeed, one great and critical act, the responsibility for +which falls momentarily or provisionally upon the Sovereign; it is the +dismissal of an existing Ministry, and the appointment of a new one. +This act is usually performed with the aid drawn from authentic +manifestations of public opinion, mostly such as are obtained through +the votes or conduct of the House of Commons. Since the reign of George +III there has been but one change of Ministry in which the Monarch acted +without the support of these indications. It was when William IV, in +1834, dismissed the Government of Lord Melbourne, which was known to be +supported, though after a lukewarm fashion, by a large majority of the +existing House of Commons. But the royal responsibility was, according +to the doctrine of our Constitution, completely taken over, _ex post +facto_, by Sir Robert Peel, as the person who consented, on the call of +the King, to take Lord Melbourne's office. Thus, though the act was +rash, and hard to justify, the doctrine of personal immunity was in no +way endangered. And here we may notice, that in theory an absolute +personal immunity implies a correlative limitation of power, greater +than is always found in practice. It can hardly be said that the King's +initiative left to Sir R. Peel a freedom perfectly unimpaired. And, most +certainly, it was a very real exercise of personal power. The power did +not suffice for its end, which was to overset the Liberal predominance; +but it very nearly sufficed. Unconditionally entitled to dismiss the +Ministers, the Sovereign can, of course, choose his own opportunity. He +may defy the Parliament, if he can count upon the people. William IV, in +the year 1834, had neither Parliament nor people with him. His act was +within the limits of the Constitution, for it was covered by the +responsibility of the acceding Ministry. But it reduced the Liberal +majority from a number considerably beyond three hundred to about +thirty; and it constituted an exceptional but very real and large action +on the politics of the country, by the direct will of the King. I speak +of the immediate effects. Its eventual result may have been different, +for it converted a large disjointed mass into a smaller but organized +and sufficient force, which held the fortress of power for the six +years 1835-41. On this view it may be said that, if the Royal +intervention anticipated and averted decay from natural causes, then +with all its immediate success, it defeated its own real aim. + +But this power of dismissing a Ministry at will, large as it may be +under given circumstances, is neither the safest nor the only power +which, in the ordinary course of things, falls Constitutionally to the +personal share of the wearer of the crown. He is entitled, on all +subjects coming before the Ministry, to knowledge and opportunities of +discussion, unlimited save by the iron necessities of business. Though +decisions must ultimately conform to the sense of those who are to be +responsible for them, yet their business is to inform and persuade the +Sovereign, not to overrule him. Were it possible for him, within the +limits of human time and strength, to enter actively into all public +transactions, he would be fully entitled to do so. What is actually +submitted is supposed to be the most fruitful and important part, the +cream of affairs. In the discussion of them, the Monarch has more than +one advantage over his advisers. He is permanent, they are fugitive; he +speaks from the vantage-ground of a station unapproachably higher; he +takes a calm and leisurely survey, while they are worried with the +preparatory stages, and their force is often impaired by the pressure of +countless detail. He may be, therefore, a weighty factor in all +deliberations of State. Every discovery of a blot, that the studies of +the Sovereign in the domain of business enable him to make, strengthens +his hands and enhances his authority. It is plain, then, that there is +abundant scope for mental activity to be at work under the gorgeous +robes of Royalty. + +This power spontaneously takes the form of influence; and the amount of +it depends on a variety of circumstances; on talent, experience, tact, +weight of character, steady, untiring industry, and habitual presence at +the seat of government. In proportion as any of these might fail, the +real and legitimate influence of the Monarch over the course of affairs +would diminish; in proportion as they attain to fuller action, it would +increase. It is a moral, not a coercive, influence. It operates through +the will and reason of the Ministry, not over or against them. It would +be an evil and a perilous day for the Monarchy, were any prospective +possessor of the Crown to assume or claim for himself final, or +preponderating, or even independent power, in any one department of the +State. The ideas and practice of the time of George III, whose will in +certain matters limited the action of the Ministers, cannot be revived, +otherwise than by what would be, on their part, nothing less than a base +compliance, a shameful subserviency, dangerous to the public weal, and +in the highest degree disloyal to the dynasty. Because, in every free +State, for every public act, some one must be responsible; and the +question is, Who shall it be? The British Constitution answers: The +Minister, and the Minister exclusively. That he may be responsible, all +action must be fully shared by him. Sole action, for the Sovereign, +would mean undefended, unprotected action; the armor of irresponsibility +would not cover the whole body against sword or spear; a head would +project beyond the awning, and would invite a sunstroke. + +The reader, then, will clearly see that there is no distinction more +vital to the practice of the British Constitution, or to a right +judgment upon it, than the distinction between the Sovereign and the +Crown. The Crown has large prerogatives, endless functions essential to +the daily action, and even the life, of the State. To place them in the +hands of persons who should be mere tools in a Royal will, would expose +those powers to constant unsupported collision with the living forces of +the nation, and to a certain and irremediable crash. They are therefore +entrusted to men, who must be prepared to answer for the use they make +of them. This ring of responsible Ministerial agency forms a fence +around the person of the Sovereign, which has thus far proved +impregnable to all assaults. The august personage, who from time to time +may rest within it, and who may possess the art of turning to the best +account the countless resources of the position, is no dumb and +senseless idol; but, together with real and very large means of +influence upon policy, enjoys the undivided reverence which a great +people feels for its head; and is likewise the first and by far the +weightiest among the forces, which greatly mould, by example and +legitimate authority, the manners, nay the morals, of a powerful +aristocracy and a wealthy and highly trained society. The social +influence of a Sovereign, even if it stood alone, would be an enormous +attribute. The English people are not believers in equality; they do +not, with the famous Declaration of July 4, 1776, think it to be a +self-evident truth that all men are born equal. They hold rather the +reverse of that proposition. At any rate, in practice, they are what I +may call determined inequalitarians; nay, in some cases, even without +knowing it. Their natural tendency, from the very base of British +society, and through all its strongly built gradations, is to look +upward: they are not apt to "untune degree." The Sovereign is the +highest height of the system, is, in that system, like Jupiter among the +Roman gods, first without a second. + + "Nec viget quicquam simile aut secundum."[14] + +Not, like Mont Blanc, with rivals in his neighborhood; but like Ararat +or Etna, towering alone and unapproachable. The step downward from the +King to the second person in the realm is not like that from the second +to the third: it is more even than a stride, for it traverses a gulf. It +is the wisdom of the British Constitution to lodge the personality of +its chief so high, that none shall under any circumstances be tempted to +vie, no, nor dream of vieing, with it. The office, however, is not +confused, though it is associated, with the person; and the elevation of +official dignity in the Monarch of these realms has now for a testing +period worked well, in conjunction with the limitation of merely +personal power. + +In the face of the country, the Sovereign and the Ministers are an +absolute unity. The one may concede to the other; but the limit of +concessions by the Sovereign is at the point where he becomes willing to +try the experiment of changing his Government, and the limit of +concessions by the Minister is at the point where they become unwilling +to bear, what in all circumstances they must bear while they remain +Ministers, the undivided responsibility of all that is done in the +Crown's name. But it is not with the Sovereign only that the Ministry +must be welded into identity. It has a relation to sustain to the House +of Lords; which need not, however, be one of entire unity, for the House +of Lords, though a great power in the State, and able to cause great +embarrassment to an Administration, is not able by a vote to doom it to +capital punishment. Only for fifteen years, out of the last fifty, has +the Ministry of the day possessed the confidence of the House of Lords. +On the confidence of the House of Commons it is immediately and vitally +dependent. This confidence it must always possess, either absolutely +from identity of political color, or relatively and conditionally. This +last case arises when an accidental dislocation of the majority in the +Chamber has put the machine for the moment out of gear, and the unsafe +experiment of a sort of provisional government, doomed on the one hand +to be feeble, or tempted on the other to be dishonest, is tried; much as +the Roman Conclave has sometimes been satisfied with a provisional Pope, +deemed likely to live for the time necessary to reunite the factions of +the prevailing party. + +I have said that the Cabinet is essentially the regulator of the +relations between King, Lords, and Commons; exercising functionally the +powers of the first, and incorporated, in the persons of its members, +with the second and the third. It is, therefore, itself a great power. +But let no one suppose it is the greatest. In a balance nicely poised, a +small weight may turn the scale; and the helm that directs the ship is +not stronger than the ship. It is a cardinal axiom of the modern British +Constitution, that the House of Commons is the greatest of the powers +of the State. It might, by a base subserviency, fling itself at the feet +of a Monarch or a Minister; it might, in a season of exhaustion, allow +the slow persistence of the Lords, ever eyeing it as Lancelot was eyed +by Modred, to invade its just province by baffling its action at some +time propitious for the purpose. But no Constitution can anywhere keep +either Sovereign, or Assembly, or nation, true to its trust and to +itself. All that can be done has been done. The Commons are armed with +ample powers of self-defence. If they use their powers properly, they +can only be mastered by a recurrence to the people, and the way in which +the appeal can succeed is by the choice of another House of Commons more +agreeable to the national temper. Thus the sole appeal from the verdict +of the House is a rightful appeal to those from whom it received its +commission. + +This superiority in power among the great State forces was, in truth, +established even before the House of Commons became what it now is, +representative of the people throughout its entire area. In the early +part of the century, a large part of its members virtually received +their mandate from members of the Peerage, or from the Crown, or by the +direct action of money on a mere handful of individuals, or, as in +Scotland, for example, from constituencies whose limited numbers and +upper-class sympathies usually shut out popular influences. A real +supremacy belonged to the House as a whole; but the forces of which it +was compounded were not all derived from the people, and the +aristocratic power had found out the secret of asserting itself within +the walls of the popular chamber, in the dress and through the voices of +its members. Many persons of gravity and weight saw great danger in a +measure of change like the first Reform Act, which left it to the Lords +to assert themselves, thereafter, by an external force, instead of +through a share in the internal composition of a body so formidable. But +the result proved that they were sufficiently to exercise, through the +popular will and choice, the power which they had formerly put in action +without its sanction, though within its proper precinct and with its +title falsely inscribed. + +The House of Commons is superior, and by far superior, in the force of +its political attributes, to any other single power in the State. But it +is watched; it is criticized; it is hemmed in and about by a multitude +of other forces: the force, first of all, of the House of Lords, the +force of opinion from day to day, particularly of the highly +anti-popular opinion of the leisured men of the metropolis, who, seated +close to the scene of action, wield an influence greatly in excess of +their just claims; the force of the classes and professions; the just +and useful force of the local authorities in their various orders and +places. Never was the great problem more securely solved, which +recognizes the necessity of a paramount power in the body politic to +enable it to move, but requires for it a depository such that it shall +be safe against invasion, and yet inhibited from aggression. + +The old theories of a mixed government, and of the three powers, coming +down from the age of Cicero, when set by the side of the living British +Constitution, are cold, crude, and insufficient to a degree that makes +them deceptive. Take them, for example, as represented, fairly enough, +by Voltaire: the picture drawn by him is for us nothing but a puzzle:-- + + "Aux murs de Vestminster on voit paraître ensemble + Trois pouvoirs étonnés du noeud qui les rassemble, + Les députés du peuple, les grands, et le Roi, + Divisés d' intérêt, réunis par la Loi."[15] + +There is here lacking an amalgam, a reconciling power, what may be +called a clearing-house of political forces, which shall draw into +itself every thing, and shall balance and adjust every thing, and +ascertaining the nett result, let it pass on freely for the fulfilment +of the purposes of the great social union. Like a stout buffer-spring, +it receives all shocks, and within it their opposing elements neutralize +one another. This is the function of the British Cabinet. It is perhaps +the most curious formation in the political world of modern times, not +for its dignity, but for its subtlety, its elasticity, and its +many-sided diversity of power. It is the complement of the entire +system; a system which appears to want nothing but a thorough loyalty in +the persons composing its several parts, with a reasonable intelligence, +to insure its bearing, without fatal damage, the wear and tear of ages +yet to come. + +It has taken more than a couple of centuries to bring the British +Cabinet to its present accuracy and fulness of development; for the +first rudiments of it may sufficiently be discerned in the reign of +Charles I. Under Charles II it had fairly started from its embryo; and +the name is found both in Clarendon and in the Diary of Pepys.[16] It +was for a long time without a Ministerial head; the King was the head. +While this arrangement subsisted, constitutional government could be but +half established. Of the numerous titles of the Revolution of 1688 to +respect, not the least remarkable is this, that the great families of +the country, and great powers of the State, made no effort, as they +might have done, in the hour of its weakness, to aggrandize themselves +at the expense of the crown. Nevertheless, for various reasons, and +among them because of the foreign origin, and absences from time, of +several Sovereigns, the course of events tended to give force to the +organs of Government actually on the spot, and thus to consolidate, and +also to uplift, this as yet novel creation. So late, however, as the +impeachment of Sir Robert Walpole, his friends thought it expedient to +urge on his behalf, in the House of Lords, that he had never presumed to +constitute himself a Prime-Minister. + +The breaking down of the great offices of State by throwing them into +commission, and last among them of the Lord High Treasurership after the +time of Harley, Earl of Oxford, tended, and may probably have been +meant, to prevent or retard the formation of a recognized Chiefship in +the Ministry; which even now we have not learned to designate by a true +English word, though the use of the imported phrase "Premier" is at +least as old as the poetry of Burns. Nor can any thing be more curiously +characteristic of the political genius of the people, than the present +position of this most important official personage. Departmentally, he +is no more than the first-named of five persons, by whom jointly the +powers of the Lord Treasurership are taken to be exercised; he is not +their master, or, otherwise than by mere priority, their head: and he +has no special function or prerogative under the formal Constitution of +the office. He has no official rank except that of Privy Councillor. +Eight members of the Cabinet, including five Secretaries of State, and +several other members of the Government, take official precedence of +him. His rights and duties as head of the Administration are nowhere +recorded. He is almost, if not altogether, unknown to the Statute Law. + +Nor is the position of the body, over which he presides, less singular +than his own. The Cabinet wields, with partial exceptions, the powers of +the Privy Council, besides having a standing ground in relation to the +personal will of the Sovereign, far beyond what the Privy Council ever +held or claimed. Yet it has no connection with the Privy Council, except +that every one, on first becoming a member of the Cabinet, is, if not +belonging to it already, sworn a member of that body. There are other +sections of the Privy Council, forming regular Committees for Education +and for Trade. But the Cabinet has not even this degree of formal +sanction, to sustain its existence. It lives and acts simply by +understanding, without a single line of written law or constitution to +determine its relations to the Monarch, or to the Parliament, or to the +nation; or the relations of its members to one another, or to their +head. It sits in the closest secrecy. There is no record of its +proceedings, nor is there any one to hear them, except upon the very +rare occasions when some important functionary, for the most part +military or legal, is introduced, _pro hac vice_, for the purpose of +giving to it necessary information. + +Every one of its members acts in no less than three capacities: as +administrator of a department of State; as member of a legislative +chamber; and as a confidential adviser of the Crown. Two at least of +them add to those three characters a fourth; for in each House of +Parliament it is indispensable that one of the principal Ministers +should be what is termed its Leader. This is an office the most +indefinite of all, but not the least important. With very little of +defined prerogative, the Leader suggests, and in a great degree fixes, +the course of all principal matters of business, supervises and keeps in +harmony the action of his colleagues, takes the initiative in matters of +ceremonial procedure, and advises the House in every difficulty as it +arises. The first of these, which would be of but secondary consequence +where the assembly had time enough for all its duties, is of the utmost +weight in our overcharged House of Commons, where, notwithstanding all +its energy and all its diligence, for one thing of consequence that is +done, five or ten are despairingly postponed. The overweight, again, of +the House of Commons is apt, other things being equal, to bring its +Leader inconveniently near in power to a Prime-Minister who is a Peer. +He can play off the House of Commons against his chief; and instances +might be cited, though they are happily most rare, when he has served +him very ugly tricks. + +The nicest of all the adjustments involved in the working of the British +Government is that which determines, without formally defining, the +internal relations of the Cabinet. On the one hand, while each Minister +is an adviser of the Crown, the Cabinet is a unity, and none of its +members can advise as an individual, without, or in opposition actual or +presumed to, his colleagues. On the other hand, the business of the +State is a hundred-fold too great in volume to allow of the actual +passing of the whole under the view of the collected Ministry. It is +therefore a prime office of discretion for each Minister to settle what +are the departmental acts in which he can presume the concurrence of his +colleagues, and in what more delicate, or weighty, or peculiar cases, he +must positively ascertain it. So much for the relation of each Minister +to the Cabinet; but here we touch the point which involves another +relation, perhaps the least known of all, his relation to its head. + +The head of the British Government is not a Grand Vizier. He has no +powers, properly so called, over his colleagues: on the rare occasions, +when a Cabinet determines its course by the votes of its members, his +vote counts only as one of theirs. But they are appointed and dismissed +by the Sovereign on his advice. In a perfectly organized administration, +such for example as was that of Sir Robert Peel in 1841-6, nothing of +great importance is matured, or would even be projected, in any +department without his personal cognizance; and any weighty business +would commonly go to him before being submitted to the Cabinet. He +reports to the Sovereign its proceedings, and he also has many audiences +of the august occupant of the Throne. He is bound in these reports and +audiences, not to counterwork the Cabinet; not to divide it; not to +undermine the position of any of his colleagues in the Royal favor. If +he departs in any degree from strict adherence to these rules, and uses +his great opportunities to increase his own influence, or pursue aims +not shared by his colleagues, then, unless he is prepared to advise +their dismissal, he not only departs from rule, but commits an act of +treachery and baseness. As the Cabinet stands between the Sovereign and +the Parliament, and is bound to be loyal to both, so he stands between +his colleagues and the Sovereign, and is bound to be loyal to both. + +As a rule, the resignation of the First Minister, as if removing the +bond of cohesion in the Cabinet, has the effect of dissolving it. A +conspicuous instance of this was furnished by Sir Robert Peel in 1846; +when the dissolution of the Administration, after it had carried the +repeal of the Corn Laws, was understood to be due not so much to a +united deliberation and decision as to his initiative. The resignation +of any other Minister only creates a vacancy. In certain circumstances, +the balance of forces may be so delicate and susceptible that a single +resignation will break up the Government; but what is the rule in the +one case is the rare exception in the other. The Prime Minister has no +title to override any one of his colleagues in any one of the +departments. So far as he governs them, unless it is done by trick, +which is not to be supposed, he governs them by influence only. But upon +the whole, nowhere in the wide world does so great a substance cast so +small a shadow; nowhere is there a man who has so much power, with so +little to show for it in the way of formal title or prerogative. + +The slight record that has here been traced may convey but a faint idea +of an unique creation. And, slight as it is, I believe it tells more +than, except in the school of British practice, is elsewhere to be +learned of a machine so subtly balanced, that it seems as though it were +moved by something not less delicate and slight than the mainspring of a +watch. It has not been the offspring of the thought of man. The Cabinet, +and all the present relations of the Constitutional powers in this +country, have grown into their present dimensions, and settled into +their present places, not as the fruit of a philosophy, not in the +effort to give effect to an abstract principle; but by the silent action +of forces, invisible and insensible, the structure has come up into the +view of all the world. It is, perhaps, the most conspicuous object on +the wide political horizon; but it has thus risen, without noise, like +the temple of Jerusalem. + + "No workman steel, no ponderous hammers rung; + Like some tall palm the stately fabric sprung."[17] + +When men repeat the proverb which teaches us that "marriages are made in +heaven," what they mean is that, in the most fundamental of all social +operations, the building up of the family, the issues involved in the +nuptial contract, lie beyond the best exercise of human thought, and +the unseen forces of providential government make good the defect in our +imperfect capacity. Even so would it seem to have been in that curious +marriage of competing influences and powers, which brings about the +composite harmony of the British Constitution. More, it must be +admitted, than any other, it leaves open doors which lead into blind +alleys; for it presumes, more boldly than any other, the good sense and +good faith of those who work it. If, unhappily, these personages meet +together, on the great arena of a nation's fortunes, as jockeys meet +upon a racecourse, each to urge to the uttermost, as against the others, +the power of the animal he rides; or as counsel in a court, each to +procure the victory of his client, without respect to any other interest +or right: then this boasted Constitution of ours is neither more nor +less than a heap of absurdities. The undoubted competency of each +reaches even to the paralysis or destruction of the rest. The House of +Commons is entitled to refuse every shilling of the supplies. That +House, and also the House of Lords, is entitled to refuse its assent to +every bill presented to it. The Crown is entitled to make a thousand +Peers to-day and as many to-morrow: it may dissolve all and every +Parliament before it proceeds to business; may pardon the most atrocious +crimes; may declare war against all the world; may conclude treaties +involving unlimited responsibilities, and even vast expenditure, without +the consent, nay, without the knowledge, of Parliament, and this not +merely in support or in development, but in reversal, of policy already +known to and sanctioned by the nation. But the assumption is that the +depositaries of power will all respect one another; will evince a +consciousness that they are working in a common interest for a common +end; that they will be possessed, together with not less than an average +intelligence, of not less than an average sense of equity and of the +public interest and rights. When these reasonable expectations fail, +then, it must be admitted, the British Constitution will be in danger. + +Apart from such contingencies, the offspring only of folly or of crime, +this Constitution is peculiarly liable to subtle change. Not only in the +long run, as man changes between youth and age, but also, like the human +body, with a quotidian life, a periodical recurrence of ebbing and +flowing tides. Its old particles daily run to waste, and give place to +new. What is hoped among us is, that which has usually been found, that +evils will become palpable before they have grown to be intolerable. + +There cannot, for example, be much doubt among careful observers that +the great conservator of liberty in all former times, namely, the +confinement of the power of the purse to the popular chamber, has been +lamentably weakened in its efficiency of late years; weakened in the +House of Commons, and weakened by the House of Commons. It might indeed +be contended that the House of Commons of the present epoch does far +more to increase the aggregate of public charge than to reduce it. It +might even be a question whether the public would take benefit if the +House were either intrusted annually with a great part of the +initiative, so as to be really responsible to the people for the +spending of their money; or else were excluded from part at least of its +direct action upon expenditure, intrusting to the executive the +application of given sums which that executive should have no legal +power to exceed. + +Meantime, we of this island are not great political philosophers; and we +contend with an earnest, but disproportioned, vehemence about changes +which are palpable, such as the extension of the suffrage, or the +redistribution of Parliamentary seats, neglecting wholly other +processes of change which work beneath the surface, and in the dark, but +which are even more fertile of great organic results. The modern English +character reflects the English Constitution in this, that it abounds in +paradox; that it possesses every strength; but holds it tainted with +every weakness; that it seems alternately both to rise above and to fall +below the standard of average humanity; that there is no allegation of +praise or blame which, in some one of the aspects of its many-sided +formation, it does not deserve; that only in the midst of much default, +and much transgression, the people of this United Kingdom either have +heretofore established, or will hereafter establish, their title to be +reckoned among the children of men, for the eldest born of an imperial +race. + +In this imperfect survey, I have carefully avoided all reference to the +politics of the day and to particular topics, recently opened, which may +have undergone a great development even before these lines appear in +print on the other side of the Atlantic. Such reference would, without +any countervailing advantage, have lowered the strain of these remarks, +and would have complicated with painful considerations a statement +essentially impartial and general in its scope. + +For the yet weightier reason of incompetency, I have avoided the topics +of chief present interest in America, including that proposal to tamper +with the true monetary creed which (as we should say) the Tempter lately +presented to the Nation in the Silver Bill. But I will not close this +paper without recording my conviction that the great acts, and the great +forbearances, which immediately followed the close of the Civil War form +a group which will ever be a noble object, in his political retrospect, +to the impartial historian; and that, proceeding as they did from the +free choice and conviction of the people, and founded as they were on +the very principles of which the multitude is supposed to be least +tolerant, they have, in doing honor to the United States, also rendered +a splendid service to the general cause of popular government throughout +the world.[18] + + + + +JOHN HENRY NEWMAN. + +BORN 1801. + + + + +PRIVATE JUDGMENT. + +BY JOHN HENRY NEWMAN. + + +There is this obvious, undeniable difficulty in the attempt to form a +theory of Private Judgment, in the choice of a religion, that Private +Judgment leads different minds in such different directions. If, indeed, +there be no religious truth, or at least no sufficient means of arriving +at it, then the difficulty vanishes: for where there is nothing to find, +there can be no rules for seeking, and contradiction in the result is +but a _reductio ad absurdum_ of the attempt. But such a conclusion is +intolerable to those who search, else they would not search; and +therefore on them the obligation lies to explain, if they can, how it +comes to pass, that Private Judgment is a duty, and an advantage, and a +success, considering it leads the way not only to their own faith, +whatever that may be, but to opinions which are diametrically opposite +to it; considering it not only leads them right, but leads others wrong, +landing them as it may be in the Church of Rome, or in the Wesleyan +Connection, or in the Society of Friends. + +Are exercises of mind, which end so diversely, one and all pleasing to +the Divine Author of faith; or rather must they not contain some +inherent or some incidental defect, since they manifest such divergence? +Must private judgment in all cases be a good _per se_; or is it a good +under circumstances, and with limitations? Or is it a good, only when it +is not an evil? Or is it a good and evil at once, a good involving an +evil? Or is it an absolute and simple evil? Questions of this sort rise +in the mind on contemplating a principle which leads to more than the +thirty-two points of the compass, and, in consequence, whatever we may +here be able to do, in the way of giving plain rules for its exercise, +be it greater or less, will be so much gain. + + +1. + +Now the first remark which occurs is an obvious one, and, we suppose, +will be suffered to pass without much opposition, that whatever be the +intrinsic merits of Private Judgment, yet, if it at all exerts itself in +the direction of proselytism and conversion, a certain _onus probandi_ +lies upon it, and it must show cause why it should be tolerated, and +not rather treated as a breach of the peace, and silenced _instanter_ as +a mere disturber of the existing constitution of things. Of course it +may be safely exercised in defending what is established; and we are far +indeed from saying that it is never to advance in the direction of +change or revolution, else the Gospel itself could never have been +introduced; but we consider that serious religious changes have _primâ +facie_ case against them; they have something to get over, and have to +prove their admissibility, before it can reasonably be allowed; and +their agents may be called upon to suffer, in order to prove their +earnestness, and to pay the penalty of the trouble they are causing. +Considering the special countenance given in Scripture to quiet, +unanimity, and contentedness, and the warnings directed against +disorder, insubordination, changeableness, discord, and division; +considering the emphatic words of the Apostle, laid down by him as a +general principle, and illustrated in detail, "Let every man abide in +the same calling wherein he was called"; considering, in a word, that +change is really the characteristic of error, and unalterableness the +attribute of truth, of holiness, of Almighty God Him self, we consider +that when Private Judgment moves in the direction of innovation, it may +well be regarded at first with suspicion and treated with severity. Nay, +we confess even a satisfaction, when a penalty is attached to the +expression of new doctrines, or to a change of communion. We repeat it, +if any men have strong feelings, they should pay for them; if they think +it a duty to unsettle things established, they show their earnestness by +being willing to suffer. We shall be the last to complain of this kind +of persecution, even though directed against what we consider the cause +of truth. Such disadvantages do no harm to that cause in the event, but +they bring home to a man's mind his own responsibility; they are a +memento to him of a great moral law, and warn him that his private +judgment, if not a duty, is a sin. + +An act of private judgment is, in its very idea, an act of individual +responsibility; this is a consideration which will come with especial +force on a conscientious mind, when it is to have so fearful an issue as +a change of religion. A religious man will say to himself, "If I am in +error at present, I am in error by a disposition of Providence, which +has placed me where I am; if I change into an error, this is my own +act. It is much less fearful to be born at disadvantage, than to place +myself at disadvantage." + +And if the voice of men in general is to weigh at all in a matter of +this kind, it does but corroborate these instinctive feelings. A convert +is undeniably in favor with no party; he is looked at with distrust, +contempt, and aversion by all. His former friends think him a good +riddance, and his new friends are cold and strange; and as to the +impartial public, their very first impulse is to impute the change to +some eccentricity of character, or fickleness of mind, or tender +attachment, or private interest. Their utmost praise is the reluctant +confession that "doubtless he is very sincere." Churchmen and +Dissenters, men of Rome and men of the Kirk, are equally subject to this +remark. Not on extraordinary occasions only, but as a matter of course, +whenever the news of a conversion to Romanism, or to Irvingism, or to +the Plymouth Sect, or to Unitarianism, is brought to us, we say, one and +all of us: "No wonder, such a one has lived so long abroad"; or, "he is +of such a very imaginative turn"; or, "he is so excitable and odd"; or, +"what could he do? all his family turned"; or, "it was a reaction in +consequence of an injudicious education"; or, "trade makes men cold," or +"a little learning makes them shallow in their religion." If, then, the +common voice of mankind goes for any thing, must we not consider it to +be the _rule_ that men change their religion, not on reason, but for +some extra-rational feeling or motive? else, the world would not so +speak. + +Now, for ourselves, we are not quarrelling with this testimony,--we are +willing to resign ourselves to it; but we think there are parties whom +it concerns much to ponder it. Surely it is a strong, and, as they ought +to feel, an alarming proof, that, for all the haranguing and protesting +which goes on in Exeter and other halls, this great people is not such a +conscientious supporter of the sacred right of Private Judgment as a +good Protestant would desire. Why should we go out of our way, one and +all of us, to impute personal motives in explanation of the conversion +of every individual convert, as he comes before us, if there were in us, +the public, an adhesion to that absolute, and universal, and unalienable +principle, as its titles are set forth in heraldic style, high and +broad, sacred and awful, the right, and the duty, and the possibility of +Private Judgment? Why should we confess it in the general, yet promptly +and pointedly deny it in every particular, if our hearts retained more +than the "magni nominis umbra," when we preached up the Protestant +principle? Is it not sheer wantonness and cruelty in Baptist, +Independent, Irvingite, Wesleyan, Establishment-man, Jumper, and +Mormonite, to delight in trampling on and crushing these manifestations +of their own pure and precious charter, instead of dutifully and +reverently exalting, at Bethel, or at Dan, each instance of it, as it +occurs, to the gaze of its professing votaries? If a staunch +Protestant's daughter turns Roman, and betakes herself to a convent, why +does he not exult in the occurrence? Why does he not give a public +breakfast, or hold a meeting, or erect a memorial, or write a pamphlet +in honor of her, and of the great undying principle she has so +gloriously vindicated? Why is he in this base, disloyal style, muttering +about priests, and Jesuits, and the horrors of nunneries, in solution of +the phenomenon, when he has the fair and ample form of Private Judgment +rising before his eyes, and pleading with him, and bidding him impute +good motives, not bad, and in very charity ascribe to the influence of +a high and holy principle, to a right and a duty of every member of the +family of man, what his poor human instincts are fain to set down as a +folly or a sin. All this would lead us to suspect that the doctrine of +private judgment, in its simplicity, purity, and integrity,--private +judgment, all private judgment, and nothing but private judgment,--is +held by very few persons indeed; and that the great mass of the +population are either stark unbelievers in it, or deplorably dark about +it; and that even the minority who are in a manner faithful to it, have +glossed and corrupted the true sense of it by a miserably faulty +reading, and hold, not the right of private judgment, but the private +right of judgment; in other words, their own private right, and no one's +else. To us it seems as clear as day, that they consider that they +themselves, indeed, individually can and do act on reason, and on +nothing but reason; that they have the gift of advancing, without bias +or unsteadiness, throughout their search, from premise to conclusion, +from text to doctrine; that they have sought aright, and no one else, +who does not agree with them; that they alone have found out the art of +putting the salt upon the bird's tail, and have rescued themselves from +being the slaves of circumstance and the creatures of impulse. It is +undeniable, then, if the popular feeling is to be our guide, that, high +and mighty as the principle of private judgment is in religious +inquiries, as we most fully grant it is, still it bears some similarity +to Saul's armor which David rejected, or to edged tools which have a bad +trick of chopping at our fingers, when we are but simply and innocently +meaning them to make a dash forward at truth. + +Any tolerably serious man will feel this in his own case more vividly +than in that of any one else. Who can know ever so little of himself +without suspecting all kinds of imperfect and wrong motives in +everything he attempts? And then there is the bias of education and of +habit; and, added to the difficulties thence resulting, those which +arise from weakness of the reasoning faculty; ignorance or imperfect +knowledge of the original languages of Scripture, and again, of history +and antiquity. These things being considered, we lay it down as a truth, +about which, we think, few ought to doubt, that Divine aid alone can +carry any one safely and successfully through an inquiry after +religious truth. That there are certain very broad contrasts between one +religion and another, in which no one would be at fault what to think +and what to choose, is very certain; but the problem proposed to private +judgment at this day, is of a rather more complicated nature. Taking +things as they are, we all seem to be in Solomon's case, when he said, +"I am but a little child; I know not how to go out or come in; and Thy +servant is in the midst of a great people, that cannot be numbered nor +counted for multitude. Give, therefore, Thy servant an understanding +heart, that I may discern between good and bad." It is useless, surely, +attempting to inquire or judge, unless a Divine command enjoin the work +upon us, and a Divine promise sustain us through it. Supposing, indeed, +such a command and promise be given, then, of course, there is no +difficulty in the matter. Whatever be our personal infirmities, He whom +we serve can overrule or supersede them. An act of duty must always be +right; and will be accepted, whatever be its success, because done in +obedience to His will. And he can bless the most unpromising +circumstances; He can even lead us forward by means of our mistakes; He +can turn our mistakes into a revelation; He can convert us, if He will, +through the very obstinacy, or self-will, or superstition, which mixes +itself up with our better feelings, and defiles, yet is sanctified by +our sincerity. And much more can He shed upon our path supernatural +light, if He so will, and give us an insight into the meaning of +Scripture, and a hold of the sense of Antiquity, to which our own +unaided powers never could have attained. + +All this is certain: He continually leads us forward in the midst of +darkness; and we live, not by bread only, but by His Word converting the +hard rock or salt sea into nourishment. The simple question is, _has_ +He, in this particular case, commanded? has He promised? and how far? If +He has, and as far as He has, all is easy; if He has not, all is, we +will not say, impossible, but what is worse, undutiful or presumptuous. +Our business is to ask with St. Paul, when arrested in the midst of his +frenzy, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" This is the simple +question. He can bless our present state; He can bless our change; +_which_ is it His will to bless? If Wesleyan or Independent has come +over to us apart from this spirit, we do not much pride ourselves in our +convert. If he joins us because he thinks he has a right to judge for +himself, or because forms are of no consequence, or merely because +sectarianism has its errors and inconveniences, or because an +Established Church is an efficacious means of spreading religion, he +plainly thinks that the choice of a communion is not a more serious +matter than the choice of a neighborhood or of an insurance office. In +like manner, if members of our communion have left it for Rome, because +of the _æsthetic_ beauty of the latter, and the grandeur of its +pretensions, we are grieved, but, good luck to them, we can spare them. +And if Roman Catholics join us or our "Dissenting brethren," because +their own Church is behind the age, insists on Aristotelic dogmas, and +interferes with liberty of thought, such a conversion is no triumph over +popery, but over St. Peter and St. Paul. Our only safety lies in +obedience; our only comfort in keeping it in view. + +If this be so, we have arrived at the following conclusion: that it is +our duty to betake ourselves to Scripture, and to observe how far the +private search of a religion is there sanctioned, and under what +circumstances. This then is the next point which comes under +consideration. + +2. + +Now the first and most ordinary kind of Private Judgment, if it deserves +the name, which is recognized in Scripture, is that in which we engage +without conscious or deliberate purpose. While Lydia heard St. Paul +preach, her heart was opened. She had it not in mind to exercise any +supposed sacred right, she was not setting about the choice of a +religion, but she was drawn on to accept the Gospel by a moral +persuasion. "To him that hath more shall be given," not in the way of +judging or choosing, but by an inward development met by external +disclosures. Lydia's instance is the type of a multitude of cases, +differing very much from each other, some divinely ordered, others +merely human, some which would commonly be called cases of private +judgment, and others which certainly would not, but all agreeing in +this, that the judgment exercised is not recognized and realized by the +party exercising it, as the subject-matter of command, promise, duty, +privilege, or any thing else. It is but the spontaneous stirring of the +affections within, or the passive acceptance of what is offered from +without. St. Paul baptized Lydia's household also; it would seem then +that he baptized servants or slaves, who had very little power of +judging between a true religion and a false; shall we say that they, +like their mistress, accepted the Gospel on private judgment or not? Did +the thousands baptized in national conversions exercise their private +judgment or not? Do children when taught their catechism? Most persons +will reply in the negative: yet it will be difficult to separate their +case in principle from what Lydia's may have been; that is, the case of +religious persons who are advancing forward into the truth--how, they +know not. Neither the one class nor the other have undertaken to inquire +and judge, or have set about being converted, or have got their reasons +all before them and together, to discharge at an enemy or passer-by on +fit occasions. The difference between these two classes is in the state +of their hearts; the one party consist of unformed minds, or senseless +and dead, or minds under temporary excitement, who are brought over by +external or accidental influences, without any real sympathy for the +religion, which is taught them _in order_ that they may _learn_ sympathy +with it, and who, as time goes on, fall away again if they are not happy +enough to become imbued with it; and in the other party there is already +a sympathy between the external Word and the heart within. The one are +proselytized by force, authority, or their mere feelings, the others +through their habitual and abiding frame of mind and cast of opinion. +But neither can be said, in the ordinary sense of the word, to inquire, +reason, and decide about religion. And yet in a great number of these +cases,--certainly where the persons in question are come to years of +discretion and show themselves consistent in their religious profession +afterward,--they would be commonly set forth by Protestant minds as +instances of the due exercise of the right of private judgment. + +Such are the greater number perhaps of converts at this day, in whatever +direction their conversion lies; and their so-called exercise of private +judgment is neither right nor wrong in itself, it is a spontaneous act +which they do not think about; if it is any thing, it is but a means of +bringing out their moral characteristics one way or the other. Often, as +in the case of very illiterate and unreflecting persons, it proves +nothing either way; but in those who are not so, it is right or wrong, +as their hearts are right or wrong; it is an exercise not of reason but +of heart. Take, for instance, the case of a servant in a family; she is +baptized and educated in the Church of England, and is religiously +disposed; she goes into Scotland and conforms to the Kirk, to which her +master and mistress belong. She is of course responsible for what she +does, but no one would say that she had formed any purpose, or taken any +deliberate step. In course of time, when perhaps taxed with the change, +she would say in her defence that outward forms matter not, and that +there are good men in Scotland as well as in England; but this is an +after-thought. Again, a careless person, nominally a Churchman, falls +among serious-minded Dissenters, and they reclaim him from vice or +irreligion; on this he joins their communion, and as time goes on, +boasts perhaps of his right of private judgment. At the time itself, +however, no process of inquiry took place within him at all; his heart +was "opened," whether for good or for bad, whether by good influences or +by good and bad mixed. He was not conscious of convincing reasons, but +he took what came to hand, he embraced what was offered, he felt and he +acted. Again, a man is brought up among Unitarians, or in the frigid and +worldly school which got a footing in the Church during last century, +and has been accustomed to view religion as a matter of reason and +form, of obligation, to the exclusion of affectionateness and devotion. +He falls among persons of what is called an Evangelical cast, and finds +his heart interested, and great objects set before it. Such a man falls +in with the sentiments he finds, rather than adopts them. He follows the +leadings of his heart, perhaps of Divine grace, but certainly not any +course of inquiry and proof. There is nothing of argument, discussion, +or choice in the process of his conversion. He has no systems to choose +between, and no grounds to scrutinize. + +Now, in all such cases, the sort of private judgment exercised is right +or wrong, not as private judgment, but according to its circumstances. +It is either the attraction of a Divine Influence, such as the mind +cannot master, or it is a suggestion of reason, which the mind has yet +to analyze, before it can bring it to the test of logic. If it is the +former, it is above a private judgment, popularly so-called; if the +latter, it is not yet so much as one. + +A second class of conversions on private judgment consists of those +which take place upon the sight or the strong testimony of miracles. +Such was the instance of Rahab, of Naaman, if he may be called a +convert, and of Nebuchadnezzar; of the blind man in John ix, of St. +Paul, of Cornelius, of Sergius Paulus, and many others. Here again the +act of judgment is of a very peculiar character. It is not exactly an +unconscious act, but yet it is hardly an act of judgment. Our belief in +external sensible facts cannot properly be called an act of private +judgment; yet since Protestants, we suppose, would say that the blind +man or Sergius Paulus were converted on private judgment, let it even so +be called, though it is of a very particular kind. Again, conviction +after a miracle also implies the latent belief that such acts are signs +of the Divine Presence, a belief which may be as generally recognized +and maintained, and is as little a peculiar or private feeling as the +impression on the senses of the miracle itself. And this leads to the +mention of a further instance of the sort of private judgments to which +men are invited in Scripture, viz., the exercise of the moral sense. Our +Creator has stamped certain great truths upon our minds, and there they +remain in spite of the fall. St. Paul appeals to one of these at Lystra, +calling on the worshippers of idols to turn from these vanities unto the +Living God; and at Athens, "not to think that the Godhead is like unto +gold, or silver, or stone graven by art and man's device," but to +worship "God who made the world and all things therein." In the same +tone he reminds the Thessalonians of their having "turned to God from +idols to serve the Living and True God." In like manner, doubtless, +other great principles also of religion and morals are rooted in the +minds so deeply, that their denial by any religion would be a +justification of our quitting or rejecting it. If a pagan found his +ecclesiastical polity essentially founded on lying and cheating, or his +ritual essentially impure, or his moral code essentially unjust or +cruel, we conceive this would be a sufficient reason for his renouncing +it for one which was free from these hateful characteristics. Such again +is the kind of private judgment exercised, when maxims of principles, +generally admitted by bodies of men, are acted upon by individuals who +have been ever taught them, as a matter of course, without questioning +them; for instance, if a member of the English Church, who had always +been taught that preaching is the great ordinance of the Gospel, to the +disparagement of the Sacraments, thereupon placed himself under the +ministry of a powerful Wesleyan preacher; or if, from the common belief +that nothing is essential but what is on the surface of Scripture, he +forthwith attached himself to the Baptists, Independents, or Unitarians. +Such men indeed often take their line in consequence of some inward +liking for the religious system they adopt; but we are speaking of their +proceeding as far as it professes to be an act of judgment. + +A third class of private judgments recorded in Scripture are those which +are exercised at one and the same time by a great number; if it be not a +contradiction to call such judgments private. Yet here again we suppose +staunch Protestants would maintain that the three thousand at Pentecost, +and the five thousand after the miracle on the lame man, and the "great +company of the priests," which shortly followed, did avail themselves, +and do afford specimens, of the sacred right in question; therefore let +it be ruled so. Such, then, is the case of national conversions to which +we have already alluded. Again, if the Lutheran Church of Germany with +its many theologians, or our neighbor the Kirk,--General Assembly, Men +of Strathbogie, Dr. Chalmers, and all,--came to a unanimous or +quasi-unanimous resolve to submit to the Archbishop of Canterbury as +their patriarch, this doubtless would be an exercise of private judgment +perfectly defensible on Scripture precedents. + +Now, before proceeding, let us observe, that as yet nothing has been +found in Scripture to justify the cases of private judgment which are +exemplified in the popular religious biographies of the day. These +generally contain instances of conversions made on the judgment, +definite, deliberate, independent, isolated, of the parties converted. +The converts in these stories had not seen miracles, nor had they +developed their own existing principles or beliefs, nor had they changed +their religion in company with others, nor had they received new truths, +they knew not how. Let us then turn to Scripture a second time, to see +whether we can gain thence any clearer sanction of Private Judgment as +now exercised among us, than our search into Scripture has hitherto +furnished. + + +3. + +There certainly is another method of conversion upon private judgment +described in Scripture, which is much more to our purpose, viz., by +means of the study of Scripture itself. Thus our Lord says to the Jews, +"Search the Scriptures"; and the treasurer of Candace was reading the +book of Isaiah when St. Philip met him; and the men of Berea are said to +be "more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they received the +word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, +whether those things were so." And it is added, "therefore many of them +believed." Here at length, it will be said, is a precedent for such acts +of private judgment as are most frequently recommended and instanced in +religious tales; and indeed these texts commonly are understood to make +it certain beyond dispute, that individuals ordinarily may find out the +doctrines of the Gospel for themselves from the private study of +Scripture. A little consideration, however, will convince us that even +these are precedents for something else, that they sanction, not an +inquiry about Gospel doctrine, but about the Gospel teacher; not what +has God revealed, but whom has He commissioned? And this is a very +different thing. + +The context of the passage in which our Lord speaks of searching the +Scriptures, shows plainly that their office is that of leading, not to a +knowledge of the Gospel, but of Himself, its Author and Teacher. "Whom +He hath sent," He says, "Him ye believe not. Search the Scriptures, for +in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which _testify +of Me_." He adds, that they "will not come unto Him, that they may have +life," and that "He is come in His Father's name, and they receive Him +not." And again, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, for +he _wrote of Me_." It is plain that in this passage our Lord does not +send His hearers to the Old Testament to gain thence the knowledge of +the doctrines of the Gospel by means of their private judgment, but to +gain tests or notes by which to find out and receive Him who was the +teacher of those doctrines; and, though the treasurer of Candace appears +in the narrative to be contemplating our Lord in prophecy, not as the +teacher but the object of the Christian faith, yet still in confessing +that he could not "understand" what he was reading, "unless some man +should guide him," he lays down the principle broadly, which we desire +here to maintain, that the private study of Scripture is not intended +ordinarily as the means of getting a knowledge of the Gospel. In like +manner, St. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, refers to the book of Joel, +by way of proving thence, not the Christian doctrine, but the divine +promise that new teachers were to be sent in due season, and the fact +that it was fulfilled in himself and his brethren. "This is that," he +says, "which was spoken by the prophet Joel, I will pour out My Spirit +upon all flesh, and _your sons and your daughters shall prophesy_." + +While, then, the conversions recorded in Scripture are brought about in +a very marked way through a _teacher_, and _not_ by means of private +judgment, so again, if an appeal _is_ made to private judgment, this is +done in order to settle who the teacher is, and what are his notes or +tokens, rather than to substantiate this or that religious opinion or +practice. And if such instances bear upon our conduct at this day, as it +is natural to think they do, then of course the practical question +before us is, _who_ is the teacher now, from whose mouth are we to seek +the law, and _what are his notes_? + +Now, in remarkable coincidence with this view, we find in both +Testaments that teachers are promised under the dispensation of the +Gospel, so that they who, like the noble Bereans, search the Scriptures +daily will be at little loss _whither_ their private judgment should +lead them in order to gain the knowledge of the truth. In the book of +Isaiah we have the following express promises: "Though the Lord give you +the bread of adversity, and the waters of affliction, yet shall not thy +teachers be removed into a corner any more, but _thine eyes shall see +thy teachers_, and thine ears _shall hear a voice behind thee_, saying, +This is the way," etc. Several tests follow descriptive of the condition +of things or the circumstances in which these teachers are to be found. +First, the absence of idolatry: "Ye shall defile also the covering of +thy graven images of silver, and the ornaments of thy molten images of +gold"; and next the multitude of fellow-believers: "Then shall He give +the _rain of thy seed_, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; in that +day shall thy cattle feed _in large pastures_." Elsewhere the appointed +teacher is noted as speaking with authority and judicially, as: "Every +tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn." And +here again the promises or tests of extent and perpetuity appear: "Thou +shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall +inherit the Gentiles"; and "My kindness shall not depart from them, +neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed." Elsewhere holiness +is mentioned: "It shall be called, The way of holiness, the unclean +shall not pass over it." One more promise shall be cited: "My Spirit +that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not +depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed ... from +henceforth and for ever." + +In the New Testament we have the same promises stated far more concisely +indeed, but, what is much more apposite than a longer description, with +the addition of the _name_ of our promised teacher: "The _Church_ of the +living God," says St. Paul, "_the pillar and ground of the truth_." The +simple question then for Private Judgment to exercise itself upon is, +what and where is the Church? + +Now let it be observed how exactly this view of the province of Private +Judgment, where it is allowable, as being the discovery not of doctrine, +but of the teacher of doctrine, harmonizes both with the nature of +Religion and the state of human society as we find it. Religion is for +practice, and that immediate. Now it is much easier to form a correct +and rapid judgment of persons than of books or of doctrines. Every one, +even a child, has an impression about new faces; few persons have any +real view about new propositions. There is something in the sight of +persons or of bodies of men, which speaks to us for approval or +disapprobation with a distinctness to which pen and ink are unequal. +This is just the kind of evidence which is needed for use, in cases in +which private judgment is divinely intended to be the means of our +conversion. The multitude have neither the time, the patience, nor the +clearness and exactness of thought, for processes of investigation and +deduction. Reason is slow and abstract, cold and speculative; but man is +a being of feeling and action; he is not resolvable into a _dictum de +omni et nullo_, or a series of hypotheticals, or a critical diatribe, or +an algebraical equation. And this obvious fact does, as far as it goes, +make it probable that, if we are providentially obliged to exercise our +private judgment, the point toward which we have to direct it, is the +teacher rather than the doctrine. + +In corroboration, it may be observed, that Scripture seems always to +imply the presence of teachers as the appointed ordinance by which men +learn the truth; and is principally engaged in giving cautions against +false teachers, and tests for ascertaining the true. Thus our Lord bids +us "beware of false prophets," not of false books; and look to their +fruits. And He says elsewhere that "the sheep know His voice," and that +"they know not the voice of strangers." And He predicts false Christs, +and false prophets, who are to be nearly successful against even the +elect. He does not give us tests of false doctrines, but of certain +visible peculiarities or notes applicable to persons or parties. "If +they shall say, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth; behold, he is +in the secret chamber, believe it not." St. Paul insists on tokens of a +similar kind: "Mark them which cause divisions, and avoid them"; "is +Christ divided?" "beware of dogs, beware of evil workers"; "be followers +together of me, and mark them which walk so, as ye have us for an +ensample." Thus the New Testament equally with the Old, as far as it +speaks of private examination into teaching professedly from heaven, +makes the teacher the subject of that inquiry, and not the thing taught; +it bids us ask for his credentials, and avoid him if he is unholy, or +idolatrous, or schismatical, or if he comes in his own name, or if he +claims no authority, or is the growth of a particular spot or of +particular circumstances. + +If there are passages which at first sight seem to interfere with this +statement, they admit of an easy explanation. Either they will be found +to appeal to those instinctive feelings of our nature already spoken of +which supersede argument and proof in the judgments we form of persons +or bodies; as in St. Paul's reference to the idolatry of Athenian +worship, or to the extreme moral corruption of heathenism generally. Or, +again, the criterion of doctrine which they propose to the private +judgment of the individual turns upon the question of its novelty or +previous reception. When St. Paul would describe a false gospel, he +calls it _another_ gospel "than that ye have received"; and St. John +bids us "try the spirits," gives us as the test of truth and error the +"confessing that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh," and warns us +against receiving into our houses any one who "brings not this +doctrine." We conceive then that, on the whole, the notion of gaining +religious truth for ourselves by our private examination, whether by +reading or thinking, whether by studying Scripture or other books, has +no broad sanction in Scripture, is neither impressed upon us by its +general tone, nor enjoined in any of its commands. The great question +which it puts before us for the exercise of private judgment is,--Who +is God's prophet, and where? Who is to be considered the voice of the +Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church? + + +4. + +Having carried our train of thought as far as this, it is time for us to +proceed to the thesis in which it will be found to issue, viz., that, on +the principles that have been laid down, Dissenters ought to abandon +their own communion, but that members of the English Church ought not to +abandon theirs. Such a position has often been treated as a paradox and +inconsistency; yet we hope to be able to recommend it favorably to the +reader. + +Now that seceders, sectarians, independent thinkers, and the like, by +whatever name they call themselves, whether "Wesleyans," "Dissenters," +"professors of the national religion," "well-wishers of the Church," or +even "Churchmen," are in grievous error, in their mode of exercising +their private judgment, is plain as soon as stated, viz., because they +do not use it in looking out for a teacher at all. They who think they +have, in consequence of their inquiries, found the teacher of truth, may +be wrong in the result they have arrived at; but those who despise the +notion of a teacher altogether, are already wrong before they begin +them. They do not start with their private judgment in that one special +direction which Scripture allows or requires. Scripture speaks of a +certain pillar or ground of truth, as set up to the world, and describes +it by certain characteristics; dissenting teachers and bodies, so far +from professing to be themselves this authority, or to contain among +them this authority, assert there is no such authority to be found +anywhere. When, then, we deny that they are the Church in our meaning of +the word, they ought to take no offence at it, for we are not denying +them any thing to which they lay claim; we are but denying them what +they already put away from themselves as much as we can. They must not +act like the dog in the fable (if it be not too light a comparison), who +would neither use the manger himself, nor relinquish it to others; let +them not grudge to others a manifest Scriptural privilege which they +disown themselves. Is an ordinance of Scripture to be fulfilled nowhere, +because it is not fulfilled in them? By the Church we mean what +Scripture means, "the pillar and ground of the truth"; a power out of +whose mouth the Word and the Spirit are never to fail, and whom whoso +refuses to hear becomes thereupon to all his brethren a heathen man and +a publican. Let the parties in question accept the Scripture definition, +or else not resume the Scripture name; or, rather, let them seek +elsewhere what they are conscious is not among themselves. We hear much +of Bible Christians, Bible religion, Bible preaching; it would be well +if we heard a little of the Bible Church also; we venture to say that +Dissenting Churches would vanish thereupon at once, for, since it is +their fundamental principle that they are not a pillar or ground of +truth, but voluntary societies, without authority and without gifts, the +Bible Church they cannot be. If the serious persons who are in dissent +would really imitate the simple-minded Ethiopian, or the noble Bereans, +let them ask themselves: "Of whom speaketh" the Apostle, or the Prophet, +such great things?--Where is the "pillar and ground"?--Who is it that is +appointed to lead us to Christ?--Where are those teachers which were +never to be removed into a corner any more, but which were ever to be +before our eyes and in our ears? Whoever is right, or whoever is wrong, +they cannot be right who profess not to have found, not to look out +for, not to believe in, that Ordinance to which Apostles and Prophets +give their testimony. So much then for the Protestant side of the +thesis. + +One half of it then is easily disposed of; but now we come to the other +side of it, the Roman, which certainly has its intricacies. It is not +difficult to know how we should act toward a religious body which does +not even profess to come to us in the name of the Lord, or to be a +pillar and ground of the truth; but what shall we say when more than one +society, or school, or party, lay claim to be the heaven-sent teacher, +and are rivals one to the other, as are the Churches of England and Rome +at this day? How shall we discriminate between them? Which are we to +follow? Are tests given us for that purpose? Now if tests are given us, +we must use them; but if not, and so far as not, we must conclude that +Providence foresaw that the difference between them would never be so +great as to require of us to leave the one for the other. + +However, it is certain that much _is_ said in Scripture about rival +teachers, and that at least some of these rivals are so opposed to each +other, that tests are given us, in order to our shunning the one party, +and accepting the other. In such cases, the one teacher is represented +to be the minister of God, and the other the child and organ of evil. +The one comes in God's name, the other professes to come simply in his +own name. Such a contrast is presented to us in the conflict between +Moses and the magicians of Egypt; all is light on the one side, all +darkness on the other. Or again, in the trial between Elijah and the +prophets of Baal. There is no doubt, in such a case, that it would be +our imperative duty at once to leave the teaching of Satan, and betake +ourselves _to_ the Law and the Prophets. And it will be observed that, +to assist inquirers in doing so, the representatives of Almighty God +have been enabled, in their contests with the enemy, to work miracles, +as Moses was, for instance, and Elijah, in order to make it clear which +way the true teaching lay. + +But now will any one say that the contrast between the English and the +Roman, or again, the Greek, Churches, is of this nature?--is any of the +three a "_monstrum nullâ virtute redemptum"?_ Moreover, the magicians +and the priests of Baal "came in their own name"; is that the case with +the Church, English, Roman, or Greek? Is it not certain, even at first +sight, that each of these branches has many high gifts and much grace in +her communion. And, at any rate, as regards our controversy with Rome, +if her champions would maintain that the Church of England is the false +prophet, and she the true one, then let her work miracles as Moses did +in the presence of the magicians, in order to our conviction. + +Probably, however, it will be admitted that the contrast between England +and Rome is not of that nature; for the English Church confessedly does +not come in her own name, nor can she reasonably be compared to the +Egyptian magicians or the prophets of Baal; is there any other type in +Scripture into which the difference between her and the Church of Rome +can be resolved? We shall be referred, perhaps, to the case of the false +prophets of Israel and Judah, who professed to come in the name of the +Lord, yet did not preach the truth, and had no part or inheritance with +God's prophets. This parallel is not happier than the former, for a test +was given to distinguish between them, which does not decide between the +Church of Rome and ourselves. This test is the divine accomplishment of +the prophet's message, or the divine blessing upon his teaching, or the +eventual success of his work, as it may be variously stated; a test +under which neither Church, Roman or Anglican, will fail, and neither is +eminently the foremost. Each Church has had to endure trial, each has +overcome it; each has triumphed over enemies; each has had continued +signs of the divine favor upon it. The passages in Scripture to which we +refer are such as the following: Moses, for instance, has laid it down +in the Book of Deuteronomy, that, "when a prophet speaketh in the name +of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the +thing which the Lord hath _not_ spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it +presumptuously." To the same effect, in the Book of Ezekiel, the +denunciation against the false prophet is: "Lo! _when the wall is +fallen_, shall it not be said unto you, _where_ is the daubing wherewith +ye have daubed it?" And Gamaliel's advice to "refrain from these men, +and let them alone, for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will +come to nought," may be taken as an illustration of the same rule of +judgment. Hence Roman Catholics themselves are accustomed to consider, +that eventual failure is the sure destiny of heresy and schism; what +then will they say to us? The English Church has remained in its present +state three hundred years, and at the end of the time is stronger than +at the beginning. This does not look like an heretical or schismatical +Church. However, when she does fall to pieces, then, it may be admitted, +her children _will_ have a reason for deserting her; till then, she has +no symptom of being akin to the false prophets who professed the Lord's +name, and deceived the simple and unlearned; she has no symptom of being +a traitor to the _faith_. + +However, there is a third type of rival teaching mentioned in Scripture, +under which the dissension between Rome and England may be considered to +fall, and which it may be well to notice. Let it be observed, then, that +even in the Apostles' age very grave outward differences seem to have +existed between Christian teachers--that is, the organs of the one +Church; and yet those differences were not, in consequence, any call +upon inquirers and beholders to quit one teacher and betake themselves +to another. The state of the Corinthian Christians will exemplify what +we mean: Paul, Cephas, and Apollos were all friends together, yet +parties were formed round each separately, which disagreed with each +other, and made the Apostles themselves seem in disagreement. Is not +this, at least in great measure, the state of the Churches of England +and Rome? Are they not one in faith, so far forth as they are viewed in +their essential apostolical character? are they not in discord, so far +as their respective children and disciples have overlaid them with +errors of their own individual minds? It was a great fault, doubtless, +that the followers of St. Paul should have divided from the followers of +St. Peter, but would it have mended matters, had any individuals among +them gone over to St. Peter? Was that the fitting remedy for the evil? +Was not the remedy that of their putting aside partisanship altogether, +and regarding St. Paul "not after the flesh," but simply as "the +minister by whom they believed," the visible representative of the +undivided Christ, the one Catholic Church? And, in like manner, surely +if party feelings and interests have separated us from the members of +the Roman communion, this does not prove that our Church itself is +divided from theirs, any more than that St. Paul was divided from St. +Peter, nor is it our duty to leave our place and join them;--nothing +would be gained by so unnecessary a step;--but our duty is, remaining +where we are, to recognize in our own Church, not an establishment, not +a party, not a mere Protestant denomination, but the Holy Church +Catholic which the traditions of men have partially obscured,--to rid it +of these traditions, to try to soften bitterness and animosity of +feeling, and to repress party spirit and promote peace as much as in us +lies. Moreover, let it be observed, that St. Paul was evidently superior +in gifts to Apollos, yet this did not justify Christians attaching +themselves to the former rather than the latter; for, as the Apostle +says, they both were but ministers of one and the same Lord, and nothing +more. Comparison, then, is not allowed us between teacher and teacher, +where each has on the whole the notes of a divine mission; so that even +could the Church of Rome be proved superior to our own (which we put +merely as an hypothesis, and for argument's sake), this would as little +warrant our attaching ourselves to it instead of our own Church, as +there was warrant for one of the converts of Apollos to call himself by +the name of Paul. Further, let it be observed, that the apostle reproves +those who attached themselves to St. Peter equally with the Paulines or +with the disciples of Apollos; is it possible he could have done so, +were St. Peter the head and essence of the Church in a sense in which +St. Paul was not? And, again, there was an occasion when not only their +followers were at variance, but the Apostles themselves; we refer to the +dissimulation of St. Peter at Antioch, and the resistance of St, Paul to +it: was this a reason why St. Peter's disciples should go over to St. +Paul, or rather why they should correct their dissimulation? + +We are surely bound to prosecute this search after the promised Teacher +of truth entirely as a practical matter, with reference to our duty and +nothing else. The simple question which we have to ask ourselves is, Has +the English Church _sufficiently_ upon her the signs of an Apostle? is +she the divinely-appointed teacher to _us_? If so, we need not go +further; we have no reason to break through the divine rule of "being +content with such things as we have"; we have no warrant to compare our +own prophet with the prophet given to others. Nor can we: tests are not +given us for the purpose. We may believe that our own Church has certain +imperfections; the Church of Rome certain corruptions: such a belief +has no tendency to lead us to any determinate judgment as to which of +the two on the whole is the better, or to induce or warrant us to leave +the one communion for the other. + + +5 + +One point remains, however, which is so often felt as a difficulty by +members of our Church that we are tempted to say a few words upon it in +conclusion, and to try to show what is the true practical mode of +meeting it. And this perhaps will give us an opportunity of expressing +our general meaning in a more definite and intelligible form. + +It cannot be denied, then, that a very plausible ground of attack may be +taken up against the Church of England, from the circumstance that she +is separated from the rest of Christendom; and just such a ground as it +would be allowable for private judgment to rest and act upon, supposing +its office to be what we have described it to be. "As to the particular +doctrines of Anglicanism, (it may be urged,) Scripture may, if so be, +supply private judgment with little grounds for quarrelling with them; +but what can be said to explain away the note of forfeiture, which +attaches to us in consequence of our isolated state? We are, in fact, +(it may be objected,) cut off from the whole of the Christian world; +nay, far from denying that excommunication, in a certain sense we glory +in it, and that under a notion, that we are so very pure that it must +soil our fingers to touch any other Church whatever upon the earth, in +north, east, or south. How is this reconcilable with St. Paul's clear +announcement that there is but one body as well as one spirit? or with +our Lord's, that 'by this shall _all men know_,' as by a note obvious to +the intelligence even of the illiterate and unreasoning, 'that ye are My +disciples, if ye have love one to another'? or again, with His prayer +that His disciples might all be one, 'that the world may know that _Thou +hast sent Me_, and hast _loved them_ as Thou hast loved Me'? Visible +unity, then, would seem to be both the main evidence for Christianity, +and the sign of our own participation in its benefits; whereas we +English despise the Greeks and hate the Romans, turn our backs on the +Scotch Episcopalians, and do but smile distantly upon our American +cousins. We throw ourselves into the arms of the State, and in that +close embrace forget that the Church was meant to be Catholic; or we +call ourselves _the_ Catholics, and the mere Church of England _our_ +Catholic Church; as if, forsooth, by thus confining it all to ourselves, +we did not _ipso facto_ all claim to be considered Catholics at all." + +What increases the force of this argument is, that St. Augustine seems, +at least at first sight, virtually to urge it against us in his +controversy with the Donatists, whom he represents as condemned, simply +because separate from the "orbis terrarum," and styles the point in +question "quæstio facillima," and calls on individual Donatists to +decide it by their private judgment.[19] + +Now this is an objection which we must honestly say is deeply felt by +many people, and not inconsiderable ones; and the more it is openly +avowed to be a difficulty the better; for then there is the chance of +its being acknowledged, and in the course of time obviated, as far as +may be, by those who have the power. Flagrant evils cure themselves by +being flagrant; and we are sanguine that the time is come when so great +an evil as this is, cannot stand its ground against the good feeling and +common-sense of religious persons. It is the very strength of Romanism +against us; and, unless the proper persons take it into their very +serious consideration, they may look for certain to undergo the loss, as +time goes on, of some whom they would least like to be lost to our +Church. If private judgment can be exercised on any point, it is on a +matter of the senses; now our eyes and our ears are filled with the +abuse poured out by members of our Church on her sister Churches in +foreign lands. It is not that their corrupt practices are gravely and +tenderly pointed out, as may be done by men who feel themselves also to +be sinful and ignorant, and know that they have their own great +imperfections, which their brethren abroad have not,--but we are apt not +to acknowledge them as brethren at all; we treat them in an arrogant +John Bull way, as mere Frenchmen, or Spaniards, or Austrians, not as +Christians. We act as if we could do without brethren; as if our having +brethren all over the world were not the very tenure on which we are +Christians at all; as if we did not cease to be Christians, if at any +time we ceased to have brethren. Or again, when our thoughts turn to the +East, instead of recollecting that there are sister Churches there, we +leave it to the Russians to take care of the Greeks, and to the French +to take care of the Romans and we content ourselves with erecting a +Protestant Church at Jerusalem, or with helping the Jews to rebuild +their temple there, or with becoming the august protectors of +Nestorians, Monophysites, and all the heretics we can hear of, or with +forming a league with the Mussulman against Greeks and Romans together. +Can any one doubt that the British power is not considered a Church +power by any country whatever into which it comes? and if so, is it +possible that the English Church, which is so closely connected with +that power, can be said in any true sense to exert a Catholic influence, +or to deserve the Catholic name? How can any Church be called Catholic, +which does not act beyond its own territory? and when did the rulers of +the English Church ever move one step beyond the precincts, or without +the leave, of the imperial power? + + "pudet hæc opprobria nobis + Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli." + +There is indeed no denying them; and if certain persons are annoyed at +the confession, as if we were thereby putting weapons into our enemies' +hands, let them be annoyed more by the fact, and let them alter the +fact, and, they may take our word for it, the confession will cease of +itself. The world does not feel the fact the less for its not being +confessed; it _is_ felt deeply by many, and is doing incalculable +mischief to our cause, and is likely to hurt it more and more. In a +word, this isolation is doing as much as any one thing can do to +unchurch us, and it and our awakened claims to be Catholic and Apostolic +cannot long stand together. This, then, is the main difficulty which +serious people feel in accepting the English Church as the promised +prophet of truth, and we are far indeed from undervaluing it, as the +above remarks show. + +But now taking the objection in a simply practical view, which is the +only view in which it ought to concern or perplex any one, we consider +that it can have legitimately no effect whatever in leading us from +England to Rome. We do not say no legitimate tendency in itself to move +us, but no legitimate influence with serious men, who wish to know how +their duty lies. For this reason--because if the note of schism on the +one hand lies against England, an antagonist disgrace lies upon Rome, +the note of idolatry. Let us not be mistaken here: we are neither +accusing Rome of being idolatrous nor ourselves of being +schismatical,--we think neither charge tenable; but still the Roman +Church practises what looks so very like idolatry, and the English +glories in what looks so very like schism, that, without deciding what +is the duty of a Roman Catholic toward the Church of England in her +present state, we do seriously think that members of the English Church +have a providential direction given them, how to comport themselves +toward the Church of Rome, while she is what she is. We are discussing +the subject, not of decisive proofs, but of probable indications and of +presumptive notes of the divine will. Few men have time to scrutinize +accurately; all men may have general impressions, and the general +impressions of conscientious men are true ones. Providence has +graciously met their need, and provided for them those very means of +knowledge which they can use and turn to account. He has cast around the +institutions and powers existing in the world marks of truth or +falsehood, or, more properly, elements of attraction and repulsion, and +notices for pursuit and avoidance, sufficient to determine the course of +those who in the conduct of life desire to approve themselves to Him. +Now, whether or no what we see in the Church of Rome be sufficient to +warrant a religious person to leave her, (a question, we repeat, about +which we have no need here to concern ourselves,) we certainly think it +sufficient to deter him from joining her; and, whatever be the +perplexity and distress of his position in a communion so isolated as +the English, we do not think he would mend the matter by placing himself +in a communion so superstitious as the Roman; especially considering, +agreeably to a remark we have already made, that even if he be +schismatical at present, he is so by the act of Providence, whereas he +would be entering into superstition by his own. Thus an Anglo-Catholic +is kept at a distance from Rome, if not by our own excellences, at least +by her errors. + +That this is the state of the Church of Rome, is, alas! not fairly +disputable. Dr. Wiseman has lately attempted to dispute it; but if we +may judge from the present state of the controversy, facts are too clear +for him. It has lately been broadly put forward, as all know, that, +whatever may be said in defence of the _authoritative documents_ of the +faith of Rome, this imputation lies against her _authorities_, that they +have countenanced and established doctrines and practices from which a +Christian mind, not educated in them, shrinks; and that in the number of +these a worship of the creature which to most men will seem to be a +quasi-idolatry is not the least prominent.[20] Dr. Wiseman, for whom we +entertain most respectful feelings personally, and to whom we impute +nothing but what is straight-forward and candid, has written two +pamphlets on the subject, toward which we should be very sorry to deal +unfairly; but he certainly seems to us in the former of them to deny the +fact of these alleged additions in the formal profession of his Church, +and then, in the second, to turn right round and maintain them. What +account is to be given of self-contradiction such as this, but the fact, +that he would deny the additions, if he could, and defends them, because +he can't? And that dilemma is no common one; for, as if to show that +what he holds in excess of our creed is in excess also of primitive +usage, he has in his defence been forced upon citations from the +writings of the Fathers, the chief of which, as Mr. Palmer has shown, +are spurious; thus setting before us vividly what he looks for in +Antiquity, but what he cannot find there. However, it is not our +intention to enter into a controversy which is in Mr. Palmer's hands; +nor need we do more than refer the reader to the various melancholy +evidences, which that learned, though over-severe writer, and Dr. Pusey, +and Mr. Ward adduce, in proof of the existence of this note of dishonor +in a sister or mother, toward whom we feel so tenderly and reverently, +and whom nothing but some such urgent reason in conscience could make us +withstand so resolutely. + +So much has been said on this point lately as to increase our +unwillingness to insist upon a subject in itself very ungrateful; but a +reference to it is unavoidable, if we would adequately show what is the +legitimate use and duty of private judgment, in dealing with those notes +of truth and error, by which Providence recommends to us or disowns the +prophets that come in His name. + +What imparts an especial keenness to the grief which the teaching in +question causes in minds kindly disposed toward the Church of Rome, is, +that not only are we expressly told in Scripture that the Almighty will +not give His glory to another, but it is predicted as His especial grace +upon the Christian Church, "the idols He shall utterly abolish"; so +that, if Anglicans are almost unchurched by the Protestantism which has +mixed itself up with their ecclesiastical proceedings, Romanists, also, +are almost unchurched by their superstitions. Again and again in the +Prophets is this promise given: "From all your filthiness, and from all +your idols will I cleanse you"; "Neither shall they defile themselves +any more with their idols"; "Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any +more with idols?" "I will cut off the names of the idols out of the +land." And the warning in the New is as strong as the promise in the +Old: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols"; "Let no man beguile +you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels"; +and the angel's answer, to whom St. John fell down in worship, was "See +thou do it not, _for_ I am thy fellow-servant; worship God."[21] + +It is then a note of the Christian Church, as decisive as any, that she +is not idolatrous; and any semblance of idolatrous worship in the Church +of Rome as plainly dissuades a man of Catholic feelings from her +communion, as the taint of a Protestant or schismatical spirit in our +communion may tempt him to depart from us. This is the Via Media which +we would maintain; and thus without judging Rome on the one hand, or +acquiescing in our own state on the other, we may use what we see, as a +providential intimation to _us_, not to quit what is bad for what may be +worse, but to learn resignation to what we inherit, nor seek to escape +into a happier state by suicide. + + +6. + +And in such a state of things, certain though it be that St. Austin +invites individual Donatists to the Church, on the simple ground that +the larger body must be the true one, he is not, he cannot be, a guide +of _our_ conduct here. The Fathers are our teachers, but not our +confessors or casuists; they are the prophets of great truths, not the +spiritual directors of individuals. How can they possibly be such, +considering the subject-matter of conduct? Who shall say that a point +of practice which is right in one man, is right even in his next-door +neighbor? Do not the Fathers differ with each other in matters of +teaching and action, yet what fair persons ever imputed inconsistency to +them in consequence? St. Augustine bids us stay in persecution, yet St. +Dionysius takes to flight; St. Cyprian at one time flees, at another +time stays. One bishop adorns churches with paintings, another tears +down a pictured veil; one demolishes the heathen temples, another +consecrates them to the true God. St. Augustine at one time speaks +against the use of force in proselytizing, at another time he speaks for +it. The Church at one time comes into General Council at the summons of +the Emperor; at another time she takes the initiative. St. Cyprian +re-baptizes heretics; St. Stephen accepts their baptism. The early ages +administer, the later deny, the Holy Eucharist to children.[22] Who +shall say that in such practical matters, and especially in points of +casuistry, points of the when, and the where, and the by whom, and the +how, words written in the fourth century are to be the rule of the +nineteenth? + +We have not St. Austin to consult; we cannot go to him with his works in +our hand, and ask him whether they are to be taken to the letter under +our altered circumstances. We cannot explain to him that, as far as the +appearance of things goes, there are, besides our own, at least two +Churches, one Greek, the other Roman; and that they are both marked by a +certain peculiarity which does not appear in his own times, or in his +own writings, and which much resembles what Scripture condemns as +idolatry. Nor can we remind him, that the Donatists had a note of +disqualification upon them, which of itself would be sufficient to +negative their claims to Catholicity, in that they refused the name of +Catholic to the rest of Christendom; and, moreover, in their bitter +hatred and fanatical cruelty toward the rival communion in Africa. +Moreover, St. Austin himself waives the question of the innocence or +guilt of Cæcilian, on the ground that the _orbis terrarum_ could not be +expected to have accurate knowledge of the facts of the case;[23] and, +if contemporary judgments might be deceived in regard to the merits of +the African Succession, yet, without blame, much more may it be +maintained, without any want of reverence to so great a saint, that +private letters which he wrote fourteen hundred years ago, do not take +into consideration the present circumstances of Anglo-Catholics. Are we +sure, that had he known them, they would not have led to an additional +chapter in his Retractions? And again, if ignorance would have been an +excuse, in his judgment, for the Catholic world's passing over the crime +of the Traditors, had Cæcilian and his party been such, much more, in so +nice a question as the Roman claim to the _orbis terrarum_ at this day, +in opposition to England and Greece, may we fairly consider that he who +condemned the Donatists only in the case of "quæstio facillima," would +excuse us, even if mistaken, from the notorious difficulties which lie +in the way of a true judgment. Nor, moreover, would he, who so +constantly sends us to Scripture for the notes of the Church Catholic, +condemn us for shunning communions, which had been so little sensitive +of the charge made against them of idolatry. But even let us suppose +him, after full cognizance of our case, to give judgment against us; +even then we shall have the verdict of St. Chrysostom, St. Basil, and +others virtually in our favor, supporters and canonizers as they were of +Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, who in St. Augustine's own day lived and +died out of the communion of Rome and Alexandria.[24] + +We do not think, then, that St. Austin's teaching can be taken as a +direction to us to quit our Church on account of its incidental +Protestantism, unsatisfactory as it is to have such a note lying against +us. And it is pleasant to believe, that there are symptoms at this time +of our improvement; and we only wish we could see as much hope of a +return to a healthier state in Rome, as is at present visible in our own +communion. There is among us a growing feeling, that to be a mere +Establishment is unworthy of the Catholic Church; and that to be shut +out from the rest of Christendom is not a subject of boasting. We seem +to have embraced the idea of the desirableness of being on a good +understanding with the Greek and Eastern Churches; and we are aiming at +sending out bishops to distant places, where they must come in contact +with foreign communions and though the extreme vagueness, indecision, +and confusion, in which our theological and ecclesiastical notions at +present lie, will be almost sure to involve us in certain mistakes and +extravagances, yet it would be un-thankful to "despise the day of small +things," and not to recognize in these movements a hopeful stirring of +hearts, and a religious yearning after something better than we have. +But not to dwell unduly on these public manifestations of a Catholic +tendency, we should all recollect that a restoration of intercommunion +with other Churches is, in a certain sense, in the power of individuals. +Every one who desires unity, who prays for it, who endeavors to further +it, who witnesses for it, who behaves Christianly toward the members of +Churches alienated from us, who is at amity with them, (saving his duty +to his own communion and to the truth itself,) who tries to edify them, +while he edifies himself and his own people, may surely be considered, +as far as he himself is concerned, as breaking down the middle wall of +the division, and renewing the ancient bonds of unity and concord by the +power of charity. Charity can do all things for us; charity is at once a +spirit of zeal and peace; by charity we shall faithfully protest against +what our private judgment warrants us in condemning in others; and by +charity we have it in our own hands, let all men oppose us, to restore +in our own circle the intercommunion of the Churches. + +There is only one quarter from which a cloud can come over us, and +darken and bewilder our course. If, _nefas dictu_, our Church is by any +formal acts rendered schismatical, while Greek and Roman idolatry +remains not of the Church, but in it merely, denounced by Councils, +though admitted by authorities of the day,--if our own communion were to +own itself Protestant, while foreign communions disclaimed the +superstition of which they are too tolerant,--if the profession of +Ancient Truth were to be persecuted in our Church, and its teachings +forbidden,--then doubtless, for a season, Catholic minds among us would +be unable to see their way. + + + + +LESLIE STEPHEN. + +BORN 1832. + + + + +AN APOLOGY FOR PLAINSPEAKING. + +BY LESLIE STEPHEN. + + +All who would govern their intellectual course by no other aim than the +discovery of truth, and who would use their faculty of speech for no +other purpose than open communications of their real opinions to others, +are met by protests from various quarters. Such protests, so far as they +imply cowardice or dishonesty, must of course be disregarded, but it +would be most erroneous to confound all protests in the same summary +condemnation. Reverent and kindly minds shrink from giving an +unnecessary shock to the faith which comforts many sorely tried souls; +and even the most genuine lovers of truth may doubt whether the time has +come at which the decayed scaffolding can be swept away without injuring +the foundations of the edifice. Some reserve, they think, is necessary, +though reserve, as they must admit, passes but too easily into +insincerity. + +And thus, it is often said by one class of thinkers, Why attack a system +of beliefs which is crumbling away quite fast enough without your help? +Why, says another class, try to shake beliefs which, whether true or +false, are infinitely consoling to the weaker brethren? I will endeavor +to conclude these essays, in which I have possibly made myself liable to +some such remonstrances, by explaining why I should think it wrong to be +bound by them; I will, however, begin by admitting frankly that I +recognize their force so far as this; namely, that I have no desire to +attack wantonly any sincere beliefs in minds unprepared for the +reception of more complete truths. This book, perhaps, would be +unjustifiable if it were likely to become a text-book for school-girls +in remote country parsonages. But it is not very probable that it will +penetrate to such quarters; nor do I flatter myself that I have brought +forward a single argument which is not already familiar to educated men. +Whatever force there may be in its pages is only the force of an appeal +to people who already agree in my conclusions to state their agreement +in plain terms; and, having said this much, I will answer the questions +suggested as distinctly as I am able. + +To the first question, why trouble the last moments of a dying creed, my +reply would be in brief that I do not desire to quench the lingering +vitality of the dying so much as to lay the phantoms of the dead. I +believe that one of the greatest dangers of the present day is the +general atmosphere of insincerity in such matters, which is fast +producing a scepticism not as to any or all theologies, but as to the +very existence of intellectual good faith. Destroy credit, and you ruin +commerce; destroy all faith in religious honesty and you ruin something +of infinitely more importance than commerce; ideas should surely be +preserved as carefully as cotton from the poisonous influence of a +varnish intended to fit them for public consumption. "The time is come," +says Mr. Mill in his autobiography, "in which it is the duty of all +qualified persons to speak their minds about popular religious beliefs." +The reason which he assigns is that they would thus destroy the "vulgar +prejudice" that unbelief is connected with bad qualities of head and +heart. It is, I venture to remark, still more important to destroy the +belief of sceptics themselves that in these matters a system of pious +frauds is creditable or safe. Effeminating and corrupting as all +equivocation comes to be in the long run, there are other evils behind. +Who can see without impatience the fearful waste of good purpose and +noble aspiration caused by our reticence at a time when it is of primary +importance to turn to account all the forces which make for the +elevation of mankind? How much intellect and zeal runs to waste in the +spasmodic effort of good men to cling _to_ the last fragments of +decaying systems, to galvanize dead formulæ into some dim semblance of +life! Society will not improve as it might when those who should be +leaders of progress are staggering backward and forward with their eyes +passionately reverted to the past. Nay, we shall never be duly sensitive +to the miseries and cruelties which make the world a place of torture +for so many, so long as men are encouraged in the name of religion to +look for a remedy, not in fighting against surrounding evils, but in +cultivating aimless contemplations of an imaginary ideal. Much of our +popular religion seems to be expressly directed to deaden our sympathies +with our fellow-men by encouraging an indolent optimism; our thoughts of +the other world are used in many forms as an opiate to drug our minds +with indifference to the evils of this; and the last word of half our +preachers is, dream rather than work. + +To the other question, Why deprive men of their religious consolations? +I must make a rather longer reply. In the first place, I must observe +that the burden of proof does not rest with me. If any one should tell +me explicitly, a certain dogma is false, but it is better not to destroy +it, I would not reply summarily that he is preaching grossly immoral +doctrine; but I would only refrain from the reply because I should think +that he does not quite mean what he says. His real intention, I should +suppose, would be to say that every dogma includes some truth, or is +inseparably associated with true statements, and that I ought to be +careful not to destroy the wheat with the tares. The presumption +remains, at any rate, that a false doctrine is so far mischievous; and +its would-be protector is bound to show that it is impossible to assail +it without striking through its sides at something beyond. If Christ is +not God, the man who denies him to be God is certainly _primâ facie_ +right, though it may perhaps be possible to show that such a denial +cannot be made in practice without attacking a belief in morality. We +may, or it is possible to assert that we may, be under this miserable +necessity, that we cannot speak undiluted truth; truth and falsehood +are, it is perhaps maintainable, so intricately blended in the world +that discrimination is impossible. Still the man who argues thus is +bound to assign some grounds for his melancholy scepticism; and to show +further that the destruction of the figment is too dearly bought by the +assertion of the truth. Therefore, I might be content to say that, in +such cases, the innocence of the plain speaker ought to be assumed until +his guilt is demonstrated. If we had always waited to clear away shams +till we were certain that our action would produce absolutely unmixed +benefits, we should still be worshipping Mumbo-Jumbo. + +But, whilst claiming the advantage of this presumption, I am ready to +meet the objector on his own ground, and to indicate, simply and +inefficiently enough, the general nature of the reasons which convince +me that the objection could not be sustained. To what degree, in fact, +are these sham beliefs, which undoubtedly prevail so widely, a real +comfort to any intelligent person? Many believers have described the +terrible agony with which they had at one period of their lives +listened to the first whisperings of scepticism. The horror with which +they speak of the gulf after managing to struggle back to the right side +is supposed to illustrate the cruelty of encouraging others to take the +plunge. That such sufferings are at times very real and very acute, is +undeniable; and yet I imagine that few who have undergone them would +willingly have missed the experience. I venture even to think that the +recollection is one of unmixed pain only in those cases in which the +sufferer has a half-consciousness that he has not escaped by legitimate +means. If in his despair he has clutched at a lie in order to extricate +himself as quickly as possible and at any price, it is no wonder that he +looks back with a shudder. When the disease has been driven inward by +throwing in abundant doses of Paley, Butler, with perhaps an oblique +reference to preferment and respectability, it continues to give many +severe twinges, and perhaps it may permanently injure the constitution. +But, if it has been allowed to run its natural course, and the sufferer +has resolutely rejected every remedy except fair and honest argument, I +think that the recovery is generally cheering. A man looks back with +something of honest pride at the obstacles through which he has forced +his way to a purer and healthier atmosphere. But, whatever the nature of +such crises generally, there is an obvious reason why, at the present +day, the process is seldom really painful. The change which takes place +is not, in fact, an abandonment of beliefs seriously held and firmly +implanted in the mind, but a gradual recognition of the truth that you +never really held them. The old husk drops off because it has long been +withered, and you discover that beneath is a sound and vigorous growth +of genuine conviction. Theologians have been assuring you that the world +would be intolerably hideous if you did not look through their +spectacles. With infinite pains you have turned away your eyes from the +external light. It is with relief, not regret, that you discover that +the sun shines, and that the world is beautiful without the help of +these optical devices which you had been taught to regard as essential. + +This, of course, is vehemently denied by all orthodox persons; and the +hesitation with which the heterodox impugn their assumption seems to +testify to its correctness. "After all," the believer may say, with much +appearance of truth, "you don't really believe that I can walk by +myself, if you are so tender of removing my crutches." The taunt is fair +enough, and should be fairly met. Cynicism and infidelity are supposed +to be inseparably connected; it is assumed that nobody can attack the +orthodox creed unless he is incapable of sympathizing with the noblest +emotions of our nature. The adversary on purely intellectual grounds +would be awed into silence by its moral beauty, unless he were deficient +in reverence, purity, and love. It must therefore be said, distinctly, +although it cannot be argued at length, that this ground also appears to +me to be utterly untenable. I deny that it is impossible to speak the +truth without implying a falsehood; and I deny equally that it is +impossible to speak the truth without drying up the sources of our +holiest feelings. Those who maintain the affirmative of those +propositions appear to me to be the worst of sceptics, and they would +certainly reduce us to the most lamentable of dilemmas. If we cannot +develop our intellects but at the price of our moral nature, the case is +truly hard. Some such conclusion is hinted by Roman Catholics, but I do +not understand how any one raised under Protestant teaching should +regard it as any thing but cowardly and false. Let me endeavor in the +briefest possible compass to say why, as a matter of fact, the dilemma +seems to me to be illusory. What is it that Christian theology can now +do for us; and in what way does it differ from the teaching of free +thought? + +The world, so far as our vision extends, is full of evil. Life is a sore +burden to many, and a scene of unmixed happiness to none. It is useless +to inquire whether on the whole the good or the evil is the more +abundant, or to decide whether to make such an inquiry be any thing else +than to ask whether the world has been, on the whole, arranged to suit +our tastes. The problem thus presented is utterly inscrutable on every +hypothesis. Theology is as impotent in presence of it as science. +Science, indeed, withdraws at once from such questions; whilst theology +asks us to believe that this "sorry scheme of things" is the work of +omnipotence guided by infinite benevolence. This certainly makes the +matter no clearer, if it does not raise additional difficulties; and, +accordingly, we are told that the existence of evil is a mystery. In any +case, we are brought to a stand: and the only moral which either science +or theology can give is that we should make the best of our position. + +Theology, however, though it cannot explain, or can only give verbal +explanations, can offer a consolation. This world, we are told, is not +all; there is a beyond and a hereafter; we may hope for an eternal life +under conditions utterly inconceivable, though popular theology has made +a good many attempts to conceive them. If it were further asserted that +this existence would be one of unmixed happiness, there would be at +least a show of compensation. But, of course, that is what no theologian +can venture to say. It is needless to call the Puritan divine, with his +babes of a span long now lying in hell, or that Romanist priest who +revels in describing the most fiendish torture inflicted upon children +by the merciful Creator who made them and exposed them to evil, or any +other of the wild and hideous phantasms that have been evoked by the +imagination of mankind running riot in the world of arbitrary figments. +Nor need we dwell upon the fact, that where theology is really vigorous +it produces such nightmares by an inevitable law; inasmuch as the next +world can be nothing but the intensified reflection of this. It is +enough to say that, if the revelation of a future state be really the +great claim of Christianity upon our attentions, the use which it has +made of that state has been one main cause of its decay. "St. Lewis the +king, having sent Ivo, Bishop of Chartres, on an embassy, the bishop met +a woman on the way, grave, sad, fantastic, and melancholic; with fire in +one hand and water in the other. He asked what those symbols meant. She +answered, 'My purpose is with fire to burn Paradise, and with my water +to quench the flames of hell, that men may serve God without the +incentives of hope and fear, and purely for the love of God.'" "The +woman," adds Jeremy Taylor, "began at the wrong end." Is that so clear? +The attempts of priests to make use of the keys of heaven and hell +brought about the moral revolt of the Reformation; and, at the present +day, the disgust excited by the doctrine of everlasting damnation is +amongst the strongest motives to popular infidelity; all able apologists +feel the strain. Some reasoners quibble about everlasting and eternal; +and the great Catholic logician "submits the whole subject to the +theological school," a process which I do not quite understand, though I +assume it to be consolatory. The doctrine, in short, can hardly be made +tangible without shocking men's consciences and understandings. It +ought, it may be, to be attractive, but when firmly grasped, it becomes +incredible and revolting. + +The difficulty is evaded in two ways. Some amiable and heterodox sects +retain heaven and abolish hell. A kingdom in the clouds may, of course, +be portioned off according to pleasure. The doctrine, however, is +interesting in an intellectual point of view only as illustrating in the +naïvest fashion the common fallacy of confounding our wishes with our +beliefs. The argument that because evil and good are mixed wherever we +can observe, therefore there is elsewhere unmixed good, does not obey +any recognized canons of induction. It would certainly be pleasant to +believe that everybody was going to be happy forever, but whether such a +belief would be favorable to that stern sense of evil which should fit +us to fight the hard battle of this life is a question too easily +answered. Thinkers of a high order do not have recourse to these simple +devices. They retain the doctrine as a protest against materialism, but +purposely retain it in the vaguest possible shape. They say that this +life is not all; if it were all, they argue, we should be rightly ruled +by our stomachs; but they scrupulously decline to give form and +substance to their anticipations. We must, they think, have avowedly a +heavenly background to the world, but our gaze should be restricted +habitually within the visible horizon. The future life is to tinge the +general atmosphere, but not to be offered as a definite goal of action +or a distinct object of contemplation. + +The persons against whom, so far as I know, the charge of materialism +can be brought with the greatest plausibility at the present day are +those who still force themselves to bow before the most grossly material +symbols, and give a physical interpretation to the articles of her +creed. A man who proposes to look for God in this miserable world and +finds Him visiting the diseased imagination of a sickly nun, may perhaps +be in some sense called a materialist, and there is more materialism of +this variety in popular sentimentalisms about the "blood of Jesus" than +in all the writings of the profane men of science. But in a +philosophical sense the charge rests on a pure misunderstanding. + +The man of science or, in other words, the man who most rigidly confines +his imagination within the bounds of the knowable, is every whit as +ready to protest against "materialism" as his antagonist. Those who +distinguish man into two parts, and give the higher qualities to the +soul and the sensual to the body, assume that all who reject their +distinction abolish the soul, and with it abolish all that is not +sensual. Yet every genuine scientific thinker believes in the existence +of love and reverence as he believes in any other facts, and is likely +to set just as high a value upon them as his opponent. He believes +equally with his opponent, that to cultivate the higher emotions, man +must habitually attach himself to objects outside the narrow sphere of +his own personal experience. The difference is that whereas one set of +thinkers would tell us to fix our affections on a state entirely +disparate from that in which we are actually placed, the other would +concentrate them upon objects which form part of the series of events +amongst which we are moving. Which is the more likely to stimulate our +best feelings? We must reply by asking whether the vastness or the +distinctness of a prospect has the greater effect upon the imagination. +Does a man take the greater interest in a future which he can definitely +interpret to himself, or upon one which is admittedly so inconceivable +that it is wrong to dwell upon it, but which allows of indefinite +expansion? Putting aside our own personal interest, do we care more for +the fate of our grandchildren whom we shall never see, or for the +condition of spiritual beings the conditions of whose existence are +utterly unintelligible to us? If sacrifice of our lower pleasures be +demanded, should we be more willing to make them in order that a coming +generation may be emancipated from war and pauperism, or in order that +some indefinite and indefinable change may be worked in a world utterly +inscrutable to our imaginations? The man who has learned to transfer his +aspirations from the next world to this, to look forward to the +diminution of disease and vice here, rather than to the annihilation of +all physical conditions, has, it is hardly rash to assert, gained more +in the distinctness of his aims than he has lost (if, indeed, he has +lost any thing) in their elevation. + +Were it necessary to hunt out every possible combination of opinion, I +should have to inquire whether the doctrine of another world might not +be understood in such a sense as to involve no distortion of our views. +The future world may be so arranged that the effect of the two sets of +motives upon our minds may be always coincident. Our interest in our +descendants might be strengthened without being distracted by a belief +in our own future existence. Of such a theory I have now only space to +say that it is not that which really occurs in practice: and that the +instincts which make us cling to a vivid belief in the future always +spring from a vehement revolt against the present. Meanwhile, however, +the answers generally given to sceptics are apparently contradictory. To +limit our hopes to this world, it is sometimes said, is to encourage +mere grovelling materialism; in the same breath it is added that to ask +for an interest in the fate of our fellow-creatures here, instead of +ourselves hereafter, is to make excessive demands upon human +selfishness. The doctrine it seems is at once too elevated and too +grovelling. + +The theory on which the latter charge rests seems to be that you can +take an interest in yourself at any distance, but not in others if they +are outside the circle of your own personality. This doctrine, when +boldly expressed, seems to rest upon the very apotheosis of selfishness. +Theologians have sometimes said, in perfect consistency, that it would +be better for the whole race of man to perish in torture than that a +single sin should be committed. One would rather have thought that a man +had better be damned a thousand times over than allow of such a +catastrophe; but, however this may be, the doctrine now suggested +appears to be equally revolting, unless diluted so far as to be +meaningless. It amounts to asserting that our love of our own +infinitesimal individuality is so powerful that any matter in which we +are personally concerned has a weight altogether incommensurable with +that of any matter in which we have no concern. People who hold such a +doctrine would be bound in consistency to say that they would not cut +off their little finger to save a million of men from torture after +their own death. Every man must judge of his own state of mind; though +there is nothing on which people are more liable to make mistakes; and I +am charitable enough to hope that the actions of such men would be in +practice as different as possible from what they anticipate in theory. +But it is enough to say that experience, if it proves any thing, proves +this to be an inaccurate view of human nature. All the threats of +theologians with infinite stores of time and torture to draw upon, +failed to wean men from sins which gave them a passing gratification, +even when faith was incomparably stronger than it is now, or is likely +to be again. One reason, doubtless, is that the conscience is as much +blunted by the doctrines of repentance and absolution as it is +stimulated by the threats of hell-fire. But is it not contrary to all +common-sense to expect that the motive will retain any vital strength +when the very people who rely upon it admit that it rests on the most +shadowy of grounds? The other motive, which is supposed to be so +incomparably weaker that it cannot be used as a substitute, has yet +proved its strength in every age of the world. As our knowledge of +nature and the growth of our social development impress upon us more +strongly every day that we live the close connection in which we all +stand to each other, the intimate "solidarity" of all human interests, +it is not likely to grow weaker; a young man will break a blood-vessel +for the honor of a boat-club; a savage will allow himself to be tortured +to death for the credit of his tribe; why should it be called visionary +to believe that a civilized human being will make personal sacrifices +for the benefit of men whom he has perhaps not seen, but whose intimate +dependence upon himself he realizes at every moment of his life? May not +such a motive generate a predominant passion with men framed to act upon +it by a truly generous system of education? And is it not an insult to +our best feelings and a most audacious feat of logic, to declare on _à +priori_ grounds that such feelings must be a straw in the balance when +weighed against our own personal interest in the fate of a being whose +nature is inconceivable to us, whose existence is not certain, whose +dependence upon us is indeterminate, simply because it is said that, in +some way or other, it and we are continuous? + +The real meaning, however, of this clinging to another life is doubtless +very different. It is simply an expression of the reluctance of the +human being to use the awful word "never." As the years take from us, +one by one, all that we have loved, we try to avert our gaze; we are +fain to believe that in some phantom world all will be given back to us, +and that our toys have only been laid by in the nursery upstairs. Who, +indeed, can deny that to give up these dreams involves a cruel pang? +But, then, who but the most determined optimist can deny that a cruel +pang is inevitable? Is not the promise too shadowy to give us real +satisfaction? The whole lesson of our lives is summed up in teaching us +to say "never" without needless flinching, or, in other words, in +submitting to the inevitable. The theologian bids us repent, and waste +our lives in vain regrets for the past, and in tremulous hopes that the +past may yet be the future. Science tells us--what, indeed, we scarcely +need to learn from science--that what is gone, is gone, and that the +best wisdom of life is the acceptance of accomplished facts. + + "The moving Finger writes, and having writ, + Moves on; nor all your piety nor wit + Can lure it back to cancel half a line, + Nor all your tears wipe out a word of it." + +Never repent, unless by repentance you mean drawing lessons from past +experience. Beating against the bars of fate you will only wound +yourself, and mar what yet remains to you. Grief for the past is useful +so far as it can be transmuted into renewed force for the future. The +love of those we have lost may enable us to love better those who +remain, and those who are to come. So used, it is an infinitely precious +possession, and to be cherished with all our hearts. As it leads to +vain regrets, it is at best an enervating enjoyment, and a needless +pain. The figments of theology are a consecration of our delusive +dreams; the teaching of the new faith should be the utilization of every +emotion to the bettering of the world of the future. + +The ennobling element of the belief in a future life is beyond the +attack, or rather is strengthened by the aid, of science. Science, like +theology, bids us look beyond our petty personal interests, and +cultivate faculties other than the digestive. Theology aims at +stimulating the same instincts, but provides them with an object in some +shifting cloud-land of the imagination instead of the definite _terra +firma_ of this tangible earth. The imagination, bound by no external +laws, may form what rules it pleases, and may therefore lend itself to a +refined selfishness, or to dreamy sentimentalism. When we rise beyond +ourselves we are most in need of some definite guidance, and in the +greatest danger of following some delusive phantom. The process +illustrated by this case is operative throughout the whole sphere of +religious thought. The essence of theology, as popularly understood, is +the division of the universe into two utterly disparate elements. God +is conceived as a ruler external to the ordinary series of phenomena, +but intervening at more or less frequent intervals; between the natural +and the supernatural, the human and the divine element, there can be no +proper comparison. Man must be vile that God may be exalted; reason must +be folly when put beside revelation; the force of man must be weakness +when it encounters Providence. Wherever, in short, we recognize the +Divine hand, we can but prostrate ourselves in humble adoration. In +franker times, when people meant what they said, this creed was followed +to its logical results. The dogmas of the literal inspiration of the +Scripture, or of the infallibility of the Church, recognized the +presence of a flawless perfection in the midst of utter weakness. The +corruption of human nature, the irresistible power of Divine grace, the +magical efficacy of the Sacraments are corollaries from the same theory. +In the phraseology popular with a modern school we are told that the +essence of Christianity is the belief in the fatherhood of God. That +doctrine is intelligible and may be beautiful so long as we retain a +sufficient degree of anthropomorphism. But as our conceptions of the +universe and, therefore, of its Ruler are elevated, we too often feel +that the use of the word "father" does not prevent the weight of His +hand from crushing us. If noble souls can convert even suffering into +useful discipline, it is but a flimsy optimism which covers all +suffering by the name of paternal chastisement. The universe partitioned +between infinite power and infinite weakness becomes a hopeless chaos; +and when we proceed farther, and try to identify the Divine and the +human elements amidst this intricate blending of good and evil we are in +danger of vital error at every step. What, in fact, can be more +disastrous, and yet more inevitable, than to mistake our corrupt +instincts for the voice of God, or, on the other hand, to condemn the +Divine intimations as sinful? How can we avoid at every instant +committing the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the ineffable +Holiness? And if, indeed, the distinction be groundless, are we not of +necessity dislocating our conceptions of the universe, and hopelessly +perplexing our sense of duty? + +Take, for instance, one common topic which is typical of the general +process. Divines never tire of holding up to us the example of Christ. +If Christ were indeed a man like ourselves, his example may be fairly +quoted. We willingly place him in the very front rank of the heroes who +have died for the good of our race. But if Christ were in any true sense +God or inseparably united to God, the example disappears. We honor him +because he endured agonies and triumphed over doubts and weaknesses that +would have paralyzed a less noble soul. The agonies and the doubts and +the weakness are unintelligible on the hypothesis of an incarnate God. +Theologians escape by the old loophole of mystery, ordinary believers by +thinking of Christ as man and God alternately. We can doubtless deceive +ourselves by such juggling, but we cannot honestly escape from the +inevitable dilemma. In paying a blasphemous reverence to Christ, +theologians have either placed him beyond the reach of our sympathies, +or have lowered God to the standard of humanity. Let us, if possible, +dwell with an emotion of brotherly love on the sufferings of every +martyr in the cause of humanity, but you sever the very root of our +sympathy when you single out one as divine and raise him to the skies. +Why stand we gazing into heaven when we have but to look round to catch +the contagion of noble enthusiasm from men of our own race? The ideal +becomes meaningless when it is made supernatural. + +The same perplexity meets us at every step; we are to follow Christ's +example. Be humble, it is said, as Christ was humble. Theology indeed +would prescribe annihilation rather than humiliation. Man in presence of +the Infinite is absolutely nothing. Science, according to a glib +commonplace of popular writers, agrees with theology in prescribing +humility. But that very ambiguous word has a totally different meaning +in the two cases. Science bids us recognize the inevitable limitation of +our powers, and the feebleness of any individual as compared with the +mass. We can do but little: and at every step we are dependent upon the +co-operation of countless millions of our race and an indefinite series +of past generations. We are like the coral insects, who can add but a +hair's breadth to the structure which has been raised by their +predecessors. Yet the little which we can do is something; and we will +neither degrade ourselves nor our race. As measured by an absolute +standard, man may be infinitesimal, but the absolute is beyond our +powers. Science tells us that our little individuality might be swept +out of existence without appreciable injury to the world; but it adds +that the world is built up of infinitesimal atoms, and that each must +co-operate in the general result. Theology crushes us into nothingness +by placing us in the presence of the infinite God; and then compensates +by making us divine ourselves. Man is a mere worm, but he can by +priestly magic bring God to earth; he is hopelessly ignorant, but set on +a throne and properly manipulated he becomes an infallible vice-God; he +is a helpless creature, and yet this creature can define with more than +scientific accuracy the precise nature of his inconceivable Creator; he +grovels on the ground as a miserable sinner and stands up to declare +that he is the channel of Divine inspiration; all his wisdom is +ignorance, but he has written one book of which every line is absolutely +perfect: and meanwhile that which one man singles out as the Divine +element is to another the diabolical, so strangely dim is our vision, +and so imperceptible is the difference between the Infinite and the +infinitesimal. + +Or, again, we are to deny ourselves as Christ denied himself. But what +are the limits and the purpose of this self-denial? Am I to carry on an +indefinite warfare against the body, which you say that God has given +me, and to crush the physical for the sake of the spiritual element? +What is the line between the spirit which is of God, and the body which +is hopelessly corrupt? All sound reasoning prescribes a training with +the given purpose of bringing the instincts of the individual into +harmony with the interests of the whole social organism. Theology trying +to lay down an absolute law sometimes encourages the extremes of +asceticism, sometimes it inclines to antinomianism; and sometimes +sanctions the condonation of sin in consideration of acts of +humiliation. + +We are to resign ourselves to God's will, say theologians, but what is +God's will? If it is the inevitable, then theology falls in with free +reason. But if God's will be, as theologians maintain, something which +we are at liberty to resist or to obey, then resignation implies our +ignoble yielding to evils which might be extirpated. Theology deifies +the force of circumstances, when our life should be a victory over +circumstances, and encourages us to repine over misfortunes, where all +repining is useless. + +Christ, you say, died for us; and Butler, in the book which still +receives more praise than any other attempt at reconciling philosophy +and theology, tries to show that here, at least, the two doctrines are +in harmony. He has probably produced, in men of powerful intellects, +more atheism than he has cured; for he tries to demonstrate explicitly +what is tacitly assumed by most theologians--the injustice of God. The +doctrine may be horrible, but he says that facts prove it to be true. +His whole logic consists in simply begging the question by calling +suffering punishment. That the potter should be angry with his pots is +certainly inconceivable; but when you once attempt to trace the +supernatural in life, it undoubtedly follows that God is not only weak +with the creatures he has made, but punishes the innocent for the +guilty. Theologians may rest complacently in such a conclusion; to +unprejudiced persons, it appears to be the clearest illustration of the +futility of their theories. Free thought declines to call suffering a +punishment; but it admits and turns to account the undoubted fact, that +men are so closely connected, that every injury inflicted upon one is +inevitably propagated to others. If morality be the science of +minimizing human misery, to say that sin brings suffering, is merely to +express an identical proposition. The lesson, however, remains for us +that we should look beyond our petty, personal interests, because no +act can be merely personal. The stone which we throw spreads widening +circles to all eternity, and to realize that fact is to intensify the +sense of responsibility; but the same doctrine translated into the +theological dialect becomes shocking or "mysterious." + +Finally, we are to love our brothers as Christ loved us. That, truly, is +an excellent doctrine, but translated into the theological, does it not +lose half its efficacy? Love them that are of the household is the more +natural corollary from the Christian tenets than love all mankind. +People sometimes express surprise that the mild doctrines of +Christianity should be pressed into the service of persecution. What +more natural? "We love you," says the theologian to the heathen, "but +still you are children of the devil. We love men, but the human heart is +desperately wicked. We love your souls, but we hate your bodies. We love +you as brothers; but then God, who so loved the world as to give His Son +to die for it, has left the vast majority to follow their own road to +perdition, and given to us a monopoly of truth and grace. We can only +follow His example, and adore the mysterious dispensations of +Providence." + +"Ah!" replies a different school, "that is indeed a blasphemous and +hideous doctrine. We will not presume to divide the human from the +divine. God is the father of all men; His grace is confined to no sect +or creed. His revelation is made to the universal human heart as well as +to a select number of prophets and apostles. He is known in the order of +nature as well as by miracles. The body has been created by Him as well +as the soul, and all instincts are of heavenly origin and require +cultivation not extirpation." + +Whether this doctrine is reconcilable with Christianity is a question +not to be discussed here. It certainly does not imply those flat +contradictions of the lessons of experience which emerge from the other +method of thought. It asks us to believe no miracles. It involves no +supernaturalism. Whatever is, is natural, and is at the same time +divine. Stated, indeed, as a bare logical formula, the doctrine seems to +elude our grasp. It is intelligible to say that Christ was divine and +Mahomet human, for the statement implies a comparison between two +different terms; but if you say that Christ and Mahomet are both of the +same class, what does it matter whether you call them both divine or +both human? Every logical statement implies an exclusion as well as +inclusion. To say that A is B is meaningless if you add that every other +conceivable letter is also B. You attempt to make everybody rich by +reckoning their property in pence instead of pounds, and the process, +though at first sight attractive, is unsatisfactory. In fact, this phase +of opinion generally slips back into the preceding. We find that +exceptions are insensibly made, and that after pronouncing nature to be +divine, it is tacitly assumed there is an indefinite region which is +somehow outside nature. Few people have the reasoning tendency +sufficiently developed to follow out this view to its logical result in +Pantheism. Yet short of that, there is no really stable resting-place. + +Let us glance, however, for a moment at the ordinary application of the +doctrine. The theologian agrees with the man of science in admitting +that we are governed by unalterable laws, or, as the man of science +prefers to say, that the world shows nothing but a series of invariable +sequences and co-existences. The difference is, in other words, that the +theologian puts a legislator behind the laws, whilst the man of science +sees nothing behind them but impenetrable mystery. The difference, so +far as any practical conclusions are concerned, is obviously nothing. +The laws of Nature, you tell us, are the work of infinite goodness and +wisdom. But we are utterly unable to say what infinite goodness and +wisdom would do, except by showing what it has done. Therefore, the +ultimate appeal of the theologian, is as unequivocally to the laws as +the primary appeal of the man of science. He has made a show of going to +a higher court only to be referred back again to the original tribunal. +History, for example, shows that mankind blunders by degrees into an +improved condition and calls the process progress. Theology can give no +additional guaranty for progress, for a state of things once compatible +may, for any thing we can say, always remain compatible with infinite +wisdom and goodness. As a matter of historical fact, theology only +suggested the dogma of man's utter vileness, and all genuine theologians +are marked by their readiness to believe in deterioration instead of +progress. They look forward to a future world instead of this. But what +reason have they to believe in this future of blessedness? God's love +for His creatures? But the most prominent fact written on the whole +surface of the world is what we cannot help calling the reckless and +profuse waste of life. If every thing we see teaches us that millions of +individuals are crushed at every step by the progress of the race, and +if that process is, as it must be, compatible with infinite goodness, +why suppose that infinite goodness will act differently in future? It is +an ever-recurring but utterly fruitless sophistry which first infers God +from nature, and then pronounces God to be different from nature. + +The only meaning, indeed, which can be given to the theological +statement when thus interpreted is that we should accustom ourselves to +look with reverence and love upon the universe. That love and reverence +are emotions which deserve our most strenuous efforts at cultivation; +that we should be profoundly impressed by the vast system of which we +form an infinitesimal part; that we should habitually think of ourselves +in relation to the long perspective of events which stretches far away +from us to the dim distance and toward the invisible future, are indeed +lessons which all sound reasoning tends to confirm. But when we are +invited to love and wonder at the world, as the work of God, we must +guard against the old trick of substitution which is constantly played +upon us. Once more, the God of nature is turned into the God of a part +of nature. Theology of the old stamp, so far from encouraging us to love +nature, teaches us that it is under a curse. It teaches us to look upon +the animal creation with shuddering disgust; upon the whole race of man, +outside our narrow sect, as delivered over to the devil; and upon the +laws of nature at large as a temporary mechanism, in which we have been +caught, but from which we are to anticipate a joyful deliverance. It is +science, not theology, which has changed all this; it is the atheists, +infidels, and rationalists, as they are kindly called, who have taught +us to take fresh interest in our poor fellow denizens of the world, and +not to despise them because Almighty benevolence could not be expected +to admit them to heaven; to the same teaching we owe the recognition of +the noble aspirations embodied in every form of religion, and the +destruction of the ancient monopoly of Divine influences; and it is +science again that has taught us to accommodate ourselves to the laws in +which we are placed, instead of fruitlessly struggling against them and +invoking miraculous interference to conquer them. The theology of which +I am now speaking differs, indeed, radically from the old, so radically +that one is at times surprised that the agreement, to use a common word, +should reconcile vital differences in faith. But it often tends to the +same end by a different path. It attempts to deny the existence of +evils, instead of proclaiming their ultimate destruction. Every thing +comes from a paternal hand; why struggle against it? Disease and +starvation and nakedness are, somehow or other, parts of a divine system +which is somehow or other deserving of our sincerest adoration. If +anybody who is in fact naked or sick or starving takes that phrase in +the sense that he had better submit cheerfully to evils which he cannot +help, there is little to be said against it. If the doctrine of the +Divine origin of all things is compatible with the belief that a vast +number of things are utterly hateful, that we ought to spend our whole +energy in eradicating them, and to protest against them with our latest +breath, then the doctrine is certainly innocuous. But whether there is +much use in language thus employed seems a little questionable; and, in +any case, it is clear that it really adds nothing, except words, to the +teaching of science. + +Here again people cling passionately to the old formulæ because they +appear to sanction a soothing optimism. We cannot be happy, it is said, +unless we believe that our wishes will be fulfilled; and we endeavor to +convert our wishes into a guaranty for their own fulfilment. If we +cannot make up our minds to say "never," neither can we resolve to admit +that there is really evil. We passionately assert that the past will +come back and that pain will turn out to be an illusion. The argument +against the infidel comes essentially to this; you tell me that my hopes +will not be realized, and therefore you make me necessarily and +needlessly miserable. For God's sake, do not disperse my dreams. People +are not satisfied with the answer that the nightmare has gone as well as +the vision of bliss, and that fears are destroyed as much as hopes; +because, as a matter of fact, they can contrive to dwell upon that part +of the doctrine which is comfortable for the moment. We have power over +our dreams though we conceal its exercise from ourselves. But the +argument itself involves the fundamental fallacy. To destroy a +groundless hope is not to destroy a man's happiness. The instantaneous +effort may be painful: but it is the price which we have to pay for a +cure of deep-seated complaints. The infidel's reply is substantially +this: I may destroy your hopes; but I do not destroy your power of +hoping. I bid you no longer fix your mind on a chimera but on tangible +and realizable prospects. I warn you that efforts to soar above the +atmosphere can only lead to disappointment, and that time spent in +squaring the circle is simply time spent. Apply your strength and your +intellect on matters which lie at hand and on problems which admit of a +solution. The happiest man is not the man who has the grandest dreams, +but the man whose aspirations are best fitted to guide his talents: the +most efficient worker is not the one who mistakes his own fancies for an +external support, but he who has most accurately gauged the conditions +under which he is laboring. Trust in Providence may lead you to pass +successfully through dangers which would have repelled an unbeliever, or +it may lead you to break your neck in pursuing a dream. It makes heroes +and cowards, patriots and assassins, saints and bigots who each mistake +their wisdom or their folly for divine intimations. Providence for us +can only be that aggregate of external forces to which willingly or +unwillingly we must adapt ourselves. We should calmly calculate by all +available means the conditions of our life, and then dare, without +ignoring, the dangers that are inevitable. Through all human affairs +there runs an element of uncertainty which cannot be suppressed, and we +seek in vain to disguise it under names consecrated by old associations; +there are evils which are only made more poignant by our efforts to +explain them away; and to each of us will very speedily come an end of +his labors in the world. We can best fortify ourselves by recognizing +and submitting to the inevitable and by anchoring our minds on the +firmest holding ground. Science will tell us that by working with the +great forces that move the world, we may contribute some fragment to an +edifice which will not be broken down; that to think for others instead +of limiting our hopes to our petty interests is the best remedy for +unavailing regret. We can take our part in the long warfare of man +against the world, which is nothing else but the gradual accommodation +of the race to the conditions of its dwelling-place. By so disciplining +our thoughts that we may fight eagerly and hopefully, we have the best +security for happiness, and not in encouraging an idle dwelling upon +visions which can never be verified, and which are apt to become most +ghastly when we most wish for consolation. + +To the question, then, from which I started, it seems that an +unequivocal reply can be given. Why help to destroy the old faith from +which people derive, or believe themselves to derive, so much spiritual +solace? The answer is, that the loss is overbalanced by the gain. We +lose nothing that ought to be really comforting in the ancient creeds; +we are relieved from much that is burdensome to the imagination and to +the intellect. Those creeds were indeed in great part the work of the +best and ablest of our forefathers; they therefore provide some +expression for the highest emotions of which our nature is capable; but, +to say nothing of the lower elements which have intruded, of the +concessions made to bad passions, and to the wants of a ruder form of +society, they are at best the approximations to the truth of men who +entertained a radically erroneous conception of the universe. +Astronomers who went on the Ptolemaic theory managed to provide a very +fair description of the actual phenomena of the heavens; but the solid +result of their labors was not lost when the Copernican system took its +place; and incalculable advantages followed from casting aside the old +cumbrous machinery of cycles and epicycles in favor of the simpler +conceptions of the new doctrine. A similar change follows when man is +placed at the centre of the religious and moral system. We still retain +the faiths at which theologians arrived by a complex machinery of +arbitrary contrivances destined to compensate one set of dogmas by +another. The justice of God the Father is tempered by the mercy of God +the Son, as the planet wheeled too far forward by the cycle is brought +back to its place by the epicycle. When we strike out the elaborate +arrangements, the truths which they aim at expressing are capable of far +simpler statements; infinite error and distortion disappear, and the +road is open for conceptions impossible under the old circuitous and +erroneous methods. + +We have arrived at the point from which we can detect the source of +ancient errors, and extract the gold from the dross. One thing, indeed, +remains for the present impossible. The old creed, elaborated by many +generations, and consecrated to our imaginations by a vast wealth of +associations, is adapted in a thousand ways to the wants of its +believers. The new creed--whatever may be its ultimate form--has not +been thus formulated and hallowed to our minds. We, whose fetters are +just broken, cannot tell what the world will look like to men brought up +in the full blaze of day, and accustomed from infancy to the free use of +their limbs. For centuries all ennobling passions have been +industriously associated with the hope of personal immortality, and base +passions with its rejection. We cannot fully realize the state of men +brought up to look for a reward of heroic sacrifice in the consciousness +of good work achieved in this world instead of in the hope of posthumous +repayment. Nor again, have we, if we shall ever have, any system capable +of replacing the old forms of worship by which the imagination was +stimulated and disciplined. That such reflections should make many men +pause before they reveal the open secret is intelligible enough. But +what is the true moral to be derived from them? Surely that we should +take courage and speak the truth. We should take courage, for even now +the new faith offers to us a more cheering and elevating prospect than +the old. When it shall have become familiar to men's minds, have worked +itself into the substance of our convictions, and provided new channels +for the utterance of our emotions, we may anticipate incomparably higher +results. We are only laying the foundations of the temple, and know not +what will be the glories of the completed edifice. Yet already the +prospect is beginning to clear. The sophistries which entangle us are +transparent. That faith is not the noblest which enables us to believe +the greatest number of articles on the least evidence; nor is that +doctrine really the most productive of happiness which encourages us to +cherish the greatest number of groundless hopes. The system which is +really most calculated to make men happy is that which forces them to +live in a bracing atmosphere; which fits them to look facts in the face +and to suppress vain repinings by strenuous action instead of luxurious +dreaming. + +And hence, too, the time is come for speaking plainly. If you would wait +to speak the truth until you can replace the old decaying formula by a +completely elaborated system, you must wait for ever; for the system +can never be elaborated until its leading principles have been boldly +enunciated. Reconstruct, it is said, before you destroy. But you must +destroy in order to reconstruct. The old husk of dead faith is pushed +off by the growth of living beliefs below. But how can they grow unless +they find distinct utterance? and how can they be distinctly uttered +without condemning the doctrines which they are to replace? The truth +cannot be asserted without denouncing the falsehood. Pleasant as the +process might be of announcing the truth and leaving the falsehood to +decay of itself, it cannot be carried into practice. Men's minds must be +called back from the present of phantoms and encouraged to follow the +only path which tends to enduring results. We cannot afford to make the +tacit concession that our opinions, though true, are depressing and +debasing. No; they are encouraging and elevating. If the medicine is +bitter to the taste, it is good for the digestion. Here and there, a +bold avowal of the truth will disperse a pleasing dream, as here and +there it will relieve us of an oppressing nightmare. But it is not by +striking balances between these pains and pleasures that the total +effect of the creed is to be measured; but by the permanent influence on +the mind of seeing things in their true light and dispersing the old +halo of erroneous imagination. To inculcate reticence at the present +moment is simply to advise us to give one more chance to the development +of some new form of superstition. If the faith of the future is to be a +faith which can satisfy the most cultivated as well as the feeblest +intellects, it must be founded on an unflinching respect for realities. +If its partisans are to win a definitive victory, they must cease to +show quarter to lies. The problem is stated plainly enough to leave no +room for hesitation. We can distinguish the truth from falsehood, and +see where confusion has been reproduced, and truth pressed into the +service of falsehood. Nothing more is wanted but to go forward boldly, +and reject once for all the weary compromises and elaborate adaptations +which have become a mere vexation to all honest men. The goal is clearly +in sight, though it may be distant; and we decline any longer to travel +in disguise by circuitous paths, or to apologize for being in the right. +Let us think freely and speak plainly, and we shall have the highest +satisfaction that man can enjoy--the consciousness that we have done +what little lies in ourselves to do for the maintenance of the truths on +which the moral improvement and the happiness of our race depend. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +[1] It is objected that geology is a science: yet that geology cannot +foretell the future changes of the earth's surface. Geology is not a +century old, and its periods are measured by millions of years. Yet, if +geology cannot foretell future facts, it enabled Sir Roderick Murchison +to foretell the discovery of Australian gold. + +[2] February, 1864. + +[3] I am here applying to this particular purpose a line of thought +which both myself and others have often applied to other purposes. See, +above all, Sir Henry Maine's lecture on "Kinship as the Basis of +Society" in the lectures on the "Early History of Institutions"; I would +refer also to my own lecture on "The State" in "Comparative Politics." + +[4] While the Swiss Confederation recognizes German, French, and Italian +as all alike national languages, the independent Romance language, which +is still used in some parts of the Canton of Graubünden, that which is +known specially as _Romansch_, is not recognized. It is left in the same +position in which Welsh and Gaelic are left in Great Britain, in which +Basque, Breton, Provençal, Walloon, and Flemish are left within the +borders of that French kingdom which has grown so as to take them all +in. + +[5] On Rouman history I have followed Roesler's _Romänische Studien_ and +Jirecek's _Geschichte der Bulgaren_. + +[6] It should be remembered that, as the year 1879 saw the beginning of +the liberated Bulgarian state, the year 679 saw the beginning of the +first Bulgarian kingdom south of the Danube. + +[7] Published in the _North American Review_ for September, 1878. +Republished by permission. + +[8] This topic was much more largely handled by me in the Financial +Statement which I delivered, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, on May 2, +1866. I recommend attention to the excellent article by Mr. Henderson, +in the _Contemporary Review_ for October, 1878: and I agree with the +author in being disposed to think that the protective laws of America +effectually bar the full development of her competing power.--W. E. G., +Nov. 6, 1878. + +[9] See Hor., Od. I., 16. + +[10] This subject has been more fully developed by me in an article on +"England's Mission," contributed to _The Nineteenth Century_ for +September of the present year.--W. E. G., December, 1878. + +[11] This is a proposition of great importance in a disputed +subject-matter; and consequently I have not announced it in a dogmatic +manner, but as a portion of what we "seem to perceive" in the progress +of the American Constitution. It expresses an opinion formed by me upon +an examination of the original documents, and with some attention to the +history, which I have always considered, and have often recommended to +others, as one of the most fruitful studies of modern politics. This is +not the proper occasion to develop its grounds: but I may say that I am +not at all disposed to surrender it in deference to one or two rather +contemptuous critics.--W. E. G., December, 1878. + +[12] Gray's "Bard." + +[13] _Quarterly Review_, April, 1878, Art. I. + +[14] Hor. Od., I, xii, 18. + +[15] Henriade, I. + +[16] Vol. v, pp. 94, 95. Ed. London, 1877. + +[17] Heber's "Palestine." The word "stately" was in later editions +altered by the author to "noiseless." + +[18] [In reply to the intended work of Mr. Adams on the Constitution of +the United States, Mr. Livingstone, under the title of a Colonist of New +Jersey, published an Examination of the British Constitution, and +compared it unfavorably as it had been exhibited by Adams, and by +Delolme, with the institutions of his own country. In this work, of +which I have a French translation (London and Paris, 1789), there is not +the smallest inkling of the action of our political mechanism, such as I +have endeavored to describe it. On this subject I need hardly refer the +reader to the valuable work of Mr. Bagehot, entitled "The English +Constitution," or to the Constitutional History of Sir T. Erskine +May.--W. E. G., December, 1878.] + +[19] Ego cùm audio quenquam bono ingenio præditum, doctrinisque +liberalibus eruditum, quamquam non ibi salus animæ constituta sit, tamen +in _quæstione facillima_ sentire aliud quàm veritas postulat, quo magis +miror, eò magis exardesco nosse hominem et cum eo colloqui; vel si id +non possim, saltem litteris quæ longissimè volant [to the nineteenth +century?] attingere mentem ejus atque ab eo vicissim attingi desidero. +Sicut te esse audio talem virum, et ab Ecclesiâ Catholicâ, quæ sicut +Sancto Spiritu pronunciata est, toto orbe diffunditur, discerptum doleo +atque seclusum.--Ep. 87. _vid._ ep. 61. + +[20] This is an exaggeration; I have reconsidered the whole subject in +my essay on "Development of Doctrine," in 1845; and in my letter to Dr. +Pusey in 1866. + +[21] This passage proves, on the one hand, that such worship as St. John +offered is wrong; on the other, that it does not unchurch, unless we can +fancy St. John guilty of mortal sin. + +[22] All these are merely points of discipline or conduct; but whether +there is a visible Church, and whether it is visibly one, is a question +which as it is answered affirmatively or negatively changes the +essential idea and the entire structure of Christianity. + +[23] Epp. 93, 144. + +[24] As has been said above, this statement is too absolute; at least, +Athanasius was reconciled to Meletius. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Prose Masterpieces from Modern +Essayists, by James Anthony Froude, Edward A. 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Freeman, William Ewart Gladstone, John Henry Newman and Leslie Stephen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Prose Masterpieces from Modern Essayists + +Author: James Anthony Froude, Edward A. Freeman, William Ewart Gladstone, John Henry Newman and Leslie Stephen + +Release Date: July 10, 2006 [EBook #18804] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROSE MASTERPIECES *** + + + + +Produced by Stephen Hope, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>PROSE MASTERPIECES</h1> + +<h4>FROM</h4> + +<h2>MODERN ESSAYISTS</h2> + + +<h4>Froude, Freeman, Gladstone, Newman, Leslie Stephen</h4> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class='center'>NEW YORK & LONDON<br /> +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS<br /> +The Knickerbocker Press<br /> +1891</p> + + + +<p class='center'>The Knickerbocker Press<br /> +Electrotyped and Printed by<br /> +G. P. Putnam's Sons</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + + + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="65%" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Science of History</span>. By James Anthony Froude</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_3'><b>3</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Race and Language</span>. By Edward A. Freeman</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_55'><b>55</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Kin Beyond Sea</span>. By William Ewart Gladstone</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_151'><b>151</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Private Judgment</span>. By John Henry Newman</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_221'><b>221</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">An Apology for Plainspeaking</span>. By Leslie Stephen</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_281'><b>281</b></a></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><br /><br /></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img001.jpg" alt="JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE" title="JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE" /></div> + +<h2>JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE.<br />BORN 1818.</h2> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY.</h2> + +<h4>A LECTURE DELIVERED BY JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION +FEBRUARY 5, 1864.</h4> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>,—I have undertaken to speak to you this +evening on what is called the Science of History. I fear it is a dry +subject; and there seems, indeed, something incongruous in the very +connection of such words as Science and History. It is as if we were to +talk of the color of sound, or the longitude of the Rule-of-three. Where +it is so difficult to make out the truth on the commonest disputed fact +in matters passing under our very eyes, how can we talk of a science in +things long past, which come to us only through books? It often seems to +me as if History was like a child's box of letters, with which we can +spell any word we please. We have only to pick out such letters as we +want, arrange them as we like, and say nothing about those which do not +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>suit our purpose.</p> + +<p>I will try to make the thing intelligible, and I will try not to weary +you; but I am doubtful of my success either way. First, however, I wish +to say a word or two about the eminent person whose name is connected +with this way of looking at History, and whose premature death struck us +all with such a sudden sorrow. Many of you, perhaps, recollect Mr. +Buckle as he stood not so long ago in this place. He spoke more than an +hour without a note,—never repeating himself, never wasting words; +laying out his matter as easily and as pleasantly as if he had been +talking to us at his own fireside. We might think what we pleased of Mr. +Buckle's views, but it was plain enough that he was a man of uncommon +power; and he had qualities also—qualities to which he, perhaps, +himself attached little value—as rare as they were admirable.</p> + +<p>Most of us, when we have hit on something which we are pleased to think +important and original, feel as if we should burst with it. We come out +into the book-market with our wares in hand, and ask for thanks and +recognition. Mr. Buckle, at an early age, conceived the thought which +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>made him famous, but he took the measure of his abilities. He knew that +whenever he pleased he could command personal distinction, but he cared +more for his subject than for himself. He was contented to work with +patient reticence, unknown and unheard of, for twenty years; and then, +at middle life, he produced a work which was translated at once into +French and German, and, of all places in the world, fluttered the +dovecots of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg.</p> + +<p>Goethe says somewhere, that as soon as a man has done any thing +remarkable, there seems to be a general conspiracy to prevent him from +doing it again. He is feasted, fêted, caressed; his time is stolen from +him by breakfasts, dinners, societies, idle businesses of a thousand +kinds. Mr. Buckle had his share of all this; but there are also more +dangerous enemies that wait upon success like his. He had scarcely won +for himself the place which he deserved, than his health was found +shattered by his labors. He had but time to show us how large a man he +was, time just to sketch the outlines of his philosophy, and he passed +away as suddenly as he appeared. He went abroad to recover strength for +his work, but his work was done with and over. He died of a fever at +Damascus, vexed only that he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> compelled to leave it uncompleted. +Almost his last conscious words were: "My book, my book! I shall never +finish my book!" He went away as he had lived, nobly careless of +himself, and thinking only of the thing which he had undertaken to do.</p> + +<p>But his labor had not been thrown away. Disagree with him as we might, +the effect which he had already produced was unmistakable, and it is not +likely to pass away. What he said was not essentially new. Some such +interpretation of human things is as early as the beginning of thought. +But Mr. Buckle, on the one hand, had the art which belongs to men of +genius: he could present his opinions with peculiar distinctness; and, +on the other hand, there is much in the mode of speculation at present +current among us for which those opinions have an unusual fascination. +They do not please us, but they excite and irritate us. We are angry +with them; and we betray, in being so, an uneasy misgiving that there +may be more truth in those opinions than we like to allow.</p> + +<p>Mr. Buckle's general theory was something of this kind: When human +creatures began first to look about them in the world they lived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> in, +there seemed to be no order in any thing. Days and nights were not the +same length. The air was sometimes hot and sometimes cold. Some of the +stars rose and set like the sun; some were almost motionless in the sky; +some described circles round a central star above the north horizon. The +planets went on principles of their own; and in the elements there +seemed nothing but caprice. Sun and moon would at times go out in +eclipse. Sometimes the earth itself would shake under men's feet; and +they could only suppose that earth and air and sky and water were +inhabited and managed by creatures as wayward as themselves.</p> + +<p>Time went on, and the disorder began to arrange itself. Certain +influences seemed beneficent to men, others malignant and destructive; +and the world was supposed to be animated by good spirits and evil +spirits, who were continually fighting against each other, in outward +nature and in human creatures themselves. Finally, as men observed more +and imagined less, these interpretations gave way also. Phenomena the +most opposite in effect were seen to be the result of the same natural +law. The fire did not burn the house down if the owners of it were +careful, but remained on the hearth and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> boiled the pot; nor did it seem +more inclined to burn a bad man's house down than a good man's, provided +the badness did not take the form of negligence. The phenomena of nature +were found for the most part to proceed in an orderly, regular way, and +their variations to be such as could be counted upon. From observing the +order of things, the step was easy to cause and effect. An eclipse, +instead of being a sign of the anger of Heaven, was found to be the +necessary and innocent result of the relative position of sun, moon, and +earth. The comets became bodies in space, unrelated to the beings who +had imagined that all creation was watching them and their doings. By +degrees caprice, volition, all symptoms of arbitrary action, disappeared +out of the universe; and almost every phenomenon in earth or heaven was +found attributable to some law, either understood or perceived to exist. +Thus nature was reclaimed from the imagination. The first fantastic +conception of things gave way before the moral; the moral in turn gave +way before the natural; and at last there was left but one small tract +of jungle where the theory of law had failed to penetrate,—the doings +and characters of human creatures themselves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + +<p>There, and only there, amidst the conflicts of reason and emotion, +conscience and desire, spiritual forces were still conceived to exist. +Cause and effect were not traceable when there was a free volition to +disturb the connection. In all other things, from a given set of +conditions the consequences necessarily followed. With man, the word +"law" changed its meaning; and instead of a fixed order, which he could +not choose but follow, it became a moral precept, which he might disobey +if he dared.</p> + +<p>This it was which Mr. Buckle disbelieved. The economy which prevailed +throughout nature, he thought it very unlikely should admit of this +exception. He considered that human beings acted necessarily from the +impulse of outward circumstances upon their mental and bodily condition +at any given moment. Every man, he said, acted from a motive; and his +conduct was determined by the motive which affected him most powerfully. +Every man naturally desires what he supposes to be good for him; but, to +do well, he must know well. He will eat poison, so long as he does not +know that it is poison. Let him see that it will kill him, and he will +not touch it. The question was not of moral right and wrong. Once let +him be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> thoroughly made to feel that the thing is destructive, and he +will leave it alone by the law of his nature. His virtues are the result +of knowledge; his faults, the necessary consequence of the want of it. A +boy desires to draw. He knows nothing about it: he draws men like trees +or houses, with their centre of gravity anywhere. He makes mistakes +because he knows no better. We do not blame him. Till he is better +taught, he cannot help it. But his instruction begins. He arrives at +straight lines; then at solids; then at curves. He learns perspective, +and light and shade. He observes more accurately the forms which he +wishes to represent. He perceives effects, and he perceives the means by +which they are produced. He has learned what to do; and, in part, he has +learned how to do it. His after-progress will depend on the amount of +force which his nature possesses; but all this is as natural as the +growth of an acorn. You do not preach to the acorn that it is its duty +to become a large tree; you do not preach to the art-pupil that it is +his duty to become a Holbein. You plant your acorn in favorable soil, +where it can have light and air, and be sheltered from the wind; you +remove the superfluous branches, you train the strength into the leading +shoots. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> acorn will then become as fine a tree as it has vital force +to become. The difference between men and other things is only in the +largeness and variety of man's capacities; and in this special capacity, +that he alone has the power of observing the circumstances favorable to +his own growth, and can apply them for himself, yet, again, with this +condition,—that he is not, as is commonly supposed, free to choose +whether he will make use of these appliances or not. When he knows what +is good for him, he will choose it; and he will judge what is good for +him by the circumstances which have made him what he is.</p> + +<p>And what he would do, Mr. Buckle supposed that he always had done. His +history had been a natural growth as much as the growth of the acorn. +His improvement had followed the progress of his knowledge; and, by a +comparison of his outward circumstances with the condition of his mind, +his whole proceedings on this planet, his creeds and constitutions, his +good deeds and his bad, his arts and his sciences, his empires and his +revolutions, would be found all to arrange themselves into clear +relations of cause and effect.</p> + +<p>If, when Mr. Buckle pressed his conclusions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> we objected the difficulty +of finding what the truth about past times really was, he would admit it +candidly as far as concerned individuals; but there was not the same +difficulty, he said, with masses of men. We might disagree about the +character of Julius or Tiberius Cæsar, but we could know well enough the +Romans of the Empire. We had their literature to tell us how they +thought; we had their laws to tell us how they governed; we had the +broad face of the world, the huge mountainous outline of their general +doings upon it, to tell us how they acted. He believed it was all +reducible to laws, and could be made as intelligible as the growth of +the chalk cliffs or the coal measures.</p> + +<p>And thus consistently Mr. Buckle cared little for individuals. He did +not believe (as some one has said) that the history of mankind is the +history of its great men. Great men with him were but larger atoms, +obeying the same impulses with the rest, only perhaps a trifle more +erratic. With them or without them, the course of things would have been +much the same.</p> + +<p>As an illustration of the truth of his view, he would point to the new +science of Political Economy. Here already was a large area of human +activity in which natural laws were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> found to act unerringly. Men had +gone on for centuries trying to regulate trade on moral principles. They +would fix wages according to some imaginary rule of fairness; they would +fix prices by what they considered things ought to cost; they encouraged +one trade or discouraged another, for moral reasons. They might as well +have tried to work a steam-engine on moral reasons. The great statesmen +whose names were connected with these enterprises might have as well +legislated that water should run up-hill. There were natural laws, fixed +in the conditions of things; and to contend against them was the old +battle of the Titans against the gods.</p> + +<p>As it was with political economy, so it was with all other forms of +human activity; and as the true laws of political economy explained the +troubles which people fell into in old times because they were ignorant +of them, so the true laws of human nature, as soon as we knew them, +would explain their mistakes in more serious matters, and enable us to +manage better for the future. Geographical position, climate, air, soil, +and the like, had their several influences. The northern nations are +hardy and industrious, because they must till the earth if they would +eat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> the fruits of it, and because the temperature is too low to make an +idle life enjoyable. In the south, the soil is more productive, while +less food is wanted and fewer clothes; and, in the exquisite air, +exertion is not needed to make the sense of existence delightful. +Therefore, in the south we find men lazy and indolent.</p> + +<p>True, there are difficulties in these views; the home of the languid +Italian was the home also of the sternest race of whom the story of +mankind retains a record. And again, when we are told that the Spaniards +are superstitious because Spain is a country of earthquakes, we remember +Japan, the spot in all the world where earthquakes are most frequent, +and where at the same time there is the most serene disbelief in any +supernatural agency whatsoever.</p> + +<p>Moreover, if men grow into what they are by natural laws, they cannot +help being what they are; and if they cannot help being what they are, a +good deal will have to be altered in our general view of human +obligations and responsibilities.</p> + +<p>That, however, in these theories there is a great deal of truth, is +quite certain, were there but a hope that those who maintain them would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +be contented with that admission. A man born in a Mahometan country +grows up a Mahometan; in a Catholic country, a Catholic; in a Protestant +country, a Protestant. His opinions are like his language: he learns to +think as he learns to speak; and it is absurd to suppose him responsible +for being what nature makes him. We take pains to educate children. +There is a good education and a bad education; there are rules well +ascertained by which characters are influenced; and, clearly enough, it +is no mere matter for a boy's free will whether he turns out well or +ill. We try to train him into good habits; we keep him out of the way of +temptations; we see that he is well taught; we mix kindness and +strictness; we surround him with every good influence we can command. +These are what are termed the advantages of a good education; and if we +fail to provide those under our care with it, and if they go wrong, the +responsibility we feel is as much ours as theirs. This is at once an +admission of the power over us of outward circumstances.</p> + +<p>In the same way, we allow for the strength of temptations, and the like.</p> + +<p>In general, it is perfectly obvious that men do necessarily absorb, out +of the influences in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> which they grow up, something which gives a +complexion to their whole after-character.</p> + +<p>When historians have to relate great social or speculative changes, the +overthrow of a monarchy, or the establishment of a creed, they do but +half their duty if they merely relate the events. In an account, for +instance, of the rise of Mahometanism, it is not enough to describe the +character of the Prophet, the ends which he set before him, the means +which he made use of, and the effect which he produced; the historian +must show what there was in the condition of the Eastern races which +enabled Mahomet to act upon, them so powerfully; their existing beliefs, +their existing moral and political condition.</p> + +<p>In our estimate of the past, and in our calculations of the future, in +the judgments which we pass upon one another, we measure responsibility, +not by the thing done, but by the opportunities which people have had of +knowing better or worse. In the efforts which we make to keep our +children from bad associations or friends, we admit that external +circumstances have a powerful effect in making men what they are.</p> + +<p>But are circumstances every thing? That is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> the whole question. A +science of history, if it is more than a misleading name, implies that +the relation between cause and effect holds in human things as +completely as in all others; that the origin of human actions is not to +be looked for in mysterious properties of the mind, but in influences +which are palpable and ponderable.</p> + +<p>When natural causes are liable to be set aside and neutralized by what +is called volition, the word Science is out of place. If it is free to +man to choose what he will do or not do, there is no adequate science of +him. If there is a science of him, there is no free choice, and the +praise or blame with which we regard one another are impertinent and out +of place.</p> + +<p>I am trespassing upon these ethical grounds because, unless I do, the +subject cannot be made intelligible. Mankind are but an aggregate of +individuals; History is but the record of individual action: and what is +true of the part is true of the whole.</p> + +<p>We feel keenly about such things, and, when the logic becomes +perplexing, we are apt to grow rhetorical about them. But rhetoric is +only misleading. Whatever the truth may be, it is best that we should +know it; and for truth of any kind we should keep our heads and hearts +as cool as we can.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<p>I will say at once, that, if we had the whole case before us; if we were +taken, like Leibnitz's Tarquin, into the council-chamber of Nature, and +were shown what we really were, where we came from, and where we were +going, however unpleasant it might be for some of us to find ourselves, +like Tarquin, made into villains, from the subtle necessities of "the +best of all possible worlds,"—nevertheless, some such theory as Mr. +Buckle's might possibly turn out to be true. Likely enough, there is +some great "equation of the universe" where the value of the unknown +quantities can be determined. But we must treat things in relation to +our own powers and positions, and the question is, whether the sweep of +those vast curves can be measured by the intellect of creatures of a day +like ourselves.</p> + +<p>The "Faust" of Goethe, tired of the barren round of earthly knowledge, +calls magic to his aid. He desires, first, to see the spirit of the +Macrocosmos, but his heart fails him before he ventures that tremendous +experiment, and he summons before him, instead, the spirit of his own +race. There he feels himself at home. The stream of life and the storm +of action, the everlasting ocean of existence, the web and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> woof, +and the roaring loom of Time,—he gazes upon them all, and in passionate +exultation claims fellowship with the awful thing before him. But the +majestic vision fades, and a voice comes to him,—"Thou art fellow with +the spirits which thy mind can grasp, not with me."</p> + +<p>Had Mr. Buckle tried to follow his principles into detail, it might have +fared no better with him than with "Faust."</p> + +<p>What are the conditions of a science? and when may any subject be said +to enter the scientific stage? I suppose when the facts begin to resolve +themselves into groups; when phenomena are no longer isolated +experiences, but appear in connection and order; when, after certain +antecedents, certain consequences are uniformly seen to follow; when +facts enough have been collected to furnish a basis for conjectural +explanation; and when conjectures have so far ceased to be utterly vague +that it is possible in some degree to foresee the future by the help of +them.</p> + +<p>Till a subject has advanced as far as this, to speak of a science of it +is an abuse of language. It is not enough to say that there must be a +science of human things because there is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> science of all other things. +This is like saying the planets must be inhabited because the only +planet of which we have any experience is inhabited. It may or may not +be true, but it is not a practical question; it does not affect the +practical treatment of the matter in hand.</p> + +<p>Let us look at the history of Astronomy.</p> + +<p>So long as sun, moon, and planets were supposed to be gods or angels; so +long as the sword of Orion was not a metaphor, but a fact; and the +groups of stars which inlaid the floor of heaven were the glittering +trophies of the loves and wars of the Pantheon,—so long there was no +science of Astronomy. There was fancy, imagination, poetry, perhaps +reverence, but no science. As soon, however, as it was observed that the +stars retained their relative places; that the times of their rising and +setting varied with the seasons; that sun, moon, and planets moved among +them in a plane, and the belt of the Zodiac was marked out and +divided,—then a new order of things began. Traces of the earlier stage +remained in the names of the signs and constellations, just as the +Scandinavian mythology survives now in the names of the days of the +week; but, for all that, the understanding was now at work on the thing; +science had begun, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> first triumph of it was the power of +foretelling the future. Eclipses were perceived to recur in cycles of +nineteen years, and philosophers were able to say when an eclipse was to +be looked for. The periods of the planets were determined. Theories were +invented to account for their eccentricities; and, false as those +theories might be, the position of the planets could be calculated with +moderate certainty by them. The very first result of the science, in its +most imperfect stage, was a power of foresight; and this was possible +before any one true astronomical law had been discovered.</p> + +<p>We should not therefore question the possibility of a science of history +because the explanations of its phenomena were rudimentary or imperfect: +that they might be, and long continue to be, and yet enough might be +done to show that there was such a thing, and that it was not entirely +without use. But how was it that in those rude days, with small +knowledge of mathematics, and with no better instruments than flat walls +and dial-plates, those first astronomers made progress so considerable? +Because, I suppose, the phenomena which they were observing recurred, +for the most part, within moderate intervals; so that they could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +collect large experience within the compass of their natural lives; +because days and months and years were measurable periods, and within +them the more simple phenomena perpetually repeated themselves.</p> + +<p>But how would it have been if, instead of turning on its axis once in +twenty-four hours, the earth had taken a year about it; if the year had +been nearly four hundred years; if man's life had been no longer than it +is, and for the initial steps of astronomy there had been nothing to +depend upon except observations recorded in history? How many ages would +have passed, had this been our condition, before it would have occurred +to any one, that, in what they saw night after night, there was any kind +of order at all?</p> + +<p>We can see to some extent how it would have been, by the present state +of those parts of the science which in fact depend on remote recorded +observations. The movements of the comets are still extremely uncertain. +The times of their return can be calculated only with the greatest +vagueness.</p> + +<p>And yet such a hypothesis as I have suggested would but inadequately +express the position in which we are in fact placed toward history.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +There the phenomena never repeat themselves. There we are dependent +wholly on the record of things said to have happened once, but which +never happen or can happen a second time. There no experiment is +possible; we can watch for no recurring fact to test the worth of our +conjectures. It has been suggested fancifully, that, if we consider the +universe to be infinite, time is the same as eternity, and the past is +perpetually present. Light takes nine years to come to us from Sirius: +those rays which we may see to-night, when we leave this place, left +Sirius nine years ago; and could the inhabitants of Sirius see the earth +at this moment, they would see the English army in the trenches before +Sebastopol, Florence Nightingale watching at Scutari over the wounded at +Inkermann, and the peace of England undisturbed by "Essays and Reviews."</p> + +<p>As the stars recede into distance, so time recedes with them; and there +may be, and probably are, stars from which Noah might be seen stepping +into the ark, Eve listening to the temptation of the serpent, or that +older race, eating the oysters and leaving the shell-heaps behind them, +when the Baltic was an open sea.</p> + +<p>Could we but compare notes, something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> might be done; but of this there +is no present hope, and without it there will be no science of history. +Eclipses, recorded in ancient books, can be verified by calculations, +and lost dates can be recovered by them; and we can foresee, by the laws +which they follow, when there will be eclipses again. Will a time ever +be when the lost secret of the foundation of Rome can be recovered by +historic laws? If not, where is our science? It may be said that this is +a particular fact, that we can deal satisfactorily with general +phenomena affecting eras and cycles. Well, then, let us take some +general phenomenon; Mahometanism, for instance, or Buddhism. Those are +large enough. Can you imagine a science which would have<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> <i>foretold</i> +such movements as those? The state of things out of which they rose is +obscure; but, suppose it not obscure, can you conceive that, with any +amount of historical insight into the old Oriental beliefs, you could +have seen that they were about to transform themselves into those +particular forms and no other?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is not enough to say, that, after the fact, you can understand +partially how Mahometanism came to be. All historians worth the name +have told us something about that. But when we talk of science, we mean +something with more ambitious pretences, we mean something which can +foresee as well as explain; and, thus looked at, to state the problem is +to show its absurdity. As little could the wisest man have foreseen this +mighty revolution, as thirty years ago such a thing as Mormonism could +have been anticipated in America; as little as it could have been +foreseen that table-turning and spirit-rapping would have been an +outcome of the scientific culture of England in the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>The greatest of Roman thinkers, gazing mournfully at the seething mass +of moral putrefaction round him, detected and deigned to notice among +its elements a certain detestable superstition, so he called it, rising +up amidst the offscouring of the Jews, which was named Christianity. +Could Tacitus have looked forward nine centuries to the Rome of Gregory +VII, could he have beheld the representative of the majesty of the +Cæsars holding the stirrup of the Pontiff of that vile and execrated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +sect, the spectacle would scarcely have appeared to him the fulfilment +of a national expectation, or an intelligible result of the causes in +operation round him. Tacitus, indeed, was born before the science of +history; but would M. Comte have seen any more clearly?</p> + +<p>Nor is the case much better if we are less hard upon our philosophy; if +we content ourselves with the past, and require only a scientific +explanation of that.</p> + +<p>First, for the facts themselves. They come to us through the minds of +those who recorded them, neither machines nor angels, but fallible +creatures, with human passions and prejudices. Tacitus and Thucydides +were perhaps the ablest men who ever gave themselves to writing history; +the ablest, and also the most incapable of conscious falsehood. Yet even +now, after all these centuries, the truth of what they relate is called +in question. Good reasons can be given to show that neither of them can +be confidently trusted. If we doubt with these, whom are we to believe?</p> + +<p>Or, again, let the facts be granted. To revert to my simile of the box +of letters, you have but to select such facts as suit you, you have but +to leave alone those which do not suit you, and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> let your theory of +history be what it will, you can find no difficulty in providing facts +to prove it.</p> + +<p>You may have your Hegel's philosophy of history, or you may have your +Schlegel's philosophy of history; you may prove from history that the +world is governed in detail by a special Providence; you may prove that +there is no sign of any moral agent in the universe, except man; you may +believe, if you like it, in the old theory of the wisdom of antiquity; +you may speak, as was the fashion in the fifteenth century, of "our +fathers, who had more wit and wisdom than we"; or you may talk of "our +barbarian ancestors," and describe their wars as the scuffling of kites +and crows.</p> + +<p>You may maintain that the evolution of humanity has been an unbroken +progress toward perfection; you may maintain that there has been no +progress at all, and that man remains the same poor creature that he +ever was; or, lastly, you may say, with the author of the "Contract +Social," that men were purest and best in primeval simplicity,—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"When wild in woods the noble savage ran."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In all or any of these views, history will stand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> your friend. History, +in its passive irony, will make no objection. Like Jarno, in Goethe's +novel, it will not condescend to argue with you, and will provide you +with abundant illustrations of any thing which you may wish to believe.</p> + +<p>"What is history," said Napoleon, "but a fiction agreed upon?" "My +friend," said Faust to the student, who was growing enthusiastic about +the spirit of past ages,—"my friend, the times which are gone are a +book with seven seals; and what you call the spirit of past ages is but +the spirit of this or that worthy gentleman in whose mind those ages are +reflected."</p> + +<p>One lesson, and only one, history may be said to repeat with +distinctness: that the world is built somehow on moral foundations; +that, in the long run, it is well with the good; in the long run, it is +ill with the wicked. But this is no science; it is no more than the old +doctrine taught long ago by the Hebrew prophets. The theories of M. +Comte and his disciples advance us, after all, not a step beyond the +trodden and familiar ground. If men are not entirely animals, they are +at least half animals, and are subject in this aspect of them to the +conditions of animals. So far as those parts of man's doings are +concerned, which neither have, nor need<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> have, any thing moral about +them, so far the laws of him are calculable. There are laws for his +digestion, and laws of the means by which his digestive organs are +supplied with matter. But pass beyond them, and where are we? In a world +where it would be as easy to calculate men's actions by laws like those +of positive philosophy as to measure the orbit of Neptune with a foot +rule, or weigh Sirius in a grocer's scale.</p> + +<p>And it is not difficult to see why this should be. The first principle, +on which the theory of a science of history can be plausibly argued, is +that all actions whatsoever arise from self-interest. It may be +enlightened self-interest, it may be unenlightened; but it is assumed as +an axiom, that every man, in whatever he does, is aiming at something +which he considers will promote his happiness. His conduct is not +determined by his will; it is determined by the object of his desire. +Adam Smith, in laying the foundations of political economy, expressly +eliminates every other motive. He does not say that men never act on +other motives; still less, that they never ought to act on other +motives. He asserts merely that, as far as the arts of production are +concerned, and of buying and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> selling, the action of self-interest may +be counted upon as uniform. What Adam Smith says of political economy, +Mr. Buckle would extend over the whole circle of human activity.</p> + +<p>Now, that which especially distinguishes a high order of man from a low +order of man—that which constitutes human goodness, human greatness, +human nobleness—is surely not the degree of enlightenment with which +men pursue their own advantage: but it is self-forgetfulness, it is +self-sacrifice; it is the disregard of personal pleasure, personal +indulgence, personal advantages remote or present, because some other +line of conduct is more right.</p> + +<p>We are sometimes told that this is but another way of expressing the +same thing; that, when a man prefers doing what is right, it is only +because to do right gives him a higher satisfaction. It appears to me, +on the contrary, to be a difference in the very heart and nature of +things. The martyr goes to the stake, the patriot to the scaffold, not +with a view to any future reward, to themselves, but because it is a +glory to fling away their lives for truth and freedom. And so through +all phases of existence, to the smallest details of common life, the +beautiful character is the unselfish character. Those whom we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> most love +and admire are those to whom the thought of self seems never to occur; +who do simply and with no ulterior aim—with no thought whether it will +be pleasant to themselves or unpleasant—that which is good and right +and generous.</p> + +<p>Is this still selfishness, only more enlightened? I do not think so. The +essence of true nobility, is neglect of self. Let the thought of self +pass in, and the beauty of a great action is gone, like the bloom from a +soiled flower. Surely it is a paradox to speak of the self-interest of a +martyr who dies for a cause, the triumph of which he will never enjoy; +and the greatest of that great company in all ages would have done what +they did, had their personal prospects closed with the grave. Nay, there +have been those so zealous for some glorious principle as to wish +themselves blotted out of the book of Heaven if the cause of Heaven +could succeed.</p> + +<p>And out of this mysterious quality, whatever it be, arise the higher +relations of human life, the higher modes of human obligation. Kant, the +philosopher, used to say that there were two things which overwhelmed +him with awe as he thought of them. One was the star-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>sown deep of +space, without limit and without end; the other was, right and wrong. +Right, the sacrifice of self to good; wrong, the sacrifice of good to +self,—not graduated objects of desire, to which we are determined by +the degrees of our knowledge, but wide asunder as pole and pole, as +light and darkness: one the object of infinite love; the other, the +object of infinite detestation and scorn. It is in this marvellous power +in men to do wrong (it is an old story, but none the less true for +that),—it is in this power to do wrong—wrong or right, as it lies +somehow with ourselves to choose—that the impossibility stands of +forming scientific calculations of what men will do before the fact, or +scientific explanations of what they have done after the fact. If men +were consistently selfish, you might analyze their motives; if they were +consistently noble they would express in their conduct the laws of the +highest perfection. But so long as two natures are mixed together, and +the strange creature which results from the combination is now under one +influence and now under another, so long you will make nothing of him +except from the old-fashioned moral—or, if you please, +imaginative—point of view.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p>Even the laws of political economy itself cease to guide us when they +touch moral government. So long as labor is a chattel to be bought and +sold, so long, like other commodities, it follows the condition of +supply and demand. But if, for his misfortune, an employer considers +that he stands in human relations toward his workmen; if he believes, +rightly or wrongly, that he is responsible for them; that in return for +their labor he is bound to see that their children are decently taught, +and they and their families decently fed and clothed and lodged; that he +ought to care for them in sickness and in old age,—then political +economy will no longer direct him, and the relations between himself and +his dependents will have to be arranged on quite other principles.</p> + +<p>So long as he considers only his own material profit, so long supply and +demand will settle every difficulty; but the introduction of a new +factor spoils the equation.</p> + +<p>And it is precisely in this debatable ground of low motives and noble +emotions; in the struggle, ever failing yet ever renewed, to carry truth +and justice into the administration of human society; in the +establishment of states and in the overthrow of tyrannies; in the rise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +and fall of creeds; in the world of ideas; in the character and deeds of +the great actors in the drama of life, where good and evil fight out +their everlasting battle, now ranged in opposite camps, now and more +often in the heart, both of them, of each living man,—that the true +human interest of history resides. The progress of industries, the +growth of material and mechanical civilization, are interesting; but +they are not the most interesting. They have their reward in the +increase of material comforts; but, unless we are mistaken about our +nature, they do not highly concern us after all.</p> + +<p>Once more: not only is there in men this baffling duality of principle, +but there is something else in us which still more defies scientific +analysis.</p> + +<p>Mr. Buckle would deliver himself from the eccentricities of this and +that individual by a doctrine of averages. Though he cannot tell whether +A, B, or C will cut his throat, he may assure himself that one man in +every fifty thousand, or thereabout (I forget the exact proportion), +will cut his throat, and with this he consoles himself. No doubt it is a +comforting discovery. Unfortunately, the average of one generation need +not be the average of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> next. We may be converted by the Japanese, +for all that we know, and the Japanese methods of taking leave of life +may become fashionable among us. Nay, did not Novalis suggest that the +whole race of men would at last become so disgusted with their +impotence, that they would extinguish themselves by a simultaneous act +of suicide, and make room for a better order of beings? Anyhow, the +fountain out of which the race is flowing perpetually changes; no two +generations are alike. Whether there is a change in the organization +itself we cannot tell; but this is certain,—that, as the planet varies +with the atmosphere which surrounds it, so each new generation varies +from the last, because it inhales as its atmosphere the accumulated +experience and knowledge of the whole past of the world. These things +form the spiritual air which we breathe as we grow; and, in the infinite +multiplicity of elements of which that air is now composed, it is +forever a matter of conjecture what the minds will be like which expand +under its influence.</p> + +<p>From the England of Fielding and Richardson to the England of Miss +Austen, from the England of Miss Austen to the England of Railways and +Free Trade, how vast the change!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> Yet perhaps Sir Charles Grandison +would not seem so strange to us now as one of ourselves will seem to our +great-grandchildren. The world moves faster and faster; and the +difference will probably be considerably greater.</p> + +<p>The temper of each new generation is a continual surprise. The Fates +delight to contradict our most confident expectations. Gibbon believed +that the era of conquerors was at an end. Had he lived out the full life +of man, he would have seen Europe at the feet of Napoleon. But a few +years ago we believed the world had grown too civilized for war, and the +Crystal Palace in Hyde Park was to be the inauguration of a new era. +Battles bloody as Napoleon's are now the familiar tale of every day; and +the arts which have made greatest progress are the arts of destruction. +What next? We may strain our eyes into the future which lies beyond this +waning century; but never was conjecture more at fault. It is blank +darkness, which even the imagination fails to people.</p> + +<p>What, then, is the use of History, and what are its lessons? If it can +tell us little of the past, and nothing of the future, why waste our +time over so barren a study?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> + +<p>First, it is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of +right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, +but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. For every false +word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust or +vanity, the price has to be paid at last; not always by the chief +offenders, but paid by some one. Justice and truth alone endure and +live. Injustice and falsehood may be long-lived, but doomsday comes at +last to them, in French revolutions and other terrible ways.</p> + +<p>That is one lesson of history. Another is, that we should draw no +horoscopes; that we should expect little, for what we expect will not +come to pass. Revolutions, reformations,—those vast movements into +which heroes and saints have flung themselves, in the belief that they +were the dawn of the millennium,—have not borne the fruit which they +looked for. Millenniums are still far away. These great convulsions +leave the world changed,—perhaps improved, but not improved as the +actors in them hoped it would be. Luther would have gone to work with +less heart, could he have foreseen the Thirty Years' War, and in the +distance the theology of Tubingen. Washington<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> might have hesitated to +draw the sword against England, could he have seen the country which he +made as we see it now.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>The most reasonable anticipations fail us, antecedents the most apposite +mislead us, because the conditions of human problems never repeat +themselves. Some new feature alters every thing,—some element which we +detect only in its after-operation.</p> + +<p>But this, it may be said, is but a meagre outcome. Can the long records +of humanity, with all its joys and sorrows, its sufferings and its +conquests, teach us more than this? Let us approach the subject from +another side.</p> + +<p>If you were asked to point out the special features in which +Shakespeare's plays are so transcendently excellent, you would mention +perhaps, among others, this—that his stories are not put together, and +his characters are not conceived, to illustrate any particular law or +principle. They teach many lessons, but not any one prominent above +another; and when we have drawn from them all the direct instruction +which they contain, there remains still something unresolved,—something +which the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> artist gives, and which the philosopher cannot give.</p> + +<p>It is in this characteristic that we are accustomed to say Shakespeare's +supreme <i>truth</i> lies. He represents real life. His drama teaches as life +teaches,—neither less nor more. He builds his fabrics, as Nature does, +on right and wrong; but he does not struggle to make Nature more +systematic than she is. In the subtle interflow of good and evil; in the +unmerited sufferings of innocence; in the disproportion of penalties to +desert; in the seeming blindness with which justice, in attempting to +assert itself, overwhelms innocent and guilty in a common +ruin,—Shakespeare is true to real experience. The mystery of +life he leaves as he finds it; and, in his most tremendous +positions, he is addressing rather the intellectual emotions than the +understanding,—knowing well that the understanding in such things is at +fault, and the sage as ignorant as the child.</p> + +<p>Only the highest order of genius can represent Nature thus. An inferior +artist produces either something entirely immoral, where good and evil +are names, and nobility of disposition is supposed to show itself in the +absolute disregard of them, or else, if he is a better kind of man,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> he +will force on Nature a didactic purpose; he composes what are called +moral tales, which may edify the conscience, but only mislead the +intellect.</p> + +<p>The finest work of this kind produced in modern times is Lessing's play +of "Nathan the Wise." The object of it is to teach religious toleration. +The doctrine is admirable, the mode in which it is enforced is +interesting; but it has the fatal fault that it is not true. Nature does +not teach religious toleration by any such direct method; and the result +is—no one knew it better than Lessing himself—that the play is not +poetry, but only splendid manufacture. Shakespeare is eternal; Lessing's +"Nathan" will pass away with the mode of thought which gave it birth. +One is based on fact; the other, on human theory about fact. The theory +seems at first sight to contain the most immediate instruction; but it +is not really so.</p> + +<p>Cibber and others, as you know, wanted to alter Shakespeare. The French +king, in "Lear," was to be got rid of; Cordelia was to marry Edgar, and +Lear himself was to be rewarded for his sufferings by a golden old age. +They could not bear that Hamlet should suffer for the sins of Claudius. +The wicked king was to die, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> the wicked mother; and Hamlet and +Ophelia were to make a match of it, and live happily ever after. A +common novelist would have arranged it thus; and you would have had your +comfortable moral that wickedness was fitly punished, and virtue had its +due reward, and all would have been well. But Shakespeare would not have +it so. Shakespeare knew that crime was not so simple in its +consequences, or Providence so paternal. He was contented to take the +truth from life; and the effect upon the mind of the most correct theory +of what life ought to be, compared to the effect of the life itself, is +infinitesimal in comparison.</p> + +<p>Again, let us compare the popular historical treatment of remarkable +incidents with Shakespeare's treatment of them. Look at "Macbeth." You +may derive abundant instruction from it,—instruction of many kinds. +There is a moral lesson of profound interest in the steps by which a +noble nature glides to perdition. In more modern fashion you may +speculate, if you like, on the political conditions represented there, +and the temptation presented in absolute monarchies to unscrupulous +ambition; you may say, like Doctor Slop, these things could not have +happened under a constitutional govern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>ment: or, again, you may take up +your parable against superstition; you may dilate on the frightful +consequences of a belief in witches, and reflect on the superior +advantages of an age of schools and newspapers. If the bare facts of the +story had come down to us from a chronicler, and an ordinary writer of +the nineteenth century had undertaken to relate them, his account, we +may depend upon it, would have been put together upon one or other of +these principles. Yet, by the side of that unfolding of the secrets of +the prison-house of the soul, what lean and shrivelled anatomies the +best of such descriptions would seem!</p> + +<p>Shakespeare himself, I suppose, could not have given us a theory of what +he meant; he gave us the thing itself, on which we might make whatever +theories we pleased.</p> + +<p>Or, again, look at Homer.</p> + +<p>The "Iliad" is from two to three thousand years older than "Macbeth," +and yet it is as fresh as if it had been written yesterday. We have +there no lessons save in the emotions which rise in us as we read. Homer +had no philosophy; he never struggles to press upon us his views about +this or that; you can scarcely tell, indeed, whether his sympathies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> are +Greek or Trojan: but he represents to us faithfully the men and women +among whom he lived. He sang the tale of Troy, he touched his lyre, he +drained the golden beaker in the halls of men like those on whom he was +conferring immortality. And thus, although no Agamemnon, king of men, +ever led a Grecian fleet to Ilium; though no Priam sought the midnight +tent of Achilles; though Ulysses and Diomed and Nestor were but names, +and Helen but a dream, yet, through Homer's power of representing men +and women, those old Greeks will still stand out from amidst the +darkness of the ancient world with a sharpness of outline which belongs +to no period of history except the most recent. For the mere hard +purposes of history, the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are the most effective +books which ever were written. We see the hall of Menelaus, we see the +garden of Alcinous, we see Nausicaa among her maidens on the shore, we +see the mellow monarch sitting with ivory sceptre in the market-place +dealing out genial justice. Or, again, when the wild mood is on, we can +hear the crash of the spears, the rattle of the armor as the heroes +fall, and the plunging of the horses among the slain. Could we enter the +palace of an old Ionian lord,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> we know what we should see there; we know +the words in which he would address us. We could meet Hector as a +friend. If we could choose a companion to spend an evening with over a +fireside, it would be the man of many counsels, the husband of Penelope.</p> + +<p>I am not going into the vexed question whether history or poetry is the +more true. It has been sometimes said that poetry is the more true, +because it can make things more like what our moral sense would prefer +they should be. We hear of poetic justice and the like, as if nature and +fact were not just enough.</p> + +<p>I entirely dissent from that view. So far as poetry attempts to improve +on truth in that way, so far it abandons truth, and is false to itself. +Even literal facts, exactly as they were, a great poet will prefer +whenever he can get them. Shakespeare in the historical plays is +studious, wherever possible, to give the very words which he finds to +have been used; and it shows how wisely he was guided in this, that +those magnificent speeches of Wolsey are taken exactly, with no more +change than the metre makes necessary, from Cavendish's Life. +Marlborough read Shakespeare for English history, and read nothing else. +The poet only is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> bound, when it is inconvenient, to what may be +called the accidents of facts. It was enough for Shakespeare to know +that Prince Hal in his youth had lived among loose companions, and the +tavern in Eastcheap came in to fill out his picture; although Mrs. +Quickly and Falstaff and Poins and Bardolph were more likely to have +been fallen in with by Shakespeare himself at the Mermaid, than to have +been comrades of the true Prince Henry. It was enough for Shakespeare to +draw real men, and the situation, whatever it might be, would sit easy +on them. In this sense only it is that poetry is truer than +History,—that it can make a picture more complete. It may take +liberties with time and space, and give the action distinctness by +throwing it into more manageable compass. But it may not alter the real +conditions of things, or represent life as other than it is. The +greatness of the poet depends on his being true to Nature, without +insisting that Nature shall theorize with him, without making her more +just, more philosophical, more moral than reality; and, in difficult +matters, leaving much to reflection which cannot be explained.</p> + +<p>And if this be true of poetry—if Homer and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> Shakespeare are what they +are from the absence of every thing didactic about them—may we not thus +learn something of what history should be, and in what sense it should +aspire to teach?</p> + +<p>If poetry must not theorize, much less should the historian theorize, +whose obligations to be true to fact are even greater than the poet's. +If the drama is grandest when the action is least explicable by laws, +because then it best resembles life, then history will be grandest also +under the same conditions. "Macbeth," were it literally true, would be +perfect history; and so far as the historian can approach to that kind +of model, so far as he can let his story tell itself in the deeds and +words of those who act it out, so far is he most successful. His work is +no longer the vapor of his own brain, which a breath will scatter; it is +the thing itself, which will have interest for all time. A thousand +theories may be formed about it,—spiritual theories. Pantheistic +theories, cause and effect theories? but each age will have its own +philosophy of history, and all these in turn will fail and die. Hegel +falls out of date, Schlegel falls out of date, and Comte in good time +will fall out of date; the thought about the thing must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> change as we +change; but the thing itself can never change; and a history is durable +or perishable as it contains more or least of the writer's own +speculations. The splendid intellect of Gibbon for the most part kept +him true to the right course in this; yet the philosophical chapters for +which he has been most admired or censured may hereafter be thought the +least interesting in his work. The time has been when they would not +have been comprehended; the time may come when they will seem +commonplace.</p> + +<p>It may be said, that in requiring history to be written like a drama, we +require an impossibility.</p> + +<p>For history to be written with the complete form of a drama, doubtless +is impossible; but there are periods, and these the periods, for the +most part, of greatest interest to mankind, the history of which may be +so written that the actors shall reveal their characters in their own +words; where mind can be seen matched against mind, and the great +passions of the epoch not simply be described as existing, but be +exhibited at their white heat in the souls and hearts possessed by them. +There are all the elements of drama—drama of the highest order<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>—where +the huge forces of the times are as the Grecian destiny, and the power +of the man is seen either stemming the stream till it overwhelms him, or +ruling while he seems to yield to it.</p> + +<p>It is Nature's drama,—not Shakespeare's, but a drama none the less.</p> + +<p>So at least it seems to me. Wherever possible, let us not be told +<i>about</i> this man or that. Let us hear the man himself speak, let us see +him act, and let us be left to form our own opinions about him. The +historian, we are told, must not leave his readers to themselves. He +must not only lay the facts before them: he must tell them what he +himself thinks about those facts. In my opinion, this is precisely what +he ought not to do. Bishop Butler says somewhere, that the best book +which could be written would be a book consisting only of premises, from +which the readers should draw conclusions for themselves. The highest +poetry is the very thing which Butler requires, and the highest history +ought to be. We should no more ask for a theory of this or that period +of history, than we should ask for a theory of "Macbeth" or "Hamlet." +Philosophies of history, sciences of history,—all these there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> will +continue to be: the fashions of them will change, as our habits of +thought will change; each new philosopher will find his chief employment +in showing that before him no one understood any thing; but the drama of +history is imperishable, and the lessons of it will be like what we +learn from Homer or Shakespeare,—lessons for which we have no words.</p> + +<p>The address of history is less to the understanding than to the higher +emotions. We learn in it to sympathize with what is great and good; we +learn to hate what is base. In the anomalies of fortune we feel the +mystery of our mortal existence; and in the companionship of the +illustrious natures who have shaped the fortunes of the world, we escape +from the littlenesses which cling to the round of common life, and our +minds are tuned in a higher and nobler key.</p> + +<p>For the rest, and for those large questions which I touched in +connection with Mr. Buckle, we live in times of disintegration, and none +can tell what will be after us. What opinions, what convictions, the +infant of to-day will find prevailing on the earth, if he and it live +out together to the middle of another century, only a very bold man +would undertake to conjecture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> "The time will come," said Lichtenberg, +in scorn at the materializing tendencies of modern thought,—"the time +will come when the belief in God will be as the tales with which old +women frighten children; when the world will be a machine, the ether a +gas, and God will be a force." Mankind, if they last long enough on the +earth, may develop strange things out of themselves; and the growth of +what is called the Positive Philosophy is a curious commentary on +Lichtenberg's prophecy. But whether the end be seventy years hence, or +seven hundred,—be the close of the mortal history of humanity as far +distant in the future as its shadowy beginnings seem now to lie behind +us,—this only we may foretell with confidence,—that the riddle of +man's nature will remain unsolved. There will be that in him yet which +physical laws will fail to explain,—that something, whatever it be, in +himself and in the world, which science cannot fathom, and which +suggests the unknown possibilities of his origin and his destiny. There +will remain yet</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Those obstinate questionings</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Of sense and outward things;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Falling from us, vanishing;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Blank misgivings of a creature</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Moving about in worlds not realized;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">High instincts, before which our mortal nature</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.3em;">Doth tremble like a guilty thing surprised."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>There will remain</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Those first affections,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Those shadowy recollections,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Which, be they what they may,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Are yet the fountain-light of all our day,—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Are yet the master-light of all our seeing,—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Our noisy years seem moments in the being</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.3em;">Of the Eternal Silence."</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<h2>EDWARD A. FREEMAN.<br />BORN 1823.</h2> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>RACE AND LANGUAGE.</h2> + +<h3>BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN.</h3> + + +<p>It is no very great time since the readers of the English newspapers +were, perhaps a little amused, perhaps a little startled, at the story +of a deputation of Hungarian students going to Constantinople to present +a sword of honor to an Ottoman general. The address and the answer +enlarged on the ancient kindred of Turks and Magyars, on the long +alienation of the dissevered kinsfolk, on the return of both in these +later times to a remembrance of the ancient kindred and to the friendly +feelings to which such kindred gave birth. The discourse has a strange +sound when we remember the reigns of Sigismund and Wladislaus, when we +think of the dark days of Nikopolis and Varna, when we think of Huniades +encamped at the foot of Hæmus, and of Belgrade beating back Mahomet the +Conqueror from her gates. The Magyar and the Ottoman embracing with the +joy of reunited kinsfolk is a sight which cer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>tainly no man would have +looked forward to in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. At an earlier +time the ceremony might have seemed a degree less wonderful. If a man +whose ideas are drawn wholly from the modern map should sit down to +study the writings of Constantine Porphyrogennêtos, he would perhaps be +startled at finding Turks and Franks spoken of as neighbors, at finding +<i>Turcia</i> and <i>Francia</i>—we must not translate Τουρκἱα and +Φραγγἱα by <i>Turkey</i> and <i>France</i>—spoken of as border-lands. A +little study will perhaps show him that the change lies almost wholly in +the names and not in the boundaries. The lands are there still, and the +frontier between them has shifted much less than one might have looked +for in nine hundred years. Nor has there been any great change in the +population of the two countries. The Turks and the Franks of the +Imperial geographer are there still, in the lands which he calls Turcia +and Francia; only we no longer speak of them as Turks and Franks. The +Turks of Constantine are Magyars; the Franks of Constantine are Germans. +The Magyar students may not unlikely have turned over the Imperial +pages, and they may have seen how their forefathers stand described +there.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> We can hardly fancy that the Ottoman general is likely to have +given much time to lore of such a kind. Yet the Ottoman answer was as +brim full of ethnological and antiquarian sympathy as the Magyar +address. It is hardly to be believed that a Turk, left to himself, would +by his own efforts have found out the primeval kindred between Turk and +Magyar. He might remember that Magyar exiles had found a safe shelter on +Ottoman territory; he might look deep enough into the politics of the +present moment to see that the rule of Turk and Magyar alike is +threatened by the growth of Slavonic national life. But the idea that +Magyar and Turk owe each other any love or any duty, directly on the +ground of primeval kindred, is certainly not likely to have presented +itself to the untutored Ottoman mind. In short, it sounds, as some one +said at the time, rather like the dream of a professor who has run wild +with an ethnological craze, than like the serious thought of a practical +man of any nation. Yet the Magyar students seem to have meant their +address quite seriously. And the Turkish general, if he did not take it +seriously, at least thought it wise to shape his answer as if he did. As +a piece of practical politics, it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> sounds like Frederick Barbarossa +threatening to avenge the defeat of Crassus upon Saladin, or like the +French of the revolutionary wars making the Pope Pius of those days +answerable for the wrongs of Vercingetorix. The thing sounds like +comedy, almost like conscious comedy. But it is a kind of comedy which +may become tragedy, if the idea from which it springs get so deeply +rooted in men's minds as to lead to any practical consequences. As long +as talk of this kind does not get beyond the world of hot-headed +students, it may pass for a craze. It would be more than a craze, if it +should be so widely taken up on either side that the statesmen on either +side find it expedient to profess to take it up also.</p> + +<p>To allege the real or supposed primeval kindred between Magyars and +Ottomans as a ground for political action, or at least for political +sympathy, in the affairs of the present moment, is an extreme case—some +may be inclined to call it a <i>reductio ad absurdum</i>—of a whole range of +doctrines and sentiments which have in modern days gained a great power +over men's minds. They have gained so great a power that those who may +regret their influence cannot afford to despise it. To make any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +practical inference from the primeval kindred of Magyar and Turk is +indeed pushing the doctrine of race, and of sympathies arising from +race, as far as it well can be pushed. Without plunging into any very +deep mysteries, without committing ourselves to any dangerous theories +in the darker regions of ethnological inquiry, we may perhaps be allowed +at starting to doubt whether there is any real primeval kindred between +the Ottoman and the Finnish Magyar. It is for those who have gone +specially deep into the antiquities of the non-Aryan races to say +whether there is or is not. At all events, as far as the great facts of +history go, the kindred is of the vaguest and most shadowy kind. It +comes to little more than the fact that Magyars and Ottomans are alike +non-Aryan invaders who have made their way into Europe within recorded +times, and that both have, rightly or wrongly, been called by the name +of Turks. These do seem rather slender grounds on which to build up a +fabric of national sympathy between two nations, when several centuries +of living practical history all pull the other way. It is hard to +believe that the kindred of Turk and Magyar was thought of when a +Turkish Pasha ruled at Buda. Doubtless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> Hungarian Protestants often +deemed, and not unreasonably deemed, that the contemptuous toleration of +the Moslem Sultan was a lighter yoke than the persecution of the +Catholic Emperor. But it was hardly on grounds of primeval kindred that +they made the choice. The ethnological dialogue held at Constantinople +does indeed sound like ethnological theory run mad. But it is the very +wildness of the thing which gives it its importance. The doctrine of +race, and of sympathies springing from race, must have taken very firm +hold indeed of men's minds before it could be carried out in a shape +which we are tempted to call so grotesque as this.</p> + +<p>The plain fact is that the new lines of scientific and historical +inquiry which have been opened in modern times have had a distinct and +deep effect upon the politics of the age. The fact may be estimated in +many ways, but its existence as a fact cannot be denied. Not in a merely +scientific or literary point of view, but in one strictly practical, the +world is not the same world as it was when men had not yet dreamed of +the kindred between Sanscrit, Greek, and English, when it was looked on +as something of a paradox to hint that there was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> distinction between +Celtic and Teutonic tongues and nations. Ethnological and philological +researches—I do not forget the distinction between the two, but for the +present I must group them together—have opened the way for new national +sympathies, new national antipathies, such as would have been +unintelligible a hundred years ago. A hundred years ago a man's +political likes and dislikes seldom went beyond the range which was +suggested by the place of his birth or immediate descent. Such birth or +descent made him a member of this or that political community, a subject +of this or that prince, a citizen—perhaps a subject—of this or that +commonwealth. The political community of which he was a member had its +traditional alliances and traditional enmities, and by those alliances +and enmities the likes and dislikes of the members of that community +were guided. But those traditional alliances and enmities were seldom +determined by theories about language or race. The people of this or +that place might be discontented under a foreign government; but, as a +rule, they were discontented only if subjection to that foreign +government brought with it personal oppression, or at least political +degradation. Regard or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> disregard of some purely local privilege or +local feeling went for more than the fact of a government being native +or foreign. What we now call the sentiment of nationality did not go for +much; what we call the sentiment of race went for nothing at all. Only a +few men here and there would have understood the feelings which have led +to those two great events of our own time, the political reunion of the +German and Italian nations after their long political dissolution. Not a +soul would have understood the feelings which have allowed Panslavism to +be a great practical agent in the affairs of Europe, and which have made +talk about "the Latin race," if not practical, at least possible. Least +of all, would it have been possible to give any touch of political +importance to what would have then seemed so wild a dream as a primeval +kindred between Magyar and Ottoman.</p> + +<p>That feelings such as these, and the practical consequences which have +flowed from them, are distinctly due to scientific and historical +teaching there can, I think, be no doubt. Religious sympathy and purely +national sympathy are both feelings of much simpler growth, which need +no deep knowledge nor any special teaching. The cry which resounded +through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> Christendom when the Holy City was taken by the Mussulmans, the +cry which resounded through Islam when the same city was taken by the +Christians, the spirit which armed England to support French Huguenots +and which armed Spain to support French Leaguers, all spring from +motives which lie on the surface. Nor need we seek for any explanation +but such as lies on the surface for the natural wish for closer union +which arose among Germans or Italians who found themselves parted off by +purely dynastic arrangements from men who were their countrymen in every +thing else. Such a feeling has to strive with the counter-feeling which +springs from local jealousies and local dislikes; but it is a perfectly +simple feeling, which needs no subtle research either to arouse or to +understand it. So, if we draw our illustrations from the events of our +own time, there is nothing but what is perfectly simple in the feeling +which calls Russia, as the most powerful of Orthodox states, to the help +of her Orthodox brethren everywhere, and which calls the members of the +Orthodox Church everywhere to look to Russia as their protector. The +feeling may have to strive against a crowd of purely political +considerations, and by those purely political con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>siderations it may be +outweighed. But the feeling is in itself altogether simple and natural. +So again, the people of Montenegro and of the neighboring lands in +Herzegovina and by the <i>Bocche</i> of Cattaro feel themselves countrymen in +every sense but the political accident which keeps them asunder. They +are drawn together by a tie which every one can understand, by the same +tie which would draw together the people of three adjoining English +counties, if any strange political action should part them asunder in +like manner. The feeling here is that of nationality in the strictest +sense, nationality in a purely local or geographical sense. It would +exist all the same if Panslavism had never been heard of; it might exist +though those who feel it had never heard of the Slavonic race at all. It +is altogether another thing when we come to the doctrine of race, and of +sympathies founded on race, in the wider sense. Here we have a feeling +which professes to bind together, and which as a matter of fact has had +a real effect in binding together, men whose kindred to one another is +not so obvious at first sight as the kindred of Germans, Italians, or +Serbs who are kept asunder by nothing but a purely artificial political +boundary. It is a feeling at whose bidding the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> call to union goes forth +to men whose dwellings are geographically far apart, to men who may have +had no direct dealings with one another for years or for ages, to men +whose languages, though the scholar may at once see that they are +closely akin, may not be so closely akin as to be mutually intelligible +for common purposes. A hundred years back the Servian might have cried +for help to the Russian on the ground of common Orthodox faith; he would +hardly have called for help on the ground of common Slavonic speech and +origin. If he had done so, it would have been rather by way of grasping +at any chance, however desperate or far-fetched, than as putting forward +a serious and well understood claim which he might expect to find +accepted and acted on by large masses of men. He might have received +help, either out of genuine sympathy springing from community of faith +or from the baser thought than he could be made use of as a convenient +political tool. He would have got but little help purely on the ground +of a community of blood and speech which had had no practical result for +ages. When Russia in earlier days interfered between the Turk and his +Christian subjects, there is no sign of any sympathy felt or possessed +for Slavs as Slavs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> Russia dealt with Montenegro, not, as far as one +can see, out of any Slavonic brotherhood, but because an independent +Orthodox state at enmity with the Turk could not fail to be a useful +ally. The earlier dealings of Russia with the subject nations were far +more busy among the Greeks than among the Slavs. In fact, till quite +lately, all the Orthodox subjects of the Turk were in most European eyes +looked on as alike Greeks. The Orthodox Church has been commonly known +as the Greek Church; and it has often been very hard to make people +understand that the vast mass of the members of that so-called Greek +Church are not Greek in any other sense. In truth we may doubt whether, +till comparatively lately, the subject nations themselves were fully +alive to the differences of race and speech among them. A man must in +all times and places know whether he speaks the same language as another +man; but he does not always go on to put his consciousness of difference +into the shape of a sharply drawn formula. Still less does he always +make the difference the ground of any practical course of action. The +Englishman in the first days of the Norman Conquest felt the hardships +of foreign rule, and he knew that those hard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>ships were owing to foreign +rule. But he had not learned to put his sense of hardship into any +formula about an oppressed nationality. So, when the policy of the Turk +found that the subtle intellect of the Greek could be made use of as an +instrument of dominion over the other subject nations, the Bulgarian +felt the hardship of the state of things in which, as it was +proverbially said, his body was in bondage to the Turk and his soul in +bondage to the Greek. But we may suspect that this neatly turned proverb +dates only from the awakening of a distinctly national Bulgarian feeling +in modern times. The Turk was felt to be an intruder and an enemy, +because his rule was that of an open oppressor belonging to another +creed. The Greek, on the other hand, though his spiritual dominion +brought undoubted practical evils with it, was not felt to be an +intruder and an enemy in the same sense. His quicker intellect and +superior refinement made him a model. The Bulgarian imitated the Greek +tongue and Greek manners; he was willing in other lands to be himself +looked on as a Greek. It is only in quite modern times, under the direct +influence of the preaching of the doctrine of race, that a hard and fast +line has been drawn be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>tween Greeks and Bulgarians. That doctrine has +cut two ways. It has given both nations, Greek and Bulgarian alike, a +renewed national life, national strength, national hopes, such as +neither of them had felt for ages. In so doing, it has done one of the +best and most hopeful works of the age. But in so doing, it has created +one of the most dangerous of immediate political difficulties. In +calling two nations into a renewed being, it has arrayed them in enmity +against each other, and that in the face of a common enemy in whose +presence all lesser differences and jealousies ought to be hushed into +silence.</p> + +<p>There is then a distinct doctrine of race, and of sympathies founded an +race, distinct from the feeling of community of religion, and distinct +from the feeling of nationality in the narrower sense. It is not so +simple or easy a feeling as either of those two. It does not in the same +way lie on the surface; it is not in the same way grounded on obvious +facts which are plain to every man's understanding. The doctrine of race +is essentially an artificial doctrine, a learned doctrine. It is an +inference from facts which the mass of mankind could never have found +out for themselves; facts which,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> without a distinctly learned teaching, +could never be brought home to them in any intelligible shape. Now what +is the value of such a doctrine? Does it follow that, because it is +confessedly artificial, because it springs, not from a spontaneous +impulse, but from a learned teaching, it is therefore necessarily +foolish, mischievous, perhaps unnatural? It may perhaps be safer to hold +that, like many other doctrines, many other sentiments, it is neither +universally good nor universally bad, neither inherently wise nor +inherently foolish. It may be safer to hold that it may, like other +doctrines and sentiments, have a range within which it may work for +good, while in some other range it may work for evil. It may in short be +a doctrine which is neither to be rashly accepted, nor rashly cast +aside, but one which may need to be guided, regulated modified, +according to time, place, and circumstance. I am not now called on so +much to estimate the practical good and evil of the doctrine as to work +out what the doctrine itself is, and to try to explain some difficulties +about it, but I must emphatically say that nothing can be more shallow, +nothing more foolish, nothing more purely sentimental, than the talk of +those who think that they can simply laugh down or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> shriek down any +doctrine or sentiment which they themselves do not understand. A belief +or a feeling which has a practical effect on the conduct of great masses +of men, sometimes on the conduct of whole nations, may be very false and +very mischievous; but it is in every case a great and serious fact, to +be looked gravely in the face. Men who sit at their ease and think that +all wisdom is confined to themselves and their own clique may think +themselves vastly superior to the great emotions which stir our times, +as they would doubtless have thought themselves vastly superior to the +emotions which stirred the first Saracens or the first Crusaders. But +the emotions are there all the same, and they do their work all the +same. The most highly educated man in the most highly educated society +cannot sneer them out of being.</p> + +<p>But it is time to pass to the more strictly scientific aspect of the +subject. The doctrine of race, in its popular form, is the direct +offspring of the study of scientific philology; and yet it is just now, +in its popular form at least, somewhat under the ban of scientific +philologers. There is nothing very wonderful in this. It is in fact the +natural course of things<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> which might almost have been reckoned on +beforehand. When the popular mind gets hold of a truth, it seldom gets +hold of it with strict scientific precision. It commonly gets hold of +one side of the truth; it puts forth that side of the truth only. It +puts that side forth in a form which may not be in itself distorted or +exaggerated, but which practically becomes distorted and exaggerated, +because other sides of the same truth are not brought into their due +relation with it. The popular idea thus takes a shape which is naturally +offensive to men of strict precision, and which men of strict scientific +precision have naturally, and from their own point of view quite +rightly, risen up to rebuke. Yet it may often happen that, while the +scientific statement is the only true one for scientific purposes, the +popular version may also have a kind of practical truth for the somewhat +rough and ready purposes of a popular version. In our present case +scientific philologers are beginning to complain, with perfect truth and +perfect justice from their own point of view, that the popular doctrine +of race confounds race and language. They tell us, and they do right to +tell us, that language is no certain test of race, that men who speak +the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> tongue are not therefore necessarily men of the same blood. +And they tell us further, that from whatever quarter the alleged popular +confusion came, it certainly did not come from any teaching of +scientific philologers.</p> + +<p>The truth of all this cannot be called in question. We have too many +instances in recorded history of nations laying aside the use of one +language and taking to the use of another, for any one who cares for +accuracy to set down language as any sure test of race. In fact, the +studies of the philologer and those of the ethnologer strictly so called +are quite distinct, and they deal with two wholly different sets of +phenomena. The science of the ethnologer is strictly a physical science. +He has to deal with purely physical phenomena; his business lies with +the different varieties of the human body, and specially, to take that +branch of his inquiries which most impresses the unlearned, with the +various conformations of the human skull. His researches differ in +nothing from those of the zoölogist or the palæontologist, except that +he has to deal with the physical phenomena of man, while they deal with +the physical phenomena of other animals. He groups the different races +of men, exactly as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> the others group the genera and species of living or +extinct mammals or reptiles. The student of ethnology as a physical +science may indeed strengthen his conclusions by evidence of other +kinds, evidence from arms, ornaments, pottery, modes of burial. But all +these are secondary; the primary ground of classification is the +physical conformation of man himself. As to language, the ethnological +method, left to itself, can find out nothing whatever. The science of +the ethnologer then is primarily physical; it is historical only in that +secondary sense in which palæontology, and geology itself, may fairly be +called historical. It arranges the varieties of mankind according to a +strictly physical classification; what the language of each variety may +have been, it leaves to the professors of another branch of study to +find out.</p> + +<p>The science of the philologer, on the other hand, is strictly +historical. There is doubtless a secondary sense in which purely +philological science may be fairly called physical, just as there is a +secondary sense in which pure ethnology may be called historical. That +is to say, philology has to deal with physical phenomena, so far as it +has to deal with the physi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>cal aspect of the sounds of which human +language is made up. Its primary business, like the primary business of +any other historical science, is to deal with phenomena which do not +depend on physical laws, but which do depend on the human will. The +science of language is, in this respect, like the science of human +institutions or of human beliefs. Its subject-matter is not, like that +of pure ethnology, what man is, but, like that of any other historical +science, what man does. It is plain that no man's will can have any +direct influence on the shape of his skull. I say no direct influence, +because it is not for me to rule how far habits, places of abode, modes +of life, a thousand things which do come under the control of the human +will, may indirectly affect the physical conformation of a man himself +or of his descendants. Some observers have made the remark that men of +civilized nations who live in a degraded social state do actually +approach to the physical type of inferior races. However this may be, it +is quite certain, that as no man can by taking thought add a cubit to +his stature, so no man can by taking thought make his skull +brachycephalic or dolichocephalic. But the language which a man speaks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +does depend upon his will; he can by taking thought make his speech +Romance or Teutonic. No doubt he has in most cases practically no choice +in the matter. The language which he speaks is practically determined +for him by fashion, habit, early teaching, a crowd of things over which +he has practically no control. But still the control is not physical and +inevitable, as it is in the case of the shape of his skull. If we say +that he cannot help speaking in a particular way; that is, that he +cannot help speaking a particular language, this simply means that his +circumstances are such that no other way of speaking presents itself to +his mind. And in many cases, he has a real choice between two or more +ways of speaking; that is, between two or more languages. Every word +that a man speaks is the result of a real, though doubtless unconscious, +act of his free will. We are apt to speak of gradual changes in +language, as in institutions or any thing else, as if they were the +result of a physical law, acting upon beings who had no choice in the +matter. Yet every change of the kind is simply the aggregate of various +acts of the will on the part of all concerned. Every change in speech, +every introduction of a new sound or a new word, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> really the result +of an act of the will of some one or other. The choice may have been +unconscious; circumstances may have been such as practically to give him +but one choice; still he did choose; he spoke in one way, when there was +no physical hindrance to his speaking in another way, when there was no +physical compulsion to speak at all. The Gauls need not have changed +their own language for Latin; the change was not the result of a +physical necessity, but of a number of acts of the will on the part of +this and that Gaul. Moral causes directed their choice, and determined +that Gaul should become a Latin-speaking land. But whether the skulls of +the Gauls should be long or short, whether their hair should be black or +yellow, those were points over which the Gauls themselves had no direct +control whatever.</p> + +<p>The study of men's skulls then is a study which is strictly physical, a +study of facts over which the will of man has no direct control. The +study of men's languages is strictly an historical study, a study of +facts over which the will of man has a direct control. It follows +therefore from the very nature of the two studies that language cannot +be an absolutely certain test of physical descent. A man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> cannot, under +any circumstances, choose his own skull; he may, under some +circumstances, choose his own language. He must keep the skull which has +been given him by his parents; he cannot, by any process of taking +thought, determine what kind of skull he will hand on to his own +children. But he may give up the use of the language which he has +learned from his parents, and he may determine what language he will +teach to his children. The physical characteristics of a race are +unchangeable, or are changed only by influences over which the race +itself has no direct control. The language which the race speaks may be +changed, either by a conscious act of the will or by that power of +fashion which is in truth the aggregate of countless unconscious acts of +the will. And, as the very nature of the case thus shows that language +is no sure test of race, so the facts of recorded history equally prove +the same truth. Both individuals and whole nations do in fact often +exchange the language of their forefathers for some other language. A +man settles in a foreign country. He learns the language of that +country; sometimes he forgets the use of his own language. His children +may perhaps speak both tongues; if they speak<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> one tongue only, it will +be the tongue of the country where they live. In a generation or two all +trace of foreign origin will have passed away. Here then language is no +test of race. If the great-grandchildren speak the language of their +great-grandfathers, it will simply be as they may speak any other +foreign language. Here are men who by speech belong to one nation, by +actual descent to another. If they lose the physical characteristics of +the race to which the original settler belonged, it will be due to +intermarriage, to climate, to some cause altogether independent of +language. Every nation will have some adopted children of this kind, +more or fewer; men who belong to it by speech, but who do not belong to +it by race. And what happens in the case of individuals happens in the +case of whole nations. The pages of history are crowded with cases in +which nations have cast aside the tongue of their forefathers, and have +taken instead the tongue of some other people. Greek in the East, Latin +in the West, became the familiar speech of millions who had not a drop +of Greek or Italian blood in their veins. The same has been the case in +later times with Arabic, Persian, Spanish, German, English. Each of +those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> tongues has become the familiar speech of vast regions where the +mass of the people are not Arabian, Spanish, or English, otherwise than +by adoption. The Briton of Cornwall has, slowly but in the end +thoroughly, adopted the speech of England. In the American continent +full-blooded Indians preside over commonwealths which speak the tongue +of Cortes and Pizarro. In the lands to which all eyes are now turned, +the Greek, who has been busily assimilating strangers ever since he +first planted his colonies in Asia and Sicily, goes on busily +assimilating his Albanian neighbors. And between renegades, janissaries, +and mothers of all nations, the blood of many a Turk must be physically +any thing rather than Turkish. The inherent nature of the case, and the +witness of recorded history, join together to prove that language is no +certain test of race, and that the scientific philologers are doing good +service to accuracy of expression and accuracy of thought by +emphatically calling attention to the fact that language is no such +test.</p> + +<p>But, on the other hand, it is quite possible that the truth to which our +attention is just now most fittingly called may, if put forth too +broadly and without certain qualifications, lead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> to error quite as +great as the error at which it is aimed. I do not suppose that any one +ever thought that language was, necessarily and in all cases, an +absolute and certain test. If anybody does think so, he has put himself +altogether out of court by shutting his eyes to the most manifest facts +of the case. But there can be no doubt that many people have given too +much importance to language as a test of race. Though they have not +wholly forgotten the facts which tell the other way, they have not +brought them out with enough prominence. But I can also believe that +many people have written and spoken on the subject in a way which cannot +be justified from a strictly scientific point of view, but which may +have been fully justified from the point of view of the writers and +speakers themselves. It may often happen that a way of speaking may not +be scientifically accurate, but may yet be quite near enough to the +truth for the purposes of the matter in hand. It may, for some practical +or even historical purpose, be really more true than the statement which +is scientifically more exact. Language is no certain test of race; but +if a man, struck by this wholesome warning, should run off into the +belief that language<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> and race have absolutely nothing to do with one +another, he had better have gone without the warning. For in such a case +the last error would be worse than the first. The natural instinct of +mankind connects race and language. It does not assume that language is +an infallible test of race; but it does assume that language and race +have something to do with one another. It assumes, that though language +is not an accurately scientific test of race, yet it is a rough and +ready test which does for many practical purposes. To make something +more of an exact definition, one might say, that though language is not +a test of race, it is, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, a +presumption of race; that though it is not a test of race, yet it is a +test of something which, for many practical purposes, is the same as +race.</p> + +<p>Professor Max Müller warned us long ago that we must not speak of a +Celtic skull. Mr. Sayce has more lately warned us that we must not infer +from community of Aryan speech that there is any kindred in blood +between this or that Englishman and this or that Hindoo. And both +warnings are scientifically true. Yet any one who begins his studies on +these matters with Professor Müller's famous Oxford Essay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> will +practically come to another way of looking at things. He will fill his +mind with a vivid picture of the great Aryan family, as yet one, +dwelling in one place, speaking one tongue, having already taken the +first steps toward settled society, recognizing the domestic relations, +possessing the first rudiments of government and religion, and calling +all these first elements of culture by names of which traces still abide +here and there among the many nations of the common stock. He will go on +to draw pictures equally vivid of the several branches of the family +parting off from the primeval home. One great branch he will see going +to the south-east, to become the forefathers of the vast, yet isolated +colony in the Asiatic lands of Persia and India. He watches the +remaining mass sending off wave after wave, to become the forefathers of +the nations of historical Europe. He traces out how each branch starts +with its own share of the common stock—how the language, the creed, the +institutions, once common to all, grow up into different, yet kindred, +shapes, among the many parted branches which grew up, each with an +independent life and strength of its own. This is what our instructors +set before us as the true<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> origin of nations and their languages. And, +in drawing out the picture, we cannot avoid, our teachers themselves do +not avoid, the use of words which imply that the strictly family +relation, the relation of community of blood, is at the root of the +whole matter. We cannot help talking about the family and its branches, +about parents, children, brothers, sisters, cousins. The nomenclature of +natural kindred exactly fits the case; it fits it so exactly that no +other nomenclature could enable us to set forth the case with any +clearness. Yet we cannot be absolutely certain that there was any real +community of blood in the whole story. We really know nothing of the +origin of language or the origin of society. We may make a thousand +ingenious guesses; but we cannot prove any of them. It may be that the +group which came together, and which formed the primeval society which +spoke the primeval Aryan tongue, were not brought together by community +of blood, but by some other cause which threw them in one another's way. +If we accept the Hebrew genealogies, they need not have had any +community of blood nearer than common descent from Adam and Noah. That +is, they need not have been all children<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> of Shem, of Ham, or of +Japheth; some children of Shem, some of Ham, and some of Japheth may +have been led by some cause to settle together. Or if we believe in +independent creations of men, or in the development of men out of +mollusks, the whole of the original society need not have been +descendants of the same man or the same mollusk. In short, there is no +theory of the origin of man which requires us to believe that the +primeval Aryans were a natural family; they may have been more like an +accidental party of fellow-travellers. And if we accept them as a +natural family, it does not follow that the various branches which grew +into separate races and nations, speaking separate though kindred +languages, were necessarily marked off by more immediate kindred. It may +be that there is no nearer kindred in blood between this or that +Persian, this or that Greek, this or that Teuton, than the general +kindred of all Aryans. For, when this or that party marched off from the +common home, it does follow that those who marched off together were +necessarily immediate brothers or cousins. The party which grew into +Hindoos or Teutons may not have been made up exclusively of one set of +near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> kinsfolk. Some of the children of the same parents or forefathers +may have marched one way, while others marched another way, or stayed +behind. We may, if we please, indulge our fancy by conceiving that there +may actually be family distinctions older than distinctions of nation +and race. It may be that the Gothic <i>Amali</i> and the Roman <i>Æmilii</i>—I +throw out the idea as a mere illustration—were branches of a family +which had taken a name before the division of Teuton and Italian. Some +of the members of that family may have joined the band of which came the +Goths, while other members joined the band of which came the Romans. +There is no difference but the length of time to distinguish such a +supposed case from the case of an English family, one branch of which +settled in the seventeenth century at Boston in Massachusetts, while +another branch stayed behind at Boston in Holland. Mr. Sayce says truly +that the use of a kindred language does not prove that the Englishman +and the Hindoo are really akin in race; for, as he adds, many Hindoos +are men of non-Aryan race who have simply learned to speak tongues of +Sanscrit origin. He might have gone on to say, with equal truth, that +there is no positive certainty that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> there was any community in blood +among the original Aryan group itself, and that if we admit such +community of blood in the original Aryan group, it does not follow that +there is any further special kindred between Hindoo and Hindoo or +between Englishman and Englishman. The original group may not have been +a family, but an artificial union. And if it was a family, those of its +members who marched together east or west or north or south may have had +no tie of kindred beyond the common cousinship of all.</p> + +<p>Now the tendency of this kind of argument is to lead to something a good +deal more startling than the doctrine that language is no certain test +of race. Its tendency is to go on further, and to show that race is no +certain test of community of blood. And this comes pretty nearly to +saying that there is no such thing as race at all. For our whole +conception of race starts from the idea of community of blood. If the +word "race" does not mean community of blood, it is hard to see what it +does mean. Yet it is certain that there can be no positive proof of real +community of blood, even among those groups of mankind which we +instinctively speak of as families and races. It is not merely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> that the +blood has been mingled in after-times; there is no positive proof that +there was any community of blood in the beginning. No living Englishman +can prove with absolute certainty that he comes in the male line of any +of the Teutonic settlers in Britain in the fifth or sixth centuries. I +say in the male line, because any one who is descended from any English +king can prove such descent, though he can prove it only through a long +and complicated web of female successions. But we may be sure that in no +other case can such a pedigree be proved by the kind of proof which +lawyers would require to make out the title to an estate or a peerage. +The actual forefathers of the modern Englishman may chance to have been, +not true-born Angles or Saxons, but Britons, Scots, in later days +Frenchmen, Flemings, men of any other nation who learned to speak +English and took to themselves English names. But supposing that a man +could make out such a pedigree, supposing that he could prove that he +came in the male line of some follower of Hengest or Cerdic, he would be +no nearer to proving original community of blood either in the +particular Teutonic race or in the general Aryan family. If direct +evidence is demanded,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> we must give up the whole doctrine of families +and races, as far as we take language, manners, institutions, any thing +but physical conformation, as the distinguishing marks of races and +families. That is to say, if we wish never to use any word of whose +accuracy we cannot be perfectly certain, we must leave off speaking of +races and families at all from any but the purely physical side. We must +content ourselves with saying that certain groups of mankind have a +common history, that they have languages, creeds, and institutions in +common, but that we have no evidence whatever to show how they came to +have languages, creeds, and institutions in common. We cannot say for +certain what was the tie which brought the members of the original group +together, any more than we can name the exact time and the exact place +when and where they came together.</p> + +<p>We may thus seem to be landed in a howling wilderness of scientific +uncertainty. The result of pushing our inquiries so far may seem to be +to show that we really know nothing at all. But in truth the uncertainty +is no greater than the uncertainty which attends all inquiries in the +historical sciences. Though a historical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> fact may be recorded in the +most trustworthy documents, though it may have happened in our own +times, though we may have seen it happen with our own eyes, yet we +cannot have the same certainty about it as the mathematician has about +the proposition which he proves to absolute demonstration. We cannot +have even that lower degree of certainty which the geologist has with +regard to the order of succession between this and that <i>stratum</i>. For +in all historical inquiries we are dealing with facts which themselves +come within the control of human will and human caprice, and the +evidence for which depends on the trustworthiness of human informants, +who may either purposely deceive or unwittingly mislead. A man may lie; +he may err. The triangles and the rocks can neither lie nor err. I may +with my own eyes see a certain man do a certain act; he may tell me +himself, or some one else may tell me, that he is the same man who did +some other act; but as to his statement I cannot have absolute +certainty, and no one but myself can have absolute certainty as to the +statement which I make as to the facts which I saw with my own eyes. +Historical evidence may range through every degree, from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> barest +likelihood to that undoubted moral certainty on which every man acts +without hesitation in practical affairs. But it cannot get beyond this +last standard. If, then, we are ever to use words like race, family, or +even nation, to denote groups of mankind marked off by any kind of +historical, as distinguished from physical, characteristics, we must be +content to use those words, as we use many other words, without being +able to prove that our use of them is accurate, as mathematicians judge +of accuracy. I cannot be quite sure that William the Conqueror landed at +Pevensey, though I have strong reasons for believing that he did so. And +I have strong reasons for believing many facts about race and language +about which I am much further from being quite sure than I am about +William's landing at Pevensey. In short, in all these matters, we must +be satisfied to let presumption very largely take the place of actual +proof; and, if we only let presumption in, most of our difficulties at +once fly away. Language is no certain test of race; but it is a +presumption of race. Community of race, as we commonly understand race, +is no certain proof of original community of blood; but it is a +presumption of origi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>nal community of blood. The presumption amounts to +moral proof, if only we do not insist on proving such physical community +of blood as would satisfy a genealogist. It amounts to moral proof, if +all that we seek is to establish a relation in which the community of +blood is the leading idea, and in which, where natural community of +blood does not exist, its place is supplied by something which by a +legal fiction is looked upon as its equivalent.</p> + +<p>If, then, we do not ask for scientific, for what we may call physical, +accuracy, but if we are satisfied with the kind of proof which is all +that we can ever get in the historical sciences—if we are satisfied to +speak in a way which is true for popular and practical purposes—then we +may say that language has a great deal to do with race, as race is +commonly understood, and that race has a great deal to do with community +of blood. If we once admit the Roman doctrine of adoption, our whole +course is clear. The natural family is the starting-point of every +thing; but we must give the natural family the power of artificially +enlarging itself by admitting adoptive members. A group of mankind is +thus formed, in which it does not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> follow that all the members have any +natural community of blood, but in which community of blood is the +starting-point, in which those who are connected by natural community of +blood form the original body within whose circle the artificial members +are admitted. A group of mankind thus formed is something quite +different from a fortuitious concurrence of atoms. Three or four +brothers by blood, with a fourth or fifth man whom they agree to look on +as filling in every thing the same place as a brother by blood, form a +group which is quite unlike a union of four or five men, none of whom is +bound by any tie of blood to any of the others. In the latter kind of +union the notion of kindred does not come in at all. In the former kind +the notion of kindred is the groundwork of every thing; it determines +the character of every relation and every action, even though the +kindred between some members of the society and others may be owing to a +legal fiction and not to natural descent. All that we know of the growth +of tribes, races, nations, leads us to believe that they grew in this +way. Natural kindred was the groundwork, the leading and determining +idea; but, by one of those legal fictions which have had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> such an +influence on all institutions, adoption was in certain cases allowed to +count as natural kindred.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>The usage of all languages shows that community of blood was the leading +idea in forming the greater and smaller groups of mankind. Words like +φὑλον, γἑνος, <i>gens</i>, <i>natio</i>, <i>kin</i>, all point to the natural +family as the origin of all society. The family in the narrower sense, +the children of one father in one house, grew into a more extended +family, the <i>gens</i>. Such were the Alkmaiônidai, the Julii, or the +Scyldingas, the real or artificial descendants of a real or supposed +forefather. The nature of the <i>gens</i> has been set forth often enough. If +it is a mistake to fancy that every Julius or Cornelius was the natural +kinsman of every other Julius or Cornelius, it is equally a mistake to +think that the <i>gens Julia</i> or <i>Cornelia</i> was in its origin a mere +artificial association, into which the idea of natural kindred did not +enter. It is indeed possible that really artificial <i>gentes</i>, groups of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +men of whom it might chance that none were natural kinsmen, were formed +in later times after the model of the original <i>gentes</i>. Still such +imitation would bear witness to the original conception of the <i>gens</i>. +It would be the doctrine of adoption turned the other way; instead of a +father adopting a son, a number of men would agree to adopt a common +father. The family then grew into the <i>gens</i>; the union of <i>gentes</i> +formed the state, the political community, which in its first form was +commonly a tribe. Then came the nation, formed of a union of tribes. +Kindred, real or artificial, is the one basis on which all society and +all government has grown up.</p> + +<p>Now it is plain, that as soon as we admit the doctrine of artificial +kindred—that is, as soon as we allow the exercise of the law of +adoption, physical purity of race is at an end. Adoption treats a man as +if he were the son of a certain father; it cannot really make him the +son of that father. If a brachycephalic father adopts a dolichocephalic +son, the legal act cannot change the shape of the adopted son's skull. I +will not undertake to say whether, not indeed the rite of adoption, but +the influences and circumstances which would spring from it, might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> not, +in the course of generations, affect even the skull of the man who +entered a certain <i>gens</i>, tribe, or nation by artificial adoption only. +If by any chance the adopted son spoke a different language from the +adopted father, the rite of adoption itself would not of itself change +his language. But it would bring him under influences which would make +him adopt the language of his new <i>gens</i> by a conscious act of the will, +and which would make his children adopt it by the same unconscious act +of the will by which each child adopts the language of his parents. The +adopted son, still more the son of the adopted son, became, in speech, +in feelings, in worship, in every thing but physical descent, one with +the <i>gens</i> into which he was adopted. He became one of that <i>gens</i> for +all practical, political, historical, purposes. It is only the +physiologist who could deny his right to his new position. The nature of +the process is well expressed by a phrase of our own law. When the +nation—the word itself keeps about it the remembrance of birth as the +groundwork of every thing—adopts a new citizen, that is, a new child of +the state, he is said to be <i>naturalized</i>. That is, a legal process puts +him in the same position, and gives him the same rights,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> as a man who +is a citizen and a son by birth. It is assumed that the rights of +citizenship come by nature—that is, by birth. The stranger is admitted +to them only by a kind of artificial birth; he is naturalized by law; +his children are in a generation or two naturalized in fact. There is +now no practical distinction between the Englishman whose forefathers +landed with William, or even between the Englishman whose forefathers +sought shelter from Alva or from Louis the Fourteenth, and the +Englishman whose forefathers landed with Hengest. It is for the +physiologist to say whether any difference can be traced in their +several skulls; for all practical purposes, historical or political, all +distinction between these several classes has passed away.</p> + +<p>We may, in short, say that the law of adoption runs through every thing, +and that it may be practised on every scale. What adoption is at the +hands of the family, naturalization is at the hands of the state. And +the same process extends itself from adopted or naturalized individuals +to large classes of men, indeed to whole nations. When the process takes +place on this scale, we may best call it assimilation. Thus Rome +assimilated the continental nations of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> Western Europe to that degree +that, allowing for a few survivals here and there, not only Italy, but +Gaul and Spain, became Roman. The people of those lands, admitted step +by step to the Roman franchise, adopted the name and tongue of Romans. +It must soon have been hard to distinguish the Roman colonist in Gaul or +Spain from the native Gaul or Spaniard who had, as far as in him lay, +put on the guise of a Roman. This process of assimilation has gone on +everywhere and at all times. When two nations come in this way into +close contact with one another, it depends on a crowd of circumstances +which shall assimilate the other, or whether they shall remain distinct +without assimilation either way. Sometimes the conquerors assimilate +their subjects; sometimes they are assimilated by their subjects; +sometimes conquerors and subjects remain distinct forever. When +assimilation either way does take place, the direction which it takes in +each particular case will depend, partly on their respective numbers, +partly on their degrees of civilization. A small number of less +civilized conquerors will easily be lost among a greater number of more +civilized subjects, and that even though they give their name to the +land<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> and people which they conquer. The modern Frenchman represents, +not the conquering Frank, but the conquered Gaul, or, as he called +himself, the conquered Roman. The modern Bulgarian represents, not the +Finnish conqueror, but the conquered Slav. The modern Russian +represents, not the Scandinavian ruler, but the Slav who sent for the +Scandinavian to rule over him. And so we might go on with endless other +cases. The point is that the process of adoption, naturalization, +assimilation, has gone on everywhere. No nation can boast of absolute +purity of blood, though no doubt some nations come much nearer to it +than others. When I speak of purity of blood, I leave out of sight the +darker questions which I have already raised with regard to the groups +of mankind in days before recorded history. I assume great groups like +Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, as having what we may call a real corporate +existence, however we may hold that that corporate existence began. My +present point is that no existing nation is, in the physiologist's sense +of purity, purely Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, or any thing else. All +races have assimilated a greater or less amount of foreign elements. +Taking this standard, one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> which comes more nearly within the range of +our actual knowledge than the possibilities of unrecorded times, we may +again say that, from the purely scientific or physiological point of +view, not only is language no test of race, but that, at all events +among the great nations of the world, there is no such thing as purity +of race at all.</p> + +<p>But, while we admit this truth, while we even insist upon it from the +strictly scientific point of view, we must be allowed to look at it with +different eyes from a more practical standing point. This is the +standing point, whether of history which is the politics of the past, or +of politics which are the history of the present. From this point of +view, we may say unhesitatingly that there are such things as races and +nations, and that to the grouping of those races and nations language is +the best guide. We cannot undertake to define with any philosophical +precision the exact distinction between race and race, between nation +and nation. Nor can we undertake to define with the like precision in +what way the distinctions between race and race, between nation and +nation, began. But all analogy leads us to believe that tribes, nations, +races, were all formed according to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> original model of the family, +the family which starts from the idea of the community of blood, but +which allows artificial adoption to be its legal equivalent. In all +cases of adoption, naturalization, assimilation, whether of individuals +or of large classes of men, the adopted person or class is adopted into +an existing community. Their adoption undoubtedly influences the +community into which they are adopted. It at once destroys any claim on +the part of that community to purity of blood, and it influences the +adopting community in many ways, physical and moral. A family, a tribe, +or a nation, which has largely recruited itself by adopted members, +cannot be the same as one which has never practised adoption at all, but +all whose members come of the original stock. But the influence which +the adopting community exercises upon its adopted members is far greater +than any influence which they exercise upon it. It cannot change their +blood; it cannot give them new natural forefathers; but it may do every +thing short of this; it may make them, in speech, in feeling, in +thought, and in habit, genuine members of the community which has +artificially made them its own. While there is not in any nation, in any +race, any such thing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> as strict purity of blood, yet there is in each +nation, in each race, a dominant element—or rather something more than +an element—something which is the true essence of the race or nation, +something which sets its standard and determines its character, +something which draws to itself and assimilates to itself all other +elements. It so works that all other elements are not co-equal elements +with itself, but mere infusions poured into an already existing body. +Doubtless these infusions do in some measure influence the body which +assimilates them; but the influence which they exercise is as nothing +compared to the influence which they undergo. We may say that they +modify the character of the body into which they are assimilated; they +do not affect its personality. Thus, assuming the great groups of +mankind as primary facts, the origin of which lies beyond our certain +knowledge, we may speak of families and races, of the great Aryan family +and of the races into which it parted, as groups which have a real, +practical existence, as groups founded on the ruling primeval idea of +kindred, even though in many cases the kindred may not be by natural +descent, but only by law of adoption. The Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic +races of man are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> real living and abiding groups, the distinction +between which we must accept among the primary facts of history. And +they go on as living and abiding groups, even though we know that each +of them has assimilated many adopted members, sometimes from other +branches of the Aryan family, sometimes from races of men alien to the +whole Aryan stock. These races which, in a strictly physiological point +of view, have no existence at all, have a real existence from the more +practical point of view of history and politics. The Bulgarian calls to +the Russian for help, and the Russian answers to his call for help, on +the ground of their being alike members of the one Slavonic race. It may +be that, if we could trace out the actual pedigree of this or that +Bulgarian, of this or that Russian, we might either find that there was +no real kindred between them, or we might find that there was a real +kindred, but a kindred which must be traced up to another stock than +that of the Slav. In point of actual blood, instead of both being Slavs, +it may be that one of them comes, it may be that both of them come, of a +stock which is not Slavonic or even Aryan. The Bulgarian may chance to +be a Bulgarian in a truer sense than he thinks; for he may come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> of the +blood of those original Finnish conquerors who gave the Bulgarian name +to the Slavs among whom they were merged. And if this or that Bulgarian +may chance to come of the stock of Finnish conquerors assimilated by +their Slavonic subjects, this or that Russian may chance to come of the +stock of Finnish subjects assimilated by their Slavonic conquerors. It +may then so happen that the cry for help goes up and is answered on a +ground of kindred which in the eye of the physiologist has no existence. +Or it may happen that the kindred is real in a way which neither the +suppliant nor his helper thinks of. But in either case, for the +practical purposes of human life, the plea is a good plea; the kindred +on which it is founded is a real kindred. It is good by the law of +adoption. It is good by the law the force of which we all admit whenever +we count a man as an Englishman whose forefathers, two generations or +twenty generations back, came to our shores as strangers. For all +practical purposes, for all the purposes which guide men's actions, +public or private, the Russian and the Bulgarian, kinsmen so long +parted, perhaps in very truth no natural kinsmen at all, are members of +the same race, bound together by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> common sentiment of race. They +belong to the same race, exactly as an Englishman whose forefathers came +into Britain fourteen hundred years back, and an Englishman whose +forefathers came only one or two hundred years back, are alike members +of the same nation, bound together by a tie of common nationality.</p> + +<p>And now, having ruled that races and nations, though largely formed by +the working of an artificial law, are still real and living things, +groups in which the idea of kindred is the idea around which every thing +has grown, how are we to define our races and our nations? How are we to +mark them off one from the other? Bearing in mind the cautions and +qualifications which have been already given, bearing in mind large +classes of exceptions which will presently be spoken of, I say +unhesitatingly that for practical purposes there is one test, and one +only, and that that test is language. It is hardly needful to show that +races and nations cannot be defined by the merely political arrangements +which group men under various governments. For some purposes of ordinary +language, for some purposes of ordinary politics, we are tempted, +sometimes driven, to take this standard. And in some parts of the +world,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> in our own Western Europe for instance, nations and governments +do, in a rough way, fairly answer to one another. And, in any case, +political divisions are not without their influence on the formation of +national divisions, while national divisions ought to have the greatest +influence on political divisions. That is to say, <i>primâ facie</i> a nation +and government should coincide. I say only <i>primâ facie</i>; for this is +assuredly no inflexible rule; there are often good reasons why it should +be otherwise; only, whenever it is otherwise, there should be some good +reason forthcoming. It might even be true that in no case did a +government and a nation exactly coincide, and yet it would none the less +be the rule that a government and a nation should coincide. That is to +say, so far as a nation and a government coincide, we accept it as the +natural state of things, and ask no question as to the cause. So far as +they do not coincide, we mark the case as exceptional, by asking what is +the cause. And by saying that a government and a nation should coincide +we mean that, as far as possible, the boundaries of governments should +be so laid out as to agree with the boundaries of nations. That is, we +assume the nation as something al<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>ready existing, something primary, to +which the secondary arrangements of government should, as far as +possible, conform. How then do we define the nation, which is, if there +is no especial reason to the contrary, to fix the limits of a +government? Primarily, I say, as a rule, but a rule subject to +exceptions,—as a <i>primâ facie</i> standard, subject to special reasons to +the contrary,—we define the nation by language. We may at least apply +the test negatively. It would be unsafe to rule that all speakers of the +same language must have a common nationality; but we may safely say that +where there is not community of language, there is no common nationality +in the highest sense. It is true that without community of language +there may be an artificial nationality, a nationality which may be good +for all political purposes, and which may engender a common national +feeling. Still this is not quite the same thing as that fuller national +unity which is felt where there is community of language. In fact +mankind instinctively takes language as the badge of nationality. We so +far take it as the badge, that we instinctively assume community of +language as a nation as the rule, and we set down any thing that departs +from that rule as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> an exception. The first idea suggested by the word +Frenchman or German or any other national name, is that he is a man who +speaks French or German as his mother-tongue. We take for granted, in +the absence of any thing to make us think otherwise, that a Frenchman is +a speaker of French and that a speaker of French is a Frenchman. Where +in any case it is otherwise, we mark that case as an exception, and we +ask the special cause. Again, the rule is none the less the rule, nor +the exceptions the exceptions, because the exceptions may easily +outnumber the instances which conform to the rule. The rule is still the +rule, because we take the instances which conform to it as a matter of +course, while in every case which does not conform to it we ask for the +explanation. All the larger countries of Europe provide us with +exceptions; but we treat them all as exceptions. We do not ask why a +native of France speaks French. But when a native of France speaks as +his mother-tongue some other tongue than French, when French, or +something which popularly passes for French, is spoken as his +mother-tongue by some one who is not a native of France, we at once ask +the reason. And the reason will be found in each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> case in some special +historical cause which withdraws that case from the operation of the +general law. A very good reason can be given why French, or something +which popularly passes for French, is spoken in parts of Belgium and +Switzerland whose inhabitants are certainly not Frenchmen. But the +reason has to be given, and it may fairly be asked.</p> + +<p>In the like sort, if we turn to our own country, whenever within the +bounds of Great Britain we find any tongue spoken other than English, we +at once ask the reason and we learn the special historic cause. In a +part of France and a part of Great Britain we find tongues spoken which +differ alike from English and from French, but which are strongly akin +to one another. We find that these are the survivals of a group of +tongues once common to Gaul and Britain, but which the settlement of +other nations, the introduction and the growth of other tongues, have +brought down to the level of survivals. So again we find islands which +both speech and geographical position seem to mark as French, but which +are dependencies, and loyal dependencies, of the English crown. We soon +learn the cause of the phenomenon which seems so strange. Those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> islands +are the remains of a state and a people which adopted the French tongue, +but which, while it remained one, did not become a part of the French +state. That people brought England by force of arms under the rule of +their own sovereigns. The greater part of that people were afterward +conquered by France, and gradually became French in feeling as well as +in language. But a remnant clave to their connection with the land which +their forefathers had conquered, and that remnant, while keeping the +French tongue, never became French in feeling. This last case, that of +the Norman islands, is a specially instructive one. Normandy and England +were politically connected, while language and geography pointed rather +to a union between Normandy and France. In the case of continental +Normandy, where the geographical tie was strongest, language and +geography together could carry the day, and the continental Norman +became a Frenchman. In the islands, where the geographical tie was less +strong, political traditions and manifest interest carried the day +against language and a weaker geographical tie. The insular Norman did +not become a Frenchman. But neither did he become an Englishman. He +alone remained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> Norman, keeping his own tongue and his own laws, but +attached to the English crown by a tie at once of tradition and of +advantage. Between states of the relative size of England and the Norman +islands, the relation naturally becomes a relation of dependence on the +part of the smaller members of the union. But it is well to remember +that our forefathers never conquered the forefathers of the men of the +Norman islands, but that their forefathers did once conquer ours.</p> + +<p>These instances, and countless others, bear out the position that, while +community of language is the most obvious sign of common nationality, +while it is the main element, or something more than an element, in the +formation of nationality, the rule is open to exceptions of all kinds, +and that the influence of language is at all times liable to be +overruled by other influences. But all the exceptions confirm the rule, +because we specially remark those cases which contradict the rule, and +we do not specially remark those cases which do not conform to it.</p> + +<p>In the cases which we have just spoken of, the growth of the nation as +marked out by language, and the growth of the exceptions to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> the rule of +language, have both come through the gradual, unconscious working of +historical causes. Union under the same government, or separation under +separate governments, have been among the foremost of those historical +causes. The French nation consists of the people of all that extent of +continuous territory which has been brought under the rule of the French +kings. But the working of the cause has been gradual and unconscious. +There was no moment when any one deliberately proposed to form a French +nation by joining together all the separate duchies and counties which +spoke the French tongue. Since the French nation has been formed, men +have proposed to annex this or that land on the ground that its people +spoke the French tongue, or perhaps only some tongue akin to the French +tongue. But the formation of the French nation itself was the work of +historical causes, the work doubtless of a settled policy acting through +many generations, but not the work of any conscious theory about races +and languages. It is a special mark of our time, a special mark of the +influence which doctrines about race and language have had on men's +minds, that we have seen great nations united by processes in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> which +theories of race and language really have had much to do with bringing +about their union. If statesmen have not been themselves moved by such +theories, they have at least found that it suited their purpose to make +use of such theories as a means of working on the minds of others. In +the reunion of the severed German and Italian nations, the conscious +feeling of nationality, and the acceptance of a common language as the +outward badge of nationality, had no small share. Poets sang of language +as the badge of national union; statesmen made it the badge, so far as +political considerations did not lead them to do anything else. The +revived kingdom of Italy is very far from taking in all the speakers of +the Italian tongue. Lugano, Trent, Aquileia—to take places which are +clearly Italian, and not to bring in places of more doubtful +nationality, like the cities of Istria and Dalmatia—form no part of the +Italian political body, and Corsica is not under the same rule as the +other two great neighboring islands. But the fact that all these places +do not belong to the Italian body at once suggests the twofold question, +why they do not belong to it, and whether they ought not to belong to +it. History easily answers the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> first question; it may perhaps also +answer the second question in a way which will say Yes as regards one +place and No as regards another. Ticino must not lose her higher +freedom; Trieste must remain the needful mouth for southern Germany; +Dalmatia must not be cut off from the Slavonic mainland; Corsica would +seem to have sacrificed national feeling to personal hero-worship. But +it is certainly hard to see why Trent and Aquileia should be kept apart +from the Italian body. On the other hand, the revived Italian kingdom +contains very little which is not Italian in speech. It is perhaps by a +somewhat elastic view of language that the dialect of Piedmont and the +dialect of Sicily are classed under one head; still, as a matter of +fact, they have a single classical standard, and they are universally +accepted as varieties of the same tongue. But it is only in a few Alpine +valleys that languages are spoken which, whether Romance or Teutonic, +are in any case not Italian. The reunion of Italy, in short, took in all +that was Italian, save when some political cause hindered the rule of +language from being followed. Of any thing not Italian by speech so +little has been taken in that the non-Italian parts of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> Italy, +Burgundian Aosta and the Seven German Communes—if these last still keep +their Teutonic language,—fall under the rule that there are some things +too small for laws to pay heed to.</p> + +<p>But it must not be forgotten that all this simply means that in the +lands of which we have just been speaking the process of adoption has +been carried out on the largest scale. Nations, with languages as their +rough practical test, have been formed; but they have been formed with +very little regard to physical purity of blood. In short, throughout +Western Europe assimilation has been the rule. That is to say, in any of +the great divisions of Western Europe, though the land may have been +settled and conquered over and over again, yet the mass of the people of +the land have been drawn to some one national type. Either some one +among the races inhabiting the land has taught the others to put on its +likeness, or else a new national type has arisen which has elements +drawn from several of those races. Thus the modern Frenchman may be +defined as produced by the union of blood which is mainly Celtic with a +speech which is mainly Latin, and with an historical polity which is +mainly Teu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>tonic. That is, he is neither Gaul, Roman, nor Frank, but a +fourth type which has drawn important elements from all three. Within +modern France this new national type has so far assimilated all others +as to make every thing else merely exceptional. The Fleming of one +corner, the Basque of another, even the far more important Breton of a +third corner, have all in this way become mere exceptions to the general +type of the country. If we pass into our own islands, we shall find that +the same process has been at work. If we look to Great Britain only, we +shall find that, though the means have not been the same, yet the end +has been gained hardly less thoroughly than in France. For all real +political purposes, for every thing which concerns a nation in the face +of other nations, Great Britain is as thoroughly united as France is. +Englishmen, Scotchmen, Welshmen, feel themselves one people in the +general affairs of the world. A secession of Scotland or Wales is as +unlikely as a secession of Normandy or Languedoc. The part of the island +which is not thoroughly assimilated in language, that part which still +speaks Welsh or Gaelic, is larger in proportion than the non-French part +of modern France. But however<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> much either the northern or the western +Briton may, in a fit of antiquarian politics, declaim against the Saxon, +for all practical political purposes he and the Saxon are one. The +distinction between the southern and the northern English—for the men +of Lothian and Fife must allow me to call them by this last name—is, +speaking politically and without ethnological or linguistic precision, +much as if France and Aquitaine had been two kingdoms united on equal +terms, instead of Aquitaine being merged in France. When we cross into +Ireland, we indeed find another state of things, and one which comes +nearer to some of the phenomena which we shall come to in other parts of +the world. Ireland is, most unhappily, not so firmly united to Great +Britain as the different parts of Great Britain are to one another. +Still even here the division arises quite as much from geographical and +historical causes as from distinctions of race strictly so called. If +Ireland had had no wrongs, still two great islands can never be so +thoroughly united as a continuous territory can be. On the other hand, +in point of language, the discontented part of the United Kingdom is +much less strongly marked off than that fraction of the contented part +which is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> thoroughly assimilated. Irish is certainly not the +language of Ireland in at all the same degree in which Welsh is the +language of Wales. The Saxon has commonly to be denounced in the Saxon +tongue.</p> + +<p>In some other parts of Western Europe, as in the Spanish and +Scandinavian peninsulas, the coincidence of language and nationality is +stronger than it is in France, Britain, or even Italy. No one speaks +Spanish except in Spain or in the colonies of Spain. And within Spain +the proportion of those who do not speak Spanish, namely the Basque +remnant, is smaller than the non-assimilated element in Britain and +France. Here two things are to be marked: First, the modern Spanish +nation has been formed, like the French, by a great process of +assimilation; secondly, the actual national arrangements of the Spanish +peninsula are wholly due to historical causes, we might almost say +historical accidents, and those of very recent date. Spain and Portugal +are separate kingdoms, and we look on their inhabitants as forming +separate nations. But this is simply because a Queen of Castile in the +fifteenth century married a King of Aragon. Had Isabel married a King of +Portugal, we should now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> talk of Spain and Aragon as we now talk of +Spain and Portugal, and we should count Portugal for part of Spain. In +language, in history, in every thing else, Aragon was really more +distinct from Castile than Portugal was. The King of Castile was already +spoken of as King of Spain, and Portugal would have merged in the +Spanish kingdom at last as easily as Aragon did. In Scandinavia, on the +other hand, there must have been less assimilation than anywhere else. +In the present kingdoms of Norway and Sweden, there must be a nearer +approach to actual purity of blood than in any other part of Europe. One +cannot fancy that much Finnish blood has been assimilated, and there +have been no conquests or settlements later than that of the Northmen +themselves.</p> + +<p>When we pass into Central Europe we shall find a somewhat different +state of things. The distinctions of race seem to be more lasting. While +the national unity of the German Empire is greater than that of either +France or Great Britain, it has not only subjects of other languages, +but actually discontented subjects, in three corners, on its French, its +Danish, and its Polish frontiers. We ask the reason, and it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> will be at +once answered that the discontent of all three is the result of recent +conquest, in two cases of very recent conquest indeed. But this is one +of the very points to be marked; the strong national unity of the German +Empire has been largely the result of assimilation; and these three +parts, where recent conquest has not yet been followed by assimilation, +are chiefly important because, in all three cases, the discontented +territory is geographically continuous with a territory of its own +speech outside the Empire. This does not prove that assimilation can +never take place; but it will undoubtedly make the process longer and +harder.</p> + +<p>So again, wherever German-speaking people dwell outside the bounds of +the revived German state, as well as when that revived German state +contains other than German-speaking people, we ask the reason and we can +find it. Political reasons forbade the immediate annexation of Austria, +Tyrol, and Salzburg. Combined political and geographical reasons, and, +if we look a little deeper, ethnological reasons too, forbade the +annexation of Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia. Some reason or other +will, it may be hoped, always be found to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> hinder the annexation of +lands which, like Zürich and Bern, have reached a higher political +level. Outlying brethren in Transsilvania or at Saratof again come under +the rule "De minimis non curat lex." In all these cases the rule that +nationality and language should go together, yields to unavoidable +circumstances. But, on the other hand, where French or Danish or +Slavonic or Lithuanian is spoken within the bounds of the new Empire, +the principle that language is the badge of nationality, that without +community of language nationality is imperfect, shows itself in another +shape. One main object of modern policy is to bring these exceptional +districts under the general rule by spreading the German language in +them. Everywhere, in short, wherever a power is supposed to be founded +on nationality, the common feeling of mankind instinctively takes +language as the test of nationality. We assume language as the test of a +nation, without going into any minute questions as to the physical +purity of blood in that nation. A continuous territory, living under the +same government and speaking the same tongue, forms a nation for all +practical purposes. If some of its inhabitants do not belong to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +original stock by blood, they at least belong to it by adoption.</p> + +<p>The question may now fairly be asked, What is the case in those parts of +the world where people who are confessedly of different races and +languages inhabit a continuous territory and live under the same +government? How do we define nationality in such cases as these? The +answer will be very different in different cases, according to the means +by which the different national elements in such a territory have been +brought together. They may form what I have already called an artificial +nation, united by an act of its own free will. Or it may be simply a +case where distinct nations, distinct in every thing which can be looked +on as forming a nation, except the possession of an independent +government, are brought together, by whatever causes, under a common +ruler. The former case is very distinctly an exception which proves the +rule, and the latter is, though in quite another way, an exception which +proves the rule also. Both cases may need somewhat more in the way of +definition. We will begin with the first, the case of a nation which has +been formed out of elements which differ in language, but which still +have been brought together so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> as to form an artificial nation. In the +growth of the chief nations of Western Europe, the principle which was +consciously or unconsciously followed has been that the nation should be +marked out by language, and the use of any tongue other than the +dominant tongue of the nation should be at least exceptional. But there +is one nation in Europe, one which has a full right to be called a +nation in a political sense, which has been formed on the directly +opposite principle. The Swiss Confederation has been formed by the union +of certain detached fragments of the German, Italian, and Burgundian +nations. It may indeed be said that the process has been in some sort a +process of adoption, that the Italian and Burgundian elements have been +incorporated into an already existing German body; that, as those +elements were once subjects or dependents or protected allies, the case +is one of clients or freedmen who have been admitted to the full +privileges of the <i>gens</i>. This is undoubtedly true, and it is equally +true of a large part of the German element itself. Throughout the +Confederation, allies and subjects have been raised to the rank of +confederates. But the former position of the component elements does not +matter for our purpose.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> As a matter of fact, the foreign dependencies +have all been admitted into the Confederation on equal terms. German is +undoubtedly the language of a great majority of the Confederation; but +the two recognized Romance languages are each the speech, not of a mere +fragment or survival, like Welsh in Britain or Breton in France, but of +a large minority forming a visible element in the general body. The +three languages are all of them alike recognized as national languages, +though, as if to keep up the universal rule that there should be some +exceptions to all rules, a fourth language still lives on within the +bounds of the Confederation, which is not admitted to the rights of the +other three, but is left in the state of a fragment or a survival.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Is +such an artificial body as this to be called a nation? It is plainly not +a nation by blood or by speech. It can hardly be called a nation by +adoption. For, if we choose to say<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> that the three elements have all +agreed to adopt one another as brethren, yet it has been adoption +without assimilation. Yet surely the Swiss Confederation is a nation. It +is not a a mere power, in which various nations are brought together, +whether willingly or unwillingly, under a common ruler, but without any +further tie of union. For all political purposes, the Swiss +Confederation is a nation, a nation capable of as strong and true +national feeling as any other nation. Yet it is a nation purely +artificial, one in no way defined by blood or speech. It thus proves the +rule in two ways. We at once feel that this artificially formed nation, +which has no common language, but each of whose elements speaks a +language common to itself with some other nation, is something different +from those nations which are defined by a universal or at least a +predominant language. We mark it as an exception, as something different +from other cases. And when we see how nearly this artificial nation +comes, in every point but that of language, to the likeness of those +nations which are defined by language, we see that it is a nation +defined by language which sets the standard, and after the model of +which the artificial nation forms itself. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> case of the Swiss +Confederation and its claim to rank as a nation would be like the case +of those <i>gentes</i>, if any such there were, which did not spring even +from the expansion of an original family, but which were artificially +formed in imitation of those which did, and which, instead of a real or +traditional forefather, chose for themselves an adopted one.</p> + +<p>In the Swiss Confederation, then, we have a case of a nation formed by +an artificial process, but which still is undoubtedly a nation in the +face of other nations. We now come to the other class, in which +nationality and language keep the connection which they have elsewhere, +but in which nations do not even in the roughest way answer to +governments. We have only to go into the Eastern lands of Europe to find +a state of things in which the notion of nationality, as marked out by +language and national feeling, has altogether parted company from the +notion of political government. It must be remembered that this state of +things is not confined to the nations which are or have lately been +under the yoke of the Turk. It extends also to the nations or fragments +of nations which make up the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In all the lands +held by these two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> powers we come across phenomena of geography, race, +and language, which stand out in marked contrast with any thing to which +we are used in Western Europe. We may perhaps better understand what +those phenomena are, if we suppose a state of things which sounds absurd +in the West, but which has its exact parallel in many parts of the East. +Let us suppose that in a journey through England we came successively to +districts, towns, or villages, where we found, one after another, first, +Britons speaking Welsh; then Romans speaking Latin; then Saxons or +Angles speaking an older form of our own tongue; then Scandinavians +speaking Danish; then Normans speaking Old-French; lastly perhaps a +settlement of Flemings, Huguenots, or Palatines, still remaining a +distinct people and speaking their own tongue. Or let us suppose a +journey through Northern France, in which we found at different stages, +the original Gaul, the Roman, the Frank, the Saxon of Bayeux, the Dane +of Coutances, each remaining a distinct people, each of them keeping the +tongue which they first brought with them into the land. Let us suppose +further that, in many of these cases, a religious distinction was added +to a national distinction.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> Let us conceive one village Roman Catholic, +another Anglican, others Nonconformist of various types, even if we do +not call up any remnants of the worshippers of Jupiter or of Woden. All +this seems absurd in any Western country, and absurd enough it is. But +the absurdity of the West is the living reality of the East. There we +may still find all the chief races which have ever occupied the country, +still remaining distinct, still keeping separate tongues, and those for +the most part, their own original tongues. Within the present and late +European dominions of the Turk, the original races, those whom we find +there at the first beginnings of history, are all there still, and two +of them keep their original tongues. They form three distinct nations. +First of all there are the Greeks. We have not here to deal with them as +the representatives of that branch of the Roman Empire which adopted +their speech, but simply as one of the original elements in the +population of the Eastern peninsula. Known almost down to our own day by +their historical name of Romans, they have now fallen back on the name +of Hellênes. And to that name they have a perfectly good claim. If the +modern Greeks are not all true Hellênes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> they are an aggregate of +adopted Hellênes gathered round and assimilated to a true Hellenic +kernel. Here we see the oldest recorded inhabitants of a large part of +the land abiding, and abiding in a very different case from the remnants +of the Celt and the Iberian in Western Europe. The Greeks are no +survival of a nation; they are a true and living nation, a nation whose +importance is quite out of its proportion to its extent in mere numbers. +They still abide, the predominant race in their own ancient and again +independent land, the predominant race in those provinces of the +continental Turkish dominion which formed part of their ancient land, +the predominant race through all the shores and islands of the Ægæan and +of part of the Euxine also. In near neighborhood to the Greeks still +live another race of equal antiquity, the Skipetar or Albanians. These, +as I believe is no longer doubted, represent the ancient Illyrians. The +exact degree of their ethnical kindred with the Greeks is a scientific +question which need not here be considered; but the facts that they are +more largely intermingled with the Greeks than any of the other +neighboring nations, that they show a special power of identifying +themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> with the Greeks, a power, so to speak, of becoming Greeks +and making part of the artificial Greek nation, are matters of practical +history. It must never be forgotten, that among the worthies of the +Greek War of Independence, some of the noblest were not of Hellenic but +Albanian blood. The Orthodox Albanian easily turns into a Greek; and the +Mahometan Albanian is something which is broadly distinguished from a +Turk. He has, as he well may have, a strong national feeling, and that +national feeling has sometimes got the better of religious divisions. If +Albania is among the most backward parts of the peninsula, still it is, +by all accounts, the part where there is most hope of men of different +religions joining together against the common enemy.</p> + +<p>Here then are two ancient races, the Greeks and another race, not indeed +so advanced, so important, or so widely spread, but a race which equally +keeps a real national being. There is also a third ancient race which +survives as a distinct people, though they have for ages adopted a +foreign language. These are the Vlachs or Roumans, the surviving +representatives of the great race, call it Thracian or any other, which +at the beginning of history held the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> inland mass of the Eastern +peninsula, with the Illyrians to the west of them and the Greeks to the +south. Every one knows, that in the modern principality of Roumania and +in the adjoining parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, there is to be +seen that phenomenon so unique in the East, a people who not only, as +the Greeks did till lately, still keep the Roman name, but who speak +neither Greek nor Turkish, neither Slav nor Skipetar, but a dialect of +Latin, a tongue akin, not to the tongues of any of their neighbors, but +to the tongues of Gaul, Italy, and Spain. And any one who has given any +real attention to this matter knows that the same race is to be found, +scattered here and there, if in some parts only as wandering shepherds, +in the Slavonic, Albanian, and Greek lands south of the Danube. The +assumption has commonly been that this outlying Romance people owe their +Romance character to the Roman colonization of Dacia under Trajan. In +this view, the modern Roumans would be the descendants of Trajan's +colonists and of Dacians who had learned of them to adopt the speech and +manners of Rome. But when we remember that Dacia was the first Roman +province to be given up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>—that the modern Roumania was for ages the +highway of every barbarian tribe on its way from the East to the +West—that the land has been conquered and settled and forsaken over and +over again,—it would be passing strange if this should be the one land, +and its people the one race, to keep the Latin tongue when it has been +forgotten in all the neighboring countries. In fact, this idea has been +completely dispersed by modern research. The establishment of the +Roumans in Dacia is of comparatively recent date, beginning only in the +thirteenth century. The Roumans of Wallachia, Moldavia, and +Transsilvania, are isolated from the scattered Rouman remnant on Pindos +and elsewhere. They represent that part of the inhabitants of the +peninsula which became Latin, while the Greeks remained Greek, and the +Illyrians remained barbarian. Their lands, Mœsia, Thrace specially so +called, and Dacia, were added to the empire at various times from +Augustus to Trajan. That they should gradually adopt the Latin language +is in no sort wonderful. Their position with regard to Rome was exactly +the same as that of Gaul and Spain. Where Greek civilization had been +firmly established, Latin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> could nowhere displace it. Where Greek +civilization was unknown, Latin overcame the barbarian tongue. It would +naturally do so in this part of the East exactly as it did in the +West.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>Here then we have in the Southeastern peninsula three nations which have +all lived on to all appearances from the very beginnings of European +history, three distinct nations, speaking three distinct languages. We +have nothing answering to this in the West. It needs no proof that the +speakers of Celtic and Basque in Gaul and in Spain do not hold the same +position in Western Europe which the Greeks, Albanians, and Roumans do +in Eastern Europe. In the East the most ancient inhabitants of the land +are still there, not as scraps or survivals, not as fragments of nations +lingering on in corners, but as nations in the strictest sense, nations +whose national being forms an element in every modern and political +question. They all have their memories, their grievances, and their +hopes; and their memories, their grievances, and their hopes are all of +a practical and political kind. Highlanders, Welshmen, Bretons,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> French +Basques, whatever we say of the Spanish brethren, have doubtless +memories, but they have hardly political grievances or hopes. Ireland +may have political grievances; it certainly has political hopes; but +they are not exactly of the same kind as the grievances or hopes of the +Greek, the Albanian, and the Rouman. Let Home Rule succeed to the extent +of setting up an independent king and parliament of Ireland, yet the +language and civilization of that king and parliament would still be +English. Ireland would form an English state, politically hostile, it +may be, to Great Britain, but still an English state. No Greek, +Albanian, or Rouman state would be in the same way either Turkish or +Austrian.</p> + +<p>On these primitive and abiding races came, as on other parts of Europe, +the Roman conquest. That conquest planted Latin colonies on the +Dalmatian coast, where the Latin tongue still remains in its Italian +variety as the speech of literature and city life; it Romanized one +great part of the earlier inhabitants; it had the great political effect +of all, that of planting the Roman power in a Greek city, and thereby +creating a state, and in the end a nation, which was Roman on one side, +and Greek on the other.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> Then came the Wandering of the Nations, on +which, as regards men of our own race, we need not dwell. The Goths +marched at will through the Eastern Empire; but no Teutonic settlement +was ever made within its bounds, no lasting Teutonic settlement was ever +made even on its border. The part of the Teuton in the West was played, +far less perfectly indeed, by the Slav in the East. He is there what the +Teuton is here, the great representative of what we may call the modern +European races, those whose part in history began after the +establishment of the Rouman power. The differences between the position +of the two races are chiefly these. The Slav in the East has præ-Roman +races standing alongside of him in a way in which the Teuton has not in +the West. On the Greeks and Albanians he has had but little influence; +on the Rouman and his language his influence has been far greater, but +hardly so great as the influence of the Teuton on the Romance nations +and languages of Western Europe. The Slav too stands alongside of races +which have come in since his own coming, in a way in which the Teuton in +the West is still further from doing. That is to say, besides Greeks, +Albanians, and Roumans, he stands alongside of Bulgarians,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> Magyars, and +Turks, who have nothing to answer to them in the West. The Slav, in the +time of his coming, in the nature of his settlement, answers roughly to +the Teuton; his position is what that of the Teuton would be, if Western +Europe had been brought under the power of an alien race at some time +later than his own settlement. The Slavs undoubtedly form the greatest +element in the population of the Eastern peninsula, and they once +reached more widely still. Taking the Slavonic name in its widest +meaning, they occupy all the lands from the Danube and its great +tributaries southward to the strictly Greek border. The exceptions are +where earlier races remain, Greek or Italian on the coast-line, Albanian +in the mountains. The Slavs hold the heart of the peninsula, and they +hold more than the peninsula itself. The Slav lives equally on both +sides of what is or was the frontier of the Austrian and Ottoman +empires; indeed, but for another set of causes which have effected +Eastern Europe, the Slav might have reached uninterruptedly from the +Baltic to the Ægæan.</p> + +<p>This last set of causes are those which specially distinguish the +histories of Eastern and of Western Europe; a set of causes which,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +though exactly twelve hundred years old,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> are still fresh and living, +and which are the special causes which have aggravated the special +difficulties of the last five hundred years. In Western Europe, though +we have had plenty of political conquests, we have had no national +migrations since the days of the Teutonic settlements—at least, if we +may extend these last so as to take in the Scandinavian settlements in +Britain and Gaul. The Teuton has pressed to the East at the expense of +the Slav and the Old-Prussian: the borders between the Romance and the +Teutonic nations in the West have fluctuated; but no third set of +nations has come in, strange alike to the Roman and the Teuton and to +the whole Aryan family. As the Huns of Attila showed themselves in +Western Europe as passing ravagers, so did the Magyars at a later day; +so did the Ottoman Turks in a day later still, when they besieged Vienna +and laid waste the Venetian mainland. But all these Turanian invaders +appeared in Western Europe simply as passing invaders; in Eastern Europe +their part has been widely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> different. Besides the temporary dominion of +Avars, Patzinaks, Chazars, Cumans, and a crowd of others, three bodies +of more abiding settlers, the Bulgarians, the Magyars, and the Mongol +conquerors of Russia, have come in by one path; a fourth, the Ottoman +Turks, have come in by another path. Among all these invasions we have +one case of thorough assimilation, and only one. The original Finnish +Bulgarians have, like Western conquerors, been lost among Slavonic +subjects and neighbors. The geographical function of the Magyar has been +to keep the two great groups of Slavonic nations apart. To his coming, +more than to any other cause, we may attribute the great historical gap +which separates the Slav of the Baltic from his southern kinsfolk. The +work of the Ottoman Turk we all know. These latter settlers remain +alongside of the Slav, just as the Slav remains alongside of the earlier +settlers. The Slavonized Bulgarians are the only instance of +assimilation such as we are used to in the West. All the other races, +old and new, from the Albanian to the Ottoman, are still there, each +keeping its national being and its national speech. And in one part of +the ancient Dacia we must add quite a distinct<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> element, the element of +Teutonic occupation in a form unlike any in which we see it in the West, +in the shape of the Saxons of Transsilvania.</p> + +<p>We have thus worked out our point in detail. While in each Western +country some one of the various races which have settled in it has, +speaking roughly, assimilated the others, in the lands which are left +under the rule of the Turk, or which have been lately delivered from his +rule, all the races that have ever settled in the country still abide +side by side. So when we pass into the lands which form the +Austro-Hungarian monarchy, we find that that composite dominion is just +as much opposed as the dominion of the Turk is to those ideas of +nationality toward which Western Europe has been long feeling its way. +We have seen by the example of Switzerland that it is possible to make +an artificial nation out of fragments which have split off from three +several nations. But the Austro-Hungarian monarchy is not a nation, not +even an artificial nation of this kind. Its elements are not bound +together in the same way as the three elements of the Swiss +Confederation. It does indeed contain one whole nation in the form of +the Magyars: we might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> say that it contains two, if we reckon the Czechs +for a distinct nation. Of its other elements, we may for the moment set +aside those parts of Germany which are so strangely united with the +crowns of Hungary and Dalmatia. In those parts of the monarchy which +come within the more strictly Eastern lands—the <i>Roman</i> and the +<i>Rouman</i>,—we may so distinguish the Romance-speaking inhabitants of +Dalmatia and the Romance-speaking inhabitants of Transsilvania. The Slav +of the north and of the south, the Magyar conqueror, the Saxon +immigrant, all abide as distinct races. That the Ottoman is not to be +added to our list in Hungary, while he is to be added in lands farther +south, is simply because he has been driven out of Hungary, while he is +allowed to abide in lands farther south. No point is more important to +insist on now than the fact that the Ottoman once held the greater part +of Hungary by exactly the same right, the right of the strongest, as +that by which he still holds Macedonia and Epeiros. It is simply the +result of a century of warfare, from Sobieski to Joseph the Second, +which fixed the boundary which only yesterday seemed eternal to +diplomatists, but which now seems to have vanished. That<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> boundary has +advanced and gone back over and over again. As Buda once was Turkish, +Belgrade has more than once been Austrian. The whole of the southeastern +lands, Austrian, Turkish, and independent, from the Carpathian Mountains +southward, present the same characteristic of permanence and +distinctness among the several races which occupy them. The several +races may lie, here in large continuous masses, there in small detached +settlements; but there they all are in their distinctness. There is +among them plenty of living and active national feeling; but while in +the West political arrangements for the most part follow the great lines +of national feeling, in the East the only way in which national feeling +can show itself is by protesting, whether in arms or otherwise, +against existing political arrangements. Save the Magyars alone, the +ruling race in the Hungarian kingdom, there is no case in those lands in +which the whole continuous territory inhabited by speakers of the same +tongue is placed under a separate national government of its own. And, +even in this case, the identity between nation and government is +imperfect in two ways. It is imperfect, because, after all, though +Hungary has a separate national gov<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>ernment in internal matters, yet it +is not the Hungarian kingdom, but the Austro-Hungarian monarchy of which +it forms a part, which counts as a power among the other powers of +Europe. And the national character of the Hungarian government is +equally imperfect from the other side. It is national as regards the +Magyar; it is not national as regards the Slav, the Saxon, and the +Rouman. Since the liberation of part of Bulgaria, no whole European +nation is under the rule of the Turk. No one nation of the Southeast +peninsula forms a single national government. One fragment of a nation +is free under a national government, another fragment is ruled by +civilized strangers, a third is trampled down by barbarians. The +existing states of Greece, Roumania, and Servia are far from taking in +the whole of the Greek, Rouman, and Servian nations. In all these lands, +Austrian, Turkish, and independent, there is no difficulty in marking +off the several nations; only in no case do the nations answer to any +existing political power.</p> + +<p>In all these cases, where nationality and government are altogether +divorced, language becomes yet more distinctly the test of nationality +than it is in Western lands where nation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>ality, and government do to +some extent coincide. And when nationality and language do not coincide +in the East, it is owing to another cause, of which also we know nothing +in the West. In many cases religion takes the place of nationality; or +rather the ideas of religion and nationality can hardly be +distinguished. In the West a man's nationality is in no way affected by +the religion which he professes, or even by his change from one religion +to another. In the East it is otherwise. The Christian renegade who +embraces Islam becomes for most practical purposes a Turk. Even if, as +in Crete and Bosnia, he keeps his Greek or Slavonic language, he remains +Greek or Slav only in a secondary sense. For the first principle of the +Mahometan religion, the lordship of the true believer over the infidel, +cuts off the possibility of any true national fellowship between the +true believer and the infidel. Even the Greek or Armenian who embraces +the Latin creed goes far toward parting with his nationality as well as +with his religion. For the adoption of the Latin creed implies what is +in some sort the adoption of a new allegiance, the accepting of the +authority of the Roman Bishop. In the Armenian in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>deed we are come very +near to the phenomena of the further East, where names like Parsee and +Hindoo, names in themselves as strictly ethnical as Englishman or +Frenchman, have come to express distinctions in which religion and +nationality are absolutely the same thing. Of this whole class of +phenomena the Jew is of course the crowning example. But we speak of +these matters here only as bringing in an element in the definition of +nationality to which we are unused in the West. But it quite comes +within our present subject to give one definition from the Southeastern +lands. What is the Greek? Clearly he who is at once a Greek in speech +and Orthodox in faith. The Hellenic Mussulmans in Crete, even the +Hellenic Latins in some of the other islands, are at the most imperfect +members of the Hellenic body. The utmost that can be said is that they +keep the power of again entering that body, either by their own return +to the national faith, or by such a change in the state of things as +shall make difference in religion no longer inconsistent with true +national fellowship.</p> + +<p>Thus, wherever we go, we find language to be the rough practical test of +nationality. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> exceptions are many; they may perhaps outnumber the +instances which conform to the rule. Still they are exceptions. +Community of language does not imply community of blood; it might be +added that diversity of language does not imply diversity of blood. But +community of language is, in the absence of any evidence to the +contrary, a presumption of the community of blood, and it is proof of +something which for practical purposes is the same as community of +blood. To talk of "the Latin race," is in strictness absurd. We know +that the so-called race is simply made up of those nations which adopted +the Latin language. The Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonic races may +conceivably have been formed by a like artificial process. But the +presumption is the other way; and if such a process ever took place, it +took place long before history began. The Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonic +races come before us as groups of mankind marked out by the test of +language. Within those races separate nations are again marked out by a +stricter application of the test of language. Within the race we may +have languages which are clearly akin to each other, but which need not +be mutually intelligible. Within the nation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> we have only dialects which +are mutually intelligible, or which, at all events, gather round some +one central dialect which is intelligible to all. We take this standard +of races and nations, fully aware that it will not stand a physiological +test, but holding that for all practical purposes adoption must pass as +equivalent to natural descent. And, among the practical purposes which +are affected by the facts of race and nationality, we must, as long as a +man is what he is, as long as he has not been created afresh according +to some new scientific pattern, not shrink from reckoning those generous +emotions which, in the present state of European feeling, are beginning +to bind together the greater as well as the lesser groups of mankind. +The sympathies of men are beginning to reach wider than could have been +dreamed of a century ago. The feeling which was once confined to the +mere household extended itself to the tribe or the city. From the tribe +or city it extended itself to the nation; from the nation it is +beginning to extend itself to the whole race. In some cases it can +extend itself to the whole race far more easily than in others. In some +cases historical causes have made nations of the same race bitter +enemies, while they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> have made nations of different races friendly +allies. The same thing happened in earlier days between tribes and +cities of the same nation. But, when hindrances of this kind do not +exist, the feeling of race, as something beyond the narrower feeling of +nationality, is beginning to be a powerful agent in the feelings and +actions of men and of nations. A long series of mutual wrongs, conquest, +and oppression on one side, avenged by conquest and oppression on the +other side, have made the Slav of Poland and the Slav of Russia the +bitterest of enemies. No such hindrance exists to stop the flow of +natural and generous feeling between the Slav of Russia and the Slav of +the Southeastern lands. Those whose statesmanship consists in some +hand-to-mouth shift for the moment, whose wisdom consists in refusing to +look either back to the past or onward to the future, cannot understand +this great fact of our times; and what they cannot understand they mock +at. But the fact exists and does its work in spite of them. And it does +its work none the less because in some cases the feeling of sympathy is +awakened by a claim of kindred, where, in the sense of the physiologist +or the genealogist, there is no kindred at all. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> practical view, +historical or political, will accept as members of this or that race or +nation many members whom the physiologist would shut out, whom the +English lawyer would shut out, but whom the Roman lawyer would gladly +welcome to every privilege of the stock on which they were grafted. The +line of the Scipios, of the Cæsars, and of the Antonines, was continued +by adoption; and for all practical purposes the nations of the earth +have agreed to follow the examples set them by their masters.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<h2>WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE.<br /></h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p> +<p><br /><br /></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>KIN BEYOND SEA<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">By</span> WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE.</h3> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"When Love unites, wide space divides in vain,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">And hands may clasp across the spreading main."</span><br /> +</p> + + +<p>It is now nearly half a century since the works of De Tocqueville and De +Beaumont, founded upon personal observation, brought the institutions of +the United States effectually within the circle of European thought and +interest. They were co-operators, but not upon an equal scale. De +Beaumont belongs to the class of ordinary, though able, writers: De +Tocqueville was the Burke of his age, and his treatise upon America may +well be regarded as among the best books hitherto produced for the +political student of all times and countries.</p> + +<p>But higher and deeper than the concern of the Old World at large in the +thirteen colonies, now grown into thirty-eight States, besides<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> eight +Territories, is the special interest of England in their condition and +prospects.</p> + +<p>I do not speak of political controversies between them and us, which are +happily, as I trust, at an end. I do not speak of the vast contribution +which, from year to year, through the operations of a colossal trade, +each makes to the wealth and comfort of the other; nor of the friendly +controversy, which in its own place it might be well to raise, between +the leanings of America to Protectionism, and the more daring reliance +of the old country upon free and unrestricted intercourse with all the +world. Nor of the menace which, in the prospective development of her +resources, America offers to the commercial pre-eminence of England.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> +On this subject I will only say that it is she alone who, at a coming +time, can, and probably will, wrest from us that commercial primacy. We +have no title, I have no inclination, to murmur at the prospect. If she +acquires it, she will make the acquisition by the right of the +strong<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>est; but, in this instance, the strongest means the best. She +will probably become what we are now, the head servant in the great +household of the world, the employer of all employed; because her +service will be the most and ablest. We have no more title against her, +than Venice, or Genoa, or Holland has had against us. One great duty is +entailed upon us, which we, unfortunately, neglect: the duty of +preparing, by a resolute and sturdy effort, to reduce our public +burdens, in preparation for a day when we shall probably have less +capacity than we have now to bear them.</p> + +<p>Passing by all these subjects, with their varied attractions, I come to +another, which lies within the tranquil domain of political philosophy. +The students of the future, in this department, will have much to say in +the way of comparison between American and British institutions. The +relationship between these two is unique in history. It is always +interesting to trace and to compare Constitutions, as it is to compare +languages; especially in such instances as those of the Greek States and +the Italian Republics, or the diversified forms of the feudal system in +the different countries of Europe. But there is no parallel in all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +records of the world to the case of that prolific British mother, who +has sent forth her innumerable children over all the earth to be the +founders of half-a-dozen empires. She, with her progeny, may almost +claim to constitute a kind of Universal Church in politics. But, among +these children, there is one whose place in the world's eye and in +history is superlative: it is the American Republic. She is the eldest +born. She has, taking the capacity of her land into view as well as its +mere measurement, a natural base for the greatest continuous empire ever +established by man. And it may be well here to mention what has not +always been sufficiently observed, that the distinction between +continuous empire, and empire severed and dispersed over sea, is vital. +The development, which the Republic has effected, has been unexampled in +its rapidity and force. While other countries have doubled, or at most +trebled, their population, she has risen, during one single century of +freedom, in round numbers, from two millions to forty-five. As to +riches, it is reasonable to establish, from the decennial stages of the +progress thus far achieved, a series for the future; and, reckoning upon +this basis, I suppose that the very next<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> census, in the year 1880, will +exhibit her to the world as certainly the wealthiest of all the nations. +The huge figure of a thousand millions sterling, which may be taken +roundly as the annual income of the United Kingdom, has been reached at +a surprising rate; a rate which may perhaps be best expressed by saying, +that if we could have started forty or fifty years ago from zero, at the +rate of our recent annual increment, we should now have reached our +present position. But while we have been advancing with this portentous +rapidity, America is passing us by as if in a canter. Yet even now the +work of searching the soil and the bowels of the territory, and opening +out her enterprise throughout its vast expanse, is in its infancy. The +England and the America of the present are probably the two strongest +nations of the world. But there can hardly be a doubt, as between the +America and the England of the future, that the daughter, at some no +very distant time, will, whether fairer or less fair, be unquestionably +yet stronger than the mother.</p> + +<p class='center'> +"O matre forti filia fortior."<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> +</p> + +<p>But all this pompous detail of material<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> triumphs, whether for the one +or for the other, is worse than idle, unless the men of the two +countries shall remain, or shall become, greater than the mere things +that they produce, and shall know how to regard those things simply as +tools and materials for the attainments of the highest purposes of their +being. Ascending, then, from the ground-floor of material industry +toward the regions in which these purposes are to be wrought out, it is +for each nation to consider how far its institutions have reached a +state in which they can contribute their maximum to the store of human +happiness and excellence. And for the political student all over the +world, it will be beyond any thing curious as well as useful to examine +with what diversities, as well as what resemblances, of apparatus the +two greater branches of a race born to command have been minded, or +induced, or constrained to work out, in their sea-severed seats, their +political destinies according to the respective laws appointed for them.</p> + +<p>No higher ambition can find vent in a paper such as this, than to +suggest the position and claims of the subject, and slightly to indicate +a few outlines, or, at least, fragments, of the working material.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> + +<p>In many and the most fundamental respects the two still carry in +undiminished, perhaps in increasing, clearness, the notes of resemblance +that beseem a parent and a child.</p> + +<p>Both wish for self-government; and, however grave the drawbacks under +which in one or both it exists, the two have, among the great nations of +the world, made the most effectual advances toward the true aim of +rational politics.</p> + +<p>They are similarly associated in their fixed idea that the force, in +which all government takes effect, is to be constantly backed, and, as +it were, illuminated, by thought in speech and writing. The ruler of St. +Paul's time "bare the sword" (Rom. xiii: 4). Bare, it as the Apostle +says, with a mission to do right; but he says nothing of any duty, or +any custom, to show by reason that he was doing right. Our two +governments, whatsoever they do, have to give reasons for it; not +reasons which will convince the unreasonable, but reasons which on the +whole will convince the average mind, and carry it unitedly forward in a +course of action, often, though not always, wise, and carrying within +itself provisions, where it is unwise, for the correction of its own +unwisdom before it grow into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> an intolerable rankness. They are +governments, not of force only, but of persuasion.</p> + +<p>Many more are the concords, and not less vital than these, of the two +nations, as expressed in their institutions. They alike prefer the +practical to the abstract. They tolerate opinion, with only a reserve on +behalf of decency; and they desire to confine coercion to the province +of action, and to leave thought, as such, entirely free. They set a high +value on liberty for its own sake. They desire to give full scope to the +principle of self-reliance in the people, and they deem self-help to be +immeasurably superior to help in any other form; to be the only help, in +short, which ought not to be continually, or periodically, put upon its +trial, and required to make good its title. They mistrust and mislike +the centralization of power; and they cherish municipal, local, even +parochial liberties, as nursery grounds, not only for the production +here and there of able men, but for the general training of public +virtue and independent spirit. They regard publicity as the vital air of +politics; through which alone, in its freest circulation, opinions can +be thrown into common stock for the good of all, and the balance of +relative rights and claims can be habitu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>ally and peaceably adjusted. It +would be difficult in the case of any other pair of nations, to present +an assemblage of traits at once so common and so distinctive, as has +been given in this probably imperfect enumeration.</p> + +<p>There were, however, the strongest reasons why America could not grow +into a reflection or repetition of England. Passing from a narrow island +to a continent almost without bounds, the colonists at once and vitally +altered their conditions of thought as well as of existence, in relation +to the most important and most operative of all social facts, the +possession of the soil. In England, inequality lies embedded in the very +base of the social structure; in America it is a late, incidental, +unrecognized product, not of tradition, but of industry and wealth, as +they advance with various and, of necessity, unequal steps. Heredity, +seated as an idea in the heart's core of Englishmen, and sustaining far +more than it is sustained by those of our institutions which express it, +was as truly absent from the intellectual and moral store, with which +the colonists traversed the Atlantic, as if it had been some forgotten +article in the bills of lading that made up their cargoes. Equality +combined with liberty, and renewable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> at each descent from one +generation to another, like a lease with stipulated breaks, was the +groundwork of their social creed. In vain was it sought, by arrangements +such as those connected with the name of Baltimore or of Penn, to +qualify the action of those overpowering forces which so determined the +case. Slavery itself, strange as it now may seem, failed to impair the +theory however it may have imported into the practice a hideous +solecism. No hardier republicanism was generated in New England than in +the Slave States of the South, which produced so many of the great +statesmen of America.</p> + +<p>It may be said that the North, and not the South, had the larger number +of colonists; and was the centre of those commanding moral influences +which gave to the country as a whole its political and moral atmosphere. +The type and form of manhood for America was supplied neither by the +Recusant in Maryland, nor by the Cavalier in Virginia, but by the +Puritan of New England; and it would have been a form and type widely +different could the colonization have taken place a couple of centuries, +or a single century, sooner. Neither the Tudor, nor even the Plantagenet +period, could have sup<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>plied its special form. The Reformation was a +cardinal factor in its production; and this in more ways than one.</p> + +<p>Before that great epoch, the political forces of the country were +represented on the whole by the monarch on one side, and the people on +the other. In the people, setting aside the latent vein of Lollardism, +there was a general homogeneity with respect to all that concerned the +relation of governors and governed. In the deposition of sovereigns, the +resistance to abuses, the establishment of institutions for the defence +of liberty, there were no two parties to divide the land. But, with the +Reformation, a new dualism was sensibly developed among us. Not a +dualism so violent as to break up the national unity, but yet one so +marked and substantial, that thenceforward it was very difficult for any +individual or body of men to represent the entire English character, and +the old balance of its forces. The wrench which severed the Church and +people from the Roman obedience left for domestic settlement thereafter +a tremendous internal question, between the historical and the new, +which in its milder form perplexes us to this day. Except during the +short reign of Edward VI, the civil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> power, in various methods and +degrees, took what may be termed the traditionary side, and favored the +development of the historical more than the individual aspect of the +national religion. These elements confronted one another during the +reigns of the earlier Stuarts, not only with obstinacy but with +fierceness. There had grown up with the Tudors, from a variety of +causes, a great exaggeration of the idea of royal power; and this +arrived, under James I and Charles I, at a rank maturity. Not less, but +even more masculine and determined, was the converse development. Mr. +Hallam saw, and has said, that at the outbreak of the Great Rebellion, +the old British Constitution was in danger, not from one party but from +both. In that mixed fabric had once been harmonized the ideas, both of +religious duty, and of allegiance as related to it, which were now held +in severance. The hardiest and dominating portion of the American +colonists represented that severance in its extremest form, and had +dropped out of the order of the ideas, which they carried across the +water, all those elements of political Anglicism, which give to +aristocracy in this country a position only second in strength to that +of freedom. State and Church alike had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> frowned upon them; and their +strong reaction was a reaction of their entire nature, alike of the +spiritual and the secular man. All that was democratic in the policy of +England, and all that was Protestant in her religion, they carried with +them, in pronounced and exclusive forms, to a soil and a scene +singularly suited for their growth.</p> + +<p>It is to the honor of the British Monarchy that, upon the whole, it +frankly recognized the facts, and did not pedantically endeavor to +constrain by artificial and alien limitations the growth of the infant +states. It is a thing to be remembered that the accusations of the +colonies in 1776 were entirely levelled at the king actually on the +throne, and that a general acquittal was thus given by them to every +preceding reign. Their infancy had been upon the whole what their +manhood was to be, self-governed and republican. Their Revolution, as we +call it, was like ours in the main, a vindication of liberties inherited +and possessed. It was a Conservative revolution; and the happy result +was that, notwithstanding the sharpness of the collision with the +mother-country, and with domestic loyalism, the Thirteen Colonies made +provision for their future in conformity, as to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> all that determined +life and manners with the recollections of their past. The two +Constitutions of the two countries express indeed rather the differences +than the resemblances of the nations. The one is a thing grown, the +other a thing made; the one a <i>praxis</i>, the other a <i>poiesis</i>: the one +the offspring of tendency and indeterminate time, the other of choice +and of an epoch. But, as the British Constitution is the most subtle +organism which has proceeded from the womb and the long gestation of +progressive history, so the American Constitution is, so-far as I can +see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the +brain and purpose of man. It has had a century of trial, under the +pressure of exigencies caused by an expansion unexampled in point of +rapidity and range: and its exemption from formal change, though not +entire, has certainly proved the sagacity of the constructors, and the +stubborn strength of the fabric.</p> + +<p>One whose life has been greatly absorbed in working, with others, the +institutions of his own country, has not had the opportunities necessary +for the careful and searching scrutiny of institutions elsewhere. I +should feel, in looking at those of America, like one who attempts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> to +scan the stars with the naked eye. My notices can only be few, faint, +and superficial; they are but an introduction to what I have to say of +the land of my birth. A few sentences will dispose of them.</p> + +<p>America, whose attitude toward England has always been masculine and +real, has no longer to anticipate at our hands the frivolous and +offensive criticisms which were once in vogue among us. But neither +nation prefers (and it would be an ill sign if either did prefer) the +institutions of the other; and we certainly do not contemplate the great +Republic in the spirit of mere optimism. We see that it has a marvellous +and unexampled adaptation for its peculiar vocation; that it must be +judged, not in the abstract, but under the fore-ordered laws of its +existence; that it has purged away the blot with which we brought it +into the world; that it gravely and vigorously grapples with the problem +of making a continent into a state; and that it treasures with fondness +the traditions of British antiquity, which are in truth unconditionally +its own, as well, and as much as they are ours. The thing that perhaps +chiefly puzzles the inhabitants of the old country is why the American +people should permit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> their entire existence to be continually disturbed +by the business of the Presidential elections; and, still more, why they +should raise to its maximum the intensity of this perturbation by +providing, as we are told, for what is termed a clean sweep of the +entire civil service, in all its ranks and departments, on each +accession of a chief magistrate. We do not perceive why this arrangement +is more rational than would be a corresponding usage in this country on +each change of Ministry. Our practice is as different as possible. We +limit to a few scores of persons the removals and appointments on these +occasions; although our Ministries seem to us, not unfrequently, to be +more sharply severed from one another in principle and tendency than are +the successive Presidents of the great Union.</p> + +<p>It would be out of place to discuss in this article occasional phenomena +of local corruption in the United States, by which the nation at large +can hardly be touched: or the mysterious manipulations of votes for the +Presidency, which are now understood to be under examination; or the +very curious influences which are shaping the politics of the negroes +and of the South. These last are corollaries to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> the great +slave-question: and it seems very possible that after a few years we may +see most of the laborers, both in the Southern States and in England, +actively addicted to the political support of that section of their +countrymen who to the last had resisted their emancipation.</p> + +<p>But if there be those in this country who think that American democracy +means public levity and intemperance, or a lack of skill and sagacity in +politics, or the absence of self-command and self-denial, let them bear +in mind a few of the most salient and recent facts of history which may +profitably be recommended to their reflections. We emancipated a million +of negroes by peaceful legislation; America liberated four or five +millions by a bloody civil war: yet the industry and exports of the +Southern States are maintained, while those of our negro colonies have +dwindled; the South enjoys all its franchises, but we have, <i>proh +pudor!</i> found no better method of providing for peace and order in +Jamaica, the chief of our islands, than by the hard and vulgar, even +where needful, expedient of abolishing entirely its representative +institutions.</p> + +<p>The Civil War compelled the States, both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> North and South, to train and +embody a million and a half of men, and to present to view the greatest, +instead of the smallest, armed forces in the world. Here there was +supposed to arise a double danger. First, that on a sudden cessation of +the war, military life and habits could not be shaken off, and, having +become rudely and widely predominant, would bias the country toward an +aggressive policy, or, still worse, would find vent in predatory or +revolutionary operations. Secondly, that a military caste would grow up +with its habits of exclusiveness and command, and would influence the +tone of politics in a direction adverse to republican freedom. But both +apprehensions proved to be wholly imaginary. The innumerable soldiery +was at once dissolved. Cincinnatus, no longer an unique example, became +the commonplace of every day, the type and mould of a nation. The whole +enormous mass quietly resumed the habits of social life. The generals of +yesterday were the editors, the secretaries, and the solicitors of +to-day. The just jealousy of the State gave life to the now forgotten +maxim of Judge Blackstone, who denounced as perilous the erection of a +separate profession of arms in a free country. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> standing army, +expanded by the heat of civil contest to gigantic dimensions, settled +down again into the framework of a miniature with the returning +temperature of civil life, and became a power wellnigh invisible, from +its minuteness, amidst the powers which sway the movements of a society +exceeding forty millions.</p> + +<p>More remarkable still was the financial sequel to the great conflict. +The internal taxation for Federal purposes, which before its +commencement had been unknown, was raised, in obedience to an exigency +of life and death, so as to exceed every present and every past example. +It pursued and worried all the transactions of life. The interest of the +American debt grew to be the highest in the world, and the capital +touched five hundred and sixty millions sterling. Here was provided for +the faith and patience of the people a touchstone of extreme severity. +In England, at the close of the great French war, the propertied +classes, who were supreme in Parliament, at once rebelled against the +Tory Government, and refused to prolong the income tax even for a single +year. We talked big, both then and now, about the payment of our +national debt; but sixty-three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> years have since elapsed, all of them +except two called years of peace, and we have reduced the huge total by +about one ninth; that is to say, by little over one hundred millions, or +scarcely more than one million and a half a year. This is the conduct of +a State elaborately digested into orders and degrees, famed for wisdom +and forethought, and consolidated by a long experience. But America +continued long to bear, on her unaccustomed and still smarting +shoulders, the burden of the war taxation. In twelve years she has +reduced her debt by one hundred and fifty-eight millions sterling, or at +the rate of thirteen millions for every year. In each twelve months she +has done what we did in eight years; her self-command, self-denial, and +wise forethought for the future have been, to say the least, eightfold +ours. These are facts which redound greatly to her honor; and the +historian will record with surprise that an enfranchised nation +tolerated burdens which in this country a selected class, possessed of +the representation, did not dare to face, and that the most unmitigated +democracy known to the annals of the world resolutely reduced at its own +cost prospective liabilities of the State, which the aristocratic, and +plutocratic, and mon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>archical government of the United Kingdom has been +contented ignobly to hand over to posterity. And such facts should be +told out. It is our fashion so to tell them, against as well as for +ourselves; and the record of them may some day be among the means of +stirring us up to a policy more worthy of the name and fame of England.</p> + +<p>It is true, indeed, that we lie under some heavy and, I fear, increasing +disadvantages, which amount almost to disabilities. Not, however, any +disadvantage respecting power, as power is commonly understood. But, +while America has a nearly homogeneous country, and an admirable +division of political labor between the States individually and the +Federal Government, we are, in public affairs, an overcharged and +overweighted people.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>We have undertaken the cares of empire upon a scale, and with a +diversity, unexampled in history; and, as it has not yet pleased +Providence to endow us with brain-force and animal strength in an +equally abnormal proportion, the consequence is that we perform the work +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> government, as to many among its more important departments, in a +very superficial and slovenly manner. The affairs of the three +associated kingdoms, with their great diversities of law, interest, and +circumstance, make the government of them, even if they stood alone, a +business more voluminous, so to speak, than that of any other +thirty-three millions of civilized men. To lighten the cares of the +central legislature by judicious devolution, it is probable that much +might be done; but nothing is done, or even attempted to be done. The +greater colonies have happily attained to a virtual self-government; yet +the aggregate mass of business connected with our colonial possessions +continues to be very large. The Indian Empire is of itself a charge so +vast, and demanding so much thought and care, that if it were the sole +transmarine appendage to the crown, it would amply tax the best ordinary +stock of human energies. Notoriously it obtains from the Parliament only +a small fraction of the attention it deserves. Questions affecting +individuals, again, or small interests, or classes, excite here a +greater interest, and occupy a larger share of time, than, perhaps, in +any other community. In no country, I may add, are the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> interests of +persons or classes so favored when they compete with those of the +public; and in none are they more exacting, or more wakeful to turn this +advantage to the best account. With the vast extension of our enterprise +and our trade, comes a breadth of liability not less large, to consider +every thing that is critical in the affairs of foreign states; and the +real responsibilities thus existing for us, are unnaturally inflated for +us by fast-growing tendencies toward exaggeration of our concern in +these matters, and even toward setting up fictitious interests in cases +where none can discern them except ourselves, and such continental +friends as practice upon our credulity and our fears for purposes of +their own. Last of all, it is not to be denied that in what I have been +saying, I do not represent the public sentiment. The nation is not at +all conscious of being overdone. The people see that their House of +Commons is the hardest-working legislative assembly in the world: and, +this being so, they assume it is all right. Nothing pays better, in +point of popularity, than those gratuitous additions to obligations +already beyond human strength, which look like accessions or assertion +of power; such as the annexation of new territory, or the silly +transac<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>tion known as the purchase of shares in the Suez Canal.</p> + +<p>All my life long I have seen this excess of work as compared with the +power to do it; but the evil has increased with the surfeit of wealth, +and there is no sign that the increase is near its end. The people of +this country are a very strong people; but there is no strength that can +permanently endure, without provoking inconvenient consequences, this +kind of political debauch. It may be hoped, but it cannot be predicted, +that the mischief will be encountered and subdued at the point where it +will have become sensibly troublesome, but will not have grown to be +quite irremediable.</p> + +<p>The main and central point of interest, however, in the institutions of +a country is the manner in which it draws together and compounds the +public forces in the balanced action of the State. It seems plain that +the formal arrangements for this purpose in America are very different +from ours. It may even be a question whether they are not, in certain +respects, less popular; whether our institutions do not give more rapid +effect, than those of the Union, to any formed opinion, and resolved +intention, of the nation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the formation of the Federal Government we seem to perceive three +stages of distinct advancement. First, the formation of the +Confederation, under the pressure of the War of Independence. Secondly, +the Constitution, which placed the Federal Government in defined and +direct relation with the people inhabiting the several States. Thirdly, +the struggle with the South, which for the first time, and definitely, +decided that to the Union, through its Federal organization, and not to +the State governments, were reserved all the questions not decided and +disposed of by the express provisions of the Constitution itself.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> +The great <i>arcanum imperii</i>, which with us belongs to the three branches +of the Legislature, and which is expressed by the current phrase, +"omnipotence of Parliament," thus became the acknowledged property of +the three branches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> of the Federal Legislature; and the old and +respectable doctrine of State independence is now no more than an +archæological relic, a piece of historical antiquarianism. Yet the +actual attributions of the State authorities cover by far the largest +part of the province of government; and by this division of labor and +authority, the problem of fixing for the nation a political centre of +gravity is divested of a large part of its difficulty and danger, in +some proportions to the limitations of the working precinct.</p> + +<p>Within that precinct, the initiation as well as the final sanction in +the great business of finance is made over to the popular branch of the +Legislature, and a most interesting question arises upon the comparative +merits of this arrangement, and of our method, which theoretically +throws upon the Crown the responsibility of initiating public charge, +and under which, until a recent period, our practice was in actual and +even close correspondence with this theory.</p> + +<p>We next come to a difference still more marked. The Federal Executive is +born anew of the nation at the end of each four years, and dies at the +end. But, during the course of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> those years, it is independent, in the +person both of the President and of his Ministers, alike of the people, +of their representatives, and of that remarkable body, the most +remarkable of all the inventions of modern politics, the Senate of the +United States. In this important matter, whatever be the relative +excellencies and defects of the British and American systems, it is most +certain that nothing would induce the people of this country, or even +the Tory portion of them, to exchange our own for theirs. It may, +indeed, not be obvious to the foreign eye what is the exact difference +of the two. Both the representative chambers hold the power of the +purse. But in America its conditions are such that it does not operate +in any way on behalf of the Chamber or of the nation, as against the +Executive. In England, on the contrary, its efficiency has been such +that it has worked out for itself channels of effective operation, such +as to dispense with its direct use, and avoid the inconveniences which +might be attendant upon that use. A vote of the House of Commons, +declaring a withdrawal of its confidence, has always sufficed for the +purpose of displacing a Ministry; nay, persistent obstruction of its +measures, and even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> lighter causes, have conveyed the hint, which has +been obediently taken. But the people, how is it with them? Do not the +people in England part with their power, and make it over to the House +of Commons, as completely as the American people part with it to the +President? They give it over for four years: we for a period which on +the average is somewhat more: they, to resume it at a fixed time; we, on +an unfixed contingency, and at a time which will finally be determined, +not according to the popular will, but according to the views which a +Ministry may entertain of its duty or convenience.</p> + +<p>All this is true; but it is not the whole truth. In the United Kingdom, +the people as such cannot commonly act upon the Ministry as such. But +mediately, though not immediately, they gain the end: for they can work +upon that which works upon the Ministry, namely, on the House of +Commons. Firstly, they have not renounced, like the American people, the +exercise of their power for a given time; and they are at all times free +by speech, petition, public meeting, to endeavor to get it back in full +by bringing about a dissolution. Secondly, in a Parliament with nearly +660 members,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> vacancies occur with tolerable frequency; and, as they are +commonly filled up forthwith, they continually modify the color of the +Parliament, conformably, not to the past, but to the present feeling of +the nation; or, at least, of the constituency, which for practical +purposes is different indeed, yet not very different. But, besides +exercising a limited positive influence on the present, they supply a +much less limited indication of the future. Of the members who at a +given time sit in the House of Commons, the vast majority, probably more +than nine-tenths, have the desire to sit there again, after a +dissolution which may come at any moment. They therefore study political +weather-wisdom, and in varying degrees adapt themselves to the +indications of the sky. It will now be readily perceived how the popular +sentiment in England, so far as it is awake, is not meanly provided with +the ways of making itself respected, whether for the purpose of +displacing and replacing a Ministry, or of constraining it (as sometimes +happens) to alter or reverse its policy sufficiently, at least, to +conjure down the gathering and muttering storm.</p> + +<p>It is true, indeed, that every nation is of necessity, to a great +extent, in the condition of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> the sluggard with regard to public policy; +hard to rouse, harder to keep aroused, sure after a little while to sink +back into his slumber:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 13em;">"Pressitque jacentem</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dulcis et alta quies, placidæque simillima morti."</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—Æn., vi., 522.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The people have a vast, but an encumbered power; and, in their struggles +with overweening authority, or with property, the excess of force, which +they undoubtedly possess, is more than counterbalanced by the constant +wakefulness of the adversary, by his knowledge of their weakness, and by +his command of opportunity. But this is a fault lying rather in the +conditions of human life than in political institutions. There is no +known mode of making attention and inattention equal in their results. +It is enough to say that in England, when the nation can attend, it can +prevail. So we may say, then, that in the American Union the Federal +Executive is independent for each four years both of the Congress and of +the people. But the British Ministry is largely dependent on the people +whenever the people firmly will it; and is always dependent on the House +of Commons, except of course when it can safely and effectually appeal +to the people.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> + +<p>So far, so good. But if we wish really to understand the manner in which +the Queen's Government over the British Empire is carried on, we must +now prepare to examine into some sharper contrasts than any which our +path has yet brought into view. The power of the American Executive +resides in the person of the actual President, and passes from him to +his successor. His Ministers, grouped around him, are the servants, not +only of his office, but of his mind. The intelligence, which carries on +the Government, has its main seat in him. The responsibility of failures +is understood to fall on him; and it is round his head that success +sheds its halo. The American Government is described truly as a +Government composed of three members, of three powers distinct from one +another. The English Government is likewise so described, not truly, but +conventionally. For in the English Government there has gradually formed +itself a fourth power, entering into and sharing the vitality of each of +the other three, and charged with the business of holding them in +harmony as they march.</p> + +<p>This Fourth Power is the Ministry, or more properly the Cabinet. For the +rest of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> Ministry is subordinate and ancillary; and, though it +largely shares in many departments the labors of the Cabinet, yet it has +only a secondary and derivative share in the higher responsibilities. No +account of the present British Constitution is worth having which does +not take this Fourth Power largely and carefully into view. And yet it +is not a distinct power, made up of elements unknown to the other three; +any more than a sphere contains elements other than those referable to +the three co-ordinates, which determine the position of every point in +space. The Fourth Power is parasitical to the three others; and lives +upon their life, without any separate existence. One portion of it forms +a part, which may be termed an integral part, of the House of Lords, +another of the House of Commons; and the two conjointly, nestling within +the precinct of Royalty, form the inner Council of the Crown, assuming +the whole of its responsibilities, and in consequence wielding, as a +rule, its powers. The Cabinet is the threefold hinge that connects +together for action the British Constitution of King or Queen, Lords and +Commons. Upon it is concentrated the whole strain of the Government, and +it constitutes from day to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> day the true centre of gravity for the +working system of the State, although the ultimate superiority of force +resides in the representative chamber.</p> + +<p>There is no statute or legal usage of this country which requires that +the Ministers of the Crown should hold seats in the one or the other +House of Parliament. It is perhaps upon this account that, while most of +my countrymen would, as I suppose, declare it to be a becoming and +convenient custom, yet comparatively few are aware how near the seat of +life the observance lies, how closely it is connected with the equipoise +and unity of the social forces. It is rarely departed from, even in an +individual case; never, as far as my knowledge goes, on a wider scale. +From accidental circumstances it happened that I was Secretary of State +between December 1845 and July 1846, without a seat in the House of +Commons. This (which did not pass wholly without challenge) is, I +believe, by much the most notable instance for the last fifty years; and +it is only within the last fifty years that our Constitutional system +has completely settled down. Before the reform of Parliament it was +always easy to find a place for a Minister<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> excluded from his seat; as +Sir Robert Peel for example, ejected from Oxford University, at once +found refuge and repose at Tamworth. I desire to fix attention on the +identification, in this country, of the Minister with the member of a +House of Parliament.</p> + +<p>It is, as to the House of Commons, especially, an inseparable and vital +part of our system. The association of the Ministers with the +Parliament, and through the House of Commons with the people, is the +counterpart of their association as Ministers with the Crown and the +prerogative. The decisions that they take are taken under the competing +pressure of a bias this way and a bias that way, and strictly represent +what is termed in mechanics the composition of forces. Upon them, thus +placed, it devolves to provide that the House of Parliament shall +loyally counsel and serve the Crown, and that the Crown shall act +strictly in accordance with its obligations to the nation. I will not +presume to say whether the adoption of the rule in America would or +would not lay the foundation of a great change in the Federal +Constitution; but I am quite sure that the abrogation of it in England +would either alter the form of government, or bring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> about a crisis. +That it conduces to the personal comfort of Ministers, I will not +undertake to say. The various currents of political and social +influences meet edgeways in their persons, much like the conflicting +tides in St. George's Channel or the Straits of Dover; for, while they +are the ultimate regulators of the relations between the Crown on the +one side, and the people through the Houses of Parliament on the other, +they have no authority vested in them to coerce or censure either way. +Their attitude toward the Houses must always be that of deference; their +language that of respect, if not submission. Still more must their +attitude and language toward the Sovereign be the same in principle, and +yet more marked in form; and this, though upon them lies the ultimate +responsibility of deciding what shall be done in the Crown's name in +every branch of administration, and every department of policy, coupled +only with the alternative of ceasing to be Ministers, if what they may +advisedly deem the requisite power of action be denied them.</p> + +<p>In the ordinary administration of the government, the Sovereign +personally is, so to speak, behind the scenes; performing, indeed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> many +personal acts by the Sign-manual, or otherwise, but, in each and all of +them, covered by the counter-signature or advice of Ministers, who stand +between the august Personage and the people. There is, accordingly, no +more power, under the form of our Constitution, to assail the Monarch in +his personal capacity, or to assail through him, the line of succession +to the Crown, than there is at chess to put the king in check. In truth, +a good deal, though by no means the whole, of the philosophy of the +British Constitution is represented in this central point of the +wonderful game, against which the only reproach—the reproach of Lord +Bacon—is that it is hardly a relaxation, but rather a serious tax upon +the brain.</p> + +<p>The Sovereign in England is the symbol of the nation's unity, and the +apex of the social structure; the maker (with advice) of the laws; the +supreme governor of the Church; the fountain of justice; the sole source +of honor; the person to whom all military, all naval, all civil service +is rendered. The Sovereign owns very large properties; receives and +holds, in law, the entire revenue of the State; appoints and dismisses +Ministers; makes treaties; pardons crime, or abates its punishment; +wages war, or concludes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> peace; summons and dissolves the Parliament; +exercises these vast powers for the most part without any specified +restraint of law; and yet enjoys, in regard to these and every other +function, an absolute immunity from consequences. There is no provision +in the law of the United Empire, or in the machinery of the +Constitution, for calling the Sovereign to account; and only in one +solitary and improbable, but perfectly defined, case—that of his +submitting to the jurisdiction of the Pope—is he deprived by Statute of +the Throne. Setting aside that peculiar exception, the offspring of a +necessity still freshly felt when it was made, the Constitution might +seem to be founded on the belief of a real infallibility in its head. +Less, at any rate, cannot be said than this. Regal right has, since the +Revolution of 1688, been expressly founded upon contract; and the breach +of that contract destroys the title to the allegiance of the subject. +But no provision, other than the general rule of hereditary succession, +is made to meet either this case, or any other form of political +miscarriage or misdeed. It seems as though the Genius of the Nation +would not stain its lips by so much as the mere utterance of such a +word; nor can we put this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> state of facts into language more justly than +by saying that the Constitution would regard the default of the Monarch, +with his heirs, as the chaos of the State, and would simply trust to the +inherent energies of the several orders of society for its legal +reconstruction.</p> + +<p>The original authorship of the representative system is commonly +accorded to the English race. More clear and indisputable is its title +to the great political discovery of Constitutional Kingship. And a very +great discovery it is. Whether it is destined, in any future day, to +minister in its integrity to the needs of the New World, it may be hard +to say. In that important branch of its utility which is negative, it +completely serves the purposes of the many strong and rising Colonies of +Great Britain, and saves them all the perplexities and perils attendant +upon successions to the headship of the Executive. It presents to them, +as it does to us, the symbol of unity, and the object of all our +political veneration, which we love to find rather in a person, than in +an abstract entity, like the State. But the Old World, at any rate, +still is, and may long continue, to constitute the living centre of +civilization, and to hold the primacy of the race; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> of this great +society the several members approximate, in a rapidly extending series, +to the practice and idea of Constitutional Kingship. The chief States of +Christendom, with only two exceptions, have, with more or less +distinctness, adopted it. Many of them, both great and small, have +thoroughly assimilated it to their system. The autocracy of Russia, and +the Republic of France, each of them congenial to the present wants of +the respective countries, may yet, hereafter, gravitate toward the +principle, which elsewhere has developed so large an attractive power. +Should the current, that has prevailed through the last half-century, +maintain its direction and its strength, another fifty years may see all +Europe adhering to the theory and practice of this beneficent +institution, and peaceably sailing in the wake of England.</p> + +<p>No doubt, if tried by an ideal standard, it is open to criticism. +Aristotle and Plato, nay, Bacon, and perhaps Leibnitz, would have +scouted it as a scientific abortion. Some men would draw disparaging +comparisons between the mediæval and the modern King. In the person of +the first was normally embodied the force paramount over all others in +the country, and on him was laid a weight of responsibility<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> and toil so +tremendous, that his function seems always to border upon the +superhuman; that his life commonly wore out before the natural term; and +that an indescribable majesty, dignity, and interest surround him in his +misfortunes, nay, almost in his degradation; as, for instance, amidst</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The shrieks of death, through Berkeley's roof that ring,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Shrieks of an agonizing King."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>For this concentration of power, toil, and liability, milder realities +have now been substituted; and Ministerial responsibility comes between +the Monarch and every public trial and necessity, like armor between the +flesh and the spear that would seek to pierce it; only this is an armor +itself also fleshy, at once living and impregnable. It may be said, by +an adverse critic, that the Constitutional Monarch is only a depository +of power, as an armory is a depository of arms; but that those who wield +the arms, and those alone, constitute the true governing authority. And +no doubt this is so far true, that the scheme aims at associating in the +work of government with the head of the State the persons best adapted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +to meet the wants and wishes of the people, under the conditions that +the several aspects of supreme power shall be severally allotted; +dignity and visible authority shall lie wholly with the wearer of the +crown, but labor mainly, and responsibility wholly, with its servants. +From hence, without doubt, it follows that should differences arise, it +is the will of those in whose minds the work of government is +elaborated, that in the last resort must prevail. From mere labor, power +may be severed; but not from labor joined with responsibility. This +capital and vital consequence flows out of the principle that the +political action of the Monarch shall everywhere be mediate and +conditional upon the concurrence of confidential advisers. It is +impossible to reconcile any, even the smallest, abatement of this +doctrine, with the perfect, absolute immunity of the Sovereign from +consequences. There can be in England no disloyalty more gross, as to +its effects, than the superstition which affects to assign to the +Sovereign a separate, and so far as separate, transcendental sphere of +political action. Anonymous servility has, indeed, in these last days, +hinted such a doctrine<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>; but it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> is no more practicable to make it +thrive in England, than to rear the jungles of Bengal on Salisbury +Plain.</p> + +<p>There is, indeed, one great and critical act, the responsibility for +which falls momentarily or provisionally upon the Sovereign; it is the +dismissal of an existing Ministry, and the appointment of a new one. +This act is usually performed with the aid drawn from authentic +manifestations of public opinion, mostly such as are obtained through +the votes or conduct of the House of Commons. Since the reign of George +III there has been but one change of Ministry in which the Monarch acted +without the support of these indications. It was when William IV, in +1834, dismissed the Government of Lord Melbourne, which was known to be +supported, though after a lukewarm fashion, by a large majority of the +existing House of Commons. But the royal responsibility was, according +to the doctrine of our Constitution, completely taken over, <i>ex post +facto</i>, by Sir Robert Peel, as the person who consented, on the call of +the King, to take Lord Melbourne's office. Thus, though the act was +rash, and hard to justify, the doctrine of personal immunity was in no +way endangered. And here we may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> notice, that in theory an absolute +personal immunity implies a correlative limitation of power, greater +than is always found in practice. It can hardly be said that the King's +initiative left to Sir R. Peel a freedom perfectly unimpaired. And, most +certainly, it was a very real exercise of personal power. The power did +not suffice for its end, which was to overset the Liberal predominance; +but it very nearly sufficed. Unconditionally entitled to dismiss the +Ministers, the Sovereign can, of course, choose his own opportunity. He +may defy the Parliament, if he can count upon the people. William IV, in +the year 1834, had neither Parliament nor people with him. His act was +within the limits of the Constitution, for it was covered by the +responsibility of the acceding Ministry. But it reduced the Liberal +majority from a number considerably beyond three hundred to about +thirty; and it constituted an exceptional but very real and large action +on the politics of the country, by the direct will of the King. I speak +of the immediate effects. Its eventual result may have been different, +for it converted a large disjointed mass into a smaller but organized +and sufficient force, which held the fortress of power for the six<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +years 1835-41. On this view it may be said that, if the Royal +intervention anticipated and averted decay from natural causes, then +with all its immediate success, it defeated its own real aim.</p> + +<p>But this power of dismissing a Ministry at will, large as it may be +under given circumstances, is neither the safest nor the only power +which, in the ordinary course of things, falls Constitutionally to the +personal share of the wearer of the crown. He is entitled, on all +subjects coming before the Ministry, to knowledge and opportunities of +discussion, unlimited save by the iron necessities of business. Though +decisions must ultimately conform to the sense of those who are to be +responsible for them, yet their business is to inform and persuade the +Sovereign, not to overrule him. Were it possible for him, within the +limits of human time and strength, to enter actively into all public +transactions, he would be fully entitled to do so. What is actually +submitted is supposed to be the most fruitful and important part, the +cream of affairs. In the discussion of them, the Monarch has more than +one advantage over his advisers. He is permanent, they are fugitive; he +speaks from the vantage-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>ground of a station unapproachably higher; he +takes a calm and leisurely survey, while they are worried with the +preparatory stages, and their force is often impaired by the pressure of +countless detail. He may be, therefore, a weighty factor in all +deliberations of State. Every discovery of a blot, that the studies of +the Sovereign in the domain of business enable him to make, strengthens +his hands and enhances his authority. It is plain, then, that there is +abundant scope for mental activity to be at work under the gorgeous +robes of Royalty.</p> + +<p>This power spontaneously takes the form of influence; and the amount of +it depends on a variety of circumstances; on talent, experience, tact, +weight of character, steady, untiring industry, and habitual presence at +the seat of government. In proportion as any of these might fail, the +real and legitimate influence of the Monarch over the course of affairs +would diminish; in proportion as they attain to fuller action, it would +increase. It is a moral, not a coercive, influence. It operates through +the will and reason of the Ministry, not over or against them. It would +be an evil and a perilous day for the Monarchy, were any prospective<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +possessor of the Crown to assume or claim for himself final, or +preponderating, or even independent power, in any one department of the +State. The ideas and practice of the time of George III, whose will in +certain matters limited the action of the Ministers, cannot be revived, +otherwise than by what would be, on their part, nothing less than a base +compliance, a shameful subserviency, dangerous to the public weal, and +in the highest degree disloyal to the dynasty. Because, in every free +State, for every public act, some one must be responsible; and the +question is, Who shall it be? The British Constitution answers: The +Minister, and the Minister exclusively. That he may be responsible, all +action must be fully shared by him. Sole action, for the Sovereign, +would mean undefended, unprotected action; the armor of irresponsibility +would not cover the whole body against sword or spear; a head would +project beyond the awning, and would invite a sunstroke.</p> + +<p>The reader, then, will clearly see that there is no distinction more +vital to the practice of the British Constitution, or to a right +judgment upon it, than the distinction between the Sovereign and the +Crown. The Crown has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> large prerogatives, endless functions essential to +the daily action, and even the life, of the State. To place them in the +hands of persons who should be mere tools in a Royal will, would expose +those powers to constant unsupported collision with the living forces of +the nation, and to a certain and irremediable crash. They are therefore +entrusted to men, who must be prepared to answer for the use they make +of them. This ring of responsible Ministerial agency forms a fence +around the person of the Sovereign, which has thus far proved +impregnable to all assaults. The august personage, who from time to time +may rest within it, and who may possess the art of turning to the best +account the countless resources of the position, is no dumb and +senseless idol; but, together with real and very large means of +influence upon policy, enjoys the undivided reverence which a great +people feels for its head; and is likewise the first and by far the +weightiest among the forces, which greatly mould, by example and +legitimate authority, the manners, nay the morals, of a powerful +aristocracy and a wealthy and highly trained society. The social +influence of a Sovereign, even if it stood alone, would be an enormous +attribute. The English<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> people are not believers in equality; they do +not, with the famous Declaration of July 4, 1776, think it to be a +self-evident truth that all men are born equal. They hold rather the +reverse of that proposition. At any rate, in practice, they are what I +may call determined inequalitarians; nay, in some cases, even without +knowing it. Their natural tendency, from the very base of British +society, and through all its strongly built gradations, is to look +upward: they are not apt to "untune degree." The Sovereign is the +highest height of the system, is, in that system, like Jupiter among the +Roman gods, first without a second.</p> + +<p class='center'> +"Nec viget quicquam simile aut secundum."<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> +</p> + +<p>Not, like Mont Blanc, with rivals in his neighborhood; but like Ararat +or Etna, towering alone and unapproachable. The step downward from the +King to the second person in the realm is not like that from the second +to the third: it is more even than a stride, for it traverses a gulf. It +is the wisdom of the British Constitution to lodge the personality of +its chief so high, that none shall under any circumstances be tempted to +vie, no, nor dream of vie<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>ing, with it. The office, however, is not +confused, though it is associated, with the person; and the elevation of +official dignity in the Monarch of these realms has now for a testing +period worked well, in conjunction with the limitation of merely +personal power.</p> + +<p>In the face of the country, the Sovereign and the Ministers are an +absolute unity. The one may concede to the other; but the limit of +concessions by the Sovereign is at the point where he becomes willing to +try the experiment of changing his Government, and the limit of +concessions by the Minister is at the point where they become unwilling +to bear, what in all circumstances they must bear while they remain +Ministers, the undivided responsibility of all that is done in the +Crown's name. But it is not with the Sovereign only that the Ministry +must be welded into identity. It has a relation to sustain to the House +of Lords; which need not, however, be one of entire unity, for the House +of Lords, though a great power in the State, and able to cause great +embarrassment to an Administration, is not able by a vote to doom it to +capital punishment. Only for fifteen years, out of the last fifty, has +the Ministry of the day possessed the confidence of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> House of Lords. +On the confidence of the House of Commons it is immediately and vitally +dependent. This confidence it must always possess, either absolutely +from identity of political color, or relatively and conditionally. This +last case arises when an accidental dislocation of the majority in the +Chamber has put the machine for the moment out of gear, and the unsafe +experiment of a sort of provisional government, doomed on the one hand +to be feeble, or tempted on the other to be dishonest, is tried; much as +the Roman Conclave has sometimes been satisfied with a provisional Pope, +deemed likely to live for the time necessary to reunite the factions of +the prevailing party.</p> + +<p>I have said that the Cabinet is essentially the regulator of the +relations between King, Lords, and Commons; exercising functionally the +powers of the first, and incorporated, in the persons of its members, +with the second and the third. It is, therefore, itself a great power. +But let no one suppose it is the greatest. In a balance nicely poised, a +small weight may turn the scale; and the helm that directs the ship is +not stronger than the ship. It is a cardinal axiom of the modern British +Constitution, that the House of Commons is the greatest of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> powers +of the State. It might, by a base subserviency, fling itself at the feet +of a Monarch or a Minister; it might, in a season of exhaustion, allow +the slow persistence of the Lords, ever eyeing it as Lancelot was eyed +by Modred, to invade its just province by baffling its action at some +time propitious for the purpose. But no Constitution can anywhere keep +either Sovereign, or Assembly, or nation, true to its trust and to +itself. All that can be done has been done. The Commons are armed with +ample powers of self-defence. If they use their powers properly, they +can only be mastered by a recurrence to the people, and the way in which +the appeal can succeed is by the choice of another House of Commons more +agreeable to the national temper. Thus the sole appeal from the verdict +of the House is a rightful appeal to those from whom it received its +commission.</p> + +<p>This superiority in power among the great State forces was, in truth, +established even before the House of Commons became what it now is, +representative of the people throughout its entire area. In the early +part of the century, a large part of its members virtually received +their mandate from members of the Peerage, or from the Crown, or by the +direct<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> action of money on a mere handful of individuals, or, as in +Scotland, for example, from constituencies whose limited numbers and +upper-class sympathies usually shut out popular influences. A real +supremacy belonged to the House as a whole; but the forces of which it +was compounded were not all derived from the people, and the +aristocratic power had found out the secret of asserting itself within +the walls of the popular chamber, in the dress and through the voices of +its members. Many persons of gravity and weight saw great danger in a +measure of change like the first Reform Act, which left it to the Lords +to assert themselves, thereafter, by an external force, instead of +through a share in the internal composition of a body so formidable. But +the result proved that they were sufficiently to exercise, through the +popular will and choice, the power which they had formerly put in action +without its sanction, though within its proper precinct and with its +title falsely inscribed.</p> + +<p>The House of Commons is superior, and by far superior, in the force of +its political attributes, to any other single power in the State. But it +is watched; it is criticized; it is hemmed in and about by a multitude +of other forces:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> the force, first of all, of the House of Lords, the +force of opinion from day to day, particularly of the highly +anti-popular opinion of the leisured men of the metropolis, who, seated +close to the scene of action, wield an influence greatly in excess of +their just claims; the force of the classes and professions; the just +and useful force of the local authorities in their various orders and +places. Never was the great problem more securely solved, which +recognizes the necessity of a paramount power in the body politic to +enable it to move, but requires for it a depository such that it shall +be safe against invasion, and yet inhibited from aggression.</p> + +<p>The old theories of a mixed government, and of the three powers, coming +down from the age of Cicero, when set by the side of the living British +Constitution, are cold, crude, and insufficient to a degree that makes +them deceptive. Take them, for example, as represented, fairly enough, +by Voltaire: the picture drawn by him is for us nothing but a puzzle:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Aux murs de Vestminster on voit paraître ensemble</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Trois pouvoirs étonnés du nœud qui les rassemble,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Les députés du peuple, les grands, et le Roi,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Divisés d' intérêt, réunis par la Loi."<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p> + +<p>There is here lacking an amalgam, a reconciling power, what may be +called a clearing-house of political forces, which shall draw into +itself every thing, and shall balance and adjust every thing, and +ascertaining the nett result, let it pass on freely for the fulfilment +of the purposes of the great social union. Like a stout buffer-spring, +it receives all shocks, and within it their opposing elements neutralize +one another. This is the function of the British Cabinet. It is perhaps +the most curious formation in the political world of modern times, not +for its dignity, but for its subtlety, its elasticity, and its +many-sided diversity of power. It is the complement of the entire +system; a system which appears to want nothing but a thorough loyalty in +the persons composing its several parts, with a reasonable intelligence, +to insure its bearing, without fatal damage, the wear and tear of ages +yet to come.</p> + +<p>It has taken more than a couple of centuries to bring the British +Cabinet to its present accuracy and fulness of development; for the +first rudiments of it may sufficiently be discerned in the reign of +Charles I. Under Charles II it had fairly started from its embryo; and +the name is found both in Clarendon and in the Diary of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> Pepys.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> It +was for a long time without a Ministerial head; the King was the head. +While this arrangement subsisted, constitutional government could be but +half established. Of the numerous titles of the Revolution of 1688 to +respect, not the least remarkable is this, that the great families of +the country, and great powers of the State, made no effort, as they +might have done, in the hour of its weakness, to aggrandize themselves +at the expense of the crown. Nevertheless, for various reasons, and +among them because of the foreign origin, and absences from time, of +several Sovereigns, the course of events tended to give force to the +organs of Government actually on the spot, and thus to consolidate, and +also to uplift, this as yet novel creation. So late, however, as the +impeachment of Sir Robert Walpole, his friends thought it expedient to +urge on his behalf, in the House of Lords, that he had never presumed to +constitute himself a Prime-Minister.</p> + +<p>The breaking down of the great offices of State by throwing them into +commission, and last among them of the Lord High Treasurership after the +time of Harley, Earl of Oxford, tended, and may probably have been +meant, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> prevent or retard the formation of a recognized Chiefship in +the Ministry; which even now we have not learned to designate by a true +English word, though the use of the imported phrase "Premier" is at +least as old as the poetry of Burns. Nor can any thing be more curiously +characteristic of the political genius of the people, than the present +position of this most important official personage. Departmentally, he +is no more than the first-named of five persons, by whom jointly the +powers of the Lord Treasurership are taken to be exercised; he is not +their master, or, otherwise than by mere priority, their head: and he +has no special function or prerogative under the formal Constitution of +the office. He has no official rank except that of Privy Councillor. +Eight members of the Cabinet, including five Secretaries of State, and +several other members of the Government, take official precedence of +him. His rights and duties as head of the Administration are nowhere +recorded. He is almost, if not altogether, unknown to the Statute Law.</p> + +<p>Nor is the position of the body, over which he presides, less singular +than his own. The Cabinet wields, with partial exceptions, the powers of +the Privy Council, besides having a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> standing ground in relation to the +personal will of the Sovereign, far beyond what the Privy Council ever +held or claimed. Yet it has no connection with the Privy Council, except +that every one, on first becoming a member of the Cabinet, is, if not +belonging to it already, sworn a member of that body. There are other +sections of the Privy Council, forming regular Committees for Education +and for Trade. But the Cabinet has not even this degree of formal +sanction, to sustain its existence. It lives and acts simply by +understanding, without a single line of written law or constitution to +determine its relations to the Monarch, or to the Parliament, or to the +nation; or the relations of its members to one another, or to their +head. It sits in the closest secrecy. There is no record of its +proceedings, nor is there any one to hear them, except upon the very +rare occasions when some important functionary, for the most part +military or legal, is introduced, <i>pro hac vice</i>, for the purpose of +giving to it necessary information.</p> + +<p>Every one of its members acts in no less than three capacities: as +administrator of a department of State; as member of a legislative +chamber; and as a confidential adviser of the Crown.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> Two at least of +them add to those three characters a fourth; for in each House of +Parliament it is indispensable that one of the principal Ministers +should be what is termed its Leader. This is an office the most +indefinite of all, but not the least important. With very little of +defined prerogative, the Leader suggests, and in a great degree fixes, +the course of all principal matters of business, supervises and keeps in +harmony the action of his colleagues, takes the initiative in matters of +ceremonial procedure, and advises the House in every difficulty as it +arises. The first of these, which would be of but secondary consequence +where the assembly had time enough for all its duties, is of the utmost +weight in our overcharged House of Commons, where, notwithstanding all +its energy and all its diligence, for one thing of consequence that is +done, five or ten are despairingly postponed. The overweight, again, of +the House of Commons is apt, other things being equal, to bring its +Leader inconveniently near in power to a Prime-Minister who is a Peer. +He can play off the House of Commons against his chief; and instances +might be cited, though they are happily most rare, when he has served +him very ugly tricks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> + +<p>The nicest of all the adjustments involved in the working of the British +Government is that which determines, without formally defining, the +internal relations of the Cabinet. On the one hand, while each Minister +is an adviser of the Crown, the Cabinet is a unity, and none of its +members can advise as an individual, without, or in opposition actual or +presumed to, his colleagues. On the other hand, the business of the +State is a hundred-fold too great in volume to allow of the actual +passing of the whole under the view of the collected Ministry. It is +therefore a prime office of discretion for each Minister to settle what +are the departmental acts in which he can presume the concurrence of his +colleagues, and in what more delicate, or weighty, or peculiar cases, he +must positively ascertain it. So much for the relation of each Minister +to the Cabinet; but here we touch the point which involves another +relation, perhaps the least known of all, his relation to its head.</p> + +<p>The head of the British Government is not a Grand Vizier. He has no +powers, properly so called, over his colleagues: on the rare occasions, +when a Cabinet determines its course by the votes of its members, his +vote counts only as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> one of theirs. But they are appointed and dismissed +by the Sovereign on his advice. In a perfectly organized administration, +such for example as was that of Sir Robert Peel in 1841-6, nothing of +great importance is matured, or would even be projected, in any +department without his personal cognizance; and any weighty business +would commonly go to him before being submitted to the Cabinet. He +reports to the Sovereign its proceedings, and he also has many audiences +of the august occupant of the Throne. He is bound in these reports and +audiences, not to counterwork the Cabinet; not to divide it; not to +undermine the position of any of his colleagues in the Royal favor. If +he departs in any degree from strict adherence to these rules, and uses +his great opportunities to increase his own influence, or pursue aims +not shared by his colleagues, then, unless he is prepared to advise +their dismissal, he not only departs from rule, but commits an act of +treachery and baseness. As the Cabinet stands between the Sovereign and +the Parliament, and is bound to be loyal to both, so he stands between +his colleagues and the Sovereign, and is bound to be loyal to both.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p> + +<p>As a rule, the resignation of the First Minister, as if removing the +bond of cohesion in the Cabinet, has the effect of dissolving it. A +conspicuous instance of this was furnished by Sir Robert Peel in 1846; +when the dissolution of the Administration, after it had carried the +repeal of the Corn Laws, was understood to be due not so much to a +united deliberation and decision as to his initiative. The resignation +of any other Minister only creates a vacancy. In certain circumstances, +the balance of forces may be so delicate and susceptible that a single +resignation will break up the Government; but what is the rule in the +one case is the rare exception in the other. The Prime Minister has no +title to override any one of his colleagues in any one of the +departments. So far as he governs them, unless it is done by trick, +which is not to be supposed, he governs them by influence only. But upon +the whole, nowhere in the wide world does so great a substance cast so +small a shadow; nowhere is there a man who has so much power, with so +little to show for it in the way of formal title or prerogative.</p> + +<p>The slight record that has here been traced may convey but a faint idea +of an unique creation. And, slight as it is, I believe it tells more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +than, except in the school of British practice, is elsewhere to be +learned of a machine so subtly balanced, that it seems as though it were +moved by something not less delicate and slight than the mainspring of a +watch. It has not been the offspring of the thought of man. The Cabinet, +and all the present relations of the Constitutional powers in this +country, have grown into their present dimensions, and settled into +their present places, not as the fruit of a philosophy, not in the +effort to give effect to an abstract principle; but by the silent action +of forces, invisible and insensible, the structure has come up into the +view of all the world. It is, perhaps, the most conspicuous object on +the wide political horizon; but it has thus risen, without noise, like +the temple of Jerusalem.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"No workman steel, no ponderous hammers rung;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Like some tall palm the stately fabric sprung."<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>When men repeat the proverb which teaches us that "marriages are made in +heaven," what they mean is that, in the most fundamental of all social +operations, the building up of the family, the issues involved in the +nuptial contract, lie beyond the best exercise of human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> thought, and +the unseen forces of providential government make good the defect in our +imperfect capacity. Even so would it seem to have been in that curious +marriage of competing influences and powers, which brings about the +composite harmony of the British Constitution. More, it must be +admitted, than any other, it leaves open doors which lead into blind +alleys; for it presumes, more boldly than any other, the good sense and +good faith of those who work it. If, unhappily, these personages meet +together, on the great arena of a nation's fortunes, as jockeys meet +upon a racecourse, each to urge to the uttermost, as against the others, +the power of the animal he rides; or as counsel in a court, each to +procure the victory of his client, without respect to any other interest +or right: then this boasted Constitution of ours is neither more nor +less than a heap of absurdities. The undoubted competency of each +reaches even to the paralysis or destruction of the rest. The House of +Commons is entitled to refuse every shilling of the supplies. That +House, and also the House of Lords, is entitled to refuse its assent to +every bill presented to it. The Crown is entitled to make a thousand +Peers to-day and as many to-morrow: it may dissolve<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> all and every +Parliament before it proceeds to business; may pardon the most atrocious +crimes; may declare war against all the world; may conclude treaties +involving unlimited responsibilities, and even vast expenditure, without +the consent, nay, without the knowledge, of Parliament, and this not +merely in support or in development, but in reversal, of policy already +known to and sanctioned by the nation. But the assumption is that the +depositaries of power will all respect one another; will evince a +consciousness that they are working in a common interest for a common +end; that they will be possessed, together with not less than an average +intelligence, of not less than an average sense of equity and of the +public interest and rights. When these reasonable expectations fail, +then, it must be admitted, the British Constitution will be in danger.</p> + +<p>Apart from such contingencies, the offspring only of folly or of crime, +this Constitution is peculiarly liable to subtle change. Not only in the +long run, as man changes between youth and age, but also, like the human +body, with a quotidian life, a periodical recurrence of ebbing and +flowing tides. Its old particles daily run to waste, and give place to +new. What is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> hoped among us is, that which has usually been found, that +evils will become palpable before they have grown to be intolerable.</p> + +<p>There cannot, for example, be much doubt among careful observers that +the great conservator of liberty in all former times, namely, the +confinement of the power of the purse to the popular chamber, has been +lamentably weakened in its efficiency of late years; weakened in the +House of Commons, and weakened by the House of Commons. It might indeed +be contended that the House of Commons of the present epoch does far +more to increase the aggregate of public charge than to reduce it. It +might even be a question whether the public would take benefit if the +House were either intrusted annually with a great part of the +initiative, so as to be really responsible to the people for the +spending of their money; or else were excluded from part at least of its +direct action upon expenditure, intrusting to the executive the +application of given sums which that executive should have no legal +power to exceed.</p> + +<p>Meantime, we of this island are not great political philosophers; and we +contend with an earnest, but disproportioned, vehemence about changes +which are palpable, such as the extension of the suffrage, or the +redistribution of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> Parliamentary seats, neglecting wholly other +processes of change which work beneath the surface, and in the dark, but +which are even more fertile of great organic results. The modern English +character reflects the English Constitution in this, that it abounds in +paradox; that it possesses every strength; but holds it tainted with +every weakness; that it seems alternately both to rise above and to fall +below the standard of average humanity; that there is no allegation of +praise or blame which, in some one of the aspects of its many-sided +formation, it does not deserve; that only in the midst of much default, +and much transgression, the people of this United Kingdom either have +heretofore established, or will hereafter establish, their title to be +reckoned among the children of men, for the eldest born of an imperial +race.</p> + +<p>In this imperfect survey, I have carefully avoided all reference to the +politics of the day and to particular topics, recently opened, which may +have undergone a great development even before these lines appear in +print on the other side of the Atlantic. Such reference would, without +any countervailing advantage, have lowered the strain of these remarks, +and would have complicated with painful considerations a statement +essentially impartial and general in its scope.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> + +<p>For the yet weightier reason of incompetency, I have avoided the topics +of chief present interest in America, including that proposal to tamper +with the true monetary creed which (as we should say) the Tempter lately +presented to the Nation in the Silver Bill. But I will not close this +paper without recording my conviction that the great acts, and the great +forbearances, which immediately followed the close of the Civil War form +a group which will ever be a noble object, in his political retrospect, +to the impartial historian; and that, proceeding as they did from the +free choice and conviction of the people, and founded as they were on +the very principles of which the multitude is supposed to be least +tolerant, they have, in doing honor to the United States, also rendered +a splendid service to the general cause of popular government throughout +the world.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<h2>JOHN HENRY NEWMAN.<br />BORN 1801.<br /></h2> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>PRIVATE JUDGMENT.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">By</span> JOHN HENRY NEWMAN.</h3> + + +<p>There is this obvious, undeniable difficulty in the attempt to form a +theory of Private Judgment, in the choice of a religion, that Private +Judgment leads different minds in such different directions. If, indeed, +there be no religious truth, or at least no sufficient means of arriving +at it, then the difficulty vanishes: for where there is nothing to find, +there can be no rules for seeking, and contradiction in the result is +but a <i>reductio ad absurdum</i> of the attempt. But such a conclusion is +intolerable to those who search, else they would not search; and +therefore on them the obligation lies to explain, if they can, how it +comes to pass, that Private Judgment is a duty, and an advantage, and a +success, considering it leads the way not only to their own faith, +whatever that may be, but to opinions which are diametrically opposite +to it; considering it not only leads them right, but leads others wrong, +landing them as it may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> be in the Church of Rome, or in the Wesleyan +Connection, or in the Society of Friends.</p> + +<p>Are exercises of mind, which end so diversely, one and all pleasing to +the Divine Author of faith; or rather must they not contain some +inherent or some incidental defect, since they manifest such divergence? +Must private judgment in all cases be a good <i>per se</i>; or is it a good +under circumstances, and with limitations? Or is it a good, only when it +is not an evil? Or is it a good and evil at once, a good involving an +evil? Or is it an absolute and simple evil? Questions of this sort rise +in the mind on contemplating a principle which leads to more than the +thirty-two points of the compass, and, in consequence, whatever we may +here be able to do, in the way of giving plain rules for its exercise, +be it greater or less, will be so much gain.</p> + + +<h4>1.</h4> + +<p>Now the first remark which occurs is an obvious one, and, we suppose, +will be suffered to pass without much opposition, that whatever be the +intrinsic merits of Private Judgment, yet, if it at all exerts itself in +the direction of proselytism and conversion, a certain <i>onus probandi</i> +lies upon it, and it must show cause why<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> it should be tolerated, and +not rather treated as a breach of the peace, and silenced <i>instanter</i> as +a mere disturber of the existing constitution of things. Of course it +may be safely exercised in defending what is established; and we are far +indeed from saying that it is never to advance in the direction of +change or revolution, else the Gospel itself could never have been +introduced; but we consider that serious religious changes have <i>primâ +facie</i> case against them; they have something to get over, and have to +prove their admissibility, before it can reasonably be allowed; and +their agents may be called upon to suffer, in order to prove their +earnestness, and to pay the penalty of the trouble they are causing. +Considering the special countenance given in Scripture to quiet, +unanimity, and contentedness, and the warnings directed against +disorder, insubordination, changeableness, discord, and division; +considering the emphatic words of the Apostle, laid down by him as a +general principle, and illustrated in detail, "Let every man abide in +the same calling wherein he was called"; considering, in a word, that +change is really the characteristic of error, and unalterableness the +attribute of truth, of holiness, of Almighty God Him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> self, we consider +that when Private Judgment moves in the direction of innovation, it may +well be regarded at first with suspicion and treated with severity. Nay, +we confess even a satisfaction, when a penalty is attached to the +expression of new doctrines, or to a change of communion. We repeat it, +if any men have strong feelings, they should pay for them; if they think +it a duty to unsettle things established, they show their earnestness by +being willing to suffer. We shall be the last to complain of this kind +of persecution, even though directed against what we consider the cause +of truth. Such disadvantages do no harm to that cause in the event, but +they bring home to a man's mind his own responsibility; they are a +memento to him of a great moral law, and warn him that his private +judgment, if not a duty, is a sin.</p> + +<p>An act of private judgment is, in its very idea, an act of individual +responsibility; this is a consideration which will come with especial +force on a conscientious mind, when it is to have so fearful an issue as +a change of religion. A religious man will say to himself, "If I am in +error at present, I am in error by a disposition of Providence, which +has placed me where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> I am; if I change into an error, this is my own +act. It is much less fearful to be born at disadvantage, than to place +myself at disadvantage."</p> + +<p>And if the voice of men in general is to weigh at all in a matter of +this kind, it does but corroborate these instinctive feelings. A convert +is undeniably in favor with no party; he is looked at with distrust, +contempt, and aversion by all. His former friends think him a good +riddance, and his new friends are cold and strange; and as to the +impartial public, their very first impulse is to impute the change to +some eccentricity of character, or fickleness of mind, or tender +attachment, or private interest. Their utmost praise is the reluctant +confession that "doubtless he is very sincere." Churchmen and +Dissenters, men of Rome and men of the Kirk, are equally subject to this +remark. Not on extraordinary occasions only, but as a matter of course, +whenever the news of a conversion to Romanism, or to Irvingism, or to +the Plymouth Sect, or to Unitarianism, is brought to us, we say, one and +all of us: "No wonder, such a one has lived so long abroad"; or, "he is +of such a very imaginative turn"; or, "he is so excitable and odd"; or, +"what could he do? all his family turned"; or, "it was a reaction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> in +consequence of an injudicious education"; or, "trade makes men cold," or +"a little learning makes them shallow in their religion." If, then, the +common voice of mankind goes for any thing, must we not consider it to +be the <i>rule</i> that men change their religion, not on reason, but for +some extra-rational feeling or motive? else, the world would not so +speak.</p> + +<p>Now, for ourselves, we are not quarrelling with this testimony,—we are +willing to resign ourselves to it; but we think there are parties whom +it concerns much to ponder it. Surely it is a strong, and, as they ought +to feel, an alarming proof, that, for all the haranguing and protesting +which goes on in Exeter and other halls, this great people is not such a +conscientious supporter of the sacred right of Private Judgment as a +good Protestant would desire. Why should we go out of our way, one and +all of us, to impute personal motives in explanation of the conversion +of every individual convert, as he comes before us, if there were in us, +the public, an adhesion to that absolute, and universal, and unalienable +principle, as its titles are set forth in heraldic style, high and +broad, sacred and awful, the right, and the duty, and the possibility of +Private<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> Judgment? Why should we confess it in the general, yet promptly +and pointedly deny it in every particular, if our hearts retained more +than the "magni nominis umbra," when we preached up the Protestant +principle? Is it not sheer wantonness and cruelty in Baptist, +Independent, Irvingite, Wesleyan, Establishment-man, Jumper, and +Mormonite, to delight in trampling on and crushing these manifestations +of their own pure and precious charter, instead of dutifully and +reverently exalting, at Bethel, or at Dan, each instance of it, as it +occurs, to the gaze of its professing votaries? If a staunch +Protestant's daughter turns Roman, and betakes herself to a convent, why +does he not exult in the occurrence? Why does he not give a public +breakfast, or hold a meeting, or erect a memorial, or write a pamphlet +in honor of her, and of the great undying principle she has so +gloriously vindicated? Why is he in this base, disloyal style, muttering +about priests, and Jesuits, and the horrors of nunneries, in solution of +the phenomenon, when he has the fair and ample form of Private Judgment +rising before his eyes, and pleading with him, and bidding him impute +good motives, not bad, and in very charity ascribe to the in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>fluence of +a high and holy principle, to a right and a duty of every member of the +family of man, what his poor human instincts are fain to set down as a +folly or a sin. All this would lead us to suspect that the doctrine of +private judgment, in its simplicity, purity, and integrity,—private +judgment, all private judgment, and nothing but private judgment,—is +held by very few persons indeed; and that the great mass of the +population are either stark unbelievers in it, or deplorably dark about +it; and that even the minority who are in a manner faithful to it, have +glossed and corrupted the true sense of it by a miserably faulty +reading, and hold, not the right of private judgment, but the private +right of judgment; in other words, their own private right, and no one's +else. To us it seems as clear as day, that they consider that they +themselves, indeed, individually can and do act on reason, and on +nothing but reason; that they have the gift of advancing, without bias +or unsteadiness, throughout their search, from premise to conclusion, +from text to doctrine; that they have sought aright, and no one else, +who does not agree with them; that they alone have found out the art of +putting the salt upon the bird's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> tail, and have rescued themselves from +being the slaves of circumstance and the creatures of impulse. It is +undeniable, then, if the popular feeling is to be our guide, that, high +and mighty as the principle of private judgment is in religious +inquiries, as we most fully grant it is, still it bears some similarity +to Saul's armor which David rejected, or to edged tools which have a bad +trick of chopping at our fingers, when we are but simply and innocently +meaning them to make a dash forward at truth.</p> + +<p>Any tolerably serious man will feel this in his own case more vividly +than in that of any one else. Who can know ever so little of himself +without suspecting all kinds of imperfect and wrong motives in +everything he attempts? And then there is the bias of education and of +habit; and, added to the difficulties thence resulting, those which +arise from weakness of the reasoning faculty; ignorance or imperfect +knowledge of the original languages of Scripture, and again, of history +and antiquity. These things being considered, we lay it down as a truth, +about which, we think, few ought to doubt, that Divine aid alone can +carry any one safely and successfully through an inquiry after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +religious truth. That there are certain very broad contrasts between one +religion and another, in which no one would be at fault what to think +and what to choose, is very certain; but the problem proposed to private +judgment at this day, is of a rather more complicated nature. Taking +things as they are, we all seem to be in Solomon's case, when he said, +"I am but a little child; I know not how to go out or come in; and Thy +servant is in the midst of a great people, that cannot be numbered nor +counted for multitude. Give, therefore, Thy servant an understanding +heart, that I may discern between good and bad." It is useless, surely, +attempting to inquire or judge, unless a Divine command enjoin the work +upon us, and a Divine promise sustain us through it. Supposing, indeed, +such a command and promise be given, then, of course, there is no +difficulty in the matter. Whatever be our personal infirmities, He whom +we serve can overrule or supersede them. An act of duty must always be +right; and will be accepted, whatever be its success, because done in +obedience to His will. And he can bless the most unpromising +circumstances; He can even lead us forward by means of our mistakes; He +can turn our mistakes into a revela<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>tion; He can convert us, if He will, +through the very obstinacy, or self-will, or superstition, which mixes +itself up with our better feelings, and defiles, yet is sanctified by +our sincerity. And much more can He shed upon our path supernatural +light, if He so will, and give us an insight into the meaning of +Scripture, and a hold of the sense of Antiquity, to which our own +unaided powers never could have attained.</p> + +<p>All this is certain: He continually leads us forward in the midst of +darkness; and we live, not by bread only, but by His Word converting the +hard rock or salt sea into nourishment. The simple question is, <i>has</i> +He, in this particular case, commanded? has He promised? and how far? If +He has, and as far as He has, all is easy; if He has not, all is, we +will not say, impossible, but what is worse, undutiful or presumptuous. +Our business is to ask with St. Paul, when arrested in the midst of his +frenzy, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" This is the simple +question. He can bless our present state; He can bless our change; +<i>which</i> is it His will to bless? If Wesleyan or Independent has come +over to us apart from this spirit, we do not much pride ourselves in our +convert. If he joins us because he thinks he has a right to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> judge for +himself, or because forms are of no consequence, or merely because +sectarianism has its errors and inconveniences, or because an +Established Church is an efficacious means of spreading religion, he +plainly thinks that the choice of a communion is not a more serious +matter than the choice of a neighborhood or of an insurance office. In +like manner, if members of our communion have left it for Rome, because +of the <i>æsthetic</i> beauty of the latter, and the grandeur of its +pretensions, we are grieved, but, good luck to them, we can spare them. +And if Roman Catholics join us or our "Dissenting brethren," because +their own Church is behind the age, insists on Aristotelic dogmas, and +interferes with liberty of thought, such a conversion is no triumph over +popery, but over St. Peter and St. Paul. Our only safety lies in +obedience; our only comfort in keeping it in view.</p> + +<p>If this be so, we have arrived at the following conclusion: that it is +our duty to betake ourselves to Scripture, and to observe how far the +private search of a religion is there sanctioned, and under what +circumstances. This then is the next point which comes under +consideration.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p> + +<h4>2.</h4> + +<p>Now the first and most ordinary kind of Private Judgment, if it deserves +the name, which is recognized in Scripture, is that in which we engage +without conscious or deliberate purpose. While Lydia heard St. Paul +preach, her heart was opened. She had it not in mind to exercise any +supposed sacred right, she was not setting about the choice of a +religion, but she was drawn on to accept the Gospel by a moral +persuasion. "To him that hath more shall be given," not in the way of +judging or choosing, but by an inward development met by external +disclosures. Lydia's instance is the type of a multitude of cases, +differing very much from each other, some divinely ordered, others +merely human, some which would commonly be called cases of private +judgment, and others which certainly would not, but all agreeing in +this, that the judgment exercised is not recognized and realized by the +party exercising it, as the subject-matter of command, promise, duty, +privilege, or any thing else. It is but the spontaneous stirring of the +affections within, or the passive acceptance of what is offered from +without. St. Paul baptized Lydia's household also; it would seem then +that he baptized servants or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> slaves, who had very little power of +judging between a true religion and a false; shall we say that they, +like their mistress, accepted the Gospel on private judgment or not? Did +the thousands baptized in national conversions exercise their private +judgment or not? Do children when taught their catechism? Most persons +will reply in the negative: yet it will be difficult to separate their +case in principle from what Lydia's may have been; that is, the case of +religious persons who are advancing forward into the truth—how, they +know not. Neither the one class nor the other have undertaken to inquire +and judge, or have set about being converted, or have got their reasons +all before them and together, to discharge at an enemy or passer-by on +fit occasions. The difference between these two classes is in the state +of their hearts; the one party consist of unformed minds, or senseless +and dead, or minds under temporary excitement, who are brought over by +external or accidental influences, without any real sympathy for the +religion, which is taught them <i>in order</i> that they may <i>learn</i> sympathy +with it, and who, as time goes on, fall away again if they are not happy +enough to become imbued with it; and in the other party there is already +a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> sympathy between the external Word and the heart within. The one are +proselytized by force, authority, or their mere feelings, the others +through their habitual and abiding frame of mind and cast of opinion. +But neither can be said, in the ordinary sense of the word, to inquire, +reason, and decide about religion. And yet in a great number of these +cases,—certainly where the persons in question are come to years of +discretion and show themselves consistent in their religious profession +afterward,—they would be commonly set forth by Protestant minds as +instances of the due exercise of the right of private judgment.</p> + +<p>Such are the greater number perhaps of converts at this day, in whatever +direction their conversion lies; and their so-called exercise of private +judgment is neither right nor wrong in itself, it is a spontaneous act +which they do not think about; if it is any thing, it is but a means of +bringing out their moral characteristics one way or the other. Often, as +in the case of very illiterate and unreflecting persons, it proves +nothing either way; but in those who are not so, it is right or wrong, +as their hearts are right or wrong; it is an exercise not of reason but +of heart. Take, for instance, the case of a servant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> in a family; she is +baptized and educated in the Church of England, and is religiously +disposed; she goes into Scotland and conforms to the Kirk, to which her +master and mistress belong. She is of course responsible for what she +does, but no one would say that she had formed any purpose, or taken any +deliberate step. In course of time, when perhaps taxed with the change, +she would say in her defence that outward forms matter not, and that +there are good men in Scotland as well as in England; but this is an +after-thought. Again, a careless person, nominally a Churchman, falls +among serious-minded Dissenters, and they reclaim him from vice or +irreligion; on this he joins their communion, and as time goes on, +boasts perhaps of his right of private judgment. At the time itself, +however, no process of inquiry took place within him at all; his heart +was "opened," whether for good or for bad, whether by good influences or +by good and bad mixed. He was not conscious of convincing reasons, but +he took what came to hand, he embraced what was offered, he felt and he +acted. Again, a man is brought up among Unitarians, or in the frigid and +worldly school which got a footing in the Church during last century, +and has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> accustomed to view religion as a matter of reason and +form, of obligation, to the exclusion of affectionateness and devotion. +He falls among persons of what is called an Evangelical cast, and finds +his heart interested, and great objects set before it. Such a man falls +in with the sentiments he finds, rather than adopts them. He follows the +leadings of his heart, perhaps of Divine grace, but certainly not any +course of inquiry and proof. There is nothing of argument, discussion, +or choice in the process of his conversion. He has no systems to choose +between, and no grounds to scrutinize.</p> + +<p>Now, in all such cases, the sort of private judgment exercised is right +or wrong, not as private judgment, but according to its circumstances. +It is either the attraction of a Divine Influence, such as the mind +cannot master, or it is a suggestion of reason, which the mind has yet +to analyze, before it can bring it to the test of logic. If it is the +former, it is above a private judgment, popularly so-called; if the +latter, it is not yet so much as one.</p> + +<p>A second class of conversions on private judgment consists of those +which take place upon the sight or the strong testimony of miracles. +Such was the instance of Rahab, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> Naaman, if he may be called a +convert, and of Nebuchadnezzar; of the blind man in John ix, of St. +Paul, of Cornelius, of Sergius Paulus, and many others. Here again the +act of judgment is of a very peculiar character. It is not exactly an +unconscious act, but yet it is hardly an act of judgment. Our belief in +external sensible facts cannot properly be called an act of private +judgment; yet since Protestants, we suppose, would say that the blind +man or Sergius Paulus were converted on private judgment, let it even so +be called, though it is of a very particular kind. Again, conviction +after a miracle also implies the latent belief that such acts are signs +of the Divine Presence, a belief which may be as generally recognized +and maintained, and is as little a peculiar or private feeling as the +impression on the senses of the miracle itself. And this leads to the +mention of a further instance of the sort of private judgments to which +men are invited in Scripture, viz., the exercise of the moral sense. Our +Creator has stamped certain great truths upon our minds, and there they +remain in spite of the fall. St. Paul appeals to one of these at Lystra, +calling on the worshippers of idols to turn from these vanities unto the +Living God; and at Athens, "not to think<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> that the Godhead is like unto +gold, or silver, or stone graven by art and man's device," but to +worship "God who made the world and all things therein." In the same +tone he reminds the Thessalonians of their having "turned to God from +idols to serve the Living and True God." In like manner, doubtless, +other great principles also of religion and morals are rooted in the +minds so deeply, that their denial by any religion would be a +justification of our quitting or rejecting it. If a pagan found his +ecclesiastical polity essentially founded on lying and cheating, or his +ritual essentially impure, or his moral code essentially unjust or +cruel, we conceive this would be a sufficient reason for his renouncing +it for one which was free from these hateful characteristics. Such again +is the kind of private judgment exercised, when maxims of principles, +generally admitted by bodies of men, are acted upon by individuals who +have been ever taught them, as a matter of course, without questioning +them; for instance, if a member of the English Church, who had always +been taught that preaching is the great ordinance of the Gospel, to the +disparagement of the Sacraments, thereupon placed himself under the +ministry of a powerful Wesleyan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> preacher; or if, from the common belief +that nothing is essential but what is on the surface of Scripture, he +forthwith attached himself to the Baptists, Independents, or Unitarians. +Such men indeed often take their line in consequence of some inward +liking for the religious system they adopt; but we are speaking of their +proceeding as far as it professes to be an act of judgment.</p> + +<p>A third class of private judgments recorded in Scripture are those which +are exercised at one and the same time by a great number; if it be not a +contradiction to call such judgments private. Yet here again we suppose +staunch Protestants would maintain that the three thousand at Pentecost, +and the five thousand after the miracle on the lame man, and the "great +company of the priests," which shortly followed, did avail themselves, +and do afford specimens, of the sacred right in question; therefore let +it be ruled so. Such, then, is the case of national conversions to which +we have already alluded. Again, if the Lutheran Church of Germany with +its many theologians, or our neighbor the Kirk,—General Assembly, Men +of Strathbogie, Dr. Chalmers, and all,—came to a unanimous or +quasi-unanimous resolve to sub<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>mit to the Archbishop of Canterbury as +their patriarch, this doubtless would be an exercise of private judgment +perfectly defensible on Scripture precedents.</p> + +<p>Now, before proceeding, let us observe, that as yet nothing has been +found in Scripture to justify the cases of private judgment which are +exemplified in the popular religious biographies of the day. These +generally contain instances of conversions made on the judgment, +definite, deliberate, independent, isolated, of the parties converted. +The converts in these stories had not seen miracles, nor had they +developed their own existing principles or beliefs, nor had they changed +their religion in company with others, nor had they received new truths, +they knew not how. Let us then turn to Scripture a second time, to see +whether we can gain thence any clearer sanction of Private Judgment as +now exercised among us, than our search into Scripture has hitherto +furnished.</p> + + +<h4>3.</h4> + +<p>There certainly is another method of conversion upon private judgment +described in Scripture, which is much more to our purpose, viz., by +means of the study of Scripture itself. Thus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> our Lord says to the Jews, +"Search the Scriptures"; and the treasurer of Candace was reading the +book of Isaiah when St. Philip met him; and the men of Berea are said to +be "more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they received the +word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, +whether those things were so." And it is added, "therefore many of them +believed." Here at length, it will be said, is a precedent for such acts +of private judgment as are most frequently recommended and instanced in +religious tales; and indeed these texts commonly are understood to make +it certain beyond dispute, that individuals ordinarily may find out the +doctrines of the Gospel for themselves from the private study of +Scripture. A little consideration, however, will convince us that even +these are precedents for something else, that they sanction, not an +inquiry about Gospel doctrine, but about the Gospel teacher; not what +has God revealed, but whom has He commissioned? And this is a very +different thing.</p> + +<p>The context of the passage in which our Lord speaks of searching the +Scriptures, shows plainly that their office is that of leading, not to a +knowledge of the Gospel, but of Himself,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> its Author and Teacher. "Whom +He hath sent," He says, "Him ye believe not. Search the Scriptures, for +in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which <i>testify +of Me</i>." He adds, that they "will not come unto Him, that they may have +life," and that "He is come in His Father's name, and they receive Him +not." And again, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, for +he <i>wrote of Me</i>." It is plain that in this passage our Lord does not +send His hearers to the Old Testament to gain thence the knowledge of +the doctrines of the Gospel by means of their private judgment, but to +gain tests or notes by which to find out and receive Him who was the +teacher of those doctrines; and, though the treasurer of Candace appears +in the narrative to be contemplating our Lord in prophecy, not as the +teacher but the object of the Christian faith, yet still in confessing +that he could not "understand" what he was reading, "unless some man +should guide him," he lays down the principle broadly, which we desire +here to maintain, that the private study of Scripture is not intended +ordinarily as the means of getting a knowledge of the Gospel. In like +manner, St. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, refers to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> book of Joel, +by way of proving thence, not the Christian doctrine, but the divine +promise that new teachers were to be sent in due season, and the fact +that it was fulfilled in himself and his brethren. "This is that," he +says, "which was spoken by the prophet Joel, I will pour out My Spirit +upon all flesh, and <i>your sons and your daughters shall prophesy</i>."</p> + +<p>While, then, the conversions recorded in Scripture are brought about in +a very marked way through a <i>teacher</i>, and <i>not</i> by means of private +judgment, so again, if an appeal <i>is</i> made to private judgment, this is +done in order to settle who the teacher is, and what are his notes or +tokens, rather than to substantiate this or that religious opinion or +practice. And if such instances bear upon our conduct at this day, as it +is natural to think they do, then of course the practical question +before us is, <i>who</i> is the teacher now, from whose mouth are we to seek +the law, and <i>what are his notes</i>?</p> + +<p>Now, in remarkable coincidence with this view, we find in both +Testaments that teachers are promised under the dispensation of the +Gospel, so that they who, like the noble Bereans, search the Scriptures +daily will be at little loss <i>whither</i> their private judgment should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +lead them in order to gain the knowledge of the truth. In the book of +Isaiah we have the following express promises: "Though the Lord give you +the bread of adversity, and the waters of affliction, yet shall not thy +teachers be removed into a corner any more, but <i>thine eyes shall see +thy teachers</i>, and thine ears <i>shall hear a voice behind thee</i>, saying, +This is the way," etc. Several tests follow descriptive of the condition +of things or the circumstances in which these teachers are to be found. +First, the absence of idolatry: "Ye shall defile also the covering of +thy graven images of silver, and the ornaments of thy molten images of +gold"; and next the multitude of fellow-believers: "Then shall He give +the <i>rain of thy seed</i>, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; in that +day shall thy cattle feed <i>in large pastures</i>." Elsewhere the appointed +teacher is noted as speaking with authority and judicially, as: "Every +tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn." And +here again the promises or tests of extent and perpetuity appear: "Thou +shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall +inherit the Gentiles"; and "My kindness shall not depart from them, +neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> Elsewhere holiness +is mentioned: "It shall be called, The way of holiness, the unclean +shall not pass over it." One more promise shall be cited: "My Spirit +that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not +depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed ... from +henceforth and for ever."</p> + +<p>In the New Testament we have the same promises stated far more concisely +indeed, but, what is much more apposite than a longer description, with +the addition of the <i>name</i> of our promised teacher: "The <i>Church</i> of the +living God," says St. Paul, "<i>the pillar and ground of the truth</i>." The +simple question then for Private Judgment to exercise itself upon is, +what and where is the Church?</p> + +<p>Now let it be observed how exactly this view of the province of Private +Judgment, where it is allowable, as being the discovery not of doctrine, +but of the teacher of doctrine, harmonizes both with the nature of +Religion and the state of human society as we find it. Religion is for +practice, and that immediate. Now it is much easier to form a correct +and rapid judgment of persons than of books or of doctrines. Every one, +even a child, has an impression about new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> faces; few persons have any +real view about new propositions. There is something in the sight of +persons or of bodies of men, which speaks to us for approval or +disapprobation with a distinctness to which pen and ink are unequal. +This is just the kind of evidence which is needed for use, in cases in +which private judgment is divinely intended to be the means of our +conversion. The multitude have neither the time, the patience, nor the +clearness and exactness of thought, for processes of investigation and +deduction. Reason is slow and abstract, cold and speculative; but man is +a being of feeling and action; he is not resolvable into a <i>dictum de +omni et nullo</i>, or a series of hypotheticals, or a critical diatribe, or +an algebraical equation. And this obvious fact does, as far as it goes, +make it probable that, if we are providentially obliged to exercise our +private judgment, the point toward which we have to direct it, is the +teacher rather than the doctrine.</p> + +<p>In corroboration, it may be observed, that Scripture seems always to +imply the presence of teachers as the appointed ordinance by which men +learn the truth; and is principally engaged in giving cautions against +false teachers, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> tests for ascertaining the true. Thus our Lord bids +us "beware of false prophets," not of false books; and look to their +fruits. And He says elsewhere that "the sheep know His voice," and that +"they know not the voice of strangers." And He predicts false Christs, +and false prophets, who are to be nearly successful against even the +elect. He does not give us tests of false doctrines, but of certain +visible peculiarities or notes applicable to persons or parties. "If +they shall say, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth; behold, he is +in the secret chamber, believe it not." St. Paul insists on tokens of a +similar kind: "Mark them which cause divisions, and avoid them"; "is +Christ divided?" "beware of dogs, beware of evil workers"; "be followers +together of me, and mark them which walk so, as ye have us for an +ensample." Thus the New Testament equally with the Old, as far as it +speaks of private examination into teaching professedly from heaven, +makes the teacher the subject of that inquiry, and not the thing taught; +it bids us ask for his credentials, and avoid him if he is unholy, or +idolatrous, or schismatical, or if he comes in his own name, or if he +claims no authority, or is the growth of a particular spot or of +particular circumstances.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p> + +<p>If there are passages which at first sight seem to interfere with this +statement, they admit of an easy explanation. Either they will be found +to appeal to those instinctive feelings of our nature already spoken of +which supersede argument and proof in the judgments we form of persons +or bodies; as in St. Paul's reference to the idolatry of Athenian +worship, or to the extreme moral corruption of heathenism generally. Or, +again, the criterion of doctrine which they propose to the private +judgment of the individual turns upon the question of its novelty or +previous reception. When St. Paul would describe a false gospel, he +calls it <i>another</i> gospel "than that ye have received"; and St. John +bids us "try the spirits," gives us as the test of truth and error the +"confessing that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh," and warns us +against receiving into our houses any one who "brings not this +doctrine." We conceive then that, on the whole, the notion of gaining +religious truth for ourselves by our private examination, whether by +reading or thinking, whether by studying Scripture or other books, has +no broad sanction in Scripture, is neither impressed upon us by its +general tone, nor enjoined in any of its commands. The great question +which it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> puts before us for the exercise of private judgment is,—Who +is God's prophet, and where? Who is to be considered the voice of the +Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church?</p> + + +<h4>4.</h4> + +<p>Having carried our train of thought as far as this, it is time for us to +proceed to the thesis in which it will be found to issue, viz., that, on +the principles that have been laid down, Dissenters ought to abandon +their own communion, but that members of the English Church ought not to +abandon theirs. Such a position has often been treated as a paradox and +inconsistency; yet we hope to be able to recommend it favorably to the +reader.</p> + +<p>Now that seceders, sectarians, independent thinkers, and the like, by +whatever name they call themselves, whether "Wesleyans," "Dissenters," +"professors of the national religion," "well-wishers of the Church," or +even "Churchmen," are in grievous error, in their mode of exercising +their private judgment, is plain as soon as stated, viz., because they +do not use it in looking out for a teacher at all. They who think they +have, in consequence of their inquiries, found the teacher of truth, may +be wrong<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> in the result they have arrived at; but those who despise the +notion of a teacher altogether, are already wrong before they begin +them. They do not start with their private judgment in that one special +direction which Scripture allows or requires. Scripture speaks of a +certain pillar or ground of truth, as set up to the world, and describes +it by certain characteristics; dissenting teachers and bodies, so far +from professing to be themselves this authority, or to contain among +them this authority, assert there is no such authority to be found +anywhere. When, then, we deny that they are the Church in our meaning of +the word, they ought to take no offence at it, for we are not denying +them any thing to which they lay claim; we are but denying them what +they already put away from themselves as much as we can. They must not +act like the dog in the fable (if it be not too light a comparison), who +would neither use the manger himself, nor relinquish it to others; let +them not grudge to others a manifest Scriptural privilege which they +disown themselves. Is an ordinance of Scripture to be fulfilled nowhere, +because it is not fulfilled in them? By the Church we mean what +Scripture means, "the pillar and ground of the truth"; a power out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> of +whose mouth the Word and the Spirit are never to fail, and whom whoso +refuses to hear becomes thereupon to all his brethren a heathen man and +a publican. Let the parties in question accept the Scripture definition, +or else not resume the Scripture name; or, rather, let them seek +elsewhere what they are conscious is not among themselves. We hear much +of Bible Christians, Bible religion, Bible preaching; it would be well +if we heard a little of the Bible Church also; we venture to say that +Dissenting Churches would vanish thereupon at once, for, since it is +their fundamental principle that they are not a pillar or ground of +truth, but voluntary societies, without authority and without gifts, the +Bible Church they cannot be. If the serious persons who are in dissent +would really imitate the simple-minded Ethiopian, or the noble Bereans, +let them ask themselves: "Of whom speaketh" the Apostle, or the Prophet, +such great things?—Where is the "pillar and ground"?—Who is it that is +appointed to lead us to Christ?—Where are those teachers which were +never to be removed into a corner any more, but which were ever to be +before our eyes and in our ears? Whoever is right, or whoever is wrong, +they cannot be right who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> profess not to have found, not to look out +for, not to believe in, that Ordinance to which Apostles and Prophets +give their testimony. So much then for the Protestant side of the +thesis.</p> + +<p>One half of it then is easily disposed of; but now we come to the other +side of it, the Roman, which certainly has its intricacies. It is not +difficult to know how we should act toward a religious body which does +not even profess to come to us in the name of the Lord, or to be a +pillar and ground of the truth; but what shall we say when more than one +society, or school, or party, lay claim to be the heaven-sent teacher, +and are rivals one to the other, as are the Churches of England and Rome +at this day? How shall we discriminate between them? Which are we to +follow? Are tests given us for that purpose? Now if tests are given us, +we must use them; but if not, and so far as not, we must conclude that +Providence foresaw that the difference between them would never be so +great as to require of us to leave the one for the other.</p> + +<p>However, it is certain that much <i>is</i> said in Scripture about rival +teachers, and that at least some of these rivals are so opposed to each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> +other, that tests are given us, in order to our shunning the one party, +and accepting the other. In such cases, the one teacher is represented +to be the minister of God, and the other the child and organ of evil. +The one comes in God's name, the other professes to come simply in his +own name. Such a contrast is presented to us in the conflict between +Moses and the magicians of Egypt; all is light on the one side, all +darkness on the other. Or again, in the trial between Elijah and the +prophets of Baal. There is no doubt, in such a case, that it would be +our imperative duty at once to leave the teaching of Satan, and betake +ourselves <i>to</i> the Law and the Prophets. And it will be observed that, +to assist inquirers in doing so, the representatives of Almighty God +have been enabled, in their contests with the enemy, to work miracles, +as Moses was, for instance, and Elijah, in order to make it clear which +way the true teaching lay.</p> + +<p>But now will any one say that the contrast between the English and the +Roman, or again, the Greek, Churches, is of this nature?—is any of the +three a "<i>monstrum nullâ virtute redemptum"?</i> Moreover, the magicians +and the priests of Baal "came in their own name"; is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> that the case with +the Church, English, Roman, or Greek? Is it not certain, even at first +sight, that each of these branches has many high gifts and much grace in +her communion. And, at any rate, as regards our controversy with Rome, +if her champions would maintain that the Church of England is the false +prophet, and she the true one, then let her work miracles as Moses did +in the presence of the magicians, in order to our conviction.</p> + +<p>Probably, however, it will be admitted that the contrast between England +and Rome is not of that nature; for the English Church confessedly does +not come in her own name, nor can she reasonably be compared to the +Egyptian magicians or the prophets of Baal; is there any other type in +Scripture into which the difference between her and the Church of Rome +can be resolved? We shall be referred, perhaps, to the case of the false +prophets of Israel and Judah, who professed to come in the name of the +Lord, yet did not preach the truth, and had no part or inheritance with +God's prophets. This parallel is not happier than the former, for a test +was given to distinguish between them, which does not decide between the +Church of Rome and ourselves. This test is the divine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> accomplishment of +the prophet's message, or the divine blessing upon his teaching, or the +eventual success of his work, as it may be variously stated; a test +under which neither Church, Roman or Anglican, will fail, and neither is +eminently the foremost. Each Church has had to endure trial, each has +overcome it; each has triumphed over enemies; each has had continued +signs of the divine favor upon it. The passages in Scripture to which we +refer are such as the following: Moses, for instance, has laid it down +in the Book of Deuteronomy, that, "when a prophet speaketh in the name +of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the +thing which the Lord hath <i>not</i> spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it +presumptuously." To the same effect, in the Book of Ezekiel, the +denunciation against the false prophet is: "Lo! <i>when the wall is +fallen</i>, shall it not be said unto you, <i>where</i> is the daubing wherewith +ye have daubed it?" And Gamaliel's advice to "refrain from these men, +and let them alone, for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will +come to nought," may be taken as an illustration of the same rule of +judgment. Hence Roman Catholics themselves are accustomed to consider, +that eventual failure is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> sure destiny of heresy and schism; what +then will they say to us? The English Church has remained in its present +state three hundred years, and at the end of the time is stronger than +at the beginning. This does not look like an heretical or schismatical +Church. However, when she does fall to pieces, then, it may be admitted, +her children <i>will</i> have a reason for deserting her; till then, she has +no symptom of being akin to the false prophets who professed the Lord's +name, and deceived the simple and unlearned; she has no symptom of being +a traitor to the <i>faith</i>.</p> + +<p>However, there is a third type of rival teaching mentioned in Scripture, +under which the dissension between Rome and England may be considered to +fall, and which it may be well to notice. Let it be observed, then, that +even in the Apostles' age very grave outward differences seem to have +existed between Christian teachers—that is, the organs of the one +Church; and yet those differences were not, in consequence, any call +upon inquirers and beholders to quit one teacher and betake themselves +to another. The state of the Corinthian Christians will exemplify what +we mean: Paul, Cephas, and Apollos were all friends together,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> yet +parties were formed round each separately, which disagreed with each +other, and made the Apostles themselves seem in disagreement. Is not +this, at least in great measure, the state of the Churches of England +and Rome? Are they not one in faith, so far forth as they are viewed in +their essential apostolical character? are they not in discord, so far +as their respective children and disciples have overlaid them with +errors of their own individual minds? It was a great fault, doubtless, +that the followers of St. Paul should have divided from the followers of +St. Peter, but would it have mended matters, had any individuals among +them gone over to St. Peter? Was that the fitting remedy for the evil? +Was not the remedy that of their putting aside partisanship altogether, +and regarding St. Paul "not after the flesh," but simply as "the +minister by whom they believed," the visible representative of the +undivided Christ, the one Catholic Church? And, in like manner, surely +if party feelings and interests have separated us from the members of +the Roman communion, this does not prove that our Church itself is +divided from theirs, any more than that St. Paul was divided from St. +Peter, nor is it our duty to leave our place and join them;—nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> +would be gained by so unnecessary a step;—but our duty is, remaining +where we are, to recognize in our own Church, not an establishment, not +a party, not a mere Protestant denomination, but the Holy Church +Catholic which the traditions of men have partially obscured,—to rid it +of these traditions, to try to soften bitterness and animosity of +feeling, and to repress party spirit and promote peace as much as in us +lies. Moreover, let it be observed, that St. Paul was evidently superior +in gifts to Apollos, yet this did not justify Christians attaching +themselves to the former rather than the latter; for, as the Apostle +says, they both were but ministers of one and the same Lord, and nothing +more. Comparison, then, is not allowed us between teacher and teacher, +where each has on the whole the notes of a divine mission; so that even +could the Church of Rome be proved superior to our own (which we put +merely as an hypothesis, and for argument's sake), this would as little +warrant our attaching ourselves to it instead of our own Church, as +there was warrant for one of the converts of Apollos to call himself by +the name of Paul. Further, let it be observed, that the apostle reproves +those who attached themselves to St.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> Peter equally with the Paulines or +with the disciples of Apollos; is it possible he could have done so, +were St. Peter the head and essence of the Church in a sense in which +St. Paul was not? And, again, there was an occasion when not only their +followers were at variance, but the Apostles themselves; we refer to the +dissimulation of St. Peter at Antioch, and the resistance of St, Paul to +it: was this a reason why St. Peter's disciples should go over to St. +Paul, or rather why they should correct their dissimulation?</p> + +<p>We are surely bound to prosecute this search after the promised Teacher +of truth entirely as a practical matter, with reference to our duty and +nothing else. The simple question which we have to ask ourselves is, Has +the English Church <i>sufficiently</i> upon her the signs of an Apostle? is +she the divinely-appointed teacher to <i>us</i>? If so, we need not go +further; we have no reason to break through the divine rule of "being +content with such things as we have"; we have no warrant to compare our +own prophet with the prophet given to others. Nor can we: tests are not +given us for the purpose. We may believe that our own Church has certain +imperfections; the Church of Rome certain corrup<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>tions: such a belief +has no tendency to lead us to any determinate judgment as to which of +the two on the whole is the better, or to induce or warrant us to leave +the one communion for the other.</p> + + +<h4>5</h4> + +<p>One point remains, however, which is so often felt as a difficulty by +members of our Church that we are tempted to say a few words upon it in +conclusion, and to try to show what is the true practical mode of +meeting it. And this perhaps will give us an opportunity of expressing +our general meaning in a more definite and intelligible form.</p> + +<p>It cannot be denied, then, that a very plausible ground of attack may be +taken up against the Church of England, from the circumstance that she +is separated from the rest of Christendom; and just such a ground as it +would be allowable for private judgment to rest and act upon, supposing +its office to be what we have described it to be. "As to the particular +doctrines of Anglicanism, (it may be urged,) Scripture may, if so be, +supply private judgment with little grounds for quarrelling with them; +but what can be said to explain away the note of forfeiture, which +attaches to us in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> consequence of our isolated state? We are, in fact, +(it may be objected,) cut off from the whole of the Christian world; +nay, far from denying that excommunication, in a certain sense we glory +in it, and that under a notion, that we are so very pure that it must +soil our fingers to touch any other Church whatever upon the earth, in +north, east, or south. How is this reconcilable with St. Paul's clear +announcement that there is but one body as well as one spirit? or with +our Lord's, that 'by this shall <i>all men know</i>,' as by a note obvious to +the intelligence even of the illiterate and unreasoning, 'that ye are My +disciples, if ye have love one to another'? or again, with His prayer +that His disciples might all be one, 'that the world may know that <i>Thou +hast sent Me</i>, and hast <i>loved them</i> as Thou hast loved Me'? Visible +unity, then, would seem to be both the main evidence for Christianity, +and the sign of our own participation in its benefits; whereas we +English despise the Greeks and hate the Romans, turn our backs on the +Scotch Episcopalians, and do but smile distantly upon our American +cousins. We throw ourselves into the arms of the State, and in that +close embrace forget that the Church was meant to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> Catholic; or we +call ourselves <i>the</i> Catholics, and the mere Church of England <i>our</i> +Catholic Church; as if, forsooth, by thus confining it all to ourselves, +we did not <i>ipso facto</i> all claim to be considered Catholics at all."</p> + +<p>What increases the force of this argument is, that St. Augustine seems, +at least at first sight, virtually to urge it against us in his +controversy with the Donatists, whom he represents as condemned, simply +because separate from the "orbis terrarum," and styles the point in +question "quæstio facillima," and calls on individual Donatists to +decide it by their private judgment.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>Now this is an objection which we must honestly say is deeply felt by +many people, and not inconsiderable ones; and the more it is openly +avowed to be a difficulty the better; for then there is the chance of +its being acknowledged, and in the course of time obviated, as far as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +may be, by those who have the power. Flagrant evils cure themselves by +being flagrant; and we are sanguine that the time is come when so great +an evil as this is, cannot stand its ground against the good feeling and +common-sense of religious persons. It is the very strength of Romanism +against us; and, unless the proper persons take it into their very +serious consideration, they may look for certain to undergo the loss, as +time goes on, of some whom they would least like to be lost to our +Church. If private judgment can be exercised on any point, it is on a +matter of the senses; now our eyes and our ears are filled with the +abuse poured out by members of our Church on her sister Churches in +foreign lands. It is not that their corrupt practices are gravely and +tenderly pointed out, as may be done by men who feel themselves also to +be sinful and ignorant, and know that they have their own great +imperfections, which their brethren abroad have not,—but we are apt not +to acknowledge them as brethren at all; we treat them in an arrogant +John Bull way, as mere Frenchmen, or Spaniards, or Austrians, not as +Christians. We act as if we could do without brethren; as if our having +brethren all over the world were not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> the very tenure on which we are +Christians at all; as if we did not cease to be Christians, if at any +time we ceased to have brethren. Or again, when our thoughts turn to the +East, instead of recollecting that there are sister Churches there, we +leave it to the Russians to take care of the Greeks, and to the French +to take care of the Romans and we content ourselves with erecting a +Protestant Church at Jerusalem, or with helping the Jews to rebuild +their temple there, or with becoming the august protectors of +Nestorians, Monophysites, and all the heretics we can hear of, or with +forming a league with the Mussulman against Greeks and Romans together. +Can any one doubt that the British power is not considered a Church +power by any country whatever into which it comes? and if so, is it +possible that the English Church, which is so closely connected with +that power, can be said in any true sense to exert a Catholic influence, +or to deserve the Catholic name? How can any Church be called Catholic, +which does not act beyond its own territory? and when did the rulers of +the English Church ever move one step beyond the precincts, or without +the leave, of the imperial power?</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">"pudet hæc opprobria nobis</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli."</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p> + +<p>There is indeed no denying them; and if certain persons are annoyed at +the confession, as if we were thereby putting weapons into our enemies' +hands, let them be annoyed more by the fact, and let them alter the +fact, and, they may take our word for it, the confession will cease of +itself. The world does not feel the fact the less for its not being +confessed; it <i>is</i> felt deeply by many, and is doing incalculable +mischief to our cause, and is likely to hurt it more and more. In a +word, this isolation is doing as much as any one thing can do to +unchurch us, and it and our awakened claims to be Catholic and Apostolic +cannot long stand together. This, then, is the main difficulty which +serious people feel in accepting the English Church as the promised +prophet of truth, and we are far indeed from undervaluing it, as the +above remarks show.</p> + +<p>But now taking the objection in a simply practical view, which is the +only view in which it ought to concern or perplex any one, we consider +that it can have legitimately no effect whatever in leading us from +England to Rome. We do not say no legitimate tendency in itself to move +us, but no legitimate influence with serious men, who wish to know how +their duty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> lies. For this reason—because if the note of schism on the +one hand lies against England, an antagonist disgrace lies upon Rome, +the note of idolatry. Let us not be mistaken here: we are neither +accusing Rome of being idolatrous nor ourselves of being +schismatical,—we think neither charge tenable; but still the Roman +Church practises what looks so very like idolatry, and the English +glories in what looks so very like schism, that, without deciding what +is the duty of a Roman Catholic toward the Church of England in her +present state, we do seriously think that members of the English Church +have a providential direction given them, how to comport themselves +toward the Church of Rome, while she is what she is. We are discussing +the subject, not of decisive proofs, but of probable indications and of +presumptive notes of the divine will. Few men have time to scrutinize +accurately; all men may have general impressions, and the general +impressions of conscientious men are true ones. Providence has +graciously met their need, and provided for them those very means of +knowledge which they can use and turn to account. He has cast around the +institutions and powers existing in the world marks of truth or +false<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>hood, or, more properly, elements of attraction and repulsion, and +notices for pursuit and avoidance, sufficient to determine the course of +those who in the conduct of life desire to approve themselves to Him. +Now, whether or no what we see in the Church of Rome be sufficient to +warrant a religious person to leave her, (a question, we repeat, about +which we have no need here to concern ourselves,) we certainly think it +sufficient to deter him from joining her; and, whatever be the +perplexity and distress of his position in a communion so isolated as +the English, we do not think he would mend the matter by placing himself +in a communion so superstitious as the Roman; especially considering, +agreeably to a remark we have already made, that even if he be +schismatical at present, he is so by the act of Providence, whereas he +would be entering into superstition by his own. Thus an Anglo-Catholic +is kept at a distance from Rome, if not by our own excellences, at least +by her errors.</p> + +<p>That this is the state of the Church of Rome, is, alas! not fairly +disputable. Dr. Wiseman has lately attempted to dispute it; but if we +may judge from the present state of the controversy, facts are too clear +for him. It has lately been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> broadly put forward, as all know, that, +whatever may be said in defence of the <i>authoritative documents</i> of the +faith of Rome, this imputation lies against her <i>authorities</i>, that they +have countenanced and established doctrines and practices from which a +Christian mind, not educated in them, shrinks; and that in the number of +these a worship of the creature which to most men will seem to be a +quasi-idolatry is not the least prominent.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> Dr. Wiseman, for whom we +entertain most respectful feelings personally, and to whom we impute +nothing but what is straight-forward and candid, has written two +pamphlets on the subject, toward which we should be very sorry to deal +unfairly; but he certainly seems to us in the former of them to deny the +fact of these alleged additions in the formal profession of his Church, +and then, in the second, to turn right round and maintain them. What +account is to be given of self-contradiction such as this, but the fact, +that he would deny the additions, if he could, and defends them, because +he can't? And that dilemma is no common one; for, as if to show that +what he holds in excess of our creed is in excess also of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> primitive +usage, he has in his defence been forced upon citations from the +writings of the Fathers, the chief of which, as Mr. Palmer has shown, +are spurious; thus setting before us vividly what he looks for in +Antiquity, but what he cannot find there. However, it is not our +intention to enter into a controversy which is in Mr. Palmer's hands; +nor need we do more than refer the reader to the various melancholy +evidences, which that learned, though over-severe writer, and Dr. Pusey, +and Mr. Ward adduce, in proof of the existence of this note of dishonor +in a sister or mother, toward whom we feel so tenderly and reverently, +and whom nothing but some such urgent reason in conscience could make us +withstand so resolutely.</p> + +<p>So much has been said on this point lately as to increase our +unwillingness to insist upon a subject in itself very ungrateful; but a +reference to it is unavoidable, if we would adequately show what is the +legitimate use and duty of private judgment, in dealing with those notes +of truth and error, by which Providence recommends to us or disowns the +prophets that come in His name.</p> + +<p>What imparts an especial keenness to the grief which the teaching in +question causes in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> minds kindly disposed toward the Church of Rome, is, +that not only are we expressly told in Scripture that the Almighty will +not give His glory to another, but it is predicted as His especial grace +upon the Christian Church, "the idols He shall utterly abolish"; so +that, if Anglicans are almost unchurched by the Protestantism which has +mixed itself up with their ecclesiastical proceedings, Romanists, also, +are almost unchurched by their superstitions. Again and again in the +Prophets is this promise given: "From all your filthiness, and from all +your idols will I cleanse you"; "Neither shall they defile themselves +any more with their idols"; "Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any +more with idols?" "I will cut off the names of the idols out of the +land." And the warning in the New is as strong as the promise in the +Old: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols"; "Let no man beguile +you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels"; +and the angel's answer, to whom St. John fell down in worship, was "See +thou do it not, <i>for</i> I am thy fellow-servant; worship God."<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is then a note of the Christian Church, as decisive as any, that she +is not idolatrous; and any semblance of idolatrous worship in the Church +of Rome as plainly dissuades a man of Catholic feelings from her +communion, as the taint of a Protestant or schismatical spirit in our +communion may tempt him to depart from us. This is the Via Media which +we would maintain; and thus without judging Rome on the one hand, or +acquiescing in our own state on the other, we may use what we see, as a +providential intimation to <i>us</i>, not to quit what is bad for what may be +worse, but to learn resignation to what we inherit, nor seek to escape +into a happier state by suicide.</p> + + +<h4>6.</h4> + +<p>And in such a state of things, certain though it be that St. Austin +invites individual Donatists to the Church, on the simple ground that +the larger body must be the true one, he is not, he cannot be, a guide +of <i>our</i> conduct here. The Fathers are our teachers, but not our +confessors or casuists; they are the prophets of great truths, not the +spiritual directors of individuals. How can they possibly be such, +considering the subject-matter of conduct? Who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> shall say that a point +of practice which is right in one man, is right even in his next-door +neighbor? Do not the Fathers differ with each other in matters of +teaching and action, yet what fair persons ever imputed inconsistency to +them in consequence? St. Augustine bids us stay in persecution, yet St. +Dionysius takes to flight; St. Cyprian at one time flees, at another +time stays. One bishop adorns churches with paintings, another tears +down a pictured veil; one demolishes the heathen temples, another +consecrates them to the true God. St. Augustine at one time speaks +against the use of force in proselytizing, at another time he speaks for +it. The Church at one time comes into General Council at the summons of +the Emperor; at another time she takes the initiative. St. Cyprian +re-baptizes heretics; St. Stephen accepts their baptism. The early ages +administer, the later deny, the Holy Eucharist to children.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> Who +shall say that in such practical matters, and especially in points of +casuistry, points of the when, and the where, and the by whom,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> and the +how, words written in the fourth century are to be the rule of the +nineteenth?</p> + +<p>We have not St. Austin to consult; we cannot go to him with his works in +our hand, and ask him whether they are to be taken to the letter under +our altered circumstances. We cannot explain to him that, as far as the +appearance of things goes, there are, besides our own, at least two +Churches, one Greek, the other Roman; and that they are both marked by a +certain peculiarity which does not appear in his own times, or in his +own writings, and which much resembles what Scripture condemns as +idolatry. Nor can we remind him, that the Donatists had a note of +disqualification upon them, which of itself would be sufficient to +negative their claims to Catholicity, in that they refused the name of +Catholic to the rest of Christendom; and, moreover, in their bitter +hatred and fanatical cruelty toward the rival communion in Africa. +Moreover, St. Austin himself waives the question of the innocence or +guilt of Cæcilian, on the ground that the <i>orbis terrarum</i> could not be +expected to have accurate knowledge of the facts of the case;<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> and, +if contemporary judgments might be deceived in regard to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> merits of +the African Succession, yet, without blame, much more may it be +maintained, without any want of reverence to so great a saint, that +private letters which he wrote fourteen hundred years ago, do not take +into consideration the present circumstances of Anglo-Catholics. Are we +sure, that had he known them, they would not have led to an additional +chapter in his Retractions? And again, if ignorance would have been an +excuse, in his judgment, for the Catholic world's passing over the crime +of the Traditors, had Cæcilian and his party been such, much more, in so +nice a question as the Roman claim to the <i>orbis terrarum</i> at this day, +in opposition to England and Greece, may we fairly consider that he who +condemned the Donatists only in the case of "quæstio facillima," would +excuse us, even if mistaken, from the notorious difficulties which lie +in the way of a true judgment. Nor, moreover, would he, who so +constantly sends us to Scripture for the notes of the Church Catholic, +condemn us for shunning communions, which had been so little sensitive +of the charge made against them of idolatry. But even let us suppose +him, after full cognizance of our case, to give judgment against us; +even then we shall have the verdict<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> of St. Chrysostom, St. Basil, and +others virtually in our favor, supporters and canonizers as they were of +Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, who in St. Augustine's own day lived and +died out of the communion of Rome and Alexandria.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p>We do not think, then, that St. Austin's teaching can be taken as a +direction to us to quit our Church on account of its incidental +Protestantism, unsatisfactory as it is to have such a note lying against +us. And it is pleasant to believe, that there are symptoms at this time +of our improvement; and we only wish we could see as much hope of a +return to a healthier state in Rome, as is at present visible in our own +communion. There is among us a growing feeling, that to be a mere +Establishment is unworthy of the Catholic Church; and that to be shut +out from the rest of Christendom is not a subject of boasting. We seem +to have embraced the idea of the desirableness of being on a good +understanding with the Greek and Eastern Churches; and we are aiming at +sending out bishops to distant places, where they must come in contact +with foreign communions and though the extreme vagueness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> indecision, +and confusion, in which our theological and ecclesiastical notions at +present lie, will be almost sure to involve us in certain mistakes and +extravagances, yet it would be un-thankful to "despise the day of small +things," and not to recognize in these movements a hopeful stirring of +hearts, and a religious yearning after something better than we have. +But not to dwell unduly on these public manifestations of a Catholic +tendency, we should all recollect that a restoration of intercommunion +with other Churches is, in a certain sense, in the power of individuals. +Every one who desires unity, who prays for it, who endeavors to further +it, who witnesses for it, who behaves Christianly toward the members of +Churches alienated from us, who is at amity with them, (saving his duty +to his own communion and to the truth itself,) who tries to edify them, +while he edifies himself and his own people, may surely be considered, +as far as he himself is concerned, as breaking down the middle wall of +the division, and renewing the ancient bonds of unity and concord by the +power of charity. Charity can do all things for us; charity is at once a +spirit of zeal and peace; by charity we shall faithfully protest against +what our private<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> judgment warrants us in condemning in others; and by +charity we have it in our own hands, let all men oppose us, to restore +in our own circle the intercommunion of the Churches.</p> + +<p>There is only one quarter from which a cloud can come over us, and +darken and bewilder our course. If, <i>nefas dictu</i>, our Church is by any +formal acts rendered schismatical, while Greek and Roman idolatry +remains not of the Church, but in it merely, denounced by Councils, +though admitted by authorities of the day,—if our own communion were to +own itself Protestant, while foreign communions disclaimed the +superstition of which they are too tolerant,—if the profession of +Ancient Truth were to be persecuted in our Church, and its teachings +forbidden,—then doubtless, for a season, Catholic minds among us would +be unable to see their way.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<h2>LESLIE STEPHEN.<br />BORN 1832.</h2> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>AN APOLOGY FOR PLAINSPEAKING.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">By</span> LESLIE STEPHEN.</h3> + + +<p>All who would govern their intellectual course by no other aim than the +discovery of truth, and who would use their faculty of speech for no +other purpose than open communications of their real opinions to others, +are met by protests from various quarters. Such protests, so far as they +imply cowardice or dishonesty, must of course be disregarded, but it +would be most erroneous to confound all protests in the same summary +condemnation. Reverent and kindly minds shrink from giving an +unnecessary shock to the faith which comforts many sorely tried souls; +and even the most genuine lovers of truth may doubt whether the time has +come at which the decayed scaffolding can be swept away without injuring +the foundations of the edifice. Some reserve, they think, is necessary, +though reserve, as they must admit, passes but too easily into +insincerity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p> + +<p>And thus, it is often said by one class of thinkers, Why attack a system +of beliefs which is crumbling away quite fast enough without your help? +Why, says another class, try to shake beliefs which, whether true or +false, are infinitely consoling to the weaker brethren? I will endeavor +to conclude these essays, in which I have possibly made myself liable to +some such remonstrances, by explaining why I should think it wrong to be +bound by them; I will, however, begin by admitting frankly that I +recognize their force so far as this; namely, that I have no desire to +attack wantonly any sincere beliefs in minds unprepared for the +reception of more complete truths. This book, perhaps, would be +unjustifiable if it were likely to become a text-book for school-girls +in remote country parsonages. But it is not very probable that it will +penetrate to such quarters; nor do I flatter myself that I have brought +forward a single argument which is not already familiar to educated men. +Whatever force there may be in its pages is only the force of an appeal +to people who already agree in my conclusions to state their agreement +in plain terms; and, having said this much, I will answer the questions +suggested as distinctly as I am able.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p> + +<p>To the first question, why trouble the last moments of a dying creed, my +reply would be in brief that I do not desire to quench the lingering +vitality of the dying so much as to lay the phantoms of the dead. I +believe that one of the greatest dangers of the present day is the +general atmosphere of insincerity in such matters, which is fast +producing a scepticism not as to any or all theologies, but as to the +very existence of intellectual good faith. Destroy credit, and you ruin +commerce; destroy all faith in religious honesty and you ruin something +of infinitely more importance than commerce; ideas should surely be +preserved as carefully as cotton from the poisonous influence of a +varnish intended to fit them for public consumption. "The time is come," +says Mr. Mill in his autobiography, "in which it is the duty of all +qualified persons to speak their minds about popular religious beliefs." +The reason which he assigns is that they would thus destroy the "vulgar +prejudice" that unbelief is connected with bad qualities of head and +heart. It is, I venture to remark, still more important to destroy the +belief of sceptics themselves that in these matters a system of pious +frauds is creditable or safe. Effeminating and corrupt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>ing as all +equivocation comes to be in the long run, there are other evils behind. +Who can see without impatience the fearful waste of good purpose and +noble aspiration caused by our reticence at a time when it is of primary +importance to turn to account all the forces which make for the +elevation of mankind? How much intellect and zeal runs to waste in the +spasmodic effort of good men to cling <i>to</i> the last fragments of +decaying systems, to galvanize dead formulæ into some dim semblance of +life! Society will not improve as it might when those who should be +leaders of progress are staggering backward and forward with their eyes +passionately reverted to the past. Nay, we shall never be duly sensitive +to the miseries and cruelties which make the world a place of torture +for so many, so long as men are encouraged in the name of religion to +look for a remedy, not in fighting against surrounding evils, but in +cultivating aimless contemplations of an imaginary ideal. Much of our +popular religion seems to be expressly directed to deaden our sympathies +with our fellow-men by encouraging an indolent optimism; our thoughts of +the other world are used in many forms as an opiate to drug our minds +with indifference to the evils of this; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> the last word of half our +preachers is, dream rather than work.</p> + +<p>To the other question, Why deprive men of their religious consolations? +I must make a rather longer reply. In the first place, I must observe +that the burden of proof does not rest with me. If any one should tell +me explicitly, a certain dogma is false, but it is better not to destroy +it, I would not reply summarily that he is preaching grossly immoral +doctrine; but I would only refrain from the reply because I should think +that he does not quite mean what he says. His real intention, I should +suppose, would be to say that every dogma includes some truth, or is +inseparably associated with true statements, and that I ought to be +careful not to destroy the wheat with the tares. The presumption +remains, at any rate, that a false doctrine is so far mischievous; and +its would-be protector is bound to show that it is impossible to assail +it without striking through its sides at something beyond. If Christ is +not God, the man who denies him to be God is certainly <i>primâ facie</i> +right, though it may perhaps be possible to show that such a denial +cannot be made in practice without attacking a belief in morality. We +may, or it is possible to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> assert that we may, be under this miserable +necessity, that we cannot speak undiluted truth; truth and falsehood +are, it is perhaps maintainable, so intricately blended in the world +that discrimination is impossible. Still the man who argues thus is +bound to assign some grounds for his melancholy scepticism; and to show +further that the destruction of the figment is too dearly bought by the +assertion of the truth. Therefore, I might be content to say that, in +such cases, the innocence of the plain speaker ought to be assumed until +his guilt is demonstrated. If we had always waited to clear away shams +till we were certain that our action would produce absolutely unmixed +benefits, we should still be worshipping Mumbo-Jumbo.</p> + +<p>But, whilst claiming the advantage of this presumption, I am ready to +meet the objector on his own ground, and to indicate, simply and +inefficiently enough, the general nature of the reasons which convince +me that the objection could not be sustained. To what degree, in fact, +are these sham beliefs, which undoubtedly prevail so widely, a real +comfort to any intelligent person? Many believers have described the +terrible agony with which they had at one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> period of their lives +listened to the first whisperings of scepticism. The horror with which +they speak of the gulf after managing to struggle back to the right side +is supposed to illustrate the cruelty of encouraging others to take the +plunge. That such sufferings are at times very real and very acute, is +undeniable; and yet I imagine that few who have undergone them would +willingly have missed the experience. I venture even to think that the +recollection is one of unmixed pain only in those cases in which the +sufferer has a half-consciousness that he has not escaped by legitimate +means. If in his despair he has clutched at a lie in order to extricate +himself as quickly as possible and at any price, it is no wonder that he +looks back with a shudder. When the disease has been driven inward by +throwing in abundant doses of Paley, Butler, with perhaps an oblique +reference to preferment and respectability, it continues to give many +severe twinges, and perhaps it may permanently injure the constitution. +But, if it has been allowed to run its natural course, and the sufferer +has resolutely rejected every remedy except fair and honest argument, I +think that the recovery is generally cheering. A man looks back with +something of honest pride<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> at the obstacles through which he has forced +his way to a purer and healthier atmosphere. But, whatever the nature of +such crises generally, there is an obvious reason why, at the present +day, the process is seldom really painful. The change which takes place +is not, in fact, an abandonment of beliefs seriously held and firmly +implanted in the mind, but a gradual recognition of the truth that you +never really held them. The old husk drops off because it has long been +withered, and you discover that beneath is a sound and vigorous growth +of genuine conviction. Theologians have been assuring you that the world +would be intolerably hideous if you did not look through their +spectacles. With infinite pains you have turned away your eyes from the +external light. It is with relief, not regret, that you discover that +the sun shines, and that the world is beautiful without the help of +these optical devices which you had been taught to regard as essential.</p> + +<p>This, of course, is vehemently denied by all orthodox persons; and the +hesitation with which the heterodox impugn their assumption seems to +testify to its correctness. "After all," the believer may say, with much +appearance of truth, "you don't really believe that I can walk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> by +myself, if you are so tender of removing my crutches." The taunt is fair +enough, and should be fairly met. Cynicism and infidelity are supposed +to be inseparably connected; it is assumed that nobody can attack the +orthodox creed unless he is incapable of sympathizing with the noblest +emotions of our nature. The adversary on purely intellectual grounds +would be awed into silence by its moral beauty, unless he were deficient +in reverence, purity, and love. It must therefore be said, distinctly, +although it cannot be argued at length, that this ground also appears to +me to be utterly untenable. I deny that it is impossible to speak the +truth without implying a falsehood; and I deny equally that it is +impossible to speak the truth without drying up the sources of our +holiest feelings. Those who maintain the affirmative of those +propositions appear to me to be the worst of sceptics, and they would +certainly reduce us to the most lamentable of dilemmas. If we cannot +develop our intellects but at the price of our moral nature, the case is +truly hard. Some such conclusion is hinted by Roman Catholics, but I do +not understand how any one raised under Protestant teaching should +regard it as any thing but cowardly and false. Let me en<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>deavor in the +briefest possible compass to say why, as a matter of fact, the dilemma +seems to me to be illusory. What is it that Christian theology can now +do for us; and in what way does it differ from the teaching of free +thought?</p> + +<p>The world, so far as our vision extends, is full of evil. Life is a sore +burden to many, and a scene of unmixed happiness to none. It is useless +to inquire whether on the whole the good or the evil is the more +abundant, or to decide whether to make such an inquiry be any thing else +than to ask whether the world has been, on the whole, arranged to suit +our tastes. The problem thus presented is utterly inscrutable on every +hypothesis. Theology is as impotent in presence of it as science. +Science, indeed, withdraws at once from such questions; whilst theology +asks us to believe that this "sorry scheme of things" is the work of +omnipotence guided by infinite benevolence. This certainly makes the +matter no clearer, if it does not raise additional difficulties; and, +accordingly, we are told that the existence of evil is a mystery. In any +case, we are brought to a stand: and the only moral which either science +or theology can give is that we should make the best of our position.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p> + +<p>Theology, however, though it cannot explain, or can only give verbal +explanations, can offer a consolation. This world, we are told, is not +all; there is a beyond and a hereafter; we may hope for an eternal life +under conditions utterly inconceivable, though popular theology has made +a good many attempts to conceive them. If it were further asserted that +this existence would be one of unmixed happiness, there would be at +least a show of compensation. But, of course, that is what no theologian +can venture to say. It is needless to call the Puritan divine, with his +babes of a span long now lying in hell, or that Romanist priest who +revels in describing the most fiendish torture inflicted upon children +by the merciful Creator who made them and exposed them to evil, or any +other of the wild and hideous phantasms that have been evoked by the +imagination of mankind running riot in the world of arbitrary figments. +Nor need we dwell upon the fact, that where theology is really vigorous +it produces such nightmares by an inevitable law; inasmuch as the next +world can be nothing but the intensified reflection of this. It is +enough to say that, if the revelation of a future state be really the +great claim of Christianity upon our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> attentions, the use which it has +made of that state has been one main cause of its decay. "St. Lewis the +king, having sent Ivo, Bishop of Chartres, on an embassy, the bishop met +a woman on the way, grave, sad, fantastic, and melancholic; with fire in +one hand and water in the other. He asked what those symbols meant. She +answered, 'My purpose is with fire to burn Paradise, and with my water +to quench the flames of hell, that men may serve God without the +incentives of hope and fear, and purely for the love of God.'" "The +woman," adds Jeremy Taylor, "began at the wrong end." Is that so clear? +The attempts of priests to make use of the keys of heaven and hell +brought about the moral revolt of the Reformation; and, at the present +day, the disgust excited by the doctrine of everlasting damnation is +amongst the strongest motives to popular infidelity; all able apologists +feel the strain. Some reasoners quibble about everlasting and eternal; +and the great Catholic logician "submits the whole subject to the +theological school," a process which I do not quite understand, though I +assume it to be consolatory. The doctrine, in short, can hardly be made +tangible without shocking men's con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>sciences and understandings. It +ought, it may be, to be attractive, but when firmly grasped, it becomes +incredible and revolting.</p> + +<p>The difficulty is evaded in two ways. Some amiable and heterodox sects +retain heaven and abolish hell. A kingdom in the clouds may, of course, +be portioned off according to pleasure. The doctrine, however, is +interesting in an intellectual point of view only as illustrating in the +naïvest fashion the common fallacy of confounding our wishes with our +beliefs. The argument that because evil and good are mixed wherever we +can observe, therefore there is elsewhere unmixed good, does not obey +any recognized canons of induction. It would certainly be pleasant to +believe that everybody was going to be happy forever, but whether such a +belief would be favorable to that stern sense of evil which should fit +us to fight the hard battle of this life is a question too easily +answered. Thinkers of a high order do not have recourse to these simple +devices. They retain the doctrine as a protest against materialism, but +purposely retain it in the vaguest possible shape. They say that this +life is not all; if it were all, they argue, we should be rightly ruled +by our stomachs; but they scrupulously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> decline to give form and +substance to their anticipations. We must, they think, have avowedly a +heavenly background to the world, but our gaze should be restricted +habitually within the visible horizon. The future life is to tinge the +general atmosphere, but not to be offered as a definite goal of action +or a distinct object of contemplation.</p> + +<p>The persons against whom, so far as I know, the charge of materialism +can be brought with the greatest plausibility at the present day are +those who still force themselves to bow before the most grossly material +symbols, and give a physical interpretation to the articles of her +creed. A man who proposes to look for God in this miserable world and +finds Him visiting the diseased imagination of a sickly nun, may perhaps +be in some sense called a materialist, and there is more materialism of +this variety in popular sentimentalisms about the "blood of Jesus" than +in all the writings of the profane men of science. But in a +philosophical sense the charge rests on a pure misunderstanding.</p> + +<p>The man of science or, in other words, the man who most rigidly confines +his imagination within the bounds of the knowable, is every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> whit as +ready to protest against "materialism" as his antagonist. Those who +distinguish man into two parts, and give the higher qualities to the +soul and the sensual to the body, assume that all who reject their +distinction abolish the soul, and with it abolish all that is not +sensual. Yet every genuine scientific thinker believes in the existence +of love and reverence as he believes in any other facts, and is likely +to set just as high a value upon them as his opponent. He believes +equally with his opponent, that to cultivate the higher emotions, man +must habitually attach himself to objects outside the narrow sphere of +his own personal experience. The difference is that whereas one set of +thinkers would tell us to fix our affections on a state entirely +disparate from that in which we are actually placed, the other would +concentrate them upon objects which form part of the series of events +amongst which we are moving. Which is the more likely to stimulate our +best feelings? We must reply by asking whether the vastness or the +distinctness of a prospect has the greater effect upon the imagination. +Does a man take the greater interest in a future which he can definitely +interpret to himself, or upon one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> which is admittedly so inconceivable +that it is wrong to dwell upon it, but which allows of indefinite +expansion? Putting aside our own personal interest, do we care more for +the fate of our grandchildren whom we shall never see, or for the +condition of spiritual beings the conditions of whose existence are +utterly unintelligible to us? If sacrifice of our lower pleasures be +demanded, should we be more willing to make them in order that a coming +generation may be emancipated from war and pauperism, or in order that +some indefinite and indefinable change may be worked in a world utterly +inscrutable to our imaginations? The man who has learned to transfer his +aspirations from the next world to this, to look forward to the +diminution of disease and vice here, rather than to the annihilation of +all physical conditions, has, it is hardly rash to assert, gained more +in the distinctness of his aims than he has lost (if, indeed, he has +lost any thing) in their elevation.</p> + +<p>Were it necessary to hunt out every possible combination of opinion, I +should have to inquire whether the doctrine of another world might not +be understood in such a sense as to involve no distortion of our views. +The future<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> world may be so arranged that the effect of the two sets of +motives upon our minds may be always coincident. Our interest in our +descendants might be strengthened without being distracted by a belief +in our own future existence. Of such a theory I have now only space to +say that it is not that which really occurs in practice: and that the +instincts which make us cling to a vivid belief in the future always +spring from a vehement revolt against the present. Meanwhile, however, +the answers generally given to sceptics are apparently contradictory. To +limit our hopes to this world, it is sometimes said, is to encourage +mere grovelling materialism; in the same breath it is added that to ask +for an interest in the fate of our fellow-creatures here, instead of +ourselves hereafter, is to make excessive demands upon human +selfishness. The doctrine it seems is at once too elevated and too +grovelling.</p> + +<p>The theory on which the latter charge rests seems to be that you can +take an interest in yourself at any distance, but not in others if they +are outside the circle of your own personality. This doctrine, when +boldly expressed, seems to rest upon the very apotheosis of selfishness. +Theologians have sometimes said, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> perfect consistency, that it would +be better for the whole race of man to perish in torture than that a +single sin should be committed. One would rather have thought that a man +had better be damned a thousand times over than allow of such a +catastrophe; but, however this may be, the doctrine now suggested +appears to be equally revolting, unless diluted so far as to be +meaningless. It amounts to asserting that our love of our own +infinitesimal individuality is so powerful that any matter in which we +are personally concerned has a weight altogether incommensurable with +that of any matter in which we have no concern. People who hold such a +doctrine would be bound in consistency to say that they would not cut +off their little finger to save a million of men from torture after +their own death. Every man must judge of his own state of mind; though +there is nothing on which people are more liable to make mistakes; and I +am charitable enough to hope that the actions of such men would be in +practice as different as possible from what they anticipate in theory. +But it is enough to say that experience, if it proves any thing, proves +this to be an inaccurate view of human nature. All the threats of +theologians with infinite stores of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> time and torture to draw upon, +failed to wean men from sins which gave them a passing gratification, +even when faith was incomparably stronger than it is now, or is likely +to be again. One reason, doubtless, is that the conscience is as much +blunted by the doctrines of repentance and absolution as it is +stimulated by the threats of hell-fire. But is it not contrary to all +common-sense to expect that the motive will retain any vital strength +when the very people who rely upon it admit that it rests on the most +shadowy of grounds? The other motive, which is supposed to be so +incomparably weaker that it cannot be used as a substitute, has yet +proved its strength in every age of the world. As our knowledge of +nature and the growth of our social development impress upon us more +strongly every day that we live the close connection in which we all +stand to each other, the intimate "solidarity" of all human interests, +it is not likely to grow weaker; a young man will break a blood-vessel +for the honor of a boat-club; a savage will allow himself to be tortured +to death for the credit of his tribe; why should it be called visionary +to believe that a civilized human being will make personal sacrifices +for the benefit of men whom he has perhaps not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> seen, but whose intimate +dependence upon himself he realizes at every moment of his life? May not +such a motive generate a predominant passion with men framed to act upon +it by a truly generous system of education? And is it not an insult to +our best feelings and a most audacious feat of logic, to declare on <i>à +priori</i> grounds that such feelings must be a straw in the balance when +weighed against our own personal interest in the fate of a being whose +nature is inconceivable to us, whose existence is not certain, whose +dependence upon us is indeterminate, simply because it is said that, in +some way or other, it and we are continuous?</p> + +<p>The real meaning, however, of this clinging to another life is doubtless +very different. It is simply an expression of the reluctance of the +human being to use the awful word "never." As the years take from us, +one by one, all that we have loved, we try to avert our gaze; we are +fain to believe that in some phantom world all will be given back to us, +and that our toys have only been laid by in the nursery upstairs. Who, +indeed, can deny that to give up these dreams involves a cruel pang? +But, then, who but the most determined optimist can deny that a cruel +pang is inevitable? Is not the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> promise too shadowy to give us real +satisfaction? The whole lesson of our lives is summed up in teaching us +to say "never" without needless flinching, or, in other words, in +submitting to the inevitable. The theologian bids us repent, and waste +our lives in vain regrets for the past, and in tremulous hopes that the +past may yet be the future. Science tells us—what, indeed, we scarcely +need to learn from science—that what is gone, is gone, and that the +best wisdom of life is the acceptance of accomplished facts.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The moving Finger writes, and having writ,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Moves on; nor all your piety nor wit</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Can lure it back to cancel half a line,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Nor all your tears wipe out a word of it."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Never repent, unless by repentance you mean drawing lessons from past +experience. Beating against the bars of fate you will only wound +yourself, and mar what yet remains to you. Grief for the past is useful +so far as it can be transmuted into renewed force for the future. The +love of those we have lost may enable us to love better those who +remain, and those who are to come. So used, it is an infinitely precious +possession, and to be cherished with all our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> hearts. As it leads to +vain regrets, it is at best an enervating enjoyment, and a needless +pain. The figments of theology are a consecration of our delusive +dreams; the teaching of the new faith should be the utilization of every +emotion to the bettering of the world of the future.</p> + +<p>The ennobling element of the belief in a future life is beyond the +attack, or rather is strengthened by the aid, of science. Science, like +theology, bids us look beyond our petty personal interests, and +cultivate faculties other than the digestive. Theology aims at +stimulating the same instincts, but provides them with an object in some +shifting cloud-land of the imagination instead of the definite <i>terra +firma</i> of this tangible earth. The imagination, bound by no external +laws, may form what rules it pleases, and may therefore lend itself to a +refined selfishness, or to dreamy sentimentalism. When we rise beyond +ourselves we are most in need of some definite guidance, and in the +greatest danger of following some delusive phantom. The process +illustrated by this case is operative throughout the whole sphere of +religious thought. The essence of theology, as popularly understood, is +the division of the universe into two utterly disparate elements.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> God +is conceived as a ruler external to the ordinary series of phenomena, +but intervening at more or less frequent intervals; between the natural +and the supernatural, the human and the divine element, there can be no +proper comparison. Man must be vile that God may be exalted; reason must +be folly when put beside revelation; the force of man must be weakness +when it encounters Providence. Wherever, in short, we recognize the +Divine hand, we can but prostrate ourselves in humble adoration. In +franker times, when people meant what they said, this creed was followed +to its logical results. The dogmas of the literal inspiration of the +Scripture, or of the infallibility of the Church, recognized the +presence of a flawless perfection in the midst of utter weakness. The +corruption of human nature, the irresistible power of Divine grace, the +magical efficacy of the Sacraments are corollaries from the same theory. +In the phraseology popular with a modern school we are told that the +essence of Christianity is the belief in the fatherhood of God. That +doctrine is intelligible and may be beautiful so long as we retain a +sufficient degree of anthropomorphism. But as our conceptions of the +universe and, therefore, of its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> Ruler are elevated, we too often feel +that the use of the word "father" does not prevent the weight of His +hand from crushing us. If noble souls can convert even suffering into +useful discipline, it is but a flimsy optimism which covers all +suffering by the name of paternal chastisement. The universe partitioned +between infinite power and infinite weakness becomes a hopeless chaos; +and when we proceed farther, and try to identify the Divine and the +human elements amidst this intricate blending of good and evil we are in +danger of vital error at every step. What, in fact, can be more +disastrous, and yet more inevitable, than to mistake our corrupt +instincts for the voice of God, or, on the other hand, to condemn the +Divine intimations as sinful? How can we avoid at every instant +committing the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the ineffable +Holiness? And if, indeed, the distinction be groundless, are we not of +necessity dislocating our conceptions of the universe, and hopelessly +perplexing our sense of duty?</p> + +<p>Take, for instance, one common topic which is typical of the general +process. Divines never tire of holding up to us the example of Christ. +If Christ were indeed a man like ourselves, his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> example may be fairly +quoted. We willingly place him in the very front rank of the heroes who +have died for the good of our race. But if Christ were in any true sense +God or inseparably united to God, the example disappears. We honor him +because he endured agonies and triumphed over doubts and weaknesses that +would have paralyzed a less noble soul. The agonies and the doubts and +the weakness are unintelligible on the hypothesis of an incarnate God. +Theologians escape by the old loophole of mystery, ordinary believers by +thinking of Christ as man and God alternately. We can doubtless deceive +ourselves by such juggling, but we cannot honestly escape from the +inevitable dilemma. In paying a blasphemous reverence to Christ, +theologians have either placed him beyond the reach of our sympathies, +or have lowered God to the standard of humanity. Let us, if possible, +dwell with an emotion of brotherly love on the sufferings of every +martyr in the cause of humanity, but you sever the very root of our +sympathy when you single out one as divine and raise him to the skies. +Why stand we gazing into heaven when we have but to look round to catch +the contagion of noble enthusiasm from men of our own race? The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> ideal +becomes meaningless when it is made supernatural.</p> + +<p>The same perplexity meets us at every step; we are to follow Christ's +example. Be humble, it is said, as Christ was humble. Theology indeed +would prescribe annihilation rather than humiliation. Man in presence of +the Infinite is absolutely nothing. Science, according to a glib +commonplace of popular writers, agrees with theology in prescribing +humility. But that very ambiguous word has a totally different meaning +in the two cases. Science bids us recognize the inevitable limitation of +our powers, and the feebleness of any individual as compared with the +mass. We can do but little: and at every step we are dependent upon the +co-operation of countless millions of our race and an indefinite series +of past generations. We are like the coral insects, who can add but a +hair's breadth to the structure which has been raised by their +predecessors. Yet the little which we can do is something; and we will +neither degrade ourselves nor our race. As measured by an absolute +standard, man may be infinitesimal, but the absolute is beyond our +powers. Science tells us that our little individuality might be swept +out of existence without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> appreciable injury to the world; but it adds +that the world is built up of infinitesimal atoms, and that each must +co-operate in the general result. Theology crushes us into nothingness +by placing us in the presence of the infinite God; and then compensates +by making us divine ourselves. Man is a mere worm, but he can by +priestly magic bring God to earth; he is hopelessly ignorant, but set on +a throne and properly manipulated he becomes an infallible vice-God; he +is a helpless creature, and yet this creature can define with more than +scientific accuracy the precise nature of his inconceivable Creator; he +grovels on the ground as a miserable sinner and stands up to declare +that he is the channel of Divine inspiration; all his wisdom is +ignorance, but he has written one book of which every line is absolutely +perfect: and meanwhile that which one man singles out as the Divine +element is to another the diabolical, so strangely dim is our vision, +and so imperceptible is the difference between the Infinite and the +infinitesimal.</p> + +<p>Or, again, we are to deny ourselves as Christ denied himself. But what +are the limits and the purpose of this self-denial? Am I to carry on an +indefinite warfare against the body, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> you say that God has given +me, and to crush the physical for the sake of the spiritual element? +What is the line between the spirit which is of God, and the body which +is hopelessly corrupt? All sound reasoning prescribes a training with +the given purpose of bringing the instincts of the individual into +harmony with the interests of the whole social organism. Theology trying +to lay down an absolute law sometimes encourages the extremes of +asceticism, sometimes it inclines to antinomianism; and sometimes +sanctions the condonation of sin in consideration of acts of +humiliation.</p> + +<p>We are to resign ourselves to God's will, say theologians, but what is +God's will? If it is the inevitable, then theology falls in with free +reason. But if God's will be, as theologians maintain, something which +we are at liberty to resist or to obey, then resignation implies our +ignoble yielding to evils which might be extirpated. Theology deifies +the force of circumstances, when our life should be a victory over +circumstances, and encourages us to repine over misfortunes, where all +repining is useless.</p> + +<p>Christ, you say, died for us; and Butler, in the book which still +receives more praise than any other attempt at reconciling philosophy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> +and theology, tries to show that here, at least, the two doctrines are +in harmony. He has probably produced, in men of powerful intellects, +more atheism than he has cured; for he tries to demonstrate explicitly +what is tacitly assumed by most theologians—the injustice of God. The +doctrine may be horrible, but he says that facts prove it to be true. +His whole logic consists in simply begging the question by calling +suffering punishment. That the potter should be angry with his pots is +certainly inconceivable; but when you once attempt to trace the +supernatural in life, it undoubtedly follows that God is not only weak +with the creatures he has made, but punishes the innocent for the +guilty. Theologians may rest complacently in such a conclusion; to +unprejudiced persons, it appears to be the clearest illustration of the +futility of their theories. Free thought declines to call suffering a +punishment; but it admits and turns to account the undoubted fact, that +men are so closely connected, that every injury inflicted upon one is +inevitably propagated to others. If morality be the science of +minimizing human misery, to say that sin brings suffering, is merely to +express an identical proposition. The lesson, however, remains for us +that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> we should look beyond our petty, personal interests, because no +act can be merely personal. The stone which we throw spreads widening +circles to all eternity, and to realize that fact is to intensify the +sense of responsibility; but the same doctrine translated into the +theological dialect becomes shocking or "mysterious."</p> + +<p>Finally, we are to love our brothers as Christ loved us. That, truly, is +an excellent doctrine, but translated into the theological, does it not +lose half its efficacy? Love them that are of the household is the more +natural corollary from the Christian tenets than love all mankind. +People sometimes express surprise that the mild doctrines of +Christianity should be pressed into the service of persecution. What +more natural? "We love you," says the theologian to the heathen, "but +still you are children of the devil. We love men, but the human heart is +desperately wicked. We love your souls, but we hate your bodies. We love +you as brothers; but then God, who so loved the world as to give His Son +to die for it, has left the vast majority to follow their own road to +perdition, and given to us a monopoly of truth and grace. We can only +follow His example, and adore the mysterious dispensations of +Providence."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ah!" replies a different school, "that is indeed a blasphemous and +hideous doctrine. We will not presume to divide the human from the +divine. God is the father of all men; His grace is confined to no sect +or creed. His revelation is made to the universal human heart as well as +to a select number of prophets and apostles. He is known in the order of +nature as well as by miracles. The body has been created by Him as well +as the soul, and all instincts are of heavenly origin and require +cultivation not extirpation."</p> + +<p>Whether this doctrine is reconcilable with Christianity is a question +not to be discussed here. It certainly does not imply those flat +contradictions of the lessons of experience which emerge from the other +method of thought. It asks us to believe no miracles. It involves no +supernaturalism. Whatever is, is natural, and is at the same time +divine. Stated, indeed, as a bare logical formula, the doctrine seems to +elude our grasp. It is intelligible to say that Christ was divine and +Mahomet human, for the statement implies a comparison between two +different terms; but if you say that Christ and Mahomet are both of the +same class, what does it matter whether you call them both di<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>vine or +both human? Every logical statement implies an exclusion as well as +inclusion. To say that A is B is meaningless if you add that every other +conceivable letter is also B. You attempt to make everybody rich by +reckoning their property in pence instead of pounds, and the process, +though at first sight attractive, is unsatisfactory. In fact, this phase +of opinion generally slips back into the preceding. We find that +exceptions are insensibly made, and that after pronouncing nature to be +divine, it is tacitly assumed there is an indefinite region which is +somehow outside nature. Few people have the reasoning tendency +sufficiently developed to follow out this view to its logical result in +Pantheism. Yet short of that, there is no really stable resting-place.</p> + +<p>Let us glance, however, for a moment at the ordinary application of the +doctrine. The theologian agrees with the man of science in admitting +that we are governed by unalterable laws, or, as the man of science +prefers to say, that the world shows nothing but a series of invariable +sequences and co-existences. The difference is, in other words, that the +theologian puts a legislator behind the laws, whilst the man of science +sees nothing behind them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> but impenetrable mystery. The difference, so +far as any practical conclusions are concerned, is obviously nothing. +The laws of Nature, you tell us, are the work of infinite goodness and +wisdom. But we are utterly unable to say what infinite goodness and +wisdom would do, except by showing what it has done. Therefore, the +ultimate appeal of the theologian, is as unequivocally to the laws as +the primary appeal of the man of science. He has made a show of going to +a higher court only to be referred back again to the original tribunal. +History, for example, shows that mankind blunders by degrees into an +improved condition and calls the process progress. Theology can give no +additional guaranty for progress, for a state of things once compatible +may, for any thing we can say, always remain compatible with infinite +wisdom and goodness. As a matter of historical fact, theology only +suggested the dogma of man's utter vileness, and all genuine theologians +are marked by their readiness to believe in deterioration instead of +progress. They look forward to a future world instead of this. But what +reason have they to believe in this future of blessedness? God's love +for His creatures? But the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> most prominent fact written on the whole +surface of the world is what we cannot help calling the reckless and +profuse waste of life. If every thing we see teaches us that millions of +individuals are crushed at every step by the progress of the race, and +if that process is, as it must be, compatible with infinite goodness, +why suppose that infinite goodness will act differently in future? It is +an ever-recurring but utterly fruitless sophistry which first infers God +from nature, and then pronounces God to be different from nature.</p> + +<p>The only meaning, indeed, which can be given to the theological +statement when thus interpreted is that we should accustom ourselves to +look with reverence and love upon the universe. That love and reverence +are emotions which deserve our most strenuous efforts at cultivation; +that we should be profoundly impressed by the vast system of which we +form an infinitesimal part; that we should habitually think of ourselves +in relation to the long perspective of events which stretches far away +from us to the dim distance and toward the invisible future, are indeed +lessons which all sound reasoning tends to confirm. But when we are +invited to love and wonder at the world,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> as the work of God, we must +guard against the old trick of substitution which is constantly played +upon us. Once more, the God of nature is turned into the God of a part +of nature. Theology of the old stamp, so far from encouraging us to love +nature, teaches us that it is under a curse. It teaches us to look upon +the animal creation with shuddering disgust; upon the whole race of man, +outside our narrow sect, as delivered over to the devil; and upon the +laws of nature at large as a temporary mechanism, in which we have been +caught, but from which we are to anticipate a joyful deliverance. It is +science, not theology, which has changed all this; it is the atheists, +infidels, and rationalists, as they are kindly called, who have taught +us to take fresh interest in our poor fellow denizens of the world, and +not to despise them because Almighty benevolence could not be expected +to admit them to heaven; to the same teaching we owe the recognition of +the noble aspirations embodied in every form of religion, and the +destruction of the ancient monopoly of Divine influences; and it is +science again that has taught us to accommodate ourselves to the laws in +which we are placed, instead of fruitlessly struggling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> against them and +invoking miraculous interference to conquer them. The theology of which +I am now speaking differs, indeed, radically from the old, so radically +that one is at times surprised that the agreement, to use a common word, +should reconcile vital differences in faith. But it often tends to the +same end by a different path. It attempts to deny the existence of +evils, instead of proclaiming their ultimate destruction. Every thing +comes from a paternal hand; why struggle against it? Disease and +starvation and nakedness are, somehow or other, parts of a divine system +which is somehow or other deserving of our sincerest adoration. If +anybody who is in fact naked or sick or starving takes that phrase in +the sense that he had better submit cheerfully to evils which he cannot +help, there is little to be said against it. If the doctrine of the +Divine origin of all things is compatible with the belief that a vast +number of things are utterly hateful, that we ought to spend our whole +energy in eradicating them, and to protest against them with our latest +breath, then the doctrine is certainly innocuous. But whether there is +much use in language thus employed seems a little questionable; and, in +any case, it is clear that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> really adds nothing, except words, to the +teaching of science.</p> + +<p>Here again people cling passionately to the old formulæ because they +appear to sanction a soothing optimism. We cannot be happy, it is said, +unless we believe that our wishes will be fulfilled; and we endeavor to +convert our wishes into a guaranty for their own fulfilment. If we +cannot make up our minds to say "never," neither can we resolve to admit +that there is really evil. We passionately assert that the past will +come back and that pain will turn out to be an illusion. The argument +against the infidel comes essentially to this; you tell me that my hopes +will not be realized, and therefore you make me necessarily and +needlessly miserable. For God's sake, do not disperse my dreams. People +are not satisfied with the answer that the nightmare has gone as well as +the vision of bliss, and that fears are destroyed as much as hopes; +because, as a matter of fact, they can contrive to dwell upon that part +of the doctrine which is comfortable for the moment. We have power over +our dreams though we conceal its exercise from ourselves. But the +argument itself involves the fundamental fallacy. To destroy a +groundless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> hope is not to destroy a man's happiness. The instantaneous +effort may be painful: but it is the price which we have to pay for a +cure of deep-seated complaints. The infidel's reply is substantially +this: I may destroy your hopes; but I do not destroy your power of +hoping. I bid you no longer fix your mind on a chimera but on tangible +and realizable prospects. I warn you that efforts to soar above the +atmosphere can only lead to disappointment, and that time spent in +squaring the circle is simply time spent. Apply your strength and your +intellect on matters which lie at hand and on problems which admit of a +solution. The happiest man is not the man who has the grandest dreams, +but the man whose aspirations are best fitted to guide his talents: the +most efficient worker is not the one who mistakes his own fancies for an +external support, but he who has most accurately gauged the conditions +under which he is laboring. Trust in Providence may lead you to pass +successfully through dangers which would have repelled an unbeliever, or +it may lead you to break your neck in pursuing a dream. It makes heroes +and cowards, patriots and assassins, saints and bigots who each mistake +their wisdom or their folly for divine inti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>mations. Providence for us +can only be that aggregate of external forces to which willingly or +unwillingly we must adapt ourselves. We should calmly calculate by all +available means the conditions of our life, and then dare, without +ignoring, the dangers that are inevitable. Through all human affairs +there runs an element of uncertainty which cannot be suppressed, and we +seek in vain to disguise it under names consecrated by old associations; +there are evils which are only made more poignant by our efforts to +explain them away; and to each of us will very speedily come an end of +his labors in the world. We can best fortify ourselves by recognizing +and submitting to the inevitable and by anchoring our minds on the +firmest holding ground. Science will tell us that by working with the +great forces that move the world, we may contribute some fragment to an +edifice which will not be broken down; that to think for others instead +of limiting our hopes to our petty interests is the best remedy for +unavailing regret. We can take our part in the long warfare of man +against the world, which is nothing else but the gradual accommodation +of the race to the conditions of its dwelling-place. By so disciplining +our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> thoughts that we may fight eagerly and hopefully, we have the best +security for happiness, and not in encouraging an idle dwelling upon +visions which can never be verified, and which are apt to become most +ghastly when we most wish for consolation.</p> + +<p>To the question, then, from which I started, it seems that an +unequivocal reply can be given. Why help to destroy the old faith from +which people derive, or believe themselves to derive, so much spiritual +solace? The answer is, that the loss is overbalanced by the gain. We +lose nothing that ought to be really comforting in the ancient creeds; +we are relieved from much that is burdensome to the imagination and to +the intellect. Those creeds were indeed in great part the work of the +best and ablest of our forefathers; they therefore provide some +expression for the highest emotions of which our nature is capable; but, +to say nothing of the lower elements which have intruded, of the +concessions made to bad passions, and to the wants of a ruder form of +society, they are at best the approximations to the truth of men who +entertained a radically erroneous conception of the universe. +Astronomers who went on the Ptolemaic theory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> managed to provide a very +fair description of the actual phenomena of the heavens; but the solid +result of their labors was not lost when the Copernican system took its +place; and incalculable advantages followed from casting aside the old +cumbrous machinery of cycles and epicycles in favor of the simpler +conceptions of the new doctrine. A similar change follows when man is +placed at the centre of the religious and moral system. We still retain +the faiths at which theologians arrived by a complex machinery of +arbitrary contrivances destined to compensate one set of dogmas by +another. The justice of God the Father is tempered by the mercy of God +the Son, as the planet wheeled too far forward by the cycle is brought +back to its place by the epicycle. When we strike out the elaborate +arrangements, the truths which they aim at expressing are capable of far +simpler statements; infinite error and distortion disappear, and the +road is open for conceptions impossible under the old circuitous and +erroneous methods.</p> + +<p>We have arrived at the point from which we can detect the source of +ancient errors, and extract the gold from the dross. One thing, indeed, +remains for the present impossible.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> The old creed, elaborated by many +generations, and consecrated to our imaginations by a vast wealth of +associations, is adapted in a thousand ways to the wants of its +believers. The new creed—whatever may be its ultimate form—has not +been thus formulated and hallowed to our minds. We, whose fetters are +just broken, cannot tell what the world will look like to men brought up +in the full blaze of day, and accustomed from infancy to the free use of +their limbs. For centuries all ennobling passions have been +industriously associated with the hope of personal immortality, and base +passions with its rejection. We cannot fully realize the state of men +brought up to look for a reward of heroic sacrifice in the consciousness +of good work achieved in this world instead of in the hope of posthumous +repayment. Nor again, have we, if we shall ever have, any system capable +of replacing the old forms of worship by which the imagination was +stimulated and disciplined. That such reflections should make many men +pause before they reveal the open secret is intelligible enough. But +what is the true moral to be derived from them? Surely that we should +take courage and speak the truth. We should take courage, for even now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> +the new faith offers to us a more cheering and elevating prospect than +the old. When it shall have become familiar to men's minds, have worked +itself into the substance of our convictions, and provided new channels +for the utterance of our emotions, we may anticipate incomparably higher +results. We are only laying the foundations of the temple, and know not +what will be the glories of the completed edifice. Yet already the +prospect is beginning to clear. The sophistries which entangle us are +transparent. That faith is not the noblest which enables us to believe +the greatest number of articles on the least evidence; nor is that +doctrine really the most productive of happiness which encourages us to +cherish the greatest number of groundless hopes. The system which is +really most calculated to make men happy is that which forces them to +live in a bracing atmosphere; which fits them to look facts in the face +and to suppress vain repinings by strenuous action instead of luxurious +dreaming.</p> + +<p>And hence, too, the time is come for speaking plainly. If you would wait +to speak the truth until you can replace the old decaying formula by a +completely elaborated system,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> you must wait for ever; for the system +can never be elaborated until its leading principles have been boldly +enunciated. Reconstruct, it is said, before you destroy. But you must +destroy in order to reconstruct. The old husk of dead faith is pushed +off by the growth of living beliefs below. But how can they grow unless +they find distinct utterance? and how can they be distinctly uttered +without condemning the doctrines which they are to replace? The truth +cannot be asserted without denouncing the falsehood. Pleasant as the +process might be of announcing the truth and leaving the falsehood to +decay of itself, it cannot be carried into practice. Men's minds must be +called back from the present of phantoms and encouraged to follow the +only path which tends to enduring results. We cannot afford to make the +tacit concession that our opinions, though true, are depressing and +debasing. No; they are encouraging and elevating. If the medicine is +bitter to the taste, it is good for the digestion. Here and there, a +bold avowal of the truth will disperse a pleasing dream, as here and +there it will relieve us of an oppressing nightmare. But it is not by +striking balances between these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> pains and pleasures that the total +effect of the creed is to be measured; but by the permanent influence on +the mind of seeing things in their true light and dispersing the old +halo of erroneous imagination. To inculcate reticence at the present +moment is simply to advise us to give one more chance to the development +of some new form of superstition. If the faith of the future is to be a +faith which can satisfy the most cultivated as well as the feeblest +intellects, it must be founded on an unflinching respect for realities. +If its partisans are to win a definitive victory, they must cease to +show quarter to lies. The problem is stated plainly enough to leave no +room for hesitation. We can distinguish the truth from falsehood, and +see where confusion has been reproduced, and truth pressed into the +service of falsehood. Nothing more is wanted but to go forward boldly, +and reject once for all the weary compromises and elaborate adaptations +which have become a mere vexation to all honest men. The goal is clearly +in sight, though it may be distant; and we decline any longer to travel +in disguise by circuitous paths, or to apologize for being in the right. +Let us think freely and speak<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> plainly, and we shall have the highest +satisfaction that man can enjoy—the consciousness that we have done +what little lies in ourselves to do for the maintenance of the truths on +which the moral improvement and the happiness of our race depend.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>FOOTNOTES</h2> + +<div class="footnotes"> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> It is objected that geology is a science: yet that geology +cannot foretell the future changes of the earth's surface. Geology is +not a century old, and its periods are measured by millions of years. +Yet, if geology cannot foretell future facts, it enabled Sir Roderick +Murchison to foretell the discovery of Australian gold.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> February, 1864.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> I am here applying to this particular purpose a line of +thought which both myself and others have often applied to other +purposes. See, above all, Sir Henry Maine's lecture on "Kinship as the +Basis of Society" in the lectures on the "Early History of +Institutions"; I would refer also to my own lecture on "The State" in +"Comparative Politics."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> While the Swiss Confederation recognizes German, French, +and Italian as all alike national languages, the independent Romance +language, which is still used in some parts of the Canton of Graubünden, +that which is known specially as <i>Romansch</i>, is not recognized. It is +left in the same position in which Welsh and Gaelic are left in Great +Britain, in which Basque, Breton, Provençal, Walloon, and Flemish are +left within the borders of that French kingdom which has grown so as to +take them all in.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> On Rouman history I have followed Roesler's <i>Romänische +Studien</i> and Jirecek's <i>Geschichte der Bulgaren</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> It should be remembered that, as the year 1879 saw the +beginning of the liberated Bulgarian state, the year 679 saw the +beginning of the first Bulgarian kingdom south of the Danube.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Published in the <i>North American Review</i> for September, +1878. Republished by permission.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> This topic was much more largely handled by me in the +Financial Statement which I delivered, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, +on May 2, 1866. I recommend attention to the excellent article by Mr. +Henderson, in the <i>Contemporary Review</i> for October, 1878: and I agree +with the author in being disposed to think that the protective laws of +America effectually bar the full development of her competing power.—W. +E. G., Nov. 6, 1878.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See Hor., Od. I., 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> This subject has been more fully developed by me in an +article on "England's Mission," contributed to <i>The Nineteenth Century</i> +for September of the present year.—W. E. G., December, 1878.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> This is a proposition of great importance in a disputed +subject-matter; and consequently I have not announced it in a dogmatic +manner, but as a portion of what we "seem to perceive" in the progress +of the American Constitution. It expresses an opinion formed by me upon +an examination of the original documents, and with some attention to the +history, which I have always considered, and have often recommended to +others, as one of the most fruitful studies of modern politics. This is +not the proper occasion to develop its grounds: but I may say that I am +not at all disposed to surrender it in deference to one or two rather +contemptuous critics.—W. E. G., December, 1878.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Gray's "Bard."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Quarterly Review</i>, April, 1878, Art. I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Hor. Od., I, xii, 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Henriade, I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Vol. v, pp. 94, 95. Ed. London, 1877.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Heber's "Palestine." The word "stately" was in later +editions altered by the author to "noiseless."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> [In reply to the intended work of Mr. Adams on the +Constitution of the United States, Mr. Livingstone, under the title of a +Colonist of New Jersey, published an Examination of the British +Constitution, and compared it unfavorably as it had been exhibited by +Adams, and by Delolme, with the institutions of his own country. In this +work, of which I have a French translation (London and Paris, 1789), +there is not the smallest inkling of the action of our political +mechanism, such as I have endeavored to describe it. On this subject I +need hardly refer the reader to the valuable work of Mr. Bagehot, +entitled "The English Constitution," or to the Constitutional History of +Sir T. Erskine May.—W. E. G., December, 1878.]</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Ego cùm audio quenquam bono ingenio præditum, doctrinisque +liberalibus eruditum, quamquam non ibi salus animæ constituta sit, tamen +in <i>quæstione facillima</i> sentire aliud quàm veritas postulat, quo magis +miror, eò magis exardesco nosse hominem et cum eo colloqui; vel si id +non possim, saltem litteris quæ longissimè volant [to the nineteenth +century?] attingere mentem ejus atque ab eo vicissim attingi desidero. +Sicut te esse audio talem virum, et ab Ecclesiâ Catholicâ, quæ sicut +Sancto Spiritu pronunciata est, toto orbe diffunditur, discerptum doleo +atque seclusum.—Ep. 87. <i>vid.</i> ep. 61.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> This is an exaggeration; I have reconsidered the whole +subject in my essay on "Development of Doctrine," in 1845; and in my +letter to Dr. Pusey in 1866.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> This passage proves, on the one hand, that such worship as +St. John offered is wrong; on the other, that it does not unchurch, +unless we can fancy St. John guilty of mortal sin.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> All these are merely points of discipline or conduct; but +whether there is a visible Church, and whether it is visibly one, is a +question which as it is answered affirmatively or negatively changes the +essential idea and the entire structure of Christianity.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Epp. 93, 144.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> As has been said above, this statement is too absolute; at +least, Athanasius was reconciled to Meletius.</p></div></div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Prose Masterpieces from Modern +Essayists, by James Anthony Froude, Edward A. 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Freeman, William Ewart Gladstone, John Henry Newman and Leslie Stephen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Prose Masterpieces from Modern Essayists + +Author: James Anthony Froude, Edward A. Freeman, William Ewart Gladstone, John Henry Newman and Leslie Stephen + +Release Date: July 10, 2006 [EBook #18804] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROSE MASTERPIECES *** + + + + +Produced by Stephen Hope, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + PROSE MASTERPIECES + + FROM + + MODERN ESSAYISTS + + + FROUDE, FREEMAN, GLADSTONE, NEWMAN, LESLIE STEPHEN + + NEW YORK & LONDON + G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS + The Knickerbocker Press + 1891 + + The Knickerbocker Press + Electrotyped and Printed by + G. P. Putnam's Sons + + + + + CONTENTS. PAGE + + THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY. By James Anthony Froude 3 + + RACE AND LANGUAGE. By Edward A. Freeman 55 + + KIN BEYOND SEA. By William Ewart Gladstone 151 + + PRIVATE JUDGMENT. By John Henry Newman 221 + + AN APOLOGY FOR PLAINSPEAKING. By Leslie Stephen 281 + + + + +[Illustration] + +JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE. + +BORN 1818. + + + + +THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY. + +A LECTURE DELIVERED BY JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION +FEBRUARY 5, 1864. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,--I have undertaken to speak to you this +evening on what is called the Science of History. I fear it is a dry +subject; and there seems, indeed, something incongruous in the very +connection of such words as Science and History. It is as if we were to +talk of the color of sound, or the longitude of the Rule-of-three. Where +it is so difficult to make out the truth on the commonest disputed fact +in matters passing under our very eyes, how can we talk of a science in +things long past, which come to us only through books? It often seems to +me as if History was like a child's box of letters, with which we can +spell any word we please. We have only to pick out such letters as we +want, arrange them as we like, and say nothing about those which do not +suit our purpose. + +I will try to make the thing intelligible, and I will try not to weary +you; but I am doubtful of my success either way. First, however, I wish +to say a word or two about the eminent person whose name is connected +with this way of looking at History, and whose premature death struck us +all with such a sudden sorrow. Many of you, perhaps, recollect Mr. +Buckle as he stood not so long ago in this place. He spoke more than an +hour without a note,--never repeating himself, never wasting words; +laying out his matter as easily and as pleasantly as if he had been +talking to us at his own fireside. We might think what we pleased of Mr. +Buckle's views, but it was plain enough that he was a man of uncommon +power; and he had qualities also--qualities to which he, perhaps, +himself attached little value--as rare as they were admirable. + +Most of us, when we have hit on something which we are pleased to think +important and original, feel as if we should burst with it. We come out +into the book-market with our wares in hand, and ask for thanks and +recognition. Mr. Buckle, at an early age, conceived the thought which +made him famous, but he took the measure of his abilities. He knew that +whenever he pleased he could command personal distinction, but he cared +more for his subject than for himself. He was contented to work with +patient reticence, unknown and unheard of, for twenty years; and then, +at middle life, he produced a work which was translated at once into +French and German, and, of all places in the world, fluttered the +dovecots of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg. + +Goethe says somewhere, that as soon as a man has done any thing +remarkable, there seems to be a general conspiracy to prevent him from +doing it again. He is feasted, feted, caressed; his time is stolen from +him by breakfasts, dinners, societies, idle businesses of a thousand +kinds. Mr. Buckle had his share of all this; but there are also more +dangerous enemies that wait upon success like his. He had scarcely won +for himself the place which he deserved, than his health was found +shattered by his labors. He had but time to show us how large a man he +was, time just to sketch the outlines of his philosophy, and he passed +away as suddenly as he appeared. He went abroad to recover strength for +his work, but his work was done with and over. He died of a fever at +Damascus, vexed only that he was compelled to leave it uncompleted. +Almost his last conscious words were: "My book, my book! I shall never +finish my book!" He went away as he had lived, nobly careless of +himself, and thinking only of the thing which he had undertaken to do. + +But his labor had not been thrown away. Disagree with him as we might, +the effect which he had already produced was unmistakable, and it is not +likely to pass away. What he said was not essentially new. Some such +interpretation of human things is as early as the beginning of thought. +But Mr. Buckle, on the one hand, had the art which belongs to men of +genius: he could present his opinions with peculiar distinctness; and, +on the other hand, there is much in the mode of speculation at present +current among us for which those opinions have an unusual fascination. +They do not please us, but they excite and irritate us. We are angry +with them; and we betray, in being so, an uneasy misgiving that there +may be more truth in those opinions than we like to allow. + +Mr. Buckle's general theory was something of this kind: When human +creatures began first to look about them in the world they lived in, +there seemed to be no order in any thing. Days and nights were not the +same length. The air was sometimes hot and sometimes cold. Some of the +stars rose and set like the sun; some were almost motionless in the sky; +some described circles round a central star above the north horizon. The +planets went on principles of their own; and in the elements there +seemed nothing but caprice. Sun and moon would at times go out in +eclipse. Sometimes the earth itself would shake under men's feet; and +they could only suppose that earth and air and sky and water were +inhabited and managed by creatures as wayward as themselves. + +Time went on, and the disorder began to arrange itself. Certain +influences seemed beneficent to men, others malignant and destructive; +and the world was supposed to be animated by good spirits and evil +spirits, who were continually fighting against each other, in outward +nature and in human creatures themselves. Finally, as men observed more +and imagined less, these interpretations gave way also. Phenomena the +most opposite in effect were seen to be the result of the same natural +law. The fire did not burn the house down if the owners of it were +careful, but remained on the hearth and boiled the pot; nor did it seem +more inclined to burn a bad man's house down than a good man's, provided +the badness did not take the form of negligence. The phenomena of nature +were found for the most part to proceed in an orderly, regular way, and +their variations to be such as could be counted upon. From observing the +order of things, the step was easy to cause and effect. An eclipse, +instead of being a sign of the anger of Heaven, was found to be the +necessary and innocent result of the relative position of sun, moon, and +earth. The comets became bodies in space, unrelated to the beings who +had imagined that all creation was watching them and their doings. By +degrees caprice, volition, all symptoms of arbitrary action, disappeared +out of the universe; and almost every phenomenon in earth or heaven was +found attributable to some law, either understood or perceived to exist. +Thus nature was reclaimed from the imagination. The first fantastic +conception of things gave way before the moral; the moral in turn gave +way before the natural; and at last there was left but one small tract +of jungle where the theory of law had failed to penetrate,--the doings +and characters of human creatures themselves. + +There, and only there, amidst the conflicts of reason and emotion, +conscience and desire, spiritual forces were still conceived to exist. +Cause and effect were not traceable when there was a free volition to +disturb the connection. In all other things, from a given set of +conditions the consequences necessarily followed. With man, the word +"law" changed its meaning; and instead of a fixed order, which he could +not choose but follow, it became a moral precept, which he might disobey +if he dared. + +This it was which Mr. Buckle disbelieved. The economy which prevailed +throughout nature, he thought it very unlikely should admit of this +exception. He considered that human beings acted necessarily from the +impulse of outward circumstances upon their mental and bodily condition +at any given moment. Every man, he said, acted from a motive; and his +conduct was determined by the motive which affected him most powerfully. +Every man naturally desires what he supposes to be good for him; but, to +do well, he must know well. He will eat poison, so long as he does not +know that it is poison. Let him see that it will kill him, and he will +not touch it. The question was not of moral right and wrong. Once let +him be thoroughly made to feel that the thing is destructive, and he +will leave it alone by the law of his nature. His virtues are the result +of knowledge; his faults, the necessary consequence of the want of it. A +boy desires to draw. He knows nothing about it: he draws men like trees +or houses, with their centre of gravity anywhere. He makes mistakes +because he knows no better. We do not blame him. Till he is better +taught, he cannot help it. But his instruction begins. He arrives at +straight lines; then at solids; then at curves. He learns perspective, +and light and shade. He observes more accurately the forms which he +wishes to represent. He perceives effects, and he perceives the means by +which they are produced. He has learned what to do; and, in part, he has +learned how to do it. His after-progress will depend on the amount of +force which his nature possesses; but all this is as natural as the +growth of an acorn. You do not preach to the acorn that it is its duty +to become a large tree; you do not preach to the art-pupil that it is +his duty to become a Holbein. You plant your acorn in favorable soil, +where it can have light and air, and be sheltered from the wind; you +remove the superfluous branches, you train the strength into the leading +shoots. The acorn will then become as fine a tree as it has vital force +to become. The difference between men and other things is only in the +largeness and variety of man's capacities; and in this special capacity, +that he alone has the power of observing the circumstances favorable to +his own growth, and can apply them for himself, yet, again, with this +condition,--that he is not, as is commonly supposed, free to choose +whether he will make use of these appliances or not. When he knows what +is good for him, he will choose it; and he will judge what is good for +him by the circumstances which have made him what he is. + +And what he would do, Mr. Buckle supposed that he always had done. His +history had been a natural growth as much as the growth of the acorn. +His improvement had followed the progress of his knowledge; and, by a +comparison of his outward circumstances with the condition of his mind, +his whole proceedings on this planet, his creeds and constitutions, his +good deeds and his bad, his arts and his sciences, his empires and his +revolutions, would be found all to arrange themselves into clear +relations of cause and effect. + +If, when Mr. Buckle pressed his conclusions we objected the difficulty +of finding what the truth about past times really was, he would admit it +candidly as far as concerned individuals; but there was not the same +difficulty, he said, with masses of men. We might disagree about the +character of Julius or Tiberius Caesar, but we could know well enough the +Romans of the Empire. We had their literature to tell us how they +thought; we had their laws to tell us how they governed; we had the +broad face of the world, the huge mountainous outline of their general +doings upon it, to tell us how they acted. He believed it was all +reducible to laws, and could be made as intelligible as the growth of +the chalk cliffs or the coal measures. + +And thus consistently Mr. Buckle cared little for individuals. He did +not believe (as some one has said) that the history of mankind is the +history of its great men. Great men with him were but larger atoms, +obeying the same impulses with the rest, only perhaps a trifle more +erratic. With them or without them, the course of things would have been +much the same. + +As an illustration of the truth of his view, he would point to the new +science of Political Economy. Here already was a large area of human +activity in which natural laws were found to act unerringly. Men had +gone on for centuries trying to regulate trade on moral principles. They +would fix wages according to some imaginary rule of fairness; they would +fix prices by what they considered things ought to cost; they encouraged +one trade or discouraged another, for moral reasons. They might as well +have tried to work a steam-engine on moral reasons. The great statesmen +whose names were connected with these enterprises might have as well +legislated that water should run up-hill. There were natural laws, fixed +in the conditions of things; and to contend against them was the old +battle of the Titans against the gods. + +As it was with political economy, so it was with all other forms of +human activity; and as the true laws of political economy explained the +troubles which people fell into in old times because they were ignorant +of them, so the true laws of human nature, as soon as we knew them, +would explain their mistakes in more serious matters, and enable us to +manage better for the future. Geographical position, climate, air, soil, +and the like, had their several influences. The northern nations are +hardy and industrious, because they must till the earth if they would +eat the fruits of it, and because the temperature is too low to make an +idle life enjoyable. In the south, the soil is more productive, while +less food is wanted and fewer clothes; and, in the exquisite air, +exertion is not needed to make the sense of existence delightful. +Therefore, in the south we find men lazy and indolent. + +True, there are difficulties in these views; the home of the languid +Italian was the home also of the sternest race of whom the story of +mankind retains a record. And again, when we are told that the Spaniards +are superstitious because Spain is a country of earthquakes, we remember +Japan, the spot in all the world where earthquakes are most frequent, +and where at the same time there is the most serene disbelief in any +supernatural agency whatsoever. + +Moreover, if men grow into what they are by natural laws, they cannot +help being what they are; and if they cannot help being what they are, a +good deal will have to be altered in our general view of human +obligations and responsibilities. + +That, however, in these theories there is a great deal of truth, is +quite certain, were there but a hope that those who maintain them would +be contented with that admission. A man born in a Mahometan country +grows up a Mahometan; in a Catholic country, a Catholic; in a Protestant +country, a Protestant. His opinions are like his language: he learns to +think as he learns to speak; and it is absurd to suppose him responsible +for being what nature makes him. We take pains to educate children. +There is a good education and a bad education; there are rules well +ascertained by which characters are influenced; and, clearly enough, it +is no mere matter for a boy's free will whether he turns out well or +ill. We try to train him into good habits; we keep him out of the way of +temptations; we see that he is well taught; we mix kindness and +strictness; we surround him with every good influence we can command. +These are what are termed the advantages of a good education; and if we +fail to provide those under our care with it, and if they go wrong, the +responsibility we feel is as much ours as theirs. This is at once an +admission of the power over us of outward circumstances. + +In the same way, we allow for the strength of temptations, and the like. + +In general, it is perfectly obvious that men do necessarily absorb, out +of the influences in which they grow up, something which gives a +complexion to their whole after-character. + +When historians have to relate great social or speculative changes, the +overthrow of a monarchy, or the establishment of a creed, they do but +half their duty if they merely relate the events. In an account, for +instance, of the rise of Mahometanism, it is not enough to describe the +character of the Prophet, the ends which he set before him, the means +which he made use of, and the effect which he produced; the historian +must show what there was in the condition of the Eastern races which +enabled Mahomet to act upon, them so powerfully; their existing beliefs, +their existing moral and political condition. + +In our estimate of the past, and in our calculations of the future, in +the judgments which we pass upon one another, we measure responsibility, +not by the thing done, but by the opportunities which people have had of +knowing better or worse. In the efforts which we make to keep our +children from bad associations or friends, we admit that external +circumstances have a powerful effect in making men what they are. + +But are circumstances every thing? That is the whole question. A +science of history, if it is more than a misleading name, implies that +the relation between cause and effect holds in human things as +completely as in all others; that the origin of human actions is not to +be looked for in mysterious properties of the mind, but in influences +which are palpable and ponderable. + +When natural causes are liable to be set aside and neutralized by what +is called volition, the word Science is out of place. If it is free to +man to choose what he will do or not do, there is no adequate science of +him. If there is a science of him, there is no free choice, and the +praise or blame with which we regard one another are impertinent and out +of place. + +I am trespassing upon these ethical grounds because, unless I do, the +subject cannot be made intelligible. Mankind are but an aggregate of +individuals; History is but the record of individual action: and what is +true of the part is true of the whole. + +We feel keenly about such things, and, when the logic becomes +perplexing, we are apt to grow rhetorical about them. But rhetoric is +only misleading. Whatever the truth may be, it is best that we should +know it; and for truth of any kind we should keep our heads and hearts +as cool as we can. + +I will say at once, that, if we had the whole case before us; if we were +taken, like Leibnitz's Tarquin, into the council-chamber of Nature, and +were shown what we really were, where we came from, and where we were +going, however unpleasant it might be for some of us to find ourselves, +like Tarquin, made into villains, from the subtle necessities of "the +best of all possible worlds,"--nevertheless, some such theory as Mr. +Buckle's might possibly turn out to be true. Likely enough, there is +some great "equation of the universe" where the value of the unknown +quantities can be determined. But we must treat things in relation to +our own powers and positions, and the question is, whether the sweep of +those vast curves can be measured by the intellect of creatures of a day +like ourselves. + +The "Faust" of Goethe, tired of the barren round of earthly knowledge, +calls magic to his aid. He desires, first, to see the spirit of the +Macrocosmos, but his heart fails him before he ventures that tremendous +experiment, and he summons before him, instead, the spirit of his own +race. There he feels himself at home. The stream of life and the storm +of action, the everlasting ocean of existence, the web and the woof, +and the roaring loom of Time,--he gazes upon them all, and in passionate +exultation claims fellowship with the awful thing before him. But the +majestic vision fades, and a voice comes to him,--"Thou art fellow with +the spirits which thy mind can grasp, not with me." + +Had Mr. Buckle tried to follow his principles into detail, it might have +fared no better with him than with "Faust." + +What are the conditions of a science? and when may any subject be said +to enter the scientific stage? I suppose when the facts begin to resolve +themselves into groups; when phenomena are no longer isolated +experiences, but appear in connection and order; when, after certain +antecedents, certain consequences are uniformly seen to follow; when +facts enough have been collected to furnish a basis for conjectural +explanation; and when conjectures have so far ceased to be utterly vague +that it is possible in some degree to foresee the future by the help of +them. + +Till a subject has advanced as far as this, to speak of a science of it +is an abuse of language. It is not enough to say that there must be a +science of human things because there is a science of all other things. +This is like saying the planets must be inhabited because the only +planet of which we have any experience is inhabited. It may or may not +be true, but it is not a practical question; it does not affect the +practical treatment of the matter in hand. + +Let us look at the history of Astronomy. + +So long as sun, moon, and planets were supposed to be gods or angels; so +long as the sword of Orion was not a metaphor, but a fact; and the +groups of stars which inlaid the floor of heaven were the glittering +trophies of the loves and wars of the Pantheon,--so long there was no +science of Astronomy. There was fancy, imagination, poetry, perhaps +reverence, but no science. As soon, however, as it was observed that the +stars retained their relative places; that the times of their rising and +setting varied with the seasons; that sun, moon, and planets moved among +them in a plane, and the belt of the Zodiac was marked out and +divided,--then a new order of things began. Traces of the earlier stage +remained in the names of the signs and constellations, just as the +Scandinavian mythology survives now in the names of the days of the +week; but, for all that, the understanding was now at work on the thing; +science had begun, and the first triumph of it was the power of +foretelling the future. Eclipses were perceived to recur in cycles of +nineteen years, and philosophers were able to say when an eclipse was to +be looked for. The periods of the planets were determined. Theories were +invented to account for their eccentricities; and, false as those +theories might be, the position of the planets could be calculated with +moderate certainty by them. The very first result of the science, in its +most imperfect stage, was a power of foresight; and this was possible +before any one true astronomical law had been discovered. + +We should not therefore question the possibility of a science of history +because the explanations of its phenomena were rudimentary or imperfect: +that they might be, and long continue to be, and yet enough might be +done to show that there was such a thing, and that it was not entirely +without use. But how was it that in those rude days, with small +knowledge of mathematics, and with no better instruments than flat walls +and dial-plates, those first astronomers made progress so considerable? +Because, I suppose, the phenomena which they were observing recurred, +for the most part, within moderate intervals; so that they could +collect large experience within the compass of their natural lives; +because days and months and years were measurable periods, and within +them the more simple phenomena perpetually repeated themselves. + +But how would it have been if, instead of turning on its axis once in +twenty-four hours, the earth had taken a year about it; if the year had +been nearly four hundred years; if man's life had been no longer than it +is, and for the initial steps of astronomy there had been nothing to +depend upon except observations recorded in history? How many ages would +have passed, had this been our condition, before it would have occurred +to any one, that, in what they saw night after night, there was any kind +of order at all? + +We can see to some extent how it would have been, by the present state +of those parts of the science which in fact depend on remote recorded +observations. The movements of the comets are still extremely uncertain. +The times of their return can be calculated only with the greatest +vagueness. + +And yet such a hypothesis as I have suggested would but inadequately +express the position in which we are in fact placed toward history. +There the phenomena never repeat themselves. There we are dependent +wholly on the record of things said to have happened once, but which +never happen or can happen a second time. There no experiment is +possible; we can watch for no recurring fact to test the worth of our +conjectures. It has been suggested fancifully, that, if we consider the +universe to be infinite, time is the same as eternity, and the past is +perpetually present. Light takes nine years to come to us from Sirius: +those rays which we may see to-night, when we leave this place, left +Sirius nine years ago; and could the inhabitants of Sirius see the earth +at this moment, they would see the English army in the trenches before +Sebastopol, Florence Nightingale watching at Scutari over the wounded at +Inkermann, and the peace of England undisturbed by "Essays and Reviews." + +As the stars recede into distance, so time recedes with them; and there +may be, and probably are, stars from which Noah might be seen stepping +into the ark, Eve listening to the temptation of the serpent, or that +older race, eating the oysters and leaving the shell-heaps behind them, +when the Baltic was an open sea. + +Could we but compare notes, something might be done; but of this there +is no present hope, and without it there will be no science of history. +Eclipses, recorded in ancient books, can be verified by calculations, +and lost dates can be recovered by them; and we can foresee, by the laws +which they follow, when there will be eclipses again. Will a time ever +be when the lost secret of the foundation of Rome can be recovered by +historic laws? If not, where is our science? It may be said that this is +a particular fact, that we can deal satisfactorily with general +phenomena affecting eras and cycles. Well, then, let us take some +general phenomenon; Mahometanism, for instance, or Buddhism. Those are +large enough. Can you imagine a science which would have[1] _foretold_ +such movements as those? The state of things out of which they rose is +obscure; but, suppose it not obscure, can you conceive that, with any +amount of historical insight into the old Oriental beliefs, you could +have seen that they were about to transform themselves into those +particular forms and no other? + +It is not enough to say, that, after the fact, you can understand +partially how Mahometanism came to be. All historians worth the name +have told us something about that. But when we talk of science, we mean +something with more ambitious pretences, we mean something which can +foresee as well as explain; and, thus looked at, to state the problem is +to show its absurdity. As little could the wisest man have foreseen this +mighty revolution, as thirty years ago such a thing as Mormonism could +have been anticipated in America; as little as it could have been +foreseen that table-turning and spirit-rapping would have been an +outcome of the scientific culture of England in the nineteenth century. + +The greatest of Roman thinkers, gazing mournfully at the seething mass +of moral putrefaction round him, detected and deigned to notice among +its elements a certain detestable superstition, so he called it, rising +up amidst the offscouring of the Jews, which was named Christianity. +Could Tacitus have looked forward nine centuries to the Rome of Gregory +VII, could he have beheld the representative of the majesty of the +Caesars holding the stirrup of the Pontiff of that vile and execrated +sect, the spectacle would scarcely have appeared to him the fulfilment +of a national expectation, or an intelligible result of the causes in +operation round him. Tacitus, indeed, was born before the science of +history; but would M. Comte have seen any more clearly? + +Nor is the case much better if we are less hard upon our philosophy; if +we content ourselves with the past, and require only a scientific +explanation of that. + +First, for the facts themselves. They come to us through the minds of +those who recorded them, neither machines nor angels, but fallible +creatures, with human passions and prejudices. Tacitus and Thucydides +were perhaps the ablest men who ever gave themselves to writing history; +the ablest, and also the most incapable of conscious falsehood. Yet even +now, after all these centuries, the truth of what they relate is called +in question. Good reasons can be given to show that neither of them can +be confidently trusted. If we doubt with these, whom are we to believe? + +Or, again, let the facts be granted. To revert to my simile of the box +of letters, you have but to select such facts as suit you, you have but +to leave alone those which do not suit you, and, let your theory of +history be what it will, you can find no difficulty in providing facts +to prove it. + +You may have your Hegel's philosophy of history, or you may have your +Schlegel's philosophy of history; you may prove from history that the +world is governed in detail by a special Providence; you may prove that +there is no sign of any moral agent in the universe, except man; you may +believe, if you like it, in the old theory of the wisdom of antiquity; +you may speak, as was the fashion in the fifteenth century, of "our +fathers, who had more wit and wisdom than we"; or you may talk of "our +barbarian ancestors," and describe their wars as the scuffling of kites +and crows. + +You may maintain that the evolution of humanity has been an unbroken +progress toward perfection; you may maintain that there has been no +progress at all, and that man remains the same poor creature that he +ever was; or, lastly, you may say, with the author of the "Contract +Social," that men were purest and best in primeval simplicity,-- + + "When wild in woods the noble savage ran." + +In all or any of these views, history will stand your friend. History, +in its passive irony, will make no objection. Like Jarno, in Goethe's +novel, it will not condescend to argue with you, and will provide you +with abundant illustrations of any thing which you may wish to believe. + +"What is history," said Napoleon, "but a fiction agreed upon?" "My +friend," said Faust to the student, who was growing enthusiastic about +the spirit of past ages,--"my friend, the times which are gone are a +book with seven seals; and what you call the spirit of past ages is but +the spirit of this or that worthy gentleman in whose mind those ages are +reflected." + +One lesson, and only one, history may be said to repeat with +distinctness: that the world is built somehow on moral foundations; +that, in the long run, it is well with the good; in the long run, it is +ill with the wicked. But this is no science; it is no more than the old +doctrine taught long ago by the Hebrew prophets. The theories of M. +Comte and his disciples advance us, after all, not a step beyond the +trodden and familiar ground. If men are not entirely animals, they are +at least half animals, and are subject in this aspect of them to the +conditions of animals. So far as those parts of man's doings are +concerned, which neither have, nor need have, any thing moral about +them, so far the laws of him are calculable. There are laws for his +digestion, and laws of the means by which his digestive organs are +supplied with matter. But pass beyond them, and where are we? In a world +where it would be as easy to calculate men's actions by laws like those +of positive philosophy as to measure the orbit of Neptune with a foot +rule, or weigh Sirius in a grocer's scale. + +And it is not difficult to see why this should be. The first principle, +on which the theory of a science of history can be plausibly argued, is +that all actions whatsoever arise from self-interest. It may be +enlightened self-interest, it may be unenlightened; but it is assumed as +an axiom, that every man, in whatever he does, is aiming at something +which he considers will promote his happiness. His conduct is not +determined by his will; it is determined by the object of his desire. +Adam Smith, in laying the foundations of political economy, expressly +eliminates every other motive. He does not say that men never act on +other motives; still less, that they never ought to act on other +motives. He asserts merely that, as far as the arts of production are +concerned, and of buying and selling, the action of self-interest may +be counted upon as uniform. What Adam Smith says of political economy, +Mr. Buckle would extend over the whole circle of human activity. + +Now, that which especially distinguishes a high order of man from a low +order of man--that which constitutes human goodness, human greatness, +human nobleness--is surely not the degree of enlightenment with which +men pursue their own advantage: but it is self-forgetfulness, it is +self-sacrifice; it is the disregard of personal pleasure, personal +indulgence, personal advantages remote or present, because some other +line of conduct is more right. + +We are sometimes told that this is but another way of expressing the +same thing; that, when a man prefers doing what is right, it is only +because to do right gives him a higher satisfaction. It appears to me, +on the contrary, to be a difference in the very heart and nature of +things. The martyr goes to the stake, the patriot to the scaffold, not +with a view to any future reward, to themselves, but because it is a +glory to fling away their lives for truth and freedom. And so through +all phases of existence, to the smallest details of common life, the +beautiful character is the unselfish character. Those whom we most love +and admire are those to whom the thought of self seems never to occur; +who do simply and with no ulterior aim--with no thought whether it will +be pleasant to themselves or unpleasant--that which is good and right +and generous. + +Is this still selfishness, only more enlightened? I do not think so. The +essence of true nobility, is neglect of self. Let the thought of self +pass in, and the beauty of a great action is gone, like the bloom from a +soiled flower. Surely it is a paradox to speak of the self-interest of a +martyr who dies for a cause, the triumph of which he will never enjoy; +and the greatest of that great company in all ages would have done what +they did, had their personal prospects closed with the grave. Nay, there +have been those so zealous for some glorious principle as to wish +themselves blotted out of the book of Heaven if the cause of Heaven +could succeed. + +And out of this mysterious quality, whatever it be, arise the higher +relations of human life, the higher modes of human obligation. Kant, the +philosopher, used to say that there were two things which overwhelmed +him with awe as he thought of them. One was the star-sown deep of +space, without limit and without end; the other was, right and wrong. +Right, the sacrifice of self to good; wrong, the sacrifice of good to +self,--not graduated objects of desire, to which we are determined by +the degrees of our knowledge, but wide asunder as pole and pole, as +light and darkness: one the object of infinite love; the other, the +object of infinite detestation and scorn. It is in this marvellous power +in men to do wrong (it is an old story, but none the less true for +that),--it is in this power to do wrong--wrong or right, as it lies +somehow with ourselves to choose--that the impossibility stands of +forming scientific calculations of what men will do before the fact, or +scientific explanations of what they have done after the fact. If men +were consistently selfish, you might analyze their motives; if they were +consistently noble they would express in their conduct the laws of the +highest perfection. But so long as two natures are mixed together, and +the strange creature which results from the combination is now under one +influence and now under another, so long you will make nothing of him +except from the old-fashioned moral--or, if you please, +imaginative--point of view. + +Even the laws of political economy itself cease to guide us when they +touch moral government. So long as labor is a chattel to be bought and +sold, so long, like other commodities, it follows the condition of +supply and demand. But if, for his misfortune, an employer considers +that he stands in human relations toward his workmen; if he believes, +rightly or wrongly, that he is responsible for them; that in return for +their labor he is bound to see that their children are decently taught, +and they and their families decently fed and clothed and lodged; that he +ought to care for them in sickness and in old age,--then political +economy will no longer direct him, and the relations between himself and +his dependents will have to be arranged on quite other principles. + +So long as he considers only his own material profit, so long supply and +demand will settle every difficulty; but the introduction of a new +factor spoils the equation. + +And it is precisely in this debatable ground of low motives and noble +emotions; in the struggle, ever failing yet ever renewed, to carry truth +and justice into the administration of human society; in the +establishment of states and in the overthrow of tyrannies; in the rise +and fall of creeds; in the world of ideas; in the character and deeds of +the great actors in the drama of life, where good and evil fight out +their everlasting battle, now ranged in opposite camps, now and more +often in the heart, both of them, of each living man,--that the true +human interest of history resides. The progress of industries, the +growth of material and mechanical civilization, are interesting; but +they are not the most interesting. They have their reward in the +increase of material comforts; but, unless we are mistaken about our +nature, they do not highly concern us after all. + +Once more: not only is there in men this baffling duality of principle, +but there is something else in us which still more defies scientific +analysis. + +Mr. Buckle would deliver himself from the eccentricities of this and +that individual by a doctrine of averages. Though he cannot tell whether +A, B, or C will cut his throat, he may assure himself that one man in +every fifty thousand, or thereabout (I forget the exact proportion), +will cut his throat, and with this he consoles himself. No doubt it is a +comforting discovery. Unfortunately, the average of one generation need +not be the average of the next. We may be converted by the Japanese, +for all that we know, and the Japanese methods of taking leave of life +may become fashionable among us. Nay, did not Novalis suggest that the +whole race of men would at last become so disgusted with their +impotence, that they would extinguish themselves by a simultaneous act +of suicide, and make room for a better order of beings? Anyhow, the +fountain out of which the race is flowing perpetually changes; no two +generations are alike. Whether there is a change in the organization +itself we cannot tell; but this is certain,--that, as the planet varies +with the atmosphere which surrounds it, so each new generation varies +from the last, because it inhales as its atmosphere the accumulated +experience and knowledge of the whole past of the world. These things +form the spiritual air which we breathe as we grow; and, in the infinite +multiplicity of elements of which that air is now composed, it is +forever a matter of conjecture what the minds will be like which expand +under its influence. + +From the England of Fielding and Richardson to the England of Miss +Austen, from the England of Miss Austen to the England of Railways and +Free Trade, how vast the change! Yet perhaps Sir Charles Grandison +would not seem so strange to us now as one of ourselves will seem to our +great-grandchildren. The world moves faster and faster; and the +difference will probably be considerably greater. + +The temper of each new generation is a continual surprise. The Fates +delight to contradict our most confident expectations. Gibbon believed +that the era of conquerors was at an end. Had he lived out the full life +of man, he would have seen Europe at the feet of Napoleon. But a few +years ago we believed the world had grown too civilized for war, and the +Crystal Palace in Hyde Park was to be the inauguration of a new era. +Battles bloody as Napoleon's are now the familiar tale of every day; and +the arts which have made greatest progress are the arts of destruction. +What next? We may strain our eyes into the future which lies beyond this +waning century; but never was conjecture more at fault. It is blank +darkness, which even the imagination fails to people. + +What, then, is the use of History, and what are its lessons? If it can +tell us little of the past, and nothing of the future, why waste our +time over so barren a study? + +First, it is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of +right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, +but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. For every false +word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust or +vanity, the price has to be paid at last; not always by the chief +offenders, but paid by some one. Justice and truth alone endure and +live. Injustice and falsehood may be long-lived, but doomsday comes at +last to them, in French revolutions and other terrible ways. + +That is one lesson of history. Another is, that we should draw no +horoscopes; that we should expect little, for what we expect will not +come to pass. Revolutions, reformations,--those vast movements into +which heroes and saints have flung themselves, in the belief that they +were the dawn of the millennium,--have not borne the fruit which they +looked for. Millenniums are still far away. These great convulsions +leave the world changed,--perhaps improved, but not improved as the +actors in them hoped it would be. Luther would have gone to work with +less heart, could he have foreseen the Thirty Years' War, and in the +distance the theology of Tubingen. Washington might have hesitated to +draw the sword against England, could he have seen the country which he +made as we see it now.[2] + +The most reasonable anticipations fail us, antecedents the most apposite +mislead us, because the conditions of human problems never repeat +themselves. Some new feature alters every thing,--some element which we +detect only in its after-operation. + +But this, it may be said, is but a meagre outcome. Can the long records +of humanity, with all its joys and sorrows, its sufferings and its +conquests, teach us more than this? Let us approach the subject from +another side. + +If you were asked to point out the special features in which +Shakespeare's plays are so transcendently excellent, you would mention +perhaps, among others, this--that his stories are not put together, and +his characters are not conceived, to illustrate any particular law or +principle. They teach many lessons, but not any one prominent above +another; and when we have drawn from them all the direct instruction +which they contain, there remains still something unresolved,--something +which the artist gives, and which the philosopher cannot give. + +It is in this characteristic that we are accustomed to say Shakespeare's +supreme _truth_ lies. He represents real life. His drama teaches as life +teaches,--neither less nor more. He builds his fabrics, as Nature does, +on right and wrong; but he does not struggle to make Nature more +systematic than she is. In the subtle interflow of good and evil; in the +unmerited sufferings of innocence; in the disproportion of penalties to +desert; in the seeming blindness with which justice, in attempting to +assert itself, overwhelms innocent and guilty in a common +ruin,--Shakespeare is true to real experience. The mystery of +life he leaves as he finds it; and, in his most tremendous +positions, he is addressing rather the intellectual emotions than the +understanding,--knowing well that the understanding in such things is at +fault, and the sage as ignorant as the child. + +Only the highest order of genius can represent Nature thus. An inferior +artist produces either something entirely immoral, where good and evil +are names, and nobility of disposition is supposed to show itself in the +absolute disregard of them, or else, if he is a better kind of man, he +will force on Nature a didactic purpose; he composes what are called +moral tales, which may edify the conscience, but only mislead the +intellect. + +The finest work of this kind produced in modern times is Lessing's play +of "Nathan the Wise." The object of it is to teach religious toleration. +The doctrine is admirable, the mode in which it is enforced is +interesting; but it has the fatal fault that it is not true. Nature does +not teach religious toleration by any such direct method; and the result +is--no one knew it better than Lessing himself--that the play is not +poetry, but only splendid manufacture. Shakespeare is eternal; Lessing's +"Nathan" will pass away with the mode of thought which gave it birth. +One is based on fact; the other, on human theory about fact. The theory +seems at first sight to contain the most immediate instruction; but it +is not really so. + +Cibber and others, as you know, wanted to alter Shakespeare. The French +king, in "Lear," was to be got rid of; Cordelia was to marry Edgar, and +Lear himself was to be rewarded for his sufferings by a golden old age. +They could not bear that Hamlet should suffer for the sins of Claudius. +The wicked king was to die, and the wicked mother; and Hamlet and +Ophelia were to make a match of it, and live happily ever after. A +common novelist would have arranged it thus; and you would have had your +comfortable moral that wickedness was fitly punished, and virtue had its +due reward, and all would have been well. But Shakespeare would not have +it so. Shakespeare knew that crime was not so simple in its +consequences, or Providence so paternal. He was contented to take the +truth from life; and the effect upon the mind of the most correct theory +of what life ought to be, compared to the effect of the life itself, is +infinitesimal in comparison. + +Again, let us compare the popular historical treatment of remarkable +incidents with Shakespeare's treatment of them. Look at "Macbeth." You +may derive abundant instruction from it,--instruction of many kinds. +There is a moral lesson of profound interest in the steps by which a +noble nature glides to perdition. In more modern fashion you may +speculate, if you like, on the political conditions represented there, +and the temptation presented in absolute monarchies to unscrupulous +ambition; you may say, like Doctor Slop, these things could not have +happened under a constitutional government: or, again, you may take up +your parable against superstition; you may dilate on the frightful +consequences of a belief in witches, and reflect on the superior +advantages of an age of schools and newspapers. If the bare facts of the +story had come down to us from a chronicler, and an ordinary writer of +the nineteenth century had undertaken to relate them, his account, we +may depend upon it, would have been put together upon one or other of +these principles. Yet, by the side of that unfolding of the secrets of +the prison-house of the soul, what lean and shrivelled anatomies the +best of such descriptions would seem! + +Shakespeare himself, I suppose, could not have given us a theory of what +he meant; he gave us the thing itself, on which we might make whatever +theories we pleased. + +Or, again, look at Homer. + +The "Iliad" is from two to three thousand years older than "Macbeth," +and yet it is as fresh as if it had been written yesterday. We have +there no lessons save in the emotions which rise in us as we read. Homer +had no philosophy; he never struggles to press upon us his views about +this or that; you can scarcely tell, indeed, whether his sympathies are +Greek or Trojan: but he represents to us faithfully the men and women +among whom he lived. He sang the tale of Troy, he touched his lyre, he +drained the golden beaker in the halls of men like those on whom he was +conferring immortality. And thus, although no Agamemnon, king of men, +ever led a Grecian fleet to Ilium; though no Priam sought the midnight +tent of Achilles; though Ulysses and Diomed and Nestor were but names, +and Helen but a dream, yet, through Homer's power of representing men +and women, those old Greeks will still stand out from amidst the +darkness of the ancient world with a sharpness of outline which belongs +to no period of history except the most recent. For the mere hard +purposes of history, the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are the most effective +books which ever were written. We see the hall of Menelaus, we see the +garden of Alcinous, we see Nausicaa among her maidens on the shore, we +see the mellow monarch sitting with ivory sceptre in the market-place +dealing out genial justice. Or, again, when the wild mood is on, we can +hear the crash of the spears, the rattle of the armor as the heroes +fall, and the plunging of the horses among the slain. Could we enter the +palace of an old Ionian lord, we know what we should see there; we know +the words in which he would address us. We could meet Hector as a +friend. If we could choose a companion to spend an evening with over a +fireside, it would be the man of many counsels, the husband of Penelope. + +I am not going into the vexed question whether history or poetry is the +more true. It has been sometimes said that poetry is the more true, +because it can make things more like what our moral sense would prefer +they should be. We hear of poetic justice and the like, as if nature and +fact were not just enough. + +I entirely dissent from that view. So far as poetry attempts to improve +on truth in that way, so far it abandons truth, and is false to itself. +Even literal facts, exactly as they were, a great poet will prefer +whenever he can get them. Shakespeare in the historical plays is +studious, wherever possible, to give the very words which he finds to +have been used; and it shows how wisely he was guided in this, that +those magnificent speeches of Wolsey are taken exactly, with no more +change than the metre makes necessary, from Cavendish's Life. +Marlborough read Shakespeare for English history, and read nothing else. +The poet only is not bound, when it is inconvenient, to what may be +called the accidents of facts. It was enough for Shakespeare to know +that Prince Hal in his youth had lived among loose companions, and the +tavern in Eastcheap came in to fill out his picture; although Mrs. +Quickly and Falstaff and Poins and Bardolph were more likely to have +been fallen in with by Shakespeare himself at the Mermaid, than to have +been comrades of the true Prince Henry. It was enough for Shakespeare to +draw real men, and the situation, whatever it might be, would sit easy +on them. In this sense only it is that poetry is truer than +History,--that it can make a picture more complete. It may take +liberties with time and space, and give the action distinctness by +throwing it into more manageable compass. But it may not alter the real +conditions of things, or represent life as other than it is. The +greatness of the poet depends on his being true to Nature, without +insisting that Nature shall theorize with him, without making her more +just, more philosophical, more moral than reality; and, in difficult +matters, leaving much to reflection which cannot be explained. + +And if this be true of poetry--if Homer and Shakespeare are what they +are from the absence of every thing didactic about them--may we not thus +learn something of what history should be, and in what sense it should +aspire to teach? + +If poetry must not theorize, much less should the historian theorize, +whose obligations to be true to fact are even greater than the poet's. +If the drama is grandest when the action is least explicable by laws, +because then it best resembles life, then history will be grandest also +under the same conditions. "Macbeth," were it literally true, would be +perfect history; and so far as the historian can approach to that kind +of model, so far as he can let his story tell itself in the deeds and +words of those who act it out, so far is he most successful. His work is +no longer the vapor of his own brain, which a breath will scatter; it is +the thing itself, which will have interest for all time. A thousand +theories may be formed about it,--spiritual theories. Pantheistic +theories, cause and effect theories? but each age will have its own +philosophy of history, and all these in turn will fail and die. Hegel +falls out of date, Schlegel falls out of date, and Comte in good time +will fall out of date; the thought about the thing must change as we +change; but the thing itself can never change; and a history is durable +or perishable as it contains more or least of the writer's own +speculations. The splendid intellect of Gibbon for the most part kept +him true to the right course in this; yet the philosophical chapters for +which he has been most admired or censured may hereafter be thought the +least interesting in his work. The time has been when they would not +have been comprehended; the time may come when they will seem +commonplace. + +It may be said, that in requiring history to be written like a drama, we +require an impossibility. + +For history to be written with the complete form of a drama, doubtless +is impossible; but there are periods, and these the periods, for the +most part, of greatest interest to mankind, the history of which may be +so written that the actors shall reveal their characters in their own +words; where mind can be seen matched against mind, and the great +passions of the epoch not simply be described as existing, but be +exhibited at their white heat in the souls and hearts possessed by them. +There are all the elements of drama--drama of the highest order--where +the huge forces of the times are as the Grecian destiny, and the power +of the man is seen either stemming the stream till it overwhelms him, or +ruling while he seems to yield to it. + +It is Nature's drama,--not Shakespeare's, but a drama none the less. + +So at least it seems to me. Wherever possible, let us not be told +_about_ this man or that. Let us hear the man himself speak, let us see +him act, and let us be left to form our own opinions about him. The +historian, we are told, must not leave his readers to themselves. He +must not only lay the facts before them: he must tell them what he +himself thinks about those facts. In my opinion, this is precisely what +he ought not to do. Bishop Butler says somewhere, that the best book +which could be written would be a book consisting only of premises, from +which the readers should draw conclusions for themselves. The highest +poetry is the very thing which Butler requires, and the highest history +ought to be. We should no more ask for a theory of this or that period +of history, than we should ask for a theory of "Macbeth" or "Hamlet." +Philosophies of history, sciences of history,--all these there will +continue to be: the fashions of them will change, as our habits of +thought will change; each new philosopher will find his chief employment +in showing that before him no one understood any thing; but the drama of +history is imperishable, and the lessons of it will be like what we +learn from Homer or Shakespeare,--lessons for which we have no words. + +The address of history is less to the understanding than to the higher +emotions. We learn in it to sympathize with what is great and good; we +learn to hate what is base. In the anomalies of fortune we feel the +mystery of our mortal existence; and in the companionship of the +illustrious natures who have shaped the fortunes of the world, we escape +from the littlenesses which cling to the round of common life, and our +minds are tuned in a higher and nobler key. + +For the rest, and for those large questions which I touched in +connection with Mr. Buckle, we live in times of disintegration, and none +can tell what will be after us. What opinions, what convictions, the +infant of to-day will find prevailing on the earth, if he and it live +out together to the middle of another century, only a very bold man +would undertake to conjecture. "The time will come," said Lichtenberg, +in scorn at the materializing tendencies of modern thought,--"the time +will come when the belief in God will be as the tales with which old +women frighten children; when the world will be a machine, the ether a +gas, and God will be a force." Mankind, if they last long enough on the +earth, may develop strange things out of themselves; and the growth of +what is called the Positive Philosophy is a curious commentary on +Lichtenberg's prophecy. But whether the end be seventy years hence, or +seven hundred,--be the close of the mortal history of humanity as far +distant in the future as its shadowy beginnings seem now to lie behind +us,--this only we may foretell with confidence,--that the riddle of +man's nature will remain unsolved. There will be that in him yet which +physical laws will fail to explain,--that something, whatever it be, in +himself and in the world, which science cannot fathom, and which +suggests the unknown possibilities of his origin and his destiny. There +will remain yet + + "Those obstinate questionings + Of sense and outward things; + Falling from us, vanishing; + Blank misgivings of a creature + Moving about in worlds not realized; + High instincts, before which our mortal nature + Doth tremble like a guilty thing surprised." + +There will remain + + "Those first affections, + Those shadowy recollections, + Which, be they what they may, + Are yet the fountain-light of all our day,-- + Are yet the master-light of all our seeing,-- + Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make + Our noisy years seem moments in the being + Of the Eternal Silence." + + + + +EDWARD A. FREEMAN. + +BORN 1823. + + + + +RACE AND LANGUAGE. + +BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN. + + +It is no very great time since the readers of the English newspapers +were, perhaps a little amused, perhaps a little startled, at the story +of a deputation of Hungarian students going to Constantinople to present +a sword of honor to an Ottoman general. The address and the answer +enlarged on the ancient kindred of Turks and Magyars, on the long +alienation of the dissevered kinsfolk, on the return of both in these +later times to a remembrance of the ancient kindred and to the friendly +feelings to which such kindred gave birth. The discourse has a strange +sound when we remember the reigns of Sigismund and Wladislaus, when we +think of the dark days of Nikopolis and Varna, when we think of Huniades +encamped at the foot of Haemus, and of Belgrade beating back Mahomet the +Conqueror from her gates. The Magyar and the Ottoman embracing with the +joy of reunited kinsfolk is a sight which certainly no man would have +looked forward to in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. At an earlier +time the ceremony might have seemed a degree less wonderful. If a man +whose ideas are drawn wholly from the modern map should sit down to +study the writings of Constantine Porphyrogennetos, he would perhaps be +startled at finding Turks and Franks spoken of as neighbors, at finding +_Turcia_ and _Francia_--we must not translate [Greek: Tourkia] and +[Greek: Phrangia] by _Turkey_ and _France_--spoken of as border-lands. A +little study will perhaps show him that the change lies almost wholly in +the names and not in the boundaries. The lands are there still, and the +frontier between them has shifted much less than one might have looked +for in nine hundred years. Nor has there been any great change in the +population of the two countries. The Turks and the Franks of the +Imperial geographer are there still, in the lands which he calls Turcia +and Francia; only we no longer speak of them as Turks and Franks. The +Turks of Constantine are Magyars; the Franks of Constantine are Germans. +The Magyar students may not unlikely have turned over the Imperial +pages, and they may have seen how their forefathers stand described +there. We can hardly fancy that the Ottoman general is likely to have +given much time to lore of such a kind. Yet the Ottoman answer was as +brim full of ethnological and antiquarian sympathy as the Magyar +address. It is hardly to be believed that a Turk, left to himself, would +by his own efforts have found out the primeval kindred between Turk and +Magyar. He might remember that Magyar exiles had found a safe shelter on +Ottoman territory; he might look deep enough into the politics of the +present moment to see that the rule of Turk and Magyar alike is +threatened by the growth of Slavonic national life. But the idea that +Magyar and Turk owe each other any love or any duty, directly on the +ground of primeval kindred, is certainly not likely to have presented +itself to the untutored Ottoman mind. In short, it sounds, as some one +said at the time, rather like the dream of a professor who has run wild +with an ethnological craze, than like the serious thought of a practical +man of any nation. Yet the Magyar students seem to have meant their +address quite seriously. And the Turkish general, if he did not take it +seriously, at least thought it wise to shape his answer as if he did. As +a piece of practical politics, it sounds like Frederick Barbarossa +threatening to avenge the defeat of Crassus upon Saladin, or like the +French of the revolutionary wars making the Pope Pius of those days +answerable for the wrongs of Vercingetorix. The thing sounds like +comedy, almost like conscious comedy. But it is a kind of comedy which +may become tragedy, if the idea from which it springs get so deeply +rooted in men's minds as to lead to any practical consequences. As long +as talk of this kind does not get beyond the world of hot-headed +students, it may pass for a craze. It would be more than a craze, if it +should be so widely taken up on either side that the statesmen on either +side find it expedient to profess to take it up also. + +To allege the real or supposed primeval kindred between Magyars and +Ottomans as a ground for political action, or at least for political +sympathy, in the affairs of the present moment, is an extreme case--some +may be inclined to call it a _reductio ad absurdum_--of a whole range of +doctrines and sentiments which have in modern days gained a great power +over men's minds. They have gained so great a power that those who may +regret their influence cannot afford to despise it. To make any +practical inference from the primeval kindred of Magyar and Turk is +indeed pushing the doctrine of race, and of sympathies arising from +race, as far as it well can be pushed. Without plunging into any very +deep mysteries, without committing ourselves to any dangerous theories +in the darker regions of ethnological inquiry, we may perhaps be allowed +at starting to doubt whether there is any real primeval kindred between +the Ottoman and the Finnish Magyar. It is for those who have gone +specially deep into the antiquities of the non-Aryan races to say +whether there is or is not. At all events, as far as the great facts of +history go, the kindred is of the vaguest and most shadowy kind. It +comes to little more than the fact that Magyars and Ottomans are alike +non-Aryan invaders who have made their way into Europe within recorded +times, and that both have, rightly or wrongly, been called by the name +of Turks. These do seem rather slender grounds on which to build up a +fabric of national sympathy between two nations, when several centuries +of living practical history all pull the other way. It is hard to +believe that the kindred of Turk and Magyar was thought of when a +Turkish Pasha ruled at Buda. Doubtless Hungarian Protestants often +deemed, and not unreasonably deemed, that the contemptuous toleration of +the Moslem Sultan was a lighter yoke than the persecution of the +Catholic Emperor. But it was hardly on grounds of primeval kindred that +they made the choice. The ethnological dialogue held at Constantinople +does indeed sound like ethnological theory run mad. But it is the very +wildness of the thing which gives it its importance. The doctrine of +race, and of sympathies springing from race, must have taken very firm +hold indeed of men's minds before it could be carried out in a shape +which we are tempted to call so grotesque as this. + +The plain fact is that the new lines of scientific and historical +inquiry which have been opened in modern times have had a distinct and +deep effect upon the politics of the age. The fact may be estimated in +many ways, but its existence as a fact cannot be denied. Not in a merely +scientific or literary point of view, but in one strictly practical, the +world is not the same world as it was when men had not yet dreamed of +the kindred between Sanscrit, Greek, and English, when it was looked on +as something of a paradox to hint that there was a distinction between +Celtic and Teutonic tongues and nations. Ethnological and philological +researches--I do not forget the distinction between the two, but for the +present I must group them together--have opened the way for new national +sympathies, new national antipathies, such as would have been +unintelligible a hundred years ago. A hundred years ago a man's +political likes and dislikes seldom went beyond the range which was +suggested by the place of his birth or immediate descent. Such birth or +descent made him a member of this or that political community, a subject +of this or that prince, a citizen--perhaps a subject--of this or that +commonwealth. The political community of which he was a member had its +traditional alliances and traditional enmities, and by those alliances +and enmities the likes and dislikes of the members of that community +were guided. But those traditional alliances and enmities were seldom +determined by theories about language or race. The people of this or +that place might be discontented under a foreign government; but, as a +rule, they were discontented only if subjection to that foreign +government brought with it personal oppression, or at least political +degradation. Regard or disregard of some purely local privilege or +local feeling went for more than the fact of a government being native +or foreign. What we now call the sentiment of nationality did not go for +much; what we call the sentiment of race went for nothing at all. Only a +few men here and there would have understood the feelings which have led +to those two great events of our own time, the political reunion of the +German and Italian nations after their long political dissolution. Not a +soul would have understood the feelings which have allowed Panslavism to +be a great practical agent in the affairs of Europe, and which have made +talk about "the Latin race," if not practical, at least possible. Least +of all, would it have been possible to give any touch of political +importance to what would have then seemed so wild a dream as a primeval +kindred between Magyar and Ottoman. + +That feelings such as these, and the practical consequences which have +flowed from them, are distinctly due to scientific and historical +teaching there can, I think, be no doubt. Religious sympathy and purely +national sympathy are both feelings of much simpler growth, which need +no deep knowledge nor any special teaching. The cry which resounded +through Christendom when the Holy City was taken by the Mussulmans, the +cry which resounded through Islam when the same city was taken by the +Christians, the spirit which armed England to support French Huguenots +and which armed Spain to support French Leaguers, all spring from +motives which lie on the surface. Nor need we seek for any explanation +but such as lies on the surface for the natural wish for closer union +which arose among Germans or Italians who found themselves parted off by +purely dynastic arrangements from men who were their countrymen in every +thing else. Such a feeling has to strive with the counter-feeling which +springs from local jealousies and local dislikes; but it is a perfectly +simple feeling, which needs no subtle research either to arouse or to +understand it. So, if we draw our illustrations from the events of our +own time, there is nothing but what is perfectly simple in the feeling +which calls Russia, as the most powerful of Orthodox states, to the help +of her Orthodox brethren everywhere, and which calls the members of the +Orthodox Church everywhere to look to Russia as their protector. The +feeling may have to strive against a crowd of purely political +considerations, and by those purely political considerations it may be +outweighed. But the feeling is in itself altogether simple and natural. +So again, the people of Montenegro and of the neighboring lands in +Herzegovina and by the _Bocche_ of Cattaro feel themselves countrymen in +every sense but the political accident which keeps them asunder. They +are drawn together by a tie which every one can understand, by the same +tie which would draw together the people of three adjoining English +counties, if any strange political action should part them asunder in +like manner. The feeling here is that of nationality in the strictest +sense, nationality in a purely local or geographical sense. It would +exist all the same if Panslavism had never been heard of; it might exist +though those who feel it had never heard of the Slavonic race at all. It +is altogether another thing when we come to the doctrine of race, and of +sympathies founded on race, in the wider sense. Here we have a feeling +which professes to bind together, and which as a matter of fact has had +a real effect in binding together, men whose kindred to one another is +not so obvious at first sight as the kindred of Germans, Italians, or +Serbs who are kept asunder by nothing but a purely artificial political +boundary. It is a feeling at whose bidding the call to union goes forth +to men whose dwellings are geographically far apart, to men who may have +had no direct dealings with one another for years or for ages, to men +whose languages, though the scholar may at once see that they are +closely akin, may not be so closely akin as to be mutually intelligible +for common purposes. A hundred years back the Servian might have cried +for help to the Russian on the ground of common Orthodox faith; he would +hardly have called for help on the ground of common Slavonic speech and +origin. If he had done so, it would have been rather by way of grasping +at any chance, however desperate or far-fetched, than as putting forward +a serious and well understood claim which he might expect to find +accepted and acted on by large masses of men. He might have received +help, either out of genuine sympathy springing from community of faith +or from the baser thought than he could be made use of as a convenient +political tool. He would have got but little help purely on the ground +of a community of blood and speech which had had no practical result for +ages. When Russia in earlier days interfered between the Turk and his +Christian subjects, there is no sign of any sympathy felt or possessed +for Slavs as Slavs. Russia dealt with Montenegro, not, as far as one +can see, out of any Slavonic brotherhood, but because an independent +Orthodox state at enmity with the Turk could not fail to be a useful +ally. The earlier dealings of Russia with the subject nations were far +more busy among the Greeks than among the Slavs. In fact, till quite +lately, all the Orthodox subjects of the Turk were in most European eyes +looked on as alike Greeks. The Orthodox Church has been commonly known +as the Greek Church; and it has often been very hard to make people +understand that the vast mass of the members of that so-called Greek +Church are not Greek in any other sense. In truth we may doubt whether, +till comparatively lately, the subject nations themselves were fully +alive to the differences of race and speech among them. A man must in +all times and places know whether he speaks the same language as another +man; but he does not always go on to put his consciousness of difference +into the shape of a sharply drawn formula. Still less does he always +make the difference the ground of any practical course of action. The +Englishman in the first days of the Norman Conquest felt the hardships +of foreign rule, and he knew that those hardships were owing to foreign +rule. But he had not learned to put his sense of hardship into any +formula about an oppressed nationality. So, when the policy of the Turk +found that the subtle intellect of the Greek could be made use of as an +instrument of dominion over the other subject nations, the Bulgarian +felt the hardship of the state of things in which, as it was +proverbially said, his body was in bondage to the Turk and his soul in +bondage to the Greek. But we may suspect that this neatly turned proverb +dates only from the awakening of a distinctly national Bulgarian feeling +in modern times. The Turk was felt to be an intruder and an enemy, +because his rule was that of an open oppressor belonging to another +creed. The Greek, on the other hand, though his spiritual dominion +brought undoubted practical evils with it, was not felt to be an +intruder and an enemy in the same sense. His quicker intellect and +superior refinement made him a model. The Bulgarian imitated the Greek +tongue and Greek manners; he was willing in other lands to be himself +looked on as a Greek. It is only in quite modern times, under the direct +influence of the preaching of the doctrine of race, that a hard and fast +line has been drawn between Greeks and Bulgarians. That doctrine has +cut two ways. It has given both nations, Greek and Bulgarian alike, a +renewed national life, national strength, national hopes, such as +neither of them had felt for ages. In so doing, it has done one of the +best and most hopeful works of the age. But in so doing, it has created +one of the most dangerous of immediate political difficulties. In +calling two nations into a renewed being, it has arrayed them in enmity +against each other, and that in the face of a common enemy in whose +presence all lesser differences and jealousies ought to be hushed into +silence. + +There is then a distinct doctrine of race, and of sympathies founded an +race, distinct from the feeling of community of religion, and distinct +from the feeling of nationality in the narrower sense. It is not so +simple or easy a feeling as either of those two. It does not in the same +way lie on the surface; it is not in the same way grounded on obvious +facts which are plain to every man's understanding. The doctrine of race +is essentially an artificial doctrine, a learned doctrine. It is an +inference from facts which the mass of mankind could never have found +out for themselves; facts which, without a distinctly learned teaching, +could never be brought home to them in any intelligible shape. Now what +is the value of such a doctrine? Does it follow that, because it is +confessedly artificial, because it springs, not from a spontaneous +impulse, but from a learned teaching, it is therefore necessarily +foolish, mischievous, perhaps unnatural? It may perhaps be safer to hold +that, like many other doctrines, many other sentiments, it is neither +universally good nor universally bad, neither inherently wise nor +inherently foolish. It may be safer to hold that it may, like other +doctrines and sentiments, have a range within which it may work for +good, while in some other range it may work for evil. It may in short be +a doctrine which is neither to be rashly accepted, nor rashly cast +aside, but one which may need to be guided, regulated modified, +according to time, place, and circumstance. I am not now called on so +much to estimate the practical good and evil of the doctrine as to work +out what the doctrine itself is, and to try to explain some difficulties +about it, but I must emphatically say that nothing can be more shallow, +nothing more foolish, nothing more purely sentimental, than the talk of +those who think that they can simply laugh down or shriek down any +doctrine or sentiment which they themselves do not understand. A belief +or a feeling which has a practical effect on the conduct of great masses +of men, sometimes on the conduct of whole nations, may be very false and +very mischievous; but it is in every case a great and serious fact, to +be looked gravely in the face. Men who sit at their ease and think that +all wisdom is confined to themselves and their own clique may think +themselves vastly superior to the great emotions which stir our times, +as they would doubtless have thought themselves vastly superior to the +emotions which stirred the first Saracens or the first Crusaders. But +the emotions are there all the same, and they do their work all the +same. The most highly educated man in the most highly educated society +cannot sneer them out of being. + +But it is time to pass to the more strictly scientific aspect of the +subject. The doctrine of race, in its popular form, is the direct +offspring of the study of scientific philology; and yet it is just now, +in its popular form at least, somewhat under the ban of scientific +philologers. There is nothing very wonderful in this. It is in fact the +natural course of things which might almost have been reckoned on +beforehand. When the popular mind gets hold of a truth, it seldom gets +hold of it with strict scientific precision. It commonly gets hold of +one side of the truth; it puts forth that side of the truth only. It +puts that side forth in a form which may not be in itself distorted or +exaggerated, but which practically becomes distorted and exaggerated, +because other sides of the same truth are not brought into their due +relation with it. The popular idea thus takes a shape which is naturally +offensive to men of strict precision, and which men of strict scientific +precision have naturally, and from their own point of view quite +rightly, risen up to rebuke. Yet it may often happen that, while the +scientific statement is the only true one for scientific purposes, the +popular version may also have a kind of practical truth for the somewhat +rough and ready purposes of a popular version. In our present case +scientific philologers are beginning to complain, with perfect truth and +perfect justice from their own point of view, that the popular doctrine +of race confounds race and language. They tell us, and they do right to +tell us, that language is no certain test of race, that men who speak +the same tongue are not therefore necessarily men of the same blood. +And they tell us further, that from whatever quarter the alleged popular +confusion came, it certainly did not come from any teaching of +scientific philologers. + +The truth of all this cannot be called in question. We have too many +instances in recorded history of nations laying aside the use of one +language and taking to the use of another, for any one who cares for +accuracy to set down language as any sure test of race. In fact, the +studies of the philologer and those of the ethnologer strictly so called +are quite distinct, and they deal with two wholly different sets of +phenomena. The science of the ethnologer is strictly a physical science. +He has to deal with purely physical phenomena; his business lies with +the different varieties of the human body, and specially, to take that +branch of his inquiries which most impresses the unlearned, with the +various conformations of the human skull. His researches differ in +nothing from those of the zooelogist or the palaeontologist, except that +he has to deal with the physical phenomena of man, while they deal with +the physical phenomena of other animals. He groups the different races +of men, exactly as the others group the genera and species of living or +extinct mammals or reptiles. The student of ethnology as a physical +science may indeed strengthen his conclusions by evidence of other +kinds, evidence from arms, ornaments, pottery, modes of burial. But all +these are secondary; the primary ground of classification is the +physical conformation of man himself. As to language, the ethnological +method, left to itself, can find out nothing whatever. The science of +the ethnologer then is primarily physical; it is historical only in that +secondary sense in which palaeontology, and geology itself, may fairly be +called historical. It arranges the varieties of mankind according to a +strictly physical classification; what the language of each variety may +have been, it leaves to the professors of another branch of study to +find out. + +The science of the philologer, on the other hand, is strictly +historical. There is doubtless a secondary sense in which purely +philological science may be fairly called physical, just as there is a +secondary sense in which pure ethnology may be called historical. That +is to say, philology has to deal with physical phenomena, so far as it +has to deal with the physical aspect of the sounds of which human +language is made up. Its primary business, like the primary business of +any other historical science, is to deal with phenomena which do not +depend on physical laws, but which do depend on the human will. The +science of language is, in this respect, like the science of human +institutions or of human beliefs. Its subject-matter is not, like that +of pure ethnology, what man is, but, like that of any other historical +science, what man does. It is plain that no man's will can have any +direct influence on the shape of his skull. I say no direct influence, +because it is not for me to rule how far habits, places of abode, modes +of life, a thousand things which do come under the control of the human +will, may indirectly affect the physical conformation of a man himself +or of his descendants. Some observers have made the remark that men of +civilized nations who live in a degraded social state do actually +approach to the physical type of inferior races. However this may be, it +is quite certain, that as no man can by taking thought add a cubit to +his stature, so no man can by taking thought make his skull +brachycephalic or dolichocephalic. But the language which a man speaks +does depend upon his will; he can by taking thought make his speech +Romance or Teutonic. No doubt he has in most cases practically no choice +in the matter. The language which he speaks is practically determined +for him by fashion, habit, early teaching, a crowd of things over which +he has practically no control. But still the control is not physical and +inevitable, as it is in the case of the shape of his skull. If we say +that he cannot help speaking in a particular way; that is, that he +cannot help speaking a particular language, this simply means that his +circumstances are such that no other way of speaking presents itself to +his mind. And in many cases, he has a real choice between two or more +ways of speaking; that is, between two or more languages. Every word +that a man speaks is the result of a real, though doubtless unconscious, +act of his free will. We are apt to speak of gradual changes in +language, as in institutions or any thing else, as if they were the +result of a physical law, acting upon beings who had no choice in the +matter. Yet every change of the kind is simply the aggregate of various +acts of the will on the part of all concerned. Every change in speech, +every introduction of a new sound or a new word, was really the result +of an act of the will of some one or other. The choice may have been +unconscious; circumstances may have been such as practically to give him +but one choice; still he did choose; he spoke in one way, when there was +no physical hindrance to his speaking in another way, when there was no +physical compulsion to speak at all. The Gauls need not have changed +their own language for Latin; the change was not the result of a +physical necessity, but of a number of acts of the will on the part of +this and that Gaul. Moral causes directed their choice, and determined +that Gaul should become a Latin-speaking land. But whether the skulls of +the Gauls should be long or short, whether their hair should be black or +yellow, those were points over which the Gauls themselves had no direct +control whatever. + +The study of men's skulls then is a study which is strictly physical, a +study of facts over which the will of man has no direct control. The +study of men's languages is strictly an historical study, a study of +facts over which the will of man has a direct control. It follows +therefore from the very nature of the two studies that language cannot +be an absolutely certain test of physical descent. A man cannot, under +any circumstances, choose his own skull; he may, under some +circumstances, choose his own language. He must keep the skull which has +been given him by his parents; he cannot, by any process of taking +thought, determine what kind of skull he will hand on to his own +children. But he may give up the use of the language which he has +learned from his parents, and he may determine what language he will +teach to his children. The physical characteristics of a race are +unchangeable, or are changed only by influences over which the race +itself has no direct control. The language which the race speaks may be +changed, either by a conscious act of the will or by that power of +fashion which is in truth the aggregate of countless unconscious acts of +the will. And, as the very nature of the case thus shows that language +is no sure test of race, so the facts of recorded history equally prove +the same truth. Both individuals and whole nations do in fact often +exchange the language of their forefathers for some other language. A +man settles in a foreign country. He learns the language of that +country; sometimes he forgets the use of his own language. His children +may perhaps speak both tongues; if they speak one tongue only, it will +be the tongue of the country where they live. In a generation or two all +trace of foreign origin will have passed away. Here then language is no +test of race. If the great-grandchildren speak the language of their +great-grandfathers, it will simply be as they may speak any other +foreign language. Here are men who by speech belong to one nation, by +actual descent to another. If they lose the physical characteristics of +the race to which the original settler belonged, it will be due to +intermarriage, to climate, to some cause altogether independent of +language. Every nation will have some adopted children of this kind, +more or fewer; men who belong to it by speech, but who do not belong to +it by race. And what happens in the case of individuals happens in the +case of whole nations. The pages of history are crowded with cases in +which nations have cast aside the tongue of their forefathers, and have +taken instead the tongue of some other people. Greek in the East, Latin +in the West, became the familiar speech of millions who had not a drop +of Greek or Italian blood in their veins. The same has been the case in +later times with Arabic, Persian, Spanish, German, English. Each of +those tongues has become the familiar speech of vast regions where the +mass of the people are not Arabian, Spanish, or English, otherwise than +by adoption. The Briton of Cornwall has, slowly but in the end +thoroughly, adopted the speech of England. In the American continent +full-blooded Indians preside over commonwealths which speak the tongue +of Cortes and Pizarro. In the lands to which all eyes are now turned, +the Greek, who has been busily assimilating strangers ever since he +first planted his colonies in Asia and Sicily, goes on busily +assimilating his Albanian neighbors. And between renegades, janissaries, +and mothers of all nations, the blood of many a Turk must be physically +any thing rather than Turkish. The inherent nature of the case, and the +witness of recorded history, join together to prove that language is no +certain test of race, and that the scientific philologers are doing good +service to accuracy of expression and accuracy of thought by +emphatically calling attention to the fact that language is no such +test. + +But, on the other hand, it is quite possible that the truth to which our +attention is just now most fittingly called may, if put forth too +broadly and without certain qualifications, lead to error quite as +great as the error at which it is aimed. I do not suppose that any one +ever thought that language was, necessarily and in all cases, an +absolute and certain test. If anybody does think so, he has put himself +altogether out of court by shutting his eyes to the most manifest facts +of the case. But there can be no doubt that many people have given too +much importance to language as a test of race. Though they have not +wholly forgotten the facts which tell the other way, they have not +brought them out with enough prominence. But I can also believe that +many people have written and spoken on the subject in a way which cannot +be justified from a strictly scientific point of view, but which may +have been fully justified from the point of view of the writers and +speakers themselves. It may often happen that a way of speaking may not +be scientifically accurate, but may yet be quite near enough to the +truth for the purposes of the matter in hand. It may, for some practical +or even historical purpose, be really more true than the statement which +is scientifically more exact. Language is no certain test of race; but +if a man, struck by this wholesome warning, should run off into the +belief that language and race have absolutely nothing to do with one +another, he had better have gone without the warning. For in such a case +the last error would be worse than the first. The natural instinct of +mankind connects race and language. It does not assume that language is +an infallible test of race; but it does assume that language and race +have something to do with one another. It assumes, that though language +is not an accurately scientific test of race, yet it is a rough and +ready test which does for many practical purposes. To make something +more of an exact definition, one might say, that though language is not +a test of race, it is, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, a +presumption of race; that though it is not a test of race, yet it is a +test of something which, for many practical purposes, is the same as +race. + +Professor Max Mueller warned us long ago that we must not speak of a +Celtic skull. Mr. Sayce has more lately warned us that we must not infer +from community of Aryan speech that there is any kindred in blood +between this or that Englishman and this or that Hindoo. And both +warnings are scientifically true. Yet any one who begins his studies on +these matters with Professor Mueller's famous Oxford Essay will +practically come to another way of looking at things. He will fill his +mind with a vivid picture of the great Aryan family, as yet one, +dwelling in one place, speaking one tongue, having already taken the +first steps toward settled society, recognizing the domestic relations, +possessing the first rudiments of government and religion, and calling +all these first elements of culture by names of which traces still abide +here and there among the many nations of the common stock. He will go on +to draw pictures equally vivid of the several branches of the family +parting off from the primeval home. One great branch he will see going +to the south-east, to become the forefathers of the vast, yet isolated +colony in the Asiatic lands of Persia and India. He watches the +remaining mass sending off wave after wave, to become the forefathers of +the nations of historical Europe. He traces out how each branch starts +with its own share of the common stock--how the language, the creed, the +institutions, once common to all, grow up into different, yet kindred, +shapes, among the many parted branches which grew up, each with an +independent life and strength of its own. This is what our instructors +set before us as the true origin of nations and their languages. And, +in drawing out the picture, we cannot avoid, our teachers themselves do +not avoid, the use of words which imply that the strictly family +relation, the relation of community of blood, is at the root of the +whole matter. We cannot help talking about the family and its branches, +about parents, children, brothers, sisters, cousins. The nomenclature of +natural kindred exactly fits the case; it fits it so exactly that no +other nomenclature could enable us to set forth the case with any +clearness. Yet we cannot be absolutely certain that there was any real +community of blood in the whole story. We really know nothing of the +origin of language or the origin of society. We may make a thousand +ingenious guesses; but we cannot prove any of them. It may be that the +group which came together, and which formed the primeval society which +spoke the primeval Aryan tongue, were not brought together by community +of blood, but by some other cause which threw them in one another's way. +If we accept the Hebrew genealogies, they need not have had any +community of blood nearer than common descent from Adam and Noah. That +is, they need not have been all children of Shem, of Ham, or of +Japheth; some children of Shem, some of Ham, and some of Japheth may +have been led by some cause to settle together. Or if we believe in +independent creations of men, or in the development of men out of +mollusks, the whole of the original society need not have been +descendants of the same man or the same mollusk. In short, there is no +theory of the origin of man which requires us to believe that the +primeval Aryans were a natural family; they may have been more like an +accidental party of fellow-travellers. And if we accept them as a +natural family, it does not follow that the various branches which grew +into separate races and nations, speaking separate though kindred +languages, were necessarily marked off by more immediate kindred. It may +be that there is no nearer kindred in blood between this or that +Persian, this or that Greek, this or that Teuton, than the general +kindred of all Aryans. For, when this or that party marched off from the +common home, it does follow that those who marched off together were +necessarily immediate brothers or cousins. The party which grew into +Hindoos or Teutons may not have been made up exclusively of one set of +near kinsfolk. Some of the children of the same parents or forefathers +may have marched one way, while others marched another way, or stayed +behind. We may, if we please, indulge our fancy by conceiving that there +may actually be family distinctions older than distinctions of nation +and race. It may be that the Gothic _Amali_ and the Roman _AEmilii_--I +throw out the idea as a mere illustration--were branches of a family +which had taken a name before the division of Teuton and Italian. Some +of the members of that family may have joined the band of which came the +Goths, while other members joined the band of which came the Romans. +There is no difference but the length of time to distinguish such a +supposed case from the case of an English family, one branch of which +settled in the seventeenth century at Boston in Massachusetts, while +another branch stayed behind at Boston in Holland. Mr. Sayce says truly +that the use of a kindred language does not prove that the Englishman +and the Hindoo are really akin in race; for, as he adds, many Hindoos +are men of non-Aryan race who have simply learned to speak tongues of +Sanscrit origin. He might have gone on to say, with equal truth, that +there is no positive certainty that there was any community in blood +among the original Aryan group itself, and that if we admit such +community of blood in the original Aryan group, it does not follow that +there is any further special kindred between Hindoo and Hindoo or +between Englishman and Englishman. The original group may not have been +a family, but an artificial union. And if it was a family, those of its +members who marched together east or west or north or south may have had +no tie of kindred beyond the common cousinship of all. + +Now the tendency of this kind of argument is to lead to something a good +deal more startling than the doctrine that language is no certain test +of race. Its tendency is to go on further, and to show that race is no +certain test of community of blood. And this comes pretty nearly to +saying that there is no such thing as race at all. For our whole +conception of race starts from the idea of community of blood. If the +word "race" does not mean community of blood, it is hard to see what it +does mean. Yet it is certain that there can be no positive proof of real +community of blood, even among those groups of mankind which we +instinctively speak of as families and races. It is not merely that the +blood has been mingled in after-times; there is no positive proof that +there was any community of blood in the beginning. No living Englishman +can prove with absolute certainty that he comes in the male line of any +of the Teutonic settlers in Britain in the fifth or sixth centuries. I +say in the male line, because any one who is descended from any English +king can prove such descent, though he can prove it only through a long +and complicated web of female successions. But we may be sure that in no +other case can such a pedigree be proved by the kind of proof which +lawyers would require to make out the title to an estate or a peerage. +The actual forefathers of the modern Englishman may chance to have been, +not true-born Angles or Saxons, but Britons, Scots, in later days +Frenchmen, Flemings, men of any other nation who learned to speak +English and took to themselves English names. But supposing that a man +could make out such a pedigree, supposing that he could prove that he +came in the male line of some follower of Hengest or Cerdic, he would be +no nearer to proving original community of blood either in the +particular Teutonic race or in the general Aryan family. If direct +evidence is demanded, we must give up the whole doctrine of families +and races, as far as we take language, manners, institutions, any thing +but physical conformation, as the distinguishing marks of races and +families. That is to say, if we wish never to use any word of whose +accuracy we cannot be perfectly certain, we must leave off speaking of +races and families at all from any but the purely physical side. We must +content ourselves with saying that certain groups of mankind have a +common history, that they have languages, creeds, and institutions in +common, but that we have no evidence whatever to show how they came to +have languages, creeds, and institutions in common. We cannot say for +certain what was the tie which brought the members of the original group +together, any more than we can name the exact time and the exact place +when and where they came together. + +We may thus seem to be landed in a howling wilderness of scientific +uncertainty. The result of pushing our inquiries so far may seem to be +to show that we really know nothing at all. But in truth the uncertainty +is no greater than the uncertainty which attends all inquiries in the +historical sciences. Though a historical fact may be recorded in the +most trustworthy documents, though it may have happened in our own +times, though we may have seen it happen with our own eyes, yet we +cannot have the same certainty about it as the mathematician has about +the proposition which he proves to absolute demonstration. We cannot +have even that lower degree of certainty which the geologist has with +regard to the order of succession between this and that _stratum_. For +in all historical inquiries we are dealing with facts which themselves +come within the control of human will and human caprice, and the +evidence for which depends on the trustworthiness of human informants, +who may either purposely deceive or unwittingly mislead. A man may lie; +he may err. The triangles and the rocks can neither lie nor err. I may +with my own eyes see a certain man do a certain act; he may tell me +himself, or some one else may tell me, that he is the same man who did +some other act; but as to his statement I cannot have absolute +certainty, and no one but myself can have absolute certainty as to the +statement which I make as to the facts which I saw with my own eyes. +Historical evidence may range through every degree, from the barest +likelihood to that undoubted moral certainty on which every man acts +without hesitation in practical affairs. But it cannot get beyond this +last standard. If, then, we are ever to use words like race, family, or +even nation, to denote groups of mankind marked off by any kind of +historical, as distinguished from physical, characteristics, we must be +content to use those words, as we use many other words, without being +able to prove that our use of them is accurate, as mathematicians judge +of accuracy. I cannot be quite sure that William the Conqueror landed at +Pevensey, though I have strong reasons for believing that he did so. And +I have strong reasons for believing many facts about race and language +about which I am much further from being quite sure than I am about +William's landing at Pevensey. In short, in all these matters, we must +be satisfied to let presumption very largely take the place of actual +proof; and, if we only let presumption in, most of our difficulties at +once fly away. Language is no certain test of race; but it is a +presumption of race. Community of race, as we commonly understand race, +is no certain proof of original community of blood; but it is a +presumption of original community of blood. The presumption amounts to +moral proof, if only we do not insist on proving such physical community +of blood as would satisfy a genealogist. It amounts to moral proof, if +all that we seek is to establish a relation in which the community of +blood is the leading idea, and in which, where natural community of +blood does not exist, its place is supplied by something which by a +legal fiction is looked upon as its equivalent. + +If, then, we do not ask for scientific, for what we may call physical, +accuracy, but if we are satisfied with the kind of proof which is all +that we can ever get in the historical sciences--if we are satisfied to +speak in a way which is true for popular and practical purposes--then we +may say that language has a great deal to do with race, as race is +commonly understood, and that race has a great deal to do with community +of blood. If we once admit the Roman doctrine of adoption, our whole +course is clear. The natural family is the starting-point of every +thing; but we must give the natural family the power of artificially +enlarging itself by admitting adoptive members. A group of mankind is +thus formed, in which it does not follow that all the members have any +natural community of blood, but in which community of blood is the +starting-point, in which those who are connected by natural community of +blood form the original body within whose circle the artificial members +are admitted. A group of mankind thus formed is something quite +different from a fortuitious concurrence of atoms. Three or four +brothers by blood, with a fourth or fifth man whom they agree to look on +as filling in every thing the same place as a brother by blood, form a +group which is quite unlike a union of four or five men, none of whom is +bound by any tie of blood to any of the others. In the latter kind of +union the notion of kindred does not come in at all. In the former kind +the notion of kindred is the groundwork of every thing; it determines +the character of every relation and every action, even though the +kindred between some members of the society and others may be owing to a +legal fiction and not to natural descent. All that we know of the growth +of tribes, races, nations, leads us to believe that they grew in this +way. Natural kindred was the groundwork, the leading and determining +idea; but, by one of those legal fictions which have had such an +influence on all institutions, adoption was in certain cases allowed to +count as natural kindred.[3] + +The usage of all languages shows that community of blood was the leading +idea in forming the greater and smaller groups of mankind. Words like +[Greek: phylon, genos], _gens_, _natio_, _kin_, all point to the natural +family as the origin of all society. The family in the narrower sense, +the children of one father in one house, grew into a more extended +family, the _gens_. Such were the Alkmaionidai, the Julii, or the +Scyldingas, the real or artificial descendants of a real or supposed +forefather. The nature of the _gens_ has been set forth often enough. If +it is a mistake to fancy that every Julius or Cornelius was the natural +kinsman of every other Julius or Cornelius, it is equally a mistake to +think that the _gens Julia_ or _Cornelia_ was in its origin a mere +artificial association, into which the idea of natural kindred did not +enter. It is indeed possible that really artificial _gentes_, groups of +men of whom it might chance that none were natural kinsmen, were formed +in later times after the model of the original _gentes_. Still such +imitation would bear witness to the original conception of the _gens_. +It would be the doctrine of adoption turned the other way; instead of a +father adopting a son, a number of men would agree to adopt a common +father. The family then grew into the _gens_; the union of _gentes_ +formed the state, the political community, which in its first form was +commonly a tribe. Then came the nation, formed of a union of tribes. +Kindred, real or artificial, is the one basis on which all society and +all government has grown up. + +Now it is plain, that as soon as we admit the doctrine of artificial +kindred--that is, as soon as we allow the exercise of the law of +adoption, physical purity of race is at an end. Adoption treats a man as +if he were the son of a certain father; it cannot really make him the +son of that father. If a brachycephalic father adopts a dolichocephalic +son, the legal act cannot change the shape of the adopted son's skull. I +will not undertake to say whether, not indeed the rite of adoption, but +the influences and circumstances which would spring from it, might not, +in the course of generations, affect even the skull of the man who +entered a certain _gens_, tribe, or nation by artificial adoption only. +If by any chance the adopted son spoke a different language from the +adopted father, the rite of adoption itself would not of itself change +his language. But it would bring him under influences which would make +him adopt the language of his new _gens_ by a conscious act of the will, +and which would make his children adopt it by the same unconscious act +of the will by which each child adopts the language of his parents. The +adopted son, still more the son of the adopted son, became, in speech, +in feelings, in worship, in every thing but physical descent, one with +the _gens_ into which he was adopted. He became one of that _gens_ for +all practical, political, historical, purposes. It is only the +physiologist who could deny his right to his new position. The nature of +the process is well expressed by a phrase of our own law. When the +nation--the word itself keeps about it the remembrance of birth as the +groundwork of every thing--adopts a new citizen, that is, a new child of +the state, he is said to be _naturalized_. That is, a legal process puts +him in the same position, and gives him the same rights, as a man who +is a citizen and a son by birth. It is assumed that the rights of +citizenship come by nature--that is, by birth. The stranger is admitted +to them only by a kind of artificial birth; he is naturalized by law; +his children are in a generation or two naturalized in fact. There is +now no practical distinction between the Englishman whose forefathers +landed with William, or even between the Englishman whose forefathers +sought shelter from Alva or from Louis the Fourteenth, and the +Englishman whose forefathers landed with Hengest. It is for the +physiologist to say whether any difference can be traced in their +several skulls; for all practical purposes, historical or political, all +distinction between these several classes has passed away. + +We may, in short, say that the law of adoption runs through every thing, +and that it may be practised on every scale. What adoption is at the +hands of the family, naturalization is at the hands of the state. And +the same process extends itself from adopted or naturalized individuals +to large classes of men, indeed to whole nations. When the process takes +place on this scale, we may best call it assimilation. Thus Rome +assimilated the continental nations of Western Europe to that degree +that, allowing for a few survivals here and there, not only Italy, but +Gaul and Spain, became Roman. The people of those lands, admitted step +by step to the Roman franchise, adopted the name and tongue of Romans. +It must soon have been hard to distinguish the Roman colonist in Gaul or +Spain from the native Gaul or Spaniard who had, as far as in him lay, +put on the guise of a Roman. This process of assimilation has gone on +everywhere and at all times. When two nations come in this way into +close contact with one another, it depends on a crowd of circumstances +which shall assimilate the other, or whether they shall remain distinct +without assimilation either way. Sometimes the conquerors assimilate +their subjects; sometimes they are assimilated by their subjects; +sometimes conquerors and subjects remain distinct forever. When +assimilation either way does take place, the direction which it takes in +each particular case will depend, partly on their respective numbers, +partly on their degrees of civilization. A small number of less +civilized conquerors will easily be lost among a greater number of more +civilized subjects, and that even though they give their name to the +land and people which they conquer. The modern Frenchman represents, +not the conquering Frank, but the conquered Gaul, or, as he called +himself, the conquered Roman. The modern Bulgarian represents, not the +Finnish conqueror, but the conquered Slav. The modern Russian +represents, not the Scandinavian ruler, but the Slav who sent for the +Scandinavian to rule over him. And so we might go on with endless other +cases. The point is that the process of adoption, naturalization, +assimilation, has gone on everywhere. No nation can boast of absolute +purity of blood, though no doubt some nations come much nearer to it +than others. When I speak of purity of blood, I leave out of sight the +darker questions which I have already raised with regard to the groups +of mankind in days before recorded history. I assume great groups like +Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, as having what we may call a real corporate +existence, however we may hold that that corporate existence began. My +present point is that no existing nation is, in the physiologist's sense +of purity, purely Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, or any thing else. All +races have assimilated a greater or less amount of foreign elements. +Taking this standard, one which comes more nearly within the range of +our actual knowledge than the possibilities of unrecorded times, we may +again say that, from the purely scientific or physiological point of +view, not only is language no test of race, but that, at all events +among the great nations of the world, there is no such thing as purity +of race at all. + +But, while we admit this truth, while we even insist upon it from the +strictly scientific point of view, we must be allowed to look at it with +different eyes from a more practical standing point. This is the +standing point, whether of history which is the politics of the past, or +of politics which are the history of the present. From this point of +view, we may say unhesitatingly that there are such things as races and +nations, and that to the grouping of those races and nations language is +the best guide. We cannot undertake to define with any philosophical +precision the exact distinction between race and race, between nation +and nation. Nor can we undertake to define with the like precision in +what way the distinctions between race and race, between nation and +nation, began. But all analogy leads us to believe that tribes, nations, +races, were all formed according to the original model of the family, +the family which starts from the idea of the community of blood, but +which allows artificial adoption to be its legal equivalent. In all +cases of adoption, naturalization, assimilation, whether of individuals +or of large classes of men, the adopted person or class is adopted into +an existing community. Their adoption undoubtedly influences the +community into which they are adopted. It at once destroys any claim on +the part of that community to purity of blood, and it influences the +adopting community in many ways, physical and moral. A family, a tribe, +or a nation, which has largely recruited itself by adopted members, +cannot be the same as one which has never practised adoption at all, but +all whose members come of the original stock. But the influence which +the adopting community exercises upon its adopted members is far greater +than any influence which they exercise upon it. It cannot change their +blood; it cannot give them new natural forefathers; but it may do every +thing short of this; it may make them, in speech, in feeling, in +thought, and in habit, genuine members of the community which has +artificially made them its own. While there is not in any nation, in any +race, any such thing as strict purity of blood, yet there is in each +nation, in each race, a dominant element--or rather something more than +an element--something which is the true essence of the race or nation, +something which sets its standard and determines its character, +something which draws to itself and assimilates to itself all other +elements. It so works that all other elements are not co-equal elements +with itself, but mere infusions poured into an already existing body. +Doubtless these infusions do in some measure influence the body which +assimilates them; but the influence which they exercise is as nothing +compared to the influence which they undergo. We may say that they +modify the character of the body into which they are assimilated; they +do not affect its personality. Thus, assuming the great groups of +mankind as primary facts, the origin of which lies beyond our certain +knowledge, we may speak of families and races, of the great Aryan family +and of the races into which it parted, as groups which have a real, +practical existence, as groups founded on the ruling primeval idea of +kindred, even though in many cases the kindred may not be by natural +descent, but only by law of adoption. The Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic +races of man are real living and abiding groups, the distinction +between which we must accept among the primary facts of history. And +they go on as living and abiding groups, even though we know that each +of them has assimilated many adopted members, sometimes from other +branches of the Aryan family, sometimes from races of men alien to the +whole Aryan stock. These races which, in a strictly physiological point +of view, have no existence at all, have a real existence from the more +practical point of view of history and politics. The Bulgarian calls to +the Russian for help, and the Russian answers to his call for help, on +the ground of their being alike members of the one Slavonic race. It may +be that, if we could trace out the actual pedigree of this or that +Bulgarian, of this or that Russian, we might either find that there was +no real kindred between them, or we might find that there was a real +kindred, but a kindred which must be traced up to another stock than +that of the Slav. In point of actual blood, instead of both being Slavs, +it may be that one of them comes, it may be that both of them come, of a +stock which is not Slavonic or even Aryan. The Bulgarian may chance to +be a Bulgarian in a truer sense than he thinks; for he may come of the +blood of those original Finnish conquerors who gave the Bulgarian name +to the Slavs among whom they were merged. And if this or that Bulgarian +may chance to come of the stock of Finnish conquerors assimilated by +their Slavonic subjects, this or that Russian may chance to come of the +stock of Finnish subjects assimilated by their Slavonic conquerors. It +may then so happen that the cry for help goes up and is answered on a +ground of kindred which in the eye of the physiologist has no existence. +Or it may happen that the kindred is real in a way which neither the +suppliant nor his helper thinks of. But in either case, for the +practical purposes of human life, the plea is a good plea; the kindred +on which it is founded is a real kindred. It is good by the law of +adoption. It is good by the law the force of which we all admit whenever +we count a man as an Englishman whose forefathers, two generations or +twenty generations back, came to our shores as strangers. For all +practical purposes, for all the purposes which guide men's actions, +public or private, the Russian and the Bulgarian, kinsmen so long +parted, perhaps in very truth no natural kinsmen at all, are members of +the same race, bound together by the common sentiment of race. They +belong to the same race, exactly as an Englishman whose forefathers came +into Britain fourteen hundred years back, and an Englishman whose +forefathers came only one or two hundred years back, are alike members +of the same nation, bound together by a tie of common nationality. + +And now, having ruled that races and nations, though largely formed by +the working of an artificial law, are still real and living things, +groups in which the idea of kindred is the idea around which every thing +has grown, how are we to define our races and our nations? How are we to +mark them off one from the other? Bearing in mind the cautions and +qualifications which have been already given, bearing in mind large +classes of exceptions which will presently be spoken of, I say +unhesitatingly that for practical purposes there is one test, and one +only, and that that test is language. It is hardly needful to show that +races and nations cannot be defined by the merely political arrangements +which group men under various governments. For some purposes of ordinary +language, for some purposes of ordinary politics, we are tempted, +sometimes driven, to take this standard. And in some parts of the +world, in our own Western Europe for instance, nations and governments +do, in a rough way, fairly answer to one another. And, in any case, +political divisions are not without their influence on the formation of +national divisions, while national divisions ought to have the greatest +influence on political divisions. That is to say, _prima facie_ a nation +and government should coincide. I say only _prima facie_; for this is +assuredly no inflexible rule; there are often good reasons why it should +be otherwise; only, whenever it is otherwise, there should be some good +reason forthcoming. It might even be true that in no case did a +government and a nation exactly coincide, and yet it would none the less +be the rule that a government and a nation should coincide. That is to +say, so far as a nation and a government coincide, we accept it as the +natural state of things, and ask no question as to the cause. So far as +they do not coincide, we mark the case as exceptional, by asking what is +the cause. And by saying that a government and a nation should coincide +we mean that, as far as possible, the boundaries of governments should +be so laid out as to agree with the boundaries of nations. That is, we +assume the nation as something already existing, something primary, to +which the secondary arrangements of government should, as far as +possible, conform. How then do we define the nation, which is, if there +is no especial reason to the contrary, to fix the limits of a +government? Primarily, I say, as a rule, but a rule subject to +exceptions,--as a _prima facie_ standard, subject to special reasons to +the contrary,--we define the nation by language. We may at least apply +the test negatively. It would be unsafe to rule that all speakers of the +same language must have a common nationality; but we may safely say that +where there is not community of language, there is no common nationality +in the highest sense. It is true that without community of language +there may be an artificial nationality, a nationality which may be good +for all political purposes, and which may engender a common national +feeling. Still this is not quite the same thing as that fuller national +unity which is felt where there is community of language. In fact +mankind instinctively takes language as the badge of nationality. We so +far take it as the badge, that we instinctively assume community of +language as a nation as the rule, and we set down any thing that departs +from that rule as an exception. The first idea suggested by the word +Frenchman or German or any other national name, is that he is a man who +speaks French or German as his mother-tongue. We take for granted, in +the absence of any thing to make us think otherwise, that a Frenchman is +a speaker of French and that a speaker of French is a Frenchman. Where +in any case it is otherwise, we mark that case as an exception, and we +ask the special cause. Again, the rule is none the less the rule, nor +the exceptions the exceptions, because the exceptions may easily +outnumber the instances which conform to the rule. The rule is still the +rule, because we take the instances which conform to it as a matter of +course, while in every case which does not conform to it we ask for the +explanation. All the larger countries of Europe provide us with +exceptions; but we treat them all as exceptions. We do not ask why a +native of France speaks French. But when a native of France speaks as +his mother-tongue some other tongue than French, when French, or +something which popularly passes for French, is spoken as his +mother-tongue by some one who is not a native of France, we at once ask +the reason. And the reason will be found in each case in some special +historical cause which withdraws that case from the operation of the +general law. A very good reason can be given why French, or something +which popularly passes for French, is spoken in parts of Belgium and +Switzerland whose inhabitants are certainly not Frenchmen. But the +reason has to be given, and it may fairly be asked. + +In the like sort, if we turn to our own country, whenever within the +bounds of Great Britain we find any tongue spoken other than English, we +at once ask the reason and we learn the special historic cause. In a +part of France and a part of Great Britain we find tongues spoken which +differ alike from English and from French, but which are strongly akin +to one another. We find that these are the survivals of a group of +tongues once common to Gaul and Britain, but which the settlement of +other nations, the introduction and the growth of other tongues, have +brought down to the level of survivals. So again we find islands which +both speech and geographical position seem to mark as French, but which +are dependencies, and loyal dependencies, of the English crown. We soon +learn the cause of the phenomenon which seems so strange. Those islands +are the remains of a state and a people which adopted the French tongue, +but which, while it remained one, did not become a part of the French +state. That people brought England by force of arms under the rule of +their own sovereigns. The greater part of that people were afterward +conquered by France, and gradually became French in feeling as well as +in language. But a remnant clave to their connection with the land which +their forefathers had conquered, and that remnant, while keeping the +French tongue, never became French in feeling. This last case, that of +the Norman islands, is a specially instructive one. Normandy and England +were politically connected, while language and geography pointed rather +to a union between Normandy and France. In the case of continental +Normandy, where the geographical tie was strongest, language and +geography together could carry the day, and the continental Norman +became a Frenchman. In the islands, where the geographical tie was less +strong, political traditions and manifest interest carried the day +against language and a weaker geographical tie. The insular Norman did +not become a Frenchman. But neither did he become an Englishman. He +alone remained Norman, keeping his own tongue and his own laws, but +attached to the English crown by a tie at once of tradition and of +advantage. Between states of the relative size of England and the Norman +islands, the relation naturally becomes a relation of dependence on the +part of the smaller members of the union. But it is well to remember +that our forefathers never conquered the forefathers of the men of the +Norman islands, but that their forefathers did once conquer ours. + +These instances, and countless others, bear out the position that, while +community of language is the most obvious sign of common nationality, +while it is the main element, or something more than an element, in the +formation of nationality, the rule is open to exceptions of all kinds, +and that the influence of language is at all times liable to be +overruled by other influences. But all the exceptions confirm the rule, +because we specially remark those cases which contradict the rule, and +we do not specially remark those cases which do not conform to it. + +In the cases which we have just spoken of, the growth of the nation as +marked out by language, and the growth of the exceptions to the rule of +language, have both come through the gradual, unconscious working of +historical causes. Union under the same government, or separation under +separate governments, have been among the foremost of those historical +causes. The French nation consists of the people of all that extent of +continuous territory which has been brought under the rule of the French +kings. But the working of the cause has been gradual and unconscious. +There was no moment when any one deliberately proposed to form a French +nation by joining together all the separate duchies and counties which +spoke the French tongue. Since the French nation has been formed, men +have proposed to annex this or that land on the ground that its people +spoke the French tongue, or perhaps only some tongue akin to the French +tongue. But the formation of the French nation itself was the work of +historical causes, the work doubtless of a settled policy acting through +many generations, but not the work of any conscious theory about races +and languages. It is a special mark of our time, a special mark of the +influence which doctrines about race and language have had on men's +minds, that we have seen great nations united by processes in which +theories of race and language really have had much to do with bringing +about their union. If statesmen have not been themselves moved by such +theories, they have at least found that it suited their purpose to make +use of such theories as a means of working on the minds of others. In +the reunion of the severed German and Italian nations, the conscious +feeling of nationality, and the acceptance of a common language as the +outward badge of nationality, had no small share. Poets sang of language +as the badge of national union; statesmen made it the badge, so far as +political considerations did not lead them to do anything else. The +revived kingdom of Italy is very far from taking in all the speakers of +the Italian tongue. Lugano, Trent, Aquileia--to take places which are +clearly Italian, and not to bring in places of more doubtful +nationality, like the cities of Istria and Dalmatia--form no part of the +Italian political body, and Corsica is not under the same rule as the +other two great neighboring islands. But the fact that all these places +do not belong to the Italian body at once suggests the twofold question, +why they do not belong to it, and whether they ought not to belong to +it. History easily answers the first question; it may perhaps also +answer the second question in a way which will say Yes as regards one +place and No as regards another. Ticino must not lose her higher +freedom; Trieste must remain the needful mouth for southern Germany; +Dalmatia must not be cut off from the Slavonic mainland; Corsica would +seem to have sacrificed national feeling to personal hero-worship. But +it is certainly hard to see why Trent and Aquileia should be kept apart +from the Italian body. On the other hand, the revived Italian kingdom +contains very little which is not Italian in speech. It is perhaps by a +somewhat elastic view of language that the dialect of Piedmont and the +dialect of Sicily are classed under one head; still, as a matter of +fact, they have a single classical standard, and they are universally +accepted as varieties of the same tongue. But it is only in a few Alpine +valleys that languages are spoken which, whether Romance or Teutonic, +are in any case not Italian. The reunion of Italy, in short, took in all +that was Italian, save when some political cause hindered the rule of +language from being followed. Of any thing not Italian by speech so +little has been taken in that the non-Italian parts of Italy, +Burgundian Aosta and the Seven German Communes--if these last still keep +their Teutonic language,--fall under the rule that there are some things +too small for laws to pay heed to. + +But it must not be forgotten that all this simply means that in the +lands of which we have just been speaking the process of adoption has +been carried out on the largest scale. Nations, with languages as their +rough practical test, have been formed; but they have been formed with +very little regard to physical purity of blood. In short, throughout +Western Europe assimilation has been the rule. That is to say, in any of +the great divisions of Western Europe, though the land may have been +settled and conquered over and over again, yet the mass of the people of +the land have been drawn to some one national type. Either some one +among the races inhabiting the land has taught the others to put on its +likeness, or else a new national type has arisen which has elements +drawn from several of those races. Thus the modern Frenchman may be +defined as produced by the union of blood which is mainly Celtic with a +speech which is mainly Latin, and with an historical polity which is +mainly Teutonic. That is, he is neither Gaul, Roman, nor Frank, but a +fourth type which has drawn important elements from all three. Within +modern France this new national type has so far assimilated all others +as to make every thing else merely exceptional. The Fleming of one +corner, the Basque of another, even the far more important Breton of a +third corner, have all in this way become mere exceptions to the general +type of the country. If we pass into our own islands, we shall find that +the same process has been at work. If we look to Great Britain only, we +shall find that, though the means have not been the same, yet the end +has been gained hardly less thoroughly than in France. For all real +political purposes, for every thing which concerns a nation in the face +of other nations, Great Britain is as thoroughly united as France is. +Englishmen, Scotchmen, Welshmen, feel themselves one people in the +general affairs of the world. A secession of Scotland or Wales is as +unlikely as a secession of Normandy or Languedoc. The part of the island +which is not thoroughly assimilated in language, that part which still +speaks Welsh or Gaelic, is larger in proportion than the non-French part +of modern France. But however much either the northern or the western +Briton may, in a fit of antiquarian politics, declaim against the Saxon, +for all practical political purposes he and the Saxon are one. The +distinction between the southern and the northern English--for the men +of Lothian and Fife must allow me to call them by this last name--is, +speaking politically and without ethnological or linguistic precision, +much as if France and Aquitaine had been two kingdoms united on equal +terms, instead of Aquitaine being merged in France. When we cross into +Ireland, we indeed find another state of things, and one which comes +nearer to some of the phenomena which we shall come to in other parts of +the world. Ireland is, most unhappily, not so firmly united to Great +Britain as the different parts of Great Britain are to one another. +Still even here the division arises quite as much from geographical and +historical causes as from distinctions of race strictly so called. If +Ireland had had no wrongs, still two great islands can never be so +thoroughly united as a continuous territory can be. On the other hand, +in point of language, the discontented part of the United Kingdom is +much less strongly marked off than that fraction of the contented part +which is not thoroughly assimilated. Irish is certainly not the +language of Ireland in at all the same degree in which Welsh is the +language of Wales. The Saxon has commonly to be denounced in the Saxon +tongue. + +In some other parts of Western Europe, as in the Spanish and +Scandinavian peninsulas, the coincidence of language and nationality is +stronger than it is in France, Britain, or even Italy. No one speaks +Spanish except in Spain or in the colonies of Spain. And within Spain +the proportion of those who do not speak Spanish, namely the Basque +remnant, is smaller than the non-assimilated element in Britain and +France. Here two things are to be marked: First, the modern Spanish +nation has been formed, like the French, by a great process of +assimilation; secondly, the actual national arrangements of the Spanish +peninsula are wholly due to historical causes, we might almost say +historical accidents, and those of very recent date. Spain and Portugal +are separate kingdoms, and we look on their inhabitants as forming +separate nations. But this is simply because a Queen of Castile in the +fifteenth century married a King of Aragon. Had Isabel married a King of +Portugal, we should now talk of Spain and Aragon as we now talk of +Spain and Portugal, and we should count Portugal for part of Spain. In +language, in history, in every thing else, Aragon was really more +distinct from Castile than Portugal was. The King of Castile was already +spoken of as King of Spain, and Portugal would have merged in the +Spanish kingdom at last as easily as Aragon did. In Scandinavia, on the +other hand, there must have been less assimilation than anywhere else. +In the present kingdoms of Norway and Sweden, there must be a nearer +approach to actual purity of blood than in any other part of Europe. One +cannot fancy that much Finnish blood has been assimilated, and there +have been no conquests or settlements later than that of the Northmen +themselves. + +When we pass into Central Europe we shall find a somewhat different +state of things. The distinctions of race seem to be more lasting. While +the national unity of the German Empire is greater than that of either +France or Great Britain, it has not only subjects of other languages, +but actually discontented subjects, in three corners, on its French, its +Danish, and its Polish frontiers. We ask the reason, and it will be at +once answered that the discontent of all three is the result of recent +conquest, in two cases of very recent conquest indeed. But this is one +of the very points to be marked; the strong national unity of the German +Empire has been largely the result of assimilation; and these three +parts, where recent conquest has not yet been followed by assimilation, +are chiefly important because, in all three cases, the discontented +territory is geographically continuous with a territory of its own +speech outside the Empire. This does not prove that assimilation can +never take place; but it will undoubtedly make the process longer and +harder. + +So again, wherever German-speaking people dwell outside the bounds of +the revived German state, as well as when that revived German state +contains other than German-speaking people, we ask the reason and we can +find it. Political reasons forbade the immediate annexation of Austria, +Tyrol, and Salzburg. Combined political and geographical reasons, and, +if we look a little deeper, ethnological reasons too, forbade the +annexation of Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia. Some reason or other +will, it may be hoped, always be found to hinder the annexation of +lands which, like Zuerich and Bern, have reached a higher political +level. Outlying brethren in Transsilvania or at Saratof again come under +the rule "De minimis non curat lex." In all these cases the rule that +nationality and language should go together, yields to unavoidable +circumstances. But, on the other hand, where French or Danish or +Slavonic or Lithuanian is spoken within the bounds of the new Empire, +the principle that language is the badge of nationality, that without +community of language nationality is imperfect, shows itself in another +shape. One main object of modern policy is to bring these exceptional +districts under the general rule by spreading the German language in +them. Everywhere, in short, wherever a power is supposed to be founded +on nationality, the common feeling of mankind instinctively takes +language as the test of nationality. We assume language as the test of a +nation, without going into any minute questions as to the physical +purity of blood in that nation. A continuous territory, living under the +same government and speaking the same tongue, forms a nation for all +practical purposes. If some of its inhabitants do not belong to the +original stock by blood, they at least belong to it by adoption. + +The question may now fairly be asked, What is the case in those parts of +the world where people who are confessedly of different races and +languages inhabit a continuous territory and live under the same +government? How do we define nationality in such cases as these? The +answer will be very different in different cases, according to the means +by which the different national elements in such a territory have been +brought together. They may form what I have already called an artificial +nation, united by an act of its own free will. Or it may be simply a +case where distinct nations, distinct in every thing which can be looked +on as forming a nation, except the possession of an independent +government, are brought together, by whatever causes, under a common +ruler. The former case is very distinctly an exception which proves the +rule, and the latter is, though in quite another way, an exception which +proves the rule also. Both cases may need somewhat more in the way of +definition. We will begin with the first, the case of a nation which has +been formed out of elements which differ in language, but which still +have been brought together so as to form an artificial nation. In the +growth of the chief nations of Western Europe, the principle which was +consciously or unconsciously followed has been that the nation should be +marked out by language, and the use of any tongue other than the +dominant tongue of the nation should be at least exceptional. But there +is one nation in Europe, one which has a full right to be called a +nation in a political sense, which has been formed on the directly +opposite principle. The Swiss Confederation has been formed by the union +of certain detached fragments of the German, Italian, and Burgundian +nations. It may indeed be said that the process has been in some sort a +process of adoption, that the Italian and Burgundian elements have been +incorporated into an already existing German body; that, as those +elements were once subjects or dependents or protected allies, the case +is one of clients or freedmen who have been admitted to the full +privileges of the _gens_. This is undoubtedly true, and it is equally +true of a large part of the German element itself. Throughout the +Confederation, allies and subjects have been raised to the rank of +confederates. But the former position of the component elements does not +matter for our purpose. As a matter of fact, the foreign dependencies +have all been admitted into the Confederation on equal terms. German is +undoubtedly the language of a great majority of the Confederation; but +the two recognized Romance languages are each the speech, not of a mere +fragment or survival, like Welsh in Britain or Breton in France, but of +a large minority forming a visible element in the general body. The +three languages are all of them alike recognized as national languages, +though, as if to keep up the universal rule that there should be some +exceptions to all rules, a fourth language still lives on within the +bounds of the Confederation, which is not admitted to the rights of the +other three, but is left in the state of a fragment or a survival.[4] Is +such an artificial body as this to be called a nation? It is plainly not +a nation by blood or by speech. It can hardly be called a nation by +adoption. For, if we choose to say that the three elements have all +agreed to adopt one another as brethren, yet it has been adoption +without assimilation. Yet surely the Swiss Confederation is a nation. It +is not a a mere power, in which various nations are brought together, +whether willingly or unwillingly, under a common ruler, but without any +further tie of union. For all political purposes, the Swiss +Confederation is a nation, a nation capable of as strong and true +national feeling as any other nation. Yet it is a nation purely +artificial, one in no way defined by blood or speech. It thus proves the +rule in two ways. We at once feel that this artificially formed nation, +which has no common language, but each of whose elements speaks a +language common to itself with some other nation, is something different +from those nations which are defined by a universal or at least a +predominant language. We mark it as an exception, as something different +from other cases. And when we see how nearly this artificial nation +comes, in every point but that of language, to the likeness of those +nations which are defined by language, we see that it is a nation +defined by language which sets the standard, and after the model of +which the artificial nation forms itself. The case of the Swiss +Confederation and its claim to rank as a nation would be like the case +of those _gentes_, if any such there were, which did not spring even +from the expansion of an original family, but which were artificially +formed in imitation of those which did, and which, instead of a real or +traditional forefather, chose for themselves an adopted one. + +In the Swiss Confederation, then, we have a case of a nation formed by +an artificial process, but which still is undoubtedly a nation in the +face of other nations. We now come to the other class, in which +nationality and language keep the connection which they have elsewhere, +but in which nations do not even in the roughest way answer to +governments. We have only to go into the Eastern lands of Europe to find +a state of things in which the notion of nationality, as marked out by +language and national feeling, has altogether parted company from the +notion of political government. It must be remembered that this state of +things is not confined to the nations which are or have lately been +under the yoke of the Turk. It extends also to the nations or fragments +of nations which make up the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In all the lands +held by these two powers we come across phenomena of geography, race, +and language, which stand out in marked contrast with any thing to which +we are used in Western Europe. We may perhaps better understand what +those phenomena are, if we suppose a state of things which sounds absurd +in the West, but which has its exact parallel in many parts of the East. +Let us suppose that in a journey through England we came successively to +districts, towns, or villages, where we found, one after another, first, +Britons speaking Welsh; then Romans speaking Latin; then Saxons or +Angles speaking an older form of our own tongue; then Scandinavians +speaking Danish; then Normans speaking Old-French; lastly perhaps a +settlement of Flemings, Huguenots, or Palatines, still remaining a +distinct people and speaking their own tongue. Or let us suppose a +journey through Northern France, in which we found at different stages, +the original Gaul, the Roman, the Frank, the Saxon of Bayeux, the Dane +of Coutances, each remaining a distinct people, each of them keeping the +tongue which they first brought with them into the land. Let us suppose +further that, in many of these cases, a religious distinction was added +to a national distinction. Let us conceive one village Roman Catholic, +another Anglican, others Nonconformist of various types, even if we do +not call up any remnants of the worshippers of Jupiter or of Woden. All +this seems absurd in any Western country, and absurd enough it is. But +the absurdity of the West is the living reality of the East. There we +may still find all the chief races which have ever occupied the country, +still remaining distinct, still keeping separate tongues, and those for +the most part, their own original tongues. Within the present and late +European dominions of the Turk, the original races, those whom we find +there at the first beginnings of history, are all there still, and two +of them keep their original tongues. They form three distinct nations. +First of all there are the Greeks. We have not here to deal with them as +the representatives of that branch of the Roman Empire which adopted +their speech, but simply as one of the original elements in the +population of the Eastern peninsula. Known almost down to our own day by +their historical name of Romans, they have now fallen back on the name +of Hellenes. And to that name they have a perfectly good claim. If the +modern Greeks are not all true Hellenes, they are an aggregate of +adopted Hellenes gathered round and assimilated to a true Hellenic +kernel. Here we see the oldest recorded inhabitants of a large part of +the land abiding, and abiding in a very different case from the remnants +of the Celt and the Iberian in Western Europe. The Greeks are no +survival of a nation; they are a true and living nation, a nation whose +importance is quite out of its proportion to its extent in mere numbers. +They still abide, the predominant race in their own ancient and again +independent land, the predominant race in those provinces of the +continental Turkish dominion which formed part of their ancient land, +the predominant race through all the shores and islands of the AEgaean and +of part of the Euxine also. In near neighborhood to the Greeks still +live another race of equal antiquity, the Skipetar or Albanians. These, +as I believe is no longer doubted, represent the ancient Illyrians. The +exact degree of their ethnical kindred with the Greeks is a scientific +question which need not here be considered; but the facts that they are +more largely intermingled with the Greeks than any of the other +neighboring nations, that they show a special power of identifying +themselves with the Greeks, a power, so to speak, of becoming Greeks +and making part of the artificial Greek nation, are matters of practical +history. It must never be forgotten, that among the worthies of the +Greek War of Independence, some of the noblest were not of Hellenic but +Albanian blood. The Orthodox Albanian easily turns into a Greek; and the +Mahometan Albanian is something which is broadly distinguished from a +Turk. He has, as he well may have, a strong national feeling, and that +national feeling has sometimes got the better of religious divisions. If +Albania is among the most backward parts of the peninsula, still it is, +by all accounts, the part where there is most hope of men of different +religions joining together against the common enemy. + +Here then are two ancient races, the Greeks and another race, not indeed +so advanced, so important, or so widely spread, but a race which equally +keeps a real national being. There is also a third ancient race which +survives as a distinct people, though they have for ages adopted a +foreign language. These are the Vlachs or Roumans, the surviving +representatives of the great race, call it Thracian or any other, which +at the beginning of history held the great inland mass of the Eastern +peninsula, with the Illyrians to the west of them and the Greeks to the +south. Every one knows, that in the modern principality of Roumania and +in the adjoining parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, there is to be +seen that phenomenon so unique in the East, a people who not only, as +the Greeks did till lately, still keep the Roman name, but who speak +neither Greek nor Turkish, neither Slav nor Skipetar, but a dialect of +Latin, a tongue akin, not to the tongues of any of their neighbors, but +to the tongues of Gaul, Italy, and Spain. And any one who has given any +real attention to this matter knows that the same race is to be found, +scattered here and there, if in some parts only as wandering shepherds, +in the Slavonic, Albanian, and Greek lands south of the Danube. The +assumption has commonly been that this outlying Romance people owe their +Romance character to the Roman colonization of Dacia under Trajan. In +this view, the modern Roumans would be the descendants of Trajan's +colonists and of Dacians who had learned of them to adopt the speech and +manners of Rome. But when we remember that Dacia was the first Roman +province to be given up--that the modern Roumania was for ages the +highway of every barbarian tribe on its way from the East to the +West--that the land has been conquered and settled and forsaken over and +over again,--it would be passing strange if this should be the one land, +and its people the one race, to keep the Latin tongue when it has been +forgotten in all the neighboring countries. In fact, this idea has been +completely dispersed by modern research. The establishment of the +Roumans in Dacia is of comparatively recent date, beginning only in the +thirteenth century. The Roumans of Wallachia, Moldavia, and +Transsilvania, are isolated from the scattered Rouman remnant on Pindos +and elsewhere. They represent that part of the inhabitants of the +peninsula which became Latin, while the Greeks remained Greek, and the +Illyrians remained barbarian. Their lands, Moesia, Thrace specially so +called, and Dacia, were added to the empire at various times from +Augustus to Trajan. That they should gradually adopt the Latin language +is in no sort wonderful. Their position with regard to Rome was exactly +the same as that of Gaul and Spain. Where Greek civilization had been +firmly established, Latin could nowhere displace it. Where Greek +civilization was unknown, Latin overcame the barbarian tongue. It would +naturally do so in this part of the East exactly as it did in the +West.[5] + +Here then we have in the Southeastern peninsula three nations which have +all lived on to all appearances from the very beginnings of European +history, three distinct nations, speaking three distinct languages. We +have nothing answering to this in the West. It needs no proof that the +speakers of Celtic and Basque in Gaul and in Spain do not hold the same +position in Western Europe which the Greeks, Albanians, and Roumans do +in Eastern Europe. In the East the most ancient inhabitants of the land +are still there, not as scraps or survivals, not as fragments of nations +lingering on in corners, but as nations in the strictest sense, nations +whose national being forms an element in every modern and political +question. They all have their memories, their grievances, and their +hopes; and their memories, their grievances, and their hopes are all of +a practical and political kind. Highlanders, Welshmen, Bretons, French +Basques, whatever we say of the Spanish brethren, have doubtless +memories, but they have hardly political grievances or hopes. Ireland +may have political grievances; it certainly has political hopes; but +they are not exactly of the same kind as the grievances or hopes of the +Greek, the Albanian, and the Rouman. Let Home Rule succeed to the extent +of setting up an independent king and parliament of Ireland, yet the +language and civilization of that king and parliament would still be +English. Ireland would form an English state, politically hostile, it +may be, to Great Britain, but still an English state. No Greek, +Albanian, or Rouman state would be in the same way either Turkish or +Austrian. + +On these primitive and abiding races came, as on other parts of Europe, +the Roman conquest. That conquest planted Latin colonies on the +Dalmatian coast, where the Latin tongue still remains in its Italian +variety as the speech of literature and city life; it Romanized one +great part of the earlier inhabitants; it had the great political effect +of all, that of planting the Roman power in a Greek city, and thereby +creating a state, and in the end a nation, which was Roman on one side, +and Greek on the other. Then came the Wandering of the Nations, on +which, as regards men of our own race, we need not dwell. The Goths +marched at will through the Eastern Empire; but no Teutonic settlement +was ever made within its bounds, no lasting Teutonic settlement was ever +made even on its border. The part of the Teuton in the West was played, +far less perfectly indeed, by the Slav in the East. He is there what the +Teuton is here, the great representative of what we may call the modern +European races, those whose part in history began after the +establishment of the Rouman power. The differences between the position +of the two races are chiefly these. The Slav in the East has prae-Roman +races standing alongside of him in a way in which the Teuton has not in +the West. On the Greeks and Albanians he has had but little influence; +on the Rouman and his language his influence has been far greater, but +hardly so great as the influence of the Teuton on the Romance nations +and languages of Western Europe. The Slav too stands alongside of races +which have come in since his own coming, in a way in which the Teuton in +the West is still further from doing. That is to say, besides Greeks, +Albanians, and Roumans, he stands alongside of Bulgarians, Magyars, and +Turks, who have nothing to answer to them in the West. The Slav, in the +time of his coming, in the nature of his settlement, answers roughly to +the Teuton; his position is what that of the Teuton would be, if Western +Europe had been brought under the power of an alien race at some time +later than his own settlement. The Slavs undoubtedly form the greatest +element in the population of the Eastern peninsula, and they once +reached more widely still. Taking the Slavonic name in its widest +meaning, they occupy all the lands from the Danube and its great +tributaries southward to the strictly Greek border. The exceptions are +where earlier races remain, Greek or Italian on the coast-line, Albanian +in the mountains. The Slavs hold the heart of the peninsula, and they +hold more than the peninsula itself. The Slav lives equally on both +sides of what is or was the frontier of the Austrian and Ottoman +empires; indeed, but for another set of causes which have effected +Eastern Europe, the Slav might have reached uninterruptedly from the +Baltic to the AEgaean. + +This last set of causes are those which specially distinguish the +histories of Eastern and of Western Europe; a set of causes which, +though exactly twelve hundred years old,[6] are still fresh and living, +and which are the special causes which have aggravated the special +difficulties of the last five hundred years. In Western Europe, though +we have had plenty of political conquests, we have had no national +migrations since the days of the Teutonic settlements--at least, if we +may extend these last so as to take in the Scandinavian settlements in +Britain and Gaul. The Teuton has pressed to the East at the expense of +the Slav and the Old-Prussian: the borders between the Romance and the +Teutonic nations in the West have fluctuated; but no third set of +nations has come in, strange alike to the Roman and the Teuton and to +the whole Aryan family. As the Huns of Attila showed themselves in +Western Europe as passing ravagers, so did the Magyars at a later day; +so did the Ottoman Turks in a day later still, when they besieged Vienna +and laid waste the Venetian mainland. But all these Turanian invaders +appeared in Western Europe simply as passing invaders; in Eastern Europe +their part has been widely different. Besides the temporary dominion of +Avars, Patzinaks, Chazars, Cumans, and a crowd of others, three bodies +of more abiding settlers, the Bulgarians, the Magyars, and the Mongol +conquerors of Russia, have come in by one path; a fourth, the Ottoman +Turks, have come in by another path. Among all these invasions we have +one case of thorough assimilation, and only one. The original Finnish +Bulgarians have, like Western conquerors, been lost among Slavonic +subjects and neighbors. The geographical function of the Magyar has been +to keep the two great groups of Slavonic nations apart. To his coming, +more than to any other cause, we may attribute the great historical gap +which separates the Slav of the Baltic from his southern kinsfolk. The +work of the Ottoman Turk we all know. These latter settlers remain +alongside of the Slav, just as the Slav remains alongside of the earlier +settlers. The Slavonized Bulgarians are the only instance of +assimilation such as we are used to in the West. All the other races, +old and new, from the Albanian to the Ottoman, are still there, each +keeping its national being and its national speech. And in one part of +the ancient Dacia we must add quite a distinct element, the element of +Teutonic occupation in a form unlike any in which we see it in the West, +in the shape of the Saxons of Transsilvania. + +We have thus worked out our point in detail. While in each Western +country some one of the various races which have settled in it has, +speaking roughly, assimilated the others, in the lands which are left +under the rule of the Turk, or which have been lately delivered from his +rule, all the races that have ever settled in the country still abide +side by side. So when we pass into the lands which form the +Austro-Hungarian monarchy, we find that that composite dominion is just +as much opposed as the dominion of the Turk is to those ideas of +nationality toward which Western Europe has been long feeling its way. +We have seen by the example of Switzerland that it is possible to make +an artificial nation out of fragments which have split off from three +several nations. But the Austro-Hungarian monarchy is not a nation, not +even an artificial nation of this kind. Its elements are not bound +together in the same way as the three elements of the Swiss +Confederation. It does indeed contain one whole nation in the form of +the Magyars: we might say that it contains two, if we reckon the Czechs +for a distinct nation. Of its other elements, we may for the moment set +aside those parts of Germany which are so strangely united with the +crowns of Hungary and Dalmatia. In those parts of the monarchy which +come within the more strictly Eastern lands--the _Roman_ and the +_Rouman_,--we may so distinguish the Romance-speaking inhabitants of +Dalmatia and the Romance-speaking inhabitants of Transsilvania. The Slav +of the north and of the south, the Magyar conqueror, the Saxon +immigrant, all abide as distinct races. That the Ottoman is not to be +added to our list in Hungary, while he is to be added in lands farther +south, is simply because he has been driven out of Hungary, while he is +allowed to abide in lands farther south. No point is more important to +insist on now than the fact that the Ottoman once held the greater part +of Hungary by exactly the same right, the right of the strongest, as +that by which he still holds Macedonia and Epeiros. It is simply the +result of a century of warfare, from Sobieski to Joseph the Second, +which fixed the boundary which only yesterday seemed eternal to +diplomatists, but which now seems to have vanished. That boundary has +advanced and gone back over and over again. As Buda once was Turkish, +Belgrade has more than once been Austrian. The whole of the southeastern +lands, Austrian, Turkish, and independent, from the Carpathian Mountains +southward, present the same characteristic of permanence and +distinctness among the several races which occupy them. The several +races may lie, here in large continuous masses, there in small detached +settlements; but there they all are in their distinctness. There is +among them plenty of living and active national feeling; but while in +the West political arrangements for the most part follow the great lines +of national feeling, in the East the only way in which national feeling +can show itself is by protesting, whether in arms or otherwise, +against existing political arrangements. Save the Magyars alone, the +ruling race in the Hungarian kingdom, there is no case in those lands in +which the whole continuous territory inhabited by speakers of the same +tongue is placed under a separate national government of its own. And, +even in this case, the identity between nation and government is +imperfect in two ways. It is imperfect, because, after all, though +Hungary has a separate national government in internal matters, yet it +is not the Hungarian kingdom, but the Austro-Hungarian monarchy of which +it forms a part, which counts as a power among the other powers of +Europe. And the national character of the Hungarian government is +equally imperfect from the other side. It is national as regards the +Magyar; it is not national as regards the Slav, the Saxon, and the +Rouman. Since the liberation of part of Bulgaria, no whole European +nation is under the rule of the Turk. No one nation of the Southeast +peninsula forms a single national government. One fragment of a nation +is free under a national government, another fragment is ruled by +civilized strangers, a third is trampled down by barbarians. The +existing states of Greece, Roumania, and Servia are far from taking in +the whole of the Greek, Rouman, and Servian nations. In all these lands, +Austrian, Turkish, and independent, there is no difficulty in marking +off the several nations; only in no case do the nations answer to any +existing political power. + +In all these cases, where nationality and government are altogether +divorced, language becomes yet more distinctly the test of nationality +than it is in Western lands where nationality, and government do to +some extent coincide. And when nationality and language do not coincide +in the East, it is owing to another cause, of which also we know nothing +in the West. In many cases religion takes the place of nationality; or +rather the ideas of religion and nationality can hardly be +distinguished. In the West a man's nationality is in no way affected by +the religion which he professes, or even by his change from one religion +to another. In the East it is otherwise. The Christian renegade who +embraces Islam becomes for most practical purposes a Turk. Even if, as +in Crete and Bosnia, he keeps his Greek or Slavonic language, he remains +Greek or Slav only in a secondary sense. For the first principle of the +Mahometan religion, the lordship of the true believer over the infidel, +cuts off the possibility of any true national fellowship between the +true believer and the infidel. Even the Greek or Armenian who embraces +the Latin creed goes far toward parting with his nationality as well as +with his religion. For the adoption of the Latin creed implies what is +in some sort the adoption of a new allegiance, the accepting of the +authority of the Roman Bishop. In the Armenian indeed we are come very +near to the phenomena of the further East, where names like Parsee and +Hindoo, names in themselves as strictly ethnical as Englishman or +Frenchman, have come to express distinctions in which religion and +nationality are absolutely the same thing. Of this whole class of +phenomena the Jew is of course the crowning example. But we speak of +these matters here only as bringing in an element in the definition of +nationality to which we are unused in the West. But it quite comes +within our present subject to give one definition from the Southeastern +lands. What is the Greek? Clearly he who is at once a Greek in speech +and Orthodox in faith. The Hellenic Mussulmans in Crete, even the +Hellenic Latins in some of the other islands, are at the most imperfect +members of the Hellenic body. The utmost that can be said is that they +keep the power of again entering that body, either by their own return +to the national faith, or by such a change in the state of things as +shall make difference in religion no longer inconsistent with true +national fellowship. + +Thus, wherever we go, we find language to be the rough practical test of +nationality. The exceptions are many; they may perhaps outnumber the +instances which conform to the rule. Still they are exceptions. +Community of language does not imply community of blood; it might be +added that diversity of language does not imply diversity of blood. But +community of language is, in the absence of any evidence to the +contrary, a presumption of the community of blood, and it is proof of +something which for practical purposes is the same as community of +blood. To talk of "the Latin race," is in strictness absurd. We know +that the so-called race is simply made up of those nations which adopted +the Latin language. The Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonic races may +conceivably have been formed by a like artificial process. But the +presumption is the other way; and if such a process ever took place, it +took place long before history began. The Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonic +races come before us as groups of mankind marked out by the test of +language. Within those races separate nations are again marked out by a +stricter application of the test of language. Within the race we may +have languages which are clearly akin to each other, but which need not +be mutually intelligible. Within the nation we have only dialects which +are mutually intelligible, or which, at all events, gather round some +one central dialect which is intelligible to all. We take this standard +of races and nations, fully aware that it will not stand a physiological +test, but holding that for all practical purposes adoption must pass as +equivalent to natural descent. And, among the practical purposes which +are affected by the facts of race and nationality, we must, as long as a +man is what he is, as long as he has not been created afresh according +to some new scientific pattern, not shrink from reckoning those generous +emotions which, in the present state of European feeling, are beginning +to bind together the greater as well as the lesser groups of mankind. +The sympathies of men are beginning to reach wider than could have been +dreamed of a century ago. The feeling which was once confined to the +mere household extended itself to the tribe or the city. From the tribe +or city it extended itself to the nation; from the nation it is +beginning to extend itself to the whole race. In some cases it can +extend itself to the whole race far more easily than in others. In some +cases historical causes have made nations of the same race bitter +enemies, while they have made nations of different races friendly +allies. The same thing happened in earlier days between tribes and +cities of the same nation. But, when hindrances of this kind do not +exist, the feeling of race, as something beyond the narrower feeling of +nationality, is beginning to be a powerful agent in the feelings and +actions of men and of nations. A long series of mutual wrongs, conquest, +and oppression on one side, avenged by conquest and oppression on the +other side, have made the Slav of Poland and the Slav of Russia the +bitterest of enemies. No such hindrance exists to stop the flow of +natural and generous feeling between the Slav of Russia and the Slav of +the Southeastern lands. Those whose statesmanship consists in some +hand-to-mouth shift for the moment, whose wisdom consists in refusing to +look either back to the past or onward to the future, cannot understand +this great fact of our times; and what they cannot understand they mock +at. But the fact exists and does its work in spite of them. And it does +its work none the less because in some cases the feeling of sympathy is +awakened by a claim of kindred, where, in the sense of the physiologist +or the genealogist, there is no kindred at all. The practical view, +historical or political, will accept as members of this or that race or +nation many members whom the physiologist would shut out, whom the +English lawyer would shut out, but whom the Roman lawyer would gladly +welcome to every privilege of the stock on which they were grafted. The +line of the Scipios, of the Caesars, and of the Antonines, was continued +by adoption; and for all practical purposes the nations of the earth +have agreed to follow the examples set them by their masters. + + + + +WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. + +BORN 1809. + + + + +KIN BEYOND SEA[7] + +BY WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. + + "When Love unites, wide space divides in vain, + And hands may clasp across the spreading main." + + +It is now nearly half a century since the works of De Tocqueville and De +Beaumont, founded upon personal observation, brought the institutions of +the United States effectually within the circle of European thought and +interest. They were co-operators, but not upon an equal scale. De +Beaumont belongs to the class of ordinary, though able, writers: De +Tocqueville was the Burke of his age, and his treatise upon America may +well be regarded as among the best books hitherto produced for the +political student of all times and countries. + +But higher and deeper than the concern of the Old World at large in the +thirteen colonies, now grown into thirty-eight States, besides eight +Territories, is the special interest of England in their condition and +prospects. + +I do not speak of political controversies between them and us, which are +happily, as I trust, at an end. I do not speak of the vast contribution +which, from year to year, through the operations of a colossal trade, +each makes to the wealth and comfort of the other; nor of the friendly +controversy, which in its own place it might be well to raise, between +the leanings of America to Protectionism, and the more daring reliance +of the old country upon free and unrestricted intercourse with all the +world. Nor of the menace which, in the prospective development of her +resources, America offers to the commercial pre-eminence of England.[8] +On this subject I will only say that it is she alone who, at a coming +time, can, and probably will, wrest from us that commercial primacy. We +have no title, I have no inclination, to murmur at the prospect. If she +acquires it, she will make the acquisition by the right of the +strongest; but, in this instance, the strongest means the best. She +will probably become what we are now, the head servant in the great +household of the world, the employer of all employed; because her +service will be the most and ablest. We have no more title against her, +than Venice, or Genoa, or Holland has had against us. One great duty is +entailed upon us, which we, unfortunately, neglect: the duty of +preparing, by a resolute and sturdy effort, to reduce our public +burdens, in preparation for a day when we shall probably have less +capacity than we have now to bear them. + +Passing by all these subjects, with their varied attractions, I come to +another, which lies within the tranquil domain of political philosophy. +The students of the future, in this department, will have much to say in +the way of comparison between American and British institutions. The +relationship between these two is unique in history. It is always +interesting to trace and to compare Constitutions, as it is to compare +languages; especially in such instances as those of the Greek States and +the Italian Republics, or the diversified forms of the feudal system in +the different countries of Europe. But there is no parallel in all the +records of the world to the case of that prolific British mother, who +has sent forth her innumerable children over all the earth to be the +founders of half-a-dozen empires. She, with her progeny, may almost +claim to constitute a kind of Universal Church in politics. But, among +these children, there is one whose place in the world's eye and in +history is superlative: it is the American Republic. She is the eldest +born. She has, taking the capacity of her land into view as well as its +mere measurement, a natural base for the greatest continuous empire ever +established by man. And it may be well here to mention what has not +always been sufficiently observed, that the distinction between +continuous empire, and empire severed and dispersed over sea, is vital. +The development, which the Republic has effected, has been unexampled in +its rapidity and force. While other countries have doubled, or at most +trebled, their population, she has risen, during one single century of +freedom, in round numbers, from two millions to forty-five. As to +riches, it is reasonable to establish, from the decennial stages of the +progress thus far achieved, a series for the future; and, reckoning upon +this basis, I suppose that the very next census, in the year 1880, will +exhibit her to the world as certainly the wealthiest of all the nations. +The huge figure of a thousand millions sterling, which may be taken +roundly as the annual income of the United Kingdom, has been reached at +a surprising rate; a rate which may perhaps be best expressed by saying, +that if we could have started forty or fifty years ago from zero, at the +rate of our recent annual increment, we should now have reached our +present position. But while we have been advancing with this portentous +rapidity, America is passing us by as if in a canter. Yet even now the +work of searching the soil and the bowels of the territory, and opening +out her enterprise throughout its vast expanse, is in its infancy. The +England and the America of the present are probably the two strongest +nations of the world. But there can hardly be a doubt, as between the +America and the England of the future, that the daughter, at some no +very distant time, will, whether fairer or less fair, be unquestionably +yet stronger than the mother. + + "O matre forti filia fortior."[9] + +But all this pompous detail of material triumphs, whether for the one +or for the other, is worse than idle, unless the men of the two +countries shall remain, or shall become, greater than the mere things +that they produce, and shall know how to regard those things simply as +tools and materials for the attainments of the highest purposes of their +being. Ascending, then, from the ground-floor of material industry +toward the regions in which these purposes are to be wrought out, it is +for each nation to consider how far its institutions have reached a +state in which they can contribute their maximum to the store of human +happiness and excellence. And for the political student all over the +world, it will be beyond any thing curious as well as useful to examine +with what diversities, as well as what resemblances, of apparatus the +two greater branches of a race born to command have been minded, or +induced, or constrained to work out, in their sea-severed seats, their +political destinies according to the respective laws appointed for them. + +No higher ambition can find vent in a paper such as this, than to +suggest the position and claims of the subject, and slightly to indicate +a few outlines, or, at least, fragments, of the working material. + +In many and the most fundamental respects the two still carry in +undiminished, perhaps in increasing, clearness, the notes of resemblance +that beseem a parent and a child. + +Both wish for self-government; and, however grave the drawbacks under +which in one or both it exists, the two have, among the great nations of +the world, made the most effectual advances toward the true aim of +rational politics. + +They are similarly associated in their fixed idea that the force, in +which all government takes effect, is to be constantly backed, and, as +it were, illuminated, by thought in speech and writing. The ruler of St. +Paul's time "bare the sword" (Rom. xiii: 4). Bare, it as the Apostle +says, with a mission to do right; but he says nothing of any duty, or +any custom, to show by reason that he was doing right. Our two +governments, whatsoever they do, have to give reasons for it; not +reasons which will convince the unreasonable, but reasons which on the +whole will convince the average mind, and carry it unitedly forward in a +course of action, often, though not always, wise, and carrying within +itself provisions, where it is unwise, for the correction of its own +unwisdom before it grow into an intolerable rankness. They are +governments, not of force only, but of persuasion. + +Many more are the concords, and not less vital than these, of the two +nations, as expressed in their institutions. They alike prefer the +practical to the abstract. They tolerate opinion, with only a reserve on +behalf of decency; and they desire to confine coercion to the province +of action, and to leave thought, as such, entirely free. They set a high +value on liberty for its own sake. They desire to give full scope to the +principle of self-reliance in the people, and they deem self-help to be +immeasurably superior to help in any other form; to be the only help, in +short, which ought not to be continually, or periodically, put upon its +trial, and required to make good its title. They mistrust and mislike +the centralization of power; and they cherish municipal, local, even +parochial liberties, as nursery grounds, not only for the production +here and there of able men, but for the general training of public +virtue and independent spirit. They regard publicity as the vital air of +politics; through which alone, in its freest circulation, opinions can +be thrown into common stock for the good of all, and the balance of +relative rights and claims can be habitually and peaceably adjusted. It +would be difficult in the case of any other pair of nations, to present +an assemblage of traits at once so common and so distinctive, as has +been given in this probably imperfect enumeration. + +There were, however, the strongest reasons why America could not grow +into a reflection or repetition of England. Passing from a narrow island +to a continent almost without bounds, the colonists at once and vitally +altered their conditions of thought as well as of existence, in relation +to the most important and most operative of all social facts, the +possession of the soil. In England, inequality lies embedded in the very +base of the social structure; in America it is a late, incidental, +unrecognized product, not of tradition, but of industry and wealth, as +they advance with various and, of necessity, unequal steps. Heredity, +seated as an idea in the heart's core of Englishmen, and sustaining far +more than it is sustained by those of our institutions which express it, +was as truly absent from the intellectual and moral store, with which +the colonists traversed the Atlantic, as if it had been some forgotten +article in the bills of lading that made up their cargoes. Equality +combined with liberty, and renewable at each descent from one +generation to another, like a lease with stipulated breaks, was the +groundwork of their social creed. In vain was it sought, by arrangements +such as those connected with the name of Baltimore or of Penn, to +qualify the action of those overpowering forces which so determined the +case. Slavery itself, strange as it now may seem, failed to impair the +theory however it may have imported into the practice a hideous +solecism. No hardier republicanism was generated in New England than in +the Slave States of the South, which produced so many of the great +statesmen of America. + +It may be said that the North, and not the South, had the larger number +of colonists; and was the centre of those commanding moral influences +which gave to the country as a whole its political and moral atmosphere. +The type and form of manhood for America was supplied neither by the +Recusant in Maryland, nor by the Cavalier in Virginia, but by the +Puritan of New England; and it would have been a form and type widely +different could the colonization have taken place a couple of centuries, +or a single century, sooner. Neither the Tudor, nor even the Plantagenet +period, could have supplied its special form. The Reformation was a +cardinal factor in its production; and this in more ways than one. + +Before that great epoch, the political forces of the country were +represented on the whole by the monarch on one side, and the people on +the other. In the people, setting aside the latent vein of Lollardism, +there was a general homogeneity with respect to all that concerned the +relation of governors and governed. In the deposition of sovereigns, the +resistance to abuses, the establishment of institutions for the defence +of liberty, there were no two parties to divide the land. But, with the +Reformation, a new dualism was sensibly developed among us. Not a +dualism so violent as to break up the national unity, but yet one so +marked and substantial, that thenceforward it was very difficult for any +individual or body of men to represent the entire English character, and +the old balance of its forces. The wrench which severed the Church and +people from the Roman obedience left for domestic settlement thereafter +a tremendous internal question, between the historical and the new, +which in its milder form perplexes us to this day. Except during the +short reign of Edward VI, the civil power, in various methods and +degrees, took what may be termed the traditionary side, and favored the +development of the historical more than the individual aspect of the +national religion. These elements confronted one another during the +reigns of the earlier Stuarts, not only with obstinacy but with +fierceness. There had grown up with the Tudors, from a variety of +causes, a great exaggeration of the idea of royal power; and this +arrived, under James I and Charles I, at a rank maturity. Not less, but +even more masculine and determined, was the converse development. Mr. +Hallam saw, and has said, that at the outbreak of the Great Rebellion, +the old British Constitution was in danger, not from one party but from +both. In that mixed fabric had once been harmonized the ideas, both of +religious duty, and of allegiance as related to it, which were now held +in severance. The hardiest and dominating portion of the American +colonists represented that severance in its extremest form, and had +dropped out of the order of the ideas, which they carried across the +water, all those elements of political Anglicism, which give to +aristocracy in this country a position only second in strength to that +of freedom. State and Church alike had frowned upon them; and their +strong reaction was a reaction of their entire nature, alike of the +spiritual and the secular man. All that was democratic in the policy of +England, and all that was Protestant in her religion, they carried with +them, in pronounced and exclusive forms, to a soil and a scene +singularly suited for their growth. + +It is to the honor of the British Monarchy that, upon the whole, it +frankly recognized the facts, and did not pedantically endeavor to +constrain by artificial and alien limitations the growth of the infant +states. It is a thing to be remembered that the accusations of the +colonies in 1776 were entirely levelled at the king actually on the +throne, and that a general acquittal was thus given by them to every +preceding reign. Their infancy had been upon the whole what their +manhood was to be, self-governed and republican. Their Revolution, as we +call it, was like ours in the main, a vindication of liberties inherited +and possessed. It was a Conservative revolution; and the happy result +was that, notwithstanding the sharpness of the collision with the +mother-country, and with domestic loyalism, the Thirteen Colonies made +provision for their future in conformity, as to all that determined +life and manners with the recollections of their past. The two +Constitutions of the two countries express indeed rather the differences +than the resemblances of the nations. The one is a thing grown, the +other a thing made; the one a _praxis_, the other a _poiesis_: the one +the offspring of tendency and indeterminate time, the other of choice +and of an epoch. But, as the British Constitution is the most subtle +organism which has proceeded from the womb and the long gestation of +progressive history, so the American Constitution is, so-far as I can +see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the +brain and purpose of man. It has had a century of trial, under the +pressure of exigencies caused by an expansion unexampled in point of +rapidity and range: and its exemption from formal change, though not +entire, has certainly proved the sagacity of the constructors, and the +stubborn strength of the fabric. + +One whose life has been greatly absorbed in working, with others, the +institutions of his own country, has not had the opportunities necessary +for the careful and searching scrutiny of institutions elsewhere. I +should feel, in looking at those of America, like one who attempts to +scan the stars with the naked eye. My notices can only be few, faint, +and superficial; they are but an introduction to what I have to say of +the land of my birth. A few sentences will dispose of them. + +America, whose attitude toward England has always been masculine and +real, has no longer to anticipate at our hands the frivolous and +offensive criticisms which were once in vogue among us. But neither +nation prefers (and it would be an ill sign if either did prefer) the +institutions of the other; and we certainly do not contemplate the great +Republic in the spirit of mere optimism. We see that it has a marvellous +and unexampled adaptation for its peculiar vocation; that it must be +judged, not in the abstract, but under the fore-ordered laws of its +existence; that it has purged away the blot with which we brought it +into the world; that it gravely and vigorously grapples with the problem +of making a continent into a state; and that it treasures with fondness +the traditions of British antiquity, which are in truth unconditionally +its own, as well, and as much as they are ours. The thing that perhaps +chiefly puzzles the inhabitants of the old country is why the American +people should permit their entire existence to be continually disturbed +by the business of the Presidential elections; and, still more, why they +should raise to its maximum the intensity of this perturbation by +providing, as we are told, for what is termed a clean sweep of the +entire civil service, in all its ranks and departments, on each +accession of a chief magistrate. We do not perceive why this arrangement +is more rational than would be a corresponding usage in this country on +each change of Ministry. Our practice is as different as possible. We +limit to a few scores of persons the removals and appointments on these +occasions; although our Ministries seem to us, not unfrequently, to be +more sharply severed from one another in principle and tendency than are +the successive Presidents of the great Union. + +It would be out of place to discuss in this article occasional phenomena +of local corruption in the United States, by which the nation at large +can hardly be touched: or the mysterious manipulations of votes for the +Presidency, which are now understood to be under examination; or the +very curious influences which are shaping the politics of the negroes +and of the South. These last are corollaries to the great +slave-question: and it seems very possible that after a few years we may +see most of the laborers, both in the Southern States and in England, +actively addicted to the political support of that section of their +countrymen who to the last had resisted their emancipation. + +But if there be those in this country who think that American democracy +means public levity and intemperance, or a lack of skill and sagacity in +politics, or the absence of self-command and self-denial, let them bear +in mind a few of the most salient and recent facts of history which may +profitably be recommended to their reflections. We emancipated a million +of negroes by peaceful legislation; America liberated four or five +millions by a bloody civil war: yet the industry and exports of the +Southern States are maintained, while those of our negro colonies have +dwindled; the South enjoys all its franchises, but we have, _proh +pudor!_ found no better method of providing for peace and order in +Jamaica, the chief of our islands, than by the hard and vulgar, even +where needful, expedient of abolishing entirely its representative +institutions. + +The Civil War compelled the States, both North and South, to train and +embody a million and a half of men, and to present to view the greatest, +instead of the smallest, armed forces in the world. Here there was +supposed to arise a double danger. First, that on a sudden cessation of +the war, military life and habits could not be shaken off, and, having +become rudely and widely predominant, would bias the country toward an +aggressive policy, or, still worse, would find vent in predatory or +revolutionary operations. Secondly, that a military caste would grow up +with its habits of exclusiveness and command, and would influence the +tone of politics in a direction adverse to republican freedom. But both +apprehensions proved to be wholly imaginary. The innumerable soldiery +was at once dissolved. Cincinnatus, no longer an unique example, became +the commonplace of every day, the type and mould of a nation. The whole +enormous mass quietly resumed the habits of social life. The generals of +yesterday were the editors, the secretaries, and the solicitors of +to-day. The just jealousy of the State gave life to the now forgotten +maxim of Judge Blackstone, who denounced as perilous the erection of a +separate profession of arms in a free country. The standing army, +expanded by the heat of civil contest to gigantic dimensions, settled +down again into the framework of a miniature with the returning +temperature of civil life, and became a power wellnigh invisible, from +its minuteness, amidst the powers which sway the movements of a society +exceeding forty millions. + +More remarkable still was the financial sequel to the great conflict. +The internal taxation for Federal purposes, which before its +commencement had been unknown, was raised, in obedience to an exigency +of life and death, so as to exceed every present and every past example. +It pursued and worried all the transactions of life. The interest of the +American debt grew to be the highest in the world, and the capital +touched five hundred and sixty millions sterling. Here was provided for +the faith and patience of the people a touchstone of extreme severity. +In England, at the close of the great French war, the propertied +classes, who were supreme in Parliament, at once rebelled against the +Tory Government, and refused to prolong the income tax even for a single +year. We talked big, both then and now, about the payment of our +national debt; but sixty-three years have since elapsed, all of them +except two called years of peace, and we have reduced the huge total by +about one ninth; that is to say, by little over one hundred millions, or +scarcely more than one million and a half a year. This is the conduct of +a State elaborately digested into orders and degrees, famed for wisdom +and forethought, and consolidated by a long experience. But America +continued long to bear, on her unaccustomed and still smarting +shoulders, the burden of the war taxation. In twelve years she has +reduced her debt by one hundred and fifty-eight millions sterling, or at +the rate of thirteen millions for every year. In each twelve months she +has done what we did in eight years; her self-command, self-denial, and +wise forethought for the future have been, to say the least, eightfold +ours. These are facts which redound greatly to her honor; and the +historian will record with surprise that an enfranchised nation +tolerated burdens which in this country a selected class, possessed of +the representation, did not dare to face, and that the most unmitigated +democracy known to the annals of the world resolutely reduced at its own +cost prospective liabilities of the State, which the aristocratic, and +plutocratic, and monarchical government of the United Kingdom has been +contented ignobly to hand over to posterity. And such facts should be +told out. It is our fashion so to tell them, against as well as for +ourselves; and the record of them may some day be among the means of +stirring us up to a policy more worthy of the name and fame of England. + +It is true, indeed, that we lie under some heavy and, I fear, increasing +disadvantages, which amount almost to disabilities. Not, however, any +disadvantage respecting power, as power is commonly understood. But, +while America has a nearly homogeneous country, and an admirable +division of political labor between the States individually and the +Federal Government, we are, in public affairs, an overcharged and +overweighted people.[10] + +We have undertaken the cares of empire upon a scale, and with a +diversity, unexampled in history; and, as it has not yet pleased +Providence to endow us with brain-force and animal strength in an +equally abnormal proportion, the consequence is that we perform the work +of government, as to many among its more important departments, in a +very superficial and slovenly manner. The affairs of the three +associated kingdoms, with their great diversities of law, interest, and +circumstance, make the government of them, even if they stood alone, a +business more voluminous, so to speak, than that of any other +thirty-three millions of civilized men. To lighten the cares of the +central legislature by judicious devolution, it is probable that much +might be done; but nothing is done, or even attempted to be done. The +greater colonies have happily attained to a virtual self-government; yet +the aggregate mass of business connected with our colonial possessions +continues to be very large. The Indian Empire is of itself a charge so +vast, and demanding so much thought and care, that if it were the sole +transmarine appendage to the crown, it would amply tax the best ordinary +stock of human energies. Notoriously it obtains from the Parliament only +a small fraction of the attention it deserves. Questions affecting +individuals, again, or small interests, or classes, excite here a +greater interest, and occupy a larger share of time, than, perhaps, in +any other community. In no country, I may add, are the interests of +persons or classes so favored when they compete with those of the +public; and in none are they more exacting, or more wakeful to turn this +advantage to the best account. With the vast extension of our enterprise +and our trade, comes a breadth of liability not less large, to consider +every thing that is critical in the affairs of foreign states; and the +real responsibilities thus existing for us, are unnaturally inflated for +us by fast-growing tendencies toward exaggeration of our concern in +these matters, and even toward setting up fictitious interests in cases +where none can discern them except ourselves, and such continental +friends as practice upon our credulity and our fears for purposes of +their own. Last of all, it is not to be denied that in what I have been +saying, I do not represent the public sentiment. The nation is not at +all conscious of being overdone. The people see that their House of +Commons is the hardest-working legislative assembly in the world: and, +this being so, they assume it is all right. Nothing pays better, in +point of popularity, than those gratuitous additions to obligations +already beyond human strength, which look like accessions or assertion +of power; such as the annexation of new territory, or the silly +transaction known as the purchase of shares in the Suez Canal. + +All my life long I have seen this excess of work as compared with the +power to do it; but the evil has increased with the surfeit of wealth, +and there is no sign that the increase is near its end. The people of +this country are a very strong people; but there is no strength that can +permanently endure, without provoking inconvenient consequences, this +kind of political debauch. It may be hoped, but it cannot be predicted, +that the mischief will be encountered and subdued at the point where it +will have become sensibly troublesome, but will not have grown to be +quite irremediable. + +The main and central point of interest, however, in the institutions of +a country is the manner in which it draws together and compounds the +public forces in the balanced action of the State. It seems plain that +the formal arrangements for this purpose in America are very different +from ours. It may even be a question whether they are not, in certain +respects, less popular; whether our institutions do not give more rapid +effect, than those of the Union, to any formed opinion, and resolved +intention, of the nation. + +In the formation of the Federal Government we seem to perceive three +stages of distinct advancement. First, the formation of the +Confederation, under the pressure of the War of Independence. Secondly, +the Constitution, which placed the Federal Government in defined and +direct relation with the people inhabiting the several States. Thirdly, +the struggle with the South, which for the first time, and definitely, +decided that to the Union, through its Federal organization, and not to +the State governments, were reserved all the questions not decided and +disposed of by the express provisions of the Constitution itself.[11] +The great _arcanum imperii_, which with us belongs to the three branches +of the Legislature, and which is expressed by the current phrase, +"omnipotence of Parliament," thus became the acknowledged property of +the three branches of the Federal Legislature; and the old and +respectable doctrine of State independence is now no more than an +archaeological relic, a piece of historical antiquarianism. Yet the +actual attributions of the State authorities cover by far the largest +part of the province of government; and by this division of labor and +authority, the problem of fixing for the nation a political centre of +gravity is divested of a large part of its difficulty and danger, in +some proportions to the limitations of the working precinct. + +Within that precinct, the initiation as well as the final sanction in +the great business of finance is made over to the popular branch of the +Legislature, and a most interesting question arises upon the comparative +merits of this arrangement, and of our method, which theoretically +throws upon the Crown the responsibility of initiating public charge, +and under which, until a recent period, our practice was in actual and +even close correspondence with this theory. + +We next come to a difference still more marked. The Federal Executive is +born anew of the nation at the end of each four years, and dies at the +end. But, during the course of those years, it is independent, in the +person both of the President and of his Ministers, alike of the people, +of their representatives, and of that remarkable body, the most +remarkable of all the inventions of modern politics, the Senate of the +United States. In this important matter, whatever be the relative +excellencies and defects of the British and American systems, it is most +certain that nothing would induce the people of this country, or even +the Tory portion of them, to exchange our own for theirs. It may, +indeed, not be obvious to the foreign eye what is the exact difference +of the two. Both the representative chambers hold the power of the +purse. But in America its conditions are such that it does not operate +in any way on behalf of the Chamber or of the nation, as against the +Executive. In England, on the contrary, its efficiency has been such +that it has worked out for itself channels of effective operation, such +as to dispense with its direct use, and avoid the inconveniences which +might be attendant upon that use. A vote of the House of Commons, +declaring a withdrawal of its confidence, has always sufficed for the +purpose of displacing a Ministry; nay, persistent obstruction of its +measures, and even lighter causes, have conveyed the hint, which has +been obediently taken. But the people, how is it with them? Do not the +people in England part with their power, and make it over to the House +of Commons, as completely as the American people part with it to the +President? They give it over for four years: we for a period which on +the average is somewhat more: they, to resume it at a fixed time; we, on +an unfixed contingency, and at a time which will finally be determined, +not according to the popular will, but according to the views which a +Ministry may entertain of its duty or convenience. + +All this is true; but it is not the whole truth. In the United Kingdom, +the people as such cannot commonly act upon the Ministry as such. But +mediately, though not immediately, they gain the end: for they can work +upon that which works upon the Ministry, namely, on the House of +Commons. Firstly, they have not renounced, like the American people, the +exercise of their power for a given time; and they are at all times free +by speech, petition, public meeting, to endeavor to get it back in full +by bringing about a dissolution. Secondly, in a Parliament with nearly +660 members, vacancies occur with tolerable frequency; and, as they are +commonly filled up forthwith, they continually modify the color of the +Parliament, conformably, not to the past, but to the present feeling of +the nation; or, at least, of the constituency, which for practical +purposes is different indeed, yet not very different. But, besides +exercising a limited positive influence on the present, they supply a +much less limited indication of the future. Of the members who at a +given time sit in the House of Commons, the vast majority, probably more +than nine-tenths, have the desire to sit there again, after a +dissolution which may come at any moment. They therefore study political +weather-wisdom, and in varying degrees adapt themselves to the +indications of the sky. It will now be readily perceived how the popular +sentiment in England, so far as it is awake, is not meanly provided with +the ways of making itself respected, whether for the purpose of +displacing and replacing a Ministry, or of constraining it (as sometimes +happens) to alter or reverse its policy sufficiently, at least, to +conjure down the gathering and muttering storm. + +It is true, indeed, that every nation is of necessity, to a great +extent, in the condition of the sluggard with regard to public policy; +hard to rouse, harder to keep aroused, sure after a little while to sink +back into his slumber:-- + + "Pressitque jacentem + Dulcis et alta quies, placidaeque simillima morti." + + --AEn., vi., 522. + +The people have a vast, but an encumbered power; and, in their struggles +with overweening authority, or with property, the excess of force, which +they undoubtedly possess, is more than counterbalanced by the constant +wakefulness of the adversary, by his knowledge of their weakness, and by +his command of opportunity. But this is a fault lying rather in the +conditions of human life than in political institutions. There is no +known mode of making attention and inattention equal in their results. +It is enough to say that in England, when the nation can attend, it can +prevail. So we may say, then, that in the American Union the Federal +Executive is independent for each four years both of the Congress and of +the people. But the British Ministry is largely dependent on the people +whenever the people firmly will it; and is always dependent on the House +of Commons, except of course when it can safely and effectually appeal +to the people. + +So far, so good. But if we wish really to understand the manner in which +the Queen's Government over the British Empire is carried on, we must +now prepare to examine into some sharper contrasts than any which our +path has yet brought into view. The power of the American Executive +resides in the person of the actual President, and passes from him to +his successor. His Ministers, grouped around him, are the servants, not +only of his office, but of his mind. The intelligence, which carries on +the Government, has its main seat in him. The responsibility of failures +is understood to fall on him; and it is round his head that success +sheds its halo. The American Government is described truly as a +Government composed of three members, of three powers distinct from one +another. The English Government is likewise so described, not truly, but +conventionally. For in the English Government there has gradually formed +itself a fourth power, entering into and sharing the vitality of each of +the other three, and charged with the business of holding them in +harmony as they march. + +This Fourth Power is the Ministry, or more properly the Cabinet. For the +rest of the Ministry is subordinate and ancillary; and, though it +largely shares in many departments the labors of the Cabinet, yet it has +only a secondary and derivative share in the higher responsibilities. No +account of the present British Constitution is worth having which does +not take this Fourth Power largely and carefully into view. And yet it +is not a distinct power, made up of elements unknown to the other three; +any more than a sphere contains elements other than those referable to +the three co-ordinates, which determine the position of every point in +space. The Fourth Power is parasitical to the three others; and lives +upon their life, without any separate existence. One portion of it forms +a part, which may be termed an integral part, of the House of Lords, +another of the House of Commons; and the two conjointly, nestling within +the precinct of Royalty, form the inner Council of the Crown, assuming +the whole of its responsibilities, and in consequence wielding, as a +rule, its powers. The Cabinet is the threefold hinge that connects +together for action the British Constitution of King or Queen, Lords and +Commons. Upon it is concentrated the whole strain of the Government, and +it constitutes from day to day the true centre of gravity for the +working system of the State, although the ultimate superiority of force +resides in the representative chamber. + +There is no statute or legal usage of this country which requires that +the Ministers of the Crown should hold seats in the one or the other +House of Parliament. It is perhaps upon this account that, while most of +my countrymen would, as I suppose, declare it to be a becoming and +convenient custom, yet comparatively few are aware how near the seat of +life the observance lies, how closely it is connected with the equipoise +and unity of the social forces. It is rarely departed from, even in an +individual case; never, as far as my knowledge goes, on a wider scale. +From accidental circumstances it happened that I was Secretary of State +between December 1845 and July 1846, without a seat in the House of +Commons. This (which did not pass wholly without challenge) is, I +believe, by much the most notable instance for the last fifty years; and +it is only within the last fifty years that our Constitutional system +has completely settled down. Before the reform of Parliament it was +always easy to find a place for a Minister excluded from his seat; as +Sir Robert Peel for example, ejected from Oxford University, at once +found refuge and repose at Tamworth. I desire to fix attention on the +identification, in this country, of the Minister with the member of a +House of Parliament. + +It is, as to the House of Commons, especially, an inseparable and vital +part of our system. The association of the Ministers with the +Parliament, and through the House of Commons with the people, is the +counterpart of their association as Ministers with the Crown and the +prerogative. The decisions that they take are taken under the competing +pressure of a bias this way and a bias that way, and strictly represent +what is termed in mechanics the composition of forces. Upon them, thus +placed, it devolves to provide that the House of Parliament shall +loyally counsel and serve the Crown, and that the Crown shall act +strictly in accordance with its obligations to the nation. I will not +presume to say whether the adoption of the rule in America would or +would not lay the foundation of a great change in the Federal +Constitution; but I am quite sure that the abrogation of it in England +would either alter the form of government, or bring about a crisis. +That it conduces to the personal comfort of Ministers, I will not +undertake to say. The various currents of political and social +influences meet edgeways in their persons, much like the conflicting +tides in St. George's Channel or the Straits of Dover; for, while they +are the ultimate regulators of the relations between the Crown on the +one side, and the people through the Houses of Parliament on the other, +they have no authority vested in them to coerce or censure either way. +Their attitude toward the Houses must always be that of deference; their +language that of respect, if not submission. Still more must their +attitude and language toward the Sovereign be the same in principle, and +yet more marked in form; and this, though upon them lies the ultimate +responsibility of deciding what shall be done in the Crown's name in +every branch of administration, and every department of policy, coupled +only with the alternative of ceasing to be Ministers, if what they may +advisedly deem the requisite power of action be denied them. + +In the ordinary administration of the government, the Sovereign +personally is, so to speak, behind the scenes; performing, indeed, many +personal acts by the Sign-manual, or otherwise, but, in each and all of +them, covered by the counter-signature or advice of Ministers, who stand +between the august Personage and the people. There is, accordingly, no +more power, under the form of our Constitution, to assail the Monarch in +his personal capacity, or to assail through him, the line of succession +to the Crown, than there is at chess to put the king in check. In truth, +a good deal, though by no means the whole, of the philosophy of the +British Constitution is represented in this central point of the +wonderful game, against which the only reproach--the reproach of Lord +Bacon--is that it is hardly a relaxation, but rather a serious tax upon +the brain. + +The Sovereign in England is the symbol of the nation's unity, and the +apex of the social structure; the maker (with advice) of the laws; the +supreme governor of the Church; the fountain of justice; the sole source +of honor; the person to whom all military, all naval, all civil service +is rendered. The Sovereign owns very large properties; receives and +holds, in law, the entire revenue of the State; appoints and dismisses +Ministers; makes treaties; pardons crime, or abates its punishment; +wages war, or concludes peace; summons and dissolves the Parliament; +exercises these vast powers for the most part without any specified +restraint of law; and yet enjoys, in regard to these and every other +function, an absolute immunity from consequences. There is no provision +in the law of the United Empire, or in the machinery of the +Constitution, for calling the Sovereign to account; and only in one +solitary and improbable, but perfectly defined, case--that of his +submitting to the jurisdiction of the Pope--is he deprived by Statute of +the Throne. Setting aside that peculiar exception, the offspring of a +necessity still freshly felt when it was made, the Constitution might +seem to be founded on the belief of a real infallibility in its head. +Less, at any rate, cannot be said than this. Regal right has, since the +Revolution of 1688, been expressly founded upon contract; and the breach +of that contract destroys the title to the allegiance of the subject. +But no provision, other than the general rule of hereditary succession, +is made to meet either this case, or any other form of political +miscarriage or misdeed. It seems as though the Genius of the Nation +would not stain its lips by so much as the mere utterance of such a +word; nor can we put this state of facts into language more justly than +by saying that the Constitution would regard the default of the Monarch, +with his heirs, as the chaos of the State, and would simply trust to the +inherent energies of the several orders of society for its legal +reconstruction. + +The original authorship of the representative system is commonly +accorded to the English race. More clear and indisputable is its title +to the great political discovery of Constitutional Kingship. And a very +great discovery it is. Whether it is destined, in any future day, to +minister in its integrity to the needs of the New World, it may be hard +to say. In that important branch of its utility which is negative, it +completely serves the purposes of the many strong and rising Colonies of +Great Britain, and saves them all the perplexities and perils attendant +upon successions to the headship of the Executive. It presents to them, +as it does to us, the symbol of unity, and the object of all our +political veneration, which we love to find rather in a person, than in +an abstract entity, like the State. But the Old World, at any rate, +still is, and may long continue, to constitute the living centre of +civilization, and to hold the primacy of the race; and of this great +society the several members approximate, in a rapidly extending series, +to the practice and idea of Constitutional Kingship. The chief States of +Christendom, with only two exceptions, have, with more or less +distinctness, adopted it. Many of them, both great and small, have +thoroughly assimilated it to their system. The autocracy of Russia, and +the Republic of France, each of them congenial to the present wants of +the respective countries, may yet, hereafter, gravitate toward the +principle, which elsewhere has developed so large an attractive power. +Should the current, that has prevailed through the last half-century, +maintain its direction and its strength, another fifty years may see all +Europe adhering to the theory and practice of this beneficent +institution, and peaceably sailing in the wake of England. + +No doubt, if tried by an ideal standard, it is open to criticism. +Aristotle and Plato, nay, Bacon, and perhaps Leibnitz, would have +scouted it as a scientific abortion. Some men would draw disparaging +comparisons between the mediaeval and the modern King. In the person of +the first was normally embodied the force paramount over all others in +the country, and on him was laid a weight of responsibility and toil so +tremendous, that his function seems always to border upon the +superhuman; that his life commonly wore out before the natural term; and +that an indescribable majesty, dignity, and interest surround him in his +misfortunes, nay, almost in his degradation; as, for instance, amidst + + "The shrieks of death, through Berkeley's roof that ring, + Shrieks of an agonizing King."[12] + +For this concentration of power, toil, and liability, milder realities +have now been substituted; and Ministerial responsibility comes between +the Monarch and every public trial and necessity, like armor between the +flesh and the spear that would seek to pierce it; only this is an armor +itself also fleshy, at once living and impregnable. It may be said, by +an adverse critic, that the Constitutional Monarch is only a depository +of power, as an armory is a depository of arms; but that those who wield +the arms, and those alone, constitute the true governing authority. And +no doubt this is so far true, that the scheme aims at associating in the +work of government with the head of the State the persons best adapted +to meet the wants and wishes of the people, under the conditions that +the several aspects of supreme power shall be severally allotted; +dignity and visible authority shall lie wholly with the wearer of the +crown, but labor mainly, and responsibility wholly, with its servants. +From hence, without doubt, it follows that should differences arise, it +is the will of those in whose minds the work of government is +elaborated, that in the last resort must prevail. From mere labor, power +may be severed; but not from labor joined with responsibility. This +capital and vital consequence flows out of the principle that the +political action of the Monarch shall everywhere be mediate and +conditional upon the concurrence of confidential advisers. It is +impossible to reconcile any, even the smallest, abatement of this +doctrine, with the perfect, absolute immunity of the Sovereign from +consequences. There can be in England no disloyalty more gross, as to +its effects, than the superstition which affects to assign to the +Sovereign a separate, and so far as separate, transcendental sphere of +political action. Anonymous servility has, indeed, in these last days, +hinted such a doctrine[13]; but it is no more practicable to make it +thrive in England, than to rear the jungles of Bengal on Salisbury +Plain. + +There is, indeed, one great and critical act, the responsibility for +which falls momentarily or provisionally upon the Sovereign; it is the +dismissal of an existing Ministry, and the appointment of a new one. +This act is usually performed with the aid drawn from authentic +manifestations of public opinion, mostly such as are obtained through +the votes or conduct of the House of Commons. Since the reign of George +III there has been but one change of Ministry in which the Monarch acted +without the support of these indications. It was when William IV, in +1834, dismissed the Government of Lord Melbourne, which was known to be +supported, though after a lukewarm fashion, by a large majority of the +existing House of Commons. But the royal responsibility was, according +to the doctrine of our Constitution, completely taken over, _ex post +facto_, by Sir Robert Peel, as the person who consented, on the call of +the King, to take Lord Melbourne's office. Thus, though the act was +rash, and hard to justify, the doctrine of personal immunity was in no +way endangered. And here we may notice, that in theory an absolute +personal immunity implies a correlative limitation of power, greater +than is always found in practice. It can hardly be said that the King's +initiative left to Sir R. Peel a freedom perfectly unimpaired. And, most +certainly, it was a very real exercise of personal power. The power did +not suffice for its end, which was to overset the Liberal predominance; +but it very nearly sufficed. Unconditionally entitled to dismiss the +Ministers, the Sovereign can, of course, choose his own opportunity. He +may defy the Parliament, if he can count upon the people. William IV, in +the year 1834, had neither Parliament nor people with him. His act was +within the limits of the Constitution, for it was covered by the +responsibility of the acceding Ministry. But it reduced the Liberal +majority from a number considerably beyond three hundred to about +thirty; and it constituted an exceptional but very real and large action +on the politics of the country, by the direct will of the King. I speak +of the immediate effects. Its eventual result may have been different, +for it converted a large disjointed mass into a smaller but organized +and sufficient force, which held the fortress of power for the six +years 1835-41. On this view it may be said that, if the Royal +intervention anticipated and averted decay from natural causes, then +with all its immediate success, it defeated its own real aim. + +But this power of dismissing a Ministry at will, large as it may be +under given circumstances, is neither the safest nor the only power +which, in the ordinary course of things, falls Constitutionally to the +personal share of the wearer of the crown. He is entitled, on all +subjects coming before the Ministry, to knowledge and opportunities of +discussion, unlimited save by the iron necessities of business. Though +decisions must ultimately conform to the sense of those who are to be +responsible for them, yet their business is to inform and persuade the +Sovereign, not to overrule him. Were it possible for him, within the +limits of human time and strength, to enter actively into all public +transactions, he would be fully entitled to do so. What is actually +submitted is supposed to be the most fruitful and important part, the +cream of affairs. In the discussion of them, the Monarch has more than +one advantage over his advisers. He is permanent, they are fugitive; he +speaks from the vantage-ground of a station unapproachably higher; he +takes a calm and leisurely survey, while they are worried with the +preparatory stages, and their force is often impaired by the pressure of +countless detail. He may be, therefore, a weighty factor in all +deliberations of State. Every discovery of a blot, that the studies of +the Sovereign in the domain of business enable him to make, strengthens +his hands and enhances his authority. It is plain, then, that there is +abundant scope for mental activity to be at work under the gorgeous +robes of Royalty. + +This power spontaneously takes the form of influence; and the amount of +it depends on a variety of circumstances; on talent, experience, tact, +weight of character, steady, untiring industry, and habitual presence at +the seat of government. In proportion as any of these might fail, the +real and legitimate influence of the Monarch over the course of affairs +would diminish; in proportion as they attain to fuller action, it would +increase. It is a moral, not a coercive, influence. It operates through +the will and reason of the Ministry, not over or against them. It would +be an evil and a perilous day for the Monarchy, were any prospective +possessor of the Crown to assume or claim for himself final, or +preponderating, or even independent power, in any one department of the +State. The ideas and practice of the time of George III, whose will in +certain matters limited the action of the Ministers, cannot be revived, +otherwise than by what would be, on their part, nothing less than a base +compliance, a shameful subserviency, dangerous to the public weal, and +in the highest degree disloyal to the dynasty. Because, in every free +State, for every public act, some one must be responsible; and the +question is, Who shall it be? The British Constitution answers: The +Minister, and the Minister exclusively. That he may be responsible, all +action must be fully shared by him. Sole action, for the Sovereign, +would mean undefended, unprotected action; the armor of irresponsibility +would not cover the whole body against sword or spear; a head would +project beyond the awning, and would invite a sunstroke. + +The reader, then, will clearly see that there is no distinction more +vital to the practice of the British Constitution, or to a right +judgment upon it, than the distinction between the Sovereign and the +Crown. The Crown has large prerogatives, endless functions essential to +the daily action, and even the life, of the State. To place them in the +hands of persons who should be mere tools in a Royal will, would expose +those powers to constant unsupported collision with the living forces of +the nation, and to a certain and irremediable crash. They are therefore +entrusted to men, who must be prepared to answer for the use they make +of them. This ring of responsible Ministerial agency forms a fence +around the person of the Sovereign, which has thus far proved +impregnable to all assaults. The august personage, who from time to time +may rest within it, and who may possess the art of turning to the best +account the countless resources of the position, is no dumb and +senseless idol; but, together with real and very large means of +influence upon policy, enjoys the undivided reverence which a great +people feels for its head; and is likewise the first and by far the +weightiest among the forces, which greatly mould, by example and +legitimate authority, the manners, nay the morals, of a powerful +aristocracy and a wealthy and highly trained society. The social +influence of a Sovereign, even if it stood alone, would be an enormous +attribute. The English people are not believers in equality; they do +not, with the famous Declaration of July 4, 1776, think it to be a +self-evident truth that all men are born equal. They hold rather the +reverse of that proposition. At any rate, in practice, they are what I +may call determined inequalitarians; nay, in some cases, even without +knowing it. Their natural tendency, from the very base of British +society, and through all its strongly built gradations, is to look +upward: they are not apt to "untune degree." The Sovereign is the +highest height of the system, is, in that system, like Jupiter among the +Roman gods, first without a second. + + "Nec viget quicquam simile aut secundum."[14] + +Not, like Mont Blanc, with rivals in his neighborhood; but like Ararat +or Etna, towering alone and unapproachable. The step downward from the +King to the second person in the realm is not like that from the second +to the third: it is more even than a stride, for it traverses a gulf. It +is the wisdom of the British Constitution to lodge the personality of +its chief so high, that none shall under any circumstances be tempted to +vie, no, nor dream of vieing, with it. The office, however, is not +confused, though it is associated, with the person; and the elevation of +official dignity in the Monarch of these realms has now for a testing +period worked well, in conjunction with the limitation of merely +personal power. + +In the face of the country, the Sovereign and the Ministers are an +absolute unity. The one may concede to the other; but the limit of +concessions by the Sovereign is at the point where he becomes willing to +try the experiment of changing his Government, and the limit of +concessions by the Minister is at the point where they become unwilling +to bear, what in all circumstances they must bear while they remain +Ministers, the undivided responsibility of all that is done in the +Crown's name. But it is not with the Sovereign only that the Ministry +must be welded into identity. It has a relation to sustain to the House +of Lords; which need not, however, be one of entire unity, for the House +of Lords, though a great power in the State, and able to cause great +embarrassment to an Administration, is not able by a vote to doom it to +capital punishment. Only for fifteen years, out of the last fifty, has +the Ministry of the day possessed the confidence of the House of Lords. +On the confidence of the House of Commons it is immediately and vitally +dependent. This confidence it must always possess, either absolutely +from identity of political color, or relatively and conditionally. This +last case arises when an accidental dislocation of the majority in the +Chamber has put the machine for the moment out of gear, and the unsafe +experiment of a sort of provisional government, doomed on the one hand +to be feeble, or tempted on the other to be dishonest, is tried; much as +the Roman Conclave has sometimes been satisfied with a provisional Pope, +deemed likely to live for the time necessary to reunite the factions of +the prevailing party. + +I have said that the Cabinet is essentially the regulator of the +relations between King, Lords, and Commons; exercising functionally the +powers of the first, and incorporated, in the persons of its members, +with the second and the third. It is, therefore, itself a great power. +But let no one suppose it is the greatest. In a balance nicely poised, a +small weight may turn the scale; and the helm that directs the ship is +not stronger than the ship. It is a cardinal axiom of the modern British +Constitution, that the House of Commons is the greatest of the powers +of the State. It might, by a base subserviency, fling itself at the feet +of a Monarch or a Minister; it might, in a season of exhaustion, allow +the slow persistence of the Lords, ever eyeing it as Lancelot was eyed +by Modred, to invade its just province by baffling its action at some +time propitious for the purpose. But no Constitution can anywhere keep +either Sovereign, or Assembly, or nation, true to its trust and to +itself. All that can be done has been done. The Commons are armed with +ample powers of self-defence. If they use their powers properly, they +can only be mastered by a recurrence to the people, and the way in which +the appeal can succeed is by the choice of another House of Commons more +agreeable to the national temper. Thus the sole appeal from the verdict +of the House is a rightful appeal to those from whom it received its +commission. + +This superiority in power among the great State forces was, in truth, +established even before the House of Commons became what it now is, +representative of the people throughout its entire area. In the early +part of the century, a large part of its members virtually received +their mandate from members of the Peerage, or from the Crown, or by the +direct action of money on a mere handful of individuals, or, as in +Scotland, for example, from constituencies whose limited numbers and +upper-class sympathies usually shut out popular influences. A real +supremacy belonged to the House as a whole; but the forces of which it +was compounded were not all derived from the people, and the +aristocratic power had found out the secret of asserting itself within +the walls of the popular chamber, in the dress and through the voices of +its members. Many persons of gravity and weight saw great danger in a +measure of change like the first Reform Act, which left it to the Lords +to assert themselves, thereafter, by an external force, instead of +through a share in the internal composition of a body so formidable. But +the result proved that they were sufficiently to exercise, through the +popular will and choice, the power which they had formerly put in action +without its sanction, though within its proper precinct and with its +title falsely inscribed. + +The House of Commons is superior, and by far superior, in the force of +its political attributes, to any other single power in the State. But it +is watched; it is criticized; it is hemmed in and about by a multitude +of other forces: the force, first of all, of the House of Lords, the +force of opinion from day to day, particularly of the highly +anti-popular opinion of the leisured men of the metropolis, who, seated +close to the scene of action, wield an influence greatly in excess of +their just claims; the force of the classes and professions; the just +and useful force of the local authorities in their various orders and +places. Never was the great problem more securely solved, which +recognizes the necessity of a paramount power in the body politic to +enable it to move, but requires for it a depository such that it shall +be safe against invasion, and yet inhibited from aggression. + +The old theories of a mixed government, and of the three powers, coming +down from the age of Cicero, when set by the side of the living British +Constitution, are cold, crude, and insufficient to a degree that makes +them deceptive. Take them, for example, as represented, fairly enough, +by Voltaire: the picture drawn by him is for us nothing but a puzzle:-- + + "Aux murs de Vestminster on voit paraitre ensemble + Trois pouvoirs etonnes du noeud qui les rassemble, + Les deputes du peuple, les grands, et le Roi, + Divises d' interet, reunis par la Loi."[15] + +There is here lacking an amalgam, a reconciling power, what may be +called a clearing-house of political forces, which shall draw into +itself every thing, and shall balance and adjust every thing, and +ascertaining the nett result, let it pass on freely for the fulfilment +of the purposes of the great social union. Like a stout buffer-spring, +it receives all shocks, and within it their opposing elements neutralize +one another. This is the function of the British Cabinet. It is perhaps +the most curious formation in the political world of modern times, not +for its dignity, but for its subtlety, its elasticity, and its +many-sided diversity of power. It is the complement of the entire +system; a system which appears to want nothing but a thorough loyalty in +the persons composing its several parts, with a reasonable intelligence, +to insure its bearing, without fatal damage, the wear and tear of ages +yet to come. + +It has taken more than a couple of centuries to bring the British +Cabinet to its present accuracy and fulness of development; for the +first rudiments of it may sufficiently be discerned in the reign of +Charles I. Under Charles II it had fairly started from its embryo; and +the name is found both in Clarendon and in the Diary of Pepys.[16] It +was for a long time without a Ministerial head; the King was the head. +While this arrangement subsisted, constitutional government could be but +half established. Of the numerous titles of the Revolution of 1688 to +respect, not the least remarkable is this, that the great families of +the country, and great powers of the State, made no effort, as they +might have done, in the hour of its weakness, to aggrandize themselves +at the expense of the crown. Nevertheless, for various reasons, and +among them because of the foreign origin, and absences from time, of +several Sovereigns, the course of events tended to give force to the +organs of Government actually on the spot, and thus to consolidate, and +also to uplift, this as yet novel creation. So late, however, as the +impeachment of Sir Robert Walpole, his friends thought it expedient to +urge on his behalf, in the House of Lords, that he had never presumed to +constitute himself a Prime-Minister. + +The breaking down of the great offices of State by throwing them into +commission, and last among them of the Lord High Treasurership after the +time of Harley, Earl of Oxford, tended, and may probably have been +meant, to prevent or retard the formation of a recognized Chiefship in +the Ministry; which even now we have not learned to designate by a true +English word, though the use of the imported phrase "Premier" is at +least as old as the poetry of Burns. Nor can any thing be more curiously +characteristic of the political genius of the people, than the present +position of this most important official personage. Departmentally, he +is no more than the first-named of five persons, by whom jointly the +powers of the Lord Treasurership are taken to be exercised; he is not +their master, or, otherwise than by mere priority, their head: and he +has no special function or prerogative under the formal Constitution of +the office. He has no official rank except that of Privy Councillor. +Eight members of the Cabinet, including five Secretaries of State, and +several other members of the Government, take official precedence of +him. His rights and duties as head of the Administration are nowhere +recorded. He is almost, if not altogether, unknown to the Statute Law. + +Nor is the position of the body, over which he presides, less singular +than his own. The Cabinet wields, with partial exceptions, the powers of +the Privy Council, besides having a standing ground in relation to the +personal will of the Sovereign, far beyond what the Privy Council ever +held or claimed. Yet it has no connection with the Privy Council, except +that every one, on first becoming a member of the Cabinet, is, if not +belonging to it already, sworn a member of that body. There are other +sections of the Privy Council, forming regular Committees for Education +and for Trade. But the Cabinet has not even this degree of formal +sanction, to sustain its existence. It lives and acts simply by +understanding, without a single line of written law or constitution to +determine its relations to the Monarch, or to the Parliament, or to the +nation; or the relations of its members to one another, or to their +head. It sits in the closest secrecy. There is no record of its +proceedings, nor is there any one to hear them, except upon the very +rare occasions when some important functionary, for the most part +military or legal, is introduced, _pro hac vice_, for the purpose of +giving to it necessary information. + +Every one of its members acts in no less than three capacities: as +administrator of a department of State; as member of a legislative +chamber; and as a confidential adviser of the Crown. Two at least of +them add to those three characters a fourth; for in each House of +Parliament it is indispensable that one of the principal Ministers +should be what is termed its Leader. This is an office the most +indefinite of all, but not the least important. With very little of +defined prerogative, the Leader suggests, and in a great degree fixes, +the course of all principal matters of business, supervises and keeps in +harmony the action of his colleagues, takes the initiative in matters of +ceremonial procedure, and advises the House in every difficulty as it +arises. The first of these, which would be of but secondary consequence +where the assembly had time enough for all its duties, is of the utmost +weight in our overcharged House of Commons, where, notwithstanding all +its energy and all its diligence, for one thing of consequence that is +done, five or ten are despairingly postponed. The overweight, again, of +the House of Commons is apt, other things being equal, to bring its +Leader inconveniently near in power to a Prime-Minister who is a Peer. +He can play off the House of Commons against his chief; and instances +might be cited, though they are happily most rare, when he has served +him very ugly tricks. + +The nicest of all the adjustments involved in the working of the British +Government is that which determines, without formally defining, the +internal relations of the Cabinet. On the one hand, while each Minister +is an adviser of the Crown, the Cabinet is a unity, and none of its +members can advise as an individual, without, or in opposition actual or +presumed to, his colleagues. On the other hand, the business of the +State is a hundred-fold too great in volume to allow of the actual +passing of the whole under the view of the collected Ministry. It is +therefore a prime office of discretion for each Minister to settle what +are the departmental acts in which he can presume the concurrence of his +colleagues, and in what more delicate, or weighty, or peculiar cases, he +must positively ascertain it. So much for the relation of each Minister +to the Cabinet; but here we touch the point which involves another +relation, perhaps the least known of all, his relation to its head. + +The head of the British Government is not a Grand Vizier. He has no +powers, properly so called, over his colleagues: on the rare occasions, +when a Cabinet determines its course by the votes of its members, his +vote counts only as one of theirs. But they are appointed and dismissed +by the Sovereign on his advice. In a perfectly organized administration, +such for example as was that of Sir Robert Peel in 1841-6, nothing of +great importance is matured, or would even be projected, in any +department without his personal cognizance; and any weighty business +would commonly go to him before being submitted to the Cabinet. He +reports to the Sovereign its proceedings, and he also has many audiences +of the august occupant of the Throne. He is bound in these reports and +audiences, not to counterwork the Cabinet; not to divide it; not to +undermine the position of any of his colleagues in the Royal favor. If +he departs in any degree from strict adherence to these rules, and uses +his great opportunities to increase his own influence, or pursue aims +not shared by his colleagues, then, unless he is prepared to advise +their dismissal, he not only departs from rule, but commits an act of +treachery and baseness. As the Cabinet stands between the Sovereign and +the Parliament, and is bound to be loyal to both, so he stands between +his colleagues and the Sovereign, and is bound to be loyal to both. + +As a rule, the resignation of the First Minister, as if removing the +bond of cohesion in the Cabinet, has the effect of dissolving it. A +conspicuous instance of this was furnished by Sir Robert Peel in 1846; +when the dissolution of the Administration, after it had carried the +repeal of the Corn Laws, was understood to be due not so much to a +united deliberation and decision as to his initiative. The resignation +of any other Minister only creates a vacancy. In certain circumstances, +the balance of forces may be so delicate and susceptible that a single +resignation will break up the Government; but what is the rule in the +one case is the rare exception in the other. The Prime Minister has no +title to override any one of his colleagues in any one of the +departments. So far as he governs them, unless it is done by trick, +which is not to be supposed, he governs them by influence only. But upon +the whole, nowhere in the wide world does so great a substance cast so +small a shadow; nowhere is there a man who has so much power, with so +little to show for it in the way of formal title or prerogative. + +The slight record that has here been traced may convey but a faint idea +of an unique creation. And, slight as it is, I believe it tells more +than, except in the school of British practice, is elsewhere to be +learned of a machine so subtly balanced, that it seems as though it were +moved by something not less delicate and slight than the mainspring of a +watch. It has not been the offspring of the thought of man. The Cabinet, +and all the present relations of the Constitutional powers in this +country, have grown into their present dimensions, and settled into +their present places, not as the fruit of a philosophy, not in the +effort to give effect to an abstract principle; but by the silent action +of forces, invisible and insensible, the structure has come up into the +view of all the world. It is, perhaps, the most conspicuous object on +the wide political horizon; but it has thus risen, without noise, like +the temple of Jerusalem. + + "No workman steel, no ponderous hammers rung; + Like some tall palm the stately fabric sprung."[17] + +When men repeat the proverb which teaches us that "marriages are made in +heaven," what they mean is that, in the most fundamental of all social +operations, the building up of the family, the issues involved in the +nuptial contract, lie beyond the best exercise of human thought, and +the unseen forces of providential government make good the defect in our +imperfect capacity. Even so would it seem to have been in that curious +marriage of competing influences and powers, which brings about the +composite harmony of the British Constitution. More, it must be +admitted, than any other, it leaves open doors which lead into blind +alleys; for it presumes, more boldly than any other, the good sense and +good faith of those who work it. If, unhappily, these personages meet +together, on the great arena of a nation's fortunes, as jockeys meet +upon a racecourse, each to urge to the uttermost, as against the others, +the power of the animal he rides; or as counsel in a court, each to +procure the victory of his client, without respect to any other interest +or right: then this boasted Constitution of ours is neither more nor +less than a heap of absurdities. The undoubted competency of each +reaches even to the paralysis or destruction of the rest. The House of +Commons is entitled to refuse every shilling of the supplies. That +House, and also the House of Lords, is entitled to refuse its assent to +every bill presented to it. The Crown is entitled to make a thousand +Peers to-day and as many to-morrow: it may dissolve all and every +Parliament before it proceeds to business; may pardon the most atrocious +crimes; may declare war against all the world; may conclude treaties +involving unlimited responsibilities, and even vast expenditure, without +the consent, nay, without the knowledge, of Parliament, and this not +merely in support or in development, but in reversal, of policy already +known to and sanctioned by the nation. But the assumption is that the +depositaries of power will all respect one another; will evince a +consciousness that they are working in a common interest for a common +end; that they will be possessed, together with not less than an average +intelligence, of not less than an average sense of equity and of the +public interest and rights. When these reasonable expectations fail, +then, it must be admitted, the British Constitution will be in danger. + +Apart from such contingencies, the offspring only of folly or of crime, +this Constitution is peculiarly liable to subtle change. Not only in the +long run, as man changes between youth and age, but also, like the human +body, with a quotidian life, a periodical recurrence of ebbing and +flowing tides. Its old particles daily run to waste, and give place to +new. What is hoped among us is, that which has usually been found, that +evils will become palpable before they have grown to be intolerable. + +There cannot, for example, be much doubt among careful observers that +the great conservator of liberty in all former times, namely, the +confinement of the power of the purse to the popular chamber, has been +lamentably weakened in its efficiency of late years; weakened in the +House of Commons, and weakened by the House of Commons. It might indeed +be contended that the House of Commons of the present epoch does far +more to increase the aggregate of public charge than to reduce it. It +might even be a question whether the public would take benefit if the +House were either intrusted annually with a great part of the +initiative, so as to be really responsible to the people for the +spending of their money; or else were excluded from part at least of its +direct action upon expenditure, intrusting to the executive the +application of given sums which that executive should have no legal +power to exceed. + +Meantime, we of this island are not great political philosophers; and we +contend with an earnest, but disproportioned, vehemence about changes +which are palpable, such as the extension of the suffrage, or the +redistribution of Parliamentary seats, neglecting wholly other +processes of change which work beneath the surface, and in the dark, but +which are even more fertile of great organic results. The modern English +character reflects the English Constitution in this, that it abounds in +paradox; that it possesses every strength; but holds it tainted with +every weakness; that it seems alternately both to rise above and to fall +below the standard of average humanity; that there is no allegation of +praise or blame which, in some one of the aspects of its many-sided +formation, it does not deserve; that only in the midst of much default, +and much transgression, the people of this United Kingdom either have +heretofore established, or will hereafter establish, their title to be +reckoned among the children of men, for the eldest born of an imperial +race. + +In this imperfect survey, I have carefully avoided all reference to the +politics of the day and to particular topics, recently opened, which may +have undergone a great development even before these lines appear in +print on the other side of the Atlantic. Such reference would, without +any countervailing advantage, have lowered the strain of these remarks, +and would have complicated with painful considerations a statement +essentially impartial and general in its scope. + +For the yet weightier reason of incompetency, I have avoided the topics +of chief present interest in America, including that proposal to tamper +with the true monetary creed which (as we should say) the Tempter lately +presented to the Nation in the Silver Bill. But I will not close this +paper without recording my conviction that the great acts, and the great +forbearances, which immediately followed the close of the Civil War form +a group which will ever be a noble object, in his political retrospect, +to the impartial historian; and that, proceeding as they did from the +free choice and conviction of the people, and founded as they were on +the very principles of which the multitude is supposed to be least +tolerant, they have, in doing honor to the United States, also rendered +a splendid service to the general cause of popular government throughout +the world.[18] + + + + +JOHN HENRY NEWMAN. + +BORN 1801. + + + + +PRIVATE JUDGMENT. + +BY JOHN HENRY NEWMAN. + + +There is this obvious, undeniable difficulty in the attempt to form a +theory of Private Judgment, in the choice of a religion, that Private +Judgment leads different minds in such different directions. If, indeed, +there be no religious truth, or at least no sufficient means of arriving +at it, then the difficulty vanishes: for where there is nothing to find, +there can be no rules for seeking, and contradiction in the result is +but a _reductio ad absurdum_ of the attempt. But such a conclusion is +intolerable to those who search, else they would not search; and +therefore on them the obligation lies to explain, if they can, how it +comes to pass, that Private Judgment is a duty, and an advantage, and a +success, considering it leads the way not only to their own faith, +whatever that may be, but to opinions which are diametrically opposite +to it; considering it not only leads them right, but leads others wrong, +landing them as it may be in the Church of Rome, or in the Wesleyan +Connection, or in the Society of Friends. + +Are exercises of mind, which end so diversely, one and all pleasing to +the Divine Author of faith; or rather must they not contain some +inherent or some incidental defect, since they manifest such divergence? +Must private judgment in all cases be a good _per se_; or is it a good +under circumstances, and with limitations? Or is it a good, only when it +is not an evil? Or is it a good and evil at once, a good involving an +evil? Or is it an absolute and simple evil? Questions of this sort rise +in the mind on contemplating a principle which leads to more than the +thirty-two points of the compass, and, in consequence, whatever we may +here be able to do, in the way of giving plain rules for its exercise, +be it greater or less, will be so much gain. + + +1. + +Now the first remark which occurs is an obvious one, and, we suppose, +will be suffered to pass without much opposition, that whatever be the +intrinsic merits of Private Judgment, yet, if it at all exerts itself in +the direction of proselytism and conversion, a certain _onus probandi_ +lies upon it, and it must show cause why it should be tolerated, and +not rather treated as a breach of the peace, and silenced _instanter_ as +a mere disturber of the existing constitution of things. Of course it +may be safely exercised in defending what is established; and we are far +indeed from saying that it is never to advance in the direction of +change or revolution, else the Gospel itself could never have been +introduced; but we consider that serious religious changes have _prima +facie_ case against them; they have something to get over, and have to +prove their admissibility, before it can reasonably be allowed; and +their agents may be called upon to suffer, in order to prove their +earnestness, and to pay the penalty of the trouble they are causing. +Considering the special countenance given in Scripture to quiet, +unanimity, and contentedness, and the warnings directed against +disorder, insubordination, changeableness, discord, and division; +considering the emphatic words of the Apostle, laid down by him as a +general principle, and illustrated in detail, "Let every man abide in +the same calling wherein he was called"; considering, in a word, that +change is really the characteristic of error, and unalterableness the +attribute of truth, of holiness, of Almighty God Him self, we consider +that when Private Judgment moves in the direction of innovation, it may +well be regarded at first with suspicion and treated with severity. Nay, +we confess even a satisfaction, when a penalty is attached to the +expression of new doctrines, or to a change of communion. We repeat it, +if any men have strong feelings, they should pay for them; if they think +it a duty to unsettle things established, they show their earnestness by +being willing to suffer. We shall be the last to complain of this kind +of persecution, even though directed against what we consider the cause +of truth. Such disadvantages do no harm to that cause in the event, but +they bring home to a man's mind his own responsibility; they are a +memento to him of a great moral law, and warn him that his private +judgment, if not a duty, is a sin. + +An act of private judgment is, in its very idea, an act of individual +responsibility; this is a consideration which will come with especial +force on a conscientious mind, when it is to have so fearful an issue as +a change of religion. A religious man will say to himself, "If I am in +error at present, I am in error by a disposition of Providence, which +has placed me where I am; if I change into an error, this is my own +act. It is much less fearful to be born at disadvantage, than to place +myself at disadvantage." + +And if the voice of men in general is to weigh at all in a matter of +this kind, it does but corroborate these instinctive feelings. A convert +is undeniably in favor with no party; he is looked at with distrust, +contempt, and aversion by all. His former friends think him a good +riddance, and his new friends are cold and strange; and as to the +impartial public, their very first impulse is to impute the change to +some eccentricity of character, or fickleness of mind, or tender +attachment, or private interest. Their utmost praise is the reluctant +confession that "doubtless he is very sincere." Churchmen and +Dissenters, men of Rome and men of the Kirk, are equally subject to this +remark. Not on extraordinary occasions only, but as a matter of course, +whenever the news of a conversion to Romanism, or to Irvingism, or to +the Plymouth Sect, or to Unitarianism, is brought to us, we say, one and +all of us: "No wonder, such a one has lived so long abroad"; or, "he is +of such a very imaginative turn"; or, "he is so excitable and odd"; or, +"what could he do? all his family turned"; or, "it was a reaction in +consequence of an injudicious education"; or, "trade makes men cold," or +"a little learning makes them shallow in their religion." If, then, the +common voice of mankind goes for any thing, must we not consider it to +be the _rule_ that men change their religion, not on reason, but for +some extra-rational feeling or motive? else, the world would not so +speak. + +Now, for ourselves, we are not quarrelling with this testimony,--we are +willing to resign ourselves to it; but we think there are parties whom +it concerns much to ponder it. Surely it is a strong, and, as they ought +to feel, an alarming proof, that, for all the haranguing and protesting +which goes on in Exeter and other halls, this great people is not such a +conscientious supporter of the sacred right of Private Judgment as a +good Protestant would desire. Why should we go out of our way, one and +all of us, to impute personal motives in explanation of the conversion +of every individual convert, as he comes before us, if there were in us, +the public, an adhesion to that absolute, and universal, and unalienable +principle, as its titles are set forth in heraldic style, high and +broad, sacred and awful, the right, and the duty, and the possibility of +Private Judgment? Why should we confess it in the general, yet promptly +and pointedly deny it in every particular, if our hearts retained more +than the "magni nominis umbra," when we preached up the Protestant +principle? Is it not sheer wantonness and cruelty in Baptist, +Independent, Irvingite, Wesleyan, Establishment-man, Jumper, and +Mormonite, to delight in trampling on and crushing these manifestations +of their own pure and precious charter, instead of dutifully and +reverently exalting, at Bethel, or at Dan, each instance of it, as it +occurs, to the gaze of its professing votaries? If a staunch +Protestant's daughter turns Roman, and betakes herself to a convent, why +does he not exult in the occurrence? Why does he not give a public +breakfast, or hold a meeting, or erect a memorial, or write a pamphlet +in honor of her, and of the great undying principle she has so +gloriously vindicated? Why is he in this base, disloyal style, muttering +about priests, and Jesuits, and the horrors of nunneries, in solution of +the phenomenon, when he has the fair and ample form of Private Judgment +rising before his eyes, and pleading with him, and bidding him impute +good motives, not bad, and in very charity ascribe to the influence of +a high and holy principle, to a right and a duty of every member of the +family of man, what his poor human instincts are fain to set down as a +folly or a sin. All this would lead us to suspect that the doctrine of +private judgment, in its simplicity, purity, and integrity,--private +judgment, all private judgment, and nothing but private judgment,--is +held by very few persons indeed; and that the great mass of the +population are either stark unbelievers in it, or deplorably dark about +it; and that even the minority who are in a manner faithful to it, have +glossed and corrupted the true sense of it by a miserably faulty +reading, and hold, not the right of private judgment, but the private +right of judgment; in other words, their own private right, and no one's +else. To us it seems as clear as day, that they consider that they +themselves, indeed, individually can and do act on reason, and on +nothing but reason; that they have the gift of advancing, without bias +or unsteadiness, throughout their search, from premise to conclusion, +from text to doctrine; that they have sought aright, and no one else, +who does not agree with them; that they alone have found out the art of +putting the salt upon the bird's tail, and have rescued themselves from +being the slaves of circumstance and the creatures of impulse. It is +undeniable, then, if the popular feeling is to be our guide, that, high +and mighty as the principle of private judgment is in religious +inquiries, as we most fully grant it is, still it bears some similarity +to Saul's armor which David rejected, or to edged tools which have a bad +trick of chopping at our fingers, when we are but simply and innocently +meaning them to make a dash forward at truth. + +Any tolerably serious man will feel this in his own case more vividly +than in that of any one else. Who can know ever so little of himself +without suspecting all kinds of imperfect and wrong motives in +everything he attempts? And then there is the bias of education and of +habit; and, added to the difficulties thence resulting, those which +arise from weakness of the reasoning faculty; ignorance or imperfect +knowledge of the original languages of Scripture, and again, of history +and antiquity. These things being considered, we lay it down as a truth, +about which, we think, few ought to doubt, that Divine aid alone can +carry any one safely and successfully through an inquiry after +religious truth. That there are certain very broad contrasts between one +religion and another, in which no one would be at fault what to think +and what to choose, is very certain; but the problem proposed to private +judgment at this day, is of a rather more complicated nature. Taking +things as they are, we all seem to be in Solomon's case, when he said, +"I am but a little child; I know not how to go out or come in; and Thy +servant is in the midst of a great people, that cannot be numbered nor +counted for multitude. Give, therefore, Thy servant an understanding +heart, that I may discern between good and bad." It is useless, surely, +attempting to inquire or judge, unless a Divine command enjoin the work +upon us, and a Divine promise sustain us through it. Supposing, indeed, +such a command and promise be given, then, of course, there is no +difficulty in the matter. Whatever be our personal infirmities, He whom +we serve can overrule or supersede them. An act of duty must always be +right; and will be accepted, whatever be its success, because done in +obedience to His will. And he can bless the most unpromising +circumstances; He can even lead us forward by means of our mistakes; He +can turn our mistakes into a revelation; He can convert us, if He will, +through the very obstinacy, or self-will, or superstition, which mixes +itself up with our better feelings, and defiles, yet is sanctified by +our sincerity. And much more can He shed upon our path supernatural +light, if He so will, and give us an insight into the meaning of +Scripture, and a hold of the sense of Antiquity, to which our own +unaided powers never could have attained. + +All this is certain: He continually leads us forward in the midst of +darkness; and we live, not by bread only, but by His Word converting the +hard rock or salt sea into nourishment. The simple question is, _has_ +He, in this particular case, commanded? has He promised? and how far? If +He has, and as far as He has, all is easy; if He has not, all is, we +will not say, impossible, but what is worse, undutiful or presumptuous. +Our business is to ask with St. Paul, when arrested in the midst of his +frenzy, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" This is the simple +question. He can bless our present state; He can bless our change; +_which_ is it His will to bless? If Wesleyan or Independent has come +over to us apart from this spirit, we do not much pride ourselves in our +convert. If he joins us because he thinks he has a right to judge for +himself, or because forms are of no consequence, or merely because +sectarianism has its errors and inconveniences, or because an +Established Church is an efficacious means of spreading religion, he +plainly thinks that the choice of a communion is not a more serious +matter than the choice of a neighborhood or of an insurance office. In +like manner, if members of our communion have left it for Rome, because +of the _aesthetic_ beauty of the latter, and the grandeur of its +pretensions, we are grieved, but, good luck to them, we can spare them. +And if Roman Catholics join us or our "Dissenting brethren," because +their own Church is behind the age, insists on Aristotelic dogmas, and +interferes with liberty of thought, such a conversion is no triumph over +popery, but over St. Peter and St. Paul. Our only safety lies in +obedience; our only comfort in keeping it in view. + +If this be so, we have arrived at the following conclusion: that it is +our duty to betake ourselves to Scripture, and to observe how far the +private search of a religion is there sanctioned, and under what +circumstances. This then is the next point which comes under +consideration. + +2. + +Now the first and most ordinary kind of Private Judgment, if it deserves +the name, which is recognized in Scripture, is that in which we engage +without conscious or deliberate purpose. While Lydia heard St. Paul +preach, her heart was opened. She had it not in mind to exercise any +supposed sacred right, she was not setting about the choice of a +religion, but she was drawn on to accept the Gospel by a moral +persuasion. "To him that hath more shall be given," not in the way of +judging or choosing, but by an inward development met by external +disclosures. Lydia's instance is the type of a multitude of cases, +differing very much from each other, some divinely ordered, others +merely human, some which would commonly be called cases of private +judgment, and others which certainly would not, but all agreeing in +this, that the judgment exercised is not recognized and realized by the +party exercising it, as the subject-matter of command, promise, duty, +privilege, or any thing else. It is but the spontaneous stirring of the +affections within, or the passive acceptance of what is offered from +without. St. Paul baptized Lydia's household also; it would seem then +that he baptized servants or slaves, who had very little power of +judging between a true religion and a false; shall we say that they, +like their mistress, accepted the Gospel on private judgment or not? Did +the thousands baptized in national conversions exercise their private +judgment or not? Do children when taught their catechism? Most persons +will reply in the negative: yet it will be difficult to separate their +case in principle from what Lydia's may have been; that is, the case of +religious persons who are advancing forward into the truth--how, they +know not. Neither the one class nor the other have undertaken to inquire +and judge, or have set about being converted, or have got their reasons +all before them and together, to discharge at an enemy or passer-by on +fit occasions. The difference between these two classes is in the state +of their hearts; the one party consist of unformed minds, or senseless +and dead, or minds under temporary excitement, who are brought over by +external or accidental influences, without any real sympathy for the +religion, which is taught them _in order_ that they may _learn_ sympathy +with it, and who, as time goes on, fall away again if they are not happy +enough to become imbued with it; and in the other party there is already +a sympathy between the external Word and the heart within. The one are +proselytized by force, authority, or their mere feelings, the others +through their habitual and abiding frame of mind and cast of opinion. +But neither can be said, in the ordinary sense of the word, to inquire, +reason, and decide about religion. And yet in a great number of these +cases,--certainly where the persons in question are come to years of +discretion and show themselves consistent in their religious profession +afterward,--they would be commonly set forth by Protestant minds as +instances of the due exercise of the right of private judgment. + +Such are the greater number perhaps of converts at this day, in whatever +direction their conversion lies; and their so-called exercise of private +judgment is neither right nor wrong in itself, it is a spontaneous act +which they do not think about; if it is any thing, it is but a means of +bringing out their moral characteristics one way or the other. Often, as +in the case of very illiterate and unreflecting persons, it proves +nothing either way; but in those who are not so, it is right or wrong, +as their hearts are right or wrong; it is an exercise not of reason but +of heart. Take, for instance, the case of a servant in a family; she is +baptized and educated in the Church of England, and is religiously +disposed; she goes into Scotland and conforms to the Kirk, to which her +master and mistress belong. She is of course responsible for what she +does, but no one would say that she had formed any purpose, or taken any +deliberate step. In course of time, when perhaps taxed with the change, +she would say in her defence that outward forms matter not, and that +there are good men in Scotland as well as in England; but this is an +after-thought. Again, a careless person, nominally a Churchman, falls +among serious-minded Dissenters, and they reclaim him from vice or +irreligion; on this he joins their communion, and as time goes on, +boasts perhaps of his right of private judgment. At the time itself, +however, no process of inquiry took place within him at all; his heart +was "opened," whether for good or for bad, whether by good influences or +by good and bad mixed. He was not conscious of convincing reasons, but +he took what came to hand, he embraced what was offered, he felt and he +acted. Again, a man is brought up among Unitarians, or in the frigid and +worldly school which got a footing in the Church during last century, +and has been accustomed to view religion as a matter of reason and +form, of obligation, to the exclusion of affectionateness and devotion. +He falls among persons of what is called an Evangelical cast, and finds +his heart interested, and great objects set before it. Such a man falls +in with the sentiments he finds, rather than adopts them. He follows the +leadings of his heart, perhaps of Divine grace, but certainly not any +course of inquiry and proof. There is nothing of argument, discussion, +or choice in the process of his conversion. He has no systems to choose +between, and no grounds to scrutinize. + +Now, in all such cases, the sort of private judgment exercised is right +or wrong, not as private judgment, but according to its circumstances. +It is either the attraction of a Divine Influence, such as the mind +cannot master, or it is a suggestion of reason, which the mind has yet +to analyze, before it can bring it to the test of logic. If it is the +former, it is above a private judgment, popularly so-called; if the +latter, it is not yet so much as one. + +A second class of conversions on private judgment consists of those +which take place upon the sight or the strong testimony of miracles. +Such was the instance of Rahab, of Naaman, if he may be called a +convert, and of Nebuchadnezzar; of the blind man in John ix, of St. +Paul, of Cornelius, of Sergius Paulus, and many others. Here again the +act of judgment is of a very peculiar character. It is not exactly an +unconscious act, but yet it is hardly an act of judgment. Our belief in +external sensible facts cannot properly be called an act of private +judgment; yet since Protestants, we suppose, would say that the blind +man or Sergius Paulus were converted on private judgment, let it even so +be called, though it is of a very particular kind. Again, conviction +after a miracle also implies the latent belief that such acts are signs +of the Divine Presence, a belief which may be as generally recognized +and maintained, and is as little a peculiar or private feeling as the +impression on the senses of the miracle itself. And this leads to the +mention of a further instance of the sort of private judgments to which +men are invited in Scripture, viz., the exercise of the moral sense. Our +Creator has stamped certain great truths upon our minds, and there they +remain in spite of the fall. St. Paul appeals to one of these at Lystra, +calling on the worshippers of idols to turn from these vanities unto the +Living God; and at Athens, "not to think that the Godhead is like unto +gold, or silver, or stone graven by art and man's device," but to +worship "God who made the world and all things therein." In the same +tone he reminds the Thessalonians of their having "turned to God from +idols to serve the Living and True God." In like manner, doubtless, +other great principles also of religion and morals are rooted in the +minds so deeply, that their denial by any religion would be a +justification of our quitting or rejecting it. If a pagan found his +ecclesiastical polity essentially founded on lying and cheating, or his +ritual essentially impure, or his moral code essentially unjust or +cruel, we conceive this would be a sufficient reason for his renouncing +it for one which was free from these hateful characteristics. Such again +is the kind of private judgment exercised, when maxims of principles, +generally admitted by bodies of men, are acted upon by individuals who +have been ever taught them, as a matter of course, without questioning +them; for instance, if a member of the English Church, who had always +been taught that preaching is the great ordinance of the Gospel, to the +disparagement of the Sacraments, thereupon placed himself under the +ministry of a powerful Wesleyan preacher; or if, from the common belief +that nothing is essential but what is on the surface of Scripture, he +forthwith attached himself to the Baptists, Independents, or Unitarians. +Such men indeed often take their line in consequence of some inward +liking for the religious system they adopt; but we are speaking of their +proceeding as far as it professes to be an act of judgment. + +A third class of private judgments recorded in Scripture are those which +are exercised at one and the same time by a great number; if it be not a +contradiction to call such judgments private. Yet here again we suppose +staunch Protestants would maintain that the three thousand at Pentecost, +and the five thousand after the miracle on the lame man, and the "great +company of the priests," which shortly followed, did avail themselves, +and do afford specimens, of the sacred right in question; therefore let +it be ruled so. Such, then, is the case of national conversions to which +we have already alluded. Again, if the Lutheran Church of Germany with +its many theologians, or our neighbor the Kirk,--General Assembly, Men +of Strathbogie, Dr. Chalmers, and all,--came to a unanimous or +quasi-unanimous resolve to submit to the Archbishop of Canterbury as +their patriarch, this doubtless would be an exercise of private judgment +perfectly defensible on Scripture precedents. + +Now, before proceeding, let us observe, that as yet nothing has been +found in Scripture to justify the cases of private judgment which are +exemplified in the popular religious biographies of the day. These +generally contain instances of conversions made on the judgment, +definite, deliberate, independent, isolated, of the parties converted. +The converts in these stories had not seen miracles, nor had they +developed their own existing principles or beliefs, nor had they changed +their religion in company with others, nor had they received new truths, +they knew not how. Let us then turn to Scripture a second time, to see +whether we can gain thence any clearer sanction of Private Judgment as +now exercised among us, than our search into Scripture has hitherto +furnished. + + +3. + +There certainly is another method of conversion upon private judgment +described in Scripture, which is much more to our purpose, viz., by +means of the study of Scripture itself. Thus our Lord says to the Jews, +"Search the Scriptures"; and the treasurer of Candace was reading the +book of Isaiah when St. Philip met him; and the men of Berea are said to +be "more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they received the +word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, +whether those things were so." And it is added, "therefore many of them +believed." Here at length, it will be said, is a precedent for such acts +of private judgment as are most frequently recommended and instanced in +religious tales; and indeed these texts commonly are understood to make +it certain beyond dispute, that individuals ordinarily may find out the +doctrines of the Gospel for themselves from the private study of +Scripture. A little consideration, however, will convince us that even +these are precedents for something else, that they sanction, not an +inquiry about Gospel doctrine, but about the Gospel teacher; not what +has God revealed, but whom has He commissioned? And this is a very +different thing. + +The context of the passage in which our Lord speaks of searching the +Scriptures, shows plainly that their office is that of leading, not to a +knowledge of the Gospel, but of Himself, its Author and Teacher. "Whom +He hath sent," He says, "Him ye believe not. Search the Scriptures, for +in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which _testify +of Me_." He adds, that they "will not come unto Him, that they may have +life," and that "He is come in His Father's name, and they receive Him +not." And again, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, for +he _wrote of Me_." It is plain that in this passage our Lord does not +send His hearers to the Old Testament to gain thence the knowledge of +the doctrines of the Gospel by means of their private judgment, but to +gain tests or notes by which to find out and receive Him who was the +teacher of those doctrines; and, though the treasurer of Candace appears +in the narrative to be contemplating our Lord in prophecy, not as the +teacher but the object of the Christian faith, yet still in confessing +that he could not "understand" what he was reading, "unless some man +should guide him," he lays down the principle broadly, which we desire +here to maintain, that the private study of Scripture is not intended +ordinarily as the means of getting a knowledge of the Gospel. In like +manner, St. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, refers to the book of Joel, +by way of proving thence, not the Christian doctrine, but the divine +promise that new teachers were to be sent in due season, and the fact +that it was fulfilled in himself and his brethren. "This is that," he +says, "which was spoken by the prophet Joel, I will pour out My Spirit +upon all flesh, and _your sons and your daughters shall prophesy_." + +While, then, the conversions recorded in Scripture are brought about in +a very marked way through a _teacher_, and _not_ by means of private +judgment, so again, if an appeal _is_ made to private judgment, this is +done in order to settle who the teacher is, and what are his notes or +tokens, rather than to substantiate this or that religious opinion or +practice. And if such instances bear upon our conduct at this day, as it +is natural to think they do, then of course the practical question +before us is, _who_ is the teacher now, from whose mouth are we to seek +the law, and _what are his notes_? + +Now, in remarkable coincidence with this view, we find in both +Testaments that teachers are promised under the dispensation of the +Gospel, so that they who, like the noble Bereans, search the Scriptures +daily will be at little loss _whither_ their private judgment should +lead them in order to gain the knowledge of the truth. In the book of +Isaiah we have the following express promises: "Though the Lord give you +the bread of adversity, and the waters of affliction, yet shall not thy +teachers be removed into a corner any more, but _thine eyes shall see +thy teachers_, and thine ears _shall hear a voice behind thee_, saying, +This is the way," etc. Several tests follow descriptive of the condition +of things or the circumstances in which these teachers are to be found. +First, the absence of idolatry: "Ye shall defile also the covering of +thy graven images of silver, and the ornaments of thy molten images of +gold"; and next the multitude of fellow-believers: "Then shall He give +the _rain of thy seed_, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; in that +day shall thy cattle feed _in large pastures_." Elsewhere the appointed +teacher is noted as speaking with authority and judicially, as: "Every +tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn." And +here again the promises or tests of extent and perpetuity appear: "Thou +shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall +inherit the Gentiles"; and "My kindness shall not depart from them, +neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed." Elsewhere holiness +is mentioned: "It shall be called, The way of holiness, the unclean +shall not pass over it." One more promise shall be cited: "My Spirit +that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not +depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed ... from +henceforth and for ever." + +In the New Testament we have the same promises stated far more concisely +indeed, but, what is much more apposite than a longer description, with +the addition of the _name_ of our promised teacher: "The _Church_ of the +living God," says St. Paul, "_the pillar and ground of the truth_." The +simple question then for Private Judgment to exercise itself upon is, +what and where is the Church? + +Now let it be observed how exactly this view of the province of Private +Judgment, where it is allowable, as being the discovery not of doctrine, +but of the teacher of doctrine, harmonizes both with the nature of +Religion and the state of human society as we find it. Religion is for +practice, and that immediate. Now it is much easier to form a correct +and rapid judgment of persons than of books or of doctrines. Every one, +even a child, has an impression about new faces; few persons have any +real view about new propositions. There is something in the sight of +persons or of bodies of men, which speaks to us for approval or +disapprobation with a distinctness to which pen and ink are unequal. +This is just the kind of evidence which is needed for use, in cases in +which private judgment is divinely intended to be the means of our +conversion. The multitude have neither the time, the patience, nor the +clearness and exactness of thought, for processes of investigation and +deduction. Reason is slow and abstract, cold and speculative; but man is +a being of feeling and action; he is not resolvable into a _dictum de +omni et nullo_, or a series of hypotheticals, or a critical diatribe, or +an algebraical equation. And this obvious fact does, as far as it goes, +make it probable that, if we are providentially obliged to exercise our +private judgment, the point toward which we have to direct it, is the +teacher rather than the doctrine. + +In corroboration, it may be observed, that Scripture seems always to +imply the presence of teachers as the appointed ordinance by which men +learn the truth; and is principally engaged in giving cautions against +false teachers, and tests for ascertaining the true. Thus our Lord bids +us "beware of false prophets," not of false books; and look to their +fruits. And He says elsewhere that "the sheep know His voice," and that +"they know not the voice of strangers." And He predicts false Christs, +and false prophets, who are to be nearly successful against even the +elect. He does not give us tests of false doctrines, but of certain +visible peculiarities or notes applicable to persons or parties. "If +they shall say, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth; behold, he is +in the secret chamber, believe it not." St. Paul insists on tokens of a +similar kind: "Mark them which cause divisions, and avoid them"; "is +Christ divided?" "beware of dogs, beware of evil workers"; "be followers +together of me, and mark them which walk so, as ye have us for an +ensample." Thus the New Testament equally with the Old, as far as it +speaks of private examination into teaching professedly from heaven, +makes the teacher the subject of that inquiry, and not the thing taught; +it bids us ask for his credentials, and avoid him if he is unholy, or +idolatrous, or schismatical, or if he comes in his own name, or if he +claims no authority, or is the growth of a particular spot or of +particular circumstances. + +If there are passages which at first sight seem to interfere with this +statement, they admit of an easy explanation. Either they will be found +to appeal to those instinctive feelings of our nature already spoken of +which supersede argument and proof in the judgments we form of persons +or bodies; as in St. Paul's reference to the idolatry of Athenian +worship, or to the extreme moral corruption of heathenism generally. Or, +again, the criterion of doctrine which they propose to the private +judgment of the individual turns upon the question of its novelty or +previous reception. When St. Paul would describe a false gospel, he +calls it _another_ gospel "than that ye have received"; and St. John +bids us "try the spirits," gives us as the test of truth and error the +"confessing that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh," and warns us +against receiving into our houses any one who "brings not this +doctrine." We conceive then that, on the whole, the notion of gaining +religious truth for ourselves by our private examination, whether by +reading or thinking, whether by studying Scripture or other books, has +no broad sanction in Scripture, is neither impressed upon us by its +general tone, nor enjoined in any of its commands. The great question +which it puts before us for the exercise of private judgment is,--Who +is God's prophet, and where? Who is to be considered the voice of the +Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church? + + +4. + +Having carried our train of thought as far as this, it is time for us to +proceed to the thesis in which it will be found to issue, viz., that, on +the principles that have been laid down, Dissenters ought to abandon +their own communion, but that members of the English Church ought not to +abandon theirs. Such a position has often been treated as a paradox and +inconsistency; yet we hope to be able to recommend it favorably to the +reader. + +Now that seceders, sectarians, independent thinkers, and the like, by +whatever name they call themselves, whether "Wesleyans," "Dissenters," +"professors of the national religion," "well-wishers of the Church," or +even "Churchmen," are in grievous error, in their mode of exercising +their private judgment, is plain as soon as stated, viz., because they +do not use it in looking out for a teacher at all. They who think they +have, in consequence of their inquiries, found the teacher of truth, may +be wrong in the result they have arrived at; but those who despise the +notion of a teacher altogether, are already wrong before they begin +them. They do not start with their private judgment in that one special +direction which Scripture allows or requires. Scripture speaks of a +certain pillar or ground of truth, as set up to the world, and describes +it by certain characteristics; dissenting teachers and bodies, so far +from professing to be themselves this authority, or to contain among +them this authority, assert there is no such authority to be found +anywhere. When, then, we deny that they are the Church in our meaning of +the word, they ought to take no offence at it, for we are not denying +them any thing to which they lay claim; we are but denying them what +they already put away from themselves as much as we can. They must not +act like the dog in the fable (if it be not too light a comparison), who +would neither use the manger himself, nor relinquish it to others; let +them not grudge to others a manifest Scriptural privilege which they +disown themselves. Is an ordinance of Scripture to be fulfilled nowhere, +because it is not fulfilled in them? By the Church we mean what +Scripture means, "the pillar and ground of the truth"; a power out of +whose mouth the Word and the Spirit are never to fail, and whom whoso +refuses to hear becomes thereupon to all his brethren a heathen man and +a publican. Let the parties in question accept the Scripture definition, +or else not resume the Scripture name; or, rather, let them seek +elsewhere what they are conscious is not among themselves. We hear much +of Bible Christians, Bible religion, Bible preaching; it would be well +if we heard a little of the Bible Church also; we venture to say that +Dissenting Churches would vanish thereupon at once, for, since it is +their fundamental principle that they are not a pillar or ground of +truth, but voluntary societies, without authority and without gifts, the +Bible Church they cannot be. If the serious persons who are in dissent +would really imitate the simple-minded Ethiopian, or the noble Bereans, +let them ask themselves: "Of whom speaketh" the Apostle, or the Prophet, +such great things?--Where is the "pillar and ground"?--Who is it that is +appointed to lead us to Christ?--Where are those teachers which were +never to be removed into a corner any more, but which were ever to be +before our eyes and in our ears? Whoever is right, or whoever is wrong, +they cannot be right who profess not to have found, not to look out +for, not to believe in, that Ordinance to which Apostles and Prophets +give their testimony. So much then for the Protestant side of the +thesis. + +One half of it then is easily disposed of; but now we come to the other +side of it, the Roman, which certainly has its intricacies. It is not +difficult to know how we should act toward a religious body which does +not even profess to come to us in the name of the Lord, or to be a +pillar and ground of the truth; but what shall we say when more than one +society, or school, or party, lay claim to be the heaven-sent teacher, +and are rivals one to the other, as are the Churches of England and Rome +at this day? How shall we discriminate between them? Which are we to +follow? Are tests given us for that purpose? Now if tests are given us, +we must use them; but if not, and so far as not, we must conclude that +Providence foresaw that the difference between them would never be so +great as to require of us to leave the one for the other. + +However, it is certain that much _is_ said in Scripture about rival +teachers, and that at least some of these rivals are so opposed to each +other, that tests are given us, in order to our shunning the one party, +and accepting the other. In such cases, the one teacher is represented +to be the minister of God, and the other the child and organ of evil. +The one comes in God's name, the other professes to come simply in his +own name. Such a contrast is presented to us in the conflict between +Moses and the magicians of Egypt; all is light on the one side, all +darkness on the other. Or again, in the trial between Elijah and the +prophets of Baal. There is no doubt, in such a case, that it would be +our imperative duty at once to leave the teaching of Satan, and betake +ourselves _to_ the Law and the Prophets. And it will be observed that, +to assist inquirers in doing so, the representatives of Almighty God +have been enabled, in their contests with the enemy, to work miracles, +as Moses was, for instance, and Elijah, in order to make it clear which +way the true teaching lay. + +But now will any one say that the contrast between the English and the +Roman, or again, the Greek, Churches, is of this nature?--is any of the +three a "_monstrum nulla virtute redemptum"?_ Moreover, the magicians +and the priests of Baal "came in their own name"; is that the case with +the Church, English, Roman, or Greek? Is it not certain, even at first +sight, that each of these branches has many high gifts and much grace in +her communion. And, at any rate, as regards our controversy with Rome, +if her champions would maintain that the Church of England is the false +prophet, and she the true one, then let her work miracles as Moses did +in the presence of the magicians, in order to our conviction. + +Probably, however, it will be admitted that the contrast between England +and Rome is not of that nature; for the English Church confessedly does +not come in her own name, nor can she reasonably be compared to the +Egyptian magicians or the prophets of Baal; is there any other type in +Scripture into which the difference between her and the Church of Rome +can be resolved? We shall be referred, perhaps, to the case of the false +prophets of Israel and Judah, who professed to come in the name of the +Lord, yet did not preach the truth, and had no part or inheritance with +God's prophets. This parallel is not happier than the former, for a test +was given to distinguish between them, which does not decide between the +Church of Rome and ourselves. This test is the divine accomplishment of +the prophet's message, or the divine blessing upon his teaching, or the +eventual success of his work, as it may be variously stated; a test +under which neither Church, Roman or Anglican, will fail, and neither is +eminently the foremost. Each Church has had to endure trial, each has +overcome it; each has triumphed over enemies; each has had continued +signs of the divine favor upon it. The passages in Scripture to which we +refer are such as the following: Moses, for instance, has laid it down +in the Book of Deuteronomy, that, "when a prophet speaketh in the name +of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the +thing which the Lord hath _not_ spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it +presumptuously." To the same effect, in the Book of Ezekiel, the +denunciation against the false prophet is: "Lo! _when the wall is +fallen_, shall it not be said unto you, _where_ is the daubing wherewith +ye have daubed it?" And Gamaliel's advice to "refrain from these men, +and let them alone, for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will +come to nought," may be taken as an illustration of the same rule of +judgment. Hence Roman Catholics themselves are accustomed to consider, +that eventual failure is the sure destiny of heresy and schism; what +then will they say to us? The English Church has remained in its present +state three hundred years, and at the end of the time is stronger than +at the beginning. This does not look like an heretical or schismatical +Church. However, when she does fall to pieces, then, it may be admitted, +her children _will_ have a reason for deserting her; till then, she has +no symptom of being akin to the false prophets who professed the Lord's +name, and deceived the simple and unlearned; she has no symptom of being +a traitor to the _faith_. + +However, there is a third type of rival teaching mentioned in Scripture, +under which the dissension between Rome and England may be considered to +fall, and which it may be well to notice. Let it be observed, then, that +even in the Apostles' age very grave outward differences seem to have +existed between Christian teachers--that is, the organs of the one +Church; and yet those differences were not, in consequence, any call +upon inquirers and beholders to quit one teacher and betake themselves +to another. The state of the Corinthian Christians will exemplify what +we mean: Paul, Cephas, and Apollos were all friends together, yet +parties were formed round each separately, which disagreed with each +other, and made the Apostles themselves seem in disagreement. Is not +this, at least in great measure, the state of the Churches of England +and Rome? Are they not one in faith, so far forth as they are viewed in +their essential apostolical character? are they not in discord, so far +as their respective children and disciples have overlaid them with +errors of their own individual minds? It was a great fault, doubtless, +that the followers of St. Paul should have divided from the followers of +St. Peter, but would it have mended matters, had any individuals among +them gone over to St. Peter? Was that the fitting remedy for the evil? +Was not the remedy that of their putting aside partisanship altogether, +and regarding St. Paul "not after the flesh," but simply as "the +minister by whom they believed," the visible representative of the +undivided Christ, the one Catholic Church? And, in like manner, surely +if party feelings and interests have separated us from the members of +the Roman communion, this does not prove that our Church itself is +divided from theirs, any more than that St. Paul was divided from St. +Peter, nor is it our duty to leave our place and join them;--nothing +would be gained by so unnecessary a step;--but our duty is, remaining +where we are, to recognize in our own Church, not an establishment, not +a party, not a mere Protestant denomination, but the Holy Church +Catholic which the traditions of men have partially obscured,--to rid it +of these traditions, to try to soften bitterness and animosity of +feeling, and to repress party spirit and promote peace as much as in us +lies. Moreover, let it be observed, that St. Paul was evidently superior +in gifts to Apollos, yet this did not justify Christians attaching +themselves to the former rather than the latter; for, as the Apostle +says, they both were but ministers of one and the same Lord, and nothing +more. Comparison, then, is not allowed us between teacher and teacher, +where each has on the whole the notes of a divine mission; so that even +could the Church of Rome be proved superior to our own (which we put +merely as an hypothesis, and for argument's sake), this would as little +warrant our attaching ourselves to it instead of our own Church, as +there was warrant for one of the converts of Apollos to call himself by +the name of Paul. Further, let it be observed, that the apostle reproves +those who attached themselves to St. Peter equally with the Paulines or +with the disciples of Apollos; is it possible he could have done so, +were St. Peter the head and essence of the Church in a sense in which +St. Paul was not? And, again, there was an occasion when not only their +followers were at variance, but the Apostles themselves; we refer to the +dissimulation of St. Peter at Antioch, and the resistance of St, Paul to +it: was this a reason why St. Peter's disciples should go over to St. +Paul, or rather why they should correct their dissimulation? + +We are surely bound to prosecute this search after the promised Teacher +of truth entirely as a practical matter, with reference to our duty and +nothing else. The simple question which we have to ask ourselves is, Has +the English Church _sufficiently_ upon her the signs of an Apostle? is +she the divinely-appointed teacher to _us_? If so, we need not go +further; we have no reason to break through the divine rule of "being +content with such things as we have"; we have no warrant to compare our +own prophet with the prophet given to others. Nor can we: tests are not +given us for the purpose. We may believe that our own Church has certain +imperfections; the Church of Rome certain corruptions: such a belief +has no tendency to lead us to any determinate judgment as to which of +the two on the whole is the better, or to induce or warrant us to leave +the one communion for the other. + + +5 + +One point remains, however, which is so often felt as a difficulty by +members of our Church that we are tempted to say a few words upon it in +conclusion, and to try to show what is the true practical mode of +meeting it. And this perhaps will give us an opportunity of expressing +our general meaning in a more definite and intelligible form. + +It cannot be denied, then, that a very plausible ground of attack may be +taken up against the Church of England, from the circumstance that she +is separated from the rest of Christendom; and just such a ground as it +would be allowable for private judgment to rest and act upon, supposing +its office to be what we have described it to be. "As to the particular +doctrines of Anglicanism, (it may be urged,) Scripture may, if so be, +supply private judgment with little grounds for quarrelling with them; +but what can be said to explain away the note of forfeiture, which +attaches to us in consequence of our isolated state? We are, in fact, +(it may be objected,) cut off from the whole of the Christian world; +nay, far from denying that excommunication, in a certain sense we glory +in it, and that under a notion, that we are so very pure that it must +soil our fingers to touch any other Church whatever upon the earth, in +north, east, or south. How is this reconcilable with St. Paul's clear +announcement that there is but one body as well as one spirit? or with +our Lord's, that 'by this shall _all men know_,' as by a note obvious to +the intelligence even of the illiterate and unreasoning, 'that ye are My +disciples, if ye have love one to another'? or again, with His prayer +that His disciples might all be one, 'that the world may know that _Thou +hast sent Me_, and hast _loved them_ as Thou hast loved Me'? Visible +unity, then, would seem to be both the main evidence for Christianity, +and the sign of our own participation in its benefits; whereas we +English despise the Greeks and hate the Romans, turn our backs on the +Scotch Episcopalians, and do but smile distantly upon our American +cousins. We throw ourselves into the arms of the State, and in that +close embrace forget that the Church was meant to be Catholic; or we +call ourselves _the_ Catholics, and the mere Church of England _our_ +Catholic Church; as if, forsooth, by thus confining it all to ourselves, +we did not _ipso facto_ all claim to be considered Catholics at all." + +What increases the force of this argument is, that St. Augustine seems, +at least at first sight, virtually to urge it against us in his +controversy with the Donatists, whom he represents as condemned, simply +because separate from the "orbis terrarum," and styles the point in +question "quaestio facillima," and calls on individual Donatists to +decide it by their private judgment.[19] + +Now this is an objection which we must honestly say is deeply felt by +many people, and not inconsiderable ones; and the more it is openly +avowed to be a difficulty the better; for then there is the chance of +its being acknowledged, and in the course of time obviated, as far as +may be, by those who have the power. Flagrant evils cure themselves by +being flagrant; and we are sanguine that the time is come when so great +an evil as this is, cannot stand its ground against the good feeling and +common-sense of religious persons. It is the very strength of Romanism +against us; and, unless the proper persons take it into their very +serious consideration, they may look for certain to undergo the loss, as +time goes on, of some whom they would least like to be lost to our +Church. If private judgment can be exercised on any point, it is on a +matter of the senses; now our eyes and our ears are filled with the +abuse poured out by members of our Church on her sister Churches in +foreign lands. It is not that their corrupt practices are gravely and +tenderly pointed out, as may be done by men who feel themselves also to +be sinful and ignorant, and know that they have their own great +imperfections, which their brethren abroad have not,--but we are apt not +to acknowledge them as brethren at all; we treat them in an arrogant +John Bull way, as mere Frenchmen, or Spaniards, or Austrians, not as +Christians. We act as if we could do without brethren; as if our having +brethren all over the world were not the very tenure on which we are +Christians at all; as if we did not cease to be Christians, if at any +time we ceased to have brethren. Or again, when our thoughts turn to the +East, instead of recollecting that there are sister Churches there, we +leave it to the Russians to take care of the Greeks, and to the French +to take care of the Romans and we content ourselves with erecting a +Protestant Church at Jerusalem, or with helping the Jews to rebuild +their temple there, or with becoming the august protectors of +Nestorians, Monophysites, and all the heretics we can hear of, or with +forming a league with the Mussulman against Greeks and Romans together. +Can any one doubt that the British power is not considered a Church +power by any country whatever into which it comes? and if so, is it +possible that the English Church, which is so closely connected with +that power, can be said in any true sense to exert a Catholic influence, +or to deserve the Catholic name? How can any Church be called Catholic, +which does not act beyond its own territory? and when did the rulers of +the English Church ever move one step beyond the precincts, or without +the leave, of the imperial power? + + "pudet haec opprobria nobis + Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli." + +There is indeed no denying them; and if certain persons are annoyed at +the confession, as if we were thereby putting weapons into our enemies' +hands, let them be annoyed more by the fact, and let them alter the +fact, and, they may take our word for it, the confession will cease of +itself. The world does not feel the fact the less for its not being +confessed; it _is_ felt deeply by many, and is doing incalculable +mischief to our cause, and is likely to hurt it more and more. In a +word, this isolation is doing as much as any one thing can do to +unchurch us, and it and our awakened claims to be Catholic and Apostolic +cannot long stand together. This, then, is the main difficulty which +serious people feel in accepting the English Church as the promised +prophet of truth, and we are far indeed from undervaluing it, as the +above remarks show. + +But now taking the objection in a simply practical view, which is the +only view in which it ought to concern or perplex any one, we consider +that it can have legitimately no effect whatever in leading us from +England to Rome. We do not say no legitimate tendency in itself to move +us, but no legitimate influence with serious men, who wish to know how +their duty lies. For this reason--because if the note of schism on the +one hand lies against England, an antagonist disgrace lies upon Rome, +the note of idolatry. Let us not be mistaken here: we are neither +accusing Rome of being idolatrous nor ourselves of being +schismatical,--we think neither charge tenable; but still the Roman +Church practises what looks so very like idolatry, and the English +glories in what looks so very like schism, that, without deciding what +is the duty of a Roman Catholic toward the Church of England in her +present state, we do seriously think that members of the English Church +have a providential direction given them, how to comport themselves +toward the Church of Rome, while she is what she is. We are discussing +the subject, not of decisive proofs, but of probable indications and of +presumptive notes of the divine will. Few men have time to scrutinize +accurately; all men may have general impressions, and the general +impressions of conscientious men are true ones. Providence has +graciously met their need, and provided for them those very means of +knowledge which they can use and turn to account. He has cast around the +institutions and powers existing in the world marks of truth or +falsehood, or, more properly, elements of attraction and repulsion, and +notices for pursuit and avoidance, sufficient to determine the course of +those who in the conduct of life desire to approve themselves to Him. +Now, whether or no what we see in the Church of Rome be sufficient to +warrant a religious person to leave her, (a question, we repeat, about +which we have no need here to concern ourselves,) we certainly think it +sufficient to deter him from joining her; and, whatever be the +perplexity and distress of his position in a communion so isolated as +the English, we do not think he would mend the matter by placing himself +in a communion so superstitious as the Roman; especially considering, +agreeably to a remark we have already made, that even if he be +schismatical at present, he is so by the act of Providence, whereas he +would be entering into superstition by his own. Thus an Anglo-Catholic +is kept at a distance from Rome, if not by our own excellences, at least +by her errors. + +That this is the state of the Church of Rome, is, alas! not fairly +disputable. Dr. Wiseman has lately attempted to dispute it; but if we +may judge from the present state of the controversy, facts are too clear +for him. It has lately been broadly put forward, as all know, that, +whatever may be said in defence of the _authoritative documents_ of the +faith of Rome, this imputation lies against her _authorities_, that they +have countenanced and established doctrines and practices from which a +Christian mind, not educated in them, shrinks; and that in the number of +these a worship of the creature which to most men will seem to be a +quasi-idolatry is not the least prominent.[20] Dr. Wiseman, for whom we +entertain most respectful feelings personally, and to whom we impute +nothing but what is straight-forward and candid, has written two +pamphlets on the subject, toward which we should be very sorry to deal +unfairly; but he certainly seems to us in the former of them to deny the +fact of these alleged additions in the formal profession of his Church, +and then, in the second, to turn right round and maintain them. What +account is to be given of self-contradiction such as this, but the fact, +that he would deny the additions, if he could, and defends them, because +he can't? And that dilemma is no common one; for, as if to show that +what he holds in excess of our creed is in excess also of primitive +usage, he has in his defence been forced upon citations from the +writings of the Fathers, the chief of which, as Mr. Palmer has shown, +are spurious; thus setting before us vividly what he looks for in +Antiquity, but what he cannot find there. However, it is not our +intention to enter into a controversy which is in Mr. Palmer's hands; +nor need we do more than refer the reader to the various melancholy +evidences, which that learned, though over-severe writer, and Dr. Pusey, +and Mr. Ward adduce, in proof of the existence of this note of dishonor +in a sister or mother, toward whom we feel so tenderly and reverently, +and whom nothing but some such urgent reason in conscience could make us +withstand so resolutely. + +So much has been said on this point lately as to increase our +unwillingness to insist upon a subject in itself very ungrateful; but a +reference to it is unavoidable, if we would adequately show what is the +legitimate use and duty of private judgment, in dealing with those notes +of truth and error, by which Providence recommends to us or disowns the +prophets that come in His name. + +What imparts an especial keenness to the grief which the teaching in +question causes in minds kindly disposed toward the Church of Rome, is, +that not only are we expressly told in Scripture that the Almighty will +not give His glory to another, but it is predicted as His especial grace +upon the Christian Church, "the idols He shall utterly abolish"; so +that, if Anglicans are almost unchurched by the Protestantism which has +mixed itself up with their ecclesiastical proceedings, Romanists, also, +are almost unchurched by their superstitions. Again and again in the +Prophets is this promise given: "From all your filthiness, and from all +your idols will I cleanse you"; "Neither shall they defile themselves +any more with their idols"; "Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any +more with idols?" "I will cut off the names of the idols out of the +land." And the warning in the New is as strong as the promise in the +Old: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols"; "Let no man beguile +you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels"; +and the angel's answer, to whom St. John fell down in worship, was "See +thou do it not, _for_ I am thy fellow-servant; worship God."[21] + +It is then a note of the Christian Church, as decisive as any, that she +is not idolatrous; and any semblance of idolatrous worship in the Church +of Rome as plainly dissuades a man of Catholic feelings from her +communion, as the taint of a Protestant or schismatical spirit in our +communion may tempt him to depart from us. This is the Via Media which +we would maintain; and thus without judging Rome on the one hand, or +acquiescing in our own state on the other, we may use what we see, as a +providential intimation to _us_, not to quit what is bad for what may be +worse, but to learn resignation to what we inherit, nor seek to escape +into a happier state by suicide. + + +6. + +And in such a state of things, certain though it be that St. Austin +invites individual Donatists to the Church, on the simple ground that +the larger body must be the true one, he is not, he cannot be, a guide +of _our_ conduct here. The Fathers are our teachers, but not our +confessors or casuists; they are the prophets of great truths, not the +spiritual directors of individuals. How can they possibly be such, +considering the subject-matter of conduct? Who shall say that a point +of practice which is right in one man, is right even in his next-door +neighbor? Do not the Fathers differ with each other in matters of +teaching and action, yet what fair persons ever imputed inconsistency to +them in consequence? St. Augustine bids us stay in persecution, yet St. +Dionysius takes to flight; St. Cyprian at one time flees, at another +time stays. One bishop adorns churches with paintings, another tears +down a pictured veil; one demolishes the heathen temples, another +consecrates them to the true God. St. Augustine at one time speaks +against the use of force in proselytizing, at another time he speaks for +it. The Church at one time comes into General Council at the summons of +the Emperor; at another time she takes the initiative. St. Cyprian +re-baptizes heretics; St. Stephen accepts their baptism. The early ages +administer, the later deny, the Holy Eucharist to children.[22] Who +shall say that in such practical matters, and especially in points of +casuistry, points of the when, and the where, and the by whom, and the +how, words written in the fourth century are to be the rule of the +nineteenth? + +We have not St. Austin to consult; we cannot go to him with his works in +our hand, and ask him whether they are to be taken to the letter under +our altered circumstances. We cannot explain to him that, as far as the +appearance of things goes, there are, besides our own, at least two +Churches, one Greek, the other Roman; and that they are both marked by a +certain peculiarity which does not appear in his own times, or in his +own writings, and which much resembles what Scripture condemns as +idolatry. Nor can we remind him, that the Donatists had a note of +disqualification upon them, which of itself would be sufficient to +negative their claims to Catholicity, in that they refused the name of +Catholic to the rest of Christendom; and, moreover, in their bitter +hatred and fanatical cruelty toward the rival communion in Africa. +Moreover, St. Austin himself waives the question of the innocence or +guilt of Caecilian, on the ground that the _orbis terrarum_ could not be +expected to have accurate knowledge of the facts of the case;[23] and, +if contemporary judgments might be deceived in regard to the merits of +the African Succession, yet, without blame, much more may it be +maintained, without any want of reverence to so great a saint, that +private letters which he wrote fourteen hundred years ago, do not take +into consideration the present circumstances of Anglo-Catholics. Are we +sure, that had he known them, they would not have led to an additional +chapter in his Retractions? And again, if ignorance would have been an +excuse, in his judgment, for the Catholic world's passing over the crime +of the Traditors, had Caecilian and his party been such, much more, in so +nice a question as the Roman claim to the _orbis terrarum_ at this day, +in opposition to England and Greece, may we fairly consider that he who +condemned the Donatists only in the case of "quaestio facillima," would +excuse us, even if mistaken, from the notorious difficulties which lie +in the way of a true judgment. Nor, moreover, would he, who so +constantly sends us to Scripture for the notes of the Church Catholic, +condemn us for shunning communions, which had been so little sensitive +of the charge made against them of idolatry. But even let us suppose +him, after full cognizance of our case, to give judgment against us; +even then we shall have the verdict of St. Chrysostom, St. Basil, and +others virtually in our favor, supporters and canonizers as they were of +Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, who in St. Augustine's own day lived and +died out of the communion of Rome and Alexandria.[24] + +We do not think, then, that St. Austin's teaching can be taken as a +direction to us to quit our Church on account of its incidental +Protestantism, unsatisfactory as it is to have such a note lying against +us. And it is pleasant to believe, that there are symptoms at this time +of our improvement; and we only wish we could see as much hope of a +return to a healthier state in Rome, as is at present visible in our own +communion. There is among us a growing feeling, that to be a mere +Establishment is unworthy of the Catholic Church; and that to be shut +out from the rest of Christendom is not a subject of boasting. We seem +to have embraced the idea of the desirableness of being on a good +understanding with the Greek and Eastern Churches; and we are aiming at +sending out bishops to distant places, where they must come in contact +with foreign communions and though the extreme vagueness, indecision, +and confusion, in which our theological and ecclesiastical notions at +present lie, will be almost sure to involve us in certain mistakes and +extravagances, yet it would be un-thankful to "despise the day of small +things," and not to recognize in these movements a hopeful stirring of +hearts, and a religious yearning after something better than we have. +But not to dwell unduly on these public manifestations of a Catholic +tendency, we should all recollect that a restoration of intercommunion +with other Churches is, in a certain sense, in the power of individuals. +Every one who desires unity, who prays for it, who endeavors to further +it, who witnesses for it, who behaves Christianly toward the members of +Churches alienated from us, who is at amity with them, (saving his duty +to his own communion and to the truth itself,) who tries to edify them, +while he edifies himself and his own people, may surely be considered, +as far as he himself is concerned, as breaking down the middle wall of +the division, and renewing the ancient bonds of unity and concord by the +power of charity. Charity can do all things for us; charity is at once a +spirit of zeal and peace; by charity we shall faithfully protest against +what our private judgment warrants us in condemning in others; and by +charity we have it in our own hands, let all men oppose us, to restore +in our own circle the intercommunion of the Churches. + +There is only one quarter from which a cloud can come over us, and +darken and bewilder our course. If, _nefas dictu_, our Church is by any +formal acts rendered schismatical, while Greek and Roman idolatry +remains not of the Church, but in it merely, denounced by Councils, +though admitted by authorities of the day,--if our own communion were to +own itself Protestant, while foreign communions disclaimed the +superstition of which they are too tolerant,--if the profession of +Ancient Truth were to be persecuted in our Church, and its teachings +forbidden,--then doubtless, for a season, Catholic minds among us would +be unable to see their way. + + + + +LESLIE STEPHEN. + +BORN 1832. + + + + +AN APOLOGY FOR PLAINSPEAKING. + +BY LESLIE STEPHEN. + + +All who would govern their intellectual course by no other aim than the +discovery of truth, and who would use their faculty of speech for no +other purpose than open communications of their real opinions to others, +are met by protests from various quarters. Such protests, so far as they +imply cowardice or dishonesty, must of course be disregarded, but it +would be most erroneous to confound all protests in the same summary +condemnation. Reverent and kindly minds shrink from giving an +unnecessary shock to the faith which comforts many sorely tried souls; +and even the most genuine lovers of truth may doubt whether the time has +come at which the decayed scaffolding can be swept away without injuring +the foundations of the edifice. Some reserve, they think, is necessary, +though reserve, as they must admit, passes but too easily into +insincerity. + +And thus, it is often said by one class of thinkers, Why attack a system +of beliefs which is crumbling away quite fast enough without your help? +Why, says another class, try to shake beliefs which, whether true or +false, are infinitely consoling to the weaker brethren? I will endeavor +to conclude these essays, in which I have possibly made myself liable to +some such remonstrances, by explaining why I should think it wrong to be +bound by them; I will, however, begin by admitting frankly that I +recognize their force so far as this; namely, that I have no desire to +attack wantonly any sincere beliefs in minds unprepared for the +reception of more complete truths. This book, perhaps, would be +unjustifiable if it were likely to become a text-book for school-girls +in remote country parsonages. But it is not very probable that it will +penetrate to such quarters; nor do I flatter myself that I have brought +forward a single argument which is not already familiar to educated men. +Whatever force there may be in its pages is only the force of an appeal +to people who already agree in my conclusions to state their agreement +in plain terms; and, having said this much, I will answer the questions +suggested as distinctly as I am able. + +To the first question, why trouble the last moments of a dying creed, my +reply would be in brief that I do not desire to quench the lingering +vitality of the dying so much as to lay the phantoms of the dead. I +believe that one of the greatest dangers of the present day is the +general atmosphere of insincerity in such matters, which is fast +producing a scepticism not as to any or all theologies, but as to the +very existence of intellectual good faith. Destroy credit, and you ruin +commerce; destroy all faith in religious honesty and you ruin something +of infinitely more importance than commerce; ideas should surely be +preserved as carefully as cotton from the poisonous influence of a +varnish intended to fit them for public consumption. "The time is come," +says Mr. Mill in his autobiography, "in which it is the duty of all +qualified persons to speak their minds about popular religious beliefs." +The reason which he assigns is that they would thus destroy the "vulgar +prejudice" that unbelief is connected with bad qualities of head and +heart. It is, I venture to remark, still more important to destroy the +belief of sceptics themselves that in these matters a system of pious +frauds is creditable or safe. Effeminating and corrupting as all +equivocation comes to be in the long run, there are other evils behind. +Who can see without impatience the fearful waste of good purpose and +noble aspiration caused by our reticence at a time when it is of primary +importance to turn to account all the forces which make for the +elevation of mankind? How much intellect and zeal runs to waste in the +spasmodic effort of good men to cling _to_ the last fragments of +decaying systems, to galvanize dead formulae into some dim semblance of +life! Society will not improve as it might when those who should be +leaders of progress are staggering backward and forward with their eyes +passionately reverted to the past. Nay, we shall never be duly sensitive +to the miseries and cruelties which make the world a place of torture +for so many, so long as men are encouraged in the name of religion to +look for a remedy, not in fighting against surrounding evils, but in +cultivating aimless contemplations of an imaginary ideal. Much of our +popular religion seems to be expressly directed to deaden our sympathies +with our fellow-men by encouraging an indolent optimism; our thoughts of +the other world are used in many forms as an opiate to drug our minds +with indifference to the evils of this; and the last word of half our +preachers is, dream rather than work. + +To the other question, Why deprive men of their religious consolations? +I must make a rather longer reply. In the first place, I must observe +that the burden of proof does not rest with me. If any one should tell +me explicitly, a certain dogma is false, but it is better not to destroy +it, I would not reply summarily that he is preaching grossly immoral +doctrine; but I would only refrain from the reply because I should think +that he does not quite mean what he says. His real intention, I should +suppose, would be to say that every dogma includes some truth, or is +inseparably associated with true statements, and that I ought to be +careful not to destroy the wheat with the tares. The presumption +remains, at any rate, that a false doctrine is so far mischievous; and +its would-be protector is bound to show that it is impossible to assail +it without striking through its sides at something beyond. If Christ is +not God, the man who denies him to be God is certainly _prima facie_ +right, though it may perhaps be possible to show that such a denial +cannot be made in practice without attacking a belief in morality. We +may, or it is possible to assert that we may, be under this miserable +necessity, that we cannot speak undiluted truth; truth and falsehood +are, it is perhaps maintainable, so intricately blended in the world +that discrimination is impossible. Still the man who argues thus is +bound to assign some grounds for his melancholy scepticism; and to show +further that the destruction of the figment is too dearly bought by the +assertion of the truth. Therefore, I might be content to say that, in +such cases, the innocence of the plain speaker ought to be assumed until +his guilt is demonstrated. If we had always waited to clear away shams +till we were certain that our action would produce absolutely unmixed +benefits, we should still be worshipping Mumbo-Jumbo. + +But, whilst claiming the advantage of this presumption, I am ready to +meet the objector on his own ground, and to indicate, simply and +inefficiently enough, the general nature of the reasons which convince +me that the objection could not be sustained. To what degree, in fact, +are these sham beliefs, which undoubtedly prevail so widely, a real +comfort to any intelligent person? Many believers have described the +terrible agony with which they had at one period of their lives +listened to the first whisperings of scepticism. The horror with which +they speak of the gulf after managing to struggle back to the right side +is supposed to illustrate the cruelty of encouraging others to take the +plunge. That such sufferings are at times very real and very acute, is +undeniable; and yet I imagine that few who have undergone them would +willingly have missed the experience. I venture even to think that the +recollection is one of unmixed pain only in those cases in which the +sufferer has a half-consciousness that he has not escaped by legitimate +means. If in his despair he has clutched at a lie in order to extricate +himself as quickly as possible and at any price, it is no wonder that he +looks back with a shudder. When the disease has been driven inward by +throwing in abundant doses of Paley, Butler, with perhaps an oblique +reference to preferment and respectability, it continues to give many +severe twinges, and perhaps it may permanently injure the constitution. +But, if it has been allowed to run its natural course, and the sufferer +has resolutely rejected every remedy except fair and honest argument, I +think that the recovery is generally cheering. A man looks back with +something of honest pride at the obstacles through which he has forced +his way to a purer and healthier atmosphere. But, whatever the nature of +such crises generally, there is an obvious reason why, at the present +day, the process is seldom really painful. The change which takes place +is not, in fact, an abandonment of beliefs seriously held and firmly +implanted in the mind, but a gradual recognition of the truth that you +never really held them. The old husk drops off because it has long been +withered, and you discover that beneath is a sound and vigorous growth +of genuine conviction. Theologians have been assuring you that the world +would be intolerably hideous if you did not look through their +spectacles. With infinite pains you have turned away your eyes from the +external light. It is with relief, not regret, that you discover that +the sun shines, and that the world is beautiful without the help of +these optical devices which you had been taught to regard as essential. + +This, of course, is vehemently denied by all orthodox persons; and the +hesitation with which the heterodox impugn their assumption seems to +testify to its correctness. "After all," the believer may say, with much +appearance of truth, "you don't really believe that I can walk by +myself, if you are so tender of removing my crutches." The taunt is fair +enough, and should be fairly met. Cynicism and infidelity are supposed +to be inseparably connected; it is assumed that nobody can attack the +orthodox creed unless he is incapable of sympathizing with the noblest +emotions of our nature. The adversary on purely intellectual grounds +would be awed into silence by its moral beauty, unless he were deficient +in reverence, purity, and love. It must therefore be said, distinctly, +although it cannot be argued at length, that this ground also appears to +me to be utterly untenable. I deny that it is impossible to speak the +truth without implying a falsehood; and I deny equally that it is +impossible to speak the truth without drying up the sources of our +holiest feelings. Those who maintain the affirmative of those +propositions appear to me to be the worst of sceptics, and they would +certainly reduce us to the most lamentable of dilemmas. If we cannot +develop our intellects but at the price of our moral nature, the case is +truly hard. Some such conclusion is hinted by Roman Catholics, but I do +not understand how any one raised under Protestant teaching should +regard it as any thing but cowardly and false. Let me endeavor in the +briefest possible compass to say why, as a matter of fact, the dilemma +seems to me to be illusory. What is it that Christian theology can now +do for us; and in what way does it differ from the teaching of free +thought? + +The world, so far as our vision extends, is full of evil. Life is a sore +burden to many, and a scene of unmixed happiness to none. It is useless +to inquire whether on the whole the good or the evil is the more +abundant, or to decide whether to make such an inquiry be any thing else +than to ask whether the world has been, on the whole, arranged to suit +our tastes. The problem thus presented is utterly inscrutable on every +hypothesis. Theology is as impotent in presence of it as science. +Science, indeed, withdraws at once from such questions; whilst theology +asks us to believe that this "sorry scheme of things" is the work of +omnipotence guided by infinite benevolence. This certainly makes the +matter no clearer, if it does not raise additional difficulties; and, +accordingly, we are told that the existence of evil is a mystery. In any +case, we are brought to a stand: and the only moral which either science +or theology can give is that we should make the best of our position. + +Theology, however, though it cannot explain, or can only give verbal +explanations, can offer a consolation. This world, we are told, is not +all; there is a beyond and a hereafter; we may hope for an eternal life +under conditions utterly inconceivable, though popular theology has made +a good many attempts to conceive them. If it were further asserted that +this existence would be one of unmixed happiness, there would be at +least a show of compensation. But, of course, that is what no theologian +can venture to say. It is needless to call the Puritan divine, with his +babes of a span long now lying in hell, or that Romanist priest who +revels in describing the most fiendish torture inflicted upon children +by the merciful Creator who made them and exposed them to evil, or any +other of the wild and hideous phantasms that have been evoked by the +imagination of mankind running riot in the world of arbitrary figments. +Nor need we dwell upon the fact, that where theology is really vigorous +it produces such nightmares by an inevitable law; inasmuch as the next +world can be nothing but the intensified reflection of this. It is +enough to say that, if the revelation of a future state be really the +great claim of Christianity upon our attentions, the use which it has +made of that state has been one main cause of its decay. "St. Lewis the +king, having sent Ivo, Bishop of Chartres, on an embassy, the bishop met +a woman on the way, grave, sad, fantastic, and melancholic; with fire in +one hand and water in the other. He asked what those symbols meant. She +answered, 'My purpose is with fire to burn Paradise, and with my water +to quench the flames of hell, that men may serve God without the +incentives of hope and fear, and purely for the love of God.'" "The +woman," adds Jeremy Taylor, "began at the wrong end." Is that so clear? +The attempts of priests to make use of the keys of heaven and hell +brought about the moral revolt of the Reformation; and, at the present +day, the disgust excited by the doctrine of everlasting damnation is +amongst the strongest motives to popular infidelity; all able apologists +feel the strain. Some reasoners quibble about everlasting and eternal; +and the great Catholic logician "submits the whole subject to the +theological school," a process which I do not quite understand, though I +assume it to be consolatory. The doctrine, in short, can hardly be made +tangible without shocking men's consciences and understandings. It +ought, it may be, to be attractive, but when firmly grasped, it becomes +incredible and revolting. + +The difficulty is evaded in two ways. Some amiable and heterodox sects +retain heaven and abolish hell. A kingdom in the clouds may, of course, +be portioned off according to pleasure. The doctrine, however, is +interesting in an intellectual point of view only as illustrating in the +naivest fashion the common fallacy of confounding our wishes with our +beliefs. The argument that because evil and good are mixed wherever we +can observe, therefore there is elsewhere unmixed good, does not obey +any recognized canons of induction. It would certainly be pleasant to +believe that everybody was going to be happy forever, but whether such a +belief would be favorable to that stern sense of evil which should fit +us to fight the hard battle of this life is a question too easily +answered. Thinkers of a high order do not have recourse to these simple +devices. They retain the doctrine as a protest against materialism, but +purposely retain it in the vaguest possible shape. They say that this +life is not all; if it were all, they argue, we should be rightly ruled +by our stomachs; but they scrupulously decline to give form and +substance to their anticipations. We must, they think, have avowedly a +heavenly background to the world, but our gaze should be restricted +habitually within the visible horizon. The future life is to tinge the +general atmosphere, but not to be offered as a definite goal of action +or a distinct object of contemplation. + +The persons against whom, so far as I know, the charge of materialism +can be brought with the greatest plausibility at the present day are +those who still force themselves to bow before the most grossly material +symbols, and give a physical interpretation to the articles of her +creed. A man who proposes to look for God in this miserable world and +finds Him visiting the diseased imagination of a sickly nun, may perhaps +be in some sense called a materialist, and there is more materialism of +this variety in popular sentimentalisms about the "blood of Jesus" than +in all the writings of the profane men of science. But in a +philosophical sense the charge rests on a pure misunderstanding. + +The man of science or, in other words, the man who most rigidly confines +his imagination within the bounds of the knowable, is every whit as +ready to protest against "materialism" as his antagonist. Those who +distinguish man into two parts, and give the higher qualities to the +soul and the sensual to the body, assume that all who reject their +distinction abolish the soul, and with it abolish all that is not +sensual. Yet every genuine scientific thinker believes in the existence +of love and reverence as he believes in any other facts, and is likely +to set just as high a value upon them as his opponent. He believes +equally with his opponent, that to cultivate the higher emotions, man +must habitually attach himself to objects outside the narrow sphere of +his own personal experience. The difference is that whereas one set of +thinkers would tell us to fix our affections on a state entirely +disparate from that in which we are actually placed, the other would +concentrate them upon objects which form part of the series of events +amongst which we are moving. Which is the more likely to stimulate our +best feelings? We must reply by asking whether the vastness or the +distinctness of a prospect has the greater effect upon the imagination. +Does a man take the greater interest in a future which he can definitely +interpret to himself, or upon one which is admittedly so inconceivable +that it is wrong to dwell upon it, but which allows of indefinite +expansion? Putting aside our own personal interest, do we care more for +the fate of our grandchildren whom we shall never see, or for the +condition of spiritual beings the conditions of whose existence are +utterly unintelligible to us? If sacrifice of our lower pleasures be +demanded, should we be more willing to make them in order that a coming +generation may be emancipated from war and pauperism, or in order that +some indefinite and indefinable change may be worked in a world utterly +inscrutable to our imaginations? The man who has learned to transfer his +aspirations from the next world to this, to look forward to the +diminution of disease and vice here, rather than to the annihilation of +all physical conditions, has, it is hardly rash to assert, gained more +in the distinctness of his aims than he has lost (if, indeed, he has +lost any thing) in their elevation. + +Were it necessary to hunt out every possible combination of opinion, I +should have to inquire whether the doctrine of another world might not +be understood in such a sense as to involve no distortion of our views. +The future world may be so arranged that the effect of the two sets of +motives upon our minds may be always coincident. Our interest in our +descendants might be strengthened without being distracted by a belief +in our own future existence. Of such a theory I have now only space to +say that it is not that which really occurs in practice: and that the +instincts which make us cling to a vivid belief in the future always +spring from a vehement revolt against the present. Meanwhile, however, +the answers generally given to sceptics are apparently contradictory. To +limit our hopes to this world, it is sometimes said, is to encourage +mere grovelling materialism; in the same breath it is added that to ask +for an interest in the fate of our fellow-creatures here, instead of +ourselves hereafter, is to make excessive demands upon human +selfishness. The doctrine it seems is at once too elevated and too +grovelling. + +The theory on which the latter charge rests seems to be that you can +take an interest in yourself at any distance, but not in others if they +are outside the circle of your own personality. This doctrine, when +boldly expressed, seems to rest upon the very apotheosis of selfishness. +Theologians have sometimes said, in perfect consistency, that it would +be better for the whole race of man to perish in torture than that a +single sin should be committed. One would rather have thought that a man +had better be damned a thousand times over than allow of such a +catastrophe; but, however this may be, the doctrine now suggested +appears to be equally revolting, unless diluted so far as to be +meaningless. It amounts to asserting that our love of our own +infinitesimal individuality is so powerful that any matter in which we +are personally concerned has a weight altogether incommensurable with +that of any matter in which we have no concern. People who hold such a +doctrine would be bound in consistency to say that they would not cut +off their little finger to save a million of men from torture after +their own death. Every man must judge of his own state of mind; though +there is nothing on which people are more liable to make mistakes; and I +am charitable enough to hope that the actions of such men would be in +practice as different as possible from what they anticipate in theory. +But it is enough to say that experience, if it proves any thing, proves +this to be an inaccurate view of human nature. All the threats of +theologians with infinite stores of time and torture to draw upon, +failed to wean men from sins which gave them a passing gratification, +even when faith was incomparably stronger than it is now, or is likely +to be again. One reason, doubtless, is that the conscience is as much +blunted by the doctrines of repentance and absolution as it is +stimulated by the threats of hell-fire. But is it not contrary to all +common-sense to expect that the motive will retain any vital strength +when the very people who rely upon it admit that it rests on the most +shadowy of grounds? The other motive, which is supposed to be so +incomparably weaker that it cannot be used as a substitute, has yet +proved its strength in every age of the world. As our knowledge of +nature and the growth of our social development impress upon us more +strongly every day that we live the close connection in which we all +stand to each other, the intimate "solidarity" of all human interests, +it is not likely to grow weaker; a young man will break a blood-vessel +for the honor of a boat-club; a savage will allow himself to be tortured +to death for the credit of his tribe; why should it be called visionary +to believe that a civilized human being will make personal sacrifices +for the benefit of men whom he has perhaps not seen, but whose intimate +dependence upon himself he realizes at every moment of his life? May not +such a motive generate a predominant passion with men framed to act upon +it by a truly generous system of education? And is it not an insult to +our best feelings and a most audacious feat of logic, to declare on _a +priori_ grounds that such feelings must be a straw in the balance when +weighed against our own personal interest in the fate of a being whose +nature is inconceivable to us, whose existence is not certain, whose +dependence upon us is indeterminate, simply because it is said that, in +some way or other, it and we are continuous? + +The real meaning, however, of this clinging to another life is doubtless +very different. It is simply an expression of the reluctance of the +human being to use the awful word "never." As the years take from us, +one by one, all that we have loved, we try to avert our gaze; we are +fain to believe that in some phantom world all will be given back to us, +and that our toys have only been laid by in the nursery upstairs. Who, +indeed, can deny that to give up these dreams involves a cruel pang? +But, then, who but the most determined optimist can deny that a cruel +pang is inevitable? Is not the promise too shadowy to give us real +satisfaction? The whole lesson of our lives is summed up in teaching us +to say "never" without needless flinching, or, in other words, in +submitting to the inevitable. The theologian bids us repent, and waste +our lives in vain regrets for the past, and in tremulous hopes that the +past may yet be the future. Science tells us--what, indeed, we scarcely +need to learn from science--that what is gone, is gone, and that the +best wisdom of life is the acceptance of accomplished facts. + + "The moving Finger writes, and having writ, + Moves on; nor all your piety nor wit + Can lure it back to cancel half a line, + Nor all your tears wipe out a word of it." + +Never repent, unless by repentance you mean drawing lessons from past +experience. Beating against the bars of fate you will only wound +yourself, and mar what yet remains to you. Grief for the past is useful +so far as it can be transmuted into renewed force for the future. The +love of those we have lost may enable us to love better those who +remain, and those who are to come. So used, it is an infinitely precious +possession, and to be cherished with all our hearts. As it leads to +vain regrets, it is at best an enervating enjoyment, and a needless +pain. The figments of theology are a consecration of our delusive +dreams; the teaching of the new faith should be the utilization of every +emotion to the bettering of the world of the future. + +The ennobling element of the belief in a future life is beyond the +attack, or rather is strengthened by the aid, of science. Science, like +theology, bids us look beyond our petty personal interests, and +cultivate faculties other than the digestive. Theology aims at +stimulating the same instincts, but provides them with an object in some +shifting cloud-land of the imagination instead of the definite _terra +firma_ of this tangible earth. The imagination, bound by no external +laws, may form what rules it pleases, and may therefore lend itself to a +refined selfishness, or to dreamy sentimentalism. When we rise beyond +ourselves we are most in need of some definite guidance, and in the +greatest danger of following some delusive phantom. The process +illustrated by this case is operative throughout the whole sphere of +religious thought. The essence of theology, as popularly understood, is +the division of the universe into two utterly disparate elements. God +is conceived as a ruler external to the ordinary series of phenomena, +but intervening at more or less frequent intervals; between the natural +and the supernatural, the human and the divine element, there can be no +proper comparison. Man must be vile that God may be exalted; reason must +be folly when put beside revelation; the force of man must be weakness +when it encounters Providence. Wherever, in short, we recognize the +Divine hand, we can but prostrate ourselves in humble adoration. In +franker times, when people meant what they said, this creed was followed +to its logical results. The dogmas of the literal inspiration of the +Scripture, or of the infallibility of the Church, recognized the +presence of a flawless perfection in the midst of utter weakness. The +corruption of human nature, the irresistible power of Divine grace, the +magical efficacy of the Sacraments are corollaries from the same theory. +In the phraseology popular with a modern school we are told that the +essence of Christianity is the belief in the fatherhood of God. That +doctrine is intelligible and may be beautiful so long as we retain a +sufficient degree of anthropomorphism. But as our conceptions of the +universe and, therefore, of its Ruler are elevated, we too often feel +that the use of the word "father" does not prevent the weight of His +hand from crushing us. If noble souls can convert even suffering into +useful discipline, it is but a flimsy optimism which covers all +suffering by the name of paternal chastisement. The universe partitioned +between infinite power and infinite weakness becomes a hopeless chaos; +and when we proceed farther, and try to identify the Divine and the +human elements amidst this intricate blending of good and evil we are in +danger of vital error at every step. What, in fact, can be more +disastrous, and yet more inevitable, than to mistake our corrupt +instincts for the voice of God, or, on the other hand, to condemn the +Divine intimations as sinful? How can we avoid at every instant +committing the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the ineffable +Holiness? And if, indeed, the distinction be groundless, are we not of +necessity dislocating our conceptions of the universe, and hopelessly +perplexing our sense of duty? + +Take, for instance, one common topic which is typical of the general +process. Divines never tire of holding up to us the example of Christ. +If Christ were indeed a man like ourselves, his example may be fairly +quoted. We willingly place him in the very front rank of the heroes who +have died for the good of our race. But if Christ were in any true sense +God or inseparably united to God, the example disappears. We honor him +because he endured agonies and triumphed over doubts and weaknesses that +would have paralyzed a less noble soul. The agonies and the doubts and +the weakness are unintelligible on the hypothesis of an incarnate God. +Theologians escape by the old loophole of mystery, ordinary believers by +thinking of Christ as man and God alternately. We can doubtless deceive +ourselves by such juggling, but we cannot honestly escape from the +inevitable dilemma. In paying a blasphemous reverence to Christ, +theologians have either placed him beyond the reach of our sympathies, +or have lowered God to the standard of humanity. Let us, if possible, +dwell with an emotion of brotherly love on the sufferings of every +martyr in the cause of humanity, but you sever the very root of our +sympathy when you single out one as divine and raise him to the skies. +Why stand we gazing into heaven when we have but to look round to catch +the contagion of noble enthusiasm from men of our own race? The ideal +becomes meaningless when it is made supernatural. + +The same perplexity meets us at every step; we are to follow Christ's +example. Be humble, it is said, as Christ was humble. Theology indeed +would prescribe annihilation rather than humiliation. Man in presence of +the Infinite is absolutely nothing. Science, according to a glib +commonplace of popular writers, agrees with theology in prescribing +humility. But that very ambiguous word has a totally different meaning +in the two cases. Science bids us recognize the inevitable limitation of +our powers, and the feebleness of any individual as compared with the +mass. We can do but little: and at every step we are dependent upon the +co-operation of countless millions of our race and an indefinite series +of past generations. We are like the coral insects, who can add but a +hair's breadth to the structure which has been raised by their +predecessors. Yet the little which we can do is something; and we will +neither degrade ourselves nor our race. As measured by an absolute +standard, man may be infinitesimal, but the absolute is beyond our +powers. Science tells us that our little individuality might be swept +out of existence without appreciable injury to the world; but it adds +that the world is built up of infinitesimal atoms, and that each must +co-operate in the general result. Theology crushes us into nothingness +by placing us in the presence of the infinite God; and then compensates +by making us divine ourselves. Man is a mere worm, but he can by +priestly magic bring God to earth; he is hopelessly ignorant, but set on +a throne and properly manipulated he becomes an infallible vice-God; he +is a helpless creature, and yet this creature can define with more than +scientific accuracy the precise nature of his inconceivable Creator; he +grovels on the ground as a miserable sinner and stands up to declare +that he is the channel of Divine inspiration; all his wisdom is +ignorance, but he has written one book of which every line is absolutely +perfect: and meanwhile that which one man singles out as the Divine +element is to another the diabolical, so strangely dim is our vision, +and so imperceptible is the difference between the Infinite and the +infinitesimal. + +Or, again, we are to deny ourselves as Christ denied himself. But what +are the limits and the purpose of this self-denial? Am I to carry on an +indefinite warfare against the body, which you say that God has given +me, and to crush the physical for the sake of the spiritual element? +What is the line between the spirit which is of God, and the body which +is hopelessly corrupt? All sound reasoning prescribes a training with +the given purpose of bringing the instincts of the individual into +harmony with the interests of the whole social organism. Theology trying +to lay down an absolute law sometimes encourages the extremes of +asceticism, sometimes it inclines to antinomianism; and sometimes +sanctions the condonation of sin in consideration of acts of +humiliation. + +We are to resign ourselves to God's will, say theologians, but what is +God's will? If it is the inevitable, then theology falls in with free +reason. But if God's will be, as theologians maintain, something which +we are at liberty to resist or to obey, then resignation implies our +ignoble yielding to evils which might be extirpated. Theology deifies +the force of circumstances, when our life should be a victory over +circumstances, and encourages us to repine over misfortunes, where all +repining is useless. + +Christ, you say, died for us; and Butler, in the book which still +receives more praise than any other attempt at reconciling philosophy +and theology, tries to show that here, at least, the two doctrines are +in harmony. He has probably produced, in men of powerful intellects, +more atheism than he has cured; for he tries to demonstrate explicitly +what is tacitly assumed by most theologians--the injustice of God. The +doctrine may be horrible, but he says that facts prove it to be true. +His whole logic consists in simply begging the question by calling +suffering punishment. That the potter should be angry with his pots is +certainly inconceivable; but when you once attempt to trace the +supernatural in life, it undoubtedly follows that God is not only weak +with the creatures he has made, but punishes the innocent for the +guilty. Theologians may rest complacently in such a conclusion; to +unprejudiced persons, it appears to be the clearest illustration of the +futility of their theories. Free thought declines to call suffering a +punishment; but it admits and turns to account the undoubted fact, that +men are so closely connected, that every injury inflicted upon one is +inevitably propagated to others. If morality be the science of +minimizing human misery, to say that sin brings suffering, is merely to +express an identical proposition. The lesson, however, remains for us +that we should look beyond our petty, personal interests, because no +act can be merely personal. The stone which we throw spreads widening +circles to all eternity, and to realize that fact is to intensify the +sense of responsibility; but the same doctrine translated into the +theological dialect becomes shocking or "mysterious." + +Finally, we are to love our brothers as Christ loved us. That, truly, is +an excellent doctrine, but translated into the theological, does it not +lose half its efficacy? Love them that are of the household is the more +natural corollary from the Christian tenets than love all mankind. +People sometimes express surprise that the mild doctrines of +Christianity should be pressed into the service of persecution. What +more natural? "We love you," says the theologian to the heathen, "but +still you are children of the devil. We love men, but the human heart is +desperately wicked. We love your souls, but we hate your bodies. We love +you as brothers; but then God, who so loved the world as to give His Son +to die for it, has left the vast majority to follow their own road to +perdition, and given to us a monopoly of truth and grace. We can only +follow His example, and adore the mysterious dispensations of +Providence." + +"Ah!" replies a different school, "that is indeed a blasphemous and +hideous doctrine. We will not presume to divide the human from the +divine. God is the father of all men; His grace is confined to no sect +or creed. His revelation is made to the universal human heart as well as +to a select number of prophets and apostles. He is known in the order of +nature as well as by miracles. The body has been created by Him as well +as the soul, and all instincts are of heavenly origin and require +cultivation not extirpation." + +Whether this doctrine is reconcilable with Christianity is a question +not to be discussed here. It certainly does not imply those flat +contradictions of the lessons of experience which emerge from the other +method of thought. It asks us to believe no miracles. It involves no +supernaturalism. Whatever is, is natural, and is at the same time +divine. Stated, indeed, as a bare logical formula, the doctrine seems to +elude our grasp. It is intelligible to say that Christ was divine and +Mahomet human, for the statement implies a comparison between two +different terms; but if you say that Christ and Mahomet are both of the +same class, what does it matter whether you call them both divine or +both human? Every logical statement implies an exclusion as well as +inclusion. To say that A is B is meaningless if you add that every other +conceivable letter is also B. You attempt to make everybody rich by +reckoning their property in pence instead of pounds, and the process, +though at first sight attractive, is unsatisfactory. In fact, this phase +of opinion generally slips back into the preceding. We find that +exceptions are insensibly made, and that after pronouncing nature to be +divine, it is tacitly assumed there is an indefinite region which is +somehow outside nature. Few people have the reasoning tendency +sufficiently developed to follow out this view to its logical result in +Pantheism. Yet short of that, there is no really stable resting-place. + +Let us glance, however, for a moment at the ordinary application of the +doctrine. The theologian agrees with the man of science in admitting +that we are governed by unalterable laws, or, as the man of science +prefers to say, that the world shows nothing but a series of invariable +sequences and co-existences. The difference is, in other words, that the +theologian puts a legislator behind the laws, whilst the man of science +sees nothing behind them but impenetrable mystery. The difference, so +far as any practical conclusions are concerned, is obviously nothing. +The laws of Nature, you tell us, are the work of infinite goodness and +wisdom. But we are utterly unable to say what infinite goodness and +wisdom would do, except by showing what it has done. Therefore, the +ultimate appeal of the theologian, is as unequivocally to the laws as +the primary appeal of the man of science. He has made a show of going to +a higher court only to be referred back again to the original tribunal. +History, for example, shows that mankind blunders by degrees into an +improved condition and calls the process progress. Theology can give no +additional guaranty for progress, for a state of things once compatible +may, for any thing we can say, always remain compatible with infinite +wisdom and goodness. As a matter of historical fact, theology only +suggested the dogma of man's utter vileness, and all genuine theologians +are marked by their readiness to believe in deterioration instead of +progress. They look forward to a future world instead of this. But what +reason have they to believe in this future of blessedness? God's love +for His creatures? But the most prominent fact written on the whole +surface of the world is what we cannot help calling the reckless and +profuse waste of life. If every thing we see teaches us that millions of +individuals are crushed at every step by the progress of the race, and +if that process is, as it must be, compatible with infinite goodness, +why suppose that infinite goodness will act differently in future? It is +an ever-recurring but utterly fruitless sophistry which first infers God +from nature, and then pronounces God to be different from nature. + +The only meaning, indeed, which can be given to the theological +statement when thus interpreted is that we should accustom ourselves to +look with reverence and love upon the universe. That love and reverence +are emotions which deserve our most strenuous efforts at cultivation; +that we should be profoundly impressed by the vast system of which we +form an infinitesimal part; that we should habitually think of ourselves +in relation to the long perspective of events which stretches far away +from us to the dim distance and toward the invisible future, are indeed +lessons which all sound reasoning tends to confirm. But when we are +invited to love and wonder at the world, as the work of God, we must +guard against the old trick of substitution which is constantly played +upon us. Once more, the God of nature is turned into the God of a part +of nature. Theology of the old stamp, so far from encouraging us to love +nature, teaches us that it is under a curse. It teaches us to look upon +the animal creation with shuddering disgust; upon the whole race of man, +outside our narrow sect, as delivered over to the devil; and upon the +laws of nature at large as a temporary mechanism, in which we have been +caught, but from which we are to anticipate a joyful deliverance. It is +science, not theology, which has changed all this; it is the atheists, +infidels, and rationalists, as they are kindly called, who have taught +us to take fresh interest in our poor fellow denizens of the world, and +not to despise them because Almighty benevolence could not be expected +to admit them to heaven; to the same teaching we owe the recognition of +the noble aspirations embodied in every form of religion, and the +destruction of the ancient monopoly of Divine influences; and it is +science again that has taught us to accommodate ourselves to the laws in +which we are placed, instead of fruitlessly struggling against them and +invoking miraculous interference to conquer them. The theology of which +I am now speaking differs, indeed, radically from the old, so radically +that one is at times surprised that the agreement, to use a common word, +should reconcile vital differences in faith. But it often tends to the +same end by a different path. It attempts to deny the existence of +evils, instead of proclaiming their ultimate destruction. Every thing +comes from a paternal hand; why struggle against it? Disease and +starvation and nakedness are, somehow or other, parts of a divine system +which is somehow or other deserving of our sincerest adoration. If +anybody who is in fact naked or sick or starving takes that phrase in +the sense that he had better submit cheerfully to evils which he cannot +help, there is little to be said against it. If the doctrine of the +Divine origin of all things is compatible with the belief that a vast +number of things are utterly hateful, that we ought to spend our whole +energy in eradicating them, and to protest against them with our latest +breath, then the doctrine is certainly innocuous. But whether there is +much use in language thus employed seems a little questionable; and, in +any case, it is clear that it really adds nothing, except words, to the +teaching of science. + +Here again people cling passionately to the old formulae because they +appear to sanction a soothing optimism. We cannot be happy, it is said, +unless we believe that our wishes will be fulfilled; and we endeavor to +convert our wishes into a guaranty for their own fulfilment. If we +cannot make up our minds to say "never," neither can we resolve to admit +that there is really evil. We passionately assert that the past will +come back and that pain will turn out to be an illusion. The argument +against the infidel comes essentially to this; you tell me that my hopes +will not be realized, and therefore you make me necessarily and +needlessly miserable. For God's sake, do not disperse my dreams. People +are not satisfied with the answer that the nightmare has gone as well as +the vision of bliss, and that fears are destroyed as much as hopes; +because, as a matter of fact, they can contrive to dwell upon that part +of the doctrine which is comfortable for the moment. We have power over +our dreams though we conceal its exercise from ourselves. But the +argument itself involves the fundamental fallacy. To destroy a +groundless hope is not to destroy a man's happiness. The instantaneous +effort may be painful: but it is the price which we have to pay for a +cure of deep-seated complaints. The infidel's reply is substantially +this: I may destroy your hopes; but I do not destroy your power of +hoping. I bid you no longer fix your mind on a chimera but on tangible +and realizable prospects. I warn you that efforts to soar above the +atmosphere can only lead to disappointment, and that time spent in +squaring the circle is simply time spent. Apply your strength and your +intellect on matters which lie at hand and on problems which admit of a +solution. The happiest man is not the man who has the grandest dreams, +but the man whose aspirations are best fitted to guide his talents: the +most efficient worker is not the one who mistakes his own fancies for an +external support, but he who has most accurately gauged the conditions +under which he is laboring. Trust in Providence may lead you to pass +successfully through dangers which would have repelled an unbeliever, or +it may lead you to break your neck in pursuing a dream. It makes heroes +and cowards, patriots and assassins, saints and bigots who each mistake +their wisdom or their folly for divine intimations. Providence for us +can only be that aggregate of external forces to which willingly or +unwillingly we must adapt ourselves. We should calmly calculate by all +available means the conditions of our life, and then dare, without +ignoring, the dangers that are inevitable. Through all human affairs +there runs an element of uncertainty which cannot be suppressed, and we +seek in vain to disguise it under names consecrated by old associations; +there are evils which are only made more poignant by our efforts to +explain them away; and to each of us will very speedily come an end of +his labors in the world. We can best fortify ourselves by recognizing +and submitting to the inevitable and by anchoring our minds on the +firmest holding ground. Science will tell us that by working with the +great forces that move the world, we may contribute some fragment to an +edifice which will not be broken down; that to think for others instead +of limiting our hopes to our petty interests is the best remedy for +unavailing regret. We can take our part in the long warfare of man +against the world, which is nothing else but the gradual accommodation +of the race to the conditions of its dwelling-place. By so disciplining +our thoughts that we may fight eagerly and hopefully, we have the best +security for happiness, and not in encouraging an idle dwelling upon +visions which can never be verified, and which are apt to become most +ghastly when we most wish for consolation. + +To the question, then, from which I started, it seems that an +unequivocal reply can be given. Why help to destroy the old faith from +which people derive, or believe themselves to derive, so much spiritual +solace? The answer is, that the loss is overbalanced by the gain. We +lose nothing that ought to be really comforting in the ancient creeds; +we are relieved from much that is burdensome to the imagination and to +the intellect. Those creeds were indeed in great part the work of the +best and ablest of our forefathers; they therefore provide some +expression for the highest emotions of which our nature is capable; but, +to say nothing of the lower elements which have intruded, of the +concessions made to bad passions, and to the wants of a ruder form of +society, they are at best the approximations to the truth of men who +entertained a radically erroneous conception of the universe. +Astronomers who went on the Ptolemaic theory managed to provide a very +fair description of the actual phenomena of the heavens; but the solid +result of their labors was not lost when the Copernican system took its +place; and incalculable advantages followed from casting aside the old +cumbrous machinery of cycles and epicycles in favor of the simpler +conceptions of the new doctrine. A similar change follows when man is +placed at the centre of the religious and moral system. We still retain +the faiths at which theologians arrived by a complex machinery of +arbitrary contrivances destined to compensate one set of dogmas by +another. The justice of God the Father is tempered by the mercy of God +the Son, as the planet wheeled too far forward by the cycle is brought +back to its place by the epicycle. When we strike out the elaborate +arrangements, the truths which they aim at expressing are capable of far +simpler statements; infinite error and distortion disappear, and the +road is open for conceptions impossible under the old circuitous and +erroneous methods. + +We have arrived at the point from which we can detect the source of +ancient errors, and extract the gold from the dross. One thing, indeed, +remains for the present impossible. The old creed, elaborated by many +generations, and consecrated to our imaginations by a vast wealth of +associations, is adapted in a thousand ways to the wants of its +believers. The new creed--whatever may be its ultimate form--has not +been thus formulated and hallowed to our minds. We, whose fetters are +just broken, cannot tell what the world will look like to men brought up +in the full blaze of day, and accustomed from infancy to the free use of +their limbs. For centuries all ennobling passions have been +industriously associated with the hope of personal immortality, and base +passions with its rejection. We cannot fully realize the state of men +brought up to look for a reward of heroic sacrifice in the consciousness +of good work achieved in this world instead of in the hope of posthumous +repayment. Nor again, have we, if we shall ever have, any system capable +of replacing the old forms of worship by which the imagination was +stimulated and disciplined. That such reflections should make many men +pause before they reveal the open secret is intelligible enough. But +what is the true moral to be derived from them? Surely that we should +take courage and speak the truth. We should take courage, for even now +the new faith offers to us a more cheering and elevating prospect than +the old. When it shall have become familiar to men's minds, have worked +itself into the substance of our convictions, and provided new channels +for the utterance of our emotions, we may anticipate incomparably higher +results. We are only laying the foundations of the temple, and know not +what will be the glories of the completed edifice. Yet already the +prospect is beginning to clear. The sophistries which entangle us are +transparent. That faith is not the noblest which enables us to believe +the greatest number of articles on the least evidence; nor is that +doctrine really the most productive of happiness which encourages us to +cherish the greatest number of groundless hopes. The system which is +really most calculated to make men happy is that which forces them to +live in a bracing atmosphere; which fits them to look facts in the face +and to suppress vain repinings by strenuous action instead of luxurious +dreaming. + +And hence, too, the time is come for speaking plainly. If you would wait +to speak the truth until you can replace the old decaying formula by a +completely elaborated system, you must wait for ever; for the system +can never be elaborated until its leading principles have been boldly +enunciated. Reconstruct, it is said, before you destroy. But you must +destroy in order to reconstruct. The old husk of dead faith is pushed +off by the growth of living beliefs below. But how can they grow unless +they find distinct utterance? and how can they be distinctly uttered +without condemning the doctrines which they are to replace? The truth +cannot be asserted without denouncing the falsehood. Pleasant as the +process might be of announcing the truth and leaving the falsehood to +decay of itself, it cannot be carried into practice. Men's minds must be +called back from the present of phantoms and encouraged to follow the +only path which tends to enduring results. We cannot afford to make the +tacit concession that our opinions, though true, are depressing and +debasing. No; they are encouraging and elevating. If the medicine is +bitter to the taste, it is good for the digestion. Here and there, a +bold avowal of the truth will disperse a pleasing dream, as here and +there it will relieve us of an oppressing nightmare. But it is not by +striking balances between these pains and pleasures that the total +effect of the creed is to be measured; but by the permanent influence on +the mind of seeing things in their true light and dispersing the old +halo of erroneous imagination. To inculcate reticence at the present +moment is simply to advise us to give one more chance to the development +of some new form of superstition. If the faith of the future is to be a +faith which can satisfy the most cultivated as well as the feeblest +intellects, it must be founded on an unflinching respect for realities. +If its partisans are to win a definitive victory, they must cease to +show quarter to lies. The problem is stated plainly enough to leave no +room for hesitation. We can distinguish the truth from falsehood, and +see where confusion has been reproduced, and truth pressed into the +service of falsehood. Nothing more is wanted but to go forward boldly, +and reject once for all the weary compromises and elaborate adaptations +which have become a mere vexation to all honest men. The goal is clearly +in sight, though it may be distant; and we decline any longer to travel +in disguise by circuitous paths, or to apologize for being in the right. +Let us think freely and speak plainly, and we shall have the highest +satisfaction that man can enjoy--the consciousness that we have done +what little lies in ourselves to do for the maintenance of the truths on +which the moral improvement and the happiness of our race depend. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +[1] It is objected that geology is a science: yet that geology cannot +foretell the future changes of the earth's surface. Geology is not a +century old, and its periods are measured by millions of years. Yet, if +geology cannot foretell future facts, it enabled Sir Roderick Murchison +to foretell the discovery of Australian gold. + +[2] February, 1864. + +[3] I am here applying to this particular purpose a line of thought +which both myself and others have often applied to other purposes. See, +above all, Sir Henry Maine's lecture on "Kinship as the Basis of +Society" in the lectures on the "Early History of Institutions"; I would +refer also to my own lecture on "The State" in "Comparative Politics." + +[4] While the Swiss Confederation recognizes German, French, and Italian +as all alike national languages, the independent Romance language, which +is still used in some parts of the Canton of Graubuenden, that which is +known specially as _Romansch_, is not recognized. It is left in the same +position in which Welsh and Gaelic are left in Great Britain, in which +Basque, Breton, Provencal, Walloon, and Flemish are left within the +borders of that French kingdom which has grown so as to take them all +in. + +[5] On Rouman history I have followed Roesler's _Romaenische Studien_ and +Jirecek's _Geschichte der Bulgaren_. + +[6] It should be remembered that, as the year 1879 saw the beginning of +the liberated Bulgarian state, the year 679 saw the beginning of the +first Bulgarian kingdom south of the Danube. + +[7] Published in the _North American Review_ for September, 1878. +Republished by permission. + +[8] This topic was much more largely handled by me in the Financial +Statement which I delivered, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, on May 2, +1866. I recommend attention to the excellent article by Mr. Henderson, +in the _Contemporary Review_ for October, 1878: and I agree with the +author in being disposed to think that the protective laws of America +effectually bar the full development of her competing power.--W. E. G., +Nov. 6, 1878. + +[9] See Hor., Od. I., 16. + +[10] This subject has been more fully developed by me in an article on +"England's Mission," contributed to _The Nineteenth Century_ for +September of the present year.--W. E. G., December, 1878. + +[11] This is a proposition of great importance in a disputed +subject-matter; and consequently I have not announced it in a dogmatic +manner, but as a portion of what we "seem to perceive" in the progress +of the American Constitution. It expresses an opinion formed by me upon +an examination of the original documents, and with some attention to the +history, which I have always considered, and have often recommended to +others, as one of the most fruitful studies of modern politics. This is +not the proper occasion to develop its grounds: but I may say that I am +not at all disposed to surrender it in deference to one or two rather +contemptuous critics.--W. E. G., December, 1878. + +[12] Gray's "Bard." + +[13] _Quarterly Review_, April, 1878, Art. I. + +[14] Hor. Od., I, xii, 18. + +[15] Henriade, I. + +[16] Vol. v, pp. 94, 95. Ed. London, 1877. + +[17] Heber's "Palestine." The word "stately" was in later editions +altered by the author to "noiseless." + +[18] [In reply to the intended work of Mr. Adams on the Constitution of +the United States, Mr. Livingstone, under the title of a Colonist of New +Jersey, published an Examination of the British Constitution, and +compared it unfavorably as it had been exhibited by Adams, and by +Delolme, with the institutions of his own country. In this work, of +which I have a French translation (London and Paris, 1789), there is not +the smallest inkling of the action of our political mechanism, such as I +have endeavored to describe it. On this subject I need hardly refer the +reader to the valuable work of Mr. Bagehot, entitled "The English +Constitution," or to the Constitutional History of Sir T. Erskine +May.--W. E. G., December, 1878.] + +[19] Ego cum audio quenquam bono ingenio praeditum, doctrinisque +liberalibus eruditum, quamquam non ibi salus animae constituta sit, tamen +in _quaestione facillima_ sentire aliud quam veritas postulat, quo magis +miror, eo magis exardesco nosse hominem et cum eo colloqui; vel si id +non possim, saltem litteris quae longissime volant [to the nineteenth +century?] attingere mentem ejus atque ab eo vicissim attingi desidero. +Sicut te esse audio talem virum, et ab Ecclesia Catholica, quae sicut +Sancto Spiritu pronunciata est, toto orbe diffunditur, discerptum doleo +atque seclusum.--Ep. 87. _vid._ ep. 61. + +[20] This is an exaggeration; I have reconsidered the whole subject in +my essay on "Development of Doctrine," in 1845; and in my letter to Dr. +Pusey in 1866. + +[21] This passage proves, on the one hand, that such worship as St. John +offered is wrong; on the other, that it does not unchurch, unless we can +fancy St. John guilty of mortal sin. + +[22] All these are merely points of discipline or conduct; but whether +there is a visible Church, and whether it is visibly one, is a question +which as it is answered affirmatively or negatively changes the +essential idea and the entire structure of Christianity. + +[23] Epp. 93, 144. + +[24] As has been said above, this statement is too absolute; at least, +Athanasius was reconciled to Meletius. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Prose Masterpieces from Modern +Essayists, by James Anthony Froude, Edward A. 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