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diff --git a/26334.txt b/26334.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d29e3a --- /dev/null +++ b/26334.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9967 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Map of Life, by William Edward Hartpole +Lecky + + +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: The Map of Life + Conduct and Character + + +Author: William Edward Hartpole Lecky + + + +Release Date: August 16, 2008 [eBook #26334] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAP OF LIFE*** + + +E-text prepared by Delphine Lettau, Martin Pettit, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +THE MAP OF LIFE + + * * * * * + +WORKS BY + +The Rt. Hon. W. E. H. LECKY. + + +HISTORY of ENGLAND in the EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. + Library Edition. 8vo. Vols. I. and II. 1700-1760. 36s. Vols. +III. and IV. 1760-1784. 36s. Vols. V. and VI. 1784-1793. 36s. +Vols. VII. and VIII. 1793-1800. 36s. + Cabinet Edition. ENGLAND. 7 vols. Crown 8vo. 6s. each. +IRELAND. 5 vols. Crown 8vo. 6s. each. + +The HISTORY of EUROPEAN MORALS from AUGUSTUS to CHARLEMAGNE. + 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 12s. + +HISTORY of the RISE and INFLUENCE of the + SPIRIT of RATIONALISM in EUROPE. + 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 12s. + +DEMOCRACY and LIBERTY. + Library Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. 36s. + Cabinet Edition. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 12s. + +THE MAP OF LIFE: Conduct and Character. + Library Edition. 8vo. 10s. 6d. + Cabinet Edition. Crown 8vo. 5s. net. + +POEMS. Fcp. 8vo. 5s. + + + LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. + 39 Paternoster Row, London, and Bombay. + + * * * * * + + +THE MAP OF LIFE + +Conduct and Character + +by + +WILLIAM EDWARD HARTPOLE LECKY + + + 'La vie n'est pas un plaisir ni une douleur, mais une affaire grave + dont nous sommes charges, et qu'il faut conduire et terminer a + notre honneur' TOCQUEVILLE + +New Impression + + + + + + + +Longmans, Green, and Co. +39 Paternoster Row, London +New York and Bombay +1904 + +All rights reserved + +Bibliographical Note. + + _First printed_, _8vo_, _September 1899_. _Reprinted November + 1899_; _December 1899_; _January 1900 (with corrections)_. _Cabinet + Edition_, _Crown 8vo_, _February 1901_. _Reprinted December, 1902_. + _July, 1904_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + PAGE + +How far reasoning on happiness is of any use 1 +The arguments of the Determinist 2 +The arguments for free will 3 +_Securus judicat orbis terrarum_ 5 + + +CHAPTER II + +Happiness a condition of mind and often confused with + the means of attaining it 7 +Circumstances and character contribute to it in different + degrees 7 +Religion, Stoicism, and Eastern nations seek it mainly by + acting on disposition 7 +Sensational philosophies and industrial and progressive + nations seek it chiefly in improved circumstances 8 +English character 8 +Action of the body on happiness 10 +Influence of predispositions in reasonings on life 12 +Promotion of health by legislation, fashion and self-culture 12 +Slight causes of life failures 14 +Effects of sanitary reform 14 +Diminished disease does not always imply a higher level of + health 15 +Two causes depressing health 16 +Encroachments on liberty in sanitary legislation 16 +Sanitary education--its chief articles--its possible + exaggeration 17 +Constant thought about health not the way to attain it 18 + + +CHAPTER III + +Some general rules of happiness--1. A life full of + work.--Happiness should not be the main object of pursuit 19 +Carlyle on Ennui 20 +2. Aim rather at avoiding suffering than attaining pleasure 21 +3. The greatest pleasures and pains in spheres accessible to + all 22 +4. Importance and difficulty of realising our blessings while + they last 24 +Comparison and contrast 26 +Content not the quality of progressive societies 27 +The problem of balancing content and the desire for progress 28 +What civilisation can do for happiness 28 + + +CHAPTER IV + +The relation of morals to happiness.--The Utilitarian + justification of virtue insufficient 30 +Power of man to aim at something different from and higher + than happiness 32 +General coincidence of duty and happiness 33 +The creation of unselfish interests one of the chief elements + of happiness 34 +Burke on a well-ordered life 35 +Improvement of character more within our power than + improvement of intellect 36 +High moral qualities often go with low intellectual power 36 +Dangers attaching to the unselfish side of our nature.--Active + charity personally supervised least subject to abuse 37 +Disproportioned compassion 38 +Treatment of animals 41 + + +CHAPTER V + +Changes of morals chiefly in the proportionate value attached + to different virtues 44 +Military, civic, and intellectual virtues 44 +The mediaeval type 45 +Modifications introduced by Protestantism 47 +Bossuet and Louis XIV. 48 +Persecution.--Operations at childbirth.--Usury 50 +Every great religion and philosophic system produces or + favours a distinct moral type 51 +Variations in moral judgments 51 +Complexity of moral influences of modern times.--The industrial + type 53 +Qualified by other influences 54 +Unnecessary suffering 57 +Goethe's exposition of modern morals 58 +Morals hitherto too much treated negatively 59 +Possibility of an over-sensitive conscience 60 +Increased sense of the obligations of an active life 61 + + +CHAPTER VI + +In the guidance of life action more important than pure + reasoning 62 +The enforcement of active duty now specially needed 62 +Temptations to luxurious idleness 63 +Rectification of false ideals.--The conqueror 64 +The luxury of ostentation 64 +Glorification of the demi-monde 66 +Study of ideals 67 +The human mind more capable of distinguishing right + from wrong than of measuring merit and demerit 67 +Fallibility of moral judgments 68 +Rules for moral judgment 73 + + +CHAPTER VII + +The school of Rousseau considers man by nature wholly + good 76 +Other schools maintain that he is absolutely depraved 76 +Exaggerations of these schools 78 +The restraining conscience distinctively human.--Comparison + with the animals 79 +Reality of human depravity.--Illustrated by war 81 +Large amount of pure malevolence.--Political crime.--The + press 83 +Mendacity in finance 85 +The sane view of human character 86 +We learn with age to value restraints, to expect moderately +and value compromise 86 + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Moral compromise a necessity in life.--Statement of Newman 88 +Impossibility of acting on it 88 +Moral considerations though the highest must not absorb + all others 90 +Truthfulness--cases in which it may be departed from 91 + +_Moral compromise in war_ + War necessarily stimulates the malevolent passions and + practises deception 92 + Rights of war in early stages of civilisation 93 + Distinction between Greeks and Barbarians 94 + Roman moralists insisted on just causes of war and on + formal declaration 95 + Treatment of prisoners.--Combatants and non-combatants 95 + Treatment of private property 96 + Lawful and unlawful methods of conducting war 96 + Abdication by the soldier of private judgment and free + will 98 + Distinctions and compromises 99 + Cases in which the military oath may be broken.--Illegal + orders 100 + Violation of religious obligations.--The Sepoy mutiny 101 + The Italian conscript.--Fenians in the British army 104 + + +CHAPTER IX + +_Moral compromise in the law_ + What advocates may and may not do 108 + Inevitable temptations of the profession 109 + Its condemnation by Swift, Arnold, Macaulay, Bentham 109 + Its defence by Paley, Johnson, Basil Montagu 110 + How far a lawyer may support a bad case.--St. Thomas + Aquinas and Catholic casuists 111 + Sir Matthew Hale.--General custom in England 113 + Distinction between the etiquette of prosecution and + of defence 113 + The case of Courvoisier 114 + Statement of Lord Brougham 115 + The license of cross-examination.--Technicalities defeating + justice 116 + Advantage of trial by jury 119 + Necessity of the profession of advocate 119 + +_Moral compromise in politics_ + Necessity of party 120 + How far conscientious differences should impair party + allegiance 121 + Lines of conduct adopted when such differences arise 121 + Parliamentary obstruction 123 + Moral difficulties inseparable from party 124 + Evil of extreme view of party allegiance.--Government + and the Opposition 125 + Relations of members to their constituents 127 + Votes given without adequate knowledge 131 + Diminished power of the private member 134 + + +CHAPTER X + +THE STATESMAN + +Duty of a statesman when the interests and wishes of his + nation conflict 136 +Nature and extent of political trusteeship 137 +Temperance questions 138 +Legitimate and illegitimate time-serving 141 +Education questions 141 +Inconsistency in politics--how far it should be condemned 147 +The conduct of Peel in 1829 and 1845 148 +The conduct of Disraeli in 1867 149 +Different degrees of weight to be attached to party + considerations 151 +Temptations to war 153 +Temptations of aristocratic and of democratic governments 155 +Necessity of assimilating legislation 157 +Legislation violating contracts.--Irish land legislation 158 +Questions forced into prominence for party objects 164 +The judgment of public servants who have committed + indefensible acts 165 +The French _coup d'etat_ of 1851 166 +Judgments passed upon it 177 +Probable multiplication of _coups d'etat_ 182 +Governor Eyre 184 +The Jameson raid 185 +How statesmen should deal with political misdeeds 190 +The standard of international morals--questions connected + with it 191 +The ethics of annexation 195 +Political morals and public opinion 196 + + +CHAPTER XI + +_Moral compromise in the Church_ + Difficulties of reconciling old formularies with changed + beliefs 198 + Cause of some great revolutions of belief.--The Copernican + system.--Discovery of Newton 198 + The antiquity of the world, of death, and of man 200 + The Darwinian theory 201 + Comparative mythology.--Biblical criticism.--Scientific + habits of thought 201 + General incorporation of new ideas into the Church 204 + Growth of the sacerdotal spirit 204 + The two theories of the Reformation 205 + Modern Ritualism 210 + Its various elements of attraction 211 + Diversity of teaching has not enfeebled the Church 213 + Its literary activity.--Proofs that the Church is in + touch with educated laymen 214 + Its political influence--how far this is a test of + vitality 218 + Its influence on education 219 + Its spiritual influence 220 + How far clergymen who dissent from parts of its + theology can remain within it 221 + Newman on a Latitudinarian establishment 223 + Obligations imposed on the clergy by the fact of + Establishment 224 + Attitude of laymen towards the Church 225 + Increasing sense of the relativity of belief 226 + This tendency strengthens with age 227 + The conflict between belief and scepticism 229 + Power of religion to undergo transformation 229 + Probable influence of the sacerdotal spirit on the + Church 231 + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE MANAGEMENT OF CHARACTER + +A sound judgment of our own characters essential to moral + improvement 235 +Analogies between character and taste 236 +The strongest desire generally prevails, but desires may be + modified 238 +Passions and habits 239 +Exaggerated regard for the future.--A happy childhood 239 +Choice of pleasures.--Athletic games 240 +The intellectual pleasures 242 +Their tendency to enhance other pleasures.--Importance of + specialisation 243 +And of judicious selection 243 +Education may act specially on the desires or on the will 245 +Modern education and tendencies of the former kind 245 +Old Catholic training mainly of the will.--Its effects 247 +Anglo-Saxon types in the seventeenth century 248 +Capriciousness of willpower--heroism often succumbs to vice 249 +Courage--its varieties and inconsistencies 250 +The circumstances of life the school of will.--Its place in + character 251 +Dangers of an early competence.--Choice of work 252 +Choice of friends.--Effect of early friendship on character 254 +Mastery of will over thoughts.--Its intellectual importance 255 +Its importance in moral culture 255 +Great difference among men in this respect 256 +Means of governing thought 258 +The dream power--its great place in life 258 +Especially in the early stages of humanity 261 +Moral safety valves--danger of inventing unreal crimes 262 +Character of the English gentleman 266 +Different ways of treating temptation 266 + + +CHAPTER XIII + +MONEY + +Henry Taylor on its relation to character 268 +Difference between real and professed beliefs about money 268 +Its relation to happiness in different grades of life 269 +The cost of pleasures 275 +Lives of the millionaires 281 +Leaders of Society 284 +The great speculator 287 +Expenditure in charity.--Rules for regulating it 288 +Advantages and disadvantages of a large very wealthy class + in a nation 292 +Directions in which philanthropic expenditure may be best + turned 296 + + +CHAPTER XIV + +MARRIAGE + +Its importance and the motives that lead to it 300 +The moral and intellectual qualities it specially demands 302 +Duty to the unborn.--Improvident marriages 305 +The doctrine of heredity and its consequences 306 +Religious celibacy 308 +Marriages of dissimilar types often peculiarly happy 309 +Marriages resulting from a common weakness 310 +Independent spheres in marriage.--Effect on character 311 +The age of marriage 312 +Increased independence of women 314 + + +CHAPTER XV + +SUCCESS + +Success depends more on character than on intellect 316 +Especially that accessible to most men and most conducive + to happiness 317 +Strength of will, tact and judgment.--Not always joined 317 +Their combination a great element of success 318 +Good nature 319 +Tact: its nature and its importance 320 +Its intellectual and moral affinities 323 +Value of good society in cultivating it.--Newman's description + of a gentleman 324 +Disparities between merit and success 326 +Success not universally desired 326 + + +CHAPTER XVI + +TIME + +Rebellion of human nature against the essential conditions + of life 328 +Time 'the stuff of life' 330 +Various ways of treating it 330 +Increased intensity of life 331 +Sleep 332 +Apparent inequalities of time 335 +The tenure of life not too short 337 +Old age 341 +The growing love of rest.--How time should be regarded 341 + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE END + +Death terrible chiefly through its accessories 343 +Pagan and Christian ideas about it 344 +Premature death 349 +How easily the fear of death is overcome 351 +The true way of regarding it 352 + + + + +THE MAP OF LIFE + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +One of the first questions that must naturally occur to every writer who +deals with the subject of this book is, what influence mere discussion +and reasoning can have in promoting the happiness of men. The +circumstances of our lives and the dispositions of our characters mainly +determine the measure of happiness we enjoy, and mere argument about the +causes of happiness and unhappiness can do little to affect them. It is +impossible to read the many books that have been written on these +subjects without feeling how largely they consist of mere sounding +generalities which the smallest experience shows to be perfectly +impotent in the face of some real and acute sorrow, and it is equally +impossible to obtain any serious knowledge of the world without +perceiving that a large proportion of the happiest lives and characters +are to be found where introspection, self-analysis and reasonings about +the good and evil of life hold the smallest place. Happiness, indeed, +like health, is one of the things of which men rarely think except when +it is impaired, and much that has been written on the subject has been +written under the stress of some great depression. Such writers are +like the man in Hogarth's picture occupying himself in the debtors' +prison with plans for the payment of the National Debt. There are +moments when all of us feel the force of the words of Voltaire: +'Travaillons sans raisonner, c'est le seul moyen de rendre la vie +supportable.' + +That there is much truth in such considerations is incontestable, and it +is only within a restricted sphere that the province of reasoning +extends. Man comes into the world with mental and moral characteristics +which he can only very imperfectly influence, and a large proportion of +the external circumstances of his life lie wholly or mainly beyond his +control. At the same time, every one recognises the power of skill, +industry and perseverance to modify surrounding circumstances; the power +of temperance and prudence to strengthen a naturally weak constitution, +prolong life, and diminish the chances of disease; the power of +education and private study to develop, sharpen and employ to the best +advantage our intellectual faculties. Every one also recognises how +large a part of the unhappiness of most men may be directly traced to +their own voluntary and deliberate acts. The power each man possesses in +the education and management of his character, and especially in the +cultivation of the dispositions and tendencies which most largely +contribute to happiness, is less recognised and is perhaps less +extensive, but it is not less real. + +The eternal question of free will and determinism here naturally meets +us, but on such a subject it is idle to suppose that a modern writer can +do more than define the question and state his own side. The +Determinist says that the real question is not whether a man can do +what he desires, but whether he can do what he does not desire; whether +the will can act without a motive; whether that motive can in the last +analysis be other than the strongest pleasure. The illusion of free +will, he maintains, is only due to the conflict of our motives. Under +many forms and disguises pleasure and pain have an absolute empire over +conduct. The will is nothing more than the last and strongest desire; or +it is like a piece of iron surrounded by magnets and necessarily drawn +by the most powerful; or (as has been ingeniously imagined) like a +weathercock, conscious of its own motion, but not conscious of the winds +that are moving it. The law of compulsory causation applies to the world +of mind as truly as to the world of matter. Heredity and Circumstance +make us what we are. Our actions are the inevitable result of the mental +and moral constitutions with which we came into the world, operated on +by external influences. + +The supporters of free will, on the other hand, maintain that it is a +fact of consciousness that there is a clear distinction between the Will +and the Desires, and that although they are closely connected no sound +analysis will confuse them. Coleridge ingeniously compared their +relations to 'the co-instantaneous yet reciprocal action of the air and +the vital energy of the lungs in breathing.'[1] If the will is +powerfully acted on by the desires, it has also in its turn a power of +acting upon them, and it is not a mere slave to pleasure and pain. The +supporters of this view maintain that it is a fact of the plainest +consciousness that we can do things which we do not like; that we can +suspend the force of imperious desires, resist the bias of our nature, +pursue for the sake of duty the course which gives least pleasure +without deriving or expecting from it any pleasure, and select at a +given moment between alternate courses. They maintain that when various +motives pass before the mind, the mind retains a power of choosing and +judging, of accepting and rejecting; that it can by force of reason or +by force of imagination bring one motive into prominence, concentrating +its attention on it and thus intensifying its power; that it has a +corresponding power of resisting other motives, driving them into the +background and thus gradually diminishing their force; that the will +itself becomes stronger by exercise, as the desires do by indulgence. +The conflict between the will and the desires, the reality of +self-restraint and the power of Will to modify character, are among the +most familiar facts of moral life. In the words of Burke, 'It is the +prerogative of man to be in a great degree a creature of his own +making.' There are men whose whole lives are spent in willing one thing +and desiring the opposite, and all morality depends upon the supposition +that we have at least some freedom of choice between good and evil. 'I +ought,' as Kant says, necessarily implies 'I can.' The feeling of moral +responsibility is an essential part of healthy and developed human +nature, and it inevitably presupposes free will. The best argument in +its favour is that it is impossible really to disbelieve it. No human +being can prevent himself from viewing certain acts with an indignation, +shame, remorse, resentment, gratitude, enthusiasm, praise or blame, +which would be perfectly unmeaning and irrational if these acts could +not have been avoided. We can have no higher evidence on the subject +than is derived from this fact. It is impossible to explain the mystery +of free will, but until a man ceases to feel these emotions he has not +succeeded in disbelieving in it. The feelings of all men and the +vocabularies of all languages attest the universality of the belief. + +Newman, in a well-known passage in his 'Apologia,' describes the immense +effect which the sentence of Augustine, 'Securus judicat orbis +terrarum,' had upon his opinions in determining him to embrace the +Church of Rome. The force of this consideration in relation to the +subject to which Dr. Newman refers does not appear to have great weight. +It means only that at a time when the Christian Church included but a +small fraction of the human race; when all questions of orthodoxy or the +reverse were practically in the hands of the priesthood; when ignorance, +credulity and superstition were at their height and the habits of +independence and impartiality of judgment running very low; and when +every kind of violent persecution was directed against those who +dissented from the prevailing dogmas,--certain councils of priests found +it possible to attain unanimity on such questions as the two natures in +Christ or the relations of the Persons in the Trinity, and to expel from +the Church those who differed from their views, and that the once +formidable sects which held slightly different opinions about these +inscrutable relations gradually faded away. Such an unanimity on such +subjects and attained by such methods does not appear to me to carry +with it any overwhelming force. There are, however, a certain number of +beliefs that are not susceptible of demonstrative proof, and which must +always rest essentially on the universal assent of mankind. Such is the +existence of the external world. Such, in my opinion, is the existence +of a distinction between right and wrong, different from and higher than +the distinction between pleasure and pain, and subsisting in all human +nature in spite of great diversities of opinion about the acts and +qualities that are comprised in either category; and such also is the +kindred belief in a self-determining will. If men contend that these +things are mere illusions and that their faculties are not to be +trusted, it will no doubt be difficult or impossible to refute them; but +a scepticism of this kind has no real influence on either conduct or +feeling. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] _Aids to Reflection_, p. 68. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Men continually forget that Happiness is a condition of Mind and not a +disposition of circumstances, and one of the most common of errors is +that of confusing happiness with the means of happiness, sacrificing the +first for the attainment of the second. It is the error of the miser, +who begins by seeking money for the enjoyment it procures and ends by +making the mere acquisition of money his sole object, pursuing it to the +sacrifice of all rational ends and pleasures. Circumstances and +Character both contribute to Happiness, but the proportionate attention +paid to one or other of these great departments not only varies largely +with different individuals, but also with different nations and in +different ages. Thus Religion acts mainly in the formation of +dispositions, and it is especially in this field that its bearing on +human happiness should be judged. It influences, it is true, vastly and +variously the external circumstances of life, but its chief power of +comforting and supporting lies in its direct and immediate action upon +the human soul. The same thing is true of some systems of philosophy of +which Stoicism is the most conspicuous. The paradox of the Stoic that +good and evil are so entirely from within that to a wise man all +external circumstances are indifferent, represents this view of life in +its extreme form. Its more moderate form can hardly be better expressed +than in the saying of Dugald Stewart that 'the great secret of +happiness is to study to accommodate our own minds to things external +rather than to accommodate things external to ourselves.'[2] It is +eminently the characteristic of Eastern nations to place their ideals +mainly in states of mind or feeling rather than in changes of +circumstances, and in such nations men are much less desirous than in +European countries of altering the permanent conditions of their lives. + +On the other hand, the tendency of those philosophies which treat +man--his opinions and his character--essentially as the result of +circumstances, and which aggrandise the influence of the external world +upon mankind, is in the opposite direction. All the sensational +philosophies from Bacon and Locke to our own day tend to concentrate +attention on the external circumstances and conditions of happiness. And +the same tendency will be naturally found in the most active, industrial +and progressive nations; where life is very full and busy; where its +competitions are most keen; where scientific discoveries are rapidly +multiplying pleasures or diminishing pains; where town life with its +constant hurry and change is the most prominent. In such spheres men +naturally incline to seek happiness from without rather than from +within, or, in other words, to seek it much less by acting directly on +the mind and character than through the indirect method of improved +circumstances. + +English character on both sides of the Atlantic is an eminently +objective one--a character in which thoughts, interests and emotions +are most habitually thrown on that which is without. Introspection and +self-analysis are not congenial to it. No one can compare English life +with life even in the Continental nations which occupy the same rank in +civilisation without perceiving how much less Englishmen are accustomed +either to dwell upon their emotions or to give free latitude to their +expression. Reticence and self-restraint are the lessons most constantly +inculcated. The whole tone of society favours it. In times of great +sorrow a degree of shame is attached to demonstrations of grief which in +other countries would be deemed perfectly natural. The disposition to +dilate upon and perpetuate an old grief by protracted mournings, by +carefully observed anniversaries, by long periods of retirement from the +world, is much less common than on the Continent and it is certainly +diminishing. The English tendency is to turn away speedily from the +past, and to seek consolation in new fields of activity. Emotions +translate themselves speedily into action, and they lose something of +their intensity by the transformation. Philanthropy is nowhere more +active and more practical, and religion has in few countries a greater +hold on the national life, but English Protestantism reflects very +clearly the national characteristics. It, no doubt, like all religions, +lays down rules for the government of thought and feeling, but these are +of a very general character. Preeminently a regulator of conduct, it +lays comparatively little stress upon the inner life. It discourages, or +at least neglects that minutely introspective habit of thought which the +confessional is so much calculated to promote, which appears so +prominently in the writings of the Catholic Saints, and which finds its +special representation in the mystics and the religious contemplative +orders. Improved conduct and improved circumstances are to an English +mind the chief and almost the only measures of progress. + +That this tendency is on the whole a healthy one, I, at least, firmly +believe, but it brings with it certain manifest limitations and somewhat +incapacitates men from judging other types of character and happiness. +The part that circumstances play in the formation of our characters is +indeed very manifest, and it is a humiliating truth that among these +circumstances mere bodily conditions which we share with the animals +hold a foremost place. In the long run and to the great majority of men +health is probably the most important of all the elements of happiness. +Acute physical suffering or shattered health will more than +counterbalance the best gifts of fortune, and the bias of our nature and +even the processes of our reasoning are largely influenced by physical +conditions. Hume has spoken of that 'disposition to see the favourable +rather than the unfavourable side of things which it is more happiness +to possess than to be heir to an estate of 10,000_l._ a year;' but this +gift of a happy temperament is very evidently greatly due to bodily +conditions. On the other hand, it is well known how speedily and how +powerfully bodily ailments react upon our moral natures. Every one is +aware of the morbid irritability that is produced by certain maladies of +the nerves or of the brain; of the deep constitutional depression which +often follows diseases of the liver, or prolonged sleeplessness and +other hypochondriacal maladies, and which not only deprives men of most +of their capacity of enjoyment, but also infallibly gives a colour and a +bias to their reasonings on life; of the manner in which animal passions +as well as animal spirits are affected by certain well-known conditions +of age and health. In spite of the 'coelum non animum mutant' of +Horace, few men fail to experience how different is the range of spirits +in the limbo-like atmosphere of a London winter and beneath the glories +of an Italian sky or in the keen bracing atmosphere of the mountain +side, and it is equally apparent how differently we judge the world when +we are jaded by a long spell of excessive work or refreshed after a +night of tranquil sleep. Poetry and Painting are probably not wrong in +associating a certain bilious temperament with a predisposition to envy, +or an anaemic or lymphatic temperament with a saintly life, and there are +well-attested cases in which an acute illness has fundamentally altered +characters, sometimes replacing an habitual gloom by buoyancy and +light.[3] That invaluable gift which enables some men to cast aside +trouble and turn their thoughts and energies swiftly and decisively into +new channels can be largely strengthened by the action of the will, but +according to some physiologists it has a well-ascertained physical +antecedent in the greater or less contractile power of the blood-vessels +which feed the brain causing the flow of blood into it to be stronger or +less rapid. If it be true that 'a healthy mind in a healthy body' is the +supreme condition of happiness, it is also true that the healthy mind +depends more closely than we like to own on the healthy body. + +These are but a few obvious instances of the manner in which the body +acts upon happiness. They do not mean that the will is powerless in the +face of bodily conditions, but that in the management of character it +has certain very definite predispositions to encounter. In reasonings on +life, even more than on other things, a good reasoner will consider not +only the force of the opposing arguments, but also the bias to which his +own mind is subject. To raise the level of national health is one of the +surest ways of raising the level of national happiness, and in +estimating the value of different pleasures many which, considered in +themselves, might appear to rank low upon the scale, will rank high, if +in addition to the immediate and transient enjoyment they procure, they +contribute to form a strong and healthy body. No branch of legislation +is more really valuable than that which is occupied with the health of +the people, whether it takes the form of encouraging the means by which +remedies may be discovered and diffused, or of extirpating by combined +efforts particular diseases, or of securing that the mass of labour in +the community should as far as possible be carried on under sound +sanitary conditions. Fashion also can do much, both for good and ill. It +exercises over great multitudes an almost absolute empire, regulating +their dress, their education, their hours, their amusements, their food, +their scale of expenditure; determining the qualities to which they +principally aspire, the work in which they may engage, and even the form +of beauty which they most cultivate. It is happy for a nation when this +mighty influence is employed in encouraging habits of life which are +beneficial or at least not gravely prejudicial to health. Nor is any +form of individual education more really valuable than that which +teaches the main conditions of a healthy life and forms those habits of +temperance and self-restraint that are most likely to attain it. + +With its great recuperative powers Youth can do with apparent impunity +many things which in later life bring a speedy Nemesis; but on the other +hand Youth is pre-eminently the period when habits and tastes are +formed, and the yoke which is then lightly, willingly, wantonly assumed +will in after years acquire a crushing weight. Few things are more +striking than the levity of the motives, the feebleness of the impulses +under which in youth fatal steps are taken which bring with them a +weakened life and often an early grave. Smoking in manhood, when +practised in moderation, is a very innocent and probably beneficent +practice, but it is well known how deleterious it is to young boys, and +how many of them have taken to it through no other motive than a desire +to appear older than they are--that surest of all signs that we are very +young. How often have the far more pernicious habits of drinking, or +gambling, or frequenting corrupt society been acquired through a similar +motive, or through the mere desire to enjoy the charm of a forbidden +pleasure or to stand well with some dissipated companions! How large a +proportion of lifelong female debility is due to an early habit of tight +lacing, springing only from the silliest vanity! How many lives have +been sacrificed through the careless recklessness which refused to take +the trouble of changing wet clothes! How many have been shattered and +shortened by excess in things which in moderation are harmless, useful, +or praiseworthy,--by the broken blood-vessel, due to excess in some +healthy athletic exercise or game; by the ruined brain overstrained in +order to win some paltry prize! It is melancholy to observe how many +lives have been broken down, ruined or corrupted in attempts to realise +some supreme and unattainable desire; through the impulse of +overmastering passion, of powerful and perhaps irresistible temptation. +It is still sadder to observe how large a proportion of the failures of +life may be ultimately traced to the most insignificant causes and might +have been avoided without any serious effort either of intellect or +will. + +The success with which medicine and sanitary science have laboured to +prolong life, to extirpate or diminish different forms of disease and to +alleviate their consequences is abundantly proved. In all civilised +countries the average of life has been raised, and there is good reason +to believe that not only old age but also active, useful, enjoyable old +age has become much more frequent. It is true that the gain to human +happiness is not quite as great as might at first sight be imagined. +Death is least sad when it comes in infancy or in extreme old age, and +the increased average of life is largely due to the great diminution in +infant mortality, which is in truth a very doubtful blessing. If extreme +old age is a thing to be desired, it is perhaps chiefly because it +usually implies a constitution which gives many earlier years of robust +and healthy life. But with all deductions the triumphs of sanitary +reform as well as of medical science are perhaps the brightest page in +the history of our century. Some of the measures which have proved most +useful can only be effected at some sacrifice of individual freedom and +by widespread coercive sanitary regulations, and are thus more akin to +despotism than to free government. How different would have been the +condition of the world, and how far greater would have been the +popularity of strong monarchy if at the time when such a form of +government generally prevailed rulers had had the intelligence to put +before them the improvement of the health and the prolongation of the +lives of their subjects as the main object of their policy rather than +military glory or the acquisition of territory or mere ostentatious and +selfish display! + +There is, however, some reason to believe that the diminution of disease +and the prolongation of average human life are not necessarily or even +generally accompanied by a corresponding improvement in general health. +'Acute diseases,' says an excellent judge, 'which are eminently fatal, +prevail, on the contrary, in a population where the standard of health +is high.... Thus a high rate of mortality may often be observed in a +community where the number of persons affected with disease is small, +and on the other hand general physical depression may concur with the +prevalence of chronic maladies and yet be unattended with a great +proportion of deaths.'[4] An anaemic population, free from severe +illness, but living habitually at a low level of health and with the +depressed spirits and feeble capacity of enjoyment which such a +condition produces, is far from an ideal state, and there is much reason +to fear that this type is an increasing one. Many things in modern life, +among which ill-judged philanthropy and ill-judged legislation have no +small part, contribute to produce it, but two causes probably dominate +over all others. The one is to be found in sanitary science itself, +which enables great numbers of constitutionally weak children who in +other days would have died in infancy to grow up and marry and propagate +a feeble offspring. The other is the steady movement of population from +the country to the towns, which is one of the most conspicuous features +of modern civilisation. These two influences inevitably and powerfully +tend to depress the vitality of a nation, and by doing so to lower the +level of animal spirits which is one of the most essential elements of +happiness. Whether our improved standards of living and our much greater +knowledge of sanitary conditions altogether counteract them is very +doubtful. + +In this as in most questions affecting life there are opposite dangers +to be avoided, and wisdom lies mainly in a just sense of proportion and +degree. That sanitary reform, promoted by governments, has on the whole +been a great blessing seems to me scarcely open to reasonable question, +but many of the best judges are of opinion that it may easily be pushed +to dangerous extremes. Few things are more curious than to observe how +rapidly during the past generation the love of individual liberty has +declined; how contentedly the English race are submitting great +departments of their lives to a web of regulations restricting and +encircling them. Each individual case must be considered on its merits, +and few persons will now deny that the right of adult men and women to +regulate the conditions of their own work and to determine the risks +that they will assume may be wisely infringed in more cases than the +Manchester School would have admitted. At the same time the marked +tendency of this generation to extend the stringency and area of +coercive legislation in the fields of industry and sanitary reform is +one that should be carefully watched. Its exaggerations may in more ways +than one greatly injure the very classes it is intended to benefit. + +A somewhat corresponding statement may be made about individual sanitary +education. It is, as I have said, a matter of the most vital importance +that we should acquire in youth the knowledge and the habits that lead +to a healthy life. The main articles of the sanitary creed are few and +simple. Moderation and self-restraint in all things--an abundance of +exercise, of fresh air, and of cold water--a sufficiency of steady work +not carried to excess--occasional change of habits and abstinence from a +few things which are manifestly injurious to health, are the cardinal +rules to be observed. In the great lottery of life, men who have +observed them all may be doomed to illness, weak vitality, and early +death, but they at least add enormously to the chances of a strong and +full life. The parent will need further knowledge for the care of his +children, but for self-guidance little more is required, and with early +habits an observance of the rules of health becomes almost instinctive +and unconscious. But while no kind of education is more transcendently +important than this, it is not unfrequently carried to an extreme which +defeats its own purpose. The habit that so often grows upon men with +slight chronic maladies, or feeble temperament, or idle lives, of making +their own health and their own ailments the constant subject of their +thoughts soon becomes a disease very fatal to happiness and positively +injurious to health. It is well known how in an epidemic the +panic-stricken are most liable to the contagion, and the life of the +habitual valetudinarian tends promptly to depress the nerve energy which +provides the true stamina of health. In the words of an eminent +physician, 'It is not by being anxious in an inordinate or unduly fussy +fashion that men can hope to live long and well. The best way to live +well is to work well. Good work is the daily test and safeguard of +personal health.... The practical aim should be to live an orderly and +natural life. We were not intended to pick our way through the world +trembling at every step.... It is worse than vain, for it encourages and +increases the evil it attempts to relieve.... I firmly believe one half +of the confirmed invalids of the day could be cured of their maladies if +they were compelled to live busy and active lives and had no time to +fret over their miseries.... One of the most seductive and mischievous +of errors in self-management is the practice of giving way to inertia, +weakness and depression.... Those who desire to live should settle this +well in their minds, that nerve power is the force of life and that the +will has a wondrously strong and direct influence over the body through +the brain and the nervous system.'[5] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] _Active and Moral Powers_, ii. 312. + +[3] Much curious information on this subject will be found in Cabanis' +_Rapports du physique et du moral de l'homme_. + +[4] Kay's _Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes_, p. 75. + +[5] Mortimer Granville's _How to Make the Best of Life_. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Before entering into a more particular account of the chief elements of +a happy life it may be useful to devote a few pages to some general +considerations on the subject. + + +One of the first and most clearly recognised rules to be observed is +that happiness is most likely to be attained when it is not the direct +object of pursuit. In early youth we are accustomed to divide life +broadly into work and play, regarding the first as duty or necessity and +the second as pleasure. One of the great differences between childhood +and manhood is that we come to like our work more than our play. It +becomes to us, if not the chief pleasure, at least the chief interest of +our lives, and even when it is not this, an essential condition of our +happiness. Few lives produce so little happiness as those that are +aimless and unoccupied. Apart from all considerations of right and +wrong, one of the first conditions of a happy life is that it should be +a full and busy one, directed to the attainment of aims outside +ourselves. Anxiety and Ennui are the Scylla and Charybdis on which the +bark of human happiness is most commonly wrecked. If a life of luxurious +idleness and selfish ease in some measure saves men from the first +danger, it seldom fails to bring with it the second. No change of scene, +no multiplicity of selfish pleasures will in the long run enable them +to escape it. As Carlyle says, 'The restless, gnawing ennui which, like +a dark, dim, ocean flood, communicating with the Phlegethons and Stygian +deeps, begirdles every human life so guided--is it not the painful cry +even of that imprisoned heroism?... You ask for happiness. "Oh give me +happiness," and they hand you ever new varieties of covering for the +skin, ever new kinds of supply for the digestive apparatus.... Well, +rejoice in your upholsteries and cookeries if so be they will make you +"happy." Let the varieties of them be continual and innumerable. In all +things let perpetual change, if that is a perpetual blessing to you, be +your portion instead of mine. Incur the prophet's curse and in all +things in this sublunary world "make yourselves like unto a wheel." +Mount into your railways; whirl from place to place at the rate of fifty +or, if you like, of five hundred miles an hour; you cannot escape from +that inexorable, all-encircling ocean moan of ennui. No; if you could +mount to the stars and do yacht voyages under the belts of Jupiter or +stalk deer on the ring of Saturn it would still begirdle you. You cannot +escape from it; you can but change your place in it without solacement +except one moment's. That prophetic Sermon from the Deeps will continue +with you till you wisely interpret it and do it or else till the Crack +of Doom swallow it and you.'[6] + +It needs but a few years of life experience to realise the profound +truth of this passage. An ideal life would be furnished with abundant +work of a kind that is congenial both to our intellects and our +characters and that brings with it much interest and little anxiety. Few +of us can command this. Most men's work is largely determined for them +by circumstances, though in the guidance of life there are many +alternatives and much room for skilful pilotage. But the first great +rule is that we must do something--that life must have a purpose and an +aim--that work should be not merely occasional and spasmodic, but steady +and continuous. Pleasure is a jewel which will only retain its lustre +when it is in a setting of work, and a vacant life is one of the worst +of pains, though the islands of leisure that stud a crowded, +well-occupied life may be among the things to which we look back with +the greatest delight. + +Another great truth is conveyed in the saying of Aristotle that a wise +man will make it his aim rather to avoid suffering than to attain +pleasure. Men can in reality do very little to mitigate the force of the +great bereavements and the other graver calamities of life. All our +systems of philosophy and reasoning are vain when confronted with them. +Innate temperament which we cannot greatly change determines whether we +sink crushed beneath the blow or possess the buoyancy that can restore +health to our natures. The conscious and deliberate pursuit of pleasure +is attended by many deceptions and illusions, and rarely leads to +lasting happiness. But we can do very much by prudence, self-restraint +and intelligent regulation so to manage life as to avoid a large +proportion of its calamities and at the same time, by preserving the +affections pure and undimmed, by diversifying interests and forming +active habits, to combat its tedium and despondency. + +Another truth is that both the greatest pleasures and the keenest pains +of life lie much more in those humbler spheres which are accessible to +all than on the rare pinnacles to which only the most gifted or the most +fortunate can attain. It would probably be found upon examination that +most men who have devoted their lives successfully to great labours and +ambitions, and who have received the most splendid gifts from Fortune, +have nevertheless found their chief pleasure in things unconnected with +their main pursuits and generally within the reach of common men. +Domestic pleasures, pleasures of scenery, pleasures of reading, +pleasures of travel or of sport have been the highest enjoyment of men +of great ambition, intellect, wealth and position. There is a curious +passage in Lord Althorp's Life in which that most popular and successful +statesman, towards the close of his long parliamentary life, expressed +his emphatic conviction that 'the thing that gave him the greatest +pleasure in the world' was 'to see sporting dogs hunt.'[7] I can myself +recollect going over a country place with an old member of Parliament +who had sat in the House of Commons for nearly fifty years of the most +momentous period of modern English history. If questioned he could tell +about the stirring scenes of the great Reform Bill of 1832, but it was +curious to observe how speedily and inevitably he passed from such +matters to the history of the trees on his estate which he had planted +and watched at every stage of their growth, and how evidently in the +retrospect of life it was to these things and not to the incidents of a +long parliamentary career that his affections naturally turned. I once +asked an illustrious public man who had served his country with +brilliant success in many lands, and who was spending the evening of his +life as an active country gentleman in a place which he dearly loved, +whether he did not find this sphere too contracted for his happiness. +'Never for a day,' he answered; 'and in every country where I have been, +in every post which I have filled, the thought of this place has always +been at the back of my mind.' A great writer who had devoted almost his +whole life to one gigantic work, and to his own surprise brought it at +last to a successful end, sadly observed that amid the congratulations +that poured in to him from every side he could not help feeling, when he +analysed his own emotions, how tepid was the satisfaction which such a +triumph could give him, and what much more vivid gratification he had +come to take in hearing the approaching steps of some little children +whom he had taught to love him. + +It is one of the paradoxes of human nature that the things that are most +struggled for and the things that are most envied are not those which +give either the most intense or the most unmixed joy. Ambition is the +luxury of the happy. It is sometimes, but more rarely, the consolation +and distraction of the wretched; but most of those who have trodden its +paths, if they deal honestly with themselves, will acknowledge that the +gravest disappointments of public life dwindle into insignificance +compared with the poignancy of suffering endured at the deathbed of a +wife or of a child, and that within the small circle of a family life +they have found more real happiness than the applause of nations could +ever give. + + + Look down, look down from your glittering heights, + And tell us, ye sons of glory, + The joys and the pangs of your eagle flights, + The triumph that crowned the story, + + The rapture that thrilled when the goal was won, + The goal of a life's desire; + And a voice replied from the setting sun, + Nay, the dearest and best lies nigher. + + How oft in such hours our fond thoughts stray + To the dream of two idle lovers; + To the young wife's kiss; to the child at play; + Or the grave which the long grass covers! + + And little we'd reck of power or gold, + And of all life's vain endeavour, + If the heart could glow as it glowed of old, + And if youth could abide for ever. + + +Another consideration in the cultivation of happiness is the importance +of acquiring the habit of realising our blessings while they last. It is +one of the saddest facts of human nature that we commonly only learn +their value by their loss. This, as I have already noticed, is very +evidently the case with health. By the laws of our being we are almost +unconscious of the action of our bodily organs as long as they are +working well. It is only when they are deranged, obstructed or impaired +that our attention becomes concentrated upon them. In consequence of +this a state of perfect health is rarely fully appreciated until it is +lost and during a short period after it has been regained. Gray has +described the new sensation of pleasure which convalescence gives in +well-known lines: + + + See the wretch who long has tost + On the thorny bed of pain, + At length repair his vigour lost + And breathe and walk again; + The meanest floweret of the vale, + The simplest note that swells the gale, + The common sun, the air, the skies, + To him are opening Paradise. + + +And what is true of health is true of other things. It is only when some +calamity breaks the calm tenor of our ways and deprives us of some gift +of fortune we have long enjoyed that we feel how great was the value of +what we have lost. There are times in the lives of most of us when we +would have given all the world to be as we were but yesterday, though +that yesterday had passed over us unappreciated and unenjoyed. +Sometimes, indeed, our perception of this contrast brings with it a +lasting and salutary result. In the medicine of Nature a chronic and +abiding disquietude or morbidness of temperament is often cured by some +keen though more transient sorrow which violently changes the current of +our thoughts and imaginations. + +The difference between knowledge and realisation is one of the facts of +our nature that are most worthy of our attention. Every human mind +contains great masses of inert, passive, undisputed knowledge which +exercise no real influence on thought or character till something occurs +which touches our imagination and quickens this knowledge into +activity. Very few things contribute so much to the happiness of life as +a constant realisation of the blessings we enjoy. The difference between +a naturally contented and a naturally discontented nature is one of the +marked differences of innate temperament, but we can do much to +cultivate that habit of dwelling on the benefits of our lot which +converts acquiescence into a more positive enjoyment. Religion in this +field does much, for it inculcates thanksgiving as well as prayer, +gratitude for the present and the past as well as hope for the future. +Among secular influences, contrast and comparison have the greatest +value. Some minds are always looking on the fortunes that are above them +and comparing their own penury with the opulence of others. A wise +nature will take an opposite course and will cultivate the habit of +looking rather at the round of the ladder of fortune which is below our +own and realising the countless points in which our lot is better than +that of others. As Dr. Johnson says, 'Few are placed in a situation so +gloomy and distressful as not to see every day beings yet more forlorn +and miserable from whom they may learn to rejoice in their own lot.' + +The consolation men derive amid their misfortunes from reflecting upon +the still greater misfortunes of others and thus lightening their own by +contrast is a topic which must be delicately used, but when so used it +is not wrong and it often proves very efficacious. Perhaps the pleasure +La Rochefoucauld pretends that men take in the misfortunes of their best +friends, if it is a real thing, is partly due to this consideration, as +the feeling of pity which is inspired by some sudden death or great +trouble falling on others is certainly not wholly unconnected with the +realisation that such calamities might fall upon ourselves. It is worthy +of notice, however, that while all moralists recognise content as one of +the chief ingredients of happiness, some of the strongest influences of +modern industrial civilisation are antagonistic to it. The whole theory +of progress as taught by Political Economy rests upon the importance of +creating wants and desires as a stimulus to exertion. There are +countries, especially in southern climates, where the wants of men are +very few, and where, as long as those wants are satisfied, men will live +a careless and contented life, enjoying the present, thinking very +little of the future. Whether the sum of enjoyment in such a population +is really less than in our more advanced civilisation is at least open +to question. It is a remark of Schopenhauer that the Idyll, which is the +only form of poetry specially devoted to the description of human +felicity, always paints life in its simplest and least elaborated form, +and he sees in this an illustration of his doctrine that the greatest +happiness will be found in the simplest and even most uniform life +provided it escapes the evil of ennui. The political economist, however, +will pronounce the condition of such a people as I have described a +deplorable one, and in order to raise them his first task will be to +infuse into them some discontent with their lot, to persuade them to +multiply their wants and to aspire to a higher standard of comfort, to a +fuller and a larger existence. A discontent with existing circumstances +is the chief source of a desire to improve them, and this desire is the +mainspring of progress. In this theory of life, happiness is sought, +not in content, but in improved circumstances, in the development of new +capacities of enjoyment, in the pleasure which active existence +naturally gives. To maintain in their due proportion in our nature the +spirit of content and the desire to improve, to combine a realised +appreciation of the blessings we enjoy with a healthy and well-regulated +ambition, is no easy thing, but it is the problem which all who aspire +to a perfect life should set before themselves. _In medio tutissimus +ibis_ is eminently true of the cultivation of character, and some of its +best elements become pernicious in their extremes. Thus prudent +forethought, which is one of the first conditions of a successful life, +may easily degenerate into that most miserable state of mind in which +men are perpetually anticipating and dwelling upon the uncertain dangers +and evils of an uncertain future. How much indeed of the happiness and +misery of men may be included under those two words, realisation and +anticipation! + +There is no such thing as a Eudaemometer measuring with accuracy the +degrees of happiness realised by men in different ages, under different +circumstances, and with different characters. Perhaps if such a thing +existed it might tend to discourage us by showing that diversities and +improvements of circumstances affect real happiness in a smaller degree +than we are accustomed to imagine. Our nature accommodates itself +speedily to improved circumstances, and they cease to give positive +pleasure while their loss is acutely painful. Advanced civilisation +brings with it countless and inestimable benefits, but it also brings +with it many forms of suffering from which a ruder existence is exempt. +There is some reason to believe that it is usually accompanied with a +lower range of animal spirits, and it is certainly accompanied with an +increased sensitiveness to pain. Some philosophers have contended that +this is the best of all possible worlds. It is difficult to believe so, +as the whole object of human effort is to make it a better one. But the +success of that effort is more apparent in the many terrible forms of +human suffering which it has abolished or diminished than in the higher +level of positive happiness that has been attained. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] _Latter-day Pamphlets:_ 'Jesuitism.' + +[7] Le Marchant's _Life of Althorp_, p. 143. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Though the close relationship that subsists between morals and happiness +is universally acknowledged, I do not belong to the school which +believes that pleasure and pain, either actual or anticipated, are the +only motives by which the human will can be governed; that virtue +resolves itself ultimately into well-considered interest and finds its +ultimate reason in the happiness of those who practise it; that 'all our +virtues,' as La Rochefoucauld has said, 'end in self-love as the rivers +in the sea.' Such a proverb as 'Honesty is the best policy' represents +no doubt a great truth, though it has been well said that no man is +really honest who is only honest through this motive, and though it is +very evident that it is by no means an universal truth but depends +largely upon changing and precarious conditions of laws, police, public +opinion, and individual circumstances. But in the higher realms of +morals the coincidence of happiness and virtue is far more doubtful. It +is certainly not true that the highest nature is necessarily or even +naturally the happiest. Paganism has produced no more perfect type than +the profoundly pathetic figure of Marcus Aurelius, while Christianity +finds its ideal in one who was known as the 'Man of Sorrows.' The +conscience of Mankind has ever recognised self-sacrifice as the supreme +element of virtue, and self-sacrifice is never real when it is only the +exchange of a less happiness for a greater one. No moral chemistry can +transmute the worship of Sorrow, which Goethe described as the essence +of Christianity, into the worship of happiness, and probably with most +men health and temperament play a far larger part in the real happiness +of their lives than any of the higher virtues. The satisfaction of +accomplished duty which some moralists place among the chief pleasures +of life is a real thing in so far as it saves men from internal +reproaches, but it is probable that it is among the worst men that pangs +of conscience are least dreaded, and it is certainly not among the best +men that they are least felt. Conscience, indeed, when it is very +sensitive and very lofty, is far more an element of suffering than the +reverse. It aims at an ideal higher than we can attain. It takes the +lowest view of our own achievements. It suffers keenly from the many +shortcomings of which it is acutely sensible. Far from indulging in the +pleasurable retrospect of a well-spent life, it urges men to constant, +painful, and often unsuccessful effort. A nature that is strung to the +saintly or the heroic level will find itself placed in a jarring world, +will provoke much friction and opposition, and will be pained by many +things in which a lower nature would placidly acquiesce. The highest +form of intellectual virtue is that love of truth for its own sake which +breaks up prejudices, tempers enthusiasm by the full admission of +opposing arguments and qualifying circumstances, and places in the +sphere of possibility or probability many things which we would gladly +accept as certainties. Candour and impartiality are in a large degree +virtues of temperament; but no one who has any real knowledge of human +nature can doubt how much more pleasurable it is to most men to live +under the empire of invincible prejudice, deliberately shutting out +every consideration that could shake or qualify cherished beliefs. +'God,' says Emerson, 'offers to every mind its choice between truth and +repose. Take which you please. You can never have both.' One of the +strongest arguments of natural religion rests upon the fact that virtue +so often fails to bring its reward; upon the belief that is so deeply +implanted in human nature that this is essentially unjust and must in +some future state be remedied. + +For such reasons as these I believe it to be impossible to identify +virtue with happiness, and the views of the opposite school seem to me +chiefly to rest upon an unnatural and deceptive use of words. Even when +the connection between virtue and pleasure is most close, it is true, as +the old Stoics said, that though virtue gives pleasure, this is not the +reason why a good man will practise it; that pleasure is the companion +and not the guide of his life; that he does not love virtue because it +gives pleasure, but it gives pleasure because he loves it.[8] A true +account of human nature will recognise that it has the power of aiming +at something which is different from happiness and something which may +be intelligibly described as higher, and that on the predominance of +this loftier aim the nobility of life essentially depends. It is not +even true that the end of man should be to find peace at the last. It +should be to do his duty and tell the truth. + +But while this great truth of the existence of a higher aim than +happiness should be always maintained, the relations between morals and +happiness are close and intimate and well worthy of investigation. As +far as the lower or more commonplace virtues are concerned there can be +no mistake. It is very evident that a healthy, long and prosperous life +is more likely to be attained by industry, moderation and purity than by +the opposite courses. It is very evident that drunkenness and sensuality +ruin health and shorten life; that idleness, gambling and disorderly +habits ruin prosperity; that ill-temper, selfishness and envy kill +friendship and provoke animosities and dislike; that in every +well-regulated society there is at least a general coincidence between +the path of duty and the path of prosperity; dishonesty, violence and +disregard for the rights of others naturally and usually bringing their +punishment either from law or from public opinion or from both. Bishop +Butler has argued that the general tendency of virtue to lead to +happiness and the general tendency of vice to lead to unhappiness prove +that even in its present state there is a moral government of the world, +and whatever controversy may be raised about the inference there can at +least be no doubt about the substantial truth of the facts. Happiness, +as I have already said, is best attained when it is not the direct or at +least the main object that is aimed at. A wasted and inactive life not +only palls in itself but deprives men of the very real and definite +pleasure that naturally arises from the healthful activity of all our +powers, while a life of egotism excludes the pleasures of sympathy which +play so large a part in human happiness. One of the lessons which +experience most clearly teaches is that work, duty and the discipline of +character are essential elements of lasting happiness. The pleasures of +vice are often real, but they are commonly transient and they leave +legacies of suffering, weakness, or care behind them. The nobler +pleasures for the most part grow and strengthen with advancing years. +The passions of youth, when duly regulated, gradually transform +themselves into habits, interests and steady affections, and it is in +the long forecasts of life that the superiority of virtue as an element +of happiness becomes most apparent. + +It has been truly said that such words as 'pastime' and 'diversion' +applied to our pleasures are among the most melancholy in the language, +for they are the confession of human nature that it cannot find +happiness in itself, but must seek for something that will fill up time, +will cover the void which it feels, and divert men's thoughts from the +conditions and prospects of their own lives. How much of the pleasure of +Society, and indeed of all amusements, depends on their power of making +us forget ourselves! The substratum of life is sad, and few men who +reflect on the dangers and uncertainties that surround it can find it +even tolerable without much extraneous aid. The first and most vital of +these aids is to be found in the creation of strong interests. It is one +of the laws of our being that by seeking interests rather than by +seeking pleasures we can best encounter the gloom of life. But those +only have the highest efficiency which are of an unselfish nature. By +throwing their whole nature into the interests of others men most +effectually escape the melancholy of introspection; the horizon of life +is enlarged; the development of the moral and sympathetic feelings +chases egotistic cares, and by the same paradox that we have seen in +other parts of human nature men best attain their own happiness by +absorbing themselves in the pursuit of the happiness of others. + +The aims and perspective of a well-regulated life have never, I think, +been better described than in one of the letters of Burke to the Duke of +Richmond. 'It is wise indeed, considering the many positive vexations +and the innumerable bitter disappointments of pleasure in the world, to +have as many resources of satisfaction as possible within one's power. +Whenever we concentre the mind on one sole object, that object and life +itself must go together. But though it is right to have reserves of +employment, still some one object must be kept principal; greatly and +eminently so; and the other masses and figures must preserve their due +subordination, to make out the grand composition of an important +life.'[9] It is equally true that among these objects the disinterested +and the unselfish should hold a predominant place. With some this side +of their activity is restricted to the narrow circle of home or to the +isolated duties and charities of their own neighbourhood. With others it +takes the form of large public interests, of a keen participation in +social, philanthropic, political or religious enterprises. Character +plays a larger part than intellect in the happiness of life, and the +cultivation of the unselfish part of our nature is not only one of the +first lessons of morals but also of wisdom. + +Like most other things its difficulties lie at the beginning, and it is +by steady practice that it passes into a second and instinctive nature. +The power of man to change organically his character is a very limited +one, but on the whole the improvement of character is probably more +within his reach than intellectual development. Time and Opportunity are +wanting to most men for any considerable intellectual study, and even +were it otherwise every man will find large tracts of knowledge and +thought wholly external to his tastes, aptitudes and comprehension. But +every one can in some measure learn the lesson of self-sacrifice, +practise what is right, correct or at least mitigate his dominant +faults. What fine examples of self-sacrifice, quiet courage, resignation +in misfortune, patient performance of painful duty, magnanimity and +forgiveness under injury may be often found among those who are +intellectually the most commonplace! + +The insidious growth of selfishness is a disease against which men +should be most on their guard; but it is a grave though a common error +to suppose that the unselfish instincts may be gratified without +restraint. There is here, however, one important distinction to be +noted. The many and great evils that have sprung from lavish and +ill-considered charities do not always or perhaps generally spring from +any excess or extravagance of the charitable feeling. They are much more +commonly due to its defect. The rich man who never cares to inquire into +the details of the cases that are brought before him or to give any +serious thought to the ulterior consequences of his acts, but who is +ready to give money at any solicitation and who considers that by so +doing he has discharged his duty, is far more likely to do harm in this +way than the man who devotes himself to patient, plodding, house to +house work among the poor. The many men and the probably still larger +number of women who give up great portions of their lives to such work +soon learn to trace with considerable accuracy the consequences of their +charities and to discriminate between the worthy and the unworthy. That +such persons often become exclusive and one-sided, and acquire a kind of +professional bent which induces them to subordinate all national +considerations to their own subject and lose sight of the true +proportion of things, is undoubtedly true, but it will probably not be +found with the best workers that such a life tends to unduly intensify +emotion. As Bishop Butler has said with profound truth, active habits +are strengthened and passive impressions weakened by repetition, and a +life spent in active charitable work is quite compatible with much +sobriety and even coldness of judgment in estimating each case as it +arises. It is not the surgeon who is continually employed in operations +for the cure of his patients who is most moved at the sight of +suffering. + +This is, I believe, on the whole true, but it is also true that there +are grave diseases which attach themselves peculiarly to the unselfish +side of our nature, and they are peculiarly dangerous because men, +feeling that the unselfish is the virtuous and nobler side of their +being, are apt to suffer these tendencies to operate without supervision +or control. Yet it is hardly possible to exaggerate the calamities that +have sprung from misjudged unselfish actions. The whole history of +religious persecution abundantly illustrates it, for there can be +little question that a large proportion of the persecutors were +sincerely seeking what they believed to be the highest good of mankind. +And if this dark page of human history is now almost closed, there are +still many other ways in which a similar evil is displayed. Crotchets, +sentimentalities and fanaticisms cluster especially around the unselfish +side of our nature, and they work evil in many curious and subtle ways. +Few things have done more harm in the world than disproportioned +compassion. It is a law of our being that we are only deeply moved by +sufferings we distinctly realise, and the degrees in which different +kinds of suffering appeal to the imagination bear no proportion to their +real magnitude. The most benevolent man will read of an earthquake in +Japan or a plague in South America with a callousness he would never +display towards some untimely death or some painful accident in his +immediate neighbourhood, and in general the suffering of a prominent and +isolated individual strikes us much more forcibly than that of an +undistinguished multitude. Few deaths are so prominent, and therefore +few produce such widespread compassion, as those of conspicuous +criminals. It is no exaggeration to say that the death of an +'interesting' murderer will often arouse much stronger feelings than +were ever excited by the death of his victim; or by the deaths of brave +soldiers who perished by disease or by the sword in some obscure +expedition in a remote country. This mode of judgment acts promptly upon +conduct. The humanitarian spirit which mitigates the penal code and +makes the reclamation of the criminal a main object is a perfectly +right thing as long as it does not so far diminish the deterrent power +of punishment as to increase crime, and as long as it does not place the +criminal in a better position of comfort than the blameless poor, but +when these conditions are not fulfilled it is much more an evil than a +good. The remote, indirect and unrealised consequences of our acts are +often far more important than those which are manifest and direct, and +it continually happens that in extirpating some concentrated and +obtrusive evil, men increase or engender a diffused malady which +operates over a far wider area. How few, for example, who share the +prevailing tendency to deal with every evil that appears in Society by +coercive legislation adequately realise the danger of weakening the +robust, self-reliant, resourceful habits on which the happiness of +Society so largely depends, and at the same time, by multiplying the +functions and therefore increasing the expenses of government, throwing +new and crushing burdens on struggling industry! How often have +philanthropists, through a genuine interest for some suffering class or +people, advocated measures which by kindling, prolonging, or enlarging a +great war would infallibly create calamities far greater than those +which they would redress! How often might great outbursts of savage +crime or grave and lasting disorders in the State, or international +conflicts that have cost thousands of lives, have been averted by a +prompt and unflinching severity from which an ill-judged humanity +recoiled! If in the February of 1848 Louis Philippe had permitted +Marshal Bugeaud to fire on the Revolutionary mob at a time when there +was no real and widespread desire for revolution in France, how many +bloody pages of French and European history might have been spared! + +Measures guaranteeing men, and still more women, from excessive labour, +and surrounding them with costly sanitary precautions, may easily, if +they are injudiciously framed, so handicap a sex or a people in the +competition of industry as to drive them out of great fields of +industry, restrict their means of livelihood, lower their standard of +wages and comfort, and thus seriously diminish the happiness of their +lives. Injudicious suppressions of amusements that are not wholly good, +but which afford keen enjoyment to great masses, seldom fail to give an +impulse to other pleasures more secret and probably more vicious. +Injudicious charities, or an extravagant and too indulgent poor law +administration, inevitably discourage industry and thrift, and usually +increase the poverty they were intended to cure. The parent who shrinks +from inflicting any suffering on his child, or withholding from him any +pleasure that he desires, is not laying the foundation of a happy life, +and the benevolence which counteracts or obscures the law of nature that +extravagance, improvidence and vice lead naturally to ruin, is no real +kindness either to the upright man who has resisted temptation or to the +weak man whose virtue is trembling doubtfully in the balance. Nor is it +in the long run for the benefit of the world that superior ability or +superior energy or industry should be handicapped in the race of life, +forbidden to encounter exceptional risks for the sake of exceptional +rewards, reduced by regulations to measures of work and gain intended +for the benefit of inferior characters or powers. + +The fatal vice of ill-considered benevolence is that it looks only to +proximate and immediate results without considering either alternatives +or distant and indirect consequences. A large and highly respectable +form of benevolence is that connected with the animal world, and in +England it is carried in some respects to a point which is unknown on +the Continent. But what a strange form of compassion is that which long +made it impossible to establish a Pasteur Institute in England, obliging +patients threatened with one of the most horrible diseases that can +afflict mankind to go--as they are always ready to do--to Paris, in +order to undergo a treatment which what is called the humane sentiment +of Englishmen forbid them to receive at home! What a strange form of +benevolence is that which in a country where field sports are the +habitual amusement of the higher ranks of Society denounces as criminal +even the most carefully limited and supervised experiments on living +animals, and would thus close the best hope of finding remedies for some +of the worst forms of human suffering, the one sure method of testing +supposed remedies which may be fatal or which may be of incalculable +benefit to mankind! Foreign critics, indeed, often go much further and +believe that in other forms connected with this subject public opinion +in England is strangely capricious and inconsistent. They compare with +astonishment the sentences that are sometimes passed for the +ill-treatment of a woman and for the ill-treatment of a cat; they ask +whether the real sufferings caused by many things that are in England +punished by law or reprobated by opinion are greater than those caused +by sports which are constantly practised without reproach; and they are +apt to find much that is exaggerated or even fantastic in the great +popularity and elaboration of some animal charities.[10] At the same +time in our own country the more recognised field sports greatly trouble +many benevolent natures. I will here only say that while the positive +benefits they produce are great and manifest, those who condemn them +constantly forget what would be the fate of the animals that are +slaughtered if such sports did not exist, and how little the balance of +suffering is increased or altered by the destruction of beings which +themselves live by destroying. As a poet says-- + + + The fish exult whene'er the seagull dies, + The salmon's death preserves a thousand flies. + + +On most of these questions the effect on human character is a more +important consideration than the effect on animal happiness. The best +thing that legislation can do for wild animals is to extend as far as +possible to harmless classes a close time, securing them immunity while +they are producing and supporting their young. This is the truest +kindness, and on quite other grounds it is peculiarly needed, as the +improvement of firearms and the increase of population have completely +altered, as far as man is concerned, the old balance between production +and destruction, and threaten, if unchecked, to lead to an almost +complete extirpation of great classes of the animal world. It is +melancholy to observe how often sensitive women who object to field +sports and who denounce all experiments on living animals will be found +supporting with perfect callousness fashions that are leading to the +wholesale destruction of some of the most beautiful species of birds, +and are in some cases dependent upon acts of very aggravated cruelty. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] Seneca, _De Vita Beata_. + +[9] Burke's _Correspondence_, i. 376, 377. + +[10] As I am writing these pages I find the following paragraph in a +newspaper which may illustrate my meaning:--'DOGS' NURSING. A case was +heard at the Brompton County Court on Friday in which some suggestive +evidence was given of the medical treatment of dogs. The proprietor of a +dogs' infirmary at Tattersall's Corner sued Mr. Harding Cox for the +board and lodging of seven dogs, and the _regime_ was explained. They +are fed on essence of meat, washed down with port wine, and have as a +digestive eggs beaten up in milk and arrowroot. Medicated baths and +tonics are also supplied, and occasionally the animals are treated to a +day in the country. This course of hygiene necessitated an expenditure +of ten shillings a week. The defendant pleaded that the charges were +excessive, but the judge awarded the plaintiff L25. How many hospital +patients receive such treatment?'--_Daily Express_, February 16, 1897. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The illustrations given in the last chapter will be sufficient to show +the danger of permitting the unselfish side of human nature to run wild +without serious control by the reason and by the will. To see things in +their true proportion, to escape the magnifying influence of a morbid +imagination, should be one of the chief aims of life, and in no fields +is it more needed than in those we have been reviewing. At the same time +every age has its own ideal moral type towards which the strongest and +best influences of the time converge. The history of morals is +essentially a history of the changes that take place not so much in our +conception of what is right and wrong as in the proportionate place and +prominence we assign to different virtues and vices. There are large +groups of moral qualities which in some ages of the world's history have +been regarded as of supreme importance, while in other ages they are +thrown into the background, and there are corresponding groups of vices +which are treated in some periods as very serious and in others as very +trivial. The heroic type of Paganism and the saintly type of +Christianity in its purest form, consist largely of the same elements, +but the proportions in which they are mixed are altogether different. +There are ages when the military and civic virtues--the qualities that +make good soldiers and patriotic citizens--dominate over all others. The +self-sacrifice of the best men flows habitually in these channels. In +such an age integrity in business relations and the domestic virtues +which maintain the purity of the family may be highly valued, but they +are chiefly valued because they are essential to the well-being of the +State. The soldier who has attained to the highest degree the best +qualities of his profession, the patriot who sacrifices to the services +of the State his comforts, his ambitions and his life, is the supreme +model, and the estimation in which he is held is but little lowered even +though he may have been guilty, like Cato, of atrocious cruelty to his +slaves, or, like some of the heroes of ancient times, of scandalous +forms of private profligacy. + +There are other ages in which military life is looked upon by moralists +with disfavour, and in which patriotism ranks very low in the scale of +virtues, while charity, gentleness, self-abnegation, devotional habits, +and purity in thought, word and act are pre-eminently inculcated. The +intellectual virtues, again, which deal with truth and falsehood, form a +distinct group. The habit of mind which makes men love truth for its own +sake as the supreme ideal, and which turns aside from all falsehood, +exaggeration, party or sectarian misrepresentation and invention, is in +no age a common one, but there are some ages in which it is recognised +and inculcated as virtue, while there are others in which it is no +exaggeration to say that the whole tendency of religious teaching has +been to discourage it. During many centuries the ascetic and purely +ecclesiastical standard of virtue completely dominated. The domestic +virtues, though clearly recognised, held altogether a subordinate place +to what were deemed the higher virtues of the ascetic celibate. +Charity, though nobly cultivated and practised, was regarded mainly +through a dogmatic medium and practised less for the benefit of the +recipient than for the spiritual welfare of the donor. + +In the eyes of multitudes the highest conception of a saintly life +consisted largely if not mainly in complete detachment from secular +interests and affections. No type was more admired, and no type was ever +more completely severed from all active duties and all human relations +than that of the saint of the desert or of the monk of one of the +contemplative orders. To die to the world; to become indifferent to its +aims, interests and pleasures; to measure all things by a standard +wholly different from human happiness, to live habitually for another +life was the constant teaching of the saints. In the stress laid on the +cultivation of the spiritual life the whole sphere of active duties sank +into a lower plane; and the eye of the mind was turned upwards and +inwards and but little on the world around. 'Happy,' said one saint, 'is +the mind which sees but two objects, God and self, one of which +conceptions fills it with a sovereign delight and the other abases it to +the extremest dejection.'[11] 'As much love as we give to creatures,' +said another saint, 'just so much we steal from the Creator.'[12] 'Two +things only do I ask,' said a third,[13] 'to suffer and to die.' +'Forsake all,' said Thomas a Kempis, 'and thou shalt find all. Leave +desire and thou shalt find rest.' 'Unless a man be disengaged from the +affection of all creatures he cannot with freedom of mind attend unto +Divine things.' + +The gradual, silent and half-unconscious modification in the type of +Morals which took place after the Reformation was certainly not the +least important of its results. If it may be traced in some degree to +the distinctive theology of the Protestant Churches, it was perhaps +still more due to the abolition of clerical celibacy which placed the +religious teachers in the centre of domestic life and in close contact +with a large circle of social duties. There is even now a distinct +difference between the morals of a sincerely Catholic and a sincerely +Protestant country, and this difference is not so much, as +controversialists would tell us, in the greater and the less as in the +moral type, or, in other words, in the different degrees of importance +attached to different virtues and vices. Probably nowhere in the world +can more beautiful and more reverent types be found than in some of the +Catholic countries of Europe which are but little touched by the +intellectual movements of the age, but no good observer can fail to +notice how much larger is the place given to duties which rest wholly on +theological considerations, and how largely even the natural duties are +based on such considerations and governed, limited, and sometimes even +superseded by them. The ecclesiastics who at the Council of Constance +induced Sigismund to violate the safe-conduct he had given, and, in +spite of his solemn promise, to condemn Huss to a death of fire,[14] and +the ecclesiastics who at the Diet of Worms vainly tried to induce +Charles V. to act with a similar perfidy towards Luther, represent a +conception of morals which is abundantly prevalent in our day. It is no +exaggeration to say that in Catholic countries the obligation of +truthfulness in cases in which it conflicts with the interests of the +Church rests wholly on the basis of honour, and not at all on the basis +of religion. In the estimates of Catholic rulers no impartial observer +can fail to notice how their attitude towards the interest of the Church +dominates over all considerations of public and private morals. + +In past ages this was much more the case. The Church filled in the minds +of men a place at least equal to that of the State in the Roman +Republic. Men who had made great sacrifices for it and rendered great +services to it were deemed, beyond all others, the good men, and in +those men things which we should regard as grossly criminal appeared +mere venial frailties. Let any one who doubts this study the lives of +the early Catholic saints, and the still more instructive pages in which +Gregory of Tours and other ecclesiastical annalists have described the +characters and acts of the more prominent figures in the secular history +of their times, and he will soon feel that he has passed into a moral +atmosphere and is dealing with moral measurements and perspectives +wholly unlike those of our own day.[15] + +In highly civilised ages the same spirit may be clearly traced. Bossuet +was certainly no hypocrite or sycophant, but a man of austere virtue and +undoubted courage. He did not hesitate to rebuke the gross profligacy +of the life of Louis XIV., and although neither he nor any of the other +Catholic divines of his age seriously protested against the wars of pure +egotism and ostentation which made that sovereign the scourge of Europe +and brought down upon his people calamities immeasurably greater than +the faults of his private life--although, indeed, he has spoken of those +wars in language of rapturous and unqualified eulogy[16]--he had at +least the grace to devote a chapter of his 'Politique tiree de +l'Ecriture Sainte' to the theme that 'God does not love war.' But in the +eyes of Bossuet the dominant fact in the life of Louis XIV. was the +Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the savage persecution of the +Huguenots, and this was sufficient to place him among the best of +sovereigns.[17] + +To those who will candidly consider the subject there is nothing in this +which need excite surprise. The doctrine that the Catholic Church is the +inspired guide, representing the voice of the Divinity on earth and +deciding with absolute authority all questions of right and wrong, very +naturally led to the conviction that nothing which was conducive to its +interests could be really criminal, and in all departments of morals it +regulated the degrees of praise and blame. The doctrine which is still +so widely professed but now so faintly realised, that the first +essential to salvation is orthodox belief, placed conduct on a lower +plane of importance than dogma, while the conviction that it is in the +power of man to obtain absolute certainty in religious belief, that +erroneous belief is in the eyes of the Almighty a crime bringing with it +eternal damnation, and that the teacher of heresy is the greatest enemy +of mankind, at once justified in the eyes of the believer acts which now +seem the gravest moral aberrations. Many baser motives and elements no +doubt mingled with the long and hideous history of the religious +persecutions of Christendom, but in the eyes of countless conscientious +men this teaching seemed amply sufficient to justify them and to stifle +all feeling of compassion for the victims. Much the same considerations +explain the absolute indifference with which so many good men witnessed +those witch persecutions which consigned thousands of old, feeble and +innocent women to torture and to death. + +Other illustrations of a less tragical kind might be given. Thus in +cases of child-birth the physician is sometimes placed in the +alternative of sacrificing the life of the mother or of the unborn +child. In such cases a Protestant or freethinking physician would not +hesitate to save the adult life as by far the most valuable. The +Catholic doctrine is that under such circumstances the first duty of the +physician is to save the life of the unbaptized child.[18] Large numbers +of commercial transactions which are now universally acknowledged to be +perfectly innocent and useful would during a long period have been +prohibited on account of the Catholic doctrine of usury which condemned +as sinful even the most moderate interest on money if it was exacted as +the price of the loan.[19] + +Every religious and indeed every philosophical system that has played a +great part in the history of the world has a tendency either to form or +to assimilate with a particular moral type, and in the eyes of a large +and growing number it is upon the excellency of this type, and upon its +success in producing it, that its superiority mainly depends. The +superstructure or scaffolding of belief around which it is formed +appears to them of comparatively little moment, and it is not uncommon +to find men ardently devoted to a particular type long after they have +discarded the tenets with which it was once connected. Carlyle, for +example, sometimes spoke of himself as a Calvinist, and used language +both in public and private as if there was no important difference +between himself and the most orthodox Puritans, yet it is very evident +that he disbelieved nearly all the articles of their creed. What he +meant was that Calvinism had produced in all countries in which it +really dominated a definite type of character and conception of morals +which was in his eyes the noblest that had yet appeared in the world. + +'_Above all things_, my brethren, swear not.' If, as is generally +assumed, this refers to the custom of using profane oaths in common +conversation, how remote from modern ideas is the place assigned to +this vice, which perhaps affects human happiness as little as any other +that can be mentioned, in the scale of criminality, and how curiously +characteristic is the fact that the vice to which this supremacy of +enormity is attributed continued to be prevalent during the ages when +theological influences were most powerful, and has in all good society +faded away in simple obedience to a turn of fashion which proscribes it +as ungentlemanly! For a long period Acts condemning it were read at +stated periods in the churches,[20] and one of these described it as +likely, by provoking God's wrath, to 'increase the many calamities these +nations now labour under.' How curiously characteristic is the +restriction in common usage of the term 'immoral' to a single vice, so +that a man who is untruthful, selfish, cruel, or intemperate might still +be said to have led 'a moral life' because he was blameless in the +relations of the sexes! In the estimates of the character of public men +the same disproportionate judgment may be constantly found in the +comparative stress placed upon private faults and the most gigantic +public crimes. Errors of judgment are not errors of morals, but any +public man who, through selfish, ambitious, or party motives, plunges or +helps to plunge his country into an unrighteous or unnecessary war, +subordinates public interest to his personal ambition, employs himself +in stimulating class, national, or provincial hatreds, lowers the moral +standard of public life, or supports a legislation which he knows to +tend to or facilitate dishonesty, is committing a crime before which, if +it be measured by its consequences, the gravest acts of mere private +immorality dwindle into insignificance. Yet how differently in the case +of brilliant and successful politicians are such things treated in the +judgment of contemporaries, and sometimes even in the judgments of +history! + +It is, I think, a peculiarity of modern times that the chief moral +influences are much more various and complex than in the past. There is +no such absolute empire as that which was exercised over character by +the State in some periods of Pagan antiquity and by the Church during +the Middle Ages. Our civilisation is more than anything else an +industrial civilisation, and industrial habits are probably the +strongest in forming the moral type to which public opinion aspires. +Slavery, which threw a deep discredit on industry and on the qualities +it fosters, has passed away. The feudal system, which placed industry in +an inferior position, has been abolished, and the strong modern tendency +to diminish both the privileges and the exclusiveness of rank and to +increase the importance of wealth is in the same direction. An +industrial society has its special vices and failings, but it naturally +brings into the boldest relief the moral qualities which industry is +most fitted to foster and on which it most largely depends, and it also +gives the whole tone of moral thinking a utilitarian character. It is +not Christianity but Industrialism that has brought into the world that +strong sense of the moral value of thrift, steady industry, punctuality +in observing engagements, constant forethought with a view to providing +for the contingencies of the future, which is now so characteristic of +the moral type of the most civilised nations. + +Many other influences, however, have contributed to intensify, qualify, +or impair the industrial type. Protestantism has disengaged primitive +Christian ethics from a crowd of superstitious and artificial duties +which had overlaid them, and a similar process has been going on in +Catholic countries under the influence of the rationalising and +sceptical spirit. The influence of dogmatic theology on Morals has +declined. Out of the vast and complex religious systems of the past, an +eclectic spirit is bringing into special and ever-increasing prominence +those Christian virtues which are most manifestly in accordance with +natural religion and most clearly conducive to the well-being of men +upon the earth. Philanthropy or charity, which forms the centre of the +system, has also been immensely intensified by increased knowledge and +realisation of the wants and sorrows of others; by the sensitiveness to +pain, by the softening of manners and the more humane and refined tastes +and habits which a highly elaborated intellectual civilisation naturally +produces. The sense of duty plays a great part in modern philanthropy, +and lower motives of ostentation or custom mingle largely with the +genuine kindliness of feeling that inspires it; but on the whole it is +probable that men in our day, in doing good to others, look much more +exclusively than in the past to the benefit of the recipient and much +less to some reward for their acts in a future world. As long, too, as +this benefit is attained, they will gladly diminish as much as possible +the self-sacrifice it entails. An eminently characteristic feature of +modern philanthropy is its close connection with amusements. There was a +time when a great philanthropic work would be naturally supported by an +issue of indulgences promising specific advantages in another world to +all who took part in it. In our own generation balls, bazaars, +theatrical or other amusements given for the benefit of the charity, +occupy an almost corresponding place. + +At the same time increasing knowledge, and especially the kind of +knowledge which science gives, has in other ways largely affected our +judgments of right and wrong. The mental discipline, the habits of sound +and accurate reasoning, the distrust of mere authority and of untested +assertions and traditions that science tends to produce, all stimulate +the intellectual virtues, and science has done much to rectify the chart +of life, pointing out more clearly the true conditions of human +well-being and disclosing much baselessness and many errors in the +teaching of the past. It cannot, however, be said that the civic or the +military influences have declined. If the State does not hold altogether +the same place as in Pagan antiquity, it is at least certain that in a +democratic age public interests are enormously prominent in the lives of +men, and there is a growing and dangerous tendency to aggrandise the +influence of the State over the individual, while modern militarism is +drawing the flower of Continental Europe into its circle and making +military education one of the most powerful influences in the formation +of characters and ideals. + +I do not believe that the world will ever greatly differ about the +essential elements of right and wrong. These things lie deep in human +nature and in the fundamental conditions of human life. The changes that +are taking place, and which seem likely to strengthen in the future, lie +chiefly in the importance attached to different qualities. + +What seems to be useless self-sacrifice and unnecessary suffering is as +much as possible avoided. The strain of sentiment which valued suffering +in itself as an expiatory thing, as a mode of following the Man of +Sorrows, as a thing to be for its own sake embraced and dwelt upon, and +prolonged, bears a very great part in some of the most beautiful +Christian lives, and especially in those which were formed under the +influence of the Catholic Church. An old legend tells how Christ once +appeared as a Man of Sorrows to a Catholic Saint, and asked him what +boon he would most desire. 'Lord,' was the reply, 'that I might suffer +most.' This strain runs deeply through the whole ascetic literature and +the whole monastic system of Catholicism, and outside Catholicism it has +been sometimes shown by a reluctance to accept the aid of anaesthetics, +which partially or wholly removed suffering supposed to have been sent +by Providence. The history of the use of chloroform furnishes striking +illustrations of this. Many of my readers may remember the French monks +who devoted themselves to cultivating one of the most pestilential spots +in the Roman Campagna, which was associated with an ecclesiastical +legend, and who quite unnecessarily insisted on remaining there during +the season when such a residence meant little less than a slow suicide. +They had, as they were accustomed to say, their purgatory upon earth, +and they remained till their constitutions were hopelessly shattered and +they were sent to die in their own land. Touching examples might be +found in modern times of men who, in the last extremes of disease or +suffering, scrupled, through religious motives, about availing +themselves of the simplest alleviations,[21] and something of the same +feeling is shown in the desire to prolong to the last possible moment +hopeless and agonising disease. All this is manifestly and rapidly +disappearing. To endure with patience and resignation inevitable +suffering; to encounter courageously dangers and suffering for some +worthy and useful end, ranks, indeed, as high as it ever did in the +ethics of the century, but suffering for its own sake is no longer +valued, and it is deemed one of the first objects of a wise life to +restrict and diminish it. + +No one, I think, has seen more clearly or described more vividly than +Goethe the direction in which in modern times the current of morals is +flowing. His philosophy is a terrestrial philosophy, and the old +theologians would have said that it allowed the second Table of the Law +altogether to supersede or eclipse the first. It was said of him with +much truth that 'repugnance to the supernatural was an inherent part of +his mind.' To turn away from useless and barren speculations; to +persistently withdraw our thoughts from the unknowable, the inevitable, +and the irreparable; to concentrate them on the immediate present and on +the nearest duty; to waste no moral energy on excessive introspection or +self-abasement or self-reproach, but to make the cultivation and the +wise use of all our powers the supreme ideal and end of our lives; to +oppose labour and study to affliction and regret; to keep at a distance +gloomy thoughts and exaggerated anxieties; 'to see the individual in +connection and co-operation with the whole,' and to look upon effort and +action as the main elements both of duty and happiness, was the lesson +which he continually taught. 'The mind endowed with active powers, and +keeping with a practical object to the task that lies nearest, is the +worthiest there is on earth.' 'Character consists in a man steadily +pursuing the things of which he feels himself capable.' 'Try to do your +duty and you will know what you are worth.' 'Piety is not an end but a +means; a means of attaining the highest culture by the purest +tranquillity of soul.' 'We are not born to solve the problems of the +world, but to find out where the problem begins and then to keep within +the limits of what we can grasp.' + +To cultivate sincere love of truth and clear and definite conceptions, +and divest ourselves as much as possible from prejudices, fanaticisms, +superstitions, and exaggeration; to take wide, sound, tolerant, +many-sided views of life, stands in his eyes in the forefront of ethics. +'Let it be your earnest endeavour to use words coinciding as closely as +possible with what we feel, see, think, experience, imagine, and +reason;' 'remove by plain and honest purpose false, irrelevant and +futile ideas.' 'The truest liberality is appreciation.' 'Love of truth +shows itself in this, that a man knows how to find and value the good in +everything.'[22] + +In the eyes of this school of thought one of the great vices of the old +theological type of ethics was that it was unduly negative. It thought +much more of the avoidance of sin than of the performance of duty. The +more we advance in knowledge the more we shall come to judge men in the +spirit of the parable of the talents; that is by the net result of their +lives, by their essential unselfishness, by the degree in which they +employ and the objects to which they direct their capacities and +opportunities. The staple of moral life becomes much less a matter of +small scruples, of minute self-examination, of extreme stress laid upon +flaws of character and conduct that have little or no bearing upon +active life. A life of idleness will be regarded with much less +tolerance than at present. Men will grow less introspective and more +objective, and useful action will become more and more the guiding +principle of morals. + +In theory this will probably be readily admitted, but every good +observer will find that it involves a considerable change in the point +of view. A life of habitual languor and idleness, with no faculties +really cultivated, and with no result that makes a man missed when he +has passed away, may be spent without any act which the world calls +vicious, and is quite compatible with much charm of temper and demeanour +and with a complete freedom from violent and aggressive selfishness. +Such a life, in the eyes of many moralists, would rank much higher than +a life of constant, honourable self-sacrificing labour for the good of +others which was at the same time flawed by some positive vice. Yet the +life which seems to be comparatively blameless has in truth wholly +missed, while the other life, in spite of all its defects, has largely +attained what should be the main object of a human life, the full +development and useful employment of whatever powers we possess. There +are men, indeed, in whom an over-sensitive conscience is even a +paralysing thing, which by suggesting constant petty and ingenious +scruples holds them back from useful action. It is a moral infirmity +corresponding to that exaggerated intellectual fastidiousness which so +often makes an intellectual life almost wholly barren, or to that +excessive tendency to look on all sides of a question and to realise the +dangers and drawbacks of any course which not unfrequently in moments of +difficulty paralyses the actions of public men. Sometimes, under the +strange and subtle bias of the will, this excessive conscientiousness +will be unconsciously fostered in inert and sluggish natures which are +constitutionally disinclined to effort. The main lines of duty in the +great relations of life are sufficiently obvious, and the casuistry +which multiplies cases of conscience and invents unreal and factitious +duties is apt to be rather an impediment than a furtherance to a noble +life. + +It is probable that as the world goes on morals will move more and more +in the direction I have described. There will be at the same time a +steadily increasing tendency to judge moral qualities and courses of +conduct mainly by the degree in which they promote or diminish human +happiness. Enthusiasm and self-sacrifice for some object which has no +real bearing on the welfare of man will become rarer and will be less +respected, and the condemnation that is passed on acts that are +recognised as wrong will be much more proportioned than at present to +the injury they inflict. Some things, such as excessive luxury of +expenditure and the improvidence of bringing into the world children for +whom no provision has been made, which can now scarcely be said to enter +into the teaching of moralists, or at least of churches, may one day be +looked upon as graver offences than some that are in the penal code. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] St. Francis de Sales. + +[12] St. Philip Neri. + +[13] St. Teresa. + +[14] 'Cum dictus Johannes Hus fidem orthodoxam pertinaciter impugnans, +se ab omni con ductu et privilegio reddiderit alienum, nec aliqua sibi +fides aut promissio de jure naturali divino vel humano, fuerit in +praejudicium Catholicae fidei observanda.' Declaration of the Council of +Constance. See Creighton's _History of the Papacy_, ii. 32. + +[15] I have collected some illustrations of this in my _History of +European Morals_, ii. 235-242. + +[16] See, e.g. his funeral oration on Marie Therese d'Autriche. + +[17] See the enthusiastic eulogy of the persecution of the Huguenots in +his funeral oration on Michel le Tellier. It concludes: 'Epanchons nos +coeurs sur la piete de Louis; poussons jusqu'au ciel nos acclamations, +et disons a ce nouveau Constantin, a ce nouveau Theodose, a ce nouveau +Marcien, a ce nouveau Charlemagne ce que les six cent trente Peres +dirent autrefois dans le Concile de Chalcedoine: "Vous avez affermi la +foi; vous avez extermine les heretiques; c'est le digne ouvrage de votre +regne; c'en est le propre caractere. Par vous l'heresie n'est plus, Dieu +seul a pu faire cette merveille. Roi du ciel, conservez le roi de la +terre; c'est le voeu, des Eglises; c'est le voeu des Eveques."' + +[18] See Migne, _Encyclopedie Theologique_, 'Dict. de Cas de +Conscience,' art. _Avortement_. + +[19] See on this subject my _History of Rationalism_, ii. 250-270, and +my _Democracy and Liberty_, ii., ch. viii. + +[20] 21 James I. c. 20; 19 Geo. II. c. 21. The penalties, however, were +fines, the pillory, or short periods of imprisonment. The obligation of +reading the statute in churches was abolished in 1823, but the custom +had before fallen into desuetude. In 1772 a vicar was (as an act of +private vengeance) prosecuted and fined for having neglected to read it. +(_Annual Register_, 1772, p. 115.) + +[21] The following beautiful passage from a funeral sermon by Newman is +an example: 'One should have thought that a life so innocent, so active, +so holy, I might say so faultless from first to last, might have been +spared the visitation of any long and severe penance to bring it to an +end; but in order doubtless to show us how vile and miserable the best +of us are in ourselves ... and moreover to give us a pattern how to bear +suffering ourselves, and to increase the merits and to hasten and +brighten the crown of this faithful servant of his Lord, it pleased +Almighty God to send upon him a disorder which during the last six years +fought with him, mastered him, and at length has destroyed him, so far, +that is, as death now has power to destroy.... It is for those who came +near him year after year to store up the many words and deeds of +resignation, love and humility which that long penance elicited. These +meritorious acts are written in the Book of Life, and they have followed +him whither he is gone. They multiplied and grew in strength and +perfection as his trial proceeded; and they were never so striking as at +its close. When a friend visited him in the last week, he found he had +scrupled at allowing his temples to be moistened with some refreshing +waters, and had with difficulty been brought to give his consent; he +said he feared it was too great a luxury. When the same friend offered +him some liquid to allay his distressing thirst his answer was the +same.'--Sermon at the funeral of the Right Rev. Henry Weedall, pp. 19, +20. + +[22] See the excellent little book of Mr. Bailey Saunders, called _The +Maxims and Reflections of Goethe_. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The tendency to regard morals rather in their positive than their +negative aspects, and to estimate men by the good they do in the world, +is a healthy element in modern life. A strong sense of the obligation of +a full, active, and useful life is the best safeguard both of individual +and national morals at a time when the dissolution or enfeeblement of +theological beliefs is disturbing the foundations on which most current +moral teaching has been based. In the field of morals action holds a +much larger place than reasoning--a larger place even in elucidating our +difficulties and illuminating the path on which we should go. It is by +the active pursuit of an immediate duty that the vista of future duties +becomes most clear, and those who are most immersed in active duties are +usually little troubled with the perplexities of life, or with minute +and paralysing scruples. A public opinion which discourages idleness and +places high the standard of public duty is especially valuable in an age +when the tendency to value wealth, and to measure dignity by wealth, has +greatly increased, and when wealth in some of its most important forms +has become wholly dissociated from special duties. The duties of the +landlord who is surrounded by a poor and in some measure dependent +tenantry, the duties of the head of a great factory or shop who has a +large number of workmen or dependents in his employment, are +sufficiently obvious, though even in these spheres the tie of duty has +been greatly relaxed by the growing spirit of independence, which makes +each class increasingly jealous of the interference of others, and by +the growing tendency of legislation to regulate all relations of +business and contracts by definite law instead of leaving them, as in +the past, to voluntary action. But there are large classes of fortunes +which are wholly, or almost wholly, dissociated from special and +definite duties. The vast and ever-increasing multitude whose incomes +are derived from national, or provincial, or municipal debts, or who are +shareholders or debenture-holders in great commercial and industrial +undertakings, have little or no practical control over, or interest in, +those from whom their fortunes are derived. The multiplication of such +fortunes is one of the great characteristics of our time, and it brings +with it grave dangers. Such fortunes give unrivalled opportunities of +luxurious idleness, and as in themselves they bring little or no social +influence or position, those who possess them are peculiarly tempted to +seek such a position by an ostentation of wealth and luxury which has a +profoundly vulgarising and demoralising influence upon Society. The +tendency of idleness to lead to immorality has long been a commonplace +of moralists. Perhaps our own age has seen more clearly than those that +preceded it that complete and habitual idleness _is_ immorality, and +that when the circumstances of his life do not assign to a man a +definite sphere of work it is his first duty to find it for himself. It +has been happily said that in the beginning of the reign of Queen +Victoria young men in England who were really busy affected idleness, +and at the close of the reign young men who are really idle pretend to +be busy. In my own opinion, a disproportionate amount of English energy +takes political forms, and there is a dangerous exaggeration in the +prevailing tendency to combat all social and moral abuses by Acts of +Parliament. But there are multitudes of other and less obtrusive spheres +of work adapted to all grades of intellect and to many types of +character, in which men who possess the inestimable boon of leisure can +find abundant and useful fields for the exercise of their powers. + +The rectification of moral judgments is one of the most important +elements of civilisation; it is upon this that the possibility of moral +progress on a large scale chiefly depends. Few things pervert men more +than the habit of regarding as enviable persons or qualities injurious +to Society. The most obvious example is the passionate admiration +bestowed on a brilliant conqueror, which is often quite irrespective of +the justice of his wars and of the motives that actuated him. This false +moral feeling has acquired such a strength that overwhelming military +power almost certainly leads to a career of ambition. Perverted public +opinion is the main cause. Glory, not interest, is the lure, or at least +the latter would be powerless if it were not accompanied by the +former--if the execration of mankind naturally followed unscrupulous +aggression. + +Another and scarcely less flagrant instance of the worship of false +ideals is to be found in the fierce competition of luxury and +ostentation which characterises the more wealthy cities of Europe and +America. It is no exaggeration to say that in a single festival in +London or New York sums are often expended in the idlest and most +ephemeral ostentation which might have revived industry, or extinguished +pauperism, or alleviated suffering over a vast area. The question of +expenditure on luxuries is no doubt a question of degree which cannot be +reduced to strict rule, and there are many who will try to justify the +most ostentatious expenditure on the ground of the employment it gives +and of other incidental advantages it is supposed to produce. But +nothing in political economy is more certain than that the vast and +ever-increasing expenditure on the luxury of ostentation in modern +societies, by withdrawing great masses of capital from productive +labour, is a grave economical evil, and there is probably no other form +of expenditure which, in proportion to its amount, gives so little real +pleasure and confers so little real good. Its evil in setting up +material and base standards of excellence, in stimulating the worst +passions that grow out of an immoderate love of wealth, in ruining many +who are tempted into a competition which they are unable to support, can +hardly be overrated. It is felt in every rank in raising the standard of +conventional expenses, excluding from much social intercourse many who +are admirably fitted to adorn it, and introducing into all society a +lower and more material tone. Nor are these its only consequences. +Wealth which is expended in multiplying and elaborating real comforts, +or even in pleasures which produce enjoyment at all proportionate to +their cost, will never excite serious indignation. It is the colossal +waste of the means of human happiness in the most selfish and most +vulgar forms of social advertisement and competition that gives a force +and almost a justification to anarchical passions which menace the +whole future of our civilisation. It is such things that stimulate class +hatreds and deepen class divisions, and if the law of opinion does not +interfere to check them they will one day bring down upon the society +that encourages them a signal and well-merited retribution. + +A more recognised, though probably not really more pernicious example of +false ideals, is to be found in the glorification of the _demi-monde_, +which is so conspicuous in some societies and literatures. In a healthy +state of opinion, the public, ostentatious appearance of such persons, +without any concealment of their character, in the great concourse of +fashion and among the notabilities of the State, would appear an +intolerable scandal, and it becomes much worse when they give the tone +to fashion and become the centres and the models of large and by no +means undistinguished sections of Society. The evils springing from this +public glorification of the class are immeasurably greater than the +evils arising from its existence. The standard of popular morals is +debased. Temptation in its most seductive form is forced upon +inflammable natures, and the most pernicious of all lessons is taught to +poor, honest, hard-working women. It is indeed wonderful that in +societies where this evil prevails so much virtue should still exist +among graceful, attractive women of the shopkeeping and servant class +when they continually see before them members of their own class, by +preferring vice to virtue, rising at once to wealth, luxury and +idleness, and even held up as objects of admiration or imitation. + +In judging wisely the characters of men, one of the first things to be +done is to understand their ideals. Try to find out what kind of men or +of life; what qualities, what positions seem to them the most desirable. +Men do not always fully recognise their own ideals, for education and +the conventionalities of Society oblige them to assert a preference for +that which may really have no root in their minds. But by a careful +examination it is usually possible to ascertain what persons or +qualities or circumstances or gifts exercise a genuine, spontaneous, +magnetic power over them--whether they really value supremely rank or +position, or money, or beauty, or intellect, or superiority of +character. If you know the ideal of a man you have obtained a true key +to his nature. The broad lines of his character, the permanent +tendencies of his imagination, his essential nobility or meanness, are +thus disclosed more effectually than by any other means. A man with high +ideals, who admires wisely and nobly, is never wholly base though he may +fall into great vices. A man who worships the baser elements is in truth +an idolater though he may have never bowed before an image of stone. + +The human mind has much more power of distinguishing between right and +wrong, and between true and false, than of estimating with accuracy the +comparative gravity of opposite evils. It is nearly always right in +judging between right and wrong. It is generally wrong in estimating +degrees of guilt, and the root of its error lies in the extreme +difficulty of putting ourselves into the place of those whose characters +or circumstances are radically different from our own. This want of +imagination acts widely on our judgment of what is good as well as of +what is bad. Few men have enough imagination to realise types of +excellence altogether differing from their own. It is this, much more +than vanity, that leads them to esteem the types of excellence to which +they themselves approximate as the best, and tastes and habits that are +altogether incongruous with their own as futile and contemptible. It is, +perhaps, most difficult of all to realise the difference of character +and especially of moral sensibility produced by a profound difference of +circumstances. This difficulty largely falsifies our judgments of the +past, and it is the reason why a powerful imagination enabling us to +realise very various characters and very remote circumstances is one of +the first necessities of a great historian. Historians rarely make +sufficient allowance for the degree in which the judgments and +dispositions even of the best men are coloured by the moral tone of the +time, society and profession in which they lived. Yet it is probable +that on the whole we estimate more justly the characters of the past +than of the present. No one would judge the actions of Charlemagne or of +his contemporaries by the strict rules of nineteenth-century ethics. We +feel that though they committed undoubted crimes, these crimes are at +least indefinitely less heinous than they would have been under the +wholly different circumstances and moral atmosphere of our own day. Yet +we seldom apply this method of reasoning to the different strata of the +same society. Men who have been themselves brought up amid all the +comforts and all the moralising and restraining influences of a refined +society, will often judge the crimes of the wretched pariahs of +civilisation as if their acts were in no degree palliated by their +position. They say to themselves 'How guilty should I have been if I +had done this thing,' and their verdict is quite just according to this +statement of the case. They realise the nature of the act. They utterly +fail to realise the character and circumstances of the actor. + +And yet it is scarcely possible to exaggerate the difference between the +position of such a critic and that of the children of drunken, ignorant +and profligate parents, born to abject poverty in the slums of our great +cities. From their earliest childhood drunkenness, blasphemy, +dishonesty, prostitution, indecency of every form are their most +familiar experiences. All the social influences, such as they are, are +influences of vice. As they grow up Life seems to them to present little +more than the alternative of hard, ill-paid, and at the same time +precarious labour, probably ending in the poor-house, or crime with its +larger and swifter gains, and its intervals of coarse pleasure probably, +though not certainly, followed by the prison or an early death. They see +indeed, like figures in a dream, or like beings of another world, the +wealthy and the luxurious spending their wealth and their time in many +kinds of enjoyment, but to the very poor pleasure scarcely comes except +in the form of the gin palace or perhaps the low music hall. And in many +cases they have come into this reeking atmosphere of temptation and vice +with natures debased and enfeebled by a long succession of vicious +hereditary influences, with weak wills, with no faculties of mind or +character that can respond to any healthy ambition; with powerful inborn +predispositions to evil. The very mould of their features, the very +shape of their skulls, marks them out as destined members of the +criminal class. Even here, no doubt, there is a difference between right +and wrong; there is scope for the action of free will; there are just +causes of praise and blame, and Society rightly protects itself by +severe penalties against the crimes that are most natural; but what +human judge can duly measure the scale of moral guilt? or what +comparison can there be between the crimes that are engendered by such +circumstances and those which spring up in the homes of refined and +well-regulated comfort? + +Nor indeed even in this latter case is a really accurate judgment +possible. Men are born into the world with both wills and passions of +varying strength, though in mature life the strength or weakness of each +is largely due to their own conduct. With different characters the same +temptation, operating under the same external circumstances, has +enormously different strength, and very few men can fully realise the +strength of a passion which they have never themselves experienced. To +repeat an illustration I have already used, how difficult is it for a +constitutionally sober man to form in his own mind an adequate +conception of the force of the temptation of drink to a dipsomaniac, or +for a passionless man to conceive rightly the temptations of a +profoundly sensual nature! I have spoken in a former chapter of the +force with which bodily conditions act upon happiness. Their influence +on morals is not less terrible. There are diseases well known to +physicians which make the most placid temper habitually irritable; +give a morbid turn to the healthiest disposition; fill the purest +mind with unholy thoughts. There are others which destroy the force +of the strongest will and take from character all balance and +self-control.[23] It often happens that we have long been blaming a man +for manifest faults of character till at last suicide, or the disclosure +of some grave bodily or mental disease which has long been working +unperceived, explains his faults and turns our blame into pity. In +madness the whole moral character is sometimes reversed, and tendencies +which have been in sane life dormant or repressed become suddenly +supreme. In such cases we all acknowledge that there is no moral +responsibility, but madness, with its illusions and irresistible +impulses, and idiocy with its complete suspension of the will and of the +judgment, are neither of them, as lawyers would pretend, clearly defined +states, marked out by sharp and well-cut boundaries, wholly distinct +from sanity. There are incipient stages; there are gradual +approximations; there are twilight states between sanity and insanity +which are clearly recognised not only by experts but by all sagacious +men of the world. There are many who are not sufficiently mad to be shut +up, or to be deprived of the management of their properties, or to be +exempted from punishment if they have committed a crime, but who, in the +common expressive phrase, 'are not all there'--whose eccentricities, +illusions and caprices are on the verge of madness, whose judgments are +hopelessly disordered; whose wills, though not completely atrophied, are +manifestly diseased. In questions of property, in questions of crime, in +questions of family arrangements, such persons cause the gravest +perplexity, nor will any wise man judge them by the same moral standard +as well-balanced and well-developed natures. + +The inference to be drawn from such facts is certainly not that there is +no such thing as free will and personal responsibility, nor yet that we +have no power of judging the acts of others and distinguishing among our +fellowmen between the good and the bad. The true lesson is the extreme +fallibility of our moral judgments whenever we attempt to measure +degrees of guilt. Sometimes men are even unjust to their own past from +their incapacity in age of realising the force of the temptations they +had experienced in youth. On the other hand, increased knowledge of the +world tends to make us more sensible of the vast differences between the +moral circumstances of men, and therefore less confident and more +indulgent in our judgments of others. There are men whose cards in life +are so bad, whose temptations to vice, either from circumstances or +inborn character, seem so overwhelming, that, though we may punish, and +in a certain sense blame, we can scarcely look on them as more +responsible than some noxious wild beast. Among the terrible facts of +life none is indeed more terrible than this. Every believer in the wise +government of the world must have sometimes realised with a crushing or +at least a staggering force the appalling injustices of life as shown in +the enormous differences in the distribution of unmerited happiness and +misery. But the disparity of moral circumstances is not less. It has +shaken the faith of many. It has even led some to dream of a possible +Heaven for the vicious where those who are born into the world with a +physical constitution rendering them fierce or cruel, or sensual, or +cowardly, may be freed from the nature which was the cause of their +vice and their suffering upon earth; where due allowance may be made for +the differences of circumstances which have plunged one man deeper and +ever deeper into crime, and enabled another, who was not really better +or worse, to pass through life with no serious blemish, and to rise +higher and higher in the moral scale. + +Imperfect, however, as is our power of judging others, it is a power we +are all obliged to exercise. It is impossible to exclude the +considerations of moral guilt and of palliating or aggravating +circumstances from the penal code, and from the administration of +justice, though it cannot be too clearly maintained that the criminal +code is not coextensive with the moral code, and that many things which +are profoundly immoral lie beyond its scope. On the whole it should be +as much as possible confined to acts by which men directly injure +others. In the case of adult men, private vices, vices by which no one +is directly affected, except by his own free will, and in which the +elements of force or fraud are not present, should not be brought within +its range. This ideal, it is true, cannot be fully attained. The +legislator must take into account the strong pressure of public opinion. +It is sometimes true that a penal law may arrest, restrict, or prevent +the revival of some private vice without producing any countervailing +evil. But the presumption is against all laws which punish the voluntary +acts of adult men when those acts injure no one except themselves. The +social censure, or the judgment of opinion, rightly extends much +further, though it is often based on very imperfect knowledge or +realisation. It is probable that, on the whole, opinion judges too +severely the crimes of passion and of drink, as well as those which +spring from the pressure of great poverty and are accompanied by great +ignorance. The causes of domestic anarchy are usually of such an +intimate nature and involve so many unknown or imperfectly realised +elements of aggravation or palliation that in most cases the less men +attempt to judge them the better. On the other hand, public opinion is +usually far too lenient in judging crimes of ambition, cupidity, envy, +malevolence, and callous selfishness; the crimes of ill-gotten and +ill-used wealth, especially in the many cases in which those crimes are +unpunished by law. + +It is a mere commonplace of morals that in the path of evil it is the +first step that costs the most. The shame, the repugnance, and the +remorse which attend the first crime speedily fade, and on every +repetition the habit of evil grows stronger. A process of the same kind +passes over our judgments. Few things are more curious than to observe +how the eye accommodates itself to a new fashion of dress, however +unbecoming; how speedily men, or at least women, will adopt a new and +artificial standard and instinctively and unconsciously admire or blame +according to this standard and not according to any genuine sense of +beauty or the reverse. Few persons, however pure may be their natural +taste, can live long amid vulgar and vulgarising surroundings without +losing something of the delicacy of their taste and learning to +accept--if not with pleasure, at least with acquiescence--things from +which under other circumstances they would have recoiled. In the same +way, both individuals and societies accommodate themselves but too +readily to lower moral levels, and a constant vigilance is needed to +detect the forms or directions in which individual and national +character insensibly deteriorate. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[23] See Ribot, _Les Maladies de la Volonte_, pp. 92, 116-119. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +It is impossible for a physician to prescribe a rational regimen for a +patient unless he has formed some clear conception of the nature of his +constitution and of the morbid influences to which it is inclined; and +in judging the wisdom of various proposals for the management of +character we are at once met by the initial controversy about the +goodness or the depravity of human nature. It is a subject on which +extreme exaggerations have prevailed. The school of Rousseau, which +dominated on the Continent in the last half of the eighteenth century, +represented mankind as a being who comes into existence essentially +good, and it attributed all the moral evils of the world, not to any +innate tendencies to vice, but to superstition, vicious institutions, +misleading education, a badly organised society. It is an obvious +criticism that if human nature had been as good as such writers +imagined, these corrupt and corrupting influences could never have grown +up, or at least could never have obtained a controlling influence, and +this philosophy became greatly discredited when the French Revolution, +which it did so much to produce, ended in the unspeakable horrors of the +Reign of Terror and in the gigantic carnage of the Napoleonic wars. On +the other hand, there are large schools of theologians who represent man +as utterly and fundamentally depraved, 'born in corruption, inclined to +evil, incapable by himself of doing good;' totally wrecked and ruined +as a moral being by the catastrophe in Eden. There are also moral +philosophers--usually very unconnected with theology--who deny or +explain away all unselfish elements in human nature, represent man as +simply governed by self-interest, and maintain that the whole art of +education and government consists of a judicious arrangement of selfish +motives, making the interests of the individual coincident with those of +his neighbours. It is not too much to say that Society never could have +subsisted if this view of human nature had been a just one. The world +would have been like a cage-full of wild beasts, and mankind would have +soon perished in constant internecine war. + +It is indeed one of the plainest facts of human nature that such a view +of mankind is an untrue one. Jealousy, envy, animosities and selfishness +no doubt play a great part in life and disguise themselves under many +specious forms, and the cynical moralist was not wholly wrong when he +declared that 'Virtue would not go so far if Vanity did not keep her +company,' and that not only our crimes but even many of what are deemed +our best acts may be traced to selfish motives. But he must have had a +strangely unfortunate experience of the world who does not recognise the +enormous exaggeration of the pictures of human nature that are conveyed +in some of the maxims of La Rochefoucauld and Schopenhauer. They tell us +that friendship is a mere exchange of interests in which each man only +seeks to gain something from the other; that most women are only pure +because they are untempted and regret that the temptation does not come; +that if we acknowledge some faults it is in order to persuade ourselves +that we have no greater ones, or in order, by our confession, to regain +the good opinion of our neighbours; that if we praise another it is +merely that we may ourselves in turn be praised; that the tears we shed +over a deathbed, if they are not hypocritical tears intended only to +impress our neighbours, are only due to our conviction that we have +ourselves lost a source of pleasure or of gain; that envy so +predominates in the world that it is only men of inferior intellect or +women of inferior beauty who are sincerely liked by those about them; +that all virtue is an egotistic calculation, conscious or unconscious. + +Such views are at least as far removed from truth as the roseate +pictures of Rousseau and St. Pierre. No one can look with an unjaundiced +eye upon the world without perceiving the enormous amount of +disinterested, self-sacrificing benevolence that pervades it; the +countless lives that are spent not only harmlessly and inoffensively but +also in the constant discharge of duties; in constant and often painful +labour for the good of others. The better section of the Utilitarian +school has fully recognised the truth that human nature is so +constituted that a great proportion of its enjoyment depends on +sympathy; or, in other words, on the power we possess of entering into +and sharing the happiness of others. The spectacle of suffering +naturally elicits compassion. Kindness naturally produces gratitude. The +sympathies of men naturally move on the side of the good rather than of +the bad. This is true not only of the things that immediately concern +us, but also in the perfectly disinterested judgments we form of the +events of history or of the characters in fiction and poetry. Great +exhibitions of heroism and self-sacrifice touch a genuine chord of +enthusiasm. The affections of the domestic circle are the rule and not +the exception; patriotism can elicit great outbursts of purely unselfish +generosity and induce multitudes to risk or sacrifice their lives for +causes which are quite other than their own selfish interests. Human +nature indeed has its moral as well as its physical needs, and naturally +and instinctively seeks some object of interest and enthusiasm outside +itself. + +If we look again into the vice and sin that undoubtedly disfigure the +world we shall find much reason to believe that what is exceptional in +human nature is not the evil tendency but the restraining conscience, +and that it is chiefly the weakness of the distinctively human quality +that is the origin of the evil. It is impossible indeed, with the +knowledge we now possess, to deny to animals some measure both of reason +and of the moral sense. In addition to the higher instincts of parental +affection and devotion which are so clearly developed we find among some +animals undoubted signs of remorse, gratitude, affection, +self-sacrifice. Even the point of honour which attaches shame to some +things and pride to others may be clearly distinguished. No one who has +watched the more intelligent dog can question this, and many will +maintain that in some animals, though both good and bad qualities are +less widely developed than in man, the proportion of the good to the +evil is more favourable in the animal than in the man. At the same time +in the animal world desire is usually followed without any other +restraint than fear, while in man it is largely though no doubt very +imperfectly limited by moral self-control. Most crimes spring not from +anything wrong in the original and primal desire but from the +imperfection of this higher, distinct or superadded element in our +nature. The crimes of dishonesty and envy, when duly analysed, have at +their basis simply a desire for the desirable--a natural and inevitable +feeling. What is absent is the restraint which makes men refrain from +taking or trying to take desirable things that belong to another. +Sensual faults spring from a perfectly natural impulse, but the +restraint which confines the action of that impulse to defined +circumstances is wanting. Much, too, of the insensibility and hardness +of the world is due to a simple want of imagination which prevents us +from adequately realising the sufferings of others. The predatory, +envious and ferocious feelings that disturb mankind operate unrestrained +through the animal world, though man's superior intelligence gives his +desires a special character and a greatly increased scope, and +introduces them into spheres inconceivable to the animal. Immoderate and +uncontrolled desires are the root of most human crimes, but at the same +time the self-restraint that limits desire, or self-seeking, by the +rights of others, seems to be mainly, though not wholly, the prerogative +of man. + +Considerations of this kind are sufficient to remedy the extreme +exaggeration of human corruption that may often be heard, but they are +not inconsistent with the truth that human nature is so far depraved +that it can never be safely left to develop unimpeded without strong +legal and social restraint. It is not necessary to seek examples of its +depravity within the precincts of a prison or in the many instances +that may be found outside the criminal population of morbid moral taints +which are often as clearly marked as physical disease. On a large scale +and in the actions of great bodies of men the melancholy truth is +abundantly displayed. On the whole Christianity has been far more +successful in influencing individuals than societies. The mere spectacle +of a battle-field with the appalling mass of hideous suffering +deliberately and ingeniously inflicted by man upon man should be +sufficient to scatter all idyllic pictures of human nature. It was once +the custom of a large school of writers to attribute unjust wars solely +to the rulers of the world, who for their own selfish ambitions +remorselessly sacrificed the lives of tens of thousands of their +subjects. Their guilt has been very great, but they would never have +pursued the course of ambitious conquest if the applause of nations had +not followed and encouraged them, and there are no signs that democracy, +which has enthroned the masses, has any real tendency to diminish war. + +In modern times the danger of war lies less in the intrigues of +statesmen than in deeply seated international jealousies and +antipathies; in sudden, volcanic outbursts of popular passion. After +eighteen hundred years' profession of the creed of peace, Christendom is +an armed camp. Never, or hardly ever, in times of peace had the mere +preparations of war absorbed so large a proportion of its population and +resources, and very seldom has so large an amount of its ability been +mainly employed in inventing and in perfecting instruments of +destruction. Those who will look on the world without illusion will be +compelled to admit that the chief guarantees for its peace are to be +found much less in moral than in purely selfish motives. The financial +embarrassments of the great nations; their profound distrust of one +another; the vast cost of modern war; the gigantic commercial disasters +it inevitably entails; the extreme uncertainty of its issue; the utter +ruin that may follow defeat--these are the real influences that restrain +the tiger passions and the avaricious cravings of mankind. It is also +one of the advantages that accompany the many evils of universal +service, that great citizen armies who in time of war are drawn from +their homes, their families, and their peaceful occupations have not the +same thirst for battle that grows up among purely professional soldiers, +voluntarily enlisted and making a military life their whole career. Yet, +in spite of all this, what trust could be placed in the forbearance of +Christian nations if the path of aggression was at once easy, lucrative +and safe? The judgments of nations in dealing with the aggressions of +their neighbours are, it is true, very different from those which they +form of aggressions by their own statesmen or for their own benefit. But +no great nation is blameless, and there is probably no nation that could +not speedily catch the infection of the warlike spirit if a conqueror +and a few splendid victories obscured, as they nearly always do, the +moral issues of the contest. + +War, it is true, is not always or wholly evil. Sometimes it is +justifiable and necessary. Sometimes it is professedly and in part +really due to some strong wave of philanthropic feeling produced by +great acts of wrong, though of all forms of philanthropy it is that +which most naturally defeats itself. Even when unjustifiable, it calls +into action splendid qualities of courage, self-sacrifice, and +endurance which cast a dazzling and deceptive glamour over its horrors +and its criminality. It appeals too, beyond all other things, to that +craving for excitement, adventure, and danger which is an essential and +imperious element in human nature, and which, while it is in itself +neither a virtue nor a vice, blends powerfully with some of the best as +well as with some of the worst actions of mankind. It is indeed a +strange thing to observe how many men in every age have been ready to +risk or sacrifice their lives for causes which they have never clearly +understood and which they would find it difficult in plain words to +describe. + +But the amount of pure and almost spontaneous malevolence in the world +is probably far greater than we at first imagine. In public life the +workings of this side of human nature are at once disclosed and +magnified, like the figures thrown by a magic lantern on a screen, to a +scale which it is impossible to overlook. No one, for example, can study +the anonymous press without perceiving how large a part of it is +employed systematically, persistently and deliberately in fostering +class, or race, or international hatreds, and often in circulating +falsehoods to attain this end. Many newspapers notoriously depend for +their existence on such appeals, and more than any other instruments +they inflame and perpetuate those permanent animosities which most +endanger the peace of mankind. The fact that such newspapers are +becoming in many countries the main and almost exclusive reading of the +poor forms the most serious deduction from the value of popular +education. How many books have attained popularity, how many seats in +Parliament have been won, how many posts of influence and profit have +been attained, how many party victories have been achieved, by appealing +to such passions! Often they disguise themselves under the lofty names +of patriotism and nationality, and men whose whole lives have been spent +in sowing class hatreds and dividing kindred nations may be found +masquerading under the name of patriots, and have played no small part +on the stage of politics. The deep-seated sedition, the fierce class and +national hatreds that run through European life would have a very +different intensity from what they now unfortunately have if they had +not been artificially stimulated and fostered through purely selfish +motives by demagogues, political adventurers and public writers. + +Some of the very worst acts of which man can be guilty are acts which +are commonly untouched by law and only faintly censured by opinion. +Political crimes which a false and sickly sentiment so readily condones +are conspicuous among them. Men who have been gambling for wealth and +power with the lives and fortunes of multitudes; men who for their own +personal ambition are prepared to sacrifice the most vital interests of +their country; men who in time of great national danger and excitement +deliberately launch falsehood after falsehood in the public press in the +well-founded conviction that they will do their evil work before they +can be contradicted, may be met shameless, and almost uncensured, in +Parliaments and drawing-rooms. The amount of false statement in the +world which cannot be attributed to mere carelessness, inaccuracy, or +exaggeration, but which is plainly both deliberate and malevolent, can +hardly be overrated. Sometimes it is due to a mere desire to create a +lucrative sensation, or to gratify a personal dislike, or even to an +unprovoked malevolence which takes pleasure in inflicting pain. + +Very often it is intended for purposes of stockjobbing. The financial +world is percolated with it. It is the common method of raising or +depreciating securities, attracting investors, preying upon the ignorant +and credulous, and enabling dishonest men to rise rapidly to fortune. +When the prospect of speedy wealth is in sight, there are always numbers +who are perfectly prepared to pursue courses involving the utter ruin of +multitudes, endangering the most serious international interests, +perhaps bringing down upon the world all the calamities of war. It is no +doubt true that such men are only a minority, though it is less certain +that they would be a minority if the opportunity of obtaining sudden +riches by immoral means was open to all, and it is no small minority who +are accustomed to condone these crimes when they have succeeded. It is +much to be questioned whether the greatest criminals are to be found +within the walls of prisons. Dishonesty on a small scale nearly always +finds its punishment. Dishonesty on a gigantic scale continually +escapes. The pickpocket and the burglar seldom fail to meet with their +merited punishment, but in the management of companies, in the great +fields of industrial enterprise and speculation, gigantic fortunes are +acquired by the ruin of multitudes and by methods which, though they +evade legal penalties, are essentially fraudulent. In the majority of +cases these crimes are perpetrated by educated men who are in possession +of all the necessaries, of most of the comforts, and of many of the +luxuries of life, and some of the worst of them are powerfully favoured +by the conditions of modern civilisation. There is no greater scandal or +moral evil in our time than the readiness with which public opinion +excuses them, and the influence and social position it accords to mere +wealth, even when it has been acquired by notorious dishonesty or when +it is expended with absolute selfishness or in ways that are positively +demoralising. In many respects the moral progress of mankind seems to me +incontestable, but it is extremely doubtful whether in this respect +social morality, especially in England and America, has not seriously +retrograded. + +In truth, while it is a gross libel upon human nature to deny the vast +amount of genuine kindness, self-sacrifice and even heroism that exists +in the world, it is equally idle to deny the deplorable weakness of +self-restraint, the great force and the widespread influence of purely +evil passions in the affairs of men. The distrust of human character +which the experience of life tends to produce is one great cause of the +Conservatism which so commonly strengthens with age. It is more and more +felt that all the restraints of law, custom, and religion are essential +to hold together in peaceful co-operation the elements of society, and +men learn to look with increasing tolerance on both institutions and +opinions which cannot stand the test of pure reason and may be largely +mixed with delusions if only they deepen the better habits and give an +additional strength to moral restraints. They learn also to appreciate +the danger of pitching their ideals too high, and endeavouring to +enforce lines of conduct greatly above the average level of human +goodness. Such attempts, when they take the form of coercive action, +seldom fail to produce a recoil which is very detrimental to morals. In +this, as in all other spheres, the importance of compromise in practical +life is one of the great lessons which experience teaches. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +The phrase Moral Compromise has an evil sound, and it opens out +questions of practical ethics which are very difficult and very +dangerous, but they are questions with which, consciously or +unconsciously, every one is obliged to deal. The contrasts between the +rigidity of theological formulae and actual life are on this subject very +great, though in practice, and by the many ingenious subtleties that +constitute the science of casuistry, many theologians have attempted to +evade them. A striking passage from the pen of Cardinal Newman will +bring these contrasts into the clearest light. 'The Church holds,' he +writes, 'that it were better for sun and moon to drop from heaven, for +the earth to fail, and for all the many millions who are upon it to die +of starvation in extremest agony, so far as temporal affliction goes, +than that one soul, I will not say should be lost, but should commit one +single venial sin, should tell one wilful untruth, though it harmed no +one, or steal one poor farthing without excuse.'[24] + +It is certainly no exaggeration to say that such a doctrine would lead +to consequences absolutely incompatible with any life outside a +hermitage or a monastery. It would strike at the root of all +civilisation, and although many may be prepared to give it their formal +assent, no human being actually believes it with the kind of belief +that becomes a guiding influence in life. I have dwelt on this subject +in another book, and may here repeat a few lines which I then wrote. If +'an undoubted sin, even the most trivial, is a thing in its essence and +its consequences so unspeakably dreadful that rather than it should be +committed it would be better that any amount of calamity which did not +bring with it sin should be endured, even that the whole human race +should perish in agonies, it is manifest that the supreme object of +humanity should be sinlessness, and it is equally manifest that the +means to this end is the absolute suppression of the desires. To expand +the circle of wants is necessarily to multiply temptations and therefore +to increase the number of sins.' No material and intellectual +advantages, no increase of human happiness, no mitigation of the +suffering or dreariness of human life can, according to this theory, be +other than an evil if it adds even in the smallest degree or in the most +incidental manner to the sins that are committed. 'A sovereign, when +calculating the consequences of a war, should reflect that a single sin +occasioned by that war, a single blasphemy of a wounded soldier, the +robbery of a single hen-coop, the violation of the purity of a single +woman is a greater calamity than the ruin of the entire commerce of his +nation, the loss of her most precious provinces, the destruction of all +her power. He must believe that the evil of the increase of unchastity +which invariably results from the formation of an army is an +immeasurably greater calamity than any national or political disasters +that army can possibly avert. He must believe that the most fearful +plagues and famines that desolate his land should be regarded as a +matter of rejoicing if they have but the feeblest and most transient +influence in repressing vice. He must believe that if the agglomeration +of his people in great cities adds but one to the number of their sins, +no possible intellectual or material advantages can prevent the +construction of cities being a fearful calamity. According to this +principle every elaboration of life, every amusement that brings +multitudes together, almost every art, every accession of wealth, that +awakens or stimulates desires is an evil, for all these become the +sources of some sins, and their advantages are for the most part purely +terrestrial.' + +Considerations of this kind, if duly realised, bring out clearly the +insincerity and the unreality of much of our professed belief. Hardly +any sane man would desire to suppress Bank Holidays simply because they +are the occasion of a considerable number of cases of drunkenness which +would not otherwise have taken place. No humane legislator would +hesitate to suppress them if they produced an equal number of deaths or +other great physical calamities. This manner of measuring the relative +importance of things is not incompatible with a general acknowledgment +of the fact that there are many amusements which produce an amount of +moral evil that overbalances their advantages as sources of pleasure, or +of the great truth that the moral is the higher and ought to be the +ruling part of our being. But the realities of life cannot be measured +by rigid theological formulae. Life is a scene in which different kinds +of interest not only blend but also modify and in some degree +counterbalance one another, and it can only be carried on by constant +compromises in which the lines of definition are seldom very clearly +marked, and in which even the highest interest must not altogether +absorb or override the others. We have to deal with good principles that +cannot be pushed to their full logical results; with varying standards +which cannot be brought under inflexible law. + +Take, for example, the many untruths which the conventional courtesies +of Society prescribe. Some of these are so purely matter of phraseology +that they deceive no one. Others chiefly serve the purpose of courteous +concealment, as when they enable us to refuse a request or to decline an +invitation or a visit without disclosing whether disinclination or +inability is the cause. Then there are falsehoods for useful purposes. +Few men would shrink from a falsehood which was the only means of saving +a patient from a shock which would probably produce his death. No one, I +suppose, would hesitate to deceive a criminal if by no other means he +could prevent him from accomplishing a crime. There are also cases of +the suppression of what we believe to be true, and of tacit or open +acquiescence in what we believe to be false, when a full and truthful +disclosure of our own beliefs might destroy the happiness of others, or +subvert beliefs which are plainly necessary for their moral well-being. +Cases of this kind will continually occur in life, and a good man who +deals with each case as it arises will probably find no great difficulty +in steering his course. But the vague and fluctuating lines of moral +compromise cannot without grave moral danger be reduced to fixed rules +to be carried out to their full logical consequences. The immortal pages +of Pascal are sufficient to show to what extremes of immorality the +doctrine that the end justifies the means has been pushed by the +casuists of the Church of which Cardinal Newman was so great an +ornament. + +A large and difficult field of moral compromise is opened out in the +case of war, which necessarily involves a complete suspension of great +portions of the moral law. This is not merely the case in unjust wars; +it applies also, though in a less degree, to those which are most +necessary and most righteous. War is not, and never can be, a mere +passionless discharge of a painful duty. It is in its essence, and it is +a main condition of its success, to kindle into fierce exercise among +great masses of men the destructive and combative passions--passions as +fierce and as malevolent as that with which the hound hunts the fox to +its death or the tiger springs upon its prey. Destruction is one of its +chief ends. Deception is one of its chief means, and one of the great +arts of skilful generalship is to deceive in order to destroy. Whatever +other elements may mingle with and dignify war, this at least is never +absent; and however reluctantly men may enter into war, however +conscientiously they may endeavour to avoid it, they must know that when +the scene of carnage has once opened these things must be not only +accepted and condoned, but stimulated, encouraged and applauded. It +would be difficult to conceive a disposition more remote from the morals +of ordinary life, not to speak of Christian ideals, than that with which +the soldiers most animated with the fire and passion that lead to +victory rush forward to bayonet the foe. + +War indeed, which is absolutely indispensable in our present stage of +civilisation, has its own morals which are very different from those of +peaceful life. Yet there are few fields in which, through the stress of +moral motives, greater changes have been effected. In the early stages +of human history it was simply a question of power. There was no +distinction between piracy and regular war, and incursions into a +neighbouring State without provocation and with the sole purpose of +plunder brought with them no moral blame. To carry the inhabitants of a +conquered country into slavery; to slaughter the whole population of a +besieged town; to destroy over vast tracts every town, village and +house, and to put to death every prisoner, were among the ordinary +incidents of war. These things were done without reproach in the best +periods of Greek and Roman civilisation. In many cases neither age nor +sex was spared![25] In Rome the conquered general was strangled or +starved to death in the Mamertine prison. Tens of thousands of captives +were condemned to perish in gladiatorial shows. Julius Caesar, whose +clemency has been so greatly extolled, 'executed the whole senate of the +Veneti; permitted a massacre of the Usipetes and Tencteri; sold as +slaves 40,000 natives of Genabum; and cut off the right hands of all the +brave men whose only crime was that they held to the last against him +their town of Uxellodunum.'[26] No slaughter in history is more terrible +than that which took place at Jerusalem under the general who was +called 'the delight of the human race,' and when the last spasm of +resistance had ceased, Titus sent Jewish captives, both male and female, +by thousands to the provincial amphitheatres to be devoured by wild +beasts or slaughtered as gladiators. + +Yet from a very early period lines were drawn forming a clear though +somewhat arbitrary code of military morals. In Greece a broad +distinction was made between wars with Greek States and with Barbarians, +the latter being regarded as almost outside the pale of moral +consideration. It is a distinction which in reality was not very widely +different from that which Christian nations have in practice continually +made between wars within the borders of Christendom, and wars with +savage or pagan nations. Greek, and perhaps still more Roman, moralists +have written much on the just causes of war. Many of them condemn all +unjust, aggressive, or even unnecessary wars. Some of them insist on the +duty of States always endeavouring by conferences, or even by +arbitration, to avert war, and although these precepts, like the +corresponding precepts of Christian divines, were often violated, they +were certainly not without some influence on affairs. It is probably not +too much to say that in this respect Roman wars do not compare +unfavourably with those of Christian periods. It is remarkable how large +a part of the best Christian works on the ethics of war is based on the +precepts of pagan moralists, and although in antiquity as in modern +times the real cause of war was often very different from the pretexts, +the sense of justice in war was as clearly marked in Roman as in most +Christian periods.[27] + +Great stress was laid upon the duty of a formal declaration of war +preceding hostilities. Polybius mentions the reprobation that was +attached in Greece to the AEtolians for having neglected this custom. It +was universal in Roman times, and during the mediaeval period the custom +of sending a challenge to the hostile power was carefully observed. In +modern times formal declaration of war has fallen greatly into +desuetude. The hostilities between England and Spain under Elizabeth, +and the invasion of Germany by Gustavus Adolphus, were begun without any +such declaration, and there have been numerous instances in later +times.[28] + +The treatment of prisoners has been profoundly modified. Quarter, it is +true, has been very often refused in modern wars to rebels, to soldiers +in mutiny, to revolted slaves, to savages who themselves give no +quarter. It has been often--perhaps generally--refused to irregular +soldiers like the French Francs-tireurs in the War of 1870, who without +uniforms endeavoured to defend their homes against invasion. It was long +refused to soldiers who, having rejected terms of surrender, continued +to defend an indefensible place, but this severity during the last three +centuries has been generally condemned. But, on the whole, the treatment +of the conquered soldier has steadily improved. At one time he was +killed. At another he was preserved as a slave. Then he was permitted to +free himself by payment of a ransom; now he is simply kept in custody +till he is exchanged or released on parole, or till the termination of +the war. In the latter half of the present century many elaborate and +beneficent regulations for the preservation of hospitals and the good +treatment of the wounded have been sanctioned by international +agreement. The distinction between the civil population and combatants +has been increasingly observed. As a general rule non-combatants, if +they do not obstruct the enemy, are subjected to no further injury than +that of paying war contributions and in other ways providing for the +subsistence of the invaders. The wanton destruction of private property +has been more and more avoided. Such an act as the devastation of the +Palatinate under Louis XIV. would now in a European war be universally +condemned, though the wholesale destruction of villages in our own +Indian frontier wars and the methods employed on both sides in the civil +war in Cuba appear to have borne much resemblance to it. In the +treatment of merchants the rule of reciprocity which was laid down in +Magna Charta is largely observed, and the Conference of Brussels in 1874 +pronounced it to be contrary to the laws of war to bombard an +unfortified town. The great Civil War in America probably contributed +not a little to raise the standard of humanity in war; for while few +long wars have been fought with such determination or at the cost of so +many lives, very few have been conducted with such a scrupulous +abstinence from acts of wanton barbarity. + +Many restrictive rules also have been accepted tending in a small degree +to mitigate the actual operations of war, and they have had some real +influence in this direction, though it is not possible to justify the +military code on any clear principle either of ethics or logic. +Assassination and the encouragement of assassination; the use of poison +or poisoned weapons; the violation of parole; the deceptive use of a +flag of truce or of the red cross; the slaughter of the wounded; the +infringement of terms of surrender or of other distinct agreements, are +absolutely forbidden, and in 1868 the Representatives of the European +Powers assembled at St. Petersburg agreed to abolish the use in war of +explosive bullets below the weight of 14 ounces, and to forbid the +propagation in an enemy's country of contagious disease as an instrument +of war. It laid down the general principle that the object of war is +confined to disabling the enemy, and that weapons calculated to inflict +unnecessary suffering, beyond what is required for attaining that +object, should be prohibited. At the same time explosive shells, +concealed mines, torpedoes and ambuscades lie fully within the permitted +agencies of war. Starvation may be employed, and the cutting off of the +supply of water, or the destruction of that supply by mixing with it +something not absolutely poisonous which renders it undrinkable. It is +allowable to deceive an enemy by fabricated despatches purporting to +come from his own side; by tampering with telegraph messages; by +spreading false intelligence in newspapers; by sending pretended spies +and deserters to give him untrue reports of the numbers or movements of +the troops; by employing false signals to lure him into an ambuscade. On +the use of the flag and uniform of an enemy for purposes of deception +there has been some controversy, but it is supported by high military +authority.[29] The use of spies is fully authorised, but the spy, if +discovered, is excluded from the rights of war and liable to an +ignominious death. + +Apart from the questions I have discussed there is another class of +questions connected with war which present great difficulty. It is the +right of men to abdicate their private judgment by entering into the +military profession. In small nations this question is not of much +importance, for in them wars are of very rare occurrence and are usually +for self-defence. In a great empire it is wholly different. Hardly any +one will be so confident of the virtue of his rulers as to believe that +every war which his country wages in every part of its dominions, with +uncivilised as well as civilised populations, is just and necessary, and +it is certainly _prima facie_ not in accordance with an ideal morality +that men should bind themselves absolutely for life or for a term of +years to kill without question, at the command of their superiors, those +who have personally done them no wrong. Yet this unquestioning obedience +is the very essence of military discipline, and without it the +efficiency of armies and the safety of nations would be hopelessly +destroyed. It is necessary to the great interests of society, and +therefore it is maintained, strengthened by the obligation of an oath +and still more efficaciously by a code of honour which is one of the +strongest binding influences by which men can be governed. + +It is not, however, altogether absolute, and a variety of distinctions +and compromises have been made. There is a difference between the man +who enlists in the army of his own country and a man who enlists in +foreign service either permanently or for the duration of a single war. +If a man unnecessarily takes an active part in a struggle between two +countries other than his own, it may at least be demanded that he should +be actuated, not by a mere spirit of adventure or personal ambition, but +by a strong and reasoned conviction that the cause which he is +supporting is a righteous one. The conduct of a man who enlists in a +foreign army which may possibly be used against his own country, and who +at least binds himself to obey absolutely chiefs who have no natural +authority over him, has been much condemned, but even here special +circumstances must be taken into account. Few persons I suppose would +seriously blame the Irish Catholics of the eighteenth century who filled +the armies of France, Austria, Spain and Naples at a time when +disqualifying laws excluded them, on account of their religion, from the +British army and from almost every path of ambition at home. There is +also perhaps some distinction between the position of a soldier who is +obliged to serve, and a soldier in a country where enlisting is +voluntary, and also between the position of an officer who can throw up +his commission without infringing the law, and a private who cannot +abandon his flag without committing a grave legal offence. At the +beginning of the war of the American Revolution some English officers +left the army rather than serve in a cause which they believed to be +unrighteous. It was in their full power to do so, but probably none of +them would have desired that private soldiers who had no legal choice in +the matter should have followed their example and become deserters from +the ranks. + +There are, however, extreme cases in which the violation of the military +oath and disobedience to military discipline are justified. More than +once in French history an usurper or his agent has ordered soldiers to +coerce or fire upon the representatives of the nation. In such cases it +has been said 'the conscience of the soldier is the liberty of the +people,' and the refusal of private soldiers to obey a plainly illegal +order will be generally though not universally applauded. In all such +cases, however, there is much obscurity and inconsistency of judgment. +The rule that the moral responsibility falls exclusively on the person +who gives the order, and that the private has no voice or +responsibility, will even here be maintained by some. Ought a private +soldier to have refused to take part in such an execution as that of the +Duc d'Enghien, or in the _Coup d'Etat_ of Napoleon III.? Ought he to +refuse to fire on a mob if he doubts the legality of the order of his +superior officer? In such cases there is sometimes a direct conflict +between the civil and the military law, and there have been instances in +which a soldier might be punishable before the first for acts which were +absolutely enforced by the second.[30] + +Perhaps the strongest case of justifiable disobedience that can be +alleged is when a soldier is ordered to do something which involves +apostasy from his faith, though even here it would be difficult to show, +in the light of pure reason, that this is a graver thing than to kill +innocent men in an unrighteous cause. In the Early Church there were +some soldier martyrs who suffered death because they believed it +inconsistent with their faith to bear arms, or because they were asked +to do some acts which savoured of idolatry. The story of the Thebaean +legion which was said to have been martyred under Diocletian rests on no +trustworthy authority, but it illustrates the feeling of the Church on +the subject. Josephus tells how Jewish soldiers refused in spite of all +punishments to bring earth with the other soldiers for the reparation of +the Temple of Belus at Babylon. Conflicts between military duty and +religious duty must have not unfrequently arisen during the religious +wars of the sixteenth century, and in our own century and in our own +army there have been instances of soldiers refusing through religious +motives to escort or protect idolatrous processions in India, or to +present arms in Catholic countries when the Host was passing. Quaker +opinions about war are absolutely inconsistent with the compulsory +service which prevails in nearly all European countries, and religious +scruples about conscription have been among the motives that have +brought the Russian Raskolniks into collision with the civil power. + +One of the most serious instances of the collision of duties in our time +is furnished by the great Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. From the days of Clive, +Sepoy soldiers have served under the British flag with an admirable +fidelity, and the Mutiny of Vellore in 1806, which was the one +exception, was due, like that of 1857, to a belief that the British +Government were interfering with their faith. Few things in the history +of the great Mutiny are so touching as the profound belief of the +English commanders of the Sepoy regiments in the unalterable loyalty of +their soldiers. Many of them lost their lives through this belief, +refusing even to the last moment and in spite of all evidence to abandon +it. They were deceived, and, in the fierce outburst of indignation that +followed, the conduct of the Sepoy soldiers was branded as the blackest +and the most unprovoked treachery. + +Yet assuredly no charge was less true. Agitators for their own selfish +purposes had indeed acted upon the troops, but recent researches have +fully proved that the real as well as the ostensible cause of the Mutiny +was the greased cartridges. It was believed that the cartridges which +had been recently issued for the Sepoy regiments were smeared with a +mixture of cow's fat and pig's fat, one of these ingredients being +utterly impure in the eyes of the Hindoo, and the other in the eyes of +the Mussulman. To bite these cartridges would destroy the caste of the +Hindoo and carry with it the loss of everything that was most dear and +most sacred to him both in this world and in the next. In the eyes both +of the Moslem and the Hindoo it was the gravest and the most irreparable +of crimes, destroying all hopes in a future world, and yet this crime, +in their belief, was imposed upon them as a matter of military duty by +their officers. It was as if the Puritan soldiers of the seventeenth +century had been ordered by their commanders to abjure their hopes of +salvation and to repudiate and insult the Christian faith. + +It is true that the existence of these obnoxious ingredients in the new +cartridges was solemnly denied, but the sincerity of the Sepoy belief is +incontestable, and General Anson, the commander-in-chief, having +examined the cartridges, was compelled to admit that it was very +plausible.[31] 'I am not so much surprised,' he wrote to Lord Canning, +'at their objections to the cartridges, having seen them. I had no idea +they contained, or rather are smeared with such a quantity of grease, +which looks exactly like fat. After ramming down the ball, the muzzle of +the musket is covered with it.' + +Unfortunately this is not a complete statement of the case. It is a +shameful and terrible truth that, as far as the fact was concerned, the +Sepoys were perfectly right in their belief. In the words of Lord +Roberts, 'The recent researches of Mr. Forrest in the records of the +Government of India prove that the lubricating mixture used in preparing +the cartridges was actually composed of the objectionable ingredients, +cow's fat and lard, and that incredible disregard of the soldiers' +religious prejudices was displayed in the manufacture of these +cartridges.'[32] This was certainly not due, as the Sepoys imagined, to +any desire on the part of the British authorities to destroy caste or to +prepare the way for the conversion of the Sepoys to Christianity. It was +simply a glaring instance of the indifference, ignorance and incapacity +too often shown by British administrators in dealing with beliefs and +types of character wholly unlike their own. They were unable to realise +that a belief which seemed to them so childish could have any depth, and +they accordingly produced a Mutiny that for a time shook the English +power in India to its very foundation. + +The horrors of Cawnpore--which were due to a single man--soon took away +from the British public all power of sanely judging the conflict, and a +struggle in which no quarter was given was naturally marked by extreme +savageness; but in looking back upon it, English writers must +acknowledge with humiliation that, if mutiny is ever justifiable, no +stronger justification could be given than that of the Sepoy troops. + +Many of my readers will remember an exquisite little poem called 'The +Forced Recruit,' in which Mrs. Browning has described a young Venetian +soldier who was forced by the conscription to serve against his +fellow-countrymen in the Austrian army at Solferino, and who advanced +cheerfully to die by the Italian guns, holding a musket that had never +been loaded in his hand. Such a figure, such a violation of military +law, will claim the sympathy of all, but a very different judgment +should be passed upon those who, having voluntarily entered an army, +betray their trust and their oath in the name of patriotism. In the +Fenian movement in Ireland, one of the chief objects of the conspirators +was to corrupt the Irish soldiers and break down that high sense of +military honour for which in all times and in many armies the Irish +people have been conspicuous. 'The epidemic' [of disaffection], boasts +a writer who was much mixed in the conspiracies of those times, 'was not +an affair of individuals, but of companies and of whole regiments. To +attempt to impeach all the military Fenians before courts martial would +have been to throw England into a panic, if not to precipitate an +appalling mutiny and invite foreign invasion.'[33] + +I do not quote these words as a true statement. They are, I believe, a +gross exaggeration and a gross calumny on the Irish soldiers, nor do I +doubt that most, if not all, the soldiers who may have been induced over +a glass of whiskey, or through the persuasions of some cunning agitator, +to take the Fenian oath would, if an actual conflict had arisen, have +proved perfectly faithful soldiers of the Queen. The perversion of +morals, however, which looks on such violations of military duty as +praiseworthy, has not been confined to writers of the stamp of Mr. +O'Brien. A striking instance of it is furnished by a recent American +biography. Among the early Fenian conspirators was a young man named +John Boyle O'Reilly. He was a genuine enthusiast, with a real vein of +literary talent; in the closing years of his life he won the affection +and admiration of very honourable men, and I should certainly have no +wish to look too harshly on youthful errors which were the result of a +misguided enthusiasm if they had been acknowledged as such. As a matter +of fact, however, he began his career by an act which, according to +every sound principle of morality, religion, and secular honour, was in +the highest degree culpable. Being a sworn Fenian, he entered a regiment +of hussars, assumed the uniform of the Queen, and took the oath of +allegiance for the express purpose of betraying his trust and seducing +the soldiers of his regiment. He was detected and condemned to penal +servitude, and he at last escaped to America, where he took an active +part in the Fenian movement. After his death his biography was written +in a strain of unqualified eulogy, but the biographer has honestly and +fully disclosed the facts which I have related. This book has an +introduction written by Cardinal Gibbons, one of the most prominent +Catholic divines in the United States. The reader may be curious to see +how the act of aggravated treachery and perjury which it revealed was +judged by a personage who occupies all but the highest position in a +Church which professes to be the supreme and inspired teacher of morals. +Not a word in this Introduction implies that O'Reilly had done any act +for which he should be ashamed. He is described as 'a great and good +man,' and the only allusion to his crime is in the following terms: 'In +youth his heart agonises over that saddest and strangest romance in all +history--the wrongs and woes of his motherland--that Niobe of the +Nations. In manhood, because he dared to wish her free, he finds himself +a doomed felon, an exiled convict, in what he calls himself the Nether +World.... The Divine faith implanted in his soul in childhood flourished +there undyingly, pervaded his whole being with its blessed influences, +furnished his noblest ideals of thought and conduct.... The country of +his adoption vies with the land of his birth in testifying to the +uprightness of his life.... With all these voices I blend my own, and in +their name I say that the world is brighter for having possessed +him.'[34] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[24] Newman's _Anglican Difficulties_, p. 190. + +[25] See Grotius, _de Jure_, book iii. ch. iv. On the Jewish notions on +this subject, see Deut. ii. 34; vii. 2, 16; xx. 10-16; Psalm cxxxvii. 9; +1 Sam. xv. 3. I have collected some additional facts on this subject in +my _History of European Morals_. + +[26] Tyrrell and Purser's _Correspondence of Cicero_, vol. v. p. xlvii. + +[27] See Grotius, _de Jure Belli et Pacis_. + +[28] Much information on this subject will be found in a remarkable +pamphlet (said to have been corrected by Pitt) called 'An Enquiry into +the Manner in which the different wars in Europe have commenced during +the last two centuries, by the Author of the History and Foundation of +the Law of Nations in Europe' (1805). + +[29] See Tovey's _Martial Law and the Custom of War_, part 2, pp. 13, +29. A striking instance of the deceptive use of a flag occurred in 1781, +when the English, having captured St. Eustatius from the Dutch, allowed +the Dutch flag still to float over its harbour in order that Dutch, +French, Spanish and American ships which were ignorant of the capture +might be decoyed into the harbour and seized as prizes. Some writers on +military law maintain that this was within the rights of war. + +[30] See Fitzjames Stephen's _History of the Criminal Law_, i. 205. + +[31] Lord Roberts' _Forty-one Years in India_, i. 94. + +[32] _Ibid._ p. 431. + +[33] _Contemporary Review_, May 1897. Article by William O'Brien, 'Was +Fenianism ever Formidable?' + +[34] Roche's _Life of John Boyle O'Reilly_, with introduction by +Cardinal Gibbons. Since the publication of this book Cardinal Gibbons +has written a letter to the _Tablet_ (Dec. 2, 1899), in which he says: +'I feel it due to myself and the interests of truth to declare that till +I read Mr. Lecky's criticism I did not know that Mr. O'Reilly had ever +been a Fenian or a British soldier, or that he had tried to seduce other +soldiers from their allegiance. In fact, up to this moment, I have never +read a line of the biography for which I wrote the introduction.... My +only acquaintance with Mr. O'Reilly's history before he came to America +was the vague information I had that, for some political offence, the +exact nature of which I did not learn, he had been exiled from his +native land to a penal colony, from which he afterwards escaped.' + +I gladly accept this assurance of Cardinal Gibbons, though I am +surprised that he should not have even glanced at the book which he +introduced, and that he should have been absolutely ignorant of the most +conspicuous event of the life which, from early youth, he held up to +unqualified admiration. I regret, too, that he has not taken the +opportunity of this letter to reprobate a form of moral perversion which +is widely spread among his Irish co-religionists, and which his own +words are only too likely to strengthen. It is but a short time since an +Irish Nationalist Member of Parliament, being accused of once having +served the Queen as a Volunteer, justified himself by saying that he had +only worn the coat which was worn by Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Boyle +O'Reilly; while another Irish Nationalist Member of Parliament, at a +public meeting in Dublin, and amid the cheers of his audience, expressed +his hope that in the South African war the Irish soldiers under the +British flag would fire on the English instead of on the Boers. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +The foregoing chapter will have shown sufficiently how largely in one +great and necessary profession the element of moral compromise must +enter, and will show the nature of some of the moral difficulties that +attend it. We find illustrations of much the same kind in the profession +of an advocate. In the interests of the proper administration of justice +it is of the utmost importance that every cause, however defective, and +every criminal, however bad, should be fully defended, and it is +therefore indispensable that there should be a class of men entrusted +with this duty. It is the business of the judge and of the jury to +decide on the merits of the case, but in order that they should +discharge this function it is necessary that the arguments on both sides +should be laid before them in the strongest form. The clear interest of +society requires this, and a standard of professional honour and +etiquette is formed for the purpose of regulating the action of the +advocate. Misstatements of facts or of law; misquotations of documents; +strong expressions of personal opinion, and some other devices by which +verdicts may be won, are condemned; there are cases which an honourable +lawyer will not adopt, and there are rare cases in which, in the course +of a trial, he will find it his duty to throw up his brief. + +But necessary and honourable as the profession may be, there are sides +of it which are far from being in accordance with an austere code of +ideal morals. It is idle to suppose that a master of the art of advocacy +will merely confine himself to a calm, dispassionate statement of the +facts and arguments of his side. He will inevitably use all his powers +of rhetoric and persuasion to make the cause for which he holds a brief +appear true, though he knows it to be false; he will affect a warmth +which he does not feel and a conviction which he does not hold; he will +skilfully avail himself of any mistake or omission of his opponent; of +any technical rule that can exclude damaging evidence; of all the +resources that legal subtlety and severe cross-examination can furnish +to confuse dangerous issues, to obscure or minimise inconvenient facts, +to discredit hostile witnesses. He will appeal to every prejudice that +can help his cause; he will for the time so completely identify himself +with it that he will make its success his supreme and all-absorbing +object; and he will hardly fail to feel some thrill of triumph if by the +force of ingenious and eloquent pleading he has saved the guilty from +his punishment or snatched a verdict in defiance of evidence. + +It is not surprising that a profession which inevitably leads to such +things should have excited scruples among many good men. Swift very +roughly described lawyers as 'a society of men bred from their youth in +the art of proving by words, multiplied for the purpose, that white is +black and black is white, according as they are paid.' Dr. Arnold has +more than once expressed his dislike, and indeed abhorrence, of the +profession of an advocate. It inevitably, he maintained, leads to moral +perversion, involving, as it does, the indiscriminate defence of right +and wrong, and in many cases the knowing suppression of truth. Macaulay, +who can hardly be regarded as addicted to the refinements of an +over-fastidious morality, reviewing the professional rules that are +recognised in England, asks 'whether it be right that not merely +believing, but knowing a statement to be true, he should do all that can +be done by sophistry, by rhetoric, by solemn asseveration, by indignant +exclamation, by gesture, by play of features, by terrifying one honest +witness, by perplexing another, to cause a jury to think that statement +false.' Bentham denounced in even stronger language the habitual method +of 'the hireling lawyer' in cross-examining an honest but adverse +witness, and he declared that there is a code of morality current in +Westminster Hall generically different from the code of ordinary life, +and directly calculated to destroy the love of veracity and justice. On +the other hand, Paley recognised among falsehoods that are not lies +because they deceive no one, the statement of 'an advocate asserting the +justice or his belief of the justice of his client's cause.' Dr. +Johnson, in reply to some objections of Boswell, argues at length, but, +I think, with some sophistry, in favour of the profession. 'You are +not,' he says, 'to deceive your client with false representations of +your opinion. You are not to tell lies to the judge, but you need have +no scruple about taking up a case which you believe to be bad, or +affecting a warmth which you do not feel. You do not know your cause to +be bad till the judge determines it.... An argument which does not +convince yourself may convince the judge, and, if it does convince him, +you are wrong and he is right.... Everybody knows you are paid for +affecting warmth for your client, and it is therefore properly no +dissimulation.' Basil Montagu, in an excellent treatise on the subject, +urges that an advocate is simply an officer assisting in the +administration of justice under the impression that truth is best +elicited, and that difficulties are most effectually disentangled, by +the opposite statements of able men. He is an indispensable part of a +machine which in its net result is acting in the real interests of +truth, although he 'may profess feelings which he does not feel and may +support a cause which he knows to be wrong,' and although his advocacy +is 'a species of acting without an avowal that it is acting.' + +It is, of course, possible to adopt the principles of the Quaker and to +condemn as unchristian all participation in the law courts, and although +the Catholic Church has never adopted this extreme, it seems to have +instinctively recognised some incompatibility between the profession of +an advocate and the saintly character. Renan notices the significant +fact that St. Yves, a saint of Brittany, appears to be the only advocate +who has found a place in its hagiology, and the worshippers were +accustomed to sing on his festival 'Advocatus et non latro--Res miranda +populo.' It is indeed evident that a good deal of moral compromise must +enter into this field, and the standards of right and wrong that have +been adopted have varied greatly. How far, for example, may a lawyer +support a cause which he believes to be wrong? In some ancient +legislations advocates were compelled to swear that they would not +defend causes which they thought or discovered to be unjust.[35] St. +Thomas Aquinas has laid down in emphatic terms that any lawyer who +undertakes the defence of an unjust cause is committing a grievous sin. +It is unlawful, he contends, to co-operate with any one who is doing +wrong, and an advocate clearly counsels and assists him whose cause he +undertakes. Modern Catholic casuists have dealt with the subject in the +same spirit. They admit, indeed, that an advocate may undertake the +defence of a criminal whom he knows to be guilty, in order to bring to +light all extenuating circumstances, but they contend that no advocate +should undertake a civil cause unless by a previous and careful +examination he has convinced himself that it is a just one; that no +advocate can without sin undertake a cause which he knows or strongly +believes to be unjust; that if he has done so he is himself bound in +conscience to make restitution to the party that has been injured by his +advocacy; that if in the course of a trial he discovers that a cause +which he had believed to be just is unjust he must try to persuade his +client to desist, and if he fails in this must himself abandon the +cause, though without informing the opposite party of the conclusion at +which he had arrived; that in conducting his case he must abstain from +wounding the reputation of his neighbour or endeavouring to influence +the judges by bringing before them misdeeds of his opponent which are +not connected with and are not essential to the case.[36] As lately as +1886 an order was issued from Rome, with the express approbation of the +Pope, forbidding any Catholic, mayor or judge, to take part in a +divorce case, as divorce is absolutely condemned by the Church.[37] + +There have been, and perhaps still are, instances of lawyers +endeavouring to limit their practice to cases which they believed to be +just. Sir Matthew Hale is a conspicuous example, but he acknowledged +that he considerably relaxed his rule on the subject, having found in +two instances that cases which at the first blush seemed very worthless +were in truth well founded. As a general rule English lawyers make no +discrimination on this ground in accepting briefs unless the injustice +is very flagrant, nor will they, except in very extreme cases, do their +client the great injury of throwing up a brief which they have once +accepted. They contend that by acting in this way the administration of +justice in the long run is best served, and in this fact they find its +justification. + +In the conduct of a case there are rules analogous to those which +distinguish between honourable and dishonourable war, but they are less +clearly defined and less universally accepted. In criminal prosecutions +a remarkable though very explicable distinction is drawn between the +prosecutor and the defender. It is the etiquette of the profession that +the former is bound to aim only at truth, neither straining any point +against the prisoner nor keeping back any fact which is favourable to +him, nor using any argument which he does not himself believe to be +just. The defender, however, is not bound, according to professional +etiquette, by such rules. He may use arguments which he knows to be +bad, conceal or shut out by technical objections facts that will tell +against his clients, and, subject to some wide and vague restrictions, +he must make the acquittal of his client his first object.[38] + +Sometimes cases of extreme difficulty arise. Probably the best known is +the case of Courvoisier, the Swiss valet, who murdered Lord William +Russell in 1840. In the course of the trial Courvoisier informed his +advocate, Phillips, that he was guilty of the murder, but at the same +time directed Phillips to continue to defend him to the last extremity. +As there was overwhelming evidence that the murder must have been +committed by some one who slept in the house, the only possible defence +was that an equal amount of suspicion attached to the housemaid and cook +who were its other occupants. On the first day of the trial, before he +knew the guilt of his client from his own lips, Phillips had +cross-examined the housemaid, who first discovered the murder, with +great severity and with the evident object of throwing suspicion upon +her. What course ought he now to pursue? It happened that an eminent +judge was sitting on the bench with the judge who was to try the case, +and Phillips took this judge into his confidence, stated privately to +him the facts that had arisen, and asked for his advice. The judge +declared that Phillips was bound to continue to defend the prisoner, +whose case would have been hopeless if his own counsel abandoned him, +and in defending him he was bound to use all fair arguments arising out +of the evidence. The speech of Phillips was a masterpiece of eloquence +under circumstances of extraordinary difficulty. Much of it was devoted +to impugning the veracity of the witnesses for the prosecution. He +solemnly declared that it was not his business to say who committed the +murder, and that he had no desire to throw any imputation on the other +servants in the house, and he abstained scrupulously from giving any +personal opinion on the matter; but the drift of his argument was that +Courvoisier was the victim of a conspiracy, the police having concealed +compromising articles among his clothes, and that there was no clear +circumstance distinguishing the suspicion against him from that against +the other servants.[39] + +The conduct of Phillips in this case has, I believe, been justified by +the preponderance of professional opinion, though when the facts were +known public opinion outside the profession generally condemned it. Some +lawyers have pushed the duty of defence to a point which has aroused +much protest even in their own profession. 'The Advocate,' said Lord +Brougham in his great speech before the House of Lords in defence of +Queen Caroline, 'by the sacred duty which he owes his client, knows in +the discharge of that office but one person in the world--that client +and none other. To save that client by all expedient means, to protect +that client at all hazards and costs to all others, and among others to +himself, is the highest and most unquestioned of his duties; and he must +not regard the alarm, the suffering, the torment, the destruction which +he may bring upon any other. Nay, separating even the duties of a +patriot from those of an advocate, and casting them, if need be, to the +wind, he must go on, reckless of consequences, if his fate it should +unhappily be to involve his country in confusion for his client's +protection.' + +This doctrine has been emphatically repudiated by some eminent English +lawyers, but both in practice and theory the profession have differed +widely in different courts, times and countries. How far, for example, +is it permissible in cross-examination to browbeat or confuse an honest +but timid and unskilful witness; to attempt to discredit the evidence of +a witness on a plain matter of fact about which he had no interest in +concealment by exhuming against him some moral scandal of early youth +which was totally unconnected with the subject of the trial; or, by +pursuing such a line of cross-examination, to keep out of the +witness-box material witnesses who are conscious that their past lives +are not beyond reproach? How far is it right or permissible to press +legal technicalities as opposed to substantial justice? Probably most +lawyers, if they are perfectly candid, will agree that these things are +in some measure inevitable in their profession, and that the real +question is one of degree, and therefore not susceptible of positive +definition. There is a kind of mind that grows so enamoured with the +subtleties and technicalities of the law that it delights in the +unexpected and unintended results to which they may lead. I have heard +an English judge say of another long deceased that he had through this +feeling a positive pleasure in injustice, and one lawyer, not of this +country, once confessed to me the amusement he derived from breaking the +convictions of criminals in his state by discovering technical flaws in +their indictments. There is a class of mind that delights in such cases +as that of the legal document which was invalidated because the letters +A.D. were put before the date instead of the formula 'in the year of Our +Lord,' or that of a swindler who was suffered to escape with his booty +because, in the writ that was issued for his arrest, by a copyist's +error the word 'sheriff' was written instead of 'sheriffs,' or that of a +lady who was deprived of an estate of L14,000 a year because by a mere +mistake of the conveyancer one material word was omitted from the will, +although the clearest possible evidence was offered showing the wishes +of the testator.[40] Such lawyers argue that in will cases 'the true +question is not what the testator intended to do, but what is the +meaning of the words of the will,' and that the balance of advantages is +in favour of a strict adherence to the construction of the sentence and +the technicalities of the law, even though in particular cases it may +lead to grave injustice. + +It must indeed be acknowledged that up to a period extending far into +the nineteenth century those lawyers who adopted the most technical view +of their profession were acting fully in accordance with its spirit. +Few, if any, departments of English legislation and administration were +till near the middle of this century so scandalously bad as those +connected with the administration of the civil and the criminal law, and +especially with the Court of Chancery. The whole field was covered with +a network of obscure, intricate, archaic technicalities; useless except +for the purpose of piling up costs, procrastinating decisions, placing +the simplest legal processes wholly beyond the competence of any but +trained experts, giving endless facilities for fraud and for the evasion +or defeat of justice, turning a law case into a game in which chance and +skill had often vastly greater influence than substantial merits. Lord +Brougham probably in no degree exaggerated when he described great +portions of the English law as 'a two-edged sword in the hands of craft +and of oppression,' and a great authority on chancery law declared in +1839 that 'no man, as things now stand, can enter into a chancery suit +with any reasonable hope of being alive at its termination if he has a +determined adversary.'[41] + +The moral difficulties of administering such a system were very great, +and in many cases English juries, in dealing with it, adopted a rough +and ready code of morals of their own. Though they had sworn to decide +every case according to the law as it was stated to them, and according +to the evidence that was laid before them, they frequently refused to +follow legal technicalities which would lead to substantial injustice, +and they still more frequently refused to bring in verdicts according to +evidence when by doing so they would consign a prisoner to a savage, +excessive, or unjust punishment. Some of the worst abuses of the English +law were mitigated by the perjuries of juries who refused to put them in +force. + +The great legal reforms of the past half-century have removed most of +these abuses, and have at the same time introduced a wider and juster +spirit into the practical administration of the law. Yet even now +different judges sometimes differ widely in the importance they attach +to substantial justice and to legal technicalities; and even now one of +the advantages of trial by jury is that it brings the masculine common +sense and the unsophisticated sense of justice of unprofessional men +into fields that would otherwise be often distorted by ingenious +subtleties. It is, however, far less in the position of the judge than +in the position of an advocate that the most difficult moral questions +of the legal profession arise. The difference between an unscrupulous +advocate and an advocate who is governed by a high sense of honour and +morality is very manifest, but at best there must be many things in the +profession from which a very sensitive conscience would recoil, and +things must be said and done which can hardly be justified except on the +ground that the existence of this profession and the prescribed methods +of its action are in the long run indispensable to the honest +administration of justice. + +The same method of reasoning applies to other great departments of +life. In politics it is especially needed. In free countries party +government is the best if not the only way of conducting public affairs, +but it is impossible to conduct it without a large amount of moral +compromise; without a frequent surrender of private judgment and will. A +good man will choose his party through disinterested motives, and with a +firm and honest conviction that it represents the cast of policy most +beneficial to the country. He will on grave occasions assert his +independence of party, but in the large majority of cases he must act +with his party even if they are pursuing courses in some degree contrary +to his own judgment. + +Every one who is actively engaged in politics--every one especially who +is a member of the House of Commons--must soon learn that if the +absolute independence of individual judgment were pushed to its extreme, +political anarchy would ensue. The complete concurrence of a large +number of independent judgments in a complicated measure is impossible. +If party government is to be carried on, there must be, both in the +Cabinet and in Parliament, perpetual compromise. The first condition of +its success is that the Government should have a stable, permanent, +disciplined support behind it, and in order that this should be attained +the individual member must in most cases vote with his party. Sometimes +he must support a measure which he knows to be bad, because its +rejection would involve a change of government which he believes would +be a still greater evil than its acceptance, and in order to prevent +this evil he may have to vote a direct negative to some resolution +containing a statement which he believes to be true. At the same time, +if he is an honest man, he will not be a mere slave of party. Sometimes +a question arises which he considers so supremely important that he will +break away from his party and endeavour at all hazards to carry or to +defeat it. Much more frequently he will either abstain from voting, or +will vote against the Government on a particular question, but only when +he knows that by taking this course he is simply making a protest which +will produce no serious political complication. On most great measures +there is a dissentient minority in the Government party, and it often +exercises a most useful influence in representing independent opinion, +and bringing into the measure modifications and compromises which allay +opposition, gratify minorities, and soften differences. But the action +of that party will be governed by many motives other than a simple +consideration of the merits of the case. It is not sufficient to say +that they must vote for every resolution which they believe to be true, +for every bill or clause of a bill which they believe to be right, and +must vote against every bill or clause or resolution about which they +form an opposite judgment. Sometimes they will try in private to prevent +the introduction of a measure, but when it is introduced they will feel +it their duty either positively to support it or at least to abstain +from protesting against it. Sometimes they will either vote against it +or abstain from voting at all, but only when the majority is so large +that it is sure to be carried. Sometimes their conduct will be the +result of a bargain--they will vote for one portion of a bill of which +they disapprove because they have obtained from the Government a +concession on another which they think more important. The nature of +their opposition will depend largely upon the strength or weakness of +the Government, upon the size of the majority, upon the degree in which +a change of ministry would affect the general policy of the country, +upon the probability of the measure they object to being finally +extinguished, or returning in another year either in an improved or in a +more dangerous form. Questions of proportion and degree and ulterior +consequences will continually sway them. Measures are often opposed, not +on their own intrinsic merits, but on account of precedents they might +establish; of other measures which might grow out of them or be +justified by them. + +Not unfrequently it happens that a section of the dominant party is +profoundly discontented with the policy of the Government on some +question which they deem of great importance. They find themselves +incapable of offering any direct and successful opposition, but their +discontent will show itself on some other Government measure on which +votes are more evenly divided. Possibly they may oppose that measure. +More probably they will fail to attend regularly at the divisions, or +will exercise their independent judgments on its clauses in a manner +they would not have done if their party allegiance had been unshaken. +And this conduct is not mere revenge. It is a method of putting pressure +on the Government in order to obtain concessions on matters which they +deem of paramount importance. In the same way they will seek to gain +supporters by political alliances. Few things in parliamentary +government are more dangerous or more apt to lead to corruption than +the bargains which the Americans call log-rolling; but it is inevitable +that a member who has received from a colleague, or perhaps from an +opponent, assistance on a question which he believes to be of the +highest importance, will be disposed to return that assistance in some +case in which his own feelings and opinions are not strongly enlisted. + +Then, too, we have to consider the great place which obstruction plays +in parliamentary government. It constantly happens that a measure to +which scarcely any one objects is debated at inordinate length for no +other reason than to prevent a measure which is much objected to from +being discussed. Measures may be opposed by hostile votes, but they are +often much more efficaciously opposed by calculated delays, by +multiplied amendments or speeches, by some of the many devices that can +be employed to clog the legislative machine. There are large classes of +measures on which governments or parliaments think it desirable to give +no opinion, or at least no immediate opinion, though they cannot prevent +their introduction, and many methods are employed with the real, though +not avowed and ostensible object of preventing a vote or even a +ministerial declaration upon them. Sometimes Parliament is quite ready +to acknowledge the abstract justice of a proposal, but does not think it +ripe for legislation. In such cases the second reading of the bill will +probably be accepted, but, to the indignation and astonishment of its +supporters outside the House, it will be obstructed, delayed or defeated +in committee with the acquiescence, or connivance, or even actual +assistance of some of those who had voted for it. Some measures in the +eyes of some members involve questions of principle so sacred that they +will admit of no compromise of expediency, but most measures are deemed +open to compromise and are accepted, rejected, or modified under some of +the many motives I have described. + +All this curious and indispensable mechanism of party government is +compatible with a high and genuine sense of public duty, and unless such +a sense at the last resort dominates over all other considerations, +political life will inevitably decline. At the same time it is obvious +that many things have to be done from which a very rigid and austere +nature would recoil. To support a Government when he believes it to be +wrong, or to oppose a measure which he believes to be right; to connive +at evasions which are mere pretexts, and at delays which rest upon +grounds that are not openly avowed,--is sometimes, and indeed not +unfrequently, a parliamentary duty. A member of Parliament must often +feel himself in the position of a private in an army, or a player in a +game, or an advocate in a law case. On many questions each party +represents and defends the special interests of some particular classes +in the country. When there are two plausible alternative courses to be +pursued which divide public opinion, the Opposition is almost bound by +its position to enforce the merits of the course opposed to that adopted +by the Government. In theory nothing could seem more absurd than a +system of government in which, as it has been said, the ablest men in +Parliament are divided into two classes, one side being charged with the +duty of carrying on the government and the other with that of +obstructing and opposing them in their task, and in which, on a vast +multitude of unconnected questions, these two great bodies of very +competent men, with the same facts and arguments before them, habitually +go into opposite lobbies. In practice, however, parliamentary government +by great parties, in countries where it is fully understood and +practised, is found to be admirably efficacious in representing every +variety of political opinion; in securing a constant supervision and +criticism of men and measures; and in forming a safety valve through +which the dangerous humours of society can expand without evil to the +community. + +This, however, is only accomplished by constant compromises which are +seldom successfully carried out without a long national experience. +Party must exist. It must be maintained as an essential condition of +good government, but it must be subordinated to the public interests, +and in the public interests it must be in many cases suspended. There +are subjects which cannot be introduced without the gravest danger into +the arena of party controversy. Indian politics are a conspicuous +example, and, although foreign policy cannot be kept wholly outside it, +the dangers connected with its party treatment are extremely great. Many +measures of a different kind are conducted with the concurrence of the +two front benches. A cordial union on large classes of questions between +the heads of the rival parties is one of the first conditions of +successful parliamentary government. The Opposition leader must have a +voice in the conduct of business, on the questions that should be +brought forward, and on the questions that it is for the public interest +to keep back. He is the official leader of systematic, organised +opposition to the Government, yet he is on a large number of questions +their most powerful ally. He must frequently have confidential relations +with them, and one of his most useful functions is to prevent sections +of his party from endeavouring to snatch party advantages by courses +which might endanger public interests. If the country is to be well +governed there must be a large amount of continuity in its policy; +certain conditions and principles of administration must be inflexibly +maintained, and in great national emergencies all parties must unite. + +In questions which lie at the heart of party politics, also some amount +of compromise is usually effected. Debate not only elicits opinions but +also suggests alternatives and compromises, and very few measures are +carried by a majority which do not bear clear traces of the action of +the minority. The line is constantly deflected now on one side and now +on the other, and (usually without much regard to logical consistency) +various and opposing sentiments are in some measure gratified. If the +lines of party are drawn with an inflexible rigidity; and if the +majority insist on the full exercise of their powers, parliamentary +government may become a despotism as crushing as the worst autocracy--a +despotism which is perhaps even more dangerous as the sense of +responsibility is diminished by being divided. If, on the other hand, +the latitude conceded to individual opinion is excessive, Parliament +inevitably breaks into groups, and parliamentary government loses much +of its virtue. When coalitions of minorities can at any time overthrow a +ministry, the whole force of Government is lost. The temptation to +corrupt bargains with particular sections is enormously increased, and +the declining control of the two front benches will be speedily followed +by a diminished sense of responsibility, and by the increased influence +of violent, eccentric, exaggerated opinions. It is of the utmost moment +that the policy of an Opposition should be guided by its most important +men, and especially by men who have had the experience and the +responsibility of office, and who know that they may have that +responsibility again. But the healthy latitude of individual opinion and +expression in a party is like most of those things we are now +considering, a question of degree, and not susceptible of clear and +sharp definition. + +Other questions of a somewhat different nature, but involving grave +moral considerations, arise out of the relations between a member and +his constituents. In the days when small boroughs were openly bought in +the market, this was sometimes defended on the ground of the complete +independence of judgment which it gave to the purchasing member. Romilly +and Henry Flood are said to have both purchased their seats with the +express object of securing such independence. In the political +philosophy of Burke, no doctrine is more emphatically enforced than that +a member of Parliament is a representative but not a delegate; that he +owes to his constituents not only his time and his services, but also +the exercise of his independent and unfettered judgment; that, while +reflecting the general cast of their politics, he must never suffer +himself to be reduced to a mere mouthpiece, or accept binding +instructions prescribing on each particular measure the course he may +pursue; that after his election he must consider himself a member of an +Imperial Parliament rather than the representative of a particular +locality, and must subordinate local and special interests to the wider +and more general interests of the whole nation. + +The conditions of modern political life have greatly narrowed this +liberty of judgment. In most constituencies a member can only enter +Parliament fettered by many pledges relating to specific measures, and +in every turn of policy sections of his constituents will attempt to +dictate his course of action. Certain large and general pledges +naturally and properly precede his election. He is chosen as a supporter +or opponent of the Government; he avows himself an adherent of certain +broad lines of policy, and he also represents in a special degree the +interests and the distinctive type of opinion of the class or industry +which is dominant in his constituency. But even at the time of election +he often finds that on some particular question in which his electors +are much interested he differs from them, though they consent, in spite +of it, to elect him; and, in the course of a long Parliament, others are +very apt unexpectedly to arise. Political changes take place which bring +into the foreground matters which at the time of the election seemed +very remote, or produce new questions, or give rise to unforeseen party +combinations, developments, and tendencies. It will often happen that on +these occasions a member will think differently from the majority of his +electors, and he must meet the question how far he must sacrifice his +judgment to theirs, and how far he may use the influence which their +votes have given him to act in opposition to their wishes and perhaps +even to their interests. Burke, for example, found himself in this +position when, being member for Bristol, he considered it his duty to +support the concession of Free-trade to Ireland, although his +constituents had, or thought they had, a strong interest in commercial +restrictions and monopoly. In our own day it has happened that members +representing manufacturing districts of Lancashire have found themselves +unexpectedly called upon to vote upon some measure for crippling or +extending rival manufactures in India; for opening new markets by some +very dubious aggression in a distant land; or for limiting the child +labour employed in the local manufacture; and these members have often +believed that the right course was a course which was exceedingly +repugnant to great sections of their electors. + +Sometimes, too, a member is elected on purely secular issues, but in the +course of the Parliament one of those fierce, sudden storms of religious +sentiment, to which England is occasionally liable, sweeps over the +land, and he finds himself wholly out of sympathy with a great portion +of his constituency. In other cases the party which he entered +Parliament to support, pursues, on some grave question, a line of policy +which he believes to be seriously wrong, and he goes into partial or +even complete and bitter opposition. Differences of this kind have +frequently arisen when there is no question of any interested motive +having influenced the member. Sometimes in such cases he has resigned +his seat and gone to his electors for re-election. In other cases he +remains in Parliament till the next election. Each case, however, must +be left to individual judgment, and no clear, definite, unwavering moral +line can be drawn. The member will consider the magnitude of the +disputed question, both in his own eyes and in the eyes of those whom he +represents; its permanent or transitory character, the amount and +importance of the majority opposed to his views, the length of time that +is likely to elapse before a dissolution will bring him face to face +with his constituents. In matters which he does not consider very urgent +or important, he will probably sacrifice his own judgment to that of his +electors, at least so far as to abstain from voting or from pressing his +own views. In graver matters it is his duty boldly to face unpopularity, +or perhaps even take the extreme step of resigning his seat. + +The cases in which a member of Parliament finds it his duty to support a +measure which he believes to be positively bad, on the ground that +greater evils would follow its rejection, are happily not very numerous. +He can extricate himself from many moral difficulties by sometimes +abstaining from voting or from the expression of his real opinions, and +most measures are of a composite character in which good and evil +elements combine, and may in some degree be separated. In such measures +it is often possible to accept the general principle while opposing +particular details, and there is considerable scope for compromise and +modification. But the cases in which a member of Parliament is compelled +to vote for measures about which he has no real knowledge or conviction +are very many. Crowds of measures of a highly complex and technical +character, affecting departments of life with which he has had no +experience, relating to the multitudinous industries, interests and +conditions of a great people, are brought before him at very short +notice; and no intellect, however powerful, no industry, however great, +can master them. It is utterly impossible that mere extemporised +knowledge, the listening to a short debate, the brief study which a +member of Parliament can give to a new subject, can place him on a real +level of competence with those who can bring to it a lifelong knowledge +or experience. + +A member of Parliament will soon find that he must select a class of +subjects which he can himself master, while on many others he must vote +blindly with his party. The two or three capital measures in a session +are debated with such a fulness that both the House and the country +become thoroughly competent to judge them, and in those cases the +preponderance of argument will have great weight. A powerful ministry +and a strongly organised party may carry such a measure in spite of it, +but they will be obliged to accept amendments and modifications, and if +they persist in their policy their position both in the House and in the +country will sooner or later be inevitably changed. But a large number +of measures have a more restricted interest, and are far less widely +understood. The House of Commons is rich in expert knowledge, and few +subjects are brought before it which some of its members do not +thoroughly understand; but in a vast number of cases the majority who +decide the question are obliged to do so on the most superficial +knowledge. Very often it is physically impossible for a member to obtain +the knowledge he requires. The most important and detailed investigation +has taken place in a committee upstairs to which he did not belong, or +he is detained elsewhere on important parliamentary business while the +debate is going on. Even when this is not the case, scarcely any one +has the physical or mental power which would enable him to sit +intelligently through all the debates. Every member of Parliament is +familiar with the scene, when, after a debate, carried on before nearly +empty benches, the division bell rings, and the members stream in to +decide the issue. There is a moment of uncertainty. The questions 'Which +side are we?' 'What is it about?' may be heard again and again. Then the +Speaker rises, and with one magical sentence clears the situation. It is +the sentence in which he announces that the tellers for the Ayes or +Noes, as the case may be, are the Government whips. It is not argument, +it is not eloquence, it is this single sentence which in countless cases +determines the result and moulds the legislation of the country. Many +members, it is true, are not present in the division lobby, but they are +usually paired--that is to say, they have taken their sides before the +discussion began; perhaps without even knowing what subject is to be +discussed, perhaps for all the many foreseen and unforeseen questions +that may arise during long periods of the session. + +It is a strange process, and to a new member who has been endeavouring +through his life to weigh arguments and evidence with scrupulous care, +and treat the formation and expression of opinions as a matter of +serious duty, it is at first very painful. He finds that he is required +again and again to give an effective voice in the great council of the +nation, on questions of grave importance, with a levity of conviction +upon which he would not act in the most trivial affairs of private life. +No doctor would prescribe for the slightest malady; no lawyer would +advise in the easiest case; no wise man would act in the simplest +transactions of private business, or would even give an opinion to his +neighbour at a dinner party without more knowledge of the subject than +that on which a member of Parliament is often obliged to vote. But he +soon finds that for good or evil this system is absolutely indispensable +to the working of the machine. If no one voted except on matters he +really understood and cared for, four-fifths of the questions that are +determined by the House of Commons would be determined by mere fractions +of its members, and in that case parliamentary government under the +party system would be impossible. The stable, disciplined majorities +without which it can never be efficiently conducted would be at an end. +Those who refuse to accept the conditions of parliamentary life should +abstain from entering into it. + +It is obvious that the one justification of this system is to be found +in the belief that parliamentary government, as it is worked in England, +is on the whole a good thing, and that this is the indispensable +condition of its existence. Probably also with most men it strengthens +the disposition to support the Government on matters which they do not +understand and in which grave party issues are not involved. They know +that these minor questions have at least been carefully examined on +their merits by responsible men, and with the assistance of the best +available expert knowledge. + +This fact goes far to reconcile us to the tendency to give governments +an almost complete monopoly in the initiation of legislation which is so +evident in modern parliamentary life. Much useful legislation in the +past has been due to private and independent members, but the chance of +bills introduced by such members ever becoming law is steadily +diminishing. This is not due to any recognised constitutional change, +but to the constantly increasing pressure of government business on the +time of the House, and especially to what is called the twelve o'clock +rule, terminating debates at midnight. + +It is a rule which is manifestly wise, for it limits on ordinary +occasions the hours of parliamentary work to a period within the +strength of an average man. Parliamentary government has many dubious +aspects, but it never appears worse than in the cases which may still +sometimes be seen when a Government thinks fit to force through an +important measure by all-night sittings, and when a weary and irritated +House which has been sitting since three or four in the afternoon is +called upon at a corresponding hour of the early morning to pronounce +upon grave and difficult questions of principle, and to deal with the +serious interests of large classes. The utter and most natural +incapacity of the House at such an hour for sustained argument; its +anxiety that each successive amendment should be despatched in five +minutes; the readiness with which in that tired, feverish atmosphere, +surprises and coalitions may be effected and solutions accepted, to +which the House in its normal state would scarcely have listened, must +be evident to every observer. Scenes of this kind are among the greatest +scandals of Parliament, and the rule which makes them impossible except +in the closing weeks of the Session has been one of the greatest +improvements in modern parliamentary work. But its drawback is that it +has greatly limited the possibility of private member legislation. It is +in late and rapid sittings that most measures of this kind passed +through their final stages, and since the twelve o'clock rule has been +adopted a much smaller number of bills introduced by private members +find their way to the statute book. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[35] O'Brien, _The Lawyer_, pp. 169, 170. + +[36] _Dictionnaire de Cas de Conscience_, Art. 'Avocat;' Migne, +_Encyclopedie Theologique_, i. serie, tome xviii. + +[37] _Revue de Droit International_, xxi. 615. + +[38] See Sir James Stephen's _General View of the Criminal Law of +England_, pp. 167, 168. + +[39] Phillips's defence of his own conduct will be found in a pamphlet +called 'Correspondence of S. Warren and C. Phillips relating to the +Courvoisier trial.' It has often been said that Phillips had asserted in +his speech his full belief in the innocence of his client, but this is +disproved by the statement of C. J. Tindal, who tried the case, and of +Baron Parke, who sat on the bench. C. J. Denman also pronounced +Phillips's speech to be unexceptionable. An able and interesting article +on this case by Mr. Atlay will be found in the _Cornhill Magazine_, May, +1897. + +[40] See these cases in Warren's _Social and Professional Duties of an +Attorney_, pp. 128-133, 195, 196. + +[41] See the admirable article by Lord Justice Bowen on 'The +Administration of the Law' in Ward's _Reign of Queen Victoria_, vol. i. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +It is obvious from the considerations that have been adduced in the last +chapter that the moral limitations and conditions under which an +ordinary member of Parliament is compelled to work are far from ideal. +An upright man will try conscientiously, under these conditions, to do +his best for the cause of honesty and for the benefit of his country, +but he cannot essentially alter them, and they present many temptations +and tend in many ways to blur the outlines separating good from evil. He +will find himself practically pledged to support his party in measures +which he has never seen and in policies that are not yet developed; to +vote in some cases contrary to his genuine belief and in many cases +without real knowledge; to act throughout his political career on many +motives other than a reasoned conviction of the substantial merits of +the question at issue. + +I have dwelt on the difficult questions which arise when the wishes of +his constituents are at variance with his own genuine opinions. Another +and a wider question is how far he is bound to make what he considers +the interests of the nation his guiding light, and how far he should +subordinate what he believes to be their interests to their prejudices +and wishes. One of the first lessons that every active politician has to +learn is that he is a trustee bound to act for men whose opinions, +aims, desires and ideals are often very different from his own. No man +who holds the position of member of Parliament should divest himself of +this consideration, though it applies to different classes of members in +different degrees. A private member should not forget it, but at the +same time, being elected primarily and specially to represent one +particular element in the national life, he will concentrate his +attention more exclusively on a narrow circle, though he has at the same +time more latitude of expressing unpopular opinions and pushing unripe +and unpopular causes than a member who is taking a large and official +part in the government of the nation. The opposition front bench +occupies a somewhat different position. They are the special and +organised representatives of a particular party and its ideas, but the +fact that they may be called upon at any time to undertake the +government of the nation as a whole, and that even while in opposition +they take a great part in moulding its general policy, imposes on them +limitations and restrictions from which a mere private member is in a +great degree exempt. When a party comes into power its position is again +slightly altered. Its leaders are certainly not detached from the party +policy they had advocated in opposition. One of the main objects of +party is to incorporate certain political opinions and the interests of +certain sections of the community in an organised body which will be a +steady and permanent force in politics. It is by this means that +political opinions are most likely to triumph; that class interests are +most effectually protected. But a Government cannot govern merely in the +interests of a party. It is a trustee for the whole nation, and one of +its first duties is to ascertain and respect as far as possible the +wishes as well as the interests of all sections. + +Concrete examples may perhaps show more clearly than abstract statements +the kind of difficulties that I am describing. Take, for example, the +large class of proposals for limiting the sale of strong drink by such +methods as local veto or Sunday closing of public-houses. One class of +politicians take up the position of uncompromising opponents of the +drink trade. They argue that strong drink is beyond all question in +England the chief source of the misery, the vice, the degradation of the +poor; that it not only directly ruins tens of thousands, body and soul, +but also brings a mass of wretchedness that it is difficult to overrate +on their innocent families; that the drunkard's craving for drink often +reproduces itself as an hereditary disease in his children; and that a +legislator can have no higher object and no plainer duty than by all +available means to put down the chief obstacle to the moral and material +well-being of the people. The principle of compulsion, as they truly +say, is more and more pervading all departments of industry. It is idle +to contend that the State which, while prohibiting other forms of Sunday +trading, gives a special privilege to the most pernicious of all, has +not the right to limit or to withdraw it, and the legislature which +levies vast sums upon the whole community for the maintenance of the +police as well as for poor-houses, prisons and criminal administration, +ought surely, in the interests of the whole community, to do all that is +in its power to suppress the main cause of pauperism, disorder and +crime. + +Another class of politicians approach the question from a wholly +different point of view. They emphatically object to imposing upon +grown-up men a system of moral restriction which is very properly +imposed upon children. They contend that adult men who have assumed all +the duties and responsibilities of life, and have even a voice in the +government of the country, should regulate their own conduct, as far as +they do not directly interfere with their neighbours, without legal +restraint, bearing themselves the consequences of their mistakes or +excesses. This, they say, is the first principle of freedom, the first +condition in the formation of strong and manly characters. A poor man, +who desires on his Sunday excursion to obtain moderate refreshment such +as he likes for himself or his family, and who goes to the +public-house--probably in most cases to meet his friends and discuss the +village gossip over a glass of beer--is in no degree interfering with +the liberty of his neighbours. He is doing nothing that is wrong; +nothing that he has not a perfect right to do. No one denies the rich +man access to his club on Sunday, and it should be remembered that the +poor man has neither the private cellars nor the comfortable and roomy +homes of the rich, and has infinitely fewer opportunities of recreation. +Because some men abuse this right and are unable to drink alcohol in +moderation, are all men to be prevented from drinking it at all, or at +least from drinking it on Sunday? Because two men agree not to drink it, +have they a right to impose the same obligation on an unwilling third? +Have those who never enter a public-house, and by their position in life +never need to enter it, a right, if they are in a majority, to close +its doors against those who use it? On such grounds these politicians +look with extreme disfavour on all this restrictive legislation as +unjust, partial and inconsistent with freedom. + +Very few, however, would carry either set of arguments to their full +logical consequences. Not many men who have had any practical experience +in the management of men would advocate a complete suppression of the +drink trade, and still fewer would put it on the basis of complete free +trade, altogether exempt from special legislative restriction. To +responsible politicians the course to be pursued will depend mainly on +fluctuating conditions of public opinion. Restrictions will be imposed, +but only when and as far as they are supported by a genuine public +opinion. It must not be a mere majority, but a large majority; a steady +majority; a genuine majority representing a real and earnest desire, and +especially in the classes who are most directly affected; not a mere +factitious majority such as is often created by skilful organisation and +agitation; by the enthusiasm of the few confronting the indifference of +the many. In free and democratic States one of the most necessary but +also one of the most difficult arts of statesmanship is that of testing +public opinion, discriminating between what is real, growing and +permanent and what is transient, artificial and declining. As a French +writer has said, 'The great art in politics consists not in hearing +those who speak, but in hearing those who are silent.' On such questions +as those I have mentioned we may find the same statesman without any +real inconsistency supporting the same measures in one part of the +kingdom and opposing them in another; supporting them at one time +because public opinion runs strongly in their favour; opposing them at +another because that public opinion has grown weak. + +One of the worst moral evils that grow up in democratic countries is the +excessive tendency to time-serving and popularity hunting, and the +danger is all the greater because in a certain sense both of these +things are a necessity and even a duty. Their moral quality depends +mainly on their motive. The question to be asked is whether a politician +is acting from personal or merely party objects or from honourable +public ones. Every statesman must form in his own mind a conception +whether a prevailing tendency is favourable or opposed to the real +interests of the country. It will depend upon this judgment whether he +will endeavour to accelerate or retard it; whether he will yield slowly +or readily to its pressure, and there are cases in which, at all hazards +of popularity and influence, he should inexorably oppose it. But in the +long run, under free governments, political systems and measures must be +adjusted to the wishes of the various sections of the people, and this +adjustment is the great work of statesmanship. In judging a proposed +measure a statesman must continually ask himself whether the country is +ripe for it--whether its introduction, however desirable it might be, +would not be premature, as public opinion is not yet prepared for +it?--whether, even though it be a bad measure, it is not on the whole +better to vote for it, as the nation manifestly desires it? + +The same kind of reasoning applies to the difficult question of +education, and especially of religious education. Every one who is +interested in the subject has his own conviction about the kind of +education which is in itself the best for the people, and also the best +for the Government to undertake. He may prefer that the State should +confine itself to purely secular education, leaving all religious +teaching to voluntary agencies; or he may approve of the kind of +undenominational religious teaching of the English School Board; or he +may be a strong partisan of one of the many forms of distinctly +accentuated denominational education. But when he comes to act as a +responsible legislator, he should feel that the question is not merely +what _he_ considers the best, but also what the parents of the children +most desire. It is true that the authority of parents is not absolutely +recognised. The conviction that certain things are essential to the +children, and to the well-being and vigour of the State, and the +conviction that parents are often by no means the best judges of this, +make legislators, on some important subjects, override the wishes of the +parents. The severe restrictions imposed on child labour; the +measure--unhappily now greatly relaxed--providing for children's +vaccination; and the legislation protecting children from ill treatment +by their parents, are illustrations, and the most extensive and +far-reaching of all exceptions is education. After much misgiving, both +parties in the State have arrived at the conclusion that it is essential +to the future of the children, and essential also to the maintenance of +the relative position of England in the great competition of nations, +that at least the rudiments of education should be made universal, and +they are also convinced that this is one of the truths which perfectly +ignorant parents are least competent to understand. Hence the system +which of late years has so rapidly extended of compulsory education. + +Many nations have gone further, and have claimed for the State the right +of prescribing absolutely the kind of education that should be +permitted, or at least the kind of education which shall be exclusively +supported by State funds. In England this is not the case. A great +variety of forms of education corresponding to the wishes and opinions +of different classes of parents receive assistance from the State, +subject to the conditions of submitting to certain tests of educational +efficiency, and to a conscience clause protecting minorities from +interference with their faith. + +A case which once caused much moral heart-burning among good men was the +endowment, by the State, of Maynooth College, which is absolutely under +the control of the Roman Catholic priesthood, and intended to educate +their Divinity students in the Roman Catholic faith. The endowment dated +from the period of the old Irish Protestant Parliament; and when, on the +Disestablishment of the Irish Church, it came to an end, it was replaced +by a large capital grant from the Irish Church Fund, and it is upon the +interest of that grant that the College is still supported. This grant +was denounced by many excellent men on the ground that the State was +Protestant; that it had a definite religious belief upon which it was +bound in conscience to act; and that it was a sinful apostasy to endow +out of the public purse the teaching of what all Protestants believe to +be superstition, and what many Protestants believe to be idolatrous and +soul-destroying error. The strength of this kind of feeling in England +is shown by the extreme difficulty there has been in persuading public +opinion to acquiesce in any form of that concurrent endowment of +religions which exists so widely and works so well upon the Continent. + +Many, again, who have no objection to the policy of assisting by State +subsidies the theological education of the priests are of opinion that +it is extremely injurious both to the State and to the young that the +secular education--and especially the higher secular education--of the +Irish Catholic population should be placed under their complete control, +and that, through their influence, the Irish Catholics should be +strictly separated during the period of their education from their +fellow-countrymen of other religions. No belief, in my own opinion, is +better founded than this. If, however, those who hold it find that there +is a great body of Catholic parents who persistently desire this control +and separation; who will not be satisfied with any removal of +disabilities and sectarian influence in systems of common education; who +object to all mixed and undenominational education on the ground that +their priests have condemned it, and that they are bound in conscience +to follow the orders of their priests, and who are in consequence +withholding from their children the education they would otherwise have +given them, such men will in my opinion be quite justified in modifying +their policy. As a matter of expediency they will argue that it is +better that these Catholics should receive an indifferent university +education than none at all; and that it is exceedingly desirable that +what is felt to be a grievance by many honest, upright and loyal men +should be removed. As a matter of principle, they contend that in a +country where higher education is largely and variously endowed from +public sources, it is a real grievance that there should be one large +body of the people who can derive little or no benefit from those +endowments. It is no sufficient answer to say that the objection of the +Catholic parents is in most cases not spontaneous, but is due to the +orders of their priests, since we are dealing with men who believe it to +be a matter of conscience on such questions to obey their priests. Nor +is it, I think, sufficient to argue--as very many enlightened men will +do--that everything that could be in the smallest degree repugnant to +the faith of a Catholic has been eliminated from the education which is +imposed on them in existing universities; that every post of honour, +emolument and power has been thrown open to them; that for generations +they gladly followed the courses of Dublin University, and are even now +permitted by their ecclesiastics to follow those of Oxford and +Cambridge; that, the nation having adopted the broad principle of +unsectarian education open to all, no single sect has a right to +exceptional treatment, though every sect has an undoubted right to set +up at its own expense such education as it pleases. The answer is that +the objection of a certain class of Roman Catholics in Ireland is not to +any abuses that may take place under the system of mixed and +undenominational education, but to the system itself, and that the +particular type of education of which alone one considerable class of +taxpayers can conscientiously avail themselves has only been set up by +voluntary effort, and is only inadequately and indirectly endowed by +the State.[42] Slowly and very reluctantly governments in England +have come to recognise the fact that the trend of Catholic opinion +in Ireland is as clearly in the direction of denominationalism as +the trend of Nonconformist English opinion is in the direction of +undenominationalism, and that it is impossible to carry on the education +of a priest-ridden Catholic people on the same lines as a Protestant +one. Primary education has become almost absolutely denominational, and, +directly or indirectly, a crowd of endowments are given to exclusively +Catholic institutions. On such grounds, many who entertain the strongest +antipathy to the priestly control of higher education are prepared to +advocate an increased endowment of some university or college which is +distinctly sacerdotal, while strenuously upholding side by side with it +the undenominational institutions which they believe to be incomparably +better, and which are at present resorted to not only by all +Protestants, but also by a not inconsiderable body of Irish Catholics. + +Many of my readers will probably come to an opposite conclusion on this +very difficult question. The object of what I have written is simply to +show the process by which a politician may conscientiously advocate the +establishment and endowment of a thing which he believes to be +intrinsically bad. It is said to have been a saying of Sir Robert +Inglis--an excellent representative of an old school of extreme but most +conscientious Toryism--that 'he would never vote one penny of public +money for any purpose which he did not think right and good.' The +impossibility of carrying out such a principle must be obvious to any +one who has truly grasped the nature of representative government and +the duty of a member of Parliament to act as a trustee for all classes +in the community. In the exercise of this function every conscientious +member is obliged continually to vote money for purposes which he +dislikes. In the particular instance I have just given, the process of +reasoning I have described is purely disinterested, but of course it is +not by such a process of pure reasoning that such a question will be +determined. English and Scotch members will have to consider the effects +of their vote on their own constituencies, where there are generally +large sections of electors with very little knowledge of the special +circumstances of Irish education, but very strong feelings about the +Roman Catholic Church. Statesmen will have to consider the ulterior and +various ways in which their policy may affect the whole social and +political condition of Ireland, while the overwhelming majority of the +Irish members are elected by small farmers and agricultural labourers +who could never avail themselves of University education, and who on all +matters relating to education act blindly at the dictation of their +priests. + +Inconsistency is no necessary condemnation of a politician, and parties +as well as individual statesmen have abundantly shown it. It would lead +me too far in a book in which the moral difficulties of politics form +only one subdivision, to enter into the history of English parties; but +those who will do so will easily convince themselves that there is +hardly a principle of political action that has not in party history +been abandoned, and that not unfrequently parties have come to advocate +at one period of their history the very measures which at another period +they most strenuously resisted. Changed circumstances, the growth or +decline of intellectual tendencies, party strategy, individual +influence, have all contributed to these mutations, and most of them +have been due to very blended motives of patriotism and self-interest. + +In judging the moral quality of the changes of party leaders, the +element of time will usually be of capital importance. Violent and +sudden reversals of policy are never effected by a party without a great +loss of moral weight; though there are circumstances under which they +have been imperatively required. No one will now dispute the integrity +of the motives that induced the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel +to carry Catholic Emancipation in 1829, when the Clare election had +brought Ireland to the verge of revolution; and the conduct of Sir +Robert Peel in carrying the repeal of the Corn Laws was certainly not +due to any motive either of personal or party ambition, though it may be +urged with force that at a time when he was still the leader of the +Protectionist party his mind had been manifestly moving in the direction +of Free trade, and that the Irish famine, though not a mere pretext, was +not wholly the cause of the surrender. In each of these cases a ministry +pledged to resist a particular measure introduced and carried it, and +did so without any appeal to the electors. The justification was that +the measure in their eyes had become absolutely necessary to the public +welfare, and that the condition of politics made it impossible for them +either to carry it by a dissolution or to resign the task into other +hands. Had Sir Robert Peel either resigned office or dissolved +Parliament after the Clare election in 1828, it is highly probable that +the measure of Catholic Emancipation could not have been carried, and +its postponement, in his belief, would have thrown Ireland into a +dangerous rebellion. Few greater misfortunes have befallen party +government than the failure of the Whigs to form a ministry in 1845. Had +they done so the abolition of the Corn Laws would have been carried by +statesmen who were in some measure supported by the Free-trade party, +and not by statesmen who had obtained their power as the special +representatives of the agricultural interests. + +Another case which in a party point of view was more successful, but +which should in my opinion be much more severely judged, was the Reform +Bill of 1867. The Conservative party, under the guidance of Mr. +Disraeli, defeated Mr. Gladstone's Reform Bill mainly on the ground that +it was an excessive step in the direction of Democracy. The victory +placed them in office, and they then declared that, as the question had +been raised, they must deal with it themselves. They introduced a bill +carrying the suffrage to a much lower point than that which the late +Government had proposed, but they surrounded it with a number of +provisions securing additional representation for particular classes and +interests which would have materially modified its democratic +character. + +But for these safeguarding provisions the party would certainly not have +tolerated the introduction of such a measure, yet in the face of +opposition their leader dropped them one by one as of no capital +importance, and, by a leadership which was a masterpiece of unscrupulous +adroitness, succeeded in inducing his party to carry a measure far more +democratic than that which they had a few months before denounced and +defeated. It was argued that the question must be settled; that it must +be placed on a permanent and lasting basis; that it must no longer be +suffered to be a weapon in the hands of the Whigs, and that the Tory +Reform Bill, though it was acknowledged to be a 'leap in the dark,' had +at least the result of 'dishing the Whigs.' There is little doubt that +it was in accordance with the genuine convictions of Disraeli. He +belonged to a school of politics of which Bolingbroke, Carteret and +Shelburne, and, in some periods of his career, Chatham, were earlier +representatives who had no real sympathy with the preponderance of the +aristocratic element in the old Tory party, who had a decided +disposition to appeal frankly to democratic support, and who believed +that a strong executive resting on a broad democratic basis was the true +future of Toryism. He anticipated to a remarkable degree the school of +political thought which has triumphed in our own day, though he did not +live to witness its triumph. At the same time it cannot be denied that +the Reform Bill of 1867 in the form in which it was ultimately carried +was as far as possible from the wishes and policy of his party in the +beginning of the session, and as inconsistent as any policy could be +with their language and conduct in the session that preceded it. + +A parliamentary government chosen on the party system is, as we have +seen, at once the trustee of the whole nation, bound as such to make the +welfare of the whole its supreme end, and also the special +representative of particular classes, the special guardian of their +interests, aims, wishes, and principles. The two points of view are not +the same, and grave difficulties, both ethical and political, have often +to be encountered in endeavouring to harmonise them. It is, of course, +not true that a party object is merely a matter of place or power, and +naturally a different thing from a patriotic object. The very meaning of +party is that public men consider certain principles of government, +certain lines of policy, the protection and development of particular +interests, of capital importance to the nation, and they are therefore +on purely public grounds fully justified in making it a main object to +place the government of the country in the hands of their party. The +importance, however, of maintaining a particular party in power varies +greatly. In many, probably in most, periods of English history a change +of government means no violent or far-reaching alteration in policy. It +means only that one set of tendencies in legislation will for a time be +somewhat relaxed, and another set somewhat intensified; that the +interests of one class will be somewhat more and those of another class +somewhat less attended to; that the rate of progress or change will be +slightly accelerated or retarded. Sometimes it means even less than +this. Opinions on the two front benches are so nearly assimilated that +a change of government principally means the removal for a time from +office of ministers who have made some isolated administrative blunders +or incurred some individual unpopularity quite apart from their party +politics. It means that ministers who are jaded and somewhat worn out by +several years' continuous work, and of whom the country had grown tired, +are replaced by men who can bring fresher minds and energies to the +task; that patronage in all its branches having for some years gone +mainly to one party, the other party are now to have their turn. There +are periods when the country is well satisfied with the general policy +of a government but not with the men who carry it on. Ministers of +excellent principles prove inefficient, tactless, or unfortunate, or +quarrels and jealousies arise among them, or difficult negotiations are +going on with foreign nations which can be best brought to a successful +termination if they are placed in the hands of fresh men, unpledged and +unentangled by their past. The country wants a change of government but +not a change of policy, and under such circumstances the task of a +victorious opposition is much less to march in new directions than to +mark time, to carry on the affairs of the nation on the same lines, but +with greater administrative skill. In such periods the importance of +party objects is much diminished and a policy which is intended merely +to keep a party in power should be severely condemned. + +Sometimes, however, it happens that a party has committed itself to a +particular measure which its opponents believe to be in a high degree +dangerous or even ruinous to the country. In that case it becomes a +matter of supreme importance to keep this party out of office, or, if +they are in office, to keep them in a position of permanent debility +till this dangerous project is abandoned. Under such circumstances +statesmen are justified in carrying party objects and purely party +legislation much further than in other periods. To strengthen their own +party; to gain for it the largest amount of popularity; to win the +support of different factions of the House of Commons, become a great +public object; and, in order to carry it out, sacrifices of policy and +in some degree of principle, the acceptance of measures which the party +had once opposed, and the adjournment or abandonment of measures to +which it had been pledged, which would once have been very properly +condemned, become justifiable. The supreme interest of the State is the +end and the justification of their policy, and alliances are formed +which under less pressing circumstances would have been impossible, and +which, once established, sometimes profoundly change the permanent +character of party politics. Here, as in nearly all political matters, +an attention to proportion and degree, the sacrifice of the less for the +attainment of the greater, mark the path both of wisdom and of duty. + +The temptations of party politicians are of many kinds and vary greatly +with different stages of political development. The worst is the +temptation to war. War undertaken without necessity, or at least without +serious justification, is, according to all sound ethics, the gravest of +crimes, and among its causes motives of the kind I have indicated may be +often detected. Many wars have been begun or have been prolonged in +order to consolidate a dynasty or a party; in order to give it +popularity or at least to save it from unpopularity; in order to divert +the minds of men from internal questions which had become dangerous or +embarrassing, or to efface the memory of past quarrels, mistakes or +crimes.[43] Experience unfortunately shows only too clearly how easily +the combative passions of nations can be aroused and how much popularity +may be gained by a successful war. Even in this case, it is true, war +usually impoverishes the country that wages it, but there are large +classes to whom it is by no means a calamity. The high level of +agricultural prices; the brilliant careers opened to the military and +naval professions; the many special industries which are immediately +stimulated; the rise in the rate of interest; the opportunities of +wealth that spring from violent fluctuations on the Stock Exchange; even +the increased attractiveness of the newspapers,--all tend to give +particular classes an interest in its continuance. Sometimes it is +closely connected with party sympathies. During the French wars of Anne, +the facts that Marlborough was a Whig, and that the Elector of Hanover, +who was the hope of the Whig party, was in favour of the war, +contributed very materially to retard the peace. A state of great +internal disquietude is often a temptation to war, not because it leads +to it directly, but because rulers find a foreign war the best means of +turning dangerous and disturbing energies into new channels, and at the +same time of strengthening the military and authoritative elements in +the community. The successful transformation of the anarchy of the great +French Revolution into a career of conquest is a typical example. + +In aristocratic governments such as existed in England during the +eighteenth century, temptations to corruption were especially strong. To +build up a vast system of parliamentary influence by rotten boroughs, +and, by systematically bestowing honours on those who could control +them, to win the support of great corporations and professions by +furthering their interests and abstaining from all efforts to reform +them, was a chief part of the statecraft of the time. Class privileges +in many forms were created, extended and maintained, and in some +countries--though much less in England than on the Continent--the burden +of taxation was most inequitably distributed, falling mainly on the +poor. + +In democratic governments the temptations are of a different kind. +Popularity is there the chief source of power, and the supreme tribunal +consists of numbers counted by the head. The well-being of the great +mass of the people is the true end of politics, but it does not +necessarily follow that the opinion of the least instructed majority is +the best guide to obtaining it. In dwelling upon the temptations of +politicians under such a system I do not now refer merely to the +unscrupulous agitator or demagogue who seeks power, notoriety or +popularity by exciting class envies and animosities, by setting the poor +against the rich and preaching the gospel of public plunder; nor would +I dilate upon the methods so largely employed in the United States of +accumulating, by skilfully devised electoral machinery, great masses of +voting power drawn from the most ignorant voters, and making use of them +for purposes of corruption. I would dwell rather on the bias which +almost inevitably obliges the party leader to measure legislation mainly +by its immediate popularity, and its consequent success in adding to his +voting strength. In some countries this tendency shows itself in lavish +expenditure on public works which provide employment for great masses of +workmen and give a great immediate popularity in a constituency, leaving +to posterity a heavy burden of accumulated debt. Much of the financial +embarrassment of Europe is due to this source, and in most countries +extravagance in government expenditure is more popular than economy. +Sometimes it shows itself in a legislation which regards only proximate +or immediate effects, and wholly neglects those which are distant and +obscure. A far-sighted policy sacrificing the present to a distant +future becomes more difficult; measures involving new principles, but +meeting present embarrassments or securing immediate popularity, are +started with little consideration for the precedents they are +establishing and for the more extensive changes that may follow in their +train. The conditions of labour are altered for the benefit of the +existing workmen, perhaps at the cost of diverting capital from some +great form of industry, making it impossible to resist foreign +competition, and thus in the long run restricting employment and +seriously injuring the very class who were to have been benefited. + +When one party has introduced a measure of this kind the other is under +the strongest temptation to outbid it, and under the stress of +competition and through the fear of being distanced in the race of +popularity both parties often end by going much further than either had +originally intended. When the rights of the few are opposed to the +interests of the many there is a constant tendency to prefer the latter. +It may be that the few are those who have built up an industry; who have +borne all the risk and cost, who have by far the largest interest in its +success. The mere fact that they are the few determines the bias of the +legislators. There is a constant disposition to tamper with even clearly +defined and guaranteed rights if by doing so some large class of voters +can be conciliated. + +Parliamentary life has many merits, but it has a manifest tendency to +encourage short views. The immediate party interest becomes so absorbing +that men find it difficult to look greatly beyond it. The desire of a +skilful debater to use the topics that will most influence the audience +before him, or the desire of a party leader to pursue the course most +likely to be successful in an immediately impending contest, will often +override all other considerations, and the whole tendency of +parliamentary life is to concentrate attention on landmarks which are +not very distant, thinking little of what is beyond. + +One great cause of the inconsistency of parties lies in the absolute +necessity of assimilating legislation. Many, for example, are of opinion +that the existing tendency to introduce government regulations and +interferences into all departments is at least greatly exaggerated, and +that it would be far better if a larger sphere were left to individual +action and free contract. But if large departments of industry have been +brought under the system of regulation, it is practically impossible to +leave analogous industries under a different system, and the men who +most dislike the tendency are often themselves obliged to extend it. +They cannot resist the contention that certain legislative protections +or other special favours have been granted to one class of workmen, and +that there is no real ground for distinguishing their case from that of +others. The dominant tendency will thus naturally extend itself, and +every considerable legislative movement carries others irresistibly in +its train. + +The pressure of this consideration is most painfully felt in the case of +legislation which appears not simply inexpedient and unwise, but +distinctly dishonest. In legislation relating to contracts there is a +clear ethical distinction to be drawn. It is fully within the moral +right of legislators to regulate the conditions of future contracts. It +is a very different thing to break existing contracts, or to take the +still more extreme step of altering their conditions to the benefit of +one party without the assent of the other, leaving that other party +bound by their restrictions. + +In the American Constitution there is a special clause making it +impossible for any State to pass any law violating contracts. In +England, unfortunately, no such provision exists. The most glaring and +undoubted instance of this kind is to be found in the Irish land +legislation which was begun by the Ministry of Mr. Gladstone, but which +has been largely extended by the party that originally most strenuously +opposed it. Much may no doubt be said to palliate it: agricultural +depression; the excessive demand for land; the fact that improvements +were in Ireland usually made by the tenants (who, however, were +perfectly aware of the conditions under which they made them, and whose +rents were proportionately lower); the prevalence in some parts of +Ireland of land customs unsanctioned by law; the existence of a great +revolutionary movement which had brought the country into a condition of +disgraceful anarchy. But when all this has been admitted, it remains +indisputable to every clear and honest mind that English law has taken +away without compensation unquestionably legal property and broken +unquestionably legal contracts. A landlord placed a tenant on his farm +on a yearly tenancy, but if he desired to exercise his plain legal right +of resuming it at the termination of the year, he was compelled to pay a +compensation 'for disturbance,' which might amount to seven times the +yearly rent. A landlord let his land to a farmer for a longer period +under a clear written contract bearing the government stamp, and this +contract defined the rent to be paid, the conditions under which the +farm was to be held, and the number of years during which it was to be +alienated from its owner. The fundamental clause of the lease distinctly +stipulated that at the end of the assigned term the tenant must hand +back that farm to the owner from whom he received it. The law has +interposed, and determined that the rent which this farmer had +undertaken to pay shall be reduced by a government tribunal without the +assent of the owner, and without giving the owner the option of +dissolving the contract and seeking a new tenant. It has gone further, +and provided that at the termination of the lease the tenant shall not +hand back the land to the owner according to the terms of his contract, +but shall remain for all future time the occupier, subject only to a +rent fixed and periodically revised, irrespective of the wishes of the +landlord, by an independent tribunal. Vast masses of property in Ireland +had been sold under the Incumbered Estates Act by a government tribunal +acting as the representative of the Imperial Parliament, and each +purchaser obtained from this tribunal a parliamentary title making him +absolute owner of the soil and of every building upon it, subject only +to the existing tenancies in the schedule. No accounts of the earlier +history of the property were handed to him, for except under the terms +of the leases which had not yet expired he had no liability for anything +in the past. The title he received was deemed so indefeasible that in +one memorable case, where by mistake a portion of the property of one +man had been included in the sale of the property of another man, the +Court of Appeal decided that the injustice could not be remedied, as it +was impossible, except in the case of intentional fraud, to go behind +parliamentary titles.[44] In cases in which the land was let at low +rents, and in cases where tenants held under leases which would soon +expire, the facility of raising the rents was constantly specified by +the authority of the Court as an inducement to purchasers. + +What has become of this parliamentary title? Improvements, if they had +been made, or were presumed to have been made by tenants anterior to the +sale, have ceased to be the property of the purchaser, and he has at the +same time been deprived of some of the plainest and most inseparable +rights of property. He has lost the power of disposing of his farms in +the open market, of regulating the terms and conditions on which he lets +them, of removing a tenant whom he considers unsuitable, of taking the +land back into his own hands when the specified term of a tenancy had +expired, of availing himself of the enhanced value which a war or a +period of great prosperity, or some other exceptional circumstance, may +have given to his property. He has become a simple rent-charger on the +land which by inheritance or purchase was incontestably his own, and the +amount of his rent-charge is settled and periodically revised by a +tribunal in which he has no voice, and which has been given an absolute +power over his estate. He bought or inherited an exclusive right. The +law has turned it into a dual ownership. A tenant right which, when he +obtained his property, was wholly unknown to the law, and was only +generally recognised by custom in one province, has been carved out of +it. The tenant who happened to be in occupation when the law was passed +can, without the consent of the owner, sell to another the right of +occupying the farm at the existing rent. In numerous cases this tenant +right is more valuable than the fee simple of the farm. In many cases a +farmer who had eagerly begged to be a tenant at a specified rent has +afterwards gone into the land court and had that rent reduced, and has +then proceeded to sell the tenant right for a sum much more than +equivalent to the difference between the two rents. In many cases this +has happened where there could be no possible question of improvements +by the tenant. The tenant right of the smaller farms has steadily risen +in proportion as the rent has been reduced. In many cases, no doubt, the +excessive price of tenant right may be attributed to the land hunger or +passion for land speculation so common in Ireland, or to some +exceptional cause inducing a farmer to give an extravagant price for the +tenant right of a particular farm. But although in such instances the +price of tenant right is a deceptive test, the movement, when it is a +general one, is a clear proof that the reduction of rent did not +represent an equivalent decline in the marketable value of the land, but +was simply a gratuitous transfer, by the State, of property from one +person to another. Having in the first place turned the exclusive +ownership of the landlord into a simple partnership, the tribunal +proceeded, in defiance of all equity, to throw the whole burden of the +agricultural depression on one of the two partners. The law did, it is +true, reserve to the landlord the right of pre-emption, or in other +words the right of purchasing the tenant right when it was for sale, at +a price to be determined by the Court, and thus becoming once more the +absolute owner of his farm. The sum specified by the Court was usually +about sixteen years' purchase of the judicial rent. By the payment of +this large sum he may regain the property which a few years ago was +incontestably his own, which was held by him under the most secure title +known to English law, and which was taken from him, not by any process +of honest purchase, but by an act of simple legislative confiscation. + +Whatever palliations of expediency may be alleged, the true nature of +this legislation cannot reasonably be questioned, and it has established +a precedent which is certain to grow. The point, however, on which I +would especially dwell is that the very party which most strongly +opposed it, and which most clearly exposed its gross and essential +dishonesty, have found themselves, or believed themselves to be, bound +not only to accept it but to extend it. They have contended that, as a +matter of practical politics, it is impossible to grant such privileges +to one class of agricultural tenants and to withhold it from others. The +chief pretext for this legislation in its first stages was that it was +for the benefit of very poor tenants who were incapable of making their +own bargains, and that the fixity of tenure which the law gave to yearly +tenants as long as they paid their rents had been very generally +voluntarily given them by good landlords. But the measure was soon +extended by a Unionist government to the leaseholders, who are the +largest and most independent class of farmers, and who held their land +for a definite time and under a distinct written contract. It is in +truth much more the shrewder and wealthier farmers than the poor and +helpless ones that this legislation has chiefly benefited. + +Instances of this kind, in which strong expediency or an absolute +political necessity is in apparent conflict with elementary principles +of right and wrong, are among the most difficult with which a politician +has to deal. He must govern the country and preserve it in a condition +of tolerable order, and he sometimes persuades himself that without a +capitulation to anarchy, without attacks on property and violations of +contract, this is impossible. Whether the necessity is as absolute or +the expediency as rightly calculated as he supposed, may indeed be open +to much question, but there can be no doubt that most of the English +statesmen who carried the Irish agrarian legislation sincerely believed +it, and some of them imagined that they were giving a security and +finality to the property which was left, that would indemnify the +plundered landlords. Perhaps, under such circumstances, the most that +can be said is that wise legislators will endeavour, by encouraging +purchase on a large scale, gradually to restore the absolute ownership +and the validity of contract which have been destroyed, and at the same +time to compensate indirectly--if they cannot do it directly--the former +owners for that portion of their losses which is not due to merely +economical causes, but to acts of the legislature that were plainly +fraudulent. + +There are other temptations of a different kind with which party leaders +have to deal. One of the most serious is the tendency to force questions +for which there is no genuine desire, in order to restore the unity or +the zeal of a divided or dispirited party. As all politicians know, the +desire for an attractive programme and a popular election cry is one of +the strongest in politics, and, as they also know well, there is such a +thing as manufactured public opinion and artificially stimulated +agitation. Questions are raised and pushed, not because they are for the +advantage of the country, but simply for the purposes of party. The +leaders have often little or no power of resistance. The pressure of +their followers, or of a section of their followers, becomes +irresistible; ill-considered hopes are held out; rash pledges are +extorted, and the party as a whole is committed. Much premature and +mischievous legislation may be traced to such causes. + +Another very difficult question is the manner in which governments +should deal with the acts of public servants which are intended for the +public service, but which in some of their parts are morally +indefensible. Very few of the great acquisitions of nations have been +made by means that were absolutely blameless, and in a great empire +which has to deal with uncivilised or semi-civilised populations acts of +violence are certain to be not infrequent. Neither in our judgments of +history nor in our judgments of contemporaries is it possible to apply +the full stringency of private morals to the cases of men acting in +posts of great responsibility and danger amid the storms of revolution, +or panic, or civil war. With the vast interests confided to their care, +and the terrible dangers that surround them, measures must often be +taken which cannot be wholly or at least legally justified. On the other +hand, men in such circumstances are only too ready to accept the +principle of Macchiavelli and of Napoleon, and to treat politics as if +they had absolutely no connection with morals. + +Cases of this kind must be considered separately and with a careful +examination of the motives of the actor and of the magnitude of the +dangers he had to encounter. Allowances must be made for the moral +atmosphere in which he moved, and his career must be considered as a +whole, and not only in its peccant parts. In the trial of Warren +Hastings, and in the judgments which historians have passed on the +lives of the other great adventurers who have built up the Empire, +questions of this kind continually arise. + +In our own day also they have been very frequent. The _Coup d'etat_ of +the 2nd of December, 1851, is an extreme example. Louis Napoleon had +sworn to observe and to defend the Constitution of the French Republic, +which had been established in 1848, and that Constitution, among other +articles, pronounced the persons of the representatives of the people to +be inviolable; declared every act of the President which dissolved the +Assembly or prorogued it, or in any way trammelled it in the exercise of +its functions, to be high treason, and guaranteed the fullest liberty of +writing and discussion. 'The oath which I have just taken,' said the +President, addressing the Assembly, 'commands my future conduct. My duty +is clear; I will fulfil it as a man of honour. I shall regard as enemies +of the country all those who endeavour to change by illegal means what +all France has established.' In more than one subsequent speech he +reiterated the same sentiments and endeavoured to persuade the country +that under no possible circumstances would he break his oath or violate +his conscience, or overstep the limits of his constitutional powers. + +What he did is well known. Before daybreak on December 2, some of the +most eminent statesmen in France, including eighteen members of the +Chamber, were, by his orders, arrested in their beds and sent to prison, +and many of them afterwards to exile. The Chamber was occupied by +soldiers, and its members, who assembled in another place, were marched +to prison. The High Court of Justice was dissolved by force. Martial +law was proclaimed. Orders were given that all who resisted the +usurpation in the streets were at once, and without trial, to be shot. +All liberty of the press, all liberty of public meeting or discussion, +were absolutely destroyed. About one hundred newspapers were suppressed +and great numbers of their editors transported to Cayenne. Nothing was +allowed to be published without Government authority. In order to +deceive the people as to the amount of support behind the President, a +'Consultative Commission' was announced and the names were placarded in +Paris. Fully half the persons whose names were placed on this list +refused to serve, but in spite of their protests their names were kept +there in order that they might appear to have approved of what was +done.[45] Orders were issued immediately after the _Coup d'etat_ that +every public functionary who did not instantly give in writing his +adhesion to the new Government should be dismissed. The Prefets were +given the right to arrest in their departments whoever they pleased. By +an _ex post facto_ decree, issued on December 8, the Executive were +enabled without trial to send to Cayenne, or to the penal settlements in +Africa, any persons who had in any past time belonged to a 'secret +society,' and this order placed all the numerous members of political +clubs at the mercy of the Government. Parliament, when it was suffered +to reassemble, was so organised and shackled that every vestige of free +discussion for many years disappeared, and a despotism of almost +Asiatic severity was established in France. + +It may be fully conceded that the tragedy of December 4, when for more +than a quarter of an hour some 3,000 French soldiers deliberately fired +volley after volley without return upon the unoffending spectators on +the Boulevards, broke into the houses and killed multitudes, not only of +men but of women and children, till the Boulevards, in the words of an +English eye-witness, were 'at some points a perfect shambles,' and the +blood lay in pools round the trees that fringed them, was not ordered by +the President, though it remained absolutely unpunished and uncensured +by him. There is conflicting evidence on this point, but it is probable +that some stray shots had been fired from the houses, and it is certain +that a wild and sanguinary panic had fallen upon the soldiers. It is +possible too, and not improbable, that the stories so generally believed +in Paris that large batches of prisoners, who had been arrested, were +brought out of prison in the dead hours of the night and deliberately +shot by bodies of soldiers, may have been exaggerated or untrue. Maupas, +who was Prefet of Police, and who must have known the truth, positively +denied it; but the question what credence should be attached to a man of +his antecedents who boasted that he had been from the first a leading +agent in the whole conspiracy may be reasonably asked.[46] Evidence of +these things, as has been truly said, could scarcely be obtained, for +the press was absolutely gagged and all possibility of investigation was +prevented. For the number of those who were transported or forcibly +expelled within the few weeks after December 2, we may perhaps rely upon +the historian and panegyrist of the Empire. He computes them at the +enormous number of 26,500.[47] After the Plebiscite new measures of +proscription were taken, and, according to Emile Ollivier, one of the +most enthusiastic and skilful eulogists of the _Coup d'etat_, in the +first months of 1852 there were from 15,000 to 20,000 political +prisoners in the French prisons.[48] It was by such means that Louis +Napoleon attained the empire which had been the dream of his life. + +Like many, however, of the great crimes of history, this was not without +its palliations, and a more detailed investigation will show that those +palliations were not inconsiderable. Napoleon had been elected to the +presidency by 5,434,226 votes out of 7,317,344 which were given, and +with his name, his antecedents, and his well-known aspirations, this +overwhelming majority clearly showed what were the real wishes of the +people. His power rested on universal suffrage; it was independent of +the Chamber. It gave him the direction of the army, though he could not +command it in person, and from the very beginning he assumed an +independent and almost regal position. In the first review that took +place after his election he was greeted by the soldiers with cries of +'Vive Napoleon! Vive l'Empereur!' It was soon proved that the +Constitution of 1848 was exceedingly unworkable. In the words of Lord +Palmerston: 'There were two great powers, each deriving its existence +from the same source, almost sure to disagree, but with no umpire to +decide between them, and neither able by any legal means to get rid of +the other.' The President could not dissolve the Chamber, but he could +impose upon it any ministry he chose. He was himself elected for only +four years, and he could not be re-elected, while by a most fatuous +provision the powers of the President and the Chamber were to expire in +1852 at the same time, leaving France without a government and exposed +to the gravest danger of anarchy. + +The Legislative Assembly, which was elected in May, 1849, was, it is +true, far from being a revolutionary one. It contained a minority of +desperate Socialists, it was broken into many factions, and like most +democratic French Chambers it showed much weakness and inconsistency; +but the vast majority of its members were Conservatives who had no kind +of sympathy with revolution, and its conduct towards the President, if +fairly judged, was on the whole very moderate. He soon treated it with +contempt, and it was quite evident that there was no national enthusiasm +behind it. The Socialist party was growing rapidly in the great towns; +in June, 1849, there was an abortive Socialist insurrection in Paris, +and a somewhat more formidable one at Lyons. They were easily put down, +but the Socialists captured a great part of the representation of Paris, +and they succeeded in producing a wild panic throughout the country. It +led to several reactionary measures, the most important being a law +which by imposing new conditions of residence very considerably limited +the suffrage. This law was presented to the Chamber by the Ministers of +the President and with his assent, though he subsequently demanded the +reestablishment of universal suffrage, and made a decree effecting this +one of the chief justifications of his _Coup d'etat_. The restrictive +law was carried through the Chamber on May 31, 1850, by an immense +majority, but it was denounced with great eloquence by some of its +leading members, and it added seriously to the unpopularity of the +Assembly, and greatly lowered its authority in contending with a +President whose authority rested on direct universal suffrage. More than +once he exercised his power of dismissing and appointing ministries +absolutely irrespective of its votes and wishes, and in each case in +order to fill all posts of power with creatures of his own. The +newspapers supporting him continually inveighed against the Chamber, and +dwelt upon the danger of anarchy to which France would be exposed in +1852 and upon the absolute necessity of 'a Saviour of Society.' In +repeated journeys through France, and in more than one military review, +the President gave the occasion of demonstrations in which the cries of +'Vive l'Empereur!' were often heard, and which were manifestly intended +to strengthen him in his conflict with the Chamber. + +The man from whom he had most to fear was Changarnier, who since the +close of 1848 had been commander of the troops in Paris, and whose name, +though far less popular than that of Napoleon, had much weight with the +army. He was a man with strong leanings to authority, and was much +courted by the monarchical parties, but was for some time in decided +sympathy with Napoleon, from whom, however, in spite of large offers +that had been made him, he gradually diverged. He issued peremptory +orders to the troops under his command, forbidding all party cries at +reviews. He declared in the Chamber that these cries had been 'not only +encouraged but provoked,' and when the intention of the President to +prolong his presidency became apparent, he assured Odilon Barrot that he +was prepared, if ordered by the minister and authorised by the President +of the Chamber, to anticipate the _Coup d'etat_ by seizing and +imprisoning Louis Napoleon.[49] The President succeeded in removing him +from his command, and in placing a creature of his own at the head of +the Paris troops; but though Changarnier acquiesced without resistance +in his dismissal, he remained an important member of the Assembly; he +openly declared that his sword was at its service, and if an armed +conflict broke out it was tolerably certain that he would be its +representative. The President had an official salary of 48,000 +_l_.--nearly five times as much as the President of the United States. +The Chamber refused to increase it, though they consented by a very +small majority, and at the request of Changarnier, to pay his debts. + +The demand for a revision of the Constitution, making it possible for +the President to be re-elected, was rising rapidly through the country, +and there can be but little doubt that this was generally looked forward +to as the only peaceful solution, and that it represented the real wish +of the great majority of the people. Petitions in favour of it, bearing +an enormous number of signatures, were presented to the Chamber, and the +overwhelming majority of the Conseils Generaux of which the Deputies +generally formed part voted for revision. The President did not so much +petition for it as demand it. In a message he sent to the Chamber, he +declared that if they did not vote Revision the people would, in 1852, +solemnly manifest their wishes. In a speech at Dijon, June 1, 1851, he +declared that France from end to end demanded it; that he would follow +the wishes of the nation, and that France would not perish in his hands. +In the same speech he accused the Chamber of never seconding his wishes +to ameliorate the lot of the people. He at the same time lost no +opportunity of showing that his special sympathy and trust lay with the +army, and he singled out with marked favour the colonels of the +regiments which had shown themselves at the reviews most prominent in +demonstrations in his favour.[50] The meaning of all this was hardly +doubtful. Changarnier took up the gauntlet, and at a time when the +question of Revision was before the Chamber he declared that no soldier +would ever be induced to move against the law and the Assembly, and he +called upon the Deputies to deliberate in peace. + +The Revision was voted in the Chamber by 446 votes to 278, but a +majority of three-fourths was required for a constitutional change, and +this majority was not obtained, and in the disintegrated condition of +French parties it seemed scarcely likely to be obtained. The Chamber +was soon after prorogued for about two months, leaving the situation +unchanged, and the tension and panic were extreme. Out of eighty-five +Conseils Generaux in France, eighty passed votes in favour of Revision, +three abstained, two only opposed. + +The President had now fully resolved upon a _Coup d'etat_, and before +the Chamber reassembled a new ministry was constituted, St.-Arnaud being +at the head of the army, and Maupas at the head of the police. His first +step was to summon the Chamber to repeal the law of May 31 which +abolished universal suffrage. The Chamber, after much hesitation, +refused, but only by two votes. The belief that the question could only +be solved by force was becoming universal, and the bolder spirits in the +Chamber clearly saw that if no new measure was taken they were likely to +be helpless before the military party. By a decree of 1848 the President +of the Chamber had a right, if necessary, to call for troops for its +protection independently of the Minister of War, and a motion was now +made that he should be able to select a general to whom he might +delegate this power. Such a measure, dividing the military command and +enabling the Chamber to have its own general and its own army, might +have proved very efficacious, but it would probably have involved France +in civil war, and the President was resolved that, if the Chamber voted +it, the _Coup d'etat_ should immediately take place. The vote was taken +on November 17, 1851. St.-Arnaud, as Minister of War, opposed the +measure on constitutional grounds, dilating on the danger of a divided +military command, but during the discussion Maupas and Magnan were in +the gallery of the Chamber, waiting to give orders to St.-Arnaud to call +out the troops and to surround and dissolve the Chamber if the +proposition was carried. + +It was, however, rejected by a majority of 108, and a few troubled days +of conspiracy and panic still remained before the blow was struck. The +state of the public securities and the testimony of the best judges of +all parties showed the genuineness of the alarm. It was not true, as the +President stated in the proclamation issued when the _Coup d'etat_ was +accomplished, that the Chamber had become a mere nest of conspiracies, +and there was a strange audacity in his assertion that he made the _Coup +d'etat_ for the purpose of maintaining the Republic against monarchical +plots; but it was quite true that the conviction was general that force +had become inevitable; that the chief doubt was whether the first blow +would be struck by Napoleon or Changarnier, and that while the evident +desire of the majority of the people was to re-elect Napoleon, there was +a design among some members of the Chamber to seize him by force and to +elect in his place some member of the House of Orleans.[51] On December +2 the curtain fell, and Napoleon accompanied his _Coup d'etat_ by a +decree dissolving the Chamber, restoring by his own authority universal +suffrage, abolishing the law of May 31, establishing a state of siege, +and calling on the French people to judge his action by their vote. + +It was certainly not an appeal upon which great confidence could be +placed. Immediately after the _Coup d'etat_, the army, which was wholly +on his side, voted separately and openly in order that France might +clearly know that the armed forces were with the President and might be +able to predict the consequences of a verdict unfavourable to his +pretensions. When, nearly three weeks later, the civilian Plebiscite +took place, martial law was in force. Public meetings of every kind were +forbidden. No newspaper hostile to the new authority was permitted. No +electioneering paper or placard could be circulated which had not been +sanctioned by Government officials. The terrible decree that all who had +ever belonged to a secret society might be sent to die in the fevers of +Africa was interpreted in the widest sense, and every political society +or organisation was included in it. All the functionaries of a highly +centralised country were turned into ardent electioneering agents, and +the question was so put that the voters had no alternative except for or +against the President, a negative vote leaving the country with no +government and an almost certain prospect of anarchy and civil war. +Under these circumstances 7,500,000 votes were given for the President +and 500,000 against him. + +But after all deductions have been made there can be no real doubt that +the majority of Frenchmen acquiesced in the new _regime_. The terror of +Socialism was abroad, and it brought with it an ardent desire for strong +government. The probabilities of a period of sanguinary anarchy were so +great that multitudes were glad to be secured from it at almost any +cost. Parliamentarism was profoundly discredited. The peasant +proprietary had never cared for it, and the bourgeois class, among whom +it had once been popular, were now thoroughly scared. Nothing in the +contemporary accounts of the period is more striking than the +indifference, the almost amused cynicism, or the sense of relief with +which the great mass of Frenchmen seem to have witnessed the destruction +of their Constitution and the gross insults inflicted upon a Chamber +which included so many of the most illustrious of their countrymen. + +We can hardly have a better authority on this point than Tocqueville. No +one felt more profoundly or more bitterly the iniquity of what had been +done; but he was under no illusion about the sentiments of the people. +The Constitution, he says, was thoroughly unpopular. 'Louis Napoleon had +the merit or the luck to discover what few suspected--the latent +Bonapartism of the nation.... The memory of the Emperor, vague and +undefined, but therefore the more imposing, still dwelt like an heroic +legend in the imaginations of the people.' All the educated, in the +opinion of Tocqueville, condemned and repudiated the _Coup d'etat_. +'Thirty-seven years of liberty have made a free press and free +parliamentary discussion necessary to us.' But the bulk of the nation +was not with them. The new Government, he predicted, 'will last until it +is unpopular with the mass of the people. At present the disapprobation +is confined to the educated classes.' 'The reaction against democracy +and even against liberty is irresistible.'[52] + +There is no doubt some exaggeration on both sides of this statement. +The appalling magnitude of the deportations and imprisonments by the new +Government seems to show that the hatred went deeper than Tocqueville +supposed, and on the other hand it can hardly be said that the educated +classes wholly repudiated what had been done when we remember that the +French Funds at once rose from 91 to 102, that nearly all branches of +French commerce made a similar spring,[53] that some twenty generals +were actively engaged in the conspiracy, and that the great body of the +priests were delighted at its success. The truth seems to be that the +property of France saw in the success of the _Coup d'etat_ an escape +from a great danger, while two powerful professions, the army and the +Church, were strongly in favour of the President. Over the army the name +of Napoleon exercised a magical influence, and the expedition to Rome +and the probability that the new government would be under clerical +guidance were, in the eyes of the Church party, quite sufficient to +justify what had been done. + +Nothing, indeed, in this strange history is more significant than the +attitude assumed by the special leaders and representatives of the +Church which teaches that 'it were better for the sun and moon to drop +from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all of the many millions +upon it to die of starvation in extremest agony, so far as temporal +affliction goes, than that one soul ... should commit one venial sin, +should tell one wilful untruth.'[54] + +Three illustrious churchmen--Lacordaire, Ravignan and Dupanloup--to +their immortal honour refused to give any approbation to the _Coup +d'etat_ or to express any confidence in its author. But the latest +panegyrist of the Empire boasts that they were almost alone in their +profession. By the advice of the Papal Nuncio and of the leading French +bishops, the clergy lost no time in presenting their felicitations. +Veuillot, who more than any other man represented and influenced the +vast majority of the French priesthood, wrote on what had been done with +undisguised and unqualified exultation and delight. Even Montalembert +rallied to the Government on the morrow of the _Coup d'etat_. He +described Louis Napoleon as a Prince 'who had shown a more efficacious +and intelligent devotion to religious interests than any of those who +had governed France during sixty years;' and it was universally admitted +that the great body of the clergy, with Archbishop Sibour at their head, +were in this critical moment ardent supporters of the new +government.[55] Kinglake, in a page of immortal beauty, has described +the scene when, thirty days after the _Coup d'etat_, Louis Napoleon +appeared in Notre Dame to receive, amid all the pomp that Catholic +ceremonial could give, the solemn blessing of the Church, and to listen +to the Te Deum thanking the Almighty for what had been accomplished. The +time came, it is true, when the policy of the priests was changed, for +they found that Louis Napoleon was more liberal and less clerical than +they imagined; but in estimating the feelings with which French +Liberals judge the Church, its attitude towards the perjury and violence +of December 2 should never be forgotten. + +To those who judge the political ethics of the Roman Catholic Church not +from the deceptive pages of such writers as Newman, but from an +examination of its actual conduct in the different periods of its +history, it will appear in no degree inconsistent. It is but another +instance added to many of the manner in which it regards all acts which +appear conducive to its interests. It was the same spirit that led a +Pope to offer public thanks for the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and to +order Vasari to paint the murder of Coligny on the walls of the Vatican +among the triumphs of the Church. No Christian sovereign of modern times +has left a worse memory behind him than Ferdinand II. of Naples, who +received the Pope when he fled to Gaeta in 1848. He was the sovereign +whose government was described by Gladstone as 'a negation of God.' He +not only destroyed the Constitution he had sworn to observe, but threw +into a loathsome dungeon the Liberal ministers who had trusted him. But +in the eyes of the Pope his services to the Church far outweighed all +defects, and the monument erected to this 'most pious prince' may be +seen in one of the chapels of St. Peter's. Every visitor to Paris may +see the fresco in the Madeleine in which Napoleon I. appears seated +triumphant on the clouds and surrounded by an admiring priesthood, the +most prominent and glorified figure in a picture representing the +history of French Christianity, with Christ above, blessing the work. + +It is indeed a most significant fact that in Catholic countries the +highest moral level in public life is now rarely to be found among those +who specially represent the spirit and teaching of their Church, and +much more frequently among men who are unconnected with it, and often +with all dogmatic theology. How seldom has the distinctively Catholic +press seriously censured unjust wars, unscrupulous alliances, violations +of constitutional obligations, unprovoked aggressions, great outbursts +of intolerance and fanaticism! It is, indeed, not too much to say that +some of the worst moral perversions of modern times have been supported +and stimulated by a great body of genuinely Catholic opinion both in the +priesthood and in the press. The anti-Semite movement, the shameful +indifference to justice shown in France in the Dreyfus case, and the +countless frauds, outrages and oppressions that accompanied the +domination of the Irish Land League are recent and conspicuous examples. + +Among secular-minded laymen the _Coup d'etat_ of Louis Napoleon was, as +I have said, differently judged. Few things in French history are more +honourable than the determination with which so many men who were the +very flower of the French nation refused to take the oath or give their +adhesion to the new Government. Great statesmen and a few distinguished +soldiers, with a splendid past behind them and with the prospect of an +illustrious career before them; men of genius who in their professorial +chairs had been the centres of the intellectual life of France; +functionaries who had by laborious and persevering industry climbed the +steps of their profession and depended for their livelihood on its +emoluments, accepted poverty, exile and the long eclipse of the most +honourable ambitions rather than take an oath which seemed to justify +the usurpation. At the same time, some statesmen of unquestionable +honour did not wholly and in all its parts condemn it. Lord Palmerston +was conspicuous among them. Without expressing approval of all that had +been done, he always maintained that the condition of France was such +that a violent subversion of an unworkable Constitution and the +establishment of a strong government had become absolutely necessary; +that the _Coup d'etat_ saved France from the gravest and most imminent +danger of anarchy and civil war, and that this fact was its +justification. If it had not been for the acts of ferocious tyranny +which immediately followed it, his opinion would have been more largely +shared. + +It is probable that the moral character of _Coups d'etat_ may in the +future not unfrequently come into discussion in Europe, as it has often +done in South America. As the best observers are more and more +perceiving, parliamentary government worked upon party lines is by no +means an easy thing, and it seldom attains perfection without long +experience and without qualities of mind and character which are very +unequally distributed among the nations of the world. It requires a +spirit of compromise, patience and moderation; the kind of mind which +can distinguish the solid, the practical and the well meaning, from the +brilliant, the plausible and the ambitious, which cares more for useful +results and for the conciliation of many interests and opinions than for +any rigid uniformity and consistency of principle; which, while +pursuing personal ambitions and party aims, can subordinate them on +great occasions to public interests. It needs a combination of +independence and discipline which is not common, and where it does not +exist parliaments speedily degenerate either into an assemblage of +puppets in the hands of party leaders or into disintegrated, +demoralised, insubordinate groups. Some of the foremost nations of the +world--nations distinguished for noble and brilliant intellect; for +splendid heroism; for great achievements in peace and war--have in this +form of government conspicuously failed. In England it has grown with +our growth and strengthened with our strength. We have practised it in +many phases. Its traditions have taken deep root and are in full harmony +with the national character. But in the present century this kind of +government has been adopted by many nations which are wholly unfit for +it, and they have usually adopted it in the most difficult of all +forms--that of an uncontrolled democracy resting upon universal +suffrage. It is becoming very evident that in many countries such +assemblies are wholly incompetent to take the foremost place in +government, but they are so fenced round by oaths and other +constitutional forms that nothing short of violence can take from them a +power which they are never likely voluntarily to relinquish. In such +countries democracy tends much less naturally to the parliamentary +system than to some form of dictatorship, to some despotism resting on +and justified by a plebiscite. It is probable that many transitions in +this direction will take place. They will seldom be carried out through +purely public motives or without perjury and violence. But public +opinion will judge each case on its own merits, and where it can be +shown that its results are beneficial and that large sections of the +people have desired it, such an act will not be severely condemned. + +Cases of conflicting ethical judgments of another kind may be easily +cited. One of the best known was that of Governor Eyre at the time of +the Jamaica insurrection of 1865. In this case there was no question of +personal interest or ambition. The Governor was a man of stainless +honour, who in a moment of extreme difficulty and danger had rendered a +great service to his country. By his prompt and courageous action a +negro insurrection was quickly suppressed, which, if it had been allowed +to extend, must have brought untold horrors upon Jamaica. But the +martial law which he had proclaimed was certainly continued longer than +was necessary, it was exercised with excessive severity, and those who +were tried under it were not merely men who had been taken in arms. One +conspicuous civilian agitator, who had contributed greatly to stimulate +the insurrection, and had been, in the opinion of the Governor, its +'chief cause and origin,' but who, like most men of his kind, had merely +incited others without taking any direct part himself, was arrested in a +part of the island in which martial law was not proclaimed, and was +tried and hanged by orders of a military tribunal in a way which the +best legal authorities in England pronounced wholly unwarranted by law. +If this act had been considered apart from the general conditions of the +island it would have deserved severe punishment. If the services of the +Governor had been considered apart from this act they would have +deserved high honours from the Crown. In Jamaica the Governor was fully +supported by the Legislative Council and the Assembly, but at home +public opinion was fiercely divided, and the fact that the chief +literary and scientific men in England took sides on the question added +greatly to its interest. Carlyle took a leading part in the defence of +Governor Eyre. John Stuart Mill was the chairman of a committee who +regarded him as a simple criminal, and who for more than two years +pursued him with a persistent vindictiveness. As might have been +expected the one side dwelt solely on his services and the other side on +his misdeeds. Governor Eyre received no reward for the great service he +had rendered, and he was involved by his enemies in a ruinous legal +expenditure, which, however, was subsequently paid by the Government; +but those who desired to bring him to trial for murder were baffled, for +the Old Bailey Grand Jury threw out the bill. Public opinion, I think, +on the whole, approved of what they had done. Most moderate men had come +to the conclusion that Governor Eyre was a brave and honourable man who +had rendered great services to the State and had saved countless lives, +but who, through no unworthy motive and in a time of extreme danger and +panic, had committed a serious mistake which had been very amply +expiated. + +The more recent events connected with the Jameson raid into the +Transvaal may also be cited. Of the raid itself there is little to be +said. It was, in truth, one of the most discreditable as well as +mischievous events in recent colonial history, and its character was +entirely unrelieved by any gleam either of heroism or of skill. Those +who took a direct part in it were duly tried and duly punished. A +section of English society adopted on this question a disgraceful +attitude, but it must at least be said in palliation that they had been +grossly deceived, one of the chief and usually most trustworthy organs +of opinion having been made use of as an organ of the conspirators. + +A more difficult question arose in the case of the statesman who had +prepared and organized the expedition against the Transvaal. It is +certain that the actual raid had taken place without his knowledge or +consent, though when it was brought to his knowledge he abstained from +taking any step to stop it. It may be conceded also that there were real +grievances to be complained of. By a strange irony of fate some of the +largest gold mines of the world had fallen to the possession of perhaps +the only people who did not desire them; of a race of hunters and +farmers intensely hostile to modern ideas, who had twice abandoned their +homes and made long journeys into distant lands in search of solitude +and space and of a home where they could live their primitive, pastoral +lives, undisturbed by any foreign element. These men now found their +country the centre of a vast stream of foreign immigration, and of that +most undesirable kind of immigration which gold mines invariably +promote. Their laws were very backward, but the part which was most +oppressive was that connected with the gold-mining industry which was +almost entirely in the hands of the immigrants, and it was this which +made it a main object to overthrow their government. The trail of +finance runs over the whole story, but it may be acknowledged that, +although Mr. Rhodes had made an enormous fortune by mining speculations, +and although he was largely interested as a financier in overturning the +system of government at Johannesburg, he was not a man likely to be +actuated by mere love of money, and that political ambition closely +connected with the opening and the civilisation of Africa largely +actuated him. Whether the motives of his co-conspirators were of the +same kind may be open to question. What, however, he did has been very +clearly established. When holding the highly confidential position of +Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, and being at the same time a Privy +Councillor of the Queen, he engaged in a conspiracy for the overthrow of +the government of a neighbouring and friendly State. In order to carry +out this design he deceived the High Commissioner whose Prime Minister +he was. He deceived his own colleagues in the Ministry. He collected +under false pretences a force which was intended to co-operate with an +insurrection in Johannesburg. Being a Director of the Chartered Company +he made use of that position, without the knowledge of his colleagues, +to further the conspiracy. He took an active and secret part in +smuggling great quantities of arms into the Transvaal, which were +intended to be used in the rebellion; and at a time when his organs in +the press were representing Johannesburg as seething with spontaneous +indignation against an oppressive government, he, with another +millionaire, was secretly expending many thousands of pounds in that +town in stimulating and subsidising the rising. He was also directly +connected with the shabbiest incident in the whole affair, the +concoction of a letter from the Johannesburg conspirators absurdly +representing English women and children at Johannesburg as in danger of +being shot down by the Boers, and urging the British to come at once to +save them. It was a letter drawn up with the sanction of Mr. Rhodes many +weeks before the raid, and before any disturbance had arisen, and kept +in reserve to be dated and used in the last moment for the purpose of +inducing the young soldiers in South Africa to join in the raid, and of +subsequently justifying their conduct before the War Office, and also +for the purpose of being published in the English press at the same time +as the first news of the raid, in order to work upon English public +opinion and persuade the English people that the raid, though +technically wrong, was morally justifiable.[56] + +Mr. Rhodes is a man of great genius and influence, and in the past he +has rendered great services to the Empire. At the same time no +reasonable judge can question that in these transactions he was more +blamable than those who were actually punished by the law for taking +part in the raid--far more blamable than those young officers who were, +in truth, the most severely punished, and who had been induced to take +part in it under a false representation of the wishes of the Government +at home, and a grossly false representation of the state of things at +Johannesburg. The failure of the raid, and his undoubted complicity +with its design, obliged Mr. Rhodes to resign the post of Prime Minister +and his directorship of the Chartered Company, and, for a time at least, +eclipsed his influence in Africa; but the question confronted the +Ministers whether these resignations alone constituted a sufficient +punishment for what he had done. + +The question was indeed one of great difficulty. The Government, in my +opinion, were right in not attempting a prosecution which, in the face +of the fact that the actual raid had certainly been undertaken without +the knowledge of Mr. Rhodes, and that the evidence against him was +chiefly drawn from his own voluntary admissions before the committee of +inquiry, would inevitably have proved abortive. They were, perhaps, +right in not taking from him the dignity of Privy Councillor, which had +been bestowed on him as a reward for great services in the past, and +which had never in the present reign been taken from anyone on whom it +had been bestowed. They were right also, I believe, in urging that after +a long and elaborate inquiry into the circumstances of the raid, and +after a report in which Mr. Rhodes's conduct had been fully examined and +severely censured, it was most important for the peace and good +government of South Africa that the matter should as soon as possible be +allowed to drop, and the raid and the party animosities it had aroused +to subside. But what can be thought of the language of a Minister who +volunteered to assure the House of Commons that in all the transactions +I have described, Mr. Rhodes, though he had made 'a gigantic mistake,' a +mistake perhaps as great as a statesman could make, had done nothing +affecting his personal honour?[57] + +The foregoing examples will serve to illustrate the kind of difficulty +which every statesman has to encounter in dealing with political +misdeeds, and the impossibility of treating them by the clearly defined +lines and standards that are applicable to the morals of a private life. +Whatever conclusions men may arrive at in the seclusion of their +studies, when they take part in active political life they will find it +necessary to make large allowances for motives, tendencies, past +services, pressing dangers, overwhelming expediencies, opposing +interests. Every statesman who is worthy of the name has a strong +predisposition to support the public servants who are under him when he +knows that they have acted with a sincere desire to benefit the Empire. +This is, indeed, a characteristic of all really great statesmen, and it +gives a confidence and energy to the public service which in times of +difficulty and danger are of supreme importance. In such times a +mistaken decision is usually a less evil than timid, vacillating, or +procrastinated action, and a wise Minister will go far to defend his +subordinates if they have acted promptly and with substantial justice in +the way they believed to be best, even though they may have made +considerable mistakes, and though the results of their action may have +proved unfortunate. + +But of all forms of prestige, moral prestige is the most valuable, and +no statesman should forget that one of the chief elements of British +power is the moral weight that is behind it. It is the conviction that +British policy is essentially honourable and straightforward, that the +word and honour of its statesmen and diplomatists may be implicitly +trusted, and that intrigues and deceptions are wholly alien to their +nature. The statesman must steer his way between rival fanaticisms--the +fanaticism of those who pardon everything if it is crowned by success +and conduces to the greatness of the Empire, and who act as if weak +Powers and savage nations had no moral rights; and the fanaticism of +those who always seem to have a leaning against their own country, and +who imagine that in times of war, anarchy, or rebellion, and in dealings +with savage or half-savage military populations, it is possible to act +with the same respect for the technicalities of law, and the same +invariably high standard of moral scrupulousness, as in a peaceful age +and a highly civilised country. In the affairs of private life the +distinction between right and wrong is usually very clear, but it is not +so in public affairs. Even the moral aspects of political acts can +seldom be rightly estimated without the exercise of a large, judicial, +and comprehensive judgment, and the spirit which should actuate a +statesman should be rather that of a high-minded and honourable man of +the world than that of a theologian, or a lawyer, or an abstract +moralist. + +In some respects the standard of political morality has undoubtedly +risen in modern times; but it is by no means certain that in +international politics this is the case. A true history of the wars of +the last half of the nineteenth century may well lead us to doubt it, +and recent disclosures have shown us that in the most terrible of +them--the Franco-German War of 1870--the blame must be much more equally +divided than we had been accustomed to believe. Very few massacres in +history have been more gigantic or more clearly traced to the action of +a government than those perpetrated by Turkish soldiers in our +generation, and few signs of the low level of public feeling in +Christendom are more impressive than the general indifference with which +these massacres were contemplated in most countries. It was made evident +that a Power which retains its military strength, and which is therefore +sought as an ally and feared as an enemy, may do things with impunity, +and even with very little censure, which in the case of a weak nation +would produce a swift retribution. Among the minor episodes of +nineteenth-century history the historian will not forget how soon after +the savage Armenian massacres the sovereign of one of the greatest and +most civilised of Christian nations hastened to Constantinople to clasp +the hand which was so deeply dyed with Christian blood, and then, +having, as he thought, sufficiently strengthened his popularity and +influence in that quarter, proceeded to the Mount of Olives, where, amid +scenes that are consecrated by the most sacred of all memories, and most +fitted to humble the pride of power and dispel the dreams of ambition, +he proclaimed himself with melodramatic piety the champion and the +patron of the Christian faith! How many instances may be culled from +very modern history of the deliberate falsehood of statesmen; of +distinct treaty engagements and obligations simply set aside because +they were inconvenient to one Power, and could be repudiated with +impunity; of weak nations annexed or plundered without a semblance of +real provocation! The safety of the weak in the presence of the strong +is the best test of international morality. Can it be said that, if +measured by this test, the public morality of our time ranks very high? +No one can fail to notice with what levity the causes of war with +barbarous or semi-civilised nations are scrutinised if only those wars +are crowned with success; how strongly the present commercial policy of +Europe is stimulating the passion for aggression; how warmly that policy +is in all great nations supported by public opinion and by the Press. + +The questions of morality arising out of these things are many and +complicated, and they cannot be disposed of by short and simple formulae. +How far is a statesman who sees, or thinks he sees, some crushing danger +from an aggressive foreign Power impending over his country, justified +in anticipating that danger, and at a convenient moment and without any +immediate provocation forcing on a war? How far is it his right or his +duty to sacrifice the lives of his people through humanitarian motives, +for the redress of some flagrant wrong with which he is under no treaty +obligation to interfere? How far, if several Powers agree to guarantee +the integrity of a small Power, is one Power bound at great risk to +interfere in isolation if its co-partners refuse to do so or are even +accomplices in a policy of plunder? How far, if the aggression of other +Powers places his nation at a commercial or other disadvantage in the +competition of nations, may a statesman take measures which, under +other circumstances, would be plainly unjustifiable, to guard against +such disadvantage? With what degrees of punctiliousness, at what cost of +treasure and of life, ought a nation to resent insults directed against +its dignity, its subjects and its flag? What is the meaning and what are +the limits of national egotism and national unselfishness? There is such +a thing as the comity of nations, and even apart from treaty obligations +no great nation can pursue a policy of complete isolation, disregarding +crimes and aggressions beyond its border. On the other hand, the primary +duty of every statesman is to his own country. His task is to secure for +many millions of the human race the highest possible amount of peace and +prosperity, and a selfishness is at least not a narrow one which, while +abstaining from injuring others, restricts itself to promoting the +happiness of a vast section of the human race. Sacrifices and dangers +which a good man would think it his clear duty to accept if they fell on +himself alone wear another aspect if he is acting as trustee for a great +nation and for the interests of generations who are yet unborn. Nothing +is more calamitous than the divorce of politics from morals, but in +practical politics public and private morals will never absolutely +correspond. The public opinion of the nation will inevitably inspire and +control its statesmen. It creates in all countries an ethical code which +with greater or less perfection marks out for them the path of duty, and +though a great statesman may do something to raise its level, he can +never wholly escape its influence. In different nations it is higher or +lower--in truthfulness and sincerity of diplomacy the variations are +very great--but it will never be the exact code on which men act in +private life. It is certainly widely different from the Sermon on the +Mount. + +There is one belief, half unconscious, half avowed, which in our +generation is passing widely over the world and is practically accepted +in a very large measure by the English-speaking nations. It is that to +reclaim savage tribes to civilisation, and to place the outlying +dominions of civilised countries which are anarchical or grossly +misgoverned in the hands of rulers who govern wisely and uprightly, are +sufficient justification for aggression and conquest. Many who, as a +general rule, would severely censure an unjust and unprovoked war, +carried on for the purpose of annexation by a strong Power against a +weak one, will excuse or scarcely condemn such a war if it is directed +against a country which has shown itself incapable of good government. +To place the world in the hands of those who can best govern it is +looked upon as a supreme end. Wars are not really undertaken for this +end. The philanthropy of nations when it takes the form of war and +conquest is seldom or never unmixed with selfishness, though strong +gusts of humanitarian enthusiasm often give an impulse, a pretext, or a +support to the calculated actions of statesmen. But when wars, however +selfish and unprovoked, contribute to enlarge the boundaries of +civilisation, to stimulate real progress, to put an end to savage +customs, to oppression or to anarchy, they are now very indulgently +judged even in the many cases in which the inhabitants of the conquered +Power do not desire the change and resist it strenuously in the field. + +In domestic as in foreign politics the maintenance of a high moral +standard in statesmanship is impossible unless the public opinion of the +country is in harmony with it. Moral declension in a nation is very +swiftly followed by a corresponding decadence among its public men, and +it will indeed be generally found that the standard of public men is apt +to be somewhat lower than that of the better section of the public +outside. They are exposed to very special temptations, some of which I +have already indicated. + +The constant habit of regarding questions with a view to party +advantage, to proximate issues, to immediate popularity, which is +inseparable from parliamentary government, can hardly fail to give some +ply to the most honest intellect. Most questions have to be treated more +or less in the way of compromise; and alliances and coalitions not very +conducive to a severe standard of political morals are frequent. In +England the leading men of the opposing parties have happily usually +been able to respect one another. The same standard of honour will be +found on both sides of the House, but every parliament contains its +notorious agitators, intriguers and self-seekers, men who have been +connected with acts which may or may not have been brought within the +reach of the criminal law, but have at least been sufficient to stamp +their character in the eyes of honest men. Such men cannot be neglected +in party combinations. Political leaders must co-operate with them in +the daily intercourse and business of parliamentary life--must sometimes +ask them favours--must treat them with deference and respect. Men who on +some subjects and at some times have acted with glaring profligacy, on +others act with judgment, moderation and even patriotism, and become +useful supporters or formidable opponents. Combinations are in this way +formed which are in no degree wrong, but which tend to dull the edge of +moral perception and imperceptibly to lower the standard of moral +judgment. In the swift changes of the party kaleidoscope the bygone is +soon forgotten. The enemy of yesterday is the ally of to-day; the +services of the present soon obscure the misdeeds of the past; and men +insensibly grow very tolerant not only of diversities of opinion, but +also of gross aberrations of conduct. The constant watchfulness of +external opinion is very necessary to keep up a high standard of +political morality. + +Public opinion, it is true, is by no means impeccable. The tendency to +believe that crimes cease to be crimes when they have a political +object, and that a popular vote can absolve the worst crimes, is only +too common; there are few political misdeeds which wealth, rank, genius +or success will not induce large sections of English society to pardon, +and nations even in their best moments will not judge acts which are +greatly for their own advantage with the severity of judgment that they +would apply to similar acts of other nations. But when all this is +admitted, it still remains true that there is a large body of public +opinion in England which carries into all politics a sound moral sense +and which places a just and righteous policy higher than any mere party +interest. It is on the power and pressure of this opinion that the high +character of English government must ultimately depend. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[42] This sentence may appear obscure to English readers. The +explanation is, that by an ingenious arrangement, devised by Lord +Beaconsfield, the professors of the Jesuit College in Stephen's Green +are nearly all made Fellows of the Royal University, those of the Arts +Faculty receiving 400_l._ a year, and three Medical Fellows 150_l._ +each. By this device the Catholic college has in reality a State +endowment to the amount of between 6,000_l._ and 7,000_l._ a year. This +fact considerably reduces the grievance. + +[43] See e.g. the death-bed counsels of Henry IV. to his son:-- + + + 'Therefore, my Harry, + Be it thy course to busy giddy minds + With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out, + May waste the memory of the former days.' + _Henry IV_. Part II. Act IV. Sc. 4. + + +[44] Lord Lanesborough _v._ Reilly. + +[45] See Tocqueville's _Memoirs_ (English trans.), ii. 189, Letter to +the _Times_. + +[46] See Maupas, _Memoires sur le Second Empire_, i. 511, 512. It is +said that, contrary to the orders of St.-Arnaud, the soldiers, instead +of immediately shooting all persons in the street who were found with +arms or constructing or defending a barricade, made many prisoners, and +it is not clear what became of them. Granier de Cassagnac, however, +altogether denies the executions on the Champ de Mars (ii. 433). + +[47] Granier de Cassagnac, ii. 438. + +[48] _L'Empire Liberal_, ii. 526. + +[49] _Memoires d'Odilon Barrot_, iv. 59-61. + +[50] _Memoires d'Odilon Barrot_, iv. 56, 57. + +[51] See Lord Palmerston's statements on this subject in Ashley's _Life +of Palmerston_, ii. 200-211. Tocqueville, however, utterly denies that +the majority of the Assembly had any sympathy with these views +(Tocqueville's _Memoirs_ (Eng. trans.), ii. 177). Maupas, in his +_Memoires_, gives a very detailed account of the conspiracy on the +Bonapartist side. It appears that the 'homme de confiance' of +Changarnier was in his pay. + +[52] Tocqueville's _Memoirs_, ii. + +[53] Ashley's _Life of Palmerston_, ii. 208. + +[54] Newman. + +[55] See Ollivier, _L'Empire Liberal_, i. 510-512. + +[56] _Second Report of the Select Committee on British South Africa_ +(July, 1897). + +[57] _Parliamentary Debates_, July 26, 1897, 1169, 1170. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +The necessities for moral compromise I have traced in the army, in the +law, and in the fields of politics may be found in another form not less +conspicuously in the Church. The members, and still more the ministers, +of an ancient Church bound to formularies and creeds that were drawn up +in long bygone centuries, are continually met by the difficulties of +reconciling these forms with the changed conditions of human knowledge, +and there are periods when the pressure of these difficulties is felt +with more than common force. Such, for example, were the periods of the +Renaissance and the Reformation, when changes in the intellectual +condition of Europe produced a widespread conviction of the vast amount +of imposture and delusion which had received the sanction of a Church +that claimed to be infallible, the result being in some countries a +silent evanescence of all religious belief among the educated class, +even including a large number of the leaders of the Church, and in other +countries a great outburst of religious zeal aiming at the restoration +of Christianity to its primitive form and a repudiation of the +accretions of superstition that had gathered around it. The Copernican +theory proving that our world is not, as was long believed, the centre +of the universe, but a single planet moving with many others around a +central sun, and the discovery, by the instrumentality of the +telescope, of the infinitesimally small place which our globe occupies +in the universe, altered men's measure of probability and affected +widely, though indirectly, their theological beliefs. + +A similar change was gradually produced by the Newtonian discovery that +the whole system of the universe was pervaded by one great law, and by +the steady growth of scientific knowledge, proving that vast numbers of +phenomena which were once attributed to isolated and capricious acts of +spiritual intervention were regulated by invariable, inexorable, +all-pervasive law. Many of the formularies by which we still express our +religious beliefs date from periods when comets and eclipses were +believed to have been sent to portend calamity; when every great +meteorological change was attributed to some isolated spiritual agency; +when witchcraft and diabolical possession, supernatural diseases, and +supernatural cures were deemed indubitable facts: and when accounts of +contemporary miracles, Divine or Satanic, carried with them no sense of +strangeness or improbability. It is scarcely surprising that these +formularies sometimes seem incongruous with an age when the scientific +spirit has introduced very different conceptions of the government of +the universe, and when the miraculous, if it is not absolutely +discredited, is, at least in the eyes of most educated men, relegated to +a distant past. + +The present century has seen some powerful reactions towards older +religious beliefs, but it has also been to an unusual extent fertile in +the kind of changes that most deeply affect them. Not many years have +passed since the whole drama of the world's history was believed to +have been comprised in the framework of 'Paradise Lost' and 'Paradise +Regained.' Man appeared in the universe a faultless being in a faultless +world, but he soon fell from his first estate, and his fall entailed +world-wide consequences. It introduced into our globe sin, death, +suffering, disease, imperfection and decay; all the mischievous and +ferocious instincts and tendencies of man and beast; all the +multitudinous forms of struggle, terror, anxiety and grief; all that +makes life bitter to any living being, and, even as the Fathers were +accustomed to say, the briars and weeds and sterility of the earth. +Paradise Regained was believed to be indissolubly connected with +Paradise Lost. The one was the explanation of the other. The one +introduced the disease, the other provided the remedy. + +It is idle to deny that the main outlines of this picture have been +wholly changed. First came the discovery that the existence of our globe +stretches far beyond the period once assigned to the Creation, and that +for countless ages before the time when Adam was believed to have lost +Paradise, death had been its most familiar fact and its inexorable law; +that the animals who inhabited it preyed upon and devoured each other as +at present, their claws and teeth being specially adapted for that +purpose. Even their half-digested remains have been preserved in fossil. + +'Death,' wrote a Pagan philosopher, in sharp contrast to the teaching of +the Church, 'is a law and not a punishment,' and geology has fully +justified his assertion. + +Then came decisive evidence showing that for many thousands of years +before his supposed origin man had lived and died upon our globe--a +being, as far as can be judged from the remains that have been +preserved, not superior but greatly inferior to ourselves, whose almost +only art was the manufacture of rude instruments for killing, who +appears in structure and in life to have approximated closely to the +lowest existing forms of savage life. + +Then came the Darwinian theory maintaining that the whole history of the +living world is a history of slow and continuous evolution, chiefly by +means of incessant strife, from lower to higher forms; that man himself +had in this way gradually emerged from the humblest forms of the animal +world; that most of the moral deflections which were attributed to the +apple in Eden are the remains and traditions of the earlier and lower +stages of his existence. The theory of continuous ascent from a lower to +a higher stage took the place of the theory of the Fall as the +explanation of human history. It is a doctrine which is certainly not +without hope for the human race. It gives no explanation of the ultimate +origin of things, and it is in no degree inconsistent with the belief +either in a Divine and Creative origin or in a settled and Providential +plan. But it is as far as possible removed from the conception of human +history and human nature which Christendom during eighteen centuries +accepted as fundamental truth. + +With these things have come influences of another kind. Comparative +Mythology has accumulated a vast amount of evidence, showing how myths +and miracles are the natural product of certain stages of human +history, of certain primitive misconceptions of the course of nature; +how legends essentially of the same kind, though with some varieties of +detail, have sprung up in many different quarters, and how they have +migrated and interacted on each other. Biblical criticism has at the +same time decomposed and analysed the Jewish writings, assigning to them +dates and degrees of authority very different from those recognised by +the Church. It has certainly not impaired their significance as records +of successive developments of religious and moral progress, nor has it +diminished their value as expressions of the loftiest and most enduring +religious sentiments of mankind; but in the eyes of a great section of +the educated world it has deprived them of the authoritative and +infallible character that was once attributed to them. At the same time +historical criticism has brought with it severer standards of proof, +more efficient means of distinguishing the historical from the fabulous. +It has traced the phases and variations of religions, and the influences +that governed them, with a fulness of knowledge and an independence of +judgment unknown in the past, and it has led its votaries to regard in +these matters a sceptical and hesitating spirit as a virtue, and +credulity and easiness of belief as a vice. + +This is not a book of theology, and I have no intention of dilating on +these things. It must, however, be manifest to all who are acquainted +with contemporary thought how largely these influences have displaced +theological beliefs among great numbers of educated men; how many things +that were once widely believed have become absolutely incredible; how +many that were once supposed to rest on the plane of certainty have now +sunk to the lower plane of mere probability or perhaps possibility. From +the time of Galileo downwards, these changes have been denounced as +incompatible with the whole structure of Christian belief. No less an +apologist than Bishop Berkeley declared that the belief that the date of +the existence of the world was approximately that which could be deduced +from the book of Genesis was one of the fundamental beliefs which could +not be given up.[58] When the traveller Brydone published his travels in +Sicily in 1773, conjecturing, from the deposits of lava, that the world +must be much older than the Mosaic cosmogony admitted, his work was +denounced as subverting the foundations of the Christian faith. The same +charges were brought against the earlier geologists, and in our own day +against the early supporters of the Darwinian theory; and many now +living can remember the outbursts of indignation against those who first +introduced the principles of German criticism into English thought, and +who impugned the historical character and the assumed authorship of the +Pentateuch. + +It is not surprising or unreasonable that it should have been so, for it +is impossible to deny that these changes have profoundly altered large +portions of the beliefs that were once regarded as essential. One main +object of a religion was believed to have been to furnish what may be +called a theory of the universe--to explain its origin, its destiny, and +the strange contradictions and imperfections it presents. The Jewish +theory was a very clear and definite one, but it is certainly not that +of modern science. + +Yet few things are more remarkable than the facility with which these +successive changes have gradually found their places within the +Established Church, and how little that Church has been shaken by this +fact. Even the Darwinian theory, though it has not yet passed into the +circle of fully established truth, is in its main lines constantly +mentioned with approbation by the clergy of the Church. The theory of +evolution largely pervades their teaching. The doctrine that the Bible +was never intended to teach science or scientific facts, and also the +main facts and conclusions of modern Biblical criticism, have been +largely accepted among the most educated clergy. Very few of them would +now deny the antiquity of the world, the antiquity of man, or the +antiquity of death, or would maintain that the Mosaic cosmogony was a +true and literal account of the origin of the globe and of man, or would +very strenuously argue either for the Mosaic authorship or the +infallibility of the Pentateuch. + +And while changes of this kind have been going on in one direction, +another great movement has been taking place in an opposite one. The +Church of England was essentially a Protestant Church; though, being +constructed more than most other Churches under political influences, by +successive stages of progress, and with a view to including large and +varying sections of opinion in its fold, it retained, more than other +Churches, formularies and tenets derived from the Church it superseded. +The earnest Protestant and Puritan party which dominated in Scotland +and in the Continental Reformation, and which refused all compromise +with Rome, had not become powerful in English public opinion till some +time after the framework of the Church was established. The spirit of +compromise and conservatism which already characterised the English +people; the great part which kings and lawyers played in the formation +of the Church; their desire to maintain in England a single body, +comprising men who had broken away from the Papacy but who had in other +respects no great objection to Roman Catholic forms and doctrines, and +also men seriously imbued with the strong Protestant feeling of Germany +and Switzerland; the strange ductility of belief and conduct that +induced the great majority of the English clergy to retain their +preferments and avoid persecution during the successive changes of Henry +VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, all assisted in forming a Church +of a very composite character. Two distinct theories found their place +within it. According to one school it was simply the pre-Reformation +Church purified from certain abuses that had gathered around it, +organically united with it through a divinely appointed episcopacy, +resting on an authoritative and ecclesiastical basis, and forming one of +the three great branches of the Catholic Church. According to the other +school it was one of several Protestant Churches, retaining indeed such +portions of the old ecclesiastical organisation as might be justified +from Scripture, but not regarding them as among the essentials of +Christianity; agreeing with other Protestant bodies in what was +fundamental, and differing from them mainly on points which were +non-essential; accepting cordially the principle that 'the Bible and +the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants,' and at the same time +separated by the gravest and most vital differences from what they +deemed the great apostasy of Rome. + +It was argued on the one hand that in its ecclesiastical and legal +organisation the Church in England was identical with the Church in the +reign of Henry VII.; that there had been no breach of continuity; that +bishops, and often the same bishops, sat in the same sees before and +after the Reformation; that the great majority of the parochial clergy +were unchanged, holding their endowments by the same titles and tenures, +subject to the same courts, and meeting in Convocation in the same +manner as their predecessors; that the old Catholic services were merely +translated and revised, and that although Roman usurpations which had +never been completely acquiesced in had been decisively rejected, and +although many superstitious novelties had been removed, the Church of +England was still the Church of St. Augustine; that it had never, even +in the darkest period, lost its distinct existence, and that +supernatural graces and sacerdotal powers denied to all schismatics had +descended to it through the Episcopacy in an unbroken stream. On the +other hand it was argued that the essential of a true Church lay in the +accordance of its doctrines with the language of Scripture and not in +the methods of Church government, and that whatever might be the case in +a legal point of view, the theory of the unity of the Church before and +after the Reformation was in a theological sense a delusion. The Church +under Henry VII. was emphatically a theocracy or ecclesiastical +monarchy, the Pope, as the supposed successor of the supposed prince of +the Apostles, being the very keystone of the spiritual arch. Under Henry +VIII. and Elizabeth the Church of England had become a kind of +aristocracy of bishops, governed very really as well as theoretically by +the Crown, totally cut off from what called itself the Chair of Peter, +and placed under completely new relations with the Catholic Church of +Christendom. In this space of time Anglican Christianity had discarded +not only the Papacy but also great part of what for centuries before the +change had been deemed vitally and incontestably necessary both in its +theology and in its devotions. Though much of the old organisation and +many of the old formularies had been retained, its articles, its +homilies, the constant teaching of its founders, breathed a spirit of +unquestionable Protestantism. The Church which remained attached to +Rome, and which held the same doctrines, practised the same devotions, +and performed the same ceremonies as the English Church under Henry +VII., professed to be infallible, and it utterly repudiated all +connection with the new Church of England, and regarded it as nothing +more than a Protestant schism; while the Church of England in her +authorised formularies branded some of the central beliefs and devotions +of the Roman Church as blasphemous, idolatrous, superstitious and +deceitful, and was long accustomed to regard that Church as the Church +of Antichrist; the Harlot of the Apocalypse, drunk with the blood of the +Saints. Each Church during long periods and to the full measure of its +powers suppressed or persecuted the other. + +In the eyes of the Erastian and also in the eyes of the Puritan the +theory of the spiritual unity of these two bodies, and the various +sacerdotal consequences that were inferred from it, seemed incredible, +nor did the first generation of our reformers shrink from communion, +sympathy and co-operation with the non-episcopal Protestants of the +Continent. Although they laid great stress on patristic authority, and +consented--chiefly through political motives--to leave in the +Prayer-book many things derived from the older Church, yet the High +Church theory of Anglicanism is much more the product of the +seventeenth-century divines than of the reformers, just as Roman +Catholicism is much more akin to the later fathers than to primitive +Christianity. No one could doubt on what side were the sympathies and +what were the opinions of Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, Jewell and Hooper, +and what spirit pervades the articles and the homilies. A Church which +does not claim to be infallible; which owes its special form chiefly to +the sagacity of statesmen; in which the supreme tribunal, deciding what +doctrines may be taught by the clergy, is a secular law court; in which +the bands of conformity are so loose that the tendencies and sentiments +of the nation give the complexion to the Church, appears in the eyes of +men of these schools to have no possible right to claim or share the +authority of the Church of Rome. It rests on another basis. It must be +justified on other grounds. + +These two distinct schools, however, have subsisted in the Church. Each +of them can find some support in the Prayer-book, and the old orthodox +High Church school which was chiefly elaborated and which chiefly +flourished under the Stuarts, has produced a great part of the most +learned theology of Christendom, and had in its early days little or no +tendency to Rome. It was exclusive and repellent on the side of +Nonconformity, and it placed Church authority very high; but the immense +majority of its members were intensely loyal to the Anglican Church, and +lived and died contentedly within its pale. There were, however, always +in that Church men of another kind whose true ideal lay beyond its +border. Falkland, in a remarkable speech, delivered in 1640, speaks of +them with much bitterness. 'Some,' he says, 'have so industriously +laboured to deduce themselves from Rome that they have given great +suspicion that in gratitude they desire to return thither, or at least +to meet it half way. Some have evidently laboured to bring in an English +though not a Roman Popery; I mean not only the outside and dress of it, +but equally absolute.... Nay, common fame is more than ordinarily false +if none of them have found a way to reconcile the opinions of Rome to +the preferments of England, and be so absolutely, directly and cordially +Papists that it is all that 1,500_l._ a year can do to keep them from +confessing it.'[59] + +No wide secession to Rome, however, followed the development of this +seventeenth-century school, though it played a large part in the +nonjuror schism, and with the decay of that schism and under the +latitudinarian tendencies of the eighteenth century it greatly dwindled. +Since, however, the Tractarian movement, which carried so many leaders +of the English Church to Rome, men of Roman sympathies and Roman ideals +have multiplied within the Church to an extraordinary degree. They have +not only carried their theological pretensions in the direction of Rome +much further than the nonjurors; they have also in many cases so +transformed the old and simple Anglican service by vestments and +candles, and banners and incense, and genuflexions and whispered +prayers, that a stranger might well imagine that he was in a Roman +Catholic church. They have put forward sacerdotal pretensions little, if +at all, inferior to those of Rome. The whole tendency of their +devotional literature and thought flows in the Roman channel, and even +in the most insignificant matters of ceremony and dress they are +accustomed to pay the greater Church the homage of constant imitation. + +It would be unjust to deny that there are some real differences. The +absolute authority and infallibility of the Pope are sincerely +repudiated as an usurpation, the ritualist theory only conceding to him +a primacy among bishops. The discipline and submission to ecclesiastical +authority also, which so eminently distinguish the Roman Church, are +wholly wanting in many of its Anglican imitators, and at the same time +the English sense of truth has proved sufficient to save the party from +the tolerance and propagation of false miracles and of grossly +superstitious practices so common in Roman Catholic countries. In this +last respect, however, it is probable that English and American Roman +Catholics are almost equally distinguished from Catholics in the +Southern States of Europe and of America. Still, when all this is +admitted, it can hardly be denied that there has grown up in a great +section of the English Church a sympathy with Rome and an antipathy to +Protestantism and to Protestant types of thought and character utterly +alien to the spirit of the Reformers and to the doctrinal formularies of +the Church of England. + +It is not very easy to form a just estimate of the extent and depth of +this movement. There are wide variations in the High Church party; the +extreme men are not the most numerous and certainly very far from the +ablest, and many influences other than convinced belief have tended to +strengthen the party. It has been, indeed, unlike the Tractarian party +which preceded it, remarkably destitute of literary or theological +ability, and has added singularly little to the large and noble +theological literature of the English Church. The mere charm of novelty, +which is always especially powerful in the field of religion, draws many +to the ritualistic channel, and thousands who care very little for +ritualistic doctrines are attracted by the music, the pageantry, the +pictorial beauty of the ritualistic services. AEsthetic tastes have of +late years greatly increased in England, and the closing of places of +amusement on Sunday probably strengthens the craving for more attractive +services. The extreme High Church party has chiefly fostered and chiefly +benefited by this desire, but it has extended much more widely. It has +touched even puritanical and non-episcopal bodies, and it is sometimes +combined with extremely latitudinarian opinions. There is, indeed, a +type of mind which finds in such services a happy anodyne for +half-suppressed doubt. Petitions which in their poignant humiliation and +profound emotion no longer correspond to the genuine feelings of the +worshipper, seem attenuated and transformed when they are intoned, and +creeds which when plainly read shock the understanding and the +conscience are readily accepted as parts of a musical performance. +Scepticism as well as belief sometimes fills churches. Large classes who +have no wish to cut themselves off from religious services have lost all +interest in the theological distinctions which once were deemed +supremely important and all strong belief in great parts of dogmatic +systems, and such men naturally prefer services which by music and +ornament gratify their tastes and exercise a soothing or stimulating +influence over the imagination. + +The extreme High Church party has, however, other elements of +attraction. Much of its power is due to the new springs of real +spiritual life and the new forms of real usefulness and charity that +grew out of its highly developed sacerdotal system and out of the +semi-monastic confraternities which at once foster and encourage and +organise an active zeal. The power of the party in acting not only on +the cultivated classes but also on the poor is very manifest, and it has +done much to give the Church of England a democratic character which in +past generations it did not possess, and which in the conditions of +modern life is supremely important. The multiplication not only of +religious services but of communicants, and the great increase in the +interest taken in Church life in quarters where the Ritualist party +prevail, cannot reasonably be questioned. Its highly ornate services +draw many into the churches who never entered them before, and they are +often combined with a familiar and at the same time impassioned style of +preaching, something like that of a Franciscan friar or a Methodist +preacher, which is excellently fitted to act upon the ignorant. If its +clergy have been distinguished for their insubordination to their +bishops, if they have displayed in no dubious manner a keen desire to +aggrandise their own position and authority, it is also but just to add +that they have been prominent for the zeal and self-sacrifice with which +they have multiplied services, created confraternities, and penetrated +into the worst and most obscure haunts of poverty and vice. + +The result, however, of all this is that the conflicting tendencies +which have always been present in the Church have been greatly deepened. +There are to be found within it men whose opinions can hardly be +distinguished from simple Deism or Unitarianism, and men who abjure the +name of Protestant and are only divided by the thinnest of partitions +from the Roman Church. And this diversity exists in a Church which is +held together by articles and formularies of the sixteenth century. + +It might, perhaps, _a priori_ have been imagined that a Church with so +much diversity of opinion and of spirit was an enfeebled and +disintegrated Church, but no candid man will attribute such a character +to the Church of England. All the signs of corporate vitality are +abundantly displayed, and it is impossible to deny that it is playing an +active, powerful, and most useful part in English life. Looking at it +first of all from the intellectual side, it is plain how large a +proportion of the best intellect of the country is contented, not only +to live within it, but to take an active part in its ministrations. +Compare the amount of higher literature which proceeds from clergymen of +the Established Church with the amount which proceeds from the vastly +greater body of Catholic priests scattered over the world; compare the +place which the English clergy, or laymen deeply imbued with the +teaching of the Church, hold in English literature with the place which +Catholic priests, or sincere Catholic laymen, hold in the literature of +France,--and the contrast will appear sufficiently evident. There is +hardly a branch of serious English literature in which Anglican clergy +are not conspicuous. There is nothing in a false and superstitious creed +incompatible with some forms of literature. It may easily ally itself +with the genius of a poet or with great beauty of style either hortatory +or narrative. But in the Church of England literary achievement is +certainly not restricted to these forms. In the fields of physical +science, in the fields of moral philosophy, metaphysics, social and even +political philosophy, and perhaps still more in the fields of history, +its clergy have won places in the foremost rank. It is notorious that a +large proportion of the most serious criticism, of the best periodical +writing in England, is the work of Anglican clergymen. No one, in +enumerating the leading historians of the present century, would omit +such names as Milman, Thirlwall and Merivale, in the generation which +has just passed away, or Creighton and Stubbs among contemporaries, and +these are only eminent examples of a kind of literature to which the +Church has very largely contributed. Their histories are not specially +conspicuous for beauty of style, and not only conspicuous for their +profound learning; they are marked to an eminent degree by judgment, +criticism, impartiality, a desire for truth, a skill in separating the +proved from the false or the merely probable. Compare them with the +chief histories that have been written by Catholic priests. In past ages +some of the greatest works of patient, lifelong industry in all literary +history were due to the Catholic priesthood, and especially to members +of the monastic orders; even in modern times they have produced some +works of great learning, of great dialectic skill, and of great beauty +of style; but with scarcely an exception these works bear upon them the +stamp of an advocate and are written for the purpose of proving a point, +concealing or explaining away the faults on one side, and bringing into +disproportioned relief those of the other. No one would look in them for +a candid estimate of the merits of an opponent or for a full statement +of a hostile case. Doellinger, who would probably once have been cited as +the greatest historian the Catholic priesthood had produced in the +nineteenth century, died under the anathema of his Church; and how large +a proportion of the best writing in modern English Catholicism has come +from writers who have been brought up in Protestant universities and who +have learnt their skill in the Anglican Church! + +It is at least one great test of a living Church that the best intellect +of the country can enter into its ministry, that it contains men who in +nearly all branches of literature are looked upon by lay scholars with +respect or admiration. It is said that the number of young men of +ability who take orders is diminishing, and that this is due, not merely +to the agricultural depression which has made the Church much less +desirable as a profession, and indeed in many cases almost impossible +for those who have not some private fortune; not merely to the +competitive examination system, which has opened out vast and attractive +fields of ambition to the ablest laymen,--but also to the wide +divergence of men of the best intellect from the doctrines of the +Church, and the conviction that they cannot honestly subscribe its +articles and recite its formularies. But although this is, I believe, +true, it is also true that there is no other Church which has shown +itself so capable of attracting and retaining the services of men of +general learning, criticism and ability. One of the most important +features of the English ecclesiastical system has been the education of +those who are intended for the Church, in common with other students in +the great national universities. Other systems of education may produce +a clergy of greater professional learning and more intense and exclusive +zeal, but no other system of education is so efficacious in maintaining +a general harmony of thought and tendency between the Church and the +average educated opinion of the nation. + +Take another test. Compare the _Guardian_, which represents better than +any other paper the opinions of moderate Churchmen, with the papers +which are most read by the French priesthood and have most influence on +their opinions. Certainly few English journalists have equalled in +ability Louis Veuillot, and few papers have exercised so great an +influence over the clergy of the Church as the _Univers_ at the time +when he directed it; but no one who read those savagely scurrilous and +intolerant pages, burning with an impotent hatred of all the progressive +and liberal tendencies of the time, shrinking from no misrepresentation +of fact and from no apology for crime if it was in the interest of the +Church, could fail to perceive how utterly out of harmony it was with +the best lay thought of France. English religious journalism has +sometimes, though in a very mitigated degree, exhibited some of these +characteristics, but no one who reads the _Guardian_, which I suppose +appeals to a larger clerical public than any other paper, can fail to +realise the contrast. It is not merely that it is habitually written in +the style and temper of a gentleman, but that it reflects most clearly +in its criticism, its impartiality, its tone of thought, the best +intellectual influences of the time. Men may agree or differ about its +politics or its theology, but no one who reads it can fail to admit that +it is thoroughly in touch with cultivated lay opinion, and it is in fact +a favourite paper of many who care only for its secular aspects. + +The intellectual ability, however, included among the ministers of a +Church, though one test, is by no means a decisive and infallible one of +its religious life. During the period of the Renaissance, when genuine +belief in the Catholic Church had sunk to nearly its lowest point, most +men of literary tastes and talents were either members of the priesthood +or of the monastic orders. This was not due to any fervour of belief, +but simply to the fact that the Church at that time furnished almost the +only sphere in which a literary life could be pursued with comfort, +without molestation, and with some adequate reward. Much of the literary +ability found in the English Church is unquestionably due to the +attraction it offers and the facilities it gives to those who simply +wish for a studious life. The abolition of many clerical sinecures, and +the greatly increased activity of clerical duty imposed by contemporary +opinion, have no doubt rendered the profession less desirable from this +point of view; but even now there is no other profession outside the +universities which lends itself so readily to a literary life, and a +great proportion of the most eminent thinkers and writers in the Church +of England are eminent in fields that have little or no connection with +theology. + +Other tests of a flourishing Church are needed, but they can easily be +found. Political power is one test, though it is a very coarse and very +deceptive one. Perhaps it is not too much to say that the most +superstitious creeds are often those which exercise the greatest +political influence, for they are those in which the priesthood acquires +the most absolute authority. Nor does the decline of superstition among +the educated classes always bring with it a corresponding decline in +ecclesiastical influence. There have been instances, both in Pagan and +Christian times, of a sceptical and highly educated ruling class +supporting and allying themselves with a superstitious Church as the +best means of governing or moralising the masses. Such Churches, by +their skilful organisation, by their ascendency over individual rulers, +or by their political alliances, have long exercised an enormous +influence, and in a democratic age the preponderance of political power +is steadily passing from the most educated classes. At the same time, in +a highly civilised and perfectly free country, in which all laws of +religious disqualification and coercion have disappeared, and all +questions of religion are submitted to perpetual discussion, the +political power which the Church of England retains at least proves that +she has a vast weight of genuine and earnest opinion behind her. No +politician will deny the strength with which the united or greatly +preponderating influence of the Church can support or oppose a party. It +has been said by a cynical observer that the three things outside their +own families that average Englishmen value the most are rank, money, and +the Church of England, and certainly no good observer will form a low +estimate of the strength or earnestness of the Church feeling in every +section of the English people. + +Still less can it be denied that the Church retains in a high degree its +educational influence. For a long period national education was almost +wholly in its hands, and, since all disqualifications and most +privileges have been abolished, it still exercises a part in English +education which excites the alarm of some and the admiration of others. +It has thrown itself heartily into the new political conditions, and the +vast number of voluntary schools established under clerical influence, +and the immense sums that are annually raised for clerical purposes, +show beyond all doubt the amount of support and enthusiasm behind it. In +every branch of higher education its clergy are conspicuous, and their +influence in training the nation is not confined to the pulpit, the +university, or the school. No candid observer of English life will +doubt the immense effect of the parochial system in sustaining the moral +level both of principle and practice, and the multitude, activity, and +value of the philanthropic and moralising agencies which are wholly or +largely due to the Anglican Church. + +Nor can it be reasonably doubted that the Church has been very +efficacious in promoting that spiritual life which, whatever opinion men +may form of its origin and meaning, is at least one of the great +realities of human nature. The power of a religion is not to be solely +or mainly judged by its corporate action; by the institutions it +creates; by the part which it plays in the government of the world. It +is to be found much more in its action on the individual soul, and +especially in those times and circumstances when man is most isolated +from society. It is in furnishing the ideals and motives of individual +life; in guiding and purifying the emotions; in promoting habits of +thought and feeling that rise above the things of earth; in the comfort +it can give in age, sorrow, disappointment and bereavement; in the +seasons of sickness, weakness, declining faculties, and approaching +death, that its power is most felt. No one creed or Church has the +monopoly of this power, though each has often tried to identify it with +something peculiar to itself. It maybe found in the Catholic and in the +Quaker, in the High Anglican who attributes it to his sacramental +system, and in the Evangelical in whose eyes that system holds only a +very subordinate place. All that need here be said is that no one who +studies the devotional literature of the English Church, or who has +watched the lives of its more devout members, will doubt that this life +can largely exist and flourish within its pale. + +The attitude which men who have been born within that Church, but who +have come to dissent from large portions of its theology, should bear to +this great instrument of good, is certainly not less perplexing than the +questions we have been considering in the preceding chapters. The most +difficult position is, of course, that of those who are its actual +ministers and who have subscribed its formularies. Each man so situated +must judge in the light of his own conscience. There is a great +difference between the case of men who accept such a position in the +Church though they differ fundamentally from its tenets, and the case of +men who, having engaged in its service, find their old convictions +modified or shaken, perhaps very gradually, by the advance of science or +by more matured thought and study. The stringency of the old form of +subscription has been much mitigated by an Act of 1865 which substituted +a general declaration that the subscriber believed in the doctrine of +the Church as a whole, for a declaration that he believed 'all and +everything' in the Articles and the Prayer-book. The Church of England +does not profess to be an infallible Church; it does profess to be a +National Church representing and including great bodies of more or less +divergent opinion, and the whole tendency of legal decisions since the +Gorham case has been to enlarge the circle of permissible opinion. The +possibility of the National Church remaining in touch with the more +instructed and intellectual portions of the community depends mainly on +the latitude of opinion that is accorded to its clergy, and on their +power of welcoming and adopting new knowledge, and it may reasonably be +maintained that few greater calamities can befall a nation than the +severance of its higher intelligence from religious influences. + +It should be remembered, too, that on the latitudinarian side the +changes that take place in the teaching of the Church consist much less +in the open repudiation of old doctrines than in their silent +evanescence. They drop out of the exhortations of the pulpit. The +relative importance of different portions of the religious teaching is +changed. Dogma sinks into the background. Narratives which are no longer +seriously believed become texts for moral disquisitions. The +introspective habits and the stress laid on purely ecclesiastical duties +which once preponderated disappear. The teaching of the pulpit tends +rather to the formation of active, useful and unselfish lives; to a +clearer insight into the great masses of remediable suffering and need +that still exist in the world; to the duty of carrying into all the +walks of secular life a nobler and more unselfish spirit; to a habit of +judging men and Churches mainly by their fruits and very little by their +beliefs. The disintegration or decadence of old religious beliefs which +had long been closely associated with moral teaching always brings with +it grave moral dangers, but those dangers are greatly diminished when +the change of belief is effected by a gradual transition, without any +violent convulsion or disruption severing men from their old religious +observances. Such a transition has silently taken place in England +among great numbers of educated men, and in some measure under the +influence of the clergy. Nor has it, I think, weakened the Church. The +standard of duty among such men has not sunk, but has in most +departments perceptibly risen: their zeal has not diminished, though it +flows rather in philanthropic than in purely ecclesiastical channels. +The conviction that the special dogmas which divided other Protestant +bodies from the Establishment rested on no substantial basis and have no +real importance tells in favour of the larger and the more liberal +Church, and the comprehensiveness which allows highly accentuated +sacerdotalism and latitudinarianism in the same Church is in the eyes of +many of them rather an element of strength than of weakness. + +Few men have watched the religious tendencies of the time with a keener +eye than Cardinal Newman, and no man hated with a more intense hatred +the latitudinarian tendencies which he witnessed. His judgment of their +effect on the Establishment is very remarkable. In a letter to his +friend Isaac Williams he says: 'Everything I hear makes me fear that +latitudinarian opinions are spreading furiously in the Church of +England. I grieve deeply at it. The Anglican Church has been a most +useful breakwater against Scepticism. The time might come when you, as +well as I, might expect that it would be said above, "Why cumbereth it +the ground?" but at present it upholds far more truth in England than +any other form of religion would, and than the Catholic Roman Church +could. But what I fear is that it is _tending_ to a powerful +Establishment teaching direct error, and more powerful than it has ever +been; thrice powerful because it does teach error.'[60] + +It is, however, of course, evident that the latitude of opinion which +may be reasonably claimed by the clergy of a Church encumbered with many +articles and doctrinal formularies is not unlimited, and each man must +for himself draw the line. The fact, too, that the Church is an +Established Church imposes some special obligations on its ministers. It +is their first duty to celebrate public worship in such a form that all +members of the Church of England may be able to join in it. Whatever +interpretations may be placed upon the ceremonies of the Church, those +ceremonies, at least, should be substantially the same. A stranger who +enters a church which he has never before seen should be able to feel +that he is certain of finding public worship intelligibly and decently +performed, as in past generations it has been celebrated in all sections +of the Established Church. It has, in my opinion, been a gross scandal, +following a gross neglect of duty, that this primary obligation has been +defied, and that services are held in English churches which would have +been almost unrecognisable by the churchmen of a former generation, and +which are manifest attempts to turn the English public worship into an +imitation of the Romish Mass. Men have a perfect right, within the +widest limits, to perform what religious services and to preach what +religious doctrines they please, but they have not a right to do so in +an Established Church. + +The censorship of opinions is another thing, and in the conditions of +English life it has never been very effectively maintained. The latitude +of opinion granted in an Established Church is, and ought to be, very +great, but it is, I think, obvious that on some topics a greater degree +of reticence of expression should be observed by a clergyman addressing +a miscellaneous audience from the pulpit of an Established Church than +need be required of him in private life or even in his published books. + +The attitude of laymen whose opinions have come to diverge widely from +the Church formularies is less perplexing, and except in as far as the +recent revival of sacerdotal pretensions has produced a reaction, there +has, if I mistake not, of late years been a decided tendency in the best +and most cultivated lay opinion of this kind to look with increasing +favour on the Established Church. The complete abolition of the +religious and political disqualifications which once placed its +maintenance in antagonism with the interests of large sections of the +people; the abolition of the indelibility of orders which excluded +clergymen who changed their views from all other means of livelihood; +the greater elasticity of opinion permitted within its pale; and the +elimination from the statute-book of nearly all penalties and +restrictions resting solely upon ecclesiastical grounds,--have all +tended to diminish with such men the objections to the Church. It is a +Church which does not injure those who are external to it, or interfere +with those who are mere nominal adherents. It is more and more looked +upon as a machine of well-organised beneficence, discharging efficiently +and without corruption functions of supreme utility, and constituting +one of the main sources of spiritual and moral life in the community. +None of the modern influences of society can be said to have superseded +it. Modern experience has furnished much evidence of the insufficiency +of mere intellectual education if it is unaccompanied by the education +of character, and it is on this side that modern education is most +defective. While it undoubtedly makes men far more keenly sensible than +in the past to the vast inequalities of human lots, the habit of +constantly holding out material prizes as its immediate objects, and the +disappearance of those coercive methods of education which once +disciplined the will, make it perhaps less efficient as an instrument of +moral amelioration. + +Some habits of thought also, that have grown rapidly among educated men, +have tended powerfully in the same direction. The sharp contrasts +between true and false in matters of theology have been considerably +attenuated. The point of view has changed. It is believed that in the +history of the world gross and material conceptions of religion have +been not only natural, but indispensable, and that it is only by a +gradual process of intellectual evolution that the masses of men become +prepared for higher and purer conceptions. Superstition and illusion +play no small part in holding together the great fabric of society. +'Every falsehood,' it has been said, 'is reduced to a certain +malleability by an alloy of truth,' and, on the other hand, truths of +the utmost moment are, in certain stages of the world's history, only +operative when they are clothed with a vesture of superstition. The +Divine Spirit filters down to the human heart through a gross and +material medium. And what is true of different stages of human history +is not less true of different contemporary strata of knowledge and +intelligence. In spite of democratic declamation about the equality of +man, it is more and more felt that the same kind of teaching is not good +for everyone. Truth, when undiluted, is too strong a medicine for many +minds. Some things which a highly cultivated intellect would probably +discard, and discard without danger, are essential to the moral being of +multitudes. There is in all great religious systems something that is +transitory and something that is eternal. Theological interpretations of +the phenomena of outward nature which surround and influence us, and +mythological narratives which have been handed down to us from a remote, +uncritical and superstitious past, may be transformed or discredited; +but there are elements in religion which have their roots much less in +the reason of man than in his sorrows and his affections, and are the +expression of wants, moral appetites and aspirations which are an +essential, indestructible part of his nature. + +No one, I think, can doubt that this way of thinking, whether it be +right or wrong, has very widely spread through educated Europe, and it +is a habit of thought which commonly strengthens with age. Young men +discuss religious questions simply as questions of truth or falsehood. +In later life they more frequently accept their creed as a working +hypothesis of life; as a consolation in innumerable calamities; as the +one supposition under which life is not a melancholy anti-climax; as +the indispensable sanction of moral obligation; as the gratification and +reflection of needs, instincts and longings which are planted in the +deepest recesses of human nature; as one of the chief pillars on which +society rests. The proselytising, the aggressive, the critical spirit +diminishes. Very often they deliberately turn away their thoughts from +questions which appear to them to lead only to endless controversy or to +mere negative conclusions, and base their moral life on some strong +unselfish interest for the benefit of their kind. In active, useful and +unselfish work they find the best refuge from the perplexities of belief +and the best field for the cultivation of their moral nature, and work +done for the benefit of others seldom fails to react powerfully on their +own happiness. Nor is it always those who have most completely abandoned +dogmatic systems who are the least sensible to the moral beauty which +has grown up around them. The music of the village church, which sounds +so harsh and commonplace to the worshipper within, sometimes fills with +tears the eyes of the stranger who sits without, listening among the +tombs. + +It is difficult to say how far the partial truce which has now fallen in +England over the great antagonisms of belief is likely to be permanent. +No one who knows the world can be insensible to the fact that a large +and growing proportion of those who habitually attend our religious +services have come to diverge very widely, though in many different +degrees, from the beliefs which are expressed or implied in the +formularies they use. Custom, fashion, the charm of old associations, +the cravings of their own moral or spiritual nature, a desire to +support a useful system of moral training, to set a good example to +their children, their household, or their neighbours, keep them in their +old place when the beliefs which they profess with their lips have in a +great measure ebbed away. I do not undertake to blame or to judge them. +Individual conscience and character and particular circumstances have, +in these matters, a decisive voice. But there are times when the +difference between professed belief and real belief is too great for +endurance, and when insincerity and half-belief affect seriously the +moral character of a nation. 'The deepest, nay, the only theme of the +world's history, to which all others are subordinate,' said Goethe, 'is +the conflict of faith and unbelief. The epochs in which faith, in +whatever form it may be, prevails, are the marked epochs in human +history, full of heart-stirring memories and of substantial gains for +all after times. The epochs in which unbelief, in whatever form it may +be, prevails, even when for the moment they put on the semblance of +glory and success, inevitably sink into insignificance in the eyes of +posterity, which will not waste its thoughts on things barren and +unfruitful.' + +Many of my readers have probably felt the force of such considerations +and the moral problems which they suggest, and there have been perhaps +moments when they have asked themselves the question of the poet-- + + + Tell me, my soul, what is thy creed? + Is it a faith or only a need? + + +They will reflect, however, that a need, if it be universally felt when +human nature is in its highest and purest state, furnishes some basis +of belief, and also that no man can venture to assign limits to the +transformations which religion may undergo without losing its essence or +its power. Even in the field of morals these have been very great, +though universal custom makes us insensible to the extent to which we +have diverged from a literal observance of Evangelical precepts. We +should hardly write over the Savings Bank, 'Take no thought for the +morrow, for the morrow will take thought for itself,' or over the Bank +of England, 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth,' 'How +hardly shall a rich man enter into the Kingdom of God,' or over the +Foreign Office, or the Law Court, or the prison, 'Resist not evil,' 'He +that smiteth thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also,' 'He +that taketh away thy coat let him have thy cloak also.' Can it be said +that the whole force and meaning of such words are represented by an +industrial society in which the formation of habits of constant +providence with the object of averting poverty or increasing comfort is +deemed one of the first of duties and a main element and measure of +social progress; in which the indiscriminate charity which encourages +mendicancy and discourages habits of forethought and thrift is far more +seriously condemned than an industrial system based on the keenest, the +most deadly, and often the most malevolent competition; in which wealth +is universally sought, and universally esteemed a good and not an evil, +provided only it is honestly obtained and wisely and generously used; in +which, although wanton aggression and a violent and quarrelsome temper +are no doubt condemned, it is esteemed the duty of every good citizen +to protect his rights whenever they are unjustly infringed; in which war +and the preparation for war kindle the most passionate enthusiasm and +absorb a vast proportion of the energies of Christendom, and in which no +Government could remain a week in power if it did not promptly resent +the smallest insult to the national flag? + +It is a question of a different kind whether the sacerdotal spirit which +has of late years so largely spread in the English Church can extend +without producing a violent disruption. To cut the tap roots of +priestcraft was one of the main aims and objects of the Reformation, +and, for reasons I have already stated, I do not believe that the party +which would re-establish it has by any means the strength that has been +attributed to it. It is true that the Broad Church party, though it +reflects faithfully the views of large numbers of educated laymen, has +never exercised an influence in active Church life at all proportionate +to the eminence of its leading representatives. It is true also that the +Evangelical party has in a very remarkable degree lost its old place in +the Anglican pulpit and in religious literature, though its tenets still +form the staple of the preaching of the Salvation Army and of most other +street preachers who exercise a real and widespread influence over the +poor. But the middle and lower sections of English society are, I +believe, at bottom, profoundly hostile to priestcraft; and although the +dread of Popery has diminished, they are very far from being ready to +acquiesce in any attempt to restore the dominion which their fathers +discarded. + +In one respect, indeed, sacerdotalism in the Anglican Church is a worse +thing than in the Roman Church, for it is undisciplined and unregulated. +The history of the Church abundantly shows the dangers that have sprung +from the Confessional, though the Roman Catholic will maintain that its +habitually restraining and moralising influence greatly outweighs these +occasional abuses. But in the Roman Church the practice of confession is +carried on under the most severe ecclesiastical supervision and +discipline. Confession can only be made to a celibate priest of mature +age, who is bound to secrecy by the most solemn oath; who, except in +cases of grave illness, confesses only in an open church; and who has +gone through a long course of careful education specially and skilfully +designed to fit him for the duty. None of these conditions are observed +in Anglican Confession. + +In other respects, indeed, the sacerdotal spirit is never likely to be +quite the same as in the Roman Church. A married clergy, who have mixed +in all the lay influences of an English university, and who still take +part in the pursuits, studies, social intercourse and amusements of +laymen, are not likely to form a separate caste or to constitute a very +formidable priesthood. It is perhaps a little difficult to treat their +pretensions with becoming gravity, and the atmosphere of unlimited +discussion which envelops Englishmen through their whole lives has +effectually destroyed the danger of coercive and restrictive laws +directed against opinion. Moral coercion and the tendency to interfere +by law on moral grounds with the habits of men, even when those habits +in no degree interfere with others, have increased. It is one of the +marked tendencies of Anglo-Saxon democracy, and it is very far from +being peculiar to, or even specially prominent in, any one Church. But +the desire to repress the expression of opinions by force, which for so +many centuries marked with blood and fire the power of mediaeval +sacerdotalism, is wholly alien to modern English nature. Amid all the +fanaticisms, exaggerations, and superstitions of belief, this kind of +coercion, at least, is never likely to be formidable, nor do I believe +that in the most extreme section of the sacerdotal clergy there is any +desire for it. There has been one significant contrast between the +history of Catholicism and Anglicanism in the present century. In the +Catholic Church the Ultramontane element has steadily dominated, +restricting liberty of opinion, and important tenets which were once +undefined by the Church, and on which sincere Catholics had some +latitude of opinion, have been brought under the iron yoke. This is no +doubt largely due to the growth of scepticism and indifference, which +have made the great body of educated laymen hostile or indifferent to +the Church, and have thrown its management mainly into the hands of the +priesthood and the more bigoted, ignorant and narrow-minded laymen. But +in the Anglican Church educated laymen are much less alienated from +Church life, and a tribunal which is mainly lay exercises the supreme +authority. As a consequence of these conditions, although the sacerdotal +element has greatly increased, the latitude of opinion within the Church +has steadily grown. + +At the same time, it is difficult to believe that serious dangers do not +await the Church if the unprotestantising influences that have spread +within it continue to extend. It is not likely that the nation will +continue to give its support to the Church if that Church in its main +tendencies cuts itself off from the Reformation. The conversions to +Catholicism in England, though probably much exaggerated, have been very +numerous, and it is certainly not surprising that it should be so. If +the Church of Rome permitted Protestantism to be constantly taught in +her pulpits, and Protestant types of worship and character to be +habitually held up to admiration, there can be little doubt that many of +her worshippers would be shaken. If the Church of England becomes in +general what it already is in some of its churches, it is not likely +that English public opinion will permanently acquiesce in its privileged +position in the State. If it ceases to be a Protestant Church, it will +not long remain an established one, and its disestablishment would +probably be followed by a disruption in which opinions would be more +sharply defined, and the latitude of belief and the spirit of compromise +that now characterise our English religious life might be seriously +impaired. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[58] _Alciphron_, 6th Dialogue. + +[59] Nalsons's _Collections_, i. 769, February 9, 1640. + +[60] _Autobiography of Isaac Williams_, p. 132. This letter was written +in 1863. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE MANAGEMENT OF CHARACTER + + +Of all the tasks which are set before man in life, the education and +management of his character is the most important, and, in order that it +should be successfully pursued, it is necessary that he should make a +calm and careful survey of his own tendencies, unblinded either by the +self-deception which conceals errors and magnifies excellences, or by +the indiscriminate pessimism which refuses to recognise his powers for +good. He must avoid the fatalism which would persuade him that he has no +power over his nature, and he must also clearly recognise that this +power is not unlimited. Man is like a card-player who receives from +Nature his cards--his disposition, his circumstances, the strength or +weakness of his will, of his mind, and of his body. The game of life is +one of blended chance and skill. The best player will be defeated if he +has hopelessly bad cards, but in the long run the skill of the player +will not fail to tell. The power of man over his character bears much +resemblance to his power over his body. Men come into the world with +bodies very unequal in their health and strength; with hereditary +dispositions to disease; with organs varying greatly in their normal +condition. At the same time a temperate or intemperate life, skilful or +unskilful regimen, physical exercises well adapted to strengthen the +weaker parts, physical apathy, vicious indulgence, misdirected or +excessive effort, will all in their different ways alter his bodily +condition and increase or diminish his chances of disease and premature +death. The power of will over character is, however, stronger, or, at +least, wider than its power over the body. There are organs which lie +wholly beyond its influence; there are diseases over which it can +exercise no possible influence, but there is no part of our moral +constitution which we cannot in some degree influence or modify. + +It has often seemed to me that diversities of taste throw much light on +the basis of character. Why is it that the same dish gives one man keen +pleasure and to another is loathsome and repulsive? To this simple +question no real answer can be given. It is a fact of our nature that +one fruit, or meat, or drink will give pleasure to one palate and none +whatever to another. At the same time, while the original and natural +difference is undoubted, there are many differences which are wholly or +largely due to particular and often transitory causes. Dishes have an +attraction or the reverse because they are associated with old +recollections or habits. Habit will make a Frenchman like his melon with +salt, while an Englishman prefers it with sugar. An old association of +ideas will make an Englishman shrink from eating a frog or a snail, +though he would probably like each if he ate it without knowing it, and +he could easily learn to do so. The kind of cookery which one age or one +nation generally likes, another age or another nation finds distasteful. +The eye often governs the taste, and a dish which, when seen, excites +intense repulsion, would have no such repulsion to a blind man. Every +one who has moved much about the world, and especially in uncivilised +countries, will get rid of many old antipathies, will lose the +fastidiousness of his taste, and will acquire new and genuine tastes. +The original innate difference is not wholly destroyed, but it is +profoundly and variously modified. + +These changes of taste are very analogous to what takes place in our +moral dispositions. They are for the most part in themselves simply +external to morals, though there is at least one conspicuous exception. +Many--it is to be hoped most--men might spend their lives with full +access to intoxicating liquors without even the temptation of getting +drunk. Apart from all considerations of religion, morals, social, +physical, or intellectual consequences, they abstain from doing so +simply as a matter of taste. With other men the pleasure of excessive +drinking is such that it requires an heroic effort of the will to resist +it. There are men who not only are so constituted that it is their +greatest pleasure, but who are even born with a craving for drink. In no +form is the terrible fact of heredity more clearly or more tragically +displayed. Many, too, who had originally no such craving gradually +acquire it: sometimes by mere social influence, which makes excessive +drinking the habit of their circle; more frequently through depression +or sorrow, which gives men a longing for some keen pleasure in which +they can forget themselves; or through the jaded habit of mind and body +which excessive work produces, or through the dreary, colourless, +joyless surroundings of sordid poverty. Drink and the sensual pleasures, +if viciously indulged, produce (doubtless through physical causes) an +intense craving for their gratification. This, however, is not the case +with all our pleasures. Many are keenly enjoyed when present, yet not +seriously missed when absent. Sometimes, too, the effect of +over-indulgence is to vitiate and deaden the palate, so that what was +once pleasing ceases altogether to be an object of desire. This, too, +has its analogue in other things. We have a familiar example in the +excessive novel-reader, who begins with a kind of mental intoxication, +and who ends with such a weariness that he finds it a serious effort to +read the books which were once his strongest temptation. + +Tastes of the palate also naturally change with age and with the +accompanying changes of the body. The schoolboy who bitterly repines +because the smallness of his allowance restricts his power of buying +tarts and sweetmeats will probably grow into a man who, with many +shillings in his pocket, daily passes the confectioner's shop without +the smallest desire to enter it. + +It is evident that there is a close analogy between these things and +that collection of likes and dislikes, moral and intellectual, which +forms the primal base of character, and which mainly determines the +complexion of our lives. As Marcus Aurelius said: 'Who can change the +desires of man?' That which gives the strongest habitual pleasure, +whether it be innate or acquired, will in the great majority of cases +ultimately dominate. Certain things will always be intensely +pleasurable, and certain other things indifferent or repellent, and this +magnetism is the true basis of character, and with the majority of men +it mainly determines conduct. By the associations of youth and by other +causes these natural likings and dislikings may be somewhat modified, +but even in youth our power is very limited, and in later life it is +much less. No real believer in free-will will hold that man is an +absolute slave to his desires. No man who knows the world will deny that +with average man the strongest passion or desire will prevail--happy +when that desire is not a vice. + +Passions weaken, but habits strengthen, with age, and it is the great +task of youth to set the current of habit and to form the tastes which +are most productive of happiness in life. Here, as in most other things, +opposite exaggerations are to be avoided. There is such a thing as +looking forward too rigidly and too exclusively to the future--to a +future that may never arrive. This is the great fault of the +over-educationist, who makes early life a burden and a toil, and also of +those who try to impose on youth the tastes and pleasures of the man. +Youth has its own pleasures, which will always give it most enjoyment, +and a happy youth is in itself an end. It is the time when the power of +enjoyment is most keen, and it is often accompanied by such extreme +sensitiveness that the sufferings of the child for what seem the most +trivial causes probably at least equal in acuteness, though not in +durability, the sufferings of a man. Many a parent standing by the +coffin of his child has felt with bitterness how much of the measure of +enjoyment that short life might have known has been cut off by an +injudicious education. And even if adult life is attained, the evils of +an unhappy childhood are seldom wholly compensated. The pleasures of +retrospect are among the most real we possess, and it is around our +childish days that our fondest associations naturally cluster. An early +over-strain of our powers often leaves behind it lasting distortion or +weakness, and a sad childhood introduces into the character elements of +morbidness and bitterness that will not disappear. + +The first great rule in judging of pleasures is that so well expressed +by Seneca: 'Sic praesentibus utaris voluptatibus ut futuris non +noceas'--so to use present pleasures as not to impair future ones. +Drunkenness, sensuality, gambling, habitual extravagance and +self-indulgence, if they become the pleasures of youth, will almost +infallibly lead to the ruin of a life. Pleasures that are in themselves +innocent lose their power of pleasing if they become the sole or main +object of pursuit. + +In starting in life we are apt to attach a disproportionate value to +tastes, pleasures, and ideals that can only be even approximately +satisfied in youth, health, and strength. We have, I think, an example +of this in the immense place which athletic games and out-of-door sports +have taken in modern English life. They are certainly not things to be +condemned. They have the direct effect of giving a large amount of +intense and innocent pleasure, and they have indirect effects which are +still more important. In so far as they raise the level of physical +strength and health, and dispel the morbidness of temperament which is +so apt to accompany a sedentary life and a diseased or inert frame, they +contribute powerfully to lasting happiness. They play a considerable +part in the formation of friendships which is one of the best fruits of +the period between boyhood and mature manhood. Some of them give lessons +of courage, perseverance, energy, self-restraint, and cheerful +acquiescence in disappointment and defeat that are of no small value in +the formation of character, and when they are not associated with +gambling they have often the inestimable advantage of turning young men +away from vicious pleasures. At the same time it can hardly be doubted +that they hold an exaggerated prominence in the lives of young +Englishmen of the present generation. It is not too much to say that +among large sections of the students at our Universities, and at a time +when intellectual ambition ought to be most strong and when the +acquisition of knowledge is most important, proficiency in cricket or +boating or football is more prized than any intellectual achievement. I +have heard a good judge, who had long been associated with English +University life, express his opinion that during the last forty or fifty +years the relative intellectual position of the upper and middle classes +in England has been materially changed, owing to the disproportioned +place which outdoor amusements have assumed in the lives of the former. +It is the impression of very competent judges that a genuine love, +reverence and enthusiasm for intellectual things is less common among +the young men of the present day than it was in the days of their +fathers. The predominance of the critical spirit which chills +enthusiasm, and still more the cram system which teaches young men to +look on the prizes that are to be won by competitive examinations as the +supreme end of knowledge, no doubt largely account for this, but much +is also due to the extravagant glorification of athletic games. + +If we compare the class of pleasures I have described with the taste for +reading and kindred intellectual pleasures, the superiority of the +latter is very manifest. To most young men, it is true, a game will +probably give at least as much pleasure as a book. Nor must we measure +the pleasure of reading altogether by the language of the genuine +scholar. It is not every one who could say, like Gibbon, that he would +not exchange his love of reading for all the wealth of the Indies. Very +many would agree with him; but Gibbon was a man with an intense natural +love of knowledge, and the weak health of his early life intensified +this predominant passion. But while the tastes which require physical +strength decline or pass with age, that for reading steadily grows. It +is illimitable in the vistas of pleasure it opens; it is one of the most +easily satisfied, one of the cheapest, one of the least dependent on +age, seasons, and the varying conditions of life. It cheers the invalid +through years of weakness and confinement; illuminates the dreary hours +of the sleepless night; stores the mind with pleasant thoughts, banishes +ennui, fills up the unoccupied interstices and enforced leisures of an +active life; makes men for a time at least forget their anxieties and +sorrows, and if it is judiciously managed it is one of the most powerful +means of training character and disciplining and elevating thought. It +is eminently a pleasure which is not only good in itself but enhances +many others. By extending the range of our knowledge, by enlarging our +powers of sympathy and appreciation, it adds incalculably to the +pleasures of society, to the pleasures of travel, to the pleasures of +art, to the interest we take in the vast variety of events which form +the great world-drama around us. + +To acquire this taste in early youth is one of the best fruits of +education, and it is especially useful when the taste for reading +becomes a taste for knowledge, and when it is accompanied by some +specialisation and concentration and by some exercise of the powers of +observation. 'Many tastes and one hobby' is no bad ideal to be aimed at. +The boy who learns to collect and classify fossils, or flowers, or +insects, who has acquired a love for chemical experiments, who has begun +to form a taste for some particular kind or department of knowledge, has +laid the foundation of much happiness in life. + +In the selection of pleasures and the cultivation of tastes much wisdom +is shown in choosing in such a way that each should form a complement to +the others; that different pleasures should not clash, but rather cover +different areas and seasons of life; that each should tend to correct +faults or deficiencies of character which the others may possibly +produce. The young man who starts in life with keen literary tastes and +also with a keen love of out-of-door sports, and who possesses the means +of gratifying each, has perhaps provided himself with as many elements +of happiness as mere amusements can ever furnish. One set of pleasures, +however, often kills the capacity for enjoying others, and some which in +themselves are absolutely innocent, by blunting the enjoyment of better +things, exercise an injurious influence on character. Habitual +novel-reading, for example, often destroys the taste for serious +literature, and few things tend so much to impair a sound literary +perception and to vulgarise the character as the habit of constantly +saturating the mind with inferior literature, even when that literature +is in no degree immoral. Sometimes an opposite evil may be produced. +Excessive fastidiousness greatly limits our enjoyments, and the +inestimable gift of extreme concentration is often dearly bought. The +well-known confession of Darwin that his intense addiction to science +had destroyed his power of enjoying even the noblest imaginative +literature represents a danger to which many men who have achieved much +in the higher and severer forms of scientific thought are subject. Such +men are usually by their original temperament, and become still more by +acquired habit, men of strong, narrow, concentrated natures, whose +thoughts, like a deep and rapid stream confined in a restricted channel, +flow with resistless energy in one direction. It is by the sacrifice of +versatility that they do so much, and the result is amply sufficient to +justify it. But it is a real sacrifice, depriving them of many forms +both of capacity and of enjoyment. + +The same pleasures act differently on different characters, especially +on the differences of character that accompany difference of sex. I have +myself no doubt that the movement which in modern times has so widely +opened to women amusements that were once almost wholly reserved for men +has been on the whole a good one. It has produced a higher level of +health, stronger nerves, and less morbid characters, and it has given +keen and innocent enjoyment to many who from their circumstances and +surroundings once found their lives very dreary and insipid. Yet most +good observers will agree that amusements which have no kind of evil +effect on men often in some degree impair the graces or characters of +women, and that it is not quite with impunity that one sex tries to live +the life of the other. Some pleasures, too, exercise a much larger +influence than others on the general habits of life. It is not too much +to say that the invention of the bicycle, bringing with it an immense +increase of outdoor life, of active exercise, and of independent habits, +has revolutionised the course of many lives. Some amusements which may +in themselves be but little valued are wisely cultivated as helping men +to move more easily in different spheres of society, or as providing a +resource for old age. Talleyrand was not wholly wrong in his reproach to +a man who had never learned to play whist: 'What an unhappy old age you +are preparing for yourself!' + +I have already mentioned the differences that may be found in different +countries and ages, in the relative importance attached to external +circumstances and to dispositions of mind as means of happiness, and the +tendency in the more progressive nations to seek their happiness mainly +in improved circumstances. Another great line of distinction is between +education that acts specially upon the desires, and that which acts +specially upon the will. The great perfection of modern systems of +education is chiefly of the former kind. Its object is to make knowledge +and virtue attractive, and therefore an object of desire. It does so +partly by presenting them in the most alluring forms, partly by +connecting them as closely as possible with rewards. The great principle +of modern moral education is to multiply innocent and beneficent +interests, tastes, and ambitions. It is to make the path of virtue the +natural, the easy, the pleasing one; to form a social atmosphere +favourable to its development, making duty and interest as far as +possible coincident. Vicious pleasures are combated by the +multiplication of healthy ones, and by a clearer insight into the +consequences of each. An idle or inert character is stimulated by +holding up worthy objects of interest and ambition, and it is the aim +alike of the teacher and the legislator to make the grooves and channels +of life such as tend naturally and easily towards good. But the +education of the will--the power of breasting the current of the desires +and doing for long periods what is distasteful and painful--is much less +cultivated than in some periods of the past. + +Many things contribute to this. The rush and hurry of modern existence +and the incalculable multitude and variety of fleeting impressions that +in the great centres of civilisation pass over the mind are very +unfavourable to concentration, and perhaps still more to the direct +cultivation of mental states. Amusements, and the appetite for +amusements, have greatly extended. Life has become more full. The long +leisures, the introspective habits, the _vita contemplativa_ so +conspicuous in the old Catholic discipline, grow very rare. Thoughts and +interests are more thrown on the external; and the comfort, the luxury, +the softness, the humanity of modern life, and especially of modern +education, make men less inclined to face the disagreeable and endure +the painful. + +The starting-point of education is thus silently changing. Perhaps the +extent of the change is best shown by the old Catholic ascetic training. +Its supreme object was to discipline and strengthen the will: to +accustom men habitually to repudiate the pleasurable and accept the +painful; to mortify the most natural tastes and affections; to narrow +and weaken the empire of the desires; to make men wholly independent of +outward circumstances; to preach self-renunciation as itself an end. + +Men will always differ about the merits of this system. In my own +opinion it is difficult to believe that in the period of Catholic +ascendency the moral standard was, on the whole and in its broad lines, +higher than our own. The repression of the sensual instincts was the +central fact in ascetic morals; but, even tested by this test, it is at +least very doubtful whether it did not fail. The withdrawal from secular +society of the best men did much to restrict the influences for good, +and the habit of aiming at an unnatural ideal was not favourable to +common, everyday, domestic virtue. The history of sacerdotal and +monastic celibacy abundantly shows how much vice that might easily have +been avoided grew out of the adoption of an unnatural standard, and how +often it led in those who had attained it to grave distortions of +character. Affections and impulses which were denied their healthy and +natural vent either became wholly atrophied or took other and morbid +forms, and the hard, cruel, self-righteous fanatic, equally ready to +endure or to inflict suffering, was a not unnatural result. But +whatever may have been its failures and its exaggerations, Catholic +asceticism was at least a great school for disciplining and +strengthening the will, and the strength and discipline of the will form +one of the first elements of virtue and of happiness. + +In the grave and noble type of character which prevailed in English and +American life during the seventeenth century, the strength of will was +conspicuously apparent. Life was harder, simpler, more serious, and less +desultory than at present, and strong convictions shaped and fortified +the character. 'It was an age,' says a great American writer, 'when what +we call talent had far less consideration than now, but the massive +materials which produce stability and dignity of character a great deal +more. The people possessed by hereditary right the quality of reverence, +which, in their descendants, if it survive at all, exists in smaller +proportion and with a vastly diminished force in the selection and +estimate of public men. The change may be for good or ill, and is +partly, perhaps, for both. In that old day the English settler on these +rude shores, having left king, nobles, and all degrees of awful rank +behind, while still the faculty and necessity of reverence were strong +in him, bestowed it on the white hair and venerable brow of age; on +long-tried integrity; on solid wisdom and sad-coloured experience; on +endowments of that grave and weighty order which give the idea of +permanence and come under the general definition of respectability. +These primitive statesmen, therefore,--Bradstreet, Endicott, Dudley, +Bellingham, and their compeers,--who were elevated to power by the +early choice of the people, seem to have been not often brilliant, but +distinguished by a ponderous sobriety rather than activity of intellect. +They had fortitude and self-reliance, and in time of difficulty or peril +stood up for the welfare of the State like a line of cliffs against a +tempestuous tide.'[61] + +The power of the will, however, even when it exists in great strength, +is often curiously capricious. History is full of examples of men who in +great trials and emergencies have acted with admirable and persevering +heroism, yet who readily succumbed to private vices or passions. The +will is not the same as the desires, but the connection between them is +very close. A love for a distant end; a dominating ambition or passion, +will call forth long perseverance in wholly distasteful work in men +whose will in other fields of life is lamentably feeble. Every one who +has embarked with real earnestness in some extended literary enterprise +which as a whole represents the genuine bent of his talent and character +will be struck with his exceptional power of traversing perseveringly +long sections of this enterprise for which he has no natural aptitude +and in which he takes no pleasure. Military courage is with most men +chiefly a matter of temperament and impulse, but there have been +conspicuous instances of great soldiers and sailors who have frankly +acknowledged that they never lost in battle an intense constitutional +shrinking from danger, though by the force of a strong will they never +suffered this timidity to govern or to weaken them. With men of very +vivid imagination there is a natural tendency to timidity as they +realise more than ordinary men danger and suffering. On the other hand +it has often been noticed how calmly the callous, semi-torpid +temperament that characterises many of the worst criminals enables them +to meet death upon the gallows. + +In courage itself, too, there are many varieties. The courage of the +soldier and the courage of the martyr are not the same, and it by no +means follows that either would possess that of the other. Not a few men +who are capable of leading a forlorn hope, and who never shrink from the +bayonet and the cannon, have shown themselves incapable of bearing the +burden of responsibility, enduring long-continued suspense, taking +decisions which might expose them to censure or unpopularity. The active +courage that encounters and delights in danger is often found in men who +show no courage in bearing suffering, misfortune, or disease. In passive +courage the woman often excels the man as much as in active courage the +man exceeds the woman. Even in active courage familiarity does much; +sympathy and enthusiasm play great and often very various parts, and +curious anomalies may be found. The Teutonic and the Latin races are +probably equally distinguished for their military courage, but there is +a clear difference between them in the nature of that courage and in the +circumstances or conditions under which it is usually most splendidly +displayed. The danger incurred by the gladiator was far greater than +that which was encountered by the soldier, but Tacitus[62] mentions +that when some of the bravest gladiators were employed in the Roman +army they were found wholly inefficient, as they were much less capable +than the ordinary soldiers of military courage. + +The circumstances of life are the great school for forming and +strengthening the will, and in the excessive competition and struggle of +modern industrialism this school is not wanting. But in ethical and +educational systems the value of its cultivation is often insufficiently +felt. Yet nothing which is learned in youth is so really valuable as the +power and the habit of self-restraint, of self-sacrifice, of energetic, +continuous and concentrated effort. In the best of us evil tendencies +are always strong and the path of duty is often distasteful. With the +most favourable wind and tide the bark will never arrive at the harbour +if it has ceased to obey the rudder. A weak nature which is naturally +kindly, affectionate and pure, which floats through life under the +impulse of the feelings, with no real power of self-restraint, is indeed +not without its charm, and in a well-organised society, with good +surroundings and few temptations, it may attain a high degree of beauty; +but its besetting failings will steadily grow; without fortitude, +perseverance and principle, it has no recuperative energy, and it will +often end in a moral catastrophe which natures in other respects much +less happily compounded would easily avoid. Nothing can permanently +secure our moral being in the absence of a restraining will basing +itself upon a strong sense of the difference between right and wrong, +upon the firm groundwork of principle and honour. + +Experience abundantly shows how powerfully the steady action of such a +will can operate upon innate defects, converting the constitutional +idler into the indefatigably industrious, checking, limiting and +sometimes almost destroying constitutional irritability and vicious +passions. The natural power of the will in different men differs +greatly, but there is no part of our nature which is more strengthened +by exercise or more weakened by disuse. The minor faults of character it +can usually correct; but when a character is once formed, and when its +tendencies are essentially vicious, radical cure or even considerable +amelioration is very rare. Sometimes the strong influence of religion +effects it. Sometimes it is effected by an illness, a great misfortune, +or the total change of associations that follows emigration. Marriage +perhaps more frequently than any other ordinary agency in early life +transforms or deeply modifies the character, for it puts an end to +powerful temptations and brings with it a profound change of habits and +motives, associations and desires. But we have all of us encountered in +life depraved natures in which vicious self-indulgence had attained such +a strength, and the recuperating and moralising elements were so fatally +weak, that we clearly perceive the disease to be incurable, and that it +is hardly possible that any change of circumstances could even seriously +mitigate it. In what proportion this is the fault or the calamity of the +patient no human judgment can accurately tell. + +Few things are sadder than to observe how frequently the inheritance of +great wealth or even of easy competence proves the utter and speedy ruin +of a young man, except when the administration of a large property, or +the necessity of carrying on a great business, or some other propitious +circumstance provides him with a clearly defined sphere of work. The +majority of men will gladly discard distasteful work which their +circumstances do not require; and in the absence of steady work, and in +the possession of all the means of gratification, temptations assume an +overwhelming strength, and the springs of moral life are fatally +impaired. It can hardly be doubted that the average longevity in this +small class is far less than in that of common men, and that even when +natural capacity is considerable it is more rarely displayed. To a man +with a real desire for work such circumstances are indeed of inestimable +value, giving him the leisure and the opportunities of applying himself +without distraction and from early manhood to the kind of work that is +most suited to him. Sometimes this takes place, but much more frequently +vicious tastes or a simply idle or purposeless life are the result. +Sometimes, indeed, a large amount of desultory and unregulated energy +remains, but the serious labour of concentration is shunned and no real +result is attained. The stream is there, but it turns no mill. + +Most men escape this danger through the circumstances of life which make +serious and steady work necessary to their livelihood, and in the +majority of cases the kind of work is so clearly marked out that they +have little choice. When some choice exists, the rule which I have +already laid down should not be forgotten. Men should choose their work +not only according to their talents and their opportunities, but also, +as far as possible, according to their characters. They should select +the kinds which are most fitted to bring their best qualities into +exercise, or should at least avoid those which have a special tendency +to develop or encourage their dominant defects. On the whole it will be +found that men's characters are much more deeply influenced by their +pursuits than by their opinions. + +The choice of work is one of the great agencies for the management of +character in youth. The choice of friends is another. In the words of +Burke, 'The law of opinion ... is the strongest principle in the +composition of the frame of the human mind, and more of the happiness +and unhappiness of man reside in that inward principle than in all +external circumstances put together.'[63] This is true of the great +public opinion of an age or country which envelops us like an +atmosphere, and by its silent pressure steadily and almost insensibly +shapes or influences the whole texture of our lives. It is still more +true of the smaller circle of our intimacies which will do more than +almost any other thing to make the path of virtue easy or difficult. How +large a proportion of the incentives to a noble ambition, or of the +first temptations to evil, may be traced to an early friendship, and it +is often in the little circle that gathers round a college table that +the measure of life is first taken, and ideals and enthusiasms are +formed which give a colour to all succeeding years. To admire strongly +and to admire wisely is, indeed, one of the best means of moral +improvement. + +Very much, however, of the management of character can only be +accomplished by the individual himself acting in complete isolation upon +his own nature and in the chamber of his own mind. The discipline of +thought; the establishment of an ascendency of the will over our courses +of thinking; the power of casting away morbid trains of reflection and +turning resolutely to other subjects or aspects of life; the power of +concentrating the mind vigorously on a serious subject and pursuing +continuous trains of thought,--form perhaps the best fruits of judicious +self-education. Its importance, indeed, is manifold. In the higher walks +of intellect this power of mental concentration is of supreme value. +Newton is said to have ascribed mainly to an unusual amount of it his +achievements in philosophy, and it is probable that the same might be +said by most other great thinkers. In the pursuit of happiness hardly +anything in external circumstances is so really valuable as the power of +casting off worry, turning in times of sorrow to healthy work, taking +habitually the brighter view of things. It is in such exercises of will +that we chiefly realise the truth of the lines of Tennyson: + + + Oh, well for him whose will is strong, + He suffers, but he will not suffer long. + + +In moral culture it is not less important to acquire the power of +discarding the demoralising thoughts and imaginations that haunt so +many, and meeting temptation by calling up purer, higher and restraining +thoughts. The faculty we possess of alternating and intensifying our own +motives by bringing certain thoughts, or images, or subjects into the +foreground and throwing others into the background, is one of our chief +means of moral progress. The cultivation of this power is a far wiser +thing than the cultivation of that introspective habit of mind which is +perpetually occupied with self-analysis or self-examination, and which +is constantly and remorsefully dwelling upon past faults or upon the +morbid elements in our nature. In the morals which are called minor, +though they affect deeply the happiness of mankind, the importance of +the government of thought is not less apparent. The secret of good or +bad temper is our habitual tendency to dwell upon or to fly from the +irritating and the inevitable. Content or discontent, amiability or the +reverse, depend mainly upon the disposition of our minds to turn +specially to the good or to the evil sides of our own lot, to the merits +or to the defects of those about us. A power of turning our thoughts +from a given subject, though not the sole element in self-control, is at +least one of its most important ingredients. + +This power of the will over the thoughts is one in which men differ +enormously. Thus--to take the most familiar instance--the capacity for +worry, with all the exaggerations and distortions of sentiment it +implies, is very evidently a constitutional thing, and where it exists +to a high degree neither reason nor will can effectually cure it. Such a +man may have the clearest possible intellectual perception of its +uselessness and its folly. Yet it will often banish sleep from his +pillow, follow him with an habitual depression in all the walks of life, +and make his measure of happiness much less than that of others who with +far less propitious circumstances are endued by nature with the gift of +lightly throwing off the past and looking forward with a sanguine and +cheerful spirit to the future. It is hardly possible to exaggerate the +different degrees of suffering the same trouble will produce in +different men, and it is probable that the happiness of a life depends +much less on the amount of pleasurable or painful things that are +encountered, than upon the turn of thought which dwells chiefly on one +or on the other. It is very evident that buoyancy of temperament is not +a thing that increases with civilisation or education. It is mainly +physical. It is greatly influenced by climate and by health, and where +no very clear explanation of this kind can be given it is a thing in +which different nations differ greatly. Few good observers will deny +that persistent and concentrated will is more common in Great Britain +than in Ireland, but that the gift of a buoyant temperament is more +common among Irishmen than among Englishmen. Yet it co-exists in the +national character with a strong vein of very genuine melancholy, and it +is often accompanied by keen sensitiveness to suffering. This +combination is a very common one. Every one who has often stood by a +deathbed knows how frequently it will be found that the mourner who is +utterly prostrated by grief, and whose tears flow in torrents, casts off +her grief much more completely and much sooner than one whose tears +refuse to flow and who never for a moment loses her self-command. + +But though natural temperament enables one man to do without effort what +another man with the utmost effort fails to accomplish, there are some +available remedies that can palliate the disease. Society, travel and +other amusements can do something, and such words as 'diversion' and +'distraction' embalm the truth that the chief virtue of many pleasures +is to divert or distract our minds from painful thoughts. Pascal +considered this a sign of the misery and the baseness of our nature, and +he describes as a deplorable spectacle a man who rose from his bed +weighed down with anxiety and grave sorrow, and who could for a time +forget it all in the passionate excitement of the chase. But, in truth, +the possession of such a power--weak and transient though it be--is one +of the great alleviations of the lot of man. Religion, with its powerful +motives and its wide range of consolatory and soothing thoughts and +images, has much power in this sphere when it does not take a morbid +form and intensify instead of alleviating sorrow; and the steady +exercise of the will gives us some real and increasing, though +imperfect, control over the current of our feelings as well as of our +ideas. + +Often the power of dreaming comes to our aid. When we cannot turn from +some painfully pressing thought to serious thinking of another kind, we +can give the reins to our imaginations and soon lose ourselves in ideal +scenes. There are men who live so habitually in a world of imagination +that it becomes to them a second life, and their strongest temptations +and their keenest pleasures belong to it. To them 'common life seems +tapestried with dreams.' Not unfrequently they derive a pleasure from +imagined or remembered enjoyments which the realities themselves would +fail to give. They select in imagination certain aspects or portions, +throw others into the shade, intensify or attenuate impressions, +transform and beautify the reality of things. The power of filling their +existence with happy day-dreams is their most precious luxury. They feel +the full force of the pathetic lines of an Irish poet:[64] + + + Sweet thoughts, bright dreams my comfort be, + I have no joy beside; + Oh, throng around and be to me + Power, country, fame and bride. + + +To train this side of our nature is no small part of the management of +character. There is a great sphere of happiness and misery which is +almost or altogether unconnected with surrounding circumstances, and +depends upon the thoughts, images, hopes and fears on which our minds +are chiefly concentrated. The exercise of this form of imagination has +often a great influence, both intellectually and morally. In childhood, +as every teacher knows, it is often a distracting influence, and with +men also it is sometimes an obstacle to concentrated reasoning and +observation, turning the mind away from sober and difficult thought; but +there is a kind of dreaming which is eminently conducive to productive +thought. It enables a man to place himself so completely in other +conditions of thought and life that the ideas connected with those +conditions rise spontaneously in the mind. A true and vivid realisation +of characters and circumstances unlike his own is acquired. The mere +fact of placing himself in other circumstances and investing himself +with imaginary powers and functions sometimes suggests possible remedies +for great human ills, and gives clearer views of the proportions, +difficulties and conditions of governments and societies. Much discovery +in science has been due to this power of the imagination to realise +conditions that are unseen, and the habit or faculty of living other +lives than our own is scarcely less valuable to the historian, and even +to the statesman, than to the poet or the novelist or the dramatist. It +gives the magic touch which changes mere lifeless knowledge into +realisation. + +Its effect upon character also is great and various. No one can fail to +recognise the depraving influence of a corrupt imagination; and the +corruption may spring, not only from suggestions from without, but from +those which rise spontaneously in our minds. Nor is even the imagination +which is wholly pure absolutely without its dangers. It is a well-known +law of our nature that an excessive indulgence in emotion that does not +end in action tends rather to deaden than to stimulate the moral nerve. +It has been often noticed that the exaggerated sentimentality which +sheds passionate tears over the fictitious sorrows of a novel or a play +is no certain sign of a benevolent and unselfish nature, and is quite +compatible with much indifference to real sorrows and much indisposition +to make efforts for their alleviation. It is, however, no less true, as +Dugald Stewart says, that the apparent coldness and selfishness of men +are often simply due to a want of that kind of imagination which enables +us to realise sufferings with which we have never been brought into +direct contact, and that once this power of realisation is acquired, the +coldness is speedily dispelled. Nor can it be doubted that in the +management of thought, the dream power often plays a most important part +in alleviating human suffering; illuminating cheerless and gloomy lives, +and breaking the chain of evil or distressing thoughts. + +The immense place which the literature of fiction holds in the world +shows how widely some measure of it is diffused, and how large an amount +of time and talent is devoted to its cultivation. It is probable, +however, that it is really stronger in the earlier and uncultivated than +in the later stages of humanity, as it is more vivid in childhood and in +youth than in mature life. 'A child,' as an American writer[65] has well +said, 'can afford to sleep without dreaming; he has plenty of dreams +without sleep.' The childhood of the world is also eminently an age of +dreams. There are stages of civilisation in which the dream world blends +so closely with the world of realities, in which the imagination so +habitually and so spontaneously transfigures or distorts, that men +become almost incapable of distinguishing between the real and the +fictitious. This is the true age of myths and legends; and there are +strata in contemporary society in which something of the same conditions +is reproduced. 'To those who do not read or write much,' says an acute +observer, 'even in our days, dreams are much more real than to those who +are continually exercising the imagination.... Since I have been +occupied with literature my dreams have lost all vividness and are less +real than the shadows of the trees; they do not deceive me even in my +sleep. At every hour of the day I am accustomed to call up figures at +will before my eyes, which stand out well defined and coloured to the +very hue of their faces.... The less literary a people the more they +believe in dreams; the disappearance of superstition is not due to the +cultivation of reason or the spread of knowledge, but purely to the +mechanical effect of reading, which so perpetually puts figures and +aerial shapes before the mental gaze that in time those that occur +naturally are thought no more of than those conjured into existence by a +book. It is in far-away country places, where people read very little, +that they see phantoms and consult the oracles of fate. Their dreams are +real.'[66] + +The last point I would notice in the management of character is the +importance of what may be called moral safety-valves. One of the most +fatal mistakes in education is the attempt which is so often made by the +educator to impose his own habits and tastes on natures that are +essentially different. It is common for men of lymphatic temperaments, +of studious, saintly, and retiring tastes, to endeavor to force a +high-spirited young man starting in life into their own mould--to +prescribe for him the cast of tastes and pursuits they find most suited +for themselves, forgetting that such an ideal can never satisfy a wholly +different nature, and that in aiming at it a kind of excellence which +might easily have been attained is missed. This is one of the evils +that very frequently arise when the education of boys after an early age +is left in the hands of women. It is the true explanation of the fact, +which has so often been noticed, that children of clergymen, or at least +children educated on a rigidly austere, puritanical system, so often go +conspicuously to the bad. Such an education, imposed on a nature that is +unfit for it, generally begins by producing hypocrisy, and not +unfrequently ends by a violent reaction into vice. There is no greater +mistake in education than to associate virtue in early youth with gloomy +colours and constant restrictions, and few people do more mischief in +the world than those who are perpetually inventing crimes. In circles +where smoking, or field sports, or going to the play, or reading novels, +or indulging in any boisterous games or in the most harmless Sunday +amusements, are treated as if they were grave moral offences, young men +constantly grow up who end by looking on grave moral offences as not +worse than these things. They lose all sense of proportion and +perspective in morals, and those who are always straining at gnats are +often peculiarly apt to swallow camels. It is quite right that men who +have formed for themselves an ideal of life of the kind that I have +described should steadily pursue it, but it is another thing to impose +it upon others, and to prescribe it as of general application. By +teaching as absolutely wrong things that are in reality only culpable in +their abuse or their excess, they destroy the habit of moderate and +restrained enjoyment, and a period of absolute prohibition is often +followed by a period of unrestrained license. + +The truth is there are elements in human nature which many moralists +might wish to be absent, as they are very easily turned in the direction +of vice, but which at the same time are inherent in our being, and, if +rightly understood, are essential elements of human progress. The love +of excitement and adventure; the fierce combative instinct that delights +in danger, in struggle, and even in destruction; the restless ambition +that seeks with an insatiable longing to better its position and to +climb heights that are yet unscaled; the craving for some enjoyment +which not merely gives pleasure but carries with it a thrill of +passion,--all this lies deep in human nature and plays a great part in +that struggle for existence, in that harsh and painful process of +evolution by which civilisation is formed, faculty stimulated to its +full development, and human progress secured. In the education of the +individual, as in the education of the race, the true policy in dealing +with these things is to find for them a healthy, useful, or at least +harmless sphere of action. In the chemistry of character they may ally +themselves with the most heroic as well as with the worst parts of our +nature, and the same passion for excitement which in one man will take +the form of ruinous vice, in another may lead to brilliant enterprise, +while in a third it may be turned with no great difficulty into channels +which are very innocent. + +Take, for example, the case to which I have already referred, of a +perfectly commonplace boy who, on coming of age, finds himself with a +competence that saves him from the necessity of work; and who has no +ambition, literary or artistic taste, love of work, interest in +politics, religious or philanthropic earnestness, or special talent. +What will become of him? In probably the majority of cases ruin, +disease, and an early death lie before him. He seeks only for amusement +and excitement, and three fatal temptations await him--drink, gambling, +and women. If he falls under the dominion of these, or even of one of +them, he almost infallibly wrecks either his fortune or his +constitution, or both. It is perfectly useless to set before him high +motives or ideals, or to incite him to lines of life for which he has no +aptitude and which can give him no pleasure. What, then, can save him? +Most frequently a happy marriage; but even if he is fortunate enough to +attain this, it will probably only be after several years, and in those +years a fatal bias is likely to be given to his life which can never be +recovered. Yet experience shows that in cases of this kind a keen love +of sport can often do much. With his gun and with his hunter he finds an +interest, an excitement, an employment which may not be particularly +noble, but which is at least sufficiently absorbing, and is not +injurious either to his morals, his health, or his fortune. It is no +small gain if, in the competition of pleasures, country pleasures take +the place of those town pleasures which, in such cases as I have +described, usually mean pleasures of vice. + +Nor is it by any means only in such cases that field sports prove a +great moral safety-valve, scattering morbid tastes and giving harmless +and healthy vent to turns of character or feeling which might very +easily be converted into vice. Among the influences that form the +character of the upper classes of Englishmen they have a great part, +and in spite of the exaggerations and extravagances that often accompany +them, few good observers will doubt that they have an influence for +good. However much of the Philistine element there may be in the upper +classes in England, however manifest may be their limitations and their +defects, there can be little doubt that on the whole the conditions of +English life have in this sphere proved successful. There are few better +working types within the reach of commonplace men than that of an +English gentleman with his conventional tastes, standard of honour, +religion, sympathies, ideals, opinions and instincts. He is not likely +to be either a saint or a philosopher, but he is tolerably sure to be +both an honourable and a useful man, with a fair measure of good sense +and moderation, and with some disposition towards public duties. A crowd +of out-of-door amusements and interests do much to dispel his peccant +humours and to save him from the stagnation and the sensuality that have +beset many foreign aristocracies. County business stimulates his +activity, mitigates his class prejudices, and forms his judgment: and +his standard of honour will keep him substantially right amid much +fluctuation of opinions. + +The reader, from his own experience of individual characters, will +supply other illustrations of the lines of thought I am enforcing. Some +temptations that beset us must be steadily faced and subdued. Others are +best met by flight--by avoiding the thoughts or scenes that call them +into activity; while other elements of character which we might wish to +be away are often better treated in the way of marriage--that is by a +judicious regulation and harmless application--than in the way of +asceticism or attempted suppression. It is possible for men--if not in +educating themselves, at least in educating others--to pitch their +standard and their ideal too high. What they have to do is to recognise +their own qualities and the qualities of those whom they influence as +they are, and endeavour to use these usually very imperfect materials to +the best advantage for the formation of useful, honourable and happy +lives. According to the doctrine of this book, man comes into the world +with a free will. But his free will, though a real thing, acts in a +narrower circle and with more numerous limitations than he usually +imagines. He can, however, do much so to dispose, regulate and modify +the circumstances of his life as to diminish both his sufferings and his +temptations, and to secure for himself the external conditions of a +happy and upright life, and he can do something by judicious and +persevering self-culture to improve those conditions of character on +which, more than on any external circumstances, both happiness and +virtue depend. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[61] Hawthorne's _Scarlet Letter_, ch. xxii. + +[62] _Hist._ ii. 35. + +[63] Speech on the Impeachment of Warren Hastings. + +[64] Davis. + +[65] Cable. + +[66] Jefferies, _Field and Hedgerow_, p. 242. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +MONEY + + +I do not think that I can better introduce the few pages which I propose +to write on the relations of money to happiness and to character than by +a pregnant passage from one of the essays[67] of Sir Henry Taylor. 'So +manifold are the bearings of money upon the lives and characters of +mankind, that an insight which should search out the life of a man in +his pecuniary relations would penetrate into almost every cranny of his +nature. He who knows like St. Paul both how to spare and how to abound +has a great knowledge; for if we take account of all the virtues with +which money is mixed up--honesty, justice, generosity, charity, +frugality, forethought, self-sacrifice, and of their correlative vices, +it is a knowledge which goes near to cover the length and breadth of +humanity, and a right measure in getting, saving, spending, giving, +taking, lending, borrowing and bequeathing would almost argue a perfect +man.' + +There are few subjects on which the contrast between the professed and +the real beliefs of men is greater than in the estimate of money. More +than any other single thing it is the object and usually the lifelong +object of human effort, and any accession of wealth is hailed by the +immense majority of mankind as an unquestionable blessing. Yet if we +were to take literally much of the teaching we have all heard we should +conclude that money, beyond what is required for the necessaries of +life, is far more a danger than a good; that it is the pre-eminent +source of evil and temptation; that one of the first duties of man is to +emancipate himself from the love of it, which can only mean from any +strong desire for its increase. + +In this, as in so many other things, the question is largely one of +degree. No one who knows what is meant by the abject poverty to which a +great proportion of the human race is condemned will doubt that at least +such an amount of money as raises them from this condition is one of the +greatest of human blessings. Extreme poverty means a lifelong struggle +for the bare means of living; it means a life spent in wretched hovels, +with insufficient food, clothes and firing, in enforced and absolute +ignorance; an existence almost purely animal, with nearly all the higher +faculties of man undeveloped. There is a far greater real difference in +the material elements of happiness between the condition of such men and +that of a moderately prosperous artizan in a civilised country than +there is between the latter and the millionaire. + +Money, again, at least to such an amount as enables men to be in some +considerable degree masters of their own course in life, is also on the +whole a great good. In this second degree it has less influence on +happiness than health, and probably than character and domestic +relations, but its influence is at least very great. Money is a good +thing because it can be transformed into many other things. It gives +the power of education which in itself does much to regulate the +character and opens out countless tastes and spheres of enjoyment. It +saves its possessor from the fear of a destitute old age and of the +destitution of those he may leave behind, which is the harrowing care of +multitudes who cannot be reckoned among the very poor. It enables him to +intermit labour in times of sickness and sorrow and old age, and in +those extremes of heat and cold during which active labour is little +less than physical pain. It gives him and it gives those he loves +increased chances of life and increased hope of recovery in sickness. +Few of the pains of penury are more acute than those of a poor man who +sees his wife or children withering away through disease, and who knows +or believes that better food or medical attendance, or a surgical +operation, or a change of climate, might have saved them. Money, too, +even when it does not dispense with work, at least gives a choice of +work and longer intervals of leisure. For the very poor this choice +hardly exists, or exists only within very narrow limits, and from want +of culture or want of leisure some of their most marked natural +aptitudes are never called into exercise. With the comparatively rich +this is not the case. Money enables them to select the course of life +which is congenial to their tastes and most suited to their natural +talents, or, if their strongest taste cannot become their work, money at +least gives them some leisure to cultivate it. The command of leisure, +when it is fruitful leisure spent in congenial work, is to many, +perhaps, the greatest boon it can bestow. 'Riches,' said Charles Lamb, +'are chiefly good because they give us Time.' 'All one's time to +oneself! for which alone I rankle with envy at the rich. Books are good +and pictures are good, and money to buy them is therefore good--but to +buy time--in other words, life!' + +To some men money is chiefly valuable because it makes it possible for +them not to think of money. Except in the daily regulation of ordinary +life, it enables them to put aside cares which are to them both +harassing and distasteful, and to concentrate their thoughts and +energies on other objects. An assured competence also, however moderate, +gives men the priceless blessing of independence. There are walks of +life, there are fields of ambition, there are classes of employments in +which between inadequate remuneration and the pressure of want on the +one side, and the facilities and temptations to illicit gain on the +other, it is extremely difficult for a poor man to walk straight. +Illicit gain does not merely mean gain that brings a man within the +range of the criminal law. Many of its forms escape legal and perhaps +social censure, and may be even sanctioned by custom. A competence, +whether small or large, is no sure preservative against that appetite +for gain which becomes one of the most powerful and insatiable of +passions. But it at least diminishes temptation. It takes away the +pressure of want under which so many natures that were once +substantially honest have broken down. + +In the expenditure of money there is usually a great deal of the +conventional, the factitious, the purely ostentatious, but we are here +dealing with the most serious realities of life. There are few or no +elements of happiness and character more important than those I have +indicated, and a small competence conduces powerfully to them. Let no +man therefore despise it, for if wisely used it is one of the most real +blessings of life. It is of course only within the reach of a small +minority, but the number might easily be much larger than it is. Often +when it is inherited in early youth it is scattered in one or two years +of gambling and dissipation, followed by a lifetime of regret. In other +cases it crumbles away in a generation, for it is made an excuse for a +life of idleness, and when children multiply or misfortunes arrive, what +was once a competence becomes nothing more than bare necessity. In a +still larger number of cases many of its advantages are lost because men +at once adopt a scale of living fully equal to their income. A man who +with one house would be a wealthy man, finds life with two houses a +constant struggle. A set of habits is acquired, a scale or standard of +luxury is adopted, which at once sweeps away the margin of superfluity. +Riches or poverty depend not merely on the amount of our possessions, +but quite as much on the regulation of our desires, and the full +advantages of competence are only felt when men begin by settling their +scheme of life on a scale materially within their income. When the great +lines of expenditure are thus wisely and frugally established, they can +command a wide latitude and much ease in dealing with the smaller ones. + +It is of course true that the power of a man thus to regulate his +expenditure is by no means absolute. The position in society in which a +man is born brings with it certain conventionalities and obligations +that cannot be discarded. A great nobleman who has inherited a vast +estate and a conspicuous social position will, through no fault of his +own, find himself involved in constant difficulties and struggles on an +income a tenth part of which would suffice to give a simple private +gentleman every reasonable enjoyment in life. A poor clergyman who is +obliged to keep up the position of a gentleman is in reality a much +poorer man than a prosperous artizan, even though his actual income may +be somewhat larger. But within the bounds which the conventionalities of +society imperatively prescribe many scales of expenditure are possible, +and the wise regulation of these is one of the chief forms of practical +wisdom. + +It may be observed, however, that not only men but nations differ widely +in this respect, and the difference is not merely that between prudence +and folly, between forethought and passion, but is also in a large +degree a difference of tastes and ideals. In general it will be found +that in Continental nations a man of independent fortune will place his +expenditure more below his means than in England, and a man who has +pursued some lucrative employment will sooner be satisfied with the +competence he has acquired and will gladly exchange his work for a life +of leisure. The English character prefers a higher rate of expenditure +and work continued to the end. + +It is probable that, so far as happiness depends on money, the happiest +lot--though it is certainly not that which is most envied--is that of a +man who possesses a realised fortune sufficient to save him from serious +money cares about the present and the future, but who at the same time +can only keep up the position in society he has chosen for himself, and +provide as he desires for his children, by adding to it a professional +income. Work is necessary both to happiness and to character, and +experience shows that it most frequently attains its full concentration +and continuity when it is professional, or, in other words, +money-making. Men work in traces as they will seldom work at liberty. +The compulsory character, the steady habits, the constant emulation of +professional life mould and strengthen the will, and probably the +happiest lot is when this kind of work exists, but without the anxiety +of those who depend solely on it. + +It is also a good thing when wealth tends to increase with age. 'Old +age,' it has been said, 'is a very expensive thing.' If the taste for +pleasure diminishes, the necessity for comfort increases. Men become +more dependent and more fastidious, and hardships that are indifferent +to youth become acutely painful. Beside this, money cares are apt to +weigh with an especial heaviness upon the old. Avarice, as has been +often observed, is eminently an old-age vice, and in natures that are in +no degree avaricious it will be found that real money anxieties are more +felt and have a greater haunting power in age than in youth. There is +then the sense of impotence which makes men feel that their earning +power has gone. On the other hand youth, and especially early married +life spent under the pressure of narrow circumstances, will often be +looked back upon as both the happiest and the most fruitful period of +life. It is the best discipline of character. It is under such +circumstances that men acquire habits of hard and steady work, +frugality, order, forethought, punctuality, and simplicity of tastes. +They acquire sympathies and realisations they would never have known in +more prosperous circumstances. They learn to take keen pleasure in +little things, and to value rightly both money and time. If wealth and +luxury afterwards come in overflowing measure, these lessons will not be +wholly lost. + +The value of money as an element of happiness diminishes rapidly in +proportion to its amount. In the case of the humbler fortunes, each +accession brings with it a large increase of pleasure and comfort, and +probably a very considerable addition to real happiness. In the case of +rich men this is not the case, and of colossal fortunes only a very +small fraction can be truly said to minister to the personal enjoyment +of the owner. The disproportion in the world between pleasure and cost +is indeed almost ludicrous. The two or three shillings that gave us our +first Shakespeare would go but a small way towards providing one of the +perhaps untasted dishes on the dessert table. The choicest masterpieces +of the human mind--the works of human genius that through the long +course of centuries have done most to ennoble, console, brighten, and +direct the lives of men, might all be purchased--I do not say by the +cost of a lady's necklace, but by that of one or two of the little +stones of which it is composed. Compare the relish with which the tired +pedestrian eats his bread and cheese with the appetites with which men +sit down to some stately banquet; compare the level of spirits at the +village dance with that of the great city ball whose lavish splendour +fills the society papers with admiration; compare the charm of +conversation in the college common room with the weary faces that may be +often seen around the millionaire's dinner table,--and we may gain a +good lesson of the vanity of riches. The transition from want to comfort +brings with it keen enjoyment and much lasting happiness. The transition +from mere comfort to luxury brings incomparably less and costs +incomparably more. Let a man of enormous wealth analyse his life from +day to day and try to estimate what are the things or hours that have +afforded him real and vivid pleasure. In many cases he will probably say +that he has found it in his work--in others in the hour spent with his +cigar, his newspaper, or his book, or in his game of cricket, or in the +excitement of the hunting-field, or in his conversation with an old +friend, or in hearing his daughters sing, or in welcoming his son on his +return from school. Let him look round the splendid adornments of his +home and ask how many of these things have ever given him a pleasure at +all proportionate to their cost. Probably in many cases, if he deals +honestly with himself, he would confess that his armchair and his +bookshelves are almost the only exceptions. + +Steam, the printing press, the spread of education, and the great +multiplication of public libraries, museums, picture galleries and +exhibitions have brought the chief pleasures of life in a much larger +degree than in any previous age within the reach of what are called the +working classes, while in the conditions of modern life nearly all the +great sources of real enjoyment that money can give are open to a man +who possesses a competent but not extraordinary fortune and some +leisure. Intellectual tastes he may gratify to the full. Books, at all +events in the great centres of civilisation, are accessible far in +excess of his powers of reading. The pleasures of the theatre, the +pleasures of society, the pleasures of music in most of its forms, the +pleasures of travel with all its variety of interests, and many of the +pleasures of sport, are abundantly at his disposal. The possession of +the highest works of art has no doubt become more and more a monopoly of +the very rich, but picture galleries and exhibitions and the facilities +of travel have diffused the knowledge and enjoyment of art over a vastly +wider area than in the past. The power of reproducing works of art has +been immensely increased and cheapened, and in one form at least the +highest art has been brought within the reach of a man of very moderate +means. Photography can reproduce a drawing with such absolute perfection +that he may cover his walls with works of Michael Angelo and Leonardo da +Vinci that are indistinguishable from the originals. The standard of +comfort in mere material things is now so high in well-to-do households +that to a healthy nature the millionaire can add little to it. Perhaps +among the pleasures of wealth that which has the strongest influence is +a country place, especially when it brings with it old remembrances, and +associations that appeal powerfully to the affections and the +imagination. More than any other inanimate thing it throws its tendrils +round the human heart and becomes the object of a deep and lasting +affection. But even here it will be probably found that this pleasure is +more felt by the owner of one country place than by the great +proprietor whose life is spent alternately in several--by the owner of a +place of moderate dimensions than by the owner of those vast parks which +can only be managed at great expense and trouble and by much delegated +supervision, and which are usually thrown open with such liberality to +the public that they probably give more real pleasure to others than to +their owners. + +Among the special pleasures of the enormously rich the collecting +passion is conspicuous, and of course a very rich man can carry it into +departments which men of moderate fortune can hardly touch. In the rare +case when the collector is a man of strong and genuine artistic taste +the possession of works of beauty is a thing of enduring pleasure, but +in general the mere love of collecting, though it often becomes a +passion almost amounting to a mania, bears very little proportion to +pecuniary value. The intelligent collector of fossils has as much +pleasure as the collector of gems--probably indeed more, as the former +pursuit brings with it a much greater variety of interest, and usually +depends much more on the personal exertions of the collector. It is +pleasant, in looking over a geological collection, to think that every +stone we see has given a pleasure. A collector of Caxtons, a collector +of large printed or illustrated editions, a collector of first editions +of famous books, a collector of those editions that are so much prized +because an author has made in them some blunder which he afterwards +corrected; a collector of those unique books which have survived as +rarities because no one thought it worth while to reprint them or +because they are distinguished by some obsolete absurdity, will +probably not derive more pleasure, though he will spend vastly more +money, than the mere literary man who, being interested in some +particular period or topic, loves to hunt up in old bookshops the +obscure and forgotten literature relating to it. Much the same thing may +be said of other tastes. The gratification of a strong taste or hobby +will always give pleasure, and it makes little difference whether it is +an expensive or an inexpensive one. + +The pleasures of acquisition, the pleasures of possession, and the +pleasures of ostentation, are no doubt real things, though they act in +very different degrees on different natures, and some of them much more +on one sex than on the other. In general, however, they tend to grow +passive and inert. A state of luxury and splendour is little appreciated +by those who are born to it, though much if it follows a period of +struggle and penury. Yet even then the circumstances and surroundings of +life soon become a second nature. Men become so habituated to them that +they are accepted almost mechanically and cease to give positive +pleasure, though a deprivation of them gives positive pain. The love of +power, the love of society, and--what is not quite the same thing--the +love of social influence, are, however, much stronger and more enduring, +and great wealth is largely valued because it helps to give them, though +it does not give them invariably, and though there are other things that +give them in an equal or greater degree. To many very rich men some form +of field sports is probably the greatest pleasure that money affords. It +at least gives a genuine thrill of unmistakable enjoyment. + +Few of the special pleasures of the millionaire can be said to be +purely selfish, for few are concentrated altogether on himself. His +great park is usually open to the public. His pictures are lent for +exhibition or exhibited in his house. If he keeps a pack of hounds +others hunt with it. If he preserves game to an enormous extent he +invites many to shoot it, and at his great entertainments it will often +be found that no one derives less pleasure than the weary host. + +At the same time no thinking man can fail to be struck with the great +waste of the means of enjoyment in a society in which such gigantic sums +are spent in mere conventional ostentation which gives little or no +pleasure; in which the best London houses are those which are the +longest untenanted; in which some of the most enchanting gardens and +parks are only seen by their owners for a few weeks in the year. + +Hamerton, in his Essay on Bohemianism, has very truly shown that the +rationale of a great deal of this is simply the attempt of men to obtain +from social intercourse the largest amount of positive pleasure or +amusement it can give by discarding the forms, the costly +conventionalities, the social restrictions that encumber and limit it. +One of the worst tendencies of a very wealthy society is that by the +mere competition of ostentation the standard of conventional expense is +raised, and the intercourse of men limited by the introduction of a +number of new and costly luxuries which either give no pleasure or give +pleasure that bears no kind of proportion to their cost. Examples may +sometimes be seen of a very rich man who imagines that he can obtain +from life real enjoyment in proportion to his wealth and who uses it +for purely selfish purposes. We may find this in the almost insane +extravagance of vulgar ostentation by which the parvenu millionaire +tries to gratify his vanity and dazzle his neighbours; in the wild round +of prodigal dissipation and vice by which so many young men who have +inherited enormous fortunes have wrecked their constitutions and found a +speedy path to an unhonoured grave. They sought from money what money +cannot give, and learned too late that in pursuing shadows they missed +the substance that was within their reach. + +To the intelligent millionaire, however, and especially to those who are +brought up to great possessions, wealth is looked on in a wholly +different light. It is a possession and a trust carrying with it many +duties as well as many interests and accompanied by a great burden of +responsibility. Mere pleasure-hunting plays but a small and wholly +subsidiary part in such lives, and they are usually filled with much +useful work. This man, for example, is a banker on a colossal scale. +Follow his life, and you will find that for four days in the week he is +engaged in his office as steadily, as unremittingly as any clerk in his +establishment. He has made himself master not only of the details of his +own gigantic business but of the whole great subject of finance in all +its international relations. He is a power in many lands. He is +consulted in every crisis of finance. He is an important influence in a +crowd of enterprises, most of them useful as well as lucrative, some of +them distinctively philanthropic. Saturday and Sunday he spends at his +country place, usually entertaining a number of guests. One other day +during the hunting season he regularly devotes to his favourite sport. +His holiday is the usual holiday of a professional man, with rather a +tendency to abridge than to lengthen it, as the natural bent of his +thoughts is so strongly to his work that time soon begins to hang +heavily when he is away from it. + +Another man is an ardent philanthropist, and his philanthropy probably +blends with much religious fervour, and he becomes in consequence a +leader in the religious world. Such a life cannot fail to be abundantly +filled. Religious meetings, committees, the various interests of the +many institutions with which he is connected, the conflicting and +competing claims of different religious societies, fully occupy his time +and thoughts, sometimes to the great neglect of his private affairs. + +Another man is of a different type. Shy, retiring, hating publicity, and +not much interested in politics, he is a gigantic landowner, and the +work of his life is concentrated on the development of his own estate. +He knows the circumstances of every village, almost of every farm. It is +his pride that no labourer on his estate is badly housed, that no part +of it is slovenly or mismanaged or poverty-stricken. He endows churches +and hospitals, he erects public buildings, encourages every local +industry, makes in times of distress much larger remissions of rent than +would be possible for a poorer man, superintends personally the many +interests on his property, knows accurately the balance of receipts and +expenditure, takes a great interest in sanitation, in new improvements +and experiments in agriculture, in all the multifarious matters that +affect the prosperity of his numerous tenantry. He subscribes liberally +to great national undertakings, as he considers it one of the duties of +his position, but his heart is not in such things, and the well-being of +his own vast estate and of those who live upon it is the aim and the +work of his life. For a few weeks of the year he exercises the splendid +and lavish hospitality which is expected from a man in his position, and +he is always very glad when those weeks are over. He has, however, his +own expensive hobby, which gives him real pleasure--his yacht, his +picture gallery, his museum, his collection of wild animals, his +hothouses or his racing establishment. One or more of these form the +real amusement of his active and useful life. + +A more common type in England is that of the active politician. Great +wealth and especially great landed property bring men easily into +Parliament, and, if united with industry and some measure of ability, +into official life, and public life thus becomes a profession and in +many cases a very laborious one. There are few better examples of a +well-filled life and of the skilful management and economy of time than +are to be found in the lives of some great noblemen who take a leading +part in politics and preside over important Government departments +without suffering their gigantic estates to fall into mismanagement, or +neglecting the many social duties and local interests connected with +them. Most of their success is indeed due to the wise use of money in +economising time by trustworthy and efficient delegation. Yet the +superintending brain, the skilful choice, the personal control cannot +be dispensed with. In a life so fully occupied the few weeks of pleasure +which may be spent on a Scotch moor or in a Continental watering-place +will surely not be condemned. + +The economy of time and the elasticity of brain and character such lives +develop are, however, probably exceeded by another class. Nothing is +more remarkable in the social life of the present generation than the +high pressure under which a large number of ladies in great positions +habitually live. It strikes every Continental observer, for there is +nothing approaching it in any other European country, and it certainly +far exceeds anything that existed in England in former generations. +Pleasure-seeking, combined, however, on a large scale with +pleasure-giving, holds a much more prominent place in these lives than +in those I have just described. With not a few women, indeed, of wealth +and position, it is the all-in-all of life, and in general it is +probable that women obtain more pleasure from most forms of society than +men, though it is also true that they bear a much larger share of its +burdens. There are, however, in this class, many who combine with +society a truly surprising number and variety of serious interests. Not +only the management of a great house, not only the superintendence of +schools and charities and local enterprises connected with a great +estate, but also a crowd of philanthropic, artistic, political, and +sometimes literary interests fill their lives. Few lives, indeed, in any +station are more full, more intense, more constantly and variously +occupied. Public life, which in most foreign countries is wholly outside +the sphere of women, is eagerly followed. Public speaking, which in the +memory of many now living was almost unknown among women of any station +in English society, has become the most ordinary accomplishment. Their +object is to put into life from youth to old age as much as life can +give, and they go far to attain their end. A wonderful nimbleness and +flexibility of intellect capable of turning swiftly from subject to +subject has been developed, and keeps them in touch with a very wide +range both of interests and pleasures. + +There are no doubt grave drawbacks to all this. Many will say that this +external activity must be at the sacrifice of the duties of domestic +life, but on this subject there is, I think, at least much exaggeration. +Education has now assumed such forms and attained such a standard that +usually for many hours in the day the education of the young in a +wealthy family is in the hands of accomplished specialists, and I do not +think that the most occupied lives are those in which the cares of a +home are most neglected. How far, however, this intense and constant +strain is compatible with physical well-being is a graver question, and +many have feared that it must bequeath weakened constitutions to the +coming generation. Nor is a life of incessant excitement in other +respects beneficial. In both intellectual and moral hygiene the best +life is that which follows nature and alternates periods of great +activity with periods of rest. Retirement, quiet, steady reading, and +the silent thought which matures character and deepens impressions are +things that seem almost disappearing from many English lives. But lives +such as I have described are certainly not useless, undeveloped, or +wholly selfish, and they in a large degree fulfil that great law of +happiness, that it should be sought for rather in interests than in +pleasures. + +I have already referred to the class who value money chiefly because it +enables them to dismiss money thoughts and cares from their minds. On +the whole, this end is probably more frequently attained by men of +moderate but competent fortunes than by the very rich. This is at least +the case when they are sufficiently rich to invest their money in +securities which are liable to no serious risk or fluctuation. A +gigantic fortune is seldom of such a nature that it does not bring with +it great cares of administration and require much thought and many +decisions. There is, however, one important exception. When there are +many children the task of providing for their future falls much more +lightly on the very rich than on those of medium fortune. + +There is a class, however, who are the exact opposite of these and who +make the simple acquisition of money the chief interest and pleasure of +their lives. Money-making in some form is the main occupation of the +great majority of men, but it is usually as a means to an end. It is to +acquire the means of livelihood, or the means of maintaining or +improving a social position, or the means of providing as they think fit +for the children who are to succeed them. Sometimes, however, with the +very rich and without any ulterior object, money-making for its own sake +becomes the absorbing interest. They can pursue it with great advantage; +for, as has been often said, nothing makes money like money, and the +possession of an immense capital gives innumerable facilities for +increasing it. The collecting passion takes this form. They come to care +more for money than for anything money can purchase, though less for +money than for the interest and the excitement of getting it. +Speculative enterprise, with its fluctuations, uncertainties and +surprises, becomes their strongest interest and their greatest +amusement. + +When it is honestly conducted there is no real reason why it should be +condemned. On these conditions a life so spent is, I think, usually +useful to the world, for it generally encourages works that are of real +value. All that can be truly said is that it brings with it grave +temptations and is very apt to lower a man's moral being. Speculation +easily becomes a form of gambling so fierce in its excitement that, when +carried on incessantly and on a great scale, it kills all capacity for +higher and tranquil pleasures, strengthens incalculably the temptations +to unscrupulous gain, disturbs the whole balance of character, and often +even shortens life. With others the love of accumulation has a strange +power of materialising, narrowing and hardening. Habits of +meanness--sometimes taking curious and inconsistent forms, and applying +only to particular things or departments of life--steal insensibly over +them, and the love of money assumes something of the character of mania. +Temptations connected with money are indeed among the most insidious and +among the most powerful to which we are exposed. They have probably a +wider empire than drink, and, unlike the temptations that spring from +animal passion, they strengthen rather than diminish with age. In no +respect is it more necessary for a man to keep watch over his own +character, taking care that the unselfish element does not diminish, and +correcting the love of acquisition by generosity of expenditure. + +It is probable that the highest form of charity, involving real and +serious self-denial, is much more common among the poor, and even the +very poor, than among the rich. I think most persons who have had much +practical acquaintance with the dealings of the poor with one another +will confirm this. It is certainly far less common among those who are +at the opposite pole of fortune. They have not had the same discipline, +or indeed the same possibility of self-sacrifice, or the same means of +realising the pains of poverty, and there is another reason which tends +not unnaturally to check their benevolence. A man with the reputation of +great wealth soon finds himself beleaguered by countless forms of +mendicancy and imposture. He comes to feel that there is a general +conspiracy to plunder him, and he is naturally thrown into an attitude +of suspicion and self-defence. Often, though he may give largely and +generously, he will do so under the veil of strict anonymity, in order +to avoid a reputation for generosity which will bring down upon him +perpetual solicitations. If he is an intellectual man he will probably +generalise from his own experience. He will be deeply impressed with the +enormous evils that have sprung from ill-judged charity, and with the +superiority even from a philanthropic point of view of a productive +expenditure of money. + +And in truth it is difficult to overrate the evil effects of injudicious +charities in discouraging thrift, industry, foresight and self-respect. +They take many forms; some of them extremely obvious, while others can +only be rightly judged by a careful consideration of remote +consequences. There are the idle tourists who break down, in a once +unsophisticated district, that sense of self-respect which is one of the +most valuable lessons that early education can give, by flinging pence +to be scrambled for among the children, or who teach the poor the fatal +lesson that mendicancy or something hardly distinguishable from +mendicancy will bring greater gain than honest and continuous work. +There is the impulsive, uninquiring charity that makes the trade of the +skilful begging-letter writer a lucrative profession, and makes men and +women who are rich, benevolent and weak, the habitual prey of greedy +impostors. There is the old-established charity for ministering to +simple poverty which draws to its centre all the pauperism of the +neighbouring districts, depresses wages, and impoverishes the very +district or class it was intended to benefit. There are charities which +not only largely diminish the sufferings that are the natural +consequence and punishment of vice; but even make the lot of the +criminal and the vicious a better one than that of the hard-working +poor. There are overlapping charities dealing with the same department, +but kept up with lavish waste through the rivalry of different religious +denominations, or in the interests of the officials connected with them; +belated or superannuated charities formed to deal with circumstances or +sufferings that have in a large degree passed away--useless, or almost +useless, charities established to carry out some silly fad or to gratify +some silly vanity; sectarian charities intended to further ends which, +in the eyes of all but the members of one sect, are not only useless but +mischievous; charities that encourage thriftless marriages, or make it +easy for men to neglect obvious duties, or keep a semi-pauper population +stationary in employments and on a soil where they can never prosper, or +in other ways handicap, impede or divert the natural and healthy course +of industry. Illustrations of all these evils will occur to every +careful student of the subject. Unintelligent, thoughtless, purely +impulsive charity, and charity which is inspired by some other motive +than a real desire to relieve suffering, will constantly go wrong, but +every intelligent man can find without difficulty vast fields on which +the largest generosity may be expended with abundant fruit. + +Hospitals and kindred institutions for alleviating great unavoidable +calamities, and giving the sick poor something of the same chances of +recovery as the rich, for the most part fall under this head. Money will +seldom be wasted which is spent in promoting kinds of knowledge, +enterprise or research that bring no certain remuneration proportioned +to their value; in assisting poor young men of ability and industry to +develop their special talents; in encouraging in their many different +forms thrift, self-help and co-operation; in alleviating the inevitable +suffering that follows some great catastrophe on land or sea, or great +transitions of industry, or great fluctuations and depressions in class +prosperity; in giving the means of healthy recreation or ennobling +pleasures to the denizens of a crowded town. The vast sphere of +education opens endless fields for generous expenditure, and every +religious man will find objects which, in the opinion not only of men of +his own persuasion, but also of many others, are transcendently +important. Nor is it a right principle that charity should be denied to +all calamities which are in some degree due to the fault of the +sufferer, or which might have been averted by exceptional forethought or +self-denial. Some economists write as if a far higher standard of will +and morals should be expected among the poor and the uneducated than can +be found among the rich. Good sense and right feeling will here easily +draw the line, abstaining from charities that have a real influence in +encouraging improvidence or vice, yet making due allowance for the +normal weaknesses of our nature. + +In all these ways the very rich can find ample opportunities for useful +benevolence. It is the prerogative of great wealth that it can often +cure what others can only palliate, and can establish permanent sources +of good which will continue long after the donors have passed away. In +dealing with individual cases of distress, rich men who have neither the +time nor the inclination to investigate the special circumstances will +do well to rely largely on the recommendation of others. If they choose +trustworthy, competent and sensible advisers with as much judgment as +they commonly show in the management of their private affairs, they are +not likely to go astray. There never was a period when a larger amount +of intelligent and disinterested labour was employed in careful and +detailed examination of the circumstances and needs of the poor. The +parish clergyman, the district visitor, the agents of the Charity +Organization Society which annually selects its special cases of +well-ascertained need, will abundantly furnish them with the knowledge +they require. + +The advantage or disadvantage of the presence in a country of a large +class of men possessing fortunes far exceeding anything that can really +administer to their enjoyment is a question which has greatly divided +both political economists and moralists. The former were long accustomed +to maintain somewhat exclusively that laws and institutions should be +established with the object of furthering the greatest possible +accumulation of wealth, and that a system of unrestricted competition, +coupled with equal laws, giving each man the most complete security in +the possession and disposal of his property, was the best means of +attaining this end. They urged with great truth that, although under +such a system the inequalities of fortune will be enormous, most of the +wealth of the very rich will inevitably be distributed in the form of +wages, purchases, and industrial enterprises through the community at +large, and that, other things being equal, the richest country will on +the whole be the happiest. They clearly saw the complete delusion of the +common assertions that the more millionaires there are in a country the +more paupers will multiply, and that society is dividing between the +enormously rich and the abjectly poor. The great industrial communities, +in which there are the largest number of very wealthy men, are also the +centres in which we find the most prosperous middle class, and the +highest and most progressive rates of wages and standards of comfort +among the poor. Great corruption in many forms no doubt exists in them, +but it can scarcely be maintained with confidence that the standard of +integrity is on the whole lower in these than in other countries, and +they at least escape what in many poor countries is one of the most +fruitful causes of corruption in all branches of administration--the +inadequate pay of the servants of the Crown. The path of liberty in the +eyes of economists of this school is the path of wisdom, and they were +profoundly distrustful of all legislative attempts to restrict or +interfere with the course of industrial progress. + +In our own generation a somewhat different tendency has manifestly +strengthened. It has been said that past political economists paid too +much attention to the accumulation and too little to the distribution of +wealth. Men have become more sensible to the high level of happiness and +moral well-being that has been attained in some of the smaller and +somewhat stagnant countries of Europe, where wealth is more generally +attained by thrift and steady industry than by great industrial or +commercial enterprise, in which there are few large fortunes but little +acute poverty, a low standard of luxury, but a high standard of real +comfort. The enormous evils that have grown up in wealthy countries, in +the form of company-mongering, excessive competition, extravagant and +often vicious luxury, and dishonest administration of public funds, are +more and more felt, and it is only too true that in these countries +there are large and influential circles of society in which all +considerations of character, intellect, or manners seem lost in an +intense thirst for wealth and for the things that it can give. +Sometimes we find vast fortunes in countries where there is but little +enterprise and a very low standard of comfort among the people, and +where this is the case it is usually due to unequal laws or corrupt +administration. In the free, democratic, and industrial communities +great fluctuations and disparities of wealth are inevitable, and some of +the most colossal fortunes have, no doubt, been made by the evil methods +I have described. They are, however, only a minority, and not a very +large one. Like all the great successes of life, abnormal accumulation +of wealth is usually due to the combination in different proportions of +ability, character, and chance, and is not tainted with dishonesty. On +the whole, the question that should be asked is not what a man has, but +how he obtained it and how he uses it. When wealth is honestly acquired +and wisely and generously used, the more rich men there are in a country +the better. + +There has probably never been a period in the history of the world when +the conditions of industry, assisted by the great gold discoveries in +several parts of the globe, were so favourable to the formation of +enormous fortunes as at present, and when the race of millionaires was +so large. The majority belong to the English-speaking race; probably +most of their gigantic fortunes have been rapidly accumulated, and bring +with them none of the necessary, hereditary, and clearly defined +obligations of a great landowner, while a considerable proportion of +them have fallen to the lot of men who, through their education or early +habits, have not many cultivated or naturally expensive tastes. In +England many of the new millionaires become great landowners and set up +great establishments. In America, where country tastes are less marked +and where the difficulties of domestic service are very great, this is +less common. In both countries the number of men with immense fortunes, +absolutely at their own disposal, has enormously increased, and the +character of their expenditure has become a matter of real national +importance. + +Much of it, no doubt, goes in simple luxury and ostentation, or in mere +speculation, or in restoring old and dilapidated fortunes through the +marriages of rank with money which are so characteristic of our time; +but much also is devoted to charitable or philanthropic purposes. In +this, as in most things, motives are often very blended. To men of such +fortunes, such expenditure, even on a large scale, means no real +self-sacrifice, and the inducements to it are not always of the highest +kind. To some men it is a matter of ambition--a legitimate and useful +ambition--to obtain the enduring and honourable fame which attaches to +the founder of a great philanthropic or educational establishment. +Others find that, in England at least, large philanthropic expenditure +is one of the easiest and shortest paths to social success, bringing men +and women of low extraction and bad manners into close and frequent +connection with the recognised leaders of society; while others again +have discovered that it is the quickest way of effacing the stigma which +still in some degree attaches to wealth which has been acquired by +dishonourable or dubious means. Fashion, social ambition, and social +rivalries are by no means unknown in the fields of charity. There are +many, however, in whose philanthropy the element of self has no place, +and whose sole desire is to expend their money in forms that can be of +most real and permanent benefit to others. + +Such men have great power, and, if their philanthropic expenditure is +wisely guided, it may be of incalculable benefit. I have already +indicated many of the channels in which it may safely flow, but one or +two additional hints on the subject may not be useless. Perhaps as a +general rule these men will find that they can act most wisely by +strengthening and enlarging old charities which are really good, rather +than by founding new ones. Competition is the soul of industry, but +certainly not of charity, and there is in England a deplorable waste of +money and machinery through the excessive multiplication of institutions +intended for the same objects. The kind of ambition to which I have just +referred tends to make men prefer new charities which can be identified +with their names; the paid officials connected with charities have +become a large and powerful profession, and their influence is naturally +used in the same direction; the many different religious bodies in the +country often refuse to combine, and each desires to have its own +institutions; and there are fashions in charity which, while they +greatly stimulate generosity, have too often the effect of diverting it +from the older and more unobtrusive forms. On the other hand, one of the +most important facts in our present economical condition is that an +extraordinary and almost unparalleled development of industrial +prosperity has been accompanied by extreme and long-continued +agricultural depression and by a great fall in the rate of interest. +Wealth in many forms is accumulating with wonderful rapidity, and the +increased rate of wages is diffusing prosperity among the working +classes; but those who depend directly or indirectly on agricultural +rents or on interest of money invested in trust securities have been +suffering severely, and they comprise some of the most useful, +blameless, and meritorious classes in the community. The same causes +that have injured them have fallen with crushing severity on +old-established institutions which usually derive their income largely +or entirely from the rent of land or from money invested in the public +funds. The bitter cry of distress that is rising from the hospitals and +many other ancient charities, from the universities, from the clergy of +the Established Church, abundantly proves it. + +The preference, however, to be given to old charities rather than to new +ones is subject to very many exceptions. It does not apply to new +countries or to the many cases in which changes and developments of +industry have planted vast agglomerations of population in districts +which were once but thinly populated, and therefore but little provided +with charitable or educational institutions. Nor does it apply to the +many cases in which the circumstances of modern life have called into +existence new forms of charity, new wants, new dangers and evils to be +combated, new departments of knowledge to be cultivated. One of the +greatest difficulties of the older universities is that of providing, +out of their shrinking endowments, for the teaching of branches of +science and knowledge which have only come into existence, or at least +into prominence, long after these universities were established, and +some of which require not only trained teachers but costly apparatus +and laboratories. Increasing international competition and enlarged +scientific knowledge have rendered necessary an amount of technical and +agricultural education never dreamed of by our ancestors; and the rise +of the great provincial towns and the greater intensity of provincial +life and provincial patriotism, as well as the changes that have passed +over the position both of the working and middle classes, have created a +genuine demand for educational establishments of a different type from +the older universities. The higher education of women is essentially a +nineteenth-century work, and it has been carried on without the +assistance of old endowments and with very little help from modern +Parliaments. In the distribution of public funds a class which is wholly +unrepresented in Parliament seldom gets its fair share; and higher +education, like most forms of science, like most of the higher forms of +literature, and like many valuable forms of research, never can be +self-supporting. There are great branches of knowledge which without +established endowments must remain uncultivated, or be cultivated only +by men of considerable private means. Some invaluable curative agencies, +such as convalescent homes in different countries and climates and for +different diseases, have grown up in our own generation, as well as some +of the most fruitful forms of medical research and some of the most +efficacious methods of giving healthy change and brightness to the lives +that are most monotonous and overstrained. Every great revolution in +industry, in population, and even in knowledge, brings with it new and +special wants, and there are cases in which assisted emigration is one +of the best forms of charity. + +These are but a few illustrations of the directions in which the large +surplus funds which many of the very rich are prepared to expend on +philanthropic purposes may profitably go. There is a marked and +increasing tendency in our age to meet all the various exigencies of +Society, as they arise, by State aid resting on compulsory taxation. In +countries where the levels of fortune are such that few men have incomes +greatly in excess of their real or factitious wants, this method will +probably be necessary; but many of the wants I have described can be +better met by the old English method of intelligent private generosity, +and in a country in which the number of the very rich is so great and so +increasing, this generosity should not be wanting. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[67] _Notes on Life._ + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +MARRIAGE + + +The beautiful saying of Newton, that he felt like a child who had been +picking up a few pebbles on the shore of the great ocean of undiscovered +truth, may well occur to any writer who attempts to say something on the +vast subject of marriage. The infinite variety of circumstances and +characters affects it in infinitely various ways, and all that can here +be done is to collect a few somewhat isolated and miscellaneous remarks +upon it. Yet it is a subject which cannot be omitted in a book like +this. In numerous cases it is the great turning-point of a life, and in +all cases when it takes place it is one of the most important of its +events. Whatever else marriage may do or fail to do, it never leaves a +man unchanged. His intellect, his character, his happiness, his way of +looking on the world, will all be influenced by it. If it does not raise +or strengthen him it will lower or weaken. If it does not deepen +happiness it will impair it. It brings with it duties, interests, +habits, hopes, cares, sorrows, and joys that will penetrate into every +fissure of his nature and modify the whole course of his life. + +It is strange to think with how much levity and how little knowledge a +contract which is so indissoluble and at the same time so momentous is +constantly assumed; sometimes under the influence of a blinding passion +and at an age when life is still looked upon as a romance or an idyll; +sometimes as a matter of mere ambition and calculation, through a desire +for wealth or title or position. Men and women rely on the force of +habit and necessity to accommodate themselves to conditions they have +never really understood or realised. + +In most cases different motives combine, though in different degrees. +Sometimes an overpowering affection for the person is the strongest +motive and eclipses all others. Sometimes the main motive to marriage is +a desire to be married. It is to obtain a settled household and +position; to be relieved from the 'unchartered freedom' and the 'vague +desires' of a lonely life; to find some object of affection; to acquire +the steady habits and the exemption from household cares which are +essential to a career; to perpetuate a race; perhaps to escape from +family discomforts, or to introduce a new and happy influence into a +family. With these motives a real affection for a particular person is +united, but it is not of such a character as to preclude choice, +judgment, comparison, and a consideration of worldly advantages. + +It is a wise saying of Swift that there would be fewer unhappy marriages +in the world if women thought less of making nets and more of making +cages. The qualities that attract, fascinate, and dazzle are often +widely different from those which are essential to a happy marriage. +Sometimes they are distinctly hostile to it. More frequently they +conduce to it, but only in an inferior or subsidiary degree. The turn of +mind and character that makes the accomplished flirt is certainly not +that which promises best for the happiness of a married life; and +distinguished beauty, brilliant talents, and the heroic qualities that +play a great part in the affairs of life, and shine conspicuously in the +social sphere, sink into a minor place among the elements of married +happiness. In marriage the identification of two lives is so complete +that it brings every faculty and gift into play, but in degrees and +proportions very different from public life or casual intercourse and +relations. The most essential are often wanting in a brilliant life, and +are largely developed in lives and characters that rise little, if at +all, above the commonplace. In the words of a very shrewd man of the +world: 'Before marriage the shape, the figure, the complexion carry all +before them; after marriage the mind and character unexpectedly claim +their share, and that the largest, of importance.'[68] + +The relation is one of the closest intimacy and confidence, and if the +identity of interest between the two partners is not complete, each has +an almost immeasurable power of injuring the other. A moral basis of +sterling qualities is of capital importance. A true, honest, and +trustworthy nature, capable of self-sacrifice and self-restraint, should +rank in the first line, and after that a kindly, equable, and contented +temper, a power of sympathy, a habit of looking at the better and +brighter side of men and things. Of intellectual qualities, judgment, +tact, and order are perhaps the most valuable. Above almost all things, +men should seek in marriage perfect sanity, and dread everything like +hysteria. Beauty will continue to be a delight, though with much +diminished power, but grace and the charm of manner will retain their +full attraction to the last. They brighten in innumerable ways the +little things of life, and life is mainly made up of little things, +exposed to petty frictions, and requiring small decisions and small +sacrifices. Wide interests and large appreciations are, in the marriage +relation, more important than any great constructive or creative talent, +and the power to soothe, to sympathise, to counsel, and to endure, than +the highest qualities of the hero or the saint. It is by these alone +that the married life attains its full measure of perfection. + + + 'Tu mihi curarum requies, tu nocte vel atra + Lumen, et in solis tu mihi turba locis.'[69] + + +But while this is true of all marriages, it is obvious that different +professions and circumstances of life will demand different qualities. A +hard-working labouring man, or a man who, though not labouring with his +hands, is living a life of poverty and struggle, will not seek in +marriage a type of character exactly the same as a man who is born to a +great position, and who has large social and administrative duties to +discharge. The wife of a clergyman immersed in the many interests of a +parish; the wife of a soldier or a merchant, who may have to live in +many lands, with long periods of separation from her husband, and +perhaps amid many hardships; the wife of an active and ambitious +politician; the wife of a busy professional man incessantly occupied +outside his home; the wife of a man whose health or business or habits +keep him constantly in his house, will each need some special qualities. +There are few things in which both men and women naturally differ more +than in the elasticity and adaptiveness of their natures, in their power +of bearing monotony, in the place which habit, routine, and variety hold +in their happiness; and in different kinds of life these things have +very different degrees of importance. Special family circumstances, such +as children by a former marriage, or difficult and delicate relations +with members of the family of one partner, will require the exercise of +special qualities. Such relations, indeed, are often one of the most +searching and severe tests of the sterling qualities of female +character. + +Probably, on the whole, the best presumption of a successful choice in +marriage will be found where the wife has not been educated in +circumstances or ideas absolutely dissimilar from those of her married +life. Marriages of different races or colours are rarely happy, and the +same thing is true of marriages between persons of social levels that +are so different as to entail great differences of manners and habits. +Other and minor disparities of circumstances between girl life and +married life will have their effect, but they are less strong and less +invariable. Some of the happiest marriages have been marriages of +emancipation, which removed a girl from uncongenial family surroundings, +and placed her for the first time in an intellectual and moral +atmosphere in which she could freely breathe. At the same time, in the +choice of a wife, the character, circumstances, habits, and tone of the +family in which she has been brought up will always be an important +element. There are qualities of race, there are pedigrees of character, +which it is never prudent to neglect. Franklin quotes with approval the +advice of a wise man to choose a wife 'out of a bunch,' as girls brought +up together improve each other by emulation, learn mutual self-sacrifice +and forbearance, rub off their angularities, and are not suffered to +develop overweening self-conceit. A family where the ruling taste is +vulgar, where the standard of honour is low, where extravagance and +self-indulgence and want of order habitually prevail, creates an +atmosphere which it needs a strong character altogether to escape. There +is also the great question of physical health. A man should seek in +marriage rather to raise than to depress the physical level of his +family, and above all not to introduce into it grave, well-ascertained +hereditary disease. Of all forms of self-sacrifice hardly any is at once +so plainly right and so plainly useful as the celibacy of those who are +tainted with such disease. + +There is no subject on which religious teachers have dwelt more than +upon marriage and the relation of the sexes, and it has been continually +urged that the propagation of children is its first end. It is strange, +however, to observe how almost absolutely in the popular ethics of +Christendom such considerations as that which I have last mentioned have +been neglected. If one of the most responsible things that a man can do +is to bring a human being into the world, one of his first and most +obvious duties is to do what he can to secure that it shall come into +the world with a sound body and a sane mind. This is the best +inheritance that parents can leave their children, and it is in a large +degree within their reach. Immature marriage, excessive child-bearing, +marriages of near relations, and, above all, marriages with some grave +hereditary physical or mental disease or some great natural defect, may +bring happiness to the parents, but can scarcely fail to entail a +terrible penalty upon their children. It is clearly recognised that one +of the first duties of parents to their children is to secure them in +early life not only good education, but also, as far as is within their +power, the conditions of a healthy being. But the duty goes back to an +earlier stage, and in marriage the prospects of the unborn should never +be forgotten. This is one of the considerations which in the ethics of +the future is likely to have a wholly different place from any that it +has occupied in the past. + +A kindred consideration, little less important and almost equally +neglected in popular teaching, is that it is a moral offence to bring +children into the world with no prospect of being able to provide for +them. It is difficult to exaggerate the extent to which the neglect of +these two duties has tended to the degradation and unhappiness of the +world. + +The greatly increased importance which the Darwinian theory has given to +heredity should tend to make men more sensible of the first of these +duties. In marriage there are not only reciprocal duties between the two +partners; there are also, more than in any other act of life, plain +duties to the race. The hereditary nature of insanity and of some forms +of disease is an indisputable truth. The hereditary transmission of +character has not, it is true, as yet acquired this position; and there +is a grave schism on the subject in the Darwinian school. But that it +exists to some extent few close observers will doubt, and it is in a +high degree probable that it is one of the most powerful moulding +influences of life. No more probable explanation has yet been given of +the manner in which human nature has been built up, and of the various +instincts and tastes with which we are born, than the doctrine that +habits and modes of thought and feeling indulged in and produced by +circumstances in former generations have gradually become innate in the +race, and exhibit themselves spontaneously and instinctively and quite +independently of the circumstances that originally produced them. +According to this theory the same process is continually going on. Man +has slowly emerged from a degraded and bestial condition. The pressure +of long-continued circumstances has moulded him into his special type; +but new feelings and habits, or modifications of old feelings and +habits, are constantly passing not only into his life but into his +nature, taking root there, and in some degree at least reproducing +themselves by the force of heredity in the innate disposition of his +offspring. If this be true, it gives a new and terrible importance both +to the duty of self-culture and to the duty of wise selection in +marriage. It means that children are likely to be influenced not only by +what we do and by what we say, but also by what we are, and that the +characters of the parents in different degrees and combinations will +descend even to a remote posterity. + +It throws a not less terrible light upon the miscalculations of the +past. On this hypothesis, as Mr. Galton has truly shown, it is scarcely +possible to exaggerate the evil which has been brought upon the world by +the religious glorification of celibacy and by the enormous development +and encouragement of the monastic life. Generation after generation, +century after century, and over the whole wide surface of Christendom, +this conception of religion drew into a sterile celibacy nearly all who +were most gentle, most unselfish, most earnest, studious, and religious, +most susceptible to moral and intellectual enthusiasm, and thus +prevented them from transmitting to posterity the very qualities that +are most needed for the happiness and the moral progress of the race. +Whenever the good and evil resulting from different religious systems +come to be impartially judged, this consideration is likely to weigh +heavily in the scale.[70] + +Returning, however, to the narrower sphere of particular marriages, it +may be observed that although full confidence, and, in one sense, +complete identification of interests, are the characteristics of a +perfect marriage, this does not by any means imply that one partner +should be a kind of duplicate of the other. Woman is not a mere weaker +man; and the happiest marriages are often those in which, in tastes, +character, and intellectual qualities, the wife is rather the complement +than the reflection of her husband. In intellectual things this is +constantly shown. The purely practical and prosaic intellect is united +with an intellect strongly tinged with poetry and romance; the man whose +strength is in facts, with the woman whose strength is in ideas; the man +who is wholly absorbed in science or politics or economical or +industrial problems and pursuits, with a woman who possesses the talent +or at least the temperament of an artist or musician. In such cases one +partner brings sympathies or qualities, tastes or appreciations or kinds +of knowledge in which the other is most defective; and by the close and +constant contact of two dissimilar types each is, often insensibly, but +usually very effectually, improved. Men differ greatly in their +requirements of intellectual sympathy. A perfectly commonplace +intellectual surrounding will usually do something to stunt or lower a +fine intelligence, but it by no means follows that each man finds the +best intellectual atmosphere to be that which is most in harmony with +his own special talent. + +To many, hard intellectual labour is an eminently isolated thing, and +what they desire most in the family circle is to cast off all thought of +it. I have known two men who were in the first rank of science, intimate +friends, and both of them of very domestic characters. One of them was +accustomed to do nearly all his work in the presence of his wife, and in +the closest possible co-operation with her. The other used to +congratulate himself that none of his family had his own scientific +tastes, and that when he left his work and came into his family circle +he had the rest of finding himself in an atmosphere that was entirely +different. Some men of letters need in their work constant stimulus, +interest, and sympathy. Others desire only to develop their talent +uncontrolled, uninfluenced, and undisturbed, and with an atmosphere of +cheerful quiet around them. + +What is true of intellect is also in a large degree true of character. +Two persons living constantly together should have many tastes and +sympathies in common, and their characters will in most cases tend to +assimilate. Yet great disparities of character may subsist in marriage, +not only without evil but often with great advantage. This is especially +the case where each supplies what is most needed in the other. Some +natures require sedatives and others tonics; and it will often be found +in a happy marriage that the union of two dissimilar natures stimulates +the idle and inert, moderates the impetuous, gives generosity to the +parsimonious and order to the extravagant, imparts the spirit of caution +or the spirit of enterprise which is most needed, and corrects, by +contact with a healthy and cheerful nature, the morbid and the +desponding. + +Marriage may also very easily have opposite effects. It is not +unfrequently founded on the sympathy of a common weakness, and when this +is the case it can hardly fail to deepen the defect. On the whole, +women, in some of the most valuable forms of strength--in the power of +endurance and in the power of perseverance--are at least the equals of +men. But weak and tremulous nerves, excessive sensibility, and an +exaggerated share of impulse and emotion, are indissolubly associated +with certain charms, both of manner and character, which are intensely +feminine, and to many men intensely attractive. When a nature of this +kind is wedded to a weak or a desponding man, the result will seldom be +happiness to either party, but with a strong man such marriages are +often very happy. Strength may wed with weakness or with strength, but +weakness should beware of mating itself with weakness. It needs the oak +to support the ivy with impunity, and there are many who find the +constant contact of a happy and cheerful nature the first essential of +their happiness. + +As it is not wise or right that either partner in marriage should lose +his or her individuality, so it is right that each should have an +independent sphere of authority. It is assumed, of course, that there is +the perfect trust which should be the first condition of marriage and +also a reasonable judgment. Many marriages have been permanently marred +because the woman has been given no independence in money matters and is +obliged to come for each small thing to her husband. In general the less +the husband meddles in household matters, or the wife in professional +ones, the better. The education of very young children of both sexes, +and of girls of a mature age, will fall almost exclusively to the wife. +The education of the boys when they have emerged from childhood will be +rather governed by the judgment of the man. Many things will be +regulated in common; but the larger interests of the family will usually +fall chiefly to one partner, the smaller and more numerous ones to the +other. + +On such matters, however, generalisations have little value, as +exceptions are very numerous. Differences of character, age, experience, +and judgment, and countless special circumstances, will modify the +family type, and it is in discovering these differences that wisdom in +marriage mainly consists. The directions in which married life may +influence character are also very many; but in the large number of cases +in which it brings with it a great weight of household cares and family +interests it will usually be found with both partners, but especially +with the woman, at once to strengthen and to narrow unselfishness. She +will live very little for herself, but very exclusively for her family. +On the intellectual side such marriages usually give a sounder judgment +and a wider knowledge of the world rather than purely intellectual +tastes. It is a good thing when the education which precedes marriage +not only prepares for the duties of the married life, but also furnishes +a fair share of the interests and tastes which that state will probably +tend to weaken. The hard battle of life, and the anxieties and sorrows +that a family seldom fails to bring, will naturally give an increased +depth and seriousness to character. There are, however, natures which, +though they may be tainted by no grave vice, are so incurably frivolous +that even this education will fail to influence them. As Emerson says, +'A fly is as untameable as a hyaena.' + +The age that is most suited for marriage is also a matter which will +depend largely on individual circumstances. The ancients, as is well +known, placed it, in the case of the man, far back, and they desired a +great difference of age between the man and the woman. Plato assigned +between thirty and thirty-five, and Aristotle thirty-seven, as the best +age for a man to marry, while they would have the girls married at +eighteen or twenty.[71] In their view, however, marriage was looked +upon very exclusively from the side of the man and of the State. They +looked on it mainly as the means of producing healthy citizens, and it +was in their eyes almost wholly dissociated from the passion of love. +Montaigne, in one of his essays, has expounded this view with the +frankest cynicism.[72] Yet few things are so important in marriage as +that the man should bring into it the freshness and the purity of an +untried nature, and that the early poetry and enthusiasm of life should +at least in some degree blend with the married state. Nor is it +desirable that a relation in which the formation of habits plays so +large a part should be deferred until character has lost its +flexibility, and until habits have been irretrievably hardened. + +On the other hand there are invincible arguments against marriages +entered into at an age when neither partner has any real knowledge of +the world and of men. Only too often they involve many illusions and +leave many regrets. Some kinds of knowledge, such as that given by +extended travel, are far more easily acquired before than after +marriage. Usually very early marriages are improvident marriages, made +with no sufficient provision for the children, and often they are +immature marriages, bringing with them grave physical evils. In those +cases in which a great place or position is to be inherited, it is +seldom a good thing that the interval of age between the owner and his +heir should be so small that inheritance will probably be postponed till +the confines of old age. + +Marriages entered into in the decline of life stand somewhat apart from +others, and are governed by other motives. What men chiefly seek in them +is a guiding hand to lead them gently down the last descent of life. + +On this, as on most subjects connected with marriage, no general or +inflexible rule can be laid down. Moralists have chiefly dilated on the +dangers of deferred marriages; economists on the evils of improvident +marriages. Each man's circumstances and disposition must determine his +course. On the whole, however, in most civilised countries the +prevailing tendencies are in the direction of an increased postponement +of marriage. Among the rich, the higher standard of luxury and +requirements, the comforts of club life, and also, I think, the +diminished place which emotion is taking in life, all lead to this, +while the spread of providence and industrial habits among the poor has +the same tendency. + +A female pen is so much more competent than a masculine one for dealing +with marriage from the woman's point of view that I do not attempt to +enter on that field. It is impossible, however, to overlook the marked +tendency of nineteenth-century civilisation to give women, both married +and unmarried, a degree of independence and self-reliance far exceeding +that of the past. The legislation of most civilised countries has +granted them full protection for their property and their earnings, +increased rights of guardianship over their children, a wider access to +professional life, and even a very considerable voice in the management +of public affairs; and these influences have been strengthened by great +improvement in female education, and by a change in the social tone +which has greatly extended their latitude of independent action. For my +own part, I have no doubt that this movement is, on the whole, +beneficial, not only to those who have to fight a lonely battle in life, +but also to those who are in the marriage state. Larger interests, wider +sympathies, a more disciplined judgment, and a greater power of +independence and self-control naturally accompany it; and these things +can never be wholly wasted. They will often be called into active +exercise by the many vicissitudes of the married life. They will, +perhaps, be still more needed when the closest of human ties is severed +by the great Divorce of Death. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[68] _Melbourne Papers_, p. 72. + +[69] Tibullus. + +[70] Galton's _Hereditary Genius_, pp. 357-8. It may be argued, on the +other side, that the monasteries consigned to celibacy a great +proportion of the weaker physical natures, who would otherwise have left +sickly children behind them. This, and the much greater mortality of +weak infant life, must have strengthened the race in an age when +sanitary science was unknown and when external conditions were very +unfavourable. + +[71] _Republic_, Book V. _Politics_, Book VII. + +[72] _Livre_ III. Ch. 5. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +SUCCESS + + +One of the most important lessons that experience teaches is that on the +whole, and in the great majority of cases, success in life depends more +on character than on either intellect or fortune. Many brilliant +exceptions, no doubt, tend to obscure the rule, and some of the +qualities of character that succeed the best may be united with grave +vices or defects; but on the whole the law is one that cannot be +questioned, and it becomes more and more apparent as civilisation +advances. Temperance, industry, integrity, frugality, self-reliance, and +self-restraint are the means by which the great masses of men rise from +penury to comfort, and it is the nations in which these qualities are +most diffused that in the long run are the most prosperous. Chance and +circumstance may do much. A happy climate, a fortunate annexation, a +favourable vicissitude in the course of commerce, may vastly influence +the prosperity of nations; anarchy, agitation, unjust laws, and +fraudulent enterprise may offer many opportunities of individual or even +of class gains; but ultimately it will be found that the nations in +which the solid industrial virtues are most diffused and most respected +pass all others in the race. The moral basis of character was the true +foundation of the greatness of ancient Rome, and when that foundation +was sapped the period of her decadence began. The solid, parsimonious, +and industrious qualities of the French peasantry have given their +country the recuperative force which has enabled its greatness to +survive the countless follies and extravagances of its rulers. + +Character, it may be added, is especially pre-eminent in those kinds and +degrees of success that affect the greatest numbers of men and influence +most largely their real happiness--in the success which secures a high +level of material comfort; which makes domestic life stable and happy; +which wins for a man the respect and confidence of his neighbours. If we +have melancholy examples that very different qualities often gain +splendid prizes, it is still true that there are few walks in life in +which a character that inspires complete confidence is not a leading +element of success. + +In the paths of ambition that can only be pursued by the few, +intellectual qualities bear a larger part, and there are, of course, +many works of genius that are in their own nature essentially +intellectual. Yet even the most splendid successes of life will often be +found to be due much less to extraordinary intellectual gifts than to an +extraordinary strength and tenacity of will, to the abnormal courage, +perseverance, and work-power that spring from it, or to the tact and +judgment which make men skilful in seizing opportunities, and which, of +all intellectual qualities, are most closely allied with character. + +Strength of will and tact are not necessarily, perhaps not generally, +conjoined, and often the first seems somewhat to impair the second. The +strong passion, the intense conviction, the commanding and imperious +nature overriding obstacles and defying opposition, that often goes with +a will of abnormal strength, does not naturally harmonise with the +reticence of expression, the delicacy of touch and management that +characterise a man who possesses in a high degree the gift of tact. +There are circumstances and times when each of these two things is more +important than the other, and the success of each man will mainly depend +upon the suitability of his peculiar gift to the work he has to do. 'The +daring pilot in extremity' is often by no means the best navigator in a +quiet sea; and men who have shown themselves supremely great in moments +of crisis and appalling danger, who have built up mighty nations, +subdued savage tribes, guided the bark of the State with skill and +courage amid the storms of revolution or civil war, and written their +names in indelible letters on the page of history, have sometimes proved +far less successful than men of inferior powers in the art of managing +assemblies, satisfying rival interests or assuaging by judicious +compromise old hatreds and prejudices. We have had at least one +conspicuous example of the difference of these two types in our own day +in the life of the great founder of German Unity. + +Sometimes, however, men of great strength of will and purpose possess +also in a high degree the gift of tact; and when this is combined with +soundness of judgment it usually leads to a success in life out of all +proportion to their purely intellectual qualities. In nearly all +administrative posts, in all the many fields of labour where the task of +man is to govern, manage, or influence others, to adjust or harmonise +antagonisms of race or interests or prejudices, to carry through +difficult business without friction and by skilful co-operation, this +combination of gifts is supremely valuable. It is much more valuable +than brilliancy, eloquence, or originality. I remember the comment of a +good judge of men on the administration of a great governor who was +pre-eminently remarkable for this combination. 'He always seemed to gain +his point, yet he never appeared to be in antagonism with anyone.' The +steady pressure of a firm and consistent will was scarcely felt when it +was accompanied by the ready recognition of everything that was good in +the argument of another, and by a charm of manner and of temper which +seldom failed to disarm opposition and win personal affection. + +The combination of qualities which, though not absolutely incompatible, +are very usually disconnected, is the secret of many successful lives. +Thus, to take one of the most homely, but one of the most useful and +most pleasing of all qualities--good-nature--it will too often be found +that when it is the marked and leading feature of a character it is +accompanied by some want of firmness, energy, and judgment. Sometimes, +however, this is not the case, and there are then few greater elements +of success. It is curious to observe the subtle, magnetic sympathy by +which men feel whether their neighbour is a harsh or a kind judge of +others, and how generally those who judge harshly are themselves harshly +judged, while those who judge others rather by their merits than by +their defects, and perhaps a little above their merits, win popularity. + +No one, indeed, can fail to notice the effect of good-nature in +conciliating opposition, securing attachment, smoothing the various +paths of life, and, it must be added, concealing grave faults. Laxities +of conduct that might well blast the reputation of a man or a woman are +constantly forgotten, or at least forgiven, in those who lead a life of +tactful good-nature, and in the eyes of the world this quality is more +valued than others of far higher and more solid worth. It is not +unusual, for example, to see a lady in society, who is living wholly or +almost wholly for her pleasures, who has no high purpose in life, no +real sense of duty, no capacity for genuine and serious self-sacrifice, +but who at the same time never says an unkind thing of her neighbours, +sets up no severe standard of conduct either for herself or for others, +and by an innate amiability of temperament tries, successfully and +without effort, to make all around her cheerful and happy. She will +probably be more admired, she will almost certainly be more popular, +than her neighbour whose whole life is one of self-denial for the good +of others, who sacrifices to her duties her dearest pleasures, her time, +her money, and her talents, but who through some unhappy turn of temper, +strengthened perhaps by a narrow and austere education, is a harsh and +censorious judge of the frailties of her fellows. + +It is also a curious thing to observe how often, when the saving gift of +tact is wanting, the brilliant, the witty, the ambitious, and the +energetic are passed in the race of life by men who in intellectual +qualities are greatly their inferiors. They dazzle, agitate, and in a +measure influence, and they easily win places in the second rank; but +something in the very exercise of their talents continually trammels +them, while judgment, tact, and good-nature, with comparatively little +brilliancy, quietly and unobtrusively take the helm. There is the +excellent talker who, by his talents and his acquirements, is eminently +fitted to delight and to instruct, yet he is so unable to repress some +unseemly jest or some pointed sarcasm or some humorous paradox that he +continually leaves a sting behind him, creates enemies, destroys his +reputation for sobriety of thought, and makes himself impossible in +posts of administration and trust. There is the parliamentary speaker +who, amid shouts of applause, pursues his adversary with scathing +invective or merciless ridicule, and who all the time is accumulating +animosities against himself, shutting the door against combinations that +would be all important to his career, and destroying his chances of +party leadership. There is the advocate who can state his case with +consummate power, but who, by an aggressive manner or a too evident +contempt for his adversary, or by the over-statement of a good cause, +habitually throws the minds of his hearers into an attitude of +opposition. There are the many men who, by ill-timed or too frequent +levity, lose all credit for their serious qualities, or who by +pretentiousness or self-assertion or restless efforts to distinguish +themselves, make themselves universally disliked, or who by their +egotism or their repetitions or their persistence, or their incapacity +of distinguishing essentials from details, or understanding the +dispositions of others, or appreciating times and seasons, make their +wearied and exasperated hearers blind to the most substantial merits. By +faults of tact men of really moderate opinions get the reputation of +extremists; men of substantially kindly natures sow animosities +wherever they go; men of real patriotism are regarded as mere jesters or +party gamblers; men who possess great talents and have rendered great +services to the world sink into inveterate bores and never obtain from +their contemporaries a tithe of the success which is their due. Tact is +not merely shown in saying the right thing at the right time and to the +right people; it is shown quite as much in the many things that are left +unsaid and apparently unnoticed, or are only lightly and evasively +touched. + +It is certainly not the highest of human endowments, but it is as +certainly one of the most valuable, for it is that which chiefly enables +a man to use his other gifts to advantage, and which most effectually +supplies the place of those that are wanting. It lies on the borderland +of character and intellect. It implies self-restraint, good temper, +quick and kindly sympathy with the feelings of others. It implies also a +perception of the finer shadings of character and expression, the +intellectual gift which enables a man to place himself in touch with +great varieties of disposition, and to catch those more delicate notes +of feeling to which a coarser nature is insensible. + +It is perhaps in most cases more developed among women than among men, +and it does not necessarily imply any other remarkable gift. It is +sometimes found among both men and women of very small general +intellectual powers; and in numerous cases it serves only to add to the +charm of private life and to secure social success. Where it is united +with real talents it not only enables its possessor to use these talents +to the greatest advantage; it also often leads those about him greatly +to magnify their amount. The presence or absence of this gift is one of +the chief causes why the relative value of different men is often so +differently judged by contemporaries and by posterity; by those who have +come in direct personal contact with them, and by those who judge them +from without, and by the broad results of their lives. Real tact, like +good manners, is or becomes a spontaneous and natural thing. The man of +perfectly refined manners does not consciously and deliberately on each +occasion observe the courtesies and amenities of good society. They have +become to him a second nature, and he observes them as by a kind of +instinct, without thought or effort. In the same way true tact is +something wholly different from the elaborate and artificial attempts to +conciliate and attract which may often be seen, and which usually bring +with them the impression of manoeuvre and insincerity. + +Though it may be found in men of very different characters and grades of +intellect, tact has its natural affinities. Seeking beyond all things to +avoid unnecessary friction, and therefore with a strong leaning towards +compromise, it does not generally or naturally go with intense +convictions, with strong enthusiasms, with an ardently impulsive or +emotional temperament. Nor is it commonly found among men of deep and +concentrated genius, intensely absorbed in some special subject. Such +men are often among the most unobservant of the social sides of life, +and very bad judges of character, though there will frequently be found +among them an almost childlike unworldliness and simplicity of nature, +and an essential moderation of temperament which, combined with their +superiority of intellect, gives them a charm peculiarly their own. +Tact, however, has a natural affinity to a calm, equable, and +good-natured temper. It allies itself with a quick sense of opportunity, +proportion, and degree; with the power of distinguishing readily and +truly between the essential and the unimportant; with that soundness of +judgment which not only guides men among the varied events of life, and +in their estimate of those about them, but also enables them to take a +true measure of their own capacities, of the tasks that are most fitted +for them, of the objects of ambition that are and are not within their +reach. + +Though in its higher degrees it is essentially a natural gift, and is +sometimes conspicuous in perfectly uneducated men, it may be largely +cultivated and improved; and in this respect the education of good +society is especially valuable. Such an education, whatever else it may +do, at least removes many jarring notes from the rhythm of life. It +tends to correct faults of manner, demeanour, or pronunciation which +tell against men to a degree altogether disproportioned to their real +importance, and on which, it is hardly too much to say, the casual +judgments of the world are mainly formed; and it also fosters moral +qualities which are essentially of the nature of tact. + +We can hardly have a better picture of a really tactful man than in some +sentences taken from the admirable pages in which Cardinal Newman has +painted the character of the perfect gentleman. + +'It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never +inflicts pain.... He carefully avoids whatever may cause a jar or a jolt +in the minds of those with whom he is cast--all clashing of opinion or +collision of feeling, all restraint or suspicion or gloom or resentment; +his great concern being to make everyone at ease and at home. He has his +eyes on all his company; he is tender towards the bashful, gentle +towards the distant, and merciful towards the absurd; he can recollect +to whom he is speaking; he guards against unreasonable allusions or +topics that may irritate; he is seldom prominent in conversation, and +never wearisome. He makes light of favours while he does them, and seems +to be receiving when he is conferring. He never speaks of himself except +when compelled, never defends himself by a mere retort; he has no ears +for slander or gossip, is scrupulous in imputing motives to those who +interfere with him, and interprets everything for the best. He is never +mean or little in his disputes, never takes an unfair advantage, never +mistakes personalities or sharp sayings for arguments, or insinuates +evil which he dare not say out.... He has too much good sense to be +affronted at insult; he is too busy to remember injuries, and too +indolent to bear malice.... If he engages in controversy of any kind his +disciplined intellect preserves him from the blundering discourtesy of +better though less educated minds, who, like blunt weapons, tear and +hack instead of cutting clean.... He may be right or wrong in his +opinion, but he is too clear-headed to be unjust; he is as simple as he +is forcible, and as brief as he is decisive. Nowhere shall we find +greater candour, consideration, indulgence. He throws himself into the +minds of his opponents, he accounts for their mistakes. He knows the +weakness of human nature as well as its strength, its province, and its +limits.'[73] + +I have said at the beginning of this chapter that character bears, on +the whole, a larger part in promoting success than any other things, and +that a steady perseverance in the industrial virtues seldom fails to +bring some reward in the directions that are most conducive to human +happiness. At the same time it is only too evident that success in life +is by no means measured by merit, either moral or intellectual. Life is +a great lottery, in which chance and opportunity play an enormous part. +The higher qualities are often less successful than the medium and the +lower ones. They are often most successful when they are blended with +other and inferior elements, and a large share of the great prizes fall +to the unscrupulous, the selfish, and the cunning. Probably, however, +the disparity between merit and success diminishes if we take the larger +averages, and the fortunes of nations correspond with their real worth +much more nearly than the fortunes of individuals. Success, too, is far +from being a synonym for happiness, and while the desire for happiness +is inherent in all human nature, the desire for success--at least beyond +what is needed for obtaining a fair share of the comforts of life--is +much less universal. The force of habit, the desire for a tranquil +domestic life, the love of country and of home, are often, among really +able men, stronger than the impulse of ambition; and a distaste for the +competitions and contentions of life, for the increasing +responsibilities of greatness, and for the envy and jealousies that +seldom fail to follow in its trail, may be found among men who, if they +chose to enter the arena, seem to have every requisite for success. The +strongest man is not always the most ardent climber, and the tranquil +valleys have to many a greater charm than the lofty pinnacles of life. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[73] Newman's _Scope and Nature of University Education_, Discourse IX. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +TIME + + +Considering the countless ages that man has lived upon this globe, it +seems a strange thing that he has so little learned to acquiesce in the +normal conditions of humanity. How large a proportion of the melancholy +which is reflected in the poetry of all ages, and which is felt in +different degrees in every human soul, is due not to any special or +peculiar misfortune, but to things that are common to the whole human +race! The inexorable flight of time; the approach of old age and its +infirmities; the shadow of death; the mystery that surrounds our being; +the contrast between the depth of affection and the transitoriness and +uncertainty of life; the spectacle of the broken lives and baffled +aspirations and useless labours and misdirected talents and pernicious +energies and long-continued delusions that fill the path of human +history; the deep sense of vanity and aimlessness that must sometimes +come over us as we contemplate a world in which chance is so often +stronger than wisdom; in which desert and reward are so widely +separated; in which living beings succeed each other in such a vast and +bewildering redundance--eating, killing, suffering, and dying for no +useful discoverable purpose,--all these things belong to the normal lot +or to the inevitable setting of human life. Nor can it be said that +science, which has so largely extended our knowledge of the Universe, or +civilisation, which has so greatly multiplied our comforts and +alleviated our pains, has in any degree diminished the sadness they +bring. It seems, indeed, as if the more man is raised above a purely +animal existence, and his mental and moral powers are developed, the +more this kind of feeling increases. + +In few if any periods of the world's history has it been more +perceptible in literature than at present. Physical constitution and +temperament have a vast and a humiliating power of deepening or +lightening it, and the strength or weakness of religious belief largely +affects it, yet the best, the strongest, the most believing, and the +most prosperous cannot wholly escape it. Sometimes it finds its true +expression in the lines of Raleigh: + + + Even such is time; which takes in trust + Our youth, our joys, and all we have! + And pays us nought but age and dust, + Which in the dark and silent grave, + When we have wandered all our ways, + Shuts up the story of our days; + And from which grave and earth and dust, + The Lord shall raise me up, I trust. + + +Sometimes it takes the tone of a lighter melancholy touched with +cynicism: + + + La vie est vaine: + Un peu d'amour, + Un peu de haine, + Et puis--bon jour. + + La vie est breve, + Un peu d'espoir, + Un peu de reve, + Et puis--bon soir.[74] + + +There are few sayings which deserve better to be brought continually +before our minds than that of Franklin: 'You value life; then do not +squander time, for time is the stuff of life.' Of all the things that +are bestowed on men, none is more valuable, but none is more unequally +used, and the true measurement of life should be found less in its +duration than in the amount that is put into it. The waste of time is +one of the oldest of commonplaces, but it is one of those which are +never really stale. How much of the precious 'stuff of life' is wasted +by want of punctuality; by want of method involving superfluous and +repeated effort; by want of measure prolonging things that are +pleasurable or profitable in moderation to the point of weariness, +satiety, and extravagance; by want of selection dwelling too much on the +useless or the unimportant; by want of intensity, growing out of a +nature that is listless and apathetic both in work and pleasure. Time +is, in one sense, the most elastic of things. It is one of the commonest +experiences that the busiest men find most of it for exceptional work, +and often a man who, under the strong stimulus of an active professional +life, repines bitterly that he finds so little time for pursuing some +favourite work or study, discovers, to his own surprise, that when +circumstances have placed all his time at his disposal he does less in +this field than in the hard-earned intervals of a crowded life. The art +of wisely using the spare five minutes, the casual vacancies or +intervals of life, is one of the most valuable we can acquire. There are +lives in which the main preoccupation is to get through time. There are +others in which it is to find time for all that has to be got through, +and most men, in different periods of their lives, are acquainted with +both extremes. With some, time is mere duration, a blank, featureless +thing, gliding swiftly and insensibly by. With others every day, and +almost every hour, seems to have its distinctive stamp and character, +for good or ill, in work or pleasure. There are vast differences in this +respect between different ages of history, and between different +generations in the same country, between town and country life, and +between different countries. 'Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle +of Cathay' is profoundly true, and no traveller can fail to be +insensible to the difference in the value of time in a Northern and in a +Southern country. The leisure of some nations seems busier than the work +of others, and few things are more resting to an overwrought and jaded +Anglo-Saxon nature than to pass for a short season into one of those +countries where time seems almost without value. + +On the whole there can be little doubt that life in the more civilised +nations has, in our own generation, largely increased. It is not simply +that its average duration is extended. This, in a large degree, is due +to the diminished amount of infant mortality. The improvement is shown +more conclusively in the increased commonness of vigorous and active old +age, in the multitude of new contrivances for economising and therefore +increasing time, in the far greater intensity of life both in the forms +of work and in the forms of pleasure. 'Life at high pressure' is not +without its drawbacks and its evils, but it at least means life which is +largely and fully used. + +All intermissions of work, however, even when they do not take the form +of positive pleasure, are not waste of time. Overwork, in all +departments of life, is commonly bad economy, not so much because it +often breaks down health--most of what is attributed to this cause is +probably rather due to anxiety than to work--as because it seldom fails +to impair the quality of work. A great portion of our lives passes in +the unconsciousness of sleep, and perhaps no part is more usefully +spent. It not only brings with it the restoration of our physical +energies, but it also gives a true and healthy tone to our moral nature. +Of all earthly things sleep does the most to place things in their true +proportions, calming excited nerves and dispelling exaggerated cares. +How many suicides have been averted, how many rash enterprises and +decisions have been prevented, how many dangerous quarrels have been +allayed, by the soothing influence of a few hours of steady sleep! +'Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care' is, indeed, in a +careworn world, one of the chief of blessings. Its healing and +restorative power is as much felt in the sicknesses of the mind as in +those of the body, and, in spite of the authority of Solomon, it is +probably a wise thing for men to take the full measure of it, which +undoctored nature demands. The true waste of time of the sluggard is +not in the amount of natural sleep he enjoys, but in the time idly +spent in bed when sleep has ceased, and in misplaced and mistimed sleep, +which is not due to any genuine craving of the body for rest, but simply +to mental sluggishness, to lack of interest and attention. + +Some men have claimed for sleep even more than this. 'The night-time of +the body,' an ancient writer has said, 'is the day-time of the soul,' +and some, who do not absolutely hold the old belief that it is in the +dreams of the night that the Divine Spirit most communicates with man, +have, nevertheless, believed that the complete withdrawal of our minds +from those worldly cares which haunt our waking hours and do so much to +materialise and harden our natures is one of the first conditions of a +higher life. 'In proportion,' said Swedenborg, 'as the mind is capable +of being withdrawn from things sensual and corporeal, in the same +proportion it is elevated into things celestial and spiritual.' It has +been noticed that often thoughts and judgments, scattered and entangled +in our evening hours, seem sifted, clarified, and arranged in sleep; +that problems which seemed hopelessly confused when we lay down are at +once and easily solved when we awake, 'as though a reason more perfect +than reason had been at work when we were in our beds.' Something +analogous to this, it has been contended, takes place in our moral +natures. 'A process is going on in us during those hours which is not, +and cannot be, brought so effectually, if at all, at any other time, and +we are spiritually growing, developing, ripening more continuously while +thus shielded from the distracting influences of the phenomenal world +than during the hours in which we are absorbed in them.... Is it not +precisely the function of sleep to give us for a portion of every day in +our lives a respite from worldly influences which, uninterrupted, would +deprive us of the instruction, of the spiritual reinforcements, +necessary to qualify us to turn our waking experiences of the world to +the best account without being overcome by them? It is in these hours +that the plans and ambitions of our external worldly life cease to +interfere with or obstruct the flow of the Divine life into the +will.'[75] + +Without, however, following this train of thought, it is at least +sufficiently clear that no small portion of the happiness of life +depends upon our sleeping hours. Plato has exhorted men to observe +carefully their dreams as indicating their natural dispositions, +tendencies, and temptations, and--perhaps with more reason--Burton and +Franklin have proposed 'the art of procuring pleasant dreams' as one of +the great, though little recognised, branches of the science of life. +This is, no doubt, mainly a question of diet, exercise, efficient +ventilation, and a wise distribution of hours, but it is also largely +influenced by moral causes. + + + Somnia quae mentes ludunt volitantibus umbris, + Nec delubra deum, nec ab aethere numina mittunt, + Sed sibi quisque facit. + + +To appease the perturbations of the mind, to live a tranquil, upright, +unremorseful life, to cultivate the power of governing by the will the +current of our thoughts, repressing unruly passions, exaggerated +anxieties, and unhealthy desires, is at least one great recipe for +banishing from our pillows those painful dreams that contribute not a +little to the unhappiness of many lives. + +An analogous branch of self-culture is that which seeks to provide some +healthy aliment for the waking hours of the night, when time seems so +unnaturally prolonged, and when gloomy thoughts and exaggerated and +distempered views of the trials of life peculiarly prevail. Among the +ways in which education may conduce to the real happiness of man, its +power of supplying pleasant or soothing thoughts for those dreary hours +is not the least, though it is seldom or never noticed in books or +speeches. It is, perhaps, in this respect that the early habit of +committing poetry--and especially religious poetry--to memory is most +important. + +In estimating the value of those intermissions of labour which are not +spent in active enjoyment one other consideration may be noted. There +are times when the mind should lie fallow, and all who have lived the +intellectual life with profit have perceived that it is often in those +times that it most regains the elasticity it may have lost and becomes +most prolific in spontaneous thought. Many periods of life which might +at first sight appear to be merely unused time are, in truth, among the +most really valuable. + +We have all noticed the curious fact of the extreme apparent +inequalities of time, though it is, in its essence, of all things the +most uniform. Periods of pain or acute discomfort seem unnaturally +long, but this lengthening of time is fortunately not true of all the +melancholy scenes of life, nor is it peculiar to things that are +painful. An invalid life with its almost unbroken monotony, and with the +large measure of torpor that often accompanies it, usually flies very +quickly, and most persons must have observed how the first week of +travel, or of some other great change of habits and pursuits, though +often attended with keen enjoyment, appears disproportionately long. +Routine shortens and variety lengthens time, and it is therefore in the +power of men to do something to regulate its pace. A life with many +landmarks, a life which is much subdivided when those subdivisions are +not of the same kind, and when new and diverse interests, impressions, +and labours follow each other in swift and distinct succession, seems +the most long, and youth, with its keen susceptibility to impressions, +appears to move much more slowly than apathetic old age. How almost +immeasurably long to a young child seems the period from birthday to +birthday! How long to the schoolboy seems the interval between vacation +and vacation! How rapid as we go on in life becomes the awful beat of +each recurring year! When the feeling of novelty has grown rare, and +when interests have lost their edge, time glides by with an +ever-increasing celerity. Campbell has justly noticed as a beneficent +provision of nature that it is in the period of life when enjoyments are +fewest, and infirmities most numerous, that the march of time seems most +rapid. + + + The more we live, more brief appear + Our life's succeeding stages, + A day to childhood seems a year, + And years like passing ages. + + * * * * * + + When Joys have lost their bloom and breath, + And life itself is vapid, + Why as we reach the Falls of death + Feel we its tide more rapid? + + * * * * * + + Heaven gives our years of fading strength + Indemnifying fleetness; + And those of youth a seeming length + Proportioned to their sweetness. + + +The shortness of life is one of the commonplaces of literature. Yet +though we may easily conceive beings with faculties both of mind and +body adapted to a far longer life than ours, it will usually be found, +with our existing powers, that life, if not prematurely shortened, is +long enough. In the case of men who have played a great part in public +affairs, the best work is nearly always done before old age. It is a +remarkable fact that although a Senate, by its very derivation, means an +assembly of old men, and although in the Senate of Rome, which was the +greatest of all, the members sat for life, there was a special law +providing that no Senator, after sixty, should be summoned to attend his +duty.[76] In the past centuries active septuagenarian statesmen were +very rare, and in parliamentary life almost unknown. In our own century +there have been brilliant exceptions, but in most cases it will be +found that the true glory of these statesmen rests on what they had done +before old age, and sometimes the undue prolongation of their active +lives has been a grave misfortune, not only to their own reputations, +but also to the nations they influenced. Often, indeed, while faculties +diminish, self-confidence, even in good men, increases. Moral and +intellectual failings that had been formerly repressed take root and +spread, and it is no small blessing that they have but a short time to +run their course. In the case of men of great capacities the follies of +age are perhaps even more to be feared than the follies of youth. When +men have made a great reputation and acquired a great authority, when +they become the objects of the flattery of nations, and when they can, +with little trouble or thought or study, attract universal attention, a +new set of temptations begins. Their heads are apt to be turned. The +feeling of responsibility grows weaker; the old judgment, caution, +deliberation, self-restraint, and timidity disappear. Obstinacy and +prejudice strengthen, while at the same time the force of the reasoning +will diminishes. Sometimes, through a failing that is partly +intellectual, but partly also moral, they almost wholly lose the power +of realising or recognising new conditions, discoveries and necessities. +They view with jealousy the rise of new reputations and of younger men, +and the well-earned authority of an old man becomes the most formidable +obstacle to improvement. In the field of politics, in the field of +science, and in the field of military organisation, these truths might +be abundantly illustrated. In the case of great but maleficent genius +the shortness of life is a priceless blessing. Few greater curses could +be imagined for the human race than the prolongation for centuries of +the life of Napoleon. + +In literature also the same law may be detected. A writer's best +thoughts are usually expressed long before extreme old age, though the +habit and desire of production continue. The time of repetition, of +diluted force, and of weakened judgment--the age when the mind has lost +its flexibility and can no longer assimilate new ideas or keep pace with +the changing modes and tendencies of another generation--often sets in +while physical life is but little enfeebled. In this case, it is true, +the evil is not very great, for Time may be trusted to sift the chaff +from the wheat, and though it may not preserve the one it will +infallibly discard the other. 'While I live,' Victor Hugo said with some +grandiloquence, but also with some justice, 'it is my duty to produce. +It is the duty of the world to select, from what I produce, that which +is worth keeping. The world will discharge its duty. I shall discharge +mine.' At the same time, no one can have failed to observe how much in +our own generation the long silence of Newman in his old age added to +his dignity and his reputation, and the same thing might have been said +of Carlyle if a beneficent fire had destroyed the unrevised manuscripts +which he wrote or dictated when a very old man. + +We are here, however, dealing with great labours, and with men who are +filling a great place in the world's strife. The decay of faculty and +will, that impairs power in these cases, is often perceptible long +before there is any real decay in the powers that are needed for +ordinary business or for the full enjoyment of life. But the time comes +when children have grown into maturity, and when it becomes desirable +that a younger generation should take the government of the world, +should inherit its wealth, its power, its dignities, its many means of +influence and enjoyment; and this cannot be fully done till the older +generation is laid to rest. Often, indeed, old age, when it is free from +grave infirmities and from great trials and privations, is the most +honoured, the most tranquil, and perhaps on the whole the happiest +period of life. The struggles, passions, and ambitions of other days +have passed. The mellowing touch of time has allayed animosities, +subdued old asperities of character, given a larger and more tolerant +judgment, cured the morbid sensitiveness that most embitters life. The +old man's mind is stored with the memories of a well-filled and +honourable life. In the long leisures that now fall to his lot he is +often enabled to resume projects which in a crowded professional life he +had been obliged to adjourn; he finds (as Adam Smith has said) that one +of the greatest pleasures in life is reverting in old age to the studies +of youth, and he himself often feels something of the thrill of a second +youth in his sympathy with the children who are around him. It is the +St. Martin's summer, lighting with a pale but beautiful gleam the brief +November day. But the time must come when all the alternatives of life +are sad, and the least sad is a speedy and painless end. When the eye +has ceased to see and the ear to hear, when the mind has failed and all +the friends of youth are gone, and the old man's life becomes a burden +not only to himself but to those about him, it is far better that he +should quit the scene. If a natural clinging to life, or a natural +shrinking from death, prevents him from clearly realising this, it is at +least fully seen by all others. + +Nor, indeed, does this love of life in most cases of extreme old age +greatly persist. Few things are sadder than to see the young, or those +in mature life, seeking, according to the current phrase, to find means +of "killing time." But in extreme old age, when the power of work, the +power of reading, the pleasures of society, have gone, this phrase +acquires a new significance. As Madame de Stael has beautifully said, +'On depose fleur a fleur la couronne de la vie.' An apathy steals over +every faculty, and rest--unbroken rest--becomes the chief desire. I +remember a touching epitaph in a German churchyard: 'I will arise, O +Christ, when Thou callest me; but oh! let me rest awhile, for I am very +weary.' + +After all that can be said, most men are reluctant to look Time in the +face. The close of the year or a birthday is to them merely a time of +revelry, into which they enter in order to turn away from depressing +thought. They shrink from what seems to them the dreary truth, that they +are drifting to a dark abyss. To many the milestones along the path of +life are tombstones, every epoch being mainly associated in their +memories with a death. To some, past time is nothing--a closed chapter +never to be reopened. + + + The past is nothing, and at last, + The future can but be the past. + + +To others, the thought of the work achieved in the vanished years is the +most real and abiding of their possessions. They can feel the force of +the noble lines of Dryden: + + + Not Heaven itself upon the past has power, + But what has been has been, and I have had my hour. + + +He who would look Time in the face without illusion and without fear +should associate each year as it passes with new developments of his +nature; with duties accomplished, with work performed. To fill the time +allotted to us to the brim with action and with thought is the only way +in which we can learn to watch its passage with equanimity. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[74] Monte-Naken. + +[75] See _The Mystery of Sleep_, by John Bigelow. + +[76] Seneca, _de Brevitate Vitae_, cap. XX. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +'THE END' + + +It is easy to conceive circumstances not widely different from those of +actual life that would, if not altogether, at least very largely, take +from death the gloom that commonly surrounds it. If all the members of +the human race died either before two or after seventy; if death was in +all cases the swift and painless thing that it is with many; and if the +old man always left behind him children to perpetuate his name, his +memory, and his thoughts, Death, though it might still seem a sad thing, +would certainly not excite the feelings it now so often produces. Of all +the events that befall us, it is that which owes most of its horror not +to itself, but to its accessories, its associations, and to the +imaginations that cluster around it. 'Death,' indeed, as a great stoical +moralist said, 'is the only evil that can never touch us. When we are, +death is not. When death comes, we are not.' + +The composition of treatises of consolation intended to accustom men to +contemplate death without terror was one of the favourite exercises of +the philosophers in the Augustan and in the subsequent periods of Pagan +Rome. The chapter which Cicero has devoted to this subject in his +treatise on old age is a beautiful example of how it appeared to a +virtuous pagan, who believed in a future life which would bring him into +communion with those whom he had loved and lost on earth, but who at the +same time recognised this only as a probability, not a certainty. +"Death," he said, 'is an event either utterly to be disregarded if it +extinguish the soul's existence, or much to be wished if it convey her +to some region where she shall continue to exist for ever. One of these +two consequences must necessarily follow the disunion of soul and body; +there is no other possible alternative. What then have I to fear if +after death I shall either not be miserable or shall certainly be +happy?' + +Vague notions, however, of a dim, twilight, shadowy world where the +ghosts of the dead lived a faint and joyless existence, and whence they +sometimes returned to haunt the living in their dreams, were widely +spread through the popular imaginations, and it was as the extinction of +all superstitious fears that the school of Lucretius and Pliny welcomed +the belief that all things ended with death--'Post mortem nihil est, +ipsaque mors nihil.' Nor is it by any means certain that even in the +school of Plato the thought of another life had a great and operative +influence on minds and characters. Death was chiefly represented as +rest; as the close of a banquet; as the universal law of nature which +befalls all living beings, though the immense majority encounter it at +an earlier period than man. It was thought of simply as +sleep--dreamless, undisturbed sleep--the final release from all the +sorrows, sufferings, anxieties, labours, and longings of life. + + + We are such stuff + As dreams are made on, and our little life + Is rounded with a sleep.[77] + + The best of rest is sleep, + And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st + Thy death, which is no more.[78] + + To die is landing on some silent shore + Where billows never break, nor tempests roar.[79] + + +It is a strange thing to observe to what a height not only of moral +excellence, but also of devotional fervour, men have arisen without any +assistance from the doctrine of a future life. Only the faintest and +most dubious glimmer of such a belief can be traced in the Psalms, in +which countless generations of Christians have found the fullest +expression of their devotional feelings, or in the Meditations of Marcus +Aurelius, which are perhaps the purest product of pagan piety. + +As I have already said, I am endeavouring in this book to steer clear of +questions of contested theologies; but it is impossible to avoid +noticing the great changes that have been introduced into the conception +of death by some of the teaching which in different forms has grown up +under the name of Christianity, though much of it may be traced in germ +to earlier periods of human development. Death in itself was made +incomparably more terrible by the notion that it was not a law but a +punishment; that sufferings inconceivably greater than those of Earth +awaited the great masses of the human race beyond the grave; that an +event which was believed to have taken place ages before we were born, +or small frailties such as the best of us cannot escape, were sufficient +to bring men under this condemnation; that the only paths to safety were +to be found in ecclesiastical ceremonies; in the assistance of priests; +in an accurate choice among competing theological doctrines. At the same +time the largest and most powerful of the Churches of Christendom has, +during many centuries, done its utmost to intensify the natural fear of +death by associating it in the imaginations of men with loathsome images +and appalling surroundings. There can be no greater contrast than that +between the Greek tomb with its garlands of flowers, its bright, +youthful and restful imagery, and the mortuary chapels that may often be +found in Catholic countries, with their ghastly pictures of the _saved_ +souls writhing in purgatorial flames, while the inscription above and +the moneybox below point out the one means of alleviating their lot. + + + Fermati, O Passagiero, mira tormenti. + Siamo abbandonati dai nostri parenti. + Di noi abbiate pieta, o voi amici cari. + + +This is one side of the picture. On the other hand it cannot be +questioned that the strong convictions and impressive ceremonies, even +of the most superstitious faith, have consoled and strengthened +multitudes in their last moments, and in the purer and more enlightened +forms of Christianity death now wears a very different aspect from what +it did in the teaching of mediaeval Catholicism, or of some of the sects +that grew out of the Reformation. Human life ending in the weakness of +old age and in the corruption of the tomb will always seem a humiliating +anti-climax, and often a hideous injustice. The belief in the rightful +supremacy of conscience, and in an eternal moral law redressing the many +wrongs and injustices of life, and securing the ultimate triumph of good +over evil; the incapacity of earth and earthly things to satisfy our +cravings and ideals; the instinctive revolt of human nature against the +idea of annihilation, and its capacity for affections and attachments, +which seem by their intensity to transcend the limits of earth and carry +with them in moments of bereavement a persuasion or conviction of +something that endures beyond the grave,--all these things have found in +Christian beliefs a sanction and a satisfaction that men had failed to +find in Socrates or Cicero, or in the vague Pantheism to which +unassisted reason naturally inclines. + +Looking, however, on death in its purely human aspects, the mourner +should consider how often in a long illness he wished the dying man +could sleep; how consoling to his mind was the thought of every hour of +peaceful rest; of every hour in which the patient was withdrawn from +consciousness, insensible to suffering, removed for a time from the +miseries of a dying life. He should ask himself whether these intervals +of insensibility were not on the whole the happiest in the +illness--those which he would most have wished to multiply or to +prolong. He should accustom himself, then, to think of death as +sleep--undisturbed sleep--the only sleep from which man never wakes to +pain. + +You find yourself in the presence of what is a far deeper and more +poignant trial than an old man's death--a young life cut off in its +prime; the eclipse of a sun before the evening has arrived. Accustom +yourself to consider the life that has passed as a whole. A human being +has been called into the world--has lived in it ten, twenty, thirty +years. It seems to you an intolerable instance of the injustice of fate +that he is so early cut off. Estimate, then, that life as a whole, and +ask yourself whether, so judged, it has been a blessing or the reverse. +Count up the years of happiness. Count up the days, or perhaps weeks, of +illness and of pain. Measure the happiness that this short life has +given to some who have passed away; who never lived to see its early +close. Balance the happiness which during its existence it gave to those +who survived, with the poignancy and the duration of pain caused by the +loss. Here, for example, is one who lived perhaps twenty-five years in +health and vigour; whose life during that period was chequered by no +serious misfortune; whose nature, though from time to time clouded by +petty anxieties and cares, was on the whole bright, buoyant, and happy; +who had the capacity of vivid enjoyment and many opportunities of +attaining it; who felt all the thrill of health and friendship and +ecstatic pleasure. Then came a change,--a year or two with a crippled +wing--life, though not abjectly wretched, on the whole a burden, and +then the end. You can easily conceive--you can ardently desire--a better +lot, but judge fairly the lights and shades of what has been. Does not +the happiness on the whole exceed the evil? Can you honestly say that +this life has been a curse and not a blessing?--that it would have been +better if it had never been called out of nothingness?--that it would +have been better if the drama had never been played? It is over now. As +you lay in his last home the object of so much love, ask yourself +whether, even in a mere human point of view, this parenthesis between +two darknesses has not been on the whole productive of more happiness +than pain to him and to those around him. + +It was an ancient saying that 'he whom the gods love dies young,' and +more than one legend representing speedy and painless death as the +greatest of blessings has descended to us from pagan antiquity; while +other legends, like that of Tithonus, anticipated the picture which +Swift has so powerfully but so repulsively drawn of the misery of old +age and its infirmities, if death did not come as a release. I have +elsewhere related an old Irish legend embodying this truth. 'In a +certain lake in Munster, it is said, there were two islands; into the +first death could never enter, but age and sickness, and the weariness +of life and the paroxysms of fearful suffering were all known there, and +they did their work till the inhabitants, tired of their immortality, +learned to look upon the opposite island as upon a haven of repose. They +launched their barks upon its gloomy waters; they touched its shore, and +they were at rest.'[80] + +No one, however, can confidently say whether an early death is a +misfortune, for no one can really know what calamities would have +befallen the dead man if his life had been prolonged. How often does it +happen that the children of a dead parent do things or suffer things +that would have broken his heart if he had lived to see them! How often +do painful diseases lurk in germ in the body which would have produced +unspeakable misery if an early and perhaps a painless death had not +anticipated their development! How often do mistakes and misfortunes +cloud the evening and mar the beauty of a noble life, or moral +infirmities, unperceived in youth or early manhood, break out before the +day is over! Who is there who has not often said to himself as he looked +back on a completed life, how much happier it would have been had it +ended sooner? 'Give us timely death' is in truth one of the best prayers +that man can pray. Pain, not Death, is the real enemy to be combated, +and in this combat, at least, man can do much. Few men can have lived +long without realising how many things are worse than death, and how +many knots there are in life that Death alone can untie. + +Remember, above all, that whatever may lie beyond the tomb, the tomb +itself is nothing to you. The narrow prison-house, the gloomy pomp, the +hideousness of decay, are known to the living and the living alone. By a +too common illusion of the imagination, men picture themselves as +consciously dead,--going through the process of corruption, and aware of +it; imprisoned with the knowledge of the fact in the most hideous of +dungeons. Endeavour earnestly to erase this illusion from your mind, for +it lies at the root of the fear of death, and it is one of the worst +sides of mediaeval and of much modern teaching and art that it tends to +strengthen it. Nothing, if we truly realise it, is less real than the +grave. We should be no more concerned with the after fate of our +discarded bodies than with that of the hair which the hair-cutter has +cut off. The sooner they are resolved into their primitive elements the +better. The imagination should never be suffered to dwell upon their +decay. + +Bacon has justly noticed that while death is often regarded as the +supreme evil, there is no human passion that does not become so powerful +as to lead men to despise it. It is not in the waning days of life, but +in the full strength of youth, that men, through ambition or the mere +love of excitement, fearlessly and joyously encounter its risk. +Encountered in hot blood it is seldom feared, and innumerable accounts +of shipwrecks and other accidents, and many episodes in every war, show +conclusively how calmly honour, duty, and discipline can enable men of +no extraordinary characters, virtues, or attainments, to meet it even +when it comes before them suddenly, as an inevitable fact, and without +any of that excitement which might blind their eyes. If we analyse our +own feelings on the death of those we love, we shall probably find that, +except in cases where life is prematurely shortened and much promise cut +off, pity for the dead person is rarely a marked element. The feelings +which had long been exclusively concentrated on the sufferings of the +dying man take a new course when the moment of death arrives. It is the +sudden blank; the separation from him who is dear to us; the cessation +of the long reciprocity of love and pleasure,--in a word our own +loss,--that affects us then. 'A happy release' is perhaps the phrase +most frequently heard around a death-bed. And as we look back through +the vista of a few years, and have learned to separate death more +clearly from the illness that preceded it, the sense of its essential +peacefulness and naturalness grows upon us. A vanished life comes to be +looked upon as a day that has past, but leaving many memories behind it. + +It is, I think, a healthy tendency that is leading men in our own +generation to turn away as much as possible from the signs and the +contemplation of death. The pomp and elaboration of funerals; protracted +mournings surrounding us with the gloom of an ostentatious and +artificial sorrow; above all, the long suspension of those active habits +which nature intended to be the chief medicine of grief, are things +which at least in the English-speaking world are manifestly declining. +We should try to think of those who have passed away as they were at +their best, and not in sickness or in decay. True sorrow needs no +ostentation, and the gloom of death no artificial enhancement. Every +good man, knowing the certainty of death and the uncertainty of its +hour, will make it one of his first duties to provide for those he loves +when he has himself passed away, and to do all in his power to make the +period of bereavement as easy as possible. This is the last service he +can render before the ranks are closed, and his place is taken, and the +days of forgetfulness set in. In careers of riot and of vice the thought +of death may have a salutary restraining influence; but in a useful, +busy, well-ordered life it should have little place. It was not the +Stoics alone who 'bestowed too much cost on death, and by their +preparations made it more fearful.'[81] As Spinoza has taught, 'the +proper study of a wise man is not how to die but how to live,' and as +long as he is discharging this task aright he may leave the end to take +care of itself. The great guiding landmarks of a wise life are indeed +few and simple; to do our duty--to avoid useless sorrow--to acquiesce +patiently in the inevitable. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[77] _The Tempest._ + +[78] _Measure for Measure._ + +[79] Garth. + +[80] _History of European Morals_, i. p. 203. The legend is related by +Camden. + +[81] Bacon. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAP OF LIFE*** + + +******* This file should be named 26334.txt or 26334.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/3/3/26334 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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