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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/743-h.zip b/743-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2baf638 --- /dev/null +++ b/743-h.zip diff --git a/743-h/743-h.htm b/743-h/743-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a7a739 --- /dev/null +++ b/743-h/743-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,12941 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Thoughts on Man, by William Godwin + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Thoughts on Man, by William Godwin + +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: Thoughts on Man + His Nature, Productions and Discoveries, Interspersed with + Some Particulars Respecting the Author + +Author: William Godwin + +Release Date: November 30, 2009 [EBook #743] +Last Updated: February 4, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOUGHTS ON MAN *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Keller, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THOUGHTS ON MAN + </h1> + <h3> + HIS NATURE, PRODUCTIONS AND DISCOVERIES INTERSPERSED WITH SOME PARTICULARS + RESPECTING THE AUTHOR + </h3> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By William Godwin + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h4> + Oh, the blood more stirs<br /> To rouse a lion, than to start a hare!<br /> + SHAKESPEARE + </h4> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h5> + LONDON: <br /> EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. <br /> <br /> 1831. + </h5> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + PREFACE + </h2> + <p> + In the ensuing volume I have attempted to give a defined and permanent + form to a variety of thoughts, which have occurred to my mind in the + course of thirty-four years, it being so long since I published a volume, + entitled, the Enquirer,—thoughts, which, if they have presented + themselves to other men, have, at least so far as I am aware, never been + given to the public through the medium of the press. During a part of this + period I had remained to a considerable degree unoccupied in my character + of an author, and had delivered little to the press that bore my name.—And + I beg the reader to believe, that, since I entered in 1791 upon that which + may be considered as my vocation in life, I have scarcely in any instance + contributed a page to any periodical miscellany. + </p> + <p> + My mind has been constitutionally meditative, and I should not have felt + satisfied, if I had not set in order for publication these special fruits + of my meditations. I had entered upon a certain career; and I held it for + my duty not to abandon it. + </p> + <p> + One thing further I feel prompted to say. I have always regarded it as my + office to address myself to plain men, and in clear and unambiguous terms. + It has been my lot to have occasional intercourse with some of those who + consider themselves as profound, who deliver their oracles in obscure + phraseology, and who make it their boast that few men can understand them, + and those few only through a process of abstract reflection, and by means + of unwearied application. + </p> + <p> + To this class of the oracular I certainly did not belong. I felt that I + had nothing to say, that it should be very difficult to understand. I + resolved, if I could help it, not to "darken counsel by words without + knowledge." This was my principle in the Enquiry concerning Political + Justice. And I had my reward. I had a numerous audience of all classes, of + every age, and of either sex. The young and the fair did not feel deterred + from consulting my pages. + </p> + <p> + It may be that that book was published in a propitious season. I am told + that nothing coming from the press will now be welcomed, unless it + presents itself in the express form of amusement. He who shall propose to + himself for his principal end, to draw aside in one particular or another + the veil from the majesty of intellectual or moral truth, must lay his + account in being received with little attention. + </p> + <p> + I have not been willing to believe this: and I publish my speculations + accordingly. I have aimed at a popular, and (if I could reach it) an + interesting style; and, if I am thrust aside and disregarded, I shall + console myself with believing that I have not neglected what it was in my + power to achieve. + </p> + <p> + One characteristic of the present publication will not fail to offer + itself to the most superficial reader. I know many men who are + misanthropes, and profess to look down with disdain on their species. My + creed is of an opposite character. All that we observe that is best and + most excellent in the intellectual world, is man: and it is easy to + perceive in many cases, that the believer in mysteries does little more, + than dress up his deity in the choicest of human attributes and + qualifications. I have lived among, and I feel an ardent interest in and + love for, my brethren of mankind. This sentiment, which I regard with + complacency in my own breast, I would gladly cherish in others. In such a + cause I am well pleased to enrol myself a missionary. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + February 15, 1831. + </p> + <p> + The particulars respecting the author, referred to in the title-page, will + be found principally in Essays VII, IX, XIV, and XVIII. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE </a><br /> <br /> <br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0002"> ESSAY I. </a> OF BODY AND MIND <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> ESSAY II. </a> OF THE DISTRIBUTION + OF TALENTS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> ESSAY III. </a> OF + INTELLECTUAL ABORTION <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> ESSAY IV. + </a> OF THE DURABILITY OF HUMAN ACHIEVEMENTS AND PRODUCTIONS + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> ESSAY V. </a> OF THE + REBELLIOUSNESS OF MAN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> ESSAY VI. + </a> OF HUMAN INNOCENCE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> + ESSAY VII. </a> OF THE DURATION OF HUMAN LIFE <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0013"> ESSAY VIII. </a> OF HUMAN VEGETATION + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> ESSAY IX. </a> OF + LEISURE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> ESSAY X. </a> OF + IMITATION AND INVENTION <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> ESSAY XI. + </a> OF SELF-LOVE AND BENEVOLENCE <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0017"> ESSAY XII. </a> OF THE LIBERTY OF + HUMAN ACTIONS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> ESSAY XIII. </a> OF + BELIEF <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> ESSAY XIV. </a> OF + YOUTH AND AGE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> ESSAY XV. </a> OF + LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> ESSAY XVI. </a> OF + FRANKNESS AND RESERVE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> ESSAY XVII. + </a> OF BALLOT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> ESSAY + XVIII. </a> OF DIFFIDENCE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> + ESSAY XIX. </a> OF SELF-COMPLACENCY <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0025"> ESSAY XX. </a> OF PHRENOLOGY <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> ESSAY XXI. </a> OF ASTRONOMY <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> ESSAY XXII. </a> OF THE MATERIAL + UNIVERSE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> ESSAY XXIII. </a> OF + HUMAN VIRTUE. THE EPILOGUE <br /><br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + THOUGHTS, &c. + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY I. OF BODY AND MIND. + </h2> + <h3> + THE PROLOGUE. + </h3> + <p> + There is no subject that more frequently occupies the attention of the + contemplative than man: yet there are many circumstances concerning him + that we shall hardly admit to have been sufficiently considered. + </p> + <p> + Familiarity breeds contempt. That which we see every day and every hour, + it is difficult for us to regard with admiration. To almost every one of + our stronger emotions novelty is a necessary ingredient. The simple + appetites of our nature may perhaps form an exception. The appetite for + food is perpetually renewed in a healthy subject with scarcely any + diminution and love, even the most refined, being combined with one of our + original impulses, will sometimes for that reason withstand a thousand + trials, and perpetuate itself for years. In all other cases it is + required, that a fresh impulse should be given, that attention should anew + be excited, or we cannot admire. Things often seen pass feebly before our + senses, and scarcely awake the languid soul. + </p> + <p> + "Man is the most excellent and noble creature of the world, the principal + and mighty work of God, the wonder of nature, the marvel of marvels(1)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1) Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 1. +</pre> + <p> + Let us have regard to his corporeal structure. There is a simplicity in + it, that at first perhaps we slightly consider. But how exactly is it + fashioned for strength and agility! It is in no way incumbered. It is like + the marble when it comes out of the hand of the consummate sculptor; every + thing unnecessary is carefully chiseled away; and the joints, the muscles, + the articulations, and the veins come out, clean and finished. It has long + ago been observed, that beauty, as well as virtue, is the middle between + all extremes: that nose which is neither specially long, nor short, nor + thick, nor thin, is the perfect nose; and so of the rest. In like manner, + when I speak of man generally, I do not regard any aberrations of form, + obesity, a thick calf, a thin calf; I take the middle between all + extremes; and this is emphatically man. + </p> + <p> + Man cannot keep pace with a starting horse: but he can persevere, and + beats him in the end. + </p> + <p> + What an infinite variety of works is man by his corporeal form enabled to + accomplish! In this respect he casts the whole creation behind him. + </p> + <p> + What a machine is the human hand! When we analyse its parts and its uses, + it appears to be the most consummate of our members. And yet there are + other parts, that may maintain no mean rivalship against it. + </p> + <p> + What a sublimity is to be attributed to his upright form! He is not + fashioned, veluti pecora, quae natura prona atque ventri obedientia + finxit. He is made coeli convexa tueri. The looks that are given him in + his original structure, are "looks commercing with the skies." + </p> + <p> + How surpassingly beautiful are the features of his countenance; the eyes, + the nose, the mouth! How noble do they appear in a state of repose! With + what never-ending variety and emphasis do they express the emotions of his + mind! In the visage of man, uncorrupted and undebased, we read the + frankness and ingenuousness of his soul, the clearness of his reflections, + the penetration of his spirit. What a volume of understanding is unrolled + in his broad, expanded, lofty brow! In his countenance we see expressed at + one time sedate confidence and awful intrepidity, and at another godlike + condescension and the most melting tenderness. Who can behold the human + eye, suddenly suffused with moisture, or gushing with tears unbid, and the + quivering lip, without unspeakable emotion? Shakespear talks of an eye, + "whose bend could awe the world." + </p> + <p> + What a miraculous thing is the human complexion! We are sent into the + world naked, that all the variations of the blood might be made visible. + However trite, I cannot avoid quoting here the lines of the most + deep-thinking and philosophical of our poets: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + We understood + Her by her sight: her pure and eloquent blood + Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought, + That one might almost say her body thought. +</pre> + <p> + What a curious phenomenon is that of blushing! It is impossible to witness + this phenomenon without interest and sympathy. It comes at once, + unanticipated by the person in whom we behold it. It comes from the soul, + and expresses with equal certainty shame, modesty, and vivid, + uncontrollable affection. It spreads, as it were in so many stages, over + the cheeks, the brow, and the neck, of him or her in whom the sentiment + that gives birth to it is working. + </p> + <p> + Thus far I have not mentioned speech, not perhaps the most inestimable of + human gifts, but, if it is not that, it is at least the endowment, which + makes man social, by which principally we impart our sentiments to each + other, and which changes us from solitary individuals, and bestows on us a + duplicate and multipliable existence. Beside which it incalculably + increases the perfection of one. The man who does not speak, is an + unfledged thinker; and the man that does not write, is but half an + investigator. + </p> + <p> + Not to enter into all the mysteries of articulate speech and the + irresistible power of eloquence, whether addressed to a single hearer, or + instilled into the ears of many,—a topic that belongs perhaps less + to the chapter of body than mind,—let us for a moment fix our + thoughts steadily upon that little implement, the human voice. Of what + unnumbered modulations is it susceptible! What terror may it inspire! How + may it electrify the soul, and suspend all its functions! How infinite is + its melody! How instantly it subdues the hearer to pity or to love! How + does the listener hang upon every note praying that it may last for ever, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ——that even silence + Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might + Deny her nature, and be never more, + Still to be so displaced. +</pre> + <p> + It is here especially that we are presented with the triumphs of + civilisation. How immeasurable is the distance between the voice of the + clown, who never thought of the power that dwells in this faculty, who + delivers himself in a rude, discordant and unmodulated accent, and is + accustomed to confer with his fellow at the distance of two fields, and + the man who understands his instrument as Handel understood the organ, and + who, whether he thinks of it or no, sways those that hear him as + implicitly as Orpheus is said to have subdued the brute creation! + </p> + <p> + From the countenance of man let us proceed to his figure. Every limb is + capable of speaking, and telling its own tale. What can equal the + magnificence of the neck, the column upon which the head reposes! The + ample chest may denote an almost infinite strength and power. Let us call + to mind the Apollo Belvidere, and the Venus de Medicis, whose very "bends + are adornings." What loftiness and awe have I seen expressed in the step + of an actress, not yet deceased, when first she advanced, and came down + towards the audience! I was ravished, and with difficulty kept my seat! + Pass we to the mazes of the dance, the inimitable charms and picturesque + beauty that may be given to the figure while still unmoved, and the + ravishing grace that dwells in it during its endless changes and + evolutions. + </p> + <p> + The upright figure of man produces, incidentally as it were, and by the + bye, another memorable effect. Hence we derive the power of meeting in + halls, and congregations, and crowded assemblies. We are found "at large, + though without number," at solemn commemorations and on festive occasions. + We touch each other, as the members of a gay party are accustomed to do, + when they wait the stroke of an electrical machine, and the spark spreads + along from man to man. It is thus that we have our feelings in common at a + theatrical representation and at a public dinner, that indignation is + communicated, and patriotism become irrepressible. + </p> + <p> + One man can convey his sentiments in articulate speech to a thousand; and + this is the nursing mother of oratory, of public morality, of public + religion, and the drama. The privilege we thus possess, we are indeed too + apt to abuse; but man is scarcely ever so magnificent and so awful, as + when hundreds of human heads are assembled together, hundreds of faces + lifted up to contemplate one object, and hundreds of voices uttered in the + expression of one common sentiment. + </p> + <p> + But, notwithstanding the infinite beauty, the magazine of excellencies and + perfections, that appertains to the human body, the mind claims, and + justly claims, an undoubted superiority. I am not going into an + enumeration of the various faculties and endowments of the mind of man, as + I have done of his body. The latter was necessary for my purpose. Before I + proceeded to consider the ascendancy of mind, the dominion and loftiness + it is accustomed to assert, it appeared but just to recollect what was the + nature and value of its subject and its slave. + </p> + <p> + By the mind we understand that within us which feels and thinks, the seat + of sensation and reason. Where it resides we cannot tell, nor can + authoritatively pronounce, as the apostle says, relatively to a particular + phenomenon, "whether it is in the body, or out of the body." Be it however + where or what it may, it is this which constitutes the great essence of, + and gives value to, our existence; and all the wonders of our microcosm + would without it be a form only, destined immediately to perish, and of no + greater account than as a clod of the valley. + </p> + <p> + It was an important remark, suggested to me many years ago by an eminent + physiologer and anatomist, that, when I find my attention called to any + particular part or member of my body, I may be morally sure that there is + something amiss in the processes of that part or member. As long as the + whole economy of the frame goes on well and without interruption, our + attention is not called to it. The intellectual man is like a disembodied + spirit. + </p> + <p> + He is almost in the state of the dervise in the Arabian Nights, who had + the power of darting his soul into the unanimated body of another, human + or brute, while he left his own body in the condition of an insensible + carcase, till it should be revivified by the same or some other spirit. + When I am, as it is vulgarly understood, in a state of motion, I use my + limbs as the implements of my will. When, in a quiescent state of the + body, I continue to think, to reflect and to reason, I use, it may be, the + substance of the brain as the implement of my thinking, reflecting and + reasoning; though of this in fact we know nothing. + </p> + <p> + We have every reason to believe that the mind cannot subsist without the + body; at least we must be very different creatures from what we are at + present, when that shall take place. For a man to think, agreeably and + with serenity, he must be in some degree of health. The corpus sanum is no + less indispensible than the mens sana. We must eat, and drink, and sleep. + We must have a reasonably good appetite and digestion, and a fitting + temperature, neither too hot nor cold. It is desirable that we should have + air and exercise. But this is instrumental merely. All these things are + negatives, conditions without which we cannot think to the best purpose, + but which lend no active assistance to our thinking. + </p> + <p> + Man is a godlike being. We launch ourselves in conceit into illimitable + space, and take up our rest beyond the fixed stars. We proceed without + impediment from country to country, and from century to century, through + all the ages of the past, and through the vast creation of the imaginable + future. We spurn at the bounds of time and space; nor would the thought be + less futile that imagines to imprison the mind within the limits of the + body, than the attempt of the booby clown who is said within a thick hedge + to have plotted to shut in the flight of an eagle. + </p> + <p> + We never find our attention called to any particular part or member of the + body, except when there is somewhat amiss in that part or member. And, in + like manner as we do not think of any one part or member in particular, so + neither do we consider our entire microcosm and frame. The body is + apprehended as no more important and of intimate connection to a man + engaged in a train of reflections, than the house or apartment in which he + dwells. The mind may aptly be described under the denomination of the + "stranger at home." On set occasions and at appropriate times we examine + our stores, and ascertain the various commodities we have, laid up in our + presses and our coffers. Like the governor of a fort in time of peace, + which was erected to keep out a foreign assailant, we occasionally visit + our armoury, and take account of the muskets, the swords, and other + implements of war it contains, but for the most part are engaged in the + occupations of peace, and do not call the means of warfare in any sort to + our recollection. + </p> + <p> + The mind may aptly be described under the denomination of the "stranger at + home." With their bodies most men are little acquainted. We are "like unto + a man beholding his natural face in a glass, who beholdeth himself, and + goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he is." In + the ruminations of the inner man, and the dissecting our thoughts and + desires, we employ our intellectual arithmetic, we add, and subtract, and + multiply, and divide, without asking the aid, without adverting to the + existence, of our joints and members. Even as to the more corporeal part + of our avocations, we behold the external world, and proceed straight to + the object of our desires, without almost ever thinking of this medium, + our own material frame, unaided by which none of these things could be + accomplished. In this sense we may properly be said to be spiritual + existences, however imperfect may be the idea we are enabled to affix to + the term spirit. + </p> + <p> + Hence arises the notion, which has been entertained ever since the birth + of reflection and logical discourse in the world, and which in some faint + and confused degree exists probably even among savages, that the body is + the prison of the mind. It is in this sense that Waller, after completing + fourscore years of age, expresses himself in these affecting and + interesting couplets. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + When we for age could neither read nor write, + The subject made us able to indite. + The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, + Lets in new light by chinks that time hath made: + Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become, + As they draw near to their eternal home. +</pre> + <p> + Thus it is common with persons of elevated soul to talk of neglecting, + overlooking, and taking small account of the body. It is in this spirit + that the story is recorded of Anaxarchus, who, we are told, was ordered by + Nicocreon, tyrant of Salamis, to be pounded in a mortar, and who, in + contempt of his mortal sufferings, exclaimed, "Beat on, tyrant! thou dost + but strike upon the case of Anaxarchus; thou canst not touch the man + himself." And it is in something of the same light that we must regard + what is related of the North American savages. Beings, who scoff at their + tortures, must have an idea of something that lies beyond the reach of + their assailants. + </p> + <p> + It is just however to observe, that some of the particulars here related, + belong not less to the brute creation than to man. If men are imperfectly + acquainted with their external figure and appearance, this may well be + conceived to be still more predicable of the inferior animals. It is true + that all of them seem to be aware of the part in their structure, where + lie their main strength and means of hostility. Thus the bull attacks with + his horns, and the horse with his heels, the beast of prey with his claws, + the bird with his beak, and insects and other venomous creatures with + their sting. We know not by what impulse they are prompted to the use of + the various means which are so intimately connected with their + preservation and welfare; and we call it instinct. We may be certain it + does not arise from a careful survey of their parts and members, and a + methodised selection of the means which shall be found most effectual for + the accomplishment of their ends. There is no premeditation; and, without + anatomical knowledge, or any distinct acquaintance with their image and + likeness, they proceed straight to their purpose. + </p> + <p> + Hence, even as men, they are more familiar with the figures and appearance + of their fellows, their allies, or their enemies, than with their own. + </p> + <p> + Man is a creature of mingled substance. I am many times a day compelled to + acknowledge what a low, mean and contemptible being I am. Philip of + Macedon had no need to give it in charge to a page, to repair to him every + morning, and repeat, "Remember, sir, you are a man." A variety of + circumstances occur to us, while we eat, and drink, and submit to the + humiliating necessities of nature, that may well inculcate into us this + salutary lesson. The wonder rather is, that man, who has so many things to + put him in mind to be humble and despise himself, should ever have been + susceptible of pride and disdain. Nebuchadnezzar must indeed have been the + most besotted of mortals, if it were necessary that he should be driven + from among men, and made to eat grass like an ox, to convince him that he + was not the equal of the power that made him. + </p> + <p> + But fortunately, as I have said, man is a "stranger at home." Were it not + for this, how incomprehensible would be + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The ceremony that to great ones 'longs, + The monarch's crown, and the deputed sword, + The marshal's truncheon, and the judge's robe! +</pre> + <p> + How ludicrous would be the long procession and the caparisoned horse, the + gilded chariot and the flowing train, the colours flying, the drums + beating, and the sound of trumpets rending the air, which after all only + introduce to us an ordinary man, no otherwise perhaps distinguished from + the vilest of the ragged spectators, than by the accident of his birth! + </p> + <p> + But what is of more importance in the temporary oblivion we are enabled to + throw over the refuse of the body, it is thus we arrive at the majesty of + man. That sublimity of conception which renders the poet, and the man of + great literary and original endowments "in apprehension like a God," we + could not have, if we were not privileged occasionally to cast away the + slough and exuviae of the body from incumbering and dishonouring us, even + as Ulysses passed over his threshold, stripped of the rags that had + obscured him, while Minerva enlarged his frame, and gave loftiness to his + stature, added a youthful beauty and grace to his motions, and caused his + eyes to flash with more than mortal fire. With what disdain, when I have + been rapt in the loftiest moods of mind, do I look down upon my limbs, the + house of clay that contains me, the gross flesh and blood of which my + frame is composed, and wonder at a lodging, poorly fitted to entertain so + divine a guest! + </p> + <p> + A still more important chapter in the history of the human mind has its + origin in these considerations. Hence it is that unenlightened man, in + almost all ages and countries, has been induced, independently of divine + revelation, to regard death, the most awful event to which we are subject, + as not being the termination of his existence. We see the body of our + friend become insensible, and remain without motion, or any external + indication of what we call life. We can shut it up in an apartment, and + visit it from day to day. If we had perseverance enough, and could so far + conquer the repugnance and humiliating feeling with which the experiment + would be attended, we might follow step by step the process of + decomposition and putrefaction, and observe by what degrees the "dust + returned unto earth as it was." But, in spite of this demonstration of the + senses, man still believes that there is something in him that lives after + death. The mind is so infinitely superior in character to this case of + flesh that incloses it, that he cannot persuade himself that it and the + body perish together. + </p> + <p> + There are two considerations, the force of which made man a religious + animal. The first is, his proneness to ascribe hostility or benevolent + intention to every thing of a memorable sort that occurs to him in the + order of nature. The second is that of which I have just treated, the + superior dignity of mind over body. This, we persuade ourselves, shall + subsist uninjured by the mutations of our corporeal frame, and undestroyed + by the wreck of the material universe. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY II. OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS. + </h2> + <h3> + {Greek—omitted} Thucydides, Lib.I, cap. 84. + </h3> + <p> + <a name="link2H_SECT" id="link2H_SECT"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION I. + </h2> + <p> + PRESUMED DEARTH OF INTELLECTUAL POWER.—SCHOOLS FOR THE EDUCATION OF + YOUTH CONSIDERED.—THE BOY AND THE MAN COMPARED. + </p> + <p> + One of the earliest judgments that is usually made by those whose + attention is turned to the characters of men in the social state, is of + the great inequality with which the gifts of the understanding are + distributed among us. + </p> + <p> + Go into a miscellaneous society; sit down at table with ten or twelve men; + repair to a club where as many are assembled in an evening to relax from + the toils of the day—it is almost proverbial, that one or two of + these persons will perhaps be brilliant, and the rest "weary, stale, flat + and unprofitable." + </p> + <p> + Go into a numerous school—the case will be still more striking. I + have been present where two men of superior endowments endeavoured to + enter into a calculation on the subject; and they agreed that there was + not above one boy in a hundred, who would be found to possess a + penetrating understanding, and to be able to strike into a path of + intellect that was truly his own. How common is it to hear the master of + such a school say, "Aye, I am proud of that lad; I have been a + schoolmaster these thirty years, and have never had such another!" + </p> + <p> + The society above referred to, the dinner-party, or the club, was to a + considerable degree select, brought together by a certain supposed + congeniality between the individuals thus assembled. Were they taken + indiscriminately, as boys are when consigned to the care of a + schoolmaster, the proportion of the brilliant would not be a whit greater + than in the latter case. + </p> + <p> + A main criterion of the superiority of the schoolboy will be found in his + mode of answering a casual question proposed by the master. The majority + will be wholly at fault, will shew that they do not understand the + question, and will return an answer altogether from the purpose. One in a + hundred perhaps, perhaps in a still less proportion, will reply in a + laudable manner, and convey his ideas in perspicuous and spirited + language. + </p> + <p> + It does not certainly go altogether so ill, with men grown up to years of + maturity. They do not for the most part answer a plain question in a + manner to make you wonder at their fatuity. + </p> + <p> + A main cause of the disadvantageous appearance exhibited by the ordinary + schoolboy, lies in what we denominate sheepishness. He is at a loss, and + in the first place stares at you, instead of giving an answer. He does not + make by many degrees so poor a figure among his equals, as when he is + addressed by his seniors. + </p> + <p> + One of the reasons of the latter phenomenon consists in the torpedo effect + of what we may call, under the circumstances, the difference of ranks. The + schoolmaster is a despot to his scholar; for every man is a despot, who + delivers his judgment from the single impulse of his own will. The boy + answers his questioner, as Dolon answers Ulysses in the Iliad, at the + point of the sword. It is to a certain degree the same thing, when the boy + is questioned merely by his senior. He fears he knows not what,—a + reprimand, a look of lofty contempt, a gesture of summary disdain. He does + not think it worth his while under these circumstances, to "gird up the + loins of his mind." He cannot return a free and intrepid answer but to the + person whom he regards as his equal. There is nothing that has so + disqualifying an effect upon him who is to answer, as the consideration + that he who questions is universally acknowledged to be a being of a + higher sphere, or, as between the boy and the man, that he is the superior + in conventional and corporal strength. + </p> + <p> + Nor is it simple terror that restrains the boy from answering his senior + with the same freedom and spirit, as he would answer his equal. He does + not think it worth his while to enter the lists. He despairs of doing the + thing in the way that shall gain approbation, and therefore will not try. + He is like a boxer, who, though skilful, will not fight with one hand tied + behind him. He would return you the answer, if it occurred without his + giving himself trouble; but he will not rouse his soul, and task his + strength to give it. He is careless; and prefers trusting to whatever + construction you may put upon him, and whatever treatment you may think + proper to bestow upon him. It is the most difficult thing in the world, + for the schoolmaster to inspire into his pupil the desire to do his best. + </p> + <p> + Among full-grown men the case is different. The schoolboy, whether under + his domestic roof, or in the gymnasium, is in a situation similar to that + of the Christian slaves in Algiers, as described by Cervantes in his + History of the Captive. "They were shut up together in a species of + bagnio, from whence they were brought out from time to time to perform + certain tasks in common: they might also engage in pranks, and get into + scrapes, as they pleased; but the master would hang up one, impale + another, and cut off the ears of a third, for little occasion, or even + wholly without it." Such indeed is the condition of the child almost from + the hour of birth. The severities practised upon him are not so great as + those resorted to by the proprietor of slaves in Algiers; but they are + equally arbitrary and without appeal. He is free to a certain extent, even + as the captives described by Cervantes; but his freedom is upon + sufferance, and is brought to an end at any time at the pleasure of his + seniors. The child therefore feels his way, and ascertains by repeated + experiments how far he may proceed with impunity. He is like the slaves of + the Romans on the days of the Saturnalia. He may do what he pleases, and + command tasks to his masters, but with this difference—the Roman + slave knew when the days of his licence would be over, and comported + himself accordingly; but the child cannot foresee at any moment when the + bell will be struck, and the scene reversed. It is commonly enough + incident to this situation, that the being who is at the mercy of another, + will practise, what Tacitus calls, a "vernacular urbanity," make his bold + jests, and give utterance to his saucy innuendoes, with as much freedom as + the best; but he will do it with a wary eye, not knowing how soon he may + feel his chain plucked! and himself compulsorily reduced into the + established order. His more usual refuge therefore is, to do nothing, and + to wrap himself up in that neutrality towards his seniors, that may best + protect him from their reprimand and their despotism. + </p> + <p> + The condition of the full-grown man is different from that of the child, + and he conducts himself accordingly. He is always to a certain degree + under the control of the political society of which he is a member. He is + also exposed to the chance of personal insult and injury from those who + are stronger than he, or who may render their strength more considerable + by combination and numbers. The political institutions which control him + in certain respects, protect him also to a given degree from the robber + and assassin, or from the man who, were it not for penalties and statutes, + would perpetrate against him all the mischiefs which malignity might + suggest. Civil policy however subjects him to a variety of evils, which + wealth or corruption are accustomed to inflict under the forms of justice; + at the same time that it can never wholly defend him from those violences + to which he would be every moment exposed in what is called the state of + nature. + </p> + <p> + The full-grown man in the mean time is well pleased when he escapes from + the ergastulum where he had previously dwelt, and in which he had + experienced corporal infliction and corporal restraint. At first, in the + newness of his freedom, he breaks out into idle sallies and escapes, and + is like the full-fed steed that manifests his wantonness in a thousand + antics and ruades. But this is a temporary extravagance. He presently + becomes as wise and calculating, as the schoolboy was before him. + </p> + <p> + The human being then, that has attained a certain stature, watches and + poises his situation, and considers what he may do with impunity. He + ventures at first with no small diffidence, and pretends to be twice as + assured as he really is. He accumulates experiment after experiment, till + they amount to a considerable volume. It is not till he has passed + successive lustres, that he attains that firm step, and temperate and + settled accent, which characterise the man complete. He then no longer + doubts, but is ranged on the full level of the ripened members of the + community. + </p> + <p> + There is therefore little room for wonder, if we find the same individual, + whom we once knew a sheepish and irresolute schoolboy, that hung his head, + that replied with inarticulated monotony, and stammered out his meaning, + metamorphosed into a thoroughly manly character, who may take his place on + the bench with senators, and deliver a grave and matured opinion as well + as the best. It appears then that the trial and review of full-grown men + is not altogether so disadvantageous to the reckoning of our common + nature, as that of boys at school. + </p> + <p> + It is not however, that the full-grown man is not liable to be checked, + reprimanded and rebuked, even as the schoolboy is. He has his wife to read + him lectures, and rap his knuckles; he has his master, his landlord, or + the mayor of his village, to tell him of his duty in an imperious style, + and in measured sentences; if he is a member of a legislature, even there + he receives his lessons, and is told, either in phrases of well-conceived + irony, or by the exhibition of facts and reasonings which take him by + surprise, that he is not altogether the person he deemed himself to be. + But he does not mind it. Like Iago in the play, he "knows his price, and, + by the faith of man, that he is worth no worse a place" than that which he + occupies. He finds out the value of the check he receives, and lets it + "pass by him like the idle wind"—a mastery, which the schoolboy, + however he may affect it, never thoroughly attains to. + </p> + <p> + But it unfortunately happens, that, before he has arrived at that degree + of independence, the fate of the individual is too often decided for ever. + How are the majority of men trampled in the mire, made "hewers of wood, + and drawers of water," long, very long, before there was an opportunity of + ascertaining what it was of which they were capable! Thus almost every one + is put in the place which by nature he was least fit for: and, while + perhaps a sufficient quantity of talent is extant in each successive + generation, yet, for want of each man's being duly estimated, and assigned + his appropriate duty, the very reverse may appear to be the case. By the + time that they have attained to that sober self-confidence that might + enable them to assert themselves, they are already chained to a fate, or + thrust down to a condition, from which no internal energies they possess + can ever empower them to escape. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_SECT" id="link2H_SECT_"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION II. + </h2> + <p> + EQUALITY OF MAN WITH MAN.—TALENTS EXTENSIVELY DISTRIBUTED.—WAY + IN WHICH THIS DISTRIBUTION IS COUNTERACTED.—THE APTITUDE OF CHILDREN + FOR DIFFERENT PURSUITS SHOULD BE EARLY SOUGHT OUT.—HINTS FOR A + BETTER SYSTEM OF EDUCATION.—AMBITION AN UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE. + </p> + <p> + The reflections thus put down, may assist us in answering the question as + to the way in which talents are distributed among men by the hand of + nature. + </p> + <p> + All things upon the earth and under the earth, and especially all + organised bodies of the animal or vegetable kingdom, fall into classes. It + is by this means, that the child no sooner learns the terms, man, horse, + tree, flower, than, if an object of any of these kinds which he has never + seen before, is exhibited to him, he pronounces without hesitation, This + is a man, a horse, a tree, a flower. + </p> + <p> + All organised bodies of the animal or vegetable kingdom are cast in a + mould of given dimension and feature belonging to a certain number of + individuals, though distinguished by inexhaustible varieties. It is by + means of those features that the class of each individual is determined. + </p> + <p> + To confine ourselves to man. + </p> + <p> + All men, the monster and the lusus naturae excepted, have a certain form, + a certain complement of limbs, a certain internal structure, and organs of + sense—may we not add further, certain powers of intellect? + </p> + <p> + Hence it seems to follow, that man is more like and more equal to man, + deformities of body and abortions of intellect excepted, than the + disdainful and fastidious censors of our common nature are willing to + admit. + </p> + <p> + I am inclined to believe, that, putting idiots and extraordinary cases out + of the question, every human creature is endowed with talents, which, if + rightly directed, would shew him to be apt, adroit, intelligent and acute, + in the walk for which his organisation especially fitted him. + </p> + <p> + But the practices and modes of civilised life prompt us to take the + inexhaustible varieties of man, as he is given into our guardianship by + the bountiful hand of nature, and train him in one uniform exercise, as + the raw recruit is treated when he is brought under the direction of his + drill-serjeant. + </p> + <p> + The son of the nobleman, of the country-gentleman, and of those parents + who from vanity or whatever other motive are desirous that their offspring + should be devoted to some liberal profession, is in nearly all instances + sent to the grammar-school. It is in this scene principally, that the + judgment is formed that not above one boy in a hundred possesses an acute + understanding, or will be able to strike into a path of intellect that + shall be truly his own. + </p> + <p> + I do not object to this destination, if temperately pursued. It is fit + that as many children as possible should have their chance of figuring in + future life in what are called the higher departments of intellect. A + certain familiar acquaintance with language and the shades of language as + a lesson, will be beneficial to all. The youth who has expended only six + months in acquiring the rudiments of the Latin tongue, will probably be + more or less the better for it in all his future life. + </p> + <p> + But seven years are usually spent at the grammar-school by those who are + sent to it. I do not in many cases object to this. The learned languages + are assuredly of slow acquisition. In the education of those who are + destined to what are called the higher departments of intellect, a long + period may advantageously be spent in the study of words, while the + progress they make in theory and dogmatical knowledge is too generally a + store of learning laid up, to be unlearned again when they reach the + period of real investigation and independent judgment. There is small + danger of this in the acquisition of words. + </p> + <p> + But this method, indiscriminately pursued as it is now, is productive of + the worst consequences. Very soon a judgment may be formed by the + impartial observer, whether the pupil is at home in the study of the + learned languages, and is likely to make an adequate progress. But parents + are not impartial. There are also two reasons why the schoolmaster is not + the proper person to pronounce: first, because, if he pronounces in the + negative, he will have reason to fear that the parent will be offended; + and secondly, because he does not like to lose his scholar. But the very + moment that it can be ascertained, that the pupil is not at home in the + study of the learned languages, and is unlikely to make an adequate + progress, at that moment he should be taken from it. + </p> + <p> + The most palpable deficiency that is to be found in relation to the + education of children, is a sound judgment to be formed as to the vocation + or employment in which each is most fitted to excel. + </p> + <p> + As, according to the institutions of Lycurgus, as soon as a boy was born, + he was visited by the elders of the ward, who were to decide whether he + was to be reared, and would be made an efficient member of the + commonwealth, so it were to be desired that, as early as a clear + discrimination on the subject might be practicable, a competent decision + should be given as to the future occupation and destiny of a child. + </p> + <p> + But this is a question attended with no common degree of difficulty. To + the resolving such a question with sufficient evidence, a very + considerable series of observations would become necessary. The child + should be introduced into a variety of scenes, and a magazine, so to + speak, of those things about which human industry and skill may be + employed, should be successively set before him. The censor who is to + decide on the result of the whole, should be a person of great sagacity, + and capable of pronouncing upon a given amount of the most imperfect and + incidental indications. He should be clear-sighted, and vigilant to + observe the involuntary turns of an eye, expressions of a lip, and + demonstrations of a limb. + </p> + <p> + The declarations of the child himself are often of very small use in the + case. He may be directed by an impulse, which occurs in the morning, and + vanishes in the evening. His preferences change as rapidly as the shapes + we sometimes observe in the evening clouds, and are governed by whim or + fantasy, and not by any of those indications which are parcel of his + individual constitution. He desires in many instances to be devoted to a + particular occupation, because his playfellow has been assigned to it + before him. + </p> + <p> + The parent is not qualified to judge in this fundamental question, because + he is under the dominion of partiality, and wishes that his child may + become a lord chancellor, an archbishop, or any thing else, the possessor + of which condition shall be enabled to make a splendid figure in the + world. He is not qualified, because he is an interested party, and, either + from an exaggerated estimate of his child's merits, or from a selfish + shrinking from the cost it might require to mature them, is anxious to + arrive at a conclusion not founded upon the intrinsic claims of the case + to be considered. + </p> + <p> + Even supposing it to be sufficiently ascertained in what calling it is + that the child will be most beneficially engaged, a thousand extrinsical + circumstances will often prevent that from being the calling chosen. + Nature distributes her gifts without any reference to the distinctions of + artificial society. The genius that demanded the most careful and + assiduous cultivation, that it might hereafter form the boast and ornament + of the world, will be reared amidst the chill blasts of poverty; while he + who was best adapted to make an exemplary carpenter or artisan, by being + the son of a nobleman is thrown a thousand fathoms wide of his true + destination. + </p> + <p> + Human creatures are born into the world with various dispositions. + According to the memorable saying of Themistocles, One man can play upon a + psaltery or harp, and another can by political skill and ingenuity convert + a town of small account, weak and insignificant, into a city noble, + magnificent and great. + </p> + <p> + It is comparatively a very little way that we can penetrate into the + mysteries of nature. + </p> + <p> + Music seems to be one of the faculties most clearly defined in early + youth. The child who has received that destination from the hands of + nature, will even in infancy manifest a singular delight in musical + sounds, and will in no long time imitate snatches of a tune. The present + professor of music in the university of Oxford contrived for himself, I + believe at three years old, a way for playing on an instrument, the piano + forte, unprompted by any of the persons about him. This is called having + an ear. + </p> + <p> + Instances nearly as precocious are related of persons, who afterwards + distinguished themselves in the art of painting. + </p> + <p> + These two kinds of original destination appear to be placed beyond the + reach of controversy. + </p> + <p> + Horace says, The poet is born a poet, and cannot be made so by the + ingenuity of art: and this seems to be true. He sees the objects about him + with an eye peculiarly his own; the sounds that reach his ear, produce an + effect upon him, and leave a memory behind, different from that which is + experienced by his fellows. His perceptions have a singular vividness. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, + Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; + + And his imagination bodies forth + The forms of things unknown, +</pre> + <p> + It is not probable that any trainings of art can give these endowments to + him who has not received them from the gift of nature. + </p> + <p> + The subtle network of the brain, or whatever else it is, that makes a man + more fit for, and more qualified to succeed in, one occupation than + another, can scarcely be followed up and detected either in the living + subject or the dead one. But, as in the infinite variety of human beings + no two faces are so alike that they cannot be distinguished, nor even two + leaves plucked from the same tree(2), so it may reasonably be presumed, + that there are varieties in the senses, the organs, and the internal + structure of the human species, however delicate, and to the touch of the + bystander evanescent, which may give to each individual a predisposition + to rise to a supreme degree of excellence in some certain art or + attainment, over a million of competitors. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (2) Papers between Clarke and Leibnitz, p. 95. +</pre> + <p> + It has been said that all these distinctions and anticipations are idle, + because man is born without innate ideas. Whatever is the incomprehensible + and inexplicable power, which we call nature, to which he is indebted for + his formation, it is groundless to suppose, that that power is cognisant + of, and guides itself in its operations by, the infinite divisibleness of + human pursuits in civilised society. A child is not designed by his + original formation to be a manufacturer of shoes, for he may be born among + a people by whom shoes are not worn, and still less is he destined by his + structure to be a metaphysician, an astronomer, or a lawyer, a + rope-dancer, a fortune-teller, or a juggler. + </p> + <p> + It is true that we cannot suppose nature to be guided in her operations by + the infinite divisibleness of human pursuits in civilised society. But it + is not the less true that one man is by his structure best fitted to excel + in some one in particular of these multifarious pursuits, however + fortuitously his individual structure and that pursuit may be brought into + contact. Thus a certain calmness and steadiness of purpose, much + flexibility, and a very accurate proportion of the various limbs of the + body, are of great advantage in rope-dancing; while lightness of the + fingers, and a readiness to direct our thoughts to the rapid execution of + a purpose, joined with a steadiness of countenance adapted to what is + figuratively called throwing dust in the eyes of the bystander, are of the + utmost importance to the juggler: and so of the rest. + </p> + <p> + It is as much the temper of the individual, as any particular subtlety of + organ or capacity, that prepares him to excel in one pursuit rather than a + thousand others. And he must have been a very inattentive observer of the + indications of temper in an infant in the first months of his existence, + who does not confess that there are various peculiarities in that respect + which the child brings into the world with him. + </p> + <p> + There is excellent sense in the fable of Achilles in the island of Scyros. + He was placed there by his mother in female attire among the daughters of + Lycomedes, that he might not be seduced to engage in the Trojan war. + Ulysses was commissioned to discover him, and, while he exhibited jewels + and various woman's ornaments to the princesses, contrived to mix with his + stores a suit of armour, the sight of which immediately awakened the + spirit of the hero. + </p> + <p> + Every one has probably within him a string more susceptible than the rest, + that demands only a kindred impression to be made, to call forth its + latent character. Like the war-horse described in the Book of Job: "He + paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength; he goeth on to meet + the armed men; he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the + captains, and the shouting." + </p> + <p> + Nothing can be more unlike than the same man to himself, when he is + touched, and not touched, upon + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + the master-string + That makes most harmony or discord to him. +</pre> + <p> + It is like the case of Manlius Torquatus in Livy, who by his father was + banished among his hinds for his clownish demeanour and untractableness to + every species of instruction that was offered him, but who, understanding + that his parent was criminally arraigned for barbarous treatment of him, + first resolutely resorted to the accuser, compelling him upon pain of + death to withdraw his accusation, and subsequently, having surmounted this + first step towards an energetic carriage and demeanour, proved one of the + most illustrious characters that the Roman republic had to boast. + </p> + <p> + Those children whose parents have no intention of training them to the + highest departments of intellect, and have therefore no thought of + bestowing on them a classical education, nevertheless for the most part + send them to a school where they are to be taught arithmetic, and the + principles of English grammar. I should say in this case, as I said before + on the subject of classical education, that a certain initiation in these + departments of knowledge, even if they are pursued a very little way, will + probably be beneficial to all. + </p> + <p> + But it will often be found, in these schools for more ordinary education, + as in the school for classical instruction, that the majority of the + pupils will be seen to be unpromising, and, what is usually called, dull. + The mistake is, that the persons by whom this is perceived, are disposed + to set aside these pupils as blockheads, and unsusceptible of any species + of ingenuity. + </p> + <p> + It is unreasonable that we should draw such a conclusion. + </p> + <p> + In the first place, as has been already observed, it is the most difficult + thing in the world for the schoolmaster to inspire into his pupil the + desire to do his best. An overwhelming majority of lads at school are in + their secret hearts rebels to the discipline under which they are placed. + The instructor draws, one way, and the pupil another. The object of the + latter is to find out how he may escape censure and punishment with the + smallest expence of scholastic application. He looks at the task that is + set him, without the most distant desire of improvement, but with + alienated and averted eye. And, where this is the case, the wonder is not + that he does not make a brilliant figure. It is rather an evidence of the + slavish and subservient spirit incident to the majority of human beings, + that he learns any thing. Certainly the schoolmaster, who judges of the + powers of his pupil's mind by the progress he makes in what he would most + gladly be excused from learning, must be expected perpetually to fall into + the most egregious mistakes. + </p> + <p> + The true test of the capacity of the individual, is where the desire to + succeed, and accomplish something effective, is already awakened in the + youthful mind. Whoever has found out what it is in which he is qualified + to excel, from that moment becomes a new creature. The general torpor and + sleep of the soul, which is incident to the vast multitude of the human + species, is departed from him. We begin, from the hour in which our limbs + are enabled to exert themselves freely, with a puerile love of sport. + Amusement is the order of the day. But no one was ever so fond of play, + that he had not also his serious moments. Every human creature perhaps is + sensible to the stimulus of ambition. He is delighted with the thought + that he also shall be somebody, and not a mere undistinguished pawn, + destined to fill up a square in the chess-board of human society. He + wishes to be thought something of, and to be gazed upon. Nor is it merely + the wish to be admired that excites him: he acts, that he may be satisfied + with himself. Self-respect is a sentiment dear to every heart. The emotion + can with difficulty be done justice to, that a man feels, who is conscious + that he is breathing his true element, that every stroke that he strikes + will have the effect he designs, that he has an object before him, and + every moment approaches nearer to that object. Before, he was wrapped in + an opake cloud, saw nothing distinctly, and struck this way and that at + hazard like a blind man. But now the sun of understanding has risen upon + him; and every step that he takes, he advances with an assured and + undoubting confidence. + </p> + <p> + It is an admirable remark, that the book which we read at the very time + that we feel a desire to read it, affords us ten times the improvement, + that we should have derived from it when it was taken up by us as a task. + It is just so with the man who chooses his occupation, and feels assured + that that about which he is occupied is his true and native field. Compare + this person with the boy that studies the classics, or arithmetic, or any + thing else, with a secret disinclination, and, as Shakespear expresses it, + "creeps like snail, unwillingly, to school." They do not seem as if they + belonged to the same species. + </p> + <p> + The result of these observations certainly strongly tends to support the + proposition laid down early in the present Essay, that, putting idiots and + extraordinary cases out of the question, every human creature is endowed + with talents, which, if rightly directed, would shew him to be apt, + adroit, intelligent and acute, in the walk for which his organisation + especially fitted him. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_SECT" id="link2H_SECT__"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION III. + </h2> + <p> + ENCOURAGING VIEW OF OUR COMMON NATURE.—POWER OF SOUND EXPOSITION + AFFORDED TO ALL.—DOCTRINE OF THIS ESSAY AND THE HYPOTHESIS OF + HELVETIUS COMPARED.—THE WILLING AND UNWILLING PUPIL CONTRASTED.—MISCHIEVOUS + TENDENCY OF THE USUAL MODES OF EDUCATION. + </p> + <p> + What a beautiful and encouraging view is thus afforded us of our common + nature! It is not true, as certain disdainful and fastidious censurers of + their fellow-men would persuade us to believe, that a thousand seeds are + sown in the wide field of humanity, for no other purpose than that + half-a-dozen may grow up into something magnificent and splendid, and that + the rest, though not absolutely extinguished in the outset, are merely + suffered to live that they may furnish manure and nourishment to their + betters. On the contrary, each man, according to this hypothesis, has a + sphere in which he may shine, and may contemplate the exercise of his own + powers with a well-grounded satisfaction. He produces something as perfect + in its kind, as that which is effected under another form by the more + brilliant and illustrious of his species. He stands forward with a serene + confidence in the ranks of his fellow-creatures, and says, "I also have my + place in society, that I fill in a manner with which I have a right to be + satisfied." He vests a certain portion of ingenuity in the work he turns + out. He incorporates his mind with the labour of his hands; and a + competent observer will find character and individuality in it. + </p> + <p> + He has therefore nothing of the sheepishness of the ordinary schoolboy, + the tasks imposed upon whom by his instructor are foreign to the true bent + of his mind, and who stands cowed before his seniors, shrinking under the + judgment they may pass upon him, and the oppression they may exercise + towards him. He is probably competent to talk in a manner that may afford + instruction to men in other respects wise and accomplished, and is no less + clear and well-digested in his discourse respecting the subjects to which + his study and labour have been applied, than they are on the questions + that have exercised the powers of analysis with which they are endowed. + Like Elihu in the Book of Job, he says, "I am young, and you are old; I + said therefore, Days shall speak, and multitude of years shall teach + wisdom. But there is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty + giveth him understanding. Great men are not always wise; neither do the + aged understand judgment. Hearken therefore to me; and I also will shew my + opinion." + </p> + <p> + What however in the last instance is affirmed, is not always realised in + the experiment. The humblest mechanic, who works con amore, and feels that + he discharges his office creditably, has a sober satisfaction in the + retrospect, and is able to express himself perspicuously and well on the + subject that has occupied his industry. He has a just confidence in + himself. If the occasion arises, on which he should speak on the subject + of what he does, and the methods he adopts for effecting it, he will + undoubtedly acquit himself to the satisfaction of those who hear him. He + knows that the explanations he can afford will be sound and masculine, and + will stand the test of a rigid examination. + </p> + <p> + But, in proportion as he feels the ground on which he stands, and his own + power to make it good, he will not fail to retire from an audience that is + not willing to be informed by him. He will often appear in the presence of + those, whom the established arrangements of society call his superiors, + who are more copiously endowed with the treasures of language, and who, + confident perhaps in the advantage of opulence, and what is called, + however they may have received it, a liberal education, regard with + disdain his artless and unornamented explanations. He did not, it may be, + expect this. And, having experienced several times such unmerited + treatment, he is not willing again to encounter it. He knew the worth of + what he had to offer. And, finding others indisposed to listen to his + suggestions, he contentedly confines them within the circle of his own + thoughts. + </p> + <p> + To this it must be added that, though he is able to explain himself + perspicuously, yet he is not master of the graces of speech, nor even + perhaps of the niceties of grammar. His voice is not tuned to those + winning inflections by which men, accustomed to the higher ranks of + society, are enabled so to express themselves, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + That aged ears play truant at their tales, + And younger hearings are quite ravished, + So sweet and voluble is their discourse. +</pre> + <p> + On the contrary there is a ruggedness in his manner that jars upon the + sense. It is easy for the light and supercilious to turn him into + ridicule. And those who will not be satisfied with the soundness of his + matter, expounded, as he is able to expound it, in clear and appropriate + terms, will yield him small credit, and listen to him with little delight. + </p> + <p> + These considerations therefore bring us back again to the reasons of the + prevalent opinion, that the majority of mankind are dull, and of + apprehension narrow and confused. The mass of boys in the process of their + education appear so, because little of what is addressed to them by their + instructors, awakens their curiosity, and inspires them with the desire to + excel. The concealed spark of ambition is not yet cleared from the crust + that enveloped it as it first came from the hand of nature. And in like + manner the elder persons, who have not experienced the advantages of a + liberal education, or by whom small profit was made by those advantages, + being defective in exterior graces, are generally listened to with + impatience, and therefore want the confidence and the inclination to tell + what they know. + </p> + <p> + But these latter, if they are not attended to upon the subjects to which + their attention and ingenuity have been applied, do not the less possess a + knowledge and skill which are intrinsically worthy of applause. They + therefore contentedly shut up the sum of their acquisitions in their own + bosoms, and are satisfied with the consciousness that they have not been + deficient in performing an adequate part in the generation of men among + whom they live. + </p> + <p> + Those persons who favour the opinion of the incessant improveableness of + the human species, have felt strongly prompted to embrace the creed of + Helvetius, who affirms that the minds of men, as they are born into the + world, are in a state of equality, alike prepared for any kind of + discipline and instruction that may be afforded them, and that it depends + upon education only, in the largest sense of that word, including every + impression that may be made upon the mind, intentional or accidental, from + the hour of our birth, whether we shall be poets or philosophers, dancers + or singers, chemists or mathematicians, astronomers or dissectors of the + faculties of our common nature. + </p> + <p> + But this is not true. It has already appeared in the course of this Essay, + that the talent, or, more accurately speaking, the original suitableness + of the individual for the cultivation, of music or painting, depends upon + certain peculiarities that we bring into the world with us. The same thing + may be affirmed of the poet. As, in the infinite variety of human beings, + there are no two faces so alike that they cannot be distinguished, nor + even two leaves plucked from the same tree, so there are varieties in the + senses, the organs, and the internal structure of the human species, + however delicate, and to the touch of the bystander evanescent, which give + to each individual a predisposition to rise to excellence in one + particular art or attainment, rather than in any other. + </p> + <p> + And this view of things, if well considered, is as favourable, nay, more + so, to the hypothesis of the successive improveableness of the human + species, as the creed of Helvetius. According to that philosopher, every + human creature that is born into the world, is capable of becoming, or + being made, the equal of Homer, Bacon or Newton, and as easily and surely + of the one as the other. This creed, if sincerely embraced, no doubt + affords a strong stimulus to both preceptor and pupil, since, if true, it + teaches us that any thing can be made of any thing, and that, wherever + there is mind, it is within the compass of possibility, not only that that + mind can be raised to a high pitch of excellence, but even to a high pitch + of that excellence, whatever it is, that we shall prefer to all others, + and most earnestly desire. + </p> + <p> + Still this creed will, after all, leave both preceptor and pupil in a + state of feeling considerably unsatisfactory. What it sets before us, is + too vast and indefinite. We shall be left long perhaps in a state of + balance as to what species of excellence we shall choose; and, in the + immense field of accessible improvement it offers to us, without land-mark + or compass for the direction of our course, it is scarcely possible that + we should feel that assured confidence and anticipation of success, which + are perhaps indispensibly required to the completion of a truly arduous + undertaking. + </p> + <p> + But, upon the principles laid down in this Essay, the case is widely + different. We are here presented in every individual human creature with a + subject better fitted for one sort of cultivation than another. We are + excited to an earnest study of the individual, that we may the more + unerringly discover what pursuit it is for which his nature and + qualifications especially prepare him. We may be long in choosing. We may + be even on the brink of committing a considerable mistake. Our subsequent + observations may enable us to correct the inference we were disposed to + make from those which went before. Our sagacity is flattered by the result + of the laborious scrutiny which this view of our common nature imposes + upon us. + </p> + <p> + In addition to this we reap two important advantages. + </p> + <p> + In the first place, we feel assured that every child that is born has his + suitable sphere, to which if he is devoted, he will not fail to make an + honourable figure, or, in other words, will be seen to be endowed with + faculties, apt, adroit, intelligent and acute. This consideration may + reasonably stimulate us to call up all our penetration for the purpose of + ascertaining the proper destination of the child for whom we are + interested. + </p> + <p> + And, secondly, having arrived at this point, we shall find ourselves + placed in a very different predicament from the guardian or instructor, + who, having selected at random the pursuit which his fancy dictates, and + in the choice of which he is encouraged by the presumptuous assertions of + a wild metaphysical philosophy, must often, in spite of himself, feel a + secret misgiving as to the final event. He may succeed, and present to a + wondering world a consummate musician, painter, poet, or philosopher; for + even blind chance may sometimes hit the mark, as truly as the most perfect + skill. But he will probably fail. Sudet multum, frustraque laboret. And, + if he is disappointed, he will not only feel that disappointment in the + ultimate result, but also in every step of his progress. When he has done + his best, exerted his utmost industry, and consecrated every power of his + soul to the energies he puts forth, he may close every day, sometimes with + a faint shadow of success, and sometimes with entire and blank + miscarriage. And the latter will happen ten thousand times, for once that + the undertaking shall be blessed with a prosperous event. + </p> + <p> + But, when the destination that is given to a child has been founded upon a + careful investigation of the faculties, tokens, and accidental aspirations + which characterise his early years, it is then that every step that is + made with him, becomes a new and surer source of satisfaction. The moment + the pursuit for which his powers are adapted is seriously proposed to him, + his eyes sparkle, and a second existence, in addition to that which he + received at his birth, descends upon him. He feels that he has now + obtained something worth living for. He feels that he is at home, and in a + sphere that is appropriately his own. Every effort that he makes is + successful. At every resting-place in his race of improvement he pauses, + and looks back on what he has done with complacency. The master cannot + teach him so fast, as he is prompted to acquire. + </p> + <p> + What a contrast does this species of instruction exhibit, to the ordinary + course of scholastic education! There, every lesson that is prescribed, is + a source of indirect warfare between the instructor and the pupil, the one + professing to aim at the advancement of him that is taught, in the career + of knowledge, and the other contemplating the effect that is intended to + be produced upon him with aversion, and longing to be engaged in any thing + else, rather than in that which is pressed upon his foremost attention. In + this sense a numerous school is, to a degree that can scarcely be + adequately described, the slaughter-house of mind. It is like the + undertaking, related by Livy, of Accius Navius, the augur, to cut a + whetstone with a razor—with this difference, that our modern + schoolmasters are not endowed with the gift of working miracles, and, when + the experiment falls into their hands, the result of their efforts is a + pitiful miscarriage. Knowledge is scarcely in any degree imparted. But, as + they are inured to a dogged assiduity, and persist in their unavailing + attempts, though the shell of science, so to speak, is scarcely in the + smallest measure penetrated, yet that inestimable gift of the author of + our being, the sharpness of human faculties, is so blunted and destroyed, + that it can scarcely ever be usefully employed even for those purposes + which it was originally best qualified to effect. + </p> + <p> + A numerous school is that mint from which the worst and most flagrant + libels on our nature are incessantly issued. Hence it is that we are + taught, by a judgment everlastingly repeated, that the majority of our + kind are predestinated blockheads. + </p> + <p> + Not that it is by any means to be recommended, that a little writing and + arithmetic, and even the first rudiments of classical knowledge, so far as + they can be practicably imparted, should be withheld from any. The + mischief is, that we persist, month after month, and year after year, in + sowing our seed, when it has already been fully ascertained, that no + suitable and wholsome crop will ever be produced. + </p> + <p> + But what is perhaps worse is, that we are accustomed to pronounce, that + that soil, which will not produce the crop of which we have attempted to + make it fertile, is fit for nothing. The majority of boys, at the very + period when the buds of intellect begin to unfold themselves, are so + accustomed to be told that they are dull and fit for nothing, that the + most pernicious effects are necessarily produced. They become half + convinced by the ill-boding song of the raven, perpetually croaking in + their ears; and, for the other half, though by no means assured that the + sentence of impotence awarded against them is just, yet, folding up their + powers in inactivity, they are contented partly to waste their energies in + pure idleness and sport, and partly to wait, with minds scarcely half + awake, for the moment when their true destination shall be opened before + them. + </p> + <p> + Not that it is by any means to be desired that the child in his earlier + years should meet with no ruggednesses in his way, and that he should + perpetually tread "the primrose path of dalliance." Clouds and tempests + occasionally clear the atmosphere of intellect, not less than that of the + visible world. The road to the hill of science, and to the promontory of + heroic virtue, is harsh and steep, and from time to time puts to the proof + the energies of him who would ascend their topmost round. + </p> + <p> + There are many things which every human creature should learn, so far as, + agreeably to the constitution of civilised society, they can be brought + within his reach. He should be induced to learn them, willingly if + possible, but, if that cannot be thoroughly effected, yet with half a + will. Such are reading, writing, arithmetic, and the first principles of + grammar; to which shall be added, as far as may be, the rudiments of all + the sciences that are in ordinary use. The latter however should not be + brought forward too soon; and, if wisely delayed, the tyro himself will to + a certain degree enter into the views of his instructor, and be disposed + to essay Quid valeant humeri, quid ferre recusent. But, above all, the + beginnings of those studies should be encouraged, which unfold the + imagination, familiarise us with the feelings, the joys and sufferings of + our fellow-beings, and teach us to put ourselves in their place and + eagerly fly to their assistance. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_SECT" id="link2H_SECT___"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION IV. + </h2> + <p> + HOW FAR OUR GENUINE PROPENSITIES AND VOCATION SHOULD BE FAVOURED.—SELF-REVERENCE + RECOMMENDED.—CONCLUSION. + </p> + <p> + I knew a man of eminent intellectual faculties(3), one of whose favourite + topics of moral prudence was, that it is the greatest mistake in the world + to suppose, that, when we have discovered the special aspiration of the + youthful mind, we are bound to do every thing in our power to assist its + progress. He maintained on the contrary, that it is our true wisdom to + place obstacles in its way, and to thwart it: as we may be well assured + that, unless it is a mere caprice, it will shew its strength in conquering + difficulties, and that all the obstacles that we can conjure up will but + inspire it with the greater earnestness to attain final success. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (3) Henry Fuseli. +</pre> + <p> + The maxim here stated, taken to an unlimited extent, is doubtless a very + dangerous one. There are obstacles that scarcely any strength of man would + be sufficient to conquer. "Chill penury" will sometimes "repress the + noblest rage," that almost ever animated a human spirit: and our wisest + course will probably be, secretly to favour, even when we seem most to + oppose, the genuine bent of the youthful aspirer. + </p> + <p> + But the thing of greatest importance is, that we should not teach him to + estimate his powers at too low a rate. One of the wisest of all the + precepts comprised in what are called the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, is + that, in which he enjoins his pupil to "reverence himself." Ambition is + the noblest root that can be planted in the garden of the human soul: not + the ambition to be applauded and admired, to be famous and looked up to, + to be the darling theme of "stupid starers and of loud huzzas;" but the + ambition to fill a respectable place in the theatre of society, to be + useful and to be esteemed, to feel that we have not lived in vain, and + that we are entitled to the most honourable of all dismissions, an + enlightened self-approbation. And nothing can more powerfully tend to + place this beyond our acquisition, even our contemplation, than the + perpetual and hourly rebuffs which ingenuous youth is so often doomed to + sustain from the supercilious pedant, and the rigid decision of his + unfeeling elders. + </p> + <p> + Self-respect to be nourished in the mind of the pupil, is one of the most + valuable results of a well conducted education. To accomplish this, it is + most necessary that it should never be inculcated into him, that he is + dull. Upon the principles of this Essay, any unfavourable appearances that + may present themselves, do not arise from the dulness of the pupil, but + from the error of those upon whose superintendence he is cast, who require + of him the things for which he is not adapted, and neglect those in which + he is qualified to excel. + </p> + <p> + It is further necessary, if self-respect is one of the most desirable + results of a well-conducted education, that, as we should not humble the + pupil in his own eyes by disgraceful and humiliating language, so we + should abstain, as much as possible, from personal ill-treatment, and the + employing towards him the measures of an owner towards his purchased or + indentured slave. Indignity is of all things the most hostile to the best + purposes of a liberal education. It may be necessary occasionally to + employ, towards a human creature in his years of nonage, the stimulants of + exhortation and remonstrance even in the pursuits to which he is best + adapted, for the purpose of overcoming the instability and fits of + idleness to which all men, and most of all in their early years, are + subject: though in such pursuits a necessity of this sort can scarcely be + supposed. The bow must not always be bent; and it is good for us that we + should occasionally relax and play the fool. It may more readily be + imagined, that some incitement may be called for in those things which, as + has been mentioned above, it may be fit he should learn though with but + half a will. All freaks must not be indulged; admonition is salutary, and + that the pupil should be awakened by his instructor to sober reflection + and to masculine exertion. Every Telemachus should have his Mentor.—But + through the whole it is necessary that the spirit of the pupil should not + be broken, and that he should not be treated with contumely. Stripes + should in all instances be regarded as the last resort, and as a sort of + problem set up for the wisdom of the wise to solve, whether the urgent + case can arise in which it shall be requisite to have recourse to them. + </p> + <p> + The principles here laid down have the strongest tendency to prove to us + how little progress has yet been made in the art of turning human + creatures to the best account. Every man has his place, in which if he can + be fixed, the most fastidious judge cannot look upon him with disdain. + But, to effect this arrangement, an exact attention is required to + ascertain the pursuit in which he will best succeed. In India the whole + mass of the members of the community is divided into castes; and, instead + of a scrupulous attention being paid to the early intimations of + individual character, it is already decided upon each, before he comes + into the world, which child shall be a priest, and which a soldier, a + physician, a lawyer, a merchant, and an artisan. In Europe we do not carry + this so far, and are not so elaborately wrong. But the rudiments of the + same folly flourish among us; and the accident of birth for the most part + decides the method of life to which each individual with whatever violence + shall be dedicated. A very few only, by means of energies that no tyranny + can subdue, escape from the operation of this murderous decree. + </p> + <p> + Nature never made a dunce. Imbecility of mind is as rare, as deformity of + the animal frame. If this position be true, we have only to bear it in + mind, feelingly to convince ourselves, how wholesale the error is into + which society has hitherto fallen in the destination of its members, and + how much yet remains to be done, before our common nature can be + vindicated from the basest of all libels, the most murderous of all + proscriptions. + </p> + <p> + There is a passage in Voltaire, in which he expresses himself to this + effect: "It is after all but a slight line of separation that divides the + man of genius from the man of ordinary mould." I remember the place where, + and the time when, I read this passage. But I have been unable to find the + expression. It is however but reasonable that I should refer to it on this + occasion, that I may hereby shew so eminent a modern concurring with the + venerable ancient in an early era of letters, whose dictum I have prefixed + to this Essay, to vouch to a certain extent for the truth of the doctrine + I have delivered. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY III. OF INTELLECTUAL ABORTION. + </h2> + <p> + In the preceding Essay I have endeavoured to establish the proposition, + that every human creature, idiots and extraordinary cases excepted, is + endowed with talents, which, if rightly directed, would shew him to be + apt, adroit, intelligent and acute, in the walk for which his organisation + especially fitted him. + </p> + <p> + There is however a sort of phenomenon, by no means of rare occurrence, + which tends to place the human species under a less favourable point of + view. Many men, as has already appeared, are forced into situations and + pursuits ill assorted to their talents, and by that means are exhibited to + their contemporaries in a light both despicable and ludicrous. + </p> + <p> + But this is not all. Men are not only placed, by the absurd choice of + their parents, or an imperious concurrence of circumstances, in + destinations and employments in which they can never appear to advantage: + they frequently, without any external compulsion, select for themselves + objects of their industry, glaringly unadapted to their powers, and in + which all their efforts must necessarily terminate in miscarriage. + </p> + <p> + I remember a young man, who had been bred a hair-dresser, but who + experienced, as he believed, the secret visitations of the Muse, and + became inspired. "With sad civility, and aching head," I perused no fewer + than six comedies from the pen of this aspiring genius, in no page of + which I could discern any glimmering of poetry or wit, or in reality could + form a guess what it was that the writer intended in his elaborate + effusions. Such are the persons enumerated by Pope in the Prologue to his + Satires, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + a parson, much bemused in beer, + A maudlin poetess, a rhyming peer, + A clerk, foredoomed his father's sou to cross, + Who pens a stanza, when he should engross. +</pre> + <p> + Every manager of a theatre, and every publishing bookseller of eminence, + can produce you in each revolving season whole reams, almost cartloads, of + blurred paper, testifying the frequent recurrence of this phenomenon. + </p> + <p> + The cause however of this painful mistake does not lie in the + circumstance, that each man has not from the hand of nature an appropriate + destination, a sphere assigned him, in which, if life should be prolonged + to him, he might be secure of the respect of his neighbours, and might + write upon his tomb, "I have filled an honourable career; I have finished + my course." + </p> + <p> + One of the most glaring infirmities of our nature is discontent. One of + the most unquestionable characteristics of the human mind is the love of + novelty. Omne ignotum pro magnifico est. We are satiated with those + objects which make a part of our business in every day, and are desirous + of trying something that is a stranger to us. Whatever we see through a + mist, or in the twilight, is apt to be apprehended by us as something + admirable, for the single reason that it is seen imperfectly. What we are + sure that we can easily and adequately effect, we despise. He that goes + into battle with an adversary of more powerful muscle or of greater + practice than himself, feels a tingling sensation, not unallied to + delight, very different from that which would occur to him, when his + victory was easy and secure. + </p> + <p> + Each man is conscious what it is that he can certainly effect. This does + not therefore present itself to him as an object of ambition. We have many + of us internally something of the spirit expressed by the apostle: + "Forgetting the things that are behind, we press forward to those that + remain." And, so long as this precept is soberly applied, no conduct can + be more worthy of praise. Improvement is the appropriate race of man. We + cannot stand still. If we do not go forward, we shall inevitably recede. + Shakespear, when he wrote his Hamlet, did not know that he could produce + Macbeth and Othello. + </p> + <p> + But the progress of a man of reflection will be, to a considerable degree, + in the path he has already entered. If he strikes into a new career, it + will not be without deep premeditation. He will attempt nothing wantonly. + He will carefully examine his powers, and see for what they are adapted. + Sudet multum. He will be like the man, who first in a frail bark committed + himself to the treachery of the waves. He will keep near to the shore; he + will tremble for the audaciousness of his enterprise; he will feel that it + calls for all his alertness and vigilance. The man of reflection will not + begin, till he feels his mind swelling with his purposed theme, till his + blood flows fitfully and with full pulses through his veins, till his eyes + sparkle with the intenseness of his conceptions, and his "bosom labours + with the God." + </p> + <p> + But the fool dashes in at once. He does not calculate the dangers of his + enterprise. He does not study the map of the country he has to traverse. + He does not measure the bias of the ground, the rising knolls and the + descending slopes that are before him. He obeys a blind and unreflecting + impulse. + </p> + <p> + His case bears a striking resemblance to what is related of Oliver + Goldsmith. Goldsmith was a man of the most felicitous endowments. His + prose flows with such ease, copiousness and grace, that it resembles the + song of the sirens. His verses are among the most spirited, natural and + unaffected in the English language. Yet he was not contented. If he saw a + consummate dancer, he knew no reason why he should not do as well, and + immediately felt disposed to essay his powers. If he heard an accomplished + musician, he undertook to enter the lists with him. His conduct was of a + piece with that of the countryman, who, cheapening spectacles, and making + experiment of them for ever in vain upon the book before him, was at + length asked, "Could you ever read without spectacles?" to which he was + obliged to answer, "I do not know; I never tried." The vanity of Goldsmith + was infinite; and his failure in such attempts must necessarily have been + ludicrous. + </p> + <p> + The splendour of the thing presented to our observation, awakens the + spirit within us. The applause and admiration excited by certain + achievements and accomplishments infects us with desire. We are like the + youthful Themistocles, who complained that the trophies of Miltiades would + not let him sleep. We are like the novice Guido, who, while looking on the + paintings of Michael Angelo, exclaimed, "I also am a painter." + Themistocles and Guido were right, for they were of kindred spirit to the + great men they admired. But the applause bestowed on others will often + generate uneasiness and a sigh, in men least of all qualified by nature to + acquire similar applause. We are not contented to proceed in the path of + obscure usefulness and worth. We are eager to be admired, and thus often + engage in pursuits for which perhaps we are of all men least adapted Each + one would be the man above him. + </p> + <p> + And this is the cause why we see so many individuals, who might have + passed their lives with honour, devote themselves to incredible efforts, + only that they may be made supremely ridiculous. + </p> + <p> + To this let it be added, that the wisest man that ever existed, never yet + knew himself, especially in the morning of life. The person, who + ultimately stamped his history with the most heroic achievements, was far + perhaps even from suspecting, in the dawn of his existence, that he should + realise the miracles that mark its maturity. He might be ready to exclaim, + with Hazael in the Scriptures, "Is thy servant more than man, that he + should do this great thing?" The sublimest poet that ever sung, was + peradventure, while a stripling, unconscious of the treasures which formed + a part of the fabric of his mind, and unsuspicious of the high destiny + that in the sequel awaited him. What wonder then, that, awaking from the + insensibility and torpor which precede the activity of the soul, some men + should believe in a fortune that shall never be theirs, and anticipate a + glory they are fated never to sustain! And for the same reason, when + unanticipated failure becomes their lot, they are unwilling at first to be + discouraged, and find a certain gallantry in persevering, and "against + hope believing in hope." + </p> + <p> + This is the explanation of a countless multitude of failures that occur in + the career of literature. Nor is this phenomenon confined to literature. + In all the various paths of human existence, that appear to have something + in them splendid and alluring, there are perpetual instances of daring + adventures, unattended with the smallest rational hope of success. Optat + ephippia bos piger. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies. +</pre> + <p> + But, beside these instances of perfect and glaring miscarriage, there are + examples worthy of a deeper regret, where the juvenile candidate sets out + in the morning of life with the highest promise, with colours flying, and + the spirit-stirring note of gallant preparation, when yet his voyage of + life is destined to terminate in total discomfiture. I have seen such an + one, whose early instructors regarded him with the most sanguine + expectation, and his elders admired him, while his youthful competitors + unreluctantly confessed his superiority, and gave way on either side to + his triumphant career; and all this has terminated in nothing. + </p> + <p> + In reality the splendid march of genius is beset with a thousand + difficulties. "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the + strong." A multitude of unthought-of qualifications are required; and it + depends at least as much upon the nicely maintained balance of these, as + upon the copiousness and brilliancy of each, whether the result shall be + auspicious. The progress of genius is like the flight of an arrow; a + breath may turn it out of its course, and cause that course to terminate + many a degree wide of its purposed mark. It is therefore scarcely possible + that any sharpness of foresight can pronounce of the noblest beginnings + whether they shall reach to an adequate conclusion. + </p> + <p> + I have seen such a man, with the most fervent imagination, with the most + diligent study, with the happiest powers of memory, and with an + understanding that apparently took in every thing, and arranged every + thing, at the same time that by its acuteness it seemed able to add to the + accumulated stores of foregone wisdom and learning new treasures of its + own; and yet this man shall pass through the successive stages of human + life, in appearance for ever active, for ever at work, and leave nothing + behind that shall embalm his name to posterity, certainly nothing in any + degree adequately representing those excellencies, which a chosen few, + admitted to his retired and his serenest hours, knew to reside in him. + </p> + <p> + There are conceptions of the mind, that come forth like the coruscations + of lightning. If you could fix that flash, it would seem as if it would + give new brightness to the sons of men, and almost extinguish the luminary + of day. But, ere you can say it is here, it is gone. It appears to reveal + to us the secrets of the world unknown; but the clouds congregate again, + and shut in upon us, before we had time to apprehend its full radiance and + splendour. + </p> + <p> + To give solidity and permanence to the inspirations of genius two things + are especially necessary. First, that the idea to be communicated should + be powerfully apprehended by the speaker or writer; and next, that he + should employ words and phrases which might convey it in all its truth to + the mind of another. The man who entertains such conceptions, will not + unfrequently want the steadiness of nerve which is required for their + adequate transmission. Suitable words will not always wait upon his + thoughts. Language is in reality a vast labyrinth, a scene like the + Hercinian Forest of old, which, we are told, could not be traversed in + less than sixty days. If we do not possess the clue, we shall infallibly + perish in the attempt, and our thoughts and our memory will expire with + us. + </p> + <p> + The sentences of this man, when he speaks, or when he writes, will be full + of perplexity and confusion. They will be endless, and never arrive at + their proper termination. They will include parenthesis on parenthesis. We + perceive the person who delivers them, to be perpetually labouring after a + meaning, but never reaching it. He is like one flung over into the sea, + unprovided with the skill that should enable him to contend with the + tumultuous element. He flounders about in pitiable helplessness, without + the chance of extricating himself by all his efforts. He is lost in + unintelligible embarrassment. It is a delightful and a ravishing sight, to + observe another man come after him, and tell, without complexity, and in + the simplicity of self-possession, unconscious that there was any + difficulty, all that his predecessor had fruitlessly exerted himself to + unfold. + </p> + <p> + There are a multitude of causes that will produce a miscarriage of this + sort, where the richest soil, impregnated with the choicest seeds of + learning and observation, shall entirely fail to present us with such a + crop as might rationally have been anticipated. Many such men waste their + lives in indolence and irresolution. They attempt many things, sketch out + plans, which, if properly filled up, might illustrate the literature of a + nation, and extend the empire of the human mind, but which yet they desert + as soon as begun, affording us the promise of a beautiful day, that, ere + it is noon, is enveloped in darkest tempests and the clouds of midnight. + They skim away from one flower in the parterre of literature to another, + like the bee, without, like the bee, gathering sweetness from each, to + increase the public stock, and enrich the magazine of thought. The cause + of this phenomenon is an unsteadiness, ever seduced by the newness of + appearances, and never settling with firmness and determination upon what + had been chosen. + </p> + <p> + Others there are that are turned aside from the career they might have + accomplished, by a visionary and impracticable fastidiousness. They can + find nothing that possesses all the requisites that should fix their + choice, nothing so good that should authorise them to present it to public + observation, and enable them to offer it to their contemporaries as + something that we should "not willingly let die." They begin often; but + nothing they produce appears to them such as that they should say of it, + "Let this stand." Or they never begin, none of their thoughts being judged + by them to be altogether such as to merit the being preserved. They have a + microscopic eye, and discern faults unworthy to be tolerated, in that in + which the critic himself might perceive nothing but beauty. + </p> + <p> + These phenomena have introduced a maxim which is current with many, that + the men who write nothing, and bequeath no record of themselves to + posterity, are not unfrequently of larger calibre, and more gigantic + standard of soul, than such as have inscribed their names upon the columns + of the temple of Fame. And certain it is, that there are extraordinary + instances which appear in some degree to countenance this assertion. Many + men are remembered as authors, who seem to have owed the permanence of + their reputation rather to fortune than merit. They were daring, and + stepped into a niche that was left in the gallery of art or of science, + where others of higher qualifications, but of unconquerable modesty, held + back. At the same time persons, whose destiny caused them to live among + the elite of an age, have seen reason to confess that they have heard such + talk, such glorious and unpremeditated discourse, from men whose thoughts + melted away with the breath that uttered them, as the wisest of their + vaunted contemporary authors would in vain have sought to rival. + </p> + <p> + The maxim however, notwithstanding these appearances, may safely be + pronounced to be a fallacious one. It has been received in various + quarters with the greater indulgence, inasmuch as the human mind is prone + in many cases to give a more welcome reception to seeming truths, that + present us at the first blush the appearance of falshood. + </p> + <p> + It must however be recollected that the human mind consists in the first + instance merely of faculties prepared to be applied to certain purposes, + and susceptible of improvement. It cannot therefore happen, that the man, + who has chosen a subject towards which to direct the energy of his + faculties, who has sought on all sides for the materials that should + enable him to do that subject justice, who has employed upon it his + contemplations by day, and his meditations during the watches of the + night, should not by such exercise greatly invigorate his powers. In this + sense there was much truth in the observation of the author who said, "I + did not write upon the subject you mention because I understood it; but I + understood it afterward, because I had written upon it." + </p> + <p> + The man who merely wanders through the fields of knowledge in search of + its gayest flowers and of whatever will afford him the most enviable + amusement, will necessarily return home at night with a very slender + collection. He that shall apply himself with self-denial and an + unshrinking resolution to the improvement of his mind, will unquestionably + be found more fortunate in the end. + </p> + <p> + He is not deterred by the gulphs that yawn beneath his feet, or the + mountains that may oppose themselves to his progress. He knows that the + adventurer of timid mind, and that is infirm of purpose, will never make + himself master of those points which it would be most honourable to him to + subdue. But he who undertakes to commit to writing the result of his + researches, and to communicate his discoveries to mankind, is the genuine + hero. Till he enters on this task, every thing is laid up in his memory in + a certain confusion. He thinks he possesses a thing whole; but, when he + brings it to the test, he is surprised to find how much he was deceived. + He that would digest his thoughts and his principles into a regular + system, is compelled in the first place to regard them in all their + clearness and perspicuity, and in the next place to select the fittest + words by which they may be communicated to others. It is through the + instrumentality of words that we are taught to think accurately and + severely for ourselves; they are part and parcel of all our propositions + and theories. It is therefore in this way that a preceptor, by undertaking + to enlighten the mind of his pupil, enlightens his own. He becomes twice + the man in the sequel, that he was when he entered on his task. We admire + the amateur student in his public essays, as we admire a jackdaw or a + parrot: he does considerably more than could have been expected from him. + </p> + <p> + In attending to the subject of this Essay we have been led to observe the + different ways, in which the mind of man may be brought into a position + tending to exhibit its powers in a less creditable and prepossessing point + of view, than that in which all men, idiots and extraordinary cases + excepted, are by nature qualified to appear. Many, not contented with + those occupations, modest and humble in certain cases, to which their + endowments and original bent had designed them, shew themselves + immoderately set upon more alluring and splendid pursuits in which they + are least qualified to excel. Other instances there are, still more + entitled to our regret, where the individual is seen to be gifted with no + ordinary qualities, where his morning of life has proved auspicious, and + the highest expectations were formed of a triumphant career, while yet in + the final experiment he has been found wanting, and the "voyage of his + life" has passed "in shallows and in miseries." + </p> + <p> + But our survey of the subject of which I treat will not be complete, + unless we add to what has been said, another striking truth respecting the + imperfection of man collectively taken. The examples of which the history + of our species consists, not only abound in cases, where, from mistakes in + the choice of life, or radical and irremediable imperfection in the + adventurer, the most glaring miscarriages are found to result,—but + it is also true, that all men, even the most illustrious, have some fatal + weakness, obliging both them and their rational admirers to confess, that + they partake of human frailty, and belong to a race of beings which has + small occasion to be proud. Each man has his assailable part. He is + vulnerable, though it be only like the fabled Achilles in his heel. We are + like the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, of which though the + head was of fine gold, and the breast and the arms were silver, yet the + feet were partly only of iron, and partly of clay. No man is whole and + entire, armed at all points, and qualified for every undertaking, or even + for any one undertaking, so as to carry it through, and to make the + achievement he would perform, or the work he would produce, in all its + parts equal and complete. + </p> + <p> + It is a gross misapprehension in such men as, smitten with admiration of a + certain cluster of excellencies, or series of heroic acts, are willing to + predicate of the individual to whom they belong, "This man is consummate, + and without alloy." Take the person in his retirement, in his hours of + relaxation, when he has no longer a part to play, and one or more + spectators before whom he is desirous to appear to advantage, and you + shall find him a very ordinary man. He has "passions, dimensions, senses, + affections, like the rest of his fellow-creatures, is fed with the same + food, hurt with the same weapons, warmed and cooled by the same summer and + winter." He will therefore, when narrowly observed, be unquestionably + found betraying human weaknesses, and falling into fits of ill humour, + spleen, peevishness and folly. No man is always a sage; no bosom at all + times beats with sentiments lofty, self-denying and heroic. It is enough + if he does so, "when the matter fits his mighty mind." + </p> + <p> + The literary genius, who undertakes to produce some consummate work, will + find himself pitiably in error, if he expects to turn it out of his hands, + entire in all its parts, and without a flaw. + </p> + <p> + There are some of the essentials of which it is constituted, that he has + mastered, and is sufficiently familiar with them; but there are others, + especially if his work is miscellaneous and comprehensive, to which he is + glaringly incompetent. He must deny his nature, and become another man, if + he would execute these parts, in a manner equal to that which their + intrinsic value demands, or to the perfection he is able to give to his + work in those places which are best suited to his powers. There are points + in which the wisest man that ever existed is no stronger than a child. In + this sense the sublimest genius will be found infelix operas summa, nam + ponere totum nescit. And, if he properly knows himself, and is aware where + lies his strength, and where his weakness, he will look for nothing more + in the particulars which fall under the last of these heads, than to + escape as he can, and to pass speedily to things in which he finds himself + at home and at his ease. + </p> + <p> + Shakespear we are accustomed to call the most universal genius that ever + existed. He has a truly wonderful variety. It is almost impossible to + pronounce in which he has done best, his Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, or + Othello. He is equally excellent in his comic vein as his tragic. Falstaff + is in his degree to the full as admirable and astonishing, as what he + achieved that is noblest under the auspices of the graver muse. His poetry + and the fruits of his imagination are unrivalled. His language, in all + that comes from him when his genius is most alive, has a richness, an + unction, and all those signs of a character which admits not of mortality + and decay, for ever fresh as when it was first uttered, which we + recognise, while we can hardly persuade ourselves that we are not in a + delusion. As Anthony Wood says(4), "By the writings of Shakespear and + others of his time, the English tongue was exceedingly enriched, and made + quite another thing than what it was before." His versification on these + occasions has a melody, a ripeness and variety that no other pen has + reached. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (4) Athenae Oxonienses, vol. i. p. 592. +</pre> + <p> + Yet there were things that Shakespear could not do. He could not make a + hero. Familiar as he was with the evanescent touches of mind en + dishabille, and in its innermost feelings, he could not sustain the tone + of a character, penetrated with a divine enthusiasm, or fervently devoted + to a generous cause, though this is truly within the compass of our + nature, and is more than any other worthy to be delineated. He could + conceive such sentiments, for there are such in his personage of Brutus; + but he could not fill out and perfect what he has thus sketched. He seems + even to have had a propensity to bring the mountain and the hill to a + level with the plain. Caesar is spiritless, and Cicero is ridiculous, in + his hands. He appears to have written his Troilus and Cressida partly with + a view to degrade, and hold up to contempt, the heroes of Homer; and he + has even disfigured the pure, heroic affection which the Greek poet has + painted as existing between Achilles and Patroclus with the most odious + imputations. + </p> + <p> + And, as he could not sustain an heroic character throughout, so neither + could he construct a perfect plot, in which the interest should be + perpetually increasing, and the curiosity of the spectator kept alive and + in suspense to the last moment. Several of his plays have an unity of + subject to which nothing is wanting; but he has not left us any production + that should rival that boast of Ancient Greece in the conduct of a plot, + the OEdipus Tyrannus, a piece in which each act rises upon the act before, + like a tower that lifts its head story above story to the skies. He has + scarcely ever given to any of his plays a fifth act, worthy of those that + preceded; the interest generally decreases after the third. + </p> + <p> + Shakespear is also liable to the charge of obscurity. The most sagacious + critics dispute to this very hour, whether Hamlet is or is not mad, and + whether Falstaff is a brave man or a coward. This defect is perhaps partly + to be imputed to the nature of dramatic writing. It is next to impossible + to make words, put into the mouth of a character, develop all those things + passing in his mind, which it may be desirable should be known. + </p> + <p> + I spoke, a short time back, of the language of Shakespear in his finest + passages, as of unrivalled excellence and beauty; I might almost have + called it miraculous. O, si sic omnia! It is to be lamented that this + felicity often deserts him. He is not seldom cramp, rigid and pedantic. + What is best in him is eternal, of all ages and times; but what is worst, + is crusted with an integument, almost more cumbrous than that of any other + writer, his contemporary, the merits of whose works continue to invite us + to their perusal. + </p> + <p> + After Shakespear, it is scarcely worth while to bring forward any other + example, of a writer who, notwithstanding his undoubted claims to + excellencies of the highest order, yet in his productions fully displays + the inequality and non-universality of his genius. One of the most + remarkable instances may be alleged in Richardson, the author of Clarissa. + In his delineation of female delicacy, of high-souled and generous + sentiments, of the subtlest feelings and even mental aberrations of + virtuous distress strained beyond the power of human endurance, nothing + ever equalled this author. But he could not shape out the image of a + perfect gentleman, or of that winning gaiety of soul, which may indeed be + exemplified, but can never be defined, and never be resisted. His + profligate is a man without taste; and his coquettes are insolent and + profoundly revolting. He has no resemblance of the art, so conspicuous in + Fletcher and Farquhar, of presenting to the reader or spectator an + hilarity, bubbling and spreading forth from a perennial spring, which we + love as surely as we feel, which communicates its own tone to the + bystander, and makes our very hearts dance within us with a responsive + sportiveness. We are astonished however that the formal pedant has + acquitted himself of his uncongenial task with so great a display of + intellectual wealth; and, though he has not presented to us the genuine + picture of an intellectual profligate, or of that lovely gaiety of the + female spirit which we have all of us seen, but which it is scarcely + possible to fix and to copy, we almost admire the more the astonishing + talent, that, having undertaken a task for which it was so eminently + unfit, yet has been able to substitute for the substance so amazing a + mockery, and has treated with so much copiousness and power what it was + unfit ever to have attempted. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY IV. OF THE DURABILITY OF HUMAN ACHIEVEMENTS AND PRODUCTIONS. + </h2> + <p> + There is a view of the character of man, calculated more perhaps than any + other to impress us with reverence and awe. + </p> + <p> + Man is the only creature we know, that, when the term of his natural life + is ended, leaves the memory of himself behind him. + </p> + <p> + All other animals have but one object in view in their more considerable + actions, the supply of the humbler accommodations of their nature. Man has + a power sufficient for the accomplishment of this object, and a residue of + power beyond, which he is able, and which he not unfrequently feels + himself prompted, to employ in consecutive efforts, and thus, first by the + application and arrangement of material substances, and afterward by the + faculty he is found to possess of giving a permanent record to his + thoughts, to realise the archetypes and conceptions which previously + existed only in his mind. + </p> + <p> + One method, calculated to place this fact strongly before us, is, to + suppose ourselves elevated, in a balloon or otherwise, so as to enable us + to take an extensive prospect of the earth on which we dwell. We shall + then see the plains and the everlasting hills, the forests and the rivers, + and all the exuberance of production which nature brings forth for the + supply of her living progeny. We shall see multitudes of animals, herds of + cattle and of beasts of prey, and all the varieties of the winged tenants + of the air. But we shall also behold, in a manner almost equally + calculated to arrest our attention, the traces and the monuments of human + industry. We shall see castles and churches, and hamlets and mighty + cities. We shall see this strange creature, man, subjecting all nature to + his will. He builds bridges, and he constructs aqueducts. He "goes down to + the sea in ships," and variegates the ocean with his squadrons and his + fleets. To the person thus mounted in the air to take a wide and + magnificent prospect, there seems to be a sort of contest between the face + of the earth, as it may be supposed to have been at first, and the + ingenuity of man, which shall occupy and possess itself of the greatest + number of acres. We cover immense regions of the globe with the tokens of + human cultivation. + </p> + <p> + Thus the matter stands as to the exertions of the power of man in the + application and arrangement of material substances. + </p> + <p> + But there is something to a profound and contemplative mind much more + extraordinary, in the effects produced by the faculty we possess of giving + a permanent record to our thoughts. + </p> + <p> + From the development of this faculty all human science and literature take + their commencement. Here it is that we most distinctly, and with the + greatest astonishment, perceive that man is a miracle. Declaimers are + perpetually expatiating to us upon the shortness of human life. And yet + all this is performed by us, when the wants of our nature have already by + our industry been supplied. We manufacture these sublimities and + everlasting monuments out of the bare remnants and shreds of our time. + </p> + <p> + The labour of the intellect of man is endless. How copious is the volume, + and how extraordinary the variety, of our sciences and our arts! The + number of men is exceedingly great in every civilised state of society, + that make these the sole object of their occupation. And this has been + more or less the condition of our species in all ages, ever since we left + the savage and the pastoral modes of existence. + </p> + <p> + From this view of the history of man we are led by an easy transition to + the consideration of the nature and influence of the love of fame in + modifying the actions of the human mind. We have already stated it to be + one of the characteristic distinctions of our species to erect monuments + which outlast the existence of the persons that produced them. This at + first was accidental, and did not enter the design of the operator. The + man who built himself a shed to protect him from the inclemency of the + seasons, and afterwards exchanged that shed for a somewhat more commodious + dwelling, did not at first advert to the circumstance that the + accommodation might last, when he was no longer capable to partake of it. + </p> + <p> + In this way perhaps the wish to extend the memory of ourselves beyond the + term of our mortal existence, and the idea of its being practicable to + gratify that wish, descended upon us together. In contemplating the brief + duration and the uncertainty of human life, the idea must necessarily have + occurred, that we might survive those we loved, or that they might survive + us. In the first case we inevitably wish more or less to cherish the + memory of the being who once was an object of affection to us, but of + whose society death has deprived us. In the second case it can scarcely + happen but that we desire ourselves to be kindly recollected by those we + leave behind us. So simple is the first germ of that longing after + posthumous honour, which presents us with so memorable effects in the page + of history. + </p> + <p> + But, previously to the further consideration of posthumous fame, let us + turn our attention for a moment to the fame, or, as in that sense it is + more usually styled, popularity, which is the lot of a few favoured + individuals while they live. The attending to the subject in this point of + view, will be found to throw light upon the more extensive prospect of the + question to which we will immediately afterwards proceed. + </p> + <p> + Popularity is an acquisition more level to the most ordinary capacities, + and therefore is a subject of more general ambition, than posthumous fame. + It addresses itself to the senses. Applause is a species of good fortune + to which perhaps no mortal ear is indifferent. The persons who constitute + the circle in which we are applauded, receive us with smiles of + approbation and sympathy. They pay their court to us, seem to be made + happy by our bare presence among them, and welcome us to their houses with + congratulation and joy. The vulgar portion of mankind scarcely understand + the question of posthumous fame, they cannot comprehend how panegyric and + honour can "soothe the dull, cold ear of death:" but they can all conceive + the gratification to be derived from applauding multitudes and loud + huzzas. + </p> + <p> + One of the most obvious features however that attends upon popularity, is + its fugitive nature. No man has once been popular, and has lived long, + without experiencing neglect at least, if he were not also at some time + subjected to the very intelligible disapprobation and censure of his + fellows. The good will and kindness of the multitude has a devouring + appetite, and is like a wild beast that you should stable under your roof, + which, if you do not feed with a continual supply, will turn about and + attack its protector. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,— + That all, with one consent, praise new-born gauds, + And give to dust, that is a little gilt, + More laud than they will give to gold o'erdusted. +</pre> + <p> + Cromwel well understood the nature of this topic, when he said, as we are + told, to one of his military companions, who called his attention to the + rapturous approbation with which they were received by the crowd on their + return from a successful expedition, "Ah, my friend, they would accompany + us with equal demonstrations of delight, if, upon no distant occasion, + they were to see us going to be hanged!" + </p> + <p> + The same thing which happens to the popularity attendant on the real or + imaginary hero of the multitude, happens also in the race after posthumous + fame. + </p> + <p> + As has already been said, the number of men is exceedingly great in every + civilised state of society, who make the sciences and arts engendered by + the human mind, the sole or the principal objects of their occupation. + </p> + <p> + This will perhaps be most strikingly illustrated by a retrospect of the + state of European society in the middle, or, as they are frequently + styled, the dark ages. + </p> + <p> + It has been a vulgar error to imagine, that the mind of man, so far as + relates to its active and inventive powers, was sunk into a profound + sleep, from which it gradually recovered itself at the period when + Constantinople was taken by the Turks, and the books and the teachers of + the ancient Greek language were dispersed through Europe. The epoch from + which modern invention took its rise, commenced much earlier. The feudal + system, one of the most interesting contrivances of man in society, was + introduced in the ninth century; and chivalry, the offspring of that + system, an institution to which we are mainly indebted for refinement of + sentiment, and humane and generous demeanour, in the eleventh. Out of + these grew the originality and the poetry of romance. + </p> + <p> + These were no mean advancements. But perhaps the greatest debt which after + ages have contracted to this remote period, arose out of the system of + monasteries and ecclesiastical celibacy. Owing to these a numerous race of + men succeeded to each other perpetually, who were separated from the + world, cut off from the endearments of conjugal and parental affection, + and who had a plenitude of leisure for solitary application. To these men + we are indebted for the preservation of the literature of Rome, and the + multiplied copies of the works of the ancients. Nor were they contented + only with the praise of never-ending industry. They forged many works, + that afterwards passed for classical, and which have demanded all the + perspicacity of comparative criticism to refute. And in these pursuits the + indefatigable men who were dedicated to them, were not even goaded by the + love of fame. They were satisfied with the consciousness of their own + perseverance and ingenuity. + </p> + <p> + But the most memorable body of men that adorned these ages, were the + Schoolmen. They may be considered as the discoverers of the art of logic. + The ancients possessed in an eminent degree the gift of genius; but they + have little to boast on the score of arrangement, and discover little + skill in the strictness of an accurate deduction. They rather arrive at + truth by means of a felicity of impulse, than in consequence of having + regularly gone through the process which leads to it. The schools of the + middle ages gave birth to the Irrefragable and the Seraphic doctors, the + subtlety of whose distinctions, and the perseverance of whose + investigations, are among the most wonderful monuments of the intellectual + power of man. The thirteenth century produced Thomas Aquinas, and Johannes + Duns Scotus, and William Occam, and Roger Bacon. In the century before, + Thomas a Becket drew around him a circle of literary men, whose + correspondence has been handed down to us, and who deemed it their + proudest distinction that they called each other philosophers. The + Schoolmen often bewildered themselves in their subtleties, and often + delivered dogmas and systems that may astonish the common sense of + unsophisticated understandings. But such is man. So great is his + persevering labour, his invincible industry, and the resolution with which + he sets himself, year after year, and lustre after lustre, to accomplish + the task which his judgment and his zeal have commanded him to pursue. + </p> + <p> + But I return to the question of literary fame. All these men, and men of a + hundred other classes, who laboured most commendably and gallantly in + their day, may be considered as swept away into the gulph of oblivion. As + Swift humorously says in his Dedication to Prince Posterity, "I had + prepared a copious list of Titles to present to your highness, as an + undisputed argument of the prolificness of human genius in my own time: + the originals were posted upon all gates and corner's of streets: but, + returning in a very few hours to take a review, they were all torn down, + and fresh ones put in their places. I enquired after them among readers + and booksellers, but in vain: the memorial of them was lost among men; + their place was no more to be found." + </p> + <p> + It is a just remark that had been made by Hume(5): "Theories of abstract + philosophy, systems of profound theology, have prevailed during one age. + In a successive period these have been universally exploded; their + absurdity has been detected; other theories and systems have supplied + their place, which again gave way to their successors; and nothing has + been experienced more liable to the revolutions of chance and fashion than + these pretended decisions of science. The case is not the same with the + beauties of eloquence and poetry. Just expressions of passion and nature + are sure, after a little time, to gain public applause, which they + maintain for ever. Aristotle and Plato and Epicurus and Descartes may + successively yield to each other: but Terence and Virgil maintain an + universal, undisputed empire over the minds of men. The abstract + philosophy of Cicero has lost its credit: the vehemence of his oratory is + still the object of our admiration." + </p> + <p> + (5) Essays, Part 1, Essay xxiii. + </p> + <p> + A few examples of the instability of fame will place this question in the + clearest light. + </p> + <p> + Nicholas Peiresk was born in the year 1580. His progress in knowledge was + so various and unprecedented, that, from the time that he was twenty-one + years of age, he was universally considered as holding the helm of + learning in his hand, and guiding the commonwealth of letters. He died at + the age of fifty-seven. The academy of the Humoristi at Rome paid the most + extraordinary honours to his memory; many of the cardinals assisted at his + funeral oration; and a collection of verses in his praise was published in + more than forty languages. + </p> + <p> + Salmasius was regarded as a prodigy of learning; and various princes and + powers entered into a competition who should be so fortunate as to secure + his residence in their states. Christina, queen of Sweden, having obtained + the preference, received him with singular reverence and attention; and, + Salmasius being taken ill at Stockholm, and confined to his bed, the queen + persisted with her own hand to prepare his caudles, and mend his fire. + Yet, but for the accident of his having had Milton for his adversary, his + name would now be as little remembered, even by the generality of the + learned, as that of Peiresk. + </p> + <p> + Du Bartas, in the reign of Henry the Fourth of France, was one of the most + successful poets that ever existed. His poem on the Creation of the World + went through upwards of thirty editions in the course of five or six + years, was translated into most European languages, and its commentators + promised to equal in copiousness and number the commentators on Homer. + </p> + <p> + One of the most admired of our English poets about the close of the + sixteenth century, was Donne. Unlike many of those trivial writers of + verse who succeeded him after an interval of forty or fifty years, and who + won for themselves a brilliant reputation by the smoothness of their + numbers, the elegance of their conceptions, and the politeness of their + style, Donne was full of originality, energy and vigour. No man can read + him without feeling himself called upon for earnest exercise of his + thinking powers, and, even with the most fixed attention and application, + the student is often obliged to confess his inability to take in the whole + of the meaning with which the poet's mind was perceptibly fraught. Every + sentence that Donne writes, whether in verse or prose, is exclusively his + own. In addition to this, his thoughts are often in the noblest sense of + the word poetical; and passages may be quoted from him that no English + poet may attempt to rival, unless it be Milton and Shakespear. Ben Jonson + observed of him with great truth and a prophetic spirit: "Donne for not + being understood will perish." But this is not all. If Waller and Suckling + and Carew sacrificed every thing to the Graces, Donne went into the other + extreme. With a few splendid and admirable exceptions, his phraseology and + versification are crabbed and repulsive. And, as poetry is read in the + first place for pleasure, Donne is left undisturbed on the shelf, or + rather in the sepulchre; and not one in an hundred even among persons of + cultivation, can give any account of him, if in reality they ever heard of + his productions. + </p> + <p> + The name of Shakespear is that before which every knee must bow. But it + was not always so. When the first novelty of his pieces was gone, they + were seldom called into requisition. Only three or four of his plays were + upon the acting list of the principal company of players during the reign + of Charles the Second; and the productions of Beaumont and Fletcher, and + of Shirley, were acted three times for once of his. At length Betterton + revived, and by his admirable representation gave popularity to, Macbeth, + Hamlet and Lear, a popularity they have ever since retained. But Macbeth + was not revived (with music, and alterations by sir William Davenant) till + 1674; and Lear a few years later, with love scenes and a happy catastrophe + by Nahum Tate. + </p> + <p> + In the latter part of the reign of Charles the Second, Dryden and Otway + and Lee held the undisputed supremacy in the serious drama. + </p> + <p> + Such was the insensibility of the English public to nature, and her high + priest, Shakespear. The only one of their productions that has survived + upon the theatre, is Venice Preserved: and why it has done so it is + difficult to say; or rather it would be impossible to assign a just and + honourable reason for it. All the personages in this piece are of an + abandoned and profligate character. Pierre is a man resolved to destroy + and root up the republic by which he was employed, because his mistress, a + courtesan, is mercenary, and endures the amorous visits of an impotent old + lecher. Jaffier, without even the profession of any public principle, + joins in the conspiracy, because he has been accustomed to luxury and + prodigal expence and is poor. He has however no sooner entered into the + plot, than he betrays it, and turns informer to the government against his + associates. Belvidera instigates him to this treachery, because she cannot + bear the thought of having her father murdered, and is absurd enough to + imagine that she and her husband shall be tender and happy lovers ever + after. Their love in the latter acts of the play is a continued tirade of + bombast and sounding nonsense, without one real sentiment, one just + reflection, or one strong emotion working from the heart, and analysing + the nature of man. The folly of this love can only be exceeded, by the + abject and despicable crouching and fawning of Jaffier to the man he had + so basely betrayed, and their subsequent reconciliation. There is not a + production in the whole realms of fiction, that has less pretension to + manly, or even endurable feeling, or to common propriety. The total defect + of a moral sense in this piece is strongly characteristic of the reign in + which it was written. It has in the mean while a richness of melody, and a + picturesqueness of action, that enables it to delude, and that even draws + tears from the eyes of, persons who can be won over by the eye and the + ear, with almost no participation of the understanding. And this unmeaning + rant and senseless declamation sufficed for the time to throw into shade + those exquisite delineations of character, those transcendent bursts of + passion, and that perfect anatomy of the human heart, which render the + master-pieces of Shakespear a property for all nations and all times. + </p> + <p> + While Shakespear was partly forgotten, it continued to be totally unknown + that he had contemporaries as inexpressibly superior to the dramatic + writers that have appeared since, as these contemporaries were themselves + below the almighty master of scenic composition. It was the fashion to + say, that Shakespear existed alone in a barbarous age, and that all his + imputed crudities, and intermixture of what was noblest with unparalleled + absurdity and buffoonery, were to be allowed for to him on that + consideration. + </p> + <p> + Cowley stands forward as a memorable instance of the inconstancy of fame. + He was a most amiable man; and the loveliness of his mind shines out in + his productions. He had a truly poetic frame of soul; and he pours out the + beautiful feelings that possessed him unreservedly and at large. He was a + great sufferer in the Stuart cause, he had been a principal member of the + court of the exiled queen; and, when the king was restored, it was a deep + sentiment among his followers and friends to admire the verses of Cowley. + He was "the Poet." The royalist rhymers were set lightly by in comparison + with him. Milton, the republican, who, by his collection published during + the civil war, had shewn that he was entitled to the highest eminence, was + unanimously consigned to oblivion. Cowley died in 1667; and the duke of + Buckingham, the author of the Rehearsal, eight years after, set up his + tomb in the cemetery of the nation, with an inscription, declaring him to + be at once "the Pindar, the Horace and Virgil of his country, the delight + and the glory of his age, which by his death was left a perpetual + mourner."—Yet—so capricious is fame—a century has nearly + elapsed, since Pope said, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Who now reads Cowley? If he pleases yet, + His moral pleases, not his pointed wit; + Forgot his epic, nay, Pindaric art, + But still I love the language of his heart. +</pre> + <p> + As Cowley was the great royalist poet after the Restoration, Cleveland + stood in the same rank during the civil war. In the publication of his + works one edition succeeded to another, yearly or oftener, for more than + twenty years. His satire is eminently poignant; he is of a strength and + energy of thinking uncommonly masculine; and he compresses his meaning so + as to give it every advantage. His imagination is full of coruscation and + brilliancy. His petition to Cromwel, lord protector of England, when the + poet was under confinement for his loyal principles, is a singular example + of manly firmness, great independence of mind, and a happy choice of + topics to awaken feelings of forbearance and clemency. It is unnecessary + to say that Cleveland is now unknown, except to such as feel themselves + impelled to search into things forgotten. + </p> + <p> + It would be endless to adduce all the examples that might be found of the + caprices of fame. It has been one of the arts of the envious to set up a + contemptible rival to eclipse the splendour of sterling merit. Thus Crowne + and Settle for a time disturbed the serenity of Dryden. Voltaire says, the + Phaedra of Pradon has not less passion than that of Racine, but expressed + in rugged verse and barbarous language. Pradon is now forgotten: and the + whole French poetry of the Augustan age of Louis the Fourteenth is + threatened with the same fate. Hayley for a few years was applauded as the + genuine successor of Pope; and the poem of Sympathy by Pratt went through + twelve editions. For a brief period almost each successive age appears + fraught with resplendent genius; but they go out one after another; they + set, "like stars that fall, to rise no more." Few indeed are endowed with + that strength of construction, that should enable them to ride triumphant + on the tide of ages. + </p> + <p> + It is the same with conquerors. What tremendous battles have been fought, + what oceans of blood have been spilled, by men who were resolved that + their achievements should be remembered for ever! And now even their names + are scarcely preserved; and the very effects of the disasters they + inflicted on mankind seem to be swept away, as of no more validity than + things that never existed. Warriors and poets, the authors of systems and + the lights of philosophy, men that astonished the earth, and were looked + up to as Gods, even like an actor on the stage, have strutted their hour, + and then been heard of no more. + </p> + <p> + Books have the advantage of all other productions of the human head or + hand. Copies of them may be multiplied for ever, the last as good as the + first, except so far as some slight inadvertent errors may have insinuated + themselves. The Iliad flourishes as green now, as on the day that + Pisistratus is said first to have stamped upon it its present order. The + songs of the Rhapsodists, the Scalds, and the Minstrels, which once seemed + as fugitive as the breath of him who chaunted them, repose in libraries, + and are embalmed in collections. The sportive sallies of eminent wits, and + the Table Talk of Luther and Selden, may live as long as there shall be + men to read, and judges to appreciate them. + </p> + <p> + But other human productions have their date. Pictures, however admirable, + will only last as long as the colours of which they are composed, and the + substance on which they are painted. Three or four hundred years + ordinarily limit the existence of the most favoured. We have scarcely any + paintings of the ancients, and but a small portion of their statues, while + of these a great part are mutilated, and various members supplied by later + and inferior artists. The library of Bufo is by Pope described, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + where busts of poets dead, + And a true Pindar stood without a head. +</pre> + <p> + Monumental records, alike the slightest and the most solid, are subjected + to the destructive operation of time, or to the being removed at the + caprice or convenience of successive generations. The pyramids of Egypt + remain, but the names of him who founded them, and of him whose memory + they seemed destined to perpetuate, have perished together. Buildings for + the use or habitation of man do not last for ever. Mighty cities, as well + as detached edifices, are destined to disappear. Thebes, and Troy, and + Persepolis, and Palmyra have vanished from the face of the earth. + </p> + <p> + "Thorns and brambles have grown up in their palaces: they are habitations + for serpents, and a court for the owl." + </p> + <p> + There are productions of man however that seem more durable than any of + the edifices he has raised. Such are, in the first place, modes of + government. The constitution of Sparta lasted for seven hundred years. + That of Rome for about the same period. Institutions, once deeply rooted + in the habits of a people, will operate in their effects through + successive revolutions. Modes of faith will sometimes be still more + permanent. Not to mention the systems of Moses and Christ, which we + consider as delivered to us by divine inspiration, that of Mahomet has + continued for twelve hundred years, and may last, for aught that appears, + twelve hundred more. The practices of the empire of China are celebrated + all over the earth for their immutability. + </p> + <p> + This brings us naturally to reflect upon the durability of the sciences. + According to Bailly, the observation of the heavens, and a calculation of + the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, in other words, astronomy, + subsisted in maturity in China and the East, for at least three thousand + years before the birth of Christ: and, such as it was then, it bids fair + to last as long as civilisation shall continue. The additions it has + acquired of late years may fall away and perish, but the substance shall + remain. The circulation of the blood in man and other animals, is a + discovery that shall never be antiquated. And the same may be averred of + the fundamental elements of geometry and of some other sciences. + Knowledge, in its most considerable branches shall endure, as long as + books shall exist to hand it down to successive generations. + </p> + <p> + It is just therefore, that we should regard with admiration and awe the + nature of man, by whom these mighty things have been accomplished, at the + same time that the perishable quality of its individual monuments, and the + temporary character and inconstancy of that fame which in many instances + has filled the whole earth with its renown, may reasonably quell the fumes + of an inordinate vanity, and keep alive in us the sentiment of a wholsome + diffidence and humility. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY V. OF THE REBELLIOUSNESS OF MAN. + </h2> + <p> + There is a particular characteristic in the nature of the human mind, + which is somewhat difficult to be explained. + </p> + <p> + Man is a being of a rational and an irrational nature. + </p> + <p> + It has often been said that we have two souls. Araspes, in the Cyropedia, + adopts this language to explain his inconsistency, and desertion of + principle and honour. The two souls of man, according to this hypothesis, + are, first, animal, and, secondly, intellectual. + </p> + <p> + But I am not going into any thing of this slight and every-day character. + </p> + <p> + Man is a rational being. It is by this particular that he is eminently + distinguished from the brute creation. He collects premises and deduces + conclusions. He enters into systems of thinking, and combines systems of + action, which he pursues from day to day, and from year to year. It is by + this feature in his constitution that he becomes emphatically the subject + of history, of poetry and fiction. It is by this that he is raised above + the other inhabitants of the globe of earth, and that the individuals of + our race are made the partners of "gods, and men like gods." + </p> + <p> + But our nature, beside this, has another section. We start occasionally + ten thousand miles awry. We resign the sceptre of reason, and the high + dignity that belongs to us as beings of a superior species; and, without + authority derived to us from any system of thinking, even without the + scheme of gratifying any vehement and uncontrolable passion, we are + impelled to do, or at least feel ourselves excited to do, something + disordinate and strange. It seems as if we had a spring within us, that + found the perpetual restraint of being wise and sober insupportable. We + long to be something, or to do something, sudden and unexpected, to throw + the furniture of our apartment out at window, or, when we are leaving a + place of worship, in which perhaps the most solemn feelings of our nature + have been excited, to push the grave person that is just before us, from + the top of the stairs to the bottom. A thousand absurdities, wild and + extravagant vagaries, come into our heads, and we are only restrained from + perpetrating them by the fear, that we may be subjected to the treatment + appropriated to the insane, or may perhaps be made amenable to the + criminal laws of our country. + </p> + <p> + A story occurs to me, which I learned from the late Dr. Parr at Hatton, + that may not unhappily illustrate the point I am endeavouring to explain. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Samuel Clarke, rector of St. James's, Westminster, the especial friend + of Sir Isaac Newton, the distinguished editor of the poems of Homer, and + author of the Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, was one + day summoned from his study, to receive two visitors in the parlour. When + he came downstairs, and entered the room, he saw a foreigner, who by his + air seemed to be a person of distinction, a professor perhaps of some + university on the continent; and an alderman of London, a relation of the + doctor, who had come to introduce the foreigner. The alderman, a man of + uncultivated mind and manners, and whom the doctor had been accustomed to + see in sordid attire, surrounded with the incumbrances of his trade, was + decked out for the occasion in a full-dress suit, with a wig of majestic + and voluminous structure. Clarke was, as it appears, so much struck with + the whimsical nature of this unexpected metamorphosis, and the + extraordinary solemnity of his kinsman's demeanour, as to have felt + impelled, almost immediately upon entering the room, to snatch the wig + from the alderman's head, and throw it against the ceiling: after which + this eminent person immediately escaped, and retired to his own apartment. + I was informed from the same authority, that Clarke, after exhausting his + intellectual faculties by long and intense study, would not unfrequently + quit his seat, leap upon the table, and place himself cross-legged like a + tailor, being prompted, by these antagonist sallies, to relieve himself + from the effect of the too severe strain he had previously put upon his + intellectual powers. + </p> + <p> + But the deviousness and aberration of our human faculties frequently + amount to something considerably more serious than this. + </p> + <p> + I will put a case. + </p> + <p> + I will suppose myself and another human being together, in some spot + secure from the intrusion of spectators. A musket is conveniently at hand. + It is already loaded. I say to my companion, "I will place myself before + you; I will stand motionless: take up that musket, and shoot me through + the heart." I want to know what passes in the mind of the man to whom + these words are addressed. + </p> + <p> + I say, that one of the thoughts that will occur to many of the persons who + should be so invited, will be, "Shall I take him at his word?" + </p> + <p> + There are two things that restrain us from acts of violence and crime. The + first is, the laws of morality. The second is, the construction that will + be put upon our actions by our fellow-creatures, and the treatment we + shall receive from them.—I put out of the question here any + particular value I may entertain for my challenger, or any degree of + friendship and attachment I may feel for him. + </p> + <p> + The laws of morality (setting aside the consideration of any documents of + religion or otherwise I may have imbibed from my parents and instructors) + are matured within us by experience. In proportion as I am rendered + familiar with my fellow-creatures, or with society at large, I come to + feel the ties which bind men to each other, and the wisdom and necessity + of governing my conduct by inexorable rules. We are thus further and + further removed from unexpected sallies of the mind, and the danger of + suddenly starting away into acts not previously reflected on and + considered. + </p> + <p> + With respect to the censure and retaliation of other men on my proceeding, + these, by the terms of my supposition, are left out of the question. + </p> + <p> + It may be taken for granted, that no man but a madman, would in the case I + have stated take the challenger at his word. But what I want to ascertain + is, why the bare thought of doing so takes a momentary hold of the mind of + the person addressed? + </p> + <p> + There are three principles in the nature of man which contribute to + account for this. + </p> + <p> + First, the love of novelty. + </p> + <p> + Secondly, the love of enterprise and adventure. I become insupportably + wearied with the repetition of rotatory acts and every-day occurrences. I + want to be alive, to be something more than I commonly am, to change the + scene, to cut the cable that binds my bark to the shore, to launch into + the wide sea of possibilities, and to nourish my thoughts with observing a + train of unforeseen consequences as they arise. + </p> + <p> + A third principle, which discovers itself in early childhood, and which + never entirely quits us, is the love of power. We wish to be assured that + we are something, and that we can produce notable effects upon other + beings out of ourselves. It is this principle, which instigates a child to + destroy his playthings, and to torment and kill the animals around him. + </p> + <p> + But, even independently of the laws of morality, and the fear of censure + and retaliation from our fellow-creatures, there are other things which + would obviously restrain us from taking the challenger in the above + supposition at his word. + </p> + <p> + If man were an omnipotent being, and at the same time retained all his + present mental infirmities, it would be difficult to say of what + extravagances he would be guilty. It is proverbially affirmed that power + has a tendency to corrupt the best dispositions. Then what would not + omnipotence effect? + </p> + <p> + If, when I put an end to the life of a fellow-creature, all vestiges of + what I had done were to disappear, this would take off a great part of the + control upon my actions which at present subsists. But, as it is, there + are many consequences that "give us pause." I do not like to see his blood + streaming on the ground. I do not like to witness the spasms and + convulsions of a dying man. Though wounded to the heart, he may speak. + Then what may be chance to say? What looks of reproach may he cast upon + me? The musket may miss fire. If I wound him, the wound may be less mortal + than I contemplated. Then what may I not have to fear? His dead body will + be an incumbrance to me. It must be moved from the place where it lies. It + must be buried. How is all this to be done by me? By one precipitate act, + I have involved myself in a long train of loathsome and heart-sickening + consequences. + </p> + <p> + If it should be said, that no one but a person of an abandoned character + would fail, when the scene was actually before him, to feel an instant + repugnance to the proposition, yet it will perhaps be admitted, that + almost every reader, when he regards it as a supposition merely, says to + himself for a moment, "Would I? Could I?" + </p> + <p> + But, to bring the irrationality of man more completely to the test, let us + change the supposition. Let us imagine him to be gifted with the powers of + the fabled basilisk, "to monarchise, be feared, and kill with looks." His + present impulses, his passions, his modes of reasoning and choosing shall + continue; but his "will is neighboured to his act;" whatever he has formed + a conception of with preference, is immediately realised; his thought is + succeeded by the effect; and no traces are left behind, by means of which + a shadow of censure or suspicion can be reflected on him. + </p> + <p> + Man is in truth a miracle. The human mind is a creature of celestial + origin, shut up and confined in a wall of flesh. We feel a kind of proud + impatience of the degradation to which we are condemned. We beat ourselves + to pieces against the wires of our cage, and long to escape, to shoot + through the elements, and be as free to change at any instant the place + where we dwell, as to change the subject to which our thoughts are + applied. + </p> + <p> + This, or something like this, seems to be the source of our most + portentous follies and absurdities. This is the original sin upon which + St. Austin and Calvin descanted. Certain Arabic writers seem to have had + this in their minds, when they tell us, that there is a black drop of + blood in the heart of every man, in which is contained the fomes peccati, + and add that, when Mahomet was in the fourth year of his age, the angel + Gabriel caught him up from among his playfellows, and taking his heart + from his bosom, squeezed out of it this first principle of frailty, in + consequence of which he for ever after remained inaccessible to the + weaknesses of other men(6). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (6) Life of Mahomet, by Prideaux. +</pre> + <p> + It is the observation of sir Thomas Browne: "Man is a noble animal, + splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave." One of the most remarkable + examples of this is to be found in the pyramids of Egypt. They are + generally considered as having been erected to be the tombs of the kings + of that country. They have no opening by which for the light of heaven to + enter, and afford no means for the accommodation of living man. An hundred + thousand men are said to have been constantly employed in the building; + ten years to have been consumed in hewing and conveying the stones, and + twenty more in completing the edifice. Of the largest the base is a + square, and the sides are triangles, gradually diminishing as they mount + in the air. The sides of the base are two hundred and twenty feet in + length, and the perpendicular height is above one hundred and fifty-five + feet. The figure of the pyramid is precisely that which is most calculated + for duration: it cannot perish by accident; and it would require almost as + much labour to demolish it, as it did to raise it at first. + </p> + <p> + What a light does this fact convey into the inmost recesses of the human + heart! Man reflects deeply, and with feelings of a mortified nature, upon + the perishableness of his frame, and the approaching close, so far as + depends upon the evidence of our senses, of his existence. He has indeed + an irrepressible "longing after immortality;" and this is one of the + various and striking modes in which he has sought to give effect to his + desire. + </p> + <p> + Various obvious causes might be selected, which should be calculated to + give birth to the feeling of discontent. + </p> + <p> + One is, the not being at home. + </p> + <p> + I will here put together some of the particulars which make up the idea of + home in the most emphatical sense of the word. + </p> + <p> + Home is the place where a man is principally at his ease. It is the place + where he most breathes his native air: his lungs play without impediment; + and every respiration brings a pure element, and a cheerful and gay frame + of mind. Home is the place where he most easily accomplishes all his + designs; he has his furniture and materials and the elements of his + occupations entirely within his reach. Home is the place where he can be + uninterrupted. He is in a castle which is his in full propriety. No + unwelcome guests can intrude; no harsh sounds can disturb his + contemplations; he is the master, and can command a silence equal to that + of the tomb, whenever he pleases. + </p> + <p> + In this sense every man feels, while cribbed in a cabin of flesh, and shut + up by the capricious and arbitrary injunctions of human communities, that + he is not at home. + </p> + <p> + Another cause of our discontent is to be traced to the disparity of the + two parts of which we are composed, the thinking principle, and the body + in which it acts. The machine which constitutes the visible man, bears no + proportion to our thoughts, our wishes and desires. Hence we are never + satisfied; we always feel the want of something we have not; and this + uneasiness is continually pushing us on to precipitate and abortive + resolves. + </p> + <p> + I find in a book, entitled, Illustrations of Phrenology, by Sir George + Mackenzie, Baronet, the following remark. 'If this portrait be correctly + drawn, the right side does not quite agree with the left in the region of + ideality. This dissimilarity may have produced something contradictory in + the feelings of the person it represents, which he may have felt extremely + annoying(7).' An observation of this sort may be urged with striking + propriety as to the dissimilar attributes of the body and the thinking + principle in man. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (7) The remark thus delivered is applied to the portrait of the author +of the present volume. +</pre> + <p> + It is perhaps thus that we are to account for a phenomenon, in itself + sufficiently obvious, that our nature has within it a principle of + boundless ambition, a desire to be something that we are not, a feeling + that we are out of our place, and ought to be where we are not. This + feeling produces in us quick and earnest sallies and goings forth of the + mind, a restlessness of soul, and an aspiration after some object that we + do not find ourselves able to chalk out and define. + </p> + <p> + Hence comes the practice of castle-building, and of engaging the soul in + endless reveries and imaginations of something mysterious and unlike to + what we behold in the scenes of sublunary life. Many writers, having + remarked this, have endeavoured to explain it from the doctrine of a + preexistent state, and have said that, though we have no clear and + distinct recollection of what happened to us previously to our being + launched in our present condition, yet we have certain broken and + imperfect conceptions, as if, when the tablet of the memory was cleared + for the most part of the traces of what we had passed through in some + other mode of being, there were a few characters that had escaped the + diligence of the hand by which the rest had been obliterated. + </p> + <p> + It is this that, in less enlightened ages of the world, led men to engage + so much of their thoughts upon supposed existences, which, though they + might never become subject to our organs of vision, were yet conceived to + be perpetually near us, fairies, ghosts, witches, demons and angels. Our + ancestors often derived suggestions from these, were informed of things + beyond the ken of ordinary faculties, were tempted to the commission of + forbidden acts, or encouraged to proceed in the paths of virtue. + </p> + <p> + The most remarkable of these phenomena was that of necromancy, sorcery and + magic. There were men who devoted themselves to "curious arts," and had + books fraught with hidden knowledge. They could "bedim" + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The noon-tide sun, call forth the mutinous winds, + And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault + Set roaring war: to the dread, rattling thunder + They could give fire, and rift even Jove's stout oak + With his own bolt—graves at their command + Have waked their sleepers, oped and let them forth. +</pre> + <p> + And of these things the actors in them were so certain, that many witches + were led to the stake, their guilt being principally established on their + own confessions. But the most memorable matters in the history of the + black art, were the contracts which those who practised it not + unfrequently entered into with the devil, that he should assist them by + his supernatural power for ten or twenty years, and, in consideration of + this aid, they consented to resign their souls into his possession, when + the period of the contract was expired. + </p> + <p> + In the animal creation there are some species that may be tamed, and + others whose wildness is irreclaimable. Horace says, that all men are mad: + and no doubt mankind in general has one of the features of madness. In the + ordinary current of our existence we are to a considerable degree rational + and tractable. But we are not altogether safe. I may converse with a + maniac for hours; he shall talk as soberly, and conduct himself with as + much propriety, as any other of the species who has never been afflicted + with his disease; but touch upon a particular string, and, before you are + aware of it, he shall fly out into the wildest and most terrifying + extravagances. Such, though in a greatly inferior degree, are the majority + of human beings. + </p> + <p> + The original impulse of man is uncontrolableness. When the spirit of life + first descends upon us, we desire and attempt to be as free as air. We are + impatient of restraint. This is the period of the empire of will. There is + a power within us that wars against the restraint of another. We are eager + to follow our own impulses and caprices, and are with difficulty subjected + to those who believe they best know how to control inexperienced youth in + a way that shall tend to his ultimate advantage. + </p> + <p> + The most moderate and auspicious method in which the old may endeavour to + guide and control the pursuits of the young, undoubtedly is by the + conviction of the understanding. But this is not always easy. It is not at + all times practicable fully to explain to the apprehension of a very young + person the advantage, which at a period a little more advanced he would be + able clearly to recognise. + </p> + <p> + There is a further evil appertaining to this view of the subject. + </p> + <p> + A young man even, in the early season of life, is not always disposed to + obey the convictions of his understanding. He has prescribed to himself a + task which returns with the returning day; but he is often not disposed to + apply. The very sense that it is what he conceives to be an incumbent + duty, inspires him with reluctance. + </p> + <p> + An obvious source of this reluctance is, that the convictions of our + understanding are not always equally present to us. I have entered into a + deduction of premises, and arrived at a conclusion; but some of the steps + of the chain are scarcely obvious to me, at the time that I am called upon + to act upon the conclusion I have drawn. Beside which, there was a + freshness in the first conception of the reasons on which my conduct was + to be framed, which, by successive rehearsals, and by process of time, is + no longer in any degree spirit-stirring and pregnant. + </p> + <p> + This restiveness and impracticability are principally incident to us in + the period of youth. By degrees the novelties of life wear out, and we + become sober. We are like soldiers at drill, and in a review. At first we + perform our exercise from necessity, and with an ill grace. We had rather + be doing almost any thing else. + </p> + <p> + By degrees we are reconciled to our occupation. We are like horses in a + manege, or oxen or dogs taught to draw the plough, or be harnessed to a + carriage. Our stubbornness is subdued; we no longer exhaust our strength + in vain efforts to free ourselves from the yoke. + </p> + <p> + Conviction at first is strong. Having arrived at years of discretion, I + revolve with a sobered mind the different occupations to which my efforts + and my time may be devoted, and determine at length upon that which under + all the circumstances displays the most cogent recommendations. Having + done so, I rouse my faculties and direct my energies to the performance of + my task. By degrees however my resolution grows less vigorous, and my + exertions relax. I accept any pretence to be let off, and fly into a + thousand episodes and eccentricities. + </p> + <p> + But, as the newness of life subsides, the power of temptation becomes + less. That conviction, which was at first strong, and gradually became + fainter and less impressive, is made by incessant repetitions a part of my + nature. I no more think of doubting its truth, than of my own existence. + Practice has rendered the pursuits that engage me more easy, till at + length I grow disturbed and uncomfortable if I am withheld from them. They + are like my daily bread. If they are not afforded me, I grow sick and + attenuated, and my life verges to a close. The sun is not surer to rise, + than I am to feel the want of my stated employment. + </p> + <p> + It is the business of education to tame the wild ass, the restive and + rebellious principle, in our nature. The judicious parent or instructor + essays a thousand methods to accomplish his end. The considerate elder + tempts the child with inticements and caresses, that he may win his + attention to the first rudiments of learning. + </p> + <p> + He sets before him, as he grows older, all the considerations and reasons + he can devise, to make him apprehend the advantage of improvement and + literature. He does his utmost to make his progress easy, and to remove + all impediments. He smooths the path by which he is to proceed, and + endeavours to root out all its thorns. He exerts his eloquence to inspire + his pupil with a love for the studies in which he is engaged. He opens to + him the beauties and genius of the authors he reads, and endeavours to + proceed with him hand in hand, and step by step. He persuades, he exhorts, + and occasionally he reproves. He awakens in him the love of excellence, + the fear of disgrace, and an ambition to accomplish that which "the + excellent of the earth" accomplished before him. + </p> + <p> + At a certain period the young man is delivered into his own hands, and + becomes an instructor to himself. And, if he is blessed with an ingenuous + disposition, he will enter on his task with an earnest desire and a + devoted spirit. No person of a sober and enlarged mind can for a moment + delude himself into the opinion that, when he is delivered into his own + hands, his education is ended. In a sense to which no one is a stranger, + the education of man and his life terminate together. We should at no + period of our existence be backward to receive information, and should at + all times preserve our minds open to conviction. We should through every + day of our lives seek to add to the stores of our knowledge and + refinement. But, independently of this more extended sense of the word, a + great portion of the education of the young man is left to the direction + of the man himself. The epoch of entire liberty is a dangerous period, and + calls upon him for all his discretion, that he may not make an ill use of + that, which is in itself perhaps the first of sublunary blessings. The + season of puberty also, and all the excitements from this source, "that + flesh is heir to," demand the utmost vigilance and the strictest + restraint. In a word, if we would counteract the innate rebelliousness of + man, that indocility of mind which is at all times at hand to plunge us + into folly, we must never slumber at our post, but govern ourselves with + steady severity, and by the dictates of an enlightened understanding. We + must be like a skilful pilot in a perilous sea, and be thoroughly aware of + all the rocks and quicksands, and the multiplied and hourly dangers that + beset our navigation. + </p> + <p> + In this Essay I have treated of nothing more than the inherent restiveness + and indocility of man, which accompany him at least through all the + earlier sections and divisions of his life. I have not treated of those + temptations calculated to lead him into a thousand excesses and miseries, + which originate in our lower nature, and are connected with what we call + the passion of love. Nor have I entered upon the still more copious + chapter, of the incentives and provocations which are administered to us + by those wants which at all times beset us as living creatures, and by the + unequal distribution of property generally in civil society. I have not + considered those attributes of man which may serve indifferently for good + or for ill, as he may happen to be or not to be the subject of those + fiercer excitements, that will oft times corrupt the most ingenuous + nature, and have a tendency to inspire into us subtle schemes and a deep + contrivance. I have confined myself to the consideration of man, as yet + untamed to the modes of civilised community, and unbroken to the steps + which are not only prescribed by the interests of our social existence, + but which are even in some degree indispensible to the improvement and + welfare of the individual. I have considered him, not as he is often acted + upon by causes and motives which seem almost to compel him to vice, but + merely as he is restless, and impatient, and disdainful both of the + control of others, and the shackles of system. + </p> + <p> + For the same reason I have not taken notice of another species of + irrationality, and which seems to answer more exactly to the Arabic notion + of the fomes peccati, the black drop of blood at the bottom of the heart. + We act from motives apprehended by the judgment; but we do not stop at + them. Once set in motion, it will not seldom happen that we proceed beyond + our original mark. We are like Othello in the play: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Our blood begins our safer guides to rule; + And passion, having our best judgment quelled, + Assays to lead the way. +</pre> + <p> + This is the explanation of the greatest enormities that have been + perpetrated by man, and the inhuman deeds of Nero and Caligula. We proceed + from bad to worse. The reins of our discretion drop from our hands. It + fortunately happens however, that we do not in the majority of cases, like + Phaeton in the fable, set the world on fire; but that, with ordinary men, + the fiercest excesses of passion extend to no greater distance than can be + reached by the sound of their voice. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY VI. OF HUMAN INNOCENCE. + </h2> + <p> + One of the most obvious views which are presented to us by man in society + is the inoffensiveness and innocence that ordinarily characterise him. + </p> + <p> + Society for the greater part carries on its own organization. Each man + pursues his proper occupation, and there are few individuals that feel the + propensity to interrupt the pursuits of their neighbours by personal + violence. When we observe the quiet manner in which the inhabitants of a + great city, and, in the country, the frequenters of the fields, the high + roads, and the heaths, pass along, each engrossed by his private + contemplations, feeling no disposition to molest the strangers he + encounters, but on the contrary prepared to afford them every courteous + assistance, we cannot in equity do less than admire the innocence of our + species, and fancy that, like the patriarchs of old, we have fallen in + with "angels unawares." + </p> + <p> + There are a few men in every community, that are sons of riot and plunder, + and for the sake of these the satirical and censorious throw a general + slur and aspersion upon the whole species. + </p> + <p> + When we look at human society with kind and complacent survey, we are more + than half tempted to imagine that men might subsist very well in clusters + and congregated bodies without the coercion of law; and in truth criminal + laws were only made to prevent the ill-disposed few from interrupting the + regular and inoffensive proceedings of the vast majority. + </p> + <p> + From what disposition in human nature is it that all this accommodation + and concurrence proceed? + </p> + <p> + It is not primarily love. We feel in a very slight degree excited to good + will towards the stranger whom we accidentally light upon in our path. + </p> + <p> + Neither is it fear. + </p> + <p> + It is principally forecast and prudence. We have a sensitiveness, that + forbids us for a slight cause to expose ourselves to we know not what. We + are unwilling to be disturbed. + </p> + <p> + We have a mental vis inertiae, analogous to that quality in material + substances, by means of which, being at rest, they resist being put into a + state of motion. We love our security; we love our respectability; and + both of these may be put to hazard by our rashly and unadvisedly thrusting + ourselves upon the course of another. We like to act for ourselves. We + like to act with others, when we think we can foresee the way in which the + proposed transaction will proceed, and that it will proceed to our wish. + </p> + <p> + Let us put the case, that I am passing along the highway, destitute and + pennyless, and without foresight of any means by which I am to procure the + next meal that my nature requires. + </p> + <p> + The vagrant, who revolves in his mind the thought of extorting from + another the supply of which he is urgently in need, surveys the person + upon whom he meditates this violence with a scrutinising eye. He + considers, Will this man submit to my summons without resistance, or in + what manner will he repel my trespass? He watches his eye, he measures his + limbs, his strength, and his agility. Though they have met in the deserts + of Africa, where there is no law to punish the violator, he knows that he + exposes himself to a fearful hazard; and he enters upon his purpose with + desperate resolve. All this and more must occur to the man of violence, + within the pale of a civilised community. + </p> + <p> + Begging is the mildest form in which a man can obtain from the stranger he + meets, the means of supplying his urgent necessities. + </p> + <p> + But, even here, the beggar knows that he exposes himself not only to + refusal, but to the harsh and opprobrious terms in which that refusal may + be conveyed. In this city there are laws against begging; and the man that + asks alms of me, is an offender against the state. In country-towns it is + usual to remark a notice upon entering, to say, Whoever shall be found + begging in this place, shall be set in the stocks. + </p> + <p> + There are modes however in which I may accost a stranger, with small + apprehension that I shall be made to repent of it. I may enquire of him my + way to the place towards which my business or my pleasure invites me. + Ennius of old has observed, that lumen de lumine, to light my candle at my + neighbour's lamp, is one of the privileges that the practices of civil + society concede. + </p> + <p> + But it is not merely from forecast and prudence that we refrain from + interrupting the stranger in his way. We have all of us a certain degree + of kindness for a being of our own species. A multitude of men feel this + kindness for every thing that has animal life. We would not willingly + molest the stranger who has done us no injury. On the contrary we would + all of us to a certain extent assist him, under any unforeseen casualty + and tribulation. A part therefore of the innocence that characterises our + species is to be attributed to philanthropy. + </p> + <p> + Childhood is diffident. Children for the most part are averse to the + addressing themselves to strangers, unless in cases where, from the mere + want of anticipation and reflection, they proceed as if they were wholly + without the faculty of making calculations and deducing conclusions. The + child neither knows himself nor the stranger he meets in his path. He has + not measured either the one or the other. He does not know what the + stranger may be able, or may likely be prompted to do to him, nor what are + his own means of defence or escape. He takes refuge therefore in a wary, + sometimes an obstinate silence. It is for this reason that a boy at school + often appears duller and more inept, than would be the amount of a fair + proportion to what he is found to be when grown up to a man. + </p> + <p> + As we improve in judgment and strength, we know better ourselves and + others, and in a majority of instances take our due place in the ranks of + society. We acquire a modest and cautious firmness, yield what belongs to + another, and assert what is due to ourselves. To the last however, we for + the most part retain the inoffensiveness described in the beginning of + this Essay. + </p> + <p> + How comes it then that our nature labours under so bitter an aspersion? We + have been described as cunning, malicious and treacherous. Other animals + herd together for mutual convenience; and their intercourse with their + species is for the most part a reciprocation of social feeling and + kindness. But community among men, we are told, is that condition of human + existence, which brings out all our evil qualities to the face of day. We + lie in wait for, and circumvent each other by multiplied artifices. We + cannot depend upon each other for the truth of what is stated to us; and + promises and the most solemn engagements often seem as if they were made + only to mislead. We are violent and deadly in our animosities, easily + worked up to ferocity, and satisfied with scarcely any thing short of + mutilation and blood. We are revengeful: we lay up an injury, real or + imaginary, in the store-house of an undecaying memory, waiting only till + we can repay the evil we have sustained tenfold, at a time when our + adversary shall be lulled in unsuspecting security. We are rapacious, with + no symptom that the appetite for gain within us will ever be appeased; and + we practise a thousand deceits, that it may be the sooner, and to the + greater degree glutted. The ambition of man is unbounded; and he hesitates + at no means in the course it prompts him to pursue. In short, man is to + man ever the most fearful and dangerous foe: and it is in this view of his + nature that the king of Brobdingnag says to Gulliver, "I cannot but + conclude the bulk of your race to be the most pernicious generation of + little, odious vermin, that were ever suffered to crawl upon the surface + of the earth." The comprehensive faculties of man therefore, and the + refinements and subtlety of his intellect, serve only to render him the + more formidable companion, and to hold us up as a species to merited + condemnation. + </p> + <p> + It is obvious however that the picture thus drawn is greatly overcharged, + that it describes a very small part of our race, and that even as to them + it sets before us a few features only, and a partial representation. + </p> + <p> + History—the successive scenes of the drama in which individuals play + their part—is a labyrinth, of which no man has as yet exactly seized + the clue. + </p> + <p> + It has long since been observed, that the history of the four great + monarchies, of tyrannies and free states, of chivalry and clanship, of + Mahometanism and the Christian church, of the balance of Europe and the + revolution of empires, is little else than a tissue of crimes, exhibiting + nations as if they were so many herds of ferocious animals, whose genuine + occupation was to tear each other to pieces, and to deform their + mother-earth with mangled carcases and seas of blood. + </p> + <p> + But it is not just that we should establish our opinion of human nature + purely from the records of history. Man is alternately devoted to + tranquillity and to violence. But the latter only affords the proper + materials of narration. When he is wrought upon by some powerful impulse, + our curiosity is most roused to observe him. We remark his emotions, his + energies, his tempest. It is then that he becomes the person of a drama. + And, where this disquietude is not the affair of a single individual, but + of several persons together, of nations, it is there that history finds + her harvest. She goes into the field with all the implements of her + industry, and fills her storehouses and magazines with the abundance of + her crop. But times of tranquillity and peace furnish her with no + materials. They are dismissed in a few slight sentences, and leave no + memory behind. + </p> + <p> + Let us divide this spacious earth into equal compartments, and see in + which violence, and in which tranquillity prevails. Let us look through + the various ranks and occupations of human society, and endeavour to + arrive at a conclusion of a similar sort. The soldier by occupation, and + the officer who commands him, would seem, when they are employed in their + express functions, to be men of strife. Kings and ministers of state have + in a multitude of instances fallen under this description. Conquerors, the + firebrands of the earth, have sufficiently displayed their noxious + propensities. + </p> + <p> + But these are but a small part of the tenantry of the many-peopled globe. + Man lives by the sweat of his brow. The teeming earth is given him, that + by his labour he may raise from it the means of his subsistence. + Agriculture is, at least among civilised nations, the first, and certainly + the most indispensible of professions. The profession itself is the emblem + of peace. All its occupations, from seed-time to harvest, are tranquil; + and there is nothing which belongs to it, that can obviously be applied to + rouse the angry passions, and place men in a frame of hostility to each + other. Next to the cultivator, come the manufacturer, the artificer, the + carpenter, the mason, the joiner, the cabinet-maker, all those numerous + classes of persons, who are employed in forming garments for us to wear, + houses to live in, and moveables and instruments for the accommodation of + the species. All these persons are, of necessity, of a peaceable + demeanour. So are those who are not employed in producing the + conveniencies of life, but in conducting the affairs of barter and + exchange. Add to these, such as are engaged in literature, either in the + study of what has already been produced, or in adding to the stock, in + science or the liberal arts, in the instructing mankind in religion and + their duties, or in the education of youth. "Civility," "civil," are + indeed terms which express a state of peaceable occupation, in opposition + to what is military, and imply a tranquil frame of mind, and the absence + of contention, uproar and violence. It is therefore clear, that the + majority of mankind are civil, devoted to the arts of peace, and so far as + relates to acts of violence innocent, and that the sons of rapine + constitute the exception to the general character. + </p> + <p> + We come into the world under a hard and unpalatable law, "In the sweat of + thy brow shalt thou eat bread." It is a bitter decree that is promulgated + against us, "He that will not work, neither shall he eat." We all of us + love to do our own will, and to be free from the manacles of restraint. + What our hearts "find us to do," that we are disposed to execute "with all + our might." Some men are lovers of strenuous occupation. They build and + they plant; they raise splendid edifices, and lay out pleasure-grounds of + mighty extent. Or they devote their minds to the acquisition of knowledge; + they + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ——outwatch the bear, + With thrice great Hermes, or unsphere + The spirit of Plato, to unfold + What worlds, or what vast regions hold + The immortal mind. +</pre> + <p> + Others again would waste perhaps their whole lives in reverie and + idleness. They are constituted of materials so kindly and serene, that + their spirits never flag from want of occupation and external excitement. + They could lie for ever on a sunny bank, in a condition divided between + thinking and no thinking, refreshed by the fanning breeze, viewing the + undulations of the soil, and the rippling of the brook, admiring the azure + heavens, and the vast, the bold, and the sublime figure of the clouds, + yielding themselves occasionally to "thick-coming fancies," and + day-dreams, and the endless romances of an undisciplined mind; + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + And find no end, in wandering mazes lost. +</pre> + <p> + But all men, alike the busy of constitution and the idle, would desire to + follow the impulses of their own minds, unbroken in upon by harsh + necessity, or the imperious commands of their fellows. + </p> + <p> + We cannot however, by the resistless law of our existence, live, except + the few who by the accident of their birth are privileged to draw their + supplies from the labour of others, without exerting ourselves to procure + by our efforts or ingenuity the necessaries of food, lodging and attire. + He that would obtain them for himself in an uninhabited island, would find + that this amounted to a severe tax upon that freedom of motion and thought + which would otherwise be his inheritance. And he who has his lot cast in a + populous community, exists in a condition somewhat analogous to that of a + negro slave, except that he may to a limited extent select the occupation + to which he shall addict himself, or may at least starve, in part or in + whole, uncontroled, and at his choice. Such is, as it were, the universal + lot. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'Tis destiny unshunnable like death: + Even then this dire necessity falls on us, + When we do quicken. +</pre> + <p> + I go forth in the streets, and observe the occupations of other men. I + remark the shops that on every side beset my path. It is curious and + striking, how vast are the ingenuity and contrivance of human beings, to + wring from their fellow-creatures, "from the hard hands of peasants" and + artisans, a part of their earnings, that they also may live. We soon + become feelingly convinced, that we also must enter into the vast + procession of industry, upon pain that otherwise, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Like to an entered tide, they all rush by, + And leave you hindmost: there you lie, + For pavement to the abject rear, o'errun + And trampled on. +</pre> + <p> + It is through the effect of this necessity, that civilised communities + become what they are. We all fall into our ranks. Each one is member of a + certain company or squadron. We know our respective places, and are + marshaled and disciplined with an exactness scarcely less than that of the + individuals of a mighty army. We are therefore little disposed to + interrupt the occupations of each other. We are intent upon the peculiar + employment to which we have become devoted. We "rise up early, and lie + down late," and have no leisure to trouble ourselves with the pursuits of + others. Hence of necessity it happens in a civilised community, that a + vast majority of the species are innocent, and have no inclination to + molest or interrupt each other's avocations. + </p> + <p> + But, as this condition of human society preserves us in comparative + innocence, and renders the social arrangement in the midst of which we + exist, to a certain degree a soothing and agreeable spectacle, so on the + other hand it is not less true that its immediate tendency is, to clip the + wings of the thinking principle within us, and plunge the members of the + community in which we live into a barren and ungratifying mediocrity. + Hence it should be the aim of those persons, who from their situation have + more or less the means of looking through the vast assemblage of their + countrymen, of penetrating "into the seeds" of character, and determining + "which grain will grow, and which will not," to apply themselves to the + redeeming such as are worthy of their care from the oblivious gulph into + which the mass of the species is of necessity plunged. It is therefore an + ill saying, when applied in the most rigorous extent, "Let every man + maintain himself, and be his own provider: why should we help him?" + </p> + <p> + The help however that we should afford to our fellow-men requires of us + great discernment in its administration. The deceitfulness of appearances + is endless. And nothing can well be at the same time more lamentable and + more ludicrous, than the spectacle of those persons, the weaver, the + thresher, and the mechanic, who by injudicious patronage are drawn from + their proper sphere, only to exhibit upon a larger stage their imbecility + and inanity, to shew those moderate powers, which in their proper + application would have carried their possessors through life with respect, + distorted into absurdity, and used in the attempt to make us look upon a + dwarf, as if he were one of the Titans who in the commencement of recorded + time astonished the earth. + </p> + <p> + It is also true to a great degree, that those efforts of the human mind + are most healthful and vigorous, in which the possessor of talents + "administers to himself," and contends with the different obstacles that + arise, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ————throwing them aside, + And stemming them with hearts of controversy. +</pre> + <p> + Many illustrious examples however may be found in the annals of + literature, of patronage judiciously and generously applied, where men + have been raised by the kindness of others from the obscurest situations, + and placed on high, like beacons, to illuminate the world. And, + independently of all examples, a sound application of the common sense of + the human mind would teach us, that the worthies of the earth, though + miracles, are not omnipotent, and that a certain aid, from those who by + counsel or opulence are enabled to afford it, have oft times produced the + noblest effects, have carried on the generous impulse that works within + us, and prompted us manfully to proceed, when the weakness of our nature + was ready to give in from despair. + </p> + <p> + But the thing that in this place it was most appropriate to say, is, that + we ought not quietly to affirm, of the man whose mind nature or education + has enriched with extraordinary powers, "Let him maintain himself, and be + his own provider: why should we help him?" It is a thing deeply to be + regretted, that such a man will frequently be compelled to devote himself + to pursuits comparatively vulgar and inglorious, because he must live. + Much of this is certainly inevitable. But what glorious things might a man + with extraordinary powers effect, were he not hurried unnumbered miles + awry by the unconquerable power of circumstances? The life of such a man + is divided between the things which his internal monitor strongly prompts + him to do, and those which the external power of nature and circumstances + compels him to submit to. The struggle on the part of his better self is + noble and admirable. The less he gives way, provided he can accomplish the + purpose to which he has vowed himself, the more he is worthy of the + admiration of the world. If, in consequence of listening too much to the + loftier aspirations of his nature, he fails, it is deeply to be regretted—it + is a man to a certain degree lost—but surely, if his miscarriage be + not caused by undue presumption, or the clouds and unhealthful atmosphere + of self-conceit, he is entitled to the affectionate sympathy and sorrow of + every generous mind. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY VII. OF THE DURATION OF HUMAN LIFE. + </h2> + <p> + The active and industrious portion of the human species in civilised + countries, is composed of those who are occupied in the labour of the + hand, and in the labour of the head. + </p> + <p> + The following remarks expressly apply only to the latter of these classes, + principally to such as are occupied in productive literature. They may + however have their use to all persons a considerable portion of whose time + is employed in study and contemplation, as, if well founded, they will + form no unimportant chapter in the science of the human mind. + </p> + <p> + In relation to all the members of the second class then, I should say, + that human life is made up of term and vacation, in other words, of hours + that may be intellectually employed, and of hours that cannot be so + employed. + </p> + <p> + Human life consists of years, months and days: each day contains + twenty-four hours. Of these hours how many belong to the province of + intellect? + </p> + <p> + "There is," as Solomon says, "a time for all things." There must be a time + for sleep, a time for recreation, a time for exercise, a time for + supplying the machine with nourishment, and a time for digestion. When all + these demands have been supplied, how many hours will be left for + intellectual occupation? + </p> + <p> + These remarks, as I have said, are intended principally to apply to the + subject of productive literature. Now, of the hours that remain when all + the necessary demands of human life have been supplied, it is but a + portion, perhaps a small portion, that can be beneficially, judiciously, + employed in productive literature, or literary composition. + </p> + <p> + It is true, that there are many men who will occupy eight, ten, or twelve + hours in a day, in the labour of composition. But it may be doubted + whether they are wisely so occupied. + </p> + <p> + It is the duty of an author, inasmuch as he is an author, to consider, + that he is to employ his pen in putting down that which shall be fit for + other men to read. He is not writing a letter of business, a letter of + amusement, or a letter of sentiment, to his private friend. He is writing + that which shall be perused by as many men as can be prevailed on to + become his readers. If he is an author of spirit and ambition, he wishes + his productions to be read, not only by the idle, but by the busy, by + those who cannot spare time to peruse them but at the expence of some + occupations which ought not to be suspended without an adequate occasion. + He wishes to be read not only by the frivolous and the lounger, but by the + wise, the elegant, and the fair, by those who are qualified to appreciate + the merit of a work, who are endowed with a quick sensibility and a + discriminating taste, and are able to pass a sound judgment on its + beauties and defects. He advances his claim to permanent honours, and + desires that his lucubrations should be considered by generations yet + unborn. + </p> + <p> + A person, so occupied, and with such aims, must not attempt to pass his + crudities upon the public. If I may parody a celebrated aphorism of + Quintilian, I would say, "Magna debetur hominibus reverentia(8):" in other + words, we should carefully examine what it is that we propose to deliver + in a permanent form to the taste and understanding of our species. An + author ought only to commit to the press the first fruits of his field, + his best and choicest thoughts. He ought not to take up the pen, till he + has brought his mind into a fitting tone, and ought to lay it down, the + instant his intellect becomes in any degree clouded, and his vital spirits + abate of their elasticity. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (8) Mankind is to be considered with reverence. +</pre> + <p> + There are extraordinary cases. A man may have so thoroughly prepared + himself by long meditation and study, he may have his mind so charged with + an abundance of thought, that it may employ him for ten or twelve hours + consecutively, merely to put down or to unravel the conceptions already + matured in his soul. It was in some such way, that Dryden, we are told, + occupied a whole night, and to a late hour in the next morning, in penning + his Alexander's Feast. But these are the exceptions. In most instances two + or three hours are as much as an author can spend at a time in delivering + the first fruits of his field, his choicest thoughts, before his intellect + becomes in some degree clouded, and his vital spirits abate of their + elasticity. + </p> + <p> + Nor is this all. He might go on perhaps for some time longer with a + reasonable degree of clearness. But the fertility which ought to be his + boast, is exhausted. He no longer sports in the meadows of thought, or + revels in the exuberance of imagination, but becomes barren and + unsatisfactory. Repose is necessary, and that the soil should be refreshed + with the dews of another evening, the sleep of a night, and the freshness + and revivifying influence of another morning. + </p> + <p> + These observations lead, by a natural transition, to the question of the + true estimate and value of human life, considered as the means of the + operations of intellect. + </p> + <p> + A primary enquiry under this head is as to the duration of life: Is it + long, or short? + </p> + <p> + The instant this question is proposed, I hear myself replied to from all + quarters: What is there so well known as the brevity of human life? "Life + is but a span." It is "as a tale that is told." "Man cometh forth like a + flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." + We are "as a sleep; or as grass: in the morning it flourisheth, and + groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth." + </p> + <p> + The foundation of this sentiment is obvious. Men do not live for ever. The + longest duration of human existence has an end: and whatever it is of + which that may be affirmed, may in some sense be pronounced to be short. + The estimation of our existence depends upon the point of view from which + we behold it. Hope is one of our greatest enjoyments. Possession is + something. But the past is as nothing. Remorse may give it a certain + solidity; the recollection of a life spent in acts of virtue may be + refreshing. But fruition, and honours, and fame, and even pain, and + privations, and torment, when they ere departed, are but like a feather; + we regard them as of no account. Taken in this sense, Dryden's celebrated + verses are but a maniac's rant: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have lived to-day: + Be fair, or foul, or rain, or shine, + The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate are mine. + Not heaven itself upon the past has power, + But what has been has been, and I have had my hour. +</pre> + <p> + But this way of removing the picture of human life to a certain distance + from us, and considering those things which were once in a high degree + interesting as frivolous and unworthy of regard, is not the way by which + we shall arrive at a true and just estimation of life. Whatever is now + past, and is of little value, was once present: and he who would form a + sound judgment, must look upon every part of our lives as present in its + turn, and not suffer his opinion to be warped by the consideration of the + nearness or remoteness of the object he contemplates. + </p> + <p> + One sentence, which has grown into a maxim for ever repeated, is + remarkable for the grossest fallacy: Ars longa, vita brevis(9). I would + fain know, what art, compared with the natural duration of human life from + puberty to old age, is long. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (9) Art is long; life is short. +</pre> + <p> + If it is intended to say, that no one man can be expected to master all + possible arts, or all arts that have at one time or another been the + subject of human industry, this indeed is true. But the cause of this does + not lie in the limited duration of human life, but in the nature of the + faculties of the mind. Human understanding and human industry cannot + embrace every thing. When we take hold of one thing, we must let go + another. Science and art, if we would pursue them to the furthest extent + of which we are capable, must be pursued without interruption. It would + therefore be more to the purpose to say, Man cannot be for ever young. In + the stream of human existence, different things have their appropriate + period. The knowledge of languages can perhaps be most effectually + acquired in the season of nonage. + </p> + <p> + At riper years one man devotes himself to one science or art, and another + man to another. This man is a mathematician; a second studies music; a + third painting. This man is a logician; and that man an orator. The same + person cannot be expected to excel in the abstruseness of metaphysical + science, and in the ravishing effusions of poetical genius. When a man, + who has arrived at great excellence in one department of art or science, + would engage himself in another, he will be apt to find the freshness of + his mind gone, and his faculties no longer distinguished by the same + degree of tenacity and vigour that they formerly displayed. It is with the + organs of the brain, as it is with the organs of speech, in the latter of + which we find the tender fibres of the child easily accommodating + themselves to the minuter inflections and variations of sound, which the + more rigid muscles of the adult will for the most part attempt in vain. + </p> + <p> + If again, by the maxim, Ars longa, vita brevis, it is intended to signify, + that we cannot in any art arrive at perfection; that in reality all the + progress we can make is insignificant; and that, as St. Paul says, we must + "not count ourselves to have already attained; but that, forgetting the + things that are behind, it becomes us to press forward to the prize of our + calling,"—this also is true. But this is only ascribable to the + limitation of our faculties, and that even the shadow of perfection which + man is capable to reach, can only be attained by the labour of successive + generations. The cause does not lie in the shortness of human life, unless + we would include in its protracted duration the privilege of being for + ever young; to which we ought perhaps to add, that our activity should + never be exhausted, the freshness of our minds never abate, and our + faculties for ever retain the same degree of tenacity and vigour, as they + had in the morning of life, when every thing was new, when all that + allured or delighted us was seen accompanied with charms inexpressible, + and, as Dryden expresses it(10), "the first sprightly running" of the wine + of life afforded a zest never after to be hoped for. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (10) Aurengzebe. +</pre> + <p> + I return then to the consideration of the alleged shortness of life. I + mentioned in the beginning of this Essay, that "human life consists of + years, months and days; each day containing twenty-four hours." But, when + I said this, I by no means carried on the division so far as it might be + carried. It has been calculated that the human mind is capable of being + impressed with three hundred and twenty sensations in a second of + time.(11) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (11) See Watson on Time, Chapter II. +</pre> + <p> + "How infinitely rapid is the succession of thought! While I am speaking, + perhaps no two ideas are in my mind at the same time, and yet with what + facility do I slide from one to another! If my discourse be argumentative, + how often do I pass in review the topics of which it consists, before I + utter them; and, even while I am speaking, continue the review at + intervals, without producing any pause in my discourse! How many other + sensations are experienced by me during this period, without so much as + interrupting, that is, without materially diverting, the train of my + ideas! My eye successively remarks a thousand objects that present + themselves. My mind wanders to the different parts of my body, and + receives a sensation from the chair on which I sit, or the table on which + I lean. It reverts to a variety of things that occurred in the course of + the morning, in the course of yesterday, the most remote from, the most + unconnected with, the subject that might seem wholly to engross me. I see + the window, the opening of a door, the snuffing of a candle. When these + most perceptibly occur, my mind passes from one to the other, without + feeling the minutest obstacle, or being in any degree distracted by their + multiplicity(12)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (12) Political Justice, Book IV, Chapter ix. +</pre> + <p> + If this statement should appear to some persons too subtle, it may however + prepare us to form a due estimate of the following remarks. + </p> + <p> + "Art is long." No, certainly, no art is long, compared with the natural + duration of human life from puberty to old age. There is perhaps no art + that may not with reasonable diligence be acquired in three years, that + is, as to its essential members and its skilful exercise. We may improve + afterwards, but it will be only in minute particulars, and only by fits. + Our subsequent advancement less depends upon the continuance of our + application, than upon the improvement of the mind generally, the refining + of our taste, the strengthening our judgment, and the accumulation of our + experience. + </p> + <p> + The idea which prevails among the vulgar of mankind is, that we must make + haste to be wise. The erroneousness of this notion however has from time + to time been detected by moralists and philosophers; and it has been felt + that he who proceeds in a hurry towards the goal, exposes himself to the + imminent risk of never reaching it. + </p> + <p> + The consciousness of this danger has led to the adoption of the modified + maxim, Festina lente, Hasten, but with steps deliberate and cautious. + </p> + <p> + It would however be a more correct advice to the aspirant, to say, Be + earnest in your application, but let your march be vigilant and slow. + </p> + <p> + There is a doggrel couplet which I have met with in a book on elocution: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Learn to speak slow: all other graces + Will follow in their proper places. +</pre> + <p> + I could wish to recommend a similar process to the student in the course + of his reading. + </p> + <p> + Toplady, a celebrated methodist preacher of the last age, somewhere + relates a story of a coxcomb, who told him that he had read over Euclid's + Elements of Geometry one afternoon at his tea, only leaving out the A's + and B's and crooked lines, which seemed to be intruded merely to retard + his progress. + </p> + <p> + Nothing is more easy than to gabble through a work replete with the + profoundest elements of thinking, and to carry away almost nothing, when + we have finished. + </p> + <p> + The book does not deserve even to be read, which does not impose on us the + duty of frequent pauses, much reflecting and inward debate, or require + that we should often go back, compare one observation and statement with + another, and does not call upon us to combine and knit together the + disjecta membra. + </p> + <p> + It is an observation which has often been repeated, that, when we come to + read an excellent author a second and a third time, we find in him a + multitude of things, that we did not in the slightest degree perceive in a + first reading. A careful first reading would have a tendency in a + considerable degree to anticipate this following crop. + </p> + <p> + Nothing is more certain than that a schoolboy gathers much of his most + valuable instruction when his lesson is not absolutely before him. In the + same sense the more mature student will receive most important benefit, + when he shuts his book, and goes forth in the field, and ruminates on what + he has read. It is with the intellectual, as with the corporeal eye: we + must retire to a certain distance from the object we would examine, before + we can truly take in the whole. We must view it in every direction, + "survey it," as Sterne says, "transversely, then foreright, then this way, + and then that, in all its possible directions and foreshortenings(13);" + and thus only can it be expected that we should adequately comprehend it. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (13) Tristram Shandy, Vol. IV, Chap. ii. +</pre> + <p> + But the thing it was principally in my purpose to say is, that it is one + of the great desiderata of human life, not to accomplish our purposes in + the briefest time, to consider "life as short, and art as long," and + therefore to master our ends in the smallest number of days or of years, + but rather to consider it as an ample field that is spread before us, and + to examine how it is to be filled with pleasure, with advantage, and with + usefulness. Life is like a lordly garden, which it calls forth all the + skill of the artist to adorn with exhaustless variety and beauty; or like + a spacious park or pleasure-ground, all of whose inequalities are to be + embellished, and whose various capacities of fertilisation, sublimity or + grace, are to be turned to account, so that we may wander in it for ever, + and never be wearied. + </p> + <p> + We shall perhaps understand this best, if we take up the subject on a + limited scale, and, before we consider life in its assigned period of + seventy years, first confine our attention to the space of a single day. + And we will consider that day, not as it relates to the man who earns his + subsistence by the labour of his hands, or to him who is immersed in the + endless details of commerce. But we will take the case of the man, the + whole of whose day is to be disposed of at his own discretion. + </p> + <p> + The attention of the curious observer has often been called to the + tediousness of existence, how our time hangs upon our hands, and in how + high estimation the art is held, of giving wings to our hours, and making + them pass rapidly and cheerfully away. And moralists of a cynical + disposition have poured forth many a sorrowful ditty upon the + inconsistency of man, who complains of the shortness of life, at the same + time that he is put to the greatest straits how to give an agreeable and + pleasant occupation to its separate portions. "Let us hear no more," say + these moralists, "of the transitoriness of human existence, from men to + whom life is a burthen, and who are willing to assign a reward to him that + shall suggest to them an occupation or an amusement untried before." + </p> + <p> + But this inconsistency, if it merits the name, is not an affair of + artificial and supersubtle refinement, but is based in the fundamental + principles of our nature. It is unavoidable that, when we have reached the + close of any great epoch of our existence, and still more when we have + arrived at its final term, we should regret its transitory nature, and + lament that we have made no more effectual use of it. And yet the periods + and portions of the stream of time, as they pass by us, will often be felt + by us as insufferably slow in their progress, and we would give no + inconsiderable sum to procure that the present section of our lives might + come to an end, and that we might turn over a new leaf in the volume of + existence. + </p> + <p> + I have heard various men profess that they never knew the minutes that + hung upon their hands, and were totally unacquainted with what, borrowing + a term from the French language, we call ennui. I own I have listened to + these persons with a certain degree of incredulity, always excepting such + as earn their subsistence by constant labour, or as, being placed in a + situation of active engagement, have not the leisure to feel apathy and + disgust. + </p> + <p> + But we are talking here of that numerous class of human beings, who are + their own masters, and spend every hour of the day at the choice of their + discretion. To these we may add the persons who are partially so, and who, + having occupied three or four hours of every day in discharge of some + function necessarily imposed on them, at the striking of a given hour go + out of school, and employ themselves in a certain industry or sport purely + of their own election. + </p> + <p> + To go back then to the consideration of the single day of a man, all of + whose hours are at his disposal to spend them well or ill, at the bidding + of his own judgment, or the impulse of his own caprice. + </p> + <p> + We will suppose that, when he rises from his bed, he has sixteen hours + before him, to be employed in whatever mode his will shall decide. I bar + the case of travelling, or any of those schemes for passing the day, which + by their very nature take the election out of his hands, and fill up his + time with a perpetual motion, the nature of which is ascertained from the + beginning. + </p> + <p> + With such a man then it is in the first place indispensibly necessary, + that he should have various successive occupations. There is no one study + or intellectual enquiry to which a man can apply sixteen hours + consecutively, unless in some extraordinary instances which can occur but + seldom in the course of a life. And even then the attention will from time + to time relax, and the freshness of mental zeal and activity give way, + though perhaps, after the lapse of a few minutes they may be revived and + brought into action again. + </p> + <p> + In the ordinary series of human existence it is desirable that, in the + course of the same day, a man should have various successive occupations. + I myself for the most part read in one language at one part of the day, + and in another at another. I am then in the best health and tone of + spirits, when I employ two or three hours, and no more, in the act of + writing and composition. There must also in the sixteen hours be a time + for meals. There should be a time for fresh air and bodily exercise. It is + in the nature of man, that we should spend a part of every day in the + society of our fellows, either at public spectacles and places of + concourse, or in the familiar interchange of conversation with one, two, + or more persons with whom we can give ourselves up to unrestrained + communication. All human life, as I have said, every day of our existence, + consists of term and vacation; and the perfection of practical wisdom is + to interpose these one with another, so as to produce a perpetual change, + a well-chosen relief, and a freshness and elastic tone which may bid + defiance to weariness. + </p> + <p> + Taken then in this point of view, what an empire does the man of leisure + possess in each single day of his life! He disposes of his hours much in + the same manner, as the commander of a company of men whom it is his + business to train in the discipline of war. + </p> + <p> + This officer directs one party of his men to climb a mountain, and another + to ford or swim a stream which rushes along the valley. He orders this set + to rush forward with headlong course, and the other to wheel, and approach + by circuitous progress perhaps to the very same point. He marches them to + the right and the left. He then dismisses them from the scene of exercise, + to furbish their arms, to attend to their accoutrements, or to partake of + necessary refection. Not inferior to this is the authority of the man of + leisure in disposing of the hours of one single day of his existence. And + human life consists of many such days, there being three hundred and + sixty-five in each year that we live. + </p> + <p> + How infinitely various may be the occupations of the life of man from + puberty to old age! We may acquire languages; we may devote ourselves to + arts; we may give ourselves up to the profoundness of science. Nor is any + one of these objects incompatible with the others, nor is there any reason + why the same man should not embrace many. We may devote one portion of the + year to travelling, and another to all the abstractions of study. I + remember when I was a boy, looking forward with terror to the ample field + of human life, and saying, When I have read through all the books that + have been written, what shall I do afterwards? And there is infinitely + more sense in this, than in the ludicrous exclamations of men who complain + of the want of time, and say that life affords them no space in which to + act their imaginings. + </p> + <p> + On the contrary, when a man has got to the end of one art or course of + study, he is compelled to consider what he shall do next. And, when we + have gone through a cycle of as many acquisitions, as, from the limitation + of human faculties, are not destructive of each other, we shall find + ourselves frequently reduced to the beginning some of them over again. Nor + is this the least agreeable occupation of human leisure. The book that I + read when I was a boy, presents quite a new face to me as I advance in the + vale of years. The same words and phrases suggest to me a new train of + ideas. And it is no mean pleasure that I derive from the singular + sensation of finding the same author and the same book, old and yet not + old, presenting to me cherished and inestimable recollections, and at the + same time communicating mines of wealth, the shaft of which was till now + unexplored. + </p> + <p> + The result then of these various observations is to persuade the candid + and ingenuous man, to consider life as an important and ample possession, + to resolve that it shall be administered with as much judgment and + deliberation as a person of true philanthropy and wisdom would administer + a splendid income, and upon no occasion so much to think upon the point of + in how short a time an interesting pursuit is to be accomplished, as by + what means it shall be accomplished in a consummate and masterly style. + Let us hear no more, from those who have to a considerable degree the + command of their hours, the querulous and pitiful complaint that they have + no time to do what they ought to do and would wish to do; but let them + feel that they have a gigantic store of minutes and hours and days and + months, abundantly sufficient to enable them to effect what it is + especially worthy of a noble mind to perform! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY VIII. OF HUMAN VEGETATION. + </h2> + <p> + There is another point of view from which we may look at the subject of + time as it is concerned with the business of human life, that will lead us + to conclusions of a very different sort from those which are set down in + the preceding Essay. + </p> + <p> + Man has two states of existence in a striking degree distinguished from + each other: the state in which he is found during his waking hours; and + the state in which he is during sleep. + </p> + <p> + The question has been agitated by Locke and other philosophers, "whether + the soul always thinks," in other words, whether the mind, during those + hours in which our limbs lie for the most part in a state of inactivity, + is or is not engaged by a perpetual succession of images and impressions. + This is a point that can perhaps never be settled. When the empire of + sleep ceases, or when we are roused from sleep, we are often conscious + that we have been to that moment busily employed with that sort of + conceptions and scenes which we call dreams. And at times when, on waking, + we have no such consciousness, we can never perhaps be sure that the shock + that waked us, had not the effect of driving away these fugitive and + unsubstantial images. There are men who are accustomed to say, they never + dream. If in reality the mind of man, from the hour of his birth, must by + the law of its nature be constantly occupied with sensations or images + (and of the contrary we can never be sure), then these men are all their + lives in the state of persons, upon whom the shock that wakes them, has + the effect of driving away such fugitive and unsubstantial images.—Add + to which, there may be sensations in the human subject, of a species + confused and unpronounced, which never arrive at that degree of + distinctness as to take the shape of what we call dreaming. + </p> + <p> + So much for man in the state of sleep. + </p> + <p> + But during our waking hours, our minds are very differently occupied at + different periods of the day. I would particularly distinguish the two + dissimilar states of the waking man, when the mind is indolent, and when + it is on the alert. + </p> + <p> + While I am writing this Essay, my mind may be said to be on the alert. It + is on the alert, so long as I am attentively reading a book of philosophy, + of argumentation, of eloquence, or of poetry. + </p> + <p> + It is on the alert, so long as I am addressing a smaller or a greater + audience, and endeavouring either to amuse or instruct them. It is on the + alert, while in silence and solitude I endeavour to follow a train of + reasoning, to marshal and arrange a connected set of ideas, or in any + other way to improve my mind, to purify my conceptions, and to advance + myself in any of the thousand kinds of intellectual process. It is on the + alert, when I am engaged in animated conversation, whether my cue be to + take a part in the reciprocation of alternate facts and remarks in + society, or merely to sit an attentive listener to the facts and remarks + of others. + </p> + <p> + This state of the human mind may emphatically be called the state of + activity and attention. + </p> + <p> + So long as I am engaged in any of the ways here enumerated, or in any + other equally stirring mental occupations which are not here set down, my + mind is in a frame of activity. + </p> + <p> + But there is another state in which men pass their minutes and hours, that + is strongly contrasted with this. It depends in some men upon + constitution, and in others upon accident, how their time shall be + divided, how much shall be given to the state of activity, and how much to + the state of indolence. + </p> + <p> + In an Essay I published many years ago there is this passage. + </p> + <p> + "The chief point of difference between the man of talent and the man + without, consists in the different ways in which their minds are employed + during the same interval. They are obliged, let us suppose, to walk from + Temple-Bar to Hyde-Park-Corner. The dull man goes straight forward; he has + so many furlongs to traverse. He observes if he meets any of his + acquaintance; he enquires respecting their health and their family. He + glances perhaps the shops as he passes; he admires the fashion of a + buckle, and the metal of a tea-urn. If he experiences any flights of + fancy, they are of a short extent; of the same nature as the flights of a + forest-bird, clipped of his wings, and condemned to pass the rest of his + life in a farm-yard. On the other hand the man of talent gives full scope + to his imagination. He laughs and cries. Unindebted to the suggestions of + surrounding objects, his whole soul is employed. He enters into nice + calculations; he digests sagacious reasonings. In imagination he declaims + or describes, impressed with the deepest sympathy, or elevated to the + loftiest rapture. He makes a thousand new and admirable combinations. He + passes through a thousand imaginary scenes, tries his courage, tasks his + ingenuity, and thus becomes gradually prepared to meet almost any of the + many-coloured events of human life. He consults by the aid of memory the + books he has read, and projects others for the future instruction and + delight of mankind. If he observe the passengers, he reads their + countenances, conjectures their past history, and forms a superficial + notion of their wisdom or folly, their virtue or vice, their satisfaction + or misery. If he observe the scenes that occur, it is with the eye of a + connoisseur or an artist. Every object is capable of suggesting to him a + volume of reflections. The time of these two persons in one respect + resembles; it has brought them both to Hyde-Park-Corner. In almost every + other respect it is dissimilar;(14)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (14) Enquirer, Part 1, Essay V. +</pre> + <p> + This passage undoubtedly contains a true description of what may happen, + and has happened. + </p> + <p> + But there lurks in this statement a considerable error. + </p> + <p> + It has appeared in the second Essay of this volume, that there is not that + broad and strong line of distinction between the wise man and the dull + that has often been supposed. We are all of us by turns both the one and + the other. Or, at least, the wisest man that ever existed spends a portion + of his time in vacancy and dulness; and the man, whose faculties are + seemingly the most obtuse, might, under proper management from the hour of + his birth, barring those rare exceptions from the ordinary standard of + mind which do not deserve to be taken into the account, have proved apt, + adroit, intelligent and acute, in the walk for which his organisation + especially fitted him(15). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (15) See above, Essay 3. +</pre> + <p> + Many men without question, in a walk of the same duration as that above + described between Temple-Bar and Hyde-Park-Corner, have passed their time + in as much activity, and amidst as strong and various excitements, as + those enumerated in the passage above quoted. + </p> + <p> + But the lives of all men, the wise, and those whom by way of contrast we + are accustomed to call the dull, are divided between animation and + comparative vacancy; and many a man, who by the bursts of his genius has + astonished the world, and commanded the veneration of successive ages, has + spent a period of time equal to that occupied by a walk from Temple-Bar to + Hyde-Park-Corner, in a state of mind as idle, and as little affording + materials for recollection, as the dullest man that ever breathed the + vital air. + </p> + <p> + The two states of man which are here attempted to be distinguished, are, + first, that in which reason is said to fill her throne, in which will + prevails, and directs the powers of mind or of bodily action in one + channel or another; and, secondly, that in which these faculties, tired of + for ever exercising their prerogatives, or, being awakened as it were from + sleep, and having not yet assumed them, abandon the helm, even as a + mariner might be supposed to do, in a wide sea, and in a time when no + disaster could be apprehended, and leave the vessel of the mind to drift, + exactly as chance might direct. + </p> + <p> + To describe this last state of mind I know not a better term that can be + chosen, than that of reverie. It is of the nature of what I have seen + denominated BROWN STUDY(16) a species of dozing and drowsiness, in which + all men spend a portion of the waking part of every day of their lives. + Every man must be conscious of passing minutes, perhaps hours of the day, + particularly when engaged in exercise in the open air, in this species of + neutrality and eviration. It is often not unpleasant at the time, and + leaves no sinking of the spirits behind. It is probably of a salutary + nature, and may be among the means, in a certain degree beneficial like + sleep, by which the machine is restored, and the man comes forth from its + discipline reinvigorated, and afresh capable of his active duties. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (16) Norris, and Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language. +</pre> + <p> + This condition of our nature has considerably less vitality in it, than we + experience in a complete and perfect dream. In dreaming we are often + conscious of lively impressions, of a busy scene, and of objects and + feelings succeeding each other with rapidity. We sometimes imagine + ourselves earnestly speaking: and the topics we treat, and the words we + employ, are supplied to us with extraordinary fluency. But the sort of + vacancy and inoccupation of which I here treat, has a greater resemblance + to the state of mind, without distinct and clearly unfolded ideas, which + we experience before we sink into sleep. The mind is in reality in a + condition, more properly accessible to feeling and capable of thought, + than actually in the exercise of either the one or the other. We are + conscious of existence and of little more. We move our legs, and continue + in a peripatetic state; for the man who has gone out of his house with a + purpose to walk, exercises the power of volition when he sets out, but + proceeds in his motion by a semi-voluntary act, by a sort of vis inertiae, + which will not cease to operate without an express reason for doing so, + and advances a thousand steps without distinctly willing any but the + first. When it is necessary to turn to the right or the left, or to choose + between any two directions on which he is called upon to decide, his mind + is so far brought into action as the case may expressly require, and no + further. + </p> + <p> + I have here instanced in the case of the peripatetic: but of how many + classes and occupations of human life may not the same thing be affirmed? + It happens to the equestrian, as well as to him that walks on foot. It + occurs to him who cultivates the fruits of the earth, and to him who is + occupied in any of the thousand manufactures which are the result of human + ingenuity. It happens to the soldier in his march, and to the mariner on + board his vessel. It attends the individuals of the female sex through all + their diversified modes of industry, the laundress, the housemaid, the + sempstress, the netter of purses, the knotter of fringe, and the worker in + tambour, tapestry and embroidery. In all, the limbs or the fingers are + employed mechanically; the attention of the mind is only required at + intervals; and the thoughts remain for the most part in a state of + non-excitation and repose. + </p> + <p> + It is a curious question, but extremely difficult of solution, what + portion of the day of every human creature must necessarily be spent in + this sort of intellectual indolence. In the lower classes of society its + empire is certainly very great; its influence is extensive over a large + portion of the opulent and luxurious; it is least among those who are + intrusted in the more serious affairs of mankind, and among the literary + and the learned, those who waste their lives, and consume the + midnight-oil, in the search after knowledge. + </p> + <p> + It appeared with sufficient clearness in the immediately preceding Essay, + that the intellect cannot be always on the stretch, nor the bow of the + mind for ever bent. In the act of composition, unless where the province + is of a very inferior kind, it is likely that not more than two or three + hours at a time can be advantageously occupied. But in literary labour it + will often occur, that, in addition to the hours expressly engaged in + composition, much time may be required for the collecting materials, the + collating of authorities, and the bringing together a variety of + particulars, so as to sift from the mass those circumstances which may + best conduce to the purpose of the writer. In all these preliminary and + inferior enquiries it is less necessary that the mind should be + perpetually awake and on the alert, than in the direct office of + composition. The situation is considerably similar of the experimental + philosopher, the man who by obstinate and unconquerable application + resolves to wrest from nature her secrets, and apply them to the + improvement of social life, or to the giving to the human mind a wider + range or a more elevated sphere. A great portion of this employment + consists more in the motion of the hands and the opportune glance of the + eye, than in the labour of the head, and allows to the operator from time + to time an interval of rest from the momentous efforts of invention and + discovery, and the careful deduction of consequences in the points to be + elucidated. + </p> + <p> + There is a distinction, sufficiently familiar to all persons who occupy a + portion of their time in reading, that is made between books of + instruction, and books of amusement. From the student of mathematics or + any of the higher departments of science, from the reader of books of + investigation and argument, an active attention is demanded. Even in the + perusal of the history of kingdoms and nations, or of certain memorable + periods of public affairs, we can scarcely proceed with any satisfaction, + unless in so far as we collect our thoughts, compare one part of the + narrative with another, and hold the mind in a state of activity. + </p> + <p> + We are obliged to reason while we read, and in some degree to construct a + discourse of our own, at the same time that we follow the statements of + the author before us. Unless we do this, the sense and spirit of what we + read will be apt to slip from under our observation, and we shall by and + by discover that we are putting together words and sounds only, when we + purposed to store our minds with facts and reflections. We apprehended not + the sense of the writer even when his pages were under our eye, and of + consequence have nothing laid up in the memory after the hour of reading + is completed. + </p> + <p> + In works of amusement it is otherwise, and most especially in writings of + fiction. These are sought after with avidity by the idle, because for the + most part they are found to have the virtue of communicating impressions + to the reader, even while his mind remains in a state of passiveness. He + finds himself agreeably affected with fits of mirth or of sorrow, and + carries away the facts of the tale, at the same time that he is not called + upon for the act of attention. This is therefore one of the modes of + luxury especially cultivated in a highly civilized state of society. + </p> + <p> + The same considerations will also explain to us the principal part of the + pleasure that is experienced by mankind in all states of society from + public shews and exhibitions. The spectator is not called upon to exert + himself; the amusement and pleasure come to him, while he remains + voluptuously at his ease; and it is certain that the exertion we make when + we are compelled to contribute to, and become in part the cause of our own + entertainment, is more than the human mind is willing to sustain, except + at seasons in which we are specially on the alert and awake. + </p> + <p> + This is further one of the causes why men in general feel prompted to seek + the society of their fellows. We are in part no doubt called upon in + select society to bring our own information along with us, and a certain + vein of wit, humour or narrative, that we may contribute our proportion to + the general stock. We read the newspapers, the newest publications, and + repair to places of fashionable amusement and resort; partly that we may + at least be upon a par with the majority of the persons we are likely to + meet. But many do not thus prepare themselves, nor does perhaps any one + upon all occasions. + </p> + <p> + There is another state of human existence in which we expressly dismiss + from our hands the reins of the mind, and suffer our minutes and our hours + to glide by us undisciplined and at random. + </p> + <p> + This is, generally speaking, the case in a period of sickness. We have no + longer the courage to be on the alert, and to superintend the march of our + thoughts. It is the same with us for the most part when at any time we lie + awake in our beds. To speak from my own experience, I am in a restless and + uneasy state while I am alone in my sitting-room, unless I have some + occupation of my own choice, writing or reading, or any of those + employments the pursuit of which was chosen at first, and which is more or + less under the direction of the will afterwards. But when awake in my bed, + either in health or sickness, I am reasonably content to let my thoughts + flow on agreeably to those laws of association by which I find them + directed, without giving myself the trouble to direct them into one + channel rather than another, or to marshal and actively to prescribe the + various turns and mutations they may be impelled to pursue. + </p> + <p> + It is thus that we are sick; and it is thus that we die. The man that + guides the operations of his own mind, is either to a certain degree in + bodily health, or in that health of mind which shall for a longer or + shorter time stand forward as the substitute of the health of the body. + When we die, we give up the game, and are not disposed to contend any + further. It is a very usual thing to talk of the struggles of a man in + articulo mortis. But this is probably, like so many other things that + occur to us in this sublunary stage, a delusion. The bystander mistakes + for a spontaneous contention and unwillingness to die, what is in reality + nothing more than an involuntary contraction and convulsion of the nerves, + to which the mind is no party, and is even very probably unconscious.—But + enough of this, the final and most humiliating state through which mortal + men may be called on to pass. + </p> + <p> + I find then in the history of almost every human creature four different + states or modes of existence. First, there is sleep. In the strongest + degree of contrast to this there is the frame in which we find ourselves, + when we write! or invent and steadily pursue a consecutive train of + thinking unattended with the implements of writing, or read in some book + of science or otherwise which calls upon us for a fixed attention, or + address ourselves to a smaller or greater audience, or are engaged in + animated conversation. In each of these occupations the mind may + emphatically be said to be on the alert. + </p> + <p> + But there are further two distinct states or kinds of mental indolence. + The first is that which we frequently experience during a walk or any + other species of bodily exercise, where, when the whole is at an end, we + scarcely recollect any thing in which the mind has been employed, but have + been in what I may call a healthful torpor, where our limbs have been + sufficiently in action to continue our exercise, we have felt the fresh + breeze playing on our cheeks, and have been in other respects in a frame + of no unpleasing neutrality. This may be supposed greatly to contribute to + our bodily health. It is the holiday of the faculties: and, as the bow, + when it has been for a considerable time unbent, is said to recover its + elasticity, so the mind, after a holiday of this sort, comes fresh, and + with an increased alacrity, to those occupations which advance man most + highly in the scale of being. + </p> + <p> + But there is a second state of mental indolence, not so complete as this, + but which is still indolence, inasmuch as in it the mind is passive, and + does not assume the reins of empire. Such is the state in which we are + during our sleepless hours in bed; and in this state our ideas, and the + topics that successively occur, appear to go forward without remission, + while it seems that it is this busy condition of the mind, and the + involuntary activity of our thoughts, that prevent us from sleeping. + </p> + <p> + The distinction then between these two sorts of indolence is, that in the + latter our ideas are perfectly distinct, are attended with consciousness, + and can, as we please, be called up to recollection. This therefore is not + what we understand by reverie. In these waking hours which are spent by us + in bed, the mind is no less busy, than it is in sleep during a dream. The + other and more perfect sort of mental indolence, is that which we often + experience during our exercise in the open air. This is of the same nature + as the condition of thought which seems to be the necessary precursor of + sleep, and is attended with no precise consciousness. + </p> + <p> + By the whole of the above statement we are led to a new and a modified + estimate of the duration of human life. + </p> + <p> + If by life we understand mere susceptibility, a state of existence in + which we are accessible at any moment to the onset of sensation, for + example, of pain—in this sense our life is commensurate, or nearly + commensurate, to the entire period, from the quickening of the child in + the womb, to the minute at which sense deserts the dying man, and his body + becomes an inanimate mass. + </p> + <p> + But life, in the emphatical sense, and par excellence, is reduced to much + narrower limits. From this species of life it is unavoidable that we + should strike off the whole of the interval that is spent in sleep; and + thus, as a general rule, the natural day of twenty-four hours is + immediately reduced to sixteen. + </p> + <p> + Of these sixteen hours again, there is a portion that falls under the + direction of will and attention, and a portion that is passed by us in a + state of mental indolence. By the ordinary and least cultivated class of + mankind, the husbandman, the manufacturer, the soldier, the sailor, and + the main body of the female sex, much the greater part of every day is + resigned to a state of mental indolence. The will does not actively + interfere, and the attention is not roused. Even the most intellectual + beings of our species pass no inconsiderable portion of every day in a + similar condition. Such is our state for the most part during the time + that is given to bodily exercise, and during the time in which we read + books of amusement merely, or are employed in witnessing public shews and + exhibitions. + </p> + <p> + That portion of every day of our existence which is occupied by us with a + mind attentive and on the alert, I would call life in a transcendant + sense. The rest is scarcely better than a state of vegetation. + </p> + <p> + And yet not so either. The happiest and most valuable thoughts of the + human mind will sometimes come when they are least sought for, and we + least anticipated any such thing. In reading a romance, in witnessing a + performance at a theatre, in our idlest and most sportive moods, a vein in + the soil of intellect will sometimes unexpectedly be broken up, "richer + than all the tribe" of contemporaneous thoughts, that shall raise him to + whom it occurs, to a rank among his species altogether different from any + thing he had looked for. Newton was led to the doctrine of gravitation by + the fall of an apple, as he indolently reclined under the tree on which it + grew. "A verse may find him, who a sermon flies." Polemon, when + intoxicated, entered the school of Xenocrates, and was so struck with the + energy displayed by the master, and the thoughts he delivered, that from + that moment he renounced the life of dissipation he had previously led, + and applied himself entirely to the study of philosophy. —But these + instances are comparatively of rare occurrence, and do not require to be + taken into the account. + </p> + <p> + It is still true therefore for the most part, that not more than eight + hours in the day are passed by the wisest and most energetic, with a mind + attentive and on the alert. The remainder is a period of vegetation only. + In the mean time we have all of us undoubtedly to a certain degree the + power of enlarging the extent of the period of transcendant life in each + day of our healthful existence, and causing it to encroach upon the period + either of mental indolence or of sleep.—With the greater part of the + human species the whole of their lives while awake, with the exception of + a few brief and insulated intervals, is spent in a passive state of the + intellectual powers. Thoughts come and go, as chance, or some undefined + power in nature may direct, uninterfered with by the sovereign will, the + steersman of the mind. And often the understanding appears to be a blank, + upon which if any impressions are then made, they are like figures drawn + in the sand which the next tide obliterates, or are even lighter and more + evanescent than this. + </p> + <p> + Let me add, that the existence of the child for two or three years from + the period of his birth, is almost entirely a state of vegetation. The + impressions that are made upon his sensorium come and go, without either + their advent or departure being anticipated, and without the interference + of the will. It is only under some express excitement, that the faculty of + will mounts its throne, and exercises its empire. When the child smiles, + that act is involuntary; but, when he cries, will presently comes to mix + itself with the phenomenon. Wilfulness, impatience and rebellion are + infallible symptoms of a mind on the alert. And, as the child in the first + stages of its existence puts forth the faculty of will only at intervals, + so for a similar reason this period is but rarely accompanied with memory, + or leaves any traces of recollection for our after-life. + </p> + <p> + There are other memorable states of the intellectual powers, which if I + did not mention, the survey here taken would seem to be glaringly + imperfect. The first of these is madness. In this humiliating condition of + our nature the sovereignty of reason is deposed: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Chaos umpire sits, + And by decision more embroils the fray. +</pre> + <p> + The mind is in a state of turbulence and tempest in one instant, and in + another subsides into the deepest imbecility; and, even when the will is + occasionally roused, the link which preserved its union with good sense + and sobriety is dissolved, and the views by which it has the appearance of + being regulated, are all based in misconstruction and delusion. + </p> + <p> + Next to madness occur the different stages of spleen, dejection and + listlessness. The essence of these lies in the passiveness and neutrality + of the intellectual powers. In as far as the unhappy sufferer could be + roused to act, the disease would be essentially diminished, and might + finally be expelled. But long days and months are spent by the patient in + the midst of all harassing imaginations, and an everlasting nightmare + seems to sit on the soul, and lock up its powers in interminable + inactivity. Almost the only interruption to this, is when the demands of + nature require our attention, or we pay a slight and uncertain attention + to the decencies of cleanliness and attire. + </p> + <p> + In all these considerations then we find abundant occasion to humble the + pride and vain-glory of man. But they do not overturn the principles + delivered in the preceding Essay respecting the duration of human life, + though they certainly interpose additional boundaries to limit the + prospects of individual improvement. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY IX. OF LEISURE. + </h2> + <p> + The river of human life is divided into two streams; occupation and + leisure—or, to express the thing more accurately, that occupation, + which is prescribed, and may be called the business of life, and that + occupation, which arises contingently, and not so much of absolute and set + purpose, not being prescribed: such being the more exact description of + these two divisions of human life, inasmuch as the latter is often not + less earnest and intent in its pursuits than the former. + </p> + <p> + It would be a curious question to ascertain which of these is of the + highest value. + </p> + <p> + To this enquiry I hear myself loudly and vehemently answered from all + hands in favour of the first. "This," I am told by unanimous acclamation, + "is the business of life." + </p> + <p> + The decision in favour of what we primarily called occupation, above what + we called leisure, may in a mitigated sense be entertained as true. Man + can live with little or no leisure, for millions of human beings do so + live: but the species to which we belong, and of consequence the + individuals of that species, cannot exist as they ought to exist, without + occupation. + </p> + <p> + Granting however the paramount claims that occupation has to our regard, + let us endeavour to arrive at a just estimate of the value of leisure. + </p> + <p> + It has been said by some one, with great appearance of truth, that + schoolboys learn as much, perhaps more, of beneficial knowledge in their + hours of play, as in their hours of study. + </p> + <p> + The wisdom of ages has been applied to ascertain what are the most + desirable topics for the study of the schoolboy. They are selected for the + most part by the parent. There are few parents that do not feel a sincere + and disinterested desire for the welfare of their children. It is an + unquestionable maxim, that we are the best judges of that of which we have + ourselves had experience; and all parents have been children. It is + therefore idle and ridiculous to suppose that those studies which have for + centuries been chosen by the enlightened mature for the occupation of the + young, have not for the most part been well chosen. Of these studies the + earliest consist in the arts of reading and writing. Next follows + arithmetic, with perhaps some rudiments of algebra and geometry. Afterward + comes in due order the acquisition of languages, particularly the dead + languages; a most fortunate occupation for those years of man, in which + the memory is most retentive, and the reasoning powers have yet acquired + neither solidity nor enlargement. Such are the occupations of the + schoolboy in his prescribed hours of study. + </p> + <p> + But the schoolboy is cooped up in an apartment, it may be with a number of + his fellows. He is seated at a desk, diligently conning the portion of + learning that is doled out to him, or, when he has mastered his lesson, + reciting it with anxious brow and unassured lips to the senior, who is to + correct his errors, and pronounce upon the sufficiency of his industry. + All this may be well: but it is a new and more exhilarating spectacle that + presents itself to our observation, when he is dismissed from his + temporary labours, and rushes impetuously out to the open air, and gives + free scope to his limbs and his voice, and is no longer under the eye of a + censor that shall make him feel his subordination and dependence. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile the question under consideration was, not in which state he + experienced the most happiness, but which was productive of the greatest + improvement. + </p> + <p> + The review of the human subject is conveniently divided under the heads of + body and mind. + </p> + <p> + There can be no doubt that the health of the body is most promoted by + those exercises in which the schoolboy is engaged during the hours of + play. And it is further to be considered that health is required, not only + that we may be serene, contented and happy, but that we may be enabled + effectually to exert the faculties of the mind. + </p> + <p> + But there is another way, in which we are called upon to consider the + division of the human subject under the heads of body and mind. + </p> + <p> + The body is the implement and instrument of the mind, the tool by which + most of its purposes are to be effected. We live in the midst of a + material world, or of what we call such. The greater part of the pursuits + in which we engage, are achieved by the action of the limbs and members of + the body upon external matter. + </p> + <p> + Our communications with our fellow-men are all of them carried on by means + of the body. + </p> + <p> + Now the action of the limbs and members of the body is infinitely improved + by those exercises in which the schoolboy becomes engaged during his hours + of play. In the first place it is to be considered that we do those things + most thoroughly and in the shortest time, which are spontaneous, the + result of our own volition; and such are the exercises in which the + schoolboy engages during this period. His heart and soul are in what he + does. The man or the boy must be a poor creature indeed, who never does + any thing but as he is bid by another. It is in his voluntary acts and his + sports, that he learns the skilful and effective use of his eye and his + limbs. He selects his mark, and he hits it. He tries again and again, + effort after effort, and day after day, till he has surmounted the + difficulty of the attempt, and the rebellion of his members. Every + articulation and muscle of his frame is called into action, till all are + obedient to the master-will; and his limbs are lubricated and rendered + pliant by exercise, as the limbs of the Grecian athleta were lubricated + with oil. + </p> + <p> + Thus he acquires, first dexterity of motion, and next, which is of no less + importance, a confidence in his own powers, a consciousness that he is + able to effect what he purposes, a calmness and serenity which resemble + the sweeping of the area, and scattering of the saw-dust, upon which the + dancer or the athlete is to exhibit with grace, strength and effect. + </p> + <p> + So much for the advantages reaped by the schoolboy during his hours of + play as to the maturing his bodily powers, and the improvement of those + faculties of his mind which more immediately apply to the exercise of his + bodily powers. + </p> + <p> + But, beside this, it is indispensible to the well-being and advantage of + the individual, that he should employ the faculties of his mind in + spontaneous exertions. I do not object, especially during the period of + nonage, to a considerable degree of dependence and control. But his + greatest advancement, even then, seems to arise from the interior impulses + of his mind. The schoolboy exercises his wit, and indulges in sallies of + the thinking principle. This is wholsome; this is fresh; it has twice the + quickness, clearness and decision in it, that are to be found in those + acts of the mind which are employed about the lessons prescribed to him. + </p> + <p> + In school our youth are employed about the thoughts, the acts and + suggestions of other men. This is all mimicry, and a sort of second-hand + business. It resembles the proceeding of the fresh-listed soldier at + drill; he has ever his eye on his right-hand man, and does not raise his + arm, nor advance his foot, nor move his finger, but as he sees another + perform the same motion before him. It is when the schoolboy proceeds to + the playground, that he engages in real action and real discussion. It is + then that he is an absolute human being and a genuine individual. + </p> + <p> + The debates of schoolboys, their discussions what they shall do, and how + it shall be done, are anticipations of the scenes of maturer life. They + are the dawnings of committees, and vestries, and hundred-courts, and + ward-motes, and folk-motes, and parliaments. When boys consult when and + where their next cricket-match shall be played, it may be regarded as the + embryo representation of a consult respecting a grave enterprise to be + formed, or a colony to be planted. And, when they enquire respecting + poetry and prose, and figures and tropes, and the dictates of taste, this + happily prepares them for the investigations of prudence, and morals, and + religious principles, and what is science, and what is truth. + </p> + <p> + It is thus that the wit of man, to use the word in the old Saxon sense, + begins to be cultivated. One boy gives utterance to an assertion; and + another joins issue with him, and retorts. The wheels of the engine of the + brain are set in motion, and, without force, perform their healthful + revolutions. The stripling feels himself called upon to exert his presence + of mind, and becomes conscious of the necessity of an immediate reply. + Like the unfledged bird, he spreads his wings, and essays their powers. He + does not answer, like a boy in his class, who tasks his understanding or + not, as the whim of the moment shall prompt him, where one boy honestly + performs to the extent of his ability, and others disdain the empire + assumed over them, and get off as cheaply as they can. He is no longer + under review, but is engaged in real action. The debate of the schoolboy + is the combat of the intellectual gladiator, where he fences and parries + and thrusts with all the skill and judgment he possesses. + </p> + <p> + There is another way in which the schoolboy exercises his powers during + his periods of leisure. He is often in society; but he is ever and anon in + solitude. At no period of human life are our reveries so free and + untrammeled, as at the period here spoken of. He climbs the + mountain-cliff; and penetrates into the depths of the woods. His joints + are well strung; he is a stranger to fatigue. He rushes down the + precipice, and mounts again with ease, as though he had the wings of a + bird. He ruminates, and pursues his own trains of reflection and + discovery, "exhausting worlds," as it appears to him, "and then imagining + new." He hovers on the brink of the deepest philosophy, enquiring how came + I here, and to what end. He becomes a castle-builder, constructing + imaginary colleges and states, and searching out the businesses in which + they are to be employed, and the schemes by which they are to be + regulated. He thinks what he would do, if he possessed uncontrolable + strength, if he could fly, if he could make himself invisible. In this + train of mind he cons his first lessons of liberty and independence. He + learns self-reverence, and says to himself, I also am an artist, and a + maker. He ruffles himself under the yoke, and feels that he suffers foul + tyranny when he is driven, and when brute force is exercised upon him, to + compel him to a certain course, or to chastise his faults, imputed or + real. + </p> + <p> + Such are the benefits of leisure to the schoolboy: and they are not less + to man when arrived at years of discretion. It is good for us to have some + regular and stated occupation. Man may be practically too free; this is + frequently the case with those who have been nurtured in the lap of + opulence and luxury. We were sent into the world under the condition, "In + the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." And those who, by the + artificial institutions of society, are discharged from this necessity, + are placed in a critical and perilous situation. They are bound, if they + would consult their own well-being, to contrive for themselves a + factitious necessity, that may stand them in the place of that necessity + which is imposed without appeal on the vast majority of their brethren. + </p> + <p> + But, if it is desirable that every man should have some regular and stated + occupation, so it is certainly not less desirable, that every man should + have his seasons of relaxation and leisure. + </p> + <p> + Unhappy is the wretch, whose condition it is to be perpetually bound to + the oar, and who is condemned to labour in one certain mode, during all + the hours that are not claimed by sleep, or as long as the muscles of his + frame, or the fibres of his fingers will enable him to persevere. "Apollo + himself," says the poet, "does not always bend the bow." There should be a + season, when the mind is free as air, when not only we should follow + without restraint any train of thinking or action, within the bounds of + sobriety, and that is not attended with injury to others, that our own + minds may suggest to us, but should sacrifice at the shrine of + intellectual liberty, and spread our wings, and take our flight into + untried regions. It is good for man that he should feel himself at some + time unshackled and autocratical, that he should say, This I do, because + it is prescribed to me by the conditions without which I cannot exist, or + by the election which in past time I deliberately made; and this, because + it is dictated by the present frame of my spirit, and is therefore that in + which the powers my nature has entailed upon me may be most fully + manifested. In addition to which we are to consider, that a certain + variety and mutation of employments is best adapted to humanity. When my + mind or my body seems to be overwrought by one species of occupation, the + substitution of another will often impart to me new life, and make me feel + as fresh as if no labour had before engaged me. For all these reasons it + is to be desired, that we should possess the inestimable privilege of + leisure, that in the revolving hours of every day a period should arrive, + at which we should lay down the weapons of our labour, and engage in a + sport that may be no less active and strenuous than the occupation which + preceded it. + </p> + <p> + A question, which deserves our attention in this place, is, how much of + every day it behoves us to give to regular and stated occupation, and how + much is the just and legitimate province of leisure. It has been remarked + in a preceding Essay(17), that, if my main and leading pursuit is literary + composition, two or three hours in the twenty-four will often be as much + as can advantageously and effectually be so employed. But this will + unavoidably vary according to the nature of the occupation: the period + above named may be taken as the MINIMUM. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (17) See above, Essay 7. +</pre> + <p> + Such, let us say, is the portion of time which the man of letters is + called on to devote to literary composition. + </p> + <p> + It may next be fitting to enquire as to the humbler classes of society, + and those persons who are engaged in the labour of the hands, how much + time they ought to be expected to consume in their regular and stated + occupations, and how much would remain to them for relaxation and leisure. + It has been said(18), that half an hour in the day given by every member + of the community to manual labour, might be sufficient for supplying the + whole with the absolute necessaries of life. But there are various + considerations that would inevitably lengthen this period. In a community + which has made any considerable advance in the race of civilisation, many + individuals must be expected to be excused from any portion of manual + labour. It is not desirable that any community should be contented to + supply itself with necessaries only. There are many refinements in life, + and many advances in literature and the arts, which indispensibly conduce + to the rendering man in society a nobler and more exalted creature than he + could otherwise be; and these ought not to be consigned to neglect. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (18) Political Justice, Book VIII, Chap. VI. +</pre> + <p> + On the other hand however it is certain, that much of the ostentation and + a multitude of the luxuries which subsist in European and Asiatic society + are just topics of regret, and that, if ever those improvements in + civilisation take place which philosophy has essayed to delineate, there + would be a great abridgment of the manual labour that we now see around + us, and the humbler classes of the community would enter into the + inheritance of a more considerable portion of leisure than at present + falls to their lot. + </p> + <p> + But it has been much the habit, for persons not belonging to the humbler + classes of the community, and who profess to speculate upon the genuine + interests of human society, to suppose, however certain intervals of + leisure may conduce to the benefit of men whose tastes have been + cultivated and refined, and who from education have many resources of + literature and reflection at all times at their beck, yet that leisure + might prove rather pernicious than otherwise to the uneducated and the + ignorant. Let us enquire then how these persons would be likely to employ + the remainder of their time, if they had a greater portion of leisure than + they at present enjoy.—I would add, that the individuals of the + humbler classes of the community need not for ever to merit the + appellation of the uneducated and ignorant. + </p> + <p> + In the first place, they would engage, like the schoolboy, in active + sports, thereby giving to their limbs, which, in rural occupation and + mechanical labour, are somewhat too monotonously employed, and contract + the stiffness and experience the waste of a premature old age, the + activity and freedom of an athlete, a cricketer, or a hunter. Nor do these + occupations only conduce to the health of the body, they also impart a + spirit and a juvenile earnestness to the mind. + </p> + <p> + In the next place, they may be expected to devote a part of the day, more + than they do at present, to their wives and families, cultivating the + domestic affections, watching the expanding bodies and minds of their + children, leading them on in the road of improvement, warning them against + the perils with which they are surrounded, and observing with somewhat of + a more jealous and parental care, what it is for which by their individual + qualities they are best adapted, and in what particular walk of life they + may most advantageously be engaged. The father and the son would grow in a + much greater degree friends, anticipating each other's wishes, and + sympathising in each other's pleasures and pains. + </p> + <p> + Thirdly, one infallible consequence of a greater degree of leisure in the + lower classes would be that reading would become a more common propensity + and amusement. It is the aphorism of one of the most enlightened of my + contemporaries, "The schoolmaster is abroad:" and many more than at + present would desire to store up in their little hoard a certain portion + of the general improvement. We should no longer have occasion to say, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + But knowledge to their eyes her ample page, + Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unrol. +</pre> + <p> + Nor should we be incited to fear that ever wakeful anticipation of the + illiberal, that, by the too great diffusion of the wisdom of the wise, we + might cease to have a race of men adapted to the ordinary pursuits of + life. Our ploughmen and artificers, who obtained the improvements of + intellect through the medium of leisure, would have already received their + destination, and formed their habits, and would be disposed to consider + the new lights that were opened upon them, as the ornament of existence, + not its substance. Add to which, as leisure became more abundant, and the + opportunities of intellectual improvement increased, they would have less + motive to repine at their lot. It is principally while knowledge and + information are new, that they are likely to intoxicate the brain of those + to whose share they have fallen; and, when they are made a common stock + upon which all men may draw, sound thinking and sobriety may be expected + to be the general result. + </p> + <p> + One of the scenes to which the leisure of the laborious classes is seen to + induce them to resort, is the public-house; and it is inferred that, if + their leisure were greater, a greater degree of drunkenness, dissipation + and riot would inevitably prevail. + </p> + <p> + In answer to this anticipation, I would in the first place assert, that + the merits and demerits of the public-house are very unjustly rated by the + fastidious among the more favoured orders of society. + </p> + <p> + We ought to consider that the opportunities and amusements of the lower + orders of society are few. They do not frequent coffee-houses; theatres + and places of public exhibition are ordinarily too expensive for them; and + they cannot engage in rounds of visiting, thus cultivating a private and + familiar intercourse with the few whose conversation might be most + congenial to them. We certainly bear hard upon persons in this rank of + society, if we expect that they should take all the severer labour, and + have no periods of unbending and amusement. + </p> + <p> + But in reality what occurs in the public-house we are too much in the + habit of calumniating. If we would visit this scene, we should find it + pretty extensively a theatre of eager and earnest discussion. It is here + that the ardent and "unwashed artificer," and the sturdy husbandman, + compare notes and measure wits with each other. It is their arena of + intellectual combat, the ludus literarius of their unrefined university. + It is here they learn to think. Their minds are awakened from the sleep of + ignorance; and their attention is turned into a thousand channels of + improvement. They study the art of speaking, of question, allegation and + rejoinder. They fix their thought steadily on the statement that is made, + acknowledge its force, or detect its insufficiency. They examine the most + interesting topics, and form opinions the result of that examination. They + learn maxims of life, and become politicians. They canvas the civil and + criminal laws of their country, and learn the value of political liberty. + They talk over measures of state, judge of the intentions, sagacity and + sincerity of public men, and are likely in time to become in no + contemptible degree capable of estimating what modes of conducting + national affairs, whether for the preservation of the rights of all, or + for the vindication and assertion of justice between man and man, may be + expected to be crowned with the greatest success: in a word, they thus + become, in the best sense of the word, citizens. + </p> + <p> + As to excess in drinking, the same thing may be expected to occur here, as + has been remarked of late years in better company in England. In + proportion as the understanding is cultivated, men are found to be less + the victims of drinking and the grosser provocatives of sense. The king of + Persia of old made it his boast that he could drink large quantities of + liquor with greater impunity than any of his subjects. Such was not the + case with the more polished Greeks. In the dark ages the most glaring + enormities of that kind prevailed. Under our Charles the Second coarse + dissipation and riot characterised the highest circles. Rochester, the + most accomplished man and the greatest wit of our island, related of + himself that, for five years together, he could not affirm that for any + one day he had been thoroughly sober. In Ireland, a country less refined + than our own, the period is not long past, when on convivial occasions the + master of the house took the key from his door, that no one of his guests + might escape without having had his dose. No small number of the + contemporaries of my youth fell premature victims to the intemperance + which was then practised. Now wine is merely used to excite a gayer and + livelier tone of the spirits; and inebriety is scarcely known in the + higher circles. In like manner, it may readily be believed that, as men in + the lower classes of society become less ignorant and obtuse, as their + thoughts are less gross, as they wear off the vestigia ruris, the remains + of a barbarous state, they will find less need to set their spirits afloat + by this animal excitement, and will devote themselves to those thoughts + and that intercourse which shall inspire them with better and more + honourable thoughts of our common nature. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY X. OF IMITATION AND INVENTION. + </h2> + <p> + Of the sayings of the wise men of former times none has been oftener + repeated than that of Solomon, "The thing that hath been, is that which + is; and that which is done, is that which shall be done; and there is no + new thing under the sun." + </p> + <p> + The books of the Old Testament are apparently a collection of the whole + literary remains of an ancient and memorable people, whose wisdom may + furnish instruction to us, and whose poetry abounds in lofty flights and + sublime imagery. How this collection came indiscriminately to be + considered as written by divine inspiration, it is difficult to pronounce. + The history of the Jews, as contained in the Books of Kings and of + Chronicles, certainly did not require the interposition of the Almighty + for its production; and the pieces we receive as the compositions of + Solomon have conspicuously the air of having emanated from a conception + entirely human. + </p> + <p> + In the book of Ecclesiastes, from which the above sentence is taken, are + many sentiments not in accordance with the religion of Christ. For + example; "That which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts; as the + one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath, so that a + man hath no preeminence above a beast: all go to one place; all are of the + dust, and turn to dust again. Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing + better, than that a man should rejoice in his works." And again, "The + living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing; their + love, and their hatred, and their envy are perished; neither have they any + more a reward." Add to this, "Wherefore I praise the dead which are + already dead, more than the living which are yet alive: yea, better is he + than both they, which hath not yet been." There can therefore be no just + exception taken against our allowing ourselves freely to canvas the maxim + cited at the head of this Essay. + </p> + <p> + It certainly contains a sufficient quantity of unquestionable truth, to + induce us to regard it as springing from profound observation, and + comprehensive views of what is acted "under the sun." + </p> + <p> + A wise man would look at the labours of his own species, in much the same + spirit as he would view an ant-hill through a microscope. He would see + them tugging a grain of corn up a declivity; he would see the tracks that + are made by those who go, and who return; their incessant activity; and + would find one day the copy of that which went before; and their labours + ending in nothing: I mean, in nothing that shall carry forward the + improvement of the head and the heart, either in the individual or + society, or that shall add to the conveniences of life, or the better + providing for the welfare of communities of men. He would smile at their + earnestness and zeal, all spent in supplying the necessaries of the day, + or, at most, providing for the revolution of the seasons, or for that + ephemeral thing we call the life of man. + </p> + <p> + Few things can appear more singular, when duly analysed, than that + articulated air, which we denominate speech. It is not to be wondered at + that we are proud of the prerogative, which so eminently distinguishes us + from the rest of the animal creation. The dog, the cat, the horse, the + bear, the lion, all of them have voice. But we may almost consider this as + their reproach. They can utter for the greater part but one monotonous, + eternal sound. + </p> + <p> + The lips, the teeth, the palate, the throat, which in man are instruments + of modifying the voice in such endless variety, are in this respect given + to them in vain: while all the thoughts that occur, at least to the bulk + of mankind, we are able to express in words, to communicate facts, + feelings, passions, sentiments, to discuss, to argue, to agree, to issue + commands on the one part, and report the execution on the other, to + inspire lofty conceptions, to excite the deepest feeling of commiseration, + and to thrill the soul with extacy, almost too mighty to be endured. + </p> + <p> + Yet what is human speech for the most part but mere imitation? In the most + obvious sense this stands out on the surface. We learn the same words, we + speak the same language, as our elders. Not only our words, but our + phrases are the same. We are like players, who come out as if they were + real persons, but only utter what is set down for them. We represent the + same drama every day; and, however stale is the eternal repetition, pass + it off upon others, and even upon ourselves, as if it were the suggestion + of the moment. In reality, in rural or vulgar life, the invention of a new + phrase ought to be marked down among the memorable things in the calendar. + We afford too much honour to ordinary conversation, when we compare it to + the exhibition of the recognised theatres, since men ought for the most + part to be considered as no more than puppets. They perform the + gesticulations; but the words come from some one else, who is hid from the + sight of the general observer. And not only the words, but the cadence: + they have not even so much honour as players have, to choose the manner + they may deem fittest by which to convey the sense and the passion of what + they speak. The pronunciation, the dialect, all, are supplied to them, and + are but a servile repetition. Our tempers are merely the work of the + transcriber. We are angry, where we saw that others were angry; and we are + pleased, because it is the tone to be pleased. We pretend to have each of + us a judgment of our own: but in truth we wait with the most patient + docility, till he whom we regard as the leader of the chorus gives us the + signal, Here you are to applaud, and Here you are to condemn. + </p> + <p> + What is it that constitutes the manners of nations, by which the people of + one country are so eminently distinguished from the people of another, so + that you cannot cross the channel from Dover to Calais, twenty-one miles, + without finding yourself in a new world? Nay, I need not go among the + subjects of another government to find examples of this; if I pass into + Ireland, Scotland or Wales, I see myself surrounded with a new people, all + of whose characters are in a manner cast in one mould, and all different + from the citizens of the principal state and from one another. We may go + further than this. Not only nations, but classes of men, are contrasted + with each other. What can be more different than the gentry of the west + end of this metropolis, and the money-making dwellers in the east? From + them I will pass to Billingsgate and Wapping. What more unlike than a + soldier and a sailor? the children of fashion that stroll in St. James's + and Hyde Park, and the care-worn hirelings, that recreate themselves, with + their wives and their brats, with a little fresh air on a Sunday near + Islington? The houses of lords and commons have each their characteristic + manners. Each profession has its own, the lawyer, the divine, and the man + of medicine. We are all apes, fixing our eyes upon a model, and copying + him, gesture by gesture. We are sheep, rushing headlong through the gap, + when the bell-wether shews us the way. We are choristers, mechanically + singing in a certain key, and giving breath to a certain tone. + </p> + <p> + Our religion, our civil practices, our political creed, are all imitation. + How many men are there, that have examined the evidences of their + religious belief, and can give a sound "reason of the faith that is in + them?" When I was a child, I was taught that there were four religions in + the world, the Popish, the Protestant, the Mahometan, the Pagan. It is a + phenomenon to find the man, who has held the balance steadily, and + rendered full and exact justice to the pretensions of each of these. No: + tell me the longitude and latitude in which a man is born, and I will tell + you his religion. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + By education most have been misled; + So they believe, because they so were bred: + The priest continues what the nurse began, + And thus the child imposes on the man. +</pre> + <p> + And, if this happens, where we are told our everlasting salvation is at + issue, we may easily judge of the rest. + </p> + <p> + The author, with one of whose dicta I began this Essay, has observed, "One + generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth + abideth for ever." It is a maxim of the English constitution, that "the + king never dies;" and the same may with nearly equal propriety be observed + of every private man, especially if he have children. "Death," say the + writers of natural history, "is the generator of life:" and what is thus + true of animal corruption, may with small variation be affirmed of human + mortality. I turn off my footman, and hire another; and he puts on the + livery of his predecessor: he thinks himself somebody; but he is only a + tenant. The same thing is true, when a country-gentleman, a noble, a + bishop, or a king dies. He puts off his garments, and another puts them + on. Every one knows the story of the Tartarian dervise, who mistook the + royal palace for a caravansera, and who proved to his majesty by + genealogical deduction, that he was only a lodger. In this sense the + mutability, which so eminently characterises every thing sublunary, is + immutability under another name. + </p> + <p> + The most calamitous, and the most stupendous scenes are nothing but an + eternal and wearisome repetition: executions, murders, plagues, famine and + battle. Military execution, the demolition of cities, the conquest of + nations, have been acted a hundred times before. The mighty conqueror, who + "smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke," who "sat in the seat + of God, shewing himself that he was God," and assuredly persuaded himself + that he was doing something to be had in everlasting remembrance, only did + that which a hundred other vulgar conquerors had done in successive ages + of the world, whose very names have long since perished from the records + of mankind. + </p> + <p> + Thus it is that the human species is for ever engaged in laborious + idleness. We put our shoulder to the wheel, and raise the vehicle out of + the mire in which it was swallowed, and we say, I have done something; but + the same feat under the same circumstances has been performed a thousand + times before. We make what strikes us as a profound observation; and, when + fairly analysed, it turns out to be about as sagacious, as if we told + what's o'clock, or whether it is rain or sunshine. Nothing can be more + delightfully ludicrous, than the important and emphatical air with which + the herd of mankind enunciate the most trifling observations. With much + labour we are delivered of what is to us a new thought; and, after a time, + we find the same in a musty volume, thrown by in a corner, and covered + with cobwebs and dust. + </p> + <p> + This is pleasantly ridiculed in the well known exclamation, "Deuce take + the old fellows who gave utterance to our wit, before we ever thought of + it!" + </p> + <p> + The greater part of the life of the mightiest genius that ever existed is + spent in doing nothing, and saying nothing. Pope has observed of + Shakespear's plays, that, "had all the speeches been printed without the + names of the persons, we might have applied them with certainty to every + speaker." To which another critic has rejoined, that that was impossible, + since the greater part of what every man says is unstamped with + peculiarity. We have all more in us of what belongs to the common nature + of man, than of what is peculiar to the individual. + </p> + <p> + It is from this beaten, turnpike road, that the favoured few of mankind + are for ever exerting themselves to escape. The multitude grow up, and are + carried away, as grass is carried away by the mower. The parish-register + tells when they were born, and when they died: "known by the ends of being + to have been." We pass away, and leave nothing behind. Kings, at whose + very glance thousands have trembled, for the most part serve for nothing + when their breath has ceased, but as a sort of distance-posts in the race + of chronology. "The dull swain treads on" their relics "with his clouted + shoon." Our monuments are as perishable as ourselves; and it is the most + hopeless of all problems for the most part, to tell where the mighty ones + of the earth repose. + </p> + <p> + All men are aware of the frailty of life, and how short is the span + assigned us. Hence every one, who feels, or thinks he feels the power to + do so, is desirous to embalm his memory, and to be thought of by a late + posterity, to whom his personal presence shall be unknown. Mighty are the + struggles; everlasting the efforts. The greater part of these we well know + are in vain. It is Aesop's mountain in labour: "Dire was the tossing, deep + the groans:" and the result is a mouse. But is it always so? + </p> + <p> + This brings us back to the question: "Is there indeed nothing new under + the sun?" + </p> + <p> + Most certainly there is something that is new. If, as the beast dies, so + died man, then indeed we should be without hope. But it is his + distinguishing faculty, that he can leave something behind, to testify + that he has lived. And this is not only true of the pyramids of Egypt, and + certain other works of human industry, that time seems to have no force to + destroy. It is often true of a single sentence, a single word, which the + multitudinous sea is incapable of washing away: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens + Possit diruere, aut innumerabilis + Annorum series, et fuga temporum. +</pre> + <p> + It is the characteristic of the mind and the heart of man, that they are + progressive. One word, happily interposed, reaching to the inmost soul, + may "take away the heart of stone, and introduce a heart of flesh." And, + if an individual may be thus changed, then his children, and his + connections, to the latest page of unborn history. + </p> + <p> + This is the true glory of man, that "one generation doth not pass away, + and another come, velut unda supervenit undam;" but that we leave our + improvements behind us. What infinite ages of refinement on refinement, + and ingenuity on ingenuity, seem each to have contributed its quota, to + make up the accommodations of every day of civilised man; his table, his + chair, the bed he lies on, the food he eats, the garments that cover him! + It has often been said, that the four quarters of the world are put under + contribution, to provide the most moderate table. To this what mills, what + looms, what machinery of a thousand denominations, what ship-building, + what navigation, what fleets are required! Man seems to have been sent + into the world a naked, forked, helpless animal, on purpose to call forth + his ingenuity to supply the accommodations that may conduce to his + well-being. The saying, that "there is nothing new under the sun," could + never have been struck out, but in one of the two extreme states of man, + by the naked savage, or by the highly civilised beings among whom the + perfection of refinement has produced an artificial feeling of uniformity. + </p> + <p> + The thing most obviously calculated to impress us with a sense of the + power, and the comparative sublimity of man, is, if we could make a voyage + of some duration in a balloon, over a considerable tract of the cultivated + and the desert parts of the earth. A brute can scarcely move a stone out + of his way, if it has fallen upon the couch where he would repose. But man + cultivates fields, and plants gardens; he constructs parks and canals; he + turns the course of rivers, and stretches vast artificial moles into the + sea; he levels mountains, and builds a bridge, joining in giddy height one + segment of the Alps to another; lastly, he founds castles, and churches, + and towers, and distributes mighty cities at his pleasure over the face of + the globe. "The first earth has passed away, and another earth has come; + and all things are made new." + </p> + <p> + It is true, that the basest treacheries, the most atrocious cruelties, + butcheries, massacres, violations of all the restraints of decency, and + all the ties of nature, fields covered with dead bodies, and flooded with + human gore, are all of them vulgar repetitions of what had been acted + countless times already. If Nero or Caligula thought to perpetrate that + which should stand unparalleled, they fell into the grossest error. The + conqueror, who should lay waste vast portions of the globe, and destroy + mighty cities, so that "thorns should come up in the palaces, and nettles + in the fortresses thereof, and they should be a habitation of serpents, + and a court for owls, and the wild beasts of the desert should meet + there," would only do what Tamerlane, and Aurengzebe, and Zingis, and a + hundred other conquerors, in every age and quarter of the world, had done + before. The splendour of triumphs, and the magnificence of courts, are so + essentially vulgar, that history almost disdains to record them. + </p> + <p> + And yet there is something that is new, and that by the reader of + discernment is immediately felt to be so. + </p> + <p> + We read of Moses, that he was a child of ordinary birth, and, when he was + born, was presently marked, as well as all the male children of his race, + for destruction. He was unexpectedly preserved; and his first act, when he + grew up, was to slay an Egyptian, one of the race to whom all his + countrymen were slaves, and to fly into exile. This man, thus friendless + and alone, in due time returned, and by the mere energy of his character + prevailed upon his whole race to make common cause with him, and to + migrate to a region, in which they should become sovereign and + independent. He had no soldiers, but what were made so by the ascendancy + of his spirit no counsellors but such as he taught to be wise, no friends + but those who were moved by the sentiment they caught from him. The Jews + he commanded were sordid and low of disposition, perpetually murmuring + against his rule, and at every unfavourable accident calling to + remembrance "the land of Egypt, where they had sat by the fleshpots, and + were full." Yet over this race he retained a constant mastery, and finally + made of them a nation whose customs and habits and ways of thinking no + time has availed to destroy. This was a man then, that possessed the true + secret to make other men his creatures, and lead them with an irresistible + power wherever he pleased. This history, taken entire, has probably no + parallel in the annals of the world. + </p> + <p> + The invasion of Greece by the Persians, and its result, seem to constitute + an event that stands alone among men. Xerxes led against this little + territory an army of 5,280,000 men. They drank up rivers, and cut their + way through giant-mountains. They were first stopped at Thermopylae by + Leonidas and his three hundred Spartans. They fought for a country too + narrow to contain the army by which the question was to be tried. The + contest was here to be decided between despotism and liberty, whether + there is a principle in man, by which a handful of individuals, pervaded + with lofty sentiments, and a conviction of what is of most worth in our + nature, can defy the brute force, and put to flight the attack, of bones, + joints and sinews, though congregated in multitudes, numberless as the + waves of the sea, or the sands on its shore. The flood finally rolled + back: and in process of time Alexander, with these Greeks whom the + ignorance of the East affected to despise, founded another universal + monarchy on the ruins of Persia. This is certainly no vulgar history. + </p> + <p> + Christianity is another of those memorable chapters in the annals of + mankind, to which there is probably no second. The son of a carpenter in a + little, rocky country, among a nation despised and enslaved, undertook to + reform the manners of the people of whom he was a citizen. The reformation + he preached was unpalatable to the leaders of the state; he was + persecuted; and finally suffered the death reserved for the lowest + malefactors, being nailed to a cross. He was cut off in the very beginning + of his career, before he had time to form a sect. His immediate + representatives and successors were tax-gatherers and fishermen. What + could be more incredible, till proved by the event, than that a religion + thus begun, should have embraced in a manner the whole civilised world, + and that of its kingdom there should be no visible end? This is a novelty + in the history of the world, equally if we consider it as brought about by + the immediate interposition of the author of all things, or regard it, as + some pretend to do, as happening in the course of mere human events. + </p> + <p> + Rome, "the eternal city," is likewise a subject that stands out from the + vulgar history of the human race. Three times, in three successive forms, + has she been the mistress of the world. First, by the purity, the + simplicity, the single-heartedness, the fervour and perseverance of her + original character she qualified herself to subdue all the nations of + mankind. Next, having conquered the earth by her virtue and by the spirit + of liberty, she was able to maintain her ascendancy for centuries under + the emperors, notwithstanding all her astonishing profligacy and anarchy. + And, lastly, after her secular ascendancy had been destroyed by the + inroads of the northern barbarians, she rose like the phoenix from her + ashes, and, though powerless in material force, held mankind in subjection + by the chains of the mind, and the consummateness of her policy. Never was + any thing so admirably contrived as the Catholic religion, to subdue the + souls of men by the power of its worship over the senses, and, by its + contrivances in auricular confession, purgatory, masses for the dead, and + its claim magisterially to determine controversies, to hold the subjects + it had gained in everlasting submission. + </p> + <p> + The great principle of originality is in the soul of man. And here again + we may recur to Greece, the parent of all that is excellent in art. + Painting, statuary, architecture, poetry, in their most exquisite and + ravishing forms, originated in this little province. Is not the Iliad a + thing new, and that will for ever remain new? Whether it was written by + one man, as I believe, or, as the levellers of human glory would have us + think, by many, there it stands: all the ages of the world present us + nothing that can come in competition with it. + </p> + <p> + Shakespear is another example of unrivalled originality. His fame is like + the giant-rivers of the world: the further it flows, the wider it spreads + out its stream, and the more marvellous is the power with which it sweeps + along. + </p> + <p> + But, in reality, all poetry and all art, that have a genuine claim to + originality, are new, the smallest, as well as the greatest. + </p> + <p> + It is the mistake of dull minds only, to suppose that every thing has been + said, that human wit is exhausted, and that we, who have unfortunately + fallen upon the dregs of time, have no alternative left, but either to be + silent, or to say over and over again, what has been well said already. + </p> + <p> + There remain yet immense tracts of invention, the mines of which have been + untouched. We perceive nothing of the strata of earth, and the hidden + fountains of water, that we travel over, unconscious of the treasures that + are immediately within our reach, till some person, endowed with the gift + of a superior sagacity, comes into the country, who appears to see through + the opake and solid mass, as we see through the translucent air, and tells + us of things yet undiscovered, and enriches us with treasures, of which we + had been hitherto entirely ignorant. The nature of the human mind, and the + capabilities of our species are in like manner a magazine of undiscovered + things, till some mighty genius comes to break the surface, and shew us + the wonderful treasures that lay beneath uncalled for and idle. + </p> + <p> + Human character is like the contents of an ample cabinet, brought together + by the untired zeal of some curious collector, who tickets his rarities + with numbers, and has a catalogue in many volumes, in which are recorded + the description and qualities of the things presented to our view. Among + the most splendid examples of character which the genius of man has + brought to light, are Don Quixote and his trusty squire, sir Roger de + Coverley, Parson Adams, Walter Shandy and his brother Toby. Who shall set + bounds to the everlasting variety of nature, as she has recorded her + creations in the heart of man? Most of these instances are recent, and + sufficiently shew that the enterprising adventurer, who would aspire to + emulate the illustrious men from whose writings these examples are drawn, + has no cause to despair. + </p> + <p> + Vulgar observers pass carelessly by a thousand figures in the crowded + masquerade of human society, which, when inscribed on the tablet by the + pencil of a master, would prove not less wondrous in the power of + affording pleasure, nor less rich as themes for inexhaustible reflection, + than the most admirable of these. The things are there, and all that is + wanting is an eye to perceive, and a pen to record them. + </p> + <p> + As to a great degree we may subscribe to the saying of the wise man, that + "there is nothing new under the sun," so in a certain sense it may also be + affirmed that nothing is old. Both of these maxims may be equally true. + The prima materia, the atoms of which the universe is composed, is of a + date beyond all record; and the figures which have yet been introduced + into the most fantastic chronology, may perhaps be incompetent to + represent the period of its birth. But the ways in which they may be + compounded are exhaustless. It is like what the writers on the Doctrine of + Chances tell us of the throwing of dice. How many men now exist on the + face of the earth? Yet, if all these were brought together, and if, in + addition to this, we could call up all the men that ever lived, it may be + doubted, whether any two would be found so much alike, that a + clear-sighted and acute observer might not surely distinguish the one from + the other. Leibnitz informs us, that no two leaves of a tree exist in the + most spacious garden, that, upon examination, could be pronounced + perfectly similar(19). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (19) See above, Essay 2. +</pre> + <p> + The true question is not, whether any thing can be found that is new, but + whether the particulars in which any thing is new may not be so minute and + trifling, as scarcely to enter for any thing, into that grand and + comprehensive view of the whole, in which matters of obvious + insignificance are of no account. + </p> + <p> + But, if art and the invention of the human mind are exhaustless, science + is even more notoriously so. We stand but on the threshold of the + knowledge of nature, and of the various ways in which physical power may + be brought to operate for the accommodation of man. This is a business + that seems to be perpetually in progress; and, like the fall of bodies by + the power of gravitation, appears to gain in momentum, in proportion as it + advances to a greater distance from the point at which the impulse was + given. The discoveries which at no remote period have been made, would, if + prophesied of, have been laughed to scorn by the ignorant sluggishness of + former generations; and we are equally ready to regard with incredulity + the discoveries yet unmade, which will be familiar to our posterity. + Indeed every man of a capacious and liberal mind is willing to admit, that + the progress of human understanding in science, which is now going on, is + altogether without any limits that by the most penetrating genius can be + assigned. It is like a mighty river, that flows on for ever and for ever, + as far as the words, "for ever," can have a meaning to the comprehension + of mortals. The question that remains is, our practicable improvement in + literature and morals, and here those persons who entertain a mean opinion + of human nature, are constantly ready to tell us that it will be found to + amount to nothing. However we may be continually improving in mechanical + knowledge and ingenuity, we are assured by this party, that we shall never + surpass what has already been done in poetry and literature, and, which is + still worse, that, however marvellous may be our future acquisitions in + science and the application of science, we shall be, as much as ever, the + creatures of that vanity, ostentation, opulence and the spirit of + exclusive accumulation, which has hitherto, in most countries (not in all + countries), generated the glaring inequality of property, and the + oppression of the many for the sake of pampering the folly of the few. + </p> + <p> + There is another circumstance that may be mentioned, which, particularly + as regards the question of repetition and novelty that is now under + consideration, may seem to operate in an eminent degree in favour of + science, while it casts a most discouraging veil over poetry and the pure + growth of human fancy and invention. Poetry is, after all, nothing more + than new combinations of old materials. Nihil est in intellectu, quod non + fuit prius in sensu. The poet has perhaps in all languages been called a + maker, a creator: but this seems to be a vain-glorious and an empty boast. + He is a collector of materials only, which he afterwards uses as best he + may be able. He answers to the description I have heard given of a tailor, + a man who cuts to pieces whatever is delivered to him from the loom, that + he may afterwards sew it together again. The poet therefore, we may be + told, adds nothing to the stock of ideas and conceptions already laid up + in the storehouse of mind. But the man who is employed upon the secrets of + nature, is eternally in progress; day after day he delivers in to the + magazine of materials for thinking and acting, what was not there before; + he increases the stock, upon which human ingenuity and the arts of life + are destined to operate. He does not, as the poet may be affirmed by his + censurers to do, travel for ever in a circle, but continues to hasten + towards a goal, while at every interval we may mark how much further he + has proceeded from the point at which his race began. + </p> + <p> + Much may be said in answer to this, and in vindication and honour of the + poet and the artist. All that is here alleged to their disadvantage, is in + reality little better than a sophism. The consideration of the articles he + makes use of, does not in sound estimate detract from the glories of which + he is the artificer. Materiem superat opus. He changes the nature of what + he handles; all that he touches is turned into gold. The manufacture he + delivers to us is so new, that the thing it previously was, is no longer + recognisable. The impression that he makes upon the imagination and the + heart, the impulses that he communicates to the understanding and the + moral feeling, are all his own; and, "if there is any thing lovely and of + good report, if there is any virtue and any praise," he may well claim our + applauses and our thankfulness for what he has effected. + </p> + <p> + There is a still further advantage that belongs to the poet and the + votarist of polite literature, which ought to be mentioned, as strongly + calculated to repress the arrogance of the men of science, and the + supercilious contempt they are apt to express for those who are engrossed + by the pursuits of imagination and taste. They are for ever talking of the + reality and progressiveness of their pursuits, and telling us that every + step they take is a point gained, and gained for the latest posterity, + while the poet merely suits himself to the taste of the men among whom he + lives, writes up to the fashion of the day, and, as our manners turn, is + sure to be swept away to the gulph of oblivion. But how does the matter + really stand? It is to a great degree the very reverse of this. + </p> + <p> + The natural and experimental philosopher has nothing sacred and + indestructible in the language and form in which he delivers truths. New + discoveries and experiments come, and his individual terms and phrases and + theories perish. One race of natural philosophers does but prepare the way + for another race, which is to succeed. They "blow the trumpet, and give + out the play." And they must be contented to perish before the brighter + knowledge, of which their efforts were but the harbingers. The Ptolemaic + system gave way to Tycho Brahe, and his to that of Copernicus. The + vortices of Descartes perished before the discoveries of Newton; and the + philosophy of Newton already begins to grow old, and is found to have weak + and decaying parts mixed with those which are immortal and divine. In the + science of mind Aristotle and Plato are set aside; the depth of + Malebranche, and the patient investigation of Locke have had their day; + more penetrating, and concise, and lynx-eyed reasoners of our own country + have succeeded; the German metaphysicians seem to have thrust these aside; + and it perhaps needs no great degree of sagacity to foresee, that Kant and + Fichte will at last fare no better than those that went before them. + </p> + <p> + But the poet is immortal. The verses of Homer are of workmanship no less + divine, than the armour of his own Achilles. His poems are as fresh and + consummate to us now, as they were to the Greeks, when the old man of + Chios wandered in person through the different cities, rehearsing his + rhapsodies to the accompaniment of his lute. The language and the thoughts + of the poet are inextricably woven together; and the first is no more + exposed to decay and to perish than the last. Presumptuous innovators have + attempted to modernise Chaucer, and Spenser, and other authors, whose + style was supposed to have grown obsolete. But true taste cannot endure + the impious mockery. The very words that occurred to these men, when the + God descended, and a fire from heaven tingled in all their veins, are + sacred, are part of themselves; and you may as well attempt to preserve + the man when you have deprived him of all his members, as think to + preserve the poet when you have taken away the words that he spoke. No + part of his glorious effusions must perish; and "the hairs of his head are + all numbered." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY XI. OF SELF-LOVE AND BENEVOLENCE. + </h2> + <p> + NO question has more memorably exercised the ingenuity of men who have + speculated upon the structure of the human mind, than that of the motives + by which we are actuated in our intercourse with our fellow-creatures. The + dictates of a plain and unsophisticated understanding on the subject are + manifest; and they have been asserted in the broadest way by the authors + of religion, the reformers of mankind, and all persons who have been + penetrated with zeal and enthusiasm for the true interests of the race to + which they belong. + </p> + <p> + "The end of the commandment," say the authors of the New Testament, "is + love." "This is the great commandment of the law, Thou shalt love thy + maker with all thy heart; and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love + thy neighbour as thyself." "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, + and give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me + nothing." "For none of us liveth to himself; and no man dieth to himself." + </p> + <p> + The sentiments of the ancient Greeks and Romans, for so many centuries as + their institutions retained their original purity, were cast in a mould of + a similar nature. A Spartan was seldom alone; they were always in society + with each other. The love of their country and of the public good was + their predominant passion, they did not imagine that they belonged to + themselves, but to the state. After the battle of Leuctra, in which the + Spartans were defeated by the Thebans, the mothers of those who were slain + congratulated one another, and went to the temples to thank the Gods, that + their children had done their duty; while the relations of those who + survived the defeat were inconsolable. + </p> + <p> + The Romans were not less distinguished by their self-denying patriotism. + It was in this spirit that Brutus put his two sons to death for conspiring + against their country. It was in this spirit that the Fabii perished at + their fort on the Cremera, and the Decii devoted themselves for the + public. The rigour of self-denial in a true Roman approached to a temper + which moderns are inclined to denominate savage. + </p> + <p> + In the times of the ancient republics the impulse of the citizens was to + merge their own individuality in the interests of the state. They held it + their duty to live but for their country. In this spirit they were + educated; and the lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of + their riper years. + </p> + <p> + In a more recent period we have learned to model our characters by a + different standard. We seldom recollect the society of which we are + politically members, as a whole, but are broken into detached parties, + thinking only for the most part of ourselves and our immediate connections + and attachments. + </p> + <p> + This change in the sentiments and manners of modern times has among its + other consequences given birth to a new species of philosophy. We have + been taught to affirm, that we can have no express and pure regard for our + fellow-creatures, but that all our benevolence and affection come to us + through the strainers of a gross or a refined self-love. The coarser + adherents of this doctrine maintain, that mankind are in all cases guided + by views of the narrowest self-interest, and that those who advance the + highest claims to philanthropy, patriotism, generosity and self-sacrifice, + are all the time deceiving others, or deceiving themselves, and use a + plausible and high-sounding language merely, that serves no other purpose + than to veil from observation "that hideous sight, a naked human heart." + </p> + <p> + The more delicate and fastidious supporters of the doctrine of universal + self-love, take a different ground. They affirm that "such persons as talk + to us of disinterestedness and pure benevolence, have not considered with + sufficient accuracy the nature of mind, feeling and will. To understand," + they say, "is one thing, and to choose another." The clearest proposition + that ever was stated, has, in itself, no tendency to produce voluntary + action on the part of the percipient. It can be only something apprehended + as agreeable or disagreeable to us, that can operate so as to determine + the will. Such is the law of universal nature. We act from the impulse of + our own desires and aversions; and we seek to effect or avert a thing, + merely because it is viewed by us as an object of gratification or the + contrary. + </p> + <p> + The virtuous man and the vicious are alike governed by the same principle; + and it is therefore the proper business of a wise instructor of youth, and + of a man who would bring his own sentiments and feelings into the most + praise-worthy frame, to teach us to find our interest and gratification in + that which shall be most beneficial to others." + </p> + <p> + When we proceed to examine the truth of these statements, it certainly is + not strictly an argument to say, that the advocate of self-love on either + of these hypotheses cannot consistently be a believer in Christianity, or + even a theist, as theism is ordinarily understood. The commandments of the + author of the Christian religion are, as we have seen, purely + disinterested: and, especially if we admit the latter of the two + explanations of self-love, we shall be obliged to confess, on the + hypothesis of this new philosophy, that the almighty author of the + universe never acts in any of his designs either of creation or + providence, but from a principle of self-love. In the mean time, if this + is not strictly an argument, it is however but fair to warn the adherents + of the doctrine I oppose, of the consequences to which their theory leads. + It is my purpose to subvert that doctrine by means of the severest + demonstration; but I am not unwilling, before I begin, to conciliate, as + far as may be, the good-will of my readers to the propositions I proceed + to establish. + </p> + <p> + I will therefore further venture to add, that, upon the hypothesis of + self-love, there can be no such thing as virtue. There are two + circumstances required, to entitle an action to be denominated virtuous. + It must have a tendency to produce good rather than evil to the race of + man, and it must have been generated by an intention to produce such good. + The most beneficent action that ever was performed, if it did not spring + from the intention of good to others, is not of the nature of virtue. + Virtue, where it exists in any eminence, is a species of conduct, modelled + upon a true estimate of the good intended to be produced. He that makes a + false estimate, and prefers a trivial and partial good to an important and + comprehensive one, is vicious(20). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (20) Political Justice, Book 11, Chap. IV. +</pre> + <p> + It is admitted on all hands, that it is possible for a man to sacrifice + his own existence to that of twenty others. But the advocates of the + doctrine of self-love must say, that he does this that he may escape from + uneasiness, and because he could not bear to encounter the inward + upbraiding with which he would be visited, if he acted otherwise. This in + reality would change his action from an act of virtue to an act of vice. + So far as belongs to the real merits of the case, his own advantage or + pleasure is a very insignificant consideration, and the benefit to be + produced, suppose to a world, is inestimable. Yet he falsely and unjustly + prefers the first, and views the latter as trivial; nay, separately taken, + as not entitled to the smallest regard. If the dictates of impartial + justice be taken into the account, then, according to the system of + self-love, the best action that ever was performed, may, for any thing we + know, have been the action, in the whole world, of the most exquisite and + deliberate injustice. Nay, it could not have been otherwise, since it + produced the greatest good, and therefore was the individual instance, in + which the greatest good was most directly postponed to personal + gratification(21). Such is the spirit of the doctrine I undertake to + refute. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (21) Political Justice, Book IV, Chap. X. +</pre> + <p> + But man is not in truth so poor and pusillanimous a creature as this + system would represent. + </p> + <p> + It is time however to proceed to the real merits of the question, to + examine what in fact is the motive which induces a good man to elect a + generous mode of proceeding. + </p> + <p> + Locke is the philosopher, who, in writing on Human Understanding, has + specially delivered the doctrine, that uneasiness is the cause which + determines the will, and urges us to act. He says(22), "The motive we have + for continuing in the same state, is only the present satisfaction we feel + in it; the motive to change is always some uneasiness: nothing setting us + upon the change of state, or upon any new action, but some uneasiness. + This is the great motive that works on the mind." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (22) Book II, Chap. XXI, Sect. 29. +</pre> + <p> + It is not my concern to enquire, whether Locke by this statement meant to + assert that self-love is the only principle of human action. It has at any + rate been taken to express the doctrine which I here propose to refute. + </p> + <p> + And, in the first place, I say, that, if our business is to discover the + consideration entertained by the mind which induces us to act, this tells + us nothing. It is like the case of the Indian philosopher(23), who, being + asked what it was that kept the earth in its place, answered, that it was + supported by an elephant, and that elephant again rested on a tortoise. He + must be endowed with a slender portion of curiosity, who, being told that + uneasiness is that which spurs on the mind to act, shall rest satisfied + with this explanation, and does not proceed to enquire, what makes us + uneasy? + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (23) Locke on Understanding, Book 11, Chap. XIII, Sect. 19. +</pre> + <p> + An explanation like this is no more instructive, than it would be, if, + when we saw a man walking, or grasping a sword or a bludgeon, and we + enquired into the cause of this phenomenon, any one should inform us that + he walks, because he has feet, and he grasps, because he has hands. + </p> + <p> + I could not commodiously give to my thoughts their present form, unless I + had been previously furnished with pens and paper. But it would be absurd + to say, that my being furnished with pens and paper, is the cause of my + writing this Essay on Self-love and Benevolence. + </p> + <p> + The advocates of self-love have, very inartificially and unjustly, + substituted the abstract definition of a voluntary agent, and made that + stand for the motive by which he is prompted to act. It is true, that we + cannot act without the impulse of desire or uneasiness; but we do not + think of that desire and uneasiness; and it is the thing upon which the + mind is fixed that constitutes our motive. In the boundless variety of the + acts, passions and pursuits of human beings, it is absurd on the face of + it to say that we are all governed by one motive, and that, however + dissimilar are the ends we pursue, all this dissimilarity is the fruit of + a single cause. + </p> + <p> + One man chooses travelling, another ambition, a third study, a fourth + voluptuousness and a mistress. Why do these men take so different courses? + </p> + <p> + Because one is partial to new scenes, new buildings, new manners, and the + study of character. Because a second is attracted by the contemplation of + wealth and power. Because a third feels a decided preference for the works + of Homer, or Shakespear, or Bacon, or Euclid. Because a fourth finds + nothing calculated to stir his mind in comparison with female beauty, + female allurements, or expensive living. + </p> + <p> + Each of these finds the qualities he likes, intrinsically in the thing he + chooses. One man feels himself strongly moved, and raised to extacy, by + the beauties of nature, or the magnificence of architecture. Another is + ravished with the divine excellencies of Homer, or of some other of the + heroes of literature. A third finds nothing delights him so much as the + happiness of others, the beholding that happiness increased, and seeing + pain and oppression and sorrow put to flight. The cause of these + differences is, that each man has an individual internal structure, + directing his partialities, one man to one thing, and another to another. + </p> + <p> + Few things can exceed the characters of human beings in variety. There + must be something abstractedly in the nature of mind, which renders it + accessible to these varieties. For the present we will call it taste. One + man feels his spirits regaled with the sight of those things which + constitute wealth, another in meditating the triumphs of Alexander or + Caesar, and a third in viewing the galleries of the Louvre. Not one of + these thinks in the outset of appropriating these objects to himself; not + one of them begins with aspiring to be the possessor of vast opulence, or + emulating the triumphs of Caesar, or obtaining in property the pictures + and statues the sight of which affords him so exquisite delight. Even the + admirer of female beauty, does not at first think of converting this + attractive object into a mistress, but on the contrary desires, like + Pygmalion, that the figure he beholds might become his solace and + companion, because he had previously admired it for itself. + </p> + <p> + Just so the benevolent man is an individual who finds a peculiar delight + in contemplating the contentment, the peace and heart's ease of other men, + and sympathises in no ordinary degree with their sufferings. He rejoices + in the existence and diffusion of human happiness, though he should not + have had the smallest share in giving birth to the thing he loves. It is + because such are his tastes, and what above all things he prefers, that he + afterwards becomes distinguished by the benevolence of his conduct. + </p> + <p> + The reflex act of the mind, which these new philosophers put forward as + the solution of all human pursuits, rarely presents itself but to the + speculative enquirer in his closet. The savage never dreams of it. The + active man, engaged in the busy scenes of life, thinks little, and on rare + occasions of himself, but much, and in a manner for ever, of the objects + of his pursuit. + </p> + <p> + Some men are uniform in their character, and from the cradle to the grave + prefer the same objects that first awakened their partialities. Other men + are inconsistent and given to change, are "every thing by starts, and + nothing long." Still it is probable that, in most cases, he who performs + an act of benevolence, feels for the time that he has a peculiar delight + in contemplating the good of his fellow-man. + </p> + <p> + The doctrine of the modern philosophers on this point, is in many ways + imbecil and unsound. It is inauspicious to their creed, that the reflex + act of the mind is purely the affair of experience. Why did the + liberal-minded man perform his first act of benevolence? The answer of + these persons ought to be, because the recollection of a generous deed is + a source of the truest delight. But there is an absurdity on the face of + this solution. + </p> + <p> + We do not experimentally know the delight which attends the recollection + of a generous deed, till a generous deed has been performed by us. We do + not learn these things from books. And least of all is this solution to + the purpose, when the business is to find a solution that suits the human + mind universally, the unlearned as well as the learned, the savage as well + as the sage. + </p> + <p> + And surely it is inconsistent with all sound reasoning, to represent that + as the sole spring of our benevolent actions, which by the very terms will + not fit the first benevolent act in which any man engaged. + </p> + <p> + The advocates of the doctrine of "self-love the source of all our + actions," are still more puzzled, when the case set before them is that of + the man, who flies, at an instant's warning, to save the life of the child + who has fallen into the river, or the unfortunate whom he beholds in the + upper story of a house in flames. This man, as might be illustrated in a + thousand instances, treats his own existence as unworthy of notice, and + exposes it to multiplied risks to effect the object to which he devotes + himself. + </p> + <p> + They are obliged to say, that this man anticipates the joy he will feel in + the recollection of a noble act, and the cutting and intolerable pain he + will experience in the consciousness that a human being has perished, whom + it was in his power to save. It is in vain that we tell them that, without + a moment's consideration, he tore off his clothes, or plunged into the + stream with his clothes on, or rushed up a flaming stair-case. Still they + tell us, that he recollected what compunctious visitings would be his lot + if he remained supine—he felt the sharpest uneasiness at sight of + the accident before him, and it was to get rid of that uneasiness, and not + for the smallest regard to the unhappy being he has been the means to + save, that he entered on the hazardous undertaking. + </p> + <p> + Uneasiness, the knowledge of what inwardly passes in the mind, is a thing + not in the slightest degree adverted to but in an interval of leisure. No; + the man here spoken of thinks of nothing but the object immediately before + his eyes; he adverts not at all to himself; he acts only with an + undeveloped, confused and hurried consciousness that he may be of some + use, and may avert the instantly impending calamity. He has scarcely even + so much reflection as amounts to this. + </p> + <p> + The history of man, whether national or individual, and consequently the + acts of human creatures which it describes, are cast in another mould than + that which the philosophy of self-love sets before us. A topic that from + the earliest accounts perpetually presents itself in the records of + mankind, is self-sacrifice, parents sacrificing themselves for their + children, and children for their parents. Cimon, the Athenian, yet in the + flower of his youth, voluntarily became the inmate of a prison, that the + body of his father might receive the honours of sepulture. Various and + unquestionable are the examples of persons who have exposed themselves to + destruction, and even petitioned to die, that so they might save the lives + of those, whose lives they held dearer than their own. Life is indeed a + thing, that is notoriously set at nothing by generous souls, who have + fervently devoted themselves to an overwhelming purpose. There have been + instances of persons, exposed to all the horrors of famine, where one has + determined to perish by that slowest and most humiliating of all the modes + of animal destruction, that another, dearer to him than life itself, + might, if possible, be preserved. + </p> + <p> + What is the true explanation of these determinations of the human will? Is + it, that the person, thus consigning himself to death, loved nothing but + himself, regarded only the pleasure he might reap, or the uneasiness he + was eager to avoid? Or, is it, that he had arrived at the exalted point of + self-oblivion, and that his whole soul was penetrated and ingrossed with + the love of those for whom he conceived so exalted a partiality? + </p> + <p> + This sentiment so truly forms a part of our nature, that a multitude of + absurd practices, and a multitude of heart-rending fables, have been + founded upon the consciousness of man in different ages and nations, that + these modes of thinking form a constituent part of our common existence. + In India there was found a woman, whose love to the deceased partner of + her soul was so overwhelming, that she resolved voluntarily to perish on + his funeral pile. And this example became so fascinating and admirable, + that, by insensible degrees, it grew into a national custom with the + Hindoos, that, by a sort of voluntary constraint, the widows of all men of + a certain caste, should consign themselves to the flames with the dead + bodies of their husbands. The story of Zopyrus cutting off his nose and + ears, and of Curtius leaping into the gulph, may be fictitious: but it was + the consciousness of those by whom these narratives were written that they + drew their materials from the mighty store-house of the heart of man, that + prompted them to record them. The institutions of clientship and clans, so + extensively diffused in different ages of the world, rests upon this + characteristic of our nature, that multitudes of men may be trained and + educated so, as to hold their existence at no price, when the life of the + individual they were taught unlimitedly to reverence might be preserved, + or might be defended at the risk of their destruction. + </p> + <p> + The principal circumstance that divides our feelings for others from our + feelings for ourselves, and that gives, to satirical observers, and + superficial thinkers, an air of exclusive selfishness to the human mind, + lies in this, that we can fly from others, but cannot fly from ourselves. + While I am sitting by the bed-side of the sufferer, while I am listening + to the tale of his woes, there is comparatively but a slight line of + demarcation, whether they are his sorrows or my own. My sympathy is + vehemently excited towards him, and I feel his twinges and anguish in a + most painful degree. But I can quit his apartment and the house in which + he dwells, can go out in the fields, and feel the fresh air of heaven + fanning my hair, and playing upon my cheeks. This is at first but a very + imperfect relief. His image follows me; I cannot forget what I have heard + and seen; I even reproach myself for the mitigation I involuntarily + experience. But man is the creature of his senses. I am every moment + further removed, both in time and place, from the object that distressed + me. There he still lies upon the bed of agony: but the sound of his + complaint, and the sight of all that expresses his suffering, are no + longer before me. A short experience of human life convinces us that we + have this remedy always at hand ("I am unhappy, only while I please")(24); + and we soon come therefore to anticipate the cure, and so, even while we + are in the presence of the sufferer, to feel that he and ourselves are not + perfectly one. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (24) Douglas. +</pre> + <p> + But with our own distempers and adversities it is altogether different. It + is this that barbs the arrow. We may change the place of our local + existence; but we cannot go away from ourselves. With chariots, and + embarking ourselves on board of ships, we may seek to escape from the + enemy. But grief and apprehension enter the vessel along with us; and, + when we mount on horseback, the discontent that specially annoyed us, gets + up behind, and clings to our sides with a hold never to be loosened(25). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (25) Horace. +</pre> + <p> + Is it then indeed a proof of selfishness, that we are in a greater or less + degree relieved from the anguish we endured for our friend, when other + objects occupy us, and we are no longer the witnesses of his sufferings? + If this were true, the same argument would irresistibly prove, that we are + the most generous of imaginable beings, the most disregardful of whatever + relates to ourselves. Is it not the first ejaculation of the miserable, + "Oh, that I could fly from myself? Oh, for a thick, substantial sleep!" + What the desperate man hates is his own identity. But he knows that, if + for a few moments he loses himself in forgetfulness, he will presently + awake to all that distracted him. He knows that he must act his part to + the end, and drink the bitter cup to the dregs. He can do none of these + things by proxy. It is the consciousness of the indubitable future, from + which we can never be divorced, that gives to our present calamity its + most fearful empire. Were it not for this great line of distinction, there + are many that would feel not less for their friend than for themselves. + But they are aware, that his ruin will not make them beggars, his mortal + disease will not bring them to the tomb, and that, when he is dead, they + may yet be reserved for many years of health, of consciousness and vigour. + </p> + <p> + The language of the hypothesis of self-love was well adapted to the + courtiers of the reign of Louis the Fourteenth. The language of + disinterestedness was adapted to the ancient republicans in the purest + times of Sparta and Rome. + </p> + <p> + But these ancients were not always disinterested; and the moderns are not + always narrow, self-centred and cold. The ancients paid, though with + comparative infrequency, the tax imposed upon mortals, and thought of + their own gratification and ease; and the moderns are not utterly + disqualified for acts of heroic affection. + </p> + <p> + It is of great consequence that men should come to think correctly on this + subject. The most snail-blooded man that exists, is not so selfish as he + pretends to be. In spite of all the indifference he professes towards the + good of others, he will sometimes be detected in a very heretical state of + sensibility towards his wife, his child or his friend; he will shed tears + at a tale of distress, and make considerable sacrifices of his own + gratification for the relief of others. + </p> + <p> + But his creed is a pernicious one. He who for ever thinks, that his + "charity must begin at home," is in great danger of becoming an + indifferent citizen, and of withering those feelings of philanthropy, + which in all sound estimation constitute the crowning glory of man. He + will perhaps have a reasonable affection towards what he calls his own + flesh and blood, and may assist even a stranger in a case of urgent + distress.—But it is dangerous to trifle with the first principles + and sentiments of morality. And this man will scarcely in any case have + his mind prepared to hail the first dawnings of human improvement, and to + regard all that belongs to the welfare of his kind as parcel of his own + particular estate. + </p> + <p> + The creed of self-love will always have a tendency to make us Frenchmen in + the frivolous part of that character, and Dutchmen in the plodding and + shopkeeping spirit of barter and sale. There is no need that we should + beat down the impulse of heroism in the human character, and be upon our + guard against the effervescences and excess of a generous sentiment. One + of the instructors of my youth was accustomed to say to his pupils, "Do + not be afraid to commit your thoughts to paper in all the fervour and glow + of your first conception: when you come to look at them the next day, you + will find this gone off to a surprising degree." As this was no ill + precept for literary composition, even so in our actions and moral conduct + we shall be in small danger of being too warm-hearted and too generous. + </p> + <p> + Modern improvements in education are earnest in recommending to us the + study of facts, and that we should not waste the time of young persons + upon the flights of imagination. But it is to imagination that we are + indebted for our highest enjoyments; it tames the ruggedness of + uncivilised nature, and is the never-failing associate of all the + considerable advances of social man, whether in throwing down the strong + fences of intellectual slavery, or in giving firmness and duration to the + edifice of political freedom. + </p> + <p> + And who does not feel that every thing depends upon the creed we embrace, + and the discipline we exercise over our own souls? + </p> + <p> + The disciple of the theory of self-love, if of a liberal disposition, will + perpetually whip himself forward "with loose reins," upon a spiritless + Pegasus, and say, "I will do generous things; I will not bring into + contempt the master I serve—though I am conscious all the while that + this is but a delusion, and that, however I brag of generosity, I do not + set a step forward, but singly for my own ends, and my own gratification." + Meanwhile, this is all a forced condition of thought; and the man who + cherishes it, will be perpetually falling back into the cold, heartless + convictions he inwardly retains. Self-love is the unwholesome, infectious + atmosphere in which he dwells; and, however he may seek to rise, the wings + of his soul will eternally be drawn downwards, and he cannot be pervaded, + as he might have been, with the free spirit of genuine philanthropy. To be + consistent, he ought continually to grow colder and colder; and the + romance, which fired his youth, and made him forget the venomous potion he + had swallowed, will fade away in age, rendering him careless of all but + himself, and indifferent to the adversity and sufferings of all of whom he + hears, and all with whom he is connected. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, the man who has embraced the creed of disinterested + benevolence, will know that it is not his fitting element to "live for + himself, or to die for himself." Whether he is under the dominion of + family-affection, friendship, patriotism, or a zeal for his brethren of + mankind, he will feel that he is at home. The generous man therefore looks + forward to the time when the chilling and wretched philosophy of the reign + of Louis the Fourteenth shall be forgotten, and a fervent desire for the + happiness and improvement of the human species shall reign in all hearts. + </p> + <p> + I am not especially desirous of sheltering my opinions under the authority + of great names: but, in a question of such vital importance to the true + welfare of men in society, no fair advantage should be neglected. The + author of the system of "self-love the source of all our actions" was La + Rochefoucault; and the whole herd of the French philosophers have not been + ashamed to follow in the train of their vaunted master. I am grieved to + say, that, as I think, the majority of my refining and subtilising + countrymen of the present day have enlisted under his banner. But the more + noble and generous view of the subject has been powerfully supported by + Shaftesbury, Butler, Hutcheson and Hume. On the last of these I + particularly pique myself; inasmuch as, though he became naturalised as a + Frenchman in a vast variety of topics, the greatness of his intellectual + powers exempted him from degradation in this. + </p> + <p> + That however which I would chiefly urge in the way of authority, is the + thing mentioned in the beginning of this Essay, I mean, the sentiments + that have animated the authors of religion, that characterise the best + ages of Greece and Rome, and that in all cases display themselves when the + loftiest and most generous sentiments of the heart are called into action. + The opposite creed could only have been engendered in the dregs of a + corrupt and emasculated court; and human nature will never shew itself + what it is capable of being, till the last remains of a doctrine, invented + in the latter part of the seventeenth century, shall have been consigned + to the execration they deserve. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY XII. OF THE LIBERTY OF HUMAN ACTIONS. + </h2> + <p> + The question, which has been attended with so long and obstinate debates, + concerning the metaphysical doctrines of liberty and necessity, and the + freedom of human actions, is not even yet finally and satisfactorily + settled. + </p> + <p> + The negative is made out by an argument which seems to amount to + demonstration, that every event requires a cause, a cause why it is as it + is and not otherwise, that the human will is guided by motives, and is + consequently always ruled by the strongest motive, and that we can never + choose any thing, either without a motive of preference, or in the way of + following the weaker, and deserting the stronger motive(26). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (26) Political Justice, Book IV, Chap. VII. +</pre> + <p> + Why is it then that disbelief or doubt should still subsist in a question + so fully decided? + </p> + <p> + For the same reason that compels us to reject many other demonstrations. + The human mind is so constituted as to oblige us, if not theoretically, at + least practically, to reject demonstration, and adhere to our senses. + </p> + <p> + The case is thus in the great question of the non-existence of an external + world, or of matter. How ever much the understanding may be satisfied of + the truth of the proposition by the arguments of Berkeley and others, we + no sooner go out into actual life, than we become convinced, in spite of + our previous scepticism or unbelief, of the real existence of the table, + the chair, and the objects around us, and of the permanence and reality of + the persons, both body and mind, with whom we have intercourse. If we were + not, we should soon become indifferent to their pleasure and pain, and in + no long time reason ourselves into the opinion that the one was not more + desirable than the other, and conduct ourselves accordingly. + </p> + <p> + But there is a great difference between the question of a material world, + and the question of liberty and necessity. The most strenuous Berkleian + can never say, that there is any contradiction or impossibility in the + existence of matter. All that he can consistently and soberly maintain is, + that, if the material world exists, we can never perceive it, and that our + sensations, and trains of impressions and thinking go on wholly + independent of that existence. + </p> + <p> + But the question of the freedom of human actions is totally of another + class. To say that in our choice we reject the stronger motive, and that + we choose a thing merely because we choose it, is sheer nonsense and + absurdity; and whoever with a sound understanding will fix his mind upon + the state of the question will perceive its impossibility. + </p> + <p> + In the mean time it is not less true, that every man, the necessarian as + well as his opponent, acts on the assumption of human liberty, and can + never for a moment, when he enters into the scenes of real life, divest + himself of this persuasion. + </p> + <p> + Let us take separately into our consideration the laws of matter and of + mind. We acknowledge generally in both an established order of antecedents + and consequents, or of causes and effects. This is the sole foundation of + human prudence and of all morality. It is because we foresee that certain + effects will follow from a certain mode of conduct, that we act in one way + rather than another. It is because we foresee that, if the soil is + prepared in a certain way, and if seed is properly scattered and covered + up in the soil thus prepared, a crop will follow, that we engage in the + labours of agriculture. In the same manner, it is because we foresee that, + if lessons are properly given, and a young person has them clearly + explained to him, certain benefits will result, and because we are + apprised of the operation of persuasion, admonition, remonstrance, menace, + punishment and reward, that we engage in the labours of education. All the + studies of the natural philosopher and the chemist, all our journeys by + land and our voyages by sea, and all the systems and science of + government, are built upon this principle, that from a certain method of + proceeding, regulated by the precepts of wisdom and experience, certain + effects may be expected to follow. + </p> + <p> + Yet, at the same time that we admit of a regular series of cause and + effect in the operations both of matter and mind, we never fail, in our + reflections upon each, to ascribe to them an essential difference. In the + laws by which a falling body descends to the earth, and by which the + planets are retained in their orbits, in a word, in all that relates to + inanimate nature, we readily assent to the existence of absolute laws, so + that, when we have once ascertained the fundamental principles of + astronomy and physics, we rely with perfect assurance upon the invariable + operation of these laws, yesterday, to-day, and for ever. As long as the + system of things, of which we are spectators, and in which we act our + several parts, shall remain, so long have the general phenomena of nature + gone on unchanged for more years of past ages than we can define, and will + in all probability continue to operate for as many ages to come. We admit + of no variation, but firmly believe that, if we were perfectly acquainted + with all the causes, we could, without danger of error, predict all the + effects. We are satisfied that, since first the machine of the universe + was set going, every thing in inanimate nature has taken place in a + regular course, and nothing has happened and can happen, otherwise than as + it actually has been and will be. + </p> + <p> + But we believe, or, more accurately speaking, we feel, that it is + otherwise in the universe of mind. Whoever attentively observes the + phenomena of thinking and sentient beings, will be convinced, that men and + animals are under the influence of motives, that we are subject to the + predominance of the passions, of love and hatred, of desire and aversion, + of sorrow and joy, and that the elections we make are regulated by + impressions supplied to us by these passions. But we are fully penetrated + with the notion, that mind is an arbiter, that it sits on its throne, and + decides, as an absolute prince, this may or that; in short, that, while + inanimate nature proceeds passively in an eternal chain of cause and + effect, mind is endowed with an initiating power, and forms its + determinations by an inherent and indefeasible prerogative. + </p> + <p> + Hence arises the idea of contingency relative to the acts of living and + sentient beings, and the opinion that, while, in the universe of matter, + every thing proceeds in regular course, and nothing has happened or can + happen, otherwise than as it actually has been or will be, in the + determinations and acts of living beings each occurrence may be or not be, + and waits the mastery of mind to decide whether the event shall be one way + or the other, both issues being equally possible till that decision has + been made. + </p> + <p> + Thus, as was said in the beginning, we have demonstration, all the powers + of our reasoning faculty, on one side, and the feeling, of our minds, an + inward persuasion of which with all our efforts we can never divest + ourselves, on the other. This phenomenon in the history of every human + creature, had aptly enough been denominated, the "delusive sense of + liberty(27)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (27) The first writer, by whom this proposition was distinctly +enunciated, seems to have been Lord Kaimes, in his Essays on the +Principles of Morality and Natural Religion, published in 1751. But this +ingenious author was afterwards frightened with the boldness of his +own conclusions, and in the subsequent editions of his work endeavoured +ineffectually to explain away what he had said. +</pre> + <p> + And, though the philosopher in his closet will for the most part fully + assent to the doctrine of the necessity of human actions, yet this + indestructible feeling of liberty, which accompanies us from the cradle to + the grave, is entitled to our serious attention, and has never obtained + that consideration from the speculative part of mankind, which must by no + means be withheld, if we would properly enter into the mysteries of our + nature. The necessarian has paid it very imperfect attention to the + impulses which form the character of man, if he omits this chapter in the + history of mind, while on the other hand the advocate of free will, if he + would follow up his doctrine rigorously into all its consequences, would + render all speculations on human character and conduct superfluous, put an + end to the system of persuasion, admonition, remonstrance, menace, + punishment and reward, annihilate the very essence of civil government, + and bring to a close all distinction between the sane person and the + maniac. + </p> + <p> + With the disciples of the latter of these doctrines I am by no means + specially concerned. I am fully persuaded, as far as the powers of my + understanding can carry me, that the phenomena of mind are governed by + laws altogether as inevitable as the phenomena of matter, and that the + decisions of our will are always in obedience to the impulse of the + strongest motive. + </p> + <p> + The consequences of the principle implanted in our nature, by which men of + every creed, when they descend into the scene of busy life, pronounce + themselves and their fellow-mortals to be free agents, are sufficiently + memorable. + </p> + <p> + From hence there springs what we call conscience in man, and a sense of + praise or blame due to ourselves and others for the actions we perform. + </p> + <p> + How poor, listless and unenergetic would all our performances be, but for + this sentiment! It is in vain that I should talk to myself or others, of + the necessity of human actions, of the connection between cause and + effect, that all industry, study and mental discipline will turn to + account, and this with infinitely more security on the principle of + necessity, than on the opposite doctrine, every thing I did would be + without a soul. I should still say, Whatever I may do, whether it be right + or wrong, I cannot help it; wherefore then should I trouble the + master-spirit within me? It is either the calm feeling of + self-approbation, or the more animated swell of the soul, the quick + beatings of the pulse, the enlargement of the heart, the glory sparkling + in the eye, and the blood flushing into the cheek, that sustains me in all + my labours. This turns the man into what we conceive of a God, arms him + with prowess, gives him a more than human courage, and inspires him with a + resolution and perseverance that nothing can subdue. + </p> + <p> + In the same manner the love or hatred, affection or alienation, we + entertain for our fellow-men, is mainly referable for its foundation to + the "delusive sense of liberty." "We approve of a sharp knife rather than + a blunt one, because its capacity is greater. We approve of its being + employed in carving food, rather than in maiming men or other animals, + because that application of its capacity is preferable. But all + approbation or preference is relative to utility or general good. A knife + is as capable as a man, of being employed in purposes of utility; and the + one is no more free than the other as to its employment. The mode in which + a knife is made subservient to these purposes, is by material impulse. The + mode in which a man is made subservient, is by inducement and persuasion. + But both are equally the affair of necessity(28)." These are the + sentiments dictated to us by the doctrine of the necessity of human + actions. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (28) Political Justice, Book IV, Chap. VIII. +</pre> + <p> + But how different are the feelings that arise within us, as soon as we + enter into the society of our fellow-creatures! "The end of the + commandment is love." It is the going forth of the heart towards those to + whom we are bound by the ties of a common nature, affinity, sympathy or + worth, that is the luminary of the moral world. Without it there would + have been "a huge eclipse of sun and moon;" or at best, as a well-known + writer(29) expresses it in reference to another subject, we should have + lived in "a silent and drab-coloured creation." We are prepared by the + power that made us for feelings and emotions; and, unless these come to + diversify and elevate our existence, we should waste our days in + melancholy, and scarcely be able to sustain ourselves. The affection we + entertain for those towards whom our partiality and kindness are excited, + is the life of our life. It is to this we are indebted for all our + refinement, and, in the noblest sense of the word, for all our humanity. + Without it we should have had no sentiment (a word, however abused, which, + when properly defined, comprises every thing that is the crown of our + nature), and no poetry.—Love and hatred, as they regard our + fellow-creatures, in contradistinction to the complacency, or the feeling + of an opposite nature, which is excited in us towards inanimate objects, + are entirely the offspring of the delusive sense of liberty. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (29) Thomas Paine. +</pre> + <p> + The terms, praise and blame, express to a great degree the same sentiments + as those of love and hatred, with this difference, that praise and blame + in their simplest sense apply to single actions, whereas love and hatred + are produced in us by the sum of those actions or tendencies, which + constitute what we call character. There is also another difference, that + love and hatred are engendered in us by other causes as well as moral + qualities; but praise and blame, in the sense in which they are peculiarly + applied to our fellow-mortals, are founded on moral qualities only. In + love and hatred however, when they are intense or are lasting, some + reference to moral qualities is perhaps necessarily implied. The love + between the sexes, unless in cases where it is of a peculiarly transient + nature, always comprises in it a belief that the party who is the object + of our love, is distinguished by tendencies of an amiable nature, which we + expect to see manifesting themselves in affectionate attentions and acts + of kindness. Even the admiration we entertain for the features, the + figure, and personal graces of the object of our regard, is mixed with and + heightened by our expectation of actions and tones that generate + approbation, and, if divested of this, would be of small signification or + permanence. In like manner in the ties of affinity, or in cases where we + are impelled by the consideration, "He also is a man as well as I," the + excitement will carry us but a little way, unless we discover in the being + towards whom we are moved some peculiarities which may beget a moral + partiality and regard. + </p> + <p> + And, as towards our fellow-creatures, so in relation to ourselves, our + moral sentiments are all involved with, and take their rise in, the + delusive sense of liberty. It is in this that is contained the peculiar + force of the terms virtue, duty, guilt and desert. We never pronounce + these words without thinking of the action to which they refer, as that + which might or might not be done, and therefore unequivocally approve or + disapprove in ourselves and others. A virtuous man, as the term is + understood by all, as soon as we are led to observe upon those qualities, + and the exhibition of those qualities in actual life, which constitute our + nature, is a man who, being in full possession of the freedom of human + action, is engaged in doing those things which a sound judgment of the + tendencies of what we do pronounces to be good. + </p> + <p> + Duty is a term that can scarcely be said to have a meaning, except that + which it derives from the delusive sense of liberty. According to the + creed of the necessarian, it expresses that mode of action on the part of + the individual, which constitutes the best possible application of his + capacity to the general benefit(30). In the mean time, if we confine + ourselves to this definition, it may as well be taken to describe the best + application of a knife, or any other implement proceeding from the hands + of the manufacturer, as of the powers of a human being. + </p> + <p> + But we surely have a very different idea in our minds, when we employ the + term duty. It is not agreeable to the use of language that we should use + this term, except we speak of a being in the exercise of volition. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (30) Political Justice, Book II, Chap. IV. +</pre> + <p> + Duty then means that which may justly be required of a human creature in + the possession of liberty of action. It includes in its proper sense the + conception of the empire of will, the notion that mind is an arbiter, that + it sits on its throne, and decides, as an absolute prince, this way or + that. + </p> + <p> + Duty is the performance of what is due, the discharge of a debt (debitum). + But a knife owes nothing, and can in no sense be said to be held to one + sort of application rather than another; the debt can only belong to a + human being in possession of his liberty, by whom the knife may be applied + laudably or otherwise. + </p> + <p> + A multitude of terms instantly occur to us, the application of which is + limited in the same manner as the term duty is limited: such are, to owe, + obligation, debt, bond, right, claim, sin, crime, guilt, merit and desert. + Even reward and punishment, however they may be intelligible when used + merely in the sense of motives employed, have in general acceptation a + sense peculiarly derived from the supposed freedom of the human will. + </p> + <p> + The mode therefore in which the advocates of the doctrine of necessity + have universally talked and written, is one of the most memorable examples + of the hallucination of the human intellect. They have at all times + recommended that we should translate the phrases in which we usually + express ourselves on the hypothesis of liberty, into the phraseology of + necessity, that we should talk no other language than that which is in + correspondence with the severest philosophy, and that we should exert + ourselves to expel all fallacious notions and delusions so much as from + our recollection. They did not perceive what a wide devastation and + destruction they were proposing of all the terms and phrases that are in + use in the communications between man and man in actual life.—They + might as well have recommended that we should rigorously bear in mind on + the ordinary occasions of life, that there is no such thing as colour, + that which we ordinary call by that name having no existence in external + objects, but belonging only to our way of perceiving them. + </p> + <p> + The language which is suggested to us by the conception of the freedom of + human actions, moulds the very first articulations of a child, "I will," + and "I will not;" and is even distinctly conveyed by his gestures, before + he arrives at the power of articulation. This is the explanation and key + to his vehement and ungovernable movements, and his rebellion. The + petulance of the stripling, the fervent and energetic exertions of the + warrior, and the calm and unalterable resolution of the sage, all imply + the same thing. Will, and a confidence in its efficiency, "travel through, + nor quit us till we die." It is this which inspires us with invincible + perseverance, and heroic energies, while without it we should be the most + inert and soulless of blocks, the shadows of what history records and + poetry immortalises, and not men. + </p> + <p> + Free will is an integral part of the science of man, and may be said to + constitute its most important chapter. We might with as much propriety + overlook the intelligence of the senses, that medium which acquaints us + with an external world or what we call such, we might as well overlook the + consideration of man's reason, his imagination or taste, as fail to dwell + with earnest reflection and exposition upon that principle which lies at + the foundation of our moral energies, fills us with a moral enthusiasm, + prompts all our animated exertions on the theatre of the world, whether + upon a wide or a narrow scale, and penetrates us with the most lively and + fervent approbation or disapprobation of the acts of ourselves and others + in which the forwarding or obstructing human happiness is involved. + </p> + <p> + But, though the language of the necessarian is at war with the + indestructible feelings of the human mind, and though his demonstrations + will for ever crumble into dust, when brought to the test of the activity + of real life, yet his doctrines, to the reflecting and enlightened, will + by no means be without their use. In the sobriety of the closet, we + inevitably assent to his conclusions; nor is it easy to conceive how a + rational man and a philosopher abstractedly can entertain a doubt of the + necessity of human actions. And the number of these persons is perpetually + increasing; enlarged and dispassionate views of the nature of man and the + laws of the universe are rapidly spreading in the world. We cannot indeed + divest ourselves of love and hatred, of the sentiments of praise and + blame, and the ideas of virtue, duty, obligation, debt, bond, right, + claim, sin, crime, guilt, merit and desert. And, if we could do so, the + effects would be most pernicious, and the world be rendered a blank. We + shall however unquestionably, as our minds grow enlarged, be brought to + the entire and unreserved conviction, that man is a machine, that he is + governed by external impulses, and is to be regarded as the medium only + through the intervention of which previously existing causes are enabled + to produce certain effects. We shall see, according to an expressive + phrase, that he "could not help it," and, of consequence, while we look + down from the high tower of philosophy upon the scene of human affairs, + our prevailing emotion will be pity, even towards the criminal, who, from + the qualities he brought into the world, and the various circumstances + which act upon him from infancy, and form his character, is impelled to be + the means of the evils, which we view with so profound disapprobation, and + the existence of which we so entirely regret. + </p> + <p> + There is an old axiom of philosophy, which counsels us to "think with the + learned, and talk with the vulgar;" and the practical application of this + axiom runs through the whole scene of human affairs. Thus the most learned + astronomer talks of the rising and setting of the sun, and forgets in his + ordinary discourse that the earth is not for ever at rest, and does not + constitute the centre of the universe. Thus, however we reason respecting + the attributes of inanimate matter and the nature of sensation, it never + occurs to us, when occupied with the affairs of actual life, that there is + no heat in fire, and no colour in the rainbow. + </p> + <p> + In like manner, when we contemplate the acts of ourselves and our + neighbours, we can never divest ourselves of the delusive sense of the + liberty of human actions, of the sentiment of conscience, of the feelings + of love and hatred, the impulses of praise and blame, and the notions of + virtue, duty, obligation, right, claim, guilt, merit and desert. And it + has sufficiently appeared in the course of this Essay, that it is not + desirable that we should do so. They are these ideas to which the world we + live in is indebted for its crowning glory and greatest lustre. They form + the highest distinction between men and other animals, and are the genuine + basis of self-reverence, and the conceptions of true nobility and + greatness, and the reverse of these attributes, in the men with whom we + live, and the men whose deeds are recorded in the never-dying page of + history. + </p> + <p> + But, though the doctrine of the necessity of human actions can never form + the rule of our intercourse with others, it will still have its use. It + will moderate our excesses, and point out to us that middle path of + judgment which the soundest philosophy inculcates. We shall learn, + according to the apostolic precept, to "be angry, and sin not, neither let + the sun go down upon our wrath." We shall make of our fellow-men neither + idols to worship, nor demons to be regarded with horror and execration. We + shall think of them, as of players, "that strut and fret their hour upon + the stage, and then are heard no more." We shall "weep, as though we wept + not, and rejoice, as though we rejoiced not, seeing that the fashion of + this world passeth away." And, most of all, we shall view with pity, even + with sympathy, the men whose frailties we behold, or by whom crimes are + perpetrated, satisfied that they are parts of one great machine, and, like + ourselves, are driven forward by impulses over which they have no real + control. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY XIII. OF BELIEF. + </h2> + <p> + One of the prerogatives by which man is eminently distinguished from all + other living beings inhabiting this globe of earth, consists in the gift + of reason. + </p> + <p> + Beasts reason. They are instructed by experience; and, guided by what they + have already known of the series of events, they infer from the sense of + what has gone before, an assured expectation of what is to follow. Hence, + "beast walks with man, joint tenant of the shade;" and their sagacity is + in many instances more unerring than ours, because they have no + affectation to mislead them; they follow no false lights, no glimmering + intimation of something half-anticipating a result, but trust to the + plain, blunt and obvious dictates of their simple apprehension. This + however is but the first step in the scale of reason, and is in strictness + scarcely entitled to the name. + </p> + <p> + We set off from the same point from which they commence their career. But + the faculty of articulate speech comes in, enabling us to form the crude + elements of reason and inference into a code. We digest explanations of + things, assigning the particulars in which they resemble other classes, + and the particulars by which they are distinguished from whatever other + classes have fallen under our notice. We frame propositions, and, + detaching ourselves from the immediate impressions of sense, proceed to + generalities, which exist only, in a way confused, and not distinctly + adverted to, in the conceptions of the animal creation. + </p> + <p> + It is thus that we arrive at science, and go forward to those subtleties, + and that perspicuity of explanation, which place man in a distinct order + of being, leaving all the other inhabitants of earth at an immeasurable + distance below him. It is thus that we communicate our discoveries to each + other, and hand down the knowledge we have acquired, unimpaired and + entire, through successive ages, and to generations yet unborn. + </p> + <p> + But in certain respects we pay a very high price for this distinction. It + is to it that we must impute all the follies, extravagances and + hallucinations of human intellect. There is nothing so absurd that some + man has not affirmed, rendering himself the scorn and laughing-stock of + persons of sounder understanding. And, which is worst, the more ridiculous + and unintelligible is the proposition he has embraced, the more + pertinaciously does he cling to it; so that creeds the most outrageous and + contradictory have served as the occasion or pretext for the most + impassioned debates, bloody wars, inhuman executions, and all that most + deeply blots and dishonours the name of man—while often, the more + evanescent and frivolous are the distinctions, the more furious and + inexpiable have been the contentions they have produced. + </p> + <p> + The result of the whole, in the vast combinations of men into tribes and + nations, is, that thousands and millions believe, or imagine they believe, + propositions and systems, the terms of which they do not fully understand, + and the evidence of which they have not considered. They believe, because + so their fathers believed before them. No phrase is more commonly heard + than, "I was born a Christian;" "I was born a Catholic, or a Protestant." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The priest continues what the nurse began, + And thus the child imposes on the man. +</pre> + <p> + But this sort of belief forms no part of the subject of the present Essay. + My purpose is to confine myself to the consideration of those persons, who + in some degree, more or less, exercise the reasoning faculty in the + pursuit of truth, and, having attempted to examine the evidence of an + interesting and weighty proposition, satisfy themselves that they have + arrived at a sound conclusion. + </p> + <p> + It is however the rarest thing in the world, for any one to found his + opinion, simply upon the evidence that presents itself to him of the truth + of the proposition which comes before him to be examined. Where is the man + that breaks loose from all the shackles that in his youth had been imposed + upon hills, and says to Truth, "Go on; whithersoever thou leadest, I am + prepared to follow?" To weigh the evidence for and against a proposition, + in scales so balanced, that the "division of the twentieth part of one + poor scruple, the estimation of a hair," shall be recognised and submitted + to, is the privilege of a mind of no ordinary fairness and firmness. + </p> + <p> + The Scriptures say "The heart of man is deceitful above all things." The + thinking principle within us is so subtle, has passed through so many + forms of instruction, and is under the influence and direction of such a + variety of causes, that no man can accurately pronounce by what impulse he + has been led to the conclusion in which he finally reposes. Every + ingenuous person, who is invited to embrace a certain profession, that of + the church for example, will desire, preparatorily to his final + determination, to examine the evidences and the merits of the religion he + embraces, that he may enter upon his profession under the influence of a + sincere conviction, and be inspired with that zeal, in singleness of + heart, which can alone prevent his vocation from being disgraceful to him. + Yet how many motives are there, constraining him to abide in an + affirmative conclusion? His friends expect this from him. Perhaps his own + inclination leads him to select this destination rather than any other. + Perhaps preferment and opulence wait upon his decision. If the final + result of his enquiries lead him to an opposite judgment, to how much + obloquy will he be exposed! Where is the man who can say that no + unconscious bias has influenced him in the progress of his investigation? + Who shall pronounce that, under very different circumstances, his + conclusions would not have been essentially other than they are? + </p> + <p> + But the enquiry of an active and a searching mind does not terminate on a + certain day. He will be for ever revising and reconsidering his first + determinations. It is one of the leading maxims of an honourable mind, + that we must be, at all times, and to the last hour of our existence, + accessible to conviction built upon new evidence, or upon evidence + presented in a light in which it had not before been viewed. If then the + probationer for the clerical profession was under some bias in his first + investigation, how must it be expected to be with him, when he has already + taken the vow, and received ordination? Can he with a calm and unaltered + spirit contemplate the possibility, that the ground shall be cut away from + under him, and that, by dint of irrefragable argument, he shall be + stripped of his occupation, and turned out naked and friendless into the + world? + </p> + <p> + But this is only one of the broadest and most glaring instances. In every + question of paramount importance there is ever a secret influence urging + me earnestly to desire to find one side of the question right and the + other wrong. Shall I be a whig or a tory, believe a republic or a mixed + monarchy most conducive to the improvement and happiness of mankind, + embrace the creed of free will or necessity? There is in all cases a + "strong temptation that waketh in the heart." Cowardice urges me to become + the adherent of that creed, which is espoused by my nearest friends, or + those who are most qualified to serve me. Enterprise and a courageous + spirit on the contrary bid me embrace the tenet, the embracing of which + shall most conduce to my reputation for extraordinary perspicuity and + acuteness, and gain me the character of an intrepid adventurer, a man who + dares commit himself to an unknown voyage. + </p> + <p> + In the question of religion, even when the consideration of the profession + of an ecclesiastic does not occur, yet we are taught to believe that there + is only one set of tenets that will lead us in the way of salvation. Faith + is represented as the first of all qualifications. "If I had not come and + spoken unto them, they had not had sin." With what heart then does a man + set himself to examine, and scrupulously weigh the evidence on one side + and the other, when some undiscerned frailty, some secret bias that all + his care cannot detect, may lurk within, and insure for him the "greater + condemnation?" I well remember in early life, with what tingling sensation + and unknown horror I looked into the books of the infidels and the + repositories of unlawful tenets, lest I should be seduced. I held it my + duty to "prove all things;" but I knew not how far it might be my fate; to + sustain the penalty attendant even upon an honourable and virtuous + curiousity. + </p> + <p> + It is one of the most received arguments of the present day against + religious persecution, that the judgments we form are not under the + authority of our will, and that, for what it is not in our power to + change, it is unjust we should be punished: and there is much truth in + this. But it is not true to the fullest extent. The sentiments we shall + entertain, are to a considerable degree at the disposal of inticements on + the one side, and of menaces and apprehension on the other. That which we + wish to believe, we are already greatly in progress to embrace; and that + which will bring upon us disgrace and calamity, we are more than half + prepared to reject. Persecution however is of very equivocal power: we + cannot embrace one faith and reject another at the word of command. + </p> + <p> + It is a curious question to decide how far punishments and rewards may be + made effectual to determine the religion of nations and generations of + men. They are often unsuccessful. There is a feeling in the human heart, + that prompts us to reject with indignation this species of tyranny. We + become more obstinate in clinging to that which we are commanded to + discard. We place our honour and our pride in the firmness of our + resistance. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." Yet + there is often great efficacy in persecution. It was the policy of the + court of Versailles that brought almost to nothing the Huguenots of + France. And there is a degree of persecution, if the persecuting party has + the strength and the inexorableness to employ it, that it is perhaps + beyond the prowess of human nature to stand up against. + </p> + <p> + The mind of the enquiring man is engaged in a course of perpetual + research; and ingenuousness prompts us never to be satisfied with the + efforts that we have made, but to press forward. But mind, as well as + body, has a certain vis inertiae, and moves only as it is acted upon by + impulses from without. With respect to the adopting new opinions, and the + discovery of new truths, we must be indebted in the last resort, either to + books, or the oral communications of our fellow-men, or to ideas + immediately suggested to us by the phenomena of man or nature. The two + former are the ordinary causes of a change of judgment to men: they are + for the most part minds of a superior class only, that are susceptible of + hints derived straight from the external world, without the understandings + of other men intervening, and serving as a conduit to the new conceptions + introduced. The two former serve, so to express it, for the education of + man, and enable us to master, in our own persons, the points already + secured, and the wisdom laid up in the great magazine of human knowledge; + the last imparts to us the power of adding to the stock, and carrying + forward by one step and another the improvements of which our nature is + susceptible. + </p> + <p> + It is much that books, the unchanging records of the thoughts of men in + former ages, are able to impart to us. For many of the happiest moments of + our lives, for many of the purest and most exalted feelings of the human + heart, we are indebted to them. Education is their province; we derive + from them civilization and refinement; and we may affirm of literature, + what Otway has said of woman, "We had been brutes without you." It is thus + that the acquisitions of the wise are handed down from age to age, and + that we are enabled to mount step after step on the ladder of paradise, + till we reach the skies. + </p> + <p> + But, inestimable as is the benefit we derive from books, there is + something more searching and soul-stirring in the impulse of oral + communication. We cannot shut our ears, as we shut our books; we cannot + escape from the appeal of the man who addresses us with earnest speech and + living conviction. It is thus, we are told, that, when Cicero pleaded + before Caesar for the life of Ligarius, the conqueror of the world was + troubled, and changed colour again and again, till at length the scroll + prepared for the condemnation of the patriot fell from his hand. Sudden + and irresistible conviction is chiefly the offspring of living speech. We + may arm ourselves against the arguments of an author; but the strength of + reasoning in him who addresses us, takes us at unawares. It is in the + reciprocation of answer and rejoinder that the power of conversion + specially lies. A book is an abstraction. It is but imperfectly that we + feel, that a real man addresses us in it, and that what he delivers is the + entire and deep-wrought sentiment of a being of flesh and blood like + ourselves, a being who claims our attention, and is entitled to our + deference. The living human voice, with a countenance and manner + corresponding, constrains us to weigh what is said, shoots through us like + a stroke of electricity, will not away from our memory, and haunts our + very dreams. It is by means of this peculiarity in the nature of mind, + that it has been often observed that there is from time to time an + Augustan age in the intellect of nations, that men of superior powers + shock with each other, and that light is struck from the collision, which + most probably no one of these men would have given birth to, if they had + not been thrown into mutual society and communion. And even so, upon a + narrower scale, he that would aspire to do the most of which his faculties + are susceptible, should seek the intercourse of his fellows, that his + powers may be strengthened, and he may be kept free from that torpor and + indolence of soul, which, without external excitement, are ever apt to + take possession of us. + </p> + <p> + The man, who lives in solitude, and seldom communicates with minds of the + same class as his own, works out his opinions with patient scrutiny, + returns to the investigation again and again, imagines that he had + examined the question on all sides, and at length arrives at what is to + him a satisfactory conclusion. He resumes the view of this conclusion day + after day; he finds in it an unalterable validity; he says in his heart, + "Thus much I have gained; this is a real advance in the search after + truth; I have added in a defined and palpable degree to what I knew + before." And yet it has sometimes happened, that this person, after having + been shut up for weeks, or for a longer period, in his sanctuary, living, + so far as related to an exchange of oral disquisitions with his + fellow-men, like Robinson Crusoe in the desolate island, shall come into + the presence of one, equally clear-sighted, curious and indefatigable with + himself, and shall hear from him an obvious and palpable statement, which + in a moment shivers his sightly and glittering fabric into atoms. The + statement was palpable and near at hand; it was a thin, an almost + imperceptible partition that hid it from him; he wonders in his heart that + it never occurred to his meditations. And yet so it is: it was hid from + him for weeks, or perhaps for a longer period: it might have been hid from + him for twenty years, if it had not been for the accident that supplied + it. And he no sooner sees it, than he instantly perceives that the + discovery upon which he plumed himself, was an absurdity, of which even a + schoolboy might be ashamed. + </p> + <p> + A circumstance not less curious, among the phenomena which belong to this + subject of belief, is the repugnance incident to the most ingenuous minds, + which we harbour against the suddenly discarding an opinion we have + previously entertained, and the adopting one which comes recommended to us + with almost the force of demonstration. Nothing can be better founded than + this repugnance. The mind of man is of a peculiar nature. It has been + disputed whether we can entertain more than one idea at a time. But + certain it is, that the views of the mind at any one time are considerably + narrowed. The mind is like the slate of a schoolboy, which can contain + only a certain number of characters of a given size, or like a moveable + panorama, which places a given scene or landscape before me, and the space + assigned, and which comes within the limits marked out to my perception, + is full. Many things are therefore almost inevitably shut out, which, had + it not been so, might have essentially changed the view of the case, and + have taught me that it was a very different conclusion at which I ought to + have arrived. + </p> + <p> + At first sight nothing can appear more unreasonable, than that I should + hesitate to admit the seemingly irresistible force of the argument + presented to me. An ingenuous disposition would appear to require that, + the moment the truth, or what seems to be the truth, is set before me, I + should pay to it the allegiance to which truth is entitled. If I do + otherwise, it would appear to argue a pusillanimous disposition, a mind + not prompt and disengaged to receive the impression of evidence, a temper + that loves something else better than the lustre which all men are bound + to recognise, and that has a reserve in favour of ancient prejudice, and + of an opinion no longer supported by reason. + </p> + <p> + In fact however I shall act most wisely, and in the way most honourable to + my character, if I resolve to adjourn the debate. No matter how complete + the view may seem which is now presented to my consideration, or how + irresistible the arguments: truth is too majestic a divinity, and it is of + too much importance that I should not follow a delusive semblance that may + shew like truth, not to make it in the highest degree proper that I should + examine again and again, before I come to the conclusion to which I mean + to affix my seal, and annex my sanction, "This is the truth." The ancient + Goths of Germany, we are told, had a custom of debating every thing of + importance to their state twice, once in the high animation of a convivial + meeting, and once in the serene stillness of a morning consultation. + Philip of Macedon having decided a cause precipitately, the party + condemned by him immediately declared his resolution to appeal from the + sentence. And to whom, said the king, wilt thou appeal? To Philip, was the + answer, in the entire possession of his understanding. + </p> + <p> + Such is the nature of the human mind—at least, such I find to be the + nature of my own—that many trains of thinking, many chains of + evidence, the result of accumulated facts, will often not present + themselves, at the time when their presence would be of the highest + importance. The view which now comes before me is of a substance so close + and well-woven, and of colours so brilliant and dazzling, that other + matters in a certain degree remote, though of no less intrinsic + importance, and equally entitled to influence my judgment in the question + in hand, shall be entirely shut out, shall be killed, and fail to offer + themselves to my perceptions. + </p> + <p> + It is a curious circumstance which Pope, a man of eminent logical power + and acuteness, relates, that, having at his command in his youth a + collection of all the tracts that had been written on both sides in the + reign of James the Second, he applied himself with great assiduity to + their perusal, and the consequence was, that he was a Papist and + Protestant by turns, according to the last book he read(31). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (31) Correspondence with Atterbury, Letter IV. +</pre> + <p> + This circumstance in the structure of the human understanding is well + known, and is the foundation of many provisions that occur in the + constitution of political society. How each man shall form his creed, and + arrange those opinions by which his conduct shall be regulated, is of + course a matter exclusively subjected to his own discretion. But, when he + is called upon to act in the name of a community, and to decide upon a + question in which the public is interested, he of necessity feels himself + called upon to proceed with the utmost caution. A judge on the bench, a + chancellor, is not contented with that sudden ray of mental illumination + to which an ingenuous individual is often disposed to yield in an affair + of abstract speculation. He feels that he is obliged to wait for evidence, + the nature of which he does not yet anticipate, and to adjourn his + decision. A deliberative council or assembly is aware of the necessity of + examining a question again and again. It is upon this principle that the + two houses of the English parliament are required to give a first, a + second and a third reading, together with various other forms and + technicalities, to the provision that is brought before them, previously + to its passing into a law. And there is many a fundamental dogma and + corner-stone of the sentiments that I shall emphatically call my own, that + is of more genuine importance to the individual, than to a nation is a + number of those regulations, which by courtesy we call acts of parliament. + </p> + <p> + Nothing can have a more glaring tendency to subvert the authority of my + opinion among my fellow-men, than instability. "What went ye out into the + wilderness to see" said Jesus Christ: "a reed shaken with the wind?" We + ought at all times to be open to conviction. We ought to be ever ready to + listen to evidence. But, conscious of our human frailty, it is seldom that + we ought immediately to subscribe to the propositions, however specious, + that are now for the first time presented to us. It is our duty to lay up + in our memory the suggestions offered upon any momentous question, and not + to suffer them to lose their inherent weight and impressiveness; but it is + only through the medium of consideration and reconsideration, that they + can become entitled to our full and unreserved assent. + </p> + <p> + The nature of belief, or opinion, has been well illustrated by Lord + Shaftesbury(32). There are many notions or judgments floating in the mind + of every man, which are mutually destructive of each other. In this sense + men's opinions are governed by high and low spirits, by the state of the + solids and fluids of the human body, and by the state of the weather. But + in a paramount sense that only can be said to be a man's opinion which he + entertains in his clearest moments, and from which, when he is most + himself, he is least subject to vary. In this emphatical sense, I should + say, a man does not always know what is his real opinion. We cannot + strictly be said to believe any thing, in cases where we afterwards change + our opinion without the introduction of some evidence that was unknown to + us before. But how many are the instances in which we can be affirmed to + be in the adequate recollection of all the evidences and reasonings which + have at some time occurred to us, and of the opinions, together with the + grounds on which they rested, which we conceived we had justly and + rationally entertained? + </p> + <p> + The considerations here stated however should by no means be allowed to + inspire us with indifference in matters of opinion. It is the glory and + lustre of our nature, that we are capable of receiving evidence, and + weighing the reasons for and against any important proposition in the + balance of an impartial and enlightened understanding. The only effect + that should be produced in us, by the reflection that we can at last by no + means be secure that we have attained to a perfect result, should be to + teach us a wholsome diffidence and humility, and induce us to confess + that, when we have done all, we are ignorant, dim-sighted and fallible, + that our best reasonings may betray, and our wisest conclusions deceive + us. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (32) Enquiry concerning Virtue, Book 1, Part 1, Section ii. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY XIV. OF YOUTH AND AGE. + </h2> + <h3> + Magna debetur pueris reverentia. + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Quintilian. +</pre> + <p> + I am more doubtful in writing the following Essay than in any of those + which precede, how far I am treating of human nature generally, or to a + certain degree merely recording my own feelings as an individual. I am + guided however in composing it, by the principle laid down in my Preface, + that the purpose of my book in each instance should be to expand some new + and interesting truth, or some old truth viewed under a new aspect, which + had never by any preceding writer been laid before the public. + </p> + <p> + Education, in the conception of those whose office it is to direct it, has + various engines by means of which it is to be made effective, and among + these are reprehension and chastisement. + </p> + <p> + The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from + the act of introspection. We look into our own bosoms, observe attentively + every thing that passes there, anatomise our motives, trace step by step + the operations of thought, and diligently remark the effects of external + impulses upon our feelings and conduct. Philosophers, ever since the time + in which Socrates flourished, to carry back our recollections no further, + have found that the minds of men in the most essential particulars are + framed so far upon the same model, that the analysis of the individual may + stand in general consideration for the analysis of the species. Where this + principle fails, it is not easy to suggest a proceeding that shall supply + the deficiency. I look into my own breast; I observe steadily and with + diligence what passes there; and with all the parade of the philosophy of + the human mind I can do little more than this. + </p> + <p> + In treating therefore of education in the point of view in which it has + just been proposed, I turn my observation upon myself, and I proceed thus.—If + I do not stand as a competent representative for the whole of my species, + I suppose I may at least assume to be the representative of no + inconsiderable number of them. + </p> + <p> + I find then in myself, for as long a time as I can trace backward the + records of memory, a prominent vein of docility. Whatever it was proposed + to teach me, that was in any degree accordant with my constitution and + capacity, I was willing to learn. And this limit is sufficient for the + topic I am proposing to treat. I do not intend to consider education of + any other sort, than that which has something in it of a liberal and + ingenuous nature. I am not here discussing the education of a peasant, an + artisan, or a slave. + </p> + <p> + In addition to this vein of docility, which easily prompted me to learn + whatever was proposed for my instruction and improvement, I felt in myself + a sentiment of ambition, a desire to possess the qualifications which I + found to be productive of esteem, and that should enable me to excel among + my contemporaries. I was ambitious to be a leader, and to be regarded by + others with feelings of complacency. I had no wish to rule by brute force + and compulsion; but I was desirous to govern by love, and honour, and "the + cords of a man." + </p> + <p> + I do not imagine that, when I aver thus much of myself, I am bringing + forward any thing unprecedented, or that multitudes of my fellow-men do + not largely participate with me. + </p> + <p> + The question therefore I am considering is, through what agency, and with + what engines, a youth thus disposed, and with these qualifications, is to + be initiated in all liberal arts. + </p> + <p> + I will go back no further than to the commencement of the learning of + Latin. All before was so easy to me, as never to have presented the idea + of a task. I was immediately put into the accidence. No explanation was + attempted to be given why Latin was to be of use to me, or why it was + necessary to commit to memory the cases of nouns and the tenses of verbs. + I know not whether this was owing to the unwillingness of my instructor to + give himself the trouble, or to my supposed incapacity to apprehend the + explanation. The last of these I do not admit. My docility however came to + my aid, and I did not for a moment harbour any repugnance to the doing + what was required of me. At first, and unassisted in the enquiry, I felt a + difficulty in supposing that the English language, all the books in my + father's library, did not contain every thing that it would be necessary + for me to know. In no long time however I came to experience a pleasure in + turning the thoughts expressed in an unknown tongue into my own; and I + speedily understood that I could never be on a level with those eminent + scholars whom it was my ambition to rival, without the study of the + classics. + </p> + <p> + What then were the obstacles, that should in any degree counteract my + smooth and rapid progress in the studies suggested to me? I can conceive + only two. + </p> + <p> + First, the versatility and fickleness which in a greater or less degree + beset all human minds, particularly in the season of early youth. However + docile we may be, and willing to learn, there will be periods, when either + some other object powerfully solicits us, or satiety creeps in, and makes + us wish to occupy our attention with any thing else rather than with the + task prescribed us. But this is no powerful obstacle. The authority of the + instructor, a grave look, and the exercise of a moderate degree of + patience will easily remove it in such a probationer as we are here + considering. + </p> + <p> + Another obstacle is presumption. The scholar is willing to conceive well + of his own capacity. He has a vanity in accomplishing the task prescribed + him in the shortest practicable time. He is impatient to go away from the + business imposed upon him, to things of his own election, and occupations + which his partialities and his temper prompt him to pursue. He has a pride + in saying to himself, "This, which was a business given to occupy me for + several hours, I can accomplish in less than one." But the presumption + arising out of these views is easily subdued. If the pupil is wrong in his + calculation, the actual experiment will speedily convince him of his + error. He is humbled by and ashamed of his mistake. The merely being sent + back to study his lesson afresh, is on the face of the thing punishment + enough. + </p> + <p> + It follows from this view of the matter, that an ingenuous youth, endowed + with sufficient capacity for the business prescribed him, may be led on in + the path of intellectual acquisition and improvement with a silken cord. + It will demand a certain degree of patience on the part of the instructor. + But Heaven knows, that this patience is sufficiently called into + requisition when the instructor shall be the greatest disciplinarian that + ever existed. Kind tones and encouragement will animate the learner amidst + many a difficult pass. A grave remark may perhaps sometimes be called for. + And, if the preceptor and the pupil have gone on like friends, a grave + remark, a look expressive of rebuke, will be found a very powerful engine. + The instructor should smooth the business of instruction to his pupil, by + appealing to his understanding, developing his taste, and assisting him to + remark the beauties of the composition on which he is occupied. + </p> + <p> + I come now then to the consideration of the two engines mentioned in the + commencement of this Essay, reprehension and chastisement. + </p> + <p> + And here, as in what went before, I am reduced to the referring to my own + experience, and looking back into the history of my own mind. + </p> + <p> + I say then, that reprehension and reprimand can scarcely ever be + necessary. The pupil should undoubtedly be informed when he is wrong. He + should be told what it is that he ought to have omitted, and that he ought + to have done. There should be no reserve in this. It will be worthy of the + highest censure, if on these points the instructor should be + mealy-mouthed, or hesitate to tell the pupil in the plainest terms, of his + faults, his bad habits, and the dangers that beset his onward and + honourable path. + </p> + <p> + But this may be best, and most beneficially done, and in a way most + suitable to the exigence, and to the party to be corrected, in a few + words. The rest is all an unwholsome tumour, the disease of speech, and + not the sound and healthful substance through which its circulation and + life are conveyed. + </p> + <p> + There is always danger of this excrescence of speech, where the speaker is + the umpire, and feels himself at liberty, unreproved, to say what he + pleases. He is charmed with the sound of his own voice. The periods flow + numerous from his tongue, and he gets on at his ease. There is in all this + an image of empire; and the human mind is ever prone to be delighted in + the exercise of unrestricted authority. The pupil in this case stands + before his instructor in an attitude humble, submissive, and bowing to the + admonition that is communicated to him. The speaker says more than it was + in his purpose to say; and he knows not how to arrest himself in his + triumphant career. He believes that he is in no danger of excess, and + recollects the old proverb that "words break no bones." + </p> + <p> + But a syllable more than is necessary and justly measured, is materially + of evil operation to ingenuous youth. The mind of such a youth is tender + and flexible, and easily swayed one way or the other. He believes almost + every thing that he is bid to believe; and the admonition that is given + him with all the symptoms of friendliness and sincerity he is prompt to + subscribe to. If this is wantonly aggravated to him, he feels the + oppression, and is galled with the injustice. He knows himself guiltless + of premeditated wrong. He has not yet learned that his condition is that + of a slave; and he feels a certain impatience at his being considered as + such, though he probably does not venture to express it. He shuts up the + sense of this despotism in his own bosom; and it is his first lesson of + independence and rebellion and original sin. + </p> + <p> + It is one of the grossest mistakes of which we can be guilty, if we + confound different offences and offenders together. The great and the + small alike appear before us in the many-coloured scene of human society, + and, if we reprehend bitterly and rate a juvenile sinner for the fault, + which he scarcely understood, and assuredly had not premeditated, we break + down at once a thousand salutary boundaries, and reduce the ideas of right + and wrong in his mind to a portentous and terrible chaos. The communicator + of liberal knowledge assuredly ought not to confound his office with that + of a magistrate at a quarter-sessions, who though he does not sit in + judgment upon transgressions of the deepest and most atrocious character, + yet has brought before him in many cases defaulters of a somewhat hardened + disposition, whose lot has been cast among the loose and the profligate, + and who have been carefully trained to a certain audacity of temper, + taught to look upon the paraphernalia of justice with scorn, and to place + a sort of honour in sustaining hard words and the lesser visitations of + punishment with unflinching nerve. + </p> + <p> + If this is the judgment we ought to pass upon the bitter and galling and + humiliating terms of reprehension apt to be made use of by the instructor + to his pupil, it is unnecessary to say a word on the subject of + chastisement. If such an expedient is ever to be had recourse to, it can + only be in cases of contumaciousness and rebellion; and then the + instructor cannot too unreservedly say to himself, "This is matter of deep + humiliation to me: I ought to have succeeded by an appeal to the + understanding and ingenuous feelings of youth; but I am reduced to a + confession of my impotence." + </p> + <p> + But the topic which, most of all, I was desirous to bring forward in this + Essay, is that of the language so customarily employed by the impatient + and irritated preceptor, "Hereafter, in a state of mature and ripened + judgment, you will thank me for the severity I now exercise towards you." + </p> + <p> + No; it may safely be answered: that time will never arrive. + </p> + <p> + As, in one of my earlier Essays(33), I undertook to shew that there is not + so much difference between the talents of one man and another as has often + been apprehended, so we are guilty of a gross error in the way in which we + divide the child from the man, and consider him as if he belonged to a + distinct species of beings. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (33) Essay II. +</pre> + <p> + I go back to the recollections of my youth, and can scarcely find where to + draw the line between ineptness and maturity. The thoughts that occurred + to me, as far back as I can recollect them, were often shrewd; the + suggestions ingenious; the judgments not seldom acute. I feel myself the + same individual all through. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes I was unreasonably presumptuous, and sometimes unnecessarily + distrustful. Experience has taught me in various instances a sober + confidence in my decisions; but that is all the difference. So to express + it, I had then the same tools to work with as now; but the magazine of + materials upon which I had to operate was scantily supplied. Like the + apothecary in Romeo and Juliet, the faculty, such as it was, was within + me; but my shelves contained but a small amount of furniture: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + A beggarly account of empty boxes, + Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses, + Which, thinly scattered, served to make a shew. +</pre> + <p> + In speaking thus of the intellectual powers of my youth, I am however + conceding too much. It is true, "Practice maketh perfect." But it is + surprising, in apt and towardly youth, how much there is to commend in the + first essays. The novice, who has his faculties lively and on the alert, + will strike with his hammer almost exactly where the blow ought to be + placed, and give nearly the precisely right force to the act. He will + seize the thread it was fitting to seize; and, though he fail again and + again, will shew an adroitness upon the whole that we scarcely know how to + account for. The man whose career shall ultimately be crowned with + success, will demonstrate in the beginning that he was destined to + succeed. + </p> + <p> + There is therefore no radical difference between the child and the man. + His flesh becomes more firm and sinewy; his bones grow more solid and + powerful; his joints are more completely strung. But he is still + essentially the same being that he was. When a genuine philosopher holds a + new-born child in his arms, and carefully examines it, he perceives in it + various indications of temper and seeds of character. It was all there, + though folded up and confused, and not obtruding itself upon the remark of + every careless spectator. It continues with the child through life, grows + with his growth, and never leaves him till he is at last consigned to the + tomb. How absurd then by artful rules and positive institutions to + undertake to separate what can never be divided! The child is occasionally + grave and reflecting, and deduces well-founded inferences; he draws on the + past, and plunges into the wide ocean of the future. In proportion as the + child advances into the youth, his intervals of gravity increase, and he + builds up theories and judgments, some of which no future time shall + suffice to overturn. It is idle to suppose that the first activity of our + faculties, when every thing is new and produces an unbated impression, + when the mind is uncumbered, and every interest and every feeling bid us + be observing and awake, should pass for nothing. We lay up stores then, + which shall never be exhausted. Our minds are the reverse of worn and + obtuse. We bring faculties into the world with us fresh from the hands of + the all-bounteous giver; they are not yet moulded to a senseless routine; + they are not yet corrupted by the ill lessons of effrontery, impudence and + vice. Childhood is beautiful; youth is ingenuous; and it can be nothing + but a principle which is hostile to all that most adorns this sublunary + scene, that would with violence and despotic rule mar the fairest flower + that creation has to boast. + </p> + <p> + It happens therefore almost unavoidably that, when the man mature looks + back upon the little incidents of his youth, he sees them to a surprising + degree in the same light, and forms the same conclusions respecting them, + as he did when they were actually passing. "The forgeries of opinion," + says Cicero, "speedily pass away; but the rules and decisions of nature + are strengthened." Bitter reproaches and acts of violence are the + offspring of perturbation engendered upon imbecility, and therefore can + never be approved upon a sober and impartial revision. And, if they are to + be impeached in the judgment of an equal and indifferent observer, we may + be sure they will be emphatically condemned by the grave and enlightened + censor who looks back upon the years of his own nonage, and recollects + that he was himself the victim of the intemperance to be pronounced upon. + The interest that he must necessarily take in the scenes in which he once + had an engrossing concern, will supply peculiar luminousness to his views. + He taxes himself to be just. The transaction is over now, and is passed to + the events that preceded the universal deluge. He holds the balance with a + steadiness, which sets at defiance all attempts to give it a false + direction one way or the other. But the judgment he made on the case at + the time, and immediately after the humiliation he suffered, remains with + him. It was the sentiment of his ripening youth; it was the opinion of his + opening manhood; and it still attends him, when he is already fast + yielding to the incroachments and irresistible assaults of declining + years. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY XV. OF LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP. + </h2> + <p> + Who is it that says, "There is no love but among equals?" Be it who it + may, it is a saying universally known, and that is in every one's mouth. + The contrary is precisely the truth, and is the great secret of every + thing that is admirable in our moral nature. + </p> + <p> + By love it is my intention here to understand, not a calm, tranquil, and, + as it were, half-pronounced feeling, but a passion of the mind. We may + doubtless entertain an approbation of other men, without adverting to the + question how they stand in relation to ourselves, as equals or otherwise. + But the sentiment I am here considering, is that where the person in whom + it resides most strongly sympathises with the joys and sorrows of another, + desires his gratification, hopes for his welfare, and shrinks from the + anticipation of his being injured; in a word, is the sentiment which has + most the spirit of sacrifice in it, and prepares the person in whom it + dwells, to postpone his own advantage to the advantage of him who is the + object of it. + </p> + <p> + Having placed love among the passions, which is no vehement assumption, I + then say, there can be no passion, and by consequence no love, where there + is not imagination. In cases where every thing is understood, and + measured, and reduced to rule, love is out of the question. Whenever this + sentiment prevails, I must have my attention fixed more on the absent than + the present, more upon what I do not see than on what I do see. My + thoughts will be taken up with the future or the past, with what is to + come or what has been. Of the present there is necessarily no image. + Sentiment is nothing, till you have arrived at a mystery and a veil, + something that is seen obscurely, that is just hinted at in the distance, + that has neither certain outline nor colour, but that is left for the mind + to fill up according to its pleasure and in the best manner it is able. + </p> + <p> + The great model of the affection of love in human beings, is the sentiment + which subsists between parents and children. + </p> + <p> + Let not this appear a paradox. There is another relation in human society + to which this epithet has more emphatically been given: but, if we analyse + the matter strictly, we shall find that all that is most sacred and + beautiful in the passion between the sexes, has relation to offspring. + What Milton calls, "The rites mysterious of connubial love," would have + little charm in them in reflection, to a mind one degree above the brutes, + were it not for the mystery they include, of their tendency to give + existence to a new human creature like ourselves. Were it not for this + circumstance, a man and a woman would hardly ever have learned to live + together; there scarcely could have been such a thing as domestic society; + but every intercourse of this sort would have been "casual, joyless, + unendeared;" and the propensity would have brought along with it nothing + more of beauty, lustre and grace, than the pure animal appetites of hunger + and thirst. Bearing in mind these considerations, I do not therefore + hesitate to say, that the great model of the affection of love in human + beings, is the sentiment which subsists between parents and children. + </p> + <p> + The original feature in this sentiment is the conscious feeling of the + protector and the protected. Our passions cannot subsist in lazy + indolence; passion and action must operate on each other; passion must + produce action, and action give strength to the tide of passion. We do not + vehemently desire, where we can do nothing. It is in a very faint way that + I entertain a wish to possess the faculty of flying; and an ordinary man + can scarcely be said to desire to be a king or an emperor. None but a + madman, of plebeian rank, falls in love with a princess. But shew me a + good thing within my reach; convince me that it is in my power to attain + it; demonstrate to me that it is fit for me, and I am fit for it; then + begins the career of passion. In the same manner, I cannot love a person + vehemently, and strongly interest myself in his miscarriages or success, + till I feel that I can be something to him. Love cannot dwell in a state + of impotence. To affect and be affected, this is the common nature I + require; this is the being that is like unto myself; all other likeness + resides in the logic and the definition, but has nothing to do with + feeling or with practice. + </p> + <p> + What can be more clear and sound in explanation, than the love of a parent + to his child? The affection he bears and its counterpart are the ornaments + of the world, and the spring of every thing that makes life worth having. + Whatever besides has a tendency to illustrate and honour our nature, + descends from these, or is copied from these, grows out of them as the + branches of a tree from the trunk, or is formed upon them as a model, and + derives from them its shape, its character, and its soul. Yet there are + men so industrious and expert to strip the world we live in of all that + adorns it, that they can see nothing glorious in these affections, but + find the one to be all selfishness, and the other all prejudice and + superstition. + </p> + <p> + The love of the parent to his child is nursed and fostered by two plain + considerations; first, that the subject is capable of receiving much, and + secondly, that my power concerning it is great and extensive. + </p> + <p> + When an infant is presented to my observation, what a wide field of + sentiment and reflection is opened to me! Few minds are industrious and + ductile enough completely to compass this field, if the infant is only + accidentally brought under their view. But, if it is an infant with which + I begin to be acquainted to-day, and my acquaintance with which shall not + end perhaps till one of us ceases to exist, how is it possible that the + view of its little figure should not lead me to the meditation of its + future history, the successive stages of human life, and the various + scenes and mutations and vicissitudes and fortunes through which it is + destined to pass? The Book of Fate lies open before me. This infant, + powerless and almost impassive now, is reserved for many sorrows and many + joys, and will one day possess a power, formidable and fearful to afflict + those within its reach, or calculated to diffuse blessings, wisdom, + virtue, happiness, to all around. I conceive all the various destinations + of which man is susceptible; my fancy at least is free to select that + which pleases me best; I unfold and pursue it in all its directions, + observe the thorns and difficulties with which it is beset, and conjure up + to my thoughts all that it can boast of inviting, delightful and + honourable. + </p> + <p> + But if the infant that is near to me lays hold of my imagination and + affections at the moment in which he falls under my observation, how much + more do I become interested in him, as he advances from year to year! At + first, I have the blessing of the gospel upon me, in that, "having not + seen, yet I believe." But, as his powers expand, I understand him better. + His little eye begins to sparkle with meaning; his tongue tells a tale + that may be understood; his very tones, and gestures, and attitudes, all + inform me concerning what he shall be. I am like a florist, who has + received a strange plant from a distant country. At first he sees only the + stalk, and the leaves, and the bud having yet no other colour than that of + the leaves. But as he watches his plant from day to day, and from hour to + hour, the case which contains the flower divides, and betrays first one + colour and then another, till the shell gradually subsides more and more + towards the stalk, and the figure of the flower begins now to be seen, and + its radiance and its pride to expand itself to the ravished observer.—Every + lesson that the child leans, every comment that he makes upon it, every + sport that he pursues, every choice that he exerts, the demeanour that he + adopts to his playfellows, the modifications and character of his little + fits of authority or submission, all make him more and more an individual + to me, and open a wider field for my sagacity or my prophecy, as to what + he promises to be, and what he may be made. + </p> + <p> + But what gives, as has already been observed, the point and the finish to + all the interest I take respecting him, lies in the vast power I possess + to influence and direct his character and his fortune. At first it is + abstract power, but, when it has already been exerted (as the writers on + politics as a science have observed of property), the sweat of my brow + becomes mingled with the apple I have gathered, and my interest is + greater. No one understands my views and projects entirely but myself, and + the scheme I have conceived will suffer, if I do not complete it as I + began. + </p> + <p> + And there are men that say, that all this mystery, the most beautiful + attitude of human nature, and the crown of its glory, is pure selfishness! + </p> + <p> + Let us now turn from the view of the parental, to that of the filial + affection. + </p> + <p> + The great mistake that has been made on this subject, arises from the + taking it nakedly and as a mere abstraction. It has been sagely remarked, + that when my father did that which occasioned me to come into existence, + he intended me no benefit, and therefore I owe him no thanks. And the + inference which has been made from this wise position is, that the duty of + children to parents is a mere imposture, a trick, employed by the old to + defraud the young out of their services. + </p> + <p> + I grant most readily, that the mere material ligament that binds together + the father and the child, by itself is worthless, and that he who owes + nothing more than this to his father, owes him nothing. The natural, + unanimated relationship is like the grain of mustard-seed in the + discourses of Jesus Christ, "which indeed is the least of all seeds; but, + when it is unfolded and grows up, it becomes a mighty tree, so that the + birds of the air may come and lodge in its branches." + </p> + <p> + The hard and insensible man may know little of the debt he owes to his + father; but he that is capable of calling up the past, and beholding the + things that are not as if they now were, will see the matter in a very + different light. Incalculable are the privations (in a great majority of + instances), the toils, the pains, the anxieties, that every child imposes + on his father from the first hour of his existence. If he could know the + ceaseless cares, the tender and ardent feelings, the almost incredible + efforts and exertions, that have accompanied him in his father's breast + through the whole period of his growth, instead of thinking that he owed + his parent nothing, he would stand still and wonder that one human + creature could do so much for another. + </p> + <p> + I grant that all this may be done for a child by a stranger, and that then + in one sense the obligation would be greater. It is however barely + possible that all this should be done. The stranger wants the first + exciting cause, the consideration, "This creature by the great scheme of + nature belongs to me, and is cast upon my care." And, as the tie in the + case of the stranger was not complete in the beginning, so neither can it + be made so in the sequel. The little straggler is like the duckling + hatched in the nest of a hen; there is danger every day, that as the + nursling begins to be acquainted with its own qualities, it may plunge + itself into another element, and swim away from its benefactor. + </p> + <p> + Even if we put all these considerations out of the question, still the + affection of the child to its parent of adoption, wants the kernel, and, + if I may so speak, the soul, of the connection which has been formed and + modelled by the great hand of nature. If the mere circumstance of + filiation and descent creates no debt, it however is the principle of a + very close connection. One of the most memorable mysteries of nature, is + how, out of the slightest of all connections (for such, literally + speaking, is that between father and child), so many coincidences should + arise. The child resembles his parent in feature, in temperament, in turn + of mind, and in class of disposition, while at the same time in many + particulars, in these same respects, he is a new and individual creature. + In one view therefore the child is merely the father multiplied and + repeated. Now one of the indefeasible principles of affection is the + partaking of a common nature; and as man is a species by himself, so to a + certain degree is every nation and every family; and this consideration, + when added to the moral and spiritual ties already treated of, undoubtedly + has a tendency to give them their zest and perfection. + </p> + <p> + But even this is not the most agreeable point of view in which we may + consider the filial affection. I come back to my first position, that + where there is no imagination, there can be no passion, and by consequence + no love. No parent ever understood his child, and no child ever understood + his parent. We have seen that the affectionate parent considers his child + like a flower in the bud, as a mine of power that is to be unfolded, as a + creature that is to act and to pass through he knows not what, as a canvas + that "gives ample room and verge enough," for his prophetic soul to hang + over in endless visions, and his intellectual pencil to fill up with + various scenes and fortunes. And, if the parent does not understand his + child, certainly as little does the child understand his parent. Wherever + this relation subsists in its fairest form, the parent is as a God, a + being qualified with supernatural powers, to his offspring. The child + consults his father as an oracle; to him he proposes all his little + questions; from him he learns his natural philosophy, his morals, his + rules of conduct, his religion, and his creed. The boy is uninformed on + every point; and the father is a vast Encyclopedia, not merely of + sciences, but of feelings, of sagacity, of practical wisdom, and of + justice, which the son consults on all occasions, and never consults in + vain. Senseless and inexpert is that parent, who endeavours to govern the + mind by authority, and to lay down rugged and peremptory dogmas to his + child; the child is fully and unavoidably prepared to receive every thing + with unbounded deference, and to place total reliance in the oracle which + nature has assigned him. Habits, how beautiful! Inestimable benefit of + nature, that has given me a prop against which to sustain my unripened + strength, and has not turned me loose to wander with tottering steps + amidst the vast desert of society! + </p> + <p> + But it is not merely for contemplative wisdom that the child honours his + parent; he sees in him a vast fund of love, attachment and sympathy. That + he cannot mistake; and it is all a mystery to him. He says, What am I, + that I should be the object of this? and whence comes it? He sees neither + the fountain from which it springs, nor the banks that confine it. To him + it is an ocean, unfathomable, and without a shore. + </p> + <p> + To the bounty of its operations he trusts implicitly. The stores of + judgment and knowledge he finds in his father, prompt him to trust it. In + many instances where it appeared at first obscure and enigmatical, the + event has taught him to acknowledge its soundness. The mutinousness of + passion will sometimes excite a child to question the decrees of his + parent; it is very long before his understanding, as such, comes to set up + a separate system, and teaches him to controvert the decisions of his + father. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps I ought earlier to have stated, that the filial connection we have + here to consider, does not include those melancholy instances where some + woful defect or utter worthlessness in the parent counteracts the natural + course of the affections, but refers only to cases, where the character of + father is on the whole sustained with honour, and the principle of the + connection is left to its true operation. In such cases the child not only + observes for himself the manifestations of wisdom and goodness in his + parent, but is also accustomed to hear well of him from all around. There + is a generous conspiracy in human nature, not to counteract the honour + borne by the offspring to him from whom he sprung, and the wholsome + principle of superiority and dependence which is almost indispensible + between persons of different ages dwelling under the same roof. And, + exclusively of this consideration, the men who are chiefly seen by the son + are his father's friends and associates; and it is the very bent, and, as + it were, law of our nature, that we do not associate much, but with + persons whom we favour, and who are prepared to mention us with kindness + and honour. + </p> + <p> + Thus every way the child is deeply imbued with veneration for his parent, + and forms the habit of regarding him as his book of wisdom, his + philosopher and guide. He is accustomed to hear him spoken of as a true + friend, an active ally, and a pattern of justice and honour; and he finds + him so. Now these are the true objects of affection,—wisdom and + beneficence; and the human heart loves this beneficence better when it is + exercised towards him who loves, first, because inevitably in almost all + instances we are best pleased with the good that is done to ourselves, and + secondly, because it can scarcely happen but that we in that case + understand it best, both in its operation and its effects. + </p> + <p> + The active principles of religion are all moulded upon this familiar and + sensible relation of father and child: and to understand whet the human + heart is capable to conceive on this subject, we have only to refer to the + many eloquent and glowing treatises that have been written upon the love + of God to his creatures, and the love that the creature in return owes to + his God. I am not now considering religion in a speculative point of view, + or enquiring among the different sects and systems of religion what it is + that is true; but merely producing religion as an example of what have + been the conceptions of the human mind in successive ages of the world on + the subject of love. + </p> + <p> + This All that we behold, the immensity of the universe, the admirable + harmony and subtlety of its structure, as they appear in the vastest and + the minutest bodies, is considered by religion, as the emanation of pure + love, a mighty impulse and ardour in its great author to realise the idea + existing in his mind, and to produce happiness. The Providence that + watches over us, so that not a sparrow dies unmarked, and that "the great + Sensorium of the world vibrates, if a hair of our head but falls to the + ground in the remotest desert of his creation," is still unremitted, + never-satiated love. And, to go from this to the peculiarities of the + Christian doctrine, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay + down his life for his friends: God so loved the world, that he gave his + only-begotten Son to suffer, to be treated contumeliously, and to die with + ignominy, that we might live." + </p> + <p> + If on the other hand we consider the love which the creature must + naturally pay to his creator, we shall find that the affection we can + suppose the most ingenuous child to bear to the worthiest parent, is a + very faint image of the passion which may be expected to grow out of this + relation. In God, as he is represented to us in the books of the worthiest + divines, is every thing that can command love; wisdom to conceive, power + to execute, and beneficence actually to carry into effect, whatever is + excellent and admirable. We are lost in contemplating the depth and + immensity of his perfections. "Every good and every perfect gift is from + the universal Father, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of + turning." The most soothing and gratifying of all sentiments, is that of + entire confidence in the divine goodness, a reliance which no adversity + can shake, and which supports him that entertains it under every calamity, + that sees the finger of God in every thing that comes to pass, that says, + "It is good for me to be afflicted," believes, that "all things work + together for blessings" to the pious and the just, and is intimately + persuaded that "our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is the + means and the earnest of a far more exceeding and eternal weight of + glory." + </p> + <p> + If we descend from these great archetypes, the love between parent and + child, and between the creator and his creature, we shall still find the + same inequality the inseparable attendant upon the most perfect ties of + affection. The ancients seem to have conceived the truest and most exalted + ideas on the subject of friendship. Among the most celebrated instances + are the friendship of Achilles and Patroclus, Orestes and Pylades, Aeneas + and Achates, Cyrus and Araspes, Alexander and Hephaestion, Scipio and + Laelius. In each of these the parties are, the true hero, the man of lofty + ambition, the magnificent personage in whom is concentred every thing that + the historian or the poet was able to realise of excellence, and the + modest and unpretending individual in whom his confidence was reposed. The + grand secret of the connection is unfolded in the saying of the Macedonian + conqueror, "Craterus loves the king, but Hephaestion loves Alexander." + Friendship is to the loftier mind the repose, the unbending of the soul. + The great man (whatever may be the department in which his excellence + consists) has enough of his greatness, when he stands before the world, + and receives the homage that is paid to his merits. Ever and anon he is + anxious to throw aside this incumbrance, and be as a man merely to a man. + He wishes to forget the "pride, pomp, and circumstance" of greatness, and + to be that only which he is himself. He desires at length to be sure, that + he receives no adulation, that he is accosted with no insincerity, and + that the individual to whose society he has thought proper to withdraw, + has no by-ends, no sinister purposes in all his thoughts. What he seeks + for, is a true friend, a being who sincerely loves, one who is attached to + him, not for the accidents that attend him, but for what most strictly + belongs to him, and of which he cannot be divested. In this friend there + is neither interested intention nor rivalry. + </p> + <p> + Such are the characteristic features of the superior party in these + exemplars of friendship among the ancients. Of the unpretending, + unassuming party Homer, the great master of the affections and emotions in + remoter ages, has given us the fullest portrait in the character of + Patroclus. The distinguishing feature of his disposition is a melting and + affectionate spirit, the concentred essence of tenderness and humanity. + When Patroclus comes from witnessing the disasters of the Greeks, to + collect a report of which he had been sent by Achilles, he is "overwhelmed + with floods of tears, like a spring which pours down its waters from the + steep edge of a precipice." It is thus that Jupiter characterises him when + he lies dead in the field of battle: + </p> + <p> + Thou (addressing himself in his thoughts to Hector) hast slain the friend + of Achilles, not less memorable for the blandness of his temper, than the + bravery of his deeds. + </p> + <p> + It is thus that Menelaus undertakes to excite the Grecian chiefs to rescue + his body: + </p> + <p> + Let each man recollect the sweetness of his disposition for, as long as he + lived, he was unremitted in kindness to all. When Achilles proposes the + games at the funeral, he says, "On any other occasion my horses should + have started for the prize, but now it cannot be. They have lost their + incomparable groom, who was accustomed to refresh their limbs with water, + and anoint their flowing manes; and they are inconsolable." Briseis also + makes her appearance among the mourners, avowing that, "when her husband + had been slain in battle, and her native city laid in ashes, this generous + man prevented her tears, averring to her, that she should be the wife of + her conqueror, and that he would himself spread the nuptial banquet for + her in the hero's native kingdom of Phthia." + </p> + <p> + The reciprocity which belongs to a friendship between unequals may well be + expected to give a higher zest to their union. Each party is necessary to + the other. The superior considers him towards whom he pours out his + affection, as a part of himself. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The head is not more native to the heart, + The hand more instrumental to the mouth. +</pre> + <p> + He cannot separate himself from him, but at the cost of a fearful maim. + When the world is shut out by him, when he retires into solitude, and + falls back upon himself, then his unpretending friend is most of all + necessary to him. He is his consolation and his pleasure, the safe coffer + in which he reposits all his anxieties and sorrows. If the principal, + instead of being a public man, is a man of science, this kind of unbending + becomes certainly not the less welcome to him. He wishes occasionally to + forget the severity of his investigations, neither to have his mind any + longer wound up and stretched to the height of meditation, nor to feel + that he needs to be any way on his guard, or not completely to give the + rein to all his sallies and the sportiveness of his soul. Having been for + a considerable time shut up in sequestered reflection, he wishes, it may + be, to have the world, the busy impassioned world, brought to his ears, + without his being obliged to enter into its formalities and mummeries. If + he desires to speak of the topics which had so deeply engaged him, he can + keep as near the edge as he pleases, and drop or resume them as his fancy + may prompt. And it seems useless to say, how much his modest and + unassuming friend will be gratified in being instrumental to relieve the + labours of his principal, in feeling that he is necessary to him, and in + meditating on the delight he receives in being made the chosen companion + and confident of him whom he so ardently admires. It was precisely in this + spirit, that Fulke Greville, two hundred years ago, directed that it + should be inscribed on his tomb, "Here lies the friend of Sir Philip + Sidney." Tenderness on the one part, and a deep feeling of honour and + respect on the other, give a completeness to the union which it must + otherwise for ever want. "There is no limit, none," to the fervour with + which the stronger goes forward to protect the weak; while in return the + less powerful would encounter a thousand deaths rather than injury should + befall the being to whom in generosity and affection he owes so much. + </p> + <p> + In the mean time, though inequality is necessary to give this completeness + to friendship, the inequality must not be too great. + </p> + <p> + The inferior party must be able to understand and appreciate the sense and + the merits of him to whom he is thus bound. There must be no impediment to + hinder the communications of the principal from being fully comprehended, + and his sentiments entirely participated. There must be a boundless + confidence, without apprehension that the power of the stronger party can + by the remotest possibility be put forth ungenerously. "Perfect love + casteth out fear." The evangelist applies this aphorism even to the love + of the creature to his creator. "The Lord spake unto Moses, face to face, + as a man speaketh unto his friend." In the union of which I am treating + the demonstrative and ordinary appearance will be that of entire equality, + which is heightened by the inner, and for the greater part unexplained and + undeveloped, impression of a contrary nature. There is in either party a + perfect reliance, an idea of inequality with the most entire assurance + that it can never operate unworthily in the stronger party, or produce + insincerity or servility in the weaker. There will in reality always be + some reserve, some shadow of fear between equals, which in the friendship + of unequals, if happily assorted, can find no place. There is a pouring + out of the heart on the one side, and a cordial acceptance on the other, + which words are inadequate to describe. + </p> + <p> + To proceed. If from friendship we go forward to that which in all + languages is emphatically called love, we shall still find ourselves + dogged and attended by inequality. Nothing can be more certain, however we + may seek to modify and abate it, than the inequality of the sexes. Let us + attend to it as it stands in Milton: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + For contemplation he and velour formed + For softness she and sweet attractive grace; + He for God only, she for God in him. +</pre> + <p> + Thus it is painted to us as having been in Paradise; and with similar + inequality have the sexes subsisted in all ages and nations since. If it + were possible to take from the fair sex its softness and attractive grace, + and endow it instead with audacious, masculine and military qualities, + there is scarcely any one that does not perceive, with whatever advantages + it might be attended in other respects, that it would be far from tending + to cherish and increase the passion of love. + </p> + <p> + It is in reality obvious, that man and woman, as they come from the hands + of nature, are so much upon a par with each other, as not to afford the + best subjects between whom to graft a habit of entire, unalterable + affection. In the scenes of vulgar and ordinary society, a permanent + connection between persons of opposite sexes is too apt to degenerate into + a scene of warfare, where each party is for ever engaged in a struggle for + superiority, and neither will give way. A penetrating observer, with whom + in former days I used intimately to converse, was accustomed to say, that + there was generally more jarring and ill blood between the two parties in + the first year of their marriage, than during all the remainder of their + lives. It is at length found necessary, as between equally matched + belligerents on the theatre of history, that they should come to terms, + make a treaty of peace, or at least settle certain laws of warfare, that + they may not waste their strength in idle hostilities. + </p> + <p> + The nations of antiquity had a way of settling this question in a very + summary mode. As certain Oriental tribes have determined that women have + no souls, and that nothing can be more proper than to shut them up, like + singing birds in cages, so the Greeks and Romans for the most part + excluded their females from the society of the more martial sex. Marriage + with them was a convenience merely; and the husband and wife were in + reality nothing more than the master and the slave. This point once + settled as a matter of national law, there was certainly in most cases + little danger of any vexatious rivalship and struggle for power. + </p> + <p> + But there is nothing in which the superiority of modern times over the + ancient has been more conspicuous, than in our sentiments and practices on + this subject. This superiority, as well as several other of our most + valuable acquisitions, took its rise in what we call the dark ages. + Chivalry was for the most part the invention of the eleventh century. Its + principle was built upon a theory of the sexes, giving to each a relative + importance, and assigning to both functions full of honour and grace. The + knights (and every gentleman during that period in due time became a + knight) were taught, as the main features of their vocation, the "love of + God and the ladies." The ladies in return were regarded as the genuine + censors of the deeds of knighthood. From these principles arose a thousand + lessons of humanity. The ladies regarded it as their glory to assist their + champions to arm and to disarm, to perform for them even menial services, + to attend them in sickness, and to dress their wounds. They bestowed on + them their colours, and sent them forth to the field hallowed with their + benedictions. The knights on the other hand considered any slight towards + the fair sex as an indelible stain to their order; they contemplated the + graceful patronesses of their valour with a feeling that partook of + religious homage and veneration, and esteemed it as perhaps the first duty + of their profession, to relieve the wrongs, and avenge the injuries of the + less powerful sex. + </p> + <p> + This simple outline as to the relative position of the one sex and the + other, gave a new face to the whole scheme and arrangements of civil + society. It is like those admirable principles in the order of the + material universe, or those grand discoveries brought to light from time + to time by superior genius, so obvious and simple, that we wonder the most + common understanding could have missed them, yet so pregnant with results, + that they seem at once to put a new life and inspire a new character into + every part of a mighty and all-comprehensive mass. + </p> + <p> + The passion between the sexes, in its grosser sense, is a momentary + impulse merely; and there was danger that, when the fit and violence of + the passion was over, the whole would subside into inconstancy and a + roving disposition, or at least into indifference and almost brutal + neglect. But the institutions of chivalry immediately gave a new face to + this. Either sex conceived a deep and permanent interest in the other. In + the unsettled state of society which characterised the period when these + institutions arose, the defenceless were liable to assaults of multiplied + kinds, and the fair perpetually stood in need of a protector and a + champion. The knights on the other hand were taught to derive their fame + and their honour from the suffrages of the ladies. Each sex stood in need + of the other; and the basis of their union was mutual esteem. + </p> + <p> + The effect of this was to give a hue of imagination to all their + intercourse. A man was no longer merely a man, nor a woman merely a woman. + They were taught mutual deference. The woman regarded her protector as + something illustrious and admirable; and the man considered the smiles and + approbation of beauty as the adequate reward of his toils and his dangers. + These modes of thinking introduced a nameless grace into all the commerce + of society. It was the poetry of life. Hence originated the delightful + narratives and fictions of romance; and human existence was no longer the + bare, naked train of vulgar incidents, which for so many ages of the world + it had been accustomed to be. It was clothed in resplendent hues, and wore + all the tints of the rainbow. Equality fled and was no more; and love, + almighty, perdurable love, came to supply its place. + </p> + <p> + By means of this state of things the vulgar impulse of the sexes towards + each other, which alone was known to the former ages of the world, was + transformed into somewhat of a totally different nature. It became a kind + of worship. The fair sex looked upon their protectors, their fathers, + their husbands, and the whole train of their chivalry, as something more + than human. There was a grace in their motions, a gallantry in their + bearing, and a generosity in their spirit of enterprise, that the softness + of the female heart found irresistible. Nor less on the other hand did the + knights regard the sex to whose service and defence they were sworn, as + the objects of their perpetual deference. They approached them with a sort + of gallant timidity, listened to their behests with submission, and + thought the longest courtship and devotion nobly recompensed by the final + acceptance of the fair. + </p> + <p> + The romance and exaggeration characteristic of these modes of thinking + have gradually worn away in modern times; but much of what was most + valuable in them has remained. Love has in later ages never been divested + of the tenderness and consideration, which were thus rendered some of its + most estimable features. A certain desire in each party to exalt the + other, and regard it as worthy of admiration, became inextricably + interwoven with the simple passion. A sense of the honour that was borne + by the one to the other, had the happiest effect in qualifying the + familiarity and unreserve in the communion of feelings and sentiments, + without which the attachment of the sexes cannot subsist. It is something + like what the mystic divines describe of the beatific vision, where entire + wonder and adoration are not judged to be incompatible with the most + ardent affection, and all meaner and selfish regards are annihilated. + </p> + <p> + From what has been thus drawn together and recapitulated it seems clearly + to follow, as was stated in the beginning, that love cannot exist in its + purest form and with a genuine ardour, where the parties are, and are felt + by each other to be, on an equality; but that in all cases it is requisite + there should be a mutual deference and submission, agreeably to the + apostolic precept, "Likewise all of you be subject one to the other." + There must be room for the imagination to exercise its powers; we must + conceive and apprehend a thousand things which we do not actually witness; + each party must feel that it stands in need of the other, and without the + other cannot be complete; each party must be alike conscious of the power + of receiving and conferring benefit; and there must be the anticipation of + a distant future, that may every day enhance the good to be imparted and + enjoyed, and cause the individuals thus united perpetually to become more + sensible of the fortunate event which gave them to each other, and has + thus entailed upon each a thousand advantages in which they could + otherwise never have shared. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY XVI. OF FRANKNESS AND RESERVE. + </h2> + <p> + Animals are divided into the solitary and the are gregarious: the former + being only occasionally associated with its mate, and perhaps engaged in + the care of its offspring; the latter spending their lives in herds and + communities. Man is of this last class or division. + </p> + <p> + Where the animals of any particular species live much in society, it seems + requisite that in some degree they should be able to understand each + other's purposes, and to act with a certain portion of concert. + </p> + <p> + All other animals are exceedingly limited in their powers of + communication. But speech renders that being whom we justly entitle the + lord of the creation, capable of a boundless interchange of ideas and + intentions. Not only can we communicate to each other substantively our + elections and preferences: we can also exhort and persuade, and employ + reasons and arguments to convince our fellows, that the choice we have + made is also worthy of their adoption. We can express our thoughts, and + the various lights and shades, the bleedings, of our thoughts. Language is + an instrument capable of being perpetually advanced in copiousness, + perspicuity and power. + </p> + <p> + No principle of morality can be more just, than that which teaches us to + regard every faculty we possess as a power intrusted to us for the benefit + of others as well as of ourselves, and which therefore we are bound to + employ in the way which shall best conduce to the general advantage. + </p> + <p> + "Speech was given us, that by it we might express our thoughts(34);" in + other words, our impressions, ideas and conceptions. We then therefore + best fulfil the scope of our nature, when we sincerely and unreservedly + communicate to each other our feelings and apprehensions. Speech should be + to man in the nature of a fair complexion, the transparent medium through + which the workings of the mind should be made legible. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (34) Moliere. +</pre> + <p> + I think I have somewhere read of Socrates, that certain of his friends + expostulated with him, that the windows of his house were so constructed + that every one who went by could discover all that passed within. "And + wherefore not?" said the sage. "I do nothing that I would wish to have + concealed from any human eye. If I knew that all the world observed every + thing I did, I should feel no inducement to change my conduct in the + minutest particular." + </p> + <p> + It is not however practicable that frankness should be carried to the + extent above mentioned. It has been calculated that the human mind is + capable of being impressed with three hundred and twenty sensations in a + second of time. At all events we well know that, even "while I am + speaking, a variety of sensations are experienced by me, without so much + as interrupting, that is, without materially diverting, the train of my + ideas. My eye successively remarks a thousand objects that present + themselves, and my mind wanders to the different parts of my body, without + occasioning the minutest obstacle to my discourse, or my being in any + degree distracted by the multiplicity of these objects(35)." It is + therefore beyond the reach of the faculty of speech, for me to communicate + all the sensations I experience; and I am of necessity reduced to a + selection. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (35) See above, Essay 7. +</pre> + <p> + Nor is this the whole. We do not communicate all that we feel, and all + that we think; for this would be impertinent. We owe a certain deference + and consideration to our fellow-men; we owe it in reality to ourselves. We + do not communicate indiscriminately all that passes within us. The time + would fail us; and "the world would not contain the books that might be + written." We do not speak merely for the sake of speaking; otherwise the + communication of man with his fellow would be but one eternal babble. + Speech is to be employed for some useful purpose; nor ought we to give + utterance to any thing that shall not promise to be in some way productive + of benefit or amusement. + </p> + <p> + Frankness has its limits, beyond which it would cease to be either + advantageous or virtuous. We are not to tell every thing: but we are not + to conceal any thing, that it would be useful or becoming in us to utter. + Our first duty regarding the faculty of speech is, not to keep back what + it would be beneficial to our neighbour to know. But this is a negative + sincerity only. If we would acquire a character for frankness, we must be + careful that our conversation is such, as to excite in him the idea that + we are open, ingenuous and fearless. We must appear forward to speak all + that will give him pleasure, and contribute to maintain in him an + agreeable state of being. It must be obvious that we are not artificial + and on our guard.—After all, it is difficult to lay down rules on + this subject: the spring of whatever is desirable respecting it, must be + in the temper of the man with whom others have intercourse. He must be + benevolent, sympathetic and affectionate. His heart must overflow with + good-will; and he must be anxious to relieve every little pain, and to + contribute to the enjoyment and complacent feelings, of those with whom he + is permanently or accidentally connected. "Out of the abundance of the + heart the mouth speaketh." + </p> + <p> + There are two considerations by which we ought to be directed in the + exercise of the faculty of speech. + </p> + <p> + The first is, that we should tell our neighbour all that it would be + useful to him to know. We must have no sinister or bye ends. "No man + liveth to himself." We are all of us members of the great congregation of + mankind. The same blood should circulate through every limb and every + muscle. Our pulses should beat time to each other; and we should have one + common sensorium, vibrating throughout, upon every material accident that + occurs, and when any object is at stake essentially affecting the welfare + of our fellow-beings. We should forget ourselves in the interest that we + feel for the happiness of others; and, if this were universal, each man + would be a gainer, inasmuch as he lost himself, and was cared and watched + for by many. + </p> + <p> + In all these respects we must have no reserve. We should only consider + what it is that it would be beneficial to have declared. + </p> + <p> + We must not look back to ourselves, and consult the dictates of a narrow + and self-interested prudence. The whole essence of communication is + adulterated, if, instead of attending to the direct effects of what + suggests itself to our tongue, we are to consider how by a circuitous + route it may react upon our own pleasures and advantage. + </p> + <p> + Nor only are we bound to communicate to our neighbour all that it will be + useful to him to know. We have many neighbours, beside those to whom we + immediately address ourselves. To these our absent fellow-beings, we owe a + thousand duties. We are bound to defend those whom we hear aspersed, and + who are spoken unworthily of by the persons whom we incidentally + encounter. We should be the forward and spontaneous advocates of merit in + every shape and in every individual in whom we know it to exist. What a + character would that man make for himself, of whom it was notorious that + he consecrated his faculty of speech to the refuting unjust imputations + against whomsoever they were directed, to the contradicting all false and + malicious reports, and to the bringing forth obscure and unrecognised + worth from the shades in which it lay hid! What a world should we live in, + if all men were thus prompt and fearless to do justice to all the worth + they knew or apprehended to exist! Justice, simple justice, if it extended + no farther than barely to the faculty of speech, would in no long time put + down all misrepresentation and calumny, bring all that is good and + meritorious into honour, and, so to speak, set every man in his true and + rightful position. But whoever would attempt this, must do it in all + honour, without parade, and with no ever-and-anon looking back upon his + achievement, and saying, See to how much credit I am entitled!—as if + he laid more stress upon himself, the doer of this justice, than upon + justice in its intrinsic nature and claims. + </p> + <p> + But we not only owe something to the advantage and interest of our + neighbours, but something also to the sacred divinity of Truth. I am not + only to tell my neighbour whatever I know that may be beneficial to him, + respecting his position in society, his faults, what other men appear to + contemplate that may conduce to his advantage or injury, and to advise him + how the one may best be forwarded, or the other defeated and brought to + nothing: I am bound also to consider in what way it may be in my power so + to act on his mind, as shall most enlarge his views, confirm and animate + his good resolutions, and meliorate his dispositions and temper. We are + all members of one great community: and we shall never sufficiently + discharge our duty in that respect, till, like the ancient Spartans, the + love of the whole becomes our predominant passion, and we cease to imagine + that we belong to ourselves, so much as to the entire body of which we are + a part. There are certain views in morality, in politics, and various + other important subjects, the general prevalence of which will be of the + highest benefit to the society of which we are members; and it becomes us + in this respect, with proper temperance and moderation, to conform + ourselves to the zealous and fervent precept of the apostle, to + "promulgate the truth and be instant, in season and out of season," that + we may by all means leave some monument of our good intentions behind us, + and feel that we have not lived in vain. + </p> + <p> + There is a maxim extremely in vogue in the ordinary intercourses of + society, which deserves to be noticed here, for the purpose of exposing it + to merited condemnation. It is very common between friends, or persons + calling themselves such, to say, "Do not ask my advice in a certain crisis + of your life; I will not give it; hereafter, if the thing turns out wrong, + you will reflect on me, and say that it was at my suggestion that you were + involved in calamity." This is a dastardly excuse, and shews a pitiful + selfishness in the man that urges it. + </p> + <p> + It is true, that we ought ever to be on the alert, that we may not induce + our friend into evil. We should be upon our guard, that we may not from + overweening arrogance and self-conceit dictate to another, overpower his + more sober judgment, and assume a rashness for him, in which perhaps we + would not dare to indulge for ourselves. We should be modest in our + suggestions, and rather supply him with materials for decision, than with + a decision absolutely made. There may however be cases where an opposite + proceeding is necessary. We must arrest our friend, nay, even him who is + merely our fellow-creature, with a strong arm, when we see him hovering on + the brink of a precipice, or the danger is so obvious, that nothing but + absolute blindness could conceal it from an impartial bystander. + </p> + <p> + But in all cases our best judgment should always be at the service of our + brethren of mankind. "Give to him that asketh thee; and from him that + would borrow of thee turn not thou away." + </p> + <p> + This may not always be practicable or just, when applied to the goods of + fortune: but the case of advice, information, and laws of conduct, comes + within that of Ennius, to suffer our neighbour to light his candle at our + lamp. To do so will enrich him, without making us a jot the poorer. We + should indeed respect the right of private judgment, and scarcely in any + case allow our will to supersede his will in his own proper province. But + we should on no account suffer any cowardly fears for ourselves, to induce + us to withhold from him any assistance that our wider information or our + sounder judgment might supply to him. + </p> + <p> + The next consideration by which we should be directed in the exercise of + the faculty of speech, is that we should employ it so as should best + conduce to the pleasure of our neighbour. Man is a different creature in + the savage and the civilised state. It has been affirmed, and it may be + true, that the savage man is a stranger to that disagreeable frame of + mind, known by the name of ennui. He can pore upon the babbling stream, or + stretch himself upon a sunny bank, from the rising to the setting of the + sun, and be satisfied. He is scarcely roused from this torpid state but by + the cravings of nature. If they can be supplied without effort, he + immediately relapses into his former supineness; and, if it requires + search, industry and exertion to procure their gratification, he still + more eagerly embraces the repose, which previous fatigue renders doubly + welcome. + </p> + <p> + But, when the mind has once been wakened up from its original lethargy, + when we have overstepped the boundary which divides the man from the + beast, and are made desirous of improvement, while at the same moment the + tumultuous passions that draw us in infinitely diversified directions are + called into act, the case becomes exceedingly different. It might be + difficult at first to rouse man from his original lethargy: it is next to + impossible that he should ever again be restored to it. The appetite of + the mind being once thoroughly awakened in society, the human species are + found to be perpetually craving after new intellectual food. We read, we + write, we discourse, we ford rivers, and scale mountains, and engage in + various pursuits, for the pure pleasure that the activity and earnestness + of the pursuit afford us. The day of the savage and the civilised man are + still called by the same name. They may be measured by a pendulum, and + will be found to be of the same duration. But in all other points of view + they are inexpressibly different. + </p> + <p> + Hence therefore arises another duty that is incumbent upon us as to the + exercise of the faculty of speech. This duty will be more or less urgent + according to the situation in which we are placed. + </p> + <p> + If I sit down in a numerous assembly, if I become one of a convivial party + of ten or twelve persons, I may unblamed be for the greater part, or + entirely silent, if I please. I must appear to enter into their sentiments + and pleasures, or, if I do not, I shall be an unwelcome guest; but it may + scarcely be required for me to clothe my feelings with articulate speech. + </p> + <p> + But, when my society shall be that of a few friends only, and still more + if the question is of spending hours or days in the society of a single + friend, my duty becomes altered, and a greater degree of activity will be + required from me. There are cases, where the minor morals of the species + will be of more importance than those which in their own nature are + cardinal. Duties of the highest magnitude will perhaps only be brought + into requisition upon extraordinary occasions; but the opportunities we + have of lessening the inconveniences of our neighbour, or of adding to his + accommodations and the amount of his agreeable feelings, are innumerable. + An acceptable and welcome member of society therefore will not talk, only + when he has something important to communicate. He will also study how he + may amuse his friend with agreeable narratives, lively remarks, sallies of + wit, or any of those thousand nothings, which' set off with a wish to + please and a benevolent temper, will often entertain more and win the + entire good will of the person to whom they are addressed, than the wisest + discourse, or the vein of conversation which may exhibit the powers and + genius of the speaker to the greatest advantage. + </p> + <p> + Men of a dull and saturnine complexion will soon get to an end of all they + felt it incumbent on them to say to their comrades. But the same thing + will probably happen, though at a much later period, between friends of an + active mind, of the largest stores of information, and whose powers have + been exercised upon the greatest variety of sentiments, principles, and + original veins of thinking. When two such men first fall into society, + each will feel as if he had found a treasure. Their communications are + without end; their garrulity is excited, and converts into a perennial + spring. The topics upon which they are prompted to converse are so + numerous, that one seems to jostle out the other. + </p> + <p> + It may proceed thus from day to day, from month to month, and perhaps from + year to year. But, according to the old proverb, "It is a long lane that + has no turning." The persons here described will have a vast variety of + topics upon which they are incited to compare their opinions, and will lay + down these topics and take them up again times without number. Upon some, + one of the parties will feel himself entirely at home while the other is + comparatively a novice, and, in others, the advantage will be with the + other; so that the gain of both, in this free and unrestrained opening of + the soul, will be incalculable. But the time will come, like as in + perusing an author of the most extraordinary genius and the most versatile + powers, that the reading of each other's minds will be exhausted. They + know so much of each other's tone of thinking, that all that can be said + will be anticipated. The living voice, the sparkling eye, and the beaming + countenance will do much to put off the evil day, when we shall say, I + have had enough. But the time will come in which we shall feel that this + after all is but little, and we shall become sluggish, ourselves to + communicate, or to excite the dormant faculties of our friend, when the + spring, the waters of which so long afforded us the most exquisite + delight, is at length drawn dry. + </p> + <p> + I remember in my childish years being greatly struck with that passage in + the Bible, where it is written, "But I say unto you, that, for every idle + word that men shall speak, they shall give an account in the day of + judgment:" and, as I was very desirous of conforming myself to the + directions of the sacred volume, I was upon the point of forming a sort of + resolution, that I would on no account open my mouth to speak, without + having a weighty reason for uttering the thing I felt myself prompted to + say. + </p> + <p> + But practical directions of this sort are almost in all cases of ambiguous + interpretation. From the context of this passage it is clear, that by + "idle words" we are to understand vicious words, words tending to instil + into the mind unauthorised impulses, that shew in the man who speaks "a + will most rank, foul disproportion, thoughts unnatural," and are + calculated to render him by whom they are listened to, light and frivolous + of temper, and unstrung for the graver duties of human life. + </p> + <p> + But idle words, in the sense of innocent amusement, are not vicious. + "There is a time for all things." Amusement must not encroach upon or + thrust aside the real business, the important engagements, and the + animated pursuits of man. But it is entitled to take its turn unreproved. + Human life is so various, and the disposition and temper of the mind of so + different tones and capacity, that a wise man will "frame his face to all + occasions." Playfulness, if not carried to too great an extreme, is an + additional perfection in human nature. We become relieved from our more + serious cares, and better fitted to enter on them again after an interval. + To fill up the days of our lives with various engagements, to make one + occupation succeed to another, so as to liberate us from the pains of + ennui, and the dangers of what may in an emphatical sense be called + idleness, is no small desideratum. That king may in this sense be admitted + to have formed no superficial estimate of our common nature, who is said + to have proclaimed a reward to the individual that should invent a new + amusement. + </p> + <p> + And, to consider the question as it stands in relation to the subject of + the present Essay, a perpetual gravity and a vigilant watch to be placed + on the door of our lips, would be eminently hostile to that frankness + which is to be regarded as one of the greatest ornaments of our nature. + "It is meet, that we should make merry and be glad." A formal countenance, + a demure, careful and unaltered cast of features, is one of the most + disadvantageous aspects under which human nature can exhibit itself. The + temper must be enterprising and fearless, the manner firm and assured, and + the correspondence between the heart and the tongue prompt and + instantaneous, if we desire to have that view of man that shall do him the + most credit, and induce us to form the most honourable opinion respecting + him. On our front should sit fearless confidence and unsubdued hilarity. + Our limbs should be free and unfettered, a state of the animal which + imparts a grace infinitely more winning than that of the most skilful + dancer. The very sound of our voice should be full, firm, mellow, and + fraught with life and sensibility; of that nature, at the hearing of which + every bosom rises, and every eye is lighted up. It is thus that men come + to understand and confide in each other. This is the only frame that can + perfectly conduce to our moral improvement, the awakening of our + faculties, the diffusion of science, and the establishment of the purest + notions and principles of civil and political liberty. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY XVII. OF BALLOT. + </h2> + <p> + The subject of the preceding Essay leads by an obvious transition to the + examination of a topic, which at present occupies to a considerable extent + the attention of those who are anxious for the progress of public + improvement, and the placing the liberties of mankind on the securest + basis: I mean, the topic of the vote by ballot. + </p> + <p> + It is admitted that the most beneficial scheme for the government of + nations, is a government by representation: that is, that there shall be + in every nation, or large collection of men, a paramount legislative + assembly, composed of deputies chosen by the people in their respective + counties, cities, towns, or departments. In what manner then shall these + deputies be elected? + </p> + <p> + The argument in favour of the election by ballot is obvious. + </p> + <p> + In nearly all civilised countries there exists more or less an inequality + of rank and property: we will confine our attention principally to the + latter. + </p> + <p> + Property necessarily involves influence. Mankind are but too prone to pay + a superior deference to those who wear better clothes, live in larger + houses, and command superior accommodations to those which fall to the lot + of the majority. + </p> + <p> + One of the main sources of wealth in civilised nations is the possession + of land. Those who have a considerable allotment of land in property, for + the most part let it out in farms on lease or otherwise to persons of an + inferior rank, by whom it is cultivated. In this case a reciprocal + relation is created between the landlord and the tenant: and, if the + landlord conducts himself towards his tenant agreeably to the principles + of honour and liberality, it is impossible that the tenant should not feel + disposed to gratify his landlord, so far as shall be compatible with his + own notions of moral rectitude, or the paramount interests of the society + of which he is a member. + </p> + <p> + If the proprietor of any extensive allotment of land does not let it out + in farms, but retains it under his own direction, he must employ a great + number of husbandmen and labourers; and over them he must be expected to + exercise the same sort of influence, as under the former statement we + supposed him to exercise over his tenants. + </p> + <p> + The same principle will still operate wherever any one man in society is + engaged in the expenditure of a considerable capital. The manufacturer + will possess the same influence over his workmen, as the landed proprietor + over his tenants or labourers. Even the person who possesses considerable + opulence, and has no intention to engage in the pursuits of profit or + accumulation, will have an ample retinue, and will be enabled to use the + same species of influence over his retainers and trades-people, as the + landlord exercises over his tenants and labourers, and the manufacturer + over his workmen. + </p> + <p> + A certain degree of this species of influence in society, is perhaps not + to be excepted against. The possessor of opulence in whatever form, may be + expected to have received a superior education, and, being placed at a + certain distance from the minuter details and the lesser wheels in the + machine of society, to have larger and more expansive views as to the + interests of the whole. It is good that men in different ranks of society + should be brought into intercourse with each other; it will subtract + something from the prejudices of both, and enable each to obtain some of + the advantages of the other. The division of rank is too much calculated + to split society into parties having a certain hostility to each other. In + a free state we are all citizens: it is desirable that we should all be + friends. + </p> + <p> + But this species of influence may be carried too far. To a certain extent + it is good. Inasmuch as it implies the enlightening one human + understanding by the sparks struck out from another, or even the + communication of feelings between man and man, this is not to be + deprecated. Some degree of courteous compliance and deference of the + ignorant to the better informed, is inseparable from the existence of + political society as we behold it; such a deference as we may conceive the + candid and conscientious layman to pay to the suggestions of his honest + and disinterested pastor. + </p> + <p> + Every thing however that is more than this, is evil. There should be no + peremptory mandates, and no threat or apprehension of retaliation and + mischief to follow, if the man of inferior station or opulence should + finally differ in opinion from his wealthier neighbour. We may admit of a + moral influence; but there must be nothing, that should in the smallest + degree border on compulsion. + </p> + <p> + But it is unfortunately in the very nature of weak, erring and fallible + mortals, to make an ill use of the powers that are confided to their + discretion. The rich man in the wantonness of his authority will not stop + at moral influence, but, if he is disappointed of his expectation by what + he will call my wilfulness and obstinacy, will speedily find himself + impelled to vindicate his prerogative, and to punish my resistance. In + every such disappointment he will discern a dangerous precedent, and will + apprehend that, if I escape with impunity, the whole of that ascendancy, + which he has regarded as one of the valuable privileges contingent to his + station, will be undermined. + </p> + <p> + Opulence has two ways of this grosser sort, by which it may enable its + possessor to command the man below him,—punishment and reward. As + the holder, for example, of a large landed estate, or the administrator of + an ample income, may punish the man who shews himself refractory to his + will, so he may also reward the individual who yields to his suggestions. + This, in whatever form it presents itself, may be classed under the + general head of bribery. + </p> + <p> + The remedy for all this therefore, real or potential, mischief, is said to + lie in the vote by ballot, a contrivance, by means of which every man + shall be enabled to give his vote in favour of or against any candidate + that shall be nominated, in absolute secrecy, without it being possible + for any one to discover on which side the elector decided,—nay, a + contrivance, by which the elector is invited to practise mystery and + concealment, inasmuch as it would seem an impertinence in him to speak + out, when the law is expressly constructed to bid him act and be silent. + If he speaks, he is guilty of a sort of libel on his brother-electors, who + are hereby implicitly reproached by him for their impenetrableness and + cowardice. + </p> + <p> + We are told that the institution of the ballot is indispensible to the + existence of a free state, in a country where the goods of fortune are + unequally distributed. In England, as the right of sending members to + parliament is apportioned at the time I am writing, the power of electing + is bestowed with such glaring inequality, and the number of electors in + many cases is so insignificant, as inevitably to give to the noble and the + rich the means of appointing almost any representatives they think fit, so + that the house of commons may more justly be styled the nominees of the + upper house, than the deputies of the nation. And it is further said, + Remedy this inequality as much as you please, and reform the state of the + representation to whatever degree, still, so long as the votes at + elections are required to be given openly, the reform will be unavailing, + and the essential part of the mischief will remain. The right of giving + our votes in secrecy, is the only remedy that can cut off the ascendancy + of the more opulent members of the community over the rest, and give us + the substance of liberty, instead of cheating us with the shadow. + </p> + <p> + On the other side I would beg the reader to consider, that the vote by + ballot, in its obvious construction, is not the symbol of liberty, but of + slavery. What is it, that presents to every eye the image of liberty, and + compels every heart to confess, This is the temple where she resides? An + open front, a steady and assured look, an habitual and uninterrupted + commerce between the heart and the tongue. The free man communicates with + his neighbour, not in corners and concealed places, but in market-places + and scenes of public resort; and it is thus that the sacred spark is + caught from man to man, till all are inspired with a common flame. + Communication and publicity are of the essence of liberty; it is the air + they breathe; and without it they die. + </p> + <p> + If on the contrary I would characterise a despotism, I should say, It + implied a certain circumference of soil, through whose divisions and + districts every man suspected his neighbour, where every man was haunted + with the terror that "walls have ears," and only whispered his discontent, + his hopes and his fears, to the trees of the forest and the silent + streams. If the dwellers on this soil consulted together, it would be in + secret cabals and with closed doors; engaging in the sacred cause of + public welfare and happiness, as if it were a thing of guilt, which the + conspirator scarcely ventured to confess to his own heart. + </p> + <p> + A shrewd person of my acquaintance the other day, to whom I unadvisedly + proposed a question as to what he thought of some public transaction, + instantly replied with symptoms of alarm, "I beg to say that I never + disclose my opinions upon matters either of religion or politics to any + one." What did this answer imply as to the political government of the country + where it was given? + </p> + <p> + Is it characteristic of a free state or a tyranny? + </p> + <p> + One of the first and highest duties that falls to the lot of a human + creature, is that which he owes to the aggregate of reasonable beings + inhabiting what he calls his country. Our duties are then most solemn and + elevating, when they are calculated to affect the well being of the + greatest number of men; and of consequence what a patriot owes to his + native soil is the noblest theatre for his moral faculties. And shall we + teach men to discharge this debt in the dark? Surely every man ought to be + able to "render a reason of the hope that is in him," and give a modest, + but an assured, account of his political conduct. When he approaches the + hustings at the period of a public election, this is his altar, where he + sacrifices in the face of men to that deity, which is most worth his + adoration of all the powers whose single province is our sublunary state. + </p> + <p> + But the principle of the institution of ballot is to teach men to perform + their best actions under the cloke of concealment. When I return from + giving my vote in the choice of a legislative representative, I ought, if + my mode of proceeding were regulated by the undebauched feelings of our + nature, to feel somewhat proud that I had discharged this duty, + uninfluenced, uncorrupted, in the sincere frame of a conscientious spirit. + But the institution of ballot instigates me carefully to conceal what I + have done. If I am questioned respecting it, the proper reply which is as + it were put into my mouth is, "You have no right to ask me; and I shall + not tell." But, as every man does not recollect the proper reply at the + moment it is wanted, and most men feel abashed, when a direct question is + put to them to which they know they are not to return a direct answer, + many will stammer and feel confused, will perhaps insinuate a falshood, + while at the same time their manner to a discerning eye will, in spite of + all their precautions, disclose the very truth. + </p> + <p> + The institution of ballot not only teaches us that our best actions are + those which we ought most steadily to disavow, but carries distrust and + suspicion into all our most familiar relations. The man I want to deceive, + and throw out in the keenness of his hunting, is my landlord. But how + shall I most effectually conceal the truth from him? May I be allowed to + tell it to my wife or my child? I had better not. It is a known maxim of + worldly prudence, that the truth which may be a source of serious injury + to me, is safest, when it is shut up in my own bosom. If I once let it + out, there is no saying where the communication may stop. "Day unto day + uttereth speech; and night unto night sheweth forth knowledge." + </p> + <p> + And is this the proud attitude of liberty, to which we are so eager to + aspire? After all, there will be some ingenuous men in the community, who + will not know how for ever to suppress what is dearest to their hearts. + But at any rate this institution holds out a prize to him that shall be + most secret and untraceable in his proceedings, that shall "shoe his + horses with felt," and proceed in all his courses with silence and + suspicion. + </p> + <p> + The first principle of morality to social man is, that we act under the + eye of our fellows. The truly virtuous man would do as he ought, though no + eye observed him. Persons, it is true, who deport themselves merely as + "men-pleasers," for ever considering how the by-standers will pronounce of + their conduct, are entitled to small commendation. The good man, it is + certain, will see + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + To do what virtue would, though sun and moon + Were in the flat sea sunk. +</pre> + <p> + But, imperfect creatures as we mortals usually are, these things act and + react upon each other. A man of honourable intentions will demean himself + justly, from the love of right. But he is confirmed in his just dealing by + the approbation of his fellows; and, if he were tempted to step awry, he + would be checked by the anticipation of their censure. Such is the nature + of our moral education. It is with virtue, as it is with literary fame. If + I write well, I can scarcely feel secure that I do so, till I obtain the + suffrage of some competent judges, confirming the verdict which I was + before tempted to pronounce in my own favour. + </p> + <p> + This acting as in a theatre, where men and Gods are judges of my conduct, + is the true destination of man; and we cannot violate the universal law + under which we were born, without having reason to fear the most injurious + effects. + </p> + <p> + And is this mysterious and concealed way of proceeding one of the forms + through which we are to pass in the school of liberty? The great end of + all liberal institutions is, to make a man fearless, frank as the day, + acting from a lively and earnest impulse, which will not be restrained, + disdains all half-measures, and prompts us, as it were, to carry our + hearts in our hands, for all men to challenge, and all men to comment on. + It is true, that the devisers of liberal institutions will have foremost + in their thoughts, how men shall be secure in their personal liberty, + unrestrained in the execution of what their thoughts prompt them to do, + and uncontrolled in the administration of the fruits of their industry. + But the moral end of all is, that a man shall be worthy of the name, + erect, independent of mind, spontaneous of decision, intrepid, overflowing + with all good feelings, and open in the expression of the sentiments they + inspire. If man is double in his weightiest purposes, full of ambiguity + and concealment, and not daring to give words to the impulses of his soul, + what matters it that he is free? We may pronounce of this man, that he is + unworthy of the blessing that has fallen to his lot, and will never + produce the fruits that should be engendered in the lap of liberty. + </p> + <p> + There is however, it should seem, a short answer to all this. It is in + vain to expatiate to us upon the mischiefs of lying, hypocrisy and + concealment, since it is only through them, as the way by which we are to + march, that nations can be made free. + </p> + <p> + This certainly is a fearful judgment awarded upon our species: but is it + true? + </p> + <p> + We are to begin, it seems, with concealing from our landlord, or our + opulent neighbour, our political determinations; and so his corrupt + influence will be broken, and the humblest individual will be safe in + doing that which his honest and unbiased feelings may prompt him to do. + </p> + <p> + No: this is not the way in which the enemy of the souls of men is to be + defeated. We must not begin with the confession of our faint-heartedness + and our cowardice. A quiet, sober, unaltered frame of judgment, that + insults no one, that has in it nothing violent, brutal and defying, is the + frame that becomes us. If I would teach another man, my superior in rank, + how he ought to construe and decide upon the conduct I hold, I must begin + by making that conduct explicit. + </p> + <p> + It is not in morals, as it is in war. There stratagem is allowable, and to + take the enemy by surprise. "Who enquires of an enemy, whether it is by + fraud or heroic enterprise that he has gained the day?" But it is not so + that the cause of liberty is to be vindicated in the civil career of life. + </p> + <p> + The question is of reducing the higher ranks of society to admit the just + immunities of their inferiors. I will not allow that they shall be cheated + into it. No: no man was ever yet recovered to his senses in a question of + morals, but by plain, honest, soul-commanding speech. Truth is omnipotent, + if we do not violate its majesty by surrendering its outworks, and giving + up that vantage-ground, of which if we deprive it, it ceases to be truth. + It finds a responsive chord in every human bosom. Whoever hears its voice, + at the same time recognises its power. However corrupt he may be, however + steeped in the habits of vice, and hardened in the practices of tyranny, + if it be mildly, distinctly, emphatically enunciated, the colour will + forsake his cheek, his speech will alter and be broken, and he will feel + himself unable to turn it off lightly, as a thing of no impression and + validity. In this way the erroneous man, the man nursed in the house of + luxury, a stranger to the genuine, unvarnished state of things, stands a + fair chance of being corrected. + </p> + <p> + But, if an opposite, and a truer way of thinking than that to which he is + accustomed, is only brought to his observation by the reserve of him who + entertains it, and who, while he entertains it, is reluctant to hold + communion with his wealthier neighbour, who regards him as his adversary, + and hardly admits him to be of the same common nature, there will be no + general improvement. Under this discipline the two ranks of society will + be perpetually more estranged, view each other with eye askance, and will + be as two separate and hostile states, though inhabiting the same + territory. Is this the picture we desire to see of genuine liberty, + philanthropic, desirous of good to all, and overflowing with all generous + emotions? + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I hate where vice can bolt her arguments, + And virtue has no tongue to check her pride. +</pre> + <p> + The man who interests himself for his country and its cause, who acts + bravely and independently, and knows that he runs some risk in doing so, + must have a strange opinion of the sacredness of truth, if the very + consciousness of having done nobly does not supply him with courage, and + give him that simple, unostentatious firmness, which shall carry immediate + conviction to the heart. It is a bitter lesson that the institution of + ballot teaches, while it says, "You have done well; therefore be silent; + whisper it not to the winds; disclose it not to those who are most nearly + allied to you; adopt the same conduct which would suggest itself to you, + if you had perpetrated an atrocious crime." + </p> + <p> + In no long time after the commencement of the war of the allies against + France, certain acts were introduced into the English parliament, + declaring it penal by word or writing to utter any thing that should tend + to bring the government into contempt; and these acts, by the mass of the + adversaries of despotic power, were in way of contempt called the Gagging + Acts. Little did I and my contemporaries of 1795 imagine, when we + protested against these acts in the triumphant reign of William Pitt, that + the soi-disant friends of liberty and radical reformers, when their turn + of triumph came, would propose their Gagging Acts, recommending to the + people to vote agreeably to their consciences, but forbidding them to give + publicity to the honourable conduct they had been prevailed on to adopt! + </p> + <p> + But all this reasoning is founded in an erroneous, and groundlessly + degrading, opinion of human nature. The improvement of the general + institutions of society, the correction of the gross inequalities of our + representation, will operate towards the improvement of all the members of + the community. While ninety-nine in an hundred of the inhabitants of + England are carried forward in the scale of intellect and virtue, it would + be absurd to suppose that the hundredth man will stand still, merely + because he is rich. Patriotism is a liberal and a social impulse; its + influence is irresistible; it is contagious, and is propagated by the + touch; it is infectious, and mixes itself with the air that we breathe. + </p> + <p> + Men are governed in their conduct in a surprising degree by the opinion of + others. It was all very well, when noblemen were each of them satisfied of + the equity and irresistible principle of their ascendancy, when the vulgar + population felt convinced that passive obedience was entailed on them from + their birth, when we were in a manner but just emancipated (illusorily + emancipated!) from the state of serfs and villains. But a memorable + melioration of the state of man will carry some degree of conviction to + the hearts of all. The most corrupt will be made doubtful: many who had + not gone so far in ill, will desert the banners of oppression. + </p> + <p> + We see this already. What a shock was propagated through the island, when, + the other day, a large proprietor, turning a considerable cluster of his + tenants out of the houses and lands they occupied, because they refused to + vote for a representative in parliament implicitly as he bade them, urged + in his own justification, "Shall I not do what I will with my own?" This + was all sound morals and divinity perhaps at the period of his birth. + Nobody disputed it; or, if any one did, he was set down by the oracles of + the vicinage as a crackbrained visionary. This man, so confident in his + own prerogatives, had slept for the last twenty years, and awoke totally + unconscious of what had been going on in almost every corner of Europe in + the interval. A few more such examples; and so broad and sweeping an + assumption will no more be heard of, and it will remain in the records of + history, as a thing for the reality of which we have sufficient evidence, + but which common sense repudiates, and which seems to demand from us a + certain degree of credulity to induce us to admit that it had ever been. + </p> + <p> + The manners of society are by no means so unchanged and unalterable as + many men suppose. It is here, as in the case of excessive drinking, which + I had lately occasion to mention(36). In rude and barbarous times men of + the highest circles piqued themselves upon their power of swallowing + excessive potations, and found pleasure in it. It is in this as in so many + other vices, we follow implicitly where our elders lead the way. But the + rage of drinking is now gone by; and you will with difficulty find a + company of persons of respectable appearance, who assemble round a table + for the purpose of making beasts of themselves. Formerly it was their + glory; now, if any man unhappily retains the weakness, he hides it from + his equals, as he would a loathsome disease. The same thing will happen as + to parliamentary corruption, and the absolute authority that was exercised + by landlords over the consciences of their tenants. He that shall attempt + to put into act what is then universally condemned, will be a marked man, + and will be generally shunned by his fellows. The eye of the world will be + upon him, as the murderer fancies himself followed by the eye of + omnipotence; and he will obey the general voice of the community, that he + may be at peace with himself. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (36) See above, Essay 9. +</pre> + <p> + Let us not then disgrace a period of memorable improvement, by combining + it with an institution that should mark that we, the great body of the + people, regard the more opulent members of the community as our foes. Let + us hold out to them the right hand of fellowship; and they will meet us. + They will be influenced, partly by ingenuous shame for the unworthy + conduct which they and their fathers had so long pursued, and partly by + sympathy for the genuine joy and expansion of heart that is spreading + itself through the land. Scarcely any one can restrain himself from + participating in the happiness of the great body of his countrymen; and, + if they see that we treat them with generous confidence, and are unwilling + to recur to the memory of former grievances, and that a spirit of + philanthropy and unlimited good-will is the sentiment of the day, it can + scarcely happen but that their conversion will be complete, and the + harmony be made entire(37). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (37) The subject of this Essay is resumed in the close of the following. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY XVIII. OF DIFFIDENCE. + </h2> + <p> + The following Essay will be to a considerable degree in the nature of + confession, like the Confessions of St. Augustine or of Jean Jacques + Rousseau. It may therefore at first sight appear of small intrinsic value, + and scarcely worthy of a place in the present series. But, as I have had + occasion more than once to remark, we are all of us framed in a great + measure on the same model, and the analysis of the individual may often + stand for the analysis of a species. While I describe myself therefore, I + shall probably at the same time be describing no inconsiderable number of + my fellow-beings. + </p> + <p> + It is true, that the duty of man under the head of Frankness, is of a very + comprehensive nature. We ought all of us to tell to our neighbour whatever + it may be of advantage to him to know, we ought to be the sincere and + zealous advocates of absent merit and worth, and we are bound by every + means in our power to contribute to the improvement of others, and to the + diffusion of salutary truths through the world. + </p> + <p> + From the universality of these precepts many readers might be apt to + infer, that I am in my own person the bold and unsparing preacher of + truth, resolutely giving to every man his due, and, agreeably to the + apostle's direction, "instant in season, and out of season." The + individual who answers to this description will often be deemed + troublesome, often annoying; he will produce a considerable sensation in + the circle of those who know him; and it will depend upon various + collateral circumstances, whether he shall ultimately be judged a rash and + intemperate disturber of the contemplations of his neighbours, or a + disinterested and heroic suggester of new veins of thinking, by which his + contemporaries and their posterity shall be essentially the gainers. + </p> + <p> + I have no desire to pass myself upon those who may have any curiosity + respecting me for better than I am; and I will therefore here put down a + few particulars, which may tend to enable them to form an equitable + judgment. + </p> + <p> + One of the earliest passions of my mind was the love of truth and sound + opinion. "Why should I," such was the language of my solitary meditations, + "because I was born in a certain degree of latitude, in a certain century, + in a country where certain institutions prevail, and of parents professing + a certain faith, take it for granted that all this is right?—This is + matter of accident. 'Time and chance happeneth to all:' and I, the + thinking principle within me, might, if such had been the order of events, + have been born under circumstances the very reverse of those under which I + was born. I will not, if I can help it, be the creature of accident; I + will not, like a shuttle-cock, be at the disposal of every impulse that is + given me." I felt a certain disdain for the being thus directed; I could + not endure the idea of being made a fool of, and of taking every ignis + fatuus for a guide, and every stray notion, the meteor of the day, for + everlasting truth. I am the person, spoken of in a preceding Essay(38), + who early said to Truth, "Go on: whithersoever thou leadest, I am prepared + to follow." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (38) See above, Essay XIII. +</pre> + <p> + During my college-life therefore, I read all sorts of books, on every side + of any important question, that were thrown in my way, or that I could + hear of. But the very passion that determined me to this mode of + proceeding, made me wary and circumspect in coming to a conclusion. I knew + that it would, if any thing, be a more censurable and contemptible act, to + yield to every seducing novelty, than to adhere obstinately to a prejudice + because it had been instilled into me in youth. I was therefore slow of + conviction, and by no means "given to change." I never willingly parted + with a suggestion that was unexpectedly furnished to me; but I examined it + again and again, before I consented that it should enter into the set of + my principles. + </p> + <p> + In proportion however as I became acquainted with truth, or what appeared + to me to be truth, I was like what I have read of Melancthon, who, when he + was first converted to the tenets of Luther, became eager to go into all + companies, that he might make them partakers of the same inestimable + treasures, and set before them evidence that was to him irresistible. It + is needless to say, that he often encountered the most mortifying + disappointment. + </p> + <p> + Young and eager as I was in my mission, I received in this way many a + bitter lesson. But the peculiarity of my temper rendered this doubly + impressive to me. I could not pass over a hint, let it come from what + quarter it would, without taking it into some consideration, and + endeavouring to ascertain the precise weight that was to be attributed to + it. It would however often happen, particularly in the question of the + claims of a given individual to honour and respect, that I could see + nothing but the most glaring injustice in the opposition I experienced. In + canvassing the character of an individual, it is not for the most part + general, abstract or moral, principles that are called into question: I am + left in possession of the premises which taught me to admire the man whose + character is contested; and conformably to those premises I see that his + claim to the honour I have paid him is fully made out. + </p> + <p> + In my communications with others, in the endeavour to impart what I deemed + to be truth, I began with boldness: but I often found that the evidence + that was to me irresistible, was made small account of by others; and it + not seldom happened, as candour was my principle, and a determination to + receive what could be strewn to be truth, let it come from what quarter it + would, that suggestions were presented to me, materially calculated to + stagger the confidence with which I had set out. If I had been divinely + inspired, if I had been secured by an omniscient spirit against the danger + of error, my case would have been different. But I was not inspired. I + often encountered an opposition I had not anticipated, and was often + presented with objections, or had pointed out to me flaws and deficiencies + in my reasonings, which, till they were so pointed out, I had not + apprehended. I had not lungs enabling me to drown all contradiction; and, + which was still more material, I had not a frame of mind, which should + determine me to regard whatever could be urged against me as of no value. + I therefore became cautious. As a human creature, I did not relish the + being held up to others' or to myself, as rash, inconsiderate and + headlong, unaware of difficulties the most obvious, embracing propositions + the most untenable, and "against hope believing in hope." And, as an + apostle of truth, I distinctly perceived that a reputation for + perspicacity and sound judgment was essential to my mission. I therefore + often became less a speaker, than a listener, and by no means made it a + law with myself to defend principles and characters I honoured, on every + occasion on which I might hear them attacked. + </p> + <p> + A new epoch occurred in my character, when I published, and at the time I + was writing, my Enquiry concerning Political Justice. My mind was wrought + up to a certain elevation of tone; the speculations in which I was + engaged, tending to embrace all that was most important to man in society, + and the frame to which I had assiduously bent myself, of giving quarter to + nothing because it was old, and shrinking from nothing because it was + startling and astounding, gave a new bias to my character. The habit which + I thus formed put me more on the alert even in the scenes of ordinary + life, and gave me a boldness and an eloquence more than was natural to me. + I then reverted to the principle which I stated in the beginning, of being + ready to tell my neighbour whatever it might be of advantage to him to + know, to shew myself the sincere and zealous advocate of absent merit and + worth, and to contribute by every means in my power to the improvement of + others and to the diffusion of salutary truth through the world. I desired + that every hour that I lived should be turned to the best account, and was + bent each day to examine whether I had conformed myself to this rule. I + held on this course with tolerable constancy for five or six years: and, + even when that constancy abated, it failed not to leave a beneficial + effect on my subsequent conduct. + </p> + <p> + But, in pursuing this scheme of practice, I was acting a part somewhat + foreign to my constitution. I was by nature more of a speculative than an + active character, more inclined to reason within myself upon what I heard + and saw, than to declaim concerning it. I loved to sit by unobserved, and + to meditate upon the panorama before me. At first I associated chiefly + with those who were more or less admirers of my work; and, as I had risen + (to speak in the slang phrase) like "a star" upon my contemporaries + without being expected, I was treated generally with a certain degree of + deference, or, where not with deference and submission, yet as a person + whose opinions and view of things were to be taken into the account. The + individuals who most strenuously opposed me, acted with a consciousness + that, if they affected to despise me, they must not expect that all the + bystanders would participate in that feeling. + </p> + <p> + But this was to a considerable degree the effect of novelty. My lungs, as + I have already said, were not of iron; my manner was not overbearing and + despotic; there was nothing in it to deter him who differed from me from + entering the field in turn, and telling the tale of his views and + judgments in contradiction to mine. I descended into the arena, and stood + on a level with the rest. Beyond this, it occasionally happened that, if I + had not the stentorian lungs, and the petty artifices of rhetoric and + conciliation, that should carry a cause independently of its merits, my + antagonists were not deficient in these respects. I had nothing in my + favour to balance this, but a sort of constitutional equanimity and + imperturbableness of temper, which, if I was at any time silenced, made me + not look like a captive to be dragged at the chariot-wheels of my + adversary. + </p> + <p> + All this however had a tendency to subtract from my vocation as a + missionary. I was no longer a knight-errant, prepared on all occasions by + dint of arms to vindicate the cause of every principle that was unjustly + handled, and every character that was wrongfully assailed. Meanwhile I + returned to the field, occasionally and uncertainly. It required some + provocation and incitement to call me out: but there was the lion, or + whatever combative animal may more justly prefigure me, sleeping, and that + might be awakened. + </p> + <p> + There is another feature necessary to be mentioned, in order to make this + a faithful representation. There are persons, it should seem, of whom it + may be predicated, that they are semper parati. This has by no means been + my case. My genius often deserted me. I was far from having the thought, + the argument, or the illustration at all times ready, when it was + required. I resembled to a certain degree the persons we read of, who are + said to be struck as if with a divine judgment. I was for a moment changed + into one of the mere herd, de grege porcus. My powers therefore were + precarious, and I could not always be the intrepid and qualified advocate + of truth, if I vehemently desired it. I have often, a few minutes + afterwards, or on my return to my chambers, recollected the train of + thinking, which world have strewn me off to advantage, and memorably done + me honour, if I could have had it at my command the moment it was wanted. + </p> + <p> + And so much for confession. I am by no means vindicating myself. + </p> + <p> + I honour much more the man who is at all times ready to tell his neighbour + whatever it may be of advantage to him to know, to shew himself the + sincere and untemporising advocate of absent merit and worth, and to + contribute by every means in his power to the improvement of others, and + to the diffusion of salutary truths through the world. + </p> + <p> + This is what every man ought to be, and what the best devised scheme of + republican institutions would have a tendency to make us all. + </p> + <p> + But, though the man here described is to a certain degree a deserter of + his true place in society, and cannot be admitted to have played his part + in all things well, we are by no means to pronounce upon him a more + unfavourable judgment than he merits. Diffidence, though, where it + disqualifies us in any way from doing justice to truth, either as it + respects general principle or individual character, a defect, yet is on no + account to be confounded in demerit with that suppression of truth, or + misrepresentation, which grows out of actual craft and design. + </p> + <p> + The diffident man, in some cases seldomer, and in some oftener and in a + more glaring manner, deserts the cause of truth, and by that means is the + cause of misrepresentation, and indirectly the propagator of falshood. But + he is constant and sincere as far as he goes; he never lends his voice to + falshood, or intentionally to sophistry; he never for an instant goes over + to the enemy's standard, or disgraces his honest front by strewing it in + the ranks of tyranny or imposture. He may undoubtedly be accused, to a + certain degree, of dissimulation, or throwing into shade the thing that + is, but never of simulation, or the pretending the thing to be that is + not. He is plain and uniform in every thing that he professes, or to which + he gives utterance; but, from timidity or irresolution, he keeps back in + part the offering which he owes at the shrine where it is most honourable + and glorious for man to worship. + </p> + <p> + And this brings me back again to the subject of the immediately preceding + Essay, the propriety of voting by ballot. + </p> + <p> + The very essence of this scheme is silence. And this silence is not merely + like that which is prompted by a diffident temper, which by fits is + practiced by the modest and irresolute man, and by fits disappears before + the sun of truth and through the energies of a temporary fortitude. It is + uniform. It is not brought into act only, when the individual unhappily + does not find in himself the firmness to play the adventurer. It becomes + matter of system, and is felt as being recommended to us for a duty. + </p> + <p> + Nor does the evil stop there. In the course of my ordinary communications + with my fellow-men, I speak when I please, and I am silent when I please, + and there is nothing specially to be remarked either way. If I speak, I am + perhaps listened to; and, if I am silent, it is likely enough concluded + that it is because I have nothing of importance to say. But in the + question of ballot the case is far otherwise. There it is known that the + voter has his secret. When I am silent upon a matter occurring in the + usual intercourses of life where I might speak, nay, where we will suppose + I ought to speak, I am at least guilty of dissimulation only. But the + voter by ballot is strongly impelled to the practice of the more enormous + sin of simulation. It is known, as I have said, that he has his secret. + And he will often be driven to have recourse to various stratagems, that + he may elude the enquirer, or that he may set at fault the sagacity of the + silent observer. He has something that he might tell if he would, and he + distorts himself in a thousand ways, that he may not betray the hoard + which he is known to have in his custody. The institution of ballot is the + fruitful parent of ambiguities, equivocations and lies without number. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY XIX. OF SELF-COMPLACENCY. + </h2> + <p> + The subject of this Essay is intimately connected with those of Essays XI + and XII, perhaps the most important of the series. + </p> + <p> + It has been established in the latter, that human creatures are constantly + accompanied in their voluntary actions with the delusive sense of liberty, + and that our character, our energies, and our conscience of moral right + and wrong, are mainly dependent upon this feature in our constitution. + </p> + <p> + The subject of my present disquisition relates to the feeling of + self-approbation or self-complacency, which will be found inseparable from + the most honourable efforts and exertions in which mortal men can be + engaged. + </p> + <p> + One of the most striking of the precepts contained in what are called the + Golden Verses of Pythagoras, is couched in the words, "Reverence thyself." + </p> + <p> + The duties which are incumbent on man are of two sorts, negative and + positive. We are bound to set right our mistakes, and to correct the evil + habits to which we are prone; and we are bound also to be generously + ambitious, to aspire after excellence, and to undertake such things as may + reflect honour on ourselves, and be useful to others. + </p> + <p> + To the practice of the former of these classes of duties we may be + instigated by prohibitions, menaces and fear, the fear of mischiefs that + may fall upon us conformably to the known series of antecedents and + consequents in the course of nature, or of mischiefs that may be inflicted + on us by the laws of the country in which we live, or as results of the + ill will and disapprobation felt towards us by individuals. There is + nothing that is necessarily generous or invigorating in the practice of + our negative duties. They amount merely to a scheme for keeping us within + bounds, and restraining us from those sallies and escapes, which human + nature, undisciplined and left to itself, might betray us into. But + positive enterprise, and great actual improvement cannot be expected by us + in this way. All this is what the apostle refers to, when he speaks of + "the law as a schoolmaster to bring us to liberty," after which he advises + us "not to be again entangled with the yoke of bondage." + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, if we would enter ourselves in the race of positive + improvement, if we would become familiar with generous sentiments, and the + train of conduct which such sentiments inspire, we must provide ourselves + with the soil in which such things grow, and engage in the species of + husbandry by which they are matured; in other words, we must be no + strangers to self-esteem and self-complacency. + </p> + <p> + The truth of this statement may perhaps be most strikingly illustrated, if + we take for our example the progress of schoolboys under a preceptor. A + considerable proportion of these are apt, diligent, and desirous to + perform the tasks in which they are engaged, so as to satisfy the demands + of their masters and parents, and to advance honourably in the path that + is recommended to them. And a considerable proportion put themselves on + the defensive, and propose to their own minds to perform exactly as much + as shall exempt them from censure and punishment, and no more. + </p> + <p> + Now I say of the former, that they cannot accomplish the purpose they have + conceived, unless so far as they are aided by a sentiment of + self-reverence. + </p> + <p> + The difference of the two parties is, that the latter proceed, so far as + their studies are concerned, as feeling themselves under the law of + necessity, and as if they were machines merely, and the former as if they + were under what the apostle calls "the law of liberty." + </p> + <p> + We cannot perform our tasks to the best of our power, unless we think well + of our own capacity. + </p> + <p> + But this is the smallest part of what is necessary. We must also be in + good humour with ourselves. We must say, I can do that which I shall have + just occasion to look back upon with satisfaction. It is the anticipation + of this result, that stimulates our efforts, and carries us forward. + Perseverance is an active principle, and cannot continue to operate but + under the influence of desire. It is incompatible with languor and + neutrality. It implies the love of glory, perhaps of that glory which + shall be attributed to us by others, or perhaps only of that glory which + shall be reaped by us in the silent chambers of the mind. The diligent + scholar is he that loves himself, and desires to have reason to applaud + and love himself. He sits down to his task with resolution, he approves of + what he does in each step of the process, and in each enquires, Is this + the thing I purposed to effect? + </p> + <p> + And, as it is with the unfledged schoolboy, after the same manner it is + with the man mature. He must have to a certain extent a good opinion of + himself, he must feel a kind of internal harmony, giving to the + circulations of his frame animation and cheerfulness, or he can never + undertake and execute considerable things. + </p> + <p> + The execution of any thing considerable implies in the first place + previous persevering meditation. He that undertakes any great achievement + will, according to the vulgar phrase, "think twice," before he buckles up + his resolution, and plunges into the ocean, which he has already surveyed + with anxious glance while he remained on shore. Let our illustration be + the case of Columbus, who, from the figure of the earth, inferred that + there must be a way of arriving at the Indies by a voyage directly west, + in distinction from the very complicated way hitherto practiced, by + sailing up the Mediterranean, crossing the isthmus of Suez, and so falling + down the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean. He weighed all the circumstances + attendant on such an undertaking in his mind. He enquired into his own + powers and resources, imaged to himself the various obstacles that might + thwart his undertaking, and finally resolved to engage in it. If Columbus + had not entertained a very good opinion of himself, it is impossible that + he should have announced such a project, or should have achieved it. + </p> + <p> + Again. Let our illustration be, of Homer undertaking to compose the Iliad. + If he had not believed himself to be a man of very superior powers to the + majority of the persons around him, he would most assuredly never have + attempted it. What an enterprise! To describe in twenty-four books, and + sixteen thousand verses, the perpetual warfare and contention of two great + nations, all Greece being armed for the attack, and all the western + division of Asia Minor for the defence: the war carried on by two vast + confederacies, under numerous chiefs, all sovereign and essentially + independent of each other. To conceive the various characters of the + different leaders, and their mutual rivalship. To engage all heaven, such + as it was then understood, as well as what was most respectable on earth, + in the struggle. To form the idea, through twenty-four books, of varying + the incidents perpetually, and keeping alive the attention of the reader + or hearer without satiety or weariness. For this purpose, and to answer to + his conception of a great poem, Homer appears to have thought it necessary + that the action should be one; and he therefore took the incidental + quarrel of Achilles and the commander in chief, the resentment of + Achilles, and his consequent defection from the cause, till, by the death + of Patroclus, and then of Hector, all traces of the misunderstanding + first, and then of its consequences, should be fully obliterated. + </p> + <p> + There is further an essential difference between the undertaking of + Columbus and that of Homer. Once fairly engaged, there was for Columbus no + drawing back. Being already at sea on the great Atlantic Ocean, he could + not retrace his steps. Even when he had presented his project to the + sovereigns of Spain, and they had accepted it, and still more when the + ships were engaged, and the crews mustered, he must go forward, or submit + to indelible disgrace. + </p> + <p> + It is not so in writing a poem. The author of the latter may stop whenever + he pleases. Of consequence, during every day of its execution, he requires + a fresh stimulus. He must look back on the past, and forward on what is to + come, and feel that he has considerable reason to be satisfied. The great + naval discoverer may have his intervals of misgiving and discouragement, + and may, as Pope expresses it, "wish that any one would hang him." He goes + forward; for he has no longer the liberty to choose. But the author of a + mighty poem is not in the same manner entangled, and therefore to a great + degree returns to his work each day, "screwing his courage to the + sticking-place." He must feel the same fortitude and elasticity, and be as + entirely the same man of heroic energy, as when he first arrived at the + resolution to engage. How much then of self-complacency and + self-confidence do his undertaking and performance imply! + </p> + <p> + I have taken two of the most memorable examples in the catalogue of human + achievements: the discovery of a New World, and the production of the + Iliad. But all those voluntary actions, or rather series and chains of + actions, which comprise energy in the first determination, and honour in + the execution, each in its degree rests upon self-complacency as the + pillar upon which its weight is sustained, and without which it must sink + into nothing. + </p> + <p> + Self-complacency then being the indispensible condition of all that is + honourable in human achievements, hence we may derive a multitude of + duties, and those of the most delicate nature, incumbent on the preceptor, + as well as a peculiar discipline to be observed by the candidate, both + while he is "under a schoolmaster," and afterwards when he is emancipated, + and his plan of conduct is to be regulated by his own discretion. + </p> + <p> + The first duty of the preceptor is encouragement. + </p> + <p> + Not that his face is to be for ever dressed in smiles, and that his tone + is to be at all times that of invitation and courtship. The great theatre + of the world is of a mingled constitution, made up of advantages and + sufferings; and it is perhaps best that so should be the different scenes + of the drama as they pass. The young adventurer is not to expect to have + every difficulty smoothed for him by the hand of another. This were to + teach him a lesson of effeminacy and cowardice. On the contrary it is + necessary that he should learn that human life is a state of hardship, + that the adversary we have to encounter does not always present himself + with his fangs sheathed in the woolly softness which occasionally renders + them harmless, and that nothing great or eminently honourable was ever + achieved but through the dint of resolution, energy and struggle. It is + good that the winds of heaven should blow upon him, that he should + encounter the tempest of the elements, and occasionally sustain the + inclemency of the summer's heat and winter's cold, both literally and + metaphorically. + </p> + <p> + But the preceptor, however he conducts himself in other respects, ought + never to allow his pupil to despise himself, or to hold himself as of no + account. Self-contempt can never be a discipline favourable to energy or + to virtue. The pupil ought at all times to judge himself in some degree + worthy, worthy and competent now to attempt, and hereafter to accomplish, + things deserving of commendation. The preceptor must never degrade his + pupil in his own eyes, but on the contrary must teach him that nothing but + resolution and perseverance are necessary, to enable him to effect all + that the judicious director can expect from him. He should be encouraged + through every step of his progress, and specially encouraged when he has + gained a certain point, and arrived at an important resting-place. It is + thus we are taught the whole circle of what are called accomplishments, + dancing, music, fencing, and the rest; and it is surely a strange anomaly, + if those things which are most essential in raising the mind to its true + standard, cannot be communicated with equal suavity and kindness, be + surrounded with allurements, and regarded as sources of pleasure and + genuine hilarity. + </p> + <p> + In the mean time it is to be admitted that every human creature, + especially in the season of youth, and not being the victim of some + depressing disease either of body or mind, has in him a good obstinate + sort of self-complacency, which cannot without much difficulty be + eradicated. "Though he falleth seven times, yet will he rise again." And, + when we have encountered various mortifications, and have been many times + rebuked and inveighed against, we nevertheless recover our own good + opinion, and are ready to enter into a fresh contention for the prize, if + not in one kind, then in another. + </p> + <p> + It is in allusion to this feature in the human character, that we have an + expressive phrase in the English language,—"to break the spirit." + The preceptor may occasionally perhaps prescribe to the pupil a severe + task; and the young adventurer may say, Can I be expected to accomplish + this? But all must be done in kindness. The generous attempter must be + reminded of the powers he has within him, perhaps yet unexercised; with + cheering sounds his progress must be encouraged; and, above all, the + director of the course must take care not to tax him beyond his strength. + And, be it observed, that the strength of a human creature is to be + ascertained by two things; first, the abstract capacity, that the thing + required is not beyond the power of a being so constituted to perform; + and, secondly, we must take into the account his past achievements, the + things he has already accomplished, and not expect that he is at once to + overleap a thousand obstacles. + </p> + <p> + For there is such a thing as a broken spirit. I remember a boy who was my + schoolfellow, that, having been treated with uncalled for severity, never + appeared afterwards in the scene of instruction, but with a neglected + appearance, and the articles of his dress scarcely half put on. I was very + young at the time, and viewed only the outside of things. I cannot tell + whether he had any true ambition previously to his disgrace, but I am sure + he never had afterwards. + </p> + <p> + How melancholy an object is the man, who, "for the privilege to breathe, + bears up and down the city + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + A discontented and repining spirit + Burthensome to itself," +</pre> + <p> + incapable of enterprise, listless, with no courage to undertake, and no + anticipation of the practicability of success and honour! And this + spectacle is still more affecting, when the subject shall be a human + creature in the dawn of youth, when nature opens to him a vista of beauty + and fruition on every side, and all is encouraging, redolent of energy and + enterprise! + </p> + <p> + To break the spirit of a man, bears a considerable resemblance to the + breaking the main spring, or principal movement, of a complicated and + ingeniously constructed machine. We cannot tell when it is to happen; and + it comes at last perhaps at the time that it is least expected. A + judicious superintendent therefore will be far from trying consequences in + his office, and will, like a man walking on a cliff whose extremes are + ever and anon crumbling away and falling into the ocean, keep much within + the edge, and at a safe distance from the line of danger. + </p> + <p> + But this consideration has led me much beyond the true subject of this + Essay. The instructor of youth, as I have already said, is called upon to + use all his skill, to animate the courage, and maintain the cheerfulness + and self-complacency of his pupil. And, as such is the discipline to be + observed to the candidate, while he is "under a schoolmaster," so, when he + is emancipated, and his plan of conduct is to be regulated by his own + discretion, it is necessary that he should carry forward the same scheme, + and cultivate that tone of feeling, which should best reconcile him to + himself, and, by teaching him to esteem himself and bear in mind his own + value, enable him to achieve things honourable to his character, and + memorably useful to others. Melancholy, and a disposition anticipating + evil are carefully to be guarded against, by him who is desirous to + perform his part well on the theatre of society. He should habitually + meditate all cheerful things, and sing the song of battle which has a + thousand times spurred on his predecessors to victory. He should + contemplate the crown that awaits him, and say to himself, I also will do + my part, and endeavour to enrol myself in the select number of those + champions, of whom it has been predicated that they were men, of whom, + compared with the herd of ordinary mortals, "the world," the species among + whom they were rated, "was not worthy." + </p> + <p> + Another consideration is to be recollected here. Without self-complacency + in the agent no generous enterprise is to be expected, and no train of + voluntary actions, such as may purchase honour to the person engaged in + them. + </p> + <p> + But, beside this, there is no true and substantial happiness but for the + self-complacent. "The good man," as Solomon says, "is satisfied from + himself." The reflex act is inseparable from the constitution of the human + mind. How can any one have genuine happiness, unless in proportion as he + looks round, and, "behold! every thing is very good?" This is the sunshine + of the soul, the true joy, that gives cheerfulness to all our + circulations, and makes us feel ourselves entire and complete. What indeed + is life, unless so far as it is enjoyed? It does not merit the name. If I + go into a school, and look round on a number of young faces, the scene is + destitute of its true charm, unless so far as I see inward peace and + contentment on all sides. And, if we require this eminently in the young, + neither can it be less essential, when in growing manhood we have the real + cares of the world to contend with, or when in declining age we need every + auxiliary to enable us to sustain our infirmities. + </p> + <p> + But, before I conclude my remarks on this subject, it is necessary that I + should carefully distinguish between the thesis, that self-complacency is + the indispensible condition of all that is honourable in human + achievements, and the proposition contended against in Essay XI, that + "self-love is the source of all our actions." Self-complacency is indeed + the feeling without which we cannot proceed in an honourable course; but + is far from being the motive that impels us to act. The motive is in the + real nature and absolute properties of the good thing that is proposed to + our choice: we seek the happiness of another, because his happiness is the + object of our desire. Self-complacency may be likened to the bottle-holder + in one of those contentions for bodily prowess, so characteristic of our + old English manners. The bottle-holder is necessary to supply the + combatant with refreshment, and to encourage him to persist; but it would + be most unnatural to regard him as the cause of the contest. No: the + parties have found reason for competition, they apprehend a + misunderstanding or a rivalry impossible to be settled but by open + contention, and the putting forth of mental and corporeal energy; and the + bottle-holder is an auxiliary called in afterwards, his interference + implying that the parties have already a motive to act, and have thrown + down the gauntlet in token of the earnest good-will which animates them to + engage. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY XX. OF PHRENOLOGY. + </h2> + <p> + The following remarks can pretend to be nothing more than a few loose and + undigested thoughts upon a subject, which has recently occupied the + attention of many men, and obtained an extraordinary vogue in the world. + It were to be wished, that the task had fallen into the hands of a writer + whose studies were more familiar with all the sciences which bear more or + less on the topic I propose to consider: but, if abler and more competent + men pass it by, I feel disposed to plant myself in the breach, and to + offer suggestions which may have the fortune to lead others, better fitted + for the office than myself, to engage in the investigation. One advantage + I may claim, growing out of my partial deficiency. It is known not to be + uncommon for a man to stand too near to the subject of his survey, to + allow him to obtain a large view of it in all its bearings. I am no + anatomist: I simply take my stand upon the broad ground of the general + philosophy of man. + </p> + <p> + It is a very usual thing for fanciful theories to have their turn amidst + the eccentricities of the human mind, and then to be heard of no more. But + it is perhaps no ill occupation, now and then, for an impartial observer, + to analyse these theories, and attempt to blow away the dust which will + occasionally settle on the surface of science. If phrenology, as taught by + Gall and Spurzheim, be a truth, I shall probably render a service to that + truth, by endeavouring to shew where the edifice stands in need of more + solid supports than have yet been assigned to it. If it be a falshood, the + sooner it is swept away to the gulph of oblivion the better. Let the + inquisitive and the studious fix their minds on more substantial topics, + instead of being led away by gaudy and deceitful appearances. The human + head, that crowning capital of the column of man, is too interesting a + subject, to be the proper theme of every dabbler. And it is obvious, that + the professors of this so called discovery, if they be rash and groundless + in their assertions, will be in danger of producing momentous errors, of + exciting false hopes never destined to be realised, and of visiting with + pernicious blasts the opening buds of excellence, at the time when they + are most exposed to the chance of destruction. + </p> + <p> + I shall set out with acknowledging, that there is, as I apprehend, a + science in relation to the human head, something like what Plato + predicates of the statue hid in a block of marble. It is really contained + in the block; but it is only the most consummate sculptor, that can bring + it to the eyes of men, and free it from all the incumbrances, which, till + he makes application of his art to it, surround the statue, and load it + with obscurities and disfigurement. The man, who, without long study and + premeditation, rushes in at once, and expects to withdraw the curtain, + will only find himself disgraced by the attempt. + </p> + <p> + There is a passage in an acute writer(39), whose talents singularly fitted + him, even when he appeared totally immerged in mummery and trifles, to + illustrate the most important truths, that is applicable to the point I am + considering. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (39) Sterne, Tristram Shandy, Vol. 1. +</pre> + <p> + "Pray, what was that man's name,—for I write in such a hurry, I have + no time to recollect or look for it,—who first made the observation, + 'That there was great inconstancy in our air and climate?' Whoever he was, + it was a just and good observation in him. But the corollary drawn from + it, namely, 'That it is this which has furnished us with such a variety of + odd and whimsical characters;'—that was not his;—it was found + out by another man, at least a century and a half after him. Then again, + that this copious storehouse of original materials is the true and natural + cause that our comedies are so much better than those of France, or any + others that have or can be wrote upon the continent;—that discovery + was not fully made till about the middle of king William's reign, when the + great Dryden, in writing one of his long prefaces (if I mistake not), most + fortunately hit upon it. Then, fourthly and lastly, that this strange + irregularity in our climate, producing so strange an irregularity in our + characters, cloth thereby in some sort make us amends, by giving us + somewhat to make us merry with, when the weather will not suffer us to go + out of doors,—that observation is my own; and was struck out by me + this very rainy day, March 26, 1759, and betwixt the hour of nine and ten + in the morning. + </p> + <p> + "Thus—thus, my fellow-labourers and associates in this great harvest + of our learning, now ripening before our eyes; thus it is, by slow steps + of casual increase, that our knowledge physical, metaphysical, + physiological, polemical, nautical, mathematical, aenigmatical, technical, + biographical, romantical, chemical, and obstetrical, with fifty other + branches of it, (most of them ending, as these do, in ical,) has, for + these two last centuries and more, gradually been creeping upwards towards + that acme of their perfections, from which, if we may form a conjecture + from the advantages of these last seven years, we cannot possibly be far + off." + </p> + <p> + Nothing can be more true, than the proposition ludicrously illustrated in + this passage, that real science is in most instances of slow growth, and + that the discoveries which are brought to perfection at once, are greatly + exposed to the suspicion of quackery. Like the ephemeron fly, they are + born suddenly, and may be expected to die as soon. + </p> + <p> + Lavater, the well known author of Essays on Physiognomy, appears to have + been born seventeen years before the birth of Gall. He attempted to reduce + into a system the indications of human character that are to be found in + the countenance. Physiognomy, as a subject of ingenious and probable + conjecture, was well known to the ancients. But the test, how far any + observations that have been made on the subject are worthy the name of a + science, will lie in its application by the professor to a person + respecting whom he has had no opportunity of previous information. Nothing + is more easy, when a great warrior, statesman, poet, philosopher or + philanthropist is explicitly placed before us, than for the credulous + inspector or fond visionary to examine the lines of his countenance, and + to point at the marks which should plainly shew us that he ought to have + been the very thing that he is. This is the very trick of gipsies and + fortune-tellers. But who ever pointed to an utter stranger in the street, + and said, I perceive by that man's countenance that he is one of the great + luminaries of the world? Newton, or Bacon, or Shakespear would probably + have passed along unheeded. Instances of a similar nature occur every day. + Hence it plainly appears that, whatever may hereafter be known on the + subject, we can scarcely to the present time be said to have overstepped + the threshold. And yet nothing can be more certain than that there is a + science of physiognomy, though to make use of an illustration already + cited, it has not to this day been extricated out of the block of marble + in which it is hid. Human passions, feelings and modes of thinking leave + their traces on the countenance: but we have not, thus far, left the + dame's school in this affair, and are not qualified to enter ourselves in + the free-school for more liberal enquiries. + </p> + <p> + The writings of Lavater on the subject of physiognomy are couched in a + sort of poetic prose, overflowing with incoherent and vague exclamations, + and bearing small resemblance to a treatise in which the elements of + science are to be developed. Their success however was extraordinary; and + it was probably that success, which prompted Gall first to turn his + attention from the indications of character that are to be found in the + face of man, to the study of the head generally, as connected with the + intellectual and moral qualities of the individual. + </p> + <p> + It was about four years before the commencement of the present century, + that Gall appears to have begun to deliver lectures on the structure and + external appearances of the human head. He tells us, that his attention + was first called to the subject in the ninth year of his age (that is, in + the year 1767), and that he spent thirty years in the private meditation + of his system, before he began to promulgate it. Be that as it will, its + most striking characteristic is that of marking out the scull into + compartments, in the same manner as a country delineated on a map is + divided into districts, and assigning a different faculty or organ to + each. In the earliest of these diagrams that has fallen under my + observation, the human scull is divided into twenty-seven compartments. + </p> + <p> + I would say of craniology, as I have already said of physiognomy, that + there is such a science attainable probably by man, but that we have yet + made scarcely any progress in the acquiring it. As certain lines in the + countenance are indicative of the dispositions of the man, so it is + reasonable to believe that a certain structure of the head is in + correspondence with the faculties and propensities of the individual. + </p> + <p> + Thus far we may probably advance without violating a due degree of + caution. But there is a wide distance between this general statement, and + the conduct of the man who at once splits the human head into twenty-seven + compartments. + </p> + <p> + The exterior appearance of the scull is affirmed to correspond with the + structure of the brain beneath. And nothing can be more analogous to what + the deepest thinkers have already confessed of man, than to suppose that + there is one structure of the brain better adapted for intellectual + purposes than another. There is probably one structure better adapted than + another, for calculation, for poetry, for courage, for cowardice, for + presumption, for diffidence, for roughness, for tenderness, for + self-control and the want of it. Even as some have inherently a faculty + adapted for music or the contrary(40). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (40) See above, Essay II. +</pre> + <p> + But it is not reasonable to believe that we think of calculation with one + portion of the brain, and of poetry with another. + </p> + <p> + It is very little that we know of the nature of matter; and we are equally + ignorant as to the substance, whatever it is, in which the thinking + principle in man resides. But, without adventuring in any way to dogmatise + on the subject, we find so many analogies between the thinking principle, + and the structure of what we call the brain, that we cannot but regard the + latter as in some way the instrument of the former. + </p> + <p> + Now nothing can be more certain respecting the thinking principle, than + its individuality. It has been said, that the mind can entertain but one + thought at one time; and certain it is, from the nature of attention, and + from the association of ideas, that unity is one of the principal + characteristics of mind. It is this which constitutes personal identity; + an attribute that, however unsatisfactory may be the explanations which + have been given respecting it, we all of us feel, and that lies at the + foundation of all our voluntary actions, and all our morality. + </p> + <p> + Analogous to this unity of thought and mind, is the arrangement of the + nerves and the brain in the human body. The nerves all lead up to the + brain; and there is a centrical point in the brain itself, in which the + reports of the senses terminate, and at which the action of the will may + be conceived to begin. This, in the language of our fathers, was called + the "seat of the soul." + </p> + <p> + We may therefore, without departing from the limits of a due caution and + modesty, consider this as the throne before which the mind holds its + court. Hither the senses bring in their reports, and hence the sovereign + will issues his commands. The whole system appears to be conducted through + the instrumentality of the nerves, along whose subtle texture the feelings + and impressions are propagated. Between the reports of the senses and the + commands of the will, intervenes that which is emphatically the office of + the mind, comprising meditation, reflection, inference and judgment. How + these functions are performed we know not; but it is reasonable to believe + that the substance of the brain or of some part of the brain is implicated + in them. + </p> + <p> + Still however we must not lose sight of what has been already said, that + in the action of the mind unity is an indispensible condition. Our + thoughts can only hold their council and form their decrees in a very + limited region. This is their retreat and strong hold; and the special use + and functions of the remoter parts of the brain we are unable to + determine; so utterly obscure and undefined is our present knowledge of + the great ligament which binds together the body and the thinking + principle. + </p> + <p> + Enough however results from this imperfect view of the ligament, to + demonstrate the incongruity and untenableness of a doctrine which should + assign the indications of different functions, exercises and propensities + of the mind to the exterior surface of the scull or the brain. This is + quackery, and is to be classed with chiromancy, augury, astrology, and the + rest of those schemes for discovering the future and unknown, which the + restlessness and anxiety of the human mind have invented, built upon + arbitrary principles, blundered upon in the dark, and having no + resemblance to the march of genuine science. I find in sir Thomas Browne + the following axioms of chiromancy: "that spots in the tops of the nails + do signifie things past; in the middle, things present; and at the bottom, + events to come: that white specks presage our felicity; blue ones our + misfortunes: that those in the nails of the thumb have significations of + honour, in the forefinger, of riches, and so respectively in the rest." + </p> + <p> + Science, to be of a high and satisfactory character, ought to consist of a + deduction of causes and effects, shewing us not merely that a thing is so, + but why it is as it is, and cannot be otherwise. The rest is merely + empirical; and, though the narrowness of human wit may often drive us to + this; yet it is essentially of a lower order and description. As it + depends for its authority upon an example, or a number of examples, so + examples of a contrary nature may continually come in, to weaken its + force, or utterly to subvert it. And the affair is made still worse, when + we see, as in the case of craniology, that all the reasons that can be + deduced (as here from the nature of mind) would persuade us to believe, + that there can be no connection between the supposed indications, and the + things pretended to be indicated. + </p> + <p> + Craniology, or phrenology, proceeds exactly in the same train, as + chiromancy, or any of those pretended sciences which are built merely on + assumption or conjecture. The first delineations presented to the public, + marked out, as I have said, the scull into compartments, in the same + manner as a country delineated on a map is divided into districts. + Geography is a real science, and accordingly, like other sciences, has + been slow and gradual in its progress. At an early stage travellers knew + little more than the shores and islands of the Mediterranean. Afterwards, + they passed the straits of Hercules, and entered into the Atlantic. At + length the habitable world was distributed into three parts, Europe, Asia, + and Africa. More recently, by many centuries, came the discovery of + America. It is but the other day comparatively, that we found the + extensive island of New Holland in the Southern Ocean. The ancient + geographers placed an elephant or some marine monster in the vacant parts + of their maps, to signify that of these parts they knew nothing. Not so + Dr. Gall. Every part of his globe of the human Scull, at least with small + exceptions, is fully tenanted; and he, with his single arm, has conquered + a world. + </p> + <p> + The majority of the judgments that have been divulged by the professors of + this science, have had for their subjects the sculls of men, whose habits + and history have been already known. And yet with this advantage the + errors and contradictions into which their authors have fallen are + considerably numerous. Thus I find, in the account of the doctor's visit + to the House of Correction and the Hospital of Torgau in July 1805, the + following examples. + </p> + <p> + "Every person was desirous to know what Dr. Gall would say about T—, + who was known in the house as a thief full of cunning, and who, having + several times made his escape, wore an additional iron. It was surprising, + that he saw in him far less of the organ of cunning, than in many of the + other prisoners. However it was proved, that examples, and conversation + with other thieves in the house, had suggested to him the plan for his + escape, and that the stupidity which he possesses was the cause of his + being retaken." + </p> + <p> + "We were much surprised to be told, that M., in whom Dr. Gall had not + discovered the organ of representation, possessed extraordinary abilities + in imitating the voice of animals; but we were convinced after enquiries, + that his talent was not a natural one, but acquired by study. He related + to us that, when he was a Prussian soldier garrisoned at Berlin, he used + to deceive the waiting women in the Foundling Hospital by imitating the + voice of exposed infants, and sometimes counterfeited the cry of a wild + drake, when the officers were shooting ducks." + </p> + <p> + "Of another Dr. Gall said, His head is a pattern of inconstancy and + confinement, and there appears not the least mark of the organ of courage. + This rogue had been able to gain a great authority among his + fellow-convicts. How is this to be reconciled with the want of constancy + which his organisation plainly indicates? Dr. Gall answered, He gained his + ascendancy not by courage, but by cunning." + </p> + <p> + It is well known, that in Thurtel, who was executed for one of the most + cold-blooded and remorseless murders ever heard of, the phrenologists + found the organ of benevolence uncommonly large. + </p> + <p> + In Spurzheim's delineation of the human head I find six divisions of + organs marked out in the little hemisphere over the eye, indicating six + different dispositions. Must there not be in this subtle distribution much + of what is arbitrary and sciolistic? + </p> + <p> + It is to be regretted, that no person skilful in metaphysics, or the + history of the human mind, has taken a share in this investigation. Many + errors and much absurdity would have been removed from the statements of + these theorists, if a proper division had been made between those + attributes and propensities, which by possibility a human creature may + bring into the world with him, and those which, being the pure growth of + the arbitrary institutions of society, must be indebted to those + institutions for their origin. I have endeavoured in a former Essay(41) to + explain this distinction, and to shew how, though a human being cannot be + born with an express propensity towards any one of the infinite pursuits + and occupations which may be found in civilised society, yet that he may + be fitted by his external or internal structure to excel in some one of + those pursuits rather than another. But all this is overlooked by the + phrenologists. They remark the various habits and dispositions, the + virtues and the vices, that display themselves in society as now + constituted, and at once and without consideration trace them to the + structure that we bring into the world with us. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (41) See above, Essay II. +</pre> + <p> + Certainly many of Gall's organs are a libel upon our common nature. And, + though a scrupulous and exact philosopher will perhaps confess that he has + little distinct knowledge as to the design with which "the earth and all + that is therein" were made, yet he finds in it so much of beauty and + beneficent tendency, as will make him extremely reluctant to believe that + some men are born with a decided propensity to rob, and others to murder. + Nor can any thing be more ludicrous than this author's distinction of the + different organs of memory—of things, of places, of names, of + language, and of numbers: organs, which must be conceived to be given in + the first instance long before names or language or numbers had an + existence. The followers of Gall have in a few instances corrected this: + but what their denominations have gained in avoiding the grossest + absurdities of their master, they have certainly lost in explicitness and + perspicuity. + </p> + <p> + There is a distinction, not unworthy to be attended to, that is here to be + made between Lavater's system of physiognomy, and Gall's of craniology, + which is much in favour of the former. The lines and characteristic + expressions of the face which may so frequently be observed, are for the + most part the creatures of the mind. This is in the first place a mode of + observation more agreeable to the pride and conscious elevation of man, + and is in the next place more suitable to morality, and the vindication of + all that is most admirable in the system of the universe. It is just, that + what is most frequently passing in the mind, and is entertained there with + the greatest favour, should leave its traces upon the countenance. It is + thus that the high and exalted philosopher, the poet, and the man of + benevolence and humanity are sometimes seen to be such by the bystander + and the stranger. While the malevolent, the trickish, and the grossly + sensual, give notice of what they are by the cast of their features, and + put their fellow-creatures upon their guard, that they may not be made the + prey of these vices. + </p> + <p> + But the march of craniology or phrenology, by whatever name it is called, + is directly the reverse of this. It assigns to us organs, as far as the + thing is explained by the professors either to the public or to their own + minds, which are entailed upon us from our birth, and which are altogether + independent, or nearly so, of any discipline or volition that can be + exercised by or upon the individual who drags their intolerable chain. + Thus I am told of one individual that he wants the organ of colour; and + all the culture in the world can never supply that defect, and enable him + to see colour at all, or to see it as it is seen by the rest of mankind. + Another wants the organ of benevolence; and his case is equally hopeless. + I shrink from considering the condition of the wretch, to whom nature has + supplied the organs of theft and murder in full and ample proportions. The + case is like that of astrology + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (Their stars are more in fault than they), +</pre> + <p> + with this aggravation, that our stars, so far as the faculty of prediction + had been supposed to be attained, swayed in few things; but craniology + climbs at once to universal empire; and in her map, as I have said, there + are no vacant places, no unexplored regions and happy wide-extended + deserts. + </p> + <p> + It is all a system of fatalism. Independently of ourselves, and far beyond + our control, we are reserved for good or for evil by the predestinating + spirit that reigns over all things. Unhappy is the individual who enters + himself in this school. He has no consolation, except the gratified wish + to know distressing truths, unless we add to this the pride of science, + that he has by his own skill and application purchased for himself the + discernment which places him in so painful a preeminence. The great + triumph of man is in the power of education, to improve his intellect, to + sharpen his perceptions, and to regulate and modify his moral qualities. + But craniology reduces this to almost nothing, and exhibits us for the + most part as the helpless victims of a blind and remorseless destiny. + </p> + <p> + In the mean time it is happy for us, that, as this system is perhaps the + most rigorous and degrading that was ever devised, so it is in almost all + instances founded upon arbitrary assumptions and confident assertion, + totally in opposition to the true spirit of patient and laborious + investigation and sound philosophy. + </p> + <p> + It is in reality very little that we know of the genuine characters of + men. Every human creature is a mystery to his fellow. Every human + character is made up of incongruities. Of nearly all the great personages + in history it is difficult to say what was decidedly the motive in which + their actions and system of conduct originated. We study what they did, + and what they said; but in vain. We never arrive at a full and + demonstrative conclusion. In reality no man can be certainly said to know + himself. "The heart of man is deceitful above all things." + </p> + <p> + But these dogmatists overlook all those difficulties, which would persuade + a wise man to suspend his judgment, and induce a jury of philosophers to + hesitate for ever as to the verdict they would pronounce. They look only + at the external character of the act by which a man honours or disgraces + himself. They decide presumptuously and in a lump, This man is a murderer, + a hero, a coward, the slave of avarice, or the votary of philanthropy; and + then, surveying the outside of his head, undertake to find in him the + configuration that should indicate these dispositions, and must be found + in all persons of a similar character, or rather whose acts bear the same + outward form, and seem analogous to his. + </p> + <p> + Till we have discovered the clue that should enable us to unravel the + labyrinth of the human mind, it is with small hopes of success that we + should expect to settle the external indications, and decide that this + sort of form and appearance, and that class of character, will always be + found together. + </p> + <p> + But it is not to be wondered at, that these disorderly fragments of a + shapeless science should become the special favourites of the idle and the + arrogant. Every man (and every woman), however destitute of real + instruction, and unfitted for the investigation of the deep or the sublime + mysteries of our nature, can use his eyes and his hands. The whole + boundless congregation of mankind, with its everlasting varieties, is thus + at once subjected to the sentence of every pretender: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + And fools rush in, where angels fear to tread. +</pre> + <p> + Nothing is more delightful to the headlong and presumptuous, than thus to + sit in judgment on their betters, and pronounce ex cathedra on those, + "whose shoe-latchet they are not worthy to stoop down and unloose." I + remember, after lord George Gordon's riots, eleven persons accused were + set down in one indictment for their lives, and given in charge to one + jury. But this is a mere shadow, a nothing, compared with the wholesale + and indiscriminating judgment of the vulgar phrenologist. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY XXI. OF ASTRONOMY. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_SECT" id="link2H_SECT____"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION I. + </h2> + <p> + It can scarcely be imputed to me as profane, if I venture to put down a + few sceptical doubts on the science of astronomy. All branches of + knowledge are to be considered as fair subjects of enquiry: and he that + has never doubted, may be said, in the highest and strictest sense of the + word, never to have believed. + </p> + <p> + The first volume that furnished to me the groundwork of the following + doubts, was the book commonly known by the name of Guthrie's Geographical + Grammar, many parts and passages of which engaged my attention in my own + study, in the house of a rural schoolmaster, in the year 1772. I cannot + therefore proceed more fairly than by giving here an extract of certain + passages in that book, which have relation to the present subject. I know + not how far they have been altered in the edition of Guthrie which now + lies before me, from the language of the book then in my possession; but I + feel confident that in the main particulars they continue the same(42). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (42) The article Astronomy, in this book, appears to have been written +by the well known James Ferguson. +</pre> + <p> + "In passing rapidly over the heavens with his new telescope, the universe + increased under the eye of Herschel; 44,000 stars, seen in the space of a + few degrees, seemed to indicate that there were seventy-five millions in + the heavens. But what are all these, when compared with those that fill + the whole expanse, the boundless field of aether? + </p> + <p> + "The immense distance of the fixed stars from our earth, and from each + other, is of all considerations the most proper for raising our ideas of + the works of God. Modern discoveries make it probable that each of these + stars is a sun, having planets and comets revolving round it, as our sun + has the earth and other planets revolving round him.—A ray of light, + though its motion is so quick as to be commonly thought instantaneous, + takes up more time in travelling from the stars to us, than we do in + making a West-India voyage. A sound, which, next to light, is considered + as the quickest body we are acquainted with, would not arrive to us from + thence in 50,000 years. And a cannon-ball, flying at the rate of 480 miles + an hour, would not reach us in 700,000 years. + </p> + <p> + "From what we know of our own system, it may be reasonably concluded, that + all the rest are with equal wisdom contrived, situated, and provided with + accommodations for rational inhabitants. + </p> + <p> + "What a sublime idea does this suggest to the human imagination, limited + as are its powers, of the works of the Creator! Thousands and thousands of + suns, multiplied without end, and ranged all around us, at immense + distances from each other, attended by ten thousand times ten thousand + worlds, all in rapid motion, yet calm, regular and harmonious, invariably + keeping the paths prescribed them: and these worlds peopled with myriads + of intelligent beings, formed for endless progression in perfection and + felicity!" + </p> + <p> + The thought that would immediately occur to a dispassionate man in + listening to this statement, would be, What a vast deal am I here called + on to believe! + </p> + <p> + Now the first rule of sound and sober judgment, in encountering any story, + is that, in proportion to the magnitude and seemingly incredible nature of + the propositions tendered to our belief, should be the strength and + impregnable nature of the evidence by which those propositions are + supported. + </p> + <p> + It is not here, as in matters of religion, that we are called upon by + authority from on high to believe in mysteries, in things above our + reason, or, as it may be, contrary to our reason. No man pretends to a + revelation from heaven of the truths of astronomy. They have been brought + to light by the faculties of the human mind, exercised upon such facts and + circumstances as our industry has set before us. + </p> + <p> + To persons not initiated in the rudiments of astronomical science, they + rest upon the great and high-sounding names of Galileo, Kepler, Halley and + Newton. But, though these men are eminently entitled to honour and + gratitude from their fellow-mortals, they do not stand altogether on the + same footing as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, by whose pens has been + recorded "every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." + </p> + <p> + The modest enquirer therefore, without pretending to put himself on an + equality with these illustrious men, may be forgiven, when he permits + himself to suggest a few doubts, and presumes to examine the grounds upon + which he is called upon to believe all that is contained in the above + passages. + </p> + <p> + Now the foundations upon which astronomy, as here delivered, is built, + are, first, the evidence of our senses, secondly, the calculations of the + mathematician, and, in the third place, moral considerations. These have + been denominated respectively, practical astronomy, scientific, and + theoretical. + </p> + <p> + As to the first of these, it is impossible for us on this occasion not to + recollect what has so often occurred as to have grown into an every-day + observation, of the fallibility of our senses. + </p> + <p> + It may be doubted however whether this is a just statement. We are not + deceived by our senses, but deceived in the inference we make from our + sensations. Our sensations respecting what we call the external world, are + chiefly those of length, breadth and solidity, hardness and softness, heat + and cold, colour, smell, sound and taste. The inference which the + generality of mankind make in relation to these sensations is, that there + is something out of ourselves corresponding to the impressions we receive; + in other words, that the causes of our sensations are like to the + sensations themselves. But this is, strictly speaking, an inference; and, + if the cause of a sensation is not like the sensation, it cannot precisely + be affirmed that our senses deceive us. We know what passes in the theatre + of the mind; but we cannot be said absolutely to know any thing, more. + </p> + <p> + Modern philosophy has taught us, in certain cases, to controvert the + position, that the causes of our sensations are like to the sensations + themselves. Locke in particular has called the attention of the reasoning + part of mankind to the consideration, that heat and cold, sweet and + bitter, and odour offensive or otherwise, are perceptions, which imply a + percipient being, and cannot exist in inanimate substances. We might with + equal propriety ascribe pain to the whip that beats us, or pleasure to the + slight alternation of contact in the person or thing that tickles us, as + suppose that heat and cold, or taste, or smell are any thing but + sensations. + </p> + <p> + The same philosophers who have called our attention to these remarks, have + proceeded to shew that the causes of our sensations of sound and colour + have no precise correspondence, do not tally with the sensations we + receive. Sound is the result of a percussion of the air. Colour is + produced by the reflection of the rays of light; so that the same object, + placed in a position, different as to the spectator, but in itself + remaining unaltered, will produce in him a sensation of different colours, + or shades of colour, now blue, now green, now brown, now black, and so on. + This is the doctrine of Newton, as well as of Locke. + </p> + <p> + It follows that, if there were no percipient being to receive these + sensations, there would be no heat or cold, no taste, no smell, no sound, + and no colour. + </p> + <p> + Aware of this difference between our sensations in certain cases and the + causes of these sensations, Locke has divided the qualities of substances + in the material universe into primary and secondary, the sensations we + receive of the primary representing the actual qualities of material + substances, but the sensations we receive of what he calls the secondary + having no proper resemblance to the causes that produce them. + </p> + <p> + Now, if we proceed in the spirit of severe analysis to examine the primary + qualities of matter, we shall not perhaps find so marked a distinction + between those and the secondary, as the statement of Locke would have led + us to imagine. + </p> + <p> + The Optics of Newton were published fourteen years later than Locke's + Essay concerning Human Understanding. + </p> + <p> + In endeavouring to account for the uninterrupted transmission of rays of + light through transparent substances, however hard they may be found to + be, Newton has these observations. + </p> + <p> + "Bodies are much more rare and porous, than is commonly believed. Water is + nineteen times lighter, and by consequence nineteen times rarer, than + gold; and gold is so rare, as very readily, and without the least + opposition, to transmit the magnetic effluvia, and easily to admit + quicksilver into its pores, and to let water pass through it. From all + which we may conclude, that gold has more pores than solid parts, and by + consequence that water has above forty times more pores than parts. And he + that shall find out an hypothesis, by which water may be so rare, and yet + not capable of compression by force, may doubtless, by the same + hypothesis, make gold, and water, and all other bodies, as much rarer as + he pleases, so that light may find a ready passage through transparent + substances(43)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (43) Newton, Optics, Book II, Part III, Prop. viii. +</pre> + <p> + Again: "The colours of bodies arise from the magnitude of the particles + that reflect them. Now, if we conceive these particles of bodies to be so + disposed among themselves, that the intervals, or empty spaces between + them, may be equal in magnitude to them all; and that these particles may + be composed of other particles much smaller, which have as much empty + space between them as equals all the magnitudes of these smaller + particles; and that in like manner these smaller particles are again + composed of others much smaller, all which together are equal to all the + pores, or empty spaces, between them; and so on perpetually till you come + to solid particles, such as have no pores, or empty spaces within them: + and if in any gross body there be, for instance, three such degrees of + particles, the least of which are solid; this body will have seven times + more pores than solid parts. But if there be four such degrees of + particles, the least of which are solid, the body will have fifteen times + more pores than solid parts. If there be five degrees, the body will have + one and thirty times more pores than solid parts. If six degrees, the body + will have sixty and three times more pores than solid parts. And so on + perpetually(44)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (44) Ibid. +</pre> + <p> + In the Queries annexed to the Optics, Newton further suggests an opinion, + that the rays of light are repelled by bodies without immediate contact. + He observes that: + </p> + <p> + "Where attraction ceases, there a repulsive virtue ought to succeed. And + that there is such a virtue, seems to follow from the reflexions and + inflexions of the rays of light. For the rays are repelled by bodies, in + both these cases, without the immediate contact of the reflecting or + inflecting body. It seems also to follow from the emission of light; the + ray, so soon as it is shaken off from a shining body by the vibrating + motion of the parts of the body, and gets beyond the reach of attraction, + being driven away with exceeding great velocity. For that force, which is + sufficient to turn it back in reflexion, may be sufficient to emit it. It + seems also to follow from the production of air and vapour: the particles, + when they are shaken off from bodies by heat or fermentation, so soon as + they are beyond the reach of the attraction of the body, receding from it + and also from one another, with great strength; and keeping at a distance, + so as sometimes to take up a million of times more space than they did + before, in the form of a dense body." + </p> + <p> + Newton was of opinion that matter was made up, in the last resort, of + exceedingly small solid particles, having no pores, or empty spaces within + them. Priestley, in his Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit, + carries the theory one step farther; and, as Newton surrounds his + exceedingly small particles with spheres of attraction and repulsion, + precluding in all cases their actual contact, Priestley is disposed to + regard the centre of these spheres as mathematical points only. If there + is no actual contact, then by the very terms no two particles of matter + were ever so near to each other, but that they might be brought nearer, if + a sufficient force could be applied for that purpose. You had only another + sphere of repulsion to conquer; and, as there never is actual contact, the + whole world is made up of one sphere of repulsion after another, without + the possibility of ever arriving at an end. + </p> + <p> + "The principles of the Newtonian philosophy," says our author, "were no + sooner known, than it was seen how few in comparison, of the phenomena of + nature, were owing to solid matter, and how much to powers, which were + only supposed to accompany and surround the solid parts of matter. It has + been asserted, and the assertion has never been disproved, that for any + thing we know to the contrary, all the solid matter in the solar system + might be contained within a nutshell(45)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (45) Priestley, Disquisitions, Section II. I know not by whom this +illustration was first employed. Among other authors, I find, in +Fielding (Joseph Andrews, Book II, Chap. II), a sect of philosophers +spoken of, who "can reduce all the matter of the world into a nutshell." +</pre> + <p> + It is then with senses, from the impressions upon which we are impelled to + draw such false conclusions, and that present us with images altogether + unlike any thing that exists out of ourselves, that we come to observe the + phenomena of what we call the universe. The first observation that it is + here incumbent on us to make, and which we ought to keep ever at hand, to + be applied as occasion may offer, is the well known aphorism of Socrates, + that "we know only this, that we know nothing." We have no compass to + guide us through the pathless waters of science; we have no revelation, at + least on the subject of astronomy, and of the unnumbered inhabitable + worlds that float in the ocean of ether; and we are bound therefore to + sail, as the mariners of ancient times sailed, always within sight of + land. One of the earliest maxims of ordinary prudence, is that we ought + ever to correct the reports of one sense by the assistance of another + sense. The things we here speak of are not matters of faith; and in them + therefore it is but reason, that we should imitate the conduct of Didymus + the apostle, who said, "Except I put my fingers into the prints of the + nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." My eyes + report to me an object, as having a certain magnitude, texture, and + roughness or smoothness; but I require that my hands should confirm to me + the evidence of my eyes. I see something that appears to be an island at + an uncertain distance from the shore; but, if I am actuated by a laudable + curiosity, and wish to possess a real knowledge, I take a boat, and + proceed to ascertain by nearer inspection, whether that which I imagined + to be an island is an island or no. + </p> + <p> + There are indeed many objects with which we are conversant, that are in so + various ways similar to each other, that, after having carefully examined + a few, we are satisfied upon slighter investigation to admit the + dimensions and character of others. Thus, having measured with a quadrant + the height of a tower, and found on the narrowest search and comparison + that the report of my instrument was right, I yield credit to this process + in another instance, without being at the trouble to verify its results in + any more elaborate method. + </p> + <p> + The reason why we admit the inference flowing from our examination in the + second instance, and so onward, with less scrupulosity and scepticism than + in the first, is that there is a strict resemblance and analogy in the two + cases. Experience is the basis of our conclusions and our conduct. I + strike against a given object, a nail for example, with a certain degree + of force, because I have remarked in myself and others the effect of such + a stroke. I take food and masticate it, because I have found that this + process contributes to the sound condition of my body and mind. I scatter + certain seeds in my field, and discharge the other functions of an + agriculturist, because I have observed that in due time the result of this + industry is a crop. All the propriety of these proceedings depends upon + the exact analogy between the old case and the new one. The state of the + affair is still the same, when my business is merely that of an observer + and a traveller. I know water from earth, land from sea, and mountains + from vallies, because I have had experience of these objects, and + confidently infer that, when certain appearances present themselves to my + organs of sight, I shall find the same results to all my other senses, as + I found when such appearances occurred to me before. + </p> + <p> + But the interval that divides the objects which occur upon and under the + earth, and are accessible in all ways to our examination, on the one hand, + and the lights which are suspended over our heads in the heavens on the + other, is of the broadest and most memorable nature. Human beings, in the + infancy of the world, were contented reverently to behold these in their + calmness and beauty, perhaps to worship them, and to remark the effects + that they produced, or seemed to produce, upon man and the subjects of his + industry. But they did not aspire to measure their dimensions, to enquire + into their internal frame, or to explain the uses, far removed from our + sphere of existence, which they might be intended to serve. + </p> + <p> + It is however one of the effects of the improvement of our intellect, to + enlarge our curiosity. The daringness of human enterprise is one of the + prime glories of our nature. It is our boast that we undertake to "measure + earth, weigh air, and state the tides." And, when success crowns the + boldness of our aspirations after what vulgar and timorous prudence had + pronounced impossible, it is then chiefly that we are seen to participate + of an essence divine. + </p> + <p> + What has not man effected by the boldness of his conceptions and the + adventurousness of his spirit? The achievements of human genius have + appeared so incredible, till they were thoroughly examined, and slowly + established their right to general acceptance, that the great heroes of + intellect were universally regarded by their contemporaries as dealers in + magic, and implements of the devil. The inventor of the art of printing, + that glorious instrument for advancing the march of human improvement, and + the discoverer of the more questionable art of making gunpowder, alike + suffered under this imputation. We have rendered the seas and the winds + instruments of our pleasure, "exhausted the old world, and then discovered + a new one," have drawn down lightning from heaven, and exhibited equal + rights and independence to mankind. Still however it is incumbent on us to + be no less wary and suspicious than we are bold, and not to imagine, + because we have done much, that we are therefore able to effect every + thing. + </p> + <p> + As was stated in the commencement of this Essay, we know our own + sensations, and we know little more. Matter, whether in its primary or + secondary qualities, is certainly not the sort of thing the vulgar imagine + it to be. The illustrious Berkeley has taught many to doubt of its + existence altogether; and later theorists have gone farther than this, and + endeavoured to shew, that each man, himself while he speaks on the + subject, and you and I while we hear, have no conclusive evidence to + convince us, that we may not, each of us, for aught we know, be the only + thing that exists, an entire universe to ourselves. + </p> + <p> + We will not however follow these ingenious persons to the startling + extreme to which their speculations would lead us. But, without doing so, + it will not misbecome us to be cautious, and to reflect what we do, before + we take a leap into illimitable space. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_SECT" id="link2H_SECT_____"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION II. + </h2> + <p> + "The sun," we are told, "is a solid body, ninety-five millions of miles + distant from the earth we inhabit, one million times larger in cubic + measurement, and to such a degree impregnated with heat, that a comet, + approaching to it within a certain distance, was by that approximation + raised to a heat two thousand times greater than that of red-hot iron." + </p> + <p> + It will be acknowledged, that there is in this statement much to believe; + and we shall not be exposed to reasonable blame, if we refuse to subscribe + to it, till we have received irresistible evidence of its truth. + </p> + <p> + It has already been observed, that, for the greater part of what we + imagine we know on the surface or in the bowels of the earth, we have, or + may have if we please, the evidence of more than one of our senses, + combining to lead to the same conclusion. For the propositions of + astronomy we have no sensible evidence, but that of sight, and an + imperfect analogy, leading from those visible impressions which we can + verify, to a reliance upon those which we cannot. + </p> + <p> + The first cardinal particular we meet with in the above statement + concerning the sun, is the term, distance. Now, all that, strictly + speaking, we can affirm respecting the sun and other heavenly bodies, is + that we have the same series of impressions respecting them, that we have + respecting terrestrial objects near or remote, and that there is an + imperfect analogy between the one case and the other. + </p> + <p> + Before we affirm any thing, as of our own knowledge and competence, + respecting heavenly bodies which are said to be millions of millions of + miles removed from us, it would not perhaps be amiss that we should + possess ourselves of a certain degree of incontestible information, as to + the things which exist on the earth we inhabit. Among these, one of the + subjects attended with a great degree of doubt and obscurity, is the + height of the mountains with which the surface of the globe we inhabit is + diversified. It is affirmed in the received books of elementary geography, + that the Andes are the highest mountains in the world. Morse, in his + American Gazetteer, third edition, printed at Boston in 1810(46), says, + "The height of Chimborazzo, the most elevated point of the vast chain of + the Andes, is 20,280 feet above the level of the sea, which is 7102 feet + higher than any other mountain in the known world:" thus making the + elevation of the mountains of Thibet, or whatever other rising ground the + compiler had in his thought, precisely 13,178 feet above the level of the + sea, and no more. This decision however has lately been contradicted. Mr. + Hugh Murray, in an Account of Discoveries and Travels in Asia, published + in 1820, has collated the reports of various recent travellers in central + Asia; and he states the height of Chumularee, which he speaks of as the + most elevated point of the mountains of Thibet, as nearly 30,000 feet + above the level of the sea. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (46) Article, Andes. +</pre> + <p> + The elevation of mountains, till lately, was in no way attempted to be + ascertained but by the use of the quadrant, and their height was so + generally exaggerated, that Riccioli, one of the most eminent astronomers + of the seventeenth century, gives it as his opinion that mountains, like + the Caucasus, may have a perpendicular elevation of fifty Italian + miles(47). Later observers have undertaken to correct the inaccuracy of + these results through the application of the barometer, and thus, by + informing themselves of the weight of the air at a certain elevation, + proceeding to infer the height of the situation. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (47) Rees, Encyclopedia; article, Mountains. +</pre> + <p> + There are many circumstances, which are calculated to induce a circumspect + enquirer to regard the affirmative positions of astronomy, as they are + delivered by the most approved modern writers, with considerable + diffidence. + </p> + <p> + They are founded, as has already been said, next to the evidence of our + senses, upon the deductions of mathematical knowledge. + </p> + <p> + Mathematics are either pure or mixed. + </p> + <p> + Pure mathematics are concerned only with abstract propositions, and have + nothing to do with the realities of nature. There is no such thing in + actual existence as a mathematical point, line or surface. There is no + such thing as a circle or square. But that is of no consequence. We can + define them in words, and reason about them. We can draw a diagram, and + suppose that line to be straight which is not really straight, and that + figure to be a circle which is not strictly a circle. It is conceived + therefore by the generality of observers, that mathematics is the science + of certainty. + </p> + <p> + But this is not strictly the case. Mathematics are like those abstract and + imaginary existences about which they are conversant. They may constitute + in themselves, and in the apprehension of an infallible being, a science + of certainty. But they come to us mixed and incorporated with our + imperfections. Our faculties are limited; and we may be easily deceived, + as to what it is that we see with transparent and unerring clearness, and + what it is that comes to us through a crooked medium, refracting and + distorting the rays of primitive truth. We often seem clear, when in + reality the twilight of undistinguishing night has crept fast and far upon + us. In a train of deductions, as in the steps of an arithmetical process, + an error may have insinuated itself imperceptibly at a very early stage, + rendering all the subsequent steps a wandering farther and farther from + the unadulterated truth. Human mathematics, so to speak, like the length + of life, are subject to the doctrine of chances. Mathematics may be the + science of certainty to celestial natures, but not to man. + </p> + <p> + But, if in the case of pure mathematics, we are exposed to the chances of + error and delusion, it is much worse with mixed mathematics. The moment we + step out of the high region of abstraction, and apply ourselves to what we + call external nature, we have forfeited that sacred character and + immunity, which we seemed entitled to boast, so long as we remained + inclosed in the sanctuary of unmingled truth. As has already been said, we + know what passes in the theatre of the mind; but we cannot be said + absolutely to know any thing more. In our speculations upon actual + existences we are not only subject to the disadvantages which arise from + the limited nature of our faculties, and the errors which may insensibly + creep upon us in the process. We are further exposed to the operation of + the unevennesses and irregularities that perpetually occur in external + nature, the imperfection of our senses, and of the instruments we + construct to assist our observations, and the discrepancy which we + frequently detect between the actual nature of the things about us and our + impressions respecting them. + </p> + <p> + This is obvious, whenever we undertake to apply the processes of + arithmetic to the realities of life. Arithmetic, unsubjected to the + impulses of passion and the accidents of created nature, holds on its + course; but, in the phenomena of the actual world, "time and chance + happeneth to them all." + </p> + <p> + Thus it is, for example, in the arithmetical and geometrical ratios, set + up in political economy by the celebrated Mr. Malthus. His numbers will go + on smoothly enough, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, as representing the principle of + population among mankind, and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, the means of subsistence; + but restiff and uncomplying nature refuses to conform herself to his + dicta. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Price has calculated the produce of one penny, put out at the + commencement of the Christian era to five per cent. compound interest, and + finds that in the year 1791 it would have increased to a greater sum than + would be contained in three hundred millions of earths, all solid gold. + But what has this to do with the world in which we live? Did ever any one + put out his penny to interest in this fashion for eighteen hundred years? + And, if he did, where was the gold to be found, to satisfy his demand? + </p> + <p> + Morse, in his American Gazetteer, proceeding on the principles of Malthus, + tells us that, if the city of New York goes on increasing for a century in + a certain ratio, it will by that time contain 5,257,493 inhabitants. But + does any one, for himself or his posterity, expect to see this realised? + </p> + <p> + Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, has observed that, + as every man has two ancestors in the first ascending degree, and four in + the second, so in the twentieth degree he has more than a million, and in + the fortieth the square of that number, or upwards of a million millions. + This statement therefore would have a greater tendency to prove that + mankind in remote ages were numerous, almost beyond the power of figures + to represent, than the opposite doctrine of Malthus, that they have a + perpetual tendency to such increase as would infallibly bring down the + most tremendous calamities on our posterity. + </p> + <p> + Berkeley, whom I have already referred to on another subject, and who is + admitted to be one of our profoundest philosophers, has written a + treatise(48) to prove, that the mathematicians, who object to the + mysteries supposed to exist in revealed religion, "admit much greater + mysteries, and even falshoods in science, of which he alleges the doctrine + of fluxions as an eminent example(49)." He observes, that their + conclusions are established by virtue of a twofold error, and that these + errors, being in contrary directions, are supposed to compensate each + other, the expounders of the doctrine thus arriving at what they call + truth, without being able to shew how, or by what means they have arrived + at it. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (48) The Analyst. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (49) Life of Berkeley, prefixed to his Works. +</pre> + <p> + It is a memorable and a curious speculation to reflect, upon how slight + grounds the doctrine of "thousands and thousands of suns, multiplied + without end, and ranged all around us, at immense distances from each + other, and attended by ten thousand times ten thousand worlds," mentioned + in the beginning of this Essay, is built. It may be all true. But, true or + false, it cannot be without its use to us, carefully to survey the road + upon which we are advancing, the pier which human enterprise has dared to + throw out into the vast ocean of Cimmerian darkness. We have constructed a + pyramid, which throws into unspeakable contempt the vestiges of ancient + Egyptian industry: but it stands upon its apex; it trembles with every + breeze; and momentarily threatens to overwhelm in its ruins the fearless + undertakers that have set it up. + </p> + <p> + It gives us a mighty and sublime idea of the nature of man, to think with + what composure and confidence a succession of persons of the greatest + genius have launched themselves in illimitable space, with what invincible + industry they have proceeded, wasting the midnight oil, racking their + faculties, and almost wearing their organs to dust, in measuring the + distance of Sirius and the other fixed stars, the velocity of light, and + "the myriads of intelligent beings formed for endless progression in + perfection and felicity," that people the numberless worlds of which they + discourse. The illustrious names of Copernicus, Galileo, Gassendi, Kepler, + Halley and Newton impress us with awe; and, if the astronomy they have + opened before us is a romance, it is at least a romance more seriously and + perseveringly handled than any other in the annals of literature. + </p> + <p> + A vulgar and a plain man would unavoidably ask the astronomers, How came + you so familiarly acquainted with the magnitude and qualities of the + heavenly bodies, a great portion of which, by your own account, are + millions of millions of miles removed from us? But, I believe, it is not + the fashion of the present day to start so rude a question. I have just + turned over an article on Astronomy in the Encyclopaedia Londinensis, + consisting of one hundred and thirty-three very closely printed quarto + pages, and in no corner of this article is any evidence so much as hinted + at. Is it not enough? Newton and his compeers have said it. + </p> + <p> + The whole doctrine of astronomy rests upon trigonometry, a branch of the + science of mathematics which teaches us, having two sides and one angle, + or two angles and one side, of a triangle given us, to construct the + whole. To apply this principle therefore to the heavenly bodies, it is + necessary for us to take two stations, the more remote from each other the + better, from which our observations should be made. For the sake of + illustration we will suppose them to be taken at the extremes of the + earth's diameter, in other words, nearly eight thousand miles apart from + each other, the thing itself having never been realised to that extent. + From each of these stations we will imagine a line to be drawn, + terminating in the sun. Now it seems easy, by means of a quadrant, to find + the arch of a circle (in other words, the angle) included between these + lines terminating in the sun, and the base formed by a right line drawn + from one of these stations to the other, which in this case is the length + of the earth's diameter. I have therefore now the three particulars + required to enable me to construct my triangle. And, according to the most + approved astronomical observations hitherto made, I have an isosceles + triangle, eight thousand miles broad at its base, and ninety-five millions + of miles in the length of each of the sides reaching from the base to the + apex. + </p> + <p> + It is however obvious to the most indifferent observer, that the more any + triangle, or other mathematical diagram, falls within the limits which our + senses can conveniently embrace, the more securely, when our business is + practical, and our purpose to apply the result to external objects, can we + rely on the accuracy of our results. In a case therefore like the present, + where the base of our isosceles triangle is to the other two sides as + eight units to twelve thousand, it is impossible not to perceive that it + behoves us to be singularly diffident as to the conclusion at which we + have arrived, or rather it behoves us to take for granted that we are not + unlikely to fall into the most important error. We have satisfied + ourselves that the sides of the triangle including the apex, do not form + an angle, till they have arrived at the extent of ninety-five millions of + miles. How are we sure that they do then? May not lines which have reached + to so amazing a length without meeting, be in reality parallel lines? If + an angle is never formed, there can be no result. The whole question seems + to be incommensurate to our faculties. + </p> + <p> + It being obvious that this was a very unsatisfactory scheme for arriving + at the knowledge desired, the celebrated Halley suggested another method, + in the year 1716, by an observation to be taken at the time of the transit + of Venus over the sun(50). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (50) Philosophical Transactions, Vol. XXIX, p. 454. +</pre> + <p> + It was supposed that we were already pretty accurately acquainted with the + distance of the moon from the earth, it being so much nearer to us, by + observing its parallax, or the difference of its place in the heavens as + seen from the surface of the earth, from that in which it would appear if + seen from its centre(51). But the parallax of the sun is so exceedingly + small, as scarcely to afford the basis of a mathematical calculation(52). + The parallax of Venus is however almost four times as great as that of the + sun; and there must therefore be a very sensible difference between the + times in which Venus may be seen passing over the sun from different parts + of the earth. It was on this account apprehended, that the parallax of the + sun, by means of observations taken from different places at the time of + the transit of Venus in 1761 and 1769, might be ascertained with a great + degree of precision(53). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (51) Bonnycastle, Astronomy, 7th edition, p. 262, et seq. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (52) Ibid, p. 268. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (53) Phil. Transactions, Vol. XXIX, p. 457. +</pre> + <p> + But the imperfectness of our instruments and means of observation have no + small tendency to baffle the ambition of man in these curious + investigations. + </p> + <p> + "The true quantity of the moon's parallax," says Bonnycastle, "cannot be + accurately determined by the methods ordinarily resorted to, on account of + the varying declination of the moon, and the inconstancy of the horizontal + refractions, which are perpetually changing according to the state the + atmosphere is in at the time. For the moon continues but for a short time + in the equinoctial, and the refraction at a mean rate elevates her + apparent place near the horizon, half as much as her parallax depresses + it(54)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (54) Astronomy, p. 265. +</pre> + <p> + "It is well known that the parallax of the sun can never exceed nine + seconds, or the four-hundredth part of a degree(55)." "Observations," says + Halley, "made upon the vibrations of a pendulum, to determine these + exceedingly small angles, are not sufficiently accurate to be depended + upon; for by this method of ascertaining the parallax, it will sometimes + come out to be nothing, or even negative; that is, the distance will + either be infinite, or greater than infinite, which is absurd. And, to + confess the truth, it is hardly possible for a person to distinguish + seconds with certainty by any instruments, however skilfully they may be + made; and therefore it is not to be wondered at, that the excessive nicety + of this matter should have eluded the many ingenious endeavours of the + most able opetators."(56). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (55) Ibid, p. 268. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (56) Phil. Transactions, Vol. XXIX, p. 456. +</pre> + <p> + Such are the difficulties that beset the subject on every side. It is for + the impartial and dispassionate observers who have mastered all the + subtleties of the science, if such can be found, to determine whether the + remedies that have been resorted to to obviate the above inaccuracies and + their causes, have fulfilled their end, and are not exposed to similar + errors. But it would be vain to expect the persons, who have "scorned + delights, and lived laborious days" to possess themselves of the mysteries + of astronomy, should be impartial and dispassionate, or be disposed to + confess, even to their own minds, that their researches were useless, and + their labours ended in nothing. + </p> + <p> + It is further worthy of our attention, that the instruments with which we + measure the distance of the earth from the sun and the planets, are the + very instruments which have been pronounced upon as incompetent in + measuring the heights of mountains(57). In the latter case therefore we + have substituted a different mode for arriving at the truth, which is + supposed to be attended with greater precision: but we have no substitute + to which we can resort, to correct the mistakes into which we may fall + respecting the heavenly bodies. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (57) See above, Essay XXI. +</pre> + <p> + The result of the uncertainty which adheres to all astronomical + observations is such as might have been expected. Common readers are only + informed of the latest adjustment of the question, and are therefore + unavoidably led to believe that the distance of the sun from the earth, + ever since astronomy became entitled to the name of a science, has by + universal consent been recognised as ninety-five millions of miles, or, as + near as may be, twenty-four thousand semi-diameters of the earth. But how + does the case really stand? Copernicus and Tycho Brahe held the distance + to be twelve hundred semi-diameters; Kepler, who is received to have been + perhaps the greatest astronomer that any age has produced, puts it down as + three thousand five hundred semi-diameters; since his time, Riccioli as + seven thousand; Hevelius as five thousand two hundred and fifty(58); some + later astronomers, mentioned by Halley, as fourteen thousand; and Halley + himself as sixteen thousand five hundred(59). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (58) They were about thirty and forty years younger than Kepler +respectively. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (59) Halley, apud Philosophical Transactions, Vol. XXIX, p. 455. +</pre> + <p> + The doctrine of fluxions is likewise called in by the astronomers in their + attempts to ascertain the distance and magnitude of the different + celestial bodies which compose the solar system; and in this way their + conclusions become subject to all the difficulties which Berkeley has + alleged against that doctrine. + </p> + <p> + Kepler has also supplied us with another mode of arriving at the distance + and size of the sun and the planets: he has hazarded a conjecture, that + the squares of the times of the revolution of the earth and the other + planets are in proportion to the cubes of their distances from the sun, + their common centre; and, as by observation we can arrive with tolerable + certainty at a knowledge of the times of their revolutions, we may from + hence proceed to the other matters we are desirous to ascertain. And that + which Kepler seemed, as by a divine inspiration, to hazard in the way of + conjecture, Newton professes to have demonstratively established. But the + demonstration of Newton has not been considered as satisfactory by all men + of science since his time. + </p> + <p> + Thus far however we proceed as we may, respecting our propositions on the + subject of the solar system. But, beyond this, all science, real or + pretended, deserts us. We have no method for measuring angles, which can + be applied to the fixed stars; and we know nothing of any revolutions they + perform. All here therefore seems gratuitous: we reason from certain + alleged analogies; and we can do no more. + </p> + <p> + Huygens endeavoured to ascertain something on the subject, by making the + aperture of a telescope so small, that the sun should appear through it no + larger than Sirius, which he found to be only in the proportion of 1 to + 27,664 times his diameter, as seen by the naked eye. Hence, supposing + Sirius to be a globe of the same magnitude as the sun, it must be 27,664 + times as distant from us as the sun, in other words, at a distance so + considerable as to equal 345 million diameters of the earth(60). Every one + must feel on how slender a thread this conclusion is suspended. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (60) Encyclopaedia Londinensis, Vol. 11, p. 407. +</pre> + <p> + And yet, from this small postulate, the astronomers proceed to deduce the + most astounding conclusions. They tell us, that the distance of the + nearest fixed star from the earth is at least 7,600,000,000,000 miles, and + of another they name, not less than 38 millions of millions of miles. A + cannon-ball therefore, proceeding at the rate of about twenty miles in a + minute would be 760,000 years in passing from us to the nearest fixed + star, and 3,800,000 in passing to the second star of which we speak. + Huygens accordingly concluded, that it was not impossible, that there + might be stars at such inconceivable distances from us, that their light + has not yet reached the earth since its creation(61). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (61) Ibid, p. 408. +</pre> + <p> + The received system of the universe, founded upon these so called + discoveries, is that each of the stars is a sun, having planets and comets + revolving round it, as our sun has the earth and other planets revolving + round him. It has been found also by the successive observations of + astronomers, that a star now and then is totally lost, and that a new star + makes its appearance which had never been remarked before: and this they + explain into the creation of a new system from time to time by the + Almighty author of the universe, and the destruction of an old system worn + out with age(62). We must also remember the power of attraction every + where diffused through infinite space, by means of which, as Herschel + assures us, in great length of time a nebula, or cluster of stars, may be + formed, while the projectile force they received in the beginning may + prevent them from all coming together, at least for millions of ages. Some + of these nebulae, he adds, cannot well be supposed to be at a less + distance from us than six or eight thousand times the distance of + Sirius(63). Kepler however denies that each star, of those which + distinctly present themselves to our sight, can have its system of planets + as our sun has, and considers them as all fixed in the same surface or + sphere; since, if one of them were twice or thrice as remote as another, + it would, supposing their real magnitudes to be equal, appear to be twice + or thrice as small, whereas there is not in their apparent magnitudes the + slightest difference(64). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (62) Encycl. Lond. Vol. II, p. 411. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (63) Ibid, p. 348. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (64) Ibid, p. 411. +</pre> + <p> + Certainly the astronomers are a very fortunate and privileged race of men, + who talk to us in this oracular way of "the unseen things of God from the + creation of the world," hanging up their conclusions upon invisible hooks, + while the rest of mankind sit listening gravely to their responses, and + unreservedly "acknowledging that their science is the most sublime, the + most interesting, and the most useful of all the sciences cultivated by + man(65)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (65) Ferguson, Astronomy, Section 1. +</pre> + <p> + We have a sensation, which we call the sensation of distance. It comes to + us from our sight and our other senses. It does not come immediately by + the organ of sight. It has been proved, that the objects we see, + previously to the comparison and correction of the reports of the organ of + sight with those of the other senses, do not suggest to us the idea of + distance, but that on the contrary whatever we see seems to touch the eye, + even as the objects of the sense of feeling touch the skin. + </p> + <p> + But, in proportion as we compare the impressions made upon our organs of + sight with the impressions made on the other senses, we come gradually to + connect with the objects we see the idea of distance. I put out my hand, + and find at first that an object of my sense of sight is not within the + reach of my hand. I put out my hand farther, or by walking advance my body + in the direction of the object, and I am enabled to reach it. From smaller + experiments I proceed to greater. I walk towards a tree or a building, the + figure of which presents itself to my eye, but which I find upon trial to + have been far from me. I travel towards a place that I cannot see, but + which I am told lies in a certain direction. I arrive at the place. It is + thus, that by repeated experiments I acquire the idea of remote distances. + </p> + <p> + To confine ourselves however to the question of objects, which without + change of place I can discover by the sense of sight. I can see a town, a + tower, a mountain at a considerable distance. Let us suppose that the + limit of my sight, so far as relates to objects on the earth, is one + hundred miles. I can travel towards such an object, and thus ascertain by + means of my other senses what is its real distance. I can also employ + certain instruments, invented by man, to measure heights, suppose of a + tower, and, by experiments made in ways independent of these instruments, + verify or otherwise the report of these instruments. + </p> + <p> + The height of the Monument of London is something more than two hundred + feet. Other elevations, the produce of human labour, are considerably + higher. It is in the nature of the mind, that we conclude from the + observation that we have verified, to the accuracy of another, bearing a + striking analogy to the former, that we have not verified. But analogy has + its limits. Is it of irresistible certainty, or is it in fact to be + considered as approaching to certainty, because we have verified an + observation extending to several hundred feet, that an observation + extending to ninety-five millions of miles, or to the incredible distances + of which Herschel so familiarly talks, is to be treated as a fact, or laid + down as a principle in science? Is it reasonable to consider two + propositions as analogous, when the thing affirmed in the one is in + dimension many million times as great as the thing affirmed in the other? + The experience we have had as to the truth of the smaller, does it + authorise us to consider the larger as unquestionable? That which I see + with a bay of the sea or a wide river between, though it may appear very + like something with which I am familiar at home, do I immediately affirm + it to be of the same species and nature, or do I not regard it with a + certain degree of scepticism, especially if, along with the resemblance in + some points, it differs essentially, as for example in magnitude, in other + points? We have a sensation, and we enquire into its cause. This is always + a question of some uncertainty. Is its cause something of absolute and + substantive existence without me, or is it not? Is its cause something of + the very same nature, as the thing that gave me a similar sensation in a + matter of comparatively a pigmy and diminutive extension? + </p> + <p> + All these questions an untrained and inquisitive mind will ask itself in + the propositions of astronomy. We must believe or not, as we think proper + or reasonable. We have no way of verifying the propositions by the trial + of our senses. There they lie, to be received by us in the construction + that first suggests itself to us, or not. They are something like an + agreeable imagination or fiction: and a sober observer, in cold blood, + will be disposed deliberately to weigh both sides of the question, and to + judge whether the probability lies in favour of the actual affirmation of + the millions of millions of miles, and the other incredible propositions + of the travelling of light, and the rest, which even the most cautious and + sceptical of the retainers of modern astronomy, find themselves compelled + to receive. + </p> + <p> + But I shall be told, that the results of our observations of the distances + of the heavenly bodies are unvaried. We have measured the distances and + other phenomena of the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, + Saturn, and their satellites, and they all fall into a grand system, so as + to convey to every unprejudiced mind the conviction that this system is + the truth itself. If we look at them day after day, and year after year, + we see them for ever the same, and performing the same divine harmony. + Successive astronomers in different ages and countries have observed the + celestial orbs, and swept the heavens, and for ever bring us back the same + story of the number, the dimensions, the distances, and the arrangement of + the heavenly bodies which form the subject of astronomical science. + </p> + <p> + This we have seen indeed not to be exactly the case. But, if it were, it + would go a very little way towards proving the point it was brought to + prove. It would shew that, the sensations and results being similar, the + causes of those results must be similar to each other, but it would not + shew that the causes were similar to the sensations produced. Thus, in the + sensations which belong to taste, smell, sound, colour, and to those of + heat and cold, there is all the uniformity which would arise, when the + real external causes bore the most exact similitude to the perceptions + they generate; and yet it is now universally confessed that tastes, + scents, sounds, colours, and heat and cold do not exist out of ourselves. + All that we are entitled therefore to conclude as to the magnitudes and + distances of the heavenly bodies, is, that the causes of our sensations + and perceptions, whatever they are, are not less uniform than the + sensations and perceptions themselves. + </p> + <p> + It is further alleged, that we calculate eclipses, and register the + various phenomena of the heavenly bodies. Thales predicted an eclipse of + the sun, which took place nearly six hundred years before the Christian + era. The Babylonians, the Persians, the Hindoos, and the Chinese early + turned their attention to astronomy. Many of their observations were + accurately recorded; and their tables extend to a period of three thousand + years before the birth of Christ. Does not all this strongly argue the + solidity of the science to which they belong? Who, after this, will have + the presumption to question, that the men who profess astronomy proceed on + real grounds, and have a profound knowledge of these things, which at + first sight might appear to be set at a distance so far removed from our + ken? + </p> + <p> + The answer to this is easy. I believe in all the astronomy that was + believed by Thales. I do not question the statements relative to the + heavenly bodies that were delivered by the wise men of the East. But the + supposed discoveries that were made in the eighteenth, and even in the + latter part of the seventeenth century, purporting to ascertain the + precise distance of the sun, the planets, and even of the fixed stars, are + matters entirely distinct from this. + </p> + <p> + Among the earliest astronomers of Greece were Thales, Anaximander, + Anaximenes and Anaxagoras. Thales, we are told, held that the earth is a + sphere or globe, Anaximenes that it is like a round, flat table; + Anaximander that the sun is like a chariot-wheel, and is twenty-eight + times larger than the earth. Anaxagoras was put in prison for affirming + that the sun was by many degrees larger than the whole Peloponnesus(66). + Kepler is of opinion that all the stars are at an equal distance from us, + and are fixed in the same surface or sphere. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (66) Plutarch, De Placitis Philosophorum. Diogenes Laertius. +</pre> + <p> + In reality the observations and the facts of astronomy do not depend + either upon the magnitudes or the distances of the heavenly bodies. They + proceed in the first place upon what may lie seen with the naked eye. They + require an accurate and persevering attention. They may be assisted by + telescopes. But they relate only to the sun and the planets. We are bound + to ascertain, as nearly as possible, the orbits described by the different + bodies in the solar system: but this has still nothing to do, strictly + speaking, with their magnitudes or distances. It is required that we + should know them in their relations to each other; but it is no + preliminary of just, of practical, it might almost be said, of liberal + science, that we should know any thing of them absolutely. + </p> + <p> + The unlimited ambition of the nature of man has discovered itself in + nothing more than this, the amazing superstructure which the votaries of + contemplation within the last two hundred years have built upon the simple + astronomy of the ancients. Having begun to compute the distances of miles + by millions, it appears clearly that nothing can arrest the more than + eagle-flight of the human mind. The distance of the nearest fixed star + from the earth, we are informed, is at least 7,000,000,000,000 miles, and + of another which the astronomers name, not less than 38 millions of + millions of miles. The particles of light are said to travel 193,940 miles + in every second, which is above a million times swifter than the progress + of a cannon-ball(67). And Herschel has concluded, that the light issuing + from the faintest nebulae he has discovered, must have been at this rate + two millions of years in reaching the Barth(68). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (67) Ferguson, Section 216. "Light moves," says Brewster, Optics, p. 2, +"from one pole of the earth to the other in the 24th part of a second: a +velocity which surpasses all comprehension." +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (68) Brinkley, Astronomy, p. 130. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_SECT" id="link2H_SECT______"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION III. + </h2> + <p> + The next process of the modern astronomer is to affirm the innumerable + orbs around us, discovered with the naked eye, or with which we are made + acquainted by the aid of telescopes, to be all stocked with rational + inhabitants. The argument for this is, that an all-wise and omnipotent + creator could never have produced such immense bodies, dispersed through + infinite space, for any meaner purpose, than that of peopling them with + "intelligent beings, formed for endless progression in perfection and + felicity(69)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (69) See above, Essay XXI. +</pre> + <p> + Now it appears to me, that, in these assertions, the modern astronomers + are taking upon themselves somewhat too boldly, to expound the counsels of + that mysterious power, to which the universe is indebted for its + arrangement and order. + </p> + <p> + We know nothing of God but from his works. Certain speculative men have + adventured to reason upon the source of all the system and the wonders + that we behold, a priori, and, having found that the creator is all + powerful, all wise, and of infinite goodness, according to their ideas of + power, wisdom and goodness, have from thence proceeded to draw their + inferences, and to shew us in what manner the works of his hands are + arranged and conducted by him. This no doubt they have done with the + purest intentions in the world; but it is not certain, that their + discretion has equalled the boldness of their undertaking. + </p> + <p> + The world that we inhabit, this little globe of earth, is to us an + infinite mystery. Human imagination is unable to conceive any thing more + consummate than the great outline of things below. The trees and the + skies, the mountains and the seas, the rivers and the springs, appear as + if the design had been to realise the idea of paradise. The freshness of + the air, the silvery light of day, the magnificence of the clouds, the + gorgeous and soothing colouring of the world, the profusion and + exquisiteness of the fruits and flowers of the earth, are as if nothing + but joy and delicious sensations had been intended for us. When we ascend + to the animal creation, the scene is still more admirable and + transporting. The birds and the beasts, the insects that skim the air, and + the fishes that live in the great deep, are a magazine of wonders, that we + may study for ever, without fear of arriving at the end of their + excellence. Last of all, comes the crown of the creation, man, formed with + looks erect, to commerce with the skies. What a masterpiece of workmanship + is his form, while the beauty and intelligence of Gods seems to manifest + itself in his countenance! Look at that most consummate of all implements, + the human hand; think of his understanding, how composed and penetrating; + of the wealth of his imagination; of the resplendent virtues he is + qualified to display! "How wonderful are thy works, Oh God; in wisdom hast + thou created them all!" + </p> + <p> + But there are other parts of the system in which we live, which do not + seem to correspond with those already enumerated. Before we proceed to + people infinite space, it would be as well, if we surveyed the surface of + the earth we inhabit. What vast deserts do we find in it; what immense + tracks of burning sands! One half of the globe is perhaps irreclaimable to + the use of man. Then let us think of earthquakes and tempests, of wasting + hurricanes, and the number of vessels, freighted with human beings, that + are yearly buried in the caverns of the ocean. Let us call to mind in man, + the prime ornament of the creation, all the diseases to which his frame is + subject, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, + Intestine stone and ulcer, colic pangs, + Demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy, + And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy, + Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence, + Dropsies, and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums. +</pre> + <p> + The very idea of our killing, and subsisting upon the flesh of animals, + surely somewhat jars with our conceptions of infinite benevolence. + </p> + <p> + But, when we look at the political history of man, the case is infinitely + worse. This too often seems one tissue of misery and vice. War, conquest, + oppression, tyranny, slavery, insurrections, massacres, cruel punishments, + degrading corporal infliction, and the extinction of life under the forms + of law, are to be found in almost every page. It is as if an evil demon + were let loose upon us, and whole nations, from one decad of years to + another, were struck with the most pernicious madness. Certain reasoners + tell us that this is owing to the freedom of will, without which man could + not exist. But here we are presented with an alternative, from which it is + impossible for human understanding to escape. Either God, according to our + ideas of benevolence, would remove evil out of the world, and cannot; or + he can, and will not. If he has the will and not the power, this argues + weakness; if he has the power and not the will, this seems to be + malevolence. + </p> + <p> + Let us descend from the great stage of the nations, and look into the + obscurities of private misery. Which of us is happy? What bitter springs + of misery overflow the human heart, and are borne by us in silence! What + cruel disappointments beset us! To what struggles are we doomed, while we + struggle often in vain! The human heart seems framed, as if to be the + capacious receptacle of all imaginable sorrows. The human frame seems + constructed, as if all its fibres were prepared to sustain varieties of + torment. "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread, till thou return + to the earth." But how often does that sweat prove ineffective! There are + men of whom sorrow seems to be the destiny, from which they can never + escape. There are hearts, into which by their constitution it appears as + if serenity and content could never enter, but which are given up to all + the furious passions, or are for ever the prey of repining and depression. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Ah, little think the gay, licentious proud, + Whom pleasure, power and affluence surround, + How many pine in want! How many shrink + Into the sordid hut, how many drink + The cup of grief, and eat the bitter bread + Of misery! +</pre> + <p> + And, which aggravates the evil, almost all the worst vices, the most + unprincipled acts, and the darkest passions of the human mind, are bred + out of poverty and distress. Satan, in the Book of Job, says to the + Almighty, "Thou hast blessed the work of thy servant, and his substance is + increased in the land. But put forth thy hand now, and take away all that + he hath; and he will curse thee to thy face." The prayer of Agar runs, + "Feed me with food convenient for me; lest I be poor, and steal, and take + the name of my God in vain." + </p> + <p> + It is with a deep knowledge of the scenes of life, that the prophet + pronounces, "My thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are your ways my + ways, saith the Lord." + </p> + <p> + All reflecting persons, who have surveyed the state of the world in which + we live, have been struck with the contrarieties of sublunary things; and + many hypotheses have been invented to solve the enigma. Some have + maintained the doctrine of two principles, Oromasdes and Arimanius, the + genius of good and of evil, who are perpetually contending with each other + which shall have the greatest sway in the fortunes of the world, and each + alternately acquiring the upper hand. Others have inculcated the theory of + the fall of man, that God at first made all things beautiful and good, but + that man has incurred his displeasure, and been turned out of the paradise + for which he was destined. Hence, they say, has arisen the corruption of + our nature. "There is none that cloth good, no, not one. That every mouth + may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." But the + solution that has been most generally adopted, particularly in later days, + is that of a future state of retribution, in which all the inequalities of + our present condition shall be removed, the tears of the unfortunate and + the sufferer shall be wiped from their eyes, and their agonies and + miseries compensated. This, in other words, independently of the light of + revelation, is to infer infinite wisdom and benevolence from what we see, + and then, finding the actual phenomena not to correspond with our + theories, to invent something of which we have no knowledge, to supply the + deficiency. + </p> + <p> + The astronomer however proceeds from what we see of the globe of earth, to + fashion other worlds of which we have no direct knowledge. Finding that + there is no part of the soil of the earth into which our wanderings can + penetrate, that is not turned to the account of rational and happy beings, + creatures capable of knowing and adoring their creator, that nature does + nothing in vain, and that the world is full of the evidences of his + unmingled beneficence, according to our narrow and imperfect ideas of + beneficence, (for such ought to be our premises) we proceed to construct + millions of worlds upon the plan we have imagined. The earth is a globe, + the planets are globes, and several of them larger than our earth: the + earth has a moon; several of the planets have satellites: the globe we + dwell in moves in an orbit round the sun; so do the planets: upon these + premises, and no more, we hold ourselves authorised to affirm that they + contain "myriads of intelligent beings, formed for endless progression in + perfection and felicity." Having gone thus far, we next find that the + fixed stars bear a certain resemblance to the sun; and, as the sun has a + number of planets attendant on him, so, we say, has each of the fixed + stars, composing all together "ten thousand times ten thousand" habitable + worlds. + </p> + <p> + All this is well, so long as we view it as a bold and ingenious + conjecture. On any other subject it would be so regarded; and we should + consider it as reserved for the amusement and gratification of a fanciful + visionary in the hour, when he gives up the reins to his imagination. But, + backed as it is by a complexity of geometrical right lines and curves, and + handed forth to us in large quartos, stuffed with calculations, it + experiences a very different fortune. We are told that, "by the knowledge + we derive from astronomy, our faculties are enlarged, our minds exalted, + and our understandings clearly convinced, and affected with the + conviction, of the existence, wisdom, power, goodness, immutability and + superintendency of the supreme being; so that, without an hyperbole, 'an + undevout astronomer is mad(e)(70).'" + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (70) Ferguson, Astronomy, Section I. +</pre> + <p> + It is singular, how deeply I was impressed with this representation, while + I was a schoolboy, and was so led to propose a difficulty to the wife of + the master. I said, "I find that we have millions of worlds round us + peopled with rational creatures. I know not that we have any decisive + reason for supposing these creatures more exalted, than the wonderful + species of which we are individuals. We are imperfect; they are imperfect. + We fell; it is reasonable to suppose that they have fallen also. It became + necessary for the second person in the trinity to take upon him our + nature, and by suffering for our sins to appease the wrath of his father. + I am unwilling to believe that he has less commiseration for the + inhabitants of other planets. But in that case it may be supposed that + since the creation he has been making a circuit of the planets, and dying + on the cross for the sins of rational creatures in uninterrupted + succession." The lady was wiser than I, admonished me of the danger of + being over-inquisitive, and said we should act more discreetly in leaving + those questions to the judgment of the Almighty. + </p> + <p> + But thus far we have reasoned only on one side of the question. Our pious + sentiments have led us to magnify the Lord in all his works, and, however + imperfect the analogy, and however obscure the conception we can form of + the myriads of rational creatures, all of them no doubt infinitely varied + in their nature, their structure and faculties, yet to view the whole + scheme with an undoubting persuasion of its truth. It is however somewhat + in opposition to the ideas of piety formed by our less adventurous + ancestors, that we should usurp the throne of God, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod, +</pre> + <p> + and, by means of our telescopes and our calculations, penetrate into + mysteries not originally intended for us. According to the received Mosaic + chronology we are now in the five thousand eight hundred and thirty-fifth + year from the creation: the Samaritan version adds to this date. It is + therefore scarcely in the spirit of a Christian, that Herschel talks to us + of a light, which must have been two millions of years in reaching the + earth. + </p> + <p> + Moses describes the operations of the Almighty, in one of the six days + devoted to the work of creation, as being to place "lights in the + firmament of heaven, to divide the day from the night, to be for signs and + for seasons, and for days and years, and to give light upon the earth; two + great lights, the greater to rule the day, and the lesser the night; and + the stars also." And Christ, prophesying what is to happen in the latter + days, says, "The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her + light, and the stars shall fall from heaven." Whatever therefore be the + piety of the persons, who talk to us of "ten thousand times ten thousand + worlds, all peopled with rational creatures," it certainly is not a piety + in precise accordance with the Christian scriptures. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_SECT" id="link2H_SECT_______"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECTION IV. It is also no more than just, that we should bear in mind + </h2> + <p> + the apparent fitness or otherwise, of these bodies, so far as we are + acquainted with them, for the dwelling-place of rational creatures. Not to + mention the probable extreme coldness of Jupiter and Saturn, the heat of + the sunbeams in the planet Mercury is understood to be such as that water + would unavoidably boil and be carried away(71), and we can scarcely + imagine any living substance that would not be dissolved and dispersed in + such an atmosphere. The moon, of which, as being so much nearer to us, we + may naturally be supposed to know most, we are told by the astronomers has + no water and no atmosphere, or, if any, such an atmosphere as would not + sustain clouds and ascending vapour. To our eye, as seen through the + telescope, it appears like a metallic substance, which has been burned by + fire, and so reduced into the ruined and ragged condition in which we seem + to behold it. The sun appears to be still less an appropriate habitation + for rational, or for living creatures, than any of the planets. The + comets, which describe an orbit so exceedingly eccentric, and are subject + to all the excessive vicissitudes of heat and cold, are, we are told, + admirably adapted for a scene of eternal, or of lengthened punishment for + those who have acquitted themselves ill in a previous state of probation. + Buffon is of opinion, that all the planets in the solar system were once + so many portions of our great luminary, struck off from the sun by the + blow of a comet, and so having received a projectile impulse calculated to + carry them forward in a right line, at the same time that the power of + attraction counteracts this impulse, and gives them that compound + principle of motion which retains them in an orbicular course. In this + sense it may be said that all the planets were suns; while on the contrary + Herschel pronounces, that the sun itself is a planet, an opake body, + richly stored with inhabitants(72). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (71) Encyclopaedia Londinensis, Vol. II, p. 355. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (72) Philosophical Transactions for 1795, p. 68. +</pre> + <p> + The modern astronomers go on to account to us for the total disappearance + of a star in certain cases, which, they say, may be in reality the + destruction of a system, such as that of our sun and its attendant + planets, while the appearance of a new star may, in like manner, be the + occasional creation of a new system of planets. "We ought perhaps," says + Herschel, "to look upon certain clusters of stars, and the destruction of + a star now and then in some thousands of ages, as the very means by which + the whole is preserved and renewed. These clusters may be the laboratories + of the universe, wherein the most salutary remedies for the decay of the + whole are prepared(73)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (73) Philosophical Transactions for 1785, p. 217. +</pre> + <p> + All this must appear to a sober mind, unbitten by the rage which grows out + of the heat of these new discoverers, to be nothing less than astronomy + run mad. This occasional creation of new systems and worlds, is in little + accordance with the Christian scriptures, or, I believe, with any sober + speculation upon the attributes of the creator. The astronomer seizes upon + some hint so fine as scarcely by any ingenuity to be arrested, immediately + launches forth into infinite space, and in an instant returns, and + presents us with millions of worlds, each of them peopled with ten + thousand times ten thousand inhabitants. + </p> + <p> + We spoke a while since of the apparent unfitness of many of the heavenly + bodies for the reception of living inhabitants. But for all this these + discoverers have a remedy. They remind us how unlike these inhabitants may + be to ourselves, having other organs than ours, and being able to live in + a very different temperature. "The great heat in the planet Mercury is no + argument against its being inhabited; since the Almighty could as easily + suit the bodies and constitutions of its inhabitants to the heat of their + dwelling, as he has done ours to the temperature of our earth. And it is + very probable that the people there have such an opinion of us, as we have + of the inhabitants of Jupiter and Saturn; namely, that we must be + intolerably cold, and have very little light at so great a distance from + the sun." + </p> + <p> + These are the remarks of Ferguson(74). One of our latest astronomers + expresses himself to the same purpose. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (74) Astronomy, Section 22. +</pre> + <p> + "We have no argument against the planets being inhabited by rational + beings, and consequently by witnesses of the creator's power, magnificence + and benevolence, unless it be said that some are much nearer the sun than + the earth is, and therefore must be uninhabitable from heat, and those + more distant from cold. Whatever objection this may be against their being + inhabited by rational beings, of an organisation similar to those on the + earth, it can have little force, when urged with respect to rational + beings in general. + </p> + <p> + "But we may examine without indulging too much in conjecture, whether it + be not possible that the planets may be possessed by rational beings, and + contain animals and vegetables, even little different from those with + which we are familiar. + </p> + <p> + "Is the sun the principal cause of the temperature of the earth? We have + reason to suppose that it is not. The mean temperature of the earth, at a + small depth from the surface, seems constant in summer and in winter, and + is probably coeval with its first formation. + </p> + <p> + "At the planet Mercury, the direct heat of the sun, or its power of + causing heat, is six times greater than with us. If we suppose the mean + temperature of Mercury to be the same as of the earth, and the planet to + be surrounded with an atmosphere, denser than that of the earth, less + capable of transmitting heat, or rather the influence of the sun to + extricate heat, and at the same time more readily conducting it to keep up + an evenness of temperature, may we not suppose the planet Mercury fit for + the habitation of men, and the production of vegetables similar to our + own? + </p> + <p> + "At the Georgium Sidus, the direct influence of the sun is 360 times less + than at the earth, and the sun is there seen at an angle not much greater + than that under which we behold Venus, when nearest. Yet may not the mean + temperature of the Georgium Sidus be nearly the same as that of the earth? + May not its atmosphere more easily transmit the influence of the sun, and + may not the matter of heat be more copiously combined, and more readily + extricated, than with us? Whence changes of season similar to our own may + take place. Even in the comets we may suppose no great change of + temperature takes place, as we know of no cause which will deprive them of + their mean temperature, and particularly if we suppose, that on their + approach towards the sun, there is a provision for their atmosphere + becoming denser. The tails they exhibit, when in the neighbourhood of the + sun, seem in some measure to countenance this idea. + </p> + <p> + "We can hardly suppose the sun, a body three hundred times larger than all + the planets together, was created only to preserve the periodic motions, + and give light and heat to the planets. Many astronomers have thought that + its atmosphere only is luminous, and its body opake, and probably of the + same constitution as the planets. Allowing therefore that its luminous + atmosphere only extricates heat, we see no reason why the sun itself + should not be inhabited(75)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (75) Brinkley, Elements of Astronomy, Chap. IX. +</pre> + <p> + There is certainly no end to the suppositions that may be made by an + ingenious astronomer. May we not suppose that we might do nearly as well + altogether without the sun, which it appears is at present of little use + to us as to warmth and heat? As to light, the great creator might, for + aught we know, find a substitute; feelers, for example, endued with a + certain acuteness of sense: or, at all events, the least imaginable degree + of light might answer every purpose to organs adapted to this kind of + twilight. In that way the inhabitants of the Georgium Sidus are already + sufficiently provided for; they appear to have as little benefit of the + light as of the heat of the sun. How the satellites of the distant planets + are supplied with light is a mystery, since their principals have scarcely + any. Unless indeed, like the sun, they have a luminous atmosphere, + competent to enlighten a whole system, themselves being opake. But in + truth light in a greater or less degree seems scarcely worthy of a + thought, since the inhabitants of the planet Mercury have not their eyes + put out by a light, scarcely inferior in radiance to that which is + reflected by those plates of burning brass, with which tyrants in some + ages were accustomed to extinguish the sense of vision in their + unfortunate victims. The comets also must be a delectable residence; that + of 1680 completing its orbit in 576 years, and being at its greatest + distance about eleven thousand two hundred millions of miles from the sun, + and at its least within less than a third part of the sun's semi-diameter + from its surface(76). They must therefore have delightful vicissitudes of + light and the contrary; for, as to heat, that is already provided for. + Archdeacon Brinkley's postulate is, that these bodies are "possessed by + rational beings, and contain animals and vegetables, little different from + those with which we are familiar." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (76) Ferguson, Section 93. +</pre> + <p> + Now the only reason we have to believe in these extraordinary + propositions, is the knowledge we possess of the divine attributes. From + the force of this consideration it is argued that God will not leave any + sensible area of matter unoccupied, and therefore that it is impossible + that such vast orbs as we believe surround us even to the extent of + infinite space, should not be "richly stored with rational beings, the + capable witnesses of his power, magnificence and benevolence." All + difficulties arising from the considerations of light, and heat, and a + thousand other obstacles, are to give way to the perfect insight we have + as to how the deity will conduct himself in every case that can be + proposed. I am not persuaded that this is agreeable to religion; and I am + still less convinced that it is compatible with the sobriety and + sedateness of common sense. + </p> + <p> + It is with some degree of satisfaction that I perceive lord Brougham, the + reputed author of the Preliminary Discourse to the Library of Useful + Knowledge, at the same time that he states the dimensions and distances of + the heavenly bodies in the usual way, says not a word of their + inhabitants. + </p> + <p> + It is somewhat remarkable that, since the commencement of the present + century, four new planets have been added to those formerly contained in + the enumeration of the solar system. They lie between the planets Mars and + Jupiter, and have been named Vesta, Juno, Ceres and Pallas. Brinkley + speaks of them in this manner. "The very small magnitudes of the new + planets Ceres and Pallas, and their nearly equal distances from the sun, + induced Dr. Olbers, who discovered Pallas in 1802, nearly in the same + place where he had observed Ceres a few months before, to conjecture that + they were fragments of a larger planet, which had by some unknown cause + been broken to pieces. It follows from the law of gravity, by which the + planets are retained in their orbits, that each fragment would again, + after every revolution about the sun, pass nearly through the place in + which the planet was when the catastrophe happened, and besides the orbit + of each fragment would intersect the continuation of the line joining this + place and the sun. Thence it was easy to ascertain the two particular + regions of the heavens through which all these fragments would pass. Also, + by carefully noting the small stars thereabout, and examining them from + time to time, it might be expected that more of the fragments would be + discovered.—M. Harding discovered the planet Juno in one of these + regions; and Dr. Olbers himself also, by carefully examining them (the + small stars) from time to time, discovered Vesta." + </p> + <p> + These additions certainly afford us a new epoch in the annals of the solar + system, and of astronomy itself. It is somewhat remarkable, that Herschel, + who in the course of his observations traced certain nebulae, the light + from which must have been two millions of years in reaching the earth, + should never have remarked these planets, which, so to speak, lay at his + feet. It reminds one of Esop's astrologer, who, to the amusement of his + ignorant countrymen, while he was wholly occupied in surveying the + heavens, suddenly found himself plunged in a pit. These new planets also + we are told are fragments of a larger planet: how came this larger planet + never to have been discovered? + </p> + <p> + Till Herschel's time we were content with six planets and the sun, making + up the cabalistical number seven. He added another. But these four new + ones entirely derange the scheme. The astronomers have not yet had + opportunity to digest them into their places, and form new worlds of them. + This is all unpleasant. They are, it seems, "fragments of a larger planet, + which had by some unknown cause been broken to pieces." They therefore are + probably not inhabited. How does this correspond with the goodness of God, + which will suffer no mass of matter in his creation to remain unoccupied? + Herschel talks at his ease of whole systems, suns with all their attendant + planets, being consigned to destruction. But here we have a catastrophe + happening before our eyes, and cannot avoid being shocked by it. "God does + nothing in vain." For which of his lofty purposes has this planet been + broken to pieces, and its fragments left to deform the system of which we + are inhabitants; at least to humble the pride of man, and laugh to scorn + his presumption? Still they perform their revolutions, and obey the + projectile and gravitating forces, which have induced us to people ten + thousand times ten thousand worlds. It is time, that we should learn + modesty, to revere in silence the great cause to which the universe is + indebted for its magnificence, its beauty and harmony, and to acknowledge + that we do not possess the key that should unlock the mysteries of + creation. + </p> + <p> + One of the most important lessons that can be impressed on the human mind, + is that of self-knowledge and a just apprehension of what it is that we + are competent to achieve. We can do much. We are capable of much knowledge + and much virtue. We have patience, perseverance and subtlety. We can put + forth considerable energies, and nerve ourselves to resist great obstacles + and much suffering. Our ingenuity is various and considerable. We can form + machines, and erect mighty structures. The invention of man for the ease + of human life, and for procuring it a multitude of pleasures and + accommodations, is truly astonishing. We can dissect the human frame, and + anatomise the mind. We can study the scene of our social existence, and + make extraordinary improvements in the administration of justice, and in + securing to ourselves that germ of all our noblest virtues, civil and + political liberty. We can study the earth, its strata, its soil, its + animals, and its productions, "from the cedar that is in Lebanon, to the + hyssop that springeth out of the wall." + </p> + <p> + But man is not omnipotent. If he aspires to be worthy of honour, it is + necessary that he should compute his powers, and what it is they are + competent to achieve. The globe of earth, with "all that is therein," is + our estate and our empire. Let us be content with that which we have. It + were a pitiful thing to see so noble a creature struggling in a field, + where it is impossible for him to distinguish himself, or to effect any + thing real. There is no situation in which any one can appear more little + and ludicrous, than when he engages in vain essays, and seeks to + accomplish that, which a moment's sober thought would teach him was + utterly hopeless. + </p> + <p> + Even astronomy is to a certain degree our own. We can measure the course + of the sun, and the orbits of the planets. We can calculate eclipses. We + can number the stars, assign to them their places, and form them into what + we call constellations. But, when we pretend to measure millions of miles + in the heavens, and to make ourselves acquainted with the inhabitants of + ten thousand times ten thousand worlds and the accommodations which the + creator has provided for their comfort and felicity, we probably engage in + something more fruitless and idle, than the pigmy who should undertake to + bend the bow of Ulysses, or strut and perform the office of a warrior clad + in the armour of Achilles. + </p> + <p> + How beautiful is the "firmament; this majestical roof fretted with golden + fire!" Let us beware how we mar the magnificent scene with our + interpolations and commentaries! Simplicity is of the essence of the truly + great. Let us look at the operations of that mighty power from which we + ourselves derive our existence, with humility and reverential awe! It may + well become us. Let us not "presume into the heaven of heavens," unbidden, + unauthorised guests! Let us adopt the counsel of the apostle, and allow no + man to "spoil us through vain philosophy." The business of human life is + serious; the useful investigations in which we may engage are multiplied. + It is excellent to see a rational being conscious of his genuine province, + and not idly wasting powers adapted for the noblest uses in unmeasured + essays and ill-concocted attempts. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY XXII. OF THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE. + </h2> + <p> + In the preceding Essay I have referred to the theory of Berkeley, whose + opinion is that there is no such thing as matter in the sense in which it + is understood by the writers on natural philosophy, and that the whole of + our experience in that respect is the result of a system of accidents + without an intelligible subject, by means of which antecedents and + consequents flow on for ever in a train, the past succession of which man + is able to record, and the future in many cases he is qualified to predict + and to act upon. + </p> + <p> + An argument more palpable and popular than that of Berkeley in favour of + the same hypothesis, might be deduced from the points recapitulated in + that Essay as delivered by Locke and Newton. If what are vulgarly + denominated the secondary qualities of matter are in reality nothing but + sensations existing in the human mind, then at any rate matter is a very + different thing from what it is ordinarily apprehended to be. To which I + add, in the second place, that, if matter, as is stated by Newton, + consists in so much greater a degree of pores than solid parts, that the + absolute particles contained in the solar system might, for aught we know, + he contained in a nutshell(77), and that no two ever touched each other, + or approached so near that they might not be brought nearer, provided a + sufficient force could be applied for that purpose,—and if, as + Priestley teaches, all that we observe is the result of successive spheres + of attraction and repulsion, the centre of which is a mathematical point + only, we then certainly come very near to a conclusion, which should + banish matter out of the theatre of real existences(78). + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (77) See above, Essay XXI. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (78) See above, Essay XXI. +</pre> + <p> + But the extreme subtleties of human intellect are perhaps of little + further use, than to afford an amusement to persons of curious + speculation, and whose condition in human society procures them leisure + for such enquiries. The same thing happens here, as in the subject of my + Twelfth Essay, on the Liberty of Human Actions. The speculator in his + closet is one man: the same person, when he comes out of his retirement, + and mixes in intercourse with his fellow-creatures, is another man. The + necessarian, when he reasons on the everlasting concatenation of + antecedents and consequents, proves to his own apprehension irrefragably, + that he is a passive instrument, acted upon, and acting upon other things, + in turn, and that he can never disengage himself from the operation of the + omnipotent laws of physical nature, and the impulses of other men with + whom he is united in the ties of society. But no sooner does this acute + and ingenious reasoner come into active life and the intercourse of his + fellowmen, than all these fine-drawn speculations vanish from his + recollection. He regards himself and other men as beings endowed with a + liberty of action, as possessed of a proper initiative power, and free to + do a thing or not to do it, without being subject to the absolute and + irresistible constraint of motives. It is from this internal and + indefeasible sense of liberty, that we draw all our moral energies and + enthusiasm, that we persevere heroically in defiance of obstacles and + discouragements, that we praise or blame the actions of others, and admire + the elevated virtues of the best of our contemporaries, and of those whose + achievements adorn the page of history. + </p> + <p> + It is in a manner of precisely the same sort as that which prevails in the + philosophical doctrines of liberty and necessity, that we find ourselves + impelled to feel on the question of the existence of the material + universe. Berkeley, and as many persons as are persuaded by his or similar + reasonings, feel satisfied in speculation that there is no such thing as + matter in the sense in which it is understood by the writers on natural + philosophy, and that all our notions of the external and actual existence + of the table, the chair, and the other material substances with which we + conceive ourselves to be surrounded, of woods, and mountains, and rivers, + and seas, are mere prejudice and misconception. All this is very well in + the closet, and as long as we are involved in meditation, and remain + abstracted from action, business, and the exertion of our limbs and + corporal faculties. But it is too fine for the realities of life. + Berkeley, and the most strenuous and spiritualised of his followers, no + sooner descend from the high tower of their speculations, submit to the + necessities of their nature, and mix in the business of the world, than + they become impelled, as strongly as the necessarian in the question of + the liberty of human actions, not only to act like other men, but even to + feel just in the same manner as if they had never been acquainted with + these abstractions. A table then becomes absolutely a table, and a chair a + chair: they are "fed with the same food, hurt by the same weapons, and + warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter," as other men: and they + make use of the refreshments which nature requires, with as true an + orthodoxy, and as credulous a temper, as he who was never assailed with + such refinements. Nature is too strong, to be prevailed on to retire, and + give way to the authority of definitions and syllogistical deduction. + </p> + <p> + But, when we have granted all this, it is however a mistake to say, that + these "subtleties of human intellect are of little further use, than to + afford an amusement to persons of curious speculation(79)." We have seen, + in the case of the doctrine of philosophical necessity(80), that, though + it can never form a rule for the intercourse between man and man, it may + nevertheless be turned to no mean advantage. It is calculated to inspire + us with temperance and toleration. It tends impressively to evince to us, + that this scene of things is but like the shadows which pass before us in + a magic lanthorn, and that, after all, men are but the tools, not the + masters, of their fate. It corrects the illusions of life, much after the + same manner as the spectator of a puppet-shew is enlightened, who should + be taken within the curtain, and shewn how the wires are pulled by the + master, which produce all the turmoil and strife that before riveted our + attention. It is good for him who would arrive at all the improvement of + which our nature is capable, at one time to take his place among the + literal beholders of the drama, and at another to go behind the scenes, + and remark the deceptions in their original elements, and the actors in + their proper and natural costume. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (79) See above, Essay XXII. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (80) See above, Essay XII. +</pre> + <p> + And, as in the question of the liberty of human actions, so in that of the + reality of the material universe, it is a privilege not to be despised, + that we are so formed as to be able to dissect the subject that is + submitted to our examination, and to strip the elements of which this + sublunary scene is composed, of the disguise in which they present + themselves to the vulgar spectator. It is little, after all, that we are + capable to know; and the man of heroic mind and generous enterprise, will + not refuse the discoveries that are placed within his reach. The + subtleties of grammar are as the porch, which leads from the knowledge of + words to the knowledge of things. The subtleties of mathematics defecate + the grossness of our apprehension, and supply the elements of a sounder + and severer logic. And in the same manner the faculty which removes the + illusions of external appearance, and enables us to "look into the seeds + of time," is one which we are bound to estimate at its genuine value. The + more we refine our faculties, other things equal, the wiser we grow: we + are the more raised above the thickness of the atmosphere that envelops + our fellow-mortals, and are made partakers of a nature superhuman and + divine. + </p> + <p> + There is a curious question that has risen out of this proposition of + Berkeley, of the supposed illusion we suffer in our conceptions of the + material universe. It has been said, "Well then, I am satisfied that the + chairs, the tables, and the other material substances with which I + conceive myself to be surrounded, are not what they appear to be, but are + merely an eternal chain of antecedents and consequents, going on according + to what Leibnitz calls a 'preestablished harmony,' and thus furnishing the + ground of the speculations which mortals cherish, and the motives of their + proceeding. But, if thus, in the ordinary process of human affairs, we + believe in matter, when in reality there is no such thing as matter, how + shall we pronounce of mind, and the things which happen to us in our + seeming intercourse with our fellow-men, and in the complexities of love + and hatred, of kindred and friendship, of benevolence and misanthropy, of + robbery and murder, and of the wholesale massacre of thousands of human + beings which are recorded in the page of history? We absolutely know + nothing of the lives and actions of others but through the medium of + material impulse. And, if you take away matter, the bodies of our + fellow-men, does it not follow by irresistible consequence that all + knowledge of their minds is taken away also? Am not I therefore (the + person engaged in reading the present Essay) the only being in existence, + an entire universe to myself?" + </p> + <p> + Certainly this is a very different conclusion from any that Berkeley ever + contemplated. In the very title of the Treatise in which his notions on + this subject are unfolded, he professes his purpose to be to remove "the + grounds of scepticism, atheism and irreligion." Berkeley was a sincere + Christian, and a man of the most ingenuous dispositions. Pope, in the + Epilogue to his Satires, does not hesitate to ascribe to him "every virtue + under heaven." He was for twenty years a prelate of the Protestant church. + And, though his personal sentiments were in the highest degree + philanthropical and amiable, yet, in his most diffusive production, + entitled The Minute Philosopher, he treats "those who are called Free + Thinkers" with a scorn and disdain, scarcely to be reconciled with the + spirit of Christian meekness. + </p> + <p> + There are examples however, especially in the fields of controversy, where + an adventurous speculatist has been known to lay down premises and + principles, from which inferences might be fairly deduced, incompatible + with the opinions entertained by him who delivered them. It may therefore + be no unprofitable research to enquire how far the creed of the + non-existence of matter is to be regarded as in truth and reality + countenancing the inference which has just been recited. + </p> + <p> + The persons then, who refine with Berkeley upon the system of things so + far, as to deny that there is any such thing as matter in the sense in + which it is understood by the writers on natural philosophy, proceed on + the ground of affirming that we have no reason to believe that the causes + of our sensations have an express resemblance to the sensations + themselves(81). That which gives us a sensation of colour is not itself + coloured: and the same may be affirmed of the sensations of hot and cold, + of sweet and bitter, and of odours offensive or otherwise. The + immaterialist proceeds to say, that what we call matter has been strewn to + be so exceedingly porous, that, for any thing we know, all the solid + particles in the universe might be contained in a nutshell, that there is + no such thing in the external world as actual contact, and that no two + particles of matter were ever so near to each other, but that they might + be brought nearer, if a sufficient force could be applied for that + purpose. From these premises it seems to follow with sufficient evidence, + that the causes of our sensations, so far as the material universe is + concerned, bear no express resemblance to the sensations themselves. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (81) See above, Essay XXI. +</pre> + <p> + How then does the question stand with relation to mind? Are those persons + who deny the existence of matter, reduced, if they would be consistent in + their reasonings, to deny, each man for himself, that he has any proper + evidence of the existence of other minds than his own? + </p> + <p> + He denies, while he has the sensation of colour, that there exists colour + out of himself, unless in thinking and percipient beings constituted in a + manner similar to that in which he is constituted. And the same of the + sensations of hot and cold, sweet and bitter, and odours offensive or + otherwise. He affirms, while he has the sensation of length, breadth and + thickness, that there is no continuous substance out of himself, + possessing the attributes of length, breadth and thickness in any way + similar to the sensation of which he is conscious. He professes therefore + that he has no evidence, arising from his observation of what we call + matter, of the actual existence of a material world. He looks into + himself, and all he finds is sensation; but sensation cannot be a property + of inert matter. There is therefore no assignable analogy between the + causes of his sensations, whatever they may be, and the sensations + themselves; and the material world, such as we apprehend it, is the mere + creature of his own mind. + </p> + <p> + Let us next consider how this question stands as to the conceptions he + entertains respecting the minds of other men. That which gives him the + sensation of colour, is not any thing coloured out of himself; and that + which gives him the sensation of length, breadth and thickness, is not any + thing long, broad and thick in a manner corresponding with the impression + he receives. There is nothing in the nature of a parallel, a type and its + archetype, between that which is without him and that which is within, the + impresser and the impression. This is the point supposed to be established + by Locke and Newton, and by those who have followed the reasonings of + these philosophers into their remotest consequences. + </p> + <p> + But the case is far otherwise in the impressions we receive respecting the + minds of other men. In colour it has been proved by these authors that + there is no express correspondence and analogy between the cause of the + sensation and the sensation. They are not part and counterpart. But in + mind there is a precise resemblance and analogy between the conceptions we + are led to entertain respecting other men, and what we know of ourselves. + I and my associate, or fellow-man, are like two instruments of music + constructed upon the same model. We have each of us, so to speak, the + three great divisions of sound, base, tenor and treble. We have each the + same number of keys, capable of being struck, consecutively or with + alternations, at the will of the master. We can utter the same sound or + series of sounds, or sounds of a different character, but which respond to + each other. My neighbour therefore being of the same nature as myself, + what passes within me may be regarded as amounting to a commanding + evidence that he is a real being, having a proper and independent + existence. + </p> + <p> + There is further something still more impressive and irresistible in the + notices I receive respecting the minds of other men. The sceptics whose + reasonings I am here taking into consideration, admit, each man for + himself, the reality of his own existence. There is such a thing therefore + as human nature; for he is a specimen of it. Now the idea of human nature, + or of man, is a very complex thing. He is in the first place the subject + of sensible impressions, however these impressions are communicated to + him. He has the faculties of thinking and feeling. He is subject to the + law of the association of ideas, or, in other words, any one idea existing + in his mind has a tendency to call up the ideas of other things which have + been connected with it in his first experience. He has, be it delusive or + otherwise, the sense of liberty of action. + </p> + <p> + But we will go still further into detail as to the nature of man. + </p> + <p> + Our lives are carried forward by the intervention of what we call meat, + drink and sleep. We are liable to the accidents of health and sickness. We + are alternately the recipients of joy and sorrow, of cheerfulness and + melancholy. Our passions are excited by similar means, whether of love or + hatred, complacency or indignation, sympathy or resentment. I could fill + many pages with a description of the properties or accidents, which belong + to man as such, or to which he is liable. + </p> + <p> + Now with all these each man is acquainted in the sphere of his inward + experience, whether he is a single being standing by himself, or is an + individual belonging to a numerous species. + </p> + <p> + Observe then the difference between my acquaintance with the phenomena of + the material universe, and with the individuals of my own species. The + former say nothing to me; they are a series of events and no more; I + cannot penetrate into their causes; that which gives rise to my + sensations, may or may not be similar to the sensations themselves. The + follower of Berkeley or Newton has satisfied himself in the negative. + </p> + <p> + But the case is very different in my intercourse with my fellow-men. + Agreeably to the statement already made I know the reality of human + nature; for I feel the particulars that constitute it within myself. The + impressions I receive from that intercourse say something to me; for they + talk to me of beings like myself. My own existence becomes multiplied in + infinitum. Of the possibility of matter I know nothing; but with the + possibility of mind I am acquainted; for I am myself an example. I am + amazed at the consistency and systematic succession of the phenomena of + the material universe; though I cannot penetrate the veil which presents + itself to my grosser sense, nor see effects in their causes. But I can + see, in other words, I have the most cogent reasons to believe in, the + causes of the phenomena that occur in my apparent intercourse with my + fellow-men. What solution so natural, as that they are produced by beings + like myself, the duplicates, with certain variations, of what I feel + within me? + </p> + <p> + The belief in the reality of matter explains nothing. Supposing it to + exist, if Newton is right, no particle of extraneous matter ever touched + the matter of my body; and therefore it is not just to regard it as the + cause of my sensations. It would amount to no more than two systems going + on at the same time by a preestablished harmony, but totally independent + of and disjointed from each other. + </p> + <p> + But the belief in the existence of our fellow-men explains much. It makes + level before us the wonder of the method of their proceedings, and affords + an obvious reason why they should be in so many respects like our own. If + I dismiss from my creed the existence of inert matter, I lose nothing. The + phenomena, the train of antecedents and consequents, remain as before; and + this is all that I am truly concerned with. But take away the existence of + my fellow-men; and you reduce all that is, and all that I experience, to a + senseless mummery. "You take my life, taking the thing whereon I live." + </p> + <p> + Human nature, and the nature of mind, are to us a theme of endless + investigation. "The proper study of mankind is man." All the subtlety of + metaphysics, or (if there be men captious and prejudiced enough to dislike + that term) the science of ourselves, depends upon it. The science of + morals hangs upon the actions of men, and the effects they produce upon + our brother-men, in a narrower or a wider circle. The endless, and + inexpressibly interesting, roll of history relies for its meaning and its + spirit upon the reality and substance of the subjects of which it treats. + Poetry, and all the wonders and endless varieties that imagination + creates, have this for their solution and their soul. + </p> + <p> + Sympathy is the only reality of which we are susceptible; it is our heart + of hearts: and, if the world had been "one entire and perfect chrysolite," + without this it would have been no more than one heap of rubbish. + </p> + <p> + Observe the difference between what we know of the material world, and + what of the intellectual. The material goes on for ever according to + certain laws that admit of no discrimination. They proceed upon a first + principle, an impulse given them from the beginning of things. Their + effects are regulated by something that we call their nature: fire burns; + water suffocates; the substances around us that we call solid, depend for + their effects, when put in motion, upon momentum and gravity. + </p> + <p> + The principle that regulates the dead universe, "acts by general, not by + partial laws." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + When the loose mountain trembles from on high, + Shall gravitation cease, if you go by? +</pre> + <p> + No: the chain of antecedents and consequents proceeds in this respect for + ever the same. The laws of what we call the material world continue + unvaried. And, when the vast system of things was first set in motion, + every thing, so far as depends on inert matter, was determined to the + minutest particle, even to the end of time. + </p> + <p> + The material world, or that train of antecedents and consequents which we + understand by that term, goes on for ever in a train agreeably to the + impulse previously given. It is deaf and inexorable. It is unmoved by the + consideration of any accidents and miseries that may result, and + unalterable. But man is a source of events of a very different nature. He + looks to results, and is governed by views growing out of the + contemplation of them. He acts in a way diametrically opposite to the + action of inert matter, and "turns, and turns, and turns again," at the + impulse of the thought that strikes him, the appetite that prompts, the + passions that move, and the effects that he anticipates. It is therefore + in a high degree unreasonable, to make that train of inferences which may + satisfy us on the subject of material phenomena, a standard of what we + ought to think respecting the phenomena of mind. + </p> + <p> + It is further worthy of our notice to recollect, that the same reasonings + which apply to our brethren of mankind, apply also to the brute creation. + They, like ourselves, act from motives; that is, the elections they form + are adopted by them for the sake of certain consequences they expect to + see result from them. Whatever becomes therefore of the phenomena of what + we call dead matter, we are here presented with tribes of being, + susceptible of pleasure and pain, of hope and fear, of regard and + resentment. + </p> + <p> + How beautifully does this conviction vary the scene of things! What a + source to us is the animal creation, of amusement, of curious observations + upon the impulses of inferior intellect, of the exhaustless varieties of + what we call instinct, of the care we can exercise for their accommodation + and welfare, and of the attachment and affection we win from them in + return! If I travel alone through pathless deserts, if I journey from the + rising to the setting sun, with no object around me but nature's + desolation, or the sublime, the magnificent and the exuberant scenery she + occasionally presents, still I have that noble animal, the horse, and my + faithful dog, the companions of my toil, and with whom, when my solitude + would otherwise become insufferable, I can hold communion, and engage in + dumb dialogues of sentiment and affection. + </p> + <p> + I have heard of a man, who, talking to his friend on the subject of these + speculations, said, "What then, are you so poor and pusillanimous a + creature, that you could not preserve your serenity, be perfectly composed + and content, and hold on your way unvaried, though you were convinced that + you were the only real being in existence, and all the rest were mere + phantasies and shadows?" + </p> + <p> + If I had been the person to whom this speech was addressed, I should have + frankly acknowledged, "I am the poor and pusillanimous creature you are + disposed to regard with so much scorn." + </p> + <p> + To adopt the sententious language of the Bible, "It is not good for man to + be alone." All our faculties and attributes bear relation to, and talk to + us of, other beings like ourselves. We might indeed eat, drink and sleep, + that is, submit to those necessities which we so denominate, without + thinking of any thing beyond ourselves; for these are the demands of our + nature, and we know that we cannot subsist without them. We might make use + of the alternate conditions of exercise and repose. + </p> + <p> + But the life of our lives would be gone. As far as we bore in mind the + creed we had adopted, of our single existence, we could neither love nor + hate. Sympathy would be a solemn mockery. We could not communicate; for + the being to whom our communication was addressed we were satisfied was a + non-entity. We could not anticipate the pleasure or pain, the joy or + sorrow, of another; for that other had no existence. We should be in a + worse condition than Robinson Crusoe in the desolate island; for he + believed in the existence of other men, and hoped and trusted that he + should one day again enter into human society. We should be in a worse + condition than Robinson Crusoe; for he at least was unannoyed in his + solitude; while we are perpetually and per force intruded on, like a + delirious man, by visions which we know to be unreal, but which we are + denied the power to deliver ourselves from. We have no motive to any of + the great and cardinal functions of human life; for there is no one in + being, that we can benefit, or that we can affect. Study is nothing to us; + for we have no use for it. Even science is unsatisfactory; unless we can + communicate it by word or writing, can converse upon it, and compare notes + with our neighbour. History is nothing; for there were no Greeks and no + Romans; no freemen and no slaves; no kings and no subjects; no despots, + nor victims of their tyranny; no republics, nor states immerged in brutal + and ignominious servitude. Life must be inevitably a burthen to us, a + dreary, unvaried, motiveless existence; and death must be welcomed, as the + most desirable blessing that can visit us. It is impossible indeed that we + should always recollect this our, by supposition, real situation; but, as + often as we did, it would come over us like a blight, withering all the + prospects of our industry, or like a scirocco, unbracing the nerves of our + frame, and consigning us to the most pitiable depression. + </p> + <p> + Thus far I have allowed myself to follow the refinements of those who + profess to deny the existence of the material universe. But it is + satisfactory to come back to that persuasion, which, from whatever cause + it is derived, is incorporated with our very existence, and can never be + shaken off by us. Our senses are too powerful in their operation, for it + to be possible for us to discard them, and to take as their substitute, in + active life, and in the earnestness of pursuit, the deductions of our + logical faculty, however well knit and irresistible we may apprehend them + to be. Speculation and common sense are at war on this point; and however + we may "think with the learned," and follow the abstrusenesses of the + philosopher, in the sequestered hour of our meditation, we must always + act, and even feel, "with the vulgar," when we come abroad into the world. + </p> + <p> + It is however no small gratification to the man of sober mind, that, from + what has here been alleged, it seems to follow, that untutored mind, and + the severest deductions of philosophy, agree in that most interesting of + our concerns, our intercourse with our fellow-creatures. The inexorable + reasoner, refining on the reports of sense, may dispose, as he pleases, of + the chair, the table, and the so called material substances around him. He + may include the whole solid matter of the universe in a nutshell, or less + than a nutshell. But he cannot deprive me of that greatest of all + consolations, the sustaining pillar of my existence, "the cordial drop + Heaven in our cup has thrown,"—the intercourse of my + fellow-creatures. When we read history, the subjects of which we read are + realities; they do not "come like shadows, so depart;" they loved and + acted in sober earnest; they sometimes perpetrated crimes; but they + sometimes also achieved illustrious deeds, which angels might look down + from their exalted abodes and admire. We are not deluded with mockeries. + The woman I love, and the man to whom I swear eternal friendship, are as + much realities as myself. If I relieve the poor, and assist the progress + of genius and virtuous designs struggling with fearful discouragements, I + do something upon the success of which I may safely congratulate myself. + If I devote my energies to enlighten my fellow-creatures, to detect the + weak places in our social institutions, to plead the cause of liberty, and + to invite others to engage in noble actions and unite in effecting the + most solid and unquestionable improvements, I erect to my name an eternal + monument; or I do something better than this,—secure inestimable + advantage to the latest posterity, the benefit of which they shall enjoy, + long after the very name of the author shall, with a thousand other things + great and small, have been swallowed up in the gulph of insatiable + oblivion. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ESSAY XXIII. OF HUMAN VIRTUE. THE EPILOGUE. + </h2> + <p> + The life of man is divided into many stages; and we shall not form a just + estimate of our common nature, if we do not to a certain degree pass its + successive periods in review, and observe it in its commencement, its + progress, and its maturity. + </p> + <p> + It has been attempted to be established in an early part of the present + volume(82), that all men, idiots and extraordinary cases being put out of + the question, are endowed with talents, which, if rightly directed, would + shew them to be apt, adroit, intelligent and acute, in the walk for which + their organisation especially fitted them. We are bound therefore, + particularly in the morning of life, to consider every thing that presents + itself to us in the human form, with deference and attention. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (82) See above, Essay III. +</pre> + <p> + "God," saith the Preacher, "made man upright; but he hath sought out many + inventions." There is something loose and difficult of exposition in this + statement; but we shall find an important truth hid beneath its obscurity. + </p> + <p> + Junius Brutus, in the play, says to his son, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I like thy frame: the fingers of the Gods + I see have left their mastery upon thee; + And the majestic prints distinct appear. +</pre> + <p> + Such is the true description of every well-formed and healthful infant + that is born into the world. + </p> + <p> + He is placed on the threshold of existence; and an eventful journey is + open before him. For the first four or five years of life indeed he has + little apprehension of the scenes that await him. But a child of quick + apprehension early begins to have day-dreams, and to form imaginations of + the various chances that may occur to him, and the things he shall have to + do, when, according to the language of the story-books, he "goes out to + seek his fortune." + </p> + <p> + "God made man upright." Every child that is born, has within him a + concealed magazine of excellence. His heart beats for every thing that is + lovely and good; and whatever is set before him of that sort in honest + colours, rouses his emulation. By how many tokens does he prove himself + worthy of our approbation and love—the unaffected and ingenuous + sobriety with which he listens to what addresses itself to his attention, + the sweetness of his smile, his hearty laugh, the clear, bell tones of his + voice, his sudden and assured impulses, and his bounding step! + </p> + <p> + To his own heart he promises well of himself. Like Lear in the play, he + says, "I will do such things!—What they are, yet I know not." But he + is assured, frank and light-spirited. He thinks of no disguise. He "wears + his heart upon his sleeve." He looks in the face of his seniors with the + glistening eye of confidence, and expects to encounter sympathy and + encouragement in return. Such is man, as he comes from the hands of his + maker. + </p> + <p> + Thus prepared, he is turned into the great field of society. Here he meets + with much that he had not anticipated, and with many rebuffs. He is taught + that he must accommodate his temper and proceedings to the expectations + and prejudices of those around him. He must be careful to give no offence. + With how many lessons, not always the most salutary and ingenuous, is this + maxim pregnant! It calls on the neophyte to bear a wary eye, and to watch + the first indications of disapprobation and displeasure in those among + whom his lot is cast. It teaches him to suppress the genuine emotions of + his soul. It informs him that he is not always to yield to his own + impulses, but that he must "stretch forth his hands to another, and be + carried whither he would not." + </p> + <p> + It recommends to him falseness, and to be the thing in outward appearance + that he is not in his heart. + </p> + <p> + Still however he goes on. He shuts up his thoughts in his bosom; but they + are not exterminated. On the contrary he broods over them with genial + warmth; and the less they are exposed to the eye of day, the more + perseveringly are they cherished. Perhaps he chooses some youthful + confident of his imaginings: and the effect of this is, that he pours out + his soul with uncontrolable copiousness, and with the fervour of a new and + unchecked conceiving. It is received with answering warmth; or, if there + is any deficiency in the sympathy of his companion, his mind is so earnest + and full, that he does not perceive it. By and by, it may be, he finds + that the discovery he had made of a friend, a brother of his soul, is, + like so many of the visions of this world, hollow and fallacious. He + grasped, as he thought, a jewel of the first water; and it turns out to be + a vulgar pebble. No matter: he has gained something by the communication. + He has heard from his own lips the imaginings of his mind shaped into + articulate air; they grew more definite and distinct as he uttered them; + they came by the very act to have more of reality, to be more tangible. He + shakes off the ill-assorted companion that only encumbered him, and + springs away in his race, more light of heart, and with a step more + assured, than ever. + </p> + <p> + By and by he becomes a young man. And, whatever checks he may have + received before, it usually happens that all his hopes and projects return + to him now with recruited strength. He has no longer a master. He no + longer crouches to the yoke of subjection, and is directed this way and + that at the judgment of another. Liberty is at all times dear to the + free-soured and ingenuous; but never so much so, as when we wear it in its + full gloss and newness. He never felt before, that he was sui juris, that + he might go whithersoever he would, without asking leave, without + consulting any other director than the law of his own mind. It is nearly + at the same season that he arrives at the period of puberty, at the + stature, and in a certain degree at the strength, which he is destined to + attain. He is by general consent admitted to be at years of discretion. + </p> + <p> + Though I have put all these things together, they do not, in the course of + nature, all come at the same time. It is a memorable period, when the + ingenuous youth is transferred from the trammels of the schoolmaster to + the residence of a college. It was at the age of seventeen that, according + to the custom of Rome, the youthful citizen put on the manly gown, and was + introduced into the forum. Even in college-life, there is a difference in + the privileges of the mere freshman, and of the youth who has already + completed the first half of his period in the university. + </p> + <p> + The season of what may be denominated the independence of the individual, + is certainly in no small degree critical. A human being, suddenly + emancipated from a state of subjection, if we may not call it slavery, and + transported into a state of freedom, must be expected to be guilty of some + extravagancies and follies. + </p> + <p> + But upon the whole, with a small number of exceptions, it is creditable to + human nature, that we take this period of our new powers and immunities + with so much sobriety as we do. + </p> + <p> + The young man then, calls to mind all that he imagined at an earlier + season, and that he promised himself. He adds to this the new lights that + he has since obtained, and the nearer and more distinct view that he has + reached, of the realities of life. + </p> + <p> + He recollects the long noviciate that he served to reach this period, the + twenty years that he passed in ardent and palpitating expectation; and he + resolves to do something worthy of all he had vowed and had imagined. He + takes a full survey of his stores and endowments; and to the latter, from + his enthusiasm and his self-love, he is morally sure to do justice. He + says to himself, "What I purpose to do will not be achieved to-day. No; it + shall be copious, and worthy of men's suffrage and approbation. But I will + meditate it; I will sketch a grand outline; I will essay my powers in + secret, and ascertain what I may be able to effect." The youth, whose + morning of life is not utterly abortive, palpitates with the desire to + promote the happiness of others, and with the desire of glory. + </p> + <p> + We have an apt specimen of this in the first period of the reign of Nero. + The historians, Tacitus in particular, have treated this with too much + incredulity. It was the passion of that eminent man to indulge in + subtleties, and to find hidden meanings in cases where in reality every + thing is plain. We must not regard the panegyric of Seneca, and the + devotion of Lucan to the imperial stripling, as unworthy of our attention. + He was declared emperor before he had completed the eighteenth year of his + age. No occasion for the exhibition of liberality, clemency, courtesy or + kindness escaped him. He called every one by his name, and saluted all + orders of men. When the senate shewed a disposition to confer on him + peculiar honours, he interposed, he said, "Let them be bestowed when I + have deserved them(83)." Seneca affirms, that in the first part of his + reign, and to the time in which the philosopher dedicated to him his + treatise of Clemency, he had "shed no drop of blood(84)." He adds, "If the + Gods were this day to call thee to a hearing, thou couldst account to them + for every man that had been intrusted to thy rule. Not an individual has + been lost from the number, either by secret practices, or by open + violence. This could scarcely have been, if thy good dispositions had not + been natural, but assumed. No one can long personate a character. A + pretended goodness will speedily give place to the real temper; while a + sincere mind, and acts prompted by the heart, will not fail to go on from + one stage of excellence to another(85)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (83) Suetonius, Nero, cap. 10. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (84) De Clementia, Lib. I, cap. II. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (85) De Clementia, cap. I. +</pre> + <p> + The philosopher expresses himself in raptures on that celebrated phrase of + Nero, WOULD I HAD NEVER LEARNED TO WRITE! "An exclamation," he says, "not + studied, not uttered for the purpose of courting popularity, but bursting + insuppressibly from thy lips, and indicating the vehemence of the struggle + between the kindness of thy disposition and the duties of thy office(86)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (86) Ibid., Lib. II, cap. I. +</pre> + <p> + How many generous purposes, what bright and heart-thrilling visions of + beneficence and honour, does the young man, just starting in the race of + life, conceive! There is no one in that period of existence, who has + received a reasonable education, and has not in his very nonage been trod + down in the mire of poverty and oppression, that does not say to himself, + "Now is the time; and I will do something worthy to be remembered by + myself and by others." Youth is the season of generosity. He calls over + the catalogue of his endowments, his attainments, and his powers, and + exclaims, "To that which I am, my contemporaries are welcome; it shall all + be expended for their service and advantage." + </p> + <p> + With what disdain he looks at the temptations of selfishness, effeminate + indulgence, and sordid gain! He feels within himself that he was born for + better things. His elders, and those who have already been tamed down and + emasculated by the corrupt commerce of the world, tell him, "All this is + the rhapsody of youth, fostered by inexperience; you will soon learn to + know better; in no long time you will see these things in the same light + in which we see them." But he despises the sinister prognostic that is + held out to him, and feels proudly conscious that the sentiments that now + live in his bosom, will continue to animate him to his latest breath. + </p> + <p> + Youth is necessarily ingenuous in its thoughts, and sanguine in its + anticipations of the future. But the predictions of the seniors I have + quoted, are unfortunately in too many cases fulfilled. The outline of the + scheme of civil society is in a high degree hostile to the growth and + maturity of human virtue. Its unavoidable operation, except in those rare + cases where positive institutions have arrested its tendency, has been to + divide a great portion of its members, especially in large and powerful + states, into those who are plentifully supplied with the means of luxury + and indulgence, and those who are condemned to suffer the rigours of + indigence. + </p> + <p> + The young man who is born to the prospect of hereditary wealth, will not + unfrequently feel as generous emotions, and as much of the spirit of + self-denial, as the bosom of man is capable of conceiving. He will say, + What am I, that I should have a monopoly of those things, which, if "well + dispensed, in unsuperfluous, even proportion," would supply the wants of + all? He is ready, agreeably to the advice of Christ to the young man in + the Gospel, to "sell all that he has, and give to the poor," if he could + be shewn how so generous a resolution on his part could be encountered + with an extensive conspiracy of the well-disposed, and rendered available + to the real melioration of the state of man in society. Who is there so + ignorant, or that has lived in so barren and unconceiving a tract of the + soil of earth, that has not his tale to tell of the sublime emotions and + the generous purposes he has witnessed, which so often mark this beautiful + era of our sublunary existence? + </p> + <p> + But this is in the dawn of life, and the first innocence of the human + heart. When once the young man of "great possessions" has entered the + gardens of Alcina, when he has drunk of the cup of her enchantments, and + seen all the delusive honour and consideration that, in the corruptness of + modern times, are the lot of him who is the owner of considerable wealth, + the dreams of sublime virtue are too apt to fade away. He was willing + before, to be nourished with the simplest diet, and clad with the plainest + attire. He knew that he was but a man like the rest of his species, and + was in equity entitled to no more than they. But he presently learns a + very different lesson. He believes that he cannot live without splendour + and luxury; he regards a noble mansion, elegant vesture, horses, equipage, + and an ample establishment, as things without which he must be hopelessly + miserable. That income, which he once thought, if divided, would have + secured the happiness and independence of many, he now finds scarcely + sufficient to supply his increased and artificial cravings. + </p> + <p> + But, if the rich are seduced and led away from the inspirations of virtue, + it may easily be conceived how much more injurious, and beyond the power + of control, are the effects on the poor. The mysterious source from which + the talents of men are derived, cannot be supposed in their distribution + to be regulated by the artificial laws of society, and to have one measure + for those which are bestowed upon the opulent, and another for the + destitute. It will therefore not seldom happen that powers susceptible of + the noblest uses may be cast, like "seed sown upon stony places," where + they have scarcely any chance to be unfolded and matured. In a few + instances they may attract the attention of persons both able and willing + to contribute to their being brought to perfection. In a few instances the + principle may be so vigorous, and the tendency to excel so decisive, as to + bid defiance to and to conquer every obstacle. But in a vast majority the + promise will be made vain, and the hopes that might have been entertained + will prove frustrate. What can be expected from the buds of the most + auspicious infancy, if encountered in their earliest stage with the + rigorous blasts of a polar climate? + </p> + <p> + And not only will the germs of excellence be likely to be extinguished in + the members of the lower class of the community, but the temptations to + irregular acts and incroachments upon the laws for the security of + property will often be so great, as to be in a manner irresistible. The + man who perceives that, with all his industry, he cannot provide for the + bare subsistence of himself and those dependent upon him, while his + neighbour revels in boundless profusion, cannot but sometimes feel himself + goaded to an attempt to correct this crying evil. What must be expected to + become of that general good-will which is the natural inheritance of a + well-constituted mind, when urged by so bitter oppression and such + unendurable sufferings? The whole temper of the human heart must be + spoiled, and the wine of life acquire a quality acrimonious and malignant. + </p> + <p> + But it is not only in the extreme classes of society that the glaring + inequality with which property is shared produces its injurious effects. + All those who are born in the intermediate ranks are urged with a + distempered ambition, unfavourable to independence of temper, and to true + philanthropy. Each man aspires to the improvement of his circumstances, + and the mounting, by one step and another, higher in the scale of the + community. The contemplations of the mind are turned towards selfishness. + In opulent communities we are presented with the genuine theatre for + courts and kings. And, wherever there are courts, duplicity, lying, + hypocrisy and cringing dwell as in their proper field. Next come trades + and professions, with all the ignoble contemplations, the resolved + smoothness, servility and falshood, by which they are enabled to gain a + prosperous and triumphant career. + </p> + <p> + It is by such means, that man, whom "God made upright," is led away into a + thousand devious paths, and, long before the closing scene of his life, is + rendered something the very reverse of what in the dawning of existence he + promised to be. He is like Hazael in the Jewish history, who, when the + prophet set before him the crying enormities he should hereafter + perpetrate, exclaimed, "Is thy servant a dog," that he should degrade + himself so vilely? He feels the purity of his purposes; but is goaded by + one excitement and exasperation after another, till he becomes debased, + worthless and criminal. This is strikingly illustrated in the story of Dr. + Johnson and the celebrated Windham, who, when he was setting out as + secretary to the lord lieutenant of Ireland, expressed to his aged + monitor, some doubts whether he could ever reconcile himself to certain + indirect proceedings which he was afraid would be expected of him: to + which the veteran replied, "Oh, sir, be under no alarm; in a short time, + depend upon it, you will make a very pretty rascal(87)." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (87) The phrase here used by Johnson is marked with the licentiousness +we sometimes indulge in familiar conversation. Translate it into a +general maxim; and it contains much melancholy truth. It is true also, +that there are few individuals, who, in the urgent realities of +life, have not occasionally descended from the heights of theoretical +excellence. It is but just however to observe in the case of Windham, +that, though he was a man of many errors, he was not the less +characterised by high honour and eminent virtue. +</pre> + <p> + Such are the "inventions of man," or rather such is the operation of those + institutions which ordinarily prevail in society. Still, however, much + honour ought to be rendered to our common nature, since all of us are not + led away by the potent spells of the enchantress. If the vulgar crew of + the vessel of Ulysses were by Circe changed into brutes, so was not their + commander. The human species is divided into two classes, the successfully + tempted, and the tempted in vain. And, though the latter must be admitted + to be a small minority, yet they ought to be regarded as the "salt of the + earth," which preserves the entire mass from putridity and dishonour. They + are like the remnant, which, if they had been to be found in the cities of + the Asphaltic lake, the God of Abraham pronounced as worthy to redeem the + whole community. They are like the two witnesses amidst the general + apostasy, spoken of in the book of Revelations, who were the harbingers + and forerunners of the millenium, the reign of universal virtue and peace. + Their excellence only appears with the greater lustre amidst the general + defection. + </p> + <p> + Nothing can be more unjust than the spirit of general levelling and + satire, which so customarily prevails. History records, if you will, the + vices and follies of mankind. But does it record nothing else? Are the + virtues of the best men, the noblest philosophers, and the most + disinterested patriots of antiquity, nothing? It is impossible for two + things to be more unlike than the general profligacy of the reigns of + Charles the Second and Louis the Fifteenth on the one hand, and the + austere virtues and the extinction of all private considerations in the + general happiness and honour, which constitute the spirit of the best + pages of ancient history, and which exalt and transfix the spirit of every + ingenuous and high-souled reader, on the other. + </p> + <p> + Let us then pay to human virtue the honour that is so justly its due! + Imagination is indeed a marvellous power; but imagination never equalled + history, the achievements which man has actually performed. It is in vain + that the man of contemplation sits down in his closet; it is in vain that + the poet yields the reins to enthusiasm and fancy: there is something in + the realities of life, that excites the mind infinitely more, than is in + the power of the most exalted reverie. The true hero cannot, like the + poet, or the delineator of fictitious adventures, put off what he has to + do till to-morrow. The occasion calls, and he must obey. He sees the + obstacles, and the adversary he has to encounter, before him. He sees the + individuals, for whose dear sake he resolves to expose himself to every + hazard and every evil. The very circumstance, that he is called on to act + in the face of the public, animates him. It is thus that resolution is + produced, that martyrdom is voluntarily encountered, and that the deeds of + genuine, pure and undeniable heroism are performed. + </p> + <p> + Let then no man, in the supercilious spirit of a fancied disdain, allow + himself to detract from our common nature. We are ourselves the models of + all the excellence that the human mind can conceive. There have been men, + whose virtues may well redeem all the contempt with which satire and + detraction have sought to overwhelm our species. There have been memorable + periods in the history of man, when the best, the most generous and + exalted sentiments have swallowed up and obliterated all that was of an + opposite character. And it is but just, that those by whom these things + are fairly considered, should anticipate the progress of our nature, and + believe that human understanding and human virtue will hereafter + accomplish such things as the heart of man has never yet been daring + enough to conceive. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thoughts on Man, by William Godwin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOUGHTS ON MAN *** + +***** This file should be named 743-h.htm or 743-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/4/743/ + +Produced by Charles Keller, and David Widger + + +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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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: Thoughts on Man + His Nature, Productions and Discoveries, Interspersed with + Some Particulars Respecting the Author + +Author: William Godwin + +Release Date: December, 1996 [Etext #743] +Posting Date: November 30, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOUGHTS ON MAN *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Keller + + + + + +THOUGHTS ON MAN + +HIS NATURE, PRODUCTIONS AND DISCOVERIES INTERSPERSED WITH SOME +PARTICULARS RESPECTING THE AUTHOR + + +By William Godwin + + + Oh, the blood more stirs + To rouse a lion, than to start a hare! + + SHAKESPEARE + + +LONDON: + +EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. + +1831. + + + + +PREFACE + +In the ensuing volume I have attempted to give a defined and permanent +form to a variety of thoughts, which have occurred to my mind in the +course of thirty-four years, it being so long since I published a +volume, entitled, the Enquirer,--thoughts, which, if they have presented +themselves to other men, have, at least so far as I am aware, never been +given to the public through the medium of the press. During a part of +this period I had remained to a considerable degree unoccupied in my +character of an author, and had delivered little to the press that bore +my name.--And I beg the reader to believe, that, since I entered in +1791 upon that which may be considered as my vocation in life, I +have scarcely in any instance contributed a page to any periodical +miscellany. + +My mind has been constitutionally meditative, and I should not have +felt satisfied, if I had not set in order for publication these special +fruits of my meditations. I had entered upon a certain career; and I +held it for my duty not to abandon it. + +One thing further I feel prompted to say. I have always regarded it as +my office to address myself to plain men, and in clear and unambiguous +terms. It has been my lot to have occasional intercourse with some of +those who consider themselves as profound, who deliver their oracles +in obscure phraseology, and who make it their boast that few men can +understand them, and those few only through a process of abstract +reflection, and by means of unwearied application. + +To this class of the oracular I certainly did not belong. I felt that +I had nothing to say, that it should be very difficult to understand. +I resolved, if I could help it, not to "darken counsel by words without +knowledge." This was my principle in the Enquiry concerning Political +Justice. And I had my reward. I had a numerous audience of all classes, +of every age, and of either sex. The young and the fair did not feel +deterred from consulting my pages. + +It may be that that book was published in a propitious season. I am +told that nothing coming from the press will now be welcomed, unless it +presents itself in the express form of amusement. He who shall propose +to himself for his principal end, to draw aside in one particular or +another the veil from the majesty of intellectual or moral truth, must +lay his account in being received with little attention. + +I have not been willing to believe this: and I publish my speculations +accordingly. I have aimed at a popular, and (if I could reach it) an +interesting style; and, if I am thrust aside and disregarded, I shall +console myself with believing that I have not neglected what it was in +my power to achieve. + +One characteristic of the present publication will not fail to +offer itself to the most superficial reader. I know many men who are +misanthropes, and profess to look down with disdain on their species. My +creed is of an opposite character. All that we observe that is best +and most excellent in the intellectual world, is man: and it is easy to +perceive in many cases, that the believer in mysteries does little +more, than dress up his deity in the choicest of human attributes and +qualifications. I have lived among, and I feel an ardent interest in and +love for, my brethren of mankind. This sentiment, which I regard with +complacency in my own breast, I would gladly cherish in others. In such +a cause I am well pleased to enrol myself a missionary. + + February 15, 1831. + + +The particulars respecting the author, referred to in the title-page, +will be found principally in Essays VII, IX, XIV, and XVIII. + + +CONTENTS + + Essay. + I. Of Body and Mind. The Prologue + II. Of the Distribution of Talents + III. Of Intellectual Abortion + IV. Of the Durability of Human Achievements and Productions + V. Of the Rebelliousness of Man + VI. Of Human Innocence + VII. Of the Duration of Human Life + VIII. Of Human Vegetation + IX. Of Leisure + X. Of Imitation and Invention + XI. Of Self-Love and Benevolence + XII. Of the Liberty of Human Actions + XIII. Of Belief + XIV. Of Youth and Age + XV. Of Love and Friendship + XVI. Of Frankness and Reserve + XVII. Of Ballot + XVIII. Of Diffidence + XIX. Of Self Complacence + XX. Of Phrenology + XXI. Of Astronomy + XXII. Of the Material Universe + XXIII. Of Human Virtue. The Epilogue + + + + +THOUGHTS, &c. + + + + +ESSAY I. OF BODY AND MIND. + +THE PROLOGUE. + +There is no subject that more frequently occupies the attention of the +contemplative than man: yet there are many circumstances concerning him +that we shall hardly admit to have been sufficiently considered. + +Familiarity breeds contempt. That which we see every day and every hour, +it is difficult for us to regard with admiration. To almost every one +of our stronger emotions novelty is a necessary ingredient. The simple +appetites of our nature may perhaps form an exception. The appetite +for food is perpetually renewed in a healthy subject with scarcely any +diminution and love, even the most refined, being combined with one +of our original impulses, will sometimes for that reason withstand a +thousand trials, and perpetuate itself for years. In all other cases it +is required, that a fresh impulse should be given, that attention should +anew be excited, or we cannot admire. Things often seen pass feebly +before our senses, and scarcely awake the languid soul. + +"Man is the most excellent and noble creature of the world, the +principal and mighty work of God, the wonder of nature, the marvel of +marvels(1)." + + + (1) Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 1. + + +Let us have regard to his corporeal structure. There is a simplicity in +it, that at first perhaps we slightly consider. But how exactly is it +fashioned for strength and agility! It is in no way incumbered. It +is like the marble when it comes out of the hand of the consummate +sculptor; every thing unnecessary is carefully chiseled away; and the +joints, the muscles, the articulations, and the veins come out, clean +and finished. It has long ago been observed, that beauty, as well as +virtue, is the middle between all extremes: that nose which is neither +specially long, nor short, nor thick, nor thin, is the perfect nose; and +so of the rest. In like manner, when I speak of man generally, I do not +regard any aberrations of form, obesity, a thick calf, a thin calf; I +take the middle between all extremes; and this is emphatically man. + +Man cannot keep pace with a starting horse: but he can persevere, and +beats him in the end. + +What an infinite variety of works is man by his corporeal form enabled +to accomplish! In this respect he casts the whole creation behind him. + +What a machine is the human hand! When we analyse its parts and its +uses, it appears to be the most consummate of our members. And yet there +are other parts, that may maintain no mean rivalship against it. + +What a sublimity is to be attributed to his upright form! He is not +fashioned, veluti pecora, quae natura prona atque ventri obedientia +finxit. He is made coeli convexa tueri. The looks that are given him in +his original structure, are "looks commercing with the skies." + +How surpassingly beautiful are the features of his countenance; the +eyes, the nose, the mouth! How noble do they appear in a state of +repose! With what never-ending variety and emphasis do they express the +emotions of his mind! In the visage of man, uncorrupted and undebased, +we read the frankness and ingenuousness of his soul, the clearness +of his reflections, the penetration of his spirit. What a volume of +understanding is unrolled in his broad, expanded, lofty brow! In his +countenance we see expressed at one time sedate confidence and awful +intrepidity, and at another godlike condescension and the most melting +tenderness. Who can behold the human eye, suddenly suffused with +moisture, or gushing with tears unbid, and the quivering lip, without +unspeakable emotion? Shakespear talks of an eye, "whose bend could awe +the world." + +What a miraculous thing is the human complexion! We are sent into the +world naked, that all the variations of the blood might be made visible. +However trite, I cannot avoid quoting here the lines of the most +deep-thinking and philosophical of our poets: + + We understood + Her by her sight: her pure and eloquent blood + Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought, + That one might almost say her body thought. + +What a curious phenomenon is that of blushing! It is impossible to +witness this phenomenon without interest and sympathy. It comes at once, +unanticipated by the person in whom we behold it. It comes from the +soul, and expresses with equal certainty shame, modesty, and vivid, +uncontrollable affection. It spreads, as it were in so many stages, over +the cheeks, the brow, and the neck, of him or her in whom the sentiment +that gives birth to it is working. + +Thus far I have not mentioned speech, not perhaps the most inestimable +of human gifts, but, if it is not that, it is at least the endowment, +which makes man social, by which principally we impart our sentiments to +each other, and which changes us from solitary individuals, and +bestows on us a duplicate and multipliable existence. Beside which +it incalculably increases the perfection of one. The man who does not +speak, is an unfledged thinker; and the man that does not write, is but +half an investigator. + +Not to enter into all the mysteries of articulate speech and the +irresistible power of eloquence, whether addressed to a single hearer, +or instilled into the ears of many,--a topic that belongs perhaps less +to the chapter of body than mind,--let us for a moment fix our thoughts +steadily upon that little implement, the human voice. Of what unnumbered +modulations is it susceptible! What terror may it inspire! How may it +electrify the soul, and suspend all its functions! How infinite is its +melody! How instantly it subdues the hearer to pity or to love! How does +the listener hang upon every note praying that it may last for ever, + + ----that even silence + Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might + Deny her nature, and be never more, + Still to be so displaced. + +It is here especially that we are presented with the triumphs of +civilisation. How immeasurable is the distance between the voice of the +clown, who never thought of the power that dwells in this faculty, who +delivers himself in a rude, discordant and unmodulated accent, and is +accustomed to confer with his fellow at the distance of two fields, and +the man who understands his instrument as Handel understood the organ, +and who, whether he thinks of it or no, sways those that hear him as +implicitly as Orpheus is said to have subdued the brute creation! + +From the countenance of man let us proceed to his figure. Every limb +is capable of speaking, and telling its own tale. What can equal the +magnificence of the neck, the column upon which the head reposes! The +ample chest may denote an almost infinite strength and power. Let us +call to mind the Apollo Belvidere, and the Venus de Medicis, whose very +"bends are adornings." What loftiness and awe have I seen expressed in +the step of an actress, not yet deceased, when first she advanced, and +came down towards the audience! I was ravished, and with difficulty kept +my seat! Pass we to the mazes of the dance, the inimitable charms and +picturesque beauty that may be given to the figure while still unmoved, +and the ravishing grace that dwells in it during its endless changes and +evolutions. + +The upright figure of man produces, incidentally as it were, and by the +bye, another memorable effect. Hence we derive the power of meeting +in halls, and congregations, and crowded assemblies. We are found "at +large, though without number," at solemn commemorations and on festive +occasions. We touch each other, as the members of a gay party are +accustomed to do, when they wait the stroke of an electrical machine, +and the spark spreads along from man to man. It is thus that we have +our feelings in common at a theatrical representation and at a public +dinner, that indignation is communicated, and patriotism become +irrepressible. + +One man can convey his sentiments in articulate speech to a thousand; +and this is the nursing mother of oratory, of public morality, of public +religion, and the drama. The privilege we thus possess, we are indeed +too apt to abuse; but man is scarcely ever so magnificent and so awful, +as when hundreds of human heads are assembled together, hundreds of +faces lifted up to contemplate one object, and hundreds of voices +uttered in the expression of one common sentiment. + +But, notwithstanding the infinite beauty, the magazine of excellencies +and perfections, that appertains to the human body, the mind claims, +and justly claims, an undoubted superiority. I am not going into an +enumeration of the various faculties and endowments of the mind of man, +as I have done of his body. The latter was necessary for my purpose. +Before I proceeded to consider the ascendancy of mind, the dominion and +loftiness it is accustomed to assert, it appeared but just to recollect +what was the nature and value of its subject and its slave. + +By the mind we understand that within us which feels and thinks, the +seat of sensation and reason. Where it resides we cannot tell, nor +can authoritatively pronounce, as the apostle says, relatively to a +particular phenomenon, "whether it is in the body, or out of the body." +Be it however where or what it may, it is this which constitutes the +great essence of, and gives value to, our existence; and all the wonders +of our microcosm would without it be a form only, destined immediately +to perish, and of no greater account than as a clod of the valley. + +It was an important remark, suggested to me many years ago by an eminent +physiologer and anatomist, that, when I find my attention called to any +particular part or member of my body, I may be morally sure that there +is something amiss in the processes of that part or member. As long as +the whole economy of the frame goes on well and without interruption, +our attention is not called to it. The intellectual man is like a +disembodied spirit. + +He is almost in the state of the dervise in the Arabian Nights, who had +the power of darting his soul into the unanimated body of another, human +or brute, while he left his own body in the condition of an insensible +carcase, till it should be revivified by the same or some other spirit. +When I am, as it is vulgarly understood, in a state of motion, I use my +limbs as the implements of my will. When, in a quiescent state of the +body, I continue to think, to reflect and to reason, I use, it may be, +the substance of the brain as the implement of my thinking, reflecting +and reasoning; though of this in fact we know nothing. + +We have every reason to believe that the mind cannot subsist without the +body; at least we must be very different creatures from what we are at +present, when that shall take place. For a man to think, agreeably and +with serenity, he must be in some degree of health. The corpus sanum is +no less indispensible than the mens sana. We must eat, and drink, and +sleep. We must have a reasonably good appetite and digestion, and a +fitting temperature, neither too hot nor cold. It is desirable that we +should have air and exercise. But this is instrumental merely. All these +things are negatives, conditions without which we cannot think to the +best purpose, but which lend no active assistance to our thinking. + +Man is a godlike being. We launch ourselves in conceit into illimitable +space, and take up our rest beyond the fixed stars. We proceed without +impediment from country to country, and from century to century, +through all the ages of the past, and through the vast creation of the +imaginable future. We spurn at the bounds of time and space; nor would +the thought be less futile that imagines to imprison the mind within +the limits of the body, than the attempt of the booby clown who is said +within a thick hedge to have plotted to shut in the flight of an eagle. + +We never find our attention called to any particular part or member of +the body, except when there is somewhat amiss in that part or member. +And, in like manner as we do not think of any one part or member in +particular, so neither do we consider our entire microcosm and frame. +The body is apprehended as no more important and of intimate connection +to a man engaged in a train of reflections, than the house or +apartment in which he dwells. The mind may aptly be described under +the denomination of the "stranger at home." On set occasions and at +appropriate times we examine our stores, and ascertain the various +commodities we have, laid up in our presses and our coffers. Like the +governor of a fort in time of peace, which was erected to keep out a +foreign assailant, we occasionally visit our armoury, and take account +of the muskets, the swords, and other implements of war it contains, but +for the most part are engaged in the occupations of peace, and do not +call the means of warfare in any sort to our recollection. + +The mind may aptly be described under the denomination of the "stranger +at home." With their bodies most men are little acquainted. We are "like +unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass, who beholdeth himself, +and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he is." +In the ruminations of the inner man, and the dissecting our thoughts and +desires, we employ our intellectual arithmetic, we add, and subtract, +and multiply, and divide, without asking the aid, without adverting to +the existence, of our joints and members. Even as to the more corporeal +part of our avocations, we behold the external world, and proceed +straight to the object of our desires, without almost ever thinking +of this medium, our own material frame, unaided by which none of these +things could be accomplished. In this sense we may properly be said +to be spiritual existences, however imperfect may be the idea we are +enabled to affix to the term spirit. + +Hence arises the notion, which has been entertained ever since the birth +of reflection and logical discourse in the world, and which in some +faint and confused degree exists probably even among savages, that the +body is the prison of the mind. It is in this sense that Waller, after +completing fourscore years of age, expresses himself in these affecting +and interesting couplets. + + When we for age could neither read nor write, + The subject made us able to indite. + The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, + Lets in new light by chinks that time hath made: + Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become, + As they draw near to their eternal home. + +Thus it is common with persons of elevated soul to talk of neglecting, +overlooking, and taking small account of the body. It is in this spirit +that the story is recorded of Anaxarchus, who, we are told, was ordered +by Nicocreon, tyrant of Salamis, to be pounded in a mortar, and who, +in contempt of his mortal sufferings, exclaimed, "Beat on, tyrant! thou +dost but strike upon the case of Anaxarchus; thou canst not touch the +man himself." And it is in something of the same light that we must +regard what is related of the North American savages. Beings, who scoff +at their tortures, must have an idea of something that lies beyond the +reach of their assailants. + +It is just however to observe, that some of the particulars here +related, belong not less to the brute creation than to man. If men are +imperfectly acquainted with their external figure and appearance, +this may well be conceived to be still more predicable of the inferior +animals. It is true that all of them seem to be aware of the part in +their structure, where lie their main strength and means of hostility. +Thus the bull attacks with his horns, and the horse with his heels, the +beast of prey with his claws, the bird with his beak, and insects and +other venomous creatures with their sting. We know not by what +impulse they are prompted to the use of the various means which are so +intimately connected with their preservation and welfare; and we call it +instinct. We may be certain it does not arise from a careful survey of +their parts and members, and a methodised selection of the means which +shall be found most effectual for the accomplishment of their ends. +There is no premeditation; and, without anatomical knowledge, or any +distinct acquaintance with their image and likeness, they proceed +straight to their purpose. + +Hence, even as men, they are more familiar with the figures and +appearance of their fellows, their allies, or their enemies, than with +their own. + +Man is a creature of mingled substance. I am many times a day compelled +to acknowledge what a low, mean and contemptible being I am. Philip of +Macedon had no need to give it in charge to a page, to repair to him +every morning, and repeat, "Remember, sir, you are a man." A variety of +circumstances occur to us, while we eat, and drink, and submit to the +humiliating necessities of nature, that may well inculcate into us this +salutary lesson. The wonder rather is, that man, who has so many things +to put him in mind to be humble and despise himself, should ever have +been susceptible of pride and disdain. Nebuchadnezzar must indeed have +been the most besotted of mortals, if it were necessary that he should +be driven from among men, and made to eat grass like an ox, to convince +him that he was not the equal of the power that made him. + +But fortunately, as I have said, man is a "stranger at home." Were it +not for this, how incomprehensible would be + + The ceremony that to great ones 'longs, + The monarch's crown, and the deputed sword, + The marshal's truncheon, and the judge's robe! + +How ludicrous would be the long procession and the caparisoned horse, +the gilded chariot and the flowing train, the colours flying, the drums +beating, and the sound of trumpets rending the air, which after all only +introduce to us an ordinary man, no otherwise perhaps distinguished from +the vilest of the ragged spectators, than by the accident of his birth! + +But what is of more importance in the temporary oblivion we are enabled +to throw over the refuse of the body, it is thus we arrive at the +majesty of man. That sublimity of conception which renders the poet, and +the man of great literary and original endowments "in apprehension like +a God," we could not have, if we were not privileged occasionally +to cast away the slough and exuviae of the body from incumbering and +dishonouring us, even as Ulysses passed over his threshold, stripped of +the rags that had obscured him, while Minerva enlarged his frame, and +gave loftiness to his stature, added a youthful beauty and grace to his +motions, and caused his eyes to flash with more than mortal fire. With +what disdain, when I have been rapt in the loftiest moods of mind, do I +look down upon my limbs, the house of clay that contains me, the gross +flesh and blood of which my frame is composed, and wonder at a lodging, +poorly fitted to entertain so divine a guest! + +A still more important chapter in the history of the human mind has its +origin in these considerations. Hence it is that unenlightened man, in +almost all ages and countries, has been induced, independently of +divine revelation, to regard death, the most awful event to which we are +subject, as not being the termination of his existence. We see the +body of our friend become insensible, and remain without motion, or +any external indication of what we call life. We can shut it up in an +apartment, and visit it from day to day. If we had perseverance enough, +and could so far conquer the repugnance and humiliating feeling with +which the experiment would be attended, we might follow step by step the +process of decomposition and putrefaction, and observe by what degrees +the "dust returned unto earth as it was." But, in spite of this +demonstration of the senses, man still believes that there is something +in him that lives after death. The mind is so infinitely superior +in character to this case of flesh that incloses it, that he cannot +persuade himself that it and the body perish together. + +There are two considerations, the force of which made man a religious +animal. The first is, his proneness to ascribe hostility or benevolent +intention to every thing of a memorable sort that occurs to him in the +order of nature. The second is that of which I have just treated, the +superior dignity of mind over body. This, we persuade ourselves, +shall subsist uninjured by the mutations of our corporeal frame, and +undestroyed by the wreck of the material universe. + + + + +ESSAY II. OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS. + +{Greek--omitted} Thucydides, Lib.I, cap. 84. + +SECTION I. + +PRESUMED DEARTH OF INTELLECTUAL POWER.--SCHOOLS FOR THE EDUCATION OF +YOUTH CONSIDERED.--THE BOY AND THE MAN COMPARED. + +One of the earliest judgments that is usually made by those whose +attention is turned to the characters of men in the social state, is +of the great inequality with which the gifts of the understanding are +distributed among us. + +Go into a miscellaneous society; sit down at table with ten or twelve +men; repair to a club where as many are assembled in an evening to relax +from the toils of the day--it is almost proverbial, that one or two of +these persons will perhaps be brilliant, and the rest "weary, stale, +flat and unprofitable." + +Go into a numerous school--the case will be still more striking. I have +been present where two men of superior endowments endeavoured to enter +into a calculation on the subject; and they agreed that there was not +above one boy in a hundred, who would be found to possess a penetrating +understanding, and to be able to strike into a path of intellect that +was truly his own. How common is it to hear the master of such a school +say, "Aye, I am proud of that lad; I have been a schoolmaster these +thirty years, and have never had such another!" + +The society above referred to, the dinner-party, or the club, was to +a considerable degree select, brought together by a certain supposed +congeniality between the individuals thus assembled. Were they +taken indiscriminately, as boys are when consigned to the care of +a schoolmaster, the proportion of the brilliant would not be a whit +greater than in the latter case. + +A main criterion of the superiority of the schoolboy will be found in +his mode of answering a casual question proposed by the master. The +majority will be wholly at fault, will shew that they do not understand +the question, and will return an answer altogether from the purpose. One +in a hundred perhaps, perhaps in a still less proportion, will reply +in a laudable manner, and convey his ideas in perspicuous and spirited +language. + +It does not certainly go altogether so ill, with men grown up to years +of maturity. They do not for the most part answer a plain question in a +manner to make you wonder at their fatuity. + +A main cause of the disadvantageous appearance exhibited by the ordinary +schoolboy, lies in what we denominate sheepishness. He is at a loss, and +in the first place stares at you, instead of giving an answer. He does +not make by many degrees so poor a figure among his equals, as when he +is addressed by his seniors. + +One of the reasons of the latter phenomenon consists in the torpedo +effect of what we may call, under the circumstances, the difference of +ranks. The schoolmaster is a despot to his scholar; for every man is +a despot, who delivers his judgment from the single impulse of his own +will. The boy answers his questioner, as Dolon answers Ulysses in the +Iliad, at the point of the sword. It is to a certain degree the same +thing, when the boy is questioned merely by his senior. He fears he +knows not what,--a reprimand, a look of lofty contempt, a gesture +of summary disdain. He does not think it worth his while under these +circumstances, to "gird up the loins of his mind." He cannot return a +free and intrepid answer but to the person whom he regards as his equal. +There is nothing that has so disqualifying an effect upon him who is +to answer, as the consideration that he who questions is universally +acknowledged to be a being of a higher sphere, or, as between the +boy and the man, that he is the superior in conventional and corporal +strength. + +Nor is it simple terror that restrains the boy from answering his senior +with the same freedom and spirit, as he would answer his equal. He does +not think it worth his while to enter the lists. He despairs of doing +the thing in the way that shall gain approbation, and therefore will not +try. He is like a boxer, who, though skilful, will not fight with one +hand tied behind him. He would return you the answer, if it occurred +without his giving himself trouble; but he will not rouse his soul, and +task his strength to give it. He is careless; and prefers trusting to +whatever construction you may put upon him, and whatever treatment you +may think proper to bestow upon him. It is the most difficult thing in +the world, for the schoolmaster to inspire into his pupil the desire to +do his best. + +Among full-grown men the case is different. The schoolboy, whether under +his domestic roof, or in the gymnasium, is in a situation similar to +that of the Christian slaves in Algiers, as described by Cervantes in +his History of the Captive. "They were shut up together in a species of +bagnio, from whence they were brought out from time to time to perform +certain tasks in common: they might also engage in pranks, and get into +scrapes, as they pleased; but the master would hang up one, impale +another, and cut off the ears of a third, for little occasion, or even +wholly without it." Such indeed is the condition of the child almost +from the hour of birth. The severities practised upon him are not so +great as those resorted to by the proprietor of slaves in Algiers; but +they are equally arbitrary and without appeal. He is free to a certain +extent, even as the captives described by Cervantes; but his freedom is +upon sufferance, and is brought to an end at any time at the pleasure of +his seniors. The child therefore feels his way, and ascertains by +repeated experiments how far he may proceed with impunity. He is like +the slaves of the Romans on the days of the Saturnalia. He may do +what he pleases, and command tasks to his masters, but with this +difference--the Roman slave knew when the days of his licence would be +over, and comported himself accordingly; but the child cannot foresee at +any moment when the bell will be struck, and the scene reversed. It is +commonly enough incident to this situation, that the being who is at the +mercy of another, will practise, what Tacitus calls, a "vernacular +urbanity," make his bold jests, and give utterance to his saucy +innuendoes, with as much freedom as the best; but he will do it with a +wary eye, not knowing how soon he may feel his chain plucked! and +himself compulsorily reduced into the established order. His more usual +refuge therefore is, to do nothing, and to wrap himself up in that +neutrality towards his seniors, that may best protect him from their +reprimand and their despotism. + +The condition of the full-grown man is different from that of the child, +and he conducts himself accordingly. He is always to a certain degree +under the control of the political society of which he is a member. He +is also exposed to the chance of personal insult and injury from +those who are stronger than he, or who may render their strength more +considerable by combination and numbers. The political institutions +which control him in certain respects, protect him also to a given +degree from the robber and assassin, or from the man who, were it +not for penalties and statutes, would perpetrate against him all the +mischiefs which malignity might suggest. Civil policy however subjects +him to a variety of evils, which wealth or corruption are accustomed to +inflict under the forms of justice; at the same time that it can never +wholly defend him from those violences to which he would be every moment +exposed in what is called the state of nature. + +The full-grown man in the mean time is well pleased when he escapes +from the ergastulum where he had previously dwelt, and in which he had +experienced corporal infliction and corporal restraint. At first, in the +newness of his freedom, he breaks out into idle sallies and escapes, and +is like the full-fed steed that manifests his wantonness in a thousand +antics and ruades. But this is a temporary extravagance. He presently +becomes as wise and calculating, as the schoolboy was before him. + +The human being then, that has attained a certain stature, watches and +poises his situation, and considers what he may do with impunity. He +ventures at first with no small diffidence, and pretends to be twice +as assured as he really is. He accumulates experiment after experiment, +till they amount to a considerable volume. It is not till he has passed +successive lustres, that he attains that firm step, and temperate and +settled accent, which characterise the man complete. He then no longer +doubts, but is ranged on the full level of the ripened members of the +community. + +There is therefore little room for wonder, if we find the same +individual, whom we once knew a sheepish and irresolute schoolboy, that +hung his head, that replied with inarticulated monotony, and stammered +out his meaning, metamorphosed into a thoroughly manly character, who +may take his place on the bench with senators, and deliver a grave and +matured opinion as well as the best. It appears then that the trial and +review of full-grown men is not altogether so disadvantageous to the +reckoning of our common nature, as that of boys at school. + +It is not however, that the full-grown man is not liable to be checked, +reprimanded and rebuked, even as the schoolboy is. He has his wife +to read him lectures, and rap his knuckles; he has his master, his +landlord, or the mayor of his village, to tell him of his duty in an +imperious style, and in measured sentences; if he is a member of a +legislature, even there he receives his lessons, and is told, either +in phrases of well-conceived irony, or by the exhibition of facts and +reasonings which take him by surprise, that he is not altogether the +person he deemed himself to be. But he does not mind it. Like Iago in +the play, he "knows his price, and, by the faith of man, that he is +worth no worse a place" than that which he occupies. He finds out the +value of the check he receives, and lets it "pass by him like the idle +wind"--a mastery, which the schoolboy, however he may affect it, never +thoroughly attains to. + +But it unfortunately happens, that, before he has arrived at that degree +of independence, the fate of the individual is too often decided for +ever. How are the majority of men trampled in the mire, made "hewers +of wood, and drawers of water," long, very long, before there was an +opportunity of ascertaining what it was of which they were capable! Thus +almost every one is put in the place which by nature he was least fit +for: and, while perhaps a sufficient quantity of talent is extant in +each successive generation, yet, for want of each man's being duly +estimated, and assigned his appropriate duty, the very reverse may +appear to be the case. By the time that they have attained to that sober +self-confidence that might enable them to assert themselves, they are +already chained to a fate, or thrust down to a condition, from which no +internal energies they possess can ever empower them to escape. + + +SECTION II. + +EQUALITY OF MAN WITH MAN.--TALENTS EXTENSIVELY DISTRIBUTED.--WAY IN +WHICH THIS DISTRIBUTION IS COUNTERACTED.--THE APTITUDE OF CHILDREN +FOR DIFFERENT PURSUITS SHOULD BE EARLY SOUGHT OUT.--HINTS FOR A BETTER +SYSTEM OF EDUCATION.--AMBITION AN UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE. + +The reflections thus put down, may assist us in answering the question +as to the way in which talents are distributed among men by the hand of +nature. + +All things upon the earth and under the earth, and especially all +organised bodies of the animal or vegetable kingdom, fall into classes. +It is by this means, that the child no sooner learns the terms, man, +horse, tree, flower, than, if an object of any of these kinds which +he has never seen before, is exhibited to him, he pronounces without +hesitation, This is a man, a horse, a tree, a flower. + +All organised bodies of the animal or vegetable kingdom are cast in a +mould of given dimension and feature belonging to a certain number of +individuals, though distinguished by inexhaustible varieties. It is by +means of those features that the class of each individual is determined. + +To confine ourselves to man. + +All men, the monster and the lusus naturae excepted, have a certain +form, a certain complement of limbs, a certain internal structure, and +organs of sense--may we not add further, certain powers of intellect? + +Hence it seems to follow, that man is more like and more equal to +man, deformities of body and abortions of intellect excepted, than the +disdainful and fastidious censors of our common nature are willing to +admit. + +I am inclined to believe, that, putting idiots and extraordinary cases +out of the question, every human creature is endowed with talents, +which, if rightly directed, would shew him to be apt, adroit, +intelligent and acute, in the walk for which his organisation especially +fitted him. + +But the practices and modes of civilised life prompt us to take the +inexhaustible varieties of man, as he is given into our guardianship by +the bountiful hand of nature, and train him in one uniform exercise, as +the raw recruit is treated when he is brought under the direction of his +drill-serjeant. + +The son of the nobleman, of the country-gentleman, and of those parents +who from vanity or whatever other motive are desirous that their +offspring should be devoted to some liberal profession, is in nearly all +instances sent to the grammar-school. It is in this scene principally, +that the judgment is formed that not above one boy in a hundred +possesses an acute understanding, or will be able to strike into a path +of intellect that shall be truly his own. + +I do not object to this destination, if temperately pursued. It is fit +that as many children as possible should have their chance of figuring +in future life in what are called the higher departments of intellect. +A certain familiar acquaintance with language and the shades of language +as a lesson, will be beneficial to all. The youth who has expended only +six months in acquiring the rudiments of the Latin tongue, will probably +be more or less the better for it in all his future life. + +But seven years are usually spent at the grammar-school by those who are +sent to it. I do not in many cases object to this. The learned languages +are assuredly of slow acquisition. In the education of those who are +destined to what are called the higher departments of intellect, a long +period may advantageously be spent in the study of words, while the +progress they make in theory and dogmatical knowledge is too generally +a store of learning laid up, to be unlearned again when they reach the +period of real investigation and independent judgment. There is small +danger of this in the acquisition of words. + +But this method, indiscriminately pursued as it is now, is productive +of the worst consequences. Very soon a judgment may be formed by the +impartial observer, whether the pupil is at home in the study of the +learned languages, and is likely to make an adequate progress. +But parents are not impartial. There are also two reasons why the +schoolmaster is not the proper person to pronounce: first, because, +if he pronounces in the negative, he will have reason to fear that the +parent will be offended; and secondly, because he does not like to lose +his scholar. But the very moment that it can be ascertained, that the +pupil is not at home in the study of the learned languages, and is +unlikely to make an adequate progress, at that moment he should be taken +from it. + +The most palpable deficiency that is to be found in relation to the +education of children, is a sound judgment to be formed as to the +vocation or employment in which each is most fitted to excel. + +As, according to the institutions of Lycurgus, as soon as a boy was +born, he was visited by the elders of the ward, who were to decide +whether he was to be reared, and would be made an efficient member of +the commonwealth, so it were to be desired that, as early as a clear +discrimination on the subject might be practicable, a competent decision +should be given as to the future occupation and destiny of a child. + +But this is a question attended with no common degree of difficulty. +To the resolving such a question with sufficient evidence, a very +considerable series of observations would become necessary. The child +should be introduced into a variety of scenes, and a magazine, so to +speak, of those things about which human industry and skill may be +employed, should be successively set before him. The censor who is to +decide on the result of the whole, should be a person of great sagacity, +and capable of pronouncing upon a given amount of the most imperfect +and incidental indications. He should be clear-sighted, and vigilant +to observe the involuntary turns of an eye, expressions of a lip, and +demonstrations of a limb. + +The declarations of the child himself are often of very small use in the +case. He may be directed by an impulse, which occurs in the morning, and +vanishes in the evening. His preferences change as rapidly as the shapes +we sometimes observe in the evening clouds, and are governed by whim +or fantasy, and not by any of those indications which are parcel of his +individual constitution. He desires in many instances to be devoted to +a particular occupation, because his playfellow has been assigned to it +before him. + +The parent is not qualified to judge in this fundamental question, +because he is under the dominion of partiality, and wishes that his +child may become a lord chancellor, an archbishop, or any thing else, +the possessor of which condition shall be enabled to make a splendid +figure in the world. He is not qualified, because he is an interested +party, and, either from an exaggerated estimate of his child's merits, +or from a selfish shrinking from the cost it might require to mature +them, is anxious to arrive at a conclusion not founded upon the +intrinsic claims of the case to be considered. + +Even supposing it to be sufficiently ascertained in what calling it is +that the child will be most beneficially engaged, a thousand extrinsical +circumstances will often prevent that from being the calling chosen. +Nature distributes her gifts without any reference to the distinctions +of artificial society. The genius that demanded the most careful and +assiduous cultivation, that it might hereafter form the boast and +ornament of the world, will be reared amidst the chill blasts of +poverty; while he who was best adapted to make an exemplary carpenter +or artisan, by being the son of a nobleman is thrown a thousand fathoms +wide of his true destination. + +Human creatures are born into the world with various dispositions. +According to the memorable saying of Themistocles, One man can play upon +a psaltery or harp, and another can by political skill and ingenuity +convert a town of small account, weak and insignificant, into a city +noble, magnificent and great. + +It is comparatively a very little way that we can penetrate into the +mysteries of nature. + +Music seems to be one of the faculties most clearly defined in early +youth. The child who has received that destination from the hands of +nature, will even in infancy manifest a singular delight in musical +sounds, and will in no long time imitate snatches of a tune. The present +professor of music in the university of Oxford contrived for himself, +I believe at three years old, a way for playing on an instrument, the +piano forte, unprompted by any of the persons about him. This is called +having an ear. + +Instances nearly as precocious are related of persons, who afterwards +distinguished themselves in the art of painting. + +These two kinds of original destination appear to be placed beyond the +reach of controversy. + +Horace says, The poet is born a poet, and cannot be made so by the +ingenuity of art: and this seems to be true. He sees the objects about +him with an eye peculiarly his own; the sounds that reach his ear, +produce an effect upon him, and leave a memory behind, different +from that which is experienced by his fellows. His perceptions have a +singular vividness. + + The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, + Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; + + And his imagination bodies forth + The forms of things unknown, + +It is not probable that any trainings of art can give these endowments +to him who has not received them from the gift of nature. + +The subtle network of the brain, or whatever else it is, that makes a +man more fit for, and more qualified to succeed in, one occupation than +another, can scarcely be followed up and detected either in the living +subject or the dead one. But, as in the infinite variety of human beings +no two faces are so alike that they cannot be distinguished, nor even +two leaves plucked from the same tree(2), so it may reasonably be +presumed, that there are varieties in the senses, the organs, and the +internal structure of the human species, however delicate, and to the +touch of the bystander evanescent, which may give to each individual a +predisposition to rise to a supreme degree of excellence in some certain +art or attainment, over a million of competitors. + + + (2) Papers between Clarke and Leibnitz, p. 95. + + +It has been said that all these distinctions and anticipations are +idle, because man is born without innate ideas. Whatever is the +incomprehensible and inexplicable power, which we call nature, to which +he is indebted for his formation, it is groundless to suppose, that +that power is cognisant of, and guides itself in its operations by, the +infinite divisibleness of human pursuits in civilised society. A child +is not designed by his original formation to be a manufacturer of shoes, +for he may be born among a people by whom shoes are not worn, and +still less is he destined by his structure to be a metaphysician, an +astronomer, or a lawyer, a rope-dancer, a fortune-teller, or a juggler. + +It is true that we cannot suppose nature to be guided in her operations +by the infinite divisibleness of human pursuits in civilised society. +But it is not the less true that one man is by his structure best fitted +to excel in some one in particular of these multifarious pursuits, +however fortuitously his individual structure and that pursuit may be +brought into contact. Thus a certain calmness and steadiness of purpose, +much flexibility, and a very accurate proportion of the various limbs of +the body, are of great advantage in rope-dancing; while lightness of the +fingers, and a readiness to direct our thoughts to the rapid execution +of a purpose, joined with a steadiness of countenance adapted to what is +figuratively called throwing dust in the eyes of the bystander, are of +the utmost importance to the juggler: and so of the rest. + +It is as much the temper of the individual, as any particular subtlety +of organ or capacity, that prepares him to excel in one pursuit rather +than a thousand others. And he must have been a very inattentive +observer of the indications of temper in an infant in the first +months of his existence, who does not confess that there are various +peculiarities in that respect which the child brings into the world with +him. + +There is excellent sense in the fable of Achilles in the island of +Scyros. He was placed there by his mother in female attire among the +daughters of Lycomedes, that he might not be seduced to engage in the +Trojan war. Ulysses was commissioned to discover him, and, while he +exhibited jewels and various woman's ornaments to the princesses, +contrived to mix with his stores a suit of armour, the sight of which +immediately awakened the spirit of the hero. + +Every one has probably within him a string more susceptible than the +rest, that demands only a kindred impression to be made, to call forth +its latent character. Like the war-horse described in the Book of Job: +"He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength; he goeth on to +meet the armed men; he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the +captains, and the shouting." + +Nothing can be more unlike than the same man to himself, when he is +touched, and not touched, upon + + the master-string + That makes most harmony or discord to him. + +It is like the case of Manlius Torquatus in Livy, who by his father was +banished among his hinds for his clownish demeanour and untractableness +to every species of instruction that was offered him, but who, +understanding that his parent was criminally arraigned for barbarous +treatment of him, first resolutely resorted to the accuser, compelling +him upon pain of death to withdraw his accusation, and subsequently, +having surmounted this first step towards an energetic carriage and +demeanour, proved one of the most illustrious characters that the Roman +republic had to boast. + +Those children whose parents have no intention of training them to +the highest departments of intellect, and have therefore no thought of +bestowing on them a classical education, nevertheless for the most part +send them to a school where they are to be taught arithmetic, and the +principles of English grammar. I should say in this case, as I said +before on the subject of classical education, that a certain initiation +in these departments of knowledge, even if they are pursued a very +little way, will probably be beneficial to all. + +But it will often be found, in these schools for more ordinary +education, as in the school for classical instruction, that the majority +of the pupils will be seen to be unpromising, and, what is usually +called, dull. The mistake is, that the persons by whom this is +perceived, are disposed to set aside these pupils as blockheads, and +unsusceptible of any species of ingenuity. + +It is unreasonable that we should draw such a conclusion. + +In the first place, as has been already observed, it is the most +difficult thing in the world for the schoolmaster to inspire into his +pupil the desire to do his best. An overwhelming majority of lads at +school are in their secret hearts rebels to the discipline under which +they are placed. The instructor draws, one way, and the pupil another. +The object of the latter is to find out how he may escape censure and +punishment with the smallest expence of scholastic application. He +looks at the task that is set him, without the most distant desire of +improvement, but with alienated and averted eye. And, where this is the +case, the wonder is not that he does not make a brilliant figure. It is +rather an evidence of the slavish and subservient spirit incident to +the majority of human beings, that he learns any thing. Certainly +the schoolmaster, who judges of the powers of his pupil's mind by the +progress he makes in what he would most gladly be excused from learning, +must be expected perpetually to fall into the most egregious mistakes. + +The true test of the capacity of the individual, is where the desire to +succeed, and accomplish something effective, is already awakened in the +youthful mind. Whoever has found out what it is in which he is qualified +to excel, from that moment becomes a new creature. The general torpor +and sleep of the soul, which is incident to the vast multitude of the +human species, is departed from him. We begin, from the hour in which +our limbs are enabled to exert themselves freely, with a puerile love of +sport. Amusement is the order of the day. But no one was ever so fond +of play, that he had not also his serious moments. Every human creature +perhaps is sensible to the stimulus of ambition. He is delighted +with the thought that he also shall be somebody, and not a mere +undistinguished pawn, destined to fill up a square in the chess-board +of human society. He wishes to be thought something of, and to be gazed +upon. Nor is it merely the wish to be admired that excites him: he acts, +that he may be satisfied with himself. Self-respect is a sentiment dear +to every heart. The emotion can with difficulty be done justice to, that +a man feels, who is conscious that he is breathing his true element, +that every stroke that he strikes will have the effect he designs, that +he has an object before him, and every moment approaches nearer to +that object. Before, he was wrapped in an opake cloud, saw nothing +distinctly, and struck this way and that at hazard like a blind man. But +now the sun of understanding has risen upon him; and every step that he +takes, he advances with an assured and undoubting confidence. + +It is an admirable remark, that the book which we read at the very time +that we feel a desire to read it, affords us ten times the improvement, +that we should have derived from it when it was taken up by us as a +task. It is just so with the man who chooses his occupation, and feels +assured that that about which he is occupied is his true and native +field. Compare this person with the boy that studies the classics, or +arithmetic, or any thing else, with a secret disinclination, and, as +Shakespear expresses it, "creeps like snail, unwillingly, to school." +They do not seem as if they belonged to the same species. + +The result of these observations certainly strongly tends to support the +proposition laid down early in the present Essay, that, putting idiots +and extraordinary cases out of the question, every human creature is +endowed with talents, which, if rightly directed, would shew him to +be apt, adroit, intelligent and acute, in the walk for which his +organisation especially fitted him. + + +SECTION III. + +ENCOURAGING VIEW OF OUR COMMON NATURE.--POWER OF SOUND EXPOSITION +AFFORDED TO ALL.--DOCTRINE OF THIS ESSAY AND THE HYPOTHESIS OF HELVETIUS +COMPARED.--THE WILLING AND UNWILLING PUPIL CONTRASTED.--MISCHIEVOUS +TENDENCY OF THE USUAL MODES OF EDUCATION. + +What a beautiful and encouraging view is thus afforded us of our common +nature! It is not true, as certain disdainful and fastidious censurers +of their fellow-men would persuade us to believe, that a thousand seeds +are sown in the wide field of humanity, for no other purpose than that +half-a-dozen may grow up into something magnificent and splendid, and +that the rest, though not absolutely extinguished in the outset, are +merely suffered to live that they may furnish manure and nourishment to +their betters. On the contrary, each man, according to this hypothesis, +has a sphere in which he may shine, and may contemplate the exercise of +his own powers with a well-grounded satisfaction. He produces something +as perfect in its kind, as that which is effected under another form +by the more brilliant and illustrious of his species. He stands forward +with a serene confidence in the ranks of his fellow-creatures, and says, +"I also have my place in society, that I fill in a manner with which I +have a right to be satisfied." He vests a certain portion of ingenuity +in the work he turns out. He incorporates his mind with the labour +of his hands; and a competent observer will find character and +individuality in it. + +He has therefore nothing of the sheepishness of the ordinary schoolboy, +the tasks imposed upon whom by his instructor are foreign to the true +bent of his mind, and who stands cowed before his seniors, shrinking +under the judgment they may pass upon him, and the oppression they may +exercise towards him. He is probably competent to talk in a manner that +may afford instruction to men in other respects wise and accomplished, +and is no less clear and well-digested in his discourse respecting the +subjects to which his study and labour have been applied, than they are +on the questions that have exercised the powers of analysis with which +they are endowed. Like Elihu in the Book of Job, he says, "I am young, +and you are old; I said therefore, Days shall speak, and multitude +of years shall teach wisdom. But there is a spirit in man; and the +inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding. Great men are not +always wise; neither do the aged understand judgment. Hearken therefore +to me; and I also will shew my opinion." + +What however in the last instance is affirmed, is not always realised +in the experiment. The humblest mechanic, who works con amore, and feels +that he discharges his office creditably, has a sober satisfaction in +the retrospect, and is able to express himself perspicuously and well on +the subject that has occupied his industry. He has a just confidence in +himself. If the occasion arises, on which he should speak on the subject +of what he does, and the methods he adopts for effecting it, he will +undoubtedly acquit himself to the satisfaction of those who hear him. He +knows that the explanations he can afford will be sound and masculine, +and will stand the test of a rigid examination. + +But, in proportion as he feels the ground on which he stands, and his +own power to make it good, he will not fail to retire from an audience +that is not willing to be informed by him. He will often appear in the +presence of those, whom the established arrangements of society call +his superiors, who are more copiously endowed with the treasures of +language, and who, confident perhaps in the advantage of opulence, and +what is called, however they may have received it, a liberal education, +regard with disdain his artless and unornamented explanations. He did +not, it may be, expect this. And, having experienced several times such +unmerited treatment, he is not willing again to encounter it. He knew +the worth of what he had to offer. And, finding others indisposed to +listen to his suggestions, he contentedly confines them within the +circle of his own thoughts. + +To this it must be added that, though he is able to explain himself +perspicuously, yet he is not master of the graces of speech, nor even +perhaps of the niceties of grammar. His voice is not tuned to those +winning inflections by which men, accustomed to the higher ranks of +society, are enabled so to express themselves, + + That aged ears play truant at their tales, + And younger hearings are quite ravished, + So sweet and voluble is their discourse. + +On the contrary there is a ruggedness in his manner that jars upon +the sense. It is easy for the light and supercilious to turn him into +ridicule. And those who will not be satisfied with the soundness of his +matter, expounded, as he is able to expound it, in clear and appropriate +terms, will yield him small credit, and listen to him with little +delight. + +These considerations therefore bring us back again to the reasons of +the prevalent opinion, that the majority of mankind are dull, and of +apprehension narrow and confused. The mass of boys in the process of +their education appear so, because little of what is addressed to them +by their instructors, awakens their curiosity, and inspires them with +the desire to excel. The concealed spark of ambition is not yet cleared +from the crust that enveloped it as it first came from the hand of +nature. And in like manner the elder persons, who have not experienced +the advantages of a liberal education, or by whom small profit was made +by those advantages, being defective in exterior graces, are generally +listened to with impatience, and therefore want the confidence and the +inclination to tell what they know. + +But these latter, if they are not attended to upon the subjects to which +their attention and ingenuity have been applied, do not the less possess +a knowledge and skill which are intrinsically worthy of applause. They +therefore contentedly shut up the sum of their acquisitions in their own +bosoms, and are satisfied with the consciousness that they have not been +deficient in performing an adequate part in the generation of men among +whom they live. + +Those persons who favour the opinion of the incessant improveableness of +the human species, have felt strongly prompted to embrace the creed of +Helvetius, who affirms that the minds of men, as they are born into +the world, are in a state of equality, alike prepared for any kind +of discipline and instruction that may be afforded them, and that +it depends upon education only, in the largest sense of that word, +including every impression that may be made upon the mind, intentional +or accidental, from the hour of our birth, whether we shall be poets +or philosophers, dancers or singers, chemists or mathematicians, +astronomers or dissectors of the faculties of our common nature. + +But this is not true. It has already appeared in the course of this +Essay, that the talent, or, more accurately speaking, the original +suitableness of the individual for the cultivation, of music or +painting, depends upon certain peculiarities that we bring into the +world with us. The same thing may be affirmed of the poet. As, in the +infinite variety of human beings, there are no two faces so alike that +they cannot be distinguished, nor even two leaves plucked from the same +tree, so there are varieties in the senses, the organs, and the internal +structure of the human species, however delicate, and to the touch of +the bystander evanescent, which give to each individual a predisposition +to rise to excellence in one particular art or attainment, rather than +in any other. + +And this view of things, if well considered, is as favourable, nay, more +so, to the hypothesis of the successive improveableness of the human +species, as the creed of Helvetius. According to that philosopher, every +human creature that is born into the world, is capable of becoming, +or being made, the equal of Homer, Bacon or Newton, and as easily and +surely of the one as the other. This creed, if sincerely embraced, no +doubt affords a strong stimulus to both preceptor and pupil, since, if +true, it teaches us that any thing can be made of any thing, and that, +wherever there is mind, it is within the compass of possibility, not +only that that mind can be raised to a high pitch of excellence, but +even to a high pitch of that excellence, whatever it is, that we shall +prefer to all others, and most earnestly desire. + +Still this creed will, after all, leave both preceptor and pupil in a +state of feeling considerably unsatisfactory. What it sets before us, +is too vast and indefinite. We shall be left long perhaps in a state of +balance as to what species of excellence we shall choose; and, in +the immense field of accessible improvement it offers to us, without +land-mark or compass for the direction of our course, it is scarcely +possible that we should feel that assured confidence and anticipation of +success, which are perhaps indispensibly required to the completion of a +truly arduous undertaking. + +But, upon the principles laid down in this Essay, the case is widely +different. We are here presented in every individual human creature with +a subject better fitted for one sort of cultivation than another. We +are excited to an earnest study of the individual, that we may the +more unerringly discover what pursuit it is for which his nature and +qualifications especially prepare him. We may be long in choosing. +We may be even on the brink of committing a considerable mistake. Our +subsequent observations may enable us to correct the inference we were +disposed to make from those which went before. Our sagacity is flattered +by the result of the laborious scrutiny which this view of our common +nature imposes upon us. + +In addition to this we reap two important advantages. + +In the first place, we feel assured that every child that is born has +his suitable sphere, to which if he is devoted, he will not fail to make +an honourable figure, or, in other words, will be seen to be endowed +with faculties, apt, adroit, intelligent and acute. This consideration +may reasonably stimulate us to call up all our penetration for the +purpose of ascertaining the proper destination of the child for whom we +are interested. + +And, secondly, having arrived at this point, we shall find ourselves +placed in a very different predicament from the guardian or instructor, +who, having selected at random the pursuit which his fancy dictates, and +in the choice of which he is encouraged by the presumptuous assertions +of a wild metaphysical philosophy, must often, in spite of himself, feel +a secret misgiving as to the final event. He may succeed, and present to +a wondering world a consummate musician, painter, poet, or philosopher; +for even blind chance may sometimes hit the mark, as truly as the most +perfect skill. But he will probably fail. Sudet multum, frustraque +laboret. And, if he is disappointed, he will not only feel that +disappointment in the ultimate result, but also in every step of his +progress. When he has done his best, exerted his utmost industry, and +consecrated every power of his soul to the energies he puts forth, +he may close every day, sometimes with a faint shadow of success, and +sometimes with entire and blank miscarriage. And the latter will happen +ten thousand times, for once that the undertaking shall be blessed with +a prosperous event. + +But, when the destination that is given to a child has been founded +upon a careful investigation of the faculties, tokens, and accidental +aspirations which characterise his early years, it is then that +every step that is made with him, becomes a new and surer source of +satisfaction. The moment the pursuit for which his powers are adapted is +seriously proposed to him, his eyes sparkle, and a second existence, in +addition to that which he received at his birth, descends upon him. He +feels that he has now obtained something worth living for. He feels +that he is at home, and in a sphere that is appropriately his own. Every +effort that he makes is successful. At every resting-place in his +race of improvement he pauses, and looks back on what he has done with +complacency. The master cannot teach him so fast, as he is prompted to +acquire. + +What a contrast does this species of instruction exhibit, to the +ordinary course of scholastic education! There, every lesson that is +prescribed, is a source of indirect warfare between the instructor and +the pupil, the one professing to aim at the advancement of him that +is taught, in the career of knowledge, and the other contemplating +the effect that is intended to be produced upon him with aversion, and +longing to be engaged in any thing else, rather than in that which is +pressed upon his foremost attention. In this sense a numerous school +is, to a degree that can scarcely be adequately described, the +slaughter-house of mind. It is like the undertaking, related by Livy, +of Accius Navius, the augur, to cut a whetstone with a razor--with this +difference, that our modern schoolmasters are not endowed with the gift +of working miracles, and, when the experiment falls into their hands, +the result of their efforts is a pitiful miscarriage. Knowledge is +scarcely in any degree imparted. But, as they are inured to a dogged +assiduity, and persist in their unavailing attempts, though the shell +of science, so to speak, is scarcely in the smallest measure penetrated, +yet that inestimable gift of the author of our being, the sharpness of +human faculties, is so blunted and destroyed, that it can scarcely ever +be usefully employed even for those purposes which it was originally +best qualified to effect. + +A numerous school is that mint from which the worst and most flagrant +libels on our nature are incessantly issued. Hence it is that we are +taught, by a judgment everlastingly repeated, that the majority of our +kind are predestinated blockheads. + +Not that it is by any means to be recommended, that a little writing and +arithmetic, and even the first rudiments of classical knowledge, so far +as they can be practicably imparted, should be withheld from any. The +mischief is, that we persist, month after month, and year after year, +in sowing our seed, when it has already been fully ascertained, that no +suitable and wholsome crop will ever be produced. + +But what is perhaps worse is, that we are accustomed to pronounce, that +that soil, which will not produce the crop of which we have attempted to +make it fertile, is fit for nothing. The majority of boys, at the very +period when the buds of intellect begin to unfold themselves, are so +accustomed to be told that they are dull and fit for nothing, that +the most pernicious effects are necessarily produced. They become half +convinced by the ill-boding song of the raven, perpetually croaking in +their ears; and, for the other half, though by no means assured that +the sentence of impotence awarded against them is just, yet, folding +up their powers in inactivity, they are contented partly to waste their +energies in pure idleness and sport, and partly to wait, with minds +scarcely half awake, for the moment when their true destination shall be +opened before them. + +Not that it is by any means to be desired that the child in his earlier +years should meet with no ruggednesses in his way, and that he should +perpetually tread "the primrose path of dalliance." Clouds and tempests +occasionally clear the atmosphere of intellect, not less than that +of the visible world. The road to the hill of science, and to the +promontory of heroic virtue, is harsh and steep, and from time to time +puts to the proof the energies of him who would ascend their topmost +round. + +There are many things which every human creature should learn, so far +as, agreeably to the constitution of civilised society, they can be +brought within his reach. He should be induced to learn them, willingly +if possible, but, if that cannot be thoroughly effected, yet with half a +will. Such are reading, writing, arithmetic, and the first principles of +grammar; to which shall be added, as far as may be, the rudiments of all +the sciences that are in ordinary use. The latter however should not be +brought forward too soon; and, if wisely delayed, the tyro himself +will to a certain degree enter into the views of his instructor, and be +disposed to essay Quid valeant humeri, quid ferre recusent. But, above +all, the beginnings of those studies should be encouraged, which +unfold the imagination, familiarise us with the feelings, the joys and +sufferings of our fellow-beings, and teach us to put ourselves in their +place and eagerly fly to their assistance. + + +SECTION IV. + +HOW FAR OUR GENUINE PROPENSITIES AND VOCATION SHOULD BE +FAVOURED.--SELF-REVERENCE RECOMMENDED.--CONCLUSION. + +I knew a man of eminent intellectual faculties(3), one of whose +favourite topics of moral prudence was, that it is the greatest mistake +in the world to suppose, that, when we have discovered the special +aspiration of the youthful mind, we are bound to do every thing in our +power to assist its progress. He maintained on the contrary, that it is +our true wisdom to place obstacles in its way, and to thwart it: as we +may be well assured that, unless it is a mere caprice, it will shew its +strength in conquering difficulties, and that all the obstacles that +we can conjure up will but inspire it with the greater earnestness to +attain final success. + + + (3) Henry Fuseli. + + +The maxim here stated, taken to an unlimited extent, is doubtless a very +dangerous one. There are obstacles that scarcely any strength of man +would be sufficient to conquer. "Chill penury" will sometimes "repress +the noblest rage," that almost ever animated a human spirit: and our +wisest course will probably be, secretly to favour, even when we seem +most to oppose, the genuine bent of the youthful aspirer. + +But the thing of greatest importance is, that we should not teach him +to estimate his powers at too low a rate. One of the wisest of all the +precepts comprised in what are called the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, +is that, in which he enjoins his pupil to "reverence himself." Ambition +is the noblest root that can be planted in the garden of the human soul: +not the ambition to be applauded and admired, to be famous and looked up +to, to be the darling theme of "stupid starers and of loud huzzas;" but +the ambition to fill a respectable place in the theatre of society, to +be useful and to be esteemed, to feel that we have not lived in vain, +and that we are entitled to the most honourable of all dismissions, an +enlightened self-approbation. And nothing can more powerfully tend to +place this beyond our acquisition, even our contemplation, than the +perpetual and hourly rebuffs which ingenuous youth is so often doomed +to sustain from the supercilious pedant, and the rigid decision of his +unfeeling elders. + +Self-respect to be nourished in the mind of the pupil, is one of the +most valuable results of a well conducted education. To accomplish this, +it is most necessary that it should never be inculcated into him, +that he is dull. Upon the principles of this Essay, any unfavourable +appearances that may present themselves, do not arise from the dulness +of the pupil, but from the error of those upon whose superintendence he +is cast, who require of him the things for which he is not adapted, and +neglect those in which he is qualified to excel. + +It is further necessary, if self-respect is one of the most desirable +results of a well-conducted education, that, as we should not humble +the pupil in his own eyes by disgraceful and humiliating language, so +we should abstain, as much as possible, from personal ill-treatment, and +the employing towards him the measures of an owner towards his purchased +or indentured slave. Indignity is of all things the most hostile to the +best purposes of a liberal education. It may be necessary occasionally +to employ, towards a human creature in his years of nonage, the +stimulants of exhortation and remonstrance even in the pursuits to which +he is best adapted, for the purpose of overcoming the instability and +fits of idleness to which all men, and most of all in their early +years, are subject: though in such pursuits a necessity of this sort can +scarcely be supposed. The bow must not always be bent; and it is good +for us that we should occasionally relax and play the fool. It may more +readily be imagined, that some incitement may be called for in those +things which, as has been mentioned above, it may be fit he should learn +though with but half a will. All freaks must not be indulged; admonition +is salutary, and that the pupil should be awakened by his instructor to +sober reflection and to masculine exertion. Every Telemachus should have +his Mentor.--But through the whole it is necessary that the spirit of +the pupil should not be broken, and that he should not be treated with +contumely. Stripes should in all instances be regarded as the last +resort, and as a sort of problem set up for the wisdom of the wise to +solve, whether the urgent case can arise in which it shall be requisite +to have recourse to them. + +The principles here laid down have the strongest tendency to prove to +us how little progress has yet been made in the art of turning human +creatures to the best account. Every man has his place, in which if +he can be fixed, the most fastidious judge cannot look upon him with +disdain. But, to effect this arrangement, an exact attention is required +to ascertain the pursuit in which he will best succeed. In India the +whole mass of the members of the community is divided into castes; and, +instead of a scrupulous attention being paid to the early intimations of +individual character, it is already decided upon each, before he comes +into the world, which child shall be a priest, and which a soldier, a +physician, a lawyer, a merchant, and an artisan. In Europe we do not +carry this so far, and are not so elaborately wrong. But the rudiments +of the same folly flourish among us; and the accident of birth for +the most part decides the method of life to which each individual with +whatever violence shall be dedicated. A very few only, by means of +energies that no tyranny can subdue, escape from the operation of this +murderous decree. + +Nature never made a dunce. Imbecility of mind is as rare, as deformity +of the animal frame. If this position be true, we have only to bear it +in mind, feelingly to convince ourselves, how wholesale the error +is into which society has hitherto fallen in the destination of its +members, and how much yet remains to be done, before our common nature +can be vindicated from the basest of all libels, the most murderous of +all proscriptions. + +There is a passage in Voltaire, in which he expresses himself to this +effect: "It is after all but a slight line of separation that divides +the man of genius from the man of ordinary mould." I remember the place +where, and the time when, I read this passage. But I have been unable to +find the expression. It is however but reasonable that I should refer +to it on this occasion, that I may hereby shew so eminent a modern +concurring with the venerable ancient in an early era of letters, whose +dictum I have prefixed to this Essay, to vouch to a certain extent for +the truth of the doctrine I have delivered. + + + + +ESSAY III. OF INTELLECTUAL ABORTION. + +In the preceding Essay I have endeavoured to establish the proposition, +that every human creature, idiots and extraordinary cases excepted, is +endowed with talents, which, if rightly directed, would shew him to +be apt, adroit, intelligent and acute, in the walk for which his +organisation especially fitted him. + +There is however a sort of phenomenon, by no means of rare occurrence, +which tends to place the human species under a less favourable point of +view. Many men, as has already appeared, are forced into situations and +pursuits ill assorted to their talents, and by that means are exhibited +to their contemporaries in a light both despicable and ludicrous. + +But this is not all. Men are not only placed, by the absurd choice +of their parents, or an imperious concurrence of circumstances, +in destinations and employments in which they can never appear to +advantage: they frequently, without any external compulsion, select +for themselves objects of their industry, glaringly unadapted to their +powers, and in which all their efforts must necessarily terminate in +miscarriage. + +I remember a young man, who had been bred a hair-dresser, but who +experienced, as he believed, the secret visitations of the Muse, and +became inspired. "With sad civility, and aching head," I perused no +fewer than six comedies from the pen of this aspiring genius, in no page +of which I could discern any glimmering of poetry or wit, or in reality +could form a guess what it was that the writer intended in his elaborate +effusions. Such are the persons enumerated by Pope in the Prologue to +his Satires, + + a parson, much bemused in beer, + A maudlin poetess, a rhyming peer, + A clerk, foredoomed his father's sou to cross, + Who pens a stanza, when he should engross. + +Every manager of a theatre, and every publishing bookseller of eminence, +can produce you in each revolving season whole reams, almost cartloads, +of blurred paper, testifying the frequent recurrence of this phenomenon. + +The cause however of this painful mistake does not lie in the +circumstance, that each man has not from the hand of nature an +appropriate destination, a sphere assigned him, in which, if life +should be prolonged to him, he might be secure of the respect of his +neighbours, and might write upon his tomb, "I have filled an honourable +career; I have finished my course." + +One of the most glaring infirmities of our nature is discontent. One of +the most unquestionable characteristics of the human mind is the love +of novelty. Omne ignotum pro magnifico est. We are satiated with those +objects which make a part of our business in every day, and are desirous +of trying something that is a stranger to us. Whatever we see through +a mist, or in the twilight, is apt to be apprehended by us as something +admirable, for the single reason that it is seen imperfectly. What we +are sure that we can easily and adequately effect, we despise. He that +goes into battle with an adversary of more powerful muscle or of greater +practice than himself, feels a tingling sensation, not unallied to +delight, very different from that which would occur to him, when his +victory was easy and secure. + +Each man is conscious what it is that he can certainly effect. This does +not therefore present itself to him as an object of ambition. We have +many of us internally something of the spirit expressed by the apostle: +"Forgetting the things that are behind, we press forward to those that +remain." And, so long as this precept is soberly applied, no conduct can +be more worthy of praise. Improvement is the appropriate race of man. We +cannot stand still. If we do not go forward, we shall inevitably recede. +Shakespear, when he wrote his Hamlet, did not know that he could produce +Macbeth and Othello. + +But the progress of a man of reflection will be, to a considerable +degree, in the path he has already entered. If he strikes into a new +career, it will not be without deep premeditation. He will attempt +nothing wantonly. He will carefully examine his powers, and see for what +they are adapted. Sudet multum. He will be like the man, who first in a +frail bark committed himself to the treachery of the waves. He will +keep near to the shore; he will tremble for the audaciousness of +his enterprise; he will feel that it calls for all his alertness and +vigilance. The man of reflection will not begin, till he feels his mind +swelling with his purposed theme, till his blood flows fitfully and +with full pulses through his veins, till his eyes sparkle with the +intenseness of his conceptions, and his "bosom labours with the God." + +But the fool dashes in at once. He does not calculate the dangers of his +enterprise. He does not study the map of the country he has to traverse. +He does not measure the bias of the ground, the rising knolls and the +descending slopes that are before him. He obeys a blind and unreflecting +impulse. + +His case bears a striking resemblance to what is related of Oliver +Goldsmith. Goldsmith was a man of the most felicitous endowments. His +prose flows with such ease, copiousness and grace, that it resembles the +song of the sirens. His verses are among the most spirited, natural and +unaffected in the English language. Yet he was not contented. If he saw +a consummate dancer, he knew no reason why he should not do as well, +and immediately felt disposed to essay his powers. If he heard an +accomplished musician, he undertook to enter the lists with him. His +conduct was of a piece with that of the countryman, who, cheapening +spectacles, and making experiment of them for ever in vain upon the +book before him, was at length asked, "Could you ever read without +spectacles?" to which he was obliged to answer, "I do not know; I never +tried." The vanity of Goldsmith was infinite; and his failure in such +attempts must necessarily have been ludicrous. + +The splendour of the thing presented to our observation, awakens +the spirit within us. The applause and admiration excited by certain +achievements and accomplishments infects us with desire. We are like +the youthful Themistocles, who complained that the trophies of Miltiades +would not let him sleep. We are like the novice Guido, who, while +looking on the paintings of Michael Angelo, exclaimed, "I also am a +painter." Themistocles and Guido were right, for they were of kindred +spirit to the great men they admired. But the applause bestowed on +others will often generate uneasiness and a sigh, in men least of all +qualified by nature to acquire similar applause. We are not contented to +proceed in the path of obscure usefulness and worth. We are eager to be +admired, and thus often engage in pursuits for which perhaps we are of +all men least adapted Each one would be the man above him. + +And this is the cause why we see so many individuals, who might have +passed their lives with honour, devote themselves to incredible efforts, +only that they may be made supremely ridiculous. + +To this let it be added, that the wisest man that ever existed, never +yet knew himself, especially in the morning of life. The person, who +ultimately stamped his history with the most heroic achievements, was +far perhaps even from suspecting, in the dawn of his existence, that he +should realise the miracles that mark its maturity. He might be ready to +exclaim, with Hazael in the Scriptures, "Is thy servant more than man, +that he should do this great thing?" The sublimest poet that ever sung, +was peradventure, while a stripling, unconscious of the treasures which +formed a part of the fabric of his mind, and unsuspicious of the high +destiny that in the sequel awaited him. What wonder then, that, awaking +from the insensibility and torpor which precede the activity of the +soul, some men should believe in a fortune that shall never be theirs, +and anticipate a glory they are fated never to sustain! And for the same +reason, when unanticipated failure becomes their lot, they are unwilling +at first to be discouraged, and find a certain gallantry in persevering, +and "against hope believing in hope." + +This is the explanation of a countless multitude of failures that +occur in the career of literature. Nor is this phenomenon confined to +literature. In all the various paths of human existence, that appear +to have something in them splendid and alluring, there are perpetual +instances of daring adventures, unattended with the smallest rational +hope of success. Optat ephippia bos piger. + + All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies. + +But, beside these instances of perfect and glaring miscarriage, there +are examples worthy of a deeper regret, where the juvenile candidate +sets out in the morning of life with the highest promise, with colours +flying, and the spirit-stirring note of gallant preparation, when yet +his voyage of life is destined to terminate in total discomfiture. I +have seen such an one, whose early instructors regarded him with +the most sanguine expectation, and his elders admired him, while his +youthful competitors unreluctantly confessed his superiority, and gave +way on either side to his triumphant career; and all this has terminated +in nothing. + +In reality the splendid march of genius is beset with a thousand +difficulties. "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to +the strong." A multitude of unthought-of qualifications are required; +and it depends at least as much upon the nicely maintained balance +of these, as upon the copiousness and brilliancy of each, whether the +result shall be auspicious. The progress of genius is like the flight of +an arrow; a breath may turn it out of its course, and cause that course +to terminate many a degree wide of its purposed mark. It is therefore +scarcely possible that any sharpness of foresight can pronounce of the +noblest beginnings whether they shall reach to an adequate conclusion. + +I have seen such a man, with the most fervent imagination, with the +most diligent study, with the happiest powers of memory, and with an +understanding that apparently took in every thing, and arranged every +thing, at the same time that by its acuteness it seemed able to add to +the accumulated stores of foregone wisdom and learning new treasures of +its own; and yet this man shall pass through the successive stages of +human life, in appearance for ever active, for ever at work, and leave +nothing behind that shall embalm his name to posterity, certainly +nothing in any degree adequately representing those excellencies, which +a chosen few, admitted to his retired and his serenest hours, knew to +reside in him. + +There are conceptions of the mind, that come forth like the coruscations +of lightning. If you could fix that flash, it would seem as if it +would give new brightness to the sons of men, and almost extinguish the +luminary of day. But, ere you can say it is here, it is gone. It +appears to reveal to us the secrets of the world unknown; but the clouds +congregate again, and shut in upon us, before we had time to apprehend +its full radiance and splendour. + +To give solidity and permanence to the inspirations of genius two things +are especially necessary. First, that the idea to be communicated should +be powerfully apprehended by the speaker or writer; and next, that he +should employ words and phrases which might convey it in all its truth +to the mind of another. The man who entertains such conceptions, will +not unfrequently want the steadiness of nerve which is required for +their adequate transmission. Suitable words will not always wait upon +his thoughts. Language is in reality a vast labyrinth, a scene like the +Hercinian Forest of old, which, we are told, could not be traversed in +less than sixty days. If we do not possess the clue, we shall infallibly +perish in the attempt, and our thoughts and our memory will expire with +us. + +The sentences of this man, when he speaks, or when he writes, will be +full of perplexity and confusion. They will be endless, and never +arrive at their proper termination. They will include parenthesis on +parenthesis. We perceive the person who delivers them, to be perpetually +labouring after a meaning, but never reaching it. He is like one flung +over into the sea, unprovided with the skill that should enable him +to contend with the tumultuous element. He flounders about in pitiable +helplessness, without the chance of extricating himself by all his +efforts. He is lost in unintelligible embarrassment. It is a delightful +and a ravishing sight, to observe another man come after him, and +tell, without complexity, and in the simplicity of self-possession, +unconscious that there was any difficulty, all that his predecessor had +fruitlessly exerted himself to unfold. + +There are a multitude of causes that will produce a miscarriage of this +sort, where the richest soil, impregnated with the choicest seeds of +learning and observation, shall entirely fail to present us with such +a crop as might rationally have been anticipated. Many such men waste +their lives in indolence and irresolution. They attempt many things, +sketch out plans, which, if properly filled up, might illustrate the +literature of a nation, and extend the empire of the human mind, but +which yet they desert as soon as begun, affording us the promise of a +beautiful day, that, ere it is noon, is enveloped in darkest tempests +and the clouds of midnight. They skim away from one flower in the +parterre of literature to another, like the bee, without, like the bee, +gathering sweetness from each, to increase the public stock, and +enrich the magazine of thought. The cause of this phenomenon is an +unsteadiness, ever seduced by the newness of appearances, and never +settling with firmness and determination upon what had been chosen. + +Others there are that are turned aside from the career they might have +accomplished, by a visionary and impracticable fastidiousness. They can +find nothing that possesses all the requisites that should fix their +choice, nothing so good that should authorise them to present it to +public observation, and enable them to offer it to their contemporaries +as something that we should "not willingly let die." They begin often; +but nothing they produce appears to them such as that they should say of +it, "Let this stand." Or they never begin, none of their thoughts being +judged by them to be altogether such as to merit the being preserved. +They have a microscopic eye, and discern faults unworthy to be +tolerated, in that in which the critic himself might perceive nothing +but beauty. + +These phenomena have introduced a maxim which is current with many, +that the men who write nothing, and bequeath no record of themselves +to posterity, are not unfrequently of larger calibre, and more gigantic +standard of soul, than such as have inscribed their names upon the +columns of the temple of Fame. And certain it is, that there are +extraordinary instances which appear in some degree to countenance this +assertion. Many men are remembered as authors, who seem to have owed the +permanence of their reputation rather to fortune than merit. They were +daring, and stepped into a niche that was left in the gallery of art or +of science, where others of higher qualifications, but of unconquerable +modesty, held back. At the same time persons, whose destiny caused them +to live among the elite of an age, have seen reason to confess that they +have heard such talk, such glorious and unpremeditated discourse, from +men whose thoughts melted away with the breath that uttered them, as the +wisest of their vaunted contemporary authors would in vain have sought +to rival. + +The maxim however, notwithstanding these appearances, may safely be +pronounced to be a fallacious one. It has been received in various +quarters with the greater indulgence, inasmuch as the human mind is +prone in many cases to give a more welcome reception to seeming truths, +that present us at the first blush the appearance of falshood. + +It must however be recollected that the human mind consists in the first +instance merely of faculties prepared to be applied to certain purposes, +and susceptible of improvement. It cannot therefore happen, that the +man, who has chosen a subject towards which to direct the energy of his +faculties, who has sought on all sides for the materials that should +enable him to do that subject justice, who has employed upon it his +contemplations by day, and his meditations during the watches of the +night, should not by such exercise greatly invigorate his powers. In +this sense there was much truth in the observation of the author who +said, "I did not write upon the subject you mention because I understood +it; but I understood it afterward, because I had written upon it." + +The man who merely wanders through the fields of knowledge in search +of its gayest flowers and of whatever will afford him the most enviable +amusement, will necessarily return home at night with a very slender +collection. He that shall apply himself with self-denial and +an unshrinking resolution to the improvement of his mind, will +unquestionably be found more fortunate in the end. + +He is not deterred by the gulphs that yawn beneath his feet, or the +mountains that may oppose themselves to his progress. He knows that the +adventurer of timid mind, and that is infirm of purpose, will never make +himself master of those points which it would be most honourable to him +to subdue. But he who undertakes to commit to writing the result of +his researches, and to communicate his discoveries to mankind, is the +genuine hero. Till he enters on this task, every thing is laid up in +his memory in a certain confusion. He thinks he possesses a thing whole; +but, when he brings it to the test, he is surprised to find how much he +was deceived. He that would digest his thoughts and his principles into +a regular system, is compelled in the first place to regard them in all +their clearness and perspicuity, and in the next place to select the +fittest words by which they may be communicated to others. It is through +the instrumentality of words that we are taught to think accurately and +severely for ourselves; they are part and parcel of all our propositions +and theories. It is therefore in this way that a preceptor, by +undertaking to enlighten the mind of his pupil, enlightens his own. He +becomes twice the man in the sequel, that he was when he entered on his +task. We admire the amateur student in his public essays, as we admire +a jackdaw or a parrot: he does considerably more than could have been +expected from him. + +In attending to the subject of this Essay we have been led to observe +the different ways, in which the mind of man may be brought into +a position tending to exhibit its powers in a less creditable and +prepossessing point of view, than that in which all men, idiots and +extraordinary cases excepted, are by nature qualified to appear. Many, +not contented with those occupations, modest and humble in certain +cases, to which their endowments and original bent had designed them, +shew themselves immoderately set upon more alluring and splendid +pursuits in which they are least qualified to excel. Other instances +there are, still more entitled to our regret, where the individual is +seen to be gifted with no ordinary qualities, where his morning of life +has proved auspicious, and the highest expectations were formed of a +triumphant career, while yet in the final experiment he has been found +wanting, and the "voyage of his life" has passed "in shallows and in +miseries." + +But our survey of the subject of which I treat will not be complete, +unless we add to what has been said, another striking truth respecting +the imperfection of man collectively taken. The examples of which the +history of our species consists, not only abound in cases, where, from +mistakes in the choice of life, or radical and irremediable imperfection +in the adventurer, the most glaring miscarriages are found to +result,--but it is also true, that all men, even the most illustrious, +have some fatal weakness, obliging both them and their rational admirers +to confess, that they partake of human frailty, and belong to a race of +beings which has small occasion to be proud. Each man has his assailable +part. He is vulnerable, though it be only like the fabled Achilles in +his heel. We are like the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, of +which though the head was of fine gold, and the breast and the arms were +silver, yet the feet were partly only of iron, and partly of clay. No +man is whole and entire, armed at all points, and qualified for every +undertaking, or even for any one undertaking, so as to carry it through, +and to make the achievement he would perform, or the work he would +produce, in all its parts equal and complete. + +It is a gross misapprehension in such men as, smitten with admiration of +a certain cluster of excellencies, or series of heroic acts, are +willing to predicate of the individual to whom they belong, "This man +is consummate, and without alloy." Take the person in his retirement, in +his hours of relaxation, when he has no longer a part to play, and one +or more spectators before whom he is desirous to appear to advantage, +and you shall find him a very ordinary man. He has "passions, +dimensions, senses, affections, like the rest of his fellow-creatures, +is fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, warmed and +cooled by the same summer and winter." He will therefore, when narrowly +observed, be unquestionably found betraying human weaknesses, and +falling into fits of ill humour, spleen, peevishness and folly. No man +is always a sage; no bosom at all times beats with sentiments lofty, +self-denying and heroic. It is enough if he does so, "when the matter +fits his mighty mind." + +The literary genius, who undertakes to produce some consummate work, +will find himself pitiably in error, if he expects to turn it out of his +hands, entire in all its parts, and without a flaw. + +There are some of the essentials of which it is constituted, that he has +mastered, and is sufficiently familiar with them; but there are others, +especially if his work is miscellaneous and comprehensive, to which he +is glaringly incompetent. He must deny his nature, and become another +man, if he would execute these parts, in a manner equal to that which +their intrinsic value demands, or to the perfection he is able to give +to his work in those places which are best suited to his powers. There +are points in which the wisest man that ever existed is no stronger than +a child. In this sense the sublimest genius will be found infelix operas +summa, nam ponere totum nescit. And, if he properly knows himself, and +is aware where lies his strength, and where his weakness, he will look +for nothing more in the particulars which fall under the last of these +heads, than to escape as he can, and to pass speedily to things in which +he finds himself at home and at his ease. + +Shakespear we are accustomed to call the most universal genius that ever +existed. He has a truly wonderful variety. It is almost impossible +to pronounce in which he has done best, his Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, +or Othello. He is equally excellent in his comic vein as his tragic. +Falstaff is in his degree to the full as admirable and astonishing, as +what he achieved that is noblest under the auspices of the graver +muse. His poetry and the fruits of his imagination are unrivalled. His +language, in all that comes from him when his genius is most alive, has +a richness, an unction, and all those signs of a character which admits +not of mortality and decay, for ever fresh as when it was first uttered, +which we recognise, while we can hardly persuade ourselves that we +are not in a delusion. As Anthony Wood says(4), "By the writings of +Shakespear and others of his time, the English tongue was exceedingly +enriched, and made quite another thing than what it was before." His +versification on these occasions has a melody, a ripeness and variety +that no other pen has reached. + + + (4) Athenae Oxonienses, vol. i. p. 592. + + +Yet there were things that Shakespear could not do. He could not make +a hero. Familiar as he was with the evanescent touches of mind en +dishabille, and in its innermost feelings, he could not sustain the +tone of a character, penetrated with a divine enthusiasm, or fervently +devoted to a generous cause, though this is truly within the compass of +our nature, and is more than any other worthy to be delineated. He could +conceive such sentiments, for there are such in his personage of Brutus; +but he could not fill out and perfect what he has thus sketched. He +seems even to have had a propensity to bring the mountain and the +hill to a level with the plain. Caesar is spiritless, and Cicero is +ridiculous, in his hands. He appears to have written his Troilus and +Cressida partly with a view to degrade, and hold up to contempt, the +heroes of Homer; and he has even disfigured the pure, heroic affection +which the Greek poet has painted as existing between Achilles and +Patroclus with the most odious imputations. + +And, as he could not sustain an heroic character throughout, so neither +could he construct a perfect plot, in which the interest should be +perpetually increasing, and the curiosity of the spectator kept alive +and in suspense to the last moment. Several of his plays have an unity +of subject to which nothing is wanting; but he has not left us any +production that should rival that boast of Ancient Greece in the conduct +of a plot, the OEdipus Tyrannus, a piece in which each act rises upon +the act before, like a tower that lifts its head story above story to +the skies. He has scarcely ever given to any of his plays a fifth act, +worthy of those that preceded; the interest generally decreases after +the third. + +Shakespear is also liable to the charge of obscurity. The most sagacious +critics dispute to this very hour, whether Hamlet is or is not mad, +and whether Falstaff is a brave man or a coward. This defect is perhaps +partly to be imputed to the nature of dramatic writing. It is next to +impossible to make words, put into the mouth of a character, develop all +those things passing in his mind, which it may be desirable should be +known. + +I spoke, a short time back, of the language of Shakespear in his finest +passages, as of unrivalled excellence and beauty; I might almost have +called it miraculous. O, si sic omnia! It is to be lamented that this +felicity often deserts him. He is not seldom cramp, rigid and pedantic. +What is best in him is eternal, of all ages and times; but what is +worst, is crusted with an integument, almost more cumbrous than that of +any other writer, his contemporary, the merits of whose works continue +to invite us to their perusal. + +After Shakespear, it is scarcely worth while to bring forward any +other example, of a writer who, notwithstanding his undoubted claims to +excellencies of the highest order, yet in his productions fully displays +the inequality and non-universality of his genius. One of the most +remarkable instances may be alleged in Richardson, the author of +Clarissa. In his delineation of female delicacy, of high-souled +and generous sentiments, of the subtlest feelings and even mental +aberrations of virtuous distress strained beyond the power of human +endurance, nothing ever equalled this author. But he could not shape +out the image of a perfect gentleman, or of that winning gaiety of soul, +which may indeed be exemplified, but can never be defined, and never be +resisted. His profligate is a man without taste; and his coquettes are +insolent and profoundly revolting. He has no resemblance of the art, +so conspicuous in Fletcher and Farquhar, of presenting to the reader +or spectator an hilarity, bubbling and spreading forth from a perennial +spring, which we love as surely as we feel, which communicates its own +tone to the bystander, and makes our very hearts dance within us with +a responsive sportiveness. We are astonished however that the formal +pedant has acquitted himself of his uncongenial task with so great a +display of intellectual wealth; and, though he has not presented to us +the genuine picture of an intellectual profligate, or of that lovely +gaiety of the female spirit which we have all of us seen, but which it +is scarcely possible to fix and to copy, we almost admire the more the +astonishing talent, that, having undertaken a task for which it was so +eminently unfit, yet has been able to substitute for the substance so +amazing a mockery, and has treated with so much copiousness and power +what it was unfit ever to have attempted. + + + + +ESSAY IV. OF THE DURABILITY OF HUMAN ACHIEVEMENTS AND PRODUCTIONS. + +There is a view of the character of man, calculated more perhaps than +any other to impress us with reverence and awe. + +Man is the only creature we know, that, when the term of his natural +life is ended, leaves the memory of himself behind him. + +All other animals have but one object in view in their more considerable +actions, the supply of the humbler accommodations of their nature. Man +has a power sufficient for the accomplishment of this object, and a +residue of power beyond, which he is able, and which he not unfrequently +feels himself prompted, to employ in consecutive efforts, and thus, +first by the application and arrangement of material substances, and +afterward by the faculty he is found to possess of giving a permanent +record to his thoughts, to realise the archetypes and conceptions which +previously existed only in his mind. + +One method, calculated to place this fact strongly before us, is, to +suppose ourselves elevated, in a balloon or otherwise, so as to enable +us to take an extensive prospect of the earth on which we dwell. We +shall then see the plains and the everlasting hills, the forests and the +rivers, and all the exuberance of production which nature brings +forth for the supply of her living progeny. We shall see multitudes of +animals, herds of cattle and of beasts of prey, and all the varieties +of the winged tenants of the air. But we shall also behold, in a manner +almost equally calculated to arrest our attention, the traces and the +monuments of human industry. We shall see castles and churches, and +hamlets and mighty cities. We shall see this strange creature, man, +subjecting all nature to his will. He builds bridges, and he constructs +aqueducts. He "goes down to the sea in ships," and variegates the ocean +with his squadrons and his fleets. To the person thus mounted in the +air to take a wide and magnificent prospect, there seems to be a sort +of contest between the face of the earth, as it may be supposed to have +been at first, and the ingenuity of man, which shall occupy and possess +itself of the greatest number of acres. We cover immense regions of the +globe with the tokens of human cultivation. + +Thus the matter stands as to the exertions of the power of man in the +application and arrangement of material substances. + +But there is something to a profound and contemplative mind much more +extraordinary, in the effects produced by the faculty we possess of +giving a permanent record to our thoughts. + +From the development of this faculty all human science and literature +take their commencement. Here it is that we most distinctly, and with +the greatest astonishment, perceive that man is a miracle. Declaimers +are perpetually expatiating to us upon the shortness of human life. +And yet all this is performed by us, when the wants of our nature have +already by our industry been supplied. We manufacture these sublimities +and everlasting monuments out of the bare remnants and shreds of our +time. + +The labour of the intellect of man is endless. How copious is the +volume, and how extraordinary the variety, of our sciences and our +arts! The number of men is exceedingly great in every civilised state of +society, that make these the sole object of their occupation. And this +has been more or less the condition of our species in all ages, ever +since we left the savage and the pastoral modes of existence. + +From this view of the history of man we are led by an easy transition +to the consideration of the nature and influence of the love of fame in +modifying the actions of the human mind. We have already stated it to be +one of the characteristic distinctions of our species to erect monuments +which outlast the existence of the persons that produced them. This at +first was accidental, and did not enter the design of the operator. The +man who built himself a shed to protect him from the inclemency of +the seasons, and afterwards exchanged that shed for a somewhat more +commodious dwelling, did not at first advert to the circumstance that +the accommodation might last, when he was no longer capable to partake +of it. + +In this way perhaps the wish to extend the memory of ourselves beyond +the term of our mortal existence, and the idea of its being practicable +to gratify that wish, descended upon us together. In contemplating +the brief duration and the uncertainty of human life, the idea must +necessarily have occurred, that we might survive those we loved, or that +they might survive us. In the first case we inevitably wish more or less +to cherish the memory of the being who once was an object of affection +to us, but of whose society death has deprived us. In the second case +it can scarcely happen but that we desire ourselves to be kindly +recollected by those we leave behind us. So simple is the first germ +of that longing after posthumous honour, which presents us with so +memorable effects in the page of history. + +But, previously to the further consideration of posthumous fame, let us +turn our attention for a moment to the fame, or, as in that sense it +is more usually styled, popularity, which is the lot of a few favoured +individuals while they live. The attending to the subject in this point +of view, will be found to throw light upon the more extensive prospect +of the question to which we will immediately afterwards proceed. + +Popularity is an acquisition more level to the most ordinary capacities, +and therefore is a subject of more general ambition, than posthumous +fame. It addresses itself to the senses. Applause is a species of good +fortune to which perhaps no mortal ear is indifferent. The persons who +constitute the circle in which we are applauded, receive us with smiles +of approbation and sympathy. They pay their court to us, seem to be made +happy by our bare presence among them, and welcome us to their houses +with congratulation and joy. The vulgar portion of mankind scarcely +understand the question of posthumous fame, they cannot comprehend how +panegyric and honour can "soothe the dull, cold ear of death:" but +they can all conceive the gratification to be derived from applauding +multitudes and loud huzzas. + +One of the most obvious features however that attends upon popularity, +is its fugitive nature. No man has once been popular, and has lived +long, without experiencing neglect at least, if he were not also at some +time subjected to the very intelligible disapprobation and censure of +his fellows. The good will and kindness of the multitude has a devouring +appetite, and is like a wild beast that you should stable under your +roof, which, if you do not feed with a continual supply, will turn about +and attack its protector. + + One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,-- + That all, with one consent, praise new-born gauds, + And give to dust, that is a little gilt, + More laud than they will give to gold o'erdusted. + +Cromwel well understood the nature of this topic, when he said, as we +are told, to one of his military companions, who called his attention to +the rapturous approbation with which they were received by the crowd on +their return from a successful expedition, "Ah, my friend, they would +accompany us with equal demonstrations of delight, if, upon no distant +occasion, they were to see us going to be hanged!" + +The same thing which happens to the popularity attendant on the real +or imaginary hero of the multitude, happens also in the race after +posthumous fame. + +As has already been said, the number of men is exceedingly great +in every civilised state of society, who make the sciences and arts +engendered by the human mind, the sole or the principal objects of their +occupation. + +This will perhaps be most strikingly illustrated by a retrospect of +the state of European society in the middle, or, as they are frequently +styled, the dark ages. + +It has been a vulgar error to imagine, that the mind of man, so far as +relates to its active and inventive powers, was sunk into a profound +sleep, from which it gradually recovered itself at the period when +Constantinople was taken by the Turks, and the books and the teachers of +the ancient Greek language were dispersed through Europe. The epoch from +which modern invention took its rise, commenced much earlier. The feudal +system, one of the most interesting contrivances of man in society, was +introduced in the ninth century; and chivalry, the offspring of that +system, an institution to which we are mainly indebted for refinement +of sentiment, and humane and generous demeanour, in the eleventh. Out of +these grew the originality and the poetry of romance. + +These were no mean advancements. But perhaps the greatest debt which +after ages have contracted to this remote period, arose out of the +system of monasteries and ecclesiastical celibacy. Owing to these a +numerous race of men succeeded to each other perpetually, who were +separated from the world, cut off from the endearments of conjugal and +parental affection, and who had a plenitude of leisure for solitary +application. To these men we are indebted for the preservation of +the literature of Rome, and the multiplied copies of the works of the +ancients. Nor were they contented only with the praise of never-ending +industry. They forged many works, that afterwards passed for classical, +and which have demanded all the perspicacity of comparative criticism to +refute. And in these pursuits the indefatigable men who were dedicated +to them, were not even goaded by the love of fame. They were satisfied +with the consciousness of their own perseverance and ingenuity. + +But the most memorable body of men that adorned these ages, were the +Schoolmen. They may be considered as the discoverers of the art of +logic. The ancients possessed in an eminent degree the gift of genius; +but they have little to boast on the score of arrangement, and discover +little skill in the strictness of an accurate deduction. They rather +arrive at truth by means of a felicity of impulse, than in consequence +of having regularly gone through the process which leads to it. The +schools of the middle ages gave birth to the Irrefragable and +the Seraphic doctors, the subtlety of whose distinctions, and the +perseverance of whose investigations, are among the most wonderful +monuments of the intellectual power of man. The thirteenth century +produced Thomas Aquinas, and Johannes Duns Scotus, and William Occam, +and Roger Bacon. In the century before, Thomas a Becket drew around him +a circle of literary men, whose correspondence has been handed down to +us, and who deemed it their proudest distinction that they called each +other philosophers. The Schoolmen often bewildered themselves in their +subtleties, and often delivered dogmas and systems that may astonish +the common sense of unsophisticated understandings. But such is man. +So great is his persevering labour, his invincible industry, and the +resolution with which he sets himself, year after year, and lustre after +lustre, to accomplish the task which his judgment and his zeal have +commanded him to pursue. + +But I return to the question of literary fame. All these men, and men of +a hundred other classes, who laboured most commendably and gallantly in +their day, may be considered as swept away into the gulph of oblivion. +As Swift humorously says in his Dedication to Prince Posterity, "I had +prepared a copious list of Titles to present to your highness, as an +undisputed argument of the prolificness of human genius in my own time: +the originals were posted upon all gates and corner's of streets: but, +returning in a very few hours to take a review, they were all torn down, +and fresh ones put in their places. I enquired after them among readers +and booksellers, but in vain: the memorial of them was lost among men; +their place was no more to be found." + +It is a just remark that had been made by Hume(5): "Theories of abstract +philosophy, systems of profound theology, have prevailed during one +age. In a successive period these have been universally exploded; their +absurdity has been detected; other theories and systems have supplied +their place, which again gave way to their successors; and nothing has +been experienced more liable to the revolutions of chance and fashion +than these pretended decisions of science. The case is not the same with +the beauties of eloquence and poetry. Just expressions of passion and +nature are sure, after a little time, to gain public applause, which +they maintain for ever. Aristotle and Plato and Epicurus and Descartes +may successively yield to each other: but Terence and Virgil maintain +an universal, undisputed empire over the minds of men. The abstract +philosophy of Cicero has lost its credit: the vehemence of his oratory +is still the object of our admiration." + +(5) Essays, Part 1, Essay xxiii. + + +A few examples of the instability of fame will place this question in +the clearest light. + +Nicholas Peiresk was born in the year 1580. His progress in knowledge +was so various and unprecedented, that, from the time that he was +twenty-one years of age, he was universally considered as holding the +helm of learning in his hand, and guiding the commonwealth of letters. +He died at the age of fifty-seven. The academy of the Humoristi at Rome +paid the most extraordinary honours to his memory; many of the cardinals +assisted at his funeral oration; and a collection of verses in his +praise was published in more than forty languages. + +Salmasius was regarded as a prodigy of learning; and various princes +and powers entered into a competition who should be so fortunate as to +secure his residence in their states. Christina, queen of Sweden, +having obtained the preference, received him with singular reverence and +attention; and, Salmasius being taken ill at Stockholm, and confined to +his bed, the queen persisted with her own hand to prepare his caudles, +and mend his fire. Yet, but for the accident of his having had Milton +for his adversary, his name would now be as little remembered, even by +the generality of the learned, as that of Peiresk. + +Du Bartas, in the reign of Henry the Fourth of France, was one of the +most successful poets that ever existed. His poem on the Creation of the +World went through upwards of thirty editions in the course of five +or six years, was translated into most European languages, and +its commentators promised to equal in copiousness and number the +commentators on Homer. + +One of the most admired of our English poets about the close of the +sixteenth century, was Donne. Unlike many of those trivial writers of +verse who succeeded him after an interval of forty or fifty years, and +who won for themselves a brilliant reputation by the smoothness of their +numbers, the elegance of their conceptions, and the politeness of their +style, Donne was full of originality, energy and vigour. No man can +read him without feeling himself called upon for earnest exercise of +his thinking powers, and, even with the most fixed attention and +application, the student is often obliged to confess his inability +to take in the whole of the meaning with which the poet's mind was +perceptibly fraught. Every sentence that Donne writes, whether in verse +or prose, is exclusively his own. In addition to this, his thoughts are +often in the noblest sense of the word poetical; and passages may be +quoted from him that no English poet may attempt to rival, unless it be +Milton and Shakespear. Ben Jonson observed of him with great truth and a +prophetic spirit: "Donne for not being understood will perish." But this +is not all. If Waller and Suckling and Carew sacrificed every thing to +the Graces, Donne went into the other extreme. With a few splendid and +admirable exceptions, his phraseology and versification are crabbed and +repulsive. And, as poetry is read in the first place for pleasure, Donne +is left undisturbed on the shelf, or rather in the sepulchre; and +not one in an hundred even among persons of cultivation, can give any +account of him, if in reality they ever heard of his productions. + +The name of Shakespear is that before which every knee must bow. But it +was not always so. When the first novelty of his pieces was gone, they +were seldom called into requisition. Only three or four of his plays +were upon the acting list of the principal company of players during +the reign of Charles the Second; and the productions of Beaumont and +Fletcher, and of Shirley, were acted three times for once of his. At +length Betterton revived, and by his admirable representation gave +popularity to, Macbeth, Hamlet and Lear, a popularity they have ever +since retained. But Macbeth was not revived (with music, and alterations +by sir William Davenant) till 1674; and Lear a few years later, with +love scenes and a happy catastrophe by Nahum Tate. + +In the latter part of the reign of Charles the Second, Dryden and Otway +and Lee held the undisputed supremacy in the serious drama. + +Such was the insensibility of the English public to nature, and her high +priest, Shakespear. The only one of their productions that has survived +upon the theatre, is Venice Preserved: and why it has done so it is +difficult to say; or rather it would be impossible to assign a just and +honourable reason for it. All the personages in this piece are of an +abandoned and profligate character. Pierre is a man resolved to destroy +and root up the republic by which he was employed, because his mistress, +a courtesan, is mercenary, and endures the amorous visits of an +impotent old lecher. Jaffier, without even the profession of any public +principle, joins in the conspiracy, because he has been accustomed +to luxury and prodigal expence and is poor. He has however no sooner +entered into the plot, than he betrays it, and turns informer to the +government against his associates. Belvidera instigates him to this +treachery, because she cannot bear the thought of having her father +murdered, and is absurd enough to imagine that she and her husband shall +be tender and happy lovers ever after. Their love in the latter acts of +the play is a continued tirade of bombast and sounding nonsense, without +one real sentiment, one just reflection, or one strong emotion working +from the heart, and analysing the nature of man. The folly of this love +can only be exceeded, by the abject and despicable crouching and fawning +of Jaffier to the man he had so basely betrayed, and their subsequent +reconciliation. There is not a production in the whole realms of +fiction, that has less pretension to manly, or even endurable feeling, +or to common propriety. The total defect of a moral sense in this piece +is strongly characteristic of the reign in which it was written. It has +in the mean while a richness of melody, and a picturesqueness of action, +that enables it to delude, and that even draws tears from the eyes +of, persons who can be won over by the eye and the ear, with almost +no participation of the understanding. And this unmeaning rant and +senseless declamation sufficed for the time to throw into shade those +exquisite delineations of character, those transcendent bursts of +passion, and that perfect anatomy of the human heart, which render the +master-pieces of Shakespear a property for all nations and all times. + +While Shakespear was partly forgotten, it continued to be totally +unknown that he had contemporaries as inexpressibly superior to the +dramatic writers that have appeared since, as these contemporaries were +themselves below the almighty master of scenic composition. It was the +fashion to say, that Shakespear existed alone in a barbarous age, and +that all his imputed crudities, and intermixture of what was noblest +with unparalleled absurdity and buffoonery, were to be allowed for to +him on that consideration. + +Cowley stands forward as a memorable instance of the inconstancy of +fame. He was a most amiable man; and the loveliness of his mind shines +out in his productions. He had a truly poetic frame of soul; and he +pours out the beautiful feelings that possessed him unreservedly and +at large. He was a great sufferer in the Stuart cause, he had been a +principal member of the court of the exiled queen; and, when the king +was restored, it was a deep sentiment among his followers and friends +to admire the verses of Cowley. He was "the Poet." The royalist rhymers +were set lightly by in comparison with him. Milton, the republican, who, +by his collection published during the civil war, had shewn that he was +entitled to the highest eminence, was unanimously consigned to oblivion. +Cowley died in 1667; and the duke of Buckingham, the author of the +Rehearsal, eight years after, set up his tomb in the cemetery of the +nation, with an inscription, declaring him to be at once "the Pindar, +the Horace and Virgil of his country, the delight and the glory of +his age, which by his death was left a perpetual mourner."--Yet--so +capricious is fame--a century has nearly elapsed, since Pope said, + + Who now reads Cowley? If he pleases yet, + His moral pleases, not his pointed wit; + Forgot his epic, nay, Pindaric art, + But still I love the language of his heart. + +As Cowley was the great royalist poet after the Restoration, Cleveland +stood in the same rank during the civil war. In the publication of his +works one edition succeeded to another, yearly or oftener, for more than +twenty years. His satire is eminently poignant; he is of a strength and +energy of thinking uncommonly masculine; and he compresses his meaning +so as to give it every advantage. His imagination is full of coruscation +and brilliancy. His petition to Cromwel, lord protector of England, when +the poet was under confinement for his loyal principles, is a singular +example of manly firmness, great independence of mind, and a happy +choice of topics to awaken feelings of forbearance and clemency. It is +unnecessary to say that Cleveland is now unknown, except to such as feel +themselves impelled to search into things forgotten. + +It would be endless to adduce all the examples that might be found of +the caprices of fame. It has been one of the arts of the envious to set +up a contemptible rival to eclipse the splendour of sterling merit. Thus +Crowne and Settle for a time disturbed the serenity of Dryden. Voltaire +says, the Phaedra of Pradon has not less passion than that of Racine, +but expressed in rugged verse and barbarous language. Pradon is now +forgotten: and the whole French poetry of the Augustan age of Louis the +Fourteenth is threatened with the same fate. Hayley for a few years was +applauded as the genuine successor of Pope; and the poem of Sympathy +by Pratt went through twelve editions. For a brief period almost each +successive age appears fraught with resplendent genius; but they go out +one after another; they set, "like stars that fall, to rise no more." +Few indeed are endowed with that strength of construction, that should +enable them to ride triumphant on the tide of ages. + +It is the same with conquerors. What tremendous battles have been +fought, what oceans of blood have been spilled, by men who were resolved +that their achievements should be remembered for ever! And now even +their names are scarcely preserved; and the very effects of the +disasters they inflicted on mankind seem to be swept away, as of no more +validity than things that never existed. Warriors and poets, the authors +of systems and the lights of philosophy, men that astonished the earth, +and were looked up to as Gods, even like an actor on the stage, have +strutted their hour, and then been heard of no more. + +Books have the advantage of all other productions of the human head or +hand. Copies of them may be multiplied for ever, the last as good as +the first, except so far as some slight inadvertent errors may have +insinuated themselves. The Iliad flourishes as green now, as on the +day that Pisistratus is said first to have stamped upon it its present +order. The songs of the Rhapsodists, the Scalds, and the Minstrels, +which once seemed as fugitive as the breath of him who chaunted them, +repose in libraries, and are embalmed in collections. The sportive +sallies of eminent wits, and the Table Talk of Luther and Selden, may +live as long as there shall be men to read, and judges to appreciate +them. + +But other human productions have their date. Pictures, however +admirable, will only last as long as the colours of which they are +composed, and the substance on which they are painted. Three or four +hundred years ordinarily limit the existence of the most favoured. We +have scarcely any paintings of the ancients, and but a small portion of +their statues, while of these a great part are mutilated, and various +members supplied by later and inferior artists. The library of Bufo is +by Pope described, + + where busts of poets dead, + And a true Pindar stood without a head. + +Monumental records, alike the slightest and the most solid, are +subjected to the destructive operation of time, or to the being removed +at the caprice or convenience of successive generations. The pyramids +of Egypt remain, but the names of him who founded them, and of him +whose memory they seemed destined to perpetuate, have perished together. +Buildings for the use or habitation of man do not last for ever. Mighty +cities, as well as detached edifices, are destined to disappear. Thebes, +and Troy, and Persepolis, and Palmyra have vanished from the face of the +earth. + +"Thorns and brambles have grown up in their palaces: they are +habitations for serpents, and a court for the owl." + +There are productions of man however that seem more durable than any +of the edifices he has raised. Such are, in the first place, modes of +government. The constitution of Sparta lasted for seven hundred years. +That of Rome for about the same period. Institutions, once deeply +rooted in the habits of a people, will operate in their effects through +successive revolutions. Modes of faith will sometimes be still more +permanent. Not to mention the systems of Moses and Christ, which we +consider as delivered to us by divine inspiration, that of Mahomet +has continued for twelve hundred years, and may last, for aught that +appears, twelve hundred more. The practices of the empire of China are +celebrated all over the earth for their immutability. + +This brings us naturally to reflect upon the durability of the sciences. +According to Bailly, the observation of the heavens, and a calculation +of the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, in other words, astronomy, +subsisted in maturity in China and the East, for at least three thousand +years before the birth of Christ: and, such as it was then, it bids fair +to last as long as civilisation shall continue. The additions it has +acquired of late years may fall away and perish, but the substance shall +remain. The circulation of the blood in man and other animals, is a +discovery that shall never be antiquated. And the same may be averred +of the fundamental elements of geometry and of some other sciences. +Knowledge, in its most considerable branches shall endure, as long as +books shall exist to hand it down to successive generations. + +It is just therefore, that we should regard with admiration and awe the +nature of man, by whom these mighty things have been accomplished, at +the same time that the perishable quality of its individual monuments, +and the temporary character and inconstancy of that fame which in many +instances has filled the whole earth with its renown, may reasonably +quell the fumes of an inordinate vanity, and keep alive in us the +sentiment of a wholsome diffidence and humility. + + + + +ESSAY V. OF THE REBELLIOUSNESS OF MAN. + +There is a particular characteristic in the nature of the human mind, +which is somewhat difficult to be explained. + +Man is a being of a rational and an irrational nature. + +It has often been said that we have two souls. Araspes, in the +Cyropedia, adopts this language to explain his inconsistency, and +desertion of principle and honour. The two souls of man, according to +this hypothesis, are, first, animal, and, secondly, intellectual. + +But I am not going into any thing of this slight and every-day +character. + +Man is a rational being. It is by this particular that he is eminently +distinguished from the brute creation. He collects premises and deduces +conclusions. He enters into systems of thinking, and combines systems of +action, which he pursues from day to day, and from year to year. It is +by this feature in his constitution that he becomes emphatically the +subject of history, of poetry and fiction. It is by this that he is +raised above the other inhabitants of the globe of earth, and that the +individuals of our race are made the partners of "gods, and men like +gods." + +But our nature, beside this, has another section. We start occasionally +ten thousand miles awry. We resign the sceptre of reason, and the high +dignity that belongs to us as beings of a superior species; and, without +authority derived to us from any system of thinking, even without the +scheme of gratifying any vehement and uncontrolable passion, we are +impelled to do, or at least feel ourselves excited to do, something +disordinate and strange. It seems as if we had a spring within us, that +found the perpetual restraint of being wise and sober insupportable. +We long to be something, or to do something, sudden and unexpected, +to throw the furniture of our apartment out at window, or, when we are +leaving a place of worship, in which perhaps the most solemn feelings +of our nature have been excited, to push the grave person that is +just before us, from the top of the stairs to the bottom. A thousand +absurdities, wild and extravagant vagaries, come into our heads, and we +are only restrained from perpetrating them by the fear, that we may be +subjected to the treatment appropriated to the insane, or may perhaps be +made amenable to the criminal laws of our country. + +A story occurs to me, which I learned from the late Dr. Parr at Hatton, +that may not unhappily illustrate the point I am endeavouring to +explain. + +Dr. Samuel Clarke, rector of St. James's, Westminster, the especial +friend of Sir Isaac Newton, the distinguished editor of the poems of +Homer, and author of the Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of +God, was one day summoned from his study, to receive two visitors in +the parlour. When he came downstairs, and entered the room, he saw +a foreigner, who by his air seemed to be a person of distinction, a +professor perhaps of some university on the continent; and an alderman +of London, a relation of the doctor, who had come to introduce the +foreigner. The alderman, a man of uncultivated mind and manners, and +whom the doctor had been accustomed to see in sordid attire, surrounded +with the incumbrances of his trade, was decked out for the occasion in a +full-dress suit, with a wig of majestic and voluminous structure. Clarke +was, as it appears, so much struck with the whimsical nature of this +unexpected metamorphosis, and the extraordinary solemnity of his +kinsman's demeanour, as to have felt impelled, almost immediately upon +entering the room, to snatch the wig from the alderman's head, and throw +it against the ceiling: after which this eminent person immediately +escaped, and retired to his own apartment. I was informed from the same +authority, that Clarke, after exhausting his intellectual faculties by +long and intense study, would not unfrequently quit his seat, leap upon +the table, and place himself cross-legged like a tailor, being prompted, +by these antagonist sallies, to relieve himself from the effect of the +too severe strain he had previously put upon his intellectual powers. + +But the deviousness and aberration of our human faculties frequently +amount to something considerably more serious than this. + +I will put a case. + +I will suppose myself and another human being together, in some spot +secure from the intrusion of spectators. A musket is conveniently at +hand. It is already loaded. I say to my companion, "I will place myself +before you; I will stand motionless: take up that musket, and shoot me +through the heart." I want to know what passes in the mind of the man to +whom these words are addressed. + +I say, that one of the thoughts that will occur to many of the persons +who should be so invited, will be, "Shall I take him at his word?" + +There are two things that restrain us from acts of violence and crime. +The first is, the laws of morality. The second is, the construction that +will be put upon our actions by our fellow-creatures, and the treatment +we shall receive from them.--I put out of the question here any +particular value I may entertain for my challenger, or any degree of +friendship and attachment I may feel for him. + +The laws of morality (setting aside the consideration of any documents +of religion or otherwise I may have imbibed from my parents and +instructors) are matured within us by experience. In proportion as I am +rendered familiar with my fellow-creatures, or with society at large, I +come to feel the ties which bind men to each other, and the wisdom +and necessity of governing my conduct by inexorable rules. We are thus +further and further removed from unexpected sallies of the mind, and the +danger of suddenly starting away into acts not previously reflected on +and considered. + +With respect to the censure and retaliation of other men on my +proceeding, these, by the terms of my supposition, are left out of the +question. + +It may be taken for granted, that no man but a madman, would in the +case I have stated take the challenger at his word. But what I want to +ascertain is, why the bare thought of doing so takes a momentary hold of +the mind of the person addressed? + +There are three principles in the nature of man which contribute to +account for this. + +First, the love of novelty. + +Secondly, the love of enterprise and adventure. I become insupportably +wearied with the repetition of rotatory acts and every-day occurrences. +I want to be alive, to be something more than I commonly am, to change +the scene, to cut the cable that binds my bark to the shore, to launch +into the wide sea of possibilities, and to nourish my thoughts with +observing a train of unforeseen consequences as they arise. + +A third principle, which discovers itself in early childhood, and which +never entirely quits us, is the love of power. We wish to be assured +that we are something, and that we can produce notable effects upon +other beings out of ourselves. It is this principle, which instigates +a child to destroy his playthings, and to torment and kill the animals +around him. + +But, even independently of the laws of morality, and the fear of censure +and retaliation from our fellow-creatures, there are other things which +would obviously restrain us from taking the challenger in the above +supposition at his word. + +If man were an omnipotent being, and at the same time retained all +his present mental infirmities, it would be difficult to say of what +extravagances he would be guilty. It is proverbially affirmed that power +has a tendency to corrupt the best dispositions. Then what would not +omnipotence effect? + +If, when I put an end to the life of a fellow-creature, all vestiges of +what I had done were to disappear, this would take off a great part of +the control upon my actions which at present subsists. But, as it is, +there are many consequences that "give us pause." I do not like to see +his blood streaming on the ground. I do not like to witness the spasms +and convulsions of a dying man. Though wounded to the heart, he may +speak. Then what may be chance to say? What looks of reproach may he +cast upon me? The musket may miss fire. If I wound him, the wound may be +less mortal than I contemplated. Then what may I not have to fear? His +dead body will be an incumbrance to me. It must be moved from the place +where it lies. It must be buried. How is all this to be done by me? By +one precipitate act, I have involved myself in a long train of loathsome +and heart-sickening consequences. + +If it should be said, that no one but a person of an abandoned character +would fail, when the scene was actually before him, to feel an instant +repugnance to the proposition, yet it will perhaps be admitted, that +almost every reader, when he regards it as a supposition merely, says to +himself for a moment, "Would I? Could I?" + +But, to bring the irrationality of man more completely to the test, +let us change the supposition. Let us imagine him to be gifted with the +powers of the fabled basilisk, "to monarchise, be feared, and kill with +looks." His present impulses, his passions, his modes of reasoning +and choosing shall continue; but his "will is neighboured to his act;" +whatever he has formed a conception of with preference, is immediately +realised; his thought is succeeded by the effect; and no traces are +left behind, by means of which a shadow of censure or suspicion can be +reflected on him. + +Man is in truth a miracle. The human mind is a creature of celestial +origin, shut up and confined in a wall of flesh. We feel a kind of +proud impatience of the degradation to which we are condemned. We beat +ourselves to pieces against the wires of our cage, and long to escape, +to shoot through the elements, and be as free to change at any instant +the place where we dwell, as to change the subject to which our thoughts +are applied. + +This, or something like this, seems to be the source of our most +portentous follies and absurdities. This is the original sin upon which +St. Austin and Calvin descanted. Certain Arabic writers seem to have had +this in their minds, when they tell us, that there is a black drop +of blood in the heart of every man, in which is contained the fomes +peccati, and add that, when Mahomet was in the fourth year of his age, +the angel Gabriel caught him up from among his playfellows, and taking +his heart from his bosom, squeezed out of it this first principle of +frailty, in consequence of which he for ever after remained inaccessible +to the weaknesses of other men(6). + + + (6) Life of Mahomet, by Prideaux. + + +It is the observation of sir Thomas Browne: "Man is a noble animal, +splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave." One of the most remarkable +examples of this is to be found in the pyramids of Egypt. They are +generally considered as having been erected to be the tombs of the kings +of that country. They have no opening by which for the light of heaven +to enter, and afford no means for the accommodation of living man. An +hundred thousand men are said to have been constantly employed in the +building; ten years to have been consumed in hewing and conveying the +stones, and twenty more in completing the edifice. Of the largest the +base is a square, and the sides are triangles, gradually diminishing as +they mount in the air. The sides of the base are two hundred and twenty +feet in length, and the perpendicular height is above one hundred and +fifty-five feet. The figure of the pyramid is precisely that which is +most calculated for duration: it cannot perish by accident; and it would +require almost as much labour to demolish it, as it did to raise it at +first. + +What a light does this fact convey into the inmost recesses of the human +heart! Man reflects deeply, and with feelings of a mortified nature, +upon the perishableness of his frame, and the approaching close, so far +as depends upon the evidence of our senses, of his existence. He has +indeed an irrepressible "longing after immortality;" and this is one of +the various and striking modes in which he has sought to give effect to +his desire. + +Various obvious causes might be selected, which should be calculated to +give birth to the feeling of discontent. + +One is, the not being at home. + +I will here put together some of the particulars which make up the idea +of home in the most emphatical sense of the word. + +Home is the place where a man is principally at his ease. It is the +place where he most breathes his native air: his lungs play without +impediment; and every respiration brings a pure element, and a +cheerful and gay frame of mind. Home is the place where he most easily +accomplishes all his designs; he has his furniture and materials and the +elements of his occupations entirely within his reach. Home is the place +where he can be uninterrupted. He is in a castle which is his in full +propriety. No unwelcome guests can intrude; no harsh sounds can disturb +his contemplations; he is the master, and can command a silence equal to +that of the tomb, whenever he pleases. + +In this sense every man feels, while cribbed in a cabin of flesh, +and shut up by the capricious and arbitrary injunctions of human +communities, that he is not at home. + +Another cause of our discontent is to be traced to the disparity of the +two parts of which we are composed, the thinking principle, and the body +in which it acts. The machine which constitutes the visible man, bears +no proportion to our thoughts, our wishes and desires. Hence we are +never satisfied; we always feel the want of something we have not; and +this uneasiness is continually pushing us on to precipitate and abortive +resolves. + +I find in a book, entitled, Illustrations of Phrenology, by Sir George +Mackenzie, Baronet, the following remark. 'If this portrait be correctly +drawn, the right side does not quite agree with the left in the +region of ideality. This dissimilarity may have produced something +contradictory in the feelings of the person it represents, which he may +have felt extremely annoying(7).' An observation of this sort may be +urged with striking propriety as to the dissimilar attributes of the +body and the thinking principle in man. + + + + (7) The remark thus delivered is applied to the portrait of the author +of the present volume. + + +It is perhaps thus that we are to account for a phenomenon, in itself +sufficiently obvious, that our nature has within it a principle of +boundless ambition, a desire to be something that we are not, a feeling +that we are out of our place, and ought to be where we are not. This +feeling produces in us quick and earnest sallies and goings forth of the +mind, a restlessness of soul, and an aspiration after some object that +we do not find ourselves able to chalk out and define. + +Hence comes the practice of castle-building, and of engaging the soul in +endless reveries and imaginations of something mysterious and unlike +to what we behold in the scenes of sublunary life. Many writers, having +remarked this, have endeavoured to explain it from the doctrine of +a preexistent state, and have said that, though we have no clear and +distinct recollection of what happened to us previously to our being +launched in our present condition, yet we have certain broken and +imperfect conceptions, as if, when the tablet of the memory was cleared +for the most part of the traces of what we had passed through in some +other mode of being, there were a few characters that had escaped the +diligence of the hand by which the rest had been obliterated. + +It is this that, in less enlightened ages of the world, led men to +engage so much of their thoughts upon supposed existences, which, +though they might never become subject to our organs of vision, were yet +conceived to be perpetually near us, fairies, ghosts, witches, demons +and angels. Our ancestors often derived suggestions from these, were +informed of things beyond the ken of ordinary faculties, were tempted to +the commission of forbidden acts, or encouraged to proceed in the paths +of virtue. + +The most remarkable of these phenomena was that of necromancy, sorcery +and magic. There were men who devoted themselves to "curious arts," and +had books fraught with hidden knowledge. They could "bedim" + + + The noon-tide sun, call forth the mutinous winds, + And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault + Set roaring war: to the dread, rattling thunder + They could give fire, and rift even Jove's stout oak + With his own bolt--graves at their command + Have waked their sleepers, oped and let them forth. + + +And of these things the actors in them were so certain, that many +witches were led to the stake, their guilt being principally established +on their own confessions. But the most memorable matters in the history +of the black art, were the contracts which those who practised it not +unfrequently entered into with the devil, that he should assist them by +his supernatural power for ten or twenty years, and, in consideration of +this aid, they consented to resign their souls into his possession, when +the period of the contract was expired. + +In the animal creation there are some species that may be tamed, and +others whose wildness is irreclaimable. Horace says, that all men are +mad: and no doubt mankind in general has one of the features of madness. +In the ordinary current of our existence we are to a considerable degree +rational and tractable. But we are not altogether safe. I may converse +with a maniac for hours; he shall talk as soberly, and conduct himself +with as much propriety, as any other of the species who has never been +afflicted with his disease; but touch upon a particular string, and, +before you are aware of it, he shall fly out into the wildest and most +terrifying extravagances. Such, though in a greatly inferior degree, are +the majority of human beings. + +The original impulse of man is uncontrolableness. When the spirit of +life first descends upon us, we desire and attempt to be as free as air. +We are impatient of restraint. This is the period of the empire of will. +There is a power within us that wars against the restraint of another. +We are eager to follow our own impulses and caprices, and are with +difficulty subjected to those who believe they best know how to control +inexperienced youth in a way that shall tend to his ultimate advantage. + +The most moderate and auspicious method in which the old may endeavour +to guide and control the pursuits of the young, undoubtedly is by the +conviction of the understanding. But this is not always easy. It is not +at all times practicable fully to explain to the apprehension of a very +young person the advantage, which at a period a little more advanced he +would be able clearly to recognise. + +There is a further evil appertaining to this view of the subject. + +A young man even, in the early season of life, is not always disposed to +obey the convictions of his understanding. He has prescribed to himself +a task which returns with the returning day; but he is often not +disposed to apply. The very sense that it is what he conceives to be an +incumbent duty, inspires him with reluctance. + +An obvious source of this reluctance is, that the convictions of our +understanding are not always equally present to us. I have entered into +a deduction of premises, and arrived at a conclusion; but some of the +steps of the chain are scarcely obvious to me, at the time that I am +called upon to act upon the conclusion I have drawn. Beside which, +there was a freshness in the first conception of the reasons on which +my conduct was to be framed, which, by successive rehearsals, and +by process of time, is no longer in any degree spirit-stirring and +pregnant. + +This restiveness and impracticability are principally incident to us in +the period of youth. By degrees the novelties of life wear out, and we +become sober. We are like soldiers at drill, and in a review. At first +we perform our exercise from necessity, and with an ill grace. We had +rather be doing almost any thing else. + +By degrees we are reconciled to our occupation. We are like horses in a +manege, or oxen or dogs taught to draw the plough, or be harnessed to a +carriage. Our stubbornness is subdued; we no longer exhaust our strength +in vain efforts to free ourselves from the yoke. + +Conviction at first is strong. Having arrived at years of discretion, +I revolve with a sobered mind the different occupations to which my +efforts and my time may be devoted, and determine at length upon +that which under all the circumstances displays the most cogent +recommendations. Having done so, I rouse my faculties and direct my +energies to the performance of my task. By degrees however my resolution +grows less vigorous, and my exertions relax. I accept any pretence to be +let off, and fly into a thousand episodes and eccentricities. + +But, as the newness of life subsides, the power of temptation becomes +less. That conviction, which was at first strong, and gradually became +fainter and less impressive, is made by incessant repetitions a part +of my nature. I no more think of doubting its truth, than of my own +existence. Practice has rendered the pursuits that engage me more easy, +till at length I grow disturbed and uncomfortable if I am withheld from +them. They are like my daily bread. If they are not afforded me, I grow +sick and attenuated, and my life verges to a close. The sun is not surer +to rise, than I am to feel the want of my stated employment. + +It is the business of education to tame the wild ass, the restive and +rebellious principle, in our nature. The judicious parent or instructor +essays a thousand methods to accomplish his end. The considerate elder +tempts the child with inticements and caresses, that he may win his +attention to the first rudiments of learning. + +He sets before him, as he grows older, all the considerations +and reasons he can devise, to make him apprehend the advantage of +improvement and literature. He does his utmost to make his progress +easy, and to remove all impediments. He smooths the path by which he +is to proceed, and endeavours to root out all its thorns. He exerts his +eloquence to inspire his pupil with a love for the studies in which he +is engaged. He opens to him the beauties and genius of the authors he +reads, and endeavours to proceed with him hand in hand, and step by +step. He persuades, he exhorts, and occasionally he reproves. He awakens +in him the love of excellence, the fear of disgrace, and an ambition to +accomplish that which "the excellent of the earth" accomplished before +him. + +At a certain period the young man is delivered into his own hands, +and becomes an instructor to himself. And, if he is blessed with an +ingenuous disposition, he will enter on his task with an earnest desire +and a devoted spirit. No person of a sober and enlarged mind can for a +moment delude himself into the opinion that, when he is delivered into +his own hands, his education is ended. In a sense to which no one is +a stranger, the education of man and his life terminate together. We +should at no period of our existence be backward to receive information, +and should at all times preserve our minds open to conviction. We +should through every day of our lives seek to add to the stores of our +knowledge and refinement. But, independently of this more extended sense +of the word, a great portion of the education of the young man is left +to the direction of the man himself. The epoch of entire liberty is a +dangerous period, and calls upon him for all his discretion, that he +may not make an ill use of that, which is in itself perhaps the first of +sublunary blessings. The season of puberty also, and all the excitements +from this source, "that flesh is heir to," demand the utmost vigilance +and the strictest restraint. In a word, if we would counteract the +innate rebelliousness of man, that indocility of mind which is at all +times at hand to plunge us into folly, we must never slumber at our +post, but govern ourselves with steady severity, and by the dictates +of an enlightened understanding. We must be like a skilful pilot in a +perilous sea, and be thoroughly aware of all the rocks and quicksands, +and the multiplied and hourly dangers that beset our navigation. + +In this Essay I have treated of nothing more than the inherent +restiveness and indocility of man, which accompany him at least through +all the earlier sections and divisions of his life. I have not treated +of those temptations calculated to lead him into a thousand excesses and +miseries, which originate in our lower nature, and are connected with +what we call the passion of love. Nor have I entered upon the still +more copious chapter, of the incentives and provocations which are +administered to us by those wants which at all times beset us as living +creatures, and by the unequal distribution of property generally in +civil society. I have not considered those attributes of man which may +serve indifferently for good or for ill, as he may happen to be or not +to be the subject of those fiercer excitements, that will oft times +corrupt the most ingenuous nature, and have a tendency to inspire into +us subtle schemes and a deep contrivance. I have confined myself to +the consideration of man, as yet untamed to the modes of civilised +community, and unbroken to the steps which are not only prescribed by +the interests of our social existence, but which are even in some degree +indispensible to the improvement and welfare of the individual. I have +considered him, not as he is often acted upon by causes and motives +which seem almost to compel him to vice, but merely as he is restless, +and impatient, and disdainful both of the control of others, and the +shackles of system. + +For the same reason I have not taken notice of another species of +irrationality, and which seems to answer more exactly to the Arabic +notion of the fomes peccati, the black drop of blood at the bottom of +the heart. We act from motives apprehended by the judgment; but we do +not stop at them. Once set in motion, it will not seldom happen that we +proceed beyond our original mark. We are like Othello in the play: + + + Our blood begins our safer guides to rule; + And passion, having our best judgment quelled, + Assays to lead the way. + + +This is the explanation of the greatest enormities that have been +perpetrated by man, and the inhuman deeds of Nero and Caligula. We +proceed from bad to worse. The reins of our discretion drop from our +hands. It fortunately happens however, that we do not in the majority of +cases, like Phaeton in the fable, set the world on fire; but that, with +ordinary men, the fiercest excesses of passion extend to no greater +distance than can be reached by the sound of their voice. + + + + +ESSAY VI. OF HUMAN INNOCENCE. + +One of the most obvious views which are presented to us by man +in society is the inoffensiveness and innocence that ordinarily +characterise him. + +Society for the greater part carries on its own organization. Each man +pursues his proper occupation, and there are few individuals that feel +the propensity to interrupt the pursuits of their neighbours by personal +violence. When we observe the quiet manner in which the inhabitants of a +great city, and, in the country, the frequenters of the fields, the +high roads, and the heaths, pass along, each engrossed by his private +contemplations, feeling no disposition to molest the strangers he +encounters, but on the contrary prepared to afford them every courteous +assistance, we cannot in equity do less than admire the innocence of our +species, and fancy that, like the patriarchs of old, we have fallen in +with "angels unawares." + +There are a few men in every community, that are sons of riot and +plunder, and for the sake of these the satirical and censorious throw a +general slur and aspersion upon the whole species. + +When we look at human society with kind and complacent survey, we are +more than half tempted to imagine that men might subsist very well in +clusters and congregated bodies without the coercion of law; and in +truth criminal laws were only made to prevent the ill-disposed few +from interrupting the regular and inoffensive proceedings of the vast +majority. + +From what disposition in human nature is it that all this accommodation +and concurrence proceed? + +It is not primarily love. We feel in a very slight degree excited to +good will towards the stranger whom we accidentally light upon in our +path. + +Neither is it fear. + +It is principally forecast and prudence. We have a sensitiveness, that +forbids us for a slight cause to expose ourselves to we know not what. +We are unwilling to be disturbed. + +We have a mental vis inertiae, analogous to that quality in material +substances, by means of which, being at rest, they resist being put into +a state of motion. We love our security; we love our respectability; +and both of these may be put to hazard by our rashly and unadvisedly +thrusting ourselves upon the course of another. We like to act for +ourselves. We like to act with others, when we think we can foresee the +way in which the proposed transaction will proceed, and that it will +proceed to our wish. + +Let us put the case, that I am passing along the highway, destitute and +pennyless, and without foresight of any means by which I am to procure +the next meal that my nature requires. + +The vagrant, who revolves in his mind the thought of extorting from +another the supply of which he is urgently in need, surveys the person +upon whom he meditates this violence with a scrutinising eye. He +considers, Will this man submit to my summons without resistance, or in +what manner will he repel my trespass? He watches his eye, he measures +his limbs, his strength, and his agility. Though they have met in the +deserts of Africa, where there is no law to punish the violator, he +knows that he exposes himself to a fearful hazard; and he enters upon +his purpose with desperate resolve. All this and more must occur to the +man of violence, within the pale of a civilised community. + +Begging is the mildest form in which a man can obtain from the stranger +he meets, the means of supplying his urgent necessities. + +But, even here, the beggar knows that he exposes himself not only to +refusal, but to the harsh and opprobrious terms in which that refusal +may be conveyed. In this city there are laws against begging; and +the man that asks alms of me, is an offender against the state. In +country-towns it is usual to remark a notice upon entering, to say, +Whoever shall be found begging in this place, shall be set in the +stocks. + +There are modes however in which I may accost a stranger, with small +apprehension that I shall be made to repent of it. I may enquire of him +my way to the place towards which my business or my pleasure invites me. +Ennius of old has observed, that lumen de lumine, to light my candle +at my neighbour's lamp, is one of the privileges that the practices of +civil society concede. + +But it is not merely from forecast and prudence that we refrain from +interrupting the stranger in his way. We have all of us a certain degree +of kindness for a being of our own species. A multitude of men feel this +kindness for every thing that has animal life. We would not willingly +molest the stranger who has done us no injury. On the contrary we would +all of us to a certain extent assist him, under any unforeseen casualty +and tribulation. A part therefore of the innocence that characterises +our species is to be attributed to philanthropy. + +Childhood is diffident. Children for the most part are averse to the +addressing themselves to strangers, unless in cases where, from the mere +want of anticipation and reflection, they proceed as if they were wholly +without the faculty of making calculations and deducing conclusions. The +child neither knows himself nor the stranger he meets in his path. He +has not measured either the one or the other. He does not know what the +stranger may be able, or may likely be prompted to do to him, nor what +are his own means of defence or escape. He takes refuge therefore in a +wary, sometimes an obstinate silence. It is for this reason that a boy +at school often appears duller and more inept, than would be the amount +of a fair proportion to what he is found to be when grown up to a man. + +As we improve in judgment and strength, we know better ourselves and +others, and in a majority of instances take our due place in the ranks +of society. We acquire a modest and cautious firmness, yield what +belongs to another, and assert what is due to ourselves. To the last +however, we for the most part retain the inoffensiveness described in +the beginning of this Essay. + +How comes it then that our nature labours under so bitter an aspersion? +We have been described as cunning, malicious and treacherous. Other +animals herd together for mutual convenience; and their intercourse with +their species is for the most part a reciprocation of social feeling +and kindness. But community among men, we are told, is that condition of +human existence, which brings out all our evil qualities to the face +of day. We lie in wait for, and circumvent each other by multiplied +artifices. We cannot depend upon each other for the truth of what is +stated to us; and promises and the most solemn engagements often seem +as if they were made only to mislead. We are violent and deadly in our +animosities, easily worked up to ferocity, and satisfied with scarcely +any thing short of mutilation and blood. We are revengeful: we lay up an +injury, real or imaginary, in the store-house of an undecaying memory, +waiting only till we can repay the evil we have sustained tenfold, at a +time when our adversary shall be lulled in unsuspecting security. We +are rapacious, with no symptom that the appetite for gain within us will +ever be appeased; and we practise a thousand deceits, that it may be +the sooner, and to the greater degree glutted. The ambition of man is +unbounded; and he hesitates at no means in the course it prompts him to +pursue. In short, man is to man ever the most fearful and dangerous foe: +and it is in this view of his nature that the king of Brobdingnag says +to Gulliver, "I cannot but conclude the bulk of your race to be the most +pernicious generation of little, odious vermin, that were ever suffered +to crawl upon the surface of the earth." The comprehensive faculties of +man therefore, and the refinements and subtlety of his intellect, serve +only to render him the more formidable companion, and to hold us up as a +species to merited condemnation. + +It is obvious however that the picture thus drawn is greatly +overcharged, that it describes a very small part of our race, and that +even as to them it sets before us a few features only, and a partial +representation. + +History--the successive scenes of the drama in which individuals play +their part--is a labyrinth, of which no man has as yet exactly seized +the clue. + +It has long since been observed, that the history of the four great +monarchies, of tyrannies and free states, of chivalry and clanship, of +Mahometanism and the Christian church, of the balance of Europe and +the revolution of empires, is little else than a tissue of crimes, +exhibiting nations as if they were so many herds of ferocious animals, +whose genuine occupation was to tear each other to pieces, and to deform +their mother-earth with mangled carcases and seas of blood. + +But it is not just that we should establish our opinion of human nature +purely from the records of history. Man is alternately devoted to +tranquillity and to violence. But the latter only affords the proper +materials of narration. When he is wrought upon by some powerful +impulse, our curiosity is most roused to observe him. We remark his +emotions, his energies, his tempest. It is then that he becomes the +person of a drama. And, where this disquietude is not the affair of a +single individual, but of several persons together, of nations, it is +there that history finds her harvest. She goes into the field with all +the implements of her industry, and fills her storehouses and magazines +with the abundance of her crop. But times of tranquillity and peace +furnish her with no materials. They are dismissed in a few slight +sentences, and leave no memory behind. + +Let us divide this spacious earth into equal compartments, and see in +which violence, and in which tranquillity prevails. Let us look through +the various ranks and occupations of human society, and endeavour to +arrive at a conclusion of a similar sort. The soldier by occupation, +and the officer who commands him, would seem, when they are employed +in their express functions, to be men of strife. Kings and ministers of +state have in a multitude of instances fallen under this description. +Conquerors, the firebrands of the earth, have sufficiently displayed +their noxious propensities. + +But these are but a small part of the tenantry of the many-peopled +globe. Man lives by the sweat of his brow. The teeming earth is +given him, that by his labour he may raise from it the means of his +subsistence. Agriculture is, at least among civilised nations, the +first, and certainly the most indispensible of professions. The +profession itself is the emblem of peace. All its occupations, from +seed-time to harvest, are tranquil; and there is nothing which belongs +to it, that can obviously be applied to rouse the angry passions, and +place men in a frame of hostility to each other. Next to the cultivator, +come the manufacturer, the artificer, the carpenter, the mason, the +joiner, the cabinet-maker, all those numerous classes of persons, who +are employed in forming garments for us to wear, houses to live in, +and moveables and instruments for the accommodation of the species. All +these persons are, of necessity, of a peaceable demeanour. So are those +who are not employed in producing the conveniencies of life, but in +conducting the affairs of barter and exchange. Add to these, such as +are engaged in literature, either in the study of what has already been +produced, or in adding to the stock, in science or the liberal arts, +in the instructing mankind in religion and their duties, or in the +education of youth. "Civility," "civil," are indeed terms which express +a state of peaceable occupation, in opposition to what is military, and +imply a tranquil frame of mind, and the absence of contention, uproar +and violence. It is therefore clear, that the majority of mankind are +civil, devoted to the arts of peace, and so far as relates to acts of +violence innocent, and that the sons of rapine constitute the exception +to the general character. + +We come into the world under a hard and unpalatable law, "In the +sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." It is a bitter decree that is +promulgated against us, "He that will not work, neither shall he eat." +We all of us love to do our own will, and to be free from the manacles +of restraint. What our hearts "find us to do," that we are disposed +to execute "with all our might." Some men are lovers of strenuous +occupation. They build and they plant; they raise splendid edifices, and +lay out pleasure-grounds of mighty extent. Or they devote their minds to +the acquisition of knowledge; they + + ----outwatch the bear, + With thrice great Hermes, or unsphere + The spirit of Plato, to unfold + What worlds, or what vast regions hold + The immortal mind. + +Others again would waste perhaps their whole lives in reverie and +idleness. They are constituted of materials so kindly and serene, +that their spirits never flag from want of occupation and external +excitement. They could lie for ever on a sunny bank, in a condition +divided between thinking and no thinking, refreshed by the fanning +breeze, viewing the undulations of the soil, and the rippling of the +brook, admiring the azure heavens, and the vast, the bold, and the +sublime figure of the clouds, yielding themselves occasionally to +"thick-coming fancies," and day-dreams, and the endless romances of an +undisciplined mind; + + And find no end, in wandering mazes lost. + +But all men, alike the busy of constitution and the idle, would desire +to follow the impulses of their own minds, unbroken in upon by harsh +necessity, or the imperious commands of their fellows. + +We cannot however, by the resistless law of our existence, live, except +the few who by the accident of their birth are privileged to draw +their supplies from the labour of others, without exerting ourselves to +procure by our efforts or ingenuity the necessaries of food, lodging and +attire. He that would obtain them for himself in an uninhabited island, +would find that this amounted to a severe tax upon that freedom of +motion and thought which would otherwise be his inheritance. And he who +has his lot cast in a populous community, exists in a condition somewhat +analogous to that of a negro slave, except that he may to a limited +extent select the occupation to which he shall addict himself, or may at +least starve, in part or in whole, uncontroled, and at his choice. Such +is, as it were, the universal lot. + + 'Tis destiny unshunnable like death: + Even then this dire necessity falls on us, + When we do quicken. + + +I go forth in the streets, and observe the occupations of other men. +I remark the shops that on every side beset my path. It is curious and +striking, how vast are the ingenuity and contrivance of human beings, to +wring from their fellow-creatures, "from the hard hands of peasants" +and artisans, a part of their earnings, that they also may live. We +soon become feelingly convinced, that we also must enter into the vast +procession of industry, upon pain that otherwise, + + Like to an entered tide, they all rush by, + And leave you hindmost: there you lie, + For pavement to the abject rear, o'errun + And trampled on. + + +It is through the effect of this necessity, that civilised communities +become what they are. We all fall into our ranks. Each one is member of +a certain company or squadron. We know our respective places, and are +marshaled and disciplined with an exactness scarcely less than that of +the individuals of a mighty army. We are therefore little disposed to +interrupt the occupations of each other. We are intent upon the peculiar +employment to which we have become devoted. We "rise up early, and lie +down late," and have no leisure to trouble ourselves with the pursuits +of others. Hence of necessity it happens in a civilised community, that +a vast majority of the species are innocent, and have no inclination to +molest or interrupt each other's avocations. + +But, as this condition of human society preserves us in comparative +innocence, and renders the social arrangement in the midst of which we +exist, to a certain degree a soothing and agreeable spectacle, so on the +other hand it is not less true that its immediate tendency is, to clip +the wings of the thinking principle within us, and plunge the members +of the community in which we live into a barren and ungratifying +mediocrity. Hence it should be the aim of those persons, who from +their situation have more or less the means of looking through the +vast assemblage of their countrymen, of penetrating "into the seeds" of +character, and determining "which grain will grow, and which will not," +to apply themselves to the redeeming such as are worthy of their care +from the oblivious gulph into which the mass of the species is of +necessity plunged. It is therefore an ill saying, when applied in the +most rigorous extent, "Let every man maintain himself, and be his own +provider: why should we help him?" + +The help however that we should afford to our fellow-men requires of +us great discernment in its administration. The deceitfulness of +appearances is endless. And nothing can well be at the same time more +lamentable and more ludicrous, than the spectacle of those persons, the +weaver, the thresher, and the mechanic, who by injudicious patronage +are drawn from their proper sphere, only to exhibit upon a larger stage +their imbecility and inanity, to shew those moderate powers, which in +their proper application would have carried their possessors through +life with respect, distorted into absurdity, and used in the attempt to +make us look upon a dwarf, as if he were one of the Titans who in the +commencement of recorded time astonished the earth. + +It is also true to a great degree, that those efforts of the human +mind are most healthful and vigorous, in which the possessor of talents +"administers to himself," and contends with the different obstacles that +arise, + + --------throwing them aside, + And stemming them with hearts of controversy. + + +Many illustrious examples however may be found in the annals of +literature, of patronage judiciously and generously applied, where +men have been raised by the kindness of others from the obscurest +situations, and placed on high, like beacons, to illuminate the world. +And, independently of all examples, a sound application of the common +sense of the human mind would teach us, that the worthies of the earth, +though miracles, are not omnipotent, and that a certain aid, from those +who by counsel or opulence are enabled to afford it, have oft times +produced the noblest effects, have carried on the generous impulse that +works within us, and prompted us manfully to proceed, when the weakness +of our nature was ready to give in from despair. + +But the thing that in this place it was most appropriate to say, is, +that we ought not quietly to affirm, of the man whose mind nature or +education has enriched with extraordinary powers, "Let him maintain +himself, and be his own provider: why should we help him?" It is a thing +deeply to be regretted, that such a man will frequently be compelled to +devote himself to pursuits comparatively vulgar and inglorious, because +he must live. Much of this is certainly inevitable. But what glorious +things might a man with extraordinary powers effect, were he not hurried +unnumbered miles awry by the unconquerable power of circumstances? The +life of such a man is divided between the things which his internal +monitor strongly prompts him to do, and those which the external power +of nature and circumstances compels him to submit to. The struggle on +the part of his better self is noble and admirable. The less he gives +way, provided he can accomplish the purpose to which he has vowed +himself, the more he is worthy of the admiration of the world. If, in +consequence of listening too much to the loftier aspirations of his +nature, he fails, it is deeply to be regretted--it is a man to a certain +degree lost--but surely, if his miscarriage be not caused by undue +presumption, or the clouds and unhealthful atmosphere of self-conceit, +he is entitled to the affectionate sympathy and sorrow of every generous +mind. + + + + +ESSAY VII. OF THE DURATION OF HUMAN LIFE. + +The active and industrious portion of the human species in civilised +countries, is composed of those who are occupied in the labour of the +hand, and in the labour of the head. + +The following remarks expressly apply only to the latter of these +classes, principally to such as are occupied in productive literature. +They may however have their use to all persons a considerable portion of +whose time is employed in study and contemplation, as, if well founded, +they will form no unimportant chapter in the science of the human mind. + +In relation to all the members of the second class then, I should say, +that human life is made up of term and vacation, in other words, of +hours that may be intellectually employed, and of hours that cannot be +so employed. + +Human life consists of years, months and days: each day contains +twenty-four hours. Of these hours how many belong to the province of +intellect? + +"There is," as Solomon says, "a time for all things." There must be a +time for sleep, a time for recreation, a time for exercise, a time for +supplying the machine with nourishment, and a time for digestion. When +all these demands have been supplied, how many hours will be left for +intellectual occupation? + +These remarks, as I have said, are intended principally to apply to the +subject of productive literature. Now, of the hours that remain when +all the necessary demands of human life have been supplied, it is but a +portion, perhaps a small portion, that can be beneficially, judiciously, +employed in productive literature, or literary composition. + +It is true, that there are many men who will occupy eight, ten, or +twelve hours in a day, in the labour of composition. But it may be +doubted whether they are wisely so occupied. + +It is the duty of an author, inasmuch as he is an author, to consider, +that he is to employ his pen in putting down that which shall be fit for +other men to read. He is not writing a letter of business, a letter +of amusement, or a letter of sentiment, to his private friend. He is +writing that which shall be perused by as many men as can be prevailed +on to become his readers. If he is an author of spirit and ambition, +he wishes his productions to be read, not only by the idle, but by the +busy, by those who cannot spare time to peruse them but at the expence +of some occupations which ought not to be suspended without an adequate +occasion. He wishes to be read not only by the frivolous and the +lounger, but by the wise, the elegant, and the fair, by those who are +qualified to appreciate the merit of a work, who are endowed with a +quick sensibility and a discriminating taste, and are able to pass a +sound judgment on its beauties and defects. He advances his claim +to permanent honours, and desires that his lucubrations should be +considered by generations yet unborn. + +A person, so occupied, and with such aims, must not attempt to pass +his crudities upon the public. If I may parody a celebrated aphorism +of Quintilian, I would say, "Magna debetur hominibus reverentia(8):" in +other words, we should carefully examine what it is that we propose +to deliver in a permanent form to the taste and understanding of our +species. An author ought only to commit to the press the first fruits of +his field, his best and choicest thoughts. He ought not to take up the +pen, till he has brought his mind into a fitting tone, and ought to lay +it down, the instant his intellect becomes in any degree clouded, and +his vital spirits abate of their elasticity. + + + (8) Mankind is to be considered with reverence. + + +There are extraordinary cases. A man may have so thoroughly prepared +himself by long meditation and study, he may have his mind so charged +with an abundance of thought, that it may employ him for ten or twelve +hours consecutively, merely to put down or to unravel the conceptions +already matured in his soul. It was in some such way, that Dryden, +we are told, occupied a whole night, and to a late hour in the next +morning, in penning his Alexander's Feast. But these are the exceptions. +In most instances two or three hours are as much as an author can spend +at a time in delivering the first fruits of his field, his choicest +thoughts, before his intellect becomes in some degree clouded, and his +vital spirits abate of their elasticity. + +Nor is this all. He might go on perhaps for some time longer with a +reasonable degree of clearness. But the fertility which ought to be his +boast, is exhausted. He no longer sports in the meadows of thought, +or revels in the exuberance of imagination, but becomes barren and +unsatisfactory. Repose is necessary, and that the soil should be +refreshed with the dews of another evening, the sleep of a night, and +the freshness and revivifying influence of another morning. + +These observations lead, by a natural transition, to the question of the +true estimate and value of human life, considered as the means of the +operations of intellect. + +A primary enquiry under this head is as to the duration of life: Is it +long, or short? + +The instant this question is proposed, I hear myself replied to from +all quarters: What is there so well known as the brevity of human life? +"Life is but a span." It is "as a tale that is told." "Man cometh +forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and +continueth not." We are "as a sleep; or as grass: in the morning +it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and +withereth." + +The foundation of this sentiment is obvious. Men do not live for ever. +The longest duration of human existence has an end: and whatever it is +of which that may be affirmed, may in some sense be pronounced to be +short. The estimation of our existence depends upon the point of +view from which we behold it. Hope is one of our greatest enjoyments. +Possession is something. But the past is as nothing. Remorse may give it +a certain solidity; the recollection of a life spent in acts of virtue +may be refreshing. But fruition, and honours, and fame, and even pain, +and privations, and torment, when they ere departed, are but like a +feather; we regard them as of no account. Taken in this sense, Dryden's +celebrated verses are but a maniac's rant: + + To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have lived to-day: + Be fair, or foul, or rain, or shine, + The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate are mine. + Not heaven itself upon the past has power, + But what has been has been, and I have had my hour. + + +But this way of removing the picture of human life to a certain distance +from us, and considering those things which were once in a high degree +interesting as frivolous and unworthy of regard, is not the way by which +we shall arrive at a true and just estimation of life. Whatever is now +past, and is of little value, was once present: and he who would form a +sound judgment, must look upon every part of our lives as present in its +turn, and not suffer his opinion to be warped by the consideration of +the nearness or remoteness of the object he contemplates. + +One sentence, which has grown into a maxim for ever repeated, is +remarkable for the grossest fallacy: Ars longa, vita brevis(9). I would +fain know, what art, compared with the natural duration of human life +from puberty to old age, is long. + + + (9) Art is long; life is short. + + +If it is intended to say, that no one man can be expected to master all +possible arts, or all arts that have at one time or another been the +subject of human industry, this indeed is true. But the cause of this +does not lie in the limited duration of human life, but in the nature of +the faculties of the mind. Human understanding and human industry cannot +embrace every thing. When we take hold of one thing, we must let go +another. Science and art, if we would pursue them to the furthest extent +of which we are capable, must be pursued without interruption. It would +therefore be more to the purpose to say, Man cannot be for ever +young. In the stream of human existence, different things have their +appropriate period. The knowledge of languages can perhaps be most +effectually acquired in the season of nonage. + +At riper years one man devotes himself to one science or art, and +another man to another. This man is a mathematician; a second studies +music; a third painting. This man is a logician; and that man an orator. +The same person cannot be expected to excel in the abstruseness of +metaphysical science, and in the ravishing effusions of poetical genius. +When a man, who has arrived at great excellence in one department of art +or science, would engage himself in another, he will be apt to find the +freshness of his mind gone, and his faculties no longer distinguished by +the same degree of tenacity and vigour that they formerly displayed. It +is with the organs of the brain, as it is with the organs of speech, +in the latter of which we find the tender fibres of the child easily +accommodating themselves to the minuter inflections and variations of +sound, which the more rigid muscles of the adult will for the most part +attempt in vain. + +If again, by the maxim, Ars longa, vita brevis, it is intended to +signify, that we cannot in any art arrive at perfection; that in reality +all the progress we can make is insignificant; and that, as St. Paul +says, we must "not count ourselves to have already attained; but that, +forgetting the things that are behind, it becomes us to press forward +to the prize of our calling,"--this also is true. But this is only +ascribable to the limitation of our faculties, and that even the shadow +of perfection which man is capable to reach, can only be attained by +the labour of successive generations. The cause does not lie in the +shortness of human life, unless we would include in its protracted +duration the privilege of being for ever young; to which we ought +perhaps to add, that our activity should never be exhausted, the +freshness of our minds never abate, and our faculties for ever retain +the same degree of tenacity and vigour, as they had in the morning of +life, when every thing was new, when all that allured or delighted us +was seen accompanied with charms inexpressible, and, as Dryden expresses +it(10), "the first sprightly running" of the wine of life afforded a +zest never after to be hoped for. + + + (10) Aurengzebe. + + +I return then to the consideration of the alleged shortness of life. I +mentioned in the beginning of this Essay, that "human life consists of +years, months and days; each day containing twenty-four hours." But, +when I said this, I by no means carried on the division so far as it +might be carried. It has been calculated that the human mind is capable +of being impressed with three hundred and twenty sensations in a second +of time.(11) + + + (11) See Watson on Time, Chapter II. + + +"How infinitely rapid is the succession of thought! While I am speaking, +perhaps no two ideas are in my mind at the same time, and yet with +what facility do I slide from one to another! If my discourse be +argumentative, how often do I pass in review the topics of which it +consists, before I utter them; and, even while I am speaking, continue +the review at intervals, without producing any pause in my discourse! +How many other sensations are experienced by me during this period, +without so much as interrupting, that is, without materially diverting, +the train of my ideas! My eye successively remarks a thousand objects +that present themselves. My mind wanders to the different parts of my +body, and receives a sensation from the chair on which I sit, or the +table on which I lean. It reverts to a variety of things that occurred +in the course of the morning, in the course of yesterday, the most +remote from, the most unconnected with, the subject that might seem +wholly to engross me. I see the window, the opening of a door, the +snuffing of a candle. When these most perceptibly occur, my mind passes +from one to the other, without feeling the minutest obstacle, or being +in any degree distracted by their multiplicity(12)." + + + (12) Political Justice, Book IV, Chapter ix. + + +If this statement should appear to some persons too subtle, it may +however prepare us to form a due estimate of the following remarks. + +"Art is long." No, certainly, no art is long, compared with the natural +duration of human life from puberty to old age. There is perhaps no art +that may not with reasonable diligence be acquired in three years, that +is, as to its essential members and its skilful exercise. We may improve +afterwards, but it will be only in minute particulars, and only by fits. +Our subsequent advancement less depends upon the continuance of our +application, than upon the improvement of the mind generally, the +refining of our taste, the strengthening our judgment, and the +accumulation of our experience. + +The idea which prevails among the vulgar of mankind is, that we must +make haste to be wise. The erroneousness of this notion however has from +time to time been detected by moralists and philosophers; and it has +been felt that he who proceeds in a hurry towards the goal, exposes +himself to the imminent risk of never reaching it. + +The consciousness of this danger has led to the adoption of the modified +maxim, Festina lente, Hasten, but with steps deliberate and cautious. + +It would however be a more correct advice to the aspirant, to say, Be +earnest in your application, but let your march be vigilant and slow. + +There is a doggrel couplet which I have met with in a book on elocution: + + Learn to speak slow: all other graces + Will follow in their proper places. + +I could wish to recommend a similar process to the student in the course +of his reading. + +Toplady, a celebrated methodist preacher of the last age, somewhere +relates a story of a coxcomb, who told him that he had read over +Euclid's Elements of Geometry one afternoon at his tea, only leaving out +the A's and B's and crooked lines, which seemed to be intruded merely to +retard his progress. + +Nothing is more easy than to gabble through a work replete with the +profoundest elements of thinking, and to carry away almost nothing, when +we have finished. + +The book does not deserve even to be read, which does not impose on +us the duty of frequent pauses, much reflecting and inward debate, +or require that we should often go back, compare one observation and +statement with another, and does not call upon us to combine and knit +together the disjecta membra. + +It is an observation which has often been repeated, that, when we come +to read an excellent author a second and a third time, we find in him a +multitude of things, that we did not in the slightest degree perceive +in a first reading. A careful first reading would have a tendency in a +considerable degree to anticipate this following crop. + +Nothing is more certain than that a schoolboy gathers much of his most +valuable instruction when his lesson is not absolutely before him. +In the same sense the more mature student will receive most important +benefit, when he shuts his book, and goes forth in the field, and +ruminates on what he has read. It is with the intellectual, as with the +corporeal eye: we must retire to a certain distance from the object we +would examine, before we can truly take in the whole. We must view it +in every direction, "survey it," as Sterne says, "transversely, then +foreright, then this way, and then that, in all its possible directions +and foreshortenings(13);" and thus only can it be expected that we +should adequately comprehend it. + + + (13) Tristram Shandy, Vol. IV, Chap. ii. + + +But the thing it was principally in my purpose to say is, that it is one +of the great desiderata of human life, not to accomplish our purposes +in the briefest time, to consider "life as short, and art as long," and +therefore to master our ends in the smallest number of days or of years, +but rather to consider it as an ample field that is spread before us, +and to examine how it is to be filled with pleasure, with advantage, and +with usefulness. Life is like a lordly garden, which it calls forth all +the skill of the artist to adorn with exhaustless variety and beauty; or +like a spacious park or pleasure-ground, all of whose inequalities +are to be embellished, and whose various capacities of fertilisation, +sublimity or grace, are to be turned to account, so that we may wander +in it for ever, and never be wearied. + +We shall perhaps understand this best, if we take up the subject on a +limited scale, and, before we consider life in its assigned period of +seventy years, first confine our attention to the space of a single day. +And we will consider that day, not as it relates to the man who earns +his subsistence by the labour of his hands, or to him who is immersed in +the endless details of commerce. But we will take the case of the man, +the whole of whose day is to be disposed of at his own discretion. + +The attention of the curious observer has often been called to the +tediousness of existence, how our time hangs upon our hands, and in +how high estimation the art is held, of giving wings to our hours, and +making them pass rapidly and cheerfully away. And moralists of a +cynical disposition have poured forth many a sorrowful ditty upon the +inconsistency of man, who complains of the shortness of life, at +the same time that he is put to the greatest straits how to give an +agreeable and pleasant occupation to its separate portions. "Let us +hear no more," say these moralists, "of the transitoriness of human +existence, from men to whom life is a burthen, and who are willing to +assign a reward to him that shall suggest to them an occupation or an +amusement untried before." + +But this inconsistency, if it merits the name, is not an affair of +artificial and supersubtle refinement, but is based in the fundamental +principles of our nature. It is unavoidable that, when we have reached +the close of any great epoch of our existence, and still more when we +have arrived at its final term, we should regret its transitory nature, +and lament that we have made no more effectual use of it. And yet the +periods and portions of the stream of time, as they pass by us, will +often be felt by us as insufferably slow in their progress, and we would +give no inconsiderable sum to procure that the present section of our +lives might come to an end, and that we might turn over a new leaf in +the volume of existence. + +I have heard various men profess that they never knew the minutes +that hung upon their hands, and were totally unacquainted with what, +borrowing a term from the French language, we call ennui. I own I have +listened to these persons with a certain degree of incredulity, always +excepting such as earn their subsistence by constant labour, or as, +being placed in a situation of active engagement, have not the leisure +to feel apathy and disgust. + +But we are talking here of that numerous class of human beings, who +are their own masters, and spend every hour of the day at the choice of +their discretion. To these we may add the persons who are partially so, +and who, having occupied three or four hours of every day in discharge +of some function necessarily imposed on them, at the striking of a given +hour go out of school, and employ themselves in a certain industry or +sport purely of their own election. + +To go back then to the consideration of the single day of a man, all +of whose hours are at his disposal to spend them well or ill, at the +bidding of his own judgment, or the impulse of his own caprice. + +We will suppose that, when he rises from his bed, he has sixteen hours +before him, to be employed in whatever mode his will shall decide. I +bar the case of travelling, or any of those schemes for passing the day, +which by their very nature take the election out of his hands, and fill +up his time with a perpetual motion, the nature of which is ascertained +from the beginning. + +With such a man then it is in the first place indispensibly necessary, +that he should have various successive occupations. There is no one +study or intellectual enquiry to which a man can apply sixteen hours +consecutively, unless in some extraordinary instances which can occur +but seldom in the course of a life. And even then the attention will +from time to time relax, and the freshness of mental zeal and activity +give way, though perhaps, after the lapse of a few minutes they may be +revived and brought into action again. + +In the ordinary series of human existence it is desirable that, in +the course of the same day, a man should have various successive +occupations. I myself for the most part read in one language at one part +of the day, and in another at another. I am then in the best health and +tone of spirits, when I employ two or three hours, and no more, in the +act of writing and composition. There must also in the sixteen hours +be a time for meals. There should be a time for fresh air and bodily +exercise. It is in the nature of man, that we should spend a part of +every day in the society of our fellows, either at public spectacles and +places of concourse, or in the familiar interchange of conversation +with one, two, or more persons with whom we can give ourselves up to +unrestrained communication. All human life, as I have said, every day +of our existence, consists of term and vacation; and the perfection +of practical wisdom is to interpose these one with another, so as to +produce a perpetual change, a well-chosen relief, and a freshness and +elastic tone which may bid defiance to weariness. + +Taken then in this point of view, what an empire does the man of leisure +possess in each single day of his life! He disposes of his hours much +in the same manner, as the commander of a company of men whom it is his +business to train in the discipline of war. + +This officer directs one party of his men to climb a mountain, and +another to ford or swim a stream which rushes along the valley. He +orders this set to rush forward with headlong course, and the other +to wheel, and approach by circuitous progress perhaps to the very same +point. He marches them to the right and the left. He then dismisses them +from the scene of exercise, to furbish their arms, to attend to their +accoutrements, or to partake of necessary refection. Not inferior to +this is the authority of the man of leisure in disposing of the hours +of one single day of his existence. And human life consists of many +such days, there being three hundred and sixty-five in each year that we +live. + +How infinitely various may be the occupations of the life of man from +puberty to old age! We may acquire languages; we may devote ourselves +to arts; we may give ourselves up to the profoundness of science. Nor is +any one of these objects incompatible with the others, nor is there +any reason why the same man should not embrace many. We may devote one +portion of the year to travelling, and another to all the abstractions +of study. I remember when I was a boy, looking forward with terror to +the ample field of human life, and saying, When I have read through all +the books that have been written, what shall I do afterwards? And there +is infinitely more sense in this, than in the ludicrous exclamations of +men who complain of the want of time, and say that life affords them no +space in which to act their imaginings. + +On the contrary, when a man has got to the end of one art or course of +study, he is compelled to consider what he shall do next. And, when +we have gone through a cycle of as many acquisitions, as, from the +limitation of human faculties, are not destructive of each other, we +shall find ourselves frequently reduced to the beginning some of them +over again. Nor is this the least agreeable occupation of human leisure. +The book that I read when I was a boy, presents quite a new face to me +as I advance in the vale of years. The same words and phrases suggest to +me a new train of ideas. And it is no mean pleasure that I derive from +the singular sensation of finding the same author and the same book, +old and yet not old, presenting to me cherished and inestimable +recollections, and at the same time communicating mines of wealth, the +shaft of which was till now unexplored. + +The result then of these various observations is to persuade the +candid and ingenuous man, to consider life as an important and ample +possession, to resolve that it shall be administered with as much +judgment and deliberation as a person of true philanthropy and wisdom +would administer a splendid income, and upon no occasion so much to +think upon the point of in how short a time an interesting pursuit is +to be accomplished, as by what means it shall be accomplished in a +consummate and masterly style. Let us hear no more, from those who have +to a considerable degree the command of their hours, the querulous and +pitiful complaint that they have no time to do what they ought to do and +would wish to do; but let them feel that they have a gigantic store of +minutes and hours and days and months, abundantly sufficient to enable +them to effect what it is especially worthy of a noble mind to perform! + + + + +ESSAY VIII. OF HUMAN VEGETATION. + +There is another point of view from which we may look at the subject of +time as it is concerned with the business of human life, that will lead +us to conclusions of a very different sort from those which are set down +in the preceding Essay. + +Man has two states of existence in a striking degree distinguished from +each other: the state in which he is found during his waking hours; and +the state in which he is during sleep. + +The question has been agitated by Locke and other philosophers, "whether +the soul always thinks," in other words, whether the mind, during those +hours in which our limbs lie for the most part in a state of +inactivity, is or is not engaged by a perpetual succession of images and +impressions. This is a point that can perhaps never be settled. When the +empire of sleep ceases, or when we are roused from sleep, we are often +conscious that we have been to that moment busily employed with that +sort of conceptions and scenes which we call dreams. And at times when, +on waking, we have no such consciousness, we can never perhaps be sure +that the shock that waked us, had not the effect of driving away these +fugitive and unsubstantial images. There are men who are accustomed to +say, they never dream. If in reality the mind of man, from the hour of +his birth, must by the law of its nature be constantly occupied with +sensations or images (and of the contrary we can never be sure), then +these men are all their lives in the state of persons, upon whom the +shock that wakes them, has the effect of driving away such fugitive +and unsubstantial images.--Add to which, there may be sensations in +the human subject, of a species confused and unpronounced, which never +arrive at that degree of distinctness as to take the shape of what we +call dreaming. + +So much for man in the state of sleep. + +But during our waking hours, our minds are very differently occupied at +different periods of the day. I would particularly distinguish the two +dissimilar states of the waking man, when the mind is indolent, and when +it is on the alert. + +While I am writing this Essay, my mind may be said to be on the alert. +It is on the alert, so long as I am attentively reading a book of +philosophy, of argumentation, of eloquence, or of poetry. + +It is on the alert, so long as I am addressing a smaller or a greater +audience, and endeavouring either to amuse or instruct them. It is on +the alert, while in silence and solitude I endeavour to follow a train +of reasoning, to marshal and arrange a connected set of ideas, or in any +other way to improve my mind, to purify my conceptions, and to advance +myself in any of the thousand kinds of intellectual process. It is on +the alert, when I am engaged in animated conversation, whether my cue +be to take a part in the reciprocation of alternate facts and remarks in +society, or merely to sit an attentive listener to the facts and remarks +of others. + +This state of the human mind may emphatically be called the state of +activity and attention. + +So long as I am engaged in any of the ways here enumerated, or in any +other equally stirring mental occupations which are not here set down, +my mind is in a frame of activity. + +But there is another state in which men pass their minutes and hours, +that is strongly contrasted with this. It depends in some men upon +constitution, and in others upon accident, how their time shall be +divided, how much shall be given to the state of activity, and how much +to the state of indolence. + +In an Essay I published many years ago there is this passage. + +"The chief point of difference between the man of talent and the +man without, consists in the different ways in which their minds are +employed during the same interval. They are obliged, let us suppose, +to walk from Temple-Bar to Hyde-Park-Corner. The dull man goes straight +forward; he has so many furlongs to traverse. He observes if he meets +any of his acquaintance; he enquires respecting their health and their +family. He glances perhaps the shops as he passes; he admires the +fashion of a buckle, and the metal of a tea-urn. If he experiences any +flights of fancy, they are of a short extent; of the same nature as the +flights of a forest-bird, clipped of his wings, and condemned to pass +the rest of his life in a farm-yard. On the other hand the man of talent +gives full scope to his imagination. He laughs and cries. Unindebted to +the suggestions of surrounding objects, his whole soul is employed. +He enters into nice calculations; he digests sagacious reasonings. +In imagination he declaims or describes, impressed with the deepest +sympathy, or elevated to the loftiest rapture. He makes a thousand +new and admirable combinations. He passes through a thousand imaginary +scenes, tries his courage, tasks his ingenuity, and thus becomes +gradually prepared to meet almost any of the many-coloured events of +human life. He consults by the aid of memory the books he has read, and +projects others for the future instruction and delight of mankind. If he +observe the passengers, he reads their countenances, conjectures their +past history, and forms a superficial notion of their wisdom or folly, +their virtue or vice, their satisfaction or misery. If he observe the +scenes that occur, it is with the eye of a connoisseur or an artist. +Every object is capable of suggesting to him a volume of reflections. +The time of these two persons in one respect resembles; it has brought +them both to Hyde-Park-Corner. In almost every other respect it is +dissimilar;(14)." + + + (14) Enquirer, Part 1, Essay V. + + +This passage undoubtedly contains a true description of what may happen, +and has happened. + +But there lurks in this statement a considerable error. + +It has appeared in the second Essay of this volume, that there is not +that broad and strong line of distinction between the wise man and the +dull that has often been supposed. We are all of us by turns both the +one and the other. Or, at least, the wisest man that ever existed +spends a portion of his time in vacancy and dulness; and the man, whose +faculties are seemingly the most obtuse, might, under proper management +from the hour of his birth, barring those rare exceptions from the +ordinary standard of mind which do not deserve to be taken into the +account, have proved apt, adroit, intelligent and acute, in the walk for +which his organisation especially fitted him(15). + + + (15) See above, Essay 3. + + +Many men without question, in a walk of the same duration as that above +described between Temple-Bar and Hyde-Park-Corner, have passed their +time in as much activity, and amidst as strong and various excitements, +as those enumerated in the passage above quoted. + +But the lives of all men, the wise, and those whom by way of contrast +we are accustomed to call the dull, are divided between animation and +comparative vacancy; and many a man, who by the bursts of his genius has +astonished the world, and commanded the veneration of successive +ages, has spent a period of time equal to that occupied by a walk from +Temple-Bar to Hyde-Park-Corner, in a state of mind as idle, and as +little affording materials for recollection, as the dullest man that +ever breathed the vital air. + +The two states of man which are here attempted to be distinguished, are, +first, that in which reason is said to fill her throne, in which will +prevails, and directs the powers of mind or of bodily action in one +channel or another; and, secondly, that in which these faculties, tired +of for ever exercising their prerogatives, or, being awakened as it were +from sleep, and having not yet assumed them, abandon the helm, even as +a mariner might be supposed to do, in a wide sea, and in a time when +no disaster could be apprehended, and leave the vessel of the mind to +drift, exactly as chance might direct. + +To describe this last state of mind I know not a better term that can +be chosen, than that of reverie. It is of the nature of what I have seen +denominated BROWN STUDY(16) a species of dozing and drowsiness, in which +all men spend a portion of the waking part of every day of their lives. +Every man must be conscious of passing minutes, perhaps hours of the +day, particularly when engaged in exercise in the open air, in this +species of neutrality and eviration. It is often not unpleasant at the +time, and leaves no sinking of the spirits behind. It is probably of +a salutary nature, and may be among the means, in a certain degree +beneficial like sleep, by which the machine is restored, and the man +comes forth from its discipline reinvigorated, and afresh capable of his +active duties. + + + (16) Norris, and Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language. + + +This condition of our nature has considerably less vitality in it, than +we experience in a complete and perfect dream. In dreaming we are often +conscious of lively impressions, of a busy scene, and of objects and +feelings succeeding each other with rapidity. We sometimes imagine +ourselves earnestly speaking: and the topics we treat, and the words we +employ, are supplied to us with extraordinary fluency. But the sort +of vacancy and inoccupation of which I here treat, has a greater +resemblance to the state of mind, without distinct and clearly unfolded +ideas, which we experience before we sink into sleep. The mind is in +reality in a condition, more properly accessible to feeling and capable +of thought, than actually in the exercise of either the one or the +other. We are conscious of existence and of little more. We move our +legs, and continue in a peripatetic state; for the man who has gone out +of his house with a purpose to walk, exercises the power of volition +when he sets out, but proceeds in his motion by a semi-voluntary act, +by a sort of vis inertiae, which will not cease to operate without +an express reason for doing so, and advances a thousand steps without +distinctly willing any but the first. When it is necessary to turn to +the right or the left, or to choose between any two directions on which +he is called upon to decide, his mind is so far brought into action as +the case may expressly require, and no further. + +I have here instanced in the case of the peripatetic: but of how +many classes and occupations of human life may not the same thing be +affirmed? It happens to the equestrian, as well as to him that walks on +foot. It occurs to him who cultivates the fruits of the earth, and to +him who is occupied in any of the thousand manufactures which are the +result of human ingenuity. It happens to the soldier in his march, and +to the mariner on board his vessel. It attends the individuals of +the female sex through all their diversified modes of industry, the +laundress, the housemaid, the sempstress, the netter of purses, the +knotter of fringe, and the worker in tambour, tapestry and embroidery. +In all, the limbs or the fingers are employed mechanically; the +attention of the mind is only required at intervals; and the thoughts +remain for the most part in a state of non-excitation and repose. + +It is a curious question, but extremely difficult of solution, what +portion of the day of every human creature must necessarily be spent in +this sort of intellectual indolence. In the lower classes of society its +empire is certainly very great; its influence is extensive over a large +portion of the opulent and luxurious; it is least among those who are +intrusted in the more serious affairs of mankind, and among the +literary and the learned, those who waste their lives, and consume the +midnight-oil, in the search after knowledge. + +It appeared with sufficient clearness in the immediately preceding +Essay, that the intellect cannot be always on the stretch, nor the bow +of the mind for ever bent. In the act of composition, unless where the +province is of a very inferior kind, it is likely that not more than two +or three hours at a time can be advantageously occupied. But in literary +labour it will often occur, that, in addition to the hours expressly +engaged in composition, much time may be required for the collecting +materials, the collating of authorities, and the bringing together a +variety of particulars, so as to sift from the mass those circumstances +which may best conduce to the purpose of the writer. In all these +preliminary and inferior enquiries it is less necessary that the mind +should be perpetually awake and on the alert, than in the direct +office of composition. The situation is considerably similar of the +experimental philosopher, the man who by obstinate and unconquerable +application resolves to wrest from nature her secrets, and apply them +to the improvement of social life, or to the giving to the human mind +a wider range or a more elevated sphere. A great portion of this +employment consists more in the motion of the hands and the opportune +glance of the eye, than in the labour of the head, and allows to the +operator from time to time an interval of rest from the momentous +efforts of invention and discovery, and the careful deduction of +consequences in the points to be elucidated. + +There is a distinction, sufficiently familiar to all persons who occupy +a portion of their time in reading, that is made between books of +instruction, and books of amusement. From the student of mathematics or +any of the higher departments of science, from the reader of books of +investigation and argument, an active attention is demanded. Even in the +perusal of the history of kingdoms and nations, or of certain +memorable periods of public affairs, we can scarcely proceed with any +satisfaction, unless in so far as we collect our thoughts, compare one +part of the narrative with another, and hold the mind in a state of +activity. + +We are obliged to reason while we read, and in some degree to construct +a discourse of our own, at the same time that we follow the statements +of the author before us. Unless we do this, the sense and spirit of what +we read will be apt to slip from under our observation, and we shall by +and by discover that we are putting together words and sounds only, +when we purposed to store our minds with facts and reflections. We +apprehended not the sense of the writer even when his pages were under +our eye, and of consequence have nothing laid up in the memory after the +hour of reading is completed. + +In works of amusement it is otherwise, and most especially in writings +of fiction. These are sought after with avidity by the idle, because +for the most part they are found to have the virtue of communicating +impressions to the reader, even while his mind remains in a state of +passiveness. He finds himself agreeably affected with fits of mirth or +of sorrow, and carries away the facts of the tale, at the same time that +he is not called upon for the act of attention. This is therefore one of +the modes of luxury especially cultivated in a highly civilized state of +society. + +The same considerations will also explain to us the principal part of +the pleasure that is experienced by mankind in all states of society +from public shews and exhibitions. The spectator is not called upon to +exert himself; the amusement and pleasure come to him, while he remains +voluptuously at his ease; and it is certain that the exertion we make +when we are compelled to contribute to, and become in part the cause +of our own entertainment, is more than the human mind is willing to +sustain, except at seasons in which we are specially on the alert and +awake. + +This is further one of the causes why men in general feel prompted to +seek the society of their fellows. We are in part no doubt called upon +in select society to bring our own information along with us, and a +certain vein of wit, humour or narrative, that we may contribute our +proportion to the general stock. We read the newspapers, the newest +publications, and repair to places of fashionable amusement and resort; +partly that we may at least be upon a par with the majority of the +persons we are likely to meet. But many do not thus prepare themselves, +nor does perhaps any one upon all occasions. + +There is another state of human existence in which we expressly dismiss +from our hands the reins of the mind, and suffer our minutes and our +hours to glide by us undisciplined and at random. + +This is, generally speaking, the case in a period of sickness. We have +no longer the courage to be on the alert, and to superintend the march +of our thoughts. It is the same with us for the most part when at any +time we lie awake in our beds. To speak from my own experience, I am in +a restless and uneasy state while I am alone in my sitting-room, unless +I have some occupation of my own choice, writing or reading, or any of +those employments the pursuit of which was chosen at first, and which is +more or less under the direction of the will afterwards. But when awake +in my bed, either in health or sickness, I am reasonably content to let +my thoughts flow on agreeably to those laws of association by which I +find them directed, without giving myself the trouble to direct them +into one channel rather than another, or to marshal and actively to +prescribe the various turns and mutations they may be impelled to +pursue. + +It is thus that we are sick; and it is thus that we die. The man that +guides the operations of his own mind, is either to a certain degree +in bodily health, or in that health of mind which shall for a longer or +shorter time stand forward as the substitute of the health of the body. +When we die, we give up the game, and are not disposed to contend any +further. It is a very usual thing to talk of the struggles of a man in +articulo mortis. But this is probably, like so many other things that +occur to us in this sublunary stage, a delusion. The bystander mistakes +for a spontaneous contention and unwillingness to die, what is in +reality nothing more than an involuntary contraction and convulsion of +the nerves, to which the mind is no party, and is even very probably +unconscious.--But enough of this, the final and most humiliating state +through which mortal men may be called on to pass. + +I find then in the history of almost every human creature four different +states or modes of existence. First, there is sleep. In the strongest +degree of contrast to this there is the frame in which we find +ourselves, when we write! or invent and steadily pursue a consecutive +train of thinking unattended with the implements of writing, or read +in some book of science or otherwise which calls upon us for a fixed +attention, or address ourselves to a smaller or greater audience, or are +engaged in animated conversation. In each of these occupations the mind +may emphatically be said to be on the alert. + +But there are further two distinct states or kinds of mental indolence. +The first is that which we frequently experience during a walk or any +other species of bodily exercise, where, when the whole is at an end, +we scarcely recollect any thing in which the mind has been employed, but +have been in what I may call a healthful torpor, where our limbs have +been sufficiently in action to continue our exercise, we have felt the +fresh breeze playing on our cheeks, and have been in other respects in +a frame of no unpleasing neutrality. This may be supposed greatly to +contribute to our bodily health. It is the holiday of the faculties: +and, as the bow, when it has been for a considerable time unbent, is +said to recover its elasticity, so the mind, after a holiday of this +sort, comes fresh, and with an increased alacrity, to those occupations +which advance man most highly in the scale of being. + +But there is a second state of mental indolence, not so complete as +this, but which is still indolence, inasmuch as in it the mind is +passive, and does not assume the reins of empire. Such is the state in +which we are during our sleepless hours in bed; and in this state our +ideas, and the topics that successively occur, appear to go forward +without remission, while it seems that it is this busy condition of the +mind, and the involuntary activity of our thoughts, that prevent us from +sleeping. + +The distinction then between these two sorts of indolence is, that +in the latter our ideas are perfectly distinct, are attended with +consciousness, and can, as we please, be called up to recollection. This +therefore is not what we understand by reverie. In these waking hours +which are spent by us in bed, the mind is no less busy, than it is +in sleep during a dream. The other and more perfect sort of mental +indolence, is that which we often experience during our exercise in the +open air. This is of the same nature as the condition of thought which +seems to be the necessary precursor of sleep, and is attended with no +precise consciousness. + +By the whole of the above statement we are led to a new and a modified +estimate of the duration of human life. + +If by life we understand mere susceptibility, a state of existence in +which we are accessible at any moment to the onset of sensation, for +example, of pain--in this sense our life is commensurate, or nearly +commensurate, to the entire period, from the quickening of the child in +the womb, to the minute at which sense deserts the dying man, and his +body becomes an inanimate mass. + +But life, in the emphatical sense, and par excellence, is reduced to +much narrower limits. From this species of life it is unavoidable that +we should strike off the whole of the interval that is spent in sleep; +and thus, as a general rule, the natural day of twenty-four hours is +immediately reduced to sixteen. + +Of these sixteen hours again, there is a portion that falls under the +direction of will and attention, and a portion that is passed by us in a +state of mental indolence. By the ordinary and least cultivated class of +mankind, the husbandman, the manufacturer, the soldier, the sailor, and +the main body of the female sex, much the greater part of every day +is resigned to a state of mental indolence. The will does not actively +interfere, and the attention is not roused. Even the most intellectual +beings of our species pass no inconsiderable portion of every day in a +similar condition. Such is our state for the most part during the time +that is given to bodily exercise, and during the time in which we read +books of amusement merely, or are employed in witnessing public shews +and exhibitions. + +That portion of every day of our existence which is occupied by us with +a mind attentive and on the alert, I would call life in a transcendant +sense. The rest is scarcely better than a state of vegetation. + +And yet not so either. The happiest and most valuable thoughts of the +human mind will sometimes come when they are least sought for, and we +least anticipated any such thing. In reading a romance, in witnessing a +performance at a theatre, in our idlest and most sportive moods, a +vein in the soil of intellect will sometimes unexpectedly be broken +up, "richer than all the tribe" of contemporaneous thoughts, that shall +raise him to whom it occurs, to a rank among his species altogether +different from any thing he had looked for. Newton was led to the +doctrine of gravitation by the fall of an apple, as he indolently +reclined under the tree on which it grew. "A verse may find him, who +a sermon flies." Polemon, when intoxicated, entered the school of +Xenocrates, and was so struck with the energy displayed by the master, +and the thoughts he delivered, that from that moment he renounced the +life of dissipation he had previously led, and applied himself entirely +to the study of philosophy. --But these instances are comparatively of +rare occurrence, and do not require to be taken into the account. + +It is still true therefore for the most part, that not more than eight +hours in the day are passed by the wisest and most energetic, with a +mind attentive and on the alert. The remainder is a period of vegetation +only. In the mean time we have all of us undoubtedly to a certain degree +the power of enlarging the extent of the period of transcendant life in +each day of our healthful existence, and causing it to encroach upon the +period either of mental indolence or of sleep.--With the greater part +of the human species the whole of their lives while awake, with the +exception of a few brief and insulated intervals, is spent in a passive +state of the intellectual powers. Thoughts come and go, as chance, or +some undefined power in nature may direct, uninterfered with by the +sovereign will, the steersman of the mind. And often the understanding +appears to be a blank, upon which if any impressions are then made, they +are like figures drawn in the sand which the next tide obliterates, or +are even lighter and more evanescent than this. + +Let me add, that the existence of the child for two or three years from +the period of his birth, is almost entirely a state of vegetation. The +impressions that are made upon his sensorium come and go, without +either their advent or departure being anticipated, and without the +interference of the will. It is only under some express excitement, that +the faculty of will mounts its throne, and exercises its empire. When +the child smiles, that act is involuntary; but, when he cries, +will presently comes to mix itself with the phenomenon. Wilfulness, +impatience and rebellion are infallible symptoms of a mind on the alert. +And, as the child in the first stages of its existence puts forth the +faculty of will only at intervals, so for a similar reason this +period is but rarely accompanied with memory, or leaves any traces of +recollection for our after-life. + +There are other memorable states of the intellectual powers, which if +I did not mention, the survey here taken would seem to be glaringly +imperfect. The first of these is madness. In this humiliating condition +of our nature the sovereignty of reason is deposed: + + Chaos umpire sits, + And by decision more embroils the fray. + +The mind is in a state of turbulence and tempest in one instant, and in +another subsides into the deepest imbecility; and, even when the will is +occasionally roused, the link which preserved its union with good sense +and sobriety is dissolved, and the views by which it has the appearance +of being regulated, are all based in misconstruction and delusion. + +Next to madness occur the different stages of spleen, dejection +and listlessness. The essence of these lies in the passiveness and +neutrality of the intellectual powers. In as far as the unhappy sufferer +could be roused to act, the disease would be essentially diminished, +and might finally be expelled. But long days and months are spent by the +patient in the midst of all harassing imaginations, and an everlasting +nightmare seems to sit on the soul, and lock up its powers in +interminable inactivity. Almost the only interruption to this, is when +the demands of nature require our attention, or we pay a slight and +uncertain attention to the decencies of cleanliness and attire. + +In all these considerations then we find abundant occasion to humble +the pride and vain-glory of man. But they do not overturn the principles +delivered in the preceding Essay respecting the duration of human life, +though they certainly interpose additional boundaries to limit the +prospects of individual improvement. + + + + +ESSAY IX. OF LEISURE. + +The river of human life is divided into two streams; occupation and +leisure--or, to express the thing more accurately, that occupation, +which is prescribed, and may be called the business of life, and that +occupation, which arises contingently, and not so much of absolute and +set purpose, not being prescribed: such being the more exact description +of these two divisions of human life, inasmuch as the latter is often +not less earnest and intent in its pursuits than the former. + +It would be a curious question to ascertain which of these is of the +highest value. + +To this enquiry I hear myself loudly and vehemently answered from +all hands in favour of the first. "This," I am told by unanimous +acclamation, "is the business of life." + +The decision in favour of what we primarily called occupation, above +what we called leisure, may in a mitigated sense be entertained as true. +Man can live with little or no leisure, for millions of human beings +do so live: but the species to which we belong, and of consequence +the individuals of that species, cannot exist as they ought to exist, +without occupation. + +Granting however the paramount claims that occupation has to our regard, +let us endeavour to arrive at a just estimate of the value of leisure. + +It has been said by some one, with great appearance of truth, that +schoolboys learn as much, perhaps more, of beneficial knowledge in their +hours of play, as in their hours of study. + +The wisdom of ages has been applied to ascertain what are the most +desirable topics for the study of the schoolboy. They are selected for +the most part by the parent. There are few parents that do not feel a +sincere and disinterested desire for the welfare of their children. It +is an unquestionable maxim, that we are the best judges of that of which +we have ourselves had experience; and all parents have been children. +It is therefore idle and ridiculous to suppose that those studies +which have for centuries been chosen by the enlightened mature for the +occupation of the young, have not for the most part been well chosen. Of +these studies the earliest consist in the arts of reading and writing. +Next follows arithmetic, with perhaps some rudiments of algebra and +geometry. Afterward comes in due order the acquisition of languages, +particularly the dead languages; a most fortunate occupation for those +years of man, in which the memory is most retentive, and the reasoning +powers have yet acquired neither solidity nor enlargement. Such are the +occupations of the schoolboy in his prescribed hours of study. + +But the schoolboy is cooped up in an apartment, it may be with a number +of his fellows. He is seated at a desk, diligently conning the portion +of learning that is doled out to him, or, when he has mastered his +lesson, reciting it with anxious brow and unassured lips to the senior, +who is to correct his errors, and pronounce upon the sufficiency of his +industry. All this may be well: but it is a new and more exhilarating +spectacle that presents itself to our observation, when he is dismissed +from his temporary labours, and rushes impetuously out to the open air, +and gives free scope to his limbs and his voice, and is no longer under +the eye of a censor that shall make him feel his subordination and +dependence. + +Meanwhile the question under consideration was, not in which state he +experienced the most happiness, but which was productive of the greatest +improvement. + +The review of the human subject is conveniently divided under the heads +of body and mind. + +There can be no doubt that the health of the body is most promoted by +those exercises in which the schoolboy is engaged during the hours of +play. And it is further to be considered that health is required, not +only that we may be serene, contented and happy, but that we may be +enabled effectually to exert the faculties of the mind. + +But there is another way, in which we are called upon to consider the +division of the human subject under the heads of body and mind. + +The body is the implement and instrument of the mind, the tool by which +most of its purposes are to be effected. We live in the midst of +a material world, or of what we call such. The greater part of the +pursuits in which we engage, are achieved by the action of the limbs and +members of the body upon external matter. + +Our communications with our fellow-men are all of them carried on by +means of the body. + +Now the action of the limbs and members of the body is infinitely +improved by those exercises in which the schoolboy becomes engaged +during his hours of play. In the first place it is to be considered that +we do those things most thoroughly and in the shortest time, which are +spontaneous, the result of our own volition; and such are the exercises +in which the schoolboy engages during this period. His heart and soul +are in what he does. The man or the boy must be a poor creature indeed, +who never does any thing but as he is bid by another. It is in his +voluntary acts and his sports, that he learns the skilful and effective +use of his eye and his limbs. He selects his mark, and he hits it. He +tries again and again, effort after effort, and day after day, till he +has surmounted the difficulty of the attempt, and the rebellion of +his members. Every articulation and muscle of his frame is called into +action, till all are obedient to the master-will; and his limbs are +lubricated and rendered pliant by exercise, as the limbs of the Grecian +athleta were lubricated with oil. + +Thus he acquires, first dexterity of motion, and next, which is of no +less importance, a confidence in his own powers, a consciousness that +he is able to effect what he purposes, a calmness and serenity which +resemble the sweeping of the area, and scattering of the saw-dust, upon +which the dancer or the athlete is to exhibit with grace, strength and +effect. + +So much for the advantages reaped by the schoolboy during his hours of +play as to the maturing his bodily powers, and the improvement of those +faculties of his mind which more immediately apply to the exercise of +his bodily powers. + +But, beside this, it is indispensible to the well-being and advantage +of the individual, that he should employ the faculties of his mind in +spontaneous exertions. I do not object, especially during the period +of nonage, to a considerable degree of dependence and control. But +his greatest advancement, even then, seems to arise from the interior +impulses of his mind. The schoolboy exercises his wit, and indulges in +sallies of the thinking principle. This is wholsome; this is fresh; it +has twice the quickness, clearness and decision in it, that are to be +found in those acts of the mind which are employed about the lessons +prescribed to him. + +In school our youth are employed about the thoughts, the acts and +suggestions of other men. This is all mimicry, and a sort of second-hand +business. It resembles the proceeding of the fresh-listed soldier at +drill; he has ever his eye on his right-hand man, and does not raise his +arm, nor advance his foot, nor move his finger, but as he sees another +perform the same motion before him. It is when the schoolboy proceeds to +the playground, that he engages in real action and real discussion. It +is then that he is an absolute human being and a genuine individual. + +The debates of schoolboys, their discussions what they shall do, and how +it shall be done, are anticipations of the scenes of maturer life. They +are the dawnings of committees, and vestries, and hundred-courts, and +ward-motes, and folk-motes, and parliaments. When boys consult when and +where their next cricket-match shall be played, it may be regarded as +the embryo representation of a consult respecting a grave enterprise to +be formed, or a colony to be planted. And, when they enquire respecting +poetry and prose, and figures and tropes, and the dictates of taste, +this happily prepares them for the investigations of prudence, and +morals, and religious principles, and what is science, and what is +truth. + +It is thus that the wit of man, to use the word in the old Saxon sense, +begins to be cultivated. One boy gives utterance to an assertion; and +another joins issue with him, and retorts. The wheels of the engine of +the brain are set in motion, and, without force, perform their healthful +revolutions. The stripling feels himself called upon to exert his +presence of mind, and becomes conscious of the necessity of an immediate +reply. Like the unfledged bird, he spreads his wings, and essays their +powers. He does not answer, like a boy in his class, who tasks his +understanding or not, as the whim of the moment shall prompt him, where +one boy honestly performs to the extent of his ability, and others +disdain the empire assumed over them, and get off as cheaply as they +can. He is no longer under review, but is engaged in real action. The +debate of the schoolboy is the combat of the intellectual gladiator, +where he fences and parries and thrusts with all the skill and judgment +he possesses. + +There is another way in which the schoolboy exercises his powers during +his periods of leisure. He is often in society; but he is ever and anon +in solitude. At no period of human life are our reveries so free +and untrammeled, as at the period here spoken of. He climbs the +mountain-cliff; and penetrates into the depths of the woods. His +joints are well strung; he is a stranger to fatigue. He rushes down the +precipice, and mounts again with ease, as though he had the wings of +a bird. He ruminates, and pursues his own trains of reflection and +discovery, "exhausting worlds," as it appears to him, "and then +imagining new." He hovers on the brink of the deepest philosophy, +enquiring how came I here, and to what end. He becomes a castle-builder, +constructing imaginary colleges and states, and searching out the +businesses in which they are to be employed, and the schemes by which +they are to be regulated. He thinks what he would do, if he possessed +uncontrolable strength, if he could fly, if he could make himself +invisible. In this train of mind he cons his first lessons of liberty +and independence. He learns self-reverence, and says to himself, I also +am an artist, and a maker. He ruffles himself under the yoke, and feels +that he suffers foul tyranny when he is driven, and when brute force is +exercised upon him, to compel him to a certain course, or to chastise +his faults, imputed or real. + +Such are the benefits of leisure to the schoolboy: and they are not less +to man when arrived at years of discretion. It is good for us to have +some regular and stated occupation. Man may be practically too free; +this is frequently the case with those who have been nurtured in the lap +of opulence and luxury. We were sent into the world under the condition, +"In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." And those who, by the +artificial institutions of society, are discharged from this necessity, +are placed in a critical and perilous situation. They are bound, if +they would consult their own well-being, to contrive for themselves a +factitious necessity, that may stand them in the place of that necessity +which is imposed without appeal on the vast majority of their brethren. + +But, if it is desirable that every man should have some regular and +stated occupation, so it is certainly not less desirable, that every man +should have his seasons of relaxation and leisure. + +Unhappy is the wretch, whose condition it is to be perpetually bound to +the oar, and who is condemned to labour in one certain mode, during all +the hours that are not claimed by sleep, or as long as the muscles of +his frame, or the fibres of his fingers will enable him to persevere. +"Apollo himself," says the poet, "does not always bend the bow." There +should be a season, when the mind is free as air, when not only we +should follow without restraint any train of thinking or action, within +the bounds of sobriety, and that is not attended with injury to others, +that our own minds may suggest to us, but should sacrifice at the shrine +of intellectual liberty, and spread our wings, and take our flight into +untried regions. It is good for man that he should feel himself at some +time unshackled and autocratical, that he should say, This I do, because +it is prescribed to me by the conditions without which I cannot exist, +or by the election which in past time I deliberately made; and this, +because it is dictated by the present frame of my spirit, and is +therefore that in which the powers my nature has entailed upon me may be +most fully manifested. In addition to which we are to consider, that a +certain variety and mutation of employments is best adapted to humanity. +When my mind or my body seems to be overwrought by one species of +occupation, the substitution of another will often impart to me new +life, and make me feel as fresh as if no labour had before engaged me. +For all these reasons it is to be desired, that we should possess the +inestimable privilege of leisure, that in the revolving hours of every +day a period should arrive, at which we should lay down the weapons +of our labour, and engage in a sport that may be no less active and +strenuous than the occupation which preceded it. + +A question, which deserves our attention in this place, is, how much of +every day it behoves us to give to regular and stated occupation, and +how much is the just and legitimate province of leisure. It has been +remarked in a preceding Essay(17), that, if my main and leading pursuit +is literary composition, two or three hours in the twenty-four will +often be as much as can advantageously and effectually be so employed. +But this will unavoidably vary according to the nature of the +occupation: the period above named may be taken as the MINIMUM. + + + (17) See above, Essay 7. + + +Such, let us say, is the portion of time which the man of letters is +called on to devote to literary composition. + +It may next be fitting to enquire as to the humbler classes of society, +and those persons who are engaged in the labour of the hands, how much +time they ought to be expected to consume in their regular and stated +occupations, and how much would remain to them for relaxation and +leisure. It has been said(18), that half an hour in the day given by +every member of the community to manual labour, might be sufficient for +supplying the whole with the absolute necessaries of life. But there are +various considerations that would inevitably lengthen this period. In +a community which has made any considerable advance in the race of +civilisation, many individuals must be expected to be excused from any +portion of manual labour. It is not desirable that any community should +be contented to supply itself with necessaries only. There are many +refinements in life, and many advances in literature and the arts, which +indispensibly conduce to the rendering man in society a nobler and more +exalted creature than he could otherwise be; and these ought not to be +consigned to neglect. + + + (18) Political Justice, Book VIII, Chap. VI. + + +On the other hand however it is certain, that much of the ostentation +and a multitude of the luxuries which subsist in European and Asiatic +society are just topics of regret, and that, if ever those improvements +in civilisation take place which philosophy has essayed to delineate, +there would be a great abridgment of the manual labour that we now see +around us, and the humbler classes of the community would enter into the +inheritance of a more considerable portion of leisure than at present +falls to their lot. + +But it has been much the habit, for persons not belonging to the humbler +classes of the community, and who profess to speculate upon the genuine +interests of human society, to suppose, however certain intervals +of leisure may conduce to the benefit of men whose tastes have been +cultivated and refined, and who from education have many resources of +literature and reflection at all times at their beck, yet that leisure +might prove rather pernicious than otherwise to the uneducated and +the ignorant. Let us enquire then how these persons would be likely to +employ the remainder of their time, if they had a greater portion of +leisure than they at present enjoy.--I would add, that the individuals +of the humbler classes of the community need not for ever to merit the +appellation of the uneducated and ignorant. + +In the first place, they would engage, like the schoolboy, in active +sports, thereby giving to their limbs, which, in rural occupation and +mechanical labour, are somewhat too monotonously employed, and contract +the stiffness and experience the waste of a premature old age, the +activity and freedom of an athlete, a cricketer, or a hunter. Nor do +these occupations only conduce to the health of the body, they also +impart a spirit and a juvenile earnestness to the mind. + +In the next place, they may be expected to devote a part of the day, +more than they do at present, to their wives and families, cultivating +the domestic affections, watching the expanding bodies and minds of +their children, leading them on in the road of improvement, warning them +against the perils with which they are surrounded, and observing with +somewhat of a more jealous and parental care, what it is for which by +their individual qualities they are best adapted, and in what particular +walk of life they may most advantageously be engaged. The father and +the son would grow in a much greater degree friends, anticipating each +other's wishes, and sympathising in each other's pleasures and pains. + +Thirdly, one infallible consequence of a greater degree of leisure +in the lower classes would be that reading would become a more common +propensity and amusement. It is the aphorism of one of the most +enlightened of my contemporaries, "The schoolmaster is abroad:" and many +more than at present would desire to store up in their little hoard a +certain portion of the general improvement. We should no longer have +occasion to say, + + But knowledge to their eyes her ample page, + Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unrol. + +Nor should we be incited to fear that ever wakeful anticipation of the +illiberal, that, by the too great diffusion of the wisdom of the wise, +we might cease to have a race of men adapted to the ordinary pursuits +of life. Our ploughmen and artificers, who obtained the improvements +of intellect through the medium of leisure, would have already received +their destination, and formed their habits, and would be disposed to +consider the new lights that were opened upon them, as the ornament +of existence, not its substance. Add to which, as leisure became more +abundant, and the opportunities of intellectual improvement increased, +they would have less motive to repine at their lot. It is principally +while knowledge and information are new, that they are likely to +intoxicate the brain of those to whose share they have fallen; and, when +they are made a common stock upon which all men may draw, sound thinking +and sobriety may be expected to be the general result. + +One of the scenes to which the leisure of the laborious classes is seen +to induce them to resort, is the public-house; and it is inferred +that, if their leisure were greater, a greater degree of drunkenness, +dissipation and riot would inevitably prevail. + +In answer to this anticipation, I would in the first place assert, that +the merits and demerits of the public-house are very unjustly rated by +the fastidious among the more favoured orders of society. + +We ought to consider that the opportunities and amusements of the lower +orders of society are few. They do not frequent coffee-houses; theatres +and places of public exhibition are ordinarily too expensive for them; +and they cannot engage in rounds of visiting, thus cultivating a private +and familiar intercourse with the few whose conversation might be most +congenial to them. We certainly bear hard upon persons in this rank of +society, if we expect that they should take all the severer labour, and +have no periods of unbending and amusement. + +But in reality what occurs in the public-house we are too much in the +habit of calumniating. If we would visit this scene, we should find it +pretty extensively a theatre of eager and earnest discussion. It is here +that the ardent and "unwashed artificer," and the sturdy husbandman, +compare notes and measure wits with each other. It is their arena of +intellectual combat, the ludus literarius of their unrefined university. +It is here they learn to think. Their minds are awakened from the sleep +of ignorance; and their attention is turned into a thousand channels of +improvement. They study the art of speaking, of question, allegation +and rejoinder. They fix their thought steadily on the statement that is +made, acknowledge its force, or detect its insufficiency. They examine +the most interesting topics, and form opinions the result of that +examination. They learn maxims of life, and become politicians. They +canvas the civil and criminal laws of their country, and learn the value +of political liberty. They talk over measures of state, judge of the +intentions, sagacity and sincerity of public men, and are likely in time +to become in no contemptible degree capable of estimating what modes of +conducting national affairs, whether for the preservation of the rights +of all, or for the vindication and assertion of justice between man and +man, may be expected to be crowned with the greatest success: in a word, +they thus become, in the best sense of the word, citizens. + +As to excess in drinking, the same thing may be expected to occur here, +as has been remarked of late years in better company in England. In +proportion as the understanding is cultivated, men are found to be less +the victims of drinking and the grosser provocatives of sense. The king +of Persia of old made it his boast that he could drink large quantities +of liquor with greater impunity than any of his subjects. Such was +not the case with the more polished Greeks. In the dark ages the most +glaring enormities of that kind prevailed. Under our Charles the +Second coarse dissipation and riot characterised the highest circles. +Rochester, the most accomplished man and the greatest wit of our island, +related of himself that, for five years together, he could not affirm +that for any one day he had been thoroughly sober. In Ireland, a +country less refined than our own, the period is not long past, when on +convivial occasions the master of the house took the key from his door, +that no one of his guests might escape without having had his dose. No +small number of the contemporaries of my youth fell premature victims +to the intemperance which was then practised. Now wine is merely used +to excite a gayer and livelier tone of the spirits; and inebriety is +scarcely known in the higher circles. In like manner, it may readily +be believed that, as men in the lower classes of society become less +ignorant and obtuse, as their thoughts are less gross, as they wear off +the vestigia ruris, the remains of a barbarous state, they will find +less need to set their spirits afloat by this animal excitement, and +will devote themselves to those thoughts and that intercourse which +shall inspire them with better and more honourable thoughts of our +common nature. + + + + +ESSAY X. OF IMITATION AND INVENTION. + +Of the sayings of the wise men of former times none has been oftener +repeated than that of Solomon, "The thing that hath been, is that which +is; and that which is done, is that which shall be done; and there is no +new thing under the sun." + +The books of the Old Testament are apparently a collection of the whole +literary remains of an ancient and memorable people, whose wisdom may +furnish instruction to us, and whose poetry abounds in lofty flights +and sublime imagery. How this collection came indiscriminately to +be considered as written by divine inspiration, it is difficult to +pronounce. The history of the Jews, as contained in the Books of Kings +and of Chronicles, certainly did not require the interposition of +the Almighty for its production; and the pieces we receive as the +compositions of Solomon have conspicuously the air of having emanated +from a conception entirely human. + +In the book of Ecclesiastes, from which the above sentence is taken, +are many sentiments not in accordance with the religion of Christ. For +example; "That which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts; as the +one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath, so that a +man hath no preeminence above a beast: all go to one place; all are of +the dust, and turn to dust again. Wherefore I perceive that there is +nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his works." And again, +"The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing; +their love, and their hatred, and their envy are perished; neither have +they any more a reward." Add to this, "Wherefore I praise the dead which +are already dead, more than the living which are yet alive: yea, better +is he than both they, which hath not yet been." There can therefore be +no just exception taken against our allowing ourselves freely to canvas +the maxim cited at the head of this Essay. + +It certainly contains a sufficient quantity of unquestionable truth, +to induce us to regard it as springing from profound observation, and +comprehensive views of what is acted "under the sun." + +A wise man would look at the labours of his own species, in much the +same spirit as he would view an ant-hill through a microscope. He would +see them tugging a grain of corn up a declivity; he would see the tracks +that are made by those who go, and who return; their incessant activity; +and would find one day the copy of that which went before; and their +labours ending in nothing: I mean, in nothing that shall carry forward +the improvement of the head and the heart, either in the individual or +society, or that shall add to the conveniences of life, or the better +providing for the welfare of communities of men. He would smile at their +earnestness and zeal, all spent in supplying the necessaries of the day, +or, at most, providing for the revolution of the seasons, or for that +ephemeral thing we call the life of man. + +Few things can appear more singular, when duly analysed, than that +articulated air, which we denominate speech. It is not to be wondered at +that we are proud of the prerogative, which so eminently distinguishes +us from the rest of the animal creation. The dog, the cat, the horse, +the bear, the lion, all of them have voice. But we may almost consider +this as their reproach. They can utter for the greater part but one +monotonous, eternal sound. + +The lips, the teeth, the palate, the throat, which in man are +instruments of modifying the voice in such endless variety, are in this +respect given to them in vain: while all the thoughts that occur, +at least to the bulk of mankind, we are able to express in words, to +communicate facts, feelings, passions, sentiments, to discuss, to argue, +to agree, to issue commands on the one part, and report the execution on +the other, to inspire lofty conceptions, to excite the deepest feeling +of commiseration, and to thrill the soul with extacy, almost too mighty +to be endured. + +Yet what is human speech for the most part but mere imitation? In the +most obvious sense this stands out on the surface. We learn the same +words, we speak the same language, as our elders. Not only our words, +but our phrases are the same. We are like players, who come out as if +they were real persons, but only utter what is set down for them. We +represent the same drama every day; and, however stale is the eternal +repetition, pass it off upon others, and even upon ourselves, as if it +were the suggestion of the moment. In reality, in rural or vulgar +life, the invention of a new phrase ought to be marked down among the +memorable things in the calendar. We afford too much honour to ordinary +conversation, when we compare it to the exhibition of the recognised +theatres, since men ought for the most part to be considered as no more +than puppets. They perform the gesticulations; but the words come from +some one else, who is hid from the sight of the general observer. And +not only the words, but the cadence: they have not even so much honour +as players have, to choose the manner they may deem fittest by which to +convey the sense and the passion of what they speak. The pronunciation, +the dialect, all, are supplied to them, and are but a servile +repetition. Our tempers are merely the work of the transcriber. We are +angry, where we saw that others were angry; and we are pleased, because +it is the tone to be pleased. We pretend to have each of us a judgment +of our own: but in truth we wait with the most patient docility, till he +whom we regard as the leader of the chorus gives us the signal, Here you +are to applaud, and Here you are to condemn. + +What is it that constitutes the manners of nations, by which the +people of one country are so eminently distinguished from the people +of another, so that you cannot cross the channel from Dover to Calais, +twenty-one miles, without finding yourself in a new world? Nay, I need +not go among the subjects of another government to find examples of +this; if I pass into Ireland, Scotland or Wales, I see myself surrounded +with a new people, all of whose characters are in a manner cast in one +mould, and all different from the citizens of the principal state and +from one another. We may go further than this. Not only nations, +but classes of men, are contrasted with each other. What can be more +different than the gentry of the west end of this metropolis, and the +money-making dwellers in the east? From them I will pass to Billingsgate +and Wapping. What more unlike than a soldier and a sailor? the children +of fashion that stroll in St. James's and Hyde Park, and the care-worn +hirelings, that recreate themselves, with their wives and their brats, +with a little fresh air on a Sunday near Islington? The houses of lords +and commons have each their characteristic manners. Each profession has +its own, the lawyer, the divine, and the man of medicine. We are all +apes, fixing our eyes upon a model, and copying him, gesture by gesture. +We are sheep, rushing headlong through the gap, when the bell-wether +shews us the way. We are choristers, mechanically singing in a certain +key, and giving breath to a certain tone. + +Our religion, our civil practices, our political creed, are all +imitation. How many men are there, that have examined the evidences of +their religious belief, and can give a sound "reason of the faith that +is in them?" When I was a child, I was taught that there were four +religions in the world, the Popish, the Protestant, the Mahometan, the +Pagan. It is a phenomenon to find the man, who has held the balance +steadily, and rendered full and exact justice to the pretensions of each +of these. No: tell me the longitude and latitude in which a man is born, +and I will tell you his religion. + + By education most have been misled; + So they believe, because they so were bred: + The priest continues what the nurse began, + And thus the child imposes on the man. + +And, if this happens, where we are told our everlasting salvation is at +issue, we may easily judge of the rest. + +The author, with one of whose dicta I began this Essay, has observed, +"One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the +earth abideth for ever." It is a maxim of the English constitution, that +"the king never dies;" and the same may with nearly equal propriety be +observed of every private man, especially if he have children. "Death," +say the writers of natural history, "is the generator of life:" and what +is thus true of animal corruption, may with small variation be affirmed +of human mortality. I turn off my footman, and hire another; and he puts +on the livery of his predecessor: he thinks himself somebody; but he +is only a tenant. The same thing is true, when a country-gentleman, a +noble, a bishop, or a king dies. He puts off his garments, and another +puts them on. Every one knows the story of the Tartarian dervise, +who mistook the royal palace for a caravansera, and who proved to his +majesty by genealogical deduction, that he was only a lodger. In this +sense the mutability, which so eminently characterises every thing +sublunary, is immutability under another name. + +The most calamitous, and the most stupendous scenes are nothing but an +eternal and wearisome repetition: executions, murders, plagues, famine +and battle. Military execution, the demolition of cities, the conquest +of nations, have been acted a hundred times before. The mighty +conqueror, who "smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke," who +"sat in the seat of God, shewing himself that he was God," and assuredly +persuaded himself that he was doing something to be had in everlasting +remembrance, only did that which a hundred other vulgar conquerors had +done in successive ages of the world, whose very names have long since +perished from the records of mankind. + +Thus it is that the human species is for ever engaged in laborious +idleness. We put our shoulder to the wheel, and raise the vehicle out of +the mire in which it was swallowed, and we say, I have done something; +but the same feat under the same circumstances has been performed +a thousand times before. We make what strikes us as a profound +observation; and, when fairly analysed, it turns out to be about as +sagacious, as if we told what's o'clock, or whether it is rain or +sunshine. Nothing can be more delightfully ludicrous, than the important +and emphatical air with which the herd of mankind enunciate the most +trifling observations. With much labour we are delivered of what is to +us a new thought; and, after a time, we find the same in a musty volume, +thrown by in a corner, and covered with cobwebs and dust. + +This is pleasantly ridiculed in the well known exclamation, "Deuce take +the old fellows who gave utterance to our wit, before we ever thought of +it!" + +The greater part of the life of the mightiest genius that ever existed +is spent in doing nothing, and saying nothing. Pope has observed of +Shakespear's plays, that, "had all the speeches been printed without the +names of the persons, we might have applied them with certainty to +every speaker." To which another critic has rejoined, that that was +impossible, since the greater part of what every man says is unstamped +with peculiarity. We have all more in us of what belongs to the common +nature of man, than of what is peculiar to the individual. + +It is from this beaten, turnpike road, that the favoured few of mankind +are for ever exerting themselves to escape. The multitude grow up, +and are carried away, as grass is carried away by the mower. The +parish-register tells when they were born, and when they died: "known by +the ends of being to have been." We pass away, and leave nothing behind. +Kings, at whose very glance thousands have trembled, for the most +part serve for nothing when their breath has ceased, but as a sort of +distance-posts in the race of chronology. "The dull swain treads on" +their relics "with his clouted shoon." Our monuments are as perishable +as ourselves; and it is the most hopeless of all problems for the most +part, to tell where the mighty ones of the earth repose. + +All men are aware of the frailty of life, and how short is the span +assigned us. Hence every one, who feels, or thinks he feels the power to +do so, is desirous to embalm his memory, and to be thought of by a late +posterity, to whom his personal presence shall be unknown. Mighty are +the struggles; everlasting the efforts. The greater part of these we +well know are in vain. It is Aesop's mountain in labour: "Dire was the +tossing, deep the groans:" and the result is a mouse. But is it always +so? + +This brings us back to the question: "Is there indeed nothing new under +the sun?" + +Most certainly there is something that is new. If, as the beast dies, +so died man, then indeed we should be without hope. But it is his +distinguishing faculty, that he can leave something behind, to testify +that he has lived. And this is not only true of the pyramids of Egypt, +and certain other works of human industry, that time seems to have no +force to destroy. It is often true of a single sentence, a single word, +which the multitudinous sea is incapable of washing away: + + Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens + Possit diruere, aut innumerabilis + Annorum series, et fuga temporum. + + +It is the characteristic of the mind and the heart of man, that they are +progressive. One word, happily interposed, reaching to the inmost soul, +may "take away the heart of stone, and introduce a heart of flesh." +And, if an individual may be thus changed, then his children, and his +connections, to the latest page of unborn history. + +This is the true glory of man, that "one generation doth not pass away, +and another come, velut unda supervenit undam;" but that we leave our +improvements behind us. What infinite ages of refinement on refinement, +and ingenuity on ingenuity, seem each to have contributed its quota, to +make up the accommodations of every day of civilised man; his table, +his chair, the bed he lies on, the food he eats, the garments that cover +him! It has often been said, that the four quarters of the world are +put under contribution, to provide the most moderate table. To this +what mills, what looms, what machinery of a thousand denominations, what +ship-building, what navigation, what fleets are required! Man seems +to have been sent into the world a naked, forked, helpless animal, on +purpose to call forth his ingenuity to supply the accommodations that +may conduce to his well-being. The saying, that "there is nothing new +under the sun," could never have been struck out, but in one of the two +extreme states of man, by the naked savage, or by the highly civilised +beings among whom the perfection of refinement has produced an +artificial feeling of uniformity. + +The thing most obviously calculated to impress us with a sense of the +power, and the comparative sublimity of man, is, if we could make a +voyage of some duration in a balloon, over a considerable tract of the +cultivated and the desert parts of the earth. A brute can scarcely move +a stone out of his way, if it has fallen upon the couch where he would +repose. But man cultivates fields, and plants gardens; he constructs +parks and canals; he turns the course of rivers, and stretches vast +artificial moles into the sea; he levels mountains, and builds a bridge, +joining in giddy height one segment of the Alps to another; lastly, he +founds castles, and churches, and towers, and distributes mighty cities +at his pleasure over the face of the globe. "The first earth has passed +away, and another earth has come; and all things are made new." + +It is true, that the basest treacheries, the most atrocious cruelties, +butcheries, massacres, violations of all the restraints of decency, and +all the ties of nature, fields covered with dead bodies, and flooded +with human gore, are all of them vulgar repetitions of what had been +acted countless times already. If Nero or Caligula thought to perpetrate +that which should stand unparalleled, they fell into the grossest error. +The conqueror, who should lay waste vast portions of the globe, and +destroy mighty cities, so that "thorns should come up in the palaces, +and nettles in the fortresses thereof, and they should be a habitation +of serpents, and a court for owls, and the wild beasts of the desert +should meet there," would only do what Tamerlane, and Aurengzebe, and +Zingis, and a hundred other conquerors, in every age and quarter of the +world, had done before. The splendour of triumphs, and the magnificence +of courts, are so essentially vulgar, that history almost disdains to +record them. + +And yet there is something that is new, and that by the reader of +discernment is immediately felt to be so. + +We read of Moses, that he was a child of ordinary birth, and, when he +was born, was presently marked, as well as all the male children of his +race, for destruction. He was unexpectedly preserved; and his first act, +when he grew up, was to slay an Egyptian, one of the race to whom +all his countrymen were slaves, and to fly into exile. This man, thus +friendless and alone, in due time returned, and by the mere energy of +his character prevailed upon his whole race to make common cause with +him, and to migrate to a region, in which they should become sovereign +and independent. He had no soldiers, but what were made so by the +ascendancy of his spirit no counsellors but such as he taught to be +wise, no friends but those who were moved by the sentiment they caught +from him. The Jews he commanded were sordid and low of disposition, +perpetually murmuring against his rule, and at every unfavourable +accident calling to remembrance "the land of Egypt, where they had +sat by the fleshpots, and were full." Yet over this race he retained a +constant mastery, and finally made of them a nation whose customs and +habits and ways of thinking no time has availed to destroy. This was +a man then, that possessed the true secret to make other men his +creatures, and lead them with an irresistible power wherever he pleased. +This history, taken entire, has probably no parallel in the annals of +the world. + +The invasion of Greece by the Persians, and its result, seem to +constitute an event that stands alone among men. Xerxes led against this +little territory an army of 5,280,000 men. They drank up rivers, and +cut their way through giant-mountains. They were first stopped at +Thermopylae by Leonidas and his three hundred Spartans. They fought for +a country too narrow to contain the army by which the question was to be +tried. The contest was here to be decided between despotism and liberty, +whether there is a principle in man, by which a handful of individuals, +pervaded with lofty sentiments, and a conviction of what is of most +worth in our nature, can defy the brute force, and put to flight the +attack, of bones, joints and sinews, though congregated in multitudes, +numberless as the waves of the sea, or the sands on its shore. The flood +finally rolled back: and in process of time Alexander, with these Greeks +whom the ignorance of the East affected to despise, founded another +universal monarchy on the ruins of Persia. This is certainly no vulgar +history. + +Christianity is another of those memorable chapters in the annals of +mankind, to which there is probably no second. The son of a carpenter in +a little, rocky country, among a nation despised and enslaved, undertook +to reform the manners of the people of whom he was a citizen. The +reformation he preached was unpalatable to the leaders of the state; he +was persecuted; and finally suffered the death reserved for the lowest +malefactors, being nailed to a cross. He was cut off in the very +beginning of his career, before he had time to form a sect. His +immediate representatives and successors were tax-gatherers and +fishermen. What could be more incredible, till proved by the event, than +that a religion thus begun, should have embraced in a manner the whole +civilised world, and that of its kingdom there should be no visible end? +This is a novelty in the history of the world, equally if we consider +it as brought about by the immediate interposition of the author of all +things, or regard it, as some pretend to do, as happening in the course +of mere human events. + +Rome, "the eternal city," is likewise a subject that stands out from +the vulgar history of the human race. Three times, in three successive +forms, has she been the mistress of the world. First, by the purity, the +simplicity, the single-heartedness, the fervour and perseverance of her +original character she qualified herself to subdue all the nations +of mankind. Next, having conquered the earth by her virtue and by the +spirit of liberty, she was able to maintain her ascendancy for centuries +under the emperors, notwithstanding all her astonishing profligacy and +anarchy. And, lastly, after her secular ascendancy had been destroyed by +the inroads of the northern barbarians, she rose like the phoenix from +her ashes, and, though powerless in material force, held mankind in +subjection by the chains of the mind, and the consummateness of her +policy. Never was any thing so admirably contrived as the Catholic +religion, to subdue the souls of men by the power of its worship over +the senses, and, by its contrivances in auricular confession, +purgatory, masses for the dead, and its claim magisterially to determine +controversies, to hold the subjects it had gained in everlasting +submission. + +The great principle of originality is in the soul of man. And here again +we may recur to Greece, the parent of all that is excellent in art. +Painting, statuary, architecture, poetry, in their most exquisite and +ravishing forms, originated in this little province. Is not the Iliad a +thing new, and that will for ever remain new? Whether it was written by +one man, as I believe, or, as the levellers of human glory would have +us think, by many, there it stands: all the ages of the world present us +nothing that can come in competition with it. + +Shakespear is another example of unrivalled originality. His fame is +like the giant-rivers of the world: the further it flows, the wider it +spreads out its stream, and the more marvellous is the power with which +it sweeps along. + +But, in reality, all poetry and all art, that have a genuine claim to +originality, are new, the smallest, as well as the greatest. + +It is the mistake of dull minds only, to suppose that every thing +has been said, that human wit is exhausted, and that we, who have +unfortunately fallen upon the dregs of time, have no alternative left, +but either to be silent, or to say over and over again, what has been +well said already. + +There remain yet immense tracts of invention, the mines of which have +been untouched. We perceive nothing of the strata of earth, and the +hidden fountains of water, that we travel over, unconscious of the +treasures that are immediately within our reach, till some person, +endowed with the gift of a superior sagacity, comes into the country, +who appears to see through the opake and solid mass, as we see through +the translucent air, and tells us of things yet undiscovered, and +enriches us with treasures, of which we had been hitherto entirely +ignorant. The nature of the human mind, and the capabilities of our +species are in like manner a magazine of undiscovered things, till some +mighty genius comes to break the surface, and shew us the wonderful +treasures that lay beneath uncalled for and idle. + +Human character is like the contents of an ample cabinet, brought +together by the untired zeal of some curious collector, who tickets his +rarities with numbers, and has a catalogue in many volumes, in which are +recorded the description and qualities of the things presented to our +view. Among the most splendid examples of character which the genius +of man has brought to light, are Don Quixote and his trusty squire, sir +Roger de Coverley, Parson Adams, Walter Shandy and his brother Toby. +Who shall set bounds to the everlasting variety of nature, as she has +recorded her creations in the heart of man? Most of these instances +are recent, and sufficiently shew that the enterprising adventurer, who +would aspire to emulate the illustrious men from whose writings these +examples are drawn, has no cause to despair. + +Vulgar observers pass carelessly by a thousand figures in the crowded +masquerade of human society, which, when inscribed on the tablet by +the pencil of a master, would prove not less wondrous in the power +of affording pleasure, nor less rich as themes for inexhaustible +reflection, than the most admirable of these. The things are there, and +all that is wanting is an eye to perceive, and a pen to record them. + +As to a great degree we may subscribe to the saying of the wise man, +that "there is nothing new under the sun," so in a certain sense it +may also be affirmed that nothing is old. Both of these maxims may be +equally true. The prima materia, the atoms of which the universe is +composed, is of a date beyond all record; and the figures which have +yet been introduced into the most fantastic chronology, may perhaps be +incompetent to represent the period of its birth. But the ways in which +they may be compounded are exhaustless. It is like what the writers on +the Doctrine of Chances tell us of the throwing of dice. How many men +now exist on the face of the earth? Yet, if all these were brought +together, and if, in addition to this, we could call up all the men that +ever lived, it may be doubted, whether any two would be found so +much alike, that a clear-sighted and acute observer might not surely +distinguish the one from the other. Leibnitz informs us, that no +two leaves of a tree exist in the most spacious garden, that, upon +examination, could be pronounced perfectly similar(19). + + + (19) See above, Essay 2. + + +The true question is not, whether any thing can be found that is new, +but whether the particulars in which any thing is new may not be so +minute and trifling, as scarcely to enter for any thing, into that +grand and comprehensive view of the whole, in which matters of obvious +insignificance are of no account. + +But, if art and the invention of the human mind are exhaustless, science +is even more notoriously so. We stand but on the threshold of the +knowledge of nature, and of the various ways in which physical power may +be brought to operate for the accommodation of man. This is a business +that seems to be perpetually in progress; and, like the fall of bodies +by the power of gravitation, appears to gain in momentum, in proportion +as it advances to a greater distance from the point at which the impulse +was given. The discoveries which at no remote period have been made, +would, if prophesied of, have been laughed to scorn by the ignorant +sluggishness of former generations; and we are equally ready to regard +with incredulity the discoveries yet unmade, which will be familiar +to our posterity. Indeed every man of a capacious and liberal mind is +willing to admit, that the progress of human understanding in science, +which is now going on, is altogether without any limits that by the +most penetrating genius can be assigned. It is like a mighty river, that +flows on for ever and for ever, as far as the words, "for ever," can +have a meaning to the comprehension of mortals. The question that +remains is, our practicable improvement in literature and morals, and +here those persons who entertain a mean opinion of human nature, are +constantly ready to tell us that it will be found to amount to nothing. +However we may be continually improving in mechanical knowledge and +ingenuity, we are assured by this party, that we shall never surpass +what has already been done in poetry and literature, and, which is +still worse, that, however marvellous may be our future acquisitions in +science and the application of science, we shall be, as much as ever, +the creatures of that vanity, ostentation, opulence and the spirit of +exclusive accumulation, which has hitherto, in most countries (not in +all countries), generated the glaring inequality of property, and the +oppression of the many for the sake of pampering the folly of the few. + +There is another circumstance that may be mentioned, which, particularly +as regards the question of repetition and novelty that is now under +consideration, may seem to operate in an eminent degree in favour of +science, while it casts a most discouraging veil over poetry and the +pure growth of human fancy and invention. Poetry is, after all, nothing +more than new combinations of old materials. Nihil est in intellectu, +quod non fuit prius in sensu. The poet has perhaps in all languages been +called a maker, a creator: but this seems to be a vain-glorious and an +empty boast. He is a collector of materials only, which he afterwards +uses as best he may be able. He answers to the description I have heard +given of a tailor, a man who cuts to pieces whatever is delivered to him +from the loom, that he may afterwards sew it together again. The poet +therefore, we may be told, adds nothing to the stock of ideas and +conceptions already laid up in the storehouse of mind. But the man who +is employed upon the secrets of nature, is eternally in progress; day +after day he delivers in to the magazine of materials for thinking and +acting, what was not there before; he increases the stock, upon which +human ingenuity and the arts of life are destined to operate. He does +not, as the poet may be affirmed by his censurers to do, travel for +ever in a circle, but continues to hasten towards a goal, while at every +interval we may mark how much further he has proceeded from the point at +which his race began. + +Much may be said in answer to this, and in vindication and honour of the +poet and the artist. All that is here alleged to their disadvantage, +is in reality little better than a sophism. The consideration of the +articles he makes use of, does not in sound estimate detract from the +glories of which he is the artificer. Materiem superat opus. He changes +the nature of what he handles; all that he touches is turned into +gold. The manufacture he delivers to us is so new, that the thing it +previously was, is no longer recognisable. The impression that he makes +upon the imagination and the heart, the impulses that he communicates to +the understanding and the moral feeling, are all his own; and, "if there +is any thing lovely and of good report, if there is any virtue and any +praise," he may well claim our applauses and our thankfulness for what +he has effected. + +There is a still further advantage that belongs to the poet and the +votarist of polite literature, which ought to be mentioned, as strongly +calculated to repress the arrogance of the men of science, and the +supercilious contempt they are apt to express for those who are +engrossed by the pursuits of imagination and taste. They are for ever +talking of the reality and progressiveness of their pursuits, and +telling us that every step they take is a point gained, and gained for +the latest posterity, while the poet merely suits himself to the taste +of the men among whom he lives, writes up to the fashion of the day, +and, as our manners turn, is sure to be swept away to the gulph of +oblivion. But how does the matter really stand? It is to a great degree +the very reverse of this. + +The natural and experimental philosopher has nothing sacred and +indestructible in the language and form in which he delivers truths. New +discoveries and experiments come, and his individual terms and phrases +and theories perish. One race of natural philosophers does but prepare +the way for another race, which is to succeed. They "blow the trumpet, +and give out the play." And they must be contented to perish before the +brighter knowledge, of which their efforts were but the harbingers. The +Ptolemaic system gave way to Tycho Brahe, and his to that of Copernicus. +The vortices of Descartes perished before the discoveries of Newton; +and the philosophy of Newton already begins to grow old, and is found +to have weak and decaying parts mixed with those which are immortal and +divine. In the science of mind Aristotle and Plato are set aside; the +depth of Malebranche, and the patient investigation of Locke have had +their day; more penetrating, and concise, and lynx-eyed reasoners of +our own country have succeeded; the German metaphysicians seem to have +thrust these aside; and it perhaps needs no great degree of sagacity +to foresee, that Kant and Fichte will at last fare no better than those +that went before them. + +But the poet is immortal. The verses of Homer are of workmanship no less +divine, than the armour of his own Achilles. His poems are as fresh and +consummate to us now, as they were to the Greeks, when the old man of +Chios wandered in person through the different cities, rehearsing +his rhapsodies to the accompaniment of his lute. The language and the +thoughts of the poet are inextricably woven together; and the first +is no more exposed to decay and to perish than the last. Presumptuous +innovators have attempted to modernise Chaucer, and Spenser, and other +authors, whose style was supposed to have grown obsolete. But true taste +cannot endure the impious mockery. The very words that occurred to these +men, when the God descended, and a fire from heaven tingled in all their +veins, are sacred, are part of themselves; and you may as well attempt +to preserve the man when you have deprived him of all his members, as +think to preserve the poet when you have taken away the words that he +spoke. No part of his glorious effusions must perish; and "the hairs of +his head are all numbered." + + + + +ESSAY XI. OF SELF-LOVE AND BENEVOLENCE. + +NO question has more memorably exercised the ingenuity of men who +have speculated upon the structure of the human mind, than that of +the motives by which we are actuated in our intercourse with our +fellow-creatures. The dictates of a plain and unsophisticated +understanding on the subject are manifest; and they have been asserted +in the broadest way by the authors of religion, the reformers of +mankind, and all persons who have been penetrated with zeal and +enthusiasm for the true interests of the race to which they belong. + +"The end of the commandment," say the authors of the New Testament, "is +love." "This is the great commandment of the law, Thou shalt love thy +maker with all thy heart; and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt +love thy neighbour as thyself." "Though I bestow all my goods to feed +the poor, and give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth +me nothing." "For none of us liveth to himself; and no man dieth to +himself." + +The sentiments of the ancient Greeks and Romans, for so many centuries +as their institutions retained their original purity, were cast in a +mould of a similar nature. A Spartan was seldom alone; they were always +in society with each other. The love of their country and of the public +good was their predominant passion, they did not imagine that they +belonged to themselves, but to the state. After the battle of Leuctra, +in which the Spartans were defeated by the Thebans, the mothers of those +who were slain congratulated one another, and went to the temples to +thank the Gods, that their children had done their duty; while the +relations of those who survived the defeat were inconsolable. + +The Romans were not less distinguished by their self-denying patriotism. +It was in this spirit that Brutus put his two sons to death for +conspiring against their country. It was in this spirit that the Fabii +perished at their fort on the Cremera, and the Decii devoted themselves +for the public. The rigour of self-denial in a true Roman approached to +a temper which moderns are inclined to denominate savage. + +In the times of the ancient republics the impulse of the citizens was to +merge their own individuality in the interests of the state. They held +it their duty to live but for their country. In this spirit they were +educated; and the lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of +their riper years. + +In a more recent period we have learned to model our characters by a +different standard. We seldom recollect the society of which we are +politically members, as a whole, but are broken into detached parties, +thinking only for the most part of ourselves and our immediate +connections and attachments. + +This change in the sentiments and manners of modern times has among its +other consequences given birth to a new species of philosophy. We have +been taught to affirm, that we can have no express and pure regard for +our fellow-creatures, but that all our benevolence and affection come to +us through the strainers of a gross or a refined self-love. The coarser +adherents of this doctrine maintain, that mankind are in all cases +guided by views of the narrowest self-interest, and that those who +advance the highest claims to philanthropy, patriotism, generosity +and self-sacrifice, are all the time deceiving others, or deceiving +themselves, and use a plausible and high-sounding language merely, that +serves no other purpose than to veil from observation "that hideous +sight, a naked human heart." + +The more delicate and fastidious supporters of the doctrine of universal +self-love, take a different ground. They affirm that "such persons +as talk to us of disinterestedness and pure benevolence, have not +considered with sufficient accuracy the nature of mind, feeling and +will. To understand," they say, "is one thing, and to choose another." +The clearest proposition that ever was stated, has, in itself, no +tendency to produce voluntary action on the part of the percipient. It +can be only something apprehended as agreeable or disagreeable to +us, that can operate so as to determine the will. Such is the law +of universal nature. We act from the impulse of our own desires and +aversions; and we seek to effect or avert a thing, merely because it is +viewed by us as an object of gratification or the contrary. + +The virtuous man and the vicious are alike governed by the same +principle; and it is therefore the proper business of a wise instructor +of youth, and of a man who would bring his own sentiments and feelings +into the most praise-worthy frame, to teach us to find our interest and +gratification in that which shall be most beneficial to others." + +When we proceed to examine the truth of these statements, it certainly +is not strictly an argument to say, that the advocate of self-love +on either of these hypotheses cannot consistently be a believer in +Christianity, or even a theist, as theism is ordinarily understood. The +commandments of the author of the Christian religion are, as we have +seen, purely disinterested: and, especially if we admit the latter of +the two explanations of self-love, we shall be obliged to confess, on +the hypothesis of this new philosophy, that the almighty author of +the universe never acts in any of his designs either of creation or +providence, but from a principle of self-love. In the mean time, if +this is not strictly an argument, it is however but fair to warn the +adherents of the doctrine I oppose, of the consequences to which their +theory leads. It is my purpose to subvert that doctrine by means of +the severest demonstration; but I am not unwilling, before I begin, +to conciliate, as far as may be, the good-will of my readers to the +propositions I proceed to establish. + +I will therefore further venture to add, that, upon the hypothesis +of self-love, there can be no such thing as virtue. There are two +circumstances required, to entitle an action to be denominated virtuous. +It must have a tendency to produce good rather than evil to the race +of man, and it must have been generated by an intention to produce such +good. The most beneficent action that ever was performed, if it did not +spring from the intention of good to others, is not of the nature +of virtue. Virtue, where it exists in any eminence, is a species of +conduct, modelled upon a true estimate of the good intended to be +produced. He that makes a false estimate, and prefers a trivial and +partial good to an important and comprehensive one, is vicious(20). + + + (20) Political Justice, Book 11, Chap. IV. + + +It is admitted on all hands, that it is possible for a man to sacrifice +his own existence to that of twenty others. But the advocates of the +doctrine of self-love must say, that he does this that he may escape +from uneasiness, and because he could not bear to encounter the inward +upbraiding with which he would be visited, if he acted otherwise. This +in reality would change his action from an act of virtue to an act +of vice. So far as belongs to the real merits of the case, his own +advantage or pleasure is a very insignificant consideration, and the +benefit to be produced, suppose to a world, is inestimable. Yet he +falsely and unjustly prefers the first, and views the latter as trivial; +nay, separately taken, as not entitled to the smallest regard. If the +dictates of impartial justice be taken into the account, then, according +to the system of self-love, the best action that ever was performed, +may, for any thing we know, have been the action, in the whole world, of +the most exquisite and deliberate injustice. Nay, it could not have been +otherwise, since it produced the greatest good, and therefore was +the individual instance, in which the greatest good was most directly +postponed to personal gratification(21). Such is the spirit of the +doctrine I undertake to refute. + + + (21) Political Justice, Book IV, Chap. X. + + +But man is not in truth so poor and pusillanimous a creature as this +system would represent. + +It is time however to proceed to the real merits of the question, to +examine what in fact is the motive which induces a good man to elect a +generous mode of proceeding. + +Locke is the philosopher, who, in writing on Human Understanding, has +specially delivered the doctrine, that uneasiness is the cause which +determines the will, and urges us to act. He says(22), "The motive we +have for continuing in the same state, is only the present satisfaction +we feel in it; the motive to change is always some uneasiness: nothing +setting us upon the change of state, or upon any new action, but some +uneasiness. This is the great motive that works on the mind." + + + (22) Book II, Chap. XXI, Sect. 29. + + +It is not my concern to enquire, whether Locke by this statement meant +to assert that self-love is the only principle of human action. It has +at any rate been taken to express the doctrine which I here propose to +refute. + +And, in the first place, I say, that, if our business is to discover +the consideration entertained by the mind which induces us to act, this +tells us nothing. It is like the case of the Indian philosopher(23), +who, being asked what it was that kept the earth in its place, answered, +that it was supported by an elephant, and that elephant again rested on +a tortoise. He must be endowed with a slender portion of curiosity, who, +being told that uneasiness is that which spurs on the mind to act, shall +rest satisfied with this explanation, and does not proceed to enquire, +what makes us uneasy? + + + (23) Locke on Understanding, Book 11, Chap. XIII, Sect. 19. + + +An explanation like this is no more instructive, than it would be, if, +when we saw a man walking, or grasping a sword or a bludgeon, and we +enquired into the cause of this phenomenon, any one should inform us +that he walks, because he has feet, and he grasps, because he has hands. + +I could not commodiously give to my thoughts their present form, unless +I had been previously furnished with pens and paper. But it would be +absurd to say, that my being furnished with pens and paper, is the cause +of my writing this Essay on Self-love and Benevolence. + +The advocates of self-love have, very inartificially and unjustly, +substituted the abstract definition of a voluntary agent, and made that +stand for the motive by which he is prompted to act. It is true, that +we cannot act without the impulse of desire or uneasiness; but we do not +think of that desire and uneasiness; and it is the thing upon which the +mind is fixed that constitutes our motive. In the boundless variety of +the acts, passions and pursuits of human beings, it is absurd on the +face of it to say that we are all governed by one motive, and that, +however dissimilar are the ends we pursue, all this dissimilarity is the +fruit of a single cause. + +One man chooses travelling, another ambition, a third study, a fourth +voluptuousness and a mistress. Why do these men take so different +courses? + +Because one is partial to new scenes, new buildings, new manners, +and the study of character. Because a second is attracted by the +contemplation of wealth and power. Because a third feels a decided +preference for the works of Homer, or Shakespear, or Bacon, or Euclid. +Because a fourth finds nothing calculated to stir his mind in comparison +with female beauty, female allurements, or expensive living. + +Each of these finds the qualities he likes, intrinsically in the thing +he chooses. One man feels himself strongly moved, and raised to extacy, +by the beauties of nature, or the magnificence of architecture. Another +is ravished with the divine excellencies of Homer, or of some other of +the heroes of literature. A third finds nothing delights him so much +as the happiness of others, the beholding that happiness increased, and +seeing pain and oppression and sorrow put to flight. The cause of these +differences is, that each man has an individual internal structure, +directing his partialities, one man to one thing, and another to +another. + +Few things can exceed the characters of human beings in variety. There +must be something abstractedly in the nature of mind, which renders it +accessible to these varieties. For the present we will call it taste. +One man feels his spirits regaled with the sight of those things which +constitute wealth, another in meditating the triumphs of Alexander or +Caesar, and a third in viewing the galleries of the Louvre. Not one of +these thinks in the outset of appropriating these objects to himself; +not one of them begins with aspiring to be the possessor of vast +opulence, or emulating the triumphs of Caesar, or obtaining in property +the pictures and statues the sight of which affords him so exquisite +delight. Even the admirer of female beauty, does not at first think of +converting this attractive object into a mistress, but on the contrary +desires, like Pygmalion, that the figure he beholds might become his +solace and companion, because he had previously admired it for itself. + +Just so the benevolent man is an individual who finds a peculiar delight +in contemplating the contentment, the peace and heart's ease of other +men, and sympathises in no ordinary degree with their sufferings. He +rejoices in the existence and diffusion of human happiness, though he +should not have had the smallest share in giving birth to the thing he +loves. It is because such are his tastes, and what above all things he +prefers, that he afterwards becomes distinguished by the benevolence of +his conduct. + +The reflex act of the mind, which these new philosophers put forward as +the solution of all human pursuits, rarely presents itself but to the +speculative enquirer in his closet. The savage never dreams of it. The +active man, engaged in the busy scenes of life, thinks little, and on +rare occasions of himself, but much, and in a manner for ever, of the +objects of his pursuit. + +Some men are uniform in their character, and from the cradle to the +grave prefer the same objects that first awakened their partialities. +Other men are inconsistent and given to change, are "every thing by +starts, and nothing long." Still it is probable that, in most cases, +he who performs an act of benevolence, feels for the time that he has a +peculiar delight in contemplating the good of his fellow-man. + +The doctrine of the modern philosophers on this point, is in many ways +imbecil and unsound. It is inauspicious to their creed, that the +reflex act of the mind is purely the affair of experience. Why did the +liberal-minded man perform his first act of benevolence? The answer of +these persons ought to be, because the recollection of a generous deed +is a source of the truest delight. But there is an absurdity on the face +of this solution. + +We do not experimentally know the delight which attends the recollection +of a generous deed, till a generous deed has been performed by us. We do +not learn these things from books. And least of all is this solution +to the purpose, when the business is to find a solution that suits the +human mind universally, the unlearned as well as the learned, the savage +as well as the sage. + +And surely it is inconsistent with all sound reasoning, to represent +that as the sole spring of our benevolent actions, which by the very +terms will not fit the first benevolent act in which any man engaged. + +The advocates of the doctrine of "self-love the source of all our +actions," are still more puzzled, when the case set before them is that +of the man, who flies, at an instant's warning, to save the life of the +child who has fallen into the river, or the unfortunate whom he +beholds in the upper story of a house in flames. This man, as might +be illustrated in a thousand instances, treats his own existence as +unworthy of notice, and exposes it to multiplied risks to effect the +object to which he devotes himself. + +They are obliged to say, that this man anticipates the joy he will feel +in the recollection of a noble act, and the cutting and intolerable pain +he will experience in the consciousness that a human being has perished, +whom it was in his power to save. It is in vain that we tell them that, +without a moment's consideration, he tore off his clothes, or plunged +into the stream with his clothes on, or rushed up a flaming stair-case. +Still they tell us, that he recollected what compunctious visitings +would be his lot if he remained supine--he felt the sharpest uneasiness +at sight of the accident before him, and it was to get rid of that +uneasiness, and not for the smallest regard to the unhappy being he has +been the means to save, that he entered on the hazardous undertaking. + +Uneasiness, the knowledge of what inwardly passes in the mind, is a +thing not in the slightest degree adverted to but in an interval of +leisure. No; the man here spoken of thinks of nothing but the object +immediately before his eyes; he adverts not at all to himself; he acts +only with an undeveloped, confused and hurried consciousness that he may +be of some use, and may avert the instantly impending calamity. He has +scarcely even so much reflection as amounts to this. + +The history of man, whether national or individual, and consequently the +acts of human creatures which it describes, are cast in another mould +than that which the philosophy of self-love sets before us. A topic that +from the earliest accounts perpetually presents itself in the records +of mankind, is self-sacrifice, parents sacrificing themselves for their +children, and children for their parents. Cimon, the Athenian, yet in +the flower of his youth, voluntarily became the inmate of a prison, that +the body of his father might receive the honours of sepulture. Various +and unquestionable are the examples of persons who have exposed +themselves to destruction, and even petitioned to die, that so they +might save the lives of those, whose lives they held dearer than their +own. Life is indeed a thing, that is notoriously set at nothing by +generous souls, who have fervently devoted themselves to an overwhelming +purpose. There have been instances of persons, exposed to all the +horrors of famine, where one has determined to perish by that slowest +and most humiliating of all the modes of animal destruction, that +another, dearer to him than life itself, might, if possible, be +preserved. + +What is the true explanation of these determinations of the human will? +Is it, that the person, thus consigning himself to death, loved nothing +but himself, regarded only the pleasure he might reap, or the uneasiness +he was eager to avoid? Or, is it, that he had arrived at the exalted +point of self-oblivion, and that his whole soul was penetrated and +ingrossed with the love of those for whom he conceived so exalted a +partiality? + +This sentiment so truly forms a part of our nature, that a multitude +of absurd practices, and a multitude of heart-rending fables, have been +founded upon the consciousness of man in different ages and nations, +that these modes of thinking form a constituent part of our common +existence. In India there was found a woman, whose love to the deceased +partner of her soul was so overwhelming, that she resolved voluntarily +to perish on his funeral pile. And this example became so fascinating +and admirable, that, by insensible degrees, it grew into a national +custom with the Hindoos, that, by a sort of voluntary constraint, the +widows of all men of a certain caste, should consign themselves to the +flames with the dead bodies of their husbands. The story of Zopyrus +cutting off his nose and ears, and of Curtius leaping into the gulph, +may be fictitious: but it was the consciousness of those by whom these +narratives were written that they drew their materials from the mighty +store-house of the heart of man, that prompted them to record them. +The institutions of clientship and clans, so extensively diffused in +different ages of the world, rests upon this characteristic of our +nature, that multitudes of men may be trained and educated so, as to +hold their existence at no price, when the life of the individual they +were taught unlimitedly to reverence might be preserved, or might be +defended at the risk of their destruction. + +The principal circumstance that divides our feelings for others from +our feelings for ourselves, and that gives, to satirical observers, and +superficial thinkers, an air of exclusive selfishness to the human +mind, lies in this, that we can fly from others, but cannot fly from +ourselves. While I am sitting by the bed-side of the sufferer, while +I am listening to the tale of his woes, there is comparatively but a +slight line of demarcation, whether they are his sorrows or my own. My +sympathy is vehemently excited towards him, and I feel his twinges and +anguish in a most painful degree. But I can quit his apartment and the +house in which he dwells, can go out in the fields, and feel the fresh +air of heaven fanning my hair, and playing upon my cheeks. This is at +first but a very imperfect relief. His image follows me; I cannot forget +what I have heard and seen; I even reproach myself for the mitigation +I involuntarily experience. But man is the creature of his senses. I am +every moment further removed, both in time and place, from the object +that distressed me. There he still lies upon the bed of agony: but +the sound of his complaint, and the sight of all that expresses his +suffering, are no longer before me. A short experience of human life +convinces us that we have this remedy always at hand ("I am unhappy, +only while I please")(24); and we soon come therefore to anticipate the +cure, and so, even while we are in the presence of the sufferer, to feel +that he and ourselves are not perfectly one. + + + (24) Douglas. + + +But with our own distempers and adversities it is altogether different. +It is this that barbs the arrow. We may change the place of our local +existence; but we cannot go away from ourselves. With chariots, and +embarking ourselves on board of ships, we may seek to escape from the +enemy. But grief and apprehension enter the vessel along with us; and, +when we mount on horseback, the discontent that specially annoyed +us, gets up behind, and clings to our sides with a hold never to be +loosened(25). + + + (25) Horace. + + +Is it then indeed a proof of selfishness, that we are in a greater or +less degree relieved from the anguish we endured for our friend, when +other objects occupy us, and we are no longer the witnesses of his +sufferings? If this were true, the same argument would irresistibly +prove, that we are the most generous of imaginable beings, the most +disregardful of whatever relates to ourselves. Is it not the first +ejaculation of the miserable, "Oh, that I could fly from myself? Oh, +for a thick, substantial sleep!" What the desperate man hates is his own +identity. But he knows that, if for a few moments he loses himself in +forgetfulness, he will presently awake to all that distracted him. He +knows that he must act his part to the end, and drink the bitter cup +to the dregs. He can do none of these things by proxy. It is the +consciousness of the indubitable future, from which we can never be +divorced, that gives to our present calamity its most fearful empire. +Were it not for this great line of distinction, there are many that +would feel not less for their friend than for themselves. But they are +aware, that his ruin will not make them beggars, his mortal disease will +not bring them to the tomb, and that, when he is dead, they may yet be +reserved for many years of health, of consciousness and vigour. + +The language of the hypothesis of self-love was well adapted to +the courtiers of the reign of Louis the Fourteenth. The language of +disinterestedness was adapted to the ancient republicans in the purest +times of Sparta and Rome. + +But these ancients were not always disinterested; and the moderns are +not always narrow, self-centred and cold. The ancients paid, though with +comparative infrequency, the tax imposed upon mortals, and thought +of their own gratification and ease; and the moderns are not utterly +disqualified for acts of heroic affection. + +It is of great consequence that men should come to think correctly on +this subject. The most snail-blooded man that exists, is not so selfish +as he pretends to be. In spite of all the indifference he professes +towards the good of others, he will sometimes be detected in a very +heretical state of sensibility towards his wife, his child or his +friend; he will shed tears at a tale of distress, and make considerable +sacrifices of his own gratification for the relief of others. + +But his creed is a pernicious one. He who for ever thinks, that +his "charity must begin at home," is in great danger of becoming an +indifferent citizen, and of withering those feelings of philanthropy, +which in all sound estimation constitute the crowning glory of man. He +will perhaps have a reasonable affection towards what he calls his own +flesh and blood, and may assist even a stranger in a case of urgent +distress.--But it is dangerous to trifle with the first principles and +sentiments of morality. And this man will scarcely in any case have his +mind prepared to hail the first dawnings of human improvement, and to +regard all that belongs to the welfare of his kind as parcel of his own +particular estate. + +The creed of self-love will always have a tendency to make us Frenchmen +in the frivolous part of that character, and Dutchmen in the plodding +and shopkeeping spirit of barter and sale. There is no need that we +should beat down the impulse of heroism in the human character, and +be upon our guard against the effervescences and excess of a generous +sentiment. One of the instructors of my youth was accustomed to say to +his pupils, "Do not be afraid to commit your thoughts to paper in all +the fervour and glow of your first conception: when you come to look at +them the next day, you will find this gone off to a surprising degree." +As this was no ill precept for literary composition, even so in our +actions and moral conduct we shall be in small danger of being too +warm-hearted and too generous. + +Modern improvements in education are earnest in recommending to us the +study of facts, and that we should not waste the time of young persons +upon the flights of imagination. But it is to imagination that we +are indebted for our highest enjoyments; it tames the ruggedness of +uncivilised nature, and is the never-failing associate of all the +considerable advances of social man, whether in throwing down the strong +fences of intellectual slavery, or in giving firmness and duration to +the edifice of political freedom. + +And who does not feel that every thing depends upon the creed we +embrace, and the discipline we exercise over our own souls? + +The disciple of the theory of self-love, if of a liberal disposition, +will perpetually whip himself forward "with loose reins," upon a +spiritless Pegasus, and say, "I will do generous things; I will not +bring into contempt the master I serve--though I am conscious all +the while that this is but a delusion, and that, however I brag of +generosity, I do not set a step forward, but singly for my own ends, +and my own gratification." Meanwhile, this is all a forced condition of +thought; and the man who cherishes it, will be perpetually falling back +into the cold, heartless convictions he inwardly retains. Self-love is +the unwholesome, infectious atmosphere in which he dwells; and, however +he may seek to rise, the wings of his soul will eternally be drawn +downwards, and he cannot be pervaded, as he might have been, with +the free spirit of genuine philanthropy. To be consistent, he ought +continually to grow colder and colder; and the romance, which fired his +youth, and made him forget the venomous potion he had swallowed, +will fade away in age, rendering him careless of all but himself, and +indifferent to the adversity and sufferings of all of whom he hears, and +all with whom he is connected. + +On the other hand, the man who has embraced the creed of disinterested +benevolence, will know that it is not his fitting element to "live for +himself, or to die for himself." Whether he is under the dominion of +family-affection, friendship, patriotism, or a zeal for his brethren +of mankind, he will feel that he is at home. The generous man therefore +looks forward to the time when the chilling and wretched philosophy +of the reign of Louis the Fourteenth shall be forgotten, and a fervent +desire for the happiness and improvement of the human species shall +reign in all hearts. + +I am not especially desirous of sheltering my opinions under the +authority of great names: but, in a question of such vital importance +to the true welfare of men in society, no fair advantage should be +neglected. The author of the system of "self-love the source of all +our actions" was La Rochefoucault; and the whole herd of the French +philosophers have not been ashamed to follow in the train of their +vaunted master. I am grieved to say, that, as I think, the majority of +my refining and subtilising countrymen of the present day have enlisted +under his banner. But the more noble and generous view of the subject +has been powerfully supported by Shaftesbury, Butler, Hutcheson and +Hume. On the last of these I particularly pique myself; inasmuch as, +though he became naturalised as a Frenchman in a vast variety of topics, +the greatness of his intellectual powers exempted him from degradation +in this. + +That however which I would chiefly urge in the way of authority, is the +thing mentioned in the beginning of this Essay, I mean, the sentiments +that have animated the authors of religion, that characterise the best +ages of Greece and Rome, and that in all cases display themselves when +the loftiest and most generous sentiments of the heart are called into +action. The opposite creed could only have been engendered in the dregs +of a corrupt and emasculated court; and human nature will never shew +itself what it is capable of being, till the last remains of a doctrine, +invented in the latter part of the seventeenth century, shall have been +consigned to the execration they deserve. + + + + +ESSAY XII. OF THE LIBERTY OF HUMAN ACTIONS. + +The question, which has been attended with so long and obstinate +debates, concerning the metaphysical doctrines of liberty and +necessity, and the freedom of human actions, is not even yet finally and +satisfactorily settled. + +The negative is made out by an argument which seems to amount to +demonstration, that every event requires a cause, a cause why it is as +it is and not otherwise, that the human will is guided by motives, and +is consequently always ruled by the strongest motive, and that we can +never choose any thing, either without a motive of preference, or in the +way of following the weaker, and deserting the stronger motive(26). + + + (26) Political Justice, Book IV, Chap. VII. + + +Why is it then that disbelief or doubt should still subsist in a +question so fully decided? + +For the same reason that compels us to reject many other demonstrations. +The human mind is so constituted as to oblige us, if not theoretically, +at least practically, to reject demonstration, and adhere to our senses. + +The case is thus in the great question of the non-existence of an +external world, or of matter. How ever much the understanding may be +satisfied of the truth of the proposition by the arguments of Berkeley +and others, we no sooner go out into actual life, than we become +convinced, in spite of our previous scepticism or unbelief, of the real +existence of the table, the chair, and the objects around us, and of the +permanence and reality of the persons, both body and mind, with whom we +have intercourse. If we were not, we should soon become indifferent to +their pleasure and pain, and in no long time reason ourselves into the +opinion that the one was not more desirable than the other, and conduct +ourselves accordingly. + +But there is a great difference between the question of a material +world, and the question of liberty and necessity. The most strenuous +Berkleian can never say, that there is any contradiction or +impossibility in the existence of matter. All that he can consistently +and soberly maintain is, that, if the material world exists, we can +never perceive it, and that our sensations, and trains of impressions +and thinking go on wholly independent of that existence. + +But the question of the freedom of human actions is totally of another +class. To say that in our choice we reject the stronger motive, and that +we choose a thing merely because we choose it, is sheer nonsense and +absurdity; and whoever with a sound understanding will fix his mind upon +the state of the question will perceive its impossibility. + +In the mean time it is not less true, that every man, the necessarian as +well as his opponent, acts on the assumption of human liberty, and can +never for a moment, when he enters into the scenes of real life, divest +himself of this persuasion. + +Let us take separately into our consideration the laws of matter and +of mind. We acknowledge generally in both an established order of +antecedents and consequents, or of causes and effects. This is the +sole foundation of human prudence and of all morality. It is because we +foresee that certain effects will follow from a certain mode of conduct, +that we act in one way rather than another. It is because we foresee +that, if the soil is prepared in a certain way, and if seed is properly +scattered and covered up in the soil thus prepared, a crop will follow, +that we engage in the labours of agriculture. In the same manner, it +is because we foresee that, if lessons are properly given, and a young +person has them clearly explained to him, certain benefits will result, +and because we are apprised of the operation of persuasion, admonition, +remonstrance, menace, punishment and reward, that we engage in the +labours of education. All the studies of the natural philosopher and the +chemist, all our journeys by land and our voyages by sea, and all the +systems and science of government, are built upon this principle, that +from a certain method of proceeding, regulated by the precepts of wisdom +and experience, certain effects may be expected to follow. + +Yet, at the same time that we admit of a regular series of cause and +effect in the operations both of matter and mind, we never fail, in our +reflections upon each, to ascribe to them an essential difference. In +the laws by which a falling body descends to the earth, and by which the +planets are retained in their orbits, in a word, in all that relates to +inanimate nature, we readily assent to the existence of absolute laws, +so that, when we have once ascertained the fundamental principles +of astronomy and physics, we rely with perfect assurance upon the +invariable operation of these laws, yesterday, to-day, and for ever. As +long as the system of things, of which we are spectators, and in +which we act our several parts, shall remain, so long have the general +phenomena of nature gone on unchanged for more years of past ages than +we can define, and will in all probability continue to operate for as +many ages to come. We admit of no variation, but firmly believe that, +if we were perfectly acquainted with all the causes, we could, without +danger of error, predict all the effects. We are satisfied that, +since first the machine of the universe was set going, every thing in +inanimate nature has taken place in a regular course, and nothing has +happened and can happen, otherwise than as it actually has been and will +be. + +But we believe, or, more accurately speaking, we feel, that it is +otherwise in the universe of mind. Whoever attentively observes the +phenomena of thinking and sentient beings, will be convinced, that men +and animals are under the influence of motives, that we are subject +to the predominance of the passions, of love and hatred, of desire +and aversion, of sorrow and joy, and that the elections we make are +regulated by impressions supplied to us by these passions. But we are +fully penetrated with the notion, that mind is an arbiter, that it sits +on its throne, and decides, as an absolute prince, this may or that; +in short, that, while inanimate nature proceeds passively in an eternal +chain of cause and effect, mind is endowed with an initiating power, and +forms its determinations by an inherent and indefeasible prerogative. + +Hence arises the idea of contingency relative to the acts of living and +sentient beings, and the opinion that, while, in the universe of matter, +every thing proceeds in regular course, and nothing has happened or +can happen, otherwise than as it actually has been or will be, in the +determinations and acts of living beings each occurrence may be or not +be, and waits the mastery of mind to decide whether the event shall +be one way or the other, both issues being equally possible till that +decision has been made. + +Thus, as was said in the beginning, we have demonstration, all the +powers of our reasoning faculty, on one side, and the feeling, of our +minds, an inward persuasion of which with all our efforts we can never +divest ourselves, on the other. This phenomenon in the history of every +human creature, had aptly enough been denominated, the "delusive sense +of liberty(27)." + + + (27) The first writer, by whom this proposition was distinctly +enunciated, seems to have been Lord Kaimes, in his Essays on the +Principles of Morality and Natural Religion, published in 1751. But this +ingenious author was afterwards frightened with the boldness of his +own conclusions, and in the subsequent editions of his work endeavoured +ineffectually to explain away what he had said. + + +And, though the philosopher in his closet will for the most part fully +assent to the doctrine of the necessity of human actions, yet this +indestructible feeling of liberty, which accompanies us from the cradle +to the grave, is entitled to our serious attention, and has never +obtained that consideration from the speculative part of mankind, +which must by no means be withheld, if we would properly enter into +the mysteries of our nature. The necessarian has paid it very imperfect +attention to the impulses which form the character of man, if he +omits this chapter in the history of mind, while on the other hand the +advocate of free will, if he would follow up his doctrine rigorously +into all its consequences, would render all speculations on human +character and conduct superfluous, put an end to the system of +persuasion, admonition, remonstrance, menace, punishment and reward, +annihilate the very essence of civil government, and bring to a close +all distinction between the sane person and the maniac. + +With the disciples of the latter of these doctrines I am by no means +specially concerned. I am fully persuaded, as far as the powers of my +understanding can carry me, that the phenomena of mind are governed by +laws altogether as inevitable as the phenomena of matter, and that the +decisions of our will are always in obedience to the impulse of the +strongest motive. + +The consequences of the principle implanted in our nature, by which men +of every creed, when they descend into the scene of busy life, pronounce +themselves and their fellow-mortals to be free agents, are sufficiently +memorable. + +From hence there springs what we call conscience in man, and a sense of +praise or blame due to ourselves and others for the actions we perform. + +How poor, listless and unenergetic would all our performances be, +but for this sentiment! It is in vain that I should talk to myself or +others, of the necessity of human actions, of the connection between +cause and effect, that all industry, study and mental discipline will +turn to account, and this with infinitely more security on the principle +of necessity, than on the opposite doctrine, every thing I did would +be without a soul. I should still say, Whatever I may do, whether it be +right or wrong, I cannot help it; wherefore then should I trouble +the master-spirit within me? It is either the calm feeling of +self-approbation, or the more animated swell of the soul, the quick +beatings of the pulse, the enlargement of the heart, the glory sparkling +in the eye, and the blood flushing into the cheek, that sustains me in +all my labours. This turns the man into what we conceive of a God, arms +him with prowess, gives him a more than human courage, and inspires him +with a resolution and perseverance that nothing can subdue. + +In the same manner the love or hatred, affection or alienation, we +entertain for our fellow-men, is mainly referable for its foundation +to the "delusive sense of liberty." "We approve of a sharp knife rather +than a blunt one, because its capacity is greater. We approve of its +being employed in carving food, rather than in maiming men or other +animals, because that application of its capacity is preferable. But +all approbation or preference is relative to utility or general good. A +knife is as capable as a man, of being employed in purposes of utility; +and the one is no more free than the other as to its employment. The +mode in which a knife is made subservient to these purposes, is by +material impulse. The mode in which a man is made subservient, is +by inducement and persuasion. But both are equally the affair of +necessity(28)." These are the sentiments dictated to us by the doctrine +of the necessity of human actions. + + + (28) Political Justice, Book IV, Chap. VIII. + + +But how different are the feelings that arise within us, as soon as +we enter into the society of our fellow-creatures! "The end of the +commandment is love." It is the going forth of the heart towards those +to whom we are bound by the ties of a common nature, affinity, sympathy +or worth, that is the luminary of the moral world. Without it there +would have been "a huge eclipse of sun and moon;" or at best, as a +well-known writer(29) expresses it in reference to another subject, +we should have lived in "a silent and drab-coloured creation." We are +prepared by the power that made us for feelings and emotions; and, +unless these come to diversify and elevate our existence, we should +waste our days in melancholy, and scarcely be able to sustain ourselves. +The affection we entertain for those towards whom our partiality and +kindness are excited, is the life of our life. It is to this we are +indebted for all our refinement, and, in the noblest sense of the word, +for all our humanity. Without it we should have had no sentiment (a +word, however abused, which, when properly defined, comprises every +thing that is the crown of our nature), and no poetry.--Love and +hatred, as they regard our fellow-creatures, in contradistinction to the +complacency, or the feeling of an opposite nature, which is excited in +us towards inanimate objects, are entirely the offspring of the delusive +sense of liberty. + + + (29) Thomas Paine. + + +The terms, praise and blame, express to a great degree the same +sentiments as those of love and hatred, with this difference, that +praise and blame in their simplest sense apply to single actions, +whereas love and hatred are produced in us by the sum of those actions +or tendencies, which constitute what we call character. There is also +another difference, that love and hatred are engendered in us by other +causes as well as moral qualities; but praise and blame, in the sense in +which they are peculiarly applied to our fellow-mortals, are founded on +moral qualities only. In love and hatred however, when they are intense +or are lasting, some reference to moral qualities is perhaps necessarily +implied. The love between the sexes, unless in cases where it is of a +peculiarly transient nature, always comprises in it a belief that the +party who is the object of our love, is distinguished by tendencies +of an amiable nature, which we expect to see manifesting themselves in +affectionate attentions and acts of kindness. Even the admiration we +entertain for the features, the figure, and personal graces of the +object of our regard, is mixed with and heightened by our expectation of +actions and tones that generate approbation, and, if divested of this, +would be of small signification or permanence. In like manner in +the ties of affinity, or in cases where we are impelled by the +consideration, "He also is a man as well as I," the excitement will +carry us but a little way, unless we discover in the being towards whom +we are moved some peculiarities which may beget a moral partiality and +regard. + +And, as towards our fellow-creatures, so in relation to ourselves, our +moral sentiments are all involved with, and take their rise in, the +delusive sense of liberty. It is in this that is contained the peculiar +force of the terms virtue, duty, guilt and desert. We never pronounce +these words without thinking of the action to which they refer, as that +which might or might not be done, and therefore unequivocally approve +or disapprove in ourselves and others. A virtuous man, as the term +is understood by all, as soon as we are led to observe upon those +qualities, and the exhibition of those qualities in actual life, which +constitute our nature, is a man who, being in full possession of the +freedom of human action, is engaged in doing those things which a sound +judgment of the tendencies of what we do pronounces to be good. + +Duty is a term that can scarcely be said to have a meaning, except that +which it derives from the delusive sense of liberty. According to the +creed of the necessarian, it expresses that mode of action on the part +of the individual, which constitutes the best possible application of +his capacity to the general benefit(30). In the mean time, if we confine +ourselves to this definition, it may as well be taken to describe the +best application of a knife, or any other implement proceeding from the +hands of the manufacturer, as of the powers of a human being. + +But we surely have a very different idea in our minds, when we employ +the term duty. It is not agreeable to the use of language that we should +use this term, except we speak of a being in the exercise of volition. + + + (30) Political Justice, Book II, Chap. IV. + + +Duty then means that which may justly be required of a human creature in +the possession of liberty of action. It includes in its proper sense the +conception of the empire of will, the notion that mind is an arbiter, +that it sits on its throne, and decides, as an absolute prince, this way +or that. + +Duty is the performance of what is due, the discharge of a debt +(debitum). But a knife owes nothing, and can in no sense be said to be +held to one sort of application rather than another; the debt can only +belong to a human being in possession of his liberty, by whom the knife +may be applied laudably or otherwise. + +A multitude of terms instantly occur to us, the application of which +is limited in the same manner as the term duty is limited: such are, to +owe, obligation, debt, bond, right, claim, sin, crime, guilt, merit and +desert. Even reward and punishment, however they may be intelligible +when used merely in the sense of motives employed, have in general +acceptation a sense peculiarly derived from the supposed freedom of the +human will. + +The mode therefore in which the advocates of the doctrine of necessity +have universally talked and written, is one of the most memorable +examples of the hallucination of the human intellect. They have at +all times recommended that we should translate the phrases in which +we usually express ourselves on the hypothesis of liberty, into the +phraseology of necessity, that we should talk no other language than +that which is in correspondence with the severest philosophy, and that +we should exert ourselves to expel all fallacious notions and delusions +so much as from our recollection. They did not perceive what a wide +devastation and destruction they were proposing of all the terms and +phrases that are in use in the communications between man and man +in actual life.--They might as well have recommended that we should +rigorously bear in mind on the ordinary occasions of life, that there is +no such thing as colour, that which we ordinary call by that name having +no existence in external objects, but belonging only to our way of +perceiving them. + +The language which is suggested to us by the conception of the freedom +of human actions, moulds the very first articulations of a child, +"I will," and "I will not;" and is even distinctly conveyed by his +gestures, before he arrives at the power of articulation. This is the +explanation and key to his vehement and ungovernable movements, and his +rebellion. The petulance of the stripling, the fervent and energetic +exertions of the warrior, and the calm and unalterable resolution of +the sage, all imply the same thing. Will, and a confidence in its +efficiency, "travel through, nor quit us till we die." It is this which +inspires us with invincible perseverance, and heroic energies, while +without it we should be the most inert and soulless of blocks, the +shadows of what history records and poetry immortalises, and not men. + +Free will is an integral part of the science of man, and may be said to +constitute its most important chapter. We might with as much propriety +overlook the intelligence of the senses, that medium which acquaints us +with an external world or what we call such, we might as well overlook +the consideration of man's reason, his imagination or taste, as fail to +dwell with earnest reflection and exposition upon that principle which +lies at the foundation of our moral energies, fills us with a moral +enthusiasm, prompts all our animated exertions on the theatre of the +world, whether upon a wide or a narrow scale, and penetrates us with +the most lively and fervent approbation or disapprobation of the acts +of ourselves and others in which the forwarding or obstructing human +happiness is involved. + +But, though the language of the necessarian is at war with the +indestructible feelings of the human mind, and though his demonstrations +will for ever crumble into dust, when brought to the test of the +activity of real life, yet his doctrines, to the reflecting and +enlightened, will by no means be without their use. In the sobriety of +the closet, we inevitably assent to his conclusions; nor is it easy to +conceive how a rational man and a philosopher abstractedly can entertain +a doubt of the necessity of human actions. And the number of these +persons is perpetually increasing; enlarged and dispassionate views of +the nature of man and the laws of the universe are rapidly spreading in +the world. We cannot indeed divest ourselves of love and hatred, of +the sentiments of praise and blame, and the ideas of virtue, duty, +obligation, debt, bond, right, claim, sin, crime, guilt, merit and +desert. And, if we could do so, the effects would be most pernicious, +and the world be rendered a blank. We shall however unquestionably, +as our minds grow enlarged, be brought to the entire and unreserved +conviction, that man is a machine, that he is governed by external +impulses, and is to be regarded as the medium only through the +intervention of which previously existing causes are enabled to produce +certain effects. We shall see, according to an expressive phrase, that +he "could not help it," and, of consequence, while we look down from the +high tower of philosophy upon the scene of human affairs, our prevailing +emotion will be pity, even towards the criminal, who, from the qualities +he brought into the world, and the various circumstances which act upon +him from infancy, and form his character, is impelled to be the means +of the evils, which we view with so profound disapprobation, and the +existence of which we so entirely regret. + +There is an old axiom of philosophy, which counsels us to "think with +the learned, and talk with the vulgar;" and the practical application of +this axiom runs through the whole scene of human affairs. Thus the +most learned astronomer talks of the rising and setting of the sun, +and forgets in his ordinary discourse that the earth is not for ever at +rest, and does not constitute the centre of the universe. Thus, however +we reason respecting the attributes of inanimate matter and the nature +of sensation, it never occurs to us, when occupied with the affairs +of actual life, that there is no heat in fire, and no colour in the +rainbow. + +In like manner, when we contemplate the acts of ourselves and our +neighbours, we can never divest ourselves of the delusive sense of +the liberty of human actions, of the sentiment of conscience, of the +feelings of love and hatred, the impulses of praise and blame, and the +notions of virtue, duty, obligation, right, claim, guilt, merit and +desert. And it has sufficiently appeared in the course of this Essay, +that it is not desirable that we should do so. They are these ideas +to which the world we live in is indebted for its crowning glory and +greatest lustre. They form the highest distinction between men and +other animals, and are the genuine basis of self-reverence, and the +conceptions of true nobility and greatness, and the reverse of these +attributes, in the men with whom we live, and the men whose deeds are +recorded in the never-dying page of history. + +But, though the doctrine of the necessity of human actions can never +form the rule of our intercourse with others, it will still have its +use. It will moderate our excesses, and point out to us that middle path +of judgment which the soundest philosophy inculcates. We shall learn, +according to the apostolic precept, to "be angry, and sin not, neither +let the sun go down upon our wrath." We shall make of our fellow-men +neither idols to worship, nor demons to be regarded with horror and +execration. We shall think of them, as of players, "that strut and fret +their hour upon the stage, and then are heard no more." We shall "weep, +as though we wept not, and rejoice, as though we rejoiced not, seeing +that the fashion of this world passeth away." And, most of all, we shall +view with pity, even with sympathy, the men whose frailties we behold, +or by whom crimes are perpetrated, satisfied that they are parts of one +great machine, and, like ourselves, are driven forward by impulses over +which they have no real control. + + + + +ESSAY XIII. OF BELIEF. + +One of the prerogatives by which man is eminently distinguished from all +other living beings inhabiting this globe of earth, consists in the gift +of reason. + +Beasts reason. They are instructed by experience; and, guided by what +they have already known of the series of events, they infer from the +sense of what has gone before, an assured expectation of what is to +follow. Hence, "beast walks with man, joint tenant of the shade;" and +their sagacity is in many instances more unerring than ours, because +they have no affectation to mislead them; they follow no false lights, +no glimmering intimation of something half-anticipating a result, +but trust to the plain, blunt and obvious dictates of their simple +apprehension. This however is but the first step in the scale of reason, +and is in strictness scarcely entitled to the name. + +We set off from the same point from which they commence their career. +But the faculty of articulate speech comes in, enabling us to form +the crude elements of reason and inference into a code. We digest +explanations of things, assigning the particulars in which they resemble +other classes, and the particulars by which they are distinguished +from whatever other classes have fallen under our notice. We frame +propositions, and, detaching ourselves from the immediate impressions of +sense, proceed to generalities, which exist only, in a way confused, and +not distinctly adverted to, in the conceptions of the animal creation. + +It is thus that we arrive at science, and go forward to those +subtleties, and that perspicuity of explanation, which place man in a +distinct order of being, leaving all the other inhabitants of earth at +an immeasurable distance below him. It is thus that we communicate our +discoveries to each other, and hand down the knowledge we have acquired, +unimpaired and entire, through successive ages, and to generations yet +unborn. + +But in certain respects we pay a very high price for this distinction. +It is to it that we must impute all the follies, extravagances and +hallucinations of human intellect. There is nothing so absurd that some +man has not affirmed, rendering himself the scorn and laughing-stock +of persons of sounder understanding. And, which is worst, the more +ridiculous and unintelligible is the proposition he has embraced, +the more pertinaciously does he cling to it; so that creeds the most +outrageous and contradictory have served as the occasion or pretext for +the most impassioned debates, bloody wars, inhuman executions, and all +that most deeply blots and dishonours the name of man--while often, the +more evanescent and frivolous are the distinctions, the more furious and +inexpiable have been the contentions they have produced. + +The result of the whole, in the vast combinations of men into tribes +and nations, is, that thousands and millions believe, or imagine they +believe, propositions and systems, the terms of which they do not fully +understand, and the evidence of which they have not considered. They +believe, because so their fathers believed before them. No phrase +is more commonly heard than, "I was born a Christian;" "I was born a +Catholic, or a Protestant." + + The priest continues what the nurse began, + And thus the child imposes on the man. + + +But this sort of belief forms no part of the subject of the present +Essay. My purpose is to confine myself to the consideration of those +persons, who in some degree, more or less, exercise the reasoning +faculty in the pursuit of truth, and, having attempted to examine the +evidence of an interesting and weighty proposition, satisfy themselves +that they have arrived at a sound conclusion. + +It is however the rarest thing in the world, for any one to found his +opinion, simply upon the evidence that presents itself to him of the +truth of the proposition which comes before him to be examined. Where +is the man that breaks loose from all the shackles that in his youth had +been imposed upon hills, and says to Truth, "Go on; whithersoever thou +leadest, I am prepared to follow?" To weigh the evidence for and +against a proposition, in scales so balanced, that the "division of the +twentieth part of one poor scruple, the estimation of a hair," shall be +recognised and submitted to, is the privilege of a mind of no ordinary +fairness and firmness. + +The Scriptures say "The heart of man is deceitful above all things." The +thinking principle within us is so subtle, has passed through so many +forms of instruction, and is under the influence and direction of such a +variety of causes, that no man can accurately pronounce by what impulse +he has been led to the conclusion in which he finally reposes. Every +ingenuous person, who is invited to embrace a certain profession, that +of the church for example, will desire, preparatorily to his final +determination, to examine the evidences and the merits of the religion +he embraces, that he may enter upon his profession under the influence +of a sincere conviction, and be inspired with that zeal, in singleness +of heart, which can alone prevent his vocation from being disgraceful +to him. Yet how many motives are there, constraining him to abide in an +affirmative conclusion? His friends expect this from him. Perhaps his +own inclination leads him to select this destination rather than any +other. Perhaps preferment and opulence wait upon his decision. If the +final result of his enquiries lead him to an opposite judgment, to how +much obloquy will he be exposed! Where is the man who can say that +no unconscious bias has influenced him in the progress of his +investigation? Who shall pronounce that, under very different +circumstances, his conclusions would not have been essentially other +than they are? + +But the enquiry of an active and a searching mind does not terminate on +a certain day. He will be for ever revising and reconsidering his first +determinations. It is one of the leading maxims of an honourable mind, +that we must be, at all times, and to the last hour of our existence, +accessible to conviction built upon new evidence, or upon evidence +presented in a light in which it had not before been viewed. If then the +probationer for the clerical profession was under some bias in his +first investigation, how must it be expected to be with him, when he has +already taken the vow, and received ordination? Can he with a calm and +unaltered spirit contemplate the possibility, that the ground shall be +cut away from under him, and that, by dint of irrefragable argument, he +shall be stripped of his occupation, and turned out naked and friendless +into the world? + +But this is only one of the broadest and most glaring instances. In +every question of paramount importance there is ever a secret influence +urging me earnestly to desire to find one side of the question right and +the other wrong. Shall I be a whig or a tory, believe a republic or +a mixed monarchy most conducive to the improvement and happiness of +mankind, embrace the creed of free will or necessity? There is in all +cases a "strong temptation that waketh in the heart." Cowardice urges +me to become the adherent of that creed, which is espoused by my nearest +friends, or those who are most qualified to serve me. Enterprise and +a courageous spirit on the contrary bid me embrace the tenet, the +embracing of which shall most conduce to my reputation for extraordinary +perspicuity and acuteness, and gain me the character of an intrepid +adventurer, a man who dares commit himself to an unknown voyage. + +In the question of religion, even when the consideration of the +profession of an ecclesiastic does not occur, yet we are taught to +believe that there is only one set of tenets that will lead us in +the way of salvation. Faith is represented as the first of all +qualifications. "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not +had sin." With what heart then does a man set himself to examine, and +scrupulously weigh the evidence on one side and the other, when some +undiscerned frailty, some secret bias that all his care cannot detect, +may lurk within, and insure for him the "greater condemnation?" I well +remember in early life, with what tingling sensation and unknown horror +I looked into the books of the infidels and the repositories of unlawful +tenets, lest I should be seduced. I held it my duty to "prove all +things;" but I knew not how far it might be my fate; to sustain the +penalty attendant even upon an honourable and virtuous curiousity. + +It is one of the most received arguments of the present day against +religious persecution, that the judgments we form are not under the +authority of our will, and that, for what it is not in our power to +change, it is unjust we should be punished: and there is much truth in +this. But it is not true to the fullest extent. The sentiments we shall +entertain, are to a considerable degree at the disposal of inticements +on the one side, and of menaces and apprehension on the other. That +which we wish to believe, we are already greatly in progress to embrace; +and that which will bring upon us disgrace and calamity, we are more +than half prepared to reject. Persecution however is of very equivocal +power: we cannot embrace one faith and reject another at the word of +command. + +It is a curious question to decide how far punishments and rewards may +be made effectual to determine the religion of nations and generations +of men. They are often unsuccessful. There is a feeling in the human +heart, that prompts us to reject with indignation this species of +tyranny. We become more obstinate in clinging to that which we are +commanded to discard. We place our honour and our pride in the firmness +of our resistance. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." +Yet there is often great efficacy in persecution. It was the policy of +the court of Versailles that brought almost to nothing the Huguenots of +France. And there is a degree of persecution, if the persecuting party +has the strength and the inexorableness to employ it, that it is perhaps +beyond the prowess of human nature to stand up against. + +The mind of the enquiring man is engaged in a course of perpetual +research; and ingenuousness prompts us never to be satisfied with the +efforts that we have made, but to press forward. But mind, as well as +body, has a certain vis inertiae, and moves only as it is acted upon by +impulses from without. With respect to the adopting new opinions, and +the discovery of new truths, we must be indebted in the last resort, +either to books, or the oral communications of our fellow-men, or to +ideas immediately suggested to us by the phenomena of man or nature. The +two former are the ordinary causes of a change of judgment to men: +they are for the most part minds of a superior class only, that are +susceptible of hints derived straight from the external world, without +the understandings of other men intervening, and serving as a conduit to +the new conceptions introduced. The two former serve, so to express it, +for the education of man, and enable us to master, in our own persons, +the points already secured, and the wisdom laid up in the great magazine +of human knowledge; the last imparts to us the power of adding to the +stock, and carrying forward by one step and another the improvements of +which our nature is susceptible. + +It is much that books, the unchanging records of the thoughts of men in +former ages, are able to impart to us. For many of the happiest moments +of our lives, for many of the purest and most exalted feelings of the +human heart, we are indebted to them. Education is their province; +we derive from them civilization and refinement; and we may affirm of +literature, what Otway has said of woman, "We had been brutes without +you." It is thus that the acquisitions of the wise are handed down from +age to age, and that we are enabled to mount step after step on the +ladder of paradise, till we reach the skies. + +But, inestimable as is the benefit we derive from books, there is +something more searching and soul-stirring in the impulse of oral +communication. We cannot shut our ears, as we shut our books; we cannot +escape from the appeal of the man who addresses us with earnest speech +and living conviction. It is thus, we are told, that, when Cicero +pleaded before Caesar for the life of Ligarius, the conqueror of the +world was troubled, and changed colour again and again, till at length +the scroll prepared for the condemnation of the patriot fell from his +hand. Sudden and irresistible conviction is chiefly the offspring of +living speech. We may arm ourselves against the arguments of an author; +but the strength of reasoning in him who addresses us, takes us at +unawares. It is in the reciprocation of answer and rejoinder that the +power of conversion specially lies. A book is an abstraction. It is but +imperfectly that we feel, that a real man addresses us in it, and that +what he delivers is the entire and deep-wrought sentiment of a being of +flesh and blood like ourselves, a being who claims our attention, and +is entitled to our deference. The living human voice, with a countenance +and manner corresponding, constrains us to weigh what is said, shoots +through us like a stroke of electricity, will not away from our memory, +and haunts our very dreams. It is by means of this peculiarity in the +nature of mind, that it has been often observed that there is from +time to time an Augustan age in the intellect of nations, that men of +superior powers shock with each other, and that light is struck from +the collision, which most probably no one of these men would have given +birth to, if they had not been thrown into mutual society and communion. +And even so, upon a narrower scale, he that would aspire to do the most +of which his faculties are susceptible, should seek the intercourse of +his fellows, that his powers may be strengthened, and he may be kept +free from that torpor and indolence of soul, which, without external +excitement, are ever apt to take possession of us. + +The man, who lives in solitude, and seldom communicates with minds of +the same class as his own, works out his opinions with patient scrutiny, +returns to the investigation again and again, imagines that he had +examined the question on all sides, and at length arrives at what is to +him a satisfactory conclusion. He resumes the view of this conclusion +day after day; he finds in it an unalterable validity; he says in his +heart, "Thus much I have gained; this is a real advance in the search +after truth; I have added in a defined and palpable degree to what I +knew before." And yet it has sometimes happened, that this person, after +having been shut up for weeks, or for a longer period, in his sanctuary, +living, so far as related to an exchange of oral disquisitions with his +fellow-men, like Robinson Crusoe in the desolate island, shall come into +the presence of one, equally clear-sighted, curious and indefatigable +with himself, and shall hear from him an obvious and palpable statement, +which in a moment shivers his sightly and glittering fabric into atoms. +The statement was palpable and near at hand; it was a thin, an almost +imperceptible partition that hid it from him; he wonders in his heart +that it never occurred to his meditations. And yet so it is: it was hid +from him for weeks, or perhaps for a longer period: it might have been +hid from him for twenty years, if it had not been for the accident that +supplied it. And he no sooner sees it, than he instantly perceives that +the discovery upon which he plumed himself, was an absurdity, of which +even a schoolboy might be ashamed. + +A circumstance not less curious, among the phenomena which belong to +this subject of belief, is the repugnance incident to the most ingenuous +minds, which we harbour against the suddenly discarding an opinion +we have previously entertained, and the adopting one which comes +recommended to us with almost the force of demonstration. Nothing can +be better founded than this repugnance. The mind of man is of a peculiar +nature. It has been disputed whether we can entertain more than one idea +at a time. But certain it is, that the views of the mind at any one time +are considerably narrowed. The mind is like the slate of a schoolboy, +which can contain only a certain number of characters of a given size, +or like a moveable panorama, which places a given scene or landscape +before me, and the space assigned, and which comes within the limits +marked out to my perception, is full. Many things are therefore almost +inevitably shut out, which, had it not been so, might have essentially +changed the view of the case, and have taught me that it was a very +different conclusion at which I ought to have arrived. + +At first sight nothing can appear more unreasonable, than that I should +hesitate to admit the seemingly irresistible force of the argument +presented to me. An ingenuous disposition would appear to require that, +the moment the truth, or what seems to be the truth, is set before me, +I should pay to it the allegiance to which truth is entitled. If I do +otherwise, it would appear to argue a pusillanimous disposition, a +mind not prompt and disengaged to receive the impression of evidence, +a temper that loves something else better than the lustre which all +men are bound to recognise, and that has a reserve in favour of ancient +prejudice, and of an opinion no longer supported by reason. + +In fact however I shall act most wisely, and in the way most honourable +to my character, if I resolve to adjourn the debate. No matter how +complete the view may seem which is now presented to my consideration, +or how irresistible the arguments: truth is too majestic a divinity, +and it is of too much importance that I should not follow a delusive +semblance that may shew like truth, not to make it in the highest degree +proper that I should examine again and again, before I come to the +conclusion to which I mean to affix my seal, and annex my sanction, +"This is the truth." The ancient Goths of Germany, we are told, had a +custom of debating every thing of importance to their state twice, once +in the high animation of a convivial meeting, and once in the serene +stillness of a morning consultation. Philip of Macedon having decided a +cause precipitately, the party condemned by him immediately declared his +resolution to appeal from the sentence. And to whom, said the king, wilt +thou appeal? To Philip, was the answer, in the entire possession of his +understanding. + +Such is the nature of the human mind--at least, such I find to be the +nature of my own--that many trains of thinking, many chains of evidence, +the result of accumulated facts, will often not present themselves, at +the time when their presence would be of the highest importance. +The view which now comes before me is of a substance so close and +well-woven, and of colours so brilliant and dazzling, that other matters +in a certain degree remote, though of no less intrinsic importance, and +equally entitled to influence my judgment in the question in hand, shall +be entirely shut out, shall be killed, and fail to offer themselves to +my perceptions. + +It is a curious circumstance which Pope, a man of eminent logical power +and acuteness, relates, that, having at his command in his youth a +collection of all the tracts that had been written on both sides in the +reign of James the Second, he applied himself with great assiduity +to their perusal, and the consequence was, that he was a Papist and +Protestant by turns, according to the last book he read(31). + + + (31) Correspondence with Atterbury, Letter IV. + + +This circumstance in the structure of the human understanding is well +known, and is the foundation of many provisions that occur in the +constitution of political society. How each man shall form his creed, +and arrange those opinions by which his conduct shall be regulated, is +of course a matter exclusively subjected to his own discretion. But, +when he is called upon to act in the name of a community, and to decide +upon a question in which the public is interested, he of necessity feels +himself called upon to proceed with the utmost caution. A judge on the +bench, a chancellor, is not contented with that sudden ray of mental +illumination to which an ingenuous individual is often disposed to yield +in an affair of abstract speculation. He feels that he is obliged to +wait for evidence, the nature of which he does not yet anticipate, and +to adjourn his decision. A deliberative council or assembly is aware of +the necessity of examining a question again and again. It is upon this +principle that the two houses of the English parliament are required to +give a first, a second and a third reading, together with various other +forms and technicalities, to the provision that is brought before them, +previously to its passing into a law. And there is many a fundamental +dogma and corner-stone of the sentiments that I shall emphatically call +my own, that is of more genuine importance to the individual, than to a +nation is a number of those regulations, which by courtesy we call acts +of parliament. + +Nothing can have a more glaring tendency to subvert the authority of my +opinion among my fellow-men, than instability. "What went ye out into +the wilderness to see" said Jesus Christ: "a reed shaken with the wind?" +We ought at all times to be open to conviction. We ought to be ever +ready to listen to evidence. But, conscious of our human frailty, it +is seldom that we ought immediately to subscribe to the propositions, +however specious, that are now for the first time presented to us. It +is our duty to lay up in our memory the suggestions offered upon any +momentous question, and not to suffer them to lose their inherent weight +and impressiveness; but it is only through the medium of consideration +and reconsideration, that they can become entitled to our full and +unreserved assent. + +The nature of belief, or opinion, has been well illustrated by Lord +Shaftesbury(32). There are many notions or judgments floating in the +mind of every man, which are mutually destructive of each other. In this +sense men's opinions are governed by high and low spirits, by the state +of the solids and fluids of the human body, and by the state of the +weather. But in a paramount sense that only can be said to be a man's +opinion which he entertains in his clearest moments, and from which, +when he is most himself, he is least subject to vary. In this emphatical +sense, I should say, a man does not always know what is his real +opinion. We cannot strictly be said to believe any thing, in cases +where we afterwards change our opinion without the introduction of some +evidence that was unknown to us before. But how many are the instances +in which we can be affirmed to be in the adequate recollection of all +the evidences and reasonings which have at some time occurred to us, and +of the opinions, together with the grounds on which they rested, which +we conceived we had justly and rationally entertained? + +The considerations here stated however should by no means be allowed to +inspire us with indifference in matters of opinion. It is the glory and +lustre of our nature, that we are capable of receiving evidence, and +weighing the reasons for and against any important proposition in the +balance of an impartial and enlightened understanding. The only effect +that should be produced in us, by the reflection that we can at last by +no means be secure that we have attained to a perfect result, should be +to teach us a wholsome diffidence and humility, and induce us to confess +that, when we have done all, we are ignorant, dim-sighted and fallible, +that our best reasonings may betray, and our wisest conclusions deceive +us. + + + (32) Enquiry concerning Virtue, Book 1, Part 1, Section ii. + + + + +ESSAY XIV. OF YOUTH AND AGE. + +Magna debetur pueris reverentia. + + Quintilian. + +I am more doubtful in writing the following Essay than in any of those +which precede, how far I am treating of human nature generally, or to a +certain degree merely recording my own feelings as an individual. I +am guided however in composing it, by the principle laid down in my +Preface, that the purpose of my book in each instance should be to +expand some new and interesting truth, or some old truth viewed under a +new aspect, which had never by any preceding writer been laid before the +public. + +Education, in the conception of those whose office it is to direct it, +has various engines by means of which it is to be made effective, and +among these are reprehension and chastisement. + +The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived +from the act of introspection. We look into our own bosoms, observe +attentively every thing that passes there, anatomise our motives, +trace step by step the operations of thought, and diligently remark +the effects of external impulses upon our feelings and conduct. +Philosophers, ever since the time in which Socrates flourished, to carry +back our recollections no further, have found that the minds of men in +the most essential particulars are framed so far upon the same model, +that the analysis of the individual may stand in general consideration +for the analysis of the species. Where this principle fails, it is not +easy to suggest a proceeding that shall supply the deficiency. I look +into my own breast; I observe steadily and with diligence what passes +there; and with all the parade of the philosophy of the human mind I can +do little more than this. + +In treating therefore of education in the point of view in which it has +just been proposed, I turn my observation upon myself, and I proceed +thus.--If I do not stand as a competent representative for the whole of +my species, I suppose I may at least assume to be the representative of +no inconsiderable number of them. + +I find then in myself, for as long a time as I can trace backward +the records of memory, a prominent vein of docility. Whatever it +was proposed to teach me, that was in any degree accordant with my +constitution and capacity, I was willing to learn. And this limit is +sufficient for the topic I am proposing to treat. I do not intend to +consider education of any other sort, than that which has something +in it of a liberal and ingenuous nature. I am not here discussing the +education of a peasant, an artisan, or a slave. + +In addition to this vein of docility, which easily prompted me to learn +whatever was proposed for my instruction and improvement, I felt in +myself a sentiment of ambition, a desire to possess the qualifications +which I found to be productive of esteem, and that should enable me to +excel among my contemporaries. I was ambitious to be a leader, and to be +regarded by others with feelings of complacency. I had no wish to rule +by brute force and compulsion; but I was desirous to govern by love, and +honour, and "the cords of a man." + +I do not imagine that, when I aver thus much of myself, I am bringing +forward any thing unprecedented, or that multitudes of my fellow-men do +not largely participate with me. + +The question therefore I am considering is, through what agency, and +with what engines, a youth thus disposed, and with these qualifications, +is to be initiated in all liberal arts. + +I will go back no further than to the commencement of the learning of +Latin. All before was so easy to me, as never to have presented the idea +of a task. I was immediately put into the accidence. No explanation was +attempted to be given why Latin was to be of use to me, or why it was +necessary to commit to memory the cases of nouns and the tenses of +verbs. I know not whether this was owing to the unwillingness of my +instructor to give himself the trouble, or to my supposed incapacity to +apprehend the explanation. The last of these I do not admit. My +docility however came to my aid, and I did not for a moment harbour +any repugnance to the doing what was required of me. At first, and +unassisted in the enquiry, I felt a difficulty in supposing that the +English language, all the books in my father's library, did not contain +every thing that it would be necessary for me to know. In no long +time however I came to experience a pleasure in turning the thoughts +expressed in an unknown tongue into my own; and I speedily understood +that I could never be on a level with those eminent scholars whom it was +my ambition to rival, without the study of the classics. + +What then were the obstacles, that should in any degree counteract my +smooth and rapid progress in the studies suggested to me? I can conceive +only two. + +First, the versatility and fickleness which in a greater or less degree +beset all human minds, particularly in the season of early youth. +However docile we may be, and willing to learn, there will be periods, +when either some other object powerfully solicits us, or satiety creeps +in, and makes us wish to occupy our attention with any thing else rather +than with the task prescribed us. But this is no powerful obstacle. +The authority of the instructor, a grave look, and the exercise of a +moderate degree of patience will easily remove it in such a probationer +as we are here considering. + +Another obstacle is presumption. The scholar is willing to conceive +well of his own capacity. He has a vanity in accomplishing the task +prescribed him in the shortest practicable time. He is impatient to go +away from the business imposed upon him, to things of his own election, +and occupations which his partialities and his temper prompt him to +pursue. He has a pride in saying to himself, "This, which was a business +given to occupy me for several hours, I can accomplish in less than +one." But the presumption arising out of these views is easily subdued. +If the pupil is wrong in his calculation, the actual experiment will +speedily convince him of his error. He is humbled by and ashamed of his +mistake. The merely being sent back to study his lesson afresh, is on +the face of the thing punishment enough. + +It follows from this view of the matter, that an ingenuous youth, +endowed with sufficient capacity for the business prescribed him, may +be led on in the path of intellectual acquisition and improvement with a +silken cord. It will demand a certain degree of patience on the part +of the instructor. But Heaven knows, that this patience is sufficiently +called into requisition when the instructor shall be the greatest +disciplinarian that ever existed. Kind tones and encouragement will +animate the learner amidst many a difficult pass. A grave remark may +perhaps sometimes be called for. And, if the preceptor and the pupil +have gone on like friends, a grave remark, a look expressive of rebuke, +will be found a very powerful engine. The instructor should smooth the +business of instruction to his pupil, by appealing to his understanding, +developing his taste, and assisting him to remark the beauties of the +composition on which he is occupied. + +I come now then to the consideration of the two engines mentioned in the +commencement of this Essay, reprehension and chastisement. + +And here, as in what went before, I am reduced to the referring to my +own experience, and looking back into the history of my own mind. + +I say then, that reprehension and reprimand can scarcely ever be +necessary. The pupil should undoubtedly be informed when he is wrong. +He should be told what it is that he ought to have omitted, and that +he ought to have done. There should be no reserve in this. It will be +worthy of the highest censure, if on these points the instructor should +be mealy-mouthed, or hesitate to tell the pupil in the plainest terms, +of his faults, his bad habits, and the dangers that beset his onward and +honourable path. + +But this may be best, and most beneficially done, and in a way most +suitable to the exigence, and to the party to be corrected, in a few +words. The rest is all an unwholsome tumour, the disease of speech, and +not the sound and healthful substance through which its circulation and +life are conveyed. + +There is always danger of this excrescence of speech, where the speaker +is the umpire, and feels himself at liberty, unreproved, to say what he +pleases. He is charmed with the sound of his own voice. The periods flow +numerous from his tongue, and he gets on at his ease. There is in +all this an image of empire; and the human mind is ever prone to be +delighted in the exercise of unrestricted authority. The pupil in this +case stands before his instructor in an attitude humble, submissive, and +bowing to the admonition that is communicated to him. The speaker says +more than it was in his purpose to say; and he knows not how to arrest +himself in his triumphant career. He believes that he is in no danger of +excess, and recollects the old proverb that "words break no bones." + +But a syllable more than is necessary and justly measured, is materially +of evil operation to ingenuous youth. The mind of such a youth is tender +and flexible, and easily swayed one way or the other. He believes almost +every thing that he is bid to believe; and the admonition that is given +him with all the symptoms of friendliness and sincerity he is prompt +to subscribe to. If this is wantonly aggravated to him, he feels the +oppression, and is galled with the injustice. He knows himself guiltless +of premeditated wrong. He has not yet learned that his condition is that +of a slave; and he feels a certain impatience at his being considered as +such, though he probably does not venture to express it. He shuts up the +sense of this despotism in his own bosom; and it is his first lesson of +independence and rebellion and original sin. + +It is one of the grossest mistakes of which we can be guilty, if we +confound different offences and offenders together. The great and +the small alike appear before us in the many-coloured scene of human +society, and, if we reprehend bitterly and rate a juvenile sinner +for the fault, which he scarcely understood, and assuredly had not +premeditated, we break down at once a thousand salutary boundaries, +and reduce the ideas of right and wrong in his mind to a portentous and +terrible chaos. The communicator of liberal knowledge assuredly +ought not to confound his office with that of a magistrate at +a quarter-sessions, who though he does not sit in judgment upon +transgressions of the deepest and most atrocious character, yet has +brought before him in many cases defaulters of a somewhat hardened +disposition, whose lot has been cast among the loose and the profligate, +and who have been carefully trained to a certain audacity of temper, +taught to look upon the paraphernalia of justice with scorn, and +to place a sort of honour in sustaining hard words and the lesser +visitations of punishment with unflinching nerve. + +If this is the judgment we ought to pass upon the bitter and galling +and humiliating terms of reprehension apt to be made use of by the +instructor to his pupil, it is unnecessary to say a word on the subject +of chastisement. If such an expedient is ever to be had recourse to, +it can only be in cases of contumaciousness and rebellion; and then the +instructor cannot too unreservedly say to himself, "This is matter of +deep humiliation to me: I ought to have succeeded by an appeal to the +understanding and ingenuous feelings of youth; but I am reduced to a +confession of my impotence." + +But the topic which, most of all, I was desirous to bring forward in +this Essay, is that of the language so customarily employed by the +impatient and irritated preceptor, "Hereafter, in a state of mature +and ripened judgment, you will thank me for the severity I now exercise +towards you." + +No; it may safely be answered: that time will never arrive. + +As, in one of my earlier Essays(33), I undertook to shew that there is +not so much difference between the talents of one man and another as has +often been apprehended, so we are guilty of a gross error in the way +in which we divide the child from the man, and consider him as if he +belonged to a distinct species of beings. + + + (33) Essay II. + + +I go back to the recollections of my youth, and can scarcely find where +to draw the line between ineptness and maturity. The thoughts that +occurred to me, as far back as I can recollect them, were often shrewd; +the suggestions ingenious; the judgments not seldom acute. I feel myself +the same individual all through. + +Sometimes I was unreasonably presumptuous, and sometimes unnecessarily +distrustful. Experience has taught me in various instances a sober +confidence in my decisions; but that is all the difference. So to +express it, I had then the same tools to work with as now; but the +magazine of materials upon which I had to operate was scantily supplied. +Like the apothecary in Romeo and Juliet, the faculty, such as it was, +was within me; but my shelves contained but a small amount of furniture: + + A beggarly account of empty boxes, + Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses, + Which, thinly scattered, served to make a shew. + + +In speaking thus of the intellectual powers of my youth, I am however +conceding too much. It is true, "Practice maketh perfect." But it is +surprising, in apt and towardly youth, how much there is to commend in +the first essays. The novice, who has his faculties lively and on the +alert, will strike with his hammer almost exactly where the blow ought +to be placed, and give nearly the precisely right force to the act. He +will seize the thread it was fitting to seize; and, though he fail again +and again, will shew an adroitness upon the whole that we scarcely know +how to account for. The man whose career shall ultimately be crowned +with success, will demonstrate in the beginning that he was destined to +succeed. + +There is therefore no radical difference between the child and the man. +His flesh becomes more firm and sinewy; his bones grow more solid +and powerful; his joints are more completely strung. But he is still +essentially the same being that he was. When a genuine philosopher holds +a new-born child in his arms, and carefully examines it, he perceives +in it various indications of temper and seeds of character. It was all +there, though folded up and confused, and not obtruding itself upon the +remark of every careless spectator. It continues with the child through +life, grows with his growth, and never leaves him till he is at last +consigned to the tomb. How absurd then by artful rules and positive +institutions to undertake to separate what can never be divided! The +child is occasionally grave and reflecting, and deduces well-founded +inferences; he draws on the past, and plunges into the wide ocean of +the future. In proportion as the child advances into the youth, his +intervals of gravity increase, and he builds up theories and judgments, +some of which no future time shall suffice to overturn. It is idle to +suppose that the first activity of our faculties, when every thing is +new and produces an unbated impression, when the mind is uncumbered, and +every interest and every feeling bid us be observing and awake, should +pass for nothing. We lay up stores then, which shall never be exhausted. +Our minds are the reverse of worn and obtuse. We bring faculties into +the world with us fresh from the hands of the all-bounteous giver; they +are not yet moulded to a senseless routine; they are not yet corrupted +by the ill lessons of effrontery, impudence and vice. Childhood is +beautiful; youth is ingenuous; and it can be nothing but a principle +which is hostile to all that most adorns this sublunary scene, that +would with violence and despotic rule mar the fairest flower that +creation has to boast. + +It happens therefore almost unavoidably that, when the man mature +looks back upon the little incidents of his youth, he sees them to a +surprising degree in the same light, and forms the same conclusions +respecting them, as he did when they were actually passing. "The +forgeries of opinion," says Cicero, "speedily pass away; but the rules +and decisions of nature are strengthened." Bitter reproaches and acts of +violence are the offspring of perturbation engendered upon imbecility, +and therefore can never be approved upon a sober and impartial revision. +And, if they are to be impeached in the judgment of an equal and +indifferent observer, we may be sure they will be emphatically condemned +by the grave and enlightened censor who looks back upon the years of +his own nonage, and recollects that he was himself the victim of +the intemperance to be pronounced upon. The interest that he must +necessarily take in the scenes in which he once had an engrossing +concern, will supply peculiar luminousness to his views. He taxes +himself to be just. The transaction is over now, and is passed to the +events that preceded the universal deluge. He holds the balance with +a steadiness, which sets at defiance all attempts to give it a false +direction one way or the other. But the judgment he made on the case +at the time, and immediately after the humiliation he suffered, remains +with him. It was the sentiment of his ripening youth; it was the opinion +of his opening manhood; and it still attends him, when he is already +fast yielding to the incroachments and irresistible assaults of +declining years. + + + + +ESSAY XV. OF LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP. + +Who is it that says, "There is no love but among equals?" Be it who it +may, it is a saying universally known, and that is in every one's mouth. +The contrary is precisely the truth, and is the great secret of every +thing that is admirable in our moral nature. + +By love it is my intention here to understand, not a calm, tranquil, +and, as it were, half-pronounced feeling, but a passion of the mind. We +may doubtless entertain an approbation of other men, without adverting +to the question how they stand in relation to ourselves, as equals or +otherwise. But the sentiment I am here considering, is that where the +person in whom it resides most strongly sympathises with the joys and +sorrows of another, desires his gratification, hopes for his welfare, +and shrinks from the anticipation of his being injured; in a word, is +the sentiment which has most the spirit of sacrifice in it, and prepares +the person in whom it dwells, to postpone his own advantage to the +advantage of him who is the object of it. + +Having placed love among the passions, which is no vehement assumption, +I then say, there can be no passion, and by consequence no love, where +there is not imagination. In cases where every thing is understood, and +measured, and reduced to rule, love is out of the question. Whenever +this sentiment prevails, I must have my attention fixed more on the +absent than the present, more upon what I do not see than on what I do +see. My thoughts will be taken up with the future or the past, with +what is to come or what has been. Of the present there is necessarily +no image. Sentiment is nothing, till you have arrived at a mystery and +a veil, something that is seen obscurely, that is just hinted at in the +distance, that has neither certain outline nor colour, but that is left +for the mind to fill up according to its pleasure and in the best manner +it is able. + +The great model of the affection of love in human beings, is the +sentiment which subsists between parents and children. + +Let not this appear a paradox. There is another relation in human +society to which this epithet has more emphatically been given: but, +if we analyse the matter strictly, we shall find that all that is most +sacred and beautiful in the passion between the sexes, has relation to +offspring. What Milton calls, "The rites mysterious of connubial love," +would have little charm in them in reflection, to a mind one degree +above the brutes, were it not for the mystery they include, of their +tendency to give existence to a new human creature like ourselves. Were +it not for this circumstance, a man and a woman would hardly ever have +learned to live together; there scarcely could have been such a thing +as domestic society; but every intercourse of this sort would have been +"casual, joyless, unendeared;" and the propensity would have brought +along with it nothing more of beauty, lustre and grace, than the +pure animal appetites of hunger and thirst. Bearing in mind these +considerations, I do not therefore hesitate to say, that the great +model of the affection of love in human beings, is the sentiment which +subsists between parents and children. + +The original feature in this sentiment is the conscious feeling of +the protector and the protected. Our passions cannot subsist in lazy +indolence; passion and action must operate on each other; passion must +produce action, and action give strength to the tide of passion. We do +not vehemently desire, where we can do nothing. It is in a very faint +way that I entertain a wish to possess the faculty of flying; and an +ordinary man can scarcely be said to desire to be a king or an emperor. +None but a madman, of plebeian rank, falls in love with a princess. But +shew me a good thing within my reach; convince me that it is in my power +to attain it; demonstrate to me that it is fit for me, and I am fit for +it; then begins the career of passion. In the same manner, I cannot love +a person vehemently, and strongly interest myself in his miscarriages or +success, till I feel that I can be something to him. Love cannot dwell +in a state of impotence. To affect and be affected, this is the common +nature I require; this is the being that is like unto myself; all other +likeness resides in the logic and the definition, but has nothing to do +with feeling or with practice. + +What can be more clear and sound in explanation, than the love of a +parent to his child? The affection he bears and its counterpart are the +ornaments of the world, and the spring of every thing that makes life +worth having. Whatever besides has a tendency to illustrate and honour +our nature, descends from these, or is copied from these, grows out of +them as the branches of a tree from the trunk, or is formed upon them as +a model, and derives from them its shape, its character, and its soul. +Yet there are men so industrious and expert to strip the world we live +in of all that adorns it, that they can see nothing glorious in these +affections, but find the one to be all selfishness, and the other all +prejudice and superstition. + +The love of the parent to his child is nursed and fostered by two plain +considerations; first, that the subject is capable of receiving much, +and secondly, that my power concerning it is great and extensive. + +When an infant is presented to my observation, what a wide field of +sentiment and reflection is opened to me! Few minds are industrious and +ductile enough completely to compass this field, if the infant is only +accidentally brought under their view. But, if it is an infant with +which I begin to be acquainted to-day, and my acquaintance with which +shall not end perhaps till one of us ceases to exist, how is it possible +that the view of its little figure should not lead me to the meditation +of its future history, the successive stages of human life, and the +various scenes and mutations and vicissitudes and fortunes through +which it is destined to pass? The Book of Fate lies open before me. This +infant, powerless and almost impassive now, is reserved for many sorrows +and many joys, and will one day possess a power, formidable and fearful +to afflict those within its reach, or calculated to diffuse blessings, +wisdom, virtue, happiness, to all around. I conceive all the various +destinations of which man is susceptible; my fancy at least is free to +select that which pleases me best; I unfold and pursue it in all its +directions, observe the thorns and difficulties with which it is +beset, and conjure up to my thoughts all that it can boast of inviting, +delightful and honourable. + +But if the infant that is near to me lays hold of my imagination and +affections at the moment in which he falls under my observation, how +much more do I become interested in him, as he advances from year to +year! At first, I have the blessing of the gospel upon me, in that, +"having not seen, yet I believe." But, as his powers expand, I +understand him better. His little eye begins to sparkle with meaning; +his tongue tells a tale that may be understood; his very tones, and +gestures, and attitudes, all inform me concerning what he shall be. I am +like a florist, who has received a strange plant from a distant country. +At first he sees only the stalk, and the leaves, and the bud having yet +no other colour than that of the leaves. But as he watches his plant +from day to day, and from hour to hour, the case which contains the +flower divides, and betrays first one colour and then another, till the +shell gradually subsides more and more towards the stalk, and the figure +of the flower begins now to be seen, and its radiance and its pride to +expand itself to the ravished observer.--Every lesson that the child +leans, every comment that he makes upon it, every sport that he pursues, +every choice that he exerts, the demeanour that he adopts to his +playfellows, the modifications and character of his little fits of +authority or submission, all make him more and more an individual to +me, and open a wider field for my sagacity or my prophecy, as to what he +promises to be, and what he may be made. + +But what gives, as has already been observed, the point and the finish +to all the interest I take respecting him, lies in the vast power I +possess to influence and direct his character and his fortune. At first +it is abstract power, but, when it has already been exerted (as the +writers on politics as a science have observed of property), the sweat +of my brow becomes mingled with the apple I have gathered, and my +interest is greater. No one understands my views and projects entirely +but myself, and the scheme I have conceived will suffer, if I do not +complete it as I began. + +And there are men that say, that all this mystery, the most beautiful +attitude of human nature, and the crown of its glory, is pure +selfishness! + +Let us now turn from the view of the parental, to that of the filial +affection. + +The great mistake that has been made on this subject, arises from +the taking it nakedly and as a mere abstraction. It has been sagely +remarked, that when my father did that which occasioned me to come into +existence, he intended me no benefit, and therefore I owe him no thanks. +And the inference which has been made from this wise position is, that +the duty of children to parents is a mere imposture, a trick, employed +by the old to defraud the young out of their services. + +I grant most readily, that the mere material ligament that binds +together the father and the child, by itself is worthless, and that he +who owes nothing more than this to his father, owes him nothing. The +natural, unanimated relationship is like the grain of mustard-seed in +the discourses of Jesus Christ, "which indeed is the least of all seeds; +but, when it is unfolded and grows up, it becomes a mighty tree, so that +the birds of the air may come and lodge in its branches." + +The hard and insensible man may know little of the debt he owes to his +father; but he that is capable of calling up the past, and beholding the +things that are not as if they now were, will see the matter in a very +different light. Incalculable are the privations (in a great majority +of instances), the toils, the pains, the anxieties, that every child +imposes on his father from the first hour of his existence. If he could +know the ceaseless cares, the tender and ardent feelings, the almost +incredible efforts and exertions, that have accompanied him in his +father's breast through the whole period of his growth, instead of +thinking that he owed his parent nothing, he would stand still and +wonder that one human creature could do so much for another. + +I grant that all this may be done for a child by a stranger, and that +then in one sense the obligation would be greater. It is however barely +possible that all this should be done. The stranger wants the first +exciting cause, the consideration, "This creature by the great scheme of +nature belongs to me, and is cast upon my care." And, as the tie in the +case of the stranger was not complete in the beginning, so neither can +it be made so in the sequel. The little straggler is like the duckling +hatched in the nest of a hen; there is danger every day, that as the +nursling begins to be acquainted with its own qualities, it may plunge +itself into another element, and swim away from its benefactor. + +Even if we put all these considerations out of the question, still the +affection of the child to its parent of adoption, wants the kernel, and, +if I may so speak, the soul, of the connection which has been formed +and modelled by the great hand of nature. If the mere circumstance of +filiation and descent creates no debt, it however is the principle of a +very close connection. One of the most memorable mysteries of nature, +is how, out of the slightest of all connections (for such, literally +speaking, is that between father and child), so many coincidences should +arise. The child resembles his parent in feature, in temperament, in +turn of mind, and in class of disposition, while at the same time in +many particulars, in these same respects, he is a new and individual +creature. In one view therefore the child is merely the father +multiplied and repeated. Now one of the indefeasible principles of +affection is the partaking of a common nature; and as man is a species +by himself, so to a certain degree is every nation and every family; and +this consideration, when added to the moral and spiritual ties already +treated of, undoubtedly has a tendency to give them their zest and +perfection. + +But even this is not the most agreeable point of view in which we may +consider the filial affection. I come back to my first position, +that where there is no imagination, there can be no passion, and by +consequence no love. No parent ever understood his child, and no child +ever understood his parent. We have seen that the affectionate parent +considers his child like a flower in the bud, as a mine of power that +is to be unfolded, as a creature that is to act and to pass through he +knows not what, as a canvas that "gives ample room and verge enough," +for his prophetic soul to hang over in endless visions, and his +intellectual pencil to fill up with various scenes and fortunes. And, if +the parent does not understand his child, certainly as little does the +child understand his parent. Wherever this relation subsists in +its fairest form, the parent is as a God, a being qualified with +supernatural powers, to his offspring. The child consults his father +as an oracle; to him he proposes all his little questions; from him he +learns his natural philosophy, his morals, his rules of conduct, his +religion, and his creed. The boy is uninformed on every point; and the +father is a vast Encyclopedia, not merely of sciences, but of feelings, +of sagacity, of practical wisdom, and of justice, which the son consults +on all occasions, and never consults in vain. Senseless and inexpert is +that parent, who endeavours to govern the mind by authority, and to lay +down rugged and peremptory dogmas to his child; the child is fully and +unavoidably prepared to receive every thing with unbounded deference, +and to place total reliance in the oracle which nature has assigned him. +Habits, how beautiful! Inestimable benefit of nature, that has given +me a prop against which to sustain my unripened strength, and has not +turned me loose to wander with tottering steps amidst the vast desert of +society! + +But it is not merely for contemplative wisdom that the child honours +his parent; he sees in him a vast fund of love, attachment and sympathy. +That he cannot mistake; and it is all a mystery to him. He says, What +am I, that I should be the object of this? and whence comes it? He sees +neither the fountain from which it springs, nor the banks that confine +it. To him it is an ocean, unfathomable, and without a shore. + +To the bounty of its operations he trusts implicitly. The stores of +judgment and knowledge he finds in his father, prompt him to trust it. +In many instances where it appeared at first obscure and enigmatical, +the event has taught him to acknowledge its soundness. The mutinousness +of passion will sometimes excite a child to question the decrees of his +parent; it is very long before his understanding, as such, comes to set +up a separate system, and teaches him to controvert the decisions of his +father. + +Perhaps I ought earlier to have stated, that the filial connection we +have here to consider, does not include those melancholy instances where +some woful defect or utter worthlessness in the parent counteracts the +natural course of the affections, but refers only to cases, where the +character of father is on the whole sustained with honour, and the +principle of the connection is left to its true operation. In such cases +the child not only observes for himself the manifestations of wisdom and +goodness in his parent, but is also accustomed to hear well of him +from all around. There is a generous conspiracy in human nature, not to +counteract the honour borne by the offspring to him from whom he sprung, +and the wholsome principle of superiority and dependence which is almost +indispensible between persons of different ages dwelling under the same +roof. And, exclusively of this consideration, the men who are chiefly +seen by the son are his father's friends and associates; and it is the +very bent, and, as it were, law of our nature, that we do not associate +much, but with persons whom we favour, and who are prepared to mention +us with kindness and honour. + +Thus every way the child is deeply imbued with veneration for his +parent, and forms the habit of regarding him as his book of wisdom, his +philosopher and guide. He is accustomed to hear him spoken of as a true +friend, an active ally, and a pattern of justice and honour; and he +finds him so. Now these are the true objects of affection,--wisdom and +beneficence; and the human heart loves this beneficence better when it +is exercised towards him who loves, first, because inevitably in +almost all instances we are best pleased with the good that is done to +ourselves, and secondly, because it can scarcely happen but that we in +that case understand it best, both in its operation and its effects. + +The active principles of religion are all moulded upon this familiar and +sensible relation of father and child: and to understand whet the human +heart is capable to conceive on this subject, we have only to refer to +the many eloquent and glowing treatises that have been written upon the +love of God to his creatures, and the love that the creature in return +owes to his God. I am not now considering religion in a speculative +point of view, or enquiring among the different sects and systems of +religion what it is that is true; but merely producing religion as +an example of what have been the conceptions of the human mind in +successive ages of the world on the subject of love. + +This All that we behold, the immensity of the universe, the admirable +harmony and subtlety of its structure, as they appear in the vastest and +the minutest bodies, is considered by religion, as the emanation of pure +love, a mighty impulse and ardour in its great author to realise the +idea existing in his mind, and to produce happiness. The Providence +that watches over us, so that not a sparrow dies unmarked, and that "the +great Sensorium of the world vibrates, if a hair of our head but +falls to the ground in the remotest desert of his creation," is +still unremitted, never-satiated love. And, to go from this to the +peculiarities of the Christian doctrine, "Greater love hath no man than +this, that a man lay down his life for his friends: God so loved the +world, that he gave his only-begotten Son to suffer, to be treated +contumeliously, and to die with ignominy, that we might live." + +If on the other hand we consider the love which the creature must +naturally pay to his creator, we shall find that the affection we can +suppose the most ingenuous child to bear to the worthiest parent, is +a very faint image of the passion which may be expected to grow out of +this relation. In God, as he is represented to us in the books of the +worthiest divines, is every thing that can command love; wisdom to +conceive, power to execute, and beneficence actually to carry +into effect, whatever is excellent and admirable. We are lost in +contemplating the depth and immensity of his perfections. "Every good +and every perfect gift is from the universal Father, with whom is +no variableness, neither shadow of turning." The most soothing and +gratifying of all sentiments, is that of entire confidence in the divine +goodness, a reliance which no adversity can shake, and which supports +him that entertains it under every calamity, that sees the finger of God +in every thing that comes to pass, that says, "It is good for me to be +afflicted," believes, that "all things work together for blessings" +to the pious and the just, and is intimately persuaded that "our light +affliction, which is but for a moment, is the means and the earnest of a +far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." + +If we descend from these great archetypes, the love between parent and +child, and between the creator and his creature, we shall still find the +same inequality the inseparable attendant upon the most perfect ties +of affection. The ancients seem to have conceived the truest and most +exalted ideas on the subject of friendship. Among the most celebrated +instances are the friendship of Achilles and Patroclus, Orestes +and Pylades, Aeneas and Achates, Cyrus and Araspes, Alexander and +Hephaestion, Scipio and Laelius. In each of these the parties are, the +true hero, the man of lofty ambition, the magnificent personage in whom +is concentred every thing that the historian or the poet was able to +realise of excellence, and the modest and unpretending individual in +whom his confidence was reposed. The grand secret of the connection is +unfolded in the saying of the Macedonian conqueror, "Craterus loves the +king, but Hephaestion loves Alexander." Friendship is to the loftier +mind the repose, the unbending of the soul. The great man (whatever may +be the department in which his excellence consists) has enough of his +greatness, when he stands before the world, and receives the homage that +is paid to his merits. Ever and anon he is anxious to throw aside this +incumbrance, and be as a man merely to a man. He wishes to forget the +"pride, pomp, and circumstance" of greatness, and to be that only which +he is himself. He desires at length to be sure, that he receives +no adulation, that he is accosted with no insincerity, and that the +individual to whose society he has thought proper to withdraw, has no +by-ends, no sinister purposes in all his thoughts. What he seeks for, is +a true friend, a being who sincerely loves, one who is attached to +him, not for the accidents that attend him, but for what most strictly +belongs to him, and of which he cannot be divested. In this friend there +is neither interested intention nor rivalry. + +Such are the characteristic features of the superior party in these +exemplars of friendship among the ancients. Of the unpretending, +unassuming party Homer, the great master of the affections and emotions +in remoter ages, has given us the fullest portrait in the character of +Patroclus. The distinguishing feature of his disposition is a melting +and affectionate spirit, the concentred essence of tenderness and +humanity. When Patroclus comes from witnessing the disasters of the +Greeks, to collect a report of which he had been sent by Achilles, he +is "overwhelmed with floods of tears, like a spring which pours down +its waters from the steep edge of a precipice." It is thus that Jupiter +characterises him when he lies dead in the field of battle: + +Thou (addressing himself in his thoughts to Hector) hast slain the +friend of Achilles, not less memorable for the blandness of his temper, +than the bravery of his deeds. + +It is thus that Menelaus undertakes to excite the Grecian chiefs to +rescue his body: + +Let each man recollect the sweetness of his disposition for, as long as +he lived, he was unremitted in kindness to all. When Achilles proposes +the games at the funeral, he says, "On any other occasion my horses +should have started for the prize, but now it cannot be. They have lost +their incomparable groom, who was accustomed to refresh their limbs +with water, and anoint their flowing manes; and they are inconsolable." +Briseis also makes her appearance among the mourners, avowing that, +"when her husband had been slain in battle, and her native city laid in +ashes, this generous man prevented her tears, averring to her, that she +should be the wife of her conqueror, and that he would himself spread +the nuptial banquet for her in the hero's native kingdom of Phthia." + +The reciprocity which belongs to a friendship between unequals may +well be expected to give a higher zest to their union. Each party is +necessary to the other. The superior considers him towards whom he pours +out his affection, as a part of himself. + + The head is not more native to the heart, + The hand more instrumental to the mouth. + +He cannot separate himself from him, but at the cost of a fearful maim. +When the world is shut out by him, when he retires into solitude, and +falls back upon himself, then his unpretending friend is most of all +necessary to him. He is his consolation and his pleasure, the safe +coffer in which he reposits all his anxieties and sorrows. If the +principal, instead of being a public man, is a man of science, this kind +of unbending becomes certainly not the less welcome to him. He wishes +occasionally to forget the severity of his investigations, neither +to have his mind any longer wound up and stretched to the height of +meditation, nor to feel that he needs to be any way on his guard, or not +completely to give the rein to all his sallies and the sportiveness of +his soul. Having been for a considerable time shut up in sequestered +reflection, he wishes, it may be, to have the world, the busy +impassioned world, brought to his ears, without his being obliged to +enter into its formalities and mummeries. If he desires to speak of the +topics which had so deeply engaged him, he can keep as near the edge +as he pleases, and drop or resume them as his fancy may prompt. And it +seems useless to say, how much his modest and unassuming friend will be +gratified in being instrumental to relieve the labours of his principal, +in feeling that he is necessary to him, and in meditating on the delight +he receives in being made the chosen companion and confident of him +whom he so ardently admires. It was precisely in this spirit, that Fulke +Greville, two hundred years ago, directed that it should be inscribed on +his tomb, "Here lies the friend of Sir Philip Sidney." Tenderness on the +one part, and a deep feeling of honour and respect on the other, give a +completeness to the union which it must otherwise for ever want. "There +is no limit, none," to the fervour with which the stronger goes forward +to protect the weak; while in return the less powerful would encounter +a thousand deaths rather than injury should befall the being to whom in +generosity and affection he owes so much. + +In the mean time, though inequality is necessary to give this +completeness to friendship, the inequality must not be too great. + +The inferior party must be able to understand and appreciate the +sense and the merits of him to whom he is thus bound. There must be +no impediment to hinder the communications of the principal from being +fully comprehended, and his sentiments entirely participated. There must +be a boundless confidence, without apprehension that the power of +the stronger party can by the remotest possibility be put forth +ungenerously. "Perfect love casteth out fear." The evangelist applies +this aphorism even to the love of the creature to his creator. "The Lord +spake unto Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." +In the union of which I am treating the demonstrative and ordinary +appearance will be that of entire equality, which is heightened by the +inner, and for the greater part unexplained and undeveloped, impression +of a contrary nature. There is in either party a perfect reliance, an +idea of inequality with the most entire assurance that it can never +operate unworthily in the stronger party, or produce insincerity or +servility in the weaker. There will in reality always be some reserve, +some shadow of fear between equals, which in the friendship of unequals, +if happily assorted, can find no place. There is a pouring out of the +heart on the one side, and a cordial acceptance on the other, which +words are inadequate to describe. + +To proceed. If from friendship we go forward to that which in all +languages is emphatically called love, we shall still find ourselves +dogged and attended by inequality. Nothing can be more certain, however +we may seek to modify and abate it, than the inequality of the sexes. +Let us attend to it as it stands in Milton: + + For contemplation he and velour formed + For softness she and sweet attractive grace; + He for God only, she for God in him. + +Thus it is painted to us as having been in Paradise; and with similar +inequality have the sexes subsisted in all ages and nations since. If +it were possible to take from the fair sex its softness and attractive +grace, and endow it instead with audacious, masculine and military +qualities, there is scarcely any one that does not perceive, with +whatever advantages it might be attended in other respects, that it +would be far from tending to cherish and increase the passion of love. + +It is in reality obvious, that man and woman, as they come from the +hands of nature, are so much upon a par with each other, as not to +afford the best subjects between whom to graft a habit of entire, +unalterable affection. In the scenes of vulgar and ordinary society, +a permanent connection between persons of opposite sexes is too apt to +degenerate into a scene of warfare, where each party is for ever engaged +in a struggle for superiority, and neither will give way. A penetrating +observer, with whom in former days I used intimately to converse, was +accustomed to say, that there was generally more jarring and ill blood +between the two parties in the first year of their marriage, than during +all the remainder of their lives. It is at length found necessary, as +between equally matched belligerents on the theatre of history, that +they should come to terms, make a treaty of peace, or at least settle +certain laws of warfare, that they may not waste their strength in idle +hostilities. + +The nations of antiquity had a way of settling this question in a very +summary mode. As certain Oriental tribes have determined that women have +no souls, and that nothing can be more proper than to shut them up, +like singing birds in cages, so the Greeks and Romans for the most +part excluded their females from the society of the more martial sex. +Marriage with them was a convenience merely; and the husband and wife +were in reality nothing more than the master and the slave. This point +once settled as a matter of national law, there was certainly in most +cases little danger of any vexatious rivalship and struggle for power. + +But there is nothing in which the superiority of modern times over the +ancient has been more conspicuous, than in our sentiments and practices +on this subject. This superiority, as well as several other of our most +valuable acquisitions, took its rise in what we call the dark ages. +Chivalry was for the most part the invention of the eleventh century. +Its principle was built upon a theory of the sexes, giving to each a +relative importance, and assigning to both functions full of honour and +grace. The knights (and every gentleman during that period in due time +became a knight) were taught, as the main features of their vocation, +the "love of God and the ladies." The ladies in return were regarded as +the genuine censors of the deeds of knighthood. From these principles +arose a thousand lessons of humanity. The ladies regarded it as their +glory to assist their champions to arm and to disarm, to perform for +them even menial services, to attend them in sickness, and to dress +their wounds. They bestowed on them their colours, and sent them forth +to the field hallowed with their benedictions. The knights on the other +hand considered any slight towards the fair sex as an indelible stain to +their order; they contemplated the graceful patronesses of their valour +with a feeling that partook of religious homage and veneration, and +esteemed it as perhaps the first duty of their profession, to relieve +the wrongs, and avenge the injuries of the less powerful sex. + +This simple outline as to the relative position of the one sex and the +other, gave a new face to the whole scheme and arrangements of civil +society. It is like those admirable principles in the order of the +material universe, or those grand discoveries brought to light from time +to time by superior genius, so obvious and simple, that we wonder the +most common understanding could have missed them, yet so pregnant with +results, that they seem at once to put a new life and inspire a new +character into every part of a mighty and all-comprehensive mass. + +The passion between the sexes, in its grosser sense, is a momentary +impulse merely; and there was danger that, when the fit and violence +of the passion was over, the whole would subside into inconstancy and +a roving disposition, or at least into indifference and almost brutal +neglect. But the institutions of chivalry immediately gave a new face to +this. Either sex conceived a deep and permanent interest in the other. +In the unsettled state of society which characterised the period when +these institutions arose, the defenceless were liable to assaults of +multiplied kinds, and the fair perpetually stood in need of a protector +and a champion. The knights on the other hand were taught to derive +their fame and their honour from the suffrages of the ladies. Each sex +stood in need of the other; and the basis of their union was mutual +esteem. + +The effect of this was to give a hue of imagination to all their +intercourse. A man was no longer merely a man, nor a woman merely +a woman. They were taught mutual deference. The woman regarded her +protector as something illustrious and admirable; and the man considered +the smiles and approbation of beauty as the adequate reward of his toils +and his dangers. These modes of thinking introduced a nameless grace +into all the commerce of society. It was the poetry of life. Hence +originated the delightful narratives and fictions of romance; and human +existence was no longer the bare, naked train of vulgar incidents, +which for so many ages of the world it had been accustomed to be. It +was clothed in resplendent hues, and wore all the tints of the rainbow. +Equality fled and was no more; and love, almighty, perdurable love, came +to supply its place. + +By means of this state of things the vulgar impulse of the sexes towards +each other, which alone was known to the former ages of the world, was +transformed into somewhat of a totally different nature. It became +a kind of worship. The fair sex looked upon their protectors, their +fathers, their husbands, and the whole train of their chivalry, as +something more than human. There was a grace in their motions, a +gallantry in their bearing, and a generosity in their spirit of +enterprise, that the softness of the female heart found irresistible. +Nor less on the other hand did the knights regard the sex to whose +service and defence they were sworn, as the objects of their perpetual +deference. They approached them with a sort of gallant timidity, +listened to their behests with submission, and thought the longest +courtship and devotion nobly recompensed by the final acceptance of the +fair. + +The romance and exaggeration characteristic of these modes of thinking +have gradually worn away in modern times; but much of what was most +valuable in them has remained. Love has in later ages never been +divested of the tenderness and consideration, which were thus rendered +some of its most estimable features. A certain desire in each party +to exalt the other, and regard it as worthy of admiration, became +inextricably interwoven with the simple passion. A sense of the honour +that was borne by the one to the other, had the happiest effect in +qualifying the familiarity and unreserve in the communion of feelings +and sentiments, without which the attachment of the sexes cannot +subsist. It is something like what the mystic divines describe of the +beatific vision, where entire wonder and adoration are not judged to be +incompatible with the most ardent affection, and all meaner and selfish +regards are annihilated. + +From what has been thus drawn together and recapitulated it seems +clearly to follow, as was stated in the beginning, that love cannot +exist in its purest form and with a genuine ardour, where the parties +are, and are felt by each other to be, on an equality; but that in all +cases it is requisite there should be a mutual deference and submission, +agreeably to the apostolic precept, "Likewise all of you be subject one +to the other." There must be room for the imagination to exercise its +powers; we must conceive and apprehend a thousand things which we do +not actually witness; each party must feel that it stands in need of +the other, and without the other cannot be complete; each party must be +alike conscious of the power of receiving and conferring benefit; and +there must be the anticipation of a distant future, that may every day +enhance the good to be imparted and enjoyed, and cause the individuals +thus united perpetually to become more sensible of the fortunate +event which gave them to each other, and has thus entailed upon each a +thousand advantages in which they could otherwise never have shared. + + + + +ESSAY XVI. OF FRANKNESS AND RESERVE. + +Animals are divided into the solitary and the are gregarious: the former +being only occasionally associated with its mate, and perhaps engaged in +the care of its offspring; the latter spending their lives in herds and +communities. Man is of this last class or division. + +Where the animals of any particular species live much in society, it +seems requisite that in some degree they should be able to understand +each other's purposes, and to act with a certain portion of concert. + +All other animals are exceedingly limited in their powers of +communication. But speech renders that being whom we justly entitle the +lord of the creation, capable of a boundless interchange of ideas and +intentions. Not only can we communicate to each other substantively our +elections and preferences: we can also exhort and persuade, and employ +reasons and arguments to convince our fellows, that the choice we have +made is also worthy of their adoption. We can express our thoughts, and +the various lights and shades, the bleedings, of our thoughts. Language +is an instrument capable of being perpetually advanced in copiousness, +perspicuity and power. + +No principle of morality can be more just, than that which teaches us +to regard every faculty we possess as a power intrusted to us for the +benefit of others as well as of ourselves, and which therefore we are +bound to employ in the way which shall best conduce to the general +advantage. + +"Speech was given us, that by it we might express our thoughts(34);" in +other words, our impressions, ideas and conceptions. We then therefore +best fulfil the scope of our nature, when we sincerely and unreservedly +communicate to each other our feelings and apprehensions. Speech should +be to man in the nature of a fair complexion, the transparent medium +through which the workings of the mind should be made legible. + + + (34) Moliere. + + +I think I have somewhere read of Socrates, that certain of his friends +expostulated with him, that the windows of his house were so constructed +that every one who went by could discover all that passed within. "And +wherefore not?" said the sage. "I do nothing that I would wish to have +concealed from any human eye. If I knew that all the world observed +every thing I did, I should feel no inducement to change my conduct in +the minutest particular." + +It is not however practicable that frankness should be carried to the +extent above mentioned. It has been calculated that the human mind is +capable of being impressed with three hundred and twenty sensations in +a second of time. At all events we well know that, even "while I am +speaking, a variety of sensations are experienced by me, without so much +as interrupting, that is, without materially diverting, the train of +my ideas. My eye successively remarks a thousand objects that present +themselves, and my mind wanders to the different parts of my body, +without occasioning the minutest obstacle to my discourse, or my being +in any degree distracted by the multiplicity of these objects(35)." +It is therefore beyond the reach of the faculty of speech, for me to +communicate all the sensations I experience; and I am of necessity +reduced to a selection. + + + (35) See above, Essay 7. + + +Nor is this the whole. We do not communicate all that we feel, and all +that we think; for this would be impertinent. We owe a certain deference +and consideration to our fellow-men; we owe it in reality to ourselves. +We do not communicate indiscriminately all that passes within us. The +time would fail us; and "the world would not contain the books that +might be written." We do not speak merely for the sake of speaking; +otherwise the communication of man with his fellow would be but one +eternal babble. Speech is to be employed for some useful purpose; nor +ought we to give utterance to any thing that shall not promise to be in +some way productive of benefit or amusement. + +Frankness has its limits, beyond which it would cease to be either +advantageous or virtuous. We are not to tell every thing: but we are not +to conceal any thing, that it would be useful or becoming in us to +utter. Our first duty regarding the faculty of speech is, not to keep +back what it would be beneficial to our neighbour to know. But this is a +negative sincerity only. If we would acquire a character for frankness, +we must be careful that our conversation is such, as to excite in him +the idea that we are open, ingenuous and fearless. We must appear +forward to speak all that will give him pleasure, and contribute to +maintain in him an agreeable state of being. It must be obvious that we +are not artificial and on our guard.--After all, it is difficult to lay +down rules on this subject: the spring of whatever is desirable +respecting it, must be in the temper of the man with whom others have +intercourse. He must be benevolent, sympathetic and affectionate. His +heart must overflow with good-will; and he must be anxious to relieve +every little pain, and to contribute to the enjoyment and complacent +feelings, of those with whom he is permanently or accidentally +connected. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." + +There are two considerations by which we ought to be directed in the +exercise of the faculty of speech. + +The first is, that we should tell our neighbour all that it would be +useful to him to know. We must have no sinister or bye ends. "No man +liveth to himself." We are all of us members of the great congregation +of mankind. The same blood should circulate through every limb and every +muscle. Our pulses should beat time to each other; and we should have +one common sensorium, vibrating throughout, upon every material accident +that occurs, and when any object is at stake essentially affecting the +welfare of our fellow-beings. We should forget ourselves in the interest +that we feel for the happiness of others; and, if this were universal, +each man would be a gainer, inasmuch as he lost himself, and was cared +and watched for by many. + +In all these respects we must have no reserve. We should only consider +what it is that it would be beneficial to have declared. + +We must not look back to ourselves, and consult the dictates of a narrow +and self-interested prudence. The whole essence of communication is +adulterated, if, instead of attending to the direct effects of what +suggests itself to our tongue, we are to consider how by a circuitous +route it may react upon our own pleasures and advantage. + +Nor only are we bound to communicate to our neighbour all that it will +be useful to him to know. We have many neighbours, beside those to whom +we immediately address ourselves. To these our absent fellow-beings, +we owe a thousand duties. We are bound to defend those whom we hear +aspersed, and who are spoken unworthily of by the persons whom we +incidentally encounter. We should be the forward and spontaneous +advocates of merit in every shape and in every individual in whom we +know it to exist. What a character would that man make for himself, of +whom it was notorious that he consecrated his faculty of speech to the +refuting unjust imputations against whomsoever they were directed, to +the contradicting all false and malicious reports, and to the bringing +forth obscure and unrecognised worth from the shades in which it lay +hid! What a world should we live in, if all men were thus prompt and +fearless to do justice to all the worth they knew or apprehended to +exist! Justice, simple justice, if it extended no farther than barely +to the faculty of speech, would in no long time put down all +misrepresentation and calumny, bring all that is good and meritorious +into honour, and, so to speak, set every man in his true and rightful +position. But whoever would attempt this, must do it in all honour, +without parade, and with no ever-and-anon looking back upon his +achievement, and saying, See to how much credit I am entitled!--as if +he laid more stress upon himself, the doer of this justice, than upon +justice in its intrinsic nature and claims. + +But we not only owe something to the advantage and interest of our +neighbours, but something also to the sacred divinity of Truth. I am not +only to tell my neighbour whatever I know that may be beneficial to him, +respecting his position in society, his faults, what other men appear to +contemplate that may conduce to his advantage or injury, and to advise +him how the one may best be forwarded, or the other defeated and brought +to nothing: I am bound also to consider in what way it may be in my +power so to act on his mind, as shall most enlarge his views, confirm +and animate his good resolutions, and meliorate his dispositions and +temper. We are all members of one great community: and we shall never +sufficiently discharge our duty in that respect, till, like the ancient +Spartans, the love of the whole becomes our predominant passion, and we +cease to imagine that we belong to ourselves, so much as to the entire +body of which we are a part. There are certain views in morality, in +politics, and various other important subjects, the general prevalence +of which will be of the highest benefit to the society of which we are +members; and it becomes us in this respect, with proper temperance and +moderation, to conform ourselves to the zealous and fervent precept of +the apostle, to "promulgate the truth and be instant, in season and out +of season," that we may by all means leave some monument of our good +intentions behind us, and feel that we have not lived in vain. + +There is a maxim extremely in vogue in the ordinary intercourses of +society, which deserves to be noticed here, for the purpose of exposing +it to merited condemnation. It is very common between friends, or +persons calling themselves such, to say, "Do not ask my advice in a +certain crisis of your life; I will not give it; hereafter, if the +thing turns out wrong, you will reflect on me, and say that it was at +my suggestion that you were involved in calamity." This is a dastardly +excuse, and shews a pitiful selfishness in the man that urges it. + +It is true, that we ought ever to be on the alert, that we may not +induce our friend into evil. We should be upon our guard, that we may +not from overweening arrogance and self-conceit dictate to another, +overpower his more sober judgment, and assume a rashness for him, in +which perhaps we would not dare to indulge for ourselves. We should +be modest in our suggestions, and rather supply him with materials for +decision, than with a decision absolutely made. There may however be +cases where an opposite proceeding is necessary. We must arrest our +friend, nay, even him who is merely our fellow-creature, with a strong +arm, when we see him hovering on the brink of a precipice, or the danger +is so obvious, that nothing but absolute blindness could conceal it from +an impartial bystander. + +But in all cases our best judgment should always be at the service of +our brethren of mankind. "Give to him that asketh thee; and from him +that would borrow of thee turn not thou away." + +This may not always be practicable or just, when applied to the goods of +fortune: but the case of advice, information, and laws of conduct, comes +within that of Ennius, to suffer our neighbour to light his candle at +our lamp. To do so will enrich him, without making us a jot the poorer. +We should indeed respect the right of private judgment, and scarcely +in any case allow our will to supersede his will in his own proper +province. But we should on no account suffer any cowardly fears for +ourselves, to induce us to withhold from him any assistance that our +wider information or our sounder judgment might supply to him. + +The next consideration by which we should be directed in the exercise +of the faculty of speech, is that we should employ it so as should best +conduce to the pleasure of our neighbour. Man is a different creature in +the savage and the civilised state. It has been affirmed, and it may be +true, that the savage man is a stranger to that disagreeable frame of +mind, known by the name of ennui. He can pore upon the babbling stream, +or stretch himself upon a sunny bank, from the rising to the setting of +the sun, and be satisfied. He is scarcely roused from this torpid state +but by the cravings of nature. If they can be supplied without effort, +he immediately relapses into his former supineness; and, if it requires +search, industry and exertion to procure their gratification, he still +more eagerly embraces the repose, which previous fatigue renders doubly +welcome. + +But, when the mind has once been wakened up from its original lethargy, +when we have overstepped the boundary which divides the man from the +beast, and are made desirous of improvement, while at the same +moment the tumultuous passions that draw us in infinitely diversified +directions are called into act, the case becomes exceedingly different. +It might be difficult at first to rouse man from his original lethargy: +it is next to impossible that he should ever again be restored to it. +The appetite of the mind being once thoroughly awakened in society, the +human species are found to be perpetually craving after new intellectual +food. We read, we write, we discourse, we ford rivers, and scale +mountains, and engage in various pursuits, for the pure pleasure that +the activity and earnestness of the pursuit afford us. The day of the +savage and the civilised man are still called by the same name. They may +be measured by a pendulum, and will be found to be of the same duration. +But in all other points of view they are inexpressibly different. + +Hence therefore arises another duty that is incumbent upon us as to the +exercise of the faculty of speech. This duty will be more or less urgent +according to the situation in which we are placed. + +If I sit down in a numerous assembly, if I become one of a convivial +party of ten or twelve persons, I may unblamed be for the greater part, +or entirely silent, if I please. I must appear to enter into their +sentiments and pleasures, or, if I do not, I shall be an unwelcome +guest; but it may scarcely be required for me to clothe my feelings with +articulate speech. + +But, when my society shall be that of a few friends only, and still more +if the question is of spending hours or days in the society of a single +friend, my duty becomes altered, and a greater degree of activity will +be required from me. There are cases, where the minor morals of the +species will be of more importance than those which in their own nature +are cardinal. Duties of the highest magnitude will perhaps only +be brought into requisition upon extraordinary occasions; but the +opportunities we have of lessening the inconveniences of our neighbour, +or of adding to his accommodations and the amount of his agreeable +feelings, are innumerable. An acceptable and welcome member of society +therefore will not talk, only when he has something important to +communicate. He will also study how he may amuse his friend with +agreeable narratives, lively remarks, sallies of wit, or any of those +thousand nothings, which' set off with a wish to please and a benevolent +temper, will often entertain more and win the entire good will of the +person to whom they are addressed, than the wisest discourse, or the +vein of conversation which may exhibit the powers and genius of the +speaker to the greatest advantage. + +Men of a dull and saturnine complexion will soon get to an end of all +they felt it incumbent on them to say to their comrades. But the same +thing will probably happen, though at a much later period, between +friends of an active mind, of the largest stores of information, +and whose powers have been exercised upon the greatest variety of +sentiments, principles, and original veins of thinking. When two +such men first fall into society, each will feel as if he had found +a treasure. Their communications are without end; their garrulity is +excited, and converts into a perennial spring. The topics upon which +they are prompted to converse are so numerous, that one seems to jostle +out the other. + +It may proceed thus from day to day, from month to month, and perhaps +from year to year. But, according to the old proverb, "It is a long +lane that has no turning." The persons here described will have a vast +variety of topics upon which they are incited to compare their opinions, +and will lay down these topics and take them up again times without +number. Upon some, one of the parties will feel himself entirely at home +while the other is comparatively a novice, and, in others, the advantage +will be with the other; so that the gain of both, in this free and +unrestrained opening of the soul, will be incalculable. But the time +will come, like as in perusing an author of the most extraordinary +genius and the most versatile powers, that the reading of each other's +minds will be exhausted. They know so much of each other's tone of +thinking, that all that can be said will be anticipated. The living +voice, the sparkling eye, and the beaming countenance will do much to +put off the evil day, when we shall say, I have had enough. But the time +will come in which we shall feel that this after all is but little, and +we shall become sluggish, ourselves to communicate, or to excite the +dormant faculties of our friend, when the spring, the waters of which so +long afforded us the most exquisite delight, is at length drawn dry. + +I remember in my childish years being greatly struck with that passage +in the Bible, where it is written, "But I say unto you, that, for every +idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account in the day +of judgment:" and, as I was very desirous of conforming myself to the +directions of the sacred volume, I was upon the point of forming a +sort of resolution, that I would on no account open my mouth to speak, +without having a weighty reason for uttering the thing I felt myself +prompted to say. + +But practical directions of this sort are almost in all cases of +ambiguous interpretation. From the context of this passage it is clear, +that by "idle words" we are to understand vicious words, words tending +to instil into the mind unauthorised impulses, that shew in the man who +speaks "a will most rank, foul disproportion, thoughts unnatural," and +are calculated to render him by whom they are listened to, light and +frivolous of temper, and unstrung for the graver duties of human life. + +But idle words, in the sense of innocent amusement, are not vicious. +"There is a time for all things." Amusement must not encroach upon +or thrust aside the real business, the important engagements, and +the animated pursuits of man. But it is entitled to take its turn +unreproved. Human life is so various, and the disposition and temper of +the mind of so different tones and capacity, that a wise man will "frame +his face to all occasions." Playfulness, if not carried to too great an +extreme, is an additional perfection in human nature. We become relieved +from our more serious cares, and better fitted to enter on them again +after an interval. To fill up the days of our lives with various +engagements, to make one occupation succeed to another, so as to +liberate us from the pains of ennui, and the dangers of what may in an +emphatical sense be called idleness, is no small desideratum. That king +may in this sense be admitted to have formed no superficial estimate +of our common nature, who is said to have proclaimed a reward to the +individual that should invent a new amusement. + +And, to consider the question as it stands in relation to the subject of +the present Essay, a perpetual gravity and a vigilant watch to be placed +on the door of our lips, would be eminently hostile to that frankness +which is to be regarded as one of the greatest ornaments of our +nature. "It is meet, that we should make merry and be glad." A formal +countenance, a demure, careful and unaltered cast of features, is one +of the most disadvantageous aspects under which human nature can exhibit +itself. The temper must be enterprising and fearless, the manner firm +and assured, and the correspondence between the heart and the tongue +prompt and instantaneous, if we desire to have that view of man that +shall do him the most credit, and induce us to form the most honourable +opinion respecting him. On our front should sit fearless confidence and +unsubdued hilarity. Our limbs should be free and unfettered, a state of +the animal which imparts a grace infinitely more winning than that of +the most skilful dancer. The very sound of our voice should be full, +firm, mellow, and fraught with life and sensibility; of that nature, at +the hearing of which every bosom rises, and every eye is lighted up. It +is thus that men come to understand and confide in each other. This is +the only frame that can perfectly conduce to our moral improvement, +the awakening of our faculties, the diffusion of science, and the +establishment of the purest notions and principles of civil and +political liberty. + + + + +ESSAY XVII. OF BALLOT. + +The subject of the preceding Essay leads by an obvious transition to +the examination of a topic, which at present occupies to a considerable +extent the attention of those who are anxious for the progress of public +improvement, and the placing the liberties of mankind on the securest +basis: I mean, the topic of the vote by ballot. + +It is admitted that the most beneficial scheme for the government of +nations, is a government by representation: that is, that there shall +be in every nation, or large collection of men, a paramount legislative +assembly, composed of deputies chosen by the people in their respective +counties, cities, towns, or departments. In what manner then shall these +deputies be elected? + +The argument in favour of the election by ballot is obvious. + +In nearly all civilised countries there exists more or less an +inequality of rank and property: we will confine our attention +principally to the latter. + +Property necessarily involves influence. Mankind are but too prone +to pay a superior deference to those who wear better clothes, live in +larger houses, and command superior accommodations to those which fall +to the lot of the majority. + +One of the main sources of wealth in civilised nations is the possession +of land. Those who have a considerable allotment of land in property, +for the most part let it out in farms on lease or otherwise to persons +of an inferior rank, by whom it is cultivated. In this case a reciprocal +relation is created between the landlord and the tenant: and, if the +landlord conducts himself towards his tenant agreeably to the principles +of honour and liberality, it is impossible that the tenant should not +feel disposed to gratify his landlord, so far as shall be compatible +with his own notions of moral rectitude, or the paramount interests of +the society of which he is a member. + +If the proprietor of any extensive allotment of land does not let it out +in farms, but retains it under his own direction, he must employ a great +number of husbandmen and labourers; and over them he must be expected +to exercise the same sort of influence, as under the former statement we +supposed him to exercise over his tenants. + +The same principle will still operate wherever any one man in society is +engaged in the expenditure of a considerable capital. The manufacturer +will possess the same influence over his workmen, as the landed +proprietor over his tenants or labourers. Even the person who possesses +considerable opulence, and has no intention to engage in the pursuits of +profit or accumulation, will have an ample retinue, and will be +enabled to use the same species of influence over his retainers and +trades-people, as the landlord exercises over his tenants and labourers, +and the manufacturer over his workmen. + +A certain degree of this species of influence in society, is perhaps not +to be excepted against. The possessor of opulence in whatever form, may +be expected to have received a superior education, and, being placed at +a certain distance from the minuter details and the lesser wheels in the +machine of society, to have larger and more expansive views as to +the interests of the whole. It is good that men in different ranks of +society should be brought into intercourse with each other; it will +subtract something from the prejudices of both, and enable each to +obtain some of the advantages of the other. The division of rank is too +much calculated to split society into parties having a certain hostility +to each other. In a free state we are all citizens: it is desirable that +we should all be friends. + +But this species of influence may be carried too far. To a certain +extent it is good. Inasmuch as it implies the enlightening one human +understanding by the sparks struck out from another, or even the +communication of feelings between man and man, this is not to be +deprecated. Some degree of courteous compliance and deference of the +ignorant to the better informed, is inseparable from the existence of +political society as we behold it; such a deference as we may conceive +the candid and conscientious layman to pay to the suggestions of his +honest and disinterested pastor. + +Every thing however that is more than this, is evil. There should be no +peremptory mandates, and no threat or apprehension of retaliation and +mischief to follow, if the man of inferior station or opulence should +finally differ in opinion from his wealthier neighbour. We may admit +of a moral influence; but there must be nothing, that should in the +smallest degree border on compulsion. + +But it is unfortunately in the very nature of weak, erring and fallible +mortals, to make an ill use of the powers that are confided to their +discretion. The rich man in the wantonness of his authority will not +stop at moral influence, but, if he is disappointed of his expectation +by what he will call my wilfulness and obstinacy, will speedily +find himself impelled to vindicate his prerogative, and to punish my +resistance. In every such disappointment he will discern a dangerous +precedent, and will apprehend that, if I escape with impunity, the +whole of that ascendancy, which he has regarded as one of the valuable +privileges contingent to his station, will be undermined. + +Opulence has two ways of this grosser sort, by which it may enable its +possessor to command the man below him,--punishment and reward. As the +holder, for example, of a large landed estate, or the administrator of +an ample income, may punish the man who shews himself refractory to +his will, so he may also reward the individual who yields to his +suggestions. This, in whatever form it presents itself, may be classed +under the general head of bribery. + +The remedy for all this therefore, real or potential, mischief, is said +to lie in the vote by ballot, a contrivance, by means of which every man +shall be enabled to give his vote in favour of or against any candidate +that shall be nominated, in absolute secrecy, without it being possible +for any one to discover on which side the elector decided,--nay, a +contrivance, by which the elector is invited to practise mystery and +concealment, inasmuch as it would seem an impertinence in him to speak +out, when the law is expressly constructed to bid him act and be silent. +If he speaks, he is guilty of a sort of libel on his brother-electors, +who are hereby implicitly reproached by him for their impenetrableness +and cowardice. + +We are told that the institution of the ballot is indispensible to the +existence of a free state, in a country where the goods of fortune are +unequally distributed. In England, as the right of sending members +to parliament is apportioned at the time I am writing, the power of +electing is bestowed with such glaring inequality, and the number of +electors in many cases is so insignificant, as inevitably to give to the +noble and the rich the means of appointing almost any representatives +they think fit, so that the house of commons may more justly be styled +the nominees of the upper house, than the deputies of the nation. And +it is further said, Remedy this inequality as much as you please, and +reform the state of the representation to whatever degree, still, so +long as the votes at elections are required to be given openly, the +reform will be unavailing, and the essential part of the mischief will +remain. The right of giving our votes in secrecy, is the only remedy +that can cut off the ascendancy of the more opulent members of the +community over the rest, and give us the substance of liberty, instead +of cheating us with the shadow. + +On the other side I would beg the reader to consider, that the vote by +ballot, in its obvious construction, is not the symbol of liberty, but +of slavery. What is it, that presents to every eye the image of liberty, +and compels every heart to confess, This is the temple where she +resides? An open front, a steady and assured look, an habitual and +uninterrupted commerce between the heart and the tongue. The free man +communicates with his neighbour, not in corners and concealed places, +but in market-places and scenes of public resort; and it is thus that +the sacred spark is caught from man to man, till all are inspired with a +common flame. Communication and publicity are of the essence of liberty; +it is the air they breathe; and without it they die. + +If on the contrary I would characterise a despotism, I should say, It +implied a certain circumference of soil, through whose divisions and +districts every man suspected his neighbour, where every man was +haunted with the terror that "walls have ears," and only whispered his +discontent, his hopes and his fears, to the trees of the forest and +the silent streams. If the dwellers on this soil consulted together, it +would be in secret cabals and with closed doors; engaging in the sacred +cause of public welfare and happiness, as if it were a thing of guilt, +which the conspirator scarcely ventured to confess to his own heart. + +A shrewd person of my acquaintance the other day, to whom I unadvisedly +proposed a question as to what he thought of some public transaction, +instantly replied with symptoms of alarm, "I beg to say that I never +disclose my opinions upon matters either of religion or politics to any +one." What did this answer imply as to the political government of the +country where it was given? + +Is it characteristic of a free state or a tyranny? + +One of the first and highest duties that falls to the lot of a human +creature, is that which he owes to the aggregate of reasonable beings +inhabiting what he calls his country. Our duties are then most solemn +and elevating, when they are calculated to affect the well being of the +greatest number of men; and of consequence what a patriot owes to his +native soil is the noblest theatre for his moral faculties. And shall we +teach men to discharge this debt in the dark? Surely every man ought +to be able to "render a reason of the hope that is in him," and give +a modest, but an assured, account of his political conduct. When he +approaches the hustings at the period of a public election, this is his +altar, where he sacrifices in the face of men to that deity, which is +most worth his adoration of all the powers whose single province is our +sublunary state. + +But the principle of the institution of ballot is to teach men to +perform their best actions under the cloke of concealment. When I return +from giving my vote in the choice of a legislative representative, +I ought, if my mode of proceeding were regulated by the undebauched +feelings of our nature, to feel somewhat proud that I had discharged +this duty, uninfluenced, uncorrupted, in the sincere frame of a +conscientious spirit. But the institution of ballot instigates me +carefully to conceal what I have done. If I am questioned respecting it, +the proper reply which is as it were put into my mouth is, "You have +no right to ask me; and I shall not tell." But, as every man does not +recollect the proper reply at the moment it is wanted, and most men feel +abashed, when a direct question is put to them to which they know they +are not to return a direct answer, many will stammer and feel confused, +will perhaps insinuate a falshood, while at the same time their manner +to a discerning eye will, in spite of all their precautions, disclose +the very truth. + +The institution of ballot not only teaches us that our best actions are +those which we ought most steadily to disavow, but carries distrust +and suspicion into all our most familiar relations. The man I want to +deceive, and throw out in the keenness of his hunting, is my landlord. +But how shall I most effectually conceal the truth from him? May I be +allowed to tell it to my wife or my child? I had better not. It is a +known maxim of worldly prudence, that the truth which may be a source of +serious injury to me, is safest, when it is shut up in my own bosom. If +I once let it out, there is no saying where the communication may +stop. "Day unto day uttereth speech; and night unto night sheweth forth +knowledge." + +And is this the proud attitude of liberty, to which we are so eager to +aspire? After all, there will be some ingenuous men in the community, +who will not know how for ever to suppress what is dearest to their +hearts. But at any rate this institution holds out a prize to him that +shall be most secret and untraceable in his proceedings, that shall +"shoe his horses with felt," and proceed in all his courses with silence +and suspicion. + +The first principle of morality to social man is, that we act under the +eye of our fellows. The truly virtuous man would do as he ought, though +no eye observed him. Persons, it is true, who deport themselves merely +as "men-pleasers," for ever considering how the by-standers will +pronounce of their conduct, are entitled to small commendation. The good +man, it is certain, will see + + To do what virtue would, though sun and moon + Were in the flat sea sunk. + +But, imperfect creatures as we mortals usually are, these things act +and react upon each other. A man of honourable intentions will demean +himself justly, from the love of right. But he is confirmed in his just +dealing by the approbation of his fellows; and, if he were tempted to +step awry, he would be checked by the anticipation of their censure. +Such is the nature of our moral education. It is with virtue, as it is +with literary fame. If I write well, I can scarcely feel secure that I +do so, till I obtain the suffrage of some competent judges, confirming +the verdict which I was before tempted to pronounce in my own favour. + +This acting as in a theatre, where men and Gods are judges of my +conduct, is the true destination of man; and we cannot violate the +universal law under which we were born, without having reason to fear +the most injurious effects. + +And is this mysterious and concealed way of proceeding one of the forms +through which we are to pass in the school of liberty? The great end of +all liberal institutions is, to make a man fearless, frank as the day, +acting from a lively and earnest impulse, which will not be restrained, +disdains all half-measures, and prompts us, as it were, to carry our +hearts in our hands, for all men to challenge, and all men to comment +on. It is true, that the devisers of liberal institutions will have +foremost in their thoughts, how men shall be secure in their personal +liberty, unrestrained in the execution of what their thoughts prompt +them to do, and uncontrolled in the administration of the fruits of +their industry. But the moral end of all is, that a man shall be worthy +of the name, erect, independent of mind, spontaneous of decision, +intrepid, overflowing with all good feelings, and open in the expression +of the sentiments they inspire. If man is double in his weightiest +purposes, full of ambiguity and concealment, and not daring to give +words to the impulses of his soul, what matters it that he is free? We +may pronounce of this man, that he is unworthy of the blessing that +has fallen to his lot, and will never produce the fruits that should be +engendered in the lap of liberty. + +There is however, it should seem, a short answer to all this. It is +in vain to expatiate to us upon the mischiefs of lying, hypocrisy and +concealment, since it is only through them, as the way by which we are +to march, that nations can be made free. + +This certainly is a fearful judgment awarded upon our species: but is it +true? + +We are to begin, it seems, with concealing from our landlord, or our +opulent neighbour, our political determinations; and so his corrupt +influence will be broken, and the humblest individual will be safe in +doing that which his honest and unbiased feelings may prompt him to do. + +No: this is not the way in which the enemy of the souls of men is to be +defeated. We must not begin with the confession of our faint-heartedness +and our cowardice. A quiet, sober, unaltered frame of judgment, that +insults no one, that has in it nothing violent, brutal and defying, is +the frame that becomes us. If I would teach another man, my superior +in rank, how he ought to construe and decide upon the conduct I hold, I +must begin by making that conduct explicit. + +It is not in morals, as it is in war. There stratagem is allowable, and +to take the enemy by surprise. "Who enquires of an enemy, whether it is +by fraud or heroic enterprise that he has gained the day?" But it is not +so that the cause of liberty is to be vindicated in the civil career of +life. + +The question is of reducing the higher ranks of society to admit the +just immunities of their inferiors. I will not allow that they shall be +cheated into it. No: no man was ever yet recovered to his senses in a +question of morals, but by plain, honest, soul-commanding speech. Truth +is omnipotent, if we do not violate its majesty by surrendering its +outworks, and giving up that vantage-ground, of which if we deprive it, +it ceases to be truth. It finds a responsive chord in every human bosom. +Whoever hears its voice, at the same time recognises its power. However +corrupt he may be, however steeped in the habits of vice, and hardened +in the practices of tyranny, if it be mildly, distinctly, emphatically +enunciated, the colour will forsake his cheek, his speech will alter and +be broken, and he will feel himself unable to turn it off lightly, as a +thing of no impression and validity. In this way the erroneous man, +the man nursed in the house of luxury, a stranger to the genuine, +unvarnished state of things, stands a fair chance of being corrected. + +But, if an opposite, and a truer way of thinking than that to which he +is accustomed, is only brought to his observation by the reserve of him +who entertains it, and who, while he entertains it, is reluctant to +hold communion with his wealthier neighbour, who regards him as his +adversary, and hardly admits him to be of the same common nature, there +will be no general improvement. Under this discipline the two ranks of +society will be perpetually more estranged, view each other with +eye askance, and will be as two separate and hostile states, though +inhabiting the same territory. Is this the picture we desire to see of +genuine liberty, philanthropic, desirous of good to all, and overflowing +with all generous emotions? + + I hate where vice can bolt her arguments, + And virtue has no tongue to check her pride. + +The man who interests himself for his country and its cause, who acts +bravely and independently, and knows that he runs some risk in doing +so, must have a strange opinion of the sacredness of truth, if the very +consciousness of having done nobly does not supply him with courage, +and give him that simple, unostentatious firmness, which shall carry +immediate conviction to the heart. It is a bitter lesson that the +institution of ballot teaches, while it says, "You have done well; +therefore be silent; whisper it not to the winds; disclose it not to +those who are most nearly allied to you; adopt the same conduct which +would suggest itself to you, if you had perpetrated an atrocious crime." + +In no long time after the commencement of the war of the allies against +France, certain acts were introduced into the English parliament, +declaring it penal by word or writing to utter any thing that should +tend to bring the government into contempt; and these acts, by the mass +of the adversaries of despotic power, were in way of contempt called the +Gagging Acts. Little did I and my contemporaries of 1795 imagine, when +we protested against these acts in the triumphant reign of William Pitt, +that the soi-disant friends of liberty and radical reformers, when their +turn of triumph came, would propose their Gagging Acts, recommending to +the people to vote agreeably to their consciences, but forbidding them +to give publicity to the honourable conduct they had been prevailed on +to adopt! + +But all this reasoning is founded in an erroneous, and groundlessly +degrading, opinion of human nature. The improvement of the general +institutions of society, the correction of the gross inequalities of our +representation, will operate towards the improvement of all the members +of the community. While ninety-nine in an hundred of the inhabitants +of England are carried forward in the scale of intellect and virtue, +it would be absurd to suppose that the hundredth man will stand still, +merely because he is rich. Patriotism is a liberal and a social impulse; +its influence is irresistible; it is contagious, and is propagated +by the touch; it is infectious, and mixes itself with the air that we +breathe. + +Men are governed in their conduct in a surprising degree by the opinion +of others. It was all very well, when noblemen were each of them +satisfied of the equity and irresistible principle of their ascendancy, +when the vulgar population felt convinced that passive obedience was +entailed on them from their birth, when we were in a manner but just +emancipated (illusorily emancipated!) from the state of serfs and +villains. But a memorable melioration of the state of man will carry +some degree of conviction to the hearts of all. The most corrupt will +be made doubtful: many who had not gone so far in ill, will desert the +banners of oppression. + +We see this already. What a shock was propagated through the island, +when, the other day, a large proprietor, turning a considerable cluster +of his tenants out of the houses and lands they occupied, because they +refused to vote for a representative in parliament implicitly as he bade +them, urged in his own justification, "Shall I not do what I will with +my own?" This was all sound morals and divinity perhaps at the period +of his birth. Nobody disputed it; or, if any one did, he was set down +by the oracles of the vicinage as a crackbrained visionary. This man, so +confident in his own prerogatives, had slept for the last twenty years, +and awoke totally unconscious of what had been going on in almost every +corner of Europe in the interval. A few more such examples; and so broad +and sweeping an assumption will no more be heard of, and it will remain +in the records of history, as a thing for the reality of which we have +sufficient evidence, but which common sense repudiates, and which seems +to demand from us a certain degree of credulity to induce us to admit +that it had ever been. + +The manners of society are by no means so unchanged and unalterable +as many men suppose. It is here, as in the case of excessive drinking, +which I had lately occasion to mention(36). In rude and barbarous +times men of the highest circles piqued themselves upon their power of +swallowing excessive potations, and found pleasure in it. It is in this +as in so many other vices, we follow implicitly where our elders lead +the way. But the rage of drinking is now gone by; and you will with +difficulty find a company of persons of respectable appearance, who +assemble round a table for the purpose of making beasts of themselves. +Formerly it was their glory; now, if any man unhappily retains the +weakness, he hides it from his equals, as he would a loathsome disease. +The same thing will happen as to parliamentary corruption, and the +absolute authority that was exercised by landlords over the consciences +of their tenants. He that shall attempt to put into act what is then +universally condemned, will be a marked man, and will be generally +shunned by his fellows. The eye of the world will be upon him, as the +murderer fancies himself followed by the eye of omnipotence; and he will +obey the general voice of the community, that he may be at peace with +himself. + + + (36) See above, Essay 9. + + +Let us not then disgrace a period of memorable improvement, by combining +it with an institution that should mark that we, the great body of the +people, regard the more opulent members of the community as our foes. +Let us hold out to them the right hand of fellowship; and they will meet +us. They will be influenced, partly by ingenuous shame for the unworthy +conduct which they and their fathers had so long pursued, and partly by +sympathy for the genuine joy and expansion of heart that is spreading +itself through the land. Scarcely any one can restrain himself from +participating in the happiness of the great body of his countrymen; +and, if they see that we treat them with generous confidence, and are +unwilling to recur to the memory of former grievances, and that a spirit +of philanthropy and unlimited good-will is the sentiment of the day, it +can scarcely happen but that their conversion will be complete, and the +harmony be made entire(37). + + + (37) The subject of this Essay is resumed in the close of the following. + + + + +ESSAY XVIII. OF DIFFIDENCE. + +The following Essay will be to a considerable degree in the nature of +confession, like the Confessions of St. Augustine or of Jean Jacques +Rousseau. It may therefore at first sight appear of small intrinsic +value, and scarcely worthy of a place in the present series. But, as I +have had occasion more than once to remark, we are all of us framed in a +great measure on the same model, and the analysis of the individual +may often stand for the analysis of a species. While I describe +myself therefore, I shall probably at the same time be describing no +inconsiderable number of my fellow-beings. + +It is true, that the duty of man under the head of Frankness, is of a +very comprehensive nature. We ought all of us to tell to our neighbour +whatever it may be of advantage to him to know, we ought to be the +sincere and zealous advocates of absent merit and worth, and we are +bound by every means in our power to contribute to the improvement of +others, and to the diffusion of salutary truths through the world. + +From the universality of these precepts many readers might be apt to +infer, that I am in my own person the bold and unsparing preacher of +truth, resolutely giving to every man his due, and, agreeably to +the apostle's direction, "instant in season, and out of season." +The individual who answers to this description will often be deemed +troublesome, often annoying; he will produce a considerable sensation +in the circle of those who know him; and it will depend upon various +collateral circumstances, whether he shall ultimately be judged a rash +and intemperate disturber of the contemplations of his neighbours, or +a disinterested and heroic suggester of new veins of thinking, by which +his contemporaries and their posterity shall be essentially the gainers. + +I have no desire to pass myself upon those who may have any curiosity +respecting me for better than I am; and I will therefore here put down +a few particulars, which may tend to enable them to form an equitable +judgment. + +One of the earliest passions of my mind was the love of truth and +sound opinion. "Why should I," such was the language of my solitary +meditations, "because I was born in a certain degree of latitude, in a +certain century, in a country where certain institutions prevail, and of +parents professing a certain faith, take it for granted that all this is +right?--This is matter of accident. 'Time and chance happeneth to all:' +and I, the thinking principle within me, might, if such had been the +order of events, have been born under circumstances the very reverse +of those under which I was born. I will not, if I can help it, be +the creature of accident; I will not, like a shuttle-cock, be at the +disposal of every impulse that is given me." I felt a certain disdain +for the being thus directed; I could not endure the idea of being made +a fool of, and of taking every ignis fatuus for a guide, and every stray +notion, the meteor of the day, for everlasting truth. I am the person, +spoken of in a preceding Essay(38), who early said to Truth, "Go on: +whithersoever thou leadest, I am prepared to follow." + + + (38) See above, Essay XIII. + + +During my college-life therefore, I read all sorts of books, on every +side of any important question, that were thrown in my way, or that I +could hear of. But the very passion that determined me to this mode of +proceeding, made me wary and circumspect in coming to a conclusion. I +knew that it would, if any thing, be a more censurable and contemptible +act, to yield to every seducing novelty, than to adhere obstinately to +a prejudice because it had been instilled into me in youth. I was +therefore slow of conviction, and by no means "given to change." I never +willingly parted with a suggestion that was unexpectedly furnished to +me; but I examined it again and again, before I consented that it should +enter into the set of my principles. + +In proportion however as I became acquainted with truth, or what +appeared to me to be truth, I was like what I have read of Melancthon, +who, when he was first converted to the tenets of Luther, became eager +to go into all companies, that he might make them partakers of the same +inestimable treasures, and set before them evidence that was to him +irresistible. It is needless to say, that he often encountered the most +mortifying disappointment. + +Young and eager as I was in my mission, I received in this way many a +bitter lesson. But the peculiarity of my temper rendered this doubly +impressive to me. I could not pass over a hint, let it come from +what quarter it would, without taking it into some consideration, and +endeavouring to ascertain the precise weight that was to be attributed +to it. It would however often happen, particularly in the question of +the claims of a given individual to honour and respect, that I could see +nothing but the most glaring injustice in the opposition I experienced. +In canvassing the character of an individual, it is not for the most +part general, abstract or moral, principles that are called into +question: I am left in possession of the premises which taught me to +admire the man whose character is contested; and conformably to those +premises I see that his claim to the honour I have paid him is fully +made out. + +In my communications with others, in the endeavour to impart what I +deemed to be truth, I began with boldness: but I often found that the +evidence that was to me irresistible, was made small account of by +others; and it not seldom happened, as candour was my principle, and a +determination to receive what could be strewn to be truth, let it come +from what quarter it would, that suggestions were presented to me, +materially calculated to stagger the confidence with which I had set +out. If I had been divinely inspired, if I had been secured by an +omniscient spirit against the danger of error, my case would have been +different. But I was not inspired. I often encountered an opposition +I had not anticipated, and was often presented with objections, or had +pointed out to me flaws and deficiencies in my reasonings, which, +till they were so pointed out, I had not apprehended. I had not lungs +enabling me to drown all contradiction; and, which was still more +material, I had not a frame of mind, which should determine me to regard +whatever could be urged against me as of no value. I therefore became +cautious. As a human creature, I did not relish the being held up to +others' or to myself, as rash, inconsiderate and headlong, unaware +of difficulties the most obvious, embracing propositions the most +untenable, and "against hope believing in hope." And, as an apostle of +truth, I distinctly perceived that a reputation for perspicacity and +sound judgment was essential to my mission. I therefore often became +less a speaker, than a listener, and by no means made it a law with +myself to defend principles and characters I honoured, on every occasion +on which I might hear them attacked. + +A new epoch occurred in my character, when I published, and at the time +I was writing, my Enquiry concerning Political Justice. My mind was +wrought up to a certain elevation of tone; the speculations in which I +was engaged, tending to embrace all that was most important to man in +society, and the frame to which I had assiduously bent myself, of +giving quarter to nothing because it was old, and shrinking from +nothing because it was startling and astounding, gave a new bias to my +character. The habit which I thus formed put me more on the alert even +in the scenes of ordinary life, and gave me a boldness and an eloquence +more than was natural to me. I then reverted to the principle which I +stated in the beginning, of being ready to tell my neighbour whatever +it might be of advantage to him to know, to shew myself the sincere and +zealous advocate of absent merit and worth, and to contribute by every +means in my power to the improvement of others and to the diffusion of +salutary truth through the world. I desired that every hour that I lived +should be turned to the best account, and was bent each day to examine +whether I had conformed myself to this rule. I held on this course with +tolerable constancy for five or six years: and, even when that constancy +abated, it failed not to leave a beneficial effect on my subsequent +conduct. + +But, in pursuing this scheme of practice, I was acting a part somewhat +foreign to my constitution. I was by nature more of a speculative than +an active character, more inclined to reason within myself upon what +I heard and saw, than to declaim concerning it. I loved to sit by +unobserved, and to meditate upon the panorama before me. At first I +associated chiefly with those who were more or less admirers of my work; +and, as I had risen (to speak in the slang phrase) like "a star" upon +my contemporaries without being expected, I was treated generally with +a certain degree of deference, or, where not with deference and +submission, yet as a person whose opinions and view of things were to be +taken into the account. The individuals who most strenuously opposed me, +acted with a consciousness that, if they affected to despise me, they +must not expect that all the bystanders would participate in that +feeling. + +But this was to a considerable degree the effect of novelty. My lungs, +as I have already said, were not of iron; my manner was not overbearing +and despotic; there was nothing in it to deter him who differed from me +from entering the field in turn, and telling the tale of his views and +judgments in contradiction to mine. I descended into the arena, and +stood on a level with the rest. Beyond this, it occasionally happened +that, if I had not the stentorian lungs, and the petty artifices of +rhetoric and conciliation, that should carry a cause independently of +its merits, my antagonists were not deficient in these respects. I +had nothing in my favour to balance this, but a sort of constitutional +equanimity and imperturbableness of temper, which, if I was at any +time silenced, made me not look like a captive to be dragged at the +chariot-wheels of my adversary. + +All this however had a tendency to subtract from my vocation as a +missionary. I was no longer a knight-errant, prepared on all occasions +by dint of arms to vindicate the cause of every principle that was +unjustly handled, and every character that was wrongfully assailed. +Meanwhile I returned to the field, occasionally and uncertainly. It +required some provocation and incitement to call me out: but there was +the lion, or whatever combative animal may more justly prefigure me, +sleeping, and that might be awakened. + +There is another feature necessary to be mentioned, in order to make +this a faithful representation. There are persons, it should seem, of +whom it may be predicated, that they are semper parati. This has by no +means been my case. My genius often deserted me. I was far from having +the thought, the argument, or the illustration at all times ready, when +it was required. I resembled to a certain degree the persons we read +of, who are said to be struck as if with a divine judgment. I was for +a moment changed into one of the mere herd, de grege porcus. My powers +therefore were precarious, and I could not always be the intrepid and +qualified advocate of truth, if I vehemently desired it. I have often, a +few minutes afterwards, or on my return to my chambers, recollected +the train of thinking, which world have strewn me off to advantage, +and memorably done me honour, if I could have had it at my command the +moment it was wanted. + +And so much for confession. I am by no means vindicating myself. + +I honour much more the man who is at all times ready to tell his +neighbour whatever it may be of advantage to him to know, to shew +himself the sincere and untemporising advocate of absent merit and +worth, and to contribute by every means in his power to the improvement +of others, and to the diffusion of salutary truths through the world. + +This is what every man ought to be, and what the best devised scheme of +republican institutions would have a tendency to make us all. + +But, though the man here described is to a certain degree a deserter +of his true place in society, and cannot be admitted to have played his +part in all things well, we are by no means to pronounce upon him a +more unfavourable judgment than he merits. Diffidence, though, where +it disqualifies us in any way from doing justice to truth, either as it +respects general principle or individual character, a defect, yet is on +no account to be confounded in demerit with that suppression of truth, +or misrepresentation, which grows out of actual craft and design. + +The diffident man, in some cases seldomer, and in some oftener and in +a more glaring manner, deserts the cause of truth, and by that means +is the cause of misrepresentation, and indirectly the propagator of +falshood. But he is constant and sincere as far as he goes; he never +lends his voice to falshood, or intentionally to sophistry; he never for +an instant goes over to the enemy's standard, or disgraces his honest +front by strewing it in the ranks of tyranny or imposture. He may +undoubtedly be accused, to a certain degree, of dissimulation, or +throwing into shade the thing that is, but never of simulation, or the +pretending the thing to be that is not. He is plain and uniform in +every thing that he professes, or to which he gives utterance; but, from +timidity or irresolution, he keeps back in part the offering which he +owes at the shrine where it is most honourable and glorious for man to +worship. + +And this brings me back again to the subject of the immediately +preceding Essay, the propriety of voting by ballot. + +The very essence of this scheme is silence. And this silence is not +merely like that which is prompted by a diffident temper, which by fits +is practiced by the modest and irresolute man, and by fits disappears +before the sun of truth and through the energies of a temporary +fortitude. It is uniform. It is not brought into act only, when the +individual unhappily does not find in himself the firmness to play +the adventurer. It becomes matter of system, and is felt as being +recommended to us for a duty. + +Nor does the evil stop there. In the course of my ordinary +communications with my fellow-men, I speak when I please, and I am +silent when I please, and there is nothing specially to be remarked +either way. If I speak, I am perhaps listened to; and, if I am silent, +it is likely enough concluded that it is because I have nothing of +importance to say. But in the question of ballot the case is far +otherwise. There it is known that the voter has his secret. When I am +silent upon a matter occurring in the usual intercourses of life where I +might speak, nay, where we will suppose I ought to speak, I am at +least guilty of dissimulation only. But the voter by ballot is strongly +impelled to the practice of the more enormous sin of simulation. It +is known, as I have said, that he has his secret. And he will often be +driven to have recourse to various stratagems, that he may elude +the enquirer, or that he may set at fault the sagacity of the silent +observer. He has something that he might tell if he would, and he +distorts himself in a thousand ways, that he may not betray the hoard +which he is known to have in his custody. The institution of ballot +is the fruitful parent of ambiguities, equivocations and lies without +number. + + + + +ESSAY XIX. OF SELF-COMPLACENCY. + +The subject of this Essay is intimately connected with those of Essays +XI and XII, perhaps the most important of the series. + +It has been established in the latter, that human creatures are +constantly accompanied in their voluntary actions with the delusive +sense of liberty, and that our character, our energies, and our +conscience of moral right and wrong, are mainly dependent upon this +feature in our constitution. + +The subject of my present disquisition relates to the feeling of +self-approbation or self-complacency, which will be found inseparable +from the most honourable efforts and exertions in which mortal men can +be engaged. + +One of the most striking of the precepts contained in what are called +the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, is couched in the words, "Reverence +thyself." + +The duties which are incumbent on man are of two sorts, negative and +positive. We are bound to set right our mistakes, and to correct +the evil habits to which we are prone; and we are bound also to be +generously ambitious, to aspire after excellence, and to undertake such +things as may reflect honour on ourselves, and be useful to others. + +To the practice of the former of these classes of duties we may be +instigated by prohibitions, menaces and fear, the fear of mischiefs +that may fall upon us conformably to the known series of antecedents +and consequents in the course of nature, or of mischiefs that may be +inflicted on us by the laws of the country in which we live, or +as results of the ill will and disapprobation felt towards us +by individuals. There is nothing that is necessarily generous or +invigorating in the practice of our negative duties. They amount merely +to a scheme for keeping us within bounds, and restraining us from those +sallies and escapes, which human nature, undisciplined and left to +itself, might betray us into. But positive enterprise, and great actual +improvement cannot be expected by us in this way. All this is what the +apostle refers to, when he speaks of "the law as a schoolmaster to bring +us to liberty," after which he advises us "not to be again entangled +with the yoke of bondage." + +On the other hand, if we would enter ourselves in the race of positive +improvement, if we would become familiar with generous sentiments, and +the train of conduct which such sentiments inspire, we must provide +ourselves with the soil in which such things grow, and engage in the +species of husbandry by which they are matured; in other words, we must +be no strangers to self-esteem and self-complacency. + +The truth of this statement may perhaps be most strikingly illustrated, +if we take for our example the progress of schoolboys under a preceptor. +A considerable proportion of these are apt, diligent, and desirous +to perform the tasks in which they are engaged, so as to satisfy the +demands of their masters and parents, and to advance honourably in the +path that is recommended to them. And a considerable proportion put +themselves on the defensive, and propose to their own minds to perform +exactly as much as shall exempt them from censure and punishment, and no +more. + +Now I say of the former, that they cannot accomplish the purpose they +have conceived, unless so far as they are aided by a sentiment of +self-reverence. + +The difference of the two parties is, that the latter proceed, so far +as their studies are concerned, as feeling themselves under the law of +necessity, and as if they were machines merely, and the former as if +they were under what the apostle calls "the law of liberty." + +We cannot perform our tasks to the best of our power, unless we think +well of our own capacity. + +But this is the smallest part of what is necessary. We must also be in +good humour with ourselves. We must say, I can do that which I shall +have just occasion to look back upon with satisfaction. It is the +anticipation of this result, that stimulates our efforts, and carries +us forward. Perseverance is an active principle, and cannot continue +to operate but under the influence of desire. It is incompatible with +languor and neutrality. It implies the love of glory, perhaps of that +glory which shall be attributed to us by others, or perhaps only of that +glory which shall be reaped by us in the silent chambers of the mind. +The diligent scholar is he that loves himself, and desires to have +reason to applaud and love himself. He sits down to his task with +resolution, he approves of what he does in each step of the process, and +in each enquires, Is this the thing I purposed to effect? + +And, as it is with the unfledged schoolboy, after the same manner it is +with the man mature. He must have to a certain extent a good opinion +of himself, he must feel a kind of internal harmony, giving to the +circulations of his frame animation and cheerfulness, or he can never +undertake and execute considerable things. + +The execution of any thing considerable implies in the first place +previous persevering meditation. He that undertakes any great +achievement will, according to the vulgar phrase, "think twice," before +he buckles up his resolution, and plunges into the ocean, which he has +already surveyed with anxious glance while he remained on shore. Let our +illustration be the case of Columbus, who, from the figure of the earth, +inferred that there must be a way of arriving at the Indies by a voyage +directly west, in distinction from the very complicated way hitherto +practiced, by sailing up the Mediterranean, crossing the isthmus of +Suez, and so falling down the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean. He weighed +all the circumstances attendant on such an undertaking in his mind. +He enquired into his own powers and resources, imaged to himself +the various obstacles that might thwart his undertaking, and finally +resolved to engage in it. If Columbus had not entertained a very good +opinion of himself, it is impossible that he should have announced such +a project, or should have achieved it. + +Again. Let our illustration be, of Homer undertaking to compose the +Iliad. If he had not believed himself to be a man of very superior +powers to the majority of the persons around him, he would most +assuredly never have attempted it. What an enterprise! To describe in +twenty-four books, and sixteen thousand verses, the perpetual warfare +and contention of two great nations, all Greece being armed for the +attack, and all the western division of Asia Minor for the defence: the +war carried on by two vast confederacies, under numerous chiefs, all +sovereign and essentially independent of each other. To conceive the +various characters of the different leaders, and their mutual rivalship. +To engage all heaven, such as it was then understood, as well as what +was most respectable on earth, in the struggle. To form the idea, +through twenty-four books, of varying the incidents perpetually, and +keeping alive the attention of the reader or hearer without satiety or +weariness. For this purpose, and to answer to his conception of a great +poem, Homer appears to have thought it necessary that the action should +be one; and he therefore took the incidental quarrel of Achilles and +the commander in chief, the resentment of Achilles, and his consequent +defection from the cause, till, by the death of Patroclus, and then +of Hector, all traces of the misunderstanding first, and then of its +consequences, should be fully obliterated. + +There is further an essential difference between the undertaking of +Columbus and that of Homer. Once fairly engaged, there was for Columbus +no drawing back. Being already at sea on the great Atlantic Ocean, he +could not retrace his steps. Even when he had presented his project to +the sovereigns of Spain, and they had accepted it, and still more when +the ships were engaged, and the crews mustered, he must go forward, or +submit to indelible disgrace. + +It is not so in writing a poem. The author of the latter may stop +whenever he pleases. Of consequence, during every day of its execution, +he requires a fresh stimulus. He must look back on the past, and forward +on what is to come, and feel that he has considerable reason to +be satisfied. The great naval discoverer may have his intervals of +misgiving and discouragement, and may, as Pope expresses it, "wish +that any one would hang him." He goes forward; for he has no longer the +liberty to choose. But the author of a mighty poem is not in the same +manner entangled, and therefore to a great degree returns to his work +each day, "screwing his courage to the sticking-place." He must feel the +same fortitude and elasticity, and be as entirely the same man of heroic +energy, as when he first arrived at the resolution to engage. How much +then of self-complacency and self-confidence do his undertaking and +performance imply! + +I have taken two of the most memorable examples in the catalogue of +human achievements: the discovery of a New World, and the production of +the Iliad. But all those voluntary actions, or rather series and chains +of actions, which comprise energy in the first determination, and honour +in the execution, each in its degree rests upon self-complacency as the +pillar upon which its weight is sustained, and without which it must +sink into nothing. + +Self-complacency then being the indispensible condition of all that is +honourable in human achievements, hence we may derive a multitude +of duties, and those of the most delicate nature, incumbent on the +preceptor, as well as a peculiar discipline to be observed by the +candidate, both while he is "under a schoolmaster," and afterwards when +he is emancipated, and his plan of conduct is to be regulated by his own +discretion. + +The first duty of the preceptor is encouragement. + +Not that his face is to be for ever dressed in smiles, and that his +tone is to be at all times that of invitation and courtship. The great +theatre of the world is of a mingled constitution, made up of advantages +and sufferings; and it is perhaps best that so should be the different +scenes of the drama as they pass. The young adventurer is not to expect +to have every difficulty smoothed for him by the hand of another. This +were to teach him a lesson of effeminacy and cowardice. On the contrary +it is necessary that he should learn that human life is a state of +hardship, that the adversary we have to encounter does not always +present himself with his fangs sheathed in the woolly softness which +occasionally renders them harmless, and that nothing great or eminently +honourable was ever achieved but through the dint of resolution, energy +and struggle. It is good that the winds of heaven should blow upon him, +that he should encounter the tempest of the elements, and occasionally +sustain the inclemency of the summer's heat and winter's cold, both +literally and metaphorically. + +But the preceptor, however he conducts himself in other respects, ought +never to allow his pupil to despise himself, or to hold himself as of no +account. Self-contempt can never be a discipline favourable to energy or +to virtue. The pupil ought at all times to judge himself in some +degree worthy, worthy and competent now to attempt, and hereafter to +accomplish, things deserving of commendation. The preceptor must never +degrade his pupil in his own eyes, but on the contrary must teach him +that nothing but resolution and perseverance are necessary, to enable +him to effect all that the judicious director can expect from him. He +should be encouraged through every step of his progress, and specially +encouraged when he has gained a certain point, and arrived at an +important resting-place. It is thus we are taught the whole circle of +what are called accomplishments, dancing, music, fencing, and the rest; +and it is surely a strange anomaly, if those things which are +most essential in raising the mind to its true standard, cannot be +communicated with equal suavity and kindness, be surrounded with +allurements, and regarded as sources of pleasure and genuine hilarity. + +In the mean time it is to be admitted that every human creature, +especially in the season of youth, and not being the victim of some +depressing disease either of body or mind, has in him a good obstinate +sort of self-complacency, which cannot without much difficulty be +eradicated. "Though he falleth seven times, yet will he rise again." +And, when we have encountered various mortifications, and have been many +times rebuked and inveighed against, we nevertheless recover our own +good opinion, and are ready to enter into a fresh contention for the +prize, if not in one kind, then in another. + +It is in allusion to this feature in the human character, that we have +an expressive phrase in the English language,--"to break the spirit." +The preceptor may occasionally perhaps prescribe to the pupil a severe +task; and the young adventurer may say, Can I be expected to accomplish +this? But all must be done in kindness. The generous attempter must be +reminded of the powers he has within him, perhaps yet unexercised; with +cheering sounds his progress must be encouraged; and, above all, +the director of the course must take care not to tax him beyond his +strength. And, be it observed, that the strength of a human creature is +to be ascertained by two things; first, the abstract capacity, that +the thing required is not beyond the power of a being so constituted +to perform; and, secondly, we must take into the account his past +achievements, the things he has already accomplished, and not expect +that he is at once to overleap a thousand obstacles. + +For there is such a thing as a broken spirit. I remember a boy who was +my schoolfellow, that, having been treated with uncalled for severity, +never appeared afterwards in the scene of instruction, but with a +neglected appearance, and the articles of his dress scarcely half put +on. I was very young at the time, and viewed only the outside of +things. I cannot tell whether he had any true ambition previously to his +disgrace, but I am sure he never had afterwards. + +How melancholy an object is the man, who, "for the privilege to breathe, +bears up and down the city + + A discontented and repining spirit + Burthensome to itself," + +incapable of enterprise, listless, with no courage to undertake, and +no anticipation of the practicability of success and honour! And this +spectacle is still more affecting, when the subject shall be a human +creature in the dawn of youth, when nature opens to him a vista of +beauty and fruition on every side, and all is encouraging, redolent of +energy and enterprise! + +To break the spirit of a man, bears a considerable resemblance to the +breaking the main spring, or principal movement, of a complicated and +ingeniously constructed machine. We cannot tell when it is to happen; +and it comes at last perhaps at the time that it is least expected. A +judicious superintendent therefore will be far from trying consequences +in his office, and will, like a man walking on a cliff whose extremes +are ever and anon crumbling away and falling into the ocean, keep much +within the edge, and at a safe distance from the line of danger. + +But this consideration has led me much beyond the true subject of this +Essay. The instructor of youth, as I have already said, is called +upon to use all his skill, to animate the courage, and maintain the +cheerfulness and self-complacency of his pupil. And, as such is the +discipline to be observed to the candidate, while he is "under a +schoolmaster," so, when he is emancipated, and his plan of conduct is to +be regulated by his own discretion, it is necessary that he should +carry forward the same scheme, and cultivate that tone of feeling, which +should best reconcile him to himself, and, by teaching him to esteem +himself and bear in mind his own value, enable him to achieve things +honourable to his character, and memorably useful to others. Melancholy, +and a disposition anticipating evil are carefully to be guarded against, +by him who is desirous to perform his part well on the theatre of +society. He should habitually meditate all cheerful things, and sing the +song of battle which has a thousand times spurred on his predecessors +to victory. He should contemplate the crown that awaits him, and say to +himself, I also will do my part, and endeavour to enrol myself in the +select number of those champions, of whom it has been predicated that +they were men, of whom, compared with the herd of ordinary mortals, "the +world," the species among whom they were rated, "was not worthy." + +Another consideration is to be recollected here. Without +self-complacency in the agent no generous enterprise is to be expected, +and no train of voluntary actions, such as may purchase honour to the +person engaged in them. + +But, beside this, there is no true and substantial happiness but for +the self-complacent. "The good man," as Solomon says, "is satisfied from +himself." The reflex act is inseparable from the constitution of the +human mind. How can any one have genuine happiness, unless in proportion +as he looks round, and, "behold! every thing is very good?" This is the +sunshine of the soul, the true joy, that gives cheerfulness to all our +circulations, and makes us feel ourselves entire and complete. What +indeed is life, unless so far as it is enjoyed? It does not merit the +name. If I go into a school, and look round on a number of young faces, +the scene is destitute of its true charm, unless so far as I see inward +peace and contentment on all sides. And, if we require this eminently in +the young, neither can it be less essential, when in growing manhood we +have the real cares of the world to contend with, or when in declining +age we need every auxiliary to enable us to sustain our infirmities. + +But, before I conclude my remarks on this subject, it is necessary that +I should carefully distinguish between the thesis, that self-complacency +is the indispensible condition of all that is honourable in human +achievements, and the proposition contended against in Essay XI, that +"self-love is the source of all our actions." Self-complacency is indeed +the feeling without which we cannot proceed in an honourable course; but +is far from being the motive that impels us to act. The motive is in the +real nature and absolute properties of the good thing that is proposed +to our choice: we seek the happiness of another, because his happiness +is the object of our desire. Self-complacency may be likened to the +bottle-holder in one of those contentions for bodily prowess, so +characteristic of our old English manners. The bottle-holder is +necessary to supply the combatant with refreshment, and to encourage him +to persist; but it would be most unnatural to regard him as the cause +of the contest. No: the parties have found reason for competition, they +apprehend a misunderstanding or a rivalry impossible to be settled +but by open contention, and the putting forth of mental and corporeal +energy; and the bottle-holder is an auxiliary called in afterwards, his +interference implying that the parties have already a motive to act, and +have thrown down the gauntlet in token of the earnest good-will which +animates them to engage. + + + + +ESSAY XX. OF PHRENOLOGY. + +The following remarks can pretend to be nothing more than a few loose +and undigested thoughts upon a subject, which has recently occupied the +attention of many men, and obtained an extraordinary vogue in the world. +It were to be wished, that the task had fallen into the hands of a +writer whose studies were more familiar with all the sciences which bear +more or less on the topic I propose to consider: but, if abler and more +competent men pass it by, I feel disposed to plant myself in the breach, +and to offer suggestions which may have the fortune to lead +others, better fitted for the office than myself, to engage in the +investigation. One advantage I may claim, growing out of my partial +deficiency. It is known not to be uncommon for a man to stand too near +to the subject of his survey, to allow him to obtain a large view of it +in all its bearings. I am no anatomist: I simply take my stand upon the +broad ground of the general philosophy of man. + +It is a very usual thing for fanciful theories to have their turn amidst +the eccentricities of the human mind, and then to be heard of no more. +But it is perhaps no ill occupation, now and then, for an impartial +observer, to analyse these theories, and attempt to blow away the dust +which will occasionally settle on the surface of science. If phrenology, +as taught by Gall and Spurzheim, be a truth, I shall probably render a +service to that truth, by endeavouring to shew where the edifice stands +in need of more solid supports than have yet been assigned to it. If it +be a falshood, the sooner it is swept away to the gulph of oblivion the +better. Let the inquisitive and the studious fix their minds on more +substantial topics, instead of being led away by gaudy and deceitful +appearances. The human head, that crowning capital of the column of man, +is too interesting a subject, to be the proper theme of every dabbler. +And it is obvious, that the professors of this so called discovery, if +they be rash and groundless in their assertions, will be in danger of +producing momentous errors, of exciting false hopes never destined to +be realised, and of visiting with pernicious blasts the opening buds +of excellence, at the time when they are most exposed to the chance of +destruction. + +I shall set out with acknowledging, that there is, as I apprehend, +a science in relation to the human head, something like what Plato +predicates of the statue hid in a block of marble. It is really +contained in the block; but it is only the most consummate sculptor, +that can bring it to the eyes of men, and free it from all the +incumbrances, which, till he makes application of his art to it, +surround the statue, and load it with obscurities and disfigurement. The +man, who, without long study and premeditation, rushes in at once, and +expects to withdraw the curtain, will only find himself disgraced by the +attempt. + +There is a passage in an acute writer(39), whose talents singularly +fitted him, even when he appeared totally immerged in mummery and +trifles, to illustrate the most important truths, that is applicable to +the point I am considering. + + + (39) Sterne, Tristram Shandy, Vol. 1. + + +"Pray, what was that man's name,--for I write in such a hurry, I have no +time to recollect or look for it,--who first made the observation, 'That +there was great inconstancy in our air and climate?' Whoever he was, it +was a just and good observation in him. But the corollary drawn from it, +namely, 'That it is this which has furnished us with such a variety of +odd and whimsical characters;'--that was not his;--it was found out by +another man, at least a century and a half after him. Then again, that +this copious storehouse of original materials is the true and natural +cause that our comedies are so much better than those of France, or any +others that have or can be wrote upon the continent;--that discovery was +not fully made till about the middle of king William's reign, when the +great Dryden, in writing one of his long prefaces (if I mistake not), +most fortunately hit upon it. Then, fourthly and lastly, that +this strange irregularity in our climate, producing so strange an +irregularity in our characters, cloth thereby in some sort make us +amends, by giving us somewhat to make us merry with, when the weather +will not suffer us to go out of doors,--that observation is my own; and +was struck out by me this very rainy day, March 26, 1759, and betwixt +the hour of nine and ten in the morning. + +"Thus--thus, my fellow-labourers and associates in this great harvest of +our learning, now ripening before our eyes; thus it is, by slow steps +of casual increase, that our knowledge physical, metaphysical, +physiological, polemical, nautical, mathematical, aenigmatical, +technical, biographical, romantical, chemical, and obstetrical, with +fifty other branches of it, (most of them ending, as these do, in ical,) +has, for these two last centuries and more, gradually been creeping +upwards towards that acme of their perfections, from which, if we may +form a conjecture from the advantages of these last seven years, we +cannot possibly be far off." + +Nothing can be more true, than the proposition ludicrously illustrated +in this passage, that real science is in most instances of slow growth, +and that the discoveries which are brought to perfection at once, are +greatly exposed to the suspicion of quackery. Like the ephemeron fly, +they are born suddenly, and may be expected to die as soon. + +Lavater, the well known author of Essays on Physiognomy, appears to +have been born seventeen years before the birth of Gall. He attempted to +reduce into a system the indications of human character that are to be +found in the countenance. Physiognomy, as a subject of ingenious and +probable conjecture, was well known to the ancients. But the test, how +far any observations that have been made on the subject are worthy the +name of a science, will lie in its application by the professor to +a person respecting whom he has had no opportunity of previous +information. Nothing is more easy, when a great warrior, statesman, +poet, philosopher or philanthropist is explicitly placed before us, than +for the credulous inspector or fond visionary to examine the lines of +his countenance, and to point at the marks which should plainly shew us +that he ought to have been the very thing that he is. This is the very +trick of gipsies and fortune-tellers. But who ever pointed to an utter +stranger in the street, and said, I perceive by that man's countenance +that he is one of the great luminaries of the world? Newton, or Bacon, +or Shakespear would probably have passed along unheeded. Instances of a +similar nature occur every day. Hence it plainly appears that, whatever +may hereafter be known on the subject, we can scarcely to the present +time be said to have overstepped the threshold. And yet nothing can be +more certain than that there is a science of physiognomy, though to +make use of an illustration already cited, it has not to this day +been extricated out of the block of marble in which it is hid. Human +passions, feelings and modes of thinking leave their traces on the +countenance: but we have not, thus far, left the dame's school in this +affair, and are not qualified to enter ourselves in the free-school for +more liberal enquiries. + +The writings of Lavater on the subject of physiognomy are couched in +a sort of poetic prose, overflowing with incoherent and vague +exclamations, and bearing small resemblance to a treatise in which +the elements of science are to be developed. Their success however was +extraordinary; and it was probably that success, which prompted Gall +first to turn his attention from the indications of character that are +to be found in the face of man, to the study of the head generally, as +connected with the intellectual and moral qualities of the individual. + +It was about four years before the commencement of the present century, +that Gall appears to have begun to deliver lectures on the structure and +external appearances of the human head. He tells us, that his attention +was first called to the subject in the ninth year of his age (that +is, in the year 1767), and that he spent thirty years in the private +meditation of his system, before he began to promulgate it. Be that as +it will, its most striking characteristic is that of marking out the +scull into compartments, in the same manner as a country delineated on +a map is divided into districts, and assigning a different faculty or +organ to each. In the earliest of these diagrams that has fallen +under my observation, the human scull is divided into twenty-seven +compartments. + +I would say of craniology, as I have already said of physiognomy, that +there is such a science attainable probably by man, but that we have yet +made scarcely any progress in the acquiring it. As certain lines in +the countenance are indicative of the dispositions of the man, so it +is reasonable to believe that a certain structure of the head is in +correspondence with the faculties and propensities of the individual. + +Thus far we may probably advance without violating a due degree of +caution. But there is a wide distance between this general statement, +and the conduct of the man who at once splits the human head into +twenty-seven compartments. + +The exterior appearance of the scull is affirmed to correspond with the +structure of the brain beneath. And nothing can be more analogous to +what the deepest thinkers have already confessed of man, than to suppose +that there is one structure of the brain better adapted for intellectual +purposes than another. There is probably one structure better adapted +than another, for calculation, for poetry, for courage, for cowardice, +for presumption, for diffidence, for roughness, for tenderness, for +self-control and the want of it. Even as some have inherently a faculty +adapted for music or the contrary(40). + + + (40) See above, Essay II. + + +But it is not reasonable to believe that we think of calculation with +one portion of the brain, and of poetry with another. + +It is very little that we know of the nature of matter; and we are +equally ignorant as to the substance, whatever it is, in which the +thinking principle in man resides. But, without adventuring in any +way to dogmatise on the subject, we find so many analogies between the +thinking principle, and the structure of what we call the brain, that +we cannot but regard the latter as in some way the instrument of the +former. + +Now nothing can be more certain respecting the thinking principle, than +its individuality. It has been said, that the mind can entertain but one +thought at one time; and certain it is, from the nature of attention, +and from the association of ideas, that unity is one of the principal +characteristics of mind. It is this which constitutes personal identity; +an attribute that, however unsatisfactory may be the explanations which +have been given respecting it, we all of us feel, and that lies at the +foundation of all our voluntary actions, and all our morality. + +Analogous to this unity of thought and mind, is the arrangement of the +nerves and the brain in the human body. The nerves all lead up to the +brain; and there is a centrical point in the brain itself, in which the +reports of the senses terminate, and at which the action of the will may +be conceived to begin. This, in the language of our fathers, was called +the "seat of the soul." + +We may therefore, without departing from the limits of a due caution +and modesty, consider this as the throne before which the mind holds its +court. Hither the senses bring in their reports, and hence the sovereign +will issues his commands. The whole system appears to be conducted +through the instrumentality of the nerves, along whose subtle texture +the feelings and impressions are propagated. Between the reports of +the senses and the commands of the will, intervenes that which is +emphatically the office of the mind, comprising meditation, reflection, +inference and judgment. How these functions are performed we know not; +but it is reasonable to believe that the substance of the brain or of +some part of the brain is implicated in them. + +Still however we must not lose sight of what has been already said, +that in the action of the mind unity is an indispensible condition. Our +thoughts can only hold their council and form their decrees in a very +limited region. This is their retreat and strong hold; and the special +use and functions of the remoter parts of the brain we are unable to +determine; so utterly obscure and undefined is our present knowledge +of the great ligament which binds together the body and the thinking +principle. + +Enough however results from this imperfect view of the ligament, to +demonstrate the incongruity and untenableness of a doctrine which +should assign the indications of different functions, exercises and +propensities of the mind to the exterior surface of the scull or the +brain. This is quackery, and is to be classed with chiromancy, augury, +astrology, and the rest of those schemes for discovering the future +and unknown, which the restlessness and anxiety of the human mind have +invented, built upon arbitrary principles, blundered upon in the dark, +and having no resemblance to the march of genuine science. I find in +sir Thomas Browne the following axioms of chiromancy: "that spots in +the tops of the nails do signifie things past; in the middle, things +present; and at the bottom, events to come: that white specks presage +our felicity; blue ones our misfortunes: that those in the nails of the +thumb have significations of honour, in the forefinger, of riches, and +so respectively in the rest." + +Science, to be of a high and satisfactory character, ought to consist of +a deduction of causes and effects, shewing us not merely that a thing is +so, but why it is as it is, and cannot be otherwise. The rest is merely +empirical; and, though the narrowness of human wit may often drive us +to this; yet it is essentially of a lower order and description. As it +depends for its authority upon an example, or a number of examples, so +examples of a contrary nature may continually come in, to weaken its +force, or utterly to subvert it. And the affair is made still worse, +when we see, as in the case of craniology, that all the reasons that +can be deduced (as here from the nature of mind) would persuade us +to believe, that there can be no connection between the supposed +indications, and the things pretended to be indicated. + +Craniology, or phrenology, proceeds exactly in the same train, as +chiromancy, or any of those pretended sciences which are built merely +on assumption or conjecture. The first delineations presented to the +public, marked out, as I have said, the scull into compartments, in the +same manner as a country delineated on a map is divided into districts. +Geography is a real science, and accordingly, like other sciences, has +been slow and gradual in its progress. At an early stage travellers +knew little more than the shores and islands of the Mediterranean. +Afterwards, they passed the straits of Hercules, and entered into the +Atlantic. At length the habitable world was distributed into three +parts, Europe, Asia, and Africa. More recently, by many centuries, came +the discovery of America. It is but the other day comparatively, that +we found the extensive island of New Holland in the Southern Ocean. The +ancient geographers placed an elephant or some marine monster in the +vacant parts of their maps, to signify that of these parts they knew +nothing. Not so Dr. Gall. Every part of his globe of the human Scull, at +least with small exceptions, is fully tenanted; and he, with his single +arm, has conquered a world. + +The majority of the judgments that have been divulged by the professors +of this science, have had for their subjects the sculls of men, whose +habits and history have been already known. And yet with this advantage +the errors and contradictions into which their authors have fallen are +considerably numerous. Thus I find, in the account of the doctor's visit +to the House of Correction and the Hospital of Torgau in July 1805, the +following examples. + +"Every person was desirous to know what Dr. Gall would say about T--, +who was known in the house as a thief full of cunning, and who, +having several times made his escape, wore an additional iron. It was +surprising, that he saw in him far less of the organ of cunning, than in +many of the other prisoners. However it was proved, that examples, and +conversation with other thieves in the house, had suggested to him the +plan for his escape, and that the stupidity which he possesses was the +cause of his being retaken." + +"We were much surprised to be told, that M., in whom Dr. Gall had +not discovered the organ of representation, possessed extraordinary +abilities in imitating the voice of animals; but we were convinced after +enquiries, that his talent was not a natural one, but acquired by study. +He related to us that, when he was a Prussian soldier garrisoned at +Berlin, he used to deceive the waiting women in the Foundling Hospital +by imitating the voice of exposed infants, and sometimes counterfeited +the cry of a wild drake, when the officers were shooting ducks." + +"Of another Dr. Gall said, His head is a pattern of inconstancy and +confinement, and there appears not the least mark of the organ of +courage. This rogue had been able to gain a great authority among his +fellow-convicts. How is this to be reconciled with the want of constancy +which his organisation plainly indicates? Dr. Gall answered, He gained +his ascendancy not by courage, but by cunning." + +It is well known, that in Thurtel, who was executed for one of the most +cold-blooded and remorseless murders ever heard of, the phrenologists +found the organ of benevolence uncommonly large. + +In Spurzheim's delineation of the human head I find six divisions of +organs marked out in the little hemisphere over the eye, indicating six +different dispositions. Must there not be in this subtle distribution +much of what is arbitrary and sciolistic? + +It is to be regretted, that no person skilful in metaphysics, or the +history of the human mind, has taken a share in this investigation. Many +errors and much absurdity would have been removed from the statements +of these theorists, if a proper division had been made between those +attributes and propensities, which by possibility a human creature may +bring into the world with him, and those which, being the pure growth +of the arbitrary institutions of society, must be indebted to those +institutions for their origin. I have endeavoured in a former Essay(41) +to explain this distinction, and to shew how, though a human being +cannot be born with an express propensity towards any one of the +infinite pursuits and occupations which may be found in civilised +society, yet that he may be fitted by his external or internal structure +to excel in some one of those pursuits rather than another. But all this +is overlooked by the phrenologists. They remark the various habits and +dispositions, the virtues and the vices, that display themselves in +society as now constituted, and at once and without consideration trace +them to the structure that we bring into the world with us. + + + (41) See above, Essay II. + + +Certainly many of Gall's organs are a libel upon our common nature. And, +though a scrupulous and exact philosopher will perhaps confess that he +has little distinct knowledge as to the design with which "the earth and +all that is therein" were made, yet he finds in it so much of beauty +and beneficent tendency, as will make him extremely reluctant to believe +that some men are born with a decided propensity to rob, and others +to murder. Nor can any thing be more ludicrous than this author's +distinction of the different organs of memory--of things, of places, of +names, of language, and of numbers: organs, which must be conceived to +be given in the first instance long before names or language or +numbers had an existence. The followers of Gall have in a few instances +corrected this: but what their denominations have gained in avoiding +the grossest absurdities of their master, they have certainly lost in +explicitness and perspicuity. + +There is a distinction, not unworthy to be attended to, that is here +to be made between Lavater's system of physiognomy, and Gall's of +craniology, which is much in favour of the former. The lines and +characteristic expressions of the face which may so frequently be +observed, are for the most part the creatures of the mind. This is in +the first place a mode of observation more agreeable to the pride and +conscious elevation of man, and is in the next place more suitable +to morality, and the vindication of all that is most admirable in the +system of the universe. It is just, that what is most frequently passing +in the mind, and is entertained there with the greatest favour, should +leave its traces upon the countenance. It is thus that the high and +exalted philosopher, the poet, and the man of benevolence and humanity +are sometimes seen to be such by the bystander and the stranger. While +the malevolent, the trickish, and the grossly sensual, give notice +of what they are by the cast of their features, and put their +fellow-creatures upon their guard, that they may not be made the prey of +these vices. + +But the march of craniology or phrenology, by whatever name it is +called, is directly the reverse of this. It assigns to us organs, as far +as the thing is explained by the professors either to the public or to +their own minds, which are entailed upon us from our birth, and which +are altogether independent, or nearly so, of any discipline or volition +that can be exercised by or upon the individual who drags their +intolerable chain. Thus I am told of one individual that he wants the +organ of colour; and all the culture in the world can never supply that +defect, and enable him to see colour at all, or to see it as it is seen +by the rest of mankind. Another wants the organ of benevolence; and his +case is equally hopeless. I shrink from considering the condition of the +wretch, to whom nature has supplied the organs of theft and murder in +full and ample proportions. The case is like that of astrology + + (Their stars are more in fault than they), + +with this aggravation, that our stars, so far as the faculty of +prediction had been supposed to be attained, swayed in few things; but +craniology climbs at once to universal empire; and in her map, as I +have said, there are no vacant places, no unexplored regions and happy +wide-extended deserts. + +It is all a system of fatalism. Independently of ourselves, and +far beyond our control, we are reserved for good or for evil by the +predestinating spirit that reigns over all things. Unhappy is the +individual who enters himself in this school. He has no consolation, +except the gratified wish to know distressing truths, unless we add to +this the pride of science, that he has by his own skill and application +purchased for himself the discernment which places him in so painful a +preeminence. The great triumph of man is in the power of education, to +improve his intellect, to sharpen his perceptions, and to regulate +and modify his moral qualities. But craniology reduces this to almost +nothing, and exhibits us for the most part as the helpless victims of a +blind and remorseless destiny. + +In the mean time it is happy for us, that, as this system is perhaps the +most rigorous and degrading that was ever devised, so it is in +almost all instances founded upon arbitrary assumptions and confident +assertion, totally in opposition to the true spirit of patient and +laborious investigation and sound philosophy. + +It is in reality very little that we know of the genuine characters +of men. Every human creature is a mystery to his fellow. Every +human character is made up of incongruities. Of nearly all the great +personages in history it is difficult to say what was decidedly the +motive in which their actions and system of conduct originated. We study +what they did, and what they said; but in vain. We never arrive at a +full and demonstrative conclusion. In reality no man can be certainly +said to know himself. "The heart of man is deceitful above all things." + +But these dogmatists overlook all those difficulties, which would +persuade a wise man to suspend his judgment, and induce a jury +of philosophers to hesitate for ever as to the verdict they would +pronounce. They look only at the external character of the act by which +a man honours or disgraces himself. They decide presumptuously and in a +lump, This man is a murderer, a hero, a coward, the slave of avarice, or +the votary of philanthropy; and then, surveying the outside of his head, +undertake to find in him the configuration that should indicate these +dispositions, and must be found in all persons of a similar character, +or rather whose acts bear the same outward form, and seem analogous to +his. + +Till we have discovered the clue that should enable us to unravel the +labyrinth of the human mind, it is with small hopes of success that we +should expect to settle the external indications, and decide that this +sort of form and appearance, and that class of character, will always be +found together. + +But it is not to be wondered at, that these disorderly fragments of a +shapeless science should become the special favourites of the idle and +the arrogant. Every man (and every woman), however destitute of real +instruction, and unfitted for the investigation of the deep or the +sublime mysteries of our nature, can use his eyes and his hands. The +whole boundless congregation of mankind, with its everlasting varieties, +is thus at once subjected to the sentence of every pretender: + + And fools rush in, where angels fear to tread. + +Nothing is more delightful to the headlong and presumptuous, than thus +to sit in judgment on their betters, and pronounce ex cathedra on those, +"whose shoe-latchet they are not worthy to stoop down and unloose." I +remember, after lord George Gordon's riots, eleven persons accused were +set down in one indictment for their lives, and given in charge to one +jury. But this is a mere shadow, a nothing, compared with the wholesale +and indiscriminating judgment of the vulgar phrenologist. + + + + +ESSAY XXI. OF ASTRONOMY. + +SECTION I. + +It can scarcely be imputed to me as profane, if I venture to put down +a few sceptical doubts on the science of astronomy. All branches of +knowledge are to be considered as fair subjects of enquiry: and he that +has never doubted, may be said, in the highest and strictest sense of +the word, never to have believed. + +The first volume that furnished to me the groundwork of the following +doubts, was the book commonly known by the name of Guthrie's +Geographical Grammar, many parts and passages of which engaged my +attention in my own study, in the house of a rural schoolmaster, in the +year 1772. I cannot therefore proceed more fairly than by giving here +an extract of certain passages in that book, which have relation to +the present subject. I know not how far they have been altered in the +edition of Guthrie which now lies before me, from the language of +the book then in my possession; but I feel confident that in the main +particulars they continue the same(42). + + + (42) The article Astronomy, in this book, appears to have been written +by the well known James Ferguson. + + +"In passing rapidly over the heavens with his new telescope, the +universe increased under the eye of Herschel; 44,000 stars, seen in the +space of a few degrees, seemed to indicate that there were seventy-five +millions in the heavens. But what are all these, when compared with +those that fill the whole expanse, the boundless field of aether? + +"The immense distance of the fixed stars from our earth, and from each +other, is of all considerations the most proper for raising our ideas of +the works of God. Modern discoveries make it probable that each of these +stars is a sun, having planets and comets revolving round it, as our sun +has the earth and other planets revolving round him.--A ray of light, +though its motion is so quick as to be commonly thought instantaneous, +takes up more time in travelling from the stars to us, than we do in +making a West-India voyage. A sound, which, next to light, is considered +as the quickest body we are acquainted with, would not arrive to us from +thence in 50,000 years. And a cannon-ball, flying at the rate of 480 +miles an hour, would not reach us in 700,000 years. + +"From what we know of our own system, it may be reasonably concluded, +that all the rest are with equal wisdom contrived, situated, and +provided with accommodations for rational inhabitants. + +"What a sublime idea does this suggest to the human imagination, limited +as are its powers, of the works of the Creator! Thousands and thousands +of suns, multiplied without end, and ranged all around us, at immense +distances from each other, attended by ten thousand times ten thousand +worlds, all in rapid motion, yet calm, regular and harmonious, +invariably keeping the paths prescribed them: and these worlds peopled +with myriads of intelligent beings, formed for endless progression in +perfection and felicity!" + +The thought that would immediately occur to a dispassionate man in +listening to this statement, would be, What a vast deal am I here called +on to believe! + +Now the first rule of sound and sober judgment, in encountering any +story, is that, in proportion to the magnitude and seemingly incredible +nature of the propositions tendered to our belief, should be the +strength and impregnable nature of the evidence by which those +propositions are supported. + +It is not here, as in matters of religion, that we are called upon by +authority from on high to believe in mysteries, in things above our +reason, or, as it may be, contrary to our reason. No man pretends to +a revelation from heaven of the truths of astronomy. They have been +brought to light by the faculties of the human mind, exercised upon such +facts and circumstances as our industry has set before us. + +To persons not initiated in the rudiments of astronomical science, they +rest upon the great and high-sounding names of Galileo, Kepler, Halley +and Newton. But, though these men are eminently entitled to honour and +gratitude from their fellow-mortals, they do not stand altogether on +the same footing as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, by whose pens has been +recorded "every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." + +The modest enquirer therefore, without pretending to put himself on an +equality with these illustrious men, may be forgiven, when he permits +himself to suggest a few doubts, and presumes to examine the grounds +upon which he is called upon to believe all that is contained in the +above passages. + +Now the foundations upon which astronomy, as here delivered, is built, +are, first, the evidence of our senses, secondly, the calculations of +the mathematician, and, in the third place, moral considerations. These +have been denominated respectively, practical astronomy, scientific, and +theoretical. + +As to the first of these, it is impossible for us on this occasion +not to recollect what has so often occurred as to have grown into an +every-day observation, of the fallibility of our senses. + +It may be doubted however whether this is a just statement. We are not +deceived by our senses, but deceived in the inference we make from our +sensations. Our sensations respecting what we call the external +world, are chiefly those of length, breadth and solidity, hardness and +softness, heat and cold, colour, smell, sound and taste. The inference +which the generality of mankind make in relation to these sensations +is, that there is something out of ourselves corresponding to the +impressions we receive; in other words, that the causes of our +sensations are like to the sensations themselves. But this is, strictly +speaking, an inference; and, if the cause of a sensation is not like the +sensation, it cannot precisely be affirmed that our senses deceive us. +We know what passes in the theatre of the mind; but we cannot be said +absolutely to know any thing, more. + +Modern philosophy has taught us, in certain cases, to controvert the +position, that the causes of our sensations are like to the sensations +themselves. Locke in particular has called the attention of the +reasoning part of mankind to the consideration, that heat and cold, +sweet and bitter, and odour offensive or otherwise, are perceptions, +which imply a percipient being, and cannot exist in inanimate +substances. We might with equal propriety ascribe pain to the whip that +beats us, or pleasure to the slight alternation of contact in the person +or thing that tickles us, as suppose that heat and cold, or taste, or +smell are any thing but sensations. + +The same philosophers who have called our attention to these remarks, +have proceeded to shew that the causes of our sensations of sound and +colour have no precise correspondence, do not tally with the sensations +we receive. Sound is the result of a percussion of the air. Colour +is produced by the reflection of the rays of light; so that the same +object, placed in a position, different as to the spectator, but in +itself remaining unaltered, will produce in him a sensation of different +colours, or shades of colour, now blue, now green, now brown, now black, +and so on. This is the doctrine of Newton, as well as of Locke. + +It follows that, if there were no percipient being to receive these +sensations, there would be no heat or cold, no taste, no smell, no +sound, and no colour. + +Aware of this difference between our sensations in certain cases and +the causes of these sensations, Locke has divided the qualities of +substances in the material universe into primary and secondary, the +sensations we receive of the primary representing the actual qualities +of material substances, but the sensations we receive of what he calls +the secondary having no proper resemblance to the causes that produce +them. + +Now, if we proceed in the spirit of severe analysis to examine the +primary qualities of matter, we shall not perhaps find so marked a +distinction between those and the secondary, as the statement of Locke +would have led us to imagine. + +The Optics of Newton were published fourteen years later than Locke's +Essay concerning Human Understanding. + +In endeavouring to account for the uninterrupted transmission of rays of +light through transparent substances, however hard they may be found to +be, Newton has these observations. + +"Bodies are much more rare and porous, than is commonly believed. +Water is nineteen times lighter, and by consequence nineteen times +rarer, than gold; and gold is so rare, as very readily, and without the +least opposition, to transmit the magnetic effluvia, and easily to admit +quicksilver into its pores, and to let water pass through it. From all +which we may conclude, that gold has more pores than solid parts, and by +consequence that water has above forty times more pores than parts. And +he that shall find out an hypothesis, by which water may be so rare, +and yet not capable of compression by force, may doubtless, by the same +hypothesis, make gold, and water, and all other bodies, as much rarer as +he pleases, so that light may find a ready passage through transparent +substances(43)." + + + (43) Newton, Optics, Book II, Part III, Prop. viii. + + +Again: "The colours of bodies arise from the magnitude of the particles +that reflect them. Now, if we conceive these particles of bodies to +be so disposed among themselves, that the intervals, or empty spaces +between them, may be equal in magnitude to them all; and that these +particles may be composed of other particles much smaller, which have +as much empty space between them as equals all the magnitudes of these +smaller particles; and that in like manner these smaller particles are +again composed of others much smaller, all which together are equal to +all the pores, or empty spaces, between them; and so on perpetually +till you come to solid particles, such as have no pores, or empty spaces +within them: and if in any gross body there be, for instance, three such +degrees of particles, the least of which are solid; this body will +have seven times more pores than solid parts. But if there be four such +degrees of particles, the least of which are solid, the body will have +fifteen times more pores than solid parts. If there be five degrees, the +body will have one and thirty times more pores than solid parts. If six +degrees, the body will have sixty and three times more pores than solid +parts. And so on perpetually(44)." + + + (44) Ibid. + + +In the Queries annexed to the Optics, Newton further suggests an +opinion, that the rays of light are repelled by bodies without immediate +contact. He observes that: + +"Where attraction ceases, there a repulsive virtue ought to succeed. +And that there is such a virtue, seems to follow from the reflexions and +inflexions of the rays of light. For the rays are repelled by bodies, +in both these cases, without the immediate contact of the reflecting or +inflecting body. It seems also to follow from the emission of light; the +ray, so soon as it is shaken off from a shining body by the vibrating +motion of the parts of the body, and gets beyond the reach of +attraction, being driven away with exceeding great velocity. For +that force, which is sufficient to turn it back in reflexion, may be +sufficient to emit it. It seems also to follow from the production of +air and vapour: the particles, when they are shaken off from bodies +by heat or fermentation, so soon as they are beyond the reach of the +attraction of the body, receding from it and also from one another, with +great strength; and keeping at a distance, so as sometimes to take up a +million of times more space than they did before, in the form of a dense +body." + +Newton was of opinion that matter was made up, in the last resort, of +exceedingly small solid particles, having no pores, or empty spaces +within them. Priestley, in his Disquisitions relating to Matter and +Spirit, carries the theory one step farther; and, as Newton surrounds +his exceedingly small particles with spheres of attraction and +repulsion, precluding in all cases their actual contact, Priestley is +disposed to regard the centre of these spheres as mathematical points +only. If there is no actual contact, then by the very terms no two +particles of matter were ever so near to each other, but that they +might be brought nearer, if a sufficient force could be applied for that +purpose. You had only another sphere of repulsion to conquer; and, as +there never is actual contact, the whole world is made up of one sphere +of repulsion after another, without the possibility of ever arriving at +an end. + +"The principles of the Newtonian philosophy," says our author, "were no +sooner known, than it was seen how few in comparison, of the phenomena +of nature, were owing to solid matter, and how much to powers, which +were only supposed to accompany and surround the solid parts of matter. +It has been asserted, and the assertion has never been disproved, that +for any thing we know to the contrary, all the solid matter in the solar +system might be contained within a nutshell(45)." + + + (45) Priestley, Disquisitions, Section II. I know not by whom this +illustration was first employed. Among other authors, I find, in +Fielding (Joseph Andrews, Book II, Chap. II), a sect of philosophers +spoken of, who "can reduce all the matter of the world into a nutshell." + + +It is then with senses, from the impressions upon which we are impelled +to draw such false conclusions, and that present us with images +altogether unlike any thing that exists out of ourselves, that we +come to observe the phenomena of what we call the universe. The first +observation that it is here incumbent on us to make, and which we ought +to keep ever at hand, to be applied as occasion may offer, is the +well known aphorism of Socrates, that "we know only this, that we know +nothing." We have no compass to guide us through the pathless waters of +science; we have no revelation, at least on the subject of astronomy, +and of the unnumbered inhabitable worlds that float in the ocean of +ether; and we are bound therefore to sail, as the mariners of ancient +times sailed, always within sight of land. One of the earliest maxims of +ordinary prudence, is that we ought ever to correct the reports of one +sense by the assistance of another sense. The things we here speak of +are not matters of faith; and in them therefore it is but reason, that +we should imitate the conduct of Didymus the apostle, who said, "Except +I put my fingers into the prints of the nails, and thrust my hand into +his side, I will not believe." My eyes report to me an object, as having +a certain magnitude, texture, and roughness or smoothness; but I require +that my hands should confirm to me the evidence of my eyes. I see +something that appears to be an island at an uncertain distance from +the shore; but, if I am actuated by a laudable curiosity, and wish to +possess a real knowledge, I take a boat, and proceed to ascertain by +nearer inspection, whether that which I imagined to be an island is an +island or no. + +There are indeed many objects with which we are conversant, that are +in so various ways similar to each other, that, after having carefully +examined a few, we are satisfied upon slighter investigation to admit +the dimensions and character of others. Thus, having measured with a +quadrant the height of a tower, and found on the narrowest search and +comparison that the report of my instrument was right, I yield credit to +this process in another instance, without being at the trouble to verify +its results in any more elaborate method. + +The reason why we admit the inference flowing from our examination +in the second instance, and so onward, with less scrupulosity and +scepticism than in the first, is that there is a strict resemblance and +analogy in the two cases. Experience is the basis of our conclusions and +our conduct. I strike against a given object, a nail for example, with +a certain degree of force, because I have remarked in myself and others +the effect of such a stroke. I take food and masticate it, because I +have found that this process contributes to the sound condition of my +body and mind. I scatter certain seeds in my field, and discharge the +other functions of an agriculturist, because I have observed that in due +time the result of this industry is a crop. All the propriety of these +proceedings depends upon the exact analogy between the old case and the +new one. The state of the affair is still the same, when my business +is merely that of an observer and a traveller. I know water from earth, +land from sea, and mountains from vallies, because I have had experience +of these objects, and confidently infer that, when certain appearances +present themselves to my organs of sight, I shall find the same results +to all my other senses, as I found when such appearances occurred to me +before. + +But the interval that divides the objects which occur upon and under +the earth, and are accessible in all ways to our examination, on the one +hand, and the lights which are suspended over our heads in the heavens +on the other, is of the broadest and most memorable nature. Human +beings, in the infancy of the world, were contented reverently to behold +these in their calmness and beauty, perhaps to worship them, and to +remark the effects that they produced, or seemed to produce, upon man +and the subjects of his industry. But they did not aspire to measure +their dimensions, to enquire into their internal frame, or to explain +the uses, far removed from our sphere of existence, which they might be +intended to serve. + +It is however one of the effects of the improvement of our intellect, to +enlarge our curiosity. The daringness of human enterprise is one of +the prime glories of our nature. It is our boast that we undertake +to "measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides." And, when success +crowns the boldness of our aspirations after what vulgar and timorous +prudence had pronounced impossible, it is then chiefly that we are seen +to participate of an essence divine. + +What has not man effected by the boldness of his conceptions and the +adventurousness of his spirit? The achievements of human genius have +appeared so incredible, till they were thoroughly examined, and slowly +established their right to general acceptance, that the great heroes of +intellect were universally regarded by their contemporaries as dealers +in magic, and implements of the devil. The inventor of the art of +printing, that glorious instrument for advancing the march of human +improvement, and the discoverer of the more questionable art of making +gunpowder, alike suffered under this imputation. We have rendered the +seas and the winds instruments of our pleasure, "exhausted the old +world, and then discovered a new one," have drawn down lightning from +heaven, and exhibited equal rights and independence to mankind. Still +however it is incumbent on us to be no less wary and suspicious than +we are bold, and not to imagine, because we have done much, that we are +therefore able to effect every thing. + +As was stated in the commencement of this Essay, we know our own +sensations, and we know little more. Matter, whether in its primary +or secondary qualities, is certainly not the sort of thing the vulgar +imagine it to be. The illustrious Berkeley has taught many to doubt of +its existence altogether; and later theorists have gone farther than +this, and endeavoured to shew, that each man, himself while he speaks on +the subject, and you and I while we hear, have no conclusive evidence to +convince us, that we may not, each of us, for aught we know, be the only +thing that exists, an entire universe to ourselves. + +We will not however follow these ingenious persons to the startling +extreme to which their speculations would lead us. But, without doing +so, it will not misbecome us to be cautious, and to reflect what we do, +before we take a leap into illimitable space. + + +SECTION II. + +"The sun," we are told, "is a solid body, ninety-five millions of miles +distant from the earth we inhabit, one million times larger in cubic +measurement, and to such a degree impregnated with heat, that a comet, +approaching to it within a certain distance, was by that approximation +raised to a heat two thousand times greater than that of red-hot iron." + +It will be acknowledged, that there is in this statement much to +believe; and we shall not be exposed to reasonable blame, if we refuse +to subscribe to it, till we have received irresistible evidence of its +truth. + +It has already been observed, that, for the greater part of what we +imagine we know on the surface or in the bowels of the earth, we have, +or may have if we please, the evidence of more than one of our senses, +combining to lead to the same conclusion. For the propositions of +astronomy we have no sensible evidence, but that of sight, and an +imperfect analogy, leading from those visible impressions which we can +verify, to a reliance upon those which we cannot. + +The first cardinal particular we meet with in the above statement +concerning the sun, is the term, distance. Now, all that, strictly +speaking, we can affirm respecting the sun and other heavenly bodies, +is that we have the same series of impressions respecting them, that we +have respecting terrestrial objects near or remote, and that there is an +imperfect analogy between the one case and the other. + +Before we affirm any thing, as of our own knowledge and competence, +respecting heavenly bodies which are said to be millions of millions +of miles removed from us, it would not perhaps be amiss that we should +possess ourselves of a certain degree of incontestible information, as +to the things which exist on the earth we inhabit. Among these, one of +the subjects attended with a great degree of doubt and obscurity, is the +height of the mountains with which the surface of the globe we inhabit +is diversified. It is affirmed in the received books of elementary +geography, that the Andes are the highest mountains in the world. Morse, +in his American Gazetteer, third edition, printed at Boston in 1810(46), +says, "The height of Chimborazzo, the most elevated point of the vast +chain of the Andes, is 20,280 feet above the level of the sea, which +is 7102 feet higher than any other mountain in the known world:" thus +making the elevation of the mountains of Thibet, or whatever other +rising ground the compiler had in his thought, precisely 13,178 feet +above the level of the sea, and no more. This decision however has +lately been contradicted. Mr. Hugh Murray, in an Account of Discoveries +and Travels in Asia, published in 1820, has collated the reports of +various recent travellers in central Asia; and he states the height +of Chumularee, which he speaks of as the most elevated point of the +mountains of Thibet, as nearly 30,000 feet above the level of the sea. + + + (46) Article, Andes. + + +The elevation of mountains, till lately, was in no way attempted to +be ascertained but by the use of the quadrant, and their height was +so generally exaggerated, that Riccioli, one of the most eminent +astronomers of the seventeenth century, gives it as his opinion that +mountains, like the Caucasus, may have a perpendicular elevation of +fifty Italian miles(47). Later observers have undertaken to correct the +inaccuracy of these results through the application of the barometer, +and thus, by informing themselves of the weight of the air at a certain +elevation, proceeding to infer the height of the situation. + + + (47) Rees, Encyclopedia; article, Mountains. + + +There are many circumstances, which are calculated to induce a +circumspect enquirer to regard the affirmative positions of astronomy, +as they are delivered by the most approved modern writers, with +considerable diffidence. + +They are founded, as has already been said, next to the evidence of our +senses, upon the deductions of mathematical knowledge. + +Mathematics are either pure or mixed. + +Pure mathematics are concerned only with abstract propositions, and have +nothing to do with the realities of nature. There is no such thing in +actual existence as a mathematical point, line or surface. There is no +such thing as a circle or square. But that is of no consequence. We can +define them in words, and reason about them. We can draw a diagram, and +suppose that line to be straight which is not really straight, and that +figure to be a circle which is not strictly a circle. It is conceived +therefore by the generality of observers, that mathematics is the +science of certainty. + +But this is not strictly the case. Mathematics are like those abstract +and imaginary existences about which they are conversant. They may +constitute in themselves, and in the apprehension of an infallible +being, a science of certainty. But they come to us mixed and +incorporated with our imperfections. Our faculties are limited; and we +may be easily deceived, as to what it is that we see with transparent +and unerring clearness, and what it is that comes to us through a +crooked medium, refracting and distorting the rays of primitive truth. +We often seem clear, when in reality the twilight of undistinguishing +night has crept fast and far upon us. In a train of deductions, as +in the steps of an arithmetical process, an error may have insinuated +itself imperceptibly at a very early stage, rendering all the subsequent +steps a wandering farther and farther from the unadulterated truth. +Human mathematics, so to speak, like the length of life, are subject to +the doctrine of chances. Mathematics may be the science of certainty to +celestial natures, but not to man. + +But, if in the case of pure mathematics, we are exposed to the chances +of error and delusion, it is much worse with mixed mathematics. +The moment we step out of the high region of abstraction, and apply +ourselves to what we call external nature, we have forfeited that sacred +character and immunity, which we seemed entitled to boast, so long as +we remained inclosed in the sanctuary of unmingled truth. As has already +been said, we know what passes in the theatre of the mind; but we cannot +be said absolutely to know any thing more. In our speculations upon +actual existences we are not only subject to the disadvantages which +arise from the limited nature of our faculties, and the errors which may +insensibly creep upon us in the process. We are further exposed to the +operation of the unevennesses and irregularities that perpetually +occur in external nature, the imperfection of our senses, and of the +instruments we construct to assist our observations, and the discrepancy +which we frequently detect between the actual nature of the things about +us and our impressions respecting them. + +This is obvious, whenever we undertake to apply the processes of +arithmetic to the realities of life. Arithmetic, unsubjected to the +impulses of passion and the accidents of created nature, holds on its +course; but, in the phenomena of the actual world, "time and chance +happeneth to them all." + +Thus it is, for example, in the arithmetical and geometrical ratios, set +up in political economy by the celebrated Mr. Malthus. His numbers will +go on smoothly enough, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, as representing the principle +of population among mankind, and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, the means of +subsistence; but restiff and uncomplying nature refuses to conform +herself to his dicta. + +Dr. Price has calculated the produce of one penny, put out at the +commencement of the Christian era to five per cent. compound interest, +and finds that in the year 1791 it would have increased to a greater sum +than would be contained in three hundred millions of earths, all solid +gold. But what has this to do with the world in which we live? Did +ever any one put out his penny to interest in this fashion for eighteen +hundred years? And, if he did, where was the gold to be found, to +satisfy his demand? + +Morse, in his American Gazetteer, proceeding on the principles of +Malthus, tells us that, if the city of New York goes on increasing for +a century in a certain ratio, it will by that time contain 5,257,493 +inhabitants. But does any one, for himself or his posterity, expect to +see this realised? + +Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, has observed +that, as every man has two ancestors in the first ascending degree, +and four in the second, so in the twentieth degree he has more than a +million, and in the fortieth the square of that number, or upwards of a +million millions. This statement therefore would have a greater tendency +to prove that mankind in remote ages were numerous, almost beyond the +power of figures to represent, than the opposite doctrine of Malthus, +that they have a perpetual tendency to such increase as would infallibly +bring down the most tremendous calamities on our posterity. + +Berkeley, whom I have already referred to on another subject, and who +is admitted to be one of our profoundest philosophers, has written +a treatise(48) to prove, that the mathematicians, who object to the +mysteries supposed to exist in revealed religion, "admit much greater +mysteries, and even falshoods in science, of which he alleges the +doctrine of fluxions as an eminent example(49)." He observes, that their +conclusions are established by virtue of a twofold error, and that these +errors, being in contrary directions, are supposed to compensate each +other, the expounders of the doctrine thus arriving at what they call +truth, without being able to shew how, or by what means they have +arrived at it. + + + (48) The Analyst. + + + (49) Life of Berkeley, prefixed to his Works. + + +It is a memorable and a curious speculation to reflect, upon how slight +grounds the doctrine of "thousands and thousands of suns, multiplied +without end, and ranged all around us, at immense distances from +each other, and attended by ten thousand times ten thousand worlds," +mentioned in the beginning of this Essay, is built. It may be all true. +But, true or false, it cannot be without its use to us, carefully +to survey the road upon which we are advancing, the pier which human +enterprise has dared to throw out into the vast ocean of Cimmerian +darkness. We have constructed a pyramid, which throws into unspeakable +contempt the vestiges of ancient Egyptian industry: but it stands upon +its apex; it trembles with every breeze; and momentarily threatens to +overwhelm in its ruins the fearless undertakers that have set it up. + +It gives us a mighty and sublime idea of the nature of man, to think +with what composure and confidence a succession of persons of the +greatest genius have launched themselves in illimitable space, with +what invincible industry they have proceeded, wasting the midnight oil, +racking their faculties, and almost wearing their organs to dust, in +measuring the distance of Sirius and the other fixed stars, the velocity +of light, and "the myriads of intelligent beings formed for endless +progression in perfection and felicity," that people the numberless +worlds of which they discourse. The illustrious names of Copernicus, +Galileo, Gassendi, Kepler, Halley and Newton impress us with awe; and, +if the astronomy they have opened before us is a romance, it is at least +a romance more seriously and perseveringly handled than any other in the +annals of literature. + +A vulgar and a plain man would unavoidably ask the astronomers, How came +you so familiarly acquainted with the magnitude and qualities of the +heavenly bodies, a great portion of which, by your own account, are +millions of millions of miles removed from us? But, I believe, it is not +the fashion of the present day to start so rude a question. I have just +turned over an article on Astronomy in the Encyclopaedia Londinensis, +consisting of one hundred and thirty-three very closely printed quarto +pages, and in no corner of this article is any evidence so much as +hinted at. Is it not enough? Newton and his compeers have said it. + +The whole doctrine of astronomy rests upon trigonometry, a branch of the +science of mathematics which teaches us, having two sides and one angle, +or two angles and one side, of a triangle given us, to construct the +whole. To apply this principle therefore to the heavenly bodies, it is +necessary for us to take two stations, the more remote from each other +the better, from which our observations should be made. For the sake +of illustration we will suppose them to be taken at the extremes of the +earth's diameter, in other words, nearly eight thousand miles apart from +each other, the thing itself having never been realised to that +extent. From each of these stations we will imagine a line to be drawn, +terminating in the sun. Now it seems easy, by means of a quadrant, to +find the arch of a circle (in other words, the angle) included between +these lines terminating in the sun, and the base formed by a right line +drawn from one of these stations to the other, which in this case is +the length of the earth's diameter. I have therefore now the three +particulars required to enable me to construct my triangle. And, +according to the most approved astronomical observations hitherto made, +I have an isosceles triangle, eight thousand miles broad at its base, +and ninety-five millions of miles in the length of each of the sides +reaching from the base to the apex. + +It is however obvious to the most indifferent observer, that the more +any triangle, or other mathematical diagram, falls within the limits +which our senses can conveniently embrace, the more securely, when our +business is practical, and our purpose to apply the result to external +objects, can we rely on the accuracy of our results. In a case therefore +like the present, where the base of our isosceles triangle is to the +other two sides as eight units to twelve thousand, it is impossible +not to perceive that it behoves us to be singularly diffident as to the +conclusion at which we have arrived, or rather it behoves us to take for +granted that we are not unlikely to fall into the most important error. +We have satisfied ourselves that the sides of the triangle including +the apex, do not form an angle, till they have arrived at the extent of +ninety-five millions of miles. How are we sure that they do then? May +not lines which have reached to so amazing a length without meeting, be +in reality parallel lines? If an angle is never formed, there can be no +result. The whole question seems to be incommensurate to our faculties. + +It being obvious that this was a very unsatisfactory scheme for arriving +at the knowledge desired, the celebrated Halley suggested another +method, in the year 1716, by an observation to be taken at the time of +the transit of Venus over the sun(50). + + + (50) Philosophical Transactions, Vol. XXIX, p. 454. + + +It was supposed that we were already pretty accurately acquainted with +the distance of the moon from the earth, it being so much nearer to us, +by observing its parallax, or the difference of its place in the heavens +as seen from the surface of the earth, from that in which it would +appear if seen from its centre(51). But the parallax of the sun is so +exceedingly small, as scarcely to afford the basis of a mathematical +calculation(52). The parallax of Venus is however almost four times as +great as that of the sun; and there must therefore be a very sensible +difference between the times in which Venus may be seen passing over +the sun from different parts of the earth. It was on this account +apprehended, that the parallax of the sun, by means of observations +taken from different places at the time of the transit of Venus in 1761 +and 1769, might be ascertained with a great degree of precision(53). + + + (51) Bonnycastle, Astronomy, 7th edition, p. 262, et seq. + + + (52) Ibid, p. 268. + + + (53) Phil. Transactions, Vol. XXIX, p. 457. + + +But the imperfectness of our instruments and means of observation +have no small tendency to baffle the ambition of man in these curious +investigations. + +"The true quantity of the moon's parallax," says Bonnycastle, "cannot be +accurately determined by the methods ordinarily resorted to, on account +of the varying declination of the moon, and the inconstancy of the +horizontal refractions, which are perpetually changing according to the +state the atmosphere is in at the time. For the moon continues but for +a short time in the equinoctial, and the refraction at a mean rate +elevates her apparent place near the horizon, half as much as her +parallax depresses it(54)." + + + (54) Astronomy, p. 265. + + +"It is well known that the parallax of the sun can never exceed nine +seconds, or the four-hundredth part of a degree(55)." "Observations," +says Halley, "made upon the vibrations of a pendulum, to determine these +exceedingly small angles, are not sufficiently accurate to be depended +upon; for by this method of ascertaining the parallax, it will sometimes +come out to be nothing, or even negative; that is, the distance will +either be infinite, or greater than infinite, which is absurd. And, to +confess the truth, it is hardly possible for a person to distinguish +seconds with certainty by any instruments, however skilfully they may +be made; and therefore it is not to be wondered at, that the excessive +nicety of this matter should have eluded the many ingenious endeavours +of the most able opetators."(56). + + + (55) Ibid, p. 268. + + + (56) Phil. Transactions, Vol. XXIX, p. 456. + + +Such are the difficulties that beset the subject on every side. It is +for the impartial and dispassionate observers who have mastered all the +subtleties of the science, if such can be found, to determine +whether the remedies that have been resorted to to obviate the above +inaccuracies and their causes, have fulfilled their end, and are not +exposed to similar errors. But it would be vain to expect the persons, +who have "scorned delights, and lived laborious days" to possess +themselves of the mysteries of astronomy, should be impartial and +dispassionate, or be disposed to confess, even to their own minds, that +their researches were useless, and their labours ended in nothing. + +It is further worthy of our attention, that the instruments with which +we measure the distance of the earth from the sun and the planets, are +the very instruments which have been pronounced upon as incompetent in +measuring the heights of mountains(57). In the latter case therefore we +have substituted a different mode for arriving at the truth, which +is supposed to be attended with greater precision: but we have no +substitute to which we can resort, to correct the mistakes into which we +may fall respecting the heavenly bodies. + + + (57) See above, Essay XXI. + + +The result of the uncertainty which adheres to all astronomical +observations is such as might have been expected. Common readers +are only informed of the latest adjustment of the question, and are +therefore unavoidably led to believe that the distance of the sun +from the earth, ever since astronomy became entitled to the name of +a science, has by universal consent been recognised as ninety-five +millions of miles, or, as near as may be, twenty-four thousand +semi-diameters of the earth. But how does the case really stand? +Copernicus and Tycho Brahe held the distance to be twelve hundred +semi-diameters; Kepler, who is received to have been perhaps the +greatest astronomer that any age has produced, puts it down as three +thousand five hundred semi-diameters; since his time, Riccioli as seven +thousand; Hevelius as five thousand two hundred and fifty(58); some +later astronomers, mentioned by Halley, as fourteen thousand; and Halley +himself as sixteen thousand five hundred(59). + + + (58) They were about thirty and forty years younger than Kepler +respectively. + + + (59) Halley, apud Philosophical Transactions, Vol. XXIX, p. 455. + + +The doctrine of fluxions is likewise called in by the astronomers in +their attempts to ascertain the distance and magnitude of the different +celestial bodies which compose the solar system; and in this way their +conclusions become subject to all the difficulties which Berkeley has +alleged against that doctrine. + +Kepler has also supplied us with another mode of arriving at the +distance and size of the sun and the planets: he has hazarded a +conjecture, that the squares of the times of the revolution of the earth +and the other planets are in proportion to the cubes of their distances +from the sun, their common centre; and, as by observation we can +arrive with tolerable certainty at a knowledge of the times of their +revolutions, we may from hence proceed to the other matters we are +desirous to ascertain. And that which Kepler seemed, as by a divine +inspiration, to hazard in the way of conjecture, Newton professes to +have demonstratively established. But the demonstration of Newton has +not been considered as satisfactory by all men of science since his +time. + +Thus far however we proceed as we may, respecting our propositions on +the subject of the solar system. But, beyond this, all science, real or +pretended, deserts us. We have no method for measuring angles, which can +be applied to the fixed stars; and we know nothing of any revolutions +they perform. All here therefore seems gratuitous: we reason from +certain alleged analogies; and we can do no more. + +Huygens endeavoured to ascertain something on the subject, by making the +aperture of a telescope so small, that the sun should appear through it +no larger than Sirius, which he found to be only in the proportion of 1 +to 27,664 times his diameter, as seen by the naked eye. Hence, supposing +Sirius to be a globe of the same magnitude as the sun, it must be 27,664 +times as distant from us as the sun, in other words, at a distance so +considerable as to equal 345 million diameters of the earth(60). Every +one must feel on how slender a thread this conclusion is suspended. + + + (60) Encyclopaedia Londinensis, Vol. 11, p. 407. + +And yet, from this small postulate, the astronomers proceed to deduce +the most astounding conclusions. They tell us, that the distance of the +nearest fixed star from the earth is at least 7,600,000,000,000 miles, +and of another they name, not less than 38 millions of millions of +miles. A cannon-ball therefore, proceeding at the rate of about twenty +miles in a minute would be 760,000 years in passing from us to the +nearest fixed star, and 3,800,000 in passing to the second star of which +we speak. Huygens accordingly concluded, that it was not impossible, +that there might be stars at such inconceivable distances from us, that +their light has not yet reached the earth since its creation(61). + + + (61) Ibid, p. 408. + + +The received system of the universe, founded upon these so called +discoveries, is that each of the stars is a sun, having planets and +comets revolving round it, as our sun has the earth and other +planets revolving round him. It has been found also by the successive +observations of astronomers, that a star now and then is totally lost, +and that a new star makes its appearance which had never been remarked +before: and this they explain into the creation of a new system from +time to time by the Almighty author of the universe, and the destruction +of an old system worn out with age(62). We must also remember the power +of attraction every where diffused through infinite space, by means +of which, as Herschel assures us, in great length of time a nebula, +or cluster of stars, may be formed, while the projectile force they +received in the beginning may prevent them from all coming together, at +least for millions of ages. Some of these nebulae, he adds, cannot well +be supposed to be at a less distance from us than six or eight thousand +times the distance of Sirius(63). Kepler however denies that each star, +of those which distinctly present themselves to our sight, can have its +system of planets as our sun has, and considers them as all fixed in the +same surface or sphere; since, if one of them were twice or thrice +as remote as another, it would, supposing their real magnitudes to be +equal, appear to be twice or thrice as small, whereas there is not in +their apparent magnitudes the slightest difference(64). + + + (62) Encycl. Lond. Vol. II, p. 411. + + + (63) Ibid, p. 348. + + + (64) Ibid, p. 411. + + +Certainly the astronomers are a very fortunate and privileged race of +men, who talk to us in this oracular way of "the unseen things of God +from the creation of the world," hanging up their conclusions upon +invisible hooks, while the rest of mankind sit listening gravely to +their responses, and unreservedly "acknowledging that their science is +the most sublime, the most interesting, and the most useful of all the +sciences cultivated by man(65)." + + + (65) Ferguson, Astronomy, Section 1. + + +We have a sensation, which we call the sensation of distance. It comes +to us from our sight and our other senses. It does not come immediately +by the organ of sight. It has been proved, that the objects we see, +previously to the comparison and correction of the reports of the organ +of sight with those of the other senses, do not suggest to us the idea +of distance, but that on the contrary whatever we see seems to touch the +eye, even as the objects of the sense of feeling touch the skin. + +But, in proportion as we compare the impressions made upon our organs of +sight with the impressions made on the other senses, we come gradually +to connect with the objects we see the idea of distance. I put out +my hand, and find at first that an object of my sense of sight is not +within the reach of my hand. I put out my hand farther, or by walking +advance my body in the direction of the object, and I am enabled to +reach it. From smaller experiments I proceed to greater. I walk towards +a tree or a building, the figure of which presents itself to my eye, +but which I find upon trial to have been far from me. I travel towards +a place that I cannot see, but which I am told lies in a certain +direction. I arrive at the place. It is thus, that by repeated +experiments I acquire the idea of remote distances. + +To confine ourselves however to the question of objects, which without +change of place I can discover by the sense of sight. I can see a town, +a tower, a mountain at a considerable distance. Let us suppose that the +limit of my sight, so far as relates to objects on the earth, is one +hundred miles. I can travel towards such an object, and thus ascertain +by means of my other senses what is its real distance. I can also employ +certain instruments, invented by man, to measure heights, suppose of +a tower, and, by experiments made in ways independent of these +instruments, verify or otherwise the report of these instruments. + +The height of the Monument of London is something more than two hundred +feet. Other elevations, the produce of human labour, are considerably +higher. It is in the nature of the mind, that we conclude from the +observation that we have verified, to the accuracy of another, bearing +a striking analogy to the former, that we have not verified. But analogy +has its limits. Is it of irresistible certainty, or is it in fact to +be considered as approaching to certainty, because we have verified +an observation extending to several hundred feet, that an observation +extending to ninety-five millions of miles, or to the incredible +distances of which Herschel so familiarly talks, is to be treated as +a fact, or laid down as a principle in science? Is it reasonable to +consider two propositions as analogous, when the thing affirmed in the +one is in dimension many million times as great as the thing affirmed +in the other? The experience we have had as to the truth of the smaller, +does it authorise us to consider the larger as unquestionable? That +which I see with a bay of the sea or a wide river between, though it +may appear very like something with which I am familiar at home, do I +immediately affirm it to be of the same species and nature, or do I not +regard it with a certain degree of scepticism, especially if, along with +the resemblance in some points, it differs essentially, as for example +in magnitude, in other points? We have a sensation, and we enquire into +its cause. This is always a question of some uncertainty. Is its cause +something of absolute and substantive existence without me, or is it +not? Is its cause something of the very same nature, as the thing that +gave me a similar sensation in a matter of comparatively a pigmy and +diminutive extension? + +All these questions an untrained and inquisitive mind will ask itself +in the propositions of astronomy. We must believe or not, as we think +proper or reasonable. We have no way of verifying the propositions by +the trial of our senses. There they lie, to be received by us in +the construction that first suggests itself to us, or not. They +are something like an agreeable imagination or fiction: and a sober +observer, in cold blood, will be disposed deliberately to weigh both +sides of the question, and to judge whether the probability lies in +favour of the actual affirmation of the millions of millions of miles, +and the other incredible propositions of the travelling of light, and +the rest, which even the most cautious and sceptical of the retainers of +modern astronomy, find themselves compelled to receive. + +But I shall be told, that the results of our observations of the +distances of the heavenly bodies are unvaried. We have measured the +distances and other phenomena of the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, +Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and their satellites, and they all fall into a +grand system, so as to convey to every unprejudiced mind the conviction +that this system is the truth itself. If we look at them day after day, +and year after year, we see them for ever the same, and performing +the same divine harmony. Successive astronomers in different ages and +countries have observed the celestial orbs, and swept the heavens, and +for ever bring us back the same story of the number, the dimensions, +the distances, and the arrangement of the heavenly bodies which form the +subject of astronomical science. + +This we have seen indeed not to be exactly the case. But, if it were, it +would go a very little way towards proving the point it was brought to +prove. It would shew that, the sensations and results being similar, the +causes of those results must be similar to each other, but it would not +shew that the causes were similar to the sensations produced. Thus, in +the sensations which belong to taste, smell, sound, colour, and to those +of heat and cold, there is all the uniformity which would arise, +when the real external causes bore the most exact similitude to the +perceptions they generate; and yet it is now universally confessed that +tastes, scents, sounds, colours, and heat and cold do not exist out +of ourselves. All that we are entitled therefore to conclude as to the +magnitudes and distances of the heavenly bodies, is, that the causes of +our sensations and perceptions, whatever they are, are not less uniform +than the sensations and perceptions themselves. + +It is further alleged, that we calculate eclipses, and register the +various phenomena of the heavenly bodies. Thales predicted an eclipse of +the sun, which took place nearly six hundred years before the Christian +era. The Babylonians, the Persians, the Hindoos, and the Chinese early +turned their attention to astronomy. Many of their observations were +accurately recorded; and their tables extend to a period of three +thousand years before the birth of Christ. Does not all this strongly +argue the solidity of the science to which they belong? Who, after +this, will have the presumption to question, that the men who profess +astronomy proceed on real grounds, and have a profound knowledge of +these things, which at first sight might appear to be set at a distance +so far removed from our ken? + +The answer to this is easy. I believe in all the astronomy that was +believed by Thales. I do not question the statements relative to the +heavenly bodies that were delivered by the wise men of the East. But the +supposed discoveries that were made in the eighteenth, and even in the +latter part of the seventeenth century, purporting to ascertain the +precise distance of the sun, the planets, and even of the fixed stars, +are matters entirely distinct from this. + +Among the earliest astronomers of Greece were Thales, Anaximander, +Anaximenes and Anaxagoras. Thales, we are told, held that the earth is +a sphere or globe, Anaximenes that it is like a round, flat table; +Anaximander that the sun is like a chariot-wheel, and is twenty-eight +times larger than the earth. Anaxagoras was put in prison for affirming +that the sun was by many degrees larger than the whole Peloponnesus(66). +Kepler is of opinion that all the stars are at an equal distance from +us, and are fixed in the same surface or sphere. + + + (66) Plutarch, De Placitis Philosophorum. Diogenes Laertius. + + +In reality the observations and the facts of astronomy do not depend +either upon the magnitudes or the distances of the heavenly bodies. They +proceed in the first place upon what may lie seen with the naked eye. +They require an accurate and persevering attention. They may be assisted +by telescopes. But they relate only to the sun and the planets. We are +bound to ascertain, as nearly as possible, the orbits described by the +different bodies in the solar system: but this has still nothing to do, +strictly speaking, with their magnitudes or distances. It is required +that we should know them in their relations to each other; but it is no +preliminary of just, of practical, it might almost be said, of liberal +science, that we should know any thing of them absolutely. + +The unlimited ambition of the nature of man has discovered itself in +nothing more than this, the amazing superstructure which the votaries +of contemplation within the last two hundred years have built upon the +simple astronomy of the ancients. Having begun to compute the distances +of miles by millions, it appears clearly that nothing can arrest the +more than eagle-flight of the human mind. The distance of the +nearest fixed star from the earth, we are informed, is at least +7,000,000,000,000 miles, and of another which the astronomers name, not +less than 38 millions of millions of miles. The particles of light are +said to travel 193,940 miles in every second, which is above a million +times swifter than the progress of a cannon-ball(67). And Herschel +has concluded, that the light issuing from the faintest nebulae he +has discovered, must have been at this rate two millions of years in +reaching the Barth(68). + + + (67) Ferguson, Section 216. "Light moves," says Brewster, Optics, p. 2, +"from one pole of the earth to the other in the 24th part of a second: a +velocity which surpasses all comprehension." + + + + (68) Brinkley, Astronomy, p. 130. + + +SECTION III. + +The next process of the modern astronomer is to affirm the innumerable +orbs around us, discovered with the naked eye, or with which we are made +acquainted by the aid of telescopes, to be all stocked with rational +inhabitants. The argument for this is, that an all-wise and omnipotent +creator could never have produced such immense bodies, dispersed through +infinite space, for any meaner purpose, than that of peopling them with +"intelligent beings, formed for endless progression in perfection and +felicity(69)." + + + (69) See above, Essay XXI. + + +Now it appears to me, that, in these assertions, the modern astronomers +are taking upon themselves somewhat too boldly, to expound the counsels +of that mysterious power, to which the universe is indebted for its +arrangement and order. + +We know nothing of God but from his works. Certain speculative men have +adventured to reason upon the source of all the system and the wonders +that we behold, a priori, and, having found that the creator is all +powerful, all wise, and of infinite goodness, according to their ideas +of power, wisdom and goodness, have from thence proceeded to draw their +inferences, and to shew us in what manner the works of his hands are +arranged and conducted by him. This no doubt they have done with the +purest intentions in the world; but it is not certain, that their +discretion has equalled the boldness of their undertaking. + +The world that we inhabit, this little globe of earth, is to us an +infinite mystery. Human imagination is unable to conceive any thing more +consummate than the great outline of things below. The trees and the +skies, the mountains and the seas, the rivers and the springs, appear as +if the design had been to realise the idea of paradise. The freshness of +the air, the silvery light of day, the magnificence of the clouds, +the gorgeous and soothing colouring of the world, the profusion and +exquisiteness of the fruits and flowers of the earth, are as if nothing +but joy and delicious sensations had been intended for us. When we +ascend to the animal creation, the scene is still more admirable and +transporting. The birds and the beasts, the insects that skim the air, +and the fishes that live in the great deep, are a magazine of wonders, +that we may study for ever, without fear of arriving at the end of their +excellence. Last of all, comes the crown of the creation, man, formed +with looks erect, to commerce with the skies. What a masterpiece of +workmanship is his form, while the beauty and intelligence of Gods seems +to manifest itself in his countenance! Look at that most consummate of +all implements, the human hand; think of his understanding, how composed +and penetrating; of the wealth of his imagination; of the resplendent +virtues he is qualified to display! "How wonderful are thy works, Oh +God; in wisdom hast thou created them all!" + +But there are other parts of the system in which we live, which do not +seem to correspond with those already enumerated. Before we proceed to +people infinite space, it would be as well, if we surveyed the surface +of the earth we inhabit. What vast deserts do we find in it; what +immense tracks of burning sands! One half of the globe is perhaps +irreclaimable to the use of man. Then let us think of earthquakes and +tempests, of wasting hurricanes, and the number of vessels, freighted +with human beings, that are yearly buried in the caverns of the ocean. +Let us call to mind in man, the prime ornament of the creation, all the +diseases to which his frame is subject, + + Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, + Intestine stone and ulcer, colic pangs, + Demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy, + And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy, + Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence, + Dropsies, and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums. + +The very idea of our killing, and subsisting upon the flesh of animals, +surely somewhat jars with our conceptions of infinite benevolence. + +But, when we look at the political history of man, the case is +infinitely worse. This too often seems one tissue of misery and vice. +War, conquest, oppression, tyranny, slavery, insurrections, massacres, +cruel punishments, degrading corporal infliction, and the extinction of +life under the forms of law, are to be found in almost every page. It is +as if an evil demon were let loose upon us, and whole nations, from one +decad of years to another, were struck with the most pernicious madness. +Certain reasoners tell us that this is owing to the freedom of will, +without which man could not exist. But here we are presented with an +alternative, from which it is impossible for human understanding to +escape. Either God, according to our ideas of benevolence, would remove +evil out of the world, and cannot; or he can, and will not. If he has +the will and not the power, this argues weakness; if he has the power +and not the will, this seems to be malevolence. + +Let us descend from the great stage of the nations, and look into the +obscurities of private misery. Which of us is happy? What bitter springs +of misery overflow the human heart, and are borne by us in silence! What +cruel disappointments beset us! To what struggles are we doomed, while +we struggle often in vain! The human heart seems framed, as if to be the +capacious receptacle of all imaginable sorrows. The human frame seems +constructed, as if all its fibres were prepared to sustain varieties +of torment. "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread, till thou +return to the earth." But how often does that sweat prove ineffective! +There are men of whom sorrow seems to be the destiny, from which they +can never escape. There are hearts, into which by their constitution +it appears as if serenity and content could never enter, but which +are given up to all the furious passions, or are for ever the prey of +repining and depression. + + Ah, little think the gay, licentious proud, + Whom pleasure, power and affluence surround, + How many pine in want! How many shrink + Into the sordid hut, how many drink + The cup of grief, and eat the bitter bread + Of misery! + +And, which aggravates the evil, almost all the worst vices, the most +unprincipled acts, and the darkest passions of the human mind, are bred +out of poverty and distress. Satan, in the Book of Job, says to the +Almighty, "Thou hast blessed the work of thy servant, and his substance +is increased in the land. But put forth thy hand now, and take away all +that he hath; and he will curse thee to thy face." The prayer of Agar +runs, "Feed me with food convenient for me; lest I be poor, and steal, +and take the name of my God in vain." + +It is with a deep knowledge of the scenes of life, that the prophet +pronounces, "My thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are your ways my +ways, saith the Lord." + +All reflecting persons, who have surveyed the state of the world in +which we live, have been struck with the contrarieties of sublunary +things; and many hypotheses have been invented to solve the enigma. Some +have maintained the doctrine of two principles, Oromasdes and Arimanius, +the genius of good and of evil, who are perpetually contending with each +other which shall have the greatest sway in the fortunes of the world, +and each alternately acquiring the upper hand. Others have inculcated +the theory of the fall of man, that God at first made all things +beautiful and good, but that man has incurred his displeasure, and been +turned out of the paradise for which he was destined. Hence, they say, +has arisen the corruption of our nature. "There is none that cloth good, +no, not one. That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become +guilty before God." But the solution that has been most generally +adopted, particularly in later days, is that of a future state of +retribution, in which all the inequalities of our present condition +shall be removed, the tears of the unfortunate and the sufferer shall be +wiped from their eyes, and their agonies and miseries compensated. This, +in other words, independently of the light of revelation, is to infer +infinite wisdom and benevolence from what we see, and then, finding +the actual phenomena not to correspond with our theories, to invent +something of which we have no knowledge, to supply the deficiency. + +The astronomer however proceeds from what we see of the globe of earth, +to fashion other worlds of which we have no direct knowledge. Finding +that there is no part of the soil of the earth into which our wanderings +can penetrate, that is not turned to the account of rational and happy +beings, creatures capable of knowing and adoring their creator, that +nature does nothing in vain, and that the world is full of the evidences +of his unmingled beneficence, according to our narrow and imperfect +ideas of beneficence, (for such ought to be our premises) we proceed to +construct millions of worlds upon the plan we have imagined. The earth +is a globe, the planets are globes, and several of them larger than our +earth: the earth has a moon; several of the planets have satellites: the +globe we dwell in moves in an orbit round the sun; so do the planets: +upon these premises, and no more, we hold ourselves authorised to affirm +that they contain "myriads of intelligent beings, formed for endless +progression in perfection and felicity." Having gone thus far, we next +find that the fixed stars bear a certain resemblance to the sun; and, as +the sun has a number of planets attendant on him, so, we say, has each +of the fixed stars, composing all together "ten thousand times ten +thousand" habitable worlds. + +All this is well, so long as we view it as a bold and ingenious +conjecture. On any other subject it would be so regarded; and we +should consider it as reserved for the amusement and gratification of +a fanciful visionary in the hour, when he gives up the reins to his +imagination. But, backed as it is by a complexity of geometrical right +lines and curves, and handed forth to us in large quartos, stuffed with +calculations, it experiences a very different fortune. We are told that, +"by the knowledge we derive from astronomy, our faculties are enlarged, +our minds exalted, and our understandings clearly convinced, and +affected with the conviction, of the existence, wisdom, power, goodness, +immutability and superintendency of the supreme being; so that, without +an hyperbole, 'an undevout astronomer is mad(e)(70).'" + + + (70) Ferguson, Astronomy, Section I. + + +It is singular, how deeply I was impressed with this representation, +while I was a schoolboy, and was so led to propose a difficulty to the +wife of the master. I said, "I find that we have millions of worlds +round us peopled with rational creatures. I know not that we have any +decisive reason for supposing these creatures more exalted, than the +wonderful species of which we are individuals. We are imperfect; they +are imperfect. We fell; it is reasonable to suppose that they have +fallen also. It became necessary for the second person in the trinity to +take upon him our nature, and by suffering for our sins to appease +the wrath of his father. I am unwilling to believe that he has less +commiseration for the inhabitants of other planets. But in that case it +may be supposed that since the creation he has been making a circuit of +the planets, and dying on the cross for the sins of rational creatures +in uninterrupted succession." The lady was wiser than I, admonished me +of the danger of being over-inquisitive, and said we should act more +discreetly in leaving those questions to the judgment of the Almighty. + +But thus far we have reasoned only on one side of the question. Our +pious sentiments have led us to magnify the Lord in all his works, and, +however imperfect the analogy, and however obscure the conception we +can form of the myriads of rational creatures, all of them no doubt +infinitely varied in their nature, their structure and faculties, yet to +view the whole scheme with an undoubting persuasion of its truth. It is +however somewhat in opposition to the ideas of piety formed by our less +adventurous ancestors, that we should usurp the throne of God, + + Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod, + +and, by means of our telescopes and our calculations, penetrate into +mysteries not originally intended for us. According to the received +Mosaic chronology we are now in the five thousand eight hundred and +thirty-fifth year from the creation: the Samaritan version adds to +this date. It is therefore scarcely in the spirit of a Christian, that +Herschel talks to us of a light, which must have been two millions of +years in reaching the earth. + +Moses describes the operations of the Almighty, in one of the six +days devoted to the work of creation, as being to place "lights in the +firmament of heaven, to divide the day from the night, to be for signs +and for seasons, and for days and years, and to give light upon the +earth; two great lights, the greater to rule the day, and the lesser the +night; and the stars also." And Christ, prophesying what is to happen +in the latter days, says, "The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall +not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven." Whatever +therefore be the piety of the persons, who talk to us of "ten thousand +times ten thousand worlds, all peopled with rational creatures," it +certainly is not a piety in precise accordance with the Christian +scriptures. + + +SECTION IV. It is also no more than just, that we should bear in mind +the apparent fitness or otherwise, of these bodies, so far as we are +acquainted with them, for the dwelling-place of rational creatures. Not +to mention the probable extreme coldness of Jupiter and Saturn, the heat +of the sunbeams in the planet Mercury is understood to be such as +that water would unavoidably boil and be carried away(71), and we can +scarcely imagine any living substance that would not be dissolved and +dispersed in such an atmosphere. The moon, of which, as being so much +nearer to us, we may naturally be supposed to know most, we are told +by the astronomers has no water and no atmosphere, or, if any, such an +atmosphere as would not sustain clouds and ascending vapour. To our eye, +as seen through the telescope, it appears like a metallic substance, +which has been burned by fire, and so reduced into the ruined and ragged +condition in which we seem to behold it. The sun appears to be still +less an appropriate habitation for rational, or for living creatures, +than any of the planets. The comets, which describe an orbit so +exceedingly eccentric, and are subject to all the excessive vicissitudes +of heat and cold, are, we are told, admirably adapted for a scene +of eternal, or of lengthened punishment for those who have acquitted +themselves ill in a previous state of probation. Buffon is of opinion, +that all the planets in the solar system were once so many portions of +our great luminary, struck off from the sun by the blow of a comet, and +so having received a projectile impulse calculated to carry them +forward in a right line, at the same time that the power of attraction +counteracts this impulse, and gives them that compound principle of +motion which retains them in an orbicular course. In this sense it may +be said that all the planets were suns; while on the contrary Herschel +pronounces, that the sun itself is a planet, an opake body, richly +stored with inhabitants(72). + + + (71) Encyclopaedia Londinensis, Vol. II, p. 355. + + + (72) Philosophical Transactions for 1795, p. 68. + + +The modern astronomers go on to account to us for the total +disappearance of a star in certain cases, which, they say, may be in +reality the destruction of a system, such as that of our sun and its +attendant planets, while the appearance of a new star may, in like +manner, be the occasional creation of a new system of planets. "We ought +perhaps," says Herschel, "to look upon certain clusters of stars, and +the destruction of a star now and then in some thousands of ages, as the +very means by which the whole is preserved and renewed. These clusters +may be the laboratories of the universe, wherein the most salutary +remedies for the decay of the whole are prepared(73)." + + + (73) Philosophical Transactions for 1785, p. 217. + + +All this must appear to a sober mind, unbitten by the rage which grows +out of the heat of these new discoverers, to be nothing less than +astronomy run mad. This occasional creation of new systems and worlds, +is in little accordance with the Christian scriptures, or, I believe, +with any sober speculation upon the attributes of the creator. The +astronomer seizes upon some hint so fine as scarcely by any ingenuity to +be arrested, immediately launches forth into infinite space, and in an +instant returns, and presents us with millions of worlds, each of them +peopled with ten thousand times ten thousand inhabitants. + +We spoke a while since of the apparent unfitness of many of the heavenly +bodies for the reception of living inhabitants. But for all this these +discoverers have a remedy. They remind us how unlike these inhabitants +may be to ourselves, having other organs than ours, and being able to +live in a very different temperature. "The great heat in the planet +Mercury is no argument against its being inhabited; since the Almighty +could as easily suit the bodies and constitutions of its inhabitants to +the heat of their dwelling, as he has done ours to the temperature of +our earth. And it is very probable that the people there have such an +opinion of us, as we have of the inhabitants of Jupiter and Saturn; +namely, that we must be intolerably cold, and have very little light at +so great a distance from the sun." + +These are the remarks of Ferguson(74). One of our latest astronomers +expresses himself to the same purpose. + + + (74) Astronomy, Section 22. + + +"We have no argument against the planets being inhabited by rational +beings, and consequently by witnesses of the creator's power, +magnificence and benevolence, unless it be said that some are much +nearer the sun than the earth is, and therefore must be uninhabitable +from heat, and those more distant from cold. Whatever objection this may +be against their being inhabited by rational beings, of an organisation +similar to those on the earth, it can have little force, when urged with +respect to rational beings in general. + +"But we may examine without indulging too much in conjecture, whether +it be not possible that the planets may be possessed by rational beings, +and contain animals and vegetables, even little different from those +with which we are familiar. + +"Is the sun the principal cause of the temperature of the earth? We have +reason to suppose that it is not. The mean temperature of the earth, at +a small depth from the surface, seems constant in summer and in winter, +and is probably coeval with its first formation. + +"At the planet Mercury, the direct heat of the sun, or its power of +causing heat, is six times greater than with us. If we suppose the mean +temperature of Mercury to be the same as of the earth, and the planet +to be surrounded with an atmosphere, denser than that of the earth, +less capable of transmitting heat, or rather the influence of the sun to +extricate heat, and at the same time more readily conducting it to keep +up an evenness of temperature, may we not suppose the planet Mercury fit +for the habitation of men, and the production of vegetables similar to +our own? + +"At the Georgium Sidus, the direct influence of the sun is 360 times +less than at the earth, and the sun is there seen at an angle not much +greater than that under which we behold Venus, when nearest. Yet may not +the mean temperature of the Georgium Sidus be nearly the same as that of +the earth? May not its atmosphere more easily transmit the influence of +the sun, and may not the matter of heat be more copiously combined, and +more readily extricated, than with us? Whence changes of season similar +to our own may take place. Even in the comets we may suppose no great +change of temperature takes place, as we know of no cause which will +deprive them of their mean temperature, and particularly if we suppose, +that on their approach towards the sun, there is a provision for +their atmosphere becoming denser. The tails they exhibit, when in the +neighbourhood of the sun, seem in some measure to countenance this idea. + +"We can hardly suppose the sun, a body three hundred times larger than +all the planets together, was created only to preserve the periodic +motions, and give light and heat to the planets. Many astronomers have +thought that its atmosphere only is luminous, and its body opake, and +probably of the same constitution as the planets. Allowing therefore +that its luminous atmosphere only extricates heat, we see no reason why +the sun itself should not be inhabited(75)." + + + (75) Brinkley, Elements of Astronomy, Chap. IX. + + +There is certainly no end to the suppositions that may be made by an +ingenious astronomer. May we not suppose that we might do nearly as well +altogether without the sun, which it appears is at present of little use +to us as to warmth and heat? As to light, the great creator might, for +aught we know, find a substitute; feelers, for example, endued with +a certain acuteness of sense: or, at all events, the least imaginable +degree of light might answer every purpose to organs adapted to this +kind of twilight. In that way the inhabitants of the Georgium Sidus are +already sufficiently provided for; they appear to have as little benefit +of the light as of the heat of the sun. How the satellites of the +distant planets are supplied with light is a mystery, since their +principals have scarcely any. Unless indeed, like the sun, they have a +luminous atmosphere, competent to enlighten a whole system, themselves +being opake. But in truth light in a greater or less degree seems +scarcely worthy of a thought, since the inhabitants of the planet +Mercury have not their eyes put out by a light, scarcely inferior in +radiance to that which is reflected by those plates of burning brass, +with which tyrants in some ages were accustomed to extinguish the +sense of vision in their unfortunate victims. The comets also must be +a delectable residence; that of 1680 completing its orbit in 576 years, +and being at its greatest distance about eleven thousand two hundred +millions of miles from the sun, and at its least within less than a +third part of the sun's semi-diameter from its surface(76). They must +therefore have delightful vicissitudes of light and the contrary; +for, as to heat, that is already provided for. Archdeacon Brinkley's +postulate is, that these bodies are "possessed by rational beings, and +contain animals and vegetables, little different from those with which +we are familiar." + + + (76) Ferguson, Section 93. + + +Now the only reason we have to believe in these extraordinary +propositions, is the knowledge we possess of the divine attributes. From +the force of this consideration it is argued that God will not leave any +sensible area of matter unoccupied, and therefore that it is impossible +that such vast orbs as we believe surround us even to the extent of +infinite space, should not be "richly stored with rational beings, +the capable witnesses of his power, magnificence and benevolence." All +difficulties arising from the considerations of light, and heat, and a +thousand other obstacles, are to give way to the perfect insight we +have as to how the deity will conduct himself in every case that can be +proposed. I am not persuaded that this is agreeable to religion; and +I am still less convinced that it is compatible with the sobriety and +sedateness of common sense. + +It is with some degree of satisfaction that I perceive lord Brougham, +the reputed author of the Preliminary Discourse to the Library of Useful +Knowledge, at the same time that he states the dimensions and distances +of the heavenly bodies in the usual way, says not a word of their +inhabitants. + +It is somewhat remarkable that, since the commencement of the present +century, four new planets have been added to those formerly contained in +the enumeration of the solar system. They lie between the planets Mars +and Jupiter, and have been named Vesta, Juno, Ceres and Pallas. Brinkley +speaks of them in this manner. "The very small magnitudes of the new +planets Ceres and Pallas, and their nearly equal distances from the sun, +induced Dr. Olbers, who discovered Pallas in 1802, nearly in the same +place where he had observed Ceres a few months before, to conjecture +that they were fragments of a larger planet, which had by some unknown +cause been broken to pieces. It follows from the law of gravity, by +which the planets are retained in their orbits, that each fragment would +again, after every revolution about the sun, pass nearly through the +place in which the planet was when the catastrophe happened, and besides +the orbit of each fragment would intersect the continuation of the line +joining this place and the sun. Thence it was easy to ascertain the +two particular regions of the heavens through which all these fragments +would pass. Also, by carefully noting the small stars thereabout, and +examining them from time to time, it might be expected that more of the +fragments would be discovered.--M. Harding discovered the planet Juno +in one of these regions; and Dr. Olbers himself also, by carefully +examining them (the small stars) from time to time, discovered Vesta." + +These additions certainly afford us a new epoch in the annals of the +solar system, and of astronomy itself. It is somewhat remarkable, that +Herschel, who in the course of his observations traced certain nebulae, +the light from which must have been two millions of years in reaching +the earth, should never have remarked these planets, which, so to +speak, lay at his feet. It reminds one of Esop's astrologer, who, to the +amusement of his ignorant countrymen, while he was wholly occupied in +surveying the heavens, suddenly found himself plunged in a pit. These +new planets also we are told are fragments of a larger planet: how came +this larger planet never to have been discovered? + +Till Herschel's time we were content with six planets and the sun, +making up the cabalistical number seven. He added another. But these +four new ones entirely derange the scheme. The astronomers have not yet +had opportunity to digest them into their places, and form new worlds of +them. This is all unpleasant. They are, it seems, "fragments of a larger +planet, which had by some unknown cause been broken to pieces." They +therefore are probably not inhabited. How does this correspond with the +goodness of God, which will suffer no mass of matter in his creation +to remain unoccupied? Herschel talks at his ease of whole systems, suns +with all their attendant planets, being consigned to destruction. But +here we have a catastrophe happening before our eyes, and cannot avoid +being shocked by it. "God does nothing in vain." For which of his lofty +purposes has this planet been broken to pieces, and its fragments left +to deform the system of which we are inhabitants; at least to humble +the pride of man, and laugh to scorn his presumption? Still they perform +their revolutions, and obey the projectile and gravitating forces, which +have induced us to people ten thousand times ten thousand worlds. It is +time, that we should learn modesty, to revere in silence the great cause +to which the universe is indebted for its magnificence, its beauty and +harmony, and to acknowledge that we do not possess the key that should +unlock the mysteries of creation. + +One of the most important lessons that can be impressed on the human +mind, is that of self-knowledge and a just apprehension of what it is +that we are competent to achieve. We can do much. We are capable of much +knowledge and much virtue. We have patience, perseverance and subtlety. +We can put forth considerable energies, and nerve ourselves to resist +great obstacles and much suffering. Our ingenuity is various and +considerable. We can form machines, and erect mighty structures. The +invention of man for the ease of human life, and for procuring it a +multitude of pleasures and accommodations, is truly astonishing. We can +dissect the human frame, and anatomise the mind. We can study the scene +of our social existence, and make extraordinary improvements in the +administration of justice, and in securing to ourselves that germ of +all our noblest virtues, civil and political liberty. We can study the +earth, its strata, its soil, its animals, and its productions, "from the +cedar that is in Lebanon, to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall." + +But man is not omnipotent. If he aspires to be worthy of honour, it is +necessary that he should compute his powers, and what it is they are +competent to achieve. The globe of earth, with "all that is therein," is +our estate and our empire. Let us be content with that which we have. It +were a pitiful thing to see so noble a creature struggling in a field, +where it is impossible for him to distinguish himself, or to effect +any thing real. There is no situation in which any one can appear more +little and ludicrous, than when he engages in vain essays, and seeks +to accomplish that, which a moment's sober thought would teach him was +utterly hopeless. + +Even astronomy is to a certain degree our own. We can measure the course +of the sun, and the orbits of the planets. We can calculate eclipses. +We can number the stars, assign to them their places, and form them into +what we call constellations. But, when we pretend to measure millions +of miles in the heavens, and to make ourselves acquainted with +the inhabitants of ten thousand times ten thousand worlds and the +accommodations which the creator has provided for their comfort and +felicity, we probably engage in something more fruitless and idle, than +the pigmy who should undertake to bend the bow of Ulysses, or strut and +perform the office of a warrior clad in the armour of Achilles. + +How beautiful is the "firmament; this majestical roof fretted with +golden fire!" Let us beware how we mar the magnificent scene with our +interpolations and commentaries! Simplicity is of the essence of the +truly great. Let us look at the operations of that mighty power from +which we ourselves derive our existence, with humility and reverential +awe! It may well become us. Let us not "presume into the heaven of +heavens," unbidden, unauthorised guests! Let us adopt the counsel of +the apostle, and allow no man to "spoil us through vain philosophy." The +business of human life is serious; the useful investigations in which +we may engage are multiplied. It is excellent to see a rational being +conscious of his genuine province, and not idly wasting powers adapted +for the noblest uses in unmeasured essays and ill-concocted attempts. + + + + +ESSAY XXII. OF THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE. + +In the preceding Essay I have referred to the theory of Berkeley, whose +opinion is that there is no such thing as matter in the sense in which +it is understood by the writers on natural philosophy, and that the +whole of our experience in that respect is the result of a system of +accidents without an intelligible subject, by means of which antecedents +and consequents flow on for ever in a train, the past succession +of which man is able to record, and the future in many cases he is +qualified to predict and to act upon. + +An argument more palpable and popular than that of Berkeley in favour of +the same hypothesis, might be deduced from the points recapitulated +in that Essay as delivered by Locke and Newton. If what are vulgarly +denominated the secondary qualities of matter are in reality nothing but +sensations existing in the human mind, then at any rate matter is a very +different thing from what it is ordinarily apprehended to be. To which +I add, in the second place, that, if matter, as is stated by Newton, +consists in so much greater a degree of pores than solid parts, that +the absolute particles contained in the solar system might, for aught we +know, he contained in a nutshell(77), and that no two ever touched each +other, or approached so near that they might not be brought nearer, +provided a sufficient force could be applied for that purpose,--and if, +as Priestley teaches, all that we observe is the result of successive +spheres of attraction and repulsion, the centre of which is a +mathematical point only, we then certainly come very near to a +conclusion, which should banish matter out of the theatre of real +existences(78). + + + (77) See above, Essay XXI. + + + (78) See above, Essay XXI. + + +But the extreme subtleties of human intellect are perhaps of little +further use, than to afford an amusement to persons of curious +speculation, and whose condition in human society procures them leisure +for such enquiries. The same thing happens here, as in the subject of +my Twelfth Essay, on the Liberty of Human Actions. The speculator in his +closet is one man: the same person, when he comes out of his retirement, +and mixes in intercourse with his fellow-creatures, is another man. +The necessarian, when he reasons on the everlasting concatenation +of antecedents and consequents, proves to his own apprehension +irrefragably, that he is a passive instrument, acted upon, and acting +upon other things, in turn, and that he can never disengage himself +from the operation of the omnipotent laws of physical nature, and the +impulses of other men with whom he is united in the ties of society. But +no sooner does this acute and ingenious reasoner come into active +life and the intercourse of his fellowmen, than all these fine-drawn +speculations vanish from his recollection. He regards himself and other +men as beings endowed with a liberty of action, as possessed of a proper +initiative power, and free to do a thing or not to do it, without being +subject to the absolute and irresistible constraint of motives. It is +from this internal and indefeasible sense of liberty, that we draw +all our moral energies and enthusiasm, that we persevere heroically in +defiance of obstacles and discouragements, that we praise or blame the +actions of others, and admire the elevated virtues of the best of +our contemporaries, and of those whose achievements adorn the page of +history. + +It is in a manner of precisely the same sort as that which prevails +in the philosophical doctrines of liberty and necessity, that we find +ourselves impelled to feel on the question of the existence of the +material universe. Berkeley, and as many persons as are persuaded by his +or similar reasonings, feel satisfied in speculation that there is +no such thing as matter in the sense in which it is understood by the +writers on natural philosophy, and that all our notions of the external +and actual existence of the table, the chair, and the other material +substances with which we conceive ourselves to be surrounded, of +woods, and mountains, and rivers, and seas, are mere prejudice and +misconception. All this is very well in the closet, and as long as we +are involved in meditation, and remain abstracted from action, business, +and the exertion of our limbs and corporal faculties. But it is too +fine for the realities of life. Berkeley, and the most strenuous and +spiritualised of his followers, no sooner descend from the high tower of +their speculations, submit to the necessities of their nature, and mix +in the business of the world, than they become impelled, as strongly +as the necessarian in the question of the liberty of human actions, not +only to act like other men, but even to feel just in the same manner as +if they had never been acquainted with these abstractions. A table then +becomes absolutely a table, and a chair a chair: they are "fed with the +same food, hurt by the same weapons, and warmed and cooled by the same +summer and winter," as other men: and they make use of the refreshments +which nature requires, with as true an orthodoxy, and as credulous a +temper, as he who was never assailed with such refinements. Nature is +too strong, to be prevailed on to retire, and give way to the authority +of definitions and syllogistical deduction. + +But, when we have granted all this, it is however a mistake to say, that +these "subtleties of human intellect are of little further use, than +to afford an amusement to persons of curious speculation(79)." We have +seen, in the case of the doctrine of philosophical necessity(80), that, +though it can never form a rule for the intercourse between man and man, +it may nevertheless be turned to no mean advantage. It is calculated +to inspire us with temperance and toleration. It tends impressively to +evince to us, that this scene of things is but like the shadows which +pass before us in a magic lanthorn, and that, after all, men are but +the tools, not the masters, of their fate. It corrects the illusions of +life, much after the same manner as the spectator of a puppet-shew is +enlightened, who should be taken within the curtain, and shewn how the +wires are pulled by the master, which produce all the turmoil and strife +that before riveted our attention. It is good for him who would arrive +at all the improvement of which our nature is capable, at one time to +take his place among the literal beholders of the drama, and at another +to go behind the scenes, and remark the deceptions in their original +elements, and the actors in their proper and natural costume. + + + (79) See above, Essay XXII. + + + (80) See above, Essay XII. + + +And, as in the question of the liberty of human actions, so in that +of the reality of the material universe, it is a privilege not to be +despised, that we are so formed as to be able to dissect the subject +that is submitted to our examination, and to strip the elements of which +this sublunary scene is composed, of the disguise in which they present +themselves to the vulgar spectator. It is little, after all, that we +are capable to know; and the man of heroic mind and generous enterprise, +will not refuse the discoveries that are placed within his reach. The +subtleties of grammar are as the porch, which leads from the knowledge +of words to the knowledge of things. The subtleties of mathematics +defecate the grossness of our apprehension, and supply the elements of +a sounder and severer logic. And in the same manner the faculty which +removes the illusions of external appearance, and enables us to "look +into the seeds of time," is one which we are bound to estimate at its +genuine value. The more we refine our faculties, other things equal, +the wiser we grow: we are the more raised above the thickness of the +atmosphere that envelops our fellow-mortals, and are made partakers of a +nature superhuman and divine. + +There is a curious question that has risen out of this proposition of +Berkeley, of the supposed illusion we suffer in our conceptions of the +material universe. It has been said, "Well then, I am satisfied that +the chairs, the tables, and the other material substances with which I +conceive myself to be surrounded, are not what they appear to be, but +are merely an eternal chain of antecedents and consequents, going on +according to what Leibnitz calls a 'preestablished harmony,' and thus +furnishing the ground of the speculations which mortals cherish, and the +motives of their proceeding. But, if thus, in the ordinary process of +human affairs, we believe in matter, when in reality there is no such +thing as matter, how shall we pronounce of mind, and the things which +happen to us in our seeming intercourse with our fellow-men, and in +the complexities of love and hatred, of kindred and friendship, of +benevolence and misanthropy, of robbery and murder, and of the wholesale +massacre of thousands of human beings which are recorded in the page of +history? We absolutely know nothing of the lives and actions of others +but through the medium of material impulse. And, if you take away +matter, the bodies of our fellow-men, does it not follow by irresistible +consequence that all knowledge of their minds is taken away also? Am not +I therefore (the person engaged in reading the present Essay) the only +being in existence, an entire universe to myself?" + +Certainly this is a very different conclusion from any that Berkeley +ever contemplated. In the very title of the Treatise in which his +notions on this subject are unfolded, he professes his purpose to be to +remove "the grounds of scepticism, atheism and irreligion." Berkeley was +a sincere Christian, and a man of the most ingenuous dispositions. Pope, +in the Epilogue to his Satires, does not hesitate to ascribe to him +"every virtue under heaven." He was for twenty years a prelate of the +Protestant church. And, though his personal sentiments were in the +highest degree philanthropical and amiable, yet, in his most diffusive +production, entitled The Minute Philosopher, he treats "those who +are called Free Thinkers" with a scorn and disdain, scarcely to be +reconciled with the spirit of Christian meekness. + +There are examples however, especially in the fields of controversy, +where an adventurous speculatist has been known to lay down premises and +principles, from which inferences might be fairly deduced, incompatible +with the opinions entertained by him who delivered them. It may +therefore be no unprofitable research to enquire how far the creed of +the non-existence of matter is to be regarded as in truth and reality +countenancing the inference which has just been recited. + +The persons then, who refine with Berkeley upon the system of things so +far, as to deny that there is any such thing as matter in the sense in +which it is understood by the writers on natural philosophy, proceed +on the ground of affirming that we have no reason to believe that the +causes of our sensations have an express resemblance to the sensations +themselves(81). That which gives us a sensation of colour is not itself +coloured: and the same may be affirmed of the sensations of hot and +cold, of sweet and bitter, and of odours offensive or otherwise. The +immaterialist proceeds to say, that what we call matter has been strewn +to be so exceedingly porous, that, for any thing we know, all the solid +particles in the universe might be contained in a nutshell, that there +is no such thing in the external world as actual contact, and that no +two particles of matter were ever so near to each other, but that they +might be brought nearer, if a sufficient force could be applied for +that purpose. From these premises it seems to follow with sufficient +evidence, that the causes of our sensations, so far as the material +universe is concerned, bear no express resemblance to the sensations +themselves. + + + (81) See above, Essay XXI. + + +How then does the question stand with relation to mind? Are those +persons who deny the existence of matter, reduced, if they would be +consistent in their reasonings, to deny, each man for himself, that he +has any proper evidence of the existence of other minds than his own? + +He denies, while he has the sensation of colour, that there exists +colour out of himself, unless in thinking and percipient beings +constituted in a manner similar to that in which he is constituted. And +the same of the sensations of hot and cold, sweet and bitter, and +odours offensive or otherwise. He affirms, while he has the sensation of +length, breadth and thickness, that there is no continuous substance out +of himself, possessing the attributes of length, breadth and thickness +in any way similar to the sensation of which he is conscious. +He professes therefore that he has no evidence, arising from his +observation of what we call matter, of the actual existence of a +material world. He looks into himself, and all he finds is sensation; +but sensation cannot be a property of inert matter. There is therefore +no assignable analogy between the causes of his sensations, whatever +they may be, and the sensations themselves; and the material world, such +as we apprehend it, is the mere creature of his own mind. + +Let us next consider how this question stands as to the conceptions he +entertains respecting the minds of other men. That which gives him the +sensation of colour, is not any thing coloured out of himself; and that +which gives him the sensation of length, breadth and thickness, is +not any thing long, broad and thick in a manner corresponding with the +impression he receives. There is nothing in the nature of a parallel, a +type and its archetype, between that which is without him and that which +is within, the impresser and the impression. This is the point supposed +to be established by Locke and Newton, and by those who have followed +the reasonings of these philosophers into their remotest consequences. + +But the case is far otherwise in the impressions we receive respecting +the minds of other men. In colour it has been proved by these authors +that there is no express correspondence and analogy between the cause of +the sensation and the sensation. They are not part and counterpart. +But in mind there is a precise resemblance and analogy between the +conceptions we are led to entertain respecting other men, and what +we know of ourselves. I and my associate, or fellow-man, are like two +instruments of music constructed upon the same model. We have each of +us, so to speak, the three great divisions of sound, base, tenor and +treble. We have each the same number of keys, capable of being struck, +consecutively or with alternations, at the will of the master. We can +utter the same sound or series of sounds, or sounds of a different +character, but which respond to each other. My neighbour therefore being +of the same nature as myself, what passes within me may be regarded as +amounting to a commanding evidence that he is a real being, having a +proper and independent existence. + +There is further something still more impressive and irresistible in the +notices I receive respecting the minds of other men. The sceptics whose +reasonings I am here taking into consideration, admit, each man for +himself, the reality of his own existence. There is such a thing +therefore as human nature; for he is a specimen of it. Now the idea of +human nature, or of man, is a very complex thing. He is in the first +place the subject of sensible impressions, however these impressions are +communicated to him. He has the faculties of thinking and feeling. He is +subject to the law of the association of ideas, or, in other words, any +one idea existing in his mind has a tendency to call up the ideas of +other things which have been connected with it in his first experience. +He has, be it delusive or otherwise, the sense of liberty of action. + +But we will go still further into detail as to the nature of man. + +Our lives are carried forward by the intervention of what we call meat, +drink and sleep. We are liable to the accidents of health and sickness. +We are alternately the recipients of joy and sorrow, of cheerfulness and +melancholy. Our passions are excited by similar means, whether of love +or hatred, complacency or indignation, sympathy or resentment. I could +fill many pages with a description of the properties or accidents, which +belong to man as such, or to which he is liable. + +Now with all these each man is acquainted in the sphere of his inward +experience, whether he is a single being standing by himself, or is an +individual belonging to a numerous species. + +Observe then the difference between my acquaintance with the phenomena +of the material universe, and with the individuals of my own species. +The former say nothing to me; they are a series of events and no more; +I cannot penetrate into their causes; that which gives rise to my +sensations, may or may not be similar to the sensations themselves. The +follower of Berkeley or Newton has satisfied himself in the negative. + +But the case is very different in my intercourse with my fellow-men. +Agreeably to the statement already made I know the reality of human +nature; for I feel the particulars that constitute it within myself. +The impressions I receive from that intercourse say something to me; +for they talk to me of beings like myself. My own existence becomes +multiplied in infinitum. Of the possibility of matter I know nothing; +but with the possibility of mind I am acquainted; for I am myself an +example. I am amazed at the consistency and systematic succession of the +phenomena of the material universe; though I cannot penetrate the veil +which presents itself to my grosser sense, nor see effects in their +causes. But I can see, in other words, I have the most cogent reasons +to believe in, the causes of the phenomena that occur in my apparent +intercourse with my fellow-men. What solution so natural, as that +they are produced by beings like myself, the duplicates, with certain +variations, of what I feel within me? + +The belief in the reality of matter explains nothing. Supposing it to +exist, if Newton is right, no particle of extraneous matter ever touched +the matter of my body; and therefore it is not just to regard it as +the cause of my sensations. It would amount to no more than two systems +going on at the same time by a preestablished harmony, but totally +independent of and disjointed from each other. + +But the belief in the existence of our fellow-men explains much. It +makes level before us the wonder of the method of their proceedings, and +affords an obvious reason why they should be in so many respects like +our own. If I dismiss from my creed the existence of inert matter, I +lose nothing. The phenomena, the train of antecedents and consequents, +remain as before; and this is all that I am truly concerned with. But +take away the existence of my fellow-men; and you reduce all that is, +and all that I experience, to a senseless mummery. "You take my life, +taking the thing whereon I live." + +Human nature, and the nature of mind, are to us a theme of endless +investigation. "The proper study of mankind is man." All the subtlety +of metaphysics, or (if there be men captious and prejudiced enough +to dislike that term) the science of ourselves, depends upon it. The +science of morals hangs upon the actions of men, and the effects they +produce upon our brother-men, in a narrower or a wider circle. The +endless, and inexpressibly interesting, roll of history relies for its +meaning and its spirit upon the reality and substance of the subjects of +which it treats. Poetry, and all the wonders and endless varieties that +imagination creates, have this for their solution and their soul. + +Sympathy is the only reality of which we are susceptible; it is our +heart of hearts: and, if the world had been "one entire and perfect +chrysolite," without this it would have been no more than one heap of +rubbish. + +Observe the difference between what we know of the material world, and +what of the intellectual. The material goes on for ever according to +certain laws that admit of no discrimination. They proceed upon a first +principle, an impulse given them from the beginning of things. Their +effects are regulated by something that we call their nature: fire +burns; water suffocates; the substances around us that we call solid, +depend for their effects, when put in motion, upon momentum and gravity. + +The principle that regulates the dead universe, "acts by general, not by +partial laws." + + When the loose mountain trembles from on high, + Shall gravitation cease, if you go by? + +No: the chain of antecedents and consequents proceeds in this respect +for ever the same. The laws of what we call the material world continue +unvaried. And, when the vast system of things was first set in motion, +every thing, so far as depends on inert matter, was determined to the +minutest particle, even to the end of time. + +The material world, or that train of antecedents and consequents which +we understand by that term, goes on for ever in a train agreeably to the +impulse previously given. It is deaf and inexorable. It is unmoved by +the consideration of any accidents and miseries that may result, and +unalterable. But man is a source of events of a very different nature. +He looks to results, and is governed by views growing out of the +contemplation of them. He acts in a way diametrically opposite to the +action of inert matter, and "turns, and turns, and turns again," at the +impulse of the thought that strikes him, the appetite that prompts, the +passions that move, and the effects that he anticipates. It is therefore +in a high degree unreasonable, to make that train of inferences which +may satisfy us on the subject of material phenomena, a standard of what +we ought to think respecting the phenomena of mind. + +It is further worthy of our notice to recollect, that the same +reasonings which apply to our brethren of mankind, apply also to the +brute creation. They, like ourselves, act from motives; that is, +the elections they form are adopted by them for the sake of certain +consequences they expect to see result from them. Whatever becomes +therefore of the phenomena of what we call dead matter, we are here +presented with tribes of being, susceptible of pleasure and pain, of +hope and fear, of regard and resentment. + +How beautifully does this conviction vary the scene of things! What +a source to us is the animal creation, of amusement, of curious +observations upon the impulses of inferior intellect, of the exhaustless +varieties of what we call instinct, of the care we can exercise for +their accommodation and welfare, and of the attachment and affection we +win from them in return! If I travel alone through pathless deserts, if +I journey from the rising to the setting sun, with no object around +me but nature's desolation, or the sublime, the magnificent and the +exuberant scenery she occasionally presents, still I have that noble +animal, the horse, and my faithful dog, the companions of my toil, and +with whom, when my solitude would otherwise become insufferable, I can +hold communion, and engage in dumb dialogues of sentiment and affection. + +I have heard of a man, who, talking to his friend on the subject of +these speculations, said, "What then, are you so poor and pusillanimous +a creature, that you could not preserve your serenity, be perfectly +composed and content, and hold on your way unvaried, though you were +convinced that you were the only real being in existence, and all the +rest were mere phantasies and shadows?" + +If I had been the person to whom this speech was addressed, I should +have frankly acknowledged, "I am the poor and pusillanimous creature you +are disposed to regard with so much scorn." + +To adopt the sententious language of the Bible, "It is not good for man +to be alone." All our faculties and attributes bear relation to, and +talk to us of, other beings like ourselves. We might indeed eat, drink +and sleep, that is, submit to those necessities which we so denominate, +without thinking of any thing beyond ourselves; for these are the +demands of our nature, and we know that we cannot subsist without them. +We might make use of the alternate conditions of exercise and repose. + +But the life of our lives would be gone. As far as we bore in mind the +creed we had adopted, of our single existence, we could neither love nor +hate. Sympathy would be a solemn mockery. We could not communicate; for +the being to whom our communication was addressed we were satisfied was +a non-entity. We could not anticipate the pleasure or pain, the joy or +sorrow, of another; for that other had no existence. We should be in +a worse condition than Robinson Crusoe in the desolate island; for he +believed in the existence of other men, and hoped and trusted that he +should one day again enter into human society. We should be in a worse +condition than Robinson Crusoe; for he at least was unannoyed in his +solitude; while we are perpetually and per force intruded on, like a +delirious man, by visions which we know to be unreal, but which we are +denied the power to deliver ourselves from. We have no motive to any of +the great and cardinal functions of human life; for there is no one in +being, that we can benefit, or that we can affect. Study is nothing to +us; for we have no use for it. Even science is unsatisfactory; unless we +can communicate it by word or writing, can converse upon it, and compare +notes with our neighbour. History is nothing; for there were no Greeks +and no Romans; no freemen and no slaves; no kings and no subjects; no +despots, nor victims of their tyranny; no republics, nor states immerged +in brutal and ignominious servitude. Life must be inevitably a burthen +to us, a dreary, unvaried, motiveless existence; and death must be +welcomed, as the most desirable blessing that can visit us. It +is impossible indeed that we should always recollect this our, by +supposition, real situation; but, as often as we did, it would come over +us like a blight, withering all the prospects of our industry, or like +a scirocco, unbracing the nerves of our frame, and consigning us to the +most pitiable depression. + +Thus far I have allowed myself to follow the refinements of those +who profess to deny the existence of the material universe. But it is +satisfactory to come back to that persuasion, which, from whatever cause +it is derived, is incorporated with our very existence, and can never be +shaken off by us. Our senses are too powerful in their operation, for it +to be possible for us to discard them, and to take as their substitute, +in active life, and in the earnestness of pursuit, the deductions of +our logical faculty, however well knit and irresistible we may apprehend +them to be. Speculation and common sense are at war on this point; and +however we may "think with the learned," and follow the abstrusenesses +of the philosopher, in the sequestered hour of our meditation, we must +always act, and even feel, "with the vulgar," when we come abroad into +the world. + +It is however no small gratification to the man of sober mind, that, +from what has here been alleged, it seems to follow, that untutored +mind, and the severest deductions of philosophy, agree in that most +interesting of our concerns, our intercourse with our fellow-creatures. +The inexorable reasoner, refining on the reports of sense, may dispose, +as he pleases, of the chair, the table, and the so called material +substances around him. He may include the whole solid matter of the +universe in a nutshell, or less than a nutshell. But he cannot deprive +me of that greatest of all consolations, the sustaining pillar of +my existence, "the cordial drop Heaven in our cup has thrown,"--the +intercourse of my fellow-creatures. When we read history, the subjects +of which we read are realities; they do not "come like shadows, +so depart;" they loved and acted in sober earnest; they sometimes +perpetrated crimes; but they sometimes also achieved illustrious deeds, +which angels might look down from their exalted abodes and admire. We +are not deluded with mockeries. The woman I love, and the man to whom I +swear eternal friendship, are as much realities as myself. If I relieve +the poor, and assist the progress of genius and virtuous designs +struggling with fearful discouragements, I do something upon the success +of which I may safely congratulate myself. If I devote my energies to +enlighten my fellow-creatures, to detect the weak places in our social +institutions, to plead the cause of liberty, and to invite others +to engage in noble actions and unite in effecting the most solid and +unquestionable improvements, I erect to my name an eternal monument; or +I do something better than this,--secure inestimable advantage to the +latest posterity, the benefit of which they shall enjoy, long after the +very name of the author shall, with a thousand other things great and +small, have been swallowed up in the gulph of insatiable oblivion. + + + + +ESSAY XXIII. OF HUMAN VIRTUE. THE EPILOGUE. + +The life of man is divided into many stages; and we shall not form a +just estimate of our common nature, if we do not to a certain +degree pass its successive periods in review, and observe it in its +commencement, its progress, and its maturity. + +It has been attempted to be established in an early part of the present +volume(82), that all men, idiots and extraordinary cases being put out +of the question, are endowed with talents, which, if rightly directed, +would shew them to be apt, adroit, intelligent and acute, in the walk +for which their organisation especially fitted them. We are bound +therefore, particularly in the morning of life, to consider every +thing that presents itself to us in the human form, with deference and +attention. + + + (82) See above, Essay III. + + +"God," saith the Preacher, "made man upright; but he hath sought out +many inventions." There is something loose and difficult of exposition +in this statement; but we shall find an important truth hid beneath its +obscurity. + +Junius Brutus, in the play, says to his son, + + I like thy frame: the fingers of the Gods + I see have left their mastery upon thee; + And the majestic prints distinct appear. + +Such is the true description of every well-formed and healthful infant +that is born into the world. + +He is placed on the threshold of existence; and an eventful journey is +open before him. For the first four or five years of life indeed he has +little apprehension of the scenes that await him. But a child of quick +apprehension early begins to have day-dreams, and to form imaginations +of the various chances that may occur to him, and the things he shall +have to do, when, according to the language of the story-books, he "goes +out to seek his fortune." + +"God made man upright." Every child that is born, has within him a +concealed magazine of excellence. His heart beats for every thing that +is lovely and good; and whatever is set before him of that sort in +honest colours, rouses his emulation. By how many tokens does he prove +himself worthy of our approbation and love--the unaffected and +ingenuous sobriety with which he listens to what addresses itself to his +attention, the sweetness of his smile, his hearty laugh, the clear, bell +tones of his voice, his sudden and assured impulses, and his bounding +step! + +To his own heart he promises well of himself. Like Lear in the play, he +says, "I will do such things!--What they are, yet I know not." But he is +assured, frank and light-spirited. He thinks of no disguise. He "wears +his heart upon his sleeve." He looks in the face of his seniors with +the glistening eye of confidence, and expects to encounter sympathy and +encouragement in return. Such is man, as he comes from the hands of his +maker. + +Thus prepared, he is turned into the great field of society. Here he +meets with much that he had not anticipated, and with many rebuffs. He +is taught that he must accommodate his temper and proceedings to the +expectations and prejudices of those around him. He must be careful to +give no offence. With how many lessons, not always the most salutary and +ingenuous, is this maxim pregnant! It calls on the neophyte to bear +a wary eye, and to watch the first indications of disapprobation and +displeasure in those among whom his lot is cast. It teaches him to +suppress the genuine emotions of his soul. It informs him that he is not +always to yield to his own impulses, but that he must "stretch forth his +hands to another, and be carried whither he would not." + +It recommends to him falseness, and to be the thing in outward +appearance that he is not in his heart. + +Still however he goes on. He shuts up his thoughts in his bosom; but +they are not exterminated. On the contrary he broods over them with +genial warmth; and the less they are exposed to the eye of day, the +more perseveringly are they cherished. Perhaps he chooses some youthful +confident of his imaginings: and the effect of this is, that he pours +out his soul with uncontrolable copiousness, and with the fervour of a +new and unchecked conceiving. It is received with answering warmth; or, +if there is any deficiency in the sympathy of his companion, his mind is +so earnest and full, that he does not perceive it. By and by, it may be, +he finds that the discovery he had made of a friend, a brother of +his soul, is, like so many of the visions of this world, hollow and +fallacious. He grasped, as he thought, a jewel of the first water; and +it turns out to be a vulgar pebble. No matter: he has gained something +by the communication. He has heard from his own lips the imaginings +of his mind shaped into articulate air; they grew more definite and +distinct as he uttered them; they came by the very act to have more of +reality, to be more tangible. He shakes off the ill-assorted companion +that only encumbered him, and springs away in his race, more light of +heart, and with a step more assured, than ever. + +By and by he becomes a young man. And, whatever checks he may have +received before, it usually happens that all his hopes and projects +return to him now with recruited strength. He has no longer a master. He +no longer crouches to the yoke of subjection, and is directed this way +and that at the judgment of another. Liberty is at all times dear to the +free-soured and ingenuous; but never so much so, as when we wear it in +its full gloss and newness. He never felt before, that he was sui juris, +that he might go whithersoever he would, without asking leave, without +consulting any other director than the law of his own mind. It is nearly +at the same season that he arrives at the period of puberty, at the +stature, and in a certain degree at the strength, which he is destined +to attain. He is by general consent admitted to be at years of +discretion. + +Though I have put all these things together, they do not, in the course +of nature, all come at the same time. It is a memorable period, when the +ingenuous youth is transferred from the trammels of the schoolmaster +to the residence of a college. It was at the age of seventeen that, +according to the custom of Rome, the youthful citizen put on the manly +gown, and was introduced into the forum. Even in college-life, there is +a difference in the privileges of the mere freshman, and of the +youth who has already completed the first half of his period in the +university. + +The season of what may be denominated the independence of the +individual, is certainly in no small degree critical. A human being, +suddenly emancipated from a state of subjection, if we may not call it +slavery, and transported into a state of freedom, must be expected to be +guilty of some extravagancies and follies. + +But upon the whole, with a small number of exceptions, it is creditable +to human nature, that we take this period of our new powers and +immunities with so much sobriety as we do. + +The young man then, calls to mind all that he imagined at an earlier +season, and that he promised himself. He adds to this the new lights +that he has since obtained, and the nearer and more distinct view that +he has reached, of the realities of life. + +He recollects the long noviciate that he served to reach this period, +the twenty years that he passed in ardent and palpitating expectation; +and he resolves to do something worthy of all he had vowed and had +imagined. He takes a full survey of his stores and endowments; and to +the latter, from his enthusiasm and his self-love, he is morally sure +to do justice. He says to himself, "What I purpose to do will not be +achieved to-day. No; it shall be copious, and worthy of men's suffrage +and approbation. But I will meditate it; I will sketch a grand outline; +I will essay my powers in secret, and ascertain what I may be able +to effect." The youth, whose morning of life is not utterly abortive, +palpitates with the desire to promote the happiness of others, and with +the desire of glory. + +We have an apt specimen of this in the first period of the reign of +Nero. The historians, Tacitus in particular, have treated this with too +much incredulity. It was the passion of that eminent man to indulge in +subtleties, and to find hidden meanings in cases where in reality every +thing is plain. We must not regard the panegyric of Seneca, and +the devotion of Lucan to the imperial stripling, as unworthy of +our attention. He was declared emperor before he had completed +the eighteenth year of his age. No occasion for the exhibition of +liberality, clemency, courtesy or kindness escaped him. He called every +one by his name, and saluted all orders of men. When the senate shewed +a disposition to confer on him peculiar honours, he interposed, he said, +"Let them be bestowed when I have deserved them(83)." Seneca affirms, +that in the first part of his reign, and to the time in which the +philosopher dedicated to him his treatise of Clemency, he had "shed no +drop of blood(84)." He adds, "If the Gods were this day to call thee +to a hearing, thou couldst account to them for every man that had been +intrusted to thy rule. Not an individual has been lost from the number, +either by secret practices, or by open violence. This could scarcely +have been, if thy good dispositions had not been natural, but assumed. +No one can long personate a character. A pretended goodness will +speedily give place to the real temper; while a sincere mind, and +acts prompted by the heart, will not fail to go on from one stage of +excellence to another(85)." + + + (83) Suetonius, Nero, cap. 10. + + + (84) De Clementia, Lib. I, cap. II. + + + (85) De Clementia, cap. I. + + +The philosopher expresses himself in raptures on that celebrated phrase +of Nero, WOULD I HAD NEVER LEARNED TO WRITE! "An exclamation," he says, +"not studied, not uttered for the purpose of courting popularity, but +bursting insuppressibly from thy lips, and indicating the vehemence of +the struggle between the kindness of thy disposition and the duties of +thy office(86)." + + + (86) Ibid., Lib. II, cap. I. + +How many generous purposes, what bright and heart-thrilling visions of +beneficence and honour, does the young man, just starting in the race +of life, conceive! There is no one in that period of existence, who has +received a reasonable education, and has not in his very nonage been +trod down in the mire of poverty and oppression, that does not say +to himself, "Now is the time; and I will do something worthy to be +remembered by myself and by others." Youth is the season of generosity. +He calls over the catalogue of his endowments, his attainments, and +his powers, and exclaims, "To that which I am, my contemporaries are +welcome; it shall all be expended for their service and advantage." + +With what disdain he looks at the temptations of selfishness, effeminate +indulgence, and sordid gain! He feels within himself that he was born +for better things. His elders, and those who have already been tamed +down and emasculated by the corrupt commerce of the world, tell him, +"All this is the rhapsody of youth, fostered by inexperience; you will +soon learn to know better; in no long time you will see these things +in the same light in which we see them." But he despises the sinister +prognostic that is held out to him, and feels proudly conscious that the +sentiments that now live in his bosom, will continue to animate him to +his latest breath. + +Youth is necessarily ingenuous in its thoughts, and sanguine in its +anticipations of the future. But the predictions of the seniors I have +quoted, are unfortunately in too many cases fulfilled. The outline of +the scheme of civil society is in a high degree hostile to the growth +and maturity of human virtue. Its unavoidable operation, except in those +rare cases where positive institutions have arrested its tendency, has +been to divide a great portion of its members, especially in large and +powerful states, into those who are plentifully supplied with the means +of luxury and indulgence, and those who are condemned to suffer the +rigours of indigence. + +The young man who is born to the prospect of hereditary wealth, will +not unfrequently feel as generous emotions, and as much of the spirit of +self-denial, as the bosom of man is capable of conceiving. He will say, +What am I, that I should have a monopoly of those things, which, if +"well dispensed, in unsuperfluous, even proportion," would supply the +wants of all? He is ready, agreeably to the advice of Christ to the +young man in the Gospel, to "sell all that he has, and give to the +poor," if he could be shewn how so generous a resolution on his part +could be encountered with an extensive conspiracy of the well-disposed, +and rendered available to the real melioration of the state of man in +society. Who is there so ignorant, or that has lived in so barren and +unconceiving a tract of the soil of earth, that has not his tale to +tell of the sublime emotions and the generous purposes he has witnessed, +which so often mark this beautiful era of our sublunary existence? + +But this is in the dawn of life, and the first innocence of the human +heart. When once the young man of "great possessions" has entered the +gardens of Alcina, when he has drunk of the cup of her enchantments, and +seen all the delusive honour and consideration that, in the corruptness +of modern times, are the lot of him who is the owner of considerable +wealth, the dreams of sublime virtue are too apt to fade away. He was +willing before, to be nourished with the simplest diet, and clad with +the plainest attire. He knew that he was but a man like the rest of +his species, and was in equity entitled to no more than they. But he +presently learns a very different lesson. He believes that he cannot +live without splendour and luxury; he regards a noble mansion, elegant +vesture, horses, equipage, and an ample establishment, as things without +which he must be hopelessly miserable. That income, which he once +thought, if divided, would have secured the happiness and independence +of many, he now finds scarcely sufficient to supply his increased and +artificial cravings. + +But, if the rich are seduced and led away from the inspirations of +virtue, it may easily be conceived how much more injurious, and beyond +the power of control, are the effects on the poor. The mysterious source +from which the talents of men are derived, cannot be supposed in their +distribution to be regulated by the artificial laws of society, and +to have one measure for those which are bestowed upon the opulent, and +another for the destitute. It will therefore not seldom happen that +powers susceptible of the noblest uses may be cast, like "seed sown upon +stony places," where they have scarcely any chance to be unfolded and +matured. In a few instances they may attract the attention of +persons both able and willing to contribute to their being brought to +perfection. In a few instances the principle may be so vigorous, and +the tendency to excel so decisive, as to bid defiance to and to conquer +every obstacle. But in a vast majority the promise will be made vain, +and the hopes that might have been entertained will prove frustrate. +What can be expected from the buds of the most auspicious infancy, if +encountered in their earliest stage with the rigorous blasts of a polar +climate? + +And not only will the germs of excellence be likely to be extinguished +in the members of the lower class of the community, but the temptations +to irregular acts and incroachments upon the laws for the security of +property will often be so great, as to be in a manner irresistible. The +man who perceives that, with all his industry, he cannot provide for +the bare subsistence of himself and those dependent upon him, while +his neighbour revels in boundless profusion, cannot but sometimes feel +himself goaded to an attempt to correct this crying evil. What must +be expected to become of that general good-will which is the natural +inheritance of a well-constituted mind, when urged by so bitter +oppression and such unendurable sufferings? The whole temper of the +human heart must be spoiled, and the wine of life acquire a quality +acrimonious and malignant. + +But it is not only in the extreme classes of society that the glaring +inequality with which property is shared produces its injurious effects. +All those who are born in the intermediate ranks are urged with a +distempered ambition, unfavourable to independence of temper, and +to true philanthropy. Each man aspires to the improvement of his +circumstances, and the mounting, by one step and another, higher in +the scale of the community. The contemplations of the mind are turned +towards selfishness. In opulent communities we are presented with the +genuine theatre for courts and kings. And, wherever there are courts, +duplicity, lying, hypocrisy and cringing dwell as in their proper field. +Next come trades and professions, with all the ignoble contemplations, +the resolved smoothness, servility and falshood, by which they are +enabled to gain a prosperous and triumphant career. + +It is by such means, that man, whom "God made upright," is led away +into a thousand devious paths, and, long before the closing scene of his +life, is rendered something the very reverse of what in the dawning of +existence he promised to be. He is like Hazael in the Jewish history, +who, when the prophet set before him the crying enormities he should +hereafter perpetrate, exclaimed, "Is thy servant a dog," that he should +degrade himself so vilely? He feels the purity of his purposes; but is +goaded by one excitement and exasperation after another, till he becomes +debased, worthless and criminal. This is strikingly illustrated in +the story of Dr. Johnson and the celebrated Windham, who, when he was +setting out as secretary to the lord lieutenant of Ireland, expressed to +his aged monitor, some doubts whether he could ever reconcile himself +to certain indirect proceedings which he was afraid would be expected +of him: to which the veteran replied, "Oh, sir, be under no alarm; in a +short time, depend upon it, you will make a very pretty rascal(87)." + + + (87) The phrase here used by Johnson is marked with the licentiousness +we sometimes indulge in familiar conversation. Translate it into a +general maxim; and it contains much melancholy truth. It is true also, +that there are few individuals, who, in the urgent realities of +life, have not occasionally descended from the heights of theoretical +excellence. It is but just however to observe in the case of Windham, +that, though he was a man of many errors, he was not the less +characterised by high honour and eminent virtue. + + +Such are the "inventions of man," or rather such is the operation of +those institutions which ordinarily prevail in society. Still, however, +much honour ought to be rendered to our common nature, since all of us +are not led away by the potent spells of the enchantress. If the vulgar +crew of the vessel of Ulysses were by Circe changed into brutes, so was +not their commander. The human species is divided into two classes, the +successfully tempted, and the tempted in vain. And, though the latter +must be admitted to be a small minority, yet they ought to be regarded +as the "salt of the earth," which preserves the entire mass from +putridity and dishonour. They are like the remnant, which, if they had +been to be found in the cities of the Asphaltic lake, the God of Abraham +pronounced as worthy to redeem the whole community. They are like the +two witnesses amidst the general apostasy, spoken of in the book of +Revelations, who were the harbingers and forerunners of the millenium, +the reign of universal virtue and peace. Their excellence only appears +with the greater lustre amidst the general defection. + +Nothing can be more unjust than the spirit of general levelling and +satire, which so customarily prevails. History records, if you will, the +vices and follies of mankind. But does it record nothing else? Are +the virtues of the best men, the noblest philosophers, and the most +disinterested patriots of antiquity, nothing? It is impossible for two +things to be more unlike than the general profligacy of the reigns of +Charles the Second and Louis the Fifteenth on the one hand, and the +austere virtues and the extinction of all private considerations in the +general happiness and honour, which constitute the spirit of the best +pages of ancient history, and which exalt and transfix the spirit of +every ingenuous and high-souled reader, on the other. + +Let us then pay to human virtue the honour that is so justly its due! +Imagination is indeed a marvellous power; but imagination never equalled +history, the achievements which man has actually performed. It is in +vain that the man of contemplation sits down in his closet; it is in +vain that the poet yields the reins to enthusiasm and fancy: there is +something in the realities of life, that excites the mind infinitely +more, than is in the power of the most exalted reverie. The true hero +cannot, like the poet, or the delineator of fictitious adventures, put +off what he has to do till to-morrow. The occasion calls, and he must +obey. He sees the obstacles, and the adversary he has to encounter, +before him. He sees the individuals, for whose dear sake he resolves to +expose himself to every hazard and every evil. The very circumstance, +that he is called on to act in the face of the public, animates him. +It is thus that resolution is produced, that martyrdom is voluntarily +encountered, and that the deeds of genuine, pure and undeniable heroism +are performed. + +Let then no man, in the supercilious spirit of a fancied disdain, allow +himself to detract from our common nature. We are ourselves the models +of all the excellence that the human mind can conceive. There have been +men, whose virtues may well redeem all the contempt with which satire +and detraction have sought to overwhelm our species. There have been +memorable periods in the history of man, when the best, the most +generous and exalted sentiments have swallowed up and obliterated all +that was of an opposite character. And it is but just, that those by +whom these things are fairly considered, should anticipate the progress +of our nature, and believe that human understanding and human virtue +will hereafter accomplish such things as the heart of man has never yet +been daring enough to conceive. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thoughts on Man, by William Godwin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOUGHTS ON MAN *** + +***** This file should be named 743.txt or 743.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/4/743/ + +Produced by Charles Keller + +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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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +THOUGHTS ON MAN +HIS NATURE, PRODUCTIONS AND DISCOVERIES +INTERSPERSED WITH SOME PARTICULARS +RESPECTING THE AUTHOR +by +WILLIAM GODWIN + + + + Oh, the blood more stirs +To rouse a lion, than to start a hare! + +SHAKESPEARE + + + + +LONDON: +EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. +1831. + +PREFACE + +In the ensuing volume I have attempted to give a defined and +permanent form to a variety of thoughts, which have occurred to +my mind in the course of thirty-four years, it being so long +since I published a volume, entitled, the Enquirer,--thoughts, +which, if they have presented themselves to other men, have, at +least so far as I am aware, never been given to the public +through the medium of the press. During a part of this period I +had remained to a considerable degree unoccupied in my character +of an author, and had delivered little to the press that bore my +name.--And I beg the reader to believe, that, since I entered in +1791 upon that which may be considered as my vocation in life, I +have scarcely in any instance contributed a page to any +periodical miscellany. + +My mind has been constitutionally meditative, and I should not +have felt satisfied, if I had not set in order for publication +these special fruits of my meditations. I had entered upon a +certain career; and I held it for my duty not to abandon it. + +One thing further I feel prompted to say. I have always regarded +it as my office to address myself to plain men, and in clear and +unambiguous terms. It has been my lot to have occasional +intercourse with some of those who consider themselves as +profound, who deliver their oracles in obscure phraseology, and +who make it their boast that few men can understand them, and +those few only through a process of abstract reflection, and by +means of unwearied application. + +To this class of the oracular I certainly did not belong. I felt +that I had nothing to say, that it should be very difficult to +understand. I resolved, if I could help it, not to "darken +counsel by words without knowledge." This was my principle in +the Enquiry concerning Political Justice. And I had my reward. +I had a numerous audience of all classes, of every age, and of +either sex. The young and the fair did not feel deterred from +consulting my pages. + +It may be that that book was published in a propitious season. I +am told that nothing coming from the press will now be welcomed, +unless it presents itself in the express form of amusement. He +who shall propose to himself for his principal end, to draw aside +in one particular or another the veil from the majesty of +intellectual or moral truth, must lay his account in being +received with little attention. + +I have not been willing to believe this: and I publish my +speculations accordingly. I have aimed at a popular, and (if I +could reach it) an interesting style; and, if I am thrust aside +and disregarded, I shall console myself with believing that I +have not neglected what it was in my power to achieve. + +One characteristic of the present publication will not fail to +offer itself to the most superficial reader. I know many men who +are misanthropes, and profess to look down with disdain on their +species. My creed is of an opposite character. All that we +observe that is best and most excellent in the intellectual +world, is man: and it is easy to perceive in many cases, that +the believer in mysteries does little more, than dress up his +deity in the choicest of human attributes and qualifications. I +have lived among, and I feel an ardent interest in and love for, +my brethren of mankind. This sentiment, which I regard with +complacency in my own breast, I would gladly cherish in others. +In such a cause I am well pleased to enrol myself a missionary. + + February 15, 1831. + + +The particulars respecting the author, referred to in the +title-page, will be found principally in Essays VII, IX, XIV, and +XVIII. + + +CONTENTS + +Essay. +I. Of Body and Mind. The Prologue +II. Of the Distribution of Talents +III. Of Intellectual Abortion +IV. Of the Durability of Human Achievements and Productions +V. Of the Rebelliousness of Man +VI. Of Human Innocence +VII. Of the Duration of Human Life +VIII. Of Human Vegetation +IX. Of Leisure +X. Of Imitation and Invention +XI. Of Self-Love and Benevolence +XII. Of the Liberty of Human Actions +XIII. Of Belief +XIV. Of Youth and Age +XV. Of Love and Friendship +XVI. Of Frankness and Reserve +XVII. Of Ballot +XVIII. Of Diffidence +XIX. Of Self Complacence +XX. Of Phrenology +XXI. Of Astronomy +XXII. Of the Material Universe +XXIII. Of Human Virtue. The Epilogue + + +THOUGHTS, &c. + + +ESSAY I. +OF BODY AND MIND. + +THE PROLOGUE. + +There is no subject that more frequently occupies the attention +of the contemplative than man: yet there are many circumstances +concerning him that we shall hardly admit to have been +sufficiently considered. + +Familiarity breeds contempt. That which we see every day and +every hour, it is difficult for us to regard with admiration. To +almost every one of our stronger emotions novelty is a necessary +ingredient. The simple appetites of our nature may perhaps form +an exception. The appetite for food is perpetually renewed in a +healthy subject with scarcely any diminution and love, even the +most refined, being combined with one of our original impulses, +will sometimes for that reason withstand a thousand trials, and +perpetuate itself for years. In all other cases it is required, +that a fresh impulse should be given, that attention should anew +be excited, or we cannot admire. Things often seen pass feebly +before our senses, and scarcely awake the languid soul. + +"Man is the most excellent and noble creature of the world, the +principal and mighty work of God, the wonder of nature, the +marvel of marvels[1]." + +[1] Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 1. + + +Let us have regard to his corporeal structure. There is a +simplicity in it, that at first perhaps we slightly consider. +But how exactly is it fashioned for strength and agility! It is +in no way incumbered. It is like the marble when it comes out of +the hand of the consummate sculptor; every thing unnecessary is +carefully chiseled away; and the joints, the muscles, the +articulations, and the veins come out, clean and finished. It +has long ago been observed, that beauty, as well as virtue, is +the middle between all extremes: that nose which is neither +specially long, nor short, nor thick, nor thin, is the perfect +nose; and so of the rest. In like manner, when I speak of man +generally, I do not regard any aberrations of form, obesity, a +thick calf, a thin calf; I take the middle between all extremes; +and this is emphatically man. + +Man cannot keep pace with a starting horse: but he can +persevere, and beats him in the end. + +What an infinite variety of works is man by his corporeal form +enabled to accomplish! In this respect he casts the whole +creation behind him. + +What a machine is the human hand! When we analyse its parts and +its uses, it appears to be the most consummate of our members. +And yet there are other parts, that may maintain no mean +rivalship against it. + +What a sublimity is to be attributed to his upright form! He is +not fashioned, veluti pecora, quae natura prona atque ventri +obedientia finxit. He is made coeli convexa tueri. The looks +that are given him in his original structure, are "looks +commercing with the skies." + +How surpassingly beautiful are the features of his countenance; +the eyes, the nose, the mouth! How noble do they appear in a +state of repose! With what never-ending variety and emphasis do +they express the emotions of his mind! In the visage of man, +uncorrupted and undebased, we read the frankness and +ingenuousness of his soul, the clearness of his reflections, the +penetration of his spirit. What a volume of understanding is +unrolled in his broad, expanded, lofty brow! In his countenance +we see expressed at one time sedate confidence and awful +intrepidity, and at another godlike condescension and the most +melting tenderness. Who can behold the human eye, suddenly +suffused with moisture, or gushing with tears unbid, and the +quivering lip, without unspeakable emotion? Shakespear talks of +an eye, "whose bend could awe the world." + +What a miraculous thing is the human complexion! We are sent +into the world naked, that all the variations of the blood might +be made visible. However trite, I cannot avoid quoting here the +lines of the most deep-thinking and philosophical of our poets: + + We understood + Her by her sight: her pure and eloquent blood + Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought, + That one might almost say her body thought. + +What a curious phenomenon is that of blushing! It is impossible +to witness this phenomenon without interest and sympathy. It +comes at once, unanticipated by the person in whom we behold it. +It comes from the soul, and expresses with equal certainty shame, +modesty, and vivid, uncontrollable affection. It spreads, as it +were in so many stages, over the cheeks, the brow, and the neck, +of him or her in whom the sentiment that gives birth to it is +working. + +Thus far I have not mentioned speech, not perhaps the most +inestimable of human gifts, but, if it is not that, it is at +least the endowment, which makes man social, by which principally +we impart our sentiments to each other, and which changes us from +solitary individuals, and bestows on us a duplicate and +multipliable existence. Beside which it incalculably increases +the perfection of one. The man who does not speak, is an +unfledged thinker; and the man that does not write, is but half +an investigator. + +Not to enter into all the mysteries of articulate speech and the +irresistible power of eloquence, whether addressed to a single +hearer, or instilled into the ears of many,--a topic that belongs +perhaps less to the chapter of body than mind,--let us for a +moment fix our thoughts steadily upon that little implement, the +human voice. Of what unnumbered modulations is it susceptible! +What terror may it inspire! How may it electrify the soul, and +suspend all its functions! How infinite is its melody! How +instantly it subdues the hearer to pity or to love! How does the +listener hang upon every note praying that it may last for ever, + + ----that even silence + Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might + Deny her nature, and be never more, + Still to be so displaced. + +It is here especially that we are presented with the triumphs of +civilisation. How immeasurable is the distance between the voice +of the clown, who never thought of the power that dwells in this +faculty, who delivers himself in a rude, discordant and +unmodulated accent, and is accustomed to confer with his fellow +at the distance of two fields, and the man who understands his +instrument as Handel understood the organ, and who, whether he +thinks of it or no, sways those that hear him as implicitly as +Orpheus is said to have subdued the brute creation! + +From the countenance of man let us proceed to his figure. Every +limb is capable of speaking, and telling its own tale. What can +equal the magnificence of the neck, the column upon which the +head reposes! The ample chest may denote an almost infinite +strength and power. Let us call to mind the Apollo Belvidere, +and the Venus de Medicis, whose very "bends are adornings." What +loftiness and awe have I seen expressed in the step of an +actress, not yet deceased, when first she advanced, and came down +towards the audience! I was ravished, and with difficulty kept +my seat! Pass we to the mazes of the dance, the inimitable +charms and picturesque beauty that may be given to the figure +while still unmoved, and the ravishing grace that dwells in it +during its endless changes and evolutions. + +The upright figure of man produces, incidentally as it were, and +by the bye, another memorable effect. Hence we derive the power +of meeting in halls, and congregations, and crowded assemblies. +We are found "at large, though without number," at solemn +commemorations and on festive occasions. We touch each other, as +the members of a gay party are accustomed to do, when they wait +the stroke of an electrical machine, and the spark spreads along +from man to man. It is thus that we have our feelings in common +at a theatrical representation and at a public dinner, that +indignation is communicated, and patriotism become irrepressible. + +One man can convey his sentiments in articulate speech to a +thousand; and this is the nursing mother of oratory, of public +morality, of public religion, and the drama. The privilege we +thus possess, we are indeed too apt to abuse; but man is scarcely +ever so magnificent and so awful, as when hundreds of human heads +are assembled together, hundreds of faces lifted up to +contemplate one object, and hundreds of voices uttered in the +expression of one common sentiment. + +But, notwithstanding the infinite beauty, the magazine of +excellencies and perfections, that appertains to the human body, +the mind claims, and justly claims, an undoubted superiority. I +am not going into an enumeration of the various faculties and +endowments of the mind of man, as I have done of his body. The +latter was necessary for my purpose. Before I proceeded to +consider the ascendancy of mind, the dominion and loftiness it is +accustomed to assert, it appeared but just to recollect what was +the nature and value of its subject and its slave. + +By the mind we understand that within us which feels and thinks, +the seat of sensation and reason. Where it resides we cannot +tell, nor can authoritatively pronounce, as the apostle says, +relatively to a particular phenomenon, "whether it is in the +body, or out of the body." Be it however where or what it may, +it is this which constitutes the great essence of, and gives +value to, our existence; and all the wonders of our microcosm +would without it be a form only, destined immediately to perish, +and of no greater account than as a clod of the valley. + +It was an important remark, suggested to me many years ago by an +eminent physiologer and anatomist, that, when I find my attention +called to any particular part or member of my body, I may be +morally sure that there is something amiss in the processes of +that part or member. As long as the whole economy of the frame +goes on well and without interruption, our attention is not +called to it. The intellectual man is like a disembodied spirit. + +He is almost in the state of the dervise in the Arabian Nights, +who had the power of darting his soul into the unanimated body of +another, human or brute, while he left his own body in the +condition of an insensible carcase, till it should be revivified +by the same or some other spirit. When I am, as it is vulgarly +understood, in a state of motion, I use my limbs as the +implements of my will. When, in a quiescent state of the body, I +continue to think, to reflect and to reason, I use, it may be, +the substance of the brain as the implement of my thinking, +reflecting and reasoning; though of this in fact we know nothing. + +We have every reason to believe that the mind cannot subsist +without the body; at least we must be very different creatures +from what we are at present, when that shall take place. For a +man to think, agreeably and with serenity, he must be in some +degree of health. The corpus sanum is no less indispensible than +the mens sana. We must eat, and drink, and sleep. We must have +a reasonably good appetite and digestion, and a fitting +temperature, neither too hot nor cold. It is desirable that we +should have air and exercise. But this is instrumental merely. +All these things are negatives, conditions without which we +cannot think to the best purpose, but which lend no active +assistance to our thinking. + +Man is a godlike being. We launch ourselves in conceit into +illimitable space, and take up our rest beyond the fixed stars. +We proceed without impediment from country to country, and from +century to century, through all the ages of the past, and through +the vast creation of the imaginable future. We spurn at the +bounds of time and space; nor would the thought be less futile +that imagines to imprison the mind within the limits of the body, +than the attempt of the booby clown who is said within a thick +hedge to have plotted to shut in the flight of an eagle. + +We never find our attention called to any particular part or +member of the body, except when there is somewhat amiss in that +part or member. And, in like manner as we do not think of any +one part or member in particular, so neither do we consider our +entire microcosm and frame. The body is apprehended as no more +important and of intimate connection to a man engaged in a train +of reflections, than the house or apartment in which he dwells. +The mind may aptly be described under the denomination of the +"stranger at home." On set occasions and at appropriate times we +examine our stores, and ascertain the various commodities we +have, laid up in our presses and our coffers. Like the governor +of a fort in time of peace, which was erected to keep out a +foreign assailant, we occasionally visit our armoury, and take +account of the muskets, the swords, and other implements of war +it contains, but for the most part are engaged in the occupations +of peace, and do not call the means of warfare in any sort to our +recollection. + +The mind may aptly be described under the denomination of the +"stranger at home." With their bodies most men are little +acquainted. We are "like unto a man beholding his natural face +in a glass, who beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and +straightway forgetteth what manner of man he is." In the +ruminations of the inner man, and the dissecting our thoughts and +desires, we employ our intellectual arithmetic, we add, and +subtract, and multiply, and divide, without asking the aid, +without adverting to the existence, of our joints and members. +Even as to the more corporeal part of our avocations, we behold +the external world, and proceed straight to the object of our +desires, without almost ever thinking of this medium, our own +material frame, unaided by which none of these things could be +accomplished. In this sense we may properly be said to be +spiritual existences, however imperfect may be the idea we are +enabled to affix to the term spirit. + +Hence arises the notion, which has been entertained ever since +the birth of reflection and logical discourse in the world, and +which in some faint and confused degree exists probably even +among savages, that the body is the prison of the mind. It is in +this sense that Waller, after completing fourscore years of age, +expresses himself in these affecting and interesting couplets. + + When we for age could neither read nor write, + The subject made us able to indite. + The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, + Lets in new light by chinks that time hath made: + Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become, + As they draw near to their eternal home. + +Thus it is common with persons of elevated soul to talk of +neglecting, overlooking, and taking small account of the body. +It is in this spirit that the story is recorded of Anaxarchus, +who, we are told, was ordered by Nicocreon, tyrant of Salamis, to +be pounded in a mortar, and who, in contempt of his mortal +sufferings, exclaimed, "Beat on, tyrant! thou dost but strike +upon the case of Anaxarchus; thou canst not touch the man +himself." And it is in something of the same light that we must +regard what is related of the North American savages. Beings, +who scoff at their tortures, must have an idea of something that +lies beyond the reach of their assailants. + +It is just however to observe, that some of the particulars here +related, belong not less to the brute creation than to man. If +men are imperfectly acquainted with their external figure and +appearance, this may well be conceived to be still more +predicable of the inferior animals. It is true that all of them +seem to be aware of the part in their structure, where lie their +main strength and means of hostility. Thus the bull attacks with +his horns, and the horse with his heels, the beast of prey with +his claws, the bird with his beak, and insects and other venomous +creatures with their sting. We know not by what impulse they are +prompted to the use of the various means which are so intimately +connected with their preservation and welfare; and we call it +instinct. We may be certain it does not arise from a careful +survey of their parts and members, and a methodised selection of +the means which shall be found most effectual for the +accomplishment of their ends. There is no premeditation; and, +without anatomical knowledge, or any distinct acquaintance with +their image and likeness, they proceed straight to their purpose. + +Hence, even as men, they are more familiar with the figures and +appearance of their fellows, their allies, or their enemies, than +with their own. + +Man is a creature of mingled substance. I am many times a day +compelled to acknowledge what a low, mean and contemptible being +I am. Philip of Macedon had no need to give it in charge to a +page, to repair to him every morning, and repeat, "Remember, sir, +you are a man." A variety of circumstances occur to us, while we +eat, and drink, and submit to the humiliating necessities of +nature, that may well inculcate into us this salutary lesson. +The wonder rather is, that man, who has so many things to put him +in mind to be humble and despise himself, should ever have been +susceptible of pride and disdain. Nebuchadnezzar must indeed +have been the most besotted of mortals, if it were necessary that +he should be driven from among men, and made to eat grass like an +ox, to convince him that he was not the equal of the power that +made him. + +But fortunately, as I have said, man is a "stranger at home." +Were it not for this, how incomprehensible would be + + The ceremony that to great ones 'longs, + The monarch's crown, and the deputed sword, + The marshal's truncheon, and the judge's robe! + +How ludicrous would be the long procession and the caparisoned +horse, the gilded chariot and the flowing train, the colours +flying, the drums beating, and the sound of trumpets rending the +air, which after all only introduce to us an ordinary man, no +otherwise perhaps distinguished from the vilest of the ragged +spectators, than by the accident of his birth! + +But what is of more importance in the temporary oblivion we are +enabled to throw over the refuse of the body, it is thus we +arrive at the majesty of man. That sublimity of conception which +renders the poet, and the man of great literary and original +endowments "in apprehension like a God," we could not have, if we +were not privileged occasionally to cast away the slough and +exuviae of the body from incumbering and dishonouring us, even as +Ulysses passed over his threshold, stripped of the rags that had +obscured him, while Minerva enlarged his frame, and gave +loftiness to his stature, added a youthful beauty and grace to +his motions, and caused his eyes to flash with more than mortal +fire. With what disdain, when I have been rapt in the loftiest +moods of mind, do I look down upon my limbs, the house of clay +that contains me, the gross flesh and blood of which my frame is +composed, and wonder at a lodging, poorly fitted to entertain so +divine a guest! + +A still more important chapter in the history of the human mind +has its origin in these considerations. Hence it is that +unenlightened man, in almost all ages and countries, has been +induced, independently of divine revelation, to regard death, the +most awful event to which we are subject, as not being the +termination of his existence. We see the body of our friend +become insensible, and remain without motion, or any external +indication of what we call life. We can shut it up in an +apartment, and visit it from day to day. If we had perseverance +enough, and could so far conquer the repugnance and humiliating +feeling with which the experiment would be attended, we might +follow step by step the process of decomposition and +putrefaction, and observe by what degrees the "dust returned unto +earth as it was." But, in spite of this demonstration of the +senses, man still believes that there is something in him that +lives after death. The mind is so infinitely superior in +character to this case of flesh that incloses it, that he cannot +persuade himself that it and the body perish together. + +There are two considerations, the force of which made man a +religious animal. The first is, his proneness to ascribe +hostility or benevolent intention to every thing of a memorable +sort that occurs to him in the order of nature. The second is +that of which I have just treated, the superior dignity of mind +over body. This, we persuade ourselves, shall subsist uninjured +by the mutations of our corporeal frame, and undestroyed by the +wreck of the material universe. + + + +ESSAY II. +OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS. + +{Greek - omitted} Thucydides, Lib.I, cap. 84. + +SECTION I. + +PRESUMED DEARTH OF INTELLECTUAL POWER.--SCHOOLS FOR THE EDUCATION +OF YOUTH CONSIDERED.--THE BOY AND THE MAN COMPARED. + +One of the earliest judgments that is usually made by those whose +attention is turned to the characters of men in the social state, +is of the great inequality with which the gifts of the +understanding are distributed among us. + +Go into a miscellaneous society; sit down at table with ten or +twelve men; repair to a club where as many are assembled in an +evening to relax from the toils of the day--it is almost +proverbial, that one or two of these persons will perhaps be +brilliant, and the rest "weary, stale, flat and unprofitable." + +Go into a numerous school--the case will be still more striking. +I have been present where two men of superior endowments +endeavoured to enter into a calculation on the subject; and they +agreed that there was not above one boy in a hundred, who would +be found to possess a penetrating understanding, and to be able +to strike into a path of intellect that was truly his own. How +common is it to hear the master of such a school say, "Aye, I am +proud of that lad; I have been a schoolmaster these thirty years, +and have never had such another!" + +The society above referred to, the dinner-party, or the club, was +to a considerable degree select, brought together by a certain +supposed congeniality between the individuals thus assembled. +Were they taken indiscriminately, as boys are when consigned to +the care of a schoolmaster, the proportion of the brilliant would +not be a whit greater than in the latter case. + +A main criterion of the superiority of the schoolboy will be +found in his mode of answering a casual question proposed by the +master. The majority will be wholly at fault, will shew that +they do not understand the question, and will return an answer +altogether from the purpose. One in a hundred perhaps, perhaps +in a still less proportion, will reply in a laudable manner, and +convey his ideas in perspicuous and spirited language. + +It does not certainly go altogether so ill, with men grown up to +years of maturity. They do not for the most part answer a plain +question in a manner to make you wonder at their fatuity. + +A main cause of the disadvantageous appearance exhibited by the +ordinary schoolboy, lies in what we denominate sheepishness. He +is at a loss, and in the first place stares at you, instead of +giving an answer. He does not make by many degrees so poor a +figure among his equals, as when he is addressed by his seniors. + +One of the reasons of the latter phenomenon consists in the +torpedo effect of what we may call, under the circumstances, the +difference of ranks. The schoolmaster is a despot to his +scholar; for every man is a despot, who delivers his judgment +from the single impulse of his own will. The boy answers his +questioner, as Dolon answers Ulysses in the Iliad, at the point +of the sword. It is to a certain degree the same thing, when the +boy is questioned merely by his senior. He fears he knows not +what,--a reprimand, a look of lofty contempt, a gesture of +summary disdain. He does not think it worth his while under +these circumstances, to "gird up the loins of his mind." He +cannot return a free and intrepid answer but to the person whom +he regards as his equal. There is nothing that has so +disqualifying an effect upon him who is to answer, as the +consideration that he who questions is universally acknowledged +to be a being of a higher sphere, or, as between the boy and the +man, that he is the superior in conventional and corporal +strength. + +Nor is it simple terror that restrains the boy from answering his +senior with the same freedom and spirit, as he would answer his +equal. He does not think it worth his while to enter the lists. +He despairs of doing the thing in the way that shall gain +approbation, and therefore will not try. He is like a boxer, +who, though skilful, will not fight with one hand tied behind +him. He would return you the answer, if it occurred without his +giving himself trouble; but he will not rouse his soul, and task +his strength to give it. He is careless; and prefers trusting to +whatever construction you may put upon him, and whatever +treatment you may think proper to bestow upon him. It is the +most difficult thing in the world, for the schoolmaster to +inspire into his pupil the desire to do his best. + +Among full-grown men the case is different. The schoolboy, +whether under his domestic roof, or in the gymnasium, is in a +situation similar to that of the Christian slaves in Algiers, as +described by Cervantes in his History of the Captive. "They were +shut up together in a species of bagnio, from whence they were +brought out from time to time to perform certain tasks in common: + +they might also engage in pranks, and get into scrapes, as they +pleased; but the master would hang up one, impale another, and +cut off the ears of a third, for little occasion, or even wholly +without it." Such indeed is the condition of the child almost +from the hour of birth. The severities practised upon him are +not so great as those resorted to by the proprietor of slaves in +Algiers; but they are equally arbitrary and without appeal. He +is free to a certain extent, even as the captives described by +Cervantes; but his freedom is upon sufferance, and is brought to +an end at any time at the pleasure of his seniors. The child +therefore feels his way, and ascertains by repeated experiments +how far he may proceed with impunity. He is like the slaves of +the Romans on the days of the Saturnalia. He may do what he +pleases, and command tasks to his masters, but with this +difference--the Roman slave knew when the days of his licence +would be over, and comported himself accordingly; but the child +cannot foresee at any moment when the bell will be struck, and +the scene reversed. It is commonly enough incident to this +situation, that the being who is at the mercy of another, will +practise, what Tacitus calls, a "vernacular urbanity," make his +bold jests, and give utterance to his saucy innuendoes, with as +much freedom as the best; but he will do it with a wary eye, not +knowing how soon he may feel his chain plucked! and himself +compulsorily reduced into the established order. His more usual +refuge therefore is, to do nothing, and to wrap himself up in +that neutrality towards his seniors, that may best protect him +from their reprimand and their despotism. + +The condition of the full-grown man is different from that of the +child, and he conducts himself accordingly. He is always to a +certain degree under the control of the political society of +which he is a member. He is also exposed to the chance of +personal insult and injury from those who are stronger than he, +or who may render their strength more considerable by combination +and numbers. The political institutions which control him in +certain respects, protect him also to a given degree from the +robber and assassin, or from the man who, were it not for +penalties and statutes, would perpetrate against him all the +mischiefs which malignity might suggest. Civil policy however +subjects him to a variety of evils, which wealth or corruption +are accustomed to inflict under the forms of justice; at the same +time that it can never wholly defend him from those violences to +which he would be every moment exposed in what is called the +state of nature. + +The full-grown man in the mean time is well pleased when he +escapes from the ergastulum where he had previously dwelt, and in +which he had experienced corporal infliction and corporal +restraint. At first, in the newness of his freedom, he breaks +out into idle sallies and escapes, and is like the full-fed steed +that manifests his wantonness in a thousand antics and ruades. +But this is a temporary extravagance. He presently becomes as +wise and calculating, as the schoolboy was before him. + +The human being then, that has attained a certain stature, +watches and poises his situation, and considers what he may do +with impunity. He ventures at first with no small diffidence, +and pretends to be twice as assured as he really is. He +accumulates experiment after experiment, till they amount to a +considerable volume. It is not till he has passed successive +lustres, that he attains that firm step, and temperate and +settled accent, which characterise the man complete. He then no +longer doubts, but is ranged on the full level of the ripened +members of the community. + +There is therefore little room for wonder, if we find the same +individual, whom we once knew a sheepish and irresolute +schoolboy, that hung his head, that replied with inarticulated +monotony, and stammered out his meaning, metamorphosed into a +thoroughly manly character, who may take his place on the bench +with senators, and deliver a grave and matured opinion as well as +the best. It appears then that the trial and review of +full-grown men is not altogether so disadvantageous to the +reckoning of our common nature, as that of boys at school. + +It is not however, that the full-grown man is not liable to be +checked, reprimanded and rebuked, even as the schoolboy is. He +has his wife to read him lectures, and rap his knuckles; he has +his master, his landlord, or the mayor of his village, to tell +him of his duty in an imperious style, and in measured sentences; +if he is a member of a legislature, even there he receives his +lessons, and is told, either in phrases of well-conceived irony, +or by the exhibition of facts and reasonings which take him by +surprise, that he is not altogether the person he deemed himself +to be. But he does not mind it. Like Iago in the play, he +"knows his price, and, by the faith of man, that he is worth no +worse a place" than that which he occupies. He finds out the +value of the check he receives, and lets it "pass by him like the +idle wind"--a mastery, which the schoolboy, however he may affect +it, never thoroughly attains to. + +But it unfortunately happens, that, before he has arrived at that +degree of independence, the fate of the individual is too often +decided for ever. How are the majority of men trampled in the +mire, made "hewers of wood, and drawers of water," long, very +long, before there was an opportunity of ascertaining what it was +of which they were capable! Thus almost every one is put in the +place which by nature he was least fit for: and, while perhaps a +sufficient quantity of talent is extant in each successive +generation, yet, for want of each man's being duly estimated, and +assigned his appropriate duty, the very reverse may appear to be +the case. By the time that they have attained to that sober +self-confidence that might enable them to assert themselves, they +are already chained to a fate, or thrust down to a condition, +from which no internal energies they possess can ever empower +them to escape. + + +SECTION II. + +EQUALITY OF MAN WITH MAN.--TALENTS EXTENSIVELY DISTRIBUTED.--WAY +IN WHICH THIS DISTRIBUTION IS COUNTERACTED.--THE APTITUDE OF +CHILDREN FOR DIFFERENT PURSUITS SHOULD BE EARLY SOUGHT OUT.-- +HINTS FOR A BETTER SYSTEM OF EDUCATION.--AMBITION AN UNIVERSAL +PRINCIPLE. + +The reflections thus put down, may assist us in answering the +question as to the way in which talents are distributed among men +by the hand of nature. + +All things upon the earth and under the earth, and especially all +organised bodies of the animal or vegetable kingdom, fall into +classes. It is by this means, that the child no sooner learns +the terms, man, horse, tree, flower, than, if an object of any of +these kinds which he has never seen before, is exhibited to him, +he pronounces without hesitation, This is a man, a horse, a tree, +a flower. + +All organised bodies of the animal or vegetable kingdom are cast +in a mould of given dimension and feature belonging to a certain +number of individuals, though distinguished by inexhaustible +varieties. It is by means of those features that the class of +each individual is determined. + +To confine ourselves to man. + +All men, the monster and the lusus naturae excepted, have a +certain form, a certain complement of limbs, a certain internal +structure, and organs of sense--may we not add further, certain +powers of intellect? + +Hence it seems to follow, that man is more like and more equal to +man, deformities of body and abortions of intellect excepted, +than the disdainful and fastidious censors of our common nature +are willing to admit. + +I am inclined to believe, that, putting idiots and extraordinary +cases out of the question, every human creature is endowed with +talents, which, if rightly directed, would shew him to be apt, +adroit, intelligent and acute, in the walk for which his +organisation especially fitted him. + +But the practices and modes of civilised life prompt us to take +the inexhaustible varieties of man, as he is given into our +guardianship by the bountiful hand of nature, and train him in +one uniform exercise, as the raw recruit is treated when he is +brought under the direction of his drill-serjeant. + +The son of the nobleman, of the country-gentleman, and of those +parents who from vanity or whatever other motive are desirous +that their offspring should be devoted to some liberal +profession, is in nearly all instances sent to the +grammar-school. It is in this scene principally, that the +judgment is formed that not above one boy in a hundred possesses +an acute understanding, or will be able to strike into a path of +intellect that shall be truly his own. + +I do not object to this destination, if temperately pursued. It +is fit that as many children as possible should have their chance +of figuring in future life in what are called the higher +departments of intellect. A certain familiar acquaintance with +language and the shades of language as a lesson, will be +beneficial to all. The youth who has expended only six months in +acquiring the rudiments of the Latin tongue, will probably be +more or less the better for it in all his future life. + +But seven years are usually spent at the grammar-school by those +who are sent to it. I do not in many cases object to this. The +learned languages are assuredly of slow acquisition. In the +education of those who are destined to what are called the higher +departments of intellect, a long period may advantageously be +spent in the study of words, while the progress they make in +theory and dogmatical knowledge is too generally a store of +learning laid up, to be unlearned again when they reach the +period of real investigation and independent judgment. There is +small danger of this in the acquisition of words. + +But this method, indiscriminately pursued as it is now, is +productive of the worst consequences. Very soon a judgment may +be formed by the impartial observer, whether the pupil is at home +in the study of the learned languages, and is likely to make an +adequate progress. But parents are not impartial. There are +also two reasons why the schoolmaster is not the proper person to +pronounce: first, because, if he pronounces in the negative, he +will have reason to fear that the parent will be offended; and +secondly, because he does not like to lose his scholar. But the +very moment that it can be ascertained, that the pupil is not at +home in the study of the learned languages, and is unlikely to +make an adequate progress, at that moment he should be taken from +it. + +The most palpable deficiency that is to be found in relation to +the education of children, is a sound judgment to be formed as to +the vocation or employment in which each is most fitted to excel. + +As, according to the institutions of Lycurgus, as soon as a boy +was born, he was visited by the elders of the ward, who were to +decide whether he was to be reared, and would be made an +efficient member of the commonwealth, so it were to be desired +that, as early as a clear discrimination on the subject might be +practicable, a competent decision should be given as to the +future occupation and destiny of a child. + +But this is a question attended with no common degree of +difficulty. To the resolving such a question with sufficient +evidence, a very considerable series of observations would become +necessary. The child should be introduced into a variety of +scenes, and a magazine, so to speak, of those things about which +human industry and skill may be employed, should be successively +set before him. The censor who is to decide on the result of the +whole, should be a person of great sagacity, and capable of +pronouncing upon a given amount of the most imperfect and +incidental indications. He should be clear-sighted, and vigilant +to observe the involuntary turns of an eye, expressions of a lip, +and demonstrations of a limb. + +The declarations of the child himself are often of very small use +in the case. He may be directed by an impulse, which occurs in +the morning, and vanishes in the evening. His preferences change +as rapidly as the shapes we sometimes observe in the evening +clouds, and are governed by whim or fantasy, and not by any of +those indications which are parcel of his individual +constitution. He desires in many instances to be devoted to a +particular occupation, because his playfellow has been assigned +to it before him. + +The parent is not qualified to judge in this fundamental +question, because he is under the dominion of partiality, and +wishes that his child may become a lord chancellor, an +archbishop, or any thing else, the possessor of which condition +shall be enabled to make a splendid figure in the world. He is +not qualified, because he is an interested party, and, either +from an exaggerated estimate of his child's merits, or from a +selfish shrinking from the cost it might require to mature them, +is anxious to arrive at a conclusion not founded upon the +intrinsic claims of the case to be considered. + +Even supposing it to be sufficiently ascertained in what calling +it is that the child will be most beneficially engaged, a +thousand extrinsical circumstances will often prevent that from +being the calling chosen. Nature distributes her gifts without +any reference to the distinctions of artificial society. The +genius that demanded the most careful and assiduous cultivation, +that it might hereafter form the boast and ornament of the world, +will be reared amidst the chill blasts of poverty; while he who +was best adapted to make an exemplary carpenter or artisan, by +being the son of a nobleman is thrown a thousand fathoms wide of +his true destination. + +Human creatures are born into the world with various +dispositions. According to the memorable saying of Themistocles, +One man can play upon a psaltery or harp, and another can by +political skill and ingenuity convert a town of small account, +weak and insignificant, into a city noble, magnificent and great. + +It is comparatively a very little way that we can penetrate into +the mysteries of nature. + +Music seems to be one of the faculties most clearly defined in +early youth. The child who has received that destination from +the hands of nature, will even in infancy manifest a singular +delight in musical sounds, and will in no long time imitate +snatches of a tune. The present professor of music in the +university of Oxford contrived for himself, I believe at three +years old, a way for playing on an instrument, the piano forte, +unprompted by any of the persons about him. This is called +having an ear. + +Instances nearly as precocious are related of persons, who +afterwards distinguished themselves in the art of painting. + +These two kinds of original destination appear to be placed +beyond the reach of controversy. + +Horace says, The poet is born a poet, and cannot be made so by +the ingenuity of art: and this seems to be true. He sees the +objects about him with an eye peculiarly his own; the sounds that +reach his ear, produce an effect upon him, and leave a memory +behind, different from that which is experienced by his fellows. +His perceptions have a singular vividness. + + The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, + Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; + + And his imagination bodies forth + The forms of things unknown, + +It is not probable that any trainings of art can give these +endowments to him who has not received them from the gift of +nature. + +The subtle network of the brain, or whatever else it is, that +makes a man more fit for, and more qualified to succeed in, one +occupation than another, can scarcely be followed up and detected +either in the living subject or the dead one. But, as in the +infinite variety of human beings no two faces are so alike that +they cannot be distinguished, nor even two leaves plucked from +the same tree[2], so it may reasonably be presumed, that there +are varieties in the senses, the organs, and the internal +structure of the human species, however delicate, and to the +touch of the bystander evanescent, which may give to each +individual a predisposition to rise to a supreme degree of +excellence in some certain art or attainment, over a million of +competitors. + +[2] Papers between Clarke and Leibnitz, p. 95. + + +It has been said that all these distinctions and anticipations +are idle, because man is born without innate ideas. Whatever is +the incomprehensible and inexplicable power, which we call +nature, to which he is indebted for his formation, it is +groundless to suppose, that that power is cognisant of, and +guides itself in its operations by, the infinite divisibleness of +human pursuits in civilised society. A child is not designed by +his original formation to be a manufacturer of shoes, for he may +be born among a people by whom shoes are not worn, and still less +is he destined by his structure to be a metaphysician, an +astronomer, or a lawyer, a rope-dancer, a fortune-teller, or a +juggler. + +It is true that we cannot suppose nature to be guided in her +operations by the infinite divisibleness of human pursuits in +civilised society. But it is not the less true that one man is +by his structure best fitted to excel in some one in particular +of these multifarious pursuits, however fortuitously his +individual structure and that pursuit may be brought into +contact. Thus a certain calmness and steadiness of purpose, much +flexibility, and a very accurate proportion of the various limbs +of the body, are of great advantage in rope-dancing; while +lightness of the fingers, and a readiness to direct our thoughts +to the rapid execution of a purpose, joined with a steadiness of +countenance adapted to what is figuratively called throwing dust +in the eyes of the bystander, are of the utmost importance to the +juggler: and so of the rest. + +It is as much the temper of the individual, as any particular +subtlety of organ or capacity, that prepares him to excel in one +pursuit rather than a thousand others. And he must have been a +very inattentive observer of the indications of temper in an +infant in the first months of his existence, who does not confess +that there are various peculiarities in that respect which the +child brings into the world with him. + +There is excellent sense in the fable of Achilles in the island +of Scyros. He was placed there by his mother in female attire +among the daughters of Lycomedes, that he might not be seduced to +engage in the Trojan war. Ulysses was commissioned to discover +him, and, while he exhibited jewels and various woman's ornaments +to the princesses, contrived to mix with his stores a suit of +armour, the sight of which immediately awakened the spirit of the +hero. + +Every one has probably within him a string more susceptible than +the rest, that demands only a kindred impression to be made, to +call forth its latent character. Like the war-horse described in +the Book of Job: "He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his +strength; he goeth on to meet the armed men; he smelleth the +battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting." + +Nothing can be more unlike than the same man to himself, when he +is touched, and not touched, upon + + the master-string + That makes most harmony or discord to him. + +It is like the case of Manlius Torquatus in Livy, who by his +father was banished among his hinds for his clownish demeanour +and untractableness to every species of instruction that was +offered him, but who, understanding that his parent was +criminally arraigned for barbarous treatment of him, first +resolutely resorted to the accuser, compelling him upon pain of +death to withdraw his accusation, and subsequently, having +surmounted this first step towards an energetic carriage and +demeanour, proved one of the most illustrious characters that the +Roman republic had to boast. + +Those children whose parents have no intention of training them +to the highest departments of intellect, and have therefore no +thought of bestowing on them a classical education, nevertheless +for the most part send them to a school where they are to be +taught arithmetic, and the principles of English grammar. I +should say in this case, as I said before on the subject of +classical education, that a certain initiation in these +departments of knowledge, even if they are pursued a very little +way, will probably be beneficial to all. + +But it will often be found, in these schools for more ordinary +education, as in the school for classical instruction, that the +majority of the pupils will be seen to be unpromising, and, what +is usually called, dull. The mistake is, that the persons by +whom this is perceived, are disposed to set aside these pupils as +blockheads, and unsusceptible of any species of ingenuity. + +It is unreasonable that we should draw such a conclusion. + +In the first place, as has been already observed, it is the most +difficult thing in the world for the schoolmaster to inspire into +his pupil the desire to do his best. An overwhelming majority of +lads at school are in their secret hearts rebels to the +discipline under which they are placed. The instructor draws, +one way, and the pupil another. The object of the latter is to +find out how he may escape censure and punishment with the +smallest expence of scholastic application. He looks at the task +that is set him, without the most distant desire of improvement, +but with alienated and averted eye. And, where this is the case, +the wonder is not that he does not make a brilliant figure. It +is rather an evidence of the slavish and subservient spirit +incident to the majority of human beings, that he learns any +thing. Certainly the schoolmaster, who judges of the powers of +his pupil's mind by the progress he makes in what he would most +gladly be excused from learning, must be expected perpetually to +fall into the most egregious mistakes. + +The true test of the capacity of the individual, is where the +desire to succeed, and accomplish something effective, is already +awakened in the youthful mind. Whoever has found out what it is +in which he is qualified to excel, from that moment becomes a new +creature. The general torpor and sleep of the soul, which is +incident to the vast multitude of the human species, is departed +from him. We begin, from the hour in which our limbs are enabled +to exert themselves freely, with a puerile love of sport. +Amusement is the order of the day. But no one was ever so fond +of play, that he had not also his serious moments. Every human +creature perhaps is sensible to the stimulus of ambition. He is +delighted with the thought that he also shall be somebody, and +not a mere undistinguished pawn, destined to fill up a square in +the chess-board of human society. He wishes to be thought +something of, and to be gazed upon. Nor is it merely the wish to +be admired that excites him: he acts, that he may be satisfied +with himself. Self-respect is a sentiment dear to every heart. +The emotion can with difficulty be done justice to, that a man +feels, who is conscious that he is breathing his true element, +that every stroke that he strikes will have the effect he +designs, that he has an object before him, and every moment +approaches nearer to that object. Before, he was wrapped in an +opake cloud, saw nothing distinctly, and struck this way and that +at hazard like a blind man. But now the sun of understanding has +risen upon him; and every step that he takes, he advances with an +assured and undoubting confidence. + +It is an admirable remark, that the book which we read at the +very time that we feel a desire to read it, affords us ten times +the improvement, that we should have derived from it when it was +taken up by us as a task. It is just so with the man who chooses +his occupation, and feels assured that that about which he is +occupied is his true and native field. Compare this person with +the boy that studies the classics, or arithmetic, or any thing +else, with a secret disinclination, and, as Shakespear expresses +it, "creeps like snail, unwillingly, to school." They do not seem +as if they belonged to the same species. + +The result of these observations certainly strongly tends to +support the proposition laid down early in the present Essay, +that, putting idiots and extraordinary cases out of the question, +every human creature is endowed with talents, which, if rightly +directed, would shew him to be apt, adroit, intelligent and +acute, in the walk for which his organisation especially fitted +him. + + +SECTION III. + +ENCOURAGING VIEW OF OUR COMMON NATURE.--POWER OF SOUND EXPOSITION +AFFORDED TO ALL.--DOCTRINE OF THIS ESSAY AND THE HYPOTHESIS OF +HELVETIUS COMPARED.--THE WILLING AND UNWILLING PUPIL +CONTRASTED.--MISCHIEVOUS TENDENCY OF THE USUAL MODES OF +EDUCATION. + +What a beautiful and encouraging view is thus afforded us of our +common nature! It is not true, as certain disdainful and +fastidious censurers of their fellow-men would persuade us to +believe, that a thousand seeds are sown in the wide field of +humanity, for no other purpose than that half-a-dozen may grow up +into something magnificent and splendid, and that the rest, +though not absolutely extinguished in the outset, are merely +suffered to live that they may furnish manure and nourishment to +their betters. On the contrary, each man, according to this +hypothesis, has a sphere in which he may shine, and may +contemplate the exercise of his own powers with a well-grounded +satisfaction. He produces something as perfect in its kind, as +that which is effected under another form by the more brilliant +and illustrious of his species. He stands forward with a serene +confidence in the ranks of his fellow-creatures, and says, "I +also have my place in society, that I fill in a manner with which +I have a right to be satisfied." He vests a certain portion of +ingenuity in the work he turns out. He incorporates his mind +with the labour of his hands; and a competent observer will find +character and individuality in it. + +He has therefore nothing of the sheepishness of the ordinary +schoolboy, the tasks imposed upon whom by his instructor are +foreign to the true bent of his mind, and who stands cowed before +his seniors, shrinking under the judgment they may pass upon him, +and the oppression they may exercise towards him. He is probably +competent to talk in a manner that may afford instruction to men +in other respects wise and accomplished, and is no less clear and +well-digested in his discourse respecting the subjects to which +his study and labour have been applied, than they are on the +questions that have exercised the powers of analysis with which +they are endowed. Like Elihu in the Book of Job, he says, "I am +young, and you are old; I said therefore, Days shall speak, and +multitude of years shall teach wisdom. But there is a spirit in +man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him +understanding. Great men are not always wise; neither do the +aged understand judgment. Hearken therefore to me; and I also +will shew my opinion." + +What however in the last instance is affirmed, is not always +realised in the experiment. The humblest mechanic, who works con +amore, and feels that he discharges his office creditably, has a +sober satisfaction in the retrospect, and is able to express +himself perspicuously and well on the subject that has occupied +his industry. He has a just confidence in himself. If the +occasion arises, on which he should speak on the subject of what +he does, and the methods he adopts for effecting it, he will +undoubtedly acquit himself to the satisfaction of those who hear +him. He knows that the explanations he can afford will be sound +and masculine, and will stand the test of a rigid examination. + +But, in proportion as he feels the ground on which he stands, and +his own power to make it good, he will not fail to retire from an +audience that is not willing to be informed by him. He will +often appear in the presence of those, whom the established +arrangements of society call his superiors, who are more +copiously endowed with the treasures of language, and who, +confident perhaps in the advantage of opulence, and what is +called, however they may have received it, a liberal education, +regard with disdain his artless and unornamented explanations. +He did not, it may be, expect this. And, having experienced +several times such unmerited treatment, he is not willing again +to encounter it. He knew the worth of what he had to offer. +And, finding others indisposed to listen to his suggestions, he +contentedly confines them within the circle of his own thoughts. + +To this it must be added that, though he is able to explain +himself perspicuously, yet he is not master of the graces of +speech, nor even perhaps of the niceties of grammar. His voice +is not tuned to those winning inflections by which men, +accustomed to the higher ranks of society, are enabled so to +express themselves, + + That aged ears play truant at their tales, + And younger hearings are quite ravished, + So sweet and voluble is their discourse. + +On the contrary there is a ruggedness in his manner that jars +upon the sense. It is easy for the light and supercilious to +turn him into ridicule. And those who will not be satisfied with +the soundness of his matter, expounded, as he is able to expound +it, in clear and appropriate terms, will yield him small credit, +and listen to him with little delight. + +These considerations therefore bring us back again to the reasons +of the prevalent opinion, that the majority of mankind are dull, +and of apprehension narrow and confused. The mass of boys in the +process of their education appear so, because little of what is +addressed to them by their instructors, awakens their curiosity, +and inspires them with the desire to excel. The concealed spark +of ambition is not yet cleared from the crust that enveloped it +as it first came from the hand of nature. And in like manner the +elder persons, who have not experienced the advantages of a +liberal education, or by whom small profit was made by those +advantages, being defective in exterior graces, are generally +listened to with impatience, and therefore want the confidence +and the inclination to tell what they know. + +But these latter, if they are not attended to upon the subjects +to which their attention and ingenuity have been applied, do not +the less possess a knowledge and skill which are intrinsically +worthy of applause. They therefore contentedly shut up the sum +of their acquisitions in their own bosoms, and are satisfied with +the consciousness that they have not been deficient in performing +an adequate part in the generation of men among whom they live. + +Those persons who favour the opinion of the incessant +improveableness of the human species, have felt strongly prompted +to embrace the creed of Helvetius, who affirms that the minds of +men, as they are born into the world, are in a state of equality, +alike prepared for any kind of discipline and instruction that +may be afforded them, and that it depends upon education only, in +the largest sense of that word, including every impression that +may be made upon the mind, intentional or accidental, from the +hour of our birth, whether we shall be poets or philosophers, +dancers or singers, chemists or mathematicians, astronomers or +dissectors of the faculties of our common nature. + +But this is not true. It has already appeared in the course of +this Essay, that the talent, or, more accurately speaking, the +original suitableness of the individual for the cultivation, of +music or painting, depends upon certain peculiarities that we +bring into the world with us. The same thing may be affirmed of +the poet. As, in the infinite variety of human beings, there are +no two faces so alike that they cannot be distinguished, nor even +two leaves plucked from the same tree, so there are varieties in +the senses, the organs, and the internal structure of the human +species, however delicate, and to the touch of the bystander +evanescent, which give to each individual a predisposition to +rise to excellence in one particular art or attainment, rather +than in any other. + +And this view of things, if well considered, is as favourable, +nay, more so, to the hypothesis of the successive improveableness +of the human species, as the creed of Helvetius. According to +that philosopher, every human creature that is born into the +world, is capable of becoming, or being made, the equal of Homer, +Bacon or Newton, and as easily and surely of the one as the +other. This creed, if sincerely embraced, no doubt affords a +strong stimulus to both preceptor and pupil, since, if true, it +teaches us that any thing can be made of any thing, and that, +wherever there is mind, it is within the compass of possibility, +not only that that mind can be raised to a high pitch of +excellence, but even to a high pitch of that excellence, whatever +it is, that we shall prefer to all others, and most earnestly +desire. + +Still this creed will, after all, leave both preceptor and pupil +in a state of feeling considerably unsatisfactory. What it sets +before us, is too vast and indefinite. We shall be left long +perhaps in a state of balance as to what species of excellence we +shall choose; and, in the immense field of accessible improvement +it offers to us, without land-mark or compass for the direction +of our course, it is scarcely possible that we should feel that +assured confidence and anticipation of success, which are perhaps +indispensibly required to the completion of a truly arduous +undertaking. + +But, upon the principles laid down in this Essay, the case is +widely different. We are here presented in every individual +human creature with a subject better fitted for one sort of +cultivation than another. We are excited to an earnest study of +the individual, that we may the more unerringly discover what +pursuit it is for which his nature and qualifications especially +prepare him. We may be long in choosing. We may be even on the +brink of committing a considerable mistake. Our subsequent +observations may enable us to correct the inference we were +disposed to make from those which went before. Our sagacity is +flattered by the result of the laborious scrutiny which this view +of our common nature imposes upon us. + +In addition to this we reap two important advantages. + +In the first place, we feel assured that every child that is born +has his suitable sphere, to which if he is devoted, he will not +fail to make an honourable figure, or, in other words, will be +seen to be endowed with faculties, apt, adroit, intelligent and +acute. This consideration may reasonably stimulate us to call up +all our penetration for the purpose of ascertaining the proper +destination of the child for whom we are interested. + +And, secondly, having arrived at this point, we shall find +ourselves placed in a very different predicament from the +guardian or instructor, who, having selected at random the +pursuit which his fancy dictates, and in the choice of which he +is encouraged by the presumptuous assertions of a wild +metaphysical philosophy, must often, in spite of himself, feel a +secret misgiving as to the final event. He may succeed, and +present to a wondering world a consummate musician, painter, +poet, or philosopher; for even blind chance may sometimes hit the +mark, as truly as the most perfect skill. But he will probably +fail. Sudet multum, frustraque laboret. And, if he is +disappointed, he will not only feel that disappointment in the +ultimate result, but also in every step of his progress. When he +has done his best, exerted his utmost industry, and consecrated +every power of his soul to the energies he puts forth, he may +close every day, sometimes with a faint shadow of success, and +sometimes with entire and blank miscarriage. And the latter will +happen ten thousand times, for once that the undertaking shall be +blessed with a prosperous event. + +But, when the destination that is given to a child has been +founded upon a careful investigation of the faculties, tokens, +and accidental aspirations which characterise his early years, it +is then that every step that is made with him, becomes a new and +surer source of satisfaction. The moment the pursuit for which +his powers are adapted is seriously proposed to him, his eyes +sparkle, and a second existence, in addition to that which he +received at his birth, descends upon him. He feels that he has +now obtained something worth living for. He feels that he is at +home, and in a sphere that is appropriately his own. Every +effort that he makes is successful. At every resting-place in +his race of improvement he pauses, and looks back on what he has +done with complacency. The master cannot teach him so fast, as +he is prompted to acquire. + +What a contrast does this species of instruction exhibit, to the +ordinary course of scholastic education! There, every lesson that +is prescribed, is a source of indirect warfare between the +instructor and the pupil, the one professing to aim at the +advancement of him that is taught, in the career of knowledge, +and the other contemplating the effect that is intended to be +produced upon him with aversion, and longing to be engaged in any +thing else, rather than in that which is pressed upon his +foremost attention. In this sense a numerous school is, to a +degree that can scarcely be adequately described, the +slaughter-house of mind. It is like the undertaking, related by +Livy, of Accius Navius, the augur, to cut a whetstone with a +razor--with this difference, that our modern schoolmasters are +not endowed with the gift of working miracles, and, when the +experiment falls into their hands, the result of their efforts is +a pitiful miscarriage. Knowledge is scarcely in any degree +imparted. But, as they are inured to a dogged assiduity, and +persist in their unavailing attempts, though the shell of +science, so to speak, is scarcely in the smallest measure +penetrated, yet that inestimable gift of the author of our being, +the sharpness of human faculties, is so blunted and destroyed, +that it can scarcely ever be usefully employed even for those +purposes which it was originally best qualified to effect. + +A numerous school is that mint from which the worst and most +flagrant libels on our nature are incessantly issued. Hence it +is that we are taught, by a judgment everlastingly repeated, that +the majority of our kind are predestinated blockheads. + +Not that it is by any means to be recommended, that a little +writing and arithmetic, and even the first rudiments of classical +knowledge, so far as they can be practicably imparted, should be +withheld from any. The mischief is, that we persist, month after +month, and year after year, in sowing our seed, when it has +already been fully ascertained, that no suitable and wholsome +crop will ever be produced. + +But what is perhaps worse is, that we are accustomed to +pronounce, that that soil, which will not produce the crop of +which we have attempted to make it fertile, is fit for nothing. +The majority of boys, at the very period when the buds of +intellect begin to unfold themselves, are so accustomed to be +told that they are dull and fit for nothing, that the most +pernicious effects are necessarily produced. They become half +convinced by the ill-boding song of the raven, perpetually +croaking in their ears; and, for the other half, though by no +means assured that the sentence of impotence awarded against them +is just, yet, folding up their powers in inactivity, they are +contented partly to waste their energies in pure idleness and +sport, and partly to wait, with minds scarcely half awake, for +the moment when their true destination shall be opened before +them. + +Not that it is by any means to be desired. that the child in his +earlier years should meet with no ruggednesses in his way, and +that he should perpetually tread "the primrose path of +dalliance." Clouds and tempests occasionally clear the atmosphere +of intellect, not less than that of the visible world. The road +to the hill of science, and to the promontory of heroic virtue, +is harsh and steep, and from time to time puts to the proof the +energies of him who would ascend their topmost round. + +There are many things which every human creature should learn, so +far as, agreeably to the constitution of civilised society, they +can be brought within his reach. He should be induced to learn +them, willingly if possible, but, if that cannot be thoroughly +effected, yet with half a will. Such are reading, writing, +arithmetic, and the first principles of grammar; to which shall +be added, as far as may be, the rudiments of all the sciences +that are in ordinary use. The latter however should not be +brought forward too soon; and, if wisely delayed, the tyro +himself will to a certain degree enter into the views of his +instructor, and be disposed to essay Quid valeant humeri, quid +ferre recusent. But, above all, the beginnings of those studies +should be encouraged, which unfold the imagination, familiarise +us with the feelings, the joys and sufferings of our +fellow-beings, and teach us to put ourselves in their place and +eagerly fly to their assistance. + + +SECTION IV. + +HOW FAR OUR GENUINE PROPENSITIES AND VOCATION SHOULD BE +FAVOURED.--SELF-REVERENCE RECOMMENDED.--CONCLUSION. + +I knew a man of eminent intellectual faculties[3], one of whose +favourite topics of moral prudence was, that it is the greatest +mistake in the world to suppose, that, when we have discovered +the special aspiration of the youthful mind, we are bound to do +every thing in our power to assist its progress. He maintained +on the contrary, that it is our true wisdom to place obstacles in +its way, and to thwart it: as we may be well assured that, +unless it is a mere caprice, it will shew its strength in +conquering difficulties, and that all the obstacles that we can +conjure up will but inspire it with the greater earnestness to +attain final success. + +[3] Henry Fuseli. + + +The maxim here stated, taken to an unlimited extent, is doubtless +a very dangerous one. There are obstacles that scarcely any +strength of man would be sufficient to conquer. "Chill penury" +will sometimes "repress the noblest rage," that almost ever +animated a human spirit: and our wisest course will probably be, +secretly to favour, even when we seem most to oppose, the genuine +bent of the youthful aspirer. + +But the thing of greatest importance is, that we should not teach +him to estimate his powers at too low a rate. One of the wisest +of all the precepts comprised in what are called the Golden +Verses of Pythagoras, is that, in which he enjoins his pupil to +"reverence himself." Ambition is the noblest root that can be +planted in the garden of the human soul: not the ambition to be +applauded and admired, to be famous and looked up to, to be the +darling theme of "stupid starers and of loud huzzas;" but the +ambition to fill a respectable place in the theatre of society, +to be useful and to be esteemed, to feel that we have not lived +in vain, and that we are entitled to the most honourable of all +dismissions, an enlightened self-approbation. And nothing can +more powerfully tend to place this beyond our acquisition, even +our contemplation, than the perpetual and hourly rebuffs which +ingenuous youth is so often doomed to sustain from the +supercilious pedant, and the rigid decision of his unfeeling +elders. + +Self-respect to be nourished in the mind of the pupil, is one of +the most valuable results of a well conducted education. To +accomplish this, it is most necessary that it should never be +inculcated into him, that he is dull. Upon the principles of +this Essay, any unfavourable appearances that may present +themselves, do not arise from the dulness of the pupil, but from +the error of those upon whose superintendence he is cast, who +require of him the things for which he is not adapted, and +neglect those in which he is qualified to excel. + +It is further necessary, if self-respect is one of the most +desirable results of a well-conducted education, that, as we +should not humble the pupil in his own eyes by disgraceful and +humiliating language, so we should abstain, as much as possible, +from personal ill-treatment, and the employing towards him the +measures of an owner towards his purchased or indentured slave. +Indignity is of all things the most hostile to the best purposes +of a liberal education. It may be necessary occasionally to +employ, towards a human creature in his years of nonage, the +stimulants of exhortation and remonstrance even in the pursuits +to which he is best adapted, for the purpose of overcoming the +instability and fits of idleness to which all men, and most of +all in their early years, are subject: though in such pursuits a +necessity of this sort can scarcely be supposed. The bow must +not always be bent; and it is good for us that we should +occasionally relax and play the fool. It may more readily be +imagined, that some incitement may be called for in those things +which, as has been mentioned above, it may be fit he should learn +though with but half a will. All freaks must not be indulged; +admonition is salutary, and that the pupil should be awakened by +his instructor to sober reflection and to masculine exertion. +Every Telemachus should have his Mentor.--But through the whole +it is necessary that the spirit of the pupil should not be +broken, and that he should not be treated with contumely. +Stripes should in all instances be regarded as the last resort, +and as a sort of problem set up for the wisdom of the wise to +solve, whether the urgent case can arise in which it shall be +requisite to have recourse to them. + +The principles here laid down have the strongest tendency to +prove to us how little progress has yet been made in the art of +turning human creatures to the best account. Every man has his +place, in which if he can be fixed, the most fastidious judge +cannot look upon him with disdain. But, to effect this +arrangement, an exact attention is required to ascertain the +pursuit in which he will best succeed. In India the whole mass +of the members of the community is divided into castes; and, +instead of a scrupulous attention being paid to the early +intimations of individual character, it is already decided upon +each, before he comes into the world, which child shall be a +priest, and which a soldier, a physician, a lawyer, a merchant, +and an artisan. In Europe we do not carry this so far, and are +not so elaborately wrong. But the rudiments of the same folly +flourish among us; and the accident of birth for the most part +decides the method of life to which each individual with whatever +violence shall be dedicated. A very few only, by means of +energies that no tyranny can subdue, escape from the operation of +this murderous decree. + +Nature never made a dunce. Imbecility of mind is as rare, as +deformity of the animal frame. If this position be true, we have +only to bear it in mind, feelingly to convince ourselves, how +wholesale the error is into which society has hitherto fallen in +the destination of its members, and how much yet remains to be +done, before our common nature can be vindicated from the basest +of all libels, the most murderous of all proscriptions. + +There is a passage in Voltaire, in which he expresses himself to +this effect: "It is after all but a slight line of separation +that divides the man of genius from the man of ordinary mould." +I remember the place where, and the time when, I read this +passage. But I have been unable to find the expression. It is +however but reasonable that I should refer to it on this +occasion, that I may hereby shew so eminent a modern concurring +with the venerable ancient in an early era of letters, whose +dictum I have prefixed to this Essay, to vouch to a certain +extent for the truth of the doctrine I have delivered. + + + +ESSAY III. +OF INTELLECTUAL ABORTION. + +In the preceding Essay I have endeavoured to establish the +proposition, that every human creature, idiots and extraordinary +cases excepted, is endowed with talents, which, if rightly +directed, would shew him to be apt, adroit, intelligent and +acute, in the walk for which his organisation especially fitted +him. + +There is however a sort of phenomenon, by no means of rare +occurrence, which tends to place the human species under a less +favourable point of view. Many men, as has already appeared, are +forced into situations and pursuits ill assorted to their +talents, and by that means are exhibited to their contemporaries +in a light both despicable and ludicrous. + +But this is not all. Men are not only placed, by the absurd +choice of their parents, or an imperious concurrence of +circumstances, in destinations and employments in which they can +never appear to advantage: they frequently, without any external +compulsion, select for themselves objects of their industry, +glaringly unadapted to their powers, and in which all their +efforts must necessarily terminate in miscarriage. + +I remember a young man, who had been bred a hair-dresser, but who +experienced, as he believed, the secret visitations of the Muse, +and became inspired. "With sad civility, and aching head," I +perused no fewer than six comedies from the pen of this aspiring +genius, in no page of which I could discern any glimmering of +poetry or wit, or in reality could form a guess what it was that +the writer intended in his elaborate effusions. Such are the +persons enumerated by Pope in the Prologue to his Satires, + + a parson, much bemused in beer, + A maudlin poetess, a rhyming peer, + A clerk, foredoomed his father's sou to cross, + Who pens a stanza, when he should engross. + +Every manager of a theatre, and every publishing bookseller of +eminence, can produce you in each revolving season whole reams, +almost cartloads, of blurred paper, testifying the frequent +recurrence of this phenomenon. + +The cause however of this painful mistake does not lie in the +circumstance, that each man has not from the hand of nature an +appropriate destination, a sphere assigned him, in which, if life +should be prolonged to him, he might be secure of the respect of +his neighbours, and might write upon his tomb, "I have filled an +honourable career; I have finished my course." + +One of the most glaring infirmities of our nature is discontent. +One of the most unquestionable characteristics of the human mind +is the love of novelty. Omne ignotum pro magnifico est. We are +satiated with those objects which make a part of our business in +every day, and are desirous of trying something that is a +stranger to us. Whatever we see through a mist, or in the +twilight, is apt to be apprehended by us as something admirable, +for the single reason that it is seen imperfectly. What we are +sure that we can easily and adequately effect, we despise. He +that goes into battle with an adversary of more powerful muscle +or of greater practice than himself, feels a tingling sensation, +not unallied to delight, very different from that which would +occur to him, when his victory was easy and secure. + +Each man is conscious what it is that he can certainly effect. +This does not therefore present itself to him as an object of +ambition. We have many of us internally something of the spirit +expressed by the apostle: "Forgetting the things that are +behind, we press forward to those that remain." And, so long as +this precept is soberly applied, no conduct can be more worthy of +praise. Improvement is the appropriate race of man. We cannot +stand still. If we do not go forward, we shall inevitably +recede. Shakespear, when he wrote his Hamlet, did not know that +he could produce Macbeth and Othello. + +But the progress of a man of reflection will be, to a +considerable degree, in the path he has already entered. If he +strikes into a new career, it will not be without deep +premeditation. He will attempt nothing wantonly. He will +carefully examine his powers, and see for what they are adapted. +Sudet multum. He will be like the man, who first in a frail bark +committed himself to the treachery of the waves. He will keep +near to the shore; he will tremble for the audaciousness of his +enterprise; he will feel that it calls for all his alertness and +vigilance. The man of reflection will not begin, till he feels +his mind swelling with his purposed theme, till his blood flows +fitfully and with full pulses through his veins, till his eyes +sparkle with the intenseness of his conceptions, and his "bosom +labours with the God." + +But the fool dashes in at once. He does not calculate the +dangers of his enterprise. He does not study the map of the +country he has to traverse. He does not measure the bias of the +ground, the rising knolls and the descending slopes that are +before him. He obeys a blind and unreflecting impulse. + +His case bears a striking resemblance to what is related of +Oliver Goldsmith. Goldsmith was a man of the most felicitous +endowments. His prose flows with such ease, copiousness and +grace, that it resembles the song of the sirens. His verses are +among the most spirited, natural and unaffected in the English +language. Yet he was not contented. If he saw a consummate +dancer, he knew no reason why he should not do as well, and +immediately felt disposed to essay his powers. If he heard an +accomplished musician, he undertook to enter the lists with him. +His conduct was of a piece with that of the countryman, who, +cheapening spectacles, and making experiment of them for ever in +vain upon the book before him, was at length asked, "Could you +ever read without spectacles?" to which he was obliged to answer, +"I do not know; I never tried." The vanity of Goldsmith was +infinite; and his failure in such attempts must necessarily have +been ludicrous. + +The splendour of the thing presented to our observation, awakens +the spirit within us. The applause and admiration excited by +certain achievements and accomplishments infects us with desire. +We are like the youthful Themistocles, who complained that the +trophies of Miltiades would not let him sleep. We are like the +novice Guido, who, while looking on the paintings of Michael +Angelo, exclaimed, "I also am a painter." Themistocles and Guido +were right, for they were of kindred spirit to the great men they +admired. But the applause bestowed on others will often generate +uneasiness and a sigh, in men least of all qualified by nature to +acquire similar applause. We are not contented to proceed in the +path of obscure usefulness and worth. We are eager to be +admired, and thus often engage in pursuits for which perhaps we +are of all men least adapted Each one would be the man above him. + +And this is the cause why we see so many individuals, who might +have passed their lives with honour, devote themselves to +incredible efforts, only that they may be made supremely +ridiculous. + +To this let it be added, that the wisest man that ever existed, +never yet knew himself, especially in the morning of life. The +person, who ultimately stamped his history with the most heroic +achievements, was far perhaps even from suspecting, in the dawn +of his existence, that he should realise the miracles that mark +its maturity. He might be ready to exclaim, with Hazael in the +Scriptures, "Is thy servant more than man, that he should do this +great thing?" The sublimest poet that ever sung, was +peradventure, while a stripling, unconscious of the treasures +which formed a part of the fabric of his mind, and unsuspicious +of the high destiny that in the sequel awaited him. What wonder +then, that, awaking from the insensibility and torpor which +precede the activity of the soul, some men should believe in a +fortune that shall never be theirs, and anticipate a glory they +are fated never to sustain! And for the same reason, when +unanticipated failure becomes their lot, they are unwilling at +first to be discouraged, and find a certain gallantry in +persevering, and "against hope believing in hope." + +This is the explanation of a countless multitude of failures that +occur in the career of literature. Nor is this phenomenon +confined to literature. In all the various paths of human +existence, that appear to have something in them splendid and +alluring, there are perpetual instances of daring adventures, +unattended with the smallest rational hope of success. Optat +ephippia bos piger. + + All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies. + +But, beside these instances of perfect and glaring miscarriage, +there are examples worthy of a deeper regret, where the juvenile +candidate sets out in the morning of life with the highest +promise, with colours flying, and the spirit-stirring note of +gallant preparation, when yet his voyage of life is destined to +terminate in total discomfiture. I have seen such an one, whose +early instructors regarded him with the most sanguine +expectation, and his elders admired him, while his youthful +competitors unreluctantly confessed his superiority, and gave way +on either side to his triumphant career; and all this has +terminated in nothing. + +In reality the splendid march of genius is beset with a thousand +difficulties. "The race is not always to the swift, nor the +battle to the strong." A multitude of unthought-of +qualifications are required; and it depends at least as much upon +the nicely maintained balance of these, as upon the copiousness +and brilliancy of each, whether the result shall be auspicious. +The progress of genius is like the flight of an arrow; a breath +may turn it out of its course, and cause that course to terminate +many a degree wide of its purposed mark. It is therefore +scarcely possible that any sharpness of foresight can pronounce +of the noblest beginnings whether they shall reach to an adequate +conclusion. + +I have seen such a man, with the most fervent imagination, with +the most diligent study, with the happiest powers of memory, and +with an understanding that apparently took in every thing, and +arranged every thing, at the same time that by its acuteness it +seemed able to add to the accumulated stores of foregone wisdom +and learning new treasures of its own; and yet this man shall +pass through the successive stages of human life, in appearance +for ever active, for ever at work, and leave nothing behind that +shall embalm his name to posterity, certainly nothing in any +degree adequately representing those excellencies, which a chosen +few, admitted to his retired and his serenest hours, knew to +reside in him. + +There are conceptions of the mind, that come forth like the +coruscations of lightning. If you could fix that flash, it would +seem as if it would give new brightness to the sons of men, and +almost extinguish the luminary of day. But, ere you can say it +is here, it is gone. It appears to reveal to us the secrets of +the world unknown; but the clouds congregate again, and shut in +upon us, before we had time to apprehend its full radiance and +splendour. + +To give solidity and permanence to the inspirations of genius two +things are especially necessary. First, that the idea to be +communicated should be powerfully apprehended by the speaker or +writer; and next, that he should employ words and phrases which +might convey it in all its truth to the mind of another. The man +who entertains such conceptions, will not unfrequently want the +steadiness of nerve which is required for their adequate +transmission. Suitable words will not always wait upon his +thoughts. Language is in reality a vast labyrinth, a scene like +the Hercinian Forest of old, which, we are told, could not be +traversed in less than sixty days. If we do not possess the +clue, we shall infallibly perish in the attempt, and our thoughts +and our memory will expire with us. + +The sentences of this man, when he speaks, or when he writes, +will be full of perplexity and confusion. They will be endless, +and never arrive at their proper termination. They will include +parenthesis on parenthesis. We perceive the person who delivers +them, to be perpetually labouring after a meaning, but never +reaching it. He is like one flung over into the sea, unprovided +with the skill that should enable him to contend with the +tumultuous element. He flounders about in pitiable helplessness, +without the chance of extricating himself by all his efforts. He +is lost in unintelligible embarrassment. It is a delightful and +a ravishing sight, to observe another man come after him, and +tell, without complexity, and in the simplicity of +self-possession, unconscious that there was any difficulty, all +that his predecessor had fruitlessly exerted himself to unfold. + +There are a multitude of causes that will produce a miscarriage +of this sort, where the richest soil, impregnated with the +choicest seeds of learning and observation, shall entirely fail +to present us with such a crop as might rationally have been +anticipated. Many such men waste their lives in indolence and +irresolution. They attempt many things, sketch out plans, which, +if properly filled up, might illustrate the literature of a +nation, and extend the empire of the human mind, but which yet +they desert as soon as begun, affording us the promise of a +beautiful day, that, ere it is noon, is enveloped in darkest +tempests and the clouds of midnight. They skim away from one +flower in the parterre of literature to another, like the bee, +without, like the bee, gathering sweetness from each, to increase +the public stock, and enrich the magazine of thought. The cause +of this phenomenon is an unsteadiness, ever seduced by the +newness of appearances, and never settling with firmness and +determination upon what had been chosen. + +Others there are that are turned aside from the career they might +have accomplished, by a visionary and impracticable +fastidiousness. They can find nothing that possesses all the +requisites that should fix their choice, nothing so good that +should authorise them to present it to public observation, and +enable them to offer it to their contemporaries as something that +we should "not willingly let die." They begin often; but nothing +they produce appears to them such as that they should say of it, +"Let this stand." Or they never begin, none of their thoughts +being judged by them to be altogether such as to merit the being +preserved. They have a microscopic eye, and discern faults +unworthy to be tolerated, in that in which the critic himself +might perceive nothing but beauty. + +These phenomena have introduced a maxim which is current with +many, that the men who write nothing, and bequeath no record of +themselves to posterity, are not unfrequently of larger calibre, +and more gigantic standard of soul, than such as have inscribed +their names upon the columns of the temple of Fame. And certain +it is, that there are extraordinary instances which appear in +some degree to countenance this assertion. Many men are +remembered as authors, who seem to have owed the permanence of +their reputation rather to fortune than merit. They were daring, +and stepped into a niche that was left in the gallery of art or +of science, where others of higher qualifications, but of +unconquerable modesty, held back. At the same time persons, +whose destiny caused them to live among the elite of an age, have +seen reason to confess that they have heard such talk, such +glorious and unpremeditated discourse, from men whose thoughts +melted away with the breath that uttered them, as the wisest of +their vaunted contemporary authors would in vain have sought to +rival. + +The maxim however, notwithstanding these appearances, may safely +be pronounced to be a fallacious one. It has been received in +various quarters with the greater indulgence, inasmuch as the +human mind is prone in many cases to give a more welcome +reception to seeming truths, that present us at the first blush +the appearance of falshood. + +It must however be recollected that the human mind consists in +the first instance merely of faculties prepared to be applied to +certain purposes, and susceptible of improvement. It cannot +therefore happen, that the man, who has chosen a subject towards +which to direct the energy of his faculties, who has sought on +all sides for the materials that should enable him to do that +subject justice, who has employed upon it his contemplations by +day, and his meditations during the watches of the night, should +not by such exercise greatly invigorate his powers. In this +sense there was much truth in the observation of the author who +said, "I did not write upon the subject you mention because I +understood it; but I understood it afterward, because I had +written upon it." + +The man who merely wanders through the fields of knowledge in +search of its gayest flowers and of whatever will afford him the +most enviable amusement, will necessarily return home at night +with a very slender collection. He that shall apply himself with +self-denial and an unshrinking resolution to the improvement of +his mind, will unquestionably be found more fortunate in the end. + +He is not deterred by the gulphs that yawn beneath his feet, or +the mountains that may oppose themselves to his progress. He +knows that the adventurer of timid mind, and that is infirm of +purpose, will never make himself master of those points which it +would be most honourable to him to subdue. But he who undertakes +to commit to writing the result of his researches, and to +communicate his discoveries to mankind, is the genuine hero. +Till he enters on this task, every thing is laid up in his memory +in a certain confusion. He thinks he possesses a thing whole; +but, when he brings it to the test, he is surprised to find how +much he was deceived. He that would digest his thoughts and his +principles into a regular system, is compelled in the first place +to regard them in all their clearness and perspicuity, and in the +next place to select the fittest words by which they may be +communicated to others. It is through the instrumentality of +words that we are taught to think accurately and severely for +ourselves; they are part and parcel of all our propositions and +theories. It is therefore in this way that a preceptor, by +undertaking to enlighten the mind of his pupil, enlightens his +own. He becomes twice the man in the sequel, that he was when he +entered on his task. We admire the amateur student in his public +essays, as we admire a jackdaw or a parrot: he does considerably +more than could have been expected from him. + +In attending to the subject of this Essay we have been led to +observe the different ways, in which the mind of man may be +brought into a position tending to exhibit its powers in a less +creditable and prepossessing point of view, than that in which +all men, idiots and extraordinary cases excepted, are by nature +qualified to appear. Many, not contented with those occupations, +modest and humble in certain cases, to which their endowments and +original bent had designed them, shew themselves immoderately set +upon more alluring and splendid pursuits in which they are least +qualified to excel. Other instances there are, still more +entitled to our regret, where the individual is seen to be gifted +with no ordinary qualities, where his morning of life has proved +auspicious, and the highest expectations were formed of a +triumphant career, while yet in the final experiment he has been +found wanting, and the "voyage of his life" has passed "in +shallows and in miseries." + +But our survey of the subject of which I treat will not be +complete, unless we add to what has been said, another striking +truth respecting the imperfection of man collectively taken. The +examples of which the history of our species consists, not only +abound in cases, where, from mistakes in the choice of life, or +radical and irremediable imperfection in the adventurer, the most +glaring miscarriages are found to result,--but it is also true, +that all men, even the most illustrious, have some fatal +weakness, obliging both them and their rational admirers to +confess, that they partake of human frailty, and belong to a race +of beings which has small occasion to be proud. Each man has his +assailable part. He is vulnerable, though it be only like the +fabled Achilles in his heel. We are like the image that +Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, of which though the head was of +fine gold, and the breast and the arms were silver, yet the feet +were partly only of iron, and partly of clay. No man is whole +and entire, armed at all points, and qualified for every +undertaking, or even for any one undertaking, so as to carry it +through, and to make the achievement he would perform, or the +work he would produce, in all its parts equal and complete. + +It is a gross misapprehension in such men as, smitten with +admiration of a certain cluster of excellencies, or series of +heroic acts, are willing to predicate of the individual to whom +they belong, "This man is consummate, and without alloy." Take +the person in his retirement, in his hours of relaxation, when he +has no longer a part to play, and one or more spectators before +whom he is desirous to appear to advantage, and you shall find +him a very ordinary man. He has "passions, dimensions, senses, +affections, like the rest of his fellow-creatures, is fed with +the same food, hurt with the same weapons, warmed and cooled by +the same summer and winter." He will therefore, when narrowly +observed, be unquestionably found betraying human weaknesses, and +falling into fits of ill humour, spleen, peevishness and folly. +No man is always a sage; no bosom at all times beats with +sentiments lofty, self-denying and heroic. It is enough if he +does so, "when the matter fits his mighty mind." + +The literary genius, who undertakes to produce some consummate +work, will find himself pitiably in error, if he expects to turn +it out of his hands, entire in all its parts, and without a flaw. + +There are some of the essentials of which it is constituted, that +he has mastered, and is sufficiently familiar with them; but +there are others, especially if his work is miscellaneous and +comprehensive, to which he is glaringly incompetent. He must +deny his nature, and become another man, if he would execute +these parts, in a manner equal to that which their intrinsic +value demands, or to the perfection he is able to give to his +work in those places which are best suited to his powers. There +are points in which the wisest man that ever existed is no +stronger than a child. In this sense the sublimest genius will +be found infelix operas summa, nam ponere totum nescit. And, if +he properly knows himself, and is aware where lies his strength, +and where his weakness, he will look for nothing more in the +particulars which fall under the last of these heads, than to +escape as he can, and to pass speedily to things in which he +finds himself at home and at his ease. + +Shakespear we are accustomed to call the most universal genius +that ever existed. He has a truly wonderful variety. It is +almost impossible to pronounce in which he has done best, his +Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, or Othello. He is equally excellent in +his comic vein as his tragic. Falstaff is in his degree to the +full as admirable and astonishing, as what he achieved that is +noblest under the auspices of the graver muse. His poetry and +the fruits of his imagination are unrivalled. His language, in +all that comes from him when his genius is most alive, has a +richness, an unction, and all those signs of a character which +admits not of mortality and decay, for ever fresh as when it was +first uttered, which we recognise, while we can hardly persuade +ourselves that we are not in a delusion. As Anthony Wood +says[4], "By the writings of Shakespear and others of his time, +the English tongue was exceedingly enriched, and made quite +another thing than what it was before." His versification on +these occasions has a melody, a ripeness and variety that no +other pen has reached. + +[4] Athenae Oxonienses, vol. i. p. 592. + + +Yet there were things that Shakespear could not do. He could not +make a hero. Familiar as he was with the evanescent touches of +mind en dishabille, and in its innermost feelings, he could not +sustain the tone of a character, penetrated with a divine +enthusiasm, or fervently devoted to a generous cause, though this +is truly within the compass of our nature, and is more than any +other worthy to be delineated. He could conceive such +sentiments, for there are such in his personage of Brutus; but he +could not fill out and perfect what he has thus sketched. He +seems even to have had a propensity to bring the mountain and the +hill to a level with the plain. Caesar is spiritless, and Cicero +is ridiculous, in his hands. He appears to have written his +Troilus and Cressida partly with a view to degrade, and hold up +to contempt, the heroes of Homer; and he has even disfigured the +pure, heroic affection which the Greek poet has painted as +existing between Achilles and Patroclus with the most odious +imputations. + +And, as he could not sustain an heroic character throughout, so +neither could he construct a perfect plot, in which the interest +should be perpetually increasing, and the curiosity of the +spectator kept alive and in suspense to the last moment. Several +of his plays have an unity of subject to which nothing is +wanting; but he has not left us any production that should rival +that boast of Ancient Greece in the conduct of a plot, the +OEdipus Tyrannus, a piece in which each act rises upon the act +before, like a tower that lifts its head story above story to the +skies. He has scarcely ever given to any of his plays a fifth +act, worthy of those that preceded; the interest generally +decreases after the third. + +Shakespear is also liable to the charge of obscurity. The most +sagacious critics dispute to this very hour, whether Hamlet is or +is not mad, and whether Falstaff is a brave man or a coward. +This defect is perhaps partly to be imputed to the nature of +dramatic writing. It is next to impossible to make words, put +into the mouth of a character, develop all those things passing +in his mind, which it may be desirable should be known. + +I spoke, a short time back, of the language of Shakespear in his +finest passages, as of unrivalled excellence and beauty; I might +almost have called it miraculous. O, si sic omnia! It is to be +lamented that this felicity often deserts him. He is not seldom +cramp, rigid and pedantic. What is best in him is eternal, of +all ages and times; but what is worst, is crusted with an +integument, almost more cumbrous than that of any other writer, +his contemporary, the merits of whose works continue to invite us +to their perusal. + +After Shakespear, it is scarcely worth while to bring forward any +other example, of a writer who, notwithstanding his undoubted +claims to excellencies of the highest order, yet in his +productions fully displays the inequality and non-universality of +his genius. One of the most remarkable instances may be alleged +in Richardson, the author of Clarissa. In his delineation of +female delicacy, of high-souled and generous sentiments, of the +subtlest feelings and even mental aberrations of virtuous +distress strained beyond the power of human endurance, nothing +ever equalled this author. But he could not shape out the image +of a perfect gentleman, or of that winning gaiety of soul, which +may indeed be exemplified, but can never be defined, and never be +resisted. His profligate is a man without taste; and his +coquettes are insolent and profoundly revolting. He has no +resemblance of the art, so conspicuous in Fletcher and Farquhar, +of presenting to the reader or spectator an hilarity, bubbling +and spreading forth from a perennial spring, which we love as +surely as we feel, which communicates its own tone to the +bystander, and makes our very hearts dance within us with a +responsive sportiveness. We are astonished however that the +formal pedant has acquitted himself of his uncongenial task with +so great a display of intellectual wealth; and, though he has not +presented to us the genuine picture of an intellectual +profligate, or of that lovely gaiety of the female spirit which +we have all of us seen, but which it is scarcely possible to fix +and to copy, we almost admire the more the astonishing talent, +that, having undertaken a task for which it was so eminently +unfit, yet has been able to substitute for the substance so +amazing a mockery, and has treated with so much copiousness and +power what it was unfit ever to have attempted. + + + +ESSAY IV. +OF THE DURABILITY OF HUMAN ACHIEVEMENTS AND PRODUCTIONS. + +There is a view of the character of man, calculated more perhaps +than any other to impress us with reverence and awe. + +Man is the only creature we know, that, when the term of his +natural life is ended, leaves the memory of himself behind him. + +All other animals have but one object in view in their more +considerable actions, the supply of the humbler accommodations of +their nature. Man has a power sufficient for the accomplishment +of this object, and a residue of power beyond, which he is able, +and which he not unfrequently feels himself prompted, to employ +in consecutive efforts, and thus, first by the application and +arrangement of material substances, and afterward by the faculty +he is found to possess of giving a permanent record to his +thoughts, to realise the archetypes and conceptions which +previously existed only in his mind. + +One method, calculated to place this fact strongly before us, is, +to suppose ourselves elevated, in a balloon or otherwise, so as +to enable us to take an extensive prospect of the earth on which +we dwell. We shall then see the plains and the everlasting +hills, the forests and the rivers, and all the exuberance of +production which nature brings forth for the supply of her living +progeny. We shall see multitudes of animals, herds of cattle and +of beasts of prey, and all the varieties of the winged tenants of +the air. But we shall also behold, in a manner almost equally +calculated to arrest our attention, the traces and the monuments +of human industry. We shall see castles and churches, and +hamlets and mighty cities. We shall see this strange creature, +man, subjecting all nature to his will. He builds bridges, and +he constructs aqueducts. He "goes down to the sea in ships," and +variegates the ocean with his squadrons and his fleets. To the +person thus mounted in the air to take a wide and magnificent +prospect, there seems to be a sort of contest between the face of +the earth, as it may be supposed to have been at first, and the +ingenuity of man, which shall occupy and possess itself of the +greatest number of acres. We cover immense regions of the globe +with the tokens of human cultivation. + +Thus the matter stands as to the exertions of the power of man in +the application and arrangement of material substances. + +But there is something to a profound and contemplative mind much +more extraordinary, in the effects produced by the faculty we +possess of giving a permanent record to our thoughts. + +From the development of this faculty all human science and +literature take their commencement. Here it is that we most +distinctly, and with the greatest astonishment, perceive that man +is a miracle. Declaimers are perpetually expatiating to us upon +the shortness of human life. And yet all this is performed by +us, when the wants of our nature have already by our industry +been supplied. We manufacture these sublimities and everlasting +monuments out of the bare remnants and shreds of our time. + +The labour of the intellect of man is endless. How copious is +the volume, and how extraordinary the variety, of our sciences +and our arts! The number of men is exceedingly great in every +civilised state of society, that make these the sole object of +their occupation. And this has been more or less the condition +of our species in all ages, ever since we left the savage and the +pastoral modes of existence. + +From this view of the history of man we are led by an easy +transition to the consideration of the nature and influence of +the love of fame in modifying the actions of the human mind. We +have already stated it to be one of the characteristic +distinctions of our species to erect monuments which outlast the +existence of the persons that produced them. This at first was +accidental, and did not enter the design of the operator. The +man who built himself a shed to protect him from the inclemency +of the seasons, and afterwards exchanged that shed for a somewhat +more commodious dwelling, did not at first advert to the +circumstance that the accommodation might last, when he was no +longer capable to partake of it. + +In this way perhaps the wish to extend the memory of ourselves +beyond the term of our mortal existence, and the idea of its +being practicable to gratify that wish, descended upon us +together. In contemplating the brief duration and the +uncertainty of human life, the idea must necessarily have +occurred, that we might survive those we loved, or that they +might survive us. In the first case we inevitably wish more or +less to cherish the memory of the being who once was an object of +affection to us, but of whose society death has deprived us. In +the second case it can scarcely happen but that we desire +ourselves to be kindly recollected by those we leave behind us. +So simple is the first germ of that longing after posthumous +honour, which presents us with so memorable effects in the page +of history. + +But, previously to the further consideration of posthumous fame, +let us turn our attention for a moment to the fame, or, as in +that sense it is more usually styled, popularity, which is the +lot of a few favoured individuals while they live. The attending +to the subject in this point of view, will be found to throw +light upon the more extensive prospect of the question to which +we will immediately afterwards proceed. + +Popularity is an acquisition more level to the most ordinary +capacities, and therefore is a subject of more general ambition, +than posthumous fame. It addresses itself to the senses. +Applause is a species of good fortune to which perhaps no mortal +ear is indifferent. The persons who constitute the circle in +which we are applauded, receive us with smiles of approbation and +sympathy. They pay their court to us, seem to be made happy by +our bare presence among them, and welcome us to their houses with +congratulation and joy. The vulgar portion of mankind scarcely +understand the question of posthumous fame, they cannot +comprehend how panegyric and honour can "soothe the dull, cold +ear of death:" but they can all conceive the gratification to be +derived from applauding multitudes and loud huzzas. + +One of the most obvious features however that attends upon +popularity, is its fugitive nature. No man has once been +popular, and has lived long, without experiencing neglect at +least, if he were not also at some time subjected to the very +intelligible disapprobation and censure of his fellows. The good +will and kindness of the multitude has a devouring appetite, and +is like a wild beast that you should stable under your roof, +which, if you do not feed with a continual supply, will turn +about and attack its protector. + +One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,-- +That all, with one consent, praise new-born gauds, +And give to dust, that is a little gilt, +More laud than they will give to gold o'erdusted. + +Cromwel well understood the nature of this topic, when he said, +as we are told, to one of his military companions, who called his +attention to the rapturous approbation with which they were +received by the crowd on their return from a successful +expedition, "Ah, my friend, they would accompany us with equal +demonstrations of delight, if, upon no distant occasion, they +were to see us going to be hanged!" + +The same thing which happens to the popularity attendant on the +real or imaginary hero of the multitude, happens also in the race +after posthumous fame. + +As has already been said, the number of men is exceedingly great +in every civilised state of society, who make the sciences and +arts engendered by the human mind, the sole or the principal +objects of their occupation. + +This will perhaps be most strikingly illustrated by a retrospect +of the state of European society in the middle, or, as they are +frequently styled, the dark ages. + +It has been a vulgar error to imagine, that the mind of man, so +far as relates to its active and inventive powers, was sunk into +a profound sleep, from which it gradually recovered itself at the +period when Constantinople was taken by the Turks, and the books +and the teachers of the ancient Greek language were dispersed +through Europe. The epoch from which modern invention took its +rise, commenced much earlier. The feudal system, one of the most +interesting contrivances of man in society, was introduced in the +ninth century; and chivalry, the offspring of that system, an +institution to which we are mainly indebted for refinement of +sentiment, and humane and generous demeanour, in the eleventh. +Out of these grew the originality and the poetry of romance. + +These were no mean advancements. But perhaps the greatest debt +which after ages have contracted to this remote period, arose out +of the system of monasteries and ecclesiastical celibacy. Owing +to these a numerous race of men succeeded to each other +perpetually, who were separated from the world, cut off from the +endearments of conjugal and parental affection, and who had a +plenitude of leisure for solitary application. To these men we +are indebted for the preservation of the literature of Rome, and +the multiplied copies of the works of the ancients. Nor were +they contented only with the praise of never-ending industry. +They forged many works, that afterwards passed for classical, and +which have demanded all the perspicacity of comparative criticism +to refute. And in these pursuits the indefatigable men who were +dedicated to them, were not even goaded by the love of fame. +They were satisfied with the consciousness of their own +perseverance and ingenuity. + +But the most memorable body of men that adorned these ages, were +the Schoolmen. They may be considered as the discoverers of the +art of logic. The ancients possessed in an eminent degree the +gift of genius; but they have little to boast on the score of +arrangement, and discover little skill in the strictness of an +accurate deduction. They rather arrive at truth by means of a +felicity of impulse, than in consequence of having regularly gone +through the process which leads to it. The schools of the middle +ages gave birth to the Irrefragable and the Seraphic doctors, the +subtlety of whose distinctions, and the perseverance of whose +investigations, are among the most wonderful monuments of the +intellectual power of man. The thirteenth century produced +Thomas Aquinas, and Johannes Duns Scotus, and William Occam, and +Roger Bacon. In the century before, Thomas a Becket drew around +him a circle of literary men, whose correspondence has been +handed down to us, and who deemed it their proudest distinction +that they called each other philosophers. The Schoolmen often +bewildered themselves in their subtleties, and often delivered +dogmas and systems that may astonish the common sense of +unsophisticated understandings. But such is man. So great is +his persevering labour, his invincible industry, and the +resolution with which he sets himself, year after year, and +lustre after lustre, to accomplish the task which his judgment +and his zeal have commanded him to pursue. + +But I return to the question of literary fame. All these men, +and men of a hundred other classes, who laboured most commendably +and gallantly in their day, may be considered as swept away into +the gulph of oblivion. As Swift humorously says in his +Dedication to Prince Posterity, "I had prepared a copious list of +Titles to present to your highness, as an undisputed argument of +the prolificness of human genius in my own time: the originals +were posted upon all gates and corner's of streets: but, +returning in a very few hours to take a review, they were all +torn down, and fresh ones put in their places. I enquired after +them among readers and booksellers, but in vain: the memorial of +them was lost among men; their place was no more to be found." + +It is a just remark that had been made by Hume[5]: "Theories of +abstract philosophy, systems of profound theology, have prevailed +during one age. In a successive period these have been +universally exploded; their absurdity has been detected; other +theories and systems have supplied their place, which again gave +way to their successors; and nothing has been experienced more +liable to the revolutions of chance and fashion than these +pretended decisions of science. The case is not the same with +the beauties of eloquence and poetry. Just expressions of +passion and nature are sure, after a little time, to gain public +applause, which they maintain for ever. Aristotle and Plato and +Epicurus and Descartes may successively yield to each other: but +Terence and Virgil maintain an universal, undisputed empire over +the minds of men. The abstract philosophy of Cicero has lost its +credit: the vehemence of his oratory is still the object of our +admiration." + +[5] Essays, Part 1, Essay xxiii. + + +A few examples of the instability of fame will place this +question in the clearest light. + +Nicholas Peiresk was born in the year 1580. His progress in +knowledge was so various and unprecedented, that, from the time +that he was twenty-one years of age, he was universally +considered as holding the helm of learning in his hand, and +guiding the commonwealth of letters. He died at the age of +fifty-seven. The academy of the Humoristi at Rome paid the most +extraordinary honours to his memory; many of the cardinals +assisted at his funeral oration; and a collection of verses in +his praise was published in more than forty languages. + +Salmasius was regarded as a prodigy of learning; and various +princes and powers entered into a competition who should be so +fortunate as to secure his residence in their states. Christina, +queen of Sweden, having obtained the preference, received him +with singular reverence and attention; and, Salmasius being taken +ill at Stockholm, and confined to his bed, the queen persisted +with her own hand to prepare his caudles, and mend his fire. +Yet, but for the accident of his having had Milton for his +adversary, his name would now be as little remembered, even by +the generality of the learned, as that of Peiresk. + +Du Bartas, in the reign of Henry the Fourth of France, was one of +the most successful poets that ever existed. His poem on the +Creation of the World went through upwards of thirty editions in +the course of five or six years, was translated into most +European languages, and its commentators promised to equal in +copiousness and number the commentators on Homer. + +One of the most admired of our English poets about the close of +the sixteenth century, was Donne. Unlike many of those trivial +writers of verse who succeeded him after an interval of forty or +fifty years, and who won for themselves a brilliant reputation by +the smoothness of their numbers, the elegance of their +conceptions, and the politeness of their style, Donne was full of +originality, energy and vigour. No man can read him without +feeling himself called upon for earnest exercise of his thinking +powers, and, even with the most fixed attention and application, +the student is often obliged to confess his inability to take in +the whole of the meaning with which the poet's mind was +perceptibly fraught. Every sentence that Donne writes, whether +in verse or prose, is exclusively his own. In addition to this, +his thoughts are often in the noblest sense of the word poetical; +and passages may be quoted from him that no English poet may +attempt to rival, unless it be Milton and Shakespear. Ben Jonson +observed of him with great truth and a prophetic spirit: "Donne +for not being understood will perish." But this is not all. If +Waller and Suckling and Carew sacrificed every thing to the +Graces, Donne went into the other extreme. With a few splendid +and admirable exceptions, his phraseology and versification are +crabbed and repulsive. And, as poetry is read in the first place +for pleasure, Donne is left undisturbed on the shelf, or rather +in the sepulchre; and not one in an hundred even among persons of +cultivation, can give any account of him, if in reality they ever +heard of his productions. + +The name of Shakespear is that before which every knee must bow. +But it was not always so. When the first novelty of his pieces +was gone, they were seldom called into requisition. Only three +or four of his plays were upon the acting list of the principal +company of players during the reign of Charles the Second; and +the productions of Beaumont and Fletcher, and of Shirley, were +acted three times for once of his. At length Betterton revived, +and by his admirable representation gave popularity to, Macbeth, +Hamlet and Lear, a popularity they have ever since retained. But +Macbeth was not revived (with music, and alterations by sir +William Davenant) till 1674; and Lear a few years later, with +love scenes and a happy catastrophe by Nahum Tate. + +In the latter part of the reign of Charles the Second, Dryden and +Otway and Lee held the undisputed supremacy in the serious drama. + +Such was the insensibility of the English public to nature, and +her high priest, Shakespear. The only one of their productions +that has survived upon the theatre, is Venice Preserved: and why +it has done so it is difficult to say; or rather it would be +impossible to assign a just and honourable reason for it. All +the personages in this piece are of an abandoned and profligate +character. Pierre is a man resolved to destroy and root up the +republic by which he was employed, because his mistress, a +courtesan, is mercenary, and endures the amorous visits of an +impotent old lecher. Jaffier, without even the profession of any +public principle, joins in the conspiracy, because he has been +accustomed to luxury and prodigal expence and is poor. He has +however no sooner entered into the plot, than he betrays it, and +turns informer to the government against his associates. +Belvidera instigates him to this treachery, because she cannot +bear the thought of having her father murdered, and is absurd +enough to imagine that she and her husband shall be tender and +happy lovers ever after. Their love in the latter acts of the +play is a continued tirade of bombast and sounding nonsense, +without one real sentiment, one just reflection, or one strong +emotion working from the heart, and analysing the nature of man. +The folly of this love can only be exceeded, by the abject and +despicable crouching and fawning of Jaffier to the man he had so +basely betrayed, and their subsequent reconciliation. There is +not a production in the whole realms of fiction, that has less +pretension to manly, or even endurable feeling, or to common +propriety. The total defect of a moral sense in this piece is +strongly characteristic of the reign in which it was written. It +has in the mean while a richness of melody, and a picturesqueness +of action, that enables it to delude, and that even draws tears +from the eyes of, persons who can be won over by the eye and the +ear, with almost no participation of the understanding. And this +unmeaning rant and senseless declamation sufficed for the time to +throw into shade those exquisite delineations of character, those +transcendent bursts of passion, and that perfect anatomy of the +human heart, which render the master-pieces of Shakespear a +property for all nations and all times. + +While Shakespear was partly forgotten, it continued to be totally +unknown that he had contemporaries as inexpressibly superior to +the dramatic writers that have appeared since, as these +contemporaries were themselves below the almighty master of +scenic composition. It was the fashion to say, that Shakespear +existed alone in a barbarous age, and that all his imputed +crudities, and intermixture of what was noblest with unparalleled +absurdity and buffoonery, were to be allowed for to him on that +consideration. + +Cowley stands forward as a memorable instance of the inconstancy +of fame. He was a most amiable man; and the loveliness of his +mind shines out in his productions. He had a truly poetic frame +of soul; and he pours out the beautiful feelings that possessed +him unreservedly and at large. He was a great sufferer in the +Stuart cause, he had been a principal member of the court of the +exiled queen; and, when the king was restored, it was a deep +sentiment among his followers and friends to admire the verses of +Cowley. He was "the Poet." The royalist rhymers were set +lightly by in comparison with him. Milton, the republican, who, +by his collection published during the civil war, had shewn that +he was entitled to the highest eminence, was unanimously +consigned to oblivion. Cowley died in 1667; and the duke of +Buckingham, the author of the Rehearsal, eight years after, set +up his tomb in the cemetery of the nation, with an inscription, +declaring him to be at once "the Pindar, the Horace and Virgil of +his country, the delight and the glory of his age, which by his +death was left a perpetual mourner."--Yet--so capricious is fame +--a century has nearly elapsed, since Pope said, + +Who now reads Cowley? If he pleases yet, +His moral pleases, not his pointed wit; +Forgot his epic, nay, Pindaric art, +But still I love the language of his heart. + +As Cowley was the great royalist poet after the Restoration, +Cleveland stood in the same rank during the civil war. In the +publication of his works one edition succeeded to another, yearly +or oftener, for more than twenty years. His satire is eminently +poignant; he is of a strength and energy of thinking uncommonly +masculine; and he compresses his meaning so as to give it every +advantage. His imagination is full of coruscation and +brilliancy. His petition to Cromwel, lord protector of England, +when the poet was under confinement for his loyal principles, is +a singular example of manly firmness, great independence of mind, +and a happy choice of topics to awaken feelings of forbearance +and clemency. It is unnecessary to say that Cleveland is now +unknown, except to such as feel themselves impelled to search +into things forgotten. + +It would be endless to adduce all the examples that might be +found of the caprices of fame. It has been one of the arts of +the envious to set up a contemptible rival to eclipse the +splendour of sterling merit. Thus Crowne and Settle for a time +disturbed the serenity of Dryden. Voltaire says, the Phaedra of +Pradon has not less passion than that of Racine, but expressed in +rugged verse and barbarous language. Pradon is now forgotten: +and the whole French poetry of the Augustan age of Louis the +Fourteenth is threatened with the same fate. Hayley for a few +years was applauded as the genuine successor of Pope; and the +poem of Sympathy by Pratt went through twelve editions. For a +brief period almost each successive age appears fraught with +resplendent genius; but they go out one after another; they set, +"like stars that fall, to rise no more." Few indeed are endowed +with that strength of construction, that should enable them to +ride triumphant on the tide of ages. + +It is the same with conquerors. What tremendous battles have +been fought, what oceans of blood have been spilled, by men who +were resolved that their achievements should be remembered for +ever! And now even their names are scarcely preserved; and the +very effects of the disasters they inflicted on mankind seem to +be swept away, as of no more validity than things that never +existed. Warriors and poets, the authors of systems and the +lights of philosophy, men that astonished the earth, and were +looked up to as Gods, even like an actor on the stage, have +strutted their hour, and then been heard of no more. + +Books have the advantage of all other productions of the human +head or hand. Copies of them may be multiplied for ever, the +last as good as the first, except so far as some slight +inadvertent errors may have insinuated themselves. The Iliad +flourishes as green now, as on the day that Pisistratus is said +first to have stamped upon it its present order. The songs of +the Rhapsodists, the Scalds, and the Minstrels, which once seemed +as fugitive as the breath of him who chaunted them, repose in +libraries, and are embalmed in collections. The sportive sallies +of eminent wits, and the Table Talk of Luther and Selden, may +live as long as there shall be men to read, and judges to +appreciate them. + +But other human productions have their date. Pictures, however +admirable, will only last as long as the colours of which they +are composed, and the substance on which they are painted. Three +or four hundred years ordinarily limit the existence of the most +favoured. We have scarcely any paintings of the ancients, and +but a small portion of their statues, while of these a great part +are mutilated, and various members supplied by later and inferior +artists. The library of Bufo is by Pope described, + + where busts of poets dead, + And a true Pindar stood without a head. + +Monumental records, alike the slightest and the most solid, are +subjected to the destructive operation of time, or to the being +removed at the caprice or convenience of successive generations. +The pyramids of Egypt remain, but the names of him who founded +them, and of him whose memory they seemed destined to perpetuate, +have perished together. Buildings for the use or habitation of +man do not last for ever. Mighty cities, as well as detached +edifices, are destined to disappear. Thebes, and Troy, and +Persepolis, and Palmyra have vanished from the face of the earth. + +"Thorns and brambles have grown up in their palaces: they are +habitations for serpents, and a court for the owl." + +There are productions of man however that seem more durable than +any of the edifices he has raised. Such are, in the first place, +modes of government. The constitution of Sparta lasted for seven +hundred years. That of Rome for about the same period. +Institutions, once deeply rooted in the habits of a people, will +operate in their effects through successive revolutions. Modes +of faith will sometimes be still more permanent. Not to mention +the systems of Moses and Christ, which we consider as delivered +to us by divine inspiration, that of Mahomet has continued for +twelve hundred years, and may last, for aught that appears, +twelve hundred more. The practices of the empire of China are +celebrated all over the earth for their immutability. + +This brings us naturally to reflect upon the durability of the +sciences. According to Bailly, the observation of the heavens, +and a calculation of the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, in +other words, astronomy, subsisted in maturity in China and the +East, for at least three thousand years before the birth of +Christ: and, such as it was then, it bids fair to last as long +as civilisation shall continue. The additions it has acquired of +late years may fall away and perish, but the substance shall +remain. The circulation of the blood in man and other animals, +is a discovery that shall never be antiquated. And the same may +be averred of the fundamental elements of geometry and of some +other sciences. Knowledge, in its most considerable branches +shall endure, as long as books shall exist to hand it down to +successive generations. + +It is just therefore, that we should regard with admiration and +awe the nature of man, by whom these mighty things have been +accomplished, at the same time that the perishable quality of its +individual monuments, and the temporary character and inconstancy +of that fame which in many instances has filled the whole earth +with its renown, may reasonably quell the fumes of an inordinate +vanity, and keep alive in us the sentiment of a wholsome +diffidence and humility. + + + +ESSAY V. +OF THE REBELLIOUSNESS OF MAN. + +There is a particular characteristic in the nature of the human +mind, which is somewhat difficult to be explained. + +Man is a being of a rational and an irrational nature. + +It has often been said that we have two souls. Araspes, in the +Cyropedia, adopts this language to explain his inconsistency, and +desertion of principle and honour. The two souls of man, +according to this hypothesis, are, first, animal, and, secondly, +intellectual. + +But I am not going into any thing of this slight and every-day +character. + +Man is a rational being. It is by this particular that he is +eminently distinguished from the brute creation. He collects +premises and deduces conclusions. He enters into systems of +thinking, and combines systems of action, which he pursues from +day to day, and from year to year. It is by this feature in his +constitution that he becomes emphatically the subject of history, +of poetry and fiction. It is by this that he is raised above the +other inhabitants of the globe of earth, and that the individuals +of our race are made the partners of "gods, and men like gods." + +But our nature, beside this, has another section. We start +occasionally ten thousand miles awry. We resign the sceptre of +reason, and the high dignity that belongs to us as beings of a +superior species; and, without authority derived to us from any +system of thinking, even without the scheme of gratifying any +vehement and uncontrolable passion, we are impelled to do, or at +least feel ourselves excited to do, something disordinate and +strange. It seems as if we had a spring within us, that found +the perpetual restraint of being wise and sober insupportable. +We long to be something, or to do something, sudden and +unexpected, to throw the furniture of our apartment out at +window, or, when we are leaving a place of worship, in which +perhaps the most solemn feelings of our nature have been excited, +to push the grave person that is just before us, from the top of +the stairs to the bottom. A thousand absurdities, wild and +extravagant vagaries, come into our heads, and we are only +restrained from perpetrating them by the fear, that we may be +subjected to the treatment appropriated to the insane, or may +perhaps be made amenable to the criminal laws of our country. + +A story occurs to me, which I learned from the late Dr. Parr at +Hatton, that may not unhappily illustrate the point I am +endeavouring to explain. + +Dr. Samuel Clarke, rector of St. James's, Westminster, the +especial friend of Sir Isaac Newton, the distinguished editor of +the poems of Homer, and author of the Demonstration of the Being +and Attributes of God, was one day summoned from his study, to +receive two visitors in the parlour. When he came downstairs, +and entered the room, he saw a foreigner, who by his air seemed +to be a person of distinction, a professor perhaps of some +university on the continent; and an alderman of London, a +relation of the doctor, who had come to introduce the foreigner. +The alderman, a man of uncultivated mind and manners, and whom +the doctor had been accustomed to see in sordid attire, +surrounded with the incumbrances of his trade, was decked out for +the occasion in a full-dress suit, with a wig of majestic and +voluminous structure. Clarke was, as it appears, so much struck +with the whimsical nature of this unexpected metamorphosis, and +the extraordinary solemnity of his kinsman's demeanour, as to +have felt impelled, almost immediately upon entering the room, to +snatch the wig from the alderman's head, and throw it against the +ceiling: after which this eminent person immediately escaped, +and retired to his own apartment. I was informed from the same +authority, that Clarke, after exhausting his intellectual +faculties by long and intense study, would not unfrequently quit +his seat, leap upon the table, and place himself cross-legged +like a tailor, being prompted, by these antagonist sallies, to +relieve himself from the effect of the too severe strain he had +previously put upon his intellectual powers. + +But the deviousness and aberration of our human faculties +frequently amount to something considerably more serious than +this. + +I will put a case. + +I will suppose myself and another human being together, in some +spot secure from the intrusion of spectators. A musket is +conveniently at hand. It is already loaded. I say to my +companion, "I will place myself before you; I will stand +motionless: take up that musket, and shoot me through the +heart." I want to know what passes in the mind of the man to +whom these words are addressed. + +I say, that one of the thoughts that will occur to many of the +persons who should be so invited, will be, "Shall I take him at +his word?" + +There are two things that restrain us from acts of violence and +crime. The first is, the laws of morality. The second is, the +construction that will be put upon our actions by our +fellow-creatures, and the treatment we shall receive from +them.--I put out of the question here any particular value I may +entertain for my challenger, or any degree of friendship and +attachment I may feel for him. + +The laws of morality (setting aside the consideration of any +documents of religion or otherwise I may have imbibed from my +parents and instructors) are matured within us by experience. In +proportion as I am rendered familiar with my fellow-creatures, or +with society at large, I come to feel the ties which bind men to +each other, and the wisdom and necessity of governing my conduct +by inexorable rules. We are thus further and further removed +from unexpected sallies of the mind, and the danger of suddenly +starting away into acts not previously reflected on and +considered. + +With respect to the censure and retaliation of other men on my +proceeding, these, by the terms of my supposition, are left out +of the question. + +It may be taken for granted, that no man but a madman, would in +the case I have stated take the challenger at his word. But what +I want to ascertain is, why the bare thought of doing so takes a +momentary hold of the mind of the person addressed? + +There are three principles in the nature of man which contribute +to account for this. + +First, the love of novelty. + +Secondly, the love of enterprise and adventure. I become +insupportably wearied with the repetition of rotatory acts and +every-day occurrences. I want to be alive, to be something more +than I commonly am, to change the scene, to cut the cable that +binds my bark to the shore, to launch into the wide sea of +possibilities, and to nourish my thoughts with observing a train +of unforeseen consequences as they arise. + +A third principle, which discovers itself in early childhood, and +which never entirely quits us, is the love of power. We wish to +be assured that we are something, and that we can produce notable +effects upon other beings out of ourselves. It is this +principle, which instigates a child to destroy his playthings, +and to torment and kill the animals around him. + +But, even independently of the laws of morality, and the fear of +censure and retaliation from our fellow-creatures, there are +other things which would obviously restrain us from taking the +challenger in the above supposition at his word. + +If man were an omnipotent being, and at the same time retained +all his present mental infirmities, it would be difficult to say +of what extravagances he would be guilty. It is proverbially +affirmed that power has a tendency to corrupt the best +dispositions. Then what would not omnipotence effect? + +If, when I put an end to the life of a fellow-creature, all +vestiges of what I had done were to disappear, this would take +off a great part of the control upon my actions which at present +subsists. But, as it is, there are many consequences that "give +us pause." I do not like to see his blood streaming on the +ground. I do not like to witness the spasms and convulsions of a +dying man. Though wounded to the heart, he may speak. Then what +may he chance to say? What looks of reproach may he cast upon +me? The musket may miss fire. If I wound him, the wound may be +less mortal than I contemplated. Then what may I not have to +fear? His dead body will be an incumbrance to me. It must be +moved from the place where it lies. It must be buried. How is +all this to be done by me? By one precipitate act, I have +involved myself in a long train of loathsome and heart-sickening +consequences. + +If it should be said, that no one but a person of an abandoned +character would fail, when the scene was actually before him, to +feel an instant repugnance to the proposition, yet it will +perhaps be admitted, that almost every reader, when he regards it +as a supposition merely, says to himself for a moment, "Would I? +Could I?" + +But, to bring the irrationality of man more completely to the +test, let us change the supposition. Let us imagine him to be +gifted with the powers of the fabled basilisk, "to monarchise, be +feared, and kill with looks." His present impulses, his +passions, his modes of reasoning and choosing shall continue; but +his "will is neighboured to his act;" whatever he has formed a +conception of with preference, is immediately realised; his +thought is succeeded by the effect; and no traces are left +behind, by means of which a shadow of censure or suspicion can be +reflected on him. + +Man is in truth a miracle. The human mind is a creature of +celestial origin, shut up and confined in a wall of flesh. We +feel a kind of proud impatience of the degradation to which we +are condemned. We beat ourselves to pieces against the wires of +our cage, and long to escape, to shoot through the elements, and +be as free to change at any instant the place where we dwell, as +to change the subject to which our thoughts are applied. + +This, or something like this, seems to be the source of our most +portentous follies and absurdities. This is the original sin +upon which St. Austin and Calvin descanted. Certain Arabic +writers seem to have had this in their minds, when they tell us, +that there is a black drop of blood in the heart of every man, in +which is contained the fomes peccati, and add that, when Mahomet +was in the fourth year of his age, the angel Gabriel caught him +up from among his playfellows, and taking his heart from his +bosom, squeezed out of it this first principle of frailty, in +consequence of which he for ever after remained inaccessible to +the weaknesses of other men[6]. + +[6] Life of Mahomet, by Prideaux. + + +It is the observation of sir Thomas Browne: "Man is a noble +animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave." One of the +most remarkable examples of this is to he found in the pyramids +of Egypt. They are generally considered as having been erected +to be the tombs of the kings of that country. They have no +opening by which for the light of heaven to enter, and afford no +means for the accommodation of living man. An hundred thousand +men are said to have been constantly employed in the building; +ten years to have been consumed in hewing and conveying the +stones, and twenty more in completing the edifice. Of the +largest the base is a square, and the sides are triangles, +gradually diminishing as they mount in the air. The sides of the +base are two hundred and twenty feet in length, and the +perpendicular height is above one hundred and fifty-five feet. +The figure of the pyramid is precisely that which is most +calculated for duration: it cannot perish by accident; and it +would require almost as much labour to demolish it, as it did to +raise it at first. + +What a light does this fact convey into the inmost recesses of +the human heart! Man reflects deeply, and with feelings of a +mortified nature, upon the perishableness of his frame, and the +approaching close, so far as depends upon the evidence of our +senses, of his existence. He has indeed an irrepressible +"longing after immortality;" and this is one of the various and +striking modes in which he has sought to give effect to his +desire. + +Various obvious causes might be selected, which should be +calculated to give birth to the feeling of discontent. + +One is, the not being at home. + +I will here put together some of the particulars which make up +the idea of home in the most emphatical sense of the word. + +Home is the place where a man is principally at his ease. It is +the place where he most breathes his native air: his lungs play +without impediment; and every respiration brings a pure element, +and a cheerful and gay frame of mind. Home is the place where he +most easily accomplishes all his designs; he has his furniture +and materials and the elements of his occupations entirely within +his reach. Home is the place where he can be uninterrupted. He +is in a castle which is his in full propriety. No unwelcome +guests can intrude; no harsh sounds can disturb his +contemplations; he is the master, and can command a silence equal +to that of the tomb, whenever he pleases. + +In this sense every man feels, while cribbed in a cabin of flesh, +and shut up by the capricious and arbitrary injunctions of human +communities, that he is not at home. + +Another cause of our discontent is to be traced to the disparity +of the two parts of which we are composed, the thinking +principle, and the body in which it acts. The machine which +constitutes the visible man, bears no proportion to our thoughts, +our wishes and desires. Hence we are never satisfied; we always +feel the want of something we have not; and this uneasiness is +continually pushing us on to precipitate and abortive resolves. + +I find in a book, entitled, Illustrations of Phrenology, by Sir +George Mackenzie, Baronet, the following remark. 'If this +portrait be correctly drawn, the right side does not quite agree +with the left in the region of ideality. This dissimilarity may +have produced something contradictory in the feelings of the +person it represents, which he may have felt extremely +annoying[7]." An observation of this sort may be urged with +striking propriety as to the dissimilar attributes of the body +and the thinking principle in man. + + +[7] The remark thus delivered is applied to the portrait of the +author of the present volume. + + +It is perhaps thus that we are to account for a phenomenon, in +itself sufficiently obvious, that our nature has within it a +principle of boundless ambition, a desire to be something that we +are not, a feeling that we are out of our place, and ought to be +where we are not. This feeling produces in us quick and earnest +sallies and goings forth of the mind, a restlessness of soul, and +an aspiration after some object that we do not find ourselves +able to chalk out and define. + +Hence comes the practice of castle-building, and of engaging the +soul in endless reveries and imaginations of something mysterious +and unlike to what we behold in the scenes of sublunary life. +Many writers, having remarked this, have endeavoured to explain +it from the doctrine of a preexistent state, and have said that, +though we have no clear and distinct recollection of what +happened to us previously to our being launched in our present +condition, yet we have certain broken and imperfect conceptions, +as if, when the tablet of the memory was cleared for the most +part of the traces of what we had passed through in some other +mode of being, there were a few characters that had escaped the +diligence of the hand by which the rest had been obliterated. + +It is this that, in less enlightened ages of the world, led men +to engage so much of their thoughts upon supposed existences, +which, though they might never become subject to our organs of +vision, were yet conceived to be perpetually near us, fairies, +ghosts, witches, demons and angels. Our ancestors often derived +suggestions from these, were informed of things beyond the ken of +ordinary faculties, were tempted to the commission of forbidden +acts, or encouraged to proceed in the paths of virtue. + +The most remarkable of these phenomena was that of necromancy, +sorcery and magic. There were men who devoted themselves to +"curious arts," and had books fraught with hidden knowledge. +They could "bedim + + The noon-tide sun, call forth the mutinous winds, +And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault +Set roaring war: to the dread, rattling thunder +They could give fire, and rift even Jove's stout oak +With his own bolt--graves at their command +Have waked their sleepers, oped and let them forth. + + +And of these things the actors in them were so certain, that many +witches were led to the stake, their guilt being principally +established on their own confessions. But the most memorable +matters in the history of the black art, were the contracts which +those who practised it not unfrequently entered into with the +devil, that he should assist them by his supernatural power for +ten or twenty years, and, in consideration of this aid, they +consented to resign their souls into his possession, when the +period of the contract was expired. + +In the animal creation there are some species that may be tamed, +and others whose wildness is irreclaimable. Horace says, that +all men are mad: and no doubt mankind in general has one of the +features of madness. In the ordinary current of our existence we +are to a considerable degree rational and tractable. But we are +not altogether safe. I may converse with a maniac for hours; he +shall talk as soberly, and conduct himself with as much +propriety, as any other of the species who has never been +afflicted with his disease; but touch upon a particular string, +and, before you are aware of it, he shall fly out into the +wildest and most terrifying extravagances. Such, though in a +greatly inferior degree, are the majority of human beings. + +The original impulse of man is uncontrolableness. When the +spirit of life first descends upon us, we desire and attempt to +be as free as air. We are impatient of restraint. This is the +period of the empire of will. There is a power within us that +wars against the restraint of another. We are eager to follow +our own impulses and caprices, and are with difficulty subjected +to those who believe they best know how to control inexperienced +youth in a way that shall tend to his ultimate advantage. + +The most moderate and auspicious method in which the old may +endeavour to guide and control the pursuits of the young, +undoubtedly is by the conviction of the understanding. But this +is not always easy. It is not at all times practicable fully to +explain to the apprehension of a very young person the advantage, +which at a period a little more advanced he would be able clearly +to recognise. + +There is a further evil appertaining to this view of the subject. + +A young man even, in the early season of life, is not always +disposed to obey the convictions of his understanding. He has +prescribed to himself a task which returns with the returning +day; but he is often not disposed to apply. The very sense that +it is what he conceives to be an incumbent duty, inspires him +with reluctance. + +An obvious source of this reluctance is, that the convictions of +our understanding are not always equally present to us. I have +entered into a deduction of premises, and arrived at a +conclusion; but some of the steps of the chain are scarcely +obvious to me, at the time that I am called upon to act upon the +conclusion I have drawn. Beside which, there was a freshness in +the first conception of the reasons on which my conduct was to be +framed, which, by successive rehearsals, and by process of time, +is no longer in any degree spirit-stirring and pregnant. + +This restiveness and impracticability are principally incident to +us in the period of youth. By degrees the novelties of life wear +out, and we become sober. We are like soldiers at drill, and in +a review. At first we perform our exercise from necessity, and +with an ill grace. We had rather be doing almost any thing else. + +By degrees we are reconciled to our occupation. We are like +horses in a manege, or oxen or dogs taught to draw the plough, or +be harnessed to a carriage. Our stubbornness is subdued; we no +longer exhaust our strength in vain efforts to free ourselves +from the yoke. + +Conviction at first is strong. Having arrived at years of +discretion, I revolve with a sobered mind the different +occupations to which my efforts and my time may be devoted, and +determine at length upon that which under all the circumstances +displays the most cogent recommendations. Having done so, I +rouse my faculties and direct my energies to the performance of +my task. By degrees however my resolution grows less vigorous, +and my exertions relax. I accept any pretence to be let off, and +fly into a thousand episodes and eccentricities. + +But, as the newness of life subsides, the power of temptation +becomes less. That conviction, which was at first strong, and +gradually became fainter and less impressive, is made by +incessant repetitions a part of my nature. I no more think of +doubting its truth, than of my own existence. Practice has +rendered the pursuits that engage me more easy, till at length I +grow disturbed and uncomfortable if I am withheld from them. +They are like my daily bread. If they are not afforded me, I +grow sick and attenuated, and my life verges to a close. The sun +is not surer to rise, than I am to feel the want of my stated +employment. + +It is the business of education to tame the wild ass, the restive +and rebellious principle, in our nature. The judicious parent or +instructor essays a thousand methods to accomplish his end. The +considerate elder tempts the child with inticements and caresses, +that he may win his attention to the first rudiments of learning. + +He sets before him, as he grows older, all the considerations and +reasons he can devise, to make him apprehend the advantage of +improvement and literature. He does his utmost to make his +progress easy, and to remove all impediments. He smooths the +path by which he is to proceed, and endeavours to root out all +its thorns. He exerts his eloquence to inspire his pupil with a +love for the studies in which he is engaged. He opens to him the +beauties and genius of the authors he reads, and endeavours to +proceed with him hand in hand, and step by step. He persuades, +he exhorts, and occasionally he reproves. He awakens in him the +love of excellence, the fear of disgrace, and an ambition to +accomplish that which "the excellent of the earth" accomplished +before him. + +At a certain period the young man is delivered into his own +hands, and becomes an instructor to himself. And, if he is +blessed with an ingenuous disposition, he will enter on his task +with an earnest desire and a devoted spirit. No person of a +sober and enlarged mind can for a moment delude himself into the +opinion that, when he is delivered into his own hands, his +education is ended. In a sense to which no one is a stranger, +the education of man and his life terminate together. We should +at no period of our existence be backward to receive information, +and should at all times preserve our minds open to conviction. +We should through every day of our lives seek to add to the +stores of our knowledge and refinement. But, independently of +this more extended sense of the word, a great portion of the +education of the young man is left to the direction of the man +himself. The epoch of entire liberty is a dangerous period, and +calls upon him for all his discretion, that he may not make an +ill use of that, which is in itself perhaps the first of +sublunary blessings. The season of puberty also, and all the +excitements from this source, "that flesh is heir to," demand the +utmost vigilance and the strictest restraint. In a word, if we +would counteract the innate rebelliousness of man, that +indocility of mind which is at all times at hand to plunge us +into folly, we must never slumber at our post, but govern +ourselves with steady severity, and by the dictates of an +enlightened understanding. We must be like a skilful pilot in a +perilous sea, and be thoroughly aware of all the rocks and +quicksands, and the multiplied and hourly dangers that beset our +navigation. + +In this Essay I have treated of nothing more than the inherent +restiveness and indocility of man, which accompany him at least +through all the earlier sections and divisions of his life. I +have not treated of those temptations calculated to lead him into +a thousand excesses and miseries, which originate in our lower +nature, and are connected with what we call the passion of love. +Nor have I entered upon the still more copious chapter, of the +incentives and provocations which are administered to us by those +wants which at all times beset us as living creatures, and by the +unequal distribution of property generally in civil society. I +have not considered those attributes of man which may serve +indifferently for good or for ill, as he may happen to be or not +to be the subject of those fiercer excitements, that will oft +times corrupt the most ingenuous nature, and have a tendency to +inspire into us subtle schemes and a deep contrivance. I have +confined myself to the consideration of man, as yet untamed to +the modes of civilised community, and unbroken to the steps which +are not only prescribed by the interests of our social existence, +but which are even in some degree indispensible to the +improvement and welfare of the individual. I have considered +him, not as he is often acted upon by causes and motives which +seem almost to compel him to vice, but merely as he is restless, +and impatient, and disdainful both of the control of others, and +the shackles of system. + +For the same reason I have not taken notice of another species of +irrationality, and which seems to answer more exactly to the +Arabic notion of the fomes peccati, the black drop of blood at +the bottom of the heart. We act from motives apprehended by the +judgment; but we do not stop at them. Once set in motion, it +will not seldom happen that we proceed beyond our original mark. +We are like Othello in the play: + +Our blood begins our safer guides to rule; +And passion, having our best judgment quelled, +Assays to lead the way. + + +This is the explanation of the greatest enormities that have been +perpetrated by man, and the inhuman deeds of Nero and Caligula. +We proceed from bad to worse. The reins of our discretion drop +from our hands. It fortunately happens however, that we do not +in the majority of cases, like Phaeton in the fable, set the +world on fire; but that, with ordinary men, the fiercest excesses +of passion extend to no greater distance than can be reached by +the sound of their voice. + + +ESSAY VI. +OF HUMAN INNOCENCE. + +One of the most obvious views which are presented to us by man in +society is the inoffensiveness and innocence that ordinarily +characterise him. + +Society for the greater part carries on its own organization. +Each man pursues his proper occupation, and there are few +individuals that feel the propensity to interrupt the pursuits of +their neighbours by personal violence. When we observe the quiet +manner in which the inhabitants of a great city, and, in the +country, the frequenters of the fields, the high roads, and the +heaths, pass along, each engrossed by his private contemplations, +feeling no disposition to molest the strangers he encounters, but +on the contrary prepared to afford them every courteous +assistance, we cannot in equity do less than admire the innocence +of our species, and fancy that, like the patriarchs of old, we +have fallen in with "angels unawares." + +There are a few men in every community, that are sons of riot and +plunder, and for the sake of these the satirical and censorious +throw a general slur and aspersion upon the whole species. + +When we look at human society with kind and complacent survey, we +are more than half tempted to imagine that men might subsist very +well in clusters and congregated bodies without the coercion of +law; and in truth criminal laws were only made to prevent the +ill-disposed few from interrupting the regular and inoffensive +proceedings of the vast majority. + +From what disposition in human nature is it that all this +accommodation and concurrence proceed? + +It is not primarily love. We feel in a very slight degree +excited to good will towards the stranger whom we accidentally +light upon in our path. + +Neither is it fear. + +It is principally forecast and prudence. We have a +sensitiveness, that forbids us for a slight cause to expose +ourselves to we know not what. We are unwilling to bc disturbed. + +We have a mental vis inertiae, analogous to that quality in +material substances, by means of which, being at rest, they +resist being put into a state of motion. We love our security; +we love our respectability; and both of these may be put to +hazard by our rashly and unadvisedly thrusting ourselves upon the +course of another. We like to act for ourselves. We like to act +with others, when we think we can foresee the way in which the +proposed transaction will proceed, and that it will proceed to +our wish. + +Let us put the case, that I am passing along the highway, +destitute and pennyless, and without foresight of any means by +which I am to procure the next meal that my nature requires. + +The vagrant, who revolves in his mind the thought of extorting +from another the supply of which he is urgently in need, surveys +the person upon whom he meditates this violence with a +scrutinising eye. He considers, Will this man submit to my +summons without resistance, or in what manner will he repel my +trespass? He watches his eye, he measures his limbs, his +strength, and his agility. Though they have met in the deserts +of Africa, where there is no law to punish the violator, he knows +that he exposes himself to a fearful hazard; and he enters upon +his purpose with desperate resolve. All this and more must occur +to the man of violence, within the pale of a civilised community. + +Begging is the mildest form in which a man can obtain from the +stranger he meets, the means of supplying his urgent necessities. + +But, even here, the beggar knows that he exposes himself not only +to refusal, but to the harsh and opprobrious terms in which that +refusal may be conveyed. In this city there are laws against +begging; and the man that asks alms of me, is an offender against +the state. In country-towns it is usual to remark a notice upon +entering, to say, Whoever shall be found begging in this place, +shall be set in the stocks. + +There are modes however in which I may accost a stranger, with +small apprehension that I shall be made to repent of it. I may +enquire of him my way to the place towards which my business or +my pleasure invites me. Ennius of old has observed, that lumen +de lumine, to light my candle at my neighbour's lamp, is one of +the privileges that the practices of civil society concede. + +But it is not merely from forecast and prudence that we refrain +from interrupting the stranger in his way. We have all of us a +certain degree of kindness for a being of our own species. A +multitude of men feel this kindness for every thing that has +animal life. We would not willingly molest the stranger who has +done us no injury. On the contrary we would all of us to a +certain extent assist him, under any unforeseen casualty and +tribulation. A part therefore of the innocence that +characterises our species is to be attributed to philanthropy. + +Childhood is diffident. Children for the most part are averse to +the addressing themselves to strangers, unless in cases where, +from the mere want of anticipation and reflection, they proceed +as if they were wholly without the faculty of making calculations +and deducing conclusions. The child neither knows himself nor +the stranger he meets in his path. He has not measured either +the one or the other. He does not know what the stranger may be +able, or may likely be prompted to do to him, nor what are his +own means of defence or escape. He takes refuge therefore in a +wary, sometimes an obstinate silence. It is for this reason that +a boy at school often appears duller and more inept, than would +be the amount of a fair proportion to what he is found to be when +grown up to a man. + +As we improve in judgment and strength, we know better ourselves +and others, and in a majority of instances take our due place in +the ranks of society. We acquire a modest and cautious firmness, +yield what belongs to another, and assert what is due to +ourselves. To the last however, we for the most part retain the +inoffensiveness described in the beginning of this Essay. + +How comes it then that our nature labours under so bitter an +aspersion? We have been described as cunning, malicious and +treacherous. Other animals herd together for mutual convenience; +and their intercourse with their species is for the most part a +reciprocation of social feeling and kindness. But community +among men, we are told, is that condition of human existence, +which brings out all our evil qualities to the face of day. We +lie in wait for, and circumvent each other by multiplied +artifices. We cannot depend upon each other for the truth of +what is stated to us; and promises and the most solemn +engagements often seem as if they were made only to mislead. We +are violent and deadly in our animosities, easily worked up to +ferocity, and satisfied with scarcely any thing short of +mutilation and blood. We are revengeful: we lay up an injury, +real or imaginary, in the store-house of an undecaying memory, +waiting only till we can repay the evil we have sustained +tenfold, at a time when our adversary shall be lulled in +unsuspecting security. We are rapacious, with no symptom that +the appetite for gain within us will ever be appeased; and we +practise a thousand deceits, that it may be the sooner, and to +the greater degree glutted. The ambition of man is unbounded; +and he hesitates at no means in the course it prompts him to +pursue. In short, man is to man ever the most fearful and +dangerous foe: and it is in this view of his nature that the +king of Brobdingnag says to Gulliver, "I cannot but conclude the +bulk of your race to be the most pernicious generation of little, +odious vermin, that were ever suffered to crawl upon the surface +of the earth." The comprehensive faculties of man therefore, and +the refinements and subtlety of his intellect, serve only to +render him the more formidable companion, and to hold us up as a +species to merited condemnation. + +It is obvious however that the picture thus drawn is greatly +overcharged, that it describes a very small part of our race, and +that even as to them it sets before us a few features only, and a +partial representation + +History--the successive scenes of the drama in which individuals +play their part--is a labyrinth, of which no man has as yet +exactly seized the clue. + +It has long since been observed, that the history of the four +great monarchies, of tyrannies and free states, of chivalry and +clanship, of Mahometanism and the Christian church, of the +balance of Europe and the revolution of empires, is little else +than a tissue of crimes, exhibiting nations as if they were so +many herds of ferocious animals, whose genuine occupation was to +tear each other to pieces, and to deform their mother-earth with +mangled carcases and seas of blood. + +But it is not just that we should establish our opinion of human +nature purely from the records of history. Man is alternately +devoted to tranquillity and to violence. But the latter only +affords the proper materials of narration. When he is wrought +upon by some powerful impulse, our curiosity is most roused to +observe him. We remark his emotions, his energies, his tempest. +It is then that he becomes the person of a drama. And, where +this disquietude is not the affair of a single individual, but of +several persons together, of nations, it is there that history +finds her harvest. She goes into the field with all the +implements of her industry, and fills her storehouses and +magazines with the abundance of her crop. But times of +tranquillity and peace furnish her with no materials. They are +dismissed in a few slight sentences, and leave no memory behind. + +Let us divide this spacious earth into equal compartments, and +see in which violence, and in which tranquillity prevails. Let +us look through the various ranks and occupations of human +society, and endeavour to arrive at a conclusion of a similar +sort. The soldier by occupation, and the officer who commands +him, would seem, when they are employed in their express +functions, to be men of strife. Kings and ministers of state +have in a multitude of instances fallen under this description. +Conquerors, the firebrands of the earth, have sufficiently +displayed their noxious propensities. + +But these are but a small part of the tenantry of the +many-peopled globe. Man lives by the sweat of his brow. The +teeming earth is given him, that by his labour he may raise from +it the means of his subsistence. Agriculture is, at least among +civilised nations, the first, and certainly the most +indispensible of professions. The profession itself is the +emblem of peace. All its occupations, from seed-time to harvest, +are tranquil; and there is nothing which belongs to it, that can +obviously be applied to rouse the angry passions, and place men +in a frame of hostility to each other. Next to the cultivator, +come the manufacturer, the artificer, the carpenter, the mason, +the joiner, the cabinet-maker, all those numerous classes of +persons, who are employed in forming garments for us to wear, +houses to live in, and moveables and instruments for the +accommodation of the species. All these persons are, of +necessity, of a peaceable demeanour. So are those who are not +employed in producing the conveniencies of life, but in +conducting the affairs of barter and exchange. Add to these, +such as are engaged in literature, either in the study of what +has already been produced, or in adding to the stock, in science +or the liberal arts, in the instructing mankind in religion and +their duties, or in the education of youth. "Civility," "civil," +are indeed terms which express a state of peaceable occupation, +in opposition to what is military, and imply a tranquil frame of +mind, and the absence of contention, uproar and violence. It is +therefore clear, that the majority of mankind are civil, devoted +to the arts of peace, and so far as relates to acts of violence +innocent, and that the sons of rapine constitute the exception to +the general character. + +We come into the world under a hard and unpalatable law, "In the +sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." It is a bitter decree +that is promulgated against us, "He that will not work, neither +shall he eat." We all of us love to do our own will, and to be +free from the manacles of restraint. What our hearts "find us to +do," that we are disposed to execute "with all our might." Some +men are lovers of strenuous occupation. They build and they +plant; they raise splendid edifices, and lay out pleasure-grounds +of mighty extent. Or they devote their minds to the acquisition +of knowledge; they + + ----outwatch the bear, +With thrice great Hermes, or unsphere +The spirit of Plato, to unfold +What worlds, or what vast regions hold +The immortal mind. + +Others again would waste perhaps their whole lives in reverie and +idleness. They are constituted of materials so kindly and +serene, that their spirits never flag from want of occupation and +external excitement. They could lie for ever on a sunny bank, in +a condition divided between thinking and no thinking, refreshed +by the fanning breeze, viewing the undulations of the soil, and +the rippling of the brook, admiring the azure heavens, and the +vast, the bold, and the sublime figure of the clouds, yielding +themselves occasionally to "thick-coming fancies," and +day-dreams, and the endless romances of an undisciplined mind; + + And find no end, in wandering mazes lost. + +But all men, alike the busy of constitution and the idle, would +desire to follow the impulses of their own minds, unbroken in +upon by harsh necessity, or the imperious commands of their +fellows. + +We cannot however, by the resistless law of our existence, live, +except the few who by the accident of their birth are privileged +to draw their supplies from the labour of others, without +exerting ourselves to procure by our efforts or ingenuity the +necessaries of food, lodging and attire. He that would obtain +them for himself in an uninhabited island, would find that this +amounted to a severe tax upon that freedom of motion and thought +which would otherwise be his inheritance. And he who has his lot +cast in a populous community, exists in a condition somewhat +analogous to that of a negro slave, except that he may to a +limited extent select the occupation to which he shall addict +himself, or may at least starve, in part or in whole, +uncontroled, and at his choice. Such is, as it were, the +universal lot. + + 'Tis destiny unshunnable like death: + Even then this dire necessity falls on us, + When we do quicken. + + +I go forth in the streets, and observe the occupations of other +men. I remark the shops that on every side beset my path. It is +curious and striking, how vast are the ingenuity and contrivance +of human beings, to wring from their fellow-creatures, "from the +hard hands of peasants" and artisans, a part of their earnings, +that they also may live. We soon become feelingly convinced, +that we also must enter into the vast procession of industry, +upon pain that otherwise, + + Like to an entered tide, they all rush by, + And leave you hindmost: there you lie, + For pavement to the abject rear, o'errun + And trampled on. + + +It is through the effect of this necessity, that civilised +communities become what they are. We all fall into our ranks. +Each one is member of a certain company or squadron. We know our +respective places, and are marshaled and disciplined with an +exactness scarcely less than that of the individuals of a mighty +army. We are therefore little disposed to interrupt the +occupations of each other. We are intent upon the peculiar +employment to which we have become devoted. We "rise up early, +and lie down late," and have no leisure to trouble ourselves with +the pursuits of others. Hence of necessity it happens in a +civilised community, that a vast majority of the species are +innocent, and have no inclination to molest or interrupt each +other's avocations. + +But, as this condition of human society preserves us in +comparative innocence, and renders the social arrangement in the +midst of which we exist, to a certain degree a soothing and +agreeable spectacle, so on the other hand it is not less true +that its immediate tendency is, to clip the wings of the thinking +principle within us, and plunge the members of the community in +which we live into a barren and ungratifying mediocrity. Hence +it should be the aim of those persons, who from their situation +have more or less the means of looking through the vast +assemblage of their countrymen, of penetrating "into the seeds" +of character, and determining "which grain will grow, and which +will not," to apply themselves to the redeeming such as are +worthy of their care from the oblivious gulph into which the mass +of the species is of necessity plunged. It is therefore an ill +saying, when applied in the most rigorous extent, "Let every man +maintain himself, and be his own provider: why should we help +him?" + +The help however that we should afford to our fellow-men requires +of us great discernment in its administration. The deceitfulness +of appearances is endless. And nothing can well be at the same +time more lamentable and more ludicrous, than the spectacle of +those persons, the weaver, the thresher, and the mechanic, who by +injudicious patronage are drawn from their proper sphere, only to +exhibit upon a larger stage their imbecility and inanity, to shew +those moderate powers, which in their proper application would +have carried their possessors through life with respect, +distorted into absurdity, and used in the attempt to make us look +upon a dwarf, as if he were one of the Titans who in the +commencement of recorded time astonished the earth. + +It is also true to a great degree, that those efforts of the +human mind are most healthful and vigorous, in which the +possessor of talents "administers to himself," and contends with +the different obstacles that arise, + + --------throwing them aside, + And stemming them with hearts of controversy. + + +Many illustrious examples however may be found in the annals of +literature, of patronage judiciously and generously applied, +where men have been raised by the kindness of others from the +obscurest situations, and placed on high, like beacons, to +illuminate the world. And, independently of all examples, a +sound application of the common sense of the human mind would +teach us, that the worthies of the earth, though miracles, are +not omnipotent, and that a certain aid, from those who by counsel +or opulence are enabled to afford it, have oft times produced the +noblest effects, have carried on the generous impulse that works +within us, and prompted us manfully to proceed, when the weakness +of our nature was ready to give in from despair. + +But the thing that in this place it was most appropriate to say, +is, that we ought not quietly to affirm, of the man whose mind +nature or education has enriched with extraordinary powers, "Let +him maintain himself, and be his own provider: why should we +help him?" It is a thing deeply to be regretted, that such a man +will frequently be compelled to devote himself to pursuits +comparatively vulgar and inglorious, because he must live. Much +of this is certainly inevitable. But what glorious things might +a man with extraordinary powers effect, were he not hurried +unnumbered miles awry by the unconquerable power of +circumstances? The life of such a man is divided between the +things which his internal monitor strongly prompts him to do, and +those which the external power of nature and circumstances +compels him to submit to. The struggle on the part of his better +self is noble and admirable. The less he gives way, provided he +can accomplish the purpose to which he has vowed himself, the +more he is worthy of the admiration of the world. If, in +consequence of listening too much to the loftier aspirations of +his nature, he fails, it is deeply to be regretted--it is a man +to a certain degree lost--but surely, if his miscarriage be not +caused by undue presumption, or the clouds and unhealthful +atmosphere of self-conceit, he is entitled to the affectionate +sympathy and sorrow of every generous mind. + + + +ESSAY VII. +OF THE DURATION OF HUMAN LIFE. + +The active and industrious portion of the human species in +civilised countries, is composed of those who are occupied in the +labour of the hand, and in the labour of the head. + +The following remarks expressly apply only to the latter of these +classes, principally to such as are occupied in productive +literature. They may however have their use to all persons a +considerable portion of whose time is employed in study and +contemplation, as, if well founded, they will form no unimportant +chapter in the science of the human mind. + +In relation to all the members of the second class then, I should +say, that human life is made up of term and vacation, in other +words, of hours that may be intellectually employed, and of hours +that cannot be so employed. + +Human life consists of years, months and days: each day contains +twenty-four hours. Of these hours how many belong to the +province of intellect? + +"There is," as Solomon says, "a time for all things." There must +be a time for sleep, a time for recreation, a time for exercise, +a time for supplying the machine with nourishment, and a time for +digestion. When all these demands have been supplied, how many +hours will be left for intellectual occupation? + +These remarks, as I have said, are intended principally to apply +to the subject of productive literature. Now, of the hours that +remain when all the necessary demands of human life have been +supplied, it is but a portion, perhaps a small portion, that can +be beneficially, judiciously, employed in productive literature, +or literary composition. + +It is true, that there are many men who will occupy eight, ten, +or twelve hours in a day, in the labour of composition. But it +may be doubted whether they are wisely so occupied. + +It is the duty of an author, inasmuch as he is an author, to +consider, that he is to employ his pen in putting down that which +shall be fit for other men to read. He is not writing a letter +of business, a letter of amusement, or a letter of sentiment, to +his private friend. He is writing that which shall be perused by +as many men as can be prevailed on to become his readers. If he +is an author of spirit and ambition, he wishes his productions to +be read, not only by the idle, but by the busy, by those who +cannot spare time to peruse them but at the expence of some +occupations which ought not to be suspended without an adequate +occasion. He wishes to be read not only by the frivolous and the +lounger, but by the wise, the elegant, and the fair, by those who +are qualified to appreciate the merit of a work, who are endowed +with a quick sensibility and a discriminating taste, and are able +to pass a sound judgment on its beauties and defects. He +advances his claim to permanent honours, and desires that his +lucubrations should be considered by generations yet unborn. + +A person, so occupied, and with such aims, must not attempt to +pass his crudities upon the public. If I may parody a celebrated +aphorism of Quintilian, I would say, "Magna debetur hominibus +reverentia[8]:" in other words, we should carefully examine what +it is that we propose to deliver in a permanent form to the taste +and understanding of our species. An author ought only to commit +to the press the first fruits of his field, his best and choicest +thoughts. He ought not to take up the pen, till he has brought +his mind into a fitting tone, and ought to lay it down, the +instant his intellect becomes in any degree clouded, and his +vital spirits abate of their elasticity. + +[8] Mankind is to be considered with reverence. + + +There are extraordinary cases. A man may have so thoroughly +prepared himself by long meditation and study, he may have his +mind so charged with an abundance of thought, that it may employ +him for ten or twelve hours consecutively, merely to put down or +to unravel the conceptions already matured in his soul. It was +in some such way, that Dryden, we are told, occupied a whole +night, and to a late hour in the next morning, in penning his +Alexander's Feast. But these are the exceptions. In most +instances two or three hours are as much as an author can spend +at a time in delivering the first fruits of his field, his +choicest thoughts, before his intellect becomes in some degree +clouded, and his vital spirits abate of their elasticity. + +Nor is this all. He might go on perhaps for some time longer +with a reasonable degree of clearness. But the fertility which +ought to be his boast, is exhausted. He no longer sports in the +meadows of thought, or revels in the exuberance of imagination, +but becomes barren and unsatisfactory. Repose is necessary, and +that the soil should be refreshed with the dews of another +evening, the sleep of a night, and the freshness and revivifying +influence of another morning. + +These observations lead, by a natural transition, to the question +of the true estimate and value of human life, considered as the +means of the operations of intellect. + +A primary enquiry under this head is as to the duration of life: +Is it long, or short? + +The instant this question is proposed, I hear myself replied to +from all quarters: What is there so well known as the brevity of +human life? "Life is but a span." It is "as a tale that is +told." "Man cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he +fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." We are "as a +sleep; or as grass: in the morning it flourisheth, and groweth +up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth." + +The foundation of this sentiment is obvious. Men do not live for +ever. The longest duration of human existence has an end: and +whatever it is of which that may be affirmed, may in some sense +be pronounced to be short. The estimation of our existence +depends upon the point of view from which we behold it. Hope is +one of our greatest enjoyments. Possession is something. But +the past is as nothing. Remorse may give it a certain solidity; +the recollection of a life spent in acts of virtue may be +refreshing. But fruition, and honours, and fame, and even pain, +and privations, and torment, when they ere departed, are but like +a feather; we regard them as of no account. Taken in this sense, +Dryden's celebrated verses are but a maniac's rant: + + To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have lived to-day: + Be fair, or foul, or rain, or shine, + The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate are mine. + Not heaven itself upon the past has power, + But what has been has been, and I have had my hour. + + +But this way of removing the picture of human life to a certain +distance from us, and considering those things which were once in +a high degree interesting as frivolous and unworthy of regard, is +not the way by which we shall arrive at a true and just +estimation of life. Whatever is now past, and is of little +value, was once present: and he who would form a sound judgment, +must look upon every part of our lives as present in its turn, +and not suffer his opinion to be warped by the consideration of +the nearness or remoteness of the object he contemplates. + +One sentence, which has grown into a maxim for ever repeated, is +remarkable for the grossest fallacy: Ars longa, vita brevis[9]. +I would fain know, what art, compared with the natural duration +of human life from puberty to old age, is long. + +[9] Art is long; life is short. + + +If it is intended to say, that no one man can be expected to +master all possible arts, or all arts that have at one time or +another been the subject of human industry, this indeed is true. +But the cause of this does not lie in the limited duration of +human life, but in the nature of the faculties of the mind. +Human understanding and human industry cannot embrace every +thing. When we take hold of one thing, we must let go another. +Science and art, if we would pursue them to the furthest extent +of which we are capable, must be pursued without interruption. +It would therefore be more to the purpose to say, Man cannot be +for ever young. In the stream of human existence, different +things have their appropriate period. The knowledge of languages +can perhaps be most effectually acquired in the season of nonage. + +At riper years one man devotes himself to one science or art, and +another man to another. This man is a mathematician; a second +studies music; a third painting. This man is a logician; and +that man an orator. The same person cannot be expected to excel +in the abstruseness of metaphysical science, and in the ravishing +effusions of poetical genius. When a man, who has arrived at +great excellence in one department of art or science, would +engage himself in another, he will be apt to find the freshness +of his mind gone, and his faculties no longer distinguished by +the same degree of tenacity and vigour that they formerly +displayed. It is with the organs of the brain, as it is with the +organs of speech, in the latter of which we find the tender +fibres of the child easily accommodating themselves to the +minuter inflections and variations of sound, which the more rigid +muscles of the adult will for the most part attempt in vain. + +If again, by the maxim, Ars longa, vita brevis, it is intended to +signify, that we cannot in any art arrive at perfection; that in +reality all the progress we can make is insignificant; and that, +as St. Paul says, we must "not count ourselves to have already +attained; but that, forgetting the things that are behind, it +becomes us to press forward to the prize of our calling,"--this +also is true. But this is only ascribable to the limitation of +our faculties, and that even the shadow of perfection which man +is capable to reach, can only be attained by the labour of +successive generations. The cause does not lie in the shortness +of human life, unless we would include in its protracted duration +the privilege of being for ever young; to which we ought perhaps +to add, that our activity should never be exhausted, the +freshness of our minds never abate, and our faculties for ever +retain the same degree of tenacity and vigour, as they had in the +morning of life, when every thing was new, when all that allured +or delighted us was seen accompanied with charms inexpressible, +and, as Dryden expresses it[10], "the first sprightly running" of +the wine of life afforded a zest never after to be hoped for. + +[10] Aurengzebe. + + +I return then to the consideration of the alleged shortness of +life. I mentioned in the beginning of this Essay, that "human +life consists of years, months and days; each day containing +twenty-four hours." But, when I said this, I by no means carried +on the division so far as it might be carried. It has been +calculated that the human mind is capable of being impressed with +three hundred and twenty sensations in a second of time.[11] + +[11] See Watson on Time, Chapter II. + + +"How infinitely rapid is the succession of thought! While I am +speaking, perhaps no two ideas are in my mind at the same time, +and yet with what facility do I slide from one to another! If my +discourse be argumentative, how often do I pass in review the +topics of which it consists, before I utter them; and, even while +I am speaking, continue the review at intervals, without +producing any pause in my discourse! How many other sensations +are experienced by me during this period, without so much as +interrupting, that is, without materially diverting, the train of +my ideas! My eye successively remarks a thousand objects that +present themselves. My mind wanders to the different parts of my +body, and receives a sensation from the chair on which I sit, or +the table on which I lean. It reverts to a variety of things +that occurred in the course of the morning, in the course of +yesterday, the most remote from, the most unconnected with, the +subject that might seem wholly to engross me. I see the window, +the opening of a door, the snuffing of a candle. When these most +perceptibly occur, my mind passes from one to the other, without +feeling the minutest obstacle, or being in any degree distracted +by their multiplicity[12]." + +[12] Political Justice, Book IV, Chapter ix. + + +If this statement should appear to some persons too subtle, it +may however prepare us to form a due estimate of the following +remarks. + +"Art is long." No, certainly, no art is long, compared with the +natural duration of human life from puberty to old age. There is +perhaps no art that may not with reasonable diligence be acquired +in three years, that is, as to its essential members and its +skilful exercise. We may improve afterwards, but it will be only +in minute particulars, and only by fits. Our subsequent +advancement less depends upon the continuance of our application, +than upon the improvement of the mind generally, the refining of +our taste, the strengthening our judgment, and the accumulation +of our experience. + +The idea which prevails among the vulgar of mankind is, that we +must make haste to be wise. The erroneousness of this notion +however has from time to time been detected by moralists and +philosophers; and it has been felt that he who proceeds in a +hurry towards the goal, exposes himself to the imminent risk of +never reaching it. + +The consciousness of this danger has led to the adoption of the +modified maxim, Festina lente, Hasten, but with steps deliberate +and cautious. + +It would however be a more correct advice to the aspirant, to +say, Be earnest in your application, but let your march be +vigilant and slow. + +There is a doggrel couplet which I have met with in a book on +elocution: + + Learn to speak slow: all other graces + Will follow in their proper places. + +I could wish to recommend a similar process to the student in the +course of his reading. + +Toplady, a celebrated methodist preacher of the last age, +somewhere relates a story of a coxcomb, who told him that he had +read over Euclid's Elements of Geometry one afternoon at his tea, +only leaving out the A's and B's and crooked lines, which seemed +to be intruded merely to retard his progress. + +Nothing is more easy than to gabble through a work replete with +the profoundest elements of thinking, and to carry away almost +nothing, when we have finished. + +The book does not deserve even to be read, which does not impose +on us the duty of frequent pauses, much reflecting and inward +debate, or require that we should often go back, compare one +observation and statement with another, and does not call upon us +to combine and knit together the disjecta membra. + +It is an observation which has often been repeated, that, when we +come to read an excellent author a second and a third time, we +find in him a multitude of things, that we did not in the +slightest degree perceive in a first reading. A careful first +reading would have a tendency in a considerable degree to +anticipate this following crop. + +Nothing is more certain than that a schoolboy gathers much of his +most valuable instruction when his lesson is not absolutely +before him. In the same sense the more mature student will +receive most important benefit, when he shuts his book, and goes +forth in the field, and ruminates on what he has read. It is +with the intellectual, as with the corporeal eye: we must retire +to a certain distance from the object we would examine, before we +can truly take in the whole. We must view it in every direction, +"survey it," as Sterne says, "transversely, then foreright, then +this way, and then that, in all its possible directions and +foreshortenings[13];" and thus only can it be expected that we +should adequately comprehend it. + +[13] Tristram Shandy, Vol. IV, Chap. ii. + + +But the thing it was principally in my purpose to say is, that it +is one of the great desiderata of human life, not to accomplish +our purposes in the briefest time, to consider "life as short, +and art as long," and therefore to master our ends in the +smallest number of days or of years, but rather to consider it as +an ample field that is spread before us, and to examine how it is +to be filled with pleasure, with advantage, and with usefulness. +Life is like a lordly garden, which it calls forth all the skill +of the artist to adorn with exhaustless variety and beauty; or +like a spacious park or pleasure-ground, all of whose +inequalities are to be embellished, and whose various capacities +of fertilisation, sublimity or grace, are to be turned to +account, so that we may wander in it for ever, and never be +wearied. + +We shall perhaps understand this best, if we take up the subject +on a limited scale, and, before we consider life in its assigned +period of seventy years, first confine our attention to the space +of a single day. And we will consider that day, not as it +relates to the man who earns his subsistence by the labour of his +hands, or to him who is immersed in the endless details of +commerce. But we will take the case of the man, the whole of +whose day is to be disposed of at his own discretion. + +The attention of the curious observer has often been called to +the tediousness of existence, how our time hangs upon our hands, +and in how high estimation the art is held, of giving wings to +our hours, and making them pass rapidly and cheerfully away. And +moralists of a cynical disposition have poured forth many a +sorrowful ditty upon the inconsistency of man, who complains of +the shortness of life, at the same time that he is put to the +greatest straits how to give an agreeable and pleasant occupation +to its separate portions. "Let us hear no more," say these +moralists, "of the transitoriness of human existence, from men to +whom life is a burthen, and who are willing to assign a reward to +him that shall suggest to them an occupation or an amusement +untried before." + +But this inconsistency, if it merits the name, is not an affair +of artificial and supersubtle refinement, but is based in the +fundamental principles of our nature. It is unavoidable that, +when we have reached the close of any great epoch of our +existence, and still more when we have arrived at its final term, +we should regret its transitory nature, and lament that we have +made no more effectual use of it. And yet the periods and +portions of the stream of time, as they pass by us, will often be +felt by us as insufferably slow in their progress, and we would +give no inconsiderable sum to procure that the present section of +our lives might come to an end, and that we might turn over a new +leaf in the volume of existence. + +I have heard various men profess that they never knew the minutes +that hung upon their hands, and were totally unacquainted with +what, borrowing a term from the French language, we call ennui. +I own I have listened to these persons with a certain degree of +incredulity, always excepting such as earn their subsistence by +constant labour, or as, being placed in a situation of active +engagement, have not the leisure to feel apathy and disgust. + +But we are talking here of that numerous class of human beings, +who are their own masters, and spend every hour of the day at the +choice of their discretion. To these we may add the persons who +are partially so, and who, having occupied three or four hours of +every day in discharge of some function necessarily imposed on +them, at the striking of a given hour go out of school, and +employ themselves in a certain industry or sport purely of their +own election. + +To go back then to the consideration of the single day of a man, +all of whose hours are at his disposal to spend them well or ill, +at the bidding of his own judgment, or the impulse of his own +caprice. + +We will suppose that, when he rises from his bed, he has sixteen +hours before him, to be employed in whatever mode his will shall +decide. I bar the case of travelling, or any of those schemes +for passing the day, which by their very nature take the election +out of his hands, and fill up his time with a perpetual motion, +the nature of which is ascertained from the beginning. + +With such a man then it is in the first place indispensibly +necessary, that he should have various successive occupations. +There is no one study or intellectual enquiry to which a man can +apply sixteen hours consecutively, unless in some extraordinary +instances which can occur but seldom in the course of a life. +And even then the attention will from time to time relax, and the +freshness of mental zeal and activity give way, though perhaps, +after the lapse of a few minutes they may be revived and brought +into action again. + +In the ordinary series of human existence it is desirable that, +in the course of the same day, a man should have various +successive occupations. I myself for the most part read in one +language at one part of the day, and in another at another. I am +then in the best health and tone of spirits, when I employ two or +three hours, and no more, in the act of writing and composition. +There must also in the sixteen hours be a time for meals. There +should be a time for fresh air and bodily exercise. It is in the +nature of man, that we should spend a part of every day in the +society of our fellows, either at public spectacles and places of +concourse, or in the familiar interchange of conversation with +one, two, or more persons with whom we can give ourselves up to +unrestrained communication. All human life, as I have said, +every day of our existence, consists of term and vacation; and +the perfection of practical wisdom is to interpose these one with +another, so as to produce a perpetual change, a well-chosen +relief, and a freshness and elastic tone which may bid defiance +to weariness. + +Taken then in this point of view, what an empire does the man of +leisure possess in each single day of his life! He disposes of +his hours much in the same manner, as the commander of a company +of men whom it is his business to train in the discipline of war. + +This officer directs one party of his men to climb a mountain, +and another to ford or swim a stream which rushes along the +valley. He orders this set to rush forward with headlong course, +and the other to wheel, and approach by circuitous progress +perhaps to the very same point. He marches them to the right and +the left. He then dismisses them from the scene of exercise, to +furbish their arms, to attend to their accoutrements, or to +partake of necessary refection. Not inferior to this is the +authority of the man of leisure in disposing of the hours of one +single day of his existence. And human life consists of many +such days, there being three hundred and sixty-five in each year +that we live. + +How infinitely various may be the occupations of the life of man +from puberty to old age! We may acquire languages; we may devote +ourselves to arts; we may give ourselves up to the profoundness +of science. Nor is any one of these objects incompatible with +the others, nor is there any reason why the same man should not +embrace many. We may devote one portion of the year to +travelling, and another to all the abstractions of study. I +remember when I was a boy, looking forward with terror to the +ample field of human life, and saying, When I have read through +all the books that have been written, what shall I do afterwards? +And there is infinitely more sense in this, than in the ludicrous +exclamations of men who complain of the want of time, and say +that life affords them no space in which to act their imaginings. + +On the contrary, when a man has got to the end of one art or +course of study, he is compelled to consider what he shall do +next. And, when we have gone through a cycle of as many +acquisitions, as, from the limitation of human faculties, are not +destructive of each other, we shall find ourselves frequently +reduced to the beginning some of them over again. Nor is this +the least agreeable occupation of human leisure. The book that I +read when I was a boy, presents quite a new face to me as I +advance in the vale of years. The same words and phrases suggest +to me a new train of ideas. And it is no mean pleasure that I +derive from the singular sensation of finding the same author and +the same book, old and yet not old, presenting to me cherished +and inestimable recollections, and at the same time communicating +mines of wealth, the shaft of which was till now unexplored. + +The result then of these various observations is to persuade the +candid and ingenuous man, to consider life as an important and +ample possession, to resolve that it shall he administered with +as much judgment and deliberation as a person of true +philanthropy and wisdom would administer a splendid income, and +upon no occasion so much to think upon the point of in how short +a time an interesting pursuit is to be accomplished, as by what +means it shall be accomplished in a consummate and masterly +style. Let us hear no more, from those who have to a +considerable degree the command of their hours, the querulous and +pitiful complaint that they have no time to do what they ought to +do and would wish to do; but let them feel that they have a +gigantic store of minutes and hours and days and months, +abundantly sufficient to enable them to effect what it is +especially worthy of a noble mind to perform! + + + +ESSAY VIII. +OF HUMAN VEGETATION. + +There is another point of view from which we may look at the +subject of time as it is concerned with the business of human +life, that will lead us to conclusions of a very different sort +from those which are set down in the preceding Essay. + +Man has two states of existence in a striking degree +distinguished from each other: the state in which he is found +during his waking hours; and the state in which he is during +sleep. + +The question has been agitated by Locke and other philosophers, +"whether the soul always thinks," in other words, whether the +mind, during those hours in which our limbs lie for the most part +in a state of inactivity, is or is not engaged by a perpetual +succession of images and impressions. This is a point that can +perhaps never be settled. When the empire of sleep ceases, or +when we are roused from sleep, we are often conscious that we +have been to that moment busily employed with that sort of +conceptions and scenes which we call dreams. And at times when, +on waking, we have no such consciousness, we can never perhaps be +sure that the shock that waked us, had not the effect of driving +away these fugitive and unsubstantial images. There are men who +are accustomed to say, they never dream. If in reality the mind +of man, from the hour of his birth, must by the law of its nature +be constantly occupied with sensations or images (and of the +contrary we can never be sure), then these men are all their +lives in the state of persons, upon whom the shock that wakes +them, has the effect of driving away such fugitive and +unsubstantial images.--Add to which, there may be sensations in +the human subject, of a species confused and unpronounced, which +never arrive at that degree of distinctness as to take the shape +of what we call dreaming. + +So much for man in the state of sleep. + +But during our waking hours, our minds are very differently +occupied at different periods of the day. I would particularly +distinguish the two dissimilar states of the waking man, when the +mind is indolent, and when it is on the alert. + +While I am writing this Essay, my mind may be said to be on the +alert. It is on the alert, so long as I am attentively reading a +book of philosophy, of argumentation, of eloquence, or of poetry. + +It is on the alert, so long as I am addressing a smaller or a +greater audience, and endeavouring either to amuse or instruct +them. It is on the alert, while in silence and solitude I +endeavour to follow a train of reasoning, to marshal and arrange +a connected set of ideas, or in any other way to improve my mind, +to purify my conceptions, and to advance myself in any of the +thousand kinds of intellectual process. It is on the alert, when +I am engaged in animated conversation, whether my cue be to take +a part in the reciprocation of alternate facts and remarks in +society, or merely to sit an attentive listener to the facts and +remarks of others. + +This state of the human mind may emphatically be called the state +of activity and attention. + +So long as I am engaged in any of the ways here enumerated, or in +any other equally stirring mental occupations which are not here +set down, my mind is in a frame of activity. + +But there is another state in which men pass their minutes and +hours, that is strongly contrasted with this. It depends in some +men upon constitution, and in others upon accident, how their +time shall be divided, how much shall be given to the state of +activity, and how much to the state of indolence. + +In an Essay I published many years ago there is this passage. + +"The chief point of difference between the man of talent and the +man without, consists in the different ways in which their minds +are employed during the same interval. They are obliged, let us +suppose, to walk from Temple-Bar to Hyde-Park-Corner. The dull +man goes straight forward; he has so many furlongs to traverse. +He observes if he meets any of his acquaintance; he enquires +respecting their health and their family. He glances perhaps the +shops as he passes; he admires the fashion of a buckle, and the +metal of a tea-urn. If he experiences any flights of fancy, they +are of a short extent; of the same nature as the flights of a +forest-bird, clipped of his wings, and condemned to pass the rest +of his life in a farm-yard. On the other hand the man of talent +gives full scope to his imagination. He laughs and cries. +Unindebted to the suggestions of surrounding objects, his whole +soul is employed. He enters into nice calculations; he digests +sagacious reasonings. In imagination he declaims or describes, +impressed with the deepest sympathy, or elevated to the loftiest +rapture. He makes a thousand new and admirable combinations. He +passes through a thousand imaginary scenes, tries his courage, +tasks his ingenuity, and thus becomes gradually prepared to meet +almost any of the many-coloured events of human life. He +consults by the aid of memory the books he has read, and projects +others for the future instruction and delight of mankind. If he +observe the passengers, he reads their countenances, conjectures +their past history, and forms a superficial notion of their +wisdom or folly, their virtue or vice, their satisfaction or +misery. If he observe the scenes that occur, it is with the eye +of a connoisseur or an artist. Every object is capable of +suggesting to him a volume of reflections. The time of these two +persons in one respect resembles; it has brought them both to +Hyde-Park-Corner. In almost every other respect it is +dissimilar;[14]." + +[14] Enquirer, Part 1, Essay V. + + +This passage undoubtedly contains a true description of what may +happen, and has happened. + +But there lurks in this statement a considerable error. + +It has appeared in the second Essay of this volume, that there is +not that broad and strong line of distinction between the wise +man and the dull that has often been supposed. We are all of us +by turns both the one and the other. Or, at least, the wisest +man that ever existed spends a portion of his time in vacancy and +dulness; and the man, whose faculties are seemingly the most +obtuse, might, under proper management from the hour of his +birth, barring those rare exceptions from the ordinary standard +of mind which do not deserve to be taken into the account, have +proved apt, adroit, intelligent and acute, in the walk for which +his organisation especially fitted him[15]. + +[15] See above, Essay 3. + + +Many men without question, in a walk of the same duration as that +above described between Temple-Bar and Hyde-Park-Corner, have +passed their time in as much activity, and amidst as strong and +various excitements, as those enumerated in the passage above +quoted. + +But the lives of all men, the wise, and those whom by way of +contrast we are accustomed to call the dull, are divided between +animation and comparative vacancy; and many a man, who by the +bursts of his genius has astonished the world, and commanded the +veneration of successive ages, has spent a period of time equal +to that occupied by a walk from Temple-Bar to Hyde-Park-Corner, +in a state of mind as idle, and as little affording materials for +recollection, as the dullest man that ever breathed the vital +air. + +The two states of man which are here attempted to be +distinguished, are, first, that in which reason is said to fill +her throne, in which will prevails, and directs the powers of +mind or of bodily action in one channel or another; and, +secondly, that in which these faculties, tired of for ever +exercising their prerogatives, or, being awakened as it were from +sleep, and having not yet assumed them, abandon the helm, even as +a mariner might be supposed to do, in a wide sea, and in a time +when no disaster could be apprehended, and leave the vessel of +the mind to drift, exactly as chance might direct. + +To describe this last state of mind I know not a better term that +can be chosen, than that of reverie. It is of the nature of what +I have seen denominated BROWN STUDY[16] a species of dozing and +drowsiness, in which all men spend a portion of the waking part +of every day of their lives. Every man must be conscious of +passing minutes, perhaps hours of the day, particularly when +engaged in exercise in the open air, in this species of +neutrality and eviration. It is often not unpleasant at the +time, and leaves no sinking of the spirits behind. It is +probably of a salutary nature, and may be among the means, in a +certain degree beneficial like sleep, by which the machine is +restored, and the man comes forth from its discipline +reinvigorated, and afresh capable of his active duties. + +[16] Norris, and Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language. + + +This condition of our nature has considerably less vitality in +it, than we experience in a complete and perfect dream. In +dreaming we are often conscious of lively impressions, of a busy +scene, and of objects and feelings succeeding each other with +rapidity. We sometimes imagine ourselves earnestly speaking: +and the topics we treat, and the words we employ, are supplied to +us with extraordinary fluency. But the sort of vacancy and +inoccupation of which I here treat, has a greater resemblance to +the state of mind, without distinct and clearly unfolded ideas, +which we experience before we sink into sleep. The mind is in +reality in a condition, more properly accessible to feeling and +capable of thought, than actually in the exercise of either the +one or the other. We are conscious of existence and of little +more. We move our legs, and continue in a peripatetic state; for +the man who has gone out of his house with a purpose to walk, +exercises the power of volition when he sets out, but proceeds in +his motion by a semi-voluntary act, by a sort of vis inertiae, +which will not cease to operate without an express reason for +doing so, and advances a thousand steps without distinctly +willing any but the first. When it is necessary to turn to the +right or the left, or to choose between any two directions on +which he is called upon to decide, his mind is so far brought +into action as the case may expressly require, and no further. + +I have here instanced in the case of the peripatetic: but of how +many classes and occupations of human life may not the same thing +be affirmed? It happens to the equestrian, as well as to him +that walks on foot. It occurs to him who cultivates the fruits +of the earth, and to him who is occupied in any of the thousand +manufactures which are the result of human ingenuity. It happens +to the soldier in his march, and to the mariner on board his +vessel. It attends the individuals of the female sex through all +their diversified modes of industry, the laundress, the +housemaid, the sempstress, the netter of purses, the knotter of +fringe, and the worker in tambour, tapestry and embroidery. In +all, the limbs or the fingers are employed mechanically; the +attention of the mind is only required at intervals; and the +thoughts remain for the most part in a state of non-excitation +and repose. + +It is a curious question, but extremely difficult of solution, +what portion of the day of every human creature must necessarily +be spent in this sort of intellectual indolence. In the lower +classes of society its empire is certainly very great; its +influence is extensive over a large portion of the opulent and +luxurious; it is least among those who are intrusted in the more +serious affairs of mankind, and among the literary and the +learned, those who waste their lives, and consume the +midnight-oil, in the search after knowledge. + +It appeared with sufficient clearness in the immediately +preceding Essay, that the intellect cannot be always on the +stretch, nor the bow of the mind for ever bent. In the act of +composition, unless where the province is of a very inferior +kind, it is likely that not more than two or three hours at a +time can be advantageously occupied. But in literary labour it +will often occur, that, in addition to the hours expressly +engaged in composition, much time may be required for the +collecting materials, the collating of authorities, and the +bringing together a variety of particulars, so as to sift from +the mass those circumstances which may best conduce to the +purpose of the writer. In all these preliminary and inferior +enquiries it is less necessary that the mind should be +perpetually awake and on the alert, than in the direct office of +composition. The situation is considerably similar of the +experimental philosopher, the man who by obstinate and +unconquerable application resolves to wrest from nature her +secrets, and apply them to the improvement of social life, or to +the giving to the human mind a wider range or a more elevated +sphere. A great portion of this employment consists more in the +motion of the hands and the opportune glance of the eye, than in +the labour of the head, and allows to the operator from time to +time an interval of rest from the momentous efforts of invention +and discovery, and the careful deduction of consequences in the +points to be elucidated. + +There is a distinction, sufficiently familiar to all persons who +occupy a portion of their time in reading, that is made between +books of instruction, and books of amusement. From the student +of mathematics or any of the higher departments of science, from +the reader of books of investigation and argument, an active +attention is demanded. Even in the perusal of the history of +kingdoms and nations, or of certain memorable periods of public +affairs, we can scarcely proceed with any satisfaction, unless in +so far as we collect our thoughts, compare one part of the +narrative with another, and hold the mind in a state of activity. + +We are obliged to reason while we read, and in some degree to +construct a discourse of our own, at the same time that we follow +the statements of the author before us. Unless we do this, the +sense and spirit of what we read will be apt to slip from under +our observation, and we shall by and by discover that we are +putting together words and sounds only, when we purposed to store +our minds with facts and reflections. We apprehended not the +sense of the writer even when his pages were under our eye, and +of consequence have nothing laid up in the memory after the hour +of reading is completed. + +In works of amusement it is otherwise, and most especially in +writings of fiction. These are sought after with avidity by the +idle, because for the most part they are found to have the virtue +of communicating impressions to the reader, even while his mind +remains in a state of passiveness. He finds himself agreeably +affected with fits of mirth or of sorrow, and carries away the +facts of the tale, at the same time that he is not called upon +for the act of attention. This is therefore one of the modes of +luxury especially cultivated in a highly civilized state of +society. + +The same considerations will also explain to us the principal +part of the pleasure that is experienced by mankind in all states +of society from public shews and exhibitions. The spectator is +not called upon to exert himself; the amusement and pleasure come +to him, while he remains voluptuously at his ease; and it is +certain that the exertion we make when we are compelled to +contribute to, and become in part the cause of our own +entertainment, is more than the human mind is willing to sustain, +except at seasons in which we are specially on the alert and +awake. + +This is further one of the causes why men in general feel +prompted to seek the society of their fellows. We are in part no +doubt called upon in select society to bring our own information +along with us, and a certain vein of wit, humour or narrative, +that we may contribute our proportion to the general stock. We +read the newspapers, the newest publications, and repair to +places of fashionable amusement and resort; partly that we may at +least be upon a par with the majority of the persons we are +likely to meet. But many do not thus prepare themselves, nor +does perhaps any one upon all occasions. + +There is another state of human existence in which we expressly +dismiss from our hands the reins of the mind, and suffer our +minutes and our hours to glide by us undisciplined and at random. + +This is, generally speaking, the case in a period of sickness. +We have no longer the courage to be on the alert, and to +superintend the march of our thoughts. It is the same with us +for the most part when at any time we lie awake in our beds. To +speak from my own experience, I am in a restless and uneasy state +while I am alone in my sitting-room, unless I have some +occupation of my own choice, writing or reading, or any of those +employments the pursuit of which was chosen at first, and which +is more or less under the direction of the will afterwards. But +when awake in my bed, either in health or sickness, I am +reasonably content to let my thoughts flow on agreeably to those +laws of association by which I find them directed, without giving +myself the trouble to direct them into one channel rather than +another, or to marshal and actively to prescribe the various +turns and mutations they may be impelled to pursue. + +It is thus that we are sick; and it is thus that we die. The man +that guides the operations of his own mind, is either to a +certain degree in bodily health, or in that health of mind which +shall for a longer or shorter time stand forward as the +substitute of the health of the body. When we die, we give up +the game, and are not disposed to contend any further. It is a +very usual thing to talk of the struggles of a man in articulo +mortis. But this is probably, like so many other things that +occur to us in this sublunary stage, a delusion. The bystander +mistakes for a spontaneous contention and unwillingness to die, +what is in reality nothing more than an involuntary contraction +and convulsion of the nerves, to which the mind is no party, and +is even very probably unconscious.--But enough of this, the final +and most humiliating state through which mortal men may be called +on to pass. + +I find then in the history of almost every human creature four +different states or modes of existence. First, there is sleep. +In the strongest degree of contrast to this there is the frame in +which we find ourselves, when we write! or invent and steadily +pursue a consecutive train of thinking unattended with the +implements of writing, or read in some book of science or +otherwise which calls upon us for a fixed attention, or address +ourselves to a smaller or greater audience, or are engaged in +animated conversation. In each of these occupations the mind may +emphatically be said to be on the alert. + +But there are further two distinct states or kinds of mental +indolence. The first is that which we frequently experience +during a walk or any other species of bodily exercise, where, +when the whole is at an end, we scarcely recollect any thing in +which the mind has been employed, but have been in what I may +call a healthful torpor, where our limbs have been sufficiently +in action to continue our exercise, we have felt the fresh breeze +playing on our cheeks, and have been in other respects in a frame +of no unpleasing neutrality. This may be supposed greatly to +contribute to our bodily health. It is the holiday of the +faculties: and, as the bow, when it has been for a considerable +time unbent, is said to recover its elasticity, so the mind, +after a holiday of this sort, comes fresh, and with an increased +alacrity, to those occupations which advance man most highly in +the scale of being. + +But there is a second state of mental indolence, not so complete +as this, but which is still indolence, inasmuch as in it the mind +is passive, and does not assume the reins of empire. Such is the +state in which we are during our sleepless hours in bed; and in +this state our ideas, and the topics that successively occur, +appear to go forward without remission, while it seems that it is +this busy condition of the mind, and the involuntary activity of +our thoughts, that prevent us from sleeping. + +The distinction then between these two sorts of indolence is, +that in the latter our ideas are perfectly distinct, are attended +with consciousness, and can, as we please, be called up to +recollection. This therefore is not what we understand by +reverie. In these waking hours which are spent by us in bed, the +mind is no less busy, than it is in sleep during a dream. The +other and more perfect sort of mental indolence, is that which we +often experience during our exercise in the open air. This is of +the same nature as the condition of thought which seems to be the +necessary precursor of sleep, and is attended with no precise +consciousness. + +By the whole of the above statement we are led to a new and a +modified estimate of the duration of human life. + +If by life we understand mere susceptibility, a state of +existence in which we are accessible at any moment to the onset +of sensation, for example, of pain--in this sense our life is +commensurate, or nearly commensurate, to the entire period, from +the quickening of the child in the womb, to the minute at which +sense deserts the dying man, and his body becomes an inanimate +mass. + +But life, in the emphatical sense, and par excellence, is reduced +to much narrower limits. From this species of life it is +unavoidable that we should strike off the whole of the interval +that is spent in sleep; and thus, as a general rule, the natural +day of twenty-four hours is immediately reduced to sixteen. + +Of these sixteen hours again, there is a portion that falls under +the direction of will and attention, and a portion that is passed +by us in a state of mental indolence. By the ordinary and least +cultivated class of mankind, the husbandman, the manufacturer, +the soldier, the sailor, and the main body of the female sex, +much the greater part of every day is resigned to a state of +mental indolence. The will does not actively interfere, and the +attention is not roused. Even the most intellectual beings of +our species pass no inconsiderable portion of every day in a +similar condition. Such is our state for the most part during +the time that is given to bodily exercise, and during the time in +which we read books of amusement merely, or are employed in +witnessing public shews and exhibitions. + +That portion of every day of our existence which is occupied by +us with a mind attentive and on the alert, I would call life in a +transcendant sense. The rest is scarcely better than a state of +vegetation. + +And yet not so either. The happiest and most valuable thoughts +of the human mind will sometimes come when they are least sought +for, and we least anticipated any such thing. In reading a +romance, in witnessing a performance at a theatre, in our idlest +and most sportive moods, a vein in the soil of intellect will +sometimes unexpectedly be broken up, "richer than all the tribe" +of contemporaneous thoughts, that shall raise him to whom it +occurs, to a rank among his species altogether different from any +thing he had looked for. Newton was led to the doctrine of +gravitation by the fall of an apple, as he indolently reclined +under the tree on which it grew. "A verse may find him, who a +sermon flies." Polemon, when intoxicated, entered the school of +Xenocrates, and was so struck with the energy displayed by the +master, and the thoughts he delivered, that from that moment he +renounced the life of dissipation he had previously led, and +applied himself entirely to the study of philosophy. --But these +instances are comparatively of rare occurrence, and do not +require to be taken into the account. + +It is still true therefore for the most part, that not more than +eight hours in the day are passed by the wisest and most +energetic, with a mind attentive and on the alert. The remainder +is a period of vegetation only. In the mean time we have all of +us undoubtedly to a certain degree the power of enlarging the +extent of the period of transcendant life in each day of our +healthful existence, and causing it to encroach upon the period +either of mental indolence or of sleep.--With the greater part of +the human species the whole of their lives while awake, with the +exception of a few brief and insulated intervals, is spent in a +passive state of the intellectual powers. Thoughts come and go, +as chance, or some undefined power in nature may direct, +uninterfered with by the sovereign will, the steersman of the +mind. And often the understanding appears to be a blank, upon +which if any impressions are then made, they are like figures +drawn in the sand which the next tide obliterates, or are even +lighter and more evanescent than this. + +Let me add, that the existence of the child for two or three +years from the period of his birth, is almost entirely a state of +vegetation. The impressions that are made upon his sensorium +come and go, without either their advent or departure being +anticipated, and without the interference of the will. It is +only under some express excitement, that the faculty of will +mounts its throne, and exercises its empire. When the child +smiles, that act is involuntary; but, when he cries, will +presently comes to mix itself with the phenomenon. Wilfulness, +impatience and rebellion are infallible symptoms of a mind on the +alert. And, as the child in the first stages of its existence +puts forth the faculty of will only at intervals, so for a +similar reason this period is but rarely accompanied with memory, +or leaves any traces of recollection for our after-life. + +There are other memorable states of the intellectual powers, +which if I did not mention, the survey here taken would seem to +be glaringly imperfect. The first of these is madness. In this +humiliating condition of our nature the sovereignty of reason is +deposed: + + Chaos umpire sits, + And by decision more embroils the fray. + +The mind is in a state of turbulence and tempest in one instant, +and in another subsides into the deepest imbecility; and, even +when the will is occasionally roused, the link which preserved +its union with good sense and sobriety is dissolved, and the +views by which it has the appearance of being regulated, are all +based in misconstruction and delusion. + +Next to madness occur the different stages of spleen, dejection +and listlessness. The essence of these lies in the passiveness +and neutrality of the intellectual powers. In as far as the +unhappy sufferer could be roused to act, the disease would be +essentially diminished, and might finally be expelled. But long +days and months are spent by the patient in the midst of all +harassing imaginations, and an everlasting nightmare seems to sit +on the soul, and lock up its powers in interminable inactivity. +Almost the only interruption to this, is when the demands of +nature require our attention, or we pay a slight and uncertain +attention to the decencies of cleanliness and attire. + +In all these considerations then we find abundant occasion to +humble the pride and vain-glory of man. But they do not overturn +the principles delivered in the preceding Essay respecting the +duration of human life, though they certainly interpose +additional boundaries to limit the prospects of individual +improvement. + + + +ESSAY IX. +OF LEISURE. + +The river of human life is divided into two streams; occupation +and leisure--or, to express the thing more accurately, that +occupation, which is prescribed, and may be called the business +of life, and that occupation, which arises contingently, and not +so much of absolute and set purpose, not being prescribed: such +being the more exact description of these two divisions of human +life, inasmuch as the latter is often not less earnest and intent +in its pursuits than the former. + +It would be a curious question to ascertain which of these is of +the highest value. + +To this enquiry I hear myself loudly and vehemently answered from +all hands in favour of the first. "This," I am told by unanimous +acclamation, "is the business of life." + +The decision in favour of what we primarily called occupation, +above what we called leisure, may in a mitigated sense be +entertained as true. Man can live with little or no leisure, for +millions of human beings do so live: but the species to which we +belong, and of consequence the individuals of that species, +cannot exist as they ought to exist, without occupation. + +Granting however the paramount claims that occupation has to our +regard, let us endeavour to arrive at a just estimate of the +value of leisure. + +It has been said by some one, with great appearance of truth, +that schoolboys learn as much, perhaps more, of beneficial +knowledge in their hours of play, as in their hours of study. + +The wisdom of ages has been applied to ascertain what are the +most desirable topics for the study of the schoolboy. They are +selected for the most part by the parent. There are few parents +that do not feel a sincere and disinterested desire for the +welfare of their children. It is an unquestionable maxim, that +we are the best judges of that of which we have ourselves had +experience; and all parents have been children. It is therefore +idle and ridiculous to suppose that those studies which have for +centuries been chosen by the enlightened mature for the +occupation of the young, have not for the most part been well +chosen. Of these studies the earliest consist in the arts of +reading and writing. Next follows arithmetic, with perhaps some +rudiments of algebra and geometry. Afterward comes in due order +the acquisition of languages, particularly the dead languages; a +most fortunate occupation for those years of man, in which the +memory is most retentive, and the reasoning powers have yet +acquired neither solidity nor enlargement. Such are the +occupations of the schoolboy in his prescribed hours of study. + +But the schoolboy is cooped up in an apartment, it may be with a +number of his fellows. He is seated at a desk, diligently +conning the portion of learning that is doled out to him, or, +when he has mastered his lesson, reciting it with anxious brow +and unassured lips to the senior, who is to correct his errors, +and pronounce upon the sufficiency of his industry. All this may +be well: but it is a new and more exhilarating spectacle that +presents itself to our observation, when he is dismissed from his +temporary labours, and rushes impetuously out to the open air, +and gives free scope to his limbs and his voice, and is no longer +under the eye of a censor that shall make him feel his +subordination and dependence. + +Meanwhile the question under consideration was, not in which +state he experienced the most happiness, but which was productive +of the greatest improvement. + +The review of the human subject is conveniently divided under the +heads of body and mind. + +There can be no doubt that the health of the body is most +promoted by those exercises in which the schoolboy is engaged +during the hours of play. And it is further to be considered +that health is required, not only that we may be serene, +contented and happy, but that we may be enabled effectually to +exert the faculties of the mind. + +But there is another way, in which we are called upon to consider +the division of the human subject under the heads of body and +mind. + +The body is the implement and instrument of the mind, the tool by +which most of its purposes are to be effected. We live in the +midst of a material world, or of what we call such. The greater +part of the pursuits in which we engage, are achieved by the +action of the limbs and members of the body upon external matter. + +Our communications with our fellow-men are all of them carried on +by means of the body. + +Now the action of the limbs and members of the body is infinitely +improved by those exercises in which the schoolboy becomes +engaged during his hours of play. In the first place it is to be +considered that we do those things most thoroughly and in the +shortest time, which are spontaneous, the result of our own +volition; and such are the exercises in which the schoolboy +engages during this period. His heart and soul are in what he +does. The man or the boy must be a poor creature indeed, who +never does any thing but as he is bid by another. It is in his +voluntary acts and his sports, that he learns the skilful and +effective use of his eye and his limbs. He selects his mark, and +he hits it. He tries again and again, effort after effort, and +day after day, till he has surmounted the difficulty of the +attempt, and the rebellion of his members. Every articulation +and muscle of his frame is called into action, till all are +obedient to the master-will; and his limbs are lubricated and +rendered pliant by exercise, as the limbs of the Grecian athleta +were lubricated with oil. + +Thus he acquires, first dexterity of motion, and next, which is +of no less importance, a confidence in his own powers, a +consciousness that he is able to effect what he purposes, a +calmness and serenity which resemble the sweeping of the area, +and scattering of the saw-dust, upon which the dancer or the +athlete is to exhibit with grace, strength and effect. + +So much for the advantages reaped by the schoolboy during his +hours of play as to the maturing his bodily powers, and the +improvement of those faculties of his mind which more immediately +apply to the exercise of his bodily powers. + +But, beside this, it is indispensible to the well-being and +advantage of the individual, that he should employ the faculties +of his mind in spontaneous exertions. I do not object, +especially during the period of nonage, to a considerable degree +of dependence and control. But his greatest advancement, even +then, seems to arise from the interior impulses of his mind. The +schoolboy exercises his wit, and indulges in sallies of the +thinking principle. This is wholsome; this is fresh; it has +twice the quickness, clearness and decision in it, that are to be +found in those acts of the mind which are employed about the +lessons prescribed to him. + +In school our youth are employed about the thoughts, the acts and +suggestions of other men. This is all mimicry, and a sort of +second-hand business. It resembles the proceeding of the +fresh-listed soldier at drill; he has ever his eye on his +right-hand man, and does not raise his arm, nor advance his foot, +nor move his finger, but as he sees another perform the same +motion before him. It is when the schoolboy proceeds to the +playground, that he engages in real action and real discussion. +It is then that he is an absolute human being and a genuine +individual. + +The debates of schoolboys, their discussions what they shall do, +and how it shall be done, are anticipations of the scenes of +maturer life. They are the dawnings of committees, and vestries, +and hundred-courts, and ward-motes, and folk-motes, and +parliaments. When boys consult when and where their next +cricket-match shall be played, it may be regarded as the embryo +representation of a consult respecting a grave enterprise to be +formed, or a colony to be planted. And, when they enquire +respecting poetry and prose, and figures and tropes, and the +dictates of taste, this happily prepares them for the +investigations of prudence, and morals, and religious principles, +and what is science, and what is truth. + +It is thus that the wit of man, to use the word in the old Saxon +sense, begins to be cultivated. One boy gives utterance to an +assertion; and another joins issue with him, and retorts. The +wheels of the engine of the brain are set in motion, and, without +force, perform their healthful revolutions. The stripling feels +himself called upon to exert his presence of mind, and becomes +conscious of the necessity of an immediate reply. Like the +unfledged bird, he spreads his wings, and essays their powers. +He does not answer, like a boy in his class, who tasks his +understanding or not, as the whim of the moment shall prompt him, +where one boy honestly performs to the extent of his ability, and +others disdain the empire assumed over them, and get off as +cheaply as they can. He is no longer under review, but is +engaged in real action. The debate of the schoolboy is the +combat of the intellectual gladiator, where he fences and parries +and thrusts with all the skill and judgment he possesses. + +There is another way in which the schoolboy exercises his powers +during his periods of leisure. He is often in society; but he is +ever and anon in solitude. At no period of human life are our +reveries so free and untrammeled, as at the period here spoken +of. He climbs the mountain-cliff; and penetrates into the depths +of the woods. His joints are well strung; he is a stranger to +fatigue. He rushes down the precipice, and mounts again with +ease, as though he had the wings of a bird. He ruminates, and +pursues his own trains of reflection and discovery, "exhausting +worlds," as it appears to him, "and then imagining new." He +hovers on the brink of the deepest philosophy, enquiring how came +I here, and to what end. He becomes a castle-builder, +constructing imaginary colleges and states, and searching out the +businesses in which they are to be employed, and the schemes by +which they are to be regulated. He thinks what he would do, if +he possessed uncontrolable strength, if he could fly, if he could +make himself invisible. In this train of mind he cons his first +lessons of liberty and independence. He learns self-reverence, +and says to himself, I also am an artist, and a maker. He +ruffles himself under the yoke, and feels that he suffers foul +tyranny when he is driven, and when brute force is exercised upon +him, to compel him to a certain course, or to chastise his +faults, imputed or real. + +Such are the benefits of leisure to the schoolboy: and they are +not less to man when arrived at years of discretion. It is good +for us to have some regular and stated occupation. Man may be +practically too free; this is frequently the case with those who +have been nurtured in the lap of opulence and luxury. We were +sent into the world under the condition, "In the sweat of thy +brow shalt thou eat bread." And those who, by the artificial +institutions of society, are discharged from this necessity, are +placed in a critical and perilous situation. They are bound, if +they would consult their own well-being, to contrive for +themselves a factitious necessity, that may stand them in the +place of that necessity which is imposed without appeal on the +vast majority of their brethren. + +But, if it is desirable that every man should have some regular +and stated occupation, so it is certainly not less desirable, +that every man should have his seasons of relaxation and leisure. + +Unhappy is the wretch, whose condition it is to be perpetually +bound to the oar, and who is condemned to labour in one certain +mode, during all the hours that are not claimed by sleep, or as +long as the muscles of his frame, or the fibres of his fingers +will enable him to persevere. "Apollo himself," says the poet, +"does not always bend the bow." There should be a season, when +the mind is free as air, when not only we should follow without +restraint any train of thinking or action, within the bounds of +sobriety, and that is not attended with injury to others, that +our own minds may suggest to us, but should sacrifice at the +shrine of intellectual liberty, and spread our wings, and take +our flight into untried regions. It is good for man that he +should feel himself at some time unshackled and autocratical, +that he should say, This I do, because it is prescribed to me by +the conditions without which I cannot exist, or by the election +which in past time I deliberately made; and this, because it is +dictated by the present frame of my spirit, and is therefore that +in which the powers my nature has entailed upon me may be most +fully manifested. In addition to which we are to consider, that +a certain variety and mutation of employments is best adapted to +humanity. When my mind or my body seems to be overwrought by one +species of occupation, the substitution of another will often +impart to me new life, and make me feel as fresh as if no labour +had before engaged me. For all these reasons it is to be +desired, that we should possess the inestimable privilege of +leisure, that in the revolving hours of every day a period should +arrive, at which we should lay down the weapons of our labour, +and engage in a sport that may be no less active and strenuous +than the occupation which preceded it. + +A question, which deserves our attention in this place, is, how +much of every day it behoves us to give to regular and stated +occupation, and how much is the just and legitimate province of +leisure. It has been remarked in a preceding Essay[17], that, if +my main and leading pursuit is literary composition, two or three +hours in the twenty-four will often be as much as can +advantageously and effectually be so employed. But this will +unavoidably vary according to the nature of the occupation: the +period above named may be taken as the MINIMUM. + +[17] See above, Essay 7. + + +Such, let us say, is the portion of time which the man of letters +is called on to devote to literary composition. + +It may next be fitting to enquire as to the humbler classes of +society, and those persons who are engaged in the labour of the +hands, how much time they ought to be expected to consume in +their regular and stated occupations, and how much would remain +to them for relaxation and leisure. It has been said[18], that +half an hour in the day given by every member of the community to +manual labour, might be sufficient for supplying the whole with +the absolute necessaries of life. But there are various +considerations that would inevitably lengthen this period. In a +community which has made any considerable advance in the race of +civilisation, many individuals must be expected to be excused +from any portion of manual labour. It is not desirable that any +community should be contented to supply itself with necessaries +only. There are many refinements in life, and many advances in +literature and the arts, which indispensibly conduce to the +rendering man in society a nobler and more exalted creature than +he could otherwise be; and these ought not to be consigned to +neglect. + +[18] Political Justice, Book VIII, Chap. VI. + + +On the other hand however it is certain, that much of the +ostentation and a multitude of the luxuries which subsist in +European and Asiatic society are just topics of regret, and that, +if ever those improvements in civilisation take place which +philosophy has essayed to delineate, there would be a great +abridgment of the manual labour that we now see around us, and +the humbler classes of the community would enter into the +inheritance of a more considerable portion of leisure than at +present falls to their lot. + +But it has been much the habit, for persons not belonging to the +humbler classes of the community, and who profess to speculate +upon the genuine interests of human society, to suppose, however +certain intervals of leisure may conduce to the benefit of men +whose tastes have been cultivated and refined, and who from +education have many resources of literature and reflection at all +times at their beck, yet that leisure might prove rather +pernicious than otherwise to the uneducated and the ignorant. +Let us enquire then how these persons would be likely to employ +the remainder of their time, if they had a greater portion of +leisure than they at present enjoy.--I would add, that the +individuals of the humbler classes of the community need not for +ever to merit the appellation of the uneducated and ignorant. + +In the first place, they would engage, like the schoolboy, in +active sports, thereby giving to their limbs, which, in rural +occupation and mechanical labour, are somewhat too monotonously +employed, and contract the stiffness and experience the waste of +a premature old age, the activity and freedom of an athlete, a +cricketer, or a hunter. Nor do these occupations only conduce to +the health of the body, they also impart a spirit and a juvenile +earnestness to the mind. + +In the next place, they may be expected to devote a part of the +day, more than they do at present, to their wives and families, +cultivating the domestic affections, watching the expanding +bodies and minds of their children, leading them on in the road +of improvement, warning them against the perils with which they +are surrounded, and observing with somewhat of a more jealous and +parental care, what it is for which by their individual qualities +they are best adapted, and in what particular walk of life they +may most advantageously be engaged. The father and the son would +grow in a much greater degree friends, anticipating each other's +wishes, and sympathising in each other's pleasures and pains. + +Thirdly, one infallible consequence of a greater degree of +leisure in the lower classes would be that reading would become a +more common propensity and amusement. It is the aphorism of one +of the most enlightened of my contemporaries, "The schoolmaster +is abroad:" and many more than at present would desire to store +up in their little hoard a certain portion of the general +improvement. We should no longer have occasion to say, + + But knowledge to their eyes her ample page, + Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unrol. + +Nor should we be incited to fear that ever wakeful anticipation +of the illiberal, that, by the too great diffusion of the wisdom +of the wise, we might cease to have a race of men adapted to the +ordinary pursuits of life. Our ploughmen and artificers, who +obtained the improvements of intellect through the medium of +leisure, would have already received their destination, and +formed their habits, and would be disposed to consider the new +lights that were opened upon them, as the ornament of existence, +not its substance. Add to which, as leisure became more +abundant, and the opportunities of intellectual improvement +increased, they would have less motive to repine at their lot. +It is principally while knowledge and information are new, that +they are likely to intoxicate the brain of those to whose share +they have fallen; and, when they are made a common stock upon +which all men may draw, sound thinking and sobriety may be +expected to be the general result. + +One of the scenes to which the leisure of the laborious classes +is seen to induce them to resort, is the public-house; and it is +inferred that, if their leisure were greater, a greater degree of +drunkenness, dissipation and riot would inevitably prevail. + +In answer to this anticipation, I would in the first place +assert, that the merits and demerits of the public-house are very +unjustly rated by the fastidious among the more favoured orders +of society. + +We ought to consider that the opportunities and amusements of the +lower orders of society are few. They do not frequent +coffee-houses; theatres and places of public exhibition are +ordinarily too expensive for them; and they cannot engage in +rounds of visiting, thus cultivating a private and familiar +intercourse with the few whose conversation might be most +congenial to them. We certainly bear hard upon persons in this +rank of society, if we expect that they should take all the +severer labour, and have no periods of unbending and amusement. + +But in reality what occurs in the public-house we are too much in +the habit of calumniating. If we would visit this scene, we +should find it pretty extensively a theatre of eager and earnest +discussion. It is here that the ardent and "unwashed artificer," +and the sturdy husbandman, compare notes and measure wits with +each other. It is their arena of intellectual combat, the ludus +literarius of their unrefined university. It is here they learn +to think. Their minds are awakened from the sleep of ignorance; +and their attention is turned into a thousand channels of +improvement. They study the art of speaking, of question, +allegation and rejoinder. They fix their thought steadily on the +statement that is made, acknowledge its force, or detect its +insufficiency. They examine the most interesting topics, and +form opinions the result of that examination. They learn maxims +of life, and become politicians. They canvas the civil and +criminal laws of their country, and learn the value of political +liberty. They talk over measures of state, judge of the +intentions, sagacity and sincerity of public men, and are likely +in time to become in no contemptible degree capable of estimating +what modes of conducting national affairs, whether for the +preservation of the rights of all, or for the vindication and +assertion of justice between man and man, may be expected to be +crowned with the greatest success: in a word, they thus become, +in the best sense of the word, citizens. + +As to excess in drinking, the same thing may be expected to occur +here, as has been remarked of late years in better company in +England. In proportion as the understanding is cultivated, men +are found to be less the victims of drinking and the grosser +provocatives of sense. The king of Persia of old made it his +boast that he could drink large quantities of liquor with greater +impunity than any of his subjects. Such was not the case with +the more polished Greeks. In the dark ages the most glaring +enormities of that kind prevailed. Under our Charles the Second +coarse dissipation and riot characterised the highest circles. +Rochester, the most accomplished man and the greatest wit of our +island, related of himself that, for five years together, he +could not affirm that for any one day he had been thoroughly +sober. In Ireland, a country less refined than our own, the +period is not long past, when on convivial occasions the master +of the house took the key from his door, that no one of his +guests might escape without having had his dose. No small number +of the contemporaries of my youth fell premature victims to the +intemperance which was then practised. Now wine is merely used +to excite a gayer and livelier tone of the spirits; and inebriety +is scarcely known in the higher circles. In like manner, it may +readily be believed that, as men in the lower classes of society +become less ignorant and obtuse, as their thoughts are less +gross, as they wear off the vestigia ruris, the remains of a +barbarous state, they will find less need to set their spirits +afloat by this animal excitement, and will devote themselves to +those thoughts and that intercourse which shall inspire them with +better and more honourable thoughts of our common nature. + + + +ESSAY X. +OF IMITATION AND INVENTION. + +Of the sayings of the wise men of former times none has been +oftener repeated than that of Solomon, "The thing that hath been, +is that which is; and that which is done, is that which shall be +done; and there is no new thing under the sun." + +The books of the Old Testament are apparently a collection of the +whole literary remains of an ancient and memorable people, whose +wisdom may furnish instruction to us, and whose poetry abounds in +lofty flights and sublime imagery. How this collection came +indiscriminately to be considered as written by divine +inspiration, it is difficult to pronounce. The history of the +Jews, as contained in the Books of Kings and of Chronicles, +certainly did not require the interposition of the Almighty for +its production; and the pieces we receive as the compositions of +Solomon have conspicuously the air of having emanated from a +conception entirely human. + +In the book of Ecclesiastes, from which the above sentence is +taken, are many sentiments not in accordance with the religion of +Christ. For example; "That which befalleth the sons of men, +befalleth beasts; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they +have all one breath, so that a man hath no preeminence above a +beast: all go to one place; all are of the dust, and turn to +dust again. Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, +than that a man should rejoice in his works." And again, "The +living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing; +their love, and their hatred, and their envy are perished; +neither have they any more a reward." Add to this, "Wherefore I +praise the dead which are already dead, more than the living +which are yet alive: yea, better is he than both they, which +hath not yet been." There can therefore be no just exception +taken against our allowing ourselves freely to canvas the maxim +cited at the head of this Essay. + +It certainly contains a sufficient quantity of unquestionable +truth, to induce us to regard it as springing from profound +observation, and comprehensive views of what is acted "under the +sun." + +A wise man would look at the labours of his own species, in much +the same spirit as he would view an ant-hill through a +microscope. He would see them tugging a grain of corn up a +declivity; he would see the tracks that are made by those who go, +and who return; their incessant activity; and would find one day +the copy of that which went before; and their labours ending in +nothing: I mean, in nothing that shall carry forward the +improvement of the head and the heart, either in the individual +or society, or that shall add to the conveniences of life, or the +better providing for the welfare of communities of men. He would +smile at their earnestness and zeal, all spent in supplying the +necessaries of the day, or, at most, providing for the revolution +of the seasons, or for that ephemeral thing we call the life of +man. + +Few things can appear more singular, when duly analysed, than +that articulated air, which we denominate speech. It is not to +be wondered at that we are proud of the prerogative, which so +eminently distinguishes us from the rest of the animal creation. +The dog, the cat, the horse, the bear, the lion, all of them have +voice. But we may almost consider this as their reproach. They +can utter for the greater part but one monotonous, eternal sound. + +The lips, the teeth, the palate, the throat, which in man are +instruments of modifying the voice in such endless variety, are +in this respect given to them in vain: while all the thoughts +that occur, at least to the bulk of mankind, we are able to +express in words, to communicate facts, feelings, passions, +sentiments, to discuss, to argue, to agree, to issue commands on +the one part, and report the execution on the other, to inspire +lofty conceptions, to excite the deepest feeling of +commiseration, and to thrill the soul with extacy, almost too +mighty to be endured. + +Yet what is human speech for the most part but mere imitation? +In the most obvious sense this stands out on the surface. We +learn the same words, we speak the same language, as our elders. +Not only our words, but our phrases are the same. We are like +players, who come out as if they were real persons, but only +utter what is set down for them. We represent the same drama +every day; and, however stale is the eternal repetition, pass it +off upon others, and even upon ourselves, as if it were the +suggestion of the moment. In reality, in rural or vulgar life, +the invention of a new phrase ought to be marked down among the +memorable things in the calendar. We afford too much honour to +ordinary conversation, when we compare it to the exhibition of +the recognised theatres, since men ought for the most part to be +considered as no more than puppets. They perform the +gesticulations; but the words come from some one else, who is hid +from the sight of the general observer. And not only the words, +but the cadence: they have not even so much honour as players +have, to choose the manner they may deem fittest by which to +convey the sense and the passion of what they speak. The +pronunciation, the dialect, all, are supplied to them, and are +but a servile repetition. Our tempers are merely the work of the +transcriber. We are angry, where we saw that others were angry; +and we are pleased, because it is the tone to be pleased. We +pretend to have each of us a judgment of our own: but in truth +we wait with the most patient docility, till he whom we regard as +the leader of the chorus gives us the signal, Here you are to +applaud, and Here you are to condemn. + +What is it that constitutes the manners of nations, by which the +people of one country are so eminently distinguished from the +people of another, so that you cannot cross the channel from +Dover to Calais, twenty-one miles, without finding yourself in a +new world? Nay, I need not go among the subjects of another +government to find examples of this; if I pass into Ireland, +Scotland or Wales, I see myself surrounded with a new people, all +of whose characters are in a manner cast in one mould, and all +different from the citizens of the principal state and from one +another. We may go further than this. Not only nations, but +classes of men, are contrasted with each other. What can be more +different than the gentry of the west end of this metropolis, and +the money-making dwellers in the east? From them I will pass to +Billingsgate and Wapping. What more unlike than a soldier and a +sailor? the children of fashion that stroll in St. James's and +Hyde Park, and the care-worn hirelings, that recreate themselves, +with their wives and their brats, with a little fresh air on a +Sunday near Islington? The houses of lords and commons have each +their characteristic manners. Each profession has its own, the +lawyer, the divine, and the man of medicine. We are all apes, +fixing our eyes upon a model, and copying him, gesture by +gesture. We are sheep, rushing headlong through the gap, when +the bell-wether shews us the way. We are choristers, +mechanically singing in a certain key, and giving breath to a +certain tone. + +Our religion, our civil practices, our political creed, are all +imitation. How many men are there, that have examined the +evidences of their religious belief, and can give a sound "reason +of the faith that is in them?" When I was a child, I was taught +that there were four religions in the world, the Popish, the +Protestant, the Mahometan, the Pagan. It is a phenomenon to find +the man, who has held the balance steadily, and rendered full and +exact justice to the pretensions of each of these. No: tell me +the longitude and latitude in which a man is born, and I will +tell you his religion. + + By education most have been misled; + So they believe, because they so were bred: + The priest continues what the nurse began, + And thus the child imposes on the man. + +And, if this happens, where we are told our everlasting salvation +is at issue, we may easily judge of the rest. + +The author, with one of whose dicta I began this Essay, has +observed, "One generation passeth away, and another generation +cometh; but the earth abideth for ever." It is a maxim of the +English constitution, that "the king never dies;" and the same +may with nearly equal propriety be observed of every private man, +especially if he have children. "Death," say the writers of +natural history, "is the generator of life:" and what is thus +true of animal corruption, may with small variation be affirmed +of human mortality. I turn off my footman, and hire another; and +he puts on the livery of his predecessor: he thinks himself +somebody; but he is only a tenant. The same thing is true, when +a country-gentleman, a noble, a bishop, or a king dies. He puts +off his garments, and another puts them on. Every one knows the +story of the Tartarian dervise, who mistook the royal palace for +a caravansera, and who proved to his majesty by genealogical +deduction, that he was only a lodger. In this sense the +mutability, which so eminently characterises every thing +sublunary, is immutability under another name. + +The most calamitous, and the most stupendous scenes are nothing +but an eternal and wearisome repetition: executions, murders, +plagues, famine and battle. Military execution, the demolition +of cities, the conquest of nations, have been acted a hundred +times before. The mighty conqueror, who "smote the people in +wrath with a continual stroke," who "sat in the seat of God, +shewing himself that he was God," and assuredly persuaded himself +that he was doing something to be had in everlasting remembrance, +only did that which a hundred other vulgar conquerors had done in +successive ages of the world, whose very names have long since +perished from the records of mankind. + +Thus it is that the human species is for ever engaged in +laborious idleness. We put our shoulder to the wheel, and raise +the vehicle out of the mire in which it was swallowed, and we +say, I have done something; but the same feat under the same +circumstances has been performed a thousand times before. We +make what strikes us as a profound observation; and, when fairly +analysed, it turns out to be about as sagacious, as if we told +what's o'clock, or whether it is rain or sunshine. Nothing can +be more delightfully ludicrous, than the important and emphatical +air with which the herd of mankind enunciate the most trifling +observations. With much labour we are delivered of what is to us +a new thought; and, after a time, we find the same in a musty +volume, thrown by in a corner, and covered with cobwebs and dust. + +This is pleasantly ridiculed in the well known exclamation, +"Deuce take the old fellows who gave utterance to our wit, before +we ever thought of it!" + +The greater part of the life of the mightiest genius that ever +existed is spent in doing nothing, and saying nothing. Pope has +observed of Shakespear's plays, that, "had all the speeches been +printed without the names of the persons, we might have applied +them with certainty to every speaker." To which another critic +has rejoined, that that was impossible, since the greater part of +what every man says is unstamped with peculiarity. We have all +more in us of what belongs to the common nature of man, than of +what is peculiar to the individual. + +It is from this beaten, turnpike road, that the favoured few of +mankind are for ever exerting themselves to escape. The +multitude grow up, and are carried away, as grass is carried away +by the mower. The parish-register tells when they were born, and +when they died: "known by the ends of being to have been." We +pass away, and leave nothing behind. Kings, at whose very glance +thousands have trembled, for the most part serve for nothing when +their breath has ceased, but as a sort of distance-posts in the +race of chronology. "The dull swain treads on" their relics +"with his clouted shoon." Our monuments are as perishable as +ourselves; and it is the most hopeless of all problems for the +most part, to tell where the mighty ones of the earth repose. + +All men are aware of the frailty of life, and how short is the +span assigned us. Hence every one, who feels, or thinks he feels +the power to do so, is desirous to embalm his memory, and to be +thought of by a late posterity, to whom his personal presence +shall be unknown. Mighty are the struggles; everlasting the +efforts. The greater part of these we well know are in vain. It +is Aesop's mountain in labour: "Dire was the tossing, deep the +groans:" and the result is a mouse. But is it always so? + +This brings us back to the question: "Is there indeed nothing +new under the sun?" + +Most certainly there is something that is new. If, as the beast +dies, so died man, then indeed we should be without hope. But it +is his distinguishing faculty, that he can leave something +behind, to testify that he has lived. And this is not only true +of the pyramids of Egypt, and certain other works of human +industry, that time seems to have no force to destroy. It is +often true of a single sentence, a single word, which the +multitudinous sea is incapable of washing away: + + Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens + Possit diruere, aut innumerabilis + Annorum series, et fuga temporum. + + +It is the characteristic of the mind and the heart of man, that +they are progressive. One word, happily interposed, reaching to +the inmost soul, may "take away the heart of stone, and introduce +a heart of flesh." And, if an individual may be thus changed, +then his children, and his connections, to the latest page of +unborn history. + +This is the true glory of man, that "one generation doth not pass +away, and another come, velut unda supervenit undam; but that we +leave our improvements behind us. What infinite ages of +refinement on refinement, and ingenuity on ingenuity, seem each +to have contributed its quota, to make up the accommodations of +every day of civilised man; his table, his chair, the bed he lies +on, the food he eats, the garments that cover him! It has often +been said, that the four quarters of the world are put under +contribution, to provide the most moderate table. To this what +mills, what looms, what machinery of a thousand denominations, +what ship-building, what navigation, what fleets are required! +Man seems to have been sent into the world a naked, forked, +helpless animal, on purpose to call forth his ingenuity to supply +the accommodations that may conduce to his well-being. The +saying, that "there is nothing new under the sun," could never +have been struck out, but in one of the two extreme states of +man, by the naked savage, or by the highly civilised beings among +whom the perfection of refinement has produced an artificial +feeling of uniformity. + +The thing most obviously calculated to impress us with a sense of +the power, and the comparative sublimity of man, is, if we could +make a voyage of some duration in a balloon, over a considerable +tract of the cultivated and the desert parts of the earth. A +brute can scarcely move a stone out of his way, if it has fallen +upon the couch where he would repose. But man cultivates fields, +and plants gardens; he constructs parks and canals; he turns the +course of rivers, and stretches vast artificial moles into the +sea; he levels mountains, and builds a bridge, joining in giddy +height one segment of the Alps to another; lastly, he founds +castles, and churches, and towers, and distributes mighty cities +at his pleasure over the face of the globe. "The first earth has +passed away, and another earth has come; and all things are made +new." + +It is true, that the basest treacheries, the most atrocious +cruelties, butcheries, massacres, violations of all the +restraints of decency, and all the ties of nature, fields covered +with dead bodies, and flooded with human gore, are all of them +vulgar repetitions of what had been acted countless times +already. If Nero or Caligula thought to perpetrate that which +should stand unparalleled, they fell into the grossest error. +The conqueror, who should lay waste vast portions of the globe, +and destroy mighty cities, so that "thorns should come up in the +palaces, and nettles in the fortresses thereof, and they should +be a habitation of serpents, and a court for owls, and the wild +beasts of the desert should meet there," would only do what +Tamerlane, and Aurengzebe, and Zingis, and a hundred other +conquerors, in every age and quarter of the world, had done +before. The splendour of triumphs, and the magnificence of +courts, are so essentially vulgar, that history almost disdains +to record them. + +And yet there is something that is new, and that by the reader of +discernment is immediately felt to be so. + +We read of Moses, that he was a child of ordinary birth, and, +when he was born, was presently marked, as well as all the male +children of his race, for destruction. He was unexpectedly +preserved; and his first act, when he grew up, was to slay an +Egyptian, one of the race to whom all his countrymen were slaves, +and to fly into exile. This man, thus friendless and alone, in +due time returned, and by the mere energy of his character +prevailed upon his whole race to make common cause with him, and +to migrate to a region, in which they should become sovereign and +independent. He had no soldiers, but what were made so by the +ascendancy of his spirit no counsellors but such as he taught to +be wise, no friends but those who were moved by the sentiment +they caught from him. The Jews he commanded were sordid and low +of disposition, perpetually murmuring against his rule, and at +every unfavourable accident calling to remembrance "the land of +Egypt, where they had sat by the fleshpots, and were full." Yet +over this race he retained a constant mastery, and finally made +of them a nation whose customs and habits and ways of thinking no +time has availed to destroy. This was a man then, that possessed +the true secret to make other men his creatures, and lead them +with an irresistible power wherever he pleased. This history, +taken entire, has probably no parallel in the annals of the +world. + +The invasion of Greece by the Persians, and its result, seem to +constitute an event that stands alone among men. Xerxes led +against this little territory an army of 5,280,000 men. They +drank up rivers, and cut their way through giant-mountains. They +were first stopped at Thermopylae by Leonidas and his three +hundred Spartans. They fought for a country too narrow to +contain the army by which the question was to be tried. The +contest was here to be decided between despotism and liberty, +whether there is a principle in man, by which a handful of +individuals, pervaded with lofty sentiments, and a conviction of +what is of most worth in our nature, can defy the brute force, +and put to flight the attack, of bones, joints and sinews, though +congregated in multitudes, numberless as the waves of the sea, or +the sands on its shore. The flood finally rolled back: and in +process of time Alexander, with these Greeks whom the ignorance +of the East affected to despise, founded another universal +monarchy on the ruins of Persia. This is certainly no vulgar +history. + +Christianity is another of those memorable chapters in the annals +of mankind, to which there is probably no second. The son of a +carpenter in a little, rocky country, among a nation despised and +enslaved, undertook to reform the manners of the people of whom +he was a citizen. The reformation he preached was unpalatable to +the leaders of the state; he was persecuted; and finally suffered +the death reserved for the lowest malefactors, being nailed to a +cross. He was cut off in the very beginning of his career, +before he had time to form a sect. His immediate representatives +and successors were tax-gatherers and fishermen. What could be +more incredible, till proved by the event, than that a religion +thus begun, should have embraced in a manner the whole civilised +world, and that of its kingdom there should be no visible end? +This is a novelty in the history of the world, equally if we +consider it as brought about by the immediate interposition of +the author of all things, or regard it, as some pretend to do, as +happening in the course of mere human events. + +Rome, "the eternal city," is likewise a subject that stands out +from the vulgar history of the human race. Three times, in three +successive forms, has she been the mistress of the world. First, +by the purity, the simplicity, the single-heartedness, the +fervour and perseverance of her original character she qualified +herself to subdue all the nations of mankind. Next, having +conquered the earth by her virtue and by the spirit of liberty, +she was able to maintain her ascendancy for centuries under the +emperors, notwithstanding all her astonishing profligacy and +anarchy. And, lastly, after her secular ascendancy had been +destroyed by the inroads of the northern barbarians, she rose +like the phoenix from her ashes, and, though powerless in +material force, held mankind in subjection by the chains of the +mind, and the consummateness of her policy. Never was any thing +so admirably contrived as the Catholic religion, to subdue the +souls of men by the power of its worship over the senses, and, by +its contrivances in auricular confession, purgatory, masses for +the dead, and its claim magisterially to determine controversies, +to hold the subjects it had gained in everlasting submission. + +The great principle of originality is in the soul of man. And +here again we may recur to Greece, the parent of all that is +excellent in art. Painting, statuary, architecture, poetry, in +their most exquisite and ravishing forms, originated in this +little province. Is not the Iliad a thing new, and that will for +ever remain new? Whether it was written by one man, as I +believe, or, as the levellers of human glory would have us think, +by many, there it stands: all the ages of the world present us +nothing that can come in competition with it. + +Shakespear is another example of unrivalled originality. His +fame is like the giant-rivers of the world: the further it +flows, the wider it spreads out its stream, and the more +marvellous is the power with which it sweeps along. + +But, in reality, all poetry and all art, that have a genuine +claim to originality, are new, the smallest, as well as the +greatest. + +It is the mistake of dull minds only, to suppose that every thing +has been said, that human wit is exhausted, and that we, who have +unfortunately fallen upon the dregs of time, have no alternative +left, but either to be silent, or to say over and over again, +what has been well said already. + +There remain yet immense tracts of invention, the mines of which +have been untouched. We perceive nothing of the strata of earth, +and the hidden fountains of water, that we travel over, +unconscious of the treasures that are immediately within our +reach, till some person, endowed with the gift of a superior +sagacity, comes into the country, who appears to see through the +opake and solid mass, as we see through the translucent air, and +tells us of things yet undiscovered, and enriches us with +treasures, of which we had been hitherto entirely ignorant. The +nature of the human mind, and the capabilities of our species are +in like manner a magazine of undiscovered things, till some +mighty genius comes to break the surface, and shew us the +wonderful treasures that lay beneath uncalled for and idle. + +Human character is like the contents of an ample cabinet, brought +together by the untired zeal of some curious collector, who +tickets his rarities with numbers, and has a catalogue in many +volumes, in which are recorded the description and qualities of +the things presented to our view. Among the most splendid +examples of character which the genius of man has brought to +light, are Don Quixote and his trusty squire, sir Roger de +Coverley, Parson Adams, Walter Shandy and his brother Toby. Who +shall set bounds to the everlasting variety of nature, as she has +recorded her creations in the heart of man? Most of these +instances are recent, and sufficiently shew that the enterprising +adventurer, who would aspire to emulate the illustrious men from +whose writings these examples are drawn, has no cause to despair. + +Vulgar observers pass carelessly by a thousand figures in the +crowded masquerade of human society, which, when inscribed on the +tablet by the pencil of a master, would prove not less wondrous +in the power of affording pleasure, nor less rich as themes for +inexhaustible reflection, than the most admirable of these. The +things are there, and all that is wanting is an eye to perceive, +and a pen to record them. + +As to a great degree we may subscribe to the saying of the wise +man, that "there is nothing new under the sun," so in a certain +sense it may also be affirmed that nothing is old. Both of these +maxims may be equally true. The prima materia, the atoms of +which the universe is composed, is of a date beyond all record; +and the figures which have yet been introduced into the most +fantastic chronology, may perhaps be incompetent to represent the +period of its birth. But the ways in which they may be +compounded are exhaustless. It is like what the writers on the +Doctrine of Chances tell us of the throwing of dice. How many +men now exist on the face of the earth? Yet, if all these were +brought together, and if, in addition to this, we could call up +all the men that ever lived, it may be doubted, whether any two +would be found so much alike, that a clear-sighted and acute +observer might not surely distinguish the one from the other. +Leibnitz informs us, that no two leaves of a tree exist in the +most spacious garden, that, upon examination, could be pronounced +perfectly similar[19]. + +[19] See above, Essay 2. + + +The true question is not, whether any thing can be found that is +new, but whether the particulars in which any thing is new may +not be so minute and trifling, as scarcely to enter for any +thing, into that grand and comprehensive view of the whole, in +which matters of obvious insignificance are of no account. + +But, if art and the invention of the human mind are exhaustless, +science is even more notoriously so. We stand but on the +threshold of the knowledge of nature, and of the various ways in +which physical power may be brought to operate for the +accommodation of man. This is a business that seems to be +perpetually in progress; and, like the fall of bodies by the +power of gravitation, appears to gain in momentum, in proportion +as it advances to a greater distance from the point at which the +impulse was given. The discoveries which at no remote period +have been made, would, if prophesied of, have been laughed to +scorn by the ignorant sluggishness of former generations; and we +are equally ready to regard with incredulity the discoveries yet +unmade, which will be familiar to our posterity. Indeed every +man of a capacious and liberal mind is willing to admit, that the +progress of human understanding in science, which is now going +on, is altogether without any limits that by the most penetrating +genius can be assigned. It is like a mighty river, that flows on +for ever and for ever, as far as the words, "for ever," can have +a meaning to the comprehension of mortals. The question that +remains is, our practicable improvement in literature and morals, +and here those persons who entertain a mean opinion of human +nature, are constantly ready to tell us that it will be found to +amount to nothing. However we may be continually improving in +mechanical knowledge and ingenuity, we are assured by this party, +that we shall never surpass what has already been done in poetry +and literature, and, which is still worse, that, however +marvellous may be our future acquisitions in science and the +application of science, we shall be, as much as ever, the +creatures of that vanity, ostentation, opulence and the spirit of +exclusive accumulation, which has hitherto, in most countries +(not in all countries), generated the glaring inequality of +property, and the oppression of the many for the sake of +pampering the folly of the few. + +There is another circumstance that may be mentioned, which, +particularly as regards the question of repetition and novelty +that is now under consideration, may seem to operate in an +eminent degree in favour of science, while it casts a most +discouraging veil over poetry and the pure growth of human fancy +and invention. Poetry is, after all, nothing more than new +combinations of old materials. Nihil est in intellectu, quod non +fuit prius in sensu. The poet has perhaps in all languages been +called a maker, a creator: but this seems to be a vain-glorious +and an empty boast. He is a collector of materials only, which +he afterwards uses as best he may be able. He answers to the +description I have heard given of a tailor, a man who cuts to +pieces whatever is delivered to him from the loom, that he may +afterwards sew it together again. The poet therefore, we may be +told, adds nothing to the stock of ideas and conceptions already +laid up in the storehouse of mind. But the man who is employed +upon the secrets of nature, is eternally in progress; day after +day he delivers in to the magazine of materials for thinking and +acting, what was not there before; he increases the stock, upon +which human ingenuity and the arts of life are destined to +operate. He does not, as the poet may be affirmed by his +censurers to do, travel for ever in a circle, but continues to +hasten towards a goal, while at every interval we may mark how +much further he has proceeded from the point at which his race +began. + +Much may be said in answer to this, and in vindication and honour +of the poet and the artist. All that is here alleged to their +disadvantage, is in reality little better than a sophism. The +consideration of the articles he makes use of, does not in sound +estimate detract from the glories of which he is the artificer. +Materiem superat opus. He changes the nature of what he handles; +all that he touches is turned into gold. The manufacture he +delivers to us is so new, that the thing it previously was, is no +longer recognisable. The impression that he makes upon the +imagination and the heart, the impulses that he communicates to +the understanding and the moral feeling, are all his own; and, +"if there is any thing lovely and of good report, if there is any +virtue and any praise," he may well claim our applauses and our +thankfulness for what he has effected. + +There is a still further advantage that belongs to the poet and +the votarist of polite literature, which ought to be mentioned, +as strongly calculated to repress the arrogance of the men of +science, and the supercilious contempt they are apt to express +for those who are engrossed by the pursuits of imagination and +taste. They are for ever talking of the reality and +progressiveness of their pursuits, and telling us that every step +they take is a point gained, and gained for the latest posterity, +while the poet merely suits himself to the taste of the men among +whom he lives, writes up to the fashion of the day, and, as our +manners turn, is sure to be swept away to the gulph of oblivion. +But how does the matter really stand? It is to a great degree +the very reverse of this. + +The natural and experimental philosopher has nothing sacred and +indestructible in the language and form in which he delivers +truths. New discoveries and experiments come, and his individual +terms and phrases and theories perish. One race of natural +philosophers does but prepare the way for another race, which is +to succeed. They "blow the trumpet, and give out the play." And +they must be contented to perish before the brighter knowledge, +of which their efforts were but the harbingers. The Ptolemaic +system gave way to Tycho Brahe, and his to that of Copernicus. +The vortices of Descartes perished before the discoveries of +Newton; and the philosophy of Newton already begins to grow old, +and is found to have weak and decaying parts mixed with those +which are immortal and divine. In the science of mind Aristotle +and Plato are set aside; the depth of Malebranche, and the +patient investigation of Locke have had their day; more +penetrating, and concise, and lynx-eyed reasoners of our own +country have succeeded; the German metaphysicians seem to have +thrust these aside; and it perhaps needs no great degree of +sagacity to foresee, that Kant and Fichte will at last fare no +better than those that went before them. + +But the poet is immortal. The verses of Homer are of workmanship +no less divine, than the armour of his own Achilles. His poems +are as fresh and consummate to us now, as they were to the +Greeks, when the old man of Chios wandered in person through the +different cities, rehearsing his rhapsodies to the accompaniment +of his lute. The language and the thoughts of the poet are +inextricably woven together; and the first is no more exposed to +decay and to perish than the last. Presumptuous innovators have +attempted to modernise Chaucer, and Spenser, and other authors, +whose style was supposed to have grown obsolete. But true taste +cannot endure the impious mockery. The very words that occurred +to these men, when the God descended, and a fire from heaven +tingled in all their veins, are sacred, are part of themselves; +and you may as well attempt to preserve the man when you have +deprived him of all his members, as think to preserve the poet +when you have taken away the words that he spoke. No part of his +glorious effusions must perish; and "the hairs of his head are +all numbered." + + + +ESSAY XI. +OF SELF-LOVE AND BENEVOLENCE. + +NO question has more memorably exercised the ingenuity of men who +have speculated upon the structure of the human mind, than that +of the motives by which we are actuated in our intercourse with +our fellow-creatures. The dictates of a plain and +unsophisticated understanding on the subject are manifest; and +they have been asserted in the broadest way by the authors of +religion, the reformers of mankind, and all persons who have been +penetrated with zeal and enthusiasm for the true interests of the +race to which they belong. + +"The end of the commandment," say the authors of the New +Testament, "is love." "This is the great commandment of the law, +Thou shalt love thy maker with all thy heart; and the second is +like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." "Though +I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to be +burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." "For none +of us liveth to himself; and no man dieth to himself." + +The sentiments of the ancient Greeks and Romans, for so many +centuries as their institutions retained their original purity, +were cast in a mould of a similar nature. A Spartan was seldom +alone; they were always in society with each other. The love of +their country and of the public good was their predominant +passion, they did not imagine that they belonged to themselves, +but to the state. After the battle of Leuctra, in which the +Spartans were defeated by the Thebans, the mothers of those who +were slain congratulated one another, and went to the temples to +thank the Gods, that their children had done their duty; while +the relations of those who survived the defeat were inconsolable. + +The Romans were not less distinguished by their self-denying +patriotism. It was in this spirit that Brutus put his two sons +to death for conspiring against their country. It was in this +spirit that the Fabii perished at their fort on the Cremera, and +the Decii devoted themselves for the public. The rigour of +self-denial in a true Roman approached to a temper which moderns +are inclined to denominate savage. + +In the times of the ancient republics the impulse of the citizens +was to merge their own individuality in the interests of the +state. They held it their duty to live but for their country. +In this spirit they were educated; and the lessons of their early +youth regulated the conduct of their riper years. + +In a more recent period we have learned to model our characters +by a different standard. We seldom recollect the society of +which we are politically members, as a whole, but are broken into +detached parties, thinking only for the most part of ourselves +and our immediate connections and attachments. + +This change in the sentiments and manners of modern times has +among its other consequences given birth to a new species of +philosophy. We have been taught to affirm, that we can have no +express and pure regard for our fellow-creatures, but that all +our benevolence and affection come to us through the strainers of +a gross or a refined self-love. The coarser adherents of this +doctrine maintain, that mankind are in all cases guided by views +of the narrowest self-interest, and that those who advance the +highest claims to philanthropy, patriotism, generosity and +self-sacrifice, are all the time deceiving others, or deceiving +themselves, and use a plausible and high-sounding language +merely, that serves no other purpose than to veil from +observation "that hideous sight, a naked human heart." + +The more delicate and fastidious supporters of the doctrine of +universal self-love, take a different ground. They affirm that +"such persons as talk to us of disinterestedness and pure +benevolence, have not considered with sufficient accuracy the +nature of mind, feeling and will. To understand," they say, "is +one thing, and to choose another. The clearest proposition that +ever was stated, has, in itself, no tendency to produce voluntary +action on the part of the percipient. It can be only something +apprehended as agreeable or disagreeable to us, that can operate +so as to determine the will. Such is the law of universal +nature. We act from the impulse of our own desires and +aversions; and we seek to effect or avert a thing, merely because +it is viewed by us as an object of gratification or the contrary. + +The virtuous man and the vicious are alike governed by the same +principle; and it is therefore the proper business of a wise +instructor of youth, and of a man who would bring his own +sentiments and feelings into the most praise-worthy frame, to +teach us to find our interest and gratification in that which +shall be most beneficial to others." + +When we proceed to examine the truth of these statements, it +certainly is not strictly an argument to say, that the advocate +of self-love on either of these hypotheses cannot consistently be +a believer in Christianity, or even a theist, as theism is +ordinarily understood. The commandments of the author of the +Christian religion are, as we have seen, purely disinterested: +and, especially if we admit the latter of the two explanations of +self-love, we shall be obliged to confess, on the hypothesis of +this new philosophy, that the almighty author of the universe +never acts in any of his designs either of creation or +providence, but from a principle of self-love. In the mean time, +if this is not strictly an argument, it is however but fair to +warn the adherents of the doctrine I oppose, of the consequences +to which their theory leads. It is my purpose to subvert that +doctrine by means of the severest demonstration; but I am not +unwilling, before I begin, to conciliate, as far as may be, the +good-will of my readers to the propositions I proceed to +establish. + +I will therefore further venture to add, that, upon the +hypothesis of self-love, there can be no such thing as virtue. +There are two circumstances required, to entitle an action to be +denominated virtuous. It must have a tendency to produce good +rather than evil to the race of man, and it must have been +generated by an intention to produce such good. The most +beneficent action that ever was performed, if it did not spring +from the intention of good to others, is not of the nature of +virtue. Virtue, where it exists in any eminence, is a species of +conduct, modelled upon a true estimate of the good intended to be +produced. He that makes a false estimate, and prefers a trivial +and partial good to an important and comprehensive one, is +vicious[20]. + +[20] Political Justice, Book 11, Chap. IV. + + +It is admitted on all hands, that it is possible for a man to +sacrifice his own existence to that of twenty others. But the +advocates of the doctrine of self-love must say, that he does +this that he may escape from uneasiness, and because he could not +bear to encounter the inward upbraiding with which he would be +visited, if he acted otherwise. This in reality would change his +action from an act of virtue to an act of vice. So far as +belongs to the real merits of the case, his own advantage or +pleasure is a very insignificant consideration, and the benefit +to be produced, suppose to a world, is inestimable. Yet he +falsely and unjustly prefers the first, and views the latter as +trivial; nay, separately taken, as not entitled to the smallest +regard. If the dictates of impartial justice be taken into the +account, then, according to the system of self-love, the best +action that ever was performed, may, for any thing we know, have +been the action, in the whole world, of the most exquisite and +deliberate injustice. Nay, it could not have been otherwise, +since it produced the greatest good, and therefore was the +individual instance, in which the greatest good was most directly +postponed to personal gratification[21]. Such is the spirit of +the doctrine I undertake to refute. + +[21] Political Justice, Book IV, Chap. X. + + +But man is not in truth so poor and pusillanimous a creature as +this system would represent. + +It is time however to proceed to the real merits of the question, +to examine what in fact is the motive which induces a good man to +elect a generous mode of proceeding. + +Locke is the philosopher, who, in writing on Human Understanding, +has specially delivered the doctrine, that uneasiness is the +cause which determines the will, and urges us to act. He +says[22], "The motive we have for continuing in the same state, +is only the present satisfaction we feel in it; the motive to +change is always some uneasiness: nothing setting us upon the +change of state, or upon any new action, but some uneasiness. +This is the great motive that works on the mind." + +[22] Book II, Chap. XXI, Sect. 29. + + +It is not my concern to enquire, whether Locke by this statement +meant to assert that self-love is the only principle of human +action. It has at any rate been taken to express the doctrine +which I here propose to refute. + +And, in the first place, I say, that, if our business is to +discover the consideration entertained by the mind which induces +us to act, this tells us nothing. It is like the case of the +Indian philosopher[23], who, being asked what it was that kept +the earth in its place, answered, that it was supported by an +elephant, and that elephant again rested on a tortoise. He must +be endowed with a slender portion of curiosity, who, being told +that uneasiness is that which spurs on the mind to act, shall +rest satisfied with this explanation, and does not proceed to +enquire, what makes us uneasy? + +[23] Locke on Understanding, Book 11, Chap. XIII, Sect. 19. + + +An explanation like this is no more instructive, than it would +be, if, when we saw a man walking, or grasping a sword or a +bludgeon, and we enquired into the cause of this phenomenon, any +one should inform us that he walks, because he has feet, and he +grasps, because he has hands. + +I could not commodiously give to my thoughts their present form, +unless I had been previously furnished with pens and paper. But +it would be absurd to say, that my being furnished with pens and +paper, is the cause of my writing this Essay on Self-love and +Benevolence. + +The advocates of self-love have, very inartificially and +unjustly, substituted the abstract definition of a voluntary +agent, and made that stand for the motive by which he is prompted +to act. It is true, that we cannot act without the impulse of +desire or uneasiness; but we do not think of that desire and +uneasiness; and it is the thing upon which the mind is fixed that +constitutes our motive. In the boundless variety of the acts, +passions and pursuits of human beings, it is absurd on the face +of it to say that we are all governed by one motive, and that, +however dissimilar are the ends we pursue, all this dissimilarity +is the fruit of a single cause. + +One man chooses travelling, another ambition, a third study, a +fourth voluptuousness and a mistress. Why do these men take so +different courses? + +Because one is partial to new scenes, new buildings, new manners, +and the study of character. Because a second is attracted by the +contemplation of wealth and power. Because a third feels a +decided preference for the works of Homer, or Shakespear, or +Bacon, or Euclid. Because a fourth finds nothing calculated to +stir his mind in comparison with female beauty, female +allurements, or expensive living. + +Each of these finds the qualities he likes, intrinsically in the +thing he chooses. One man feels himself strongly moved, and +raised to extacy, by the beauties of nature, or the magnificence +of architecture. Another is ravished with the divine +excellencies of Homer, or of some other of the heroes of +literature. A third finds nothing delights him so much as the +happiness of others, the beholding that happiness increased, and +seeing pain and oppression and sorrow put to flight. The cause +of these differences is, that each man has an individual internal +structure, directing his partialities, one man to one thing, and +another to another. + +Few things can exceed the characters of human beings in variety. +There must be something abstractedly in the nature of mind, which +renders it accessible to these varieties. For the present we +will call it taste. One man feels his spirits regaled with the +sight of those things which constitute wealth, another in +meditating the triumphs of Alexander or Caesar, and a third in +viewing the galleries of the Louvre. Not one of these thinks in +the outset of appropriating these objects to himself; not one of +them begins with aspiring to be the possessor of vast opulence, +or emulating the triumphs of Caesar, or obtaining in property the +pictures and statues the sight of which affords him so exquisite +delight. Even the admirer of female beauty, does not at first +think of converting this attractive object into a mistress, but +on the contrary desires, like Pygmalion, that the figure he +beholds might become his solace and companion, because he had +previously admired it for itself. + +Just so the benevolent man is an individual who finds a peculiar +delight in contemplating the contentment, the peace and heart's +ease of other men, and sympathises in no ordinary degree with +their sufferings. He rejoices in the existence and diffusion of +human happiness, though he should not have had the smallest share +in giving birth to the thing he loves. It is because such are +his tastes, and what above all things he prefers, that he +afterwards becomes distinguished by the benevolence of his +conduct. + +The reflex act of the mind, which these new philosophers put +forward as the solution of all human pursuits, rarely presents +itself but to the speculative enquirer in his closet. The savage +never dreams of it. The active man, engaged in the busy scenes +of life, thinks little, and on rare occasions of himself, but +much, and in a manner for ever, of the objects of his pursuit. + +Some men are uniform in their character, and from the cradle to +the grave prefer the same objects that first awakened their +partialities. Other men are inconsistent and given to change, +are "every thing by starts, and nothing long." Still it is +probable that, in most cases, he who performs an act of +benevolence, feels for the time that he has a peculiar delight in +contemplating the good of his fellow-man. + +The doctrine of the modern philosophers on this point, is in many +ways imbecil and unsound. It is inauspicious to their creed, +that the reflex act of the mind is purely the affair of +experience. Why did the liberal-minded man perform his first act +of benevolence? The answer of these persons ought to be, because +the recollection of a generous deed is a source of the truest +delight. But there is an absurdity on the face of this solution. + +We do not experimentally know the delight which attends the +recollection of a generous deed, till a generous deed has been +performed by us. We do not learn these things from books. And +least of all is this solution to the purpose, when the business +is to find a solution that suits the human mind universally, the +unlearned as well as the learned, the savage as well as the sage. + +And surely it is inconsistent with all sound reasoning, to +represent that as the sole spring of our benevolent actions, +which by the very terms will not fit the first benevolent act in +which any man engaged. + +The advocates of the doctrine of "self-love the source of all our +actions," are still more puzzled, when the case set before them +is that of the man, who flies, at an instant's warning, to save +the life of the child who has fallen into the river, or the +unfortunate whom he beholds in the upper story of a house in +flames. This man, as might be illustrated in a thousand +instances, treats his own existence as unworthy of notice, and +exposes it to multiplied risks to effect the object to which he +devotes himself. + +They are obliged to say, that this man anticipates the joy he +will feel in the recollection of a noble act, and the cutting and +intolerable pain he will experience in the consciousness that a +human being has perished, whom it was in his power to save. It +is in vain that we tell them that, without a moment's +consideration, he tore off his clothes, or plunged into the +stream with his clothes on, or rushed up a flaming stair-case. +Still they tell us, that he recollected what compunctious +visitings would be his lot if he remained supine--he felt the +sharpest uneasiness at sight of the accident before him, and it +was to get rid of that uneasiness, and not for the smallest +regard to the unhappy being he has been the means to save, that +he entered on the hazardous undertaking. + +Uneasiness, the knowledge of what inwardly passes in the mind, is +a thing not in the slightest degree adverted to but in an +interval of leisure. No; the man here spoken of thinks of +nothing but the object immediately before his eyes; he adverts +not at all to himself; he acts only with an undeveloped, confused +and hurried consciousness that he may be of some use, and may +avert the instantly impending calamity. He has scarcely even so +much reflection as amounts to this. + +The history of man, whether national or individual, and +consequently the acts of human creatures which it describes, are +cast in another mould than that which the philosophy of self-love +sets before us. A topic that from the earliest accounts +perpetually presents itself in the records of mankind, is +self-sacrifice, parents sacrificing themselves for their +children, and children for their parents. Cimon, the Athenian, +yet in the flower of his youth, voluntarily became the inmate of +a prison, that the body of his father might receive the honours +of sepulture. Various and unquestionable are the examples of +persons who have exposed themselves to destruction, and even +petitioned to die, that so they might save the lives of those, +whose lives they held dearer than their own. Life is indeed a +thing, that is notoriously set at nothing by generous souls, who +have fervently devoted themselves to an overwhelming purpose. +There have been instances of persons, exposed to all the horrors +of famine, where one has determined to perish by that slowest and +most humiliating of all the modes of animal destruction, that +another, dearer to him than life itself, might, if possible, be +preserved. + +What is the true explanation of these determinations of the human +will? Is it, that the person, thus consigning himself to death, +loved nothing but himself, regarded only the pleasure he might +reap, or the uneasiness he was eager to avoid? Or, is it, that +he had arrived at the exalted point of self-oblivion, and that +his whole soul was penetrated and ingrossed with the love of +those for whom he conceived so exalted a partiality? + +This sentiment so truly forms a part of our nature, that a +multitude of absurd practices, and a multitude of heart-rending +fables, have been founded upon the consciousness of man in +different ages and nations, that these modes of thinking form a +constituent part of our common existence. In India there was +found a woman, whose love to the deceased partner of her soul was +so overwhelming, that she resolved voluntarily to perish on his +funeral pile. And this example became so fascinating and +admirable, that, by insensible degrees, it grew into a national +custom with the Hindoos, that, by a sort of voluntary constraint, +the widows of all men of a certain caste, should consign +themselves to the flames with the dead bodies of their husbands. +The story of Zopyrus cutting off his nose and ears, and of +Curtius leaping into the gulph, may be fictitious: but it was +the consciousness of those by whom these narratives were written +that they drew their materials from the mighty store-house of the +heart of man, that prompted them to record them. The +institutions of clientship and clans, so extensively diffused in +different ages of the world, rests upon this characteristic of +our nature, that multitudes of men may be trained and educated +so, as to hold their existence at no price, when the life of the +individual they were taught unlimitedly to reverence might be +preserved, or might be defended at the risk of their destruction. + +The principal circumstance that divides our feelings for others +from our feelings for ourselves, and that gives, to satirical +observers, and superficial thinkers, an air of exclusive +selfishness to the human mind, lies in this, that we can fly from +others, but cannot fly from ourselves. While I am sitting by the +bed-side of the sufferer, while I am listening to the tale of his +woes, there is comparatively but a slight line of demarcation, +whether they are his sorrows or my own. My sympathy is +vehemently excited towards him, and I feel his twinges and +anguish in a most painful degree. But I can quit his apartment +and the house in which he dwells, can go out in the fields, and +feel the fresh air of heaven fanning my hair, and playing upon my +cheeks. This is at first but a very imperfect relief. His image +follows me; I cannot forget what I have heard and seen; I even +reproach myself for the mitigation I involuntarily experience. +But man is the creature of his senses. I am every moment further +removed, both in time and place, from the object that distressed +me. There he still lies upon the bed of agony: but the sound of +his complaint, and the sight of all that expresses his suffering, +are no longer before me. A short experience of human life +convinces us that we have this remedy always at hand ["I am +unhappy, only while I please"[24]; and we soon come therefore to +anticipate the cure, and so, even while we are in the presence of +the sufferer, to feel that he and ourselves are not perfectly +one. + +[24] Douglas. + + +But with our own distempers and adversities it is altogether +different. It is this that barbs the arrow. We may change the +place of our local existence; but we cannot go away from +ourselves. With chariots, and embarking ourselves on board of +ships, we may seek to escape from the enemy. But grief and +apprehension enter the vessel along with us; and, when we mount +on horseback, the discontent that specially annoyed us, gets up +behind, and clings to our sides with a hold never to be +loosened[25]. + +[25] Horace. + + +Is it then indeed a proof of selfishness, that we are in a +greater or less degree relieved from the anguish we endured for +our friend, when other objects occupy us, and we are no longer +the witnesses of his sufferings? If this were true, the same +argument would irresistibly prove, that we are the most generous +of imaginable beings, the most disregardful of whatever relates +to ourselves. Is it not the first ejaculation of the miserable, +"Oh, that I could fly from myself? Oh, for a thick, substantial +sleep!" What the desperate man hates is his own identity. But he +knows that, if for a few moments he loses himself in +forgetfulness, he will presently awake to all that distracted +him. He knows that he must act his part to the end, and drink +the bitter cup to the dregs. He can do none of these things by +proxy. It is the consciousness of the indubitable future, from +which we can never be divorced, that gives to our present +calamity its most fearful empire. Were it not for this great +line of distinction, there are many that would feel not less for +their friend than for themselves. But they are aware, that his +ruin will not make them beggars, his mortal disease will not +bring them to the tomb, and that, when he is dead, they may yet +be reserved for many years of health, of consciousness and +vigour. + +The language of the hypothesis of self-love was well adapted to +the courtiers of the reign of Louis the Fourteenth. The language +of disinterestedness was adapted to the ancient republicans in +the purest times of Sparta and Rome. + +But these ancients were not always disinterested; and the moderns +are not always narrow, self-centred and cold. The ancients paid, +though with comparative infrequency, the tax imposed upon +mortals, and thought of their own gratification and ease; and the +moderns are not utterly disqualified for acts of heroic +affection. + +It is of great consequence that men should come to think +correctly on this subject. The most snail-blooded man that +exists, is not so selfish as he pretends to be. In spite of all +the indifference he professes towards the good of others, he will +sometimes be detected in a very heretical state of sensibility +towards his wife, his child or his friend; he will shed tears at +a tale of distress, and make considerable sacrifices of his own +gratification for the relief of others. + +But his creed is a pernicious one. He who for ever thinks, that +his "charity must begin at home," is in great danger of becoming +an indifferent citizen, and of withering those feelings of +philanthropy, which in all sound estimation constitute the +crowning glory of man. He will perhaps have a reasonable +affection towards what he calls his own flesh and blood, and may +assist even a stranger in a case of urgent distress.--But it is +dangerous to trifle with the first principles and sentiments of +morality. And this man will scarcely in any case have his mind +prepared to hail the first dawnings of human improvement, and to +regard all that belongs to the welfare of his kind as parcel of +his own particular estate. + +The creed of self-love will always have a tendency to make us +Frenchmen in the frivolous part of that character, and Dutchmen +in the plodding and shopkeeping spirit of barter and sale. There +is no need that we should beat down the impulse of heroism in the +human character, and be upon our guard against the effervescences +and excess of a generous sentiment. One of the instructors of my +youth was accustomed to say to his pupils, "Do not be afraid to +commit your thoughts to paper in all the fervour and glow of your +first conception: when you come to look at them the next day, +you will find this gone off to a surprising degree." As this was +no ill precept for literary composition, even so in our actions +and moral conduct we shall be in small danger of being too +warm-hearted and too generous. + +Modern improvements in education are earnest in recommending to +us the study of facts, and that we should not waste the time of +young persons upon the flights of imagination. But it is to +imagination that we are indebted for our highest enjoyments; it +tames the ruggedness of uncivilised nature, and is the +never-failing associate of all the considerable advances of +social man, whether in throwing down the strong fences of +intellectual slavery, or in giving firmness and duration to the +edifice of political freedom. + +And who does not feel that every thing depends upon the creed we +embrace, and the discipline we exercise over our own souls? + +The disciple of the theory of self-love, if of a liberal +disposition, will perpetually whip himself forward "with loose +reins," upon a spiritless Pegasus, and say, "I will do generous +things; I will not bring into contempt the master I serve--though +I am conscious all the while that this is but a delusion, and +that, however I brag of generosity, I do not set a step forward, +but singly for my own ends, and my own gratification." +Meanwhile, this is all a forced condition of thought; and the man +who cherishes it, will be perpetually falling back into the cold, +heartless convictions he inwardly retains. Self-love is the +unwholesome, infectious atmosphere in which he dwells; and, +however he may seek to rise, the wings of his soul will eternally +be drawn downwards, and he cannot be pervaded, as he might have +been, with the free spirit of genuine philanthropy. To be +consistent, he ought continually to grow colder and colder; and +the romance, which fired his youth, and made him forget the +venomous potion he had swallowed, will fade away in age, +rendering him careless of all but himself, and indifferent to the +adversity and sufferings of all of whom he hears, and all with +whom he is connected. + +On the other hand, the man who has embraced the creed of +disinterested benevolence, will know that it is not his fitting +element to "live for himself, or to die for himself." Whether he +is under the dominion of family-affection, friendship, +patriotism, or a zeal for his brethren of mankind, he will feel +that he is at home. The generous man therefore looks forward to +the time when the chilling and wretched philosophy of the reign +of Louis the Fourteenth shall be forgotten, and a fervent desire +for the happiness and improvement of the human species shall +reign in all hearts. + +I am not especially desirous of sheltering my opinions under the +authority of great names: but, in a question of such vital +importance to the true welfare of men in society, no fair +advantage should be neglected. The author of the system of +"self-love the source of all our actions" was La Rochefoucault; +and the whole herd of the French philosophers have not been +ashamed to follow in the train of their vaunted master. I am +grieved to say, that, as I think, the majority of my refining and +subtilising countrymen of the present day have enlisted under his +banner. But the more noble and generous view of the subject has +been powerfully supported by Shaftesbury, Butler, Hutcheson and +Hume. On the last of these I particularly pique myself; inasmuch +as, though he became naturalised as a Frenchman in a vast variety +of topics, the greatness of his intellectual powers exempted him +from degradation in this. + +That however which I would chiefly urge in the way of authority, +is the thing mentioned in the beginning of this Essay, I mean, +the sentiments that have animated the authors of religion, that +characterise the best ages of Greece and Rome, and that in all +cases display themselves when the loftiest and most generous +sentiments of the heart are called into action. The opposite +creed could only have been engendered in the dregs of a corrupt +and emasculated court; and human nature will never shew itself +what it is capable of being, till the last remains of a doctrine, +invented in the latter part of the seventeenth century, shall +have been consigned to the execration they deserve. + + + +ESSAY XII. +OF THE LIBERTY OF HUMAN ACTIONS. + +The question, which has been attended with so long and obstinate +debates, concerning the metaphysical doctrines of liberty and +necessity, and the freedom of human actions, is not even yet +finally and satisfactorily settled. + +The negative is made out by an argument which seems to amount to +demonstration, that every event requires a cause, a cause why it +is as it is and not otherwise, that the human will is guided by +motives, and is consequently always ruled by the strongest +motive, and that we can never choose any thing, either without a +motive of preference, or in the way of following the weaker, and +deserting the stronger motive[26]. + +[26] Political Justice, Book IV, Chap. VII. + + +Why is it then that disbelief or doubt should still subsist in a +question so fully decided? + +For the same reason that compels us to reject many other +demonstrations. The human mind is so constituted as to oblige +us, if not theoretically, at least practically, to reject +demonstration, and adhere to our senses. + +The case is thus in the great question of the non-existence of an +external world, or of matter. How ever much the understanding +may be satisfied of the truth of the proposition by the arguments +of Berkeley and others, we no sooner go out into actual life, +than we become convinced, in spite of our previous scepticism or +unbelief, of the real existence of the table, the chair, and the +objects around us, and of the permanence and reality of the +persons, both body and mind, with whom we have intercourse. If +we were not, we should soon become indifferent to their pleasure +and pain, and in no long time reason ourselves into the opinion +that the one was not more desirable than the other, and conduct +ourselves accordingly. + +But there is a great difference between the question of a +material world, and the question of liberty and necessity. The +most strenuous Berkleian can never say, that there is any +contradiction or impossibility in the existence of matter. All +that he can consistently and soberly maintain is, that, if the +material world exists, we can never perceive it, and that our +sensations, and trains of impressions and thinking go on wholly +independent of that existence. + +But the question of the freedom of human actions is totally of +another class. To say that in our choice we reject the stronger +motive, and that we choose a thing merely because we choose it, +is sheer nonsense and absurdity; and whoever with a sound +understanding will fix his mind upon the state of the question +will perceive its impossibility. + +In the mean time it is not less true, that every man, the +necessarian as well as his opponent, acts on the assumption of +human liberty, and can never for a moment, when he enters into +the scenes of real life, divest himself of this persuasion. + +Let us take separately into our consideration the laws of matter +and of mind. We acknowledge generally in both an established +order of antecedents and consequents, or of causes and effects. +This is the sole foundation of human prudence and of all +morality. It is because we foresee that certain effects will +follow from a certain mode of conduct, that we act in one way +rather than another. It is because we foresee that, if the soil +is prepared in a certain way, and if seed is properly scattered +and covered up in the soil thus prepared, a crop will follow, +that we engage in the labours of agriculture. In the same +manner, it is because we foresee that, if lessons are properly +given, and a young person has them clearly explained to him, +certain benefits will result, and because we are apprised of the +operation of persuasion, admonition, remonstrance, menace, +punishment and reward, that we engage in the labours of +education. All the studies of the natural philosopher and the +chemist, all our journeys by land and our voyages by sea, and all +the systems and science of government, are built upon this +principle, that from a certain method of proceeding, regulated by +the precepts of wisdom and experience, certain effects may be +expected to follow. + +Yet, at the same time that we admit of a regular series of cause +and effect in the operations both of matter and mind, we never +fail, in our reflections upon each, to ascribe to them an +essential difference. In the laws by which a falling body +descends to the earth, and by which the planets are retained in +their orbits, in a word, in all that relates to inanimate nature, +we readily assent to the existence of absolute laws, so that, +when we have once ascertained the fundamental principles of +astronomy and physics, we rely with perfect assurance upon the +invariable operation of these laws, yesterday, to-day, and for +ever. As long as the system of things, of which we are +spectators, and in which we act our several parts, shall remain, +so long have the general phenomena of nature gone on unchanged +for more years of past ages than we can define, and will in all +probability continue to operate for as many ages to come. We +admit of no variation, but firmly believe that, if we were +perfectly acquainted with all the causes, we could, without +danger of error, predict all the effects. We are satisfied that, +since first the machine of the universe was set going, every +thing in inanimate nature has taken place in a regular course, +and nothing has happened and can happen, otherwise than as it +actually has been and will be. + +But we believe, or, more accurately speaking, we feel, that it is +otherwise in the universe of mind. Whoever attentively observes +the phenomena of thinking and sentient beings, will be convinced, +that men and animals are under the influence of motives, that we +are subject to the predominance of the passions, of love and +hatred, of desire and aversion, of sorrow and joy, and that the +elections we make are regulated by impressions supplied to us by +these passions. But we are fully penetrated with the notion, +that mind is an arbiter, that it sits on its throne, and decides, +as an absolute prince, this may or that; in short, that, while +inanimate nature proceeds passively in an eternal chain of cause +and effect, mind is endowed with an initiating power, and forms +its determinations by an inherent and indefeasible prerogative. + +Hence arises the idea of contingency relative to the acts of +living and sentient beings, and the opinion that, while, in the +universe of matter, every thing proceeds in regular course, and +nothing has happened or can happen, otherwise than as it actually +has been or will be, in the determinations and acts of living +beings each occurrence may be or not be, and waits the mastery of +mind to decide whether the event shall be one way or the other, +both issues being equally possible till that decision has been +made. + +Thus, as was said in the beginning, we have demonstration, all +the powers of our reasoning faculty, on one side, and the +feeling, of our minds, an inward persuasion of which with all our +efforts we can never divest ourselves, on the other. This +phenomenon in the history of every human creature, had aptly +enough been denominated, the "delusive sense of liberty[27]." + +[27] The first writer, by whom this proposition was distinctly +enunciated, seems to have been Lord Kaimes, in his Essays on the +Principles of Morality and Natural Religion, published in 1751. +But this ingenious author was afterwards frightened with the +boldness of his own conclusions, and in the subsequent editions +of his work endeavoured ineffectually to explain away what he had +said. + + +And, though the philosopher in his closet will for the most part +fully assent to the doctrine of the necessity of human actions, +yet this indestructible feeling of liberty, which accompanies us +from the cradle to the grave, is entitled to our serious +attention, and has never obtained that consideration from the +speculative part of mankind, which must by no means be withheld, +if we would properly enter into the mysteries of our nature. The +necessarian has paid it very imperfect attention to the impulses +which form the character of man, if he omits this chapter in the +history of mind, while on the other hand the advocate of free +will, if he would follow up his doctrine rigorously into all its +consequences, would render all speculations on human character +and conduct superfluous, put an end to the system of persuasion, +admonition, remonstrance, menace, punishment and reward, +annihilate the very essence of civil government, and bring to a +close all distinction between the sane person and the maniac. + +With the disciples of the latter of these doctrines I am by no +means specially concerned. I am fully persuaded, as far as the +powers of my understanding can carry me, that the phenomena of +mind are governed by laws altogether as inevitable as the +phenomena of matter, and that the decisions of our will are +always in obedience to the impulse of the strongest motive. + +The consequences of the principle implanted in our nature, by +which men of every creed, when they descend into the scene of +busy life, pronounce themselves and their fellow-mortals to be +free agents, are sufficiently memorable. + +From hence there springs what we call conscience in man, and a +sense of praise or blame due to ourselves and others for the +actions we perform. + +How poor, listless and unenergetic would all our performances be, +but for this sentiment! It is in vain that I should talk to +myself or others, of the necessity of human actions, of the +connection between cause and effect, that all industry, study and +mental discipline will turn to account, and this with infinitely +more security on the principle of necessity, than on the opposite +doctrine, every thing I did would be without a soul. I should +still say, Whatever I may do, whether it be right or wrong, I +cannot help it; wherefore then should I trouble the master-spirit +within me? It is either the calm feeling of self-approbation, or +the more animated swell of the soul, the quick beatings of the +pulse, the enlargement of the heart, the glory sparkling in the +eye, and the blood flushing into the cheek, that sustains me in +all my labours. This turns the man into what we conceive of a +God, arms him with prowess, gives him a more than human courage, +and inspires him with a resolution and perseverance that nothing +can subdue. + +In the same manner the love or hatred, affection or alienation, +we entertain for our fellow-men, is mainly referable for its +foundation to the "delusive sense of liberty." "We approve of a +sharp knife rather than a blunt one, because its capacity is +greater. We approve of its being employed in carving food, +rather than in maiming men or other animals, because that +application of its capacity is preferable. But all approbation +or preference is relative to utility or general good. A knife is +as capable as a man, of being employed in purposes of utility; +and the one is no more free than the other as to its employment. +The mode in which a knife is made subservient to these purposes, +is by material impulse. The mode in which a man is made +subservient, is by inducement and persuasion. But both are +equally the affair of necessity[28]." These are the sentiments +dictated to us by the doctrine of the necessity of human actions. + +[28] Political Justice, Book IV, Chap. VIII. + + +But how different are the feelings that arise within us, as soon +as we enter into the society of our fellow-creatures! "The end +of the commandment is love." It is the going forth of the heart +towards those to whom we are bound by the ties of a common +nature, affinity, sympathy or worth, that is the luminary of the +moral world. Without it there would have been "a huge eclipse of +sun and moon;" or at best, as a well-known writer[29] expresses +it in reference to another subject, we should have lived in "a +silent and drab-coloured creation." We are prepared by the power +that made us for feelings and emotions; and, unless these come to +diversify and elevate our existence, we should waste our days in +melancholy, and scarcely be able to sustain ourselves. The +affection we entertain for those towards whom our partiality and +kindness are excited, is the life of our life. It is to this we +are indebted for all our refinement, and, in the noblest sense of +the word, for all our humanity. Without it we should have had no +sentiment (a word, however abused, which, when properly defined, +comprises every thing that is the crown of our nature), and no +poetry.--Love and hatred, as they regard our fellow-creatures, in +contradistinction to the complacency, or the feeling of an +opposite nature, which is excited in us towards inanimate +objects, arc entirely the offspring of the delusive sense of +liberty. + +[29] Thomas Paine. + + +The terms, praise and blame, express to a great degree the same +sentiments as those of love and hatred, with this difference, +that praise and blame in their simplest sense apply to single +actions, whereas love and hatred are produced in us by the sum of +those actions or tendencies, which constitute what we call +character. There is also another difference, that love and +hatred are engendered in us by other causes as well as moral +qualities; but praise and blame, in the sense in which they are +peculiarly applied to our fellow-mortals, are founded on moral +qualities only. In love and hatred however, when they are +intense or are lasting, some reference to moral qualities is +perhaps necessarily implied. The love between the sexes, unless +in cases where it is of a peculiarly transient nature, always +comprises in it a belief that the party who is the object of our +love, is distinguished by tendencies of an amiable nature, which +we expect to see manifesting themselves in affectionate +attentions and acts of kindness. Even the admiration we +entertain for the features, the figure, and personal graces of +the object of our regard, is mixed with and heightened by our +expectation of actions and tones that generate approbation, and, +if divested of this, would be of small signification or +permanence. In like manner in the ties of affinity, or in cases +where we are impelled by the consideration, "He also is a man as +well as I," the excitement will carry us but a little way, unless +we discover in the being towards whom we are moved some +peculiarities which may beget a moral partiality and regard. + +And, as towards our fellow-creatures, so in relation to +ourselves, our moral sentiments are all involved with, and take +their rise in, the delusive sense of liberty. It is in this that +is contained the peculiar force of the terms virtue, duty, guilt +and desert. We never pronounce these words without thinking of +the action to which they refer, as that which might or might not +be done, and therefore unequivocally approve or disapprove in +ourselves and others. A virtuous man, as the term is understood +by all, as soon as we are led to observe upon those qualities, +and the exhibition of those qualities in actual life, which +constitute our nature, is a man who, being in full possession of +the freedom of human action, is engaged in doing those things +which a sound judgment of the tendencies of what we do pronounces +to be good. + +Duty is a term that can scarcely be said to have a meaning, +except that which it derives from the delusive sense of liberty. +According to the creed of the necessarian, it expresses that mode +of action on the part of the individual, which constitutes the +best possible application of his capacity to the general +benefit[30]. In the mean time, if we confine ourselves to this +definition, it may as well be taken to describe the best +application of a knife, or any other implement proceeding from +the hands of the manufacturer, as of the powers of a human being. + +But we surely have a very different idea in our minds, when we +employ the term duty. It is not agreeable to the use of language +that we should use this term, except we speak of a being in the +exercise of volition. + +[30] Political Justice, Book II, Chap. IV. + + +Duty then means that which may justly be required of a human +creature in the possession of liberty of action. It includes in +its proper sense the conception of the empire of will, the notion +that mind is an arbiter, that it sits on its throne, and decides, +as an absolute prince, this way or that. + +Duty is the performance of what is due, the discharge of a debt +(debitum). But a knife owes nothing, and can in no sense be said +to be held to one sort of application rather than another; the +debt can only belong to a human being in possession of his +liberty, by whom the knife may be applied laudably or otherwise. + +A multitude of terms instantly occur to us, the application of +which is limited in the same manner as the term duty is limited: +such are, to owe, obligation, debt, bond, right, claim, sin, +crime, guilt, merit and desert. Even reward and punishment, +however they may be intelligible when used merely in the sense of +motives employed, have in general acceptation a sense peculiarly +derived from the supposed freedom of the human will. + +The mode therefore in which the advocates of the doctrine of +necessity have universally talked and written, is one of the most +memorable examples of the hallucination of the human intellect. +They have at all times recommended that we should translate the +phrases in which we usually express ourselves on the hypothesis +of liberty, into the phraseology of necessity, that we should +talk no other language than that which is in correspondence with +the severest philosophy, and that we should exert ourselves to +expel all fallacious notions and delusions so much as from our +recollection. They did not perceive what a wide devastation and +destruction they were proposing of all the terms and phrases that +are in use in the communications between man and man in actual +life.--They might as well have recommended that we should +rigorously bear in mind on the ordinary occasions of life, that +there is no such thing as colour, that which we ordinary call by +that name having no existence in external objects, but belonging +only to our way of perceiving them. + +The language which is suggested to us by the conception of the +freedom of human actions, moulds the very first articulations of +a child, "I will," and "I will not;" and is even distinctly +conveyed by his gestures, before he arrives at the power of +articulation. This is the explanation and key to his vehement +and ungovernable movements, and his rebellion. The petulance of +the stripling, the fervent and energetic exertions of the +warrior, and the calm and unalterable resolution of the sage, all +imply the same thing. Will, and a confidence in its efficiency, +"travel through, nor quit us till we die." It is this which +inspires us with invincible perseverance, and heroic energies, +while without it we should be the most inert and soulless of +blocks, the shadows of what history records and poetry +immortalises, and not men. + +Free will is an integral part of the science of man, and may be +said to constitute its most important chapter. We might with as +much propriety overlook the intelligence of the senses, that +medium which acquaints us with an external world or what we call +such, we might as well overlook the consideration of man's +reason, his imagination or taste, as fail to dwell with earnest +reflection and exposition upon that principle which lies at the +foundation of our moral energies, fills us with a moral +enthusiasm, prompts all our animated exertions on the theatre of +the world, whether upon a wide or a narrow scale, and penetrates +us with the most lively and fervent approbation or disapprobation +of the acts of ourselves and others in which the forwarding or +obstructing human happiness is involved. + +But, though the language of the necessarian is at war with the +indestructible feelings of the human mind, and though his +demonstrations will for ever crumble into dust, when brought to +the test of the activity of real life, yet his doctrines, to the +reflecting and enlightened, will by no means be without their +use. In the sobriety of the closet, we inevitably assent to his +conclusions; nor is it easy to conceive how a rational man and a +philosopher abstractedly can entertain a doubt of the necessity +of human actions. And the number of these persons is perpetually +increasing; enlarged and dispassionate views of the nature of man +and the laws of the universe are rapidly spreading in the world. +We cannot indeed divest ourselves of love and hatred, of the +sentiments of praise and blame, and the ideas of virtue, duty, +obligation, debt, bond, right, claim, sin, crime, guilt, merit +and desert. And, if we could do so, the effects would be most +pernicious, and the world be rendered a blank. We shall however +unquestionably, as our minds grow enlarged, be brought to the +entire and unreserved conviction, that man is a machine, that he +is governed by external impulses, and is to be regarded as the +medium only through the intervention of which previously existing +causes are enabled to produce certain effects. We shall see, +according to an expressive phrase, that he "could not help it," +and, of consequence, while we look down from the high tower of +philosophy upon the scene of human affairs, our prevailing +emotion will be pity, even towards the criminal, who, from the +qualities he brought into the world, and the various +circumstances which act upon him from infancy, and form his +character, is impelled to be the means of the evils, which we +view with so profound disapprobation, and the existence of which +we so entirely regret. + +There is an old axiom of philosophy, which counsels us to "think +with the learned, and talk with the vulgar;" and the practical +application of this axiom runs through the whole scene of human +affairs. Thus the most learned astronomer talks of the rising +and setting of the sun, and forgets in his ordinary discourse +that the earth is not for ever at rest, and does not constitute +the centre of the universe. Thus, however we reason respecting +the attributes of inanimate matter and the nature of sensation, +it never occurs to us, when occupied with the affairs of actual +life, that there is no heat in fire, and no colour in the +rainbow. + +In like manner, when we contemplate the acts of ourselves and our +neighbours, we can never divest ourselves of the delusive sense +of the liberty of human actions, of the sentiment of conscience, +of the feelings of love and hatred, the impulses of praise and +blame, and the notions of virtue, duty, obligation, right, claim, +guilt, merit and desert. And it has sufficiently appeared in the +course of this Essay, that it is not desirable that we should do +so. They are these ideas to which the world we live in is +indebted for its crowning glory and greatest lustre. They form +the highest distinction between men and other animals, and are +the genuine basis of self-reverence, and the conceptions of true +nobility and greatness, and the reverse of these attributes, in +the men with whom we live, and the men whose deeds are recorded +in the never-dying page of history. + +But, though the doctrine of the necessity of human actions can +never form the rule of our intercourse with others, it will still +have its use. It will moderate our excesses, and point out to us +that middle path of judgment which the soundest philosophy +inculcates. We shall learn, according to the apostolic precept, +to "be angry, and sin not, neither let the sun go down upon our +wrath." We shall make of our fellow-men neither idols to +worship, nor demons to be regarded with horror and execration. +We shall think of them, as of players, "that strut and fret their +hour upon the stage, and then are heard no more." We shall +"weep, as though we wept not, and rejoice, as though we rejoiced +not, seeing that the fashion of this world passeth away." And, +most of all, we shall view with pity, even with sympathy, the men +whose frailties we behold, or by whom crimes are perpetrated, +satisfied that they are parts of one great machine, and, like +ourselves, are driven forward by impulses over which they have no +real control. + + + +ESSAY XIII. +OF BELIEF. + +One of the prerogatives by which man is eminently distinguished +from all other living beings inhabiting this globe of earth, +consists in the gift of reason. + +Beasts reason. They are instructed by experience; and, guided by +what they have already known of the series of events, they infer +from the sense of what has gone before, an assured expectation of +what is to follow. Hence, "beast walks with man, joint tenant of +the shade;" and their sagacity is in many instances more unerring +than ours, because they have no affectation to mislead them; they +follow no false lights, no glimmering intimation of something +half-anticipating a result, but trust to the plain, blunt and +obvious dictates of their simple apprehension. This however is +but the first step in the scale of reason, and is in strictness +scarcely entitled to the name. + +We set off from the same point from which they commence their +career. But the faculty of articulate speech comes in, enabling +us to form the crude elements of reason and inference into a +code. We digest explanations of things, assigning the +particulars in which they resemble other classes, and the +particulars by which they are distinguished from whatever other +classes have fallen under our notice. We frame propositions, +and, detaching ourselves from the immediate impressions of sense, +proceed to generalities, which exist only, in a way confused, and +not distinctly adverted to, in the conceptions of the animal +creation. + +It is thus that we arrive at science, and go forward to those +subtleties, and that perspicuity of explanation, which place man +in a distinct order of being, leaving all the other inhabitants +of earth at an immeasurable distance below him. It is thus that +we communicate our discoveries to each other, and hand down the +knowledge we have acquired, unimpaired and entire, through +successive ages, and to generations yet unborn. + +But in certain respects we pay a very high price for this +distinction. It is to it that we must impute all the follies, +extravagances and hallucinations of human intellect. There is +nothing so absurd that some man has not affirmed, rendering +himself the scorn and laughing-stock of persons of sounder +understanding. And, which is worst, the more ridiculous and +unintelligible is the proposition he has embraced, the more +pertinaciously does he cling to it; so that creeds the most +outrageous and contradictory have served as the occasion or +pretext for the most impassioned debates, bloody wars, inhuman +executions, and all that most deeply blots and dishonours the +name of man--while often, the more evanescent and frivolous are +the distinctions, the more furious and inexpiable have been the +contentions they have produced. + +The result of the whole, in the vast combinations of men into +tribes and nations, is, that thousands and millions believe, or +imagine they believe, propositions and systems, the terms of +which they do not fully understand, and the evidence of which +they have not considered. They believe, because so their fathers +believed before them. No phrase is more commonly heard than, "I +was born a Christian;" "I was born a Catholic, or a Protestant." + + The priest continues what the nurse began, + And thus the child imposes on the man. + + +But this sort of belief forms no part of the subject of the +present Essay. My purpose is to confine myself to the +consideration of those persons, who in some degree, more or less, +exercise the reasoning faculty in the pursuit of truth, and, +having attempted to examine the evidence of an interesting and +weighty proposition, satisfy themselves that they have arrived at +a sound conclusion. + +It is however the rarest thing in the world, for any one to found +his opinion, simply upon the evidence that presents itself to him +of the truth of the proposition which comes before him to be +examined. Where is the man that breaks loose from all the +shackles that in his youth had been imposed upon hills, and says +to Truth, "Go on; whithersoever thou leadest, I am prepared to +follow?" To weigh the evidence for and against a proposition, in +scales so balanced, that the "division of the twentieth part of +one poor scruple, the estimation of a hair," shall be recognised +and submitted to, is the privilege of a mind of no ordinary +fairness and firmness. + +The Scriptures say "The heart of man is deceitful above all +things." The thinking principle within us is so subtle, has +passed through so many forms of instruction, and is under the +influence and direction of such a variety of causes, that no man +can accurately pronounce by what impulse he has been led to the +conclusion in which he finally reposes. Every ingenuous person, +who is invited to embrace a certain profession, that of the +church for example, will desire, preparatorily to his final +determination, to examine the evidences and the merits of the +religion he embraces, that he may enter upon his profession under +the influence of a sincere conviction, and be inspired with that +zeal, in singleness of heart, which can alone prevent his +vocation from being disgraceful to him. Yet how many motives are +there, constraining him to abide in an affirmative conclusion? +His friends expect this from him. Perhaps his own inclination +leads him to select this destination rather than any other. +Perhaps preferment and opulence wait upon his decision. If the +final result of his enquiries lead him to an opposite judgment, +to how much obloquy will he be exposed! Where is the man who +can say that no unconscious bias has influenced him in the +progress of his investigation? Who shall pronounce that, under +very different circumstances, his conclusions would not have been +essentially other than they are? + +But the enquiry of an active and a searching mind does not +terminate on a certain day. He will be for ever revising and +reconsidering his first determinations. It is one of the leading +maxims of an honourable mind, that we must be, at all times, and +to the last hour of our existence, accessible to conviction built +upon new evidence, or upon evidence presented in a light in which +it had not before been viewed. If then the probationer for the +clerical profession was under some bias in his first +investigation, how must it be expected to be with him, when he +has already taken the vow, and received ordination? Can he with +a calm and unaltered spirit contemplate the possibility, that the +ground shall be cut away from under him, and that, by dint of +irrefragable argument, he shall be stripped of his occupation, +and turned out naked and friendless into the world? + +But this is only one of the broadest and most glaring instances. +In every question of paramount importance there is ever a secret +influence urging me earnestly to desire to find one side of the +question right and the other wrong. Shall I be a whig or a tory, +believe a republic or a mixed monarchy most conducive to the +improvement and happiness of mankind, embrace the creed of free +will or necessity? There is in all cases a "strong temptation +that waketh in the heart." Cowardice urges me to become the +adherent of that creed, which is espoused by my nearest friends, +or those who are most qualified to serve me. Enterprise and a +courageous spirit on the contrary bid me embrace the tenet, the +embracing of which shall most conduce to my reputation for +extraordinary perspicuity and acuteness, and gain me the +character of an intrepid adventurer, a man who dares commit +himself to an unknown voyage. + +In the question of religion, even when the consideration of the +profession of an ecclesiastic does not occur, yet we are taught +to believe that there is only one set of tenets that will lead us +in the way of salvation. Faith is represented as the first of +all qualifications. "If I had not come and spoken unto them, +they had not had sin." With what heart then does a man set +himself to examine, and scrupulously weigh the evidence on one +side and the other, when some undiscerned frailty, some secret +bias that all his care cannot detect, may lurk within, and insure +for him the "greater condemnation?" I well remember in early +life, with what tingling sensation and unknown horror I looked +into the books of the infidels and the repositories of unlawful +tenets, lest I should be seduced. I held it my duty to "prove +all things;" but I knew not how far it might be my fate; to +sustain the penalty attendant even upon an honourable and +virtuous curiousity. + +It is one of the most received arguments of the present day +against religious persecution, that the judgments we form are not +under the authority of our will, and that, for what it is not in +our power to change, it is unjust we should be punished: and +there is much truth in this. But it is not true to the fullest +extent. The sentiments we shall entertain, are to a considerable +degree at the disposal of inticements on the one side, and of +menaces and apprehension on the other. That which we wish to +believe, we are already greatly in progress to embrace; and that +which will bring upon us disgrace and calamity, we are more than +half prepared to reject. Persecution however is of very +equivocal power: we cannot embrace one faith and reject another +at the word of command. + +It is a curious question to decide how far punishments and +rewards may be made effectual to determine the religion of +nations and generations of men. They are often unsuccessful. +There is a feeling in the human heart, that prompts us to reject +with indignation this species of tyranny. We become more +obstinate in clinging to that which we are commanded to discard. +We place our honour and our pride in the firmness of our +resistance. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the +church." Yet there is often great efficacy in persecution. It +was the policy of the court of Versailles that brought almost to +nothing the Huguenots of France. And there is a degree of +persecution, if the persecuting party has the strength and the +inexorableness to employ it, that it is perhaps beyond the +prowess of human nature to stand up against. + +The mind of the enquiring man is engaged in a course of perpetual +research; and ingenuousness prompts us never to be satisfied with +the efforts that we have made, but to press forward. But mind, +as well as body, has a certain vis inertiae, and moves only as it +is acted upon by impulses from without. With respect to the +adopting new opinions, and the discovery of new truths, we must +be indebted in the last resort, either to books, or the oral +communications of our fellow-men, or to ideas immediately +suggested to us by the phenomena of man or nature. The two +former are the ordinary causes of a change of judgment to men: +they are for the most part minds of a superior class only, that +are susceptible of hints derived straight from the external +world, without the understandings of other men intervening, and +serving as a conduit to the new conceptions introduced. The two +former serve, so to express it, for the education of man, and +enable us to master, in our own persons, the points already +secured, and the wisdom laid up in the great magazine of human +knowledge; the last imparts to us the power of adding to the +stock, and carrying forward by one step and another the +improvements of which our nature is susceptible. + +It is much that books, the unchanging records of the thoughts of +men in former ages, are able to impart to us. For many of the +happiest moments of our lives, for many of the purest and most +exalted feelings of the human heart, we are indebted to them. +Education is their province; we derive from them civilization and +refinement; and we may affirm of literature, what Otway has said +of woman, "We had been brutes without you." It is thus that the +acquisitions of the wise are handed down from age to age, and +that we are enabled to mount step after step on the ladder of +paradise, till we reach the skies. + +But, inestimable as is the benefit we derive from books, there is +something more searching and soul-stirring in the impulse of oral +communication. We cannot shut our ears, as we shut our books; we +cannot escape from the appeal of the man who addresses us with +earnest speech and living conviction. It is thus, we are told, +that, when Cicero pleaded before Caesar for the life of Ligarius, +the conqueror of the world was troubled, and changed colour again +and again, till at length the scroll prepared for the +condemnation of the patriot fell from his hand. Sudden and +irresistible conviction is chiefly the offspring of living +speech. We may arm ourselves against the arguments of an author; +but the strength of reasoning in him who addresses us, takes us +at unawares. It is in the reciprocation of answer and rejoinder +that the power of conversion specially lies. A book is an +abstraction. It is but imperfectly that we feel, that a real man +addresses us in it, and that what he delivers is the entire and +deep-wrought sentiment of a being of flesh and blood like +ourselves, a being who claims our attention, and is entitled to +our deference. The living human voice, with a countenance and +manner corresponding, constrains us to weigh what is said, shoots +through us like a stroke of electricity, will not away from our +memory, and haunts our very dreams. It is by means of this +peculiarity in the nature of mind, that it has been often +observed that there is from time to time an Augustan age in the +intellect of nations, that men of superior powers shock with each +other, and that light is struck from the collision, which most +probably no one of these men would have given birth to, if they +had not been thrown into mutual society and communion. And even +so, upon a narrower scale, he that would aspire to do the most of +which his faculties are susceptible, should seek the intercourse +of his fellows, that his powers may be strengthened, and he may +be kept free from that torpor and indolence of soul, which, +without external excitement, are ever apt to take possession of +us. + +The man, who lives in solitude, and seldom communicates with +minds of the same class as his own, works out his opinions with +patient scrutiny, returns to the investigation again and again, +imagines that he had examined the question on all sides, and at +length arrives at what is to him a satisfactory conclusion. He +resumes the view of this conclusion day after day; he finds in it +an unalterable validity; he says in his heart, "Thus much I have +gained; this is a real advance in the search after truth; I have +added in a defined and palpable degree to what I knew before." +And yet it has sometimes happened, that this person, after having +been shut up for weeks, or for a longer period, in his sanctuary, +living, so far as related to an exchange of oral disquisitions +with his fellow-men, like Robinson Crusoe in the desolate island, +shall come into the presence of one, equally clear-sighted, +curious and indefatigable with himself, and shall hear from him +an obvious and palpable statement, which in a moment shivers his +sightly and glittering fabric into atoms. The statement was +palpable and near at hand; it was a thin, an almost imperceptible +partition that hid it from him; he wonders in his heart that it +never occurred to his meditations. And yet so it is: it was hid +from him for weeks, or perhaps for a longer period: it might +have been hid from him for twenty years, if it had not been for +the accident that supplied it. And he no sooner sees it, than he +instantly perceives that the discovery upon which he plumed +himself, was an absurdity, of which even a schoolboy might be +ashamed. + +A circumstance not less curious, among the phenomena which belong +to this subject of belief, is the repugnance incident to the most +ingenuous minds, which we harbour against the suddenly discarding +an opinion we have previously entertained, and the adopting one +which comes recommended to us with almost the force of +demonstration. Nothing can be better founded than this +repugnance. The mind of man is of a peculiar nature. It has +been disputed whether we can entertain more than one idea at a +time. But certain it is, that the views of the mind at any one +time are considerably narrowed. The mind is like the slate of a +schoolboy, which can contain only a certain number of characters +of a given size, or like a moveable panorama, which places a +given scene or landscape before me, and the space assigned, and +which comes within the limits marked out to my perception, is +full. Many things are therefore almost inevitably shut out, +which, had it not been so, might have essentially changed the +view of the case, and have taught me that it was a very different +conclusion at which I ought to have arrived. + +At first sight nothing can appear more unreasonable, than that I +should hesitate to admit the seemingly irresistible force of the +argument presented to me. An ingenuous disposition would appear +to require that, the moment the truth, or what seems to be the +truth, is set before me, I should pay to it the allegiance to +which truth is entitled. If I do otherwise, it would appear to +argue a pusillanimous disposition, a mind not prompt and +disengaged to receive the impression of evidence, a temper that +loves something else better than the lustre which all men are +bound to recognise, and that has a reserve in favour of ancient +prejudice, and of an opinion no longer supported by reason. + +In fact however I shall act most wisely, and in the way most +honourable to my character, if I resolve to adjourn the debate. +No matter how complete the view may seem which is now presented +to my consideration, or how irresistible the arguments: truth is +too majestic a divinity, and it is of too much importance that I +should not follow a delusive semblance that may shew like truth, +not to make it in the highest degree proper that I should examine +again and again, before I come to the conclusion to which I mean +to affix my seal, and annex my sanction, "This is the truth." +The ancient Goths of Germany, we are told, had a custom of +debating every thing of importance to their state twice, once in +the high animation of a convivial meeting, and once in the serene +stillness of a morning consultation. Philip of Macedon having +decided a cause precipitately, the party condemned by him +immediately declared his resolution to appeal from the sentence. +And to whom, said the king, wilt thou appeal? To Philip, was the +answer, in the entire possession of his understanding. + +Such is the nature of the human mind--at least, such I find to he +the nature of my own--that many trains of thinking, many chains +of evidence, the result of accumulated facts, will often not +present themselves, at the time when their presence would be of +the highest importance. The view which now comes before me is of +a substance so close and well-woven, and of colours so brilliant +and dazzling, that other matters in a certain degree remote, +though of no less intrinsic importance, and equally entitled to +influence my judgment in the question in hand, shall be entirely +shut out, shall be killed, and fail to offer themselves to my +perceptions. + +It is a curious circumstance which Pope, a man of eminent logical +power and acuteness, relates, that, having at his command in his +youth a collection of all the tracts that had been written on +both sides in the reign of James the Second, he applied himself +with great assiduity to their perusal, and the consequence was, +that he was a Papist and Protestant by turns, according to the +last book he read[31]. + +[31] Correspondence with Atterbury, Letter IV. + + +This circumstance in the structure of the human understanding is +well known, and is the foundation of many provisions that occur +in the constitution of political society. How each man shall +form his creed, and arrange those opinions by which his conduct +shall be regulated, is of course a matter exclusively subjected +to his own discretion. But, when he is called upon to act in the +name of a community, and to decide upon a question in which the +public is interested, he of necessity feels himself called upon +to proceed with the utmost caution. A judge on the bench, a +chancellor, is not contented with that sudden ray of mental +illumination to which an ingenuous individual is often disposed +to yield in an affair of abstract speculation. He feels that he +is obliged to wait for evidence, the nature of which he does not +yet anticipate, and to adjourn his decision. A deliberative +council or assembly is aware of the necessity of examining a +question again and again. It is upon this principle that the two +houses of the English parliament are required to give a first, a +second and a third reading, together with various other forms and +technicalities, to the provision that is brought before them, +previously to its passing into a law. And there is many a +fundamental dogma and corner-stone of the sentiments that I shall +emphatically call my own, that is of more genuine importance to +the individual, than to a nation is a number of those +regulations, which by courtesy we call acts of parliament. + +Nothing can have a more glaring tendency to subvert the authority +of my opinion among my fellow-men, than instability. "What went +ye out into the wilderness to see" said Jesus Christ: "a reed +shaken with the wind?" We ought at all times to be open to +conviction. We ought to be ever ready to listen to evidence. +But, conscious of our human frailty, it is seldom that we ought +immediately to subscribe to the propositions, however specious, +that are now for the first time presented to us. It is our duty +to lay up in our memory the suggestions offered upon any +momentous question, and not to suffer them to lose their inherent +weight and impressiveness; but it is only through the medium of +consideration and reconsideration, that they can become entitled +to our full and unreserved assent. + +The nature of belief, or opinion, has been well illustrated by +Lord Shaftesbury[32]. There are many notions or judgments +floating in the mind of every man, which are mutually destructive +of each other. In this sense men's opinions are governed by high +and low spirits, by the state of the solids and fluids of the +human body, and by the state of the weather. But in a paramount +sense that only can be said to be a man's opinion which he +entertains in his clearest moments, and from which, when he is +most himself, he is least subject to vary. In this emphatical +sense, I should say, a man does not always know what is his real +opinion. We cannot strictly be said to believe any thing, in +cases where we afterwards change our opinion without the +introduction of some evidence that was unknown to us before. But +how many are the instances in which we can be affirmed to be in +the adequate recollection of all the evidences and reasonings +which have at some time occurred to us, and of the opinions, +together with the grounds on which they rested, which we +conceived we had justly and rationally entertained? + +The considerations here stated however should by no means be +allowed to inspire us with indifference in matters of opinion. +It is the glory and lustre of our nature, that we are capable of +receiving evidence, and weighing the reasons for and against any +important proposition in the balance of an impartial and +enlightened understanding. The only effect that should be +produced in us, by the reflection that we can at last by no means +be secure that we have attained to a perfect result, should be to +teach us a wholsome diffidence and humility, and induce us to +confess that, when we have done all, we are ignorant, dim-sighted +and fallible, that our best reasonings may betray, and our wisest +conclusions deceive us. + +[32] Enquiry concerning Virtue, Book 1, Part 1, Section ii. + + + +ESSAY XIV. +OF YOUTH AND AGE. + +Magna debetur pueris reverentia. + + Quintilian. + +I am more doubtful in writing the following Essay than in any of +those which precede, how far I am treating of human nature +generally, or to a certain degree merely recording my own +feelings as an individual. I am guided however in composing it, +by the principle laid down in my Preface, that the purpose of my +book in each instance should be to expand some new and +interesting truth, or some old truth viewed under a new aspect, +which had never by any preceding writer been laid before the +public. + +Education, in the conception of those whose office it is to +direct it, has various engines by means of which it is to be made +effective, and among these are reprehension and chastisement. + +The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly +derived from the act of introspection. We look into our own +bosoms, observe attentively every thing that passes there, +anatomise our motives, trace step by step the operations of +thought, and diligently remark the effects of external impulses +upon our feelings and conduct. Philosophers, ever since the time +in which Socrates flourished, to carry back our recollections no +further, have found that the minds of men in the most essential +particulars are framed so far upon the same model, that the +analysis of the individual may stand in general consideration for +the analysis of the species. Where this principle fails, it is +not easy to suggest a proceeding that shall supply the +deficiency. I look into my own breast; I observe steadily and +with diligence what passes there; and with all the parade of the +philosophy of the human mind I can do little more than this. + +In treating therefore of education in the point of view in which +it has just been proposed, I turn my observation upon myself, and +I proceed thus.--If I do not stand as a competent representative +for the whole of my species, I suppose I may at least assume to +be the representative of no inconsiderable number of them. + +I find then in myself, for as long a time as I can trace backward +the records of memory, a prominent vein of docility. Whatever it +was proposed to teach me, that was in any degree accordant with +my constitution and capacity, I was willing to learn. And this +limit is sufficient for the topic I am proposing to treat. I do +not intend to consider education of any other sort, than that +which has something in it of a liberal and ingenuous nature. I +am not here discussing the education of a peasant, an artisan, or +a slave. + +In addition to this vein of docility, which easily prompted me to +learn whatever was proposed for my instruction and improvement, I +felt in myself a sentiment of ambition, a desire to possess the +qualifications which I found to be productive of esteem, and that +should enable me to excel among my contemporaries. I was +ambitious to be a leader, and to be regarded by others with +feelings of complacency. I had no wish to rule by brute force +and compulsion; but I was desirous to govern by love, and honour, +and "the cords of a man." + +I do not imagine that, when I aver thus much of myself, I am +bringing forward any thing unprecedented, or that multitudes of +my fellow-men do not largely participate with me. + +The question therefore I am considering is, through what agency, +and with what engines, a youth thus disposed, and with these +qualifications, is to be initiated in all liberal arts. + +I will go back no further than to the commencement of the +learning of Latin. All before was so easy to me, as never to +have presented the idea of a task. I was immediately put into +the accidence. No explanation was attempted to be given why +Latin was to be of use to me, or why it was necessary to commit +to memory the cases of nouns and the tenses of verbs. I know not +whether this was owing to the unwillingness of my instructor to +give himself the trouble, or to my supposed incapacity to +apprehend the explanation. The last of these I do not admit. My +docility however came to my aid, and I did not for a moment +harbour any repugnance to the doing what was required of me. At +first, and unassisted in the enquiry, I felt a difficulty in +supposing that the English language, all the books in my father's +library, did not contain every thing that it would be necessary +for me to know. In no long time however I came to experience a +pleasure in turning the thoughts expressed in an unknown tongue +into my own; and I speedily understood that I could never be on a +level with those eminent scholars whom it was my ambition to +rival, without the study of the classics. + +What then were the obstacles, that should in any degree +counteract my smooth and rapid progress in the studies suggested +to me? I can conceive only two. + +First, the versatility and fickleness which in a greater or less +degree beset all human minds, particularly in the season of early +youth. However docile we may be, and willing to learn, there +will be periods, when either some other object powerfully +solicits us, or satiety creeps in, and makes us wish to occupy +our attention with any thing else rather than with the task +prescribed us. But this is no powerful obstacle. The authority +of the instructor, a grave look, and the exercise of a moderate +degree of patience will easily remove it in such a probationer as +we are here considering. + +Another obstacle is presumption. The scholar is willing to +conceive well of his own capacity. He has a vanity in +accomplishing the task prescribed him in the shortest practicable +time. He is impatient to go away from the business imposed upon +him, to things of his own election, and occupations which his +partialities and his temper prompt him to pursue. He has a pride +in saying to himself, "This, which was a business given to occupy +me for several hours, I can accomplish in less than one." But +the presumption arising out of these views is easily subdued. If +the pupil is wrong in his calculation, the actual experiment will +speedily convince him of his error. He is humbled by and ashamed +of his mistake. The merely being sent back to study his lesson +afresh, is on the face of the thing punishment enough. + +It follows from this view of the matter, that an ingenuous youth, +endowed with sufficient capacity for the business prescribed him, +may be led on in the path of intellectual acquisition and +improvement with a silken cord. It will demand a certain degree +of patience on the part of the instructor. But Heaven knows, +that this patience is sufficiently called into requisition when +the instructor shall be the greatest disciplinarian that ever +existed. Kind tones and encouragement will animate the learner +amidst many a difficult pass. A grave remark may perhaps +sometimes be called for. And, if the preceptor and the pupil +have gone on like friends, a grave remark, a look expressive of +rebuke, will be found a very powerful engine. The instructor +should smooth the business of instruction to his pupil, by +appealing to his understanding, developing his taste, and +assisting him to remark the beauties of the composition on which +he is occupied. + +I come now then to the consideration of the two engines mentioned +in the commencement of this Essay, reprehension and chastisement. + +And here, as in what went before, I am reduced to the referring +to my own experience, and looking back into the history of my own +mind. + +I say then, that reprehension and reprimand can scarcely ever be +necessary. The pupil should undoubtedly be informed when he is +wrong. He should be told what it is that he ought to have +omitted, and that he ought to have done. There should be no +reserve in this. It will be worthy of the highest censure, if on +these points the instructor should be mealy-mouthed, or hesitate +to tell the pupil in the plainest terms, of his faults, his bad +habits, and the dangers that beset his onward and honourable +path. + +But this may be best, and most beneficially done, and in a way +most suitable to the exigence, and to the party to be corrected, +in a few words. The rest is all an unwholsome tumour, the +disease of speech, and not the sound and healthful substance +through which its circulation and life are conveyed. + +There is always danger of this excrescence of speech, where the +speaker is the umpire, and feels himself at liberty, unreproved, +to say what he pleases. He is charmed with the sound of his own +voice. The periods flow numerous from his tongue, and he gets on +at his ease. There is in all this an image of empire; and the +human mind is ever prone to be delighted in the exercise of +unrestricted authority. The pupil in this case stands before his +instructor in an attitude humble, submissive, and bowing to the +admonition that is communicated to him. The speaker says more +than it was in his purpose to say; and he knows not how to arrest +himself in his triumphant career. He believes that he is in no +danger of excess, and recollects the old proverb that "words +break no bones." + +But a syllable more than is necessary and justly measured, is +materially of evil operation to ingenuous youth. The mind of +such a youth is tender and flexible, and easily swayed one way or +the other. He believes almost every thing that he is bid to +believe; and the admonition that is given him with all the +symptoms of friendliness and sincerity he is prompt to subscribe +to. If this is wantonly aggravated to him, he feels the +oppression, and is galled with the injustice. He knows himself +guiltless of premeditated wrong. He has not yet learned that his +condition is that of a slave; and he feels a certain impatience +at his being considered as such, though he probably does not +venture to express it. He shuts up the sense of this despotism +in his own bosom; and it is his first lesson of independence and +rebellion and original sin. + +It is one of the grossest mistakes of which we can be guilty, if +we confound different offences and offenders together. The great +and the small alike appear before us in the many-coloured scene +of human society, and, if we reprehend bitterly and rate a +juvenile sinner for the fault, which he scarcely understood, and +assuredly had not premeditated, we break down at once a thousand +salutary boundaries, and reduce the ideas of right and wrong in +his mind to a portentous and terrible chaos. The communicator of +liberal knowledge assuredly ought not to confound his office with +that of a magistrate at a quarter-sessions, who though he does +not sit in judgment upon transgressions of the deepest and most +atrocious character, yet has brought before him in many cases +defaulters of a somewhat hardened disposition, whose lot has been +cast among the loose and the profligate, and who have been +carefully trained to a certain audacity of temper, taught to look +upon the paraphernalia of justice with scorn, and to place a sort +of honour in sustaining hard words and the lesser visitations of +punishment with unflinching nerve. + +If this is the judgment we ought to pass upon the bitter and +galling and humiliating terms of reprehension apt to be made use +of by the instructor to his pupil, it is unnecessary to say a +word on the subject of chastisement. If such an expedient is +ever to be had recourse to, it can only be in cases of +contumaciousness and rebellion; and then the instructor cannot +too unreservedly say to himself, "This is matter of deep +humiliation to me: I ought to have succeeded by an appeal to the +understanding and ingenuous feelings of youth; but I am reduced +to a confession of my impotence." + +But the topic which, most of all, I was desirous to bring forward +in this Essay, is that of the language so customarily employed by +the impatient and irritated preceptor, "Hereafter, in a state of +mature and ripened judgment, you will thank me for the severity I +now exercise towards you." + +No; it may safely be answered: that time will never arrive. + +As, in one of my earlier Essays[33], I undertook to shew that +there is not so much difference between the talents of one man +and another as has often been apprehended, so we are guilty of a +gross error in the way in which we divide the child from the man, +and consider him as if he belonged to a distinct species of +beings. + +[33] Essay II. + + +I go back to the recollections of my youth, and can scarcely find +where to draw the line between ineptness and maturity. The +thoughts that occurred to me, as far back as I can recollect +them, were often shrewd; the suggestions ingenious; the judgments +not seldom acute. I feel myself the same individual all through. + +Sometimes I was unreasonably presumptuous, and sometimes +unnecessarily distrustful. Experience has taught me in various +instances a sober confidence in my decisions; but that is all the +difference. So to express it, I had then the same tools to work +with as now; but the magazine of materials upon which I had to +operate was scantily supplied. Like the apothecary in Romeo and +Juliet, the faculty, such as it was, was within me; but my +shelves contained but a small amount of furniture: + + A beggarly account of empty boxes, + Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses, + Which, thinly scattered, served to make a shew. + + +In speaking thus of the intellectual powers of my youth, I am +however conceding too much. It is true, "Practice maketh +perfect." But it is surprising, in apt and towardly youth, how +much there is to commend in the first essays. The novice, who +has his faculties lively and on the alert, will strike with his +hammer almost exactly where the blow ought to be placed, and give +nearly the precisely right force to the act. He will seize the +thread it was fitting to seize; and, though he fail again and +again, will shew an adroitness upon the whole that we scarcely +know how to account for. The man whose career shall ultimately +be crowned with success, will demonstrate in the beginning that +he was destined to succeed. + +There is therefore no radical difference between the child and +the man. His flesh becomes more firm and sinewy; his bones grow +more solid and powerful; his joints are more completely strung. +But he is still essentially the same being that he was. When a +genuine philosopher holds a new-born child in his arms, and +carefully examines it, he perceives in it various indications of +temper and seeds of character. It was all there, though folded +up and confused, and not obtruding itself upon the remark of +every careless spectator. It continues with the child through +life, grows with his growth, and never leaves him till he is at +last consigned to the tomb. How absurd then by artful rules and +positive institutions to undertake to separate what can never be +divided! The child is occasionally grave and reflecting, and +deduces well-founded inferences; he draws on the past, and +plunges into the wide ocean of the future. In proportion as the +child advances into the youth, his intervals of gravity increase, +and he builds up theories and judgments, some of which no future +time shall suffice to overturn. It is idle to suppose that the +first activity of our faculties, when every thing is new and +produces an unbated impression, when the mind is uncumbered, and +every interest and every feeling bid us be observing and awake, +should pass for nothing. We lay up stores then, which shall +never be exhausted. Our minds are the reverse of worn and +obtuse. We bring faculties into the world with us fresh from the +hands of the all-bounteous giver; they are not yet moulded to a +senseless routine; they are not yet corrupted by the ill lessons +of effrontery, impudence and vice. Childhood is beautiful; youth +is ingenuous; and it can be nothing but a principle which is +hostile to all that most adorns this sublunary scene, that would +with violence and despotic rule mar the fairest flower that +creation has to boast. + +It happens therefore almost unavoidably that, when the man mature +looks back upon the little incidents of his youth, he sees them +to a surprising degree in the same light, and forms the same +conclusions respecting them, as he did when they were actually +passing. "The forgeries of opinion," says Cicero, "speedily pass +away; but the rules and decisions of nature are strengthened." +Bitter reproaches and acts of violence are the offspring of +perturbation engendered upon imbecility, and therefore can never +be approved upon a sober and impartial revision. And, if they +are to be impeached in the judgment of an equal and indifferent +observer, we may be sure they will be emphatically condemned by +the grave and enlightened censor who looks back upon the years of +his own nonage, and recollects that he was himself the victim of +the intemperance to be pronounced upon. The interest that he +must necessarily take in the scenes in which he once had an +engrossing concern, will supply peculiar luminousness to his +views. He taxes himself to be just. The transaction is over +now, and is passed to the events that preceded the universal +deluge. He holds the balance with a steadiness, which sets at +defiance all attempts to give it a false direction one way or the +other. But the judgment he made on the case at the time, and +immediately after the humiliation he suffered, remains with him. +It was the sentiment of his ripening youth; it was the opinion of +his opening manhood; and it still attends him, when he is already +fast yielding to the incroachments and irresistible assaults of +declining years. + + + +ESSAY XV. +OF LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP. + +Who is it that says, "There is no love but among equals?" Be it +who it may, it is a saying universally known, and that is in +every one's mouth. The contrary is precisely the truth, and is +the great secret of every thing that is admirable in our moral +nature. + +By love it is my intention here to understand, not a calm, +tranquil, and, as it were, half-pronounced feeling, but a passion +of the mind. We may doubtless entertain an approbation of other +men, without adverting to the question how they stand in relation +to ourselves, as equals or otherwise. But the sentiment I am +here considering, is that where the person in whom it resides +most strongly sympathises with the joys and sorrows of another, +desires his gratification, hopes for his welfare, and shrinks +from the anticipation of his being injured; in a word, is the +sentiment which has most the spirit of sacrifice in it, and +prepares the person in whom it dwells, to postpone his own +advantage to the advantage of him who is the object of it. + +Having placed love among the passions, which is no vehement +assumption, I then say, there can be no passion, and by +consequence no love, where there is not imagination. In cases +where every thing is understood, and measured, and reduced to +rule, love is out of the question. Whenever this sentiment +prevails, I must have my attention fixed more on the absent than +the present, more upon what I do not see than on what I do see. +My thoughts will be taken up with the future or the past, with +what is to come or what has been. Of the present there is +necessarily no image. Sentiment is nothing, till you have +arrived at a mystery and a veil, something that is seen +obscurely, that is just hinted at in the distance, that has +neither certain outline nor colour, but that is left for the mind +to fill up according to its pleasure and in the best manner it is +able. + +The great model of the affection of love in human beings, is the +sentiment which subsists between parents and children. + +Let not this appear a paradox. There is another relation in +human society to which this epithet has more emphatically been +given: but, if we analyse the matter strictly, we shall find +that all that is most sacred and beautiful in the passion between +the sexes, has relation to offspring. What Milton calls, "The +rites mysterious of connubial love," would have little charm in +them in reflection, to a mind one degree above the brutes, were +it not for the mystery they include, of their tendency to give +existence to a new human creature like ourselves. Were it not +for this circumstance, a man and a woman would hardly ever have +learned to live together; there scarcely could have been such a +thing as domestic society; but every intercourse of this sort +would have been "casual, joyless, unendeared;" and the propensity +would have brought along with it nothing more of beauty, lustre +and grace, than the pure animal appetites of hunger and thirst. +Bearing in mind these considerations, I do not therefore hesitate +to say, that the great model of the affection of love in human +beings, is the sentiment which subsists between parents and +children. + +The original feature in this sentiment is the conscious feeling +of the protector and the protected. Our passions cannot subsist +in lazy indolence; passion and action must operate on each other; +passion must produce action, and action give strength to the tide +of passion. We do not vehemently desire, where we can do +nothing. It is in a very faint way that I entertain a wish to +possess the faculty of flying; and an ordinary man can scarcely +be said to desire to be a king or an emperor. None but a madman, +of plebeian rank, falls in love with a princess. But shew me a +good thing within my reach; convince me that it is in my power to +attain it; demonstrate to me that it is fit for me, and I am fit +for it; then begins the career of passion. In the same manner, I +cannot love a person vehemently, and strongly interest myself in +his miscarriages or success, till I feel that I can be something +to him. Love cannot dwell in a state of impotence. To affect +and be affected, this is the common nature I require; this is the +being that is like unto myself; all other likeness resides in the +logic and the definition, but has nothing to do with feeling or +with practice. + +What can be more clear and sound in explanation, than the love of +a parent to his child? The affection he bears and its +counterpart are the ornaments of the world, and the spring of +every thing that makes life worth having. Whatever besides has a +tendency to illustrate and honour our nature, descends from +these, or is copied from these, grows out of them as the branches +of a tree from the trunk, or is formed upon them as a model, and +derives from them its shape, its character, and its soul. Yet +there are men so industrious and expert to strip the world we +live in of all that adorns it, that they can see nothing glorious +in these affections, but find the one to be all selfishness, and +the other all prejudice and superstition. + +The love of the parent to his child is nursed and fostered by two +plain considerations; first, that the subject is capable of +receiving much, and secondly, that my power concerning it is +great and extensive. + +When an infant is presented to my observation, what a wide field +of sentiment and reflection is opened to me! Few minds are +industrious and ductile enough completely to compass this field, +if the infant is only accidentally brought under their view. +But, if it is an infant with which I begin to be acquainted +to-day, and my acquaintance with which shall not end perhaps till +one of us ceases to exist, how is it possible that the view of +its little figure should not lead me to the meditation of its +future history, the successive stages of human life, and the +various scenes and mutations and vicissitudes and fortunes +through which it is destined to pass? The Book of Fate lies open +before me. This infant, powerless and almost impassive now, is +reserved for many sorrows and many joys, and will one day possess +a power, formidable and fearful to afflict those within its +reach, or calculated to diffuse blessings, wisdom, virtue, +happiness, to all around. I conceive all the various +destinations of which man is susceptible; my fancy at least is +free to select that which pleases me best; I unfold and pursue it +in all its directions, observe the thorns and difficulties with +which it is beset, and conjure up to my thoughts all that it can +boast of inviting, delightful and honourable. + +But if the infant that is near to me lays hold of my imagination +and affections at the moment in which he falls under my +observation, how much more do I become interested in him, as he +advances from year to year! At first, I have the blessing of the +gospel upon me, in that, "having not seen, yet I believe." But, +as his powers expand, I understand him better. His little eye +begins to sparkle with meaning; his tongue tells a tale that may +be understood; his very tones, and gestures, and attitudes, all +inform me concerning what he shall be. I am like a florist, who +has received a strange plant from a distant country. At first he +sees only the stalk, and the leaves, and the bud having yet no +other colour than that of the leaves. But as he watches his +plant from day to day, and from hour to hour, the case which +contains the flower divides, and betrays first one colour and +then another, till the shell gradually subsides more and more +towards the stalk, and the figure of the flower begins now to be +seen, and its radiance and its pride to expand itself to the +ravished observer.--Every lesson that the child leans, every +comment that he makes upon it, every sport that he pursues, every +choice that he exerts, the demeanour that he adopts to his +playfellows, the modifications and character of his little fits +of authority or submission, all make him more and more an +individual to me, and open a wider field for my sagacity or my +prophecy, as to what he promises to be, and what he may be made. + +But what gives, as has already been observed, the point and the +finish to all the interest I take respecting him, lies in the +vast power I possess to influence and direct his character and +his fortune. At first it is abstract power, but, when it has +already been exerted (as the writers on politics as a science +have observed of property), the sweat of my brow becomes mingled +with the apple I have gathered, and my interest is greater. No +one understands my views and projects entirely but myself, and +the scheme I have conceived will suffer, if I do not complete it +as I began. + +And there are men that say, that all this mystery, the most +beautiful attitude of human nature, and the crown of its glory, +is pure selfishness! + +Let us now turn from the view of the parental, to that of the +filial affection. + +The great mistake that has been made on this subject, arises from +the taking it nakedly and as a mere abstraction. It has been +sagely remarked, that when my father did that which occasioned me +to come into existence, he intended me no benefit, and therefore +I owe him no thanks. And the inference which has been made from +this wise position is, that the duty of children to parents is a +mere imposture, a trick, employed by the old to defraud the young +out of their services. + +I grant most readily, that the mere material ligament that binds +together the father and the child, by itself is worthless, and +that he who owes nothing more than this to his father, owes him +nothing. The natural, unanimated relationship is like the grain +of mustard-seed in the discourses of Jesus Christ, "which indeed +is the least of all seeds; but, when it is unfolded and grows up, +it becomes a mighty tree, so that the birds of the air may come +and lodge in its branches." + +The hard and insensible man may know little of the debt he owes +to his father; but he that is capable of calling up the past, and +beholding the things that are not as if they now were, will see +the matter in a very different light. Incalculable are the +privations (in a great majority of instances), the toils, the +pains, the anxieties, that every child imposes on his father from +the first hour of his existence. If he could know the ceaseless +cares, the tender and ardent feelings, the almost incredible +efforts and exertions, that have accompanied him in his father's +breast through the whole period of his growth, instead of +thinking that he owed his parent nothing, he would stand still +and wonder that one human creature could do so much for another. + +I grant that all this may be done for a child by a stranger, and +that then in one sense the obligation would be greater. It is +however barely possible that all this should be done. The +stranger wants the first exciting cause, the consideration, "This +creature by the great scheme of nature belongs to me, and is cast +upon my care." And, as the tie in the case of the stranger was +not complete in the beginning, so neither can it be made so in +the sequel. The little straggler is like the duckling hatched in +the nest of a hen; there is danger every day, that as the +nursling begins to be acquainted with its own qualities, it may +plunge itself into another element, and swim away from its +benefactor. + +Even if we put all these considerations out of the question, +still the affection of the child to its parent of adoption, wants +the kernel, and, if I may so speak, the soul, of the connection +which has been formed and modelled by the great hand of nature. +If the mere circumstance of filiation and descent creates no +debt, it however is the principle of a very close connection. +One of the most memorable mysteries of nature, is how, out of the +slightest of all connections (for such, literally speaking, is +that between father and child), so many coincidences should +arise. The child resembles his parent in feature, in +temperament, in turn of mind, and in class of disposition, while +at the same time in many particulars, in these same respects, he +is a new and individual creature. In one view therefore the +child is merely the father multiplied and repeated. Now one of +the indefeasible principles of affection is the partaking of a +common nature; and as man is a species by himself, so to a +certain degree is every nation and every family; and this +consideration, when added to the moral and spiritual ties already +treated of, undoubtedly has a tendency to give them their zest +and perfection. + +But even this is not the most agreeable point of view in which we +may consider the filial affection. I come back to my first +position, that where there is no imagination, there can be no +passion, and by consequence no love. No parent ever understood +his child, and no child ever understood his parent. We have seen +that the affectionate parent considers his child like a flower in +the bud, as a mine of power that is to be unfolded, as a creature +that is to act and to pass through he knows not what, as a canvas +that "gives ample room and verge enough," for his prophetic soul +to hang over in endless visions, and his intellectual pencil to +fill up with various scenes and fortunes. And, if the parent +does not understand his child, certainly as little does the child +understand his parent. Wherever this relation subsists in its +fairest form, the parent is as a God, a being qualified with +supernatural powers, to his offspring. The child consults his +father as an oracle; to him he proposes all his little questions; +from him he learns his natural philosophy, his morals, his rules +of conduct, his religion, and his creed. The boy is uninformed +on every point; and the father is a vast Encyclopedia, not merely +of sciences, but of feelings, of sagacity, of practical wisdom, +and of justice, which the son consults on all occasions, and +never consults in vain. Senseless and inexpert is that parent, +who endeavours to govern the mind by authority, and to lay down +rugged and peremptory dogmas to his child; the child is fully and +unavoidably prepared to receive every thing with unbounded +deference, and to place total reliance in the oracle which nature +has assigned him. Habits, how beautiful! Inestimable benefit of +nature, that has given me a prop against which to sustain my +unripened strength, and has not turned me loose to wander with +tottering steps amidst the vast desert of society! + +But it is not merely for contemplative wisdom that the child +honours his parent; he sees in him a vast fund of love, +attachment and sympathy. That he cannot mistake; and it is all a +mystery to him. He says, What am I, that I should be the object +of this? and whence comes it? He sees neither the fountain from +which it springs, nor the banks that confine it. To him it is an +ocean, unfathomable, and without a shore. + +To the bounty of its operations he trusts implicitly. The stores +of judgment and knowledge he finds in his father, prompt him to +trust it. In many instances where it appeared at first obscure +and enigmatical, the event has taught him to acknowledge its +soundness. The mutinousness of passion will sometimes excite a +child to question the decrees of his parent; it is very long +before his understanding, as such, comes to set up a separate +system, and teaches him to controvert the decisions of his +father. + +Perhaps I ought earlier to have stated, that the filial +connection we have here to consider, does not include those +melancholy instances where some woful defect or utter +worthlessness in the parent counteracts the natural course of the +affections, but refers only to cases, where the character of +father is on the whole sustained with honour, and the principle +of the connection is left to its true operation. In such cases +the child not only observes for himself the manifestations of +wisdom and goodness in his parent, but is also accustomed to hear +well of him from all around. There is a generous conspiracy in +human nature, not to counteract the honour borne by the offspring +to him from whom he sprung, and the wholsome principle of +superiority and dependence which is almost indispensible between +persons of different ages dwelling under the same roof. And, +exclusively of this consideration, the men who are chiefly seen +by the son are his father's friends and associates; and it is the +very bent, and, as it were, law of our nature, that we do not +associate much, but with persons whom we favour, and who are +prepared to mention us with kindness and honour. + +Thus every way the child is deeply imbued with veneration for his +parent, and forms the habit of regarding him as his book of +wisdom, his philosopher and guide. He is accustomed to hear him +spoken of as a true friend, an active ally, and a pattern of +justice and honour; and he finds him so. Now these are the true +objects of affection,--wisdom and beneficence; and the human +heart loves this beneficence better when it is exercised towards +him who loves, first, because inevitably in almost all instances +we are best pleased with the good that is done to ourselves, and +secondly, because it can scarcely happen but that we in that case +understand it best, both in its operation and its effects. + +The active principles of religion are all moulded upon this +familiar and sensible relation of father and child: and to +understand whet the human heart is capable to conceive on this +subject, we have only to refer to the many eloquent and glowing +treatises that have been written upon the love of God to his +creatures, and the love that the creature in return owes to his +God. I am not now considering religion in a speculative point of +view, or enquiring among the different sects and systems of +religion what it is that is true; but merely producing religion +as an example of what have been the conceptions of the human mind +in successive ages of the world on the subject of love. + +This All that we behold, the immensity of the universe, the +admirable harmony and subtlety of its structure, as they appear +in the vastest and the minutest bodies, is considered by +religion, as the emanation of pure love, a mighty impulse and +ardour in its great author to realise the idea existing in his +mind, and to produce happiness. The Providence that watches over +us, so that not a sparrow dies unmarked, and that "the great +Sensorium of the world vibrates, if a hair of our head but falls +to the ground in the remotest desert of his creation," is still +unremitted, never-satiated love. And, to go from this to the +peculiarities of the Christian doctrine, "Greater love hath no +man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends: God +so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son to suffer, +to be treated contumeliously, and to die with ignominy, that we +might live." + +If on the other hand we consider the love which the creature must +naturally pay to his creator, we shall find that the affection we +can suppose the most ingenuous child to bear to the worthiest +parent, is a very faint image of the passion which may be +expected to grow out of this relation. In God, as he is +represented to us in the books of the worthiest divines, is every +thing that can command love; wisdom to conceive, power to +execute, and beneficence actually to carry into effect, whatever +is excellent and admirable. We are lost in contemplating the +depth and immensity of his perfections. "Every good and every +perfect gift is from the universal Father, with whom is no +variableness, neither shadow of turning." The most soothing and +gratifying of all sentiments, is that of entire confidence in the +divine goodness, a reliance which no adversity can shake, and +which supports him that entertains it under every calamity, that +sees the finger of God in every thing that comes to pass, that +says, "It is good for me to be afflicted," believes, that "all +things work together for blessings" to the pious and the just, +and is intimately persuaded that "our light affliction, which is +but for a moment, is the means and the earnest of a far more +exceeding and eternal weight of glory." + +If we descend from these great archetypes, the love between +parent and child, and between the creator and his creature, we +shall still find the same inequality the inseparable attendant +upon the most perfect ties of affection. The ancients seem to +have conceived the truest and most exalted ideas on the subject +of friendship. Among the most celebrated instances are the +friendship of Achilles and Patroclus, Orestes and Pylades, Aeneas +and Achates, Cyrus and Araspes, Alexander and Hephaestion, Scipio +and Laelius. In each of these the parties are, the true hero, +the man of lofty ambition, the magnificent personage in whom is +concentred every thing that the historian or the poet was able to +realise of excellence, and the modest and unpretending individual +in whom his confidence was reposed. The grand secret of the +connection is unfolded in the saying of the Macedonian conqueror, +"Craterus loves the king, but Hephaestion loves Alexander." +Friendship is to the loftier mind the repose, the unbending of +the soul. The great man (whatever may be the department in which +his excellence consists) has enough of his greatness, when he +stands before the world, and receives the homage that is paid to +his merits. Ever and anon he is anxious to throw aside this +incumbrance, and be as a man merely to a man. He wishes to +forget the "pride, pomp, and circumstance" of greatness, and to +be that only which he is himself. He desires at length to be +sure, that he receives no adulation, that he is accosted with no +insincerity, and that the individual to whose society he has +thought proper to withdraw, has no by-ends, no sinister purposes +in all his thoughts. What he seeks for, is a true friend, a +being who sincerely loves, one who is attached to him, not for +the accidents that attend him, hut for what most strictly belongs +to him, and of which he cannot be divested. In this friend there +is neither interested intention nor rivalry. + +Such are the characteristic features of the superior party in +these exemplars of friendship among the ancients. Of the +unpretending, unassuming party Homer, the great master of the +affections and emotions in remoter ages, has given us the fullest +portrait in the character of Patroclus. The distinguishing +feature of his disposition is a melting and affectionate spirit, +the concentred essence of tenderness and humanity. When +Patroclus comes from witnessing the disasters of the Greeks, to +collect a report of which he had been sent by Achilles, he is +"overwhelmed with floods of tears, like a spring which pours down +its waters from the steep edge of a precipice." It is thus that +Jupiter characterises him when he lies dead in the field of +battle: + +Thou [addressing himself in his thoughts to Hector] hast slain +the friend of Achilles, not less memorable for the blandness of +his temper, than the bravery of his deeds. + +It is thus that Menelaus undertakes to excite the Grecian chiefs +to rescue his body: + +Let each man recollect the sweetness of his disposition for, as +long as he lived, he was unremitted in kindness to all. When +Achilles proposes the games at the funeral, he says, "On any +other occasion my horses should have started for the prize, but +now it cannot be. They have lost their incomparable groom, who +was accustomed to refresh their limbs with water, and anoint +their flowing manes; and they are inconsolable." Briseis also +makes her appearance among the mourners, avowing that, "when her +husband had been slain in battle, and her native city laid in +ashes, this generous man prevented her tears, averring to her, +that she should be the wife of her conqueror, and that he would +himself spread the nuptial banquet for her in the hero's native +kingdom of Phthia." + +The reciprocity which belongs to a friendship between unequals +may well be expected to give a higher zest to their union. Each +party is necessary to the other. The superior considers him +towards whom he pours out his affection, as a part of himself. + + The head is not more native to the heart, + The hand more instrumental to the mouth. + +He cannot separate himself from him, but at the cost of a fearful +maim. When the world is shut out by him, when he retires into +solitude, and falls back upon himself, then his unpretending +friend is most of all necessary to him. He is his consolation +and his pleasure, the safe coffer in which he reposits all his +anxieties and sorrows. If the principal, instead of being a +public man, is a man of science, this kind of unbending becomes +certainly not the less welcome to him. He wishes occasionally to +forget the severity of his investigations, neither to have his +mind any longer wound up and stretched to the height of +meditation, nor to feel that he needs to be any way on his guard, +or not completely to give the rein to all his sallies and the +sportiveness of his soul. Having been for a considerable time +shut up in sequestered reflection, he wishes, it may be, to have +the world, the busy impassioned world, brought to his ears, +without his being obliged to enter into its formalities and +mummeries. If he desires to speak of the topics which had so +deeply engaged him, he can keep as near the edge as he pleases, +and drop or resume them as his fancy may prompt. And it seems +useless to say, how much his modest and unassuming friend will be +gratified in being instrumental to relieve the labours of his +principal, in feeling that he is necessary to him, and in +meditating on the delight he receives in being made the chosen +companion and confident of him whom he so ardently admires. It +was precisely in this spirit, that Fulke Greville, two hundred +years ago, directed that it should be inscribed on his tomb, +"Here lies the friend of Sir Philip Sidney." Tenderness on the +one part, and a deep feeling of honour and respect on the other, +give a completeness to the union which it must otherwise for ever +want. "There is no limit, none," to the fervour with which the +stronger goes forward to protect the weak; while in return the +less powerful would encounter a thousand deaths rather than +injury should befall the being to whom in generosity and +affection he owes so much. + +In the mean time, though inequality is necessary to give this +completeness to friendship, the inequality must not be too great. + +The inferior party must be able to understand and appreciate the +sense and the merits of him to whom he is thus bound. There must +be no impediment to hinder the communications of the principal +from being fully comprehended, and his sentiments entirely +participated. There must be a boundless confidence, without +apprehension that the power of the stronger party can by the +remotest possibility be put forth ungenerously. "Perfect love +casteth out fear." The evangelist applies this aphorism even to +the love of the creature to his creator. "The Lord spake unto +Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." In the +union of which I am treating the demonstrative and ordinary +appearance will be that of entire equality, which is heightened +by the inner, and for the greater part unexplained and +undeveloped, impression of a contrary nature. There is in either +party a perfect reliance, an idea of inequality with the most +entire assurance that it can never operate unworthily in the +stronger party, or produce insincerity or servility in the +weaker. There will in reality always be some reserve, some +shadow of fear between equals, which in the friendship of +unequals, if happily assorted, can find no place. There is a +pouring out of the heart on the one side, and a cordial +acceptance on the other, which words are inadequate to describe. + +To proceed. If from friendship we go forward to that which in +all languages is emphatically called love, we shall still find +ourselves dogged and attended by inequality. Nothing can be more +certain, however we may seek to modify and abate it, than the +inequality of the sexes. Let us attend to it as it stands in +Milton: + + For contemplation he and velour formed + For softness she and sweet attractive grace; + He for God only, she for God in him. + +Thus it is painted to us as having been in Paradise; and with +similar inequality have the sexes subsisted in all ages and +nations since. If it were possible to take from the fair sex its +softness and attractive grace, and endow it instead with +audacious, masculine and military qualities, there is scarcely +any one that does not perceive, with whatever advantages it might +be attended in other respects, that it would be far from tending +to cherish and increase the passion of love. + +It is in reality obvious, that man and woman, as they come from +the hands of nature, are so much upon a par with each other, as +not to afford the best subjects between whom to graft a habit of +entire, unalterable affection. In the scenes of vulgar and +ordinary society, a permanent connection between persons of +opposite sexes is too apt to degenerate into a scene of warfare, +where each party is for ever engaged in a struggle for +superiority, and neither will give way. A penetrating observer, +with whom in former days I used intimately to converse, was +accustomed to say, that there was generally more jarring and ill +blood between the two parties in the first year of their +marriage, than during all the remainder of their lives. It is at +length found necessary, as between equally matched belligerents +on the theatre of history, that they should come to terms, make a +treaty of peace, or at least settle certain laws of warfare, that +they may not waste their strength in idle hostilities. + +The nations of antiquity had a way of settling this question in a +very summary mode. As certain Oriental tribes have determined +that women have no souls, and that nothing can be more proper +than to shut them up, like singing birds in cages, so the Greeks +and Romans for the most part excluded their females from the +society of the more martial sex. Marriage with them was a +convenience merely; and the husband and wife were in reality +nothing more than the master and the slave. This point once +settled as a matter of national law, there was certainly in most +cases little danger of any vexatious rivalship and struggle for +power. + +But there is nothing in which the superiority of modern times +over the ancient has been more conspicuous, than in our +sentiments and practices on this subject. This superiority, as +well as several other of our most valuable acquisitions, took its +rise in what we call the dark ages. Chivalry was for the most +part the invention of the eleventh century. Its principle was +built upon a theory of the sexes, giving to each a relative +importance, and assigning to both functions full of honour and +grace. The knights (and every gentleman during that period in +due time became a knight) were taught, as the main features of +their vocation, the "love of God and the ladies." The ladies in +return were regarded as the genuine censors of the deeds of +knighthood. From these principles arose a thousand lessons of +humanity. The ladies regarded it as their glory to assist their +champions to arm and to disarm, to perform for them even menial +services, to attend them in sickness, and to dress their wounds. +They bestowed on them their colours, and sent them forth to the +field hallowed with their benedictions. The knights on the other +hand considered any slight towards the fair sex as an indelible +stain to their order; they contemplated the graceful patronesses +of their valour with a feeling that partook of religious homage +and veneration, and esteemed it as perhaps the first duty of +their profession, to relieve the wrongs, and avenge the injuries +of the less powerful sex. + +This simple outline as to the relative position of the one sex +and the other, gave a new face to the whole scheme and +arrangements of civil society. It is like those admirable +principles in the order of the material universe, or those grand +discoveries brought to light from time to time by superior +genius, so obvious and simple, that we wonder the most common +understanding could have missed them, yet so pregnant with +results, that they seem at once to put a new life and inspire a +new character into every part of a mighty and all-comprehensive +mass. + +The passion between the sexes, in its grosser sense, is a +momentary impulse merely; and there was danger that, when the fit +and violence of the passion was over, the whole would subside +into inconstancy and a roving disposition, or at least into +indifference and almost brutal neglect. But the institutions of +chivalry immediately gave a new face to this. Either sex +conceived a deep and permanent interest in the other. In the +unsettled state of society which characterised the period when +these institutions arose, the defenceless were liable to assaults +of multiplied kinds, and the fair perpetually stood in need of a +protector and a champion. The knights on the other hand were +taught to derive their fame and their honour from the suffrages +of the ladies. Each sex stood in need of the other; and the +basis of their union was mutual esteem. + +The effect of this was to give a hue of imagination to all their +intercourse. A man was no longer merely a man, nor a woman +merely a woman. They were taught mutual deference. The woman +regarded her protector as something illustrious and admirable; +and the man considered the smiles and approbation of beauty as +the adequate reward of his toils and his dangers. These modes of +thinking introduced a nameless grace into all the commerce of +society. It was the poetry of life. Hence originated the +delightful narratives and fictions of romance; and human +existence was no longer the bare, naked train of vulgar +incidents, which for so many ages of the world it had been +accustomed to be. It was clothed in resplendent hues, and wore +all the tints of the rainbow. Equality fled and was no more; and +love, almighty, perdurable love, came to supply its place. + +By means of this state of things the vulgar impulse of the sexes +towards each other, which alone was known to the former ages of +the world, was transformed into somewhat of a totally different +nature. It became a kind of worship. The fair sex looked upon +their protectors, their fathers, their husbands, and the whole +train of their chivalry, as something more than human. There was +a grace in their motions, a gallantry in their bearing, and a +generosity in their spirit of enterprise, that the softness of +the female heart found irresistible. Nor less on the other hand +did the knights regard the sex to whose service and defence they +were sworn, as the objects of their perpetual deference. They +approached them with a sort of gallant timidity, listened to +their behests with submission, and thought the longest courtship +and devotion nobly recompensed by the final acceptance of the +fair. + +The romance and exaggeration characteristic of these modes of +thinking have gradually worn away in modern times; but much of +what was most valuable in them has remained. Love has in later +ages never been divested of the tenderness and consideration, +which were thus rendered some of its most estimable features. A +certain desire in each party to exalt the other, and regard it as +worthy of admiration, became inextricably interwoven with the +simple passion. A sense of the honour that was borne by the one +to the other, had the happiest effect in qualifying the +familiarity and unreserve in the communion of feelings and +sentiments, without which the attachment of the sexes cannot +subsist. It is something like what the mystic divines describe +of the beatific vision, where entire wonder and adoration are not +judged to be incompatible with the most ardent affection, and all +meaner and selfish regards are annihilated. + +From what has been thus drawn together and recapitulated it seems +clearly to follow, as was stated in the beginning, that love +cannot exist in its purest form and with a genuine ardour, where +the parties are, and are felt by each other to be, on an +equality; but that in all cases it is requisite there should be a +mutual deference and submission, agreeably to the apostolic +precept, "Likewise all of you be subject one to the other." +There must be room for the imagination to exercise its powers; we +must conceive and apprehend a thousand things which we do not +actually witness; each party must feel that it stands in need of +the other, and without the other cannot be complete; each party +must be alike conscious of the power of receiving and conferring +benefit; and there must be the anticipation of a distant future, +that may every day enhance the good to be imparted and enjoyed, +and cause the individuals thus united perpetually to become more +sensible of the fortunate event which gave them to each other, +and has thus entailed upon each a thousand advantages in which +they could otherwise never have shared. + + + +ESSAY XVI. +OF FRANKNESS AND RESERVE. + +Animals are divided into the solitary and the are gregarious: +the former being only occasionally associated with its mate, and +perhaps engaged in the care of its offspring; the latter spending +their lives in herds and communities. Man is of this last class +or division. + +Where the animals of any particular species live much in society, +it seems requisite that in some degree they should be able to +understand each other's purposes, and to act with a certain +portion of concert. + +All other animals are exceedingly limited in their powers of +communication. But speech renders that being whom we justly +entitle the lord of the creation, capable of a boundless +interchange of ideas and intentions. Not only can we communicate +to each other substantively our elections and preferences: we +can also exhort and persuade, and employ reasons and arguments to +convince our fellows, that the choice we have made is also worthy +of their adoption. We can express our thoughts, and the various +lights and shades, the bleedings, of our thoughts. Language is +an instrument capable of being perpetually advanced in +copiousness, perspicuity and power. + +No principle of morality can be more just, than that which +teaches us to regard every faculty we possess as a power +intrusted to us for the benefit of others as well as of +ourselves, and which therefore we are bound to employ in the way +which shall best conduce to the general advantage. + +"Speech was given us, that by it we might express our +thoughts[34];" in other words, our impressions, ideas and +conceptions. We then therefore best fulfil the scope of our +nature, when we sincerely and unreservedly communicate to each +other our feelings and apprehensions. Speech should be to man in +the nature of a fair complexion, the transparent medium through +which the workings of the mind should be made legible. + +[34] Moliere. + + +I think I have somewhere read of Socrates, that certain of his +friends expostulated with him, that the windows of his house were +so constructed that every one who went by could discover all that +passed within. "And wherefore not?" said the sage. "I do +nothing that I would wish to have concealed from any human eye. +If I knew that all the world observed every thing I did, I should +feel no inducement to change my conduct in the minutest +particular." + +It is not however practicable that frankness should be carried to +the extent above mentioned. It has been calculated that the +human mind is capable of being impressed with three hundred and +twenty sensations in a second of time. At all events we well +know that, even "while I am speaking, a variety of sensations are +experienced by me, without so much as interrupting, that is, +without materially diverting, the train of my ideas. My eye +successively remarks a thousand objects that present themselves, +and my mind wanders to the different parts of my body, without +occasioning the minutest obstacle to my discourse, or my being in +any degree distracted by the multiplicity of these objects[35]." +It is therefore beyond the reach of the faculty of speech, for me +to communicate all the sensations I experience; and I am of +necessity reduced to a selection. + +[35] See above, Essay 7. + + +Nor is this the whole. We do not communicate all that we feel, +and all that we think; for this would be impertinent. We owe a +certain deference and consideration to our fellow-men; we owe it +in reality to ourselves. We do not communicate indiscriminately +all that passes within us. The time would fail us; and "the +world would not contain the books that might be written." We do +not speak merely for the sake of speaking; otherwise the +communication of man with his fellow would be but one eternal +babble. Speech is to be employed for some useful purpose; nor +ought we to give utterance to any thing that shall not promise to +be in some way productive of benefit or amusement. + +Frankness has its limits, beyond which it would cease to be +either advantageous or virtuous. We are not to tell every thing: + +but we are not to conceal any thing, that it would be useful or +becoming in us to utter. Our first duty regarding the faculty of +speech is, not to keep back what it would be beneficial to our +neighbour to know. But this is a negative sincerity only. If we +would acquire a character for frankness, we must be careful that +our conversation is such, as to excite in him the idea that we +are open, ingenuous and fearless. We must appear forward to +speak all that will give him pleasure, and contribute to maintain +in him an agreeable state of being. It must be obvious that we +are not artificial and on our guard.--After all, it is difficult +to lay down rules on this subject: the spring of whatever is +desirable respecting it, must be in the temper of the man with +whom others have intercourse. He must be benevolent, sympathetic +and affectionate. His heart must overflow with good-will; and he +must be anxious to relieve every little pain, and to contribute +to the enjoyment and complacent feelings, of those with whom he +is permanently or accidentally connected. "Out of the abundance +of the heart the mouth speaketh." + +There are two considerations by which we ought to be directed in +the exercise of the faculty of speech. + +The first is, that we should tell our neighbour all that it would +be useful to him to know. We must have no sinister or bye ends. +"No man liveth to himself." We are all of us members of the +great congregation of mankind. The same blood should circulate +through every limb and every muscle. Our pulses should beat time +to each other; and we should have one common sensorium, vibrating +throughout, upon every material accident that occurs, and when +any object is at stake essentially affecting the welfare of our +fellow-beings. We should forget ourselves in the interest that +we feel for the happiness of others; and, if this were universal, +each man would be a gainer, inasmuch as he lost himself, and was +cared and watched for by many. + +In all these respects we must have no reserve. We should only +consider what it is that it would be beneficial to have declared. + +We must not look back to ourselves, and consult the dictates of a +narrow and self-interested prudence. The whole essence of +communication is adulterated, if, instead of attending to the +direct effects of what suggests itself to our tongue, we are to +consider how by a circuitous route it may react upon our own +pleasures and advantage. + +Nor only are we bound to communicate to our neighbour all that it +will be useful to him to know. We have many neighbours, beside +those to whom we immediately address ourselves. To these our +absent fellow-beings, we owe a thousand duties. We are bound to +defend those whom we hear aspersed, and who are spoken unworthily +of by the persons whom we incidentally encounter. We should be +the forward and spontaneous advocates of merit in every shape and +in every individual in whom we know it to exist. What a +character would that man make for himself, of whom it was +notorious that he consecrated his faculty of speech to the +refuting unjust imputations against whomsoever they were +directed, to the contradicting all false and malicious reports, +and to the bringing forth obscure and unrecognised worth from the +shades in which it lay hid! What a world should we live in, if +all men were thus prompt and fearless to do justice to all the +worth they knew or apprehended to exist! Justice, simple +justice, if it extended no farther than barely to the faculty of +speech, would in no long time put down all misrepresentation and +calumny, bring all that is good and meritorious into honour, and, +so to speak, set every man in his true and rightful position. +But whoever would attempt this, must do it in all honour, without +parade, and with no ever-and-anon looking back upon his +achievement, and saying, See to how much credit I am +entitled!--as if he laid more stress upon himself, the doer of +this justice, than upon justice in its intrinsic nature and +claims. + +But we not only owe something to the advantage and interest of +our neighbours, but something also to the sacred divinity of +Truth. I am not only to tell my neighbour whatever I know that +may be beneficial to him, respecting his position in society, his +faults, what other men appear to contemplate that may conduce to +his advantage or injury, and to advise him how the one may best +be forwarded, or the other defeated and brought to nothing: I am +bound also to consider in what way it may be in my power so to +act on his mind, as shall most enlarge his views, confirm and +animate his good resolutions, and meliorate his dispositions and +temper. We are all members of one great community: and we shall +never sufficiently discharge our duty in that respect, till, like +the ancient Spartans, the love of the whole becomes our +predominant passion, and we cease to imagine that we belong to +ourselves, so much as to the entire body of which we are a part. +There are certain views in morality, in politics, and various +other important subjects, the general prevalence of which will be +of the highest benefit to the society of which we are members; +and it becomes us in this respect, with proper temperance and +moderation, to conform ourselves to the zealous and fervent +precept of the apostle, to "promulgate the truth and be instant, +in season and out of season," that we may by all means leave some +monument of our good intentions behind us, and feel that we have +not lived in vain. + +There is a maxim extremely in vogue in the ordinary intercourses +of society, which deserves to be noticed here, for the purpose of +exposing it to merited condemnation. It is very common between +friends, or persons calling themselves such, to say, "Do not ask +my advice in a certain crisis of your life; I will not give it; +hereafter, if the thing turns out wrong, you will reflect on me, +and say that it was at my suggestion that you were involved in +calamity." This is a dastardly excuse, and shews a pitiful +selfishness in the man that urges it. + +It is true, that we ought ever to be on the alert, that we may +not induce our friend into evil. We should be upon our guard, +that we may not from overweening arrogance and self-conceit +dictate to another, overpower his more sober judgment, and assume +a rashness for him, in which perhaps we would not dare to indulge +for ourselves. We should be modest in our suggestions, and +rather supply him with materials for decision, than with a +decision absolutely made. There may however be cases where an +opposite proceeding is necessary. We must arrest our friend, +nay, even him who is merely our fellow-creature, with a strong +arm, when we see him hovering on the brink of a precipice, or the +danger is so obvious, that nothing but absolute blindness could +conceal it from an impartial bystander. + +But in all cases our best judgment should always be at the +service of our brethren of mankind. "Give to him that asketh +thee; and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away." + +This may not always be practicable or just, when applied to the +goods of fortune: but the case of advice, information, and laws +of conduct, comes within that of Ennius, to suffer our neighbour +to light his candle at our lamp. To do so will enrich him, +without making us a jot the poorer. We should indeed respect the +right of private judgment, and scarcely in any case allow our +will to supersede his will in his own proper province. But we +should on no account suffer any cowardly fears for ourselves, to +induce us to withhold from him any assistance that our wider +information or our sounder judgment might supply to him. + +The next consideration by which we should be directed in the +exercise of the faculty of speech, is that we should employ it so +as should best conduce to the pleasure of our neighbour. Man is +a different creature in the savage and the civilised state. It +has been affirmed, and it may be true, that the savage man is a +stranger to that disagreeable frame of mind, known by the name of +ennui. He can pore upon the babbling stream, or stretch himself +upon a sunny bank, from the rising to the setting of the sun, and +be satisfied. He is scarcely roused from this torpid state but +by the cravings of nature. If they can be supplied without +effort, he immediately relapses into his former supineness; and, +if it requires search, industry and exertion to procure their +gratification, he still more eagerly embraces the repose, which +previous fatigue renders doubly welcome. + +But, when the mind has once been wakened up from its original +lethargy, when we have overstepped the boundary which divides the +man from the beast, and are made desirous of improvement, while +at the same moment the tumultuous passions that draw us in +infinitely diversified directions are called into act, the case +becomes exceedingly different. It might be difficult at first to +rouse man from his original lethargy: it is next to impossible +that he should ever again be restored to it. The appetite of the +mind being once thoroughly awakened in society, the human species +are found to be perpetually craving after new intellectual food. +We read, we write, we discourse, we ford rivers, and scale +mountains, and engage in various pursuits, for the pure pleasure +that the activity and earnestness of the pursuit afford us. The +day of the savage and the civilised man are still called by the +same name. They may be measured by a pendulum, and will be found +to be of the same duration. But in all other points of view they +are inexpressibly different. + +Hence therefore arises another duty that is incumbent upon us as +to the exercise of the faculty of speech. This duty will be more +or less urgent according to the situation in which we are placed. + +If I sit down in a numerous assembly, if I become one of a +convivial party of ten or twelve persons, I may unblamed be for +the greater part, or entirely silent, if I please. I must appear +to enter into their sentiments and pleasures, or, if I do not, I +shall be an unwelcome guest; but it may scarcely be required for +me to clothe my feelings with articulate speech. + +But, when my society shall be that of a few friends only, and +still more if the question is of spending hours or days in the +society of a single friend, my duty becomes altered, and a +greater degree of activity will be required from me. There are +cases, where the minor morals of the species will be of more +importance than those which in their own nature are cardinal. +Duties of the highest magnitude will perhaps only be brought into +requisition upon extraordinary occasions; but the opportunities +we have of lessening the inconveniences of our neighbour, or of +adding to his accommodations and the amount of his agreeable +feelings, are innumerable. An acceptable and welcome member of +society therefore will not talk, only when he has something +important to communicate. He will also study how he may amuse +his friend with agreeable narratives, lively remarks, sallies of +wit, or any of those thousand nothings, which' set off with a +wish to please and a benevolent temper, will often entertain more +and win the entire good will of the person to whom they are +addressed, than the wisest discourse, or the vein of conversation +which may exhibit the powers and genius of the speaker to the +greatest advantage. + +Men of a dull and saturnine complexion will soon get to an end of +all they felt it incumbent on them to say to their comrades. But +the same thing will probably happen, though at a much later +period, between friends of an active mind, of the largest stores +of information, and whose powers have been exercised upon the +greatest variety of sentiments, principles, and original veins of +thinking. When two such men first fall into society, each will +feel as if he had found a treasure. Their communications are +without end; their garrulity is excited, and converts into a +perennial spring. The topics upon which they are prompted to +converse are so numerous, that one seems to jostle out the other. + +It may proceed thus from day to day, from month to month, and +perhaps from year to year. But, according to the old proverb, +"It is a long lane that has no turning." The persons here +described will have a vast variety of topics upon which they are +incited to compare their opinions, and will lay down these topics +and take them up again times without number. Upon some, one of +the parties will feel himself entirely at home while the other is +comparatively a novice, and, in others, the advantage will be +with the other; so that the gain of both, in this free and +unrestrained opening of the soul, will be incalculable. But the +time will come, like as in perusing an author of the most +extraordinary genius and the most versatile powers, that the +reading of each other's minds will be exhausted. They know so +much of each other's tone of thinking, that all that can be said +will be anticipated. The living voice, the sparkling eye, and +the beaming countenance will do much to put off the evil day, +when we shall say, I have had enough. But the time will come in +which we shall feel that this after all is but little, and we +shall become sluggish, ourselves to communicate, or to excite the +dormant faculties of our friend, when the spring, the waters of +which so long afforded us the most exquisite delight, is at +length drawn dry. + +I remember in my childish years being greatly struck with that +passage in the Bible, where it is written, "But I say unto you, +that, for every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give +an account in the day of judgment:" and, as I was very desirous +of conforming myself to the directions of the sacred volume, I +was upon the point of forming a sort of resolution, that I would +on no account open my mouth to speak, without having a weighty +reason for uttering the thing I felt myself prompted to say. + +But practical directions of this sort are almost in all cases of +ambiguous interpretation. From the context of this passage it is +clear, that by "idle words" we are to understand vicious words, +words tending to instil into the mind unauthorised impulses, that +shew in the man who speaks "a will most rank, foul disproportion, +thoughts unnatural,' and are calculated to render him by whom +they are listened to, light and frivolous of temper, and unstrung +for the graver duties of human life. + +But idle words, in the sense of innocent amusement, are not +vicious. "There is a time for all things." Amusement must not +encroach upon or thrust aside the real business, the important +engagements, and the animated pursuits of man. But it is +entitled to take its turn unreproved. Human life is so various, +and the disposition and temper of the mind of so different tones +and capacity, that a wise man will "frame his face to all +occasions." Playfulness, if not carried to too great an extreme, +is an additional perfection in human nature. We become relieved +from our more serious cares, and better fitted to enter on them +again after an interval. To fill up the days of our lives with +various engagements, to make one occupation succeed to another, +so as to liberate us from the pains of ennui, and the dangers of +what may in an emphatical sense be called idleness, is no small +desideratum. That king may in this sense be admitted to have +formed no superficial estimate of our common nature, who is said +to have proclaimed a reward to the individual that should invent +a new amusement. + +And, to consider the question as it stands in relation to the +subject of the present Essay, a perpetual gravity and a vigilant +watch to be placed on the door of our lips, would be eminently +hostile to that frankness which is to be regarded as one of the +greatest ornaments of our nature. "It is meet, that we should +make merry and be glad." A formal countenance, a demure, careful +and unaltered cast of features, is one of the most +disadvantageous aspects under which human nature can exhibit +itself. The temper must be enterprising and fearless, the manner +firm and assured, and the correspondence between the heart and +the tongue prompt and instantaneous, if we desire to have that +view of man that shall do him the most credit, and induce us to +form the most honourable opinion respecting him. On our front +should sit fearless confidence and unsubdued hilarity. Our limbs +should be free and unfettered, a state of the animal which +imparts a grace infinitely more winning than that of the most +skilful dancer. The very sound of our voice should be full, +firm, mellow, and fraught with life and sensibility; of that +nature, at the hearing of which every bosom rises, and every eye +is lighted up. It is thus that men come to understand and +confide in each other. This is the only frame that can perfectly +conduce to our moral improvement, the awakening of our faculties, +the diffusion of science, and the establishment of the purest +notions and principles of civil and political liberty. + + + +ESSAY XVII. +OF BALLOT. + +The subject of the preceding Essay leads by an obvious transition +to the examination of a topic, which at present occupies to a +considerable extent the attention of those who are anxious for +the progress of public improvement, and the placing the liberties +of mankind on the securest basis: I mean, the topic of the vote +by ballot. + +It is admitted that the most beneficial scheme for the government +of nations, is a government by representation: that is, that +there shall be in every nation, or large collection of men, a +paramount legislative assembly, composed of deputies chosen by +the people in their respective counties, cities, towns, or +departments. In what manner then shall these deputies be +elected? + +The argument in favour of the election by ballot is obvious. + +In nearly all civilised countries there exists more or less an +inequality of rank and property: we will confine our attention +principally to the latter. + +Property necessarily involves influence. Mankind are but too +prone to pay a superior deference to those who wear better +clothes, live in larger houses, and command superior +accommodations to those which fall to the lot of the majority. + +One of the main sources of wealth in civilised nations is the +possession of land. Those who have a considerable allotment of +land in property, for the most part let it out in farms on lease +or otherwise to persons of an inferior rank, by whom it is +cultivated. In this case a reciprocal relation is created +between the landlord and the tenant: and, if the landlord +conducts himself towards his tenant agreeably to the principles +of honour and liberality, it is impossible that the tenant should +not feel disposed to gratify his landlord, so far as shall be +compatible with his own notions of moral rectitude, or the +paramount interests of the society of which he is a member. + +If the proprietor of any extensive allotment of land does not let +it out in farms, but retains it under his own direction, he must +employ a great number of husbandmen and labourers; and over them +he must be expected to exercise the same sort of influence, as +under the former statement we supposed him to exercise over his +tenants. + +The same principle will still operate wherever any one man in +society is engaged in the expenditure of a considerable capital. +The manufacturer will possess the same influence over his +workmen, as the landed proprietor over his tenants or labourers. +Even the person who possesses considerable opulence, and has no +intention to engage in the pursuits of profit or accumulation, +will have an ample retinue, and will be enabled to use the same +species of influence over his retainers and trades-people, as the +landlord exercises over his tenants and labourers, and the +manufacturer over his workmen. + +A certain degree of this species of influence in society, is +perhaps not to be excepted against. The possessor of opulence in +whatever form, may be expected to have received a superior +education, and, being placed at a certain distance from the +minuter details and the lesser wheels in the machine of society, +to have larger and more expansive views as to the interests of +the whole. It is good that men in different ranks of society +should be brought into intercourse with each other; it will +subtract something from the prejudices of both, and enable each +to obtain some of the advantages of the other. The division of +rank is too much calculated to split society into parties having +a certain hostility to each other. In a free state we are all +citizens: it is desirable that we should all be friends. + +But this species of influence may be carried too far. To a +certain extent it is good. Inasmuch as it implies the +enlightening one human understanding by the sparks struck out +from another, or even the communication of feelings between man +and man, this is not to be deprecated. Some degree of courteous +compliance and deference of the ignorant to the better informed, +is inseparable from the existence of political society as we +behold it; such a deference as we may conceive the candid and +conscientious layman to pay to the suggestions of his honest and +disinterested pastor. + +Every thing however that is more than this, is evil. There +should be no peremptory mandates, and no threat or apprehension +of retaliation and mischief to follow, if the man of inferior +station or opulence should finally differ in opinion from his +wealthier neighbour. We may admit of a moral influence; but +there must be nothing, that should in the smallest degree border +on compulsion. + +But it is unfortunately in the very nature of weak, erring and +fallible mortals, to make an ill use of the powers that are +confided to their discretion. The rich man in the wantonness of +his authority will not stop at moral influence, but, if he is +disappointed of his expectation by what he will call my +wilfulness and obstinacy, will speedily find himself impelled to +vindicate his prerogative, and to punish my resistance. In every +such disappointment he will discern a dangerous precedent, and +will apprehend that, if I escape with impunity, the whole of that +ascendancy, which he has regarded as one of the valuable +privileges contingent to his station, will be undermined. + +Opulence has two ways of this grosser sort, by which it may +enable its possessor to command the man below him,--punishment +and reward. As the holder, for example, of a large landed +estate, or the administrator of an ample income, may punish the +man who shews himself refractory to his will, so he may also +reward the individual who yields to his suggestions. This, in +whatever form it presents itself, may be classed under the +general head of bribery. + +The remedy for all this therefore, real or potential, mischief, +is said to lie in the vote by ballot, a contrivance, by means of +which every man shall be enabled to give his vote in favour of or +against any candidate that shall be nominated, in absolute +secrecy, without it being possible for any one to discover on +which side the elector decided,--nay, a contrivance, by which the +elector is invited to practise mystery and concealment, inasmuch +as it would seem an impertinence in him to speak out, when the +law is expressly constructed to bid him act and be silent. If he +speaks, he is guilty of a sort of libel on his brother-electors, +who are hereby implicitly reproached by him for their +impenetrableness and cowardice. + +We are told that the institution of the ballot is indispensible +to the existence of a free state, in a country where the goods of +fortune are unequally distributed. In England, as the right of +sending members to parliament is apportioned at the time I am +writing, the power of electing is bestowed with such glaring +inequality, and the number of electors in many cases is so +insignificant, as inevitably to give to the noble and the rich +the means of appointing almost any representatives they think +fit, so that the house of commons may more justly be styled the +nominees of the upper house, than the deputies of the nation. +And it is further said, Remedy this inequality as much as you +please, and reform the state of the representation to whatever +degree, still, so long as the votes at elections are required to +be given openly, the reform will be unavailing, and the essential +part of the mischief will remain. The right of giving our votes +in secrecy, is the only remedy that can cut off the ascendancy of +the more opulent members of the community over the rest, and give +us the substance of liberty, instead of cheating us with the +shadow. + +On the other side I would beg the reader to consider, that the +vote by ballot, in its obvious construction, is not the symbol of +liberty, but of slavery. What is it, that presents to every eye +the image of liberty, and compels every heart to confess, This is +the temple where she resides? An open front, a steady and +assured look, an habitual and uninterrupted commerce between the +heart and the tongue. The free man communicates with his +neighbour, not in corners and concealed places, but in +market-places and scenes of public resort; and it is thus that +the sacred spark is caught from man to man, till all are inspired +with a common flame. Communication and publicity are of the +essence of liberty; it is the air they breathe; and without it +they die. + +If on the contrary I would characterise a despotism, I should +say, It implied a certain circumference of soil, through whose +divisions and districts every man suspected his neighbour, where +every man was haunted with the terror that "walls have ears," and +only whispered his discontent, his hopes and his fears, to the +trees of the forest and the silent streams. If the dwellers on +this soil consulted together, it would be in secret cabals and +with closed doors; engaging in the sacred cause of public welfare +and happiness, as if it were a thing of guilt, which the +conspirator scarcely ventured to confess to his own heart. + +A shrewd person of my acquaintance the other day, to whom I +unadvisedly proposed a question as to what he thought of some +public transaction, instantly replied with symptoms of alarm, "I +beg to say that I never disclose my opinions upon matters either +of religion or politics to any one." What did this answer imply +as to the political government of the country where it was given? + +Is it characteristic of a free state or a tyranny? + +One of the first and highest duties that falls to the lot of a +human creature, is that which he owes to the aggregate of +reasonable beings inhabiting what he calls his country. Our +duties are then most solemn and elevating, when they are +calculated to affect the well being of the greatest number of +men; and of consequence what a patriot owes to his native soil is +the noblest theatre for his moral faculties. And shall we teach +men to discharge this debt in the dark? Surely every man ought +to be able to "render a reason of the hope that is in him," and +give a modest, but an assured, account of his political conduct. +When he approaches the hustings at the period of a public +election, this is his altar, where he sacrifices in the face of +men to that deity, which is most worth his adoration of all the +powers whose single province is our sublunary state. + +But the principle of the institution of ballot is to teach men to +perform their best actions under the cloke of concealment. When +I return from giving my vote in the choice of a legislative +representative, I ought, if my mode of proceeding were regulated +by the undebauched feelings of our nature, to feel somewhat proud +that I had discharged this duty, uninfluenced, uncorrupted, in +the sincere frame of a conscientious spirit. But the institution +of ballot instigates me carefully to conceal what I have done. +If I am questioned respecting it, the proper reply which is as it +were put into my mouth is, "You have no right to ask me; and I +shall not tell." But, as every man does not recollect the proper +reply at the moment it is wanted, and most men feel abashed, when +a direct question is put to them to which they know they are not +to return a direct answer, many will stammer and feel confused, +will perhaps insinuate a falshood, while at the same time their +manner to a discerning eye will, in spite of all their +precautions, disclose the very truth. + +The institution of ballot not only teaches us that our best +actions are those which we ought most steadily to disavow, but +carries distrust and suspicion into all our most familiar +relations. The man I want to deceive, and throw out in the +keenness of his hunting, is my landlord. But how shall I most +effectually conceal the truth from him? May I be allowed to tell +it to my wife or my child? I had better not. It is a known +maxim of worldly prudence, that the truth which may be a source +of serious injury to me, is safest, when it is shut up in my own +bosom. If I once let it out, there is no saying where the +communication may stop. "Day unto day uttereth speech; and night +unto night sheweth forth knowledge." + +And is this the proud attitude of liberty, to which we are so +eager to aspire? After all, there will be some ingenuous men in +the community, who will not know how for ever to suppress what is +dearest to their hearts. But at any rate this institution holds +out a prize to him that shall be most secret and untraceable in +his proceedings, that shall "shoe his horses with felt," and +proceed in all his courses with silence and suspicion. + +The first principle of morality to social man is, that we act +under the eye of our fellows. The truly virtuous man would do as +he ought, though no eye observed him. Persons, it is true, who +deport themselves merely as "men-pleasers," for ever considering +how the by-standers will pronounce of their conduct, are entitled +to small commendation. The good man, it is certain, will see + + To do what virtue would, though sun and moon + Were in the flat sea sunk. + +But, imperfect creatures as we mortals usually are, these things +act and react upon each other. A man of honourable intentions +will demean himself justly, from the love of right. But he is +confirmed in his just dealing by the approbation of his fellows; +and, if he were tempted to step awry, he would be checked by the +anticipation of their censure. Such is the nature of our moral +education. It is with virtue, as it is with literary fame. If I +write well, I can scarcely feel secure that I do so, till I +obtain the suffrage of some competent judges, confirming the +verdict which I was before tempted to pronounce in my own favour. + +This acting as in a theatre, where men and Gods are judges of my +conduct, is the true destination of man; and we cannot violate +the universal law under which we were born, without having reason +to fear the most injurious effects. + +And is this mysterious and concealed way of proceeding one of the +forms through which we are to pass in the school of liberty? The +great end of all liberal institutions is, to make a man fearless, +frank as the day, acting from a lively and earnest impulse, which +will not be restrained, disdains all half-measures, and prompts +us, as it were, to carry our hearts in our hands, for all men to +challenge, and all men to comment on. It is true, that the +devisers of liberal institutions will have foremost in their +thoughts, how men shall be secure in their personal liberty, +unrestrained in the execution of what their thoughts prompt them +to do, and uncontrolled in the administration of the fruits of +their industry. But the moral end of all is, that a man shall be +worthy of the name, erect, independent of mind, spontaneous of +decision, intrepid, overflowing with all good feelings, and open +in the expression of the sentiments they inspire. If man is +double in his weightiest purposes, full of ambiguity and +concealment, and not daring to give words to the impulses of his +soul, what matters it that he is free? We may pronounce of this +man, that he is unworthy of the blessing that has fallen to his +lot, and will never produce the fruits that should be engendered +in the lap of liberty. + +There is however, it should seem, a short answer to all this. It +is in vain to expatiate to us upon the mischiefs of lying, +hypocrisy and concealment, since it is only through them, as the +way by which we are to march, that nations can be made free. + +This certainly is a fearful judgment awarded upon our species: +but is it true? + +We are to begin, it seems, with concealing from our landlord, or +our opulent neighbour, our political determinations; and so his +corrupt influence will be broken, and the humblest individual +will be safe in doing that which his honest and unbiased feelings +may prompt him to do. + +No: this is not the way in which the enemy of the souls of men +is to be defeated. We must not begin with the confession of our +faint-heartedness and our cowardice. A quiet, sober, unaltered +frame of judgment, that insults no one, that has in it nothing +violent, brutal and defying, is the frame that becomes us. If I +would teach another man, my superior in rank, how he ought to +construe and decide upon the conduct I hold, I must begin by +making that conduct explicit. + +It is not in morals, as it is in war. There stratagem is +allowable, and to take the enemy by surprise. "Who enquires of +an enemy, whether it is by fraud or heroic enterprise that he has +gained the day?" But it is not so that the cause of liberty is to +be vindicated in the civil career of life. + +The question is of reducing the higher ranks of society to admit +the just immunities of their inferiors. I will not allow that +they shall be cheated into it. No: no man was ever yet +recovered to his senses in a question of morals, but by plain, +honest, soul-commanding speech. Truth is omnipotent, if we do +not violate its majesty by surrendering its outworks, and giving +up that vantage-ground, of which if we deprive it, it ceases to +be truth. It finds a responsive chord in every human bosom. +Whoever hears its voice, at the same time recognises its power. +However corrupt he may be, however steeped in the habits of vice, +and hardened in the practices of tyranny, if it be mildly, +distinctly, emphatically enunciated, the colour will forsake his +cheek, his speech will alter and be broken, and he will feel +himself unable to turn it off lightly, as a thing of no +impression and validity. In this way the erroneous man, the man +nursed in the house of luxury, a stranger to the genuine, +unvarnished state of things, stands a fair chance of being +corrected. + +But, if an opposite, and a truer way of thinking than that to +which he is accustomed, is only brought to his observation by the +reserve of him who entertains it, and who, while he entertains +it, is reluctant to hold communion with his wealthier neighbour, +who regards him as his adversary, and hardly admits him to be of +the same common nature, there will be no general improvement. +Under this discipline the two ranks of society will be +perpetually more estranged, view each other with eye askance, and +will be as two separate and hostile states, though inhabiting the +same territory. Is this the picture we desire to see of genuine +liberty, philanthropic, desirous of good to all, and overflowing +with all generous emotions? + + I hate where vice can bolt her arguments, + And virtue has no tongue to check her pride. + +The man who interests himself for his country and its cause, who +acts bravely and independently, and knows that he runs some risk +in doing so, must have a strange opinion of the sacredness of +truth, if the very consciousness of having done nobly does not +supply him with courage, and give him that simple, unostentatious +firmness, which shall carry immediate conviction to the heart. +It is a bitter lesson that the institution of ballot teaches, +while it says, "You have done well; therefore be silent; whisper +it not to the winds; disclose it not to those who are most nearly +allied to you; adopt the same conduct which would suggest itself +to you, if you had perpetrated an atrocious crime." + +In no long time after the commencement of the war of the allies +against France, certain acts were introduced into the English +parliament, declaring it penal by word or writing to utter any +thing that should tend to bring the government into contempt; and +these acts, by the mass of the adversaries of despotic power, +were in way of contempt called the Gagging Acts. Little did I +and my contemporaries of 1795 imagine, when we protested against +these acts in the triumphant reign of William Pitt, that the +soi-disant friends of liberty and radical reformers, when their +turn of triumph came, would propose their Gagging Acts, +recommending to the people to vote agreeably to their +consciences, but forbidding them to give publicity to the +honourable conduct they had been prevailed on to adopt! + +But all this reasoning is founded in an erroneous, and +groundlessly degrading, opinion of human nature. The improvement +of the general institutions of society, the correction of the +gross inequalities of our representation, will operate towards +the improvement of all the members of the community. While +ninety-nine in an hundred of the inhabitants of England are +carried forward in the scale of intellect and virtue, it would be +absurd to suppose that the hundredth man will stand still, merely +because he is rich. Patriotism is a liberal and a social +impulse; its influence is irresistible; it is contagious, and is +propagated by the touch; it is infectious, and mixes itself with +the air that we breathe. + +Men are governed in their conduct in a surprising degree by the +opinion of others. It was all very well, when noblemen were each +of them satisfied of the equity and irresistible principle of +their ascendancy, when the vulgar population felt convinced that +passive obedience was entailed on them from their birth, when we +were in a manner but just emancipated (illusorily emancipated!) +from the state of serfs and villains. But a memorable +melioration of the state of man will carry some degree of +conviction to the hearts of all. The most corrupt will be made +doubtful: many who had not gone so far in ill, will desert the +banners of oppression. + +We see this already. What a shock was propagated through the +island, when, the other day, a large proprietor, turning a +considerable cluster of his tenants out of the houses and lands +they occupied, because they refused to vote for a representative +in parliament implicitly as he bade them, urged in his own +justification, "Shall I not do what I will with my own?" This +was all sound morals and divinity perhaps at the period of his +birth. Nobody disputed it; or, if any one did, he was set down +by the oracles of the vicinage as a crackbrained visionary. This +man, so confident in his own prerogatives, had slept for the last +twenty years, and awoke totally unconscious of what had been +going on in almost every corner of Europe in the interval. A few +more such examples; and so broad and sweeping an assumption will +no more be heard of, and it will remain in the records of +history, as a thing for the reality of which we have sufficient +evidence, but which common sense repudiates, and which seems to +demand from us a certain degree of credulity to induce us to +admit that it had ever been. + +The manners of society are by no means so unchanged and +unalterable as many men suppose. It is here, as in the case of +excessive drinking, which I had lately occasion to mention[36]. +In rude and barbarous times men of the highest circles piqued +themselves upon their power of swallowing excessive potations, +and found pleasure in it. It is in this as in so many other +vices, we follow implicitly where our elders lead the way. But +the rage of drinking is now gone by; and you will with difficulty +find a company of persons of respectable appearance, who assemble +round a table for the purpose of making beasts of themselves. +Formerly it was their glory; now, if any man unhappily retains +the weakness, he hides it from his equals, as he would a +loathsome disease. The same thing will happen as to +parliamentary corruption, and the absolute authority that was +exercised by landlords over the consciences of their tenants. He +that shall attempt to put into act what is then universally +condemned, will be a marked man, and will be generally shunned by +his fellows. The eye of the world will be upon him, as the +murderer fancies himself followed by the eye of omnipotence; and +he will obey the general voice of the community, that he may be +at peace with himself. + +[36] See above, Essay 9. + + +Let us not then disgrace a period of memorable improvement, by +combining it with an institution that should mark that we, the +great body of the people, regard the more opulent members of the +community as our foes. Let us hold out to them the right hand of +fellowship; and they will meet us. They will be influenced, +partly by ingenuous shame for the unworthy conduct which they and +their fathers had so long pursued, and partly by sympathy for the +genuine joy and expansion of heart that is spreading itself +through the land. Scarcely any one can restrain himself from +participating in the happiness of the great body of his +countrymen; and, if they see that we treat them with generous +confidence, and are unwilling to recur to the memory of former +grievances, and that a spirit of philanthropy and unlimited +good-will is the sentiment of the day, it can scarcely happen but +that their conversion will be complete, and the harmony be made +entire[37]. + +[37] The subject of this Essay is resumed in the close of the +following. + + + +ESSAY XVIII. +OF DIFFIDENCE. + +The following Essay will be to a considerable degree in the +nature of confession, like the Confessions of St. Augustine or +of Jean Jacques Rousseau. It may therefore at first sight appear +of small intrinsic value, and scarcely worthy of a place in the +present series. But, as I have had occasion more than once to +remark, we are all of us framed in a great measure on the same +model, and the analysis of the individual may often stand for the +analysis of a species. While I describe myself therefore, I +shall probably at the same time be describing no inconsiderable +number of my fellow-beings. + +It is true, that the duty of man under the head of Frankness, is +of a very comprehensive nature. We ought all of us to tell to +our neighbour whatever it may be of advantage to him to know, we +ought to be the sincere and zealous advocates of absent merit and +worth, and we are bound by every means in our power to contribute +to the improvement of others, and to the diffusion of salutary +truths through the world. + +From the universality of these precepts many readers might be apt +to infer, that I am in my own person the bold and unsparing +preacher of truth, resolutely giving to every man his due, and, +agreeably to the apostle's direction, "instant in season, and out +of season." The individual who answers to this description will +often be deemed troublesome, often annoying; he will produce a +considerable sensation in the circle of those who know him; and +it will depend upon various collateral circumstances, whether he +shall ultimately be judged a rash and intemperate disturber of +the contemplations of his neighbours, or a disinterested and +heroic suggester of new veins of thinking, by which his +contemporaries and their posterity shall be essentially the +gainers. + +I have no desire to pass myself upon those who may have any +curiosity respecting me for better than I am; and I will +therefore here put down a few particulars, which may tend to +enable them to form an equitable judgment. + +One of the earliest passions of my mind was the love of truth and +sound opinion. "Why should I," such was the language of my +solitary meditations, "because I was born in a certain degree of +latitude, in a certain century, in a country where certain +institutions prevail, and of parents professing a certain faith, +take it for granted that all this is right?--This is matter of +accident. "Time and chance happeneth to all:" and I, the +thinking principle within me, might, if such had been the order +of events, have been born under circumstances the very reverse of +those under which I was born. I will not, if I can help it, be +the creature of accident; I will not, like a shuttle-cock, be at +the disposal of every impulse that is given me." I felt a +certain disdain for the being thus directed; I could not endure +the idea of being made a fool of, and of taking every ignis +fatuus for a guide, and every stray notion, the meteor of the +day, for everlasting truth. I am the person, spoken of in a +preceding Essay[38], who early said to Truth, "Go on: +whithersoever thou leadest, I am prepared to follow." + +[38] See above, Essay XIII. + + +During my college-life therefore, I read all sorts of books, on +every side of any important question, that were thrown in my way, +or that I could hear of. But the very passion that determined me +to this mode of proceeding, made me wary and circumspect in +coming to a conclusion. I knew that it would, if any thing, be a +more censurable and contemptible act, to yield to every seducing +novelty, than to adhere obstinately to a prejudice because it had +been instilled into me in youth. I was therefore slow of +conviction, and by no means "given to change." I never willingly +parted with a suggestion that was unexpectedly furnished to me; +but I examined it again and again, before I consented that it +should enter into the set of my principles. + +In proportion however as I became acquainted with truth, or what +appeared to me to be truth, I was like what I have read of +Melancthon, who, when he was first converted to the tenets of +Luther, became eager to go into all companies, that he might make +them partakers of the same inestimable treasures, and set before +them evidence that was to him irresistible. It is needless to +say, that he often encountered the most mortifying +disappointment. + +Young and eager as I was in my mission, I received in this way +many a bitter lesson. But the peculiarity of my temper rendered +this doubly impressive to me. I could not pass over a hint, let +it come from what quarter it would, without taking it into some +consideration, and endeavouring to ascertain the precise weight +that was to be attributed to it. It would however often happen, +particularly in the question of the claims of a given individual +to honour and respect, that I could see nothing but the most +glaring injustice in the opposition I experienced. In canvassing +the character of an individual, it is not for the most part +general, abstract or moral, principles that are called into +question: I am left in possession of the premises which taught +me to admire the man whose character is contested; and +conformably to those premises I see that his claim to the honour +I have paid him is fully made out. + +In my communications with others, in the endeavour to impart what +I deemed to be truth, I began with boldness: but I often found +that the evidence that was to me irresistible, was made small +account of by others; and it not seldom happened, as candour was +my principle, and a determination to receive what could be strewn +to be truth, let it come from what quarter it would, that +suggestions were presented to me, materially calculated to +stagger the confidence with which I had set out. If I had been +divinely inspired, if I had been secured by an omniscient spirit +against the danger of error, my case would have been different. +But I was not inspired. I often encountered an opposition I had +not anticipated, and was often presented with objections, or had +pointed out to me flaws and deficiencies in my reasonings, which, +till they were so pointed out, I had not apprehended. I had not +lungs enabling me to drown all contradiction; and, which was +still more material, I had not a frame of mind, which should +determine me to regard whatever could be urged against me as of +no value. I therefore became cautious. As a human creature, I +did not relish the being held up to others' or to myself, as +rash, inconsiderate and headlong, unaware of difficulties the +most obvious, embracing propositions the most untenable, and +"against hope believing in hope." And, as an apostle of truth, I +distinctly perceived that a reputation for perspicacity and sound +judgment was essential to my mission. I therefore often became +less a speaker, than a listener, and by no means made it a law +with myself to defend principles and characters I honoured, on +every occasion on which I might hear them attacked. + +A new epoch occurred in my character, when I published, and at +the time I was writing, my Enquiry concerning Political Justice. +My mind was wrought up to a certain elevation of tone; the +speculations in which I was engaged, tending to embrace all that +was most important to man in society, and the frame to which I +had assiduously bent myself, of giving quarter to nothing because +it was old, and shrinking from nothing because it was startling +and astounding, gave a new bias to my character. The habit which +I thus formed put me more on the alert even in the scenes of +ordinary life, and gave me a boldness and an eloquence more than +was natural to me. I then reverted to the principle which I +stated in the beginning, of being ready to tell my neighbour +whatever it might be of advantage to him to know, to shew myself +the sincere and zealous advocate of absent merit and worth, and +to contribute by every means in my power to the improvement of +others and to the diffusion of salutary truth through the world. +I desired that every hour that I lived should be turned to the +best account, and was bent each day to examine whether I had +conformed myself to this rule. I held on this course with +tolerable constancy for five or six years: and, even when that +constancy abated, it failed not to leave a beneficial effect on +my subsequent conduct. + +But, in pursuing this scheme of practice, I was acting a part +somewhat foreign to my constitution. I was by nature more of a +speculative than an active character, more inclined to reason +within myself upon what I heard and saw, than to declaim +concerning it. I loved to sit by unobserved, and to meditate +upon the panorama before me. At first I associated chiefly with +those who were more or less admirers of my work; and, as I had +risen (to speak in the slang phrase) like "a star" upon my +contemporaries without being expected, I was treated generally +with a certain degree of deference, or, where not with deference +and submission, yet as a person whose opinions and view of things +were to be taken into the account. The individuals who most +strenuously opposed me, acted with a consciousness that, if they +affected to despise me, they must not expect that all the +bystanders would participate in that feeling. + +But this was to a considerable degree the effect of novelty. My +lungs, as I have already said, were not of iron; my manner was +not overbearing and despotic; there was nothing in it to deter +him who differed from me from entering the field in turn, and +telling the tale of his views and judgments in contradiction to +mine. I descended into the arena, and stood on a level with the +rest. Beyond this, it occasionally happened that, if I had not +the stentorian lungs, and the petty artifices of rhetoric and +conciliation, that should carry a cause independently of its +merits, my antagonists were not deficient in these respects. I +had nothing in my favour to balance this, but a sort of +constitutional equanimity and imperturbableness of temper, which, +if I was at any time silenced, made me not look like a captive to +be dragged at the chariot-wheels of my adversary. + +All this however had a tendency to subtract from my vocation as a +missionary. I was no longer a knight-errant, prepared on all +occasions by dint of arms to vindicate the cause of every +principle that was unjustly handled, and every character that was +wrongfully assailed. Meanwhile I returned to the field, +occasionally and uncertainly. It required some provocation and +incitement to call me out: but there was the lion, or whatever +combative animal may more justly prefigure me, sleeping, and that +might be awakened. + +There is another feature necessary to be mentioned, in order to +make this a faithful representation. There are persons, it +should seem, of whom it may be predicated, that they are semper +parati. This has by no means been my case. My genius often +deserted me. I was far from having the thought, the argument, or +the illustration at all times ready, when it was required. I +resembled to a certain degree the persons we read of, who are +said to be struck as if with a divine judgment. I was for a +moment changed into one of the mere herd, de grege porcus. My +powers therefore were precarious, and I could not always be the +intrepid and qualified advocate of truth, if I vehemently desired +it. I have often, a few minutes afterwards, or on my return to +my chambers, recollected the train of thinking, which world have +strewn me off to advantage, and memorably done me honour, if I +could have had it at my command the moment it was wanted. + +And so much for confession. I am by no means vindicating myself. + +I honour much more the man who is at all times ready to tell his +neighbour whatever it may be of advantage to him to know, to shew +himself the sincere and untemporising advocate of absent merit +and worth, and to contribute by every means in his power to the +improvement of others, and to the diffusion of salutary truths +through the world. + +This is what every man ought to be, and what the best devised +scheme of republican institutions would have a tendency to make +us all. + +But, though the man here described is to a certain degree a +deserter of his true place in society, and cannot be admitted to +have played his part in all things well, we are by no means to +pronounce upon him a more unfavourable judgment than he merits. +Diffidence, though, where it disqualifies us in any way from +doing justice to truth, either as it respects general principle +or individual character, a defect, yet is on no account to be +confounded in demerit with that suppression of truth, or +misrepresentation, which grows out of actual craft and design. + +The diffident man, in some cases seldomer, and in some oftener +and in a more glaring manner, deserts the cause of truth, and by +that means is the cause of misrepresentation, and indirectly the +propagator of falshood. But he is constant and sincere as far as +he goes; he never lends his voice to falshood, or intentionally +to sophistry; he never for an instant goes over to the enemy's +standard, or disgraces his honest front by strewing it in the +ranks of tyranny or imposture. He may undoubtedly be accused, to +a certain degree, of dissimulation, or throwing into shade the +thing that is, but never of simulation, or the pretending the +thing to be that is not. He is plain and uniform in every thing +that he professes, or to which he gives utterance; but, from +timidity or irresolution, he keeps back in part the offering +which he owes at the shrine where it is most honourable and +glorious for man to worship. + +And this brings me back again to the subject of the immediately +preceding Essay, the propriety of voting by ballot. + +The very essence of this scheme is silence. And this silence is +not merely like that which is prompted by a diffident temper, +which by fits is practiced by the modest and irresolute man, and +by fits disappears before the sun of truth and through the +energies of a temporary fortitude. It is uniform. It is not +brought into act only, when the individual unhappily does not +find in himself the firmness to play the adventurer. It becomes +matter of system, and is felt as being recommended to us for a +duty + +Nor does the evil stop there. In the course of my ordinary +communications with my fellow-men, I speak when I please, and I +am silent when I please, and there is nothing specially to be +remarked either way. If I speak, I am perhaps listened to; and, +if I am silent, it is likely enough concluded that it is because +I have nothing of importance to say. But in the question of +ballot the case is far otherwise. There it is known that the +voter has his secret. When I am silent upon a matter occurring +in the usual intercourses of life where I might speak, nay, where +we will suppose I ought to speak, I am at least guilty of +dissimulation only. But the voter by ballot is strongly impelled +to the practice of the more enormous sin of simulation. It is +known, as I have said, that he has his secret. And he will often +be driven to have recourse to various stratagems, that he may +elude the enquirer, or that he may set at fault the sagacity of +the silent observer. He has something that he might tell if he +would, and he distorts himself in a thousand ways, that he may +not betray the hoard which he is known to have in his custody. +The institution of ballot is the fruitful parent of ambiguities, +equivocations and lies without number. + + + +ESSAY XIX. +OF SELF-COMPLACENCY. + +The subject of this Essay is intimately connected with those of +Essays XI and XII, perhaps the most important of the series. + +It has been established in the latter, that human creatures are +constantly accompanied in their voluntary actions with the +delusive sense of liberty, and that our character, our energies, +and our conscience of moral right and wrong, are mainly dependent +upon this feature in our constitution. + +The subject of my present disquisition relates to the feeling of +self-approbation or self-complacency, which will be found +inseparable from the most honourable efforts and exertions in +which mortal men can be engaged. + +One of the most striking of the precepts contained in what are +called the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, is couched in the words, +"Reverence thyself." + +The duties which are incumbent on man are of two sorts, negative +and positive. We are bound to set right our mistakes, and to +correct the evil habits to which we are prone; and we are bound +also to be generously ambitious, to aspire after excellence, and +to undertake such things as may reflect honour on ourselves, and +be useful to others. + +To the practice of the former of these classes of duties we may +be instigated by prohibitions, menaces and fear, the fear of +mischiefs that may fall upon us conformably to the known series +of antecedents and consequents in the course of nature, or of +mischiefs that may be inflicted on us by the laws of the country +in which we live, or as results of the ill will and +disapprobation felt towards us by individuals. There is nothing +that is necessarily generous or invigorating in the practice of +our negative duties. They amount merely to a scheme for keeping +us within bounds, and restraining us from those sallies and +escapes, which human nature, undisciplined and left to itself, +might betray us into. But positive enterprise, and great actual +improvement cannot be expected by us in this way. All this is +what the apostle refers to, when he speaks of "the law as a +schoolmaster to bring us to liberty," after which he advises us +"not to be again entangled with the yoke of bondage." + +On the other hand, if we would enter ourselves in the race of +positive improvement, if we would become familiar with generous +sentiments, and the train of conduct which such sentiments +inspire, we must provide ourselves with the soil in which such +things grow, and engage in the species of husbandry by which they +are matured; in other words, we must be no strangers to +self-esteem and self-complacency. + +The truth of this statement may perhaps be most strikingly +illustrated, if we take for our example the progress of +schoolboys under a preceptor. A considerable proportion of these +are apt, diligent, and desirous to perform the tasks in which +they are engaged, so as to satisfy the demands of their masters +and parents, and to advance honourably in the path that is +recommended to them. And a considerable proportion put +themselves on the defensive, and propose to their own minds to +perform exactly as much as shall exempt them from censure and +punishment, and no more. + +Now I say of the former, that they cannot accomplish the purpose +they have conceived, unless so far as they are aided by a +sentiment of self-reverence. + +The difference of the two parties is, that the latter proceed, so +far as their studies are concerned, as feeling themselves under +the law of necessity, and as if they were machines merely, and +the former as if they were under what the apostle calls "the law +of liberty." + +We cannot perform our tasks to the best of our power, unless we +think well of our own capacity. + +But this is the smallest part of what is necessary. We must also +be in good humour with ourselves. We must say, I can do that +which I shall have just occasion to look back upon with +satisfaction. It is the anticipation of this result, that +stimulates our efforts, and carries us forward. Perseverance is +an active principle, and cannot continue to operate but under the +influence of desire. It is incompatible with languor and +neutrality. It implies the love of glory, perhaps of that glory +which shall be attributed to us by others, or perhaps only of +that glory which shall be reaped by us in the silent chambers of +the mind. The diligent scholar is he that loves himself, and +desires to have reason to applaud and love himself. He sits down +to his task with resolution, he approves of what he does in each +step of the process, and in each enquires, Is this the thing I +purposed to effect? + +And, as it is with the unfledged schoolboy, after the same manner +it is with the man mature. He must have to a certain extent a +good opinion of himself, he must feel a kind of internal harmony, +giving to the circulations of his frame animation and +cheerfulness, or he can never undertake and execute considerable +things. + +The execution of any thing considerable implies in the first +place previous persevering meditation. He that undertakes any +great achievement will, according to the vulgar phrase, "think +twice," before he buckles up his resolution, and plunges into the +ocean, which he has already surveyed with anxious glance while he +remained on shore. Let our illustration be the case of Columbus, +who, from the figure of the earth, inferred that there must be a +way of arriving at the Indies by a voyage directly west, in +distinction from the very complicated way hitherto practiced, by +sailing up the Mediterranean, crossing the isthmus of Suez, and +so falling down the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean. He weighed +all the circumstances attendant on such an undertaking in his +mind. He enquired into his own powers and resources, imaged to +himself the various obstacles that might thwart his undertaking, +and finally resolved to engage in it. If Columbus had not +entertained a very good opinion of himself, it is impossible that +he should have announced such a project, or should have achieved +it. + +Again. Let our illustration be, of Homer undertaking to compose +the Iliad. If he had not believed himself to be a man of very +superior powers to the majority of the persons around him, he +would most assuredly never have attempted it. What an +enterprise! To describe in twenty-four books, and sixteen +thousand verses, the perpetual warfare and contention of two +great nations, all Greece being armed for the attack, and all the +western division of Asia Minor for the defence: the war carried +on by two vast confederacies, under numerous chiefs, all +sovereign and essentially independent of each other. To conceive +the various characters of the different leaders, and their mutual +rivalship. To engage all heaven, such as it was then understood, +as well as what was most respectable on earth, in the struggle. +To form the idea, through twenty-four books, of varying the +incidents perpetually, and keeping alive the attention of the +reader or hearer without satiety or weariness. For this purpose, +and to answer to his conception of a great poem, Homer appears to +have thought it necessary that the action should be one; and he +therefore took the incidental quarrel of Achilles and the +commander in chief, the resentment of Achilles, and his +consequent defection from the cause, till, by the death of +Patroclus, and then of Hector, all traces of the misunderstanding +first, and then of its consequences, should be fully obliterated. + +There is further an essential difference between the undertaking +of Columbus and that of Homer. Once fairly engaged, there was +for Columbus no drawing back. Being already at sea on the great +Atlantic Ocean, he could not retrace his steps. Even when he had +presented his project to the sovereigns of Spain, and they had +accepted it, and still more when the ships were engaged, and the +crews mustered, he must go forward, or submit to indelible +disgrace. + +It is not so in writing a poem. The author of the latter may +stop whenever he pleases. Of consequence, during every day of +its execution, he requires a fresh stimulus. He must look back +on the past, and forward on what is to come, and feel that he has +considerable reason to be satisfied. The great naval discoverer +may have his intervals of misgiving and discouragement, and may, +as Pope expresses it, "wish that any one would hang him." He goes +forward; for he has no longer the liberty to choose. But the +author of a mighty poem is not in the same manner entangled, and +therefore to a great degree returns to his work each day, +"screwing his courage to the sticking-place." He must feel the +same fortitude and elasticity, and be as entirely the same man of +heroic energy, as when he first arrived at the resolution to +engage. How much then of self-complacency and self-confidence do +his undertaking and performance imply! + +I have taken two of the most memorable examples in the catalogue +of human achievements: the discovery of a New World, and the +production of the Iliad. But all those voluntary actions, or +rather series and chains of actions, which comprise energy in the +first determination, and honour in the execution, each in its +degree rests upon self-complacency as the pillar upon which its +weight is sustained, and without which it must sink into nothing. + +Self-complacency then being the indispensible condition of all +that is honourable in human achievements, hence we may derive a +multitude of duties, and those of the most delicate nature, +incumbent on the preceptor, as well as a peculiar discipline to +be observed by the candidate, both while he is "under a +schoolmaster," and afterwards when he is emancipated, and his +plan of conduct is to he regulated by his own discretion. + +The first duty of the preceptor is encouragement. + +Not that his face is to be for ever dressed in smiles, and that +his tone is to be at all times that of invitation and courtship. +The great theatre of the world is of a mingled constitution, made +up of advantages and sufferings; and it is perhaps best that so +should be the different scenes of the drama as they pass. The +young adventurer is not to expect to have every difficulty +smoothed for him by the hand of another. This were to teach him +a lesson of effeminacy and cowardice. On the contrary it is +necessary that he should learn that human life is a state of +hardship, that the adversary we have to encounter does not always +present himself with his fangs sheathed in the woolly softness +which occasionally renders them harmless, and that nothing great +or eminently honourable was ever achieved but through the dint of +resolution, energy and struggle. It is good that the winds of +heaven should blow upon him, that he should encounter the tempest +of the elements, and occasionally sustain the inclemency of the +summer's heat and winter's cold, both literally and +metaphorically. + +But the preceptor, however he conducts himself in other respects, +ought never to allow his pupil to despise himself, or to hold +himself as of no account. Self-contempt can never be a +discipline favourable to energy or to virtue. The pupil ought at +all times to judge himself in some degree worthy, worthy and +competent now to attempt, and hereafter to accomplish, things +deserving of commendation. The preceptor must never degrade his +pupil in his own eyes, but on the contrary must teach him that +nothing but resolution and perseverance are necessary, to enable +him to effect all that the judicious director can expect from +him. He should be encouraged through every step of his progress, +and specially encouraged when he has gained a certain point, and +arrived at an important resting-place. It is thus we are taught +the whole circle of what are called accomplishments, dancing, +music, fencing, and the rest; and it is surely a strange anomaly, +if those things which are most essential in raising the mind to +its true standard, cannot be communicated with equal suavity and +kindness, be surrounded with allurements, and regarded as sources +of pleasure and genuine hilarity. + +In the mean time it is to be admitted that every human creature, +especially in the season of youth, and not being the victim of +some depressing disease either of body or mind, has in him a good +obstinate sort of self-complacency, which cannot without much +difficulty be eradicated. "Though he falleth seven times, yet +will he rise again." And, when we have encountered various +mortifications, and have been many times rebuked and inveighed +against, we nevertheless recover our own good opinion, and are +ready to enter into a fresh contention for the prize, if not in +one kind, then in another. + +It is in allusion to this feature in the human character, that we +have an expressive phrase in the English language,--"to break the +spirit." The preceptor may occasionally perhaps prescribe to the +pupil a severe task; and the young adventurer may say, Can I be +expected to accomplish this? But all must be done in kindness. +The generous attempter must be reminded of the powers he has +within him, perhaps yet unexercised; with cheering sounds his +progress must be encouraged; and, above all, the director of the +course must take care not to tax him beyond his strength. And, +be it observed, that the strength of a human creature is to be +ascertained by two things; first, the abstract capacity, that the +thing required is not beyond the power of a being so constituted +to perform; and, secondly, we must take into the account his past +achievements, the things he has already accomplished, and not +expect that he is at once to overleap a thousand obstacles. + +For there is such a thing as a broken spirit. I remember a boy +who was my schoolfellow, that, having been treated with uncalled +for severity, never appeared afterwards in the scene of +instruction, but with a neglected appearance, and the articles of +his dress scarcely half put on. I was very young at the time, +and viewed only the outside of things. I cannot tell whether he +had any true ambition previously to his disgrace, but I am sure +he never had afterwards. + +How melancholy an object is the man, who, "for the privilege to +breathe, bears up and down the city + + A discontented and repining spirit + Burthensome to itself," + +incapable of enterprise, listless, with no courage to undertake, +and no anticipation of the practicability of success and honour! +And this spectacle is still more affecting, when the subject +shall be a human creature in the dawn of youth, when nature opens +to him a vista of beauty and fruition on every side, and all is +encouraging, redolent of energy and enterprise! + +To break the spirit of a man, bears a considerable resemblance to +the breaking the main spring, or principal movement, of a +complicated and ingeniously constructed machine. We cannot tell +when it is to happen; and it comes at last perhaps at the time +that it is least expected. A judicious superintendent therefore +will be far from trying consequences in his office, and will, +like a man walking on a cliff whose extremes are ever and anon +crumbling away and falling into the ocean, keep much within the +edge, and at a safe distance from the line of danger. + +But this consideration has led me much beyond the true subject of +this Essay. The instructor of youth, as I have already said, is +called upon to use all his skill, to animate the courage, and +maintain the cheerfulness and self-complacency of his pupil. +And, as such is the discipline to be observed to the candidate, +while he is "under a schoolmaster," so, when he is emancipated, +and his plan of conduct is to be regulated by his own discretion, +it is necessary that he should carry forward the same scheme, and +cultivate that tone of feeling, which should best reconcile him +to himself, and, by teaching him to esteem himself and bear in +mind his own value, enable him to achieve things honourable to +his character, and memorably useful to others. Melancholy, and a +disposition anticipating evil are carefully to be guarded +against, by him who is desirous to perform his part well on the +theatre of society. He should habitually meditate all cheerful +things, and sing the song of battle which has a thousand times +spurred on his predecessors to victory. He should contemplate +the crown that awaits him, and say to himself, I also will do my +part, and endeavour to enrol myself in the select number of those +champions, of whom it has been predicated that they were men, of +whom, compared with the herd of ordinary mortals, "the world," +the species among whom they were rated, "was not worthy." + +Another consideration is to be recollected here. Without +self-complacency in the agent no generous enterprise is to be +expected, and no train of voluntary actions, such as may purchase +honour to the person engaged in them. + +But, beside this, there is no true and substantial happiness but +for the self-complacent. "The good man," as Solomon says, "is +satisfied from himself." The reflex act is inseparable from the +constitution of the human mind. How can any one have genuine +happiness, unless in proportion as he looks round, and, "behold! +every thing is very good?" This is the sunshine of the soul, the +true joy, that gives cheerfulness to all our circulations, and +makes us feel ourselves entire and complete. What indeed is +life, unless so far as it is enjoyed? It does not merit the +name. If I go into a school, and look round on a number of young +faces, the scene is destitute of its true charm, unless so far as +I see inward peace and contentment on all sides. And, if we +require this eminently in the young, neither can it be less +essential, when in growing manhood we have the real cares of the +world to contend with, or when in declining age we need every +auxiliary to enable us to sustain our infirmities. + +But, before I conclude my remarks on this subject, it is +necessary that I should carefully distinguish between the thesis, +that self-complacency is the indispensible condition of all that +is honourable in human achievements, and the proposition +contended against in Essay XI, that "self-love is the source of +all our actions." Self-complacency is indeed the feeling without +which we cannot proceed in an honourable course; but is far from +being the motive that impels us to act. The motive is in the +real nature and absolute properties of the good thing that is +proposed to our choice: we seek the happiness of another, +because his happiness is the object of our desire. +Self-complacency may be likened to the bottle-holder in one of +those contentions for bodily prowess, so characteristic of our +old English manners. The bottle-holder is necessary to supply +the combatant with refreshment, and to encourage him to persist; +but it would be most unnatural to regard him as the cause of the +contest. No: the parties have found reason for competition, +they apprehend a misunderstanding or a rivalry impossible to be +settled but by open contention, and the putting forth of mental +and corporeal energy; and the bottle-holder is an auxiliary +called in afterwards, his interference implying that the parties +have already a motive to act, and have thrown down the gauntlet +in token of the earnest good-will which animates them to engage. + + + +ESSAY XX. +OF PHRENOLOGY. + +The following remarks can pretend to he nothing more than a few +loose and undigested thoughts upon a subject, which has recently +occupied the attention of many men, and obtained an extraordinary +vogue in the world. It were to be wished, that the task had +fallen into the hands of a writer whose studies were more +familiar with all the sciences which bear more or less on the +topic I propose to consider: but, if abler and more competent +men pass it by, I feel disposed to plant myself in the breach, +and to offer suggestions which may have the fortune to lead +others, better fitted for the office than myself, to engage in +the investigation. One advantage I may claim, growing out of my +partial deficiency. It is known not to be uncommon for a man to +stand too near to the subject of his survey, to allow him to +obtain a large view of it in all its bearings. I am no +anatomist: I simply take my stand upon the broad ground of the +general philosophy of man. + +It is a very usual thing for fanciful theories to have their turn +amidst the eccentricities of the human mind, and then to be heard +of no more. But it is perhaps no ill occupation, now and then, +for an impartial observer, to analyse these theories, and attempt +to blow away the dust which will occasionally settle on the +surface of science. If phrenology, as taught by Gall and +Spurzheim, be a truth, I shall probably render a service to that +truth, by endeavouring to shew where the edifice stands in need +of more solid supports than have yet been assigned to it. If it +be a falshood, the sooner it is swept away to the gulph of +oblivion the better. Let the inquisitive and the studious fix +their minds on more substantial topics, instead of being led away +by gaudy and deceitful appearances. The human head, that +crowning capital of the column of man, is too interesting a +subject, to be the proper theme of every dabbler. And it is +obvious, that the professors of this so called discovery, if they +be rash and groundless in their assertions, will be in danger of +producing momentous errors, of exciting false hopes never +destined to be realised, and of visiting with pernicious blasts +the opening buds of excellence, at the time when they are most +exposed to the chance of destruction. + +I shall set out with acknowledging, that there is, as I +apprehend, a science in relation to the human head, something +like what Plato predicates of the statue hid in a block of +marble. It is really contained in the block; but it is only the +most consummate sculptor, that can bring it to the eyes of men, +and free it from all the incumbrances, which, till he makes +application of his art to it, surround the statue, and load it +with obscurities and disfigurement. The man, who, without long +study and premeditation, rushes in at once, and expects to +withdraw the curtain, will only find himself disgraced by the +attempt. + +There is a passage in an acute writer[39], whose talents +singularly fitted him, even when he appeared totally immerged in +mummery and trifles, to illustrate the most important truths, +that is applicable to the point I am considering. + +[39] Sterne, Tristram Shandy, Vol. 1. + + +"Pray, what was that man's name,--for I write in such a hurry, I +have no time to recollect or look for it,--who first made the +observation, 'That there was great inconstancy in our air and +climate?' Whoever he was, it was a just and good observation in +him. But the corollary drawn from it, namely, 'That it is this +which has furnished us with such a variety of odd and whimsical +characters;'--that was not his;--it was found out by another man, +at least a century and a half after him. Then again, that this +copious storehouse of original materials is the true and natural +cause that our comedies are so much better than those of France, +or any others that have or can be wrote upon the continent;-- +that discovery was not fully made till about the middle of king +William's reign, when the great Dryden, in writing one of his +long prefaces (if I mistake not), most fortunately hit upon it. +Then, fourthly and lastly, that this strange irregularity in our +climate, producing so strange an irregularity in our characters, +cloth thereby in some sort make us amends, by giving us somewhat +to make us merry with, when the weather will not suffer us to go +out of doors,--that observation is my own; and was struck out by +me this very rainy day, March 26, 1759, and betwixt the hour of +nine and ten in the morning. + +"Thus--thus, my fellow-labourers and associates in this great +harvest of our learning, now ripening before our eyes; thus it +is, by slow steps of casual increase, that our knowledge +physical, metaphysical, physiological, polemical, nautical, +mathematical, aenigmatical, technical, biographical, romantical, +chemical, and obstetrical, with fifty other branches of it, (most +of them ending, as these do, in ical,) has, for these two last +centuries and more, gradually been creeping upwards towards that +acme of their perfections, from which, if we may form a +conjecture from the advantages of these last seven years, we +cannot possibly be far off." + +Nothing can be more true, than the proposition ludicrously +illustrated in this passage, that real science is in most +instances of slow growth, and that the discoveries which are +brought to perfection at once, are greatly exposed to the +suspicion of quackery. Like the ephemeron fly, they are born +suddenly, and may be expected to die as soon. + +Lavater, the well known author of Essays on Physiognomy, appears +to have been born seventeen years before the birth of Gall. He +attempted to reduce into a system the indications of human +character that are to be found in the countenance. Physiognomy, +as a subject of ingenious and probable conjecture, was well known +to the ancients. But the test, how far any observations that +have been made on the subject are worthy the name of a science, +will lie in its application by the professor to a person +respecting whom he has had no opportunity of previous +information. Nothing is more easy, when a great warrior, +statesman, poet, philosopher or philanthropist is explicitly +placed before us, than for the credulous inspector or fond +visionary to examine the lines of his countenance, and to point +at the marks which should plainly shew us that he ought to have +been the very thing that he is. This is the very trick of +gipsies and fortune-tellers. But who ever pointed to an utter +stranger in the street, and said, I perceive by that man's +countenance that he is one of the great luminaries of the world? +Newton, or Bacon, or Shakespear would probably have passed along +unheeded. Instances of a similar nature occur every day. Hence +it plainly appears that, whatever may hereafter be known on the +subject, we can scarcely to the present time be said to have +overstepped the threshold. And yet nothing can be more certain +than that there is a science of physiognomy, though to make use +of an illustration already cited, it has not to this day been +extricated out of the block of marble in which it is hid. Human +passions, feelings and modes of thinking leave their traces on +the countenance: but we have not, thus far, left the dame's +school in this affair, and are not qualified to enter ourselves +in the free-school for more liberal enquiries. + +The writings of Lavater on the subject of physiognomy are couched +in a sort of poetic prose, overflowing with incoherent and vague +exclamations, and bearing small resemblance to a treatise in +which the elements of science are to be developed. Their success +however was extraordinary; and it was probably that success, +which prompted Gall first to turn his attention from the +indications of character that are to be found in the face of man, +to the study of the head generally, as connected with the +intellectual and moral qualities of the individual. + +It was about four years before the commencement of the present +century, that Gall appears to have begun to deliver lectures on +the structure and external appearances of the human head. He +tells us, that his attention was first called to the subject in +the ninth year of his age (that is, in the year 1767), and that +he spent thirty years in the private meditation of his system, +before he began to promulgate it. Be that as it will, its most +striking characteristic is that of marking out the scull into +compartments, in the same manner as a country delineated on a map +is divided into districts, and assigning a different faculty or +organ to each. In the earliest of these diagrams that has fallen +under my observation, the human scull is divided into +twenty-seven compartments. + +I would say of craniology, as I have already said of physiognomy, +that there is such a science attainable probably by man, but that +we have yet made scarcely any progress in the acquiring it. As +certain lines in the countenance are indicative of the +dispositions of the man, so it is reasonable to believe that a +certain structure of the head is in correspondence with the +faculties and propensities of the individual. + +Thus far we may probably advance without violating a due degree +of caution. But there is a wide distance between this general +statement, and the conduct of the man who at once splits the +human head into twenty-seven compartments. + +The exterior appearance of the scull is affirmed to correspond +with the structure of the brain beneath. And nothing can be more +analogous to what the deepest thinkers have already confessed of +man, than to suppose that there is one structure of the brain +better adapted for intellectual purposes than another. There is +probably one structure better adapted than another, for +calculation, for poetry, for courage, for cowardice, for +presumption, for diffidence, for roughness, for tenderness, for +self-control and the want of it. Even as some have inherently a +faculty adapted for music or the contrary[40]. + +[40] See above, Essay II. + + +But it is not reasonable to believe that we think of calculation +with one portion of the brain, and of poetry with another. + +It is very little that we know of the nature of matter; and we +are equally ignorant as to the substance, whatever it is, in +which the thinking principle in man resides. But, without +adventuring in any way to dogmatise on the subject, we find so +many analogies between the thinking principle, and the structure +of what we call the brain, that we cannot but regard the latter +as in some way the instrument of the former. + +Now nothing can be more certain respecting the thinking +principle, than its individuality. It has been said, that the +mind can entertain but one thought at one time; and certain it +is, from the nature of attention, and from the association of +ideas, that unity is one of the principal characteristics of +mind. It is this which constitutes personal identity; an +attribute that, however unsatisfactory may be the explanations +which have been given respecting it, we all of us feel, and that +lies at the foundation of all our voluntary actions, and all our +morality. + +Analogous to this unity of thought and mind, is the arrangement +of the nerves and the brain in the human body. The nerves all +lead up to the brain; and there is a centrical point in the brain +itself, in which the reports of the senses terminate, and at +which the action of the will may be conceived to begin. This, in +the language of our fathers, was called the "seat of the soul." + +We may therefore, without departing from the limits of a due +caution and modesty, consider this as the throne before which the +mind holds its court. Hither the senses bring in their reports, +and hence the sovereign will issues his commands. The whole +system appears to be conducted through the instrumentality of the +nerves, along whose subtle texture the feelings and impressions +are propagated. Between the reports of the senses and the +commands of the will, intervenes that which is emphatically the +office of the mind, comprising meditation, reflection, inference +and judgment. How these functions are performed we know not; but +it is reasonable to believe that the substance of the brain or of +some part of the brain is implicated in them. + +Still however we must not lose sight of what has been already +said, that in the action of the mind unity is an indispensible +condition. Our thoughts can only hold their council and form +their decrees in a very limited region. This is their retreat +and strong hold; and the special use and functions of the remoter +parts of the brain we are unable to determine; so utterly obscure +and undefined is our present knowledge of the great ligament +which binds together the body and the thinking principle. + +Enough however results from this imperfect view of the ligament, +to demonstrate the incongruity and untenableness of a doctrine +which should assign the indications of different functions, +exercises and propensities of the mind to the exterior surface of +the scull or the brain. This is quackery, and is to be classed +with chiromancy, augury, astrology, and the rest of those schemes +for discovering the future and unknown, which the restlessness +and anxiety of the human mind have invented, built upon arbitrary +principles, blundered upon in the dark, and having no resemblance +to the march of genuine science. I find in sir Thomas Browne the +following axioms of chiromancy: "that spots in the tops of the +nails do signifie things past; in the middle, things present; and +at the bottom, events to come: that white specks presage our +felicity; blue ones our misfortunes: that those in the nails of +the thumb have significations of honour, in the forefinger, of +riches, and so respectively in the rest." + +Science, to be of a high and satisfactory character, ought to +consist of a deduction of causes and effects, shewing us not +merely that a thing is so, but why it is as it is, and cannot be +otherwise. The rest is merely empirical; and, though the +narrowness of human wit may often drive us to this; yet it is +essentially of a lower order and description. As it depends for +its authority upon an example, or a number of examples, so +examples of a contrary nature may continually come in, to weaken +its force, or utterly to subvert it. And the affair is made +still worse, when we see, as in the case of craniology, that all +the reasons that can be deduced (as here from the nature of mind) +would persuade us to believe, that there can be no connection +between the supposed indications, and the things pretended to be +indicated. + +Craniology, or phrenology, proceeds exactly in the same train, as +chiromancy, or any of those pretended sciences which are built +merely on assumption or conjecture. The first delineations +presented to the public, marked out, as I have said, the scull +into compartments, in the same manner as a country delineated on +a map is divided into districts. Geography is a real science, +and accordingly, like other sciences, has been slow and gradual +in its progress. At an early stage travellers knew little more +than the shores and islands of the Mediterranean. Afterwards, +they passed the straits of Hercules, and entered into the +Atlantic. At length the habitable world was distributed into +three parts, Europe, Asia, and Africa. More recently, by many +centuries, came the discovery of America. It is but the other +day comparatively, that we found the extensive island of New +Holland in the Southern Ocean. The ancient geographers placed an +elephant or some marine monster in the vacant parts of their +maps, to signify that of these parts they knew nothing. Not so +Dr. Gall. Every part of his globe of the human Scull, at least +with small exceptions, is fully tenanted; and he, with his single +arm, has conquered a world. + +The majority of the judgments that have been divulged by the +professors of this science, have had for their subjects the +sculls of men, whose habits and history have been already known. +And yet with this advantage the errors and contradictions into +which their authors have fallen are considerably numerous. Thus +I find, in the account of the doctor's visit to the House of +Correction and the Hospital of Torgau in July 1805, the following +examples. + +"Every person was desirous to know what Dr. Gall would say about +T--, who was known in the house as a thief full of cunning, and +who, having several times made his escape, wore an additional +iron. It was surprising, that he saw in him far less of the +organ of cunning, than in many of the other prisoners. However +it was proved, that examples, and conversation with other thieves +in the house, had suggested to him the plan for his escape, and +that the stupidity which he possesses was the cause of his being +retaken." + +"We were much surprised to be told, that M., in whom Dr. Gall had +not discovered the organ of representation, possessed +extraordinary abilities in imitating the voice of animals; but we +were convinced after enquiries, that his talent was not a natural +one, but acquired by study. He related to us that, when he was a +Prussian soldier garrisoned at Berlin, he used to deceive the +waiting women in the Foundling Hospital by imitating the voice of +exposed infants, and sometimes counterfeited the cry of a wild +drake, when the officers were shooting ducks." + +"Of another Dr. Gall said, His head is a pattern of inconstancy +and confinement, and there appears not the least mark of the +organ of courage. This rogue had been able to gain a great +authority among his fellow-convicts. How is this to be +reconciled with the want of constancy which his organisation +plainly indicates? Dr. Gall answered, He gained his ascendancy +not by courage, but by cunning." + +It is well known, that in Thurtel, who was executed for one of +the most cold-blooded and remorseless murders ever heard of, the +phrenologists found the organ of benevolence uncommonly large. + +In Spurzheim's delineation of the human head I find six divisions +of organs marked out in the little hemisphere over the eye, +indicating six different dispositions. Must there not be in this +subtle distribution much of what is arbitrary and sciolistic? + +It is to be regretted, that no person skilful in metaphysics, or +the history of the human mind, has taken a share in this +investigation. Many errors and much absurdity would have been +removed from the statements of these theorists, if a proper +division had been made between those attributes and propensities, +which by possibility a human creature may bring into the world +with him, and those which, being the pure growth of the arbitrary +institutions of society, must be indebted to those institutions +for their origin. I have endeavoured in a former Essay[41] to +explain this distinction, and to shew how, though a human being +cannot be born with an express propensity towards any one of the +infinite pursuits and occupations which may be found in civilised +society, yet that he may be fitted by his external or internal +structure to excel in some one of those pursuits rather than +another. But all this is overlooked by the phrenologists. They +remark the various habits and dispositions, the virtues and the +vices, that display themselves in society as now constituted, and +at once and without consideration trace them to the structure +that we bring into the world with us. + +[41] See above, Essay II. + + +Certainly many of Gall's organs are a libel upon our common +nature. And, though a scrupulous and exact philosopher will +perhaps confess that he has little distinct knowledge as to the +design with which "the earth and all that is therein" were made, +yet he finds in it so much of beauty and beneficent tendency, as +will make him extremely reluctant to believe that some men are +born with a decided propensity to rob, and others to murder. Nor +can any thing be more ludicrous than this author's distinction of +the different organs of memory--of things, of places, of names, +of language, and of numbers: organs, which must be conceived to +be given in the first instance long before names or language or +numbers had an existence. The followers of Gall have in a few +instances corrected this: but what their denominations have +gained in avoiding the grossest absurdities of their master, they +have certainly lost in explicitness and perspicuity. + +There is a distinction, not unworthy to be attended to, that is +here to be made between Lavater's system of physiognomy, and +Gall's of craniology, which is much in favour of the former. The +lines and characteristic expressions of the face which may so +frequently be observed, are for the most part the creatures of +the mind. This is in the first place a mode of observation more +agreeable to the pride and conscious elevation of man, and is in +the next place more suitable to morality, and the vindication of +all that is most admirable in the system of the universe. It is +just, that what is most frequently passing in the mind, and is +entertained there with the greatest favour, should leave its +traces upon the countenance. It is thus that the high and +exalted philosopher, the poet, and the man of benevolence and +humanity are sometimes seen to be such by the bystander and the +stranger. While the malevolent, the trickish, and the grossly +sensual, give notice of what they are by the cast of their +features, and put their fellow-creatures upon their guard, that +they may not be made the prey of these vices. + +But the march of craniology or phrenology, by whatever name it is +called, is directly the reverse of this. It assigns to us +organs, as far as the thing is explained by the professors either +to the public or to their own minds, which are entailed upon us +from our birth, and which are altogether independent, or nearly +so, of any discipline or volition that can be exercised by or +upon the individual who drags their intolerable chain. Thus I am +told of one individual that he wants the organ of colour; and all +the culture in the world can never supply that defect, and enable +him to see colour at all, or to see it as it is seen by the rest +of mankind. Another wants the organ of benevolence; and his case +is equally hopeless. I shrink from considering the condition of +the wretch, to whom nature has supplied the organs of theft and +murder in full and ample proportions. The case is like that of +astrology + + (Their stars are more in fault than they), + +with this aggravation, that our stars, so far as the faculty of +prediction had been supposed to be attained, swayed in few +things; but craniology climbs at once to universal empire; and in +her map, as I have said, there are no vacant places, no +unexplored regions and happy wide-extended deserts. + +It is all a system of fatalism. Independently of ourselves, and +far beyond our control, we are reserved for good or for evil by +the predestinating spirit that reigns over all things. Unhappy +is the individual who enters himself in this school. He has no +consolation, except the gratified wish to know distressing +truths, unless we add to this the pride of science, that he has +by his own skill and application purchased for himself the +discernment which places him in so painful a preeminence. The +great triumph of man is in the power of education, to improve his +intellect, to sharpen his perceptions, and to regulate and modify +his moral qualities. But craniology reduces this to almost +nothing, and exhibits us for the most part as the helpless +victims of a blind and remorseless destiny. + +In the mean time it is happy for us, that, as this system is +perhaps the most rigorous and degrading that was ever devised, so +it is in almost all instances founded upon arbitrary assumptions +and confident assertion, totally in opposition to the true spirit +of patient and laborious investigation and sound philosophy. + +It is in reality very little that we know of the genuine +characters of men. Every human creature is a mystery to his +fellow. Every human character is made up of incongruities. Of +nearly all the great personages in history it is difficult to say +what was decidedly the motive in which their actions and system +of conduct originated. We study what they did, and what they +said; but in vain. We never arrive at a full and demonstrative +conclusion. In reality no man can be certainly said to know +himself. "The heart of man is deceitful above all things." + +But these dogmatists overlook all those difficulties, which would +persuade a wise man to suspend his judgment, and induce a jury of +philosophers to hesitate for ever as to the verdict they would +pronounce. They look only at the external character of the act +by which a man honours or disgraces himself. They decide +presumptuously and in a lump, This man is a murderer, a hero, a +coward, the slave of avarice, or the votary of philanthropy; and +then, surveying the outside of his head, undertake to find in him +the configuration that should indicate these dispositions, and +must be found in all persons of a similar character, or rather +whose acts bear the same outward form, and seem analogous to his. + +Till we have discovered the clue that should enable us to unravel +the labyrinth of the human mind, it is with small hopes of +success that we should expect to settle the external indications, +and decide that this sort of form and appearance, and that class +of character, will always be found together. + +But it is not to be wondered at, that these disorderly fragments +of a shapeless science should become the special favourites of +the idle and the arrogant. Every man (and every woman), however +destitute of real instruction, and unfitted for the investigation +of the deep or the sublime mysteries of our nature, can use his +eyes and his hands. The whole boundless congregation of mankind, +with its everlasting varieties, is thus at once subjected to the +sentence of every pretender: + + And fools rush in, where angels fear to tread. + +Nothing is more delightful to the headlong and presumptuous, than +thus to sit in judgment on their betters, and pronounce ex +cathedra on those, "whose shoe-latchet they are not worthy to +stoop down and unloose." I remember, after lord George Gordon's +riots, eleven persons accused were set down in one indictment for +their lives, and given in charge to one jury. But this is a mere +shadow, a nothing, compared with the wholesale and +indiscriminating judgment of the vulgar phrenologist. + + + +ESSAY XXI. +OF ASTRONOMY. + +SECTION I. + +It can scarcely be imputed to me as profane, if I venture to put +down a few sceptical doubts on the science of astronomy. All +branches of knowledge are to be considered as fair subjects of +enquiry: and he that has never doubted, may be said, in the +highest and strictest sense of the word, never to have believed. + +The first volume that furnished to me the groundwork of the +following doubts, was the book commonly known by the name of +Guthrie's Geographical Grammar, many parts and passages of which +engaged my attention in my own study, in the house of a rural +schoolmaster, in the year 1772. I cannot therefore proceed more +fairly than by giving here an extract of certain passages in that +book, which have relation to the present subject. I know not how +far they have been altered in the edition of Guthrie which now +lies before me, from the language of the book then in my +possession; but I feel confident that in the main particulars +they continue the same[42]. + +[42] The article Astronomy, in this book, appears to have been +written by the well known James Ferguson. + + +"In passing rapidly over the heavens with his new telescope, the +universe increased under the eye of Herschel; 44,000 stars, seen +in the space of a few degrees, seemed to indicate that there were +seventy-five millions in the heavens. But what are all these, +when compared with those that fill the whole expanse, the +boundless field of aether? + +"The immense distance of the fixed stars from our earth, and from +each other, is of all considerations the most proper for raising +our ideas of the works of God. Modern discoveries make it +probable that each of these stars is a sun, having planets and +comets revolving round it, as our sun has the earth and other +planets revolving round him.--A ray of light, though its motion +is so quick as to be commonly thought instantaneous, takes up +more time in travelling from the stars to us, than we do in +making a West-India voyage. A sound, which, next to light, is +considered as the quickest body we are acquainted with, would not +arrive to us from thence in 50,000 years. And a cannon-ball, +flying at the rate of 480 miles an hour, would not reach us in +700,000 years. + +"From what we know of our own system, it may be reasonably +concluded, that all the rest are with equal wisdom contrived, +situated, and provided with accommodations for rational +inhabitants. + +"What a sublime idea does this suggest to the human imagination, +limited as are its powers, of the works of the Creator! +Thousands and thousands of suns, multiplied without end, and +ranged all around us, at immense distances from each other, +attended by ten thousand times ten thousand worlds, all in rapid +motion, yet calm, regular and harmonious, invariably keeping the +paths prescribed them: and these worlds peopled with myriads of +intelligent beings, formed for endless progression in perfection +and felicity!" + +The thought that would immediately occur to a dispassionate man +in listening to this statement, would be, What a vast deal am I +here called on to believe! + +Now the first rule of sound and sober judgment, in encountering +any story, is that, in proportion to the magnitude and seemingly +incredible nature of the propositions tendered to our belief, +should be the strength and impregnable nature of the evidence by +which those propositions are supported. + +It is not here, as in matters of religion, that we are called +upon by authority from on high to believe in mysteries, in things +above our reason, or, as it may be, contrary to our reason. No +man pretends to a revelation from heaven of the truths of +astronomy. They have been brought to light by the faculties of +the human mind, exercised upon such facts and circumstances as +our industry has set before us. + +To persons not initiated in the rudiments of astronomical +science, they rest upon the great and high-sounding names of +Galileo, Kepler, Halley and Newton. But, though these men are +eminently entitled to honour and gratitude from their +fellow-mortals, they do not stand altogether on the same footing +as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, by whose pens has been recorded +"every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." + +The modest enquirer therefore, without pretending to put himself +on an equality with these illustrious men, may be forgiven, when +he permits himself to suggest a few doubts, and presumes to +examine the grounds upon which he is called upon to believe all +that is contained in the above passages. + +Now the foundations upon which astronomy, as here delivered, is +built, are, first, the evidence of our senses, secondly, the +calculations of the mathematician, and, in the third place, moral +considerations. These have been denominated respectively, +practical astronomy, scientific, and theoretical. + +As to the first of these, it is impossible for us on this +occasion not to recollect what has so often occurred as to have +grown into an every-day observation, of the fallibility of our +senses. + +It may be doubted however whether this is a just statement. We +are not deceived by our senses, but deceived in the inference we +make from our sensations. Our sensations respecting what we call +the external world, are chiefly those of length, breadth and +solidity, hardness and softness, heat and cold, colour, smell, +sound and taste. The inference which the generality of mankind +make in relation to these sensations is, that there is something +out of ourselves corresponding to the impressions we receive; in +other words, that the causes of our sensations are like to the +sensations themselves. But this is, strictly speaking, an +inference; and, if the cause of a sensation is not like the +sensation, it cannot precisely be affirmed that our senses +deceive us. We know what passes in the theatre of the mind; but +we cannot be said absolutely to know any thing, more. + +Modern philosophy has taught us, in certain cases, to controvert +the position, that the causes of our sensations are like to the +sensations themselves. Locke in particular has called the +attention of the reasoning part of mankind to the consideration, +that heat and cold, sweet and bitter, and odour offensive or +otherwise, are perceptions, which imply a percipient being, and +cannot exist in inanimate substances. We might with equal +propriety ascribe pain to the whip that beats us, or pleasure to +the slight alternation of contact in the person or thing that +tickles us, as suppose that heat and cold, or taste, or smell are +any thing but sensations. + +The same philosophers who have called our attention to these +remarks, have proceeded to shew that the causes of our sensations +of sound and colour have no precise correspondence, do not tally +with the sensations we receive. Sound is the result of a +percussion of the air. Colour is produced by the reflection of +the rays of light; so that the same object, placed in a position, +different as to the spectator, but in itself remaining unaltered, +will produce in him a sensation of different colours, or shades +of colour, now blue, now green, now brown, now black, and so on. +This is the doctrine of Newton, as well as of Locke. + +It follows that, if there were no percipient being to receive +these sensations, there would be no heat or cold, no taste, no +smell, no sound, and no colour. + +Aware of this difference between our sensations in certain cases +and the causes of these sensations, Locke has divided the +qualities of substances in the material universe into primary and +secondary, the sensations we receive of the primary representing +the actual qualities of material substances, but the sensations +we receive of what he calls the secondary having no proper +resemblance to the causes that produce them. + +Now, if we proceed in the spirit of severe analysis to examine +the primary qualities of matter, we shall not perhaps find so +marked a distinction between those and the secondary, as the +statement of Locke would have led us to imagine. + +The Optics of Newton were published fourteen years later than +Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding. + +In endeavouring to account for the uninterrupted transmission of +rays of light through transparent substances, however hard they +may be found to be, Newton has these observations. + +"Bodies are much more rare and porous, than is commonly believed. + +Water is nineteen times lighter, and by consequence nineteen +times rarer, than gold; and gold is so rare, as very readily, and +without the least opposition, to transmit the magnetic effluvia, +and easily to admit quicksilver into its pores, and to let water +pass through it. From all which we may conclude, that gold has +more pores than solid parts, and by consequence that water has +above forty times more pores than parts. And he that shall find +out an hypothesis, by which water may be so rare, and yet not +capable of compression by force, may doubtless, by the same +hypothesis, make gold, and water, and all other bodies, as much +rarer as he pleases, so that light may find a ready passage +through transparent substances[43]." + +[43] Newton, Optics, Book II, Part III, Prop. viii. + + +Again: "The colours of bodies arise from the magnitude of the +particles that reflect them. Now, if we conceive these particles +of bodies to be so disposed among themselves, that the intervals, +or empty spaces between them, may be equal in magnitude to them +all; and that these particles may be composed of other particles +much smaller, which have as much empty space between them as +equals all the magnitudes of these smaller particles; and that in +like manner these smaller particles are again composed of others +much smaller, all which together are equal to all the pores, or +empty spaces, between them; and so on perpetually till you come +to solid particles, such as have no pores, or empty spaces within +them: and if in any gross body there be, for instance, three +such degrees of particles, the least of which are solid; this +body will have seven times more pores than solid parts. But if +there be four such degrees of particles, the least of which are +solid, the body will have fifteen times more pores than solid +parts. If there be five degrees, the body will have one and +thirty times more pores than solid parts. If six degrees, the +body will have sixty and three times more pores than solid parts. + +And so on perpetually[44]." + +[44] Ibid. + + +In the Queries annexed to the Optics, Newton further suggests an +opinion, that the rays of light are repelled by bodies without +immediate contact. He observes that: + +"Where attraction ceases, there a repulsive virtue ought to +succeed. And that there is such a virtue, seems to follow from +the reflexions and inflexions of the rays of light. For the rays +are repelled by bodies, in both these cases, without the +immediate contact of the reflecting or inflecting body. It seems +also to follow from the emission of light; the ray, so soon as it +is shaken off from a shining body by the vibrating motion of the +parts of the body, and gets beyond the reach of attraction, being +driven away with exceeding great velocity. For that force, which +is sufficient to turn it back in reflexion, may be sufficient to +emit it. It seems also to follow from the production of air and +vapour: the particles, when they are shaken off from bodies by +heat or fermentation, so soon as they are beyond the reach of the +attraction of the body, receding from it and also from one +another, with great strength; and keeping at a distance, so as +sometimes to take up a million of times more space than they did +before, in the form of a dense body." + +Newton was of opinion that matter was made up, in the last +resort, of exceedingly small solid particles, having no pores, or +empty spaces within them. Priestley, in his Disquisitions +relating to Matter and Spirit, carries the theory one step +farther; and, as Newton surrounds his exceedingly small particles +with spheres of attraction and repulsion, precluding in all cases +their actual contact, Priestley is disposed to regard the centre +of these spheres as mathematical points only. If there is no +actual contact, then by the very terms no two particles of matter +were ever so near to each other, but that they might be brought +nearer, if a sufficient force could be applied for that purpose. +You had only another sphere of repulsion to conquer; and, as +there never is actual contact, the whole world is made up of one +sphere of repulsion after another, without the possibility of +ever arriving at an end. + +"The principles of the Newtonian philosophy," says our author, +"were no sooner known, than it was seen how few in comparison, of +the phenomena of nature, were owing to solid matter, and how much +to powers, which were only supposed to accompany and surround the +solid parts of matter. It has been asserted, and the assertion +has never been disproved, that for any thing we know to the +contrary, all the solid matter in the solar system might be +contained within a nutshell[45]." + +[45] Priestley, Disquisitions, Section II. I know not by whom +this illustration was first employed. Among other authors, I +find, in Fielding (Joseph Andrews, Book II, Chap. II), a sect of +philosophers spoken of, who "can reduce all the matter of the +world into a nutshell." + + +It is then with senses, from the impressions upon which we are +impelled to draw such false conclusions, and that present us with +images altogether unlike any thing that exists out of ourselves, +that we come to observe the phenomena of what we call the +universe. The first observation that it is here incumbent on us +to make, and which we ought to keep ever at hand, to be applied +as occasion may offer, is the well known aphorism of Socrates, +that "we know only this, that we know nothing." We have no +compass to guide us through the pathless waters of science; we +have no revelation, at least on the subject of astronomy, and of +the unnumbered inhabitable worlds that float in the ocean of +ether; and we are bound therefore to sail, as the mariners of +ancient times sailed, always within sight of land. One of the +earliest maxims of ordinary prudence, is that we ought ever to +correct the reports of one sense by the assistance of another +sense. The things we here speak of are not matters of faith; and +in them therefore it is but reason, that we should imitate the +conduct of Didymus the apostle, who said, "Except I put my +fingers into the prints of the nails, and thrust my hand into his +side, I will not believe." My eyes report to me an object, as +having a certain magnitude, texture, and roughness or smoothness; +but I require that my hands should confirm to me the evidence of +my eyes. I see something that appears to be an island at an +uncertain distance from the shore; but, if I am actuated by a +laudable curiosity, and wish to possess a real knowledge, I take +a boat, and proceed to ascertain by nearer inspection, whether +that which I imagined to be an island is an island or no. + +There are indeed many objects with which we are conversant, that +are in so various ways similar to each other, that, after having +carefully examined a few, we are satisfied upon slighter +investigation to admit the dimensions and character of others. +Thus, having measured with a quadrant the height of a tower, and +found on the narrowest search and comparison that the report of +my instrument was right, I yield credit to this process in +another instance, without being at the trouble to verify its +results in any more elaborate method. + +The reason why we admit the inference flowing from our +examination in the second instance, and so onward, with less +scrupulosity and scepticism than in the first, is that there is a +strict resemblance and analogy in the two cases. Experience is +the basis of our conclusions and our conduct. I strike against a +given object, a nail for example, with a certain degree of force, +because I have remarked in myself and others the effect of such a +stroke. I take food and masticate it, because I have found that +this process contributes to the sound condition of my body and +mind. I scatter certain seeds in my field, and discharge the +other functions of an agriculturist, because I have observed that +in due time the result of this industry is a crop. All the +propriety of these proceedings depends upon the exact analogy +between the old case and the new one. The state of the affair is +still the same, when my business is merely that of an observer +and a traveller. I know water from earth, land from sea, and +mountains from vallies, because I have had experience of these +objects, and confidently infer that, when certain appearances +present themselves to my organs of sight, I shall find the same +results to all my other senses, as I found when such appearances +occurred to me before. + +But the interval that divides the objects which occur upon and +under the earth, and are accessible in all ways to our +examination, on the one hand, and the lights which are suspended +over our heads in the heavens on the other, is of the broadest +and most memorable nature. Human beings, in the infancy of the +world, were contented reverently to behold these in their +calmness and beauty, perhaps to worship them, and to remark the +effects that they produced, or seemed to produce, upon man and +the subjects of his industry. But they did not aspire to measure +their dimensions, to enquire into their internal frame, or to +explain the uses, far removed from our sphere of existence, which +they might be intended to serve. + +It is however one of the effects of the improvement of our +intellect, to enlarge our curiosity. The daringness of human +enterprise is one of the prime glories of our nature. It is our +boast that we undertake to "measure earth, weigh air, and state +the tides." And, when success crowns the boldness of our +aspirations after what vulgar and timorous prudence had +pronounced impossible, it is then chiefly that we are seen to +participate of an essence divine. + +What has not man effected by the boldness of his conceptions and +the adventurousness of his spirit? The achievements of human +genius have appeared so incredible, till they were thoroughly +examined, and slowly established their right to general +acceptance, that the great heroes of intellect were universally +regarded by their contemporaries as dealers in magic, and +implements of the devil. The inventor of the art of printing, +that glorious instrument for advancing the march of human +improvement, and the discoverer of the more questionable art of +making gunpowder, alike suffered under this imputation. We have +rendered the seas and the winds instruments of our pleasure, +"exhausted the old world, and then discovered a new one," have +drawn down lightning from heaven, and exhibited equal rights and +independence to mankind. Still however it is incumbent on us to +be no less wary and suspicious than we are bold, and not to +imagine, because we have done much, that we are therefore able to +effect every thing. + +As was stated in the commencement of this Essay, we know our own +sensations, and we know little more. Matter, whether in its +primary or secondary qualities, is certainly not the sort of +thing the vulgar imagine it to be. The illustrious Berkeley has +taught many to doubt of its existence altogether; and later +theorists have gone farther than this, and endeavoured to shew, +that each man, himself while he speaks on the subject, and you +and I while we hear, have no conclusive evidence to convince us, +that we may not, each of us, for aught we know, be the only thing +that exists, an entire universe to ourselves. + +We will not however follow these ingenious persons to the +startling extreme to which their speculations would lead us. +But, without doing so, it will not misbecome us to be cautious, +and to reflect what we do, before we take a leap into illimitable +space. + + +SECTION II. + +"The sun," we are told, "is a solid body, ninety-five millions of +miles distant from the earth we inhabit, one million times larger +in cubic measurement, and to such a degree impregnated with heat, +that a comet, approaching to it within a certain distance, was by +that approximation raised to a heat two thousand times greater +than that of red-hot iron." + +It will be acknowledged, that there is in this statement much to +believe; and we shall not be exposed to reasonable blame, if we +refuse to subscribe to it, till we have received irresistible +evidence of its truth. + +It has already been observed, that, for the greater part of what +we imagine we know on the surface or in the bowels of the earth, +we have, or may have if we please, the evidence of more than one +of our senses, combining to lead to the same conclusion. For the +propositions of astronomy we have no sensible evidence, but that +of sight, and an imperfect analogy, leading from those visible +impressions which we can verify, to a reliance upon those which +we cannot. + +The first cardinal particular we meet with in the above statement +concerning the sun, is the term, distance. Now, all that, +strictly speaking, we can affirm respecting the sun and other +heavenly bodies, is that we have the same series of impressions +respecting them, that we have respecting terrestrial objects near +or remote, and that there is an imperfect analogy between the one +case and the other. + +Before we affirm any thing, as of our own knowledge and +competence, respecting heavenly bodies which are said to be +millions of millions of miles removed from us, it would not +perhaps be amiss that we should possess ourselves of a certain +degree of incontestible information, as to the things which exist +on the earth we inhabit. Among these, one of the subjects +attended with a great degree of doubt and obscurity, is the +height of the mountains with which the surface of the globe we +inhabit is diversified. It is affirmed in the received books of +elementary geography, that the Andes are the highest mountains in +the world. Morse, in his American Gazetteer, third edition, +printed at Boston in 1810[46], says, "The height of Chimborazzo, +the most elevated point of the vast chain of the Andes, is 20,280 +feet above the level of the sea, which is 7102 feet higher than +any other mountain in the known world:" thus making the elevation +of the mountains of Thibet, or whatever other rising ground the +compiler had in his thought, precisely 13,178 feet above the +level of the sea, and no more. This decision however has lately +been contradicted. Mr. Hugh Murray, in an Account of Discoveries +and Travels in Asia, published in 1820, has collated the reports +of various recent travellers in central Asia; and he states the +height of Chumularee, which he speaks of as the most elevated +point of the mountains of Thibet, as nearly 30,000 feet above the +level of the sea. + +[46] Article, Andes. + + +The elevation of mountains, till lately, was in no way attempted +to be ascertained but by the use of the quadrant) and their +height was so generally exaggerated, that Riccioli, one of the +most eminent astronomers of the seventeenth century, gives it as +his opinion that mountains, like the Caucasus, may have a +perpendicular elevation of fifty Italian miles[47]. Later +observers have undertaken to correct the inaccuracy of these +results through the application of the barometer, and thus, by +informing themselves of the weight of the air at a certain +elevation, proceeding to infer the height of the situation. + +[47] Rees, Encyclopedia; article, Mountains. + + +There are many circumstances, which are calculated to induce a +circumspect enquirer to regard the affirmative positions of +astronomy, as they are delivered by the most approved modern +writers, with considerable diffidence. + +They are founded, as has already been said, next to the evidence +of our senses, upon the deductions of mathematical knowledge. + +Mathematics are either pure or mixed. + +Pure mathematics are concerned only with abstract propositions, +and have nothing to do with the realities of nature. There is no +such thing in actual existence as a mathematical point, line or +surface. There is no such thing as a circle or square. But that +is of no consequence. We can define them in words, and reason +about them. We can draw a diagram, and suppose that line to be +straight which is not really straight, and that figure to be a +circle which is not strictly a circle. It is conceived therefore +by the generality of observers, that mathematics is the science +of certainty. + +But this is not strictly the case. Mathematics are like those +abstract and imaginary existences about which they are +conversant. They may constitute in themselves, and in the +apprehension of an infallible being, a science of certainty. But +they come to us mixed and incorporated with our imperfections. +Our faculties are limited; and we may be easily deceived, as to +what it is that we see with transparent and unerring clearness, +and what it is that comes to us through a crooked medium, +refracting and distorting the rays of primitive truth. We often +seem clear, when in reality the twilight of undistinguishing +night has crept fast and far upon us. In a train of deductions, +as in the steps of an arithmetical process, an error may have +insinuated itself imperceptibly at a very early stage, rendering +all the subsequent steps a wandering farther and farther from the +unadulterated truth. Human mathematics, so to speak, like the +length of life, are subject to the doctrine of chances. +Mathematics may be the science of certainty to celestial natures, +but not to man. + +But, if in the case of pure mathematics, we are exposed to the +chances of error and delusion, it is much worse with mixed +mathematics. The moment we step out of the high region of +abstraction, and apply ourselves to what we call external nature, +we have forfeited that sacred character and immunity, which we +seemed entitled to boast, so long as we remained inclosed in the +sanctuary of unmingled truth. As has already been said, we know +what passes in the theatre of the mind; but we cannot be said +absolutely to know any thing more. In our speculations upon +actual existences we are not only subject to the disadvantages +which arise from the limited nature of our faculties, and the +errors which may insensibly creep upon us in the process. We are +further exposed to the operation of the unevennesses and +irregularities that perpetually occur in external nature, the +imperfection of our senses, and of the instruments we construct +to assist our observations, and the discrepancy which we +frequently detect between the actual nature of the things about +us and our impressions respecting them. + +This is obvious, whenever we undertake to apply the processes of +arithmetic to the realities of life. Arithmetic, unsubjected to +the impulses of passion and the accidents of created nature, +holds on its course; but, in the phenomena of the actual world, +"time and chance happeneth to them all." + +Thus it is, for example, in the arithmetical and geometrical +ratios, set up in political economy by the celebrated Mr. +Malthus. His numbers will go on smoothly enough, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, +32, as representing the principle of population among mankind, +and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, the means of subsistence; but restiff and +uncomplying nature refuses to conform herself to his dicta. + +Dr. Price has calculated the produce of one penny, put out at +the commencement of the Christian era to five per cent. compound +interest, and finds that in the year 1791 it would have increased +to a greater sum than would be contained in three hundred +millions of earths, all solid gold. But what has this to do with +the world in which we live? Did ever any one put out his penny +to interest in this fashion for eighteen hundred years? And, if +he did, where was the gold to be found, to satisfy his demand? + +Morse, in his American Gazetteer, proceeding on the principles of +Malthus, tells us that, if the city of New York goes on +increasing for a century in a certain ratio, it will by that time +contain 5,257,493 inhabitants. But does any one, for himself or +his posterity, expect to see this realised? + +Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, has +observed that, as every man has two ancestors in the first +ascending degree, and four in the second, so in the twentieth +degree he has more than a million, and in the fortieth the square +of that number, or upwards of a million millions. This statement +therefore would have a greater tendency to prove that mankind in +remote ages were numerous, almost beyond the power of figures to +represent, than the opposite doctrine of Malthus, that they have +a perpetual tendency to such increase as would infallibly bring +down the most tremendous calamities on our posterity. + +Berkeley, whom I have already referred to on another subject, and +who is admitted to be one of our profoundest philosophers, has +written a treatise[48] to prove, that the mathematicians, who +object to the mysteries supposed to exist in revealed religion, +"admit much greater mysteries, and even falshoods in science, of +which he alleges the doctrine of fluxions as an eminent +example[49]." He observes, that their conclusions are +established by virtue of a twofold error, and that these errors, +being in contrary directions, are supposed to compensate each +other, the expounders of the doctrine thus arriving at what they +call truth, without being able to shew how, or by what means they +have arrived at it. + +[48] The Analyst. + +[49] Life of Berkeley, prefixed to his Works. + + +It is a memorable and a curious speculation to reflect, upon how +slight grounds the doctrine of "thousands and thousands of suns, +multiplied without end, and ranged all around us, at immense +distances from each other, and attended by ten thousand times ten +thousand worlds," mentioned in the beginning of this Essay, is +built. It may be all true. But, true or false, it cannot be +without its use to us, carefully to survey the road upon which we +are advancing, the pier which human enterprise has dared to throw +out into the vast ocean of Cimmerian darkness. We have +constructed a pyramid, which throws into unspeakable contempt the +vestiges of ancient Egyptian industry: but it stands upon its +apex; it trembles with every breeze; and momentarily threatens to +overwhelm in its ruins the fearless undertakers that have set it +up. + +It gives us a mighty and sublime idea of the nature of man, to +think with what composure and confidence a succession of persons +of the greatest genius have launched themselves in illimitable +space, with what invincible industry they have proceeded, wasting +the midnight oil, racking their faculties, and almost wearing +their organs to dust, in measuring the distance of Sirius and the +other fixed stars, the velocity of light, and "the myriads of +intelligent beings formed for endless progression in perfection +and felicity," that people the numberless worlds of which they +discourse. The illustrious names of Copernicus, Galileo, +Gassendi, Kepler, Halley and Newton impress us with awe; and, if +the astronomy they have opened before us is a romance, it is at +least a romance more seriously and perseveringly handled than any +other in the annals of literature. + +A vulgar and a plain man would unavoidably ask the astronomers, +How came you so familiarly acquainted with the magnitude and +qualities of the heavenly bodies, a great portion of which, by +your own account, are millions of millions of miles removed from +us? But, I believe, it is not the fashion of the present day to +start so rude a question. I have just turned over an article on +Astronomy in the Encyclopaedia Londinensis, consisting of one +hundred and thirty-three very closely printed quarto pages, and +in no corner of this article is any evidence so much as hinted +at. Is it not enough? Newton and his compeers have said it. + +The whole doctrine of astronomy rests upon trigonometry, a branch +of the science of mathematics which teaches us, having two sides +and one angle, or two angles and one side, of a triangle given +us, to construct the whole. To apply this principle therefore to +the heavenly bodies, it is necessary for us to take two stations, +the more remote from each other the better, from which our +observations should be made. For the sake of illustration we +will suppose them to be taken at the extremes of the earth's +diameter, in other words, nearly eight thousand miles apart from +each other, the thing itself having never been realised to that +extent. From each of these stations we will imagine a line to be +drawn, terminating in the sun. Now it seems easy, by means of a +quadrant, to find the arch of a circle (in other words, the +angle) included between these lines terminating in the sun, and +the base formed by a right line drawn from one of these stations +to the other, which in this case is the length of the earth's +diameter. I have therefore now the three particulars required to +enable me to construct my triangle. And, according to the most +approved astronomical observations hitherto made, I have an +isosceles triangle, eight thousand miles broad at its base, and +ninety-five millions of miles in the length of each of the sides +reaching from the base to the apex. + +It is however obvious to the most indifferent observer, that the +more any triangle, or other mathematical diagram, falls within +the limits which our senses can conveniently embrace, the more +securely, when our business is practical, and our purpose to +apply the result to external objects, can we rely on the accuracy +of our results. In a case therefore like the present, where the +base of our isosceles triangle is to the other two sides as eight +units to twelve thousand, it is impossible not to perceive that +it behoves us to be singularly diffident as to the conclusion at +which we have arrived, or rather it behoves us to take for +granted that we are not unlikely to fall into the most important +error. We have satisfied ourselves that the sides of the +triangle including the apex, do not form an angle, till they have +arrived at the extent of ninety-five millions of miles. How are +we sure that they do then? May not lines which have reached to +so amazing a length without meeting, be in reality parallel +lines? If an angle is never formed, there can be no result. The +whole question seems to be incommensurate to our faculties. + +It being obvious that this was a very unsatisfactory scheme for +arriving at the knowledge desired, the celebrated Halley +suggested another method, in the year 1716, by an observation to +be taken at the time of the transit of Venus over the sun[50]. + +[50] Philosophical Transactions, Vol. XXIX, p. 454. + + +It was supposed that we were already pretty accurately acquainted +with the distance of the moon from the earth, it being so much +nearer to us, by observing its parallax, or the difference of its +place in the heavens as seen from the surface of the earth, from +that in which it would appear if seen from its centre[51]. But +the parallax of the sun is so exceedingly small, as scarcely to +afford the basis of a mathematical calculation[52]. The parallax +of Venus is however almost four times as great as that of the +sun; and there must therefore be a very sensible difference +between the times in which Venus may be seen passing over the sun +from different parts of the earth. It was on this account +apprehended, that the parallax of the sun, by means of +observations taken from different places at the time of the +transit of Venus in 1761 and 1769, might be ascertained with a +great degree of precision[53]. + +[51] Bonnycastle, Astronomy, 7th edition, p. 262, et seq. + +[52] Ibid, p. 268. + +[53] Phil. Transactions, Vol. XXIX, p. 457. + + +But the imperfectness of our instruments and means of observation +have no small tendency to baffle the ambition of man in these +curious investigations. + +"The true quantity of the moon's parallax," says Bonnycastle, +"cannot be accurately determined by the methods ordinarily +resorted to, on account of the varying declination of the moon, +and the inconstancy of the horizontal refractions, which are +perpetually changing according to the state the atmosphere is in +at the time. For the moon continues but for a short time in the +equinoctial, and the refraction at a mean rate elevates her +apparent place near the horizon, half as much as her parallax +depresses it[54]." + +[54] Astronomy, p. 265. + + +"It is well known that the parallax of the sun can never exceed +nine seconds, or the four-hundredth part of a degree[55]." +"Observations," says Halley, "made upon the vibrations of a +pendulum, to determine these exceedingly small angles, are not +sufficiently accurate to be depended upon; for by this method of +ascertaining the parallax, it will sometimes come out to be +nothing, or even negative; that is, the distance will either be +infinite, or greater than infinite, which is absurd. And, to +confess the truth, it is hardly possible for a person to +distinguish seconds with certainty by any instruments, however +skilfully they may be made; and therefore it is not to be +wondered at, that the excessive nicety of this matter should have +eluded the many ingenious endeavours of the most able +opetators[56]. + +[55] Ibid, p. 268. + +[56] Phil. Transactions, Vol. XXIX, p. 456. + + +Such are the difficulties that beset the subject on every side. +It is for the impartial and dispassionate observers who have +mastered all the subtleties of the science, if such can be found, +to determine whether the remedies that have been resorted to to +obviate the above inaccuracies and their causes, have fulfilled +their end, and are not exposed to similar errors. But it would +be vain to expect the persons, who have "scorned delights, and +lived laborious days" to possess themselves of the mysteries of +astronomy, should be impartial and dispassionate, or be disposed +to confess, even to their own minds, that their researches were +useless, and their labours ended in nothing. + +It is further worthy of our attention, that the instruments with +which we measure the distance of the earth from the sun and the +planets, are the very instruments which have been pronounced upon +as incompetent in measuring the heights of mountains[57]. In the +latter case therefore we have substituted a different mode for +arriving at the truth, which is supposed to be attended with +greater precision: but we have no substitute to which we can +resort, to correct the mistakes into which we may fall respecting +the heavenly bodies. + +[57] See above, Essay XXI. + + +The result of the uncertainty which adheres to all astronomical +observations is such as might have been expected. Common readers +are only informed of the latest adjustment of the question, and +are therefore unavoidably led to believe that the distance of the +sun from the earth, ever since astronomy became entitled to the +name of a science, has by universal consent been recognised as +ninety-five millions of miles, or, as near as may be, twenty-four +thousand semi-diameters of the earth. But how does the case +really stand? Copernicus and Tycho Brahe held the distance to be +twelve hundred semi-diameters; Kepler, who is received to have +been perhaps the greatest astronomer that any age has produced, +puts it down as three thousand five hundred semi-diameters; since +his time, Riccioli as seven thousand; Hevelius as five thousand +two hundred and fifty[58]; some later astronomers, mentioned by +Halley, as fourteen thousand; and Halley himself as sixteen +thousand five hundred[59]. + +[58] They were about thirty and forty years younger than Kepler +respectively. + +[59] Halley, apud Philosophical Transactions, Vol. XXIX, p. 455. + + +The doctrine of fluxions is likewise called in by the astronomers +in their attempts to ascertain the distance and magnitude of the +different celestial bodies which compose the solar system; and in +this way their conclusions become subject to all the difficulties +which Berkeley has alleged against that doctrine. + +Kepler has also supplied us with another mode of arriving at the +distance and size of the sun and the planets: he has hazarded a +conjecture, that the squares of the times of the revolution of +the earth and the other planets are in proportion to the cubes of +their distances from the sun, their common centre; and, as by +observation we can arrive with tolerable certainty at a knowledge +of the times of their revolutions, we may from hence proceed to +the other matters we are desirous to ascertain. And that which +Kepler seemed, as by a divine inspiration, to hazard in the way +of conjecture, Newton professes to have demonstratively +established. But the demonstration of Newton has not been +considered as satisfactory by all men of science since his time. + +Thus far however we proceed as we may, respecting our +propositions on the subject of the solar system. But, beyond +this, all science, real or pretended, deserts us. We have no +method for measuring angles, which can be applied to the fixed +stars; and we know nothing of any revolutions they perform. All +here therefore seems gratuitous: we reason from certain alleged +analogies; and we can do no more. + +Huygens endeavoured to ascertain something on the subject, by +making the aperture of a telescope so small, that the sun should +appear through it no larger than Sirius, which he found to be +only in the proportion of 1 to 27,664 times his diameter, as seen +by the naked eye. Hence, supposing Sirius to be a globe of the +same magnitude as the sun, it must be 27,664 times as distant +from us as the sun, in other words, at a distance so considerable +as to equal 345 million diameters of the earth[60]. Every one +must feel on how slender a thread this conclusion is suspended. + +[60] Encyclopaedia Londinensis, Vol. 11, p. 407. + +And yet, from this small postulate, the astronomers proceed to +deduce the most astounding conclusions. They tell us, that the +distance of the nearest fixed star from the earth is at least +7,600,000,000,000 miles, and of another they name, not less than +38 millions of millions of miles. A cannon-ball therefore, +proceeding at the rate of about twenty miles in a minute would be +760,000 years in passing from us to the nearest fixed star, and +3,800,000 in passing to the second star of which we speak. +Huygens accordingly concluded, that it was not impossible, that +there might be stars at such inconceivable distances from us, +that their light has not yet reached the earth since its +creation[61]. + +[61] Ibid, p. 408. + + +The received system of the universe, founded upon these so called +discoveries, is that each of the stars is a sun, having planets +and comets revolving round it, as our sun has the earth and other +planets revolving round him. It has been found also by the +successive observations of astronomers, that a star now and then +is totally lost, and that a new star makes its appearance which +had never been remarked before: and this they explain into the +creation of a new system from time to time by the Almighty author +of the universe, and the destruction of an old system worn out +with age[62]. We must also remember the power of attraction +every where diffused through infinite space, by means of which, +as Herschel assures us, in great length of time a nebula, or +cluster of stars, may be formed, while the projectile force they +received in the beginning may prevent them from all coming +together, at least for millions of ages. Some of these nebulae, +he adds, cannot well be supposed to be at a less distance from us +than six or eight thousand times the distance of Sirius[63]. +Kepler however denies that each star, of those which distinctly +present themselves to our sight, can have its system of planets +as our sun has, and considers them as all fixed in the same +surface or sphere; since, if one of them were twice or thrice as +remote as another, it would, supposing their real magnitudes to +be equal, appear to be twice or thrice as small, whereas there is +not in their apparent magnitudes the slightest difference[64]. + +[62] Encycl. Lond. Vol. II, p. 411. + +[63] Ibid, p. 348. + +[64] Ibid, p. 411. + + +Certainly the astronomers are a very fortunate and privileged +race of men, who talk to us in this oracular way of "the unseen +things of God from the creation of the world," hanging up their +conclusions upon invisible hooks, while the rest of mankind sit +listening gravely to their responses, and unreservedly +"acknowledging that their science is the most sublime, the most +interesting, and the most useful of all the sciences cultivated +by man[65]." + +[65] Ferguson, Astronomy, Section 1. + + +We have a sensation, which we call the sensation of distance. It +comes to us from our sight and our other senses. It does not +come immediately by the organ of sight. It has been proved, that +the objects we see, previously to the comparison and correction +of the reports of the organ of sight with those of the other +senses, do not suggest to us the idea of distance, but that on +the contrary whatever we see seems to touch the eye, even as the +objects of the sense of feeling touch the skin. + +But, in proportion as we compare the impressions made upon our +organs of sight with the impressions made on the other senses, we +come gradually to connect with the objects we see the idea of +distance. I put out my hand, and find at first that an object of +my sense of sight is not within the reach of my hand. I put out +my hand farther, or by walking advance my body in the direction +of the object, and I am enabled to reach it. From smaller +experiments I proceed to greater. I walk towards a tree or a +building, the figure of which presents itself to my eye, but +which I find upon trial to have been far from me. I travel +towards a place that I cannot see, but which I am told lies in a +certain direction. I arrive at the place. It is thus, that by +repeated experiments I acquire the idea of remote distances. + +To confine ourselves however to the question of objects, which +without change of place I can discover by the sense of sight. I +can see a town, a tower, a mountain at a considerable distance. +Let us suppose that the limit of my sight, so far as relates to +objects on the earth, is one hundred miles. I can travel towards +such an object, and thus ascertain by means of my other senses +what is its real distance. I can also employ certain +instruments, invented by man, to measure heights, suppose of a +tower, and, by experiments made in ways independent of these +instruments, verify or otherwise the report of these instruments. + +The height of the Monument of London is something more than two +hundred feet. Other elevations, the produce of human labour, are +considerably higher. It is in the nature of the mind, that we +conclude from the observation that we have verified, to the +accuracy of another, bearing a striking analogy to the former, +that we have not verified. But analogy has its limits. Is it of +irresistible certainty, or is it in fact to be considered as +approaching to certainty, because we have verified an observation +extending to several hundred feet, that an observation extending +to ninety-five millions of miles, or to the incredible distances +of which Herschel so familiarly talks, is to be treated as a +fact, or laid down as a principle in science? Is it reasonable +to consider two propositions as analogous, when the thing +affirmed in the one is in dimension many million times as great +as the thing affirmed in the other? The experience we have had +as to the truth of the smaller, does it authorise us to consider +the larger as unquestionable? That which I see with a bay of the +sea or a wide river between, though it may appear very like +something with which I am familiar at home, do I immediately +affirm it to be of the same species and nature, or do I not +regard it with a certain degree of scepticism, especially if, +along with the resemblance in some points, it differs +essentially, as for example in magnitude, in other points? We +have a sensation, and we enquire into its cause. This is always +a question of some uncertainty. Is its cause something of +absolute and substantive existence without me, or is it not? Is +its cause something of the very same nature, as the thing that +gave me a similar sensation in a matter of comparatively a pigmy +and diminutive extension? + +All these questions an untrained and inquisitive mind will ask +itself in the propositions of astronomy. We must believe or not, +as we think proper or reasonable. We have no way of verifying +the propositions by the trial of our senses. There they lie, to +be received by us in the construction that first suggests itself +to us, or not. They are something like an agreeable imagination +or fiction: and a sober observer, in cold blood, will be +disposed deliberately to weigh both sides of the question, and to +judge whether the probability lies in favour of the actual +affirmation of the millions of millions of miles, and the other +incredible propositions of the travelling of light, and the rest, +which even the most cautious and sceptical of the retainers of +modern astronomy, find themselves compelled to receive. + +But I shall be told, that the results of our observations of the +distances of the heavenly bodies are unvaried. We have measured +the distances and other phenomena of the sun, the moon, Mercury, +Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and their satellites, and they all +fall into a grand system, so as to convey to every unprejudiced +mind the conviction that this system is the truth itself. If we +look at them day after day, and year after year, we see them for +ever the same, and performing the same divine harmony. +Successive astronomers in different ages and countries have +observed the celestial orbs, and swept the heavens, and for ever +bring us back the same story of the number, the dimensions, the +distances, and the arrangement of the heavenly bodies which form +the subject of astronomical science. + +This we have seen indeed not to be exactly the case. But, if it +were, it would go a very little way towards proving the point it +was brought to prove. It would shew that, the sensations and +results being similar, the causes of those results must be +similar to each other, but it would not shew that the causes were +similar to the sensations produced. Thus, in the sensations +which belong to taste, smell, sound, colour, and to those of heat +and cold, there is all the uniformity which would arise, when the +real external causes bore the most exact similitude to the +perceptions they generate; and yet it is now universally +confessed that tastes, scents, sounds, colours, and heat and cold +do not exist out of ourselves. All that we are entitled +therefore to conclude as to the magnitudes and distances of the +heavenly bodies, is, that the causes of our sensations and +perceptions, whatever they are, are not less uniform than the +sensations and perceptions themselves. + +It is further alleged, that we calculate eclipses, and register +the various phenomena of the heavenly bodies. Thales predicted +an eclipse of the sun, which took place nearly six hundred years +before the Christian era. The Babylonians, the Persians, the +Hindoos, and the Chinese early turned their attention to +astronomy. Many of their observations were accurately recorded; +and their tables extend to a period of three thousand years +before the birth of Christ. Does not all this strongly argue the +solidity of the science to which they belong? Who, after this, +will have the presumption to question, that the men who profess +astronomy proceed on real grounds, and have a profound knowledge +of these things, which at first sight might appear to be set at a +distance so far removed from our ken? + +The answer to this is easy. I believe in all the astronomy that +was believed by Thales. I do not question the statements +relative to the heavenly bodies that were delivered by the wise +men of the East. But the supposed discoveries that were made in +the eighteenth, and even in the latter part of the seventeenth +century, purporting to ascertain the precise distance of the sun, +the planets, and even of the fixed stars, are matters entirely +distinct from this. + +Among the earliest astronomers of Greece were Thales, +Anaximander, Anaximenes and Anaxagoras. Thales, we are told, +held that the earth is a sphere or globe, Anaximenes that it is +like a round, flat table; Anaximander that the sun is like a +chariot-wheel, and is twenty-eight times larger than the earth. +Anaxagoras was put in prison for affirming that the sun was by +many degrees larger than the whole Peloponnesus[66]. Kepler is +of opinion that all the stars are at an equal distance from us, +and are fixed in the same surface or sphere. + +[66] Plutarch, De Placitis Philosophorum. Diogenes Laertius. + + +In reality the observations and the facts of astronomy do not +depend either upon the magnitudes or the distances of the +heavenly bodies. They proceed in the first place upon what may +lie seen with the naked eye. They require an accurate and +persevering attention. They may be assisted by telescopes. But +they relate only to the sun and the planets. We are bound to +ascertain, as nearly as possible, the orbits described by the +different bodies in the solar system: but this has still nothing +to do, strictly speaking, with their magnitudes or distances. It +is required that we should know them in their relations to each +other; but it is no preliminary of just, of practical, it might +almost be said, of liberal science, that we should know any thing +of them absolutely. + +The unlimited ambition of the nature of man has discovered itself +in nothing more than this, the amazing superstructure which the +votaries of contemplation within the last two hundred years have +built upon the simple astronomy of the ancients. Having begun to +compute the distances of miles by millions, it appears clearly +that nothing can arrest the more than eagle-flight of the human +mind. The distance of the nearest fixed star from the earth, we +are informed, is at least 7,000,000,000,000 miles, and of another +which the astronomers name, not less than 38 millions of millions +of miles. The particles of light are said to travel 193,940 +miles in every second, which is above a million times swifter +than the progress of a cannon-ball[67]. And Herschel has +concluded, that the light issuing from the faintest nebulae he +has discovered, must have been at this rate two millions of years +in reaching the Barth[68]. + +[67] Ferguson, Section 216. "Light moves," says Brewster, +Optics, p. 2, "from one pole of the earth to the other in the +24th part of a second: a velocity which surpasses all +comprehension. + +[68] Brinkley, Astronomy, p. 130. + + +SECTION III. + +The next process of the modern astronomer is to affirm the +innumerable orbs around us, discovered with the naked eye, or +with which we are made acquainted by the aid of telescopes, to be +all stocked with rational inhabitants. The argument for this is, +that an all-wise and omnipotent creator could never have produced +such immense bodies, dispersed through infinite space, for any +meaner purpose, than that of peopling them with "intelligent +beings, formed for endless progression in perfection and +felicity[69]." + +[69] See above, Essay XXI. + + +Now it appears to me, that, in these assertions, the modern +astronomers are taking upon themselves somewhat too boldly, to +expound the counsels of that mysterious power, to which the +universe is indebted for its arrangement and order. + +We know nothing of God but from his works. Certain speculative +men have adventured to reason upon the source of all the system +and the wonders that we behold, a priori, and, having found that +the creator is all powerful, all wise, and of infinite goodness, +according to their ideas of power, wisdom and goodness, have from +thence proceeded to draw their inferences, and to shew us in what +manner the works of his hands are arranged and conducted by him. +This no doubt they have done with the purest intentions in the +world; but it is not certain, that their discretion has equalled +the boldness of their undertaking. + +The world that we inhabit, this little globe of earth, is to us +an infinite mystery. Human imagination is unable to conceive any +thing more consummate than the great outline of things below. +The trees and the skies, the mountains and the seas, the rivers +and the springs, appear as if the design had been to realise the +idea of paradise. The freshness of the air, the silvery light of +day, the magnificence of the clouds, the gorgeous and soothing +colouring of the world, the profusion and exquisiteness of the +fruits and flowers of the earth, are as if nothing but joy and +delicious sensations had been intended for us. When we ascend to +the animal creation, the scene is still more admirable and +transporting. The birds and the beasts, the insects that skim +the air, and the fishes that live in the great deep, are a +magazine of wonders, that we may study for ever, without fear of +arriving at the end of their excellence. Last of all, comes the +crown of the creation, man, formed with looks erect, to commerce +with the skies. What a masterpiece of workmanship is his form, +while the beauty and intelligence of Gods seems to manifest +itself in his countenance! Look at that most consummate of all +implements, the human hand; think of his understanding, how +composed and penetrating; of the wealth of his imagination; of +the resplendent virtues he is qualified to display! "How +wonderful are thy works, Oh God; in wisdom hast thou created them +all!" + +But there are other parts of the system in which we live, which +do not seem to correspond with those already enumerated. Before +we proceed to people infinite space, it would be as well, if we +surveyed the surface of the earth we inhabit. What vast deserts +do we find in it; what immense tracks of burning sands! One half +of the globe is perhaps irreclaimable to the use of man. Then +let us think of earthquakes and tempests, of wasting hurricanes, +and the number of vessels, freighted with human beings, that are +yearly buried in the caverns of the ocean. Let us call to mind +in man, the prime ornament of the creation, all the diseases to +which his frame is subject, + + Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, + Intestine stone and ulcer, colic pangs, + Demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy, + And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy, + Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence, + Dropsies, and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums. + +The very idea of our killing, and subsisting upon the flesh of +animals, surely somewhat jars with our conceptions of infinite +benevolence. + +But, when we look at the political history of man, the case is +infinitely worse. This too often seems one tissue of misery and +vice. War, conquest, oppression, tyranny, slavery, +insurrections, massacres, cruel punishments, degrading corporal +infliction, and the extinction of life under the forms of law, +are to be found in almost every page. It is as if an evil demon +were let loose upon us, and whole nations, from one decad of +years to another, were struck with the most pernicious madness. +Certain reasoners tell us that this is owing to the freedom of +will, without which man could not exist. But here we are +presented with an alternative, from which it is impossible for +human understanding to escape. Either God, according to our +ideas of benevolence, would remove evil out of the world, and +cannot; or he can, and will not. If he has the will and not the +power, this argues weakness; if he has the power and not the +will, this seems to be malevolence. + +Let us descend from the great stage of the nations, and look into +the obscurities of private misery. Which of us is happy? What +bitter springs of misery overflow the human heart, and are borne +by us in silence! What cruel disappointments beset us! To what +struggles are we doomed, while we struggle often in vain! The +human heart seems framed, as if to be the capacious receptacle of +all imaginable sorrows. The human frame seems constructed, as if +all its fibres were prepared to sustain varieties of torment. +"In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread, till thou return +to the earth." But how often does that sweat prove ineffective! +There are men of whom sorrow seems to be the destiny, from which +they can never escape. There are hearts, into which by their +constitution it appears as if serenity and content could never +enter, but which are given up to all the furious passions, or are +for ever the prey of repining and depression. + + Ah, little think the gay, licentious proud, + Whom pleasure, power and affluence surround, + How many pine in want! How many shrink + Into the sordid hut, how many drink + The cup of grief, and eat the bitter bread + Of misery! + +And, which aggravates the evil, almost all the worst vices, the +most unprincipled acts, and the darkest passions of the human +mind, are bred out of poverty and distress. Satan, in the Book +of Job, says to the Almighty, "Thou hast blessed the work of thy +servant, and his substance is increased in the land. But put +forth thy hand now, and take away all that he hath; and he will +curse thee to thy face." The prayer of Agar runs, "Feed me with +food convenient for me; lest I be poor, and steal, and take the +name of my God in vain." + +It is with a deep knowledge of the scenes of life, that the +prophet pronounces, "My thoughts are not your thoughts; neither +are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." + +All reflecting persons, who have surveyed the state of the world +in which we live, have been struck with the contrarieties of +sublunary things; and many hypotheses have been invented to solve +the enigma. Some have maintained the doctrine of two principles, +Oromasdes and Arimanius, the genius of good and of evil, who are +perpetually contending with each other which shall have the +greatest sway in the fortunes of the world, and each alternately +acquiring the upper hand. Others have inculcated the theory of +the fall of man, that God at first made all things beautiful and +good, but that man has incurred his displeasure, and been turned +out of the paradise for which he was destined. Hence, they say, +has arisen the corruption of our nature. "There is none that +cloth good, no, not one. That every mouth may be stopped, and +all the world become guilty before God." But the solution that +has been most generally adopted, particularly in later days, is +that of a future state of retribution, in which all the +inequalities of our present condition shall be removed, the tears +of the unfortunate and the sufferer shall be wiped from their +eyes, and their agonies and miseries compensated. This, in other +words, independently of the light of revelation, is to infer +infinite wisdom and benevolence from what we see, and then, +finding the actual phenomena not to correspond with our theories, +to invent something of which we have no knowledge, to supply the +deficiency. + +The astronomer however proceeds from what we see of the globe of +earth, to fashion other worlds of which we have no direct +knowledge. Finding that there is no part of the soil of the +earth into which our wanderings can penetrate, that is not turned +to the account of rational and happy beings, creatures capable of +knowing and adoring their creator, that nature does nothing in +vain, and that the world is full of the evidences of his +unmingled beneficence, according to our narrow and imperfect +ideas of beneficence, (for such ought to be our premises) we +proceed to construct millions of worlds upon the plan we have +imagined. The earth is a globe, the planets are globes, and +several of them larger than our earth: the earth has a moon; +several of the planets have satellites: the globe we dwell in +moves in an orbit round the sun; so do the planets: upon these +premises, and no more, we hold ourselves authorised to affirm +that they contain "myriads of intelligent beings, formed for +endless progression in perfection and felicity." Having gone +thus far, we next find that the fixed stars bear a certain +resemblance to the sun; and, as the sun has a number of planets +attendant on him, so, we say, has each of the fixed stars, +composing all together "ten thousand times ten thousand" +habitable worlds. + +All this is well, so long as we view it as a bold and ingenious +conjecture. On any other subject it would be so regarded; and we +should consider it as reserved for the amusement and +gratification of a fanciful visionary in the hour, when he gives +up the reins to his imagination. But, backed as it is by a +complexity of geometrical right lines and curves, and handed +forth to us in large quartos, stuffed with calculations, it +experiences a very different fortune. We are told that, "by the +knowledge we derive from astronomy, our faculties are enlarged, +our minds exalted, and our understandings clearly convinced, and +affected with the conviction, of the existence, wisdom, power, +goodness, immutability and superintendency of the supreme being; +so that, without an hyperbole, 'an undevout astronomer is +mad[e][70].'" + +[70] Ferguson, Astronomy, Section I. + + +It is singular, how deeply I was impressed with this +representation, while I was a schoolboy, and was so led to +propose a difficulty to the wife of the master. I said, "I find +that we have millions of worlds round us peopled with rational +creatures. I know not that we have any decisive reason for +supposing these creatures more exalted, than the wonderful +species of which we are individuals. We are imperfect; they are +imperfect. We fell; it is reasonable to suppose that they have +fallen also. It became necessary for the second person in the +trinity to take upon him our nature, and by suffering for our +sins to appease the wrath of his father. I am unwilling to +believe that he has less commiseration for the inhabitants of +other planets. But in that case it may be supposed that since +the creation he has been making a circuit of the planets, and +dying on the cross for the sins of rational creatures in +uninterrupted succession." The lady was wiser than I, admonished +me of the danger of being over-inquisitive, and said we should +act more discreetly in leaving those questions to the judgment of +the Almighty. + +But thus far we have reasoned only on one side of the question. +Our pious sentiments have led us to magnify the Lord in all his +works, and, however imperfect the analogy, and however obscure +the conception we can form of the myriads of rational creatures, +all of them no doubt infinitely varied in their nature, their +structure and faculties, yet to view the whole scheme with an +undoubting persuasion of its truth. It is however somewhat in +opposition to the ideas of piety formed by our less adventurous +ancestors, that we should usurp the throne of God, + + Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod, + +and, by means of our telescopes and our calculations, penetrate +into mysteries not originally intended for us. According to the +received Mosaic chronology we are now in the five thousand eight +hundred and thirty-fifth year from the creation: the Samaritan +version adds to this date. It is therefore scarcely in the +spirit of a Christian, that Herschel talks to us of a light, +which must have been two millions of years in reaching the earth. + +Moses describes the operations of the Almighty, in one of the six +days devoted to the work of creation, as being to place "lights +in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day from the night, to +be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and to give +light upon the earth; two great lights, the greater to rule the +day, and the lesser the night; and the stars also." And Christ, +prophesying what is to happen in the latter days, says, "The sun +shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the +stars shall fall from heaven." Whatever therefore be the piety +of the persons, who talk to us of "ten thousand times ten +thousand worlds, all peopled with rational creatures," it +certainly is not a piety in precise accordance with the Christian +scriptures. + + +SECTION IV. + +It is also no more than just, that we should bear in mind the +apparent fitness or otherwise, of these bodies, so far as we are +acquainted with them, for the dwelling-place of rational +creatures. Not to mention the probable extreme coldness of +Jupiter and Saturn, the heat of the sunbeams in the planet +Mercury is understood to be such as that water would unavoidably +boil and be carried away[71], and we can scarcely imagine any +living substance that would not be dissolved and dispersed in +such an atmosphere. The moon, of which, as being so much nearer +to us, we may naturally be supposed to know most, we are told by +the astronomers has no water and no atmosphere, or, if any, such +an atmosphere as would not sustain clouds and ascending vapour. +To our eye, as seen through the telescope, it appears like a +metallic substance, which has been burned by fire, and so reduced +into the ruined and ragged condition in which we seem to behold +it. The sun appears to be still less an appropriate habitation +for rational, or for living creatures, than any of the planets. +The comets, which describe an orbit so exceedingly eccentric, and +are subject to all the excessive vicissitudes of heat and cold, +are, we are told, admirably adapted for a scene of eternal, or of +lengthened punishment for those who have acquitted themselves ill +in a previous state of probation. Buffon is of opinion, that all +the planets in the solar system were once so many portions of our +great luminary, struck off from the sun by the blow of a comet, +and so having received a projectile impulse calculated to carry +them forward in a right line, at the same time that the power of +attraction counteracts this impulse, and gives them that compound +principle of motion which retains them in an orbicular course. +In this sense it may be said that all the planets were suns; +while on the contrary Herschel pronounces, that the sun itself is +a planet, an opake body, richly stored with inhabitants[72]. + +[71] Encyclopaedia Londinensis, Vol. II, p. 355. + +[72] Philosophical Transactions for 1795, p. 68. + + +The modern astronomers go on to account to us for the total +disappearance of a star in certain cases, which, they say, may be +in reality the destruction of a system, such as that of our sun +and its attendant planets, while the appearance of a new star +may, in like manner, be the occasional creation of a new system +of planets. "We ought perhaps," says Herschel, "to look upon +certain clusters of stars, and the destruction of a star now and +then in some thousands of ages, as the very means by which the +whole is preserved and renewed. These clusters may be the +laboratories of the universe, wherein the most salutary remedies +for the decay of the whole are prepared[73]." + +[73] Philosophical Transactions for 1785, p. 217. + + +All this must appear to a sober mind, unbitten by the rage which +grows out of the heat of these new discoverers, to be nothing +less than astronomy run mad. This occasional creation of new +systems and worlds, is in little accordance with the Christian +scriptures, or, I believe, with any sober speculation upon the +attributes of the creator. The astronomer seizes upon some hint +so fine as scarcely by any ingenuity to be arrested, immediately +launches forth into infinite space, and in an instant returns, +and presents us with millions of worlds, each of them peopled +with ten thousand times ten thousand inhabitants. + +We spoke a while since of the apparent unfitness of many of the +heavenly bodies for the reception of living inhabitants. But for +all this these discoverers have a remedy. They remind us how +unlike these inhabitants may be to ourselves, having other organs +than ours, and being able to live in a very different +temperature. "The great heat in the planet Mercury is no +argument against its being inhabited; since the Almighty could as +easily suit the bodies and constitutions of its inhabitants to +the heat of their dwelling, as he has done ours to the +temperature of our earth. And it is very probable that the +people there have such an opinion of us, as we have of the +inhabitants of Jupiter and Saturn; namely, that we must be +intolerably cold, and have very little light at so great a +distance from the sun." + +These are the remarks of Ferguson[74]. One of our latest +astronomers expresses himself to the same purpose. + +[74] Astronomy, Section 22. + + +"We have no argument against the planets being inhabited by +rational beings, and consequently by witnesses of the creator's +power, magnificence and benevolence, unless it be said that some +are much nearer the sun than the earth is, and therefore must be +uninhabitable from heat, and those more distant from cold. +Whatever objection this may be against their being inhabited by +rational beings, of an organisation similar to those on the +earth, it can have little force, when urged with respect to +rational beings in general. + +"But we may examine without indulging too much in conjecture, +whether it be not possible that the planets may be possessed by +rational beings, and contain animals and vegetables, even little +different from those with which we are familiar. + +"Is the sun the principal cause of the temperature of the earth? +We have reason to suppose that it is not. The mean temperature +of the earth, at a small depth from the surface, seems constant +in summer and in winter, and is probably coeval with its first +formation. + +"At the planet Mercury, the direct heat of the sun, or its power +of causing heat, is six times greater than with us. If we +suppose the mean temperature of Mercury to be the same as of the +earth, and the planet to be surrounded with an atmosphere, denser +than that of the earth, less capable of transmitting heat, or +rather the influence of the sun to extricate heat, and at the +same time more readily conducting it to keep up an evenness of +temperature, may we not suppose the planet Mercury fit for the +habitation of men, and the production of vegetables similar to +our own? + +"At the Georgium Sidus, the direct influence of the sun is 360 +times less than at the earth, and the sun is there seen at an +angle not much greater than that under which we behold Venus, +when nearest. Yet may not the mean temperature of the Georgium +Sidus be nearly the same as that of the earth? May not its +atmosphere more easily transmit the influence of the sun, and may +not the matter of heat be more copiously combined, and more +readily extricated, than with us? Whence changes of season +similar to our own may take place. Even in the comets we may +suppose no great change of temperature takes place, as we know of +no cause which will deprive them of their mean temperature, and +particularly if we suppose, that on their approach towards the +sun, there is a provision for their atmosphere becoming denser. +The tails they exhibit, when in the neighbourhood of the sun, +seem in some measure to countenance this idea. + +"We can hardly suppose the sun, a body three hundred times larger +than all the planets together, was created only to preserve the +periodic motions, and give light and heat to the planets. Many +astronomers have thought that its atmosphere only is luminous, +and its body opake, and probably of the same constitution as the +planets. Allowing therefore that its luminous atmosphere only +extricates heat, we see no reason why the sun itself should not +be inhabited[75]." + +[75] Brinkley, Elements of Astronomy, Chap. IX. + + +There is certainly no end to the suppositions that may be made by +an ingenious astronomer. May we not suppose that we might do +nearly as well altogether without the sun, which it appears is at +present of little use to us as to warmth and heat? As to light, +the great creator might, for aught we know, find a substitute; +feelers, for example, endued with a certain acuteness of sense: +or, at all events, the least imaginable degree of light might +answer every purpose to organs adapted to this kind of twilight. +In that way the inhabitants of the Georgium Sidus are already +sufficiently provided for; they appear to have as little benefit +of the light as of the heat of the sun. How the satellites of +the distant planets are supplied with light is a mystery, since +their principals have scarcely any. Unless indeed, like the sun, +they have a luminous atmosphere, competent to enlighten a whole +system, themselves being opake. But in truth light in a greater +or less degree seems scarcely worthy of a thought, since the +inhabitants of the planet Mercury have not their eyes put out by +a light, scarcely inferior in radiance to that which is reflected +by those plates of burning brass, with which tyrants in some ages +were accustomed to extinguish the sense of vision in their +unfortunate victims. The comets also must be a delectable +residence; that of 1680 completing its orbit in 576 years, and +being at its greatest distance about eleven thousand two hundred +millions of miles from the sun, and at its least within less than +a third part of the sun's semi-diameter from its surface[76]. +They must therefore have delightful vicissitudes of light and the +contrary; for, as to heat, that is already provided for. +Archdeacon Brinkley's postulate is, that these bodies are +"possessed by rational beings, and contain animals and +vegetables, little different from those with which we are +familiar." + +[76] Ferguson, Section 93. + + +Now the only reason we have to believe in these extraordinary +propositions, is the knowledge we possess of the divine +attributes. From the force of this consideration it is argued +that God will not leave any sensible area of matter unoccupied, +and therefore that it is impossible that such vast orbs as we +believe surround us even to the extent of infinite space, should +not be "richly stored with rational beings, the capable witnesses +of his power, magnificence and benevolence." All difficulties +arising from the considerations of light, and heat, and a +thousand other obstacles, are to give way to the perfect insight +we have as to how the deity will conduct himself in every case +that can be proposed. I am not persuaded that this is agreeable +to religion; and I am still less convinced that it is compatible +with the sobriety and sedateness of common sense. + +It is with some degree of satisfaction that I perceive lord +Brougham, the reputed author of the Preliminary Discourse to the +Library of Useful Knowledge, at the same time that he states the +dimensions and distances of the heavenly bodies in the usual way, +says not a word of their inhabitants. + +It is somewhat remarkable that, since the commencement of the +present century, four new planets have been added to those +formerly contained in the enumeration of the solar system. They +lie between the planets Mars and Jupiter, and have been named +Vesta, Juno, Ceres and Pallas. Brinkley speaks of them in this +manner. "The very small magnitudes of the new planets Ceres and +Pallas, and their nearly equal distances from the sun, induced +Dr. Olbers, who discovered Pallas in 1802, nearly in the same +place where he had observed Ceres a few months before, to +conjecture that they were fragments of a larger planet, which had +by some unknown cause been broken to pieces. It follows from the +law of gravity, by which the planets are retained in their +orbits, that each fragment would again, after every revolution +about the sun, pass nearly through the place in which the planet +was when the catastrophe happened, and besides the orbit of each +fragment would intersect the continuation of the line joining +this place and the sun. Thence it was easy to ascertain the two +particular regions of the heavens through which all these +fragments would pass. Also, by carefully noting the small stars +thereabout, and examining them from time to time, it might be +expected that more of the fragments would be discovered.--M. +Harding discovered the planet Juno in one of these regions; and +Dr. Olbers himself also, by carefully examining them [the small +stars] from time to time, discovered Vesta." + +These additions certainly afford us a new epoch in the annals of +the solar system, and of astronomy itself. It is somewhat +remarkable, that Herschel, who in the course of his observations +traced certain nebulae, the light from which must have been two +millions of years in reaching the earth, should never have +remarked these planets, which, so to speak, lay at his feet. It +reminds one of Esop's astrologer, who, to the amusement of his +ignorant countrymen, while he was wholly occupied in surveying +the heavens, suddenly found himself plunged in a pit. These new +planets also we are told are fragments of a larger planet: how +came this larger planet never to have been discovered? + +Till Herschel's time we were content with six planets and the +sun, making up the cabalistical number seven. He added another. +But these four new ones entirely derange the scheme. The +astronomers have not yet had opportunity to digest them into +their places, and form new worlds of them. This is all +unpleasant. They are, it seems, "fragments of a larger planet, +which had by some unknown cause been broken to pieces." They +therefore are probably not inhabited. How does this correspond +with the goodness of God, which will suffer no mass of matter in +his creation to remain unoccupied? Herschel talks at his ease of +whole systems, suns with all their attendant planets, being +consigned to destruction. But here we have a catastrophe +happening before our eyes, and cannot avoid being shocked by it. +"God does nothing in vain." For which of his lofty purposes has +this planet been broken to pieces, and its fragments left to +deform the system of which we are inhabitants; at least to humble +the pride of man, and laugh to scorn his presumption? Still they +perform their revolutions, and obey the projectile and +gravitating forces, which have induced us to people ten thousand +times ten thousand worlds. It is time, that we should learn +modesty, to revere in silence the great cause to which the +universe is indebted for its magnificence, its beauty and +harmony, and to acknowledge that we do not possess the key that +should unlock the mysteries of creation. + +One of the most important lessons that can be impressed on the +human mind, is that of self-knowledge and a just apprehension of +what it is that we are competent to achieve. We can do much. We +are capable of much knowledge and much virtue. We have patience, +perseverance and subtlety. We can put forth considerable +energies, and nerve ourselves to resist great obstacles and much +suffering. Our ingenuity is various and considerable. We can +form machines, and erect mighty structures. The invention of man +for the ease of human life, and for procuring it a multitude of +pleasures and accommodations, is truly astonishing. We can +dissect the human frame, and anatomise the mind. We can study +the scene of our social existence, and make extraordinary +improvements in the administration of justice, and in securing to +ourselves that germ of all our noblest virtues, civil and +political liberty. We can study the earth, its strata, its soil, +its animals, and its productions, "from the cedar that is in +Lebanon, to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall." + +But man is not omnipotent. If he aspires to be worthy of honour, +it is necessary that he should compute his powers, and what it is +they are competent to achieve. The globe of earth, with "all +that is therein," is our estate and our empire. Let us be +content with that which we have. It were a pitiful thing to see +so noble a creature struggling in a field, where it is impossible +for him to distinguish himself, or to effect any thing real. +There is no situation in which any one can appear more little and +ludicrous, than when he engages in vain essays, and seeks to +accomplish that, which a moment's sober thought would teach him +was utterly hopeless. + +Even astronomy is to a certain degree our own. We can measure +the course of the sun, and the orbits of the planets. We can +calculate eclipses. We can number the stars, assign to them +their places, and form them into what we call constellations. +But, when we pretend to measure millions of miles in the heavens, +and to make ourselves acquainted with the inhabitants of ten +thousand times ten thousand worlds and the accommodations which +the creator has provided for their comfort and felicity, we +probably engage in something more fruitless and idle, than the +pigmy who should undertake to bend the bow of Ulysses, or strut +and perform the office of a warrior clad in the armour of +Achilles. + +How beautiful is the "firmament; this majestical roof fretted +with golden fire!" Let us beware how we mar the magnificent scene +with our interpolations and commentaries! Simplicity is of the +essence of the truly great. Let us look at the operations of +that mighty power from which we ourselves derive our existence, +with humility and reverential awe! It may well become us. Let +us not "presume into the heaven of heavens," unbidden, +unauthorised guests! Let us adopt the counsel of the apostle, +and allow no man to "spoil us through vain philosophy." The +business of human life is serious; the useful investigations in +which we may engage are multiplied. It is excellent to see a +rational being conscious of his genuine province, and not idly +wasting powers adapted for the noblest uses in unmeasured essays +and ill-concocted attempts. + + + +ESSAY XXII. +OF THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE. + +In the preceding Essay I have referred to the theory of Berkeley, +whose opinion is that there is no such thing as matter in the +sense in which it is understood by the writers on natural +philosophy, and that the whole of our experience in that respect +is the result of a system of accidents without an intelligible +subject, by means of which antecedents and consequents flow on +for ever in a train, the past succession of which man is able to +record, and the future in many cases he is qualified to predict +and to act upon. + +An argument more palpable and popular than that of Berkeley in +favour of the same hypothesis, might be deduced from the points +recapitulated in that Essay as delivered by Locke and Newton. If +what are vulgarly denominated the secondary qualities of matter +are in reality nothing but sensations existing in the human mind, +then at any rate matter is a very different thing from what it is +ordinarily apprehended to be. To which I add, in the second +place, that, if matter, as is stated by Newton, consists in so +much greater a degree of pores than solid parts, that the +absolute particles contained in the solar system might, for aught +we know, he contained in a nutshell[77], and that no two ever +touched each other, or approached so near that they might not be +brought nearer, provided a sufficient force could be applied for +that purpose,--and if, as Priestley teaches, all that we observe +is the result of successive spheres of attraction and repulsion, +the centre of which is a mathematical point only, we then +certainly come very near to a conclusion, which should banish +matter out of the theatre of real existences[78]. + +[77] See above, Essay XXI. + +[78] See above, Essay XXI. + + +But the extreme subtleties of human intellect are perhaps of +little further use, than to afford an amusement to persons of +curious speculation, and whose condition in human society +procures them leisure for such enquiries. The same thing happens +here, as in the subject of my Twelfth Essay, on the Liberty of +Human Actions. The speculator in his closet is one man: the +same person, when he comes out of his retirement, and mixes in +intercourse with his fellow-creatures, is another man. The +necessarian, when he reasons on the everlasting concatenation of +antecedents and consequents, proves to his own apprehension +irrefragably, that he is a passive instrument, acted upon, and +acting upon other things, in turn, and that he can never +disengage himself from the operation of the omnipotent laws of +physical nature, and the impulses of other men with whom he is +united in the ties of society. But no sooner does this acute and +ingenious reasoner come into active life and the intercourse of +his fellowmen, than all these fine-drawn speculations vanish from +his recollection. He regards himself and other men as beings +endowed with a liberty of action, as possessed of a proper +initiative power, and free to do a thing or not to do it, without +being subject to the absolute and irresistible constraint of +motives. It is from this internal and indefeasible sense of +liberty, that we draw all our moral energies and enthusiasm, that +we persevere heroically in defiance of obstacles and +discouragements, that we praise or blame the actions of others, +and admire the elevated virtues of the best of our +contemporaries, and of those whose achievements adorn the page of +history. + +It is in a manner of precisely the same sort as that which +prevails in the philosophical doctrines of liberty and necessity, +that we find ourselves impelled to feel on the question of the +existence of the material universe. Berkeley, and as many +persons as are persuaded by his or similar reasonings, feel +satisfied in speculation that there is no such thing as matter in +the sense in which it is understood by the writers on natural +philosophy, and that all our notions of the external and actual +existence of the table, the chair, and the other material +substances with which we conceive ourselves to be surrounded, of +woods, and mountains, and rivers, and seas, are mere prejudice +and misconception. All this is very well in the closet, and as +long as we are involved in meditation, and remain abstracted from +action, business, and the exertion of our limbs and corporal +faculties. But it is too fine for the realities of life. +Berkeley, and the most strenuous and spiritualised of his +followers, no sooner descend from the high tower of their +speculations, submit to the necessities of their nature, and mix +in the business of the world, than they become impelled, as +strongly as the necessarian in the question of the liberty of +human actions, not only to act like other men, but even to feel +just in the same manner as if they had never been acquainted with +these abstractions. A table then becomes absolutely a table, and +a chair a chair: they are "fed with the same food, hurt by the +same weapons, and warmed and cooled by the same summer and +winter," as other men: and they make use of the refreshments +which nature requires, with as true an orthodoxy, and as +credulous a temper, as he who was never assailed with such +refinements. Nature is too strong, to be prevailed on to retire, +and give way to the authority of definitions and syllogistical +deduction. + +But, when we have granted all this, it is however a mistake to +say, that these "subtleties of human intellect are of little +further use, than to afford an amusement to persons of curious +speculation[79]." We have seen, in the case of the doctrine of +philosophical necessity[80], that, though it can never form a +rule for the intercourse between man and man, it may nevertheless +be turned to no mean advantage. It is calculated to inspire us +with temperance and toleration. It tends impressively to evince +to us, that this scene of things is but like the shadows which +pass before us in a magic lanthorn, and that, after all, men are +but the tools, not the masters, of their fate. It corrects the +illusions of life, much after the same manner as the spectator of +a puppet-shew is enlightened, who should be taken within the +curtain, and shewn how the wires are pulled by the master, which +produce all the turmoil and strife that before riveted our +attention. It is good for him who would arrive at all the +improvement of which our nature is capable, at one time to take +his place among the literal beholders of the drama, and at +another to go behind the scenes, and remark the deceptions in +their original elements, and the actors in their proper and +natural costume. + +[79] See above, Essay XXII. + +[80] See above, Essay XII. + + +And, as in the question of the liberty of human actions, so in +that of the reality of the material universe, it is a privilege +not to be despised, that we are so formed as to be able to +dissect the subject that is submitted to our examination, and to +strip the elements of which this sublunary scene is composed, of +the disguise in which they present themselves to the vulgar +spectator. It is little, after all, that we are capable to know; +and the man of heroic mind and generous enterprise, will not +refuse the discoveries that are placed within his reach. The +subtleties of grammar are as the porch, which leads from the +knowledge of words to the knowledge of things. The subtleties of +mathematics defecate the grossness of our apprehension, and +supply the elements of a sounder and severer logic. And in the +same manner the faculty which removes the illusions of external +appearance, and enables us to "look into the seeds of time," is +one which we are bound to estimate at its genuine value. The +more we refine our faculties, other things equal, the wiser we +grow: we are the more raised above the thickness of the +atmosphere that envelops our fellow-mortals, and are made +partakers of a nature superhuman and divine. + +There is a curious question that has risen out of this +proposition of Berkeley, of the supposed illusion we suffer in +our conceptions of the material universe. It has been said, +"Well then, I am satisfied that the chairs, the tables, and the +other material substances with which I conceive myself to be +surrounded, are not what they appear to be, but are merely an +eternal chain of antecedents and consequents, going on according +to what Leibnitz calls a 'preestablished harmony,' and thus +furnishing the ground of the speculations which mortals cherish, +and the motives of their proceeding. But, if thus, in the +ordinary process of human affairs, we believe in matter, when in +reality there is no such thing as matter, how shall we pronounce +of mind, and the things which happen to us in our seeming +intercourse with our fellow-men, and in the complexities of love +and hatred, of kindred and friendship, of benevolence and +misanthropy, of robbery and murder, and of the wholesale massacre +of thousands of human beings which are recorded in the page of +history? We absolutely know nothing of the lives and actions of +others but through the medium of material impulse. And, if you +take away matter, the bodies of our fellow-men, does it not +follow by irresistible consequence that all knowledge of their +minds is taken away also? Am not I therefore (the person engaged +in reading the present Essay) the only being in existence, an +entire universe to myself?" + +Certainly this is a very different conclusion from any that +Berkeley ever contemplated. In the very title of the Treatise in +which his notions on this subject are unfolded, he professes his +purpose to be to remove "the grounds of scepticism, atheism and +irreligion." Berkeley was a sincere Christian, and a man of the +most ingenuous dispositions. Pope, in the Epilogue to his +Satires, does not hesitate to ascribe to him "every virtue under +heaven." He was for twenty years a prelate of the Protestant +church. And, though his personal sentiments were in the highest +degree philanthropical and amiable, yet, in his most diffusive +production, entitled The Minute Philosopher, he treats "those who +are called Free Thinkers" with a scorn and disdain, scarcely to +be reconciled with the spirit of Christian meekness. + +There are examples however, especially in the fields of +controversy, where an adventurous speculatist has been known to +lay down premises and principles, from which inferences might be +fairly deduced, incompatible with the opinions entertained by him +who delivered them. It may therefore be no unprofitable research +to enquire how far the creed of the non-existence of matter is to +be regarded as in truth and reality countenancing the inference +which has just been recited. + +The persons then, who refine with Berkeley upon the system of +things so far, as to deny that there is any such thing as matter +in the sense in which it is understood by the writers on natural +philosophy, proceed on the ground of affirming that we have no +reason to believe that the causes of our sensations have an +express resemblance to the sensations themselves[81]. That which +gives us a sensation of colour is not itself coloured: and the +same may be affirmed of the sensations of hot and cold, of sweet +and bitter, and of odours offensive or otherwise. The +immaterialist proceeds to say, that what we call matter has been +strewn to be so exceedingly porous, that, for any thing we know, +all the solid particles in the universe might be contained in a +nutshell, that there is no such thing in the external world as +actual contact, and that no two particles of matter were ever so +near to each other, but that they might be brought nearer, if a +sufficient force could be applied for that purpose. From these +premises it seems to follow with sufficient evidence, that the +causes of our sensations, so far as the material universe is +concerned, bear no express resemblance to the sensations +themselves. + +[81] See above, Essay XXI. + + +How then does the question stand with relation to mind? Are +those persons who deny the existence of matter, reduced, if they +would be consistent in their reasonings, to deny, each man for +himself, that he has any proper evidence of the existence of +other minds than his own? + +He denies, while he has the sensation of colour, that there +exists colour out of himself, unless in thinking and percipient +beings constituted in a manner similar to that in which he is +constituted. And the same of the sensations of hot and cold, +sweet and bitter, and odours offensive or otherwise. He affirms, +while he has the sensation of length, breadth and thickness, that +there is no continuous substance out of himself, possessing the +attributes of length, breadth and thickness in any way similar to +the sensation of which he is conscious. He professes therefore +that he has no evidence, arising from his observation of what we +call matter, of the actual existence of a material world. He +looks into himself, and all he finds is sensation; but sensation +cannot be a property of inert matter. There is therefore no +assignable analogy between the causes of his sensations, whatever +they may be, and the sensations themselves; and the material +world, such as we apprehend it, is the mere creature of his own +mind. + +Let us next consider how this question stands as to the +conceptions he entertains respecting the minds of other men. +That which gives him the sensation of colour, is not any thing +coloured out of himself; and that which gives him the sensation +of length, breadth and thickness, is not any thing long, broad +and thick in a manner corresponding with the impression he +receives. There is nothing in the nature of a parallel, a type +and its archetype, between that which is without him and that +which is within, the impresser and the impression. This is the +point supposed to be established by Locke and Newton, and by +those who have followed the reasonings of these philosophers into +their remotest consequences. + +But the case is far otherwise in the impressions we receive +respecting the minds of other men. In colour it has been proved +by these authors that there is no express correspondence and +analogy between the cause of the sensation and the sensation. +They are not part and counterpart. But in mind there is a +precise resemblance and analogy between the conceptions we are +led to entertain respecting other men, and what we know of +ourselves. I and my associate, or fellow-man, are like two +instruments of music constructed upon the same model. We have +each of us, so to speak, the three great divisions of sound, +base, tenor and treble. We have each the same number of keys, +capable of being struck, consecutively or with alternations, at +the will of the master. We can utter the same sound or series of +sounds, or sounds of a different character, but which respond to +each other. My neighbour therefore being of the same nature as +myself, what passes within me may be regarded as amounting to a +commanding evidence that he is a real being, having a proper and +independent existence. + +There is further something still more impressive and irresistible +in the notices I receive respecting the minds of other men. The +sceptics whose reasonings I am here taking into consideration, +admit, each man for himself, the reality of his own existence. +There is such a thing therefore as human nature; for he is a +specimen of it. Now the idea of human nature, or of man, is a +very complex thing. He is in the first place the subject of +sensible impressions, however these impressions are communicated +to him. He has the faculties of thinking and feeling. He is +subject to the law of the association of ideas, or, in other +words, any one idea existing in his mind has a tendency to call +up the ideas of other things which have been connected with it in +his first experience. He has, be it delusive or otherwise, the +sense of liberty of action. + +But we will go still further into detail as to the nature of man. + +Our lives are carried forward by the intervention of what we call +meat, drink and sleep. We are liable to the accidents of health +and sickness. We are alternately the recipients of joy and +sorrow, of cheerfulness and melancholy. Our passions are excited +by similar means, whether of love or hatred, complacency or +indignation, sympathy or resentment. I could fill many pages +with a description of the properties or accidents, which belong +to man as such, or to which he is liable. + +Now with all these each man is acquainted in the sphere of his +inward experience, whether he is a single being standing by +himself, or is an individual belonging to a numerous species. + +Observe then the difference between my acquaintance with the +phenomena of the material universe, and with the individuals of +my own species. The former say nothing to me; they are a series +of events and no more; I cannot penetrate into their causes; that +which gives rise to my sensations, may or may not be similar to +the sensations themselves. The follower of Berkeley or Newton +has satisfied himself in the negative. + +But the case is very different in my intercourse with my +fellow-men. Agreeably to the statement already made I know the +reality of human nature; for I feel the particulars that +constitute it within myself. The impressions I receive from that +intercourse say something to me; for they talk to me of beings +like myself. My own existence becomes multiplied in infinitum. +Of the possibility of matter I know nothing; but with the +possibility of mind I am acquainted; for I am myself an example. +I am amazed at the consistency and systematic succession of the +phenomena of the material universe; though I cannot penetrate the +veil which presents itself to my grosser sense, nor see effects +in their causes. But I can see, in other words, I have the most +cogent reasons to believe in, the causes of the phenomena that +occur in my apparent intercourse with my fellow-men. What +solution so natural, as that they are produced by beings like +myself, the duplicates, with certain variations, of what I feel +within me? + +The belief in the reality of matter explains nothing. Supposing +it to exist, if Newton is right, no particle of extraneous matter +ever touched the matter of my body; and therefore it is not just +to regard it as the cause of my sensations. It would amount to +no more than two systems going on at the same time by a +preestablished harmony, but totally independent of and disjointed +from each other. + +But the belief in the existence of our fellow-men explains much. +It makes level before us the wonder of the method of their +proceedings, and affords an obvious reason why they should be in +so many respects like our own. If I dismiss from my creed the +existence of inert matter, I lose nothing. The phenomena, the +train of antecedents and consequents, remain as before; and this +is all that I am truly concerned with. But take away the +existence of my fellow-men; and you reduce all that is, and all +that I experience, to a senseless mummery. "You take my life, +taking the thing whereon I live." + +Human nature, and the nature of mind, are to us a theme of +endless investigation. "The proper study of mankind is man." +All the subtlety of metaphysics, or (if there be men captious and +prejudiced enough to dislike that term) the science of ourselves, +depends upon it. The science of morals hangs upon the actions of +men, and the effects they produce upon our brother-men, in a +narrower or a wider circle. The endless, and inexpressibly +interesting, roll of history relies for its meaning and its +spirit upon the reality and substance of the subjects of which it +treats. Poetry, and all the wonders and endless varieties that +imagination creates, have this for their solution and their soul. + +Sympathy is the only reality of which we are susceptible; it is +our heart of hearts: and, if the world had been "one entire and +perfect chrysolite," without this it would have been no more than +one heap of rubbish. + +Observe the difference between what we know of the material +world, and what of the intellectual. The material goes on for +ever according to certain laws that admit of no discrimination. +They proceed upon a first principle, an impulse given them from +the beginning of things. Their effects are regulated by +something that we call their nature: fire burns; water +suffocates; the substances around us that we call solid, depend +for their effects, when put in motion, upon momentum and gravity. + +The principle that regulates the dead universe, "acts by general, +not by partial laws." + + When the loose mountain trembles from on high, + Shall gravitation cease, if you go by? + +No: the chain of antecedents and consequents proceeds in this +respect for ever the same. The laws of what we call the material +world continue unvaried. And, when the vast system of things was +first set in motion, every thing, so far as depends on inert +matter, was determined to the minutest particle, even to the end +of time. + +The material world, or that train of antecedents and consequents +which we understand by that term, goes on for ever in a train +agreeably to the impulse previously given. It is deaf and +inexorable. It is unmoved by the consideration of any accidents +and miseries that may result, and unalterable. But man is a +source of events of a very different nature. He looks to +results, and is governed by views growing out of the +contemplation of them. He acts in a way diametrically opposite +to the action of inert matter, and "turns, and turns, and turns +again," at the impulse of the thought that strikes him, the +appetite that prompts, the passions that move, and the effects +that he anticipates. It is therefore in a high degree +unreasonable, to make that train of inferences which may satisfy +us on the subject of material phenomena, a standard of what we +ought to think respecting the phenomena of mind. + +It is further worthy of our notice to recollect, that the same +reasonings which apply to our brethren of mankind, apply also to +the brute creation. They, like ourselves, act from motives; that +is, the elections they form are adopted by them for the sake of +certain consequences they expect to see result from them. +Whatever becomes therefore of the phenomena of what we call dead +matter, we are here presented with tribes of being, susceptible +of pleasure and pain, of hope and fear, of regard and resentment. + +How beautifully does this conviction vary the scene of things! +What a source to us is the animal creation, of amusement, of +curious observations upon the impulses of inferior intellect, of +the exhaustless varieties of what we call instinct, of the care +we can exercise for their accommodation and welfare, and of the +attachment and affection we win from them in return! If I travel +alone through pathless deserts, if I journey from the rising to +the setting sun, with no object around me but nature's +desolation, or the sublime, the magnificent and the exuberant +scenery she occasionally presents, still I have that noble +animal, the horse, and my faithful dog, the companions of my +toil, and with whom, when my solitude would otherwise become +insufferable, I can hold communion, and engage in dumb dialogues +of sentiment and affection. + +I have heard of a man, who, talking to his friend on the subject +of these speculations, said, "What then, are you so poor and +pusillanimous a creature, that you could not preserve your +serenity, be perfectly composed and content, and hold on your way +unvaried, though you were convinced that you were the only real +being in existence, and all the rest were mere phantasies and +shadows?" + +If I had been the person to whom this speech was addressed, I +should have frankly acknowledged, "I am the poor and +pusillanimous creature you are disposed to regard with so much +scorn." + +To adopt the sententious language of the Bible, "It is not good +for man to be alone." All our faculties and attributes bear +relation to, and talk to us of, other beings like ourselves. We +might indeed eat, drink and sleep, that is, submit to those +necessities which we so denominate, without thinking of any thing +beyond ourselves; for these are the demands of our nature, and we +know that we cannot subsist without them. We might make use of +the alternate conditions of exercise and repose. + +But the life of our lives would be gone. As far as we bore in +mind the creed we had adopted, of our single existence, we could +neither love nor hate. Sympathy would be a solemn mockery. We +could not communicate; for the being to whom our communication +was addressed we were satisfied was a non-entity. We could not +anticipate the pleasure or pain, the joy or sorrow, of another; +for that other had no existence. We should be in a worse +condition than Robinson Crusoe in the desolate island; for he +believed in the existence of other men, and hoped and trusted +that he should one day again enter into human society. We should +be in a worse condition than Robinson Crusoe; for he at least was +unannoyed in his solitude; while we are perpetually and per force +intruded on, like a delirious man, by visions which we know to be +unreal, but which we are denied the power to deliver ourselves +from. We have no motive to any of the great and cardinal +functions of human life; for there is no one in being, that we +can benefit, or that we can affect. Study is nothing to us; for +we have no use for it. Even science is unsatisfactory; unless we +can communicate it by word or writing, can converse upon it, and +compare notes with our neighbour. History is nothing; for there +were no Greeks and no Romans; no freemen and no slaves; no kings +and no subjects; no despots, nor victims of their tyranny; no +republics, nor states immerged in brutal and ignominious +servitude. Life must be inevitably a burthen to us, a dreary, +unvaried, motiveless existence; and death must be welcomed, as +the most desirable blessing that can visit us. It is impossible +indeed that we should always recollect this our, by supposition, +real situation; but, as often as we did, it would come over us +like a blight, withering all the prospects of our industry, or +like a scirocco, unbracing the nerves of our frame, and +consigning us to the most pitiable depression. + +Thus far I have allowed myself to follow the refinements of those +who profess to deny the existence of the material universe. But +it is satisfactory to come back to that persuasion, which, from +whatever cause it is derived, is incorporated with our very +existence, and can never be shaken off by us. Our senses are too +powerful in their operation, for it to be possible for us to +discard them, and to take as their substitute, in active life, +and in the earnestness of pursuit, the deductions of our logical +faculty, however well knit and irresistible we may apprehend them +to be. Speculation and common sense are at war on this point; +and however we may "think with the learned," and follow the +abstrusenesses of the philosopher, in the sequestered hour of our +meditation, we must always act, and even feel, "with the vulgar," +when we come abroad into the world. + +It is however no small gratification to the man of sober mind, +that, from what has here been alleged, it seems to follow, that +untutored mind, and the severest deductions of philosophy, agree +in that most interesting of our concerns, our intercourse with +our fellow-creatures. The inexorable reasoner, refining on the +reports of sense, may dispose, as he pleases, of the chair, the +table, and the so called material substances around him. He may +include the whole solid matter of the universe in a nutshell, or +less than a nutshell. But he cannot deprive me of that greatest +of all consolations, the sustaining pillar of my existence, "the +cordial drop Heaven in our cup has thrown,"--the intercourse of +my fellow-creatures. When we read history, the subjects of which +we read are realities; they do not "come like shadows, so +depart;" they loved and acted in sober earnest; they sometimes +perpetrated crimes; but they sometimes also achieved illustrious +deeds, which angels might look down from their exalted abodes and +admire. We are not deluded with mockeries. The woman I love, +and the man to whom I swear eternal friendship, are as much +realities as myself. If I relieve the poor, and assist the +progress of genius and virtuous designs struggling with fearful +discouragements, I do something upon the success of which I may +safely congratulate myself. If I devote my energies to enlighten +my fellow-creatures, to detect the weak places in our social +institutions, to plead the cause of liberty, and to invite others +to engage in noble actions and unite in effecting the most solid +and unquestionable improvements, I erect to my name an eternal +monument; or I do something better than this,--secure inestimable +advantage to the latest posterity, the benefit of which they +shall enjoy, long after the very name of the author shall, with a +thousand other things great and small, have been swallowed up in +the gulph of insatiable oblivion. + + + +ESSAY XXIII. +OF HUMAN VIRTUE. THE EPILOGUE. + +The life of man is divided into many stages; and we shall not +form a just estimate of our common nature, if we do not to a +certain degree pass its successive periods in review, and observe +it in its commencement, its progress, and its maturity. + +It has been attempted to be established in an early part of the +present volume[82], that all men, idiots and extraordinary cases +being put out of the question, are endowed with talents, which, +if rightly directed, would shew them to be apt, adroit, +intelligent and acute, in the walk for which their organisation +especially fitted them. We are bound therefore, particularly in +the morning of life, to consider every thing that presents itself +to us in the human form, with deference and attention. + +[82] See above, Essay III. + + +"God," saith the Preacher, "made man upright; but he hath sought +out many inventions." There is something loose and difficult of +exposition in this statement; but we shall find an important +truth hid beneath its obscurity. + +Junius Brutus, in the play, says to his son, + + I like thy frame: the fingers of the Gods + I see have left their mastery upon thee; + And the majestic prints distinct appear. + +Such is the true description of every well-formed and healthful +infant that is born into the world. + +He is placed on the threshold of existence; and an eventful +journey is open before him. For the first four or five years of +life indeed he has little apprehension of the scenes that await +him. But a child of quick apprehension early begins to have +day-dreams, and to form imaginations of the various chances that +may occur to him, and the things he shall have to do, when, +according to the language of the story-books, he "goes out to +seek his fortune." + +"God made man upright." Every child that is born, has within him +a concealed magazine of excellence. His heart beats for every +thing that is lovely and good; and whatever is set before him of +that sort in honest colours, rouses his emulation. By how many +tokens does he prove himself worthy of our approbation and +love--the unaffected and ingenuous sobriety with which he listens +to what addresses itself to his attention, the sweetness of his +smile, his hearty laugh, the clear, bell tones of his voice, his +sudden and assured impulses, and his bounding step! + +To his own heart he promises well of himself. Like Lear in the +play, he says, "I will do such things!--What they are, yet I know +not." But he is assured, frank and light-spirited. He thinks of +no disguise. He "wears his heart upon his sleeve." He looks in +the face of his seniors with the glistening eye of confidence, +and expects to encounter sympathy and encouragement in return. +Such is man, as he comes from the hands of his maker. + +Thus prepared, he is turned into the great field of society. +Here he meets with much that he had not anticipated, and with +many rebuffs. He is taught that he must accommodate his temper +and proceedings to the expectations and prejudices of those +around him. He must be careful to give no offence. With how +many lessons, not always the most salutary and ingenuous, is this +maxim pregnant! It calls on the neophyte to bear a wary eye, and +to watch the first indications of disapprobation and displeasure +in those among whom his lot is cast. It teaches him to suppress +the genuine emotions of his soul. It informs him that he is not +always to yield to his own impulses, but that he must "stretch +forth his hands to another, and be carried whither he would not." + +It recommends to him falseness, and to be the thing in outward +appearance that he is not in his heart. + +Still however he goes on. He shuts up his thoughts in his bosom; +but they are not exterminated. On the contrary he broods over +them with genial warmth; and the less they are exposed to the eye +of day, the more perseveringly are they cherished. Perhaps he +chooses some youthful confident of his imaginings: and the +effect of this is, that he pours out his soul with uncontrolable +copiousness, and with the fervour of a new and unchecked +conceiving. It is received with answering warmth; or, if there +is any deficiency in the sympathy of his companion, his mind is +so earnest and full, that he does not perceive it. By and by, it +may be, he finds that the discovery he had made of a friend, a +brother of his soul, is, like so many of the visions of this +world, hollow and fallacious. He grasped, as he thought, a jewel +of the first water; and it turns out to be a vulgar pebble. No +matter: he has gained something by the communication. He has +heard from his own lips the imaginings of his mind shaped into +articulate air; they grew more definite and distinct as he +uttered them; they came by the very act to have more of reality, +to be more tangible. He shakes off the ill-assorted companion +that only encumbered him, and springs away in his race, more +light of heart, and with a step more assured, than ever. + +By and by he becomes a young man. And, whatever checks he may +have received before, it usually happens that all his hopes and +projects return to him now with recruited strength. He has no +longer a master. He no longer crouches to the yoke of +subjection, and is directed this way and that at the judgment of +another. Liberty is at all times dear to the free-soured and +ingenuous; but never so much so, as when we wear it in its full +gloss and newness. He never felt before, that he was sui juris, +that he might go whithersoever he would, without asking leave, +without consulting any other director than the law of his own +mind. It is nearly at the same season that he arrives at the +period of puberty, at the stature, and in a certain degree at the +strength, which he is destined to attain. He is by general +consent admitted to be at years of discretion. + +Though I have put all these things together, they do not, in the +course of nature, all come at the same time. It is a memorable +period, when the ingenuous youth is transferred from the trammels +of the schoolmaster to the residence of a college. It was at the +age of seventeen that, according to the custom of Rome, the +youthful citizen put on the manly gown, and was introduced into +the forum. Even in college-life, there is a difference in the +privileges of the mere freshman, and of the youth who has already +completed the first half of his period in the university. + +The season of what may he denominated the independence of the +individual, is certainly in no small degree critical. A human +being, suddenly emancipated from a state of subjection, if we may +not call it slavery, and transported into a state of freedom, +must be expected to be guilty of some extravagancies and follies. + +But upon the whole, with a small number of exceptions, it is +creditable to human nature, that we take this period of our new +powers and immunities with so much sobriety as we do. + +The young man then, calls to mind all that he imagined at an +earlier season, and that he promised himself. He adds to this +the new lights that he has since obtained, and the nearer and +more distinct view that he has reached, of the realities of life. + +He recollects the long noviciate that he served to reach this +period, the twenty years that he passed in ardent and palpitating +expectation; and he resolves to do something worthy of all he had +vowed and had imagined. He takes a full survey of his stores and +endowments; and to the latter, from his enthusiasm and his +self-love, he is morally sure to do justice. He says to himself, +"What I purpose to do will not be achieved to-day. No; it shall +be copious, and worthy of men's suffrage and approbation. But I +will meditate it; I will sketch a grand outline; I will essay my +powers in secret, and ascertain what I may be able to effect." +The youth, whose morning of life is not utterly abortive, +palpitates with the desire to promote the happiness of others, +and with the desire of glory. + +We have an apt specimen of this in the first period of the reign +of Nero. The historians, Tacitus in particular, have treated +this with too much incredulity. It was the passion of that +eminent man to indulge in subtleties, and to find hidden meanings +in cases where in reality every thing is plain. We must not +regard the panegyric of Seneca, and the devotion of Lucan to the +imperial stripling, as unworthy of our attention. He was +declared emperor before he had completed the eighteenth year of +his age. No occasion for the exhibition of liberality, clemency, +courtesy or kindness escaped him. He called every one by his +name, and saluted all orders of men. When the senate shewed a +disposition to confer on him peculiar honours, he interposed, he +said, "Let them be bestowed when I have deserved them[83]." +Seneca affirms, that in the first part of his reign, and to the +time in which the philosopher dedicated to him his treatise of +Clemency, he had "shed no drop of blood[84]." He adds, "If the +Gods were this day to call thee to a hearing, thou couldst +account to them for every man that had been intrusted to thy +rule. Not an individual has been lost from the number, either by +secret practices, or by open violence. This could scarcely have +been, if thy good dispositions had not been natural, but assumed. + +No one can long personate a character. A pretended goodness will +speedily give place to the real temper; while a sincere mind, and +acts prompted by the heart, will not fail to go on from one stage +of excellence to another[85]." + +[83] Suetonius, Nero, cap. 10. + +[84] De Clementia, Lib. I, cap. II. + +[85] De Clementia, cap. I. + + +The philosopher expresses himself in raptures on that celebrated +phrase of Nero, WOULD I HAD NEVER LEARNED TO WRITE! "An +exclamation," he says, "not studied, not uttered for the purpose +of courting popularity, but bursting insuppressibly from thy +lips, and indicating the vehemence of the struggle between the +kindness of thy disposition and the duties of thy office[86]." + +[86] Ibid., Lib. II, cap. I. + +How many generous purposes, what bright and heart-thrilling +visions of beneficence and honour, does the young man, just +starting in the race of life, conceive! There is no one in that +period of existence, who has received a reasonable education, and +has not in his very nonage been trod down in the mire of poverty +and oppression, that does not say to himself, "Now is the time; +and I will do something worthy to be remembered by myself and by +others." Youth is the season of generosity. He calls over the +catalogue of his endowments, his attainments, and his powers, and +exclaims, "To that which I am, my contemporaries are welcome; it +shall all be expended for their service and advantage." + +With what disdain he looks at the temptations of selfishness, +effeminate indulgence, and sordid gain! He feels within himself +that he was born for better things. His elders, and those who +have already been tamed down and emasculated by the corrupt +commerce of the world, tell him, "All this is the rhapsody of +youth, fostered by inexperience; you will soon learn to know +better; in no long time you will see these things in the same +light in which we see them." But he despises the sinister +prognostic that is held out to him, and feels proudly conscious +that the sentiments that now live in his bosom, will continue to +animate him to his latest breath. + +Youth is necessarily ingenuous in its thoughts, and sanguine in +its anticipations of the future. But the predictions of the +seniors I have quoted, are unfortunately in too many cases +fulfilled. The outline of the scheme of civil society is in a +high degree hostile to the growth and maturity of human virtue. +Its unavoidable operation, except in those rare cases where +positive institutions have arrested its tendency, has been to +divide a great portion of its members, especially in large and +powerful states, into those who are plentifully supplied with the +means of luxury and indulgence, and those who are condemned to +suffer the rigours of indigence. + +The young man who is born to the prospect of hereditary wealth, +will not unfrequently feel as generous emotions, and as much of +the spirit of self-denial, as the bosom of man is capable of +conceiving. He will say, What am I, that I should have a +monopoly of those things, which, if "well dispensed, in +unsuperfluous, even proportion," would supply the wants of all? +He is ready, agreeably to the advice of Christ to the young man +in the Gospel, to "sell all that he has, and give to the poor," +if he could be shewn how so generous a resolution on his part +could be encountered with an extensive conspiracy of the +well-disposed, and rendered available to the real melioration of +the state of man in society. Who is there so ignorant, or that +has lived in so barren and unconceiving a tract of the soil of +earth, that has not his tale to tell of the sublime emotions and +the generous purposes he has witnessed, which so often mark this +beautiful era of our sublunary existence? + +But this is in the dawn of life, and the first innocence of the +human heart. When once the young man of "great possessions" has +entered the gardens of Alcina, when he has drunk of the cup of +her enchantments, and seen all the delusive honour and +consideration that, in the corruptness of modern times, are the +lot of him who is the owner of considerable wealth, the dreams of +sublime virtue are too apt to fade away. He was willing before, +to be nourished with the simplest diet, and clad with the +plainest attire. He knew that he was but a man like the rest of +his species, and was in equity entitled to no more than they. +But he presently learns a very different lesson. He believes +that he cannot live without splendour and luxury; he regards a +noble mansion, elegant vesture, horses, equipage, and an ample +establishment, as things without which he must be hopelessly +miserable. That income, which he once thought, if divided, would +have secured the happiness and independence of many, he now finds +scarcely sufficient to supply his increased and artificial +cravings. + +But, if the rich are seduced and led away from the inspirations +of virtue, it may easily be conceived how much more injurious, +and beyond the power of control, are the effects on the poor. +The mysterious source from which the talents of men are derived, +cannot be supposed in their distribution to be regulated by the +artificial laws of society, and to have one measure for those +which are bestowed upon the opulent, and another for the +destitute. It will therefore not seldom happen that powers +susceptible of the noblest uses may be cast, like "seed sown upon +stony places," where they have scarcely any chance to be unfolded +and matured. In a few instances they may attract the attention +of persons both able and willing to contribute to their being +brought to perfection. In a few instances the principle may be +so vigorous, and the tendency to excel so decisive, as to bid +defiance to and to conquer every obstacle. But in a vast +majority the promise will be made vain, and the hopes that might +have been entertained will prove frustrate. What can be expected +from the buds of the most auspicious infancy, if encountered in +their earliest stage with the rigorous blasts of a polar climate? + +And not only will the germs of excellence be likely to be +extinguished in the members of the lower class of the community, +but the temptations to irregular acts and incroachments upon the +laws for the security of property will often be so great, as to +be in a manner irresistible. The man who perceives that, with +all his industry, he cannot provide for the bare subsistence of +himself and those dependent upon him, while his neighbour revels +in boundless profusion, cannot but sometimes feel himself goaded +to an attempt to correct this crying evil. What must be expected +to become of that general good-will which is the natural +inheritance of a well-constituted mind, when urged by so bitter +oppression and such unendurable sufferings? The whole temper of +the human heart must be spoiled, and the wine of life acquire a +quality acrimonious and malignant. + +But it is not only in the extreme classes of society that the +glaring inequality with which property is shared produces its +injurious effects. All those who are born in the intermediate +ranks are urged with a distempered ambition, unfavourable to +independence of temper, and to true philanthropy. Each man +aspires to the improvement of his circumstances, and the +mounting, by one step and another, higher in the scale of the +community. The contemplations of the mind are turned towards +selfishness. In opulent communities we are presented with the +genuine theatre for courts and kings. And, wherever there are +courts, duplicity, lying, hypocrisy and cringing dwell as in +their proper field. Next come trades and professions, with all +the ignoble contemplations, the resolved smoothness, servility +and falshood, by which they are enabled to gain a prosperous and +triumphant career. + +It is by such means, that man, whom "God made upright," is led +away into a thousand devious paths, and, long before the closing +scene of his life, is rendered something the very reverse of what +in the dawning of existence he promised to be. He is like Hazael +in the Jewish history, who, when the prophet set before him the +crying enormities he should hereafter perpetrate, exclaimed, "Is +thy servant a dog," that he should degrade himself so vilely? He +feels the purity of his purposes; but is goaded by one excitement +and exasperation after another, till he becomes debased, +worthless and criminal. This is strikingly illustrated in the +story of Dr. Johnson and the celebrated Windham, who, when he was +setting out as secretary to the lord lieutenant of Ireland, +expressed to his aged monitor, some doubts whether he could ever +reconcile himself to certain indirect proceedings which he was +afraid would be expected of him: to which the veteran replied, +"Oh, sir, be under no alarm; in a short time, depend upon it, you +will make a very pretty rascal[87]." + +[87] The phrase here used by Johnson is marked with the +licentiousness we sometimes indulge in familiar conversation. +Translate it into a general maxim; and it contains much +melancholy truth. It is true also, that there are few +individuals, who, in the urgent realities of life, have not +occasionally descended from the heights of theoretical +excellence. It is but just however to observe in the case of +Windham, that, though he was a man of many errors, he was not the +less characterised by high honour and eminent virtue. + + +Such are the "inventions of man," or rather such is the operation +of those institutions which ordinarily prevail in society. +Still, however, much honour ought to be rendered to our common +nature, since all of us are not led away by the potent spells of +the enchantress. If the vulgar crew of the vessel of Ulysses +were by Circe changed into brutes, so was not their commander. +The human species is divided into two classes, the successfully +tempted, and the tempted in vain. And, though the latter must be +admitted to be a small minority, yet they ought to be regarded as +the "salt of the earth," which preserves the entire mass from +putridity and dishonour. They are like the remnant, which, if +they had been to be found in the cities of the Asphaltic lake, +the God of Abraham pronounced as worthy to redeem the whole +community. They are like the two witnesses amidst the general +apostasy, spoken of in the book of Revelations, who were the +harbingers and forerunners of the millenium, the reign of +universal virtue and peace. Their excellence only appears with +the greater lustre amidst the general defection. + +Nothing can be more unjust than the spirit of general levelling +and satire, which so customarily prevails. History records, if +you will, the vices and follies of mankind. But does it record +nothing else? Are the virtues of the best men, the noblest +philosophers, and the most disinterested patriots of antiquity, +nothing? It is impossible for two things to be more unlike than +the general profligacy of the reigns of Charles the Second and +Louis the Fifteenth on the one hand, and the austere virtues and +the extinction of all private considerations in the general +happiness and honour, which constitute the spirit of the best +pages of ancient history, and which exalt and transfix the spirit +of every ingenuous and high-souled reader, on the other. + +Let us then pay to human virtue the honour that is so justly its +due! Imagination is indeed a marvellous power; but imagination +never equalled history, the achievements which man has actually +performed. It is in vain that the man of contemplation sits down +in his closet; it is in vain that the poet yields the reins to +enthusiasm and fancy: there is something in the realities of +life, that excites the mind infinitely more, than is in the power +of the most exalted reverie. The true hero cannot, like the +poet, or the delineator of fictitious adventures, put off what he +has to do till to-morrow. The occasion calls, and he must obey. +He sees the obstacles, and the adversary he has to encounter, +before him. He sees the individuals, for whose dear sake he +resolves to expose himself to every hazard and every evil. The +very circumstance, that he is called on to act in the face of the +public, animates him. It is thus that resolution is produced, +that martyrdom is voluntarily encountered, and that the deeds of +genuine, pure and undeniable heroism are performed. + +Let then no man, in the supercilious spirit of a fancied disdain, +allow himself to detract from our common nature. We are +ourselves the models of all the excellence that the human mind +can conceive. There have been men, whose virtues may well redeem +all the contempt with which satire and detraction have sought to +overwhelm our species. There have been memorable periods in the +history of man, when the best, the most generous and exalted +sentiments have swallowed up and obliterated all that was of an +opposite character. And it is but just, that those by whom these +things are fairly considered, should anticipate the progress of +our nature, and believe that human understanding and human virtue +will hereafter accomplish such things as the heart of man has +never yet been daring enough to conceive. + + + + +[End Project Gutenberg Etext of Thoughts on Man His Nature, +Productions and Discoveries, by William Godwin] diff --git a/old/tmnwg10.zip b/old/tmnwg10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..60036a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/tmnwg10.zip |